Lockdown: A collection of ten terror-filled zombie stories

by mike Evans

  Greg P Ferrell on Amazon

  Floor Thirteen

  The porn starlet’s body looked remarkably well even though she was essentially dead and in the act of trying to eat me. Well, except for the redness protruding out in a concentric circle from the bandage on her arm, and the bits of flesh stuck in her teeth from her previous victim. Oh, and the crazy look in her cloudy eyes while trying to figure out how to get to me.

  I should probably clarify a few things before I go any further, though.

  My name is Trevor Pitts, and I wasn’t even supposed to be at work today.

  The day started off with me waking up later than usual since, by all accounts, it was supposed to be my day off. I woke up in my small one bedroom apartment and had a day planned to look for a paying job.

  Currently, the interning gig that I had with the Local Firefighter’s union was not paying me anything and I was getting tired of not having any money.

  I rolled over and stretched, getting the kinks out of my back from sleeping on a mattress not designed for a human to sleep on. I reached over and picked up my phone to find numerous messages from my boss screaming into my voicemail about why I wasn’t at work that day and, that if I didn’t show up soon, there would be no need for me to show up ever again. Reluctantly, I hurried and got dressed and headed into work. I needed the experience on my resume to hopefully, one day, land a job that actually paid me in something more tangible than experience.

  As my cab pulled up in front of the building, I let out a large moan as I headed for the entrance to what was supposed to be one of the safest buildings in the country to work in. I squeezed my way through the busy front doors and made it through security in record time. I avoided the normal morning niceties with the guards and made my way to the elevators. After slipping into a slightly crowded elevator, I asked for someone to push the number 13 for me. As soon as everybody heard this, they all gave me a quick glance to see who I was. I knew why. The top floor of the building was where the offices of Cam and Elto Unlimited, a well-known Porn studio, were located. Quite frequently, the offices were visited by some of their hired talent, if you wanted to call them that. Disappointed that I obviously wasn’t one of the adult entertainers, they quickly returned their gaze back to their cellphones and ipads they were using to avoid interacting with one another.

  I squeezed my way to the back wall so I wouldn’t have to move out of the way as the elevator stopped at every other floor on the way to mine. While I waited, it dawned on me, for the first time. It was ironic that I worked in one of the most state of the art buildings in the country, designed to lock-down at the first sign of workplace violence. They had even decided it needed to be exactly thirteen floors. Thirteen is such a supernatural number, and they decided it would be a good number to have for a building that was supposed to instill safety for its occupants. I snickered aloud at my revelation, which drew a few odd looks from my fellow passengers. I shot them a What you looking at face. They returned to what they were doing. Eventually, I was alone as the last of the despondent travelers got off on the 10 floor and finished the trip to my destination.

  I stepped out and looked immediately to the left to see if I could catch the sight of any of the aforementioned porn stars in the hallway. Okay, I know that’s sad, but I’m only human. The hall was barren and I was a little disappointed. I took a look to the right toward the doorway of the Flaming Bag of Poop mail order gag gift company to see if my only friend Ollie happened to be standing outside. Again, I was let down by an empty hallway. I trudged forward into offices of the local firefighter’s union 2 of Chicago, Illinois.

  Holding my breath, I entered the large and spacious office complex. The lobby was the least impressive part of the office. It was small and quaint, which misled you into believing the rest of the prime real estate atop the high-tech building would be similar. A small semi-circular desk was situated eight feet inside in the door and always manned by the ever-cheerful Amanda. I swear, in all my six months interning, I never saw her without a smile on her face. Then again, why wouldn’t she be always smiling? She worked for one of the most corrupt unions in the most corrupt city in America, and was no doubt pulling in a larger salary than she could in any other similar job in the city.

  Disclaimer here, in case I survive all this and this journal is found. Understand that when I say corrupt, I don’t want it to sound like it’s the mob or anything. It’s just they take a nice chunk out of every firefighter’s paycheck in union dues and, in return, offer only the most basic of benefits in return. Yes, they do great things for their fellow firefighters, but I’ve been helping with payroll and expenses. I’ve seen what these guys are paid and I know what this place costs to keep running. After seeing those numbers, it reinforced my dislike for huge corporations and unions alike. But I kept telling myself I need the experience to build my resume and get out of here and into a career. Even with a Bachelor’s degree in accounting, it was easier to win the lottery than land a gig at a good company without some experience. With over $100k in student loans looming in the distance, I needed to start out strong or I would never get ahead.

  Amanda looked up at me and had her trademark grin as she greeted me.

  “Oh hey, Trevor. Tuck is looking for you. He told me to tell you to find him as soon as you arrived.”

  I nodded and lowered my head, knowing I was going to get an earful from Tuck. As I passed by her, I watched Amanda put up her gone for lunch sign and waved as she almost skipped out of the office. Reluctantly, I headed into the main office to begin my search for an ass chewing.

  The door opened up and in front of me was the completely glass walled conference room in the center of the complex. With its floor to ceiling glass walls, it was used for any type of meeting that needed to take place. The glass was thick enough that neither side could hear what was happening on the other, but the body language in the room was always readable. Sitting at the head of the table was Tuck and he looked up to see me coming in. He glared at me and did the come here now gesture with his hand while he went back to looking down at whatever paperwork he had been reading.

  I sauntered over to him without making it look like I was taking my time. Tuck Jenson, as you probably guessed was, not the nicest man to have to deal with. He was a thirty-year veteran of the Chicago fire department and retired when he was injured in the line of duty. After that, he went to work for the union and rapidly made his way up to the top spot in the organization. He was ruthless and led with an iron fist. I heard from a few of his old unit members that he was the same way when he was an active firefighter. He was a large man in his upper 50’s, but carried the physique of a man half his age. Except for the pronounced limp he sported after his fall from a 3 story window that ended his career, he was almost in too perfect of shape.

  I rounded the back corner and steeled myself for the lecture I knew was coming. In fact, everyone in office seemed to know it was coming as anyone passing the room avoided eye contact with me as I passed them by. I arrived at the door into the room and entered, trying not to show my reluctance. I pulled the door shut so nobody outside would hear how bad he laid into me. To say I was given a good talking to during that encounter would be an understatement. He wanted nothing to do with the excuse that I was given the day off by his second in command, Roger. Then I got to listen to ten minutes of ‘why I would never be a good employee for anybody’ with my, and I quote, “lackadaisical attitude”. I had to google that term after I left. It stung even more once I learned its meaning. I didn’t put up a fight and, to be honest, I think I got out after only ten minutes for that reason. I was given my directions for the day and sent on my way. As I left, nobody made eye contact with me again as I walked to the dungeon in the back of the office. The dungeon was the codename for records storage in the back corner. It was a large room with floor to ceiling file cabinets lined up throughout the room. There were no windows and only one large, 6-foot fluorescent light above. In all honesty, I was glad that was whe
re I was going. It would keep me out of sight and hopefully out of mind. Little did I know what I would miss while tucked away from everyone.

  I had my headphones in and was swaying to the beats of Metallica. The heavy riffs kept me focused on the very boring task I was given to do. Apparently, Tuck had decided that the entire room needed to be reorganized and that I was the only person with the skills to pull off such a mundane feat. I was so enthralled in the task that I never noticed the door open for only the briefest of seconds and that I was being approached from my blind side. “Master of Puppets” had just ended and it was in that brief second before the next song was starting that I heard the slapping sound of a shoe on the bare concrete in the room.

  I spun to see who it was and found Amanda approaching me. In the dim light of the room, I didn’t notice she wasn’t smiling. I turned, putting my back to her to put down the file box I had in my hands, figuring she was coming in to relay some new pertinent task that Tuck had for me. The fast and loud rhythm of “Blackened” was exploding in my ears so I didn’t hear her or anything else for that matter. I reached for my phone to turn down the volume. As I looked down and fumbled with the phone, I noticed some sort of liquid pooling at my feet. I stared at it for a moment and tried to determine where it was coming and what it was. My eyes drifted as they followed the red trail. The stream abruptly ended at the head of Amanda which was now laying on the floor. I jumped backward and knocked over the stack of boxes behind me. My hand came up and snatched the earbuds out and was immediately bombarded by screams. The one I heard loudest came from my mouth. The second one came from Ollie, who stood next to Amanda’s body.

  “Dude, I told you that you listened to that crap way too loud,” Ollie said as he poked at the body of Amanda with the hockey stick he had in his hands. “Get your ass in gear and follow me.”

  “Woah, what the Hell is going on?” I asked as I tried to move away from him.

  “We don’t have time. We need to get the Hell out of here and find someplace to hide. Follow me,” he said. Then started to make his way back to the door.

  Now, I don’t want to come off as arrogant, but I’m actually a pretty smart guy. Graduated top of my class in high school and college and was tested at an early age with a very high I.Q. However, at that moment, I felt like the dumbest man alive. I constantly shifted my gaze from the lifeless body of Amanda to the hockey stick wielding Ollie. I still had no clue as to what was happening. My mind felt like a car with the accelerator jammed to the floor, but the transmission was in neutral. There on the ground in front of me was one of the nicest and most innocent people I had ever met, and she was just clubbed to death by my only friend in the whole building. He was acting like it was no big deal and we needed to go hide. Trying to process all of that was like trying to solve a puzzle in the dark without a picture of the box ever being seen.

  “Dude, get your ass moving,” Ollie screamed at me while he peeked out the door into the hallway.

  His words made sense and I did just that, just not the way he expected. I ran as hard and as fast as I could toward him. Just as I closed the distance between us, I let out a battle cry that probably wouldn’t have scared a pigeon out of my way and I lowered my shoulder. I slammed into Ollie with all of my might.

  I hit the ground hard and Ollie gently bumped his head on the edge of the doorframe from the impact of my collision. He then turned and looked down at me sitting on the floor.

  “Man, really? What the Hell was that for?”

  I looked up at him and felt severe embarrassment at what I just tried to do. His hand lowered down to me with an offer of assistance, which I begrudgingly accepted. I brushed myself off and turned to look at him again.

  “Well, what the fuck did you expect from me? You just killed Amanda and you’re acting like its no big deal,” I replied.

  Ollie was, by all standards, a giant of a man. He stood an impressive 6 feet 8 inches. Me, on the other hand, I’m on the opposite end of that spectrum, topping out at a whopping 4 feet 1 inch. So, with almost 3 feet separating our eyes, it made talking to him up close a little painful for my neck.

  I watched as the current state of panic left Ollie’s eyes, as if he just got a joke told to him hours earlier. He lowered his head and slowly closed the door.

  “Aw man, I’m so sorry. I just realized you have no idea of what’s going on here,” he said before he looked around the room until he found something he was looking for.

  He rushed over to a large file cabinet, almost effortlessly picked it up, and toted it over to place in front of the door. Along with the immense height advantage, he was also blessed in strength as well.

  My anxiety returned as I realized that I was effectively locked inside a room with a possible killer. I stepped back a few feet in case I needed to run, not that my little legs would get me very far from him fast, but rational thinking was on hold at that moment.

  After checking his blockade one last time, it seemed as if he felt it was satisfactory for the moment. Ollie then turned and faced me. My heart skipped more than a few beats as I waited to see what would happen next. To my surprise, it wasn’t a gruesome death by clubbing with a hockey stick.

  Ollie let out a huge breath before he placed his back against the wall and slowly slid down, coming to a rest on his butt. Even at that height, he still held a few inches over me, but it made me relax knowing that, for the moment, I was not in danger.

  “Dude, it is fucking nuts out there. I can’t believe you didn’t hear anything going on. Just how long have you been back here?”

  I soaked in his words before I answered, giving me a chance to let my rational brain kick back in slowly.

  “I’ve been in here since just before lunch. With these new headphones I can’t hear anything but the music. What do you mean it’s nuts out there?”

  “No not nuts. Fucking nuts. With all caps, little dude,” Ollie replied.

  Normally, I would get offended at the “little” comment, but with Ollie and me, it was okay. We recognized each other’s extreme height issues and played on it with each other. The one thing that did always drive me crazy was his constant use of the word dude but with him being a surfer from California, I had a better chance of growing two feet taller than getting him to limit his use of the word.

  “So, why don’t you catch me up on it then golly green.”

  “Aww, man, this is going to melt even your big brain bucket, dude. Okay, so it was just after lunch and the lobby downstairs is all full of people coming and going. I mean, wall to wall. Dudes everywhere. I was just getting out of the elevator to head down to Giordano’s to get me one of those gnarly deep dishes when, out of nowhere, everybody starts screaming. Well, me being so tall I look out over everybody and see a couple crusty looking dudes running around attacking people. Kinda looked like an extreme rough game of tag or something. I mean, they weren’t doing any real harm. Just biting and scratching people and moving through everyone like it was some kinda human sample event at Costco or something. I tried to get back in the elevator, but the damn thing had already left me to go pick up more dudes upstairs. Anyway, security gets into gear and they do their thing and get the crusties back outside and lock down the lobby. People were all emotional and shit, but I didn’t see anybody hurt too bad. The elevator finally opened back up and I got my tall ass out of there so I wouldn’t have to deal with all the drama. As the doors were closing, Amanda and my boss Brody slipped in with me and I noticed they were both scratched pretty bad, but they weren’t too worried about it. Bummed that I wasn’t able to go get my pizza I went back up to the office and decided to call out for a delivery instead. They tell me it would be about an hour so I start talking to everybody on our floor. Everybody up here was talking about it and it turned out there were quit a few people hit by those dudes down there. They got a couple of those girls down at the end of the hall. Even got your heartthrob Jenny.”

  I interrupted him at that point, “Is she okay?”

  My m
ind drifted to the angelic visage of Jenny. Jenny was the receptionist at the porn office and even though I never had the courage to talk to her, I always dreamt of her and me one day going out on a date.

  “An hour ago, I would’ve said she was fine, but I don’t think you’re going to get your date with her now,” Ollie answered

  “Why? what happened to her?”

  “Let me finish, little dude. Then you’ll get it. So, anyway, I was still waiting for my delivery to get here, looking out the window and I see the pizza dude coming down the street from Giordano’s. I start to go out to meet him in the lobby and I pass by Brody’s office to let him know I’m heading to get my grub on. I poke my head in and Brody is all laid out on his desk. I call out to him,. but didn’t get an answer. I come in to see if he’s just catching some z’s, but then I notice he ain’t moving. I tap him on the shoulder and yell ’Dude,’ at him like ten times, but get nothing back from him. A couple of the other dudes in the office hear me and come to see what’s going on. I told one of them to call for an ambulance or something and I started checking for a pulse. The dude was ice cold. I mean like Pacific Ocean in December cold, and there was no pulse. He was completely checked out. I tell everybody to get out and I back away so I can get my thoughts together. In fact, I was about to come find you and see what you thought we should do next. Before I could do that, Brody sat up. I was all like ’Woah dude, you’re back.’ But he wasn’t back. His eyes were opened, but there wasn’t anything behind them. I mean, he just had this blank stare and all. Then he made this gurgling, growling sound and stood up looking at me like I was the biggest piece of steak on an all you can eat buffet. He rushed at me, but before he could get all the way across his office, I stepped out and slammed the door on him. He beat on that door like it was the thing he hated most in this world. Everybody froze and looked at me like I was supposed to know what the Hell to do or something. I ran over to the front desk and grabbed the only thing I could think of.” Ollie looked over to the hockey stick propped up next to him.