Rules of Survival | afi

day five - part 2

I manage to calm myself down after a few minutes, with the help of Ashton's embrace and the cold of the air.

"I'm sorry." I whisper, wiping roughly at my eyes. I pull my bra back on, and, still shaking, reach up to draw Ashton's shirt over my head, slipping it on all the way. It's sticky with blood.

"Don't apologize." He replies, and the soft touch of his hand on my cheek is almost as jarring as the close proximity of our bodies. His face is splattered with blood almost obscenely, his hands damp with it, but I don't care.

"How did you-" I glance at the carnage around us, the butchered body just feet away. "How did you do that?"

Ashton shakes his head. "I don't know.. When that pig was attacking you, when he ripped your shirt open.. I just saw red. I got a hand free and dug my nails into the guys crotch so he would let go of me, and I just.." He closes his eyes, sighing. "I just snapped."

"Thank you." I mutter, reaching down and gripping his hand in mine. "Thank you."

A large clap of thunder rings through the sky, and dark clouds have shrouded everything in sight. It's still freezing, and when I look down at our hands, I notice the goosebumps all over Ashtons skin.

"Ash, you're gonna freeze to death." I say, moving a hand to his shoulder. I glance at my torn shirt on the ground. "I'll make do with what I have, just take-"

"No, keep it. I'll survive." Ashton replies, starting to get up. He pulls me to my feet, and I wrap my arms around myself. "We need to move. We're not safe here."

He's right. We're blatantly out in the open, and there's several buildings within a half mile radius. There's a large house just across the road.

"Ok. Let's find someplace warm, and get you a new shirt." I look up at the sky. "Before the storm comes."

Ashton follows my gaze, and shudders. "Before the storm comes."

After retrieving our weapons and stealing some more bullets off of the corpses, we step over the bodies on the ground to get to the car. It's considerably holed up and dented, but still starts all the same. Ashton pulls out of the ditch and begins driving down the road, leaving the destruction behind us.

"We need to get some decent food." Ashton says, the trees flying beside us. His teeth are chattering. "All we've got now is dried beef and water. I need a damn steak."

"I doubt they've got sirloins laying around here, Ash."

"A man can hope."

We look and look, but don't pass any buildings that look promising. After thirty more minutes of driving, we hit the center of the safe zone. Our gas tank has already started to sputter. We need to find shelter and fast.

Just when I'm thinking we'll be sleeping in a shack for the night, a flash of black roofing catches my eye over the trees.

"Ash, over there." I point to the building, just a few dozen yards off the road. He turns into the grass, rolling on until we find ourselves in front of a structure so big, it completely blended in with the massive trees.

"Holy.."

"-shit." Ashton mutters, staring at the mansion shrouded in plants before us.

We don't get to just sit and admire for long, though. We don't, because thunder rocks the landscape once again, and a single drop of rain hits my skin.

And burns.

The drop feels like someone touched me with a hot iron, and I flinch, wiping roughly at my arm. Another drop hits my shoulder, having the same effect, and I stumble backwards, swearing.

Ashton seems to be experiencing the same thing, because we both share a look of mutual horror and confusion. A small red spot is already festering where the rain hit, and as more drops hit our car I begin to realized how fucked we really air.

The rainwater is black.

Ashton meets my eyes just as the sky falls out, and we both say it at the same time.

"Acid rain."

Immediately my whole body is on fire as the storm comes down on us, and Ashton and I scramble to grab all of our shit from the back of the car and get to the mansion door. I can hear Ashton swearing in pain as I drop the bags in my hands and struggle with the doorknob, until I finally get the damn thing open and literally fall inside.

Ashton joins me just seconds later, heaving, his naked torso festering from the acid water already. It's in my clothes, my hair, and I just start ripping off garments as fast as I can to get rid of the terrible burning sensation. Ashton chucks his pants and shoes, and I do the same, ripping off his shirt. This leaves us both in our underwear, shaking, our entire bodies burning with pain.

"W-Water, try real water." Ashton pants, fumbling through one of the bags to come up with a canteen. He opens it, pouring it straight over his head. A huge sigh of relief comes out of his mouth.

I copy his actions, pouring two canteens worth of water and a bottle of it over my own head until I finally feel cool again. My skin is still throbbing everywhere the rain hit me, but it's getting better with every passing second.

The storm from hell rages on outside, but the roof is intact. We are safe, for now.

I use my foot to kick the door shut, still a little too in shock and weak to get up. We're lucky nobody is in this mansion, or whoever is hasn't come down to investigate the ruckus.

"Acid rain." Ashton says, still breathing hard. His whole chest is a nasty red color, the burns taking hold. I didn't think the strategists had that kind of shit in them."

"Me neither." I mutter, glancing at one of the windows to see black droplets running down the glass. "But it's kinda smart."

It is. Nobody can go outside until the rain is over unless they want a painful death, so every single contestant was forced to find shelter immediately. This means if they didn't have the supplies to survive for a while in one sitting, or they're outside the new safe zone, they're screwed.

I find with a quick check of my wristband that our location is safe. The only problem is we don't have a lot of food, and almost nothing to drink now. This isn't good. Knowing the strategists, they'll keep this storm going anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days.

"Yeah." Ashton says, wiping roughly at his face. "You know what that means."

"Yep." I reply. "It means we're stuck."

•••

uh oh, looks like some forced bonding time is coming up

this is getting so fun to write i'm so excited for the rest of this book

see you saturday and stay rad!

Xoxo

~Camryn