It was seven more hours of excruciating blackness before they saw a literal light at the end of the tunnel.  Moods immediately lifted as renewed energy filled their bodies.  Legs that only moments earlier felt weak to the point of barely able to support their torso suddenly experienced a surge of renewed vigor as they practically raced each other to the opening.Kendra was the first to reach the exterior of the tunnel.  Although her first instinct was to race into the sunlight and pay homage to its brilliance while filling her lungs with fresh air, she knew better.  Stopping just inside the opening, she flattened her body into the shadows while she visually inspected the area for cyborgs, aliens, or even humans who could prove dangerous.  Prior to going into the earth’s core, she would have been cautious around a stranger, but not be prepared to kill or be killed.  Her exposure to the dark side of humanity caused a considerable change in he

Kendra’s group felt like tortured and mortified hostages as they were forced to sit back and watch as Rupert and his men took turns with Alice in a spot that left nothing to the onlooker’s imagination. None were more affected than Felix as memories of what happened to Ari flooded his head.  He hadn’t been there to witness it like he was with Alice and had only imagined what it was like for his poor wife.  Of course, Ari had been a virgin and Alice was not.  Ari had been taken by force and, although he was certain that she’d have rather not have to do it, Alice was willingly and silently allowing the men their turns.  Even so, seeing them ravage Alice’s body with absolutely no regard to her comfort or modesty gave  him an idea of what his poor wife had endured.  He could imagine all that he wanted, but to witness firsthand gave the ordeal an entirely different feeling of wrong.“You reek of sex,&rdq

The pain in his head slowly subsided to a dull ache as Arthur and Alice cleaned the wound that Rex received from the knobbed club that was struck against his skull hard enough to cause bleeding.   Seeing the wound on the neck of Rupert’s lifeless body that lay not far away gave him a good idea of what happened to him without having to ask.Looking around, his eyes settled first on Felix as he sat rubbing the lump on his head before continuing until they found his wife and her aunt.  “She’s getting worse, isn’t she?”“She drained him of his blood,” Alice said with a shaky voice.  “I don’t know.  Is it safe to stay around her?  Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come back to the surface.  We’ve only just gotten here and look what’s happened.”Arthur placed his hand on Alice’s forearm and looked her in the eye.  “Olga will run tests to

Adrenaline coursed through Kendra’s veins as her arrow pierced the deer’s heart.  Its body had barely collapsed onto the thick forest debris that made up the woodland’s floor before she was at its side with her hunting knife.  With a quick and smooth movement, she mercifully completed the kill.“It’s been ages since we’ve had venison.”  She was breathless with excitement. “I thought we’d hunted them out of the area.  We’re not far from home, after all.”“Did you really come this way to hunt?” Rex asked as he set to work cleaning the deer. “I never did.”“Not really,” she replied.  “Only once in a while because I had bad luck and thought the hunting was poor. I guess that was a mistake.”Then, out of the blue, her senses reacted to the smell of the deer’s exposed entrails and saliva flooded her mouth.Seein

With their bellies full, the members of the camp settled down for the night.  Still leery of each other, the groups kept to themselves.Kendra and Rex waited until they were certain that all were asleep before they made their way to Olga.  They found her sitting a fair distance from Arthur’s sleeping body and in light meditation.They were about to move away when she said in a soft tone, “What’s the matter?”“Why were you meditating?” Kendra asked.Olga opened her eyes and looked at them. “That’s not why you two are here.”“We need to speak to you about what’s happening with Kendra,” Rex offered. “We encountered a small horde of zombies while hunting and one of them telepathically spoke to her.”Olga sucked in air, but said nothing.“It was confused about me,” Kendra said with trepidation.  “It said I wasn’t one o