Awaken- The beginning of the end

by P K Stadnyk

  “Did you see that? How did I do that?” But she didn’t answer. Maya lay on the floor with her hand on her side.

  “Are you okay? How did it happen?”

  “I’m okay. Leave me here. You need to go. I’ll catch up with you,” she ground out and then fainted. I couldn’t leave her there., so I picked her up and kept on running. Either she was light a feather or I lost my feelings of tiredness and how heavy things were. I ran until I found C on the wall. I tried to find a room without a success I kept walking. The creatures were following us again. Didn’t they have anything better to do? I looked at one room where the light was coming from. It looked pretty clean and empty but when my hand reached for the handle, something appeared in the window. It WAS a human. Actually what was left of a human. It reminded me of that disease that spread in Weymouth. It looked at me for a while then started banging its head on the window until it exploded. It covered all the window and walls with blood. Wrong room.

  CHAPTER 34 - C199

  Maya was looking worse and the creatures were getting closer as if the blood and sickness were drawing them to us. Most of the rooms’ windows were covered in blood stains. At last, I found a room with nobody inside. The light was off, but that didn’t keep me away. I pushed the handle with my hand, but it didn’t move. I had to use both of my hands, so I gently put Maya on the floor. A little push worked for this door. I went inside and checked for any surprises. Clear. I went back for Maya, but she was gone. I panicked and ran around. On the floor, I found a fresh blood stain and followed it. Finally, I found one of the creatures that followed us, pulling her by her leg with others at its back. It made that horrible noise. This time, I wasn’t scared and attacked. The monster wasn’t giving up too quickly. It took several punches before it fell heavily to the ground. His friends didn’t even try. They just moved back, squealing in the darkness. I knew they were there, waiting for us to move on again. I felt them watching us as I picked Maya up and went back to the room I found. It was still clear. I was so worried about Maya that I didn’t even notice the sign on the door before we went in. I locked the door from the inside and laid her down. She was still unconscious, and I checked her wound. It looked deep. She had to have some bandages. They were in the side pocket of the military backpack she had given me. I cleaned the wound with some antibiotic ointment and put the bandage around it. I covered her with my coat and sat next to her, thinking about the past, trying to remember what separated us. Did I do something to hurt her?

  The next day I packed everything, and we were on the move again. Before we left, I changed her bandage. It looked a little red but she was still unconscious. I closed the door behind me and saw the number: C50. That meant we weren’t far. I kept walking, and when I reached 100, I stopped again. The rooms were huge here and separated by long distances so I decided to rest again in one of the empty rooms. This place reminded me of the time we lived in the shelter with no windows. I didn’t know what time of the day it was. Before we left the next day and I was changing Maya's bandage, she opened her eyes slowly.

  “Max?”

  “Yes. It’s me. We’re not far.”

  “You should have left me there. I’m slowing you down.”

  “You helped me out, so how could I leave you? You’re getting better now. Your wound is healing. You’ll be strong in the blink of an eye.”

  “Max...”

  “Yes?” I said, but she fainted again. I finally found room C199. It was a shame she wasn’t awake to see it but… there was nothing to see. The door was covered in bloody hand prints big and small. Some were so big and so small, I didn’t even want to think about what they belonged to. The room inside was filled with dead bodies of every age. Before we could stay there, I had to clean it first. I found a closet and left Maya in it. I started taking out bodies without looking at them. I didn’t want to see their faces. I had seen enough already. It’s going pretty slow so I started taking out a few at a time and still didn’t feel any strain. When I took ten of them, there was no difference. I threw them all in the corridor. When I finished, the bodies formed a huge pile that nothing could pass through. For a moment, I thought I saw the face of a little girl and that her eyes opened, but it had to be my imagination. When I blinked my eyes, the pile was just a pile. I went back in, locked the door, and checked on Maya. She had a temperature and was delirious. The wound now looked bright red and inflamed. I changed the dressing, gave her a drink, and laid her on a bed.

  The room we were in was massive all filled with shelves with letters at the top. Somebody was in here before looking for something. Some shelves were turned to the side. Papers were thrown everywhere. Were all these dead people here for the same reason? Walls were covered in stains. On one wall, words were written: “All lies, gone, killed, understand, experiments, dead, everybody, why, gone, why, why, children, dogs, dead, have to go up, information, gone, gone, gone, answers find, there, bye...” That’s all what I could read. I came closer. It was written with blood and where words were too hard to read was a hand print. The only one with normal size and five fingers.

  I ate a little bread. I wasn’t very hungry maybe because I had seen too many dead bodies, or maybe because I was worrying so much about Maya. Maybe both.

  I decided to look around the room a little before going to sleep. I found files with missing pages. Every file had missing pages. Some files were completely empty. Most of the files had a big red stamp that said “FAILED.” When I didn’t find anything, I went to sleep. I heard a knocking to our door at some point, but it stopped. Whatever it was, it couldn’t know we were in here; we didn’t have any light. It was a heavy rhythmical knocking. I didn’t even hear steps. When I woke up, Maya was sweating and delirious. The wound was worse. I had to give her something.

  “AAAA!” Maya screamed. “Max… leave him alone... No!... you don’t understand... not him... just not him... please... you bastards! You’re dead already. They’ll do the same... to you...”

  “Shhh, it’s okay.” I couldn’t stand to see her suffering so much. I checked the pills and liquids again. I had to do something. Try. I smelled some of the liquids and instinct told me to leave it. The last one smelled interesting and the white bottle was bigger than the rest. I drank a little and if nothing happened to me, I would give it to her. One of the jars with pills looked like painkillers my mom had given me. I took one too just in case. When hours past and nothing happened, I gave them to her, and before I went to sleep, I gave her a kiss on a forehead.

  Next day, when I woke up, she was lying in there with her eyes open. At first, I thought she died, but she was blinking. That took a huge weight off my heart.

  “What did you do?”

  “Oh, just gave you some pills, medicine, and my care.”

  “Did you carry me all the way?”

  “Yes, I did. Well, actually, one of the monsters dragged you for a little ways too, until I killed it.

  “Where are we?”

  “C199.” She smiled and sat up too quickly, holding her side.”

  “Let me see.” She wouldn’t let me. “Come on! Let me see. How do you think I changed your bandages all the time? Without looking?” She finally lifted her shirt to let me see it. I saw no sign of the wound. But the ribs were probably still tender, as she winced when I pressed them.

  “Did you find anything?”

  “No.”

  “Let’s have a look.”

  “No, here. You have eat first.” I expected her to stubbornly refuse, but she listened and ate, looking at me all the time. I started to continue my search. She joined me shortly.

  “I don’t understand any of this,” I said.

  “Me either. I can’t see our files.”

  We looked for hours.

  “Hey, let’s take a nap and we’ll continue later, but she was standing there looking at something. I came closer and saw a few files with names on them. Max-empty, Oliver-empty, Joe-empty, Will-empty, Maya-empty, Alvin-failed. She stopped, pressed his file t
o her chest and started crying. I couldn’t look at her in her grief. I didn’t know what “failed” meant. Was Alvin dead? I hoped not. I wanted to comfort her. Would she push me away if I hugged her? I decided it would be better for now to stay back a little and take a nap. I lay down but couldn’t sleep. She cried all this time and I couldn’t do anything.

  “Max?” she whispered when she laid down. I hadn’t heard her say my name like that for so long. It sounded so sweet on her lips. For some reason I didn’t answer her. Maybe I waited for her to say it again? She didn’t. She went to sleep and put her hand on my arm. That made me realize how much I missed her in the time I didn’t remember.

  “Max, we need to go. I figured out something from that message on the wall. We need to go up outside this place! There we’ll find the answers!” She looked fully recovered. “I found a map,” she said excitedly, showing it to me. “It says we’re close to the exit! One more level and we’re out. There should be stairs somewhere behind that corner on the left. Why are you looking at me that way? Do you want to stay here?”

  “Right. Did you eat something?”

  “There’s no time. We have to go!” She ran around like a crazy, full of excitement, packing everything and stood next to the door. I wasn’t hungry anyway and didn’t like that room. It was full of lies, pain, and death.

  I opened the door slowly, looking outside. It looked clear, too clear.

  “What are you staring at? There’s nothing there.” She was right. The massive pile I had made was gone. Not even one body was there. That sent a shiver down my spine, but I didn’t tell her anything.

  “Let’s go. We should be outside soon.”

  We ran. No, we sprinted now and when we found the stairs, we jumped up by every three or four. When we got upstairs, and I looked down there were lots of steps going down, hundreds of them. We started to run again through the corridors of level D. It was dead here with no creatures, no bodies. Just some vegetation growing and pushing through the walls and ceilings like weeds. The further we ran the more of the vegetation there was with large attractive flowers. I had an issue about flowers ever since one tried to eat me. That kept me away from smelling it.

  “Don’t look around and keep running. One stop and you’re gone,” Maya warned me.

  I didn’t have time to look closely in these rooms but I saw shadows in them. Maybe it was my mind playing tricks with me. I thought too much and slowed down. I felt something wet going around my neck slowly starting to choke me. It got so tight on my throat that I couldn’t scream. I didn’t see Maya anywhere. She probably ran or maybe she was already out? Good for her. Too bad I won't enjoy her anymore. If I could just see her smile one last time. I ran out of breath. So long world and bastards who got us here.

  CHAPTER 35 - GOING BACK

  I opened my eyes but couldn’t concentrate on the things above my head. They were moving too fast. Something was holding my leg and pulling me onto the ground. Not the nicest way.

  “Hey, I told you not to stop!” shouted Maya as she helped me up and we continued running. We ran for hours before she turned into a room and closed the door behind us.

  “Quickly! We need to get changed! Get in there!” She closed me in a little room. I looked for clothing. There was none. From the walls around me lights started to come out and were going up and down my body.

  “Actualizing upgrades. Choosing upgrades. Installing upgrades. Please wait...Please wait...Please wait...Thank you for your patience. Please come back later. The door opened, and I was free to go. Maya was next. She looked like she knew what she was doing. While she was in there, I looked around. When we ran I didn’t realize that more of the plant was growing everywhere and the corridor outside didn’t leave much space to move. After she got out, Maya loaded guns, lots of them, into a large black bag. She handed me a gun put a belt with knifes, grenades, and other things around my waist. It was interesting to watch a woman loading the guns. I expected her to drop magazines and ask me for help, but, instead, she did it quickly and smoothly.

  “Do we really need this?” I asked.

  “I doubt if this will be enough. I found this but couldn’t figure out what it’s for. I’ll pack it anyway.” I didn’t have a clue what could it be for either. It looked like it would fit a wrist and was very flexible. It changed color if placed next to clothes or the wall. Maya was scaring me now.

  When Maya came out, I didn’t notice any changes to her clothes.

  “Did you get change?”

  “I did. It’s a new technology. We don’t change clothes anymore, which is upsetting. I loved to get change before. We upgrade clothes with new options like self-cleaning, self-sewing, and more. All the latest fashion. What we have now is designed to protect against radiation, serious diseases, and hopefully wounds. Mine didn’t have it before. I don’t know what’s waiting for us out there. Are you sure you’re ready to go? The exit is just through this door at the end of the corridor.”

  “I’m ready to go anywhere with you and for you.” I blurted out. Why did I always say things without thinking?

  She took a few things from this room and we ran again. We stopped before a huge rusted door. The plant wasn’t growing here. Nothing was. We stopped. Was she listening for something again? No, she was crying, but why? Of course, she was still mourning Alvin and was about to leave him or his body in this hell. I hoped he was dead and not one of those creatures. That would be a fate worse than death. This, time I couldn’t refrain. I gently touched her shoulder.

  She looked at me, surprised. I took her in my arms and kissed her lips.

  “What are you doing?!” she muttered between our lips, struggling a little.

  “Shhh, Maya” I whispered. Maya looked surprised and gave up. Warmth filled all of my body and I wished this moment would last forever. She looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes and smiled.

  “How long have you remember me?” she asked.

  “Long enough. How about you?”

  “I looked for you for weeks, hoping you were still alive. Everything was telling me you weren’t, but I couldn’t stop...”

  “Thanks for coming for me.”

  “Thanks for saving me.”

  “My pleasure...” This time, she kissed me.

  “Don’t leave me anymore, please,” she pleaded.

  “I’d rather die.”

  “Are you ready to go?”

  “If you are. I’m okay right now.”

  “Shall we open it?”

  “Let’s try. I hope the outside will be better than this and that someone is alive out there,” I said.

  She slowly moved out of my arms and we turned the large wheel on the door. It moved slowly and heavily. We had to put all our strength in it. Suddenly, it let go. Our way out was free…

  TO BE CONTINUED

  PROLOGUE

  We expected to see sunlight and sky; we waited to feel the warmth of the sun on our faces. The view awaiting us almost broke our hearts. It felt like we were on a different planet. This wasn’t the world we had left. I felt robbed of most valuable things. From Maya’s face I could read she felt the same way. We didn’t have to speak, as the words wouldn’t describe it. One look at each other said enough. I looked at the bare dusty ground where soft green grass once grew. All we had left was each other and a little bit of hope. We stood there for a while trying to understand and come to terms with our situation and the view around us.

  Maya slowly sat on the ground with her head in her hands. I knew it wouldn’t help much, but I started walking and looking around to figure out where were we. What I saw wasn’t the New York I remembered. I looked around for about an hour after we closed the large heavy doors behind us, leaving all terrible creatures down there. I wished we had left our past and problems too, but nothing ever is so easy.

  We didn’t have a plan yet but how could we come up with one without knowing where to look for our missing files, where to go, and where were we.

  I sat back with Maya, a
nd even though she wore a long-sleeved top, I could see the same bruises on her wrists as mine. Hers were almost gone now.

  She just sat there drawing something in the sand with her finger. It reminded me of the times when we were kids. She was often drawing pictures in the sand. At those times, we didn’t like each other much. She thought of me as a stupid boy, running around with a plastic gun or playing football; I could never understand playing with dolls, and she always ruined everything we planned with Alvin. It’s funny how life changes everything when you get older. Now we had each other’s back at all costs.

  I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that leaving this place was too easy but why would anybody secure it more. We were in the middle of nowhere and even if these monsters would go out there was nobody to hurt and nowhere to go for them. Even the angry weed that was growing inside decided not to go out. There was no prey for it, nothing to sneak up on.

  The place was so deserted that even sand felt lonely. There were no animals, trees, grass, flowers, or buildings as far as the eye could reach, and all we could see was sand everywhere. The door we closed soon disappeared too. I tried to find it, but it was nowhere to be seen. It had to have some king of camouflage, like a holographic projection blending in with everything around it. Apart from the flat ground there were a few low hills. I figured that we came out of one of them and maybe the door got covered with a rock. A place like this had to be well hidden.

  I tried to see the sun, but it wasn’t visible through a thick gray fog slowly moving under a lighter gray cloudy sky. I hoped it was only a fog and not something more sinister, and that we would soon see the sun and a blue sky piercing through the fog. Without the sun, everything lost its color. The horizon was hardly visible with “sky” and sand being similar shades of gray.