Fractured (19 page)

He shuddered, thinking about the corpses that lay in their little break room. They were ticking time bombs, waiting to come back to life.

Don’t think about it
, he told himself.

Bash turned her head back to him, a look of hope crossing her face. “Could we get him the antibiotics from his room?”

The thought had crossed Seth’s mind, but he vetoed it. “I just want to get him out of here,” he said. “And I don’t know how to get to our room. The sooner we can get out, the sooner we can leave this place, and then some doctors can take care of him. I just want him out,” he added for emphasis.

Bash nodded in resignation. If they weren’t going to get antibiotics, she could guess what else they weren’t going to get. Or who.

But she still asked. “What about Lily?” she said quietly.

“What
about
Lily?” Seth growled. Sure, she was possessed, but it was still her fault they were in this clusterfuck. He just wanted to get his loved ones out while there was still time. He knew he was thinking like the scared mob that had blamed Bash and Lily for this nightmare, but he was realizing that it was halfway true.

“I’m not leaving without her,” Bash insisted.

Seth took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply, willing her to understand. “We’ll come back for her. Right now, we need to leave, get help, and then everything is going to be all right.”

I hope
.

Bash nodded, but he saw the tears spring to her eyes. He was hurting her by wanting to leave Lily, but there was no guarantee that Rick or Abyzou hadn’t torn her apart. Or worse. She most likely wasn’t alive. Right now, he was concerned about the living and unpossessed.

“Do you even think we
can
move Scott?” Bash asked, voicing the worst of Seth’s fears. Her face was white, her eyes were wide open, but she had put on a brave face.

“We have to,” Seth said. “I’m not going to let him turn into one of those things.” He glanced over to Naomi’s and Jeb’s bodies, even though Bash couldn’t see it.

“Wait, you’re not leaving us, are you?” another voice asked, accusingly.

Seth turned his head to see a fat man at his elbow, his piggy-eyed face red from exertion. He looked severely pissed off. Seth recognized him as one of the people who had originally accused Bash of causing this. That man hadn’t trusted him, and now, Seth didn’t appreciate the same person complaining about being left behind by one of the ‘witches’.

Sensing that, Bash reached out and gingerly touched his arm. “Seth...”

He didn’t know what she meant for him to do, but he was feeling surly at that point.

“Do you want to come with us?” he asked, letting the sarcasm edge into his voice.

“Abso-fucking-lutely!” the man said. “I’m not staying here another minute.”

Seth opened his mouth to make another comment, but then he saw the throng of scared people behind him. They wanted out of this nightmare too. While a lot had been hostile towards them, they didn’t deserve to be stuck in this hell. Even if the fat man in front of him might.

“You can come with us,” Seth said, struggling to keep his voice under control. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he wasn’t going to leave willing people behind. “It
is
going to be dangerous though.” He didn’t really know that as a fact, though his gut told him that their lives were at stake. Then again, people were dying here too.

“I’m staying.”

Maria appeared at his elbow, her arms crossed across her chest. She had a deep frown creasing her eyebrows together. The bump at her hairline from being thrown against the wall was purpling and her eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion. She did not look happy.

“Maria?” Bash asked. She reached out towards Maria, but the other woman twisted away from her.

“I’m staying,” Maria repeated, shaking her head. “You might think that you’re getting out, but I can’t. Not with my
flaco
somewhere here.” Tears sprung to her eyes.

“Don’t, Maria,” Bash said, her voice breaking.

The other woman glared at her, despite the fact that Bash couldn’t see it. Seth saw it though, and he knew what it meant. Even after only knowing Maria for two months, he knew that there was no point in arguing with her or trying to convince her once she made up her mind.

“He’s not coming back,” Seth told her.

“How the fuck do you know?” Maria demanded. “
Mi corazon
is alive. I won’t leave him.”

“We could come back for him,” Bash said, desperate. “Once we get out, we could—”

“Are you
sure
?” Seth asked, cutting Bash off. It was the last time he was going to press Maria. After that, he didn’t care.

She nodded firmly. “Somewhere, Rick is here. I’m going to stay, for him. He might come back to this place, and if we’re not here...I don’t know if he could find us. Besides, we don’t know what’s out there. Better stay with what we know than risk what else there could be.”

A few others nodded in agreement. Bash made as if she were going to comment, but Seth spoke for her.

“Best of luck, then, Maria,” he said in a short, clipped manner. He pointed to the three corpses. “I suggest you tie those three up or get rid of them somehow.” He shook his head. Once they were gone, these people who were staying behind were no longer his problem. Seth was getting those he loved out. Everyone else could choose for themselves. “We’re leaving.” He addressed the group of people that wanted to go with him. “If you’re coming with us, get what you want to keep. We’re not coming back.”

People scrambled to gather their things, while Seth took care of his little brother. He bent down, gingerly picking up Scott in a fireman’s carry. The jostle woke up the younger man enough for him to open his eyes.

His lips were really chapped, his eyes were bloodshot, and his skin was a sickly shade of green. Seth thought about Naomi dying so suddenly. She was healthy and fine, and then a few hours later, she was dead from an asthma attack. Was that happening to his brother as well? Did being here make the sick get sicker until they eventually died?

“We’re getting out,” he said through gritted teeth. “We’re going to take care of you. Get you some antibiotics”

Confusion crossed Scott’s face, like he didn’t understand what Seth was saying. “Why are there...kids...with us?”

“What kids?” Seth asked. Fortunately, there were no kids in their group, although Seth shuddered to think about what happened to the kids in the hotel. What if they were all dead?

“Four kids...” Scott said. He sounded drunk. “A girl...three boys...all young...bloody...”

Seth whirled on his baby brother in fear. How did he know? How the hell did Scott know about that? He held his breath in fear, wondering if he was going to say something about it again.

“Is he going to be okay?” Bash whispered, breaking into the silence.

“He has to be,” Seth said.

They all had to be.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Bash was to be the second person to go into the ducts.

With Scott barely conscious, Seth couldn’t go in first because he wouldn’t be able to maneuver very well, and since Bash was blind, she needed a bit of guidance. There was a bit of a kerfuffle between their small group as to who would go first. Eventually Bash’s ski guide Rodney, who had gotten caught up in everything when he was having a date at the restaurant, shakily raised his hand and volunteered to go first.

Bash insisted on going second, no matter how much Seth protested.

“If there’s anyone—any
thing
in there with us,” she said, “I’ll be able to hear them.” She didn’t know what they’d do if something did happen, and she was hoping they wouldn’t have to deal with that.

Behind her came the fat man—Neil—who had insisted on coming along, a man named Ben, then a girl named Lindsay, followed by Seth and Scott. Everyone else opted to remain behind with Maria, waiting for the help that Bash believed would never come. They had taken Seth’s recommendation and tied up the other corpses with jackets and sweaters. Someone had commented that it felt like they were desecrating the dead. No one argued much beyond that. The need to be safe trumped the want for decency. Someone had suggested dismembering them, but they couldn’t find anything to do it with.

Even though the unknown was dangerous, Bash was glad to move on. She was glad for some sort of change.

“All right,” Rodney declared, a tremble in his voice, “I guess I’ll go.”

“Good luck,” Bash whispered, her throat dry. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Someone boosted him up into the ceiling, and she followed. It was a tight squeeze and she was suddenly very aware of how close the metal walls were to her. While she said she’d be able to hear if something was coming their way, all she could really hear at first was her own heartbeat.

She was nervous. That had to be it.

We’re not burned to a crisp, at least that’s a good sign,
she thought. She wondered how long that was going to last.

“Bash?” Rodney’s voice came back to her, muffled in the confined space.

“I’m here,” she called back. She blindly reached out and felt his shoe. He wasn’t too far from her.

Someone came up behind her.

“Oof,” Neil said behind her. “Move!”

Bash took a deep breath and trudged onward, despite a tinge of annoyance. It was loud and claustrophobic in the ducts, and the metal buckled and clanked under her weight as she moved forward. It was amazing that Rick could move in the walls without making too much noise. No one else had heard him except her. She felt like they were in a metal coffin. Every sound and movement was amplified tenfold. It was deafening.

By the time the others got inside the duct it was so loud Bash was already developing a headache. She was desperately hoping that they wouldn’t have to be here very long. The thought of turning around and going back was getting more appealing with every step, yet Neil kept pushing her further and further along.

“You still with me, Rodney?” she asked, her voice echoing off the metal casing.

“Yeah.” Rodney did not sound at all enthused.

Bash strained her ears to hear anything that could be wrong, but the noise of everyone’s movement meant her efforts were worthless. She wondered how Seth was getting along with Scott. They had taken Seth’s sweater, torn it into strips, and fashioned a sling for Scott. Seth planned to pretty much drag Scott behind him in the ducts. The situation wasn’t ideal, but as Seth pointed out, what other choice do they have? After what happened in the break room, Bash could only agree.

She shuddered, remembering Naomi’s death. It
smelled
bad, even across the room, so much that Bash knew that something unnatural was happening. She hadn’t wanted Seth to go over there, despite her own curiosity. She knew it could only end terribly.

Naomi had been nice to her too, even if her information was cryptic. Bash couldn’t blame her for not knowing more. The information the professor did have about Abyzou was discomforting and she felt a chill just thinking about it.

“
Abyzou
,” she said out loud, testing the strange word on her tongue. It felt alien and evil.

“You say something?” Rodney asked.

“No,” she whispered to him, shocked that he heard. “Nothing.”

“You said ‘Abyzou’, didn’t you?” Rodney sounded panicked at the mention of the name. “That demon that’s causing all of this.”

“Don’t worry about—”

She blindly crawled another foot forward, her bad arm aching in protest. Her hand touched a vent that opened out to the room below. She realized, too late, that the vent wouldn’t hold both of their weights. The vent gave way beneath her, and she and Rodney tumbled into the darkness below.

Bash screamed and landed hard on her side, crying out as a torn piece of metal from the vent sliced through her left forearm, which had already been injured from the explosion in the restaurant. The fall had knocked the wind out of her, and she rolled onto her back, clutching her shredded arm to her side. Thick liquid was gushing from it. She had cut something deeply.

Fuck!
her oxygen-deprived mind shouted.
FUCK!

“You okay down there?” Neil asked from above.

“We’ve fallen through!” she answered after she had caught her breath. She groaned, trying to prop herself up on her good arm. Her side ached from the fall. Who knew how bad her arm was? “I’m hurt though.”

“Shit,” Neil said. “Fucking shit...”

“Tell Seth that I’m down here!” she hoarsely yelled back up. He’d know what to do. She hoped. Neil grunted as he crossed the gaping hole. Just two more people had get across the rift and she’d be able to talk to Seth. She heard them chattering to each other, trying to figure out how they were going to make it across. She didn’t care as long as Seth could help her.

She needed to take stock of her situation, otherwise she wasn’t going to be much help. She reached out in the darkness, realizing that she hadn’t heard from Rodney since they had fallen. He should have been cursing just as much as her. She had immediately cried out in pain, so she would expect Rodney to be in the same boat. There were any number of things that could have happened to him, each worse than the last.