Текст книги " Taken Over "
Автор книги: Erika Stevens
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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
My release came so suddenly that I didn’t even recognize it for what it was, even as I tumbled back. Normal feeling and sound came rushing back to me as I bounced off the road, bruising my elbows and tailbone. The hard, unforgiving asphalt felt like a cushion of bliss after what I had just experienced. The hard pop of guns slammed into my ears, causing me to wince in pain as normal sound blazed back into my tortured ears. I gasped, rolled over, tried to get up but found that my weak, wobbly legs would not support my weight.
“Grab her!” I heard Lloyd shout over the raining clatter of gunfire.
Hands ensnared my good arm; the other one hung uselessly against my side. “I’m sorry about this.”
Before I could question what Bret was sorry for, he heaved me up and tossed me over his shoulder. I groaned as my wounded shoulder protested the movement, but even this small measure of pain was nothing compared to what I had just gone through. I bit my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, but I did not wince at the sharp, fleeting sting. Bret broke into a brisk jog as he hurried down the street with me.
“The gunfire will draw them here. We need to get away. Now,” Lloyd commanded hurriedly.
I could not see him as I bounced against Bret’s back, but his boots came momentarily into view as he crossed the road behind Bret. I could feel pain, normal pain, stealing through my body. My shoulder ached; there was blood seeping down my arm. I knew that it was dripping off of me, but I couldn’t see it landing on the dark street. The shock was slowly wearing off and I was beginning to realize that I was now a huge liability to them.
Not only was I dead weight, but I was also easily tracked.
“Bret put me down,” I managed to mutter through the bouncing impact of every step he made as we plummeted into the woods. “Bret…”
“You can’t walk.”
“I’m bleeding all over the place, they’ll find us.”
Lloyd’s boots reappeared beneath my bouncing head. I could barely see through the jarring impact that every step caused. “Stop,” Lloyd commanded. I felt his hands upon me as he helped to lift me from Bret’s back. “We have to staunch the wound.”
I felt slightly dizzy, and a little woozy, as they lowered me to the ground. Jenna was staring in wide eyed horror as Lloyd pulled the sleeve of my shirt down, baring my collarbone. I strained to see the wound, and then wished that I hadn’t. It was a disgusting, gaping mess of mottled flesh, bone, and blood. Even in the dark I could see the bruising that marred my skin and was spreading across my chest and down my arm. My veins were clearly visible against my unnaturally pale skin.
“The shoulder’s dislocated,” Lloyd mumbled. “We have to get it back into place before we can cauterize the wound.”
“Before we what?” Bret demanded as my mouth dropped in horror.
I wanted to squirm away from them, wanted to pull out of their hold but my strength was waning, my head was spinning, and I wasn’t sure I had the strength to fight off a gnat right now. Lloyd gave Bret a fierce look before shaking his head slightly. “It’s the only way,” he muttered.
“Stitches…”
“Do you have a needle and thread?” Lloyd demanded fiercely. His jaw was clenched tight, it was obvious that he did not want to do this either, but he wouldbe the one.
“What about infection, pain.”
“Penicillin…”
“Allergic,” I managed to grate out between my suddenly chattering teeth.
“Good to know.” Lloyd dug into his pack, rooting around as he searched for something. “We’ll find something for you, but we can’t wait to stitch it. They’ll track that blood…”
“I know.” I was trying to sound brave, but my weak tone and trembling body gave me away. “Fine.” I swallowed heavily trying to wet my parched throat. “I’ll be fine.”
“Are you cold?” Jenna demanded, kneeling by my side.
“She’s in shock.” Lloyd turned back to me, and though his face was hard there was kindness and worry in his sky colored eyes. “And if we don’t stop the flow…”
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Jenna gushed. “You told me, you alltold me, but he just looked so real, so helpless. I really am sorry Bethy, if I had known…”
“It’s ok,” I chattered out unable to stand her guilt. “Not your fault.”
“But it is!” she gushed leaning closer to me.
“You have to move back.” Lloyd shouldered Jenna out of the way as he knelt before me. “Bite on this.” Before I could react he shoved a rag into my mouth. I choked in surprise and tried to spit it out but he held it firmly in place. “This is going to hurt and you can n otscream. The scent of your blood is already a big enough draw without adding to it. Bite Bethany.”
After what I had just experienced, with that thing ,I was fairly certain that nothing could truly hurt again. But to be fair, if I had been able to scream when it had a hold of me, I would have shredded my vocal cords with my agony. I didn’t know if I could keep back a cry of pain now. I stopped fighting against the gag, closed my eyes and bit down hard as Lloyd seized hold of my wounded shoulder.
“What are you…?”
Bret’s question was cut off as Lloyd jerked sharply on my shoulder. A loud snap, much like a bat hitting a ball, split the air as my shoulder was wrenched painfully back into place. I cried out against the gag, unable to keep the sound suppressed. Thankfully, the gag did. A wave of blackness washed over me, nausea surged up my throat as I teetered on the edge of passing out.
“Some warning would have been nice,” Bret snarled.
“There is no time for niceties.” My eyes rolled slightly, I wanted the foul tasting gag out of my mouth, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not yet anyway. Lloyd was kneeling before me. “The shirt has to come off.”
My eyes widened, the last thing I was going to be able to do was lift my arm at this moment. Bret started to protest as Lloyd brandished a knife and slit the front of my shirt deftly open. Bret’s face flamed red as he turned hastily away, but Lloyd remained analytical and distant as he tugged the tattered remains of clothing from my wounded and beaten body.
There was a time when I would have been just as red as Bret, but not anymore. Now I didn’t care that the only thing covering me was a bra, a bra that was white, tattered, and dirty. Modesty was something I didn’t give much thought to anymore, and though I wasn’t about to go wandering around nude, this bit of skin wasn’t going to affect me even a little.
Lloyd’s hand rested on my good shoulder, his gaze was intent on me. I blinked as I tried to bring his face into focus. “This is going to hurt Bethany.” I nodded, had anything felt good in the past half an hour? I was certain that I could take this, certain that I could take anything after what that thinghad inflicted upon me. “Scream if you need to.”
My eyes widened as Lloyd turned away and pulled a long lighter from his bag. “What are you doing?” Jenna asked tremulously.
Lloyd didn’t answer her as he tugged his belt off. I watched in wide eyed horror as he dug a small hole underneath a stone and built a quick fire beneath it. The stone blocked the flame from above and helped to keep the smoke from rising. When the flame was a decent enough size and glowing red with heat, Lloyd placed the large belt buckle into the fire. The buckle was square and flat, but I was fairly sure that I had once seen a horse engraved upon the front of it. I was about to be branded by a freaking belt buckle, and tattooed with a horse. Or at least I hoped it was a horse, it may have been a camel for all I knew I had only glimpsed it once.
“Your belt buckle?” Bret demanded incredulously.
“Do you have anything else that’s metal and big enough to get that wound all at once, or do you just want me to hold the lighter to her skin for awhile?”
All color vanished from Bret’s face; he looked like he was going to be sick as he looked back at me. For a brief moment I wanted to stand up and run. Wanted to spit out the gag and flee screaming into the woods. How had my life become this? All the technology and advancements I had grown up with were gone, and I was about to receive a medieval cauterization in the middle of the twenty first century. With a freaking belt buckleof all things! It all seemed so impossible, so surreal, and wrong. If it wasn’t for the three people sitting around me, and the trail of blood I was leaving behind, I would have run. There was only so much a human being could take after all, and I was rapidly nearing my snapping point. But to run now was certain death. This had to happen or I would be hunted down and captured before I could even make it a full mile.
A small trail of black smoke began to come off the belt buckle. It was taking on an ominous orange and glowing hue that caused bile to roll up my throat. Lloyd slipped his shirt off and wrapped it around his hand. It took me a moment to realize that he was going to grab hold of that buckle and press it to me. Dismay filled me as I realized this was going to burn him too, maybe not as bad, but he was going to be hurt. I closed my eyes, I couldn’t watch anymore.
“I’m going to need you to hold her.” There was no saliva left in my mouth as I tried to wet my parched throat. Bret’s hands were gentle as he grasped my good shoulder. “Not like a baby Bret, I’m going to need you to hold her still,” Lloyd said impatiently.
I didn’t open my eyes, I refused to, but I knew the minute that the metal pressed against my skin. A garbled scream boiled up my throat, and froze there. The smell, and sound of sizzling flesh, reached me moments before I passed out.
CHAP TER 8
It was nearing dawn when I awoke to a bouncing swaying motion that caused my stomach to heave violently. There were hands holding my calves, and another set grasping me gently under my armpits. “You can put me down,” I managed to croak out, surprised by how dry and wounded my voice sounded.
“You’re awake.” The relief in Bret’s voice was palpable as his hands tightened upon me. I felt him bend over me as they stopped; his breath blew against my cheek. My eyelids fluttered open. It was momentarily disconcerting, and dizzying, as Bret appeared upside down over top of me. “I was so worried.”
“Please put me down.”
They had stopped walking, but now Lloyd gently lowered my feet to the ground as Bret supported me for a long moment. I took stock of myself, acknowledging all of the aches and pains in my overused, overworked, and beaten body. I took in the throbbing pain of the burn high on my shoulder. An ugly, large blister had formed over it. I couldn’t quite tell if it would eventually become a horse, or some other four legged creature yet. My entire shoulder was an ugly mottled color of black and purple, but it was no longer bleeding. The blood had been scrubbed from my body; I hated the fact that they had probably used some of our precious supply of water to do this. Someone, probably Bret as it seemed extra large, had taken a shirt and wrapped it around my chest. It was tied under my arms and knotted in the back by the sleeves.
“I was so worried.”
Before I could react, before I even knew his intent, he bent and kissed me. I was so stunned, so startled by the familiar comfort of his lips against mine that for a moment I didn’t react. For a moment I was swept into a time when everything had been boring, safe, and secure. I was swept into a time when I had been with Bret and content to stay that way, even with the lack of feeling and desire I had felt for him. I had been willing to stay with Bret simply because I didlove him and I cherished his friendship, even if he didn’t cause my heart to race, didn’t strengthen me, and love me unconditionally, and simply hadn’t made me feel the way that Cade had. His kiss swept me into a time before I had experienced the loss of everything I knew.
A time before Cade, and the hole his death had left upon my tattered soul.
I wanted to stay this way, wanted to forget and go back and never return to the stark reality of my loneliness and this cruel world. Never return to the pain that hounded me constantly, even before the brutal assault I had just endured. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to any of us if I did.
I pulled away, barely able to meet Bret’s hopeful gaze as I shook my head at him. There was so much I wanted to say to him, but the words caught in my throat. What could I say? I turned away from him and took a staggering step back. I felt weak, unsteady, but I was alive and that was all that mattered.
“Where are we?” I asked quietly.
“Almost to the hospital.” I turned to Lloyd, my mouth parting in surprise. He looked exhausted. Dirt and blood streaked his pale face; his nearly orange hair was standing on end. It was apparent that they hadn’t stopped to rest.
“You need a break,” I said softly.
“We need to get to the hospital first. You need antibiotics, and we need to get this over and done with. There will be time to rest afterward.”
“If you drop…”
“We’ve made it this far.” It was the first time I noticed that Jenna was carrying my bag and gun. “It’s not much further.”
“I was out for a long time,” I mumbled.
“You lost a lot of blood.”
I nodded absently as I gazed around the forest. It was thicker through here; there were more maples and oaks dotting the landscape. Even with the denser protection, I somehow felt even more exposed. Maybe it was because I was wounded, maybe it was because I had a shirt tied around me for clothing, or maybe it was simply because I resented my weakness. Or maybe it was my selfish need for some kind of comfort in this hostile environment, even if it was from Bret.
“It’s only another mile.”
Lloyd was already walking again; I fell into step beside Jenna, staying close by her side as I avoided Bret. I cursed my cowardice, but I needed to avoid him right now. Jenna glanced at me, looking as if she wanted to say something, but she remained silent. Barney returned to my side, brushing against my legs as he danced around me.
We reached a small incline and climbed to the top of the hill. Beneath us the hospital spread out like some glittering mirage in the desert. The windows were alight in the gleam of the setting sun. It was oddly beautiful, and out of place, in the world surrounding us now. Jenna inhaled sharply; she grasped hold of my arm, her eyes gleaming with the light around us.
“I didn’t think we’d make it,” she breathed.
I squeezed her hand gently. I didn’t think any of us had thought we’d actually make it, but here we were, and there itwas. And I was terrified.
I was suddenly certain that something else was going to go wrong, something far worse than the brutal assault, recently dislocated shoulder, and ugly blister I had recently endured. The three people with me seemed to feel the same as no one moved. They simply stared at the assortment of beautifully shining medical buildings.
“Should we wait till dark?” I asked quietly.
“I don’t think it matters,” Lloyd answered.
“I just want to get this over with,” Jenna breathed. “We’ve come so far.”
I swallowed heavily and managed a small nod. “Yes, we have.”
Lloyd began to make his way slowly down the hill. Bret and Jenna followed him; I reluctantly took up the rear. My gun was strapped around me again, but the weight I had once found reassuring now seemed like a mere toy. I had seen what those things could do, I had feltthe pain they were capable of inflicting. A pain that I could still feel tingling through the very marrow of my bones, a pain I knew I would never forget. It was not like having a sprained ankle or broken bone, or even a torn ligament, it was a memory that would not fade with time and would haunt me for the rest of my days.
No wonder that man Cade and I had seen on the street (the only we know to have been unfrozen), had been awakened by the brutal assault that the creature had inflicted upon it. Cade had attempted to awaken Peter, his old boss, by burning him, but it had failed. I understood why now. The brand I sported on my shoulder was nothing compared to the lingering pain from when that thing had forced its way into my body. The people were frozen, completely immobile to us, but that kind of pain was something that we could never manage to inflict no matter how hard we tried. Of that I was certain.
What I wasn’t certain of was whether The Frozen Ones were dead or not. The man that had reawakened was proof that they had originally been alive, trapped within their own bodies, but that had been over a month ago. They may still be frozen, immobile statues, but they had to be dead by now. Didn’t they? They hadn’t eaten, hadn’t gone to the bathroom; hadn’t even breathed in so long. But could they somehow still be alive? Possibly even aware of their surroundings?
I shuddered at the thought; goose bumps broke out on my flesh. For a moment the world lurched and swayed, my stomach heaved violently at the thought of being trapped like that. It was the worst thing I could ever imagine happening to me. The endless torture they were enduring if they were aware of their surroundings. I’d rather be dead.
I didn’t want to die.
The thought slammed into me. For the first time I realized that it was completely true. I had been going through the motions, surviving because it was expected, hoping because there had been hope to have, but all the while there had been a deadened hole inside of me. There had been an emptiness that kept me teetering on the edge of a dark precipice. The hole, the emptiness would always be there, I knew that. But I wanted to live, I wanted to survive. I wasn’t ready for this to be the end and I was very afraid of what the hospital held for us. I should be elated we had reached our goal, I was nearly certain that we wouldn’t be leaving the building.
Tears burned my eyes and throat; I kept my head bowed as I watched every step I took carefully. I didn’t realize we had made it to the bottom of the hill until the ground leveled out before me. The day was growing steadily darker. Lloyd stopped to survey the buildings, his eyes narrowed as he knelt to rest one hand upon the ground.
“Does anyone know the layout?”
“I’ve been here once before, when my mom’s friend had a baby. If you want to know where the maternity ward is, I’m your guy.”
Lloyd scowled at Bret before turning his attention back to the hospital. “Bishop said that the pathology and laboratory departments were where we would find the things we need. They’re probably located in the main building, basement. Hopefully,” I added.
“Now that is useful info,” Lloyd muttered.
We slipped silently through the darkening day, hurrying through the deepening shadows as we stayed low and scurried across the ground. Lloyd reached the doors first. He didn’t hesitate, as I would have, before plunging into the dark interior. Bret followed swiftly behind but Jenna balked slightly before disappearing after them.
I took a deep breath and plunged forward, half afraid that something was going to snag me as soon as I stepped inside. Instead, I entered a world of utter chaos and destruction. I skid to a halt behind Bret; the squeak of my sneakers on the linoleum floor as loud as a gunshot in the eerily silent hall. I winced involuntarily, bracing myself for something to come rushing at us out of the dark. Nothing moved, nothing stirred; there was nothing left to make a sound.
“What the hell?” Jenna whispered.
The hall was a mess. There didn’t appear to be one inch of floor that wasn’t littered with some type of debris. Papers, medical tools, clothes, blankets, mattresses, pillows, and so many other numerous things covered the floor that it was hard to differentiate one from another. It looked as if a bomb had gone off, but I knew it was something far worse and far more sinister.
“My God,” Jenna breathed her hand flying to her mouth as she came to the same sickening realization that I just had.
It wasn’t a bomb that had gone off in here, but a feeding frenzy that had left the halls devoid of any life, devoid of any hope.
“Let’s get this over with, quickly.” Lloyd’s words made sense, but no one moved.
I didn’t want to move through the blood that splattered the walls and floor, didn’t want to pick my way through the discarded clothing; didn’t want to touch the remnants of the dead. I wanted to close my eyes and block out everything before me, but it was now seared permanently into my mind. I did not want to hear the resounding screams that had once filled this hall, but they echoed through my mind. I was shaking as I took a step back. The blood, the horror, the massacre that had occurred here nearly drove me to my knees beneath the crushing weight of despair that was trying to consume me.
The pain. Remnants of it lingered on the blood streaked walls. Remnants of it pulsed with an answering rhythm in the very marrow of my bones. The horrendous agony of what these people had experienced would forever be absorbed into the sterile white walls of this institution. The place felt haunted, as if the lost souls were trapped here. Forever ensnared within the last horrifying moments of their lives. I could feel their lost souls brushing against me; feel their misery and torment as they remained caged within this awful place. For eternity. They’d had no chance, no hope of escaping. Whatever had swept through here had been rapid and it had been devastating. And it had relished in hurting them.
Almost as bad as the lingering agony, and lost souls, was the smell. The copper tang of blood filled the hall; it was potent within my nostrils and on my tongue. There was something rotting somewhere, multiple something’s probably, multiple things that I did notwant to see. Jenna was so pale that the blue veins in her eyelids were sharply visible. Her lips were nearly the same color as her face as they trembled; her eyes were filled with unshed tears.
Lloyd had started to move, but his steps were hesitant, weary. Bret followed behind but Jenna and I hung back for a moment. We had not come through the front door; these rooms all belonged to patients. These doors held endless possibilities, and none of them were good. It was like a funhouse, but this one was full of horrors straight from hell.
Slowly we began to follow Bret and Lloyd down the hall. I tried to keep my gaze focused ahead, but every once in awhile it would stray into one of the rooms. So far they all appeared empty, devoid of all human remains, but judging by the increasing rancid smell I didn’t think it was going to stay that way. The three of them were lucky enough to be able to pull their shirts up over their noses, I wasn’t so lucky. I knew I sure as hell didn’t smell good right now, but I definitely smelled better than this damn place and I definitely preferred my own odor over the hospitals right now.
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Jenna whispered.
“There’s no going back now.”
Bret’s tone of voice was far harsher than normal, tension radiated off of him; there was a bleakness in his eyes that I despised. Jenna recoiled slightly, wounded by his cold attitude and demeanor. I wanted to reach out to her, to soothe her, but I could barely keep the gun in my shaking hand let alone comfort someone. A strange buzzing reached my ears; I frowned as Lloyd stopped suddenly. His face turned three shades of green as he gaped into the room on his right. His hand trembled as he reached forward and pulled the door shut. I was grateful for that; I didn’t want to see what was in that room as I now understood the source of the buzzing.
Flies.
“Please don’t let us find the maternity ward,” Jenna whispered.
Bile rose up my throat; I gagged softly but somehow managed to keep it suppressed. My hands were shaking. My palms were so sweaty that I was beginning to fear I would not be able to keep hold of my gun if something didattack us. The thought of stumbling across innocent babies was atrocious; I wouldn’t be able to handle it. For the first time I realized that there were children out there, completely defenseless children that had died when The Freezing had occurred, and not all of their deaths had resulted at the hands of the aliens. Some of them had occurred because there had been no one left to care for them, no one left to feed, bathe, and change them. They had been alone, frightened, and unable to defend themselves against the monsters that had taken our world from us.
A sob lodged in my throat, I blinked back the tears that clogged my eyes. I hadn’t thought of the defenseless before. There hadn’t been time through the all consuming need to survive. There hadn’t been time through my own grief and loss. Now, I could not shake the thought, or the fury that came boiling up with it. The aliens would be made to pay, one way or another, I would help find a way to make them pay for everything they’d done, and everyone they’d hurt.
I just didn’t know how, or where, to start. As long as we stayed alive there was always hope, always a chance that we would one day destroy them as surely as they were destroying us. We just couldn’t let them succeed first.
Lloyd took a turn in the hall, going in low and fast as he moved swiftly to the other side. He nodded to Bret before sweeping further down the hall. We moved more rapidly through the hospital, driven swiftly on by the hollow emptiness and desolation surrounding us.
The pharmacy was the first thing we came across. The door was open, not because it had been left that way, but because it had been bent in, bowed at the bottom and then ripped upward. The metal frame of the door had been ripped half off, it hung at an angle to the floor. Lloyd pocketed his gun to pull his pack from his back and swing it forward. He held it against his chest as he crawled under the twisted metal remains.
“Grab as many essentials as you can,” he commanded as we followed him into the large room.
Shelves lined the room, dividing it into different sections and blocking Lloyd as he disappeared into the back. Some of the shelves had been knocked over, broken bottles and discarded pills littered the floor. I grit my jaw as pills crunched and snapped softly beneath my feet. I knew that the crunching wasn’t that loud but it seemed as loud as gunshots to me in the hushed building. I searched the shelves but they had already been picked over, either by other survivors, or stripped on purpose by the aliens. Then again the aliens had brought life saving, advanced medicine, with them upon arrival. For all I knew we had stopped making any drugs that could have helped us months ago in favor of what the aliens had to offer us. Fury simmered through me at the sheer ignorance and stupidity we had shown by believing the line of crap they had fed us.
It had gotten us nothing but heartache and death.
I ignored the white tennis shoe lying on the ground, struggling not to think about the person that had left it behind as I moved past the row of antacids. I supposed heartburn sucked, but it wasn’t on my list of priorities for lifesaving necessities. Neither were birth control pills or prescription vitamins.
“Here.”
I caught the bottle Lloyd tossed at me and turned it over in my hand to read the label. Doxycycline. I nodded as I twisted the top off and dry swallowed one of them. I hoped it was enough to fight off whatever microbes might be multiplying in my body right now due to that hideous thing. There was no way to know what kind of germs those things might be carrying with them. The label said to only take one, but I decided to take another. I was probably going to want some of those antacids afterwards, but I didn’t care I wanted whatever germs might be lurking within me dead.
I was frightened that even now there might be something taking up residence in my body, changing me, or even destroying me. Perhaps eating me from the inside out. I had seen the Alien movies, and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, far too often for me not to have all kinds of frightening and creepy thoughts. I shuddered, and though I knew it wasn’t a good idea, I took a third pill before capping the bottle.
I stuffed some extra strength Tylenol and Ibuprofen into my bag but all of the harder painkillers were gone. I found five boxes of antibiotic cream. I eagerly opened one, bracing myself for the sting as I gently wiped it over my heated and bubbled flesh. My breath hissed out of me, my teeth grated sharply together, but I fully intended to keep dousing my shoulder with the crap if it would help kill off anything that creature had left on me. I hoped someone found some burn cream somewhere; it would be nice to have something that soothed the fierce sting of my tortured skin.
I shoved the rest into my bag and took a deep breath as I zipped it closed. Everything seemed to be going too fast, too rapidly. I felt as if I hadn’t had a chance to just stop and think since we had set out on this mission. But then, what was I going to think about? My father, my mother, Cade, the lost children? Abby and Aiden? Was I going to drive myself crazy with worry about them?
It was better not to think, but it was also exhausting. There were so many suppressed emotions roiling around within me that I could barely breathe sometimes. There was so much pain and loss lingering within me that there were times I wasn’t sure I could go on. And in this moment, at this time, I was trapped within that feeling.
It hit me out of nowhere, the weight of my grief rolled up to bury me within its cloak of oppression and pain. Though I tried to stop it, the sudden longing for Cade surged up out of nowhere. It rose up like a tsunami, towering above me for a moment before crashing down and burying me within its crushing depths. Pain choked my lungs and throat as surely as ocean water would have choked me. My hands fisted tight, I inhaled a shaky breath as I struggled to reign in the crushing agony trying to consume me.
