Alone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  She ducked down beneath a broken pillar although she knew this was futile because the creature could sniff her out in an instant, the beast roared and the walls shook with the rumble from it. Some dust littered down over her from the ceiling, Great so this place doesn’t feel any more stable than the last! She thought to herself.

  Taking a chance she fled from her hiding spot as she ran she spotted, a small flow of water just a few meters from her through a small but easily fit-able for her size tunnel, if she could get to it and wash away her scent the beast might lose her and she could lose it. She just hoped that the grass was greener on the other side of the tunnel and that it wasn’t filled with hundreds of Creatures or Screechers. A Roar behind her made the pace she was running at speed up and she took a leap of faith as she reached the flow of water jumping in and hoping for the best. The cold water washed over her and was surprisingly deep enough to cover her whole body and face. The water sloshed up her nose making it sting, she wanted to climb out and gasp for air but although the tunnel was big enough for her to slide through it wasn’t quite big enough to have a gap for her to reach to breathe. Her lungs burned with a hot acid feeling as she waited to reach the other side, she lifted her hands feeling the roof of the small tunnel hoping to feel a small air pocket but it was solid cement. A ringing pieced her ears as the lack of Oxygen threatened to make her scream for breath under the water and drown her, she felt her hands involuntarily claw at the cement around her to speed her up, she hadn’t expected the tunnel to be this long in length. Then her body made the mistake she had tried to prevent as she took in a small breath of water, the feeling burned even more at her insides and she felt the water start to consume her.

  Whoosh.

  The tunnel ended abruptly throwing her out the other side, she coughed trying to breathe before plummeting into a much larger pool of the cold water. She thrashed around trying to swim up just managing to break the surface and flopping her now tired and heaving body onto a small maintenance platform. Coughing and spluttering she threw up all the water she had consumed, her lungs felt raw and broken but after a few minutes of trying to calm herself down she was able to breathe normally if not a little painfully.

  She lay there with half her body still in the pool of water and the other half just lying flat to the concrete. Keeping still for a while she couldn’t hear the monster anymore, the tunnel felt like it was miles long even though she knew it wasn’t it was probably just a few hundred feet or so. She climbed up properly and sat herself with her back to the wall and really looked at her predicament. The water facility was gloomy, cold and murky. There was hardly any form of lighting down here other than a few red safety lights which just made the place even more frightening. She couldn’t spot any Creatures down here but that wasn’t to say there weren’t more the further she needed to go. Where could she go? How could she get out of this new hell hole? Up! She needed to make her way up!

  Standing slowly on her wobbly and exhausted legs she made her way over to some steps which led to a small landing area, looking around she spotted a door which was chained shut at one end to her right and to her left another door along with a ladder just before the right hand door. Not wanting to push her luck anymore by running though closed or locked doors she ran to the ladder hoping big foot wouldn’t show up just as she was climbing, she took the rungs two at a time speeding up them like a bat out of hell. Reaching the top she looked down over the vast room which once would have been full of life with huge cogs and machines turning and working hard to pump rain and sea water out and clean all the dirty water for human consumption. Turning back behind her all she could see was darkness, not really wanting to she took out her torch as she didn’t want to alert the big beast of her where bouts but she needed to see she wasn’t walking into yet more danger, the light blinked on and almost as quick she turned it back off again slapping her hand over her own mouth. In a corner where she had shone the light stood about 50 or so creatures all grouped together like a moths to a flame. They hadn’t noticed her there which she praised for a moment before realising her chances were better off walking round with big foot, once the water on her dried or started to drip off the scent that her own body held would become fragrant again for them to smell. Silently grasping the ladder she climbed back down hoping not into the jaws of that monstrous thing. Jumping down the last few feet she hit the concrete with ease, ‘right so I need to get up but not be seen’ she thought before she jumped behind some large pipes which lined the walls of the room, if she moved only behind these in the shadows she should be fine right?

  ~

  Sian kept an eye on Ollie as he chatted away to the new girl Stacie, they had taken refuge in a room the doctor never seemed to check, he didn’t even have a camera in here but there was one just outside the door so they couldn’t venture out but that didn’t matter they were safe, for now. Plus Sian was certainly not about to let Ollie go outside the safety of the vents or this room.

  She stared at Stacie trying to figure her out she still looked young like them but behind her eyes was an oldness that screamed out ‘ADULT’ which Sian knew better than to trust. Keeping quiet she just listened in to what Ollie was happy chattering about.

  “So then we ran from the creatures but they chased us here, then we needed food so we looked in this hospital but then he found out we took his food and….” Ollie was so excited to meet someone new to talk to he was going to tire himself out.

  “Calm down Ol’s she doesn’t want to hear our life story”, Sian said to her little brother.

  His eyes fell like they always did, he knew that tone of voice too well, it told him once they had the chance to escape they wouldn’t talk to Stacie again as she was to old, too dangerous, trouble. Sian felt a pang of guilt at hurting his feelings but she had to protect him, adults always made bad choices and always made bad things happen so trusting a girl who was so close to reaching the age of adulthood would just put him in more danger, once they found a way to get away from the mad doctor they would run from her too.

  “I don’t mind honestly I don’t have anything better to do”, Stacie smiled, it was warm and inviting, Sian wanted so much to just give in and let someone else take the reins but it just wasn’t in her nature. She was the older sister and she needed to be in control.

  “No he needs rest”, Sian nodded to Ollie.

  He nodded back and climbed up to the vent, a few meters from this room was a dead end to the vent, they had used some old bedding they had found and made it into a make shift bedroom. Ollie looked at Stacie before saying, “Night”.

  “Night Ollie”, she replied looking at him feeling that she had said something wrong to make Sian act this way, sending her own brother to bed now.

  Once he vanished Stacie turned to Sian to ask her about her strange attitude towards her but before she could get a word in Sian came into her face and spoke, “Look I don’t want you getting too close to Ollie, he has been hurt by too many adults in his short lifetime and I won’t let him get hurt again. I need you to help me get Ollie out of this madhouse and once you have I then want you to just leave us”.

  The look on Stacie’s face was unreadable, shock, confusion but also maybe a hint of understanding to her green eyes, she pushed a lose strand of her long blond hair out of her face placing it behind her ear, “I’m not here to hurt you both, I want to help”.

  “You might not mean to but you will, be it an accident or by fault you will and then I will be left to pick up the pieces”, Sian snapped.

  “You remind me of myself a little bit”, Stacie smiled.

  “Oh right”, Sian sighed she had heard this so many times before.

  “Yes and I mean it, when me and my sister lost our mother it was me who had to take care of her for months, she couldn’t function, was just a ghost of herself. I took care of her for so long but then the tables turned when we were attacked by some nasty men they killed our father and to protect me she hid me, when I didn’t realise I needed it s
he protected me like I had her. I am only still alive because of her and I’m telling you one day the tables will turn and it will be Ollie protecting you, he might only be young but he needs to be able to be himself and live so he can become stronger to deal with this whole mess, otherwise he might not be strong enough to survive without you if anything happened”. Stacie said.

  “I don’t get why it reminds you of being like me?”

  “I tried to be in control for too long because I was scared of people helping but sometimes you need the help. Whether you want it or not”, Stacie replied.

  “Hmm”, she huffed, “He’s only a child”.

  “I agree by age but now a days you have to grow up pretty quick or it could cost you your life!” Stacie pressed her point on, not to hurt the young girl but to let her see that he needed to be able to see life for what it was so he could survive.

  “He is my brother, I have always protected him and I will carry on”, Sian replied stubbornly.

  “It’s your call I just…”

  “Wanted to interfere like all adults!” Sian hissed.

  “No not like all adults Sian, I haven’t been helped by an adult for a long time because like you I felt they were wrong sometimes but like you all they want to do is protect the people they love or care about. That is what can be their downfall and if you’re not careful it could become yours”, Stacie said calmly back.

  “Um Sian?” Ollie’s small voice whispered from the vent.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “The doctor is coming this way”, he whispered quickly crawling off back into the vent.

  They said nothing as they grabbed their few things, just attaching the cover back on as the door opened, the doctor walked in cursing and swearing, “Where are those stupid brats and that cow…that bitch argh…how dare she stab me and think she can get away with it, I’ll show her, I’ll take her devious body and mind carving it into such a creature of malice she won’t recognise herself ha!”

  His movements were wild as he searched the almost empty room other than a few boxes, suddenly his eyes fixated on the cover of the vent, Stacie felt his eyes pierce into the metal trying to find her, to find them. She went to scoot back but behind her was the side of the dead end, Sian too looked over to where Stacie was moving to, to where the bedding and her brother should have been then panic ebbed in her as she realised Ollie wasn’t sitting there waiting for her, turning behind her to the darkness of the tunnels she almost screamed his name as no sight of him greeted her.

  But he should have been, he only crawled back in a few moments before them, how could he have vanished in just a few seconds? Suddenly fingers gripped at the cover clawing Sian’s attention back to the mad doctor, he was going to find them and take them, maybe experiment on them and she had no clue where her brother had gone. The metal groaned about to give when suddenly the room behind the doctor and the corridors outside of it fell into darkness, the thrum of the generator that kept the halls lit up had turned off, or conked out.

  “Little bastards messing with my power supplies now ARGH!” he screamed the last part turning in a fit of anger and swishing out into the hall to find the generator.

  A knowing look fell over Sian’s face, “Ollie!” she knew where he was, “Quick follow me”. If she was right they should beat the doctor there which they needed to as little Ollie wouldn’t be able to climb up from that room on his own.

  Crawling through all the dust laden tunnels Sian’s heart was racing so fast she thought it might explode from her very chest before she could reach him. She didn’t try to quieten her thumping hands and knees as she sped through the metal strips hoping so hard he was safe. Then she saw it the cover which normally flooded with light but was pitch black, she just made it out from the dim light from the half boarded up windows, it was wide open which was a good thing. Looking out into the dark room she whispered his name, “Ollie”.

  “Sian I’m here”, he whispered back, “I can’t reach the vent”.

  “Don’t worry climb on the cupboard and I’ll pull you up”, Sian said.

  She could just make out his small frame clambering up the cupboard, suddenly a creaking noise echoed through the room followed by a loud crash, “OLLIE” she cried out louder than she should have but it didn’t matter as the doctor would have heard the noise anyhow.

  “I’m ok but I can’t climb up”, he said his voice breaking with fear.

  Without thinking Stacie pushed Sian to one side and jumped out of the vent landing next to Ollie, “Here I’ll lift you up”, she said grabbing his torso and lifting him up to the hole in the wall, Sian grabbed her brother pulling him inside.

  Footsteps echoed fast down the hall outside there was no time for Stacie to try and climb up and there was nothing for her to climb up with. Her mind raced thinking hard and fast then she had an idea turning to Sian she said, “Go I’ll find you again later, I have a plan”.

  “But”, Sian began.

  “No butts just go”, she said bending down to the generator wire that young Ollie had pulled out and using the scalpel she sliced the wire so the doctor wouldn’t be able to reattach it and therefore he wouldn’t be able to turn the lights back on meaning Stacie might have a chance of hiding from him again and for Sian and Ollie to get to safety.

  Sian turned in the vent and pushed her brother so he would move along, quickly leaving the unfolding scene behind them she heard the door open and the doctor cry out in rage.

  ~

  Watching the two little red haired kids scramble away to hide somewhere new I slunk behind the door in the now almost pitch black room, keeping tucked in and quiet I hoped when the mad doctor walked in he wouldn’t notice me hiding here, hopefully he would just think I had run off to hide with the other two in the vents. His footsteps came closer, by the time he had reached my position I could barely hear them over the thumping of my beating heart in my chest flooding the blood through my veins and roaring past my ears.

  The handle turned and the door flung open almost knocking the wind out of me but not quite, as I peered round the door I could see a small torch light coming from him as he went straight to the machine in the middle of the room, I could hear him muttering curses as he tried to find the wire and plug it back in. Taking my chance I tiptoed as quietly as I could around the door keeping myself facing him the whole time so I would know if he turned so I could run. Making my way out into the main hall I could hardly see a damned thing I could just make out some large objects ahead of me which I thought might be hospital equipment.

  Suddenly his voice made me jump as he shouted in frustration, “Cut the wire you little bastards! I think I might just kill you all when I find you and feed you to my creations, don’t think I will be so nice as to give you knew life, yours I will gladly take”, he snarled as he briskly exited the room, I ducked down behind a trolley and hid whilst I kept tabs on his footsteps.

  As I kept my view on him I could just make out by the faint view of his person in the dark that his hand kept going to the wound on his neck, I could see a darkened and bloody bandage of some sort wrapped around it. Maybe the neck wound I had caused was deeper than I first thought?

  His voice sounded a little too close for my comfort, “And then once I have killed them I will go to Toni and kill her with my magnificent army, I will make her pay for trying to steal my life’s work”.

  The crazy doctor stood for a while chattering away about his demented plans for the world, as the seconds ticked by he sounded more crazy, muttering about which mutations to take with him to show this Toni and her team, he wanted them to see what could be achieved without limits, restrictions and without the use of morals. As I lay in wait hoping he would leave soon I had the small time and chance to come up with an idea to take down what he was doing here in this creepy place and then to get rid of him once and for all. As I wracked my brains the notion hit me like a slap in the face, how could I not have known…Ollie! Of course how had I not seen it before feeling for the
paper in my back pocket. Ollie had known the Doctor would be furious, distracted and useless without the generator on this floor so… I needed to take out all the generators!

  All I had to do was to cut the wires to all the generators then he would have no power keeping his experiments alive, then in the pitch black I could sneak up after taking back my rifle and shoot him. Well at least that was my beginnings of a plan, yes it might not be that simple and to ambush someone who had lived and worked in this hospital for so long I might just be punching above my weight but in the grand scheme of things it was all I had to go by and a plan was better than no plan at all. So that was it I had to turn the hospital into a darkened maze, make my way back up to the freaky maternity ward and take him out, piece of cake yeah right!

  I soon realised the mad doctor wasn’t going anywhere fast, he was rummaging through a small toolbox trying to find something to repair the generator. Great, I just hoped there was nothing in there to help him or if there was that he would just happen to electrocute himself in the process. Keeping as low as possible and to the sides of the ward I slowly took my first few steps leading me away from him, reaching a good distance and coming across some moonlight which was filtering in through a none existent window as the night sky took hold outside. I took to a small run through the long corridor to a door which led to the main stairwell, checking the blood stained map on the wall I saw I was four floors below the maternity ward as that was at the top of the tower, one generator for each floor, the first one was done just the four left to go.

  I decided to go get my gun first, I didn’t know what the mad doctor was hiding on the other floors and if I was to come across any nasty things like the Screechers then to have a chance I was going to need my weapon. It didn’t take me long to climb the darkened staircase, the whole experience of this place was strange, I should have been hearing the beeps of machines, the voices of the staff who worked here, the hustle and bustle of the busy wards but there was nothing, the only noise was my breathing as the fear gripped me as I knew I didn’t want to see what was up here again.