Free Quarantine by James Phelan Page B

“There’s enough canned and packaged food here for the whole group, at least for a couple of months.”
    â€œAt least,” Daniel said, his voice echoing from another storeroom.
    Then the meaning of my words hit me. We had to think in terms of escape—of hours left at Chelsea Piers, not days and weeks. “But let’s hope we won’t need it.”
    I began loading the bags with blocks of chocolate and packets of crackers and jars of jams and preserves. I only filled each halfway, thinking we’d need to squeeze them through the small gap in the lobby doors. I dragged them out to find Daniel washing down a couple of painkillers with a bottle of mineral water.
    â€œFeeling all right?”
    He nodded, then we both froze. A noise. Movement.
    Outside the kitchen. In the banquet hall.
    I made my way across the tiled floor, pausing by the doors, in my attempt to be quiet almost knocking a fire extinguisher off its rack. I put my hand over the lens of my flashlight, dimming it.
    I put my ear to the gap between the doors. There, the noise again. I reached into my coat pocket for my pistol. Shit. It was in my pack, in the car!
    Silence. Had it been just shifting debris? I looked back at Daniel, who stood still with apprehension.
    I turned my attention back to the doors. Deranged eyes stared back between them.
    â€œAaarghh!”
    I fell backwards onto the floor as the double doors burst open—and three Chasers emerged from the dark. I kicked out, so that one of the doors swung with a thud against the first Chaser.
    Daniel rushed and slammed against the doors, sending them back again. I scrambled to my feet. He was holding firm but they pushed against us with overpowering force and we both lost our balance, skidding across the tiles.
    Another glimpse of the Chasers lit by our fallen flashlight beams—
    Daniel was on his hands and knees, trying to keep the doors shut as the Chasers banged hard against them—
    â€œHang on!” I yelled. I hauled myself up and took the extinguisher from the rack, pulled the pin, and got back beside Daniel with my shoulder against a door. “On three, let the doors go, I spray them, then we run past them and out to the truck!”
    â€œOkay!”
    â€œOne.”
    â€œTwo—”
    The doors flung open towards us with incredible force. Daniel was trapped between the wall and the door, while I faltered backwards and dropped the extinguisher.
    The three Chasers burst back into the room, their lean bodies tense and ready to spring, as though they were powerful predators and we hopeless prey. They stood and took me in, their eyes darting about—
    SMASH!
    Daniel shoved the door into them, surprising them for just long enough—
    I grabbed the fire extinguisher, aimed the nozzle and squeezed the handle. White foam erupted into their faces.
    â€œDaniel, go ! Move! ”
    We crashed past, out into the dark banquet hall. Without our flashlights it was pitch black except for the distant glow at the far end of the hall. We ran side by side through ankle-deep ash, the sound of the Chasers behind us. The fire extinguisher was heavy but I could not leave it behind.
    Daniel yelled, “Look out!”
    A Chaser emerged through the shaft of light ahead and stood there just inside the room, standing his ground, and I reached him before Daniel . . .
    CLONG!
    The extinguisher met the side of the Chaser’s head and he fell hard.
    â€œCome on!” Daniel shouted. I was a few steps behind him. I slipped and rolled through the ashy dust. I got to my feet to see him run through the entrance hall and then the lobby and out the tight opening of the front door. I passed the extinguisher through the gap in the doors, turned on my side to squeeze through—
    â€œI’m stuck!” I said, panicking. My chest wouldn’t get through as I was heaving deep breaths.
    â€œThey’re coming!”
    I looked behind me and two of the foam-covered