by Harley Hanna
Chapter 2
We stopped our bikes in a clearing a couple miles down from the shop. I hopped off mine and let it fall to the ground. I sped away from the group farther into the clearing. I could hear Tony’s cries of panic and dismay behind me. I couldn’t think about anything else but seeing that Giant decimate her, and her screams. Her screams populated my mind.
I felt tears start to drip down my face. I tried to cover them up and wipe them away, I couldn’t let Garret and Tony see. It’d make me look weaker than I already do. I’ve always had to prove myself, as a kid, and even now. It’s hard being the abnormally skinny girl on the playground. I couldn’t give them another reason to think me weak.
I quickly wiped the rest of the red from my eyes, sniffled the sadness out of my voice and walked back to the group.
“-I mean he fucking shredded her. He ripped her to pieces. He acted like she wasn’t even human. We should’ve left, we should’ve listened to Karia and just made a run for it when we had the chance.” Tony rambled. He was clearly stressed out and panicking.
“Can we take a second and calm down?” Garret said.
“I agree. We need to find the Cross and get inside. We’ll be safe there. Plus, Jack needs to hear about this.” I said, trying to calm Tony down.
“Okay” Tony said. “How do we get there from here?”
We were pretty close to the bunker, the entrance was in the middle of a clearing with a small cross sticking out of the ground beside it, hence the name. We usually entered the clearing from a different part of the road, I wasn’t used to looking at it from this view.
“Where is it?” Garret said, looking around the clearing with the rest of us.
“I’m not sure, maybe this way?” I pointed to the west and started walking towards it, the cross that signified the entrance wasn’t large. This was to prevent intruders from finding the base. But it was big enough that we could tell it was there.
“There!” Tony pointed to the east, a small wooden cross stood slanted out of the ground.
“Good find Tony.” I said, picking up my bike and running towards the small wooden piece..
I reached the entrance to the bunker, as I pushed the grass on top of it aside, I knocked four times. I waited for ten seconds, and then knocked once more. The hatch immediately opened, Raul was on the other side, pointing his gun in our faces.
“Oh good, it’s you guys” He said, swiping his hair behind his ears. He looked at his watch. “We were starting to get worried. Where’s Carol?”
“Gone.” I said, climbing the steep stairway into the Cross.
“Oh” Raul said as I walked away.
The Cross was a narrow place. It was full of small corridors twisting left and right. It had many small bedrooms, built to accompany many people and many facilities. We found out that it was a government testing facility that was abandoned in the 70’s.
I dropped my bike off at the rack set up in the entryway. I quickly started for Jackson’s office, heading down the narrow corridors, turning left and right and left. Finally, reaching his door, after passing many people and ignoring hellos, I knocked.
He swung the door open, and his eyes lit up.
“Karia, you’re back!” He said, moving to the side to let me in, he closed the door after me. “I’m assuming all went well?”
I sat down in the chair across from his desk, and as soon as I stopped moving, I let go. Tears were streaming down my face, I couldn’t hold it in any more. Jack was one of the only people I could let go in front of. When it all became too much, or when I got tired, I could go to him.
“Hey, what happened?” He said, crossing the room and putting his arm on my back.
“Carol, Giant got her.” I said, muffled through tears and sobs.
“Oh Jesus Christ, what happened?”
“I don’t know. We had 5 minutes and we could hear him already. That’s a little fucked up don’t you think? I mean he’s never that early.”
“5 minutes? Jesus, he’s never that quick.”
“I should’ve drug them out of there when I had the chance, but they wanted to stay. Christ, it’s all my fault.”
“Sal, come on, it’s not your fault. None of you could’ve prepared for that.”
I stood up, wiping the tears from my face, I tried to stop sobbing.
“I was so scared, I never wanted to see him again. I never thought I would see him again.” I said, rubbing my head. I couldn’t get his face out of my head, if you could call it a face. It haunted my mind.
“I know Karia, he still fucking terrifies me. They all do.” He said, looking off into the distance. Jack was haunted by his own demons, ones I would never know. “We need to tell everyone, call a meeting.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Sam” I said, as I walked towards the door. “Hey, thanks for listening to me.” I said, before opening the door.
“No problem, there’s always a place here for you.” He said, smiling and shuffling his papers.
I opened the door and started down the hallways, feeling much better than I had before. Now we just needed to tell people what happened, which was the worst part. I honestly just wanted to go to my room and sleep, to crawl under the covers and never come out again.
I saw Sam leaning on the fridge in the kitchen talking to Thomas. She was twiddling her hair like she always did.
“Yeah, and he totally ignored me.” Sam said as I approached. “Karia, you’re back!”
“Yeah, hey I need you, it’s a…political matter.” I said, not-so-subtly trying to get her alone.
“Oh, okay, let’s go to my office. See you later Thomas” she said, giving him a wink before walking away.
We walked down the hall and stepped into her office. I sat in the chair across from hers just as I had with Jack moments ago.
“So what is it Karia?”
“Well, as Director of Public Relations, I came to you because we need to hold a public meeting.” I said, trying to postpone giving the deadly news. “And I figured that you should know the sensitive subject matter of the meeting, before we actually hold it.”
“Just spit it out.”
“Carol’s dead. She died on the salvage trip, and now we need to tell people.”
“Fuck.” She said, leaning back in her chair. “Well, I figured it’d be her.”
Sam always was kind of insensitive. I thought, trying to hold back emotions.
“Well, when does Jack want to have it?” she said, getting out her clipboard.
“I’m assuming as soon as possible.”
“Well, there’s gonna be a lot of backlash from this thing. A lot of people are going to be scared.” She said, trying to warn me.
“I know. I’m prepared.”
“Then let’s do it, 3 o’clock, in the Mess Hall.”
I stood up and exited her office. Somehow one of the most heartless people left in the world was promoted to Director Of Public Relations.
I headed back to my room, to hopefully change and get some rest before I’d have to face everyone. I headed down the long corridors, passing people in the halls, some of them giving me odd looks, others trying to say hello.
I reached my room, headed in and locked the door behind me. Sitting on the bed, I started to take off my shoes, then my pants, followed by my shirt. I went to my dresser and got an equally bland pair of clothes out of the drawers and put them on.
I laid back in bed, resting my body as much as I could. I couldn’t close my eyes or I’d see him, and I’d see her, and I’d hear both of them. But eventually I did close my eyes, my body couldn’t handle it, I was exhausted. I drifted off to sleep, and before I knew what was happening, I was reliving it all over again, the screams as real as they were hours ago.
