Chapter 31

Farrah

I press the buttons frantically, trying to make the elevator go down faster. I know it won't work, but I do it anyway. Elevator muzak starts to play and I want to break the freaking speaker, but it's too far for me to reach. I lean back on the wall. I can't believe this all started out with zombies. Fuck. What a stupid joke. I run my hand through my hair.

I was the one who voted for zombies because I wanted to, I don't know, hurt the Director in some way. I hoped that he'd be forced to join in and get eaten. I hoped that he'd understand the pain he was inflicting on the children, but I'm such a hypocrite. Who knew my idea would backfire? All of them seem to. I created this test. I wanted the zombies.

Everything I did all came back to bite my son, and now he's going to die, and it's going to be my fucking fault all over again.

The blue elevator light dings down slowly. 13. 11. 9.

The elevator shakes fiercely. I brace myself against the wall. I hear an explosion not too far off from where I am.

I start shaking. "Damn it, no no no no." I bang on the door. "Come on, open up, please, please. I'm so close." I can turn this off. I'll find a way to.

I have to.

The elevator shakes again, worse this time. I hear a louder ding than before, and the doors open.

Yes! I race out. There's chaos everywhere. Scientists, with their white lab coats, run around like chickens with their heads cut off, yelling at each other.

On the monitors, I see small fires breaking out everywhere. A scientist whose name I don't know comes up to me and starts saying something, but I can't hear him. I can't stop thinking about Arron.

A loud crashing sound shakes the whole foundation.

I rush off the dorms, hoping that Arron will be there.

Ru

I keep hearing sounds. Loud ones. They're echoing off the walls. I bet I'm imagining it. THEY say I'm crazy. I probably am. I don't know how long I've been in here, but it's started to become comforting. The only normal thing right now.

As I said in my last entry, some weird kid came by, I don't know what he wanted. I couldn't see him, but I could hear him. It was weird to hear a new voice. Does that mean there are others here still? I'm not the only one? Did they escape?

Why am I the only one?

Am I different?

Is there something wrong with me?

THEY say to write in my journal. Something about keeping me sane. I don't know why THEY care. They haven't come by to feed me yet. I wonder why?

Is it the booming noises? No, probably not. Those are in my head. What are you thinking, silly? Oops. I should go now. Someone's calling for me.

Bye.

-L-10(?)

Arron

I was heading for Mom's office, but it was blocked off by rubble. So, I'm heading towards the next safest place I can think of. This child needs to survive. Even if I don't. Someone needs to carry this on, to tell the next generation.

I set the kid down, and they hold my hand as we run through the white hallways, to where I think that weird girl is. I can stick this kid in there and take her out. It should be safe. I don't know what the best thing to do in this situation is.

I know I said that we'll be fine, but I think something's actually wrong. We reach the door that should be Hers. I turn the knob and we walk into the black space.

There she is. Sitting on the floor, talking to herself.

She's mad.

"Okay," I whisper to the kid, "I'm going to find an opening into here, and you're going to hide in there. Got it?"

"I-in there? But s-she's..." The kid whimpers at me.
"It's going to be alright. I'll handle it. Just wait here for a second."

I find the control panel and start pulling levers and pressing buttons randomly, hoping that one of them will open some kind of hatch. They had to get her in there somehow.

I avoid pressing the big red button, because I probably shouldn't press the very obvious "press me!" button. But, at last, there aren't any other buttons to press, so I lift the cover over the button and hit it with the palm of my hand.

Lights flash and a 'ding' noise goes off with a small hiss, and a hatch opens. Just large enough for an adult woman to escape through.

I squish myself down, and pop through the hole. The girl looks at me, her eyes glassy. She reaches her hand up towards me and I take it, pulling her up into a standing position.

"We're gonna get you out of here," I say to her, leading her to the hatch. She nods and exits it easily.

I go after her, and then I grab the kids hand, and guide them to the hatch. They look up at me, their fear is palpable.

I bend down and stroke their face. "Hey, it'll be okay. Look, let's pinky-promise?" I stick my finger in their face. They grasp it and wrap their own pinky around mine. Their hand's so small. I made the right decision here. "Here, let's get you inside..." I whisper, picking them up, below the armpits and dropping them into the small room. "Someone will find you. We'll get you out of here. It'll be okay," I say as I walk over the red button and press it again.

The hatch closes, and the kid is now stuck behind a glass wall. Just like the woman beside me used to be. I wonder if I killed two birds with one stone.

The whole place shakes again. They keep getting worse and worse. I look over at the woman, who now looks wide awake. The glassy-ness is gone, replaced by awareness. She nods at me and opens the door. I step out into the white hall with her.

It's like we both knew what was going to happen. Like we knew we were going to die. At least we're together. I don't know her and she doesn't know me, but I found comfort in the fact that I wasn't dying alone, nor was I dying without a purpose. I'd saved a life, hopefully, and now I can die peacefully. With few regrets.

She reaches over to me and grabs my hand.

"My name's Ru. What's yours?" She gives me a sweet smile.

"I'm Arron. Nice to meet you," I say, pulling her into a hug just as white fire engulfs us.