Dead, but Not for Long (39 page)

Snake shrugged. He couldn’t say much since he and
Lindsey had both been on the run the previous night, too.

Two of the lumbering undead made their way out the
front door and were quickly dispatched by the bikers, but it gave Snake an idea.

“Here’s the deal. If we could lure some of those
things out, we could pick them off when they come through the door. They’ll
almost have to come through one at a time and that may increase our odds.” He
looked around the group. “Question is, who wants to be the bait?”

Lindsey only hesitated a moment before raising her hand.

“I’m fast and I’m smaller than any of you,” she
said, “so hopefully I can dodge the infected a little better. Plus, we probably
need as many shooters as possible and I haven’t practiced with my new gun yet.
My efforts would be better spent on being the bait, I think.”

Snake wasn’t comfortable with the idea of Lindsey
putting herself in such a precarious position. One misstep could mean a slow
death, followed by a long un-death, but he had a hard time imagining many of
his present men sprinting away from a horde of zombies, especially since Monkey
was no longer with them. Wombat and a couple of the others were fast, but they
had been up all night on guard duty so Snake had made them stay behind.

The bikers were managing to kill off anything that
made its way into the parking lot, but Snake knew they needed to act quickly.
The noise of the bikes was bound to have attracted attention, and they would
have a small window in which to act.

“Alright, Xena,” Snake replied, hesitantly. “You
sure you’re awake enough for this?”

“I’m awake,” Lindsey said. The ride over with the
chilly breeze had knocked out the last vestiges of drowsiness, and she was
alert, though nervous about what she was going to do. She knew that she might
have some close encounters inside the building, and she thought about it for a
moment, wondering what she could do to make herself less vulnerable. She looked
down at the bulky sweater that she was wearing then glanced at one of the
thinner bikers. “Would you mind trading me jackets for this little adventure? I’m
afraid my sweater will be too easy to grip.”

The sleek leather jacket would be difficult to
hold onto. It would also provide some protection against a bite and it looked
like the sleeves would cover her fingers, protecting her hands.

“Sure,” the biker said, handing over the leather
jacket and taking her sweater.

“This might not be a good idea, either,” one of
the others said, lightly grabbing a handful of her long hair. “Here,” he said,
pulling off a wool hat he wore and exposing his bald head.

Lindsey thanked him and took it, putting on the
leather jacket and tucking her hair into the hat. A bathing cap would have been
even better but it was a little late to think about that now.

Snake nodded at Lindsey in approval.

“You look good in leather,” he told her with a
smile. He instinctively looked around for Helga’s scowl, before remembering that
she was passed out in the ER.

Lindsey laughed at the comment. “Next shopping trip, I’m going to look for one of
these jackets,” she said. “Maybe the boots and gloves, too.”

“We’ll add that to our next list,” Snake said. “Boys,
let’s get ready. I suggest we don’t use firearms unless necessary. We don’t
want any casualties from friendly fire. Let’s draw them out as far as we can
from the door. We could have a pretty good-sized pile here.”

Snake stopped and stared at the man who had just
loaned his jacket to Lindsey. His eyes were closed and he was slowly breathing
in the scent on Lindsey’s sweater.

Snake quietly walked up to him and banged,
closefisted, on his head. The biker dropped the jacket and grabbed his head,
wincing in pain. Without a word, Snake scooped up the garment and threw it on
his bike.

“You ready, Xena?” he asked, slightly embarrassed.

“Sure,” she said, shaking her head to
clear it. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“We’ll leave some of the bikes running. Between
the noise and the lights, that may help draw the dead out.”

He knew that it would also draw others from the
neighborhood, but time was growing short and they needed to get the building
cleared as quickly as possible.

Lindsey took a deep breath and walked up to the
building, using the flashlight to peek inside. The lobby looked clear, so she
stepped through the doorway, almost gagging over the putrid smell. The
flashlight did little to cut the inky blackness of the dark inside the
building, and she had to move it around constantly to search for anything that
might be coming toward her. She could hear a lot of noise drifting down the
stairs and the stairwell door seemed to be jammed open. Now the trick was to lead them down.

Lindsey made her way up to the first landing then
turned to peer up the next set of stairs, which led to the second floor.

“Hey!” she yelled. “Dinner time! We’ve got a whole
buffet waiting out in the parking lot.”

Her heart was racing and her hands shook as she
waited for the undead to make their way down. The chorus of moans grew louder
and Lindsey sucked in a breath as a dark shape stepped into view at the top of
the stairs. The light of her flashlight bounced across what appeared to be an
expensive suit, though it was hard to tell through the blood and gore. As she
moved the beam up higher, she could see that the man’s head was permanently
cocked to the side, his eyes fixed on her. Though tempted to run, she waited,
continuing to make noise to bring more of the infected to her. Her heart
pounded as she watched the dead man take a step. His foot hit nothing but air
and he tumbled face first down the stairs, ending up on the landing near
Lindsey’s feet. She stifled a scream and jumped back to watch as a second ghoul
made his way down by navigating the steps. A third one fell, causing Lindsey to
wonder why some of them could manage the stairs and others could not.

She started to edge her way down the final steps
to the ground floor, making sure to stay in sight of the infected. Her hands
shook as she tried to keep the beam of light steady as the dead man in the suit
lifted his face and let out a loud moan. He managed to get to his feet as
another one fell down the stairs. They were starting to pile up and Lindsey
began to wonder how hard it was going to be to lure them all outside. She would
tell Snake about it and let him decide what to do.

She waited until some of them began to make their way down from the landing then she turned to hurry
back into the lobby. The front door was in sight, but Lindsey only made it two
more steps before slamming into a massive body that was suddenly in her path.

~*^*~

The flashlight tumbled to the floor and went out as
Lindsey struggled with the ghoul, trying to keep his mouth away from her neck.
She was shocked by his strength and it took every drop of effort she had to
hold him back by pushing against his chest with both hands.

Though there was some light shining into the
lobby, she was not in a direct line with the door. The light made it possible
for her to see her attacker, but wouldn’t allow those outside to notice that
she was in trouble. She tried screaming but her voice was drowned out by the
bikes in the parking lot. As bad as her situation already was, she knew that if
the infected on the stairs managed to untangle themselves soon, her chances of
survival would plummet.

Worried that the zombie might be able to bend his
neck far enough to bite her arm, Lindsey slid her right hand up from the dead
man’s chest to grasp his neck. Though she was shaking with fear, she managed to
turn them, placing the ghoul between herself and the stairwell. A few more
backward steps and she was up against the reception desk, eyes darting between
the monster that was determined to end her life and the doorway of the
stairwell, where more danger lay.

The beast began to claw at her midsection, causing
Lindsey to scream in pain. She realized that it wasn’t just his teeth that were
a danger. Had she not been wearing the leather jacket, it was possible that he
would have been able to tear into her flesh. Using her gun was out of the
question because the holster was out of reach of her left hand. She wasn’t sure
she could hold him back with just one arm but she had to search the desk.
Taking her left hand off his chest, she reached behind her and frantically
searched the surface of the desk until her fingers moved over a letter opener. Her
right arm was growing weak and her elbow was bending, bringing the deadly teeth closer by the moment.

Grabbing the letter opener, she swung it up hard, plunging it into the eye
of the putrid corpse whose mouth was now just inches from her neck.

He slumped forward onto Lindsey and she tried to push him off but his heavy body dragged her to the floor.

The shapes that were moving from the darkness near
the stairs told her that some of the others had finally made it to the lobby. Lindsey
pushed with all of her strength to finally shove the body away. She scuttled
away from the dead that had begun to fill the room, her hand feeling for the
flashlight along the way. When she bumped against it, she quickly picked it up,
standing again. She had no idea if the infected could see her or not as she
edged her way across the room and along the wall. When she finally bolted out
the front door and into the cold air of the parking lot, she almost knocked Snake to the ground.

“You okay?” he asked, seeing how badly she was shaking.

She nodded and said, “I’m all right.”

Snake had been worried when Lindsey hadn’t
reemerged as soon as he had expected and he had been on his way in to check on
her. He had the feeling that all hadn’t gone as planned, but he would ask her
about it later. The undead began flowing out the door and Snake quickly turned to deal with them.

Lindsey moved out of the way to let the others
take over. Based on the large number of infected coming outside, the stairs were
not going to be much of a hurdle for them after all. She glanced down at her
right hand to see a sticky green substance on it. Making her way to a patch of
grass, she wiped it off, hoping she didn’t have any cuts or scrapes on her hand that could become infected.

The bikers had gathered in a semi-circle around
the door and they started to back up as the zombies poured out of the building.
When they were several yards back, they pulled out their silent weapons and
began to pick the infected off, one by one. In addition to their other weapons,
most of Snake’s men had spears or pikes, fashioned from materials they had
found earlier at the home improvement store. The weapons worked extremely
effectively when jabbed into an eye socket or an ear. One shorter member of the
team found it easier to come up under the chin, into the brain. It went like
clockwork until the bodies started to pile up. As the men began tripping over
the fallen dead, they found that they had to expand the circle, which spread
them out and made them more vulnerable. To make matters worse, the bikes were
in the way. They’d been parked in certain locations deliberately to light the
area, but now they were becoming a liability, rather than an asset. As the
seemingly endless stream of the undead poured out of the doorway, others were
starting to come from various streets and alleys around the building. The
number of dead pouring out of the building was staggering, and Snake could see
that the plan was rapidly dissolving.

Lindsey glanced around, worrying when she realized
there were far more of the infected than she had expected. No wonder the people
in the building hadn’t been able to get out, she thought. It was beginning to
look hopeless. She knew that guns were still an option, but the noise would
draw others which would make the rescue even more difficult.

“Hey, Boss,” Wolf said suddenly. “What if we get
on the bikes and lead them away from here, like we did at the medical supply
store? Maybe we can find a parking lot nearby and then use the guns? That’ll
maybe draw others that way, too, and then we can sneak back here.”

“It’s worth a try,” Snake replied as he pressed a
boot on a zombie’s head and pulled a long metal rod from its eye socket. “But
we’ll have to make it fast.”

“Dudes!” he yelled in a booming voice. “Hop on
your horses. We’re gonna have a roundup!”

Lindsey joined them as Snake and his men got on
their bikes. As they pulled away from the parking lot, she turned to watch as
more and more of the infected fought each other to get outside, hunger evident
on their faces. She shuddered at the sight. They had once been people just like
everybody else, but now they existed for only one thing - to feast on human flesh.

As the dead began to fall back, some of the bikers
slowed down and waited, staying just close enough to keep the horde’s attention
before moving away again.

~*~

In the office building, the group of survivors huddled around the window as they watched the parking lot below.

“Look at all of them. There were hundreds of them in here with us. Thank God we didn’t try to leave.”

“We should tell Chuck what’s going on,” a woman said.

“Chuck’s dead. We haven’t heard anything from him for days,” someone replied.

“I hope that’s not true. He seemed like a decent guy.”

The woman walked over to the vent and yelled to Chuck, telling him what was happening, just in case he was still alive.

~*~

Chuck almost jumped when he heard the woman call to him. He’d been hearing their voices whenever one of them got close to the
vent, but they hadn’t tried to contact him for a while. He tiptoed over and listened to what she had to say.

He was happy to hear that a rescue attempt was being made by those at the hospital. He wanted the others out of his building,
one way or another, but if they could be rescued, even better. He harbored no
ill will toward them. He just didn’t want them getting their hands on his supplies.