Infliction |Infected Book 2|

Chapter 27 - Escape

Desi

I could hear the infected ripping into Jonah, even though we were halfway back to the lobby. It wouldn't hold them long, considering how many of them there were. The horrible sounds and the familiar pound of my feet running, made the surroundings around me melt away.

As if I was hallucinating, the walls fell away, oak trees and evergreens growing quickly out the red carpet on the sides of me. I could almost feel raindrops falling onto my face, beading down my cheeks then I was froze, the hallway returning to it's painted walls, and lining doors.

But my imagination wasn't quite done with me, reanacting a reoccuring nightmare. I saw a memory of Cody, on his knees at the end of the hallway, blocking the last curve into the lobby. Durbin tugged at my arm, yelling at me to keep moving, but I couldn't hear his voice, even though he was screaming in my face. The only thing I heard was Cody's whisper.

“You have to kill me.”

My eyes trailed down to his exposed calf, and saw the fresh bitemark he had gotten in the woods. I shook my head, hoping that this hallucination of Cody would just disapper. But he was still there, pleading at me to kill him.

Durbin suddenly stepped in front of my vision, lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder, carrying me around the curve and through the spot I had seen Cody. I kicked at Durbin's stomach and he let me down abruptly, telling me to get it together.

We took the last few steps to the entryway to the lobby, stopping as Durbin leaned in to whisper in my ear.

“We don't want to create a panic,” he said. “Just walk as quickly and casually as you can to the elevators. We have about a minute until they flood in here.”

I nodded and took one last glance over my shoulder, to see my imaginary Cody standing a few feet away from us, his eyes midnight black, blood dripping from his mouth. That was all I needed to get my ass in the lobby.

Durbin and I both weaved through the people, occasionally giving people hard shoulders when they didn't get the hint to get the hell out of our way. People gave us dirty looks, but that was about all, because they had no reason to worry.. at the moment.

I heard a guard yell Durbin's name, but he just ignored him, pressing forward through the crowd. I saw a group of men clustered at the bar, clinking their shot glasses together before downing the liquor. A man and woman sat entangled on a couch, barely coming up for air, as their mouths stayed locked. There were so many guards in the lobby, I almost thought that they knew what was going to happen, but then I remembered Durbin secretly changing the guards shifts, putting almost all of them in the lobby, hoping most of them would die with the camp's inhabitants.

Finally, the silver doors to the elevators stood in front of us, Durbin pressing the up button. I tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for the elevator to come down. Durbin looked casually over his shoulder, eying the hallway we had come from.

“How will we know when they enter?” I asked him, keeping my eye on the elevator light.

“When we hear the screams,” Durbin said quietly as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

Right when we stepped in through the doors, and planted our feet on the tiled floor of the elevators the first of the screams began.

“Right on time,” Durbin said, cocking his gun, pointing it through the open doors in case there was anyone that suddenly ambushed the elevator.

Of course, the doors stayed open for that extra ten seconds and I saw the unveiling of the infected feast in front of me. The cluster of men at the bar, picked up their barstools holding it in front of them, and whacked anyone that got in their way of the front doors. The man and woman who had been making out on the couch were now seperated, the man fleeing for the door while the woman layed motionless on the floor, an infected man feeding on her stomach. Pure pandemonium ensued, guards shooting their guns everywhere, even at people who weren't infected.