PetrA

Chapter forty-seven: Cody

Cody had trouble seeing through the rain as he drove down the dark road. As it was they didn't care that the headlights were on. "Hey slow down!" Gemma said suddenly. Cody slammed his foot on the brake and stared at her. "Look up ahead. Something's almost like shining in the dark." She said pointing ahead of them. Sure enough, about five hundred metres in front of them something white stood out in the darkness. "Let's go see." She said. Cody started to drive again when something crashed in front of them, they hit it head on and an animal skidded down the glassy wet road, it's head staring into the headlights of the car. It was hard getting a good look at it, but it quickly took off again onto the empty fields. With pounding heart, Cody drove the last few metres and looked out of the window. It was hard to make out anything, but a lightening tore across the sky and cast a bright light onto several white sheets sown together, with words painted on it. "Mental Asylum." There was something behind the words, but Cody didn't reach to read them. He waited for the next lightening and stared with wide eyes as it finally made sense. "Mental Asylum 3.0! And an arrow pointing towards that building." He said pointing at a dark looming shadow in the background.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Anthony asked looking up from his game of cards with Lewis. "It's the name of a Skype chat. More or less Ellie must've left it." Cody said. Gemma's eyes lit up, but something else caught their attention, Cody shut off the headlights and they stared into the darkness. Two shadows moved closer, but it wasn't human shapes. Two large dogs with body limps hanging out of their mouths was moving towards the Auto camper. From what Cody could tell, those limps hadn't even slightly begun to rot. "You don't think...?" It sounded like Gemma was thinking the same thing as he was. "I really hope not." He muttered watching as the animals passed them. "Okay, let's wait until the morning." Gemma said. She didn't sound anxious to wait, but none of them wanted to risk going out now, in this weather when it's so dark you can't see a metre in front of you.

"Lewis Anthony, you keep guard. It's your turn." Gemma said moving through the car down into the sleeping area. She crawled into the bed and pulled her sleeping bag up around her face. Cody didn't know what to do, if those limps belonged to any of their friends. He didn't sleep, Cody didn't think anyone was sleeping. He could hear Kim move and mutter what sounded like a prayer, and the twins was wide-awake. It seemed like forever before the rain stopped and the moon was visible through the clouds. Cody stared at it. It was a large full moon. Gemma turned around to face him, "I don't like the odds." She said quietly. "Neither do I, I don't think anyone like the odds these days." He murmured back

They fell into silence again and watched the sun slowly replacing the moon. The silence around them continued as they got out of their beds, the twins was still awake. "We'll go in there. I just don't hope we find anyone missing." Gemma had to force herself not to say dead. "Anthony, Lewis you can go outside and open the gate and rip down the sheets. Don't want any visitors." Gemma said. They nodded and silently slipped out of the auto camper armed just in case. They watched them look around before crossing the road. Lewis ripped down the sheets and helped Anthony get open the gates. Cody sped the car through them before they were even completely open. Gemma rushed out and helped close them along with Kim. "What do we do with the sheets?" Lewis asked holding up the wet and paint stained sheets. "We can burn them later." Kim said eyeing them. "We don't know what they've been in contact with." Cody drove the car up so it was right in front of the main entrance, ready to leave at any moment. Gemma walked up the stairs and pushed open the door. "Hello?" She called looking around. It was dark inside and it had an eerie feel to it that Gemma didn't like.

Down the hallway, they heard some shuffling and then running footsteps. Frowning they went in that direction slowly, they heard a muffled voice and then nothing. They rounded the corner and somebody had clearly been sitting there all night, it was clear by the blanket lying on the floor. Suddenly the footsteps of somebody running broke the silence. From further down the hall a human shape was running towards them. Gemma raised her knife, but dropped it when she saw who it was. Beside her Kim let out a funny noise and ran forwards to meet Ellie. She flung herself into his arms letting out a strangled cry as she buried her head in his neck. Gemma wanted so badly to say AWE at the sight of them. Another girl came into sight, Gemma frowned she didn't know her, but the twins let out a collective gasp. "Stella?" They asked. She stopped at stared at them. "Well I'll be damned." She said "The Dinozzo twins are alive." They kept a distance to each other, and then Henrik and Joachim came rushing down the hallway with another person right behind them.

"Why mummy hugging stranger?" Gemma stared and thought she'd heard wrong when Joachim turned around and glared at him. "She's not your mummy." He said. "Daddy jealous?" Joachim's face turned an ugly shade of purple and he was about to launch himself at the strange man. "Don't attack Bob. He's not smart enough to get it." Henrik said holding back Joachim. Cody looked around and frowned, "Where's Daniel?" He asked. None of them answered, at least not until a very groggy Gordon staggered down the hallway. "What's going on?" He asked staring around at them all. He saw Ellie and Kim and made a disgusted sound, "Eeew!" Gemma hadn't even noticed that the two of them was had locked lips. Stella was ogling her mouth hanging open. "Ooh now I understand." She said grinning slyly. Kim and Ellie was glued to each other as they, went into another room and sat down. Gemma resisted the urge to come with a few comments, as she watched Ellie play with Kim's fingers. Gordon was keeping his distance to Ellie, it seemed like he didn't like watching her get it on with somebody. Bob was all over Joachim who kept glaring at Ellie, because she'd told off Bob for annoying her.