I looked out on to the street where the traffic was backed up badly in fact they didn’t seem to be moving at all. There were people running around through and over the cars some people being chased and others doing the chasing. I watch as a woman dove over a car and made it to the fence of the property but before she could make a run for it someone else jumped over the car moving quickly and grabbed her arm. The chaser pulled the woman closer to him and grabbed her neck and pulled her neck towards his mouth and took a bite. I stood stunned watching and unable to help in any way. I was used to violence because it was all around us and I am not talking about fictional violence I am talking about real life violence. I had seen it on the news and looked at the pictured on the internet but had never seen it in real life but this was different to the normal violence. The man leant back his mouth covered in blood and looked up at the sky in what seemed to be joy.
In his joy he let go of the woman who staggered backwards while grabbing at her neck and screaming in pain. Her knees started to buckle but before the fell another woman came from out of nowhere and grabbed her arm and pulled it towards her. She leant forward and took a bite from the victims forearm and at that point her will to fight disappeared and she collapsed to the floor with the female attacker still taking bites from her arm. The man looked down and dove towards the outstretched arm and started to take bites from it as well. The victim let out one last scream and her whole body seemed to relax after that the two attackers continued to eat her arm until there was nothing left but a stump on her shoulder.
I stood horrified at what I had just witnessed trying to figure out what was going on. The only thing that stopped the two attackers was another person being chased passed them after that they seemed to lose interest in their meal and joined the chase of their new victim. The woman laid there her clothes covered in blood from the gruesome stump that used to be her arm sticking out facing the sky. With my mind reeling from reality I staggered backwards away from the edge of the balcony and somehow I made my way back to the office. I closed the door behind me and turned off the lights and fell to a sitting position with my back against the door. My mind was going a million miles an hour in slow motion and I couldn’t cope. I placed my head into my hands and closed my eyes and waited for the nightmare to end so I could wake up and go to work. This didn’t happen though the world continued spinning despite my silent protests.
I sat silently in the office listening to the screams from outside knowing that each scream was a person like that woman; Defenceless , helpless and alone. “But not me,” I said eventually standing up, “I may be alone but there is no way I am helpless and defenceless,” I said out loud getting angry more at myself than anything else. “Mark isn’t on the menu for today you freaks,” I whispered out through my clenched teeth as I picked up the leg of the table and gripped it so hard my knuckles started to turn white. I needed a plan because this place wasn’t safe and I needed to get somewhere that was, I sat down at my desk and started to think. “There has to be a way out,” I mumbled to myself as I sat in thought.
I had been sitting there for a couple of hours deep in thought when Beth burst into the office again and slammed the door behind her. She staggered over to John’s desk and flopped down on one of the chairs closest to the door. Her breath haggard and her body covered in sweat she closed her eyes and started breathing deeply.
“I take it that means it didn’t go too well then” I said from my desk. She jumped up from her desk and wildly looked around the office her body tense and ready to fight whatever threat was assailing her now.
“Don’t do that!” she screamed at me.
“Sorry but I didn’t really do anything except be here,” I replied.
“Why are you still here?” she asked as she sat down again visibly relaxing.
“Two reasons really. The first is I am waiting for the tide to flow away from here,” I replied
“What do you mean by tide?” she asked with her eyes closed again.
“Panic and fear are like the tides of the ocean it was high tide when you left so now I am waiting for low tide. It’s the best time to make a break for it and it also means that everyone is more dispersed than now so I will encounter less people,” I replied.
“Oh and the other reason?” she asked.
“I unlike you don’t have my own transport today so it’s a little more challenging for me,” I replied with a wink.
“You mean you have been here the whole time?” she asked in disbelief.
“Yip waiting and planning. What happened to you out there?” I asked.
“You were right the roads were utter chaos and it got to a point where traffic just wasn’t moving because of accidents on the roads forcing people out of their cars where they were attacked by those things,” she said as she started to cry at the memory.
“It’s alright you are safe now,” I said.
“You know you have never been good at comforting people,” she said looking at me with a tear dripping down her cheek.
“It’s the thought that counts or so I have been told. I’ll try it this way at least you are safer now,” I said.
“Have you seen what’s going on out there?” she asked.
“I have seen some of what’s going on but not everything,” I replied as memories of that helpless woman flooded back and threatened to assault me again but I ignored it as best as I could.
“What do you think it is?” she asked.
“Tell me what you think they are first,” I said standing up from my desk.
“You wouldn’t believe me,” she half said to herself and to me.
“Today I would believe pretty much anything,” I replied.
“I think they are,” she started to say and then trailed off.
“Yes?” I prompted wanting to hear the end of her answer.
“I think they are Zom,” she trailed off again.
“Zombies?” I asked leaning against my desk.
“Yes,” she replied softly while blushing.
“I think they are most similar to Zombies but I wish they were exactly the same,” I said looking off into the distance.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I suppose you were too busy running for your life to notice where as I have been a prisoner in a glass tower and have been able to watch. Follow me,” I said and started walking to the door without waiting for her to respond.
“Where are we going?” she asked
“Shh,” I said and raised my finger to my lip to emphasise it and walked quietly to the balcony where I could view the outside world. She followed without saying anything else but always trying to look everywhere at the same time.
“Are there people in there?” asked Beth quietly pointing towards a pair of doors which led to the rest of our department.
“Yea some of the others from our department are hiding in there,” I replied,
“Then why were you hiding in our office and not with them?” she asked accusingly.
“In one word ‘Mutiny’,” I replied and watched Beth walk quickly to the doors to look in.
She turned around and looked at me with a confused expression, “Mutiny?” she asked.
“In states of emergencies the status quo tends to fall apart and dominant personalities become more important than anything else. People who were in charge lose their power and people with strong personalities gain it and oust those that they think will threaten them. In a panic the masks that people wear fall off and their true personalities are shown,” I said with a sigh.
“But what does that have to do with you?” she asked
“I am not a social person and don’t really mingle with anyone so I lose points for being one of the group there but the other more important thing is because I am a support person people have to do what I say if they want whatever is wrong to be fixed they have apparently built up resentment about it over the years and like I said the status quo is broken so I am the computer guy what do I know about this sort of thing,” I replied.
“I told you that you had to socialise more,” Beth said with her hands on her hips.
“Like I said that was a small part of the reason. I found them earlier and made a couple suggestions and it wasn’t taken too well and I was basically told to go play in traffic,” I replied with a shrug and then Beth turned and walked into the main office area and I followed until I reached the door and then stopped looking into the office. There were more people there then when I last looked but only a couple.
As you entered the doors to the main office there was a small dividing wall to the left that was about one and a half meters tall which went in a straight line to a support column two meters away from the door. On the right of the door was the wall to a meeting room which also carried on for two meters effectively making a little entrance hallway into the office. The shape of the office was a zigzag starting from my left until the door then going forward and then to the right down a corridor. From the door the office extended to the left for six meters until it reached the brick wall to my office, this section was three meters wide. On the side that the door was on was a prefab wall with no windows only the door on the other side was the main wall for the back of the building. The office also extended in front of the door for ten meters until it the prefab walls of the manager’s offices; this section was six meters wide between the main wall to my left and the prefab wall to my right. The main wall in the section in front of the door met at a right angle with the wall from the section to my left with windows running the full length of the wall from just over one meter from the floor to the ceiling. Every third panel of the window could be opened by sliding it. The meeting wall to my right ran for two meters and then opened out at a right angle to the right for two meters forming the front wall to the meeting room where the door was situated. At the end of the front wall to the meeting room was the store room wall at a right angle. This wall ran until the right hand bend in the zigzag. The corridor to the right was two meters wide with offices running on either side of it. Each office was two meters by two meters with a door and window looking into each.
I looked up and Beth was walking towards me giving me a dagger stare. “What did you tell them earlier?” she demanded.
“That this wasn’t a smart hiding place,” I replied.
“So that means you said that this is a stupid place to hide?” she asked as she shifted her weight onto one foot and put her hands on her hips.
“That’s what I said,” I replied feeling a little uncomfortable.
“Haven’t you ever heard of tact?” she asked.
“Emergencies aren’t known for making people more tactful and it’s not like I had a lot to start off with,” I replied.
“I thought we told you to get lost,” shouted Louise from the centre of the huddled group of people.
“I am sure the Zombies outside didn’t hear you so you might want to try shout that again,” I replied.
“If you think those are Zombies out there then I think you have finally lost it and should hurry and chase after it,” she shouted.
“Don’t worry I won’t be here for much longer,” I said and turned around and started walking towards my office.
“Mark wait up,” called Beth softly but I didn’t stop walking.
“I don’t need that in my life,” I said without turning.
“They are just scared,” she said from just behind me as I reached the office door.
“And that makes it ok it ignore the facts and risk everyone else’s lives?” I asked.
“I am sure they will calm down,” she pleaded.
“I am not a team player and have never pretended to be. They don’t want me here and don’t want to listen to what I have to say then fine I’ll go,” I replied as I walked up to my desk
“Don’t rush off into that just because of what someone said,” she said.
“I am not rushing anywhere Beth. Like I said earlier I was waiting and it seems the tide is low at the moment so now is as good as any other time. Actually it’s the best time,” I said as I picked up the back pack I use to carry my laptop.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked blocking my exit from the office.
“Looking outside it seems to have thinned out a lot and its now two p.m which means there is still another four or five hours of sunlight left,” I said and walked towards her.
“Don’t tell me you are planning on walking home,” she said in disbelief as she stepped aside.
“Don’t be stupid of course I am not,” I replied and walked out of the office.
“But you don’t have transport,” she said confused.
“I am planning on obtaining some,” I replied.
“You’re going to steal a car?” she asked.
“No a car is useless with the roads the way they are, you should know that better than me,” I said and walked into the open area around the balcony.
“Then what?” she asked following me.
“What do I usually drive?” I asked with a sigh
“A Motorbike?” she asked
“Bingo,” I replied and walked through the doors to the main office.
“Your still here?” called out Louise but I ignored her and continued walking down the corridor to the right.
“But where are you going to get one?” Beth asked.
“There is a bike store down the road” I said as I turned right into another hallway.
“And then what?” she asked as I reached my destination the door to the storeroom for the kitchen which was across the hallway from it. I tried opening it but it was locked so I took a step back and kicked the door just under the door handle as hard as I could. There was a loud bang as the door flew open.
“Lucky for me the door is built into a prefab wall otherwise I would have just broken my foot,” I said and walked into the store room. This store room was used to keep cutlery, cups, coffee, sugar and the like but it was also the place where we kept the bottled water for our visitors. I looked around and spotted the bottled water and took my backpack off and put five bottles into it and put the bag back on.
“Why are you taking water?” asked Beth
“Because plans often go wrong and you can live without food for a week or two but you can’t live without water for more than a couple days,” I replied and walked out of the store room. I saw Beth go into the store room out of the corner of my eye but I didn’t stop and continued walking down the corridor which opened up into another open office section which belonged to a different department. I walked through it and turned right down a hallway which led to a pair of access controlled doors as I approached it I fished out my access card and swiped it against the access pad and the doors unlocked. I walked through them letting the door close behind me and into the tunnel bridge which had the inner court yard below and to the right and the front parking lot to the left. I reached the end of the tunnel which had another set of doors but these were not access controlled. I walked through them and was back to where I had started the inner balcony. I heard the doors at the other end of the tunnel shut and looked behind me to see Beth jogging towards me.
“You could have waited for me,” she said as she reached me.
“Why are you coming with me?” I asked
“I don’t want to go out there again” she said and lowered her head.
“It’s ok I understand,” I replied and moved to the railing and looked out towards the road in front of the building. “See that woman over there?” I asked and pointed to the woman who was brutally attacked earlier. Beth didn’t say anything and just nodded and I continued, “Notice anything weird about her?”
Beth looked for a couple of moments and then said, “She is covered in blood”.
“But where did it come from?” I asked knowing the answer. Beth stood there for a minute examining the woman until eventually she shrugged.
“Her hand seems to have been chewed off but it looks weird,” she said still looking at the woman lying next to the fence.
“I watched that woman getting attacked earlier. It happened not long after you all left so a couple of hours ago,” I said leaning on the railing.
“Ok,” said Beth with a hint of confusion in her voice.
“The only thing is when she was attacked she had her throat ripped out and her arm chewed off all the way up to her shoulder,” I said looking off into the distance.
“But that’s impossible,” Beth spurted out.
“Impossible seems to be the flavour of the day anyways when I said that they were Zombies earlier I meant that in the violent Undead sense and that it seems to be an infection other than that these things are very different from Zombies but that’s the closest reference we have. I wish they were mere Zombies,” I said with a sigh.
“What do you mean?” Beth asked confused.
“That woman died three hours ago but her arm is regrowing also out of the people doing the attacking I haven’t seen a single one with a visible injury have you?” I asked.
“Now that you mention it I haven’t,” she answered.
“Don’t you think that’s odd?” I asked.
“Yes I do but what does it mean?” she asked.
“It means that they heal or regenerate or whatever. Makes them harder to kill also means the rotting Zombie theory is out the window,” I replied.
“Rotting Zombie theory?” she asked.
“You know I like horror films right?” I asked.
“Yea,” she replied.
“Well I once read an article written by another horror fan about why this wouldn’t work,” and I pointed outside and then continued, “with the standard Zombie they are just dead animated flesh that run around and kill right?” I asked
“Yes,” she replied.
“Well one of the theories why this wouldn’t work is because after a couple weeks the dead flesh would rot off of the zombie and they wouldn’t be able to move any more. So as long as you could keep safe for a couple weeks you could survive. But that woman over there blows that theory out of the window,” I said.
“So you mean hitting them in the head won’t work either?” she asked
“No idea, Zombies are fictional characters who knows if Zombie lore will work or not. In theory it still works because if you destroy the control centre for anything it will stop working.” I replied.
“Mark what did you mean earlier that this wasn’t a good place to hide,” asked Bath sounding a scared.
“This building is bad because if they get through the outside gates there is little to stop them getting into the building because of the automatic glass doors but you can get around that a little” I said.
“How?” she asked hastily.
“Those stairs,” I pointed to the stairs over my shoulder, “are the main way to get up to the first floor if you barricade them it will slow them down”
Beth turned to look at the stairs and let out a gasp causing me to spin around and raise my cudgel. There was a woman standing in the middle of the open area looking at us.
“I am not one of them,” she blurted out raising her hand for us to stop. I recognised her from the group in the main office earlier but I didn’t know her. I lowered my weapon and looked at Beth who nodded towards the woman. She took a couple steps closer to us and said, “Please let me listen to what you are saying”.
I shrugged and said, “But the stairs aren’t the main reason why I said it’s a stupid hiding place”.
“Then why?” asked Beth still watching the woman.
“Well mainly because the doors to the main office have the access control turned off on them so they can’t be locked,” I replied and this caused both women to turn around and look at the doors.
“I didn’t think of that,” said Beth with shock in her voice.
“Neither did they but once they calmed down I am sure they would have but that might have been too late,” I said.
“But I didn’t think of it either,” she said turning towards me.
“Relax I am sure you would have picked it up a lot sooner than them just looking at you I can tell you are a lot calmer than them already,” I replied.
“Mark you can’t go we need you here,” she said looking a little embarrassed.
“They have you Beth and you are plenty smart enough and they will listen to you and anyways they don’t want me here,” I replied.
“But,” Beth started to protest but I raised my hand to stop her.
“Listen for a group to survive this they would need to trust each other and work together. Even if one person isn’t trusted then it pulls the whole group down and raises the risk. I am not a leader or a team player for that fact and what I can offer the group will be countered by the friction me being here will cause,” I said and saw Beth’s shoulders drop a little. “I couldn’t convince them of the danger they were in but you probably can and once they are convinced you all can work on making this place a safer place to hide,” I said as I put my hand on her shoulder.
“Ok but do you have any advice?” she asked and looked me in the eyes.
“Always,” I started to say but was interrupted by the woman taking a step closer to us.
“I want to come with you,” she said to me.
“What is your name?” I asked her.
“It’s Molly,” she answered.
“Listen Molly I am going home and not making any side trips,” I said to her.
“I understand that but I don’t want to stay here,” she said and lowered her head and rubbed her hands together.
“I am not going to the store for a packet if smokes I am probably going to my death out there. It’s safer here than with me,” I said.
“I don’t really know anyone in there and don’t feel safe,” she said.
“Beth here will look after you and make sure the others don’t push you around,” I said to her and looked down at Beth who nodded.
“Don’t worry about it sweetie,” said Beth as she walked over to Molly and put her hand on her shoulder and started guiding her towards the main office. A couple minutes later Beth returned looking calmer than before.
“How is she?” I asked.
“She will be ok she is just scared out of her mind,” Beth replied.
“Understandable. Listen I have to leave soon and there is some stuff I need to tell you,” I said.
“I’m listening,” Beth said as she leaned against the railing next to me.
“First thing to do is that door, it opens out of the office and not in which makes it difficult to barricade. I would suggest getting some of the guys in there to empty out three or four of those small cabinets and dragging them out here,” I said and looked at Beth for acknowledgement of her understanding.
“Ok,” she said.
“Once that’s done grab as many files as you can from the store room and bring them out here as well and also grab a couple network cables,” I said and paused.
“Ok,” she replied again but this time a little confused.
“Once that’s done close the doors and tie the door handles together with the network cables,” I said as her face lit up with understanding and then I continued, “Once that’s done push the cabinets against the door but two next to each other and the other two on top of them and then fill them with the files to give them as much weight as possible and then lock them. You can then get back into the office using the access controlled doors at the end of the tunnel,” I finished.
“That makes sense,” she said nodding.
“The one thing you should try and do is leave an area you can look through so you can see this area because from the other doors you can’t see in here and you don’t want any unpleasant surprises,” I said.
“Ok anything else?” she asked.
“Well with that you have the bathrooms, kitchen and kitchen storeroom for water and some food even though its biscuits its better than nothing. You also have the emergency stairs next to the bathrooms and next to the tunnel doors but what I am going to tell you now you should keep to yourself,” I said.
“I don’t like keeping secrets,” she said with a sigh.
“This one may save your life. You know where Louise sits right?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied hesitantly.
“The window in front of her desk leads to the roof of the cover for back entrance. It’s made of sheet metal so it can’t take much weight but it can take one person easy but with the whole group it would probably collapse,” I said.
“But why would that be important,” Beth asked.
“That is the emergency exit of last resort. If you have any zombies between you and the emergency exits you will be trapped but with this exit no matter where you are you will have an exit to retreat to. Once you are on the roof you can make your way to the edge and climb off without breaking your leg or just stay there and wait but like I said if everyone used it then it could cause everyone’s death its ultimately up to you whether you tell them about it or not,” I said.
“I am guessing you wouldn’t tell them about it?” asked Beth.
“Nope because in a panic they would jump on to it without thinking and possibly doom me to a painful death,” I said with a shrug.
“I think I am going to tell them,” she said more to herself than me.
“It’s up to you Beth. I am going have to go now daylight is wasting away,” I said and stood up straight and turned towards the stairs.
“I know you don’t like this kind of touchy feely stuff but thank you and good luck,” she said and hugged me and then turned and walked towards the main office. I waited until she closed the doors and then moved towards the stairs.
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If you would like the ebook version of this for free please leave your email address as a comment and i will send you the kindle version.
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