Two Alive, стр. 73

The group whipped around the escalator and though the steps were going down, Johnathan ushered Francine and Antonio up the moving stairs. Antonio skipped steps and made it up the staircase quickly, one bound after another. Johnathan pushed Francine up the stairs, hearing the shouts getting louder from people being attacked and people doing the attacking. When he looked over his shoulder to see how much time they had before anything reached them, he didn’t stare too long. Besides a few people trying to make the run up the escalator behind him, Johnathan saw no infected people. But he could hear them, and they were close.

“C’mon! C’mon Francine, use that track speed!” Johnathan yelled, putting a hand on her back and urging her on.

Each step was up one and down two. Francine wasn’t sure how Antonio was able to just leap up these stairs like they were nothing. Her legs were burning, and her feet were pounding in her work heels. They weren’t that high a heel, but they definitely weren’t meant for running on a StairMaster. But Johnathan pushed her forward and her own adrenaline kicked in as she started to lift her legs higher. Francine was running the hundred-meter dash by the time she reached the top of the escalator, and Antonio was hooting and hollering as she approached.

“Yeah! Go Ms. Francine! Yeah! She blow doors off!” Antonio was cheering.

“Go Francine!” Johnathan felt a flutter of excitement, watching Francine drive up the stairs. He was now struggling to keep up.

Miles, still listening to Ray Charles singing into his ears, tried wiggling around to watch Ms. Francine.

Francine jumped up to the last step and felt pride. Then her heel came out from under her and she tripped and fell, dropping down on the escalator, going back down.

“Francine!” Johnathan stepped two steps and was on her in a second. “C’mon track star, we’re almost at the top.”

He tried to lift her up and a loud rip pulled her back down. They both looked down to see Francine’s skirt caught in the stairs. People rushed past bounding up the escalator and bumped into Johnathan then he tried to lift her again. The skirt pulled tighter and Francine began to fumble with the zipper on the back. Johnathan reached to help and was startled when he saw a random man shamble out at the bottom of the escalator, clicking his tongue and staring blankly. Johnathan felt a chill run down his spine as the man started to hack and cough before letting out a visceral scream.

In seconds, dozens of sprinting and running and clawing and biting fiends came flying around the sides of the escalator, filling up the platform below. They were going bat shit crazy on the Bart station platform, like someone had thrown a chainsaw into a mosh pit. It was pure insanity like something out of a slaughterhouse nightmare. And some of the infected were starting to make their way up the escalator.

Johnathan frantically started tearing at Francine’s skirt while she rubbed up and around her backside, not finding her zipper. Had it been knocked off? Was she stuck in her skirt?

“John… take Miles and Antonio and get out of here…” Francine looked up at Johnathan and let the words hang in the air.

Even with all the pandemonium at the bottom of the stairs and the madness moving closer with each moment, Johnathan felt like he and Francine were frozen in time. They looked into each other’s eyes with the knowledge that this would be the last time and the old man’s chest tightened. He fought again in a useless effort to try tearing her clothes free. But Francine put a hand on his face gently and reached up to kiss him.

“John… you have to go,” she whispered.

Johnathan looked deep into her eyes then looked down the stairs as the escalator continued its descent. They were almost at the bottom.

Miles looked between the two adults, unable to hear what they were saying with the earphones playing so loudly. Deniece Williams’ Silly was starting. The boy looked down the stairs and knew the danger was too close and they’d have to do something soon if they wanted to save Ms. Francine. But the old man stood up with Miles in his arms and took off, running up the escalator to where Antonio was waiting.

“No, wait!” Miles shouted. “Ms. Francine! We can’t leave--we can’t leave Ms. Francine! The monsters will get her!”

Antonio was shouting from up top too, but as the lyrics continued in Miles’ ears, he was unable to make out what Antonio was saying. But the small boy could see the panic and the dread in Antonio’s eyes. The old man kept leaping up the stairs and jumped off the escalator when he reached the peak. He had to grab Antonio before the teen tried to run down to help Francine. Miles’ kicking and screaming made Johnathan put the boy down to run on his own. He didn’t look back, but Miles and Antonio did. They watched the stairs continue to recede and Ms. Francine slowly started to sink out of sight. The sick lunatics were on her and she could no longer be seen.

Then others ran up the escalator, exploding from the stairway like popcorn. Monsters were snarling and going crazy as they chased Johnathan and the boys. He snatched them by the arm and pulled them towards the gate exits, shouting for the boys to hurry up. They had no choice but to keep up with the old man. He wasn’t letting them go. On two separate occasions the boys fell and Johnathan just dragged them. He practically tossed Miles over the exit gate when he reached it. Antonio went jumping over the machine on his own and the old man was right behind him.

“What are we gonna