Chapter 35: Cue and the Winding Way

Trembling, Cue looks up at Trigger with tears in her eyes. “That’s what’s following me? That was what was watching me for who knows how long?” She knew she was repeating herself, but after seeing that terrifying Cretin so close, it bore repeating. It had to be false.

“After tonight, I don't think there can be any doubts,” Trigger said.

Gunner nodded with a gruff grunt.

“We’re going to have to kill him, one way or another.”

Cue chewed on her bottom lip as she stroked Rat in her lap. The rat squeaked as she petted him just a little too hard, but he didn't try to run away. Her eyes were wide as she stared off into the receding tunnel in front of her.

“It’s going to be alright, I didn’t let Pete touch you, I won't let that Cretin do so either!” Trigger assured her, running her fingers through Cue’s hair reassuringly. She was crouched next to Cue, her arms and knees a protective barrier as she held her close.

“He’s never going to stop…” Cue whispered emotionlessly.

“We will make him stop,” Triggered whispered, hugging her close.

The subway twisted and turned around them, their speed no longer breakneck but almost casual. In the distance, you could still hear the horde, but in front of them, the sound of garbled coughing, gagging, and screaming was becoming more and more prevalent.

“The tunnels are infested,” Trigger said, but it wasn’t a surprise. “Without the doctor, how are we ever getting out of here?”

“Oh!” Cue shouted suddenly, “The doctor, she said there’s a hospital with power where she came from. She called Bellview Hospital and said there's a doctor there that can help us!”

“So all we need to find out is where the fuck that is,” Trigger groaned, lowering herself to the ground and stroking her stomach.

“Are you feeling okay?” Cue asked, as if coming out of a trance. She crawled behind Trigger on the small cart and sat behind her with both legs on either side of Trigger.

Trigger sighed as she leaned back into Cue, resting her body against hers. “Thank you,” she said softly, turning her head to kiss Cue gently on the lips. “I’m feeling fine, just more tired than usual, and these hips!” She groaned, rubbing her hips with her face pinched in pain. “Wish

I knew why my hips hurt so bad.”

“Do you think it has something to do with the baby?” Cue asked, stroking her belly under Trigger's shirt.

“I don’t know, I’ve never been pregnant before,” She said flatly, raising a brow at Cue, who said how should she know at all. “And I’ve never met anyone pregnant.”

“My mom was pregnant once after me,” Cue admitted. “I was really young, so I don't remember much, but the baby was born sleeping. It never opened its eyes even once.”

Trigger stiffened, and tears rolled down her face silently as she hugged her baby bump.

“But I’m sure that won't happen to us!” Cue added quickly, squeezing her arms tightly around Trigger.

A hiss and growl sounded in front of them, but it was quickly cut off as Gunner lasered the zombie down before it could even turn their direction. Ahead, Cue could see two more. Four beyond them.

“Gunner?” she said worriedly, but Gunner only mowed them down so hard that they flew off the tracks with the intensity of being shot by his lasers. As they passed, Cue looked down. The creatures had chains coming off shackles on their feet, and the chains were bolted to the wall.

“Fuck,” Trigger groaned, standing up and then helping Cue up as well. “It’s protection. There's gonna be a colony down here.”

“How?’ Cue asked, peering into the darkness and trying to see any sign of life or light at all. There was none, not even the flicker and zap of an exposed wire. There was no light or power down here except the lantern on the trolley that lit up only a small circle around them.

The further they went into the tunnels, the paler the zombies got. Their eyes were white, blind orbs, and their skin was almost translucent.

“What's wrong with them?” Cue asked, her heart skipping a beat in fear.

“Too long underground, I guess?” Trigger mused, staring at the dead bodies along the edge of the track.

“How long is too long?” Cue asked her voice barely above a whisper.

Trigger didn’t have an answer to that. She sat back down and watched Gunner kill hundreds of chained-up zombies without missing a beat.

Finally, they came to an open area, and Cue’s jaw dropped. It looked like an old abandoned village, crumbling from disuse. Creatures scuttled about it, looking almost human, but their bodies were twisted until they almost stood on all fours.

There was no light anywhere but in the cart, and yet these creatures moved around with disturbing, unerring precision. Cue shivered, it was clear these people were in fact people and not zombies or Cretins.

“How long do you have to be underground for this?” Cue asked in shock. The cart began to slow as the people came forward, curious. Their eyes were far too big, their ears flopping over like a dog's, and instead of looking, they turned their head to the side and sniffed.

“People, it’s people!” They all chanted, their voices barely understandable, as if rarely used. They started clicking and tapping then, as if using echolocation, “Pregnant! Pregnant!” The chant changed, and they were quickly surrounded.

The people, if you could call them that, placed too large hands on their arms and began gently pulling them off the cart, the whole time clicking and cooing as if trying to calm a feral animal to domesticate.

“Must come! Come with us!” They all said in unison, surrounding Cue Gunner and Trigger and leading them deeper into the dilapidated dwellings they possessed.

Before long, only the light from Gunner’s glowing eyes lit anything.

The creatures didn’t seem to care that he was an EHEC, or they didn't know, and they only winced at the brightness whenever he looked directly at one of them.

“Where are you taking us?” Trigger demanded, ripping her arm away from one of them. “What do you want with my baby?”

“Want nothing, only give. Only make happy!” One of them chanted in a sing-song voice.

They led them deeper and deeper until they came to a door in the walls of the subway. They opened it and led them in, and Gunner and Cue went first. Trigger went in last, but at the last moment, she was snatched backwards.

She screamed, reaching for Gunner, but they closed the steel door between them and dragged her away. The noise woke something inside the room, something huge. Something hungry.

Cue turned and found a glowing red light from Gunner’s eyes illuminating a giant of a woman, a creature so large and fat she couldn’t move, but her stomach did.

“Mother is hungry!” she groaned, leaning forward, her fat keeping her from standing as it pooled around her. Bring them to me!”

All around them, zombies began to stir from their sleeping spots on the floor.

The creatures have been keeping a Cretin underground. A pregnant one. A hungry one.

They stole Trigger because she was pregnant, and then chose to feed the others to their monster maker.