Once the laughter had died away, we drove in relative silence for a few minutes. Finally, Taylor
asked, “So do you have any ideas about where we should go?”
I thought about it for a moment and then answered, “Well, first of all, I want to go by the newspaper where I work…worked…uh…and then we’ll make a plan about what to do next. Sound okay?”
“Sounds okay to me,” he answered.
“Sounds okay to me,” Christina echoed and giggled.
A few minutes later, we reached the exit for the newspaper and exited the deserted freeway.
McKinley Boulevard was still except for a few scattered shells shuffling between parked cars and along the sidewalk. I glanced at them without really giving them much attention. A second later, the thought hit me that the presence of shells had actually become normal. The notion caused me to actually look at the undead things moving slowly around the area.
Shuffling down the street on the left side of us was the shell of a heavyset older man wearing dirty blue coveralls like those of a mechanic. The movement stopped only for a second as the cold dead eyes turned our way. On our right was a pair of shells huddled over a shape on the sidewalk. As the shells of a skinny woman with curly black hair and a little girl with pigtails turned toward us, I saw the shape on the sidewalk had been a small dog and that it’s blood was dripping from the mouths of the shells.
Hoping to prevent Christina from seeing what was left of the dog, I asked, “Do you know any songs Christina?”
She spun toward me and said, “Of course I know some songs, silly! How about B-I-N-G-O? Do you know that one?”
I chuckled at her enthusiasm. “That’s the one about the dog, right?”
“Right!” Christina squealed. “Okay, I’ll start.” She took an overdramatic deep breath and began singing. “There was an old man who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o! B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o!” The little girl gave Taylor her sternest expression and said, “C’mon, Taylor, I know you know this song. You sing it and then clap in place of a letter each time. Like this,” she instructed and then took another deep breath. “There was an old man who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o! (clap) I-N-G-O, (clap) I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o!” This time Taylor joined her as did I. The irony of singing a song about a dog to distract from the sight of the dog being devoured outside was not lost on me, and a twisted smile fluttered across my lips. “(clap)- (clap)-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o!”
The area was made up of office buildings and a few banks. I was beginning to feel a bit of the comfort that comes with being in a familiar place. That vanished as I caught sight of a shell in a dark blue suit staggering toward us from a hundred feet away..
“(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o!”
With the parked cars lining the curb, I had no choice but to continue on toward the end of the street.
As we got closer to the shell moving toward the van, my heart jumped into my throat as the wind was knocked out of me. I gasped to catch my breath. My powerful reaction was enough to catch the attention of the others.
“Kevin, are you okay?” Taylor asked.
“Yeah, Kevin, are you okay?” Christina echoed.
It took me a moment to put the words together. “I…uh…I know that guy.”
“Which guy?” he asked.
“The one in the dark blue…” My words trailed off as I looked up to see that the street in front of us was empty.
I turned to look at Taylor and Christina and said, “There was a guy there in a dark blue suit, and I could have sworn it was someone I used to work with. He was--” The horror in the little girl’s eyes interrupted my words just before Taylor’s scream.
Chapter 8
Somehow the shell in the dark blue suit had made its way around to my door and stood staring at me with its face pushed up to the glass. Pinkish saliva from the shell’s mouth smeared on the glass as it pushed into the window. The thing appeared somewhat confused at being stopped from getting to me. It continued sliding its face around the glass as if trying to find where the barrier ended. Finding no break, it moved back from the window.
In the next instant, the shell lifted its eyes and seemed to stare directly at me. A jolt shook my body. I was looking into a pair of dead eyes, but there was something more. I had seen that ashen face many times. It belonged to Michael…Michael…something.
I did not even know his name. He had been part of the newspaper’s legal staff, and we had shuffled passed one another in the hallway numerous times, mumbling greetings. Now, here I was staring into that face again. I searched for some glimmer of recognition. At first, there was nothing just blankness. After a second, I thought I saw a flicker of something. It must have been my imagination as in the next instant the shell lunged forward and smashed its face into the window.
The glass cracked, and Christina bawled.
“What does he want?” Taylor yelled.
I had no answer to his question but knew that I did not want to find out. The van sprang ahead, leaving the shell behind.
“The newspaper building is just around the corner,” I said although no one was listening as we turned left.
I looked over to see Taylor and Christina both had their eyes fixed on the window next to me.
“Why is this happening?” Taylor asked in such a lifeless voice that I wondered if he was in shock.
“According to what we saw on TV, there was some new type of cold.”
Christina perked up at the chance to contribute to the conversation. “My mommy had a cold.”
I looked at the little girl and could not help but smile. “I know she did, honey. It seems like some people like us were okay, but other people got so sick they died and came back like…”
“Came back like something else,” Taylor finished the thought through tears.
Christina looked at the teenager for a moment before putting her hand on his shoulder and saying, “It’s gonna be okay, Taylor. Kevin won’t let those things get us.” She looked over at me and said, “Tell him that it’s gonna be okay.”
“I am never going to let anything happen to either of you.” Not until the words came out did I realize how much I truly meant them. Never having been a parent or having had any real desire to be a parent, I was surprised to feel such a wave of protectiveness wash over me.
“See, Taylor, we’re gonna be fine!” Christina said with a smile.
The boy looked back at her and did his best to return the smile. “I know that. I was just feeling bad for all those people who got sick.”
I turned into driveway for the parking garage beneath the Marin Gazette building. It was a corner block four-story building. Moving from the brightness of the street down into the darkness, I wondered at the wisdom of what I was doing. The thought did not remain long as the deserted attendant’s booth appeared before us. In all the time I had been working at the newspaper, this was the first time I could remember seeing the booth when it was not occupied. I slid my window down and looked for any signs of the attendant but saw none. Fortunately, the railing that normally stopped incoming cars was stuck up like a solitary finger testing the direction of the wind, and we drove straight through. I glanced into the booth as we passed but saw only scattered papers on the floor.
Entering the parking area, the sound of a car alarm rang out, shattering the silence. My eyes had not yet adjusted to the change, and I squinted into the darkness searching for the source of the alarm and whatever triggered it. The intermittent blaring of the car alarm echoed through the parking lot. The flashing headlights on the small pickup truck revealed a few other cars and some shadowy shapes but nothing that was moving.
“Noisy,” Christina complained as she clamped her hands over her ears.
“So what do you think set that thing off?” Taylor asked.
I looked over to judge his state of mind before answering, “Well, I’m not really sure, but we’re not going to stick around to
find out. I’m going to spin this thing around and pull up close to the stairwell. We can walk up to my office on the third floor. With any luck, we can get some idea about what’s going on and find some place safe to go.”
“Sounds good,” Taylor replied with more optimism than expected.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Christina echoed.
“Well then, I guess we have a plan,” I answered and even managed to sound energetic.
I turned the van around quickly around and pulled up next to the double glass doors at the back of the parking lot that led to the stairs.
The click of Taylor’s door opening caught my ear.
“Stop!” I commanded loudly enough to scare both of them. “We need to wait and watch for a minute before we go out there.”
He nodded and pulled the door closed. We gazed out the window at the glass doors and the stairs beyond. Everything appeared still, but I knew it could all change in an instant. I looked around the dark parking garage and imagined that there was something unseen about to leap out.
After a couple of minutes of waiting and watching, nothing, we saw nothing no movement. “Wait here,” I whispered as I slowly opened the door. The click of the latch seemed to echo throughout the garage, and the images of things leaping out of the darkness again
filled my mind. I held my breath, but nothing moved. I nudged the door open slowly. It moved with a squeak, and I slid from inside the van to the cool, dark of the garage.
Once I was standing on the firmness of the concrete floor, the dark world of the parking garage lost some of its ominous atmosphere. I strained my eyes and ears, but there was nothing to indicate that there was something lurking out there in the dark. The only thing I heard was the humming of some machine.
I moved around to the passenger side of the van and opened the door. “Okay, you both need to stay close to me, right?” Two heads nodded. “My office is up on the fourth floor. We can walk up, but we need to be careful, okay?” Again, there were nods, and once again, the feeling of protectiveness bubbled up inside me.
Taylor helped Christina out of the van and turned to me for direction.
Right then, the humming of machinery, which I had noticed without considering, flashed brightly in my mind. The humming had to be from a generator. It made perfect sense that there would be a generator here. The newspaper could not afford to halt production due to a power outage. I must have known this subconsciously. It was another reason to come to this place. When my internal dialogue ended, I found Taylor and Christina watching me impatiently.
“Sorry, I…uh…I just realized that the building has a generator. I’m not sure why the lights are off down here, but the power should be on upstairs. We should be able to check out what’s going on around here and find some place that’s safe.”
“Okay, let’s go,” Taylor answered.
“Okay, let’s go,” Christina echoed.
I started toward the stairs and looked to see the two following closely behind me. We walked slowly to the glass doors, listening for the smallest sound. I put my hand up to stop the others as I gently pushed the left door open a few inches, waiting for any movement from within. When there was none, I nudged the door a few more inches. Finally, I pushed it open all the way and we went through.
The small room held a couple of vending machines and the stairs up to the building’s first floor. Christina moved to the front of one of the machines which held various candy bars and brightly-colored bags of snacks. I suddenly occurred to me that we had not eaten anything since early in the day. My lack of parenting skills were shameful.
“Can we get a snack?” Christina asked with the hopeful tone of voice that kids have.
I instinctively stuck my hands in my pockets searching for change. There was nothing but lint to be found. “I…uh…don’t have any change. Sorry.”
Taylor chuckled and shook his head as he looked at me before walking up to the vending machine. “I think this machine is old enough,” he said before starting to push buttons.
Starting in the middle of the column of buttons, he pushed all of them going up and then pushed a few going down. He turned toward me as he pushed and held the silver change return lever. After a few seconds, he released the lever. A look of confusion flashed across his face as nothing happened, but a moment later the jingle of coins falling into the coin return slot began.
“Yes!” Taylor exclaimed and began taking coins out of the machine.
“Well, that’s a nice little trick,” I laughed.
He looked at me with some pride, before the expression vanished. “I don’t think Detective Lawrence would think so.”
“I bet he would be proud of you for stepping up and doing what needed to be done,” I replied, and Taylor smiled just a little. “Okay, Christina, would you like to eat?”
The little girl moved up close to the vending machine and searched through the display of
offerings. “Anything?” She asked as if being offered delights of which she had only dreamed.
“Anything,” Taylor and I both replied and laughed.
She went back to searching through every row of treats. “A pack of those cookies?” Christina pointed at a wrapper showing a picture of a big cookie and asked as if still not believing her good fortune could be true.
Taylor took a handful of the coins out of the return and put them into the machine. He smiled at the girl as he pushed the numbers of her selection. We all watched with some enjoyment as the silver corkscrew behind the cookies turned and forced the bag from its shelf. There was a thud as the bag landed in the slot at the bottom of the machine.
“Are you going to get your cookies?” Taylor asked.
Christina rushed up to the machine and knelt down trying to see in the cookies. After a moment, she slowly pushed in on the black plastic cover. It swung in, and her face lit up. She quickly grabbed the cookies and turned toward Taylor.
“Thanks, Taylor! Thanks, Kevin!” She ex-claimed.
“What else?” I asked, and she looked toward me as if I was joking. “Your friend Taylor is a genius, so we can get whatever we want.”
Taylor grinned and looked at his feet in response to the compliment.
In a gesture that I have to admit got me a little choked up, Christina walked over and offered him a cookie which he took. She then offered one to me. I took it and smiled at the little girl.
I looked over at Taylor and said, “I don’t suppose you know any magic tricks for the soda machine, do you?”
He grinned at me before saying, “Well, I’m not sure about magic, but this might work.” The teenager walked over and quickly rocked the machine back and forth. Within a few seconds, we heard the thud of a falling plastic bottle. He reached in the slot and pulled out a bottle. “I hope orange juice is okay.”
“Sounds good!” Christina said as she took it out of his hand.
We sat on the stairs and enjoyed a feast of chips, cookies, candy, cake, juice and soda. Not the most nutritious meal but very enjoyable nonetheless.
By the time we were done, all of us seemed much more relaxed and ready to face whatever waited for us up the stairs.
Chapter 9
Taylor was the first to stand up. “Well, you guys ready to see what’s upstairs?”
Christina stuffed the last big piece of chocolate cupcake into her mouth and answered, “I’m ready!”
“You might want to finish chewing that first,” I laughed and then turned serious. “Now, remember what I said about staying together. Most of those things move pretty slow. We’ll be okay as long as we stick together.”
Taylor and Christina nodded in unison.
I started up the stairs and motioned the others to move closely behind me. At this point, the staircase was dim but not too dark. However, as we moved up between the first and second floors, everything grew darker. I stopped to listen for any sound, and Christina walked straight into me.
“Careful,” I said quietly.
“Sorry,” she wh
ispered back.
The only sound I could make out was the ever-present hum of the generator. I wondered if someone had failed to turn all the breakers on the machine which accounted for the parking lot and stairs lights being off. I considered going back down to check the generator, but quickly discarded the idea.
As we passed the door leading from the stairwell to the third floor offices, I stopped again. This time Christina stopped at the same time. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Well, that certainly is not right. Everything was out of the ordinary. A better description would be that I heard nothing to indicate there were shells nearby. Anyway, it was quiet.
We continued slowly up the stairs. Without looking, I knew that Taylor was impatient to reach the top and get out of the stairwell. Maybe it was the series of heavy sighs or maybe it was just that teenagers seem to give off a scent which signals impatience.
Finally, I turned toward him. “Take it easy, Taylor,” I said in a hushed tone. “We’re almost there.”
He looked at me and nodded without replying.
Christina was right beside him, breathing heavily.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
She nodded and said, “Yes, no problem.”
I wondered about her difficulty in climbing three flight of stairs and how the little girl would fare under more demanding situations. I quickly realized that it did no good worrying about such matters now and pushed on to the door to the fourth floor.
The landing which held the dark metal door was not large, but Taylor and Christina managed to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the door. I stood just to the right of it, straining my ears to catch the slightest sound coming from the other side.
There was the faint gurgle of liquid and the hum of some electric machine. I waited for any hint of footsteps or something similar.
I guess I waited too long for Taylor, because he moved next to me and said, “We’re never gonna get anywhere standing around like this.” He grabbed the door handle and yanked the door open before I could stop him. He stood in the doorway looking at the office beyond.
Surviving Amid the Zombies Page 6