The youngsters turned back around to re-enter their room, but the door had already closed behind them, locking them out in the hallway. The panic on their face was all-consuming.
“Run,” Annaliese shouted, pulling the Room 7 key card from her jean pocket.
The youngsters spun on their heels and hurried after her. The infected were right behind them.
Annaliese threw herself against the door to Room 7 and immediately slid the card into the magnetic reader. As she did so, the plastic card bent and the reader flashed red. An irritated buzz sounded.
“Shit! Shit! Come on.”
She looked left and saw two dozen monsters hammering down the corridor towards her, a tidal wave of death bearing down. The two youngsters beside her sobbed, waiting for either death or salvation.
Annaliese removed the key card from the slot and reinserted it again. Her hands were shaking.
The card reader flashed red and buzzed again.
Please God. Just open this door.
She removed the key card again, knowing there would only be time left for one more attempt.
She took a deep breath.
Slid the card into the slot carefully.
The reader flashed green.
The door handle clicked.
The infected pounced.
Annaliese pushed down the handle and collapsed through the door. The two youngsters fell in after her. She managed to kick out and close the door with her foot once they were all clear of it. Less than a second later, the wood began to rattle on its hinges as dozens of infected maniacs crashed against the other side.
“W-what the hell are you doing up here?” Annaliese asked the two young strangers, between heaving breaths.
The male of the pair stood up. He was shaking visibly and his smart black shirt was crumpled and sweat-stained. “We’ve been up here for hours,” he said. “We snuck away from the party last night to – well, you know – and then we heard everything going crazy downstairs. We stepped out of the room and there were people being ripped apart and killed. People I’ve worked with for months had gone insane and were biting each other, tearing each other to bits. Me and Charlotte locked ourselves inside my room and stayed there.”
The girl stood up and joined him. Her blonde hair was a tangled mess and her cherry lipstick and black mascara were smudged. “We thought help was coming when we heard someone coming down the hall. When we looked out and saw you there we were sure of it, but then we realised you were being chased. What is going on?”
Annaliese climbed back to her feet and checked the room’s door. It was much weaker than the ones downstairs in the main house. It wouldn’t hold forever. Even now it bulged and rattled with every blow against its outer side. She put a finger to her lips to keep the young couple quiet. Then she whispered to them. “If we keep quiet, they should go away. They seem to operate on sight and sound.”
“They?” asked Charlotte. “Who are they?”
“I don’t exactly know. Something bad has happened to a lot of people. Pretty much your entire company came down with some kind of sickness last night. It’s infected them with some kind of bloodlust.”
“Paris Hilton’s balls,” said the lad. “That’s crazy.”
“Crazy is a pretty good word for it,” she said, “but this is no joke. People are dead. Things are really screwed up.”
“So what do we do?” asked the girl. She turned to the lad and grabbed his wrist. “Clark, I’m scared.”
He hugged her close. “I know, baby. Everything is going to be okay, I promise.”
Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Casanova.
“We need to get outside,” she said. “There are people downstairs – uninfected people – that are relying on me. I came up here to lead the sick people away. Now that I have, we need to get outside and join back up with the group and get somewhere safe.”
“Okay,” said Clark. “We’re ready to do whatever you need.”
Annaliese hurried across the room, dodging around the bed and heading towards the window. Dawn sunlight flooded in and painted a golden rectangle against the room’s olive carpet. Birds chirped outside as if all was ordinary. The ground outside, beneath the window, was grassy and probably soft, but the drop was still a good twelve feet or more.
“Strip the bed,” she said.
Charlotte and Clark looked at her confused but did as they were told. They got to work quickly, throwing aside the pillows and duvet from the room’s double bed. In the meantime, Annaliese examined the room’s window. She located the catch and flicked it free, releasing the window from its frame. It was old fashioned leaded glass that opened outwards to one side. It wasn’t the widest gap, but should be big enough for her purposes.
If it’s not, then we’re in a lot of trouble.
When Annaliese turned back around, she saw that the young lovers had finished stripping the bed for her and were now standing by anxiously. Each of them stole furtive glances at the door as it continued to shake on its hinges.
“Concentrate,” Annaliese told them, snapping her fingers several times. “We’ll be out of here before they get inside. Now, bring me the mattress.”
Fortunately, the mattress had handles and wasn’t too heavy. Charlie and Clark slid it over to the window and propped it up against the frame.
“Right,” Annaliese said. “It will be a squeeze, but I think we can get this through the window. We can use it as a crash mat. Let’s get it up through the gap.”
“Okay dokey,” said Clark in a voice that sounded nervous.
Together the three of them worked the mattress up onto the window ledge and began shoving it through the opening. The mattress was too wide to fit perfectly but as they pushed, squeezed, and folded, it began to go through a little bit at a time.
Crack!
Behind them there was the sound of splintering wood.
Crack!
“Oh, no,” cried Charlotte. “They’re going to get in.”
“Just keep pushing,” said Annaliese. “Focus on what we’re doing, not on them.”
They shoved as hard as they could, but the mattress seemed to be getting heavier. Annaliese knew it was just her muscles getting tired. Sweat began to bead on her forehead as she shoved at what was beginning to feel like an immovable object.
The door continued to splinter and rattle on its loosening hinges.
Crack!
Annaliese shoved harder, gritting her teeth.
Suddenly there was movement and, all at once, the mattress seemed to take on a life of its own, slipping through the window frame and tumbling over the ledge. It almost dragged Annaliese right out after it as it plummeted to the ground below.
“Right,” she shouted. “Charlotte, you go first. Quickly!”
Charlotte stared out the window and then looked back at Annaliese. She shook her head. “I can’t just jump out of the window.”
“It’s either that or stay here and get ripped apart.”
“You go,” she said, pointing at Clark.
Clark shrugged. “Fine.” He put a foot on the windowsill and then hopped up into the window frame. He steeled himself for a moment, and then took a step forward. Without a sound he disappeared from view, sinking down below the window ledge. Annaliese glanced out to see that the lad had landed face down on the mattress. He seemed a little disorientated at first, but was soon on his feet again and waving at them to say he was okay.
“Now you,” said Annaliese to Charlotte.
Crack!
Charlotte looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights. She looked around at the room’s door and started hyperventilating. There was a jagged hole at the top of the door where a probing arm hung through, groping and clawing at the air with its bloody fingernails and trying to get inside. There was only moments left before the door would give way completely.
“Just go,” Annaliese urged her. “Before it’s too late.”
Charlotte climbed up onto the ledge tentatively. Annaliese placed a hand on the gi
rl’s back to steady her.
Then, without pause, Charlotte jumped. It seemed that, once the girl had made up her mind, she wanted to get it over and done with. Annaliese watched her hit the mattress and rebound off into the grass. She stood up quickly and made it clear she was alright.
Crack!
My turn, Annaliese thought as she placed one of her wellington boots onto the ledge. Her hamstrings were painfully tight from her desperate sprint through the hallway and it was a real struggle to push herself up onto the ledge. Every time she tried to climb up, her legs went numb and she fell back down. It took a couple of attempts before she was finally able to get up onto the ledge. Then she found herself looking down at the mattress below, suddenly feeling that the drop was more like twenty feet than twelve. She knew it was just her imagination – a built-in safety device that every person had to keep them from taking risky falls – but the thought of jumping was still terrifying. The hardest part of the jump would be fighting her instincts and stepping out into nothing but thin air.
Crack!
The room’s door continued to splinter and come away as the infected threw themselves at it.
Right, Annaliese told herself. Let’s do this.
I’ll count to three.
One…
Two…
Thr-
She stopped herself just as her body was about to take flight. She quickly realised that she had forgotten something.
Mike’s wallet.
She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t leave without even having looked for it. She hopped back down off the window ledge and glance frantically around the room. The wallet was in clear sight; right on the bedside table where Mike had said it would be.
I can grab it. There’s time.
She eyed the brown leather wallet and then the room’s battered door. The hole at the top was now the size of a person’s head and several of the infected peered through at her with their swollen eyes.
I can make it. I can get the wallet.
She made up her mind. She dodged back around the bedframe and headed over to the bedside cabinet. She placed her hand around the wallet and was surprised by how heavy it was. She just about managed to force it into her pocket when-
There was an almighty crash! The cracking of wood and the sound of a door being busted wide open.
Annaliese hurried back to the end of the bedframe, but was cut off by a large man with a torn cheek and a flap of skin hanging loose.
She let out a scream, and so did the man, screeching at the top of his lungs.
She leapt onto the exposed box springs of the bedframe and used it as a springboard to hop towards the window. More infected people flooded into the room and headed right for her, all of them screeching like banshees.
With a fresh surge of adrenaline, she was able to leap up onto the window frame with a single attempt. She stared down at Clark and Charlotte below. Both of them stared back at her anxiously.
Annaliese prepared to jump.
Before she had chance to step forward and plummet to the mattress, something hit her from behind, grabbing her around the waist and shoving her off-balance. She fell forward, grabbing out but finding nothing but air. Then, suddenly, she was falling. She fell fast and she fell awkwardly, as the weight on her back bore down on top of her. She hit the mattress hard and felt something snap. The fabric covered springs were less forgiving than she had anticipated.
The next thing she knew, besides the stars floating through her vision, was someone clawing at her back. Company had followed her through the window.
And now it was trying to kill her.
Chapter Sixteen
Annaliese struggled on her stomach as her attacker clung to her back. A flash of white hot pain stabbed through her right hand but she had no time to investigate the cause. If the infected man, who had followed her out of the window, managed to bite her then she was doomed. Just like Bradley had been.
Clark and Charlotte were nearby and quickly offered their assistance. Clark managed to wrap an arm around the infected man’s throat and prevented him from taking a bite out of Annaliese. Charlotte grabbed her arms and began pulling her away. The pain in her hand exploded once again, but she focused only on getting away from the infected man. She kicked out with her legs and sent her attacker sprawling backwards. Clark, still clutching the man around the throat, twisted and threw him to the ground. Together the three of them backed away from the mattress.
“What do we do?” said Clark in a voice so thick with fear that it sounded like he might run screaming at any moment.
Before Annaliese could answer him, another body landed on the mattress and bounced off onto the grass.
And then another.
The infected guests continued falling from the bedroom’s open window, hitting the ground below. As soon as they jumped, another infected person would take their place, forming a line like a bunch of ungodly lemmings.
There were now four infected people on the ground and they were getting to their feet quickly. One of them limped on a broken ankle caused by the awkward fall, while another had a slashed face, lower lip hanging like rancid sausage meat.
Annaliese looked up to see more infected people ready to leap. She looked at Clark and Charlotte. “We need to get out of here, now.”
“No shit,” said Clark.
The three of them took off across the rear gardens of Ripley Manor. Annaliese led them around the building to the front, hoping that Shawcross and the others had managed to make it out safely.
Behind them, the infected screeched and gave chase.
“They’re coming after us,” Charlotte said.
“Just keep moving. The longer we’re in sight, the more of those things that will come through the window.”
They rounded the corner of Ripley Hall and entered the front lawns. Annaliese could see the park and zoo buildings in the distance. The orange sun was rising up behind them and casting long shadows.
They stuck close to the building and headed for the front entrance. “This way,” she said. “We need to meet up with the others.”
“Oh, shitmack and fries,” Clark shouted. “They’re gaining on us. How are they so fast?”
Annaliese looked back. Three of the four infected that had fallen through the window were gaining ground quickly. The one with the broken ankle was nowhere to be seen, obviously unable to keep up.
Annaliese turned the corner and sprinted across the lawn, ducking between trees and hopping over bushes. She skipped over the body of the man who had attacked and bitten Bradley – the man who had started this whole nightmare for her.
Ripley Hall’s front doors were hanging wide open, light spilling out from the foyer. Annaliese glanced around while still running. “Where are they? Where the hell are they?”
“We should run back inside,” said Charlotte.
“No. The house is full of infected people. We need to find someplace safer. The others should be out here waiting for us. Where are they?”
She looked behind her. The three infected would be on them any second. There was no place to run that offered absolute safety. But standing and fighting would be suicide.
“Anna!”
She spun around to see Shawcross and the others. They were fifty yards away, shouting over from the doorway of one the zoo’s buildings.
“Come on,” Annaliese shouted and pointed. “They’re over there.”
With safety in sight, Charlotte and Clark seemed to find additional strength. They picked up speed and managed to overtake Annaliese, leaving her at the rear. The infected seemed to pick up speed, too. Their screams were incessant and beginning to drive her insane.
“Quickly,” Shawcross shouted as he held the doorway open for them.
Charlie and Clark rounded a concrete statue of a chameleon on a log and sprinted the final thirty yards to the building. Shawcross ushered them inside to safety. He motioned urgently for Annaliese to hurry up and get in after them.
I’m
coming, I’m coming.
She was going as fast as she could, but the infected almost had her. She could feel them right behind her. Her thighs were burning and she just could not keep up the pace. There were still ten yards left to run when she felt fingertips at her back.
Up ahead, Shawcross’s eyes suddenly went wide. He slammed the door closed, locking her out.
That bastard.
The fingertips at her back turned into palms and progressed to grabbing hands. The infected had caught her. She was done for.
I’m going to end up as one of them.
Suddenly, the door to the zoo building sprung open again. Somebody emerged from it.
It was Mike.
He ran towards Annaliese with a length of broom handle raised above his head. Just as she was grappled from behind, taken down to her knees, Mike swung for the cheap seats and batted her attacker around the side of the head. The broom handle snapped in two and the infected man went down.
Annaliese staggered back to her feet. Tremors wracked her knees and tried to bring her back down, but she fought.
There were still two more infected people to deal with.
Mike grabbed Annaliese by her lapels and yanked her towards him. Then he took another swing with the broken broom handle, striking the nearest attacker – a dark-skinned man – under the chin. Then he kicked out fiercely, knocking the man to the ground.
“Look out,” Annaliese shouted just as the remaining infected person – an overweight woman in a ripped blouse – launched her attack.
Mike used the broken broom handle as a spear, ramming it upwards into the woman’s nose. He gritted his teeth as he forced the wooden shaft upwards, through the soft nasal canal and into the brain cavity.
The woman’s entire body went into seizure and her hungry screams immediately stopped. Mike let go of the broom handle and she slumped backwards, dead.
“Come on,” Annaliese shouted as the infected man Mike had kicked to the floor began to rise up again.
The two of them galloped the last twenty yards to the zoo building, huffing and panting under the strain of fighting for their lives. Shawcross was back at the door now, a look of worry and aggravation on his face. At least this time he was holding it open instead of leaving her out in the cold.
Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel Page 18