see anyone else, so I figured they were busy.
I left the office and headed towards the hallway. I would look through the information later. I opened the door to the hallway, then quickly closed it again. The empty hallway I had walked through earlier was now filled with ghouls. The noise I had made earlier must have stirred them. The two in front who turned to look at me when I opened the door were in sorry shape, being little more than emaciated skeletons. But their intent was clear as they stumbled towards the door with clawed hands reaching out for me. They were dressed in filthy hospital gowns, so I wondered what was going on in this building. I locked the door and backed away, bringing up my weapon as dead hands started to beat on the glass. I mentally kicked myself as I watched the glass I had broken start to develop cracks from the undead onslaught. I could see more hands start to pound the door and I knew I had little time.
I moved one of the secretary’s desks in front of the door, then moved the other one on top of the first one. The desks were cheap metal government-issue garbage and not much good for anything, but I just needed a little time. The glass broke as I levered the second desk into place and I shoved the grasping hands back with it. I ran back to the inner office just as the horde of hands shoved the top desk out of the way and corpses began to squeeze through the opening, tearing their skin and clothing on shards of glass still embedded in the door.
I didn’t wait for more. I closed the inner office door and slid the heavier desk in front of it. I didn’t have much time and needed to get out of here fast. I figured I could make it out the window since I was only on the second floor. I grabbed the office chair and threw it at the window and watched the damn thing bounce off and clatter at my feet.
Well, try, try again as the sounds of the outer door crashing open and the desks being shoved out of the way filtered through. I grabbed the chair and threw it harder, causing only a small crack in the glass.
“Fuck this.” I said as dead hands started to pound on Rickerson’s office door, shaking the desk. I drew my SIG and fired two shots through the glass, the reports sounding unbelievably loud in the office and causing the Z’s to groan and scrabble at the door all the harder.
I picked up the chair again and hurled it through the window, the glass finally shattering outward and cascading down like sharp rain. I looked out the window and ducked as Tommy raised his rifle at me. He didn’t shoot and I poked my head up again to see him raise a tentative hand in my direction. I waved back and climbed out the window as the desk gave way and ghouls started falling through the door.
I hung down for a second, then let go, falling about ten feet and landing in a pile of leaves. I looked up to see three zombie heads staring down at me and I scrambled to my feet to get some distance in case they decided to follow me. I walked backwards towards Tommy and the two of us just watched as the office filled to capacity with dead people. They milled around the room, not really understanding where their meal went.
“Find what you’re looking for?” Tommy asked, not taking his eyes off the zombies.
“Don’t know yet. Got some binders that may have some answers, but there were some labs up there that might have some real interesting information” I said.
Tommy raised his eyebrows. “Labs?”
“Yeah, some strange things on the doors like Cross Contact and such,” I said.
“Creepy.”
“Yeah.”
I checked my watch and we saw Charlie heading back our way. He was carrying a small bundle and moving quickly towards us. When he reached our position he stopped and looked back. Apparently what he saw was good news to him because he visibly relaxed.
“Well, that was close,” Charlie said, putting the bundle on the ground.
“What’d you find?” Tommy asked.
“Ammo. About 600 rounds. You?”
Tommy patted his find. “Got a small output generator here. Found it in the office of the garage over there.”
I nodded. That was a good find. “What do you mean ‘That was close’,” I asked Charlie.
I heard a crashing and looked back towards the barracks. Two soldiers, obviously dead, stumbled out of the building and lurched slowly towards us. They were dressed in full battle gear, complete with Kevlar armor and helmets.
“Oh,” was all I could say.
Charlie shrugged his shoulders and I pointed to the office window, which was nearly bursting with zombies. Two of them were being squeezed out the window and grimy handprints covered the glass and wall.
Movement on our left caught our attention and we looked over to see Sarah, Martin and Rebecca heading our way and fast. On their heels were Jason and Casey and they were moving at a dead run.
A couple of seconds later a horde of zombies came pouring out from between the two main buildings, stumbling and tripping, but moving forward, nonetheless. The graying mass surged forward when they saw additional victims, and we all gaped for a second before I found my voice.
“Run! To the cars now!” I grabbed one end of the small generator and Tommy and I bolted for the cars, followed by Charlie and the rest. Sarah and Rebecca actually beat us to the cars and jumped into the driver’s seats, getting the cars ready for a quick exit.
Charlie dumped his ammo into the back seat and climbed in, followed by the others. Tommy and I actually wound up bringing up the rear. As we passed the gate I shocked the heck out of Tommy by dropping the generator and running to the left, dragging the heavy gate into place. Tommy saw what I was doing and ran to the other side, swinging the right hand gate into place.
The dead were advancing steadily with a particularly gruesome individual leading the way. It was a middle- aged man who had been eviscerated, his guts hung out of his body and dragged along the ground. He jerked every time another zombie stepped on his entrails, which would then snap off, leaving bits behind. His dead eyes remained fixed on us, however, and he was going to hit us any second.
I moved the gate closed and Tommy did the same. I slid a zip tie through the bars and secured them, stepping back just as the first zombie slammed into the barrier. The gates strained the tie, but didn’t break it. Tommy and I knew we needed more ties to secure the gate, but we didn’t want to get caught by the grasping hands that tried to get through the gap between the gates.
Tommy came up with the answer. He waited until the push subsided, then charged the gate, keeping his hands on the reinforcing bars. The sudden push knocked down several zombies which tripped the ones coming up from behind. Using the opening, I quickly threaded three more zip ties before the hands came grasping again and I had to step back.
The zombies surged again, but the gate held. Tommy and I exchanged a look then picked up the generator and took it to the cars. We didn’t have room in the back, so we used a length of cord and tied it to the roof, threading the cord through open windows. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
Behind us, the zombies groaned and strained at their prison and I decided we needed to get out of sight before they broke free. We jumped into the cars and drove away, heading back the way we came, leaving behind yet another dead zone. Maybe we had the answers I was looking for riding with us, maybe not. I rummaged through my pack and dug out the binders and handed the one marked “Solutions” to Tommy to look through while I browsed through “Communications”.
Sarah drove back the way we had come and headed south at the appropriate crossroads, leading our little convoy towards our new neighbors. I thumbed through the binder and found a few interesting pieces.
July 9 Communication from State Center Bravo: Infection spreading through housing units. Troop desertion increasing. Need reinforcements.
July 18 Communication from Governor: Contain all infected citizens.
July 29 Communication from Maryland Central: Capital has fallen, designated dead zone. Congress disbanded. President dead.
August 15 Communication from Colorado: Military in full retreat. Fall back to Cheyenne Mountain.
September 3 Communication from New York Central: UN collapsed.
October 18 Communication from California Coast: US Navy evacuate San Diego.
November 4 Communication from Houston: Dead Zone List update.
I ran down the list of Dead Zones but after four pages I gave up. I figured we were pretty much on our own and it was up to us to decide whether we lived or died. I shook my head as Sarah gave me a questioning look and
