I lean my back up against one of the grated walls, taking a breather from the relentless stress, feeling my muscles relax, but only slightly. The ache from the tension release is almost worse than the stiff cramping I’ve become accustomed to; although, the ease is only temporary as a hand claws around my mouth from behind me.
“I know what you’re about to do,” a man hisses into my ear. “No one dropped a key accidentally. No one is that stupid here. They screwing with your mind, little girl.” I kick my feet and swing my arms, trying to get Sin’s attention, but the darkness is so thick, he wouldn’t be able to see anything unless he were standing less than a foot in front of me. I bite down on the man’s finger, tasting the salt mixed with dirt and sweat. The ache in my stomach craves for more of the taste, a taste I didn’t consider a moment ago. I bite harder until I break the skin, yearning for a crunch I probably won’t be lucky enough to get.
The man howls in pain, tugging his hand from the grip of my jaw, but I’m stronger. Just not stronger than Sin, who pulls me away. “Shit. No, no. Spit it out, Reese. Spit it out. Spit it out. Spit it out.” Sin pulls me over to him, lurching me over his arm as he whales on my back with his other hand, forcing out the pieces of flesh that were soaking up the pool of drool in my now parched mouth. “Reese. No.” Sin straightens me back out, kneeling down as he pulls me closer. “The only hope we had left was that this virus was spread through bodily fluid and wasn’t airborne.”
“Like it matters,” I mutter against the groan in my stomach. “We’re going to die in here. The key is a trap—that man just told me.”
“We can either sit here and rot, or we can try to make a run for it. How do you want to go out, Reese? Trying or giving up? Because I’ve come to know who you are, and you are a fighter. You’re a badass fighter, and I know you aren’t going to give up on me now.”
“Even if I try—even if we run for it, I probably just infected myself, so what’s the purpose?” I laugh.
“We don’t know for sure. It could be spread in a completely unthinkable way. This isn’t an ordinary epidemic. It was a terrorist attack—planned out, thought out, and executed not so perfectly, seeing as thirty percent of the population survived. Even if half the survivors are infected—they’re still alive. It could be spread by bodily fluids, it could be airborne, it could be anything.”
“Two-thirds of those options aren’t looking good for me,” I tell him. “I’m not thinking straight. I can’t think straight. My head is foggy and my thoughts are all over the place.”
Sin leans down and gently, softly, touches his lips to mine, devouring my mouth with slow movements, a way in which he had yet to kiss me before now. Everything with him has been brash, passionate, and electrifying. This is something different—this is unspoken words filled with devotion and surrendering—this is a promise that we’re in this together because if I’m damned, then so is he. His tongue dances around my mouth, forcing an ache down to the center of my core, despite the hunger, and despite the bleakness of our situation. My heart is beating so hard it feels explosive, and yet all I want to do is fall to the ground with him, giving in to every need and want I feel right now. I realize that in the last three or five years, whichever it was, my only happy moments, the moments when I felt like I mattered, were all with this one man, who sets me on fire with just a touch.
As our lips part, the whites of his eyes come into focus, only inches from mine. “We’re together now. Whatever happens, we’re in this together. If you go down, I’m going with you.”
For only a short second, I feel safe being in his arms, hearing his promising words, but the truth lingers outside of our embrace. The heavy heels click as they pass by, giving us our thirty-second countdown. I feel confident that the key will, in fact, work since the man was probably only telling me a possibility I should consider. And Sin’s right, if we don’t try, what’s the purpose for everything we’ve done and endured up until this point?
Sin’s hand grips tightly around my arm as he reaches between the bars, feeling around before I hear the clink of the key make contact with the opening. Another clink echoes around us. “Stupid girl,” the man from the other side of the grates seethes.
“I’m still hungry,” I respond in a low growl.
Sin’s hand tightens and jerks me toward him a bit. “Shh.” Another clink follows. “It worked.” The door creaks open louder than I would have hoped and I can only pray the guard is far enough away that he didn’t hear the noise. Sin urges me out first, following closely behind. He pulls me into the opposite direction from where the man with the loud heels was walking. The tunnel of darkness continues to unfold before us as we pass by loud screams, people pounding their fists against the rusty bars, even animalistic growls through human voices. These people are in rough shape and I can only consider what will happen if I get like this, too. I’m not even sure what this toxin has affected in these people, but I can assume it’s something in their heads. They’re out of their minds.
We’re running so fast, the misty dew feels cool on my face, making me sweat even though I’m cold. There is nothing but darkness surrounding us and we could run into a wall at any second, but that doesn’t stop Sin from running as fast as he can, pulling me along with him.
After a minute of running, I press my arm out in front of me, truly scared of hitting something, and my instincts served us right as we hit a wall. Sin grunts as he catches himself.
“Won’t you help us too?” A woman says through a soft cry. “Please. My child and I don’t belong here. We’re not sick. They just think we are.”
I can’t see where the voice is coming from, which is probably a good thing because I don’t know who or what to trust. Even if I considered trying to help them, Sin is pulling me in the opposite direction, sweeping his hand along the wall until we reach the corner.
“There’s no door down here.” The woman speaks up again, her voice clear and unscathed. “It’s down at the other end. The man—the patrol—he’s blind, his eyes were gouged out during the onset of this attack. If you stand close enough to the wall when he’s coming toward you, you can make it past him.”
Sin stops pulling me. His grip relaxes and I know something is changing in his mind. “We should help them,” I say.
Sin tugs me toward the woman’s voice, feeling around the grate the same way he felt around ours. I hear the key make contact again, the two clinks, and then the door slides open. “Bless you,” she says. As she comes closer, I can only see a shadow of a woman a little taller than I am and a small child holding her hand tightly. The darkness doesn’t allow me to see whether the child is a boy or a girl, though. “Stay against the right side of the wall and walk slowly.”
She takes the lead with her child, and we follow closely behind.
Minutes pass before we hear the growing sound of clicking heels. My pulse speeds up, now beating loudly in my ear, giving me enough reason to say a quick prayer that only I can hear my own heartbeat. The four of us stop, holding ourselves up against the wall. I try not to breathe or swallow as the man comes closer. I squint my eyes closed even though it doesn’t matter in the darkness—it’s purely instinctual, like fooling my brain into thinking I’m hiding from the monsters under my bed. Sin’s hand turns calmly, wet, as it grips mine, holding my entire arm up against his chest. His heart is beating as fast as mine but I can’t hear it, which offers me relief.
The man passes by, but only by a few steps before he stops. The sound of clicking heels pauses like a record scratch and the thudding in my chest increases at a rate that may make my heart either explode or just give up the grand old fight. Is this poor child as scared as we are? Does he or she know what kind of danger we’re in? No child should have to live like this. Although, one might say he or she is lucky to be alive at all right now.
I don’t know how many seconds have passed between the time the heels stopped clicking and this moment where drool is pooling inside of my cheeks and my chest is starting to ache for the breaths I have skipped, but I’m running out of time—my lungs can’t hold out much longer.
One heel clicks.
The second heel clicks.
Again.
Again.
Again.
A hand grips at my throat, squeezing out the little oxygen I had left. I couldn’t make a noise even if I wanted to. Does Sin know? Do the woman and child know? They should all run. They should get away and spare themselves whatever torture I’m likely about to experience. Maybe he doesn’t know there is more than one of us. I try to pull my hand out of Sin’s, but his grip is as tight as it was thirty seconds ago. He knows. “You thought you were going to get past me?” the man says through laughter.
Unsure of what is happening, I’m thrown to the ground and pinned with more weight than I can fight against. Everything hurts and I can’t breathe in or out. I can only lie here, waiting to endure what happens next.
