Play@YSDC

The officer nods, his forehead furrowed, and he crosses the large room, moving his gun around the room and the light as well. The walls are pitted and pocked with pieces of furniture nailed to the roof, to the walls, to everything.

He tries the door knob to the Training Room. It shudders. Locked. He takes a step back, raises his foot, strikes the door by the handle, but it doesn't open. He looks over at the others helplessly.

At this point, after the police officer has noisily tried to kick the door down, there's no point in keeping quiet. "Jill, it's me, Sarah!" shouts Sarah. "Please open the door!"

A young girl's scream can be heard from the lower floors.

A rising cackle can be heard behind the door. Jill?

Sarah's blood runs cold. "That's not Jill," she whispers to the police officer. "Come on, let's go check out that scream. One of the kids might be hurt or in danger."

The scream startled Aidan and he can't help but sweat bullets at the situation. Suddenly being with two other people feels like a small, lonely group. He wipes his forehead with the sleeve of his jacket and follows behind Sarah and the officer.

"Did any of them have a cellphone? Or a radio or anything we could contact them with?"

"I don't know," says Sarah, pausing briefly at the cart to retrieve her bundle of medical supplies and hoping she won't need it. "I've got my mobile, but I don't know if the others have any or what their numbers are even if they do. Leave the cart here; we'll retrieve it on our way back up. Let's hurry downstairs! That little girl might not have much time." She holds her weapons in her hands and runs downstairs with the police officer and Aidan.

Aidan nods in agreement and follows, looking over his shoulder to see if the officer is behind them.

They couldn't have all just come to the roof when I told them too.. God damnit all.

The officer stops Sarah in her tracks with his hand. "Look, we need back up. Let's get Cael from the helicopter before we go down there..."

A phone starts ringing from downstairs, eerie and persistent.

Sarah is torn. She wants to go running to help the girl, but she knows the policeman has a point. If they get killed, they won't do her any good. "Can you reach him on the radio, or do we have to go back upstairs?" she asks.

Constable Radcliffe frowns. "Yeah, that makes sense." He pulls out his walkie talkie. "Hey, Cael? Anyone? You still up there? We could use a little help down here."

Sarah looks around nervously while the constable speaks on the radio. The sound of the phone ringing below disturbs her, but she also feels like she should answer it. For a second reality seems to shift, and she imagines that everything that's been happening is just a nightmare and she is safe back in her bed, and that the ringing phone is the one at her bedside. If only it were so... she thinks.

Comes a voice over the walkie-talkie: "I hear ya Radcliffe, the roof door is jammed up here but I have a CO19 kit up here in the bird. I'll bust this door down and get moving, what's your position?"

"Where are we again?" Radcliffe asks the other two. "What floor? Where?"

A few moments pass and then there's a terrible banging sound from upstairs followed by the sound of something being slammed against brick.

"This is the third floor," says Sarah. "That room we were just in is the Training Room, and over there are the ramp and the stairs." She points them out.

"The third floor," says Radcliffe into the walkie-talkie. "Can we meet you on the stairs? And I hope that banging sound was you..."

"So do I..." says Sarah, having had the exact same thought. "We might as well meet at the stairs, since it's on our way down."

Radcliffe starts walking, walkie-talkie balanced between neck and shoulder, gun and flashlight held out to keep examining the surroundings. A creak occurs behind him and he twists around, flashing the light across the terrain but seeing nothing. "Yeah, yeah, let's move it..."

"You don't have to tell me twice," says Sarah. She easily keeps up with Radcliffe, glancing back to make sure Aidan is following them - and that nothing else is.

The trio reach the third floor landing and start moving up. Voices can be heard from the stairwell above.

Sarah peers through the darkness ahead and tries to make out what the voices are saying, but she can't make sense of them yet.

"Radcliffe?" comes a loud male whisper from upstairs.

"Yeah, we're coming up," says Constable Radcliffe. "We're..." A flicker of shadow and he was gone, dragged down in the gap between the stairs through the floors below - a fine red mist of blood escaping him with a dull hiss. A sudden cry, cut off with a grotesque gurgle. Below, something grumbles.