When I open my eyes, I'm not as sick anymore. The nausea in my stomach and the headache I had after Daddy "implanted me", like Mommy said, have both disappeared. Claire's pacing back and forth by a desk with an arm crossed over her chest and her hand on the other arm is covering her mouth as if in a deep, nerve-wracking thought. And Mommy...
"Mom?" what leaves my mouth sounds nothing like what I'd thought. A grating is what's heard in its place at the sight of her head laying by my waist and my hand in hers. There's an I.V in my hand leading to a machine at the end of the bed, on the monitor are words I don't understand.
Claire's head whips around in my direction, a smile spread across her face. "Sherry!" my name is breathed like the act of seeing me awake is the happiest she's ever been. She rushes to my side, kneeling on the ground and pressing the back of her hand to my forehead, "Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?"
"Better, but..." I search the room for Madeleine. The woman who'd protected Claire as she carried me to the cable car and then carried me in here herself. I'm certain she's the same woman I encountered in the station's main hall, covered in sweat, blood, and something else I don't want to think about. When she found me in the sewers though, she looked nothing like that, she was cleaned up with no crazy look in her eyes as she checked on me. "Where's Madeleine?"
She blinks, eyes falling. Her expression tells me the name made her sad. Claire's eyes take their time in meeting mine, she gives a smile, but it wavers, "She'll be with us soon, okay? She's... she's fighting that monster who hurt you."
"Daddy?" I whisper, knowing exactly what she meant in that sentence. Watching as she nods slowly, then my eyes drop back to Mommy's head laying by my side, turned the other direction so I can't see her face. "Mommy?" I call, squeezing her hand in hopes that'll wake her. Heart beginning to race when the gesture prompts nothing from her. I squeeze harder, eyes watering and Claire's reaching an arm out to touch her, "Mommy..."
Mommy sits up quickly in her chair, her eyes on my face. "Sh-Sherry... How are you?"
I see her lip is bloody and there's blood all over her coat, even a tear in her jacket on the left arm. The cut in her arm visible with it ripped open, it looks deep and I lift a hand in wondering, but then drop it.
"I'm okay... but you don't look so good," I confess after a moment of silence while they wait for my answer.
Mommy doesn't say anything, swiveling the chair out to her left to stand where she clutches her ribs and groans in pain. I shoot up in surprise, seeing she's hurt, but this isn't the normal kind where you break a bone or get a bad cut, but all can be easily treated. "Mommy?" I shout, shooting into the upright position as Claire moves to her side, putting an arm around her shoulders and grabbing an arm to help her stand.
She points at the same screen I couldn't read earlier and Claire's eyes follow. "Hey... look at the screen," she faces it entirely. Claire backs up when she sees her support isn't needed, "Oh thank god," Mommy exclaims. Her head drops as she smiles, laughing weakly out of pure happiness, I think. I'm not quite sure, seeing either her or Daddy laugh is something that never happened.
"Sherry's gonna be alright?" Claire asks when Mommy calms down, looking at her and nodding.
"She'll be weak for a little while, but yes. She's free of the G-Virus," she tells Claire and I smile to know that I won't be sick anymore.
Mommy steps forward, grabbing at her side and bracing an arm on Claire's shoulder as she yells in pain again. I remove the needle from my arm, holding a hand to the spot when it bleeds freely. Dropping to the floor, I crawl to her side as she kneels and then lays on her back. Breathing very fast, sweat on her forehead, she's really pale too. I grab Claire's arm with my bloody hand, she looks at me, "What happened to her?"
She hesitates to say, "She... she was attacked by that monster," she answers truthfully.
"Don't worry about me," Mommy begs, a hand moving into her pocket where she grabs something and puts it in Claire's hand. "Save... my daughter, please," she asks Claire, and tears well up in my eyes as I have a bad feeling right now and hate to see Mommy hurting so much.
Claire looks at the bracelet she was handed, Mommy takes my stained hand in hers now after digging in her pocket. She pulls out a crumpled bandage wrapper and hands it to me, "I'm so sorry Sherry..." she closes her eyes, reopening them with tears escaping their corners. I've begun to cry too. "So sorry that I wasn't a good mom to you... I want you to know," she rakes in a shaky breath through her mouth. "I want you to know that I always loved you," her hand reaches for my cheek as she cups it, "You always made me proud," she admits and lowers her arm. Words I've wanted to hear for so long, but...
This can't be real. Mommy can't be dying right in front of me, I look at Claire with pleading eyes. "We can't just leave her here!" I cry as the ground shakes beneath us.
Claire nods, "You're right, we can't," and she goes to pick Mommy up to carry her.
Mommy shakes her head, Claire stops, her hands retreating and I want to scream. Beg her to pick Mommy up, want to know why she can't come with us even though I already do. "Find Madeleine, and tell her... tell her I really am sorry for what I did," she then asks, and Claire nods in understanding, but I don't. "Your lives are all that's important now... escape while you can," Mommy says. Then lies her head back and closes her eyes, her chest stops the normal rise and fall of breathing and a sob breaks free from my mouth.
"No... Mommy please!" I cry, lowering my head and wrapping my arms around her to hug her.
Claire's hands are on me, gently pulling me back to look at her. "Sherry... we have to go now. The facility's going to come down, we have to get out," she explains. Wiping my inconsolable tears away, "She loved you, Sherry. And I-I know it's hard to say goodbye," the thought of her saying she lost her parents comes to mind. Of all the people to ever say those words to me, only hers are actually true. "But you have to," she pushes.
Closing my eyes, more tears wet my eyelashes and escape as I sniffle. I open them and lean forward, pressing a kiss to Mommy's still warm cheek, then stand with Claire. She takes the bandage and peels the wrapper open, pressing it to my arm where the blood has slowed down. When it's on she stands and I give her a hug now. "I'm lucky to have you, Claire," I whisper into her shirt and feel her arms around my shoulders as she hugs back. When I back away from her, I grab the jacket she'd given me off the bed and put it on, noticing how it falls past my waist.
"Looks like you'll just have to grow into it," Claire tries to tell me cheerfully at my reaction to how large it is on me. As we leave the room, "We've gotta hurry now though, Sherry. Can you walk faster?" the question empathetic at having to force me to move faster than we already are after recovering from the infection.
As we enter the main shaft, I see giant cogwheels in the wall a little way down, rotating while on fire.
We stop just before boarding as Claire sees somebody standing not too far away. "Leon?" she calls out, and the man I vaguely remember seeing while sick turns around to run toward us.
"Claire?" he shouts her name back, sounding comforted to see her. He gestures to the doors we came from, "I saw you run through here earlier, but figured you were going for her," he explains. Then his eyes are searching behind us, "Where's Madeleine? I thought she might have made it ahead of you?" he sounds fretful over her, like Mommy when something in one of Daddy's experiments was going wrong. Except Leon sounds that way for a different reason.
Claire presses the square button in the panel tothe elevator, "She stayed behind in the West Lab to fight William by herself,"his eyes widen, in alarm, I think. "I-I don't honestly know if she's made it,Leon."
YOU ARE READING
The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)
Horror"I think you're going to learn a lot of things about this city and the people that you won't want to." Madeleine Sówka has spent the last twelve years of her life believing she knows what monsters look like. They are the people who hide in the backg...
