A New World: Sanctuary (20 page)

“You do understand what’s going on and what we’re dealing with right!?”
 
Lynn counters.

“Yes,” Brian answers.

Lynn hangs her head and shakes it from side to side before looking up at me.
 
“Tell me why we came down here again?”
 
She asks.
 
That’s my Lynn, blunt and to the point.

“Let’s just focus and get ready for tonight, although that wasn’t the greatest of ideas,” I add looking at Kelly.
 
“We need to talk about tonight’s plan.”

“What do we need to do?”
 
Kelly asks.

“First of all, we need to barricade the front door and put something up to block the kitchen window,” I say thinking that those are the two most prevalent entrances at ground level.
 
I’m not too keen on blocking our only routes out but I don’t really see much of an alternative.

“What about using the couch for the door?”
 
Bri asks.

I look over at the larger of the two couches in the living room thinking it may indeed fit in the entrance foyer against the door and opposing wall.
 
“Good idea, Bri.
 
Why don’t you, Robert, and Brian see if you can wedge it in place?”

As they begin moving the couch, I look around the rest of the place for something to block the kitchen window that overlooks the entrance to the front door.
 
It’s not the easiest solution finding something to put over the sink that will hold but I eventually settle on a small bookcase in one of the bedrooms.
 
Pulling the books and knickknacks off the shelves, Lynn and I lift the bookcase up against the window with the back to the outside.
 
We also grab the smaller couch and wedge it between the shelves and the kitchen counter, pulling and pushing to make sure it is pressed firmly against the shelves, wedging it firmly in place.
 
Robert, Bri, and Brian manage to fit the couch against the front door.

We all gather in the now couch-less living room.
 
An orange glow peeks around the closed blinds announcing that the day is rapidly drawing to a close.
 
I notice a not-so-faint aroma rising from my clothes.
 
Yeah, the confined space we’ll be in tonight should be interesting in that regard and I wish I had brought a change.

“You know that bathroom isn’t very defensible,” Lynn says.

“I know.
 
What do you think about using the back bedroom if something goes down tonight? ” I ask.

“I think that’s probably our best bet,” she answers.

“Let’s go take a look then.”

As a group, we move to the back bedroom down a narrow hallway filled with framed family pictures on the walls.
 
The bedroom is mostly filled with a bed and dresser.
 
To the left and backside of the apartment, long, white, slat-like blinds hang vertically over a sliding glass door leading to a small patio.
 
The patio itself stands a good ten feet off another paved driveway and parking places.
 
To the right, a good-sized walk-in closet opens off the room with a larger bathroom just past it.
 
The frosted window in the bathroom leading outside is too small for anyone or anything to gain entrance.

The walk-in closet is filled with clothing in every available space with shoe boxes and shoes lining the floor underneath.
 
“Kelly, can you clean off the closet floor?”
 
I ask.

Kelly and Jessica remove the shoes and boxes, stuffing them under the bed and on the floor by the dresser.
 
While they are doing that, Robert, Lynn, Bri, and I don our NVG’s and test our radios, making sure they are off to conserve the batteries.
 
The nice thing about these units is the battery packs are rechargeable, however, there isn’t any electrical power here and I didn’t bring the chargers with us.
 
Our actions throughout the day have drained them to an extent.
 
The orange glow that was peeking around the living room blinds now changes to a deepening blue-gray around the bedroom blinds.

“What now?”
 
Robert asks as we pile into the interior bathroom.

“Now we wait the night out,” I answer.
 
“If something happens, we’ll move quickly into the bedroom with everyone in the closet.
 
I’ll cover the hallway.”

“I’ll be with you,” Lynn says.

“I’d rather you be with everyone else and cover my back watching over the back patio door.
 
It’s an enclosed space and I don’t want to have to second-guess what I’m shooting at.”
 
I wish we had the IFF tabs we could attach to our uniforms.
 
A thought for later.

“Okay, Jack,” she replies.

“What about me?”
 
Robert asks.

“The same.
 
Keep my backside clear and protect the others,” I answer.

The bathroom is indeed crowded with the seven of us in there.
 
I take a seat on the counter by the sink with Robert next to me.
 
Lynn squats by the hallway door and Bri sits herself on the bathtub rim.
 
Brian sits on the floor under the towel rack with Kelly by the other door leading to the far bedroom and Jessica sitting on the toilet seat.
 
We light the candles and place towels under the door.

“What’s with the towels?”
 
Kelly asks.

“So the light doesn’t leak out,” I answer.

“Well, I for one don’t want to wait the night out in here,” Brian says.

“We don’t have much choice,” I respond.

“We’ve stayed out in the living room and bedrooms every night and have been just fine,” he retorts.

“Look, Brian, we have to become a deep, dark hole in the fabric of space and time.
 
You have no idea what these night runners are capable of,” I state in a whisper.
 
“And keep your voice down.”

“What!?
 
Just because you come in wearing SWAT gear and trying to look badass doesn’t mean that you know everything and have all of the answers,” he says still keeping his normal tone.
 
“Weren’t you just a pilot anyway?”

“There are very few people in this room who know exactly what I did and that’s irrelevant anyway.
 
All of us here have had a bit of experience with the night runners so we do know a bit.
 
I don’t think you fully grasp what we are dealing with,” I whisper.
 
“There are what, like over 2 million people in the Portland area?
 
Or were?”

“Something like that I’d guess,” he says keeping his voice at normal volumes.

“Shhhh.
 
Keep your voice down dammit,” I whisper sharply.
 
“Just so you understand, there is something like thirty percent of the population that turned into night runners.
 
That means there are about seven hundred thousand of them around this area.
 
Seven hundred thousand, Brian!
 
That’s a fuck of a lot!”

As if to emphasize my point, a very faint, distant, yet distinct shriek of a night runner, or perhaps a few of them, penetrate the inner walls and reach our ears.

“I’ll be fucked if I’m going to be told what to do in my own place and will talk as loud as I want,” he says with his voice rising.

That’s a surprise to me as I didn’t know Kelly and him were living together but then again, there has been no contact with Kelly since we split up many years ago.
 
There is an obvious Alpha male thing going on.
 
I am getting that Brian is feeling a little insecure which could stem from a number of reasons.
 
He may be jealous and feel the need to assert himself as Kelly and I were together at one point, or it may be from the fact that we were asked to help and he is therefore feeling he is inadequate; that his manhood is in question.
 
I just don’t have the time or patience for his insecurities.
 
Especially if they are endangering the rest of us.
 
I can also tell, by the tightness of her lips and the narrowing of her eyes, that Lynn is getting fairly perturbed.

Brian starts to rise as another shriek rises in the night, closer this time.
 
“Sit the fuck down and shut up.
 
You’re endangering us fuck-wit,” Lynn says with a sharp whisper, finally having had enough.

Brian pauses in his movement.
 
“What!?
 
Are you going to shoot me?”
 
He asks not lowering his voice one whit.

“If I have to and if that’s what it takes,” Lynn says raising her M-4 a notch.

I see, by the tightness around his eyes, that Robert is pretty upset as well.
 
With Lynn, he raises his weapon a touch.
 
Bri and Jessica are watching the exchange with wide eyes, although Bri has a more of a “this is interesting” expression on her face.

“Brian, please, sit down.
 
They know what they’re doing and I trust them,” Kelly says.

Brian does indeed plant himself back on the floor but continues to glare.
 
“How about lending one of your guns then?”
 
He asks.

“Have you been trained?”
 
I ask in return.

“I’ve shot a gun before,” he answers.

“But I mean trained, as in any military type of experience?”
 
I ask.

“No.”

“Then, no.
 
I don’t want the added risk of someone not knowing what they’re doing; maybe shooting in a moment of excitement and injuring one of us.”

“You have your kids toting around weapons and I know they weren’t in the military,” Brian states.

“They’ve had some training and I trust them,” I respond.

A scream cuts sharply into the night intruding upon our “conversation.”
 
Footsteps thump across the ceiling from the apartment above.
 
The sound and vibration of the footsteps are accompanied by voices, too dim to make out the actual words but it’s apparent they are from people and sound like female voices.

“Who’s that?”
 
I ask quietly.

“I think they’re the daughters from the couple upstairs,” Kelly answers.

“Have you talked with them?”
 
I ask further.

“No,” she replies.
 
Another loud shriek penetrates, sounding like it’s coming from the parking lot in front.
 
This is followed by an additional one from the same area.
 
The voices upstairs continue.

“They better be quiet or they’re going to invite the night runners,” Lynn says.

As if her words were the catalyst, a pounding of footsteps on the concrete stairs outside, seemingly heading upstairs, vibrates the apartment.
 
Screams dominate the night and the first slamming of bodies into the apartment door upstairs causes the people there to scream as well.
 
This only serves to agitate the night runners more.

“Can we help them or do anything?”
 
Jessica asks as we all look to the ceiling above.
 
I glance to make sure the towels are securely barring any light emitting from our small bathroom enclave.

“If we’d have known someone was up there, we could have brought them down with us but there’s nothing we can do now without endangering us all,” I answer.

The assault on the upstairs door continues and then, with a crash and the sound of splintering wood, the door gives way.
 
Loud shrieks and rapid footfalls race across the ceiling just a few feet over our heads.

“Nooooo!”
 
We hear from above.

Cries resonate from above, filling our tiny space.
 
A loud thump shakes the apartment and agonizing screams follow, rising above and mixing with the screeches from the night runners.
 
I can almost make out the sound of flesh being bitten into and torn from the bodies but that is mostly coming from my imagination.
 
The flame from the candles around us waver as if dancing in tune to the horrific scene being enacted above, making our shadows move across the walls in the same macabre beat.

The screams stop and only a muted growling and snarling reach our ears.
 
My finger caresses the trigger guard both from nervousness, with having the night runners so close, and a sick feeling inside hearing the horrible end to the people upstairs.
 
With this scene fresh in my mind, I think there can’t be too many other survivors.
 
Our one percent has most likely decreased to a marginal level.

“What, in the fuck, was that?”
 
Brian asks loudly.

You have got to be fucking kidding me!
 
I think and look at him incredulously with a touch of fear and panic washing through me.
 
I can’t believe he just spoke that loudly – again!
 
Especially after what we just witnessed.
 
He just doesn’t get it!
 
Several loud screeches come from above and footsteps thump rapidly across the ceiling.