Past the Storm

Chapter Fifteen

"Reed!" I whipped around, cool air blew hair into my eyes. Darkness surrounded me, a white light shone down from somewhere above me, acting like a street lamp.
"Reed!" A cruel voice echoed around me. Clear air flowed into my lungs, I realized I wasn't in pain anymore. Am I dead? I wondered, obviously I wasn't conscious. Something about this placed seemed off, reality was skewed and everything seemed lifeless.
A scream pierced the air, unmistakably Taylor's. Above me the light seemed to get brighter, the air seemed colder, I turned around. Taylor stared back at me, except it wasn't Taylor. The skin around her face was missing, leaving an eerie set of bone and muscle surrounding her red eyes. Before I could let out a scream her cold hand clamped over my mouth.
"It's too late," her voice was high and raspy, the sound sent shivers up my spine.
Suddenly the light went out.
"Reed," Taylor stood over me, her face was bright red, bandages were wrapped around her arms and hands. I realized the only skin showing was on her face.
"Are you okay?" My chest felt as if it was burning as I spoke.
"Huh?" She stared at her hands, not realizing what I was talking about.
"Taylor, your face is bright red."
"Oh, yeah." She turned around, "just, um, allergies, they're pretty bad but I'll be fine. We need to leave now though, we only have a few hours."
I didn't want to ask what would happen after those few hours. I pushed myself up, "Let's go."
I pulled a heavy garage door up and quickly kicked a leftover tire under it, leaving just enough room for Taylor and I to squeeze out. I crawled under the door and came out in the middle of a broken road. Cold air blew towards me in all directions, the silence seemed threatening.
"Shoot," Taylor stood next to me, her skin looked like she was boiled alive. Her eyes were tinted red and the skin around them was peeling. Her bones stuck out, leaving her with an unhealthy look. "Look," she pointed to the building just a few miles away from us. The tower stretched into the sky, becoming the tallest building still standing. The doors were ripped open, almost all the windows were shattered. Inside, something was moving, human or not, I didn't want to find out.
"There's something in there."
"Duhhh," Taylor walked across the road, I noticed she was limping.
"So what are we gonna do?" I watched as Taylor walked away.
"Wing it."
I nodded, I never heard wing it before but I assumed it was a plan that would somehow get us to the time machine, preferably alive.
                     •••••••••••••
After almost an hour of walking (and collapsing on each other) we were just in front of Hayven College.
The gray brick building expanded into the sky. Shattered windows were on every floor. Inside, hundreds of papers were scattered on the floor.
"Time machine should be on the 5th floor." Taylor announced.
"Ok, but uh... How do you wing it?" I stared at the college, embarrassed I didn't know a simple plan.
"Oh yeah you're from the 13th century," she stopped, thinking, I didn't feel the need to correct her with when I came from, "Just basically follow me."
Taylor slowly crept into the building, forgetting about whatever was moving. Strangely, nothing was in there. She looked to me and mouthed the word Quiet. The bandages around her arms were falling without her knowledge. Bloody skin surrounded her exposed bone.
I stopped, paralyzed with fear, my dream was coming true. Taylor had gotten bitten, she was dying and I didn't even know. I saw her turn the corner, a dark spot on the floor looked strangely like a person. Then the spot moved, I realized it was shadow but I was too late.
"Wait, Taylor there's-"
Something landed on my back, knocking all the air out of my lungs.
"Still alive?" Jason pinned me down, he was wearing what looked like armor. A gun was pinned to his side. "You'll regret that soon enough."