It hadn’t occurred to him to examine the Tower’s entire floor plan when he came for that meeting, because he wasn’t that cripplingly paranoid. As the screams echoed up from the eighteenth floor, he rather wished he was, so that he could take the shortest route to the stairs.
As it stood, he let the screams guide him, and after a few seconds they guided him true. He rounded a corner and found a stairwell. Given the size of the floor, he was pretty sure it was one of at least two, a suspicion that was strengthened when the noise seemed to take on a double effect, as if coming from elsewhere as well.
He drew the gun, and turned around. Kiris and Jaquan caught up, breathing heavily, with sweat glistening on their brows.
“Up,” he whispered, and let them take the lead. He aimed down, towards the sounds of utter terror being largely drowned out by blind madness. Once the two were a few steps ahead he went after them.
“This way, this way, this way,” Oleg said through his speakers, drawing the mob ever upwards. “You know what, I’ll just automate this process.”
He stopped talking, and after a couple of seconds of silence his voice was replaced by a recording of a song. Gaylen didn’t understand the language, but the tune had a romantic feel to it. He wondered if it was indicative of Oleg’s sense of humour.
They hurried up to the twentieth floor, then the twenty-first, wheezing a bit louder and running a bit slower as progress was made. The horror continued to hound them, echoing up the stairwell, along with the love song.
Then, finally, they were on the twenty-second floor, where the elevator should have taken them. And that was where the stairwell ended. That was all he noticed before his attention was drawn elsewhere.
Gaylen’s mind put together a story in a second. It was about a handful of people fleeing into neighbouring elevators down near the bottom of the building, but being followed into the cars by marbozi, just before the doors closed.
That was why he was now looking at a gory scene inside and in front of four open elevators.
The effects of brown jendra had had a bit of time to affect the victims. Their system was burning up, being devoured by the sudden extreme metabolism. They were doomed, but their instinct was to do something about it.
The eating had started.
The marbozi went at their meals the same way they went at killing them: With utter frenzy, tearing into the meat with such a rush that he suspected a few of them would choke to death. Several were also playing tug of war with a body, or parts of a body, even as they gnawed away.
There were twelve of them, and Gaylen’s group stood only a few metres away. The marbozi were too engrossed in their eating to have noticed them, but that could change in a moment.
No one so much as whispered. They all just started backing away, with their respective weapons at the ready. Again, Gaylen was having to defy his instincts, as he moved slowly away from the rapidly approaching chaos.
One kneeling marbozi gave another one a swipe as they both tried to eat the same leg. The beasts let out screams, and Gaylen thought they might actually start fighting. But the hunger won out, and they continued gnawing on raw flesh with teeth that hadn’t really evolved for it.
The three of them made it around a corner, and with that they started running again. The horde got louder and louder, and so did the love song.
“We can’t keep going like this,” Jaquan hissed out in one of his wheezes.
“No,” Gaylen said.
There were thirty more floors to go, and stepping into an elevator would put them at Oleg’s mercy. And they had no chance at all of holding their ground against the marbozi.
Gaylen thought of hiding and hoping that the horde would simply pass them by. They were at the top of the trade league-owned portion of the tower, and it was some sort of centre, VIP guest area, leader residence, or something along those lines. The floor was designed to impress, and to please the senses. The walls were lined with artistic laser carvings, small trees and flowers grew out of beds in the floor, and everything was coordinated with vibrant, eye-catching colours.
There were things to duck behind, sure enough, but once hundreds or even thousands of mad beasts were running around, only a lucky roll of the dice would keep them hidden.
Past a tiny, decorative waterfall, Gaylen spotted a door that stood out through its plainness, and the neon-green colour. Upon actually looking at it, he also saw the emergency signal above it.
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“There,” he said, in a breathy gasp, and redirected to the door.
At least some of the horde was now on the twenty-second floor. He could tell by the screaming, and the stomping feet. And as he went around a row of trees and hopped over the pool for the little waterfall, a marbozi came into view.
It was a man, in one of those weird, fancy outfits. His mouth wasn’t smeared with blood, so he wasn’t from the elevators. Maybe he’d used a different route than the main bulk of the horde. Maybe he was just faster on his feet. What mattered was that he was on an intercept course.
Gaylen was at a full run. Stopping to line up a shot would eat up precious seconds. Instead he changed direction just a bit, and slid the pistol into one of the coat’s inner pockets. The marbozi zeroed in on him, coming with that clumsy ferocity.
Gaylen shifted to the left. It was about as blatant a feint as he’d ever done, but the brain-ruined monster fell for it, and Gaylen slammed into his left side. The marbozi’s wobbly balance didn’t stand a chance, and the impact sent him flying.
Gaylen continued on, and was the first to reach the door. The marbozi was already on his feet by the time Kiris and Jaquan had joined him. Three more appeared behind him, and the fates only knew how many more were just out of sight.
Beyond the door was a humble-looking stairwell, far removed from the fancy area just on the other side of the door. For just a moment, Gaylen allowed himself to think of the main entrance down on the bottom floor, and the half-finished job of cutting through the panel. But for all he knew, the area was still crawling with confused, angry marbozi, and up was the only direction that offered potential for safety.
They were up at the mid-landing, getting more worn down with every step, when the marbozi came barging through the door. They snarled and spat as they caught sight of their prey, and continued the chase.
“Oh, hell,” Gaylen growled.
They made it up to the main landing, on the twenty-third floor, with another door just like the one they’d just used.
“Go through,” he said as he drew the gun again. “Wait on either side.”
They didn’t waste time on arguments or questions. They just went through the door, and Gaylen took aim at a bloodshot face as it reached the mid-landing.
He blew another skull apart, and the marbozi right behind that one tripped over the body. Gaylen spent another bullet on the one behind that one, then hurried after Kiris and Jaquan.
The twenty-third floor seemed to be some sort of business mall. There were spread-out seating areas, each by a cooking hut, and display windows and hologram stands. But it was after hours, and everything was sealed off, and at minimum lighting.
“Cane,” Gaylen said, and held his hand out.
Kiris handed the weapon over. Gaylen gripped it with both hands and took her place next to the door. Jaquan was opposite him, ready with the wrench, and Gaylen mimed his intentions. They only had to wait seconds before the door was thrown open. Gaylen swung the cane low and tripped up the leading marbozi. The beast fell on its face, and Jaquan greeted the second through the door with a wrench-blow.
There was a meaty cracking noise, but the marbozi was staggered rather than slain, and Gaylen struck it as well. Now it fell, but the first marbozi twisted around and grabbed Gaylen by the leg.
Jaquan hit the marbozi, and Kiris gave it a kick, but it retained a crushing grip and bowled Gaylen over. He jabbed the cane at it, striking it right in the jaw. Jaquan smacked it in the back of the head, but still the monster held on. Its hands travelled up Gaylen’s body as if it was climbing a wall, going for the head area. Gaylen remembered the security guard’s fate, and tried to wriggle out, but the marbozi’s body was being pushed far beyond any normal limits.
Jaquan hit it a third time, and still the damn thing wouldn’t quite die. Gaylen dropped the cane and brought out his folding knife. He ran it over the marbozi’s wrist, and evidently severed enough soft stuff to turn its grip limp. He held its other arm, then rammed the blade into the beast’s eye. Jaquan put all his strength into a blow into the back of its head, and finally the marbozi’s regeneration was overpowered.
Gaylen pushed the body away, Kiris picked up her cane, and they continued on. The scouts were dealt with, but a main body was coming, drawn by the noise.
They were quick to break line of sight with the door, and after that the darkness guided them. The low lighting felt like their best shot right now, and so they stuck to it, steering around softly glowing bars as best they could. Gaylen heard the mob come in, and their snarling and shouting quickly became a near-deafening echo.
The three of them stepped lightly, to the best of their abilities, and cut around outlets and food courts, doing anything and everything to make the marbozi lose the trail. But there would be more marbozi, and more and more, and somewhere on this floor there would be another stairwell, connecting to the floor below.
“This one,” Jaquan gasped, and stepped up to a small storefront. Any displays that might have shown what it actually sold were inactive, but what appealed was the flimsy lock on the door.
The man brought his cutter out yet again and put the flame against it. Gaylen worried about the hissing sound, but it was a quick job, and in mere moments they were all inside. It was a swing door, and Gaylen pushed it closed with the tenderness he would have held a newborn baby with.
He heard no sound at all as the door met the jamb. Then he just kept his fingers pressed against the flat surface. He didn’t actually know if it would swing in on its own if let go, but this was not the time to find out. He just stood there, playing a doorstop in complete blackness, as the marbozi grew louder and louder.
The beasts spread out, still seeking any possible outlet for their fury, seeking prey. There was a grotesque effectiveness to brown jendra. Its victims flowed like water into any crevice, until they found something to stop them. Or at least occupy them for a bit. Then they moved on.
But they didn’t come to the door. Gaylen heard them pass by, and they did not have the brainpower to tell that it had been cut open. This one flimsy, unlockable door stood between them and certain death.
But for the moment, and in a very loose sense of the concept, they were safe.