Hope II

Sleeping With The Enemy

Again I apologise for the lengthy chapter, but i didnt want to have to drag it into two seperate chapters. The story is long enough as it is but we're nearing the end. This is the defining chapter that will leave you with a ton of questions, but they will all be answered. Enjoy :)

After the street was cleared and I was certain the path was safe, we had made our way across to the front of the ship, standing at the bottom of the metallic stairway leading up to the ships entrance.  

There were no guards on deck for now, but just in case they came back we stayed close to the ships hull, out of sight of anyone who could be up on the deck. The metal stairs before me elevated up to about the height of a home, up to a metal door sealed by a round wheel lock. 

I looked back to Natalia and Kate who were awaiting my orders. 

Slowly my finger made way to my mouth, silently signalling them to be as quiet as a mouse as I moved my foot onto the first step, and then the next. We stayed close to the wall of the ship, hugging it as we made our way up the narrow stairway towards the door at the top... this all seems too easy, we are yet to be spotted. 

When we reached the top I gazed out to the view of the open sea leading out across the waters to the next infected paradise. The high waves crashed into the salt water, up against the ship yet it did not move, secured to its position, the front of the ship lodged into the harbour to ensure it would not move. 

I slowly grabbed the door's circular rotatory lock, and like a steering wheel I turned it ever so slowly. But it did not prevent the screeching sound of the metal door unlocking. All we could do was hope and pray there was nobody on the other side. 

Slowly and cautiously I opened it out, my heart racing against my chest, miraculously relieved to see the hallway empty. I looked back to Natalia, ready with her pistol in hand, and Kate with a rifle ready to shoot and any unsuspecting target who stands in the way of us reaching our friends. 

Gesturing them to follow, I entered. Suddenly I was struck with horror by what stood before me, the decaying corpse of one of the infected, so obsolete and ravaged by infection that the creature could barely move. He had no skin on his cheeks, none. Chewed away by his dangling teeth, the creature wouldn't even be able to put a bite mark in my skin. Its flesh was like wet paper, slowly tearing away from his muscles, dropping to his feet to join the already fallen skin inside the glass casing displaying him like a trophy, like an achievement. 

'Keep moving' Natalia whispered, bringing me back to reality. 

We walked, crouched in position along the marble floor complimented by white walls with a mosaic pattern. Our weapons constantly alert... this wasn't right, there wasn't one guard. Not one. I turned the first corner to the left, more desolation. We passed a room with a glass door, but there was nothing inside. Completely empty.. Further down the hall were plaques holding the severed heads of infected, still alive, still biting the air in front of them. Their heads dismembered from their bodies to be displayed on the wall like a family portrait. 

'In here' I whispered, anything to get us out of the open. 

I slowly turned the door knob of a door that led into an empty room and opened it, sneaking into the room, the two girls behind me. 

'Where do we go?' asked Natalia, no longer whispering after the door closed and we stood up straight. 

'I don't know' I replied, quickly going to the windows and pulling across the blinds to shield us from the hallway outside. The room was completely empty. Not one table or chair, not one box or pencil. Nothing but the marble floor and the tiled walls.