It took him a moment to find what had moved so quickly and gracefully in this world of dead things. But he soon spied a young lady creeping down the sidewalk, trying to do her best to blend into her surroundings, while looking back over her shoulder the way she had come. Gabe wasn't even sure if she had seen his group just four lanes of deserted roadway away from her yet because she was so busy looking back and trying to find a spot to hide. Gabe, seeing that his friends had these dead under control, started to cross the road towards this mystery woman. She glanced once again over her shoulder back the way she had come and Gabe followed her glance. Just as he was about to look back towards her, he saw a zombie come around the corner just a block away at a decent jogging pace. Like most dead his coordination was off and he took the corner very wide, but what he lacked in coordination he made up for in numbers. Gabe was shocked to see a mob of other dead come jogging after the first one, and worst of all, they clearly had all eaten recently. Blood and it was all over their clothes, hands and faces, and they were moving at a jog. Gabe was only 5 or 6 yards from the woman at this point, but she was focused on the zombies and still hadn’t noticed him. She had just moved out of a doorway and was heading for a mailbox when the zombie crowd came around the corner. It was clear from their grunts and the dedication to the direction they were coming that the first several had seen her.
As the mob continued to come around the corner, Gabe knew that while yelling was probably a really bad idea, he had no choice to but to warn the others across the street as several had already broken off from the main group and were heading towards his friends. Gabe yelled a warning, and in a split-second decision, headed back after the girl.
The young lady in front of him was running all out and seemed to know where she was going so Gabe followed right behind her. Gabe had noticed in his short time observing her that she was clearly of Hispanic dissent, probably Cuban, with long dark hair and a light brown complexion. She had a fit figure and was wearing jeans, running shoes and a think denim shirt that was a little warm for the climate, but probably offered a sense of security. Gabe spared a glance behind him and towards his friends. The mob behind him and the girl were still coming but were losing ground, his friends had retreated into a parking lot across the street and were using the parked cars to funnel and separate the dead for easy killing. When Gabe turned back around, the girl was gone, so Gabe swung around the corner in front of him and sure enough she was just ahead of him, starting to go up a set of stairs alongside the building. Gabe followed her up the stairs and as he got near the top of the stairs he saw her patting her pockets and shoving her hands into each one. As he reached the top of the stairs he saw a card reader with wires coming out of it and a battery duct-taped to the wall with enough duct tape to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. Gabe realized he was at a hotel and that the girl he had followed had managed to rig up the door so she could access it even after the electric had finally gone off. Somehow she had managed to continue using the key ca…
"John has the card."
Gabe was shocked to hear the young ladies voice finally, but more shocked when he looked up to see her finally making eye contact with him, and she was full of fear.
"John has the damn card." She shouted again as if he should know who John was.
Without exchanging another word they both turned around and began to run down the stairs, Gabe considered just jumping over the railing but it was more of a chest-high half wall along the steps, and he didn't want to get caught by the undead mob with his leg halfway over it. As he looked over the wall he saw movement in the parking lot to their left. A young man, around the same age as the girl running down the steps behind Gabe, popped up from behind a car in the parking lot. The girl hadn't noticed him yet but he was waving at the girl and smiling when suddenly, looking in their general direction a frown crossed his face and he ducked down behind the cars again.
Gabe was afraid he knew what that meant, and as he looked towards the bottom of the steps, the first of the zombie mob came around the corner. Only halfway down the stairs, Gabe was pretty sure that with his size and strength he could blast through the first couple zombies and getaway, but he doubted if the girl would be able to break their grasp. Making a split-second decision he stopped just shy of a dozen steps from the bottom. The girl came to a stop with her arms out against his shoulders, still a couple of steps above him.
"Crap!" She let out in a desperate croak.
"Go up and break-in, I'll slow them down." Gabe instructed as the first of the mob reached the steps. More and more came pouring around the corner.
The girl ran back up the steps with no more prompting required from Gabe as he slowly began backing up the stairs, never taking his eyes off the dead things in front of him.
The loud crash startled Gabe but he didn't have to turn around to know that the girl was trying to kick in the large Plexiglas pane that made up most of the bottom of the door. But the sound also seemed to set the dead off, and they now began to come up the stairs as quickly as they could, and Gabe noted that, as he had seen earlier, they had eaten recently and were moving with almost human coordination and speed, almost...
Gabe waited with both hands locked in a death grip on the fire ax in his hand. It occurred to him there was no reason to keep quiet and avoid attention at this point and he began yelling for his friends. As he yelled, and hoped his companions heard him, he stayed still, not even blinking as he watched the wretched dead things coming up the steps at him.. Finally the one in the lead, wearing a jogging suit with broken sunglasses still dangling from the sports strap around his neck, got as close as Gabe was comfortable with, Gabe swung the ax with a two-handed overhead swing that landed with a satisfying thud right in the zombie's skull. But to Gabe's horror, it seemed stuck there, and as the zombie began to fall, Gabe was forced to let go or be dragged down the steps.
Gabe couldn't believe his stupidity but didn't have any time to get upset about it. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the girl was laying on her back, using both legs to kick at the bottom window of the door. Gabe figured kicking was about his only choice now as well and as the next zombie got close, Gabe lashed out with his leg in what was half kick and half shove. The dead man grunted as he was knocked down the stairs, taking the two zombies behind him with him. But as the initial three fell back down the steps, it only seemed to excite the ones following them. Gabe thought sardonically that they probably just thought it meant more meat for them.
Steadying himself for the next wave, Gabe let out another yell and took a second to glance above the head of the approaching dead, but only saw empty streets. He returned his attention to the zombie in front of him and let it get closer than he had the last one. He drew his knee up as far as he could and this time gave more of a shove with his foot than a kick. Gabe noticed that the stairs were wide enough that two people could walk on them side by side, but he thought with a bit of satisfaction that luckily the dead weren't actually big on thinking. His kick had the desired effect and the zombie flew back into the rest of the mob, knocking several of them down. But Gabe saw that the steps were already getting thick with the dead and the mob as a whole had gotten significantly further up the stairs. Gabe waited and kicked again, and this time not only did only the one zombie get knocked back, but it didn't fall. There were so many now gathered behind it on the steps that it just ran into them. As it approached again, Gabe struck out as hard as he could, and to his horror, the zombie held onto his pants… for the briefest of seconds, before letting go and crashing back into the rest of the zombie mob. The leading edge of the mob was only a few steps away now and Gabe backed up, considering trying to use the rails for leverage to do a dropkick when he finally heard a loud crack behind him.
"IN!!" Was all the girl said and it faded away as she went through the door.
Gabe turned and ran up the stairs. At the top he saw that she had busted out the whole bottom pane of plexiglass, which now lay inside the hallway in one piece. He dove th
rough the three-foot-high hole and saw the girl running down the hall. It was a typical hotel serving the middle-class travelers across the once fruited plains. He hadn't caught the name of the hotel when he was outside, but he had seen the green carpet and decorative chair railing that ran the length of the hallway in lots of different towns during his "old" life. But Gabe didn't have time to reflect right now as he was well aware of the mob of dead people coming up the stairs outside. He jumped to his feet and ran down the hall after the girl. As he followed her he noticed another door with a similar battery rig as the one outside but the ran past it, he assumed John had the key card to that door as well.
They reached the end of the short hall and she stopped in front of the stairwell door.
"We'll chain it back from the other side and slip out the back door." She said nodding towards the chain and padlock currently keeping the stairwell door locked from their side while simultaneously pulling a large set of keys out of her pocket.
As she went through the keys Gabe nervously glanced over his shoulder and saw that the first of the zombies were through the hole in the door now and more were coming behind him.
"They're coming…" Gabe said nervously.
"Alright, just one second." She replied as she pulled key after key around the ring, looking for the right one."Uhh" She groaned, "This is like a bad movie, I never have trouble with this."
In her nervousness she dropped the keys and picked them up with a grunt and started looking again. At this point Gabe turned his complete attention to the zombies coming down the hall. He started to glance around for anything to use as a weapon and saw nothing. Gabe futilely wished he still had his ax.
"Crrrraaaappp" The girl yelled out. "I can't find the key!"
Gabe ran up and hit the first zombie with both hands in a powerful shove. The zombie staggered backward several feet before falling to the ground. But this hallway was wide and to other zombies just walked around the one Gabe had knocked down.
Gabe yelled, "Find it!" as he ran up to the first of the two coming next and punched him as hard as he could right in the jaw. The zombie's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to one knee, but the other zombie reached over and grabbed Gabe's left arm. In a move that was more fear-driven adrenaline than skill, Gabe twisted out of the zombie's grip and retreated the last five feet to the end of the hall.
He was shocked to hear a quiet sob.
"It just isn't here… the key is gone."
Gabe just turned and looked at her in shock.
"John must have taken the key." She managed to say between sobs. "I am so sorry."
Gabe turned around and the zombies were right in front of him. He instinctively turned and tried to cover her with his own body and as she went down into the fetal position and Gabe went down with her.
"In Jesus name, NO!" Gabe shouted in utter fear.
Chapter 11
One second went by, then two, then five, and still Gabe was surprised he had not been bitten, much less grabbed yet. He could hear the Zombies quietly moaning so he finally got the nerve to look up. Since Gabe and the girl were in a corner, the zombies were in a half-circle around them and Gabe flinched at their proximity, but none of the zombies were trying to get them. The girl finally looked up too.
"What…" She asked.
Gabe paused for a minute for fear that her voice would set them off like an avalanche, but they just swayed in place.
"I don't know…" Suddenly a look of understanding spread across Gabe's face.
"In the name of Christ! BE GONE!" Gabe commanded!
The zombie closest to him fell backward with a loud moan, the rest of the mob began a slow retreat back down the hall as the one on the ground got up and followed.
"Wha…" The girl let out in confused amazement.
"I, I don't know…"
She just looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
Both stayed there on the ground in stunned amazement for almost a minute.
"Do you think it is safe?" The girl said doubtfully, as she eyed the retreating zombies still in the hallway.
"Actually," Gabe said with calm certainty. "I'm pretty sure that I know it is." He looked down at her and motioned for her to take his hand as he stood up.
She looked away from the zombies and made eye contact with him. After a second she flashed him a smile and gave him a quizzical look at the same time.
"By the way, my name is Kelly."
"Glad to meet you Kelly, my name is Gabe."
"So really, how did you do that?" Kelly asked bluntly
"Well, I am not exactly sure… I just used the name of Jesus and they responded."
"Not exactly sure? You mean that was the first time you even did that?"
"Yes," he responded with a bewildered look on his face, "Hey, it surprised me too."
"Well," Kelly started a little hesitantly, "Thanks for trying to…" She motioned to the floor where they had just been, "Trying to save me, I mean I know they would have gotten to me eventually, but I appreciate your last thought was trying to protect me."
"Oh, well…" Gabe stuttered a little, "No problem, uhm, you're welcome." He said with a quick smile.
Gabe felt the flush rise to his cheeks, and while he was more than likely a widower, the fact that he suddenly realized that this young lady was so attractive made him uncomfortable. He tried to remind himself that his wife had left him and sent him divorce papers, but he still found himself blushing.
"Umm, " Gabe, glanced down the hall, the Zombies were almost all the way out now, but there was a bottleneck at the door. Not only was it the fact that only one of them could get through the doorway at a time, but some of them seemed to be having trouble remembering how to crawl, despite the fact they had just crawled through the opening a couple of minutes ago. "I have some friends near hear, once this group goes away we should be able to find them. Do you… are your people still… around?" Gabe asked cautiously..
"I'm not sure. When we got up John was gone, and he left a note saying he would be back this afternoon. We were staying here with a couple that we met in the first few days of all this." She looked up to see if Gabe understood her reference and he shook his head yes.
"The husband, Geoff, worked here, he was the one that figured out how to rig the doors so they kept working even after the electricity and hotel generators went out." She paused and looked away sadly. "We decided to go scavenging since we didn't know what John was doing. We were in a department store near where you saw me when Geoff's wife Laura got attacked, of course Geoff jumped on the zombie but then another one came around a corner and got Geoff. I grabbed a shirt stand and tried to use that to knock it off but Geoff told me to run when several more showed up. I hid on the bottom floor of the store but I didn't even realize that I was sobbing out loud until that group saw me…. And well you saw the rest."
Kelly and Gabe were now walking down the hallway towards the exit where the last couple of zombies were working their way out.
"I'm sorry about your friends." Gabe said sincerely.
"Thanks." Kelly replied, "But I'm sure there isn't anyone left alive in the world that hasn't lost someone.
Gabe just nodded his head.
The last zombie having cleared out, they cautiously approached the door, still giving the zombies plenty of time and distance. Gabe took the lead and crawled through first, he could see the last zombie at the bottom of the steps. He stood up and helped Kelly come through and then without another word, they both started to go down the steps.
They were still wary of the zombies that were wandering off so they came down the steps as quietly as possible, but as they reached the bottom step the silence was shattered.
"KELLY!" The boy Gabe had seen before the zombies pinned them on the steps came running towards them with a smile on his face. "I saw all those deadheads coming out of our place and I thought…" He didn't finish the sentence but moved in to give Kelly a hug.
Gabe started to protest since he knew the y
oung man had seen them chased up the stairs but was now pretending to have only shown up at the end. However, before he could say anything, Kelly managed to express her own opinion.
"You son of a…" She finished the sentence with a full-strength slap to the side of his face. "John, you idiot, you almost got us killed."
She punched him a few more times before running out of steam. Mentally Gabe gave John credit for not hitting her back or even so much as screaming at her. This helped Gabe in his decision to not mention he had seen him, thinking that had he seen a group of zombies coming around a corner, he would have probably ducked and covered too.
"Why the heck did you take my key card?" Kelly asked, still furious.
"I'm sorry, I thought I would be gone and back before you guys got up." He tried his best to explain in a calm voice as if it made all the sense in the world.
“I was just trying to do something nice after the argument we all got in the night before, I thought I could bring home some fresh breakfast.” Seeing that she was listening, he continued. "I went down to the park and climbed a tree looking for some eggs, I didn't find any but I found a ton of nuts in one of the trees and I was bringing those home when I got chased by two of those fast dead heads"
"They get faster, and I think even a little smarter, if they have recently… eaten." Gabe interrupted.
John pointed at Gabe and shook his head as if Gabe's statement somehow added validity to his story. "So by the time I gave them the slip, and worked my way back here you guys were gone, so I went out looking for you and just now got back."
Gabe flinched internally, the pastor in him hated that John ended the story with a lie, but again he decided to let it slide.
"And the key to the stairwell padlock?" Kelly asked pointedly.
When I was leaving this morning, I noticed that Steve had left it unlocked when he had gone downstairs yesterday." John's hands were moving in a circular motion as if everything was working together into a cohesive explanation. "I must have stuck the key in my pocket out of habit, from you know, the old days, when you locked things up to keep people out, not to keep them in."
Dead Faith (Book 1): Dead Faith Page 8