by D. J. Graves
“It’s okay, really. I saw a man walk in here. He didn’t look like that man,” I said pointing to the corpse lying in front of her. “Where did the other man go?”
She stood up and I was surprised her thin legs supported her weight at all. She backed away from the body, moving closer to me. “I didn’t see a man walk in here. Just you.”
I walked out in front of her and scanned the room with my gun. “And, you didn’t see me either, until I made myself known to you. There’s someone in here, hiding.”
The room was the old choir room, with short bleachers against one wall and a piano near a bookcase full of sheet music. The room seemed empty and I could only think of two places anyone could hide. Under the bleachers or in the coat closet.
“A man hiding from us is little threat,” I whispered over my shoulder toward the woman. “Let’s leave him alone.”
I backed up, intending to back out of the room and close the door behind us, but something hit the back of my head. It wasn’t painful but it was very warm. I looked back to find the girl being held by a man who’d just cut her throat. The spray of her blood was what I felt hit my head, and now it was on my face. She was dead and he had a knife. I kicked him in the gut, forcing him back enough to shut the door in his face and locked it. I heard him bang against the door forcefully enough that the hinges shook and his knife came through the wood a good two inches.
I walked backward away from the door, only realizing too late that there was still a man in this room. I turned around twice, three times. Where was he? The man outside the room was banging on the door with his knife and I could have sworn he was doing it to the rhythm of my pounding heart. I looked back at the door. The man outside was cutting away at the wood around the knob. He was going to get in as soon as he chipped away enough to render the lock useless. Shit! When I turned back around the man who’d been hiding was in front of me wearing bloody clothes. He ran at me with a god awful warrior cry and I brought the shotgun up and blew him away, hitting him square in the chest. The force of the shot made him fall back a few feet. In my panic, I didn’t hold the gun properly and the force of the shot sent my arm back hard. It hurt like hell. Enough to make me growl in pain. But I didn’t have time to lick my wounds. The man outside the door had made a hole big enough to fit most of his hand through. He was reaching in for the lock!
I checked the chamber of the gun. It was empty. I threw it to the ground and pulled out the handgun and machete I’d brought with me. I walked to the door and before he could get his fingers near the lock I cut them off with a downward slash of the machete. He screamed out loud. I opened the door and saw him holding his hand.
“Shut up!” I shouted at him as I thrust the machete into his throat. He fell to the ground to writhe and bleed out slowly while he suffocated on his own blood. I cleaned my blade off on his shirt and stepped around him.
“I think I’m in love,” I heard Gerald say from a few feet away. Derek was standing next to him and another man was standing behind them holding a kitchen knife. He had his back to them as if watching their backs. Even without seeing his face I knew instantly who their new companion was. Curly red hair and pasty white skin. He was the cook here and I was his assistant.
“Ginger!” I smiled. Ginger wasn’t his name, but we weren’t allowed to call him anything else. I crossed the distance between us and embraced him as a friend. His smile was wilted and his eyes were too wide with fear, but so were mine most assuredly.
“I never thought I’d see you again...unless you were caught. I wasn’t looking forward to carving the meat off your bones,” he said.
“Awe, such sentiment.”
“I can’t believe you came back here willingly. Are you loony?”
“Definitely. What happened here anyway?” I asked him.
“When Finn didn’t come back this morning there was a fight over waiting longer for his return or choosing a new leader now and who that leader would be. People were forced to choose sides between five assholes. Then the real fighting began. The man who won, Claud, was the guy you just throat stabbed.”
Gerald laughed.
“That was Claud?! I didn’t recognise him. Was it his idea to kill all the children?”
“Yeah, pretty much. He never liked the taste of human meat and he wasn’t a petafile like Finn and Jensen.”
“Points,” Gerald said.
“That’s why I sided with him in the beginning, but then he slaughtered them all.”
“Points rescinded.”
“We’re getting distracted,” said Derek. “Let’s get to the tower.”
“You have the key?”
“I do,” said Ginger. “Before Finn left last night he gave me the key so I could feed his pets breakfast if he didn’t come back in time to do it himself.”
“Which way do we go?” Derek asked, and Ginger and I started at a run toward the stairs.
“How lucky was it that the boys ran into you,” I said as we started ascending the staircase.
"Boys?" Gerald grumbled to himself. He said something inaudible under his breath.
“They didn’t think they were so lucky at the time. Claud had them ambushed as soon as he let them into the church. He left them with me and John. We were supposed to question them while he checked out a sound he heard from the sanctuary. I took that opportunity to kill John in the hopes that these two would take me with them. Not until I save my daughter, this one said,” and Ginger was pointing his thumb back at Derek.
We were at the door and Ginger pulled a keychain out of his pocket. There were maybe ten keys on the chain and as decoration, a long string of tiny bones. Classy. He moved to unlock the door but it opened with just the pressure of his hand on the knob. Going by the damage on the frame, I’d guess someone kicked the door in. Shit. Ginger stepped into the room with a smile, but before we could follow him in he was shot in the chest and fell to the ground. I pulled him to me while keeping myself hidden by the doorframe. Derek walked over Ginger with his gun pointed at whoever was in the room.
“Daddy?” cried a woman’s voice.
Derek fell to his knees. “Sarah, baby.”
Sarah ran into her father’s outstretched arms. She was naked and covered in blood. The gun in her hand fell to the ground, forgotten in her joy. She’d shot Ginger…
“Fuck!” Ginger cried out. “That’s what I get for acting altruistically for once in my fucked up life.”
“Ginger, I’m sorry,” I said. I was looking at his wounds, looking for hope that he could pull through, but it was obvious there was no saving him. She’d shot him in the right lung, and if all the medical TV dramas I watched in the past were correct, he was drowning in blood.
"Erin," he coughed out blood. "I'm the one who told everyone you had herpes."
I smiled with tears in my eyes. "Thank you."
"Yeah, I told them, don't fuck that Erin girl. She's got herpes. And not the fun kind either. The painful itching kind."
"You're a good man, Ginger."
“Don’t call me that shitty name. My name is Logan.”
“Logan,” I petted his face like I’d done the girl outside. He actually smiled up at me before his body became deathly still.
I wiped away tears and looked up at Derek and Sarah. They were still embracing each other like Gerald and I weren’t there at all. Like she didn't just murder a man who was trying to save her. I was angry with her for only a moment. Then Gerald put a comforting hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him and remembered that I almost killed him. It wasn’t Sarah’s fault. She couldn’t have known Logan's intentions. I mean, his job was to cook humans...
“Do I want to know what the fuck happened here?” Gerald asked. He was looking past Derek and Sarah. I looked out at the room Sarah had been kept in. There were two dead pets, thin and naked like Sarah. And three dead men, two with their pants down around their ankles.
Sarah looked up at Gerald and the look was extremely frightful. “No,” she said. She looke
d straight into Derek’s eyes, which were full of tears. “I want to leave. Please, Daddy.”
Derek shrugged out of his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders before escorting her out the door without a word. Gerald and I walked behind them.
14
On our way home from the church, we stopped at the clothing store and filled bags with clothes for everyone. Gerald joked that it would be like Christmas for Pane and the others back at the base. Derek told Sarah what happened to her mother and baby sister and she very much had the same reaction I did when I heard that my grandmother probably died in Seattle. Nothing. It was something we’d assumed all along. Having it confirmed stirred up little emotion three years later.
"We need to discuss the living arrangements," I said to Sarah once we were nearing the base. "I think you should have my room. It was meant for you anyway."
"No," Gerald said. "You and Chris need a place of your own. Sarah, you can have my room and I'll take the couch. I spend most of my time on it anyway."
“No,” she said. “I don’t want to put anybody out.”
“You won’t be. You can have my room, sweetheart,” Derek said.
“Dad, I was hoping that we could share your room for a while. I know I’m like fifteen now but-.”
“Of course,” Derek interrupted her. “You can sleep next to your dad for as long as you need to. Heck, I think I need that too.” Again Derek had tears in his eyes. Gone was the strong silent type it seemed.
“We’re here,” I said.
“There’s no place like subterranean layer,” Gerald joked fondly as he fiddled with the hatch.
I smiled at that and the smile caught me off guard for a moment. The world was full of such bitter seriousness. Laughing didn’t sit well with me at first. I hated his and Will's constant humor and thought it was the unwelcomed product of a couple of idiots who didn’t have the good sense to realize their jokes were grossly out of place. But, now I saw it for what it was. A release. A way of stepping outside of our misery and finding humor in it. It took away some of the fear.
“I remember you took me and Emma hear when you and uncle Will were building it,” Sarah said.
“Hey, I helped, too,” Gerald said as he lifting the hatch open, but as soon as he did that old familiar dread crushed my soul. Christopher was screaming!
I pushed him out of the way and raced down into the long hallway. The whole place was dark besides the flashing red lights on every wall.
“Code red!” Gerald yelled over Chris’s screams.
Derek was beside me with Sarah clinging to his back. “Code red means there’s a zombie in here somewhere”
“Karen was making them, so duh. I told her it was a terrible fucking idea!” I yelled as we ran down the hall toward Chris’ panicked cries. I was first into the living area. I could only see in the moments the red lights turned on. It was frustrating and terrifying. “Can we get some good lighting in here! NOW!”
“Will do,” Gerald said and he dashed toward the dining table. A few moments later the normal pleasant soft white lights came on and we could actually see for more than a couple seconds at a time… Chris was sitting on the floor by the couch screaming out and I ran to him. I swiftly gathered him in my arms, forgetting for a moment any danger to myself. I looked him over for injuries and when I didn’t find any I hugged him to my chest and kissed his head.
“Hush, Mommy’s here. I’ve got you, baby.” Slowly Chris calmed down enough to be quiet, but his whole body was shaking and his face was flushed from crying so hard. I looked at Gerald, who was sitting in front of his laptop at the dining table. He was looking at the monitor and his face looked grim. Derek was calming Sarah down while ushering her to sit near me and Chris at the couch.
“Who’s brain-dead idea was it to make that pitch black darkness and red lights your zombie attack scenario? How the fuck could you have dealt with the undead when you couldn’t even see them?”
Derek looked at Gerald as if putting the blame on him. But, Gerald didn’t seem ashamed by this potentially deadly blunder. His only response was, “It looked good in video games. Come over here. We have a problem.”
Derek kissed Sarah on the forehead before leaving her and heading to the dining table.
“Can you hold Chris?” I asked her. There was no running water at the clothing store we’d stopped at, so her skin was still covered in drying crusty blood, but she was fully dressed. Still, she looked down at herself, as if disapproving of her own state, before sheepishly accepting him into her arms. Chris cried for me, but I walked away without delay to see what Gerald had found.
“Shit,” Derek said in a hushed voice.
“What is it?” I asked as I approached the table. Gerald turned the laptop around so I could see.
“Fuck,” I said softly.
Gerald had brought up the live security footage for every room in the bunker. In Karen's research room Finn was on the table, but he had one arm loose from the restraints and he was thrashing it about. Karen was in the room with him, throwing her body against the glass. Her clothes were drenched in blood. Will was on the other side of the divided room, banging against the big metal door like mad. We could see Pane, too. He was in the shower room, pacing back and forth.
“Karen's infected,” Gerald said. “Will must be freaking out in there. That’s so messed up.”
“Let’s get them out,” Derek said.
“Why can’t they open the doors themselves?” I asked.
“It’s part of the zombie attack scenario. Every room locks down on it own once someone pushes a big red button. We have one in every room and the only way to unlock the doors during or directly after a code red is from the outside of the doors. It’s designed to keep the disease from spreading.”
“I haven’t seen these buttons you speak of.”
“They’re placed behind a panel by the doors. Will must have pushed the one in Karen's lab when Finn infected her,” said Gerald.
“So, everyone is locked into whatever room they’re in, everything goes pitch black and only someone out here can open any doors?”
“The doors locking isn’t meant to keep people in. It’s meant to contain the zombie to wherever it is. Every room has it’s own exit, remember. No one is stuck, except Will, he’s stuck. The hatch in Karen’s lab is in the other side of the room with the zombies,” said Derek.
“I’ll just unlock them from here.” Gerald pushed a button on his laptop and said, “The door’s not locked anymore, buddy.” Pane gave the camera two fingers up before he left the room. “Not the sharpest tool in the shed,” Gerald joked. “Could have left at any time through the hatch.”
“How could he have opened the hatch if he couldn’t see it?” I ask. Gerald opened his mouth to respond but lost his words and shut it again. Instead he pushed another button and spoke to Will.
“Will, dude. I’m sorry about Karen. The doors are unlocked now. Come on out, man.” But Will never stopped pounding his fists on the door. Gerald looked up at us. “Maybe there’s something wrong with the intercom,” he suggested.
“I’ll go get him,” said Derek before he walked away.
Seconds later Pane was running into the living room from down the hall. He wasn’t happy, “What the fuck was that about?”
“How long were you in there in the dark?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, ten minutes. I just left to take a piss and everything went dark. Red lights started flashing, what the hell was that about?”
I gave Gerald a sideways look, “You never explained to Pane the zombie scenario?”
“What?” Pane asked.
“That’s what happens if a zombie gets in the base.”
“How was I supposed to kill a bloody zombie if I can’t see it?” Pane yelled at Gerald.
“I get it. The lights were a bad idea!” Gerald yelled back.
Then the sound of a gun firing tore through the entire base. Chris screamed out and Sarah tried to comfort him.
“What the fuck?” asked Gerald.
“Derek!” I said and Gerald, Pane and I ran down the hall toward Karen's lab and found Derek with his gun in his hand and Will on the floor with a hole in his head. His body was a rotten mess. He’d been infected.
“No, William!” Pane screamed and fell to his knees beside the body.
“I’m sorry,” Derek said softly.
“He must have pushed the red button before the disease took control,” Gerald said.
I looked back at the open door to Karen's lab with cation. “There's no time before the disease takes control,” I said. “At least, not enough time to run across a room and push a button behind a panel by the door. It’s instantaneous. He would have had to hit the button at the door before he was infected.”
“What does that mean?” asked Gerald.
“I’m not sure but back away from the door, now,” I said.
Gerald and Pane moved away as I pulled out my machete and Derek slowly moved into the room with his gun still drawn and ready to aim.
“Close the door behind us,” Derek said. “I won’t risk anything infected leaving this room.”
The boys didn’t argue and as we crossed the threshold the heavy door was closed behind us. The glass wall was completely bloodied but I could hear Finn screaming out wordlessly. I could almost make out his shape still lying on the table, mostly strapped down. But, I couldn’t see Karen. In the video, she was banging on the glass so we thought she was stuck in the other half of the room, but now we could see that the metal door between the two halves was ajar.
Derek walked to the door and moved it open slowly. When Finn saw him his screams became wilder and he thrashed harder against his restraints. Derek approached the bed while I scanned the room for Karen. Switching my machete to my left hand, I pulled out my gun and moved through the room, giving Finn his space. All of Finn’s men were lying in a pile under the hatch with bullet holes in the heads. I looked up and found the hatch left open. It seemed like she used the men as a stepstool to manually open the hatch and escape. But that couldn’t be. Stacking bodies and opening things takes a higher level of reasoning and motor skills than zombies were capable of.