Snippet #1348046

Elise dashed through the darkened alley, her chest heaving. Her mouth was dry and her throat hurt from her heavy breathing and she felt that at any moment she might vomit on the dank ground. But she didn’t stop, she couldn’t. Behind her two MPs carrying automatic rifles ran after her shouting for her to stop. Elise wasn’t going to listen, not after what they had done to her family.

The alley narrowed and ended. Tears started to stream down her cheeks as her only escape seem to vanish before her eyes. At that moment, when she was about to simply sit on the ground and cry until the MPs caught her (and most likely shot her for possibility of infection), she spotted a manhole leading to the sewer. Launching at the manhole she desperately pried at the heavy cover. Her fingers bled as she scratched at her only escape, tearing nails free from fingers and breaking her index finger on the left hand. Finally she managed to get a grip and slip her fingers under the metal disk, pulling it away and quickly diving through the dark hole.

Flailing her arms out in front of her to brace her for the impact she felt the warm reeking water of the sewer meet her face and something thick and slimy brush past her cheek. Under the shallow water was the concrete of the sewer floor and she slammed into it with a splash, her right elbow flaring with pain as she choked and sputtered on the brackish water. Pulling her face out of the water she purges, spewing chunks of her last meal.

Elise could hear shouting as the MPs ran up to the sewer manhole and stared down into the darkness, not daring to come after her. One of them threw up from the smell and both backed away slowly, deciding that no single girl, even possibly infected was worth such unrealistic troubles. Crawling on all fours through waste and filth from the thousands who inhabit London, Elise desperately continued farther into the sewers. Her eyes were now completely useless in her pitch-black surroundings even as they desperately tried to adjust. She felt terror grip her stomach and tears streamed down her muddied face. Her eyes burned from crying and the polluted water. The air stank heavily and burned her throat every time she took a shaky breath, but she refused to give up and continued to crawl farther into darkness.

After getting up onto her hands and knees and hobbling forwards through the sewers for what seemed like ages, seeing many rats along the way, some of which bit her legs in search of food causing her to spasm in defense, Elise found an open cove, presumably for service teams to place their equipment while they preformed various maintenances under the city. She curled up into a ball, holding her legs against her chest, and sat shaking in the corner trying desperately to stop the pain that throbbed in her heart.