by S E Lunsford
The woman nodded. “You need to come with me,” she said looking over at me.
“No,” Rosalie cried out grabbing my hand and twisting it until I gasped from the pain. Her eyes widened and she lessened her grip.
“Maybe I can stay?” I asked the two of them who considered me before exchanging glances.
“All right, but if she’s not feeling better by morning we’ll have to tell John, he wants to know if anything is happening with any of you,” Caleb said.
“We’ll just be in the office if you need anything,” the woman said.
Rosalie opened her mouth to speak but I held up my hand to stop her, waiting until I had made sure the pair had settled into the office by listening for the squeaking of their chairs to make sure they were seated before looking over at her. “You trying to break my hand?” I said in a low voice.
“Sorry,” she whispered back. “I didn’t mean to grab your hand so hard, I was just afraid they were going to take you away.”
“They’d have hard time with that,” Cassie whispered, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice.
Shaking my head, I made my way across the room to a lone chair, quietly carrying it back with me before I set it between their beds and sat down.
“How are you feeling?” I whispered to Cassie.
“Really good, I woke up just as you were putting her into the bed so I thought I’d better just lay low,” she said propping herself up on her arm.
“Good thinking,” I smiled at her, patting her hand. “Don’t get yourself scratched like that again.”
“Yeah, I love you to,” she smiled up at me before leaning over and looking at Rosalie. “Who’s this?”
“This is Rosalie, the girl who healed you,” I said looking from one to the other. “Rosalie, Cassie. Cassie, Rosalie.”
“Thanks,” Cassie pushed herself up. “How long have been out of it?”
“Too long,” I laughed.
“So what have I missed?” She looked at me expectantly.
“Well, we’ve picked up a few more traveling companions…” I started. “But, I already told you that.”
“Yeah I know,” she grinned. “Tell me again, how many?”
“There’s me and my three brothers, and then there’s Chris,” Rosalie piped up from the next bed starting to get her color back.
“They all helped to save you,” I whispered. “After that thing clawed you, I went to try and get something to help and the creat…, angels would have gotten me if Chris hadn’t been there.”
“After you’d stashed me away somewhere safe, I’m sure,” she said.
“Yeah, yeah I did, only it turned out that a few others thought so too,” I looked over at Rosalie who grinned back at me. “Which is where these guys came in.”
Cassie nodded taking in the very short explanation I was giving her. She and I both knew it was far from the full story.
“We moving on together?”
“Only if it’s okay with you, but I think it’s a good idea for now,” I said under my breath so only she heard, which was another way of communicating that we’d developed over the time we’d been together. I swear I could hear her a mile away even if she barely said anything. We’d gotten really good at knowing what the other was thinking or saying, something we had in place before the change happened from being best friends for so long, but it was whittled to a fine point since we’d been on our own.
“When are we leaving?”
“As soon as possible,” I answered.
Looking at the empty beds, and letting her eyes wander to the cement ceiling for a bit Cassie looked back me.
“This place isn’t safe?”
“What’s safe?” I questioned back.
“Aunt Fiona?”
“Gone.”
Our eyes met and she knew what that meant. Not dead, not passed on, not at peace, not any of the words that would convey that she had escaped a fate worse than death. Even though my aunt, who loved Cassie too - she used to call her ‘my little flaxen haired peewee’ -, still walked around, dragging herself from one place to another in search of the next meal, or host. She was gone from us, from me.
My heart constricted as the last image of her replayed in my mind, her reaching through the window of the car screeching at me, collided with the image of the last time I’d seen her before the end of civilization when she’d hugged me like I was the best thing in the world. I took a deep breath to steady the pain that radiated out into the rest of my body. Rosalie’s small hand slide into mine and a sense of peace came through my body allowing me to breath even deeper.
“She got her ring,” Rosalie said.
“Her cool ring? The one she used to let us play with when we played buried treasure in kindergarten?”
I smiled. “The very one.”
Something in my voice made her stop her natural affinity for questioning everyone and everything. Another pang hit me as I remembered how the ring fell into my lap, hand attached.
“Show her,” Rosalie commanded, making me turn to her.
“Listen to you,” I said, laughing as I pulled the ring out from under my shirt where it hung since Chris gave it to me.
As Cassie closely examined it to make sure that it was my aunt’s ring, a stray thought came into my mind where it quickly took root and bloomed. My eyes narrowed as I looked back at Rosalie.
“How did you know about my aunt’s ring? I never said anything to any of you.”
Taking a deep breath, she twisted a long ribbon of hair around her finger. “Actually it wasn’t me that found out,” she whispered. “It was Jasper.”
“Jasper?” Cassie and I said at the same time. I looked over at Cassie and began to smile. She shrugged back before we both refocused our attention on Rosalie.
“Cough it up,” I said narrowing my eyes at her.
Taking a deep breath through her nose, she opened her mouth to speak when the lights began to flicker in a repetitive pattern. Cassie swung her legs out of bed. I knew the look on her face, it could only mean one thing, that we had gone from 0 to 120 in a nanosecond on the trouble scale.
“What?" I mouthed, as she motioned for Rosalie to get out of bed too.
Jumping up I walked quickly to the door reaching for the knife in my boot only to remember that it wasn’t there anymore. The woman and her partner had just reached the door when I did, carrying a pile of clothes. She pushed them into my arms. “Get these on your friend,” she said. “We’ve got to go.”
I hurried back to Cassie tossing the clothes at her, knowing she would have them on in 2 seconds flat. I turned back to the two of them. “Go where?” I whispered.
“Keep your voice down,” the man hissed. “Those lights mean there’s been a breach, and if there’s been a breach, that means…,”
“The creepers are in,” Rosalie whispered her face looking even more ashen under the flickering of the lights.
Taking a deep breath through my nose, I knew she was right. The sickly scent of rot and the metallic taste of congealed blood they took with them everywhere was definitely inside the building.
“Come on,” the woman said heading for the wall at the far end of the hospital wing. Far away from the door we initially came through.
“What a minute,” Cassie said. “You have scalpels or anything like that back in that room of yours?”
“Yes, but,” the woman started to answer.
Moving in unison Cassie and I ran back into the office, carefully pulling out drawers so they made no noise at all, until we found a handful of scalpels and a hacksaw. We both looked at the jagged blade of the saw for a moment, not really wanting to know why it was there when we heard the first moan from behind the door that led to the hallway. The handle of the door twisted but didn’t give as another set of hands began to bang on it.
Moving toward the only desk in the room, we pushed it in front of the door only to hear the woman call out behind us the sound of her voice making the creepers even more frantic. �
�Hurry up, we’ve got to go.”
Running back into the hospital ward, I grabbed Rosalie’s hand before following the two of them to the end of room, where we stopped at a solid wall. Cassie almost plowed us down as she slid to a stop behind us.
“Great,” I muttered, looking around for another way out.
“This is a dead end,” Cassie said, her voice lowering to a growl as she radiated irritation.
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the man said, moving towards the corner where he kicked what looked like the leg of a hospital bed causing a slim portion of the wall to slide over revealing a narrow hallway behind it. The woman immediately stepped in waving us in behind her as he brought up the rear. Pushing against one another, we squeezed into the tight space hearing a crash in the office as Caleb bent down to jiggle something behind us. The stench of the creepers became thicker and I lifted the collar of my shirt up to cover my nose as the door began to slowly close.
A crash and low moans rose from the other side of the ward told me the creepers had somehow been able to not only get through the door Cassie and I blocked, but the hospital ward door too. Screeches of hospital beds being pushed aside over beds and soft thumps told me they were knocking each other down in their haste to get to us.
Leaning over to see where exactly they were, I saw one of them get distracted by the blood running down another’s arm before it crashed into a bed and leapt at it jaws open. Rosalie turned her head into my side as Cassie and I watched it begin to gnaw on the others arm, its lips smacking as it chewed.
“Hurry,” the man whispered, pushing at us to get moving as the door continued to move slowly, blocking our view of the progress of the creepers. From the smell I could tell they were getting very close to the wall and wouldn’t hesitate to try to take it down, prying their fingers into the opening if they were able to reach it in time.
That thought made my legs move as I pushed Rosalie in front of me to follow the low lit flashlight the woman was waving in our direction. The door closed with a thunk behind us causing the creepers to scream at being separated from their prey.
We pushed further following the woman up stairs, after stairs, after stairs, until I was sure we were not only past the floor we came in on but much higher than it. Finally, after we were panting and dripping with sweat, she stopped, wiping her brow and listening intently at the wall next to us. Lowering my shirt collar, I took a deep breath. Thankfully, I couldn’t smell any creepers nearby.
“Dani?” Rosalie whispered.
“Yeah?” I bent down to get closer to hear her more easily.
“We’re not going to leave my brothers are we?”
Pulling back, I looked into her shadowed eyes, and shook my head.
“We can’t go back for anyone,” the woman barked.
Sighing I looked over at her. “If you’re going to try ordering us around you might as well tell us both your names.” I crossed my arms and looked at him before turning my gaze back to her.
A half smile replaced the grim look of determination on her face.
“I’m Rebekah and this is Caleb,” she stared at me for a moment. “And, I’m not trying to order you around, I’m trying to get us all out of here safely, preferably with all our limbs intact and not becoming food for the brainless.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the tone in her voice and she smiled back, the first genuine smile I’d seen from her in the short time I’d known her.
“Well Rebekah and Caleb, I think we’re aiming for the same goal,” I said.
“Yes, we are,” he said. “Now, the key is to get out of this interior corridor without alerting the brainless, or the ones that control them.”
“That and making sure our friends are safe too,” I said.
“Yes, we know that too,” Caleb said. “Rebekah here can get a little reactionary when it comes to getting away safely.”
“Meaning everybody gets left behind?” Cassie asked not a hint of humor in her voice as she met Rebekah’s stare with one of her own.
“Hey, we’re still here,” Caleb said. “You don’t know what we’ve been through. We don’t know what you’ve been through, but I would imagine it wasn’t too long ago that you were the same way.”
How he knew that I didn’t even venture to guess. But, I nodded slightly in agreement meeting Cassie’s eyes and letting her know she needed to back off if we were to get out of here intact and still be able to find the others. She nodded slightly to let me know she understood before we turned back to the others.
“So, how do we get out?” I asked, looking at the walls that surrounded us as well as yet another flight of stairs that rose before us.
“Up,” Rebekah said moving forward.
Following quickly, we were at a turn in the stairway when a boom radiated through the building causing it to lurch to the side. Cassie reached out to steady Rosalie at the same time I did. Caleb and Rebekah held to the concrete walls with their fingertips.
“Hurry,” Rebekah’s clipped command did little to reassure me, but we had no other choice.
“Keep the hacksaw ready,” I whispered to Cassie who I felt rather than saw nod in agreement. I didn’t know what I could do with the scalpel I reached for, but I knew if I could get close enough to the creepers to get them in the eye with it then they’d go down. My stomach turned at the thought of being so close to them and their overwhelming stench if it came to that.
The stairway ended at a metal door. Leaning close to it, there was no sound from the other side. I took a deep breath through my nose smelling the tail end of creepers, much further off.
“Where are they?” Cassie asked looking over at me.
“Behind us, a ways back, but it won’t take long for them to figure out where we are and come up here. They must have been able to push through the wall.”
As if on cue we could hear moaning from deep down in the black hole of stairs that we had come up.
“They’ll be here soon,” Rosalie whispered.
Leaning on the door, I pushed it open just a fraction before it caught on something behind it, making it impossible for me to move alone. The others threw their weight in with mine and the door moved just a fraction more. Our breaths began to grow ragged as we pushed harder and harder, the stench of the creepers ing stronger every moment.
“What’s behind the door?” Caleb barked. “It’s supposed to be kept clear at all times.”
“I don’t know,” Rebekah replied, her voice inching higher as she said the words. Suddenly, she froze and her skin took on a pallor that could only mean one thing.
“No you don’t,” I said. “We’re not at defcon 3 yet. We keep pushing, and if that doesn’t work we start pushing them back and using the hacksaw.”
Drawing a deep breath that hitched a couple of times and wiping her forehead, she nodded at me before throwing her weight at the door with renewed purpose.
“They’re here,” Cassie sang out, swinging the hacksaw down at the first of the creepers, cleaving its forehead in two as it fell back onto the others.
Rebekah fell through the door as whatever was behind it mysteriously moved out of the way. Caleb grasped one of the handrails swinging himself up and kicking two of the creepers at once, immediately making me envious of the move as I tried to see what was behind the door.
“Go,” he yelled.
Hacking at one more, Cassie moved back until I grasped the back of her shirt in one hand and gripped Rosalie tightly with the other throwing them both behind me as Rebekah yelled clear. Caleb pushed back as the creepers swarmed up the stairs crawling over each other in their haste, their moans and their stench blanketing us. Kicking out I hit one in the forehead as another replaced it, when spray of bullets mowed down the first row of them. Hands pulled both Caleb and I back, yanking us into the hallway before releasing us.
“Run,” said a familiar voice. “I’ll cover you.”
We ran as the sound of gunshots being sprayed into the crowd of creepers becam
e more insistent.
“It’ll only buy us a few moments at best,” came Chris’ voice. I couldn’t help but smile that he, of all the people in this building, was here when we needed him. He caught up with me, and I looked over giving him a half smile.
“Where’d you come from?” I asked around my gasps for air.
“What? You thought I wouldn’t be here?” He gave me a whole smile in return as we pushed through a door that took us up another short set of stairs onto the roof of the building. Someone stayed behind, shutting and locking it just as the first set of hands banged on it.
“Stay down,” Chris called out as we scattered around the roof settling in next to air conditioning and heating units, looking up at the sky that was dark gray and still thick with ashes from the creeper burn piles. Leaning over, I saw Cassie holding her hacksaw up at the ready with one hand, while clasping Rosalie to her side with the other. Narrowing my eyes so I could see to the edge of the roof, I saw there were people shaped shadows dotted here and there all over. I couldn’t tell which ones were Caleb and Rebekah.
“What,” I began to whisper before Chris held up his hand to stop me. Cocking his head to the side he was listening to something in the distance. From the look on his face, my stomach dropped as every fiber of my being listened, straining to hear what he was hearing. Soon enough the sound came, the heavy whoosh of the movement of air under large wings. The angels were coming towards us with who knew what else.
“Oh god,” I barely mouthed making Chris turn towards me.
“Religious are we?” He asked amusement coloring his words.
“No,” I whispered back. “But, sometimes it’s worth a shot.”
He didn’t answer, moving quietly towards Cassie and Rosalie while beckoning me to follow. Reaching them, he nodded towards them before making his way further across the roof from one shadow to another. We followed until we were at the edge. Light was just dawning on the horizon casting shards of orange red through the haze as he leaned over seeming to be looking for something.
“What are you…?” I whispered before he cut me off with the click of his tongue.