by Roy Bright
The ground heaves yet again, this time with much more force than previous.
They stumble from the second quake and then a further time as another shunt follows straight after.
Again, he screams at them to move forward just as the ground takes one final surge causing both Gary and Abi to fall forwards.
Abi tries her best to steady herself so that she can catch Charlotte but as she hits the ground, she notices the child hasn’t lost her footing at all, but stands, poised perfect.
The lights on the stairwell go out, engulfing them in darkness and Abi screams.
“Okay, stay calm and remain still,” Gary says, his arms searching around for the girls. “I am sure the emergency generator will kick in, in a second.”
Almost the very moment he finishes reassuring them, the emergency backup lights fire up with a clunk, providing the stairwell with minimal subdued lighting.
Charlotte holds out a hand and helps Abi back to her feet.
She takes it and is about to thank her when her expression turns to terror as she gazes past Abi. A Taken has scaled the banister around the stairwell and leapt from it onto the wall opposite them. It turns and screeches then powers off the wall towards them.
The stairwell explodes with gunfire as Gary unloads both of his firearms into the creature sending it sprawling back and downwards, the unmistakable sound of breaking bone echoing up the stairwell.
“Let’s go before more follow,” he commands to them, once again urging them forward as they resume their climb, the ground shaking yet again. He prays with every fiber in his body that the next floor is open, aware that they won’t make another flight of stairs before the rest of the Taken are upon them.
As they turn the next flight, another door presents itself, again, identical to the two below. The plaque to the right of this one reads, DATA PROCESS.
He looks at Abi and she nods. He reaches down to the door handle, closes his eyes and mouths over and over the words: please be open, please be open. He turns the handle and it clicks. He pushes it a little; it moves, and with that, he surges through the door a huge smile on his face. He holds the door open as the girl’s hurry into the office and he starts to close it. He almost has it shut as one of the Taken slams into it, pushing its grey blood-soaked face up against the rectangular glass pane in the doors center, screaming, clawing, and slavering, its face contorted with madness and anger. He hurls himself against the door using his weight to shut it as fast as possible. Thankfully, he is stronger than the creature outside and manages to get the door to click back into position. He turns and screams at Abi, “A chair! Stool! Desk! Anything! Get me something to wedge up against the door!”
More Taken slam into it, clawing and snarling at him through the window. The glass takes a huge whack and cracks. However, to his relief it is toughened and it would take quite an effort to break through. Abi returns with a wooden high-backed chair, which he takes from her and forces it under the handle. It holds. This provides him with valuable seconds as he scrambles to his left taking hold of a sizeable filing cabinet. It is heavy, very heavy and he calls out to Abi.
With her help, they manage to tilt the cabinet to one side and drag it a couple of feet over towards the door. They let it go and it falls down hard onto the chair, dislodging it, smashing the wooden backrest and sending the chair sprawling forwards, replacing its position; the weightier cabinet providing a more suitable barrier. It has the desired effect and holds at bay the Taken pounding the door.
He grabs hold of Abi’s hand and moves her away from the door, “Come on, that will keep them out for a few minutes but won’t keep them out forever. Let’s see if we can get to the other side of the building through here.” He scans the office as they flit and duck between partitioned booths set about in matrixes throughout the floor, each containing a desk, a computer, a telephone and personal decorations of varying degrees. He realizes he cannot see Charlotte and calls for her. Panic sets in and he calls out for her a second time, this time with more venom.
Her voice responds from the far end of the room, “Over here, there’s another door.”
They move towards her location as the Taken continue their siege against the door behind them, screaming and clawing at it like rabid wild animals. The filing cabinet scrapes across the tiles a little, causing Gary and Abi to glance at each other with worry and move with greater speed. Clawed hands curl their way around the edge of the door, gaining purchase, pushing the door and cabinet forwards.
They reach Charlotte to find her stood next to a door that appears to lead into another stairwell.
He smiles and rubs the top of her head, “Charlotte, you are fantastic, well done kiddo. Let’s see where this leads.”
He reaches down and turns the handle; it’s locked. “No!” He cries out in anger, and pulls at the door; frantic, trying to force it open; to no avail. He curses aloud once more.
The under-siege door behind them finally scrapes open, enough to allow the Taken through and they flood into the office.
Gary pulls out both firearms, and steps in front of the girls. “Get behind me,” he says, pushing them both against the wall with his back, forming a human shield in front of them.
Taken spring at them, clambering over the partitions and through the channels between them. Paperwork and office stationery spray into the air as they advance upon the group in a frenzied pattern.
He takes aim and is about to open fire at the closest creature when the building shakes with an insane amount of force. The sound of crashing masonry and glass hits them from below as the building lurches down and over, towards their left, tilting at an extreme angle.
Taken smash into the wall and office equipment slides, slamming up against the creatures, pinning them.
Abi grabs hold of the door handle and wraps her free arm tight around Charlotte as both girls scream.
Gary loses his footing sprawling to the ground, tumbling away from them, dropping his guns in the process. Charlotte screams after him and he turns over from his back onto his front clawing at the ground, trying to abate his slide towards the far wall, towards the Taken. He manages to grab hold of a power cable plugged into one of the floor sockets and he is thankful that it bears his weight however, a small painful waiting game ensues as the plug starts to work itself out of the socket. He looks around in desperation for something else to hold onto in order to halt his fall towards the Taken as the angle of the list increases.
The sound of the building tearing itself apart is deafening as more office furniture slides past them and into the wall below.
Charlotte looks up at Abi and shouts, “I have to get to the window over there!” She motions towards one to Abi’s right where she can see the sky appearing and the building opposite disappearing as it lists over even further. “Judas wants me to get to that window, he is coming for me.”
Abi stares at her in disbelief. Shouting over the sound of the building collapsing she yells, “How do you know? What’s going on?”
“I can hear him calling to me, telling me to get to a window that’s on the opposite side to the way the building is falling.” As she screams out the last word, the building ceases tilting, the monstrous noise of its destruction abating leaving only the sound of office furniture as it continues to fall and crash, along with the sound of Taken screaming and snarling.
Gary breathes a sigh of relief and starts to take hold of anything he can to make his way back to the girls. He looks up to see that Abi has begun to make her way towards the window opposite. ‘Good girl,’ he thinks to himself.
Abi drags herself upwards using anything she can find; the angle of the tilt making the climb hard but not impossible. Charlotte has swung herself onto her back and is holding onto her with her arms wrapped around her neck. She pushes forward, relentless and with intensity, grunting and groaning all the while, distancing them away from the horror below and through sheer will and determination, she reaches the window. Looking down, she sees and lifts a pan
el in the floor that houses the data cabling connections for computer equipment and uses it as a ledge in which to rest her feet, enabling her to push Charlotte and herself up against the window. She looks towards Gary who is enduring the same climb and smiles, grateful that he is unhindered by the Taken as they struggle to remove the office furniture and equipment that has them pinned against the far wall. To her right, she can see other Taken that had not been inside the room when the building had begun to collapse; they creep their way towards them. She looks over her left shoulder at Charlotte and asks, “Now what?” just as the window behind them explodes, showering them in glass. She feels Charlotte lift up off her back and she screams whilst at the same time turning to grab her. She is cut short as Judas hauls her through the broken window and onto the outside of the building. She lands on the brickwork under the window with a thump and looks down towards the ground, breathing in sharply as she takes in the distance, now forced to endure more terror than just the Taken chasing them. She screams once again. She hates heights.
“Where’s Gary?” he asks her.
Too struck with fear to answer, she presses herself against the building, hyperventilating, her eyes closed, the wind rushing against her face.
He asks again, but there is still no answer from her, she is too far lost to her fear.
Charlotte places her hands on the sides of his face and directs his attention towards the far wall of the room, pointing to Gary, as he continues his climb towards them. His attention then snaps to the right as screaming Taken flood onto the outside of the building. He curses and looks down at Gary who also sees the Taken making their way towards him and the girls.
It makes Gary’s decision an easy one. “Just go!” he shouts, waving them away. “Go. Get them to safety. I’ll find another way.”
Judas does not hesitate for a second. “Charlotte, onto my back,” he commands as he draws out his right hand sword from his skin, the pain evident on his face. She complies, wrapping her arms around his neck and the contact causes him to feel a massive surge of power.
She closes her eyes and glows brilliant white for a brief moment, concentrating hard on intensifying her divinity, allowing it to wash over and into him.
Using the transferal of power, he grabs Abi under his left arm, brings her close into his side and surges forward, sprinting up the remainder of the building towards the face of the Destructor as it peers over the edge, seeking them out.
Taken screech as they give chase, scrambling on all fours, their eyes fixed upon their prey.
He does not look back, instead, remains focused on the climb ahead, calculating a plan to get them off the building.
Charlotte concentrates on increasing her divinity further, allowing him access to more power, enabling him to drive forward and outrun their pursuers with greater force. The understanding and connection between them is growing ever stronger as they draw closer to her moment of birth, where she will explode with holy presence and begin her full transformation and journey towards her destiny.
The sound of the Taken, as they chase the fleeing group is overshadowed only by the crazed high-pitched screaming of Abi, bent over facing the ground with Judas’ left arm wrapped around her. Over and over she screams at the top of her voice, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
Inside, Gary continues to make his way towards the broken window where the girls exited. He isn’t finding the climb as easy as Abi, given that he is much further down than where she started and, running out of places in which to leverage forwards, he searches around for other means. His attention snaps to a Taken that has now broken free of the photocopier that had it pinned against the back wall. The lone creature snarls as it digs its claws into the office floor, tracking its way towards him. Others still trapped below join in, creating a cacophony of nauseating sound and Gary realizes he will not make the climb any further without dealing with this creature; he needs to change his plan. Attack is the only option. He takes a deep breath and prepares to launch himself at the creature when he spies one of his handguns just past it, under a desk against the wall. He turns onto his back, brings his knees up and places the palms of his hands flat on the floor. Pushing himself off and jumping, he powers down at the Taken and it screeches, as the large man connects both feet square into the center of its face, him kicking out at the last moment to amplify the force. They crunch into the desk at the back wall and he grunts in pain as his ribs slam into the side of the desk, distracting him for a moment from the reason for such a dangerous maneuver.
The Taken also screams in pain as it lands on its back and thrashes around trying to right itself, aiming to get back onto its feet and launch into its attacker. It turns onto its left side, rolls over, and falls off the desk onto more office furniture.
The other Taken scream and thrash around, aware that one of their own is back in the hunt, as they themselves try to find a way out of their own makeshift prisons.
It scrambles towards him, throwing pieces of debris to one side and the noise kick-starts him back into action. He pulls himself forwards, sliding over the edge of the desk face first and landing on his left shoulder, awkward and painful. Turning, he scrambles around for his gun. It is just out of reach as he paws at it with fingertips, scratching at the ground, desperate to wrap his fingers around it. As the Taken screams up over the desk, he changes his position and places both feet under the desk kicking up with great force. The desk flies up and forwards and it loses its grip, slipping off to the side. He wastes no time. He turns over once again and scrambles for his gun. The Taken screams and launches at him just as he grabs it, rolls over onto his back and fires one round straight through the center of its forehead. It thumps down onto him and he grunts.
That was too close.
He struggles for a few seconds to push the creature off; eventually breathing out in relief as he manages to succeed after a few attempts. As he tucks his gun into his belt and prepares to resume his climb, he notices the left hand of the Taken twitch and he scrambles back to his feet. Just as he does, the building lurches once again and a large section of wall crumbles and collapses to his right just down from the locked door. He grits his teeth and makes his way to the gap with haste, putting as much distance between the Taken and himself as he can.
Judas reaches the top not a moment too soon as Taken, scaling the building like insects, are almost upon them. The Destructor roars at him as he reaches its eye level, but he does not stop, he slams his left foot down onto the edge of the building and powers off, as the Taken swarm.
They jump at them, miss and cascade over the edge of the building.
He lands on the right shoulder of the gigantic demon and, as it turns its head towards him, slashes its right eye with his sword.
Black liquid spurts out of the wound and it lets go of the building.
It drops down and hits the demon in the chest, as the creature brings its massive hands up to its injured eye, roaring with pain.
Judas checks his run and turns to the left. With divinity flowing through him in immeasurable quantities as Charlotte reaches an almost trancelike state, he jerks Abi upwards from under his left arm, catches her, and lets out a huge cry as he throws her high into the air as though she weighed nothing at all. Without pausing, he reaches over his right shoulder with the same arm, grabs Charlotte from his back, drags her over and round to his front and with his right hand rams the sword once again into his body. He leaps off the Destroyer to the ground below curling into a ball to protect Charlotte.
He slams into the ground and breaks bones all over his body. Rolling out of the fall, screaming in agony, he lets go of Charlotte who tumbles away in front of him.
Behind him, the Destroyer steps back as the building crashes down against it.
He forces himself to his senses as fast as he can; however, his body’s repair process is not coming online at the same speed as his mind and he scrapes and pulls himself forwards, agonizingly slow, as his legs and arms begin to reform. Bones crack and rebu
ild, torn muscle knits back together and deep cuts and lacerations close. He cries out as he drags himself to his feet, desperate to get himself back into working order as fast as possible. He stumbles forwards, limping, and dragging his left leg, aching to move faster. He tries to hold up his broken arms as they twist back into position but cannot and he screams even louder as he urges his body to repair, “Come on, goddammit!” A scream draws closer from above, growing in volume as it nears him. He becomes agitated as he wills his body to make the final repairs, begging it back to health, “Fucking come on! Hurry up!” The scream from above is almost upon him as his arms undergo the final stages of repair. Behind him, the building collapses.
The Destructor roars as the force of the building causes it to lose its footing, step backwards and crash into the church. Glass shatters and masonry falls to the ground in huge blocks as it falls through and onto the ground inside. Its back makes contact with the consecrated ground and its skin begins to burn and explode the very second it touches it. The effects of the holy area are not enough to kill the demon, but enough to keep it in spasm.
He cries out one final time as his legs and arms complete their repair and he surges forwards, holding out both arms just as Abi lands into them with not a second to spare, the immense power of divinity flowing through him from Charlotte allowing him to catch her as though she had fallen just a few feet, not a few hundred.
The shock stops her screaming the very moment she lands in his arms. She looks at him and laughs; more out of fear than amusement and he gently stands her onto the ground.
She staggers before snapping to her senses and runs to Charlotte, scrambling onto her knees and pulling the child into her.
Charlotte opens her eyes and smiles at her and once again, Abi feels the happiness, the purity, the love. She hugs the child, gripping her tight and she does the same, hugging her back just as hard.
Judas drops to his knees and takes a deep breath. Christ, that was a stretch, even for me, he tells himself. He looks over his shoulder at the demon thrashing around inside the church. They need to get out of here. It won’t be long before the beast gets back to its feet. His mind snaps to attention and it brings him to his feet in an instant. “Where’s Lucifer?” he whispers.