Chapter 20

"Omar?" Elise gasped, still trying to catch her breath. They were all sweaty and boiling from the inside out. Elise was almost too exhausted to really acknowledge the fact that she had just witnessed Omar, a man she mostly remembered for that one Christmas party she was invited to where every time she saw him he was holding at least three beers, throw a man to his death. "What the fuck?"

She slumped onto the floor, unable to stand anymore, and Holden joined her, leaning slightly against her, but she barely noticed.

"What been going on here? Where are the security guards?" Meagan asked. Her breathing was just as ragged as everyone else's, but she seemed too concerned to take a break.

"Things got real bad last night," Omar began. "They took over the restaurant and those not wanting to put up with their shit joined me and moved down here."

"Jesus Christ Omar, you start a revolution or something?" Elise asked.

"Wait, no more talk. Water, for the love of god," Steve finally managed.

"We do have a limited supply..."

"We brought guns," Elise held up her pistol.

"And granola!" Meagan offered.

"All right, follow me," Omar held the door open for them and the four weary travellers entered the Tower. "Holy shit. Did you guys bring a cat?"

***

Yesterday:

Krista was working a late shift that day. She started work about the same time Elise was going home, before the outbreak has garnered real attention, before the dead outnumbered the living. When she arrived they were having an oddly slow day seeing it was so sunny outside. That was the first and last warning she would get that something wasn't right.

An hour later she was on the glass floor level, trying to mind her own business and avoid tourists who looked like they needed someone to take their picture. She was terrible with a camera, always had been. She felt like she was doing them a disservice whenever she took a picture for them.

"What's going on out there?" One of the tourists asked, staring down through the glass floor.

Krista peered over the edge and saw a large crowd of people standing around at the base of the Tower. She couldn't tell if they were coming or going, but they all seemed to be moving, buzzing around each other like they were having a rave. Her first thought was that it was a flash mob, but for the life of her couldn't figure out what they were doing.

"Code 99. Code 99, please be advised-" came over her radio, and then it suddenly flared feedback as a good five people started speaking into it at once. She could barely make out anything being said, except for a snippet here and there:

"... banging on the doors..."

"... glass is break..."

"... what are those..."

Mostly it was just jumbled swearing and, she thought, someone started screaming giraffes over and over again. Suddenly she noticed that tourists were looking at her with worry and she turned off her radio, looking around nervously for a captain or a security guard.

"What's happening down there?"

"I, uh, I'm going to find out."

She saw another red shirt wearing host by the elevator and ran over. "Are you listening to the radio? What's going on?"

"Stop that elevator!" A security guard came around the corner and pointed at one of the hosts loading people onto an elevator to go back down.

"Hey, we've been waiting 5 minutes for this elevator," a tourist protested.

"Elevators aren't moving until we figure out what's happening-"

All their radios suddenly transmitted a final, frantic scream, and then white noise droned on until they turned them off.

The silence only lasted a second, before a tourist screamed in panic. The word "terrorist" was screamed more than once.

Krista was too stunned to move, until someone grabbed her shoulders and started violently shaking her. She felt her neck snap back and then one of the security guards grabbed the tourist and punched them in the face. The security guard had a glint of joy as his fist impacted with the man's face and an all out riot was suddenly in motion. Tourists frantic to escape and security guards happily beating them into submission.

All the hosts ran to the next floor up, just in time to see an elevator open, three security guards standing ready as three pigmy giraffes ran out, some sort of gelatinous goo still glazing their bodies. The guards only looked shocked for a brief second before they stomped on the tiny things, crushing them under their great black boots, grinning at each other as they ground blood and fur into the carpet.

When they were finished, the guards turned around at the shocked people.

"Everyone listen up! We're in charge now!"