Above Ground

We were crouching behind a dumpster. I was too terrified to acknowledge the stench of stewing garbage assaulting my nose. The moisture between Karina and I’s intertwined fingers intensified as she hugged our palms together tightly. We were both sweating profusely from our marathon sprint in the stifling heat to our current hiding place. Our threadbare clothes were molding to our bodies like a second layer of skin. Time wasn’t in our favor as the horde of daywalkers began to close in on us. There was no escape; we were going to die.

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Of course I do,” I answered honestly.

She gave me one of those heart-stopping smiles that made me fall for her in the first place, but there was something in her eyes I couldn’t place.

Stuck in her gaze, we traced each other’s faces, and her smile turned. She gave me a look she reserved for when I was in trouble. A commanding expression that said she meant business.

“When I tell you to run, you run, and you don’t fucking stop. Understand?”

I didn’t often challenge such a command, but I frowned incredulously. “But, they’ll catch us.” My voice cracked, betraying my fear. Her eyes softened, and she cupped my cheek.

“Trust me.” She slipped the heart-shaped locket she always wore from around her neck and placed it over my head.

“What are you doing?” I asked. She hadn’t taken off the locket since I gave it to her for her birthday three years ago.

“For luck,” she responded. I nodded, too full of nerves to question her reasoning. “Do you know I love you more than anything?”

I met her gaze, seeing the love swimming in the depths of her eyes, and looked away. “We aren’t doing this, Karina. You have a plan, right? We’re going to be fine. We’ll be back at the bunker eating mounds of peanut butter before we know it,” I said with more confidence than I felt.

She gave me a tight smile. “Okay then.”

The hungry moans of the daywalkers were getting louder. They were closing in.

“Ready?” Karina asked.

“As I’ll ever be.”

She kissed me three times, lingering on the last, and let go of my hand. I quickly grabbed hers again, and she gave me a questioning look.

“I love you too,” I said. She squeezed my hand and peered around the dumpster.

“1,” she counted softly. My heart pounded in my chest. “2,” she brought my hand to her lips, kissing my knuckles. “3, run!”

I took off down the alley as fast as I could. I could hear the excited noises of the unnatural creatures behind me. The sound of scraping metal made me glance over my shoulder. Nothing could’ve prepared me for what I saw, and I almost tripped in my haste to stop.

Karina fought with the dumpster, pushing it into their path to block them. It wouldn’t stop them, but it would stall their progress. She was buying me time.

“No,” I whispered, frozen in place.

As if sensing my hesitation, Karina looked over and gave me a reassuring smile before her face became serious, and she yelled at me in that commanding tone, “Go!”

A daywalker climbed over the dumpster, but Karina was ready and fired her gun. I was still frozen, torn between obedience and not wanting to leave her behind. More daywalkers climbed over.

Bang! Bang!

Karina shot well, but there were too many. They fell upon her. “Go!” she yelled one last time.

Tears filled my eyes. I looked away as they tore into the flesh of the love of my life and ran to safety.

I woke screaming. It was a common occurrence as my unconscious mind frequently forced me to relive the most horrific day of my life.

After untangling myself from the twisted sheets, I situated myself comfortably on my mattress. The new leader of the Underground hadn’t assigned me a roommate out of respect for Karina’s former position and my never-ending grief. The Underground was formed by the survivors of the virus. We each had assigned roles, some more important than others, but all necessary. I was a scavenger. Whenever we were low on supplies, it was my job to retrieve necessities. Karina usually insisted on coming with me despite her role as our fearless leader.

Her position afforded us the most spacious room in the bunker. Not that there was much cause for bragging. A dirty mattress, a broken mini-fridge, some itchy blankets, a few tattered books, and various trinkets we’d collected. The real gem was the small tv with an old DVD player attached. We only had four movies to watch, but that didn’t stop us from watching them over and over. We escaped our day-to-day routine by cuddling up and reciting the movies word for word when we weren’t too exhausted.

My heart rate slowly returned to normal; my breathing sounding less and less harsh to my ears. I clutched Karina’s locket, allowing my tears to fall and soak my nightshirt. I hadn’t opened it since she slipped it around my neck two months ago. I didn’t want to see the picture of us on our first date. Of her happy smile as I kissed her cheek. In sacrificing herself to protect me, she’d condemned herself to a life as a daywalker, which wasn’t a life at all. I knew I needed to accept that the woman I loved was gone, forever changed. But, tonight, my heart was aching, her absence harrowing. Every part of my body burned with a yearning for my lost love. So I did what I’d been avoiding for the last 62 days, 15 hours, and 37 minutes.

I opened the locket.

Something tumbled out, and I instinctively caught it. It was a tiny key with the word diary written on it in black marker. My heart began to pound. Karina was always scribbling away in her diary, but she never told me what she was writing, and I never asked. Had she left this for me, or is it just where she hid her key?

I scrambled off the mattress to retrieve the diary from where it rested on the top of our stacked books. I opened it with shaking hands, unsure of what I’d find.

I believe I am close to an antidote for the virus.

My eyes read that line over and over.

Close to an antidote.

An antidote.

An antidote!

If anyone could’ve created an antidote, it would be Karina. She had one of the most logical and scientific minds of our generation. Before the virus outbreak, she was making strides in developing a cure for cancer. She was brilliant.

Hope swelled in my chest. What if I could save her?

Quickly skimming the page, I found a list of ingredients for her proposed cure. I realized most of the items were things she'd brought back after accompanying me on my scavenging. I suddenly understood why she insisted on joining my missions above ground but often separated from me for short periods. She was on a mission of her own.

There was a check mark next to all of ingredients except the last one.

9. Blood of a daywalker - bring all research and plan for capturing one to the next meeting.

I allowed myself a moment of fear. Her plan was as good as any, but it was flawed—not that it mattered much to me. I would do anything for a second chance.

I already knew which daywalker I’d capture for this experiment. Locating Karina amongst all the other flesh-eaters would not be an easy task but, one way or another, I was going to get her back.