Free Torn Apart by James Harden

here.
    But she was gone.
    To make matters worse, Ben was struggling. He
was getting worse. He had dropped to his knees. He looked like he
was having a goddamn heart attack. I couldn’t see how bad he was
because it was too dark. But he was definitely
struggling.
    Maria had to be close by, I thought. But
where?
    “ Where is she?” I asked Ben and no
one. “Where the hell is she?”
    Ben did not respond.
    “ Where the hell is she?” I repeated.
“What the hell is going on?”
    I spun around. I looked deeper into the tunnel,
into the darkness.
    “ Keep your voice down,” Ben
whispered.
    “ No. I will not keep my voice down.
I don’t care if it’s not safe. I don’t care if infected zombies and
nano-swarms hear me and come and eat me. If we don’t have Maria, if
she is not alive, it’s all over. Nothing will matter. I won’t
matter.”
    “ You said you were prepared to die
for your friends,” Ben said. “Sacrifice yourself. You came here
searching for answers.”
    “ I came here because I wanted to
help. And we can help. As long as we have Maria.”
    I was getting frantic. I was starting to panic.
We had all agreed to keep Maria safe. Above all else. And I had
stupidly risked her life by coming here. I had risked everyone’s
life by coming here.
    And for what?
    Maria had disappeared. I should’ve known I
wasn’t strong enough to keep her safe. Not in this world. We could
barely keep her safe when Kenji and Daniel were protecting
us.
    Ben was still kneeling a short distance away.
Hunched over in pain. He spoke quietly. I could barely hear him.
“The Fortress is a refuge from the virus and the infected and the
apocalypse. It is self sustainable. It is protected. It is a
paradise in a wasteland. But...”
    He trailed off and coughed up some
blood.
    “ But what?” I asked.
    “ It is also a prison. A prison for
bodies. And souls. It is a nightmare. A place of torture and evil.
It is a place of love. And hate. Of good. And evil. You cannot have
one without the other.”
    I couldn’t tell if Ben was looking at me. It
was too dark. I couldn’t tell if he was delirious from blood loss
or not.
    Once again, I looked up ahead into the dark
tunnel. There was only one way to go.
    Down. Deeper.
    I gripped my rifle tightly with both hands,
even though it was out of bullets. I took a deep breath. I had to
find Maria. She couldn’t be far.
    I was right.
    Just then I heard a scream.
    A girl’s scream.
     

Chapter 17
    I ran forward, around a slight bend in the tunnel. Up ahead there
was a train. There were four carriages. The two at the rear were
dark. The two at the front had their lights on. They were
blindingly bright in the dark tunnel.
    I heard another scream.
    “ Maria!”
    Ben grabbed me from behind and put one of his
giant hands over my mouth.
    “ Shh,” he whispered into my ear. “Be
quiet.”
    I wrestled away from him. I didn’t have time to
be careful or quiet.
    “ That was Maria,” I said. “It has to
be. She’s in trouble.”
    “ Something is wrong,” Ben
said.
    Ben doubled over again. He was too weak to
stand up straight. He looked like he was holding his guts in with
his hands.
    He dropped to one knee. “The Lockdown,” he
said. “This track should be closed. It goes for miles.”
    “ So?”
    “ So there shouldn’t be any carriages
on the track. We are in the middle of nowhere. Something is
wrong.”
    Another scream.
    “ Yeah, something is wrong. Maria is
in trouble. I need to go and get her.”
    “ Don’t do it. Not safe.”
    “ No kidding. But I have to go. I
don’t have a choice.”
    Ben grabbed me and pulled me back. Even as he
was lying on his deathbed he was still unbelievably strong. But I
needed to go. I didn’t care if it wasn’t safe. I didn’t care if it
was a trap. I didn’t care that there weren’t supposed to be any
carriages in the middle of this tunnel, miles underground, in the
middle of nowhere.
    Maria was screaming out, in pain or for help, I
couldn’t tell.