Not alone

(Meghan)

"If we're going upstairs, you'll need this." Said Rody.

Meghan saw him emerge from the kitchen with a weapon in his hands. It looked like another spear, not dissimilar to her previous one. She held out a hand and Rody turned it over to her. Meghan lifted it up, feeling its weight before inspecting it more thoroughly.

The handle looked like it belonged to a wooden broom. It was smooth with a shade of light brown along the shaft. There were two small areas on the handle that was wrapped in chestnut colored yarn. One at the very top and the other a few inches below it. Meghan figured it was probably meant to provide an enhanced grip. The material was soft but she definitely felt it sit firm in her hands. Her previous spear didn't have that.

The head was also different. It appeared that Rody had somehow managed to remove the blade from the knife's handle and wedge it into the top end of the broom handle. A thick coating of tape held it all together. Meghan spun it around in her hands, clearly impressed by his handiwork.

"When did you make this?" she asked him.

"Well, after my uhh—talk with Samantha, I left her in the guest room and returned to the hall. I wasn't in the best mood and just wanted something to distract myself. I ended up making that. It wasn't intended to be for anyone, just another spare weapon we could use. But seeing how yours broke last night, you can have it."

"Ohh, okay. Thanks" she replied.

The new weapon definitely felt strange. She didn't feel as comfortable with it as her previous one. Meghan recalled how alien her old spear had felt when she first held it back in her flat. She reckoned it was only a matter of time before she got used to this one as well.

Clutching it firmly in her hands, she nodded to Rody that she was ready to go. He then pulled out his hammer and nodded back. Together, they walked over to the main door. Before Rody could open it, Meghan stopped him casually with a hand and pulled his back. She went up to the door and peered out the peep hole, just as Ray had done many times prior.

"It's clear," she said. "Let's go."

Meghan unlocked the main door and stepped outside, followed closely by Rody. Leon lingered by the doorway as he watched them step into the fourteenth floor corridor.

"I'm locking the door," he told them, "If you make it back in one piece knock two and a half times so I know it's not one of those freaks."

"Two and a half?" Rody asked, "What does that even mean?"

"You know… like this," said Leon and gave the wooden frame two solid knocks and then a softer one.

Meghan rolled her eyes at the stupidity of the idea. "You can just check through the peep hole you know…"

"Yeah but where's the fun in that?" Leon said with a dumb look on his face.

Meghan shook her head.

"It should be good to use the main staircase, right?" asked Rody.

"Yeah, I think so. Apart from the woman we dumped into the elevator, there weren't any other Deathless on my floor. At least, during the time we were trying to escape. Let's move slowly and take caution."

Rody nodded and they began climbing up the stairs beside the elevator. Within a few seconds, they made it far enough up the stairs to get a glimpse of the fifteenth floor. Meghan looked around but saw no Deathless. She did, however, spot a trail of blood along the left side of the corridor. It went in the opposite direction of her flat. Meghan was sure that she it hadn't been there before.

Rody had seen it too. He walked ahead and carefully peeked from the edge of the staircase.

"See anything?" Meghan whispered.

"The door of one of the flats is open. The blood trail leads through the doorway but I see no signs of a Deathless. It might be inside. Could even be multiple of them. What should we do? You want to check it out or just go do what we came here for and leave?"

"The second option." Meghan said, "I rather not fight one unless we really need to."

"Okay," Rody said, "Which one's your flat?"

"It's on the right. 1502. Watch my back while I unlock the door."

Saying so, Meghan walked up to her flat and pulled out her house keys. She tried to unlock the door but missed the keyhole. Meghan frowned and tried inserting the key again only to fail a second time. She cursed at herself internally and managed to unlock it in her third attempt. She swung the door open and scampered inside. She held it until Rody made it through as well before closing the door and securing the lock.

"Alright, there's my intercom." Meghan said, pointing at wall-mounted device next to her kitchen wall. "You go ahead and see if it connects to Ray's while I start packing up a couple of essentials."

Rody nodded and immediately walked over to pick up the receiver.

Meghan headed into her bedroom and closed the door just as she heard Rody say hello to someone. 'Guess that means it works.' She thought to herself. 'That's a relief.'

When she returned back to the living room, she had a big bag around her shoulders full of stuff she thought would come in handy. She had packed spare clothes, undergarments, her toothbrush, toothpaste, her towel, shower gel, shampoo, a few sanitary pads and her phone charger. Even though the bag was quite heavy already, it would have been even heavier if she had taken everything that she wanted.

"That took a while," said Rody who was waiting in the living room.

"Had to find everything." Meghan replied, "I'm ready to go now."

"Cool." Rody said, "I was able to make the call, by the way. Leon picked up. I guess we can now be sure that the intercoms are working fine."

"I heard you speaking while I was inside." Meghan said, "That's good. Looks like we've finished our work here. Time to leave."

"Yeah," said Rody as he walked up and opened the main door.

The two of them stepped outside her flat as Meghan closed it and proceeded to lock it again. When she turned around, she saw a woman standing in front of the flat with the blood trail. Meghan gasped and instinctively took a step backward. Rody turned towards the corridor and saw what had startled her.

"Oh shit, that is not good…" he said.

Standing in front of them was an old, frail woman with unkempt, greying hair. Heavy wrinkles rippled her forehead. She wore a ghastly expression on her face, like someone who had their soul sucked out from their mouth. Her white nightgown was stained with varying shades of red and brown. One of her feet was bloody and stood out in an odd angle. She stared at them standing at the other end of the corridor and gave out a weak snarl. She then raised a hand in their direction and began hobbling towards them, dragging her injured foot along.

Meghan gulped as she saw the Deathless approach her. Her first instinct was to unlock the front door again and hide inside her flat. But she quickly dispelled that idea from her mind.

'You're a fighter, remember?' she asked herself. 'So, fight!'

"Rody," she called, "The flat she came from is still open. Let's use the spear to drive her back inside and close the door."

"Okay," he said with a nod.

Meghan held her spear up like a lance. Rody grabbed it as well and stood firm. The two of them stood on either side of the weapon with their hands wrapped tightly along the long handle. They aimed the tip at the oncoming Deathless in preparation for their attack.

"On three," Meghan said, "One… two… three!"

The two of them charged at the old woman with the spear thrusted forward. The blade went straight through her feeble looking chest, causing her to grunt deeply. They then slowly began to push forward, forcing the Deathless back.

Meghan breathed an internal sigh of relief. The old Deathless wasn't nearly as strong as the first one she fought on this very floor. But even so, it was taking them quite a while to push her back. It took well over a minute for them to finally reach the open doorway of the flat she emerged from. The Deathless kept trying to snap and claw at them the entire time but was never close enough to reach.

Eventually, they gave a final strong shove in unison, sending the woman sprawling backwards into the flat. Rody quickly grabbed the door handle and closed it shut.

"Nice," Meghan said, "Let's not stick around to discover if they can open doors or not."

Meghan and Rody ran down the stairs and knocked on Ray's front door. Leon opened it and they re-entered the safety of the flat.

"Whew!" she said, "That went well. Kinda surprising. Usually something always goes…"

"And where the hell have you two been?" came a loud, slightly screeching voice from the living room.

Samantha stomped up and stood in front of them in a confrontational manner. She stared at them with accusatory eyes as if she had just caught them doing something they shouldn't have.

"We were upstairs." Rody answered, "We had to take care of a few things."

"Oh really?" Samantha asked loudly, "Please explain what things you had to take care of in some other girl's house."

"Yo, are you serious?" Rody asked in frustration.

"I'm sorry guys," Leon said from behind them, "She woke up while you were upstairs and asked where you were. I tried telling her our intercom plan but she wasn't buying it."

"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that convenient excuse so you can go do whatever you want behind my back!" Samantha shouted.

Meghan pinched her forehead in annoyance, "Listen, we went upstairs to get some of my stuff and to see if the intercoms were working. Nothing more. We were only up there for about fifteen minutes. We even fought a Deathless. Look, there's still blood on it."

She raised the tip of the spear in front of Samantha's face but she swatted it away. "Eww! Keep that disgusting thing away from me! That blood could have been from yesterday."

"Then how hasn't it dried yet?" Meghan asked loudly, "Plus this weapon is new. Rody gave it to me just this morning."

"Stop with your convenient lies, you slut!" said Samantha.

Meghan glared at her, anger swelling inside, "What the hell did you just call me?"

"Woah, okay." Said Rody as he stepped between them, "Let's all calm down. There is no need to fight."

"NO!" Samantha screamed, "I won't calm down! You're been ignoring me all day yesterday! Not only that, you yelled at me when all I wanted was to spend time with you! And for some reason you're being super nice to her! WHY?? Am I not good enough for you anymore? Are you really gonna choose this bitch over—"

Just then a sharp sound filled the room that seized everyone's attention. Even Samantha stopped her rant mid-way to look towards the direction of the sound. Meghan heard two short bursts of mechanical ringing followed by a pause and then another two short bursts. This seemed to be playing continuously on a loop. The four of them walked up to the dining table area and stared at the source of the sound.

It came from the intercom.

"We—we're not the only ones that made it!" Meghan gasped, "We're not alone…"