Green Arrow: Arrowhead
Chapter eleven: The disease
"Eventually it’ll happen to you, me, Roy, everybody."
I can't believe how right he was. I can't believe how fast it spread…
I woke up later than I ever did before. Weeks ago, I wouldn't have called it late, but ever since the island, eight o'clock seems like waking up at two in the afternoon. So obviously, I knew that something was going on.
I quickly got up from my cot, the only thing that I ever called a bed on the island, and got dressed, expecting, that with each second, something would come out from the shadows and attack. Arthur, thanks to all of his teachings, made me paranoid.
After I got dressed, I found my bow, which I had placed under my cot, and a stash of arrows I had placed under a pile of clothes in my room. Cautiously, I walked into the hallway, finding that there were absolutely no lights on. I silently took at an arrow from my quiver, nocked it, and made my way down the hall.
I opened the door that led to the cafeteria, cringing when it uttered a high squeak as I pushed. Finally though, I made an opening wide enough to go through and entered the cafeteria.
The humorous part of me expected the lights to instantly turn on and the entire camp to spring out into the lights and scream "Happy Birthday!" even though I never saw them do it before. Unfortunately for me, I was wrong.
The cafeteria was empty, completely and totally barren. In fact, there were no tables, no chairs at all, like everything was suddenly packed up and taken away. I looked into each closet and through every door, there was nothing, no lights were on, there was nothing in the supply closets, even the pots and pans that used to be in the kitchen were gone.
I started to feel worried. I had been on the island for a year now, I had grown accustomed to the procedures that the Sanctuary enforced, I never learned of anything to where we packed up everything and left, as far as I knew the building we were in was the only one on the island. I had no idea what happened.
But then I took a closer look at my surroundings, or at least as close of a look as I could considering, to my surprise, the electricity was working. Dust had formed a nice cover over everything in the cafeteria. The sinks that were inside the kitchen were rusted and had their own share of dust. When I turned on the water, it came out filthy as it picked up dirt and rust inside the facet. It was like no one had been living in the base for years.
Deciding to try and figure out if anyone else was in the base, I exited out of the cafeteria and made my way to the outside, hoping to find someone wandering around. When I entered into another hallway, one that I knew went straight to the outside; I met someone, just not in the way that I had hoped.
At first all I saw was the silhouette of his body, so I drew my bow, aimed, and said, "Who are you? Identify yourself!"
"Oliver! So glad that I caught up with you!"
His name was Hugo, a big guy who specialized with knives. Roy talked about him a lot when we were eating dinner. Hugo turned around, having been facing the door when I walked in, and I instantly shot him through the stomach.
"Oh, you shouldn't have done that, Oliver." Hugo said.
His eyes, he was completely in the dark, I should never have been able to see his eyes. But I did. They were…purple and glowing. That's why I shot; I'm scared to think about what would have happened if I never did.
My shot, though, did nothing to faze him. Through the darkness I could see him reach for the arrow, take it out of his stomach, and snap it before he tossed it to the floor.
I instantly sent another one into his shoulder, but that time he didn't even notice it, he just took out his blades, and slowly walked toward me.
I knew that I didn't stand a chance, so I ran.
I went to the first door I could find and found myself going into another hallway. This hallway, I found myself remembering, led to the armory, which I thanked God for. Halfway down the hall, I heard the door open behind me and I quickly picked up the pace to the armory.
My thoughts were racing. I wasn't good with knives, so I knew that I was out of my league by facing Hugo, especially with arrows. A gun, I thought, would help me a little bit more.
"You can't run forever Oliver!"
I felt my breathing quicken, feeling the fear as it ran through my body. I thought about what would have happened if I didn't make it to the armory, if I was too slow...God I was scared.
"Come on Oliver, don't make your parents liras!"
My eyes widened and I stopped dead in my tracks. The footsteps behind me stopped as well, and I slowly turned around, drawing another arrow as I faced the two glowing purple eyes.
"It's Dee, isn't it?" I asked, aiming for one of his eyes. "John Dee?"
Hugo, or Dee, I guess, laughed and slowly began walking toward me. Instantly, I sent an arrow flying next to his head.
"That's a warning shot, Dee. Now where is everyone?"
"Gone."
He said it as simply as if he was talking about the weather, and he took another step. I drew another arrow.
"Come now Oliver, you don't have to harm poor Hugo here to make your point."
"So why don't you let him go and we can talk face to face? It's a little hard to miss where your house is, I can be there in an hour, no one else has to be infected by you."
Dee once again laughed through Hugo and said, "I'm afraid we don't have that kind of time, I'm a little bit surprised that we got to have this much time together anyway."
"What do you mean?" I said, trying to contain my fear. "Last time I checked we just met."
Hugo spreads out his arms, motioning to everything around him and said, "Haven't you thought, Oliver, that the days here seem to last…shorter than normal? It hasn't crossed your mind that the past year, a whole year Oliver, has gone by-" he snaps his fingers "-like that?"
"Where is everyone Dee? I want to know where my friends are!" My fear, during this time, started to be replaced by anger.
"They are outside Oliver."
"Are they okay? What about Roy is he out there too?"
Hugo laughs again, "I'm afraid you've misunderstood me, Oliver. I'm not talking about outside this compound. I'm afraid that due to circumstances I've had to…remove them from this land."
I drew the arrow back more, aiming for Hugo's forehead, and said, "What the hell does that mean? What's going on?"
"You're in a dream Oliver."
I lowered my bow, any thoughts of anger or fear vanishing as they were replaced by confusion.
"What?"
End of Chapter eleven
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