In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

did I have but to hope for safety deeper in the building? Stepping forward, movement at my leg jolted me from my concentration, but breathing a sigh of relief, I saw Shadow rushing past with heavy breath only to lose him to the darkness.

Turning back, I ignored the slathering, squashed features at the glass and ushered the others in as I wedged the inner door wide with a fire extinguisher to keep what little light remained.

“Did you see the soldiers?” I whispered the question again, but when no one replied I carried on my exploration.

There were six doors, not four, as I stepped in. Three toilets, based on the round signs on each, and another marked staff only. The two remaining doors, one to the left and one to the right, were solid with no glass to show what waited on the other side.

“Yes,” Alex whispered at my back. “That fucking helicopter must have drawn the creatures from everywhere. Do you think the soldiers saw us?”

I shrugged an answer, listening to what I hoped wasn’t something moving behind the door to the left whilst wishing I had a weapon.

Alex must have heard it too and didn’t press the question. With Cassie joining at my side, the three of us moved to the left-hand door.

Light spilled out as Cassie pushed the door wide. We followed Shadow squeezing past our line to the chaos of a narrow restaurant with its tables and chairs scattered to their sides as if caught in a whirlwind. A short bar stood to the right as we entered.

Feeling a chill in the air, I looked up to the ceiling; scanning the skylights, I soon found one in the centre of the room with its glass missing.

“No,” I snapped as I looked down, calling Shadow back from one of three bodies lying amongst the broken furniture and scattered glass. He pulled back at my voice, changing course as I took in the rest of the view, hoping any movement, any threat would be easy to catch in the disorder.

Nothing showed itself and I scanned the room again, taking more time for the detail.

Glass walls overlooked the rushing river to the right and the empty car park to the left, but as I looked across the scene, the left-hand view filled with the creatures moving along, but rather than break the glass with their slaps, they merely smeared sticky decay across its surface.

I couldn’t help but imagine the place in better times and how the view would have looked when the water was calm, the city wasn’t in ruins and the bridge wasn’t crumbling into the river.

Glass crunched under my feet as I turned. Peering over my shoulder to Alex, I saw they weren’t bodies on the floor but husks, the remains of a meal with skin, jewellery and glasses discarded to the side. We’d seen this before and I couldn’t help but think how much time it would have taken to separate out the meal. Whatever had done this must have felt safe. Whatever had done this must have been shut in with their feast.

And could still be somewhere in the building.

Taking a step closer, my foot knocked against a lump of wood, one side varnished, the other side raw and jagged. As it landed close to the remains, a swarm of flies took to the air and I pushed my mouth to the crook of my elbow at the wave of decay rising after.

Stepping back, I tried to hold my gag with Alex mirroring my motion as I stumbled to the door. My gaze caught on Cassie, who seemed content to ignore the mess as she walked to the bar and rifled through its contents out of sight.

Retracing her route out from behind the wooden bar, she held a long knife tight in her grip. Alex and I moved out of her way as she strode past us, heading back to the anteroom.

We followed with slow steps into the darkness, watching as Cassie’s pace picked up, not able to grasp why she charged through to the opposite door, sending a flash of light as she jumped forward.

The realisation hit and I rushed to catch up. She’d had the same thought, and I watched helpless to the sight of a figure crouching in a dining room so similar to the one we’d left.

Glass crunched under Cassie’s feet and the figure lifted its head, its eyes not glazed white and mouth turning to a sneer as it stood, issuing a piercing scream.

48

I wanted to turn, to run and hide and slam a heavy locked door in its path and push my hands against my ears to stop the penetrating scream. I knew I couldn’t just stare, transfixed on Cassie’s back as she rushed without flinching away from the figure standing at the other end of the room. With the knife high in her fist, she charged, her battle cry barely heard from under the figure’s unnatural shriek.

Glancing left and right, Mandy stayed fixed to the spot in the anteroom and was half in a turn to the main door, frozen between leaving our side and rushing away alone. Alex stood poised at my side, her head turning left and right in what I could only imagine was a desperate search for a weapon.

Shadow’s leap forward with bared teeth spurred me on, and I grabbed a discarded chair, with Alex mirroring my movement. Rushing at Cassie’s back with the legs of the chairs facing out, I watched Cassie closing up, adding my feral call to the cacophony.

Thrusting the knife down as she arrived, the high-pitched squeal of the creature halted as its arm rose and fell, sweeping Cassie off her feet to clatter sideways into tables and chairs, sending crockery and glass into the air.

The room darkened and at the edge of my vision