Liam was looking around for some clue what to do next when his eye caught a small sign saying ”Normanby Place”. He had found it. He had been only twenty metres away. He checked his watch. There was still 3 minutes until his interview started.
He walked over to the building, ignoring the twinges in his injured leg. Sepsis be damned. He was determined to land this job.
The lobby of the building looked like many others he had seen - the usual dull tiled office lobby. It was also smaller than he had expected. in the advertisement they had described themselves as being a multinational company. On the higher floors would be row upon row of desks. Something about the look made him want to turn away. He wanted a fulfilling job where he was mentally challenged. The job description even said those were the qualities they were looking for.
He had come this far and so he pulled open the door and stepped in. The inside of the building was quite noisy. He could hear the scraping of furniture and a noise like the scraping of chalk on a blackboard. There was also a chittering noise coming through the tannoy - but that might just be a electrical error. Given what the taxi driver had said it looked like anything electrical and electronic had malfunctioned.
There was no one at the front desk. Looking around he saw marks on the floor but no one was around. Even in a quiet office there would be someone around. He walked behind the desk and saw that the receptionist’s chair had been knocked over.
And then he saw the blood. His mind was telling him that maybe the receptionist had fallen out of her chair when the electric’s were fried and injured her head. His body was telling him to run.
He listened to his body.
He was still twenty metres from the exit when a horde of rats appeared from the side. These were not the size of cats - they were the size of creatures that ate cats. Their blood flecked cheeks were quivering and their eyes were a fiery red.
Armed with just a now closed umbrella, Liam gave a sickly grin and dashed for the door. As he was closing in on the exit a giant rat which must have come from behind grabbed a mouthful of trousers and pulled. Liam fell to the ground.
His heart beat throbbed in his skull. They were closing in from his left. He kicked out at the rat behind him. He hard a loud squeak and his leg was freed. He rose to his feet and swung his umbrella around. The rats fell back - wary but watching. He backed away from them - backed away from his potential escape.
Still waving his umbrella he backed away until his back hit something. He felt around behind him until his hand felt a door handle. He quickly turned the handle and through himself through the doorway. With a surge of relief he slammed the door closed.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Thuds came from the other side of the door but the door appeared to be holding.
Liam surveyed the room he was in. Shelves on one side of the wall. A mop and bucket in one corner. that told him most of what he needed to know. Unfortunately the lack of any other exit or windows told him the rest. He was in a janitor’s closet with only one way out.
No windows, no other doors - he was trapped. But at least for the moment he had a chance to think.
What the hell had happened? First the notification, then the taxi and now this. Things were going to hell fast. It was all too crazy.
His breath stopped as the blue flashing light stopped flashing.
Liam was now clear on what was happening and he did not like it one bit. He also did not want to wait for the results. The rats would be able to chew through the door in minutes. If this so called system was not going to be able to help him then he had to help himself.
He looked up. Of course. The building was a rented office space. He moved over tot he shelves and started to climb. They were the usual cheap industrial shelves that were advertised as being able to carry a full grown man’s weight but would probably bend under half of that.
He gingerly climbed the shelves - slowly adjusting his weight so that he did not add any more pressure than was necessary. The shelves groaned under his weight but held.
The ceiling panel was easy to lift and move out of the way. As he lifted himself into the crawl space he kicked at the shelving unit knocking it across the door opening. It would give him another barrier against those damned rats.
The crawl space was dark and when he raised his hand he easily touched the concrete above him. There was barely enough space to crawl. There was also only a small ledge to crawl across - he doubted the tiles would hold his weight.
He orientated himself and estimated the distance he would need to cover. He would need to time this just right. He headed towards the location of the exit as quietly as he could.
He calculated the distance in body lengths. He needed to move about twelve body lengths. He inched his way across the space counting off the distance in his head.
He was within two body lengths when he felt a presence. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He looked up to see the baleful glare of two red eyes. The giant rat was waiting where he wanted to be.
He did not even have his umbrella with him - just his wits.
Liam screamed and pretended to lunge at the rat. The rat moved to one side. Liam turned his lunge into a jump. With an even louder scream he crashed through the ceiling. He hit the floor with a breath-taking thud. A sharp pain in his chest caused his vision to go black.
Adrenalin was now pumping through his body. The exit was within sight. Ignoring the pain in his body he rose to his feet. He could see in his peripheral vision the rat jumping from the ceiling and other rats returning from where the closet was. But they were too late. He was at the door and through it.
He thrust the door closed and then paused. It was a pain-wracked pause. He had no way of stopping the rats from exiting. They had probably not exited before because they had a nice feast of office workers in front of them. The same was probably true for the other office buildings. London was full of rats.
Liam did what any sensible person would do. He ran!