She opened her eyes once again, this time with a quiet groan escaping her lips as her back cursed her for sleeping on a not-so-comfortable bed. She was getting too 'old' for this. Her palms massaged over her eyelids before she could have a clearer view of her surroundings. The room had a much shadier lighting all of a sudden, making it very hard for her to see. She reached for her tool belt, taking out her flashlight to point at the room. As she slid off the bed, her boots landed on a wet surface with a splash. She directed her flashlight to the floor to see the puddle of water that trailed toward the doorway, making no logical sense of its appearance.

  She heaved out a deep sigh as her palm wrapped around the cold door knob. Erin was exhausted with all of the nonsense happening around her at this point, she just wanted to finish her shift as soon as she got that report to make -another report- of a /final/ report. She hated paperwork but it was something that she had to endure due to that homeless guy deciding to attack her. As she was about to end the twist of the knob, her ears picked up a loud clutter in front of the doorway. That's when she heard a scream, followed by a yell and a couple of footsteps in pursuit.

  "HELP ME! Please! Help!" A woman cried out in agony as the footsteps went farther away in what appeared to be a jog. Erin pulled the door to herself before taking an immediate step out of the door. There were... a lot of things to take in. The once white, marble floor had blood stains and pieces of human flesh scattered all over. A sharp, musky, and metallic smell hit her nose, almost making her want to empty her stomach right then and there. Her skin itched as her icy orbs took in more of the scene before her, and as she directed her flashlight a bit more to the corner of the hallway, she couldn't hold herself any longer. It was the corpse of the nurse she talked to before she decided to go to sleep. Her half-ripped cheek showed some parts of her teeth as her hand clutched against her actively bleeding neck. Subtle huffs and groans rose from her frozen body as her eyes searched for any kind of hope. Her limbs seemed to be covered in various bite marks as well, especially her legs. Her right femur bone appeared exposed with another stream of blood spurting out freely from her artery. The woman's eyes found Erin's before they froze over, her breathing ceasing shortly after as well.

  A stream of stomach fluids escaped her mouth and stained the floor, making her groan a few times just to get it all out. She took in a breath as if she was suffocating for a few good hours. Erin had seen some disturbing stuff in her career but it was never as severe as this. After a second or two, she finally got a hold of herself, approaching the nurse. She put her two fingers on the crook of her neck and listened if she had her airway still working, and as expected, it appeared that the woman was gone. It felt as if she stared at Erin with her gunmetal blue eyes that had gotten paler by the second, blaming her.

  As Erin's eyes once again wandered over to the corpse, she could hear the slow pace of a few creaking footsteps approaching behind her. Even though her heart felt like it could come out of her chest right at this point, she peered behind her shoulder, wiping the sweat off her brow so that it would not cause any trouble with her vision. Her orbs then flickered over to the darkness of the hall where she heard the footsteps approaching her direction like the sounds of her doom. She decided to turn away, her booth clacking beneath her as her steps took her farther from the sounds of the other's footsteps. Though they ceased for a short minute. Erin took in a breath of relief as she continued to quietly make her way over to the exit. To her surprise, the footsteps behind her picked up, and now there were multiple all them and it sounded like they were in a hurry to reach Erin as well.

  She sprinted off toward the nearest door to her in the hopes of escaping the monstrosities that were chasing her. As she barged inside the room, she saw white marble floors covered entirely in a crimson color. Before she could investigate further as to what had caused such a scene, she heard a bang coming from the door behind her. With a sense of panic, her eyes trailed over to the room, trying to see if there would be any way to escape this hellhole, that's when she spotted the ventilation shelf's grid on the ceiling. As she made her way to one of the stalls, she heard the faint noise of wheezing coming from the stall next to her. The person's breathing continued to be a mix of gurgling and wheezing as they shuffled upward by getting some support from the wall. In the meanwhile, Erin climbed on top of the toilet, forcing one of the ceiling tiles to open as the movement from the next stall increased within mere seconds.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Her hands clutched tightly onto the concrete on top before she pulled herself into the shaft. The smell of mold and other substances instantly hit her nostrils, though she did prefer such smells over the metallic smell of blood and organs. Before she could celebrate her escape by taking in deep breaths, a tight clutch around her ankle caused her breathing to hitch a pace. Her orbs worriedly peered down to the entrance of the shaft which was illuminated dimly by the light coming from the restroom below, and there she saw the sickly hand clutching upon her ankle tightly. A second later, the owner of the said hand showed himself. It was a middle-aged man wearing a white office shirt with a tie. However, it did seem like there were streaks of dried blackish fluid below his nostrils and ears, possibly being his blood. Erin then heard the door below being broken in with a bunch of groaning and moaning following in along with the footsteps filling the air. As she heard the footsteps approach nearer, she also felt the clutch being able to pull her in much more than she could resist. She felt another hand upon her knee, clawing over the fabric of her trousers.

  "Sir! Let go!" She shouted at him, to no avail. The humanoid creature didn't want to let go of her it seemed. He was trying to tear into her flesh with his nails, even though his nails were trimmed way too short for that, it still felt as if he could break her bones with his clutch.

  "FUCK!" Erin yelled out in pain. "Fucking let go of me! /Let go/!" Still, there was no sound coming from the man, he was just grunting and moaning as he tried to reach further toward Erin.

  Barely able to breathe and think in this situation, she decided to draw her firearm, aiming it toward the head of the said man before her index finger pulled the trigger a couple of times. Each of the shots rang near her, making her lose most of her hearing as the ringing in her ears overwhelmed all her senses. Though it was apparent that the clutches upon her legs were freed due to the shots, all there left were warm streaks of blood plastered upon her trousers. "Fuck... fuck." She muttered under her breath as she pulled herself further inside the shaft, leaving the opening with the light behind her with each crawl. Her thoughts raced across her mind as she finally slotted her firearm back in its holster. The crawling over the concrete and sometimes the metal surface made her elbows burn, however, she endured it as her survival depended on it. Her hand reached onto her belt to finally grasp her flashlight, turning it on with a flick of her thumb as she made her way deeper inside the vents. As her heavy breathing was her only company, she peered down to the grills that she went over, showcasing the other rooms occasionally. Most of what she saw were bloodied floors and such with those who were 'changed' roaming aimlessly in the rooms.

  However, after a while of the painful crawling, something piqued her interest. A clean room where someone was crouched in the corner, perhaps their body shaking a bit due to the sheer panic of what was happening or what was to happen to them. Erin pushed the grill of the vent downward, forcing it to drop with a loud clang. The figure stood upright in panic, it was a woman somewhere in her mid-thirties, wearing a slightly bloodied lab coat with her hair disheveled in a bun.

  "Who... who are you?" The woman stuttered due to fear. "Fuck... Fuck... FUCK! Stay away from me, please! I beg you!" She pleaded her heart out while trying to find a way out of this conundrum she found herself in.

  "Ma'am! Hey!" Erin, after a few good seconds, began addressing her. "Hey. It's alright. I am not one of 'them'. It's going to be okay." She tried to reassure the woman as she slowly lowered herself off the vent and dropped to her feet.

  "Thank God... thank fuc-" The woman muttered as she tried to collect her breathing.

  Erin saw this as an opportunity to take a step closer to her. "Look, I know we're in a... /situation/ right now but we have to get out of here as soon as possible, alright? We can't possibly stay here." She peered at the door for a second. "How many of'em are out there? Have you seen any?"

  To that, the woman nodded her head a couple of times. "Yeah... Yes, yes... There's like a... whole group. Maybe even more? I'm not... Not sure." Her shoulders gave out a low shrug.

  "Okay, look, we can either use the vents then or we can figure out something else. We'll get out of here /alive/, don't worry." Her reassurance was much to herself as it was to the woman. "Look, what's your name?"

  "Sophie. Yeah. Name's Sophie." She seemed to have calmed down a bit from her previous situation.

  "Erin. Nice meeting you, Sophie. Now, do you know where the nearest exit to here is?"

  Sophie nodded. "Yes. It's erm... It's..." Her hand rose as her index finger pointed ahead. "If we go that way, we can get to the stairs."

  "Alright, okay..." She took in a deep breath. "Perfect."

  As Sophie parted her lips to speak again, a powerful slam against the door disrupted their conversation.