Zombie Theorem (Book 1): The Culling, page 10
She was sobbing into my shoulder begging me to promise to protect her. Begging me to find her and protect her, to make that promise. I found my voice, and looked down to her angelic face and made my solemn vow to find her and protect her till the day I died.
I felt someone grabbing my foot and shaking it. I looked down but no one was there touching me. Yet my foot would be yanked off the car and shaken. I was confused over what was going on, I looked down at the little girl and she was gone. But I heard someone yelling my name, a man’s voice this time. A deep grumbling man’s voice.
I awoke with a start sitting straight up on the couch. Brian kept his distance but kept his hand on my foot. This time though he held it firm instead of shaking it. “Boss it’s morning and let me tell you, you must’ve been having some horrendous nightmare man. You were screaming and kicking. You ok?”
Most dreams leave me like smoke dissipating into the surroundings, but these dreams I’ve been having lately have been holding on like memories instead of subconscious thoughts. I looked at Brian and shook my head to clear it. My heart was pumping so hard it felt like it would break my ribs. “Yeah I’m ok man. These nightmares are kicking my ass.” I stood and walked to the bathroom and relieved myself, stopped at the sink and took a whore’s bath. What more can you ask for; A rag, some soap, and a sink of water. I came out cleaner then I went in, and smelling a slight bit better.
Brian had already repacked his gear but left out a small amount of food for our breakfast. I sat down and put on my shoes tying them up tight. I really wish I had worn sneakers instead of these damn dress shoes. I walked over to the desk and geared up. I sat on the desk and ate my Jerky, protein bar, and dried fruit in silence.
“I want to push all the way to the top today, if we can get there by this afternoon then let’s head down to our floor so we can get this food to Matt and his team.” Brian informed me.
“I agree, so what are we waiting for? Let’s rock and roll, that is a military saying right? I’m trying to act all tough and manly so you feel comfortable around this stupid girly civilian.” I said with a smile.
Brian moaned, grunted, and walked away down the hall toward the lobby. I laughed out loud, grabbed my baseball bat, shouldered it, and jogged off to keep up.
I met him at the door. “Alright you get the door; I’ll clear first then you take rear guard. No more dumb jokes or I’ll kick your ass.” He admonished, but I could tell he wasn’t mad.
I untied the door and opened it quickly. As the door swung open a red haired, female zombie, missing her shirt, her chest covered in bites fell through, but before she could make it across the threshold Brian had pushed her back with the bat and followed her into the stairway. I made sure the flashlight was shining on them providing Brian with illumination. Brian pushed her back further gaining some ground then swung his bat going for a homerun. He crushed in her head, then placed his right foot on her chest and pushed her backward down the stairs. I made sure the light shone down the stairway then up. We were clear. Brian backed up to me, and I placed my hand on his shoulder and we worked our way up. No other attacks came. The black 47 on the wall let us know we were almost to the top. We quickly cleared the next floor with no surprises. The floor was under construction, bare concrete on the floors and plastic sheeting as walls. No tools were present but there were buckets of dry wall mud and paint.
Chapter 17
We left the floor and made our way up the last flight of stairs to the 48th floor. Before we got to the top I heard scratching and thumping. Brian took each of the last steps glacially slow. When we got to the top we found two zombies, both males, one missing an arm the other looked untouched. Brian pointed to the armless one and then pointed at me. He pointed to the other then at himself. Now I knew which one to go all Babe Ruth on. We moved side by side to our victims. I lined up for a hell of a hit on the zombie. Brian brought his bat down off his shoulders and gave me the go ahead motion. I pulled the bat back and then let out a low whistle. Both zombies turned their heads to me. I swung with all my strength and made contact with the middle of the zombie’s face, hitting him in the nose and eyes. His head made a cracking sound and he dropped to the floor.
Brian was so quick the second my zombie dropped Brian swung, his zombie’s head all but disintegrated into a haze of black fluid. We both stepped back and waited to see if they were truly dead again.
Neither moved so I grabbed the leg of the zombie I killed and dragged his body over to the wall away from the door. Brian’s zombie had been pushed back from the force of Brian’s hit so I didn’t have to move him. We tested the door handle and it was locked. We hadn’t expected that.
“What the fuck?” I said aloud.
Brian knocked out “shave and a haircut 2 bits” on the door and stood back and waited with his massive arms crossed. I was shaking my head in the negative about to say we should move on, when the door handle moved and the door creaked open a touch. The person tried to shut the door and Brian moved in quick and popped the door open with his left shoulder. I came in right behind him and shut the door quickly. Finding a chair that had been used to wedge under the door thus keeping it closed. I used it for the same reason and effectively locked the door.
Brian was standing in front of someone lying on the ground. It was a woman, blonde, dressed in a rumpled skirt suit. Her hair was a mess and she looked very scared out of her mind. I guess a guy and a bear wielding baseball bats would scare anyone.
“Who, who are you? Are you going to kill me?” She said in a high voice and started crawling backwards toward the windows.
“No one is here to hurt you. My name is Brian this is Dan. We have been looking for supplies since we left our floor on 42. Have you been bitten or are you sick?”
“No. I’ve been here since Tuesday, um my name is Magdalene, but I go by Maggie. I was setting up the conference room for a big meeting when I got locked in here. When the stairway door unlocked itself, I tried to take the stairway but heard a lot of screaming. I looked down and saw a bunch of people being attacked. Blood was everywhere, I gasped out loud heard a door slam and then those two things chased me back upstairs. When I got back up here, I secured the door. I’ve been here all this time living off a cart of food that was sent here for the meeting. It’s all moldy and stale now.”
I reached into Brian’s pack and removed a protein bar. I showed it to her and then tossed it to the floor in front of her. She grabbed it, ripped the wrapper off and devoured it in what seemed one fluid motion. Brian pointed at me and then gestured at the room. I got the idea and started walking around checking the supply closet and the two small bathrooms, which unlike the other floors have windows in them so I didn’t need the flashlight. Everything seemed clear and I came back to alert Brian to the fact. I found him down on his haunches talking to the young woman. I moved to my left and checked his hands, I found no weapon in them. I could hear him talking to her in quiet tones.
“You are ok now. We have other survivors on the 42nd floor. Dan and I can take you down there and then you’ll have other people to be around. We have a little bit of food that we are going to take to them down there. What do you say Maggie?” Brian spoke in a calm voice and was holding her hands, making sure to make eye contact.
Maggie looked us both over and nodded her head yes. “I would like that a lot.”
“Great to hear, are you strong enough to walk?” I asked.
With Brian’s help she was able to stand up, she looked a little shaky at first but firmed up. I smiled at her and handed her one of my spikes. “I always feel stronger and more calm when I know I control my own destiny. You take this and stay in between us. I may ask you to step over and gouge out the eyes of the zombie we have to put down. You push hard and don’t stop till you feel a pop, then move the stick around, pulp that brain to mush. Make sure not to get any of the fluids on you. Wipe off the stick on their clothing if possible.”
She held the spike tight to her chest and smiled and nodded to me. I could tell she took in every word and would obey if asked.
“Alright let’s get going, I will be in front, Maggie stay behind me and put your hand on my left shoulder so I know where you are at all times. Dan will be behind you holding your right shoulder. If something attacks from behind Dan will take care of it. If something attacks from the front I will handle it. If we get overwhelmed, I want you to run back upstairs and wait for us to come get you. You also have an important job, here is our flashlight make sure you light up the front at all times unless Dan tells you to check behind us. You understand?” Brian lectured.
Maggie nodded yes and he smiled at her. I walked to the door and pulled the chair out and caught Brian’s eye. He winked at me and lifted his bat so he could use it to push a zombie back if needed. I pulled open the door and stood back. Maggie walked over put her hand on Brian’s left shoulder and shined the light around him since he was too tall to shine it over his shoulder. I took her right shoulder in my grasp and held my bat at ready. The landing was clear so we started moving down the stairs, pausing on every landing and listening for any movement or sound. We did not need to tell Maggie how important it was to be as quiet as possible.
We went past landing after landing, floor after floor without running into anything. We stopped just above our floor. Brian motioned for me to come up next to him. “Something isn’t right, there is a dim light down there.”
I shook my head. “I wonder if someone left the floor door open. How do you want to handle this?” I was getting antsy wanting to rush to our people.
“We need to secure that floor. We have no idea if something is in there or not. Ok we all go in together. I don’t want Maggie to go upstairs, she needs to stay with us.” Brian whispered in my ear. He then turned around and spoke to Maggie quietly. “We think something is wrong here, the door to out floor seems to be open. We don’t know what’s going on but we need to get back in there. We are all going to go inside then secure the door and sweep the floor of any zombies. You stay between at all times unless we say otherwise. Got it?”
Her eyes got enormous and you could smell the fear coming off of her. But she bit it down and steeled herself to follow us. We got back into position and made our way to the 42nd floor and yes the door was wide open. Blood was smeared on the inside of the door. Brian entered first then Maggie, once I entered I shut the door quickly and Brian handed me the firehose, I tied it off and checked to make sure the door was secure.
I stepped behind Maggie and looked over the lobby as Brian headed down toward the bathrooms. The lobby didn’t look that bad and the doors were locked and secured from what I could see. I turned and caught up to our little team. I squeezed Maggie’s shoulder to let her know I was there. We popped into the women’s bathroom and checked each stall; we were clear. We back tracked out and did the same for the men’s, it was also clear.
We came out back into the hallway and made our way to the conference room. The shades were up and we could not believe what we saw. The room was a mess, the table was upended and the chairs were thrown about in a tangle. Blood coated two of the walls. Brian shook his head then made a bee line to his office. We found it empty and entered. “This is what is going to happen. Maggie you will stay in here while we clear this floor. I want you to lock that door and keep it locked till we come back and alert you that everything is ok.”
“Yeah no problem, I’ll stay here.” Maggie said in a stronger voice then what I was expecting from her. I gave her a pat on the shoulder and walked into the hallway. Brian gave her a little reassuring hug and stepped out to me. She shut the door and we heard the lock engage.
Brian motioned toward the lunch room and we entered and found it a mess. All the chairs and tables had been thrown around, but contained no zombies or bodies of any kind. We checked the cubes and found them all empty. “I guess we need to stop dilly dallying and go check out the conference room.”
We walked back and opened the rear door and stepped into the chaos of the conference room. I spied two bodies right away and nudged Brian. He nodded his head assuring me he saw them. We both moved toward the windows and found another two bodies that had been torn to pieces. They were missing skin and muscle. Brian’s shoulders slumped as he reached into his belt for his spikes. “I got these two, just wait and we will do the next two together.” He said in a soft voice soaked in pain.
He made it to the two bodies and pushed them back with his foot. I identified the two as Robert Pagano, and Sarah Condish, they both worked in my department. Brian took a spike in each hand and drove one into each of the bodies at the same time. I could tell it hurt him because it hurt me. These were our co-workers, people we had celebrated holidays, birthdays, and good times together. I know what you’re thinking. We already killed three of our own, but two were already monsters and Lisa had made her own decision, which caused so much pain.
We walked over together to the other two. I didn’t recognize the black male, who was covered in blood from the face down his chest and onto his hands and arms. He was not one of my people and I’m sure didn’t work for our company. The other was Sherry Aguilar one of our accountants and estimators. She had bites on her face and left arm. We spiked them both with no problems. I was standing there studying the two bodies. After a full five minutes I walked back to the other two and examined them.
“What’s up Boss?” Brian asked.
I pointed to the two in front of the window, “I think they were attacked first and torn to pieces, Sherry must’ve come in while the new guy was attacking them. She then tried to pull him off of them and he started biting her. What I really don’t get is why was that black guy not trying to attack us when we came in? Where’s the rest of our group?”
“Good eye boss. I was thinking the same thing. No scenario I can come up with makes sense to me. Let’s go clear the rest of the floor maybe we will figure it out later.” Brian motioned to the hallway.
We left the room and continued down the hallway toward the lobby. I took my keys out and unlocked one of the doors. Brian stood in front of me and entered first. I followed and left the door slightly open so we could get out in a hurry if needed.
We looked over the cubes from where we stood and saw they were clear. We made it down toward my office at the end and checked the printer alcove. I walked to my office and waited for Brian to take position next to me. I opened the door and Brian entered quickly scanning the room.
I walked in after him and went right for my desk. A sheet of paper was sitting there that I had not left. I picked it up and read it. My heart sunk and I felt sick to my stomach. I handed the letter off to Brian.
I watched him read it, his shoulders slumped and it looked like he lost some of his hope. He dropped the letter onto my desk and sat heavily in one of the chairs. I put my bat on the desk and sat heavily in my chair.
The note read:
Guy’s we’ve waited two days but have not heard from you. Some of the group think you have abandoned us. They have taken a vote and have decided to take our chances on the stairway. I’ve decided to go with them since I am responsible for them. Sarah, Sherry and Robert have decided to stay behind. They are afraid to leave and believe you will be back soon. We took in a guy name Gary who was pounding on the door last night. We thought it was you. He says he came from the 41st floor; there is something wrong about him he just doesn’t seem right. Any-way, I know you two will come back for us. I just wanted to tell you where we went and hopefully you will follow. I tried my best to lead them Dan, but they had no trust in you like I do.
Matt
Chapter 18
I picked up the letter and held on to it. I didn’t know what to do or say, so I sat there staring at the wall behind Brian. I felt numb, our entire sacrifice meant naught. “So Brian what do we do now?” I asked.
Brian stared out the window behind me, a haunted look in his eyes. He ran his hands through his hair, tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and sighed deeply. “That is an easy answer, the easiest ever. We get our butts together and go find our people. We know they didn’t go up so only one way to go.”
I looked at the clock on my desk; it was 1 pm with plenty of light left. “Well shall we go find out if Maggie wants to come with us?” I stood up grabbed my supplies and headed out of the office. Brian was close on my heels. We sped our way to Brian’s old office and Maggie’s new hideout.
Brian knocked on the door and said out loud. “Maggie it’s us. Everything is clear, open up.” The door opened and Maggie peaked around the door. I waved at her and she smiled and came out of the office.
“Did you find everyone?” She said with hope in her voice.
I tapped Brian on the back, giving him the job to tell her what was up. I walked down the hallway to the bathroom. The door wedge was on the floor so I used it to jam the door open for light. I went into the far stall sat down and took care of business. I finished and came out of the stall. Brian was at the urinal taking care of his business. I took off my shirt and started taking my pre requisite whore’s bath, which I was becoming good at. Brian came up and started using the sink two over from me. I ignored him while washing up and stopped when something caught my attention.
