My ears rang and my head felt as if it were going to split open. I couldn’t hear a thing.
Lisa hopped off the turret, and pulled me to the ladder. Anna appeared unaffected — apparently, she had escaped the worst of the noise.
They both pulled me down the turret as the first creatures hopped on top. Two pairs of hands pulled me inside and the turret door above was slammed shut.
Inside, the bumpy cargo bay made me feel like puking. I saw Anna’s face in front of mine, but I could barely focus. As I sat there for the next two minutes, feeling more dead than alive, the world slowly righted itself.
“Alex… Alex!”
“Yeah. I’m here.”
Relief filled her face. “We thought you had gone deaf.”
My ears still pounded. I hoped there wouldn’t be permanent damage.
“Come up front,” Anna said. “We found something.”
When I entered the cab, I saw that the forest had fallen behind. But that was where the good news ended. Before us was a large, open valley of pink and purple, pockmarked with gnarled trees. Mountains surrounded the valley on all sides, and behind, the monsters were still coming.
Anna pointed ahead. I squinted. It looked like a tall, thin mesa at first, coated in pink fungus. But as we got closer, I saw that it wasn’t a mesa. There were rectangles along the outside surface, faded beneath the fungus.
It was a skyscraper, out in the middle of nowhere.
Chapter 14
As we made our way to the building, it was as if the ground itself came alive. Monsters squirmed their way through the xenofungus and charged for the Recon. Makara swerved left and right to avoid them, all the while making for the tall building.
“Are we going inside that thing?” I yelled.
“What choice do we have?” Makara asked. “It’s either that or get buried alive under these things.”
As she said that, one of the creatures leaped through the air, crashed into the windshield, and rolled off to the side. Purple ooze splattered on the glass. Makara turned on the wipers, but that only made it worse.
“Can’t see a damn thing,” she said.
“We’re almost there,” Lisa said. “Just keep going!”
The evening was filled with the cries of the infected monsters, making my blood run cold. The building was getting close. It was tall, and completely out of place in this secluded valley. Whatever it had been in the Old World, it was a monolith from another time.
“Pull in there!” Samuel said, pointing to an opening in the ground. “Looks like a garage.”
“Who knows what could…” Makara began.
“Just do it!” Samuel said. “It’s our only option.”
Makara scowled. “Fine. But if we die, don’t blame me.”
She pulled into the opening. The creatures followed us in. Makara turned on the headlights, revealing the road curving downward and to the left. The tires screeched on asphalt.
Where the road straightened, we were greeted by rows and rows of parked cars, rusted with time and lack of use. They had been here since Dark Day thirty years ago, and it looked as though they hadn’t been touched since. Most were buried beneath the fungus. The Recon’s headlights lit the ceiling, sending strange tiny creatures scurrying upside-down along the fungus-covered ceiling.
“Not looking good,” Makara said.
“Just trust me,” Samuel said. “There’s a door over there. It should lead inside.”
“How do you know…?”
“Just park in front of it. We’ll use the Recon as a shield to block them from coming after us.”
Makara made for the door, parking the Recon sideways against it.
“Everyone out, move, move, move!” Samuel said.
“Through my door,” Makara said, “unless you want to get killed.”
Makara opened her door and stepped out. She opened the door into the building. The rest of us crawled over into the front seat, and out the driver’s side door. Makara was already inside the building. Lisa was the last out. She shut the Recon’s door, and headed inside with the rest of us. Samuel slammed the building door behind us, shutting out the monsters and their horrible cries.
It was pitch back inside, and cold. Several flashlights clicked on, revealing a long hallway that led into further darkness.
“What now?” Makara asked.
“I don’t know,” Samuel said. “Let me think.”
“We should probably get higher up,” Lisa said. “Might be safer.”
“That’s a good idea,” Samuel said. “Find a room and set up a perimeter.”
“Then what?” Makara asked. “We’re stuck in here with no way out.”
“We’ll figure that out later,” Samuel said. “Let’s get moving. We’re killing time.”
Anna and I hadn’t said anything. I was just trying to follow orders and not get in the way. I agreed with Makara; we should have never come in this creepy place. Something about it felt off. Sure, the creatures weren’t inside. At least, not yet.
The darkness didn’t help. Now that we were stuck here, we had no choice but to stay.
Samuel took the lead, shining a flashlight with his good arm. The fact that he was able to push himself so hard and lead the group was amazing, but we may have just met our match. Makara followed behind, alongside Lisa. Both had their pistols out, ready to go. Anna drew her katana, the sound of metal echoing off the walls. Bringing up the rear, I drew my Beretta.
No one said a word as Samuel led us up a stairwell. The sounds of our footsteps clanging in the darkness shattered the silence.
We had gone up four flights of steps when we heard a gunshot, distant.
Everyone stopped.
Samuel held up a hand, and cocked his head to listen. We waited one, two, three seconds. Nothing.
“Someone else is here,” Lisa said, voice low.
“Whoever they are, they probably know we’re here,” Samuel said. “We brought a whole army of monsters to their doorstep.”
“That probably won’t make them happy,” Makara said.
“No,” Samuel said. “No, it won’t.”
Footsteps ran up the stairs behind me. I immediately fell to the ground. And just in time — a gun went off, and I heard the bullet ding off the metal next to me.
More shots filled the air — some from us, some from them — whoever they were.
“Run!” Samuel said.
I got up and chased everyone up the stairs. Footsteps, yells, and more shots followed us up from below. There were maybe three or four of the others. I charged upward, rounding the bends of the stairs.
Out of breath, we reached the top floor. Samuel ran across the hall and threw a metal door open. Everyone followed him in. I was the last one through. A bullet zinged off the door. I slammed it shut, finding the latch and locking it in place. Just in time, too. A body slammed against the door, followed by a male cursing.
I looked around. We were in a dark room that contained a desk piled with papers, a file cabinet, a trash can, and a broken computer. Weak sunlight filtered, faded and pink, through the fungus-tinged window. It tinted the room and its articles in an eerie pink glow.
“Great,” I said. “There’s no way out.”
Voices spoke from the other side of the doorway. They had us cornered in this room, and there was no way out except the window — and I didn’t want to fall a dozen floors to my death.
“Who are you?” a male voice demanded from the other side of the door. “What are you doing here?”