(Rody)
"No… no, no, no" Ray muttered in a low voice, "This can't be happening. This really can't be happening. Please…. Please, no."
Rody stared at his friend. Ray was losing it. His breaths came out heavy. His eyes, which looked sad and defeated, kept darting across the town, trying desperately to find a way through the chaos. His hands had gone white on the steering wheel and Rody even saw them trembling at one point.
His eyes widened. Rody had never seen his friend like this before. In all the years that they had known each other, he always thought of Ray as someone reliable and unwavering. No matter how bad things got, Ray would always find a way out. But now, after witnessing Athani in utter ruins, he saw Ray almost broken for the very first time.
He didn't blame him. After the struggle he went through to get them all out safely, Ray must have been devastated to see the very next town in a mortifying state such as this.
Rody knew that he had to do something. Not only for Ray, but for all their sakes.
"Ray," he called once.
There was no answer.
"Ray!" he called louder.
"…Yeah?" came the reply, almost as if in a trance.
"We need to keep moving. We can—"
"There's no way ahead dude… I'm looking. Trust me, I'm looking. But I don't see how we get through Athani. There's just too many of them. We can't…"
Rody leaned forward in his seat and gave Ray a good, firm shake.
"Man, listen!" he said loudly, "There's another road. We don't have to go through Athani to reach the city center. Turn the car around. Go back in the way we came. There is a small road past Prime Gardens that we can take instead. It's a much longer route but that's still better than taking our chances with this." He said with a nod in the direction of Athani.
Ray took a while to process what Rody had said.
"You've used that road before?" he asked.
"Several times. On my bike. Not many cars go that route so it should be empty… I think."
Ray let out a breath. He nodded to himself.
"I'm willing to bet on that. I haven't taken that road before so I'm counting on you to guide me. For now I just need to go back till we reach Prime, yeah?"
"Yeah, go past Prime and take the bus route towards St. Marie's School. I'll tell you which turn to take once we get there."
"Got it." Said Ray and shifted the gear to reverse. He pulled the car back in a curve and then guided it along the same direction they had just driven through.
As they moved further and further away from Athani, Rody couldn't help but look back in sadness. He saw the devastated town slowly shrink into the distance. The horrible hums died down. All he could hear now was the sound of the car engine.
Nobody spoke for a while.
All of their excitement from having escaped Prime Gardens had vanished into thin air. Doubt, fear and trepidation loomed over them. Rody tried to suppress these feelings as best as he could but it was difficult. Feeling a sense of pure salvation only for it to be snatched away at the very next moment was hard. Too hard. He never had to deal with anything like this in the past. He began to wonder where his ordinary life had gone. Was this whole thing just a bad dream after all? If he were to slap himself hard enough, would he wake up in the safety of his bed? Would he wake up from this terrible nightmare? Would he get his life back?
Just then someone held his hand, snapping him out of his trail of thought.
He turned his head. Samantha was smiling at him, her fingers locked firmly in between his. That gesture alone was enough to put his mind at ease. He could not put into words how grateful he was that she was still alive.
"Hey," he said softly.
"Hi." She said back.
"How are you feeling? Are you holding up okay?"
"I think so. Actually I don't know how I feel. It's all a little too much to deal with."
Rody nodded. He understood exactly how she felt. He merely held her hand tighter, almost as if to say that things would be alright. That he would stay by her no matter what.
"Oh by the way," Meghan started, "When you guys were coming down the fire exit, we heard a lot of distorted noises and a few screams. Then the line went dead. What happened back then?"
"Ahh that…" Rody looked over at Samantha nervously. She looked back at him, seemingly confused by his agitation.
"We ran into one of—one of those things a few floors below Samantha's flat."
"In the fire exit?" Meghan asked in shock, "How did a Deathless manage to get in there?"
Rody didn't answer immediately. He was unsure if he should tell them the truth. Ray was already on edge. The last thing he wanted to do was fuel the fire even more.
But then again, he was not a good liar. He found it to be nerve wrecking. He didn't have a good cover-up story either. No matter what lie he said, he was sure that these two would catch on in no time.
He sighed in resignation, "No… it was by the elevator."
He decided it was better to tell them the truth.
"What?" Ray asked.
Rody flinched. He could almost feel him staring through the rear view mirror.
"Ahh Rody… you guys didn't try to take the elevator, did you?" Meghan asked, "I specifically told you—"
"I know, I know," he said apologetically, "We had gone down a couple floors and uhh—we started to get a little tired. The floor we stopped on looked empty. No monsters. So we thought that it would be a good idea to take the elevator down the rest of the floors. You know… seeing how we were short on time and all."
"How'd that work out for ya?" Meghan asked with heavy sarcasm in her voice.
"Not well." he replied sheepishly, "There were two of them inside. Had to fight them both and make a run for it."
Rody glanced over cautiously at Ray. He was being surprisingly quiet. Which wasn't a good thing.
Finally after what felt like an hour Ray cut the tension by asking, "Were you injured?"
"Thankfully no." Rody breathed a silent sigh of relief. Ray wasn't mad. "I lost your knife, though. It kinda saved my life."
"Good to know." He said simply, "I rather have you back safe than my knife."
Rody beamed.
"I see Prime" said Samantha.
Sure enough, they had eventually made it back to Prime Gardens. All four of them couldn't help but sneak a peek as they drove past. From what little they saw, the situation still looked bleak. Though not even remotely close to how bad Athani had turned out to be.
"I just drive down this road?" Ray asked.
"Yeah, just follow the bus route until you reach the nearby supermarket. I'll guide you from there."
Ray nodded. He continued to drive along the road that led to St. Marie's School. Rody looked around and saw that all the nearby shops had closed down. Though he figured that was probably due to the lockdown rather than the monster outbreak.
"You guys hear something?" Meghan asked suddenly.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Rody enquired.
"I hear… I don't know, hissing?" she replied uncertainly.
"Hissing?" Ray asked with a curious expression.
"Please don't tell me it's a snake. I hate snakes!" came Samantha's contribution.
"Oh no…." Ray said as the source of the sound came into view.
A large, red bus lay in front of them. It had been flipped on its side and was completely blocking their path. There was broken glass and pieces of metal everywhere. Thick smoke seemed to be ceaselessly pouring out of the vehicle's bonnet. The hissing was much more discernable now; it was a low-pitched, continuous buzz.
Mixed in with the hissing was another noise: A barrage of muffled thumps. The sound of something heavy striking metal.
It was coming from inside the bus.