Chapter 2 – Together in the Worst Way
Memories of last night play over and over again in Hagan’s dreams as he sleeps. He tries to do different things, but he always fails. He set the traps himself, but the infiltrators stop him. Killing the infiltrators before they strike doesn’t help them win. Killing Chloe doesn’t help. Killing himself doesn’t help. Almost giving into his temptations doesn’t help. Killing everyone in a rage doesn’t help him calm down.
Scratching and banging on his cellar door wakes him up. He rubs his face a couple of times and holds his head after going through the same event multiple times.
“Okay, I’m coming!” he says as the scratching gets on his nerves.
He cautiously opens the cellar door to see Chloe on the floor. She’s tired and her face makes her look more exhausted than she really is. Because of their connection, they need to be in close proximity to each other or else they begin to feel depressed and dreary.
“Do you need something, Chloe?”
“I need your help.”
“With what?”
“I just want you to help me.
“You gotta tell me what it is so I can help you with it.”
“Just give me a hug so until I can feel better. I promise I’ll control myself once I feel okay.”
Hagan can’t lie that he feels okay, so he trusts Chloe and helps her up then hugs her. The two begin to feel better then feel as if nothing horrible had happened yesterday. Once they start feeling overly joyful, they stop hugging and go to the opposite sides of the room.
“Thank you, Hagan. I really needed that.”
“Me too, admittedly.”
“Can I have another?”
“No.”
“Oh…right. What are we going to do until the CDC comes? Just wait here?”
“That’s the plan. We should probably keep as much distance away from each other as possible, so nothing happens.”
“You’re right. How long do you think it’ll take them to get here?”
“Three or four days maybe five. They always want blood from people like us even if we turn.”
“Maybe we should set up some defenses. The cannibals will probably try to coax or even force us to-”
“Right. I don’t want to think about it, no offense.”
“None taken.”
“There should be supplies to make defenses downstairs.”
“I’ll help.”
Hagan and Chloe start putting sensors, hidden explosives, and nearly invisible tripwire around their location. Once he’s done his part, he checks where Chloe is to find that most of her traps are set up, but she’s gone. Before he calls out for her, he is shot by a tranquilizer dart and taken with Chloe to a location deeper in the forest. When he wakes up, he sees that he’s in a hole deep in the ground with Chloe, who is unconscious. There’s a light above them with a pulley and ladder that are completely out of reach. Hagan no longer has his pistol and gas mask on him, which makes things worse.
“This isn’t good,” he says to himself before yelling out, “Hey! Why did you bring us here?”
A man in hunting attire looks down into the hole and says, “I intercepted your message to the CDC. They’ll pay me a high price for you especially if you get your girlfriend pregnant.”
“She isn’t my girlfriend!”
“But you do like her a lot. You have to in order to be infected the way you are. Anyway, good luck down there and get it on. I’ll be recording you.”
“You sick fuck!”
The man above the hole goes silent. Hagan’s vision clears up a bit as he sees a camera above him that’s now recording Chloe and him below. Chloe is awake and appears to have heard everything.
“Chloe…” Hagan says as he tries to back as far into the hole’s interior as much as possible.
“Hagan…what are we supposed to do?”
“Uhhh…oh!” Hagan moves closer to Chloe so the man can’t hear him, “If I throw you upward, you can bring the ladder down.”
“Are you sure? We might only have one chance at this.”
“It’s our only shot.”
“Do you really trust me with this? What if I lose control?”
“I’ll handle it. Don’t even think about that and let’s just do this.”
“Okay.”
Because the two were so close, they’ve started to feel euphoric. Hagan and Chloe look into each other’s eyes and start to breath heavier. Their lips almost connect before Hagan turns away, kneels down, and cups his hands together. He nods his head and hopes that Chloe gets it together. It takes a couple of seconds for her to snap to her senses, but when she does, she takes as many steps back as she can before leaping onto Hagan’s hands. He throws her up into the air, but she misses the ladder by an inch and falls down. Not wanting for her to get seriously hurt, he manages to catch her. Because of this, Chloe is even more euphoric than before.
She uncontrollably kisses him then pushes him up against the walls while violently scratching his back. Hagan only has a shred of self-control while he uses his built up energy to knee and kick Chloe in her legs and gut. He manages to do it and kick her away from him. She lunges back at him, but he quickly dodges her and gets to the other side of the hole. He uses his strength to jump on Chloe’s shoulders then leap off her. His two fingers manage to grab the end of the ladder. Using them, he lifts himself up and goes up the ladder to see the man in the hunting attire.
He holds his hands up then smiles and laughs, “I didn’t know half infected like you could do that. I guess I underestimated you.”
Hagan stares at the man in frustration and walks to the man while backing him into a corner.
“Hey, listen to me. I’m just trying to survive out here. We can split the reward that comes from you. You can take eighty percent of it!”
“I don’t give a damn!”
Hagan uncontrollably bites the man’s face cheek off, which infects him. He then throws the man in the hole where Chloe is hoping to knock her out with his body. This doesn’t happen and there isn’t any cold water close by to help her calm down. Instead, he finds a metal neck collar with a long pole attached to it. It appears to be something used for dangerous criminals. He grabs this before letting the ladder down for Chloe.
When Chloe comes up, Hagan puts the collar around her neck. The collar appears to work as it allows him to keep a safe distance away from her. In a fit of lust, Chloe tries to break the metal bar separating her from her love, but the bar is too hard to break. The infected man comes up after Hagan gets used to controlling Chloe.
The infected man says, “I used that to control other infected, but you don’t need it. I’m jealous of you, man. If only I can have a lady like yours.”
Hagan takes his pistol from the desk where the man has his things at and shoots the man in the leg. The man screams then laughs before getting shot in the other leg and falling down.
Again, the man laughs then says, “You’re going to give in eventually with that attitude.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Hagan says as he leaves with Chloe in a neck collar and with his gas mask on as temporary protection from her breath, kisses, and bites.
It doesn’t take too long to get back to their shack, but it’s a hard journey for Hagan who has to drag along his old best friend like a wild animal. He tries to calm her down by sticking her in the cool water, but it barely has an effect on her. Frustrated by everything that’s happening to him, he brings her inside and chains her to an iron bar inside the shack. He then points a gun at her face while she continuously reaches and claws for him. The condition she’s in is enough to bring him to tears. He then points the gun at his own head, which starts to make her worry. Chloe winches and starts to cry too while waking up from her uncontrollable desires. Feeling her emotions, he puts the gun away and pulls up a chair near her.
Hagan sits down and says, “Do you remember what we planned to do when we got old? We wanted to buy this shack and have all of our friends and family live in it once we made it bigger, of course. Brandy and a few others thought the idea was stupid, but we kept it in our minds. It was such a stupid storybook-like idea, wasn’t it? I don’t know why I’m telling you about this, but I feel like telling you it to remind you of the particular bond we share.
You and I used to be the best of friends. Remember when we used to go out every Friday after school for ice cream? Remember when we used to have a sleepover every time we had a party? Remember when we used to tell stories of a better life at night after the infection started? Those nights kept me alive and hopeful.
I don’t know if it’s the infection making me feel this way and talk like this. I just want to give in to these desires I have, but I don’t want to lose myself to you like that. If we actually do end up being together, I’d want to do it the proper way by marrying you. I love you that much Chloe.”
Chloe snaps out of her trance and says, “I love you, Hagan.”
“Chloe…I’m sorry about the way I’m talking to you.”
“No, you’ve helped me go back to normal.”
“I guess. You’re going to have to stay like that for tonight because of what happened.”
“I understand.”
“Thank you.”
For the rest of the day, Hagan feeds and talks to Chloe while she’s chained up until they have to rest for the night. Meanwhile, a group of cannibals notices that they’ve been able to overcome the worst scenario. They now plan to make sure they have sex by convincing the two. If convincing them doesn’t work, then they’ll just force them to have sex. These cannibals are confident that they’ll accomplish their self-assigned task because of their particular past relationship with them.
Take Me Over by Red is another great song for this story. This band is one of my favorite Christian rock bands that you should check it out if you like rock or Christian music.
No comments:
Post a Comment