Chapter 4 Journey to the Unknown

Melissa fidgeted with the door. Emily grabbed a knife from a nearby kitchen table as the zompire approached them with his arms outstretched. There was a low click. The metallic door finally got unlocked. Melissa yanked it open and pulled Emily by the collar of her polo shirt, as they both went through the door into the basement.

Quickly, Melissa relocked the door with the key.

"Phew! That was so close," Emily puffed.

The girls sat on the floor in the darkness for about two minutes, trying to catch their breath. Melissa reached into the bag and groped for a flashlight. She pulled one out and turned it on.

The basement looked chaotic. It was full of spider webs. It smelt damp. There were numerous lateral pipes on the moist, red brick walls. Old bicycles, some planks, cartons of old books and newspapers, some luggage, coolers, and a worn-out Christmas tree were in sight. A huge box of work tools stood open at a corner. Melissa picked a hammer and put it in her bag.

"It looks creepy in here," Emily whispered.

"And smells awful!" she continued.

Melissa did not respond. She was feeling the walls. A part of it was supposed to open into a hidden passageway that would lead them somewhere. Melissa wasn't sure where, but she had heard her dad talk about it a couple of times.

"Where are you, where are you?" she whispered in a singsong manner.

After frantically feeling the wall with a palm. Then she felt a small bulge in the wall. She put pressure on it and there was a creaking sound like worn floorboards. A small part of the wall opened up.

"Yes!" C'mon Em. This is our way out," Melissa said excitedly as she picked her bag and hung it on her back. Emily followed quietly. They got through the narrow opening and found themselves in an abandoned railway. It was very low and would not take their height, so they had to go on all fours.

They moved on their hands and knees carefully on the tracks for about fifteen minutes till they arrived at a vent. Melissa struggled to remove the perforated metal, but she could not.

"Em, get the hammer from my bag," Melissa requested. Emily handed Melissa the hammer. She hit it against the metal a couple of times before it finally gave way hitting the ground with a light clang that reverberated in the darkness. The girls crawled out of the tunnel. They were in the woods, amidst the tallest and densest trees they had ever seen. The moon shone brilliantly making the surroundings visible. Grasses, weeds, twigs, and fallen leaves thickly spread over the floor of the forest. There were logs here and there. The sound of their feet shuffling through rustling leaves formed a symphony with chirping crickets, humming insects, and chattering squirrels.

"This is so beautiful," Emily declared.

"Well, if not for our present circumstance, it would have been an enchanting sight to take in," Melissa responded dryly, as she looked around trying to figure out where they would go from there.

"When this is over, I will come back here for some still-life drawing. I'll do some nature painting too," Emily went on. Melissa smiled to herself as she pondered on Emily's ramblings. Emily was quite the artist. She had been in several competitions globally, some of which won her mouth-watering prizes such as her Niche Art Scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design.

"Mel, there's a road over there," Emily cut into Melissa's thoughts.

Melissa glanced sideways in the direction of Emily's pointed finger.

They strode through a path that went downhill. At the base of the hill, they came to a tarred road. They walked steadily on the concrete sidewalk. Melissa hoped that they would at least get a secure place to rest till daybreak.

"I wonder where everyone is. What if we're the only ones left on earth?" Emily mused.

"How is that even possible?" Melissa returned with a dry laugh.

Melissa hoped that someone would drive along and help them. Both girls were tired. They could not walk as fast as they would have loved to. Finally, they came to a building that looked like a cottage. It was a dilapidated building. The woods had been eaten by termites and were already falling off. Part of the roof had been blown away. The front door was missing one of its hinges, leaving it hanging downwards like a puppy's drooping ears. Black holes that used to be windows, had overgrown plants hanging out of them.

Emily and Melissa shone their flashlights around the cottage, taking a very good look.

"What do you think? Should we go in?" Melissa enquired.

"I don't know. With no lights on, I doubt if anyone lives there," Emily answered.

Melissa tried to persuade Emily.

"We need to rest. My feet hurt. I'm sure you're starving cos I am."

As though in agreement, Emily's stomach growled.

"You hear that? Let's stay here tonight and we'll leave first thing in the morning. I promise." Melissa knew that the idea was a crazy one. She was as scared as Emily was, if not more. But she had taken too many classes in their school's socio-emotional club to not know how to conceal her fear. Fear, they had been taught, is false evidence appearing real. Going into the building was a very risky decision, but they didn't exactly have the option of a Beverly Hills mansion at the moment.

Melissa urged Emily on as they trod lightly towards the cottage.

"If it's so bad, we'll leave to find somewhere better," Melissa thought to herself. At the entrance of the cottage, Emily stood aside to let Melissa lead the way. As she stepped in, her face and hair were covered in cobwebs, which she wiped off quickly with the back of her hand, in motions that looked like she was in a sword fight. As they walked through the hallways, they saw more broken windows, and pieces of glass on the floor. On the left was a large space that must have once been the living room. Everything in there looked old and had thick layers of dust that could take the entire manpower and machine of a large cleaning company a whole month to wipe out. There was an open room down the hall. The moonlight slipped through the cracked window and worn curtains. The small bed looked like the only thing that was in slightly good shape in the room. Well, that was the most needed thing at the moment - a bed to lay on when they finished having dinner.

Melissa still leading the way, the girls stepped into the room, but that was probably a mistake. Hardly had they got to the middle of the room then they noticed a figure bent over on the floor in front of a bathroom door that was ajar. For a few seconds, they stood transfixed. Then recognition hit.

The eyes of both girls widened at the realisation that they were in a room with a zompire!

***CHAPTER 5***

Closer encounter!