Chapter Four

I was drained, mentally, physically, and emotionally, but I was volunteered to go first for some reason. My hands landed in the puddle of blood when Justine, Peter, and Daniel hauled me up. They continued to push, causing my hands to fall forward. My body collapsed to the floor as my knees crossed the boundary.

I was drenched in blood. As the coppery odor touched my nose, I could feel it seeping into my garments. As I forced myself up onto my hands and knees, I had to fight the want to gag. I took in what was around me. To my right was a painted wall, and to my left was a terrifying red trail that continued for a few feet before veering off in the direction of the offices.

I turned around and extended my hand to assist in pulling Marina out next.

She hesitantly looked at me. "I... I can manage on my own."

"Suit yourself."

She refused my hand after one look at my blood-splattered arm. Instead, when she was lifted through, she tried her best to lean away from both me and the blood. She made it with only her left hand and knee touching the puddle.

Because I've already absorbed most of it. Daniel was up next, and he only required a tiny push from Justine to go through. We four moved ourselves to assist Justine, but he was quite powerful for having a stomach and managed to get himself out with astonishing ease.

My enormously long wavy hair fell over my shoulder and became caught to my shirt, turning the ends crimson as I stood up. I hurriedly swept my hair back over my shoulder, but the wet ends were dampening the back of my shirt. My body shivered in response to the uncomfortable feeling.

We stood there for a few heartbeats, attempting to orient ourselves. We were all at a loss for what to do. Daniel shook his head as he looked at me, then at the blood path.

"We should've stayed in the elevator," he said.

Justine gave him a scornful glance. "The stairs are the third door on the right, that way," Marina said quietly as she pointed to the trail.

Jesus. You've got to be kidding me.

"Let's go," Justine murmured, pushing by us and around the corner.

I swiftly took his place, not needing to be instructed twice, and took one stride around the corner, nearly walking face-first into his back. For a split second, I couldn't understand why we'd come to a halt until I peeked behind Justine's towering body.

There was a woman in the corridor with her back to us, and it was clear she wasn't in good health.

Her chestnut brown hair, which had likely started a whole day in an up-do, was now half out of the webbing that held it, one of her trouser legs was sheared, and there was blood gushing down her lower leg, but it was her arm that shocked me the most. It appeared to be distorted back at an oblique angle as if it had been twisted in multiple places. I had no notion how the woman was still able to stand like that despite her situation.

"Uh, Miss?" Marina questioned, startling me.

I hadn't even noticed her move up behind me. Marina moved forward again, passing Justine and Peter.

"Miss, are you okay?" she asked again.

"Marina, no. Don't talk to her," Daniel said as he reached for her arm, but she shrugged him off.

"Miss?" She repeated, but this time, she seemed to have grabbed the woman's attention.

As I saw her turn around, my stomach dropped. Her movements were unsettling. It seemed as though every muscle in her body was tense and she was battling them. Her joints appeared to snap, making every movement seem out of place.

When we took a better look at her, we were met with a horrible sight. The woman's eyes were empty, almost milky, yet they were fixated on us. It appeared that a portion of her lower neck was gone. Her front was covered in blood and gore.

"Josefa?" Marina questioned, not bothering to speak in hushed tones this time.

Josefa had an odd, hurried shuffle towards us. Each step appeared to be more out of the ordinary than the previous one. When she hissed, my body went into fight or flight mode, and I took a defensive step back.

"Marina!" Daniel hollered a caution, but it was too late already.

I stood there dumbfounded as I watched Josefa swoop on Marina like a deranged creature, knocking them both to the ground. My thoughts seemed to be drifting away from reality. Everything around me seemed to be moving at a snail's pace.

Oh, God.

I remained still as Josefa bit at Marina's neck and took flesh away with her sharp bloody teeth. I heard the squish of the blood being spilled and watched it gush from Marina's neck. The gurgling sound Marina made as she choked on her own blood was too much for me to bear. Josefa's efforts did not end there. She actually proceeded to feast on her, taking bite after bite despite the fact that her mouth was full.

When I heard something coming from my olfactory senses, I could feel myself sinking into disbelief at what was happening just seven feet in front of me.

Someone screamed. "Clementia!"

My name was called, but it sounded as if I were underwater. It was hazy and quite inaudible to me.

"Clementia!" Justine yanked my bleeding arm away from Marina's horrific death. "Run!"

Run? Why do I need the desire to flee?

My disjointed mind couldn't make sense of what Justine was saying. We had to get that filthy lunatic Josefa off Marina's back. Even if there was nothing we could do to help her, standing aside and observing was wrong. Then I realized what it was. A snarl could be heard coming from the end of the hall above Josefa's sucking sounds.

I finally grasped the gravity of the issue. Josefa wasn't the only one. More messed-up individuals were coming from the end of the corridor, and if we didn't move, we'd have to confront them to get to the stairs.

"Run," Justine commanded once again.

I followed him and moved this time. I sped by Justine and Peter in my heels as fast as I could. Straight ahead was the stairwell door, which was partially open and appeared to be damaged in its frame.

"Wait," I said as I came to a halt in the middle of them both.

With an annoyed expression on his face, Peter looked at me. "What?"

"What happened to Daniel?"

Justine sighed and looked at me with those sad eyes. "He stayed with Marina. We can't make him come with us if he doesn't want to."

Peter sighed with frustration. "Cut this nonsense, we have to move! Those bastards were coming at us!"

That left me with no choice but to follow them. Justine and Peter were right on my tail, urging me to move faster. As I turned into the entryway, they were nearly on us. As I escaped, I caught a glance of the messed-up folks and realized that, despite their bloodied looks, I recognized several of them from around the workplace.

Just what the heck happened? In my rush, I virtually flew down the first flight of stairs, almost missing a few feet. The third-floor door was closed, and everyone was looking out the slit window. When they spotted us, I could hear them hammering on the door in a fury.

These individuals have gone mad.

I hurled myself down the next flight of steps, fueled by the new menace. The second-floor door was wide open, requiring me to slow down in order to go past it.

Oh my goodness.

I saw it was propped open by a corpse as I passed. The person's skull had been entirely smashed. I made an effort not to worry about it. Unfortunately, I was so concentrated on not thinking about it that my heel stepped incorrectly. My body jerked forward, and I tumbled down the stairs.

All I had time to do was raise my hands to brace myself for the fall. The first impact on the steps took the wind out of my lungs. As I tried to moderate my face-first descent, my palms scraped across the concrete.

When my body came to a halt, every part of me was wounded.

"Are you okay, Clementia?" Peter hollered from the steps behind me. Justine was the first to approach me though.

"Are you all right? Can you move?"

Justine had stopped to assist me, as Peter dashed by us to the first-floor entrance.

"Come on! Let's go!" Peter said, hurrying us forward.

I nodded to Justine and pulled myself up into a sitting posture. "Just go. I'll catch up."

I had to take a breather to bring my weary limbs into a standing position.

"What? No, just come on!" Peter said, practically jumping.

"We really can't leave you here," Justine expressed concern.

"No, I-I... I need to double-check something else."

Justine simply looked me in the eyes.

"Go," I insisted.

Justine's expression was stoic, but he gave me a short nod before jumping up and heading to the door. Peter gave me a concerned glance and hurried out the door with Justine. I heaved out a deep breath and swiftly removed my shoes. I managed to snap one heel off my shoe with two powerful blows against the steps and promptly repeated the process with the other.

My hands were trembling so terribly that I nearly missed my foot as I put my shoes back on. I drew myself up as soon as they came on. I looked up and gasped. As it turned out, I wasn't the only one who had fallen down the steps. Josefa's friend was creeping down the stairs behind me.

No.

I sprinted, and my homemade flats allowed me to go even faster. I'd never been a fast runner. Heck, I'm not even an athlete because I just hate sports in general. In fact, my high school gym instructor equated me to a T-Rex because I had the worst running posture he'd ever seen. That didn't deter me though. Fear was pouring through my veins, propelling me forward. I pushed in the first-floor door and slammed it shut behind me.

I ran into the foyer, which had previously seemed friendly but now appeared to be a battle zone. I didn't understand how screwed up I was until I got out of the building. My automobile keys were on the sixth floor, in my purse. I couldn't go back in, but I didn't see Justine or Peter anywhere.

“Clementia! Come over here."

My gaze was drawn to the left, where I noticed two men standing behind a black SUV. Peter was flailing his arms around in an attempt to catch my attention. Before heading in their direction, I thanked my fortunate stars.

"Hey, get in!" Justine said.

I felt like I could finally breathe a little easier once we were all in the car.

"We did it."

I was fighting back tears without even thinking of Marina. I just cannot still process what had just happened, and it seems like everything was a joke to me. More like a freaking hella nightmare that I don't even want to think about. Of course, I was relieved to get out of the building. I was happy to escape from that hellish structure. But every time I think of Marina, and all those other people who were still alive and stuck in that building, I can't help but think of them.

I want to go back and rescue them. I want to help them even though I am not a hero. I want to get out of this car, run, and go over that building again without any bullets with me. Not until I peered out the window, that is.