First Date- a Novella by Thomas A Watson, Christian Bentulan, Amanda Shore Page A

ends and middle so it wouldn’t unravel. Then using more ties, he secured it to his liberated backpack.
    “We need to leave,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the others. “Listen, we are going over the tiles. Do not put any weight over the tiles, or you will fall through, and you will die,” he said in a low voice as the door thundered under the assault, and they heard one set of blinds rattling now as the window pushed in against it. “The metal on each side of the tiles is where you put your weight, and don’t get close to each other either, or the support will fall.”
    The others stared at him in wide-eyed horror as he got up on the table and stepped on the chair, climbing up the stacked tables. Reaching down, Daniel held out his hand for Ginger. She nodded and stepped up, grabbing Teresa by the shoulder and pulling her along.
    Daniel moved a ceiling tile out of the way and stood up, climbing in the ceiling. “We are heading to the board room,” he said, pulling himself up.
    Joe looked around. “Where’s Gary?”
    “Fuck ‘em,” Malik said, helping Holly and Beth up.
    Extending his arms, Daniel crab-walked on the beams that held the three-foot-wide ceiling tiles. Ginger climbed up after him and moved ahead, looking back to make sure Teresa came up. Seeing Teresa move along the supports like a monkey, Ginger whispered, “No so fast, Teresa, or you’ll get too close to me, and it might break.”
    Trembling violently, Teresa gave a nod and slowed down as the others followed her. Joe was the last one up, and Gary walked out of the locker room to find the break room empty, and now, the pounding on the door and windows sounded like thunder. “Where the fuck did they go?” he grumbled, looking around, and saw the stacked tables under a removed ceiling tile.
    Running over, he climbed up on the improvised steps, almost knocking them down. Thwack sounded, and he looked over to see one of the thick sheets of Lexan had been pushed out of the window, and hands were ripping down the metal blinds. Whimpering, Gary climbed up, knocking the chair off as he climbed on the stacked tables, and he heard bodies hitting the floor in the break room.
    Glancing down, he saw his coworkers pouring through the opening. Pulling his bulk up in the ceiling, he felt his pants get soaked as he pissed. Looking around the top of ceiling, he saw who he thought was Joe moving under some metal ducts thirty yards away. “Hey wait!” Gary yelled, pulling his legs up.
    Moving off the support, Gary tried to crawl on the tile only to have his upper body fall as the foam board cracked and broke, falling to the floor. Only because his knees were on the support, Gary didn’t follow it. Looking down, he saw dozens of bloody faces looking up at him, growling and moaning.
    “Please wait!” he yelled, looking at Joe hold his arms and legs out to crab walk on the supports. Joe stopped and lowered his head, looking under his body back at Gary.
    “You need to come on,” he said and took off, disappearing around more duct-work.
    Bawling like a child, Gary spread out his arms and held on to each support then slowly crab walked over the exposed gap as the break room was almost full of his coworkers reaching up for him. Hearing the stacked tables crash, Gary sped up as tears rained from his face.
    Moving a tile, Daniel saw the conference room table. Lowering his head, he looked around and saw the room was empty. Daniel lowered his legs and dropped to the table. He reached up as Ginger put her legs through and caught her at the waist then lowered her. “Thank you,” she said with a smile and kissed his cheek.
    Reaching up and grabbing Teresa by the waist, Daniel grinned as he lowered her. After helping Holly and Beth, Daniel jumped off the table. The men could drop down like he had as far as he was concerned.
    Taking the liberated backpack off his chest, Daniel tossed it on the twenty-foot-long table that sat in the center of the room.