Exiting the office, we see Stan looking panicked coming out of my office and just about to shout into his radio again, when he sees us.
"The power is out, Andy!" Stan shouts to me, "and the generators have failed."
I run over to him. "Yes, Stan, why haven't the generators come on?"
Stan looks frightened, really frightened and for a second, I can't understand why he does. Then it dawns on me and I feel my stomach turn.
"All the doors are unlocked," Stan virtually shouts at me. "They are coming up the stairs!"
"The doors, they can get through the stairway doors," I say, stating the obvious. "Stan, have you got your keys on you?"
"Yes."
"Good, they will have a stairwell door key on them. Lock the doors, starting with the one in the reception area by the lift."
Stan is gone, running toward the seventh-floor reception before I even finish talking, as am I, towards my office.
"Dan, get hold of Mick now, tell him to barricade the doors down there; do it now!" Dan is immediately shouting into his radio.
There is a set of keys in my desk. We need to get the other stairwell door locked that is situated between Sir Malcolm's office and the rest. The keys are right where they were expected to be. I grab them and run back out of my office towards the stairwell, and as I’m approaching it, Catherine appears.
“What’s going on, Andy?”
She, of course, is very concerned at the sudden panicked action but I can’t risk stopping to explain, so I ignore her for now and turn right into the small area between the offices, where the door to the stairs is located. The thick wooden fire door has one of those thin, long-wired glass panels set vertically into it. This doesn’t show me anything, however, because the stairwell beyond is almost dark. For all I know, Rabids are about to burst through the door. It is designed to swing inwards so I jam my foot against the bottom of it while l search for the correct type of key. These keys have been stored in my drawer for a long time, so long I can’t even remember the last time I had them out.
They were issued to me when we moved into the building and I carried them for a while, but only ever used my office key. So I took that one off and chucked the rest in my desk drawer, where they have stayed. The keys are unfamiliar to me, so I don’t know which one is for this door; it usually locks electronically, the same as all the other doors do. I have wondered in the past why the doors needed key locks if they are locked electronically. And now I know; it’s as a backup.
As I fumble around with the keys, my foot jammed hard against the door, looking for the right type of key, noises can be heard coming from the stairs. The first key I try fits but doesn’t turn. There are about four others of the same type to try, but it then strikes me that I’m not even 100% sure there’s a key on my bunch for this door. The second one doesn’t turn either, the noises are getting closer and then I hear the now familiar Rabid screech, echoing up to me.
“Andy?” Catherine is now standing at the opening behind me, but again I ignore her.
My hands are sweating and as I get another key ready to try, I drop the whole bunch onto the floor. Fuck! Now there is no way to know which I’ve already tried! As I pick them up, Catherine comes in, takes my hands and takes the bunch off me. I give her a look of disbelief.
“Trust me,” she says. She then calmly attempts the keys in the lock methodically and locks the door on the fourth attempt. We stand there in silence, looking at each other for a second.
“I assume that the electric locks have stopped working and these things are coming up the stairs?” she asks.
“Yes, they will probably be at this door in moments,” I confess.
“Well, we had better make sure they can’t get through it then.” Wow, she is cool.
Dan’s voice comes back into focus. He is still talking very loudly into his radio and from the sound of it, hasn’t got through to anyone downstairs. We come out from by the stair door and start to walk over to him. As we near him, gunfire starts from below our feet, and we all freeze, Dan with his radio hovering in front of his gaping mouth.
The noise from below is dulled but the noise of gunfire clear enough, and other noises soon join it. They are faint, but screams, human screams, are mixed in with the sound of Rabid screeches and the gunfire. An explosion goes off followed by another and the floor shudders under our feet; they sound like they are positioned over near the corridor that leads to reception, from where Stan appears looking shaken. The gunfire is increasing, getting more rapid as more explosions hit, one under the stairwell area we just came from.
“Daddy,” Emily cries from behind me.
I turn around to her and she runs across the floor and jumps into my arms, Stacey and Lindsay follow her across to join us. Stan has joined us now too and we all stand in a circle together, looking down at the floor, imagining the fate of our friends and colleagues below.
Chapter 15
“Daddy, are the monsters coming here next?”
Emily asks me the question quite matter-of-factly, which surprises me somewhat. They say that children adapt quickly, but surely, she isn't getting used to this new world already? I’m having trouble coming to terms with it myself.
The sickening noises from the
