ChapterTwo
“What happened?”
“Get out the fucking way. We need to get to the infirmary,” I growled.
A feminine sob broke through the topside crowd’s mumbles and I grimaced. I didn’t know Lydia would be waiting for him up here. She should have been below ground with her child.
“Carlos? Oh my god, Carlos!” she cried out.
Guilt hit me in the chest like a serrated dagger. I should have saved him. But we had better equipment and supplies back in Black Hollow. We drove quickly. We still had time.
“Move!” I yelled again, trying my best not to knock Lydia aside too harshly. Time was of the essence, he was losing too much blood!
Our settlement had a small medic hut topside and a full fledged infirmary below ground. I didn’t think Carlos could take the jostling to move him below.
Eric came out of the medic hut with wide eyes and ran back in to prepare for our arrival. The men and I carried Carlos and carefully placed him on the metal cot.
He groaned in pain and his eyes were beginning to flutter. Shit, he was going to lose consciousness. I rubbed his sternum aggressively to give him noxious stimuli.
“Open your eyes. Stay awake for us. Come on, Carlos!”
He groaned again as his head lolled and my heart began to race once more. We were losing him. The material we wrapped around his neck was soaked through with blood, the original color lost and unknown.
“Get out of my way! Unwrap his neck,” the other medic instructed.
Angel tried to stay by my side but there was too much commotion and activity going on in the hut.
I quickly did as commanded but the moment his head lifelessly lolled to the side, my heart stopped. His skin was cooling. Shoving the metal table, I roar and grab the side of my head.
Another scream pierced the air as Lydia fell to the ground at the entryway of the hut on her knees. Some of the guys ran to help her up but I was too lost in my own guilt, my throat closing up from losing another one. Angel howled, adding the day’s song of sorrow.
In this wretched world, we needed to regain a stronghold before we became food for the enemy. Some were recently seen snatching any of the women who were topside foraging through the woods to increase their clan numbers. Families were broken, lives were lost and hope dwindled as survivors had to adapt to the quick changes thrown at us.
We couldn’t let it keep happening.
Living in defense wasn’t going to be enough. It was time to take action. It was time to be the ones on the offense.
I barged out of the hut and took the path toward the outlying line of trees northwest to one of the more secluded entrances into Black Hollow. I couldn’t be around anyone right now. Each death fractured my patience and my hope, releasing a part of me I didn’t recognize.
Lydia’s cries of sorrow echoed in the air and through the trees as I walked passed them, hoping to drown her out. I could hear Angel’s little footfalls follow me but my mind was too lost in everything that happened, replaying the scene again and again as if accusing me of things I could have possibly done better.
Our former resistance had sent out a large number to battle with Clan Corrus in the past, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. Black Hollow was supposed to be a new start. Of course, not everyone chose to follow but we had to make our way in this world even if it meant we had to leave a few behind. We didn’t need Corrus to follow us back to our main base. There were too many lives at stake.
And yet, we couldn’t seem to stop death from following us, no matter how divided we became.
I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t face the rest of the people knowing that we lost another one. I walked past the entrance to Black Hollow and continued into the thick of the woods and didn’t look back.
* * *
Inés
I stood atop the hillside with my arms wrapped around myself, watching as the snow from the nearby mountains slowly slid from the top of the mountain down the trench we had created over the years.
The cool breeze picked up, slapping my dark hair in front of my face annoyingly. Pushing the strands back, I let out a sigh. These were the moments of solitude I sought out when thoughts about this wretched world and what the future might mean for us got to me.
I had to stop myself from continuing depressive thoughts. The clear air and beautiful scenery did just that.
There was a reason why Black Hollow was hidden for so long from threats. Besides our main compound being below ground, the caverns’ expanse was intricately connected by multiple tunnels we had dug out over the years, making room for the increase in population over time. The huts topside left nothing to the imagination, making the enemy believe that it was just a couple of families trying to make it alive in the open.
