Locks and Bolts

Chapter 1-Room 208

The echoing halls of the apartment were no longer what they had been. Previously, they'd been damp, ugly walls leading between the elevator and stairs and his room. Now, they were dimly lit and creepy. The fizzling light bulb made the rough cut cardboard boxes give horrid images upon the walls. Flecked green paint and cheap plaster were once all that decorated the walls. Now, the shadows were cast upon them and, even worse, blood.

'Come on, man! Just make it down the hall. You can do it, Ken.'

Kenneth edged slowly down the corridor, the axe firmly gripped in his hands. He gritted his teeth tightly as he approached the door to his room. He let one hand drift from his axe to his pocket to fetch his keys. His hand shaking heavily, he eventually managed to slip the key into the lock and twist the handle. He stepped into the room, took back the keys and closed the door behind him. He quickly locked it once more and pocketed the keys. Nothing new to the room. It was how he left it.

A complete dump. An empty pizza box, some beer cans, and a small collection of various bits of other junk.

'If I'd known they were coming, I'd have cleaned up! Don't blame yourself now. Wait! I gotta' block the door!'

Kenneth quickly dropped the fire axe, running for the cupboard in the lounge. He always had some of his hardware goods in there, even though he'd given up making the kitchen shelves when his wife went missing. The cupboard door swung open easily as Ken tore it open for tools. There were only a few boxes of nails and a screwdriver. Damn. He grabbed the coffee table as well, slinging off the half-eaten pizza. He dragged the table against the door and looked around for something to hit the nails in with.

'The fire axe!'

Ken grabbed the axe and began to bang the nails in with the blunt end.

'Please God! Don't let them find me yet!'

Half an Hour later...

The make-shift barricade would hold for now. Kenneth's interest had been diverted anyway. He'd finished working on defence, so moved to offence. He had taken his handgun from its place in the cabinet and given it a full load. That was because it was all he had for it-1 Clip. At least it had range compared to the axe. The only way the fire axe would become a projectile weapon would be if he hurled it and there wasn't too many chances of him being able to do that. He tried the weight of the gun in his hands. It had been along time since he'd held it, let alone used it. Not as heavy as he remembered it. Hopefully, he could still fire the thing without it jamming up on him.

He cast his attention to a different matter-the outside world. He hadn't thought much about what was going on outside the building much, recently. He'd been thinking about how to safely get from the basement to the second floor without conflict. Or the elevator. When the power went off the elevator had stopped, open, on the ground floor, where those...things were. Naturally, they got in and devoured the elevator's passengers. The power came back and got it stuck between the 5th and 6th floor when it sparked off again, and those monstrosities were still in it. Ken didn't want to chance that. He'd taken the stairs up from the boiler room and it actually seemed to work. That is to say, he didn't bump into one of the creatures. The power did return later though, but by that time, the elevator was well and truly damned. Anyone else who had survived would be sensible enough not to use that clunky piece of crap, whether those creatures had cleared off or not.

'Oh well, I'm here now. Might as well try and get comfortable, could be here a while.'

Kenneth sighed dryly before walking over to the kitchen. He swung open the fridge to see what was lurking there today.

A bit of pizza, a couple of stale sandwiches, a block of cheese and a slice of apple pie. That was all that was worth eating. The only other things in there were some assorted beers, a few bottles of milk and some old fruit that smelled as rotten as the things outside. Ken would probably get himself a beer, settle down in a chair and hopefully blank out in front of the TV. Not much difference between what was going on now and life last year. Except he'd had a Wife with him last year and there wasn't cannibalistic murderer's everywhere.

Kenneth settled down in his chair with a can of beer and clicked on the TV. It was going to be a long night.