(click here for previous part)

Blackout at Cherry Estates:  Part VII

"Make yourselves at home," Travis said, quietly shutting the door behind them.  His apartment was right at the end of the hall on the second floor, outside the staircase where they had found the stretched layer of material that Ashley sincerely hoped wasn't flesh.  Where they had lost Michael.

Ashley worriedly regarded Catherine as they bundled into the tight entryway.  She had turned mute, arms limp at her sides.  Grief would likely come later, but right now she was just numb.  Ashley rubbed her shoulder, but Catherine didn't even glance up from her laconic stare.

"So what the fuck's going on?"  Travis demanded.  "You all seem to know more than I do."

Ashley took a moment to take in Travis' apartment.  It was in a state of colossal disarray.  His coffee table had been shattered, the safety glass neatly distributed in a thin layer of round beads across the carpet.  A bookshelf on the far wall from the entrance was overturned.  One of the trendy paintings that lined the walls had fallen, jarred from its hook by a tremendous force.

"Maybe you should tell us what you know, first," Ashley said.

Travis saw the look on her face and grunted.  "This?"  He said, waving a hand vaguely about the room.  "My roommate, Eric.  He went berserk.  Tried to choke me with a cable from his computer.  Raving about how we had to find a place to hide, how the internet was the safest place, said maybe it couldn't see digital information or something."

"'It'?"  Pat echoed.

"Your guess is as good as mine.  Anyway, I cold-cocked him and tied him up back there with the cable."  Travis gestured toward the bedroom.

"Is he dead?"

"No, but he's damn lucky."  Travis flexed.  "Reflexes, you know?  I gave as good as I got."

"Right," Ashley rolled her eyes.  Typical early twenties male.  "And what else?"

Travis raised an eyebrow.  "Well, I poked my head out in the hall and damn if I don't see a bunch of my neighbors doing the crazy watusi out of their own places."

"What?"

"They were bugging out.  I could hear some of them screaming, some of them breaking things.  Others must've locked themselves up, same as me.  Then it went all quiet again, just as quick as it started.  Then I heard you batch talking outside, then those screams from that guy-"

"Michael," Catherine interrupted.  "His name is Michael."

Travis gave her an odd look.  "Er, right.  Michael, I guess.  And here we all are."  He brushed aside some of the glass on the carpet around his recliner and collapsed into it, vacuum cleaner pipe in hand.  "So how about you lot?"

Ashley sighed.  "I wish there was more we could tell you," she said.  "But really, its been about the same with us.  Some people going crazy, others not.  No cell phone communication.  No radio.  We even tried going out the front door."

Travis blinked.  "And?"

"It's...hard to describe.  Basically, all I can tell you is that it looks like we might be stuck here.  We were going to try for the roof next."

Travis snorted.  "And do what?  Grow wings and fly away?"

"There's a fire escape,"  Pat snarled defensively.  "Or did you already think of that too?"

Travis held up his hands.  "I'm sorry," he said.  "Really.  This is just...well, it's all a bit much, you know?"

Pat relaxed.  "Yeah.  It really is."  He tilted his head in the direction of the kitchen.  "I don't suppose...?"

"Knock yourself out, man."

Pat eagerly headed for the kitchen.  Ashley caught his wrist as he brushed past her.  She inclined her head in Catherine's direction.  Pat nodded in understanding.  "Hey Catherine," he said.  "Why don't you come in here, give me a hand?  Get some food in you."  He gently took her by the elbow and guided her away.

Ashley delicately picked her way across Travis' glass-covered carpet to another chair, and flopped down in it.  "This feels like a nightmare," she murmured.

Travis exhaled noisily and melted into his recliner a moment.  "Yeah," he agreed.  He pursed his lips.  "You know though, I'd have to say it all started with the gunshot."

Ashley jerked her head up in surprise.  "Gunshot?"

"You didn't hear it?  Must've been...just about an hour ago.  Maybe a bit more."

Ashley scowled.  "We would've heard..."  She caught herself.  "The car accident."

"What?"

"There was a car accident in the parking lot.  A loud bang.  I thought it was the car accident."  Ashley blinked back to reality.  "You have to tell me what you know."

"Is it important?"

"It might be," Ashley said, but the throbbing in her head suddenly was telling her it must be.  This was crucial.

"Well," Travis scratched his chin thoughtfully.  "We heard the gunshot, me and Eric.  I stuck my head out in the hallway.  So did a bunch of people.  I guess that's why they were all ambling around out there later on, when they lost their heads."

"Go on."

"So I came back inside, told Eric that maybe he should call the cops, and that's when everything went black.  I stumble around for a while, he goes into his room, says he's going to try to find a flashlight.  When he doesn't come out, I go in, he charges at me...that's it."

"What about the shot?  Where did it come from?"

"Must've been right upstairs.  It was loud."

"Upstairs," Ashley muttered.  "The third floor.  Just like Morgan said."

"Who?"

"We found him in the basement.  He works maintenance with Pat.  He said something about the third floor.  He said..." she closed her eyes in deep thought.  "'That's where it all began.'"

"He was rambling."  Ashley opened her eyes to find Pat staring at her.  He munched on a granola bar.  "He was completely out of it," Pat said.

"Maybe not," Travis said, fingers drumming on his armrest.  "You know, this is gonna sound crazy, but Eric said something like that too.  Something about the third floor."

"Have you been up there?"  Ashley demanded.

"Hell no.  The only time I put my head out since this all started was when I heard you lot coming up the stairs.  I was hoping you were the goddamn fire department or something."

"Then that's where we have to go."  Ashley stood up determinedly.

"Hold on," Pat protested.  "Are you kidding me?  You don't even know what's up there.  What would even do?  Just wander around and hope for the best?"

"It beats staying here."  Ashley walked past him and stuck her head into the kitchen.  "Catherine, what do you think?"

Catherine was slowly sipping at a glass of water.  She blinked slowly at Ashley.  "I...I don't know."

Ashley went over to her and took her hands in her own.  "Honey, I know you're going through a lot right now, but I think this is the best chance we have of getting out of this."

"How can you know?"  Catherine asked.  "How can you possibly know that?"

"I don't," Ashley admitted.  "It's just a feeling.  I...look, ever since this started I've had this weird headache, and maybe it's just part of what's going on, but I just know that we're close.  I can feel it.  Whatever's happening, it's all tied to the third floor."

Catherine looked pale, but she bobbed her head in ascent.

"This is nuts," Pat said.  "You're starting to sound just as crazy as the rest."

"What do you want to do then, Pat?"  Ashley stuck her finger in his face.  "Hole up here, hope somebody finds us?  You've seen what happens with the doors and windows.  What do you think the odds are on somebody getting in from the outside?"

Pat stuck out his jaw, and grunted reluctant agreement.  "This means we'll have to go to the other staircase, you know," he cautioned.  "The far end of the hall."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Travis cut in.  "Are you guys serious?"

"Afraid so," Ashley said.  "The one by your end is a no-go."

"Why?"

"You really don't want to know."

Travis wrung his hands.  "Ok.  Ok.  But.  Aren't you forgetting something?  Didn't you hear what I told you?  My neighbors, man.  They're still out there.  Maybe they've gone all quiet right now, but we don't know if they're all right in the head.  They could be out there in the dark."

Catherine moaned incoherently, and Pat rubbed his face.  Ashley set her lips in a thin line.  "Then we'll just have to get past them," she said.  She hefted her can of pepper spray.

"You've gotta be kidding," Travis gaped.

"If we're quiet, and we all stick together, and we don't make any sudden noises or movements, I think we'll be ok."

"You think?"

Ashley put her hands on her hips.  "Are you coming, or not?"

Travis cast about for support and found none.  "Oh man," he groaned, and grabbed his pipe.

*  *  *  *

They crept out from Travis' apartment in a tight diamond formation, Pat in the front, Ashley behind and to the left, Travis to the right, and Catherine bringing up the rear.  Pat had handed the flashlight off to Catherine in favor of having his hand free.  Ashley had her pepper spray.  Travis had the pipe from his vacuum cleaner.  Together they shuffled along, all silently praying for an empty hallway.  The path ahead looked clear.  Although the flashlight's beam only penetrated about ten feet ahead of them, they couldn't make out any shapes directly ahead.

They came up on the bend, Pat pressing his finger to his lips and gesturing to the others to keep silent.  He poked his head around the corner tentatively and squinted into the shadows.  "I can't see anything," he whispered.  "But that doesn't mean there isn't anything there.  Hand me the flashlight."

The plastic tube was handed forward like a precious talisman.  Pat hesitantly shone it forward.  The beam caught a glimpse of a cluster of people, huddled together in a tight circle, all facing inwards.  Pat clicked off the beam with a curse, plunging the group into darkness.

Catherine was hyperventilating.  Ashley murmured comforting words to her and leaned in close to Pat.  "What did you see?"  She hissed.

"A bunch of them.  Residents.  All just...standing around."

"Maybe they're ok," Travis put in.  "They're not raving or anything, right?"

"Does standing around in a pitch black hallway with a group of strangers sound like normal behavior to you?"  Pat shot back.

"Ah," Travis looked downcast.  "Point."

"What do we do now?"  Pat asked Ashley.

"We have to keep going," Ashley replied.  "Do you think we can squeeze by them?"

"No way."

Ashley stared at Pat.

Pat ground his teeth together.  "Maybe.  But we have to move carefully.  Silently."  He looked at Catherine pointedly, who was practically panting at this point.

"Catherine," Ashley took her hand in her own.  "Catherine, listen.  You're going to be ok.  We're all going to be ok.  But you have to be brave for us, understand?  You have to calm down.  Breathe with me, ok?  In.  Haaah.  Out.  Haaah.  Okay?  I promise you, we're going to get out of this."

Catherine locked eyes with Ashley, desperately searching for hope.  Whatever she saw there seemed to calm her.  Her breathing slowed and she managed a slight bob of her head.

"Good girl."  Ashley grabbed Travis with her other free hand.  Travis took a deep breath and took hold of Pat's hand.

Pat shook his head in disbelief and flattened himself against the wall, indicating that the others should do the same.  Then they started to creep down the hall towards the waiting cluster of residents.  At this point, they had no way to communicate.  All they could do now was trust each other, and fate.

As they crept closer and closer, Ashley could make out vague silhouettes, just as Pat had described.  There were six of them, arranged in a tight circle to one side of the hallway.  The hall was about five feet across.  That left about a space of a foot on the other side.  The residents were packed so tightly together they looked like a single, multi-limbed creature, yet they were not so close as to be touching.  It was bizarre.

Now they were close enough they could hear the residents breathing, all of them heaving out gasps of air in raspy, throaty noises.  They sounded like they were wheezing out a week's worth of cigarette smoke.

Catherine whimpered.

One of the residents, a middle-aged man closest to the wall they were pressed against, jerked his head up.  He sniffed the air in a disturbingly primal fashion.  Slowly, he turned around.

Can he... Ashley thought, before realizing very quickly, HE CAN.

The man opened his mouth wide and let out an ear-splitting scream.  The other residents joined in a chorus of shrieks.

"RUN!"  Ashley yelled to the others, and blasted the group of residents with her pepper spray.  The cluster stumbled back in shock, the middle-aged man catching the brunt of her unexpected assault.  He pawed at his eyes and nose and bellowed in fury.

Travis took off down the hallway, mindlessly gibbering "Oh God oh God oh God oh God" as he went.  Pat followed after.  Catherine sobbed hysterically and half-stumbled, one hand clutching at the wall for help that wasn't there.  Ashley grabbed her by the arm and dragged her onwards, scooping the flashlight out of her grip so they could see where the hell they were going.

The staircase door was just moments away.  Travis' eyes bulged in relief as he caught sight of it, but his expression quickly turned to terror as a trio of residents emerged from another apartment, hands clawing at the air as if it offended them.  "Goddammit!"  Travis screamed.

"Come on!"  Pat cried, and without hesitation he clobbered the closest person over the head with his wrench.  His opponent crumpled into a heap.

Travis followed his lead and cracked another one in the ribs with his pipe.  The resident, a young lady in her twenties, doubled over with a snarl.  He smacked her on the back for good measure and she went down.

That left one more, a matronly looking woman who, on any other day, would have looked right at home on a Martha Stewart show.  As it was, she had her mouth bared in a vicious grin of teeth.  Ashley hunched over like a linebacker and charged her, driving her shoulder into the woman's stomach.  They fell to the ground like two alleycats caught in a trash bin.

Everything went crazy.  Ashley couldn't see any of her companions.  She was too focused on trying to break the grip of the insane lady beneath her.  She'd lost Catherine.  Nearby, voices jabbered in confusion:

"I've got her!"

"Behind you!"

"Where's the light?"

"Get Ashley, get her!"

"Get up, dammit!"

"The door, get to the door!"

Then someone was hauling her to her feet, and time started back up again.  Ashley realized her fist was covered in blood.  She'd pummeled the woman's face to a pulp with her bare hands.  The way ahead was clear.  But behind them, a mess of humanity was hollering for their blood.

"Come on!"  Pat yelled into her face.  He'd pulled her up.  Travis was already at the door, calling for them to hurry the hell up.

"Wait!"  Ashley ordered them.  "Where's Catherine?  Where is she?"

Pat hesitated.  "I don't-"

A scream from behind them confirmed their worst fears.  One of the cluster of residents had hooked his hands onto Catherine's shirt and he was pulling her back into their midst.  Catherine reached out one hand in panic, but there was no one there to take it.  She disappeared into the mass of rage and limbs, her agonized cries rising in a crescendo of mutilation.

"No!"  Ashley moaned.

"Come on!"  Travis implored them.  "Come on, we have to go!"

Pat hauled Ashley bodily into the stairwell, and slammed the door behind them.  He snatched Travis' pipe away from him and jammed it into the corner, wedging the door shut.  "Please God let this be clear," he muttered, and shone the light upwards.  The steps were empty.  No residents, no fleshy barriers, nothing.

Ashley was blinded by tears and frustration.  They had been so close...She bit her lip and turned away from the doorway.  "Let's go," she said.

A simple matter of a couple of dozen steps, and they were on the third floor.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CONCLUSION...)