Cylindrical Roots

Chapter One

Aleksi awoke in the cold Hospital, she had no idea how long she had been there. She didn't even have any idea how she got there nor did she know what was outside that door. She climbed to her feet and examined the room, it was filled with standard medical and life support equipment. She noticed a vase of flowers with a small note hanging off one of the Orchards, 'See You Soon.' was written on it. She ignored it and made her way to the door and stepped out into the sterile hallway. No one was around,

"Hello?" her voice echoed through the hallway and she heard a creaking sound behind her. Aleksi span around to see someone else emerging from a room, another woman with long black hair and delicate features. She looked down and noticed that she was wearing a patients robe, the same as the woman. The woman looked just as surprised as she did although Aleksi rushed over to her,

"Hello? Do you know what's happeni-."
"No." She answered simply.

"Is there anyone else around?"

"How should I know?"
"I.." Suddenly another door opened further up the hall and a man emerged this time, Aleksi waved at him,

"Hello?" She called, he gave her a funny look and slowly made his way over to them,

"Do you know where we are?" The man asked in a gruff voice,

"Not a clue." The other woman replied. Aleksi took this opportunity to find out more about the others,

"Soo.. What're your names? I'm Aleksi."

"Jess."

"Daniel."

"Well, we should go look around, right?" Aleksi said with a hint of glee in her voice, she'd never had very many friends before and she'd hoped that this would be a new beginning. They set off down the hall towards the elevator, there was no one around but the power was still on, Aleksi found this odd.

"So, where are you all from?" As soon as she said it Aleksi realized what a stupid question that was, not even she knew the answer to it. The others just shrugged and they kept walking.

Chiyino ran through the deserted streets of Adelaide, he was panting loudly, too loudly. They were following him, he couldn't see them but he knew they were. He quickly rounded and corner and dived into an open car and closed the door behind him as fast as he could. He fiddled around in the glove compartment searching for keys. He was Reprimanding himself for not letting Mikel teach him how to hot-wire cars. Something was sparkling just out the corner of his eye, he turned and saw the keys in the ignition. Whoever left them there was obviously an idiot, but he thanked them for their stupidity as he gunned the engine. His thoughts stretched to Mikel, thinking he would have loved it, when something crunched nearby. He pushed the engine even harder. desperate to get away. He knew more of them would be hot on his heels. He'd been driving for a couple of minutes when one of them stepped out blindly onto the road, he'd attempted to swerve but ended up drifting off the road and into the car park of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He leaped out of the car as it came to a halt and ran towards the entry. He made his way over various obstacles in the Courtyard, he was almost at the door when one of them tackled him and he went flying through the front door, which was made of glass. He screamed and threw it off of him and scrambled to his feet and made a beeline straight for the elevator. He hit a random number but one of them jammed its arm in the elevator door as it started to move, the subsequent result was not pretty as Chiyino stayed in one corner of the elevator as it ascended.

Aleksi, Jess and Daniel heard the screeching of tires and someone screaming. They all looked at each other and shrugged,

"Hey look, someone's coming up the elevator!" Daniel said as he pointed to the flashing 'UP' arrow,

"Who do you think it is?" Aleksi queried as she walked towards it,

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Jess said, reaching out to grab Aleksi. Who did she think she was, she'd only know Aleksi for a couple of minutes and she was already trying to take control of her life, how rude. The doors opened and a boy around the age of 18 came sprinting out at full force, he'd looked so surprised to see them that he ran into Aleksi and Jess, knocking them to the floor.

"Aggh! Get off me! Nurse!" Aleksi screamed as she pushed Chiyino off of her,

"Shh!" He pressed his finger to his lips as he set up, something was in the air ducts above them,

"Heh, spooky." Daniel said, he was admiring the sight of Aleksi and Jess on the floor,

"But really now, you really think we're THAT stu-." Suddenly the ceiling above Daniel gave way and one of them landed on him, it started clawing at him as he screamed his lungs out,

"OH MY GOD!" Jess screamed as she scrambled to her feet and started to run towards the elevator,

"What about Dani-.

"SCREW DANIEL" Jess yelled as she ran, Aleksi followed, along with Chiyino.

END CHAPTER ONE.