She forced her body to move, reactivating her muscles to bid her will. Her worst fear had been confirmed, and she was not quite sure how to handle it. Reese had found her, which meant that he would stop at nothing to get to her. Charlotte cleared three steps at once, as she jumped down the stairs; just as the pillar closed its doors and lowered back into the ground. She could hear a substantial roar breakout, followed by heavy pounding on the ceiling above her.
“It’s the Wasteling, he found us. We have to get out of here now! He can take that vault door out in a matter of minutes!” She shouted, pointing at the ceiling above them with a shaky finger. Charlotte pulled out the map and tried to make heads or tails of it. Thankfully, she remembered how dark it could be down in the tunnels and highlighted where they needed to go with bright yellow. It didn’t take her long before she had their route figured out.
“There!” Charlotte said directing their gaze to a tunnel opening about fifteen feet beside the group. They rushed over to it and proceeded down its obscure, dark halls. The sound of steady banging from the Wasteling slowly dissipated. They were too far to hear anything from upstairs now.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ian stuck as close to Sam and Jamie as he possibly could. He still wasn’t a hundred percent sure that he could trust Charlotte, especially not after some of the secrets she revealed to them. All that he cared about was getting them top side. Afterward, he would ask more about the Dr. that’d changed into the monster they called ‘Wasteling’. Ian was quite curious as to why he allowed the research to be conducted on himself and his mate, in the first place.
“Why does he keep coming back to the CDC? There has to be more to the story we just aren’t getting.” Ian whispered to Sam tacitly, where Charlotte could not hear.
“I’ll get it out of her one way or another. I’m not putting the rest of my group in danger just because she is helping us.” Ian decided.
“We’re getting close to the opening of the tunnel. It’s probably about two more miles up.” Charlotte said staring at the map and tracing the highlighted area with her index finger.
“If I’m reading the map correctly, there should be a staircase leading up to the surface.” She stated, directly looking at Ian in the face. He looked away, pretending she hadn’t locked eyes with him.
“I don’t care what you’ve done to help us. I know something’s off about you. I’ll figure it out.” Ian thought angrily as he crossed both arms over his chest.
The group pushed on, searching endlessly for the mouth of the tunnel to appear. They passed several doors throughout the cold dark halls, none of which were labeled. It made Ian quite curious as to what the military used them for.
“What are the extra doors for?” Ian questioned Charlotte, who was at the head of the group. He watched as she whipped her head around, resting her eyes on the latest door in passing.
“They’re holding vaults. We keep some of the experiments down here. Whatever you do, don’t open them.” She divulged as a stern look of impatience crossed her face.
“How about we press on? No time for dilly-dallying.” Charlotte laughed lightly.
Ian gave her an extended look of disdain.
“None of this is making me trust her any more than I already did,” He whispered into Sam’s eager ear. She nodded back at him, filing in closer next to him. The darkness enveloped them as they made their way deeper into the tunnels. The distressed group slowly pushed through the dark shadows, pressing their fears back down into themselves along the way. They could barely see three to four feet in front of them, but that was enough to see each other.
Ian craned his neck watching for Charlotte to turn around. As she did, he quickly rushed up to one of the vault doors and wiped the small dirty glass window. He narrowed his anxious green eyes, fixing them on something situated in the far left corner of the room. As he stared a long moment, taking in a deep breath, he finally noticed something red float across the room. It seemed the red “thing” was dancing in mid-air. Ian was perplexed and couldn’t be sure his eyes were telling him the truth.
“What is that?” He asked aloud. Ian caught his breath in his throat and felt his heart begin to beat rapidly. As the blood flushed from his face, turning him very pale; he felt a stern tap on the back of his shoulder, which startled him immensely.
“What are you doing?” Charlotte spoke fluidly to the back of his head. He wasn’t expecting her to sneak up on him.
“Just checking out what’s inside.” He stated coolly, shaking off the fright she had given him and stepped back from the steel door.
“Well, don’t. We have no time for this.” She snapped, with what Ian perceived as an evil smile.
He decided he would take one last glance at the window, regardless of what Charlotte wanted him to do. He snapped his head back to the tiny window.
“She’s keeping secrets from me. There’s a reason I can’t see what’s here.” Ian thought imprudently as his expeditious eye’s rested on the small frame of the window. The red color he had seen moving about the room was now right at the door, staring back at him. It was a pair of ominous, elliptical eyes. They were the scariest thing Ian had ever seen. Ian surged backward, falling to the ground callously. He caught himself just before knocking his head hard onto the concrete floor. At once, he threw an infuriated glance at Charlotte from the ground.
“See, I told you to stay with the group.” Charlotte laughed half-heartedly as she offered Ian a hand to stand.
“I don’t understand what part you don’t get about leave me alone... I don’t need your help.” He growled at her, as he pushed off of the ground and headed back to Sam and Jamie. He turned his head back slowly as he returned to Sam’s side. Charlotte was still standing in the same spot with her hand held out as if someone invisible were lying in Ian’s spot on the ground. She looked up and met his disquieted eyes, replacing her hand back into her lab coat pocket.
“Okay...” Charlotte paused as an embarrassed look crossed her face. Something made Ian think she didn’t get spoken to in that manner very often.
“I guess we press on.” She remarked, quickly jumping back to the front of the group.
The rest of the journey was a quiet one. An awkward silence had spread through the small group. Ian told Sam what he had seen in the vault window and of how ghastly the thing inside was. No one felt safe in the tunnels anymore; it didn’t help that the trip was entirely in the dark. Their fears forced them to believe at any moment something would jump out of the darkness and eat them alive.
“Fear is a very powerful thing. It can lead a man to see something that isn’t there.” Ian quoted himself.
“Fear can make a man do many things,” he thought, remembering back to the early days of the apocalypse.
“We can’t take any more chances with her. She has a hidden agenda, and I want to know what it is.” Ian revealed to Sam.
Finally, they had come to the steeping staircase that would lead them to the surface. Ian told the others that he would be the first to go up, “just in case there were Cold Ones lurking about.”
He climbed the stairs one by one, reaching one hand for a step as the other pulled his body upward. Ian was still recovering from testing, so it took him longer than expected to reach the top. He had to stop and take in air every few seconds to catch his fleeting breath. He desperately needed rest that he was not getting. He sighed deeply as he reached the top. It was covered by a gravid manhole; Ian wasn’t entirely sure that he could handle the weight due to his current state.
“Damn, this thing is heavy!” He shouted at the others below him.
Normally, he would be worried about oncoming cars, flying down the road, impaling his head at the throat, if he pushed up without caution. But, there was no such thing as traffic anymore. There were barely a few thousand people per state.
“At least, that was a little bit of information that Charlotte filled us in on earlier.” Ian thought.
“So, why do I need to worry?”
He mused as he forcibly pushed the cover open. Afterwards, the muscles in his arms ached with pain. He’d begun to push his body too far.
The light outside was so scornfully bright that it temporarily blinded Ian. He covered his stinging eyes with his free hand and peered out into the street. Once they adjusted he could see a small, quant neighborhood, situated far from the city. He placed a hand over his eyes to block out the sun. He could see the outskirts of the city next to him.
“We are much further away from the city than I initially thought we would be.” Ian thought positively.
“This is good news.” He grinned as he wiped his sweating forehead.
The closer to the city they were, the more Cold Ones there would be. Ian couldn’t readily see any dead walking around so, he tossed the manhole cover off to the side with a bit of a struggle, making a strong reverberating sound as it hit the asphalt. Ian walked up the remaining steps until he was standing in the middle of the street. He waved his hands at his friends below in the tunnels and the rest came up one by one, starting with Jamie. He seemed most reluctant to get out of the dark. When he surfaced, he had a chagrined look on his face.
The group gave off a pallid look against the sun and its warm surroundings. It almost seemed foreign to them. Ian, Sam, and Jamie hadn’t set foot outside since they were at the school. So, they weren’t used to having the freedom of fresh air. Trying to keep their wits about them, the group decided that they needed to get out of the open and find an abandoned house or store; whichever came first. They were in serious need of supplies. The temperature steadily rose higher the longer the day progressed. It went without saying that the group needed water more than anything. They would suffer greatly if they didn’t find it soon. The chance of finding fresh water that wasn’t in a plastic bottle was slim to none.
“Over time, deficient chemicals pollute the water in plastic bottles when left out in the sun, but if I found bottled drinking water, I wouldn’t argue.” Ian expressed to Sam and Charlotte as he closed his dry mouth and struggled to swallow the non-existent saliva. He soon gave up and wiped his sweating face with the collar of his shirt. It left behind a growing dark spot on the rag. He was losing what little bit of fluids he had left.
“If this keeps up, I’m a dead man.” Ian worried to himself. He didn’t want Sam upset, so he decided not to mention it to the group.
“I’ll just have to come up with a miracle…”
The group stumbled down the empty streets until they came to a small mom and pop store on the corner called, “The bait shop.”
“Surely they’ll have water in there.” Sam exclaimed, eager to wet her pallet.
The group looked around at the scene before them and saw what must have been a nightmare back in the early days of the apocalypse. Car doors were left open wide with the keys still in the doors or ignition. Purses, backpacks and other items were strewn about the ground carelessly. Even a few children’s things like books and teddy bears were thrown to the ground. The sight was a depressing mixture of nightmare and reality. The group weaved through the frightening scene as fast as they could manage.
They tried to ignore some of the dead’s remains. There were a few bodies that had been extensively eaten, leaving nothing behind to re-animate. The smell of the rotting corpses had dissipated long ago. The sun, insects and other animals took care of that. Now, there were merely bones and clothes in the streets.
“This town was ravaged from the inside out and without notice.” Ian thought as a depressed look flushed his face.
Soon the group reached the small shop’s front parking lot. They posted up underneath a carport for shade that was located next to the front doors.
“There would be supplies in the store.” Ian thought positively.
“I’ll go in with Sam.” Ian announced to Charlotte and Jamie.
“Charlotte, you stay out here with Jamie. Come inside if you see any Cold Ones.” He conveyed as he grabbed Sam’s warm and sweaty hand, guiding her into the store. He threw Charlotte a stern glare as he made his way to the front door of the convenient store. It obviously said, “Don’t go anywhere.”
She stared back at Ian complacently. Charlotte didn’t look like she had the strength left in her to do something mischievous. She was covered in sweat and was sitting on the ground. She looked like she could pass out t any second. Satisfied that she would do the right thing, Ian and Sam continued on without them.
“Of course the door’s unlocked!” Ian thought happily as he slipped inside the door.
Inside the air was saturated with thick dust particles. Ian pulled his shirt up over his nostrils, trying to filter out the filth in the air. He knew his allergies would act up if he didn’t try to prevent the dust from getting in. He needed to be in tip-top shape if he was going to be out there with danger, especially, with an intelligent Wasteling tailing them. Sam followed suit and held on to the back of his Ian’s shirt. Entering further into the little shop they both noticed the air reeked of rotten food and flesh.
“Oh god, that’s awful!” There was no mistaking the smell of death. It was very distinct.
Ian decided that he would check the shelves for canned food and water. There were many items that had expired only months before. Sifting through the useless junk, he managed to find a few cans that were still within edible range of their best by date. He had heard that canned food really had no expiration date. Companies were just forced to put a date on the can. So, they would be fine with the few cans that he’d found.
“I found some water,” Chimed Sam as she walked up to Ian excitedly. She had a 24-pack of waters in her arms. She was holding on to them as best she could, bringing her knee’s up every now and then to adjust the pack.
“You sure you can hold that?” Ian joked. She seemed a little awkward holding it.
“Of course! Besides, I already drank a bottle. I couldn’t wait, I was too thirsty. Now I have my energy back.” She grinned at Ian as she tossed aside the empty water bottle to the floor. Even though they were back in harm’s way, they were both grateful for being able to be in each other’s company. They couldn’t stand to be locked up any longer. Even if they had to watch their backs from the undead, it was worth it.
“I think we have enough.” He expressed to Sam, looking at the supplies they had gathered. His arms were full of canned foods and other assorted items they would need on their journey. He’d been able to stuff his bag too. Ian was quite certain that he couldn’t carry any more so, the two headed back to the parking lot of the store; into the heat of the summer sun.
“Here, take some water.” Ian offered, handing Charlotte and Jamie a bottle each. They both eagerly reached for the water with quaking hands and gorged the entire bottle’s contents down within seconds.
“The water isn’t cold, so I doubt it’ll quench the dehydration you’ve been feeling right away. But, it’s better than having none at all.” Sam informed them as she generously poured half of another bottle down her own face and head. She took an old dishtowel she’d found inside the store and dampened it before cleaning her arms and legs zealously with it. Sam turned up her nose as she witnessed just how dirty the rag was just after bathing herself.
“Definitely never using this again...” Sam thought casually as she tossed it to the ground.
“Hey, try and conserve that water. We’re going to need it Sam!” Ian snapped. Ian saw the shock cross Sam’s face at his harsh words.
“I’m not trying to be blunt; I just figured you knew better. We have no idea when the next time we’re water will be. So...” He coaxed, placing a hand on her shoulder as he kissed her cheek softly.
“I’m just looking out for the group.” Ian said as he pulled back to stare into her icy blue eyes. Ian realized that he couldn’t really blame her. It was so humid today. They’re so used to the habitual cooling of the air conditioning at the CDC that it was going to be quite taxing to get used to the heat of the day.
The group gathered together and split
up the supplies. Ian carried all of Jamie’s. He was far too young and skinny to lug them around, he couldn’t handle the weight. They set out once again, walking close to the houses in case they had to hide from Cold Ones. They tread lightly, barely making any noise, every now and then stopping to grab a bite to eat or to take a few swigs of water.
“Where are we headed to?” Sam asked Charlotte and Ian as she placed her bottle of water back into her side bag.
“We have been walking for miles it seems and I wonder if we have a plan?” She asked crossing her arms over her chest frankly.
“We need to get to safety before nightfall.” She promptly turned around holding her hands above her hips.
“I have a plan. There’s a police station about 5 miles from here. We can make it there before night is upon us. When we get there we will have guns to keep us safe. We just have to break in.” She said looking both of them in the eyes.
“Let’s do it then. The sooner we are off of the streets the better. So, far we haven’t run into anything. But, I wouldn’t push our luck too far. Most of the Cold Ones are near the CDC because of the blast. So, let’s get to this Police station quick.” Ian said motioning for Charlotte to go a head of the group and lead the way. She had done a pretty fair job of that so far. And they desperately needed guns if they were going to survive.
“We might actually stand a chance without them.” Ian rationalized.
Earlier on in the day Ian found a bloody tire-iron in the street. He’d scooped it up and ran it through the loops at the back of his pants. He would make do without a gun until they got to the station. He just hoped that he wouldn’t have to use it. Along the way the group found a few more items they could use to defend themselves. Sam found a baseball bat and Charlotte a long piece of metal rebar. They had come across only one Cold One by this point. Not noticing the group; they snuck by, never revealing themselves along the way. If they didn’t have to encounter it they wouldn’t. They had decided conserving their strength was best. The less they had confrontations, the less likely one of them would get infected.
Scarlet Memories (Book 2): Metamorphosis Page 8
