No Escape (luke hemmings au)

~part ten~

                “You okay?” I asked Luke.

                He didn’t say anything. He just stared at the cottage. I wasn’t sure how long it had taken, but we pedaled all the way back to Calum’s cottage. Elisa had her machete ready as we approached, in case there were still some Sick milling about. The truck wasn’t in the driveway.

                The house loomed in the darkness. It looked like a completely different place. I dragged my feet along the ground to stop the bike and Elisa hopped off the back. Luke did the same with Ashton before swinging his leg over the seat and laying the bike on its side.

                Luke led us around the back of the house to the back door. I found myself hoping the hole wouldn’t be there anymore, but I was disappointed. The wood was still splintering and everything that happened here had definitely happened. I took a deep breath.

                Luke waved Elisa ahead of him and she climbed through the hole. I looked at Ashton and my heart nearly broke. He was looking at the cottage as if he wasn’t sure it was real. There were tears in his eyes. I had forgotten that this was Ashton’s home before it was mine. I tore my gaze away from him before he could catch me looking and I slipped through the door after Elisa.

                “There should be some backpacks in my room,” Luke said through the hole. Elisa was already opening cupboards and rifling through their contents for anything we could bring with us. The air was thick with the stench of rotting flesh and Sick. The bodies of those we had killed during the ambush still lay on the floor.

                I covered my mouth and nose and forced myself to walk to the front of the house. The TV was on. Credits were rolling on the screen. But the power cut out by the time I crossed the main room. I saw the fireplace and imagined Connor tending the flames. I tried not to cry. I barely knew those boys but they felt like family.

                Luke’s bedroom door had been torn off its hinges. I guessed the coat tree didn’t hold for very long. I stepped over Sick carcasses and picked my way into Luke’s room. I had never been in there before. It was decorated like a normal teenage boy’s room would be decorated. I assumed this was Calum’s room whenever his parents brought him here. The sheets on the beds were strewn across the room and the boards on the window were lying in shards below the windowsill.

                That’s when I remembered the window in my own room. I started panicking. If Luke walked in and saw the dresser was moved, he’d immediately know it was my fault the Sick got in. I caught sight of two backpacks on the ground and snatched them up frantically. I had to get to my room first.

                Ashton was helping Elisa collect food from the cupboards. Luke was collecting all the weapons we had left behind. I handed him one of the bags. Neither of us said anything. He didn’t even look at me. I looked to the ground and continued to the back hall. Elisa took the other bag and I turned towards my room hastily.

                The faster I walked the further away the door seemed to get. If Luke found out it was my fault he would never forgive me. I can’t even forgive myself.

                The wooden door was open and I hurriedly ducked into the room. The dresser was exactly where I had left it. I looked over my shoulder to ensure no one had followed me before using all my strength to slide the dresser back in front of the glassless pane. I turned around and leaned against the dresser and looked around the room.

                I wondered which bed Ashton had slept in. I looked at the picture of the band hanging on the wall and thought about how weird this situation was. The boy with the bandana was just a face in a picture before and now he’s real and alive. I wished I could say the same for Michael. The boys deserve to have him back. I suddenly became acutely aware of the serum in my pocket. We had taken them in case we needed to kill a Sick. I imagined a scenario in which we found Michael and used the serum and it cured him instead. But I knew the universe didn’t like me enough to give me a happy ending.