Sam walked over to Jamie, who had finished with the rules. There wasn’t any more time to discuss. The group left the computer and walked over to him.
‘Ok buddy, we don’t have much time to rest. So, we need you to try and get some shut eye. We all are before we set out in the tunnels.’ Sam said to Jamie as he sat in one of the office chairs. Jamie peered around the room and said, ’ok. I’m tired anyway.’ He shrugged his shoulders and asked,’ where are we supposed to sleep?’
Ian hadn’t thought about that.
‘Well, how about you sleep in those two chairs.’ Ian walked up to him and grabbed his feet off of the floor and placed them gently in the chair in front of him.
‘There you go. Now, just close your eyes and lean your head back. Don’t worry you will be fine in that suit.’ Ian told him. It was nice to be able to help him again. Since being here, they hadn’t spoken much. His mother seemed much more distant once she got here. This caused a void between the others. They would check on him several times a day, though. Since Susan was prone to sleeping for much of the day.
Ian and the others watched as Jamie drifted off after a few moments. They weren’t sure if it was because he was tired. Or, because he was happy to see some of the group back together. He needed this. The rest of them lay on the floor with nothing but the suit between them and the tile. It was rough going. But, they were exhausted. And this would be their last safe haven before leaving the CDC. Who knows when the next will come about? They slept, for the most part, lying there on the hard floor.
Jeremy sat there against the door of the gas station for quite some time. He didn’t even realize one of the undead had been in the store with him the entire time. It just hadn’t noticed Jeremy just yet. Jeremy’s wound had brought the creature out of the main office of the Station. It could smell the blood seeping out of the bullet hole in his arm. And although, it might not see him, his smelling sense was better than his sight. The smell of blood brought the undead through the aisles and right in front of Jeremy.
Jeremy heard a low growl. He looked up a saw one of them staring back at him. Its eye’s opened wide and had a greenish yellow tent to them. It was the creepiest color he had ever seen. It started for Jeremy and he jumped up quickly. His arm was throbbing all the while. He reached into his back pocket and searched for the knife he had taken from the soldier back at the living quarters. He dug a litter further down and pulled it out. He ran forward at the undead extending the knife in front of him eye level with it. As the two collided, the knife pierced the undead’s head. Sending both of them flying into the isles still stocked with old food behind them. A loud crash came after. Bags of candy and chips flew about the floor. And the body of the undead lay strewn into a corner. Jeremy got up and jumped back at the front door. He didn’t see any other undead coming after him. So, he decided to go to the bathroom and try and clean his wound. He grabbed several bottles of water that he found in the walk-in. It seemed that this town got hit so fast that the citizens had no time to react. Or the water would have been gone completely. He cleaned his knife off with water and then took out a lighter he had grabbed from the cashier’s area and burned the knife from top to bottom trying to sterilize it. He wasn’t exactly sure if the blood from the undead would turn him by getting into his wound. That was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.
Once the set up was done, Jeremy cleaned the wound with some rubbing alcohol that he found in one of the aisle. It burned badly. But, he couldn’t make a sound or the horde outside would hear him. They had impeccable hearing. Jeremy took his knife and gently pressed the top into his arm. The pain was almost unbearable. He could hardly keep his hands straight they were shaking so badly. He pressed the knife in deeper, irritating the wound even more, causing it to bleed excessively. Finally, as Jeremy is about to pass out from the pain, the bullet pops out onto the floor of the bathroom. It rolled around until it rested next to the drain in the middle of the floor.
He applied pressure to the wound with a packaging of gauze and napkins that he had found. It was going to take time to stop bleeding He would just tape it up and continue to keep it cleaned. He grabbed all of the supplies he could carry and placed them into a backpack that he had found. He would be dead meat if he didn’t keep the smell of blood off of him. He grabbed plenty of gauze and paper towels, as well as a fresh bottle of alcohol. He looked around the store for anything edible. There were a few cans of Vienna sausages and potted meat. He found some pain reliever as well for his arm. He immediately opened the bottle and poured three pills into his hand. They were maximum strength. So, hopefully, it would be enough to take the edge off.
Jeremy found the back door to the gas station. He came up with a plan to get himself out of the city. Or at the very least away from this area where the saturation of undead were the highest. He took the bucket of water he cleaned his wound with. Blood had been mixed with it. And it was thick enough to give off an odor even Jeremy could smell. So, he placed it in between the front door and the door frame. The undead would smell that and he would make a break for it out of the back door. Once inside there would be many areas where the blood concentrated. It will take them a while to figure out that he wasn’t there anymore. Giving him an ample amount time to escape.
He was very careful not to make a sound as he set the bucket out. He could already see a few of the undead sniffing the air and making their way to the gas station. Jeremy quickly ran to the back of the store and out the back door. He made it safely off of the block without any worries from the undead. All of them were on their way to the sound of the blast.
“ It would be a massacre for the people inside that building.” He thought as he dipped out of sight.
CHAPTER TWELVE
While the meager group slept soundly in the basement of the CDC and Jeremy made his escape, a dark figure rose prominently from the littered ground. The Wasteling beyond the front doors slinked languidly up to the CDC building. It had heard the vehement blast from a mile out. The Wasteling was in the middle of stealing body parts from a few fallen Cold Ones that’d been taken down by the military scouts earlier that day. They would often take down Cold Ones to keep them from completely ravaging the city in case of an emergency. So, they would shave the numbers down a bit every once in a while.
The colossal creature now stood roughly eight feet tall. It had been on its own for the better part of the year, claiming victim after victim for its own evolution. Now, it was unrecognizable by anything on Earth. Its fortuitous limbs stuck out in miss-matched places, and the creature had dark and beady eyes covering its massive head. So, it didn’t have many blind spots. Voracious maggots were burrowing their way into its skin, digging tunnels in and out of the flesh. It had three different sized arms and four elongated legs. They were sinuous and various lengths; some never touched the ground. Evidentially, the creature had taken more than just limbs, extra ears, and other extremities could be found all over its body. It indeed was a macabre sight to anyone soaking in the eerie appearance of the monstrous creature.
Its massive girth made its way to the missing front doors. It paused as it did every day, peering through the mirrored glass. This time, there was nothing there. The monster’s eyes flashed a befuddled glance. It took a moment for the Wasteling to comprehend that there wasn’t anything restricting his access any longer. Finally, the Wasteling stepped through the threshold, it out stretched its long sanguine neck, looking for prey. It found sustenance in the freshly dead bodies being devoured by the Lessers. The Cold Ones wouldn’t be a problem for him, though. He was more than three times their size. Most of the time, the Lessers coward out of his way upon smelling his scent. They were just as fearful of him as the humans but for some reason they weren’t worried about the Wasteling today.
“They must be quite hungry to ignore me, thought the creature. It didn’t matter; he decided he would deal with them later.” The monster mused.
The Wasteling weaved through the lobby knocking over furniture and appl
iances. Its cumbersome limbs were sticking out in odd places, catching on everything in their path. As it made its way down one of the many halls in the CDC, the Wasteling came to the elevator doors and froze. It realized that an obstacle was in its path; by the way it cocked its head to the side, curious about the metal doors. The monsters red eyes were curiously scanning the elevator doors. It took a moment to think about the problem. To an outsider, it looked like the Wasteling would give up. How would it enter the elevator with no access card? Or even work the elevator if it found a way onto it? But, this Wasteling was different. It was the first and strongest of its kind. And it could still understand some of how this building worked. After all, it had spent many years here before its turn. The virus inside of him fought against these thoughts. But, they were eventually allowed because it gave the Wasteling an advantage over not only the Lessers but the humans, too. The Wasteling suddenly pounded on the elevator doors, its massive arms denting in the steel. He kept going, slamming every arm on his body at them. Blood and flesh went flying in the air. Even though the sheer force of it was damaging him, he didn’t care. He wanted nothing more than to get to her.
Soon after, the doors fell through. The Wasteling crammed inside and jetted up through the elevator shaft; that, it had to rip through because it was much too big. Once on top, the Wasteling spit its volatile acid onto the chain pulley system, which dictated what floor the elevator stopped at. The chains began to melt and the elevator grunted under the weight of the creature. Sounds of the metal groaning grew continuously louder until the chains snapped. The elevator promptly plummeted down all eight levels of the CDC. As it reached the end of the shaft, it crashed to the ground sending large pieces of metal and dust fleeting everywhere. Smoke filled the entire shaft as fire popped and hissed underneath the durable creature.
The Wasteling knew that at the bottom level would be what he had been searching for. There was no mistaking the scent rushing through his pathways. He remembered the aroma well, it was Charlotte’s.
“She smells particularly delicious today.”
He could almost taste her succulent skin in his many obtrusive mouths. The Wasteling slopped its tongue around madly. He could not let himself forget that Charlotte was the reason he died in the first place; the reason he mutated into this. He didn’t know what he wanted to do. He just knew he wanted to find her. And if eating her came around, he would do that too. The Wasteling pounded through the eighth-floor elevator doors and stomped through the halls. The walls shook with every step he took. The metal frame of the building howled under the weight of the Wastelings body as he traveled through the halls.
He was looking for a particular vault, one that he remembered using before he turned into the vile monster. His memories from before were mostly blocked. The only thing that he could truly remember was a massive feeling of rage coupled with disappointment and heartache. He lost his one and only true love here. And it was all Charlotte’s fault. “She could have stopped this.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ian and the others awoke to a thundering noise coming from outside the vault doors. The echoing sounds of crashing objects and breaking glass gradually moved closer to them. Jamie awoke suddenly, thrashing his arms in the air as he sat up screaming from a deep dream state. He had had a particularly nasty dream and hearing the sounds from outside had literally brought the dream to life. Whenever Jamie got like this, his mother was the only one who could calm him down.
“What were they going to do? Now was the worst time to tell him what became of her.” Sam and Charlotte rushed over to his side. They both gently wiped away his tears as Sam picked him up. She squeezed him in a tight, warm embrace that helped calm him slightly.
“We’ve gotta get out of here right now Charlotte!” Ian yelled. “They’re getting close.”
“I know! It didn’t take them long at all to get down here. I have no idea how that worked out, but I just need to look at one thing. We have to make sure we get the right direction for the tunnels because not all of them lead to the surface.” Charlotte assured them.
She sat back down in front of the computer and wiped her tired eyes, which were still hazy from her slumber. She pulled up a map of the tunnel system below them. When Ian spied its contents, he grew increasingly worried. The map reminded him of an ant farm with its many tunnels that went several different ways. Ian watched as Charlotte highlighted the path they needed to take to guide them through to the surface, and printed it off.
“Okay, now we have to leave the vault.” She said briskly. Charlotte no longer tried to hide the apprehension she felt building inside. Charlotte glanced down at her own hands, realizing they were shaking a bit. She swiftly placed her hands behind her back, not wanting to bring attention to them.
“Leave the vault? They’re practically right outside the door! We can’t do that!” Sam asserted aggressively at Charlotte. She held Jamie tighter to her body, holding the back of his head cautiously; she wasn’t trying to put the innocent kid in harm’s way.
“We can’t take him out there are you mad?” She retorted, switching Jamie to the side of her hip. He was much heavier than she’d anticipated.
“We don’t have to leave the vault per-say.” Charlotte mused as she reached for a button that was on the top of the panel in the middle of the room.
“We use this,” She pressed down firmly and took a step back.
It lifted slowly into the air, releasing jets of white smoke. It reminded Ian of a futuristic tube in which one could be transported from one location to another. Once it stood about 6 feet high, doors opened up from within it and revealed stairs leading down into the tunnels.
“This was here the whole time? Why didn’t you tell us?” Sam asked her a bit ticked off at the lack of transparency.
“I just thought we needed the rest. The tunnels down there go for miles, and only a few knew about the other use of this station. It was a very well-kept secret. I wasn’t sure we’d need it just yet, and the boy wouldn’t have made it if we didn’t stay put for a while.” The group paused their conversation for a moment and took a look at Jamie. The color was finally back in his cheeks. He seemed to be doing better.
“Plus, I needed this.” Charlotte contemptuously raised the printed map, exposing the highlighted areas. She lightly flapped it back and forth proudly.
“We don’t have time to question anything. We need to go!” Ian yelled. Abruptly, the lights began to flicker inside the vault, buzzing in and out with great vestige. Seeing this, Charlotte beckoned them down the stairs.
“Go ahead. I’ll be down in just a sec... I need to check something.” She told Ian as she walked over to the vault door and peered out of the small glass window pane.
Charlotte tried to rub her overtaxed eyes to fixate on what was outside the door, but she’d forgotten that she was wearing the hazmat suit.
“Damn!” She thought as she rubbed took her shoulder and attempted to use it to rub at her eyes through the suit. It was no use; she soon gave up. Barely able to make out anything out with the lights receding to a dull medium, Charlotte stared into the hallway. She continued to strain her indurate eyes. All at once, a giant and crusty infected eye popped up into the frame of the acute window. Charlotte gasped, petrified as she jumped back.
“It couldn’t be could it? Had he made it down here this quickly? Did he still remember what she did? Or didn’t do for that matter?” Charlotte stared into the creature’s huge eye, beginning to allow herself to think back to that fateful day that changed everything. She quickly snapped back as she heard the monster outside petulantly roar as it began ramming its body at the steel door.
“I do remember his determination.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The wrathful Wasteling had reached the end of his patience. He was getting closer to Charlotte; he could smell the fear permeating from her body. It was a “sweet taste,” it thought as it licked its cracked and bloody lips. The Wasteling was attempting to peer inside the vau
lt, but couldn’t make out much. It hastily shut its ‘good eye’ trying to moisten it. He could sense the humans scampering about inside, trying to think of a way to escape.
“Good luck with that.” The behemoth thought, throwing his enormous head back as he let out a bizarre snicker. Extending his prodigiously long tongue, it vigorously licked the window from top to bottom. It’s wet, viscous tongue left behind ample amounts of toxic-green and profoundly acidic saliva. As the acid settled into the glass, it began to fizz and melt down the steel door. His taste buds tingled at the thought of tasting Charlotte’s savory flesh. The monster’s colossal eye rolled to the back of its head; he was so close now. The Wasteling allowed the decrepit nails on his fingers to grow out a few extra inches, revealing sharp talon like claws. It traced the glass with a spiny finger and instantly cut into it like butter. Between the acid laced saliva and glass cutting claws, the Wasteling would make light work of the vault door.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Charlotte had no time to stick around and worry about the Wasteling. She stood frozen, staring at the horror right outside the window.
“I can’t just sit here; he’s going to kill me if he gets through that door!” Charlotte whimpered. She observed it douse the window with its acidic saliva.
“Why do I need motivation? What’s wrong with my legs?” She cried. Charlotte knew more than anyone at the CDC what the Wasteling was capable of; she just needed a jump-start to get the ball rolling. Her fear had temporarily paralyzed her.
Scarlet Memories (Book 2): Metamorphosis Page 7
