[Del]'s Diary

ENTRY EIGHTY

Everything I touch is covered in blood and I can’t stop shaking.

A man burst into my room today while I was asleep. I woke up to him grabbing me so I fought him back with everything I had. We struggled for some time in the dark because his hands were sweaty, so I kept slipping out of his grip. Finally, he pinned me down and smothered my mouth with his hand. I still feel where the point of his knee bruised into my thigh.

He grunted his hot breath into my ear, “We have NO TIME for this.” A deep breath, then, in a solid steady voice, “I’m going to let you go, and when you do, you either follow me to get the hell out of here, or you take your chances with Veil. Your choice.”

Then suddenly he slid off of me, and I could hear his footsteps trail away into the pitch black hallway. I felt excruciatingly terrified of the dark so I followed him. When I caught up, he put my arm in his and we stumbled through the blackness. I could hear pandemonium in the distance, and a low rumbling noise. The voices and shouting got louder, so the man pushed me through a door where it was even darker than before. I started to tremble and whimper and claw at myself. “Hold on, hold on,” he hushed, and he pulled out a lighter and flicked it open. My eyes steadied on the flame while he looked around the cramped supply closet (I assume by the looks of it). The man found what he was looking for and laid towels on the floor and crammed them where the door met the floor. Then he turned on a small portable light and shone it dimly in our faces. I could see his piercings reflect in the light.

I recognized his face but I can’t recollect from where. He seemed anxious, unnerved, but his first concern was to ask how I was. He told me his plan: how we’d wait until the coast was clear, and then make a break for it to the ‘lucky escape pod’ he had waiting out back.

“I sure hope you can swim,” he said. “We're taking a huge risk, but a chance like this doesn’t come by often. The bots will assume we’ve gone missing, or are dead. They’ll never even come looking. If we survive that is.”

We waited for a long time. Each time we thought the voices had subsided they reappeared. The low rumbling had escalated into a high-pitched howl, and I couldn’t hear myself think. The man kept glancing over at me. It seemed like he had a lot to say, but didn't know where to begin.

Finally, he swallowed and said, “You don’t remember me at all, do you?”

“Should I?” I asked.

“Nah. A girl like you wouldn’t remember a guy like me, even if you did remember.”

I’m not sure what he meant but I felt sad for him. And then I did something quite bizarre for a reason I can’t understand. I pointed towards his chest, and when he looked down at it, I took the side of my finger and flicked it along the underside of his nose.

We both smiled, and I thought he was pleased. I felt pleased too for some strange reason. He then said, it’s time to go and we left the room. For a long time, we walked, evading the voices. Finally, as we walked, we could see it get lighter and lighter ahead. The man picked up the pace.

“We’re almost there,” he said.

I stopped though. I wasn’t not sure if I wanted to continue. To leave. I’m supposed to be here. I deserve to be here. I have to pay the price.

“Come on,” he urged, but I froze and shook my head. He grabbed me by the hand and began to pull. I cried out, and then he wrapped his hot hands around my mouth again.

“What’s going on here,” a burly voice barked. We looked over at man dressed all in padded black. He held a rifle at us and crouched forward. Behind him, was a man dressed in a white lab coat with a silver fringe of hair around his head.

The man that held me straightened and coughed, “I’m escorting the patient—”

“No, you’re not,” the man in black replied and I heard a loud pop, and then a gush of blood splattered all over my face and torso. The man that had held me sank strangely to the floor. And I screamed, “No, no, no, no.” I don’t know why but I fell to the floor and clung onto him.

As they dragged me away from the man's body by my feet, I left a trail of his blood behind. Soon after, they shoved me in here, in the dark, where I just screamed and screamed and clawed.

Then the lights came back on and I found this book and a glass of water.