Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 68

My heart pounded. The doors slid open, and a vector, an obese man that almost filled up the entire frame of the entrance, pushed in. His two-pupil eyes were directed at me, letting out a grotesque snarl. None of the other vectors could get past his towering stature, so he was the only vector who stepped into the lift, and the single vector that posed an immediate threat.

I raised my gun and shot him on the face.

The gunshot echoed inside the elevator's small enclosed space, and without thinking, I put my hands over my head, trying to shake off the painful ringing inside my ears. The others did the same. Luke recovered first. He used the crutches to push the fat vector out of the door, crushing a couple of women standing behind him. Under his weight, the women couldn't move, shrieking and snarling after our blood instead.

There were still vectors coming from behind them.

One vector jumped into the elevator, but Luke didn't give him enough chance to strike as he clubbed the poor fool over the head and kicked him back into the lobby. Peter and Haskell took the opportunity to shoot him on the legs and then fired two more vectors trying to climb over the obese man. I clenched my jaw as my heart kept racing. I joined in the fight.

"Close the door!" Peter yelled over.

Luke pushed the "close door" button on the panel, but every time they slid closer, a vector's arm would be on the way, detected by the motion sensor, and so the doors would part open again.

One woman grabbed hold of Luke's crutches and yanked him out of the elevator.

"Luke!" I screamed. I raised my gun and tried to shoot her. The bullet entered her right side, and the woman's grip on the crutches loosened and

Haskell bounced out of the elevator as Peter suppressed fire. Haskell grabbed Luke by the collar, dragged him back in, kicking and screaming, and then bludgeoned the woman with the crutches. Though, he kept missing the hits. The same infected woman leaped and grabbed hold of Luke's foot, her jaw clenched around his toes, and she was dragged along into the elevator.

Once inside, Haskell took out his knife and stabbed the woman at the nape of the neck. She stopped moving right away.

"I'm bit! I'm bit!" Luke roared.

I grabbed the crutches from Luke's grip and kept pushing the other vectors back while we shot at those on the ground. I didn't care about my hearing any longer, focusing on killing all of them. The bodies continued to pile in front of us.

"They won't close!" I cried out, juggling between clobbering a vector on the face and then pushing the close button again and again.

"Don't worry. It's right about time," Peter said.

"What's about time?"

The elevator suddenly let out a piercing alarm. The doors slowly slid to a close. I realized what Peter meant. If the elevator was blocked for too long, it would attempt to force the door shut.

Peter grabbed the end of the crutches and helped me pushed the vectors further from the entrance, preventing them from triggering the motion sensor. We pulled the crutches back just before the doors snapped shut. Peter broke the small glass panel at the bottom and pulled the EMERGENCY STOP button, rendering the entire elevator out of operation. We could still hear them hammering from the other side, but the doors no longer opened.

On the ground, Luke crawled away from the woman and curled up in the corner. "The bitch bit me!"

"Let me see," I said. I knelt down in front of him.

I reached out to his leg, but Luke pulled them back close to his chest. "No. Don't touch it. I know I'm bit. I don't want you to get infected."

"Let me see, Luke," I said firmly. "Please."