Embers & Ice

Chapter Forty-Nine

There were footsteps behind them, and Hunter and Will made it to the end of the corridor before they were attacked by three Men in White.

The darkness made it hard to fight, but Hunter threw her fire anyway. She wasn’t afraid to hit Will – his power let him heal. Bright fire blinded her attackers and while they dodged the balls of flaming heat, Hunter shot forward and took them out.

“Where did they come from?” asked Will as he tried to catch his breath.

“Dr. Wolfe probably sent them after us.” She yanked on the hatch of the door marked ‘Cell Block’. “Hopefully there aren’t many left after Alfie got loose. Maybe they’re-”

Her words froze in her throat as the door swung inward and they faced the Cell Block corridor – or what was left of it.

Alfie had destroyed the place. Clouds of dust still floated in the air. There was rubble strewn across the walkway. Cells were blow apart, the walls crumbled in and the doors lying open. Beams of light from the broken ceiling were scattered right to the end. The bulbs were flickering on and off and buzzing with detached electricity. An eerie silence wrapped its claws around Hunter’s heart and for a moment she wished they’d never come back. But a part of her knew this was the right thing to do. They had to rescue Alfie. And she had to at least try to find Jack.

Will glanced down at her in the dim light and nodded, his jaw clenched. “After you,” he said.

With her eyes wide open, Hunter started to creep down the Cell Block. Each step was louder than a scream in her ears. She was shaking from head to foot, praying that Alfie was in his cell – alive, at the very least – and it helped motivate her.

She stepped unsteadily over a pile of broken stone–

And something grabbed hold of her ankle.

Hunter shrieked. She groped for Will as she struggled to tear her foot from the grip of someone lying under the rubble.

“Will-”

The figure moaned. Hunter lit her palms on fire and pointed them at the debris. Her stomach turned over inside her at the sight of a woman coated in dust, trapped under heavy slabs of concrete with dirty blood dripping down her face. Her eyes were closed but her hand moved slowly, begging them for help.

“Oh my Go-”

“There’s nothing we can do,” said Will. “Hurry, before-”

Something jumped out of the shadows and collided with Will. A high-pitched screech fell out of Hunter’s mouth as Will and the attacker – a man in torn clothes – tumbled over a pile of fallen rocks. Hunter swore she heard Will’s ribs crack and break. The man looked about to rip Will apart as he growled and raised dust in the struggle.

Hunter didn’t waste a second. She grabbed the man’s neck and dragged him back. He kicked at her, and when his head whipped around and a light flashed over him, she saw a mutated face with black and malicious eyes. Hunter felt just as much shock when he raised his hand and slashed across her stomach with his fingers.

Pain seared her. Blood began to seep through her white jumpsuit and she stumbled against the wall of a cell. The man had razor-sharp blades for fingers.

“Go Hunter!” Will shouted, and the man jumped on him again. “Find – Alfie!”

Hunter didn’t want to, but her choices were few: Stay and free Will who could heal himself anyway, or continue on her suicide mission that was becoming more and more impossible the deeper she dove into the caves.

Leaving him tore her apart, but it was what Will wanted. She scrambled to her feet. No longer did she care about staying quiet. The corridor loomed before her, the possibility of more psycho mutants hiding behind the walls, ready to jump out at her, filled her mind with fear. So she thought of Jack, and that helped her run.