by S. Ganley
Kyle realized that he was not alone amongst the living in the room, as he scanned the area he now saw that several forms were hunched over on all fours and focused on the remains of different dead bodies throughout the lobby. His first impression in recognizing what he thought were survivors was that they were in shock as they mourned the loss of friends or family. That impression was quickly dispelled as he realized what that wet slapping sound had been that he had detected through the door. The sound was coming from dead flesh, organs and entrails being scooped from the splayed open body cavities of the recently deceased and shoved hungrily into the snapping jaws of creatures with human like form but as far from actual humanity as you could get. He was witness to a zombie feeding frenzy and as the uninvited guest at the table his sudden presence was now drawing unwanted attention. Two of the feeding zombies merely glanced up towards him with a snarling growl and returned to the carcasses spread out before them and continued ripping away handfuls of still warm flesh and innards as the need to satisfy their hunger overcame their desire to run more prey to ground. Three other zombies must have felt differently and considered his presence a more tempting target than the buffet spread out on the floor all around them. Slipping and sliding on the grisly remains coating the floor, they started moving across the lobby towards him. Kyle turned his pistol towards the closest threat and with well-practiced skill he squeezed off his first round to punch a neat and perfect hole directly above the left eye of an Asian man dressed in a smart looking albeit crud coated suit complete with neck tie still perfectly in place. The man dropped straight down to his knees and then face first into the belly of a woman who had been brought down with two shots across her chest. Sliding his pistol to the right while also taking two steps backwards into the administrative offices, Kyle popped off a quick double tap into the face of another man who was still dressed in the tattered remains of a pajamas he more than likely received from his children as a recent Christmas present, judging by the reindeer and Santa Claus print running up and down the legs and arms. His third target was already within two or three steps of the open door and Kyle found himself moving back even further into the room until he felt his legs back against the edge of a desk, he quickly fired off two rounds into the chest of this beast of a woman who must have been just as scary in life coming at her husband in the dark as she was in death coming at him in the light of day. The impact of his rounds into her fleshy bosom resulted in little more than twisting her body slightly with the energy of the bullets, they neither slowed nor deterred her advance. He slid his aim up and continued squeezing off rounds stitching three well placed shots up her neck, into her chin and finally through the bridge of her nose before she finally toppled over sideways and fell with a thundering crash into a coat rack.
The first two zombies who had dismissed his presence in favor of the meal they were busying themselves with, now found the added stimulus of the gunfire and crashing noise of bodies falling to the ground to much to resist and turned their attention towards Kyle. Kyle capped one with a single round to the forehead, then missed his next shot as the second zombie bobbed and weaved while maneuvering through the room full of fresh kill and destroyed furnishings, steadying his aim he fired true on his follow-up shot and punched a hole into the zombie’s eye, sending him flipping over backwards.
Kyle surveyed the results of his brief but intense fight and realized that if it had not been for the handicap of the slime covered floor, at least three of those damn monsters would have more than likely been all over him well before he was able to get a bead on their heads and drop them in place. It was not hard to see how him comrades had no chance at all facing ten times that number running them down while they tried to put rounds into their moving and dodging heads. Most people who have never dealt with a moving human shaped target could never truly appreciate the difficulty involved in placing an aimed shot into a target the size of a head. Of all the kill zones on a human body, the head was the most difficult to hit and firearms training usually concentrated on learning to condition a shooter to put their efforts into firing center mass at the largest portion of the body which also happened to contain the biggest concentration of vital organs.
The entire encounter had happened so fast that Kyle was still not over his shock of the mass of bodies strewn everywhere and the overall implications that came along with the sight. The station was a loss and for all he could tell their ability as a police force to assist the community had been all but crushed in this single incident. There were other officers still on duty and he would have to get in touch with them immediately to inform them of what happened here and find somewhere to regroup and assess the assets they had remaining. With his patrol sergeant amongst the dead, it now fell on him to coordinate with the state police and report this incident, they would now be the ones giving him and the rest of the patrols their orders.
He was still thinking in terms of what his responsibilities should be as the senior officer present in the face of such a massacre when he noticed that several of the bodies were now starting to show signs that they may not be dead after all, he could see heads moving slowly and arms and legs timidly testing the area around them as they flexed and stretched. His immediate thought was that he his first impression that everyone was already dead was wrong and that many of them had only been gravely wounded. His brain started processing the steps he should be taking to render aid and get assistance to the scene as quickly as possible when his eyes fell on the body of one of his own men who was laying prone on top of the splintered wooden remnants of one of the benches that had been part of the lobby furnishings. He recognized the officer as one who had recently joined the department after transferring in from somewhere else in southern Virginia, he recalled that he had not so long ago shared a couple cups of coffee with him during a long and uneventful midnight shift and he had talked about moving back to Mclean to help care for his aging mother who was suffering from the early stage of dementia. Kyle remembered him talking about how his brother and sister still lived in the area but were less than willing to pitch in and help out letting it all fall on his shoulders instead. Kyle had liked him from the start and thought he would make a great addition to their department he had even been considering seeing if he wanted to grab a couple beers after work one day, but of course that was before they were all thrust into the onset of a zombie plague. The officer was now sitting up and bent over at the waist studying his hands as he flexed and unflexed his fists. Kyle observed what looked like multiple gunshot wounds stitched across his chest, it was clear that he had been caught at a moment when he had removed his vest, his dark uniform shirt was coated in drying blood that had run down to his pants and ultimately pooled on the floor around where he had fallen. Kyle had moved into the doorway again to survey the carnage in the lobby and beyond, seeing his comrade starting to recover from what in all rights should have been fatal wounds, he now took a step towards him while returning his pistol to its holster. His next step froze in midair as the officer’s face rose towards him in response to his movements. Kyle got his first good look at the man's face and the realization of what was actually happening hit him like a brick. The cloudy eyes, yellowed skin along with the snarl beginning to come across the officer's face told the story. The people all around him that he thought were only wounded and beginning to come back to their senses were actually in the process of their rebirth as undead. He was witnessing an event that made his skin crawl and sent a shocking cold shiver down his spine as realized that at least fifteen to twenty people were now moving around and starting to get their bearings. In a few more moments these freshly risen zombies would be looking for the first victim to feed their new found appetites and he was the most likely source of that most unwanted attention.
Kyle took one final look around the lobby and saw no other alternative than to retreat back the way he had come. The radio equipment for the dispatch center along with the weapons locker was down the opposite wing of the building, both of which w
ere locations he would really have liked to reach, but there was no chance of safely crossing the lobby to reach that wing. He also realized that he had a responsibility to protect the secretary hiding under the nearby desk as well as the handful of shift workers who had locked themselves inside the bunk room back towards the rear of the building. He needed to gather everyone together and put some distance from this place. He pulled the door shut to the lobby and listened with satisfaction as the magnetic locking system clicked into place. Reinforced with crossed metal sections, that door was as solid as they came and it would not be easily forced open even by a dozen or more inhumanly strong zombies beating against it on the other side.
Keeping his voice measured and confident, he called out to the hidden secretary, "Shelia? Come on, we have to leave right now."
He saw the top of the chair move as it rolled away from the desk and in a moment he spotted the woman tentatively peering out from overtop of the desk checking out the room.
"It's Shellie." She corrected him with a shaky and trembling voice. Her eyes locked on the prone form of the zombie he had shot just inside the door of the room tangled in the crushed remains of the coat rack.
He offered her a patient smile as she eased herself free from underneath the desk and timidly took to her feet, "Sorry, Shellie, I should have known that." He noticed her eyes continuing to return to the corpse of the zombie and Kyle moved his own body into her line of vision to distract her away from the grisly scene. Her face showed disbelief at the sight of the dead body and Kyle thought she may be on the verge of a panic attack that would most likely result in making it very difficult to get her to move further. Her reaction to the zombie’s body made him thankful that she had not been witness to the scene he had just left behind in the front lobby and beyond.
"Shellie, look at me please." He kept his voice steady and calm, it was important that she be able to find confidence in his presence or he would lose her for sure. "Just keep your eyes on me." When she finally locked her eyes on him he gave her a reassuring smile and slowly moved sideways bringing her gaze further from the zombie’s body. "We are going to move now, it is important that we get clear of here as quickly as possible. Are you able to walk ok?"
He was reasonably sure that she did not have an injury that would prevent her from walking, without saying so he was trying to get her to assess her own mental capability to move without assistance. He had already told himself that if she cracked up and was going to be difficult to move he would be forced to knock her out cold and carry her. Without knowing what they may face in the back parking lot before making it either to his own cruiser or another vehicle, he didn't want to risk someone being under their own power if there was even a chance they would attract attention or freeze up in a tight situation.
She nodded her understanding and took several tentative steps away from the desk and moved towards him. Keeping his eyes locked on hers he reached out and gently took her by the arm and guided her along with him towards the hallway leading back towards the break room. As soon as he entered the hallway he saw that the door to the bunk room was standing wide open and there was a new burst of sunlight visible entering the hallway from the break room at the far end. He knew that the back door of the station must be standing wide open and his immediate thought was that someone had managed to force their way into the security door and work their way up behind him while he was busy in the front of the building. He pulled Shellie partially into the hallway to a point where she would no longer be able to see the body of the zombie behind them and signaled for her to stay put and remain silent. When she indicated her understanding, he pulled his pistol from its holster and eased himself cautiously down the corridor to a point just before the open door of the bunk room. There was an eerie silence that had descended on the interior of the building something that he had never experienced in all his time working there, even at the latest hours of night or early morning there was always one innocuous sound or another that indicated the presence of people. Exposing as little of his body as possible, he eased himself around the edge of the opening until he was in a position where he could scan the entire area inside the bunk room, it was completely empty with no sign of anyone living or dead. He stepped inside and moved his pistol in a complete arch around the room, checking each corner or other little cubbyhole where someone could possibly be hiding. Finding nothing to indicate a struggle of any sort, he changed his impression of what happened. The workers who had been hiding in there must have given up their efforts to stay hidden when they heard a renewed outbreak of gunfire as he engaged the handful of zombies towards the front of the building. With the heavy reinforced door from the suite to the lobby hanging open the gunfire must have been much louder in the bunkroom and the workers hiding there probably thought that meant the fighting was moving towards them. They must have panicked and made a dash from the room and out the back door of the break room, leaving it hanging wide open behind them as they went.
Kyle turned back towards where Shellie was waiting and watching him at the far end of the hallway, he waved for her to move up to him and turned back towards the break room. Moving slowly and checking from side to side as he went, Kyle cleared the break room in a few seconds and then flattened his body against the wall next to the door leading out into the rear parking lot. Little by little he exposed more of his body as he scanned the parking area and surrounding grounds. A large park complete with walking paths, a small pond and several separate picnic and play areas took up several acres of land directly behind the station. The lot in the rear of the station was separated from the park by a fourteen foot barbed wire topped fence and also covered by three security cameras that under normal circumstances were monitored around the clock by personnel working in the communications room as well as at the main desk in the front lobby.
The enclosed parking lot was clear of anyone alive or otherwise, Kyle immediately noticed that one of the crime scene vans reserved for the investigative branch of the department was missing and the gate leading out to the front parking area was standing open. Since the emergency vehicles of the department were maintained in this secure area, the keys for each vehicle was left in the ignitions to make it easier for anyone needing a particular ride to have access to it around the clock. He figured that the workers who fled the bunk room must have snatched the van and high tailed it out of there, leaving the gate wide open in the process. While the parking lot was clear he saw that the park to the rear and left side of the building had several individuals and two or three groups of people meandering about. By their confused, stilted and unsure movements, he was able to quickly deduce that there was a very good chance he was looking at close to twenty or so zombies in close proximity to the station. The open gate would allow them a way into the parking lot, but the high fence surrounding the rest of the lot was still intact and they would have to run completely around it in order to enter the lot. He was sure that even if they were seen exiting the station they would still have more than enough time to make it to his cruiser before any of them made it around and into the lot.
"Ok Shellie, it’s a straight shot to my cruiser from here, the parking lot is clear but there are a lot of them wandering around in the park on the other side of the fence. The fence will keep them back if they spot us and come in this direction. I just need you to stick by my side, walk nice and steady and just keep your eyes on my car. Thirty seconds and we will be out the gate and safe. Think you can handle it?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Let’s just go now, before I lose my nerve."
He took one more final look around the parking lot and then pulled her gently along with him by her arm. They had made it only a dozen steps towards his patrol car when a loud moaning cry uttered from a point a hundred yards into the park, Kyle swiveled his head towards the sound and located the source. A group of six zombies had spotted their movements and were now rushing at a dead sprint towards the fence line. As they ran they collectively sounded off with shrill cries that Kyle had neve
r heard before. It didn't take him very long to understand exactly what it was though, every other zombie within earshot inside the park had turned towards the source of those sounds and were now also running as fast as they could towards the fence sending out their own cries of alarm along the way. Shellie spotted the zombies rushing towards them and let out a terrified shriek before her own fist slammed into her mouth to stifle her cries.
They reached the car doors at the same time the first group of six zombies slammed full speed into the fence only fifty feet away. Kyle hesitated at the driver’s door as he watched to see if they were going to be able to drive through the fence and into the parking lot. While the fence bowed inward and a few links of chain visibly popped free, the thick metal barrier held true and pushed the zombie back several feet. Kyle wasn't sure if they had actually even realized before hitting it that the fence was an obstacle they were unlikely to just plow through. It was clear that while there was some form of primitive thinking going inside their rotting brains, it was not a high enough order of thought to recognize things such as the fence as an obstruction. He relaxed a little when it became clear that they were not simply turning to follow the fence towards the open gate, instead they continued to slowly follow the length of the fence rushing into it in places as if testing for a weakness. They would eventually locate the gate, that was clear enough, but it was interesting to see how unaware of the world around them that this things were, Kyle thought it might be something they could eventually use to their advantage, but for now his priority was in getting both of them clear of this area and to find a place they could fortify a little easier while figuring out what their next move would be.