22 (TWD Fanfiction)

Chapter 12 - Thick and Thin

  I trip several times while running to the room Shane and I stayed in. A flashing yellow light in the corner of the bedroom gives me just enough light to find my backpack. Grabbing it I stuff the book inside and rush out of the room.

My hat!

Spinning on my heel I run back in for it. It's resting on the small table next to the bed. I slap it on my head and rush out the door.

I trip several more times trying to find the stairs. This place was already a maze to navigate with the lights on, without them it's practically impossible. The few dim emergency lights in every other room eventually shut off too, leaving me in complete pitch darkness. After running through several rooms and down a few hallways I finally make it to the stairs. Shane never told me how long before the building self-destructs so I skip every other stair as I run up them, in a small attempt to save time.

Natural light begins to fill the stairwell as I climb higher and higher. Reaching the top I push open the glass doors and step into the lobby. A cloudy sky greets me through the tall glass windows.

First thing I do is run to the front doors. The steel wall is still covering the front stopping anything from getting in, or in this case out. After seeing the doors won't budge and the keypad's powered down I rush over to the windows. I try breaking them by throwing objects at them but they don't even crack. The glass is too thick to break.

I hear a low hum start and cover my head thinking the building is about to explode.

I can't believe this is how it ends. At least I'll be blown to smithereens and not torn to shreds. I think that's a better fate. Why's it taking so long, does it gotta charge up first or something?

I crack open one eye, nothing's exploding so I open the other one. That's when light fills my vision.

"Eek!"

The building explodes.

Except it doesn't. Instead a few of the emergency lights turn back on.

Hoping maybe the doors will unlock and the steel walls will retract I run over to the keypad. I click random buttons in an attempt to get them open but they don't and I start to panic more; if that's even possible at this point. There's no way out and the others still haven't gotten up here.

Unless there was another way out, and they all went out that way, and I completely missed it. I pull at the bottom of my shirt again and look around for any sign of another exit.

Behind the receptionist's desk is a door. I had originally assumed it led to a closet but now I'm wondering if there's a back door out of here. Wasting no time I hop over the desk knocking the stack of papers onto the floor. I grab the handle praying that it's not locked and twist. The door opens and I let out a sigh of relief, but immediately groan when I see it's another hallway. I'm getting sick of them.

I bolt from door to door checking if any of them are unlocked. At the end of the hall I find one unlocked and push it open. A big wooden desk and one of those fun spinny chairs sit a few feet away from the right wall. In the corner is a trash can and a tall lamp. Across from the desk is a big cabinet. But what my eyes immediately lock onto is three thin vertical windows against the back wall.

It's too small for any adult to climb through but perfectly my size. The glass could still be just as thick as the front windows so I don't get my hopes up just yet and move to investigate. When I get close to the window I see that it's much thinner. Backing up I look around for something that I can use to break it. This office is pretty barren, most of the stuff has been taken and what's left is either too small or not strong enough to help me. Stepping over to the cabinet I pull open the doors, stacks of papers line the shelves. Moving some of the paper aside I feel something hard and pull it out. It's a large metal bowling trophy, the golden plate on the bottom reads;