by bret Wellman
"They are climbing up to us," a man yelled over the edge.
"How?” Dan yelled back.
Even from his spot on the ground he could see the people beginning to push and shove to get on the ladder. It looked like fists were being thrown.
"They are climbing on top of each other!"
Two people tried to climb onto the ladder at once. A woman was almost on when a man cut her off, accidentally hip-checking her as he did. The women fell into the open air, grasping for something to hold onto; nothing was there. She screamed until she was silenced by the pavement.
Dan stared at her broken body, blood pooling under it, unable to look away. How many gruesome deaths could one man witness in a day without going insane? For fuck’s sake, her eyeball had popped out!
"Dan," said Zoey, grabbing his elbow and turning him to face her. "We have to keep going."
Dan shook his head to ward off the image of the broken woman. The fire escape was too high for anybody to reach, he had to find some way to get everybody up to it.
"Over here," he said, running to a dumpster further up the alley. "Help me get this under the fire escape."
He and Zoey grabbed on but couldn't get the thing to budge. It wasn’t until Barns joined them that they were able to move it a few centimeters at a time.
The people still at the top of the building had begun to be attacked. Dan could only see fragments of what was going on when people got too close to the edge. It looked like there was a pretty big brawl going on up there. Two more people were pushed over; he looked away before they hit the ground.
As more and more people reached the ground and were able to help them, they were able to move the dumpster enough to get it under the fire escape. Nobody waited for Dan's permission to climb up, they all pretty much went for it at once.
Dan was about to join them when he spotted a few zombies entering the mouth of the alley. They sniffed the air and snapped their jaws, hissing like animals as they made their approach.
"Shit," he swore. Randy was just getting off the ladder so he grabbed him as he went by. "We have to kill these things or a lot more people are going to die."
It looked to be six zombies in total that had entered the alley. Randy looked them over and then yanked his arm free from Dan's grasp.
"Are you out of your mind? We can't just be risking our lives like that, we have to climb."
Dan tried to think of some way to persuade him but he was already walking away.
"Watch it!" Somebody said on the fire escape.
Dan turned and was glad to see Barns moving against the flow of traffic to come and help.
"I'm uh comin', Dan," he said.
The people were now coming down the ladder, crossing the alley and climbing the fire escape in single file. They stretched from building to building in a giant horseshoe.
The screams were beginning to fade from the roof. That could only mean that there was nobody left up there to scream.
Dan beheaded the first zombie and kicked the second, knocking it to the ground where he stabbed it through the eye. The third zombie caught him by the shirt, pulling him in for a bite.
Barns was there in time to bring the baseball bat down directly on its head. The impact reverberated through Dan’s body and jarred his teeth. Together they were able to take down the last two with ease.
They circled around the zombies, causing them to separate. Dan chose to take his blade up through the chin and into the brain. Barns took his out by swiping the knee and then beating it into the pavement.
"Thanks, man, you saved me again," said Dan, using his shirt to clean the blackened blood from his forehead.
Barns smiled. "It be my duty to look out fo' you."
They didn't have much time to celebrate, for it soon began to rain the living dead.
The zombies, having killed everyone on the roof, were now throwing themselves over the ledge.
They landed all around the fire escape. Their bones broke on impact and their fluids splattered through the air. They showed no pain, moving as if they hadn't fallen at all.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" Dan yelled, cutting down a zombie that was in his way and jumping onto the dumpster. Barns was right behind him as he began ascending the stairs.
Dan looked across the alley at the people still on the ladder. They could not climb up, nor could they climb down; death waited for them on both ends. He didn't have time to worry about them. His own life was at risk.
Chapter 18
Zoey was waiting for them at the top of the fire escape. "Where did you guys go? I thought you were right behind me."
Dan huffed as he stepped onto the roof. "I got caught up."
The other building had turned into a waterfall, only instead of water pouring over the edge it was walking corpses. They massed together like ants on candy at the base of the fire escape. They may have been coming up slowly, but they were still coming.
To Dan's dismay, the roof they were now on was not very large. In total it only covered one building.
"Where do we go now?" a lady asked. "We are trapped."
"Well, shit," Dan mumbled under his breath.
He could hear the clanking of dead feet as they made their way up the steps. It was enough to drive even the calmest men to panic.
"We can't get away from them," a man cried. "They just keep coming!"
"Why is this happening?" said another.
"Dan?" asked Zoey.
He responded by running to the opposite side of the roof. The other building across the street mocked him. The roof he was on was an island. The fire escape looked like the only way down without having to go through the building.
"What are we going to do?" a woman asked.
Turning back, Dan could see that everyone was staring at him. How the hell did that happen, he wondered. What had he done to make everybody decide they were going to toss the weight of the decision-making onto his shoulders? His life had been already in shambles before the zombies—who was he to decide what they should do with theirs now?
The sound of the zombies getting closer snapped his mind back into focus. They could not return down the fire escape, they were going to have to go through the building to get down. It was the only option they had.
He ran over and threw open the door that would lead them down into the building. We know what is behind us, he thought, but what the fuck is in front of us? The hallway leading down looked dark but peaceful. Hopefully there wouldn't be any infected in this building. He seriously doubted it.
"Follow me," he said, and began to descend the steps into the building.
As soon as he reached the bottom of the steps, he was met with a scene of horror. There would be no peace in this building. The lights were flickering on and off in the long hallway; fresh and bloody claw marks ran the length of it. Gore and excrement were lathered all over the floor as if somebody had recently spilled their guts. That somebody was standing in the center of the hall, waiting for them.
The zombie began moaning and moving for Dan. As soon as it was close enough he dispatched it through the eye, but not before four more made themselves known. They came stumbling in from adjacent rooms.
Shit, Dan thought, as he parried one zombie and killed another. We cannot afford to be slowed down.
Barns and Randy came up on his right, Zoey on his left. They killed the zombies in the hall but more were coming out from the rooms.
Dan heard the sound of the door to the roof flying open, followed by the screams as the zombies that were chasing them reached the tail end of their group. They fell forward, pushing them down the steps.
Dan stared down the hall, seeing a small sign with a picture of stairs on it, the stairs that would lead them to the lobby. The forty feet they had to cross to get there looked awfully long with all the zombies closing in. He knew that every second they wasted the farther the zombies would dig into their numbers. They had to run or there would be nothing left of them to reach the lobby. Some o
f them would be killed, maybe all of them, but it was the only option.
"Let's go!" he yelled, shoving a zombie as he ran by.
He could hear the thundering sound of feet behind him as he barreled toward the stairs. He did his best to shove any zombies in his way and prayed the others would do the same before he could be flanked.
Dan risked a glance behind him. Their group charged down the hall, overcoming anything in their path. Even so, he saw a few people getting snagged up by arms that reached out from the doorways. The poor bastards were pulled in, never to be seen alive again.
Behind them, the giant herd of zombies had taken to the chase. They consumed anybody that dared to fall behind. Unyielding and determined, their tactics were a bitch.
Turning back forward, Dan hit the door to the stairs and had to behead a zombie that was waiting for him on the other side.
He began going down, taking the steps three at a time. He did his best to knock down the few lingering zombies in his way. He was beginning to feel the familiar burn of exercise on his out-of-shape body. He knew that the second his adrenaline ebbed he was going to collapse.
One fucking yoga class a week, he thought. Only one, and I wouldn’t be dying right now!
The lobby door was only three floors down. Dan kicked it open as soon as he reached it; Zoey caught up to him as he went through.
Everything had been knocked over in the old lobby. Two zombies stood behind the wooden front desk as if they were still at work. Decaying and soiled, yet still waiting for the next customer. The rest of the zombies were all wandering around aimlessly; their heads snapped up at Dan's entrance.
Without waiting for them to come after him, he sprang out from the door and headed for the exit. He killed as many of the zombies as he could, everybody else did the same and the lobby was soon clear.
Dan stood at the front door, watching the shambling zombies in the street. Barns was putting all his weight on the door they had just come through, trying to hold back the mass of zombies that were chasing them down the stairs.
Dan cursed to himself, after all that running and climbing they had ended up trapped between a group of zombies and another group of zombies. There just ain’t no rest for the wicked.
"What do we do now?" asked a balding man in a red shirt.
A lady collapsed and began to sob on the ground. "It's no use, they are everywhere. We are all going to die!"
They were beginning to look at Dan again. Guide us, oh great and powerful vagabond!
The door burst open but Barns was quick to shoulder it back shut.
"I can't hold it no mo'," he huffed.
Dan started looking around for an escape, knowing the clock was ticking. Finally, he gave up. "Can't anybody else think of something? Nothing I have done has worked out so far."
The room would have fallen silent were it not for the horrible banging against the door that Barns held shut.
It was Randy that spoke up. "We have to make a run for it. It is our only option and if we split up some of us might have a chance. I think that once we separate, so will the zombies. That will make it easier to escape them."
A tall man let out a sarcastic laugh. "And the untold numbers of zombies wandering the streets are just going to ignore us?"
"I didn't say the plan was perfect, but we literally have no other option."
"Alright, so let’s do it," said Zoey. "Everybody get ready, this is going to happen fast."
Dan felt the sudden nagging feeling that by giving up the reins he had just sentenced them all to death. Even so, he could think of no better option.
He placed his hands on the front doors and prepared to throw them open.
"I do hope this charade will end soon," said Lady Rose. "I grow feverishly tired of this cat-and-mouse endeavor."
“You and me both, Lady,” said Barns
Dan checked to make sure the doors weren't locked. "Is everybody ready?"
Not many responded, instead they all began to crowd against the door. He assumed that meant that they were good to go.
"Barns," he said. "I'm going to count to three and then we are all going to run for it. I will wait for you right here, I want you to follow me. You got that?"
He grunted as he tried to keep the door at bay. "Count fast!"
"One."
He could feel the claustrophobia of all the people crowding towards him. Any and all respect for personal space had apparently been thrown out the window.
"Two."
His heart raced with anticipation and fear. Like so many other times that day, this minute had a solid chance of being his last.
"Three!"
He threw the doors open and everybody rushed past; the force of them pushed him out onto the sidewalk. He stumbled, trying to catch his balance. There was a small tree that had been planted in the sidewalk; he had to grab it to keep from falling.
Their group split off, some people going left and some going right. A few got caught by zombies immediately but most flew past, too fast to be taken. The zombies flocked after them like magnets. Dan saw an opening; the streets were parting before him as the zombies took chase. There was an alley directly across the street; he was going to go for it.
The first to be attacked lay on the ground around him. There was no time to save these people, they would die on their backs.
Barns let the door swing open as he began his run, the dead piling out behind him.
He began to run as soon as Barns was close, Zoey, Randy and Lady Rose moved with him. The street was clear and they were able to make it across uncontested. Dan would have thought them to be lucky were it not for the giant horde of zombies chasing them from behind. He sprinted through the alley, feeling the shadows pass over him with a cold chill. The buildings seemed to lean, trying to bend down and close in on him. Dumpsters and debris appeared to reach out and try to snag him up.
He did not slow down when he came to the next street, he ran right through an intersection without checking to see if cars were coming. He passed more zombies, their ranks adding to the others as he continued on through the next alley.
Dan’s only hesitation was when he heard a scream. It was loud and shrill, full of fear and pain. He turned in time to see Lady Rose hit the pavement.
Blood ran from her knees and there were rocks imbedded in the palms of her hands. She screamed again as she tried to stand and fell back down, holding her ankle.
There wasn’t much time for her to do anything else; the zombies were practically right on top of her.
Dan’s entire group had frozen, knowing they couldn't get to her in time, yet not wanting to let her die.
Lady Rose looked at them. "Run, you clod-headed fools!"
The dead pounced on her and she disappeared beneath their mass. They rolled across each other, fighting like wild animals over a scrap of meat. There was no pre-thought, no organization, they just fell all over in hopes of getting a bite.
Lady Rose's words had spurred them into action; they were now running again. The alley stretched out before them like a shadowy cave.
Seeing that the zombies were momentarily distracted by their most recent meal, Dan stopped running and walked up to a steel door in the side of a building. He yanked on it but it wouldn't budge. He cursed his rotten luck before looking at the others.
"Quick, find a door that will open," he said.
There were three more doors close enough for them to get to before the zombies gave chase again. Zoey found the one that was unlocked.
"Over here," she called.
Dan was the farthest away and therefore the last one to go through. It felt like ants were crawling up and down his spine as he entered the building, praying no zombie saw him. He gave one last look as he began to slowly close the door behind him.
The zombies climbed on top of each other with single-minded determination. They feasted on pieces of Lady Rose, for that was all that was left of her. A lot of them were beginning to pass the scene and continue down the alle
y in search of prey. So far none seemed to notice Dan moving the door closed. He was thankful to finally feel the click as the door slid home.
Now, he thought, if only we knew what was waiting for us inside this building.
Chapter 19
As soon as the door was closed, the darkness of the hallway sank in. The only light came from an exit sign that tinged everything in fluorescent red. Both the wood on the floor and the walls had been stained black, up to around chest height. Above that the wall was painted blue and had folderol mirrors hanging all over it. Upon further inspection, Dan could see the mirrors were covered in beer labels.
He could see light at the far end of the hall; it appeared that it opened up into a larger room.
"You first," whispered Randy.
Dan gave him an annoyed look that was lost in the dark, before slowly creeping forward. As much as he hated it, the floor creaked with every step.
His katana was at the ready. He passed two bathrooms, a men’s room and a ladies’ room. They were still and undisturbed, as far as he could tell; no sign of zombies.
When he stepped out into the wider room, he found himself standing in the back of a pristine bar. The tables were clean and ready for the night’s customers. The bar was fully stocked with glittering bottles of liquor and fridges of beer. The bartender was even there, holding a double-barreled shotgun, and pointing it right at him.
"How the hell did you get in here?" the tall and skinny man asked.
Dan let his katana drop to the floor and raised his hands. "We were being chased so we went through the first unlocked door we could find."
The man looked pissed. "Damn it Kyle. You left the door unlocked, how many times am I going to have to tell you? Lock the door!"
Dan noticed a short, freckle faced, red headed boy of about ten years old, sitting at the far end of the bar.
"Sorry dad, I forgot," he said, looking sullen.
"When are you gonna learn?"
The kid just put his head down.