It stayed like that for a while. Gaylen’s world was darkness, the laboured breathing of his two comrades, and the dreadful noises on the other side of the door.

It didn’t sound like the entire horde was passing by. Some had no doubt stayed behind on other floors, or were busy eating, or were making use of another stairwell. But they were surely a couple of hundred, at least.

The noise reached a long, drawn-out crescendo, as the bulk of the horde moved about, then gradually softened a bit. Jaquan dared activate the softest of lights, just enough to make out the silhouettes of their surroundings. Kiris picked up a box of some sort and carried it over. She placed it up against the door with the same baby-carrying caution as Gaylen had shown.

Gaylen slowly released his grip, and when the door stayed closed he took a few steps back.

There was a desk, or possibly a printer or some other mercantile device. The important thing was that it was good for sitting on, and they all rested their feet. They all also kept their eyes glued on the door, and their weapons at the ready.

Gaylen went into his coat and took out a nutrition bar, which inspired the others to do the same. It brought strength back to his body, even as he hated the soft crinkling of the packaging. Sound was the enemy right now.

He didn’t keep track of time. Maybe it had been fifteen minutes of this. Maybe thirty. But the marbozi weren’t going away. At least a couple of dozen of them were still out in the mall area, seemingly just ambling around in the angry confusion that was now their existence.

Then the banging started. The first time it was distant enough that Gaylen wasn’t even sure he’d really heard it. But a short while later he heard it again. Someone was walking up to doors and beating at them. After a little while, Gaylen actually thought there might be more than one, going around on individual initiative and seeking entrance anywhere they might find it.

“We can’t just stay here,” he whispered.

“No,” Kiris said.

She stood up.

“But what? What do we do?”

“Unless you have better ideas, we continue heading up,” Gaylen said. “We escape via the roof.”

“I have nothing better,” Jaquan said.

“Then we go.”

Gaylen stood up, and Jaquan did as well. It was time for the pills, and they each took one. It was the sort that could save one’s life, but was best saved for emergencies.

Fresh energy flooded Gaylen’s system, sharpening his mind and electrifying his limbs. It would all come at a cost later on. These things were best saved for emergencies.

“We are all scared,” Kiris said.

She looked ghostly in Jaquan’s soft light. Ghostly, but sincere. Her armour was down, in one of those rare instances outside of their private time.

“We are all scared. Let’s just acknowledge it.”

Gaylen and Jaquan looked at her, and each other.

“Yeah,” Jaquan whispered. “Of course we’re scared.”

He held his right hand out to Gaylen, who took it. Gaylen took Kiris’s hand, and she in turn took Jaquan’s other hand. For a couple of breaths they just stood there, squeezing, and looking each other in the face.

But the banging outside continued, and the window to act was closing. Gaylen let go, and turned to the door. With a bit of luck they just might make it unseen to the nearest stairwell, travelling by the darker spots of this floor.

But blind luck was a hell of a thing to rely on when one’s life was at stake. It was always best to push it along by yourself. To add an edge to the equation, no matter how slim.

Gaylen let all the available factors run through his mind. And a solution emerged. He took out his comm, adjusted the settings, then put it behind the counter.

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“Kiris, give me yours.”

She obeyed, although she looked a bit confused.

He stuck it in a pocket close to the gun. He left the weapon where it was. The noise of it would be more dangerous than the two more marbozi it could kill before running dry.

“Let’s do i-”

One of them was coming. The beating against a neighbouring door had ceased, and now those stomping, clumsy footsteps were coming their way. Gaylen’s hopes that the beast would just amble off in some other random direction were in vain. It was getting closer, and seconds after that became undeniable they heard pummelling against the nearest neighbouring door. There was no way they would be able to sneak out without being spotted by the marbozi. It wasn’t that dark.

“Don’t let it scream,” he whispered. Then he waited. He didn’t have to do it for long.

The marbozi staggered over, grumbling and growling under its breath, and stopped in front of their door. The box that was acting as their doorstop was blown away at the first rough push, and the marbozi stumbled inside, thrown off what little balance it had left.

Gaylen immediately punched it in the throat. He kept on punching without skipping a beat, connecting solidly with its jaw once, twice, thrice. The marbozi let out a subdued, angry croak as it went down. Jaquan stepped up and smacked it in the head. Kiris brought her cane down a moment later. Then Jaquan again, followed by Kiris again.

The beast stopped moving, and for a few seconds the three of them were just as still and quiet as the body at their feet.

There were no sudden screams out in the darkened mall. No rushing feet.

With that, Gaylen stopped wasting time and carefully poked his head out. He could glimpse shambling bodies here and there, beneath the glowing light bars, but the three of them were on a bit of an island.

He said nothing. Just moved on light feet, and the others followed. The thumping feet and incessant noisemaking of the marbozi were finally good for something. It guided the trio around them. It was a nerve-wracking experience, and luck still had a part to play, but they were making progress.

They were by one of the dining areas when they heard multiple marbozi approaching from up ahead. The nearest cover was a waist-high wall around much of the dining area, so they went behind it and crouched. A group of perhaps five marbozi went past with angry, jittery movements. They continued on, until their footsteps were muffled by a corner, and Gayled didn’t wait any longer before getting the others moving again.

Signs pointed towards the main stairwell, and after perhaps two more minutes of movement Gaylen knew they were almost here. But up ahead, around the stairwell itself, were the sounds of quite a few marbozi.

There was a shallow side-hallway. It probably led to toilets, or a storage area. It was unlit, and served as a decent hiding spot. The three of them crouched down in its darkness, and listened. Some of the monsters were ambling around the stairs, while others were actually in them, either down below or up. And of course there were yet more beyond, on the other half of the floor.

Gaylen took Kiris’s comm out and put his edge into play.

“Hello.”

His voice was a whisper, but the volume on his own comm was cranked way up, and it carried all the way out from behind that desk, out of the little store, and to the staircase area.

“Hello, hello, hello, over here, over here.”

It was like a spark falling on liquid fuel. The marbozi found their fury again and charged towards the sound. Their screaming attracted others, beyond the range of the broadcast voice, and Gaylen kept on speaking empty words as a river of barely-visible bodies rushed by. Many stumbled, or were thrown to the floor in the crush, and others in turn tripped over them. None of them cared, not even those being crushed by running feet. They all just kept on going, shouting for blood.

For a few seconds it looked like it might not even pass. Like he had set off an avalanche, and now the entire horde would be called from above and below, drawn by the distant screams of fellows who in turn were drawn by distant screams. But finally the flow did stop, and they looked out at an empty hallway.

It was a window, and Gaylen didn’t dare give it a chance to close. The mass that had just charged by would not be satisfied with an empty room for long, even if violent chaos would reign around the entrance for a while. He led the trio out of the hallway, and spotted a single marbozi on their left.

It had been badly trampled, and the regeneration, it seemed, didn’t knit bones back together correctly. But the monster still crawled after its fellows, hell-bent on killing. It didn’t turn at the sound of their steps, and Gaylen kept on whispering into the comm.

They made it to the stairwell and went on up. Gaylen exchanged the comm for the knife.

The twenty-third floor seemed to be another commercial zone, and had clearly been emptied out by the lure. They continued up to the twenty-fourth, and found a floor lit only by emergency lighting. It was the same for the twenty-fifth, and by then they were hearing the cries of the main bulk of the horde. They were still in motion, it seemed, but Gaylen couldn’t help but worry about stragglers, like ones they’d just had to get around.

The din was only louder up on the twenty-sixth, and even more on the twenty-seventh. Maybe they’d hit an obstacle, like a sealed door that could actually hold them back. Or maybe survivors or building residents were managing some sort of stand.

Gaylen didn’t care. He cared about getting around them.

He signalled for the other two to stay back a bit as he ascended to the twenty-eighth floor. The main horde was perhaps three more floors up. It was hard to be sure, what with the echoes. But he felt he detected something through it. Something closer.

He took the last few steps at a crawling pace, and doubt faded fast. He heard eating.