Sometimes, I don’t know why we even bother making plans.

They never go as expected.

Anyway, when we had moved out and away from the communications room, Kenji told us he didn’t want to leave Maria there by herself. I guess he didn’t fully trust Tariq, even though he was proving to be quite useful with the computer. And his knowledge of the nano-swarm was a big help. If he hadn’t taken control of the surveillance cameras, we might never have known it was coming for us until it was too late.

Still, Kenji wasn’t comfortable leaving Maria by herself. So Maria came with us.

Unfortunately, this would prove to be just as dangerous.

Before we left though, Daniel untied Tariq. He said he needed to have his hands free if he was going to help us. And it was obvious we needed his help. He was manning the surveillance cameras. Daniel and Kenji both agreed that without him, we’d be flying blind.

We left the mess hall of the research room and came to the enclosed walkway that connected the research building to the military building. The walkway was suspended about two stories above the ground.

Each end had a pressurized, automatic door that required a password to open. Just as before, with the door in the rabbit hole, we didn’t know the password. But again, we didn’t need to. Both sets of doors, the ones on the research side and the ones on the military side had been blown apart.

“Looks like someone used C4 on the doors,” Daniel said.

“And the actual walkway doesn’t look too good either,” Maria pointed out.

She was right. The whole thing was tilted to one side. There’s no way it was stable. To make matters worse, the floor of the walkway was basically a metal grate. And we could see the infected walking around directly below.

They didn’t know we were standing above them yet. But we were bound to make noise as we walked across the metal walkway.

“Why would someone blow these doors up?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” Daniel answered. “Doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe they malfunctioned,” Kenji offered.

“Great,” Jack said. “There’s no way we’re crossing this thing. It’s busted.”

“There’s gotta be another way.” I said. “Maybe underground?”

Daniel shook his head. “There’s no time. We have to cross. If we do it quickly, it should hold.”

“Should?” Jack said. “I don’t know, man.”

“Look, the infected are inside the perimeter,” Daniel replied. “The nano-swarm thing is on its way. We need to get the security system back on line or we’re all dead.”

Jack swallowed hard. He looked at the walkway.

“I’ll go first,” Kenji said.

He took a tentative first step out on to the grated floor. He put some weight on it, and then some more.

The metal structure groaned and complained. But it held.

“Seems OK,” Kenji said.

He then jumped up and down on it.

“Whoa, settle down!” I said.

“It’s fine,” he replied. “It’s perfectly safe. Let’s go.”

Unfortunately, the few infected milling around below us, were now looking up, and trying to figure out the noise they had just heard. Some of them had moved underneath us, reaching up with their arms and their black fingernails. I had to remind myself that we were at least two stories high. They couldn’t get to us.

“They can’t get to us,” I whispered to myself.

We followed Kenji out on to the walkway when suddenly we could hear the proximity alarm again.

Daniel spoke into his walkie-talkie. “Tariq, what’s going on?”

“Ah. It is coming. Something big.”

“The nano-swarm?”

“No.”

I looked out the blackened windows of the walkway, through the small scratched out peep holes. Nothing.

The only sign of danger were the infected. Through the grated floor we could see them mindlessly reaching up for us. But most of them were still clawing at the walls of the compound.

“I don’t see anything,” Daniel said to Tariq.

“It is on the far-side of the research building.”

“What the hell is it?”

“I do not know. Something big.” he said, pausing, hesitating. “It is moving around the facility. It is coming for you. Hide.”

We were all looking now. Out both sides. Still nothing. But then we felt the walkway shake. It was only a small vibration at first, but it was noticeable. The vibration was followed by another. And another.

Slow and methodical.

We heard a snorting sound. Something growled.

Maria let out a little, tiny yelp. “Guys, I see it.” She then put her hands over her mouth so she wouldn’t make any more noise.

“Hit the deck,” Kenji whispered.

We dived for the floor of the walkway, flattening ourselves as much as we could.

“Did it see us?” I asked.

“No,” Kenji answered. “There’s no way. The windows are completely blacked out.”

“Do you think it’s the same one from the town?” Jack asked. “Did it follow us here?”

No one answered Jack. I for one was too scared to speak. And I think Kenji and Daniel were trying to think of a way out of this situation.

“What do we do now?” Jack continued.

“I don’t know. Just be calm,” Kenji said. “Calm and quiet.”

Daniel’s radio squawked to life with Tariq’s voice mixed in with some static. “Do you see it yet?” he asked.

“Turn that thing off,” Kenji whispered.

Daniel switched off his radio.

But it was too late. The monster had heard. It let out a deafening roar as it continued to walk slowly towards us, each footstep causing the walkway to vibrate and shake.

I got to my knees so I could see through a small gap in the paint, right near the window sill.

And that’s when I saw it. If what Jack had suggested earlier was true, it meant that this thing was once a human being. A person who had been transformed into something huge and grotesque. Something from a crazy person’s nightmare. It definitely looked like the one we had seen the other day, the one that had taken those two women. Maybe it had tracked us down because it was mad at us for taking away its food source?

Maybe it wanted revenge?

It kept moving around the research building, sniffing the walls and the windows. It moved on all fours. Hunched over. Heavy footsteps shook the footbridge, the metal structure groaned.

“We’re two stories up,” Daniel said. “We should be fine.”

And as soon as he said it, the monster stood up on its hind legs. And just like that, it towered over the walkway.

We scuttled underneath the windows, making sure it couldn’t see us. And we were trying to be as quiet as possible so it couldn’t hear us.

“Now what?” I whispered.

Kenji shook his head.

“If we stay down, and keep quiet, we should be able to make it into the military compound,” Daniel answered.

“And then?”

“I don’t know. But it beats being stuck on this footbridge.”

He had a good point.

We were about to make a move, but just then the monster ducked underneath the walkway. It must’ve brushed its back against the structure because the whole thing rose up about a foot in the air, rocking back and forth. Once the monster was clear of the footbridge, the whole structure abruptly and violently shifted back into its original place. The monster stood up on the other side, looking out and away from us.

As the structure moved, Maria let out another yelp.

Again, this noise caught the attention of the monster. We couldn’t see it clearly through the spray-painted windows; it was just a shadow, silhouetted against the harsh desert sun. And we were pretty confident it couldn’t see us, but just to be sure, we quickly scrambled to the other side and hid under the windows as it turned around to inspect the walkway.

The monster moved in closer. The shadow of its giant head scanned up and down the entire length of the walkway. Its mouth was slightly open, exposing foot long, razor sharp, samurai sword teeth.

I closed my eyes at that point, hoping it would just keep walking and leave us alone, praying that the damn walkway would hold.

My prayers went unanswered.

The monster brushed up against the walkway again, gently at first, but then more forcefully. The whole structure shook. The floor tilted further and further with each blow. Suddenly, it began to break away from the research side of the facility. The windows began to shatter.

“We need to go,” Kenji said.

But before we could move, a giant, powerful arm and a hand full of claws punched through the window, breaking the reinforced glass like it was rice-paper.

I covered my head and held my breath so I didn’t scream.

The monster was feeling around, searching.

Kenji then stood up from his position to get a look at the monster; he knelt back down and dived out of the way as the monster’s other hand came crashing through the window. Kenji stood up again and took aim with the shotgun. He unloaded two shells at point blank range, right at the monster’s eyes.

The monster roared in pain. It was a frightening, earsplitting, earth shattering noise. Fortunately, the shotgun blast had stunned the monster momentarily.

“Everybody out!” Kenji shouted. “Let’s go!”

Daniel was already on the other side and Jack got to his feet in a flash.

We were almost out. We were so close. I had grabbed on to Maria who had been lying down next to me.

But we were too slow.

Maybe we were worried about the broken glass on the floor. Maybe I tripped. Maybe Maria tripped. For the life of me, I can’t remember. All I remember is seeing the giant shadow of the monster through the black windows. It was charging at us.

It was coming in fast.

I realized in a heartbeat that we weren’t going to make it to the other side in time.

I looked up and saw the guys standing there at the entrance to the military compound, waving us forward, urging us forward.

I grabbed Maria in a bear hug, tackled her to the ground and braced for impact.