by J. R. Knoll
"Rachel," Doctor Kavorski murmured. "One of us has to make it." He handed her the folder and said, "I'm going to rush them, and when I have them occupied you need to get past them and get upstairs."
"Don't!" she barked. "We have to stay together!"
"We don't have a choice!" he hissed, his eyes locked on the approaching zombies. "Get yourself upstairs! The research has to continue or our whole species could be doomed!"
"I can't do this by myself!" she insisted.
With the zombies only a few feet away, they both backed up again, and Doctor Kavorski braced himself to charge them.
Rachel shrieked as someone grabbed her shoulder from behind, and she swung around, drawing a gasp.
Zoe, dressed in her pink princess shirt and denim shorts, pushed between the doctors and raised her revolver, aiming at point blank range as she declared, "I got this." She fired and the first zombie fell.
The doctors watched wide eyed and backed away.
Firing again, Zoe dropped the second, then the third. She holstered her gun, then turned around and looked to the doctors in turn, setting her hands on her hips as she cried, "You were just going to leave me in there?"
"Zoe!" Rachel declared, hugging the folder and box to her. "You're up! You're okay!"
"I woke up a little while ago," the zombie girl informed. "There were zombies all over the place and… Why didn't you strap down my other arm?"
"Long story," Doctor Caswell answered. "Oh, my God, we thought we had lost you!"
"I'm okay," Zoe assured. "Looking down to her gun, she pulled it again and mumbled, "Twenty-one."
"Twenty-one what?" Doctor Kavorski asked.
"Bullets," she replied.
Rachel raised her chin. "How do you know that?"
"I have three speed loaders left," Zoe answered, "and I just fired three of the six bullets in my gun. Oh, crap! The speed loaders are still in my vest in my room. We need to go get my vest, and I have something else to get." She turned and started down the corridor, beckoning, "Come on."
They arrived at her room and the doctor stopped just inside the door as they watched the girl shrug into her vest, look around her, and then grab her teddy bear and tuck it under her arm.
When she met the doctors' eyes, she raised her chin and insisted, "I'm not leaving Snowflake behind. So where are we supposed to go?"
"Top floor," Kavorski answered. "Everyone's retreated up there by now. We need to join them, but this place is overrun and the stairwells are crowded by zombies. We have no way to get up there."
"What about the elevators?" the girl asked.
Rachel replied, "They were shut down before the zombies got in."
Zoe drew her head back and pointed out, "But zombies don't know how to use elevators." Shaking her head, she strode from the room as the two doctors moved out of the way and looked around her. She turned her eyes to them, seeing that they now relied entirely upon her, and this gave the girl a sense of importance she had never experienced before. They looked back at her with their absolute trust, as if they felt she would get them to safety and they had total faith in feeling so, and Zoe was determined not to let them down.
Setting her hands on her hips again, she looked around her and asked, "Does this place have a fire escape?"
"I don't think so," Doctor Caswell replied. "I've never seen one. The evacuation plan seems to be to just use the stairs."
Zoe nodded, then she turned and strode the way they had come. "Come on, guys."
They followed, but Rachel protested, "We saw zombies down that way."
"I'll take care of them," Zoe assured.
Arriving at the stairwell without incident, Zoe slowly opened the door and looked in, then she went to the stairs and looked up, then down, then she beckoned to the doctors and started up. They went slowly and as quietly as they could, looking about them carefully the whole time. Zoe felt more anxious than afraid and as they reached the third floor she heard something and stopped, grasping the handle of her revolver as she looked up. A banging started way above them, many hands against a steel door, and she could hear something moaning on the floors above.
She proceeded slowly, hesitantly, keeping her eyes above her for the most part.
Eventually reaching the fourth floor, it became clear that there were many zombies on the stairs above them. They could hear more moaning, more banging, and Zoe could make out the shuffling of feet on the rough surface of the floor and steps up there. She could not see them, but it was clear that there were many of them up there. She reasoned that they could not safely go higher and abandoned the stairs, reaching for the door that would allow them onto the fourth floor. She held it open for the doctors, then she closed it as quietly as she could behind them.
"Now what?" Rachel hissed, glancing around her with fearful eyes.
The thumps of gunfire rocked the ceiling and walls and they all looked up.
"Sounds like they're still fighting them off," Kavorski observed.
Zoe looked down the hall, then the other way. "I don't think there are any zombies on this floor."
"Why would you say that?" Rachel asked.
"Well," the girl responded, "if there's nobody here to eat and nothing to draw their attention then they would just keep going. I think you guys will be safe here for a while. I don't think we should stay here by the stairs, though. Come on. Let's see if there's some better place to be."
They found a nurse's station nearby and Doctor Caswell set the box and folder down on the desk, then she sat and looked to the phone. "I'll bet we can contact someone on five," she assumed. Picking the phone up, she punched in the numbers for one of the nurse's stations on the fifth floor and put the receiver to her ear. Shaking her head, she huffed a breath and hung the phone back up. "It's dead. We're on our own."
"How long will we be safe here?" Doctor Kavorski asked.
Zoe looked around her again. "At least until they smell you in here. If more come up the same stairs we did then they'll follow your smell." More thumps from somewhere above them rattled the walls around them and she looked up and added, "Of course, it doesn't sound like they are doing much better up there."
"What should we do?" Rachel asked desperately. "If we stay here too long they're sure to find us!"
Now feeling fully responsible for the safety of the doctors, Zoe clenched her jaw as she looked about again. "You guys can fix this," she said absently, "and I have to keep them from getting you." She walked away from the nurse's desk, her eye panning about for an idea, then she stopped at a door that looked like all the rest, but for one detail: The sign that read Nurse's Lounge. She reached for the door handle and opened the door, looking around inside. There was a sink, a couch, a couple of plush looking chairs, a coffee table, coffee maker by the sink… It was a comfortable looking room. She looked to the other side of the room, to the door handle, and she raised her brow as she saw the little button that would lock it. Wheeling back, she strode with quick and purposeful steps back to the nurse's station and ordered, "Come on. Not waiting for a reply, she turned back and returned to the lounge. When they finally caught up to her, she ordered, "Take off your lab coats and throw them back toward the nurse's station, and don't touch the door or the walls around the door." She opened the door and held it for them as they stripped their lab coats off. "Lock the door once you're in there and don't open it if you hear zombies on the other side. Unless it's me. I'll knock three times if it's me."
The doctors entered the room, careful not to touch anything around it.
Zoe did not give them the opportunity to say anything to her. She quickly closed the door and reminded, "Be sure to lock it," then she darted to the lab coats and picked them both up.
Back to the stairwell, she went in and looked up toward the upper floors, still hearing the zombies up there trying to gain access to the people on the fifth floor. She threw the coats over the side of the rail, then sprinted up the stairs and stopped halfway up from the second landing. The zombies were pac
ked tightly up there and kept trying to move forward and toward their intended victims. She could not be sure how many there were, but there were far more of them than she had bullets!
With no actual gift for strategy, she only meant to get to the door that they meant to break into and defend it from there. The mob of zombies was about halfway up the stairs and she strode up behind it, grabbing onto the collar of the shirt one wore to pull herself up and hopefully divide the mob enough to get through them. She stumbled and tugged back against the zombie to regain her balance, and when she did it fell backward, straight backward without even trying to break its fall.
Zoe watched it slam into the steps behind her and slide and roll the rest of the way to the landing below. It was not hurt and just picked itself back up, not upset or angry, not even inconvenienced. It just got up and began to climb the steps again.
She looked to the next closest, grabbed onto its collar and pulled back as hard as she could, and the results were the same, but as it fell backward it tripped the one that was trying to rejoin the mob, sending them both down to the landing. Raising a brow, Zoe looked to the next, and grabbed its collar.
This part was almost ridiculously easy and she pulled down one after another, counting to herself as she toppled them one by one, and finally she reached the door. Turning back to them, she saw them in a tangled mess at the bottom of the landing, and two were up and trying to climb the steps again.
"Okay," she said aloud to herself. "Twenty-nine of you and twenty-one bullets." She drew her revolver and added, "I guess it's first come, first serve." She aimed and fired at the closest of them and watched it fall straight back and take the other down with it. "I'll need more bullets," she mumbled as she watched more start climbing the steps.
Before they could get halfway up, she half turned and tried the door, finding it barricaded from the other side. The handle would turn, but she could not push it open. She knocked on it three times with the handle of her gun and shouted, "Hello? Is anyone in there? It's Zoe!" Turning back, she aimed and fired as one of the zombies was right at the top of the steps, and she watched as it fell backward and took most of those climbing back up with it. Another was too close for comfort, about four steps from the top, and she shot it as well, then she turned and knocked on the door again, three times. "Hey, guys! I need more bullets!"
A zombie moaned from above and she looked to the steps that went to the sixth floor, and she groaned, "Aw, man!" as she saw others climbing down from the sixth floor door, no doubt attracted by the noise. Those would be harder to deal with, since they would fall right at her.
Looking to the stairs coming up, she aimed and fired, hitting one square in the forehead, and she watched as the domino affect knocked four others all the way to the landing below.
Half turning, she knocked on the door again and barked, "Guys, I really need more bullets out here!" She aimed and pulled the trigger, but her weapon made an empty click. Looking down at it, she gulped a breath and fumbled to swing the cylinder out, and once she had it open she found a speed loader in her vest, dumped out the spent brass and shoved the new rounds into place. Closing the cylinder quickly, she looked up to see the zombie only a few feet away and she barked a scream and raised her weapon, firing right into its nose. As it went down and took more with it, she turned her attention to the one that was descending the stairs as it stepped onto the landing with her. With her free hand, she grabbed onto its sleeve and turned it toward the descending stairs, pointing that way as she ordered, "Down that way." To her amazement, it just went!
Others followed it and she turned them in the same way, redirecting them down the stairs. "Yeah, right this way. Just follow that guy. Everybody just go downstairs, don't push. Come on, neat, orderly line."
She backed up to watch the procession. As those trying to come up met them, many of them turned and started going down with the rest, and those that did not were redirected by the half zombie girl when they got to the landing.
In a few minutes, the last of them came down from the sixth floor and were on their way back down, and Zoe shook her head as she looked over the rail and watched the last of them just keep going. Holstering her gun, she turned to the door and knocked three times with her knuckles, saying in a lower voice than a yell, "Okay, guys. They're gone. You can let me in now." She tried the door again but could not push it open and finally turned around to go back to the fourth floor, only to hear the door handle turn. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the door open toward her and a soldier peered into the stairwell, and she turned back around, declaring, "Oh. It opens in."
The soldier, who she recognized as Corporal Baker, stepped into the stairwell and looked around, up the stairs and finally down.
"I sent them all downstairs," she reported. "It was a lot easier than I thought it would be."
He nodded, then looked to her and reported, "I heard you were dead, Princess."
She shrugged. "Well, I'm a zombie so I guess I kind of am. I don't know, really."
"Did you see the doctors?" he asked.
"I came up here with them," she replied. "They're in the nurse's station lounge on the fourth floor. That door locks and I thought they would be safe there until… We should go get them." Zoe turned and bounded down the stairs, watching her feet as she held her arms out for balance.
Once at the fourth floor, she turned around to see the Corporal and one more soldier following him, then she raised her finger to her lips and whispered, "Shh. They come when they hear a lot of noise."
As quietly as possible, they entered the fourth floor and made their way cautiously to the nurse's lounge, and Zoe knocked three times as she had said she would. She stepped back as the door handle clicked, and greeted in a whisper, "Hi," as Doctor Kavorski peered out.
"Come on," Corporal Baker ordered. "Let's get you up to the secure area. Smith, go make sure it's still clear."
A sinister growl drew their attention and they all turned to see a mad-dog zombie halfway down the corridor, crouched down and staring at them. Another, this one a female, emerged from behind the nurse's station and turned its attention to them, its lips sliding away from its yellow and black stained teeth as it growled as well.
"Those weren't here a few minutes ago," Zoe insisted. When the private raised his weapon, she barked, "Don't shoot at them! The noise will bring the other ones!"
"What are we supposed to do?" the private barked back.
"You guys go on," she replied, her eyes on the closest zombie as she slowly advanced. "I'll keep them busy and catch up when you are upstairs."
"Zoe!" Rachel hissed.
"Just go," the girl ordered as she slowly reached for her gun. "You guys get upstairs and I'll keep them from getting you." She noticed that the zombies had their attention on the people behind her. "You need to go."
"Come on," Baker insisted, ushering the doctors toward the door. "We'll get them to safety and then come back for you, Princess."
"Don't," she countered. "I'll just hold them off and then go upstairs when you guys are okay."
Slowly, and under the watchful eyes of the zombies, the four people made their way to the door, exiting as the private held the door open.
One of the zombies started to charge, and Zoe stomped toward him and shouted, "No!"
The zombie stopped and looked at her with wide, almost solid black eyes.
"You got this, Princess?" the private asked.
"Yeah," she assured. "Just get upstairs."
He nodded to her, then slipped into the stairwell and allowed the door to close behind him.
The far zombie moved abreast of the female zombie, and both looked to the girl before them. Zoe seemed to know to stand her ground, and her hand wrapping around the handle of the revolver fed her courage.
The female zombie's eyes flitted behind Zoe, and the girl's heart jumped!
Drawing her weapon, she swung around, too slow to avoid the big, mad-dog zombie man that slammed into her and knocked her down. Zoe manag
ed to keep her hand on her weapon and directed it to him as best she could as he pinned her to the floor, and she pulled the trigger over and over, spending four rounds as her other hand pushed against his chest. He grasped at her hair, yanking her head over as he roared with some inhuman voice that fed the terror that exploded from her in a scream. Responding to the gunshots, the zombie leapt from her and swung around, hurling her across the hallway and into the wall. She hit hard enough to shatter the sheetrock and break many pieces loose, and they rained down on her as she crumpled face down to the floor.
With a pitiful whimper, Zoe pushed herself up and looked to the big zombie, grateful that he was just crouched there and looking back at her. Between her and him was her gun, and she drew a loud gasp as she realized that it was just out of reach.
The other two moved in on her and she cringed and shrank away, pressing herself against the wall as she rose up on all fours.
Roaring, the big one charged and raised his hands, and Zoe covered her head as he brought both fists down hard on her back and head, sending her down to the floor. Curling herself up, she covered her head as he pummeled her mercilessly like an angry ape. He would jump up slightly as he raised his arms, putting all of his weight into his swings as he brought his fists down onto her over and over, and her body flinched each time he hit her. The blows did not hurt, but the shock radiated out from each impact and she felt them all over.
The attack ended abruptly and he crouched on all fours nearby breathing loudly through his nose.
Slowly, Zoe withdrew her arms and looked up at him.
He roared at her again and she screamed and covered her head. The other male zombie charged forward and brought his fist down on her head, roaring with a more human voice, but inhuman at the same time.
Zoe found herself crying and kept herself balled up on her side with both arms covering her head for long seconds after she was hit the last time. With a little whimper, she hesitantly lowered her arms and looked up at the big one again, and she cringed as he bared his teeth and growled at her. She turned her attention to the other, and he growled at her as well. The female zombie was staying back, just glaring at her as she watched.