The last time Alice saw Josh, he was in the room beyond the chapel. If we are going down there, it would make sense to clear out as many Rabids as possible, but quickly.
I’ve run through in my head what I will do if Josh has turned, succumbed to this virus and if I see him coming through into the chapel, or if we come across him when we go down to the second floor. All I can do is put him out of his misery; if he has turned, he is already dead. There is no way I can leave him as a monster, and he wouldn’t want it, it looks like hell on earth. I have tried to prepare myself for the shock that will hit me if he has turned, but I guess I won’t know for sure how I’ll react until it happens—if it happens.
"Let’s try this, Alice. Throw the first coin."
Alice throws a coin down, and it hits the stone floor with a loud 'ping' and bounces several times with diminishing pings as it goes. And we wait.
"Again," I say, and Alice throws again, but still with no result.
Alice is just about to throw another coin but stops mid-throw.
"Eleven o'clock," she says.
"I see it."
What looks like a female Rabid stumbles out from behind the far-left column, its head half down, and I wait until it gets farther into the chapel with its head in my sights. When it’s a good distance in, I fire, and my M4 spits out its bullet, hits its target and the Rabid drops. It is far enough in so as not to block any others from coming in or to possibly put them off; we don’t want a pile of them at the entrance.
“Throw another one; we need to try and speed this up.”
Alice does, but before the coin has even hit the ground, another Rabid appears to the right, a soldier, still with his helmet on. Not that the helmet will offer any protection from my bullet that will be travelling at over 800 metres per second. When the Rabid is far enough in, I shoot, aiming for the top of the helmet—and sure enough, the bullet pierces straight through, killing the Rabid instantly.
Over the next five or so minutes, Rabids appear in growing numbers, both left and right and sometimes two or three at a time. Luckily, when they enter, they are all still half asleep and are easily dispatched, Alice throws coins down at regular intervals to keep them interested and keep them coming.
The rate soon slows, however, until it comes to a stop. By the time it does, I’ve had to change my magazine once and counted thirty-six targets eliminated. Twenty-one of the shot Rabids were in military uniform, and I don’t know if Josh is amongst them! Many of them still had their helmets in place and even the ones that didn’t had their heads down. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise for me if Josh was one? But if we don’t find him, then I will have to check through all those bodies to see if he is there, a job I definitely don’t want.
"How are we going to get down there?" Alice asks.
"Well, it looks like one of the stairways must be open. How else could the Rabids on this floor have got up?" I ask.
"I don't know, but all the gates were locked, and they weren't up here when I left. Maybe it was the noise I made getting onto the roof, and they must have gotten through one of the gates?"
"Only one way to find out; the stairs we came down from the roof, I noticed the gate was still closed, so let’s check the others."
With that, I move and follow the walkway around the back of the chapel; there is no time to lose. Sure enough, the gate on the south-west stairway has been forced open. They are not that robust and look like they are only to stop inquisitive tourists.
"Same as before, Alice, I'll go first. I expect we will find more down there, so be ready."
"I am," is all she says before we go.
At the bottom of the stairs is a small alcove that opens straight out onto the main room of the second floor. The large room is directly beneath the one upstairs, and looks like the plan of this floor is virtually the same as the upper one, apart from that there’s no passageway around the outside on this floor.
The whole floor has been turned upside down, displays smashed, and artefacts—including antique guns, swords and pieces of armour—are strewn across the floor. The larger displays have been moved into the far corner, presumably when the army moved in. These too are broken into pieces. Bullet holes riddle the walls all around. The fight here was substantial, further confirmed by the number of bodies covering the floor. The bodies are both civilian and military and most are in a bad way; some have been shot to pieces whilst others have been half eaten. The nearest one to me, that of a soldier, lies on its back with one eye staring at me. Its other eye, along with the skin on the left side of its face, is gone. So is that side of its neck, the flesh all eaten away.
The scene is bone-chilling, I have seen plenty of dead bodies in my time but to see the way they have been mutilated, eaten and consumed here makes even my hardened stomach slightly queasy again. I can see no sign of life, only dead bodies, but am determined to find Josh, no matter what.
Before I go any farther and before Alice has
