Walking with the Dead

Chapter 18

My whole being shook at the revelation we walked into.

Kyle is being brought back from the dead.

I felt my hands shaking as I pulled Ariel up with much effort as she began shutting down again. Her hands are shaking and I think her legs are buckling under her weight. Her mouth is gaping and tears somehow made their way out of her eyes.

No. I mentally shook my head. No. Not when we’re making progress. Not when I realized that Ariel likes me. This can’t be happening!

 A part of me is happy for Ariel but a dominant part of me, the selfish part, hopes that she’s mistaken… that this is not Kyle’s tube and that he will not return from the dead. If he does, I’ll have to face the consequence namely, losing the only girl that breeched my defenses.

I shook Ariel by her shoulders to snap her back to reality. “Ariel, come on. Let’s get going. If it is Kyle’s tube then we need to find him and fast.” This seems to have snapped her out of her daze as her head turned to my direction. She took three deep breaths and nodded at me, composing herself.

“Y-You’re right, Keenan. I… I can’t get my hopes to high. I can’t just assume that it is Kyle’s… tube. You’re right. You’re right.” She said mumbling to herself. Oh, great going, fucking Jordan George! You have practically broken Ariel… again!

I pulled her out of the room as she composed herself and bring back the scary Ariel up front again. Closing the door to the room, I held her hand tight and stared at her almond colored eyes.

“Ariel… Ariel! Look at me, baby. Come on,” I muttered lifting her chin so that she faces me completely. Ariel’s face came into view and I saw her tear streaked eyes waver as she tried to keep focused.

“Jordan George’s breaking you. He’s trying to make you weak so he can get under your skin. Listen to me, Ariel, we both need to focus. Right now, what we need is to destroy the facility’s defenses so that Guilmore’s army comes marching in here without problem, yeah? Are we clear, Ariel?”

Ariel nodded hesitantly. I gave her a quick peck on the forehead before putting my hand in the small of her back to assist her in the last door. Standing outside the last white, steel door, I could practically hear my own heart beating and Ariel’s erratic breathing.

“Whatever we see in this last room, you always remember that we’re together on this, alright?” I said gripping her hand tightly. She turned to me and nodded.

“I… I’m sorry, Keenan,” she whispered to me and I just nodded in response. She gripped my hand tightly as well. “I like you, okay? I really, really like you and I know this is putting a strain on our newly fou--”

“It’s okay,” I said facing her that we are now face to face. I know she’ll say that she’ll try to make everything better between us but I don’t want to stress her more by forcing her to choose between her ex-husband and me. I just… I just want to protect her.

I twisted the door handle and pushed the door open.

We were met with a large room the size of half a football field. The walls are colored white and there is nothing more in the room but the two of us. We both looked around the room and saw that there is a glass window in the upper part of the wall just enough for observation. I heard the door click shut behind us and felt my blood run cold.

There are black speakers that echoed feed back before the chill of Jordan George’s voice rang through the room.

“Well! Did you enjoy the entire tour? I hope you do! I heard that you are quite the duo, Assault General Ariel Conner and Sniper Private Keenan Lowes. I heard all your exploits around the area and wanted to see how you work as a team! Although I could see that a cheating whore sticking around her Private is quite disgusting.”