The elevator lurched upwards, leaving our fallen companion behind.
Beside me, Karen silently wept.
“I’m … I’m sorry for your loss,” I muttered, unsure what else to say.
“Oh, Frank!” she cried and collapsed into my arms, sobbing. “He’s dead! Gone! I’ll never see him again.”
I placed my arm around her for the first time in a year and a half. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we would ever be this close again, remembering the end of our relationship, when even the slightest touch would have made her shudder. She hugged me tightly while below her lover was being eaten alive—a man who I considered responsible for our breakup. But that wasn’t true, was it? I had destroyed our marriage, not Jeffrey. It had been me who had ignored my duties as a husband, me who had been too committed to his research to see that our marriage had been falling apart right before my eyes.
No … Jeffrey wasn’t to blame. I was.
“He’s dead, Frank,” she moaned. “I can’t believe it—”
Cling! The elevator doors began to drift open. In our misery, we had forgotten that Karen had pressed all the level buttons in our haste to depart.
Still embraced, we turned slowly, dreading what we would find. If we had thought that the turmoil of the last hour would prepare us for what we were about to see, then we were wrong—go directly to jail, do not pass go, kind of wrong.
The opening of those doors is an experience that tested my sanity. It made me question whether everything I had been taught was a lie. Science, was a lie.
I have never believed in the supernatural, or what others may call ghosts and spirits, but whatever was out there on level 4 made downstairs with Timothy and Jeffrey and good old Dr Eckhart, who became the impromptu meal of the day, look like heaven.
You couldn’t see it, but you damn sure could feel something, a presence, drift through the doors like a bad smell. Karen could sense it too because she started shivering uncontrollably, recoiling at this unknown entity. It didn’t press against your skin or anything physical; it seemed to press against your soul.
My colleagues and I had always joked about how level 4 employed acne ridden lab techs. Small fish compared to us whales who worked the floor below. We had always assumed that the research laboratories were ranked according to security risk, and ours, being the deepest underground was the most important and dangerous.
Well, you better believe that as I looked out over level 4, I doubted my theory. For standing behind the glass of the nearby laboratory were six dead scientists, each with their backs turned towards us.
I bet you’re asking: how do you know they’re dead if they had their backs turned to you and are standing?
It would be a good question—and I would answer I knew this because their heads slowly began to rotate in a 180-degree motion without their bodies moving an inch, which no living creature could do. It was a move right out of The Exorcist playbook—only this time there were six scientists in place of poor little Regan.
Their heads twisted to reveal empty eye sockets, the blood crusted and dried where the eyeballs had been removed. It was the eeriest moment of my life, facing off against these … demons are the best way I can describe them.
Whatever possessed the scientists was aware of our presence. To the naked eye, the laboratory looked no different than on any other day, but the soul inside you could feel the thick smog of levitating evil.
In a synchronized motion, the scientists grinned, as if a puppet master had pulled their strings. My jaw fell open, and to this day, hearing the cling! of the elevator doors closing was akin to being pulled out of a frozen lake just before you are about to drown.
Once the doors had closed, I collapsed to my knees.
“Frank?” Karen whispered, no longer sobbing. “What’s going on? What the hell was out there?”
I turned to find her bulging eyes white with fear. I guessed I probably looked worse. “I don’t know,” I croaked. My throat was raw like it had been rubbed with sandpaper. “If I was a religious man, I’d say we are in hell.”
The next part can only be put down to the special recovery powers of women—a fascinating study to get lost in—for it was Karen who took control of the situation. “Come on,” she said, helping me to my feet and dusting me down. “We will not give up that easily.”
She lifted my chin. “Hey, we can get through this, right?”
Trembling, I looked up into her fierce eyes. I nodded. “Yes, maybe we—”
It was that moment when the doors on level 3 opened. Out of fear of seeing more demons, we both held our breath … then relaxed as we looked out over an empty laboratory.
No sooner had our fear deflated, however, than a burst of maniacal laughter sounded and out of nowhere appeared a scientist, so caught in laughter that he collapsed onto the nearest bench. There was nothing funny about the situation, and the fear in the man’s eyes told me he didn’t think so either.
Horrified, I asked. “What the hell is wrong with him?”
Karen did not answer but began to stab the > < button, repeatedly.
The laughing scientist stretched out his hand as if for us to wait, then managed to rise from the desk and stagger towards us. “WAIT,” he cried between bursts of hysterics. “HAHAH …. THEY’RE … HAHHA EVIL … WAIT.”
He was cut off by the elevator doors.
I placed my hands over my head and fell against the wall. “Fuck. I think I’ve gone crazy. Is this the elevator to hell?”
“Frank!” Karen hissed, shaking me. “You got to keep yourself together! We can’t —”
Zoooooooooooom. The power went out in the elevator, plunging us into darkness and causing it to judder to a stop.
I laughed—I had cracked. “Ha!” I said. “That’s it. Game’s over! No credit left. Defeated before we had to face the big boss upstairs!”
“Frank!” Karen snapped.
“What?”
“Shut up, will you?”
I slumped to the floor, nearly jumping out of my skin when I felt the cold, limp body of the dead soldier beside me in the darkness. I had forgotten all about him.
Karen kicked me. “Where are you?”
“Errrm, where do you think? I’m in the elevator next to my good old friend, Private Fred. Though he’s not feeling too well, are you buddy?”
“Shut it, Frank! God, you always were a baby. Where’s your phone?”
I slipped my phone out of my pocket and handed it to her. A moment later a burst of light blinded me.
“Get up!” she snapped, holding the flashlight in my face.
Miserably, I accepted it like an angry toddler, then watched with curiosity as she ran her fingers over the doors. “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting us out of here. What does it look like? Make yourself useful and get that soldier’s gun.”
I rolled my eyes and stooped down over the dead private. He had a large gash on the side of his forehead and a deep wound on his neck. In his hand was a Glock.
I waved my hand over his face, then knocked on his skull. “Hellloooo, anybody home?”
No, I guess not.
I lifted his eyelid—this time actually jumping back at the red veins forming in the sclera. The pupil had stared back at me like the man was very much alive.
I stood back up and coughed. “We should get going, Karen.”
“Yes, I know,” she replied, irritated. “What do you think I’m trying to do?”
I pointed at the soldier. “I think our friend here might come back from the dead.”
Karen swiveled around. “What?”
“Yeah. It’s not Virus X-93. That much I do know. But God knows what else they’ve been doing around here …”
The dead soldier’s hand twitched.
Karen screamed and pushed me. “Get the gun you idiot!”
Without thinking, I lunged for the soldier’s hand, prizing the stiff fingers away from the Glock. In my peripheral vision, I saw one of his eyes open.
“FRANK! HURRY UP, HE’S WAKING UP!”
A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead as I prized away the last finger.
—the dead, very much alive, soldier groaned—
I raised the Glock as the dead man lurched towards me, pressing the trigger and hoping the gun was loaded. It was—and a loud bang ricocheted around the elevator.
Ten seconds later, I opened my eyes to see pieces of brains splattered on the metallic walls. Karen was pressed in the corner, staring at the limp body.
“I think he’s dead,” I said. “Hopefully, anyway … are you okay?”
Karen’s eyes flicked towards me. She nodded. “Yes … or maybe not. I don’t know.” Offering a hand, she helped me to my feet for a second time. Once we stood face to face, I felt a jolt of fear mixed with excitement.
Karen stared back.
Should I kiss her? Is this the part in the movie where we embrace and confess our love? If so, that must have been a record speed of getting over someone. The infected were probably still chewing on Jeffrey’s privates as we speak.
Karen cleared her throat, and embarrassingly turned away, examining once more the doors with the flashlight. “I think we can get this open. Give me a hand, will you?”
I felt a pang of disappointment that we hadn’t kissed and helped her by jamming my fingers into the metal.
“One. Two. Three. Heave!”
With a screech, the entrance gave way to reveal concrete.
“Arrh damn,” I began, but Karen shone the torch beam towards the ceiling, and above our heads was an opening—the entrance to level 2. It was just enough room for us to crawl through.
“Oh good,” I said. “I guess our journey continues. Let’s go explore in the darkness, shall we? I can’t wait to find out what else is out there.”