Some of the lights had been knocked askew and reflected up into the stands.
“Jared! Move back slowly!” she hissed, putting her hand on his back, and clasping him tightly. She pulled.
He stiffened when he saw what she saw.
Eyes gleamed yellow in the furthest reaches of the light. The more they stared, the more they saw. Some moved slowly, others remained still. She moved her eyes only and searched off to the sides, closer to where she and Jared stood. Her headlamp illuminated hell.
Throngs of the insane flooded through the seating. The only thing saving their lives right now were the railings and the staggered steps, which hindered their frenzied movements. As they realized their prey was within reach, Anna heard growls and rumbles starting to fill the large space.
“Run,” she said, whirling and taking off down the hallway and back to the concourse.
Jared followed closely behind, and she heard a shot echo through the cavernous space. She turned back to find the stairs that led to the exit but became confused in the dash through the unfamiliar dark building. She wished she had come to some games here now!
“Faster, hurry!” Jared shouted, all pretense at quiet gone now. He fired another shot. She rounded the oval of the thoroughfare and found a set of stairs. They led up, not down.
“Wrong stairs!” she yelled, backpedaling.
“Too late! Go!” he pushed her ahead.
She ran up the stairs, sore muscles forgotten, and turned on the landing. Her heart sank. There was a door, and it was covered with a metal grid. They were up a creek now.
“Dead end! It’s a damned dead end!” she said. She rattled the grate in frustration. It didn’t budge. She turned and threw her back against the gate, infuriated and scared.
This is it.
She supposed this was as good a place to go as any. She drew on her anger for strength. Maybe they could kill a bunch of these…these fucking freaks as they could first. She readied her bat as Jared brought up his rife. They heard the scuffling slapping sound of feet on the stairs. Seconds away now.
Might as well say it now. “I love you, Jared.”
“Really?” he said, looking at her and blinding her with his light.
“Would I lie right now?!” she said, squinting.
“Guess not.”
"You waited until now to tell me that?!" he said incredulously.
Then it was over.
Maniacal figures darted toward them, lunging for their faces, their throats, their knees. Any part they could get to, they went for. Anna bashed as many as she could in the face with the handle of her bat, and she even succeeded in knocking them back. Beside her, Jared fired slowly, accurately. She occasionally felt the ejected hot brass hit her face and arms, leaving little burns on her skin. She ignored it. It was a lot less painful than what was coming.
Crap. This was going to suck bad.
The creatures pressed in harder, a never-ending line of snapping monsters. The hundreds from the stands must have followed them up here. She bashed until her arms felt like lead weights. Jared finally ran out of ammunition, or didn’t have time to reload, and he used the butt of the rifle to smash faces. It was much more effective than her bat, but she could see that he was tiring.
One exceptionally large woman advanced, taking up the entire upper stairwell. Her bulk was massve. This gave them a little bit of an advantage. Jared braved her clawing fingernails and lunged in, smashing the rifle into her nose violently. In the light, she saw the cartilage and bone shatter and gush blood.
The woman still came.
He bashed again, breaking the thing’s teeth into jagged shards. Jared struggled the raise the weapon again as the woman tugged his arm to her ruined, leering face. Obscene noises came from her diaphragm as she pulled him in. Anna did the only thing she could in the tight space. She braced her back against the door and kicked out with her foot with all the force she could muster.
She felt the crack of the obese Biter’s knee joint as it dislocated. The woman collapsed partially in the small space and Anna brought her foot up again as Jared struggled to free himself from the thing’s embrace. She waited a split second then kicked a heel squarely to its face.
They had a moment of blessed relief as her bulk blocked the hordes from reaching them. It wouldn’t last long.
Anna helped pull him up. “If only we could get this door opened!” she said, slamming her foot against it.
“That won’t work,” he said tiredly. “It’s steel.”
“What about shooting it?” she asked.
He shook his head. “The bullet would ricochet and probably hit one of us.”
The sounds of shifting bodies came from the lower landing, and they saw the limbs of the piled corpses move. They were coming again. How long had they been here? Minutes? Hours?
“Here we go!” Jared shouted as they came up slowly, stumbling over their fallen comrades.
They surged forward, driving her and Jared back to the dead end again. They fought. They sweated.
They weakened.
She couldn’t take any more. She could barely lift the bat, and her legs were so tired that her kicks were becoming increasingly ineffective. Jared powered through, but he couldn’t take them all on alone.
“Anna, come on!” he shouted frantically as two ghouls grabbed him firmly. One lowered his mouth to Jared’s shoulder, and he screamed as it bit him.
“Jared!” she screamed.
She lunged and stabbed her knife through the thing’s exposed eye, and it released Jared immediately. The other one reached out for her face and she knocked its arm away, but it came back again. Jared kicked it away, making the followers stumble down the stairs.
“Stay behind me,” he said, shoving her behind him.
“No!”
She didn’t want to be the last one standing. She didn’t want to see Jared killed, ripped apart. She’d rather die alongside him than see that.
As the fiendish killers slouched up the stairs, they heard a metallic clink.
Chapter Sixteen
VIP Lounge
“Get in! Get in!” the strangers shouted as the metal grate rolled sideways enough for them to squeeze through.
Anna felt hands grab her and yank. She was suddenly in and the metal grate was crashing closed as the crazies smashed into it, enraged that they escaped. Their eyes flashed with serpentine fury in her light. She had been certain that she was dead.
They had gotten a reprieve.
The door closed firmly and one of the strangers threw the bolt. The snarls from beyond were muffled now.
She scrambled over to Jared, who clutched the rifle warily. He reached out to her with one hand and pulled her behind him, never taking his eyes from the people who had saved their lives. She saw blood on his shoulder.
“What the hell took you so long?! You heard us out there!” he roared. “What the fuck?!”
She looked around the dim room, suddenly aware of more eyes on them than she had thought. Her light cast a beam on the faces of these survivors, making them wince. The dim glow of a few battery powered lights illuminated the area, so she reached up and tapped off her light.
Jared, never relaxing his grip on his rifle, did the same. He held her firmly behind him and she clutched her knife handle nervously in one hand, the bat in the other.
“Sir, we couldn’t risk these people until we were certain we could get you in without compromising our position.”
The two men who had opened the gate for them were wearing multicams. National Guard unit, they had to be.
“Yeah well, I’ll fucking remember that if you ever need help,” Jared spat.
“Jared?!” a voice said from the gloom near the back.
The man stepped forward and Anna’s eyes widened. “Juan?! What are you doing here?”
Juan came up and shook their hands firmly. She saw tears in his eyes. She kind of felt the same. Seeing a familiar face from their old life was overwhelming.
“I brought my family here. I thought it would be safer. Big mistake.” He glared at the guardsmen.
They looked away as if they hadn’t seen it.
“Maria, this is Jared and Anna, from work. You guys, this is Maria, and over there is Carlos and Alejandro.”
Anna nodded to them and turned back to Jared. He was still livid. She saw his jaw twitching with fury. She reached up and rubbed his back, hoping to soothe him a little. At her touch, he turned and gave her waist a squeeze.
“Why are you guys holed up in here?” Anna asked, looking at the small group. “What happened to the others?”
One of the soldiers spoke up. “When we set this place up, people started pouring in. Hundreds, maybe a thousand. We still had a perimeter then. The rest of the unit was recalled north; the perimeter was compromised. We didn’t have enough manpower or firepower to defend it. We had a fallback position inside the arena, and another area as an exfil site. It was attacked and we lost guys there.”
She swallowed and though about what they were not saying. Their friends died, and probably a lot of the refugees they were supposed to protect. That weighed heavily on a person.
“Once we were in, we were safe for a time. People were settling in and we maintained radio contact with our unit and the local police. Later though…later people started turning.”
“Turning?” she asked, though she already knew what he would say.
“The Shakes, Rage Plague, Shiver Pox…whatever you want to call it. After that, it was chaos. People scattered. The exits were blocked by Stalkers. We barely made it up here with these folks,” he nodded toward the group.
“My mother and sister were supposed to be here. Enid and Kate Carson? Does anyone know them?”
The soldiers looked at each other and shook their heads. Juan frowned. “Some people may have made it out. They weren’t all—”
Anna swayed on her feet and Jared interrupted him and pulled her in. “We need to rest for a bit before we figure out how we’re going to get out of here.”
"Here," one of the soldiers said and tossed a packet toward Jared. It was an antiseptic.
"For your shoulder," he said.
"Thanks." Anna had him take his shirt off so she could apply it. It didn't look deep, but they would have to watch it carefully for infection. He may need antibiotics too.
He led them over to a large couch and she sat and rested her head against the soft back. Her eyes closed and she felt Jared sit next to her. He leaned against her and she was comforted and glad they were still alive.
She hadn’t expected it.
◆◆◆
“Battery is going,” a low voice said.
She startled awake in the gloom. She rushed up and looked around, ready to fight. The survivors stared at her warily. She relaxed her body and searched for Jared only to find that he was on the couch where he had been all along. She wasn’t even sure he had moved once. He was still clutching his rifle.
“How long have we been asleep?” she asked.
One of the soldiers —the spokesman, as she thought of him— responded. “About three hours now. We were just about to wake you both. We need to get out of here. The batteries are going on the lamps and we don’t have much water left.”
She nodded and looked around. The VIP lounge overlooked the arena and was far enough over the stands that bystanders, or biters in this case, couldn’t climb up and reach the space.
Glass enclosed the front, giving them a sense of protection. The walls were solid. There was a door set into one wall. A bathroom by the smell of it. There were televisions, sofas, and a table along the back wall. An empty bar was in one corner.
“The water shut off last night. We’ve been rationing it, but we didn’t have many containers. We only have a couple of MRE’s left, just what was in Stewart’s ruck when the shit hit.”
The other soldier silently chewed on a piece of gum. She assumed that he was Stewart. “I’m Anna,” she said, and offered the man her hand.
“John Bradley. You guys sure had one hell of a fight in that stairwell.”
She nodded. “We’ve had several fights in the last couple of days.” She didn’t elaborate.
She found it ironic that these guys were trained for combat, but she and Jared had been doing more fighting.
“You guys have a vehicle out there?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Ammo?”
She frowned at his interest. “Why?”
“Wake your man. We need to talk.”
She hated to wake Jared up when he needed the sleep, but John was right. They needed to leave before they ran out of food and water. They would be too weak to leave if they waited.
She sat on the couch next to Jared and placed her hand on his arm gently. She didn’t want to startle him.
“Jared,” she said, gently shaking him.
His eyes flew open immediately and he sat up. He started to raise his rifle and she held her hands up. He recognized her and lowered it immediately.
“Sorry.” He rubbed his face and took a deep breath. “I was hoping it was a dream.”
“We slept for a few hours. They said we need to work on getting out of here now. They’re running out of food and water. John wants to talk to you about something.”
“John?” he said and narrowed his eyes.
“The soldier over there,” she nodded.
He stood and she followed him, eager to hear what he had to say.
“Sergeant,” Jared said, nodding for him to speak.
She was a little surprised that he knew the man’s rank. He didn’t seem like he was very familiar with military things.
“Anna tells me that you guys have a vehicle nearby,” he said, getting right to the point.
Jared glanced at her. “Yes.”
“I'm guessing you could also use more ammo,” he said, nodding at the rifle Jared held as it loosely hung from his sling.
Jared glanced at her and she cringed inside. She didn't think she said anything wrong, but maybe her evasion of the question said it all. She didn’t know what else she should have said though.
“What is this about?” Jared asked.
“A deal,” he said, motioning Stewart over.
“What kind of deal?” she asked.
“You give us a ride to the armory, and we give you a few thousand rounds of 5.56 for that rifle,” Sergeant Bradley offered.
“You have the keys to the lockers?” Jared asked.
Bradley and Stewart’s gazes snapped to Jared at this question.
“Yes,” Bradley finally answered.
“Alright, we’ll give you a ride.”
“Thank—”
“In exchange for four M4A1’s, five thousand rounds of 5.56 ammunition, fifty extra magazines, and two pairs of NODs.”
Anna looked at him, surprised. Sergeants’ Bradley and Stewart frowned at him. Bradley squinted and bit his lip for a moment before replying. “Deal.”
“And just how are we going to get out of here?” Juan asked them. He looked nervously to his family.
“We go out the top,” Jared said. The soldiers nodded in agreement and Anna looked up.
Up where?
“There’s nothing up there. Nothing but the ceiling,” Juan said. “I already lifted the tiles. It goes up into a catwalk for the lights. That’s it.”
“I know. There’s a way out,” Jared said. “I hope you all aren’t afraid of heights.”
“How do you know?” she asked him.
“I’m an architect, remember?” he smiled.
“You mean a real architect?” Juan said, confused.
“He builds model buildings from garbage,” she answered. "You remember when all the paper towel rolls went missing at work?"
Juan nodded, confused.
"That was Jared."
“Thanks for that, babe,” Jared answered drily. “Anyway, the point is, that I know there is a way out of here from the roof.”
The soldiers grinned sud
denly and looked at each other in silent communication. The rest of the people looked nervous. She was nervous too. Some of these people were older; they wouldn’t be able to climb well. And the kids?
“Gather up anything you need and follow me.”
◆◆◆
The makeshift furniture tower helped the older folks and kids get up into the ceiling more easily than they otherwise would have. She wouldn’t have been able to pull herself up there either.
Jared had gone first, with Anna behind. Juan and his family followed her, with the soldiers helping the older people in the back. At the very end, Sergeant Bradley had the oldest survivor on his back. She wouldn’t make it on her own.
Once out on the top she saw that the ceiling was just a framework of drop in tiles. There was only a narrow strip of catwalk to stand on, as Juan had said. Facing the front, she looked out over the arena.
It was dark. The rest of the battery powered floodlights had died. She knew they were still out there. Chills raced up her arms and she tried not to shake.
Jared led the way, one foot carefully in front of the other. He didn’t hesitate and he didn’t lose his balance. The man was a freaking ninja. The goal was apparently that little ladder-looking object that followed the steel beam up to the ceiling.
Unfortunately, to get to the ladder they would have to shuffle their way along a thin bar of steel suspended over the upper rows of seats.
Where they were waiting.
“Jared, what about the kids?” she whispered.
Jared looked at Juan’s kids. The older one, a young teen, would likely be able to reach the top bar they would use as a handrail. The younger one, at only seven, would not.
“Juan,” he called back. “You will have to carry Alejandro.”
She saw Juan glance at his son nervously, but he nodded. She hoped he was strong enough. She looked back and saw Bradley, the last man in line, give the signal.
“They’re ready,” she told him.
Jared stepped out onto the rail, gripping the one above tightly. He sidestepped across the dark space. She took a steadying breath and followed.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 15