Z Towers: An Apocalyptic Plague (Made in the U.S.A.)

by Jay Zano

  “Listen,” I say, “there are no plans to save us, no plans for the cavalry to charge the building. The people out there know what this is, and their protocol is to wait it out, let the outbreak take care of things and then come in here and torch anything left standing. They’re banking on us dying a cruel zombie death so they can sweep this under the rug! Do we want to just sit here and wait to die, or do we want to take charge, kick some zombie ass and get the hell out of here?”

  “That sounds nice and all, but what’s your plan?” Fickle asks defiantly.

  “I know how to get us out of here,” Matt interjects. He swaggers up to me and starts grabbing at my waist aggressively.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Shut up, you dumbass!” he orders. “I need these.”

  He reaches into my waistband and pulls out the schematics of the building. He walks over to his duffel bag, grabs a Bud, cracks it open, takes a big swig and makes his way to the table.

  “Zook is paranoid as hell,” he explains. “Being able to leave by the door and his helicopter wasn’t enough; he has another, secret way out.” Opening up the schematics and flipping through the dozens of prints, he finds what he’s looking for, slams it on the table and puts his burly, dirty finger on the spot he’s referencing. “Here it is! It goes below the building here, and then there’s a passageway that comes up on the opposite side of the block. Pops out at a closed newspaper kiosk, the cloak and dagger wannabe. Only problem is, it’s only accessible from tower two, which is closed off, except through Zook’s suite.”

  “Okay, okay,” I say, excitement rising. “We can handle that. Now we’re onto something!”

  “So,” Fickle says contentiously, “I guess we’re supposed to just make our way to tower two, which you can only get to from Zook’s penthouse, which means surviving fifty floors of zombies and then somehow get into his penthouse which we have no access, only to survive maybe more zombies in Tower two and then strut across the boardwalk and pop out in the middle of NYC!”

  “Well you can do that, if you want,” Matt says, taking another sip of his beer and fingering his ID badge. “Me, I’ll probably take Zook’s elevator!”

  “Hell yeah!” I exclaim. This is much better than I anticipated. There’s no way Fick and Vegas will resist this plan. The only issue I have now is convincing them to make a pit stop for Zoe. There’s no way I’m leaving this place without her.

  “Okay, now we’re talking!” I say, trying to build the energy. “Fick, Vegas, Sid, you in?”

  “I’m in!” Sid responds excitedly.

  “Statistically speaking, it’s not the worst idea. I’m in,” Vegas says, slowly raising his hand.

  “Shit! says Fick, raising his hand.

  “Okay, awesome!” I reply. “Alright, here’s the plan. First, we need to take Zook’s elevator to the seventy-fifth floor and retrieve Zoe, and then we make our way to Zook’s passageway.”

  “Whoa! Who said anything about getting Zoe?” Fick says.

  “What do you mean?” I respond. “There’s no way we’re going to leave her behind!”

  “I’m not going to risk my life just so you can have the chance to save a girl that you barely know!” Fick retorts.

  “Screw you, Fick! If we leave her behind, you’re basically saying you’re okay with letting her die. How the hell can you do that?”

  “Bullshit!” he spits back. “This is about getting in Zoe’s pants, not about saving lives. If we alter the plan, it puts us all at risk!” Fickle turns to Vegas. “Vegas, what are the odds for survival if we go up to the seventy-fifth floor to save Tyson’s girlfriend?”

  “I put the odds of survival at about seven percent.”

  “Seven percent!” Fickle echoes. “Do you really want to risk everyone’s life so you can be a hero? We’re all your friends, man. You willing to risk our lives for hers?”

  “That’s a bunch of crap, Fick, and you know it! Vegas, what are our odds of survival if we stick with Matt’s plan?”

  “I would say our odds of survival are about nine percent.”

  “Do you hear that, Fick? We’re talking about a two-percent deviation! Are you really willing to let someone die, to lose a human life, for a mere two-percent bump in our chances?”

  Fick freezes. He knows I’m right, any chance we have to save someone is a chance worth taking, but he’s pissed that it’s on my terms rather than his.

  “Who the hell is ‘Zoe’?” Matt asks, belching.

  “I’ll show you!” Sid says, and he heads over to the console. He bangs on the keyboard for a few minutes before the main monitor lights up with Zoe’s video feed. Matt reaches into the duffel bag for another beer and sidles up to the monitor.

  “Damn, man, she’s fine as hell! You hitting that?”

  “Um, no. We’re just friends, but we did talk in the elevator today about going on a date.”

  “Well damn, man! I don’t care what the odds are, if you have any chance to get into those pants, it’s a chance worth taking.”

  “Thanks, Matt!” I say. “So we have a plan?”

  “No!” Fickle shouts. “We don’t have a plan, we have an idea! So… let’s make a plan. I’m in!”

  “That’s my boy! Alright, let’s work out—”

  Just then, the server phone rings. For a moment, we all stare at it in shock, and then I snap out of my amazement and run to it.

  “Hello?”

  CHAPTER 17

  NEW PLAN

  THEY CROWD AROUND me as I speak on the phone, hanging on my every word.

  “Yep… Okay… Yeah, we can do that… Sounds good… Sure, we can make that happen… Yep, we have a way in… Okay, hang on a sec!” I scramble for a piece of paper and pen. “Okay, go…” I start jotting down numbers. “Got it, see you on the other side.” I hang up the phone, staring down at it as I digest what I’ve just been told.

  “Who was it?” Fick asks impatiently.

  “You guys aren’t going to believe this! That was Captain Jeffords. Our plan has just been upgraded.”

  “Is someone coming to get us?” Fick asks excitedly.

  “In a way, yes! Now, everyone sit while I lay out this plan.”

  Everyone takes a seat except for Matt. He walks over to the duffel bag to grab another beer.

  “Matt, you joining us?” I ask, pulling the rolling whiteboard to the front of the table.

  “Nah man, you just point me in a direction and I’ll be there.”

  “Alright, just take it easy on the drinking! I need you at full strength.”

  “Shit, I’m just hydrating!”

  “Fair enough, big fella.”

  I grab a couple of whiteboard markers and quickly draw an outline of Zook Towers.

  “Okay, we’re here,” I say, putting an ‘X’ on the fiftieth floor of tower one. “We need to stop on the seventy-fifth floor to get Zoe. As you mentioned, though, that’s ground zero for the outbreak, and we can clearly see through the video feed that a lot of zombies are on that floor. So, we look at seventy-four and seventy-six to see where there are less. We then take the stairs to seventy-five and lure them down the stairwell. Once they’re a decent distance away, we jump back on Zook’s elevator and make our way to the seventy-fifth. Then, we get Zoe and make our way to Zook’s penthouse.”

  “What?” Fickle gasps. “Why?”

  “Zook has a helipad, so that’s when the NYPD will swoop in on a helicopter to pick us up!”

  “Wait, I thought you said, ‘no one out alive’?” Vegas says.

  “Yeah, I know, but the NYPD are on our side. The military don’t know anything about this.”

  “So, what’s the number for?” Fickle asks. “You supposed to call them when we get to the top? We know the phone works here, but are you sure it works up there?”

  “Ah, welcome to the show, Fick! Now you’re thinking. This number isn’t for a pickup call, it’s for Channel Two News. I’m supposed to call, tell them we’re trapped inside and then lea
k the story about Zook. If we can show that people are alive in here, then that might give us some slack with the military.”

  “Again, how are you supposed to call them after we leave?” Fick asks, pulling his smartphone out of his pocket. “It looks like our phones are still useless.”

  “Yeah, Jeffords thinks the military is jamming the cell signals. That, or the building is doing it, somehow. Bottom line, in an outbreak, they don’t want anyone trying to contact the outside, but our phones can be used for something else. We take the cell phones, strap them to our chests, tether them to the wireless LAN and broadcast our cameras online.”

  “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Fick says, rolling his eyes. ”We still have no access to the outside world.”

  “That’s not entirely true!” Sid pipes in. “Yes, the WAN connection is down, probably being blocked by the military, but we do have a business continuity plan that gives us an alternate path to the web.”

  “Don’t you think the military knows that?” Fick says.

  “Sure they do,” Sid replies, “but do they know about the dark fiber connection that Zook had put in a few months back? You know how he likes to keep his stuff classified. We could tap into that without the military even knowing.”

  “Okay, great!” I say. “Now, all we need is a platform, somewhere to broadcast our stream so the whole world can see!”

  “I have something,” Vegas chimes in.

  “What do you mean, you have something?” I ask.

  “I have my gambling site!”

  “Damn, man! You want to bet against our lives or something?” Fick screams out.

  “Think about it, Fick,” insists Vegas. “My gambling site is overseas; it isn’t regulated by our government. They can’t touch it, and it gets millions of hits a day! If I can get to the console, I can send a message to my admin. They’ll set it all up for us!”

  “I am loving this idea!” I laugh. “Sid, can you make it happen?”

  “Already on it! Bringing up the dark fiber connection now… and we’re up! Vegas, I need the URL for your site.”

  “Y-O-U-B-E-T-Y-O-A-S-S dot th” Fick replies.

  “Your site is ‘You bet yo’ ass dot th, what is that, Thailand?” I ask.

  “Hey man, all the good domains were taken.”

  Sid laughs, typing in the URL.

  “Okay, Vegas,” he says, moving away from the console, “you’re up!”

  “Okay, give me a couple of minutes to send a message to my admin. He’s in Thailand, so we should be able to use his access without the government shutting us down.”

  “Fick and Matt, pull out your phones,” orders Sid. “Connect to the WiFi and give me your IP addresses.”

  Matt and Fickle pull out their phones and start trying to connect.

  “Hey,” Matt responds after staring at his phone for a bit. “How do I do that stuff you just said with the WiFi, IP and all that jazz?”

  “Bring it over here,” Sid says. “I’ll hook it up!”

  Matt hands the phone to Sid, who already has his own on the table.

  “How do you find your IP address?” Fickle asks.

  Sid looks up and takes a quick glance at Fick and his phone.

  “You have an iPhone?” Sid sighs. “How did I not know this about you?”

  “What’s wrong with an iPhone?” Fick responds defensively.

  “Nothing, it’s a very pretty phone! Unfortunately, that’s it, it’s otherwise useless!”

  “Hey, I’ll have you know that Apple owns half the market when it comes to mobile devices.”

  “That only means half the market is mindless. Bring your dumbass phone over here, you sheep! Even Matt has a Windows phone, and he doesn’t know shit about technology. No offense Matt.”

  “None taken. If you ask me, you’re all a bunch of dummies for knowing this technical stuff but still needing to call me to change a lightbulb.”

  We all laugh as Sid configures the phones.

  The plan’s coming together nicely, but I still don’t know just how prepared we are, and I still haven’t been able to find a way to make contact with Zoe. I begin to wonder if Sid can connect our laptops to the surveillance feed; that way we can constantly keep our eyes on the dangers ahead so we’re not surprised. Suddenly, a brainwave; if I can see Zoe, I bet she can see us. Why didn’t I think of that before? I quickly look at Zoe on the big monitor, no longer studying her, but what she’s doing. I can see she has a pretty big console station with camera feeds, but of course she does! She’s the main security for that floor, why wouldn’t she have full access to the security equipment?

  “Sid, I have a couple of requests.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think you can get the camera outside the server room to appear on Zoe’s monitor?”

  “I’m not sure, I’d have to get into the main controls to see if I can control all terminals.” Sid walks back up to the console, standing behind Vegas, who is just finishing up.

  “I’m all done here!” Vegas says, handing the keyboard over to Sid.

  “Yep,” says Sid, “here we go! I can have all security stations show the same feed.”

  “You’re the best! Can you turn all stations to the video camera just outside these doors?”

  “On it!”

  I quickly grab a notepad and a sharpie, frantically scribbling a message. Once it’s finished, I take a quick peek outside the server room door to check that it’s all clear, and then step outside to get on the camera feed.

  “Can you see me on the camera?” I holler.

  “We see you!” Vegas shouts back. I hold up my sign, which just says ‘Hi Zoe!’, and hope it’s appearing clearly.

  “Does she see me?”

  “Nope!” Sid responds. “She has her head down.”

  I start jumping up and down, trying anything to get her attention.

  “Dude, she isn’t even looking. You just look like a dumbass!” Fickle calls.

  I’m not deterred, and I continue jumping up and down like a lunatic.

  “She’s lifting her head. Oh, she sees you! She sees you, man!”

  I stop jumping like a maniac and hold up the sign.

  “She sees it! ‘Hi Zoe’? That’s what you had to say?”

  “Shut it, Vegas! What’s she doing?”

  “Wow, man, she’s smiling! That lame-ass shit actually got her to smile! Wait, now she’s looking around the room. She’s digging in the drawers! What’s she doing?”

  “She’s probably looking for something to write back on, dumbass!”

  “Oh, yeah, she just pulled out a pad and she’s writing on it!”

  “What’s it say?” I scream to Vegas in anticipation.

  “It says ‘Hi’! Oh my god, you guys are lame as hell! Stuck in the middle of an apocalyptic outbreak, and you guys are saying ‘hi’ to each other!”

  “Right, get to the point, man,” Fick chimes in. Now that I have her attention, I need to think of the shortest and easiest way to let her know that we’re coming. I take a sec, rip off the ‘Hi Zoe’ note and scribble some more. I hold up the pad, which now says ‘Coming to save you!’

  “What’s she doing?” I yell.

  “She’s not smiling anymore. She’s writing… It says ‘Save yourself!’ Wait, she’s writing again. It says ‘Suicide mission!’ She looks upset. Maybe she’s right, man.”

  Screw that; there’s no way I’m going to let her talk me out of this. She just doesn’t want me to get hurt. I’d do the same, if she wanted to save me, but that’s not the case. I quickly scribble some more on the pad, this time taking two sheets of paper. I hold up the first note with a smile, to put her at ease. It says ‘U owe me a date’. I pause for a moment, then flip the page, which reads ‘See you soon!’ I quickly drop the pad and leave the camera’s view to make my way back to the server room. I can see she’s upset, holding up a sign that says ‘No!’

  “See, I told you all Tyson wants is a piece of ass,” Fick says
. Walking to the monitor, I can see a tear slowly running down Zoe’s face. She’s scared, and she needs us, but she doesn’t want to put us in harm’s way. I get it now, but I’m more determined than ever to get to her. I’m willing to die trying.

  “Come on, guys!” I say, rallying the troops. “Of course she doesn’t want us to save her; it’s dangerous! But she’s alone and scared and needs our help! How are you going to feel if you get out of the building alive, only to think that you left someone behind? You wouldn’t be able to live with yourselves.”

  “Hey man, I don’t blame you,” Matt replies. “She’s a fine piece of ass! So, what’s the plan?”

  “Okay, here’s the plan. Everyone turn on the video cameras on your phone. Sid, lock onto each one and broadcast the stream on Johnny’s site.”

  “On it!” Sid confirms.

  “Okay, good. Our plan is to make our way to Zoe by taking the path of least resistance.” I grab a Surface Pro sitting on a desk. “Can we configure this laptop to see the security cameras?”

  “Easy!” Sid responds as he continues to punch away at the console keyboard.

  “Good, so we’ll have eyes in the sky as we make our way there. We shouldn’t run into any surprises. Matt and Fick, tape your cell phones to your chests, cameras facing out.”

  Fick reaches into Johnny’s collection of office supplies and pulls out a couple of rolls of duct tape.

  “We’re going to give the world a first-person perspective of what’s going on here,” I say, as Matt and Fick start strapping their cell phones to their chests. Sid takes a step back away from the console to get his cell phone.

  “We’re all set with the cameras,” he says, holding up his phone to show the video perspective on the monitor. “We shouldn’t all be livestreaming constantly; it’d drain the batteries really quickly, but all we have to do is hit the ‘record’ button when we want to show what we’re seeing. Just tell me when you want me to go live.”