Chapter Two
12:24 p.m. – Davis and Glade
Portigon, New Barkham
Stanley hastily hopped into his SUV parked outside. He didn't really have time to put the coffee cups nicely in the cup holders, so he shoved them on the floor in front of the passenger seat. Isabel was in trouble, but there was an air of mystery to her call.
"There're people in the building, and they're … attacking everyone?" he repeated to himself, jamming the key into the ignition. Was there some sort of riot going on, or was it just a robbery of some kind? The car screeched as he reversed out of his parking space, nearly hitting a car driving past.
"Watch it dickhead!" cried the woman in the car who had swerved out of the way. Stanley didn't bother to respond as he turned away from the car. He saw her middle finger on his rear view mirror, but he ignored it, driving out onto the main street.
But it wasn't even five minutes before he hit traffic.
"Damn!" he said, slapping his hands on the wheel. He couldn't see what was going on up ahead, but he was going to be here a while.
He pressed his horn uselessly. "Come on!"
Stuck behind several cars, he dialed Lane's number at the office. Perhaps he'd have better luck.
"Hi, you've reached Lane Parfetti, VP of Internal Security at Yoshida International Industries. I am currently unavail –"
Stanley didn't bother to waste his time hearing the rest. Instead he moved on to dial 911, hoping he could get some sort of response from them, but all he got was a busy signal.
"What the hell?" he said, now punching in Isabel's number. However, at the last minute, he refrained from pressing the call button.
"Bad idea," he thought, throwing the phone onto the passenger seat. What if his call alerted the attackers? She probably wouldn't answer anyway.
Up ahead, the traffic was slowly diverting, finally allowing Stanley to drive through towards Nadia's apartment, which was not too far away from his brother's place on Casper Island. He turned on the radio as he drew closer to the Weller Bridge leading to Casper Island, hoping any news broadcast would help him understand what was going on over there.
"—but they did start around a couple of minutes before noon. Local police have begun to cordon off the bridges leading to Casper Island from both the Amitrano and Portigon mainlands. The motivation for these riots is presently unknown at this point, but we will keep you up to date with further developments. The fact is that the riots began several hours after the brutal murders of five people early this morning by a single elderly man…"
Stanley stopped paying attention as he made his way towards the bridge. He wasn't going to get much more information now that they had gone back to reporting on the attacks that morning, but since then, they had been upped to murders?
There was something about these news stories that disturbed him.
12:49 p.m. – Weller Bridge
Casper Island, New Barkham
Stanley was halfway across the lengthy bridge when he spotted a scattered group of police officers in riot gear trying to fend off some of the rioters. Even though the officers were equipped accordingly, it didn't deter the rioters as they attempted to take swipes at them. One of them even brought an officer down and from the looks of things, tried to eat him. Stanley was shaken, taking extra care to drive around them. He knew he was entering dangerous territory, but if no one else could help Isabel and her friend, he was going to have to do it. It wasn't because he wanted to be a hero. He just cared about her.
As he crossed the bridge, he could see things were getting worse on the suburban island. Cars were swerving all over the road trying to avoid the people running across the streets in bloodied clothes. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things properly, but some of them had very serious injuries to their bodies, including gruesome gaping holes in their skin.
He didn't notice that his slow driving left him vulnerable as he took in the sights. Consequently, one of the rioters ended up smacking into his passenger window. Stanley jumped in his seat, accidentally hitting his head on the top of the car. The man was hideous. His eyes were completely white, but he could feel them glaring at him. The man let out shrieking noises as he continued to slap against the window, alerting his fellow rioters that there was someone to prey on. Stanley stared at the man and those behind him approaching. He was terrified. Perhaps this is what caused those people to stop dead in their tracks when that man attacked them that morning.
More of them began to run towards the car, and Stanley finally realized his exposure to the rioters. He snapped back into reality and pressed the accelerator harshly, causing the car to jerk through the growing number of people approaching and sped down the road. He was running out of time.
12:57 p.m. – Nadia's Apartment Complex
Casper Island, New Barkham
Stanley swerved into the parking lot outside the complex, not bothering to align his car properly with the parking space. His surroundings were void of any of the strange looking rioters, and he assumed they were making their way towards the bridges, hoping to cross into the mainlands. He checked his watch. It had taken him almost forty minutes to get here and that was when Isabel had told him that they were in the building.
"I hope she's okay," he thought to himself, making his way towards the entrance as the sun gave a bright afternoon glare. He felt anxious, hearing screams in the distance. He climbed the steps to the entrance and ended up almost stumbling over a lead pipe lying by the decorative bushes next to the door. He looked at it and hesitated for a moment, before bending down and picking it up, unsure why he even did so. It felt cold in his hands despite the sunlight supplying it heat, but he had no idea what was going on in the building. You couldn't be too careful, although it was fairly quiet inside.
Inside, blood decked the walls and the floor, glowing in the small amount of sunlight reaching the lobby. Stanley stopped for a moment, sickened by the sight. He had never seen so much blood in his entire life. He leaned against the wall, trying to suppress his gag reflex.
"You have to keep going," he told himself. "She's just upstairs ... hopefully."
After several deep breaths, he attempted to cross the floor, careful not to slip as he grabbed hold of the banister and made his way up the main staircase. Nadia's apartment was on the third floor. The staircase creaked as he cautiously took one step at a time up the stairs. As far as he knew, the place was abandoned, but he remained vigilant.
He felt a sort of nostalgic feeling as he climbed the stairs. Isabel had invited him here once when Nadia had held a farewell party on their last day of college. The ghostly laughs of the past echoed faintly. He shook off the feeling, concentrating on what he might find when he made it to her apartment.
Arriving on the third floor, he found that it too, was empty, except for the odd snarl far down the hall. Stanley was creeped out. Nadia's apartment door was partially ajar. It was an eerie setting, with the door slowly swinging, creaking as it did so. He stepped inside, examining the main living room. The glass coffee table lay in pieces with some shards of glass covered in blood with the rest of the furniture also in disarray.
"Hello?" he murmured, just loud enough for anyone in the room to hear. He shut the door behind him and locked it. Carefully listening, a bit of scuffle could be heard from the kitchen. His sweaty grip on the pipe tightened as he approached the kitchen doorframe, but it was blocked by a toppled bookcase as well as some end tables on top. He heard the faint whimper of 'shh' on the other end and some sobbing.
"Isabel? Nadia? Is that you guys in there? It's me."
"Stanley?" cried Isabel's voice on the opposite end of the barricade. "Oh thank god!" He heard her pull away the end tables, and was relieved to see her face through the small space she freed up. Small droplets of blood were clinging onto her otherwise beautiful face. However, the situation in the kitchen looked dire at best. There was a man lying on the floor, with a knife planted in the back of his head while Nadia, Isabel's closest friend was slumped against the dishwasher in the corner. Tea towels were wrapped around her leg, soaking in blood.
As soon as he climbed through, Isabel threw her arms around him and hugged him. She was trembling quite a lot.
"Are you alright?" he whispered. He felt comfortable with her embrace. "What happened?"
She let go, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Most of them, they … they ran right past chasing the others down the hallway," she said, shaken. "But this man came in and started swiping at us." She looked like she was going to break down completely. "He was going to kill us Stan…"
"It's alright, it's alright," he said, holding her shoulders. He looked into her eyes for a moment before he realized what he was doing, and he felt that she realized as well. Thankfully Nadia moaned in pain, giving him a distraction.
"Is she okay?" he asked, immediately letting go before crouching next to her. Carefully, he lifted up the makeshift bandage as she hissed in pain.
"This man tackled her to the ground. They fought for a bit until he ended up biting her leg. She nearly passed out. I didn't know what to do. I just got the knife off the chopping board and then I … I just…"
She couldn't continue. He understood.
"Okay listen, we need to get out of here now. It's hell out there," said Stanley.
"We can't leave her here Stanley."
"I know," he told her. He dropped the pipe in his hands before crouching down again. He grabbed Nadia's arm, wrapping it around his shoulder. "I just parked outside, but we need to hurry. They might come back and she needs to get that checked out now."
"Okay," she breathed nervously. "Okay. Let's go."
Isabel led the way, climbing out through the barricade first.
"You're going to be fine okay? We're taking you to the hospital," assured Stanley as he assisted her over the fallen bookcase. She nodded, but she looked dizzy. He guessed she might've had a fever of some sort, but it was way too soon for her to get one.
He took her out into the hallway where Isabel was staring down over the balcony towards the lobby. The inhumane howls grew louder as well as the thudding on wood.
"Are they…?" asked Stanley, but he already knew. Isabel nodded frantically.
"Quick, back inside," he whispered, and all three of them ran back inside the apartment. Isabel shut and locked the door as Stanley looked around for another way out.
"The … fire …" said Nadia, pointing towards the window. Stanley followed the direction of her finger and spotted the metallic structure outside.
"Let's go," said Stanley, supporting Nadia over to the window. Isabel went ahead, lifted it up and climbed out first, Stanley following. He had an excellent view of his surroundings from where he stood, and it looked grim. There were some fires out in the distance and a lot of people were scattering around the neighborhoods, chased by others. It was a frightening sight.
"Hurry!" cried Isabel. She was already on the first landing on the fire escape. Stanley nodded, taking extra care climbing down so to not fall as he helped Nadia down. Isabel was watching her surroundings worriedly, in case any more of them came around the corner. Eventually Stanley reached the bottom, Nadia still in tow.
"Okay, follow me," he said, leading them towards the corner.
He stopped and took a peek around it. Five of them were wandering aimlessly, all spread out. Stanley cursed under his breath.
"What's wrong?" asked Isabel.
He slumped against the wall, taking a moment to think of a plan.
"Wait here, alright?" He held his hand out in a stop gesture.
"What are you going to do?"
He hesitated. "I'm going to get in the car and drive it over here," he told them. "Just wait here, and when I come, you need to get in as quickly as possible okay?"
Isabel nodded as Stanley helped Nadia get support from Isabel. When the two were alright, he felt reluctant to follow through with his own plan.
"C'mon, we need to get out of here," he tried to convince himself.
He took some more deep breaths and slowly snuck around the corner, keeping out of sight. He was hoping to avoid confrontation, but one of them mindlessly began to turn in his direction. Stanley carelessly slid behind a dumpster, banging against it.
"Damn," he muttered as he listened to their moans of alert. They probably heard him. There was no other cover between the car and the dumpster. That meant his only option now was to make a break for it.
He waited anxiously, scolding himself over and over for even going through with this attempt to get to the car as he waited for the opportune moment. Believing they shrugged off the bang, he took one last look to see what they were doing. However, he was surprised to see them shuffling towards him, sniffing the air.
They knew he was there.
He knew he didn't have a choice. Stanley dashed out of his position, narrowly dodging the man closest to him. His eyes too, were purely white, and his snarl revealed his teeth coated in blood. The SUV was only a couple of meters away, but it felt like he was running a marathon as the other four in the vicinity also spotted him. They sprinted towards him, shrieking.
Stanley tried to concentrate, hoping not to make the fatal mistake that those in the movies do: fumbling their keys at the last second. It slid in the lock with ease. He wrenched the door open, quickly hopping inside and pressing the lock.
They slammed against the door, struggling to get to him. Stanley took the time to collect his breath for a moment. It didn't last long. One of them succeeded in smashing their hand through the window and tried to grab him.
"Argh!" he yelled, wrestling the arm as he started the car. He put it in reverse and reversed backwards, knocking the man onto the pavement. Switching back to drive, he drove towards Isabel's position around the corner while the other four gave chase immediately with their monstrous growls.
Turning the corner, he found them leaning against the wall, staring at a man and a woman who were running towards them in the same disturbing way the others he had encountered were. He screeched to a halt next to them.
"Quick!" he yelled as Isabel helped Nadia into the car. They were getting closer, but Isabel managed to shut the door in time.
"Go Stanley!" she cried.
Stanley didn't think twice. He floored it out of there.
