Chapter 2: Cowardice

Jim may have looked a little cool, stepping through the Jim-sized hole in the rear wall and dusting himself off like nothing had happened, but there was no fooling anyone's eyes. He was clearly badly hurt by the orcs chest-high kick, and blood was freely flowing out the corner of his mouth.

In terms of sheer strength, it looks that even this mountain of a man is out-matched by the hulking orc, and Jim clearly knows this too. It’s written all over his face. Never-the-less, he dragged himself back before the monster… Why? For our sakes? I doubt it. I don’t even know the guy. Is he just brave?

“You guys should go while you have the chance”, Jim said while spitting blood to his left, “I’ll keep him busy--”

“Like hell--”, Harry barks before catching a glance from the orc and falling timid.

“Gac Gac Gac”, the orc laughs again at the sight of Harry’s cowardice before folding its arms and leaning on its back leg.

It’s certainly patient… More importantly, it seems to understand what's going on without understanding us... It’s intelligent!

“Just go!”, Jim shouts, “This way… I’m buying you a chance. I’ll follow along. So fuck off already.”

Steve and Harry share a look between each other, neither saying anything before eventually nodding.

“You three”, Harry points over at John, Hannah and myself, “Come on. We’ve to go.”

John looks to Hannah before nodding and beginning to pull her towards the door. At first, she let herself be dragged, but pulled free to push John away and scream out.

“S-seriously!? You’re all going to abandon him!? Isn’t he your friend!? What the hell is wrong with you!? You! You're all cowards!”

She clutched her chest and stared daggers at Harry.

“W-What? Are you serious right now?”, Harry looked at her with disbelief, “This coming from the bitch who has done fuck all but squeal in the corner!? You’re calling me a coward!? Why don’t you fucking fight him then, huh? Go on! Show us how this shits done--”

The orc grunts, clearly displeased, causing Harry and Hannah to shut up immediately.

“...Tch. Come, stay. I really don’t give a shit”, Harry turns and heads for the door, pausing for a moment as he reaches the door, “Jim. Don’t make it easy for him.”

“Yeah. I’ve no intention. Jog on then, will you.”

“Right… Don’t keep us waiting.”

And just like that, Harry and Steve were gone.

Standing there, jaw slightly ajar, it only took me three seconds to decide to chase after them. Putting the guilt of leaving a man behind to die for me to the very back of my mind as I feverishly chased after the two, desperate not to be left behind to fend for myself and not even thinking about John and Hannah.

I’ve known those two for years, yet easily I left them behind. Something inside just knew staying with those two would be a death sentence. I need to follow Harry and Steve. I need to survive!

As I continue to chase Harry and Steve's shadows, I couldn’t help but feel dirty and ashamed. I’d willingly sacrificed someone to save my own skin. Just who am I?

“We should probably avoid the elevator and take the stairs”, Steve said over to Harry as we continued to run through the corridors as fast as possible.

“I was thinking the same…”, Harry stopped suddenly and scratched his face, “But this is the sixtieth floor. Taking the stairs is going to be hell. Maybe... We take the old service elevator down to the basement and exit out the garage?”

Steve nodded back, “Good idea. The service elevators aren’t far from here either.”

“What if the basement is full of monsters?” I muttered, not expecting to be heard.

“The service elevator isn’t like the elevators in the lobby.”, Harry scowled, “It has that old-style metal gate on it that needs to be closed and opened by hand. It’ll prevent any monsters rushing into us and give us time to escape back up the shaft’s emergency ladder if needed. Come, don’t come. I genuinely don’t care.”

“I-I’ll go. S-sorry”, I barely spat out the words before the two capable people started running again, leaving me to chase after them like some lost puppy.

Lost puppy? I guess that’s pretty apt. I can’t help but feel lost and out of my depth. I’m not like them at all. I’m struggling to just keep my mind from shattering. There’s just too much I don’t understand. Too much that I feel I need to understand. I’m barely managing to keep up with all this!

I always thought I was this dependable guy. I had this crystal clear mental image that I was strong, capable and able to grab the bull by the damn horns. Yet here I am, practically about to burst into tears and full of fear! Is this really who I am!? Is this the real me? It’s not! I’ve got to get it together!

“Alright! It seems the elevator still has power. Just need to wait for it to come up”, Steve states while peering down the shaft.

“Then we should rest”, Harry replies as he leans against the far wall and bends down to hug his knees and panting loudly.

Steve nods and sits beside the elevator, “You think Jim got away?”

“I don’t know. Hard to imagine him croaking.”

They both fall silent… I get it. I do. But...

“S-should we be resting?” I say nervously.

“Seriously?”, Harry barks, “We’re waiting on the elevator. What would you rather be doing?!”

“S-sorry... It’s just--”

“It just fucking what!?”

That we’ve run into a dead-end? That we’re not watching for that big orc or its friends? That we’re too loud? That the elevator is climbing at a snail's pace? That it’s really noisy and advertising where we are? That we have no weapons to defend ourselves? Take your damn pick! ...Is want I wanted to say.

“Shh”, Steve waves his hands to get our attention, “I hear something.”

Now he mentions it, so do I. Like a buzzing sound? Sort of like a fly, maybe?

...Oh god. How large must it be to be this audible from so far away!

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“I hear it too? Where’s it coming from?”, Harry calls over to Steve.

“It’s in the elevator shaft”, I muttered, slightly annoyed that I foresaw something like this happening.

Steve sticks his head into the shaft, looking down at the rising elevator, “I think it’s coming from the elevator shaft--”

It was instantaneous. Blink and you would have missed it. Before Steve could finish his sentence, his head was flung upwards from his shoulders. To land and roll across the floor like some sort of odd-shaped bowling ball. His body falling suddenly limp and down onto its knees before dropping inwards into the elevator shaft.

Even Harry could not bring out words at what had unfolded.

We shared a glance, and that one moment was enough. A heavy thud rang out as Steve’s lifeless body hit the rising elevator and we both instinctively knew what the other was thinking, and we pegged it.

Whatever killed Steve was fast. Faster than the time it takes light to reach the eyes. Just like the orc before, there was no fighting it. We can only try to run. I need to run. Run faster than I ever have and hope that’s fast enough. Run and run and never look back.

“The stairs. Get to the stairs!”, Harry shouts from behind me.

Like he needed to tell me. I was already pelting it in that direction!

I crashed through the door and halted immediately. The buzzing isn’t getting louder. I don’t think it’s following us… Yeah, right. Stopping here? Not a chance. I’ll stop when my heart stops and not before!

Up or down.. Up or down? What am I even saying? Down!

One flight, two, six, ten, twenty, thirty, thirty-three--

“I can’t. I can't! We need to stop. I can’t breathe”, Harry shouts, “Just. Just for a minute. Yea?”

I stop and nod back at him while taking a seat on one of the steps as Harry does the same. I don’t hear the fly monster, so stopping for a second should be fine, especially when the alternative is going on alone.

It’s funny. While I was running with all my might, my mind cleared and even though I was fleeing for my life, I felt calmer than ever. But now that I’ve stopped, I’m terrified again. My mind is racing at a hundred miles a second and I can’t keep a single thought straight--

“You some kind of athlete?”, Harry asks, dabbing the sweat from his brow with the coat-tails of his loose shirt.

“I work out, but not all that often. If I’m honest.”

“Sure. You could give Usain Bolt a run for his money. I’ve never seen anyone run that fast and you barely looked like you were trying.”

Indeed, I’m barely sweating, but I really was running full tilt. I think you’re just unfit Harry if I’m honest… Not that I’ll say that out loud.

“W-well. I’ve always enjoyed running.”

Harry lets out a slight chuckle before rubbing his temples and exhaling loudly, “Even if we get out of this building. If it’s like this everywhere--”

“I was thinking the same. There’s likely nowhere safe anymore, right?”

Harry nods at me with a gloomy expression.

“I think… I think it might be best to aim to get out of the city as quickly as possible! There’s that military base off the A12, heading there is probably the best thing to do.”

Harry’s ears perked for a moment as he seemed to ponder my words, “That’s not a bad idea?”

Was that a question? And why does he look surprised?

“Right? W-We should probably keep moving...”

“Ah. Right. Let’s go.”

He nodded back before using the railing to pull himself up and letting out a long breath. Harry clearly wasn’t looking forward to resuming our previous pace and was psyching himself up.

We descended the remaining stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. It was exhausting, but we made it to the ground floor without encountering any orcs or fly monsters. This left us with a choice to make. We could continue to descend to the basement and exit through the parking garage, or head through the lobby.

Neither option sounded like a good idea. The parking garage was dark, and I was certain it was where the fly monster that killed Steve had come from; but counter to that, the lobby was wide and bright with little cover to hide behind, making you an easy target.

These were our only visible options.

Without pausing for a second, Harry thought it was best to take the garage route and took off down the remaining steps. Failing any solid reason to disagree with him, I found myself being swept along with another of his decisions.

And so we both descended and entered the garage.

This place had always put me on edge. After being mugged at knifepoint on three separate occasions, you naturally avoid visiting dark and unsettling places unless absolutely necessary. I mean, I even park fifteen minutes out of the way every morning to avoid parking here. Honestly, knowing how terrifying the dark can be when it was just other humans you had to worry about, why did I think it would be any better now? Now the world is full of bloody monsters; it can only be worse!

“There’s that buzzing again”, Harry said as he crouched down low to lean up against a car, gesturing for me to duck down too.

The moment my brain registered the request. A giant red X appeared in my mind.

Nope. Just nope. Screw this.

I don’t care if I’m going it alone. Triple fucking ‘Nope’!

“H-hey! Where are you going?!”, Harry screams in a whisper as loudly as he can back at me as I silently sprint back towards the stairwell.

I am not risking my life here. No way. No how. I’ll take my chances in the lobby. At least if something kills me up there, I’ll see it coming. It’s pitch black in here. Half the lights are either flickering or just plain out. And that’s not even mentioning the stench of blood and piss that fills the nostrils, or that buzzing sound! Nope! Just fucking no!

“Hey!”, Harry finally catches up to me and swings me around, “What are you doing!?”

“I’m going through the bloody lobby”, I replied with heavy sarcasm, “I’m not going in there. No way, no how. No matter what you have to say on it. If I’m going to be killed, I at least want to know by what!”

Harry looked at me, wide-eyed, “Okay… O-Okay. T-Then I guess we take the lobby.”

I didn’t answer, instead, choosing to sprint back up the stairs to peer into the lobby through the stairwell door’s little window. After a couple of minutes, Harry comes panting up behind me.

“Didn’t feel like waiting?”, He says gritting his teeth, forcing a breath through them before spitting, “Forget it. How’s it look?”

“Like a war zone.”

“Worse than upstairs?”

“A lot worse.”

There are bodies everywhere. At least I’m assuming all that gore is from multiple bodies. Blood cakes all the walls and floors in almost equal measure, and the stench of shit and ammonia is completely over-powering the thick and heavy scent of irony-blood that’s mixed in. It’s a smell I can’t understand and is vomit-inducing all by itself.

“What about monsters?”

“None. From what I can tell anyway.”

“Hm. Maybe they moved on?”

Possible. If there’s nothing left to kill, it makes sense that the monsters would move on, but it also means they’ve killed hundreds of people out there. Dark to think about, though certainly explains the smell.

“Could be. Should… we go?”, I ask nervously, feeling terrified once again.

“Yeah. No point idling here. It’s just asking for trouble. I’ll… go first.”

I nod and hold the door open only long enough for him to pass through and for me to attach myself firmly to his shadow.

We slowly and silently crept at a snail's pace through the corridor, past the elevators and out into the glass-walled large open room.

The street was right there, in plain sight, but even the slightest sound made us both pause dead, seeking out its source before giving each other a nod to move onwards.

As we continued forward, petrified of our own shadows and footsteps, I couldn’t help but realise that for all Harry’s earlier bravado and commanding presence, when it comes down to it, he’s just like me. Sure, he’s clearly handling this whole thing better, but we’re not as different as I first thought… Maybe he’ll let me stick with him once we get out of here?

“The exit’s just up ahead”, Harry said in a whisper, “Then it’s out onto the street. From there...”

From there? Hm.

“If the roads are clear, my car is just down the street”, I whisper back, “If not, we should head to the river. See if there’s a moored boat--”

“Boat?”, Harry stops and cups his chin before nodding, “Ah yeah. Why didn’t I think of that!”

Harry forgets himself and his voice carries and echos out across the room.

“Shh!”

That was too loud. I made the same mistake as Harry and my effort in quieting him rings out as well. We share a concerned look before charging over and ducking down behind the reception counter, holding our hands over our mouths.

That was stupid! Completely stupid! What are we? Tourists!? School kids out on a field trip? For the love of Pete, what is wrong with us?!

“I think we’re okay”, Harry states in a whisper, popping his head over the counter to look out around the room. Having seen the dangers of sticking one’s neck out after the Steve incident, I’m surprised he would--

Harry’s head flies off his shoulders and bounces off the rear wall and rolls back to land at my feet.

OH MY GOD! Again!? It happened again?!

I do all I can to keep myself from freaking out, but I fail miserably.

I try to get up, but my legs just won’t get under me and I flail about like a fish out of water.

I somehow manage to get up on my knees and charge off back towards the stairwell, not even for a second turning to look behind me to see who or what killed Harry.

Somehow, I make it to the stairwell and begin charging up the stairs as fast as possible.

One flight, two flights, ten, fifteen, twenty-eight, thirty-four, fifty-two, the roof. Open. Open dammit! OPEN ALREADY FOR FUCK SAKE!!

Finally, it opens.

The fire exit to the roof swings open and a run-out, slamming the door firmly behind me and collapsing against it.

They’re dead. They’re all dead. The digital teams, Bob, Sarah, Jim, Hannah and John, then Steve, and now Harry. I’m the only one left.

I’m alone... I’m alone! I’m alone!? I’m… not alone.