The War for Survival (Survivors #2)

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

-Erika

I'm running. As fast as I can but it never seems fast enough.

The vampire who turned Jakob is after me and Alec but we were seperated.

I'm running through the snowy woods, until I finally break free of the woods and out into the road. A van comes to a screeching halt and Mason sticks his head out the window. "Get in!"

I run around to the back and swing the door open. "Alec!" I jump in, closing the door behind me and hugging him.

"I got away." He smiles and hugs me. Jared sits in the passenger seat, navigating our way through the mountains.

The van slides and Alec covers me as we flip. The back doors burst open and his arms disappear from me.

And I wake up alone. Mason and Jared abandoned me, Alec flew out, and I'm all alone. I crawl out and find Alec in the ditch. "Alec!"

"Who the hell are you??" He pushes me off of him.

I look down at his shirt as blood stains it in the shape of claw marks from his shoulder, down his chest. "Alec?? No! Stay with me!" Blood coats the ground all around us and his eyes close. My heart shatters and I cry out, "Nooo!"

"J-Jakob," I turn around to see the vampire again. But he's not alone. There's 3 others with him.

They all lunge at me, their claws tearing my flesh and their teeth sinking into my body. I scream and scream but no one comes and Alec's gone. So I just scream and scream and scream...

**

"Erika! Wake up!" Alec shouts and shakes my shoulders.

I snap awake and jolt up in the bed, my body shaking and my lungs gasping for air as if I haven't been breathing. My hands shake around the covers I use to cover my naked body.

Alec's arms wrap tightly around me and pull me against him. "Erika, what was that?"

"Like a nightmare.. on steroids," I wipe my tears away and turn to hug him tightly. The thought of him dying still haunts me and I need my arms around him right now. "The.. the vampire that turned Jakob was chasing after us and we were seperated. I was running in the woods when I finally reached the road. Mason, Jared, and you, were all in the van already..," his muscles twitch as if he just became on edge. He reaches up and strokes my hair to help soothe the tremors still wracking my body. "I climbed in and we sped off and then slid.. we flipped just like we did in the actual crash," I start to sob. "When I woke up, Mason and Jared had left me like when Mason and the group retreated the day I was attacked.. I searched for you and you didn't remember me again," a sob escapes my lips and I have to pause before continuing, "but that wasn't the worst of it. A vampire clawed you.. here," I press my hand against the scars on his bare chest. "And you bled out.. The vampire that turned Jakob had came but he wasn't alone. He was with the 3 vampires that attacked me and almost killed me in the city.." I sob and barry my head in the crook of his neck. "Everything thats happened.. Every nightmare of my life, all wrapped up into a huge night terror that I couldn't escape from. It was so real.. the pain of losing you.. It was so real.." I sob again and his grip around me tightens.

"Shh.. Its over now. I wont let that happen.." His head rests on mine and I begin to relax some. "Erika, I love you and I will die before I let anything happen to you, or before letting anything try and tear us apart. I can't go on without you, I've seen it first hand when you went to New York. And you can't function without me, we've seen that little reaction in the lab." I giggle and he smiles. "So don't be scared. I will always protect you.." He kisses my head and I nod.

We lay back down in bed and he holds me until I fall back asleep.

-------------

I stare at the blank, white board spreading across the lab wall. I tap my marker on the table, thinking and listening to the music in the background. The sweet sound of the song With Me by Sum 41 plays on the stereo.

'Cause I bleed my heart out to show,
And I wont let go..

"Anything yet?" Alec sits in the desk chair, leaned back and spinning out of boredom.

"Asking me every five minutes isn't helping." I snap the cap on and off my marker over and over again, trying to come up with a solution for the cure.

My mind searches and searches for answers as I think. "I got it!" I start writing out all of the pieces I already had and then I finish it off. "C2952 H4664 O832 N812 S8 Fe4.. blood. Human blood. That's it! That's the last thing needed! Thank you Sum 41!" I practically bounce up and down with joy.

Alec jumps up from the chair and steps back to look at it all. "Holy shit.. This is what you've done for the past 7 years? I would've ran too.." He shakes his head and I smile. "I knew you could do it," he kisses my cheek.

"Now I just have to create it and test it."

"It'll work this time."

"How do you know?"

"Because you're Erika DelliBovi..well for now," he winks, "and you're an absolute genius. And you've pretty much tried everything else you could think of so its not like there's much left to try, right?"

I shake my head. "You failed science didn't you?"

"D is passing!" I laugh and he smiles. "Either way, I know it'll work because I believe in you. Now get to work," he smacks my butt and I jump. He laughs as I swat at his arm playfully.

"Fine. Сидите в углу и выглядите красиво, это то, что вы делаете лучше всего." Sit in the corner and look pretty, its what you do best.

"Ты думаешь, я красивая?" You think I'm pretty?

***

"I said shh! Мужчины. Никогда не знаешь, когда стоять и просто выглядеть красиво и заткнуться." 'Men. Never know when to stand there and look pretty and just shut up.'

"Ты думаешь, я красивая?" 'You think I'm pretty?' He laughs and crosses his arms over his chest.

I roll my eyes and wave him off. Damn Russians.

The sweet memory causes me to smile and I turn to him. "You said that the day we first met."

He smiles and wraps his arms around my waist. "I did. If I recall correctly you told me to stand and look pretty and shut up... And you called us dumb jocks."

Laughing, I wrap my arms around his neck. "Well, Mr. D in science, you have lived up to that title."

"I'll show you Mr. D," he winks and I giggle. "But not until you make the cure."

"You know it could take awhile, I don't think you could make it."

"Guess we'll just have to see, wont we?"