Alice

What were we going to do? It was impossible for us to go into the streets, but we couldn't stay in the tunnels because somewhere was what used to be Runo. We all turned to Shun for our answer, but I knew from looking in his eyes that he didn't know either. The four of us were stuck in these tunnels until we could find a way out. Shun looked down the tunnel and said to us, "Let's head this way. We might find another way out."

Down that tunnel was uncertainty, just like any corner you turned in this new world of ours. We walked for what seemed to be a few minutes, when we saw a circular light up ahead. Shun whispered back to us, "Don't make any noises, and stay close to me." I wanted to scream at him, "Have you lost your damn mind! You're really thinking about going up there!"

But I kept my lips shut as we slowly walked to the light. I thought back to any movies where they always told you don't go towards the light, but now we had thrown that out the window. All rules had been thrown away now, cause there was no one left to follow them. The light blinded us for a moment, and we were faced with a large hole. It was one of the kind that old factories used to dump their product waste into, but it had basically dried up from years of not being used.

But what was really shocking, was that it was filled to the brim with death. They weren't zombies though, they were just dead and decomposing bodies of people. Not a one of them was moving. We looked out over the hole filled with bodies, and my eyes caught something white moving on the other side. It was a person. I pointed over there and said, "Look!" The three boys followed where my finger pointed, and focused there eyes.

Murucho said in a hushed voice, "It's a person. A living person." I saw he was wearing a white jump suit and some kind of helmet, and looked like the kind of outfit that people wore when they were working in a possibly radioactive area. But this wasn't a radioactive area. At least I don't think so. Dan's voice startled me. "Maybe we can go to them for some help."

Shun hit his friend in the stomach and made him bend over to catch his breath. "Are you some kind of idiot? Watch." He directed us to look back at where we saw the white suited man, and he disappeared into a door. He then returned with another man in the same kind of suit, but they were carrying a body. They then threw the body into the pit with the others.

What kind of place is this? Shun looked back at Dan and asked him, "Do you still want to go to them for help?" Dan stared at the body they had just tossed away like trash, and shook his head slowly. "No. Let's find another way out."

Dan

What were they doing in that little building? And why were there so many dead bodies? What are they doing? Shun had begun to lead us down another tunnel, but my mind and eyes kept drifting down to the sickening site we had just left. I stopped walking, and stared at the place we just left. Shun realized I had stop following, and said, "Dan, is there a problem?" I didn't face him, cause I knew his eyes were narrowed on me. "It's just….What they are doing in that place in gnawing at me. It's killing me to not know."

I knew Shun was thinking I had lost my mind, but I still had my human nature. And human nature meant wanting to know the unknown. Even if it kills us. Shun told me coldly, "If you want to know so badly, then go back. Go and cross that pit of dead bodies and go up to that building as ask them what's going on. And if you can run fast enough, come back and tell us." I cringed at the harshness in Shun's voice. I understood he wanted to survive. That he wanted all of us to survive. But he also knew that to survive, you had to throw away any emotions that may get in your way. Considering he had any to get in his way from the start.

I retorted back at him, "I'm not that stupid, Shun. I was just curious. No need to bite my head off just cause I wanted to know something." Shun's eyes flashed, and I then found myself pinned against the cold concrete of the tunnel. His voice was sharp and tipped with poison, "This world is rotting away! There's nothing else to know about this! Some sick son of a bitch let this virus out on innocent people and now we're fighting for our lives! That's all there is to know! So get rid of your curiosity."

Alice then stepped between us and told Shun, "Put him down! He didn't do anything wrong!" His eyes narrowed at her, and I dropped down to the ground. I stared at him and asked, "How did you know that somebody let a virus out?" All we had been told was that the people that were bitten were infected with something that was virus-like in the way it attacked the body.

But we hadn't been told that a person let it out. Murucho and Alice looked at each other and seemed to be wondering the same thing. Shun didn't want to explain what he had said, I could see that plainly. It was my turn to bombard him with questions and such.

"Shun, how do you know?" He turned from us and stared into the tunnel in front of him. Alice walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. She retreated her hand to her chest, and walked back over to Murucho. I was growing aggravated. "Shun, spill it." He turned his head a little and looked at me. All I could make out was his eyes. "You have no clue what they're doing in that building."

Shun

I wasn't paying attention to my words when I was yelling at Dan, and now I was paying for it. "Shun, just tell us." They wouldn't shut up till I told them how I knew. "Ok. So you want to know? Fine. This is how I know."

*Flashback*

The others had just taken off in the car towards the city, and I was being chased by hundreds and drooling monsters that all wanted only one thing; my flesh. I had killed a few, but couldn't stop for long before they started to catch up. If I did stop, they would easily overtake me. Instead of following the way the others went, I took another path. True it was longer, and odds were I wouldn't make it to Murucho's in time to get on the jet with them. I didn't care, as long as they made it safely to it and to Moscow. I took a turn through a small forest, and I realized I wasn't being chased any longer. I didn't want to take a chance, and kept going.

After being hit by tree limbs and branches, I came to a stop in a clearing. There was a small building, and what seemed to be some kind of pit behind it. I thought I had seen people inside, and ran up to it for help and a chance to get away from any zombies that may have been following me. When I walked up to the door, it was cracked slightly, and I pushed it open. The room was pretty empty, and the only thing there was a steel door. "Hello?" Nobody answered, and I moved towards the door. I placed my hand on the handle, and pushed down.

It was unlocked. The lights were off, but I could make out a staircase going down in front of me. When I strained my eyes, I made out a low, flashing light at the base of the stairs. One step at a time, I began to walk down the steps to see if there was anyone there. Or if it was just an abandoned building with a TV left running. I was now at the bottom the steps, and I peered around the corner. There were several men wearing white lab coats, staring at a large computer screen with the image of a brain on it.

I raised an eyebrow and heard one of the men say, "We were wrong about the virus. We should of never released it into the public until we perfected the antidote. What were we thinking?" I was now leaning closer into the room. They created the virus that's turning all those people into monsters? Another one of the men said, "All we can do is hope that we find the cure by experimenting on uninfected people. I say we go into the city and hunt down survivors and bring them back here." I didn't stay around to hear the rest of what they were saying, because I was running up the stairs and burst through the door and out of the building.

If they see me, they might try and turn me into one of their guinea pigs! Gotta keep running. Gotta keep running. Nowhere is safe. That was when I headed towards the city, and began jumping from the roof tops, and saw Dan and the others being surrounded. My rage built up. Not at the monsters that were attacking my friends, but the people that caused all of this chaos. I grabbed the chain whip I had swiped from the dojo, and leaped down from the roof of a building.

*End Flashback*

My friends looked at me with horror in my eyes at the thought that a group of people could make something so horrible like this. Alice said with shock in her voice, "Why would they make something like that? What was making it going to accomplish?" I wished I could tell her what they created it for, but I didn't stay around long enough to ask them. Murucho had come up with something logical and said, "Maybe they were making some kind of biological weapon." It made sense.

There were many theories we could think up, but in the end, they wouldn't be of any use to us other than to put an ease to our thoughts. Dan's hands were clenched into fists, and he burst out. "I hope their creations come for them and rip them to shreds! To make them suffer like everyone else has!" The reality of Runo's death was finally hitting him now that he knew now that cause of somebody's carelessness, she was continued his rant. "I say we go back there and take them out!"

He wasn't thinking logically, and we needed to calm him down before he did something stupid. Alice approached Dan and tried to touch him, but he turned around and caused he to fall over. I yelled at him, "Dan! Calm down!" He turned and looked at me first, then Murucho, and lastly Alice. His shoulders slouched and he lowered his head in submission. "I'm sorry….." Murucho was telling Dan how it was ok, and I went over to Alice to help her up. "You ok?" She nodded her head and straightened the skirt of her dress.

She thanked me and started to move away from me. I ran in front of her and said, "I'm sorry if I made you mad when I brushed you off earlier. I was still angry at what I saw at that building, and I didn't really want to talk about what I saw. But I knew Dan wouldn't quit bugging me about it." She smiled and nodded her head, but walked around me and over where Dan and Murucho were standing. I sighed and said, "How about we rest here for a while?" They all looked at each other, and nodded their heads.

We all needed a break from walking and fearing for our lives. We were all gathered around in the tunnel, sitting on the floor, and staying close to each other to keep warm. Alice's soft voice spoke, "Remember when we used to sit outside and look at the stars when we were fighting Naga?"

I did. On some nights, we would lay outside on blankets and look up at the stars. And when it got cool, some of us would get closer to others. Dan would get close to Runo. Murucho and Julie would stay away from each other, but close enough to feed off of the other's warmth. Alice and I never even attempted to get close; except for one time. I had inched a little closer to her each night, and she never noticed.

But if she did, she never said anything. The night when I was only a few inches from her, our hands had linked into each others. It was the best night I had ever had. The time we spent down in that tunnel, we just reminisced on our past adventures.

Not caring that some group of people was taking survivors to be used for experiments, or that we may not of been safe in that tunnel. Before we all fell asleep, Alice laid her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes. I smiled, and allowed myself to rest for the first time since all of this happened.

bleh. i would of had this done hours ago, but i got stuck having to leave my house the minute i was getting into my writing mood. oh well. i may upload later in a few hours, but i had spent a lot of my creative juices at the moment. well, that's it. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~