BEYOND THE DEAD ZONE | COMPLETE

Forty-Seven |

Forty-Seven |

    "Is it just me," I spoke slowly, allowing the words to become more tangible on my tongue. "Or is there something strange going on?"

    Persephone nodded, her head making sudden jerking movements as she seemed to be absorbing the scene. Or rather, not-scene. We'd made it to the tunnel entrance fast and peacefully. There was nothing to be seen—no delta zombies, no birds in the tree, just nothingness. It seemed like not even the wind was blowing. Everything was just frozen. 

    "Strange," she finally murmured. "I smell...blood."

Anxiety rose in my chest, and I took a sharp breath. That certainly didn't make me feel any better. Not one bit. I rubbed my arms gently before moving forward and towards the tunnel. As much as I wanted some piece of mind, there was nothing for us to do but move forward into the unknown and possibly Cora's clutches. 

As we reached the tunnel that I'd used previously to escape Bio-Gen, I paused. There was a jump down at the end, how would we get up? I'm sure we'd have to scale the wall or figure out another way but if we did have to figure out another way what then?

"Cora must have figured out a way," I muttered softly. 

If she was even here. 

Persephone turned to me slightly. "She did go this way."

"How do you know?" I murmured. 

She grinned. "I can smell her."

Right. 

Of course. 

I sighed, letting her go. She moved forward like a blur and for a brief moment I didn't know if I truly stared at a person or an unkept beast. But I guessed she couldn't be fully unkept, it seemed for some reason, she was happy to be at my command. Not that it was something that had me fully convinced. In the very least, I held a sense of calmness. Honestly, I felt safe around her. From what I knew and saw Persephone had always been more than honest. Sure, she was hard to understand at times but that really was more of a me issue. 

I kept my hand out in front of me as we moved, my fingers brushing against the back of her shirt, and it seemed that the girl had slowed to give me that security. I almost didn't understand it. The way she was careful to lead me through the dark. It was almost ironic—the blind leading someone who had their sight hindered.  

Slowly, a light was cast above us as we reached that dreaded ledge. I frowned, was it that high last time? My silly thoughts of scaling the wall or simply reaching up and climbing out slowly melted away. Shit. That meant more time wasted. 

"Why have we stopped?"

I took a breath realizing this was probably extremely confusing for her. 

"We are in front of a wall, there's an opening above us uh," I paused trying to think of a description she could visualize. "About ten feet? The height of a small tree?" 

"And?"

"Well, we need to find a better way," I sighed. "I can't climb that."

Suddenly, I found the girl clutching my goddamn legs before lifting me. A scream tore from my lips as the girl had the strength of a bear as she hoisted me upwards. My heart quickened and I moved quickly to grab the brim of the ledge before pulling myself up. I could feel the metal cut into the soft pads of my fingers and my poor upper body strength had my arms shaking but I managed to pull myself out and under the bush before rolling onto my back to stare up at that large, dome wall. 

There it was. 

Like a symbol of doom and hope. 

I sat up realizing that Persephone was still in the tunnel. As I crawled towards the bush that hid the tunnel entrance, I let out a startled noise as her face appeared before mine. My heart jolted with that mini heart attack, and I wheezed for air. 

"How the hell?" I gasped. 

She hummed, moving as a blur to stand at my back. "I see you."

I scrambled to stand up, looking in horror as a figure emerged from the tree line. My horror only thickened as none other than Helen Meitner stepped forward. She was just as I remembered: dressed in a long, clean lab coat. Her blonde hair pulled back into a neat bun and her face blank. However, there was something wrong about the woman too. Her eyes were bloodshot, her veins black and more terrifying, the skin on her bottom jaw had been peeled back, revealing her gums and teeth. I took a cautious step back, my eyes flickering towards Persephone. I felt safe and yet, I couldn't fully trust her actions. 

"Silly girl," Helen smirked which only made her look more and more like a fucking nightmare. "You can't see anything. Remember? I took your eyes." 

Anger built inside me as Persephone's shoulders tensed. 

"Such a big move," I snapped sarcastically. "Taking a fucking child's eyes. Wow. You're so cool. I bet you needed help to do it too. Ah but you see us as nothing but experiments right? What kind of weak shit is that?" 

Her head tilted towards me. "Alpha. So, you know the truth. The master said you might."

I puffed out my chest. "Yeah. And? You want a fucking cookie?" 

"I did not come to fight. I've come to show you the way."

"The way to what?" I demanded. 

Her grin grew, the flesh near her cheeks splitting and allowing that black blood to pour down her face. I bit back a wave of disgust and kept my gaze firm. I'd stare this bitch down in her dead eyes, no amount of nightmare fuel would get me to look away. 

"The future." 

I didn't move, a small smirk grew on my face. "You mean Cora? You're saying a whole lot of nothing right now. Cora's the future? That's horseshit." 

Her grin melted. "Master will--"

"You're dead!" I yelled, throwing up my hands and for a moment forgetting the horrors. "Your life has stopped! She stopped your life and you speak of the future? Jesus Christ. You're falling apart. Literally. How can you be the future when your clock has stopped? You're a moment of the past and that's where you'll remain. A ghost of the past. You can haunt this surface all you want but eventually your body will turn to ash and return to the moment you were meant to die in." 

"That's not—"

"Yeah," I laughed bitterly, sadness seeping into my words as I realized the truth. "Yeah. It is. We're all just moments of the past. The virus—both of them—all of them, they weren't supposed to go this far. The dome. It's a moment of time perfect preserved by the virus but that's it. There is no speak of the rest of the world because it's so far out of our reality. We have nothing else to do but wait for our expiration." 

Persephone tilted her head towards me as if to say something but held back. 

Was it because of Helen?

"No." The former scientist screamed. "No. No! No!"

Her body contorted in a fit of rage. I could see her bones popping horribly in places as she moved from hunched to bending backwards but I couldn't look away. Any fear I felt I pushed away as I calmly watched on as this delta who was slowly revealing that she was less and less the person she once was and more and more of the monster Cora made her to be.

My eyes rolled. I didn't fear her--I wasn't afraid of ghosts. "Where's Cora?"

She stopped, looking at me with anger. "Special Alpha. So special."

"If you're not going to explain why then I don't need to hear it."

Her eyes narrowed but she didn't speak. Good. Whatever great secret that my body held—whatever Cora found out in my stolen pedigree could wait. It hadn't changed my life in fourteen years so it couldn't do so now. 

"Well then," I clapped my hands together with false bravery. "Take me to her."