Awakening Read online

out and fix my wardrobe. My eyes landed on a thick hood and I crawled over to find a sweater already half pulled off of a corpse whose face I thankfully could not see. Feeling as if I needed it more than they did, I began tentatively pulling at the fabric as if to test the resistance. It did not slide towards me without effort and the more I pulled at it, the more determined I became to have it.

  I nearly fell backwards when the sweater was released and my entire body shook from both the effort it had taken to retrieve it and the underlying thought that I was stealing from the dead, no matter how extreme the measures. The chill that had overtaken my body had faded with my physical exertion but the sweater was comforting nonetheless.

  Returning to my earlier task I resumed my careful crawling, wincing at the pain the movements caused and the sound of the grit scraping across the ground. I did not know exactly how bad my various injuries were or even where they were on my body, but I knew that I had to ignore the pain as best as I could in order to continue my progression. I concentrated on listening, honing in on anything that might sound like it was coming from another person, and kept on moving, carefully pulling myself across the floor. I had to do my best to avoid running into any of the dead bodies surrounding me though the further I went the more impossible it seemed that this task was ending up.

  I pulled myself over a body almost twice as large as my own and grunted as my head jarred against something incredibly hard and halted my movements completely. Surprised, I lifted and arm and tentatively felt around. It felt like some sort of stone and after making out what seemed to be masonry lines I decided I had reached a wall. It was darker here than it was in the rest of the space and I pulled myself up into a sitting position, securing my back against the wall.

  It was then that a dull clanking sound suddenly rang through my body and I held my breath as the sound continued, echoing off the walls around me. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement across the room and I looked up, seeing a shadowy figure suddenly appearing as if hovering above the room. As it came closer I realized that it was not hovering but walking on a platform that I hadn’t noticed before. My throat screamed in pain and I knew that calling out would only make it worse. So, I prepared myself to do so regardless, drawing in a deep breath and parting my lips to yell as loudly as I could. But the sound died before it was even born, replaced with a cold choking feeling in my throat that instantly dried my mouth. I watched as the figure moved slightly and then one became two. A swinging motion between them confused me for a moment before my eyes followed something large and presumably heavy flying through the air before landing on the ground with a sickeningly hollow thud. They had just tossed another body into the pile and that whispering instinct reminded me that they’d probably not take too kindly to my still being alive.

  As if he could hear my thoughts, one of the men turned to survey the room below him and for a breath I thought our eyes met before he turned away. There was a distant murmur of conversation that steadily grew louder until I could finally make out words.

  “I’m telling you, one of them was looking right at me.” He was insisting, my heartbeat pounding in my ears at the words.

  “You’re an idiot, they’re all dead.” Was the reply, the voice sounded bored and disinterested with the other’s dilemma and I hoped above everything that this would continue long enough for them to leave.

  “It wasn’t the same. It was like it was watching us.” I could hear the shudder in his voice, his fear leaking through the words.

  And apparently his companion could hear them as well. “Your mind is playing tricks on you. Don’t let anyone else hear you talking like that, they’ll think you’ve gone soft.” I could barely make out the words as he spoke, his voice full of warning. “You know they don’t like to….” The figures moved away and with it went their voices though I longed to cry out to them, wanting to know who ‘they’ were and what it was they didn’t like. When they had disappeared the clanking sound resounded through the room again and I realized that for all his reassurances, they were still locking the door. And locking me inside.

  I stayed in my hiding spot and stared around the room, trying to figure out what to do next. The dimmer light of my location meant it was easier for me to make out details in the larger part of the room and I inspected the platform from afar. I located a ladder below the platform that I would be able to use to climb up if I decided to go that way. Searching the room further I noticed what looked like a doorway in the far corner at ground level. Switching my view between these two locations, I weighed my options. If I went up the ladder and onto the platform, there was no telling if I would be able to get the door open and no assurance that it wouldn’t be guarded on the other side. Plus the likely hood of someone coming into the room when I was on the platform was high and this made me extremely nervous. I didn’t see any good coming from a confrontation with the people that thought I had died (or thought they had killed me) and had thrown me down here. Besides, I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to use a ladder at this point.

  So I used the wall to push myself up onto my feet and began the slow, unsteady, and painful process of attempting to walk across the floor and over the bodies to my chosen route. Each step I took seemed to jar my whole body and my empty stomach which was now both still churning as if I were going to throw up again at any moment but also now rumbling and reminding me that it was, indeed, empty. The sharp ache that accompanied the rumble flared to life and I groaned, forcing myself to continue walking as I made my way across the room though I was now nearly doubled over in pain. I stumbled a few times on the appendages of dead bodies, but I paid them no mind and continued on my course, finally reaching the slightly darker outline that had caught my attention earlier.

  Confusion flooded over me as I felt at it, finding no knob, hinges or even a break in the stone. Slowly I realized that it was little more than an alcove in the wall a few inches deep, not a door to freedom. My frustration erupted from my chest in a keening wail, the whispering instinct not loud enough over the rage building inside of me.

  Feeling completely defeated, I simply stood there for a moment and stared at the wall as if I could will a door onto it. Pain coursed through my body from my head to my toes, a never ending river of torment flowing under my skin and seeming to connect down to my very bones in some places. Finally the motivation to move came from somewhere inside of me, a place not willing to give up yet, and I turned towards the room again, shuffling my feet as I moved. Watching the movement of my destroyed shoes, my eyes passed over grating on the floor. But it wasn’t until several moments later when the connection was made and some semblance of hope returned within me.

  Moving towards it quickly, I fell to my knees beside it and pressed my face against the grate trying to see into the inky black darkness below. The grate seemed large, though I couldn’t be sure as it was half covered by several bodies. Though I could not see anything a new sensation sprang to life and I could smell the fresh air, food, and freedom that lay beyond. Determined to get out of this room I began pulling and pushing at the bodies blocking the grate in a desperate effort. I was slightly surprised at my own strength but used this to fuel my further attempts rather than deter me.

  It wasn’t long before the grate was uncovered and to my sheer delight when I pulled at it, it popped open in my hands. I lifted the grate out of its hole and tossed it aside before descending into the unknown… and at no better moment for as I lowered myself into the darkness I heard movement from the room.

  The air was cooler down here and filled with a stench that I could not place, though it didn’t bother me. The walls were rounded and covered in a thick layer of some sort of slime, which caused me to slip when I tried to use the wall to steady myself. My legs seemed to be weakening and I was having a bit of trouble staying on my feet. I felt a primal sort of panic at the thought of having come so far only to find my body useless and forced myself to keep going, stumbling down the passageway in a sort of slow m
otion, mad dash. I wanted to cry out for help but the now piercing pain of my empty stomach allowed no more than a guttural cry.

  Scents filled the air as I moved through the darkness and intensified as I progressed. I saw a faint light further down the passageway that I could clearly see and each step towards it seemed to further flood my senses until I felt I was nearly going mad.

  Without warning I burst through a broken gate and found myself standing outside. It was dark and I was surrounded by city buildings though the usual signs of urban life seemed to have disappeared. Not knowing where to go next, I stopped and glanced around for a moment before starting off on a randomly chosen direction. The streets were empty and filled with litter and the more lifeless roads I passed, the more my anticipation grew and spurred me on to not only continue moving but move faster, regardless of the pain now a constant ebb through my body. My senses seemed to be painfully awake and scents of the world filtered thoughts and triggered memories though I suddenly could not remember where I had come from.

  Joy seemed to fill my entire soul as I finally spotted another person. I shouted