“Y’know,” Emma says, her voice echoing through the bunker. “They aren’t so scary like this.”

“Really?” I reply. “They are to me.”

She stands in front of one of the tanks, her hands clasped behind her back. Inspecting the creature like it’s a decoration piece.

“Hmm, yeah, still a little scary,” She says.

I laugh, and she does too. It’s good to have a moment to calm down. Even if we’re surrounded by bloodthirsty monsters.

She starts pacing again, biting her nails as she walks. “Do you think he found anything?”

Levi went off on his own a few minutes ago, exploring the bunker and looking for another way out.

“Maybe, it’s a pretty big place.”

The desk by the entrance doesn’t yield much useful information, even so I’ve been rummaging through it for most of our time down here. At this point anything could be useful, I just want to know exactly what this place's purpose was. The bottom drawer on the left end of the desk has a lock, I wonder..

“Hey, Emma. Do y’know how to get in a locked drawer?”

“Ha,” she say mockingly, returning to the desk with a smile on her face. She kneels in front of the drawer and takes a pin from her hair, then another from her boot, sticking both of them in the lock carefully. She slowly twists and adjusts them for a few minutes, until finally.. Click.

I sit down next to her, and watch as she slowly slides the drawer open. Yeah, it’s empty.

“Oh come on,” I say, climbing off the floor angrily.

Emma laughs, sliding the drawer shut in a smooth motion, then standing and returning one pin to her boot, and the other to her hair.

BANG

Both of us look the direction Levi went, the loud noise echoing from the bunkers far end.

Goosebumps form on my arms. “Was that?”

“A gunshot?,” Emma says. “Yeah.”

She takes a deep breath, then storms off toward the gunshot, the thumping of her boots echoing throughout the large room.

I stay by the entrance as she continues on, but one look at the Stalker in the tube beside me convinces me to follow.

The room really does seem to go on forever, tubes lining the walls as far as I can see. This bunker is massive, heck I can’t even call it a bunker anymore, more like an underground compound.

After a few minutes of walking we reach an area where the tubes become slightly smaller, these ones containing Lurkers instead of Stalkers. Both of us gravitate towards the center of the room, as far as we can get from the tubes.

Soon after, the end of the room comes into sight. At the end is a wall with a single door at the center, above it is a sign that says ‘R&D’. Emma reaches the door a few seconds before me, she pushes and watches as it swings open.

“It was already open,” she says. “He’s been here, come on.”

She steps through the doorway, and then I do.

It’s colder in this area, and slightly darker. More tables and counters have been set up here too, covered in abandoned tools and equipment.

“Levi!” Emma yells, her voice echoing.

“Hey!” Levi yells back. “In here!”

We jog deeper into the room, but see no sign of him yet.

“Where?” I yell, my voice echoing too.

“Keep walking!” Levi replies, “Down a hallway!”

We find the hallway a few seconds later, as we make our way through it, Levi’s voice appears again.

“Hey, hey it's ok. Alright? Do you understand me?”

“Levi!” Emma yells.

“Keep walking!” He replies. “And uhm don’t….freak out.”

We reach the room at the same time, and find Levi standing next to a large glass tube, green liquid flowing out through a small opening on the left side. A bullet hole.

My heart sinks, inside the tube isn’t a creature like a Stalker or a Lurker. It looks...human, and it's awake, staring at each of us with a pair of eyes that look human, and not at the same time.

“I saw it in the tube and it looked so Human, I just,” Levi takes a few breaths, trying to calm himself down. “I wanted to get it out, but the glass won’t break.”

“Let's do it then,” I say, pushing all doubt from my mind. “Emma, keep a gun handy, just in case.”

She nods, so I join Levi at the tube. The creature….human...thing? Stares at me, in an almost curious way. Levi grabs his rifle and starts bashing the tank where the bullet hole is, each impact adding a few little cracks.

I grab mine too, and start doing the same, timing it so that my rifle strikes it right after he does.

We continue for a couple of minutes, the creature staring at us the entire time, occasionally looking back at Emma, but then switching its attention back to us.

“Almost there,” Levi says between breaths. The action is beginning to take its toll on both of us.

One more round of strikes is all it takes, the glass shatters sending the green liquid spilling onto the floor. The creature, which I now know is a she, drops to the floor of the tank, she pulls her legs up to hide her chest and holds them there with her hands, her body shivering and shaking.

She has no hair, and her ears come to a point at the tip. Her arms look like those of a human, but her hands are different, her fingers longer than those of a human, and her nails sharp like the claws of an animal.

Her chest and stomach look exactly the same as a human’s, but her legs are different. They bend backwards slightly, her feet at an angle that would make her toes and the flat part of her foot touch the ground, while her heels wouldn’t.

“Hey,” I say, taking a step closer to her. “My name is Flynn.”

She watches me, her eyes locked onto mine, the vibrant yellow color is almost mesmerizing.

“It’s ok, you’re safe,” I say while taking another step. “Can you speak?”

I notice her chest rising and falling quickly, and I can faintly hear her breathing quickly through her nose.

“Emma,” I say. “Lower the rifle.”

She does nothing at first, instead looking at Levi for his opinion, but she lowers it once he nods in approval.

The girl's breathing slows, and she seems to relax a little, but she still shivers.

Emma takes a step closer and removes her jacket, then hands it to me. I take it and nod my thanks.

With the jacket in my hands I close the distance between me and the tank, slowing down when the girl flinches slightly. I stop one or two feet away and unfold the jacket, showing her what it is. Then, carefully, I go around to her side and drape the jacket around her shoulders. Her head doesn’t move but I see her eyes track me the entire time.

She doesn’t move at first, instead continuing to stare at me as I take a step back. Until suddenly, she takes her hands off her legs and straightens the jacket, then slides her arms into it and pulls the front together, zipping it up in one smooth motion.

She takes a deep breath and lets it out as a long sigh. Then she looks up at us, her lips forming a smile. “Thank you.”

Levi and Emma try to contain their amazement behind me, talking quietly with each other.

“So you can talk?” I say. “Can you tell me your name?”

“I don’t….have a name,” she replies, her voice carrying an accent that I can’t place.

“Ok, that’s fine, how about we get you down from there?”

She nods and takes my hand, using it to help lower herself from the tank. She steps over the broken glass and let’s go of my hand. “Thank you,” she says quietly.

“Who are you?” She then asks, looking at Levi and Emma.

Levi goes first, pointing at his own chest and saying: “My name is Levi, nice to uh, meet you,” he says, suddenly noticing her lack of clothing.

Emma opens her backpack and digs through it for a few seconds, then pulls out a pair of black jeans that have a few holes and tears. “Here,” she says, handing them to her. “My name's Emma.”

“Thank you, Emma,” she says, taking the jeans and sliding them on, they seem slightly loose but they fit once she buttons them.

“Let’s head back to the entrance,” I say, “It’ll give us time to explain what's going on.”

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

One Hour Later,

The girl sits atop the desk next to the entrance of the compound. Listening to us explain what the world outside is like, and how we ended up here, then, finally, how we found her.

“So, you are trapped here?” She asks.

“Well,” I say, glancing at Levi and Emma. “Yeah...kind of.”

“Show me the exit,” she says, already standing up from the desk.

“Right over here,” I say while leading her towards the mud room. Once inside I point up the at ladder. “That’s the hatch.”

She puts both hands on the ladder and climbs up.

“Hey hold on, I don’t thin-”

She’s already pushing the hatch open and scanning the grass around it before I can finish.

“It’s clear,” she says.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Uhm, ok. Levi, Emma. Come here.”

She climbs up first, taking a moment to smell the air before climbing over the edge and planting her feet on the grass covered ground. I come up next, grabbing onto a hand she offers me, Levi and Emma do the same. The girl seems to lift us effortlessly.

Levi leads us towards the exit, until the girl separates from the group, walks over to the fence, reaches down and grabs the bottom with one hand, then folds the fence upward in a smooth constant motion. Emma is the first to notice, tapping our shoulders and pointing with a laugh.

We crawl underneath, and wait for her on the other side, but she doesn’t come.

Just as we begin to wonder where she's gone, the fence begins to shake, a shadow moving quickly up the other side. She reaches the top, throws her legs over, then drops to the ground, landing like she’d done it a million times before.

“Ok,” Levi says, “That was awesome.”

Together we make our way back to Emma’s campsite, reaching it a little less than an hour later as the afternoon sun starts to kick in.

Rose still stands by the tree, significantly less bushes around her now. She waves her tail back and forth when she spots us.

“What's this?” The girl asks, running her hand through Rose’s mane.

“That’s Rose, she’s a horse.”

“Horse,” she repeats. ”Pretty.”

“Hey, Flynn,” Levi says, waving me over.

I leave the girl with Rose and join Levi and Emma by the outer edge of the camp, Levi watches the girl play with Rose, laughing when Rose tries to lick her.

“I know someone,” Levi says once I’m closer, “He lives up North, goes by Jakob Bratton, he worked on the bio-engineering project that created the monsters,” He looks over at the girl, who still plays with Rose, then back at me. “I think she should meet him. Maybe he knows more about what she is, or who she is.”

“Where exactly does he live?” I ask.

“That's the thing, I don’t know exactly where, but I know how you can find out, travel up to New York, find a city called Haven. Then speak to a man named Phillip Reeves, he’s the governor. Tell him Levi sent you, he’ll help.”

“This Haven, what’s it like?”

“Big, beautiful, dangerous. Not much different than the cities that were there before.”

Not a bad deal. Help out this girl, and get to a place I could settle down finally. Maybe even learn more about the creatures.

“Alright,” I say, “Thank you Levi.”

“It’s been a pleasure travelling with you Flynn,” Levi says with a smile.

“Thank you,” Emma says. “For everything. Thank you.”

They walk away, passing Rose without stopping.

“You’re not gonna take Rose?” I ask.

Levi turns around, watching the girl pet Rose and talk to her quietly. He smiles.

“You need her more than we do, besides, it seems like she’s got a new friend. I’ll tell Paige, she’ll be ok with it.”

“Thank you Levi.”

He nods, and smiles one last time before they turn around and walk away, holding hands, telling stories, and laughing, finally reunited after so long apart.

I take a deep breath of the warm afternoon air, watching as they disappear over a hill in the distance, hoping someday I’ll see them again.

“I guess it’s just me and you now,” I say, returning to Rose and the girl. “Y’know….we need to come up with a name for you.”

“A Name?” she asks. “Ok.”

I untie Rose’s lead from the tree and climb on, then reach down to help the girl up, she jumps up on her own. I laugh and tell her to hold on, then give Rose a tap with the stirrups that propels her forward. Her hooves create little thumps with each step.

“What about Beth?” I ask.

“Hmm?”

“For a name.”

“Mmm, no.”

“Ok, well, do you have any in mind?”

She stays silent for a while, staring up at the clouds in awe. She gasps, but then watches intently as a flock of birds flies above us.

“What’s that called?” She says, pointing straight into the air.

“What, the sky?”

“Sky,” she says softly, repeating it a few times to herself.

“That will be my name.”

“Ok then, Sky it is.”