Devouring The Dead (Book 1) (16 page)

“Reggie, light the torches!”
Reggie had backed away into the kitchen and was frantically trying to light the flammable cloths. He lit the first one and handed it to Benzo, who threw the burning bottle at Amber. She lit up immediately and the fire spread over her battered naked body.

With so few weapons available
, Jackson had earlier unscrewed the legs from Jill’s desk, intending to use them as hefty batons with which to beat any zombies that got in their way. He picked up the four robust metal legs.

“Here!” shouted Jackson, throwing one to
Benzo. Parker and Dina grabbed the other two, while Jackson held onto one.

“Go now!” shouted Tom. As Reggie ran, others tried to follow, swinging their clubs at anyone who tried to stop them.

Jill and Jenny were running through the office and Tom watched them claw a poor girl down to the floor together, where they tore her apart. Jackson struck Michelle who was standing in the doorway. Her infected dead body stumbled and fell. Amber was still burning and had tripped over the bags in the centre of the room, setting them alight. There was no way to get them now.

David
and Jessica managed to pull Chloe off Kate and had pinned her back with some chairs. It only kept her at bay for seconds though. Michelle stumbled through the office, blood pouring down her head, which was hanging off her shoulders to the side. She grabbed David and bit his hands as he tried to push her away. Dina tried to help him, but only succeeded in falling over where she found Jill’s snapping jaws.

Kate
was crying for Philip whilst Jackson, having evaded Jill’s clutches, ran to Jessica.

“
Just go, now!” He practically pushed her out of the door and they sprinted out of the room.

Amber was
still parading around the room whilst she burnt and the smoke from her crackling corpse was beginning to fill the room. Tom couldn’t see a way past her from where he was. He grabbed a chair and was waving it in front of Jill, fending her off like a lion tamer.

Suddenly
, Troy appeared in front of Tom; his eyes were wild, red, and Tom knew Troy was infected. Troy ran at Tom, forcing him to throw the chair and dive under a desk. A woman, Julie-Anne, screamed and Troy forgot Tom, turning to the woman. She was brandishing a breadknife and slashing it through the air as Troy approached. She succeeded in cutting his face, but Tom heard her cries as Troy sunk his teeth into her skin, ferociously tearing out chunks of skin and muscle. Blood flecked Tom’s face, from where he knew not, and Troy ravaged Julie-Anne, his teeth slicing through her jugular vein, spraying Tom with more blood.

Through the chaos and carnage
, Tom was unable to tell who was who anymore. Under the desk, he began crawling, edging his way to the door. He kept low, making sure his head stayed down, and tried to avoid breathing in the meaty smoke. He pushed his way through a tangled mess of wires and cables, dragging himself past chair legs, bags, rubbish and extension cords; all vying for the right to ensnare him in this deadly tomb forever.

As he crawled along
, he saw the exit. Suddenly, his ankle caught in a looped wire. He turned over to free himself and Chloe’s hands grabbed him. She dragged herself onto his legs, her eyes locked on him and he felt a gut-wrenching fear, the likes of which he had never felt before.

Tom kicked and struggled
, but he couldn’t shake her off. He rolled around on the floor and bucked underneath her, but she was up to his waist now and refusing to let go. Dina crashed down beside him, her face inches away from his.

“Dina, help me!” he said
, but it was too late. She was gone. Blood spilled from her mouth and her nose was gone, chewed off. The blood oozing from her neck was so thick and rich it looked black. Her once white hair was stained with dark blood. He hoped Dina would stay dead long enough for him to get away from her.

Frantically, Tom swung a punch at Chloe. He struck her over and over until dread overcame him. He weakened as Chloe’s dead body continued its inexorable climb over him.
His blows meant nothing to her, caused her no pain; they were nothing but an inconvenience that delayed her from being able to eat the luscious flesh before her. Finally, they were face to face, her jaws open and her breath stinking like rotten meat. Drool fell from her lips as she tried to clamp her teeth down onto his face.

Tom pushed her away, holding her head up, his hands locked around her neck, his fingers tracing the very same skin where Brad’s fingers had been last night. He could hear the sounds of his friends dying all around him
, and his belief in his survival was waning. Chloe’s lank hair dangled down, its limp fronds wisping across his cheeks. Her bruised breasts swung above him and he tasted burning bile in the back of his throat.

Brad had stayed hidden for as long as possible. When Amber appeared
, he slunk back against the wall and watched as Jenny died, horribly. As the fighting began, he slid back further, trying to make himself small, crawling behind a filing cabinet from where he watched Amber burn and Chloe kill. Brad was confused; how had the girl he murdered, returned to kill? He watched the horror unfold, shocked and frozen with fear. As Jackson and Jessica fought their way out into the stairwell, he realised he had only one chance to get out, or he would be left behind to die in here.

From his hiding place
, he took a leap of faith and jumped out. Standing in the doorway was Kate, crying. She had picked up the metal table leg that Jackson had dropped in his panic to get out.

   “Kate, let me help,” he said approaching her slowly. “Give me the weapon, Kate, we’ll get out together,” he said walking up to her.

“No. No, this is your fault. Jenny told me about you,” she struggled to say through her tears. .

Brad saw Michelle advancing, her
dead arms reaching out and he punched Kate, grabbing the desk leg from her as she fell into Michelle’s deadly embrace. Kate screamed as Michelle’s teeth scratched her neck and drew blood. Brad spat on Kate and gripped his new weapon tightly. He was about to run when he saw Chloe on top of someone beneath a desk. He coughed as the smoke in the room thickened. There was not much time left; he had to go. A hand reached out from beneath the desk next to where Dina lay, dead. It was Tom. Self-preservation was number one on the agenda but Brad decided Tom was worth saving; he was no limp dick like the rest of these dead fucks and could prove to be useful later. Michelle was occupied struggling with Kate and Brad took a chance.

“Fuck you, bitch!”

A metal desk leg struck Chloe on the side of the head as Brad swung it down on her, cursing. It tore a hole in her cheek but did not deter her. Tom held her head up and saw the metal leg strike her again and again. He felt the vibrations shudder down his arms with each violent blow.

Finally Chloe lost her grip and Tom pushed her off. He scrambled clear of the desks
, as Brad continued raining blows down on Chloe, her skull finally giving in to the relentless hammering and cracking open. Brad destroyed her decaying brain, sending chunks of it flying into the air as he pounded her with the metal leg.

“Come on
, Brad, let’s go.” Tom pulled Brad back and they ran. A man named Chris that Tom had only spoken to once, lay in the doorway. His stomach had been slit open and Tom could see the man’s intestines, spilling out onto the floor. Chris was dead and Tom didn’t want to stick around to see how long he would remain dead. Dina was already rolling over onto her stomach, trying to stand.

Brad and Tom
followed the footsteps and screams down to the ground floor, ignoring whatever was behind them. Bursting through into the foyer, the noise from the horde outside was noticeably louder than before and the banging and clawing at the glass doors was more insistent. The grunting and moaning sounds that the dead made, the only noise they could make, was louder too. Tom looked around, bending over to his knees to catch his breath.

“Who’s here?
” he said wheezing. Brad was closing the door to the stairwell behind them.

“Hey
, don’t shut that, what if someone else is behind you?” said Parker.

“Buddy, there’s no one else coming, we’re the last,” Brad answered. He looked around
, but there was nothing to barricade the door with. He shoved it closed and hoped it would hold.

“So this is it?” said Tom. He looked around at the survivors in the foyer:
himself, Brad, Parker, Jessica, Reggie, Christina, Jackson, Caterina, and Benzo.

“Jesus Christ,” muttered Jackson. “Jenny, Amber,
Chris, David, Jill...they’re all dead. Everyone’s dead.” He wiped his face and unintentionally smeared blood across his forehead.

“Sort of,” muttered
Brad as he slumped to the floor.

“What about Karl?” said
Reggie. “I thought he was right behind me...him and, shit, I forget her name...a blonde woman...I’m sure they were...”

“Save your breath, they’re dead” said Brad.

“Dina too? I thought she was ahead of me?” Jessica swallowed down the feeling of nausea that was rising from her stomach.

“
Trust me, they’re all dead,” said Brad. Nobody spoke. The only sound in the foyer came from the dead outside.

“Well
, I’m not. Thanks Brad, I owe you,” said Tom. He offered Brad a grim smile and was acknowledged with a slight nod of the head. Brad looked at the metal pole in his hands that used to serve as a leg for an office desk. It was covered in blood, Chloe’s blood. He had killed her twice now. He looked at his shaking hands; was twice enough? How dead was dead anymore?

“So where to now, Tom?” said
Benzo. “We need to get moving. I’m not waiting down here for those fucks to get in too.”

Everyone looked outside. The zombies w
ere attacking the glass doors like wild animals; pawing at it and hammering on it with their whole bodies. Tom was reminded of football crowds; people jostling and jumping up and down in their thousands, faces squashed as they crammed together and huddled in the herd.

“This way,” said Tom
, and he walked toward a door behind the reception desk.

“But what about Kate?” said
Christina. “She might be alive, we can’t just leave!”

“She’s dead,
or as good as, anyway. I saw her get bitten before she ran,” said Brad walking away, following Tom. “Sorry, I tried to help her, but they pulled her away from me...there’s nothing we can do for her anymore.”

“Fuck,” said Christina.
She watched Jackson follow Tom and the others behind him. Their heads were bowed. Even Brad, the ‘alpha male,’ looked defeated, she thought. She couldn’t see his smile from where she was. “And then there were nine,” she said shaking her head. Christina was the last to leave the foyer, the reception door closing behind her just as Jill reached the stairwell door. Jill jumped and pushed against the door until it gave way and she tumbled out into the foyer. The reception door had barely swung shut and Jill knew where to go. She followed them, her dead legs moving slowly, her impulses taking her toward the living.

* * * *

Tom led them down corridors, past closed rooms, retracing his steps with Freddy from yesterday. There was no talking. They were too shocked, scared, and bewildered for conversation. All they wanted to do was leave. Tom couldn’t understand how the plan had gone so awry. He tried to think back to the attack and how it had started. It had all been so fast it was difficult to remember it clearly. Jenny - she had been the first to die hadn’t she? He remembered she had been stood in the doorway arguing with Brad and then what? All hell had broken loose. Amber had appeared, but she was naked. Why the hell was she naked? After that, it was a blur.

“What the hell is that?” said
Caterina. A muffled crashing noise came from one of the rooms as they passed it.

“I don’t know,” said Tom. “It was the same when I was here with Freddy. I can only guess one of those things is trapped in there. As long as it stays in there away from us, I don’t care.” He marched on and the others tried to ignore it.

“That’s the security guys’ room,” said Jessica quietly to Parker as they passed the door.

“So?” he said taking her hand. “What does that mean? Like Tom said, as long as they don’t interfere with us, who cares.” Parker pulled her past the door, reluctant to linger. He knew she worked closely with them and didn’t want her getting any ideas about going in there to see if anyone needed rescuing.

“Yeah, okay,” she said. She let Parker lead her onwards, but couldn’t help think there was something she was missing. Why did it seem important? She felt like she was cracking up. Thank God Parker was here. Lame as it was, she felt safer with him around. He and Benzo had helped her, befriended her, and treated her like a human being. Most people treated the receptionist like shit or at least thought she’d be easy. Talking to Parker the last couple of days had been the only thing to get her through this, and the loss of Brie.

“Here,” announced Tom. He stopped in front of a grey door and pulled it open. He led them down some steps and through a small passageway before opening another, larger door. When he opened it
, the cold air hit them instantly and they looked out into a black underground car park.