Corrupted: The Pain We Feel (Book 1)

Chapter 6: Sideways Runways

~Play Instrumental while reading until told to stop~

We run for our lives from the hundreds upon hundreds of Corrupted that are chasing us, this is nothing like the lobby. There are at least 200 Corrupted behind us, and that's me being hopeful. The entire city around us is completely demolished, one building is leaned over and looks like it could fall at any given time so that's comforting.

Tristen is about to get scratched by a Gasher, so I run back to him and pull him with me away from the rare Corrupted. I didn't think to go over Gashers and Crawlers cause I didn't think we would see any! They're so rare! "What the hell was that?!" Tristen shouts over the screams of the Corrupted.

"I'll explain later if we can get out of this alive!" I shout back, shooting a Spitter that was coming too close for comfort.

There's a large pile of rubble blocking the end of the street, so I make a last minute decision and run into the slanted building. "Are you nuts?! That place could fall right on top of us!" Zoey yells as I stop at the metal door.

"You wanna stay and give them a hug?!" I reply sarcastically before they both run towards the door, slam it shut behind them, and drop the metal bar in place. We also pushed a large shelf in front of the door to buy us more time.

"Come on, that won't hold them for long!" I say as we head towards the stairs, which were slanted so it wasn't exactly easy to climb them since we had to put our feet on the walls to get up. Plus, the fact that we also have 3 or 400 Corrupted on our asses doesn't exactly help either.

We hear a loud bang, followed by the screeching of metal against the floor, causing us to look down and see Corrupted starting to climb the stairs, "Shit!" I whisper, now climbing faster. I get out a throwing knife, then throw it into the head of a weeper that was the closest to us.

I open the sideways door to the hallway, making sure to secure it behind us by slamming the metal bar into place, and run faster than ever before against the wall of the building. I can hear the Corrupted banging the door along with my rapid heartbeat against in my ear and the screams and cries of the evil that is after us. The door is ripped open and the Corrupted start climbing through the sideways door. I stop running for a moment as I spot a badge on a dead body, "Ella what are you waiting for?!" Zoey screams.

I run back towards the dead body and manage to grab the badge just before a Corrupted even touches me, "Tristen, think fast!" I toss him the badge as I catch up to them.

Tristen tries to open the door as Zoey and I try to fight off the Corrupted best we can since it had a scanner. "Any day now Tristen!" I yell, seeing that the Corrupted are getting closer and the door still isn't open.

"We are sideways lady, and it's not working!" he yells. A moment later, we hear a beep as the door flies open and we all jump through and slam the door shut behind us.

~Stop music~

We stop for a moment, all of us panting with our hands on our knees, still hearing screams and bangs against the secured door. "That was close." Zoey manages to say between her gasps of air.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." I laugh, still panting.

"Good thing you ran back or we would all be dead right now." Zoey says, now sitting down with a hand to her heart, her head now leaned against the floor since we were sitting on the wall.

"I don't know about you guys, but the fact that everything is sideways is really messing me up." Tristen comments, us laughing and agreeing with the fact that it is indeed very strange.