There was a lot to do, and not enough time to do it all.
Gaylen walked around the immediate area, taking in the openings that the marbozi would be able to use once they breached the doors. He did quick assessments of the available materials, as well as how long it would take to put each of them to use, and made judgement calls. Meanwhile, Kiris strode around, activating what lights she could find, and bringing out tools on Gaylen’s orders. Jaquan worked on his battery project, and Manvis lay where he was and seemed to be trying to bug his eyeballs out of their sockets. Gaylen couldn’t blame him. The gathering storm of screams and blows was stressful enough without being immobilised.
East of the elevator area was a flight of stairs leading up. It didn’t go up to the proper floor above, but to a low-ceilinged bonus floor within the twenty-sixth floor. Perhaps it had been a little extra office space, or something.
He ran up and found a row of small, empty rooms, then around a turn he found one final room, and then finally a doorway that led to a similar balcony area on the other side. It gave a view over the wider floor, and he shone a light in search of another set of stairs. He found one, added that fact to his calculations, and hurried back down.
Then there were four other entrances, to what Gaylen was thinking of as their fort. Two were on each side of the elevators themselves. A third one was directly in front of them. And the fourth was the doorway they’d come through.
Gaylen grabbed a wall section small enough for him to pick up, carried it over to the doorway, and placed it across.
“Kiris!”
She came running, and had in her hand a construction glue gun. She squeezed the trigger, and the spray went a little off-course due to her overdoing it. But the Chanei managed to mostly stick to the edges of the section, sticking it in place against the wall. Gaylen then stepped up to one of the printers and took a hold of it.
“Lift on the other end,” he said.
“You’re three times stronger than me, Gaylen,” Kiris said, although she did move into position.
“Just a few metres,” he said, and indicated with his head. “Just an inch or so off the ground.”
He lifted, and after a couple of seconds of groaning and contorting her face, Kiris picked up the other end. She held her breath and clenched her jaw as they awkwardly moved the machine to the hallway west of the elevators. Gaylen moved so that it would block as much of the hallway as possible.
“Here. No, wait! I have an idea!”
They carried the printer a little bit further, then let it slam down. It reached up to low chest height. Climbing over it would be awkward for the clumsy marbozi, but they would do it. Moving around it on either side required putting one’s back against the wall, but they would probably get through that way as well, eventually.
“It will take more,” she said.
“I know. Spray some more gunk.”
He pointed to the top of the printer, then hurried to fetch a tool cabinet. He rolled it over to the printer, then reached deep within for strength before lifting it up and on top of the machine. It now made for a much better block.
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Next they went together to the eastern entrance by the elevators, close to where Jaquan was working. They wheeled one of the larger ones into the hallway, Kiris sprayed glue on the floor, then a quick deadlift slammed the case down diagonally. They fetched another one, and with another deep effort, they got it to tip on top of the other one, and the layer of glue Kiris had given it.
Gaylen didn’t actually know how quickly that stuff hardened. Construction hadn’t featured much in his life. But surely it would help.
There was one remaining large printer, but he had another idea for it, and so pushed another of the big cases into the entrance instead.
“Gum up the wheels,” he said, and hurried to fetch another one.
The two weren’t enough to fill up the opening, but by keeping them out of contact with both each other and the wall, the three openings were quite narrow.
Next he fetched print blocks and had Kiris glue them in place between the cases. He ignored the strain on his body, a task made easier by the chemically-induced energy and sense of lightness. He just fetched another block, and another, until each opening had a two-block stack to further hinder progress.
They moved the other printer, and put it against the wall section that blocked the western door. They dragged more wall sections to the southern entrance and braced them against the blocks already in place, helped by yet more glue.
And for the final entrance, he picked up one of the smaller type of cases. Of course, ‘small’ was a relative term when filled with metal objects. He got it up on his shoulder, and strode up the stairs with heavy, thumping footsteps. It all took much longer than he was comfortable with, but the door to the other side of the balcony hadn’t been removed yet. Kiris smeared glue in the jambs and closed the door, then smeared some more on the floor, and Gaylen slammed the case down. It only covered about a fourth of the door, but at least opening it would be a challenge.
“You mentioned an idea earlier,” Kiris said as they ran down. “What was it?”
“Wire,” he said, and snatched up a spool of the stuff, as well as a pair of cutters. “Come on.”
He took it to the north-west hallway. The renovations had exposed the plumbing, and he quickly tied the end of the wire to a pipe, at about shin-height, then dragged it across, tied it in place there as well, then made a cut.
“Right,” Kiris said. “They’re dumb.”
“They’re dumb.”
He went to the north-east entrance, and repeated the trick. Jaquan ignored him, absorbed in his task, as he damn well should be. Next, Gaylen stretched a length across the bottom of the stairs. Then he stood up, and allowed himself a single, strengthening breath.
There were more possibilities. More stacking could be done. Gaylen might stretch wires in other places, or try his hand at booby trapping, or see about repeating the comm trick. But the sound of the marbozi din had changed. Somewhere, they had breached the locked doors.
They were coming.
“Thirteen minutes.”
Gaylen picked up the sledgehammer, and gave it an experimental swing. Kiris gave the simple cutter controls another look-over. They shared one last glance, then spread out a little to cover a larger area.
“I’ll just… be over here,” Manvis said, and crawled awkwardly to the elevators.
“You do that,” Gaylen told him.
Screeching voices and stomping feet echoed between stripped walls, floors and ceilings, making directions a bit vague. Gaylen kept to the western part of their makeshift fortress, close to Jaquan and the work that was their only hope. Kiris was over to the west, visible but dim.
Gaylen thought of the time they’d spent together at that hotel room mere hours ago, once all the games and roleplaying was done with. When they’d just lain and relaxed together, happy with each other’s silent support against life’s hardships.
The screaming spread around. The confused monsters that Oleg had created out of human beings were swarming around in the darkness, looking for something to hurt, something to eat. The moment was coming when one of them would be drawn to the hints of light, or the sounds of Jaquan’s work, and come at them with a scream. Those near to the screamer would be drawn in its wake, and the effect would spread like ripples through water.
“Eleven minutes,” Jaquan said.
The din spread around, and the clock of probability ticked down until it reached zero. The angry scream of discovery came, and the siege began.