by G. Benson
Xin wasn’t yelling at them. She looked like she’d pass out any second, however. What then, if she did pass out? They’d carry her, she guessed. Raj and Ayton were pretty strong-looking. Natalie could hold her own, though no one would believe it, being five foot three.
With her shoulder, she’d not be much help.
That scratching sound still came through the door, and some of the group were throwing nervous glances up the stairwell.
Xin grinned in a way that was probably aiming for cheery, but was more brave than anything. She’d reminded Natalie of her sister, lying on the table like she had, passed out from pain. Not the pain part, but the need for comfort part. Her younger sister had always needed soothing.
“I’m fine,” Xin said. “Not filled with rage or anything. I’m less groggy now, at least.”
Taren patted Xin’s arm, hanging over her shoulder. She smoothed Xin’s hair back, hand hovering over Xin’s forehead for a moment. Xin raised her eyebrows at her, and Taren smiled sheepishly.
“No temp,” Taren said.
The bandage Ayton had placed on Xin’s stump was holding well, flecks of blood from the fight in A&E marking the stark white material. Still trying to keep a hold of Xin, Taren took off her glasses, struggling to find a spot on her clothes to clean them with.
Ro, the basically-a-kid they’d acquired, shivered. “Is it colder down here?”
“Yeah,” Scott answered them, starting down the steps to the door at the bottom. “It’s always colder here. It’s a floor deeper in the ground, but also they keep it cooler for autopsies and stuff.”
“Nice addition to the creep factor we’re about to suffer through,” Ro added.
Natalie snorted. Funny kid, at least.
“So down the stairs and through the door at the bottom?” Natalie asked.
Raj was pressed against her side, and she let him. She even leaned back into it. He was the only one of this group she knew quite well, and he could have been eaten. No, thank you. She would much prefer him to live through this.
“Exactly. Then straight through. One big, long hallway. Maybe all the doors will be shut and we won’t get ambushed.” Scott swallowed audibly after he said that.
“Think anyone could be alive down here?” Taren asked.
“I mean, there’s a chance, right?” Natalie said. “We’re all alive.”
“Or maybe they’re all dead people. But, you know, dead dead.” Ro followed Scott down. “That’s what a morgue’s for, right?”
“Right,” Scott nodded to himself. “But either way, we have to move. Is that nose going to hold you back?”
Raj straightened next to her, shirt held back up to stem the flow. “I’ll be fine.”
He dropped his shirt again and Natalie winced once more at the sight of it. “Looks sore,” she muttered.
“Shut up,” he answered, but there was a quirk to his lips.
On the step down from them where they leaned against the wall, Taren straightened up, Xin standing up with her. She swayed.
“Right, Xin. One more burst of strength,” Taren murmured to her. “Then you can lie down. Sleep, even.”
“Be still my heart.”
Probably Natalie wasn’t meant to see it. But on the step down from these two, Ayton slipped her hand to rest against Taren’s hip, and Taren dropped her head so it brushed the top of Ayton’s.
The slightest moment of affection between the two.
Much more appropriate time than in the middle of oh, hey, fighting zombies. Idiots.
Next to her, Raj radiated heat. Natalie had a feeling his feelings ran a bit deep. Which made her nervous. Last guy that did that didn’t take her whole ‘hey, I’m into you too—just so we’re on the same page, I’m asexual’ well. Raj didn’t seem like that guy had.
Neither had that guy, though.
“Last leg,” Scott said from the door at the bottom, voice a hissing whisper. “Then home free.”
“We’ve got this,” Ro said. They squared their shoulders, rolling them. The bag in their hand shifted as they got a better grip. “We are all over this.”
They all waited, huddled at the door. Cold crawled up Natalie’s arm, the temperature change noticeable.
“Through this door, through the morgue, to the boiler room, out that maintenance door, through a tunnel. Then we’re safe.” Taren said it like it were written on the back of her eyelids, well-versed.
“Then we’re safe,” Scott echoed. “Crouch down at the start, there are a bunch of windows on one side. In case.”
He pulled the door open. Natalie’s fingers flexed on the handle of the axe.
“What, no countdown this time?” was all Natalie managed to say before he was waving them all through, and they were easing one by one out of it, she and Raj bringing up the rear.
Raj
His nose hurt too much to look down at his watch
Walking down steps, it turned out, made the nose you thought wasn’t too painful throb like anything. Raj had never been to the morgue before. He doubted most medical staff had, beyond those who worked down here. There was a long corridor all the way to the end, doors and windows into the long hall lining up. The thought of all this walking made his nose hurt. Each step sent a shudder through every bone in his face, his eyes watering.
There was a light flickering eerily, and he swallowed hard.
The walls were all grey, the doors all chrome.
“This,” Natalie whispered next to him at the back as they slipped through the door, bloodied axe held up, “is the perfect setting for zombies.”
They were all crouched, taking steps as silently as they could. Taren was walking with Xin, the effort all over Xin’s face as she tried to hide her pain and walk carefully, all her weight on Taren, feet scuffing in the otherwise silent corridor. At the front, Scott ducked below the windows on the right, taking methodical, quiet steps, Ro shadowing him.
Ayton, behind Ro, turned and her eyes widened as she looked at Taren and Xin. She stopped, waiting for the two of them to catch up so she could go to Xin’s injured side, trying to take some of her weight to help Taren and make them quieter.
Natalie pressed close, and Raj wanted to wrap his fingers around her forearm. To take some support, to do anything that made him feel less alone. If it weren’t for her, he would be upstairs right now. Dead, or worse. The cement of the wall under those windows scraped against his back as he tried to copy Scott, ducking low. Fingers took his forearm, and he closed his eyes, sucking in a deep breath at the grip of Natalie’s fingers, burning against his skin.
It made it easier to keep going down this corridor.
Rooms were either side of them. The first on the right had been huge, well lit, with big glass windows from the hallway that showed a big office and a break room. Before ducking under the windows, he’d seen an upturned table lying in the middle of the space, a water cooler upended, surrounded by scattered chairs. A bulletin board with paper hanging from it, splattered in red. Computers.
He pushed up, glancing in again. Movement. A person shape.
He ducked his head back down, and he knew that behind him Natalie was doing the same.
The entire line of them stilled under those windows, listening to the slow, precise steps in the room. Gurgling breathing.
Scott peered around the group and behind them, his face flushed and forehead shining with sweat. He slowly raised a finger to his lips as they listened to the footsteps move up to the window. The rasping sound of breathing. It must have been right above his head. Natalie’s fingers squeezed painfully around his arm.
Raj’s breathing was too loud. Surely, it was too loud. It would be heard.
The sound of the footsteps started to recede, walking back into the other side of the room. All of them let out long, shaky breaths. Poor Xin was knelt on the ground, Taren and Ayton either side of her, Taren’s hand over Xin’s mouth, her forehead pressed to the side of Xin’s head.
/> He heard her whisper, “Sorry, you were groaning, we have to be quiet.”
Scott waved a hand for them to keep creeping forward.
This corridor was the longest corridor Raj had ever seen in his life.
More doors were on their left and right, some to what could have been a lab, others closed. Continuing their half-crawl, they made their way to the end. Passing by one door, then another. Natalie’s hand gripped his arm the entire time. Ayton and Taren helped Xin. Scott and Ro crouched ahead of them.
That light flickered and flickered.
His breathing echoed in his ears.
One open door showed a typical autopsy room. He may have never been to this morgue, but Raj had studied medicine. He knew what this set up was. A cadaver was laid over a table.
He kept moving, before a crash reached his ears and every single one of them froze in place, all craning their necks to look around. Natalie jumped behind him, and ahead, Ayton squeaked at the shock of the sound.
Something from the room they’d passed, the one that had someone in it. A tray in there knocked over? Who knew. It didn’t really matter. The crash was far too loud.
Nothing exited the room.
Raj looked back to the room with the cadaver and that body was sitting up, head turning. Hungry eyes right on him. A grin curled its lips.
He almost wet his pants.
“Run!” he yelled. Sound didn’t matter now. “We’ve been seen!”
They stood. They ran.
Their footsteps pounded in his ears, a cacophony with his heart. He could feel each thud in his nose, pain making tears stream down his cheeks.
Doors and windows flashed past them. Another sound echoed behind them. One that they knew. One that sent ripples up his spine, his stomach writhing at it.
New footsteps had joined in. They were being followed, and fast. He couldn’t look back; if he did, he doubted he would start moving again. Next to him now, Natalie turned to look for a split second, before she ran faster, eyes back on what was ahead of them. Her hand fell away from Raj as she pumped her arms to move faster.
“Christ,” she shouted. “Don’t look back!”
Obviously.
Ayton and Taren moved faster, Xin’s grunt of pain reaching him as her shoulder was crushed into Ayton’s chest, the stump probably painful as all hell. Her feet mostly dragged weakly as the other two pulled her.
“Sorry,” Ayton gasped.
They were reaching the end of the corridor, Ro and Scott in front, the rest right behind. Scott all but slammed into the door at the end, keys in his hand attached to a string on his belt. The genius had the key ready, twisting at the lock. For one heart-stopping moment, Raj didn’t think it would open. There was a long, drawn-out second in which it didn’t move, Scott twisting and then turning it back, hand on the knob and pulling.
“It’s a fecking push!” Natalie yelled.
The door burst open, and they all fell inside. Raj’s momentum carried him in several metres, the room darker even than the corridor with the horrifying flickering light. Most of the light was red and green from boilers and other machines that did who-knew-what in such a large hospital. He span in time to see three zombies, arms reaching out, moving too fast, about to run through into the room. The lights out there flickered dark then bright, lighting up shadows under their eyes, highlighting the streaks of blood all over their mouths, on their chins, down their fronts.
Then the door was pushed shut, Scott and Ro leaning against it, palms flat on the metal as they gasped for breath, staring at the rest of them.
“Is everyone,” Scott rasped, “okay?”
Raj’s nose was throbbing. Taren’s eyes were on Xin, whose head was lolling against Ayton’s shoulder. At least her eyes were open. Natalie was in front of him, axe on the ground, hand clutching her chest.
“I think so,” Raj said. “I think we’re okay.”
Xin straightened slightly, giving him a weak smile.
Taren pressed a hand to her cheeks. “Just clammy. No fever.”
“Great.” Scott stood. “Because we can’t stop.” He checked his watch. “We have thirty minutes.”
He started weaving through the machines towards the back of the room. Exhausted, they turned and followed him. This room was brick, clearly somewhere no one ever bothered renovating. Abandoned, outdated hospital machines lined the far-right wall: old ECG machines and IV pumps, old air mattresses for beds. At the back, in a corner, barely noticeable, was an old, green metal door.
Scott stood in front of it, face drained of colour.
“Scott?” Taren said. “What’s the hold up?”
“They’ve changed the lock,” he said, voice distant. “How did I not know they’d changed the lock?”
Raj’s entire stomach bottomed out. “They what?”
Scott turned, face grim. “I don’t have a key. This door is near unbreakable. Hinges on the other side. Flush to the doorframe.”
Everyone stood, silent except for the scraping at the door behind them that was growing fainter as, presumably, they started to give up.
“Search the room,” Ayton said. “You never know, there could be keys in here. There are some desks against the wall. Maybe a hidden key box.”
It took them a split second, and then they started moving. Raj headed back to the front of the room, Ro and Scott went for desks. Natalie started poking around the boilers and machines.
“Xin, we’re going to sit you against the wall for a second, okay?” Taren said gently.
“Mhm.”
Worry lining their faces, Ayton and Taren shuffled over to an empty bit of wall and gently eased Xin down so she could slump against it. It seemed cruel, but there was no time. They needed to get through that door.
Finding nothing where he was, Raj went to their way out, the steadfast door. Despite what Scott had said, he ran his hands along the edges of it, probing for anything that could give. Completely flush to the wall. Hinges not on this side. Deadbolt, gleaming and new—the only new thing in this room, besides the well-kept boilers that must have been recently updated.
A crowbar passed across his line of vision, and he stepped back. Scott was next to him, holding it out. “I couldn’t help but want to look again, either,” he said grimly.
“No key here,” Natalie’s voice called out.
“Nor here,” Ro added.
They tried to jam the end into any gap possible. Underneath, around the doorframe, near the lock. Scott repeated each several times, actions getting sloppier and more desperate each moment.
“It’s not going to fit,” Scott growled. He hit the door with the end of it, hard, arm swiping down in a fit of fury.
“Did that help?” Raj asked as the clang bounced around in his head. Even sound seemed to hurt his nose. Why didn’t anyone talk about how much a broken nose bloody hurt?
“Not really,” Scott said. He turned his head, eyes a deep green, like Xin had said, and also deeply sad. “I think I’ve led us all into a trap.”
Before Raj could answer, Natalie spoke up from a back corner. “I think there was a key box in the first room.” Raj and Scott span around to look at her. She shifted under their gazes. “The one on the right as we entered, with the glass windows to the hallway. Where we heard the first person.”
Had there been? He’d noticed that room, sure. But had he seen a key box of some kind on the wall? He hadn’t been paying enough attention.
“You’re sure?” Ayton asked.
“No,” Natalie stated.
The banging at the door had completely stopped now. Were they waiting silently, patiently? Had they just…forgotten there was a tasty, red-blooded group ready to be eaten? Who knew. Nothing about these things made sense. When they changed, how they changed. If they changed.
Scott looked at his watch again. “We don’t have time to discuss.”
Near the door they’d come through, Ayton and Taren glanced at each o
ther. Something passed between them. They stepped closer to each other. Were they seriously going to have another moment?
Then they were reaching for the door handle.
Raj stepped forward, useless on the other side of the room to them. “No.”
Taren turned the door handle. “Xin can’t come. Natalie has a dislocated shoulder.” She threw Natalie an apologetic smile. “Scott and Raj, keep trying with that door, in case.”
“I can come,” Ro started walking over.
“Sorry, kid,” Taren said.
Before any of them could react fast enough, Taren had yanked the door open, pole in hand, and she and Ayton were slipping out the door, shutting it quickly behind them.
“Oh, shit,” Natalie said.
They’d only got a glimpse of the hallway.
But it had not been empty.
Taren
Time to move fast
Adrenaline and desperation could do wonders. Mothers lifted cars off babies. People swam faster, ran further, moved in ways they shouldn’t.
They didn’t do anything to the fear that crawled up one’s spine, or so Taren was realising after spending an entire day in a constant state of terror. What they did was distance you from it. In the background, she was terrified, the sound of the door shutting behind them too loud, the click of it catching and separating her from the group, putting her closer to things that wanted to kill her or eat her—that sound was like a boom in her ears.
She and Joy were left side by side, shoulder to shoulder, their backs against the door and facing down the long corridor.
“Too late for regrets,” Joy murmured.
Taren turned her head, and Joy was gazing down at her from the extra inch she had with something like soft affection in her eyes.
The absurd urge to kiss her rose up, Taren even glancing at her lips, before Taren’s senses took hold as down the hallway, something growled. Or groaned. The sound wasn’t clear.