Dead Sector: Miami: The James' Strain

by Romero, Drake

  “Don’t ever apologize for staying alive. You tried and we both would have died had you not done what you did. That seatbelt took me fifteen minutes to get off when I woke up.”

  “What did you do before all this?”

  “I was in law school. You?”

  “College, went to the Miami Dade College. Was going to get my associate’s degree and then maybe Gainesville for my bachelor’s. That is all gone now, huh?”

  “I think so. Not sure I will ever be a lawyer, and even if I somehow pull that off, doubt it will be in Miami.”

  We gather to eat. The food is still in the refrigerator, but with the power off, it is going to spoil much sooner than I expected. I have half a turkey sandwich and a banana. There are some chips and other non-perishables. We managed to find two or three cans of soup.

  “With the power off, this food is going to go bad before we eat it all. We have maybe three days’ worth of food now. Most of what we had is perishable,” I say.

  “We have to get to the other floors before that happens,” says Tom.

  “What about Danny?” asks Anne.

  “We have to kill him along with the other two. We need to do it tomorrow while we are still strong, before we have no food,” I say.

  “You can let Phillip or Tom use the gun. It should make it easy. They die like in the movies, just take out their brains,” says Katrina to Anne.

  Anne moves her hand to her waist, where the gun is. “No. No, I can do it. I can shoot them. I know how. Just come with me for back up.”

  Chapter 6

  Anne Kills Danny

  I wake up the next day late afternoon. It is hot and I am sweating. I try not to wake Katrina and quietly sneak into one of the unoccupied outer offices. I have been making a habit of watching the zombies. I want to observe their movements, to see if maybe we have a chance to get to the other building or to one of the boats in the bay. They are still there, but there are less of them. Many of them are huddled around the buildings trying to get in. The ones in the street, there is something off with their movements. They are no longer moving in sync with one another and they do not appear to be near as fast. They don’t even appear to be running anymore. I zoom in with the binoculars and notice they also look far less human than before. They have deteriorated at an incredible rate. Far faster than a normal dead person would deteriorate. They are missing entire chunks of skin and some of them are even missing limbs. Their skin that remains is pale and thin.

  Anne comes into the room. “Are you ready?” she asks.

  “Yes, but are you? Are you sure you want to take point?”

  “I know how to fire a gun. I have one at home.”

  “I understand. But killing someone, it is not easy. If you hesitate …”

  “I won’t.”

  “Still . . .”

  “I am done arguing about this. It is my gun and I am going to use it. You will all stay behind me and I will take care of them.”

  “Okay.” We stand silent for a long moment.

  “So, Katrina?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Are you two a thing?”

  “Frankly, I don’t know. She seems nice and I am glad I was able to save her, but any one of us could be dead before tomorrow.”

  “Yeah. Well, I wanted to let you know I think she is nice.”

  “Okay, thanks I guess. Since we are putting stuff out there, why are still letting Remington boss you around?”

  “I am not.”

  “You kind of are.” She does not respond.

  We go to Remington’s office to strategize. Even Remington argues with Anne to not go first, but she cannot be moved.

  “I will not play the damsel in distress,” she says.

  We give up, and all head for the door-except of course for Remington. He lets Tom take his bat. As I hold my sword, I worry that as cool as it looks, that it won’t hold up. It is only a replica after all. What if after the first strike, it shatters. No time for that now. We are here. Tom and I move the desks that were barricading the door.

  “Anne, I will open the door and back up. Do not go into the stairwell. Let them come to us. Aim for their heads and shoot them as soon as they get through the door. The three of us will be right behind you to step in,” says Tom.

  “Do it,” she says. She has the gun raised and aimed at the door. She looks confident. Tom complies and quickly runs back. Danny is standing in the doorway. Half of his face is sagging and his jaw appears to have lost its place. He is missing a hand and he is just staring at us. He begins to head for Anne, but slowly. He does not run like the others from before. His gait is off and he moves like the muscles in his legs barely works.

  “Wait for him to get through the door,” says Tom.

  “I know.”

  She waits until Danny is three steps in and shoots him directly between his eyes with one shot. He falls backwards. The other two zombies stand in the doorway now-the emo guy and the teenage girl with braces. Anne only lets them two steps into the doorway before shooting them both with equal skill. She was right. She knows what she is doing. She turns around to face us.

  “See, I told you I could do it. I have been firing a gun with my dad for 20 years. He used to …”

  My mind wanders from the conversation. Something here is not right, but I can’t quite place it. We left three zombies in the stairwell and she killed three zombies. Danny, the emo kid, and the girl with braces. Danny, the emo kid, and the girl with braces. Fuck. The emo kid was not in the stairwell-he was in the lobby. The third zombie we left in the stairwell was the …

  “Help me,” Anne says. The man in the suit has grabbed her from behind. He has his teeth sunk into her neck and is ripping out the flesh. Blood sprays the floor and the two of them tumble to the ground. I go to act, but Katrina grabs my wrist and pulls me back. From the stairwell comes more zombies. It is full of them. The book case did not hold. Four more of them are on top of Anne. They are biting her and ripping at her with their hands. She still has the gun in her hand, but there is a zombie on that arm. She is looking at me in the eyes, but I don’t know how to help. She is screaming and the man in the suit sinks his teeth into her mouth. He bites hard and comes back holding a portion of her lip in his teeth. He swallows and goes in or another bite. Her screams grow louder. One of the zombie has his hands inside her stomach. He is pulling out her insides and eating them. We all stand there motionless, until we don’t.

  I pull away from Katrina and swing the sword in an upward motion at the man in the suit. The sword cuts through his chest, into his neck, and finally through the bottom part of his jaw. He falls off of her and I stab at the other on her arm holding the gun. I miss its head, instead piercing its shoulder. The sword is stuck and it grabs at it as it come for me. Katrina hits it hard across the temple and it falls, leaving the sword in my hands. Tom swings at the one eating her insides and connects on the back of its head. There is a large crunch and its head implodes inward. It falls on top of Anne who is still screaming. Tom rushes for the door before more can get through. Katrina is being backed into a corner by one of the remaining zombies that attacked Anne. I grip the sword as tightly as I can and I swing for the thing’s neck. I am trying to behead it, and fail. I hit neck bone and the sword stops. Its head hangs half off its body and it falls. Katrina screams and points behind me as the last zombie in the office grabs me from behind. We both fall forward. It is on top of me and I drop the sword. I wait for the bite and I hear a gunshot. There is blood on the back of my head, but the zombie does not move. Katrina helps push it off of me.

  I am up and have the sword again. I look at Anne, who is still holding the gun. She saved me despite everything they did to her. Tom is fighting to get the door closed. There are arms reaching through.

  “We have to open it,” I say, “open it, push them back, and then close it.” He nods and opens the door. One of the zombies falls inward and grabs Tom’s leg. It bites his shin as he kicks at it. He manages to kick
it into the stairwell. I slash at the other two blocking the way and they fall back. The way is clear and I close the door, but not before looking into the stairwell. I count maybe six zombies total in view. There are not as many as I would have thought.

  I turn my attention to Anne and Katrina is already kneeling beside her. Anne is trying to say something, but she is nearly in shock. Half of her face has been eaten. Her insides are open, and she is covered in bite marks. Anne is handing the gun to Katrina. She manages to finally talk, “not a damsel, and …not … one of …those … things.” Katrina nods and I expect her to hand the gun to me to do what is necessary. Instead, she points it at Anne and Anne shakes her head. Katrina pulls the trigger.

  Chapter 7

  Time to Go

  Despite all the noise, Remington stays in his office. Tom can still walk, so we push the desks back in front of the door. None of us say a word. I am doing everything I can not to shake. We get back to Remington’s office and the first thing he says is, ‘where is Anne?”

  “She did not make it,” says Katrina.

  “There more of them in the stairwell,” I say. Tom sits on the couch and props up his leg to examine it.

  Remington is frantic. “How is she dead? She had that gun and I heard her fire it. Did you not help her?”

  “We did everything we could. She killed three of them, thought that was all, and got distracted. Either way, she is gone, and we will be out of food tomorrow,” says Katrina.

  He begins to argue, but the three of us all give him a look that makes him stop. Tom has his pants leg rolled up and there is very clearly a slight bite wound just above his sock line. It broke the skin, but just barely.

  “Why I am not a zombie?” he asks.

  “Good question, but you need to get out of here before that changes,” says Remington.

  “I think I know,” I say, “when the zombie bit LeBron, it took him a full two days to change. But when LeBron became a zombie, his bite immediately created another zombie and so on. The things were so fast too. But now, they move much slower. Instead of turning Anne immediately, they ate her. I think when a zombie is new, it’s biological imperative is to reproduce. It is only interested in creating more zombies as quickly as possible. But these things still live by some of the same rules as we do, and they need to eat. When they don’t eat, they slow down. The virus, or whatever, begins to consume the very flesh of the host. The biological imperative changes to eating. After the zombie eats, it is possible that the biological imperative will change back to breeding, but you likely have a form of the virus that needs to eat before it cannot reproduce quickly.”

  “So I am still going to turn into one of those things, and I have maybe a day, but could also change at any time?”

  “You have the right of it. I am sorry.”

  “Katrina, give me that gun so I can end it before that happens,” he says.

  “What, no,” she says.

  “Now wait a minute, do as the man says,” says Remington.

  “Hold on. Tom, I hate to ask, but we need you. We have to get to the building across the street and I think we will need your help to do it,” I say.

  We sit in silence until he responds. “Okay, but when we get over there, you shoot me?”

  “Yes, if that is what you want.”

  “Wait, how are you getting anywhere? You said the stairwell is full of them and how would we even make it across the street,” says Remington.

  “There are maybe six left in the stairwell. We open the door, and let them in. The floor plan of this place is a big square. We lead them around it, and by the time we get back to the stairwell, hopefully it is empty. The streets have way less of them now and they are slow. We sprint to the building and are inside before they even notice us,” I say.

  “I am not going anywhere,” says Remington, “and I won’t let you lure zombies throughout my office.”

  “You don’t really have a choice,” says Katrina, “you either come or we leave you here.” She is still holding the gun. It is hers now.

  “We have to do this why Tom is still healthy. We need him,” I say, “the other option is to go to the water and find a boat, but I feel we should at least try to get to the guy in the building before we do that.”

  “Okay, I see that I can’t stop you,” Remington says pointing at the gun, “but I am staying here. Just bring me the rest of the food and I will barricade myself in here until someone shows up.”

  “Remington, that is …” I say.

  “We don’t have time for this Phillip. If he wants to stay, let him,” says Katrina.

  “She’s right. Our window is closing,” says Tom.

  We bring Remington the rest of the food and push the desk most of the way to the door. I want to ask him again to come, but his eyes show me that it is not that he does not want to leave-he cannot leave this office. He has barely left it since we arrived. His mind has assigned it as the only safe place, and if I force him to go, he won’t make it. I push two desks against his door from the outside too, just to help as much as I can.

  “Remember, don’t engage. Save your bullets. I will open the door, get their attention, and we have to get as many of them as we can to follow us around the square. We need to make a lot of noise,” I say. Tom and I move the barricades and Tom joins Katrina maybe fifty feet back from the door. Anne still lies off to the side, lifeless. I can’t help but think of the life that could have been if none of this happened. Perhaps I would have an offer by now and I would be two years away from becoming a lawyer. Maybe Anne and I would have dated. Maybe not. But that is not the world I live in.

  I open the door and run to Tom and Anne. The zombies are behind me immediately, but they are slow enough that I easily remain in front of them. I reach Tom and Anne and turn to see at least ten of them coming down the hallway. I begin scream and hollering. I pound on the wall. More of them come out of the stairwell. There are more of them than I thought. When they get within 20 feet, we turn and run. Every 20 feet or so, we turn and make as much noise as we can. After our first turn, the hallway is full of them.

  “There are too many,” says Katrina.

  “Just stick with the plan,” I say.

  We make our second turn around a corner. There are no more turns that will not put us in the hallway with the doorway. If zombies are still coming out of the stairwell when we make the turn, we are finished. They are picking up speed, but not enough to be a threat. We stop making noise and approach the final turn. The hallway is mostly clear. There are maybe three stragglers. Tom goes right at them like a man with no fear. He immediately brains one with the baseball bat. He hits another in the shoulder, and ends up hitting the wall. The bat cracks but does not break. Katrina has the golf club and gets the third zombie why Tom finishes off the one he missed. I stay in view of the zombies in the hallway as long as possible. If they turn around, the zombies at the end of the line will be on us. I run to join them and take point as we enter the stairwell. There are no signs of anymore of them, so we enter quickly Katrina shuts the door behind us.

  “What, no. That traps all of them in with Remington,” I say.

  “If we leave it open, they will be in the stairwell in seconds. He made his choice,” she says. We are running down the stairs, now being as quiet as possible. Katrina is right behind me and Tom is in the back. There are a few of them on the way down, but I stab each in the head with little fanfare. We reach the landing to the lobby and it is clear. The bookshelf is there, but because it did not fit all the way, the zombies were able to force the door open a couple of feet.

  “There might be some in the lobby. I don’t think we should go out the front door if we can avoid it. Is there a backdoor, Tom?” I say.

  “Yes, it’s right by the janitor’s closet.”

  “Okay, you take point and we will follow. Everyone remember the code?”

  “1408,” they both respond.

  Tom squeezes through the door and we both follow. There are no zombi
es in sight. We walk into the lobby and I can see the front of the building. The glass did not break, the zombies literally pushed it out of its frame. The lobby is empty, but I see at least 10 or 20 zombies in front of the building. They do not see us. We follow Tom towards a hallway that I surmise contains the backdoor. This is going to work great. The backdoor to this building should literally be facing the backdoor to the other building. It is going to take five seconds to make the run. Tom has stopped in the middle of the lobby. He must see something we don’t see, so I begin to look around. Katrina does the same. Neither of us can see anything, and the zombies in the street are mulling a little too close for my taste. I touch Tom on the shoulder and ask “what is it, Tom?” Tom turns and grabs my head. He pushes toward me with all his force and I fall backwards. I had the sword in my hand when we fall, and it has impaled Tom. Despite this, he is trying to bite me. He snaps rapidly, over and over again, at my face and neck. His eyes are still his, but they have lost anything that made him “Tom.” Katrina hits him with the golf club, but it breaks and he barely moves. The only thing keeping him from getting me is the sword, but he is sliding down the blade getting close to me. I see Katrina pull out the gun.