Tuesday, February 24, 2009 12:19 AM
Chapter Eight: Trapped
Wha..?? I jolted awake. A hellish pain surged through my shoulder. I had totally forgot about my wound. But I was soon distracted by an incessant screaming from the other end of the room. My mind was still half asleep and everything seemed hazy. I rubbed my eyes and tried to see what the commotion was about. There was a young girl, in about her early twenties, kicking up a fuss about something. There were quite a few people gathered around her, trying to calm her down while others, like me, were woken up by the noise. Mary was desperately trying to calm the girl down, to no avail. “What’s going on?” I asked throatily, my vocal chords still seemed to be sleeping. “The screechers broke into the building last night," she said, "they still in the building’s lobby. They haven’t found a way up yet, but I don’t think staying here too long would be a good idea.” The information took about a whole minute before it finally sank into my head. Before I could say anything, the crying girl suddenly lunged at me. “It’s all your fault! You’re the one who lured them here! Now we’re all gonna die and it’s all your fault!” The others immediately restrained her as I backed away.
It was my fault. I did kill one of them and now they’re probably looking for me. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I wasn't so concerned with them finding us, but sneaking out was a whole lot tougher now that they were gathered there. I couldn’t just waltz past them and head out into the streets without even one of them noticing.
“How many of them are there?” I asked Mary. “Last I heard, the count was about six.”
Six isn’t that bad, I thought,
at least it wasn't chocked full of those screechers. I went into a corner to try to come up with a plan. I remembered the first one I encountered, he wasn’t that agile as the other one I’d met.
There must be different types of these screecher creatures. I decided to head on down to take a look at the situation before deciding on my next move. “Hey Mary, I’m going down to take a look-see. I probably wouldn’t come back. I have to head on out to look for my wife.” She looked at me curiously, “Are you sure? It’s pretty dangerous going down there alone. I can tell you, though, the only safe spot would be behind the door of the stairwell. That was where we hid to check out the situation.”
So that’s how they knew how many were down there. I picked up the handgun and I tucked it in my belt, and grabbed my backpack. “I better get going then. No time to waste. I’ll see you when I see you.” I smiled and went to the lift lobby. I pressed the "down" button and waited. Finally, the elevator arrived. I went in and pressed “2”. As the door was closing, suddenly a hand jutted in between to stop the doors. “Wait! You’ll need some food and water. Even if those things don’t kill you, you’d probably die of hunger.”
How encouraging, I thought. “Thanks. You’ve really helped me a lot. If I do see you again, I owe you one,” I said. “Oh don’t mention it,” she smirked.
The door closed and the lift descended. It felt much quicker than before.
Ding!, went the elevator bell. The door opened and I peered out. The lights were flickering and it was dead silent. Then I saw it, dead bodies everywhere; about ten of them at least. Something moved in the corner of my eye. I turned and I saw it,
a screecher.< It was bent over something. It looked like it was eating one of the corpses. I backed up into the lift but I was too late, it had heard the lift doors open and seen me. It walked towards me, very…very slowly. I paused. Was it going to lunge at me suddenly? I cautiously reached for my gun and aimed at it. Then I pulled the trigger. The bullet flew right through its skull and it fell straight to the ground. I looked around, but there weren’t any others in sight. How did they get up here? Did the others head on upstairs? The stairwell door was open.
I have to get back up to warn them. Before I could go back into the lift, two of the dead bodies stood up. They looked in my direction.
What’s going on? Weren’t they dead? Were all dead bodies “converted”? Then the other bodies began to stand up too, the same soulless eyes and large fangs. And all at once they rushed towards me. I jumped back into the elevator and pressed the “>|<” button furiously. I could see them almost reach the doors, but it shut before they could get in between. I heaved a sigh of relief, but it was too soon to celebrate. At any rate I had to get back up to warn the rest. I pressed “25” and the lift once again ascended.
