“If there are any survivors, they either escaped or ran deeper into the cave,” I said.
We spent the next few minutes gathering supplies of the lost patrol. Guns, ammunition, medicine, food…it was a treasure trove. I could see why Ohlan wanted this stuff back. I tried my best to ignore the dead bodies.
Makara was barely holding it together. There would be time for grieving, later.
“Look, Makara…we have maybe an hour of sunlight left. We need to hurry.”
She nodded. “I know. I’m trying. Just…let me work, okay?”
After five minutes, we had gathered all we could into two large backpacks we had found nearby. It was almost all the stuff, including the guns and ammunition.
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Suddenly, the cave darkened. At first, I thought Makara had turned off her flashlight. But she reached for her gun, and that’s when I heard a bullet.
I turned to face the mouth of the cave, and saw five figures blocking the entrance.
“Hey, Makara,” came that nasty, gravelly voice. “You miss me?”
It was Brux.
“Run!” Makara yelled.
We didn’t turn to look back as they fired at us. Bullets whizzed by. Makara turned off her flashlight, and the darkness swallowed us.
“I’ll find you, Makara!” Brux yelled. “I’ll track you down if it’s the last thing I do!”
His voice was lost as we ran on. After running and tripping for a minute, Makara turned the light back on – it was just too dangerous not to see where we were going, especially when something much worse than raiders lived here.
We rounded corners, sloping ever downward. A thin trickle of a stream collected at our feet, and we splashed our way through the darkness.
The light revealed scenery more and more alien to the eye. Pink and purple fungus hung in stalactites. There was a curious, deadening of all sound from the purple stuff covering the walls. A pungent, sickly sweet smell burned my lungs.
Soon, it was hard to breathe.
“Makara,” I said, stopping.
She looked back. “We can’t stop now.”
My head swam. It was hard to focus.
I felt a hand slap my cheek.
“Wake up, damn it!” Makara yelled. “Do you want to die here?”
I pushed forward one step. I heard voices behind us in the distance, from a different world.
I fell to my knees.
“Go on, Makara…”
She didn’t go on, either. Her eyes grew hazy, and she fell to the ground.
“What… is this…?”
My only desire was to lie on the bed of fungus we were now on. It was so soft. I nestled in it. It was warm, damp, like a living thing. I felt like I would soon become a part of it. I wanted nothing more than that.
I felt it itching on my face. But I didn’t care.
Makara and I were soon fast asleep.
Chapter 19
I swam through dreams – peaceful dreams, the kind you never want to wake from. I saw my father, Khloe, and even my mother. It had been so long since I’d seen her. She had brown hair, and soft, kind eyes. How this was her, I didn’t know – it had been so long since she had died.
After what seemed days in this state, even the dreams began to fade.
I opened my eyes and found myself in a dark room, alone. I was in a small bed, and I made out the faint outlines of a desk in the corner.
I thought I had died.
I tried to move my legs, but they didn’t obey my commands.
“Makara…”
My voice was soft and raspy. Nothing answered it.
Then, the door opened, letting in a flood of white light. I saw a shadowy shape enter. I shielded my eyes.
“You are up, finally,” came a deep, male voice.
“Who are you?”
I did my best to sit up, and leaned my back against the headboard of the bed. I was terribly thirsty.
“Water.”
The man handed me a leather canteen. I drank the warm water greedily.
“I found you and Makara while collecting samples,” he said. “Foolish thing – to run into a xenofungal field without the proper breathing equipment. If I hadn’t come along, you would have been dead. Or worse.”
My eyes were starting to focus. I could now see that the man tall, all angles and hard muscle. He had broad shoulders, tanned skin, and a shaved head. His eyes, while I could not determine their color, were focused and serious. He looked to be in his early to mid-twenties.
“How long have I been here?” I asked.
“I found you on September 30. It is now October 2. Some never wake from the coma caused by xenofungal sleeping spores. You were lucky. I came along just in time. Some luck that was.”
“Where is Makara?”
“She awoke earlier in the day, but I couldn’t get two words out of her. She is asleep again. She will be fine.”
He walked to the door, flipping on the light. Suddenly, everything was illuminated, and my eyes burned.
The man looked very familiar. At first, I thought I might have known him from Bunker 108. He would have been a security officer, given his stature. But I knew for a fact he wasn’t from 108. I would have remembered him.
Then, I realized he looked like Makara.
“Samuel?”
“Yes. You must be Alex.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s the only name Makara keeps saying in her sleep. That, and mine.”
“We thought you were dead. You were the whole reason for our coming here.”
He gave a small smile. “Was I now?”
“Makara will go crazy. Are there other survivors?”
“No. Just me.”
“We were chased by raiders into the cave. We thought you were dead when we saw the corpse pile.”
Samuel nodded. “They ran you right into the Bunker, then. You are lucky you survived.”
“How did you escape? What happened to you guys?”
“We will speak of that later. Let us go check on my sister.”
“Is she awake?"
Just then, she screamed from the room next to us. Samuel and I got up and ran out of the room, pistols in hand. I ran after him.
We went into the hall, and burst into Makara’s room. Makara was sitting up in bed, eyes wide.
“Makara, what’s wrong?” Samuel asked.
Makara looked at Samuel as if he was a ghost. She didn’t say a word.
Samuel went to her, grabbed both her hands, and helped her out of bed. All the time, Makara never looked away, not believing.
There was still no discernible reaction on Makara’s face. Then, slowly, her eyes filled with tears, and her shoulders shook.
Samuel embraced her. Makara let out a suppressed sob.
“I can’t believe this,” she said. “It is too good to be true.”
“It is true,” Samuel said. “I am here. Believe it.”
They parted.
“First,” Makara said. “What about those raiders? Did they follow us in?”
Samuel shook his head. “I saw no raiders. I guess they did not follow you in. Though I would not have been surprised if they had, given the contents of Alex’s pack.”
“They might still be out there,” I said.
“Maybe,” Samuel said. “But it’s been two days now. Unless there was another reason, they would have long given up the chase by now.”
“They probably took all the supplies we left at the front of the cave,” Makara said.
She looked at Samuel as if she still could not believe her eyes.
“And in either case,” Samuel said, “there is another way out. It is harder, and it comes out near the top of Cold Mountain. There is an elevator shaft, but to get there we would have to go through the thickest part of the Bunker. The part that is not secure.”