Chapter 12 The kick of Adrenaline

Eyes wide with fear, I saw how the Creepers ran wildly in our direction. Timothy quickly grabbed Li by his shirt and Jayson helped Mona keep up with our speed. I ran and tightly held the gun in my hand as I fired two bullets and shattered the foreheads of two Creepers that attempted to dive themselves on Timothy.
There were ten. No fourteen of them. Jason went from alley to alley, hoping to find a place where we could lose them or any barricaded spot that we could climb to get rid of them. The Howls and screeches made our blood boil in fear as we ran for our lives. But as we entered the channels of alleys between the tall buildings around the place, it only seemed that we were the ones who got lost out of path on the way through the subways.
"Jayson! Where are we?!" I screamed at him as I fired two bullets more and another two Creepers fell on the ground with a hole in their head. Li attempted to look at the remaining Creepers at our back but almost lost his balance when he tripped on a can of empty soda.
"Wait!" He panted with panic and looked from right to left. We saw a long narrow aisle from the right and with a mesh fence at the end of it.
"LEFT!" Jayson cried out and swerved left, leading the whole group. I kept myself behind them as I kept on shooting whenever one of the Creepers suddenly hopped on any of us. I shot them while they were in midair, a clean shot on their head as they fell down the concrete ground.
"Faster! Li!" I shouted at him as he struggled to keep up with our pace. Timothy helped him by shoving him on his back as he carried his radio. This rich guy seemed like a burden when he recoiled from the Creepers but he"s truly physically strong. He carried that heavy trunk that contained the improvised radio without an effort while running. That trunk weighs ten to twelve kilos!
The alleyway was so slim that we could only fit if we lined up one by one. The Creepers stampeded on each other, clawing their way to reach us but some had managed to get into it and howled in fury as they battled moving forward, their limbs hitting the walls.
"Go! Go! Go!" Timothy cried and pushed Li more as our backpacks knocked at the moldy walls that caved us in. A bald Creeper was almost near me, the skin was drooping down his face, revealing the red muscles underneath it. His lips were ripped away which made him look more hideous because I could see directly his perfectly square teeth, his mouth gurgles with black disgusting liquid that I think was their decaying blood. His opaque, white eyes glared as if he could see me. Could he actually see me without an iris and pupil?
I revolted at the strong, awful smell that came from his badly deteriorated body, making my eyes watery.
I shot it on the head and it sprawled backward but another one staggered above it, reaching for me again.
Click! Click!
Sh*t! No bullets anymore!
There was no time! I looked at the Creeper in front of me, my heart almost skipped a beat as it outstretched its hand, almost grabbing me by my shirt when a loud bang of the sound of the rifle echoed all over the place.
It went flying rearwards, toppled over the Creepers behind him. I looked back and saw that Jayson was already at my back. He cocked his rifle and shot the Creepers in front of us.
"Go! I'll cover you! Get behind the barricade!" Jayson called without glancing at me. His eyes were fixed to his targets as he aimed the rifle and fired another shot at the advancing Creepers.
I worriedly looked at him but there was no time to spare. I saw the others were safely waiting for us on the other side as I hurriedly climbed up the seven-foot-tall meshed wire. It was difficult. The burns on my hand throb badly, making me grimace as I carry myself up and to the other side of the wired fence.
C'mon, Jayson...
Jayson glanced at us and when he confirmed that we were all safe, he flinched backward and then sprinted as fast as he could. He was so amazingly fast that climbing the fence just took him a few seconds!
The Creepers hastily followed Jason but were not able to climb up the fence. We got bothered when they piled up though. Their arms aggressively extended through the holes of the mesh wire, their blackened mouth stretched, viciously wide.
"Let's go. I hope that will hold them long enough until we reach the bunker." I uttered in relief as we ran again, figuring out our route as Jayson took the map from my satchel.
"We have rolled a little too far from it." Jayson wrinkled his nose as his sweat stung his eye. He wiped it with his sleeve.
We all went straight inside a storage building after we checked that it was safe from Creepers around it. The facility was huge. We found out it was a kind of factory that manufactures plastic wares. But most products we had seen in the stacked boxes were silicon-like skin that was used as outer membranes for human-featured Androids. These Androids were mainly used in this era as mass laborers in manufacturing industries due to the decrease of the human population after World War III, eighty years ago. Humans die from various kinds of illnesses that materialized from undetected radiations in some parts of Arcania; a sign of the nightmare of the nuclear bombings that had happened here many years ago.
We all took a short rest and breathed as Jayson read the map and pointed out our current location. I felt so weary, my legs were constricting badly. I massaged them with my other hand that has no burn. Mona took my injured other hand and checked how bad it was. She slowly unwrapped the fabric from Jayson's ripped shirt, making me grimace in unimaginable discomfort as some of my skin stuck on the cloth and peeled away from my palm.
Li made a face as they all watched how Mona pulled the cloth gently, struggling not to worsen my agony. I bit the sleeve of my shirt to prevent myself from grunting too loud. I refused to look as Mona's gentle touch tends to it. Then, a mind-numbing pain made me bit my arm more, trying to channel all my senses to the pain on my arm when she poured alcohol into my hand.
I whimpered and grunted, swaying my body back and forth while sitting beside Mona. I hid my face from everyone because I didn't want them to see me as I cried. I knocked my head twice on my knee.
"Try to breathe deep." I heard Jayson's gentle voice, trying to give me advice. I felt his hand on my shoulder but I didn't lift my head to look at any of them. It's just too much for me.
I wish all of this didn't happen. I feel furious because I wish my father didn't make us move here. If only we remained in Coleshire... If only he listened to me...
Frustrated and terrified, I knew no matter how I wished about certain things, it won't change the fact that we are all going to die if we won't get into the bunker as soon as we can.
The five of us went silent and I could feel the pressure and despair in the air as we all took a brief pause from all that exhausting running. The dreadful noises of the Creepers were still everywhere and we knew that we'd be surrounded if we didn't move.
"You will be okay, You are amazing back there," Timothy spoke in a fret manner and my curiosity made me take a quick glimpse at his face. He wasn't looking at me, though. He was glaring at the piles of huge boxes in front of us, a wall that obscures us from the Creepers outside. His face showed resentment. "I wish I am as brave as you, Harriet. I feel embarrassed that I can't help you guys."
"You helped me carry the radio." Li tried to lift Timothy's confidence, thanking him.
"Thanks." Timothy smiled at him and Li patted him on the shoulder.
Mona had finished dressing my damaged hand and the pain was starting to ebb. I mouthed her thank you and she smiled at me while arranging her things back to her bag.
"We're not too far from the bunker. Here." Jayson pointed to our current location on the map. He was right. We're only just ten meters away from that place.
"We must move now or—"
Li stopped when a sinister moan suddenly filled out ears. The sound came from the right, and then another one to our left. Jayson put his finger on his lips, an indication that we should not make any noise as we huddled together. My hands were shaking and my heart was frantically beating against my chest.
I saw a long shadow crawl towards us...