Russell escaped from the hell the lobby had become.
He raced down the unlit hallway and cut to his left at a sudden branch, trailing after the sound of the stragglers who had ran away before him. He didn’t know what he was doing or where he was heading. He just needed to run.
His bag of supplies had been light even without his enhanced strength, yet now its absence weighed heavy in his chest.
His boots pounded on the plush carpet. He ran down a neverending hallway, light filtering through the French doors to his right, passing by closed door after closed door to his left, dodging sidetables complemented by pairs of upholstered armchairs along the walls, leaving behind shattered table lamps and vases, abandoned tea cups and scattered brochures.
Another earthquake shook the floor under his feet and rattled the glass on the doors to his right.
Was the sky getting brighter? Or was it because of all the glass doors facing the courtyard outside? Or was it a garden?
He curbed the errant thoughts and focused on the well-lit path before him. At least the hallway wasn’t as dark as the lobby.
Too bad it meant more glass monsters could easily break through.
He could hear the soft pounding of footsteps from up ahead, the hushed cries of anxiety, the hisses of panic, yet he felt all alone in a corridor that only led to a pit of darkness, until he ran into another person.
A stranger appeared right in the middle of the hallway, his feet still, his gaze the double doors on the left wall.
And the doors were wide open.
The guy’s fearful eyes swiveled to Russell. “Help—”
A shadow flew through the doorway, barelled through the stranger, and crashed through the glass panel doors on the other side.
Russell skidded to a stop as his heart leapt to his throat, his hands shaking from sudden fright.
It happened so fast it felt like it didn’t happen at all. But the shattered French doors told him otherwise.
Russell cursed and dashed forward, shooting past the open door to the left, neither looking inside or slowing down. He did the same with every door he passed.
Instead of taking chances opening random rooms, he would rather stick to the corridor, chase down the runners ahead of him, and pray one of them knows where they were going.
“No! No! Let me go!” someone shouted. Russell slowed down, his eyes widening as he recognized the voice. A wiry figure sat on the floor, trying to shake his foot free from someone else’s grip, the hand jutting out a partially opened door.
No, the hand wasn’t jutting out the door; the severed hand lay outside it.
His friend’s frantic gaze snapped up toward him. “I…He…”
“The hell are you doing? Keep running!” Russell hissed, booting the unknown hand away and hauling Justin to his feet.
“Russ?” whispered another familiar voice not ten yards from them. Clayton’s large frame leaned against another set of double doors jerking on their hinges.
A roar tore down the hallway, and Russell whirled his gaze behind him.
Back at the branch in the corridor—at the junction that must’ve separated the two wings of the clubhouse from the lobby—a hulking figure lumbered into view.
[Scaletooth Savage]
“I said run!” Russell shoved Justin ahead of him, feeling like a mouse trapped inside a maze with a cat.
Then the ground shuddered. Justin’s feet tangled under him, sending him sprawling back on the floor as they reached Clayton.
“I…I don’t wan’t to die here…” Justin said as he crawled on the carpet.
“Then you better keep running!” Russell tugged his friend from the floor a second time. He helped steady Justin on his shaky legs before turning to Clayton. “Have you seen Serena? Harper?”
Clayton brushed the sweat from his forehead with his trembling hand and pointed up the hallway.
A group bathed in a soft orange light waited ahead of them. Serena was being held back by her own staff, preventing her from opening the double doors to their left as everyone else stood around instead of running away.
“Ah, shit,” Russell muttered as he jogged forward, making sure his friends followed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Russell asked, barely stopping himself from shouting in frustration.
Serena’s red eyes jerked toward his direction, glowering. “I’m trying to help them!”
Russell flinched at the vehemence in her voice. Dark liquid spilled underneath the door, seeping into the cream-colored carpet on the hallway, glinting crimson under the candlelight.
If the song didn’t warn him of what awaited behind the pair of closed doors, the sounds of crunching bones and munching of flesh more than clued him in.
Russell fought back the bile rising to his throat. He hauled Serena away from the door and away from the others. “What good will that do if you get yourself killed in the process?”
Serena wiped her teary eyes with the back of her hand. “I know you have a good heart, Russ,” she said, her voice raw with emotion. “But sometimes, you need to stop caring only about yourself and start caring more about others.”
“We don’t have the luxury to care about others right now!” He snapped, frantically waving the rest of the small group forward, urging them to run ahead. “You have to start watching your back, or you’ll end up dead. Whoever’s inside that room certainly is.”
Serena took a shuddering breath. “How can you be so blind to the irony in your own statement?” she asked, her eyes clear, her composure returning. “Me helping others is my way of looking out for myself.”
“You know that’s not the same!” he hissed, shooting her a frustrated look.
“And you know what? I apologize, I must’ve misspoken earlier. No matter what you say, you do care about others.” She sniffed. “Tell me, how many times have you dived head-first into trouble tonight? Not for yourself but for someone else?”
“I…” He grimaced. “But I never—”
“It’s because you already know the right thing to do, which is helping other people whenever we can.” Serena retied her golden hair into a tight bun. “You won’t always be able to do things on your own, Russ. Someday, you’re the one who’s going to need help. And when that time comes…” She shook her head and turned away from him. “I pray someone will be there to save you.”
“Russ?” Clayton whispered ahead of them. “We need to go!”
Russell couldn’t stomach running beside Serena. He lagged at the back of the group as they continued their escape. This far from the lobby, they encountered more stragglers strewn along the hallway. Some slowed to a jog, catching their breath. Few stopped altogether, either too tired or lost, old ones left behind by a younger, faster crowd.
And Serena didn’t waste time helping each of them out.
“Serena…” Russell began to say after they had come to a stop for the third time, but she pretended not to hear him. She helped an old man stand up from his chair, but given the guy was twice her size, she ended up dropping him back on his seat.
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Grumbling under his breath, Russell took the old man off Serena’s hands.
“Please help those you can,” Serena said, addressing the ones unencumbered with carrying a weapon or another person. “We can’t leave anyone behind.”
“Uh…Russ?” Clayton asked from behind the group, and Russell looked over the old man’s shoulder.
Down the corridor, shadows shifted where they came from, and he had a sinking feeling in his gut.
“Come here and switch with me,” Russell called out. Not bothering to wait for Clayton, he left the stranger to Justin’s care and returned to the rear, taking a defensive position.
The junction at the end of the hallway was now too far away for him to see. The darkness churned, and he squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look at a large outline swimming within the shadows.
[Scaletooth Savage]
He hefted his flashlight and prepared himself for the worst. He had defeated a monster all by himself, even though he had a better weapon at the time. Still, he’d take this one down as—
Two more monsters stepped into the light.
[Scaletooth Savage]
[Scaletooth Savage]
Well, shit.
Multiple roars boomed down the hallway. Panicked screams once again filled the corridor. Whether old or just tired, sick or injured, people ran down the endless hallway, their spent bodies pumped with a new shot of adrenaline.
Russell broke out into a sprint, only to slow down as he was forced to stay at the rear. He sensed the danger approaching at a rapid pace, it’s speed outstripping the slowest in their group. It was only a matter of time before more blood would be spilled.
One of the laggards made the mistake of looking back. The fat old man cried out in fear. Instead of blindly following those ahead of him, he decided to try his luck alone and angled to one of the French doors to their right.
“No!” Russell shouted too late.
The guy flung the doors open and stepped outside—only for something large to ram through him, and he disappeared in a mist of blood.
Russell gnashed his teeth but kept on running. Monsters lurked in the hallway behind them, in the rooms beside them, even outside surrounding them.
All they could do was run.
Then a warm draft swept past their group, and yet a chill ran down his spine. Light bloomed somewhere far to their rear, casting their figures in long shadows.
He didn’t bother to look over his shoulder. Swerving right, he grabbed the side table interspersed between the porch doors, hefted it like it weighed no more than a football, and tossed it backward in the middle of the hallway.
The fireball careening down the corridor slammed into it in a fiery explosion.
Glass shattered. Light flashed. Russell crouched low and shielded his eyes as a blast of hot wind threatened to sweep him from his feet.
People cried out in surprise. many of the ones close by thrown to the floor. They shot back to their feet, finding a second wind as they ran for dear life.
But not all of them ran away.
A few brave ones stayed behind. One in a staff uniform snagged an armchair while his colleague lugged another.
“We need to slow them down!” the first employee shouted to the rest as Russell shot past with a shake of his head, feeling sorry for the fools.
Their deaths wouldn’t even slow down the monsters heading this way.
Russell sensed the threat before he heard the screams, and he had the sudden unexplaineable urge to curse Serena in his mind. On the next break between the countless French doors, he reached for another side table and shot a frustrated glare behind him.
[Scaletooth Savage - 5th Shard / Level 1]
Only a single monster had caught up to them, the rest missing from the hallway.
But that one monster had slain its first prey in a matter of seconds. It dropped the torn body on the floor, leaving the others hugging the walls, petrified, their previous bravery all but gone.
“Move!” Russell shouted before hurling the table at the monster’s head, and the beast rocked back from the others. “Go! Get out of there!”
The idiots ran past him, all thoughts of slowing any monster down gone. Russell took a step back, wanting to run away with them, but the monster had its sightless gaze locked on to him.
He might have taken a few of these Scaletooths down, but he could never outrun one. Turning his back to it would be quick way to die.
He would have to fight.
But he wasn’t in the open area of the lobby anymore; he was in a narrow hallway only a few feet across. He didn’t have the space to run around the beast and keep it guessing.
“Russ!” Serena shouted from behind him, and a curse escaped from his lips. Of course, she stayed behind.
Which meant his friends did as well.
“Clay!” Russell called out without taking his eyes away from the monster.
“Dude! Get out of there!” Clayton yelled.
“No, get your ass over here!”
“W-What?!” Clayton half-shouted, half-shrieked.
“I need your help,” Russell said as the monster sat on its haunches. “I can’t get close to it without a distraction.”
“I…I can’t…”
The scales on the monster’s hind legs tightened together.
“Clay!” Russell tossed the last armchair close by at the monster, stalling it’s attack and forcing it back.
Clayton stepped up beside him, hyperventilating, the sledgehammer shaking in his hands. “I…I’m scared, Russ…”
Russell ordered his friend to stay on the left side of the hallway while he stood on the right. They would approach the monster step by step. The beast let out a snarl, its ‘gaze’ alternating between the two of them, though it stayed mostly on Russell.
His jaw clenched. His plan wouldn’t work if the Scaletooth kept its focus on him.
“I-I’m scared, man,” Clayton said even as he slid a foot closer to the monster.
“Nothing for you to worry about.” Russell gripped his flashlight with two hands. “Can’t you tell? It finds me better looking than you,” he joked, letting Clayton inch ahead without the guy knowing, hoping his reckless idea wouldn’t put his friend in real danger. A little more. They needed to close the distance a little bit more.
A deep rumble came from the monster’s chest, it’s head whipping from one side to the other, tracking the two prey approaching it. It snapped its jaws at Russell before flashing its teeth at Clayton.
Russell shot forward.
The monster swung its head back to him a beat too late. His flashlight swung in a downward strike, smashing the top of the beast’s snout.
A cry of pain erupted from monster’s throat as it waggled its head. Russell followed up his opening blow with another swing, smashing its hind leg.
He had aimed for its joint, but with his short weapon, his strike landed on its upper thigh, crushing the scales on the muscular area. He failed to cripple the monster, but he had injured it enough that it had to hobble away from him.
Already familiar with their pattern, Russell jumped away even before the beast could fling its tail toward him—
And his back crashed into a door, punching the breath out of his chest.
There was no more room for him to retreat.
Room?
He reached for the knob poking at his back, making sure it was unlocked. The monster growled in anger, and it’s rear scales bunched a second time.
With one of its hind legs injured, the monster’s lunge wasn’t lightning-quick. It made it easy for him to dive out of the way as he swung the door open right before the beast flew through the doorway, crashing into whatever room had been behind him.
Climbing to his feet, he shut the door. It wouldn’t help, it wouldn’t even slow it down, but old habits die hard. Over his shoulder, he saw Clayton and the rest gawked at him.
“What are you waiting for?” Russell snapped. “Go!”
Clayton pumped his head up and down and sprinted away, Serena and the rest following behind the large man’s long strides.
Russell only managed to take a single step forward before the song resumed—but it didn’t come from behind the closed door.
Back in the direction of the lobby, obscured figures swimming in the shadows burst into the light, manifesting as two more monsters.
The first Scaletooth’s missing companions had arrived.
Russell cursed his luck, his mind racing. Should he run away only to be chased down? Run out the garden only to be surrounded? Face the two head on only to get torn apart in seconds? He considered what else he possibly could do but got nothing. Against two monsters, there was nothing he could do.
So he chose the least stupid idea he could come up with and flattened himself back against the wall.
Then he knocked on the door.
The two monsters tromped down the narrow hallway. They smashed through arm chairs and side tables, cabinets and display cases, their forms occupying the entire corridor, allowing no room for escape.
A low grumble vibrated through the door.
The hind scales on the monsters compressed together. One moment, the two hulking beasts were lumbering down the hallway like bulldozers clearing a path. The next, they blurred forward.
Russell ducked low and flung the door wide open.
An explosion of glass and metal rocked the corridor, like a grenade had been set off indoors, the crash strong enough to shake the building itself for a long while.
Russell pushed the door away from him and peered his eyes open.
A few yards past his hiding place, at least two pairs of French doors had been torn away from the other side of the hallway. Half the wall was blasted through, and whatever furniture had been there were smashed into kindling.
Outside, large figures were planted on the shrubbery, either down or disoriented, with only one of them tottering on unstable legs.
He let out a whistle in disbelief.
In one fell swoop, he had taken care of all three monsters.
“Russ!” a voice called out. Across the demolished wall, Serena peered out from a hidden corner on the opposite side of the hallway and waved him forward. “Come on!” A couple of others stepped into view, gaping at the monsters lying outside, Clayton and Justin among them.
Russell rose from behind the door and froze. The building was still shaking.
The monsters’ three-way collision didn’t cause the tremors; the quaking came from deep underneath the ground.
And it wasn’t some weak aftershock.
He braced a hand on the wall as a powerful earthquake rocked his surroundings. The windows rattled. The wooden legs of armchairs and tables skittered on the carpet. Cracks ripped through the walls, the pilasters between patio doors, across the ceiling. The fissures grew, pouring dust, chipping concrete, starting from the wrecked portion of the corridor webbing upwards and inwards directly above the crowd.
People raised wary gazes toward the ceiling, their eyes following the cracks traveling through the white paint as it passed over their heads—except for Serena.
She never took her gaze away from Russell.
Everyone else saw the signs and ran screaming, some down the hallway, a few back toward Russell. Serena looked around, confused, having no clue about what happened.
About what was going to happen.
“Serena!” Russell screamed, already moving forward.
Just as the clubhouse collapsed on top of them.