The stairwell was as dark and looming as it was before. The girl turned on her small flashlight so she wouldn’t end up tumbling down the stairs. To be safe, she made sure to stay a good ways behind John and Emily so they wouldn’t notice her. It quickly became apparent, however, that her precautions were not entirely necessary as John and Emily were quite loud.

The metal sled scraped and banged with each step. The acoustics of the enclosed stairwell didn’t help much either.

Were we really this loud on the way up? the girl thought to herself.

“You alright?” John said below, interrupting her train of thought.

“I…” Emily hesitantly responded, “I wish we could’ve stayed with her at least until the end…”

John sighed, “The rust is already leaking all over the tent. These suits aren’t doing too hot either. Sooner or later we would’ve accidentally infected her. Every step we take is toxic. Even right now, we could be inoculating the ground as we go.”

“Yeah I know,” Emily responded. “But, that girl…” She sighed again, “Her parents left her behind… and now we’re doing the same too.”

“I’m sure she understands why.” John said.

“There’s a difference between understanding and feeling.” Emily replied, panting a bit from the exertion. “...You still feel it… that feeling of being left behind… even if it makes sense…”

They grew silent as they continued the walk.

The girl sniffled a bit as she followed in the darkness. Wishes for eternity swirled within her as she went.

When they reached the halfways point, they finally stopped for a rest. The girl’s legs wobbled under her. It was easier going down than up, but she was still tired from all the jogging from the previous day.

She sat down on the landing above the two adults and reached out with her mind, trying to emulate that woman on that platform in the ocean. She couldn’t really tell if it was working… but then, she felt it. Two weary souls in the darkness. Two intents only, wishing only for rest and perhaps some food. John and Emily.

So they were alone for now.

Even so, she could still feel the darkness looming above, giving her a great sense of unease. Perhaps a hand would reach out from the landing door next to her and snatch her away before she could scream. Even though John and Emily were nearby, their torchlights didn’t reach her. She sat in the darkness.

The two adults ripped open some ration packs and began eating. This feat was no easy task. They had actually stored the food in their suits next to their bodies beforehand. They had to retract their arms close to themselves and wiggle about to get the food pack before opening it all within their suit.

The girl carefully opened a small box with leftovers from yesterday and began eating quietly.

“You think we’re going to find anything out there?” Emily’s voice came from below.

“Honestly?” John’s voice came out muffled as he was presumably talking while chewing. “I doubt it. Earlier generation nanomachine doses have mostly been recalled, the rest have probably been looted.”

“And even if we do find some…” Emily’s voice trailed off.

“Yep… pretty much.” John mused out loud. “The last dose only lasted like what? Four days? These new nanomachines are growing resistant to the old ones.”

“...do you think we should call it?” Emily asked.

“Call it?” John asked, then after a pause: “Oh.”

“We’ve already said our goodbyes to the girl, we can just find somewhere high enough and…”

“Not yet Em… just a bit longer.” John said abruptly, the girl could suddenly hear fear in his voice. “Please.

“Let’s just… see what we can find ok?” came the response.

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence broken only by hacking coughs every now and again from Emily.

The rest of the trip down was largely uneventful. The girl scanned their surroundings every few floors, but then stopped about ten floors down as she had started to get woozy. Each landing was more or less the same, though some had the doors propped open while others were missing doors entirely. In contrast to the bright hallways near the top, those at the bottom were shrouded in darkness. Looking down one of the halls the girl couldn’t help but feel prickles on the back of her neck, it was almost as if she was staring down a deep chasm looking to suck her in.

She did find an abandoned cleaning cart though. She grabbed some trash bags and towels from it and stuffed them into her pockets. Pretty useful stuff.

“Hold up!” John’s voice rang out.

Emily hacked and coughed a bit before clearing her throat. “Is that blood on the ground or is that just my own face window?”

“Definitely blood on the ground… a few days old too.”

The girl peeked down the side of the stairs. They were at the last set of stairs leading to the first floor. The door to the stairwell was nowhere to be found. In fact, the doorframe was slightly distorted too. The two were now crouched near the bottom. There was a splotch of blood at the bottom with a trail that looked like something had been dragged out through the opening.

John and Emily were now whispering at each other. The girl crept closer. They peered out the doorway into the lobby entrance.

“Wait, look over there!” came Emily’s voice in a harsh whisper. “Is that…?”

“A… katana…? Oh…”

“Well I guess that’s one less problem to worry about, huh?”

“That’s one way to look at it…” John leaned out of the doorway. “Whatever it was, looks like it’s long gone now.”

“Alright, we should probably get out of here then.”

The girl watched as they unpacked their packs from the sled and shouldered them. As they stepped out through the doorway she pondered if she should return to the roof now. Or maybe she could reveal herself for a last goodbye?

“Oof look at those elevator doors. Don’t wanna fall down there,” came Emily’s voice.

The girl carefully tip-toed down the stairs avoiding the blood splotches on the ground the best that she could. She shivered and suppressed the rising acid in the back of her throat.

“The blood trail leads here,” John said. “Whatever dragged him down there must have been huge, cuz… well that guy was morbid, and I mean morbidly obese.””

Behind you.

Like a whisper in the back of her head, the voice spoke to the girl. She turned her head. The stairs leading to the basement gaped at her.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Then… the blackness shifted, and the sound of numerous bare limbs padding against the hard floor crept toward her.

run… RUN. IT IS HERE!

The girl stumbled out of the doorway.

“Whoa! Hey!” Emily looked up as she caught sight of the girl. “What are you doing here?”

“Quick! Hide!” the girl whispered furiously at them, running past them and ducking behind the service desk.

“Wha-” John started to say, but Emily grabbed his hand and pulled him along to join the girl. The girl then poked her head out slightly to look.

“Ok what?” Emily started, glaring at the girl. “What’s happening-ggG…? OH MY GOD!” Emily gasped as she noticed a massive cluster of limbs appear in the entrance to the stairwell.

It appeared one spindle-like arm on another spindle-like arm at a time. Each hand and foot appeared to have grown five arms each. Arms sprouted from its eyes and mouths as well. There were arms and hands everywhere. It moved gracefully, like a massive fleshy spider: each move seemed deliberate and calculated. As it eased itself into the lobby, it made no sound.

The original body seemed to be composed of two people fused together upside down as if they were doing an elaborate handstand… which wasn’t entirely inaccurate. It had other arms sprouting from its chests and abdomens. The girl saw what looked like a pair of flabby new arms wobbling about near where their torsos joined.

It was almost as if they had been grafted on only recently…

As each hand cascaded quietly onto the soft carpet of the lobby, they kneaded the rich carpet as if relishing in its softness. Another cascade of arms and then it halted. Each of its heads rotated, their hands caressing the air as if feeling for something. This is when the girl noticed the dark holes covering the appendages that sprouted from the creature’s eyes and mouths. The fleshy cavities caused the girl to shiver in disgust.

“What’s happening?” John whispered to her, snapping her out of her reverie.

The creature jerked its arms toward them.

“Shhh…!” the girl sank back behind the counter next to him and held a finger up to her lips. They held their breaths, hoping the creature would go away. The girl waited until she could hold her breath no longer, then slowly sucked in a pocket of air.

Silence.

She peeked out again from the side. The creature was gone.

Suddenly she felt a hand covering her mouth. She almost screamed… but it was only John.

Then she noticed Emily pointing upward.

The creature was there right above her, arms grasping at the air. Somehow, it had crawled partially onto the reception desk without making a single sound. It did not appear to have any eyes, but the strange hole covered arms were getting closer and closer to them with each breath they took.

John carefully grabbed a glass cup from under the reception desk and threw it toward one of the hallways off to the side. The creature flinched as the glass shattered, twitching its body in that direction… but it didn’t take the bait.

Dang, that sort of stuff must only work in movies, the girl thought.

Suddenly the creature perked up, raising its holey arms in a different direction this time. It turned to face the propped open double doors leading to the grand spiral staircase. It was now that the girl heard the sounds of a piano being played, the mellifluous notes flowing up the empty grand stair.

With a soft pitter-patter noise the mass of hands slinked toward the noise. It stopped for a moment, shivering waves flowed down its many limbs. Then, it was gone.

“I… I think it’s gone now…” John said.

“Hold on.” The girl closed her eyes and sent out a probe to see if she could feel anything. She could feel a very large object moving quickly up the spiral staircase to the open air club above, then it was out of her range. “It's gone to the roof.”

“Yes I can see that,” replied John, pointing at a trail of reddish brown liquid marking where the creature had gone.

“Oh…” the girl said, lamely.

“Wait, so you can sense it?” Emily asked the girl.

“Long story short, I got it from a lady who got it from another lady in my dreams.” the girl said with a shrug. Her proud grin betrayed her attempt at modesty.

“We should probably get going while that thing is distracted though.” John pointed upwards. The piano playing had stopped and was now replaced by sounds of crashing. “I think… Those holes were earholes.”

“The ones all over its arms?” Emily asked; she shivered in revulsion, “Bleegh.”

“Isn’t that too dangerous?” the girl asked, “What if it comes back? Maybe you guys should just stay here…?”

“Heh, nice try kiddo.” Emily said, “We appreciate you coming down to help us, really. But you need to go back up where it's safe.”

“Plus there's like infection stuff all over the place.” John said pointing at the floor. “You should get out of here before you get some on you. Actually, do you have some plastic bags or anything you could use to protect yourself?”

The two adults helped her quickly fashion some foot coverings from the trash bags she had. Then, they helped her back to the dark stairwell.

“This is goodbye for real, ok little lady?” John gave her a bit of a reprimanding look.

“Okaayy…” the girl sagged her shoulders in an exasperated gesture.

“Get back to the radio, it's super important” Emily said, brushing the girl down and fixing her hair. “And stay safe. Alright?”

“Ok ok!” the girl said.

“You’re a good kid,” John said, patting her on the head. By this time, the floor above had gone quiet. “Is… that thing still around?”

The girl squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “It’s still up there, doesn’t look like it's on its way down though.”

“Ok,” John whispered to Emily. “Let’s go!”

They made their way around the red mess on the floor. Then, with the briefest of backward glances, they quickly tiptoed down the stairs.

They were gone.

The girl sighed a bit and stared after them. Then, she turned to move up the stairwell… but something caught her eye. On the floor of the lobby next to the elevator doors, a long metallic object glinted at her.

It was the katana.

She looked around cautiously.

Silence.

She crept in for a closer look.

The blade looked pristine, like it had never been used before. The girl wrapped her hand in a trash bag before picking it up; there were no stains reddish or otherwise. She swung it around a bit.

Pretty cool.

She stood up from her crouching position and noticed the hallway with the broken glass cup John had thrown earlier. She looked back toward the double doors.

She was already down here, might as well look around for a bit. Since the encounter with the flesh spider, she was feeling high on adrenaline. She did not sense the creature anywhere close. Perhaps it had already moved off somewhere else.

The hallway was a bit dark, but the sunlight streaming in from the windows in the lobby as well as the skylight made the area seem almost welcoming.

Alright, time to check this place out, she thought, wielding the katana in one hand and her flashlight in the other, she ventured down the hall.

***

“Penguins.” Miranda said, lifting the goggles from her eyes.

“What where?” The man next to her pressed a pair of binoculars to his eyes.

The two of them were at the top of an icy hill. There were five of them in total in this hunting group. They were one of the three scouting parties sent out from New Anatoli that regularly surveyed the area around. Mostly they just helped to feed the icy settlement until the greenhouses could get set up and begin production. Today, they were on their way to the coast to see if they could do some fishing.

“Oh… I see them.” the man said. He looked down at the deathly pale raven haired woman standing next to him. She had dark bags under her eyes, as usual. Despite this, her gray eyes shone with a strange light. They always did. “Those eyes of yours are quite something. To be able to see so far like that.”

“Oh they’re not exactly my eyes… that are doing it… if you want to be specific about it.” Miranda had a way of speaking with an almost fanatical enthusiasm, causing her to spew words at halting intervals. Some found it endearing, others found it unnerving. “It’s my gift… or at least how I learned to use it. I could do the same to anyone… y’know? I just… have to get the wavelengths right.”

“That’s fine, I wouldn’t want anything weird to happen to my eyes.” the dark skinned man responded. His thick gray eyebrows furrowed a bit at the offer.

“Ah… haha yeah… wouldn’t want anything like what happen to the last guy.” the woman said, tilting head jerkily and shrugging in a nervous fashion.

“Wait what happened to the last guy?”

“Nevermind that, so are we eating those penguins or…?”

The man shook himself a bit, blinking a few times. “Well, I would say probably not. I don’t know that they have a lot of meat on them and I think we can just let them be for now.”

“Hmm ok I guess you’re right… I’ve always wondered what penguin tasted like though.” the woman stared off in the direction of the penguins for perhaps a tad bit too long.

“Well, we should get going then.” the man said. He signaled the others at the bottom of the hill who drove up on snow-vehicles laden with fishing supplies, three in total. One of them was pulling a carriage adapted for snow terrain. “We keep heading about 70° West and we should be there.”

“Sure thing, Carter.” One of the men said. “See anything interesting?”

“We found a few penguins.” Miranda interjected quickly.

“Huh…” the man said contemplatively. “Think we can eat those?”

“Let’s just keep moving.” Carter said, climbing onto the back of one of the snow-mobiles. He took out his weighted compass then pointed them in a direction decidedly away from the penguins.

Let’s hope we find something other than penguins where we’re going, he thought to himself.