by Sarra Cannon
“I’m not going back out there. Why can’t we just stay in here for the night? We already cleared the room. We could lock the doors and wait it out. I do not want to risk going outside with the sun already starting to set. Look how dark it is out there.”
That was Barbie talking. She always had some objection or complaint.
Spoiled little rich girl.
“It’s up to you guys what you wanna do,” Crash said, leaning back in his chair. “You’ll just be a hell of a lot safer here in my apartment where there’s food, water, electricity, and most importantly, sturdy locks.”
“We’re on our way,” Parrish said. “Even if I have to drag Karmen there by her ponytail. Just stay on the phone and help guide us to your place. If we stay here, we might not make it through the night.”
Crash chuckled. He was starting to like this Parrish girl.
“Fine,” Karmen said, obvious distaste in her tone. “But if we die, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Crash took another bite of food and watched his new friends on two different security cameras as they came back into view on the street outside the building. They had taken quite a beating from their fight with the Z’s in the office. Noah looked like he had taken a bath in blood. And Barbie? Well, her perfect blond curls were matted together in sticky clumps. She was definitely going to need a shower when she got to his house. He briefly considered the thought of putting a secret camera in the bathroom. That girl might be a pain, but she was smokin’ hot.
Crash laughed and shook his head, finishing his dinner and throwing the plate in the trash can under his desk. He couldn’t really do that to her, but man, the thought of seeing her naked sent his temperature up a few degrees. Too bad she was so annoying. Especially since she was likely one of the last women on earth at this point.
He grabbed a bottle of soda from the mini-fridge and took a long hard drink. Out of the corner of his eye, something lit up on the infrared scanner. Just a second ago, it had been completely blank except for the three of them. Now, besides his friends, there were five distinct figures.
And they were bright. Like, impossibly bright. Crash moved to the edge of his seat, his toes tapping. Something had to be wrong. He reconnected with the infrared in his mind to run a diagnostic, but everything seemed to be functioning fine. He leaned in to study the images more closely.
Their shapes looked basically human, but there was no way a human could be that hot unless they were literally on fire.
He needed to pull up the spot with his regular satellite feed or a camera so he could see exactly what it was.
“Hold on a second, guys. There’s something really weird on the infrared.”
“What is it?” Noah asked.
“I told you,” Karmen said. “Just wait. We’re all going to die, and it’s going to be Parrish’s fault. I told you we should have just—”
“How would it be my fault? I’m not the one who destroyed the military convoy,” Parrish said. “Besides, I never forced you to come here.”
Crash was only half listening to their conversation. He could move the satellite image around with his mouse, but pinpointing the exact location of whatever was giving off the heat signature wasn’t easy. Whatever was out there had disappeared inside the building and he couldn’t get a good look at them.
But their images were still showing up on the infrared even though they were deep inside the stairwell. Holy crap.
They were headed downstairs. Fast.
“Guys,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm so they didn’t panic. “I think you need to get out of there.”
“What is it?” Parrish asked.
“I don’t know exactly,” he said. “Zombies maybe, but not like anything we’ve seen so far. They’re giving off a crazy high heat signature.”
“Wait,” Noah said. “I thought you told us that the zombies don’t give off any kind of heat signature.”
“They don’t,” he said, tapping his foot nervously. He didn’t have time to explain, not that he could anyway. He needed to get them out of there before they got killed. “But these do. I don’t know why, and right now, I don’t care. Just get your butts moving people.”
He zoomed the satellite image back out so that he could watch his friends and make sure they were on the move. The tightness in his gut had him seriously regretting the Hot Pocket.
The bright hot infrared images kept moving downward. One of them so fast, it was like watching lightning streak across his screen. He clicked from screen to screen, trying to make sense of what was happening. Had the fast one already reached the ground floor?
“Oh my God,” he heard Karmen yell. “What is that?”
“Holy shit, everybody get back in the building. Now!” The raw fear in Noah’s voice sent a chill up Crash’s spine.
He watched as the strange zombies separated and made their move. Over the other end of the line, he heard the sound of gunshots and his insides churned. He couldn’t just sit here and watch his friends die. He had to do something.
“Try to find a safe place, barricade yourselves in,” he told them. “I’m on my way.”
He stood fast, knocking the chair over behind him. He searched through the mess on top of his desk, looking for the keys to his truck.
Then, something caught his attention on the screen in the top left. Another heat signature. This time, a human one. Someone small and curled into a ball in the corner of one of the rooms in the building.
He swallowed, his eyes growing larger.
“The fifth,” he whispered.
He’d dreamed this.
His hands grew sweaty, his breath shallow.
He moved a stack of papers out of the way and grabbed the set of silver keys. Turning, he nearly stumbled over the chair as he ran toward the garage, his heart racing.
This was it. Everything he’d been preparing for. Everything he’d been dreaming about. It all came down to this night. He had to save his friends and then he had to save the fifth.
Parrish
Red glowing eyes stared at her through the window at the front of the building. Parrish forced herself to breathe, but the air came in ragged gulps. What was that thing?
She turned the lock on the door and backed away. Noah pushed a large desk in front of the door while Karmen searched for something she could use as a weapon. The fight against all those rotters earlier had been scary, but once they had a few down, it was pretty easy to pick the rest of them off. Slicing a slow zombie in a room set up like a maze was kind of easy as long as you had good aim and a sharp weapon.
The thing outside with the red eyes was different. It looked like a woman, but was crouched low to the ground like a dog. And Crash said there were five of them? Parrish shuddered.
The entire front of the office was made of glass, and Parrish watched in horror as the first one was joined by two others. The new ones were different. Tall and grotesque. It looked like someone had taken them and stretched them like taffy. Their arms were long and skinny and the torso on one of the men was stretched so far his guts were spilling out.
“Holy Jesus,” Parrish said, covering her mouth to keep from gagging.
“Oh great,” Karmen said, coming up beside her. “As if the regular zombies weren’t bad enough. Now we have to deal with some kind of mutant zombies? Seriously?”
Parrish hated to admit it, but for once she agreed with Karmen. When were they ever going to get a break?
As if to answer her question, the glass of the front window smashed. Parrish saw a blur of red as something charged through the window and scurried into a dark corner of the office. She and Karmen both ran toward the back of the room on the opposite side
“Forget the barricades,” Parrish shouted to Noah. “They’re in.”
“I heard the glass break,” he said, joining them, “but what the hell was it that came through?”
“I have no idea, and I don’t think we should stick around to find out. They’ll all be able to get in now t
hat the window is cracked.”
“Well, how do you propose we get out of here?” Karmen asked. “This back door is still blocked off from earlier, and for all we know, there are more rotters on the other side. We’re trapped.”
“I’ll take the normal kind of rotters over whatever these things are any day,” Noah said.
He got to work pulling the desk and bookcase away from the back door. With his enormous strength, it didn’t take long, but they didn’t have any time to waste. In the front of the office, Parrish watched the two stretched-out zombies step through the broken window.
“Hurry, Noah,” she said, backing toward him. She turned and helped him move away the last of the barricade. As he threw open the back door, all three of them froze in terror.
Standing at the back door was a monster that looked like he could be Frankenstein’s twin brother. He towered above them, glowing red liquid dripping from his pointed teeth. Parrish couldn’t move as she stared up at it, her heart slamming against her chest. The man—or what used to be a man—was wearing a black trench coat that was long and coated in blood. The side of his face was worn away and she could see his teeth through the part that used to be his cheek. He let out a low, rumbling growl that made Parrish want to curl up on the floor and cry.
Luckily, Noah recovered faster than she did. He slammed the door shut and shouted for the girls to run. Parrish tried to move her feet, but it was like her brain had gone on vacation. All she could do was stare dumbly as Noah re-stacked the desks in front of the door.
Karmen’s screams woke her up. She shook her head and looked around, slow to process all that was happening, but desperately aware that she was in danger.
Just as she turned, something lunged at her from the half-darkness. At first, she thought it was some kind of dog. The thing was hunched over on all fours and growled like a rabid animal, but then she felt its hands on her and she knew it was, or had been, human. She summoned all of her strength and pushed it off of her, then reached for her sword.
The zombie flew through the air, but was agile enough to land on its feet, more like a cat than a dog. It lifted its head and focused its red eyes on Parrish once again. In its gaze, she saw pure evil. This thing was after her. Not just after her like the rotters were. Those mindless things went after anything with a pulse.
This thing, whatever it was, wanted her. Specifically.
Something inside her switched on like a light and she was overcome by the intense desire to live. To destroy this evil and figure out why all this was happening.
The hunched-over zombie ran toward her again, but this time she was ready for it. She swung her sword at its head, but the zombie was too fast. It leapt past the sword, then came back toward her. She ducked out of the way at the last second, dodging to her right.
Parrish whirled around, looking for it. It had completely disappeared in the blink of an eye. How was she supposed to kill it if she could barely see it.
Then, its eyes opened, lighting up the area around it like a red lantern. It was clinging to the wall on the far side of the room.
How is this possible?
She put her sword back into her pack and pulled out the shotgun instead. She fired as soon as she could get a good aim. The zombie jumped down and the bullet tore through the wall where it had just been perched.
Parrish shot again, but again the zombie was too fast. It jumped from wall to wall, mocking her. Parrish fumbled in her pocket for extra shells, but she couldn’t move fast enough. The zombie was on her again, its mouth opening wider than Parrish ever would have thought possible. Its jaw had practically come unhinged. She tried to reach for her sword, but it was too late. She didn’t have enough room. Enough strength.
She struggled hard as the zombie brought its teeth down on her shoulder, bracing herself for the pain.
Noah
Noah watched as Parrish fell to the ground, struggling to pull her sword from her backpack.
He’d been fighting with one of the stretched-out super zombies, but in his rage, he grabbed its neck and threw it across the room.
He ran toward Parrish, pumping his legs as hard as he could. He lifted his bat and swung, the wood making contact with the thing’s jaw just before it clamped down on her shoulder.
The dog-like zombie screeched as it flew across the room. Blood the color of fire splattered against the wall, then turned a sick black and began to drip. The zombies eyes closed, then its body began to rapidly decompose, practically melting into the floor.
“Thanks,” Parrish said, her eyes meeting his. He helped her up, then lifted his bat again, ready for the next blow.
“Where’s Karmen?” He looked around, but didn’t see her anywhere. “Karmen!”
“She’s over there,” Parrish said, pointing toward the center of the office.
Noah saw her standing on a desk in the middle of the room. The two tall zombies were standing there beside her, staring into space as if they’d been hypnotized. He watched in awe. Karmen was within grabbing distance of the two zombies, but she wasn’t trying to run away or scream. Her eyes were closed, her face serene and peaceful, as if she was meditating.
Noah didn’t have time to wrap his head around it, though. Another female zombie, this time an older looking woman, was making her way toward the back of the office. Behind him, the big brute in the trench coat pounded on the barricaded door. It was only a matter of time before he pushed through.
They’d somehow managed to kill one, but there were still four more to go.
Noah turned back to the older zombie. She lifted her hands out in front of her and he gasped. Her fingernails were long, thick daggers. Another mutation?
Where had all these things come from? Would all of the undead eventually turn into something like this?
Beside her, Noah lifted his dad’s .45 and aimed at the dagger woman. His bullet hit her in the neck, but she didn’t even seem to notice. Glowing red liquid poured from her like lava, but she kept moving toward them. She wasn’t as fast as the other zombie, but she was coming straight for them with dedicated focus.
“Shoot it again,” Parrish yelled. She lifted her shotgun to her shoulder and aimed.
He pulled the trigger again, this time hitting her dead center in the chest. She didn’t flinch.
“Aim for the head,” she told him.
Noah cursed. He knew that, but these things had him all turned around. He pushed off another shot, this time hitting the edge of the woman’s head. A piece of its skull cracked off, but she only stopped for a moment and kept coming. She was only a few feet away now.
“Hit it with the shotgun,” he said. “This thing’s too weak.”
“I’m trying,” she said. “My damn hands are shaking too bad.”
Noah put the pistol in the back of his jeans and grabbed the shotgun away from Parrish. His hands weren’t shaking at all. He had some kind of enhanced focus, just like when he used to shoot hoops. Only this time he was shooting something entirely different.
He pulled the trigger on the shotgun and it bucked against his shoulder. The blast rang in his ears, but hit its mark dead-on.
Scissor-hands fell to the ground, red lava flowing from the hole in her head for a moment before the light inside seemed to dim and then shut off.
Two down.
Just then, the trench coat zombie broke through the wall behind them. He must have given up on the barricaded door and decided to simply tear down part of the wall. He let out a loud roar.
Noah grabbed Parrish’s arm and ran, barely getting out of the way before a filing cabinet came crushing down right where they had stood.
Parrish laughed an almost mad kind of laughter. “This is insane,” she said.
Noah slid across the top of a desk, then turned around, taking quick aim and firing the last of the shotgun shells at the hulking beast. Small dots of red poured from the thing’s forehead and Noah’s jaw opened. He’d hit it in the head, but the blast had barely broken that thing’s skin.
>
He let the gun fall to the floor. It was useless without ammo.
He pulled his bat out of his bag, his heart racing wildly as the giant zombie in the trench coat headed straight for them.
Karmen
When the weird, tall stretchy zombies started coming toward her, Karmen had a brief moment where all she wanted to do was give in.
How would it feel to just let them bite her? How long would it take before the virus worked in her system, turning her into one of those things? It would be so much easier to just let this be the end of it.
But then she thought about how ugly and gross they were with their pus-filled sores and grey skin. Uck. She could not let herself go out like that. Even if there was almost no one left in the world to see it. She would know.
She pulled out the shotgun Noah had given her, but it was so heavy, she had a hard time aiming it. There was no way she was going to be able to hold it up straight enough to shoot that thing in the head. Her only other weapon was a golf club. That might have worked on the regular rotters, but these things? She seriously doubted it.
She basically had two options.
Let it eat her
Or run.
She dropped the gun to the floor and grabbed the golf club just in case. Then she ran. The office was a morbid obstacle course now of bodies and flipped over desks, papers and overturned chairs. She used the golf club like a vaulting stick, jumping over the debris and navigating her way through the mess. She had managed to get pretty far out ahead of it.
But then there was another one. She glanced behind her, thinking maybe she’d gotten turned around, but no, there were two of these things. Almost like twins.
They converged on her and she screamed.
Anger raced through her veins. She’d gone through the trouble of deciding she wanted to live and now they were going to kill her anyway. This sucked.
She wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
She kind of wished she’d brought the gun with her now, but it was way too late for that. She held her golf club tight in her hands and turned in circles, watching as the two tall rotters stepped into her space.