Away We Go

Ch. 2 - Kalea

I slowly opened the rusty moist trap that was leading somewhere below. I could hear quite a few people muttering to each other. The small entrance made a squeaking sound and all the murmuring ceased. My hand still on the handlebar, I remained paralyzed by fear, not knowing who or what was down there. My arm was shuddering, begging for some time to relax. It was getting heavier and heavier to grip, but I couldn’t let go. Gradually, the whispering started again and I took the opportunity to open the trap to its fullest, one millimeter at a time. I tried to crawl to the four-sided hole, but the lack of space made my bruised body throb and wounded. My breathing was getting faster and faster, panting for more oxygen. My head felt like it was being crushed a million times and the scratches all over my body were burning.

I reached the pocket of my backpack and released the latch with a hand. Click. My dirty hand searched around the pocket when it touched a hard and curved surface. I opened the lid and quickly popped a pill in my dehydrated mouth.

Plock…

Plock.

I slowly opened my eyes, but they shut back down. Sleep winning over me. ‘’Good,’’ I thought, before I slumbered.

Plock.

This time, I snapped my eyes open, reacting to the loud gunshot that had just been fired. Instinctively, I clutched my dagger, but there was no one in front of me nor behind. I was relieved, but my brain was still a little bit dizzy. Luckily, the pill worked and the headache was gone. Upon the realisation that the sound had been coming from ‘’downstairs’’, I pulled myself closer to the opening. I looked down, my eyes trying to adjust to the obscurity. I made out a young man behind an object. His clothes were ragged and one of his eye was patched. His nose appeared smashed and his only eye was filled with lost, like everybody else around. He seemed to have noticed me because his head tilted up but as soon as I heard the second gunshot, he retreated to his corner.

Plock.

I shifted my eyes towards a large figure. Widening my eyes, I realized that it was an exterminator. He had a big gasmask on his face and his body was covered with a thick impassable outfit. I know this because I tried throwing one of my knives on another exterminator before, but the blade bounced off his torso.

Plock.

He was now approaching the man I detected earlier. The young male looked back at me, feeling that the exterminator would come for him anytime soon. I moved my index and middle finger back and forth so he could see. ‘’Run,’’ it meant. He frowned and shook his head. His remaining eye was screaming for help and I couldn’t do anything about it. It’s the worst feeling in the world. Seeing someone so innocent getting hurt, and you don’t have any power on that. He must have been 16, the boy. He should have ran. The exterminator would be too surprised to shoot right away and in that darkness, he would have missed the teen for sure. I watched as the loud bang rang in my ears. Thomp. The sound of a body hitting the ground. You can never get used to that, even after almost 2 years.

Plock.

I watched the suited man steal away about 10 lives. Shot, after shot, after shot. I was waiting for the man to go away, so I could climb out of this passage and find food. But I knew that he wasn’t going anywhere before killing each person in this room. There were about 15 persons left, from what I could see. Then, the exterminator opened a recycle bin and I saw an old woman holding a baby in her scrawny arms. She pleaded for mercy, but that didn’t stop the shot that was fired a few seconds after. After each kill, the man chuckled, as if it was some sort of game.

He slowly strode towards something—I couldn’t really tell what it was, his steps echoing off the brick walls.

Plock.

‘’There you are!’’ he exclaimed, lifting his arms up in the air. He quickly crouched and pointed his gun on someone. I squinted my eyes and recognized the girl. Yes, it was her. Brown hair, her high cheekbones, the thin lips, it was all coming back. Of course her hair was now almost black with oil, her face tainted with mud and her lips cracked, but I still recognized her. I couldn’t put a name on her, but I had seen her before. Besides, it had been quite some time since I haven’t talked to anyone besides my sister, who was back at the shelter.

‘’Grace, run, I lo-‘’

Gunshot.

Thomp.

My hand clutched my mouth before a whimper could escape from my lips.

The water drops falling from the pipe sounded like a clock. And each time it hit the ground, another human was exterminated. Tick, tock. Are you next? Your time is running out.

Plock.

From the shadow emerged another girl, this time older. The man and the girl looked at each other, for what seemed like an eternity, as if they were talking telepathically. The beam of light emanating from the gun reflected her brown vengeful eyes.

Last words. The final moment and instant before death claims you. Those last words, that people will remember, because they reflect who you are. They speak the truth, because you have nothing else to loose.

‘’I pity you, you broken piece of-‘’

Gaby. The girl was Gaby and the one that died earlier had been her sister, Grace. In that moment, on that second, I threw my knife with all the strength and courage I had left and it landed straight on the back of the man’s neck, the only part that was exposed.

Plock.

But the man had fired an instant before I took his life away. I caught the sound of Gaby hitting the floor, thomp. She couldn’t be dead, I wouldn’t let her; all she asked for was to be saved. Her last request before our paths separated…

‘’Help me! Kalea, help me!’’, were her last words before she was taken away, days before this ugly and sick world our planet turned into. A world where the trees turned into black rotting logs, the grass burned from the intoxicated air, where the sun is rarely seen, and where the people always sleep, because dreams were better than the nightmare they existed in.