The Last Winter

Saturday: One of Them (31)

Nelia
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When Maggie sees Oriana, her eyes go big and she throws her arms out wide to hug her.

"Oreo Senpai!" she cries out in her strange high-pitched voice.

Oriana let's out something between a gasp and a grunt as she's squeezed tight by her best friend.

Veronica peels herself from the corner of the room. There's dried blood caking the side of her face. She staggers past Michal, who's still trying to piece together what just happened. The antique pistol is limp by his side, shaking in his trembling hand. His clothes are ripped and torn by distinct claw marks. Fresh blood drips down the side of his leg.

"Senpai, you're hurt," Maggie says in concern.

No one comes to greet me. Rather, I watch Veronica as she sinks to her knees in the middle of the room, reaching out to gingerly touch a strand of blonde hair attached to a disfigured head.

"Oh my God," I whisper, covering my nose with the crook of my arm.

The stench of burning skin fills the air from the dead howler, but there's another sickening smell that drenches the room in death: rotting corpses.

Something crunches under my foot, and I glance down to see that I've stepped on a long, thin bone lying on the floor.

Vena's not the only dead body in here. There's a heap of figures that have been thrown carelessly across the floor. Though there are bones that litter the place, these bodies are fresh.

Ralph. Isabella. Eddie. Dallas. Della--not Della!

They're all as pale as ghosts, all mutilated in some shape or form--throats slashed, stomachs ripped open, arms severed. Various body parts are also thrown into the mess--Cameron's remains, or other nameless victims, perhaps, God forbid it be Jacob.

There is a faraway high-pitched shriek, an animalistic sound that echoes down the halls of the sanitarium.

"We need to leave," Terrell says quickly, rushing over to the double doors of the chapel. He closes them abruptly and sweeps the room we're in with a fast glance. "It was a mistake coming here," he adds quietly.

"Do you think those--those things dragged everyone here to this room?" Nolan asks, his voice trembling.

Terrell thinks on this for a moment, then he shakes his head. "No, I don't think so. Howlers...well, they don't do things like this. They don't save a meal for later."

He marches across the room, careful to not step on anything he didn't want to touch. He pokes his head out of the opposite exit, a large hall that we crossed to get here. The front entrance is not far on the other side.

"We can't go back outside," I tell him quickly. "At least in here, we have a roof over our head. Out there--there's nowhere to hide."

He shakes his head knowingly. "No," he says quietly. "We only need to hold out a little longer. As soon as the sun comes up, the howlers will crawl back underground to escape the light--the mines. They like the sewers too." He pauses for a moment, then adds, "The howlers should honestly be starting to retreat now. I think the smell of...everyone in here is drawing them out, keeping them from returning underground so close to dawn."

"Oreo?" Maggie whispers anxiously. "Are you okay?"

I turn to look toward my sister, who's hunching against the wall with her head down low. With a violent jerk that shakes her whole body, she bursts into a fit of coughs that almost sounds like she wants to vomit.