Better off Undead

Chapter 47: House of the Dead

"Run."

Eli wasn't sure who said it, but not one in the group had any hesitation in following the command. As one, they turned and bolted from the room. Jay somehow overtook the group and pulled out ahead.

They followed him around the corner and down the hall back to the outer doors. He skidded to an unsteady halt in front of them, grabbed the closest handle, and yanked with all his might.

Outside, the gargoyles had settled down in front of the door in one big group, now returned to their lifeless, statue forms. They massed together like a battalion of grotesque lawn ornaments, blocking all hope of exit. As Jay stood in the doorway, watching them, they began to stir again.

He slammed the door shut and spun around, pressing his back up against the metal surface. His face was white as a sheet.

"Out of the way!" demanded Aliyah.

"Gargoyles," Jay responded simply, his voice wavering with fear. "Gargoyles."

Everyone skidded to a halt.

"What do we do now then?" demanded Aliyah.

"We'll have to fight," offered Mac.

"Against... those things?" croaked Amber, still hoarse from being choked.

"You have a better idea?" Mac shot back.

With faint light seeping down the hallway, it was much easier to see its layout now than it had been before. Now Eli could see there were doorways lining the hall.

"The side rooms!" he hissed, as loudly as he dared. He threw himself at the nearest door and yanked on the handle. It was mercifully unlocked. "We can hide!"

Without waiting for the others he dove inside. Within moments they had all joined him in the room.

"We can't hide here forever," Aliyah pointed out.

As if to accentuate her point, they could hear the loud pounding of footsteps in the hallway outside.

"Why do your plans always involve trapping us into tiny little rooms?" Amber hissed the words through her teeth at Eli.

"What?" Eli whispered back. "So I panicked. It's better than being outer there and having them already be on top of us."

"Out there we maybe could have run. In here we have nowhere to go."

"Well excuse me, princess. I didn't see you offering any ideas. And no one said you had to follow me."

Aliyah spun around on them. "Would you two kindly shut the hell up?"

Eli turned away and looked around the room. There wasn't much in there, but there might just be a use for the stuff that was. "Maybe we can hide," he suggested, pointing toward a desk on the far side of the room. They hurried over to it, no one bothering to object. There wasn't enough space behind it for them to all hunker down. Jay motioned to Mac, and together they hurried to another part of the room and, as quietly as they could manage, upturned a table so it could hide them from the doorway. Eli, Amber, and Aliyah hid behind the desk.

Moments later there was a pounding on the door, and after a few earth-shattering blows it exploded inwards. One of the hinges burst off completely and the door swung in and hung limply from the small, intact portion of the single remaining hinge.

Only one of the creatures stepped into the room, though a thundering echoing down the halls told them that the other rooms were similarly being checked.

They all hunched up as much as they could, trying to reduce their chances of being detected. They couldn't see the creature, but they could hear it moving around. And they could hear its breathing... a strange, almost gasping sound like it was sniffing the air. Like it was a bloodhound on the hunt.