“
I hate to say it, but Jack’s right,” said Ethan, “and all the time we’re talking there’s going to be more of them. It’s daytime, so we might be lucky. At least there must be fewer out there than there are inside.”
“Unless all the gunsho
ts attracted them,” warned Kris.
“We had no choice,” Nick responded.
“Arguing isn’t going to solve anything,” said Marla and the men glared at her. She shut up quickly, but her words seemed to do the trick because everyone else went quiet.
Kris
tucked the ladder he had taken from inside the warehouse under his left arm and gripped his handgun in the other hand. The end of the box scraped the ground. Nick looked at him as if to query something, but seemed to change his mind. He walked briskly towards the door. Brian, Doug and Ethan followed. Leah and Marla prepared themselves, and Kris pushed in front of them. Ethan shook hands with Jack, who nodded. Nick unbolted the door and drew it back quickly. Rough-looking, scaled and skinless hands plunged towards them, seeking flesh. Marla heard Leah gasp and then the shots began. Blood rained and a few of the bodies hurtled backwards from the force of Brian’s shotgun.
“Fuck, how many?”
gasped Ethan.
“Too many,” said Nick. “Shut the door. We’re going to have to sit it out.”
Marla and Leah fired at the ghastly faces of the zombies as they attempted to force their way in, packing the doorway, grimacing and growling. Kris, Brian and Doug pushed against the door, struggling against the tide of the dead. Twisted fingers writhed through the space and grabbed at the frame, but Brian broke them with the butt of his shotgun. The door clanged shut and Kris bolted it. He rested his back against it to reload.
“What if they break it down?” asked Marla. “There’s so many of them that it’s possible. This place is a death trap.”
“Last time we came here it wasn’t,” Nick replied. “Those doors in the warehouse were locked last time we were here.”
“Maybe other
survivors came in,” suggested Leah.
“Could be,” said Ethan, “but we need a plan fast. This door might not hold forever.”
“And don’t forget the other one,” added Doug as all eyes turned to the other exit. Banging could be heard on the other side.
Marla
took in every detail of the room and the lack of any feasible hiding place, and then it dawned on her. “We can go up there,” she said, pointing upwards. “You’ve got lighting, air con and stuff up here, so maybe those ceiling tiles slide across.”
Nick glanced up at the panels and smiled. “Let’s try. Move those units and Kris,
mate, you’ve got the ladder.”
Doug
ran towards the nearest shelving unit and started to empty it. As the shuffling and banging increased outside in the corridor, the group copied what he was doing while Kris tore open the packaging wrapping the metal ladder. Doug and Brian moved the unit beneath the hatch, weighted the bottom down with the heaviest objects they could find and shoved two tables against it for support.
Brian leapt on to the table.
“I’ll check it,” he offered and began to climb. Everyone else gazed up as he pushed against the bottom of the nearest ceiling panel and slid it across. Stretching up his arms, he raised himself into the gap. Within seconds he looked back down. “There’s a cavity up here, full of insulation and wires, but enough room for us. Just need to be careful you put your weight on a beam or you’ll fall through.”
“Great,” said Nick
, clearly relieved. “Ladies, you’re up first.”
“And then you,”
added Kris as he adjusted the ladder right next to the shelving unit. “And I’m not arguing,
mate
.”
As Leah climbed up the shelving unit, Nick raised his
palms in the air and obediently stepped up the ladder. At the top, Brian had already moved a couple of panels to provide wider access and backed away into the ceiling space beyond. Everyone was safely inside, except for Kris, Ethan and Jack, when the external door crashed open. In swarmed the dead, their groans sweeping through the air like a gust of hate. They stumbled forwards, their glazed, bloody eyes fixed on the living. Jack stepped up on the shelving unit and made his way upwards while Jack supported it at the bottom.
Kris shot at the creatures as they made their way across the room, knocking into one another
in their impatience and hunger, moving faster than he would have liked. “Get up the damn ladder,” he shouted at Jack.
Jack shook his head as he
watched Ethan’s progress. “You first.”
“Fuck me! Don’t be a hero. Just get up the fucking
ladder!” Kris yelled back.
Marla and Brian leaned out of the gap in the ceiling
, and fired down at the dead. As one of the creatures lunged towards Jack, Marla shot it straight through the head. Jack wiped the spray of blood off his face and nodded up to her as Ethan disappeared through the gap in the ceiling. Once he was inside, Marla leaned out again. There were too many of them, but luckily, the internal door seemed to be holding. She reasoned it was due to the narrowness of the corridor. Jack and Kris stood shooting at the dead for a minute, picking them off one by one, but there were too many. Growing impatient, Kris shoved his friend towards the ladder. “Get up!”
“Not before you… not happening…”
Realising Jack was not going to budge, Kris wearily climbed the ladder, stopping halfway to fire down on the dead. Once he had heaved himself through the gap in the ceiling, he and Doug lent back through and held on to the top of the ladder in a bid to support it. Marla and Leah fired their guns through the other gap. Firing one last shot, Jack raced around to the other side of the ladder and began to make his way up. At the same time a smash gave the news that the door to the corridor was no more.
“Behind!”
yelled Marla. Wriggling her body to change position, she fired her gun in the other direction, taking down two dead-lookers as soon as they appeared through the open doorway. Brian and Leah leaned down and pushed against the shelving unit, sending it crashing on top of the dead.
As
the group continued to shoot, Jack hurried up the ladder as the dead circled the bottom of it, their combined weight causing it to shake. Jack struggled to balance as the creatures grabbed at his feet, their gaping jaws snapping automatically in a bid to bite into his legs. Kicking the rotten hands away, he continued upwards, trying not to look at the haunted visages. Marla reloaded as the other shooters took down the immediate zombies, but the storage room was filling fast with bodies.
Eventually, the ladder toppled, slipping away from the hands of Kris and
Doug. Jack reached for the gap in the ceiling, catching a grip on the edge as his body swung beneath him. He gasped, closing his eyes in knowledge of the fact that this was it; he would plunge on top of the expectant, ravenous horde. He hoped one of his friends would put him out of his misery before the teeth tore into him. Below, the bony, clawed hands stretched for him, reaching for his feet, all wailing and groaning, their sounds rising at the temptation of flesh in front of them, almost within their grasp. Jack didn’t dare to open his eyes, gritting his teeth as his own body weight worked against him. At the moment that he felt his grip loosen, somehow he did not fall. Opening his eyes in disbelief, he found that Kris and Doug had reached down as far as possible to grab his arms securely.
Marla, Leah and Brian
fired down on the dead as Kris and Doug carefully pulled Jack closer to the gap in the ceiling. Below, the zombies still did not give up, their eyes fixed on Jack’s swinging legs, now so far out of reach. Bile and blood dripped from their chops as they swept their fingers ineffectually through the empty air, wailing. Marla imagined them hoping Jack would fall before reminding herself that they acted on blind instinct, not thought. After seemingly endless minutes, Kris and Doug managed to tug Jack up into the safety of the ceiling cavity where he lay back along a wooden beam, panting rapidly. With one last glance down on the horror below, Nick pushed a couple of tiles back across the gap and Brian did the same thing further along.
“Are you okay, Jack?” asked Leah,
shifting slowly towards him.
“Yeah, I’m
fine,” he whispered, still holding his hands across his face as his chest rose and fell heavily. “Thank you.”
“Welcome,” Kris responded, “but
the next time I tell you to do something, do it.”
“I didn’t wan
t you to be last,” muttered Jack.
Kris shook his head, but couldn’t help smiling all the same.
“I’m going to try to reach the others on my radio,” said Nick, “but I think we’ll be stuck here for a few hours. Try and shift yourself on to a beam or something solid, and you might as well get some sleep if you can.”
“With them
things down there?” asked Brian.
Nick nodde
d and turned on his flashlight. “Why not? They’re not going anywhere. Let’s try and move away, over there, so we’re not above this room. If we’re quiet they might just get bored and go, if they can’t smell us. If they think we’ve gone, they might too.”
“That’s a big hope,” Brian replied.
“I know, but it’s something.”
“Better than being down there,” Jack
stated, sitting up at last. “Thanks, guys. I owe you one.”
“Well, I think you
’ve earned your stripes with us, Marla. It was a good call you spotting this hideout,” Nick concluded before waving the group to move further across the ceiling space.
“Yeah, we owe you our asses,” said Kris with a smirk.
“Nice!” Leah replied with a grin. “I bet she really wants one of those.”
***
A nudge in the ribs woke Marla and she instinctively went to get up before realising where she was. With a jolt, she stopped herself moving. Nick held his flashlight in his hands, creating a low light. Around him everyone else gradually stirred from sleep. Jack sat up straight and Marla surmised that he hadn’t slept at all, not that she blamed him.
“The others are on their way,” Nick whispered. “I suggest we move back to where we were
before, but be real slow and quiet. Remember, stay on something solid.” He led the way and waited until everyone was back above the storage room.
Quietly, they sat and listened until the silence seemed to buzz in their ears, but no sounds came from
below. Kris went to speak, but Nick gestured for him not to, wanting them to wait, and they did so. Waiting seemed endless until the sudden crack of gunshots made each of them stir. Nick slid one of the tiles aside while Leah pushed another. Down below they noticed about a dozen zombies walking aimlessly, but the shots had come from further away.
As Nick and Leah watched
, the distorted faces angled themselves in their direction, turning together, as if in one eerie synchronised movement. Salivating, they raised their scabby arms as though praying. The fact they could not reach their prey did not stop them trying. Marla peered towards the door leading into the warehouse. It lay open, the bolt busted. She wondered how close the other dead-lookers were; back on the main floor of the warehouse or just inside that corridor?
Sid and Jim
burst into the storage room from the external exit with shotguns raised, taking down the zombies in rapid succession. Masayuki and Ana ran in close behind them. While Ana shot at the creatures, Masayuki pushed the shelving unit back beneath the gap in the ceiling and then turned to raise the ladder. One of the undead came out of nowhere and made a grab for his throat. As he lunged, his sharp teeth narrowly missed Masayuki’s shoulder. The man pushed back with all his might as the creature’s half-rotten head swept back and forth in front of him until his entire skull exploded, showering him in stinking blood and writhing maggots. Masayuki spat and wiped his face with the arm of his shirt before turning to say, “Thanks,” to Jim who looked surreally amused.
“That’s the lot,” said Ana as Masayuki pushed the ladder into position and
gripped the base of it.
“Loads more in the main warehouse – t
hey came through that door,” Nick called down, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.
Sid took in the door hanging crookedly and hurried towards it, murmuring,
“Got ya. Bolt and hinges busted,” he remarked when he got there. After peering down the empty corridor beyond, he moved a wooden shelving unit with a solid back across to block the gap. “Clear for now,” he said, leaning against it.
Ana strode to the
other exit and kept watch on the world outside. The view was peaceful save for the bodies that lay scattered due to their rushed entry. She had expected more of them, dreaded it even, assuming all the dead in town would have heard the gunshots.
Marla and Leah climbed down the ladder first while Brian and
Doug dismounted via the shelving unit. Once down, Brian joined Ana outside before running along the side of the building to survey the scene. When he got to the end, he waved at her in rapid movements: the sign that the crowds were coming. Across the road from the parking lot they were on the move in that familiar jerky fashion, their dirty, tattered clothes blowing in the breeze. He ducked his head back behind the brickwork. Ana rushed to the opposite end of the building and stopped before she reached it. A group of about ten zombies hovered in the distance and she retreated slowly, fearful they would sense her and turn. They would eventually. It was just a matter of time.