Genesis

Near-Death Shopping Experiences

     Stupid, stupid, stupid. This idea was so stupid. Lucius was going to get himself killed for volunteering to be the bait. That was all I could think about after Dorian told us his plan.

     When Lucius came back with an airhorn, Dorian and Colt lifted a round, metal plate from the concrete floor, and Lucius climbed down the ladder of the manhole, making his way into the sewers.

     There were a few painful minutes of waiting before Lucius radioed in again.

     "Hey, I'm out," he whispered through the walkie, "I think I'm two blocks away or something."

     Dorian smiled in relief, "Great work, Lucius. Now, just wait for the signal."

     "Got it," Lucius confirmed quietly before there was a brief silence.

     "Danny, Kit, you ready on the second signal?" Dorian asked into the walkie.

     "Yeah, we're ready to step the pedal to the metal. Just give us the go," Danny responded.

     Dorian looked at all of us, "You all ready?" he asked.

     We nodded before Dorian picked up the walkie again and said a single word.

     "Go!"

     Suddenly, we heard the noise of an air horn in the distance, as Colt climbed one of the shelving units and looked out of the high windows, waiting for the ragers to disappear as the sound of the airhorn went on in controlled bursts.

     "It's clear," Colt said after about half a minute, when Dorian spoke into the walkie again.

     "Danny, Kit, roll in!"

     I ran to the large hangar doors when I heard that instruction and flipped a switch, prompting the enormous metal doors to pull up, opening an inch every second. By the time that the trucks had arrived from the restaurant, the door was high enough to let them pass through. They drove into the garage quickly before stopping with a jerk and a screech, opening the doors and hopping out. I hastily flipped the switch again and the doors began to lower themselves. And that's when I saw him. A block away, Lucius was running towards us, an army of ragers screaming behind him.

     This wasn't the plan. Lucius was supposed to come back through the sewers again.

     I panicked as the door started to lower almost to the height of my head, but Lucius was still a hundred meters away.

     "Quick!" I screamed at him as the door was only two meters from the ground, and lowering even further. He picked up his already lightning-fast pace until he was a meter away, when he dove through the opening as it lowered down its last meter to the floor. A moment later, it closed.

     Almost immediately, the ragers were banging and scratching at the metal door, their voices shrieking.

     "What the hell were you doing?" Dorian asked Lucius as he pushed himself up to sit on the concrete ground, "That wasn't the plan. You were supposed to come back through the sewer access."

     Lucius was breathing heavily, but he stopped to say;

     "My flashlight died."

     There was a moment of silence before Dorian let out a chuckle, and we all burst out laughing. Well, all except Colt, who I thought I might have seen smiling, but then again maybe not.

     We took a few minutes to catch up with Danny and Kit, as they told us what was happening back at camp.

     Jax and his supporters had started to become more violent now that Dorian, Lucius, and Colt were gone. They had gotten so troublesome that Jackson was struggling to keep the peace. Everyone was starving, and the violence didn't help the growing fear that they weren't going to survive.