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“Is someone?” I ask in confusion.
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“Yes,” Sam answers.
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He looks around, seeing nothing but the bags of bodies under the fluorescent lights. We’ve made it so far, and I can’t go back down. That’s not what the boys said to do. The outside is steps away. So close.
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There’s nowhere to hide up here. No rooms to duck into, and I don’t know if we’ll make it down the long corridor and out of sight at the rate of the countdown before our eyes.
He points to the bags, and I nod. Knowing we’ll have to hide behind them, I tie the cloth tighter around my face. It takes both of us to move a towering stack of people out far enough on one side to sneak behind, but we manage just as the number 1 shines on top of the elevator doors.
“All of these, up the — Oh, fuck!” A voice says when the footsteps scatter into the hallway.
“That fucking stench,” someone else echoes. Sam uses his arm to shield my face, and I do my best to breathe through my mouth and into his elbow.
“How much time do we have?” a voice says.
I hear them make their way down the hall, a dozen men stomping into the chaos.
“An hour. They’re on the way.”
“What’s with the red out?”
I don’t know who’s speaking, but I release from Sam’s grasp with that question.
“Don’t know — don’t care. Let’s go. They’re here.” Wheels squeak around us from something being carted down the hall. “We got our orders. Clear them out and bring them up and start the blaze. It’s supposed to look… what did that adherent say?”
“He said, make the warning clear,” someone answers.
“With burning bodies?” another one questions.
There’s a hush amongst them in solemn understanding, and I do my best to remain unnoticed. For whatever reason, they want an ominous introduction to the underground, and as much as I hate how they’re treating their dead, I’m not in a place to argue, crouched here in hiding.
The elevator doors open once more, and more footsteps come, another wave of people followed by the sound of the bodies being moved. The crowded hall bustles with activity, and it isn’t long before light appears above our heads. They’ve reached where we are.
Sam cups my face and pulls my ear to his lips. “They’re wearing red jumpsuits.”
“Do you think?” I stutter out.
He raises an eyebrow. “Do you have a better idea?”
I don’t.
