by James Bierce
"Which direction are they going?" she hears Curtis say from behind, startling her.
"Into the city. I thought you were still asleep…"
"You saw the fires?"
"Yeah, they're spreading fast."
"Their behavior is changing, have you noticed that? It's like they never move alone anymore."
Sarah can still see the movement down the street, and some flashes of light scattered throughout the crowd.
"Maybe you guys should stay here…" Curtis says.
"No, we'll come with you — we're not splitting up again."
"It might be safer on this side of the harbor…"
"There's no such thing as safe — not anymore."
CHAPTER 15
Aberdeen: March 30th
Christine is shaking as she looks up at Amanda, not knowing what the young girl will do with her next. She's still tied to the chair, and she can feel a tingling sensation developing in her fingertips from being restrained in the same position for too many hours — but it's her bladder that's hurting the worst. Without a bathroom break since this morning, she's having a hard time concentrating on anything except how much she has to urinate, and Amanda's constant coaching as she holds the radio up to her face hasn't been helping. More than once she's thought about just going, figuring that sitting in wet clothes is probably preferable to having her bladder burst, but she's still holding out hope that she might be released from her shackles now that Amanda's message has been sent — if she doesn't simply kill her instead.
"Amanda, I really have to go to the bathroom… It hurts really bad," Christine says, watching the girl walk away from her, then pitch the radio out of the broken window and onto the rooftop below. "I know that Larry and Beth had you tied up for a while — so you know how it feels…"
"They had me tied up for a good reason," Amanda replies, picking up Mike's gun from a nearby table.
"I'm not gonna hurt you, I've never hurt anybody before…"
"No, but you left me to die in that barn."
"I'm sorry, I really am — I was just scared. I didn't know what to do."
Amanda looks the gun over, then pops the clip out, throwing both of them out of the same broken window. Christine tries not to look as she grabs her knife again, and then stands directly in front of her, holding the blade against her throat with the tip barely piercing the skin — the same way it did in the hayloft in Grayland.
"If I let you go, you have to do exactly what I say…" Amanda orders.
"I will, I promise," Christine answers, with tears running down her face.
"Trust me, you don't want to see me angry."
"I promise…"
Showing no compassion whatsoever, Amanda takes the knife and crudely cuts Christine loose, the blade lightly slicing into her arms and legs several times before she's finally released. Then Amanda backs up slowly and sits down in the corner, where she's almost entirely obscured in the darkness.
"Can I go to the bathroom now?"
"The water doesn't work anymore, so the toilet won't flush."
"I don't really care at this point," Christine says, feeling her legs nearly give out when she stands up and tries to take a couple of steps. She takes it a little slower, then turns around and faces the dark hallway in the back of the room — but when she checks her pocket for her flashlight, she discovers that it's missing. "Have you seen my flashlight?"
"It was on the floor — I tossed it out the window."
"How am I gonna find the bathroom?"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out. It's hard to escape when you can't see anything."
By the time Christine reaches the beginning of the hallway, she can hardly see anything in front of her. The movement of walking is only making her bladder situation worse, and as she hurries down the corridor, her feet suddenly slip on something wet and slippery, sending her tumbling to the floor. As soon as she places her hands on the smooth tile, feeling a gooey substance all over her skin, she realizes that it must be Mike's blood — and when she gets up and starts walking again, her suspicions are confirmed when she feels his body with her feet. Composing herself, and hearing Amanda in the next room giggling, she continues walking slowly until she finally makes it to the open door at the end of hall — then closes the door behind her.
As badly as she has to go, the first thing she does upon entering is feel around on the floor next to the toilet, searching for a flashlight that Larry left there the night before — just in case the power went out while he was sitting down. Not feeling it, she finally can't take it anymore, so she sits down and starts to go — then immediately hears footsteps in the hallway.
"Are you finished yet?" Amanda says through the door.
"Not yet — I really had to go…"
"Why is the door locked?" she asks, trying to jiggle the handle.
"I just wanted some privacy, that's all."
"It's pitch black in there, who's gonna see you?"
Christine can see a light coming from underneath the door, and Amanda's feet pacing back and forth anxiously. When she's done, feeling physically more relieved than she's ever felt in her life, she reaches around on the wall for the toilet paper and accidentally kicks something across the floor with her foot.
"What was that?" Amanda asks, her voice sound impatient and annoyed.
"I'm not sure what it was…" Knowing exactly what it was, she feels around on the floor and quietly picks up the small flashlight and hides it in her pants pocket, then finds the toilet paper just as Amanda begins banging on the door. When she opens the door and sees the floor lit up on the other side, she notices for the first time that Amanda's skin appears clearer and more flushed with color than it used to be. At first she tells herself that it's probably the spectrum of the light that's causing that effect, but then she realizes that her once congested breathing and cough are gone as well, along with the faint clicking sound she made every time she inhaled.
"We have some things to do before they get here," Amanda tells her, pointing toward the staircase door.
"Downstairs?"
"On the second floor — there's something down there that we have to move."
"The second floor is filled with people — they're infected…"
"I know, that's what we're moving."
Walking down the dark staircase, with Amanda only a few steps behind her holding a flashlight to guide them with, Christine feels the rush of cold air moving up the shaft from below — which makes her wonder if the main entrance is wide-open and letting outside air in, but she's too afraid to ask. When they reach the second floor platform, Amanda stands up on her toes and peers through the window, seeing nothing but darkness in the corridor beyond a few feet.
"Step back," Amanda orders her, as she aims the flashlight through the window and concentrates on whatever is on the other side. The girl twists the handle, but it doesn't budge. Then she takes a large set of keys and inserts each of them into the lock one by one, watching the window after every attempt to make sure the noise hasn't attracted any unwanted attention. Finally, after at least a dozen tries, she manages to find one that works, and pushes the heavy steel door into the corridor with a loud screeching sound that echoes throughout that portion of the hospital. As Christine follows her inside and looks down the long hallway in front of them, she catches just a glimpse of someone in the flashlight beam, standing about halfway down with their back turned away from them.
"Amanda, I think there's someone down there," she whispers quietly, realizing too late that her voice, as low as it is, still carries a long way with hard surfaces and complete silence.
Shining the light at the person for only a moment, Amanda turns around and locks the door again, then hands Christine the flashlight. "Here, after I slip into one of those rooms, make as much noise as possible to get their attention."
"Why not just leave them down here?" Christine asks, aiming the light toward the person. She can see that they have long hair, but they're still dressed in a filth
y, soiled hospital gown, and she can't tell for sure whether or not it's a man or a woman. Then she feels something press into her side, and she quickly backs up against the wall behind her when she discovers that Amanda's knife is cutting through her clothing and piercing into her abdomen.
"I didn't cut you loose so that could ask stupid questions…" Amanda says in a menacing tone, as she continues to hold the blade firmly against her.
"I'm sorry, I won't ask any other questions."
Feeling the pressure from the knife subside, she watches as Amanda turns around and sneaks across the tiled floor, her footsteps never making a sound as she silently slips into one of the open rooms along the side. For a moment, Christine just stays there, feeling the wound in her side begin to ache and bleed down onto her hip — then she slowly aims the light back up, seeing the beam dance around as her hand shakes uncontrollably. "Hey!" she yells out, hoping that more of them don't come crawling out of the other rooms — and well aware of the fact that Amanda has both of them trapped down here. Still seeing no reaction from them, she bends down and picks up a small juice container that's lying on the floor beside her, then flings it through the air and nearly hits them in the head. Again, she leans over to pick something else up, but this time she hears something ahead of her, a slow dragging sound followed by a loud single footstep. When she points the light down the hall this time, she sees a young woman that's not much older than she is, using her left leg to walk as her right foot drags along uselessly beside it. Backing up against the staircase door, she watches nervously as the woman gets closer with every excruciating step she takes, and becomes even more scared when she passes by Amanda's room with no sign of the girl doing anything to help. With the woman only ten feet away — close enough for her stench to fill the entire hallway — Christine reaches behind and tries desperately to open the door handle, fearful that she's been tricked by Amanda to be taken out in the most horrible way possible.
"Amanda!" she screams, seeing the red, bloodshot eyes staring her down, and horrible, blackened teeth as she opens her mouth and tries to say something — but the only thing that comes out sounds like a low-pitched groan. Now just a few feet away, Christine takes a step sideways as a glint of metal suddenly shows up in front of the young woman's throat, then slices across it rapidly as she falls to the floor and begins to flail around. Amanda, who must have been standing behind her, kneels down and grabs the woman by her hair, then holds the knife to her head as Christine closes her eyes to drown out the gory imagery.
"Help me drag her upstairs," Amanda orders her, wiping her blade against the woman's hospital gown as Christine opens her eyes again. "First we need to take her clothes off, then we have to lay her just inside the door up there."
Curious as to why she would want to do something so gruesome and pointless, Christine tries to run a dozen scenarios through her head, hoping that one of them will make the slightest bit of sense — but she still doesn't dare ask her any questions about it. "What do you want me to do?"
Amanda unlocks the door and swings it open, then takes one of the woman's wrists and holds onto it tightly. "Grab her other arm, we'll just pull her up there."
"She's kinda heavy, isn't she? Maybe we can find another way to do it…"
"I've done it before by myself — just grab her, she won't bite."
Wishing she had gloves on, Christine wraps her fingers around the woman's forearm, then helps to pull it through the doorway and onto the first step of the stairs. They have to yank on her with every step they take, and each one gets harder than the last. When they finally reach the last one, Christine almost mentions to Amanda that the door downstairs is still unlocked — but then she notices the metal keychain that's dangling loosely from her coat pocket. Taking in a deep breath, she picks the woman up by the shoulders, using every ounce of strength she has, and then begins carrying her inside as Amanda backs up through the doorway and guides her into reception area of the sixth floor. When she gets close to her, Christine pushes the limp body onto Amanda and pins her onto the floor. Knowing that she just sealed her fate, she hesitates for a moment and tries to decide whether she should attempt to kill Amanda, or simply try to get away from her and warn Larry and Curtis of her plans. Seeing the keys lying on the floor, she leans over carefully and picks them up, then starts to reach over for the knife that's still held firmly in the girl's small, delicate-looking hand — but when she sees the woman's body being pushed off to the side, she backs up quickly toward the stairs and starts running, not sure of whether to head outside or hide somewhere else in the hospital. Hearing the sound of rapid footsteps behind her though, she makes the quick decision to duck into the fifth floor, shutting the door behind her just in time to hear the blade scraping against the steel shell.
"Christine, open the door!" Amanda screams at the top of her lungs.
Holding the door closed with only the weight of her body, Christine fumbles through the keys and tries a few of them before finding the correct one. Hearing Amanda beat against the window in the top of the door, she turns around and shines her light quickly around the hallway, then runs toward the end of it, carefully stepping around a dried puddle of blood. She hears the pounding behind her stop as she comes to an intersection, where she turns to the right and runs down another corridor with a waiting room at the end of it. Glancing at each room, she finally chooses one that has an open solid-wood door with no window — and a lock. Hearing something faintly, she listens closely for a few seconds — then recognizes the sound the running footsteps, coming from somewhere close. She pushes the door open and jumps inside, not bothering to even make sure the room was empty first. Next, she quietly locks the door, takes a quick look around the office, then turns her flashlight off as she backs up toward a desk that's only a few feet away.
She can still hear the footsteps, sounding further away the longer she listens to them. Then another noise appears — a deep, raspy cough that's followed by a scuffling sound.
It was obvious from the cough that they're close, possibly even in the next room — but when the shuffling becomes louder, and she can feel something brush against her foot, she knows they're much closer than that. They're on the other side of the desk.
CHAPTER 16
Aberdeen: March 30th
Pressing a clean washcloth against her side, Amanda sits down in the waiting room of the sixth floor and looks out at the gloomy landscape of the city. She didn't even realize that she'd been cut until the pain suddenly appeared while running down the stairs after Christine. The only time it could have happened was when she was pushed to the ground, which meant she was likely injured by her own blade — although it's impossible to tell for sure considering how much blood was already on it. Still, she was lucky that the wound was so superficial, and by the time she was able to treat it with antiseptic wipes the bleeding had all but ended. Unfortunately, her arm is a different story. When she fell backward, the woman that Christine threw on top of her landed directly onto her elbow, and ever since then, that arm has felt weak and tingly. Even holding onto her knife has proven to be difficult.
She remembers sitting here in this very spot a few years prior, waiting to hear news about Diane's sick mother. She cared little about the welfare of her stepmother, Diane, and even less about the prognosis of her mother's stroke — but she remembers being fascinated by the view from this room. Her father told her that on a clear day you could practically see their house on the other side of the harbor, which was probably rubbish, but she believed him at the time. Tonight, with no electricity and the air filled with smoke, you can hardly even see that Westport exists at all, or even the nearby city of Hoquiam for that matter. Her entire world seems to be disintegrating around her — the people that loved her, the few of them that she loved back, and now even the stores and city parks that were so much a part of her childhood. All of them are disappearing — as if she were an old woman looking back at the days of her youth.
The longer she sits and looks over t
he water at Westport, the more she misses her former life, and even the people in it. Aaron is likely dead by now, trapped in a basement with no food or water, which doesn't necessarily bother her all that much considering the way he talked to her last. She misses the way they used to get along though — the board games and trips to the state park, where they would search the wooded dunes for lost items that would blow in from the beach from the countless tourists. She remembers the feeling of the cold sand underneath the pine trees, where the sun hadn't touched the ground in decades, and the constant roar of the ocean that would block out any of their secretive chatter from the outside world.
All that she has left today, is Ben — and the only evidence that he's still alive is her own gut feeling, which still tells her that he's out there somewhere, maybe even in this city. Hearing Curtis' voice was a shock, and knowing that he's on his way gives her hope that Ben is probably nearby, since there's no way he would ever allow them to be separated again.
At one time her plan was to kill all of them, including Ben — but now she feels differently, she feels alone. The others will all have to die, otherwise Ben would never stay with her — but there's no possible way she can imagine herself harming him.
She takes the cloth from her side and looks at it, noting the lack of new blood that's been deposited since the last time she checked. Standing up, she wraps a blanket around her shoulders, shielding her skin from the cold air that's blowing in through the broken window, then she walks down the hallway and unlocks the door to the staircase. Mike has several sets of keys in his desk, so it wasn't a problem finding another one — but it annoys her that Christine has one too. She's already prepared for Curtis and Larry's visit, with only one extra thing to take care of, but she's beginning to wonder if it might be best to take care of Christine before they arrive. She seems harmless enough, but she also has a weird friendship with Larry, which might complicate things down the road.