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“Laurie?" I breathed, but I knew it wasn't her. The silhouette was too tall, the limbs hung at strange angles and they were standing in an odd position, almost like a wild animal waiting to pounce.
Coal's hand closed around my wrist and he took a step backwards, drawing me with him. The silhouette moved into a crouch and let out an inhuman snarl. Coal's flashlight swung up to illuminate an all-too-human face which was twisted in a growl of rage.
“Run," Coal gasped and flung me around to face the opposite end of the row.
My heart leapt as we broke into a sprint, the sound of bare feet slapping against the concrete floor sounding too close behind us as the Creeper gave chase with another shriek.
Coal pulled a knife from his belt and twisted, flinging it in one fluid motion at the Creeper. We didn't pause to see if it hit the mark but we heard a screech of pain and the footsteps slowed.
“Gunshots will just draw more of them to us, only fire if it’s that or death," he commanded in a low voice.
“Okay," I agreed, shifting my hand from my pistol to the hilt of my first knife.
"Alicia? Laurie?" Coal called as we barrelled from the end of the row and skidded to the left.
Two more figures loomed out of the darkness in front of us. We spun to head back the way we’d come but we were surrounded as more of them appeared there too. Coal shifted to stand between me and the nearest Creepers with a snarl of anger.
I stayed close to him, looking back at the moving shadows behind us as he drew two knives and held them ready.
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“Stay close,” he commanded, lurching forward to meet the closest monsters.
My grip tightened on my own blade as I did as he’d commanded. As we closed the distance between us, they held their ground seeming unsure, obviously not expecting us to take the fight to them.
We passed another line of computer consoles and Coal stopped holding his ground as he bared his teeth at the Creepers.
"Run," he growled at me.
“What?" I hissed back.
“Don't argue with me, just run." He turned slightly and shoved me sideways with his shoulder.
I gasped as I stumbled into the passage and Coal ran the last few steps between him and the Creepers as he launched an attack.
I hesitated for a moment as the struggle took Coal further away from me. But as I moved forward to help, the remaining Creepers raced to block the end of the passage, cutting me off from him.
They were covered in filth and entirely naked. Their broken teeth formed twisted smiles and wild eyes watched me with a hunger that had my whole body trembling with fear.
I took a step backwards instinctively as they snarled at me, then another. There were four of them and they all seemed intent on coming after me rather than Coal. If I could lure them away from him then he’d have a better chance against the two he was fighting.
The Creepers hounded after me and I did the only thing I could.
I ran.
I attached the device to the console without any difficulty. There was even a handy sign next to the port saying 'USB in' to make it even easier to find. Piece of cake.
I waited for the device to confirm that it was connected and then we could get the hell out of here. A little progress bar ran along the bottom of the screen with the words 'coupling complete in:' followed by a timer which was counting down seconds from sixty.
“I'll give you a driving lesson on the way back if you like," I said to Laurie over my shoulder. It was ridiculous how sheltered they were from living in the city and I intended to rectify that as quickly as possible.
48.
“You're on," Laurie replied, the excitement in her voice making me smile. And Coal said girls didn't like me. I’m totally likeable, the most likeable.
I tapped my thumb on the hilt of my machete impatiently as we waited. The timer was counting down excruciatingly slowly and I just wanted to get back up to the sunlight. It wasn’t natural to be stuck underground like this.
"It's really just a matter of getting used to the stick shift. But if you don't get on with it you can just drive an automatic instead," I said.
