Everyone Dies in the End #34

Cindy

1

Cindy didn’t die, but she was sure Zack Dixon, his sergeant, and the other soldiers had, and that fact would haunt her for a very long time. She materialized in the leaky basement, against the far wall were scattered the remains of shredded boxes, in the room’s center two empty kerosene drums lay on their side, and behind them creaky wooden steps. Wooden steps that Susan knew led to a kitchen slick with blood.

First came the bile, acidic and hot. She vomited until she could vomit no more. The otherworld was no stranger now. She had held herself in it while the vampire searched. Had that only been three days ago? She had even learned to move through it, blinking herself into rooms with Soviet soldiers, and shredding them with her shotgun. That excitement was still fresh in her. But she had never done this, Charlotte to this…this place where it all began. What was it, a hundred miles? A hundred miles from here to Charlotte, and then it hit her again. Charlotte was gone, the soldiers were gone, both Soviet and American, and Zack Dixon was gone.

First came then bile, and then the tears. Tears like she had never known, like mournful rivers on her cheeks, sobs that racked her body. She beat her fists against the concrete floor till their blood mixed with the dirt, till she could beat them no more, till she collapsed, exhausted, her wails reduced to small whimpers. At last the whimpers stopped and she slept.

And somewhere in her sleep she felt the needle. It was only a prick, distant and inconsequential. It entered her neck, and the fluid flowed through her veins.