Free Out of the Dark: An apocalyptic thriller by Ashlei Hawley Page A

they no longer associated personal or professional meaning to.
         “No thank you,” Amy said decidedly. “I’m not going back in there anytime soon. Maybe a house we know is deserted. Maybe then. Keep talking; we’ll keep walking for now.”
         Ray nodded his agreement and they turned away from the campus. It was going to be all road walking now and freeway as soon as they could manage. Ray figured they had a better chance of finding an abandoned, unlocked car with the keys in it there. They would certainly hit the freeway before dark, and then Ray would be on his own way.
         “The more frustrated Alex got the more hold the creature seemed to have. Before he decided he had to leave, he told me, “It talks to you. Haven’t you heard it? We know what it is. Deep down, we know. And even if we don’t, it’ll tell you. Don’t listen, Ray. If you don’t hear it yet, don’t try to.” And then he left. I don’t know where he went, but I knew I had to wait until dawn to try to make any move. Here’s what I know for sure, Amy. What Alex and I figured out and what I’ve deduced on my own.”
         Amy nodded, not wanting to interrupt Ray’s flow.
         “There are the corrupted. Those are the ones that were fully taken over immediately. They went insane, violently insane. They have no qualms about killing. In fact, they seem to seek it out. There are those that could fight, or those that didn’t have effort wasted on for full corruption. You see, that’s one thing Alex and I didn’t get a chance to talk about but I’ve started thinking about on my own. The people who fell asleep, the ones who were knocked unconscious by the takeover…the things weren’t trying to take them. The ones who were awake had to fight full corruption. They. Had. To. Fight.”
         He spaced out his words so that Amy would see that he placed incredibly importance on that fact.
         “Do you have a theory as to why they had to fight it?” Amy asked as she stepped over a loose car tire. Somewhere nearby, an accident had happened. Probably a pretty bad one if the tire had landed on the sidewalk where they were.
         “You,” Ray said quietly, and Amy gave him a confused, consternated look.
         “What do you mean?” she asked.
         “Think of the people nearby me when it happened: Tony and Alex. Of the girls who live with you. You may not have seen them, but I guarantee they were among the ones fully taken over. They didn’t fall asleep. They got hit full force. Our group of friends all had to fight it, and I think it was because here at the college, we were the ones closest to you.”
         Ray went quiet, letting his hypothesis sink into Amy. She was a smart girl. It was one thing he’d always liked about her. Not only was she book smart, but she was real life smart, street smart. She didn’t have that affliction where she could ace any test without studying but had absolutely no common sense. Amy was in possession of a well-rounded intelligence, and that more than anything was what Ray was counting on to get her through this.
         “I’m not corrupted,” Amy began, using Ray’s word for the blight. “You think there’s something particularly important about that.”
         “I know it,” Ray stated, referencing the nearly psychic ability he’d developed in regards to the situation. “Even now, I feel the pull to do something…something horrible. Whatever is inside me wants you. It wants you more than it wants to cause death or destruction. It wants to hurt you, but more than that, it wants to take you.”
         “Take me where?” Amy asked. Then, she stumbled. She didn’t look too closely at the charred thing she’d nearly lost balance over, but part of her brain registered it as the burnt remains of some once-living creature. She stoutly averted her gaze and kept walking.
         “Somewhere,” Ray murmured. He wasn’t looking at his feet