My arms and legs were still wrapped around the cool metal beam, even after the explosion, even after the structure started to crumble apart. Large metal columns crashed down to the floor, destruction furthering with every ear shattering fall. Everything was going down. The guard who had been trying to negotiate with me didn't try to again. He was dead.
Oh please God or whatever supernatural being that exists, please don't let me die like this!
"Come on!" Brenda screeched from up ahead, scrambling to maneuver around the web of metal we were entangled in. As much as I just wanted to scrunch my eyes up and cry in some random desolate corner, I pushed myself to stand back up, trembling.
"Y/n, move it God damn it!" Shouted Thomas, frantically waving me toward him. I obliged, my feet falling into place before my mind even ordered them too. Surviving had become an instinct, something I didn't have to think about anymore.
When I made it across the railing separating Thomas, Brenda, and I, the building rattled, causing us to waver in balance. At least now we were on solid flooring, no more balancing act.
At that point all I did was follow Brenda. My brain had turned off. Primal Survival is all I could think of. Just survive. That's all I had to do.
Brenda sprinted toward an empty elevator shaft and jumped into it, grabbing hold of an elevator cable. Oh shit, that's gonna hurt so fucking bad. Despite my wariness, I leaped on after her and Thomas, reaching out in blind faith for a cable. My fucking luck, I found one.
We whizzed down, adrenaline shaking my body with brute violence. After miraculously surviving the fall and landing with no fatal blows, I looked up. Rubble was the forecast for today, raining down.
"Fuck look out!" Screaming a warning to Brenda and Thomas, I rolled myself forward, landing in desolate heap as sharp debris dumped itself down the empty elevator shaft.
The air became thick, heavy with dust. My nose took sips of air, coughing the ghost of the building's ruins up. My hands weren't stinging yet. I bet when I catch sight of them next they'll be red, raw, burned to the bone from the cable.
Fucking rope burn. Something else I'd need to treat, that is if we could even find the others again. Jeff had been carrying the pack with medical supplies in it.
"Are you guys okay?" A beam of light flashed on from a torch Brenda had been carrying. She coughed as the light pooled around us, giving sight to the dank, musty, room we had landed in.
"Fantastic." I uttered miserably, cringing from the sores I'd gained from our fall when I separated myself from the floor.
Brenda revolved her flashlight, revealing all the entrances the room had, barricaded in. We couldn't leave. Thomas soon made the same discovery.
"Oh no, no." His voice came from behind me, low and filled with boyish fear. I couldn't blame him. I felt some girlish fear too. "How are we going to get back to the others?"
"Relax." Brenda reached down into her dark canvas pack, it was dark green. She unzipped it, rummaging through the bag's contents. "I'm gonna get us out of here." Out came twin flashlights, one for Thomas, one for me. "Here."
They provided more light, more comfortability in the dungeon we were trapped in. Thomas let out a dry cough, sucking too much dust filled air into his lungs.
"Why are you helping us?" He rasped, sidling up to Brenda and I.
"Trust me," Brenda trifled through her backpack, searching for another mystery object. "It's not my idea. Jorge seems to think you guys are our ticket to the Safe Haven."
"What's the safe haven?" I asked, wincing as I felt the pain in my hands finally sinking in. Adrenaline couldn't save me from the burns. When I shined the light on my hand my eyes scarcely caught a glimpse before retreating back to the much more pleasant vision of Brenda. "Fuck my hands hurt." She glanced over, reaching out to look over my hand.
"Shit. You got burned pretty bad." Setting her flashlight on the ground, she dug a hand back into that ever mysterious bag of her's and out came a long spool of white bandages. "Here." The dressing looped around my hands, covering both palms. Brenda tied them up tight and nice while she started to explain. "The Safe Haven is paradise y'know, safe from the sun, free of infection. Supposedly the Right Arm's been taking kids there for years, immunes anyway."
"Free of infection...that would mean no cranks, right?" My bandaged hands helped lift me off the floor along with Brenda. Thomas rose along with us.
"Right." She confirmed lazily, slinging her back pack onto her strong squared shoulders. "Come on." Brenda motioned us to follow her while we continued the conversation.
"Do you know where it is?" Thomas questioned, bitten by the curiosity bug. "The Safe Haven?"
"No." Brenda answered matter of factly, plundering the room for what ever she was looking for. "But Jorge knows a guy. Marcus."
"Marcus." I repeated emptily, maneuvering around scattered pieces of junk on the ground. It seemed like this used to be some inflated version of a junk drawer, useless crap everywhere.
Brenda's light settled on a failed woodworking project. She'd found it. Whatever it was.
"He used to smuggle kids up into the mountains." She picked the clutter up, tossing the wood aside with a grunt. Brenda crouched back onto the ground, looking sideways at us. "If Jorge made it out, that's where he'll be taking your friends."
"If he made it out?" Thomas butted in, content with speaking in questions.
"You know what, you ask a lot of questions." Brenda blurted, not regretting a word. She was kind of right.
"Finally, someone said it." Giving an exhausted laugh, I knelt down next to her. "No offense Thomas but you kind of do."
"It doesn't matter." Brenda shrugged off her observation, taking notice of the grate we hovered next to. "Can you guys just help me with this, please?"
We obliged, everyone gripping onto the untouched metal grate. With the three of us the heavy top popped off fairly easy. Thomas was burdened with it once it came off. He threw it to the side with a groan. The grate clattered against the cold cemented floor. Peering down into the shadowy opening, we were welcomed by no longer human wails.
"Someone's having fun down there." I cracked the joke, a grin splitting my face. "Hope they're using protection. Can cranks have babies?" Elbowing Thomas in a jesting manner, I wore a dramatic face of disgust. "Ugh, imagine cranks boning. No, wait, imagine little killer crank babies!"
My silliness brought light to the situation, a smile Brenda fought to keep back and secret laughing from Thomas.
"There won't be produced crank babies but there are cranks that were once little kids." Brenda pointed her flashlight into the crank infested abyss. "Down here they'll be full turned."
"Well then let's go meet those little abortions!" I swung my legs into the darkness, waiting for Brenda to lead on. "But of course, after you."
"Let's go." She hopped down. So did I. So did Thomas. We delivered matching echoing thumps to the ground upon landing. We made it. We were in the tunnels.