FULL ECLIPSE (Book #2)

𝕰𝖑𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓

"Nah-uh," Bray shakes his head, holding his dirty red shirt over his nose. "No way I'm heading into that. You can't make me. Nope."

We've reached a big gap in the tunnels and it's filled with murky water. It reeks of nothing else but shit. It has its own ecosystem by the looks of it and it does not look good. There's like seaweed in there, broken logs, just a bunch of mush all together.

"There's no other way, kiddo," Dad shines the torch on the swamp. He crouches down and reaches for a branch in the water and he sticks in into the water vertically. "Waist-high – good."

"Dad, we're not really getting into that, are we?" I tuck my nose under my shirt too.

"Swear I saw like a rat," Jace squints into the swamp.

"A 'rat"!?" Carmen and Amber shriek in unison.

"Dad, it's fucking putrid, there has to be another way," I urge.

"Language," he gives me a curt look. "And there's no other way, I already looked at the map."

Brah, I reckon being in an apocalypse kinda gives us the pass for our 'language', smh.

"Fuck that," Jace says rather too quickly after me. "I'm with you guys," he looks at me and Bray.

My dad stares at him dead seriously.

"F-forget that, I meant," he clarifies.

"I'd rather die," Carmen hugs herself, a droplet of water lands on her and she squeals.

"Jesus, sweetheart!" Dad shines the torch at her. "Calm down, it's just water. Both that and that," he shines the torch on the wet ceiling and the swamp.

"But it landed in my hair..." she mumbles, hugging herself tighter.

"Dad, we aren't actua-" Amber begins.

"Ridiculous!" he spins around. "You guys are acting like a bunch of little kids! We are running outta time and this is the only way through to Black Eden's Hill. There are no other exit points! Now," he faces the swamp, "it's only waist-deep and approx. 2 houses in length. Easy doneskies."

Dad puts ammo into his pistol and gets ready to be the first one to get in. With no other way and with pure distaste, we follow after him. Well, I thought it was all of us. I glance behind to find Carmen still standing at the edge of the platform. Every time she tries to dip her foot in, she freaks the fuck out. Bro, if she doesn't get in any time soon, she'll be holding the whole group up.

"Just jump in," I tell her. "Ain't gonna bite you."

"Sure about that?" she asks rhetorically.

"Get in," I exhale, no time for her rhetoricness when you're at the expense of a ticking time bomb. "You are holding us up."

"Fine, then go," she immediately takes offence. "See if I care."

"Carmen, if you don't get in now, I'll make you get in myself."

That stubborn look in her eyes only grows. I see myself in her, tbh.

"And if you fucking touch me, Dean, I'll-"

I swiftly grab her arm and haul her right in. She splashes around and around, trying to regain her balance which only makes me lose mine. And now we're at the point where we both needa hold onto each other. It's like the first, second, third time I went ice skating – I was never good at that shit!! Her scream though, mannnn, is it loud! I slap my palm against her mouth to block the rest of it out before Dad kills me for good.

"Shhh," I hiss at her. "Goddamn, you're loud," then, "-ouch!"

She bites me, she literally bites me! I shake the pain off my hand and press it tighter against her mouth. The lurkers are supposed to be doing the biting, not her! She mumbles something aggressively behind my hand. I can literally see her throw a fit just from her eyes.

"Nah-uh," I shake my head warningly at her. "I'll move my hand only if you behave."

She nods and I slowly remove my hand.

"You are such an asshole," she seethes.

"Nice to know," I smile smugly.

She rolls her eyes, glaring at me. Her petite body is literally glued onto mine. I can practically feel her small curves against me. I kinda warn her with my eyes that I'm aboutta let her go now so that she doesn't slip or anything. When I try to pull her away, she sorta resists a slight bit. She thought I wouldn't realise but how could I not realise?

Her gaze drifts to my lips, then back to my eyes.

How could I not realise that either?

"Stop!" Dad freezes.

Carmen and I both glance overhead. I don't know what's up but when I see Jace pull Amber behind himself like that and Bray copying my father's posture, I know there's no playing around. Something's moving silently underneath the dirty water. Shitttt.

"Psst, Jace," my father grabs his attention and tosses him the pistol before grabbing the carbine off his shoulder. "Aim and shoot."

Carmen subconsciously slides her fingers into mine. I squeeze her hand and follow the rest of the group steadily. The current of the moving body of water disappears and reappears. Dad tries to keep track of it but every time he thinks he's caught it, a current from another angle makes an appearance with bubbles accompanying it.

I inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale. Carmen gets up closer behind me. The static when her body presses into mine makes my mind go fuzzy like I can't think properly. I kinda wanna protect her now, kinda wanna never see her cry? It's a weird feeling.

"Go, go, go!" Dad roars, blasting a shot at whatever jumped out into the air.

This snaps me outta my thoughts. Amber reaches the other end and hauls herself over. I speed through the water and help Carmen over to Amber. It was a lurker! Or what was left of it, just mashed-up skin and bones. You could tell it was in this swamp from the beginning. How did it get in? I don't know.

Dad kills it with a perfect headshot when it lunges at him in mid-air and everything goes silent again. That same calm before the storm. All I can think of is Coach's words, it's calm, it's calm. And just when we think it's over, the water begins moving again, but this time, from various directions, all at once. Jace accompanies my dad, not taking a second to hesitate, and firing alongside him.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

"Fuck!!" Bray gets dragged back. "Something's got a hold of my leg!"

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

I get to him briskly and pull his arm over my shoulder. "Grab onto me!"

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

He kicks vigorously at the thing that's pulling him down. "Get, the, fuck, off, me!"

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

Jace shoots a couple of bullets in our radius, and after a few seconds, Bray almost falls back when the thing lets go of him suddenly. Both my father and Jace cease firing for a moment but are still on the lookout as the water returns to its stand-still originality. I give Jace a thankful nod. He might've finally made up for it...

"You okay, mate?" I ask Bray, helping him over to the other side.

"Think so..." he huffs out and pulls himself over the platform.

He falls flat on his back and stares at the rusty wet brown ceiling of the tunnel. I join him and lay a hand on my chest, feeling it rise up and down rapidly. It might've rained outside hence the soaked walls of the tunnels. The droplets seep through and land on our bodies, not like we aren't already drenched from the swampy water. I run a hand through my hair and slick it back, tryna catch my breath.

"That was close, innit?" I lift my hand with whatever energy I have left to give Bray a fist pump.

"Too close..." he chuckles.

Too, too close.

I close my eyes for just a sec.