Save each other // Joel Miller

Mousy

Sophie's head throbbed and she groaned as she slowly lifted her hand to feel the wet gunked up matte of hair on the side of her head. Her eyes adjusted slightly and painted the picture of her trembling fingers, dyed bright red. 'I'm loosing too much blood' she thought to herself and began carefully looking around.

She was lying on a cold cement floor in the dark. Not much was actively visible so she reached her hands out to feel for anything she could use to possibly slow the bleeding. Coming across nothing, she felt on her own body. She had been wearing a pair of jeans, loose tshirt, and light zipper hoodie when she began this journey. But now she wasn't recognizing her outfit.

It felt like ruffles and flowy, a sun dress of some kind. So she built up all the strength she could muster, found the hem of the dress, and ripped a chunk off. Placing the folded piece of clothing on her head, she sat up slowly, feeling her head become light and spin. "Shit" she whispered to herself.

Sophie closed her eyes and leaned towards her hand pressing the rag on her head. She tried to remember what had happened and possibly where she was. The last thing she could think of was coming across an infected and bashing it's skull in. She stepped out the back door of the station and it all went black.

Sophie sighed in frustration. She had been reckless and stupid, not being quiet or checking for infected before barging into an abandoned building. She probably made enough noise to alert all of the state, no wonder she was in this screwed up situation.

Sophie fluttered her eyes open and tried as hard as she could to see more than just an inch in front of her. Her headache didn't make it easy but eventually she could make out that she was in a large room with no windows. The panic didn't set in until she realized what she was surrounded.

Bars, many tiny black ones, like a large dog kennel, but without a bottom. She reached her hand out and grabbed around the cage shaking it, before she concluded that it was either bolted down to the floor or being weighed down by something. She let out a stiff breath of shock when she reached up and found the top of the cage was only a half arms length away, not big enough to stand.

She inched her body back until she was resting against the bars, trying to focus her attention to her wound rather than her entrapment. She took deep breaths in and out, counting with each one. Sophie's mind would start to try and wander toward the worst memory of her life and she would snap herself back by applying more pressure to head, causing a sharp pain to radiate down her neck. The sensation was unbearable but at least it kept her grounded. There was no logical thinking while sending herself into a full blown panic attack.

Sophie tried to think of a plan, some way to get out but head hurt so god damn bad and she was so tired and sore. As of now, she's trapped like a rat, in the dark, with no hope or help. Sophie closed her eyes once more and slipped a single tear down her cheek before going unconscious.

The moment Sophie opened her eyes again, she shot up straight, wincing at the pain in her head, but more concerned that she had fallen asleep. The room was still dark but slightly lit by a sliver of light coming through around a door straight ahead. She pushed past her pain and crawled towards it, stopping at the kennel bars and feeling around.

She could definitely feel that it was the front of the kennel, with two large latches, heavy padlocks dangling from each one. She shook them with no avail, not a single budge, and dropped her hand down in defeat just as the door across the room flew open.

"I thought I had heard some mousy noises!" A voice bellowed out in laughter. Sophie's head screamed at the sudden change in light and she squinted through the pain, seeing only the dark silhouette of a large man in the doorway.

He leaned half his body out and shouted. "Aye! She's awake. Little thing survived all that!" He bellowed out in laughter again, making his way into the room and flicking on a oil lit lamp. Sophie looked around to find she was in some sort of dog shelter, with large and small kennels lining the entire room and a long counter scaling one wall and a sink attached, a large window sat right above the sink, but she couldn't quite see what was on the other side.