Administration Block Part One

Once Miles and I reached the gates, I reached to open them. They wouldn't budge. "Shit," I said under my breath. I looked at Miles, who had found a smaller gate nearby.

"We'll try this one," He said, pushing it. It opened with an audible creak, which made me cringe. I really hoped there was nobody around but us that could hear it. Getting slaughtered before we even got in there was definitely not on my bucket list.

"Have your camera ready. Remember, it's important for you to show what you're investigating, not only on the inside, but on the outside," Miles said to me as we walked onto the asylum's grounds.

"Got it," I replied, pulling my camcorder up.

"I feel sick just looking at this damn place," Miles said to me as we recorded the grounds. The wind picked up, scattering dead leaves all around us. We saw a few large white van-like vehicles parked in front of the asylum's doors.

"Huh. Guess the dirty bastards decided to call in their special forces," Miles commented.

"Guess so," I responded, a feeling of dread settling into my stomach. The closer we walked to the asylum, the more my heart raced. I could faintly hear a sound, almost above a whisper, the faint buzzing of static. I wondered if Miles could hear it too, but ultimately decided against asking him. I was questioning myself if the sound was really even there.

"We can't use the entrance doors. They will be securely shut." Miles said.

"How do we get in then?" I asked, walking around to the other side of the asylum. Miles nudged my shoulder. "There," he replied, looking up at a ladder leading to a wooden contraption leading to one of the upper floors.

"Now or never, Blackie," He said quietly as he began climbing the ladder. I followed suit, feeling the cold metal in my hands as we climbed. "Blackie?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him.

"Your hair is black. Hence Blackie," he replied in a tone that clearly said duh.

"I have a name, you know," I replied as we entered the asylum. Before Miles could speak, the power cut, leaving us in darkness. Despite my former investigations, I was nervous. This made it worse. I wasn't afraid of the dark, but this place felt sinister and eerie, even more so with the lights out. We quickly switched on our night vision, illuminating the room we were in in a green glow.

What if we're not alone? My skin prickled at the thought.

"I wonder what in the hell happened here," I said, alarmed, as we surveyed our surroundings. The couches, tables, and chairs in the room were all flipped over and tossed around the room. Glass littered the floor, crunching under our feet as we walked. It looked like a tornado had hit in here.

"Some major shit happened, that's what," Miles replied, in that same sarcastic tone.

"Gee, Sherlock. Never would have noticed," I said, rolling my eyes. I noticed a door to our left, already open. As if it were waiting for us. I shivered.

"Let's get this over with. This place is giving me the creeps," I said. I walked through the door, Miles behind me. We stopped for a moment, looking to our left. The hallway was blocked off by file cabinets and desks, and as we looked to the right, we saw that that hallway was blocked off as well.

"The only way to go is straight ahead," Miles said, gesturing to the door across the hall from the room we just came out of. Upon entering the room, we noticed that it was in better shape than the first one we were in. Couches and tables were placed at odd angles but at least this time, the room wasn't a complete mess.

"This looks a little better," I observed, my nerves easing slightly. The TV, which was mounted on the wall, roared to life suddenly, blared its static song as we watched the silver particles dance on the screen. I jumped at the sound, my breathing picking up. I looked at Miles, who looked at me quizzically before smirking at me.

"Scared, Blackie?" He teased, laughing.

"No," I snapped, annoyed with him and at myself for letting a TV scare me. "I just thought the power was out. It startled me."

"Whatever you say, Blackie," Miles replied, still smirking. I rolled my eyes again, shaking my head. "Let's just leave this room, there's another door." I said, pointing at it.

I am being jumpy. I thought, but I couldn't help it. I dreaded this, as much as I hated to admit it, even to myself. Miles and I stepped out of the TV room into another hallway. We quickly noticed that the right half of the hallway was completely blocked by a bookshelf; the left was almost completely blocked, save for a thin space where the two of us could squeeze through. Miles continued to walk forward, me keeping pace behind him. We stopped when we noticed the wet, crimson puddle on the floor on the other side of the gap.

I felt my mouth go dry, and true panic began to set in within me. I looked up at Miles. If he was as scared as I was, he wasn't showing it. I wanted to turn back.

Keep going. A thought that wasn't my own filled my brain, disturbing me. Where did that come from? It was an eerie whisper, a ghost of thought, filling my subconscious mind. Once again, I looked at Miles. He, too, seemed a little disturbed. He must have just experienced the same thing. When he caught me looking at him, however, he dropped his expression, looking impassive, like it never happened. Taking a deep breath, I slowly began to squeeze through the gap, looking at Miles the whole time.

"Come on. Let's see what else we can find." I said, doing my best to avoid the bloody puddle while simultaneously trying not to focus on it.

"Sounds good, Blackie," Miles replied, squeezing through the gap as well. We then continued on, but came to an abrupt stop when the door to a nearby bathroom closed. My eyes widened, and I felt my heart drop to my stomach. My earlier suspicions were correct. Miles and I definitely weren't alone.

"Miles.. Did you just see that door close?" I asked, alarmed, as I looked at him.

"Yes, Blackie. I did. Now come on. Whoever shut it is still in there, for all we know they could come out and attack us." Miles hissed quietly at me, grabbing my arm and rushing me into the next room, which appeared to be a break room of sorts, complete with a sink and two vending machines. A soft splashing sound caught our attention, and we looked up, noticing a broken vent with blood on it, dripping from it onto the floor, creating a puddle. I resisted the urge to gag; half tempted to turn back and run the way we came. I knew, however, that whoever was in that bathroom was still back there. I really wasn't comfortable with going into that vent. I had no idea whose blood that was or if they had any diseases or not. I didn't want to risk that. I also didn't want to risk turning back, getting killed, and never seeing my son again.

"I know you don't want to do this. Hell, I don't want to do this shit either, but I'd rather take my chances with someone else's blood than go back there." Miles said, seeming to sense my hesitation and know what I was thinking. I sighed. He was right.

"Lead the way, Sherlock," I whispered, my dread growing worse by the minute. Miles nodded, jumping up and grabbing the vent, pulling himself into it. Once there, he reached his hand down to me. I glanced back towards the bathroom one last time, then back at Miles's outstretched hand. I took it, his larger hand practically swallowing my own. He pulled me up into the vent with ease, crawling further in as he let my hand go. When he did, I realized that I didn't want him to let go. Before either one of us could say anything, we heard the bathroom door burst open across the hall. Crawling further into the vent, we saw another vent halfway through, which allowed us to see into the break room.

There was a man standing in the doorway, looking around the room. He was covered head to toe in blood. Then, he screamed, "NOT YOU. NOT AGAIN!" Then, just as quickly as he had come into the room, he turned and ran out of it, slamming the door shut in the process. Miles and I winced at the sound, glancing at each other. My heart was pounding, and I felt myself trembling as we continued through the vent, finally reaching the end. We jumped out into another hallway, surrounded by all sides in glass, looking down onto the entrance floor of the asylum. We noticed that the way to the other side was blocked off.

"The only way to the other side is through the library." Miles observed. The both of us stood in front of the library door, neither one of us daring to open it. Finally, after what felt like forever, Miles pushed the library door open.

As we turned on our night vision, the first thing we noticed was the body. It was swinging from a rope coming from the ceiling. I screamed, jumping back from the door and falling flat on my ass. My chest heaved as I sucked in breath after breath, trying to make sense of what we had just seen, and Miles stepped back himself, looking at me in horror.

"What in the actual FUCK did we get ourselves into?" He exclaimed, exasperated. I looked up at him, trembling and teeth chattering.

"I… I can't. I can't do this." I choked out, feeling tears burn the back of my eyes. When I said this, Miles got down on my level, leaning on his knees as he looked into my eyes. Tears were rolling down my cheeks, a mind of their own, as I shook like a frightened child.

"Oh, hell no, Blackie. I'll be damned if you quit on me. I mean, this." He said, studying me. I shook my head, wrapping my arms around myself, feeling the need to hold myself together.

"I'm not going in there." I whispered, wiping my cheeks with the sleeve of my yellow sweater.

"You HAVE to!" Miles snapped. I glared at him.

"I don't have to do a damn thing. You might be okay with this shit, but I'm not. This.. this is wrong." I choked out, gesturing with a shaking hand towards the library door.

"Lovelynn, you have two options. Either turn back, and take a chance of running into the bloody

guy again, or go through here. The choice is yours. I'm going in there, with or without you." Miles said, standing up.

"Wait," I whispered, grabbing his leg, "I'm coming." A look of surprise passed over his face, so quick that I thought I must have imagined it.

"Let's go then," Miles replied, leading the way into the library. I scanned the room with my camcorder, stilling my shaking hands to the best of my ability. On the bookshelves were a few books, but a collection of severed heads were lined up on it, seeming to stare at us with their empty, lifeless eyes, mouths agape in horror. There were bodies on the floor, hanging from the ceiling, mangled and bloody, torn apart. The smell was horrible. Blood, metallic and thick, hanging in the air all around us. Rot and decay, penetrating our nostrils.

Then, Miles and I made our most gruesome discovery yet: a man. He was impaled in the middle of the library. I gasped, nearly dropping my camera as the man sputtered, rising up ever so slightly on his wooden prison.

"They.. they killed us. They got out. The Variants. You can't fight them. You have to hide… Can unlock the main doors from Security Control." The man gasped out. Miles and I both winced in horror as we watched him. He was in so much pain. It broke my heart. It broke my heart even more knowing that there was nothing that neither I nor Miles could do to help him.

The man spoke again, "You two have to get the fuck out of this terrible place." Miles and I watched as the man took his last breath, sliding down onto the wooden rod once more. Neither Miles nor I knew what to say as we left the library, tears flowing down my cheeks once more.

"You were right. We have to get out of here." Miles said quietly, squeezing my hand quickly before letting it go again.

"Let's get to Security Control," I whispered as we came upon another gap between a bookshelf and the glass windows surrounding the upper floor. I was halfway through with Miles following me when we heard a deep, gravelly voice call out.

"LITTLE PIGS!!"

Neither one of us had time to react as the tall, overweight, blood covered, and disfigured man grabbed both of us by our arms, tossing us through the glass of the second floor as if we weighed nothing. Glass pierced our skin as we fell, screaming the whole way down. We landed hard on the ground floor. I looked at Miles, laying next to me. I smiled weakly at him, trying to maintain consciousness. It was to no avail, however. The last thought on my mind was my son.

I love you, Noah.

Then the darkness took us under.