The Escape

It took a damn long time for the two men to remove the couches from the door once again, but they were set on their plan, even if it didn't work. Henry did scroll through social media looking for any kind of solution to see if anyone other survivors out there have figured it out, but there was no such luck. Roy had given him an irritated look, and Henry knew that he was stalling, he just didn't want to sacrifice someone by accident. 

He only just met Roy, but the thought of getting him killed after feeling like they had spent a lifetime together was eating away at him. The boy was hidden in the bathroom, with his backpack, the door locked. Roy grabbed the door to the suite, getting ready to pull it open. Henry held his breathe, dreading what they were about to do. Henry carried the only thing he could think of to kill one of these things. The toilet tank lid was easy access, but Henry was not looking forward to killing one of those things. 

The plan was simple, but quite stupid. 

Roy was going to throw something to alert the infected to run down the other hallway, away from the elevator. Hopefully one infected would be behind, and they would be able to alert that one only, to have it run into the room so that Henry could finish him off. He had wrapped a hand towel around his head, and had thrown sunglasses on to cover his eyes, in case blood were to get into them. 

Roy had done the same, even though he was against it, but Henry insisted that it was to be on the same side, because he had seen way too many zombie movies where blood would get into the eyes or the mouth of survivors, instantly turning them. He wasn't sure if this infection was also like that, but he wasn't taking any chances. 

Roy looked over at Henry, and nodded in his direction. Henry nodded back, the toilet lid shaking in his hands. Roy pulled the door open, and it made a loud creak, since it had been broken the first time by the infected crowd. The infected started to run upon hearing that sound, and Roy threw the object down the hall that he had grabbed randomly. 

A silver fork from the dinner table. 

The infected ran down the hallway, straight toward that sound instead. Henry held his breathe, waiting for Roy to alert any of the infected. Two were behind, and they were both shuffling slowly after the crowd. They were each dragging a broken leg. They were two doors down from the crowd, that was now searching for that nearby sound. Roy let out a small, frustrated sigh. Henry could feel himself getting extremely nervous as Roy kept looking back and forth down the hallway. They waited for what felt like hours, until the two dead things were centimeters away from the suite. 

Roy took out another fork from his pocket. It was a backup in case, and it had been Henry's idea, since the infected were pretty sensitive to sound. He threw the fork toward the crowd down the hallway, and they let out multiple groans in unison, reaching out, while bumping into each other aggressively. The two dead things were now in front of the door, still walking in the same direction, at their own pace. Roy took out his flask and dumped it on the floor in front of him. 

The two dead things looked in his direction, but so did the crowd. This was expected, but the only problem was that the dead things were going way too slow. Henry let out a loud yell by accident when Roy suddenly grabbed one of the dead things that was right in front of him, and threw it into the room with them. It landed on the ground, and it was struggling to get up. It saw Henry, and it was reaching out for him, moaning. 

Roy ran in front of one of the couches, and dragged it toward the door, just in the nick of time as the slow dead thing pressed its body against the door. Realizing that the dead thing in front of Henry was going to struggle to even fight back, he dropped the toilet lid, ran toward the other couch, and quickly dragged it toward the other side of the door. 

Right at that moment, the crowd charged against the door, and the two men both tried not to shout, but the dead weren't able to break through the door, due to the weight. Henry then ran over to the toilet lid, and slammed it against the infected face. Blood flew all over his clothes, and onto his face mask. He bit his tongue by accident, and he let out a shout as he continued to hit the infected. He did not stop until it was no longer moving. 

Henry dropped the toilet lid, and let his arms fall to his sides, hanging by his knees. He leaned over the infected, breathing heavily. He ripped off the hand towel from his face, gagging from the smell of the body. He turned away from the corpse that he had re - killed, and vomited once again. 

All of this happened in a matter of ten seconds. 

For the men, it felt like they had experienced a massive battle that had lasted for years. 

Complete silence followed, and neither man spoke for a long time, until the dead at the door came to a standstill. Roy slowly walked over to Henry, plopping down next to him. 

"Are you alright?," he whispered. 

Henry shook his head. 

Roy patted his back. 

"We should probably get started. You know…in case the door doesn't hold."

Henry looked up at Roy. 

"Yes. Oh fuck. That was so stupid."

"Yeah. It was."

Henry looked down at the dead thing. 

"We're going to smell really bad, you know."

"Yeah, no shit. This was your plan, remember? It's all we got. We're not chickening out now. Not after I almost got myself killed for you."

Henry gave a meek nod. 

"Yeah. You're right…who wants to go first?"

Without hesitation, Roy turned over the dead thing. He took out a switchblade from his trenchcoat. Henry covered his mouth, and looked away from the mutilation that was about to take place. He heard the blade enter the man's stomach, and he held back the urge to vomit again, in fear that the dead on the other side of the door were going to hear him. 

They were already acting up again when they could faintly hear Roy cutting open one of their own. They let out loud moans, and to Henry, it was like listening to the cry of animals, releasing their emotions at the thought that they were helpless to save one of the members from the pack. He bit back his loud cry, as he began to sob beneath his hands. 

Henry let out a bit of a loud one when he heard Roy pull out something wet and sticky, and he felt pain hit the back of his head. 

"Shut the fuck up," Roy whispered angrily. 

Henry instantly shut up, picturing his sister doing the same. She would know better in a fucked-up situation like this. 

Henry flinched when he felt Roy rubbing his hand along his back. He could feel something squishy underneath Roy's hand as he caressed him, but it felt so violating, and Henry almost smacked his hand away. He told himself he would get through it, and he pictured a happy memory with his sister as Roy covered him in the dead man's blood. 

"You need to turn around," Roy whispered. 

Henry did, but he did not look at the body. He kept his eyes on his knees the whole time, watching the blood from the dead man pool around him, his jeans now turning a dark red. He shut his eyes once Roy had reached his face, and he tried not to let out any more disgusted sounds as he could feel the blood cover up his face. 

"I think that's enough for now. I'm going to do me next. The kid…will be last."

Henry nodded, stood up, and walked over to the bed. He sat down on the mattress, no longer feeling like he was mentally there. He looked at his hands, picturing the way that the toilet lid felt when it crushed the man's skull. He was already dead, but knowing that was how it felt to kill something, was the worst feeling in the world for Henry. 

He waited for Roy to finish up. It took about five minutes by the time Roy was done. He walked over to Henry. They looked at each other for a long time, studying the red on both of their bodies. 

"This is all kinds of fucked up, isn't it?," Roy said. 

Henry did not speak. 

"I'm going to do the same with the kid…I'm going to blindfold him. Don't want him to see a dead body…and um…I think that was his dad. The one you…you know."

"Why did you tell me that?"

"I don't know."

Henry remained quiet. He did not speak for a long time, as Roy went into the bathroom, spoke softly to the kid, and then blindfolded him by covering his face with one of the towels. Roy led the kid to the body, and Henry almost let out hysterical laughter when it dawned on him that Roy was going to use the boy's own father to keep him safe from the infected. 

It was all sorts of fucked up, but what choice did they have?

By the time that Roy was finished, he called over Henry in a soft voice. He made his way to the boy and Roy, who both looked like they were a father and son playing dress up during Halloween. Roy wasn't wearing his trenchcoat anymore. He had draped it over the dead body, so that the boy wouldn't see it. 

Henry stood next to the duo. The boy had his backpack, and he was still holding onto his toy train. His eyes were intently staring at the toy train. Roy's hand was on one of the boy's shoulders, and he had the saddest expression. Henry thought of offering some sort of comfort, but that wouldn't do anything. 

"Oh. Um. I should probably get my phone in case."

Roy gave a firm nod. Henry left the duo, and he could hear Roy speaking with the boy as he retrieved his phone from his made-up bed on the floor. It only had 40% charge, but it would do for now. He probably should have grabbed his phone charger as well, but Henry didn't see the need for it. 

Henry returned to the duo, and noticed right away that the train was no longer in the boy's hands. Roy gave a light shrug. 

"I think it's best if it stays in his backpack. You know…in case he drops it and it makes a lot of noise."

"Yeah. That was probably a good idea."

The two men were facing the door; the boy huddled between them. 

Roy made the first move, beginning to remove one of the couches from the door. Henry stayed with the boy, and the kid wrapped his arms around his legs, as if he did not want to let go. Henry wondered if he ever did that with his parents, and beforehand, he probably would have cried, but for now, he felt empty of tears. 

The dead were now scrambling to slam against the door, as Roy was getting ready to remove the final chair. They should have put the boy in the bathroom in case, but before Henry could suggest this, the couch was taken away, and the dead burst through the doorway. 

Henry picked up the boy on instinct, holding him close, in case the dead were to gun straight for him. 

But none of them made a move. They all merely stood there, twitching. 

Roy and Henry looked at each other in shock, realizing that this stupid last-minute plan did indeed work. Roy reached out a hand toward Henry, and he took it, allowing himself to be slowly led out of the room, as he held the boy with his other arm. The infected were moaning loudly, and Henry held his breathe, praying that none of them were suddenly going to attack him. 

They made it to the hallway, and the two men let go of each other's hands. The boy had his arms tightly wrapped around Henry's neck, but he didn't mind. As long as the boy remained quiet, they were going to be alright. He hoped that the boy's eyes were closed, but perhaps they were, because he was incredibly silent. 

Unless he was so devoid of emotion after everything he had witnessed, which is alright for right now, and Henry hoped that he would eventually heal from this, if they make it through of course. 

Roy and Henry looked at the elevator, and then down the hallway, where the stairs were. They both began to walk toward the stairs. It was best to avoid making as much noise as possible, and the elevator was probably crowded with the dead anyway. The entire hallway was encased in blood, the smell almost making Henry gag. The boy made a small sound, almost like a whimper. 

Henry placed his hand on his head, rubbing his hair, whispering soothing words that his sister once did for him when he had a nightmare as a child himself. Roy spotted the two forks on the ground, close to the stairs. He picked both of them up, and mouthed to Henry:

"Might come in handy."

Henry agreed, giving him a quick thumbs up. 

The trio made it to the door, leading all the way downstairs, to all of the floors. It was ten flights of stairs they were going to have to descend, and it was most likely going to be filled with the dead. 

Roy pushed open the door, as Henry held tightly to the boy, and he could faintly hear moans on the other side. The dead behind them were beginning to run toward the door, including the ones on the other side. Henry followed Roy through the door, as it closed right behind the dead in the hallway. There were several infected on the other side of the door, that were now right in their faces. 

They were frozen in place, blindly searching for a meal they would hopefully never have. The trio began to make their way down the stairs, pushing past the infected. 

Henry made a silent prayer, as they continued to make their way down the stairs past the infected, that now resembled demons blocking their way to the gates of Hell. 

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The final chapter will be released sometime next week!

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn