I had woke up for the fourth time , my alarm clock cracked and buzzing, I'm surprised it still works after all the mornings of abuse i had put it through. Fuck it was already 8:30! work started at 9 and i needed time to get ready and go grab coffee around the corner. God i hate mornings i reluctantly threw my work outfit on white button up, slacks, suit jacket and the only shitty red tie i had for years, work wasn't so bad but some mornings i found myself having to really talk myself out of bed, playing call of duty until 4 in the morning didn't help either but whatever. this pretty much described the last year of my life, my job was a little dull I'm a secretary at an architectural firm, i had never thought of myself as a desk job kind of a guy but i had wanted to be an architect since i was a kid so one step at a time right. or so i told myself as i was walking out the door of my shitty little apartment, or when the kernel (my dad) had sent me another marine recruiting slip in the mail on my birthday. The more ironic part of my morning was standing in line at Starbucks realizing that i had a perfectly good coffee pot in my kitchen, and i was now standing in line with seven or so either over weight or just fucking clueless people waiting to pay five dollars for the same thing i could have made at home. next was the enjoyable part, walking in the crowds of people in downtown Seattle packed like sardines at every cross walk, there were three things about this walk that i enjoyed, first was my ipod without my music i might accidentally over hear one of these people talking to each other or on there cell phones and just lose my fucking mind leading into me trying to punch thirty people to death. that leads into the second thing i like about my walks is really analyzing these people physically, and putting them in life or death situations in my head and watching them fail in various was all just as funny as the last. i tried listening to less angry music hoping that was the cause of my mental instability, no such luck as it turns out slow calm music just kind of puts a black and white slow motion dramatic twist on my little psychotic fantasy's. and the third was drinking my coffee under these lovely grey clouds in the morning, it was one of the few things that i enjoyed about Seattle
i was late for work but at least i was there, having to put on a smile and interact with my coworkers helped lessen the questionable thoughts i had about the general public and my disrespect for the human condition. Even though a majority of these people inspired the same animosity in me there were a few of them that were actually OK people. Jason was a buddy of mine from high school that i had gotten a job for a few months back, he was your average guy but he usually had good intentions. he worked as a gofer, well a shitty gofer seeing as how he spent most of his time at my desk bullshitting with me, we spent most of that time checking out the sorority girls one of the less professional architects from down the hall had hired, there was a monthly girl all were our age and extremely hot so we didn't mind. especially on a day like today when Mr.Gunderson decided not to show up on time, me being forty five minutes or so late and him still not being here was odd. He was one of the firms oldest architects he had some kids and grand kids and was close to retiring, always punctual and classy he was another one of those few people i respected, the few occasions where i found myself thinking about my future without my usually pessimistic filter i had an image similar to Mr. Gundersons life, after a few phone calls to his house i gave up and got into a heated argument with Jason over who could kick who's ass in call of duty, that lead to me enjoying my extra time to goof off. after an hour or so of that it could have been that the day seemed to creep by slower then ever or that there was nobody around outside the empty offices were Jason and i a few people moving from floor to floor and one cute brunette who was obviously this months "new hire" even Jason's boss hadn't texted him to grab him a coffee or to get away from my desk all day.We eventually made our way down the hall way heading to the seventh floor break room, while listening to Jason ramble on about his "hot ass neighbor" i noticed that the grey skies from this morning had turned into rain. with no windows near my desk i had been missing out on one of those rainy day Seattle skylines, while spacing out staring outside i hadn't noticed Jason getting the evil eye from the cute brunette we had been checking out all morning. i had also missed whatever dumb ass remark he had thrown her way to earn a look like that. ha ha he was always getting shot down and shot hard.
As i fallowed him into the break room i did a smooth look back while walking and apologized for my friends behavior, she smiled and nodded . i never pass up an opportunity to score some browny points with a cute girl in the wake of a Buddy's failure, even though with my head turned i slammed right into the back of Jason's head "move it asshole!". It was the last thing i said before i gazed over Jason's shoulder and the five or six people gazing slack jawed at the TV screen, images of Portland Oregon and northern California were on the screen, everything was shaky and frantic it looked like riots of some sort, i couldn't tell what was happening but it wasn't good, until they aired a video of battlegrounds Washington, a small town down south near the Oregon Washington border, it was shot from a rooftop with someones home video camera it was an overturned van in the middle of the street with people trying to climb out a few kids and what looked like parents, there escape was stopped by one of the angry mobs that started pulling them out of the van, everyone stood motionless and silent until all the confusion on the screen became clear and the person shooting it calmed down, it was the same moment we realized they were being ripped apart, then after a second glance you realized it was with there teeth, a lady in front of Jason passed out and hit the ground, with not so much as a glance from everyone else in the room.
After a few moments of mindlessly glaring at the screen i grabbed Jason by the shoulder"we need,we need to go!" we ran out of the room and down the hall to the elevator, a few of the people had fallowed us down the hall and into the elevator, the others in the room mustn't have been able to move. as the doors on the elevator slid closed i could see that cute girl that Jason had offended down at the end of the hall, she had this look of curiosity and fear on her face as the space between the doors disappeared and they closed cutting off my line of sight. Right as i realized she was as oblivious to what was going on as Jason and i were twenty minutes before. Jason's elbow jamming into my side got my attention "what the fuck,how...." i didn't know what to tell him i just stared at him, we both moved our attention to the door, the lobby symbol had lit up red and the bell sound of arrival and the doors started to open, but before the opening got wide enough to look through fingers came poring through and tore the doors open, drenched men and women were poring in scared for there life's, there were so many of them it was like a mosh pit in a closet. i grabbed Jason's arm and pushed through, they can have the fucking elevator its not like it will close with that many people fighting for it. we found ourselves starring through the windows and raindrops in the lobby...... there were so many people stampeding through the streets, a few older guys burst through the doors leaving one ajar and knocking Jason down as they ran through us, i knelt down to help him up and as soon as we were both up on our feet, there was a man dressed in what looked like a bag boy uniform ,his head cocked to the side drenched in blood and rain, the noise that came out of his twisted face was like a gun shot starting a horse race if it had been composed of screeching and moaning mixed into one horrifying sound. it sent Jason and i foot to ass straight for the stairwell door nobody had noticed, fortunate for us our pursuer had been distracted by all the people still fighting over the elevator, we made it one floor up before we heard the screams echoing after us from the lobby, Floor after floor Jason in front of me neither of us knowing why we were heading up but we sure as shit couldn't go down, just then i caught a big number 7 out of the corner of my eye just in time to grab the back of Jason's shirt. i had to check if she was still there, that look on her face... i had to at least warn her. we slammed open the door and ran down the hall stopping half way to catch our breath, as my heart slowed and my breathing grew quieter, i could here the rain on the windows and Jason's heavy breathing which startled me at first, then i could here her she was on hall over on the ground leaning against the window crying. she was crying quietly because of what she could see on the streets below. I walked up slowly and shook her shoulder,she looked at me and threw her arms around me squeezing so tight it took my breath away. i didn't even know this girl but i felt like i owed her, like i had to protect her "Xander! we gotta do something man, we gotta go" Jason yelling snapped me out of it, now i could here the echoes getting louder and felt the same sense of urgency he had.we grabbed a few desks and chairs and propped them against the stairway door. we wedged it shut just in time, we put our weight against the desks and could here them running scraping the walls at first there were screams in the stairwell that turned into that soul seizing noise that thing in the lobby had made. we were listening quietly for an hour or so when the girl tapped me on the should and whispered "what about the elevator?" we ran quietly over to the elevator secretly praying in our minds that when we rounded the corner there would be nothing starring back at us. i hadn't taken a breath till i saw the doors closed and the light stuck on "l" for lobby we all decided to barricade the break room since it had food and a hefty lock on the door. we raided the fridge for food and something to drink there was a lot left, the only thing left louder then Jason and i chugging bottles of water was the emergency broadcast system on the TV we had been watching earlier when shit hit the fan, not that the fan had stopped spinning the whole damn world didn't still smell like shit but for the moment we are safe. with nothing else to do we all just kind of gazed out the window as the weather along with everything else got worse, the only things keeping the flames small was the rain and the few sirens we had heard before had died out as it got darker. we had stood there for hours until Jason started rambling on about ideas of escape or safety like we were in some horror movie none of it even worth repeating.
we decided to get some sleep , i went and checked the doors and ended up setting a glass vase on our structure of desks on the door to the stair well, an propped a waiting bench up against the elevator door vertically with a bunch of glass plates on top. just enough to make a loud noise so i die on my feat and not asleep. i came back and locked the door to our new room, Jason was asleep on the couch so i decided to pile up some jackets and lay on the ground next to the girl, before my eyes had a chance to weigh shut her hand had crept up over my shoulder, with eyes closed i went to meet her hand with mine to find her putting a large kitchen knife into my hand putting a smirk on my face. all she said before she rolled back over and went to sleep was "oh my names Samantha"
