by TJ Weeks
Rachel started her run up the stairs again, she stopped at the sixth floor and listened for a moment. She opened the door and squeezed through a small opening of it, she peered down the hall way of the sixth floor lightly knocking on doors. She rounded the corner to another hall way and two men and a woman stood in the hall way blocking her way. Rachel knew that these people weren’t normal, they were disgusting looking and had no feeling in their eyes. Their clothes were nasty and they all started scooting their feet towards her. Rachel ran back down the hall and through the door she came through and closed it as quick as she could before hearing them start banging on the door. She started making her way up the stairs and had to sit down to rest. The adrenaline running through her and the energy she was putting forth had tired her, and now a bit of anxiety had set in with the belief that the apocalypse was indeed upon them.
Rachel rubbed her hands across her bright red hair and wondered if Silvia had made it or if she had come back to look for her. She leaned over and began listening to the flights below for Silvia shouting for her. But there was nothing. She heard groaning and banging on doors.
Rachel stood and started her climb up the steps slower than she had before to save her breath. Every few steps she would hear a door from below slamming. She would yell down asking if anyone was there and would never get a response. After the third try of yelling for someone, she gave up. She just began to listen and kept taking steps one at a time to make it higher.
She heard another door slam, then a loud echoing growl and then a low toned scream that sounded like a man that was being killed. She rounded the last floor flight and had one more flight to the roof. A man came around the steps at the same time she did and came face to face with her. His bottom jaw had been removed and his cheeks were sunk into his face. His top teeth showed broken and chipped. His arms were outstretched trying to reach her, but he seemed to not be able to figure out how to lift his feet or to get down the steps at her. Rachel backed away from them and back down to the level she had been on and watched him fall forward trying to make it to her. He was on the small platform she needed to get on to make it to the roof to see what was going on.
She sat down and listened to the angry zombie wanting to get her and began to cry. A few moments passed of the echoing growls, Rachel gathered her thoughts, got up, stepped around the man and partly over him to avoid getting attacked again while headed up the flights of stairs.
Rachel let out a big sigh, again wondering where Silvia had gone to. She thought maybe she had come back for her and made her way up the stairwell and was on one of the floors or maybe had made her way to the roof to look for her off the side.
Rachel hurried to the door marked ‘Caution Roof’.
She pushed open the door and scanned the area. There was no one there, which surprised her. She figured there would be more people that would have been stopped by this mass of dead people walking around and make their way up there.
Rachel closed the door and made sure that it latched and placed herself in a corner avoiding looking over the edge of the building for now. She pulled her knees up to her chest, propped her head against the wall and fell asleep. She woke up to a scream echoing through the air. She jumped up and looked around, she quickly realized it was coming from below. Rachel looked over the side as a woman ate another woman.
“These are fucking zombies!” She stated to herself. “How in the hell did this happen?”
She watched person after person get chased and eaten by others. She stayed quiet, trying not to draw attention to herself. It was starting to get cold and she wished she had had time to grab her jacket. She pulled her arms into her shirt and continued watching people get ate, then come back to life, stand and slowly make their way around the small courtyard in front of her building. Rachel peered around to see if there was any way to get off the roof besides going back down the stairs and was only able to find a drain pipe that went from the top to the bottom of the building. She thought she would be able to climb or slide down it, but did not want to risk getting seen by any of these assholes eating people. She walked around the rooftop trying to find a warm spot to sit for a while to wait for the killers to clear out and she had a chance to run. A generator had kicked on in the corner and was warm to the touch. Rachel sat down next to the big silver box and leaned up against it. She fell asleep with the bit of warmth from it. She woke as light hit the sky and roamed the roof to see if there were any clear spots to get down from. Other roofs were clear and she wished that she was able to get to them and maybe make it down to the ground to make a run for it without making the noise of sliding down the drain pipe, but she knew she would fall in between the buildings if she tried to jump across. She placed herself back at the entrance to the roof and soon crawled over to the generator when the wind kicked up and it started raining. Rachel covered herself with a piece plastic she had found on the other side of the roof that was attached to one of the newer air conditioning units. It was like a huge piece of saran wrap, but it worked. She kept moving around the generator each time the wind changed.
Later that day the rain stopped and Rachel made her way around the roof again. She soon saw a group that had climbed to one of the other roofs nearby.
“HELLO!” She called out.
“Show yourself!” A man’s voice yelled.
***
Silvia had run out of the door and had barely made it passed two of the zombies that stood to the side waiting for something to alert them that a meal was waiting. She didn’t know they had planned on Rachel being their meal. She just kept running. The fear had built up of being killed and she was ready to get to safety.
She ran past a man that was bent over a woman, but didn’t stop him from whatever he was doing as she had back at the apartment. She just kept running. Once she reached the library steps, she turned to make sure Rachel was ready to find safety in the library. Silvia was alone.
“Rachel!” She hollered. “Rachel! Where are you?”
Silvia spun around in circles looking for her best friend. While turning in circles, she didn’t notice the three slow walking ones moving toward her. She spun one last time and her head buried itself into a man’s chest. The smell was unbearable and made her pull away quickly. She covered her nose with both hands and backed away running into something. Silvia turned quickly and came face to face with a young woman that looked like she could have been about her age if she wasn’t so dirty and wrinkled. The woman lurched at her and grabbed Silvia’s shoulders and leaned in to her, Silvia screamed and pulled away back into the other man who wrapped his arm around her neck from behind. Another man charged at the two faster than the others were moving. Silvia quickly ducked down and away from the grasp of the other man and away from the open mouth of the faster moving one. She ran up the steps and into the library, Silvia slammed the library door and watched out of the small window on the door. The three that were trying to attack her tried to stumble up the stairs, but only fell back down. Silvia turned and watched for whatever may be lurking in the library. She scanned the foyer and into the large room with shelves of books covering the walls.
“What in the hell is going on.” She whispered to herself.
She slid down the door to sit and sobbed at the thought of her friend being eaten by these monsters.
Silvia soon heard shuffling from one of the rooms off to the side that had computers inside. She jerked her head up and scanned to her right. A young boy sat in a chair in front of one of the computers. He wore a red and white striped shirt and small white converse tennis shoes. He glared at her through angry sunk in eyes. The black around his eyes made him look sad and sick. His cheek bones sunk back into his face and he growled a low growl at her. His lips were blue and his skin had turned a gray color that set off the green his eyes shot back at her. Silvia watched him rise from his chair and try to walk, he tripped over the untied shoe laces and fell. He pushed himself up with his dirtied hands and tried again. Looking like a newborn, he slowly m
ade his way toward where Silvia sat. She turned her body and scooted backwards.
“It’s okay little boy!” Silvia put her hands up to him.
He dug his dirt filled nails into the worn brown carpet that covered the floor and pulled himself closer to her.
“I’m not going to hurt you, please don’t hurt me.”
The child only growled at her and pulled himself even closer. He grabbed her shoe and tried to bite down. Silvia drew her leg back from the boy and pushed herself further away from him. She made it to a chair and climbed up into it and pulled her legs close to her body. The little boy crawled to her and pulled himself up to stand and went in for a bite of her leg. Silvia kicked him hard in the face. He fell backwards and hit the corner of a library table with his head. Brain matter covered the table and then seeped onto the floor as he fell. Silvia jumped from her chair and ran up the stairs to find another room full of books. Silvia looked around and saw a small cabinet. She ran to the cabinet and opened the two doors. She pulled all of the books out and put herself inside of it, pulled the two small doors closed and sat quietly inside. She cried herself to sleep.
She awoke to noise of a group of people. Silvia stayed quiet in her little hideaway and stayed that way until she didn’t hear any other noise. She slowly pushed the door open and slid out, she was dirty and hungry most of all. It must have been hours that she had been stuck in that small cabinet. She wandered quietly through the sleeping bodies, found a bag of food, grabbed it and ran to the stairs. Not knowing that one of the men had seen her. She tried to make it down when she felt a hard knock on the back of her head and everything went black.
STORY SEVEN
BOBBI
“Bobbi, you are going to be late for work if you don’t move your ass!” Jason screamed from the living room. “I have to get going too, let’s move out woman!”
“Oh hell, hold your horses, I’m coming.” Bobbi hollered from the bedroom.
She jogged down the hallway still trying to slip on her white shoes that she wore with her scrubs. Jason held the door open for her and laughed at her as she hopped on one foot down the stairs still pulling on the heel of her shoe. Jason locked the door and hurried to the Toyota Camry that had become their only car since their truck had bit the dust.
“Sorry honey, they just called and said they needed me to do some runs for someone that didn’t show. It’s extra money we can use to get your truck fixed.” She explained.
“I know, I just can’t be late.” He backed out of the driveway and pulled away from the small two bedroom house.
“Just slow down at my office and I’ll jump out.” She laughed.
“Smart ass!” He replied to his wife.
Jason worked at a local distribution warehouse and had just made manager. Bobbi was a home health care nurse; she drove around in a company car and checked on the elderly that were not able to take care of themselves. She absolutely loved her job, except when someone did not show, they called her to cover. But they could use the money right now, so she was trying to be thankful after coming off of a sixteen hour shift the day before. Jason grabbed his wife’s hand and squeezed.
“Sorry babe.” He stated. “This manager position should help a lot once I start getting the pay for it next week.”
Jason drove as fast as he could down their small county road, hugging the turns and finally making it to the main highway that led into town. The sun was just coming up over the busy little town as they hit their first red light.
“I hate these damn lights. I wish we could just stay out in our little country abode and not ever have to come into town.” Jason frowned at the other cars getting to cross the intersection.
Jason smiled as he got to depart from a standstill and made his way to the parking lot off of the small highway. She smiled at him and leaned in to kiss his cheek before he stopped near a red and white small car in the parking lot by the main office of her work.
“I love you Jason.” She said.
“Love you too.” He smiled back at her.
Bobbi and Jason had been together for going on nine years. They had gone through trials and tribulations throughout their entire marriage from their first house together burning down to Jason having cancer and just becoming cancer free as of last year. Bobbi worked through his entire treatment and hardly saw him as he went through the process of ridding his body of the deadly disease that she had seen take so many of her patients.
She jumped out and headed inside to grab some keys and a list of her stops for the day. She rushed out to the car and jumped in and pulled off in a hurry. She was only six minutes behind the girl’s schedule that she was covering for and needed to make up that time somewhere.
Her first stop was an old man that was not able to walk and sat in his wheelchair a majority of the day. Bobbi served him his medication and helped him to stand a few times from his wheel chair so that his lower body did not deteriorate away. She helped him with exercises for his arms to strengthen them and was done taking his vitals and giving him his weekly ‘once over’ eight minutes early. She thanked him quickly and said a sweet goodbye, got back in her car, she headed to her next stop and made it three minutes before she was supposed to be there. She hurried in to the elderly woman’s house, checked her blood sugar, provided her with her insulin shot and made her a bite to eat. The poor woman had children, but they did not come by or help with her care except to pay for the home health she received. She sat for a few minutes and talked to the sweet woman, knowing that she only had conversations with the cat that roamed her house. Bobbi cleaned out the litter box before saying another sweet goodbye and headed out. She made her rounds through the day using her best bed side manner, listening and helping with what she could, even though she was only supposed to be doing the nursing part.
Sixteen minutes ahead of schedule, Bobbi arrived back at her office, filled out the paperwork needed for the patients that she had seen that day, turned it all in to the office and headed out to wait for her husband.
She sat on a small bench outside the door and pulled a piece of beef jerky that one of the elderly men had given her earlier that his son had made. She took a small bite as she started to feel the effects of not eating all day. She watched a small slew of birds take a bath in the cement bird bath that decorated the grassy patch in the circle driveway in front of the office. They twittered their wings and chirped as they splashed water on each other. Bobbi laughed at the playing birds and took another bite of her jerky as she saw her husband turn into the parking lot and head to the front of the building.
“Sorry I’m late.” He hollered through the open window.
Bobbi plopped in and laid her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.
“So glad this day is over.” She heaved a sigh of relief.
She slid her shoes off in the floorboard and handed Jason the jerky from her pocket.
“What is this?” He asked.
“One of my patient’s sons made it for him and he insisted I take a piece. I haven’t eaten all day, so I snacked a bit on it. It is actually rather good.” She explained.
Jason bit a piece and handed it back. “Pretty good, taste like deer jerky.”
“I don’t know; how was your day?” She asked.
“Good, the guys are getting used to me being the boss I think, they may not like it but they are dealing with it.” He admitted.
“That’s good.” Bobbi muttered becoming a little too relaxed in her seat.
“Hungry?” He asked.
“Well, duh, starved!” Bobbi shot back without opening her eyes.
“Running by to get burgers then, you good with that, or you want to cook me a five course meal?” Jason joked.
“Screw you!” Bobbi laughed.
Jason drove to the nearest burger joint that had a drive through and repeated the same order they got any time they ordered burgers. He drove through and paid the woman at the window and sat the bag in Bobbi’s lap before driving off. Bobbi instinctively p
ut her hand down to hold the bag of food while reaching inside it with her other hand to take a fry. She held one out to Jason and put the other in her mouth.
“Mmmmmm…food!” Bobbi muttered still chewing.
Jason pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street filled with the after work traffic. He turned off of the main road and onto the two lane highway heading to the edge of town.
“I am so glad we don’t live in town.” Jason gassed the car to get away from any traffic.
Bobbi opened her eyes to the familiar pine trees that edged the side of the road. “Me too babe, I love riding through and looking at the calmness of the countryside.”
“I have said before, we need to just open a road side market out here by the house and we would never have to go to town.” Jason wished.
“Yep, and hope that we make enough to pay the house payment.” Bobbi laughed. “I can make some of momma’s old homemade pies and you can carve out some of your home made stuff from wood. That would be great.”
Jason and Bobbi both laughed as they thought about the possibilities of doing the things that they loved and making money off of it all. They had always wanted to do something like that. Bobbi knew that Jason’s talent was going to waste just sitting in their garage and only selling a few pieces here and there on the weekends at the local flea market a few miles from their house.
Jason built things from wood that Bobbi had never seen anyone make. They were beautiful carvings of animals and decorations. She loved watching him create things from his mind and thought that his talent should be more than just something he did as a hobby. She tried to work as much as she could with the hopes that she could make that happen for him.
