The Diseased Heart

Chapter 5

This place must have been connected to a zoo before or otherwise ohad a lot of large carnivores, considering the entire fridge in one of the rooms filled with pieces of raw meat. I thought it was definitely strange that this place had working electricity, and the museum itself was...intact. No walls were broken, and everything was kept just like from before the outbreak.

It was quite possible that this place was in a secure location, there could be fences and walls around to keep Crawlers out, like many safe zones. They had massive spotlights attached to solar panels on the walls which turned on at night, and guards patroling at all times. The electricity would make sense too, as most safezones did have many generators.

It just wouldn't make sense for a safe zone to allow someone to bring in a dead Crawler to risk contamination, much less have some sort of...display.

Once I had eaten, not so much that anyone may notice a sudden decline in the food, but enough to get my nerves to calm down, I decided to try finding a way out. Maybe then I would get some answers.

I had remembered what happened to me while I was searching, most of my memories were fuzzy, as if my brain was still reviving parts of itself from being deprived of oxygen for however long I was out. The Crawler King had attacked me, he ripped my head off, but somehow I survived? Was this that enhanced healing that Maria mentioned? Either way, whoever had gotten me out of the lake and put me on display was completely insane, and I would rather not wait for them to turn up.

Raven was also thrown under there though, I wondered if she was still there, or if she was here somewhere too. If they had dig her out, she probably would have woken up, right? She wasn't wounded like I was. She was probably out in the woods somewhere.

I walked through the halls, the small wounds around my body already scabbing over. This place seemed...off. Even if it was a safe zone, it just seemed like much too big a building to be so empty, wouldn't they have people or supplies in here? Or at least something other than what was becoming more and more clear to be a museum?

Seeing a window, faintly illuminated by the night, I began to carefully scale the wall to get a good look. The window was much too small to fit through, but I'd hopefully be able to get my bearings if I knew where I was. Pulling myself up and squinting at the suprising ammount of light, my jaw dropped.

There was a zoo outside, but it was completely intact, including the animals. There were even security guards pacing around and cameras scanning the area in their views. Cobblestone pathways were clean, and several other buildings were visible from my view, all intact as well.

At the other side of the far fence, there was a city. A functional city. Nothing was damaged and there were lights, cars, and people walking, at night too. This was not a safe zone for sure, it was massive. There were numerous tall buildings without a single hole in their sides, something I hadn't seen for a very long time.

I stared at the impossible sight for several seconds, before loosing my grip on the smooth windowsill. I hopped down onto the floor and dug my nails into my scalp, simply not being able to believe what I saw out there. I climbed back to look, just to make sure I hadn't been hallucinating or something. The view was unchanged.

I remembered that in the kitchen room where I had found the meat there was a calendar on the wall, but I hadn't thought to look at it. Why would I have? I ran back to that room to make sure I wasn't going insane, I knew I must have been in the lake for a while, days or maybe even a few weeks, but a skyline like what I saw was just impossible.

Sliding into the room, and almost loosing traction on the tile floor completely, I went up to the laper calendar on a large corkboard. I read the date. March 14th, 2316.

2316?! That was almost three hundred years in the future to the year! How long had I been in that lake?! Crawlers must be a thing of the past if society was rebuilt and I was on display in a museum.

My mind was racing. This couldn't be happening, right? How long was I in that damn lake?!

I left the room and paced around the large empty hallway, trying to collect my thoughts. I had to keep from panicking, that wouldn't help me at all, but how could I not?! The faint sound of footsteps that were not of my pacing caught my attention, and I looked up from the floor to see a flashlight beam traveling the walls up ahead.

Shielding my eyes, I climbed the wall and hid in the rafters. So this place did have security guards. I hoped they hadn't checked the Crawler exhibit and seen me missing, that would have caused a lot of extra trouble. But by the deadpan look on the man's face, it didn't seem he was afraid for a Crawler to maul him at any moment.

I silently climbed across the ceiling back to said exhibit, and slipped into the glass case I had woken up in, slowly closing the door again to lock me inside. I had to stay here, if I left, the city would know something happened. They would look for whoever might have stolen the supposed dead Crawler, and some crazier people may even look for me in the streets at night, thinking that I came to life. Then again, if they thought someone stole me, they'd check the cameras that are definitely around here somewhere.

I was stuck here.

Carefully getting back into the position I had been in, I used a Crawler skill I had rarely used before. Crawlers could sleep standing up, and with their eyes open. The fact that I had been in the same position for so long already helped me get right back in the right spot due to muscle memory. The way we typically hung upside down meant we usually locked in place while we slept, so hopefully no one would notice me breathing.

Considering during the day the lights here would obviously be on, my eyes would burn like literal hell for the first few hours of each night, but at least no one would find out I was alive. If Crawlers were wiped out, then one being alive would be a huge no. I would be killed, no questions asked, and this time I wouldn't wake up. I hoped I would be able to stay asleep all day, as if I woke up in that blinding light, I would definitely be unable to keep my eyes open.

If Raven was also found, and she was somewhere around, I hoped she had come to the same conclusion. If I found her beheaded body somewhere, I might loose it enough to blow my own cover. I had no idea how many people came here during the day, so things could turn into a real bloodbath.

I prayed I wouldn't end up seeing her like that and kill more people than I already had.