The Demented Z (Book 2): Desolation (Book 2) (22 page)

Demented continued to spill through the doorway, racing down
the hallway toward Hank. Their hungry
growls were terrifying in the pitch black confines of the small building.

Hank heard Kelly’s voice shouting “this way” from the top of
the stairs. It was just enough to give
him the direction of the stairs. He kept
a hand out in front of him to avoid other obstacles while rushing across the
room toward Kelly’s voice. His
outstretched hand felt the wall and it only took him a moment to find the
opening that led to the stairs. He had
just made the first step when he heard demented crashing into the room behind
him. Spurred on, Hank took the stairs
three at a time, rushing up them as fast as possible.

Kelly shouted, “Over here!” just as he reached the top of
the stairs.

Hank turned toward Kelly’s voice and saw her silhouetted
form in a doorway at the end of a short hall.  
Moonlight spilled in a large window behind her.
  Hank sprinted down the hall and into the room
with Kelly and Sam. He slammed the door
closed and surveyed the room they were in.  
It was a small office with a desk in the middle and file cabinets along
one wall.

“Help me with the desk.”  
Hank said.

The two of them slid the heavy desk across the floor and up
against the door.

“Won’t hold them forever, but at least we can breathe.”
  Hank said.

Sam stood there, staring at the wall.
  Panic, exhaustion, fear, and who knows what
else had taken their toll on the little guy.  
He had been a trooper through everything, and it was amazing it had
taken this long for him to get to this state.  
Hank couldn’t worry about him right now.

Kelly rushed over to the window, peering at the street below.
  Deflated by what she saw, she said, “They’re
everywhere.”

Hank looked out as well and when he saw the street swarming
with infected he said, “I think we woke the whole city.”

It only took a few minutes for the demented to make their
way up the stairs. From there they
spread out like flowing water, eventually reaching the door Hank, Kelly, and
Sam hid behind. That is when the
pounding began...incessant, unrelenting, and terribly annoying pounding.
  The thick office door was holding up, the
heavy desk barely budging. Hank and
Kelly had time, but needed more than that.

Sam sat in the middle of the room with his hands covering
his ears. “Make it stop Mommy.”

“I know Hun. We just
need to get out of here.”   Kelly said
while still watching out the window.

Hank was circling the room looking up at the ceiling.
  After having walked all the way around the
room multiple times he stopped by the desk, deep in thought staring at the
ceiling. He climbed up on top of the
desk and reached up for one of the panels that made up the false, drop ceiling.
  Sliding the panel out of the way, he looked
up at a pair of aged iron pipes running horizontally a few feet above his
head. Hank stood up tall with his head
in the open space.

“Anything?”
  Kelly asked from below.

“I can’t see a thing.”  
Hank responded. “Check the desk
drawers for a flashlight.”

Kelly began pulling out drawers and rifling through their
contents. Hank was down on his knees
leaning over the desk to see the contents.  
Kelly dug rapidly through drawer after drawer, finding them filled only
with paperwork. She reached one of the
large side drawers and found it scattered with miscellaneous junk.
  She quickly started digging through the
items.

“There.”   Hank said
excitedly. “What was that?”

Kelly went back to the items she was just digging through
and found the small blue keychain item Hank had pointed at.
  “This?”  
She asked while holding it up.

“Yeah, squeeze it.  
It’s one of those LED thingamajigs.”

Kelly pinched it between her pointer finger and thumb.
  A faint light shot out of one corner of the
keychain. The meager light barely
reached the ceiling above. Kelly started
laughing.

Hank understood the release of pent up stress and normally
would have joined in and made some wisecrack.  
Instead, with the pounding of demented directly behind him, he took the
light out of her grasp. “It’s going to
have to do.”   Hank stood back up and used
the light to peer into the space between the drop ceiling and the real wood
ceiling above.

He did not see what he was hoping for.
  He wasn’t really sure what he was hoping for,
but this was not it. The space was
mostly empty. There were some pipes
running just above the false ceiling and some cabling strung in snaking coils
across the tiles. Hank’s light followed
the four large pipes. After about a
dozen feet the pipes took a ninety degree turn toward the side wall and then
disappeared through a dark opening.

Hank ducked back down, hunching over the desk, and said,
“There’s an opening above the wall there.  
He pointed the light at the wall and gave it a little flick.
  “It’s big enough we can squeeze through.”

Kelly looked at the wall and then up at the ceiling as if
she could see the hole above. “Where
does it go?”

“That’s the million dollar question now isn’t
it. ”

They both turned toward the door when the pounding suddenly
got louder and much more agitated. The
wooden door jamb was beginning to crack and split away from the drywall.
  Hank remained on the desk, his weight helping
hold it in place. He felt the desk shutter
with each pound on the door.

“It’s got to be better than in here.”

Kelly simply nodded in agreement.
  She feared going into the unknown, but also
knew that they could not stay where they were much longer.
  She looked around the room, noticing that the
faint moonlight was being replaced by the warm glow of pre-dawn.
  Not much longer and the sun would be up.
  Sam stood next to her.
  He looked down at his feet while holding on
to her pant leg.

Hank hopped off the desk and moved over to the filing cabinets
that stood up against the wall below the opening he had seen.
  He pulled one of the drawers partway out and
used it like a ladder to climb on top.  
From there he was able to reach above and slide one of the ceiling tiles
out of place.

“The desk is moving.”  
Kelly shouted.

Hank looked down to see that the door jamb had splintered
and broke loose from the wall. Each time
the demented pounded into the door it caused the desk to slide a fraction of an
inch. The widening gap excited them even
more, increasing the pace they slammed into the door.
  Kelly turned and placed her hands on the
desk, leaning against it in an attempt to slow their onslaught.

Hank shouted from the top of the file cabinet, “Sam, come
here.”   He held his hands down, reaching
for Sam. After pulling the little guy up
beside him he said, “I’m sending Sam up...leave the desk.”

“But they’ll get in.”

“Their getting in no matter what, we have to get out.”
  Hank looked over at Sam standing next to
him. “Okay Buddy, I’m going to lift you
up on those pipes. Crawl through the
opening and we will be right behind you.”  
He could see that Sam was scared so he added, “Like a fortress where we
will be safe.”   Sam nodded and let Hank
lift him up through the opening. Despite
the dark, he began crawling along the pipes through the opening.

Hank looked over at Kelly.  
She still pushed on the desk, struggling to keep it from sliding.
  “Now! We have to
move.”

Kelly didn’t hesitate.  
She let go of the desk and raced over to Hank and the file cabinets.
  Behind her the desk began to slide across the
wooden floor, making a loud scraping noise that could be heard over the angry
growls of the demented. Hank grabbed one
of her outstretched arms and helped pull her on top of the cabinet beside him.
  No sooner had she made the cabinet than the
desk slid rapidly across the floor allowing a stream of demented to begin
pouring through the opening. Their
growls filled the small room.

“Go, go, go!
  Hank shouted as he lifted Kelly through the
open ceiling tile. He debated unslinging
his rifle and firing into the oncoming horde, but knew it would never be
enough. Instead he grabbed one of the
pipes and used it to pull himself up through the opening.
  He was just pulling his legs up through when
the first of the demented slammed into the file cabinet.
  The four large pipes were spaced out enough
that they provided a fairly wide platform to crawl along.
  Hank turned and followed Kelly through the
dark opening. He could hear her urging
Sam on.

Once he was through the opening Hank understood why she had
to encourage Sam to keep moving – it was pitch black and demented could be
heard below them. There was another drop
ceiling acting as a barrier, but if any of them fell from the pipes they would
crash right through the thin tiles. Hank
reached into his pocket and pulled out the keychain light.
  Squeezing it provided faint light, but enough
to see in the small space. “Take
this.”   He said to Kelly.

She took the light and used it to peer ahead of them.
  The pipes continued straight ahead and
disappeared into the darkness of another gap in the wall.
  Sam was frozen a few feet in front of
her. His soft crying could just be heard
over the sounds of the demented behind and below.

Hank glanced back and was horrified to see hands reaching up
through the opening they had climbed through.  
There were enough demented that they were beginning to use one another
like a ladder, swarming their way up the file cabinet.
  Looking back toward Sam, Hank said, “Give him
the light. We gotta
move.”

The demented below heard his voice and began growling
angrily.

With the light in hand Sam felt much more comfortable and
began moving forward. He easily fit
through the opening that led to the overhead of the next room.
  Kelly followed after, barely squeezing
through the tight opening. Hank
hesitated. The roar of the demented had
grown in volume. He turned to see a
couple of them just clearing the false ceiling.

Hank unslung his rifle and shouted to Kelly over his
shoulder, “Keep moving...see if you can find a way out
of this death trap. I’m going to
hold’em off for a bit.”

Kelly said, “Don’t stay long.”

The demented were just beginning to crawl through the wall
opening toward Hank. More were climbing
their way up onto the pipes. Hank
charged his rifle, sighted through the iron sights, and squeezed the
trigger. The rifle’s blast roared in the
small space. The muzzle flashed,
lighting the crawlspace for an instant.  
The bullet caught the demented in the shoulder, spinning him sideways,
and causing him to topple off the pipes, crashing through the ceiling
tiles. His body disappeared out of
view. The new opening allowed light to
spill in from below. Another demented
was crawling along the pipes through the gap in the wall.
  Hank squeezed the trigger again, dropping the
infected to the room below. More
demented trailed behind, working their way toward Hank.

The pipes began to groan under the weight and stress of all
the demented. Hank began to shuffle
backwards while continuing to fire through the gap in the wall.
  Bodies toppled from the pipes, but were
immediately replaced by others. The
demented in the room below were in a frenzy knowing prey was just above
them. Hank began rapidly pulling the
trigger, throwing as much lead as he could, planning to bug out as soon as his
magazine ran dry.

It only took a few seconds and he was out.
  He awkwardly slung the rifle back over his
shoulder and spun around, disappearing into the darkness.
  He immediately regretted not having a flashlight.
  The inky black was disorienting.
  Using his hands, Hank was able to feel along
the pipes to keep moving forward. He
felt the need to rush, and the sounds of the demented behind him did not help
calm his nerves one bit. Squinting into
the darkness ahead, Hank could just make out a faint light flashing.
  Knowing Sam’s was straight ahead, he began
crawling along as fast as he could.

The pipes began to creak loudly.
  There was a loud
tang
as one of the cable supports snapped off somewhere behind
Hank.   This was all the warning Hank had
before the pipes broke and the remaining cable supports tore loose from their
ceiling mounts. Hank was just reaching a
wall opening that the pipes went through.  
The pipes in front of Hank caught on the top of the wall, while the
pipes behind Hank crashed through the ceiling to the room below.
  They remained at a steep angle, dumping
demented to the floor. Hank clung to the
sides of the pipe, struggling to keep from falling into the horde.

******

Kelly both heard and felt the pipes break loose behind
her. She was just lifting Sam up through
a roof access that they had found.  
Morning light spilled in through the two foot by two foot opening.

Sam noticed the change as well and said, “What was that?”

“I think the pipes broke.  
Keep going, get on the roof.”

“What about Hank?”  
Sam choked out, clearly not liking the idea of leaving Hank behind.

“Get on the roof.  
I’ll go back and see if he needs help.”  
Kelly said. Before she even
finished Kelly wondered if she could really go back.
  Not only that, but leave Sam on the roof by
himself. She had to at least check on
him. She told herself that she would come
right back if anything looked iffy.

Sam was on the roof, looking back down at her through the
opening. He held out the flashlight
toward Kelly. “Take this Mommy.”
  He was clearly scared, but also glad to not
be leaving Hank by himself.

She hesitated for a bit, and then took the flashlight.
  Looking into his sweet eyes, she debated
whether she was making the right decision.  
How can I leave Sam alone?
  I’ll only be a few seconds.
  He gave her a quick nod, gesturing a “go
ahead Mom, it’s okay.”    With that she
turned back into the darkness and began following the pipes.

She did not have to go far to see that Hank was in
trouble. Her flashlight cut through the
gap in the wall and revealed that the pipes did not continue straight into the
distance, but instead bent down into the room below.
  This confused her for a bit.
  She knew the pipes extended flat out into the
room, because she had just traversed across them.
  It was only after several seconds of staring
into the opening that she realized what had happened.

Losing Hank like this hit her hard.
  A huge weight filled her stomach.
  Tears instantly welled up in her eyes, like
an uncontrollable flood. She hadn’t
thought she had tears left after everything she had been through and seen, but
here they were, in the dark crawlspace of some decrepit building.
  Remembering Sam, she began to shuffle around
in the tight space to get turned around.

It was then that she heard it.
  There were grunts and growls of the demented
below, but this stood out. It was the
sound of human exertion. The sound of survival rather than
the sound of destruction and hate.

“Hank?
  Is that you?”  
She whispered hesitantly into the dark.  
Worried that if she said it too loud it would push away the sound,
drowned it out, making hope disappear. She
could still hear it, but got no response.  
A little louder she said, “Hank, you there?”

A gravelly voice responded, “I’m
here.”

Kelly’s heart pounded in her chest.
  She spun back around and rushed across the
pipes through the gap. Shining her
flashlight over the edge she saw a nightmare.  
Hank was desperately gripping to the pipes with his legs tucked up as
far as possible. Directly below him were
dozens of demented climbing over one another trying to get at his
feet.   Several were
just high enough to claw at his shoes and scrape at his exposed flesh.