“Yeah.” I took a deep breath and held the air in my lungs as he opened up the door and stepped into the corridor. I followed him and grabbed hold of his skirt. I tried to locate Mister Harington’s door, but it was too dark. The screams had stopped. But I could hear the sound of flesh being ripped from bones. I shuddered.
I hoped Alec had a good understanding of the layout, because I couldn’t see shit. I had no idea when we’d need to turn, but then, after walking slowly for what felt like ages, praying the floor wouldn’t creak, wanting desperately to take in more air, I was able to make out Mister Harington’s shoes.
Alec guided us around them and I made the mistake of turning toward Mister Harington’s door. Three long, claw-like, sharp-pointed tips burst through. I jumped. I screamed. I pulled on Alec’s skirt enough to make him stumble backward into me. He turned to the door when his feet were secure and fired two shots.
We heard a scream come from the monster as it pulled its claws from the wood and back into the room. “Hold on tight! And run for your life!” Alec shouted into my ear.
I did both of what he said as he took off running. I decided to turn the flash on, it didn’t make sense to try and hide now, the monster was already alerted to our presence, we might as well see where we were going and not fall on our asses.
A loud crash bellowed behind us. Alec stopped running, I ran into the back of him. He turned toward Mister Harington’s apartment, and with his free hand moved me behind him. I shone the flashlight down the corridor. Mister Harington’s door was broken into pieces; the monster was gathering itself up from the floor. It whipped its head up, so its big black eyes were locked on us.
Alec leveled the gun and fired three shots. The flashes of the weapon as it discharged lit the small space like a strobe and made the movement of the monster look jerky, like frames were missing from a film, similar to some damaged footage of Charlie Chaplin I’d seen once, as it performed erratic reaching actions with its long arms outstretched, charging at us.
My ears were ringing. My head was killing. My heart was beating as fast as a drummer on speed.
The first two shots missed. The third hit the monster in its chest; black, goopy blood surging forth from the wound on the bullet’s impact, but it didn’t slow it down. It kept its long arms out in front, its long, thin, and clawed fingers pointing directly at us.
Alec must have been out of bullets, since he threw the gun at the monster. Unfortunately he threw like a girl and the pistol clattered somewhere behind the creature. He screamed, “Run.”
I turned. Alec was already getting ahead of me. I pushed my legs to move faster than they’d ever done. My muscles were burning soon enough. I wasn’t built for speed. The sounds of the hastening thuds of the monster’s feet behind me were good motivation though. I fought through the pain and was soon running by Alec’s side as he turned to the right and took the corner.
The beam of the flash lit the doors to the stairwell with quick flits of erratic movement. I wanted to drop it so bad; knowing it would increase my speed. Even if the increase was only a small amount that could have been enough to keep me safe, the difference between life and death.
Alec was at the doors first. He pulled them open and I charged past. I stopped quickly when I saw the first step downward get illuminated by the beam on my flash. I spun and aimed the flashlight at the doors. Alec was through them, was pulling them closed. The monster was running toward them, its arms still held out in front, all its teeth showing in its four interconnected mouths, resembling a horrific body part in a dirty nightmare, a snapping pussy designed to castrate perverts.
Alec closed the doors. I could see the dark shape of the monster growing larger as it closed in on us, via the small windows in the doors, some of its spittle able to hit the glass. I was frozen to the spot, watching the drool run down the windows and our certain death rushing toward us, when I saw out of the corner of my eye, Alec as he smashed his elbow into the glass of a red box on the wall.
I spun the beam toward him, his arm was bleeding and he had an axe in his hands. He rushed over to the doors, slid the handle of the axe through the handles he used to pull the doors closed, then jumped back from them as the monster crashed into them.
The thud of flesh hitting the metal and the smashing sound of the windows reverberated through the stairwell. We both raised our arms to cover our faces as the shards from the windows flew through the air at us. I felt some hit my arms and then heard them crackle and skittle as they hit the floor.
I removed my arms from my face to see the monster pressed up against the doors, one of its arms just able to squeeze through the window’s opening. Alec backed away from the doors, stood next to me, as the three-fingered hand neared us. He grabbed me by my hand. I jumped.
“Those doors won’t hold it for long! We have to move!” he screamed as he started to drag me down the stairs, my feet skidding and sliding, my balance almost lost, the sound of the monster shrieking behind us, sounding murderous intent.
When we reached the bottom of the stairwell we were confronted with two doors, just like the ones we’d just ran from. My heart was pumping, my breathing was rapid, and my head was spinning. I was exhausted. Alec looked to be as well. We both stopped. I placed my hands on my knees. He leaned on a wall. I coughed. He coughed. I puked. He retched.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I wiped some chunks from my mouth. “I think so. I was never the sporting type.”
“Same here.”
“How’s your arm?” I didn’t look at him. I didn’t have the energy to stand straight.
“I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. It doesn’t look great.”
I shone the flashlight at him and angled my neck to see the damage. Most of his right arm was zigzagged with long lines of red. The worst of the wound was at his elbow. I saw something shining, flicking light off, back in my direction. “Ah, shit.”
“What?” He sounded concerned.
“I think you have some glass sticking out of you.” I managed to stand upright. Everything spun for a few moments. I thought I was going to throw up again. Thankfully, I didn’t.
I walked on unsteady feet toward him, he was bending his arm to try and get a better look at the shard. I could already see it was big. I had no idea how deep it was in, but I had a plan to remove it. I think I was more nervous about that than the monster that could come hurtling down the stairs at any moment. Which is ridiculous.
I stood in front of him and held the flashlight between my legs, so I had both hands free. I took hold of his arm and pretended to examine the wound. I made sure his limb wasn’t blocking my path, or my plan couldn’t be set in motion. I placed a thumb and finger on either side of the shard then I quickly leaned in and kissed him, while at the same time tugging the glass from his flesh.
He didn’t react to the removal. He reacted to the kiss. He moved his injured arm from me and placed both of his hands on my hips. He opened his mouth and let his tongue play with mine. It was tender, gentle, so rewarding.
I’d thought about what it would be like to kiss him many times. Now I knew. It was amazing. I didn’t even worry about his hands managing to find some of my fat, well, maybe a little, but not as much as I thought I’d be concerned when someone finally kissed me. I was more apprehensive about tasting like puke.
He slowly pulled away. “What was that for?” he managed to ask through stutters.
“This,” I said as I brought the shard into his line of sight.
“That’s all it was for?” he asked.
“Maybe.” I smiled. He did to. “Let’s bandage that arm of yours and get the fuck out of dodge. That monster could come charging down those stairs at any minute. I don’t want be here when it does.”
“Agreed.” He reached a hand under his skirt.
“Alec, what are you doing? I don’t think we have time for that.”
He laughed. “I’m not doing that, but it’s nice to know if we had time, you’d be game.” He winked at me. I got embarrassed. “I’m getting my car keys.”
“Do you hide everything in your panties. How big are they, Bridget Jones?”
“I hide everything important in them, they need to be big … and cute.” He smiled.
I sighed and backed away to remove the flashlight from between my legs. “Could you hold this?” I passed him the flash, saw he had his keys in his hand as he took it, and removed my jacket.
I dropped the jacket to the floor and pulled the bottom of my shirt from my trousers. I tried to rip a section off so I could bandage him. Nothing happened. I laughed. “I’ve seen people do this in movies, it always looked so easy.”
He walked to me and passed me the flash. “Hold this. I’ll try.” He took hold of my shirt. “I’d suggest you hit the gym, but I don’t want you to lose your curves.”
He smiled. I rolled my eyes. He ripped my shirt and pulled off a section of the material. I felt naked at that moment. My belly was showing. If he’d ripped any more material off my tits would be out too. “Alec, what the hell?”
“Sorry, I’ve never done it before. Like you said, in movies it seems to work just fine.”
I rolled my eyes yet again, placed the flash between my legs once more, and wrapped his arm in the section he’d ripped from me. I tied it tight and soon the white material was being ingested by red. “How’s that?”
“Good … I think … It’s better than nothing.”
I removed the flash from my legs and shone the beam at the doors. “Where’s your car parked?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t remember. Once I spent an hour looking for it.”
“Fuck me, Alec.”
“We don’t have time, remember?”
“Normally I appreciate your humor, but not now.”
“Okay, fair point.” He held his keys up to the window, and while peering through into the dark of the garage, pressed the button on them. We heard the beeps and saw the lights flash.
“That’s not too far away,” I said.
“Yeah, not bad. Our luck is changing for the better.”
A massive crash sounded from up the stairwell. “You spoke too soon. Let’s get moving.”
Alec opened the doors and we stepped into the garage. No one was around. There was just rows of cars. It was just as dark as the rest of the building had been. He took me by the hand once more and we started to run toward his car.
In a sudden booming bang, a car that was parked to the right of us started to rise from the ground, the front end higher than the rear, the concrete underneath splitting open and upward, a metal object pushing on the underside of the vehicle, a bright light at the top of that, igniting us in bright white, and most of the garage too, even the doors to the stairwell we’d just exited.
“Don’t concern yourself with whatever the fuck that is, just keep running to my car.”
The doors to the stairwell were flung from there hinges as the monster crashed through them and locked its eyes on us before it jumped onto the hood of one of the parked cars next to it and started to race toward us, a foot landing on each of the roofs of the vehicles it traversed, indenting the metal, exploding the windows.
Alec opened the driver’s side door and I got in the passenger’s side. He was already seated and buckled up when I parked my butt and reached for my belt, my eyes never leaving the creature as it continued to car-crushingly stride toward us.
Alec had just started the car when the monster jumped down from the last vehicle it was running over the top of. Alec sped from the parking space we were in as it reached a hand out and smashed through my window, sending glass onto me, making me cover my eyes.
When I’d removed my arm from my face I saw its three fingers locked onto my door. I risked a look through the window and saw we were dragging it along side us. We drove through the beam of bright light coming from the metal object that had raised the other car. The intensity allowed me to be able to see that the concrete the monster was scraping over was tearing at its rubbery black flesh, leaving a trail of dark slime, its blood.
I looked back to the front windshield; Alec was about to smash through the barriers that led to the street when another monster fell from somewhere above us and dropped onto the hood of our car, bringing it to a stop. The engine must have been damaged, as smoke started to escape it, fast.
The monster on the hood raised its long arms into the air then smashed its hands down into the windshield, shattering the glass into a million pieces. “Out of the car!” Alec screamed as he opened his door.
I pulled on the handle to open mine and pushed against it. I couldn’t budge it. The monster we’d dragged was still holding on. I went to climb out of the window, but stopped when only my top half was through. The monster was starting to stand.
The creature on the hood reached into the car, through where the windshield used to be. I ducked low and its talons clawed at my seat, causing foam to puff from the holes it made.
I looked to Alec’s door. It was open. He wasn’t there. Then he was. He reached in, while crouched low, and grabbed the collar of my shirt. I locked my hand around his injured arm, felt blood seep through the makeshift bandage, and pulled, as he pulled at me.
I fell onto the hard floor of the garage, cutting my chin for sure. He stood me upright, and with my feet going in directions I didn’t want them to go, he dragged me into a run and back deeper into the garage, toward the light coming from the metal object.