Containment In Skyscrapers Chapter Ten

[tankicola 111]

Chapter 10 

 

Cherry sat up, gasping and sweating copiously. She was lying on a stretcher, with bandages on her arms, head, and feet. Then a door burst open, and a breeze came in, ruffling her hair. 

Rose walked inside, with a sombre expression on her face. 

“What is going on? I-”

“Cherry, I’m sorry.”

An icy warmth had drowned her; as she had heard those words, she froze, upright, and fearful. Her heartbeat quickened, and she said: “What?”

Rose adopted a conciliatory tone and replied. 

“Bill,” she said. 

No, thought Cherry, no, he had promised. 

She let out a devastating sob. Rose embraced her tightly. Somewhere, she could hear singing, or talking; it seemed like a song. Her inconsolable grief was absorbed by Rose, who also had hot tears spilling from her eyes. Cherry’s already bruised hands thumped the stretcher in visceral agony. 

 

Everything that had happened in the few days proceeding Bill’s death was a blur to Cherry. She could not stand it: many times she would find herself imagining, foolishly, what would have happened if they had escaped. How happy and relieved they would be. How they would be somewhere safe, comfortable, warm, and how they would be relaxing. That world seemed so tangible to Cherry, for they had been so close. But she had not, as she thought she would have, been Cherry doubted whether she would ever feel again. Whether she would ever be happy again. 

 

She did not want it to end: she did not want to face the terrible reality, one that she constantly tried to loophole into a better state. It was too hard to continue without this numb comfortableness. 

 

Redman surveyed the skyline, which was littered with the remains of tall towers, broken aircraft, smoking debris, and spiraling pillars of dust. 

 

He walked forwards, but then a sharp pain shot through his right leg. He let out an involuntary gasp and limped backward, almost toppling onto the floor. As he walked back to the makeshift hospital ward, he turned and stared, like so many of the other survivors had, at the crater that had rested exactly at the middle of the camp that they had set up, which had blown up everyone that was in a twelve-meter radius from it. 

 

“You need to eat!” said Rose, who was plumping up Cherry’s pillows. 

As Redman entered, Rose looked at him accusingly. 

“Cherry, Rose is right, you need to eat,” he said, avoiding Rose’s fiery gaze. 

Cherry did not reply.

Redman sighed, but before he or Rose could say anything else, the door burst open again. 

Leo, Liam, and Bill ran inside. 

Liam was laughing with Leo, but their laughter subsided as Rose and Redman glared reproachfully at them. 

Leo left through the door, but Liam lingered for a fraction of a second, then shook his head and followed Leo. 

Rose, Redman, and Cherry could hear their laughter. It was such a mocking noise now. 

As Leo and Liam laughed and talked, the blood-red sun sank a little, and the darkness intensified. 

 

The next morning, Redman called for everyone to gather in the makeshift hospital, being the newly instated leader. Once everyone had gathered inside, he spoke.

“As I am sure you all know now, we lost more than two-hundred lives last week. Our mission to transfer our recruits, then all of you, failed. But it is time to start again. From today, we will be leading everyone through the newly made tunnel that leads from the SMH to the SPP. 

All the remaining Generals will be in leading the lower ranks, and hopefully, we can make contact with other nations under what remains of the SPP. It is our only hope: we cannot survive out here without water, food, or means of protection. We will journey, like the last time an attempt was conducted. Please listen to the plan.” 

Redman tapped at the wall behind him. Immediately, the lights in the room went off, and a hidden projector filled the space behind Redman with a map of Skyscrapers.

“Now, you should all be familiar with this map. It is a map of Skyscrapers and its surrounding areas. Now, the route that had been agreed on has been completely destroyed: there is no possibility due to the fact that half of the SPP was blown apart in a small explosion. But you may ask how it exploded because it was a small explosion, but that is precisely my point; the SPP is very unstable. Any small lit flame could cause the entire thing to blow up, killing everyone within a fifty-meter radius. The entire SPP is littered with the remains of failed weaponry concoctions, unknown chemicals, and blackened pieces of metal, which could make the entire place, if possible, even more unstable. I cannot stress the importance of being vigilant, calm, and careful. Now Rose will take you through the plan.”

“Thank you, Redman,” said Rose, as Redman stepped sideways. 

She took a red marker pen and drew an almost diagonal line that stretched from the Skyscrapers Border to the SPP. “Now, this is a very simple plan, but we want to make it clear. 

We will travel by helicopter from the border to the Power plant. Once there, we will split everyone into groups, to enter separately. There should be, as some of the thermal footage indicates, there will be a small rise in temperature as you proceed. Everyone will be equipped with a walkie-talkie, in case of an emergency. Now, the SPP should have a crater in the middle, similar to the one outside this room. If you slide down the ground and into it, there should be a metal tunnel coming out of both sides. Take the left one, and then proceed forwards until you see a drone. Stop there, and, if you want to and can find it, flick a green switch that should be located around the right side of the end of the tunnel. The entire tunnel should light up. Wait there for the other groups to arrive, and there I and Redman will discuss the rest of the plan.” 

 

Twenty-six days in 

 

It had been months since the first fatalities had struck, thought Cherry, as she re-lit the torch she had been given, and stared at Bill’s body. She had taken Bill’s watch and was wearing it like a talisman; she wanted it to survive, just like Bill would have done. 

 

The night air outside was cold and was a tasty dark blue. It was almost like the air outside the night that Bill had died. Rose woke them from their hasty sleep; Cherry looked at Bill’s stretcher, fumbled with his watch, then swallowed and turned towards Rose, Liam, and Leo. 

“It’s almost time,” she breathed.

Then she opened the door. 

It was freezing: the combination of their breaths created a storm of white nebulae in front of them. “Put on your face masks!” hissed Rose, who’s mouth was partly obscured by the steamy coldness. She shivered. 

Once everyone had put their face masks on, Rose nodded and looked around. The black figures of buildings loomed menacingly over them all. The entire place seemed deserted until they heard movement behind them. Shadowy figures were moving sleekly away, but one of them nodded at Rose, who quickly said “Right, we need to move now!”

As they crept along the cold, hard ground, which was already partly frosted, their feet’s crunching seemed to have been magnified ten-fold. Rose flinched as Liam took a loud an incautious step, and exclaimed loudly. 

“Liam! Be quiet!” she snapped. 

 

Time seemed to stretch infinitely. 

As they crept between the remains of buildings and metal poles, Rose stopped suddenly, and Liam, Leo, and Cherry nearly walked into her. 

“What?” asked Leo angrily, nursing his cut arm. 

Then he saw it.

The SPP was right in front of them, but most of it was aflame. 

 

Smoke made its way down the burning building and engulfed them. 

“It’s okay,” whispered Rose, peering up at the building through the mountain barbed wire, rocks, glass, and metal.  “It’s the right side only. We can still get in. Right, we-”

But her words were drowned by heavy artillery fire. 

An unending spray of bullets rained down upon the ground near them; Rose ducked and pushed Cherry, Leo, and Liam underneath a slab of stone that quickly became riddled with bullets. Then the resounding noise stopped, and only an echoing, ringing noise filled the air. As far as Rose could see, nothing inside the building had changed except that more windows were missing. There was a scrambling noise behind them, then twelve people appeared, whispering fervently. 

“Rose!” one of them said. 

“What’s going on?” 

“Where is everyone?”

“Shut up!” whispered Rose urgently. 

The twelve people looked up and saw the building engulfed in the inferno.  

Then there were more noises, and fifteen more people appeared behind the twelve. 

What was going on? thought Rose. 

 

[Person_Random 4,991]

Approved.

Great work! I really enjoyed this story - it started off with a flood of emotion, then moved on to a wave of action, which really shows a lot of plot and character development. You have also added more description, but it would be nice to have even more of it. I can see a pretty vague picture of the scene; if it were described even better, with more side descriptions, I believe the reader can easily see a clear picture of exactly what you are writing about. About that, I hope to see more of it in future chapters. Keep up the productivity and top-notch writing!

Edits: Minor Grammatical Edits