Subject A7

Chapter Fifteen

Avery's POV

Dylan and I spent the day walking in the heat, we looked around for food but so far nothing. My stomach groaned and there was no water. My throat felt dry, I couldn't even relieve it using my own saliva.
"We're gonna have to keep moving," Dylan says his own voice croaking.
"Just lead the way," my voice was croaking as well. This kind of feeling was so new to me but at the same time, it felt familiar.
I followed Dylan, we decided to go through the forest instead of being out in the open.
Being in the old city ruins brought on the danger at every turn whereas the forest was mysterious in many ways. I found my gawking at almost everything, the birds, flowers especially ones I thought were pretty.
"Avery?"

Dylan was watching me with an amused expression.
"Please focus," he chuckles.
"Sorry," I smile. Despite us having to move slowly through this heat, starving to death and needing water, we still managed to still smile.
I took a step and heard a cracking sound. I frowned turning around. There was no one in sight, not even an animal.
Surely if it were an animal it might run off due to being scared by us because no way would be infected be smart enough to hide... still, it did not really make me feel safe.
"Dylan?"
I did not know if he responded or not, I scanned the area to see if something moved and when nothing did I blamed my paranoia. Turning back to Dylan, I was about to say 'don't worry, false alarm' when something did catch my attention again whipping my head back to see something was moving.

I felt Dylan grab my arm.
"It hasn't seen us yet," he whispers. "We need to back up slowly... don't make a sound."
Slowly and I mean really slowly, we started to back up never taking our eyes off of the thing, it was not far from us but not close either. I struggled to breathe, scared that the slightest sound would trigger it.
It looked up. Dylan sucked in a breath.

It was an animal, vicious looking with drool hanging from its mouth.
"What is that?" I whispered staring at it.
"Believe it or not but that is a deer," he whispers back.
"A deer?"
Aren't they supposed to be adorable?
The deer turned its head it locked its eyes with ours. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, Dylan's grip on my arm tightened so hard to the point where I felt like it was going to leave a bruise.
The deer let out this ungodly scream much like an infected, Dylan pulls me shouting 'RUN', we ran through the trees. I glanced back, it was fast. I picked up my pace just slightly behind Dylan.
"FUCK!" I screamed.
In the distance, we could hear something. Was that water running?
"THIS WAY!" Dylan shouts changing our course, I followed him almost stumbling over an overgrown root, the deer screamed jumping off a tree stump to stop itself from running into it. I glanced back again, its teeth were bare, nice and sharp. It was gaining on us!
We just made it through the clearing, I couldn't see any more land. I was about to stop but Dylan shouts "DON'T LET GO!" when I realised, we were not stopping.
Dylan grabs my hand and we jump off the cliff and fell, I squeezed my eyes shut as we plunged into the water.
"Avery?"
I opened my eyes and I stood in a room. Completely dry despite just jumping off a cliff.
"Avery?" I turned to see doctor Linda walking towards me. "You need to come back."
"Excuse me?" she did not just say that.
"You need to come back," she repeats. "You are not safe out there."
"Better out there than at Arcane," I spat. "You were killing children!"
"Young adults," she corrected me. "They were given a choice."
I glared at her. "A choice? Please don't make me laugh, if we did not accept your way, you'd force us to do it anyway."
"The world is dying Avery, you need to do what is right," she says, she looks away a little disappointed.
"You will come back Avery, whether you are willing or whether you are forced."

I opened my eyes to find that I was underwater, I looked around seeing nothing but blurriness. I reached our searching for Dylan's hand. Where was he? Don't panic, I cannot panic if I panic I die. I looked up and pushed myself towards the surface. Once I was there, I sucked in the air looking around. Dylan swam over to me.
"What the hell Avery?" Dylan shouts. "What happened?"
I ignored him, he wraps his arms around me and assists me to reach land, as soon as I could walk, he let me go. We look up to see the deer staring down at us hungrily.
"Why didn't it jump?" I ask him.
"Infected cannot swim," he says. "They hate the water."
"We better not stay here than, looks like it is willing to risk it."
I look at Dylan who was glaring at me, he gets to his feet and starts to walk away. What the hell?
"What?" I get to my feet.
He turns still glaring at me.
"You jumped and again, you let go of my hand but this time... your eyes glowed but not only that but the back of your neck."
"Huh?" I reached up to touch the back of my neck.
"What happened?"
"Can we talk about this somewhere else? Please? Away from that?" I pointed to the deer.
Dylan shoots the deer a glare before spinning around and walking away. We did not really speak much after that, I could understand why Dylan was angry but once we spoke about it and made things clear about what happened, I really did not know what happened the second we hit the water. I was shoved into a dream-like sequence and spoke to the head doctor, a shiver went down my spine just thinking about it.

We looked over to see an abandoned house still standing and looking surprisingly good considering, as we approached it I could see dead plants, the house was crooked and spider webs and other crap was around it. From a distance, it looked a lot better than up close.
Dylan pulled out his gun opening the door as silently as he could but the creaking sound of it probably gave us away.

We stepped in only hearing the sounds of our footsteps.
"Wait here," he whispers moving around aiming his gun expecting to hear something or for something to jump out. I turn around looking out for that deer or anything in relation to it. Just the thought of it jumping out to scare me made me really want to run and hide somewhere.
"Quit being a baby," I muttered angrily at myself glancing back at Dylan who was still checking the house. I looked around the house, a room was next to me which would be the first room Dylan would have checked, followed by one that seemed to lead into a living room followed by a kitchen. I studied the stairs that lead up, it was crooked and looked as if it were on the verge of caving in the second something heavy steps on it.

Dylan returned from the back room and mouthed the word 'clear' for the downstairs, we heard a creaking sound coming from upstairs. I stiffened, my first thought was the Arcane guards but it couldn't be, it had to be infected. Dylan creeps over towards me his eyes never leaving the upstairs, once he was beside me he whispers 'stay here, I'll check it out... hear any gunfire, run' and then makes his way to go upstairs. I watched him go, I knew he wanted to protect me from whatever it was but there was no way I was leaving him behind... but yet again, I have nothing to defend myself with or even defend Dylan.
As I had a mental argument with myself, something in the corner of my eye caught my attention, I looked over into the room with the door half opened. I glanced upstairs, Dylan was nowhere to be seen so I could not single for him to check it out for me so instead of being a coward, I squared my shoulder bracing myself for whatever it is.
I can do this, if it was an infected well, I should not have to overly worry because I am immune to the infection, just have to fight it off until Dylan shoots it... or it could an Arcane guard, I fought with them plenty of times before, just needed to hold it off until once again, Dylan comes barging in waving that gun of his around. I pushed the door open, someone squeaked. I wasted no time, I lunged at whoever it was, they turned as I shoved them against the wall pinning them down with one arm and the other raised to punch him.
"Who are you?" I spat.
It was a boy, no older than me.
"Colin," he says shaking. "Sorry, I did not mean to scare you!"
"Creeping through the window? You sure you weren't meant to scare me?" I snarled. "Who sent you? The Arcane?!"
"No!" he cried. "I escaped Arcane! I got lost and when I saw you, I followed you! Please!"
I leaned in close to him. "Prove it!"
Colin was trembling so badly that I almost felt bad for being such a bitch but he closed his eyes and when they opened, the familiar glow was there. If he was from Arcane, he would not be on their side.
"Lucky," I growled removing my hands from him.
I turned to see Dylan leaning against the door frame.
"What?"
"And here I thought you couldn't handle yourself, full of surprises Avery," Dylan says with a smirk. I noticed Colin glancing at me, I ignored him.
"What was up there?" I ask him.
"Nothing must've been the wind moving a door or something... who is your new friend?"
I roll my eyes at the word 'friend', as if I needed a new friend.
"This is Colin, he apparently escaped Arcane, got lost and followed us here."
Dylan whistled. "Surprised you didn't introduce yourself earlier," he walks over to join us. "Unless you are really a double agent?" he narrows his eyes at Colin, Colin glanced nervously between Dylan and me, probably wondering who was worse.
"Enough Dylan," I pushed Dylan away. "He wouldn't be working for Arcane, his eyes glow like mine and the last thing anyone wants is to be tortured to death."
"I've been through it a couple of times... it's not a good feeling," Colin says looking away. I started to pity him.
Dylan heavily sighs. "Fine, whatever. We're staying here tonight, I looked into the cardboards and found some food. Looks good."
My stomach growled loudly at the sound of food being mentioned.