as she pushed the pliers into my shoulder causing me to bite down hard on the wood. I tried to fight back but she held me against the wall with surprising strength, pinning my legs beneath her before I could kick out. I could feel the metal rubbing and twisting against my collarbone as blood ran free down my chest and I began to fear I might black out. With one final excruciating twist and a cry of triumph, she pulled the pliers free of the streaming wound to my great relief before pressing gauze to the open hole and finishing up by wrapping a bandage over my shoulder.
I spat out the wood as she sat next to me breathing heavily, sweat pouring down her face. “Thank you” I managed. She brushed her hair out of her face and rested her head against my good shoulder. “Anytime,” she said laughing.
We sat for a while and talked. She told me that she had been on her way back from a scavenging run when she nearly ran into a group of bandits with hostages in tow, some of which she recognized.
Her eyes went cold as she told me of how she had gone back to find her zone ransacked and burning. When the survivors called for her aid in controlling the fire she turned her back and ran in pursuit of the bandits. She tracked them to the town center with revenge in her mind, but upon seeing their true numbers she had retreated to the shadows and toyed with the idea of ambushing them one by one.
She was captured shortly after alongside myself. She asked me what I was doing out there and I described the situation regarding the growing numbers of refugees arriving in our zone and the desperate need for water. I told her how I had watched her progress from a nearby rooftop and noticed a sniper doing the same, so had resolved to somehow warn her of the imminent danger.
She stared at the floor for a few minutes after I said this before getting to her feet and taking her medical things back to her pack. I put my shirt on and rubbed my shoulder while watching her. I thought back to my pack and wondered if it was still hidden in that chimney. At least I still have my knife, I thought to myself as I rested my free hand on the scabbard at my waist. Empty. A sense of loss grew tight in my stomach as I remembered I had left it buried to the hilt in the eye of a bandit.
I got to my feet somewhat gingerly and made my way over to the corner where Kaatje was still busying herself with her things. She stood up as I approached and turned to face me, holding out a stiletto blade in her hand. I took it and examined it. It was a beautiful piece of equipment, a long thin blade attached to a hilt carved out of some kind of polished bone.
“I think we need to get moving, the dead won’t stay above ground forever,” said Kaatje suddenly. I offered back the weapon. “Keep it. I noticed you left yours behind earlier” she winked, regarding the empty scabbard.
I slid the knife into its new home and waited for Kaatje to grab her things before following her down one of the narrow torch-lit tunnels. I ran my hand along the wall. It was smooth and cold under my skin. There was a steady breeze coming from some unseen exit far ahead causing the torches to flicker and cast ghostly shadows around us. Kaatje stopped, signaling for me to do the same.
We crouched down and my hand rested on my new knife. Something was coming. I listened and heard the sound of shuffling followed by heavy, labored breathing.
“Black? Is that you?” Kaatje whispered into the darkness. For a moment I felt confused but then thought back to the shadowy figure in the doorway, to the deep growling voice. I thought I had imagined the whole thing.
No answer came to Kaatje, only the sound of more shuffling. I spun around, readying my knife and searching for the source. A sharp gust of wind picked up and extinguished the nearest torches, plunging us into total darkness.
Kaatje screamed before being abruptly silenced. I spun around my heart rate doubling and fear gripping my insides.
“If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead already” an inhuman voice came out