Page 6 of Hunt Me
I look around the dark pit that we are in. Two tunnels stretch to either side of us, sending a shiver up the back of my neck.
The mask before me shifts back again as a deep chuckle sounds behind it. Then he moves, lunging towards me with a large hand and before I can think, I bolt to my right.
My muscles burn in protest, sore after the fall.
The tunnel has little pockets of sunlight shining in through the drains above lighting my way as I sprint away from the mad man following me.
??
I don’t know how long I’ve been running in this semi-darkness, tracking through the underground of the city I’ve taken refuge in, but as I round this next corner, taking the gamble of turning left so I’m not doubling back on myself, the light at the end causes my splashing steps to halt.
Light. Not natural. Not light like the one warming my skin from the next drain above. No, this light is coming from a fire — a fire someone must have made.
The distant sounds of chuckling travel through the tunnel behind me, the masked Skull approaching.
What’s worse — the danger you know or taking the gamble with the one you don’t?
I know that The Skulls have a reputation for a reason — a reason why so many people begin to shake when they hear their name.
I’m transported back to how mad Jane’s voice quivered as she spoke of them.
‘You don’t understand they are evil. They are worse than evil. They string people up around the city, letting the seagulls peck them clean to the bone. Do you know they eat the eyeballs first?’
We all stood there looking at her. What do you say to that? Yes. Yes, we do know because it turns out that The Skulls aren’t original in that aspect. Turns out a large amount of the evil proportion of us survivors take sick satisfaction in watching the birds eat their victims.
‘We’ve come across some people like that before. It never gets easy. I’m sorry you had to see it.’ Amelia responded, taking her hand.
‘They are everywhere, you can’t do anything without them knowing, without them turning up and killing everyone. They destroy everything.’ She sobbed.
Those were the last words she spoke to us before curling into her bivy.
The following day we woke up and she was gone.
Isla was on watch that night. ‘She was spooked that we were heading through Glasgow. Said thinking of them brings back bad memories.’
‘So?’ I asked, my gaze flicking to her split bottom lip.
‘She said we’d be dead soon anyway…’ then nodded to our bags.
Isla didn’t need a response. She didn’t need the sympathy. We all knew we’d do whatever it took to look out for our own even if that meant hurting others, even when all they might need is someone to have their own back.
People are afraid and when people are scared they do stupid things.
‘Fuck it,’ I whisper as I slink down the tunnel towards the fire.
The water begins to dry up the closer I get. The floor bathed in the warm orange tones of the dancing flames. Without the stench of decay and if I didn’t know any better it would be almost peaceful if I didn’t know better.
It has always been an unwritten rule of my girls — never to enter the hidden undergrounds of the world we walk on. A place that was concealed from the ignorant people before the virus.
Now it is often a place of hell. The most evil of us crave certain atmospheres, where we feel we thrive. Some of those places are in darkness, where fear is heightened by our imaginations. The most blatantly evil of us survivors thrive in those environments.
In this environment.
My steps are carefully silent as I put one foot in front of the other, approaching the rounding archway.
I stand to the side, plastering myself flat against the wall.
There is a different smell now.
