Chapter Five:

Time For a Bathroom Break

Location: Watts High School

In the hallway

Time: 17:43

Date: 11th of October, 2147

David peeked his head around the cracked door before taking a tentative step into the hallway. The floors seemed to have been maintained to a certain degree. The walls were awash with red, pink, and yellow light as the sun outside showed signs of setting.

David took just a brief instance to glance at the pink sky. He was feeling quite a bit better, now that the IV was no longer in his arm and he had eaten a bit. He really wanted to look into getting more, but realized he knew nothing about how to acquire carrots.

Plus, he was in hostile territory.

David crept down the hall to his south, moving towards a large window on the east wall. To his north, the hallway continued a short distance to compensate for a few more rooms, then turned left.

David looked outside and saw what appeared to be an old suburb. The building they were in was on a sort of overlook, and cast a shadow onto an expanse of city below. This place was obviously teeming with human activity at some point in the past, but now it was empty and quiet, nestled in shadows.

Still, plant life grew generously where cement and structure gave way, and animal life could be seen flying overhead and occasionally rustling the foliage below. It was a stark contrast to The Ruins around SafeHaven.

David could hear footsteps approaching from the hallway to his north, so he immediately started fast walking further south. The hallway turned to his right in a few strides. Before David could take the turn, he heard more footsteps approaching from that hallway as well.

Did they know he was here? Was he cornered by coincidence?

David didn’t know, and he dared not peek around the corner and risk detection. Peeking would cast the silhouette of his head down the hallway due to the sunlight. The footsteps behind him were about to round the corner and see him as well. He couldn’t risk detection.

The door he was closest to, the last door before the hallway turned right, was a men’s bathroom with caution tape crossed over the door in a large X.

Well... at least he knew no one would be in there. How bad could it really be? The X probably just meant it was empty or unstable.

David reached for the bathroom handle and found it locked.

He cursed under his breath.

This door handle was practically ancient, he wasn’t going to let it stop him.

He yanked the handle down with a quick jerk of his wrist, and it gave way surprisingly easily. David quickly slipped inside the door and closed it again, still gripping the broken handle.

He was just in time.

Three men rounded the corners practically simultaneously, two from the north and one from the south.

For the moment, they continued walking.

Inside the bathroom, it was pitch black, but it was immediately apparent it was not empty. David could hear a labored breathing, which sounded far too deep and murky to belong to a human. Even though he had excellent night vision, David was struggling to make out any kind of structure in the bathroom. The only light came through a small crack at the bottom of the door. David did not move, and kept his back to the door. He blinked rapidly, trying to will his eyes to adjust faster.

He kept the detached door handle in his hand as if it were a weapon. In David’s hands anything could be weaponized, but it was still just a flimsy piece of metal.

Meanwhile, outside the bathroom, the footsteps had stopped.

Jade stood in front of the bathroom door. He immediately noticed it was missing a door handle and had torn caution tape strewn about in front of it.

His face portray a look of absolute confusion and horror. He knew what was contained in this bathroom, and whoever went in there was probably dead or about to die.

Jade yelled over to the other men who rounded the corner from the other hallway, while drawing his sleek pistol.

“Hey! Someone just went in there! We gotta get them some help!”

The men across the hallway stopped mid-conversation and looked over at Jade. They rushed towards him, readying their weapons. They knew what was contained in that bathroom as well.

There was a massive monster that seemed to be in some sort of hibernation inside. The group at Watt’s high school didn’t have an agreed upon name to describe the monster, but David and those at SafeHaven did.

They called it a Goliath.

Inside the bathroom, David and the Goliath both heard the yelling from the hallway.

David winced as the breathing turned into a low growl. He knew he recognized that sound.

The sound wasn’t entirely negative however, as David used it to estimate the Goliath’s location.

He figured out that the Goliath was in one of the stalls, behind a closed door.

Did it turn while on the toilet and just never get up? Did it feel the need to use the restroom and somehow get stuck?

David didn’t move a muscle. The Goliath seemed to remain somewhat docile, as the stall further muffled the noises, but David knew it was only a matter of time before the Goliath figured out it was not alone in the bathroom.

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Jade and the other men discussed their options quietly. Trying to retrieve whoever entered the bathroom was their top priority. They quietly tried to push open the door, but it didn’t budge. David was standing with his back against it still, preventing it from moving.

Jade spoke in a low, hushed tone, trying his best to will his voice through the crack in the door.

“Hey, whoever is in there, I don’t know why you decided to go in, but believe me, you’re better off out here, friend. Seriously. There’s one of those really big zombies in there. We’re trying to help you out, but the door won’t budge. Can you see what’s blocking it?”

David didn’t know how to respond. He obviously was no longer hidden.

Would his voice give him away?

The door shook again, this time more forcefully, as the men tried to break it down. The Goliath was getting riled up at this point, and started trying to exit the stall, but was having difficulty due to its size and the darkness.

Regardless, it was getting louder. It was not only becoming aware of David’s presence, but it was also becoming aware of its own hunger.

Jade and the soldiers outside could hear it start to groan. It almost sounded frustrated.

They broke apart for a second to discuss what their best course of action was.

Jade spoke out to David again, still trying to keep as quiet as possible.

“Alright, this door isn’t budging, but we aren’t giving up on you. Are you out of the way of it? We’re gonna try to take some shots through the door. As long as you stay out of the way, that should weaken the door, and who knows, we might get that big guy too! Can you hear me? Hello?”

David held his breath, not sure how to respond.

After getting no response for a few moments, Jade continued. “Look, you’re basically dead either way… If you don’t say something, we’re going to have to do something to save ourselves… That thing can’t come out here. It will endanger too many people.”

David’s eyes grew wide, even though it was impossible to tell in the darkness. He dropped to the ground immediately.

“Do it! Shoot it now!“ David screamed out.

As soon as David shout, the Goliath shrieked and started smashing the stalls with its fists repeatedly, causing them to dent heavily until shattering and collapsing to the ground. Jade and the soldiers quickly took position and opened fire into the bathroom, causing the wooden door to splinter as small holes were punched out at random. Shrapnel, bullets, and light came pouring forth into the bathroom all at once.

It was absolute chaos.

David could finally see the Goliath as he lay flat on the ground under a urinal on the wall furthest from the stall.

This Goliath wasn’t nearly as large as the two at the cathedral, and the bullets were connecting with it pretty consistently. It shook and let out a shrill howl as its body was riddled with bullet holes. Its pure black eyes were fixated on the door, the obvious source of the new stimuli.

Suddenly, the bullet rain stopped as Jade and his men ran out of ammo.

They didn’t have any reserve ammo on them, they didn’t plan on this encounter.

Jade almost always carried spare ammo, but it weirdly seemed to be missing from his belt.

The soldiers wouldn’t dare charge into the bathroom without a firearm. If the Goliath wasn’t dead, they’d like to have an opportunity to run and fight another day.

Jade considered himself the definitive expert of hand to hand combat, but that didn’t mean he wanted to grapple with a mutated opponent more than twice his weight and muscle mass in a dark room without backup or weaponry. Something like that sounded downright suicidal.

David got up off the ground, and settled into a low crouch. He nestled himself between two urinals. He was trying his best to blend in.

The Goliath was about the charge at the door, and David was going to have a very small window to finish it off before its focus returned to him and things got significantly trickier.

He weighted out the practicality of the small metal door handle in his hand. It was thin and seemed relatively brittle. He broke off the entire doorknob. It was designed to keep the locking mechanism in a cylindrical housing, and then turn that cylinder into a handle by attaching a long thin piece of metal about twice as long as his hand was wide.

It was not going to make a very effective weapon. He considered the needle from the interrogation room, but didn’t have time to switch to it before the Goliath roared and charged at the door. David leapt at the opportunity. While this particular Goliath wasn’t too massive, it still stood at nearly seven feet tall.

David’s 6’2” frame was powerful and agile, but still significantly smaller than his hulking opponent.

He crashed into the Goliath’s side while it was mid-stride, and brought it crashing painfully into the right of the doorframe, rather than into the door itself. Instead of splintering through the door and barreling into the hallway, the Goliath collided with a four foot thick stone wall.

The entire structure shook, and the Goliath recoiled in shock as it tried to grapple with David. As it did so, David stabbed the door handle into the eye socket of the Goliath, resulting in a blood curdling shriek.

It definitely felt that.

Jade and the soldiers stared at each other anxiously as they heard the crash, felt the building shake, and heard the shriek. What was going on? Others were now being drawn to the commotion following the volley of gunfire.

The Goliath was enraged and severely injured, but not dead. It grasped David solidly with one of its hands and flung him against the far wall into a sink like he were a piece of garbage.

His hip cracked painfully against the white ceramic and he collapsed to the ground in agony.

The Goliath charged at David again. This time David used his upper body, and the leg that didn’t feel destroyed after crashing into the sink, to shove himself into a slide under the Goliath’s legs as it closed in on him. He grabbed just one of the creature’s legs and yanked on it with extreme force, keeping his center of gravity as close to the ground as possible.

The Goliath fell face first into the sink it cast David into and completely shattered the already cracked ceramic. It fell to the ground and let out a sound that obviously communicated pain and rage.

As it tried to get up, David quickly assessed his surroundings. He could see clearly now, thanks to the light coming in from the bullet holes riddling the door and the time he had to let his eyes adjust.

When the Goliath knocked down the stall doors and walls, it revealed two toilets that seemed largely intact.

David got up and rushed to them with a bit of a limp. He grabbed the thick ceramic slabs that protected the flushing mechanism off of the top of both of them.

With a slab in each hand, David hurried back over to the Goliath that was struggling to get up and jumped forcefully on its back, sending it clambering back onto the floor with a grunt.

David then raised the ceramic slabs over his head, and started pounding the back of the Goliath’s skull with them alternatively.

Each swing, right then left, sprayed dark brown blood and grey matter everywhere. The slabs were reduced to jagged pieces that David finally stabbed into the gooey pulp that used to be the Goliath’s head and brain.

This one wasn’t coming back now. It was definitely dead.

As David stood upright on top of the defeated monster he started to become aware of his body’s actual feelings and needs.

He was breathing heavily.

His hip hurt quite badly, but it didn’t seem broken. His leg felt a bit numb, like bumping your funny bone, but otherwise seemed functional.

His stomach was making that gurgling sound again, and he suddenly realized he had to pee pretty badly.

He glanced over at the urinals he hid under moments ago, and figured, why not?

David walked over and wiped his bloody hands on his black pant legs and nanofiber shirt before unzipping his pants and taking care of his business.

After he was done, David zipped his pants back up and turned towards the door. He couldn’t flush or wash his hands without water.

Outside, a small group of soldiers and personnel had crowded around Jade and the two soldiers. They all had their various weaponry in their hands, but few at the ready.

Because, for now, it was silent.

There wasn’t a feast happening inside, but there definitely was a fight. Who won?

No one dared to open the door. No one even dared to get close enough to peek through the bullet holes. Jade tentatively stepped closer than anyone else.

“Hey... uh, are you okay?” Jade called in softly.

David stood inside and sighed. He obviously wasn’t going to get out of this unnoticed.

So much for an escape. He thought back to the window. He could have just leapt out and gone on his way. He didn’t know where he was, and he had no supplies, but obviously he could take care of himself.

He shrugged and proceeded towards the door. These people didn’t seem to be too aggressive, all things considered. He didn’t want to kill them, as SafeHaven protocol would dictate he should. Maybe he could just let this play out, and see what happens.

David walked out of the door right into a procession of uneasy people with weapons drawn, all staring directly at him. David stood before them, his hands, arms, and face covered in dark blood. He muttered meekly.

“Uh... sorry… I just really had to go, you know?”