Free Glory (Book 2) by Michael McManamon Page A

he had known him. Though the airport was big. There were hundreds of people who worked there. He didn't know them all.
    He stepped over the body. He told the little girl not to look as he did. She still had her face crammed into his neck and wasn't likely going to look at anything.
    "All right," he said after he walked a little while longer. "I think I know where I'm going,"
    The hallway looked familiar. There were a few rooms on each side of him. He thought one was a utility closet. The other, an office of some sort. He could see that the hall came to an end a little further down.
    Then all of that changed.
    The lights went out and Scooter couldn't see anything anymore.
    "Fuck," he said.
    "What happened? Where are the lights?"
    "Fuck, fuck!" he said again. It wasn't much of a reply. And it probably wasn't something that he should have said to a little girl. But the words came out of his mouth without much thought. "This isn't good."
    "It's not good? Why? What's wrong?"
    Scooter shook his head, feeling stupid for worrying the little girl. "No, no," he tried to reassure her. "It's okay. I was just surprised, that's all."
    Scooter hadn't noticed that the lights had been on to begin with. They were something that he took for granted. Now that they were off things seemed a lot more serious. He tried to keep the concern out of his voice.
    "Why'd they go out?" the little girl asked.
    "I don't know," he admitted. "But don't worry. We'll be okay."
    Scooter placed his hand against the wall and started to walk beside it. He continued in the same direction that he had been going. He knew that the hallway came to an end. He'd just have to choose a direction to follow once he got there.
    Of course, he could always go back the way that he had come . No, that idea didn't appeal to him at all. The creature could have come back.
    "It's just like in the elbator," the little girl said.
    "What?"
    "The elbator," she repeated. "Everything went out in the elbator."
    The elbator.
    "Yeah," Scooter said. "It's just like that." But that wasn't true. The elevator had gone out a long tim e befor e the lights had. He didn't know why. He assumed that they must have been on a different part of the grid, on a separate generator. In the end, he figured that it was one more thing that didn't matter.
    He kept walking until he got to the end of the hallway.
    "Which way?" he asked himself.
    "What?"
    "Which way should we go? Left or right?"
    " Ry e ," the little girl replied.
    It seemed a good a choice as any.
    Scooter kept his hand on the wall as he walked. He was worried about tripping on something…som e on e . He didn't want to fall with the girl in his arms. He couldn't risk hurting her. Or himself. He needed to move slowly. Carefully. Take his time.
    His foot hit something that didn't move. He knew that it was a body. That it was dead.
    He pushed down the feeling that it was going to reach up and grab him as he stepped over it. Even though he hadn't seen any of the dead bodies get up and attack anyone, he couldn't be positive that it wouldn't . It happened in the movies all the time.
    He kept walking, his hand on the wall. He felt it run through something warm and sticky. He knew that it was blood, but he kept his hand there just the same. For some reason, he was worried that if he took it off he'd never be able to find the wall again.
    That was ridiculou s , he told himsel f . The wall wasn't going anywhere. But it was better to be safe than sorry.
    Scooter stopped and took a deep breath. He knew that he was letting things get to him. He was always a bit superstitious. Always afraid of horror movies; even if he always watched them.
    He knew that he needed t o get a gri p , as his buddy Jones used to say.
    Jones.. . he wondered what happened to him . Had he changed into one of them? Probably. Had he killed some people in his building, on his street...?
    Scooter tried not to think about it. He needed t o get a gri p .
    He patted the little girl's head again.