Judgment (9 page)

              “We have to go for the other fire escape on the other side,” I began to explain to everyone. “Go slow at first. Maybe we won’t get noticed. If the angels on the other roof see us, you run like hell for the fire escape. Even if we don’t get all the way down, we’ll go into an apartment as far down as we can get and break for the street.” They were all just looking at me like deer looking into car headlights. “Everyone got it?”

              No one spoke. They simply answered with nervous nods. Steve’s breathing was worsening. Margie was trying to calm him, urging him to control and slow his breathing. I went first, crouching low as I slowly moved across the roof. A large air conditioner about ten feet away would provide some cover, and as I got to it and huddled down next to it I motioned to the others to follow.  Jennifer was already half way across to me, with Margie pushing Steve up onto the roof behind her. I kept looking back and forth between them, the door, and the Judges on the next roof.

              Please God just let us get out of here.

              Just as I was about to move the rest of the way across the roof, I saw the door from downstairs open. Jennifer saw it too. “Oh God.” Two angels stepped out, followed by a third. At first they just looked around. Then they began spreading out across the roof, searching for us. For the moment they couldn’t see us behind the air conditioner, but it wouldn’t be long before they found us.

              We have to move. Run, you idiot. Run.

              In a few more seconds one of the Judges would be between us and the other fire escape. We had to go right now. Up over his head, on the other roof, I could see the other two angels now looking this way. There would be no sneaking, this was going to become a full on chase. I turned to Jennifer. “Go now. Run as fast as you can and down the other fire escape. I’ll be right behind you.”

              I could see the fear in her eyes, but she listened, and bolted across the roof. I was right behind her, and I could hear Margie and Steve starting behind me. The three angels saw us instantly. Alongside the pounding of my own heart I could hear their shuffling feet and the flapping of wings. The other edge of the roof seemed like it was a mile away. The adrenaline and fear now coursing through my veins made me want to puke. My legs went numb, as if the very things I needed to get me out of here would suddenly become useless. I heard Margie screaming at Steve behind me. “Go Steve! Run!”

              Jennifer was about fifteen feet from the other side of the roof when the angels from the next building suddenly took flight and landed directly in front of her, cutting her off from the other fire escape. I saw it as if it were in slow motion; the fluttering of wings, kicking up dust and gravel from the roof. Jennifer froze. There was nowhere to go. The Judges would quickly have us surrounded and trapped.

              Margie yelled out from behind us. “This way!” When I turned to look, she was in a full sprint back the way we had come. But instead of stopping at the fire escape, she ran full steam to the edge of the roof, never slowing, never stopping, and jumped. I watched her leap across the alley, about ten feet across, and she landed rolling onto the rooftop on the other side.

              She had just barely made it.

              I saw Steve follow next. Never looking back, in a panic, run headlong to the edge and leap. He too, just barely made the other side, landing on his hip with a thud, his legs dangling over the side. Margie pulled him the rest of the way onto the roof. I quickly turned to Jennifer. She was facing me now, the two angels from the other roof quickly coming up behind her. I reached out my hand towards her. I yelled out to her, “C’mon!” and she ran up to me and took my hand.

              “I can’t Adam. I can’t jump,” she pleaded.

              I didn’t have time to talk her into it. Instead I grabbed her arm and just began pulling her along as I ran. “We’ll go together. Just run as fast as you can and jump. You’ll make it.”

              Please God, let us make it.

              Twenty yards from the edge I stopped. I looked her in the face. “You can do this. Just follow me. Run like hell and jump. Okay?” She nodded that she would, but I could see the doubt in her face. I heard wings flapping behind me, as a large shadow fell over us. I let go of Jennifer’s arm and I began to run. I heard her footsteps pounding next to me, just slightly behind.

              Good. She’s gonna do it.

              All too quickly I was at the edge, and I leapt for my life. In that split second I looked down, and I saw a twelve story drop pass by below me. I felt my heart and stomach climbing up into my throat. A second later came the painful smack of gravel into my face as I landed hard on the roof next to Steve. Margie quickly grabbed me and helped me up. I turned to look for Jennifer, but only heard her screaming from across the alley. She had panicked at the last second and didn’t jump. She was crying hysterically, screaming as the angels closed in on her.

              “Jump Jennifer. C’mon!”

              Margie and Steve were both yelling to her now. “C’mon! You can make it.”

              Jennifer was in full panic mode. As the angels got near she ran away from the edge to the center of the roof. It was just her and five angels, and they were going to surround her. She ran back and forth several times to avoid them, every few seconds looking over to us and screaming for us to help her.

              Jump, God damn it. Jump.

              She ran back to our side of the roof, calling out to me from the edge. She was hysterical. “I can’t make it Adam. I can’t do it.”

              “Yes you can. Yes you can Jennifer. Please. You have to jump. Just do it!”

              She hesitated for a moment longer. Then she turned and ran back several feet. She turned, and took off in a full run towards the edge.

              No no no! Start further back.

              As soon as she started running I knew she didn’t get enough of a runway. She ran awkwardly, never getting up quite enough speed for a proper jump. It all happened too fast for me to do anything. She flew off the edge, never coming close to clearing the alley. Without thinking I dropped to my knees and reached out over the edge to grab her. Margie had to grab the back of my pants to stop me from falling over the side. In that split second Jennifer and I made eye contact, both our hands reaching out towards each other. I saw the fear in her eyes; the panic and realization that she wasn’t going to make it. I swear our fingertips missed each other by inches.

              Oh my God please.  NO!

              Then I watched her fall.

              She screamed all the way down, until her head hit the fire escape around the fifth floor and she went silent. Then came the horrible smacking sound as she landed on the pavement of the alley. I just lay there at the edge of the roof, staring down in disbelief, watching the pool of red slowly grow around her head. None of us said a word. No one moved. Until we heard the wings of the angels as they flew across the alley and we had no choice.

              “C’mon. Now!” I heard Steve yell as Margie was pulling me up to my feet.

              “Move Adam. There’s nothing we can do. We have to go!”

              Halfway across the roof we ran, gravel and ash kicking up around our feet until we reached the door into the building below. It took two tries for Steve to yank the door open, and then he rushed in without worrying about what might be on the other side as the angels were quickly pursuing us across the new roof. Margie went in second, and I dead-bolted the door shut behind me as I followed her. Down we ran; two flights, then three, then four, and suddenly Steve stopped at the ninth floor, barely able to breathe. “Wait….hold on…just a second…” he gasped, dropping to his knees onto the floor. “I can’t …..breathe.”

              He was making horrible gasping sounds. It was like he was sucking in huge amounts of air but his body couldn’t use it. He was suffocating, with all the air he needed all around him. He lay down on his back, as Margie tried to comfort him. “Just slow down Steve. Breathe in your mouth and out your nose. Slow your exhales. Breathe out of your nose.”

              Huddled in the dark on the ninth floor landing, I could see Steve’s pounding heart tossing his shirt up and down, his gasps echoing around the small hallway. This building was identical to ours, except we didn’t know what was in it. I sat down next to Margie, leaning against the wall trying to catch my own breath as well. Above us, four flights up, I heard the rooftop door cracking. It sounded similar to the sound of Jennifer’s skull hitting the pavement. I struggled desperately to get the vision out of mind, but knew I never would.

              Steve’s breathing improved slightly as I heard the angels enter the stairwell up above us. “Okay. I’m okay. I know we have to move,” he said as he rose to his feet.

              Margie was quickly looking between the upper stairs and the floors below us. “What’s the plan?” she said, now looking to me. “We’re going down, right?”

              I heard the angels coming down above us. “Yeah. Right now. I’d rather be on the open street than trapped in here.”

              Without another word we were racing down the stairs. I tried to look ahead as we went, trying not to run headlong into trouble while still racing forward for our lives. On several floors I saw maledicted through open doorways. There seemed to be many more here than had been in our building.

              As we reached the second floor, the front door of the building flew open, sending sunlight bursting into the lobby. We stopped our descent and peered over the stair railing. I could see several maledicted lying on the lobby floor, until large shadows filled the doorway. Seconds later several Judges were in the lobby.

              “Shit. Quick…into the apartment,” Margie said, already bumping into me as she reversed her direction. Into an apartment was the last damn place I wanted to go, but I followed her and Steve into the closest one, shutting and bolting the door behind us. The apartment was a stark contrast of light and dark; the sunlight pouring in through the windows making the darker rooms seem even darker. Those were the rooms that bothered me. The minute we entered the apartment I could smell the maledicted, the foul odor of death filling the entire place. We all froze near the foyer for a moment, trying to be quiet to conceal ourselves from the angels while analyzing the apartment for threats within.

              It was only seconds before we heard the old woman’s voice from the dark bedroom. “Stanley, is that you? It’s about time you got home.” Her voice was old, and the death in her made her voice garbled and weird, like she had a throat full of goo. I saw her silhouette moving towards us as she entered the hallway. She stepped into the sunlight, and the full grotesqueness of her condition became visible. She was clearly dead. Apparently she had no idea about it. At least not anymore, not since the lack of real brain activity had made her insane.

              The walking corpse stared at us confused. “Stanley? You’re not Stanley. Who are you?”  She had no wounds or other visible reasons for dying. It must have been just natural causes, and then her animated body simply went insane waiting for Stanley, who was probably also dead and insane somewhere else in the city. Like a light switch her demeanor suddenly changed.  What was left of her eyelids seemed to open wide, and her posture became aggressive. “Get out of my house! Get out of my house!” she began to scream at us. She shambled over to the kitchen and began to open drawers. Pulling out a kitchen knife she turned to face us again. “Stanley! Stanley, where are you!?”

              She was loud, too loud, and she needed to be shut up. The problem with the maledicted, aside from being dangerous on their own, was they had no fear of Judges, so made no attempts to be quiet. If the angels hadn’t already heard her, they would, and they would come straight to this apartment.

              Before I could react, Margie and Steve were already on her. Steve’s first blow with the lead pipe knocked her down, and Margie went to work on her with the hatchet. We had all learned to go for the face first, for the mouth and throat to silence them quickly, then for the legs so they couldn’t walk. Once silenced and immobilized, they became marginally harmless.

              In less than a minute the old woman was jawless and in pieces on the kitchen floor, all of the pieces still moving. I could see she was still trying to yell at us, but couldn’t make any sound.  Steve was checking the back room for anyone else, and then returned with a blanket which he used to cover the wiggling body parts on the kitchen floor. The smell coming from the old woman was mind-numbingly disgusting.