Darren peered out into the darkness, gazing blindly towards the source of the screams. The only thing visible was the functioning flashlight, and what little of the floor that the small cone of light illuminated. Kelly was nowhere to be seen, and her continued silence only made Darren worry more.
The quiet of the hangar was broken by the sound of footsteps. "Kelly! Is that you?" Darren called out. There was no reply from her as the noises, coming in quick succession, became quieter and quieter before fading altogether. Darren sat in silence with his back pressed against the wall and clutched his flashlight against his chest. He became aware that the temperature in the hangar seemed to have dropped several degrees over the past couple of minutes, yet he was perspiring badly. "K-Kelly...?" he hesitantly spoke,"was that you?"
Still no reply.
The flashlight shook in Darren's trembling hand, and the batteries rattled inside the casing. His thumb slowly reached towards the on/off switch and he clicked it. It didn't turn on.
Shit! He tried it again, shaking the flashlight up and down in between each attempt but to no avail. Slowly getting to his feet, he held the broken light source in the tight grip of his sweaty palm. "Kelly... please be alright, please be alright."
Deep down he knew it wasn't going to be alright. She wasn't responding to him, not a peep since that loud scream that woke him up. His head buzzed with thoughts of what could have happened, what kind of scenario had taken place just yards from where he slept.
Not very many of those scenarios ended with Kelly living to tell the tale.
He cautiously approached the working flashlight, careful to not make a sound as he tiptoed along. He listened out for any other sounds, just in case someone was still lurking nearby.
Kelly could have been the one fleeing, her attacker may still be here! While that scenario ended with his companion leaving alive, it could very well mean he'd be their next target.
Screw it.
Darren dashed forwards the last few yards and scooped up the flashlight in one go. He turned from side to side, shining the flashlight over the floor, the walls and at least one rusting plane chassis. The smell of iron was now rich in the air, Darren praying that the scent was eminating from a nearby hulk of scrap metal. "Kelly, are you still around?"
He got his answer almost right away. He swung the flashlight round in one direction and finally discovered Kelly as she lay on the floor. The beam of light fell onto her unnaturally pale face, and it reflected off the puddle of deep dark red liquid that pooled around the girl's head.
The blood was still slowly flowing out from her slashed neck and chest.
Darren was only just vaguely aware of someone's screaming. It was loud, ear-piercing, and filled to the brim with unimaginable terror. It actually took him a second or two to realize the cries were coming from his own mouth.
No... no! No! This can't be right! She was alive just minutes ago, how can she be...?
He dropped both flashlights and covered up his mouth with both hands, then started to step backwards away from the body. He felt a strong dizziness take hold almost immediately, as if the hangar had just started to spin around him. In the darkness - no reference points to help him - Darren lost his balance and fell onto his side. His left thigh and hip flared up as they collided with the cold, hard ground, but his brain didn't even react to the impulses. He would have normally cried out in shock and/or pain, maybe even shed a tear from how much it hurt. However, aside from the gasping and panting as he breathed heavily, he didn't make a sound.
How... how did this happen? Why did she have to die?
Why did someone have to kill her?
Curled up on the floor with his face now in his hands, Darren started to bawl loudly. His cries and sobs echoed all over the building. Tears dripped from his cheeks as one thought shot through his mind over and over again.
Why? About an hour later, exhaustion coupled with the darkness finally sent him to a restless sleep that lasted throughout the night.
----
His eyes would barely open the next morning. They were bright red, bloodshot, and stung like mad, almost as if someone had scrapped sandpaper over them while he slept. For a brief moment, he felt like he did the previous morning - thinking that the previous day's events were all just a terrible nightmare. Especially Kelly's murder.
Waking up to see her bloodsoaked body, those half-closed eyes that would never blink again, it was a real punch to the gut. Darren yelled out again and quickly scrambled further away from the dead girl until he was back beside the wall.
Oh God it's all real. She's... actually gone...
Darren felt the familiar feeling at the back of his throat and he swallowed, forcing himself to keep down the contents of his stomach.
What the hell is going on? Why are we doing this?
The railroad spike was nowhere to be seen; Darren had guessed that either Kelly was laying on it, it was out of view, or whoever killed Kelly had taken it with them. All that remained in sight were the two flashlights, the two bags and Kelly's Lego bucket. Regardless of what had been taken or left, Darren knew that he couldn't remain there. He was not staying one more minute in the same building where Kelly met her end. Not with all that blood that surrounded her.
Darren hastily gathered both bags, as well as the bucket of Legos, and quickly made his way towards the main entrance. He purposefully gave Kelly a wide berth; he couldn't bear to get close to her, not to mention the blood-stained body was already giving off a foul stench that making him want to retch.
He'd believed that people wouldn't take part in the slaughter fest. His idealistic thinking had been proven wrong in less than twenty-four hours, and in quite possibly the most grotesque manner imaginable. Darren stumbled out of the building in a daze and took a couple deep breaths of clean, pure, iron-free air. Before he reached the hangar with Kelly, he'd lamented that they hadn't encountered anyone. Now as he walked away across the airstrip, he wished that they hadn't.
((Darren Fox continued in
Meltdown))