Zombie Theorem (Book 1): The Culling (4 page)
Before he could lift it up though Kim yelled out “Wait, won’t that set off all of the sprinklers? And we are going to get wet!”
“Kim calm down. Our system is set up so only the sprinkler head that is activated will go off. And best of all, it’ll activate the emergency fire system and call out to the fire department who will come and rescue us.” She stepped back and sat down at one of the farthest desks.
Brian flicked the lighter on and held it up to the sprinkler head. In seconds it went off and at first only air came out then a rush of blackish stinky water gushed out, then quickly cleared. The fire alarms started going off and to everyone’s amazement they heard the elevator ding. There was a mad rush as people started running to it.
When I got there, everyone was stepping back quickly, away from the elevator doors. Brian grabbed my shoulder and slowed me down. I looked up at him, he was looking over everyone into the elevator. “Boss, I think we found Stacey.”
I pulled away from him and ran to the elevator, stopping abruptly before crossing the lip. I suddenly wished I hadn’t, Stacey was propped up against the far wall. Her blue blouse had been torn open exposing her white skin and an ugly red jagged hole just below her rib cage where her intestines had been pulled out. They were laying on her black skirt and scattered around her. Someone screamed and people started rushing back into the offices. I looked around and found Brian and Matt standing next to me. Brian looked sad but Matt looked like he was about to lose his lunch. I entered the elevator and went down to my knees. I looked Stacey over and could tell she was dead. I mean how could you not with all your blood lying around you with your intestines hanging out. I ran my hands over my head and blew out my breath I had been holding. Brian grabbed me by the shoulders and helped me get to my feet.
Suddenly someone yelled, “The stair’s door is unlocked, let’s go!” There was a rush as twenty-five people came running out of the offices toward the stairs including Kim. Within minutes we heard screaming coming from the stairway. I turned and ran to the door and looked out. I saw blood spurt up, well maybe more like fountain up onto the first landing. Shadows were thrown onto the wall from the emergency lights and I could see what I thought were people shoving something to their faces. Then I could see the people coming up the stairs. But something was wrong with them, they moved jerkily but quickly, their chests and hands covered in blood. “Move!” I heard a loud roar and was bodily thrown against the wall. Brian grabbed the door handle and slammed it closed, his fingers turning white from the strain of trying to hold it closed. The door would slowly pull open but then Brian would dig in and close it again using all of his muscles. I looked around and saw the fire hose wound up on the wall. I grabbed it and ran to Brian. He looked at me crazily, then figured out what I meant. He started wrapping it around the door handle and tied it off. He then ran back to the wheel I took the hose from. He took the excess and wrapped it around the wheel jamming it in place and tied it off.
“Now there is only fifteen of us left.” Matt muttered.
I snapped my head to him. “Go get more gloves and masks, we need to move Stacey to the closet with Marco.” Matt took off at a dead run. Then he stopped and he reached into his pockets pulling out a wad of those blue gloves and two folded masks.
“I figured we’d need some more. I wanted to be prepared.” He handed them over and Brian and I put ours on.
We went into the elevator as Matt disappeared. I figured he was going to go get the supply room key. “Hey Boss, why are we not talking about this or what just happened on the stairs?”
“Shit Brian I don’t know. Shock?” I answered. “Let’s get Stacey taken care of, then we can talk. Go grab a chair or something to stop the elevator doors from closing.” I stood next to Stacey and watched Brian hunt around her desk. He ran back with the rubber stopper that kept our front doors normally open. He shoved that into the bottom of one of the doors and kicked it to make sure it stayed in place.
“That should do it. I can grab her head and shoulders just like Marco.” I nodded ok and grabbed her legs. On three we lifted and started carrying her out. As we walked away some of the office personnel were standing at the lobby doors watching us do our gruesome duty. I was amazed at how heavy Stacey was. I mean, she was a skinny little thing and was missing at least a gallon of blood and some internal organs. We got her to the supply closet and put her next to Marco. We tore off our masks and gloves and threw them in. Matt closed the door and locked it. He then handed us new masks which we promptly donned.
“Are we now going to start talking about what happened?” Brian asked somewhat impatiently.
“I have no idea what’s going on. Since I came in this morning I have been completely in the dark. I keep seeing bits and pieces of this puzzle but no idea how they connect. I don’t know why, who, or even when Stacey was killed, or why I heard screaming or what those things in the stairway were and all that blood, so much blood. I feel completely unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with today. I should be in a mental facility hugging myself in a white coat, wondering when the nice lady was coming with my green jello and which side of my padded cell smells best. I don’t know what to tell those people on the other side of the office. I just want to make it to tomorrow and then the day after and hopefully the day after that. But instead I don’t know if we have serial killers in the building or if it’s god damn demonistic fucking yard gnomes!” As I ranted my voice climbed higher and higher.
Suddenly I realized I was losing my cool and put my back against the nearest wall and slid to the floor, landing on my ass. I covered my face with my hands and shuddered. God I was sure this was all a bad dream brought on by some cursed enchiladas I had the night before and was just hoping I’d wake up. I heard a slight giggle and glared up at the offender. It was Matt and he had this little smile on his lips as he held in more laughter. “Really think its demonistic fuckin yard gnomes? Not me, I really feel it might be murderous blue Smurfs who lost it after Gargamel captured and tortured Smurfette.” He said through his fingers still stifling his laughter.
“No, no, no, it’s neither. I bet it’s the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz after smoking a bad dose of bath salts.” Brian kicked in with a gigantic smile.
“You know I am really starting to hate both of you.” I slowly pulled myself back together. “Sorry I lost it. Let’s get back to the lobby and see what we can figure out. Hopefully emergency services will be here soon and we can go try to answer a bunch of questions we are ill prepared to answer.” At this point I notice the fire alarm had stopped going off. I really hope that isn’t a bad sign. I rolled onto my knees ripped off my mask and took a large lungful of air before standing up, I felt like the mask was choking me. The guys put their masks back on and followed me back to the lobby. As we walked back I was aghast at the quickly drying blood on our pants and hands. We stopped in the bathrooms and tried to clean up as much as possible.
The elevator door was still open so I walked in and started looking around. The blood and bits and pieces of Stacey were still on the floor. I looked at the ceiling and saw it had a couple of drops of blood on it. I looked at the control panel and saw a bloody fingerprint. Well that didn’t come from Stacey, there is no way she could’ve gotten up and pushed the buttons after what happened to her. I turned to Brian and gave him a shrug saying I had no idea what I was looking at. That’s when I noticed Matt was standing with his ear against the stairway access door.
“Matt, what are you doing?” I enquired.
“I hear sounds like growling. And I swear I can hear someone saying no over and over again. I think its Kim.” Matt said with fear and awe in his voice.
At that, Brian walked over and put his ear to the door. He looked intense as he strained to hear what Matt was hearing. “I think we need to go in there and see if we can help!” Brian said louder than he meant to. Suddenly something hit the door really hard and we could hear snarling and scratching.
“Hey Brian, hey Matt, um do you mind stepping away from that door?” Using my inside voice.
They both got wide eyed and backed up. Just then I heard a gaggle of gasps. I looked over and most of what was left of the office personnel was standing at the lobby doors staring at us, demanding and answer. “What is that?” “Why aren’t we helping?” “Where are the Police?” You should get out of that elevator, you’re going to ruin the evidence” “What is that hitting the door?” “We really need to get out of here.”
I left the elevator but made sure the wedge was holding the door open. I shooed everyone back to the office. Brian and Matt drifted in behind me and we all gathered around my office door. “I’m not going to blow sunshine up your asses’ people or lie to you. Let me catch you up. Brian, Matt and I found Marco earlier in the bathroom dead from what we think is the flu. He flew in from Manhattan yesterday, and we didn’t know he was even in the office till Matt found him. We moved his body to the supply closet and have now added Stacey’s body and locked the door. So please don’t go over there and definitely do not open the door. Some people ran into the stairway earlier when the door became unlocked and we heard some screaming and saw blood. I also saw something coming up the stairs and so that’s why we secured that door, we think that, that something attacked them. We thought about going in there but something is attacking the door now, and we have nothing to defend ourselves with. I also have no idea who attacked Stacey or why she was in the elevator, or when It happened. I know I do not have many answers, just more questions and things seemed to be going downhill fast.” I stopped and looked down at my watch. “Wow it’s just about 6pm. My hope is someone will be missing one of us and call the police and they will come and help us. We have no idea when that will be though. I suggest we all stay together and not wander around without a partner. This is a big space right here in front of my office. Let’s move the couches from the lobby into here and bring some chairs from the conference room. We might as well get comfy and ride this out. I am getting hungry so I know most of you must be too. Why don’t we go get whatever is in the fridges or what we brought in today and have a little potluck? Brian, Matt can you please handle those assignments?” Everyone nodded and Brian and Matt took over and started dividing up the jobs.
I walked back into my office and sat down heavily. Fuck me; can this day get any worse? I grabbed a bottle of water from under my desk, cracked it open and drained it. Then I grabbed the rest of my water and snacks I had stashed in my desk and took them outside my office to be included in our supplies.
I was interrupted from my story telling by Reynolds. “I’m sorry Dan, but I am confused. When we got there, Stacey and Marco were not in the supply closet. The report states that Stacey was found in your office with a metal chair leg in her head and”, he flipped through some pages in his notebook. “Marco was found a floor up with his head smashed in. How and why did this happen if they were dead already and locked in a supply closet?”
“I’m about to get to that.”
I drained the leftover coffee in front of me and made a sour smile. It had gone cold. You’d think I’d be used to that by now.
“I stood at the door and watched Brian and his crew carry the three couches from the lobby and placed them around the space in front of my office. The couches were new, we had just had them delivered about a week ago. Big comfortable chocolate brown couches. They could hold five people sitting on them. We also had three big comfy chairs out there and I knew Brian would be bringing those over next. By then Matt and Summer, a young woman around 22, carried a long table we used in the lunch room for special occasions. They brought it over and put it up against the far wall. Two other co-workers, a man named Jesus and a woman named Elisa followed them pushing a cart loaded with packs of bottled water and placed them under the table. I smiled to myself, we have a great team.
Brian came up to me after sending the rest of his group out to get the chairs from the lobby. “Boss, we need to talk really quick” he said quietly enough only for me to hear. I pointed into my office and we both walked in and stood by my desk. “You know I’m a little worried about what someone is saying in my group. You know Lisa right? She manages the field database, and keeps us up to date on the customer changes. Well she is starting a rumor that you and I killed Marco by throwing him in the closet instead of giving him medical treatment and that she bets Stacey wasn’t dead either. She swears she saw her body moving when the elevator doors opened. I’m worried about people believing her.”
“What does she think you and I could do, even if those two weren’t dead already?” I clenched my hands at my sides. I could feel my migraine getting worse, threatening to crack my skull open.
“No idea boss. But I thought you should know. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open and let you know if I learn more.” Brian assured me.
“Please do so. And why don’t we get those keys from Matt and secure them. I don’t want anyone messing around in there thinking they can help. All we need now is for that flu to spread like wild fire through what’s left of us.” Brian nodded and left the office. With such a bad situation, I am just very happy to have both of those guys
by my side taking some of the pressure off of my shoulders.
