Chapter 16: Alarm
BANG!
The gunshot rang out through the whole building, and time slowed down as I slowly came to my senses.
I could see Sean's head fly back as the bullet went through his head, and immediately, I was confronted by the dozens of sets of foggy eyes as those bloodied monsters craned their heads towards the source of the sound.
"Oh, Christ…" I muttered in abject horror.
I felt a hard yanking on my arm, being pulled towards an exit by Stan, followed by the rest of the group.
SCCCREEEAAAAAA!
I felt chills run down my spine as that horrific shrieking came from the dozens of horrific creatures crawling around the building, followed by the sinister tapping and clicking sound of their claws.
It was a flurry as I was hauled down the stairs and through the lower floors. I was still in shock from the violent death of Sean, and the sudden chase we were in wouldn't allow me to think and gather my thoughts.
Finally, after a few minutes of running and heading down multiple levels, we eventually took cover in an empty lobby with multiple windows, with Stan hastily but quietly closing the doors from the lobby to the hallway.
We had a moment to think, albeit one of an extremely tense atmosphere.
We looked around at one another for reassurance, the atmosphere was dead silent. I could hear the sounds of screeching and tapping in the distance, somewhere behind the doors that had been closed. It seemed to me that they hadn't been able to track us after the initial gunshot.
"What…the fuck…"
I looked up to see a rattled Stan staring at me with unfocused and frustrated eyes. He was still clearly drunk, and it was a miracle that he had been able to navigate the group to safety in his state.
"How...the fuck...did you...fire...the gun?"
He was whispering with the most strained tone, his words almost unable to be heard.
"I...I…" I stuttered, unable to communicate. I was still in shock from the events that had just transpired, and the general panic of the situation.
"There...is...an energy...about you...boy…"
I felt my blood run cold at hearing the deep and sinister voice. I turned my head, and was further horrified to see Soos, staring at me. His eyes were not crazed as they usually were, his stance was upright, and he wore a calm expression on his face. As he spoke, his voice resonated, yet never grew above a whisper, My eyes darted over towards the dozens of creatures crawling along the nearby buildings, but none of them seemed to hear it.
"You...may be...the one…"
I didn't bother answering. The atmosphere was fragile as glass, and I didn't dare to do anything that would make even the smallest sound.
I heard some scraping nearby, and looked over to witness Amy, who was looking out the window, scramble back in terror as one of the creatures crawled across the window and subsequently sending a brick screeching across the floor. My heart dropped as I saw the heads of those creatures outside turn towards us.
CRASH!
Everyone scrambled back as one of the monsters flew through the window from a neighboring building and into the deserted lobby we had fled into, sending shards of glass flying across the ground.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Stan having placed his hand over Amy's mouth, suggesting she had been about to shriek.
The creature twitched and snarled, its limbs contorting as it tried to get up, glass embedded in its flesh, human-like blood seeping out of its gashes.
Scrreeeeaaa! Scrrreeeeeeaaa!
We stayed deathly silent, slowly inching backwards as its head whipped around, and that was when I noticed the holes where its ears would be.
Little flaps twirled around into its ears, almost spiraling towards the center. I had already assumed they worked on sounds, as its eyes were milky-white, and it used its whole head to scan its surroundings rather than its eyes, suggesting complete blindness.
Just as I came to this realization, my eyes fell upon the brick, which was lying at my feet. A lightbulb turned on in my head. I picked up the brick, ever so softly, and raised it. I saw Stan's eyes widen, though he didn't move to stop me.
I winded up and threw the brick at the wall behind the creature.
CRACK!
Just as the brick impacted, the sounds of monstrous screeches pierced the air, and more of those creatures crawled in through the opening, scurrying towards the area where the brick broke apart and scratching at the fragments of brick aggressively.
A twisted idea formed in my head. I looked around for another hard object to throw, and noticed an electric drill sitting on a stack of planks. I eased my way over, feeling everyone's eyes on me, and grabbed the drill. I aimed it at the first creature that had crawled in, bringing my hand back and throwing it as hard as I could.
SMACK!
As the drill smacked into the creature and clattered to the floor, the other creatures pounced at the location, several of them scraping their claws over the first creature. I was filled with a burning feeling of malicious victory at first, but it quickly faded when the creature let out a low screech, and the other creatures immediately backed off. The action baffled me, and in the same second I realized what had happened here. If we had some sort of sound-recording device, maybe…
That was a passing thought, and it was quickly washed away by the dangerous situation we were now in. There were now six of these demons scurrying around in the lobby we were in, and the exit was too far away to reach it quietly without triggering the acute hearing of these monsters. I thought about throwing my gun or a weapon on me at the wall or through the window, but I didn't think the sound would last long enough to cover our retreat. These cretins were too close that I feared even our smallest sounds would be heard at this distance.
I craned my head around as slowly as possible to get a look at the faces of my group members, but nobody dared to make a sound to say something. I noticed Stan staring hard at something, and followed his vision to a generator sat against a column, unactivated. My eyes widened, and Stan looked over at me, nodding slowly.
We both noticed that Amy was the closest to the generator, and like us she had been watching our gazes. We looked at her, and, despite trembling heavily in fear, she nodded. She began to inch her way over to the generator, reaching out her index finger to push the button to start the generator.
I could see her visibly sweating.
Her finger was only inches away from the button.
We held our breaths.
Drip.
I watched as a single drop of sweat fell from her index finger and onto the floor.
Plop.
The creatures turned towards us, and before I could react, I heard a loud BRRRRRRR to my left, realizing that Amy had turned on the generator, then dived away from it just as the creatures leapt towards it, scratching and biting at it.
I felt my heart beating against my chest rapidly as I and the others began to scurry away from the site of noise, still remaining silent to some degree under fear that we would make a louder sound than the generator.
FInally, we had reached the exit, and I pushed open the door to leave-
BEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEP!
I felt the blood drain from my face. It was a fire exit.
"RUN!" Stan shouted, shoving us out the door as the creatures behind us screeched. I didn't even bother to look behind me, I just ran down the stairs as fast as possible.
CRACK!
I heard what I assumed were the doors we had locked in the lobby to avoid the creatures on the other end, of which I was sure they had broken it open to join the horde that was already chasing us.
I could hear the sounds of skittering, quick footsteps, panicked shouting and screeching as the sounds of the monsters and our own group mixed into a cacophony of chaotic pandemonium.
SLAM!
My heart leapt into my throat for a moment as I felt the reverberations of one of the creatures slamming through the fire exit door above us.
We had gotten down a few flights of stairs, but I had no doubt in my mind that the creatures would be able to scale our distance in short time.
"What the hell are we gonna do?!" Josh screamed in panic, which despite this terrifying situation, pissed me off, considering what he had just done only a few minutes ago.
"I don't fuckin' know, but keep running! We don't have time to think!"
The fire alarm was still going off all around the building, and the sound of windows breaking and the skittering of hundreds of creatures on the floors above and below us echoed throughout the little stairwell we were heading down.
Even worse, the sounds of that same screeching and skittering started to come from the bottom of the stairwell, and in sheer panic I went through a side door onto a random lobby.
I nearly fainted in relief to see that this floor was devoid of any of those god-awful creatures, and the group filed in, with Stan slamming the door shut. Everyone fell to their knees or keeled over in fatigue.
"We do not have time to fuck around." Stan asserted, speaking in between gasps of breath. "This place is infested with these fucking things, and we gotta get the hell out of here now!"
"Where are we gonna go?!" Amy piped up, her voice filled with fear. "They're all over the city- If we try and run, they'll pounce on us and tear us apart like they did with Sean!"
She was starting to have a mental breakdown, hyperventilating and sobbing, and I myself began to panic at the sight.
Are we really gonna die here?
To clear my head, I took a look outside one of the windows, noticing that there were still creatures crawling up the building and heading towards the upper floors, where the fire alarm was ringing. I nearly had a heart attack as I witnessed the long limbs of one of those monsters skitter up the window, leaving long scratches against the glass.
It was then that I noticed something on the street level, a glint of light from a hardware store window. I peered closer, and I could barely make out the silhouette of a...person?!
"Stan, come here!"
Stan, who had previously been comforting Amy, walked over to me, and I pointed at the glinting light.
"Look, there's people in the city…"
"Great, how does that help us out of our predicament?"
"I...don't know, I just felt like...I should point that out."
"Well, consider me informed. Now start using that noggin of yours to think of a way out of this shit."
As he went back to the group to brainstorm, I continued staring at the silhouette. Though it was the last thing that should've been on my mind in this situation, I was desperate to find other people in this wasteland, to be around people, so that I could feel some semblance of normalcy, like I wasn't literally stuck in hell.
And then, without any thought process beforehand, an idea popped into my mind. I quickly went over to Soos, who was unnaturally calm, staring out of the window whilst holding the demeanor of a high-society nobleman.
"Soos!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, Doctor Dipper?" He responded in an overexaggerated British accent, turning his bright-yellow eyes towards me. I'd usually be disturbed by this sudden change in behavior, but this was not the time.
"Is it possible that any of your robots could...self-destruct explosively?"
A grin crept across Soos' face in a most creepy fashion, and I almost regretted asking.
"I'm so glad you asked, Dipper me lad!" He cackled. "Where would you like me to demonstrate this magnificent feature?"
"The infrastructure of this building and its support. If you can hit the building with enough explosions, we can bring it down and kill the creatures at the same time."
"YES, DIPPER!" He cackled again, louder than before. "And here, the tragic hero demonstrates their mettle in this unpitched battle, unsung will his praises be, but no less prestigious are they because of it!"
His eyes settled back onto me, and that unstable look had returned to them.
"When do you want these explosions to happen?"
"When we're clear of the fuckin' building!"
Soos whipped out his little control monitor and began tapping on the screen.
"What are you doing?" I demanded, getting extremely nervous at this sudden action of his. "We're not clear of the building yet!"
He pocketed his device, then turned a very indifferent face up to me.
"Well, we better escape within two minutes, then."
I felt my heart drop at hearing this.
"WHAT?!" I shouted. "WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU-"
"Tick tock, Dipper."
"WE NEED TO GET OUT, NOW!" I shouted, turning my voice towards the rest of the group.
"What? What do you-"
I waved my hand fervently towards a door I was running towards, having decided there was no time to spare to explain. Fortunately, no one needed an explanation to join me in my running, and we headed out of the door.
Into a pack of the creatures.
"TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND!" I shouted in abject horror, scrambling back into the previous room with everyone else as the creatures screeched. We had just managed to close the door as several of them leapt at us, slamming into the door and knocking several of us to the ground.
"The other doors!" Stan shouted, and we made our way over to the other set of double doors. He opened it slightly, and to our ultimate fortune, there were no creatures lurking around.
"Alright, we need to get going!" I insisted, taking the lead and making a run for it, followed closely by everyone behind me, including Soos, who was almost skipping as he ran.
"Joy, oh joy! Ne'er have I had this much fun before! Hee heee heeeee!"
From there, it was close call after close call, bursting through doors to find a nest of the creatures crawling around a room or hallway and subsequently slamming them and finding another way.
We went down each floor as fast as possible, and at one point, Amy had almost gotten swiped by a passing claw of a creature that had been residing on the ceiling above a hallway we were passing through.
Finally, we had reached the bottom floor, and the front lobby was clear of any creatures, despite all of the fire alarms going off. I really didn't give a shit to figure it out, I made a dash for the front doors with everyone else.
Out on the street, people began to emerge from the insides of buildings and hiding places left and right.
"GET CLEAR OF THE BUILDING! IT'S GONNA BLOW!" I shouted at them as I ran. I saw the bewilderment and panic on their faces, and some of them even joined me and my group in running away.
I turned my attention back towards the building we'd escaped momentarily, and watched as several flying bots crashed through the upper-story windows, and for a few seconds there was a strange silence. I felt panic build up in me rapidly, and I turned away from the building, covering my ears.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!
I was propelled off of my feet and away from the explosion as the force of the blast sent me flying, yelping in pain as I tumbled across the ground a few feet away. I heard the groans of others who had also been thrown by the blast.
Disoriented, I tried to get up, looking around. Everything was fuzzy, and from the little I could make out, it was complete chaos. Plumes of smoke flooded into the already-gray sky, people were running away and screaming, fragments of the building were flying in all directions.
"Get….Dipper…."
I felt someone grab me by the arm and lift me up. I looked up to see Mabel, whose eyes were filled with fear and worry.
"Come...Dipper…"
I could barely hear anything. No wind. No screaming. No monster screeches.
It was...blissful.
"...Dipper!"
I cringed as my ears finally adjusted, Mabel's crying voice piercing my eardrums. Abruptly, all of the other sounds flooded my ears. The screaming and screeching, the building collapsing, the hard wind blowing.
I hated it.
"Dipper, please!" Mabel cried. "Please, let's go! I'm too weak to carry you!"
Probably because of your malnourishment, I thought to myself. I felt a crushing guilt, realizing I hadn't made an effort to have her fed for the entire time I'd known her.
I got up, and together we ran from the crash site as the building, which was previously emitting flames and fumes, began to collapse, and smoke was sent billowing in every direction. I tripped, and immediately my vision was covered with smoke and dust. I took a breath and coughed profusely as dust invaded my lungs.
"Dipper! Where are you?! Dipper!" Mabel cried out from in front of me, though I couldn't see anything in this smoke and ash.
I stumbled around in a panic, trying to gain some bearings of my surroundings. I finally settled on clutching at the metal pole of a streetlight and waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting…