Chapter 3: Part 6, The Corridor

“You don’t plan to use that do you?” Corina asked as she crept in closer to examine the weapon Jen held in her hands.

“Bet your ass I plan too!” Jen looked at her friend with a gleam in her eyes that matched the cold chrome of the snub nosed revolver she clutched to her chest. “I’m done being scared and hiding in this hole. We have a chance to get out and get some help. We’ve obviously opened a huge can of worms here which we can’t put back by ourselves.” Jen went back to the hole in the wall and continued searching its depths. She returned almost immediately holding various boxes of ammunition.

“What’s this we stuff? The only reason why I’m involved is because you asked me to help. I had nothing to do with any of this!” Corina could see Jen flinch at her verbal lashing.

“How many times have I grabbed you for a midnight drink with the brothers, or to go out to the club? So don’t act all innocent, like I had to twist your arm to come out. All you needed was to hear Andre and Jackson’s names and you had your coat on ready to go. I had no idea that this was going to happen.” Jen barely looked up as she spilled the contents of box that had a picture on it similar to the gun she held. The numbers 38 were printed in large black ink on its side. She found the cylinder release, swung it open with a flick of her wrist and started to load the burnished brass shells into its chambers. She had seen Jackson do it hundreds of times and was amazed at how natural it felt. Placing the fully loaded weapon back onto the floor in front of her she went back to the hole and dug out another weapon. Initially struggling with its weight she brought it over to where the ammunition boxes were and laid it down beside the revolver.

Sensing her friend pushing back Corina decided not to pursue the argument any further. She felt better now that her friend was back from the catatonia which had formerly engulfed her. “Do you know what you’re doing with these? They look dangerous.” Corina picked up a box imprinted with a target alongside the words 40 CALIBER HYDRA-SHOK.

“A little bit, Jackson used to take me to a shooting range just outside of Cambridge. I’ve shot both of these before but I’ve had more experience with the revolver. Jackson used to say that this black one is what most law officials use. It’s a semi-automatic and it’s got one hell of a kick.” She said remembering how her wrist snapped back each time she pulled the trigger.

“Let me see the box of shells you’re holding, I think that they’re the kind that it takes.” Corina handed her the box of shells and watched Jen as she tried to unlock the magazine. After a few unsuccessful tries she found a small button buried within its grip and pushed it. Unprepared for the spring release of the magazine it fell to the floor with a loud clang.

Corina and Jen silently locked eyes as each held their breath and listened. Nothing, there was no sound. The hallway had gone ominously quiet ten minutes earlier. Initially there were sounds of scuffling and random shouts, there had even been a long drawling scream which ended with a meaty smack, but since then there was nothing but a foreboding silence.

“Maybe they’ve left, or gone upstairs where the other brothers are.” Corina shoved the mattress to the side and put here ear to the door. There was no sound for a beat as her hearing adjusted to the industrial reverberation which the door lent, and then she could hear something. At first it was a barely audible scraping sound, and then as it seemed to get closer she thought that it sounded more like someone dragging something.

“I think that there’s someone out there.” She put her ear back against the door. “Yeah, I... I can hear movement.” Corina started pulling the heavy mattress away from the door.

“I wouldn’t do that just yet. Hey!...” Corina stopped and turned to Jen as she repeated her warning. “I wouldn’t do that!” Jen’s voice trembled slightly as she continued. “Not until I can figure out how to load this magazine.”

Corina thought that Jen looked like a scared child fumbling with a toy as she stopped and went to help her friend. “Let me try.” Jen looked up from a handful of brass and for a moment Corina thought that she wasn’t going to give it up. After a slight hesitation though, Jen handed it over. She took the magazine and saw that Jen had managed to load three of the forty caliber bullets. There was a fourth bullet which had been jammed in sideways and lay perpendicular to the others. “Here’s your problem, you’ve got a bullet in the wrong way. Let me see another bullet, I’ll see if I can use it to get it back in line.” Chink... Jen could hear the bullet snap in line, and with that Corina continued loading. As she neared its capacity it became harder to push the bullets down enough to get more in. She estimated that there were twelve rounds in what appeared to be a fifteen round magazine. “Good enough for government work! Here you go.” She handed the clip back to Jen.

Jen took it and aligned it with the butt of the handgun. Corina and Jen both jumped as the magazine hit home with a click. Turning the weapon in her hand she pointed it to the ground and checked the sights. Grasping the top of the weapon with her left hand she pulled the slide back, it immediately snapped forward as it escaped her sweaty palms. She succeeded in chambering a round on her second try and smiled as she inspected the weapon. “Here you go. This is the safety... on the side. Just push it down and you’re ready. Just point and shoot, got it?”

Corina backed away from the gun as Jen held it in her outstretched hands. “I don’t want that! Listen we don’t even know what’s going on here. I don’t think that it’s such a great idea that we start shooting anything that moves.” After a moment of tense scrutiny Jen pulled the gun back and tucked it into her waist line. Corina watched as the gun disappeared beneath Jen’s sweater and wondered if she had made the right decision. “So what do we do now?”

Jen took one last glance around the room looking for anything that might help their trek back to the surface and found Andre’s lighter amidst the pile of blankets. “What now?” She replied rhetorically. “We get the hell out of here, is what now. Do you know what time it is?” Corina checked her watch and notified Jen that it was six thirty in the morning. “Damn, we’ve been trapped down here for five hours now. Who knows what hell has broken loose above?” Cursing under her breath Jen walked over to the steel door, which until now had protected them, and said a quick prayer as she pulled the mattress aside. Then taking a deep breath she unlocked it.

Like a curtain opening on a slaughterhouse stage, the door slowly swung into the room to reveal a horrifying scene. Its once smooth surface was now furrowed with bloody fist prints which trailed to a floor covered in congealed blood.

“My god! What the hell happened here?” Corina’s eyes closed as she tried to block out the visage of gore. “I think I’m gonna be sick!” Jen quickly grabbed hold of her friends arm and pulled her out into the gloom of the hallway. “Get a grip on yourself! For God’s sake you’re pre-med, you should be used to seeing this.”

Out in the hall the darkness swallowed everything. Jackson had torn down all the lighting on his earlier rampage through the hall and left nothing to alleviate the smothering blackness. Jen could hear Corina slipping in the doorway and helped her until she regained her footing.

Groping their way along the wall Jen followed the rows of insulated piping that lined the far wall hoping that her eyes would soon adjust. She feared using the lighter partly because she didn’t want to trust its faint flicker to guide her and partly because she didn’t want to see whatever she felt squishing beneath her feet.

They had made good progress towards the stairwell when Corina stopped Jen. “Do you hear that?”

“No... Hear what?” Jens voice was barely a whisper as she listened intently.

“That...” Then they both heard what she was referring too. It was the dragging sound she had heard through the door earlier. This time though it had more of a soggy sound to it, as if someone was dragging a wet mop behind them. “It’s getting louder.”

Jen removed the lighter from her front pocket and with the familiar sound of a Zippo being flicked open a gentle blue tinged flame began to drive back the darkness. As the flame grew in intensity a ghostly hand lunged at them from obscurity. Startled, Jen dropped the lighter and grabbed the revolver. The corridor went dark for a moment as the flame from the Zippo tried to recover from its rattling fall. Both Corina and Jen backed up and watched as a severed torso crawled into the radius of light spread by the failing flame. A single eye gleamed at them angrily from exposed muscle. Splintering nails broke as its bloodied hands grappled viciously along the slick floor.

Seconds later its head snapped back as the revolver delivered a round into remaining eye. Jen stood there for a moment and waited for the slightest movement from the corpse. Slowly she relaxed and lowered the smoking firearm to her side and cautiously walked forward to retrieve the lighter.

Corina looked down at the unrecognizable face as a shiver of revulsion passed through her soul. Deep within her she knew that something terrible lay ahead. “Jen... I think I’ll take that other gun from you now...”