A World Together

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Stella

I'm panting heavily, my heart is pounding in my ears and my feet are slapping hard against the stone floor. But I can't hear any of this. All I can hear is the frenzied cries of the infected. I've never heard them sound like this before. It's as if this is the first time they've made noise in forever. I risk a glance back at them. More are still pouring out of the room, rushing out like a violent surge of water, completely filling every crevice of the corridor.

Fresh infected are clawing their way to the front. Even they seem more desperate than usual, more hysterical and vicious. They have no tolerance for the slower members of their hunting party. They shove them aside, pull them back, knock them over, whatever it takes to get to the front. I witness a middle-aged man dig his fingers into the eye sockets of an elderly lady as he jerks her back and to the side, taking her place in the sea of bodies.

A few of the infected are so emaciated they may as well be skeletons, but they all look starved. How long have they been locked in there for? Why were they even locked in there in the first place? I shake these thoughts away and turn my attention back to running. There are a million questions on my mind but asking them now is pointless. I need to live through this first.

The door on the opposite side of the corridor has opened by itself. Or at least it would seem that way. Then I remember the Gas Man boasting about his automatic doors and I wonder if our best course of action is to follow the trail he's setting out for us. I consider taking us back into the janitor's closet and climbing through the vents but we sprint past it before I have the chance to suggest it aloud. There's nowhere else for us to go but straight ahead.

Rocket has lagged behind me slightly. I turn my head so that I can see her. The fresh infected are closing in. The one at the very front, a bald man without a shirt and barely any shorts is starting to reach a hand out. "Come on!" I shout at her, but I know words will do no good. She's running as fast as she can and if that's not enough. . .

I make it through the open doorway and slide to a stop. Twisting back around, my hands clamp onto the edges of the door, ready to slam it shut the second Rocket passes through. Only, the infected are so close behind her – practically on her heels – that I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the door shut in time. There's no time to think of any other option. As she comes bursting through, I throw the door out as fast as I can and slam myself against it for good measure. I almost have it shut when the first of the infected barrels into it.

An arm snakes through the gap and I have to stab at it several times with my knife until it retreats. Rocket pushes her weight against the door as more infected pile up on the other side. The wood shakes beneath our hands as they try to batter and claw their way through. It becomes too much to handle, the door slowly presses open until another arm makes it through the gap.

"You have to keep running!" the Gas Man shouts through the speakers, his tinny voice practically lost over the roaring flood of infected.

I glance at Rocket, unsure if she'll be able to outrun them. There's no way I can give her a head start, the door will collapse on me the second she moves away. I can already feel it opening now. We don't have much time. We lock eyes and I know she's thinking the same.

"Ready?" she asks.

I bite my tongue and nod.

"Now!" she says.

The door flings open the second our fingers leave the wood. We almost don't make it away in time. It even catches my heel before slamming against the wall. It throws me off balance,  nearly trips me over, but I somehow manage to stay upright. Our new area is an exhibition. None of the displays look familiar at a glance. We're moving too fast to get a good look but there are large planes hanging from the ceiling, and I don't recall the Gas Man showing us a room with any such models.