About a Woman, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

The fat woman lifted her arm to point at the grate in the wall.

'No way!' thought Dora, 'No way she can see me and the wires were too small to be noticed that quickly. It's like they have some sort of x-ray vision or maybe a strong sense of smell.' Dora could smell the sweat of 'teenage boy' and 'fat woman' quite clearly. Well, there was nothing to do about it, except try and help Mike clear the way onto the roof. Dora backed up and ran into Paige.

'Mike through yet?' she asked the woman.

'No you told us to quiet down.' said Paige.

'Oh yeah.' said Dora, 'Don't worry about being noisy now, they know where we are. Get that vent open Mike!'

'Uh, okay. I dropped my screwdriver.' Mike told her.

'Well pick it up, it's not like it could go far in the vent, right?'

'It slipped out of my hand, went through the hole onto the roof.'

'Shit! You are aware that we are fighting for our lives here right? I won't die because you fat fingered a screwdriver, get the fucking vent opened so we can get out of here before they get in!'

Mike mumbled something under his breath then shifted position in the vent until his feet were up against the hole he had been enlarging near the seam.

'Oh, I got this little hammer too, if you think it would help.' Dora called to him.

Mike was straining, pushing with his legs up against the edge of the vent, the seam gave away slowly and steadily, until it hit a supporting bracket on the roof, then it would give no more. The hole was still too small. Dora might fit through it, but only if Mike were pushing against it and she crawled through at the same time.

To Paige, Dora said, 'We are going to get close and personal real quick, honey. Try not to get your stink on me, okay?' and then she wrestled by the woman to get close to Mike. 'You push and I will get through and try and get something from the outside. On the count of three, ready? One. Two. Three!'

The fit wasn't that tight, Dora made it through with hardly a scrape and she felt good to be out of the confines of the stuffy office and into the bright morning sun. She took a deep breath and stood up. When she did so, she caught sight of several other infected people coming towards the restaurant. Leaning over she called back in, 'More of them are coming. We gotta get you guys out of there.'

'Dora?' called Paige, 'They are at the grate.'

'Which one do you see there Paige?'

'The woman, the big woman.'

'Oh then that is alright, she is fatter than you and I don't think she will fit through the hole. If you see the small guy up there give me a scream.'

'And then what?'

'Well, I will know you two are fucked and can leave off trying to get you out. Shut up and let me think here a minute.'

Paige shut up and Dora looked around the roof. The top was lined with large stones, not pebbles, but pretty hefty rocks. She bent and picked one of those up and started pounding on the bracket that was preventing the vent opening from getting any wider. The rock broke into two after about ten hits. 'Jesus Christ! They don't make rocks like they used to.'

She heard a banging from inside the vent. 'What is going on in there Mike?'

'They are hitting the vent. I think the fat woman is. It's bending.'

'Gotcha!'

Paige picked up the hammer and looked at the bracket, the hammer was tiny and the bracket was huge, large enough to hold the ductwork steady in the high winds that tore through the city from time to time. She gave it a couple of hits anyway but nothing happened. Picking up the screw driver she told Mike to back his feet away and started pounding it through the thin metal alongside the bracket, then she pounded the metal down and had Mike push it back up, doing this several times they weakened a line of the metal and made the opening about six inches wider and Mike didn't have to hold his feet against it either. Looking at the hole Dora thought that would be enough.

'C'mon guys get out now. It's wide enough.'

Mike didn't need to be told twice, he slithered through the opening quickly, while Paige lined herself up for her attempt.

'The guy is there, they got the grating off, but it is still bent around and hanging by the wires you used, so he is having a hard time.' Paige thrust herself up through the hole, then stopped as her belly halted all forward progress. She could not push through. To make matters worse the metal sides acted as a trap, preventing her from ducking back down into the duct so they could make the hole wider.

'Hm. This doesn't look good Paige, push harder.' Dora told her.

Sweat broke out on Paige's face as she pushed with her legs as hard as she could. 'I can't do it!'

'Bullshit bitch, stop fucking around and push!' Dora grabbed one of the woman's hands while Mike grabbed the other and they all three strained with the effort of pulling Paige through the hole.

Paige let out a shriek, 'Something touched me!' then started frantically kicking and jerking about, her uniform top was soaking through with sweat and she finally gave an adrenaline empowered thrust that popped her out of the vent sending all three of them onto the rooftop in a heap.

'God you two reek! And, Paige starting now you are on a diet. No more chips or candy for you until you are size six again.'

'I skipped size six.' Paige mumbled, checking the scrapes on her stomach.

Mike rolled away from the two women and approached the vent cautiously, Dora propped herself up on her elbows and watched Paige examining her belly.

'God my gut hurts, it's gonna be bruised.' Paige said.

'Hey c'mere!' Mike said.

The women got to their feet and looked into the vent, it was empty. Dora saw the little man's head pop up at the far end in the office. She wrinkled her face and said, 'Shit he wasn't even in the vent yet! You just freaked yourself out. Good thing though, I don't think we could have gotten you out otherwise.'

Paige blushed, 'I swore I felt something grabbing my legs.'

The other two looked at her pants and shoes, expecting maybe a rip or a tear, but her pants looked fine to them.

Shrugging Paige said, 'Meh, no big deal, we are out. Let's pound this thing back down and put a bunch of rocks on it.'

'The rocks won't hold it.' said Mike.

'Duh. The rocks are so if they are all quiet like we will hear them fall off and know they are coming out this way.' Dora tapped the side of her head, 'I got brains in here, I use 'em too. Try using yours once in a while smart boy.'

Mike flushed and Paige rose to his defense. 'Are you always this much of a bitch?'

'Only to my friends.' Dora smiled, 'See? You two are moving up in the world, to have a friend like me.'

Shaking her head Paige went to look at the parking lot and try and figure a way to get down from the roof. More infected were coming towards the building all the time, they were slow and they all went into the building when they got there, she could not tell how many were inside. Mike and Dora bent the metal back down into shape and then piled about fifty rocks on top of it, until it started to sag down into the vent, when they were finished they went to stand by Paige near the back of the building.

'We can get down here, make it to my car.' Paige said.

'You got a car Mike?' Dora asked, eyeing Paige's dilapidated old beater.

Mike shook his head. 'My dad dropped me off for my shift, my clutch is getting fixed.'

'Well then I guess we go with Paige's plan. How are we going to do this dear?'

'The dumpster is right there, we can walk on the grease vat, its lid is solid and then climb over the wall and drop down and run to the car.'

'Does your car work okay? I mean, in the movies they always run to the car and it doesn't want to start, then there is a big suspenseful scene where it catches at the last possible moment. I would rather do things without the drama if we can.'