"Mick come in, Mick come in, is anybody receiving this?" Dan is trying his best to get a response from anyone downstairs but there isn't one coming back.
I suspect all the noise below is attracting the Rabids to the sixth floor, which is why we haven't heard them at our door yet. This distraction could stop at any time.
"We need to barricade the doors to the stairs. I don’t think the locks will hold them back for long," I tell everyone. "The one out by reception should be easy enough, furniture can be used to fill the gap between the door and the wall opposite so the door can’t be opened. Dan, can you and Stan take care of that one?" Both men nod in agreement.
As they move out, I tell Dan to keep trying his radio, to which he replies, “Of course.”
“Right ladies; it’s up to us to get the door in here barricaded. This one is going to be a bit trickier because there is no wall opposite the door. We also need to do it as quietly as possible.”
“Dad, can I help?”
“Yes, my love, as long as you’re careful.”
I put Emily down, but she doesn’t stray too far from my side. The noise from the battle downstairs is in full flow but there is nothing we can do to help them.
“We are going to have to work out the best way to block that door. I think we should start with a desktop against it then maybe stack as much heavy furniture against it as we can?” I suggest.
“Well that’s a start,” Catherine says, “why don’t we go and get one of the desks out of the meeting rooms, they are big and heavy?”
“Okay, just let me get my rifle from Sir Malcolm’s office.”
Quickly going to retrieve my rifle, Emily comes with me and asks a few questions about it when she sees it. I tell her it’s just in case I need it. By the time we get back, Catherine has gone to the meeting room and we all go to help her.
Catherine is already moving one of the heavy desks over towards the door. She has kicked off her shoes, which lie discarded on the floor, and she’s barefooted. I ask Lindsay if she can go to the storeroom and see if there is a trolley in there that we can use to help move the table, and then ask Stacey to hold my rifle. She looks very unsure about this but after showing her the safety is on, she takes it from me. The M4 looks big and heavy in her hands. Catherine and I soon have the table out of the meeting room, just as Lindsay returns pushing a two-wheeler sack truck which we use to move the table over to the stairwell door. We then lift the table into position with its top flush against the door and its feet sticking outwards.
The whole time, the battle downstairs continues in earnest; it is diminishing slowly though, as there haven’t been any more explosions in a while and the gunfire is now more sporadic. I haven’t been able to distinguish any human screams lately either; the only ones I have heard have been inhuman, which is ominous. Maybe the girls haven’t noticed, and I don’t mention my observations to them because there isn’t anything good about them.
“Right,” I say, “let’s get as much stacked against it as we can.”
“Andy,” Stacey says, “can we use filing cabinets to make an arch from the door to the wall of the offices?”
I think for a second. “Brilliant idea, Stacey.” She blushes, but it really is.
We use the sack truck again, and it takes four of the heaviest filing cabinets we can find to make the arch. We then fill the gaps between them with different things to make an almost acceptable arch from the door to the wall. Emily seems to enjoy helping to fill the gaps with books and paper files. More cabinets are moved into place around the arch, making the whole barricade as strong as possible. As we start loading other furniture on top to add even more weight, Stan and Dan return and help me with lifting the heavier things.
When finished, we all go and sit in the lounge area to take a breather. I check my phone. It’s 16:15 already, and there is still nothing from Josh but at least I still have some signal.
The sixth floor has gone ominously quiet below us now. We don't discuss the fate of our friends and colleagues down there, however. I think we all know the battle has been lost, but none of us can bring ourselves to say it out loud. We are all quiet as we sit listening to the silence that resonates from below, contemplating what has happened down there and wondering when the beasts will be at our door.
After a while, Catherine and Lindsay go to the kitchen and bring us drinks and some food over. We do eat what they bring but the silence continues to hang like a cloud over us.
As we finish eating, Catherine who is sitting next to me tells me she will be back in a minute; she is just going to get changed into something a bit more practical and I, feeling down and weary, force myself to move also.
I go over to Stan who sits in a chair adjacent to the couches.
“Any idea what happened to the generators?” I ask him.
“No idea, Andy, they are supposed to start automatically if the power to the building fails. They are serviced and tested regularly. The last test was a month or so ago. I have been thinking about it, but I can’t work it out.”
“Sod's law, we couldn’t have predicted it. Where
