Past the Storm

Chapter Thirteen

I lied on the ground, breathing quickly. The sky above was dark gray, very different from the bright blue sky I used to always see. "Reed!" Taylor ran over to me, I scooted away, afraid she was still angry.
I felt her hands gently lie on my ribs. An almost unbearable pain struck me every time I breathed. She pressed her ear against my lungs and listened intently. "Jason must have fractured your ribs. You'll live but you'll be in a lot of pain." She shouldered her bag into her lap and ruffled through it. "Sorry, Jason had all the pain meds."
I pulled myself up, "I'll be fine, let's go."
An eerie screen of silence lied across the city. I wondered where all of the creatures went. "So, where to?" I tried to cover my pain with cheerfulness. Truthfully I knew I would never get home, I would become one of the creatures because of Jason's experiment, or simply I would die. I would rather die than become one of those creatures. I never thought of what happens after death but it had to be better than this.
"Hayven College." Taylor's muscles rippled as she walked. Her tan cargo pants were ripped and her right leg was wrapped in gauze, blood seeped through it.
"Oh cool, I think Sam went there. And that's where our time machine went."
"Sam," Taylor said thoughtfully. "Tell me about him."
"Well at first me and him were on the same ship," I began, eager to talk about my companion, "he kinda spread the Black Plague and I got it so the captain threw me off the ship. I lived and found Sam again but after a while we had to go back to the 31st century." I paused, scanning the musty surroundings for anything dangerous, " Once we finally got to the time machine it broke and we were sent to the 1700s. Sam had to join the military, I got shot, I found Sam's old base of whatever and finally we got back. It's a long story, I'm surprised no one's written a book about it." I laughed, thinking about the fact someone would write about me."
I looked instinctively at Taylor, her face showed pure disturbance. "What? Was it something that I said?" I scrunched up my eyebrows, confused.
She pointed her finger at my arm and touched my skin, with a simple brush a layer of skin fell off. I looked over my skin shocked. My arms were bright red. I imagined I was dreaming, but dreams didn't have pain.
I shook my head, dizzy with fear, "Jason" I muttered.
"C'mon," we should hurry. Taylor gingerly grabbed my arm and pulled me along. My whole body burned, I assumed it was because my skin was probably about to all fall off, and I felt like I was being stabbed every time I breathed.
"Let's just give up," I stopped. The darkening sky seemed to be adjusting to the mood.
Taylor glared at me, "Alright."