I wrap my arms around myself as I lean against one of the concrete buildings. The sun has long since set, and the darkness of night helps cloak us and keep the three of us hidden, but with it being the winter months, the darkness also breathes unbearable cold.
A flash of light shines by, and I shrink back in order to not be seen. A guard walks by, waving his flashlight around as his beady black eyes search for us. I push myself further into the building's brick wall and grit my teeth together painfully as the brick rubs against my skin harshly.
But I don't relax, not until the guard seems satisfied with his search near here. He scampers off, feet padding into the ground like a soft beat. When the soft beat fades away, Maxine practically pounces onto me.
"You saw who that was, right?" She whispers as she grabs onto my arm. Her short nails dig into my skin, causing me to wince, but she doesn't seem to notice. She just watches me with wide, fearful eyes.
"Keep quiet and stay low," Sarah instructs, peering around the building. "I kept my eyes open as we came in. There should be some low lying buildings here that we can climb to the top of. They're near enough to the perimeter that we can escape and climb down the walls."
She turns back to me and the doctor as if waiting for an agreement, but Maxine is still in shock and I am staring in confusion wondering how the hell we'll climb down that wall. Eight seems to read my mind and pulls out a bit of rope from her backpack.
"You learn to come prepared after being a runner this long," She says. "The rope isn't long enough for us to make it the whole way down, but it's long enough that when we drop we won't break any bones. And we should have enough time to make it because they're expecting us to double back and head for the entrance."
"But you saw who that was?" Maxine questions, her fingers digging into my bicep hard enough to draw blood.
"I saw."
"Tell me what you saw, so I know I'm not crazy." She looks at the two of us desperately, and while I know she wants to believe she's not crazy her eyes are begging me to tell her it wasn't him-that she imagined it.
But I can't.
"It was Pro. Van Ark," Sarah replies, "with a healed bite wound to his arm."
"And that's not possible."
"Must be possible. We've just seen it."
'Do you think he might be immune?' I sign, tearing my arm away from the doctor's grasp. We've never met anyone immune, but there have been rumors.
"We can discuss it later," Eight snaps. "Now stay low. We're heading for those long buildings to the left-the ones with the skylights."
She points up ahead just as one of the speakers shrieks to life, and for a small fleeting moment my heart stops beating because of the fear of Van Ark coming on and announcing he knows where we are and that we surrender.
But it's not him. It's just a voice, one that's barely audible over the loud shots about finding the Abel runners and the gust of wind that blows by.
"Commencing second phase on my mark."
Maxine's pauses for a moment, her eyes shifting around almost manically. "What was that?"
"Quit standing there, Doc. We need to go now."
I grab her hand and give a squeeze while a small reassuring smile plays on my face. At least, I hope it's reassuring. It's kind of hard to know what exactly I look like when my heart is in my throat and my stomach is in knots.
She nods, and with a nod from Sarah, we sprint across to the next building, pressing ourselves against the wall and waiting to make sure the coast is clear. The low buildings that we're heading for is still a good ways away, but it's away from the entrance so there's a good chance it won't be heavily guarded.
Leave it to Eight to come up with a good escape plan.
Each step feels like a pounding drum into the ground, each breath like a scream. Everything always seems to be so much louder when you're hidden, as if you're mind is trying to give you a panic attack.
We're closer to the buildings now. We'll just have to sneak past these three walkways and go through the small space between two large, close cut buildings before we make it. I jump out ready to sprint across the first walkway when Sarah grabs my arm and yanks me back so forcefully I nearly fall over.
"Over here! Look that way!" A guard yells, his flashlights shining tight where I was seconds ago. He runs past us, not noticing the pairs of gleaming eyes hiding behind the dumpster.
"Commencing hydration phase," The voice says over the speaker. It's clearer this time, louder, and all three of us freeze. Maxine's breath hitches.
"Did you hear that?"
Sarah seems hesitant to answer. Her eyes dart to the ground as she considers answering truthfully. "I... yes."
"Coming from that building over there." Her eyes lock onto the tall building, one that towers over Jeffro's walls in the middle of the Complex.
She sighs, looking pained. "Yes."
"Sequence initiated," The voice says, and Maxine gasps, grabbing my arm again.
"Runner Five, you know who that is," She nearly squeals. "That's Paula. Pau-"
Sarah slaps her hand over the doctor's mouth, sending her a glare that's nothing but deadly. "Are you crazy? There are soldiers everywhere looking for us."
"I-I know. I just-I have to..." She's shaking as she holds onto my arm for dear life, and her eyes shine with excitement and fear and pain. She's a whirlwind of emotions and I know if Sarah says we can't go to that building Maxine will take off toward there herself.
But there's something off about that, since my dream has been... disturbingly accurate all this time and yet Paula is here apparently. In my dream Van Ark was talking to her over a transmission, since she was at some other base. Why would that be wrong and everything else be right?
"We can go and look in the skylight if you want, but that's all we can do," She says, dragging me out of my thoughts. "It'll take us out of our way as it is."
The dark haired woman nods frantically, eyes shining and voice shaking. "Thank you."
Sarah nods, but she holds a look of aggravation and annoyance on her face. "Come on," She grumbles. "Run."
She darts off before either us have a chance to reply, heading off towards the building that the speaker has, being sure to avoid the spotlight that shines around areas of the base. It's the same one Van Ark was standing near. I remember the way his silhouette casts again the blinding light.
Maxine races after her, practically bounding toward the building with me following after her. The chill of night is still not forgotten as a breeze sweeps by, blowing back my hair and bringing a chill down my spine. I do my best to ignore it as I duck down behind an old box filled with random equipment parts.
My eyes cast a wary glance around before I stand up and run over to Sarah and Maxine who are waiting for me behind an old warehouse. It becomes routine, run and hide, sprint then duck down. It takes us only minutes to reach that certain building, but with the constant stops and the extreme want to get out of this place makes it seem like hours.
"Up the ladder, Runner Five," Sarah instructs. "Doc and I will follow."
I nod in agreement after swallowing thickly at how high up we'll be. Then I start to scramble up the ladder. The wood creaks and groans as we climb up the tall building. I can't help but be confused as to why the ladder is wood and not metal, but this building does seem older and more worn down than some of the others near it. At least on the outside it does, and the very little lighting doesn't help.
But the darkness keeps us from being easily seen and the creaking of the wood is more quiet than the metal hitting the building as we climb. I keep my eyes forward, not daring to look down as we go higher and higher and higher. My palms become sweaty and my breathing hitches at the thought of of my sweaty hands causing me to slip and fall to my death, so I make myself go faster.
I reach the top, stepping onto the roof and away from the edge. Maxine and Sarah climb onto the roof as well and Maxine practically bolts toward the skylight with me and Sarah following.
I look into the skylight windows, not paying any detail to the odd machines in the room but instead looking for any scientist that might be in there.
I want to know what she looks like.
I see no one.
"What the-" Maxine mutters with eyes bulging-searching-and shining with a mixture of tears and disappointment.
"Commencing plasma cleaning."
"It's just a recording," Sarah states.
"But... if it's a recording then that means Paula was here; That she might still be alive and..." Her voice trails off when I grab her wrist, noticing that the room isn't empty, not really.
Maxine gives me a questioning look when I give her a terrified one.
'Why are those people in those machines?' I ask, eyes looking back at the machines filling the room, and the faces that are slightly visible in the fogged up glass.
"What?" She blinks in confusion, then after looking back through the skylight she sucks in a deep breath. "What the hell are they doing in there?"
"Looks like a bunch of zoms in deep freeze units," Runner Eight replies with brows knitting together.
"They're-they're not zoms. Look, see those I.V.s they're connected to? It's cleaning they're blood."
'Plasma transfusions,' I say, watching the tubes containing and filtering blood-red, human blood. The doctor looks at me with surprise on her features.
"That's right. How did you know?"
"Know what?" Sarah questions.
"She knew it was plasma transfusions. I was just... surprised."
'I'm sure I've just heard it from somewhere,' I reply lamely.
"There are names on each unit."
"No one writes a zom's name on anything," Dr. Meyers says, and she's right. Zombies aren't people. If the zom was a man, it isn't now. It's an it. It's a monster.
But these... these people are only alive because of the transfusions. If they were to stop receiving it, they'd turn. Maybe they'd die first, then turn an hour later, or maybe they'd be like most and skip the dying stage and reanimate, but either way, these people are only half alive.
Half-zombies.
My eyes scan the units, reading name after name after name.
Jeremy Fletcher, Otis Maximus, Rory Vartosky, Amerigo Harvard...
The list of names could go on for a whole hour, maybe longer. There must be at least 200 people in this room, and that's guesstimating. And who knows if more people like this are in other buildings?
I stop looking and focus on one name in particular. I nudge the runner beside me and point at it as best I can. Sarah squints and scrunches up her nose as she tried to read the name.
"Patty Wheatley," She says, and I look at the blonde woman in the containment unit. Her eyes are closed and her face looks so peaceful through the frozen glass that she almost looks to be just sleeping.
"I guess we know what Ephraim was hoping to get from this."
Sarah nods but then does a once over of the scenery around us. The spotlight is edging towards the entrance right now, but it'll start circling back around here soon, and with us being here in the rooftops we'll be spotted in seconds. We need to either move along or get off this building.
"We've wasted enough time already," She states, standing up from her crouched position. "Alright, along this building, along the next one then down and up the next. Runner Five, you go up ahead. Doc will stay in middle and I'll protect from the back. Go."
I jog to the next building, taking only a tiny hop to get to the next. I'm thankful I won't have to do any cool six foot jump like you'd see in action movies. If I did make it-which I doubt-I really would hate the sore knees and ankles I'd get from doing so.
Runner Eight and Dr. Meyers follows close behind as I climb down the other ladder, but I stop instead of crossing the path to the next building which would lead us to two other buildings near the far wall which would be our exit. The two with me don't even ask why I stopped, they see it.
"Damn it," Sarah curses angrily, her fists clenching together. "They've posted soldiers near those buildings in front of our way."
"Do we have another way out?" Maxine whispers with a voice edged with panic. "A-a plan B?"
"We can double back the way we came. Maybe there's another way."
Just as the words leave her mouth a light shines in her face, causing her to grimace. Maxine and I both look forward at the multiple soldiers all watching us with eyes that hold nothing but rage and malice.
"There they are! After them!"
"Run!" Sarah shouts, grabbing the doctor's wrist and sprinting off. I take off a second after they do and the guards a second after me.
We don't try to hide, because the soldiers keep their lights shining on us, shouting for everyone and anyone to hear that here we are and that we need to be caught. They're right behind us, meaning no matter how many turns we take, they see us; No matter how many buildings we climb and descend, they still have us in sight.
And with each attempt to escape we make, the more soldiers see us.
I screech to a stop, heart racing and chest heaving.
"They're in front of us," Sarah states as the men aim their various weapons at us, faces cold and hard and mean.
I twirl around ready to run back the way we came, and Eight and Maxine do the same, but just as we get ready to run I see a man point his semi-automatic right at Maxine's chest.
"Halt or I fire!"
"And behind us."
Shit. My mind races with that same thought over and over, and I look at Maxine with sorrow. I saw this. I had a dream about this. I've led Abel's only doctor and one of their best runners to a monster.
I only pray that the rest of this dream plays out. Maybe if this is all true-which I still have trouble believing-then we'll make it out alive.
"You have led me on quite the merry little dance, Maxine. Up hill and down dale," Van Ark says smugly over a speaker. We all turn our heads toward the noise, eyes darting around in search for the owner of the said voice. He's on a platform, but it doesn't have the blinding spotlight like the last one did. Instead only a few lights-very dim ones-shine, giving a glow to his face and highlighting the scar on his arm.
I see Sarah inching her hand to the pistol strapped to her hip-the one Ephraim gave her-and I instinctively start to reach for mine.
That is until one of the soldiers shoots us a dangerous look and takes a step forward.
"I said halt," He snarls.
"My advice is to do as they say," Van Ark smirks. "With all these zombies around they're quite... trigger happy."
My lips curl into a sneer of disgust. That lying, manipulating, little son of a-
"We saw you," Sarah yells, and if I listen closely I can hear her voice slightly shake with fear. She's afraid. "We saw you get bitten!"
Van Ark chuckles, his onyx eyes glittering in a way that just borders evil. He raises up his arm, letting the light shine brightly to show off his healed wound. "Oh, this old thing? We've got far worse in store for you, I'm afraid."
My eyes widen. I remember him saying this.
"Far, far-"
Boom!
The loud sound rattles from the far side of the complex, and after covering my head I look back and see that part of the complex in flames.
New Canton.
"What?" Maxine asks in confusion. "Was that you, Eight?"
"It wasn't me," She says, noticing the grin that's appeared on my face. "Five, did you...?"
Yes and no, I think while shaking my head.
"It doesn't matter. I know a good distraction when I hear one."
"Hold them!" Van Ark yells, sounding only slightly nervous and confused. That is until Sarah screams,
"Run!"
Then after we start sprinting he yells again, much louder and angrier this time.
"Take them!"
There's shouting, ones of chaos and anger. Bullets are fired, and evaded. There's panting, screaming, death.
Another bomb goes off, near the far sector of the drop off zone number six. There's more screams, more gunshots, more fire. It's all happening so quickly.
'We need to make it the area where the first bomb went off,' I tell after nudging Maxine. 'The bombs are going to go off clockwise, and we have about twelve minutes before this entire place is gone.'
"What?" She pants incredulously. "How... how do you know this?"
'Just trust me,' I plea, 'and tell Eight what I said.'
She nods, quickly retelling my words to Sarah, who gives me a frown. "And who told you this exactly?"
"Just trust her," She says, squeaking in fear as another bomb goes off-device number five.
It shakes the ground even from this side of the compound, and the flames rise in the air, lighting up the nearly starless sky with death and destruction. One minute until the bomb in drop off zone four goes off; The same place where Van Ark was when talking-gloating-to us. He's probably left the area by now and since my dream is seemingly accurate I have a hunch he'll make it out alive but never did my dream say he'd escape uninjured.
"Keep going!" Sarah shouts, her breathing ragged and uneven. "We should make it to the exit in five minutes. These things take out a big chunk of the wall. We have to be at the exit before that last bomb closer to it goes off!"
I swallow down the bit of fear that rises in my throat as the next bomb goes off. The loud sound of the explosion and the heavy smell of smoke makes me push myself to run faster.
•
Sweat drops down my face and body as I run, just ahead of Sarah and Maxine. The last bomb went off just as we got to the exit, and while we smell like smoke and I have dirt, dust, and ashes in every crack and crevice of my body, none of us are harmed.
We run toward the trees, knowing the loud noises and fire will attract zombies in no time. Any guards that try to go after us in all this will have the undead in their way. Hopefully the fact will cross their mind and they'll do the smart thing and leave the complex.
"There!" Sarah yells, gasping for each breath she takes. Her hair is sticking to her forehead and her face is bright red from all the running. "Runner Five, here. You can stop. You're okay. We're okay. We got out, through that hole some new best friend blew in the outer perimeter of that compound."
She grins and runs her hands through her hair, while Maxine tries to regain her composure.
"Did they... blow up Van Ark?" Her voice is shaky and quiet. "Or whoever it was?"
The sound of someone clearing their throat gains my attention, and I turn and see two figures step out from the trees. Two females-one with black hair tied up into two short pigtails and blight blue eyes and the other...
The other refuses to look at me.
"Hello," Archie waves timidly. "Hi... hello. You're asking about Van Ark, and who blew him up? That was... us. But no, we think he got away; Helicopter heading north."
Sarah gapes at the two in front of us, eyeing their uniforms with the letters 'NC'. "You're the... the New Canton soldiers."
"I'm not a soldier. I'm a protein crystallographer," She says defensively before giggling. "That's always been such a funny word. Crys-ta-llo-gra-pher."
I look at New Canton's Runner Five, who's head is ducked down and her eyes furrowing together.
She's listening to Nadia's message.
"But you're from New Canton," Eight says with a guarded tone, but the raven haired woman shrugs.
"Yeah, hey. I'm Runner Twenty and this is Runner Five," She introduces with a smile, and while I try to listen to her, I can't take my eyes off of New Canton Five, although she refuses to meet my gaze. "More of our guys are coming. Look, we-"
"We're from Abel; We're not friends."
"They just saved our lives," Maxine mutters spitefully.
"So maybe that makes us even, aye?" Runner Twenty shrugs. "We don't have to be friends. We can just be... neighbors? Acquaintances? Coworkers? I was a coworker with Pro. Van Ark, you know, back in the lab along time ago." She presses her lips together tightly. "Coworker, why not colleague? No one seems to use colleague anymore, aye?"
"You worked with Van Ark?" Dr. Meyers asks in shock.
"That's how I knew who you were talking about."
"We should talk."
"That we do," Sarah agrees.
I haven't taken my eyes off of New Canton's Five, and I see her take a deep breath before looking up to meet my eyes.
My face. It's like I'm looking in my own mirror, except for eyes. Green meet brown and I'm sure I look like a complete idiot with my mouth slightly open and my eyes wide.
Her face is calm, and through the corner of my eye I can see the three others staring at us, just now seeing through the darkness and seeing our similar features.
She takes slow, graceful steps toward me, staying completely silent until she's just in front of me.
"I'm Chrysalis Gracier," She says plainly, holding out her hand to me. She tips her head to the side. "But I have a feeling you already know that."
A/N: Here you are, guys! Hope you enjoyed. Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!