by Watts, Russ
“Shame we don’t have any clean clothes to put on, eh?” She sat on the bed and put on her shoes. “There’s no hot water either I’m afraid. We must have used what little was left in the tank last night.”
Evan rubbed his sleepy eyes and prepared himself for a cold shower. “Have you looked outside? It’s deserted. We should be able get to the harbour and find the ‘Johanna’ easier than I thought.” He was going to see his children later today if things went as planned. He had to concentrate on his objective and think logically.
“Yeah. I hate to be the harbinger of doom but it almost looks too good to be true,” replied Amane. She pulled open the last tin of food they had and began eating.
“I’ll get showered and wake myself up. You can wake the neighbours up if you’re ready?” said Evan trudging off to the bathroom. He was so used to looking out for the group that it felt strange now, just the two of them. He had almost forgotten about Sasha and Rob. The cold water invigorated him and he washed away the cobwebs. Today was the day. He just knew he was going to meet his kids again soon. There was just the small matter of finding a boat and navigating it to Tasmania, easy.
He towelled dry and put his clothes back on. They were starchy and smelly but there was nothing he could do about it. This was the new reality.
Back in the bedroom, Evan wolfed down a tin of beans whilst Amane slung the backpack over her shoulder and stood up, stretching.
“They’re just getting dressed, should be here in a minute.” She yawned. It was still early and they needed more than one night’s sleep to make up for the energy they had been using lately. A tin of beans would only get you so far.
“Amane, last night,” began Evan. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to her.
“It’s okay, Evan, you don’t have to say anything.” Amane fussed herself with the backpack, fidgeting with it until the adjustable compression straps had clicked together.
The door opened and Rob and Sasha came in, stopping the conversation in its tracks. Rob was rubbing his neck and frowning.
“How’s your back, mate? Did you take the floor or the bathtub? I’m thinking I should’ve tried the bath. The floor is bloody hard eh?” he said to Evan.
“Yeah, yeah, it was really hard.” Rob didn’t notice Evan blush as he stretched his back, pretending it hurt. Amane stifled a smile and said nothing.
“Ready when you are, guys,” said Sasha. Her hands were cut, blistered and sore, but otherwise, she looked immaculate. Amane didn’t know how she did it, given the circumstances.
“Right,” said Evan, “if you’re coming with us let’s keep this simple. We go as quickly, but as quietly of course, as we can. We’ll go straight over the road to the harbour. We need to find the ‘Johanna.’ There’s only half a dozen boats out there, so it shouldn’t take us too long. Don’t talk unless you have to, okay?”
He began sliding the furniture from the doorway.
“You coming too, then Rob?” said Amane, wishing he wasn’t.
“Hell yeah, and leave you alone? Two’s company and three’s a crowd. Oh, you know what four is? A party!” He nudged Sasha and winked, as she rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Evan heard the exchange and silently cursed that Rob was coming with them. Still, he couldn’t exactly tell him not to. As long as he kept quiet and did what he was told, there would be no problem.
Evan opened the door, inch by inch, careful not to make a sound. The corridor was empty and they trod softly down the stairwell. Nothing stirred when they went down the stairs and into the foyer. Evan and Rob cleared the door, dragging the tables and desks out of the way, whilst Amane and Sasha pulled the large plastic plants to one side. Outside was like a ghost town. Evan stepped out first, into the cold street, drawing in a lungful of fresh air. The sun was still low, looping inauspicious shadows over the street. Litter lined the pavements and ash and dust covered the empty cars.
Evan opened his mouth to tell them that it was safe, when he stopped. A zombie appeared by the corner of the building between him and the marina. There was an aberrant noise made by something out of sight that was intensifying. The zombie, an old woman, just seemed to stare at Evan, strangely making no effort to move.
Rob pushed past Evan and pulled at the nearest car door of the row of parked cars outside the building. When it didn’t open, he moved to the next one.
“What are you doing?” said Evan, quietly.
“Getting us some transport, what do you think?” replied Rob. He pulled at the door to a silver BMW and it snapped open.
“Come on girls!” Rob shouted, grinning madly.
“Stop, you idiot! We don’t need a car, that’ll just attract too much attention. I told you, we can make it on foot from here. Bloody fig-jam,” said Evan, approaching the BMW, annoyed by the posturing bravado displayed by Rob so early on in the day.
“Whatever, pussy,” said Rob, shaking his head and slamming the door shut. The keys were hanging in the ignition and the engine started immediately. He positioned the mirror so he could admire himself; his strong jaw and blue eyes had served him well so far. It wouldn’t be long before he got in Sasha’s pants. Or Amane’s, he thought.
Rob gawped in disbelief and his daydreams evaporated when a hooded figure rose up from the back seat. A blanket slipped off the figure’s head revealing a young girl. Her dead eyes locked on Rob’s in the mirror and the zombie lunged forward, clawed fingers puncturing his neck as it snapped its rotten teeth into his handsome face.
Rob’s body went rigid as he fought valiantly against the zombie ripping his throat out. His hands gripped the wheel and his foot slammed down on the accelerator as he screamed. The BMW sped forward quickly, speeding up and bearing down on the entrance to the building. Evan jumped out of the way, hitting the pavement, whilst Amane and Sasha, half-in and half-out of the door, scurried back inside. The BMW smashed through the glass doors and crashed to a halt, embedding itself into the wall. Amane and Sasha got out of the way just in time but were showered with glass fragments.
Evan looked up and saw a thousand zombies suddenly appear from around the corner and rush headlong toward him.
Evan scrambled through the foyer, crunching glass underfoot, and picked Amane up.
“You two okay?” he said, looking from one to the other. They nodded and then Sasha screamed.
The driver’s door opened and Rob got out of the car, blood pouring down his neck and chest. He reached out to them, pirouetted, and fell onto the floor, lying still. The hooded girl, who proceeded to tear greedily into the back of Rob’s neck, chewing flesh and tissue, slobbering bright red blood down her face, immediately followed him.
“We need a new plan,” whispered Amane, watching in disbelief. Sasha bent over and retched. If she had eaten anything, it would have been all over the floor.
“Back inside, hurry!” Evan pushed the two girls ahead of him, into the corridor they had just left. The swarming zombies outside broke through the mangled frontage of the building easily, just feet behind the trio running back into the corridor. Evan threw the mannequin leg at them in vain and it was instantly swallowed up by the advancing horde. He was not going to be able to beat a thousand zombies to death with it.
They ran up the stairwell, headed toward their room, headed anywhere away from the ghouls chasing them. As they ran up the stairs two at a time, they could hear the footsteps echoing behind them. Evan heard George’s words in his head: ‘It’s harder for them to go up, than down.’
“Keep going up!” he shouted to Amane at the front. “The room’s a dead-end, we’d be trapped!” They ran for their lives.
* * * *
Seven, eight, nine, ten... Evan counted the floors as they ascended each one. Their pace slowed as they climbed. A lack of decent food and dehydration meant they were running out of energy fast. On the tenth floor, which otherwise looked exactly the same as the others, there was a newly installed fire hose. Evan pulled it and laid it out, curling it across the steps. It wouldn’t s
top the following zombies but it might slow them down and buy some valuable time. They had no energy for talking and climbed further when Evan was done.
On the fifteenth floor, they paused, unable to carry on. All three sat down, breathless, listening. The zombies were slow but still coming.
“One minute,” said Evan wheezing. He spoke with a rasping voice, his throat sore. Amane and Sasha sat down on the floor, getting their breath back, whilst Evan quickly skirted up and down the corridor. All the rooms were empty. There was no other stairwell or fire escape. He tried the lift but there was nothing installed yet. He pulled apart plywood doors revealing smooth walls and a bottomless pit. There was no other way down. Evan punched a door in frustration.
“We have to keep going.”
Their brief respite over, they carried on. On the next floor, Evan was confronted with a ghoulish sight. Lying on the top step was a woman, curled up in a ball, her back to them. She was dressed in a blue skirt, navy stockings, heels, and a blood-soaked white blouse. Evan could see scratch marks on her arms plus deep chunks of skin missing where something had taken several bites out of her.
He stepped over her cautiously and told the others to follow him quickly. She had a badge still pinned to her front that read:
“Stacy – here to help”
“She must have worked here,” said Amane, peering over Evan’s shoulder. Amane felt guilty but she couldn’t help but be disgusted. The woman’s face had been turned inside out. From the blood on her clothes and the stairs, it looked as if she had died painfully and slowly, probably bleeding to death. Upon closer inspection, Amane could see that Stacey’s head was actually separated from her body. Whatever had killed her had ripped her head off and discarded it.
“Be careful,” said Evan. “There aren’t any blood trails leading up the stairs. So whatever killed her might still be here.”
Sasha shivered, turned, and looked up the stairs. “Look’s clear.”
“Let me go first,” said Evan, and Sasha stepped aside; relieved she didn’t have to go up first. Evan had taken no more than one-step when he heard it: a grumbling sound from above somewhere, getting louder, echoing down the stairwell. Evan heard slow footsteps that slipped and scuffed erratically down the stairs. He took a step back.
“Get back,” he said.
Amane and Sasha stepped back into the corridor nervously, as a young man appeared on the stairs in front of Evan. He looked like a builder or tradesman of some sort in scruffy trousers and shirt, once stained with paint, now stained crimson. The zombie was still wearing a yellow hard hat. The man’s face was smeared with blood and when he opened his mouth, he showed off sharp, dark red teeth. The zombie practically threw itself down onto Evan who grabbed it as it fell on top of him and they skidded across the floor. Ignoring the girls’ screams, he pushed it up and off him.
Evan picked it up by the shoulders and rammed the man into the concrete wall head first. He did it twice more and the hard hat fell off. Evan rammed the head again and again into the wall until he succeeded in breaking the man’s skull. The zombie continued to struggle and its arms caught hold of Evan’s legs. Evan kicked out and the zombie lost its hold of him. He kicked the zombie in the face, feeling its nose break on his foot. The head slammed back down onto the plain concrete floor and Evan knelt down. Grabbing the zombie by the hair, he smashed its head over and over and over until its skull finally caved in, spraying the walls with blood. Brain oozed out of the split skull. Whilst it lay there twitching, Evan stood up and brought his boot down hard on its throat, snapping the zombie’s neck. It lay still.
“Come on, let’s move.” Evan glanced at Amane and Sasha, cowering in a doorway. The zombie dismantled, they stepped over the putrid corpse and followed Evan up the stairs.
* * * *
Another few floors up and they reached the final level. The doors opened out onto the roof. It was surrounded by scaffolding and tarpaulin blowing in the wind. The air was bitter and foul up here. The breeze blew but only brought them more air full of smoke and burning chemicals. They were exhausted. They had gone up about twenty flights. The zombies were slower but they did not run short of breath; they climbed steadily and surely, aware only that they must keep going. Their muscles did not ache and they had no concept of time. Onward and upward, the dead climbed.
Evan looked for something to barricade the door, but there was very little. There was a small cart full of tools that Evan dragged over and pushed in front of the door. He rushed from one edge of the building to the other looking for an escape route. The scaffolding did not reach the ground as it was only on the last few top floors. There was a fire escape but it stopped a few floors short of the roof, as it was incomplete. There was no way of reaching it. They were stuck.
“Oh, God, Evan, what are we going to do? We’re going to die.” Sasha sobbed into her hands, salty tears stinging her cuts.
“Sasha, can you just hold that cart against the door. I need to think for a minute.” If he kept her preoccupied it might keep her quiet, he thought. Evan looked at Amane, hoping for answers. He felt helpless. He had led them into a trap. This was the dead end he had hoped to avoid and his heart sank as he realised they weren’t going to make it.
Amane picked up a piece of scaffolding and walked over to Evan. She handed it to Evan and looked him in the eyes.
“If we’re going down, we’re going down fighting.” He weighed up the metal pole in his hands.
“Right.” He embraced her and they kissed passionately. Sasha noticed them and left the cart.
“So what, I have to do the hard work while you two make out? Do you even care about me? Or what happened to Rob? Jesus Christ.” Sasha looked accusingly at Evan.
“I’m not even getting into this with you. Here.” Evan thrust the metal pole into Sasha’s hands who winced when she took hold of it.
“You’re going to need it. We’re in this together, okay?” Sasha just grunted.
Amane avoided looking at Sasha and looked around for more spare poles they could use. She picked one up, small enough for her to handle whilst Evan did the same.
The door suddenly banged against the cart and a single startled seagull flew up into the air from a walkway adjoining the scaffolding.
“Shame we can’t fly too,” said Sasha, and through bloodshot eyes, prepared herself to face the mass of zombies now pushing against the door to the roof.
Evan looked at the walkway and jogged over to it. Amane hesitated and then ran over to Evan. The wooden walkway extended over the edge of the roof onto a small platform. She walked over carefully, looking out over the city from a much greater height than she wanted to. Up here, exposed, she felt very uneasy.
“What are you doing, Evan?” she said looking at him. He was staring out into the open air and for a second it crossed her mind he might be thinking about jumping.
Looking over her shoulder, he considered the tower crane. It was the same one that Amane had seen yesterday. From the mast was a long horizontal jib, from which a large hook was dangling.
“That’s it,” he said, pointing past the platform, over a gap of about fifty feet to the crane. The towering column stuck out awkwardly against the blue sky. From where they stood, the mast went up another twenty feet or so to the operator’s cab. The worker’s arm jutted out, an Australian flag fluttering strongly in the wind. Amane felt sick.
“You’re not serious.”
“I can do it.” Evan continued staring at the crane, sizing it up, working the plan through his mind. “If I take a long enough run up, I can make it. I’ll climb up to the cab and as long as it’s got power, I’ll figure out what I need to. I’ll swing the hook around to you and Sasha then back over to the car park. It’ll reach. We go back the way we came, Amane. The zombies won’t be able to follow us and the few left on the ground we can get past. This is a workable plan. This is our only plan.”
“A workable plan, are you insane? Have you grown wings in the last five minutes?” Said Amane
, mad. “Do you see how far it is? If you even make it to the crane, you have to hold onto that thing when you hit it.” She held his arm worried he might go through with it.
“They’re coming!” screamed Sasha, as the cart toppled over and the first of the zombies burst through the doorway onto the rooftop.
“Be ready,” said Evan as he jogged to the far end of the walkway. Amane’s head spun as she realised Evan was going to jump. Sasha’s screams faded into the background as Amane watched Evan sprint past her and launch himself into the air. He glided silently, shirt flapping as the wind whistled past him and he dropped over the edge of the building out of sight. Amane raced down to the roof in shock to help Sasha fight the advancing zombies. Her metal pole connected with soft skulls and bloated stomachs. One after another, they were sent flying, only to be replaced by more. They kept on pouring in through the open door. Amane stood next to Sasha and whirled the pole above her head, smacking it into anything that came close enough.
“When I tell you to go, run up to that walkway as fast as you can, okay?” said Amane.
“What?” said Sasha, brutally bashing a man’s head in, ignoring the pain from her hands that were now dripping with blood: her own blood. “Where’s Evan?”
“He’s gone to get help. Look, just be ready, okay.” They spoke no more and tried to hold back the unstoppable horde.
Amane couldn’t believe what Evan was attempting, but she had to admit it was the only way off this building. Every step forward they took to hit a zombie they took two back. They were gradually being repelled backwards and would finally be cornered with nowhere else to run.
What if Evan didn’t make the jump? What if he did, but couldn’t hold on to the crane? Amane felt queasy. The rotting guts falling at her feet she could handle, the thought of Evan plummeting to his death she could not. Gripping the metal pole firmly, she continued hitting the zombies beside Sasha, praying Evan would make it: for all their sakes.