Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 127

BREN

"Help me close the damn door!" Peter exclaimed, shutting the doors down.

Alfie closed the other side of the double doors while I scrambled to find something to jam the doorway with. I found a pipe and slipped it through the handlebars. Those vectors wouldn't be able to open it even if they had the strength to push doors with their tiny bodies.

If they can burst through an air vent, they can probably open doors, I thought.

Indy kept barking at the door. "Indy, be quiet," I said, petting around his scruff, trying to calm him down.

I looked around, and everyone was accounted for, well, except for Monica and Isaacs.

"What the fuck was that!" Edgar screeched. "What in the fuck were those things?"

Marie cried, "We left Monica! We should go back!"

Paloma pulled Marie into her embrace. "Calm down, Marie, we can't do anything for her. She was surrounded...we were surrounded by those things. There's nothing we can do," Paloma said, and Marie cried harder on her chest.

"Those were freaking babies!" Aubrey said while trying to shush her daughters from crying too loudly.

"What now? What should we do?" Aria asked me.

The map! "Isaacs has the map."

"What?"

"He has the fucking map. We left it!"

Shit, shit, shit, shit...

Yousef groaned loudly. "Now, what are we really going to do?"

"We keep moving," Logan said, looking at me for confirmation. "We keep moving and keep those things as far away from us as possible. Make sure none of us got bit, okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. We keep moving. This ward looks clear, so at least we're safe for now."

"Not with a honcho running around. Did he controlled those babies?" Deon said.

"How are we going to find the stairwell without a map, much less a guide into the sewers? We lost our damn guide!" Peter said.

Everyone looked at me.

I tried to compose myself. Now more than ever, I shouldn't lose it. This is so fucked up! "Well...the sewers follow the roads, right? Manholes and stuff, anything that can be easily accessed for maintenance workers to enter the tunnels. The hospital's sewer entrance should be at least two thousand feet from the pumping station as long as we keep in line to the riverfront park, well, until we get past under the soldiers guarding the ramps to the bridge."

Peter scoffed. "How are we going to see the park when we're underneath it?"

"There should be signs. As I said, sewer lines usually run parallel with the road above, especially in downtown areas in most cities. It's the sewers, guys. It's dark, but I know the city doesn't want to get their workers lost down there, so I'm sure we can find our way out. So, let's find the stairs."

The doors rattled, and a few dozen crying babies screeched through the gap as if that would change our minds at unlocking the doors, trying to gain sympathy.

Bernadette, Marie, and Nico burst into tears while Russell kept shaking his head and muttered, "This is so messed up. This is so messed up."

Through the gaps, I could see the teeth growing on the babies' mouths, uneven, jagged as if hastily grown through its tiny jaw. Whatever this disease was, it was mutating them fast. They had thicker skin, and each varied in size, which I assumed was because of the age difference. I saw one who looked like a toddler. And they must have been growing those teeth and claws for a long time, meaning these babies had been infected for weeks, probably when this hospital was infested! How many people had this honcho ambushed? I shuddered to picture it.