I gingerly pushed the door to the roof open.
I was immediately greeted with blades whipping violently through the air in a deafening rhythm.
The violent sound of wind, screams, and horrific growling pounded against my ears. I was again assaulted by the warnings of the chaos below as I walked forward.
Mr. Porter and Dave were arguing with the pilot about the capacity limit. Shouting was muffled by the roaring of the helicopter as I squinted to make sense of the scene. The pilot seemed reluctant to let Dave get on the chopper.
I made my way over to the two men, covering my head from the pounding force of air being pushed by the wings.
"Mr. Porter!" I yelled against the beat of the wind.
The two men immediately turned to my direction wearing matching looks of shock.
"You need to take me instead of Dave," I said matter of factly, eyes honed in on Mr. Porter. "I know you as a man of action Mr. Porter. You need someone by your side that can think of their feet and be decisive with the hard choices ahead. That is not Dave," I said, forcing my tone to a confident calm.
"Who do you think you are?" Dave barked back at me, lines of rage twisted into his face.
"These kinds of bursts of anger cloud his judgment. Please be honest with yourself, you know I can be much more rational," I said, not even turning to entertain Dave's outburst.
Mr. Porter's brows were twisted into knots as he peered down at me incredulously.
Dave suddenly grabbed my shoulder and shoved me back, eyes aflame with a crazed desperation.
"Look how weak you are! You won't even survive the week," he said with chilling hostility.
I grunted as my body slammed to the ground, clenching my teeth from the pain. I fought back some colorful language as I immediately returned to my feet.
"You see, these childish—"
"Enough!" Mr. Porter finally shouted.
An abrupt silence took hold of us all with only the screams of terror and chaos below to fill the space. I fought the urge to return the venom in Dave's eyes as I held my last lines of sanity with all my might.
"I'm not sure..." Mr. Porter said as he held his head in his hands for a moment and sighed.
"I'm uncertain how long this hell will drag out. The hard truth is that we need strength. That will be the most important resource at the base," He said sternly wearing the same expression he does when he lets people go.
My eyes widened at him as familiar shock snuck its way through my learned defenses. I felt the hope I had slipping right through my fingers.
The thought that I might be forced to face the horror outside was debilitating. Our military or police had not been seen once since this nightmare started, what could that possibly mean for me.
As the fear started to creep back into my mind, I heard the door slam open behind me.
Sam stood at the entrance, immediately covering his face from the violent gusts.
"Ella!" Sam yelled through noise.
"I've come to help save you!"
I looked at him at a loss for words. A strange feeling pooled in my stomach at the sight. My hands began trembling as my mouth threatened to reveal my utter glee. It felt like a knight magically materialized in a losing game of chess—positioned right across from the King.
"Sam! Sam please help me! I don't know what to do. I was going to take you with me once I talked to the pilot b-but they said I should just d-die," My eyes welled up with tears as I gave my best devastated expression to my eager knight.
Mr. Porter and Dave turned to each other in shock.
"This is ridiculous! She's spewing nothing but nonsense," Mr. Porter huffed, roughly gesturing his arm towards me.
"You lying bitch..." Dave spat at me, a violent look in his eye.
Sam's face hardened as he looked in my direction, "Don't worry! I won't let you get hurt!"
He then walked right up to the three of us.
As he approached a thundering growl erupted from above. I looked up in horror as a winged beast spotted us. It promptly began circling the roof as if oddly observing its prey.
Mr. Porter immediately scrambled into the chopper and yelled at Dave, "Get in or I'm leaving you to die!"
Dave wasted no time as he rushed to join him.
Suddenly the monster from the sky swooped down in one brutal motion, swiping its talons at Dave. He screamed as its sharp claws tore his arm into three brilliant red gashes. Dave stumbled but adrenaline seemed to propel him forward as he sprinted towards the aircraft.
Before I could think to take cover back inside, Sam charged forward. As he ran past me, I saw him whip out a red object. As Dave turned his back to climb into the helicopter, Sam plunged a box cutter deep into his ribs.
Mr. Porter screamed as Sam quickly retrieved the blade and turned it towards him. Mr. Porter tried to block the box cutter but he stabbed it right through his hand—earning a brilliant scream. He ripped it out with blood gushing from the wound before swiftly dragging it across his throat. He then pushed the bodies off the helicopter as fast as he could manage.
The pilot was pale as a sheet as he tried to take off without them, but Dave put the blade to his neck.
I stared in a state of bewilderment as he shouted at me to get on. At this moment I knew that it was do or die so I forced down the puke in my throat before rushing to the blood soaked chopper.
As I ran, hoards of office workers bursted through the roof door. They were pathetically armed with simple office tools—scissors, staplers, pens. Among them, Marie emerged wielding a coffee pot.
"There! I told you it was here—" Marie shouted before freezing at the sight of Dave's body.
Paying no heed to the new arrivals, I jumped into the helicopter—slamming into the blood splattered seats.
The office workers screamed as the monster from above dove down like a falcon to weaken its prey with deathly precision. It's grotesque elongated claws ripped into flesh as the workers—once primed to fight for a seat in the helicopter—scattered back to the door in raw panic.
Sam inched the knife deeper into the pilot's neck, urging him to go like a madman. The pilots hands shook like a leaf in a hurricane over the controls. It was if he was in a hypnotic daze as he kept mumbling that we were all gonna die.
Among the screaming and bloodshed, I heard scattered shouting from my previous colleagues.
"There's no where to run—"
"They're coming from belo—"
"I don't want to die!"
A couple made a break for it to the helicopter and I felt the blood rush behind my ears.
"Kill the pilot!" I shouted, crazed in desperation.
I could do nothing but hope my threat would work, damning the consequences. Sam immediately drawing blood seemed to break through to the pilot as he lifted the aircraft from the ground before the workers could grab at the metal railings.
As the helicopter gained more air into whatever unknown horrors awaited behind the clouds, I looked down at the wreckage below. My gaze hovered over the bodies, the blood, and the beast reaping souls from the sky.
I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away from the carnage. As I recognized coworkers with eyeballs missing and limbs strung across the roof, one face stole me from the rest.
Marie stood eerily still above Dave's body. She'd long dropped the coffee pot, covered head to toe in blood that may not be her own. It wasn't her stillness that sent waves of relpusion through my bones, it was her expression.
She was smiling.
Her mouth was open in the widest grin I'd ever seen her wear. Her eyes were filled with a sadistic euphoria, crinkling at the edges. The sole focus of that disturbing happiness was Dave—whose eyes had long since glassed over.
As the building grew smaller in the distance, My eyes stayed tied to Marie's figure who was as still as a stagnant wastepool. The monster from above kept slowly widdling down the stragglers who ran in panicked circles. It was like it was leaving the easiest target for its last meal.
Suddenly, beasts on all four legs rushed through the door to feast on the remains. Marie's stare never wavered as the beasts tore through her like it was nothing—like she was nothing.
I felt the moment seed in my mind as it grew like a weed in my head. This new reality had begun ripping through my brain like the beast's razor sharp teeth. It began building a new ecosystem around the shredded pieces. It knew it needed to adapt. I needed to adapt.
The world had fallen apart.
I needed to fall with it.