by Stevie Kopas
“I don’t care what kind of day you had! Get over it!” Michelle had her finger in Catherine’s face. “This is all fucked!”
Ben and Andrew jogged over to the corner of the roof where the speaker setup was. “What’s going on?” Andrew furrowed his brow.
“Dr. Idiot left everything uncovered last night. Take a look around, see how it’s all nice and wet? That’s called rain.” Her hair was a wild mess and her eyes were full of anger.
“I’m so sorry. I, I just didn’t even think about it.” Catherine stammered and raised a hand to her forehead.
“Look, Michelle, I was up here too last night. It’s as much as my fault.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Michelle shook her head at Ben, “it wasn’t your responsibility.”
“There’s a whole cell phone store down there full of phones and speakers. It’s not a big deal, we’ll just swap everything out. All this did was just cost us some extra time.”
Michelle laughed hysterically. “How many weeks do you think we’ve been here? This is the last of the charged phones. All that extra shit downstairs is dead! All of it!” Gary was busy fiddling with the phones on the ground, pulling the batteries out and attempting to dry out the insides. Michelle kicked one of the speakers beside him and he jumped as it went flying, water splashing out of it as it slid and bounced across the roof. “Like I said, this is fucked.” She pulled a cigarette out and let out an exasperated sigh, “Can somebody please give me a lighter?”
Ben tossed his to her and walked over to the ledge where Catherine and Lulu were standing, quietly talking. The eaters below were in a frenzy, attracted to all the yelling and excitement on the roof. They’d nearly doubled in their numbers overnight. Ben looked down into the crowd full of snapping mouths and glazed eyes gazing up at him, blood soaked hands hungrily reaching upwards, clawing at the building, clawing at one another.
“If one person can cause all this,” Lulu pointed down at the dead, “there’s no reason that a whole group of us wouldn’t be able to bring the whole damn parking lot over here.” She scanned the lot as she spoke, eyeing the clusters that had formed throughout the shopping center. She couldn’t imagine what an aerial view would look like, she shuddered to think how many hundreds more there were lurking around Emerald Park that she couldn’t see.
“It’s our only option. The whole building is surrounded, our only saving grace is that they have no idea how to get inside.” Catherine’s eyes were red, her face even more pale than the usual. She looked exhausted.
Veronica joined them near the ledge, arms folded across her chest. She wore Lulu’s clothes, a much better fit than her oversized findings from Gary’s collection and despite the bandaged face, was looking more like her fierce self in this moment. She spotted the entrance to Target. Amidst the dead shuffling by the entry way lie a grisly pile of human remains that the dead neglected to devour. Samson’s blood still streaked the glass in such a manner that even the rain couldn’t wash it away. She felt her face grow hot and her nostrils flare. Ben watched her as without a word she retrieved the speaker Michelle had kicked away. With a powerful scream she reared her arm back and launched the useless electronic into a group of eaters that seemed to be ignoring the building. The group below them, as if attending a show, roared in response, soon joined by more roaming eaters that now were aware of the food on the roof. Catherine picked up the other speaker and followed suit. Soon enough, everyone on the roof was hollering and throwing things, causing such a raucous that if they hadn’t already been up and walking, the dead would have been awakened.
“Where are the keys for the bike chains you keep on the doors downstairs?” Andrew asked Michelle.
“In the salon, why?”
“Doesn’t look like we’re gonna be going out the fire door. There’s way too many of ‘em.”
“Now would be as good a time as any to get our asses movin’ Gary!” Andrew and Michelle were already running toward the roof hatch.
“Somebody needs to lock us out! Lu, come on!” Michelle called out before heading downstairs, Lulu grabbed Gary’s arm and sprinted for the hatch.
“Ben, you’ve got us covered, yeah?” Gary shouted back at him as he ran.
“Don’t you worry your bald British head, my friend. Be careful out there!”
Michelle moved swiftly and gracefully through the building, grabbing a backpack and Francis’ set of keys in one fell swoop from the salon. She gave the room one last look around before leaving for good. She tossed the keys to Lulu and began tying her hair back tightly. “Ya gotta be fast Lu, you can do this, I know you.” For once Lulu appeared confident, and even though these weren’t the best of circumstances, she was never more proud to have such a friend in the woman. She pulled her in and hugged her tightly before stepping into place behind Gary.
“Everybody armed?” Michelle and Gary nodded in unison as Andrew put his hand on the café’s door handle, “Alright, brace yourselves, let’s go.”
The four of them ran through the putrid stench of the café straight for the front doors. None of them spoke. They held their breath as best they could as Lulu removed the bike lock from the doors and turned the deadbolt. Gary, Andrew and Michelle bolted through the entrance and Lulu quickly pulled them shut, sliding the bolt and replacing the bike lock. Her hands shook and her heart pounded as she slammed the café door behind her for good and dry heaved in the fire corridor.
The wet ground proved to be a bad cover for the trio headed toward the banking complex. Their shoes noisily slapped the pavement and splashed puddles as they ran. At least the sky was overcast, today was not the day they needed the blinding Florida sun in their eyes. The rest of the group on the roof continued to yell and scream, attempting to create as much of a distraction as possible. Random shots rang out as Ben fired into the dead that surrounded them.
“Incoming!” Gary cried out.
Andrew raised his pistol and fired, two eaters had come up on their left and lunged at Gary. Gary was able to dodge the first but was knocked to the ground by the deadweight of the second just as Andrew put a bullet in its head. Michelle sprinted passed him and Andrew grabbed his arm and pulled him along, barely stopping to give him enough time to regain his footing. “Gotta keep movin’ man!”
They bobbed and weaved through cars once they made it to the highway, the dead were still in hot pursuit. Gary turned just in time to see an eater as it crawled its way across the hood of a vehicle at an alarming rate. The clothes were falling off of its emaciated frame, chunks of flesh missing from its neck and arms, it was almost right on top of Michelle when Gary finally got a shot off. The bullet exited the other side of its head, producing a sickening black cloud of gore and rot. Michelle barely flinched.
The group made it up to the abandoned building and headed for the back. Industrial fencing and barbed wire at least 12 feet high ran the perimeter of the lot that the armored trucks were kept in. “Keep ‘em off me!” Michelle cried out as she dropped the backpack to the ground and removed one of the bike locks she’d stuffed inside. Gary and Andrew fought off the dead with blasts of gunfire while she readjusted the bag on her back and shot at the fence. “Fuck! Concentrate, concentrate.” She coached herself as she took one more careful shot at the lock on the fence and the gate popped open. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” The three of them scurried behind the temporary safety of the fence and Michelle snapped the lock into place, pulling back her hand just in time as the bloated, formerly middle aged store clerk waddled up to the fence and chomped his teeth down. The eater’s teeth cracked and broke off against the metal, Michelle’s look of horror turned to relief as she checked and rechecked her fingers for any break in the skin. She grinned at the eater, black blood and pus oozing from its rotten mouth. “Fuck you, fatty. No lunch for you today.” She hurried to catch up with Gary and Andrew. Andrew attempted to break through the glass to get the bank’s doors unlocked but just as he figured, it was shatter proof. He fired three rounds into the lock on the door and pu
lled it open, ushering the others inside.
The inside of the bank smelled surprisingly fresh and clean. The office furniture, minus the settled dust, was immaculate and the carpet felt plush and new. Michelle peered through the blinds and saw the growing crowd at the fence. “Hey, I don’t know how long that’s gonna hold. We need to find these keys and get going.”
“I’ll check the offices. You two, get movin’.” Andrew began tearing the place apart. Gary jumped over the teller’s counter and disappeared around the corner while Michelle ran upstairs to search the second floor. After what seemed like an eternity of precious wasted time, Gary emerged from the back with a handful of truck keys.
“I’m superstitious. They’ve got to be the right numbers.” He laid out a few sets of keys on a desk.
Andrew rolled his eyes. “You kiddin’ me?”
“No. I am not.” Gary carefully thought about which set of keys to which truck he would choose and Andrew called out to Michelle, grabbing a random set off the desk.
A crash was heard outside and Andrew made it to the window just in time to see the dead pouring through the vulnerable gate like lava. “We gotta move! Now!” Michelle heard the noise outside and the urgency in Andrew’s voice and put two and two together, rushing down the stairs into the lobby.
Gary calmly lifted a set of keys and dangled them in front of his face. “Okay, we can go.” The cheer in his voice made Andrew sick but there wasn’t any time for emotions. The three of them plowed through the side entrance as the horde of undead made their way into the back of the bank. They raced to the trucks that matched the numbers on the keys and separated, Andrew to his truck, Michelle and Gary to theirs.
“Get in the back, you’ll be more useful at lifting all that shit into the truck.” Gary nodded and they heard the roar of an engine somewhere off in the lot. “Andrew’s ready, let’s get this thing started.” Michelle hesitated for a moment before turning the key in the ignition. She thought of all those awful parts in horror movies where the car wouldn’t start just as the killer crashed through the window and caught up to his victim. An eater’s face suddenly appeared in the driver’s side window, pounding on the armored truck and screaming. She jumped and a scream escaped her lips.
“What is it?” Gary, concerned, hollered from the back of the truck.
Michelle shook her head and started the truck. She eyed the dead thing pushing its face against the window, smearing it’s disgusting fluids all over the glass like a snail, snarling at her like a dog. “Everything’s fine.” She put the oversized truck into gear and floored it, she briefly checked the side mirror to see that Andrew was following and yelled for Gary to hang on. The truck smashed through the gate, plowing through the dead and making it onto the road with barely a scratch on it. She eased the truck through the backed up traffic and car accidents and onto the other side of the highway, sliding into Emerald Park and toward the building. She could see as everyone began to run for the hatch, eager to load the approaching truck up. She smiled, for once, in a world like this, things were going as planned.
“Alright Gary, get ready. This isn’t going to be easy.” Michelle swung the truck around, the enormous tires rolling over and crushing bodies that should have already been dead. Skulls and body parts crunched under the truck’s weight, howls filled the air and the truck, as massive as it was, shook from the dead repeatedly slamming into it. Fortunately for Gary, he was on the back end and they were not so interested. He crouched at the back doors, watching for his chance through the small window, Michelle slowly rolled backward toward the fire exit door. It flew open and the terrified face of Lulu appeared, she screamed and recoiled into the building as she saw the horrific scene of carnage before her. “Back it up faster! Go!” Gary held on to the metal grating on either side of him and braced himself as the truck’s momentum shifted and was brought to an abrupt halt just shy of crashing into the building. His chest heaved and his heart pounded. Lulu peeked out at him. “That was a close one, eh?”
Ben appeared in the doorway and thrust a hand out, helping him out of the truck and into the corridor. “Let’s get to work.”
As the group in the building worked on stocking the truck, Andrew drove in circles, attempting to create a distraction while his comrades did their business. The dead followed after him in almost a comical fashion as he did figure eights and donuts. The eaters were torn by their options but soon figured out that they couldn’t catch up to Andrew, they made their way back to the building in order to join the existing crowd. Andrew noticed and cussed, “Shit.” His attention turned to the windshield as droplets of rain began to fall. “Double shit.” He stopped the truck and fumbled with the wipers.
“That about does it. I’ll barely be able to squeeze myself up to the front.” Gary patted Ben’s shoulders with both hands. “I’ll see you back at Emerald City, safe travels my friend. You too ladies, especially you.” He flashed Veronica his signature cheerful grin and climbed back inside the rocking truck.
“You too, Gary.” Veronica turned and headed for the roof.
“Michelle!” Lulu called out to her. “I’ll see you soon!” Lulu couldn’t see her or make out what Michelle said in response but she heard her, and that was enough, she knew she was okay. Gary hollered and Michelle stepped on the gas.
Lulu and Catherine took off after Veronica and Ben pulled the fire door closed when he knew the truck was clear. The door stopped short of closing as an eater shoved its arm inside after Ben. Ben cried out and attempted opening and closing the door back onto the dead arm to shake it off but it wouldn’t work. The thing’s arm moved around furiously, trying to get a hold of Ben, screeching and squawking, drawing more of the undead to the door. There was nothing left for Ben to do, there was no way he was getting that door closed. He gave the door one last pull and sprinted down the hall, the deafening wails of the eaters filled the corridor and sent shivers down his spine. He pounced on the ladder and shouted up at the roof, pulling himself up and looking back down only once to see the eaters piling up below him. He scrambled across the roof and saw the horrified faces of the women he was with. “They’re inside. They got inside.”
Catherine jumped up and down, waiving her arms wildly at Andrew and screaming for him. The truck began to head toward the building as the rain pounded down from cloud covered sky. Andrew pulled up to the side of the building with a screech of tires, metal scraping the stucco, the passenger side mirror flying off. The emergency hatch on the roof of the truck flew open and Andrew’s head popped out, “Come on ya’ll! Careful now, this roof is slick!” Catherine was the first over the ledge with no hesitation, she dropped the five or so feet down onto the roof with a thud and a yelp, scurrying down into the hatch with Andrew’s help.
“Veronica, go.” Ben ordered.
“No, you first.” She bit her lip and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not leaving you like Samson.”
Ben respected her statement and nodded. He pulled himself over and dropped gracefully to the roof of the truck, holding up his arms. “Come on now!”
The eaters’ screams from inside the building were getting louder, Lulu began to breathe heavily, panic setting in. “You go ahead Lulu, they can’t get up here, don’t worry.” Veronica comforted her and tried to help her over the ledge but Lulu panicked and slipped, falling onto Ben. Ben tried to catch her but slipped when tumbled onto him. She cried out as she tried getting up and lost her footing, eaters were running full speed at the truck and ramming into it. Lulu slid off the roof of the truck, screaming. Ben hollered out for her and lunged forward, trying to grab on to her but missing by mere inches. She hit the pavement with a crack and howled in pain. Lulu didn’t even have time to register what had happened as in a matter of seconds the eaters were on top of her, ripping into her flesh and tearing her insides out. She screamed in agony and Ben turned away, appalled at what was happening. Veronica had already made her way down from the ledge and grabbed Ben’s arm. “We need to go.” She yelled ove
r the sounds of the environment. Between the hammering of the rain, the sloppy sounds of the eaters feasting and Lulu’s shrieks, she could barely hear herself think. He nodded and scooted over to the hatch waiting for Veronica. She peered down at Lulu’s twisted grimace as she was eaten alive. Ben’s eyes widened as he watched Veronica pull the 9mm Gary had given her from her waistband, putting Lulu out of her misery.
“We need to go.” She said once more to Ben as she waited for him to drop down into the truck before doing so herself.
X
“I never did like plans.” Michelle said as she exhaled cigarette smoke. She gazed out through the foggy glass of the sky bridge that connected the parking garage with the central tower of Emerald City. “End of the world or not, nothing ever goes as planned.” She spoke in a casual tone with an expressionless face.
“I’d have to agree with you there.” Veronica stood beside her, staring down at the mindless dead who milled about the dirty streets, wondering how Michelle would react to Lulu’s death. She had been the one to put her down, she figured it was only appropriate that she tell Michelle about it.
But Michelle already knew. She had seen her friend disappear off the side of the truck out of her view and knew that was it. Lulu was gone, just like everyone else, and there was nothing she could do about it. Gary’s plan had been simple, but it hadn’t included Lulu’s death. Michelle’s plans had been simple as well: eliminate all threats, take control of Emerald Park, take control of her own life for once. She saw this new world as one for the taking, but maybe she had been wrong. She hadn’t planned on more survivors, she hadn’t planned on leaving the building she had called her own, she hadn’t planned on Lulu’s death. Michelle simply hadn’t planned on the end of the world. She dropped the cigarette to the carpeted floor and stomped it out. “Let’s grab a luggage cart and get to it.” Veronica watched her walk off.
