Death From Below

Chapter 7

I let out a moan as I roll onto my back, trying to catch my breath and sit up, one of those things dives on top of me straddling my waist and holding me down by my shoulders. Patches of hair were missing, and it felt like its black eyes were staring deeply into my soul, bloody saliva dripped down onto my chest as I screamed out for Dante. It leaned down and snapped just inches from my face as I turned to look for help while pushing against it with all my strength. It had a nasty-looking bite on its bicep right above the elbow, I look up to its face again and realization forms, as tears blur my vision at the site of Annie trying to eat my face. I start to lose strength as she leans down, and I fill the outline of her teeth bite into my shoulder, but before she could take a bite, I heard a loud crack.

Her whole-body slumps down on me, making it hard to breathe under her weight, but it doesn't last long when someone lifts her off of me, and another person lifts me in their arms and carries me away. I was pulled into the back of a vehicle and forced to lay down on the seat while someone scoots closer to me and begins wiping my face off with a damp cloth. My vision is still blurred, due to the trail of tears that won't stop pouring from my eyes I could feel the vehicle start to move and continued to cry until I finally fell asleep. I dreamed of Garrett being alive and with us, and when I awoke, I looked up and met the same baby blue eyes that were from my dream. I slowly sit up to see that we are pulled in front of a giant shopping center, "Harper, are you alright?" Josh asks, and I slowly turn to look at him.

"My arm is sore, what happened?" I croak out as my mouth is dry from sleeping so long, he seems to relax a little bit, and as he opens his mouth to reply, someone opens the door, causing me to scream. My voice rises a few octaves, and they cry out, grabbing at their ears.

"What the heck is that?" Sophia cries out, holding her head. I stop screaming as I realize it is her and look over to see Josh holding his ears as well.

"What is wrong with you guys?" I ask as they look up at me.

"What the heck was that Harper?" Josh asks as Sophia slowly stands up from where she had dropped to her knees, and I notice the rest of my friends come running up.

"You guys, we heard one of them scream and now a giant freaking horde of those things are headed in our direction," Ethan said as Josh and Sophia turn to look at me.

Angel took the wheel, and Torri got in the front with him and Victoria while Dante climbed in the back along with me and Josh while Sophia shut the door. "Where is she going?" I asked as she walked away in a hurry.

"Her and Ethan are driving the van with the girls in it," Dante explains as he pulls me into a hug. "How are you still alive?" he asks, and I look up at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?" I ask him as he pulls away and smiles down at me with tears in his eyes.

"You were bitten back there, I feel awful because we couldn't bury her, but I guess we will do that when we return...if we return," he says sadly, and I look down at my arm to see a bandage wrapped around it. I look up to find Josh also looking at me and I just stare blankly around at everyone,

"I don't understand, how did they get into the building in the first place?" I ask as the others all glance at one another, and we all fall silent as we continue to drive for a few hours.

It was around six-thirty, and the sun was getting close to setting when we pulled up to a gas station, I had Ethan fill up the van first so that way they could pick the girls up and let them stretch their little legs. "It is dangerous for the girls to go that long sitting in the car seats," I tell Sophia and she nods,

"Don't get mad but since there are no other vehicles on the road every twenty minutes, I pick one up and hold her so that way she isn't having to stay strapped up the whole time," she tells me showing how they laid down the back seats and made a makeshift play area on the floor. I hang out holding Luna and singing to her until a guy named Clint got done checking over the vehicles since he is a mechanic,

"They are so beautiful." I smile down at them, and Sophia agrees while holding Helina as Ethan feeds Celestine while talking to Dante. Josh walks up to me and smiles down at me.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" he asks, and I nod while handing the baby over to Torri and following him off towards the edge of the road.

I follow him to the road and once I get there, I start feeling sick and rush off to empty my stomach "Harper? Harper, are you alright?" Josh asks checking my forehead and looking at the bandage on my arm.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just felt a bit nauseous, I'll be alright." I tell him as I look up into his baby blue eyes and can't help but to see Garrett. "You look so much like him, were you two twins or something?" I ask as my eyes start to water,

"No, I am older than him by four years. The reason you haven't met me is that I had joined the military before you two got together and just came home a week before this started. He was at my house hanging out and told me all about little miss Harper Calloway and forgot this on my couch." he told me, holding a small box in his hand. "I made a promise with myself that since I couldn't protect him that I am going to do everything in my power to keep you alive for him," he tells me as I cry and pulls me into a hug. I open the box to see a beautiful diamond ring and slip it on my finger as I smile up at him and wipe the tears from my face before we head back over to the others watching us from the vehicles.