Beyond the Walls

Endurance

The screeching sound echoes in the dark walls and as a dark figure dives down in line of railing. 

“WOOOOOOOOH!”

Lucas watches a man with a horrid expression on his face as he tries to balance out the piece of metal he is standing on while it slides down the railings. His hands are up holding a wood, gliding down the wiring above his head. 

“s**t!” He shouted as the end of the railing came to an end a few feet away from Lucas.

*Bam

The man slid down and groaned in pain as it hugged its body. 

The undead comes closer again. Lucas has no time to contemplate what just happened and begin to crawl again.

*Screeeech

“ARGHHHHH!! Ah! STOP!!! STOP!! Please Help Me!!” Another shout had been heard and the next was the munching sound.

With the undead’s attention diverted from the scream. Lucas didn’t waste time. 

“Dammit! I told him to be careful! Ah!” The man in front of Lucas exclaimed as he saw Lucas crawling down like an undead to him. He was about to turn to leave but he sighed and squatted down.

“Hey man, were you bitten?”  He asked.

Lucas slowly looked up and bit his lips as he shook his head. “No.”

“Okay, I’ll trust that you weren’t. Let’s go” said the man and picked Lucas arm and put it around his shoulder.

Dumbfounded at the strangers' help, they went down the narrow path together. Fortunately, there weren’t too many stairs left. At the bottom of the stairs, there are dead bodies together with undead with twisted figures.

They got into an almost empty room, with large broken windows, fresh and old blood everywhere. In the corner there is an overthrown table with two feet left, They hid themselves in there while they catch their breath. 

“Look man, I hate to say this but, there is no way you could get down the building if you can’t at least walk. Can I check it?” The man said after clearing there was no undead in the surrounding area.

Lucas flinched. He didn’t notice it earlier but the man had helped him look young. With his bonnet on and the end parts of his black hair are peeking through it. 

The man stretches Lucas’ legs and starts checking it. 

“Hmmm. Is your pain tolerant that high or there is really nothing wrong with your ankle?” He asked. Even Lucas can’t answer because he really didn’t feel any pain.

He motioned to stand up when the man pulled him down again.

There is a groaning sound coming to the door. An undead enters the room. It won’t be long until the rest follows.

A distant cry was heard. It was faint but it was clear where it came from. The other door across the room.

“We gotta move, I am not sure if you really can stand on your own, but I ain’t helping you again.” The man whispered.

Lucas nodded.

The man sneaked to the undead's side and kicked it away from the door. Lucas took a deep breath and started running as quietly as he could.

“Hehehe. Man, you were just scared earlier.” The man pat Lucas back before he enters the door.

Lucas turns to see the undead getting back to its feet and multiple groans are coming to the other side of the room.

Unlike the previous room, the next room was dark and there were already multiple undead feeding on corpses there. The man signals Lucas to follow him quietly. They hid among the things as they passed around the munching undeads.

Still trembling, Lucas shakes his numb hands as he focuses on following the man. They reached the end of the room and opened the door quietly.

They managed not to alert the undead until they closed the door behind them. They are faced with a hallway, It was dark and eerily quiet. 

They found the elevator doors without the lift. The man looks down but he can’t see the end of it. 

“Can you climb down the ropes?” The man asked.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Lucas answered as he scanned the surroundings. His eyes already adjusted to the dark hallway.

“Why not? Are you scared of that also? Hahaha. Well the test said, we need to exit the building, isn’t this a shortcut?” The man said as he adjusted his gloves.

“Watch this.” Lucas said and threw the pipe down the elevator, the pipe made noise as it hit the metal walls of the elevator. It didn’t take long until several undead from the lower floor began to throw themselves at the open elevator lift. 

The groaning didn’t stop for a while. While Lucas and the young man watch them.

“If you went there and accidentally hit the wall, the sound will send an echo and you can guess the rest.” Lucas said and walked away.

“You saved me there. There is no choice then, we go for the emergency stairs.”

“Wait! We can’t do it like that.” Lucas said hurriedly. He is not exactly in his calmest manner, but he knows there can increase their survival out there just blindly go for the stairs.

“What is it?”

“We need a map. Seeing the elevator and the map near the emergency stairs are gone, someone already had them. There is no guarantee the other building maps are also intact. ” Lucas said. 

“Why would you need a map? This is a test of endurance, all you need is to run.” The man shrugged his shoulders.

“Can you risk just running around looking for an exit until the time is up? Do you know how many floors there are? Or how many emergency exits there are? Buildings with many floors tend to have more than 1 emergency exit because of the population of the employees. ” Lucas explained.

The man was stunned and blinked many times.

“Woah. okay. So where can we get this map?” The man put his hand together and asked Lucas.

“Ah.. Umm. The other room looks like a secretary room and seeing it was not in total wrecked shape, there can be a copy of the whole building lay out near their area. That is to see the department location or things like that.”

“Wait… what is a secretary room? Why would they get a room that big and get a blueprint?”

“Their role is to assist the CEO or owner of this building. I am guessing it was the room before with large windows. Also I don’t think it’s a blueprint. It’s just a simple map with department names on it.”

“Department. . . how would I know? I can’t read. What is a CEO?”

Lucas was silent. Inside the walls have no buildings like this or at least the outer walls, so it is understandable that things like this are not familiar with people who grew up inside the walls.

“Just bring any paper with boxes and stairs drawn on them. There are two desks in there so we will split.” Lucas said.

“Oh no, Just right here, I’ll go get it myself…”

“But--”

“No buts-- You kinda slowing me down, no offense, but I’ll be good on my own.” The man said as he approached the door once again and sleathitly went inside. Unable to watch for his companion, Lucas just stood still in the empty hall of elevators.

It took a few minutes for the door knobs to twist and the man was crawling to get inside. He has a pink or originally pink colored bag that is worn out.

The man took all the things out from the bag. Several presentation documents and some other things.

‘Bingo!’ Lucas exclaimed. It’s the map he is looking for. He scans around it seriously.

“Is that it? I found it safely tucked in the glass. So how many floors are we taking?” The man said. There are some discolorations but overall it is readable. 

“16. Take this.” Lucas said as he folded the paper and gave it to the man.

“That’s a lot. Do you think each floor is full of undead?”  The young man took it and put it inside his jacket. 

“Why do you think this test is called Endurance then?” Lucas continued to rummage at the items on the floor, he found a swiss knife and gave it to the man.

“I should keep that in mind. What is this?”

“An automatic swiss knife, you see the small button here, and the knife will appear.” 

The man tried doing it and was amazed for one second. The knife is full of rust. He sighed and mumbled. “Better than nothing.”

Lucas grabbed a box shaped item and turned on the side and slid up the switch from the other side. 

An blue-electricity was produced.

“WOAH! Is that electricity? Wait, wait. . . I know what that is called.”

Lucas looked at the amazed face of the kid in front of him. “Stun Gun.”

“Yes, that’s right. I saw one time the Renaissance used something like that. . . oy. Yo! Where are you going, the exit is right there?” The young man asked and pointed at the emergency exit.

“That exit is for common people and in the pre-apocalypse world CEOs are not considered common people.”