by Mark Clodi
'Get the fuck out of here!' her mind screamed and her legs listened. Nancy spun around and sprinted towards the hall. She could hear footsteps shuffling through the debris behind her. She ran back to her office and slammed the door shut. The whole wall shuddered from the impact of the door.
She dialed the police and an operator came on almost instantly. “Yes, help, please send help” she breathed into the phone. “What? No, I was attacked by Fred.” 'Shit, what did Fred mean to an emergency operator? Get a hold of yourself!', she thought.
“Yes sir, he is still in the building. No, I am in my office with the door closed. Yes, you have it correct, the MAC building. First floor. No, I am all alone. No, all the doors to the outside are locked until seven thirty. The main entrance? You would need a key card, or someone to let you in. I don’t give a fuck I’m not leaving my office, tell them break one down. Yes, I understand but I’m telling you I’m not leaving”
Her whole body was sweating now, her heart was busy pumping blood to her vital survival organs, her head, arms and legs. With the phone still to her ear she reached across desk and snatched a Kleenex from the box.
Every muscle in her body froze. She could see Fred’s bloated pale face pressed against the pane of glass adjacent to her door. This design was standard for all MAC executives. It allowed them to have their door closed for privacy but still see into the common areas.
Fred’s eyes were completely swollen shut and yet his head still followed her every movement.
“Holy fucking shit! He is here! He is right here!” She yelled at the operator.
The door knob turned but stopped short of releasing the lock holding it. The door started to rattle in it's frame.
“Screw you, I’m not going to die talking to some asshole!” Nancy said as she slammed the phone down. The operator had all of her information and she wasn’t going to take a chance that the police would arrive in time or if they even could get into the building without someone letting them. She needed to find someone to let them in or better yet, bash the shit out of Fred.
She sat down behind her computer and brought up the company phone list while Fred continued to work at opening the door. Fuck. She never got in this early and had no idea who might be here. The phone list was alphabetical by department. Nancy skipped accounting and dialed the Budgeting departments main line. No answer. Contracts. No answer. Human Resources. No answer.
She didn’t know how long to let the phone ring before giving up. This was not working. She had to do something else. Wait. She turned from her computer and looked out the window scanning the parking lot for familiar cars. Near the front entrance she saw a black Honda Accord, it's lights flashed twice and the alarmed beeped letting the owner know that all was safe and secure. The owner then put the keys into his pocket and proceeded towards the front door.
Outside of her office one of Fred's hands twisted the doorknob enough to release the catch, the door swung open under his next flailing blow.
Nancy slammed her hands on her office window to try and get the Honda owner’s attention but he continued down the sidewalk not noticing. Quickly she released the lock on the window, it would only tilt out half way but it was enough for her to fit her head through.
“Help! You've got to help me!” She screamed out the opening.
This got Bob’s attention.
“What’s wrong? Where are you?” Bob yelled back.
“Hurry! H…”
Nancy disappeared back into the building, screaming as Fred pulled her inside.
Chapter 8
Amelia’s day had started off as any other, she headed in to the office early, to beat the seven am rush, stopping along the way to get her and Mr. Fitz Kirkpatrick, her boss, their favorite brews at a coffee shop. She was always reimbursed for the coffee and Fitz, let her charge her entire trip in to the company at thirty six cents a mile, plus the cost of the coffee to his expense account, a win-win for everyone. She liked Fitz, he knew she had gotten the job on both her ability to make order out of chaos and her trim, fit body that indicated Fitz was a player in the MAC company politics. He even took her on two company trips, she had been half expecting a pass or maybe a demand for a sexual favor, one she may or may not have declined, she was a free agent after all. Although Fitz was as old as her father, the man oozed charisma and charm. He never even made a play for her and after the first trip she decided she did indeed love him exactly how he was and their relationship grew closer in a father-daughter kind of way. He even reprimanded that guy Steve in front of everyone at the company holiday party, Amelia would never forget it, “Steve, back off, everyone is trying to have fun here.” With extra sarcasm on the ‘Everyone’, thinking of it still made Amelia smile.
The second trip with Fitz his wife had come along and she was trophy in her own right, but that is not all she was. In her Amelia discovered the woman behind the man in power, if anything she played politics more viciously than Fitz ever did and when she saw Amelia it took her about twenty seconds to decide to bring Amelia ‘into the fold’. The minor benefits soon followed and started added up, Amelia knew she was only attending college in the evenings because of Mrs. Kirkpatrick, the connections that woman had never ceased to amaze her.
Arriving at work Amelia dropped her purse into her desk drawer and headed into Fitz’s office after knocking softly once, their pre-arranged signal. She backed into his office using her behind to push the door open, as both hands were full of coffee then turned to put Fitz’s coffee on his desk, as she sat it down she froze. Kirkpatrick had blood on his arm, which was sitting on his desk at an unnatural angle. His dull eyes tracked her movement and seemed to focus on her in a strange way that made Amelia recoil in fear.
“Fitz…Fitz what happened, what is wrong. Oh my God I am calling an ambulance. Don’t die, don’t die!” Kirkpatrick slowly stood in his chair, the chair he had finally succumbed to undeath’s harsh embrace only twenty minutes before and started to climb over the desk towards Amelia, a groan escaping his throat.
Amelia back pedaled bumping into the door from his office and stammering, “Fitz…stay, st-st-stay right th-there, I ww-will call an ambulance and g-get you h-help.” Her voice shrunk to a whimper, “No Fitz, stop. Stop..”
Amelia turned and fled the office closing the door behind her. She then raced behind her desk and stood watching the door, somehow knowing Fitz would be trapped inside his office, knowing he could not open the door handle anymore, not in his condition. She squeaked out a cry worthy of a mouse when the handle slowly started to turn. Then ducked and hid under her desk, pulling her chair in as far as it would go after her. Thankfully her desk front went all the way down to the floor something she really liked as she could kick off her shoes when she was working during the day. Thinking of which brought to the fore front of her mind the fact that she was sitting uncomfortably on a spare pair under the desk, she maneuvered slightly to get them out from under her then froze when she heard the door swing open from Fitz’s office. She heard her former boss step-shuffle-step away from her, heading towards the hall and elevator and thought she was in the clear when the phone on her desk started ringing. Between rings she held her breath and listened for footsteps, they appeared to be heading back her way, mercifully the phone stopped ringing, “Praise the lord and voice mail too.” She thought hysterically to herself as she tried not to breath. The footsteps stopped a few feet from her desk. She heard the low grunts that Fitz had been making come from above her desktop, she heard the papers and ‘in’ box being shoved around and some paper and pens fell off the back of her desk, making her flinch, then the steps started to move away again. Amelia sighed quietly and relaxed, then jumped again as her hand got burned by the hot coffee cup she had somehow retained for her entire flight from Fitz’s office. Shrugging she took a sip. 'Fucking good.' She thought, 'This is the taste of life!' In that moment she felt more alive than she had in a long time.
As she was reveling in her victory her phone started to ring again,
and ring, and ring, and ring, it did not cut off after four rings as it should have, but continued to ring, she did not hear any grunts or footsteps returning to her desk and in a brief, maniac moment, Amelia jumped up and grabbed her phone. She saw Fitz as she rose, he was only ten feet away and between her and the elevator, worse he was coming right towards her. This phone call had better have been worth it, hopefully it was the police, the army, or building security.
“Hello? Is anybody there, Kirkpatrick’s gone crazy he…he’s noticed me! Help me! Send help! Oh God! Stay away from me!” It took her a second to realize she was speaking to a dial tone.
Chapter 9
Nancy remembered the terrible panic she felt when Fred’s teeth punctured the skin above her right ankle. At first she had felt no pain. Much like when you touch a hot stove, your body automatically jerks your hand away to prevent further damage. Nancy tried to pull her leg free from his grasp but Fred had a firm hold on her. He worked his jaw up and down tearing flesh with each bite.
It didn’t take long for the pain to become very real. She could feel Fred’s teeth scraping against her shin bone like a hungry dog chewing on a treat. He had pulled her from the window and they were both lying on the floor, Nancy, face down on her stomach. Fred resembled a child at a picnic eating a piece of corn on the cob. He too was face down with his elbows braced against the floor, hands securely holding her. When Nancy felt her Achilles tendon snap and roll up into ball inside what was left of her calf muscle her vision went pink and then black. She willingly let her body go into shock and passed out.
Fred had not been dead long and the energy he absorbed from Nancy crashed upon his body like a strong ocean wave. It was as if he had been awakened from a deep sleep. He was still almost completely blind from Nancy’s coffee and yet, he could see colors, energy. Fred did not need his eyes to see this energy as much as he could feel it. It radiated like thermal heat patterns he had seen on the nightly weather forecasts. Fred looked down, he was holding something, as he stared it went from a bright red color to, orange, yellow, green, and then a deep blue. His black fingers contrasted against the color of Nancy's leg as if he held a fluorescent light bulb. His whole body radiated this black, ghostly energy.
Even though Fred could already start to feel his new energy fading, he had fed on enough to make himself feel better, much better. It was like the best rush he had ever experienced. He got to his feet. He had to find more. He scanned the room. The computer had a green tinge, outside Nancy’s office the coffee pot was a burning red, and rest of the room was cool blackish violet color.
Fred was drawn to the hot red of the coffee pot and he eagerly started moving towards it. He was close to his destination when he was forced to a sudden stop. Fred looked down to see what was blocking his path. In his hands he still clutched Nancy’s leg. It had gone from blue to the same blackish violet color that radiated throughout the room. Unknowingly he had been dragging her body. She had flipped over onto her back and upper body had become wedged between her office door and it's frame. He watched as the remaining color from her body vanished, she was now as black as he was.
Fred forced his hands to release their grip and continued towards the red energy. The coffee blistered his throat but he felt no pain nor did he receive the same rush as he had experienced from Nancy. Confused he dropped the coffee pot to the ground.
Fred thought about waiting for Peggy to arrive, he desired her as much as ever but in a much different way. Somewhere in his malfunctioning mind he knew that the woman was supposed to be here. Peggy would have the same energy as Nancy. In the end Fred couldn’t wait that long, he needed to feed. There was nothing left in the Marketing Department that attracted Fred’s attention so he decided to see what the rest of the building had to offer. He stepped into the hallway looking for that delicious red energy.
Chapter 10
Max took the lead heading up to the second floor, with Officer Stewart behind him and Steve bringing up the rear. It came as a surprise that Steve did not make any remarks about Stewart’s ass, which probably saved his life. As they approached the second floor landing high above them in the stairwell the fourth floor door swung open. They could all hear a shuffling sound on the top landing, but could not quite see anything. Max switched to, a slower, quieter pace and listened intently as he approached the door leading to the second floor. The shuffling sound continued above them.
“Should we yell out?”
“Fuck that, no way.” said Steve.
“We don’t know that they are zombified yet, they might be human.”
“We can’t leave them in our exit, either Steve.” whispered Officer Stewart, “What if we have to make a hasty retreat, we don’t want to be dealing with this guy in the stairway?”
“Look he or she or it will hear us on the PA, I’ll watch the stairwell from Kirkpatrick’s office and if no one comes out the door we know we have zombie issues here, right? Why find trouble?”
Max found both arguments reasonable, however he was in favor of just yelling up the stairwell to see if he got a response.
“Wait, what if I snuck up the stairs for a peak? I could motion to whomever it is to get them to join us if they are still human?”
“Hmmm… It should be me, I have the gun.” stated Stewart.
“No-no, I should go, I have a bat, it would be easy enough to whack someone if they are shambling along, right? Almost no danger at all.”
“Yeah like the bathroom?”
“Hey! I didn’t know what I was up against then! Plus I had dropped my bat!”
“Fine, fine if you think you can handle it go ahead and go…”
“Hello!?” a man’s voice called from the top floor landing, “Is someone down there?”
“Oh sure, see! You let it know we are here!” whispered Steve angrily.
“What are talking about, the guy is alive, he is calling for us. Why are we still whispering?”
They all heard someone coming down the stairs, “I can see you there. Why won’t you answer me?”
Sure enough the trio saw a face peering down at them through the railings, the face stopped coming down the stairs, waiting for an answer.
“Sure we are here.” said Stewart, “Who are you? I am Police Officer Stewart.”
“A police officer! Friggin-a! You gotta come up here, old man Sawyer went insane and killed Rhonda Pulcher and attacked me! I locked him in the break room, he does not seem to be thinking too well and can’t get out. Come on!”
“No, you come here, where we can see you. Sawyer will have to wait we are trying to get to somewhere else. We have to do one thing at a time right now, that’s it, come on down here. What is your name?”
The figure coming down the stairs was a young male, maybe twenty two, he had brown hair and a straight, lanky build. He had an id card and name badge, but it was still too far away to be read. He came forward slowly, but steadily and seemed to be favoring one arm. His pant leg on one side was coated with blood.
“I’m Tom. Tom Eby. I work in ITC, networking. Who are these guys?”
“I am Max, this is Steve, we work for George Gains down in Licensing, I think you reset my password for me about two months ago when I locked myself out, you work nights right? What happened to your arm and leg?”
“Gains, yeah, I keep the batch processes going and help out any of the early birds who have problems in the morning. Sawyer friggin’ grabbed my leg and tried to bite me. Bite me! Couldn’t believe what I saw, I saw him munching down on Rhonda in the break room, I went to back out and slipped on all the blood, none of it is mine, but it made a mess. Anyway I punched Sawyer in the face, musta broke his nose, cause he backed right off and let me go. I crawled out the door and slammed it behind me. You know that file cabinet by the break room? No? Yeah you probably don’t get up to the fourth floor too much. Anyway Joe and Frank blocked me in the break room one night as a joke by moving that cabinet in front of the door. I just heaved it over, I got it about halfway over the
door and Sawyer couldn't get out. I think I sprained my shoulder.”
“You were alone in ITC? Where were Joe and, uh, Frank?” asked Max, struggling to remember the people who manned the help desk during the day.
“They called in sick last night, leaving me and Sawyer to hold down the fort, it was kinda busy too, with only two of us. Anyway Sawyer took off about six for a break and never came back, no big deal the last batch jobs ended around five thirty so we were in the dead phase of the shift until the early people got in, even then it is pretty slow this time of day. I was supposed to be off by now and I wanted to go home, but no one came in, no one called in either. I hated leaving the TC, uh, Tech Center, empty, but I had to go, I am, was, tired. That is when I found Sawyer and Rhonda. I went back to the TC and could not get a line out, all busy. I texted one of my local buddies and told her to call the cops for me, ‘cause I could not get through to them by voice, she said she did.” To Stewart he said, “I thought you were them. I guess it really doesn’t matter, you’re here now.”
Max quickly went through what the rest of them had been through and explained that they were trying to get to Kirkpatrick’s office. Tom had no weapons with him. After a brief debate they decided to continue to Kirkpatrick’s office and see if they could figure out how to operate the PA system.
Chapter 11
Like Fred, Nancy had the same ability to “see” energy. All of the undead did. It was not like some sort of x-ray vision, nor was it purely thermal vision. Like the living, the newly undead could not see though walls or other obstacles. Nancy could still use her normal vision since her eyes had yet to decompose. She found that she could switch from normal vision to her new ability as easy as, well, a blink of the eye.
All the world around her generated some sort of energy from the hot glowing red to cool uninteresting black. There were several ghost-like black figures in the MAC Co. parking lot. That’s what the dead looked like. Shadowy black figures containing no energy what so ever. The dead were the only things that were completely black, even stone and other inanimate objects generated some sort of dull energy. The living, now, they were a different story altogether. Their energy patterns were a striking rainbow colored non-pattern that simply looked edible and beckoned to be savored. Slowly. 'Taste the rainbow' Nancy thought, 'Ironic.'