"Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living."

"You ok?" Jimmy asked.

He knew the guy wasn't ok, his face had changed from a look of intense pain to crazed hunger. The man moved at Jimmy, and he grabbed the man's neck, to hold him off. This one was stronger, a lot stronger than Colin had been. The two of them collided with the barricade against the door, which crunched under their weight as they fell. Jimmy held the guy's neck and one hand while the other hand flailed about, trying to untangle itself from the chair leg.

"Cass….," Jimmy breathed," get the gun,"

He tried to look past the guy on him, but Cass was no where in view. He pushed hard on the side of the guy's neck, which hit the wall hard. He took the man's hair in his hand and slammed it into the wall again as hard as he could. His eyes rolled in his head and he shook violently but held on. Jimmy's arms began to strain as blood erupted from the man's mouth, spilling over Jimmy's chest.

He hit the head against the wall a third time and the hands let go of Jimmy, the man fell off and twitched as Jimmy stood up, backing away towards the gun.

The guy wasn't dead, he looked across at Jimmy, but was unable to move for some reason. Jimmy picked up the TV and pulled out the power cable, raising it above his head.

……………………………………………………………………………

"So," Jimmy said, leaning on the table," what now?"

Cass looked over at the dead guy with the TV on his head, she slowly rose to her feet shaking, emerging from her hiding place under the table.

"I thought we had got away from the crazies," she said," but he was one of them, I….,"

"You could have helped," Jimmy said, putting the gun back on his pants, he wasn't letting go of it again.

"I didn't know what to do," she said," he was ok one second and crazy the next, no one knows how it spreads, either of us could be infected,"

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"In the beginning," she said," people were saying it was a virus that makes people go insane, but no one knows how it spreads. Most people have symptoms before they……change."

"Like what?"

"Skin irritation, dry throat, nausea and sometimes vomiting," she said," some people have been known to have sores on their skin too, but most of the time its completely random. A few minutes before they change, they start to get ill, I should have been watching him,"

"Its not your fault," Jimmy said," we just need to be careful from now on, well at least one good thing came of this,"

"And what's that?" Cass said coldly.

"We know hitting them on the head works," Jimmy said, grasping the TV in both hands and lifting it off the dead body and setting it down next to the body.

The head was splattered across the floor, there was little left of it. Jimmy looked away and caught Cass throwing up in the waste basket.

"We should try and get the power back on," Jimmy said," I'll take care of the body,"

Cass sat by the controls, flicking switches and checking the screens, but nothing was working.

Jimmy took the chairs away from the door and opened it, dragging the body slowly by the arms. He looked outside, but there was no one in the corridor, except Colin lying face down in a pool of blood. Laying the bodies together he wiped his forehead, that guy was heavy. Jimmy knelt by Colin and took his radio, he pressed the button on the side and spoke into it.

"Hello?" he said," anyone out there?"

There was static as a reply, he put it into his pocket and checked the pouches on him. The handgun holster had a pocket for ammo, but there was nothing inside. On Colin's belt he found a small box of shells for his rifle, but it wasn't with him.

"Now where the hell is that rifle?" he asked himself.

"The power cant come on from here," Cass called," someone needs to start up the backup generator,"

"And where the hell is that?" Jimmy asked.

"The basement," Cass called, a hint of despair in her voice.

"Great," Jimmy said," and I guess you want me to do it,"

"We can both go," Cass said, appearing in the doorway.

"No," Jimmy said," it's better that I go, I've got the gun, you stay here and keep trying to raise someone on the radio,"

"You even know what you got to do?" Cass asked.

"Press the on button," Jimmy replied sarcastically handing her the radio.

"If you say so," Cass said," I checked out a map on the wall of the control room, the emergency generator is the third door once you reach the basement,"

"Right," Jimmy said, stepping in the elevator and pressing the button.

He waited, but it didn't move.

"Guess I'm taking the stairs," he muttered, heading towards the emergency stairwell, glancing back as Cass closed the control room door.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Jimmy met no one on the stairs, but on the way down he could hear shouting and thudding through the closed stairwell doors. He reached the door labelled basement and slowly pushed it open, the metal door creaked and he pulled out the gun, keeping it aimed to his front as he looked into darkness.

"Shit," he said, peering into the pitch black.

He edged down, using the light from the open door as much as he could. The stairs were short, but the little light he had stopped at the bottom of them, leaving the hallway in complete darkness.

"Hello?" he said, listening for any movement.

In the distance he could hear the sound of water dripping, he walked slowly, dragging his feet across the floor to make sure nothing could possibly get past him. The passage was narrow, he could feel both walls. He almost had a heart attacked when he bumped into the first door handle, but overcame his shock quickly and moved on. The second door was closer this time and he could hear the sound of the water getting closer.

He stopped at the third door and pulled the handle, but it was locked. Feeling around, he felt a padlock on a bolt across the door.

He aimed the gun at the padlock, making sure in the dark that it would blow it off. He would still have one bullet left and they needed the power back on.

He pulled the trigger, looking away from the flash.

From the darkness, towards the passage he hadn't been down yet. He saw a face appear in the brief light. He panicked and kicked opened the door, aiming the gun towards it as he fell into the generator room which was illuminated by a red emergency light. He heard nothing from outside the room, but he was sure someone had been down there. Realising he had fallen down, he kicked the door shut and got up, checking the room over for any crazies.

He examined the controls and scanned them over, until he found a switch with a rusty plaque next to it that read: Backup Power, Emergency Use Only.

He pushed it up and the lights turned from red to white, he flicked the intercom and spoke.

"Cass you there?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"Check the basement monitors now," he said.

"What am I looking for?" she asked.
"I think I saw someone,"

"Seems all clear from here," she replied," it's just you,"

"I'm on my way back," he said," is the route clear?"

"I cant see anyone," she said," but the front lobby is crawling with those crazies, I better tell the others how to kill these things,"

Jimmy looked out into the hall, which was empty. There were more doors down the way he hadn't been down yet, but the face was gone. Squinting, he could see a door labelled sewage access tunnel. Looking up, he could see the monitor watching him.

"Cass," he said, going back to the intercom," keep me covered on the screen, I'm just gonna do something,"

"Ok," her voice replied," don't do anything stupid,"

He walked to the door and checked it, the handle turned and the door stuck tight, either it was bolted from the other side or something was put against it.

"Damm," he said, kicking it," anyone in there?"

There was no reply, so he turned and walked back towards the stairs.

…………………………………………………………………………………

"Hey," Cass said as she opened the door to the control room," the backup power is only going to last us a couple of days, unless there's an engineer around,"

"How are they doing, the guys trapped downstairs?" Jimmy asked.

"There injured guy looks in a bad way," she said," but they have blocked the door, I don't think those things will get in for a while. I told him how to kill them, but they haven't had a chance to try it yet,"

Jimmy sat down and looked at the screens, the guy that had hit him with the pipe was running down a corridor with three other people, chasing some guy who was limping.

"We cant help anyone," she said," if we leave here…,"

"I know," Jimmy said," they have to come to us, all we can do is wait it out,"