Matt slammed his uninjured shoulder into the door, pushing it shut despite the man’s hand that reached out to stop it. There was a solid crunch and a cry of pain, He could feel the man remove his hand probably tucking the damaged limb against his chest, it gave him the time he needed to slam the door home. The past two blocks had been absolute hell, he was starting to feel woozy from the loss of blood, it was a startling amount of blood, games made it seem like there was either a copious amount or not really any at all.

It's always funny the things that you notice when you're not thinking straight, like how games have been getting blood wrong for hundreds of years. You always see the reddish black blood making whatever it is on slick, but the thing about blood is it is designed to close wounds, you never see any games that show how the blood turns to this brown red as it dries, or how it starts to become sticky.

And they had attracted quite the crowd.

Monica and Christa engaged the lock on the computer in the lobby, effectively closing the door and allowing Matt to take his weight off of it. As he did so he wobbled and almost fell, shaking his head he tried to clear the spinning, but it only made it worse as his brain, now starved of oxygen due to the lack of blood protested the violent movement.

“Shit,” he growled, and as he did so he could feel the sound’s rumble in his head. “Where is this room Christa?” he asked, placing the heel of his palm into his eye and pressing in an attempt to relieve the pressure that was building there. Something loud thudded against the door. “Because I think we better get there before they get here.” Christa nodded and put a shoulder under both Monica and Matt, ushering them over to the elevator. The door slid open and the three of them stepped inside.

“Third floor please,” Christa called out, and the automated elevator let out a ping in recognition. Matt almost fell down when the elevator started up, the dropping of his stomach as it began moving was more than enough to upset the balance of his equilibrium. The only things that prevented this was Christa on one side and the death grip on the railing he had on the other side. He looked up as the display showed their assent on a two-dimensional display. They shot up past the second floor and were almost to the third when the elevator jolted to a stop, all lights cutting off.

He did fall this time.

With an effort, he picked his head up and took in the surroundings. The interior of the elevator was bathed in a red emergency light set somewhere in the upper corner of the box. It would appear he was not the only one who had fallen, Christa and Monica were both picking themselves up off of the floor.

“Shit, looks like they got smart and cut the electricity,” Monica groaned as she lifted herself up using the railing.

“Means the electric lock they have on the front door will be on backup power, that won't last long.” Christa said, half to herself and half to the rest of them. Though it made his back scream in pain he pushed himself up to his knees and from there up to standing.

If they could go on then so would he.

“Then we better get moving,” he said, God, he could really use some water right about now.

“How?” Christa asked, “In Case you haven't noticed we are stuck between floors right now.” she pointed out.

“What, haven't you ever watched an action movie before?” he said with a laugh and looked up, she followed his gaze up and saw he was looking at a small access point in the ceiling of the box.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“No, there is no way in hell, no no no,” she said, shaking her head vigorously with each no.

“We were pretty close to the third floor when the power went out,” Matt said, he grabbed onto the railing and lifted his leg to put a shoe on it. With more effort than it should have taken he braced one arm against the side wall and pushed himself up.

“Matt, your hurt-” Christa said, her eyes softening as she looked at him struggle.

“And we will be dead if we wait here and let them drag us out,” he said, reaching up over his head and catching the lip of the trapdoor, with one foot still on the railing he pushed the door up. It gave with a compressed hiss, popping out of place and sliding sideways, Matt hopped down and looked at the black hole above them. “Ok Christa, you first, so I can hand Monica up to you,” he leaned back against the wall and slid down to a crouch, lacing his hands and placing them at just around stepping level.

“Matt-” she began but he cut her off.

“Christa, we can argue about things when there is not a city full of angry people wanting to kill us and there A.I. overlord is not influencing them, ok?” she bit her lip, but then said nothing as she placed her booted foot into the palm of his interlocked hands. With a grunt of effort he stood up, she walked her hands up the wall to keep her balance, and reaching out she grabbed ahold of the edge of the trap door. “Ready?” he called out, and when he got her affirmative he grunted again, and dropping down slightly he rotated his arms, effectively doing a clean and press pushing her up and over his head.

The motion ripped the wound in his shoulder wide open again, causing hot blood to spill down his back and pool up at his belt line, where it ran over and stained the grey pants he was wearing, well that or dropped onto the white linoleum floor, splattering a good amount of blood there. Monica’s eyes opened wide as she saw the blood and she was about to speak but closed her mouth when she saw Matt shake his head no.

He was right if they didn't get to that safe room and soon they would all be dead. She held her tongue, opting instead to look away, look away from the blood slowly pooling on the floor, and the pained expression on his face.

Christa got her upper torso over the lip and scrambled up, it took a second before she positioned herself on her stomach and reached through to grab Monica. Matt looked at her and she nodded, indicating she was ready.

“Up you go,” Mat said as he lifted Monica up the same way he did Christa. She went up much easier being the lighter girl and because he had the help of another person hauling her up.

“What the hell?” Christa snorted in mock protest, “Why didn't you grunt and make all that straining when you lifted her up hmmm?”

“Why indeed?” Matt smiled at her playful banter and appreciated the fact that she was attempting to lighten the mood. She scowled at him and reached down to help him up. He lay there panting, wanting nothing more than to just fall asleep, but with a groan, and more than a little help from Monica and Christa he was back up.

The door to floor three was right there, the bottom of it was a good five feet up from the top of the elevator, just at chest height for Matt. “Oh thank God,” Matt groaned, stumbling over to the edge of the elevator. There was a half of a foot gap between the wall and the elevator, meaning he didn't have to lean too far to get to the door. He reached out, placing both sets of his fingers into the felt-lined groves of the door, and ignoring the screaming pain that almost made him blackout he pulled the doors apart. He didn't know if they would automatically close, so he held them there as Monica and Christa scrambled up, pulling him up after they got there. It was only a short stumble down the path to get to her uncle’s apartment, she leaned into an eye scanner next to the door, it was a standard feature for all these fancy apartments, the strange thing, however, was the fact that his still worked when the power was shut off.

Opening the door she led them all in.

The interior of the place was lit and Matt could hear the soft hum of a personal generator, explaining the working security measures despite the lack of power. “This place is a steel box, three inches thick,” Christa said, pointing to the walls, Matt couldn't see it seeing as they were covered in sheetrock, but he chose to believe her. “Has its own food storage system, water purification, and even its own generator and a Wireless hook up straight to the satellites.” she laughed. “No one is getting into here.” she locked the door behind them, sliding home several bolts and even a bar like it was some medieval castle. “But two things make this perfect for us right now,” she said, rushing over to open a hatch in the wall, removing several medical bags. “These,” she held them up for them to see, “And the fact that my computer and his are on the same network, meaning there is no need to wait for N.E.O. to download, he already has it on the network.”

“That's why your connection is so fast!” Monica exclaimed, “You were using a government network to game?” Christa just smiled and shrugged. “Is that even legal?” Matt, however, had bigger priorities, he reached out and snatched one of the bags out of Christa’s hands and fished out two small pouches, he placed the plastic nipple of one in his mouth and shoved the other into Monica’s, then without any preamble he squeezed them, causing the salty metallic tasting liquid to go down their throats. It was a plasma substitute that could be absorbed into the bloodstream through digestion, a quick solution to blood loss if only a temporary one. It took about twenty minutes to work and would replace lost blood for up to a day before it dissolved. Christa lead them over to the couch and ran two cords to them, helping the both of them to jack into their casers. “Wish us luck,” Monica said, as she reached out and laced her fingers with Matt’s.

“Good luck and Godspeed,” Christa said, before turning to the computer box. “Start program New Earth Online.” Christa watched as they both slumped back, consciousness now in the game. “I fear you will need all the luck you can get...”