Chapter 22: Six Feet Under

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David would wake up often covered in sweat, screaming as he remembered the pain and the torture. During his imprisonment, he wished countless times to end his own life, to bite his own tongue off and die by suffocating on his own blood. But he simply couldn’t do it.

No matter how bad the world became, he simply couldn’t take the next step to end it all. Was he a coward for trying to run away? Was he brave for staying in such a horrible world? Was he a coward for not being able to take the next step or brave for resisting the urge to take his own life? Questions like these constantly tormented his mind as he struggled against the pain that continued to assault his body and soul long after they had been rescued.

As time passed, he slowly was able to open his eyes.

Strangely, he could only see out of one.

He cracked open his dry lips and his hoarse voice barely was able to leak one word out.

“Water.” He moaned. It almost made him laugh at how similar he sounded to the moans of the infected. He didn’t though. Laughing hurt him. So did smiling or breathing. So he simply remained still, waiting for the sweet reprieve that came with either a glass of water or death. Whichever came first, really.

Soon enough, a hand propped up the back of his head as a bottle was put up against his dry lips. A slow trickle of blissful water poured out and he drank fiercely, almost choking on the water.

“Drink slowly, David. The water isn’t going anywhere.” He heard a voice call out to him from his left side. He strangely couldn’t see out of that eye and so he tried to turn his head to look in that direction, only to be rewarded by another wave of pain. Grimacing, he laid back down.

“Don’t move. You’ve been beat up very badly.”

Now that the desert in his throat had been quenched, he asked. “How did I make it back?”

“We’d gone to rescue you and John. They found you guys in the cells and brought you back here to patch you up. You’ve been asleep for the entire day.”

“John? Where’s John?” David couldn’t see anything except the ceiling as it was too hard to move his head.

“Right next to you. How do you feel?”

“I can’t see out of my left.” David said. A long pause followed.

“Why can’t I see?” David asked again.

The voice stammered. “You-you lost your eye, David.”

“W-what?” David couldn’t understand. He had very little memory of what had happened in the station other than the continuous, heart-stopping pain over every inch of his body.

“They took your eye.” The voice said again.

“Show me.” He said.

“David. I don’t-”

“SHOW ME!” He yelled, coughing again. He tasted the metallic taste of blood.

Without a word, the person rummaged for a reflective surface, before presenting a shard of mirror above his face.

He looked at the almost unrecognizable person reflected back before him.

“uuggh” A pained gurgling sound escaped his mouth, growing into a heart-wrenching wail of pain, sadness and anger.

His left eye was missing. His eye socket was covered by a bloodied cloth. His other eye had a large scar going down it all the way to his chin. His teeth were chipped and some were broken off. His right ear was wrapped up in bandages.

David saw himself. But he did not recognize himself.

The wails resounded out throughout the warehouse, gripping the hearts of all who heard and igniting an angry flame within their eyes.

David once again fell unconsciousness.

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“Is he okay, Ms. Rider?” Abby asked the returning woman.

She slumped in her seat next to Abby.

“Time will heal his wounds.” She said.

“I can’t believe people would do that to someone, no matter how bad things are now.” Abby shook her head.

“We’re all still humans inside, Abby. We aren’t perfect. Some of us break under the pressure of it all and do things they never would have done in the world before.” She replied.

“They all deserved to die.” Lucas said coldly.

“Lucas!” Abby said rebukingly. “That’s not something you should say! No one deserves to die.”

“They hurt John and David. It’s only fair for us to hurt them back.” Lucas replied. Abby and Jessica were shocked by the young boy’s twisted logic and cold disposition. They worried for what the cruel world would turn him into.

“It isn’t right to hurt people.” Jacob retorted to Lucas. Jacob still remained innocent, still believing and hoping for the best in people.

Lucas just stood up and walked away, apparently struggling with an internal battle.

Jessica followed after giving Abby a concerned look

“Hey.” She said as she leaned down next to the boy looking out at the clearing outside.

“Hi.” He said back, not looking at her.

“Did you mean what you said back there?”

Lucas nodded after a while. Jessica thought about what to say for a while before continuing.

“They were bad men, I’ll give you that. But sometimes, you’ve got to believe the best in people and when that doesn’t work out, you have to forgive. Could you try that for me?” She asked.

Lucas nodded again. Jessica sighed, leaving the child to his thoughts.

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“They said it’s around here.” Rick said as they made their way through the city. The buildings were all destroyed, causing rubble to cover most of the road and the sidewalks, making it difficult for them to find the metro entrance.

“Over here!” Harry called out. He was standing next to a large pile of rubble. They moved towards his position and found that beneath the pile was a small hole barely large enough for a man to fit through.

As they peered inside, they could see the faint outline of escalators leading down underground.

“Let’s open up a bigger hole first.” Harry said. He started picking up rubble and moving them away from the hole. Everyone started to help out, picking up pieces until there was more wiggle room.

They went into the hole. Inside, they found that it was more spacious. Looking up, they saw that a metal ceiling that probably covered the entrance remained barely standing, supporting the added weight of the rubble.

The escalators were, for obvious reasons, not moving so they walked down, often having to climb over some rubble that had fallen through the cracks.

As they entered the subway, they noticed an utter lack of sound. Each footstep echoed off the walls and bounced far into the depths of the system, but no other sounds could be heard. It put them on edge.

They had brought a box of food in the car to bargain with the Undersiders.

“Let’s keep going.” Rick urged them on.

“Stay sharp.” James added, getting out his gun. There was no telling what lied in store in the depths of the metro, and he wasn’t going in unprepared.

There was a flashlight attached to its end which he turned on. The others did the same and soon they could clearly see their surroundings. The dust caused the light to refract and create beams of light that penetrated through the darkness.

“Come on. Try to stay quiet.” Harry whispered as they made their way into the metro. Harry took point and pushed the turnstile, causing a slight creaking noise.

Stopping a moment to see if it had stirred anything up, Harry slowly went through, closely followed by the others.

They took an escalator down to the tracks. Sprawled across the floor were mats, boxes, shopping carts, and other trash that had been brought along by the many people that escaped below.

“Where is everybody?” Sophia asked.

“They said to take to the tracks heading north.” Rick said, about to jump down on the rails.

“Hold it!” James called out, grabbing Rick’s pack and pulling him back. Just then, they could hear the noise of screeching metal.

“Do you think that’s…?” Rick said.

“Impossible. There’s no way they could be running now.” Sophia exclaimed.

“Maybe they turned them back on somehow. Look, here it comes.” Harry said. Sure enough, the flickering lights on the train could be seen coming closer. As it screeched past the station, they saw that it was packed with infected, slamming against the windows.

“Shit.” James said, stepping back slowly as the train continued to move through the station. Gradually, the train started to slow down.

“Fuck. Let’s go.” He turned around frantically looking for an exit. He ran to the turnstiles and tried to use them but the exit turnstiles seemed to be inoperable.

“Over here!” Harry yelled out, pointing to a service door. He started smashing against it, trying to open the locked door.

The train finally came to a stop and a light ding could be heard. With a hiss the doors started opening.

“Hurry!” Sophia yelled behind Harry, urging him on.

“The goddamn thing won’t open!” He yelled back.

“Move!” Rick roared. Pushing Harry aside, he pulled out his pistol and repeatedly shot the lock until it broke.

The infected started pouring out of the train doors and rushed towards them.

“Inside!” He yelled, pushing the door open. They piled inside and James as the last one in, shut the door behind him. Just as he did, the door jumped as a strong force on the other side slammed against it. It continued to slam, threatening to break down the door.

“Go! I’ll hold them!” He yelled, struggling against the door with his large frame.

The others only spared a glance before running down the hall. As they turned the corner, James remained, almost sliding back due to the pressure on the opposite side of the door. He reached out with one of his arms and grabbed a metal shelf next to him. He tried pulling it to barricade the door but it was bolted to the ground.

“Fucking hell…” He cursed as he turned to lean on the door with his back, his legs ramrod straight acting as supports.

He started hyperventilating and tensed up in preparation.

With one burst of strength and speed he pushed off from the door and sprint down the hallway. The door burst open on the other side and an ocean of infected tumbled towards him.

Sliding around the turn, he nearly tripped before scrambling back up. Approximately 20 meters down the hall, a light could be seen from an open door.

“Hurry!” Sophia yelled, holding open the thick metal door.

Rick and Harry stood on either side, their guns at the ready. James sprinted down the hall, desperately trying to outpace the several infected that seemed to be able to run in a stumbling manner.

Rick and Harry started to shoot the infected closest to James and at the last moment, James ran past the trio and Sophia slammed the door behind him. The door clicked into place and only the muffled banging on the other side could be heard. There was a shrill scream from the other side before it became silent on the other side of the door.

James panted, trying to catch his breath.

“I think they’re gone.”

Rick slid down against the wall, sitting down on the floor in exhaustion. “That was too close.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted those bastards. They just set us up to get killed!” Harry fumed.

He looked around for a moment before lifting his arms up in exasperation.

“And we dropped the fucking food too.” He grumbled. Indeed, during the chase they had forgotten to carry the food with them. The added weight would have slowed them down and killed them.

“What now?” Sophia asked.

“Try to make our way back to the surface.” James responded.

“How? We’re stuck here.” The room was barely 10 square feet. They all looked around for any way to get out before Rick called out.

“There.” He pointed at the vent.

“We can use the ventilation system.”

“I ain’t going in there.” James said decisively. “I have claustrophobia.”

The others gave him a curious look.

“Suck it up unless you have a better idea.” Sophia said irritably. Now was not the time to enable him simply because he was discomforted by small spaces.

“Fine. But I’m going last.”

And such, they managed to pry the vent open and start crawling inside. They weren’t trying to go outside, but rather simply relocate to a less infected area to reorient themselves.

“Take a left. There’s a drop the other way.” Harry called to the others behind him. Harry was the first to enter, followed by Rick, Sophia, and then James.

As they turned the corner, Harry suddenly stopped.

“What is it?” Rick whispered.

“Shh!” Harry hushed them. They all fell silent and listened closely.

They could hear voices through one of the vent openings.

“What do you mean you lost them?” A voice said through what sounded like a speaker or walkie talkie.

“We followed them down here, but a group of infected got in the way. They’re probably already ripped to pieces” Another male voice responded.

“Bring me whatever’s left of them. We can’t leave here until we find them dead, turned, or alive.” The voice through the radio said.

“Alright.” They could hear the click as the communicator was turned off.

“Is that asshole seriously going to make us look through the tunnels all day?” A third voice called out.

“Apparently. I heard these guys killed almost all the jailers. Only the captain’s brother survived.”

“Still not enough reason to mobilize three units to get back at them” The third man scoffed.

“Mr. Rajan approved it. You have a problem with the way I run things?.” A gruff voice called out.

“Captain!” The second and third voices called out in surprise.

“Stop wasting time and keep looking.” Afterwards, the men no longer talked and the group could hear the receding footsteps of the men.

“One of them survived?” Sophia asked. “How? We saw them all get eaten, didn’t we?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know how they knew where we were heading..” Rick replied.

“I’m telling you, those people at the restaurant were bad news.” Harry shook his head.

“Let’s just get out of here and figure it out later. If they found out about us, that means everyone back home aren’t safe either.” James added. He was hyperventilating, trying to calm himself down.

Rick tensed at the idea of Rajan’s men coming for his child and with renewed vigor, also started crawling faster through the vents.