The Corrupted (Completed - editing)

Chapter 1 - "Escape"

*Unedited: Will be undergoing major re-writes soon*

 "Hurry up Simon!" My voice echoes through the dark, claustrophobic tunnel, but I keep crawling. I can feel the sweat droplets running down my face, as the heat in here is pretty extreme. 

"I'm coming, I'm coming!  You know I have asthma!" I hear Simon respond, followed by heaving panting. The thought of him with his goofy glasses, and his little asthma inhaler was just too cute of a sight to see. 

As I turn the corner, light slowly starts to shine through, creating an image of the walls around me. The tunnel was made out of metal, which explains why it was so hot.

I pick up the pace, feeling my knees scrape against the bottom of the textured metal. I scurry towards the light and burst out of the tunnel panting. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust, and I hear a shout from behind me. I look down... and I was falling. My body jolts, and I'm suddenly suspended in the air. Looking up, I see that Simon had grabbed my wrist, and was only hanging onto the tunnel with one hand. The backpack that we'd filled with supplies, was slowing sliding down his shoulder, creating another difficulty.

"E-Eve... W-We need to jump." Simon's voice quivers, as he looks at me with fearful eyes. I nod slowly, and he lets go of my wrist sending me straight towards the disgustingly green lake. My stomach wrenches inside of itself, as I shut my eyes and plunge into the water below, sending a massive explosion of water flying all around. My body sinks further and further down into the foggy green water, and I fling my eyes open in realisation as I flail my hands around, desperately trying to get to the surface. I sprout upwards from the water as I gasp desperately for air. Looking around, I can't see Simon anywhere. I see a mop of black hair rise to the surface, followed by gasps for air and I sigh in relief. I quickly swim over to him, dragging the poor tired Simon to shore then flopping down onto the soggy wet grass. Everything from head to toe ached in pain, so I decided to distract myself by staring up at the beautiful blue sky. I can still hear Simon wheezing uncontrollably and look over to his chest rising and falling rapidly. He looks back at me, and generates a small smile, although still panting. I suddenly remembered something,  and pulled out his asthma puffer from my pocket.

"Here ya go. You probably might need this," I say, offering him the asthma puffer. His smile is quickly replaced by a glare for several seconds, before taking his asthma puffer and taking breaths in over and over. I stand up and look at the pond, and the huge, washed out concrete wall we had just emerged from. From the looks of it, we hadn't emerged from a tunnel. It was a pipe. Simon slowly stands up next me, putting his puffer away in his pocket.

"You still got the backpack?" I ask, finally able to catch my breath.

"Oh, yeah. Here." He replies, picking up the soggy, dripping backpack from the ground and offering it to me. I pluck it from his fingers carefully trying to not get the mud on me and search through it. I pick out a screwdriver looking thing and hand it to Simon. This would disable our trackers. When we were put in that place 3 years ago, the military put a tracker on all of us, so they could know if any of us went missing. It was physically impossible to get these trackers off, but there was a way to disable them. Simon takes my wrist where the band is, and smashes the back of it. A huge weight had just been lifted off my shoulders, relieving my stress and anxiety. Finally, we were free. For so long it felt like we were locked in a prison, but they never told us why. Looking around now, I don't see anything wrong. Everything looks natural, apart from the fact that the roads were cracked and power lines were knocked over. It was a deserted waste land. But the question is... What was everyone hiding from?

                                                                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a while of talking, but mostly just staying quiet and observing, Simon quietly says, "It's almost 3pm. We need to get going and find some shelter, unless you want to freeze that is?"