Project Ami by Emiel Sleegers

scatters from all sides.
    Ryan yells to Ami over the sound of the bullets hitting next to them. ‘They are getting too close! Our only chance is to make a sprint for the alley.’
    Ryan waits for the KBs to reload; they are now standing only a few feet away from Ryan and Ami. But just in time, their guns need to reload. Ryan and Ami jump up and run towards the alley. As they run, Ryan manages to shoot one of the KBs, but by now more KBs have noticed them and they start to shoot.
    The bullets fly around them, but Ryan and Ami are close to the alley. They run around the corner and there they are met by two KBs waiting for them.
    ‘Shit!’ screams Ryan, and he grabs Ami by her arm. They run back onto the street and hide behind one of the big concrete flowerpots positioned in front of the skyscraper. Ryan and Ami are being trapped in from all sides now, and they decide to make a run for the skyscraper entrance—it’s their only chance.
    They run towards the doors, and Ryan shoots a few bullets into the glass so that it breaks. They jump through the glass and roll into the lobby. Ryan looks behind him; the KBs are getting closer.
    ‘There!’ he says, pointing at the stairway. ‘I saw a sign saying there is a parking lot in this building. Maybe we can cut through there!’
    They run to the stairway door and Ryan kicks it open. They find themselves in a metal stairway that goes up and down. They run down, but after running down just one stair they are met with a metal door leading to the parking lot; it is locked up with a big chain.
    Ryan looks at the lock and tries to shoot it, but with no luck; the lock is just too strong and Ryan knows it. ‘There’s no way we can get through this,’ he says.
    Ryan and Ami run back upstairs and want to go back into the lobby, but the KBs are already inside the building. They see Ryan and Ami, and start to shoot.
    They are pushed back into the stairway, and are faced with only one option: go up.
    They run upstairs and can hear the KBs filtering into the stairway. After running up a few floors, they come across a dead soldier; he has been dead for a while and it’s not a pretty sight. Ryan sees an assault rifle lying next to him, and so he grabs it. The soldier also has a magazine in his front pocket, but it is covered with decomposed flesh. Ryan slowly picks out the magazine whilst holding back the urge to throw up. They then continue to run upstairs.
    They have no time to think about what to do; right now, they have to find a way to get out of the building.
    Most of the doors into the stairway are locked; it seems like a big part of the building went into lockdown a long time ago.
    They arrive at the thirteenth floor, and there Ryan tries to push open the door. The door opens, and Ryan and Ami run inside. Ryan looks around and sees a cabinet standing close to the door. ‘Here, help me with this,’ he says to Ami. They push the cabinet against the door. They then start walking through the room to see if there is a way out.
    They walk all the way to the back of the room. The outer walls are made of glass, and you can look all over the city. It looks like there is no way out, and then they hear that the KBs are breaking through the door.
    ‘What do we do now?’ asks Ami, clearly terrified.
    ‘There is only one thing we can do. Fight,’ says Ryan. He pushes over a table to allow them to take cover behind it. ‘I need your help for this, Ami. Take cover and prepare to shoot whatever comes through that door.’
    The tension is high, and even though Ami is really scared, she pulls herself together and they both aim their weapons at the door. They know they do not have a lot more bullets, and Ryan says to Ami with a soft voice, ‘Make every shot count.’
    Not long after, the KBs push away the cabin behind the door and the door flies open.
    Ami takes the first shot and shoots the first KB down with one well-placed fire. Then three more KBs come through the door, and Ryan and Ami both