The group decided to head down the stairs. Shay and Maddie had new objectives of find out what was going on, defend each other, and survive.
To search the floor more quickly, they decided to split up into two groups. One team was made up of Shay and Zoul, while the other team was made up of Maddie and Tessa.
Zoul's team went right and Tessa's group went left. Tessa and Maddie walked down the hallway, looking over her shoulder she watched the distance between them and Zoul grow till they went around a corner.
Tessa looked at Maddie who was walking right next to her. Maddie's childlike face made it easy to tell what she was feeling. She was nervous. Maybe even a little terrified.
They check each door they past. Nothing. No one was there. This floor was strangely empty. Their hallway was longer than Zoul's and they were to turn around when they reached the end and meet in the middle.
Tessa heard Maddie open the door behind her as she opened the door in front of her. She then heard it slamming shout and Maddie starting to sniffle.
"What's wrong?" Tessa panicked.
What scared her so badly? She slowly crossed over towards the fort when Maddie didn't answer her since she was too busy crying.
Slowly she opened the door. The light was already turned on and Tessa could see them. She screamed. She couldn't help it.
Their lifeless, blue, feet were tied together. There wrist the same. They hung there above the ground by their necks. Tessa could see their bruised necks. Their eyes stared lifelessly at her, pleading her to help them. Some had their mouths open with their tongues hanging freely out of their mouths.
There wasn't just a couple of them. There was many. Looking down on the ground she saw that all of their shoes were placed neatly with a white piece of paper propped up against it.
Tessa had finally stopped screaming. Controlling her breathing, she looked back into the room. She took a deep breath before she entered it. Some of the bodies looked like they haven't been dead for long.
She walked up to the nearest pair of shoes. She bent down and grabbed the paper with the tips of her fingers. She read it to herself.
"Jane Mayberry 1980-2020"
They were like tombstones. They marked the person and the span of their life. She could still hear Maddie sobbing outside of the room. Good.
She reached and touch Jane's lifeless foot. It was cold but not freezing. She didn't die not to long ago. She looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost eleve.
Strange what felt like hours were only a couple of minutes.
Tessa backed out of the room and shut off the lights before closing the doors. She sat next to Maddie, her back pressed against the cold wall behind her. She rubbed Maddie's back, trying to comfort her in some way.
"There there. Everything will be fine," Tessa whispered.
Soon Zoul and Shay reached them. They were running, from the time it took them to reach them they probably reached the end of their side of the hallway and heard the echoes of Tessa's screams and came running.
As they doubled over to catch their breaths, Tessa stood. She walked up to Zoul and whispered in his ear the what laid beyond the door.
After hearing it Zoul did not want to see this for himself. He believed her words. He trusted her to tell him the truth. His eyes widened when he heard how neatly the the shoes and paper were sat up as if it was done in respect.
After a quick discussion between Tessa and Zoul they came up with the best solution. Go down to the next floor. It wasn't safe here, especially for Shay and Maddie. They didn't know where the killer was or what they were doing.
The only problem was they didn't know what lurked on the next floor. Maybe the killer went down to the next floor. Or he went up and was killed by Shay or the chief. Maybe whatever was on the next floor was more dangerous. The only way to find answers were to make their way down. So down they went.