Multi

Chapter 3

TRIGGER WARNING: self-harm. Please be careful.

After our meeting, most people went to sleep. They would need to have plenty of energy for the upcoming escape. I slept too, but I woke up before everyone else. I was still laying on the bottom bunk. I only had a plan to get out of this area. Not out of the whole facility. I imagine it's a pretty big place. This would be mostly improvised. I felt bad for all of them. This is all my fault. If they never met me, they wouldn't be in this mess. They had to go through a living hell here because of me. I wish I was never born. Then these creatures wouldn't be after me, my friends would be safe, and I wouldn't get in the way of other people's lives. I swore I would get them out of here. I quickly sat up as I realized something: if I didn't stay, this would start all over again. Son of a bitch! Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. Why?! Why me?!

I got down off the bed and started punching the wall. It hurt a lot, and I could feel different fingers breaking, but I didn't care. All of a sudden, I was pulled away from the wall.

"Will! What the hell are you doing?!" Taegan shouted at me. I quickly turned to face her.

"This is all my fault! If I never existed, none of you would be here! You would be with your families safe and sound!" I yelled in despair. Taegan gripped my shirt and pulled me towards her.

"Don't you get it? You are our family. We would do anything for you, and you know you would do the same. Get a grip! This place may be hell, but we are still surrounded by our loved ones. So don't you dare, Willia Marie Lank, think you are not needed in this world," Taegan said in a voice that sounded almost desperate. Desperate for me to understand. Her eyes were full of sadness and bore into me. I finally broke down into tears. My knees went weak, and I collapsed down onto them. Taegan just hugged me. She gently rubbed my back. After what felt like forever, I calmed down. Taegan let go of me but still remained on the ground.

"Hey, Taegan?" I said.

"Yes?" she said back.

"My hands hurt."

I finally examined my hand. The fingers were all a bit askew, and dry blood coated them. She rolled her eyes.

"No, duh, Will. Not much we can do with it except maybe put the gauze currently on the cuts on it."

I grimaced. I really didn't want to see them. However, Taegan wasn't really giving me a choice as she was already unwrapping my arm. I turned my head away. What used to be my only escape was now a grim reminder. I fought back more tears.

Taegan carefully split the gauze in two and wrapped both hands. I started to feel bad for putting her through this again. It's even worse because she watched me do this. I never even heard her come up behind me. After she was done, we sat in silence for a while.

"I suppose the others are probably up," Taegan said.

"Yeah. It should be almost time," I said.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"I do. I don't even know how to approach the subject though."

"All I know is that I'm putting you under 24/7 supervision for a while after we get out of this mess."

That made me start to tear up again. Before we could talk to the other about what happened, we heard a door open.

"It's time," I whispered. I scrambled back onto my bunk. Taegan was already in position. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of footsteps. The other cells opened and closed. I heard our door open. Three seconds after it did, I sprung up. I threw my whole body at the ugly thing and grabbed its gun before shooting it in the head. I also shot its arm until I could rip it off. It was a mess, but our only out. I quickly went around unlocking the rest of the cells. I looked around at the rest of the cell block. I saw a grate on the back wall. I was sure that we could reach it.

"Kevin, I need you to boost people up to the grate. You're the only one tall enough to reach it yourself. I'm going to go up first. Once you get in, replace the grate and yell up to me that you're in. The rest of you stick close," I said. Before I moved into position, Brad hit the back of my head.

"That's for being an idiot."

He then leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

"And that's to show how much I love you."

Well, that's a bit of a shock...it made me feel even worse about what I was going to do. I didn't think of him as a boyfriend. I wasn't about to shoot him down though. Not the right time. Why must this teenage drama happen while we're in mortal peril? I gripped my gun harder. Kevin cupped his hands and lifted me up. I balanced on his hands as I removed the grate, dropped it down to the others, and crawled in. It was a fairly roomy duct. I double checked that the safety was on the gun before I began to crawl forward. After moving for a few minutes, I heard Kevin shout up to me that he was in. So far, it was a straight shot. There were no turns yet. There weren't any other vents either.

After five more minutes, I finally came to a turn. I signaled the person behind me which was Kylee to stay while I checked it out. There was a vent at the end. I looked through it. I saw a door immediately at the end of this large area. The thing was that it could be locked or lead to more creatures. Right now, I didn't see any. Yet, what if it leads out? I debated with myself for a few more seconds before deciding to risk it.

I gestured to Kylee to follow me. I removed the grate and jumped down. I looked both ways before sprinting to the door. Once I was there, I looked back. The others were helping each other down. I gave a sad smile at how caring they all were. I sighed. I was really going to miss them.

I pulled down on the handle of the door. It went down. I took a deep breath before slowly opening the door. I looked around. This room looked to be a garage. I took off my shoe and stuck it in the door. There was a large door on the opposite side. I started towards it. By now, the others were starting to come into the garage. I reached for the bottom of the door and pulled the door up. It was pretty heavy, and considering my hand, I was shocked to be able to get it up. The light pierced my eyes. I closed them and continued to lift the door up. As soon as it opened all the way, however, an alarm started to blare.

"Fuck! Everyone out! Don't stop running until you hit some civilized place!" I yelled.

My eyes adjusted. I could see that this led out to a large field. This was as far as I would go. They scurried out. Taegan was the last one out. I pulled down hard on the door. Everyone turned around to see what I did.

"Goodbye. I love you all," I said with a sad smile. I could hear Taegan scream as I slammed the door back into place. I still had the gun. I turned back to the other door. Just because I wasn't escaping didn't mean I couldn't take some of them down. It didn't matter how much my hands hurt. As soon as the burst through the door, I began firing. They didn't shoot back. They were attempting to dodge my shots. I was hitting a lot of them though. All good things must come to an end however as I ran out of ammo.

"Shit," I muttered. I threw the gun aside and started punching. Seeing as my hands were broken, you could imagine how well that went. I got grabbed from behind. I screamed, letting out every emotion that was swirling around in the brain. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground. All of a sudden, they were backing up from me. I would have liked to believe I was threatening, but considering my current state, I didn't think that was why they were all scared. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted an orange light. I turned my gaze directly to my arms and stared in shock. What the hell?!

I stood up. As I did, some of them started to walk towards me. Hm...let's see what I can do. I stuck out my hand and tried to will the light to shoot out. It wasn't working, and I felt like an idiot. Probably looked like one too. I opted for kicking the ones approaching me instead. I was still glowing. My kicks seemed to be harder than usual. Alright, I'll take some extra strength. I continued to kick. Suddenly, the orange energy came together under my feet. It lifted me off the ground, something I was not ready for. I fell backwards, giving them the perfect opportunity to overwhelm me. Handcuffs were quickly snapped around my wrists, and I was knocked out by one final punch to head, ending this fight.

Shit is starting to happen a lot now! I think I did well balancing emotional stuff with the action this chapter. The next chapter, we're going to find out some things about these creatures and about Will. Thanks for reading and see you next time!