The door atthe top of the stairs was already open, so when he reached the top Will just stuck his head in. “Seems to be a rec room,” he said, hisvoice was barely above a whisper.
“Yes it'swhere they have breaks, and go to when they are on duty,” I replied. “Thereshould be some sort of kitchen here too.” My brother in law was a firemanand we often took the kids to visit their uncle at work.
“Yeah thereis,” he said moving slowly into the room and doing a 360 turn. “There are alsofour other doors up here not including the roof access and door for the stairs.So far all seems quiet. There is some writing on the door over there though.”He nodded to a door out of our sight. “Everyone come in but leave that dooropen a moment just in case we need a quick exit.”
We alljoined him in the spacious room and looked around. All at once the smell hitus.
“Eeewww, what is that smell?” Amelia asked.
“That wouldbe the smell of the dead I’m assuming. It seems like a dead, decaying, kind ofsmell don't you think?” Will asked.
I lookedaround, there were two enormous windows that took up most of the opposite wall.In front of the right window were two big black leather sofas that sat oppositeeach other and looked extremely comfy. Behind them were two doors I assumedwere the bedroom areas. Opposite them in the far left corner was the fire pole.The walls up here were all bare brick.
To ourright just as we entered the room was a small kitchen area with a black granitebreakfast bar.
“Whichdoors shall we check first?” I asked looking back and forth towards the twosets of doors. They were opposite each other, one to the left of us and theother set to the right of us. Both sets of doors were red with silverturn handles.
“I don'tlike the look of this one,” Will said walking towards the door with writing onit. “Oh no, Adam, George come here either side of me ok? Amelia you stay whereyou are and get ready to run.” Will didn't seem like he was the type of guy whowould panic but there certainly was an edge to his voice at that moment.
As I cameup behind Will I could read the writing, it said - ‘Do not enter, infectedinside,’ it was scrawled across the door as if written in a hurry. The doorhandle was tied with string to the handle of the next door to prevent anythingfrom opening it from the inside, a crude but effective method to the door tosee if we could hear anything. The only thing I could hear was the beating ofmy own heart.
“Do we openor keep it closed?” I asked.
“I wouldrather clear it out, just so we can have peace of mind and feel safe stayinghere,” Amelia admitted.
Willnodded. “Right let's untie the string, you three keep back, I'll throw open thedoor and you lot get ready to shoot, ok?”
“Ok,” thethree of us mumbled, knowing it needed to be done but not wanting to do it.
He slowlyuntied the string from the other door handle but held onto it tightly. Therewas a muffled bang from behind the door. Myself, Adam and Amelia took a fewsteps back. Will seemed to be deep in thought.
“UhWill?” I asked starting to get a bit nervous. Another loud bang emanated frombehind the door.
“Before we openthis one, let's check the one on the left, hopefully it's clear. Amelia can youhold this?” Will asked holding up the string. “Keep it tight, if anything pullson the door handle give a shout but do not let go of that string. Boys,guns out,” he said looking from me to Adam and back.
Amelianodded nervously but took the string and held it tightly. Her hand was shakingand her knuckles were turning white from holding it so tight. It madesense, we knew there was something behind the door that was still being held byAmelia and the string, but we didn't know what was behind the door that he hadjust untied the string from.
He stood tothe side of the door, Adam and myself were positioned in front of the door,guns at the ready. I had barely used my gun and I was very nervous.
Will lookedat us and whispered, “1, 2, 3.” At the count of three he flung open the doorand stuck his head inside. He moved in slowly looking behind the door first andthen moving forward cautiously.
Adamimmediately moved to the opening of the door as back up and I stayed where Iwas. Partly because there was no more room by the door and partly because I wasscared.
Will made agesture to Adam that I could not see very well, but Adam started to movetowards Will and gestured to me over his shoulder to come closer.
When I gotto the door I could see the whole room. It was the toilet area. There werethree shower cubicles on the right wall and opposite them on the left wall werefour toilet cubicles, three wash basins were against the back wall. Thewalls were painted a pale blue and the floor had grey tiles. Will stood infront of the third cubicle at the far end of the row. He put his finger to hislips to indicate to us to be quiet, he pointed at the door and held up one, two,three fingers. On three he pushed open the door quickly and pointed his gun.
“Nothing,”he said, relief showing all over his face, he started to laugh a crazy laughthat was so funny to see and hear that both myself and Adam started to laughtoo.
It feltgood, none of us knew why we were laughing, we just were.
Ameliaforgetting why she was holding the string came to see what was going on and whywe were laughing so hard. “What are you guys laughing at?” She had a confusedsmile on her face.
“We don'treally know,” Adam said in between breaths and laughing.
She watchedus for a few moments with an amused smile on her face. “Well I'm going to raidthe kitchen.” She
