Chapter 25

They forgot about Hannah.

Hannah awoke when things seemed too quiet. Too suspicious. The others had left the facility to investigate if the other buildings had been raided, but she had been left alone. She looked around in the darkness. She couldn't see if there were or weren't figures concealed under the covers of the cots. She sat up slowly in bed.

"Rodney?" she whispered. She had been sleeping closest to him. No reply. Maybe he was a heavy sleeper?

She stood from her bed and walked over to his, and gropped for any figure that was contained there, but she only felt matted up blankets. Same thing for the rest of the beds. She left the bunkers for the lobby, and heard a thunderous banging against a metal shutter or door down the hall. She pursued it slowly, and came to the door that had the creatures contained behind it. It sounded as though someone was locked in there. Worried, she turned the doorknob, and one of the creatures managed to push its way through the door before she could shut it back. It fell on top of her as the heavy door slammed the rest of the creatures in.

Defensingly, she held her arm up to fend it off, and it bit into her.

She screamed as it's teeth tore through the skin like tissue paper and ripping at her flesh. She managed to pull herself out from under it, and kicked it in the head before it got a chance to get up from off it's knees and attack her again. Panicing, she turned and fled as the creature slowly made it's way towards her down the hall. Every door she came to was locked from either sides. She pulled at the one at the end, her last resort, then looked at the bite in her arm, and the blood oozing out of it.

"No.." she whispered. "I'm not going to die this way." She knew it was inevitable, even if she got away from that thing, but she couldn't let the others know that. She took the black jacket that had been wrapped around her waist and pulled it over her head. She winced when the heavy cotton touched her wound. She looked back to the creature making it's way to her. "Bastard," she whispered.

She defended herself in the corner when she had nowhere to run, then heard "Duck!" seconds later. She held her arms over her head and did as she was told. A bullet shattered the glass in the door at her side, then another was fired into the creature's skull. It fell in front of her, it's cold, dead eyes staring up at her as blood pumped from his head.

She squeeled and whimpered, then started to cry when it was all over. Rodney looked in at her through the now open door, and held out a hand. She looked to her arm, which was concealed by the jacket, then to his hand. He pulled her up.

"I'm sorry we left you. We forgot about you sleeping," Rodney said, stepping into the hallway.

"You had no weapon?" Jill asked, stepping at Rodney's side. "You've been here before. You're my cousin. You should've got a pistol from the room behind you and fired at it."

"I paniced! Besides, it had crawled on top of me," Hannah shouted.

Alice stepped in, and looked down at the creature in it's own fluids. "Did it bite you?"

Hannah hesitated to answer, but then lied. "No, it didn't. I managed to slip past him."

Alice looked at Hannah suspiciously, then merely said, "Lucky."

"Take this." Rodney gave Hannah one of the Submachine guns, and she clutched it tightly.

"Thank you," she said. They walked back outside where Amelia and Carlos were waiting.

"Where did you guys go, anyway?" Hannah asked.

"We were looking elsewhere for those things," Amelia answered. Then she fell silent. She felt uneasy around Hannah suddenly, but shook it off.

"We'll show you into the next area," Carlos said. He kicked the door behind him open, and then entered the next building. Hannah felt a strong urge to scratch the wound she had on her arm, but resisted it.

She didn't want to give herself away.