Lunch came quicker than she imagined. She sat at her desk debating on working straight through when a strong rumble from her stomach won her over and she remembered that she hadn’t eaten at all today and had managed to puke up anything that might have been left over from the night before.
Gemi found the kitchen all but deserted, everyone was eating out deciding to enjoy the last warm day. Runa, the editing department’s assistant stood at the countertop slicing up an array of vegetables for her salad. She glanced up and smiled as Gemi entered.
“I forgot to prep last night.” She motioned to her half concocted salad.
Gemi forced a smiled before walking to the refrigerator. Pushed to the back was a stack of yogurts she left just in case she is ever too busy to run out and grab anything. Today she is more than thankful for her anal preparedness. She threw her frozen lunch into the microwave and grabbed a seat at the table, her back purposefully facing Runa hoping beyond hope she would be able to inhale her yogurt before Runa joined her or tried to strike up a conversation.
“So,” Runa began the moment the first spoonful hit Gemi’s mouth. “Did you hear what happened? It’s insane right? I heard an update just before lunch, they are calling it a definite act of anti-chipping.”
“I saw the initial report. Was that the official coroner report? They got to that fast.”
“Yeah well you know they are going to want quick answers. If anti-chippers are able to invade our town undetected, this could be the downfall of society as we know it.”
Dramatic Gemi thought, but she had to admit if the movement spread they could find themselves in an all-out civil war. There were reports of people; even those still chipped beginning to whisper about the possibilities or removing them, or at the very least turning them down. Those people didn’t pay close attention to the history books about how things had been.
“It’s crazy isn’t it?” Runa continued, “I mean we all heard it in history classes, about the old days where violence ran ramped. But for it to happen in this day and age, so close to home, it makes me feel so uneasy you know?”
“It’s unnerving to say the least, but one case in the last forty years, it doesn’t amount to the downfall of society. I don’t think you should lose sleep over it.”
Runa didn’t answer her after that. The room had fallen silent except for the chopping of Runa’s knife on the cutting board. Crap, she must have offended her; it wasn’t often that Runa was rendered silent.
“Runa?” Gemi said, turning to face her fully. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
Runa had her back to Gemi, focused on her chopping.
“Hey honestly, I have had a rough morning.”
No answer.
Gemi stood and walked to her that is when she saw it… Red liquid flowed down off the cutting board, splashing in little puddles on the ground and Runa’s shoes. Runa had begun to mutter something under her breath as her head started twitching in a very unsettling manner.
“Hey. Oh my god, are you ok?”
Runa had moved her knife away from the carrot she had been chopping and was now working the knife up her fingers, chipping off bits of bone and all as she went. Her first two fingers sat there in tatters, the skin hanging off, pulled away from bone and tendons.
Gemi grabbed a towel and rushed to Runa, throwing it on her hand and trying her best to stifle the bleeding. Runa however didn’t stop. Her muttering became louder; the knife faster as it cut up to the second knuckle.
Blood seeped through the towel and covered Gemi’s hands; the surface of the countertop became hot and slick as the blood spilled over the cutting board. In her frenzy Gemi’s hand slipped right into the path of the knife. A burning pain flashed through her hand as the blade sliced through her own fingers.
“Shit!” Gemi pulled away and rushed to get another towel, hastily wrapping it around her own hand.
The chopping noise had mercifully stopped.
Gemi looked up from her triage to observe Runa staring at her, a fiery intensity in her eyes, the kind a predator has as it stalked its prey. Her mangled hand hung at her side as if nothing was wrong, as if she wasn’t missing half her hand, as if blood wasn’t pouring from her open wound. A glint of light caught Gemi’s eye bringing her gaze down to Runa’s good hand where she still clutched the knife, her knuckles white from the grip she had on the hilt.
A blood-curtailing scream ripped from her throat and then she launched herself at Gemi, the blade raised high and aimed right at her. Gemi stumbled out of the way, slamming into the fridge and knocking her off balance. She spun around to see Runa lunging at her again. The blade caught her this time slicing through her shirt and bicep. Gemi screamed in pain, clutching at her arm she ran to the other side of the table, putting it between her and Runa. Bad move, Runa now effectively blocked her way to the exit.
“Help!” Gemi cried even though she knew it was pointless, as the floor would still be deserted for lunch.
Gemi stared in horror at Runa as they made their way around the table, Runa moving every time Gemi did as her unattended wound spewed blood everywhere. Gemi tried her best to keep the table between them as they sidestepped, slowly making her way to the door. Runa thrust the knife over the table at her, growling and still muttering nonsense.
“Runa, you’re in shock, we need to stop the bleeding get you to a doctor.”
A few more feet to go.
Gemi moved early hoping to catch Runa off guard and made a break for the kitchen door, but her foot slipped on the blood that covered the floor. Her feet were ripped out from under her and she hit the ground with a hard thud that momentarily made the room spin. No time for pause. Gemi rolled to her back and made a move to get back up, but Runa was on top of her like a wild animal. Gemi bucked trying to dismount her, but the blood made her feet continue to slip, unable to find traction.
Runa raised the blade high above her head aimed for Gemi’s heart. Defeated she closed her eyes waiting for the sting of the blade. Nothing happened and suddenly Runa’s weight was being lifted off of her. Gemi’s eyes flashed open to see Mr. Gavelin pulling Runa from off of her.
“What is wrong with you Runa?” Mr. Gavelin demanded oblivious to the seriousness and total insanity of the moment. He let her go expecting her to turn and answer him, but instead she turned and drove the blade of the knife deep in his stomach, twisting it as it reached the hilt. Mr. Gavelin’s eyes went wide, glancing at Gemi and back to Runa as she removed the knife and plunged it in again and again.
Gemi made a break for the door as Mr. Gavelin’s body slumped to the floor. Once on the outside Gemi slammed the double doors and with shaking hands she removed her belt and slipped it through the long handles fastening it closed.
Not waiting to see if Runa came back for her, she took off in a sprint towards her office. Down the hall she could still hear the sound of the knife striking bone and the ground.
Gemi threw her office door closed behind her, immediately locking it before her legs gave out from under her. She fell to a heap on the ground. Some part of her brain refused to believe what just happened, repeating over and over that she must have imagined it. Stress and shock from the news this morning making her see things that weren’t there. The blood that covered her body along with the fresh wounds from the knife should have been proof enough.
Runa must have been an anti-chipper. No other way could explain what just happened. Unless doctors are making mistakes with adjustments, but everyone knew that the chip frequency had to be set to a certain number. Only adjusted up when people still presented with depression. But that required extensive approval, and the numbers were never under any circumstances turned down below the threshold.
She needed to do something, call the police and clean herself up before people began filing back in from lunch. How on earth was she going to explain a dead body and a crazy person with a knife? Better yet how was she going to explain leaving her boss to be butchered as she saved herself?
Gemi pushe
d off the ground hoping this time that her legs would be able to support her. She had to hurry before anyone was daft enough to remove the belt that secured the kitchen doors, or worse Runa found a way to do it herself.
She moved to her desk and grabbed her phone, with shaking fingers she punched in 9-1-1. Busy signal. Gemi hung up and tried again. Same results. Something felt wrong. She would have to explain to her co-workers herself. Maybe she could get cleaned up, usher everyone out and then flag someone.
Luckily again for her over preparedness, a trait she had inherited from her father, made Gemi keep an extra set of clothes in her office. She had never been so appreciative of it until now. She entered her en-suite bathroom and stripped off the blood-soaked clothes throwing them on the ground. They might end up being evidence.
Like every bathroom in the building it was equipped with a first aid kit. There had been great strides in medical advancements over the last decade, with the right series of medications wounds healed in a couple days verses weeks. Gemi rubbed ointment, the step one of process on her knife wounds and quickly bandaged them. She threw step two and three in her bag before dressing and throwing on a pair of running shoes she kept under her desk.
The clock on the desk showed five to one. Any minute everyone would be piling back inside the office. Taking a letter opener from her desk, she grabbed her bag and headed for the door. Gemi pressed her ear to it, hoping to hear any sign of danger.
Everything was quite, too quiet.
Resisting the urge to just barricade herself in the office, Gemi breathed in deep before undoing the latch and swinging her door open wide. The halls are still deserted. She gripped the letter opener tight in her right hand she stepped through the doorway.
Gemi found the kitchen door still latched closed with her belt. The sound of the knife and ceased, in fact the room was eerily noiseless. Biting hard on her lip to quell the urge to peek inside, Gemi continued on her path making her way to the front office door where she would find stairs and a ten story decent to the street below.
The receptionist, Majie was not at her station, which was odd for the time of day. Something was terribly wrong, and she could sense it even before she stepped out of the office space and into the shared main lobby.
The space reeked of iron; it didn’t take long to see why. A long trail of blood stained the tan carpeting and lead from the lobby into the nearby office that shared the tenth floor. The door was ajar and even from where she stood Gemi could see a woman’s foot sticking out into the hall. The petite foot was wearing a pair of neon pink polka dot heels, the prize possession of Majie.
Nausea hit Gemi like a ton of bricks forcing the yogurt she had eaten for lunch to come back up violently. After fully relieving her stomach of any contents she fell to the ground, her mind now having an internal battle, half telling her how stupid it was to sit out in the open and the other pleading her to lie down and never move again.
Gemi breathed deep trying her best to calm her nerves. In for four and out for four, a trick her mother had taught her to easy the anxiety whenever she had to speak publically. It’s why she became an editor. Non-verbal communication was easy.
Head spinning and on shaky legs, Gemi pushed herself back up off the ground using the wall for support. She needed to make it down the stairs and across the street to the parking garage. Her car would be safe, her apartment safer until the authorities could sort this all out.
Gemi made her way down the stairs hugging the wall tightly. The staircase looked like a tornado hit it. Personal items she could only assume belonged to the building’s various occupants lined the stairs, left behind in the owners’ haste. She tried her best to ignore the blood that also clung to the cement. None of the morning’s events made any sense. Maybe she was still dreaming. Maybe she was in bed having lost the battle to get up and her mind was punishing her for ditching work.
Nine. Eight. Seven. Gemi counted each floor as she made her way to it. The walk never felt as long as it did at the moment. She had made it to floor six, trying to stay quiet as a mouse when she heard someone calling after her. Gemi froze, pulling herself into the wall and wishing a way become invisible.
“Hey! Hey you!” the person called again.
The person was now feet from her and something snapped, her fight-or-flight kicking in and she chose flight. Gemi bolted down the stairs taking two at a time. The person followed her trailing a mere feet behind her.
“Hey! Stop! Don’t leave me here!”
Five. Gemi kept up her pace, ignoring the way air entered her lungs in tight gasps and the fire spreading up her legs.
“I’m not one of them!”
“Go away!” she called back.
Four.
“Look at me I’m fine!”
Three. Nearly there. Against her better judgment, Gemi risked a glance over her shoulder at the person, catching a quick glimpse of a pudgy face with red cheeks before her foot missed the next step and she went tumbling down the remainder of the flight.
Gemi landed on the cold hard surface of the second floor, the impact of the ground on her chest forcing the air from her lungs.
“Jesus, I told you I was fine!” The man now loomed over her and was breathing as hard as she was.
Gemi rolled onto her back before pulling herself up to rest against the concrete wall. Her whole body ached and there was a pounding in her head that made her want to crawl into the corner and just shut her eyes. She had never been too graceful, running and doing pretty much any other port activity was a bad idea.
“You have a car?” the man asked her, not even bothering with the formalities of asking if she was ok.
Gemi recognized the man now. They had never had a conversation. He was quiet and never really spoke to anyone else, would barely return a hello.
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m going to need a lift out of here. I take the bus and if it’s as bad out there as it is in here, I’m not risking it. Where are you parked?”
“The garage across the street.”
“Well, you seem in no state to drive after that fall, just give me your keys and I will get us out of here.”
Gemi hesitated glancing between the man’s chubby hands and his swollen face before finally deciding.
“Yeah, ok.” Gemi reached in her bag and shuffled around before coming back out keys in hand. “Here.” She handed them to him and with the support of his other hand stood back up. The room spun causing her to wobble.
“Hey,” the man steadied her with a large arm around her waist. “Only a few more flights.”
Together they began their slow and steadied decent down to the first floor. Gemi felt each step like it was another blow to her body; her muscles and bones reminding her that falling down a flight of stairs is not the best thing to do.
Once they had made it to the final landing the man let go of her, allowing her rest against the wall. He moved to the door that separated them from the first floor main entrance and pressed his ear to it. Behind the door would lead to the main lobby and feet from that would lead to the outside and their freedom, but Gemi knew that meant they had to walk blind into whatever was on the other side, good or bad.
Everything seemed quite, then again so did the kitchen before Runa tried to murder her. Gemi shivered as the image of Runa slicing through her own hand sprung back to mind.
“I think we are clear,” the man said turning back to her. “You ready?”
Gemi nodded in response, knowing if she spoke her voice would betray her and she would scream at the top of her lungs that she would rather hide her office than walk outside.
“Ok.” The man reached and grabbed her hand and with his other grasped the doorknob. “There is a high chance we may have to run so I’m going to need you to suck it up.”
The man ripped open the door, sunlight flooded the stairwell and the smell of iron hit her once more making her stomach heave. The man crept out of their hiding space and into the main lobby, dragging Gemi along b
ehind him.
It was worse than she could have imagined. Blood smeared the once white flooring, bodies lay strewn about mangled and hardly recognizable as the people she had seen day in and day out. Had this happened all at once? It must have started while she was battling for her own life, but who could have caused such widespread destruction? Gemi took a deep breath and focused her eyes on the man’s hand holding hers, trying her best to push out everything else.
Gemi realized her mistake too late. The man was focused towards the path in front of them; she should have been watching the sides and their back. The blow came out of nowhere, knocking the man to the ground and taking her with him. Gemi released his hand and rolled to face their assailant, a tall thin man she didn’t recognize as a resident in the building.
“A two for one deal, how exciting!” The man clapped his hands and circled around them like a cat stalking its pray. Just as Runa had acted when she attacked her. His face shrouded behind a mask of blood encased in jet-black hair that hung in clumps to his eyes. Beady eyes that were so brown they almost looked black stared down at them.
“You’re going to make wonderful additions to my collection.” He stopped circling, ending right in front of them to motion to his neck. There hanging from it was a knotted rope, on it hung the tattered remains of ears all of varying shapes, colors, and sizes.
“Oh god!” Gemi gagged and move to crawl away.
“Not so fast, we are just starting our fun!” The crazy man reached for her ankle and drug her back towards him, her body sliding easily on the blood slick floor.
The man crouched over her, letting his hand slide over her face to her chin where he grasped it hard and jerked her face to the side.
“Oh sparkly ones, those are my favorite.” He slid his other hand over her ear, stopping to play with the jeweled stud that adorned the lobe.
“Get off of her,” the man next to her groaned.
“Fat man is awake.” He stood up releasing Gemi and turned to where the man lay on his back.
Paroxysm Effect Page 2
