(8) A Familiar Voice

Since I was surrounded by hundreds of animated corpses, I was terrified. I stood there, panting as the sweat rolled down from my temples to my neck. I wondered if they were sentient beings or merely animated corpses. My body had about reached all it could take. I needed to get out of there fast. I cleared my throat which had become bone dry and in the loudest voice I could manage, I asked the nearest body, “what do you want?” No response. I waited. Nothing. So they were probably just…my mind searched for an explanation and came up short. I had to move or I was going to die, and I had to save John. John. He had been driven from my mind in the impending doom of corpses chasing me. He would know how to get me out. What would he do? I stood there for a moment thinking. Why hadn’t he come to get me already? Had the beasts found him yet? No. That could not be the case. He always came for me. What was delaying him in finding me? I hadn’t realized until this moment how much I trusted in his constant presence. It was his absence for longer than I though necessary that brought this truth so close to the front of my mind. Where was that mad man? Suddenly, as though an answer to my thoughts, I heard a familiar voice echo across the cavern. 
“Elaine, are you in there?!”
It was him. John had come. I was saved. Suddenly, nothing else mattered. He was here. I looked around wildly for him. I pushed the corpses aside in my haste to see the one I love, and they fell away before me. One corner of my mind—the only part not consumed with thoughts of John—remembered what the old scientist had said in his message, “Try to stay calm, they're not going to hurt you." My fear had been irrational. I was afraid of the unknown.
“Hold on Elaine!! I’m coming, just stand back from the door!” I scanned the room for this door and finally found it in the far corner. I started sprinting there. Right before I reached the door I heard the sound of his ray gun charging. I dived out of the way as he blasted the door open. Wooden splinters flew everywhere and through the smoking doorway burst John. His eyes searched for something, but when they found mine they lit up. Their search was over. His mop of jet black hair was looking as casually tousled as ever and the smile that broke across his face was enough to make me fall to my knees, even if I wasn't weak already. Here was the man I loved. He covered the space between us in a matter of seconds and pulled me into his arms. His scent filled my senses and his strong arms encircled me.

I was safe, for the moment.