Day 969 – Afternoon

Becca

Becca was lying on her back on the hard concrete floor, attempting to work out what the room had originally been used for. She doubted that whoever had worked here before the world ended put patients in there. It was probably used for storage or something, just a big, cold cube in the centre of the settlement – not a bad place to store Sanctum's prisoners at all.

The entire right side of her face ached where Silas had clouted her. She couldn't tell, but she was sure that there would be one hell of a bruise – he had not drawn blood, however, because she couldn't feel any fluid when she touched it.

Following their escape, the group had fallen apart. Emily had become a wreck following her Uncle's death and Sully's only interest was helping her through it, Mitchell had given up on life, though nothing was new there and Vince was currently staring into space, not doing much at all.

She had been surprised to find Tyler and Lowell trapped in this place, too, though Tyler was overly aggressive and Lowell was too relaxed. Tyler had been punching Vince while the man was unconscious and Becca had not even had the energy to stop him.

Wyatt was waiting by the door to take out whoever was on the other side when it opened. Becca was trying to stay away from him because he hated her guts; he didn't understand that she had saved Annie from an unknown fate in Sanctum and had given her a chance on the outside. With any luck she'd follow the road back the way they came and find Bennett or someone who would take care of her, because Becca would probably never see her again.

Truth be told, Becca doubted that they'd ever escape the place. This was probably the end for them.

"Any moment now they'll come back and put us back in that hospital, and make sure we never wake up." She thought. "We're not getting out of here."

Looking at Vince, she could tell that he was thinking the same thing. If an escape route was presented to them she wasn't even sure if they would take it; none of them seemed very motivated to do so, aside from Wyatt.

She was surprised that Tessa, the woman that had been in here the longest, had not gone completely insane. There was nothing to do, nothing to look forward to and the woman had been in there for months. Apparently she'd escaped once, only to be brought back by Sonja and Curtis so that they could test things on her to work towards a cure, but not before they removed one of her legs to stop her running away.

Becca scoffed. A cure? Yeah, right. Everyone knew that the virus couldn't be cured. It was something humanity would be stuck with for the rest of its existence. It couldn't be stopped, it couldn't be controlled and it certainly couldn't be cured.

The door to the room shunted slightly, causing everyone to look up and see the heavy partition being pushed open a couple of inches. Wyatt remained silent, waiting on one side, and then darted round, grabbing the person on the other side by the shirt and dragging them in.

He slammed the man known as Phil against the wall, causing him to drop the food he had been carrying onto the floor. A heavy fist slammed into the guard's face as Becca noticed that he was unarmed.

Wyatt snarled. "Get us out of here!"

In response Phil grabbed something from behind his back and screamed into it "Emergency! Emergency!"

Wyatt punched him again but the sounds of footsteps outside were already gaining in volume. Before long, Silas slammed the door open, followed by Hector, and smacked Wyatt in the face with the stock of his rifle. "Get back!" He yelled.

Wyatt fell onto the floor and his glasses rattled across the ground as Silas pushed Phil out of the room. Hector watched the spectacle, simply shaking his head and scowling.

Tyler had already crawled over to where the food had fallen and was claiming it for his own, chucking a few bits and pieces to Lowell and Tessa.

"I'm surprised the natives didn't tell you not to try that." Silas growled, looking at the three prisoners who had been in there for much longer than any of Becca's group. "Pull a stunt like that again, beardy, and your brain'll be spilled across the floor, just like the fat fuck from last night." At his comment, Em shuddered uncontrollably and erupted into a flood of tears again.

"Hey!" Sully grunted through gritted teeth. "Have some fucking respect, that's my friend's Uncle you're talking about."

Silas grimaced as he pulled the door closed. "People die, she'd better get used to that. Just keep in mind that if you didn't try to run off things would've gone a lot easier for you here."

With that, the door clanged shut.

After a moment of silence, Tyler spoke with a mouth full of food. "See, I told you it was a bad idea."

"How'd he get here so fast?" Sully asked, referring to Silas's prompt appearance.

"He was only down the hall." Lowell explained. "We tried doing what Wyatt did once and they ended up getting wise to it. Now they send an unarmed guy in and position an armed person at the end of the corridor just in case they need back up. That means they can pick us off and we can't get a weapon off of the first person in the room."

"Well, how do we get out?"

Lowell sighed. "This is a prison, genius. There is no 'getting out'." He massaged his forehead with his remaining hand.

"I guess our only hope is Annie." Sully admitted. "If she got out, maybe she can find help."

"Don't count on it." Tyler grunted. "Little kid out there? Probably got ate by now."

Wyatt shot up. "Dude, you'd better shut up before I make you shut up."

Tyler grinned. "Just tellin' it like it is. You wanna make me shut up? I might only have one eye, friend, but I'll still take you down, you four-eyed fuck."

Wyatt threw a punch and caught Tyler in the chin. The one-eyed man sprawled to the side before throwing himself back up and kneeing Wyatt in the groin. The bearded man collapsed to the floor, writing in pain as Tyler slugged him in the face again. "I said I'd do it! I said I'd take you down with one eye, and I did!"

Lowell pulled his friend back, "Man, cool it. The bad guys are out there, not in here."

"He was asking for it." Tyler grunted. "Been in here for two months and I've been itching for a fight."

"You never used to be like this. What happened to you, man?"

Tyler was breathing heavily. "What happened is that these assholes killed Stan and cut my fucking eye out, and it itches all day, every day and I scratch and scratch and scratch and scratch but it doesn't fucking go away and it makes me angry and I have to take it out on... on him!" He pointed a finger at Wyatt and kicked the man in the stomach again.

Lowell scowled and then looked at the rest of the group. "Yeah, okay, I don't know about you folks, but I'm with Wyatt; getting out of here or die trying. I can't stay in here with Tyler turning into... this."

Becca sighed. Maybe getting out was in her best interest, too. She'd sent Annie out there to give her a second chance and Wyatt hadn't given up on the girl yet though he was definitely dreading her possible demise. "All right," she groaned, her voice hoarse. "I'm getting out too, because Annie being out there is my problem."

Wyatt gave her a stern look through the corner of his eye and then looked away, not replying. No one else followed in her footsteps but she assumed that they would come around when or if they came up with a good enough plan. "What do we do – how do we plan to get out?" She asked.

Lowell shrugged. "Pretty sure I've thought of everything by now, but you newcomers might think of something new." He leaned against the wall, his muscles relaxing. "Everyone keep thinking."

Becca sat down on a crate and looked at the heavy door at the end of the room. There had to be a blind spot in the guards' patrol or a weak point in the wall. There had to be something. There had to be.