Shavian reached for the office door handle, half expecting that it was going to be locked. And at first she thought her constant negativity would be rewarded. But even that was not to be, for while the mechanism was sticky it still turned and she shouldered her way through the door.
The space beyond was dark. The room’s only window overlooked the garage and the blinds were closed. She looked back to see that for every demon she’d killed another two dragged their sorry carcasses through the shattered doors. The only reason they’d not been overrun was Max. She’d shown that if she really wanted to kill Jake or anyone else in the party she could have done so. The demons didn’t put up much of a fight against her, but she didn’t slow her savagery, ripping heads and limbs from the undead.
She crouched and raised her rifle to help Max, but just when she was taking aim she felt a pain in her side, the bowled her over and into the room her rifle spinning off into a dark shadow. “Elliott, you ass!” She rolled and pushed him off, coughing and trying to get her wind back. McNabb and Higgins were soon behind him then lastly, huffing and puffing, Roger chugged through the door, slamming it closed and sliding to the ground.
“You know,” Roger said, pulling a beer can out of his pocket and cracking it open, “this ruddy room is fucking massive!” He tried to down his beer while holding the stich in his side.
“What happened to Max?” Shavian asked. She got to her feet, still rubbing her tender ribs, and she tried to lean over Roger to peer through the small slit of a window.
“Once Higgins passed, she turned and started running for the truck,” he said with a dribble of beer running into his beard. “Damn, a beer is so good after a bit of exercise.”
She was just about to tell him off: if this was really what he called exercise then he maybe he should eat a few less pies, but McNabb had turned on the lights and she winced against the sudden brightness.
The room was larger than she’d first thought. There were two desks pushed together in the middle of the room and a long console running along just under the window. Computers and screens, everything was turned off. “That’s strange,” McNabb said, walking up to the first computer screen and flipping the power switch.
“What’s wrong?” Shavian asked.
Behind Roger, the door started to shake, and they could hear the demons scratching at the door. “Mmm, they smell lunch in a box.” He smirked and took another drink of his beer; it was easier now that he wasn’t trying to cough up a lung.
“What’s wrong,” McNabb went on, “is that these computers should never be off. If we can’t get them going again, we won’t be able to open the roll-up doors. We’d have to do it manually.”
“Can that be done?” She pulled down on one of the blinds, and a demon was trying to chew its way through the reinforced glass. She winced and let go of the blinds. She stepped back and looked around. “Hey, where did my rifle go?”
Elliott looked over the floor. “It was right here where you…ah… Left it.”
There was a clatter of a round being put into the chamber and she felt the bite of the barrel in the small of her back.
“Found it.” She looked back to see Jackson smiling down at her with the rifle in hand.
“Hello again, Red,” Jackson said prodding her forward. “You’re looking good.”