~ Heather ~

 

I couldn’t explain it.

One minute I stood there, watching as a small black Wolf with blue tints and a light brown Wolf stared at the shut elevator door. The next minute, I felt the need to go back down the long corridor that Brendan and I had walked down only five minutes before.

I knew by the tension in both of the Werewolves’ bodies that something bad was going on. Plus, the lights had abruptly gone out—never a good sign, but at least, I could see fairly well in the dark. I also knew Brendan wanted me to stick close to these two Pack members—they had made sure I knew it by gently pushing me in front of them and guiding my direction—so I imagined no one would be happy with me when they realized I had walked off.

Every muscle in my body screamed for me to turn away from the elevator and walk down the corridor. The familiar awareness that I had come to recognize as some form of danger warning sizzled under my skin, causing me to grip my sword tighter. I had been so happy to find it shoved on some dusty shelf along with my other weapons that I could do nothing but smile as I kitted up.

My left hand hit the wall. I turned to my right, placing my left hand before me once more. My fingers pressed against the left metal door. I pushed it open, bumping my right shoulder on the right door, and headed down the second corridor.

My fingertips danced along the walls as I walked. I tried to listen out for the footfalls or steady panting of one of the Pack. The last thing I needed was one of them jumping out at me while I had my sword in my hand. My fingers floated in the air as I passed the corridor that lead to the huge, old storage room, which had been full of strange and unimportant rusty pieces of equipment.

My fingers hit the wall again and my stomach clenched. Realization filled my body as a familiar sound whispered to me from the darkness. A strong smell tickled my nose, causing me to flinch. The sound of movement in the distance tried to snap my attention, and deep down, I knew I should turn around and make my way to the source of these distractions, but my feet continued forward and my muscles wound tighter with each step.

Crackling echoed above me as the lights of the corridor flickered with an unsteady buzz, but even they couldn’t break my concentration. I didn’t even give them a second thought as they tried so hard to come back on. I just let my left hand drop to my side, thankful for the little slice of light, as I continued walking down the long corridor, listening to the familiar sound that called me in the twitching darkness. Beckoning so I could follow. It sounded like dripping water, but I knew it wasn’t. I had heard it before, but for some reason, my head refused to register the answer. It refused to help me make sense of what I could hear. My head felt like cotton wool had been packed tightly inside my skull.

I pressed my left shoulder against the wall and continued walking, moving as quickly and quietly as I could. The lights choked above me, the earlier smell getting stronger as my sight grew a little hazier.

The noise got louder. As I turned the left corner, my hazy sight locked on to the set of metal doors at the end of the corridor. The sound became clearer with each step.

A steady string of beeps. No, a familiar string of beep…beep…beep….

My heart tightened as I stopped in front of the double doors. The beeping echoed so loudly from the room behind them. I pressed my left hand against the cold metal; the wool in my mind melted as I remembered I feared what stood on the other side of this door. What I knew I would see once I stepped inside; what I would have to do.

I pushed the door open and walked into the dim-lit room.

The overhead lights spluttered. The smell of chemicals and blood clouded my senses instantly as the steady beat of a hundred hearts thumped in my temples. My mouth began to water.

I shouldn’t be in here alone.

I ground my teeth and forced myself to concentrate. It wasn’t safe in here; they weren’t safe.

I forced myself to walk forward.

I will not lose it. I will not lose it. I will not lose it… These people are dying. They are dangerous. They are not for feeding on….

I faltered. My body froze as the beats continued to echo in my mind. Panic overwhelmed me as the itch in my throat started to burn. My eyes wandered along the lines of beds… along the bodies of all the patients. I looked at their brittle, sickly skin clinging to their bones. At the tubes protruding from their arms and necks...tucked in their veins...spreading clear liquid into their flowing blood.

So much blood ….

No! No blood. These people are sick, Heather. Have to help them. Need to help them, somehow.

I forced my right foot forward and continued to walk down the aisle. How could I help them? I didn’t even know what had been done to them. Were they just normal Infecteds, or had Lance done his sick experiments on them? It seemed likely. Everything had been an experiment to that bastard.

Where the hell do I even begin?

The sound of all their heartbeats filled me. Their hearts, beating together, drumming along with my own. I stopped in front of one of the beds and looked at the needles in the woman’s arm. Her skin was pale, almost transparent. She looked so sick. They all did.

Clear liquid made its way into her body. What the heck is it? I looked at the tube stuck in her mouth, watching the blood as it pushed its way along the small lines, feeding her. The hilt of my sword dug into my hand as my grip automatically tightened. My throat felt so dry.

I jumped as the metal doors slammed against the walls. Brendan prowled toward me, his eyes blazing through the spluttering darkness.

I sucked in a sharp breath as the awareness under my skin suddenly burned and stabbed at me like red-hot pokers. The ball that had lodged in my throat dropped to my chest and swelled. I clutched my chest. My blood suddenly ran cold as unexpected familiarity grabbed me by the throat.

“We need to get out of here. Now!”

He froze as all the heartbeats stopped in unison.

One long beep filled the room.

“Brendan?” I said quietly, inching toward him.

He scanned the room intensely.

“We have to go.”

His eyes locked on mine.

“Right now.”

The monitors went crazy. Each machine suddenly boomed erratically, the beeps now all out of sync. My heart hammered against my ribcage as I spun round and watched all the patients jolt up in their beds.

“Oh, fuck—”

A deafening wail stabbed at my ears. I turned to see one of the patients ripping the needles from her arms, her eyes blood red and hungry. Fangs exploded from her mouth.

The bastards must have turned the machines off.

The patient locked eyes with me.

Every muscle in my body tensed, knowing that she would attack. She jumped right on cue. I grabbed my sword with both hands and swung, catching her right in the neck. Her decapitated body flew into me, knocking me to the ground. My rib screamed as my head smashed against the cold stone floor. A wave of electric white light flashed behind my eyelids as fresh pain cracked through my skull. Heat spread along my face and neck and I tensed as the metallic scent of my blood filled my senses.

A hand clamped around my left wrist and pulled me to my feet.

Brendan growled, hitting a male patient and sending him flying into the group before us. My foggy sight adjusted just enough to see the red eyes burning in the flickering darkness as the patients advanced. I shook Brendan’s grip and flexed my right wrist, sending six of my small daggers toward the eyes and throats of our nearest threats. We continued stepping backward, edging toward the door. A deep growl rumbled in the pit of Brendan’s stomach. I looked up quickly to see his lips peeling back as he gave them all a good sight of his own fangs.

Three of the patients ripped pieces of flesh from the head of the one Brendan had wounded.

“They’re hungry,” I said. “Make them bleed. It will distract the others.”

And as if I had just shouted “eat me” at the top of my voice, they advanced. Brendan stepped in front of me, shoving the claws of both of his hands into the stomachs of two of the patients. With a snarl, he broke their spines and picked them up, throwing them into the crowd. At the smell of new blood, some of the Infecteds turned and leapt over each other to reach the bodies.

I charged at one of the patients, thrusting my sword through the male’s chest and pushing down. He screamed, blood oozing from the wound. My head clouded; my heart began to thump in my ears. Brendan roared somewhere behind me. Two hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me, but I could only watch the patients jump on to my freshly cut male. I had the strange impulse to join them.

The hands pushed me out into the smoky corridor and, for a moment, I couldn’t pull my gaze from the three Wolves who continued to wound and throw patients around while they inched out of the room. It seemed almost impossible to breathe, and it took me at least a minute to realize why. I blinked as my eyes started to water. The smell of something burning flooded my senses.

I slowly turned around to see nothing but grey smoke as it danced under the flickering overhead lights.

“Is this place on fire?” I coughed, looking back at the group. Two of the Werewolves placed a thick steel beam through the handles of the door and bent the metal. The doors rattled as the remaining patients began hammering against the old metal. It wouldn’t hold them, not for long.

“The place is on fire, isn’t it?” I asked, covering my mouth, thankful that my concentration had jumped back to the bigger problem at hand.

Brendan looked at me and nodded.

“Elevator?”

He shook his head.

“Another way out?”

He grunted and sent his right hand flying into the wall.

“I take that as a no.” I coughed. A fresh wave of pain pulsed through my skull. I touched the back of my head. Hot liquid trickled onto my fingers and a hiss left my mouth as a sharp jab of pain went through me. I looked at the blood on my fingertips, the scent causing my sight to sharpen slightly.

A hundred Infecteds are trying to break down a door to get to us and I am bleeding, like a tease.

I forced my focus off my hand and quickly wiped the blood on my jeans, well, Eve’s jeans. I doubted she would mind, since we all had more important things to worry about.

I pushed my sword back in its sheath and studied the corridor.

The lights continued spluttering above me, still fighting in some relentless attempt to come back on, even though it appeared hopeless.

It is hopeless. We’re trapped.

If nine huge Werewolves couldn’t find a way out, what the hell could I do?

Fresh waves of pain rippled around my skull and down my spine and side as I fought to see everything around me, but the thick grey smoke had already flooded the maze of corridors. I could feel it crawling down my throat; the taste and feel of ash coated my tongue thickly. The need to cough kept taking hold of me, while the ash blocked my nose and stung my eyes, causing them to water uncontrollably. My head continued to throb. The pressure in my skull tightened as I fought harder to keep my eyes open.

There has to be a way out.

As idiotic as these bastards seemed, I refused to believe they would be stupid enough not to have an escape route. The building was old. The elevator shaft had already started to fall to pieces. How could they not have another entrance? Unless it had been placed somewhere we couldn’t reach.

I looked up at the ceiling.

“Brendan?” I coughed. “What about the ceiling?”

The wolves dispersed. Five disappeared down the corridors, their heads up as they tapped the ceiling panels with their hands. The other three stood by the shaking double doors.

There is a way out. There has to be.

I pulled any image I could think of from my trips around the maze of corridors. The last time I had been conscious, Lance had brought me down this particular corridor. I could remember seeing the double doors ahead of me and feeling strange, like I had already been down here, which at the time, I hadn’t. We had passed a random door; it looked new, compared to the rest of the facility. It was wooden with a long titanium handle, which meant it stood out on this long, empty wall. I placed my hand against the wall and let my fingertips play across the smooth surface, waiting to feel wood instead of metal panelling.

My fingers left the wall and wandered in the air; I stopped and extended my left arm until my hand lay flat against the wooden door. I slid my hand lower until I felt the cool metal handle. I pushed down and opened the door. A hand came to rest on my shoulder.

“Brendan?” I sensed him behind me. “I think there is a way out. I know that sounds mad, but I can’t explain it. I’ve done this before.” I coughed. “It’s a dream I’ve had ever since my Gran died.”

The patients continued to fight against the door; their wails stabbed at my ears along with the wheezing and grunting of the three Wolves. I had to get them out.

“Trust me?” I turned to look up at him.

His golden eyes studied me for a moment, then he nodded and allowed me to walk into the darkness of the new corridor.

I took a deep breath; the smoke, thankfully, hadn’t invaded the area just yet.

I walked down the hallway; the fingertips of my left hand pressed against the rough stonewall.

Stonewall, in a metal facility?

I held my right arm out in front of me. The metal of my slingshot pressed into my arm and the feel of it somehow steadied my growing panic, as did the weight of my sword and crossbow as they rested against my back.

I jerked as my fingers tripped across fabric and then landed back on the wall. My eyesight had clouded from the smoke. My nose burnt with it and my mouth tasted like ash. I could rely only on my hearing. I had no idea if anything lurked in the corridor with me.

The awareness under my skin blazed as hot as the fire that currently threatened to bring the entire structure down on our heads, but I just knew I had to walk down here. Every impulse in my body forced me forward. I had no idea what I hoped to find, but I knew deep in my gut we could get out; there had to be some way out.

My right hand hit the uneven wall before me. My heart sank as I stood before the dead end.

I won’t die down here. I am not supposed to die down here.

Gran would have warned me. She would have made me do something different. She wouldn’t let me come back down here just to die. Not when there was so much to do. Not now I was closer to getting Marko. Not after everything I had to go through. After everything Brendan had gone through. He had saved me once, twice, probably a dozen times. I had to get us out.

Brendan’s footfalls stopped behind me. The sound of his ragged panting filled my ears as he struggled to catch his breath. I crouched down, placing both my palms against the jagged rocks and moved them all over the small uneven wall, working my way up.

“They will get out of that room. They are too strong.”

He grunted.

I stopped as cold air tickled the fingertips of my right hand…. Bingo.

“You lot coming or not?” I shouted, knowing they would hear me. I pressed my ear against the wall and concentrated; the faintest sound of trickling water sounded from behind the rocks.

“I think we might be in a cave that they have sealed off.”

Brendan stood beside me.

“I can hear water, and if you move your hand over the rock, there is a breeze coming from somewhere.”

Footfalls echoed through the small corridor, along with the thud of the door shutting, and screeching metal. Brendan’s growl rumbled through his entire body. I could feel it vibrating through my own bones as his left arm brushed against my right. My sight adjusted just enough for me to see Solomon’s crimson eyes burning in the darkness as he stopped on Brendan’s right. He placed his hands on the rock next to Brendan’s and began pushing. I heard a faint crack before something small and heavy hit my foot; I backed away from the wall and stood with the others. Brendan and Solomon’s grunts filled the darkness, along with the distinct sound of crumbling rock.

The urge to cough took hold once more, the taste of ash coating my throat. The smoke had finally found its way into the corridor.

Brendan stumbled forward as a chunk of rock fell on the other side of the wall. The smell and sound of water greeted us.

A thud sounded from the other side of the single door.

“You might want to hurry that up a bit.” I coughed.

An ash-coloured Wolf and a white one began to help Brendan and Solomon.

Brendan growled and sent his fists flying into the rock. The others copied. Another thud echoed, and the wall I rested against trembled.

My head had grown fuzzy and my eyes had started watering like crazy as the smoke continued to fill the tight corridor. I kept them tightly shut, listening to the falling rocks as they smashed against the ground. I held my left hand firmly to my mouth and tried to breathe through my nose. Not that it helped; my throat and nostrils burned regardless. My legs felt heavy as I pressed my back firmly against the wall, attempting to stay upright.

The entire corridor shook.

A roar echoed within the confined space, followed by the sound of splashing water.

“Any luck?” I gasped, trying not to pull any more smoke into my lungs. Each coughing fit just hurt my ribcage even more.

Arms wrapped around me, and I found myself being lifted off the ground.

The heat of the small corridor got swept away within an instant and cool air embraced me. Sharp movements jerked me from side to side as the sound of heavy footfalls, soft panting, and water echoed around me in the moist cavern. Brendan’s scent invaded my nose, cancelling out the taste of ash on my tongue as I sucked in a lungful of cold, smoke-free air and choked my guts up.

His grip tightened as his large body bounced quickly through the cold and damp cave. His fur rubbed against my cheek as the night’s breeze wrapped around us.