by Jay Ford
“I know.”
We turned around and took off in the direction of the screams.
Chapter Twelve
Keep screaming, I thought. Just keep screaming.
Since the girl was inside a room, and the hospital had a bad echo, it was hard to tell where she was at. But even though we needed her to scream, the more she screamed, the more chance Grimms would hear. Although that's why she was screaming in the first place.
The screaming got louder, and Alex and I finally heard the room she was in was just around the corner. I plastered myself against the wall, and Alex did the same. We slowly walked to the edge of the hallway, and I peeked around the corner.
I could barely see because the emergency light was on the other door across from where the room the girl was in, silhouetting the Grimm. However, I could tell that he was trying to dig his way into the room.
“Okay, we’re here now. You can shut up!” Alex said to himself, but acting like he was talking to the girl.
I turned to him. “There’s only one of them. I don’t want to alert the others to our position, so I’m going to knock him upside the head with the butt of the pistol. You stay here, just in case things get…complicated.”
“Uh, not to rain on your parade, but they probably already know that we’re here,” Alex said.
“True, but they must know that the girl is this Grimms or something. You heard what happened last time one of these things got in the way of the other one’s...human.” It was hard for me to say that, something that I would've thought was ridiculous just a few days ago. I continued, “A gunshot would alert them to us. Plus, I want to save bullets.”
“Man, this is some crazy stuff,” Alex stared at the Grimm. “Grimms and all that stuff. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” I said turning around, preparing myself to take out the Grimm. “We'll worry about that later. Right now, we need to get this girl, and then get the hell out of here.”
I crouched down and started slowly sneaking up behind the Grimm. This thing had really been going to town on the floor! I was shocked to see that he was actually making a hole in the concrete. Albeit, a small one, but a hole nonetheless. I was beginning to question whether or not the butt of the pistol was going to do any damage to the head of the Grimm. It was too late to turn back, though, ‘cause I was right behind it.
I raised the pistol high above my head, and let out a grunt as I brought it down on the back of its head as hard as I could.
It didn’t even faze him.
He turned around, and let out a roar right in my face. Blood and saliva sprayed me. I stared at it in fear, wanting to move, but I couldn't. It jumped on me, tackling me to the ground. It started to try and bite me. I threw the gun, freeing my hands, and I grabbed it by the throat. Right as I touched it, I heard screaming rack through my brain. There were tons of them. Most of them weren't saying anything at all. It was just hundreds and hundreds of screams. Some were man and woman, young and old, loud and soft. But there was a whisper that was louder than all the screams. It was whispering confidently, as if the source of the voice knew that he was supreme. Grimm. It just said that over and over again. Grimm.
Fear coursed through my body, my muscles clenched tight, as I held its throat inches from my face. It looked up from my throat, and looked at me in the eyes. Its eyes looked human. They were bright, blue and didn’t look alien at all. For a split-second, the screaming stopped, and the whisper changed from Grimm, to something else. Sa—
There was a loud gunshot, and the Grimm’s head exploded. Its brains covered my face, and even a bit of it went into my mouth. The body went limp and fell on top of me. I pushed it off and sat up as fast as I could. I got on my knees and threw up all over the ground. It was all too much.
Once I was done, a stood up shakily, and wiped my mouth on my arm. I couldn't help my wonder what it was the Grimm was about to say. I stopped thinking about it, though. I didn't matter anymore. What's done is done. I looked at up Alex. He was standing there, holding the pistol. “Uh, thanks,” I said shakily. I was still weak from expelling my measly dinner all over the ground.
“No problem. No one and nothing messes with my family,” he said with a hard look on his face.
I saw something in Alex. For a split second, he wasn’t my scared cousin; he was brave. I knew that he had my back, and he was never going to let anything touch me if he could help it. And I wasn’t ever going to let anything touch him, either.
“Let’s go get the damsel in distress,” Alex said, pointing at the door the girl was in, who had stopped screaming. He handed me the pistol.
We opened the door, and looked around. It was hard to see her in the darkness, but we heard her sobs.
“Over here,” I heard a raspy voice say.
I looked in the corner and saw she was curled up in it. I walked over to her and got down on my knees. Not the first time I’ve done this. “It’s okay,” I comforted her. “We’re here. What’s your name?”
“Sarah,” she said, her voice was very raspy.
“Hi, Sarah. My name is Charlie.” I was starting to get good at this thing.
“And my name’s Jesus,” Alex said impatiently. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
Sarah lifted her hand to me, and I helped her up. She brushed the blondish-brown hair out of her face. It was sticking to it from the tears.
Alex was standing in the doorway as I helped Sarah out. “I hear them! They’re coming from that way!” Alex told me as we got into the hallway.
Great. He was pointing towards the way we came: the exit.
“We gotta run!” I told them. I let go of Sarah and started running the opposite direction of where I wanted to.
I looked behind me, and Alex and Sarah were right on my heels.
I couldn't believe this. I was actually being chased through a hospital by strange creatures who wanted to kill me. This was the type of thing that I had nightmares about when I was little. But I guess if dreams come true, then so do nightmares.
“Where are we going?” I heard Alex yell.
“Whichever way they’re not!” I yelled back.
The sound of multiple roars from Grimms reached my ears. That’s right. Grimms. Plural. More than one. I guess they figured out that teamwork works. There was a cacophony of roars and footsteps pounding on the ground in quick succession behind us. Close behind us. We reached the end of the hallway, and we could go either left, or right. I had no idea which way to go in this hospital, and I was scared that I was going to hit a dead end. However, I heard more Grimms coming from the right. “Left!” I yelled. I wasn’t going to let those Grimms get me, Alex, or Sarah. I started to reach for the pistol, but I decided against it. I didn’t want it to slow me down, and from the sound of it, I probably didn't have near enough bullets.
My stomach started twisting into knots the size of King Kong's fingers, as a tiny voice inside my head started telling me that we were not going to make it. It was dark. The only light was from the occasional emergency light that wasn’t busted because of the earlier work of a Grimm. The sound of footsteps – both human and Grimm – grew in my ears, making the knot in my stomach grow larger.
I was drained both emotionally and physically. My legs were starting to give out on me, along with my brain. After all the things of done – seen – today, I started to think that if I made it out of this, I would go crazy. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to make it out of this, though. It's not like I had anybody to go home to. These things weren't going to go away, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to live in a world where I had to watch my back for fear of these things killing me. The apocalypse can be taxing on a seventeen-year-old. I tried to focus on Alex. I couldn’t give up. I had to get him out of here. Sarah, too. She was the reason I was put in that mess in the first place. I used those thoughts and feelings as fuel to my legs. I had to push myself forward.
Then, the nail in
the proverbial – and literal – coffin got nailed in.
The hallway dead-ended.
I turned around, and saw Alex and Sarah staring at me, their eyes filled with fear, and defeat. I looked past them and saw at least fifty Grimms running towards us. I was finally able to get a good look at them – the things that were going to kill me.
They had almost human looking bodies, but they were gray. They had two arms, and legs, but they ran like gazelles did. They lunged through the air, landing first on their balled up hands, and then once their feet hit the ground behind them, they used them to lunge again. They were really fast. They could strike fear in you, worse than you’ve ever felt before, in anyone. Even Chuck Norris…okay, maybe not him. But still…mostpeople.
A glint caught my eye. I looked my right. Relief and joy flooded through me. It was a door. I didn't know why I didn't see it before—probably because of the monsters charging right at me—but it didn’t matter anymore. I saw it now.
I grabbed the doorknob and threw the door open. “In here!” I shouted above the screaming of the Grimms. I didn’t even have to say anything. Alex and Sarah were in there before I even was. I slammed the door behind me. I looked around the room. “Grab that bed!” I shouted, pointing at the bed in the corner. Alex and Sarah grabbed it and wheeled it over the door. The doorknob was one of those doorknobs that you had to push down, and we stuck the bed right underneath it, jamming the doorknob. We locked the tires.
“Now what?” Alex said, frantic.
Crap. I hadn’t thought much further than getting out of the hallway. “We’re screwed.”
Chapter Thirteen
The Grimms started banging on the door. I could hear them grunting, screaming, and growling. My head was spinning. What was going on? Where did these creatures come from? A couple of days before then, I was enjoying life, but now, I was fighting for it.
“Charlie!” Alex turned me around and looked at me. “Snap out of it!”
He had been shouting my name, but I didn’t hear him until he turned me around.
“How are we going to get out? We’re trapped!” I yelled over the sounds that the Grimms were making. There were no windows, and there was no way we could fight off so many Grimms.
We stood there, staring at each other. Comprehension showed on his face. He too realized that there was nothing we could do.
“Look!” Sarah shouted. The both of us turned to see what she was pointing at. There was an air vent in the corner of the room. It was large: three foot wide and three foot tall. “We can crawl up in there!”
Alex ran over to her and embraced her in a giant bear hug. “You. Are. A. Genius!”
A shocked look came across her face. “Uh, yeah. I guess so.”
“Well, don’t just stand there!” I told them. “Let’s get that vent off!”
The vent wasn’t on the ceiling. It was placed at the top of the wall. I grabbed a chair from one of the desks in the room and placed it underneath the vent so I could reach it better. I tried twisting the four screws that were in each corner, but they were too tight. I grunted in frustration. “They aren’t coming off!” I shouted. The noise from the Grimms was growing to a deafening sound. It seemed like every Grimm in the entire hospital was trying to bang down our door. It wasn’t going to last much longer.
“Shoot them off!” Alex shouted back.
“Good idea!” I pulled the gun out of the back of my pants and put it in front of the first screw. “Stand back!” I shouted. It would totally suck if Alex and/or Sarah got shot by a ricochet right now. It would reallysuck if I did. But I really had no choice.
I shot the screw. I could barely hear the gun firing over the sound of the Grimms. The bullet ricocheted, and went through the door, hitting a Grimm. Two birds with one stone! I thought, chuckling to myself.
I quickly shot the next three screws off. The grate fell to the floor. “Sarah!” I shouted as loud as I could. I pointed up to the grate. “You first!” I jumped off the chair.
She ran over, clambered up the chair, and disappeared into the vent.
“Alex! You next!” He did the same as Sarah.
I heard the sound of wood breaking. I looked behind me, and I saw that the Grimms were busting through the door. I ran up the chair – kicking it aside – and climbed into the vent as fast as I could. Right when I entered the cold, metal vent, the Grimms busted in. I sank into the vent as far as I could. I felt Alex’s knee jabbing into my back.
I heard the Grimms flood the room, knocking things over, roaring as loud as they could. I even heard a fight break out. But I never gave away my position. I’m sure if they knew where we were at, they would figure out a way to get in here, and I needed a break. But I had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn’t going to be getting one anytime soon.
We sat there barely breathing as the Grimms scoured the room for signs of life. I felt the urge to cover my ears, so I could block out as much noise as I could. But right as I started to do so,
the sound of the Grimms was replaced by the sound of silence. I let out a sigh of relief. At the time, I thought this was the craziest thing that would ever happen to me. I was wrong.
“I just wanna go home! I wanna send those aliens back, and I want to go home!” Alex said, his voice filled with sadness and fear.
“We will, man. We’re gonna get out of here and find somewhere safe to call home,” I assured him. But I was thinking the same thing as he was. I wanted things back the way they were.
“I can't go with you guys,” Sarah said, looking down at her hands. “I have to get to D.C.”
I looked at her with a dumbfounded look on my face. Alex’s face matched mine. “You aren’t serious?” I told her. “That is where the Visitors came from! It’s probably where the most Grimms are!”
Alex nodded. “I mean, these probably are the Visitors!” He looked at me. “I mean, what else could they be?”
I shook my head. “I don't think these things would know how to pilot a ship.” There had to be some sort of handlers for these things.
“Dude, I didn't even think these things would ever exist just a few days ago! There's no other explanation.”
I shrugged. “We'll find out sooner or later.”
Sarah cleared her throat, and I returned my attention to her. “My little brother is there, in D.C., and I have to get to him.” She had a determined look on her face. I knew that there wasn't anything that could stand between a sister and her younger brother.
“How do you know he’s even there? He could’ve…disappeared, or whatever, like everybody else!” Alex said.
“I just do. I’ll explain it later. Right now, though, we need to find a way out of here.”
“Sarah’s right. We need to get out of here. Then we’ll worry about what to do next,” I told Alex.
“This ventilation shaft has to lead somewhere, right?” Alex said as he peered down the shaft.
“I think I saw a vent similar to this one in the lobby. I guess we can just follow the shaft, until we end up there,” Sarah suggested.
“That's the only thing we can do,” I said. “We need to spread apart. This shaft doesn't seem very stable, and I don't want to go crashing any of the Grimms’ parties.”
Alex nodded, his expression solemn at the thought of the Grimms tearing into him. He shivered. “I've got dibs on the middle!”
“All right, you can have the middle,” I said. “Sarah, you take up the rear. I'll lead. Count to five slowly before following me. Sarah, you do the same to Alex. That should spread out our weight evenly enough.”
“Aye, aye, captain!” Alex said, mock saluting me. Sarah rolled her eyes at him.
“Let's do this.” I slowly started crawling down the shaft. There were no lights to guide me as I made my way to the lobby. The only sounds were the three of us breathing and grunting and the metal of the shaft popping in and out of place.
Every so often, I could hear the sound of a Grimm
passing by underneath us or the sound of them fighting in the distance. But they couldn't hear us crawling right above them.
After a while, my head hit a wall of the shaft, making a loud banging noise.
“You okay, Charlie?” I heard Alex call out.
“Yeah,” I shouted back. “I just didn't see the wall here.” I felt to my left, and there was a wall. I felt to my right. Another wall. “We hit a dead end!” I called back.
“I knew we should've taken a right back there!” Alex's voice echoed off the walls.
“Thanks for telling us this now, genius!” I heard Sarah shout.
“Sarah, take the lead, and...go right, or whatever,” I told her.
“If I can find the security room, I think I can get us to the lobby. I remember passing by it on my way in here!” she shouted back.
“Lead on, Sacajawea!” Alex called out.
We crawled back the way we came, my back, arms, and legs were hurting from being crouched down and crawling for so long.
“Take a right up here!” I heard Sarah's voice echo off the metal walls.
“See! Right! I told you!” Alex shouted in victory.
“Actually, if we were going the opposite way, it would've been a left,” I said.
“Just let me have my moment!”
I did a mental eye roll and continued on.
I took a right where Sarah told us. I saw a faint light up ahead seeping through a grate. “Here's the security room,” I heard Sarah say. “I know how to get to the lobby from here. At least, I think so. I've never taken the ‘ventilation shaft’ route before.”
“Just try not to get us lost like Charlie back here did,” Alex commented
“I heard that!” I shouted at him.
“Whatever!”
We started crawling again. We'd been wandering around for at least an hour, so it felt good to be at the final leg of this nightmare. Little did I know, the nightmare hadn't even started yet.
“Do you guys hear that?” Sarah said as she came to a stopped.
I held my breath and listened as closely as I could. In the distance, I heard Grimms fighting.
“Where's that coming from?” I whispered.
“I think...” Sarah paused to make sure. “I think it's coming from the lobby.”
