Snippet #2486685

Harper Hopkins

(NOTE: Edits made, ~11am PST 3/26, because writing after two glasses of wine is not a great idea!)

The metal desk was heavy; heavy enough to keep the clawing, corpulent-looking secretary from burrowing her way through if she did happen to even scratch through the massive oak door.

At least they had that going for them.

Harper pursed her lip, and turned to peer again out the window. They had to be four or five stories up off of the ground, so they were a fairly safe distance up from the street and possible looters, or worse. On the downside, there was no way to climb or drop down safely.

Slow-moving figures dotted her line of sight occasionally. A few people darted quickly through the streets. Office windows across the street were lit on a fashion similar to theirs, even with similar faces that could be made out from their distance away. They weren't the only ones watching the events slowly unfolding below.

"Look," she said as she opened the window and gestured Calvin and Nathan to check out the window, "we can't get down from here, and it's getting darker. It's either we go back through the door, work our way through and get to our van, or we stay up here until we can see on the street."

Nathan looked over his shoulder at the door, the sound of the woman's guttural throat gurgles making him shudder, and looked back to Harper. "You can't be serious."

Harper furrowed her brow and pointed out the window. "Nathan, there's just no way," she fired back, trying to restrain herself from panicking. "Remember that long elevator ride? I don't remember us bringing parachutes, so the only option for us that doesn't involve breaking legs is out that door, right there." She pointed toward the growling noises.

Nathan shook his head. Calvin stared out the window, eyes bulging at the sight of the unseemly quiet mayhem down below. One of those slower-moving figures dragged itself below a lit streetlight. The newly-illuminated figure looked a lot like the secretary--limp neck, lips bared back to reveal gnashy teeth. Overall, almost unhuman. It toddled out of the circular field of light and wandered back off into the dark. "She's right," he said, "and if we don't make a break for it now, we'll have to stay up here probably for a long while."

Nathan looked around Ross' office, desperate to find some way to manage the threat outside of the door and make it to safety. It wasn't guaranteed safety, but it might be better than what they'd have up here. Clearly, they'd need backup methods of reasoning with the three people out there... if they could even reason at all.

Finally, his eyes landed on a set of golf clubs. He briefly reflected on their inherent pretentiousness, and then dashed over and reached for three of them. "I have no clue what any of these do," he reported almost sheepishly. "If this idea sucks, then be my guest and find another one. I really think we should stay up here and wait for the sun to come back out."