Dead Connections

Chapter 19 - Secrets

The hospital had police rope around it, but that was fine. The three of us (plus Piper) just lifted the tape and ducked under it. Drew led the way as if he had lived here his whole life and knew the building like the back of his hand. Me and Ember exchanged a perplexed glance.

We burst into the building like we owned the place, and Drew stopped, forcing us to stop as well. Three police men were stood inside the building. One drinking a small paper cup of coffee, the second pacing slowly along the perimeter of the room, and the third talking quietly on his phone.

“What now?” I whispered.

Where did you find them?

“Find what?” Ember asked curiously, tilting their head.

Drew jabbed a finger at the papers in my hand.

“Oh,” Ember continued brightly. She pointed across the room to a small half burnt door that had fallen off its hinges. Everything behind that was in pitch darkness. “In there.”

We ventured into the room and I saw that everything in there was completely blown to bits. The gas explosion must have taken place right outside this small room because all the metal files were blown into nothing more than rubble. Ember coughed and gave a low whistle.

“Wow,” she breathed.

“I know,” I replied.

“It’s lucky that you revived when you did,” Ember told me. “Otherwise you would be properly, properly dead.”

“Do you even know what happened to this place?” I asked.

“Not really,” Ember admitted. “I just daw that after you and Dallas had both revived, a small group of gun men came in and caused all those people to die.”

Drew was now studying the numbers again, and I saw a look of understanding in his eyes Was it possible that he actually understood all those words?

“What are we even doing here?” Ember asked, breaking the silence.

“Shush,” I warned her. She frowned. “Let him think.”

“This is insane,” Ember replied. “I should just go back home. Elsie’s probably burnt down my home by now.”

Piper barked suddenly, and we all jumped, spinning around to look at her. She was about 10 feet away scratching eagerly at the flooring.

“What is it Piper?” I asked.

“It’s nothing,” Ember assumed. “She’s probably just bored.”

Drew cleared his throat, making a small choking sound, but he didn’t talk. He just got our attention. When we were both looking at him he then pointed to the dog and nodded.

“Huh?” I asked, trying not to sound too harsh.

He pointed to Piper again, his eyes wide and his expression frantic. When he saw we didn’t understand his passed the paper to me and ran to Piper himself, collapsing to his knees and digging his nails into the gap in the wooden floor boards.

“What are you doing?” I gasped.

“You’re mad,” Ember hissed. “Stop it.”

Drew kept going, and to my surprise, with a little bit of strength, he actually managed to pull up one of the floor boards. The wood snapped and the piece of wood flew back, hitting him in the face. He groaned in pain, and opened his mouth to shout out in pain and frustration, but, of course, no words came out.

I rushed up to him, already seeing that he was having a small nose bleed.

“Are you alright?” I asked frantically. Seeing the blood slowly trickle down his face reminded me of the horrors I had seen when he was killed in the most brutal way. Drew nodded, cupping his nose with both hands and closing his eyes. He wiped the blood away quickly with his sleeve leaving nothing more than a faint red line just under his nose, reaching out to his right cheek.