by Scott W Cook
I threw the door open and was greeted by the sight of half a dozen G’s peering back at me. There was a split second when there was no reaction. As if they’d been surprised to see living people behind the door. It was almost comical.
That second quickly passed, however, and the normally vacant placid faces twisted into grimaces. I know that these beings were essentially mindless feeding machines. There was no thought or emotion. The virus that had transformed them sought only to perpetuate itself.
Yet… yet the twisted expressions on what was left of their grayish faces seemed almost enraged. It was as if the zombies weren’t just reacting to seeing food, but were infuriated by it.
This was probably just my imagination. I quickly put a bullet in three of the faces before me. In the strobe of my muzzle flashes, I saw clouds of blackish blood blossom into the darkness and the bodies fall back, temporarily pushing back their fellow monsters.
Andrea was beside me with her M4, and she took down another three.
I peeked out and saw that there were more ghouls in the hallway leading back to the rear of the building. No surprise there. Then I turned my head and looked into the lobby… and my heart seemed to skip a beat.
“Oh my God!” Andrea said breathlessly, “they’re out front too!”
“Of fucking course!” Carl bitched, “Can we shoot our way through?”
As if to answer him, a seething mass of rotting flesh pressed in on us. Gray hands and scabby oozing arms reached out, to pull us into hideous decaying jaws that could never be satiated.
“Go for it,” I quipped as I yanked the door back toward us.
“So we’re trapped?” Carl said.
“Looks that way,” Andrea said, “Any other helpful facts you want to share, captain obvious?”
“Come on,” I said, “Our only option is up. We’re gonna have to try and get out a window or…”
“Or what?” Carl asked as we bolted up to the second floor.
I shrugged, which was kind of stupid in the darkness. Even with my flash, Carl probably wouldn’t have seen it, “No idea. Never been trapped in an office building by five hundred walking corpses before. Guess we’ll just have to wing it.”
“What about the door to the stairs?” Carl asked. There was something in his voice I didn’t like. It sounded like panic.
“It’s got a turning handle you have to pull outward from the hallway,” Andrea answered for me, “They can’t figure it out.”
“then how’d they get up to the top of the other stairwell?” Carl asked.
He was right. All the stairs opened out and had turning handles, at least on the outside. That meant the ghouls must be able to turn the handle and pull…
I pushed the door to the second floor open and was all but bowled over when Andrea and Carl slammed into my back as I came up short.
“Oh shit…” Andrea breathed.
Zombies were pouring into the cubicle city. It looked like a hundred office workers were late and rushing to their desks… except that these people were no longer people and they no longer cared about putting new cover sheets on their weekly reports or whether or not somebody had a “case of the Mondays.”
Instead, they were a moaning, snarling and gnashing mass of former humanity who came after us with a zeal that drove them onward relentlessly. Some shambled along barely managing to keep a course and others moved with remarkable dexterity… well, for a zombie anyway.
They wouldn’t be setting any hundred yard dash records anytime soon, but some of them were moving at a fast walk or even a slow jog. It probably had something to do with how damaged they were when they’d turned.
“Yeah… we’re going to need you guys to go ahead and come in on Sunday too,” I drawled, “We lost a few people this week and need to play catch up… thanks.”
Andrea looked at me with wide eyes, “Seriously? You’re doing fucking Lumberg?”
I grinned with delight that she got my Office Space movie reference.
Carl muttered something and raised his M4 and began firing on full auto at the oncoming munch. His shooting discipline was poor, more so even than it had been when we’d first met. He burned through a thirty round magazine in seconds and had only taken down about half a dozen ghouls.
“Save it!” I shouted, “Back into the stairwell!”
We ducked back in and once again went upward.
“Sharky,” Andrea said, “This is it. If there are G’s on this floor…”
“I know,” I said, “Carl, swap your mag and don’t fire until I tell you. There’s no point in wasting ammo now. We’ve got to make every shot count so keep it on burst or single shot!”
“Fuck, Sam!” Carl said a little shakily, “There are a lot more of them than we’ve got bullets right now.”
“Right,” I said, “So let’s not waste them. Fortunately we don’t have to face this entire group in the open. This building will corral them somewhat and might give us a chance.”
“Or it might trap us,” Carl pointed out.
“Yeah, but it won’t be dull,” I said.
We stood on the third floor landing and waited. It was quiet up there, and I pressed my ear to the door. I didn’t hear anything.
“Sounds clear for now,” I said, “We’ll see what we can do up here.”
“The ghouls will eventually make it to the third floor,” Carl said, “And we’ll be trapped, so what’s the point?”
“Right now, they’re flooding into the floor below,” I said, “Following the heard, I guess. The point is that it buys us time to figure something out. There must, for example, be a way onto the roof. These stairs don’t go up there but there’s got to be a utility ladder somewhere on this floor. The zombies can’t follow us up that.”
I thought Carl might protest when there came the sound of the first floor door banging open. In the dim light of my flash, we all glanced at each other in disbelief.
“That door opens out,” Andrea reiterated, “You have to turn the handle and pull… how could they do that?”
“I’ve never seen one do anything but push,” Carl offered, “That’s a pretty complex set of movements for a zombie.”
I shrugged, “No idea. They’re stupid, that’s for sure, but they are predators. If they can figure out… although maybe that’s the wrong term… if they can utilize a doorway by pushing, then maybe pulling isn’t beyond them. Could just be that one ghoul simply latched onto the handle and was jerking it around and was bumped into by another when the handle was turned. The ghoul falls back or to the side without letting go because it’s too stupid to let go…”
Carl nodded. He seemed happier with this basic explanation rather than the alternative that these undead automatons were beginning to solve, albeit simple, problems. Yet in my heart I knew the truth. Either they were a bit more dexterous than we thought… or they were improving, if only slightly.
I pushed open our door and stepped out into an empty and quiet hallway. I heard Carl breathe a sigh of relief behind me.
“Okay,” I said, “Andrea, you’ve been in this building before, right?”
She shrugged, “Once or twice.”
“Damn…” I muttered, “I don’t suppose you know where the ladder might be.”
“Somewhere on this floor, I’d guess,” She said with a death’s head grin.
“Oh, that’s fucking hilarious,” Carl snapped, “What’s a zombie apocalypse without a comedy act.”
“Stress reliever, Carl,” I said, “Okay then. First we check the stairs. If the ladder isn’t near one of them, then my guess would be somewhere in the center in a utility closet or some shit.”
The ladder wasn’t near the front stairs where we were, of course. Why should anything be easy?
“Let’s hot foot it to the rear—“ I began.
Carl held up a hand and pointed, “Wait. There’s a floor map here.”
Next to the elevator was a small directory board and graphical map of the floor. It showed a top down vie
w of the building, indicating the offices and conference rooms as well as the utility room closet. It didn’t say anything about roof access, however. And of course, the utility closet was just across from the rear stairs.
“Let’s move,” I said, taking off down the hall.
Andrea and Carl were right on my six and once again nearly bowled me over as I slid to a stop at the corner. I peeked around and saw an empty hallway.
“Clear,” I said, “Cross your fingers.”
The utility closet wasn’t exactly across from the stairwell access but about twenty feet down the hallway past it. We arrived at the door and, as you’d expect, found it locked.
“For Christ’s sake!” Carl groused, “Shoot the knob.”
“It’s not like in the movies, Carl,” I said, “But it’s what we’ve got.”
I stepped back, aimed my .44 at the knob… and turned my head to the right to watch the stairwell door burst open and a flood of moaning living dead begin to pour into the hallway.
I read a book once by Arthur C. Clarke called A Fall of Moondust. In this book, a sort of moon bus on skis took tourists out for rides on the moon’s dust. It was thought then that the dust was so fine and so deep that you’d just sink right down.
Anyway, this moon bus thing got caught in a landslide or moonquake or something and sank thirty feet into this super fine dust. Right at the end when they were being rescued, the aft end of the vehicle was breeched and dust began to fill the cabin, coming on slowly and inexorably to bury everyone.
Kind of like the blob, too I guess.
Anyway, the point is that watching first two or three ghouls pop out of the door, then six, then ten, and so on made me think of that. This wave of death that grew steadily larger and was flowing toward you with only one possible outcome – that you’d be consumed.
I turned back and pulled the trigger. The doorknob was blown off and away by the large caliber bullet.
“Good, now open the fucking thing!” Carl shouted in a voice that definitely held an element of panic.
“I told you it wasn’t that easy,” I said, drawing my Ka-bar, “Cover me.”
As Carl and Andrea began to shoot the ever growing crowd of hungry monsters, I began to pry the remains of the locking mechanism out of the knob hole. It took a lot more effort than I would’ve thought. Somebody sure was afraid of losing their Windex.
“Anytime now!” Andrea barked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m working on it,” I said flippantly, “They’re in a hallway, and you shouldn’t have any trouble.”
I glanced to my right and was surprised to see how many G’s had made it in. Although Andrea and Carl were creating a respectable pile, the zombies were pouring over it faster than they could build up the organic wall that had worked so well in the past.
“Fuck…” Carl moaned. The zombies were only about ten feet away.
The final bit of flange I’d been working on came loose and I was able to pull the hasp out… and pushed the door in.
“It’s open!” I said.
Andrea looked back and saw the door swinging in and that there was no knob. Her eyes grew wide, “You’re kidding me, right?”
I grinned, “Let’s see what’s in here.”
I shined my flash into the ten by fifteen room and did in fact see a steel ladder near the rear behind some boxes and plastic containers, “It’s here, let’s go!”
Carl and Andrea dove into the room and pushed the door closed. The urgent moans and wales of the dead were reduced but not cut off completely. They were coming and since the door opened inward, would have no trouble getting at us.
I pushed Andrea aside and leaned against the door. Already the things outside were pressing on it and it took some effort to hold them back, “Andrea, go up and get that hatch open, quick!”
She slung her M4 and darted up the metal ladder. After only a few seconds, she called down, ‘It’s stuck!”
“Oh come on!” Carl complained.
“Locked?” I asked, feeling the door buck behind us.
“I don’t think so,” She called down from the small space between the ceiling of the room and the roof above, “Just corroded.”
“Can you get it?” Carl asked frantically.
“I’m trying,” Andrea said.
“Classic horror movie shit,” I joked with Carl, hoping to keep him calm. The quality of panic in his voice was growing more toward hysteria every time he spoke. Although I had my flash clipped to my rifle, I had it pointed in Andrea’s direction and couldn’t see his face, but I’d bet anything he was sweating profusely.
“What?” Carl chirped in a semi-hysterical register.
“Just breathe, Carl,” I said, “We’re not licked yet. Don’t let your fear cloud your logic. Just breathe deeply and push!”
“I ain’t giving birth!” Carl tried to joke, although it came across a bit more unhinged than he probably wanted.
I laughed and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, “That’s the spirit!”
It was a classic zombie movie situation, though. Here we were, with only one means of escape and a munch of ghouls were pressing in on us, each passing minute bringing our demise closer. There was no way Carl and I could hold the door forever.
And of course, our one escape route was locked or jammed or whatever. Even worse, our physically weakest team member was in charge of muscling it open. There was no time to exchange places, because it also took the two strongest team members to hold the zombies back.
Fucking classic.
The door bulged inward at least a foot, nearly pitching Carl off of his feet. We both rammed our bodies backward, sliding our backs down the door so that our legs were further ahead of us and providing greater leverage. It wasn’t enough, though.
Carl was on the opening edge of the door and at least three rotting forearms were wriggling between the door jam and the door itself. The monsters had wedged themselves in. It was only a matter of seconds before the gray flood would drown us.
‘How much space is up there?” I shouted.
“About six feet!” Andrea exclaimed between curses. I could hear her banging around up there.
“Carl!” I shouted, “Jump up the ladder and help her.”
“You can’t hold them by yourself!” Carl all but shrieked.
“Fucking move!” I roared.
Carl didn’t need much convincing. It’d probably taken all he had not to flee already. He slung his rifle and leapt forward, going up the ladder and nearly missing his footing at least once.
He was right, the force of the ghouls pressing on the door and being compelled by their brethren pushing them from behind was too much. These things weren’t particularly strong by themselves, weaker than a human of the same size… but there were lots of them and one of me. My feet began to slide on the linoleum floor.
“Couldn’t be fucking carpet, right?” I bitched.
I could hear Carl and Andrea yelling above me and more banging.
“Haven’t you guys got that fucking hatch open yet?” I hollered, “Our friends are awfully insistent on brunch!”
No answer. Just more swearing.
I had maybe two or three seconds before they’d push the door open wide enough to get in. Already more gray arms were poking out around the door and waving their infected talons around only inches from my face.
I cast my eyes around the utility closet. There were stacks of boxes and containers and two metal shelves loaded with cleaning paraphernalia on the adjacent walls. Not much cover.
“What the hell’s the deal?” I shouted, “How hard can this be?”
“There’s a lever that you have to turn!” Andrea called, “And it won’t!”
“Not even with two of you?” I asked.
“It’s rusted!” Carl hollered.
“Well, I’m about to join you,” I said as the door slid me another few inches.
I had one shot at this. I gave the door one last backward heave and then took three long strides to
the ladder. I didn’t go up it right away, though. Instead, I grabbed the end of one of the eight foot long shelving stacks nearest me and yanked it sideways, twisting my body behind it as I did.
The metal shelf and its contents fell toward the door and onto the zombies who’d burst through, entangling them.
It would only last a second or two, though, and I vaulted up the ladder and found that the small vertical tunnel Andrea and Carl were in would barely be large enough to contain me.
Of course.
Luckily, however, there was some space on the backside of the ladder that was empty. A crazy idea popped into my head.
“Carl, can you swing around to the other side of the ladder,” I suggested, “I’ll go up next to Andrea and help tug on the release handle. You push from the other side.”
“I…” Carl said hesitantly and didn’t move.
With my rifle slung over my shoulder, the flash clipped to the barrel was more or less pointing upward. I could see the hatch and the long metal handle they were both working on.
I could also see that Carl had his legs wrapped around the ladder and one hand gripped the upright near him with white knuckled force.
“Come on!” I shouted, “I don’t think I’ll fit in that space and with three of us working, we should get this.”
The zombies were below me now, their grasping hands clawing at my booted feet. I was tucked up as much as possible, but their lifeless claws were still touching me. Not enough to get a purchase, as yet, but it was only a matter of time.
“Okay….” Carl said between short breaths. He was starting to hyperventilate.
“Just take it easy,” I said as calmly as I could. But how calm can you be with flesh eating monsters grabbing at your feet? “Take deep slow breaths, Carl. You’re safe up there, they can’t get to you.”
“Yeah…” Carl huffed.
He began to slide around the ladder and into the space on the backside. It was a slow process and seemed to take forever.
Come on, fucker, I thought to myself.
He finally wedged himself in and I pushed my way up beside Andrea, “Hey baby, come here often?”
