Roger said, "You know Jude, I can't say this big payday is all it is cracked up to be, just saying."
Jude said, "Roger how in the hell would I have known we were going to get stuck in hell? I mean come on man it isn't my fault. I can't really go blaming Shaw either but boy it sure sounds more fun. We don't have too much further to go, the sheriff's is just another block up."
As they passed an alleyway a group of dead who’d gotten lost from the pack came out catching the men off guard.
Roger screamed, “Look, watch out.”
Roger ran backward as the other three men moved forward stumbling to stay out of their reach, their dead and decayed hands reaching for them. Roger ran down an alleyway as men came out of nowhere.
Jude screamed, "Roger! Roger meet us over at the jail! Get to the jail, we will wait for you."
Roger gave a thumbs-up and turned around trying to put all the distance between himself and his followers that he could, he looked at the newly cleaned streets wishful that maybe there would still be some of the wood around that he could use as a weapon. He thought they had done too good of a job for their own good currently.
Jude watched as he disappeared, when they made it to the door they rushed in. The door behind them slowed not allowing it to be slammed shut. The men sprinted in the office looking around wildly. There was a glass gun case that was locked with bars across it. Jude pointed to it and they went to yank on it. When they tried the lock of course held firm.
Chuck said, "What the hell do we do? It is locked."
Jude ran to the wall cracking the glass on it and pulling out the axe. He brought it down with practiced perfection and cracked the lock off in one hit. Chuck grabbed a shotgun with each hand throwing one to Pete and then gripped another throwing it to Jude who caught it one-handed laying the axe down on a desk as he walked towards the two men for a box of shotgun shells. The men loaded shells until they were locked and loaded and when the first of the dead came through the office doorway Chuck put the bead of the shotgun on the dead man's chest. He squeezed the trigger and the gun erupted, nailing the dead in the chest and sending it stumbling backward over a desk, its feet going up in the air. Chuck pumped the shotgun smiling and saying, “Hell we are going to be able to shoot our way out of here, that thing went down like a sack of potatoes man."
The three watched as the chair behind the desk began to move and it rose back up to its feet slowly. Chuck fired a second shot into its chest, its suit coat being torn to pieces, but this time it backed up against the wall having nothing to trip it. The force of the slugs tore through it, but it kept walking towards them. Jude ran to the swinging doors grabbing a wooden chair and smashing it on the ground. He slid one of the broken legs through the handles keeping the rest of the dead out. Jude watched as the man took shot after shot in the chest he could see through the man's chest at this point.
He yelled trying to interrupt the gunfire. "Guys quit wasting your shells! He isn't going down."
Chuck yelled, “Well what the hell do you want to do?”
Jude walked up firing a slug through its face tearing through its nose, and what was left of its brains painted the wall behind them. The men all watched holding their breath, when it slid to the ground not getting up the men let their breath out each of them giving a small thank you to God.
Jude said, “We need to hit them in the head. Is there a reason this needs to be so damn difficult.”
Chuck who was surveying what amount of ammo they had available stared at the few boxes they had. "Uh yeah, things can get worse Jude."
Pete said, “Why? I mean how are things going to get worse?”
Chuck held up three boxes that were half empty. He said, "Because this place doesn't have shit for ammunition on hand. It's a small town he probably has no reason to have that kind of firepower available to him. This is probably the biggest thing that's ever happened in this town."
Pete looked to Jude and said, “Okay boss. We made it to the jail and we are still screwed, but now we are trapped, what do we do to get out of here?"
Jude leaned against the desk rubbing his hand through his hair and trying to work things out. He said, “I - I don’t know, there are hundreds of them just in the lobby. There’s no way in hell we are going to get out of there. I wonder if you can light those things on fire. Do you think that might kill them?”
Pete said, "It's an idea but they are already dead I don't think that is going to happen though brother, I mean Christ man look at them. Half of them are decayed past the point that family wouldn't even recognize them if they came up."
The door started to buckle. It did not take long for the door to bust open. The men grabbed what shotgun shells there were and the shotguns and sprinted through the only door that was available to them. Had, they known in advance they were heading into the lock-up facility section of the jail, they would have tried just about anything to not make that their final destination.
Pete said, “What in the hell are we going to do now?
Chuck looked behind them seeing the dead were quickly filling the small space. Chuck said, “We don't have enough shotgun shells to take all of these out. I think we’re screwed.”
Jude saw there was one and only one option available to them. He did not take a vote as there was no time to hesitate about his short-term plan to keep them safe. The door to the front office began to splinter and break open. Jude walked backward and when he looked behind him there was the only other door in the building smiling back at him. He pushed through the door and the three ran realizing the horrible issue; that it led back to the jail cells which didn't have another door to exit to freedom. Jude hesitated for only a second before opening a jail cell and pushing Pete and Chuck in.
He slammed the door behind him not hesitating for a moment because he did not have one to waste. The door shut firmly but without a key did not lock. Jude opened it again and slammed it shut a second then third time screaming in rage when it wouldn’t lock. He looked down at the floor and saw his leather belt. He stripped off his thick belt and wrapped it around the cell bars quickly. He turned around to a confused looking Pete and Chuck and screamed at them, “Don't just sit there staring at me assholes get your belt off and get them around these bars or we really are fucked.”
The two men stared for just one more moment before realizing Jude was saving their lives. The two pulled off their belts and mimicked what Jude was doing securing the door for as long as they could to keep the dead from chewing through their worn leather belts.
Once the three men had the door secured they took a few steps back making sure to stay out of reach of the dead not even wanting to get a scratch from one of them as they didn’t know what it would do.
Chuck said, “That was great thinking Jude, now how do we get out of here?”
Jude looked around at the jail cell which surrounded them the only thing that was not covered in bars was a brick wall behind them which had a small window that none of them would ever fit through. Jude sat down on the cot and said, “Well Chuck I can't say that I had time to think it through that far. I would say that unless help comes we are going to be spending some time in this here cell. There were not a hell of a lot of options when we decided to run without knowing where we were going to end up.”
Pete said, “Maybe we will get lucky and the sheriff will come back.”
Chuck nodded crossing his arms and leaning against the wall staring at the massive number of dead who were fighting to try and bust through the cell. Chuck said, "The only problem with that is he probably won't have enough bullets to take that many out. I think this might be it, guys."
Chuck slid down to the ground putting his feet out in front of him and pulled out a crumpled pack of smokes. He lit one up drawing hard on it and was starting to think that this would be the last place he would ever see. Jude had not lost hope, but he was realistic about the horrible conditions they were currently experiencing.
Pete said, “How long do you think it will take them to figure out they can chew through those straps there?”
Jude said, "You know that is the million dollar question. I am hoping we don't have to find out. I hadn't seen anyone in town on our run here. It is Saturday morning, but I would think there are still a few people out there that have not been eaten."
Chuck laughed and said, “And are you saying if there are people left alive the first thing they are going to worry about is who got thrown in the drunk tank last night?”
Jude went to say something but realized he totally agreed with what Chuck was saying. Jude said, “So waiting is a crap idea. Does anyone else have any ideas?”
Both men shook their heads in frustration. They watched as one of the dead began to gnaw on the leather belt. It slowly started to make progress on destroying it. Jude walked over resting the shotgun barrel on the bars and aimed it at its head Chuck said, “What the hell are you doing Jude? Do you know how loud that is going to be?”
Jude put his left hand over his ear trying to do what he could to lessen the damage and nodded his head. He said, “Yes Chuck I do know how loud it is going to be and that is why I am going to cover my ear. If I were you guys, I would do the same thing.”
Pete said, “We are going to be deaf after this day.”
Chuck said, “Pull the trigger Jude. It is better to be deaf than dead.”
Jude took aim and fired the gun. It was nothing if not mind bending how loud the report of the shotgun was when it went off in a small space. The positive thing about all of the dead being so close was that it not only took out what used to be a man standing in front of the cell but the three men and women behind him as well.
Chuck yelled only because he could not hear anything and said, “Jude keep doing that. If you get enough of those things piled in front of the door they will not be able to get close enough to the metal to chew on the leather.”
Jude looked to Pete for agreement and the man was already nodding his head. Pete said, "Fire that son of a bitch and kill those bastards, Jude."
Jude did not need to be told again. He fired off the shotgun in two quick successions watching in joy as dead after dead fell to the ground. He hoped this time they would really stay dead and that this would be their final resting place.
When there were enough of the dead in front of the door to the cell Jude stopped firing. Jude said, “I cannot hear a damn thing. What the hell was I thinking?”
Chuck walked up taking the shotgun and patting him on the shoulder. Chuck said, “You did a good thing that was a good idea, and if you had not done that those son of a bitches would already be in here and eating this lovely thing that I like to call a body.”
Jude said, “I don't know if I would go quite that far Chuck but I am glad to say that we are still alive, and it looks like we are going to stay that way if we can just stay in the cell for a little bit longer.”
Chuck said, “It doesn't look like anyone is going to come anytime soon to free us. I would have to say we have a better than good chance of staying in this shit hole for quite a while.”
Pete got up off the floor and adopted the cot. He fully stretched out and Chuck said, “What exactly do you think you are doing Pete?”
He smiled crossing his legs and closing his eyes on the thin worn mattress. “I ain't going nowhere for a long time I think and I just gotta say that if I'm going to be stuck in hell, then I might as well be comfortable as well. Besides if I didn't take this here cot, I know damn well that you were going to take it."
Chuck crossed his arms shaking his head, a look of being disrespected. He said, “I don’t know what in the hell you are - oh goddamn it you are skinny, get your little ass over, there’s plenty of room for the two of us to sit on that cot. Sorry Jude we need someone manning the shotgun and those dead heads trying to eat through our damn belts. Besides if I go and stay standing without my belt ya’ll are going to see a side of me that none of ya want to see, Lord as my savior I'm telling the truth on that one brother.”
Jude held up his hands motioning for him to keep it. “God knows that isn’t anything I want to see Chuck. It is okay, I need to think, if I sit down I’m pretty sure I'm going to fall asleep and that isn’t going to do a hell of a lot of good for me, now is it?”
He looked over at Chuck and Pete and they both had their heads down and their ball caps pulled down over their eyes already. Jude whispered to himself, “Oh Christ, I was just kidding about falling asleep, apparently being hung over is more important than trying to figure out how to get out of this damn situation. What the hell are we going to do now?”
Jude leaned against the wall staring at the dead unsure what to do next. He stared at the bars seeing that they were planted strongly into the cement. The bars themselves were at least a half-inch thick and there was little that he would be able to do even armed with a shotgun to be able to get rid of that. They would only break away at the cement and it wouldn't be enough to damage it to the point where they would be able to break any of them free and leave. He looked down the hall there were a hundred of them and they filled a room that was barely big enough for twenty people. The new dead were being pushed out of the way by those newly risen. Jude watched as they moved, it was slow but it worked for them and they worked together to get what needed to be done finished. It didn't take them more than twenty minutes when they started eating at the belts yet again.