Her voice almost drowns in the yells and the screams.
Krista doesn’t seem to hear her. She just sits in her seat, staring ahead. Mille briefly follows her gaze and sees the lady who has now made her way up into the bus. At first, Mille actually takes her for a man, since her head is completely bald, but the bloody night dress turns the picture around. The lady throws herself at the nearest student—Signe, as far as Mille can tell—who’s squeezing helplessly up against the window, screaming and trying to get away. Just as the lady sinks her teeth into the cheek of Signe, the man comes into the bus. He immediately bends down over Rasmus, who has fallen down in the aisle. He screams in pain as the man bites the back of his neck.
Then Mille can’t see anymore, as everything disappears into complete mayhem.
She grabs Krista by the arm and drags her along as she steps up onto her seat and leaps out the window. She lands on the steaming asphalt, breaking the fall with her hands. She turns to look up at Krista staring down at her.
“Come on! Jump!”
Krista makes a clumsy hop and Mille halfway catches her.
“We gotta go,” Mille says, pulling her along, but is surprised to feel Krista resist.
“We can’t,” she says, her eyes big and terrified. “What about the others?”
Mille looks up at the bus, the inside now turned into a living inferno, students screaming, desperately climbing over the seats, banging on the windows, spurts of blood staining the glass.
“We can’t do anything now,” Mille hears herself say, amazed at how firm her voice sounds. “We’ll only put ourselves in danger too.” She tightens her grip around Krista’s wrist and tugs her hard. After a few yards, Krista stops resisting and starts running along.
Behind them, the screams from their dying classmates grow only very slowly distant.
Mille pulls out her phone and dials those famous three numbers.
THREE
William just stands there for almost an entire minute, frozen to the spot in front of the locked door. His brain is racing away, trying to decide what to do, the music is still pumping from the headphones around his neck.
He’s most of all trying to discern the extent of the situation. If this really is the end of the world, why hasn’t everything turned to chaos? All seemed perfectly ordinary when he came to work less than an hour ago.
Perhaps it’s only just begun? Perhaps I’m one of the first to meet the undead?
William takes out his phone and checks Facebook and Twitter. There are no unusual posts, only the typical food and pet photos and people boasting about their boring lives. He also checks the news channels, both the Danish and the international. Nothing out of the ordinary there, either.
He glares at the door in front of him, the handle still jumping now and then whenever the zombie girl on the other side fumbles with it.
William looks up at the ceiling, imagining the many, many floors above him. How many patients are in the building right now? A couple of hundred? Maybe more. How many of them have arrived during the night? He didn’t hear anyone talking about a sudden increase in bite wounds when he came in, but then again, he didn’t really talk with anyone. Did he notice the place being extra busy? Not particularly, no.
But maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. Maybe I was like the guy in that British zombie comedy, just walking right past all the fucking zombies because I was too tired to notice!
The thought of the whole damn place turning into a slaughterhouse right this minute makes a cold shiver run down his spine. He feels a growing panic. He’s got to get out of here. Right now. But he hesitates.
Can’t just leave them like this. Someone might come down here and open the door.
He takes the marker from his shirt pocket and steps over to the door. Luckily, the door is white, so what he writes becomes clearly visible:
DANGER!
DON’T OPEN!
ZOMBIES!!!
Without really thinking about it, he draws a skull too. He’s always been good at drawing, and skulls are kind of his specialty, so it turns out quite vivid. Now the warning should be hard to miss.
He drops the pen and runs back towards the elevator. He hits the button to the ground floor. The door closes. William breathes deeply as the elevator goes up. He gets ready to sprint. He prepares himself mentally for whatever will meet him once the door opens.
The elevator stops. The door takes forever in opening.
When it finally does, William stares out into the hall. Everything is normal. People are coming and going. Calm music is playing over the loudspeakers. At the reception, two women are causally talking.
No blood. No screaming. No panic. And no zombies.
So far.
William walks towards the exit.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”
William stops and sees Janus, his colleague. He’s pushing an empty bed and sends him a knowing smile. “It’s not time for your smoking break yet.”
“I’m just … uhm …”
William blinks and has no idea what to say. Is it wise to tell anyone about the zombies in the basement? He risks creating panic if word gets out. On the other hand, he can’t just leave Janus hanging. He’s the one who taught William the job, and he really likes him.
“All right, listen,” he whispers, grabbing Janus by the arm. “You need to get out of here, right now. Something crazy is going down.”
Janus first grins, but then turns serious once he realizes William isn’t joking. “What are you talking about?”
“The whole building is in danger.”
Janus frowns. “You mean …?” He lowers his voice. “Terrorism? Is it a bomb?”
William makes sure no one is within earshot, then he breathes: “Some contagious disease. I don’t think the doctors know yet, but … they probably won’t be able to stop it.
