The Last Plague

Chapter Seventeen: The Underground

I followed right after Tristan. My curiosity of wanting to see what was down there overcame the pain in my leg. Step after step, I followed after Tristan. It was several minutes before we got anywhere, and only a minute before everything became pitch-black. The darkness was nerve-wracking at first, but I got used to it. I could see nothing, and I could only hear our footsteps. I began to wonder if Tristan was still there. After those several minutes, we finally reached an exit.

"Here we are!" Tristan exclaimed, pushing forward an invisible door that blasted in light.

I had to shield my eyes as I said, "Finally."

He walked into the room, and the first thing I noticed was people. There were many, many people walking around a dirt area. Seeing several people in one place made me happy, and I wasn't sure why. I remembered the last place, where everybody ended up dying, and this place felt better, like it was more protected.

"Welcome to The Underground!" Tristan shouted as he motioned for me to join him. "This is where we have been thriving for years," he started to explain. "We—"

"What do you mean you've 'been here for years?" I asked, hoping he'd take a hint of what I was saying.

"I know, the apocalypse only started a couple of weeks ago. But we've been predicting this for a while now, so we went ahead and started living down here. I'm surprised it was only now their test broke out. Honestly, I knew they should've never done the test. RADD was never the one to listen though." He looked up at me and seemed to study me. "You don't know what RADD is, do you?"

"It feels familiar," I admitted. I tried to remember where. The day before the outbreak on the news, that's what it's from, I remembered. "Isn't what the professor on the news was talking about?" I asked as if he knew.

"I mean, probably," he agreed. "RADD is the acronym for the Raising All Dead Department. For five or so years, RADD has been trying to raise dead and bring them back. A few years ago, they kind of went rogue and started using toxic chemicals. Then they started sending in false reports to the government as they used illegally toxic chemicals. Before you knew it, they raised a bunny from the dead. The bunny's legs boiled off, literally boiled off. It seemed to die again for a few seconds, and a scientist went to grab it to see what was wrong, and he was bitten. The rabbit bit him, and the scientist went home to get treated. Nothing happened for a few days, but then his legs boiled off. He bit his wife, and she had a similar reaction, only sooner. They were taken care of, but the rabbit was never caught. It somehow escaped from the lab, probably because of when the other scientist opened its cage and was bit. Then random people started getting it. At first, they blamed it on a disease that randomly spread through the air. Then they tracked down the rabbit. But at that point, it was too late. Too many people had been bit, and the people trying to confine them were taken over. Jump ahead to today, we aren't doing much better."

I sat there for a moment, taking it all in. "So you've known this would happen?"

"Yeah," he said like it was obvious.

"So why didn't you try to warn anybody?" I asked before thinking.

He chuckled and looked at me, realizing I was serious. "We definitely tried to warn everybody of what was happening, but nobody listened."

"I never heard anything," I countered.

"We mean the government. We contacted every branch, several times," a man started explaining as he walked near us. He mumbled something cruel about the government under his breath, then introduced himself, "My name is Oran Mocha. I'm kind of like the leader around here. If you have any questions, let me know. I founded this place a few years ago, and I've remained the leader. Sadly, we don't have much time to get to know each other, and you'll have to get a job around here so the others don't get jealous, but settle in a little bit. I'm sure I'll see you soon," he said with a wink. But it sounded somewhat creepy, especially from him.