Capture

Chapter 19: Roman Room

Chapter 19: Roman Room

"I can't reach, you do it."

"No way! You'll push me!

"Get your elbow out of my face!"

"Stop cheating!"

"For the love of everything holy, will someone please move the spinner!"

Everything was at a standstill. All the humans had been underground for an entire week. the Naturals had arrived sometime during that which meant no above ground work, no laundry, no hunting, and no cooking, etc.. Everyone was going stir crazy with the need to get out or do something. Not even those in charge of keeping the floors clean were willing to give up their work to willing hands, just out of sheer boredom.

I fiddled with the strings of my hoodie, glancing between pages and Smat's posse. I could see Ismene on the side doing the same with her own book. I was currently seated in a recliner, studying Manu's medical journals, he used to be a human doctor during the Human Age. He had brought them down on one of his visits to me. His presence disturbed some of the humans. I tried my best to ignore them, as well as Topher's sulking gaze. The few how didn't shrink back were the ones who worked above ground.

Smat was true to his word. When the boredom became to much for him, he got out Twister. It wasn't the official game rather a white bed sheet that had been painted the colors. The spinner was stole from another board game with a piece of paper placed under it, labeled with the colors in pen. Smat had tried to get me to join, but the last thing I would want would to be touched be others, an idea that Smat couldn't wrap his head around.

"Lee, could you prove to be decent person for all of humanity, or what's left of it, and move the spinner?" Smat pleaded from his position on the floor, his body bent into a crab walk with two different girls and an other guy coping him.

He was referring to me. Smat had a thing for nicknames and he knew that everyone hated the ones he came up with.  His earlier works, not all but some were: Nat Nat, Housefly, and Blood Baby. Those weren't even the worst. When he back tracked to Lee, I allowed it with chagrin.

With a huff, I leaned forward towards the scratched coffee table and gave the spinner a flick with my fingers. It skid a section before becoming unyielding. I read the color aloud before Smat let out a groan. The entire group began to shift when Topher came barreling down the hall. With particular gazes frozen on his form, the posse came down with gravity. They all let out a collected grumbles as they detangled themselves. Smat bounded up on shaky legs and approached Topher, an annoyed look plastered.

"What the hell was that for, Bean Burger?" Smat yelled getting red in the face, way too angry over the ending of a game. Everyone visibly scooted away from the confrontation.

"I only came into the room." Topher brushed him off and began to walk away when he was pushed.

"Exactly, and threw everyone off their game, just like you knew would happened." He pressed a finger into Topher's chest. Topher smacked away Smat's hand. "You did that on purpose!"

Topher attempted to walk away from the shorter boy. Smat launched himself at his back. The brawling had begun.

They had been going at it a lot as of late. I knew that we were all feeling frustrated but this wasn't the friendly row that they would have. This was all fists. Topher mostly dodged in the beginning before, all of Smat's antics got the better of him, and he went for his own hits. There was no one else here who got into those types of fights.

The lights above flickered before going out. It was silent for a moment before screams where heard. I was up and out of my chair, blindly fumbling around. My hands caught clothing and passing skin. Others brushed up against me. Shouts bounced against the walls.

We where eight stories under dirt and I wasn't sure how to get out, if that was even the goal. I couldn't recall anything Topher told me about losing power. Did we stay here in the dark, hoping that the generators would come back on line? Did we go to the surface and possibly face the visiting beasts?

Familiar cool hands grasped mine, leading me. Manu. What was he doing down here? I grabbed at the hands of other humans, shouting behind me to make a chain. The darkness had distorted me so when we hit the stairwell, I had believed that we where making our way towards the floor's dormitory. We dropped our chain, scurrying up the metal framework.

We were making our way to the surface when Manu was yelling. "Go back! Back!" His voice was urgent. Hands pushed forward into backs, steps meet unseeing feet. I was growing with worry and panic. A crash rebounded from above our heads. A few people let loose a cry. Someone fell.

We then were going downwards, where there was storage but nothing else. It was also the last level of the colony. Before we reached the landing, he was rushing me towards the front of our group. I couldn't hear any other signs of more humans besides us on the stairs. Where was everybody else? All the humans I could hear were from the eight floor lounge.

Manu dropped my hand last. I could feel the speed in which he was moving through the air, he was rushing. The sound of tearing and crushing was coming from the back wall where we kept a chilled cellar. A rumble like thunder was overhead. We trapped between the terrible sounds.

"Manu what's going on?" I called out to him, not daring to move from my spot in the blackness. I got no response other then a loud grinding."Talk to me! Please?" I was in hysterics. My head snapped between the direction of the cellar and the growing rumbling at the top of the stairwell.

"You're scaring me!" I cried out.

His hands landed on my mouth. "Sh," he whispered. I noticed that all the levels had gone quiet. "The colony has been discovered."

Then I was moving, air rushing past me. I was set down in a weakly lilted area of the cellar were a wall had once been. Manu had exposed a hidden elevator. He returned once more, dropping off petrified human after another into the car.

Panic set in. As the last was dropped on the floor. A boy with tight curls held his leg, a deep red was rising up his pants. I didn't know what had happened to him but my best guess was that he was the one who had fallen.

"Help him" I glanced up into Manu's strained eyes. We shared a moment before an inhuman roar came behind him. He reached over hand slammed the button for the surface. The car began to rise. It must have been powered by different a source than the rest of the colony.
I stood for a moment staring at the closed doors.

I looked at everyone who had made it, all late teens and early twenties. None of us were doctors or knew what we were doing. I wasn't sure what I was going to do once we were above ground let along how to treat such an injury.

I took a deep breath and listened to the hum of the wires pulling us out of the pit. I had been reading medical books all week. I was better off doing something to the boy than anybody else. I bent down and stroked his hair out of his eyes in what I hoped was a comforting manner.

"I need you to move your hands. I need to see" I told him gently, my hands moving over his own. He attempted to crawl away, kicking with his good foot. I followed after him.

He let out a whimper when Ismene and Topher held his arms back. Smat pinned down his uninjured leg. I pealed away the cloth from the wound. It was gruesome, deep gashes of ripped tissues and fleshy muscle. But what was the most noticeable was that this boy hadn't been hurt by tripping down the stair while we fled. The metal steps would have sliced clean lines where as this wound was too jagged. 

It was a bite. A bite done by the beast form of a Natural.

The elevator dinged. We had reached the surface.