Nancy waited until she heard the last woman enter the stairwell, then nodded towards V. “You got these under control V?” nodding towards an older woman, Kirkpatrick’s young secretary and a middle aged man who were all that was left of what Nancy thought of as her ‘Pantry’. Veronica, definitely worse for the wear, nodded back slowly and carefully her eyes never leaving the food.
“Okay, I will tell you what V, you can eat the first one of them who gives you ANY trouble, got it?” Turning towards the food, she repeated her question, “YOU got it?”they all nodded ‘yes’ vigorously.
Nancy slipped out the door towards the hallway. She was surprised to find Julie was not dead. The poor dear had been feigning her second death, lying like a slug with a bad head wound and most of her torso blow away in the office behind the desk. Nancy pulled her into the office and soothed her, saying, “I know it hurts Julie, I know, shhhh, shhh, it will be okay, you just rest up here. I will be back soon and we will decide what to do.”
Again Nancy made her way towards the bathroom, again she was brought up short, another girl was crawling out of the cubicles near the stairwell door! The second of the trio of girls, whom Nancy had expected to have been killed, was also alive and in good shape! 'Well, maybe this raid did not go so badly after all!' she thought to herself. 'Time to name this one I guess.' She mumbled to herself, “You! I never learned your name, Julie was ‘Gap Girl’, what do you want to be called? Old name or a new one? C’mon, I got things to do girl!”
The zombie stammered out, “I wa-was Julie too.”
“Oh of all the damn luck! Well ‘Julie too’ I can’t have two Julies running around and the original hardly likes ‘Gap Girl’ as a name, it is more of a title, what is your second choice?”
“Um-um, Trish? My old middle. Name.” said Julie who was now Trish.
“Fair enough Trish, you hide in this cube and keep your eyes out for anyone coming back from the stairwell and your ears on any sounds coming from the office. If you hear anything from the office bang on the bathroom door as you go by and run help sister Julie, got that? Otherwise, just yell for help and keep your head down?”
Trish, nodded yes and Nancy bent over in the hallway and picked up a dented trash can that was not too far from what Nancy suspected was her only casualty of this raid. Dented and gooey from hitting her gal, she walked the bin back into the men’s room. Sure enough the one there was missing. Not positive evidence, but goddamn good enough for Nancy. “Jimbo you lying sack of shit, you better hope someone else finds you before I do, ‘cause I am not going to be nice if we meet again.”
Nancy headed back to the hallway gathered up Trish and they both went back into the office with the others. Looking the situation over Nancy knew she had to do something about or for Julie, she would not leave her there handicapped, so it was time for healing or for finishing her off. Which one of the three left got to get eaten to see if they could stimulate Julie’s healing powers? Ah, a volunteer! The younger woman’s hand raised into the air tentatively, ‘This is great’, thought Nancy, ‘If only all the food would be so co-operative!’ Out loud she asked, “Yes?”as she pointed to the girl.
“I…I, gotta go pee, please! I really gotta go bad.”
“V, you up to taking the food into the bathroom for a quick pee and then bringing her back?”
Veronica nodded ‘yes’. “Good.”said Nancy, “Oh and bring the old woman too, you might as well get them both relieved at the same time.”
When they had filed out of the office Nancy turned back towards the remaining man. ‘I guess I was right, a choice was made.’
In the bathroom Veronica took up a position just outside the door while Amelia and Diane went into their stalls. Amelia knew she was dead, and that any chance of splitting the group watching them made the odds better than standing in the office waiting to be eaten or converted to a zombie. Kirkpatrick’s office was a dead end and she would have had to get past all the zombies if she had tried anything a few minutes ago. Now she only had to get past one zombie. As Amelia had hoped Nancy sent Veronica to watch them, she seemed to trust Veronica more. Nancy didn’t seem to notice how badly injured Veronica was, the shotgun blast had almost decapitated her and she could barely limp along, though she did seem more intelligent than the others under Nancy’s control. Now how to plan something with Diane?
“Diane.” she whispered, “Diane, if we go back into that office we are dead, we have to make a break when we get into the hallway, just run for the stairs, okay?”
“I…I can’t Amelia, I can’t run for long. Asthma. I will try, it is our best shot, I know, I am afraid Amelia, so scared I can’t hardly move. Do you really think they will kill us?”
As if in answer to that question, they heard a man screaming from Kirkpatrick’s office, loudly and in great pain. Amelia jumped up and hissed, “Now! Now while the noise may distract the other one!”
They rushed out of the bathroom doorway, Amelia clutching a wooden handled toilet plunger in her hand as they tried to make their escape.
Chapter 22
Jimbo was happier than he had been since coming back from the dead, finally away from that bitch Nancy he could be his own man. He had been maintaining a charade of ignorance and slowness since his last meal, when he had sneaked a bit more of the meal than Nancy had suspected. He thought he was thinking as clearly as he had before he died and even if his body was still slower than before death it was his mind that mattered with a good mind he could lay plans for his liberation and everything worked out well so far. He just had to make absolutely sure he never ran into Nancy again. Ever. That vindictive bitch would make him pay in spades if he were ever at her mercy again. His plan to make sure that never happened would be to form his own gang and eat, and eat and eat, every meal made him stronger and he would eventually gain enough power to no longer be afraid of anyone.
Once he made it out of the building he no longer felt so compelled to stay close to her, compelled to follow her every command like some sort of twisted masochist. Now he could eat when and what he wanted, and as much of the kill as he needed, no more second fiddle to a bunch of tiny bobbing, dressed up skanks. He exited the Mac Co. building and headed into the parking lot, looking to see which direction he could go, preferably towards a suburb somewhere to get himself a snack. Plus the risk was low, liberals didn’t have guns and in this part of town people drove hybrid cars and smoked dope in their back yards. They would pay for that now, it was only right. As he neared the far edge of the parking lot he saw a male zombie shambling around and he got that familiar taint of a feeling again, the one that said, “Come to me.” Nothing he could not break free of, but uncomfortable in it's own way. Could it be? The very man Nancy was looking for?
Jim crept closer and looked on the zombie. 'Pathetic! He is in even worse shape than I am! How can I use this?' Jim thought for a moment and then stepped up to the other man and grabbed him by the arm, turning him into the light just a bit. Sure as shit, he had a key card that read ‘Fredrick Smith’ dangling from a cord on his belt with the words 'Mac Co.' emblazoned on the front above his picture. ‘Oh this is good.’, thought Jim, ‘Very good indeed!’
Chapter 23
Max, Stewart, Steve and Tom made their way back to the main lobby of Mac Co. Nothing, no open doors, only a very dead, very eaten Walt tucked behind the doors to the loading dock. The other doors were all closed, everything was locked up as it should be.
“How did they get in? Everything is still locked up!”said Steve
“Tell ya in a second”said Tom. He went over behind the desk to the computers where the camera screens were still running and started playing back the video from the last half hour. “There”he pointed at a nondescript door that opened discretely into the lobby.
“The supply center, yeah, the logs say Nancy came in through the door next to the loading ramp twenty four minutes ago. Why didn’t we block that door off?”
