Chapter 1! Edited to hopefully suck slightly less. Nothing is really different than before, just rewritten slightly so it reads better. Hope y'all like it!
If someone offered me a million dollars to tap dance right now, I couldn't do it. At most, I could summon the energy to punch them in the nose. We've been walking for hours. Years, actually, without fresh food or water. Lea is about to pass out from hunger and exhaustion and Patrick looks like he's sleepwalking, but Martin won't let us stop. Jean's incessant humming isn't helping anyone's mood either.
"Jean?" Martin calls from the front of the group.
"Yeah?" Jean asks.
"Shut up." I laugh and Lea gives Jean a sympathetic look. Jean just rolls his eyes.
"At least hum a different song." Beatrice suggests. "It's been Dancing Queen all day."
"Please. ABBA sucks." Patrick adds.
"Shut up, Patrick." Jean bites back.
"What do you want him to hum, Patrick?" I ask him. "Death metal?"
"How do you hum death metal?" Patrick asks me snidely.
"The same way you hum anything else, idiot."
"Everyone, shut up!" Martin shouts. Everyone quiets, the same way we always do when Martin scolds us, and we keep walking.
"Sorry, dad." I mutter, knowing he can still hear me. Martin stops in his tracks and turns to face me angrily.
"Celine, for the last fucking time, stop calling me dad." Martin fumes. Patrick snorts and Martin shifts his angry glare away from me. When Patrick remains unfazed, Martin turns back around and keeps walking. We all follow his lead.
"Come on, there's a building up there and it looks like it's about to rain." Martin gives in, hurrying along the deserted road and everyone speeds up to follow him.
The building Martin leads us to looks like an old office building. It smells like mildew but there's four walls and a roof, which is more than I can say for most of the buildings we've passed today. And it keeps off the rain that's just started splattering against the windows, so I can't really complain. Beatrice starts distilling the water and everyone else sets up beds for the night.
"Hey, Celine." Martin gestures towards the hallway and I follow him away from the group. "There's a hospital down the road. It was an evacuation point. After the rain we'll go look for supplies." He pauses for a moment. "And stop calling me dad, we're almost the same age."
I can't help but smirk and Martin shakes his head, starting to walk back to the group.
"But it's funny." I protest.
"It's not funny."
The rain had just stopped drumming against the windows when Martin shook me awake. He gestures towards the door and I nod in acknowledgement, grabbing my bag and gun as quietly as I can. Martin shakes Jean awake and tells him that it's his turn to keep watch. The two of us creep away from our sleeping friends and out of the building.
Martin and I walk down the dark road in a comfortable silence, a habit I've definitely picked up from him. When we get to the old hospital we both draw our guns, though my handgun always feels childish in comparison to his army issued rifle. Martin looks at me and gestures towards the open doors of the hospital.
"Ladies first." He offers.
"Fuck that." He laughs quietly and walks in front of me. He knows me well enough to know that I would never walk into a creepy old building first. What Martin calls bravery, I call stupidity.
The hospital is completely trashed. There are overturned gurneys, used medical supplies, and mattresses that look like animals have burrowed into them. It's hard to walk in the dark and I don't want to risk falling onto anything infected but we can't use flashlights in the cities or the Strangers will find us. Or worse, people like us. Scavengers who would gladly kill us for our food and supplies. Martin taps my arm and gestures towards a supply room. He walks the opposite way and leaves me to search the room. I look the room for people or animals before tucking my gun into the makeshift holster on my thigh and starting the search.
I look through all the cabinets but they're ransacked. For a second, I think I've found a box of gauze but it's empty. I resist the urge to slam the drawers shut and clench my hands tightly, digging my nails into my palms. It's been days since we've found anything useful and I'm quickly losing the will to even bother looking. Lea isn't going to last much longer if we can't find anything for her to eat. A loud crash down the hallway shakes me out of my mental spiral.
"Martin?" I call out in a whisper. He doesn't answer. I step out into the hallway and try to find him. I'm about to call out again when a hand covers my mouth and someone pulls me behind a turned over gurney.
"There's someone here." Martin whispers into my ear. I freeze, listening intently for the other person. After a few seconds of silence, I roll my eyes. Martin is paranoid, the apocalypse thing must be getting to him. I pull Martin's hand off my mouth.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" A voice I don't recognize calls out. My eyes widen and I tighten my grip on Martin's arm.
A beam from a flashlight bounces across the room and hits the wall behind us. We duck down further behind the gurney. Whoever is out there calls out again. They walk past our hiding spot and I try to get a peek at them. They aren't a Stranger. Their bright yellow suit and lack of gun make that obvious. But they're still dangerous. Everyone is. They yell out again and I duck back into my hiding spot. From the other room there's a snarl and a loud shout and the yellow man runs past us and out of the building.
Once they get out the door Martin grabs my arm and yanks me up. We chase after the yellow man as quietly as we can, not wanting them to know we're behind them. They run down the road and through the woods, when a door seems to appear out of thin air. The yellow suited man races inside the door and it shuts behind them. I half expect the door to evaporate or fly into the sky like a UFO but it doesn't. I turn to Martin, who's still staring intently at the door.
"It's a bunker." He says in disbelief.
"A bunker?" I ask stupidly. He nods. "Like a nutjob doomsday bunker?" He gives me a weird look but nods again. He stares at the door for a few more seconds before turning away and walking back through the forest.
"I thought it was a portal." Martin keeps walking ahead of me and I hurry to follow him before I get lost.
"A portal?"
"Yeah. You know, like in Narnia?" He makes a weird half scoff and half laughing sound.
"Celine, I think you're getting holes in your brain." I glare at him but he's ahead of me and can't see it.
"Is that really weirder than a creepy nutjob doomsday bunker?"
"They aren't really a nutjob if they were right." Martin thinks he's the smartest person in the world, probably.
"Whatever. Are we going to tell everyone what we saw?"
"We should." Martin glances back at me. "If they were prepared enough to have a bunker, they probably have food and supplies." I nod even though his back is to me.
We make the rest of the walk back to the building silently. Martin, always forming a plan in his head, and me, usually thinking about food I miss the most. It's not that I'm bad at making plans or anything, it's just that Martin's plans have kept us alive so far. And if I'm thinking about nice things like food and kittens, then I don't have to think about sad things like the apocalypse and how everyone I love is dead. Apple tarts. Hot coffee. French fries. Spaghetti. See? I'm not sad anymore.
When we get back to the building Jean is slumped against the wall and snoring. I pull a blanket over his shoulders and he curls into it like a baby.
"He's the worst lookout. He always falls asleep." Martin says gruffly.
"I'll stay up." I offer. "I can't sleep anyway." Martin nods and gets comfortable on the floor. Within minutes he's snoring too.
Without looking I could tell you how everyone is sleeping right now. Martin is sitting almost straight up, back against the farthest corner from the door, hand on the strap of his gun. Beatrice is lying next to Lea, her shoes and coat still on. She doesn't snore but her nose whistles just a little. Lea is between Beatrice and Jean, like always. Although if it's for her safety or their comfort, I couldn't tell you. Jean is still in his spot facing the door, where he was supposed to be keeping watch but had quickly fallen asleep. His glasses sit on the tip of his nose, waiting for him to jerk awake just after sunrise and pretend that he hadn't fallen asleep in the first place. When we first met he was better at staying up late. Keeping watch and waiting for whatever danger lurks in the shadows. To be honest, I think he was just scared that he would wake up and we would all be gone. And finally, Patrick. He's lying flat on his back with his arm over his eyes, his other arm splayed out on the floor next to him. His hand twitches when he dreams.
I'm not being creepy. I just have trouble sleeping these days so I spend a lot of nights watching over my friends and hoping I don't have a reason to wake them up. Life's not all bad though, we have each other…
I wake everyone up at sunrise. We have water for breakfast while Martin tells everyone about the bunker we found last night. After 'eating' we pack up our things and Martin leads the short trek into the woods. We quickly come upon the bunker door. Martin and Patrick look around for a way inside. Patrick points out four air vents, half hidden by foliage. I suggest crawling through them like spies, but they quickly shoot down my plan. Patrick suggests the actually good idea of blocking the air vents, which will theoretically trigger the alarm and make the door automatically unlock. Everyone agrees, so we block vents with wet leaves, position ourselves strategically around the bunker door, and wait.
Soon a boy comes out of the bunker in his underwear, dragging a girl behind him. They fall into the dirt, gasping for air. Martin walks towards them slowly, gun drawn, and the two bunker kids stand nervously. They start backing up and the rest of us creep out of the brush and walk towards them, slowly forcing them back into the bunker. Martin shouts at the bunker kids to get inside and everyone follows him down the steps. The red lights from the alarms make Martin even more intimidating than normal and for a second I almost feel bad for the bunker kids. Then I remind myself that they have this sweet bunker while the rest of us are sleeping in dirty buildings with animals and I don't feel bad for them anymore.
"Are you on your own?" Martin shouts.
"Yes, we're alone." The girl answers.
"Come any closer and I'll kill you, understand?" The girl nods, still backing up. "In there! Come on! Beatrice, Lea search in there. Jean, search the tunnel." Martin forces the bunker people into a small room and shuts the door. The girl tries to protest but Martin doesn't care.
"You're staying in here so you don't infect us." Martin explains.
"We aren't infected. We've been here for six years." The girl tries to tell him.
"We saw you in town." Martin slams the door shut. Patrick and I search the bunker for anything we can eat or use. There's nothing but empty food packets and drawings. Everyone circles back empty handed and frustrated.
"I can hardly breathe." Lea says, pulling the scarf off her mouth.
"Yeah, well, we blocked the air vents." Patrick sasses back. Lea pulls the gas mask off her face.
"Patrick, secure the door." Patrick follows Martin's order, rolling a desk chair in front of the door.
"I'll unblock the air vents." Jean offers.
"You've all got five minutes, then we leave again." Martin tells us. Lea tries to get a deep breath of air before searching around the bunker again.
"Lea, are you okay?" I check. She nods at me and we go back to searching. I try to ignore the girl knocking loudly on the window and go into another room instead. There is absolutely no food in this bunker. I dig my nails into my palm out of frustration. All this work and there's nothing.
I decide to go back to the group. I can't stand around the bunker listening to the girl beg us to let her out or I'll start feeling guilty.
I find Lea leaning against a wall by the entrance. She's pale and sweaty. I don't know if it's from the lack of food or the lack of oxygen but she can barely stand.
"Hey, Lea? You okay?" Lea closes her eyes and tries to take a deep breath. I grab Lea's arm gently and try to get her to sit down on the steps but she stumbles and I help her lean back against the wall instead. Jean comes down another tunnel and joins us by then entrance.
"What's going on?" He asks.
"Lea's sick." I explain. Lea groans and Jean steps towards her quickly. Just as she's about to fall Jean and I grab her and set her down on the steps.
"She passed out." Jean says.
"Observant." I mutter. He stops staring fearfully at Lea to glare at me. I kneel next to Lea and try to wake her up but Jean swats my hand away.
"Don't."
"Well, we can't carry her. What are we supposed to do?" I ask. Lea groans, slowly waking up. Jean reaches out and brushes away a strand of her hair.
"Hey, Lea? See, she's awake. She can walk." He tells me.
"Alright, everyone! Let's go." Martin calls. Patrick and Beatrice find the three of us at the entrance. Beatrice quickly pushes me out of the way so she can help Lea and I let her.
"Here, Celine." Jean calls me over to take over his spot with Lea. "Martin, Lea passed out." Jean calls, going back into the bunker to get Martin. Patrick follows him deeper into the bunker, leaving me and Beatrice alone with Lea.
"We should get her outside." Beatrice suggests. We each take one of Lea's arms and hoist her up. Slowly we get up the steps and set Lea down against the frame of the door. A few minutes later, Martin comes out. Patrick, Jean, and the bunker kids follow behind him.
"They're coming with us." Martin says. His tone suggests that it's not up for discussion. So does his grip on his gun. I don't know what the hell the bunker kids did to convince Martin to bring them along but I don't want to be responsible for two more hungry people. Maybe we can trade them Beatrice. She's been extra bitchy lately.