“I don’t want freaking stupid Pop Tarts. I want some real food! Forget this. I’m outta here.”
“Hey!” Anna shouted before Salvatore could make his move. “No one goes out there at night. Brass’s house rules. And you know better than to go out there at night.”
“I leave one house, and I enter another. Brass ain’t the boss of me. I’m outta here. I don’t care what you say. Johnny, Ricky, yo, let’s roll on outta here boys.”
Both stood up to go along with Salvatore's command. Anna stood up, and blocked their way. “No one’s going anywhere!”
Suddenly, they all started to talk over each other. It was night. Oh my God. They could lure the dead here.
“Stop! Quiet, or they’ll hear us,” I shouted at them. I got up and stood at the foot of the room door. “It’s safer in here. Out there, you won’t make it out alive. Even if you had each other, you guys still won’t even make it to dawn.”
“Who the fuck made you the boss of us, bitch?” Salvatore shouted at me. “You killed Mickey, so stay out of this!” Talk about rude. His ‘stomach’ problem was going to get us into trouble, not just with the dead, but with Brass too. Now I understand why he has a grudge against me. What an idiot! He thinks I killed Mickey when I only ended his misery from being eaten alive, and becoming one of them. “Get out of our way!”
“Make me!” Anna dared. He shoved Anna hard. Naomi caught her before she slammed to the ground. Everyone fell quiet; shocked that he actually shoved her. Suddenly, Anna started to cry and with her voice breaking, “Go ahead, then go. I warned you guys.”
“Let’s go.” What a wimp pushing a girl like that. And he calls himself a man?!
And they went through the slider that was jammed open that fit one person at a time. We really needed to fix that as soon as possible.
Naomi calmed Anna down as they came in the room I was in. I can’t believe the rest of the people were quiet. Even Julia whom I can’t believe she cheated on Josh with that guy - aside from the many - she didn’t even stop him.
Anyway, Naomi laid Anna down on her bed, and then she went to work on the jammed door. It wouldn’t budge at all. “Just let it go, Naomi,” Rave told her.
After a couple of tries, she gave up. We heard the front door open that led to the outside. All of a sudden, we heard growls and then shrieks of pain and bloodshed.
Everyone’s face went chalk white. Even mine.
Oh no, I whispered in my head.
We all stopped talking, and stopped what we were doing. “Gimme a flashlight,” Naomi whispered.
Rave slid her a flashlight. She looked through the gap with the flashlight on. “Oh no. The door is still open. We have to close it,” her voice full of fear.
I had my pistol in my hand. I looked back to confirm that my shotgun was still on the table in the room and the crossbow as well as my hunting knife. I cocked my pistol.
“Forget it. We’re not going out there,” Darcy said as Marcy agreed with her.
“Fine, I’ll go then.”
“I’ll come with you,” I responded.
“Are you guys crazy?” Rave whispered. “For all we know they could be in there.”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”
Naomi was going through the gap first when, suddenly, not even halfway through the gap, one fell through trying to bite her. She shrieked in terror. I backed her away quickly from the door.
It struggled to come through as it was halfway in. Blood dripped from its lips. The virus was eating at his face, giving him a grayish color of decay. The smell was penetrating. Naomi ran to the end of the door and tried to push it close. “Guys help me,” she pleaded in a loud voice.
I shot the zombie in the head. It was stuck between the door and the wall. “Naomi, get away from there. It’s not going to work,” I told her.
“We have to try. This is our only place to live.” I knew she was afraid from the way she spoke.
Suddenly, they were banging against the door. “Naomi, get away from there.” I tugged on her elbow forcefully. She gave up and quickly followed me.
“The door’s not gonna hold any longer,” Rave said as she stood beside me with Naomi in the girls’ room.
“Everyone, come in the room,” I told them.
Julia chuckled. “Jesus! Fuck off! Who are you to order us around?!”
I sighed. She was just as ignorant and a dumbass. Something released from the slider door, and it fell with a loud clang. The dead swarmed in; one attacked Darcy first.
There was no going back now.
I gasped pulling Naomi and Rave in and locked the girls’ room. I placed a chair underneath the knob. I locked the other door and placed a chair underneath its knob as well. “Shit,” I smacked my hand against my forehead. I looked at them both after a second of thinking. “Is there any other possible way out?”
Naomi shrugged her shoulders. Anna stopped crying and stood up on full alert. Then I remembered each room had at least a walkie-talkie. There was one sitting on a dresser. I picked it up and put it on Brian’s station. “Brian, are you there?” I whispered. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead, I thought desperately.
“Here beautiful,” his voice responded loud and clear.
Oh, thank God, I thought while having the jitters. “Close all doors around you in the lab. Quickly. Zombies are in.”
“WHAT?!”
I grimaced and shivered some more. I feared for his life and Martins’ every millisecond. “Don’t argue. Questions later. Just do what I say right now,” I told him through gritted teeth.
“Hey, hey, Martin, close the doors… Okay, they’re closed.”
“Now is there any other way out of here?”
“Yeah, through the front door!” He’s always so full of sarcasm in any situation.
“That door is what got them in.”
“Not unless you’re asking for the shafts.”
“Please tell me they’re –”
“In each ceiling of a room? Uh yeah, they are.” I can hear the language behind his tone, “Like dude, how stupid are you?!”
I sighed in relief. I looked up. I was right underneath one. When still looking up at it, I asked, “Can we join together up there?”
“Yeah, duh.”
“Okay then. Pack all you can, but pack light. It doesn’t matter how many bags you take as long as you can hold them yourself. I suggest a strap bag and a small suitcase. Don’t take your whole library with you.”
“Aw man,” I heard him whine on the other line.
“See you in five… Okay, let’s pack.”
We packed as lightly as possible. I only brought a strap bag, but the others each held a strap bag and a small suitcase.
I went underneath the shaft. It was high. I grabbed an extra chair and put it underneath the shaft. I got up on the chair, inspecting the screws of the shaft. I was glad for my handy knife. “Naomi, knife,” I told her having my hand out.
She quickly put it in my palm, and I began to unscrew the screws as fast as I could. Finally, after torturing moments, I popped the lid inside. Naomi handed me a flashlight. I looked in, right and left. It was clear. I hopped down. “All right, Anna first.”
Then there was banging against the doors. Were we that noisy? Or was it our scent? We helped Anna up. We threw her the bags one by one as quickly as we could. Second went Rave, and then Naomi who had my crossbow strapped across her body. The banging got harder, even started to bend the wood. I picked up my shot gun off the table and handed it to Naomi who reached her hand down first. I kicked aside the chair.
The zombies were smashing through the splintering wood. Seeing me, one of them tried pushing his face in while he shrieked at me.
Without any hesitation, nor another second to lose, I jumped up to the shaft. I hung on to the edge using my muscles as they helped me up. I took a second to catch my breath as they covered the shaft with its lid. I moved them aside and started to screw back the screws from inside the
shaft. The doors broke open as I screwed the second screw. They stumbled around the room. One zombie was standing right underneath the shaft looking around, sniffing the air. Then, he looked up at the shaft. I moved away slowly out of view. It knows we are up here, I’m up here. I motioned Naomi, Rave, and Anna to move quietly. They did as I ordered. I took the lead since I was the first one that started to move.
On the way we located Christopher and Gwen’s room. “Fuck!” I almost shouted.
“Oh my God, Gwen and Christopher,” Naomi gasped.
We saw them through the shaft. The bed was bloody just as they were. We were too late to save them as the dead were gobbling them up like they’ve never had food in days. Sniffles and tears were heard from behind me – the girls were crying. Even I did. She was under my responsibility, and I was really going to help her deliver it, with experience or not. Oh my god, they had mauled her stomach and were eating the fetus like it was dessert. My emotions became scattered with the reality I was seeing, the reality we were living in right now. It was no dream. It was no fantasy. It was no peaceful harmony. This was the real thing. We are sharing our world with flesh-eaters as we hid from them in fear in order to stay alive. And that thought horrified me.
I couldn’t stay there and watch anymore. I didn’t do my duty in saving my pregnant friend. How could I forget about them both?!
I had a very bad feeling in my heart all of a sudden that wrapped around my throat, making me dizzy while we continued on our way. Claustrophobia. Just don't think about tight spaces, don't think about tight spaces, I kept repeating to myself in my head. And blood, I finished my thoughts.
In less than two minutes we were finally there.
“Brian, Martin, you guys ready yet?” I asked them from above.
“Yeah,” Martin told me as Brian was unscrewing the screws from the lid’s edges, his face so up close. His mouth was open while he was concentrating. They threw up their bags one after the other. Anna had to spit when dust entered her mouth. Naomi had a disgusted face when dust was anywhere near her. Rave was fine. She didn’t care nor didn’t mind it, just like me.
“Good God! What’s in these bags?!” Naomi complained.
“Scattered parts of my brain!” Brian sarcastically said as a matter of fact (to him). We helped them up.
“Is this all? Where’s the rest?” Martin asked looking around.
“Everyone else is dead,” Anna told him in a dead tone. She cleared her throat. Martin wrapped his arm around her, or tried to in the constricted space we were in as she tried to lean in his chest.
“I don’t see why we should go through all this trouble. I suggest we stay in our room. I mean the doors are made out of steel. Not iron or metal like the rest of the other doors,” Martin told us. Naomi slapped him on the back of his head. “Ow,” he whispered. “What was that for?”
I clarified for him, “If we stay, we’ll eat each other… So, where do we go now?” I asked Brian.
“Think smart Marty,” Anna told him.
“Annie, you’re not going to be on my side…” he began to complain.
He laid out a map. I realized he had a miner’s hat on once he lit the mini flashlight that was attached to the top of it. I rolled my eyes at him. “Okay, we’re in the data room, so we might as well keep going straight, then left, then another left, then a right, and then we’d be to the surface.”
“How much time will it take us to get there?”
“Well, depending on how slow we’d be hauling our bags behind our asses, my estimation says it’ll take us four minutes tops?!”
I thought it would be longer since he had laid out a map. “Well, all right then. Let’s get going. Take lead,” I told him.
So, we moved through the tight space dragging our things with us. I had to give Brian the shotgun since he was taking lead. I didn't want any accidents to happen while I was dragging more weapons than I intend to, and would be afraid to shoot someone by accident. I got claustrophobic quickly again. I began to get dizzy, pressured, suffocated…
Then, how can I forget about the other guys?! “Brian,” I panted, “can you contact the guys through the walkie-talkie?”
“Uh, making contact rejected and declined. I don’t think so. The signal is crap in here.”
He sounded like he was in the army. I rolled my eyes at him again. “Well, can’t you just try? What about the connection from your mini invention satellite?”
He sighed, and extended his hand out. I placed it in his palm. “FYI, that mini satellite was a fail invention that put me down to shame. At least my biffuser worked.” He changed it to their station.
Biffuser? Is that what he called the skin-shrinking bomb? “Josh, Brass, John, Julian, Alex, Rachel, and Laura, are any of you guys out there?”
Nothing. Just static.
“Survival of humanity, are any of you guys out there?”
Static once again.
He handed the walkie-talkie back to me. “I’m telling you, it’s the signal,” he told me. He moved on…
After a while, he sat on his knees and said while pointing up, “Okay, this here leads out to the streets outside. It’s another alley. A different one from ours, but we're just a block away from it,” Brian told us.
So once we round the corner I'm sure the Hummer will be in view a little down across from the alley. “Okay. Everyone holds their own bags. Now we have to make a run for it to my car. Follow my lead. I’m pretty sure the place is going to be crawling. Do any of you know how to operate a weapon?”
Martin looked at me with a ‘are-you-serious' disappointed face. “How do you think we managed to stay alive?!”
Jeez, hold your hat! I just wanted to make sure, I thought. I had no time to train the girls correctly on how to shoot. In fact, it was part of the schedule for tomorrow. “Okay, never mind that. Just follow me. And if you get freaked out or side-tracked, know that my car is the black Hummer with some heavy body armor.”
“Do I get to use the shotgun?” Brian asked me with a big smile on his face that made him look like he was five years old.
“No shit Sherlock. I gave it to you, didn’t I?! I hope you know how to charge it first though.”
“Sweet cheeks please.” He held it single handedly by the charging handle and pumped it. He was ready. I hope he knew how to aim at least.
I searched my pockets for my keys when suddenly, my heart stopped in my chest. “Ah shit. I forgot my keys in the fucking room!”
The dread in me that I felt not wanting to go back to starving death…
My ears heard keys jingling and I followed where it came from. Brian. So Josh did give him the keys not fully trusting me in staying. The thought stung a bit, but no time to think that way. I took it from him when it dangled between his fingers. Good Heavens! I really did think I had to go back.
I took a deep breath. They did too. “Okay guys. On three. One...two…three…!”
Survive
I helped them all get out the shaft with their bags while I looked all around me. The dead were at a distance. “Look out!” Anna shouted from beside me; I looked at where she pointed.
I punched the zombie in the face knocking her backwards when she was just right in front of me, and Naomi did the honors by shooting her in the head with an arrow from the crossbow, making the kill silent.
“Come on,” I told them as I took lead.
I could tell Brian was the last one to get out of the shaft since that shotgun began going off. I ran to the car unlocking it with my key fob. Zombies were everywhere – all around us. Night was their most favorite time indeed; more strength and more speed.
I gave Naomi the keys and told her to make a run for it to inside the safety of the Hummer with Anna, Rave, and Martin behind her. The zombies were closing in on us. “Lock the doors!” I shouted at them.
Brian tossed the shotgun at Martin and left his bags, and ran with me. My bag was a strap and wasn’t too heavy on my shoulders. We had to find another way to distract t
he zombies away from the car since it might be too difficult to drive out of its spot. Brian picked up an iron pipe that was similar to Brass’s like last time when Brass hit Julian on his back the day he almost raped me. I shot from close distances.
“Come on,” Brian said, taking my hand in his and running.
“Where are we going?”
“HEY!” he shouted at the top of his lungs and clanked the pipe against the ground. “COME HERE YOU FILTHY BASTARDS. COME, AND GET YOUR MEAL. WE KNOW YOU ALL HATE FAST-FOOD!”
“ARE YOU CRAZY?!” I shouted at him.
“Chill. I know what I’m doing.” We ran somewhere inside a building. We ran up the stairs. The dead were right on my tail. He kept running up the stairs still grasping my hand in his. Every new set of stairs we reached, it seemed as if zombies would come out of isolated rooms and run after us.
“Oh, great. My legs are now killing me,” I gasped out of breath but pushed myself. I haven't had a stairs workout like this in forever. I shot a zombie once it reached out for me. She was very close.
Scratch close.
“Almost there.” I looked up once I heard a door groan open. “Hurry.”
I saw shadow outlines of them as they came all the way up the stairs. I ran onto the roof with Brian. I helped him lock it with the chains that were on the ground. We backed away as soon as they tried breaking through the door. “Okay, it might hold. But I know for sure that it won’t hold for long.”
He ignored me and went to the edge of the roof looking for something. “What’re you doing exactly?”
“Oh, thank God, I found the ladder. I thought for a minute we were in the wrong building.”
“Ladder? Wrong building?!” I almost screeched. He basically had my life in his hands.
“HEY MARTY, DID YOU BIND THE DOORS?”
The World At End (Book 1) (Left Alive for the Dead Series) Page 11