The Memoriam Files: Minds [EDITING] ✔

| Chapter 21, Lost souls

|The nightmare's just begun

|Song: Monster, Skillet

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Lisa's P.O.V.

I was completely unable to tell how much time had passed. The boom of the explosion still echoed through my head. I had no idea where I was going. The dark was scaring me to hell and back. And all I could do was follow Brenda and Thomas.

Suddenly we made a sharp turn to the right.
'Stick close to me,' Brenda whispered. 'What about my friends? What if-?' Thomas began.
'Just keep going! Better for everyone to split up anyway.'
I groaned. 'You better know the way down here.'
Brenda sighed but didn't answer me. I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Worrying about the others wouldn't help us get out of this.

The air cooled as we moved farther down the long hallway. The darkness deepened and it made me feel uncomfortable. I couldn't see anything and it scared me.
Luckily Thomas was holding my hand and he must be holding Brenda as well. Or else I would have lost them a long time ago.
While we walked through the darkness my thoughts were all over the place.
What just happened? Who was responsible for that explosion? Was everyone okay? Where were we even going?
I had no answers and it made me feel helpless, something I absolutely hated.

Brenda took three more turns and then suddenly stopped.
'You hear anything?' She asked panting.
I frowned and concentrated but all I heard was our breathing.
'No,' Thomas said before I could. 'Where are we?' I asked.
'A bunch of tunnels and secret passages connect the buildings on this side of the town, maybe across the whole city. We haven't explored that far yet. They call it the Underneath.'
'They?' I asked while trying to catch my breath.
'The cranks who live here,' Brenda answered nonchantly.
A sigh escaped my lips. 'Well, great.' She ignored my sarcasm.
'How much of it have you explored?' Thomas asked.
'Not much, we usually run into cranks. The bad ones, way past the Gone.'
I looked behind me. A sudden feeling of being watched crawled over me. Next to me I heard Thomas turn around in a circle. Clearly just as scared as me. Because yes, I was scared, but who wouldn't be scared in a dark tunnel filled with human eating monsters?
'Well, are we safe? What happened with that explosion anyway? We need to go back and find my friends.'
'Our friends.' I corrected Thomas.
'And what about Jorge?' Brenda said. 'Shouldn't we find Jorge too?'
'If Minho hasn't killed him already,' I mumbled but I was ignored.
'Yeah, Jorge, our friends, all those shanks. We can't leave them behind,' Thomas said.
'What's a shank?' Brenda asked, sounding actually curious.
I rolled my eyes.
'Never mind. Just...What do you think happened back there?' Thomas changed the subject.
Brenda sighed and stepped closer to him. I could hear her whisper in his ear. 'I want you to promise me something,' she said it sofetly, barely more than a whisper but I heard it anyway.

Quickly I tried to shut her voice out. I didn't want to hear any romantic promises.
'Um...What?' Thomas stammered.
'No matter what happens, even if we have to go alone, you'll take me all the way back. All the way to Wicked, to that cure you promised Jorge. He told me about it in the storage room. I can't stay here and slowly go insane. I can't do it I'd rather die.'

I winced in awkwardness. She did realize I was also standing here? From what I could see in the dark they were standing really close to each other.
Brenda and Thomas kept on talking but I didn't hear them.
I never felt more alone as I stared into the darkness, leaning against a wall, my arms crossed over my chest.
And suddenly Minho crossed my mind. The small smirk on his face as he teased me, the frown of concentration on his forehead as he taught me how to throw a good punch. A small sob came out of my mouth but I managed to cover it as a cough. I didn't understand the sudden hole in my heart. The sudden pain and feeling of loss.

What was wrong with me?

Brenda and Thomas hadn't seem to notice anything.
'I think that's what happened. At first I was worried it was a group of long gone Cranks, but since no one chased us, I think Barkley and a couple of his buddies rigged an explosion at the Underneath entrance, tried to kill us. They know they can get plenty of food somewhere else and there are other ways to get down here,' Brenda said.

I tried to catch up with their conversation. So Brenda thought the rest of her group tried to kill us.
'That doesn't make sense,' I said. 'Why wouldn't they use us like Jorge to get to a cure.'
I knew for sure Brenda gave me a hatred look but I couldn't really see it in the dark.
'No, no, no. Barkley and the others are happy here. I think they're a little more gone than we are, starting to lose their rational sides. I doubt they even thought about using you guys.'
I exhaled loudly but didn't say anything.

'We have to go through the Underneath,' Brenda suddenly announced. 'If the others went up top, then they'll be long gone by now. Plus they'll pull any attention toward themselves and away from us.'
She was right but it didn't made me feel comfortable. Dawn and the others could be in serious danger.
'And if they're down here we'll find them, right?' Thomas asked. 'These tunnels all come back together eventually, right?'
'Right,' Brenda answered, but I didn't believe her for one second. 'Either way, I know Jorge will have them moving toward the other side of the city toward the mountains. We just have to make it so we can meet up and keep going.'
Thomas and I were silence for a second. Looking at each other in the dark. We really had no other choice than to follow her and try to find the others.
'Okay,' Thomas said.
'Let's go,' I added with a sigh.

Brenda took a flashlight from her backpack, I hadn't even noticed she had been wearing one in the first place. The beam shot through the dust and the dark. Giving me some relief from the depressing dark tunnel.
She shone it down the hallway, there where the light beam ended a dark nothing stood like a wall, waiting to swallow us.

'Shall we?' Brenda asked.
I took a deep breath and started walking as an answer. I wanted to find the others and get out of this dark tunnel as soon as possible.
'We shall,' Thomas mumbled behind me and they came walking next to me.
Together we disappeared in the dark.

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The journey through the Underneath has started! And so have my examens...I already finished three last week but the hardest ones are yet to come. So I hope I'll be able to update wednesday, forgive me if I don't. :)

So goodbye for now and have a nice day!

xxx

-Me