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

“Those creatures outside…” I say.

“Ah… We call them Runners,” he says. This name makes sense too.

“Yes, I heard about how they turned to what they—” His sentence gets cut off by a Rica hitting the window as he tries to see through. He might have seen us getting inside.

“We have to go!” I say. “And no, we are not going to the museum.”

The man seems disappointed while I crawl to the back.

I slowly open the sliding door of the kitchen. The four of us get inside and close the kitchen door. We walk over several dead cooks on the floor in their white aprons. It seems they chose a slow death from the virus instead of trying an experimental drug.

We find the back door of the restaurant. I place my ear closer to the door to pick up any sounds of movement on the other side. There is total silence. I push the doorknob and check the alley before stepping out.

We leave the place quietly and get to the corner of the building. On the right side of the street, I can see a Rica wandering around near the intersection. Other Ricas are probably somewhere near him if their celebration is over.

He walks away toward the other side of the street. He turns back and walks toward us. Then he turns again and starts another cycle. He must have been a very disciplined and punctual guy when he was a human.

“One person at a time… I will go first,” I whisper to the others. They nod their heads. Kathleen is ready to fire her gun.

I lean forward to see where he is. He is coming toward us, but he is probably about to make a turn. I tilt my head back. After waiting for a second, I lean forward again. He made his turn. I run fast enough to make it across the street but slow enough to keep my steps quiet. I enter the alley on the other side.

I look at the intersection to see the Rica. He turns back to our direction again. I hold my hand still to keep Kathleen in her position. The Rica has already made his turn. I wave my hand, and she runs to my side safely. I breathe a sigh of relief.

The man holds his wife’s hand. It may make more noise if they both run at the same time, but it’s their choice. If things go unplanned, Kathleen and I can run down the alley as fast as we can.

The man looks toward the intersection. The Rica is walking toward us, but he is about to make a turn. As soon as he does, the couple takes a step. The Rica stops and turns back to us. The couple moves back. I don’t look back to the intersection, but I can hear the Rica’s skeptic grunts. The grunting gets closer to us. I look at the couple, and they look back at us with fearful eyes.

We can easily take one Rica down with the gun, but it would draw many more to us instantly. The couple hides behind a garbage container while Kathleen and I get behind an open back door.

The Rica suddenly stops moving. We then hear footsteps moving away from us. Hopefully, he thinks the excitement he has had so far is enough for the day.

The couple moves to the corner again. As the Rica walks away from us, they run to our side. They make it to the alley before the Rica makes a turn to our direction again.

We walk another block through this alley and come to another crossing street.

“It’s right there,” Kathleen whispers, showing a light gray building about ten stories high on the other side of the street. There is only a half block in between.

We lean over the corner to scan both sides of the street. It looks empty. This time the couple goes first. Then Kathleen and I run across the street.

We are finally on the backside of her grandparents’ building. There is no entrance from the alley, but there are fire escape stairs. I jump to catch the iron ladder, but I can’t reach it. The man merges his hand to elevate me up. I step on his hands with one foot and jump higher. I catch the ladder and pull it down with my weight. I help Kathleen climb up first.

“Good luck,” the woman says after watching us.

“You too…” Kathleen responds.

The man gives me a fist bump and shows a friendly smile with his head slightly tilted down. They walk away through the alley while holding hands.

I climb up the fire escape stairs following Kathleen. Somewhere in the middle of the building, she stops and points to a window with several plants hooked in front. She tries to open the window, but it’s locked from inside. She gently knocks it. Nobody shows up on the other side of the window. She uses her hand to create a shade to see inside. She looks down at me and shakes her hand.

She glances over the alley. Then she takes her gun out from her back and holds it from the barrel. She looks down the alley one more time.

She smashes the window with the back of the gun. We quickly crawl through the window before any Ricas wanders in the alley and discover us.

As soon as we take a step in the apartment, a cat jumps up on Katleen.

“Oh, hey, Rose! How have you been?” Kathleen says. I haven’t seen this smile on her face since the last time I saw her with her dog. She takes Rose in her arms and they give kisses to each other until we notice a sharp moldy smell in the apartment. I pick up a pillow from the bed to cover my nose on top of my mask. Kathleen uses the sleeve of her t-shirt to cover her face.

I think we are in