Lazarus Peak

Some hours later—or so he counted—he was lying down with Eleanor on her capsule, still hugging her. His arms were around her waist as she hugged his neck, burying her face in it.

How he got here was not a mystery; she had insisted on it. He wanted to refuse, but she wouldn't let him. She was grieving, and he had no choice but to give in. When they were kids and she was sad, she'd always demand hugs like these or a nap together. It was a habit of hers, and they were harmless at the time.

He regretted it almost immediately. Times had changed. With only their lab coats on, he would be lying if he said he couldn't feel anything. He had to use all his willpower not to think of how soft her body was, or how he never realized how endowed she was... God, he was doing it again!

He had to take in deep breaths and focus his mind elsewhere—like counting capsules or looking for any doors. That's right! They had to escape! His eyes carefully scanned the white room for any way out, but he couldn't see anything obvious.

He moved his head gently so as not to rouse Eleanor awake. After a while of stressfully looking around, he finally found something. It was a black, squarish device on the white wall that stood oddly out of place—there were several around the room.

Luckily enough, Eleanor's capsule was not too far from one. After studying it closely, he came up with an idea of what it might be. It resembled a sort of keycard reader he'd normally see in apartment buildings, but it was more ahead of their timeline.

He figured it opened a door out of there, but getting a key was the problem. No one ever went in there, despite all the noise they'd been making. He bet they doubted corpses would rise from the dead, so the surveillance here must be close to nothing.

His biggest fear now wasn't getting caught by their captors—it was actually starving to death. There wasn't anything edible in the room, as far as he could tell. He hadn't made a proper search, but he figured the result would be the same. He wasn't sure how long they'd be able to last like this.

After a few hours of doing nothing, Alrick suddenly sat up out of Eleanor's hold. She wanted to protest, but he put his finger on her lips to shush her while he looked toward a particular wall on the other side of the room. It had a keycard holder beside it.

He could faintly hear something in that direction. It was obvious the room wasn't completely soundproof, and he didn't want to risk getting caught from even breathing loudly. His senses had always been on another level—just like his unnatural strength and reflexes.

He cursed before pulling her down to the ground between her capsule and a stranger's, signaling her to be as quiet as possible. After a couple seconds of intense silence, a quiet beep echoed through the room before they heard strange sounds, like something pulling apart.

He took a risk and raised his head above the capsule. The capsules were horizontally facing the wall, so it'd be hard for anyone that walked in that direction to see them. His eyes widened in astonishment as he witnessed the wall pulling apart to open up a doorway.

Soon after, two men walked into the room one after the other, the walls closing up once more. Not bothering to look around the room, they walked toward the transparent operating room and took out a clipboard, discussing something amongst themselves. He wasn't bothered to know—he was more interested in finding a way out.

One of the men began to make a move. He walked out of the operating room and toward the cupboards. He opened the one at the end and took out a black metal box that Alrick had seen there before. The man carried it and began walking toward the capsules.

Alrick quickly ducked back to the floor, hoping he wasn't seen. The footsteps got closer, and the two didn't dare to breathe. Much to their benefit, he went down another row of capsules. Alrick peeked his head out to see what was happening. The man had used a black card on one of the capsules, causing it to open up. He then pressed a button on the black metallic box.

It opened up and turned into a floating stretcher, which he loaded the body onto before walking back toward the operating room, the stretcher floating behind him.

Eleanor covered her mouth as she noticed the body. It was her neighbor. She almost started crying again, but Alrick covered her mouth quickly to avoid detection. They couldn't risk it. They heard the men dressing up in what was probably their scrubs, followed by sawing noises and something being cut. Eleanor's tears wouldn't stop and rolled down Alrick's hand. He didn't have time to soothe her and focused on keeping them both quiet.

After hours of those gruesome sounds they wished to unhear, the operating room doors finally opened. The footsteps came again. This time, they stopped at Eleanor's empty capsule—they were just behind it and had to hold their breaths. The man was quiet for a while before speaking, "Hey Dean, why… Aah!!—"

Alrick had covered the man's mouth after stabbing him in the neck with a scalpel. He had gotten off the floor and onto the capsule in a matter of seconds, so the man couldn't react. Even Eleanor was surprised.

He used his weight to push the man backward, making them both fall. The man's neck snapped from hitting the capsule behind him, then falling on the floor with Alrick on top of him and the scalpel still in his neck. The room was eerily quiet after that. Alrick remained frozen on top of the now lifeless man.

"Matt? What happened?" The man named Dean had stopped what he was doing. He waited for a reply but received none. He took off his scrub and walked out of the operating room. His heavy footsteps echoed as he made his way to where he had last seen his colleague. After trying to guess the exact spot, he froze at the discovery. Matt lay lifeless on the ground, a scalpel in his neck, in a pool of his own blood.

Just as he was about to reach into his pocket for something, he felt the hairs on his neck rise in panic. He bent his body, barely dodging the stab to the neck—but his throat still ended up being slit open. He immediately pressed his hand on it to lessen the bleeding, though it wasn't helping much.

The man turned around and stepped back, currently looking at what appeared to be a teenager in one of their lab coats. "Shit." He quickly used his other hand and tried to press a distress button, but Alrick could already tell what he was trying to do and tackled him to the ground before he could.

"Get off me, you vermin! How are you still alive?!" the man screamed, but Alrick wouldn't budge.

"How do we get out of here?!" Alrick asked while he plunged the scalpel into the hand reaching for the distress button again. The man screamed but refused to say anything. Alrick proceeded to try to stab him again, but was interrupted by a kick to the head from behind, his eyes rolling back in pain.

"The hell? How is he still alive?" It was someone apart from the two men. He was supposed to have been with them from the beginning but was called away by a superior and had opted to join them later. He continued kicking Alrick mercilessly and proceeded to bring out what looked like a gun.

"I'll make this quick before the superiors notice our blunder." He was about to pull the trigger, but was stopped as a scalpel penetrated his nape over and over until he fell to the ground. Eleanor stood there panting, blood all over her face, the bloody scalpel in her hands, her eyes dazed.

She soon regained her senses as the weapon fell from her shaking hands. She saw the blood all over her skin and ended up throwing up whatever remained in her stomach. "My God... I just killed a man."

Alrick slowly got off the floor. He was still disoriented, but could bear it. He finished off the one he had cut earlier and walked over to Eleanor. "Get a grip, Ellie. It was either them or us. It's not your fault." His words weren't doing much, but they had better things to do than sulk.

He proceeded to search the bodies and came across their access cards, a tube filled with some kind of yellow pills that looked a lot like the ones from the ice cream, their IDs, and things that looked like guns—the same kind the third man had tried to kill him with.

After stripping one of the men of his clothes and putting them on, he turned to Eleanor, who was still dazed. He sighed and walked over to her, pulling her up to her feet, but she staggered a bit.

"Can you walk?" he asked her, but she shook her head—she couldn't. The shock was too much to bear. He sighed in empathy. He was feeling the same way, if not worse, but he was focused on getting them out of here alive.

He helped her onto his back and was about to leave when he heard a faint beeping sound. He turned toward it and saw that it came from the second man he had killed. He moved closer and noticed a red blinking light through his lab coat.

"Shit." Alrick immediately started running toward one of the keycard readers on the wall. He realized that beeping device was a distress signal of some sort, and if he stayed here any longer, the place would be swarmed in no time.

He quickly scanned the black access card, praying that whoever was coming wouldn't use this entrance. Once it opened enough, he ran out of there with Eleanor on his back.