Status: In Progress, finished by the end of the Month <3
Another NaNoWriMo Attempt
Four.
Aiden heard the click as his ex fiance hung up the phone. He balled up his fists, and yelled angrily. His sister was the most important thing in the world to him, and Ki knew it. Before he could even sit back for a second to think, he was headed for the door. His car started, and he began backing out of the garage, waiting impatiently for the door to rise enough to free him. "Come on!" he exclaimed, banging his hands on the steering wheel and watching as slowly, inch by inch the door rose.
His heart leapt as he saw it was finally open enough, and punched the gas, his little dodge volted backwards and jumped from garage and made it's way to the smooth pavement of the road. This was going to be a long trip, he could already tell. It was 198 miles to Eureka, where his sister was, and he wanted to get there now. He drove, all too slowly for his liking, through his small town and all the way to the interstate. Even the speed on this road seemed to be too slow for the man who was playing lanes and cursing whenever he got stuck behind anyone going slower than him. It seemed he'd never get there, but in a mere three hours, he saw a sign saying Eureka was close. He smiled, he'd made just about as good time as he could have hope for, and that's when he saw it; road blocks.
"What's going on here?" he said to the police officer, slowing to a stop.
"The whole town's closed, sir."
"Why?"
"That's not something I can share with the general public, sir, I'm sure you understand."
Aiden's blood was boiling at this point, this man expected him to be alright with not knowing anything about what was going on, expected him to just accept it.
"No, officer, you're mistaken." Aiden's words with short, and harsh. "I don't understand why you can't tell me what's going on. My sister lives here. Is something serious going on?" he narrowed his eyes.
"I don't have the authority to disclose that information to you..." the cop took a step back, his eyes drawn into Aiden's poison stare.
With that, Aiden clenched his hands on the steering wheel. "Well, is there anyone who has that authority, or is everyone here useless?"
"We're not useless, sir-" Aiden cut him off
"If you can't tell me what the fuck is going on in this town, then yes, sir, you and everyone else here is pretty useless, in my opinion."
"You need to calm down." the police officer said, placing his hand at his hip. Aiden was yelling at this point and leaning out his window. His eyes and nostrils were flared angrily.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" he exclaimed, pressing his foot on the gas and whipping his car around. He knew what he had to do now.
First, he called his sister, but of course there was no answer. There had to be something wrong with her if she was ignoring his phone calls. He had no other choice but to call the two people in the world that he knew he could always count on. His best friend Carter, and even though he hated to admit it, Kairena, his ex fiance.
Carter answered on the third ring. "Hey man, what's up?"
Aiden didn't even know how to reply, he just took a deep breath and let it out. "I honestly, don't know, Car. But I think we need to get together. Something's happening, and..." he paused, and sighed. "I don't know. Meet me in Medford. At Ki's I'm sure she still lives at the same place" with that, he hung up the phone, he knew that his friend would meet him. Carter was always there when Aiden needed him.
The next call was going to be harder, and he knew that much.
He clicked through his contacts and found her name. She'd called him earlier and he'd pretended that he didn't know who she was, he didn't want her to know that he'd saved her number all this time in case he needed her, in case he wanted to call her. He'd never really given up on her; but she didn't need to know that.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang... he didn't know if she was going to answer, the voicemail couldn't be too many more rings away, and then her voice: "Yes, Aiden?" it was calculating, cold, angry. He took a deep breath and then began to answer.
"I'm sorry about earlier, Ki. I lost my temper, I was unfair."
He heard her draw in a sharp breath, and guessed that using her shortened name had been a bad choice, either that or it was going to melt the chill that had formed between then earlier.
"I know, Aiden. You never were very fair."
He took the blow and sighed, he had been expecting something along those lines; he decided to steer the conversation in a new direction. They didn't have time to be hung up on their old relationship right now.
"Candy is stuck in Eureka. It's been all closed down, and they won't tell me anything. Do Tobias or Leo know anything? They're the ones you got your in-tell from, aren't they? Are they there?" he threw out a string of questions, hoping she'd answer them all.
"Yes, they're here, yes I know Eureka's been blocked off, no I don't really know what's going on, other than people are sick." he heard her take a deep breath, she was obviously trying not to cry. "I also know that people are dying. I don't know who, I don't know how many, but I know they're dying."
Aiden felt his heart drop.
"How..." he paused, trying to pull his thoughts together. "How do you know that?"
"My sister." Kairena barely breathed before sniffling.
"Oh, I'm so sorry.." Aiden didn't know what else to say. He was speeding down the highway, towards Medford, towards her, and right now all he wanted to do was pull her into his arms in a hug. She needed it right now. "I'll be there as soon as I can, Ki." he assured her. "And, don't you dare say no, me and Carter are both coming, we'll be there as soon as we can. Okay.?"
Kairena didn't even know what to say, she nodded, then realizing that he couldn't see what she was doing, laughed to herself softly and said "Okay." The phone call ended after that, and Aiden focused again on the road.
!_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_!
Hours had passed from when he said he'd be there, but he did get there. The sun hung low in the sky, and the first shadows of nightfall could be seen, eerily cast by trees and light poles. Aiden's mind had been racing the entire drive, he didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't sure how they were going to deal with what seemed to be happening. His heart was tied in a knot, and his whole world seemed to be falling apart. Candy was somewhere that he couldn't go. Somewhere that people were sick. Somewhere that people were dying. As he parked his car in Kairena's driveway, he had to way a hand across his face to wipe away the remainders of snot and tears. It had not been an easy drive.
He barely had a chance to knock before Carter answered the door. "Hey, buddy, we thought you were never going to get here!" his eyes were golden and glowing, and his smile said that no one had informed him of what was going on in Eureka.
"Yea, I thought so, too." Aiden said, jokingly, as he walked in and headed directly for Ki. He sat down next to her, and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, giving her the hug he'd known she'd needed hours before.
She snuggled right back into his arms, wrapping hers around him before she even know what was happening, she greedily sucked in the scent of him that she'd missed for so long and let her hands explore every inch of his back, his sides, his shoulders; and she could barely breath. It felt like a moment that would never end, it felt unreal, but she knew that it had to last, and also knew that it was real as any other moment she'd ever had in her life. Tears threatened to creep out of the corners of her eyes, but she held them back and pulled away from him, slowly. He let her go and smiled at her. "Nice to see you, again, Kairena."
She could barely breath, his voice hadn't sounded so real on the phone, she felt she might faint.
"Nice to know you missed me!" Carter declared from across the room, laughing again. "Dude, seriously. I got up to greet your ass."
"Shut up, Car. She needed that. Come sit over here, we have to talk."
Carter apologized quietly and obediently crossed the room to sit on the couch by Leo.
"So, what's going on here?" he began, looking at the grave expressions on everyone's faces. Leo still sniffled every once in awhile, and was all tucked away into himself on the couch, knees curled up to his chest, and his face mostly hidden behind them, arms wrapped around his legs, hugging himself tightly.
"My sister, who lives in Eureka, died." Kairena said softly. These words issued an agonized whimper from Leo, and Tobias sighed heavily, trying to hold his own emotions in check.
"Oh..." he said, "I'm sorry.. I mean... I didn't know her, but I'm sure she was amazing." he was still lost, but he didn't want to ask the next question lingering in his mind.
"I know, Carter." Ki replied, "It will be alright."
The minutes passed, and a deathly silence had engulfed the room as Carter thought how he'd word his next question, or if he should ask it at all. Every second that ticked by made the question weight heavier on his tongue, and when he couldn't help it anymore, he took a deep breath, and let it out. "What does that have to do with all of us, why did Aiden call me all freaked out, why are we all sitting in your living room. Why am I here?"
Aiden smiled a little, he'd been wondering when Carter was going to ask that, and he knew just how to answer. "Because, she didn't just die. She was young, and it wasn't some sort of accident. She was sick, and not only that..." he paused, looking Carter directly in the eye with a grave expression, "the town is sick, Carter. It's been all blocked off, no one's allowed in, or out. Candy is there."
Carter was lost for words. "They've fucking quarantined the place? What the hell. Why isn't this all over the news?"
"Why knows." Tobias said. "Could be because the government is the reason it's happening, could be they don't want a public scare, don't want people to be thinking it's like the influenza outbreak way back when. You know how people are, I mean, look at us. We're all freaking out when it may just be one isolated thing. We just happen to know people there, so we think it's something bigger, imagine if that was all over the news."
Carter nodded slowly. "Yea, I see your point, I guess..." sighing he laid his head back on the couch and let out a huff of air. "Jesus."
"You know we have to get in there, don't you?" Aiden said, looking around the room. "We have to go get Candy."
"What the fuck man, are you crazy? If they've got is quarantined, there's obviously a reason!" Carter retorted.
"You think I'm gonna abandon my sister there!"
"Might be too late..."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Carter knew he'd said the wrong thing, and silently scolded himself; but it had been unneeded.
"Carter, if you think that I'm gonna assume it's too late to save my little sister, then you've got another thing coming, buddy. I thought you'd be all for this. Thought you'd have my back, man. What the hell!" his eyes narrowed, and he continued. "She's all I have, and I'm never gonna leave her, ever. She's my baby sister, man. If I don't go in and save her, who's going to!"
Carter nodded slowly and took a deep breath. "Okay, so we're doing this. Who's down?" He let his eyes travel around the room and slowly, everyone began nodding in agreement.
"God, where do you find all these crazy people." Carter joked with his friend, and then took another deep breath. "I guess we'd better get to the cars, then, eh?"
!_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_!
Kairena, Tobias, and Leo were traveling in her car while Carter and Aiden went in Aiden's. They didn't really have a solid plan, but that was the best things about all of Aiden's escapades, they never did. They were going to meet somewhere along the highway and stash their cars there. They were going to sneak into the town, somehow. After that, they were somehow going to find his sister, and then get her out of there. Everything revolved around somehow.
"So, what the hell are we actually doing?" Leo asked from the backseat, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed and still wet with tears.
"Trying to make sure the same thing that happened to us doesn't happen to Aiden." Kairena retorted.
"I don't see why we have to help, we're kinda dealing with our own shit right now, if you haven't noticed, Kairena. My mother's dead!"
"Shut up, Leo!" Tobias exclaimed. "Mine is, too. She was our mother, she was Ki's sister. We're all hurting, we're trying to help someone else so he doesn't have to hurt like us. Stop being such a whiny fucking bitch, Leo!"
A silence settled over the car after that as Kairena diligently followed Leo along the highway, weaving through traffic and speeding the whole way. She thought it was a miracle they didn't get pulled over before half the trip was done.
The hours passed, and eventually, they were there. They had parked in a pull off on the road, and were looking intently at the police barricades they could clearly see from where they sat. Tobias ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath, crouching beside the car and looking towards the lights. "Fuck..." he whispered to himself, "So, Aiden, what's the plan now?" Aiden was silent, looking at the same scene everyone else was faced with. He didn't know what to do, he had come in guns blazing, but they were all burnt out now.
"This is hopeless." he said, feeling tears burning the backs of his eyes.
"You're really gonna give up now, Aiden!" Kairena growled at him, "You're the one who drug us all down here, you're the one who said we had to do this to save Candy, you cannot give up on her now. Get a fucking grip on yourself, Aiden, and be a man! Man the fuck up!" she was looking determined. "There's a sewer system that runs under this town, the closest manhole is just out of the cops sight. We'll go there, we'll go through it, and we'll come up in the town. This isn't hopeless. This is just beginning." Her gaze was intense, as she charted the course they should take in her mind, and then it began.
The first few feet were the easiest, the five of the simply walked toward the manhole, making sure to look for the cops watchful eyes that in reality didn't seem to be so watchful. As soon as they were close enough to be made out as people who would at least appear to be on a mission, they dropped to their stomachs and began to crawl. The manhole was in sight now, it was only inches away from Kairena's waiting fingers. She reached the hot metal of the manhole, her fingers skimming the dirt that lay loosely on the top. She found the small holes that her fingers fit into, and pulled up; the metal did not budge. She pulled again, only to find that it would still not move.
Carter was the second to reach the hole, crawling up next to Ki. She moved, letting him slip his own fingers into the holes and pulling on it himself. He strained, coming up onto his knees and letting his arm and back muscles work, all to no avail. "This damn this is heavy, or stuck." he said between clenched, gritted teeth. He tugged again, and the cover moved the slightest inch. "I think we can get it!" Carter then exclaimed, excitedly. Tobias reached him just at that moment.
"Care for a hand?" he said, slipping his own fingers into the holes the Carter had released. The two men pulled and strained, throwing all their weight against the seal, finally, it began to lift and slide out of the way.
"Yes!" Tobias, Kairena, and Carter all exclaimed at the same moment, watching the dust stir as they accomplished their goal. "I knew we could do it." Kairena said with a small smile that received dirty looks from the boys.
"We?" Tobias jibed playfully, and Kairena laughed. The first task was done.
All five bodies slithered down the hole, being careful not to slip on the old metal step ladder that led down into the darkness, the smell was making some of them gag, the dark was almost bringing Kairena to tears, and the damp musty air made all of them cold and shivery.
Their feet made wet slapping noises every time one came in contact with the ground, and even in the dim light, their breath could be seen like whispy ghosts crawling out of their mouths into the frosty air. "I don't like it down here.." Leo moaned softly, the sound of flesh smacking flesh resounded through the tunnel as Tobias brought his fist against his brother's arm.
"You're a pussy."
The dark was closing in on them from all sides as Carter wriggled the manhole back into place. The sunlight and sky were blocked, the air around seemed to lack oxygen, suddenly, Kairena began to have the feeling they were being buried alive and her heart was pounding in her ears. This was going to be a long, dark, cold journey to the other end. "How are we going to know where to come up?" someone asked in the darkness, Kairena was too focused on her fear to distinguish the voice
"I don't know." she barely breathed as she took another step on shaking legs. "We need a flashlight." she said, looking around frantically in the darkness, still not able to see a thing.
His heart leapt as he saw it was finally open enough, and punched the gas, his little dodge volted backwards and jumped from garage and made it's way to the smooth pavement of the road. This was going to be a long trip, he could already tell. It was 198 miles to Eureka, where his sister was, and he wanted to get there now. He drove, all too slowly for his liking, through his small town and all the way to the interstate. Even the speed on this road seemed to be too slow for the man who was playing lanes and cursing whenever he got stuck behind anyone going slower than him. It seemed he'd never get there, but in a mere three hours, he saw a sign saying Eureka was close. He smiled, he'd made just about as good time as he could have hope for, and that's when he saw it; road blocks.
"What's going on here?" he said to the police officer, slowing to a stop.
"The whole town's closed, sir."
"Why?"
"That's not something I can share with the general public, sir, I'm sure you understand."
Aiden's blood was boiling at this point, this man expected him to be alright with not knowing anything about what was going on, expected him to just accept it.
"No, officer, you're mistaken." Aiden's words with short, and harsh. "I don't understand why you can't tell me what's going on. My sister lives here. Is something serious going on?" he narrowed his eyes.
"I don't have the authority to disclose that information to you..." the cop took a step back, his eyes drawn into Aiden's poison stare.
With that, Aiden clenched his hands on the steering wheel. "Well, is there anyone who has that authority, or is everyone here useless?"
"We're not useless, sir-" Aiden cut him off
"If you can't tell me what the fuck is going on in this town, then yes, sir, you and everyone else here is pretty useless, in my opinion."
"You need to calm down." the police officer said, placing his hand at his hip. Aiden was yelling at this point and leaning out his window. His eyes and nostrils were flared angrily.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" he exclaimed, pressing his foot on the gas and whipping his car around. He knew what he had to do now.
First, he called his sister, but of course there was no answer. There had to be something wrong with her if she was ignoring his phone calls. He had no other choice but to call the two people in the world that he knew he could always count on. His best friend Carter, and even though he hated to admit it, Kairena, his ex fiance.
Carter answered on the third ring. "Hey man, what's up?"
Aiden didn't even know how to reply, he just took a deep breath and let it out. "I honestly, don't know, Car. But I think we need to get together. Something's happening, and..." he paused, and sighed. "I don't know. Meet me in Medford. At Ki's I'm sure she still lives at the same place" with that, he hung up the phone, he knew that his friend would meet him. Carter was always there when Aiden needed him.
The next call was going to be harder, and he knew that much.
He clicked through his contacts and found her name. She'd called him earlier and he'd pretended that he didn't know who she was, he didn't want her to know that he'd saved her number all this time in case he needed her, in case he wanted to call her. He'd never really given up on her; but she didn't need to know that.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang... he didn't know if she was going to answer, the voicemail couldn't be too many more rings away, and then her voice: "Yes, Aiden?" it was calculating, cold, angry. He took a deep breath and then began to answer.
"I'm sorry about earlier, Ki. I lost my temper, I was unfair."
He heard her draw in a sharp breath, and guessed that using her shortened name had been a bad choice, either that or it was going to melt the chill that had formed between then earlier.
"I know, Aiden. You never were very fair."
He took the blow and sighed, he had been expecting something along those lines; he decided to steer the conversation in a new direction. They didn't have time to be hung up on their old relationship right now.
"Candy is stuck in Eureka. It's been all closed down, and they won't tell me anything. Do Tobias or Leo know anything? They're the ones you got your in-tell from, aren't they? Are they there?" he threw out a string of questions, hoping she'd answer them all.
"Yes, they're here, yes I know Eureka's been blocked off, no I don't really know what's going on, other than people are sick." he heard her take a deep breath, she was obviously trying not to cry. "I also know that people are dying. I don't know who, I don't know how many, but I know they're dying."
Aiden felt his heart drop.
"How..." he paused, trying to pull his thoughts together. "How do you know that?"
"My sister." Kairena barely breathed before sniffling.
"Oh, I'm so sorry.." Aiden didn't know what else to say. He was speeding down the highway, towards Medford, towards her, and right now all he wanted to do was pull her into his arms in a hug. She needed it right now. "I'll be there as soon as I can, Ki." he assured her. "And, don't you dare say no, me and Carter are both coming, we'll be there as soon as we can. Okay.?"
Kairena didn't even know what to say, she nodded, then realizing that he couldn't see what she was doing, laughed to herself softly and said "Okay." The phone call ended after that, and Aiden focused again on the road.
!_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_!
Hours had passed from when he said he'd be there, but he did get there. The sun hung low in the sky, and the first shadows of nightfall could be seen, eerily cast by trees and light poles. Aiden's mind had been racing the entire drive, he didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't sure how they were going to deal with what seemed to be happening. His heart was tied in a knot, and his whole world seemed to be falling apart. Candy was somewhere that he couldn't go. Somewhere that people were sick. Somewhere that people were dying. As he parked his car in Kairena's driveway, he had to way a hand across his face to wipe away the remainders of snot and tears. It had not been an easy drive.
He barely had a chance to knock before Carter answered the door. "Hey, buddy, we thought you were never going to get here!" his eyes were golden and glowing, and his smile said that no one had informed him of what was going on in Eureka.
"Yea, I thought so, too." Aiden said, jokingly, as he walked in and headed directly for Ki. He sat down next to her, and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, giving her the hug he'd known she'd needed hours before.
She snuggled right back into his arms, wrapping hers around him before she even know what was happening, she greedily sucked in the scent of him that she'd missed for so long and let her hands explore every inch of his back, his sides, his shoulders; and she could barely breath. It felt like a moment that would never end, it felt unreal, but she knew that it had to last, and also knew that it was real as any other moment she'd ever had in her life. Tears threatened to creep out of the corners of her eyes, but she held them back and pulled away from him, slowly. He let her go and smiled at her. "Nice to see you, again, Kairena."
She could barely breath, his voice hadn't sounded so real on the phone, she felt she might faint.
"Nice to know you missed me!" Carter declared from across the room, laughing again. "Dude, seriously. I got up to greet your ass."
"Shut up, Car. She needed that. Come sit over here, we have to talk."
Carter apologized quietly and obediently crossed the room to sit on the couch by Leo.
"So, what's going on here?" he began, looking at the grave expressions on everyone's faces. Leo still sniffled every once in awhile, and was all tucked away into himself on the couch, knees curled up to his chest, and his face mostly hidden behind them, arms wrapped around his legs, hugging himself tightly.
"My sister, who lives in Eureka, died." Kairena said softly. These words issued an agonized whimper from Leo, and Tobias sighed heavily, trying to hold his own emotions in check.
"Oh..." he said, "I'm sorry.. I mean... I didn't know her, but I'm sure she was amazing." he was still lost, but he didn't want to ask the next question lingering in his mind.
"I know, Carter." Ki replied, "It will be alright."
The minutes passed, and a deathly silence had engulfed the room as Carter thought how he'd word his next question, or if he should ask it at all. Every second that ticked by made the question weight heavier on his tongue, and when he couldn't help it anymore, he took a deep breath, and let it out. "What does that have to do with all of us, why did Aiden call me all freaked out, why are we all sitting in your living room. Why am I here?"
Aiden smiled a little, he'd been wondering when Carter was going to ask that, and he knew just how to answer. "Because, she didn't just die. She was young, and it wasn't some sort of accident. She was sick, and not only that..." he paused, looking Carter directly in the eye with a grave expression, "the town is sick, Carter. It's been all blocked off, no one's allowed in, or out. Candy is there."
Carter was lost for words. "They've fucking quarantined the place? What the hell. Why isn't this all over the news?"
"Why knows." Tobias said. "Could be because the government is the reason it's happening, could be they don't want a public scare, don't want people to be thinking it's like the influenza outbreak way back when. You know how people are, I mean, look at us. We're all freaking out when it may just be one isolated thing. We just happen to know people there, so we think it's something bigger, imagine if that was all over the news."
Carter nodded slowly. "Yea, I see your point, I guess..." sighing he laid his head back on the couch and let out a huff of air. "Jesus."
"You know we have to get in there, don't you?" Aiden said, looking around the room. "We have to go get Candy."
"What the fuck man, are you crazy? If they've got is quarantined, there's obviously a reason!" Carter retorted.
"You think I'm gonna abandon my sister there!"
"Might be too late..."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Carter knew he'd said the wrong thing, and silently scolded himself; but it had been unneeded.
"Carter, if you think that I'm gonna assume it's too late to save my little sister, then you've got another thing coming, buddy. I thought you'd be all for this. Thought you'd have my back, man. What the hell!" his eyes narrowed, and he continued. "She's all I have, and I'm never gonna leave her, ever. She's my baby sister, man. If I don't go in and save her, who's going to!"
Carter nodded slowly and took a deep breath. "Okay, so we're doing this. Who's down?" He let his eyes travel around the room and slowly, everyone began nodding in agreement.
"God, where do you find all these crazy people." Carter joked with his friend, and then took another deep breath. "I guess we'd better get to the cars, then, eh?"
!_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_!
Kairena, Tobias, and Leo were traveling in her car while Carter and Aiden went in Aiden's. They didn't really have a solid plan, but that was the best things about all of Aiden's escapades, they never did. They were going to meet somewhere along the highway and stash their cars there. They were going to sneak into the town, somehow. After that, they were somehow going to find his sister, and then get her out of there. Everything revolved around somehow.
"So, what the hell are we actually doing?" Leo asked from the backseat, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed and still wet with tears.
"Trying to make sure the same thing that happened to us doesn't happen to Aiden." Kairena retorted.
"I don't see why we have to help, we're kinda dealing with our own shit right now, if you haven't noticed, Kairena. My mother's dead!"
"Shut up, Leo!" Tobias exclaimed. "Mine is, too. She was our mother, she was Ki's sister. We're all hurting, we're trying to help someone else so he doesn't have to hurt like us. Stop being such a whiny fucking bitch, Leo!"
A silence settled over the car after that as Kairena diligently followed Leo along the highway, weaving through traffic and speeding the whole way. She thought it was a miracle they didn't get pulled over before half the trip was done.
The hours passed, and eventually, they were there. They had parked in a pull off on the road, and were looking intently at the police barricades they could clearly see from where they sat. Tobias ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath, crouching beside the car and looking towards the lights. "Fuck..." he whispered to himself, "So, Aiden, what's the plan now?" Aiden was silent, looking at the same scene everyone else was faced with. He didn't know what to do, he had come in guns blazing, but they were all burnt out now.
"This is hopeless." he said, feeling tears burning the backs of his eyes.
"You're really gonna give up now, Aiden!" Kairena growled at him, "You're the one who drug us all down here, you're the one who said we had to do this to save Candy, you cannot give up on her now. Get a fucking grip on yourself, Aiden, and be a man! Man the fuck up!" she was looking determined. "There's a sewer system that runs under this town, the closest manhole is just out of the cops sight. We'll go there, we'll go through it, and we'll come up in the town. This isn't hopeless. This is just beginning." Her gaze was intense, as she charted the course they should take in her mind, and then it began.
The first few feet were the easiest, the five of the simply walked toward the manhole, making sure to look for the cops watchful eyes that in reality didn't seem to be so watchful. As soon as they were close enough to be made out as people who would at least appear to be on a mission, they dropped to their stomachs and began to crawl. The manhole was in sight now, it was only inches away from Kairena's waiting fingers. She reached the hot metal of the manhole, her fingers skimming the dirt that lay loosely on the top. She found the small holes that her fingers fit into, and pulled up; the metal did not budge. She pulled again, only to find that it would still not move.
Carter was the second to reach the hole, crawling up next to Ki. She moved, letting him slip his own fingers into the holes and pulling on it himself. He strained, coming up onto his knees and letting his arm and back muscles work, all to no avail. "This damn this is heavy, or stuck." he said between clenched, gritted teeth. He tugged again, and the cover moved the slightest inch. "I think we can get it!" Carter then exclaimed, excitedly. Tobias reached him just at that moment.
"Care for a hand?" he said, slipping his own fingers into the holes the Carter had released. The two men pulled and strained, throwing all their weight against the seal, finally, it began to lift and slide out of the way.
"Yes!" Tobias, Kairena, and Carter all exclaimed at the same moment, watching the dust stir as they accomplished their goal. "I knew we could do it." Kairena said with a small smile that received dirty looks from the boys.
"We?" Tobias jibed playfully, and Kairena laughed. The first task was done.
All five bodies slithered down the hole, being careful not to slip on the old metal step ladder that led down into the darkness, the smell was making some of them gag, the dark was almost bringing Kairena to tears, and the damp musty air made all of them cold and shivery.
Their feet made wet slapping noises every time one came in contact with the ground, and even in the dim light, their breath could be seen like whispy ghosts crawling out of their mouths into the frosty air. "I don't like it down here.." Leo moaned softly, the sound of flesh smacking flesh resounded through the tunnel as Tobias brought his fist against his brother's arm.
"You're a pussy."
The dark was closing in on them from all sides as Carter wriggled the manhole back into place. The sunlight and sky were blocked, the air around seemed to lack oxygen, suddenly, Kairena began to have the feeling they were being buried alive and her heart was pounding in her ears. This was going to be a long, dark, cold journey to the other end. "How are we going to know where to come up?" someone asked in the darkness, Kairena was too focused on her fear to distinguish the voice
"I don't know." she barely breathed as she took another step on shaking legs. "We need a flashlight." she said, looking around frantically in the darkness, still not able to see a thing.