Season 1 - Blogisode 14 (Repeat)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN



The four of them push single file through the congested tunnel in hope of finding a potential reprise from their situation. Persia had taken the time to become familiar with and learn everyone’s names while they had been sourcing supplies for their excursion. The fat one was called Taken, blame his parents, the stout fellow Bill and the woman asked to be called Shane but insisted that it was not her real name. No reason worth pondering as far as Persia was concerned.

They had been crawling their way through this winding channel of pipe for what felt like near an hour now. No light save for the one glow stick that Taken held at the front of the pack. They had found seventeen of the damn things but Taken had insisted on conservation, which was likely a safe course but still annoyed the rest of the party.

“How much farther do you expect this…”

“I don’t expect this to be anything Persia, I know for a fact that in seven minutes we will hit this tunnels end and then…” Taken trails off his speech evaporating.

“And then what?”

“Well ma’am I rightly don’t know.” He speaks in a mock southern accent. Persia can only assume that his odd mannerism is a means of combating his insecurity in regard to having no fucking idea what to do next.

Shane scuttles her way next to Persia. The passage was near too tight for one body but the girl insisted on snuggling up next to her. She speaks in a whisper. “Do you trust this guy? I only ask because his energy is all black and dirty and I’ve never met anyone with colors like that I didn’t eventually have trouble with.”

Persia raises an eyebrow in question. “You can see his energy? What do you mean by that exactly?”

“When they were doing the admittance tests to this place I scored really high on the extra sensory sections. You know the stuff to do with reading minds and seeing auras and that kind of shit.”
“So you’re a telepath?”

“Not exactly, at least not before I got here. It’s a really long story but part of the agreement in my getting in here was that I had to be part of this thing… Look it’s a long story I just don’t think we can trust this guy.”

Persia stares up the tunnel at Taken, the stick casts an awkward green hue over his frame as he lumbers forward.

“I don’t trust him either.”

CLUNK

“What was that?” Persia hollers up the line.

Taken twists his head round slowly and smiles back at the three folks in tow behind him. “We’re here.”



Kite looks down at the cityscape from atop the Wal-Mart, pistol lazy on his shoulder. The sun has tucked itself beneath a thick patch of cloud that had been making its way to swallowing up the sky since daybreak.

“Looks like rain.” Christina steps up to him from behind, they lock eyes as she touches his shoulder.

“We had better get inside, hold up until this passes. It’s been a long time but I still don’t want to risk the acid in the rain turning us both to slush.”

“Remember that dog?”

Kite turns to her. “I'd rather not remember that dog. Come on.”

They take hands, walk back to the rooftop exit and step inside as the first drops of acid rain touchdown.



“Jesus fuck come on.” Christian scoops up Jasmine with one arm and makes for cover as the water scatters down from above stinging him through this clothing.

He rushes off of the main street and into an alley ducking into a tattered excuse for a storefront. Jasmine kicks out of his grip and clamors to a far corner of the room. Silent her teeth grit in reaction to the effects of the acidic rain burning her skin. Christian takes a breath and finds a wall to slump against.

“Are you okay?”

Jasmine nods, tense from the stinging sensation that crawls across her frame she rubs herself dry with her hands.

“Good.”

He opens his pack and pulls out a large t-shirt and a torn piece of sheet, tosses both to the child.

“Here dry off with the one and put on the other until your clothes dry. I don’t need you melting away on me.”

She takes the sheet and mats it against her face and hair. Christian peels off his wet shirt and wipes himself with it then drapes it over a dusty chair. From outside the rain can be heard as it picks up its tempo and ascends into a fierce storm.




“So how do we open it?”

Bill squeezes up next to Taken to get a better look at the hatch, which is presumably the only thing standing between them and freedom.

“It works the same as the front gate did. Just punch in the code and it opens up.”

“So what’s the code?”

Shane speaks up from behind them. “Four, eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty three, forty two… what I’m kidding.”

Persia cracks a smile; the other two men turn back to the portal un-amused. Taken waves the green stick panning the walls around the gate; the lock box set to the right side looks identical to the one at the front entrance, only much smaller and with no blinking light.

“So what is the code?"

Taken swallows a deep lung full of stale air and holds. He closes his eyes for a second, lifts his finger to the touch screen then opens and taps the box. Seven clicks later the door sounds out a loud mechanical hum as the lock releases. Taken looks to Bill, a smirk.
“You first.”



The small patch of beach is silent apart from the rhythmic melody of the waves as they slosh into shore then reel back out to sea again. The small fire flashes and spits about in the wind lapping back and forth with the change in current.

In the distance a thick dark leviathan of cloud makes its way from the mainland across the sea toward the small island, the storm can be heard now above the waves, churning in requiem from a distance.

Dave and James sit on the beach, eyes front, silent in awe of the lethal monstrosity that approaches.