Chapter 14: Complications

2.7K 213 62
                                    

Chapter 14: Complications

We had been walking for days. At least that's how it felt like as we traveled the sewers in silence. In reality, we had made it here a few hours before— I had lost the exact count. Yet none of my group seemed to want to stop yet. We had been putting as much distance between us and the manhole we squeezed from, which might have explained why even my good leg wanted to give out.

A couple of minutes more, and Hanz did the honor himself. "Okay, stop," he said, his voice echoing in the chamber.

All three of us stopped and looked at him.

"I'm tired," he said, shining his flashlight on the icky, grimy wall. "And starving. Come on, aren't you guys?"

I scowled at him. Only he would think of food at a time like this. Yet even my stomach growled at the suggestion. When had we eaten last, really?

Neil, who had been perusing the blueprint for the last few hours, folded it to accommodate Hanz's special remark. "I don't think it's time to stop yet," he said. "Audra?"

Audra's gaze went to me. "How's your leg holding up?" she asked. "Pax?"

I tilted my face to the wall, unspeaking.

Okay, that was a really awful answer. It was really bitchy of me. But could they blame me at all? I mean, really?

All I could think about while walking on this God-awful place were my parents, who we've left in the house. My parents who had no idea. My parents who were unsafe. What if something bad had happened to them already? I couldn't live it down.

Hanz took the single backpack he'd managed to salvage and dropped it on the ground, making me wince.

"I think it's safe for now," he said, starting to sit down. "Why?" He shook his head. "Well first, the tracers had no clue that we're down here, don't they? Second—" His eyes peered onto the darkness, squinted before turning back to us. "We would have heard anyone following us in the sewers by now, wouldn't we? I mean, it's been hours. The tracers would have been thorough."

He had a point. But Neil harrumphed anyway, tucking the now folded map, which he insisted on holding onto for the rest of the journey, behind his jeans where he thought it would be safe. "So what do we do?" he asked. "Just eat here and what?"

"Sleep," Audra proposed, sitting on the ground as well. "Let's be real, Neil. We can't go on walking forever. Not in this state."

I sat down in agreement. I was too damn tired to take even another step.

Neil, outnumbered, was the last to sit down, glanced at Hanz with mild irritation on his face. "Okay, fine," he groused. "You win. But what food do we have left? If we're being real here, do we even have any?"

All four of us pulled a face, Hanz, being the most obvious. "Err. . ." The guy reached out to the backpack, began to unzip it. The rest of us drew closer, curious. "We have. . . Some canned sausages." He took one out and put it on the floor. "More canned sausages. Some bottled water. . ." He began to dig deeper into the backpack, afterwards, started to groan out loud. "That's basically it. And a couple of batteries for our flashlights. What the hell should we do? Resurface?"

"Most likely," Audra said, the only one who looked calm in all of this.

She was the only one who wasn't fazed when Hanz said that we had only taken one bag with us in our rush too.

"But I will do it." Audra continued. "Come up there, I mean. The rest of you will need to stay here."

"Absolutely not." Neil refused. "It's too dangerous. Remember what I told you?"

The Lesbian Gene (Lesbian, Gay, GirlxGirl)Where stories live. Discover now