Most of the people were asleep, scattered about on makeshift beds. The dim light of lamps flickered over the room, casting shadows over the metal walls. There were no windows within this part of the building so the lights were allowed. There had originally been sixty people within the group; there were only thirty or so left. Some had left to go out on their own, some had wanted to search for family members, or had refused to move on. Others had been killed.
My younger sister, Abby, made her way toward us. She moved swiftly and gracefully through the people sprawled on the floor. Her resemblance to our mother never failed to amaze me, from her long dark hair, to her gleaming dark eyes, and petite stature. Our mother may be gone, but there was no denying that she lived on in Abby.
She was almost to us when she stopped, her eyes widening in horror as her hand flew to her mouth. She fixated on the thing between Bret and I. “What happened!?” she cried.
“Long story,” I muttered, wanting to find some place to put our load down.
“Are you ok?”
I managed a nod, but I knew she didn’t buy it. Who could with what we held between the four of us? “Where’s Bishop?” Bret asked quietly.
“Where else would he be?” Abby retorted.
Bret and I carried the thing toward one of the back rooms. Dr. Bishop set up a laboratory and medical area in every new place that we moved into. His main area of interest had been research; unfortunately with The Freezing I had become his prime target. In the few weeks I had known him I’d been stuck with more needles than in my entire seventeen years. If I’d been a dog I probably would have bit him by now, but I’d actually come to like Bishop, needles and all.
The doctor appeared in the darkened doorway of his newest laboratory area. Even in the dim light I could clearly see the excitement that filled his gaze as he stared at the thing we held. “You’re a strange man,” I informed him. “Where do you want this thing?”
He hurried in behind us, a surprisingly bright spring in his step. He shoved papers off a long counter that had been used for equipment repairs before the aliens, and The Freezing, had left all sense of a normal life nonexistent. “Up here! Up here!” he said excitedly before flitting quickly away.
Bret rolled his eyes and shook his head. I had grown to like the seemingly frantic and discombobulated doctor, but most still found him a little creepy and annoying. Bret also didn’t like the extra attention that Bishop focused on me, even if it was only because I was his favorite pin cushion, and specimen.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I dropped the damn thing on the counter, grateful to be rid of the weight of the hideous creature. I walked over to the sink to wash my hands and arms in the large metal basin. I scrubbed vigorously, using the small scrub brush to clean the blood from under my nails. “This is amazing! Amazing!” Bishop muttered excitedly. “Maybe we can find a live specimen.”
I shot him a dark look, while Bret gaped at him incredulously. “Count your blessings with this one doc,” I informed him.
Bishop wasn’t listening to me though as he peered closely at the strange creature before him. His grey eyes were narrowed behind his glasses as he bent close to the thing. It appeared that I had been replaced as Bishop’s favorite thing to poke at, for the time being.
“It’s true.” I turned slightly, I hadn’t heard my older brother Aiden approach, but there he was in the doorway.
“Yes, yes,” Bishop said quickly. “We are very lucky. Lucky indeed.”
Aiden’s dark eyes fixated keenly on the creature lying on the counter. He had become the doc’s assistant, eager to explore and learn anything that Bishop had to teach him. Before the aliens arrived a year ago Aiden had wanted to be a doctor, a scientist, or had wanted to work for NASA even. He had wanted to know the secrets the skies held. Unfortunately we knew the answers to those secrets now, and they had not been as wonderful as Aiden, or any of us, had dreamed. After the aliens arrived our education had become more restricted and NASA had been shut down six months after. Aiden may have lost his dreams, but his curiosity had never waned and he was eagerly turning that curiosity and intelligence to research, and medical training, with Bishop.
“Awesome,” Aiden breathed.
I shook my head at my brother as he hurried forward. We were blood, good friends, and I loved him, but he confounded me. Abby must have just woken him as his honey blond hair, so similar to mine, was disheveled and standing on end. His brown eyes were still swollen with sleep but he was very alert. “You wouldn’t think it was so awesome if you had seen what it did to Sarah,” I said softly.
He turned back to me, his face going slack with horror. “Sarah’s dead?”
“Yes.”
Regret flashed across his handsome features, he looked slightly abashed. “What did it do?” Bishop asked quietly and for the first time not with excitement.
It was Bret that filled them in on the awful events as I couldn’t find the words to describe the horror. I didn’t think there were any. I leaned against the wall, staring at my ratty shoes as I fought the urge to vomit. Darnell joined us in the room, his dark eyes were haunted, his full lips clamped tight. I didn’t know where they had placed Sarah until she could be buried, and I didn’t want to know. I had seen enough of the damage that had been done to her.
“Amazing,” Bishop murmured when Bret finished filling him in on the details.
“Stop saying that!” My tone was far sharper than I had intended, but my fear and anger came surging to the forefront. “They’re notamazing. They’re awful Bishop, they’re awful.”
They all stared at me for a long moment. I had been so emotionless lately that any sign of feeling was a surprise to them. Though they seemed stunned, relief flickered over Aiden’s features. “You’re right,” Bishop said softly.
“What do you say we get some sleep and let the science wizards do their thing?” Bret touched my arm gently; the sympathy in his gaze set my teeth on edge.
I nodded my agreement, I was exhausted, bone weary. I needed to get away from here for awhile, needed to get away from that thing. All I wanted was to lie down for a little bit before we had to do it all over again tomorrow. Abby was sitting on a pile of blankets in the corner of the building that we had claimed as our own. The light of the small lamp highlighted the anxiety radiating from her pretty face. Jenna was next to her, curled up against the wall sleeping soundly.
“That thing really is dead, right?” she asked worriedly.
“It’s dead,” Bret confirmed.
I curled up on my thin pile of blankets and tucked an old sweatshirt under my head as a pillow. Facing the wall, I turned my back on the others, unable to look at them. I was afraid they would see the agony and defeat that was slowly crushing my soul. I stared unseeingly at the night as the others settled in around me. I hated nights the most, when I was alone, when I was stuck with just my thoughts and my heartache. When I was trapped with the realization that I may never see Cade again, never touch him, never kiss him, never have the chance to tell him that I loved him too.
I had always held out some hope that I would find him, held out some hope that one day we would be reunited. It was what had kept me going for the past couple of weeks. After what I’d seen today nearly all of that hope was gone. How did we defeat these things, how would I ever get him back from them even if I did miraculously find him alive? They were everywhere, they were far more powerful than us, and now they had revealed that their monsterscould even look like us, not just them.
How could I ever get him back?
For the first time I let myself accept the fact that I couldn’t, that I probably wouldn’t. Agony tore through me; I curled up in a tighter ball as I pressed my fist against my mouth. I bit on my knuckles in order to keep my screams and sobs of anguish suppressed. I couldn’t breathe, could barely see, I couldn’t stand the hurt that was consuming me. I wasn’t survive I could survive this bone wrenching agony. Though tears burned my eyes, I did not shed them, they would not fall.