In the Lone and Level Sands (30 page)

Zoe started across the muddy lot toward the
tall, grey building.

35

In Art’s Office Suite

After a few days in the Cardigan, the canned
food was nearly gone, as were most of the perishables. Jennifer had
made herself a ham sandwich one night, but left the package out by
mistake. In the morning Jason chewed her out for it, and Jennifer
tried to apologize, but in the end, it was Evan who ended Jason’s
rant.

“She didn’t mean to, Jason!” he said. “It
was an honest mistake! We were going to run out soon anyway.”

Jason sighed and sat down on one of the
couches. “I’m sorry for exploding on you, Jen.”

“It’s fine.”

Later that day, Evan sat on the couch
against the left wall of the office, the sun shining brightly on
his back. Mal was sitting in a chair across from him, and Cynthia
sat next to him. They had their hands full of playing cards. It was
their third game of Go Fish.

“How much food do we have left?” Stephanie
asked from across the room. She was leaning against one of the
double-paned windows.

“I figure we have enough for tonight and
breakfast tomorrow,” Evan said. “It would probably be a good idea
to grab some more from the kitchen.”

“What if we can’t get to it?” Cynthia
said.

“Well, we’re going to have to. This is not
going to end soon, and we’re running out of food.”

“Do you have any threes?” Mal asked.

“We could just go tomorrow after breakfast,”
Jennifer said.

“We should probably just go today, and
definitely before nightfall.”

“Yeah, we shouldn’t wait,” Jason said.

“Do you have any kings?” Cynthia asked Evan.
He smirked.

“Yeah.” He sighed, and handed his two kings
over. Cynthia set them down with the two she had.

Daisy was sitting on the couch across from
Evan and his family. She had her head buried in a book, one of
King’s collections. She turned the page, and then set it face-down
on her lap. “So, when do we head down to Hell?” she said, then
smacked a piece of gum on the side of her mouth.

“When this game is over, we’ll get ready and
dive right in,” Evan said.

A few minutes later, Evan stacked the cards,
put them back in the box, and set them on the table. Evan, Jason,
Stephanie, Eugene, Jennifer, and Daisy all gathered weapons and
some minor first aid supplies and prepared to leave.

“Cynthia?” Evan said.

“What?” She noticed the concern in his eyes,
and knew what he was about to say.

“I think it would be best if you stay up
here with Mal. It’s too dangerous for her to come with.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Cynthia
said.

“There’s an extra cleaver over on the window
sill, just in case… You know.”

“Okay. Hurry back, guys”

“Daddy, wait!”

“What is it, Mal?” Evan knelt down to her
level. She hugged him.

“Be careful down there. Don’t get hurt,
okay?”

Evan smiled. `“I won’t, honey. I’ll be fine.
You keep your mommy safe, and do as she says.” Mal nodded.

“I will!”

Evan gave Mal a kiss on her face, stood back
up, and headed off. He heard Cynthia doing the best she could to
move things back in front of the door after they left.

Evan moved to the front of the group.
“Everyone stay together, and be quiet. If they don’t hear us, we
should be okay. Be ready for a fight, though. They could be
anywhere.”

The six survivors moved down the hall. It
was about ten feet wide. To their left was another office suite
like Art’s. Farther down the hall, there were more offices, these
ones much smaller.

Along the hall, a few of the windows were
smashed. One had blood around the edges of the glass and along the
window frame, then trailing across the hall. It was as if someone
had been pulled through the opening and dragged away.

“We need to move more quickly,” Evan
said.

The group sped up, and soon they reached the
stairs. The staircase was dark, and they couldn’t see much, but
they pressed on. They continued downward, not finding any trouble
along the way, and made it to the floor the cafeteria was on.

Evan moved a cautious hand to the doorknob.
He looked back at the others and nodded with a quick “Shh.” He
walked through and immediately spotted zombies down the hall,
chewing on a body. Both zombies wore blood-soaked suits, tattered,
one’s tie undone. One of them looked toward Evan. Daisy pushed
through the door, followed by Jason, and then Jennifer.

The first zombie’s abrupt lack of interest
in their current meal made the other one halt as well. They stood
up.

“Fuck,” Evan said. Both zombies charged,
almost at the pace of a jog.

A third zombie emerged from a room to the
right and tackled Jennifer. She screamed as her body smashed
against the door to the stairs, slamming it shut, with Stephanie
and Eugene on the other side. Stephanie tried to push the door
open, but with two bodies in front of it, there was no use.

Jason was trying to pry the zombie off of
Jennifer. He was having a hell of a time, as the zombie was once a
big man.

When the first well-dressed zombie was close
enough, Evan thrust his cleaver forward and hit it in the skull,
knocking it to the floor. Evan pulled the cleaver out as blood
rushed down the zombie’s already blood-caked face. It was still
squirming, so Evan struck again, slicing its throat, nearly
severing its head. The zombie stopped moving.

Daisy had sunk her cleaver into the second
zombie’s head, not enough to kill it, but enough for the cleaver to
get stuck. The zombie fell from the impact, grabbed Evan on its way
down, and the two hit the floor. Evan dropped his cleaver, and the
zombie was upon him. He pushed against the zombie while blood
dripped from its head wound onto his shirt. Daisy grabbed at the
zombie’s arms and tugged as hard as she could, trying to give Evan
enough room to get out from under it.

“Get this damn thing off me!” Jennifer said,
trying to push the third zombie off of her.

Jason grabbed it by the hem of its stained
jacket. He used all the strength he could muster to try to pull the
zombie off of her. The zombie was too big. Jason decided to take
another route. He raised his cleaver with both hands and threw
himself downward. The cleaver hit the zombie’s shoulder and all but
bounced off. Jason raised again and struck, but the zombie rolled
over to see what had attacked it, and the blade of the cleaver
slammed down between Jennifer’s eyes, splitting her face in half.
She let out a quick, sharp screech as the blade made contact, and
nothing more. Blood ran down her cheeks and dripped onto the
floor.

Jason backed away, speechless. He wanted to
crawl underneath a rock and never be seen again. “Fuck. I-I killed
her.” He pulled closer to the wall, too afraid to even attempt to
help Evan, worried that he’d somehow kill Evan, too.

Daisy’s arms were getting tired, but Evan
was finally able to squirm out from under the zombie. Daisy shoved
the zombie, it fell to the floor, and she swung her cleaver into
its face. The cold metal sank deep into its skull, blood splattered
on Daisy’s face and shirt. The zombie wriggled for a moment, and
then lay still. Daisy yanked the cleaver out and wiped the blade
with her shirt, looking at Evan with an adrenaline-fed fire burning
in her eyes.

“Thanks, Daisy,” Evan said.

“Don’t mention it, hon. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be all right.” Evan looked at
Jason, who sat against the wall, staring at his cleaver as it stuck
out from Jennifer’s head. “I can ask Jason the same question.”

Evan and Daisy moved the bodies aside and
let Eugene and Stephanie in. Eugene covered his mouth, and
Stephanie looked at Jason.

“I killed her,” he said. “I didn’t mean to,
the fucking—”

“Jason,” Stephanie said. “It’s all right.”
She moved to Jason’s side. “It wasn’t your fault. You were just
trying to help her.”

“I’ve never killed a person before,” Jason
said. He looked at Stephanie. “I don’t want to do it again.”

“You won’t.” Stephanie hugged him, and he
returned the hug with tears running down his face.

“We have to go,” Evan said. “We’ll have time
to mourn later. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but we need to
keep moving.”

The group headed down the hall toward the
cafeteria. There was a small cluster of zombies farther down,
feasting on two or three bodies. None of the zombies seemed to
notice them. They continued quietly to the cafeteria door.

Evan peered inside the cafeteria, and
noticed a few changes. There were planks over the door, and inside
the room, a man was pacing back and forth in a tattered and bloody
tuxedo and slacks. Sitting on a table not too far away was a woman
in a once long, flowing, white gown. It was now a short, ragged,
bloody dress. She was barefoot, mascara had run down her face and
dried.

Evan knocked loud enough on the window to
get the couple’s attention, but not loud enough to attract the
zombies. The couple looked up, the man stopped pacing and marched
over to the door. He put his face up to the window.

“What do you want?” he said. His face
disappeared as he lowered his head to spit tobacco onto the
floor.

“We’re from the 22
^nd
floor,” Evan
said, “and we’re low on food. We need in.” He looked down the hall
that led to the foyer of the Cardigan. The buzzards were still
feeding.

“Well, ain’t that just too bad?”

“We need you to open this door, please. You
can either come upstairs with us, or you can stay down here. Either
way, there’s plenty of food in the kitchen, and we need some.”

The man’s wife appeared next to him.

“Ain’t that real nice of you?” the man said.
“You’re giving us choices! Hear that, Vanessa? We’ve got more than
one fuckin’ choice!” He laughed, but his amusement faded quickly as
he looked back at Evan. “How about a third choice: Beat it! This is
our place now. All the food is ours, and we ain’t sharing!”

“Butch!” the bride said. “Let them in! Wait,
none have you have been bitten, right?”

Evan and the others shook their heads, and
then Vanessa looked condescendingly at Butch.

“Let them in, Butch! Just fucking let them
in! They could really help us out here!”

Butch sighed and started taking down the
barricade he had set up over the door. He pulled a board off, and
it slipped from his hands, landed on the ground with a loud
clack!
, and vibrated a few times, making a warbling sound
until it finally settled.

The zombies down the hall stood up and
looked toward the noise. They were confused for a moment, but once
they realized there was fresh meat nearby, they charged.

“Shit!” Jason said.

The zombies were almost jogging, still
moving unsteadily, but much faster than Evan and the others were
used to.

“Are you almost done?” Daisy shouted through
the door. She positioned herself next to Evan, facing the oncoming
zombies, ready for the attack.

“I’m moving as fast as I can!” Butch said.
He had retrieved a crowbar and was using it to tear off the wooden
planks. He spit out another mouthful of tobacco.

“Come and get it!” Daisy said. Stephanie and
Eugene faced the opposite direction, where a few more zombies had
appeared from other rooms and hallways.

“Are you going to be okay?” Stephanie asked
Eugene.

“Yes. I’ll b-be fine. Thank you.” His face
displayed an uncomfortable expression; he had enough trouble
meeting new people, let alone being attacked by approaching zombies
who plan on eating anything that moves.

Jason stood between the two duos,
frantically trying to pay attention both to Butch’s progress and
the oncoming zombies. One rushed straight for Evan. He made a
downward slice right on the top of the zombie’s skull. A sickening
crack and a small spray of blood, and then Evan ripped the cleaver
out of the zombie’s head as it fell to the ground.

One zombie was heading toward Daisy. When it
got close enough, she reached out and slashed its throat. It still
made a grab for her, but she lifted her leg up and kicked, pushing
it backward. She swung the cleaver again, bringing it right into
the next zombie’s temple.

Eugene stepped forward, bringing his cleaver
down on a smaller zombie, a female not much taller than four feet.
He ripped the cleaver out of her head, skin tore, blood poured down
her face, and she grunted. Eugene forced the blade into her skull
again, and then she collapsed.

Evan turned to the cafeteria entrance and
looked in. “Are you almost done?”

“Half-way, guys,” Butch said. “Hang on out
there!”

A few more zombies came into view down the
hall. Jason turned to the door and pounded. “Hurry up, Butch!”

“I’m working as fast as I fucking can!”

A zombie came very close to pinning Evan
against the wall, but he was able to shove it back. While the
zombie was recoiling, he lurched forward and ended its life with a
strong downward thrust into its brain. After that, he noticed
Stephanie was in need of assistance; she had lost hold of her
cleaver and was currently engaged in hand-to-hand combat with one
of the zombies. Evan knocked the zombie away, and then sliced at
it.

“Thanks,” Stephanie said. “I’m sorry. I
just—”

“Don’t worry about it. You would have done
the same thing for me.” Evan wiped sweat and blood from his
forehead.

“Last couple of boards here!” Butch said.
Vanessa helped move the boards and the tables out of the way.
Finally, Butch opened the door and gestured wildly to the survivors
in the hall. Evan and company poured into the room, and Butch shut
the door just in time to block the oncoming zombies. They pounded
on it like there was no tomorrow, and the chorus of moaning went on
and on. The newlyweds covered the door and held it shut, and Butch
looked frantically at the others, who ran into the kitchen to
gather more rations.