Zombies! (Episode 10): State of Emergency (2 page)

By the time she was ready to head over to the train again, it was past 1:30. The snow had started to float down to the ground. It was melting on the hot cars and the well used streets and sidewalks. That wouldn't last long. It was bitter cold and before long, the volume of snowfall would overpower the heat generated by the city of New York. She hoped that Martin would be able to get home all right. By the time he was done at work, they would be in a full blizzard.

The train platform was crowded so Abby kept a firm grip on Sam's hand. He jumped up and down, banging against the bag on her arm. She'd found a long skirt that she felt would compliment her rather than make her look old and fat. It was on sale so she'd bought it. She didn't think Martin would mind. Though he wasn't making nearly the money he'd been making before the economic collapse had cost him his job, he was making enough that their finances had smoothed out over the last few weeks. She couldn't splurge but she didn't have to deprive herself completely.

Time passed and no train came. The platform began to fill up and the body heat made the temperature in the station tolerable. There was a buzz of conversation on the normally quiet platform. An announcement was made informing the passengers that the train was delayed due to a police investigation at 59
^th
street. Abby was glad that she was headed in the opposite direction. She wanted to hit some of the stores in the Wall Street area. Now if they could only route some trains her way.

The first train that came was full. It was after two already and she desperately wanted to get on, but Sam wasn't having any of it. So she let it go, praying that whatever had happened had been resolved and trains would start moving normally. Sure enough, another came through about five minutes later. A lot of people got off of this one. It was still crowded but not packed. Sweeping Sam up into her arms, she boarded. A nice man gave her one of the handicap seats and she sat down gratefully with Sam on her lap.

As the subway rumbled downtown, Abby let her mind wander. More and more, she had been thinking about leaving the city. Martin's love affair with New York had ended with his lack of prosperity. He rarely talked about going back to England anymore, but she was sure she could convince him to move west or south. Any jobs they could find would do well for them. The cost of living was cheaper in other states even if the wages were less. The only real sticking point was her parents. She didn't think they would leave the city. It had taken a lot for them to move there. They lived in a nice quiet neighborhood in Queens, not too far from where she herself lived. They didn't need a car for anything, had plenty to do, and plenty of money with which to do it. They liked New York.

The train came to a stop at City Hall and Abby saw a big poster for a street fair. They were common in Manhattan, although not at that time of year. It would be nice, though, to get some fresh fruit and maybe some other goods from out of state and out of the country. It was close to three o'clock. If the snow was bad, the vendors would be closing up and going home. If that was the case, though, she could just get right back on the train. Paying an extra fare wouldn't really matter. So she gathered up Sam and went through the closing subway doors.

The City Hall station was big. She moved through the corridors, holding tight to Sam's hand. They found the exit and the stairs and came into the frigid air on the far side of the park, closer to the Brooklyn Bridge. The snow was coming down harder now, starting to stick to the empty pavement of Broadway. In the park, the trees and the grass were rapidly turning white. She rushed across the park to where the tents of the fair were set up. People in overcoats and wooly scarves were showing off fresh fruit and jars of honey and homemade butter. There was someone selling different varieties of bread and sausage and cheese. Martin liked those so Abby chose a few of the more inexpensive selections and paid for them. The vendor gave her a plastic bag which she stuck into the bag with her skirt.

As she moved through the fair, looking at everything, she noticed the chill getting worse and the snow getting thicker. Wall Street would have to wait for another day. It would be dusk in about an hour and she needed to get Sam home and fed. As she started for the train, her phone rang. It was Martin.

"Hello?"

"Hi, love. Close to home yet?"

"Downtown actually," she told him. "There's a street fair at City Hall."

"In this cold?"

"Yup. I got you some goodies."

She could hear him smiling. "Will they be followed by
goodies
?"

Blushing, she held the phone close to her mouth. "You're a bad man, Martin."

"It's snowing pretty heavily out here," he said, changing the subject. "They're talking about closing the store so I may get out early. You should get home."

"I was thinking the same thing," she said, trailing off with the last sentence. Some of the people around her seemed to be getting frantic. The nearest vendor grabbed her by the arm and shouted something at her. She wasn't speaking English so Abby didn't understand. Only when the beefy woman started pointing and Abby turned, did it all come into focus.

"Oh, my God," she said into the phone and into the air.

"Abby?" Martin said anxiously into the phone. "Abby, what's wrong?"

"There are dozens of them, Martin. Maybe hundreds."

"What, Abby? Dozens of what? Abby! Ab…"

The call was dropped and the phone went silent in her hand. She barely noticed Sam tugging on her other arm. He was saying
funny men
over and over and pointing and laughing. But the men weren't all men and they were hardly funny. They were an army. An army of the undead, just marching down Broadway and absorbing anyone who was unfortunate enough to get in their path. Abby's first thought was to get to the train and away from the area. Sam would never be able to keep up with her so she scooped him up and ran. Only when she saw that everyone was running in the opposite direction did she have a second thought. The zombies were sweeping through the street like a pixel plague, covering every square inch with their foul color. When they reached the entrances to the train stations, they didn't stop. They didn't even get out of the way. Many grabbed hold of the railings and started down the stairs. Some just tumbled head over heels and disappeared from sight. Either way, the train station was hardly a safe haven.

Gathering her wits about her, Abby looked around the street. She was almost as afraid of the crowd of panicking people as she was of the zombies. All at once, she was back in the Bronx, sweaty frightened men dragging her forward toward the fighting arena's exit. The whole episode had been completely out of her control. But then she was back in the center of the park, most of the people having scattered. The zombies, heading south down Broadway, had just reached the edge. Behind her was clear. She could run away from them, but worried over what she would find. Not too far down, Broadway ended and so did Manhattan Island. From there it was a left or a right and up West Street or South Street. Either way, if the army of zombies spread out, she'd get caught as she headed back uptown. Of course, dragging Sam along, she'd be exhausted before she even reached Wall Street. Her only recourse was to find shelter and fast.

"Mommy, those are
bad
men," Sam said.

She almost burst out laughing, holding him close as she ran and kissing him on the head over and over again. She had almost forgotten about him in her own panic. Some instinct had forced her to hold onto him and now she was relieved to find that he was with her. He gave her purpose. The zombies would not have her child.

At the southern end of the park, east of Broadway, there was a line of stores. Some people had gone inside, but most had just run off. Traffic on the street had literally disappeared. Broadway was always crowded with cabs and buses during the weekdays. What had happened to them? Then she remembered coming out the train and seeing an empty Broadway. No cars. No buses. Somewhere further uptown, the zombie armada had stopped traffic and no one had even noticed.

As Abby rushed down the row of stores, a sales lady came out of a boutique to see what was going on. When she saw the zombies swarming the park, her entire face morphed into a thing of terror. She was about to bolt, her whole body tense, when Abby grabbed her up and swept her into the store.

"Do you have shutters?" Abby asked.

"What?"

"A gate? Does your store have a gate?"

Dumbly, the lady nodded.

Abby practically tossed Sam into the store and dragged the lady outside to help her. The lady was beginning to shut down from shock. Her instinct for flight had been interrupted but she still couldn't focus.

"
The gate!
" Abby screamed into her face.

The lady seemed to clear a bit and headed for the door. "I'll get the padlocks."

But Abby grabbed her and hauled her back. "We don't need the locks."

The zombies were reaching the southern edge of the park now. The first of the line was moving into the gutter directly across from where they stood. The smell had already reached them. The two women looked across. As always, the zombies came in a variety of styles. Tall and short. Old and young. Black and white. Chinese, Mexican, Italian. And even the ones that weren't chewed up or decayed were so frighteningly disgusting that it was all they could do not to look away.

"Inside," the lady said. "We have to go inside."

"We need to put down that gate."

Sam was banging on the glass door, shouting out
Mommy
!

"We have to do it from inside."

A man came running out of the train station at their end of the park. He was wearing a business suit and no coat. His hair and his eyes were wild as he looked around. Those zombies that were near him changed direction and reached out for him. He screamed. He had this high pitched voice that went shrill with his fear. He fought against them and managed to break through the ranks. Like a trapped animal, his eyes searched for an exit. When he spied Abby and the sales lady, he charged toward them.

"Help, help!" he shouted as he ran.

The lady pulled open the door and ran into the boutique, nearly tripping over Sam as she did so. Abby went in after her, waving for the man to hurry. When all of them were inside, the woman opened the door a crack and reached up. She yanked on a chain and the gate came free whacking the door along the top. Slowly, too slowly, she let it close inch by inch until there was barely enough room for her to reach her arm through. With one hand pulling, the gate came down slowly. The zombies reached the front of the store. Abby, Sam, and the man could see them through the front window. Some ran up to the shutter and started banging on the metal plates. Others crawled underneath, trying to reach up to the lady's exposed arm. With about eighteen inches to go, she couldn't pull it down anymore. While most of the zombies had scrambled out from underneath, the one closest to the door had stayed. It continued to try and get in. Pulling her roughly away, the man yanked the gate up and then yanked it down again. It slammed on the zombie's head. The thing shuddered. The man pulled hard on the chain and the gate came up a couple of inches. A second zombie tried to claw its way in over its struggling peer but the man brought the gate down once more. The first zombie caught the brunt of it and seemed to go slack. Sticking his foot through the narrow opening, the man managed to nudge it far enough away that the gate was able to close fully. Exhausted, the man backed away from the door. It swung slowly closed with the slight tinkle of bells.

"Is everyone okay?" Abby asked.

Everyone nodded. Sam was standing silently next to her, looking from the sales lady to the man. He was trying to figure out if they were part of the group of bad people or if they were friends.

"Do you have a television?" asked the man.

The lady shook her head.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone, a sparkling iPhone. He began thumbing and tapping the screen, his expression growing ever more frustrated with every passing second. "There's nothing. The whole network is down."

"What about the regular phone?" Abby asked.

The lady went to the phone and dialed 911. She got a recorded message and shook her head.

"So that's it, then," the man said. "We're stuck in here blind and dead."

They stood there, the three of them, staring at each other. Abby could feel the tension rising in the room. Now that the action was over, desperate brains were beginning to try and work through a way out. When there seemed to be no obvious solution, destructive emotions were taking over. The only sound was the muted pounding of zombie fists against the gate.

The boutique was a little hole in the wall that seemed more suited for the Village than for an off Broadway store by City Hall. There was a selection of wispy clothing as well as different scents and knick knacks. It was everything your young and trendy college graduate wanted in her studio apartment. But it was not for Abby. The lighting was dim and the place was all peach and violet. Sam found a black chair by the cash register and climbed up into it. The man sank to the floor, his back against a wall. His hands were shaking so badly that he had stopped trying to calm them. In fact, he hardly seemed to notice. And the poor sales lady just stood in the center of the store looking from Abby to the man and back. She looked as if she was trying to decide which of them to help first.