(Meghan)
Meghan waited patiently as Ray spoke to his mother.
Even though he was at the other end of the room and facing away from her, she could tell that he had tears in his eyes. She knew he needed this. He was probably worried sick about whether his family was safe or not. Now, he finally had the closure he so desperately desired.
The call was a very cliché one. Meghan didn't mean to eavesdrop but it was quite hard when they were literally in the same room. Ray spent the majority of the call trying to convince his mother that he could take care of himself. He promised that they were both safe and that they had a plan to escape Prime. He assured her that they would make it to them as soon as they could. All she had to do was worry about themselves and stay alive till he got there.
The call didn't go on for very long. Ray brought up the fact that they didn't have much time to spend idling around as they needed to get to the basement. He said his final goodbyes and cut the call.
He stayed in the corner of the room for a moment longer. Meghan saw him raise his hand and wipe his cheeks. She turned her head and pretended like she hadn't noticed as he started walking back towards her.
"Well, that happened…" he started.
"Yeah, you got to speak with your mom. You must be feeling really relieved."
"You have no idea. Feels like a huge weight has been lifted off me."
"Did she say why nobody answered your calls till now?"
"Ahh yeah, my brother got lost in the crowd apparently. They were panicking and running around looking for him."
"Oh no," Meghan said, "Did they find him?"
"Yeah, eventually. He was scared shitless when they did. Poor guy…"
"Thank god. At least he's safe."
"Yeah, they all are. Mom said that things were still looking really bad at the hospital. A lot of cops and army personnel are trying to contain the situation. All the people in the isolation room might be moved to a safer location soon."
"Moved? Moved where?"
"No idea. I told my mom to message me the moment she finds out. The location shouldn't be an issue so long as we have the car."
Meghan nodded, "Right."
"Now we need to actually get there in one piece."
Meghan winced, "Don't make it sound so ominous."
"My bad," said Ray as he picked up his javelin from the floor and adjusted the knives in his belt.
"I'm really nervous right now. Maybe even more than when we had to face the woman." Meghan said, "At least then we had a plan and it was only one of them. Now, we don't even know how many we'll be facing and we're going in blind. That doesn't make me feel good at all."
Ray gave her an understanding look, "I know what you mean but we'll have to make up a plan on the fly. We won't just barge into the basement like crazy people so don't worry. We need to get to the Lower Ground first. Once we're at LG, we'll get a better understanding of the situation."
"Okay," Meghan said, "We're still taking the fire exit?"
"Should be the safest route." Ray agreed.
With that, the two of them checked the corridor of the fourteenth floor before exiting Ray's flat. He locked the door behind them as they walked over to the fire exit. Meghan tried to open it as quietly as she could but it still made a loud creaking noise. She flinched. Hopefully, it hadn't reached the ears of any nearby Deathless.
When they were both through the door, Meghan pulled it shut.
It was really dark in the fire exit. Though it was still in the middle of the afternoon, there were no windows to let in any of the sunlight. The fire exit was also devoid of any light source so they had no way of seeing their surroundings. The only bit of light they got came from the transom window on the door. But that was barely enough for them to even see their own hands.
Meghan quickly pulled out her phone and turned on the torch.
"Nice," Ray said.
His voice echoed through the dark and narrow passage. The reverberations were really strong in here.
"Oh fuck," he whispered, "that was loud."
"Let's stick to whispering for now." Meghan advised.
Ray nodded in agreement.
Meghan flashed the light from her phone onto the stairs leading down.
"Only fourteen floors to go," she said sarcastically.
"Fifteen," Ray corrected, "We're going to the basement, remember?"
"Great, thanks. I feel much better now."
She could almost hear him smirking, "Sorry," he said.
Together, they started making their descent down the long, winding stairways one step at a time.
As they reached the Thirteenth floor, Ray suddenly stopped and covered the torch with his palm. Meghan froze in place. Her breathing got noticeably heavier. She didn't know why they had stopped but she knew better than to distract him with a question now. He seemed to be looking out the transom window of the Thirteenth floor door. He had clearly seen something out there. Something that required them to take caution.
Meghan saw Ray lower himself to a crouch and she did the same. Very slowly he moved below the window and beckoned her to follow. She covered the torch with her thumb and shadowed his steps.
When they had made it down a couple of steps, Ray stood upright again.
"Two Deathless… eating someone" he explained.
Meghan shuddered. Thank god she didn't look. It was not a sight she was very keen on witnessing.
The next few floors went by without any cause for concern. Meghan counted Six doors so far. That meant that they were now on the ninth floor. She saw Ray crane his neck to get a better view through the window. He had done this for every floor that they descended. He was cautious like that, something Meghan was really grateful for. If they were still alive now, it was in no small part due to his resilience.
Meghan found herself wondering what she would have done if Ray hadn't shown up at her door. Would she even have known about the crazy things that was happening in Prime? Would she have been able to think up a way to escape? Could she had survived all this on her own? She didn't know the answer to those questions and she was thankful that she wouldn't have to find out.
As they made their descent to the eighth floor, Meghan could hear a lot of low snarling noises. With every step she took, the noises only seemed to grow louder. There were Deathless on this floor and a lot of them too.
"Lights" Ray whispered.
Meghan immediately turned off the torch and crouched down. Her eyes had now adjusted to the dark well enough to see where she was stepping. The two of them hugged the wall as they made it to the door of the fire exit.
Very carefully, Ray peered out through the glass window.
"My god!" he exclaimed quietly.
"What is it?"
"There's about half a dozen of them on this floor." He replied.
Meghan's heart sank. She suddenly felt very small, like a timid little mouse. The idea of having to face six of them at once was unfathomable. They would both get ripped to shreds in a matter of seconds. She pitied the residents of the eighth floor. They were either already dead or trapped in their homes with a small horde of hungry Deathless roaming outside. She didn't know which of those fates was worse.
"Oh god, no…" Ray uttered weakly.
"What?" Meghan asked.
Ray didn't answer. He kept staring out of the transom window, transfixed by something he had seen on the other side. His lack of a response was kinda annoying. It only fueled her curiosity even more. She tried to raise herself higher to get a better view by standing on her tiptoes.
She saw a bunch of Deathless standing still all over the eighth floor corridor. Though the sight was terrifying, she couldn't figure out what Ray had seen that unsettled him so much. That made her even more annoyed.
"What is it?" she asked him again, a little louder.
Ray slowly raised his hand and pointed to a Deathless standing at the far end of the corridor. It was facing slightly away from them but Meghan could tell it was young guy, perhaps around their age. She couldn't see his face clearly but something about him felt oddly familiar.
"Adam…" Ray whispered agonizingly.