Alice joins me standing in the open doorway; I’m still listening for any sign of activity from beyond the stone stairwell that winds down in front of me. She stops short of my position and covers the rooftop with her rifle, waiting for my move or instruction. And she waits patiently.
In the little time since we exited the Lynx, Alice has acquitted herself professionally and calmly, and we are starting to build an unspoken understanding which is vitally important in our line of work. This comes as a relief, having encountered so many overzealous gung-ho idiot soldiers who act before they think, which often leads to injury or worse for them or members of their team.
Taking my time at the doorway, virtually all my concentration is used in listening for any activity from below, a tactic similar to letting your eyes get used to the dark.
My mind blocks out as many of the sounds from the outside world as it can, and gradually my ears acclimatise, and sounds start to rise up from the innards of the Tower. The sounds are faint but unmistakable, the inhuman groaning and retching sounds of Rabids sending chills down my spine. There is no way to tell how many of those things are down there, but they are definitely there and the only positive thing I take from it is that they are subdued at the moment. If they weren’t, their screams would be clear for us both to hear.
“Okay, Alice,” I say, turning to her and speaking in a low voice. “I can hear hostiles down there, I can’t tell how many, but they are obviously subdued at the moment. So we are going to take it slow and quiet. I’ll lead and take any out that I need to with the silencer. Only fire if you have to. We need to keep them subdued for as long as we can, understood?”
“Copy that, I’ll follow your lead, Andy,” Alice whispers back.
With my head tucked back behind my M4, I cross the threshold of the door and move into the Tower. We descend the spiral staircase nice and easy, Alice staying a couple of steps behind and just to the right of my position as much as the narrow ancient staircase will allow, her rifle pointed forward and down the stairs. Her head flicks back at regular intervals to check our six but my head stays looking forward, eyes and ears scanning as we wind downwards farther into the building. Even with the light coming through the slits in the stone of the outside wall, the light dims somewhat as we move farther down. My eyes easily adjust at the speed we are moving, so do my ears. The haunting sounds of Rabids are now clear for both of us to hear, still some way off and still subdued, but I can tell there are a number of them, at least.
As we reach the last few steps before the entrance to the third floor of the Tower, I stop, so does Alice behind me. My hope that the third floor would be clear of Rabids doesn’t materialise; their groans are close, and so are the shuffling noises as they move only feet away from us. A shadow crosses the small part of the floor that I can see beyond the stone stairs.
Signalling to Alice to hold her position, I gradually inch forward in an attempt to gain a view of the third floor, my back pinned against the wall behind me. Slowly edging farther forward, I reach the bottom step but the view I get isn’t what I was expecting.
Stretching out in front of me is a narrow stone passageway with openings on the left into what I presume is the main room of this floor, and that is where the sounds of Rabids are coming from. The first of these openings is directly at the foot of the stairs. I lean across, taking my weight onto my left foot to try to get a look, my rifle now gripped across my chest.
As I lean out, the room beyond the opening comes into partial view. I note the positions of the various displays that are dotted around the wooden floor in the part of the room that I'm able to see. My main concentration, however, is taken by the Rabids that seem to be shuffling slowly and aimlessly around the dimly-lit room with their heads down in some kind of stupor, raspingly groaning to themselves. There seem to be three male and one female as far as I can tell, not that this makes much difference. But one does have his soldier’s combat uniform on which I find hard to take. It isn’t Josh though, as it has dark brown hair, unlike Josh’s blond. Watching them shuffle across the wooden floor, only four of these monsters have come into my view and they are all moving slowly.
As I start to calculate taking the four out with my silenced rifle, a fifth one suddenly appears and shuffles directly across the opening that I'm looking through, not more than a couple of feet in front of me.
Nearly jumping out of my skin, I pull back from the opening and pin my back as tightly as possible to the wall. The Rabid’s shuffling comes to a stop directly by the opening. My hands lift the rifle slowly up ready for the attack I feel is imminent. I daren’t look back to Alice to see if she is ready and just hope and expect that she is.
Moments pass. What is it waiting for?
My heart is beating so hard as the adrenaline rushes through every inch of my body, that surely Alice and all the monsters in the next room can hear the thud of its beat. Suddenly, there is an almighty retching noise, the shock of it nearly making me fire my rifle into thin air, the unholy sound chilling
