Zombie Theorem (Book 1): The Culling, page 5
“Alright what time is it and where is the rest of the staff?” I started to get to my knees slowly preparing to stand up. Brian and Matt both reached out took an arm and got me to my feet steadying me before letting go.
“Everyone is in the conference room since there are less of us and it’s pretty much next to Brian’s office.” he peered at his watch trying to adjust his tired eyes. “It’s 5 am Wednesday”, he informed me.
“Okay, sun will be up soon let’s get a little more shut eye then move the food over here.”
Matt looked at Brian a little uneasy. “You didn’t tell him?”
“Dude you’ve been in here during the entire discussion. When the fuck did I have time to tell him? Did I whisper sweet nothings into his ear while he was sleeping? Boss all the food was pretty much splashed with that black shit from Stacey. When you were hitting her in the head, a bunch of the stuff is covered in it. I’m not that hungry if it means we have to deal with that shit.” Brian answered with a sneer etched on his face.
We stood there, those two just staring at me. “What the fuck are you guys staring at me for? I know I’m pretty, but I’m not looking for a new love interest. So we need food and water. I guess no one is coming for us so we need to start doing for ourselves. I need suggestions men.” I shook my head and stared back them.
“He’s taking this leader thing too far. Must’ve read too many war novels.” Matt said with a straight face.
“Nah he aint smart enough to read, probably watched Saving Private Ryan too many times.” Brian answered back.
“Really I betcha it was more Shaving Ryan’s Privates. I bet 20 bucks he has a giant collection of porn.” Matt said trying to hide a widening grin.
“I’m not taking that bet, I’m not a sucker.” Brian quipped back.
“Yeah, yeah, screw both of you. So really gentlemen, and I use that term loosely, what do you think our next move is?” It felt good trading quips with these guys. Since I got out of college I had changed my entire way of thinking and put on the professional mask as good as I could. It worked too well. I lost that care free guy I used to be. My family and old friends seem to think I had lost my mind or was kidnapped by aliens. Maybe both.
“We have some pretty bad morale Dan. Nobody has had a decent amount of sleep, on top of dealing with death and being prisoner in our own offices. Bad news on top of worse news makes for a shitty sandwich to have to choke on. Whatever we do, we have to first find a way to get them a win,” Matt pointed down the hallway toward the conference room.
“A shitty sandwich? Matt I think you’ve seen to many action movies buddy” Brian’s laugh resembled a bear gargling rocks. “You do have a point though. So we need food, and perhaps either a way out or at least a solid plan showing we are trying to do something more than just sitting around waiting for someone to save us.”
“Ok big man, give me some options.” I threw a quizzical glance at Brian.
“Great just throw me under a bus. Shit ok, the only thing I can think of is to go looking for Lisa to confirm if she is ok.” Brian suggested.
“Believe it or not I agree with the big man. I also think we should find a way to secure the stairs and move everyone up to the next floor. That’s the executive offices. They have vending machines and a satellite phone in Mr. Heppner’s office. It’s there for natural disasters.” Matt informed. He leaned against the wall and yawned deeply his eyes looked glazed over.
“Going for a sat phone I could totally buy into, but going to save Lisa after what she did, I’m not so sure I care.” I looked into each of their eyes and read the same emotions I was feeling. “Ok well we have to do something. Big man, you wanna go on a magical trip to the land of unicorns and things that want to eat you?” I said this last part with a modicum of humor.
“You betcha, but I swear if you try holding my hand, I’m going to throw you down the stairs to buy me some time to get away from those things. Matt you need to be in charge down here. Take care of these people the best you can. I expect you to immediately open that door when you hear us come charging back.” Brian said in all seriousness.
“And just like that, we have a plan.”
“Wait I never agreed to this plan. Why do I have to stay back? I think Dan should stay, he’s the leader. Brian and I should go. You are better at keeping everyone calmer than I could.” Matt complained and I could see his side.
I knew he never wanted the spotlight, that’s why he was happy to be a supervisor and not the boss. Yet he knew more about the office and its day to day then any manager or executive member, and that is exactly what I told him. “Matt, you have always been leadership material. I know that every time the team met goals or finished their projects it was with your guiding hand. Sarah was just good at keeping her chair warm. Many times I have come to the conclusion that I needed to promote you to her position. I was just trying to find a way to get her out of that office first. I know you can do it. Out of everyone on the team or that I have dealt with you are the driving force. I believe in you and trust your judgement. You can do it.” I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder.
“Everything he said” agreed Brian. “In the military buddy it’s not the officers that lead, it’s the sergeants. And you my man are one hell of a sergeant.” Brian ruffled Matt’s longish hair.
“Fuck both of you. But yeah, ok whatever. Stop kissing my ass and speaking so high of my virtues. I’ll do it but if I can go on any record, I am not happy with this.”
“Your complaint about this decision has been duly noted.” I said throwing a mocking salute.
“Are we all going steady now? I figured since we just blew each other that we might as well start dating.” Brian announced.
Matt left for the conference room to inform everyone the particulars of the plan while Brian hunted around looking for things to make as weapons and hopefully makeshift armor. That was all Brian’s idea, I was not going to ignore any advice from the big man.
We finally decided on those little metal chair spikes we used to take down Stacey. They were only about a foot long and easy to carry. Brian ripped out the last of them and I modified them to make them easier to use. Using duct tape from the supply closet, I made grips to hold onto. I wish I had a grinder so I could sharpen them into a type of dagger. But nothing in the office could be used that way. I did though remove the plastic tips, which left a little bit of a rougher end.
Brian came back in holding two leather vests. “So one vest is from my own collection, it’s when I ride my Harley to work. I found this one in Carlos’ office, he never rode a bike that I know of, but he did like people to think he was tough. So my idea is to cut them in two and wrap, them around our arms for protection. We can use your tape to hold them in place. I do have two helmets in my office but they are full faced so they have pretty bad blind spots.”
I showed him our makeshift tiny spikes. “Well this is the best I could do with weapons. Are we being stupid and throwing away our lives Brian?” I wiped sweat from my head. "Do we even have a chance in hell of surviving?"
“It’s better than nothing man and we don’t have to like it we just have to do it.” Brian said with confidence.
“Is that another stupid military saying?” I sighed.
“Navy Seal, Richard Marcinko, was fond of saying that. He’s the founder of Seal Team 6 and a pretty scary mother fucker to mess with. I’d rather have a shotgun and a good side arm but I’m sure more has been done with less.” He reached over and grabbed my scissors.
Within 15 minutes we had our arm armor and weapons ready. The leather was well broken in but made moving my elbow a little difficult. Everyone gathered around the stairway door saying their goodbyes and best wishes and a couple of the staff said thank you. I was overcome at how small our little group had become. Including Brian, Matt and I there was only 14 left.
I grabbed Matt, wrapped him up in my arms and gave him a reassuring hug. “I’ll be right back buddy. Hold these people together.”
Brian came over and put his big bear paw on Matt’s shoulder “You got this dude.” He winked. “Just remember when we come back down we are going to be in a hurry so make sure someone is on guard to let us in. We will knock 3 times quickly than 2 slower.”
“Or screaming bloody, murder or you know whatever.” I said.
“You can trust me big man. See you two soon. Be safe.” Matt stepped over to the door and untied the hose. “On 3 got it?” we nodded. “1. 2. 3!” He ripped the door open onto an empty dark stairway, and Brian and I ran in. Once we got through Matt slammed and retied the door.
Chapter 9
“That was the last time I saw Matt. Can you tell me if anyone from my group made it out?” I realized I had been staring at the table while telling my story. I raised my head and felt tears slide down my cheeks and splattering onto the table.
Reynolds reached over and snatched a tissue box off another table behind him. He handed them to me and I took one and wiped my eyes. “Dan I don’t have any names but I was told one person made it out alive from your floor and is at Saint Francis Memorial. According to this report the person is ripped up pretty bad. Other than that, you and Brian are the only two who made it out in semi good shape. By the way Brian came out of surgery and he’ll be fine. They got the bleeding to stop. I have some detectives over there right now getting his side of the story.”
“Just three people made it out of that entire building? With well over a thousand residents” I put my forehead on the table enjoying its cool surface. I felt like I could fall asleep but my story wasn’t done being told. It haunted me and demanded to be told. If anything, to help this man find out what happened.
“I know how you feel Dan. It’s the largest loss of life in San Francisco, since the earthquake in 1906. Let’s get some more coffee brought in. I think we could both use some.” He picked up his cell phone and made a call to someone in the station. “Could you please have a thermos of coffee brought up to interrogation room three please? Sugar, cream, and two cups thanks”
“Reynolds how long have you been on the force?” I felt like I needed to know more about this man.
“sixteen years altogether, two as a beat cop, six in SWAT and the rest as a detective. I originally came out of the Army with five years as a rifleman then two years as an MP. How about you Dan?” Reynolds put his pad of paper and laptop on the desk and sat back in his chair taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
“Never been a cop or in the military.” I said while my head was still on the table. “But I spent my college years at Chico and got a master’s degree in Project Management and minored in Business Applications. I partied a little too much my first two years then I lost my mom. She always told me I would never make it in this world being that guy. So when she died I changed everything about me. I buckled down got my degree and took a job at JP Morgan for five years as an analyst, then I came to Next Level and been here for five years. Was hoping to get into the executive side in another five years.”
“Ever been married or longtime partner?” Reynolds asked.
“Nope, too busy with work. No time to enjoy the fun things. Dad moved to Spokane after mom died and my brother and sister live on the east coast. My sister’s an MD and my brother works as a news director. So I just work and usually go hiking if and when I get time off. How about you? Married?”
“Divorced, no kids. She lives near Portland. We are still friends but with my work schedule and dedication here we just couldn’t make it work. She never got remarried either”, he answered.
Just then a knock came at the door and Reynolds answered it. Two police officers pushed a cart in with an urn of coffee and some Danishes. He poured us a cup and put the sweets on the table. I grabbed my coffee and forgone the sugar and cream. The Danishes looked good and I attacked one like a kid with a Twinkie at fat camp.
We sat in silence for a couple of minutes cherishing our coffee. I looked up and caught Reynolds eyes. “Ok I think I’m ready to continue.”
Reynolds put his coffee down picked up his pad of paper and gave me the go ahead nod.
Chapter 10
Shit it was dark. Brian reached out, grabbed my arm and we headed toward what we hoped were the stairs up. We moved slowly testing our footing and taking small strides. Finally, we met the first step and we started ascending. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest I was afraid it was like a dinner bell ringing for those things to come and eat. I never minded the dark but what we were experiencing right now, was oppressive. It smothered me in its confines. It felt alive like it was swallowing us. If not for Brian’s hand in mine I would’ve been lost in mind, physicality and soul. We made it to the next landing, it felt like a lifetime had gone by, but couldn’t have been more than five minutes.
We stopped and Brian was whispering in my ear. I jumped and almost had a heart attack when I felt his breath on my ear. “Halfway there, Boss, I hear no sounds but let’s go slowly, I got you man.”
Inside I was screaming in fear. I felt like we were walking into the pits of Hell and was about to be devoured by some shit eating hairy balled demon named Bob. Yes, my mind goes to stupid places when I am terrified.
We finally made it to the next door and found it unlocked. The door handle was slick with something and took Brian a couple of tries to grip it. He slowly opened the door and light from the creeping sun lit up our position. I heard screaming from below us so we dove in to the hallway and closed the door. I repeated the fire hose trick from down stairs and secured the door with it.
Brian looked down at his hand, it was covered in that black stuff. He wiped his hand on his pants leg, and stood back to back with me, listening for sounds of life around us. We had no idea if Stacey was on this floor or anyone infected, I guess that included Marco. We slowly walked down the hallway toward the bathrooms. Brian opened the door to the woman’s bathroom and entered. It was dark, damn it no power duh. “Hold the door open so we can get some light. But watch my back. The light right now is our only friend.”
I slipped the door open enough to bring light into the bathroom and stood sideways so I could see down the hallway and into the bathroom. Brian moved from stall to stall and not finding anyone back tracked to me. We repeated the same procedure on the men’s bathroom which was clear also.
“We are going to go left and clear the back office, conference room and those cubes. Then we will go to the lunch room and cross over to the executive offices.” Brian suggested.
“I thought we wanted to go right for that Sat Phone?” I asked with confusion.
“Well that’s a great idea, but clearing the floor so we don’t get our asses eaten is probably a better idea.” Brian gave me a duh look.
“I gotcha, ok I will watch your back, you go beat some shit up.” I answered.
We started down the hallway slowly. I was walking sideways trying to see what was in front while covering our rear. We got to the conference room and saw the drapes were open much to my relief. Brian got to the door and slowly cracked it open. He had his spike raised high and then opened the door all the way till it bumped against the wall behind it to make sure nothing was behind it. We made our way in and Brian pointed to the door so I took his cue and closed it. The sun was shining in and lit the room. The table was up ended blocking our view and making a great place for something to be hiding, and the chairs were lying all over the place. Blood was splashed on one of the windows. Brian put his arm out slowing my pace. He pointed to the wall and gave me the wait sign. He walked stealthily toward the table moving chairs out of his way as he went.
He reached over and grabbed the table and slowly moved his head over the top to see what was on the other side. He pulled it back quickly and looked back at me with wide eyes. He put his finger to his lips to remind me to be quiet. He then waved me over. I could hear a slight sucking sound, like someone putting their hands in mud and slowly pulling it out.
I stuck my head over and almost gasped out loud at what I saw. Lisa lay there with half her face missing, having been torn off savagely. Her lone surviving eye darted over to me. It was pleading begging for help. I looked lower down her body and saw her shirt had been ripped off, her left breast was missing and her belly torn open. Marco and another man were kneeling on the floor, slowly pulling her intestines out and shoving them into their mouths. I did not know that disemboweling someone would make that sickening sucking sound.
I looked up at Brian and he indicated by miming with his spike that he was going to take Marco and then pointed at the other man and then at me. He was saying I’ll take this one you take that one. I nodded my understanding and agreement. I lifted my spike high and waited for Brian to give me the go signal.
“Hey cock heads want some fresh meat?” Brian said out loud.
Both men raised their heads to look at us. Marco let out a high pitched moan and was about to react by standing up when Brian brought his spike down into his right eye. I took a page out of Brian’s attack and also slid my spike into the other man’s eye. I felt things sliding and parting under my spike but then it felt like resistance. I put all my weight into the spike and pushed down twisting the spike back and forth. After a while there was no more movement from him. I pulled my spike out with a disgusting slurping sound with a pop at the end. I wiped my spike on him to clean it off.
I looked over at Brian and he was calmly wiping his spike clean on Marco’s shirt. He then stopped, looked over at me and gave me a small smile. “What do we do with Lisa Boss?” Brian asked.
“There is nothing we can do for her, she’s a big mess.”
“Hey boss I’ve been thinking about this flu virus thing. Don’t you think that when these beasts feed on people that they transfer something into them. Causing them to go crazy and attack, thus spreading the disease far and wide? Maybe we should put her out of her misery now?” Brian explained his point of view.
