Authors: Mark Tufo
“You did what?” Lisa and Melissa asked at nearly the same time.
Curtez turned to face them. “He was useless, he needed to go,” he said, defending
his position.
“You’re a jerk.” Melissa turned her face into Hal’s shoulder.
“Really, Curtez, that’s how you decided to handle the situation? So if I get hurt
and can’t do anything, you going to kick me out too?” Lisa asked. “Is that the society
you’re trying to create? Fuck the weak and infirm?”
“It’s not like that, we’re trying to survive. Resources are scarce.”
“So you took it upon yourself to be judge, jury, and executioner? Don’t you think
we maybe should have talked about it first at least? This isn’t your little fucking
Tinker Toy group to do with as you please. And I’ve known Stephanie almost as long
as Melissa. She’d no more put any of us in danger than she would Trip. You, on the
other hand, are just an asshole. Had I known that decision had been made, I would
have left with them.”
“Me too,” Melissa cried.
Hal turned when he heard noise in the stairwell. His eyes grew wide as he watched
the unthinkable happen. “The knob! The fucking knob is turning!” Hal pushed Melissa
to the side and dove for the door, grabbing the bar that was used to open it from
their side. His fingers turned white as he gripped it hard, attempting to hold it
from opening.
“Well there’s your answer, Sherlock,” Lisa said to Curtez. “Looks like our friends
are getting smarter. I told you she wouldn’t betray us, she’s not you.” She got into
position a few feet away from the door. “Okay, Hal, let go and move away from the
door.”
“They’ll get in,” he said in a panic.
“How long are you planning on holding that door?” she asked.
“Melissa, get my rifle,” Hal told her. He waited until she was a few feet away before
letting go and grabbing his rifle. The zombies had the door open before he could spin
and shoot his first round.
Lisa drilled the first one in the forehead, blood sprayed back into the stairwell
covering the next zombie to come through. He did not seem to mind the blood bath in
the least. He quickly met the same fate as his friend.
“We need to move those bodies!” Lisa shouted. She had effectively created a doorstop.
Nobody made a move. Lisa’s words had stung Curtez. He truly felt that he was doing
what was best for the group and now he felt the need to atone for his actions. He
yelled as he ran towards the door, his gun firing bullets into the zombies that hurried
to get over the fallen. His steps faltered as he was drilled in the side with a ricochet;
the bullet piercing his side, going in and out. He did not stop to assess the damage
until he was over the zombies in the doorframe.
He was still yelling when his rifle’s bolt stood open, his magazine empty. “What the
hell?” he asked.
Six zombies were dead, there were no more in the stairwell. He saw the sunlight diminish
as the door below him closed.
“Where did they go?”
His answer came quickly in the form of a woman screaming. He watched through the open
door as zombies flooded into their location, having come up the stairwell on the opposite
side of the building. It was not difficult to see that all had been lost. Lisa, Melissa,
and Hal were rallying those not yet fallen into a defensive posture. Curtez could
see the writing on the wall. He’d seen positions overrun, and that was what was happening
here. He quickly pulled the zombies stuck in the doorway and flung their bodies down
the stairs.
He thought to call to Lisa but knew she would want to stay and try to save as many
of the people as possible. He closed the door quietly and watched. Somehow, through
all the noise and confusion, Lisa realized what he was doing. She turned and looked
at him through the small window set high in the door.
He opened the door. “I have no bullets, what do you want me to do? It’s over Lisa,
come on!” he told her. She shook her head, but begrudgingly she tapped Melissa and
Hal and motioned to the door.
The four of them crowded around the small, wire-encased glass window and watched their
friends and co-workers fall quickly to the zombies. Three or four zombies would descend
on a fallen human, tearing into them even as they thrashed about. Screams were cut
short as throats were ripped out. Eviscerated and de-limbed people lined the floor,
rapidly firing nerve endings making their bodies twitch violently.
“I can’t watch anymore.” Melissa headed down the stairs. Hal was next to pull away
to comfort Melissa. Lisa’s breaths hitched as she watched.
Curtez was distraught that all he had managed to save was lost in a matter of moments.
How though? How had they learned to open the doors?
It had seemed a task light years beyond their skill set.
“We’ve got to go,” Curtez said to Lisa when it looked as if the zombies were finishing
up with the warm bodies still available to them. If they could turn a handle, pressing
an arm bar would be a piece of cake.
“Where to?” Lisa asked, all hope seemingly burned out of her.
“I wonder if we can catch a bus.”
“Hello?” Melissa asked as the door on the first floor opened up.
“Do you think it’s Stephanie?” Lisa asked Curtez.
He knew they were long gone. Right now seeing Trip come up those stairs would be the
most welcome sight he could imagine. He knew better. They had walked into an ambush.
“Melissa, Hal, come back up here,” he told them.
“Wh—” Melissa started.
She began to scream when she saw a trio of zombies running towards her. She hadn’t
completely turned around when they dragged her down. Chewing quickly through her clothes
and into the soft tissue of her buttocks and hips. Hal grabbed her right arm as she
fell. He was pulling her back towards him when one of the zombies peeled off from
Melissa and lunged at him; he put his rifle wielding arm up reflexively. The zombie
bit down hard on his elbow joint, shattering it into three shards.
Melissa was forgotten as he pulled his right hand free to swing at the zombie. He
caught it on the side of its head, shattering one of his knuckles—the pain not even
registering in comparison to his elbow. The zombie had not let go and was shaking
its head back and forth, trying to rip a piece of him free. Curtez went down a few
steps and slammed the butt of his gun into the zombie’s nose, rupturing the cartilage
and most of the bones in its face. Melissa was mewling as the two zombies on her were
ripping strips of meat from her legs. Bone was exposed on her left leg as she still
tried to push away with her right.
Lisa was frozen, trying desperately to take her gaze from the scene below her. She
wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. She still had rounds in her rifle, but
the engaged fighting was too close to use them. The zombie that had bit Hal was falling
away as Curtez slammed it twice more in the head. He had pushed the face almost halfway
into its skull. A zombie with a long thin strip of muscle meat in its mouth hissed
at Curtez before it chugged the morsel down its throat.
“FUCK YOU!!!!” Curtez screamed as he rammed the rifle into its head as well.
Hal had fallen to the stairs, a glaze of shock sinking down on his features. His mouth
was becoming slack, his eyes were losing focus. Curtez figured it was partly from
the pain, but the majority was most likely from watching his girlfriend get eaten
less than two feet away. Blood was sluicing down the stairs from Melissa’s torn legs.
She was still alive but had long since retreated into herself. She was not cognizant
of the events unfolding around her and was on the verge of passing out from blood
loss.
Curtez had blood and gore all over him as he dispatched of the second zombie. He raised
his weapon to take down the third. The zombie stood and backed down the stairs, warily
keeping its eyes on Curtez.
“That’s right, motherfucker!” Curtez yelled at it, taking a step to meet it. “I’m
the biggest, baddest mofo around!” he screamed, slamming a blood encrusted hand against
his chest.
Lisa was nearly flung against the far wall as zombies began to push against the door
she was standing next to. “Curtez!” She had turned and braced her legs against the
wall and leaned her upper half against the door. The forearm of a man and a woman
zombie were sticking through the small opening their initial push had afforded them.
Curtez looked down the stairs. The way was clear, he could leave. With more difficulty
than he felt he should have, he turned the thought away. He ran up the stairs, bringing
his rifle back, he moved it forward and pulverized the two arms until they hung limply,
nothing much more than tendon holding them to their masters. Lisa was nearly able
to shut the door completely.
She bumped violently when more zombies pushed from the other side. Curtez joined her
in repelling the attack. They stood there for a moment, shoulder-to-shoulder.
“Now what?” Lisa asked him as if she thought he had the answer.
“Well, I suppose I should count to three and we’ll both head down these stairs as
fast as we can and pray we can stay one step ahead of the zombies behind us,” he told
her earnestly. “Move to my other side.”
“Why?”
“You’re slower.”
“Isn’t that better for you?” she asked.
“I’m sick of leaving people behind,” he said with a deep sadness.
“What about Hal?”
“Zombie broke skin.”
Lisa’s mouth became tight-lipped as she slid past Curtez. He moved further down the
door so she would have room.
“Ready?” he asked.
She licked her lips.
“I’ll take that as a yes. One…two…three!”
Lisa pushed off from the door and was halfway down the flight of stairs before Curtez
followed. Curtez was no more than three stairs down when he heard the door behind
him crash open. He didn’t bother to hazard a look, he knew what was coming. Lisa was
standing in the open doorway leading outside.
“Go, go, go!” he urged her, catching up.
He stopped short when he saw what was blocking her way. A dozen zombies were standing
in a semi-circle looking at them. He was barely able to register how complete of a
trap it was when he felt a spike of pain and heat in his neck as a zombie tore into
him.
I should have gone with Trip
, was his final thought.