Escape from the Cage
By Ayn BlackFox ©

The overhead lights of "The Loft" flicker as gunshots rip down the long hallway of the building. Blood splattered against the white paint of the walls. Screaming can be heard coming from the far end of the hall. The overhead light in the hallway blows out as Sean pokes his head of the corner. He steps out and then points his light-equipped USP down the hallway. He sighs a bit seeing that the hallway is clear. He wave his two friends out of the room, looking at the door behind him which leads to the stair case. He walks over and places a pipe through the "D" shaped handle and metal ring that is bolted into the wall. Barricading the door. He goes back to the room. 
"Ivan. Leo. Let's the hell out of here." Sean said watching as Ivan loads his rifle. 
"What will we do about this place? We can't let these infectees get out." Ivan said standing up. 
"We destroy the building." Sean said as Kenny from the front of the room with his sword in hand. "How, I don't know but just give me a few minutes." Leo only smirks. 
They continue down the blood stained hallway, looking around every corner before the continue. The flickering lights and then low buzzing sound of live, high voltage electricity keeps the trio on their toes. Ivan goes over and kicks over a box and watches as a few toys spill from the cardboard box. They continue on as a dark figure moves across the hall a short distance in front of them. Ivan arms his rifle and looks down the hall through his scope. He waits as the figure starts to head back across the hall. Ivan takes the shot. The figure screams and then falls over. Ivan grins as they start to move forward again. Sean stares at the downed figure as they get closer to it. 
"Wait, something seems wrong here." Sean said getting the group to stop. 
They look at Kenny and then look over at the now apparent mid-aged female who has been infected. Her face, crusted over with foam and then obvious gun shot to the chest. Ivan sighs and then shakes his head a bit in disbelief, wondering what Sean was talking about. He moves over to the down figure and looks her over. He feels as if he somehow knew her, or maybe he just felt sorry for her. He turns around and faces the other two and shrugs. Unknown to him, the female stands up quietly. Sean keeps looking at the two as they stare back at. Suddenly, Ivan fires a shot, towards Sean but the bullet hits the infected female in the head, dropping her to the floor. 
Sean having ducked looks at Ivan. He walks over to him and then snaps at him. "ARE YOU CRAZY!?" He exclaimed not knowing what happened until he hears the exhausting gasp of the now dead infectee. Sean turns around and sees the bullet hole in the head. He gulps and then looks at Ivan. "Sorry." 
Ivan pats Sean on the shoulder as he walks passed him to continue down the hall. Kenny cuts off the female's head making sure she does not get back up. Sean turns and walks down the hall getting back to the front as leader. He walks and then stops hearing a low ding. Leo stops and then looks down the hall where the ding was heard. He arms his sword and walks down the hall, not saying a word. He turns and looks towards the elevator. Suddenly a dog leaps out from the elevator. Leo quickly swings his medium sized katana at the dog cutting it half. Leo grins and then walks back over to the group. Sean and Ivan look at Leo and then start walking down the main hall again. 
They walk until the reach the end of the hall. Sean kicks the door open and points his hand gun down the stairs making sure it is clear to continue. Ivan and Leo follow him down the stairs. The stairwell is hot and has a foul odor to it. They head down the stairs hearing rapid footsteps running to and from the door to the door to the third floor. They all look at each other and then more towards the door. Leo grins and then kicks the door open and points at the jogging bulky built infectee with his sword. He charges at the brute but it beat as the sound of gun fire is heard. Bullets zip passed him stunning the beast as Leo swings his sword, taking off one of the beast's left arm. Suddenly the beast head is blown off as the sound of the USP running out of bullets is heard. 
Leo looks back at Ivan and Sean and grins. They catch up with him, quickly reloading their weapons. Sean searching the downed zombie for items. He finds a case of bullets and takes them with him. The group continues down the hallway as a large group of infectees slowly marches towards them. They hold their ground and starts fighting the infectees. Gunshots and the sound of heavy chopping fills the hallway. Blood splattering against the walls. Sean becomes over come by infectees as they approach from behind. Ivan turns and starts to kick the new wave of infectees away from Sean. This allows Sean to recover and start shooting again. 
Ivan turns and gasps as another large one appears at the end of the hallway. He takes aim and starts to shoot at the charging beast, who is taking out the back line of infectees. Leo sidesteps as the beast runs passed him. Ivan keeps shooting at the beast before Sean leap frogs over Ivan and shoots the beast in the eye. He leads and then keeps shooting the beast in the back until he runs out of bullets again, but the beast drops dead in front of Ivan. Sean reloads again as Leo comes up and places a hand on his shoulder. 
"Stop wasting your ammo like that." Leo said as hallway goes quiet again. 
"Had to make sure it was dead." Sean said looking back at Ivan who walks up to them "Any bright ideas about we get out of here?" 
Ivan shakes his head. "Not yet." 
They down the opposite end of the hallway where Ivan kick the door open. They walk into the hot stairwell. It's oddly quiet and they all look at each other. They walk down the stairwell and stop at the door to the second floor. Leo opens the door and walks out into the hall. The hall seems to be empty. No sign of infectees, anywhere. Sean and Ivan walk out into the wall with Leo and are a bit surprised. They walk down the hall and stop at a side hallway seeing numerous propane tanks from gas grills. They keeps walking seeing that are more propane tanks line up in the hallway. 
Ivan chuckles. "I got an idea." He said grinning widely. "Just line the tanks up in the way starting from were he just came from." 
They start to line up the heavy propane tanks along the hallway watching the doors seeing if there is any movement from them. They grunt and groan as the line the tanks up. Ivan stop and looks down the hall where they elevator is and then walks down the hall and looks at the elevator area and then door to the middle stair case. He opens then door and finds a pile of wood behind it. The staircase has collapsed. He goes back over and adds two tanks to that hall and then joins Sean and Leo. They keeps moving tanks down the hallway until they run out of tanks. 
Ivan goes down turns on all the tanks. He runs down the hall and pushes Ivan and Leo to the door. "We have to get out of here." He said as the pushes them into the hallway. He pushes them down the stairs to the first floor and out the front door. Ivan pulls out a grenade from his belt pouch. Sean and Leo gasps and then stop and look at Leo. 
"What the hell!?" They both exclaim ad Ivan pulls the pin from the pineapple shaped explosive. They don't question him and take off through the front gate as Ivan chucks the grenade into the second floor window. 
Ivan runs passed the run gate and then dives towards Sean and Leo just as the grenade goes off. Suddenly there is a loud explosion. A giant fireball rips through the sky as the four story building breaks apart. They cover themselves up as bit of debris flies towards them. They turn and look at the blazing building, sighing in relief. They stand up and brush themselves off. They laugh and then gives each a hug having made out the building. 
Just as they start walking away from the building, they hear loud foot steps. They stop and watch as a giant appears from the burning building. They watch as the giant clears cars out of its way and heads towards the trio. They arm there weapons and move back a little as the giant walks into the steel gate and knocks it down. It marches towards them kicking the black painted gate towards them. The trio moves out the way of the gate. Sean starts to shoot at the Giant's torso and Ivan tries to take out the legs. Leo stands and watches, waiting. 
The giant keeps moving towards before grabbing a car and chucking a sedan at the trio. The trio slide out of the way for fire as the sedan crashes into the building behind them. The giant moves forward and picks up a tree, seeming to be unaffected by the gun fire. Leo draws his sword and then runs away from the giant and then circles around to the back side of the giant as it swings the tree at the two shooting at it. Leo runs under giant's legs and spins around, to slice at the giant's legs. A loud clang is heard as Leo stop near the sedan. He looks at his sword and sees that it is broken in half. He turns and looks at the giant. With a loud battle cry, he charges at the giant arming the half-of-sword like a javelin. He throws the sword at the giant just as it roars at Leo. 
The sword flies into the open mouth of then giant and stabs through the back of its neck. The giant gags and vomits on the pavement below it. Leo stands back and watches as the giant stumbles a bit before falling over. He crosses his arms, looking at the giant. "Never and I mean NEVER break my sword. Ya, bastard." 
Ivan and Leo look at Leo, dropping there weapons in pure shock. They simply stare at him wondering how he pulled it off. They look at each other and then shrug. "Some things are better left untouched." Sean said as they walk back over to the Leo. 
"Hey guys, who's hungry?" Leo said. Ivan and Sean both face-palm.