Desolation ✔️

Chapter 4: Gone

That night, something terrible occurs in the Safe House while everyone sleeps.

Carter and I settle into bed earlier than usual since my head throbs worse. The bump on my forehead triggered dizzy spells and headaches since that first night, but it just seems worse tonight.

Probably because the Safe House erupts in chaos.

Several men shout on the floors below us while footsteps thud nonstop down the halls. One woman accuses another woman of taking her water bottles while guards try calming her down.

When I pull a pillow over my face in an attempt to block out the noise, Carter leaves to get medication from Millie for me. Out of all the noises in the Safe House, the worst one is probably the pounding in my ears from my throbbing head. I fall on the next best painkiller: sleep.

But my dreams...they feel so real.

I smell something chemically, like a house cleaning product.

I hear our door knob rattling—then stopping.

A gunshot...but we can't carry guns.

Screams. But those never stop anyway.

And several hours later, when I roll over and feel Carter still hasn't returned, I sit up.

My head no longer throbs and it's...quiet. Something's not right.

"Carter?" I blink away darkness. I could turn on the lights, but I'm afraid to move.

Something's not right. Move.

I push myself slowly out of bed and tiptoe towards the door. Our door...is locked. From the inside. It wasn't before. I know Carter wouldn't have locked it knowing he needed to get back in. Had I sleep-walked and locked it? Oh no...did Carter try getting back in? Was I sleeping too heavy to hear? Why was it locked? It shouldn't have been locked...

I twist the lock quickly and grab the door knob just as a growl emerges from the other side. I let go and leap away quickly.

Oh no. One of the infected got inside the Safe House....

The Safe House is infected...the Safe House...no longer safe. Was someone in here already sick? Could the guards have missed it? No, that's not possible. I watched people turn in a matter of seconds at the Safe House gates. Everyone in here had been checked. We were safe.

So what happened? And where's Carter?

I fight the urge to call out again. What if it heard me?

I skim the room for something to use as self-defense. Just a bed, a dresser with empty drawers, a lamp, and the cell phone no longer in service.

The closet.

I tiptoe to the closet and peer inside.

Great. All the hangers are plastic. Of course. We were rounded up like chickens in a coop only to be slaughtered in our own sanctuary.

Clank!

I freeze. Look over my shoulder.

Door: still locked.

I can't stay here. But where the hell is Carter?

Quickly, I move back towards the door and grab the pencil off the dresser. Lame, but it's better than nothing, right?

I twist the knob slowly. Here goes.

But when I yank it open...darkness floods in. So does silence.