The beam of light bobbed with Rolf’s shrug. “Didn’t feel right.”
So, she hadn’t been the only one to sense the weirdness of the boosters.
“Why didn’t you?” Jack asked, somehow making that innocent question sound like an accusation.
“Same reason,” she muttered, looking down at the floor.
“I saw your buddy in line for it with your grams,” Lance said.
Scarlett nodded. “Yeah, but he didn’t get it. I asked him. There was a waiting list.”
Jack scoffed. “You didn’t think to tell your best friend and grandmother the boosters could be dangerous?”
Offense shot through her and she staggered to a halt. “Of course I tried to tell them!”
Jack stopped as well and rounded on her. “Clearly you didn’t try hard enough.”
“Hey! What’s your—?”
“Quiet!” Rolf came to a stop, one hand up to stop the others. “There’s something moving ahead.” He flicked off the torch.
Sweat slickened the metal rod in Scarlett’s hand as she tightened her fingers around it. Fear shot adrenaline into her heart, sending it cracking against her ribs. A small, cold, and clammy hand brushed her arm, making her jump as little blunt nails cut into her flesh.
“It’s them!” Kiera whimpered, squeezing herself behind Scarlett, using her as a human shield.
The stench met them before the hollow sound of something heavy dragging. Decay punctured every second that passed and they didn’t run.
“We need to go!” Her voice cracked with terror. “Before they reach us.”
“What level are we on, Jack?” Rolf demanded in a hushed whisper.
The data port blipped on, the green glow broken only by Jack’s finger sweeping across the screen. “Abandoned red zone.” He hesitated, not that it was required. The sharp inhale from the group was response enough. “Level seven.”
Rolf cursed. The groaning behind them rose, getting closer.
“We have no choice,” he said at last. “We can’t go back.”
“It’s the red zone!” Kiera squeaked. “We can’t go in the red zone! That’s where the chemical—”
“Well, we can’t stay here.” Jack switched off the port, casting them in darkness. “It was three years ago. The toxins are probably gone by now.”
“What if they’re not?” Scarlett had to ask. “We’d just fry up in there.”
“Why is she even here?” Jack snapped. “She’s no help at all.”
“Hey!”
“Enough!” Rolf snarled. “Jack, lead the way.”
The torch flared to life. It was exchanged from Rolf’s hand to Jack’s. The beam swept over the wall.
Jack swore. “We’re in between two levels. We need to go down a flight.”
Rolf took the light and hurried to the edge of the stairs. He swung it down. Through the bars, they could just make out the ambling, distorted shapes shuffling up towards them over the fallen remains of the latest victims. The walls around them were painted crimson and glistened beneath the light.
He spun on his heels and hurried towards them. “Back!” he instructed, motioning with the light towards level eight.
Their combined footfalls thundered through the tight space in a cacophony of animal panic. It spurred the fear pumping through their veins, fueling the primal, human instinct to flee. Kiera kept a tight hold on Scarlett, becoming a deadweight slowing her down. It took all of her self-control not to shake the girl off.
Below them, the scuffles amplified. Quickened. For one horrific moment, it felt as though the creatures were giving chase. Their groans grew closer, gaining.
“Faster!” Rolf growled, and Scarlett realized it wasn’t her imagination. They were gaining.
Thinking fast, she shook Kiera’s hand off her arm. She reached out and blindly grabbed it instead and held tight.
“Come on!” she said, shoving the girl ahead of her. “Go!”
Kiera stumbled. Scarlett grabbed her around the middle and hauled her up. Together, they stumbled their way up the stairs after the others.
“This way!” The torch flared on and waved into the dark opening of the door Rolf held open.
They scrambled through and the door slammed shut behind them with a resounding bang. A split second later, something else hit full force into the other side. Kiera screamed. Scarlett jumped. The others scuffled back a step as the low, rumbling growls oozed through the cracks. Systematic pounding echoed off the steel, resounding blows that mirrored the frightened patter of their hearts.
“Jesus! Jesus!” Lance panted.
“Come on! We need to keep moving.”
Gathering as much of their wits as they could find, they fumbled their way through the familiar maze of the Vendor Level. Every sense crackled, painfully alert to the smallest of sound. Scarlett kept a tight hold on Kiera’s hand, more out of fear than helpfulness, as they shuffled deeper towards the back. The hollow emptiness was no buffer for the booming anger of fists meeting metal following them all the way from the door. Scarlett wondered how much longer the creatures could keep that up and if they would ever stop.
“Where are we going?” Kiera asked, sounding exhausted and close to tears. “This isn’t deck eight.”
“They were gaining too fast for us to stop,” Rolf answered, sounding as breathless as the rest of them. “There’s another emergency escape—”
Bang!
The group came to a skidding halt. It suddenly made sense why the banging seemed so close, like it was all around them. Rolf’s plan to utilize the second stairway was dashed by the relentless pounding coming from the other side.
“We’re surrounded!” Kiera shrieked. Her free hand grabbed at Scarlett’s sleeve, nearly tearing it.
“This way!” Undeterred, Rolf pivoted on his heel and marched back the way they’d come. But rather than return to the first stairway, he turned right and shoved open the nearest door. He reached inside and manually switched on the lights.
It was another storage area brimming with broken pieces of furniture and discarded wrappers. Someone had been using it as a hideaway. There was an airbed pushed into the corner, piled high with blankets and pillows. Food containers and empty bottles littered the ground, and there was a data link forgotten on a crate next to the bed. The room smelled of sweat, sex and something sickeningly sweet like candy.
“Close the door.” Rolf told Mac, who set his bag of food down and hurried to do it. Rolf grabbed several pieces of broken wood and jammed them around the doorframe before turning to Lance. “Give me a hand.”
Dropping his bundle, Lance ambled over. Together, they moved the bigger pieces of furniture in front of the door, stacking them until there was none left. Only then did Rolf turn to the rest of them.
“We’re safe for now, but no arguing. No loud noises. Got it?” At everyone’s nod, he exhaled. “Good. Okay, so it’s clear they’re coming up from the boiler room.” Scarlett refrained from shouting, I told you so! “I think the majority of the passengers had had the same idea as us and headed for the escape pods, not realizing…” He didn’t need to finish that thought. The picture was vividly clear.
“So what do we do now?” Jack asked.
Rolf cleared his throat. “They’re moving up through the ship. I think if we hole up here for a little while, we can bypass most of them and fight the rest on our way down.”
“Fight?” Kiera squeaked. “You mean we have to actually go near those things?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Rolf said. “Those doors won’t hold them forever, nor can we just stay here. We need to get to those pods.”
“There are seven thousand passengers,” Scarlett murmured. “Even if you subtract those that were killed, the number of infected severely outweigh—”
“Do you have a better plan?” he challenged.
Scarlett shook her head. “No, but what I’m saying is that we’re either going to need bigger weapons or a better plan.”
Rolf s
played his hands. “I’m open to suggestions.”
There was none forthcoming. Not even Scarlett had any ideas. This was not something they were taught in any academy, not on earth or on the cruiser. The fact that Rolf knew what to do at all was sheer amazement.
“Let’s check our supplies and find a spot to rest.” With a glance at Scarlett, he moved to where Mac and Lance had left their cargo. He bent down and untied the thick knot on top.
Too anxious to sit, Scarlett stood and watched as groups were compiled. Thirteen canisters of water, four weapons—not including Scarlett’s iron pipe, Kiera had lost hers—and enough food for a few days, maybe less. It wasn’t enough.
“Okay.” Rolf sat back on his haunches and ran a hand through his hair. “This isn’t so bad, but we’ll need a few things.” He rose to his feet and looked each of them over. “We’ll get better organized after some rest. Scarlett. Kiera. You girls take the bed. I’ll—”
“Ew! But it’s so disgusting!” Kiera whined. “Look at it. What if there’s … things crawling on it?”
Scarlett didn’t know how Rolf did it. She would have lost her damn mind ages ago and killed the girl and dumped her body into space. The guy had the patience of a saint. Possibly two.
“It’s either the bed or the floor, Ki,” Rolf told her. “Take your pick.”
Kiera glanced at the bed in the corner, pert little nose wrinkled. Then she glanced at the thick layer of dust and garbage on the floor and shuddered.
“All right, fine. I’ll take the bed.”
Rolf turned to Scarlett, eyebrow raised questioningly, possibly waiting for her to put up an argument as well.
Scarlett shook her head. “I’m not tired. I can take first watch.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Rolf corrected her. “You rest. All of you,” he said to the rest of the group. “Mac, you’re up after me. I’ll wake you up in a few hours.”
Mac nodded.
He didn’t say much, Scarlett realized. She couldn’t recall having heard him speak at all since this whole ordeal started, and it became apparent why when he raised his hands and began forming shapes with them. Scarlett didn’t understand a word of what he was trying to say, but Rolf nodded.
“We’ll set up a spot for it,” he said.
“That looks good there,” Lance said, pointing in the direction of a large, white bucket pushed into one corner. “We can put something in front of it for privacy … for the girls,” he added with a grin.
“For the girls what?” Kiera demanded, blue eyes narrowed.
“Washroom,” Jack answered simply.
“Oh, ew!” Kiera squealed. “Sleeping in that filthy bed is one thing, but I am not—”
“We don’t exactly have access to the washrooms right now, Ki,” Rolf interjected. “If you want to hold it, be my guest, but we might not get very many chances.”
Kiera speared her hips with her hands and thrust up her chin. Her stubborn glower quickly contorted into sorrowful despair that had her bottom lip trembling and her eyes filling with tears. In ten seconds flat, she broke into sobs.
“I can’t do this!” she cried, dropping her face into her hands. “I want to go home! I want my bed and my clothes and my toilet!” Her entire body heaved and shuddered as she wept. “Why is this happening to me?”
Scarlett stopped short of rolling her eyes. “It’s not just happening to you,” she muttered. “At least you’re alive.”
Kiera sniffled. “Oh, a whole lot of good that is. Look at me! I’m locked in a filthy closet with a dirty bed and a bucket to piss in. This isn’t how my life is supposed to be! I’m supposed to be on earth with my family, going on trips to beautiful places and seeing the most important people and wearing the most gorgeous dresses. I should be making plans to marry Rolf next year.”
Scarlett hated to admit it, but it was the last part that kicked her anger the hardest. “Well you know what, life sucks. This wasn’t supposed to happen to any of us. We all have families we lost and lives we’ll never see again. You don’t think there’s people we miss and lives we don’t wish we had instead?”
Kiera glowered at her through puffy, red-rimmed eyes. “What do you know of it, fourth class? You had no life, other than wallowing in your little mud hut. This is a luxury, no doubt, compared to what you’re used to.”
Her temper exploded and she lunged at the blonde, shoving her into the wall before anyone could stop her.
“Scarlett.” Rolf reached for her, but didn’t touch her.
“I lost my family!” she snarled into the girl’s stunned expression. “I lost my home and my friends. I would give anything to have them back, even for one day. But I’ll be damned if I let some spoiled, two bit, little bitch disparage my memory of them. The next time you open your mouth, you better think very carefully on what comes out, or I swear I will cut out your tongue.”
With a final shove, she stepped back and turned away from the group. She pressed a shaky hand over her mouth, wiping away the pasty sensation. She closed her eyes and tried to calm the hot march of rage refusing to be tamed.
She was vaguely aware of Rolf instructing everyone to settle in. Kiera’s faint sniffling continued even as the airbed squeaked and the blankets rustled, indicating the girl’s turn in. Others moved around the room, settling in as well. The lights were killed and the room plummeted into darkness.
“Scarlett.” A gentle hand rested on her waist. A warm chest came up against her back.
“Don’t.” She tried to pull away.
The hand on her side fisted into the material of her top. A second hand glided down the length of her arm and closed over her fingers. She was tugged back and drawn away from the others. She couldn’t see where they were going until he stopped and dragged her down next to him on the floor. Without a word, he slipped his arm around her and pulled her head onto his lap.
Too exhausted to fight, she allowed it. She let herself curl onto her side on the floor with her cheek pressed into the hard cords of Rolf’s thigh and closed her eyes. There was a faint sensation as something warm and smelling of spices, sweat, and soap was draped over her. Long fingers combed through her hair from temple to scalp and Scarlett never stood a chance.
Chapter Twelve
The banging hadn’t stopped the next morning as they left the safety of their storage room and wandered their way through the Vendor Level collecting supplies. They stayed together despite Jack’s insistence that they could cover more grounds if they split up. Rolf dismissed the idea flat out.
“It’s not about covering ground,” he’d said. “It’s about staying safe and together as a team.”
No one had argued.
They hit several shops, grabbing only what they could carry. Rolf tossed them each a backpack and they went to work loading them with blankets, torches, any bit of nonperishable food item they could find, extra change of clothes, and anything that could be used as a weapon. Maybe it was deliberate on Rolf’s part, but Scarlett noticed they never went anywhere near her grandmother’s bakery, and after her restless sleep the night before in his lap, she was beginning to feel chinks in the wall she’d put up to keep the feelings she had for Rolf at bay. She didn’t know what kind of game he was playing, if any, but she needed to talk to him about knocking it off. He was taken, damn it. One of them needed to remember that.
Nevertheless, it didn’t stop her from watching him when she knew she shouldn’t and wanting him when it was clearly a bad idea. She wondered if maybe she deserved to be eaten for being in love with an unavailable man.
Kiera never said a single word to Scarlett that whole day, never even made eye contact. It was as though Scarlett no longer existed, which was fine. Lance, Mac, and Jack were too busy going over plans with Rolf to pay the girls any attention, which gave Scarlett plenty of time to observe them.
It was evident they respected Rolf. They trusted him to get them out of this mess. They believed in him when he told them to do something. It wasn’t exactly a friendship,
although it was clear they were friends, but it was a silent agreement. At some point, Rolf had proven to them that he knew what he was doing and was capable of protecting them. Scarlett knew he’d proven that to her more than once.
Rolf remained the same, strong, resolute … unyielding. His continuous calm amazed her. She had no idea how he was keeping it together so well. He never seemed to falter in his decisions. It also made him appear much older than his nineteen years. But maybe that was why he was so good at his career. She knew they taught a lot of survival and military strategies during marshal training, but it astounded her how much.
They were going through racks of clothes in one of the boutiques when their temporary illusion of safety was shattered by the distinct chime of doors unlocking. Panicked glances were exchanged even as the boys unholstered their enforcers.
“Take cover!” Rolf hissed. But rather than take his own advice, he sprinted through the door.
Lance checked his weapon before following at Rolf’s heels. Mac moved to the door and stayed there, enforcer aimed at the ground, but held firmly, ready for use.
Scarlett dropped where she stood and scuttled under a T rack of sweaters. A few feet away from her, huddled under the register, Kiera met her gaze. Scarlett put a finger to her lips, signaling for the other girl to keep quiet in case she was too stupid to figure it out on her own. Jack was somewhere behind Scarlett, but she didn’t move in fear of making noise to check.
Silence followed, a mocking demon tormenting them with the promise of annihilation, or freedom. Across from her, Kiera whimpered and quickly mashed her fists into her mouth. By the door, Mac remained unmoving, gaze fixed hard in the direction Rolf and Lance had taken.
“What is it?” Kiera squeaked around the hands pressed into her face.
“Shh!” Scarlett hissed as she reached behind her for the pipe she’d stuffed into the opening of her new bag.
Seconds ticked by, each taking centuries to pass. Scarlett’s fingers closed over the iron cylinder and she drew it out slowly. She didn’t understand how those creatures knew how to activate the data scanners; but she wasn’t going to get bit a second time, not without taking the thing biting her down with her.
When Night Falls (Regeneration Series Book 1) Page 11