The Descent

Chapter 9 - The Search

Denton screamed at the top of his lungs as both his hands went up to his throbbing head. He curled up in a fetal position and grit his teeth as he rolled back and forth on the floor, stars dancing across his field of vision. He closed his eyes tight and concentrated on his breathing while his head pulsated with pain.

"Denton, are you alright? What happened?" Tanner asked in his ear, an unusual concern in his voice.

"My head," Denton grunted.

"Your head? What about your head?"

"There was someone in here, in the last bedroom," Denton said and forced the words through his teeth. "He tripped me, I hit my head." Denton touched the bump that was forming on his forehead and felt something wet. He looked at his fingers and saw a red smear. Blood.

"What? Who was it?"

"I have no idea. And yeah, my head is killing me, thanks for asking. And I'm bleeding, I think."

There was a temporary moment of silence during which Tanner felt extremely bad. Denton took advantage of the quiet and struggled to his feet and stumbled out of the bedroom. He wiped his hands on his pants, and he stumbled towards the door, unsteadily, one hand rubbing the bump on his forehead. "Do you have eyes on him?" he asked Tanner.

"On who? Oh, the guy in the bedroom? Hang on, checking the cameras."

Denton made it out of the apartment and dashed towards the lobby area by the elevator. He emerged from the corridor and immediately saw the officer that had been guarding the door on the floor, groaning on the floor.

"Tanner? Where is he? He knocked out the door security."

"I don't see him. The cameras on that floor are down. The elevators are not moving though so I don't think he went that way."

Denton knelt down to check on the guard. He looked up when he heard a door slammed shut.

"He took the stairs," he shouted to Tanner and ran towards the stairwell. "I'm going after him."

"Good, good. Just be careful. I don't have any live feeds from the stairwell, except at the ground level. The door to the lobby and the emergency exit to the street."

Denton yanked open the door to the stairs and ran over to the railing. He bent over in an attempt to steal a glance at the source of the steps, but all he heard were the echoes of his assailant running down the stairs. With a grunt he started down the stairwell, his body protesting as he took the stairs three steps at a time. The descent was quick, and he continued past the eighteenth and seventeenth floors, glancing over the railing every few steps. On the sixteenth floor he stopped, his hand on the railing, doubled over. His body ached, his lungs burned, and legs once again felt wobbly. He didn't have to look down the stairs to know he couldn't catch him.

"Any sign of him? Do you see him?" he shouted to Tanner between breaths.

"I told you, I don't have any live cams in the stairwell, I can't see him."

Denton hesitated for a moment. His body screamed at him, protesting the mere possibility of any further descent down the stairs. He made a snap decision and ran through the door, into the lobby of the sixteenth floor and over to the elevator. "Come on, come on," he whispered as he jabbed the button for the elevator. "Tanner, I'm taking the elevator down."

"The elevator? Why would you do that? You'll lose track of him."

"I will anyway. There's no way I'm going to make it down the stairs in time and catch him. Remember, I just got out of the hospital. I'll be dead before I get to the bottom. What's your view of the lobby and outside the building?"