Chapter Thirty Three
Laurie clung to Alicia's hand with all her strength. Alicia's hair hung down around her face as she leant forward, her stomach dug into one side of the hatch and her free hand clung to the other. Laurie started to slip, the fear making her palms sweaty. Her legs swung wildly above the drop and she didn't dare to look down.
Alicia's face twisted and she released her grip on the hatch, bringing her other hand down to clasp Laurie's wrist. With a powerful wrench and a growl of determination, Alicia yanked and Laurie was pulled higher. She grabbed at the metal door with her free hand and clawed at it while Alicia heaved her upwards.
As she broke through the opening she kicked and dug her elbows into the hard concrete ground. She felt the skin tear as she dragged herself forward and rolled away from the gaping hole.
The two of them lay, panting on their backs for several seconds as the adrenalin subsided before crawling back to peer through the hatch.
Pale daylight filtered down from the opening and lit the top of the elevator shaft. It wasn't powerful enough to show many details of the twisted, broken shapes on top of the elevator far below and Laurie quickly turned her gaze from them.
She couldn't see Maya and Coal anywhere.
"Are you okay?" Laurie called.
"Yeah," Maya replied shakily from somewhere on the top floor.
Alicia moved away from the hatch and glanced around quickly before leaning back down.
"There's nothing up here. We're going to have to go and find some vines," she called.
A screech pierced the silence in the darkness. It sounded like the Creeper wasn't far away.
"We can lock ourselves in a room," Coal announced. "Just find something and come get us, quick."
"Okay, hang tight," Alicia replied and she moved aside.
Laurie bit her lip and turned away too as Alicia kicked the hatch closed. It thunked heavily into place.
She let out a shaky breath.They had emerged on a bare hilltop covered in concrete. A little way off was a small building which must have been the official entrance to the bunker. The concrete was well worn by the wind and rain and its exposed surface was split and cracked.
Alicia was scanning their surroundings, the valley they had arrived through spread away to their left but the forest ahead of them seemed to stay on more level ground. The air was filling with a heavy kind of pressure that made Laurie's hair curl.
A huge fork of lightning broke the sky in half and struck a tall tree. It groaned its death loud enough for the whole forest to hear as it burst into flames and slowly started to fall to the ground, taking several smaller trees with it.
It slammed into the undergrowth with a resounding boom that was punctuated by a huge crash of thunder. Laurie clapped her hands over her ears as her heartbeat accelerated in panic. She cursed herself internally but couldn't help her reaction to the phenomenon.
The orange glow of the flames merged with the smoke as they reached for the sky and fingers of fire started to lick their way along the resisting foliage.
Alicia pointed with her machete at the closest patch of trees and Laurie nodded her understanding. They started running into the cover of the forest to search for the vines.
A second bolt of lightning lit up the sky and Laurie held her breath as she waited for the thunder. She felt the force of it rumbling through her bones but managed to stand still until it had passed. She was pleased to have pushed her fear aside if a little annoyed that it still existed at all.
"This is the wrong kind of woodland," Alicia said with exasperation as it quickly became clear there weren't any vines to be found.
Laurie glanced around at the tough evergreens that surrounded them but she couldn't spot any either.
"What do we do?" she asked.
A shriek sounded somewhere in the valley below them. Alicia glanced in its direction before replying.
"Keep looking and hope we find some vines before they find us."
Laurie nodded and they ran further into the trees as yet more lightning forked through the sky and thunder tore through the air.