The Third Floor Part 34

Derek didn't answer.

"I'd take it," Sara said after a minute.

They looked at her.

"I would," she went on. "It's not any worse than being out here going round in circles, is it?"

"No," Ashley said. "We already lost Phillip today."

"We lost Phillip because they caught us off guard. Otherwise we wouldn't have been out in the open like that. This is my choice. No one to blame except me if it's the wrong one."

"We'll be out of gas sooner or later anyway," Derek said, and Ashley flashed him a look that said Stay out of it.

"See?" Sara asked. "We'll have to stop eventually, and when we do, it'll just be the gla.s.s between us and them and we've already seen how effective that is."

"I'm pulling up next to it," Derek said.

Ashley stared at Sara and Sara stared back, but neither said anything and neither wanted to back down from their position. Finally Ashley spoke.

"I'll do it."

Derek rounded the corner again and slowed near the vent cover, then backed in against the building. Ashley took the CB and said, "Millie, back in here beside us, up against that vent cover. You see it?"

"I see it," Millie came back. Millie pulled the F-100 as close to the Charger as she could, close enough the side-view mirror tapped the chrome against Ashley's door.

"Come on," Sara said. "Let me go. It'll be no big deal, I can get through it."

"It'll be a big deal to me," Ashley said. "You're not going. Derek, I expect you to keep her in this car. If I can get in through there, I'll come back and give everyone the all clear and you all beat a.s.s into the truck and out the back into the building. But not until I say. Got it?"

Derek nodded. Sara ignored Ashley, but when Ashley repeated, "Got it?" she nodded, then looked at the floor.

"That s.p.a.ce is two feet square at most," Derek said. "What about all our stuff?"

"We'll worry about ourselves first," she said. "From there we'll find a door we can unlock from the inside. We'll come back for the vehicles and our stuff then."

Ashley turned toward the window, but stopped straight ahead, staring out the front windshield. Derek noticed her freeze and looked. Sara noticed both of them frozen and looked. She screamed, then clamped a hand over her mouth. A bird perched on the hood of the car, its beak inches from the gla.s.s, it's eyes glowing. Even with the windows rolled up, they could still smell it, like fifty years of rot and blood and h.e.l.l on earth, because that's exactly what it was.

"Get it off there," Ashley said.

"How?" Derek asked.

"I don't care," Ashley said, "just get it off."

Neither saw it at first, but when the bird moved its head in their direction, they understood why Ashley was so upset. Snagged on a ragged edge of its beak was a sc.r.a.p of cloth, the color of the shirt Phillip had been wearing.

"Rotten piece of s.h.i.t," Ashley seethed at it through the gla.s.s.

The bird shrieked back and tapped the gla.s.s with its beak.

Then they were all blinded and deafened and the bird flapped and shrieked at the air, taking off again. Tuck's car was grill to grill with theirs, flashing the brights and laying on the horn. Tuck gave her a thumbs up from the driver's seat. Ashley tried to spread an appreciative smile across her face, but seeing that piece of Phillip's shirt in the bird's beak made it feel forced.

She looked back at Sara and Derek and saw they knew what to do. Sara would stay put; Derek would make sure of it.

The windows went down simultaneously, Millie shoved herself across to the other side of the cab, and Ashley slithered through and over in a flash. The windows were up again before the birds could dive down to them.

Ashley vanished through the small window into the back of the truck. It was only a matter of waiting now.

The back of the truck contained all their belongings. Food in white plastic coolers, clothes folded into suitcases and paper sacks lined against the back of the truck's cab, and a pile of blankets and sleeping bags. Tucked under this pile was a toolbox. Ashley pulled it out, opened it, grabbed a screwdriver.

She flipped up the camper sh.e.l.l's window and went to work on the screws--had the first two off--when she heard the clatter of talons overhead. She looked up and saw they were wrapped around the rim of the window. The bird lowered its head, twisted it to face her, and glared at her.

Her first instinct was to drive the screwdriver into one of those eyes, but before she could move, it lunged for her and she fell back, her arms covering her face.

Millie yelled, "s.h.i.t!" and started the engine, then pulled away from the building.

The bird snapped. Ashley ducked sideways, then lashed out and grabbed it's neck. The flesh was like cold, dimpled, raw meat. And when it shrieked, it felt to Ashley like a thousand crawling beetles moving in her palm.

"What are you doing?" she yelled to Millie.

The bird pulled back, opened its beak, and dove forward again.

"Shove it out the back window," Millie said. "Then we'll back over the f.u.c.ker."

The bird dug its talons into Ashley's stomach, sinking them into the tender flesh.

Blood seeped through her shirt and Ashley screamed. It brought up a foot, scratched at her face, opening a cut on her cheek.

She shoved and it toppled backward, its talons ripping free of her. She scrambled to her knees, one hand out for balance, the other still closed tight around the bird's neck.

She maneuvered it closer to the open back window. It tore free of her grasp, jerked backward, squawked, snapped at her face. She threw herself backward, fell again, hit her head against the tool box, and kicked wildly until she connected with something. She landed a solid blow to the head, then another in its leg. A final kick to the body and the thing went out the window, squawking and flapping its wings.

"Now!" Ashley yelled over her shoulder.

The truck's inertia shifted, then a huge THUMP bounced them as they rolled over the bird. The truck came back down hard and Ashley hit her head on the toolbox again.

"s.h.i.t!" she yelled, rubbing the newest bruise.

Millie put the truck in drive and ran over the bird again. Another THUMP and crash as everything inside shifted. Ashley sat up and looked out the back window. The bird stumbled to its feet. She lifted her shirt and put a hand to her stomach, wiping away blood. Looking at it, the bird hadn't dug in as far as she'd thought. It still hurt like h.e.l.l, but she'd be fine.

For now she had to concentrate on getting inside the building.

"Now, let's get back to that shaft and get inside."

"Got it," Millie said, and swerved the truck in a wide circle to get back to the side of the complex.

Ashley slipped again. She didn't hit her head, but she did get a particular view through the side window.

She saw a second floor window that she thought may save them a lot quicker than a shaft that may or may not lead to safety. The gla.s.s was gone, and normally that would have signaled to them to move on, that this place was no good. But this window was barred. s.p.a.ced wide enough so they could slip through, but close enough to keep the birds out.

"Millie," she said, "Look over there."

She pointed and Millie had to crane her head to the side and slow the truck down to see it. "Uh-huh," Millie said.

"We can fit through there, can't we?"

"Speak for yourself," Millie said. She patted her stomach which, although not fat, was sagging with age.

"Just pull over there," Ashley said. "We'll get you through. The only thing I'm worried about is getting The Dead up there."

The truck stopped alongside the building. Millie spoke into the CB, "Over here, everyone," and the other vehicles headed for them.

Ashley climbed back into the cab. "We're going to try for that window up there," she said into the mic. "Luther, you grab your shotgun and cover us while we're outside."

She grabbed her own gun off the front seat and climbed out, then unhooked the extension ladder from the side of the camper sh.e.l.l.

A bird shrieked behind her and she whirled, firing.

It broke off its attack and fled back into the air.

She leaned the ladder against the building, then looked over her shoulder at Luther. He was watching her every move and his shotgun's barrel poked out through his driver's window. He nodded to her and she slid the gun into her waistband, then extended the ladder up to the window.

"Millie," she called. "Grab one of the coolers and get up this ladder."

She could imagine Millie grumbling about fitting through, but the engine cut off anyway, and the door opened. Millie hauled one of the food coolers out through the tailgate and started up.

Ashley stood below her, keeping her eyes on the birds. She drew the gun and covered Millie while Luther covered her, and for the first time she honestly felt they might get inside with the family intact. Except for Phillip, that was. And Elle and Steven. She made a promise to herself then that when the Year was up this time, she'd go back to that stretch of highway and put up markers for them.

Just then she came from her thoughts with a scream. Not hers. She focused and had one second to see Millie falling. Blood on Millie's head, a bird swerving away, and Millie was suddenly on the ground, one leg tangled in the ladder rungs, and the bone below her knee was now twisted in a direction it was never meant for.

Millie was still screaming. The cooler lay open a few feet from her, its contents spilled for whichever bird was quick enough.

Ashley yelled, "s.h.i.t!" and without thinking she slid the gun into her waistband again and went to Millie. "Are you okay?" she asked. One look at that leg and anyone would have known Millie wasn't okay. And if that didn't do it, her screams surely would.

How did she miss it? She was staring right at Millie, she had the gun raised and ready to shoot any bird that came near her. Why didn't she see it?

Because she'd been thinking about Phillip instead of concentrating on her task. And now Millie had a broken leg for it and if someone didn't get that food, the family would suffer for that, too.

Stupid, she thought.

"Tuck," she yelled over her shoulder. "Gather this food and help me get Millie up the ladder. Luther, keep lookout."

The door opened and Tuck was there in seconds, scooping the food back into the cooler. He carried it to the truck, then helped with Millie. Ashley held Millie's feet, while Tuck had her from behind, his arms under hers, wrapped around her chest. He took a backward step up the ladder.

With each jostle and b.u.mp, Millie groaned again.

"I'm sorry, Millie," Ashley said. "I don't know what happened."

Millie didn't say anything other than, "Ugh!" when Tuck backed up another rung.

Ashley had her gun in her waistband again, and Millie's leg draped carefully over her shoulder, easing herself up the ladder with Millie and Tuck. The top was only a few more rungs away, but the closer they got, the clearer Ashley saw another problem. From the ground, the bars looked s.p.a.ced far enough apart for a tight fit through, but nearing the top of the ladder, they looked closer than that. So close together, in fact, that Ashley was mentally going through their stock of supplies, hoping to come up with a hacksaw or a torch, something to get rid of one of those bars. They'd still be able to slip through, but the birds were way too big.

And once the others came? Ashley wondered. The bugs wouldn't come that way. The bats may be able to squeeze through, but they were still six months away and by then they could replace the bar. And the dogs weren't a consideration at all, not that far off the ground. So, she figured, getting through was the problem and, for now, the only problem.

Tuck had gone as far as he could. His arms drooped with Millie's weight and Millie just lay there, trying to hold back the pain. Ashley craned her head to the side, looking at the bars.

"You think there's any way to fit through there?" she asked Tuck.

He looked over his shoulder, then back down to Ashley. "Probably," he said. "Don't know about pulling her in with me," he added.

A shot sounded and they both looked down, Ashley nearly slipping on her rung and pulling them all down with her. Luther was leaning out his window, gun pointed off in the distance.

"f.u.c.ker was trying to creep in," he called, keeping his eyes on the bird.

Then came another shriek and Millie was suddenly torn from their arms.

Ashley and Tuck stared dumbfounded as the bird opened its talons and let Millie drop to the ground. It wasn't a long fall, and normally she would have been fine, but with her leg already broken, she landed with a new scream. And they'd never even seen this one coming, both looking at Luther.

Ashley pulled her gun, fired. Luther redirected his aim as well. Tuck had left his gun in the car.

The bird retreated as soon as the shots came, but by then it had already torn out Millie's right eye, bit off her nose, and one of its talons had sliced open her throat.

Ashley emptied her gun in the bird's direction, her eyes red and watering, her mouth set in a grimace, and her mind repeating over and over, "Failure, failure, failure."

Millie wasn't dead when the bird flew off, but there was nothing any of them could do for her now.

Ashley listened to Millie's gurgles and death chokes and did the only thing for her she could; she shot her in the head. Then she finished climbing the ladder and tried pressing her body through the bars.

Tuck was too thick, but Ashley was young and fit. She grabbed the bars in both hands, lifted a boot, and slipped through with a little effort.

Then she was inside the building and all she wanted to do was sit on the floor and cry. Why couldn't she cover her eyes and shut out the world and the h.e.l.l and the birds and the family, and just cry herself to sleep right here?

Because there were still ten others out there who needed her.

She knew that's what the next year would come down to. No matter how many times she wanted to give up and let the Scavengers take her, she couldn't. Her grandfather had formed this family, her father had held it together through two Years of the Scavengers, and Ashley could do no less. So if not for herself, then for the ten people still alive outside, she had to straighten up.

She told Tuck to send Sara up. She at least would be able to fit through the bars, and with both of them inside, Luther and Derek could keep watch and Tuck could bring the dead up the ladder one at a time. Ashley and Sara could help them through.

"Tell her to see if we have a hacksaw in the truck," she called down. "Have her bring it up if we do."

Sara came up five minutes later.

Ashley went to work with the saw, and wondered what kind of place this was. From outside, Ashley could see the walls were close, the floor bare. There was a door with a small window. Sara tried to see as much outside the room as possible without having to open the door.

Ashley's breathing came in harsh pants and the squeak of the blade through the metal was piercing, but in another minute she yelled, "Got it," just before the blade broke through the other side.

She pulled the severed bar from the window, and looked down.

"Bring them up," she called.