by Tristan Vick
Suddenly three pallid bodies pushed their way into the room. Their eyes were all fogged over with a murky white glaze. Even the pupils had faded to gray. Patches of their skin had turned jaundice yellow and were peeling off in layers. They looked more like corpses than the living.
Jennifer gasped, “My God! Their faces! They’re all torn to shreds, as if—”
“GraHhrrr!” growled a man in a cheap navy blue suit and wearing a generic red necktie. Chunks of bloody meat dangled from his excoriated chin. It looked like some kind of wild animal had mauled him.
“Holy shit balls!” cried Jesse Zanato, as he backed toward the rear door. “They’re mother fucking zombies!”
“Don’t say that!” Hurley snapped. “We don’t know what the hell they are.”
Without any further hesitation, the guard took careful aim and fired off several shots into the man’s chest. But even having taken two bullets at point-blank range, the white-eyed man kept scratching and clawing at the guard.
Zanato and Jennifer watched in horror as the others crouched down and joined in on the frenzy. The man’s snapping teeth latched onto the guard’s ear and tore it off. The guard howled out in pain. Covering his bloodied ear with his free hand, he put his gun to the head of the mad man and pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, bloody chunks of gray matter blew out to top of the man’s skull and splattered against the wall.
Jennifer and Jesse watched in terror-filled awe as the man’s body fell to the side, giving ample room for the others to bend down and rip into the security guard’s torso.
Ripping off his shirt, their cracked fingernails clawed at his skin. Tearing into his flesh, their hands pushed inside his gut, and the guard yowled as his ribs cracked like dry branches. Even as he was still wide-eyed and conscious, they began ripping out his organs. The guard let out one last blood-curdling scream as they pried him open like a walnut and disemboweled him, then his head fell limp and the awful screaming stopped.
“Jesus Christ!” Hurley exclaimed, barely able to breathe, as she watched the monsters reach inside him and pulled out what looked like a chain of raw blood sausages, then they bit into the guard’s intestines.
Taking her arm, Zanato peeled her away from the scene. “See, I told you they’re zombies. Now, come on! We have to get the fuck outta here!”
Hand in hand, they dashed out the back door and tore down the hall and made their way to the elevator. Jamming the elevator button repeatedly, Jennifer chanted, “Come on! Come on! Come on!” But the elevator was indifferent to her button mashing. Finally, the chime dinged and the doors opened. Looking in, Zanato and Hurley saw Ramirez’s secretary lying on the floor, her chest split open like a melon, and a bloodstained UPS man hunched over her, eating her thigh meat. Sluggishly, the white-eyed delivery man looked up at them, and Jennifer Hurley covered her mouth and gasped.
“The stairs!” Zanato cried out, tugging on Hurley’s arm. “Follow me!” Jesse Zanato took Hurley’s hand and they ran into the stairwell.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Hurley asked.
“Away from here,” Zanato said, his voice filled with fear.
Ducking into the stairwell, they skidded around the corner and hopped down several flights of stairs. As they made their way to the landing they heard screams echoing up from below. More people were being torn apart and disemboweled. Downstairs was a death trap.
“What the hell is going on?” Zanato growled in frustration.
They turned back the way they had come, but the door flew open and the UPS man stood rigidly at the top of the stairs, growling at them. Chunks of human meat dangled from his chin.
Hurley screamed again and Zanato jumped back down to the bottom of the stairwell. Throwing open the door, Zanato motioned for Jennifer to go through ahead of him. Once they entered the offices Zanato slammed the door shut behind him and ordered Jennifer to hold it tight.
“Hold this shut! And whatever you do, don’t let go.”
Hurley shot him an exasperated look. “What? Are you kidding me?”
“Just do it,” he insisted. Then he disappeared around the corner.
“Don’t you fucking leave me!” Jennifer cried out. But there wasn’t any reply. Without realizing it, her eyes had started streaming silent tears. Crying, Jennifer screamed, “Get back here you fucking shit!”
Suddenly the door handle began to rattle uncontrollably. She screamed some more as she fumbled to get a tighter grip on the juddering handle. An imminent terror overcame her as she realized she couldn’t hold it for very long. To her great relief Jesse abruptly returned with a heavy duty mop and wedged it into the door handle. “That ought to hold him, for now.”
“Thank God. For a moment there, I actually thought that you might have left me here.”
Jesse looked at her, took her hand, and said, “We’d better find another way out of here. It won’t hold that son of a bitch for long.”
Retreating to a back office, they managed to barricade the office doors with a jumble of filing cabinets, office chairs, a table, and several computers. Although the barricade was thrown together in slapdash fashion, it would keep the monsters at bay, at least for the time being.
“Looks like we’re stuck here,” Zanato said, pointing out the obvious. Slouching down in the corner, he closed his eyes and tried to get some rest. But his mind was still racing from their quickie back in the copy room, and he couldn’t shake his desire to mount her and finish what they had started. Zanato opened his eyes and patted the spot on the floor next to him, as if to invite her to join him in a little bit of end-of-the-world fear sex. Jennifer scoffed at the thought and turned away. She wasn’t just going to throw herself at him again. He’d have to earn it this time. Maybe do something more heroic than fetch a mop.
Jennifer sighed. Zanato was probably right, she thought. They certainly weren’t going anywhere. Not anytime soon. Not with those creatures out there waiting to gnaw their faces off. Besides, it was already starting to turn dark outside and she felt it would be best if they just stayed put until help arrived.
7
Unfortunate Events
Arriving at the 7-Eleven, Alyssa entered the store and promptly headed toward the payphone on the back wall. Picking up the receiver she began to dial, but there was no response. All she heard was a dial tone. The hospital phone had been out of order too. What is going on with the phones today? she wondered.
Agitated, Alyssa slammed the received back into its cradle. She looked back up at the front counter, but there wasn’t any cashier working. It took her a moment to realize there wasn’t anybody else at all. Scanning the room, she realized that she was alone. The store was completely vacant. Come to think of it, apart from Dr. Beckford, she hadn’t seen anybody else at all. Not since yesterday when she had seen the waitress from the restaurant from across the street step out to have a smoke. Peering out the windows at the restaurant, Alyssa couldn’t see anybody. Stranger still, the sign hanging in the restaurant’s door read closed even though it was well past their opening time. “No early bird special today?” Alyssa said to herself. “Where is everybody?”
Not wasting any more time, Alyssa shifted into survival mode. She picked up a blue shopping basket and started dumping in supplies from off the shelves. She made sure to get the bottled water first, then bent down to the bottom shelf and found some more disinfectant and some dental floss. Knowing that she was going to have to make the long trek back into town, she was going to need to redo her stitches and redress her wound at some point.
When she stood back up, there was a suddenly dark figure filling the doorway. Alyssa let out a scream. Catching herself, she began to laugh nervously. “Sorry. You startled me.”
The man didn’t respond. He merely remained fixed in the doorway, staring at her relentlessly. This unnerved her even more. Slowly, Alyssa started to back away from the entrance. Making sure to keep her distance, Alyssa cautiously moved toward the end of the aisle, and asked the stranger, “Are you
all right? Were you in an accident? Do you need some help?”
The man had on a red flannel shirt and looked like a trucker, come in to get a refill on his morning coffee. Then he stepped forward and came into the light. Alyssa froze in her footsteps as her legs became wooden. Suddenly she was trembling and her breathing became stilted. As the man turned to face her, she saw the blood dripping from the stump of what used to be his left arm. His dark beard was matted with dried blood. She noticed that his eyes were the same milky white as the doctor’s.
“Gnahhh!” he growled, lunging at her.
Alyssa screamed in fright and stumbled back to dodge his grasping fingers. Barely escaping, she ducked behind the shelf, knocking bags of chips and other items off the shelves as she frantically scurried away. Alyssa ran to the door at the back that read “employees only” and passed through. She immediately locked the door behind her and then made her way to the rear exit.
Stepping outside, Alyssa paused to catch her breath. As she looked back up she suddenly saw a group of people, but her relief quickly turned to dismay when she saw their milky-eyed gazes.
The four loiterers standing in the parking lot seemed to be unaware of their surroundings. Most just stood around in what appeared to be a drunken stupor. A few of them were drooling uncontrollably down their own chins, while others stared aimlessly up at the sky. Their gazes were unfixed, as if they were all caught up in some sort of simple-minded daydream.
Of the lethargic group, a corpulent woman with yellow frizzy hair, who wore a blue waitress uniform and a white apron with bloody handprints all over it, looked the worse for wear. One of her eyes was gouged out, while the other eyeball was missing the eyelid. It gave her a crazed look.
“Oh my God,” Alyssa said in a whisper. She couldn’t believe these people were even walking with the sort of injuries they had. But they appeared to have caught the same contagion that Dr. Beckford had.
The one-eyed, frizzy haired zombie waitress heard Alyssa’s voice and cocked her head to the side. Then she looked right at Alyssa with her one wild eye.
The sight of fresh meat stirred an excited fit of moaning. The waitress’s moans caught the attention of the others, and soon enough all four sluggish creatures moved clumsily toward her.
Alyssa slowly backed up and looked for a way to escape the closing circle, but they were too evenly dispersed. She didn’t dare attempt to cut through them. Not on a bum leg. She wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to outrun them, even though they didn’t technically run. Deciding that a strategic retreat would be better than getting torn to shreds by a mob of mindless flesh-eaters, Alyssa turned back the way she had come. Being extra cautious, she made sure to lock the door of the convenience store behind her. Hopefully, that would hold them long enough for her to get the heck out of Dodge.
Alyssa took a deep breath and, from behind, a hand grabbed her by her shoulder. Alyssa screamed and began flailing her arms, twisting and turning sporadically, and swinging her fists furiously at the man who had grabbed her.
“Ow! Ow! Stop hitting me!” the young black man yelped.
Alyssa pulled back and looked at him with relieved eyes. “Boy, am I glad to see you!” Alyssa said, trying to catch her breath. He was the first normal person she had seen all day. By his outfit, a clerk’s uniform with the 7-Eleven insignia stitched into it, she assumed he was just late to work. Looking back up at his face, she felt that he couldn’t be any more than seventeen, probably younger.
“No kidding,” the young man replied. “I came to work as usual and nobody was here. Not a dang soul. You’re the first normal person I’ve seen all day.”
“Same here.”
“What do you think is going on here?” the kid asked. “Some kind of flu bug? SARS again? Swine flu maybe?”
Alyssa looked at him and shrugged. “I wish I knew.”
“What happened to your leg?” the kid asked, glancing down at Alyssa’s bandages.
“I was attacked.”
“That bites,” the kid answered. Turning toward the rear exit, he motioned for Alyssa to follow him. “Come on. My car is out back. I’ll give you a lift to the nearest clinic.”
“Wait!” Alyssa cried out, her voice thick with trepidation. “There are a bunch of those things back there. I wouldn’t open that door if I were you.”
“Understood,” he said. “This way then.” Changing directions, he walked over to the doors that led back into the store. As he turned the handle to open the door, he looked back at Alyssa and said, “We’ll go out the front and sneak back around to the parking lot.”
When the door opened, Alyssa’s face turned white as a sheet when she realized that the one-armed man was standing directly behind the kid. He didn’t even see him coming. One moment the kid was looking at Alyssa’s worried face and the next moment he had razor-sharp teeth biting into his trapezius muscle. With an uncanny strength, the one-armed man snapped the clerk’s head to the side and, with a vicious snarl, tore strands of muscle out from the kid’s neck. An impressive feat considering the creature only had one arm.
Alyssa shrieked but her screams were drowned out by the clerk’s. The tendons and red meat stretched out like threads running through the shed of a weaving loom. Alyssa knew she couldn’t go back the way she had just come, and if she stayed more would show up, so she did the only thing she could think to do and dashed forward and body-checked the gimp cannibal.
The one-armed man toppled over the clerk’s still twitching body, and they both crashed to the floor. This afforded Alyssa the opportunity she needed to make her getaway. Stepping over them, she quickly limped to the front of the store and didn’t dare look back. Even so, she could hear the kid’s screams turn to gurgles as he choked on the thick stickiness of his own blood.
Stepping outside into the daylight, the brightness blinded her, and her heart pounded inside her chest like a jackhammer chipping at concrete. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she frantically scanned the parking lot for an available car. Anything that might be unlocked or that would be easy to break into should suffice. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder and jerked her back.
Alyssa screamed and, almost as if by instinct, ducked out of the way and evaded her attacker. The zombie, a thin man wearing a sports blazer and blood-stained khakis, was too clumsy to keep up with her darting and dodging. Alyssa ran toward the road and, as expected, the zombie staggered after her. By the time she’d looped back around the zombie had staggered off in the wrong direction and seemed confused as to where it’s prey disappeared to. That little delay gave her just the time needed to make it safely back to the parking lot. But the added strain of playing cat and mouse caused her leg to shoot sharp pain up through her entire body. It felt like knives cutting into her as the stitches threatened to tear out of her recent leg-wound.
Clutching her leg, Alyssa let out a grunt and hop-skipped her way over to a nearby pickup truck with the damned creature nipping at her heels. Thank God, she thought as the door handle effortlessly clicked open. It was unlocked. Throwing herself into the vehicle, she promptly reached over and shut the door behind her and locked it. She didn’t know if zombies could open car doors, but she wasn’t about to find out.
Along with the zombie wearing the blazer that had chased through the parking lot, the one-armed man lumbered over and came over to the driver’s side window, scratching at the glass, leaving red blood streaks where his recently moistened fingers clawed. Poor kid, she thought. At least it was a quick death.
Alyssa turned her head to see the bloody maw of the one-eyed woman gazing at her from behind the glass of the passenger side window. She couldn’t help shrieking, as if by reflex, but quickly caught herself with cupped hands firmly pressed over tight lips.
Her screaming had already attracted more than a few of the monsters and more were already making their way toward her position. Soon enough, she found herself surrounded by a small mob of mindless flesh-eating zombies. Moaning impatiently, the monsters clawed at
the glass and rocked the truck’s cab violently to and fro. Alyssa searched for the car keys but came up empty-handed. “Of course not!” she groaned, disappointed by her continued streak of bad luck.
Looking up, Alyssa let out an elated gasp. Hanging across the back window of the pickup truck was a Remington 700 bolt action rifle with hunting scope. In her moment of frenzied terror Alyssa hadn’t noticed it before. She smiled a reserved grin. Finally, a streak of good luck, she thought. Hopefully it would last long enough for her to get out of this mess with her life, along with the rest of her, still intact.
Gathering her nerves, she took down the rifle, which was heavier than she expected it to be, and set it on the seat beside her. She leaned over to check the glove compartment for ammunition. Another stroke of luck! Inside she found some .375 caliber rounds for the rifle.
Alyssa barely had any training with firearms. Practically none. When she was sixteen her uncle had taken her grouse hunting once, so she remembered enough to pull back the bolt, load the cartridges, and have the gun cocked and ready. But that was the extent of it.
Hastily dumping the bullets out onto the seat, she picked up a handful and crammed them into her pants pocket. Then she took a couple of bullets and loaded them into the firing chamber of the rifle, cocked it, and aimed the gun squarely between the eyes of the one-armed man gazing at her hungrily from the other side of the glass. “Back off, or I’ll shoot!” Alyssa warned, hoping he’d heed her words. But he didn’t listen.
Alyssa slid her finger around the trigger and began to squeeze down. The thought of actually killing someone, even in self-defense, upset her deeply. She didn’t have a mean bone in her entire body. It was probably what made her so good with animals. But over the past several hours she’d killed Dr. Beckford and a whole kennel of infected animals, and she’d sacrificed a kid to make her own getaway. She didn’t like this new version of herself. In her mind, she had become just as monstrous as all the rest. Yet, before the day was over, she knew, she’d have to do some more killing. What other recourse did she have?