Our Undead (28 page)

Gary:
Back! Back! Back! Everyone, back this way!

From behind the group Gary
calls for everyone to turn back. It doesn't take too much
convincing and everyone quickly starts back up the aisle, panicked
but trying not to trample over one another. Ben and Gary who were
at the back of the group are now in front, leading the way back
down the messy aisle. Margaret and Mariam are behind them, Roger is
next and Lynn and Karen are now on the tail end with zombies right
behind them. About five or six metres stand between them and
certain death.

Gary:
There's another way around!! Come on!!!

All is as well is it can
be. The group is being chased, but their chance of escaping is
looking rather high, as even in a jumbled up cluster, they are able
to move faster than the flesh hungry predators. Everyone may have
escaped safely, had they not have had to cross the improvised
cubicle fort again. Ben and Gary pass it safely, still calling out
to the group and encouraging them to follow strong. Margaret and
Mariam pass by it safely, and even Roger runs by the fort unharmed.
It is when Lynn and her mom pass by that the wounded hand from
inside the miniature quarantine decides to strike out. Its scrawny
fingers narrowly miss Lynn's heels but get a firm grip on her
mother's left leg. Karen falls straight down, her face coming in
direct contact with the floor.

Lynn:
MOM!

Lynn turns and tries to
help her mom back up to her feet, but the unrelenting hand make it
terribly difficult. She tugs as hard as she can on her mom's
wrists, fighting against the poor hidden soul that had most
definitely turned. It may have been sickly before, but now the
trapped person fights against Lynn as if it is in perfect
health.

Lynn:
HELP
ME!

Ben squeezes past Margaret,
Mariam and Roger, to get to Lynn and her fallen mother. He drops
his bat when he reaches them and takes hold of Karen's wrists to
help Lynn pull her mom free. The Australian man's power is a
definite asset and he and Lynn are able to get some ground on the
fiendish hand in their game of tug-of-war, where Lynn's mother
plays the part of the rope. They pull so far, in fact, that the man
made shelter in the cubicle comes tumbling down, it's undead
prisoner becoming revealed. The stack of chairs and all the rest of
the office furniture fall down like a tiny avalanche, and it's
transformed occupant snarls and barks at them from beneath the mess
of office appliances. It still refuses to let go of Karen's leg.
Even with kick after kick to the head the zombie, who turns out to
be a female, won't release her grip.

It doesn't take that long
before their five metres of breathing room is expired and the
approaching crowd of zombies come upon Ben, Lynn and her mom. The
first few savages take the path of least resistance and set
themselves on top of Karen's legs and lower body. Benjamin has no
choice but to let go of her and pick his bat back up. Lynn
stubbornly continues trying to pry her mother away from the hungry
undead, but it's hopeless. In less than thirty seconds, Karen's
legs have literally, already been chewed through to the bone. Even
the revealed stranger who had tried to warn them is now gnawing on
Karen's left ankle. She cries out in agony, screaming her
daughter's name and the name of a man that is unfamiliar to
Margaret; Landon.

Gary:
IT'S
TOO LATE! BEN! LYNN! COME ON!!

Lynn's tears are a mirror
of her mother's, in full stream. She had already lost her father,
so as long as her mom still has an ounce of life in her body, Lynn
will never abandon her. She doesn't stop at Gary's call, but
persists trying to pull her mom away from the festering flesh
eaters that have the middle aged woman stuck fast to the office
floor. Benjamin also ignores Gary, but is doing a fairly good job
of keeping the rest of the pursuing zombies at bay. He swings his
bat hard into one zombie's skull, sending it flying into one of the
near by abandoned cubicles. He swings again, downward, hard and
fast and drops another zombie, but just one man is no match for a
horde of zombies, even a smaller sized horde such as this one. He
misses his next swing, and the escapist zombie manages to get a
hold of Lynn's short blonde hair. It pulls down on her violently,
and she immediately falls on top of her half mutilated mother. The
zombie that grabbed her, in turn, falls on top of her. Two more
follow, and they begin snapping out pieces of the back of her arms
and legs.

Ben does his best to thrash
the skulls of the zombies that have placed themselves on top of
Lynn and her mother. He is able to subdue one, but his heroic
endeavors, however gallant, do nothing but give the zombies the
upper hand. With all of his focus on saving the fallen women, Ben
doesn't react quickly enough to stop the walkers who come at him
from the left. In no time at all his left forearm gets bitten,
causing him to drop his bat.

Margaret can no longer
handle just standing around. Even though she may not know most of
these people personally, it isn't in her personality to let bullies
be bullies, and these zombies are definitely bullies. She squeezes
her bat's handle and starts a blind charge toward the melee gone
awry, but bounces into Roger's wide frame that blocks most of the
office aisle. He too, is gripped by fear paralysis, watching as the
blood bath in front of him plays out.

Margaret:
Get the FUCK out of the way!

Proving useful, although by
accident, Roger's big body gives Gary the chance he needs to grab
his daughter and hold her back.

Margaret:
Dad, let go!

But the man knows it's too
late for the fallen. The four remaining survivors watch as the
Australian lion-heart charges through the crowd of twenty like a
pro wrestler from hell, throwing elbows into chins and shoulders
into chests. He too, knows that it is too late, so he tries to take
out as many as possible, for the group. Zombies go falling to the
floor and into cubicles but soon enough, the man is totally
surrounded, and overpowered.

Gary:
Come
on!

Gary takes Margaret by the
arm and drags her along with him. His daughter finds it hard to
take her eyes off of the flooding of bodies that surround Benjamin.
She can still see the heads of zombies bobbing up and down in the
middle of the swarm, as she is dragged through the aisles and out
of the office through a door on the opposite end from where they
had entered. Finally able to take his eyes away from the swarming
mini horde, Roger looks behind him and sees that no one is there
anymore. He realizes that the group has left and runs after them,
fleeing Benjamin's curtain call.

Margaret and her family run
through the gloomy outer halls of the second floor, heading back to
the stairwell they had used earlier. They turn a corner and head
down a corridor, straight for the red glow of the exit sign. Three
stray zombies occupy this hallway. Gary readies his lead pipe,
Margaret her bat.

Mariam:
Where's that other man?

Gary:
(glances back)
I don't know. He
should've been right behind us.

Margaret brings her bat
around and down into the first walker. It's head flies into the
adjacent wall before it collapses. Gary holds the lead pipe with
both hands, twisting them into it for a good grip. He drops the
second zombie promptly with a blow to the head as Margaret runs by
them and thrusts her bat into the crown of the last one. With all
zombies felled, they hear the heavy breathing of Roger as he cuts
around the corner, running to catch up with them.

Gary:
There he is! Come on!

The three family members
continue for the exit sign. Roger is not too far behind. On the
way, they pass the elevator section from earlier. The first three
pass it without a second glance, focused on the plan, but when
Roger passes it by a few seconds later, he sees that one of the
elevator doors is open. He looks at the family running ahead, and
then looks at the open door. He decides to take the opportunity for
a quicker escape down the elevator and goes for it.

Margaret, her mother, and
her father reach the emergency exit, and Gary goes through. His
wife follows right after. Margaret is about to enter, but she looks
back instead and doesn't see the man she so detests.

Margaret:
What the…

What could've happened in
the last twenty metres and if something did happen, where is the
evidence? She would've heard screams or seen a zombie, or
something
. This is
nothing but suspicious, and she chooses to investigate. She
traverses back up the hallway and turns cautiously into the
elevator section, but sees nothing.

Roger:
HEEELP!!! GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!

She hears Roger's annoying
voice. It sounds like he's calling out to her from inside of a tin
can. She walks slowly into the middle of the smaller hallway of
elevators, scanning the lift doors and comes to find one of the
doors partially open with a light flickering inside. She walks to
it and notices something else moving in it.

Margaret:
Roger?!

The head of the body inside
comes into view. Again and again, it moves from left to right,
giving each eye a chance to look through the fifteen-centimetre
space that leads to the outside.

Roger:
Hey! Girl! Uhhh… Mary!.. Mary, help me out of this thing! The
door! It's jammed!

Margaret:
Heh… You were trying to ditch us.

Roger:
No!
Look, please! I was just… testing it.

Margaret:
Yea, I'm sure you were… You're such a thoughtless,
inconsiderate, dimwitted, chicken shit… Waste of a human
life.

Roger:
No!
Please! You gotta believe me! Just… maybe you can push the button
or try shoving the door open from your side! The buttons won't work
in here! Where's your dad?! He could probably do
it!

Margaret looks to the left
and sees the undead coming back out of the office through the
original door the survivors had used when they had first got there.
They must've been finished with Lynn, her mother and Ben and heard
Roger's blatant howling. Margaret knows she doesn't have much time,
but she takes some to move in a little closer to Roger's useless
way out. She peers in at the trapped man.

Margaret:
(leaning in even closer)
My
father's not coming, and I hope you enjoy this because you deserve
it.

Roger:
WHAT?!
YOU…
GRRR!

Roger's arm fires through
the gap in the elevator door in an attempt to snatch Margaret's
neck, but she quickly dodges it. His arm flails around crazily, but
he can't reach her for the life of him. He sees that it's useless
and withdraws. From the inside of his metal cage, Roger can see
Margaret's serious face staring back at him.

Margaret:
… Oh yea, and you're a
fat-ass!

With that, Roger sees her
take one more look to his right, and then take off in the opposite
direction.

Roger:
NOO!!! COME BACK!! YOU BIT- MARGARET!! MARGARET!! YOUR NAME
IS MARGARET!!! MAAARGARET!!!

But she has already rounded
the corner, heading for her parents. Roger presses his face up
against the gap as he calls out to her, but his chubby cheeks don't
allow much give. He pulls and tugs on the door, trying to create a
bigger space, but it's no use. He smashes all of the buttons again
and nothing works, so in frustration, he backs up for some running
room and plows his full weight into the door. To his surprise, he
actually indents it. He starts to feel a slight glimmer of hope. He
could actually break his way out of this thing. So much for his
weight being "good-for-nothing", he thinks to himself and backs up
for another go.

He slams his body into the
two halves of elevator door again, and this time he makes the gap
even bigger, so big in fact, that a person of average weight may
just be able to fit through. A few more big hits like the first
two, and he would be out of there for sure, so he backs up for
another. He charges hard for another smash but has to put on the
breaks when this time he is met by some familiar undead faces. His
weight makes it hard for him to stop in time, and he ends up
running right into them anyway. The closest few zombies grab on to
his shirt and try to get at his head, but being quite powerful, the
man is able to pull himself away. His back slams into the back wall
of the elevator, and his eyes fill with a dreadful hopelessness.
The unthinking group of zombies jam the widened entrance, but it
wouldn't be long until one slips through, and then the rest.
Margaret can hear Roger calling her real name as she passes through
the emergency exit and it closes behind her. She never once looks
back.

<><><>

Billy:
Maaaaaaaargareeeeeet! Helloooooooo!
That's it. On the count of three, you'd better swing or I'm
coming over there!