He sat down and grabbed his wife's hand. He squeezed it again, hoping for any sign of recognition. Once more there was nothing.
"It'll be okay," he said. This was more to himself than to her.
He turned to the soiled clothes lying in the middle of the room. He could still smell them. Part of him wanted to get up and throw them into the washing machine. But a greater part didn't want him to leave his wife right now. He wanted to stay there just a little longer, to hold her hand and see if she'd come back to him.
Chapter 5
Scooter listened again. The sound was coming from somewhere nearby. And i
t
wa
s
crying.
He looked around to see if he could see anyone. The corridor was empty, except for all of the dead bodies.
The crying continued.
Scooter tilted his head toward the sound. Then he approached it slowly, unsure of where he might be headed. He stopped only when he got to the doors of an elevator. He could hear the crying on the other side of them
.
Someone was inside.
Immediately he wanted to call out, though he knew that that wouldn't be a good idea. If he made too much noise one of thos
e
thing
s
might hear him. Of course, he knew he'd have to make some sort of noise opening the elevator, but he'd deal with that when the time came.
He stepped closer to the elevator.
There wasn't any doubt in his mind that it wasn't one of the creatures. It didn't sound crazy enough. It actually sounded scared. And he didn't think that thos
e
thing
s
were afraid of much.
But what if he was wrong? How could he be sure.
Scooter took his spoon and brought it up to the elevator door. If it was one of thos
e
thing
s
, then it would go wild in there. It seemed like a good enough plan.
He tapped the spoon against the metal.
One, two, thre
e
.
The crying stopped for a moment. Scooter waited to see if the person inside would start shouting. Instead, he heard: "Hello? Is someone there?"
Scooter couldn't believe it. His heart started to race. Not because he was scared. He was excited that he had found someone
.
A survivor like him.
He felt the urge to call out again, but once more stopped himself.
He grabbed at the doors and tried to pull them apart. His fingers slid along them. They couldn't catch hold.
"Fuck," he said in frustration.
He tried again.
No luck.
He thought about the spoon and realized it might be able to help him. He stuck it inside the crack of the elevator doors and tried to wedge them open.
"Fuck," he said again as the spoon bent
.
That's not going to work.
He dropped the spoon to the floor. It clattered. Hopefully not loud enough to bring him any attention.
He looked around. He had to find something else
.
Something stronger
.
A crowbar would have been ideal, but be didn't think that there was going to be one of those around.
However there was something that he thought would work just as well.
On the wall he saw a fire hydrant. Beside it was an axe.
He rushed over to it.
It was behind glass that he'd have to break
.
It would make a sound, might bring the creatures running
.
But he didn't have much of a choice.
He clenched his fist and got himself ready to punch through it. Then thought better of that idea.
He took off his shirt and wrapped it around his hand. He took a deep breath and punched at the glass. It shattered and fell at his feet.
Scooter's heart began to race again. He was sure that one of the creatures had heard him. The crash had been so loud.
He turned around, realizing that he should have looked for a place to hid
e
befor
e
he broke the glass. He had to be prepared for these things. Though that wouldn't help him now...
He searched.
There were washrooms, a smoking lounge, several benches.
Then he saw a stairwell. It was close to the elevator.
That would do
.
It would give him a chance to get away.
He got ready to run, but he didn't leave his spot. He'd only go if he saw one of the creatures coming.
He held his breath and tried to ignore his beating heart. He listened.
Nothing.
Scooter felt better. His plan had worked. He turned back and grabbed the axe.
"Damn," he said, holding it out before him in admiration
.
This'll make a pretty good weapon if one of those things come alon
g
.
He put his shirt back on and took the axe back over to the elevator. He could still hear the crying. He tapped the axe against the doors this time. There was a deeper thud, but it had had the desired effect. The crying stopped.
"Hello?" a voice said again.
"Shhh," Scooter said. "I'm going to get you out."
His voice was nothing more than a whisper. He wasn't even sure if the person inside could hear him. But it was all that he was willing to do given the circumstances.
He put the blade of the axe in between the elevator doors. He had to push harder than the spoon to get it in there.
Eventually it went.
He pressed on the side of the axe and tried to separate the door. It took him a few tries before he was able to get his fingers into the opening. Once he did, he grasped at the doors and spread them apart. They opened a lot easier than he had expected.
He looked into the elevator.
At first, it was difficult for him to understand what he was seeing. There were a few dead bodies. A lot of blood. And a little girl. She was sitting there, looking up at him.
"What the fuck?" he asked.
The little girl's chin started to quiver and she burst into another bout of tears.
Scooter didn't wait. He bent down a picked her up. She was very small and slipped within his grasp.
The blood
,
he thought
.
It's all over her!
He finally got a hold of her and pulled her into his arms.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He needed to know if she was hurt.
The little girl continued to cry.
"Shhh," he said. He patted the back of her head. "It's okay now. I'm here."
She rested her head against his shoulder and continued to sob into it.
Scooter looked around. This wasn't good. The little girl was making too much noise. He couldn't blame her. She had obviously been through hell. But that still didn't make it okay for her to do. Th
e
thing
s
would hear. They'd come rushing after them. They'd attack.
"Shhh," Scooter said again. "You have to be quiet. It isn't safe."
The girl ignored him, keeping her face pressed against him.
"We have to get out of here," Scooter said next.
At that, the little girl raised her head from Scooter's shoulder and locked her eyes on his. He could see that she was trying to make sense of what he had said, all that had happened. She ran her tiny hand over her eyes and brushed some of her tears away. Then she spoke.
"My daddy," she said. "He's sick."
She pointed to the elevator. Scooter looked. Her father must have been one of the three dead bodies in there.
"I'm sorry about that," he said. "But I can't help your father."
"You have to," the little girl pleaded with him.
Scooter didn't know what to say. He couldn't tell the girl that her father was dead. Especially at the moment. He needed to think about where they should go next.
"I can't," was all that he managed. He started to walk away from the elevator.
"My daddy! Please help him!"
Scooter wished that he could have helped her more than he had. He didn't care all too much for his own father, but he couldn't imagine losing him at such a young age
.
And in such a fucked up way
.
He felt for the little girl. He really did. But he had to get moving. He had to…
Scooter stopped. He could see one of the creatures standing at the end of the hallway. Its head was moving from side to side.
Then it started to scream and charge in their direction. The creature had seen them. The little girl saw it happen and started to scream as well.
Scooter didn't wait. He turned and headed to the stairwell. He kicked open the door and ran through it. He rushed down the stairs, placing his hand behind the little girl's head as he went.
"Don't worry," he whispered to her.
She didn't seem to hear. She continued to scream, her sounds muffled against his neck.
Scooter got down the first flight of stairs without much trouble. He looked back up at the door, expecting the creature to burst through it at any moment. He heard banging. That was all.
For a moment, it occurred to him that the creature might not be able to open the door. Maybe it didn't know how to.
That idea was short lived.
The door swung open. The screaming continued.
Scooter ran. He got to the door on the floor below and opened it. He wasn't sure what would be on the other side, but he didn't stop to think about it.
One thing at a time.
He ran out of the stairwell. The little girl kept her face pressed against him. He figured that was for the best. She didn't need to see any of this stuff.
He closed the door behind him and ran out into the new corridor.
Where was he? Where could he go?
He heard the creature slam against the door a few seconds later.
"Fuck," Scooter swore out loud.
He had thought that the creature was going to charge out and get them. It hadn't. For some reason, this door was giving the creature a little more trouble. It continued to beat its fists against it. Scooter could hear its screams echoing in the stairwell.
It'd only be a matter of time before it figured it out.
Scooter looked around again.
Unlike upstairs, this part of the airport looked familiar. At least, somewhat. It was the arrivals area. Not a whole lot different from above. But he was sure that he had come by here once or twice.
The pounding continued. He heard muffled screaming behind the door.
The little girl had stopped screaming now, but she continued to weep into his neck.
"It'll be okay," he said to her. "We just need a place to hide."
He patted the back of her head again and ran.
He quickly found a door. It was fo
r
Authorized Personal Onl
y
- which he was. There was a keypad on it - which he knew the combination to.
He pressed his fingers against it and began to punch in the code. His hand was shaking so badly that he messed up a few of the numbers.
"Shit," he said.
He pressed the buttons again. And again.
There was a burst of sound as the stairwell door flew open. The creature came running out and looked directly at Scooter and the little girl. It let out another scream and came at them.
Scooter turned back to the keypad. His fingers pressed the numbers once more.
The creature came closer.
The door clicked open.
Scooter pulled the door back and rushed through.
As he did, the creature reached out to grab him. Scooter felt its fingers on his shoulder. But it didn't have enough of a grip on him.
Scooter was able to yank himself away. He closed the door. It locked automatically.
They had escaped.
Chapter 6
Scooter looked out of the little window in the door. He could see the creature banging on it, screaming. Spit and blood shot out of its mouth as it yelled. Its fists started to bleed.
Scooter knew that he shouldn't stay there any longer. Not with the little girl in his arms. But she didn't do much more than cry into his neck. And he wanted to see what this creature would do next.
It continued to hit. It continued to scream.
Then it stopped.
It turned its head, obviously hearing something else. Something that Scooter hadn't
.
Another creature? Another survivor
?
Scooter didn't know.
He watched as the creature ran off. Only for a little of the way. The window in the door was small and he couldn't see much that was out there.
"All right," Scooter said, turning his attention back to the little girl. "It's okay. We're safe for now."
The little girl pulled her face away from his neck and looked up at him. "What about my dad?" she asked. "He's in the elbator."
Scooter didn't know what to say to that. He had seen the girl's father in th
e
elbato
r
. The man was dead.
"He's...he's..." Scooter couldn't finish.
"He's sick," the little girl continued. "We have to help him."
Scooter shook his head. "We can't help him."
"Why not?"
"Because we can't."
"We have to!"
Scooter decided to ignore the little girl's plea. He knew that it probably wasn't the best solution, but it was all that he could think of.
"We need to get moving," he said.
The little girl didn't bother saying anything else. She simply put her face back into his neck and started to weep again. Scooter tried his best not to pay her any attention. He needed to focus on the hallway, on where they were going.
As he made his way down the hallway, he noticed that there wasn't as much blood in here as there had been in the main hall. That wasn't to say that there wasn't any
.
Just not as muc
h
.
He came upon a body lying on the ground, but couldn't make out who it was. The person's nose and cheeks had been torn from his skull. He wondered if he had known him. Though the airport was big. There were hundreds of people who worked there. He didn't know them all.
He stepped over the body. He told the little girl not to look as he did. She still had her face crammed into his neck and wasn't likely going to look at anything.
"All right," he said after he walked a little while longer. "I think I know where I'm going,"
The hallway looked familiar. There were a few rooms on each side of him. He thought one was a utility closet. The other, an office of some sort. He could see that the hall came to an end a little further down.
Then all of that changed.
The lights went out and Scooter couldn't see anything anymore.
"Fuck," he said.
"What happened? Where are the lights?"
"Fuck, fuck!" he said again. It wasn't much of a reply. And it probably wasn't something that he should have said to a little girl. But the words came out of his mouth without much thought. "This isn't good."
"It's not good? Why? What's wrong?"
Scooter shook his head, feeling stupid for worrying the little girl. "No, no," he tried to reassure her. "It's okay. I was just surprised, that's all."
Scooter hadn't noticed that the lights had been on to begin with. They were something that he took for granted. Now that they were off things seemed a lot more serious. He tried to keep the concern out of his voice.
"Why'd they go out?" the little girl asked.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But don't worry. We'll be okay."
Scooter placed his hand against the wall and started to walk beside it. He continued in the same direction that he had been going. He knew that the hallway came to an end. He'd just have to choose a direction to follow once he got there.
Of course, he could always go back the way that he had come
.
No, that idea didn't appeal to him at all. The creature could have come back.
"It's just like in the elbator," the little girl said.
"What?"
"The elbator," she repeated. "Everything went out in the elbator."
The elbator.
"Yeah," Scooter said. "It's just like that." But that wasn't true. The elevator had gone out a long tim
e
befor
e
the lights had. He didn't know why. He assumed that they must have been on a different part of the grid, on a separate generator. In the end, he figured that it was one more thing that didn't matter.
He kept walking until he got to the end of the hallway.
"Which way?" he asked himself.
"What?"
"Which way should we go? Left or right?"
"
Ry
e
," the little girl replied.
It seemed a good a choice as any.
Scooter kept his hand on the wall as he walked. He was worried about tripping on something…som
e
on
e
. He didn't want to fall with the girl in his arms. He couldn't risk hurting her. Or himself. He needed to move slowly. Carefully. Take his time.
His foot hit something that didn't move. He knew that it was a body. That it was dead.
He pushed down the feeling that it was going to reach up and grab him as he stepped over it. Even though he hadn't seen any of the dead bodies get up and attack anyone, he couldn't be positive that it wouldn't
.
It happened in the movies all the time.
He kept walking, his hand on the wall. He felt it run through something warm and sticky. He knew that it was blood, but he kept his hand there just the same. For some reason, he was worried that if he took it off he'd never be able to find the wall again.
That was ridiculou
s
, he told himsel
f
. The wall wasn't going anywhere. But it was better to be safe than sorry.
Scooter stopped and took a deep breath. He knew that he was letting things get to him. He was always a bit superstitious. Always afraid of horror movies; even if he always watched them.
He knew that he needed t
o
get a gri
p
, as his buddy Jones used to say.
Jones..
.
he wondered what happened to him
.
Had he changed into one of them? Probably. Had he killed some people in his building, on his street...?
Scooter tried not to think about it. He needed t
o
get a gri
p
.
He patted the little girl's head again. She was still sobbing, her face buried back into into the crook of his neck.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm scared," she said, her voice still muffled against him.
"Don't be scared. I'll take care of you."
"Who are you?"
The question was such a simple one, but it took him off guard. He had found this girl in an elevator, covered in blood, and had picked her up and run for their lives. No formalities. No pleasantries. Nothing. It never occurred to him that the little girl would be worried about that.
"I'm Scooter," he said.
"Scooter?"
"Really, it's Scott," he explained. "But everyone calls me Scooter."
"Oh," After a moment she added, "I'm Emily."
Scooter patted the back of her head once more. "It's nice to meet you, Emily. Now let's try to get out of here."
Emily rested her head back against Scooter's neck. This time she didn't cry.
*
Scooter saw a door a little further down the hallway. Everything was still dark, but he could see a light flashing through its window. It flickered every so often, passing by the opening.
Scooter knew that it was a flashlight. And that meant that someone was in there. He didn't think that it was one of those creatures
.
There was no way that they knew how to use flashlights.
He made his way to the door, keeping his hand against the wall. He walked slowly.
When he got there, he looked in the window. He could see someone on the other side. He didn't know who it was.
He thought of knocking. Or maybe just opening the door. But before he had a chance to do anything, the light stopped, pointing at his face. There was a scream from inside. It wasn't like the scream from a creature. It sounded more out of fear than anger. Whoever was inside had seen him.
He tried to open the door. It was locked and he couldn't get it to budge.
He knocked.
"It's okay," he said a little bit louder than he felt comfortable with. He raised his hand and waved to the person inside. "Open up. We're no
t
the
m
."
The flashlight didn't leave his face. He had to blink a few times as it shone in his eyes.
"Come on," he continued. "We're not going to hurt you."
The flashlight stayed pointed at him, but there was no response.
"Come on," he said again. "Hurry up!"
Eventually, the flashlight moved. Scooter thought he saw someone moving toward the door, but he wasn't sure. Stars flashed behind his eyes and it was difficult for him to see much of anything. He blinked a few more times to get them to disappear.
When he managed to get rid of most of them, he looked back into the window. Standing there was a woman. The flashlight was directly under her face. It shone shadows against it.
Scooter jumped back, frightened. It looked like a monster of some sort staring back at him. But it only took him a moment to realize that it was all just a trick of the light. Something they used to do as children to scare one another. It wasn't a monster at all.
He walked back to the window and stuck his face up against it to get a better look of who was inside.
"Julie?" he asked. "Is that you?"