by Birch, S. C.
“Will you two pay fucking attention?” Owen snapped.
Jack, Cameron, and Daniel led the way. They handled their guns expertly and moved around like trained soldiers. Jack had played enough video games to know what he was doing; Cameron had enough real experience, again with his brother after their parents died; and Daniel? Nobody knew what was going on there. Not even him.
When they reached floor Thirteen, Jack and Daniel tried to push the door open, but this one had a chain on it too, and only opened by inches.
“Now what?” whispered a voice in the middle of the pack.
“Here.” said Other Lucy. She slipped her hands into her satchel and pulled out a compact mirror. “Use this.” she pushed her way forwards and held it to Jack.
Jack looked at it in disgust, then at her in the same way, “How is that going to help us?”
Other Lucy shook her outstretched arm, “Slide it under the door and see if anyone’s out there!”
And while Jack was coming to terms with being outsmarted by Other Lucy, Daniel nabbed the mirror. He slid down, pushed it under the door, and looked to the outside.
“We’re good. There’s no soldiers.” said Daniel.
“But that still doesn’t help us actually get through the door.” said Jack, claiming back a win from Other Lucy.
Grace slipped forwards, “This is good. If you can push the door open a little, I can pick the lock from this side.”
Daniel and Jack pushed their weight into the door, opening it as far as it would go.
“God,” Jack said, “if we weren’t really fucking busy right now I would kiss the shit out of you.”
Grace slid her hands through the small gap, “Later.”
“Good lord of all fucks. Really? You think now is, like, really the time for this?” asked Emily.
“Well,” said Jack still leaning on the door, “we’re all about to die, apparently. When’s a better time to get all sentimental on each other.”
Emily threw her arms in the air, “Just. What?”
“Don’t you two turn this into a fucking Brooker fight!” said Owen from behind the group on the stairs.
“Got it.” Grace said and pulled her hands out.
With his gun pointed forwards, Cameron pushed through the doors and shouted, “We’re going to get you all out. Zombies are in the city. Let us know if you’re in here!”
Screams and thumps flooded the hall.
Owen led the way forwards and started cracking open the locks. The people who emerged from their rooms asked questions and shouted. But Owen didn’t have time to answer them, he needed to keep working.
He burst open every door he found, even the ones that were quiet, just in case some poor fuck was asleep. But, with other people’s help, they cleared floor Thirteen with relative ease. Then they had thirty-three in their group.
Then they went to the Twelfth floor, rescued everyone, and had forty in their group.
Then they reached eleventh and final floor. But this one was occupied. Daniel used the little mirror and saw guards standing right in front of them. Daniel held up two fingers and pointed to the door, letting everyone know the situation.
“Shit.” whispered Jack.
Cameron stared long and hard at the door, he held up two fingers and looked at Daniel, and Daniel nodded.
“Okay.” Cameron whispered to himself, “Get down now!” he screamed and dropped to the ground, firing his gun at the door.
Bullets and painful yells shot back. Then there was silence.
“Grace! Get the door!” Cameron shouted.
Jack and Daniel again pushed forwards on the doors and Grace picked at the lock behind.
“Oh shit, Lucy!” said Owen. He slid down the stairs to her and held her arm. She had a neat slice on her leather coat just above her elbow and blood was dribbling out of the wound.
“Our Lucy or Other Lucy?” asked Jack.
Owen ripped off his scarf and tied it around Lucy’s arm, “Our Lucy!”
“Shit! What happened?” asked Jack.
Lucy, who was pumped full of adrenalin, hadn’t noticed and the pain hadn’t hit her yet. “I got shot!” she shouted in surprise.
Cameron spun around and looked at Lucy, “Oh God! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Lucy shouted, “just my arm got hit.”
Jack scowled at Cameron, “Nicely done.”
“Oh fuck! Lucy, I’m so sorry.” said Cameron.
“It’s fine! I don’t see any other way we were getting out of that so it’s fine.” Lucy shouted back while Owen finished wrapping her up.
Jack continued to scowl, “Smooth.”
“Well I didn’t see you doing anything!” Cameron shouted.
“Got it.” said Grace.
Then they entered that floor. Cameron wandered to the two dead soldiers. He had absolutely no clue how he had managed that - but fuck logic! He crouched down low and took their guns. Cameron passed one to Owen and the other to Emily. Then, while people were being freed, Cameron did a morbid and horrid thing. He started feeling around the bleeding soldiers.
“Sweet fuck, Cam! What are you doing?” Emily shrieked.
Cameron winced, “Getting ammo. If you want you can take over.”
“Oh.” Emily said, realising that it was a rather sensible idea, “No, you’re okay.”
Cameron slid a magazine into his back pocket, “Thanks.” He found another four after that and handed one to Jack, Daniel, Owen, and the last one he slid into the side pocket of Emily’s bag.
Now worried about how well her arm would hold up if she needed to defend herself, Lucy took a shotgun from Daniel’s bag and some shells from Emily as the large group descended the stairs. The screams and bullets from outside steadily grew.
“Em!” shouted Cameron, “Get up here now!”
Emily slipped through the living herd and found Cameron at the front.
“Stay beside me, constantly.” Cameron said as they rounded a corner and climbed down again.
“And me.” chimed in Jack.
Cameron groaned. “Jack! She has the ammo. This isn’t some bravado thing!”
Jack looked at Cameron from the corner of his eye, “Fair enough.”
They made their way to the lowest level, all sixty-four of them. They followed the emergency exit signs through the corridors and found the fire door ahead of them.
Daniel sprinted forwards and threw all his weight into it, but it hardly budged.
“Jack, I need your help.” he said.
Jack ran forwards and tried to push the door too. “The hell?” he said. The two of them used everything they had to get the door open, but it just wouldn’t move.
“What’s wrong?” Owen asked as he reached them.
“The stupid fucking door won’t open!” Jack barked. But as he did, the door freed the smallest amount, and a hand pushed through from the other side. Its bones and ligaments poking out from under its rotting skin.
Jack yelped and fell back.
The zombie on the other side screamed and flailed around. Trying to ram its face and hands through the tiny gap.
“Oh, fuck you!” Emily said. She pushed past her friends, pulled out her machete, and slashed at the zombie. It wriggled and wailed, trying to free itself. But Emily kept on stabbing, “I’m-having-a-really-bad-fucking-day-and-you’re-not-fucking-helping!”
She and the zombie wrestled, both trying to kill the other.
“Get fucking murdered!” Emily yelled and drove the blade through its skull.
The zombie stopped moving, and Emily yanked her machete free and stumbled backwards. The zombie slithered down the door and collapsed on the ground.
“You’re welcome!” Emily barked and sheathed her machete back in her belt.
“Err, thanks?” said Daniel, who had never been more scared of a girl ever before in his life.
Jack tried the door again, but it still wouldn’t move. He looked out the small gap, “Fucking hell! There’s a car
blocking the door! Dick move!”
“We need to go back. And right now. We can’t afford to waste any more time here.” Cameron said, then he doubled back and pushed through the other survivors.
“Oh, Christ.” Owen said and followed Cameron. He and his fellow warriors walked past everyone and back to the stairs. There they found another set of double doors. The same as on the other floors, and Owen was betting it had a chain around it too.
Daniel, once he caught up with Owen, slid the mirror under the door. “Well that’s that ruined. There’s hundreds out there. And there’s another chain.” he whispered amongst his friends who had now all grouped at the front of the pack.
“What?” said Jack and nudged Daniel out the way to have a look for himself, “There’s like thirty or something. We can deal with that.”
“Zombies or Soldiers?” Lucy asked.
“Zom-boys.” Jack replied.
“Oh,” said Lucy, “actually I’m not sure which answer I would have preferred.”
Jack and Daniel pushed the door open and Grace slid her hands through. She worked as silently as possible, fearing the zombies would hear.
“Can you really take that many?” asked Blondie who had pushed his way forwards.
“Pft. Easy.” Jack said, “We’ve dealt with more without guns.”
“Got it again.” said Grace.
Just as Jack and Daniel were about to push their way through, Emily grabbed their arms and her large gun flailed around on the strap from her shoulder.
“Wait, wait, wait!” she said far more loudly than anyone was comfortable with, “Where do we go next?”
“Oh yeah,” said Owen, “we never did get that far.”
“What does it matter?” asked Other Lucy, “Let’s just get out of here.”
“It matters,” said Our Lucy, “because we don’t want to get out there and have a fucking debate on the matter while the undead decide to eat us.”
“Nicely put.” said Jack.
Lucy turned to her friends, “We go to our cars and get the hell out of here, finally.”
“But what about us?” asked a voice from the group.
Owen groaned, “Oh Christ. We can’t just leave them.”
“Yes we can.” said Emily as she stared at nothing with an unhealthy focus, “We clear the hall and leave them here. Then we find one of those trucks and bring it back.”
Blue Eyes pushed his way forwards, “You’re not leaving us here! You can’t do that!”
Jack sighed, “Since when were we responsible enough to be doing all this?”
“I know. You can’t even wipe your ass properly.” said Emily.
“No! I refuse to listen to another Brooker Fight!” Owen said.
The zombies heard.
They moaned and pounded into the doors.
“Fuck it!” shouted Owen, “Everyone just follow us and whatever you do, keep your mouth and nose covered.”
Jack removed his scarf and handed it to Owen, “Doubt I’ll need it.” he said.
Owen took it, wrapped it around his mouth and face, as did his friends.
Cameron reached out and held Emily. He brought her in close and said into her ear, “Whatever you do, stay close.”
Emily nodded just the once.
Through his scarf Cameron kissed Emily’s cheek then pulled away, facing the door. He swallowed hard. “Everyone! We’re going out!” then he slammed his body into the doors, pushing the undead surrounding it and opened fire on them. He shifted his body in quick, controlled movements as he shot every creature he found.
Owen had undergone proper military training for his movie debut, so moved like a soldier as he pushed forwards and killed.
Emily’s whole body jerked with each, single burst from her gun, but she did manage to fire it. And only at the undead.
Grace swung her club at every face that came near her.
Lucy shot her gun as best she could (which was remarkable all things considered) and only missed a face half of the time.
Daniel moved up the corridors brutally. He charged through the corpses and slayed them.
And Jack, he lost all knowledge of what a little thing like death was and went somewhat mad. The first thing he did was spray his bullets into the horde as he screamed and sidestepped into the hall. Jack moved along until he was beside a soldier who had been torn to pieces, picked up his gun and used both simultaneously.
And after they made their way past the doors, everyone behind who had a weapon did the same. They killed as best they could.
It should be noted that the scene was nothing short of tremendous. If only, Jack thought, they had an amazing song as a backing track and the whole thing was filmed in slow motion. But it wasn’t. It was real. And it was fast. And they were in a lobby. And the front doors were open. And noise attracts zombies. And they had mutated. And they were faster. And so much more deranged.
The Warriors pushed forwards as hard as they could. The Survivors followed behind. And the Undead hurtled towards food. Jaws wide. Arms forwards. Howling and gargling.
Daniel’s gun clicked. He slipped back and fumbled with the empty magazine. “Somebody back there get me ammo!” he yelled.
A few Survivors did just that. They raided the dead and recently-dead-again, gathering as many magazines as they could find, and a young girl ran up to Daniel with a fresh one.
Then Cameron ran out of ammunition. He flicked the switch on the side of his gun and as the empty magazine dropped to the ground, he slid his hand into his back pocket and reloaded.
“Emily!” Cameron roared, “Get back here!”
She had wandered away further than he felt comfortable with.
Emily twirled round and flew back to Cameron while firing forwards.
They all reached the round, main reception. The floor was slippery with blood and ooze. The undead pilled in through the doors. Screaming and wild.
Jack’s Fight part of Fight or Flight kicked into supernova. He took the charge and screamed as he fired at the undead. “Grace! Lucy! Get some ammo and get the fuck behind me right now!”
The two girls fought their way to a group of nearby soldiers, looted some ammunition and ran to Jack.
Then they reached the front doors. People lying on the ground wailed out as they were devoured alive. Others fled. And the soldiers were shooting. A blood fuelled dusk shone down on the world. Revelling in the massacre. Displaying it for all.
Owen lost himself in the scene. He stood, it was for mere moments, but he saw and heard everything. Soldiers were shooting and being eaten. People screamed and ran. The undead were chewing everything they caught running. Hundreds of thousands of them. Sweeping over bodies like a plague of locusts. Pools of blood opened up from the ground. Bullets were swarming all around the air. Dismembered body parts littered the streets. People were being torn apart as they were dragged from their hiding spots. Blood soaked bodies were throwing themselves at every beating heart they could find. The scene was pure carnage. Bullets, screams, howls, and wails pounded through Owen’s skull. And the dead were winning this battle. People fled all around him. Owen stood there, his mind detached from his body. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. A zombie screamed and charged towards Owen on all fours. Bullets found its skull and the zombie dropped. Then something grabbed Owen’s arm and yanked him forwards.
“Fucking move!” Emily screamed and pulled him along.
Owen came out of his trance and started running. He noticed the zombies flying towards them. “LEFT!” he roared over the chaos.
Everyone took a left turn. They ran down the street and to the back of the hotel, towards the car park. But it was filled. Many people before them had had the same idea. Half hollowed out humans lay on the ground while half skinned corpses lurched over them. The corpses watched the group of living humans, screamed and lunged. Then the undead pilled in at their front and side.
“RUN!” Cameron yelled as he planted bullets into the approaching faces.
&nb
sp; The group ran back but the way to the hotel was overrun. Running wildly, they were being pushed deeper into the heart of the city.
That’s when the first explosion happened. Owen fell hard from the force. The ground shook, the noise consumed them, and flames crawled up the buildings.
“THIS WAY!” Daniel shouted and darted in the opposite direction of the fire.
Owen got up and ran with everyone. Many behind him were dragged to the ground as the undead pounced at them. Owen couldn’t outrun the screams that carried on the air.
A horde blocked their path. They slipped up a different street. Another horde blocked them. And again. And again.
They came to a standstill. No way forwards. The zombies had blocked all exits. Owen looked around for an escape. But the screams and wails ran through in his mind. Owen spun around and pushed against the stream of manic people, searching for any kind of salvation. Then he found it. A bright red sheet of light wrapped around the wide entrance of a shop beaconed him. It was windowless. Inside the shop were only stairs leading down. And he saw a thin sheet of metal running under the red sign.
Lucy was beside him. He grabbed her hand and ran with her, pushing through everyone and into the shop. Owen scooped up Lucy and lifted her upwards to the metal sliver.
“Pull the shutters down!”
While more piled in and some others with a gun stayed in the street, shooting, Lucy reached up and locked her fingers in between the tiny crack and around the shutters. Her skin ripped, but she never let go.
“I’ve got it!” she groaned.
“Inside! Now!” shouted Owen.
People flew past him and down the stairs like a flood.
Cameron, Jack, Daniel, and Emily ran backwards while shooting forwards. As soon as they reached the shop, Owen dropped Lucy down, grabbed the freed shutter, and slammed it to the ground. The metal wall shook and bashed as the zombies outside hurtled into it. Owen grabbed his gun and pointed it at the door, as did everyone else with a gun. They watched the metal wall and waited.
“Emily!” shouted Cameron, panting.
“Here.” Emily shouted back as she appeared beside him and kept her gun pointed at the door.
Cameron sighed hard and shook his head with relief.
“Has anyone gone downstairs yet?” asked Daniel.
