Eclipse

Chapter 17

Place: The Tower

Floor eleven, locked. Floor twelve, locked. Floor thirteen, open. We walked through, completely out of breath, the irony of thirteen not lost on us. The center of the building was hollowed again again like the first couple floors. We gazed upward trying to make out how large this section was but lost count to the darkness about five floors up. 

The floor we were on seemed to house more shops and restaurants, probably for people of this section of the building as I spotted one or two of the same place, namely a very familiar coffee chain. While I don't drink coffee, my parents would take take me there often to just get out of the house, play boardgames and have snacks. 

My mouth salivated at the thought of some more food, but I thought of potentially getting some water.  I nudged Tamara and we wandered over. The tap was still good and there was ice in the buckets. A small reprieve. 

"I've never tasted water this good" Tamara cried out as she gulped the water down. 

We walked back out to the center of the area, surrounded by tables for eating and looked around.  There were a couple different gift shops than the first floor, the table and tile décor were different as well, instead of pure white, the tiles had a slight white and off white marble patten to them.  Many of the tables had the same patters though, some a darker than others. The tables were all clean, only a few had some food left on them. Possibly left by some late night lazy workers that didn't know how to clean up after themselves. 

Above us, no chandelier hung down, the upper ceiling was covered in LED lights as well as each of the floors, a few lights were on the pillars all around us.

"What are we supposed to find here?" I asked. 

We continued to scan each shop in more detail than before,  but what we noticed was on the next floor up. Each floor above us for the next four floors was a basic walkway around the perimeter of the building with many doors leading to various locations. There was someone up there on the next floor. 

"Up there" I pointed. "It looks like a person, but their movements are, weird" It was slowing walking and swaying way to much to be a sane person, almost as if they were drunk.

"There's an escalator to the next floor over there." Tamara motioned towards.

We hurried over and trudged up the dead escalator to the next floor keeping watch for anything else out of the ordinary. 

There was an absence of people in this section, unlike the last two areas we were in. Did we fully transition to hell at some point or is everyone locked in their offices like the call center people below us?

The figure strode into an open door before we could get close. Tamara pulled her gun from her holster and I drew my sword, ready to attack anything. 

We positioned ourselves to either side of the door, but before we could peer in, the sound of a gun rang throughout the building and a bullet tore through the wall besides Tamara. 

I pulled Tamara down toward the solid railings for cover. Another gunshot rang out and put another hole in the wall behind us. 

My adrenaline was pumping, I couldn't see who was firing. I needed to do something but hide. 

"You two better hurry!" A woman's voice taunted us. 

The voice was to our front and somewhere above. 

"My creature isn't the only thing killing innocents." She continued. 

A scream followed and a plea for help were the next thing we heard coming from a man. "No, please, no! Help"