Dead End [#Wattys2016]

CHAPTER 1

It had been two months since everything changed.

My heart raced furiously in my heaving chest as I ran for my life across the abandoned streets. Well almost abandoned.

My legs were aching, my breaths coming out in short pants, and my heart felt like it was going to give away. I think that's the thing that scared me the most while I ran, the thought of my heart giving out then and there and not being able to do a thing about it. With that in mind, I felt even more determined to find a place I could call my safe haven, if only for a day. My right foot slammed into a muddy puddle, splattering me with dirty water, not that I wasn't already filthy. My eyes scanned my surroundings furiously as my legs were still slaving away and my tongue felt more like sandpaper in my mouth. Then I saw it. My eyes flickered with hope for a short moment. It was perfect. A sewer lid in the middle of the road had been taken out of place, leaving it perfectly accessible for me.

I dodged everything that was in my way, from metal bins, to fallen street lamps. I had once saw a poor and frightened man try to climb up a street lamp to get away from everything that was going on around him. He failed.

The groans behind me were getting louder and I pushed my legs to go faster even though I knew they couldn't. The groans were too loud to be just one of them chasing me, I was sure it may have been a herd. It was possible, given I was in one of the first places it had started in, and there was also the fact that before it happened this place was buzzing with life and light and luxury. Now it was as worse as an old and dusty petrol station you would find on the side of a road.

I ran past tall buildings with shattered windows where all you could see past them was darkness and I past buildings with grim, decaying bricks, getting weaker and greyer as time goes on. In a matter of seconds, I was at my destination. Too scared to look back I moved the lid more out of the way so my whole body could fit in, and began to climb into the dark abyss below. When I managed to climb down a few steps so my whole body was underground, I reached up and closed the lid of the sewer system from below. I could hear the hungry growls from above me as they reached where I had been a few seconds before them and the loud thumping of their feet dragging along the ground above me. I was safe for now.

I just sat there on the ladder for a while, catching my breath and letting my mind process what had just happened and the sheer luck of getting away from it all. The hot air from my mouth fanned my face as I tried to let my heart slow down and my legs to stop hurting. Every muscle in my body was sore from the exercise I experienced. The silence engulfed me as my eyes were still getting used to the sudden darkness that enveloped me. As the silence grew my mind wondered and I was lost in a distant memory from ages ago.

The loud sound of a school bell rang throughout the hallways, signalling the end of the school day on Friday for the small and energetic kids.

"And don't forget to do your homework!" I had half-heartedly shouted after them, knowing only a few could hear me over the noisy buzz of people.

The annoying voices of chattering got further and further away as I sat on the edge of my desk, letting out a tired sigh in the process. It had been a long day and everyone was more filled up with energy during my classes than usual and I had the fun task of trying to get all of them to shut up. Don't get me wrong, I love children, but on a day when everyone was so loud and I had to endure a headache throughout the daytime, they were getting on my last nerve.

I let my forefinger rub small circles on the side of my forehead, foolishly hoping that it would ease the pain. It didn't.

A small creak of my wooden door made me avert my eyes towards the entrance. In came Mrs Marshall, or as I like to call her, Elaine. She was one of my best friends in the small school even though she was twelve years older than my young age of twenty-two. She was a kind soul with a bright personality and you couldn't help but love her. Her light brown eyes always showed kindness with a small amount of discipline towards the kids. That didn't matter though, the children were always well behaved around her, and the few that weren't got to see the rare angry side to her.