Apartment 905 by Sahin, Ned (readnow .TXT) 📕

Toshi pushes the door wide open. The dust from the top of the door frame falls to the floor and a heavy mildew smell fills our lungs. We wait for a few seconds before I step in. Toshi follows close behind.

As soon as we enter, a man and woman jump on us.

Chapter 21

The man who jumped on me from the left side of the door is twice my size. I didn’t see him coming. My shotgun slipped from my hands when he pushed me against the opposite side of the door.

I hear the woman growling and running toward Toshi and Kathleen.

I try to stand up to fight, but the man pushes me back onto the floor. He sits on my chest and wraps his hands around my throat. I try to throw him on the side, but he is too heavy.

His eyes are dull, and his face resembles a ghost. There are dark spots under his eyes. He is probably infected, but he doesn’t seem to have characteristics like a Rica. There are no red spots on his skin. And why is he this aggressive? I have never heard the virus messing up with someone’s nerves. It’s actually known to make the immune system weaker and the person slower. He is either a mutated Rica or is a monster whose desire is to kill strangers for fun. I am not sure what the difference is.

His saliva keeps dripping on my face. He wants to strangle me. I dodge the drops while trying to pull his hands off my neck. I struggle to breathe and start to lose consciousness. His face gets blurry.

His head explodes in pieces as I hear the shotgun fired.

His hands lose power right away. He falls to the side. My lungs start to function again. I take several deep breaths before seeing Kathleen with the shotgun.

The woman is in a hand-combat with Toshi. He has locked her arm from behind, making her almost unable to move. He had learned Krav Maga during his self-defense training in the Saviors camp before I joined them. The woman won’t stand a chance against him.

She throws her other arm backward to Toshi’s face suddenly. I didn’t expect her to move this fast. Toshi loses her arm unintentionally while trying to cover his face.

She runs to the church rows and tries to take cover behind one of them. Her face looks the same as the man’s anemic face, but there are no red spots on her skin either. She is probably in her late 30s.

“Please… Please don’t shoot!” she begs. At least she can talk. She is unlikely to be a Rica.

I glance at Kathleen. I’ve never seen her this angry, not even to Bernice at Weldon Springs. I am grateful that she saved my life, but I am also afraid of her going too far.

“Wait, Kathleen!” I stand up while wiping the man’s saliva on my face with my t-shirt’s sleeve. I walk toward the woman.

“Who are you?” I ask her. She is sobbing. I am confused. They have just tried to kill us, but now she is playing a victim.

Her cry is so intense that she can’t breathe to speak even though she looks like she wants to.

I hear another shot. Kathleen fires the shotgun to the ceiling. The noise reflects around the walls and creates an annoying echo.

“Answer the question!” Kathleen yells.

“They… They took every… thing! We thought they came back,” the woman says as she tries to stop her hiccups.

“Who?” I ask.

“Herington… Rebels.”

“Did they bang on the door when they first came?” Kathleen asks. It’s a logical question, but I don’t think the woman is capable of thinking logically. She seems terrified and devastated. I am pretty sure she is infected. If she is, she has only a day or two left.

The tension on her shoulder and neck seems to be loosening up. As her breathing goes back to normal, she faces the reality of it all. I am not sure how close she was to the man, but as soon as she sees his body, her eyes fill with tears again. She gets up and walks toward him.

“It’s not a good idea,” I say and move between her and his body to block her vision. Seeing him headless would make her devastated even more.

“What the hell!” Toshi screams. He is known as a quiet and calm person. It’s the first time I heard him screaming. His nose is bleeding, and he has bruises on his cheeks, but the pain is not what makes him shout. He looks at the door side. I look there as well.

I let out a blood-curdling scream when I see what is approaching us. At least ten elderly are running toward the church. They seem faster than athletes in the Olympics.

I take the shotgun from Kathleen. I count the extra rounds on the shell sling. There are eight extra rounds. It’s not enough for what is coming. I load the gun with two of them. I hope it’s our lucky day.

“Lock the door!” I tell Toshi. He is still in shock. He finally runs to the door while I go to the window on the right and break it. I aim the shotgun and wait for them to get within the shooting range. Toshi picks up the hammer back from the floor. Kathleen and the woman look around to find anything useful in the upcoming fight.

I can see their faces now. I immediately recognize them… Harold, Bernice, Reed, and most of the restaurant-goers in Weldon Springs. After we blew up their antidepressant stock, Oxyrica must have turned them to Ricas in a short time. I don’t know if they found us because they heard the shotgun while they were wandering around or they were tracking us since our escape.

As soon as they are only a few yards away from us, I shoot one round. It hits one of them in