Afflicted

I stopped, hoping we were finally safe out of sight of the skies but Lincoln grabbed my hand in the darkness and tugged me on.

“They have infrared sensors as well as motion sensors,” he said as we started running. “They'll track us down in no time.”

“What?” I gasped as panic loomed again. “Then how can we possibly escape?”

“We need to get somewhere the sensors can't see us.” He didn't elaborate but started weaving between the huge crates which filled the warehouse, pulling me along behind him.

At the far side of the huge space was a small window, it's glass so grubby that hardly any light found its way into us. Lincoln ran to it, using his sleeve to clear a patch for him to look out. After a few seconds, he used his elbow to break the glass and cleared the shattered shards with the muzzle of his gun. Once the frame was clear, he pulled himself through.

I stowed the pistol in my waistband and struggled to clamber up behind him. I fell into the dirt outside as the buzzing in the sky drew closer again.

Lincoln was already halfway along the street outside and I scrambled after him as he dropped to his hands and knees.

“What are you doing?” I gasped as he wrenched a manhole cover from the ground.

“Get in.” He pointed down into the darkness and I stared at him blankly. The buzzing of the drones was getting louder and my heart thumped unevenly as death stalked ever closer. “Hurry Katy.”

I dropped to my hands and knees and shuffled backwards, lowering myself into the hole until my toes met with a ladder. I started down quickly, the cold, damp metal making my fingers numb as I descended into darkness.

Lincoln followed so close that he almost stepped on my fingers more than once, making me up my speed.

As he dropped below the surface, he dragged the cover back into place above us, sealing us inside and cutting the light off completely.

We descended as quickly as the pitch black would allow, my pulse thundering in my ears as the fear of being discovered built around me.

My foot smacked against hard concrete, taking me by surprise as I reached the bottom of the ladder and stepped away to give Lincoln room to follow.

Once he was down too, we stood in silence, our laboured breaths the only thing to disturb the air around us as we strained to listen for the drones above.

The buzzing was faint but unmistakable as they gathered beyond our hiding place, searching for us with infrared and motion sensors. I just hoped we were far enough below ground to fool them.

I hardly dared to breathe as the buzzing came and went, the drones clearly circling as they tried to find their prey.

Eventually it faded away and didn't come back, allowing my heart to finally beat normally again.

“So what now?” I breathed and even my whisper felt like a shout as it cut through the tension surrounding us.

“Now?” Linc asked, his voice husky. “Now we do the only thing we can; survive.”