SurvivorZ

68

DANIELLE

Danielle gave Henry a sharp nod. "Ready."

He stood off to the side of the stairway door, all set to push it open. His belt hung around his wrist in a slack noose through its buckle. Should it come to it, all he had to do was slip it around the arms of the door closer and yank the strap tight. Assuming nothing prevented them from shutting the door beforehand.

Maureen stood by in case that happened. Her mother tightened her hold on the shotgun cradled under her arm. She looked ready to shoot the first thing that jumped out at them from the other side.

Moments earlier, Danielle placed her ear against the door and listened for movement. She couldn't hear anything over the pounding of her own heart. Nobody liked the idea of walking into this blind. Since they couldn't guess how much trouble they'd find once they threw open the door, they prepared for any eventuality as best they could.

The one thing they couldn't factor into their plans was the possibility they might encounter something new; a creature nobody had encountered before. Had they known what awaited them, they probably would've taken their chances with the undead horde locked behind the doors of West 2, the ward down the hall.

Henry pushed open the door. Upon staring into the adjoining room, three pairs of lungs halted in mid-breath.

The stairway stood empty and silent. They were expecting the clomping of footsteps on stairs and the dull groaning of the dead. Its absence caught them off guard, but the stillness alone wasn't what caused the fine hairs on the back of Danielle's neck to stand on end. The dread she felt in that moment was entirely due to the shocking state of the room itself.

Something unnatural had transformed the stairwell into an organic cavern. In the flickering lights, they watched a viscous substance ooze down the walls from the floors above. The bubbling gel dribbled down in snotty droplets. It pooled in a thick, hazy film on a floor sheeted in what looked like hardened crude oil.

"What in the name of all that's holy?" Henry muttered under his breath.

"Is this what Karla saw the last time she opened the door?" Maureen inquired.

"Definitely not. This is new."

Maureen grabbed Danielle by the arm and pulled her away from the opening. "Get behind me," she said.

Danielle didn't argue the point. She doubted her stomach could handle another second of the intense odor wafting from the staircase anyway. It was a gut-churning cocktail of rot, mold, and death. The stink seemed to leak from the shell covering the walls, as if someone had transformed the room into a festering scab over necrotic tissue.

"What is that stuff?" she coughed.

Maureen took a deep breath of hallway air and ventured inside behind the Remington's barrel. Danielle glanced at Henry. He seemed reluctant to follow, so she went next, holding the axe over her shoulder with both hands.

The stench of decay assailed her nostrils. She gagged, choking down the need to purge a bag of Ruffles from her stomach.

Cloudy mucus bubbled in pools by her feet. She minded her step while following her mother towards the stairs. There was no avoiding the stuff dripping down from the floors above. She grimaced, hating the feel of the cold, syrupy gel hitting her back and oozing down to her butt crack.

"What do you make of this?" she whispered, scooping a bit of the slime off the wall with her axe.

"It looks like a secretion of some kind."

Danielle flicked the muck off her blade and looked around nervously. "Secreted from what?"

"I don't think we want to know," Henry uttered behind her. She looked back at him. He lingered in the doorway, peering around in equal parts wonder and horror. He clearly didn't intend to stray any further from the safety of the hallway outside.