Blood of My Death

Blood of My Death: The Ancient Earthscrapper - Chapter Forty-Two

I woke up to Rachel waking me up. She was shaking me hard, yet I barely felt it at first. I was so wiped from the trauma we'd been in.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Better now, what about you?" Rachel asked.

"I'm better too now. Still kind of burning with a fever but not like before," I answered.

"My wounds have healed and so have yours," Rachel stated.

She was correct; my wounds had healed, leaving no scar.

"Let's use those bathrooms to clean ourselves up," Rachel suggested.

"Alright, good idea. I found us some clothes too," I added, standing up.

We both walked to the latrine. The showers were open with no curtains. It looked like Rachel had already checked to see if they worked as she undressed. She didn't take long to toss the sole piece of clothing on the floor. I took a moment to admire her body. Her body was so enticing to look at. She gave me this puzzled look before she helped me take off the dirty dress I wore.

"I thought you were over being shy in the bathroom?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, I am!" I stuttered while turning away, blushing.

"It's not like we haven't seen each other naked before," Rachel stated.

"I know you're right!" I said, feeling embarrassed.

I'm attracted to Diane and Rachel. I didn't want her to know. Not this soon yet, at least. As I didn't know how she would take that. She turned on the water, and we showered. We even had soap to wash with. 'Should we be using soap? Those beasts could inevitably discover us, even when we had been smothered in blood and sweat,' I thought. 'It didn't matter. II would not be foul-smelling around Rachel if I didn't have to.' We helped each other wash each other's bodies and hair. It was an everyday moment in a sea of chaos. These remain the times when I felt like I was ordinary. I wanted it to last longer. We had to find a way out of here. Rachel smelled so good. 'Why am I thinking about something like this at a time like this?' I wondered.

This happened every time I saw one of them naked. I couldn't keep this to myself forever. I wanted her to know, but fear was holding me back. 'What if I told her and something happened to her? What if I didn't tell her and something happened, anyway?' I thought. 'Once we find Kristen and Diane, I'll tell them. That was my plan.'

We finished up and washed the clothes we wore. They were slutty, but it was best to hold on to them for now. The jumpsuits I found were baggy and a welcome change to the skin-tight clothing we had to wear. There were boots I could put on. I had packed an extra set in the four backpacks I'd prepared, along with boots. Rachel had found a few flashlights, enough for two apiece, with a spare set of batteries. We had to make those last. I slung my backpack on with my weapon. I don't think the bullets will help against the creatures we encountered, but then again. These weren't for them. At some point, we'd run into people from DNA Labs. It's a good thing we had two others with us. Kristen and Diane would have weapons when we found them. Other than the rifles, we had a good size knife.

"Let's stay tethered for now," Rachel said, slinging the second backpack over her shoulder.

"Good idea," I said in agreement.

Together, we moved the bunk, blocking the door. Rachel cracked the door, checking the tunnel. She waited several minutes before signaling it was clear. The faint smell of wet dogs hung in the air.

"Let's see where this leads. If it's not good, we'll try the main tunnel again," I suggested.

I led the way, staying close to the wall with one hand touching it. I had a flashlight in my other hand that I had tied some spare rope we had to it and my arm. Silence was our friend for the next few hours. There wasn't much to say. Most of our focus was on our other senses. The space between working lights was getting longer. We passed many rooms like the one we stayed in. Some we explored for supplies. Nothing useful was in any of these rooms. This place must have been some mining operation with the military or some military we were not familiar with.