Lori watched on, occasionally returning her attention to the young man who had led the way, as he attempted to open the door to the room.
“It’s not locked, it feels as though something is obstructing it, the handle won’t go all the way down.
“That fucker… excuse my language, was ahead of us, think he blocked the door?” Lori asked.
“He wouldn’t”, the guy looked up towards her, “would he?”
“Is it so out of the realm of thinking? He left us for dead. Wouldn't put it past him to block the fucking door, slow us or those crazies chasing us down, excuse my language again”.
The moment was suddenly disturbed by the clanging sound of something crawling through the air duct towards them. It certainly didn’t sound like one of their own, but to err on the side of caution, Rachel called out to their visitor.
“Hello? Who is that?”
There came no sound at first and then a woman’s voice.
“Molly? Tyler? Are you there?”
The kids knew the voice immediately.
“Mummy!” They shouted in unison and released Rachel’s hand to approach the open vent. Rachel however immediately felt uneasy and rightly so, for their mother’s next statement would send chills up her spine.
“Ah, you’re both alive and well, that’s a relief… mummy wouldn’t know what to do if something bad happened to you. Nobody should be allowed to tear open your little bodies and drink your blood, smash your heads against a wall to open your skulls and eat your little brains except me. You both like when we BBQ right, how about I cook you this time? Would you like that?”
Rachel sprang forward faster than she ever had and grabbed the two small children’s wrists. How did their mother manage to get into the air duct when she couldn’t manage it before?
Backing off with the kids, Rachel shouted to the others.
“Get that door open now! We need to get out of here! Kick it down or something!”
Lori and the guy began using their combined body weight to break open the door.
“Oh? You fucking bitches are there too? I hope you’re not taking my kids away again! They’re mine, you scummy, shit stain, two-faced bitch whores!”
The kids thought they had recognised her voice, now they were all too certain it wasn’t the mother they knew and loved. The slamming of someone working their way towards them from within the air duct resumed.
“Hurry!” Rachel cried, as the two slowly edged the door open, eventually creating enough of a gap for them all to squeeze through. Once they all had, it became abundantly clear that Lori was right, there laying in front of the doorway was a vending machine. How that guy had managed to push it over, the five of them would probably never know, but they weren’t about to waste any time investigating. They fled down a corridor to the sounds of Molly and Tyler’s mother screaming out their names, whilst hurling obscenities.
Their accompanying male companion led the way, ducking at the slightest sign of trouble and warning the others to do the same with hand gestures.
They suddenly spotted another group of people running past the end of the corridor. The desire to call out to them was overwhelming, but to do so would put all their lives in jeopardy. Instead they picked up their own pace in hopes of catching up to them, remaining wary of the fact that in hot pursuit of that other group could very well be a horde of those crazies.
They went after the other group, moving as quickly but as quietly as they could muster. For a very brief period of time they lost the other group and panic set in.
Ironic was it that a mere day ago escaping people in general and retreating to the confines of their cabin seemed a luxury, now just the very idea of being left alone overwhelmed them with terror. This ship was swarming with those things by now, leaving only pockets of survivors like themselves in various parts of the ship, they were the minority now and their enemies were ruthless crazed cannibalistic monsters, mere shells of the humans they once were.
They watched from behind a wall as the group they were pursuing ducked into an open door and shut it behind them. Their male companion gestured for them to sprint for the door before the other group barricaded it and no sooner did they do so, they spotted more crazies. They hadn’t been seen yet, but they couldn't make any more noise than they already were.
Reaching the door, they could hear the low voices of the survivors just beyond and desperate for refuge, their male companion began thumping at it with his fist.
The voices went silent, evidently wary of whoever had approached the door.
“Let us in, we have kids!” Their male companion whispered, but whether or not they heard that was another question, still, if he raised the tone of his voice, likely they wouldn't be the only ones to hear him. As he continued pleading with them to open the door, eventually there was a click of the door being unlocked and the handle turning for the door to open. Their male companion stepped back to allow it to open and once it was, he wasted no time in dashing into the room.
“Thank you, you don’t realise how much we appreciate that, those people are…” His sentence was cut horrifically short, as the blade of a fire axe came down between his eyes. Synchronized gasps filled the room, before it fell abruptly silent. The shock of it left everyone momentarily speechless, even as blood streamed down Lori and Rachel’s male companion’s face and he dropped to the ground in a pool of his own blood, his murderer’s trembling hands still clinging to the handle of the fire axe,
