Survival

Skyrah

I wake first, my new clothes are comfortable, clothes from before, when the world was normal. I feel like I’m in fancy dress, wearing clothes from the past, it’s a strange sensation and a childish joy bubbles up inside. I know it’s strange to feel happy about something as ordinary as clothes but for some reason they make me feel like I’m a part of something special. I sit up and look around, all the candles have burned out but the light from outside is fighting its way through the dirty windows. I look up and there is something sitting at the other end of the aisle staring at me. It looks like a wolf crossed with a human in a way, some parts of it bald covered with soft pink skin, other parts covered in a thick wiry fur, it has a snout and sharp teeth but its eyes resemble that of a human. I move my hand slowly to Alaric’s shoulder and gently shake, he sits up rapidly and the creature snarls.

“Rick, what is that?” I whisper.

“It’s a Wolfane, half wolf half human, they can think like a human, it knows what we are saying, they can stand on two legs and four, but it can’t talk” he whispers back, I can see his hand moving slowly for his gun by his side, the Wolfane cocks its head and smiles a twisted smile. Alaric grabs the gun and the Wolfane pounces forward with great strength, I grab the gun at my side and shoot it before it lands on Alaric, before it rips him to shreds, one of the shelves is splattered with blood and I gag. I’d never really seen blood before I got attacked, I’ve seen too much now. The Wolfane slumps down and it’s all over so quickly, my reactions have to be quick. I lay back down and breathe out deeply, hoping all my anxieties will go away, but they don’t. The cold metal rests on my stomach, my shirt lifted slightly as I was shooting the animal. The coolness of the gun makes me feel a little better given the unbearable heat.

“You okay?”

“No, but I never got better, I don’t think I’m any worse so I guess that’s something” I say staring at the ceiling.

“You will get better when this is all over, I don’t expect you to be okay right now” he says and I feel the cold pressure lift and I sit up.

“We should go, the sooner we figure this thing out the sooner we can heal”

“I’m sick of surviving Alaric” I say my head in my hands.

“Soon we will just live, we won’t have to survive” he says standing up smoothing his clothes out, he holds out his large hand and I place my small one in his and drag myself up. I pull down my vest and shirt and pull my leather jacket around myself. Alaric throws the new backpack over his shoulder and we walk out not looking back. We walk up the forest line, neither of us have any idea as to how far in the prison was. We walk on the cracked earth that is at the edge of the trees, grass brushes the dirt like a barrier, not letting it into the woods. We walk for hours, hours of peaceful silence, hours of nothing, no signs of anything. I see a metallic glint up ahead.

“Rick, look” I point to the gleam not that far ahead.

“Are you ready for this?” he asks, concern flashes in his eyes and I suddenly get angry again.

“Stop babying me, I’m fine, I’m not a child” I say and storm forward, but I stop abruptly when I hear voices again. Morrisa and her lackeys.

“I knew that Wren couldn’t control them, I trusted them with the Alaric Emmerson case, but they went and lost them both, and the whole Emmerson family” Morrisa says angrily.

“I am positive we will find them, I know Skyrah, she will still be alive, she’s a fighter so it won’t be easy, but we must erase her memory, I tried to do it in the hospital, hopefully her insurgence would have been forgotten but she left before I could retrieve the serum” my mother says. I’m not all that surprised, I’d figured that she would be in the search party sooner or later, but they want to erase my memory. Good luck with that, they’d have to kill me before I gave in.