Decay (Book 1): Civilization by Linus Locke Page A

Brian was saying. Sam picked himself up onto the desk. Brian took two steps backwards. Fresh blood dripped off of Sam’s naked body and smeared over the papers on the desk.
    “We were only trying to hel—” Brian was cut off as he was grabbed by the ankle. He kicked out and jumped back. Tim was crawling across the floor. The damage to his abdomen must have disabled his legs. The next attack came from Sam, who moved toward Brian with outstretched hands.
    Brian ran down the hallway and turned into another one of the labs. He looked back as he entered to see that his pursuers were not so quick. Sam was about ten yards back while Tim was pulling himself along much further behind. He knew he couldn’t underestimate them, however. There may be more close by, and as soon as he was outnumbered he would not stand a chance.
    His thoughts came to the ventilation system. It most certainly leads to the roof, and from there he could make his way down. Sam entered the room. Brian chose to lead him around the outside of the room until he had a clear shot of the door. There was a cart up against the wall he could use to reach the vent opening in the hallway he had come down from.
    Once Sam was far enough out of the way Brian ran to the cart and pushed it through the door. About a foot into the hall, the cart hit something and came to a stop, sending Brian soaring over to land hard on his back. He sat up in pain, the wind knocked out of him. With a slow glance, he saw that the object that stopped him was the crawling security guard, Tim. It looked as if the impact had shattered the poor man’s skull and broke his neck.
    Tim’s body finally lay lifeless as it should have a while ago. Brian pulled himself to his feet and grabbed the cart, continuing his move to the ventilation system. As he stopped the cart under the vent he ran to the security station and grabbed his netbook, stuffing it into his briefcase. Sam was making his way down the hall as Brian lifted his body up. He kicked the cart over and hoisted himself into the vent.
    Although he knew he had to hurry, he lay there on his back and rested. Although his lungs ached, he took just a moment to catch his breath before proceeding through the vent. It was just a few minutes of crawling through the tin tunnel before he could hear the humming sound of what he assumed would be the exhaust fan. He came upon another intersection in the vents. Directly above him the fan spun powerfully. Sunlight spilled in as Brian could see that he was only inches away from the roof.
    Removing his lab coat, Brian jammed it up into the fan blades. The motor clunked, popped, and grinded as it came to an abrupt stop. Brian grabbed the scalpel and removed the plastic guard over the blade. He used this to remove the screws holding the fan in place as well. As the fan came loose he pushed it out onto the roof and climbed out into the sunlight.
    The sun’s powerful rays warmed the skin on his face. He felt victorious, as if he had just conquered Mount Everest; however, he knew he had suffered a defeat in the lab that could change the world forever. That wouldn’t stop him from enjoying just a minutes worth of the amazing view of the world. The clear sky allowed him to see for miles.
    Snapped back to reality by the sight of his coworkers making their way into the hills surrounding the building, Brian began to search for a way down. The maintenance ladder was locked under a cage for security purposes, but he would have to make it work.
    His decent was torturous. His fingers barely fit into the small holes in the cage. Most of the way down he was supported by only his pinky fingers. When he finally made it down his fingertips were bruised and bleeding. He pulled his car keys from his briefcase, climbed into his BMW, and reached for the first aid kit he kept under the passenger seat.
    After cleaning himself up and applying several bandages to his wounds he grabbed for his iPhone. Phones were not allowed inside the