Ice -- Wolv book II

31 - Making you like us

Two empty eye sockets stared back at me, from just underneath a piece of metal. Rotted teeth grinned at me evilly, gleaming in the dim light from behind decomposed lips. My eyes snapped down to my foot--the long bones of the corpse's arm ran out from under the roof debris, and ended beneath my foot. I felt my stomach turn over, and I lifted my foot up to expose a squashed, rotting hand.

What. The. He--

I stepped backwards again, this time, onto thin air. I reached out and snatched the end of the piece of overhanging sheet metal, slicing my fingers open along the edge.

But instead of holding me in place, my body weight pulled the metal back with me. The sound of meat being dragged filled my ears as the corpse above was pulled along with the metal.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I screamed, letting go and grasping at the air. I felt myself fall backwards, and the tiny radio station fell up away from my view. Wind rushed in my ears, and I flailed my arms around. Everything seemed to be happening so slowly--would this fall never end?

Crack!

I heard myself hit the ground hard, and I flattened down into a ball with my knees tucked up into my chest. A moment later, the piece of metal slammed into the concrete next to me.

I blinked my eyes a few times in shock, staring at the debris. I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm alright, I'm not hurt. I had survived; everything was fine. I rolled onto my side and stretched myself out.

Or tried to.

I looked down at my knees, still tucked into my chest. I couldn't move them at all. Why won't you respond? Work!! I reached down and pushed my legs out. Something moved in my chest, and then my legs flopped down. Blood painted the palms of my hands, and I held them to my ribcage with confusion. Why am I bleeding? I pressed my clothes in on my ribs, staring at the two growing dark splotches in disbelief. I didn't hurt anything! I don't feel anything wrong!

Why can't I move my legs?

"No." I felt the word slip from my lips as I caught sight of my legs and feet.

My thighs seemed to be much shorter than I remembered. Both of my calves looked compressed, like they'd been hammered down a few inches.

White rods jutted out from both of my knees, bloodied on the ends from where they'd been embedded in my chest.

I'd fallen forty feet. Of course I was hurt; I'd broken bones.

That's my tibia. Or is it the fibia? I rubbed my head tiredly. Which ones are those? Maybe it's both of them, sticking out. I lay down flat on the ground, rapidly blinking my eyes at the ceiling. Everything looked blurry and stretched.

Ow. That kinda hurts. I reached down with my right hand and ran my fingers over the protruding bones. Maybe I should set those straight. My hand flopped down onto the ground. Maybe later. I was very tired; too tired to do anything important right now.

My head rolled over to my left, and I blinked. A rotten body lay in a pile a few feet away; it's skull was caved in and many of it's bones had snapped in two, yet it still managed to smile at me, staring at me hideously through two dark, empty eye sockets. I frowned at the skull angrily, glaring at it as my eyes begin to feel heavy.

What...are...you...smiling...about?

          *         *         *         *

My eyes snapped open with a start. What the heck? I blinked a few times, and the world sloiwly began to fade back into focus. Everything around me was dark, save for a dim light filtering down from the roof above.