by Mariah Lynde
“Oh, for the love of God, help us!” Suit One’s cries were no different than McGinley’s had been moments before. As for McGinley himself, he had his good arm clamped down on the injured one while he scrambled to push himself back across the floor. Suit One struggled under the assault by Her Undead Highness, his body pulling and twisting in an effort to get his arm free. In the middle of his labors, the zombie took its first real action beyond biting down. I watched as the animated corpse turned her body and slammed her arm back into Suit One’s chest. Again, these men were double her size in some way or another, but when she connected and Suit One went flying back across the sitting area to slam into the wall with a dull thud, I gaped. If I had to make a guess, he hit that glass paned window about two feet off the ground. While I may not be a physicist, even I know that took a hell of a lot of force.
Suit One slid down the window to plop down on the floor in a heap of flesh while his assailant lunged forward to grab McGinley’s leg. About this time, I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline pushing my body into action. All about the lobby I saw people moving to pile into a group on top of the woman. My only thought was if I allowed that to happen, it would only create a bigger problem.
“Oh God, please! Help me! Get her off! Get her off!” McGinley’s leg kicked out in a fruitless effort to try and detach the rabid woman currently biting down on his leather loafers. Seeing that all the others milling about the lobby were deciding to go with Suit One’s overwhelm tactic to handle the problem instead of eliminating it fully, I did the only thing I could think of.
Moving past Isaac who stood murmuring into his radio nearby, I made my way back to the bank of elevators and leaned up, grabbing the large fire extinguisher off the wall. As far as improvised weapons went, I figured it would come in handy. I wish that I had taken into consideration just how heavy such a weapon would be. In less than five steps, I knew that this may not have been the best of plans. Still, it would serve its purpose…at least for the moment.
While others wanted to believe that this was just madness from a woman that had lost her mind, in my gut, I knew…I knew what I was witnessing. A part of me could already rationalize what would likely be seen as a psychotic moment of my own. Gripping the top of my newly acquired weapon, I hissed as the metal of the handle bit into my palm. I made my way forward and then started to turn as I got within a few steps of the rampaging monster happily making jerky of those expensive leather shoes.
There was no question in my mind as I let my body and gravity do their best work. Throwing my weight forward to add force to my swing as my body turned, my arms shifted to lift the object higher than I would normally manage. Thinking that this might be a dream or hell, that I had possibly died on my way to work and entered my own form of purgatory, there was a distinct lack of comprehension on my part. Call it shock, call it horror, call it whatever you want, but I had spent a majority of my life trying to help others, even if grudgingly. When you’re in mid-swing with an object that weighs about enough to crush most medium-sized dogs, the realization that you’re going to do serious damage to whatever you hit, person or otherwise, is a bit much to take in. So I yelled the only thing I could think of to make me think of this in some other light.
“Hey Battah, Battah, SWING!” I screamed it at the top of my lungs. Not that it did any good, because my body was already caught up in the vortex of my spin, and that extinguisher swung out to land with a sickening crack against the side of the woman’s head.
Now, several things suddenly took place, not the least of which was a grudging realization that no matter what all the books, movies, and games said about weapons during the zombie apocalypse, metal was a mistake. Up until this point, I had considered myself an expert on all things zombie. Within the varying media outlets, not one of them had spoken of how stupid metal weaponry was to use.
From the moment that the extinguisher made contact with the woman’s jaw, I felt like my arms were going to fall off. My makeshift weapon vibrated with the aftershocks of making solid contact with the zombie’s skull, to the point I had to drop it. Those reverberations from holding the extinguisher as a weapon had my arms going numb, warning of the ache that was sure to come later. It was a jarring experience, one that I would not soon forget. Even after alleviating myself of the added weight of my makeshift weapon, there was a price for using the object that I had not counted on. Exhaling on a sharp breath, I heard the shocked gasps as other people around the lobby finally began to react.
“What the hell have you done?” I heard a voice call out from over my shoulder. Turning to look behind me, I saw a man standing there, pointing at the fallen zombie woman as he glared at me in accusation.
“You mean other than save everyone else from becoming her next snack?” Each word I spoke seemed to be wrenched from my throat. At this moment, speaking felt like I was forcing my throat to push air between two pieces of coarse sandpaper. With my pulse slowing down and that rush of adrenaline beginning to fade, my arms began to ache. Moving my shoulders to slump forward in the hope to alleviate the continuing spasms in my arms, I found myself trying to wrap my head around all I had just seen and done.
“Somebody call the cops! Don’t let her leave!” Another voice joined into the outcry of rage, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care. My throat felt like it had been scraped raw and I could only look upon the aftermath.
Well, shit. The thing about zombies is, they don’t breathe. Whether or not I had actually put said undead monster out of commission, I couldn’t say. It seemed that I may have eliminated her for the moment, but I could only hope that would be enough.
My gaze moved over the still form crumpled on the now fluid-stained tan carpet of the sitting area. It didn’t look like I had done much damage. There were no obvious deformities to the woman’s head. I started to look for bruising when I realized there likely wouldn’t be any.
No circulation, duh.
Shaking my head before my gaze trailed across the carpet, seeing small, blackish red dots of blood that fell in nearly a straight line across the floor. That line of fluid traced its way up to splatter the glass of the window just beyond.
When someone grabbed my arms from behind, I started screaming bloody murder, or tried to. It came out more like a crackling gasp of air that ended on a croak as I kicked my legs back as hard as I could.
“Hey, hey…Calm down, Miss Warren. I’m just getting you to back away from the woman.” I vaguely recognized the voice of Cal Mitty even as his hands tightened in their grasp.
“Yeah, well…not exactly the time for me to be calm, don’t you think? Besides, your buddies think I’m the antichrist or something.”
“You did just haul off and basically backslap someone with a fire extinguisher. I’m not sure about you, but in most places that wouldn’t be seen as socially acceptable behavior.” I heard him chuckle again and considered the ramifications of turning around once he released me and kneeing him right in the pills.
“They asked for help, I helped. Everybody else looked like they were gonna follow that first idiot’s example and just give her more munchies.” I grumbled out unevenly as he dragged me back away from the sitting area.
My eyes narrowed as everyone from McGinley and Suit One to the guards standing right by the entrance turned their attention towards me. The minute that Mitty set me down, I was pushing a stray tendril of hair off my forehead as I let my gaze move over each and every person currently giving me the stink eye.
“What?” I saw no reason to pretend that they weren’t staring. Screw that. There were bigger problems to consider, like….how had a woman turned into a zombie in a matter of moments and how far had it spread? Was there a chance this could be contained?
This day had already sucked enough that I didn’t have it in me to play the social games that normally applied. I wanted to head home, get supplies, and then hole up in my apartment.
“Violent degenerate.” One spat out, and my head whipped around to peer at the woma
n who had spoken. If I had to guess based on her appearance, the woman had to be in her mid-forties. Black hair was sprinkled with small streaks of silver, all of it perfectly coiffed and styled into a high bun that looked as if it had enough hairspray on it to cause a brick to crack if dropped on the carefully formed hairdo.
“I’m sorry, you’re very welcome for saving your ass.” Snarky seemed a good enough way to reply. I could only smile as the woman drew her shoulders up and straightened as if preparing for battle when she continued.
“Excuse me? You did nothing but hurt an innocent woman, and you claim it was in saving me? My dear, you have a convoluted sense of the world if that is what you−”
“Think?” I cut her off. I had officially passed my threshold for the ability to give a damn. “You know, I can only wonder how the hell you have survived this long if your cognitive skills are that below par.” My hand thrust forward, pointing at the still lifeless form that remained crumbled on the carpet. “That woman, as you call her, who should have been dead or passed out from the wound she sustained, just popped up and latched onto a man like he was a chicken wing.”
God help me, these people were thick. Even if I was reluctant to say the word zombie out loud, these people needed a swift reality check on what true danger was.
“Despite being attacked and barely able to stand a few minutes ago, she latched on like a rabid dog that wouldn’t let go. In the process, Captain Genius there…” I pointed to Suit One. My mouth drawing down into a frown as I peered at where he sat cradling his injured arm, “…decides to help by getting close to her to try and strong arm her into submission. Instead, he gets himself bit and thrown back into the window in the process, giving us three victims instead of two. After which, she returned to try and chew on your golden boy again.”
I could tell my words were agitating her, but by this time my anger was fully realized and there was no way in hell I would let this go. So I continued my little rant in full, southern female glory.
“So after watching all of this happen, you morons decide to try and come over here to physically overpower this woman yet again. The sad part is, you had to know that you would just be creating more casualties for her to attack. I’m sorry, I will not apologize for using my brain where you obviously can’t. What I did, crazy as it may seem, stopped us from having any more people injured, and stopped her from continuing her McGinley Meal.” My words were an almost cathartic release. I couldn’t think of anything I hated more than false smiles and empty words. To say what I actually meant was refreshing if nothing else.
I figured that there would be some backlash, some kind of counterargument. Instead, I only heard the soft chuckle of Mitty behind me as he spoke in a low whisper that only I could hear.
“Well, I’m not sure what you do in your work from day to day, Miss Warren, but in the last hour you have dressed down the head of sales and marketing, the vice president of the human resource department who also happens to be the son of the company’s owner, and the current head of Research. I have to say, you’re currently winning three to zip. Care to make a wager on how the cops will fare with you?”
“Not especially. I’ll probably lose that one.” Suddenly, I felt exhausted. He was right, the cops were on their way and considering the way most people in the lobby were peering at me –I’d likely be spending the night in jail for assault. My chutzpah may have been impressive, but it would do little to keep me out of trouble. If anything, it was more likely to land me in the thick of things.
“I sincerely doubt that. Something tells me that when the odds are stacked against you is when you become lethal. At this point, I’d lay all my money on you.” Mitty spoke softly and when I turned to peer at him, gray eyes seemed to be regarding me thoughtfully.
It wasn’t an insult. If anything, he meant it, and that did help to bolster my spirits a little as I offered him a small, weak smile.
“Let me know how that bet turns out. Odds are not in your favor, my man.”
“Oh, I’m a wise investor, Miss Warren. I can tell you this, you’d make me a fortune.”
“Pft. I think you may have misread this one, Mr. Mitty.” I snorted softly, then sighed a little as I saw the cops beginning to file in the revolving glass door that led into the building.
Chapter Seven - …and His name that sat on him…was Death…
“So, that’s it?” I had to ask for the fifth time. To be fair, the cop in front of me looked nervous. Whether that was because I had just beaned a woman in a public lobby with a fire extinguisher, or I kept asking him questions about what was going on, I cannot say.
“Yep. We have all your information, so we can contact you if we have any more questions.” As comforting as those words should have been for me, they were hollow. I had just spent the last thirty minutes trying to explain why I had used a safety object like a lethal weapon, and no one in a blue uniform had batted an eyelash. On any other day, my ass would have been thrown in the back of a police car and hauled off to jail. The fact that they were just ‘letting me go’ spilled out all sorts of radical thoughts in my mind. It was also an indication of just how bad things really were.
It’s the beginning of the end.
If I had doubted it before, I didn’t now. Everyone else in this lobby might have been happily skipping on their way to pretend they had just watched a tragic end to a sad psychotic episode, but I knew different.
Several of the suits had vacated the lobby once the cops had arrived. Most probably assumed I’d be sent to the slammer based on the testimony of all those who stayed. Not that I could blame the ones who left, they had seemed a bit shaky. I liked to believe it stemmed from my Wonder Woman moment being a tad bit bloodier than they would have liked, and not on the fact they probably needed to head out and find their next hit of nose candy.
McGinley and Suit One had been herded out of the lobby quickly and guided to an ambulance that had been waiting outside. Strange as it seemed, the cops showing up with the medical team was something I could have easily let slide given my past experience.
Essentially, what confirmed my innermost suspicions was when they removed the woman’s body from the lobby. She still had not moved, so I considered the fact I may have actually done some serious damage in swinging the fire extinguisher. Maybe it had been enough. Then again, when two men in full turn out gear showed up to inspect the body, I couldn’t help but watch.
I saw one of the men reach into his bag and pull out a window punch. Now, for those of you unaware of this device, it’s used by emergency workers to break out car windows and the like to rescue children or unconscious people. It is a spring loaded device that you place against the window and, with the push of a button, sends a huge amount of force to punch against the window and break the glass.
Or at least, that is what I thought it was until I noticed there was some kind of modification on the end of the device. I found myself intrigued by his actions, watching as he disengaged the locking mechanism at the handle. No one else seemed to be watching the pair with the corpse, they were all too busy paying attention to me or the cops speaking to them. So I was the only person to witness what happened on that floor.
They rolled the woman onto her side, as if they were about to roll her into the body bag, and he pressed the base of the tool against the back of the female’s skull. Once he depressed the button, I saw the body jerk.
I stumbled in my words as I saw the supposedly dead woman’s arm spasm and her fingers curl up and inward while her back arched. From any other angle, it would have seemed they were manipulating the woman’s body to get her in the bag, but I saw differently. Even as I watched, trying to process what I had seen, I knew that the rules of the game had changed, and it was not necessarily for the better.
Zombies. Mother of God, they were real and they were now here.
I didn’t know what I should pray for in that moment. If everything were normal, then they’d be hauling me off to jail without a moment’s notice and I coul
d happily wait for my day in court to plead my case. I’d be safe, the world would be fine, and the biggest threat I would have to face was some inmate named Bertha that had a thing for soft white chicks. On the other side of that, they could let me go and I would never have to worry about a defense for my actions. I could head home and stop for last minute supplies on my way there. Considering what had happened here, I felt certain I knew just what kind of ‘outbreak’ we were facing.
I honestly didn’t know which way I should be leaning. Jail and normalcy, or Freedom and zombies. Both choices had a certain amount of suck that clung to them, with neither offering benefits I would truly like or enjoy. In the end, it was out of my hands and it really didn’t matter, because I got my answer about what was going on when they said they were letting me go.
Freedom and zombies it would be. Now I just had to figure out how to survive it.
With the cops still in the lobby, I hovered near the entrance. Before I decided to go speeding out of the Overflow Lot, I wanted them long gone. Of all the things that were racing through my head, I was increasingly aware that if I started a panic among others, I wouldn’t accomplish one damn thing. While I should have been grateful that I knew what to prepare for, I couldn’t help but think this was rapidly turning into one of those times when knowledge would be a burden.
Still, I had never been one of those people that truly believed ignorance could be bliss. I hated not knowing what happened in the world around me. I am a planner, and to handle anything that came my way I needed to have a list, a series of events, and objects in place to navigate through all of the possibilities.
As it stood, I had to go to the store on the fly and hope my brain, panicked as it was, could function enough that I didn’t forget something. Did I plan for the long term, or just grab enough to last for a little while and hope it would be enough?
Damn. At this very moment, I hated my life. All of those petty thoughts I had been holding on to through the day about the suits upstairs and people in general seemed pointless now. By all accounts, no matter what medium you had seen dealing with zombies, the outcome is always the same. Humans on the whole are idiots. Myself included.