by Henson, Lynn
"Alright... yeah," he replied while looking around in confusion. Carrey had reached the fourth-floor landing and they opened the door and moved out of the stairwell.
The blonde zombie was unsteadily getting back to her feet, but as she pushed herself back up to standing, she placed her foot in the air behind the stair and fell backward, crashing into him. They tumbled down the stairs landing in a jumble on the turnaround halfway to the third floor. He went into full crazy mode, wildly thrashing any of his limbs that could move. The zombie seemed to realize he was there underneath him when his arm connected with her cheek, turning her head. A second later, she turned it back as if nothing had happened and leaned forward to bite into him. He managed to get his right leg under her stomach and he rolled left throwing her off of him, but she had grabbed his arms firmly and leaned in again towards his face. He could smell something like peppermint and the coppery smell of blood coming from her mouth. He brought his foot up to her stomach this time and kicked out hard, which moved her lower body away from his, but it didn't discourage her from releasing his arms. She bit down, unaware that the kick had opened up the distance between them a little bit. "Grgh," she complained and moved her face in again. Desperate, he rolled back the other way, pulling her briefly on top of him and then back down so that he was lying on his other side. She leaned in again and he used his right hand to grab her arm that was holding his left arm. Then he pulled and twisted his body so that her own arm got between her face and his. He heard the sickening sound of meat being chewed and torn. Dark liquid exploded all over her face and then splattering his as well. He felt the death grip on his left arm let up so he shoved forward, pushing her arm into her face. She let go of the other arm and was more interested in standing up. He stood quickly and ducked past her, heading for the ground floor, not wanting any more to do with her. He ran down the stairs as quickly as he could, and when he finally reached the bottom he pushed through the door and watched it close behind him.
"You alright there?" he heard from behind him.
Blake turned around and saw Jack Carrington standing behind the front desk watching him carefully. Carrington's eyes widened when she saw him. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm good," Blake said automatically. He then started to take stock of himself and he realized he'd twisted his ankle at some point, his biceps felt sore, and his neck was bothering him. "Well, maybe I could sit down for a second," he corrected.
Carrington came over and walked with him to a lounge chair. Blake sat down heavily into it. Blake noticed Carrington looking at his chest and for a second Blake's gaydar went off. He looked down at his own chest and saw his shirt was covered with blood. So much for my gaydar being accurate. "Um... I'm pretty sure that it's not mine," he explained, gesturing at his shirt.
Carrington nodded and continued to look around Blake anyway. Blake sighed inwardly and tried to spread his arms to invite a more deliberate inspection of his body, but winced when his arms protested and put them back down again. Carrington got the hint anyway and probed around the dark stain on his chest and looked carefully at Blake's blood-spattered face. Satisfied, he sat down in a lounge chair himself and looked at him. "Alright, you seem like you've been rattled around pretty good, but you otherwise seem fine. So what happened?"
"John and some girl I'd never met had been infected. The girl was trying to bite my face off, but I managed to get away," Blake explained.
"John? One of the three that showed up tonight?" he jumped to his feet in alarm.
"Yup, the very same. Oh, but he's dead. We accidentally killed him."
"What about the girl?!"
"She's in the stairwell."
"We've got to do something about her! What if someone runs into her?" Carrington said walking back towards the front desk.
"Well, it's pretty late and there's probably some time before anyone gets up and walks around in the stairwell," Blake thought aloud.
"But what if there are others?" Carrington persisted, "Can you absolutely guarantee that there are only two infected people in the whole building?"
"Well... no," Blake had to admit.
"Right. And until we go door to door and check, we have to assume this whole facility has been compromised," Carrington said as he came up from behind the desk with a flashlight and a phaser.
"Whoa," Blake said, impressed. "Does that actually work?"
"Of course it does," Carrington said as he strode for the stairwell door. "It was fully charged before the power went out and I haven't had to use it until tonight." He held it up and blue electricity danced across the prongs. “Ok?” He popped his flashlight on, opened the stairwell and waved the light around in there. Then he went in and was gone.
He was just starting to feel stupid about the stun gun business when the twins walked into the lounge area then and headed over to him. "Wow. You look like shit," Carrey observed.
"You're welcome," Blake said dryly. "Did anything else happen on your way down?"
"No," answered Kyle. "It wasn't very pleasant walking by John's corpse though."
"At least he's still where we left him," Carrey added.
"That's good news," Blake confirmed.
"Well, we'd better look for our rides," Carrey said as he moved towards the door.
Bree, Kim, Lisa, and a pair of people walking with them entered the lounge carrying assorted luggage. One of the newcomers was about the plainest looking Asian girl as you could imagine. With her straight shoulder-length black hair pulled back into a simple ponytail, black, thick-framed glasses, a face unadorned with makeup, and zit on her forehead, her appearance screamed math nerd. She was dressed in some unflattering jeans and a shirt crosshatched with pink lines. The other person was the rude scrawny Asian dude who’d they’d met for all of five seconds when they first arrived here looking for Bree’s sister. Everyone looked at each other and for a moment, Blake felt like they were at the beginning of a long journey. Then a klaxon went off, shattering the moment.
thirty-one
“What’s going on?” Kyle asked.
“The fire alarm,” answered the scrawny Asian guy, “Assholes are always pulling the fire alarm just to mess people up.”
It didn’t take long for people to start emerging from the stairwell into the lounge area on their way outside. The door to the stairs opened and an annoyed looking girl with brown hair wearing running shorts and a yellow t-shirt emerged and proceeded outside, rubbing her eyes and yawning as she went. She was followed by a nerdy looking Latino who seemed to be walking with his eyes closed and his glasses on crooked, yet still able to navigate outside with relative ease.
Kim grabbed her stuff and walked towards the exit. The group followed her lead and gradually headed outside with Blake hanging back to take up the rear.
When it was his turn to head out the door, a girl with super permed blonde hair that seemed to thrust out in random directions everywhere despite having hair clips thrown in to tame it arrived just behind him. The gentleman in him took over and he stepped aside and held the door open for her. She nodded sleepily at him as she went out and he noted that she was dressed in very thin looking sleepwear consisting of a blue halter top covered with white dots and matching shorts. She was holding a teddy bear in one hand by its paw. The bear gazed at the floor as it hung there, disinterested in the current events of the early morning.
She followed her out and joined his group where they had congregated past the barricade.
Then there was what sounded like screaming from somewhere above them. People were starting to stream out of the dorm faster and in a more panicked state. The faster people were pushing past the slower people and in some cases knocking them over.
The dorm was billowing smoke from the fourth floor. You could actually see the fire in one of the rooms had consumed the curtains and was licking the top of the window. The rooms adjacent to it had flickering orange light illuminating them. A window shattered and someone jumped out a moment later. That person bounced on the sid
ewalk and was still. A figure appeared in the window and though it was aflame, that person moved around slowly and seemingly without pain. Screaming was more audible now and people were really pouring out of the emergency exit. The fire alarm still wailed brazenly into the night. Some people gazed up dumbly at the dorm, either in shock or still waking up. Others were congregating with their friends or walking around looking for their friends. Some were weeping.
The person that had fallen from the window had stood up and was slowly walking towards where people had been gathering outside the dorm.
Confusion ruled as he looked around the perimeter of the dorm. The inhabitants of the dorm pooled around the burning building like an overflowing toilet. Clumps of the residents milled around waiting for firefighters that weren't going to come. Some groups chattered excitedly at the turn of the events, while others looked as if their only friend in the world had died. Blake looked at the groups of friends and wondered if they would stay together and find some means of surviving. Blake wondered about their future adventures. Where would they go? What difficulties would they encounter? All of them would have stories when the crisis ended and the time came to look back and reflect.
“We gotta go,” Bree announced softly.
“Yeah,” Blake agreed. He pointed over at the figures that were limping in their direction. “I don’t want to be here when they show up.”
“About that,” Kim said, “We only have Bree’s car. If we’re going to stay together we need at least one more. Preferably two.”
“I had a car once,” Lisa said, suddenly depressed.
“I didn’t want to bring it up,” Carrey said, “But since it’s looking like we have to get out of here fast, I saw a temporary fix.”
“Let’s go,” Blake said immediately. “Go get your car, Bree. The rest of us will follow Carrey.”
“Shotgun,” Kim called and pulled Lisa with her towards where Bree was already walking.
“That way,” Carrey gestured.
The rest of them followed after Carrey and Kyle who was taking them in a direction away from the dorm. They didn’t have to go too far before arriving at a tiny lot that had a number of small vehicles that were for the use of the gardeners and groundskeepers.
“These?” the Asian guy asked, annoyed.
“Yes,” Carrey answered, “We walked past them on the way to the dorm. I’ll bet we could use them.”
“Because no one would be stupid enough to use this shit,” the Asian guy said, completing the thought.
“You can walk if you want jackass,” Kyle told him hotly, “And why is your girlfriend carrying all your crap?” Blake glanced back at the girl who had a backpack on each shoulder, an expensive looking designer hand bag, and rolling two suitcases.
The Asian guy just snorted and looked in a random direction.
Carrey got in one of the carts and started it up. “Looks like we’re in business,” Kyle observed, ignoring the Asian dude and got in next to his brother. Blake hopped into the back of the twins cart as the Asian couple secured their own cart. Bree rolled up to them in her GT-S and Blake could have sworn surprise flickered across her face.
“So, obviously we’re not going to be going too fast. Don’t lose us,” Blake told her.
“Obviously,” Bree agreed.
“Any ideas on where to get a car?” Carrey asked.
"Let's go rent a car," Blake said brightly.
Kyle gave him a look and said, "This isn't really the time for comedy."
Carrey waved his hand at his brother and said, "No, no... he's on to something. A rental car location might have cars and the keys to go with them. Is there a place close by?"
Lisa shrugged, but Kim replied, "I think there's an Enterprise or something not too far from here."
"Tell me where to go," Bree she directed, "You guys follow us."
Kim gestured in a direction and Bree eased the car forward as the two carts fell into line behind it. Their course took them back past the dorms where chaos was starting to reign. The fire had spread to the top of the building and more people were gathered outside it. Some clustered together, others walking around, with still others running away. In the background, figures were walking slowly towards the dorm. I’d be surprised if those weren’t zombies attracted to the light of the fire. That means anyone still hanging around here is going to be in big trouble. He saw the girl with the crazy hair and teddy bear apart from everyone, staring at the dorm with slumped shoulders. Looking at her made him feel suddenly sad and he decided to do something about it.
“Stop for a second,” Blake said urgently.
“What? Why?” Carrey asked as he brought the cart to a quick halt.
“I can’t just stand by and watch all those people die,” he said as he hopped out. Without waiting for a response, he took off running towards the dormitory. “Hey! Get out of here! It’s not safe!” he said as he passed the girl with the crazy hair and teddy bear. Without waiting he ran close to the largest group of gawkers stood and yelled, “It’s dangerous here! Go find shelter! Get out of here! Come on! Run!”
He kept it up until he was sure people saw him. Much to his relief, some small groups of them even started leaving the area. The closest of the zombies finally managed to walk up one of the hapless bystanders and set upon him, bringing them both the ground. “Look there!” he pointed, shrieking in panic, “It’s eating him!!”
There was a slight pause as the crowd looked. When they realized what was happening they ran away screaming in any direction that would take them away from the gory scene. Blake ran too, back towards the carts and the GT-S. He was running towards the girl with the crazy hair and still, she stood there, unable or unwilling to move. The teddy bear slipped from her grasp and tumbled to the ground, forgotten.
"Run!" he shouted at her, waving his arms in the direction he was going.
She appeared not to have heard, staring at her impending doom.
He scooped up her teddy bear and grabbed her hand and pulled her with him.
"Come on! This way!" he told her, trying to spur her into action.
He had to pull her along a lot at first, with steps from her taken only to not fall to the ground. He was relentless though and continued to pull her along. Gradually, she started to try to keep up and after another moment of effort, she was running along with him.
He reached the cart and helped the girl inside, climbing in after her. Bree was already pulling away with the carts following after.
“That was a brave thing you did, man,” Kyle said almost approvingly. “Maybe some of them will survive.”
Blake allowed himself to relax a little, content to trust Bree and the others to get everyone to the next destination safely.
thirty-two
The trip to the car rental felt like a kids ride at an amusement park. Luckily there wasn’t too many of the infected on their route, but because of how slow they had to drive, whenever they passed any all the passengers had a chance to get a long look. Bree chose her path carefully though so despite how slow they were going, none of the zombies even got close to touching them.
When they finally rolled up to the car rental office, Blake couldn't see any signs of life or otherwise in it. The rental office wasn't too large, definitely not comparable to the car rentals that were adjacent to airports, but still seemed to have a decent number of new looking cars behind a chain link fence. This may work out after all. Bree had approached from a back street, moving from the east side of the building. Since most of the zombies were coming from the direction of the hotel casinos and seemed to be moving east towards the university, Blake had expected that they would’ve encountered many of them on the way here. That had been true at first, but as they approached their destination, the zombies had tapered off. Bree pulled into a driveway just before the street ended in a small turn around and found a parking spot next to a couple of cars. The carts came to a halt nearby.
Everyone exited their respective vehicles, gathered up and st
arted walking towards the rental. They walked past several cars that had license plate frames belonging to the car rental which made Blake feel a bit more optimistic. They approached the back of the place and Kyle tried the door. It opened easily enough. “I’ll check it out,” Kyle said.
“Be careful,” Bree cautioned, “It’s good that we don’t have to break in, but anything or anyone could be in there.” Kyle nodded then opened the door slowly and slipped inside. It was tense as shit for a couple of minutes until Kyle popped back into view holding the door open for them.
Bree went through followed by Kim who tossed Kyle a "thanks" as she crossed the threshold. Blake followed her in, curious about what they might find. He lowered his guard a bit then immediately brought it back up when he saw a crowd of what must have been thirty people standing outside the front of the rental office. Kim saw the same thing and inadvertently backed into him, causing her to jump in surprise. This reminded him that they needed to stay calm and level-headed, so he put his hand reassuringly on her shoulder more for himself than for her benefit. “They’re outside,” he rationalized, “It’s probably safe for now.”
With a nod and an exhale, she moved further inside, keeping as far away from the front of the office as possible. Everyone that followed after was of a similar mind and filed in behind the counter that served to separate clients from employees. Those who had packed luggage had piled it up along the front of the counter closest to the side door where they'd come in. “Look around for car keys,” Carrey suggested.