Laurie bit her lip and turned away too as Alicia kicked the hatch closed. It thunked heavily into place.
She let out a shaky breath.They had emerged on a bare hilltop covered in concrete. A little way off was a small building which must have been the official entrance to the bunker. The concrete was well worn by the wind and rain and its exposed surface was split and cracked.
Alicia was scanning their surroundings, the valley they had arrived through spread away to their left but the forest ahead of them seemed to stay on more level ground. The air was filling with a heavy kind of pressure that made Laurie's hair curl.
A huge fork of lightning broke the sky in half and struck a tall tree. It groaned its death loud enough for the whole forest to hear as it burst into flames and slowly started to fall to the ground, taking several smaller trees with it.
It slammed into the undergrowth with a resounding boom that was punctuated by a huge crash of thunder. Laurie clapped her hands over her ears as her heartbeat accelerated in panic. She cursed herself internally but couldn't help her reaction to the phenomenon.
The orange glow of the flames merged with the smoke as they reached for the sky and fingers of fire started to lick their way along the resisting foliage.
Alicia pointed with her machete at the closest patch of trees and Laurie nodded her understanding. They started running into the cover of the forest to search for the vines.
A second bolt of lightning lit up the sky and Laurie held her breath as she waited for the thunder. She felt the force of it rumbling through her bones but managed to stand still until it had passed. She was pleased to have pushed her fear aside if a little annoyed that it still existed at all.
"This is the wrong kind of woodland," Alicia said with exasperation as it quickly became clear there weren't any vines to be found.
Laurie glanced around at the tough evergreens that surrounded them but she couldn't spot any either.
"What do we do?" she asked.
A shriek sounded somewhere in the valley below them. Alicia glanced in its direction before replying.
"Keep looking and hope we find some vines before they find us."
Laurie nodded and they ran further into the trees as yet more lightning forked through the sky and thunder tore through the air.
Chapter Thirty Four
Coal grabbed my hand and pulled me into the storage cupboard. He barricaded the door behind us, using some shelves which he pulled from the walls.
"We should be fine now, there's no reason for them to force open a random door," Coal said, turning to face me and flicking his torch on.
He looked very calm. Too calm for the situation as far as I was concerned.
"Unless they know we're in here," I whispered, backing up to the far wall.
Coal followed me, smiling slightly.
"I'll just have to protect you then," he said, leaning against the wall next to me.
"I can protect myself," I said with more confidence than I felt. I took out my pistol and removed the safety catch before laying it on the shelf next to me. "If it comes to it."
"So long as one of us stops them, I'm good with it." He laughed darkly before sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. "Come on, Alicia and Laurie aren't coming back for a while," he said, tugging my hand to pull me down next to him.
The floor was cold beneath me and I shivered a little, hoping we weren't going to be stuck waiting for long. The shrieks of the Creepers echoed down the hallway outside and I shifted slightly closer to Coal.
He placed his torch on its end, the beam pointed at the ceiling, casting strange shadows around the small room. I stared up at them, wriggling my fingers so that the light danced around us. I watched my hand for a moment as I tried to hold it still and it continued to tremble. I hoped it was due to the cold but I couldn't be sure.
"Come here." Coal shifted closer to me and took his coat off.
Beneath it he wore a khaki shirt that hugged his broad frame and I tried not to stare as he leaned over me to drape the coat around my shoulders. He paused for a moment and glanced at me, staying very close, then dropped his gaze and moved back to lean against the wall again.
"Thanks," I murmured, pulling the coat around me and breathing in its scent. "Did Alicia get the device in place?"
"I can check it's working properly, though I don't see how we'd get back down there if it's not," he said as he pulled a receiver from his pocket and flicked on the screen. "It's downloading. This just streams what they're receiving back in Franklin. Hunter gave it to me so that we could be sure we'd done everything properly."
"Are those the lists?" Names were running down the screen, pausing every now and then so that it was possible to read a few then running on.