you can take your ‘hider’ classifi..”
“Sorry to intrude,” officer Stewart interrupted, who didn’t sound sorry at all, “You mentioned my name girls? Bring that fresh pot of coffee along and come into the office. I don’t think any more people are going to come up here now.”
With a little grumbling Max and Steve followed Stewart into the office. Stewart glanced at Kirkpatrick’s chair and then opted to sit on his desk, facing the small crowd. She asked if anyone could think of a plan of action, a dozen voices spoke up, most involving stuff like, “I need to go and get my wife or husband or kids, then we can go…somewhere.”
“Hold on, hold on there, we first have to decide if that is at all feasible? Are we going to work as a team? Go around to each person’s house or school or other job site and find everyone we care about? Who doesn’t have family or friends to go check on? Anyone?”
Only Tom raised his hand, “Uh, I just have roommates, my folks live in North Platte.”
Steve mumbled softly, “No shit?”
Max elbowed him to keep quiet, then said, “Why didn’t you raise your hand? You’re divorced, eh?”
Steve glared at Max, “So, divorce means my parents live in North Platte too? C’mon I got a sister, nieces and a nephew in town too.
“Okay, okay, just I never hear you talk about em and the only pictures you have on your desk are of your current lay and sports heroes. Lighten up Steve.”
“Listen up ladies, gentlemen.” Here Stewart looked at Max and Steve, “If we can be quiet for a minute and toss out ideas one at a time it might be more productive. Max?”
“Uh sorry. I think we need to break for the cars, head out and get in our vehicles then go our separate ways to check on our families. I think we should have a place to meet once we do that so we can get together, and we should tell anyone else where we are meeting, so we can all get together for, um mutual defense?”
“I think we should sit tight and wait for the army to come settle this problem.”said a middle aged woman in a snappy business suit whom Max could not quite name.
“Hider.” whispered Steve quietly to Max.
“Okay any other ideas? C’mon people we have only two plans of action: Go or stay and wait for the cavalry? There has to be another way.”
Other than Max and the hider no one else seemed inclined to throw out any suggestions, when it became painfully obvious that no one else would put forth any ideas, Stewart said, “Well, okay how about we wait for a few hours and if the guard does not show up we break for the cars?”
“What? Our families might need us now and every hour we sit in here there are more of them out there, we should strike out hard and fast and get the heck out of here.” Max said.
“Max we are all worried about our families, call them, tell them to sit tight and wait for the military to move in. I know it does not sound like a good course of action, but for every civilian on the street it is one more car they have to move off the road to get through and, potentially, one more zombie they have to kill to mop up the problem.”
“Well we could have it both ways, who wants to leave now and who wants to stay? I mean there is nothing saying we all have to do one plan or the other, or the hybrid you threw out, is there?”
“No, there is an expression ‘Strength in Numbers’ though, right now they have the numbers and the strength, right? Why not wait for a bit and see if our boys in the military can reverse that?”
“What about ‘divide and conquer’?” asked Max.
“Ah, Max, not to be picking a nit, but that was divide your enemies and conquer them, not divide your allies and conquer your enemy’s.” said Steve.
Max glared at Steve, then smiled briefly and said, “Look at us, debating old sayings when our coworkers are dead or undead and the world as we know it is crumbling around us. And they say Nero fiddled on the roof too, eh? Is that what we are doing?”
“Ah, Max, the fiddle wasn’t invented until like the seventeenth century.” said Stewart.
Max rolled his eyes and replied, “Sheesh people, is everyone a history buff? C’mon aren’t we supposed to be coming up with a plan of action here? Not debating Max’s intelligence?”
“Well I am staying right here, waiting for the guard to come and put these rioters down. I have already spoken to my husband and his work is shut up tight, like ours and he is perfectly safe. I think we should just divide into teams and the people who want to go can go, while the rest of us stay and hold down the fort.” stated the older woman. “The people who stay could maybe distract the people outside by yelling out a door or something away from the parking lot and, if it does not work out, by letting the ‘go’ party back into the building.”
“See? I guess some managers actually are worth the money.” said Steve, “I vote for her plan!” The older woman barely glanced at Steve, but the look spoke volumes about how Steve was really lucky that this was an emergency.
Stewart said, “I am still not sure this is a good idea, if they let the zombies know we are here we might have problems later on. Lets think about this for a few minutes before we do anything okay? Finish up the coffee first and then make plans.”
Chapter 13
Nancy’s plan was simple. Being one of the dead she deduced that they could freely move around the city fearing little from the other zombies. As long as Nancy fed regularly she thought she would be able to pass for one of the living and that gave her an advantage.
The next meal came when Nancy spotted two men. The first man was short, fat, balding and probably in his late forties. He wore shorts, flip flops and a bright Hawaiian shirt. He carried a long curved blade that looked like the type you usually found on a paper cutter in an office. The second man was the exact opposite. Nancy gauged him to be twenty one or twenty two, he stood over six foot tall and skinny, as if he were the center for some college basketball team.
Nancy instructed Coffee Girl to stay hidden behind an abandoned car. She then retraced her steps and fell against the cool glass of a large office building.
Nancy called to the two men, “Help me, someone please help me!”
Both of the men stopped dead in their tracks. She could see them talking but could not hear what they were discussing. The fat man shook his head as the younger one pleaded his case. Eventually the young man ended the conversation by extending his middle finger at the fat man, the universal sign of “fuck you”. The fat man just shook his head in disgust.
Cautiously the young man approached Nancy, the whole time watching her every move. His attention was so focused on her that he passed by the crouching Coffee Girl without noticing her.
“Oh, thank you. I have money and will pay you to help me. My husband and I are rich.” Nancy called to the young man.
“See, I told you. She can talk. If she was like one of them she wouldn’t be able to.” He called in an I-told- you-so voice over his shoulder to the short, fat man who was still keeping his distance.
Convinced that Nancy was not a zombie the young man now briskly covered the remaining distance to her. When he got within a few feet Nancy dramatically fell into his arms. Surprised by her move the young man was unable to support her weight and gently lowered her to the sidewalk.
“Come on Paul, come help me. She’s freezing cold, find a blanket or something. I think she is in shock.”
'So, fat ass had a name.' Nancy thought. She could barely hold herself back, the young man’s beautiful red and orange energy was practically surrounding her. Nancy thought she could almost taste his warmth and she wanted it so badly.
“Sure Jim, I’ll just crap a blanket, what color do you think she wants? I hope she likes brown.” Paul replied sarcastically, then nervously started switching his long blade from one hand to the other.
“Are you hurt?” Jim asked, ignoring Paul.
