by Brett, Cal
Robbie took a breath of the cold, dank air and shined his light around the large parking chamber. ‘Dark and spooky, yes,’ he told himself but nothing else was down there. He knew that. And, he reasoned, he’d been in lots of spooky places. Sometimes with actual spooky things. He figured he could handle opening a door with a dead guy and pulling some keys out of the ignition. He walked calmly over to the driver’s side door and started to pull the handle.
‘Wait. Don’t be stupid.’ He said to himself. ‘99% chance it’s just a dead guy in there. Dead from what? Old age? How do you just die in a pickup truck at the bottom of a parking garage as the world is ending?’
‘Possible,’ he thought, ‘guy has a heart attack in his truck and there was for damn sure no ambulances around that night, even if he had been able to call 911. And nobody is going to find him here, ever.’
‘Or,’ he played various scenarios in his head, ‘he gets bit. He drives to the bottom of the garage and turns. But, he isn’t reacting so he dies somehow after? That makes no sense. Maybe the cold? No.’ He had seen the things walking around in colder places than this.
‘The answer’, he decided, ‘is that it doesn’t matter.’ He walked around to the passenger side and put one hand on the latch while lifting his machete with the other. He lifted the latch and pulled the door open while jumping back several steps. He half expected the thing to come lurching out of the truck after him. But it didn’t. It just sat there.
There wasn’t even a smell. Robbie figured the cold of the garage had somehow mummified the body. Being in the cab of the truck would have saved it from any large predators. He didn’t see any insects either, so figured they must have come, sucked him dry and moved on.
Moving closer into the doorway, he shined his light into the cab and saw what had probably been a man in a blue work shirt. His skin was black and shrunken from decomposition. The cause of death became clear as Robbie noted the silver revolver still in the corpse’s shriveled hand. A hole was also visible on the top of his head with another hole neatly punched through the roof of the truck.
‘At least I’m pretty sure you won’t be coming back,’ Robbie decided with relief as he stared at the body. ‘Now, the next question is, did you have the keys to the electrical room?’
Robbie moved his light over to the ignition and saw a jumble of keys hanging there. His elation was short lived as he realized he would have to reach into the narrow space between the body and the dash to pull them out. It was a small cab and the man’s knees were nearly against the spot where the keys hung. He looked back at the body. Although he knew it was dead, he didn’t like the idea of being so close while he fumbled around with the keys.
The thought of opening the driver’s side door and simply dumping the man out of the truck occurred to him but didn’t seem right. The truck, humble as it was, was the man’s tomb and as many times as he might have violated dead bodies over the last few years, he hated doing it. Especially with someone who chose their own out before the zombies could make the decision for them.
Robbie took a breath, reached over and tugged on the keys. To his surprise they pulled right out with the only ill effect being that the back of his hand brushed against the dead man’s dark, green work pants. Robbie stood up quickly with the keys in his hand and pointed the light back in at the corpse. The illogical part of his brain was telling him to run in case his touch might have woken the thing. But it remained still, even as Robbie slowly eased back and closed the door.
‘If this was a horror movie,’ he thought, ‘the dead man would now jump out of the truck and start chasing me for stealing his keys.’ He knew this was stupid but he kept his light on the cab of the truck anyway as he walked back towards the utility room. After quickly running his light around the parking level again, just to be sure nothing had crawled out of the darkness while he was busy, he began going through the keys. He worked each key into the lock until one fit and turned the latch. Taking a deep breath for courage, he pushed the door open and stepped back, ready to defend against anything that might burst out.
Other than the creak of long unused hinges, nothing frightening came from the doorway. Robbie shined his light around inside before stepping over the threshold. The interior revealed a long, rectangular room with banks of high tech processors and wiring at either end. The floor was concrete and the high ceilings were crisscrossed with hanging steel air conditioning ducts and heavy coils of cable. Between the processors and against the far wall a dozen or so large grey cabinets, Robbie assumed these were fuse boxes, were mounted. Shutting the door behind him, Robbie stepped into the room and began checking that nothing lurked in the shadows. Finding no surprises, he walked over to the largest of the cabinets and popped open it’s metal door.
Inside the fuse box, Robbie found several rows of large black switches. Most of them were marked with handwritten labels. Each one identified the area that they controlled. He scanned quickly up the list reading; “HVAC, KITCHEN, LOBBY, ELEVATORS, POOL, EXT LIGHTS,” etc. At the top, he found two switches even larger than the others. These looked like the large electrical switches he had seen in monster movies back in the day. They looked like they might even take two hands to throw.
Looking closely, he noted that to the left of each switch was a label marked “OFF” and to the right it was marked “ON.” The switches, however, were in the middle position between the two. He had no idea what it meant if a switch was neither off nor on but he decided it probably didn’t matter much anymore. He pushed at the switches, first OFF then ON but nothing happened other than the loud click as they turned on their large plastic hinges.
Moving down the row of fuse cabinets he located one labeled “Roof Solar” and popped it open. As with the others, there were several rows of switches. The switches at the top were also in the half way position.
The darkness of the room was getting to him, so he took another look around but saw nothing. “Not sure it could get any spookier down here,” Robbie said out loud. Nothing answered but as he turned back to the box, something caught his eye. Before his light returned to the panel, he spotted a tiny green light just below the main switch. He lowered his flashlight and stared.
‘Am I losing my mind?’ He considered and answered. ‘Highly possible,’
When he looked again however, the small circle of green light was still there, glowing in the darkness like a distant star.
“What the…?!” Robbie said out loud. “Light means power right? That means at least some of the solar is still working. Yes? No way.” He thought for a moment. “Only one way to find out I suppose…”
He reached up and pushed the lever above the light one way and then the other. Each time a heavy click echoed through the room. He waited a moment and when nothing happened he did the same with the other switch.
There was a loud thump, after which the building seemed to suddenly take a deep breath. Robbie looked up, stunned, as a cacophony of mechanical snaps and pops sounded through the duct work over his head. From further away, fans slowly began whirling to life. The click-click-click of metal chains turned against cogs to move long closed flaps and shutters. Finally, with a rush the room’s florescent lights flickered on and Robbie was basked in electric light for the first time in years. He stood stunned, just listening to all the solar powered mechanisms roar back to life.
“Holy fuck!” He blurted, shielding his eyes from the sudden glare. “Gotta tell Kelly! She is going to freak out!”
He turned and walked excitedly from the room, to find the garage was illuminated as well. He was giddy as he made his way back up the ramps towards the main level, not believing their luck in finding the last building in the world with power.
He was half way up the next ramp when something odd came into view. It took him a moment to process what it was and what it meant. “Shit!”
Light spilled in through a wide open gap in the wall. Not electric light. Sunlight from outside. The gate leading to the back entrance to the parki
ng garage was open. The opening was literally wide enough to drive a truck through. Two trucks, since it was an entrance and an exit. The only barriers at the gate were two long yellow barrier arms that stretched across the lanes, requiring guests to enter their key cards before coming and going. Robbie was not worried about cars getting in.
As he was about to sprint up to the gate to see if he could get it closed a figure stumbled up to one of the barriers arms. Robbie froze as he watched it bounce off and continue along the length of the yellow and orange obstruction until it moved around it and into the garage.
‘I can take one.’ Robbie thought. ‘If there is only one.’
Robbie braced for the thing to spot him and come racing down the ramp, but something upstairs caught its attention and it suddenly lurched up the next ramp and out of sight. Robbie ran to the gate and saw several other undead outside making their way up the narrow drive but far enough away that he had time to figure out how to close the gate. He spotted a yellow box with a key hole attached to the wall by the gate and bolted for it, pulling the maintenance keys from his pocket as he ran. He watched the creatures grow closer as he jammed keys into the box trying to make one fit. Finally, with the things just a few yards away, one clicked into place and he turned it. The gate overhead groaned and its chains clattered as it began to lower. Robs eyes were wide as the gate went down just ahead of the lead zombie who began to claw and bite at the narrow bars.
Another sound up the ramp caught his attention. The sound of moaning and trampling feet as a large group of post human figures began heading down, drawn by the sound of the closing gate. He could see at least a dozen, and suspected many others would be behind them, so he turned and sprinted back down. He looked back up as he turned the next corner and saw that some had run straight down into the gate, drawn by the sound of the zombies banging on the other side. Unfortunately, others had spotted him and had begun to lumber after him in pursuit of food.
Robbie ducked out of sight behind a concrete pillar and paused for a moment to consider his options. If he continued down he would just get trapped at the bottom. He could lock himself in the utility room but he would be just as trapped there. He could try to escape in the truck with the maintenance man’s body but the battery was most likely long dead, and again he would be trapped. Also, Kelly had no idea where he was so it was unlikely she would show up to attempt a rescue.
Hearing the crowd of undead reach the bottom of the ramp he emerged from hiding and prepared to sprint down to the next level. To his shock, several of the undead had fallen over the railing of the ramp above, slid between the narrow concrete gap and were now climbing to their feet, directly in his path. Knowing he could not turn back, Robbie got their attention by running directly at them, then bolted to his left to dodge around in the outside lane. Two of the creatures fell into each other as their torsos turned but their stiff wooden legs remained in place. The closest one lunged as Robbie passed and managed to grab the shoulder of his jacket. Robbie’s momentum threw off the thing’s balance and sent it sprawling to the floor with a fleshy slap.
Robbie kept running, knowing that the others would not be far behind. This time he did not pause at the corner. Instead he sped ahead hoping to have a few moments to make a plan for escape before the rest of the things caught up. He knew there weren’t many options at the bottom of the garage.
Chapter 18
Kelly squatted on the outside deck inspecting several tomato plants. High above the streets it was a beautiful clear and sunny day. Gulls sailed lazily overhead as they rode the shifting air currents while smaller birds dodged around between the lower buildings below. She picked a caterpillar off one of the plants.
“How did you even get up here?” she asked the colorful little worm. “I bet you’ll be a beautiful butterfly someday but, sorry, you can’t eat my tomatoes.” She flung the wriggling creature over the railing and sent it sailing towards the tops of the palm trees many floors below.
As she began searching through the leaves, for more insects, she heard a muted thump from inside. It sounded like someone had slammed the front door. “Is that you Rob?” She called out without turning from her work.
It was early afternoon and Robbie had been out on one of his explore and scavenge missions in the building for the last few hours. She thought he might have come back up for lunch. “Rob?” She called again. When there was no answer she rose up, brushing the dirt from her hands, she walked back inside the apartment. She crossed through the familiar room as her eyes adjusted from the sunny glare outside to the darker shades of the interior. “Rob?”
It wasn’t until she reached the hallway leading to the front door that the silence began to unnerve her. She blinked her eyes to shake off the bright spots from being outside and scanned quickly around her for danger. The room was quiet but something was wrong. Turning, she made her way back to the couch where she kept her bow staff and hefted it up defensively. She felt better with it in her hands. She briefly felt sorry for Robbie if he intended to jump out and scare her. She smiled as she thought of the wolloping he would get in response.
Sunlight was streaming in from the balcony throwing off her vision again as she moved through the room checking behind the chairs. “Robbie, you better not try to scare me or I will beat the hell out of you!”
She paused and surveyed the living room expecting to see Robbie emerge from his hiding place. When he did not, she stood still and as quiet as possible, listening. ‘What the hell is going on,’ she thought.
A flutter outside caught her attention and she looked over to see a pigeon had landed on the balcony railing. “Damn!” She whispered as the glance into the sunlight caused her eyes to contract again. She squeezed them shut to improve her vision in the shadowy interior.
When she opened them again she was quickly drawn to movement across the room. A cloud of dust particles sparkled as they rained down from the ceiling. Following them up she saw they were drifting down from an old air conditioning vent. “Crap,” she sighed out loud. “Must be rats in the vents.”
She lowered her staff and took a deep breath. She was relieved but still shaken enough that she decided to check out the rest of the apartment before she completely wrote off any danger. She turned to walk towards the bedrooms when something else caught her attention. A small light blinked on the microwave over the stove. This at once seemed totally normal and yet completely impossible. Stepping closer she saw that it was the clock flashing 12:00, 12:00, 12:00 in its boxed numerals. She stared at it for a moment with the implication of what it meant slowly running up her spine. “Electricity?” She asked herself.
“Can’t be. I’m going insane.” She said, wrinkling her brow at the thought. “Well it’s about time I guess.” She walked to the microwave and put her fingers against the plastic over the clock. Her fingers glowed red each time the digits flashed. “I think it’s real. Can it be real? No. How?”
“Rob!” She blurted and bolted for the front door, grabbing her jacket from their hooks she raced out into the hallway. The normally dark corridor was washed in light. Not all the bulbs were working but enough were on to cast off the usual gloom and illuminate the spider webs and moldy stains that had begun to grow in the corners. She ran for the stairwell.
Robbie was in a race to the bottom of the parking garage. His mind reeled as he ran, hoping to think of a way to escape from the undead slumping down the ramps behind him. He knew he would have less than a minute to figure it out once he hit the dead end at the bottom. The utility room was all he could think of, but he knew that was a death trap. He could go in, lock the door and remain silent so they didn’t pursue him, but then what. He would be trapped in the small room… forever.
The undead were lazy as hell and followed the path of least resistance. Once they were at the bottom of the ramp they would remain there unless something loud and tasty beckoned them to trudge back up. Kelly would never come down there looking for him. She would find the garage doors open and even i
f she were able to shut them, she would never venture down towards hundreds of zombies that will have accumulated by that time. He knew he was fucked.
Kelly bounded down the stairwell and burst into the lobby with a bang. “Rob!” She called out breathlessly to the empty room. Normally she would have crept slowly and quietly through the long corridors of the condominium’s common areas but now she jogged through in a panic. The aged carpet squeaked and crunched under her feet as she dashed from room to room. Each of the offices, lounges and meeting rooms were similarly quiet, dusty and empty. Still, she looked briefly into each and stage whispered, “Rob!”
At the end of the main corridor was the door to the parking garage. In her haste she reached for the bar, pushed it open and stepped through without using her usual caution, and stepped into a nightmare. Finding herself walking into a semi-circle of stinking, rotting undead, she froze in shock. Things went into slow motion as she commanded her legs into reverse but the command seemed on a delay. The drooping, sagging faces of the things around her all began to turn their blank undead eyes toward her. They seemed to react slowly as well, as if they didn’t fully comprehend this delicious treat that had fallen in among them. Snapping back to reality, she swung her staff at the nearest heads while she retreated back through the closing door. Heads cracked and several stumbled away but more began lurching forward.
She had barely ducked back into the corridor when rotting hands began pounding against the other side of the door. Grey faces with pale, dead eyes appeared in the narrow rectangle of glass. The loose skin of their lips pressed against its surface while their teeth tried to gnash, tap and scratch their way through. Kelly backed away thankful that the door opened outward into the garage. The harder the bodies pressed to get in the more tightly it remained shut.