Subject A7

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Avery's POV

"Bingo" I would have grinned if it were not for the gun firing our way. "Colin! This way!"

We were running to the point where we could not run anymore, the Arcane guards found us as soon as we turned a corner but at the same time, we found the tunnel depot. I ran throwing the door open and shouting for Colin to get it. I slammed the door shut.
"MOVE!" Colin shouts. I backed away as he pushes over a large cabinet.
Holy shit he was strong.
We both backed up watching as they tried to open the door, it banged a few times. I noticed that there was a key dangling not too far from the handle, I dashed there to lock the door.
Colin and I glance at each other smiling. Thank fuck that part was over.
"You saved us..." I tell him breathlessly. "Thank you, Colin and I am sorry for thinking you were a traitor" that part came out of my mouth without me even realising what I even said.
Colin smiles but the smile dropped the second it appeared. "Wait. What?"
"You are never getting an apology from me again" I warned him.
"No... not that part," he frowns looking offended. "You thought I was a traitor?"
My smile drops as well now realising my mistake. "Oh, you meant that part..." Crap. "Uhh... Yes, I did."
Colin raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Wow... are you shitting me?"
"I said I was sorry, what more do you want me to say?"
Colin shrugs. "Whatever Avery."
I could slap myself. "No, Colin wait" I call for him but he was already walking away from me. I followed him downstairs, he flicked on the light that surprisingly was still working. "Look I did not mean for what I said, I thought you were one but after tonight, my thoughts have changed."
"Is that what you and Dylan were talking about?" he spun around and was suddenly in my face, he was angry and scary as fuck. I backed away from him. "When I was showering? Answer me, Avery!"
With trembling lips, I answered. "He was questioning it himself... but after everything he has seen, he did not think that you were." I purposely left the part about him talking to Vincent about it because I did not want to anger or upset Colin already more than I already have.
Colin stares at me, shook his head and continued on.
I wanted to defend us to him and make him see it from our point of view but that looked like it was not an option so I kept my mouth shut and followed him.
He opened a door which led to an office looking room. There were computers that were off, a storage unit, and another door. The room was quite dusty so Angus was right, they had not been using this way for quite some time. I went over to open the door, it was quite dark down there.
"Found some keys," Colin says sounding emotionless. I look over to him to see him dangling a pair of keys. Beyond it was a wooden frame with hooks and another three set of keys.
"The cars should be beyond here then," I point to the downstairs. "Do you have a flashlight?"
Colin pulls one out of his pocket and tosses it to me. I turned it on looking down there, there was something shiny but I hesitated.
"We need to be careful," I tell Colin. "There could be infected down there and we don't have any weapons to defend ourselves against them."
Colin pulls out a gun.
I frowned. "Where did you... oh," now I remember, he stole it off of Dylan just as he shot Damon. How could I forget something like that?
"Okay... let's go."
We walked down the stairs looking at the cars. There was a noise coming from the darker end, I flashed the light over there but there was nothing, I glanced nervously at Colin.
"How do we get into a car?" he asks.
"I don't know," I reply. "Is there a button?"
He looks down and presses something, the car in front of me makes a short yet loud sound. I jump back startled at the sudden noise. There was another noise coming from the end of the tunnel.
"Get it" I try to say as quietly as possible. We quickly got into the car just as the flashlight died, I had the side with the steering wheel.
I was about to start the car when I hesitated. "Should we wait to see if the others come?" I ask him.
"Umm..." he looks forward. "Yes, but keep those keys in that thing," he points to where I placed the keys. "Start it as soon as we see infected than we get the fuck out of here with or without them."
"Sounds like a plan."



* * *

We sat in the car for the longest time, nothing happened for quite some time and thankfully there had been no sightings of infected. Yet.
I looked at Colin who hasn't looked in my direction at all since we unlocked the car and climbed in. Dylan and the others were nowhere in sight.
"Colin?"
He doesn't respond, did not turn to look at me make any noises to signal that he had heard me. I fiddled with my fingers.
"Colin?" I tried again. Still no response. I sighed. "Look, I am truly sorry for thinking that you were a traitor... you were following us around and it was just suspicious as hell... when it comes to the outside, I am certain that you wouldn't trust the first person you saw... I did not know what else to think and I did not mean to upset you."
Colin sighs finally looking at me.
"When we escaped, some of us did not end up following those two outsiders... we were scared and people were shooting at us, a few of us were killed, Avery... we ran in a different direction..." he rubs his eyes, "my friend Ivan... subject B20... he was one of those who was killed... I ran like no tomorrow until I realised that it was just me, just me in this new terrifying world Avery" he swallows taking a deep breath before continuing. "When I heard an unusual noise, I hid for cover. I watched you and Dylan come out of that car and since then, I followed you. I made sure I kept a good distance away from you two because I did not know how to approach you, Dylan had a gun and I just didn't want to be shot at. And when you guys were chased by that deer thing, I ran as well trying to not only keep up with you guys but as well as make sure the deer didn't notice me. You two jumped into the water, I had to climb down it. I reached the same house like you guys and climbed through the window, you heard me and attacked me. I was so scared Avery, I know there were ways I should've just came out instead of doing what I did... I am sorry as well."
I looked at him, he had tears in his eyes. He looked scared and upset and every single thought I had of him vanished, for the first time, I felt sorry for him.
"What we should've done is talked about these things before, like back at the house before I decided to go exploring."
Colin laughs. "I guess so... hang on but if you didn't, we would have met up with that infected."
My smile dropped at the memory, he was right. Without my curiosity, I wonder how that night would've turned out.
"Scary how things turn out, one wrong move and that's the end, one right move and you saved yourself."

We both went silent for a moment, listening and waiting.

"Colin, I am grateful for what you did with Damon but... what made you do something like that?" I ask him. "It was definitely not what I was expecting."

Colin sighs. "Look, I understand that I have appeared to be nothing but a coward since the day we met... but I was forced out of a world I knew and into a shitty one. I was scared and I still am. When I saved you from Damon... something took over me... I was shitting my pants the entire time it was happening."
"Something took over you?" I repeated his words remembering when I was about to shoot myself, something had come over me as well that day. I believed him.

"I felt like something came over me once before as well," I fiddled with my fingers. "Back when Damon first caught us... we turned the tables and since there was no escape... I threatened to shoot myself if he did not let us go."
Colin's mouth dropped open. "That was both badass and stupid."
"I know..." I whisper, "but I do not regret it. Not once."
Colin nods and changes the subject. "I don't know if they're coming to be honest."
"Hang on, we should go check," I say.
We both got out of the car and made our way up the stairs, it was quite dark and the flashlight ran out. I almost tripped a few times.
"We need to find some light as well," I tell him.
"No shit," was his response.
We reached the room, the lights were not on.
"Son of a bitch..." I muttered.
"Hang on," Colin says. "There should be something around here."
I gave him a look but a second later realising that he would not have seen it due to how dark it was, I rolled my eyes and asked 'what are we looking for?'

"There are storage units and other crap down here, surely they'd have flashlights."