I n f i n i t u m

Chapter Twenty Nine

Lefevere didn't say anything after our conversation. Aside from our breathing, there was nothing but thick silence in the humvee, and usually when there was silence, there was thinking on my behalf. My thoughts practically swirled around in my head now that I was giving them the attention.

I felt bad for turning on Lefevere the way that I did. He complimented me in many ways and gave me hope for myself, but I was angry that he called me out like that because it opened up a can of worms that I didn't want to open up in the first place.

I roused from a short nap, so it seemed. I'd only intended to close my eyes for a few seconds and before I knew it, I was whisked away to dreamland.

By the looks of it, I was probably only asleep for maybe an hour or so, considering that it was still dark out. A quick look at my wrist watch confirmed it though: 1:29 am. I glanced at the seat beside me, just now noticing that it was completely vacant. Puzzled, I looked in the back, only to find Wren still sleeping. Lefevere was no where to be seen.

Quickly, I grasped my riffle before stepping out of the humvee. I looked around me, wondering why he'd gone without letting me know. The rooftop was completely abandoned, save for a few rusting cars and myself.

A bad feeling settled within me.

He would've left a note at the very least. I went back to check the car for anything, then stepped away in disbelief when I found nothing. Did he...leave? I knew that what I said to him was hurtful, but for him to just leave without even a word...

Something in my chest constricted, as if my heart was physically being gripped. My mind tried to gather other possible reasons. 

"Lefevere!"

Nothing.

"Lefevere!"

Nothing again.

I was practically sprinting across the parking structure, wildly looking around, and after a solid five minutes of searching, I placed my hands on my knees in defeat. I stared down at my feet, then took notice of something that was on my hand. Black writing contrasted greatly against my pale skin. It read:

Stay in the car.

Crawler in the area.

Went to draw it away.

My heart jumped to my throat the same moment goosebumps rose along my skin. Immediately, I twirled around, half expecting a fleshy monster with sharp teeth and claws to tackle me to the ground, and was relieved when nothing of that sort leaped out from the darkness. I would've deserved it too— screaming Lefevere's name out like a damn banshee, what was I thinking?

I sped-walked carefully back toward the humvee while keeping my senses on alert— something I failed to do the first time. Leave it to Hyde to literally leave a note on my actual hand. How long ago was it though? I had no way of telling whether he dealt with the Crawler or if the Crawler dealt with him.

It was quite a hassle trying to get through the third level of the parking structure. Not only was it incredibly packed in with cars that it made it basically impossible to normally walk through, but it was also dark. I couldn't help but imagine myself being tackled by a hybrid-zed despite being able to see well. At some point, I called it off and headed back up to just find a way to climb down from the outside. There was a pipe system on the side of the parking structure that reached all the way down to ground level, so with careful precision, I clung to it as I tried to slowly climb down. I got the hang of it soon enough, and within the next minute, I landed on dead grass.