No Surrender | Eddie Munson

Chapter Seven: Freak

CHAPTER SEVEN: FREAK

ANTIDOTE — CHLOE AMENT

Don't know where I'm going after this
Holding down the fort with safety pins
And waiting for the break
I'm wearing thin

TW// Slight injury detail, dead body

——————

Nobody knows where I am.

Eddie took my mother back home and I came to the woods, alone, armed only with the fragment of a fallen branch. Springsteen blasts in my ears, a small comfort. My feet puff up leaves.

I have never been in this part before. Following the railway tracks, I wander aimlessly. The sun is already beginning to set. If I die out here, nobody will know for a while. The thought causes me to grip the branch a little tighter. Always the optimist.

Grey fumes rise over the trees. Curious, I start towards it. It isn't dark or big enough to be a forest fire. Instead, it is narrow. Chimney smoke.

The closer I get, the better I can see the line that runs through the trees; grey, metallic. A fence, just like Mr Clarke had said.

I don't dare to touch it for fear of it being electrified or trapped in some way. So I follow it. It stretches through the woods, still too far from the lab for me to get a good look but I'm certain I've seen it before.

A mound of earth sticks out of the fence just a few yards ahead, and I notice how flat the outer-facing side is. It's metal, lead most likely. The pipe. He was right.

I crouch down to get a better look at it, knowing that I will never fit through. But Will might have. Any child could probably manage to. My hand reaches out to trace the cold, dry edges. It must be here for some purpose.

Just as I stand, a surge of panic hits me and I stumble.

I don't try to move for a while. I just lean against the pipe, stunned.

All of that overwhelming fear was here but vanished in a second. Still gasping, I wipe the blood from my face.

—

My music is the only thing keeping me going now. The sky is already dark and all I have is a weak flashlight to guide the way. Not that I even know my way home from here. I try to get a glimpse of the stars above but the trees are too thick.

This was a bad idea.

A creeping sensation lingers on the back of my neck. It isn't cold like I've felt before, more like the kind of energy that tingles against your skin when you know that something is about to touch you — anticipation.

I remove my headphones so that I can hear better and the feeling worsens. In the distance, someone screams.

I break into a run. The trees pass in a blur and my feet ache but I don't dare to slow down. Something's out here.

My foot catches on the way and I tumble down an unseen slope. Each roll sends my body into spasm and I desperately try to stop myself. Rocks and branches pass but none of them slow me. The ground flashes closer and closer.