My body bolted upright in my bed. I was dripping in sweat, and I couldn’t catch my breath. My heart raced in my chest as I resisted the urge to cry out for April. I felt childish. I didn’t need my big sister. It was just a bad dream. That’s what I tried to tell myself. Besides, April wasn’t in the clinic. Billy wouldn’t allow her to stay at night and I’d insisted that she not argue with him. At least on that subject. One of us should at least get some sort of rest. The doors were only opened at night in case of an emergency, and this wasn’t an emergency. I just needed to get a grip.
Slowly, my breathing came back under control. I took a sip of water from my nightstand, then laid my head back on my pillow. I stared up at the ceiling, not ready to close my eyes just yet. A tear rolled down my cheek. I wiped it away aggressively. The red eyes were still glowing in the back of my memory. I’m too old to be afraid of the dark. Stop this, I scolded myself. The eyes glared back at me from the darkness, taunting me. They only disappeared when I heard Jack and Billy whispering just outside my curtain.
“Just let her sleep,” Billy said in a hushed tone.
“I just want to make sure she’s okay. That sounded like a bad one.”
“If it were bad, she would have called out. She sounds like she’s still sleeping. Just let her rest. Don’t make me regret letting you sleep here at night.”
“Letting me stay here,” Jack laughed. “You mean use me to do the menial tasks you don’t want to do.”
“You can’t keep avoiding your situation forever you know.”
There was silence for a moment, before Jack responded. “Who says I can’t? I figured I could switch over here permanently.”
Billy laughed quietly. “You hate medicine. You’d be miserable here. You’re a carpenter. That’s what you love and that’s what you’re good at. Don’t let her take that from you.”
Were they talking about me? Was I keeping him from what he loved? That didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t like I was going to be in the clinic forever. I knew Jack was spending more time here than he was supposed to, but I thought that was because he wanted to, not because he felt obligated.
“It’s an awkward situation. I don’t know how to get out of it.”
“Well hiding out here isn’t going to solve anything,” Billy replied.
“At least here the company is a lot better.” I could hear the smile in his voice. Maybe he did want to spend time with me. Listening to him speak was calming me. The red eyes slowly faded completely from my memory. My breathing slowed down to normal.
“You really like her, don’t you?”
“I can’t explain it. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. All I want to do is spend time with her. Whenever I’m away from her, I can’t stop thinking about her.” My heart was pounding now. It was all I could do to stop myself from giggling out loud. I hadn’t giggled in years or even had the desire to do so. My cheeks flushed in the darkness.
“You still have obligations outside of this clinic. We all have our jobs to do and if you don’t do yours, you know the commander will have something to say about it and then you definitely won’t be able to spend as much time here.”
I never got to hear his response. The next thing I heard was a loud banging on the heavy metal front door, echoing throughout the clinic. The sudden sound made me jump. There was shouting coming from outside. It was muffled, but from the intensity of the conversation, I had no doubt that something important was going on. I could hear Billy and Jack as they ran towards the door. There was shouting on both sides of the door and then I heard the heavy metal arm, that locked the door tight, being lifted.
My curiosity was peaked. I needed to know what could have happened to make them break protocol. Quietly, though it probably wasn’t necessary to be quiet, I slipped my feet into the pair of slippers that rested at the side of the bed. I grabbed my hospital housecoat off the chair and slipped into it. I leaned forward reaching for my walker. It was just out of reach. I reached as far as I could and then my balance was thrown off and I fell forward, my hands landed on the walker just in time to save me from a nasty fall.
I was getting good with a walker. Still, this was the first time I’d attempted to do any walking completely on my own, without anyone to catch me if I fell. Every step I took ached, and the walker was terribly noisy against the squeaky floors. At least the commotion that was coming from down the hall, was loud enough that I really didn’t fear being heard. I pulled the curtain back and peaked outside of my little ‘room.’ The commotion was coming from the furthest curtained room. There were soldiers standing with guns ready, just outside the curtained area.
Slowly I made my way down the hall, trying not to draw attention to myself as I sidestepped the open door to the bunker. I managed to make it down the hall and then duck into one of the opposite rooms, just shy of where all the action was happening. I still couldn’t see into the curtained area, but the soldiers hadn’t taken any notice of me yet. There focus was on whoever had been brought in. I didn’t want to be ushered back to my own bed, so I made sure to stay out of their sight. This was the most excitement I had since coming here.
“How long ago?” It was Billy speaking.
“Just before the sun fully set. It was slightly overcast, but I didn’t think that made a difference. We didn’t think they could come out before…we should have been back sooner.” I didn’t recognize the voice. Whoever he was, he sounded scared and remorseful.
“You know the rules. We’ll be discussing the punishment later. But for now…” The commander said harshly.
“For now, I have a patient,” Billy interrupted.
“Do you think the experimental treatment will have any effect?” The commander asked.
“It’s never been tested on someone so soon after a bite. And honestly, we’re having limited success in our animal trials. It might be best just to…”
“You’ll administer the treatment right away. We may not have this opportunity again.” There was a pause. “That’s an order.” The curtain to the room swung open and I saw the commander exit. I watched as he walked out of the clinic. A soldier bolted the door behind him.
The room was perfectly in view now. I saw Billy and Jack. They both looked worried. Billy was busy strapping someone down to a table. There were a couple soldiers in the room with them. They were holding the patient down to the table. The man on the table was thrashing around violently. As he lifted his head up, I could clearly see the veins in his neck pulsing and then I saw his eyes, they were a muddy brown. Perfectly normal, but when he opened his mouth, I saw his enlarged K-9’s. I screamed as I lost grip on the walker. My butt hit the ground hard. I couldn’t help the groan that escaped my lips as the pain shot up through my lower back.
My instinct was to run, but that wasn’t possible. I’d twisted my already bad leg when I fell. It was now throbbing as I fought to pull myself up to standing position with my walker. I was halfway up when Jack appeared in the room. I fell again, this time thankfully not so hard.
“What are you doing walking around on your own? I’ll help you get back to your bed.” He didn’t seem the least bit panicked by the fact that there was a monster just a few feet away from us. He helped me get back up and made sure I was firmly attached to the walker.
I felt sick and dizzy, but not from the fall. “I need to get out of here,” I said barely above a whisper. My chest hurt. It was hard to breathe. The clinic felt so closed off. It was the last place I wanted to be. April was right. It wasn’t safe here. There was no safe place. What a fool I’d been to think that anywhere could possibly be safe. I started heading towards the front door, but Jack blocked my path.
“What are you doing? We have to keep the doors locked at night.”
“Then why did you let it in,” I asked, pointing towards the writhing stranger, with barely more than a whisper. I was terrified that it would notice me. He was now fully strapped down, but he was still doing his best to fight the restraints. The further i
nto the change he got, the less likely it was that those flimsy hospital straps were going to hold him.
“Him?” He looked back, not understanding my concern. “He was injured. This is a clinic.” I could tell he was really trying not to talk to me like I was stupid. Right now, as far as I was concerned, he was the stupid one.
“He’s going to change,” I whispered with a shaking voice. I knew that one of the first changes was an increased sense of hearing, along with those skin piercing fangs. So far, I hadn’t attracted its attention, and I didn’t want to. All I wanted to do was get as far away from the thing as I possibly could. “I won’t be here when he does. I won’t become like him.”
Finally, it seemed to click with Jack, the reason for my reaction, but he still didn’t seem worried. “It’s going to be alright…”
“No. I’m not staying here. Not as long as its here.” I tried to push him out of the way with my walker, but he stood his ground. Even if I’d been in prime condition, I doubted that my tiny little frame would have managed to plow past him.
“Just wait here,” he motioned with his hands. He headed back towards his brother. I wanted to bolt for the door, but the guards were now aware of my presence, and they were paying more attention to me than it. Without help, it was doubtful I’d be able to open the heavy metal door on my own.
I watched Jack whisper something to his brother. Billy looked back at me, shook his head, and then nodded. Jack then ushered one of the guards over to join us. Finally, I thought, we’re getting out of here. But instead of leading me to the front door, Jack was leading me back towards my room. He saw the panicked look on my face and said, “We’re going down into the bunker. It’s completely safe. Trust me.” He was looking at me with those beautiful golden-brown eyes and I believed that he wanted me to feel safe. The bunker was probably the safest place to be. I’d been in places like that before and they always kept the monsters at bay. I hoped this one would be just as strong.
When we got to the bunker, I noticed a rather flimsy looking rope ladder leading down below. I could barely put any weight on my left leg. What was he thinking? “Trust me,” he said again as he picked me up into his arms. My cheeks flushed, despite the fear of the situation we were in. The soldier that was with us lifted the ladder out of the way, then went over to the wall where a strange metal crank was attached. He pushed a red button beside the crank and out of the hole in the floor popped a large metal grate. Jack stepped onto it as the soldier started to turn the crank. With a sudden jolt we were slowly lowered down.
The room below was pitch black until our grate hit the floor and then a red emergency light flared to life on the ceiling. Jack brought me over to a hospital bed at the far side of the room and sat me down on it. He went back over to the entry way. The grate was already at the top by the time he made it there. Jack pulled on several lever systems, which caused the hole in the ceiling to close with three metal arms, ensuring that nothing could open the entry.
The red light was giving off enough of glow that I could see my surroundings. The room was entirely concrete, except for the ceiling which was made of some sort of tough looking metal. There were hospital beds lined all around the room making a semi-circle. On the far wall, there was a large metal cupboard that read supplies.
I was staring off at the ceiling, wondering if it would hold once the man turned fully into a monster. They were so strong. I’d seen them crash through bullet proof glass before. The room became brighter, and I saw Jack holding a camping lantern. He placed it on the floor in front of me. “You’re shivering,” he said. I looked down at my hands and noticed that they were shaking uncontrollably.
Jack went over to the cupboard and came back with a thick blanket. He wrapped it around me gently and sat next to me on the bed, his arm stayed wrapped around me. If I hadn’t been so terrified, I’m sure my cheeks would have burned. “It’s okay. We’re safe down here.”
Maybe we were, but his brother wasn’t. I thought about April. Was she safe where she was? If it broke out, would she be able to escape? No, she wouldn’t. She would come straight here, looking for me. And her measly weapons had been taken from her. Suddenly her outrage over having to hand them over, seemed a lot more justified. I needed to make Jack see. I didn’t understand how he and the others couldn’t see how dangerous it was bringing someone who’d been bitten back. Had they never encountered one before? That had to be impossible.
I stared off at the wall, trying to think of what I needed to say, to make myself understood. I saw the man upstairs. His image morphed into that of a woman we’d once travelled with. We’d only been on the road a couple of months when we ran into this woman and her husband in the grocery store where we’d been looting, and when they suggested we stick together, it felt natural. They’d been on the road since the beginning. They knew more about what we were facing. We’d travelled with them for three weeks before the attack.
We’d taken shelter in an old warehouse. We’d boarded up the few windows that were there during the day and had just settled down for the night, when the screeching started. In the beginning, I was able to block it out, but then it got closer. I shook Andy awake, he listened to the sounds outside and was about to tell me to go back to sleep, when the car we had blocking the front doors started to screech against the paved parking lot outside.
Andy motioned for me to wake April and he woke our companions. By the time we were all awake, the monsters had managed to break through our pathetic barricade. April and I ran for a small door that led to a tiny underground storage area. She pushed me in first. It was cold and smelly in the crawl space and there was barely enough room for me to sit upright. April and Andy made it in next and that was all the space we had. The woman tried to make it into the doorway, but there was no more room for her and then one of the monsters was on top of her. Her scream…I could still remember her scream after all those years. And the fear in her eyes as she looked at us, waiting for us to help. There was no more room for anyone else, and her body was blocking the way of the monsters getting in. We watched her suffer. They only bit her once and the rest of the time they clawed at her, trying to move her out of the doorway. Her body was wedged in tightly.
I don’t know how long it was until the monsters left. But eventually they did. The woman had passed out at some point during the night, but as sunrise approached, we noticed a change in her. The veins in her arms protruded, as did the ones in her neck. The hair on her arms became darker. And then she opened her eyes. They had been blue before, a perfect serene ocean blue. Now the blue had a small ring of red around them, her pupils were dilated. Then she focused in on us, her lips parted to reveal sharpened K-9’s. That’s when she let out her first screech. I covered my ears. April sat still, barely daring to breathe. Andy was the only one who had any idea what to do. Before the woman could wriggle her body into our little sanctuary, Andy carefully reached out and snapped her neck.
“You’re still shaking,” Jack said, bringing me back into the present.
“Sara,” I said trying to focus in on Jack’s eyes.
“What?”
“Her name was Sara. I don’t know why I keep forgetting that.” We never did find her husband’s body. We assumed that instinct drove him out, in search of a hive before sunrise. We really didn’t know how it worked. Some people appeared resistant to the change, and it could take days for the new instincts to kick in. For others, it was only a matter of hours.
“Whose name was Sara?”
“The first changeling I ever saw.” Changeling was Andy’s word. We’d never heard anyone else use it, but it was the word that best described what happened to a person in transition.
“What’s a Changeling?”
I stared at him in disbelief. How was it possible that he didn’t understand? I personally thought the word was self-explanatory. Whenever we used it with other people, they clued in right away as to what we were referring to.
“A Changeling. Like the man upstairs. It’s
the stage before we become monsters. It’s what we call them.”
“That soldier up there is just a man. He’s being treated for his injuries. He’s not going to change. The doctor’s here have been experimenting with several medications to try stop the infection from spreading. Most die from the bite, but my brother…”
“No, they don’t. Please listen to me,” I pleaded, while I stared into his soft golden-brown eyes, hoping that if I maintained eye contact, he might finally understand what I was saying. “Please believe me. That that man up there is a Changeling, and he will turn into one of the monsters.”
“But…” he tried to interrupt. I put my finger over his lips. It was his turn for his cheeks to burn.
“No, I need you to listen,” I said again more calmly this time. “It’s true that in the beginning many victims died of the bite. But most of those people had illnesses or anomalies in their DNA that didn’t allow for the change. Pretty much everyone who’s still around, will change if bitten. The only people who die from a bite now, are those who are already dying. That soldier up there looked really healthy to me.”
There was silence for a minute as we both stared into each other’s eyes. In his eyes I could see that he was working through what I’d said. I saw it in his body language when he believed me. His shoulders straightened and he rushed back to the cupboard. When he came back to me, he was holding a walkie-talkie. I let out a breath of air that I didn’t even know I’d been holding onto.
Jack radioed someone upstairs. It was one of the soldiers who picked up. It took him, what seemed like ages, to convince the soldier to hand the radio over to his brother.
“Not a good time,” I heard Billy’s voice as it crackled over the radio.
Quickly Jack told Billy everything I’d said. There was a pause and then, “Are you sure? Is she sure?”
Seeking Hope: Book 2 in the Seeking Saga Page 5
