by Cenz Barone
Nancy then passed the guns to everyone who volunteered to accompany her, she said “We have to clear the first floor” Nancy realised it was imperative they made an effort right now. Kenny the weapon he had been given but Grant upon being offered a weapon shook his head and replied “I cannot, I can’t handle gun. I am a nervous wreck. I will be useless to you”. Everyone was shocked by his objection, especially those who had been with Grant the longest, Cherie and Kenny especially, but Elise also who looked surprised. Grant who had been not just a man of level headed common sense since they were all in the van travelling on the streets, but right up until now he was an important part of the group, yet now he was refusing. Nancy stated to him, as she pushed the gun into his chest “We need you; we need everyone who can handle a gun to come with us”.
Grant shook his head and he looked terrified as he replied “I can’t, it’s amazing with everything that’s going on that I can’t handle the idea of firing a gun but I can’t”. Elise took hold of the weapon from Nancy and said forcefully to Grant “Snap out of it Grant, there is no time for likes and dislikes, we have got to get down there and take control” his work colleague who was nothing more than a professional acquaintance to him a week ago, but now he had been through so much in such a short space of time with her, that she was trying to be a rock for him. She just hoped he needed some encouragement to overcome this sudden panic he had, in the same way he had been encouraging others to overcome their fears.
Grant was shaking violently, trying to process how to reply, conscious of all their looks at him but his own sense of fright. It was no longer the gun anymore that caused him fear, it was the prospect of seeing those things and he was clearly just making excuses. Indeed it had taken all his strength to go down to the gun room and come back up, but now standing here with time to think it through, he felt it was best if he just left it at that. So he said apologetically “I have to leave, I have to go” Grant made his way into the main police hall. Elise called out to him but Grant ignored her. Elise lowered her head in disappointment and was going to make her way to join him but she realised her duty was to remain, Kenny turned to Nancy who herself was unsure how to get Grant on side, so Kenny said “It will be best if he stays up here. He won’t be any good with us down there”. Cherie now asked Elise “What’s wrong with him? For so long he has been pushing everyone to do things and now this?” Elise shrugged her shoulders, her business suit all worn and torn as she saw him leave with his suit, she now turned to them all and said “I don’t know” she had tears of fear in her eyes and she like the others were pushing themselves beyond their limits.
Nancy felt their eyes turn towards her. Nancy knew she was the root of this group at this point. So using all her professional training to try and use these civilians to work with her she began to think clearly, knowing fundamentally she could not do this alone. Nancy stated “Fair enough, he will just become a liability if he comes” as Nancy overlooked the group and said “Right is everyone set, stick together and do not do anything other than what needs to be done” her tone authoritative. Laura, Melissa and Baxter remained ashen and shaken, standing away from the stairwell door. Nancy noticed them and moved from the stairwell and said directly at Baxter “You keep that elevator door open, do not under any circumstances fuck up like the last time. Do you understand?” feeling humiliated Baxter lowered his head.
Laura now said “I want to come to”. Melissa shocked at her friends offer, but Laura was growing irate and angry at waiting, thinking about her friends dead in the house, all the losses she had seen, her parents faraway up North who she did not know what state they were in. Nancy refused saying “No. We need people up here to make sure none of those things get up in case we need to run back up here. Besides those people in the office need to be looked after, I need you up here”. Laura just accepted this as Melissa stated “She does” Laura glared at her friend, unhappy Melissa was speaking for her but Laura did not say anything more. Nancy then told them “If that soldier comes back and causes you grief, you use one of those guns on the table to defend yourself. Don’t let him give you any shit, do you understand”. Nervously Laura nodded. Nancy now turned around and moved towards the stairwell, like a commander she said “On me, let’s go” here she was speaking to no good civilians, Elise the computer engineer, Kenny the student and Cherie the drifter.
Nancy tossed the keys to Melissa “Lock the door behind us, only open it to us. Don’t let anyone take that key from you”. Melissa did not catch it, she dropped it on the floor such was her nerves, but Laura went down and lifted them up and followed them through, she did not say a word. Kenny, Cherie and Elise were just trying to psych themselves up. Elise said to Laura “If Grant comes back, make sure he is okay”. Laura again just nodded, she was petrified and none of them had any idea what they were doing, but Nancy drove them on. “Okay, it is time” Nancy said.
Chapter 21 - First Floor Clearance Attempt
Kenny, Elise, Cherie and Nancy then made their way down the stairs as the rest of the group remained. Laura making sure the door was shut behind them, before she locked it with the key, she took one look into the glass window to see them standing there facing the stairwell about to be led down by Nancy. Laura now motioned back towards Melissa and Baxter who pitifully remained standing still. The elevator doors were slamming open and shut on the wood in the middle of it designed to keep it stuck on their floor so it could not go down anymore. Within the stairwell the group stood around and they were all this time knowledgeable they were going to try and secure the front floor, rather than be seeking to reach the basement for the weapons, each tried to be forthcoming in what was expected. Nancy barely running this outfit on anything but adrenaline said “No matter happens, follow my lead” none replied. Nancy was nervous about leaving the top floor with the soldier on the roof, him being an unpredictable one at that, but she knew if they could secure the building by clearing the first floor, then at least they would have the entire building unto their control and that would be better than waiting stranded up above unsure what was taking place down below.
Nancy went to the front and said “If we can get in the first floor and take it back from those things then we can make sure we have the building safe and all within”. “We don’t know how many of those things are in there, no idea, no clue” Cherie said apprehensively and then she muttered under her breath “I must be crazy, really crazy”. Wasting no more time Nancy led and the group moved fast, knowing the floors were all locked by Nancy following their last trip down, each trying to be steady and composed. Finally, after almost 2 minutes they reached the first floor of the stairwell, Kenny came to the outside of the first floor door. Nancy now spoke looking at Kenny “It is damage to the head that seems to stop them. You know that though don’t you?” referring to his experience in the house, and Kenny nodded “Yes. I worked that out”.
Nancy looking at Elise and Cherie, who were very quiet, trying to psyche themselves up, as Nancy tenderly told them “Try aim for their heads if you can but just keep firing. The head destroyed seems to stop them. Stay together and hope for the best”. “Hope for the best” Elise said cynically as she added “Is that really your advice?” and Nancy answered “What do you want me to say, good luck. I told you people, do not answer me back”. Nancy peered through the door as she opened it and then Kenny entered first, he was shaking muttering under his breath “Fuck, fuck, fuck” he was wincing and trying to keep cool and calm. Nancy came to the front and they heard noises throughout the first floor. Cherie was eyeing up every part of the spot they were in and Elise whispered “I should go back” but Elise went on. Nancy facing the front, the group pointed their weapons and heard the rummaging of beings on the floor, four of them around a body feasting on a body, Nancy fired her weapon first and following suit the rest followed.
Upstairs Baxter sat nervously near the desk, he was taking off and putting on his glasses, and his hair was messier normal due to him scratching it so much. Laura an
d Melissa were looking out the window of the office, to the courtyard below, as the new arrivals all sat around on chairs. Grant had barricaded himself up in another room on the floor they were on, while the Soldier who struck Grant was on the roof hitting the wall with his fist, and he was slowly losing his mind, as they heard the fire from the guns below. All of them paused “I wonder if they are okay” said Laura. Baxter could not find the courage to join them even though he wanted to. “There is ten of those things down there, it’s not a lot” one of the new arrivals said, he was a man in his fifties, with a beard and a beer belly, he wore a lumberjack shirt as he added “10 of them, I don’t know about you kids, that’s more than enough for me” he coughed violently. The gun fire continued sporadically below, echoing through the building.
“Baxter” Laura called out to him; he was shaking violently “Baxter, are you feeling okay?” Laura followed up her question, as he looked at her as he struggled to put his glasses back on and muttered “I did not mean to close the elevator! I thought she said we had to”. Laura felt sorry for him and said “It is okay, it is over now. If you had not these people would not have been able to get up here” Laura was right but Baxter felt humiliated and like he was a fool. Baxter stood up “I just need time alone”.
Baxter left the room. Laura went to go and accompany him but Melissa took hold of her friends hand and said “It is pointless. Let him cry it off” Laura turned to her friend and was annoyed she could be so heartless, Melissa then said “I did try and tell him that’s not what Nancy said, but he would not listen to me”. Laura looking at the people who arrived with the soldier and stated “What does it matter, we wouldn’t have gotten these people up. They would have been stranded down there”. Melissa looked around at them and her eyes staring up at the ceiling as she said “Yeah soldier psycho up there, what a find!” Laura stared annoyed at her and said quietly “Have you forgotten if they didn’t try and help us on that street we would still be stuck in that fucking house. They helped us, why can’t you be happy we helped others?” referring to Grant, Cherie, Elise and Kenny.
Melissa had no reply to Laura as she was just coping in her own way which was laced in sarcasm and passive aggressiveness. The man with the lumberjack said with disdain “Fucking scared kids, does anything work in this building?” the man stood up and went towards a phone “Must be something worth a giving a shit about in this place if that soldier made us come here”. He picked it up but the phone was not working, it was a dead dial. “They go on and off” Laura told him as the man looked at her and said “Like everything else” referring to the situation concerning the attacks and violence throughout the country. The man opened up his mobile phone from his pocket and dialled a number, speaking to a family member as he left saying with emotion in his voice “Son, it is so good to hear your voice. Is your mother there?” and he went into a smaller side room. Laura said resentfully “At least someone got through to their family”. Laura walked from Melissa to the coffee machine as the gunfire below continued from those who went to the first floor.
Meanwhile downstairs, Kenny was firing his weapon into three people who continued moving, even the head shots were not taking effect, he could not understand why. Cherie made her way towards the door holding Elise who had lost her cool and was screaming as she fired. Nancy was firing and shouting for Kenny to get back as they backed off, the numbers were far more than expected and only some were disabled and immobilised but the chaos of Elise screaming and the lack of co-ordination and their many numbers meant they had no strategy. “There is too many of them, we have to move” Nancy shouted, all of them were firing their weapons as the possessed looking things came at them, regular people at a quick glance but the walking deceased at closer look. Cherie was dead out of ammo and Nancy was almost empty. They managed to get back into the stairwell door and everybody was exhausted.
“There is more than fucking 10 in there” Kenny said breathing hard “More than 10, no shit” shouted back Cherie. Nancy looked down at the group and slid on the wall as she held her knees once Kenny and Cherie had closed the floor one door as the things on the other side were banging angrily against it. Smashing it with their faces, their faces a mixture of decomposing flesh, with blood around some of their mouths, the eyes without any sign of life and the skin colour bluish grey, mixing with some in a greenish graze, all demented and automated. It was too much to look at.
“Don’t look at them, it just antagonises them” said Nancy to Kenny and Cherie who moved away from viewing the people through the circular window. Just seeing them so close with a barrier of a door providing safety captivated both Kenny and Cherie, who despite their encounters with the attackers since the outbreak began could not help but fixate their gazes on them. Especially at such close range and seeing the instinctual way the people or whatever they were, possessed and driven to do nothing but murder and kill behaved. To Nancy she had seen these things up close throughout her operations when her shift began almost two nights ago throughout the city streets and urban towns, all throughout the county. As they banged manically on the door it mattered little because they would never get through the steel door. Even their bangs were faint and weak, such was the strength of the reinforce door.
Kenny looked at Nancy who was sitting up against the wall, trying to regain not just her breath and strength but her mental resolution. Kenny demanded “Are there any more of your colleagues out there? Is there any other way for us to get through to them without radio contact, for someone to come and get us out of here?” Kenny’s thinking centred on the fact if they could not take the ground floor they were now stranded within and trapped inside the building. “Some of them must be around here surely Nancy, we can hear the occasional gunfire” Kenny added by raising his voice. As Cherie asked them all “How many did you kill?” she looked at Elise who was drained from the gunfire, her hands still shaking holding the weapon, and Nancy who did not bother replying. So only Kenny replied “Kill, they are already dead” it was becoming apparent they were, more so now as Nancy said “I only counted us dropping four of them, four of those people, I was told head shots work, but it does not all the time. Whatever the fuck it is, everything about them is mixed up” angrily Nancy said. Elise then stated “Them. They are us, did you see those people, look at them through the window. The clothes they wear, their faces, they were people before they got infected, and now they were killed. It is like we are just waiting for our time to join them”
Elise wiped her eyes of tears as Elise felt like she was losing her grip on reality, as the group recovered at the bottom of the stairs everyone suddenly heard noises coming from the basement and it was a sort of growl which made them all go quiet. The stairwell to the basement which they earlier took being the source. Nancy stood up alert, gripping her machine gun. Kenny cautiously peered over the edge and saw a dog at the bottom. The dog stared up at him and growled showing its teeth, then the dog barked viciously “We better go” Kenny said. Before the group could run Nancy said “No slowly, move slowly” she was thinking it would prevent the dog from acting irrationally but Kenny shook his head and replied “No Nancy, it is not a normal dog. It is like those people, it is different. The dog looks infected!”
Cherie mouthed “How the fuck did a dog get down there?” at this point the dog ran up the stairs and was barking. Turning around the side and gunning for them all, as Kenny pointed the gun and fired, the bullet made the dog spiral around on the floor. Kenny shouted as he saw the dog moving around, the dog was not disabled “Run, move. Go!” he screamed as the group rushed to head upstairs. The dog jumped up and ran once more, the dog was midair and moved so fast it was heading for Cherie who was too stunned to move, the dog was then intersected by Kenny who jumped to tackle the dog preventing the dog from hitting Cherie. Cherie fell back on the stairs, hurting her back in the process. Cherie was preparing to be assaulted by the dog.
The dog and Kenny rolled down the stairs. Kenny used his hands on the dog to keep it at bay, b
y the neck but the dog was gnawing and trying desperately to bite Kenny. Kenny held the dog by the neck with two hands and threw it against the wall, the others who had made their way upstairs oversaw this and the dog came back and managed to rip at Kenny’s throat with its claws. Elise screamed loudly as Cherie seeing Kenny in distress rushed down and took hold of the dog and threw it over the ledge of the stairs, the dog fell on the floor, its body between the railing of the stairs and smashing its skull in two, the dog whimpered slowly and eventually went quiet.
Kenny was holding his throat with blood rushing out. The girls overlooking his body, as he was shaking and moving in a spasm trying to rush up the stairs by forcing himself but he kept slipping. Nancy shouted for help from down below for those up above as the dog’s itself was shaking in its own death spores. Baxter heard this scream for help and plucked up the courage to enter the stairwell from the top floor. He shouted out for Laura who came out of the office “What is it?” she asked and Baxter told her “Open the door, they are calling for help, I think something has happened”.
Laura rushed up to the stairwell door and using her hands which shook, she opened it as the door opened, Baxter streamed through and he looked down and saw Elise, Nancy and Cherie each struggling to move with Kenny who was panicking and he had gone pale and was shaking in fear, fearing he was going to die. The girls took hold of Kenny and dragged him up the stairs. They led him up the stairs with Baxter’s help who came down midway. Baxter could see blood all over Kenny’s top. It was hard to tell how bad the wound was. As they reached the top floor they were all exhausted. Laura watched them come into the corridor, all collapsed as Nancy went to the door and used her hands to signal to Laura to throw her the keys which she did and then Nancy locked the door. She was panting like Elise and Cherie. Kenny was on the floor shaking, his neck cut, he was muttering “I am going to die. I am going to be one of them!”