The maintenance room had become my tomb. I'd been hiding here for what felt like hours, though the emergency clock on the wall insisted it had only been twenty-seven minutes. Twenty-seven minutes of listening to that thing outside.
"Come on… just leave already," I whispered under my breath my voice was barely audible.
My shoulder wounds had stopped bleeding, but they burned like hell every time I moved. I could feel my strength seeping away with each heartbeat.
"I can't stay here. I'll bleed out or go insane."
But I had to move. The flare beacon felt heavy in my trembling hands my last hope of signaling the rescue. The rooftop was only two floors up now.
"You made it this far, Sera… Just a little more. Just two damn floors."
I pressed my ear to the maintenance door. There is just silence. Either the creature had moved on, or it was waiting for me to make the first move.
"Time to find out," I muttered, tightening my grip on the beacon.
I eased the door open, inch by inch. The landing was empty. But the smell hit me immediately that stench of decay mixed with blood.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I slipped out of the maintenance room. The roof access door loomed ahead. But between me and that door, dark stains streaked across the concrete floor. Something had been dragging.
I crept forward. The building groaned around me. In the distance, I could hear the faint hum of failing electrical systems and the occasional crash of debris falling through the lower floors. That's when I heard it.
"Whe.re..are~ youu~..."
The voice drifted from somewhere above me, echoing down the emergency stairwell.
"Co..me back... we..need to... talk..."
I froze. The creature wasn't behind me anymore. It had climbed up, somehow getting above my position. It was hunting me from above now, using the building's damaged structure to its advantage.
I looked up at the ceiling. Somewhere in the floors above, I could hear movement. Its slow and deliberate scraping sounds like something with too many joints navigated through the wreckage.
"Tch... Oh, great. Now it wants to talk? What's next, tea and cookies?" I muttered my voice low.
"Creepy bastard thinks it's clever… well, I'm not some damsel who's gonna roll over and die."
My grip tightened on the flare beacon. "Ugh… stupid monster. Just try me." But my knees still trembled.
The roof access door was still locked. But now I have a better idea.
I noticed something during my time in the maintenance room a service ladder built into the wall, leading up to what looked like a ventilation shaft. If I could get into the building's mechanical systems, I might be able to bypass the locked door entirely.
The ladder was old, probably installed when they built the institute back in the 2040s. But it seemed solid enough. I grabbed the first rung and pulled myself up, ignoring the pain in my shoulders.
The ventilation shaft was barely wide enough for my body, a tunnel of metal that amplified every sound. I crawled forward on my hands and knees, the flare beacon clutched against my chest, trying to move as quietly as possible.
Above me, I could hear the creature moving through the building. It was getting closer.
"Whe..re.. are..you....." The voice seemed to come from everywhere, echoing through the building.
I reached a junction in the ventilation system and paused, trying to get my bearings. To my left, the shaft continued horizontally toward what I hoped was the rooftop access room. To my right, it sloped downward into darkness.
The decision was made for me when I heard metal groaning somewhere behind me. The creature had found the maintenance room. It wouldn't be long before it discovered the service ladder.
I crawled left, moving as fast as I dared in the narrow space. The metal beneath me creaked and flexed with each movement, and I prayed it would hold my weight. Below me, I could see glimpses of the building's interior through ventilation grilles with empty classrooms, overturned desks, dark stains on the walls.
Then I heard it. A sound that made my blood freeze.
Scrrrtch… click… scrrrtch. Something was crawling into the shaft.
I didn't dare look back.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," I hissed under my breath, and my words trembled despite my best efforts to sound annoyed instead of being terrified.
The shaft vibrated faintly behind me. The monster had found the ventilation shaft and it was ripping its way in.
"Therrre....y..ou arrre..."
I whimpered, my body froze one awful second.
"Nope! Absolutely not!" I struggled to breathe as I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to control my rising panic clawing at my throat.
"This is not how I die!" I hissed, forcing my limbs to move, scraping my knees against the metal as I stumbled forward, abandoning any pretense of stealth.
Ahead, I could see the light. The moon light shining through storm clouds.
With one last frantic kick, the ventilation panel burst outward, clattering to the floor of a small utility room. The sound was deafening, but I was already dragging myself out.
I fell to the floor nearly faceplanting into a cluster of wires.
"Ow—seriously?!" I winced, scrambling to my feet. The room was tight and cold, filled with humming electrical panels and climate control equipment.
More importantly, I could see a heavy door marked with the emergency sign.
ROOFTOP ACCESS - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
I tumbled out of the shaft and onto the floor, my wounded shoulders screaming in protest. But I was almost there. But the ventilation shaft exploded outward behind me.
The creature had emerged. Its body had been twisted by the infection into something that barely resembled human anatomy. Multiple arms jutted from its torso at impossible angles, Its face was a ruin of exposed bone and hanging flesh.
"Fooo..und..you..." it whispered, the words bubbling up from deep in its chest. "No..w we can... play..."
I threw myself at the rooftop access door, hands fumbling for the emergency release. The mechanism was electronic, but the backup manual override was built into the frame. I grabbed the red handle and pulled everything I had.
The door groaned open, revealing a short flight of stairs leading up to the roof. But as I started to climb, claws raked across my back, tearing through my already-ruined blazer and opening new wounds.
"Aghh—!!" I hissed through gritted teeth, pain burning down my spine.
I spun around and swung the flare beacon like a club, catching the creature across what remained of its face. "Get away from me!"
It shrieked and stumbled back and black ichor spraying from the impact.
I ran up the stairs, taking them three at a time. Behind me, the creature recovered and gave chase, its multiple limbs allowing it to move faster.
I burst through the final door and onto the rooftop.
The wind hit my body, whipping my hair across my face. The sky was a hellish red, and fires burning across the city below. In the distance, I could see the remains of other buildings, their windows dark and empty.