Little ticks rang, one right after the other. The switch Minho had flipped brought light to the building, making the structure serene for a singular moment. Then all hell broke loose.
Minho gave us a huge grin over his shoulder, ecstatic that he played God and created light. His eyes shifted behind Thomas and focused on something different.
"Thomas, watch out!" He warned, reaching out for him. I turned just in time to see a shrieking figure throw herself onto the chain link fence towards Thomas. Nearly dying of fright, I let out a yelp followed by a list of expletives.
"Fuck, shit, fuck, pussy ass bitch!" My bones rattled as I stared more clearly at the figure. It was a woman with gouged out eyes. It's hair was frayed like an old dolls and black bile dripped from it's lips.
"Get back, get back, get back!" Minho yanked me towards him. I pressed myself against his chest, trying to get as far away from the woman turned monster. He held onto me firmly. I could feel his fear, it practically dripped off of him. "Jesus." He breathed, aiming his flashlight toward it. "It's eyes."
A strangled growl came from behind us, we spun around to greet it. A things that used to be a man, hobbled toward us before picking up the pace. It ran at us full speed, until it was met with a face full of light rod.
"Stay back!" Minho shouted, slamming the light rod at it. It fell to the floor, writhing. I whimpered at the sight, my voice stuck in my throat. Jumping backwards, I did what I hated most.
I ran.
"Y/n!" Thomas called after me, his footsteps right behind mine. Weaving through tables and chairs, I stumbled around, clawing my way to a pair of swinging doors.
Two more of the things were nearing the doors too. Gritting my teeth, I felt my legs burn as I sped up. With a gasp, I launched my way through the doors, tumbling onto the floor.
Thomas and Minho slid right through, pushing back on the doors to create a barricade against the things. The monsters slapped and growled at us through the top glass windows.
"Oh my God we're gonna die here!" I cried, slapping a hand over my mouth. Terror spasmed through my nerves, paralyzing my muscles. Adrenaline sped up my heart. I could hear each ear splitting thud. "Guys, I'm sorry I scared you, I really am!"
"Slim it y/n!" Minho roared, digging his heels into the cement to keep out the things. "Hold it down!" I should do something. What should I do. Help y/n. Help somehow, in anyway.
"What?!" Thomas replied, scrunching his face at the brunette boy.
"Hold it down!" Minho repeated. My eyes flickered over the giant filing cabinet beside them. I watched as he swerved around to it, starting to tip it over.
"What are you doing?!" Thomas yelled, eyes wide as the cabinets groaned and creaked.
"Watch out! Watch out!" Minho warned, the metal cabinets sliced through the air and landed with a sturdy thump. The its were locked out.
Thomas practically tore my arm from his socket with the force he pulled me up with. Wails echoed against walls, more creatures ran jaggedly in our direction.
"Come on y/n." Minho pushed against the side of my head, opening my eyes to what was around me. "Use that shuck brain of yours. Now go, go, go, go!"
We raced out of the area, jumping over chairs and sliding across tables when needed. Our flashlights slashed light across the spacious building.
"Get the hell out here!" Tripped from Thomas's mouth as he did slightly before scrambling up to his feet.
I was the one to worry about. I was the burden holding them back. Being with two runners really put the pressure on when it came to my speed.
They were faster than me of course, but I could tell that they were holding back. Looking over their shoulders, making sure I wasn't too behind.
We stampeded our way up a broken escalator, the monsters dangerously close. Their screams curdled my blood, paranoia fed me the idea that I could feel their breath on me as I darted around.
Rounding a corner, our friends came in to view. All of them were chatting idly, unscathed from the creatures chasing us.
"Hey! Run! Go!" We all shouted, desperate to catch their attention. The last thing we'd need is for any of them to get hurt.
Awestruck looks made their faces go slack before they snapped back to reality. The group heeded our word, sprinting with us. Our herd scurried up another malfunctioned escalator, determined to find some sort of safety.
"What the hell are those things?!" Winston was on the verge of screaming. Animalistic sounds snarled from the monsters.
"I have no fucking clue!" My feet traded step for step, forcing myself not to look back.
"Keep up!" Chuck panted, near the front of the group. Even he was light years ahead of me. I blinked light out of my eye from the wild flashlight movements the others distributed as they ran.
"Move, move!" Minho bellowed, his body a quick passing image ahead of me. All of us cried out words of encouragement to each other. Snatches of words went in one ear and out the other.
I was too busy praying to focus on them. I prayed, that if there was any higher power, they would pass mercy on us.
Making it to the top of the escalator, we took a sharp turn, which disclosed one of the zombies untangling itself from a rack. I almost fell forward onto the crummy floor at how quickly we halted.
"Shit." I blurted, eyes glued onto the thing. The zombie like creature writhed around, bones jutting out unnaturally. How in the world was it possible for this thing to be human.
"Oh no, no, no."
It came loose, charging towards us with a mouth baring what it had left of it's teeth. Aris lifted the aluminum bat he'd been carrying with him and stepped forward. Nestling it onto the small between his neck and shoulder.
"Aris, no!" Thomas reached out to grab the boy, but was a little too late. Aris acted like a regular Babe Ruth. He swung the bat at the creature's knees, knocking it off it's feet.
The thing landed in rubble and plaster, moaning in pain. It recovered freakishly quick, snapping up to clutch onto Teresa's foot. While we focused on her, new company began to join us.
"Go!" Thomas urgently waved us off, his position midway on the next escalator made it difficult for him to leave. "Go around!"
There was no thinking, just do. Newt said that's what I did best so long ago. Even if it had just been two weeks ago. Life had become so funny since then.
We did as Thomas told, rounding around a few beams. Circling to a clearer way of entrance, the boy's stamped up a different escalator.
"Minho, y/n, come on!" Jack waited for us, who brought up the rear. He kept his arms open, eyes lighting up as we closed the distance between us.
A thunk hit the ground as Minho body checked one of the creatures. I jolted in surprise, falling onto Jack.
"Sorry!"
"Go!" Jack pushed me off, towards the rest of the escalator. "Just go on, y/n!" Running on pure fear, I followed his order, booking it up the steps. I didn't even look back, until I heard him scream. He was last to go up. He was too late. The monsters had him now. One hooked under his upper arms, working on dragging him off. Another crashed into them. Sending Jack to fly through a panel of glass.
CRASH
All he had to grip onto was the escalator's banister. "Frypan!" He called out for his friend, probably praying that someone would come to his rescue.
"No!" Frypan and I rushed to his side at the exact moment that another monster jumped onto him.
"Jack!" I stretched my arm down as far as it could, watching in horror. Jack was weighed down, falling however many stories the building was.
"No! No!" Frypan gasped, joining me In disbelief. It all happened so fast. There was nothing we could do to stop it.
The creature's shadows could be seen from a distance and it looked like they all wanted to join us.
"Come on!" Newt yanked me by the back of my shirt, hauling me up the stairs. Minho took care of Frypan, tugging him up with me as well. Barely conquering the escalator, we were already whisked away to our next challenge.
"Where are we gonna go?!"
"Oh shhh-it!"
"We gotta find a way out of here!"
"Go! Faster, faster!"
Wind blasted onto my face, a result of my quick jelly legs. They'd suffice now, but my limbs would hate me later. All I had in my mind was the wind. How it blew on me, it's refreshing touch, the strange calmness it brought me.
CRASH
"No!"
"Newt!"
Glass plinked onto the floor, my body stopping short in front of it from impulse. Everyone else was so far ahead. My pupils expanded three times their size the second I saw Newt with some horrible monster mounted on top of him.
It clawed, wriggling around, sticking it's withered up tongue out at my friend. Newt tried to wrestle him off, but with his spaghetti arms it was a lost cause.
Not today. I refused to be cowardly. I refused to lose him. I refused another loss, one that I wouldn't be able to take. A crowbar lay stranded just a couple feet away from me. Just my luck.
Wrapping my fingers around the cool metal, I tossed it around in my hand before turning to the monster. My eyes a blaze, I felt the weapon whiz through the air, bruising it's way into the zombie thing's neck.
"No, Bitch." I brought my arm back, delivering another blow. "You. Are not allowed. To die yet!" It wailed in pain, spasming about as if it had been electrocuted.
With one big final thwack, I created enough momentum to send the creature spinning through a sheet of glass and onto cement. Leaving Newt freaked, but completely safe.
"Thanks." His voice cracked, eyes wide. Newt took my hand, letting me pull him up.
"There's time for thank you's later." I tugged him along toward the rest of our friends, barely giving him time to recover. A hive of the creatures were rushing towards us, limbs flailing as they let out wild yawps. "Come on!"
"Through here, through here, let's go, they're coming!" Minho waved us through an unexplored opening.
Cement walls were scarcely made out from my eyes. They seemed to rush by too quickly for me to focus on anything. The lot of us streamed down the hallway, packed together tightly, trying desperately to escape the monster's clutches.
"Guys, where we goin'?!"
"Go, go!"
Thomas came to a standstill, jiggling around a door's handle. It was locked and therefore useless. Peering over tall shoulders, I managed to glimpse the creatures turning around the corner toward us.
"Company!" I warned, fingers locking tightly around my crowbar. My heart thwacked against my chest violently, imagination running rampant at the idea of those awful things catching us.
"Keep going!"
"Come on, they're coming!"
"Look out!"
We ran blindly through the dark, accompanied only by the dim lights we carried. Until we reached a stop. There was no where else to go. We were boxed in, like mice in a trap.
"It's a dead end!"
"Get us out of here Thomas!" Teresa cried, frightened beyond measure. Her eyes, wide as saucers, told it all.
The only chance we had of getting out were metal doors, wrapped with little locks, keeping us in with the cannibals.
"This way!" Thomas announced, kicking at the doors. We all joined in. Slamming our bodies around like flopping fish, begging for a little taste of oxygen.
"I'll hold them back!" Winston assured, flipping around towards the things. My ears shivered at the sounds of gunshot. I hated how loud each bang was and how I could feel the sound radiating in my body. I jolted the locks around with the crowbar I had, praying for any little crack or snap. "Get the door open!"
"Move!"
"Come on Frypan, let's go!"
With a quick shove, I was pushed out of the way by Frypan. He parted a clear path before finding his speed and barreling his way through the door.
Relief flooded my every part of being. Jetting out of the doors, we all made it out. All except one.
Winston let out a yelp, I snapped my head around to see that one of the things got him. He reached out for us, being dragged toward the horde of monsters.
Thomas and Minho thought quickly, forcing their body weight against the door. Newt hopped right in, taking hold of Winston's arms. Half of him was closed in, the other half was free.
The zombie things sprawled their hands across him, extending their stubborn hold. His shirt was flipped up, exposing his upper abdomen. Creatures dug their razor talons, streaking open cuts across his stomach.
Winston wailed in pain, his face scrunching up from the wounds. Newt and Frypan gave one last tug, ripping him away from the monster's grasp. He stumbled off, regaining his footing. While Thomas and Minho held the creatures back was a perfect opportunity to get a head start and God knows I'd need one.
"Go, go, go, get out Winston!"
I ran along with them, Chuck hand in hand with me. The things dispersed from the door, an explosion of them. Thomas and Minho caught up to us, guiding us along to a hidden cavern.
It was somewhere we could be safe till morning, but only till morning.