Mass Extinction Event (Book 9): Days 195 to 202

by Cross, Amy

  I guess none of that matters now.

  “Everything's going to be okay,” I whisper to myself, hoping to give myself a little hope. “We'll be fine. We just need to -”

  Before I can finish, the candle flickers and goes dark, and I'm plunged into darkness. I sigh as I realize that these night-time reading sessions aren't going to be so easy from now on.

  I close the book on my lap and set it aside, and then I get to my feet. The chair creaks as I rise, and somehow I feel a little guilty for disturbing the silence.

  Once I've made sure that everything's safe in the apartment, I head out into the corridor and pull the door shut. I pause for a moment and consider the possibility of going up to take another look at Bob, but at the last second I decide not to bother. I've gone to see his corpse so many times, and it's not as if those strange visits have done anyone any good. In a way, I've just been torturing myself and feeding my imagination with more nightmare-fuel, so I guess the responsible thing would just be to go back to my bunk.

  I still linger for a moment, however, as if some deep part of my soul wants to go and look at Bob.

  Finally, forcing myself to be strong, I turn and limp away. Each step is difficult, but I tell myself that I'm doing the right thing. I will never, ever go and look at Bob's body again.

  ***

  A few minutes later, stepping out the front of the building, I find that heavy rain is falling.

  Great, just what I need.

  I start making my way along the street, hurrying from cover to cover in a desperate attempt to keep from getting wet. With the city always so silent at night, it's a change to be surrounded by the constant hiss of rain hitting all the surfaces. Maybe I'm imagining things, but lately I've been feeling as if there hasn't been so much rain since the crisis started. I know there's no reason for that to be the case, and most likely I'm just wrong. Still, as I scurry to take shelter under the sign outside an old cinema, I have to admit that – despite the inconvenience – I don't really mind the rain at all.

  I stop for a moment and look around. It's so dark, with no moonlight, that I can barely even see the rain at all. The buildings loom in the darkness, and I can barely even see their tops as I peer out and look toward the sky. After a few seconds my eyes adjust a little and I'm able to just make out a few silhouettes up there, but this really is the blackest night I can remember for a long time. And when I reach a hand out, I'm shocked by just how violently the rain is falling.

  Suddenly I hear a snarling sound over my shoulder, and I spin round.

  There's no sign of anyone, but right now someone could be a few feet away and I wouldn't necessary notice. My mind is racing, but I quickly tell myself that I must be imagining things, that the snarl was just...

  Just...

  What?

  It was pretty definitely a snarl, and I don't think rain could make a noise like that.

  I wait, listening for any hint that the sound is returning, and after a moment I realize I can hear a faint shuffling sound.

  I step back and bump against the doors of the old cinema, and a moment later I feel something move against my shoulder. I turn, and in the darkness I just about manage to see a piece of broken glass falling from the window and hitting the floor inside the cinema. I guess looters must have opened the place up a few months ago.

  Hearing the snarl again, I turn and look back out at the darkness.

  I briefly consider calling out, but then I turn and test the doors. Finding that they're all locked, I push some more glass out of one of the windows and I clamber through, and then I take a few steps into the warm, musty interior of the building before turning and looking back the way I just came.

  I can see the cinema's doors, with the windows broken, and there must be a hint of moonlight out there now because I can just about make out the edges of the shattered glass still wedged in the frame.

  I wait, telling myself that there's no reason to be scared.

  And then, slowly, a figure lumbers into view on the other side of the door.

  “No,” I whisper, “please...”

  There's definitely someone out there, and he's looking straight toward me. I can only make out the vaguest shape of his body, but there's no pretending that this is some trick of the light. A moment later, as if to confirm that point, the figure steps forward and bumps against the door, and then it lets out another low snarling sound.

  I take a few steps back across the pitch-black foyer.

  Suddenly the figure lets out an angry shout and slams its chest against the door, as if it's trying to break its way through. The entire door shudders, but so far it's holding as the figure tries again and again to force it aside. The violence of the strikes is shocking, and as I watch the attack I can't help but wonder whether this thing is eventually going to find a way into the building. And the more I watch, and the more I wait, the more I start to realize that this figure isn't acting like a human at all.

  It's acting exactly like a zombie.

  “Go away,” I stammer, unable to stay quiet. “If you come near me, I swear I'll make you sorry, I'll -”

  Before I can finish, the figure slams harder against the door, and now I can hear the frame starting to come away. I hesitate, trying not to panic, but finally I turn and hurry deeper into the building, only to quickly reach the foot of a staircase and trip. I land hard in the darkness and let out a pained gasp as I put all my weight on my right elbow, and then I turn and see that the zombie is still trying to break through the door.

  Filled with panic, I turn and start scrambling up the stairs. I can't see a thing ahead, and I don't know where I'm going. All I know is that I have to get as far away from this monster as possible.

  Elizabeth

  I can't see a thing.

  I don't know when I've ever been in absolute, total darkness before. There's usually at least some light, coming from somewhere, but this time there's nothing at all. Even after walking along this corridor for several minutes, my eyes haven't adjusted in any meaningful way. I can only run my hands against the wall in an attempt to keep from bumping into anything, while constantly listening out for any sign that the zombie has made its way into the building.

  Finally I reach the end of the corridor, and I hold my hands out to both sides. After fumbling for a moment, I realize that I have two options, so I randomly decide to head to the left. I don't really have much of a plan yet, but I figure my best bet is just to find somewhere to hide and then hope that – come morning – there'll be enough light for me to find my way out of here. And hopefully by then, the zombie will be long gone.

  I knew they were still around.

  I just knew it.

  I felt it in the pit of my belly, and now I can prove that I'm right. I was a zombie once, briefly, and I'm worried that this is how I was able to sense their presence. Does that mean that somehow there's still some zombie in me?

  Suddenly I bump against something. I hold my hands out and find that I've reached a set of double doors. I push the doors open, and when I step through I can somehow tell that I'm in a large room. The air is cooler, and after a few more steps I reach down and feel the back of a cinema seat. I guess I must be in the main auditorium now. I look around and, although I can't see them, I know there must be rows and rows of seats all around. That thought is somehow both weirdly comforting and slightly freaky, but I guess nothing matters so long as the zombie stays away.

  It's not like there'll be any bodies in here. No-one would have sat around and died in a cinema, would they?

  Feeling a twinge of pain in my legs, I sit in one of the cinema seats, which feels strangely comfortable given the unusual circumstances.

  I take a deep breath, and I listen to the silence. I'm pretty sure that I'd hear the zombie coming from quite a way off, and I figure that I need to start searching for another way out of the auditorium. There has to be a fire escape door somewhere, but for a moment I'm too exhausted to get up. Despite my abject fear, in some perverse way I
think I could actually fall asleep right now. Instead, I force myself to keep my eyes open, and finally I haul myself up and head out to find the other door.

  “You're going to be okay!” a voice shouts suddenly.

  Gasping, I spin around and step back, only to trip and fall. I tumble over the backs of more seats, landing in an unfortunate spot wedged between two rows with my legs sticking up in the air.

  “Just hold on!” the voice continues, filled with static now as if it's coming over some kind of broken speaker. “I'm almost there. Hold on for just a few more seconds!”

  “What?” I stammer. “Who's there?”

  I struggle to get up. Even when I'm back on my feet (or rather, foot and stump), I look out across the cinema and see only darkness.

  “Damn it!” the voice yells. “Come on!”

  “Who are you?” I ask, looking all around in the hope that I might spot movement. “Where are you?”

  The only response is an occasional burst of static that seems to be ebbing and flowing in the air all around me. After a moment, I start to wonder whether somehow the cinema's speakers are still working, which would be a miracle considering the fact that there's not supposed to be any power right now. At the same time, that seems to be the only possible explanation as the static continues to fizz and crackle.

  But it's all around.

  No matter which way I turn, the sound seems to be everywhere.

  “No!” the voice shouts suddenly, hissing loudly in the air.

  I recognize the voice, I'm sure I do, but I can't quite put my finger on where I've heard it before.

  “I won't let this happen!” the voice says again, although now it's more distorted than ever. A moment later, I realize I can feel a heavy rumbling sensation beneath my feet, as if there's some immense source of power buried deep under the cinema. “Move! Let me do this!”

  Suddenly there's a loud snapping sound, filling my ears with such force that I stumble back and almost fall over another row of seats. The crackling static sound hangs in the air for a few more seconds before starting to fade, and finally silence returns to the auditorium.

  Breathless and shocked, I stand completely still and wait for the sound to return.

  Finally, after several minutes, I realize that I seem to be all alone again. The floor is no longer rumbling, but I swear that for a moment there it was as if I was standing right on top of some kind of power station. My mind races as I try to work out what I might have discovered, and after a few seconds I start imagining something buried deep beneath the city. Is it possible that the new governors of New York, or whoever is really in charge, might have set up some kind of secret facility?

  A moment later, I hear a growling sound in the distance.

  Suddenly realizing that I forgot all about the zombie, I hurry forward, only to realize that I lost track of which way I came. I start feeling the backs of the seats, and they quickly help me orientate myself. I limp around and down to the very front of the room, and then I feel my way along the wall until I get to the corner. Still hearing the growl in the distance, I start running my hands across the next wall in a desperate attempt to get to the fire exit. Miraculously, I find a door after just a few seconds, and I push the bar before stumbling through into yet another pitch-black space.

  This time I'm in another corridor. I shut the door, and now at least I can't hear the growling sound as I hurry through the darkness. I bump against several walls, and finally my feet slip and I fall forward, tumbling down what turns out to be a set of stairs. I let out a pained cry as I slam into the floor at the bottom, but nothing's broken so I haul myself up and start rushing forward.

  I slam into another door, and then I push the door and swing it open.

  Finally, as if by yet another miracle, I fall out onto the cold, late night sidewalk, and I realize that I managed to escape. Rain is still pouring down. There's just enough moonlight now to let me see the street in both directions, and there's no sign of anyone. I get up and push the door shut, and then I stop for a moment and take a deep breath as I realize that I actually escaped.

  I'm already soaked from the deluge.

  Stepping back, I look up at the side of the cinema, and I realize with a growing sense of horror that I finally have proof of my theory. There's a zombie trapped inside this place.

  Elizabeth

  “There's no zombie trapped inside this place,” Investigator Gregor says as he steps out from the front of the cinema a couple of hours later. “We've checked the building twice.”

  “Then check again,” I say firmly, as rain continues to crash down beyond the large, protruding marquee at the front of the building. “I told you -”

  “Yes, I know what you told us,” he replies. “You came running into our office, yelling about a zombie taking you to see a movie.”

  “But -”

  “And to our immense credit,” he adds, “we listened to you. I just happened to be on the nightshift this time, and I brought a couple of colleagues down here to check out your story. We scoured every inch of this cinema, and I can assure you that there's absolutely positively no sign of a zombie. What there is a sign of, however, is a young woman who has rather blatantly broken the curfew.”

  “I'm not lying to you!” I say firmly.

  “I never said you were lying. Maybe you're simply wrong.”

  “I'm not wrong!”

  Two other officials come out through the broken doorway. They're carrying flashlights, which they quickly switch off.

  “It's late,” Gregor says with a sigh, as he checks his watch. “It's 11pm. Ms. Marter, I understand how easy it can be to let the night get to you. Even the smallest sounds can suddenly seem like the snarl of a monster.”

  “A zombie chased me into the cinema!” I snap.

  “And did it offer to buy you some popcorn?”

  Staring at him for a moment, I feel my blood starting to boil. Just before I'm about to tell him what I really think of him, however, a sudden realization hits me.

  “You know there are still zombies around,” I say finally.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “You know I'm right,” I continue. “If you didn't know there are zombies, you'd actually listen to me. You'd be worried, just in case I'm right. But you're completely dismissing me, which can only mean one thing.” I pause for a moment. “You're trying to cover this up.”

  “That's some pretty spurious logic there,” he replies. “You're still basically a kid. You don't understand. And what would we be covering up, anyway? A single lone zombie that's somehow terrorizing the streets at night, but which conveniently hides itself away during the day?” He sighs. “You got spooked, you got scared, and now you have to let it go.”

  “I don't have a history of imagining things,” I tell him, although I immediately realize that I'm on shaky ground with that claim. After all, I imagined Bob coming back, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. “I didn't imagine what happened tonight,” I continue. “I don't know where that creature went, but it was in the cinema and it sure didn't just vanish in a puff of smoke. Whatever you're helping to cover up, it's going to come out sooner or later.”

  With that, I turn and hurry out into the rain, ignoring Gregor as he calls after me. And although I'm immediately soaked once more, I force myself to keep limping along the street. After all, there's no point sticking around here, not if Gregor and his friends are only going to lie and make fun of me. I know what I encountered tonight.

  That thing was a zombie.

  ***

  “Hey, you're back late,” Julius says as I limp into the building. “It's almost midnight, Elizabeth. Have you been breaking curfew again?”

  “It's fine,” I mutter darkly. “The relevant people are already well aware.”

  “And you're soaked,” he continues, hurrying over to me. “You're absolutely drenched. Come on, let's get you somewhere so you can dry off.”

  “I'm fine.”

  He puts a hand on my sho
ulder, but I shrug him away and head toward the broken stairs.

  “What happened to you tonight?” he asks.

  Stopping, I already know that I'm under no obligation to tell him anything. At the same time, Julius tends to be a nice enough guy, and I figure it might be useful to share my concerns with someone. I turn to him, and to be honest I'm not sure where to begin.

  “Please don't think that I'm crazy,” I say cautiously.

  “I don't think you're crazy.”

  “Or that I'm lying.”

  “Never.”

  “But I saw...”

  My voice trails off. The idea sounds so ridiculous, I don't even want to put it into words.

  “Tonight,” I continue finally, “I saw a zombie. Or rather, I was chased by one. It was dark, I didn't really see it properly, but it was definitely a zombie. It chased me into a movie theater, but I managed to get away. I know how absurd this all sounds, but you have to believe me. I ran to get help from one of the security offices, but by the time we got back...”

  Again, my voice trails off.

  “It must have escaped first,” I say with a sigh. “That's the only thing that makes sense. While I was running to get help, the zombie just happened to leave the cinema.”

  I wait for Julius to tell me that I'm crazy, but instead he says nothing. I was convinced that he'd dismiss my concerns, but actually he seems to be listening to me.

  “Do you believe it's possible?” I ask.

  “I believe we have a rededication ceremony the day after tomorrow,” he replies cautiously. “It's being used as a festival to mark an official end to the crisis. They've decided to call it Survival Day.”