Night Three

The blinding light was sudden and violent, and Ada hissed as she threw her free hand up to cover her eyes.

"What the fuck?" She mumbled, squinting up at the giant overhead lights, the fairy lights strung up, the lamps on the tables – all of them sparked to life, illuminating every dust covered surface, every sign of life overturned by death. She looked back at Newt, standing with his hand over his eyes, looking absolutely bemused.

He shook his head, frowning, and together they moved towards the door to where the others were convening in the hallway.

"What the hell's going on?" Winston asked, backpack hanging loosely from his hand.

Ada shrugged on her jacket, running her fingers over the soft material as she shoved her scalpel in the pocket. "I have no idea."

"Looks like Thomas and Minho found power." Frypan said.

"Is that a good thing?" Jack asked.

Newt shook his head. "Not if there's something in here with us. Come on, we should try to find-"

A distant clatter cut through the air, slicing down the hallway, followed back a frantic yell. "Run!"

Ada turned, baffled, and peered down the hallway. Two familiar figures came careening around the corner, kicking up dust, arms flailing. "What the hell are they doing?" Unease unfurled in her gut.

"What the-"

"Run!" Thomas swung his arms madly, the beam of his flashlight bouncing frantically off the walls. "Go!"

A swarm of bodies skidded around the corner, and Ada's heart thudded to a stop in her chest.

They were screaming, yelling, the sounds garbled and cracked on their lips. Writhing bodies slammed into each other in their haste, dozens upon dozens barrelling down the hallway towards them at full speed, and for a moment Ada stood frozen.

Her heart picked up a frantic beat in her chest as she swore and spun on her heel, passing the others as she took off in a sprint. "Run! Go!"

"Oh, shit!" Newt yelled, shoving his backpack on.

She could hear footsteps pounding behind her, see the flashlights dancing on every available surface, but didn't dare look behind her as the sounds of screeching and gargling picked up.

"Go!" Minho yelled. "Get out of here! Go!"

"Run!"

"Come on!"

They skidded around the corner, her boots sliding on dirt and rubble, her heartbeat violent in her throat and ears. She had no idea where they were going, had no idea how many of them were – all she knew was that once again they weren't safe, that once again they were running for their lives.

She was sick of it, and didn't even bother to bite back the slew of curses falling from her lips as she legged it to the escalators, praying that the others were still behind her.

The escalators were unmoving, and her thighs burned as she scampered up them. She could see Winston and Frypan coming up on the other side in her peripheral vision. Winston stumbled, hand flying out to catch himself on the railing. "Thomas, Minho, what are those things?!"

"I don't know!" Thomas's voice echoed from right behind her. She could feel him at her back, urging her on as she used the railing to pull herself up the last few stairs. "Just keep going!"

"Move, move!" Minho urged.

These must have been the cranks Janson had warned them about, Ada realised. She hadn't gotten a good look at them, beyond the screaming mass of bodies emerging from the blackness. She chanced a frantic glance over her shoulder, loose hair catching in her eyes and mouth, and caught a glimpse of human-like figures scrambling up the stairs behind them.

There were dozens of them, a thronging crowd, ravenous and desperate for blood, for the kill. She didn't know what would happen if they caught up. The torn up mannequins and the mutilated body in the shop told her that she really didn't want to find out.

A stray beam of light lit up one of their faces, and Ada nearly tripped as horror swamped her. It looked like what she imagined a body would look like if it rose from the grave, halfway through the decomposition process. Rotted flesh hung from jutted bones, blood smeared the side of a sunken face, clumped hair sparsely dotted on a deformed skull. They looked more monster than human.

"Why the fuck are we always being chased?!" She screeched as they crested the last stair, emerging on a landing that split into two. More boutiques lined the walls, broken into and smashed up, but she sprinted past them. They didn't have time to loot them, nor did she have any desire to corner herself in a tiny room with those monstrosities rapidly gaining on them.

"Where do we go?!" Winston asked.

"Come on!"

"Just keep moving!"

They passed by the glass bannisters, the lights not as intense on the upper floor. She knew she should have cared that their flashlights were likely sending shards of light through the glass roof, and that there was a search party actively hunting them, but she really couldn't bring herself to care. A stitch ravaged her side, and her breath rattled in her chest, but she didn't stop. She didn't dare.

She glanced behind her, making sure the rest of the group was with her, hardly noticing when Aris surpassed her. She only stopped when she slammed into his back, her head snapping back forwards to see what the problem was. A lone crank burst out of the store in front of them, uncaring about the glass that scratched at its skin, screeching at them as it barrelled forwards.

Aris yelled, hands reaching back to grab a steel baseball bat he had strapped to his back. Ada did a double take, baffled.

"Aris no!"

"Aris!"

Ada reached out to grab his arm, to stop him, to do something, but Aris dodged her grip and charged at the crank. He dropped at the last second, swinging the bat as hard as he could with a cry of fury.

It connected with the crank's knees, and the sound of bone crunching echoed grotesquely as the figure buckled and thrashed as it fell to the ground.

Ada threw herself backwards to avoid it as the crank rolled, black blood pouring from its mouth and splattering on the floor, reaching back to grasp at Newt and Minho on either side of her. The move separated the group, sending Thomas and Teresa scrambling up the escalators to their right.

Ada didn't have time to see if they were okay, to map out an escape, because more cranks came barrelling around the corner, eyes fixed lethally on them. Minho shoved her forwards, away from the escalators. "We'll go round!"

She didn't argue, following the others blindly as they continued around the centre of the mall, eyes scanning for another escape route. There were twin escalators on the other side of the strip, opposite to where Thomas and Teresa had vanished, and she pointed to them eagerly. "There!"

They reached the bottom, Jack bringing up the rear as he waved all of them over. She squeezed his shoulder as she passed, feet sliding on something slick as she followed Winston up the stairs. Newt was at her back, she could feel the weight of his hand against her lower back, and she glanced over her shoulder to check if Minho had followed.

A body slammed down over the railing, flailing and screeching, and Ada yelped as she shoved herself backwards. Jack cried out, desperately lunging forwards, but it was too late.

Ada watched in horror as a crank grabbed Jack around the neck, another clawing at his legs, swiping his feet out from under him. Teeth sunk into his neck, his shoulder, and Ada barely had time to scream the younger boy's name before he was being shoved backwards through the banister.

Glass shattered, and his body seemed suspended in air for a moment before he fell, his hands barely catching on the ledge.

"No!" She yelled, Frypan at her heels as she lunged forward, hands scrabbling at Jack's arms to keep him upright, but it was useless. A crank threw itself off the adjacent railing, no regard for its own safety, all of its focus on mauling the boy barely holding on for dear life.

Its hands clamped down on Jack's legs, and the extra force sent him tumbling backwards. He vanished into the darkness below with a scream that rang in her ears. She didn't hear his body hit the floor, not over the screeching of the swarm closing in on them. She was glad for it – the image of his tear-stained face burned into her mind.

"Jack!" Frypan cried out, hands still scrambling at the railing, as if he could bring his friend back by sheer will alone.

Ada grabbed Frypan's arm, tugging him back up the escalator. "We gotta go!"

"Jack!"

"Fry, we gotta go!" Winston joined her, shepherding him up the stairs, throwing a piece of debris at an approaching crank. It bounced off its face, spraying blood, but the creature didn't slow.

Ada let out a horrified breath as they reached the top of the escalators, now on what appeared to be the top floor.

They were on the other side of the mall to their entrance point, and with cranks swarming the way that they were there was no way in hell they would get there safely. The ceiling was domed here, pressing down on either side of them, stone giving way to glass giving way to tarp that hung in tatters from a roof barely holding itself together.

"Where the hell are we gonna go?!" Winston asked, the panic in his voice magnified by the echo.

"We gotta find a way out of here!" Minho yelled over his shoulder.

Ada caught sight of two figures sprinting on the other side of the glass bannisters – Thomas and Teresa, she could make out their faces if she squinted. The glow of their flashlights lit up the swarm in dizzying and frightful surges.

"Over here!" She waved them over, and they joined onto the back of the group, not pausing in their sprint.

"Faster, faster!"

Her legs felt like they were going to give out on her, but she pushed through the burn, gritting her teeth.

Glass exploded to her right, raining down on them in needle-like shards. She swore, stumbling as she threw her hands up to protect her eyes. Something barrelled out of the gap, but she didn't stop running, didn't stop moving, not until a familiar cry of pain ripped through the air.

Ada skidded to a stop, her head snapping to look behind her, pure and unrelenting fear slicing through every inch of her.

Newt cried out as the crank collided with him, sending them both careening to the floor. They rolled, Newt's bag leg spasming as it hit the ground, and the breathless cry of agony that forced itself from his throat as the crank settled on top of him was the worst sound she had ever heard.

"No!" She leapt forward, her hands scrabbling for the scalpel tucked away in her pocket. Newt was screaming, his eyes wide as he fought with all his might to get the creature off him. It snapped at his neck, teeth gnashing, and Newt's arms strained as he pushed at its shoulders, its jaw, everywhere he could reach.

"Help!" He yelled, his voice frantic over the garbled screaming from the figure on top of him. "Guys, help!"

She reached him the same time Thomas did, right as Newt let out a disgusted groan as black blood splattered down onto his shirt. Ada didn't think, roaring panic crashing through every inch of her, didn't take a moment to consider what she was doing as she drove the scalpel straight through the cranks neck. Blood sprayed in a horrific arc, splattered onto glass and broken stone.

The scalpel remained lodged in its throat as Thomas landed a solid kick into the creature's side. It crashed through the glass bannister, and vanished into the darkness below with a blood-curdling screech. Her heart pounded in her ears as she grabbed at Newt's jacket, trying desperately to pull him to his feet.

"Newt, you good?" Thomas asked, tugging him upright. "You alright?"

"Yeah, thanks Tommy." Newt clapped him on the back, already backing up as the horde ambled towards them. His leg nearly buckled beneath him, and he winced at the strain.

Ada let out a shuddering breath, grabbing his arm. "We gotta keep going!" Blood stained her hands, and she stared at them with her heart in her throat. She wiped them frantically on her trousers, but all it did was spread the stain, red blooming everywhere.

She'd killed that thing, slashed its throat like it was nothing. She'd never killed anything before, let alone something that used to be human. It settled in her stomach, unpleasant and heavy, clawing thorns into her insides.

Newt reached blindly for her fingers, giving them a reassuring squeeze as they hurtled blindly forwards. "Let's go! Go!"

"Through here!" Minho's voice echoed from somewhere ahead of them, and Ada turned blindly to amble in his direction, the world a hazy scream of writhing bodies and flashing lights. "Through here! Let's go! They're coming!" He was pointing down a side tunnel, stretching to the right. She couldn't see down it – there was only darkness, waiting to swallow them whole.

Ada threw herself down the passage, spurred on by Newt and Minho at her back, fighting not to trip on the heels of the person in front of her. Stone walls pressed in tight on either side, towering and chipped and stained with something she had no interest in identifying. They were halfway down when a single light blinked on above them, flickering feebly.

"Guys, where are we going?!" Newt asked, his voice panicked and strained, and she knew he was thinking the exact same thing she was. The cranks were crashing down the corridor behind them, and if this led to a dead end or a locked door, then there was no turning back.

We should have stayed on the landing, she thought miserably. At least there would have been a hope of outrunning them, of getting away.

Something screeched, the garbled sound bouncing off the walls and raising the hairs on her arms.

"Run!" Teresa yelled.

Thomas scrambled to a halt ahead of her, fingers grasping hurriedly at the handle of a blue door, but it didn't budge. "No no no please, please-"

"There's no time," Ada said, shoving him forward. "We have to keep going!" She spared a glance over her shoulder, and immediately regretted it.

The horde crashed into the walls, dislocating their own limbs without reaction, opening up cuts on their skin without a care for the black blood that streaked their clothes and mottled flesh. Sheer bloodlust was written into every move.

Ada shrieked, shoving Thomas forward with more intensity.

"Come on! They're coming!"

Someone was swearing frantically, curse words echoing off stone.

The corridor widened out, but any shred of relief she may have felt at the escape from the narrow tunnel evaporated instantly at the sight ahead of her. She crashed to a halt, mere inches in front of the looming wall that stretched high before her. "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"What is it?" Minho asked from the rear of the group. "What's wrong?"

"It's a fucking dead end!"

He let out a breathless sound of distress as the last of them filed into the slightly larger space.

There was a set of doors to the left of them, great hulking things with a metal bar stretched across the middle. The world beyond them was dark, the thin panes of glass in the centre either missing or shattered. Thomas threw his weight against them, but they didn't move. "No, no..." He moved to the second door, jamming his shoulder against it.

It shifted under his weight, opening barely an inch before something stopped it.

Ada nudged him aside, pressing her face against the gap – a sturdy chain was looped around the handle, a padlock gleaming in the low light. "I hate this goddamn place." She murmured, rattling it pointlessly. "It's a padlock," she said louder to the rest of the group. "There's a fucking chain around the door."

Minho pulled her to the side, delivering a swift kick to the door. It didn't budge, nor did it move when Thomas joined him. The shrieks were getting closer now, so close she could feel them rattling in her bones, curdling her blood. Fear slithered down her spine in an icy trickle.

Something clicked behind her, and Ada turned her head to see Winston cocking the gun he had stolen from the WICKED compound. He stared up at them with grim determination marring his features. "I'll hold them back!"

"Kick harder!" Teresa screamed, right as the first gunshot split the air.

Ada lifted her hands over her ears, backing away as Thomas and Minho threw themselves at the door over and over again, ramming the steel with their shoulders. They would bruise badly, and she felt each grimace and hiss of pain that escaped them like a punch to the gut.

Winston swore, firing thrice more, and real terror slowly worked its way across his face. "What the hell is taking you guys so long?!" He asked, his voice wavering.

The cranks were getting closer and closer, the bullets splitting through flesh and bone. Bodies tumbling, collapsing in heaps to the ground, but those still standing didn't falter. They scrambled over the corpses, tripping in their haste, rotten hands outstretched towards them in a cruel imitation of an embrace.

There were easily fifty of them, and the distance between them was shrinking with every precious second that fell away from them.

"Get that door open!" He yelled over his shoulder – his hands were shaking around the weapon, his entire body vibrating.

"Move!" Frypan yelled, shrugging his backpack off. It thudded to the floor, and Ada scooped it up, clutching the handle like a lifeline as she cradled it against her chest. She could feel her heart pounding against the fabric, and frightened tears that she refused to let fall pricked her eyes.

"Come on, Fry!"

"Hurry!"

Frypan yelled, the battle cry echoing as he rushed the door, locking his shoulder. He collided against the painted steel with a resounding slam, and the chain gave way under the force. The door crashed open, blessed freedom waiting on the other side, and a gust of warm air slammed into them.

"Come on!" Frypan yelled. "It's open!"

Ada didn't hesitate, shoving her way through, dust kicking up at her feet as she stared around what looked to be an old multi-story carpark.

The stone canopy above them was barely standing, twisted pillars dotted around barely holding up the roof. Abandoned cars were dotted at random, their steel corpses overturned and left to wither away until nothing but sand and memories remained.

"Everyone through!" She yelled, reaching back to tug Thomas and Newt through the doorway. "Come on! Come on!"

They almost made it.

Winston had barely gotten one foot through the door before he was being dragged backwards, a terrified scream getting lodged in his throat. He caught the door, dragging it to a shut so hard it smashed against his sternum, and a resounding crack cut through the air.

Ada cried out, leaping forward to grasp at his hands, his nails digging into her skin so hard they drew blood as he yelled out in pain and fear. Rotted hands clung to every inch of him, snatching at his jacket, his hair, his skin.

"Help him!" Minho cried, throwing his body weight against the door. It trapped Winston's legs, surely breaking bone, but the cranks threw themselves against the other side in a desperate attempt to break through.

"Please!" Winston screamed, his shirt tearing. Ada watched in horror as gnarled black nails cut into his abdomen, tearing chunks of flesh from bone. She grit her teeth, steeling herself at the roiling nausea that accompanied the spray of blood, tugging as hard as she could.

Newt and Thomas yanked at his shoulders, his backpack, muscles straining as they pulled him away from their grip. "Don't let him go!"

"Keep pulling!"

Teresa smashed the head of her flashlight against the closest crank's fingers, slamming the metal onto its knuckles repeatedly until its hand spasmed, withdrawing into the darkness.

"I've got him!" Ada yelled, digging her feet into the sand on the ground, the muscles in her legs shaking with the strain. "Got him!" Winston came loose, and the two of them crashed to the ground, his weight dead and heavy against her legs.

Newt and Frypan were there instantly, lifting Winston and turning him so that his arms were slung over their shoulders. They supported his weight, and Ada couldn't tell if he was breathing as she scrambled to her feet, his weight completely limp between them.

Thomas dove for the door, jamming his shoulder against it. "Go!" He yelled, waving them on. "Go!"

"Hurry!" Teresa moved forwards, swinging the flashlight in a great arc in a futile attempt to find an exit.

Ada grabbed her arm, urging her forward, eyes fixed on Thomas and Minho. Please make it, she thought desperately.

Their footsteps echoed harshly as they sprinted, and a stitch wretched its way violently into her side, stealing her breath. She didn't dare stop, not when two sets of feet pounded against tarmac behind her, and not when dozens more quickly followed. Growls and shrieks split the air, bodies stumbling and crashing to the ground only to get right back up again.

Winston's feet scuffed against the floor, his steps weak and unsure, and the rapid rise and fall of his breath caused her barely a moment of relief before the panic was back.

All she could do was run.

They rounded corner after corner in the large open space, ramps leading upwards in a steady incline to the upper floors. Thomas made to dart up one, but she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away.

"No!" She yelled, pointing to the ramps that led down instead. "If we go up, we're trapped! We're on the second story, we need to get out of here!"

He nodded, face tight with fear, and they skidded down ramps that barely held their weight, turning and turning until the sound of the cranks grew quieter and quieter.

They hesitated as they reached the ground floor, the world opening up to them in a pitch black haze of sand and furious wind. "We can't go out there." Newt shook his head, gulping. "That's a death sentence."

Minho looked around frantically. "We need to hide!"

Shrieks echoed from the floor above them.

"Quickly!" Ada moved forwards, towards where the ground gave way.

Heavy stone pillars held up a crumbling ceiling, a large gap where great stone chunks had fallen away showing the flickering shadows of the figures that writhed somewhere above them, hunting them. Great chunks of rock and debris carved out a path into the sand, a steep decline lined with sharp edges and cavernous holes.

She scrambled down them, feet slipping on sand and loose rock, picking her way down as quickly as she dared until she spotted an alcove big enough to shield them. A fallen pillar formed a haphazard roof, stone chunks on either side forming poor excuses for walls – it looked as if it would collapse at any moment, but it cut deep enough into the ground that the cranks would hopefully go straight past them, if they dared to even venture down the slope at all.

She wasn't exactly willing to stake her life on the monster's self preservation skills.

"In there!" She pointed at it, crouching low as she wormed her way inside. The others followed quickly, a stray flashlight beam illuminating faces streaked with dust and wrought with exhaustion.

Frypan and Newt lowered Winston carefully against the wall, frantically shushing him as he groaned in pain. She would have felt bad under different circumstances, but merely winced as she reached for the scarf looped onto his belt. "Sorry Winston", she whispered, shoving it in his mouth.

"Oh, real classy," Minho scoffed. "I'm starting to see why you were never a medjack."

Ada scowled and aimed a kick at his ribs, but missed, and her foot collided with Thomas instead. "Ay!" He yelped, the sound echoing harshly.

"Shh!" Teresa lifted a hand to her lips, and Ada grimaced as she pinched her lips together, pressing her spine as close to the rock behind her as physically possible.

Garbled shouts and cracking voices came from somewhere above them, and Ada slammed a hand over her mouth to silence the cry of fear she could feel lodged in her throat. Newt's hand scrambled through the darkness until it landed on her knee, squeezing tightly.

The flashlight blinked out with a click that echoed far too loudly, and they were plunged into darkness.

Blackness pressed in on her from all sides, as did the feel of shaking limbs. For a moment, she was back in the box, a lifetime ago.

The world came to a still around her, and all she could bring herself to do was wait and pray.