Dead Air (Book One of The Dead Series) (37 page)

"They were waiting at the landing on three," Brain said, explaining his quick return.

"Jonny's on the air again?" Steve asked.

Marcia smiled as she came toward them, "You can't get him off the air. Anytime anyone asks for someone to cover for them, he's right there volunteering."

The group paused at the entrance to the Galleria and breathed in the scent of food. Although the deli and Cinnabun shop had been closed for days, the aroma still permeated the air.

"Before we go in
, I want to lay down some ground rules," Steve announced.

There were a few groans at this
, so he held up his hand for silence. "For right now, the deli is off limits. It’s got windows that look out onto the parking garage and the outside dining area behind the building. That means those things can see in. The less they know we're here the better. If they see us, they'll try to get us and I don't want them finding or creating a weakness to get in."

Mary waved her arms in distain, "This place is built like a fortress. It's meant to keep people out when it's locked up
and I was looking forward to pastrami on rye. Two days of canned beef stew and chili is a little much."

Steve opened his mouth, an angry retort forming, when Brain cut him off. "This building is built to keep people out, Mary, but it's made that way
as more of a deterrent. They really have to rely on the police responding to anyone trying to break in. Since I haven't seen any cops around for a few days that might pose a problem. The doors and windows weren't designed to withstand a constant assault by crowds of flesh eating zombies. Eventually, if they keep pounding and hammering and pushing against the windows in crowds of thirty or forty, something's going to give."

Steve said, "Thank you
, Brain. Now, as I was saying, the deli's off limits. But I checked it out yesterday, and it has blinds we can drop down to block off most of the view. Once we've done that, we can come and go as we please, but on one condition. If any of the dead see you through the gaps in the blinds, you have to leave the area immediately. None of the other stores have windows, so you don't have to worry when you're in them, just when you're in the deli."

"What about the bank?" Marcia asked.

"No way in," Steve replied. "It's locked up tight, and I couldn't find any keys in the maintenance office. The Garnett Bank people obviously didn't trust the building management company with having access."

Excitement flashed in Marcia's eyes as she said, "Too bad. Think of the good we could do with all of that money."

"Hate to bust your bubble," Steve replied," but money as we know it is probably next to worthless. In a few days it'll be used as toilet paper in some places. The things that matter now are food, weapons, gasoline and ammunition."

He thought about it for a minute then added, "Gold might have some trading power left, but it'll depend on where you
are."

"Too bad," Marcia said a little sadly. "For a second I thought I'd never have to work again. I
could just go around helping people."

Steve gave her a smile and said, "I need someone to help me pull the blinds in the deli, any volunteers?"

Steve half expected Mary to raise her hand, since she was the one who was so hot to go in there and eat, but she turned her head and looked the other way. She wanted to enjoy the benefits but didn't want to do anything to get them, he decided.

Meat's girlfriend
said, "I'll go," then poked Meat in the ribs. When he squawked, she added with a smile, "He says he’ll go too."

"I only need one volunteer to go with me," Steve said.

"Take it easy, Steve," Meat said. "Donna and I'll do it. Go make yourself some Cinnabuns or something."

The employees of
KLAM smiled, they all knew of his addiction to the sweet rolls.

"If I can figure out how," Steve said hopefully. "One last thing, stay away from the door to the deli until the blinds are shut. You can see straight through into the Galleria."

With a half bow, Steve waved his arm towards the entrance to the stores beyond and said, "Shop
'til you drop."

Tick-Tock led the way, holding up a set of keys as they all crowded forward, everyone trying to tell him which stores to open first. Overwhelmed by their demands, he started at the video rental store and worked his way around clockwise, skipping the deli and leaving it for last.

Steve went straight for the Cinnabun kiosk in the middle, lifted up a hinged section of the counter and started looking through the cupboards. Noticing that many of the cupboards and coolers had padlocks on them, he was stymied momentarily until he remembered seeing a set of bolt cutters in the maintenance work area. Quickly, he headed back out through the foyer.

Mary led Susan into the shoe store saying, "It's going to take them awhile to get the deli ready
, so why don’t I show you these boots I saw in here last week."

Susan really wanted to go in the movie rental store to browse
but dutifully followed her girlfriend.

Marcia trailed Tick-Tock until he unlocked the door to the clothing store. She thanked him
and said, "When Jonny called the other night and asked me to go with him, I only brought an overnight bag." Before going into the store, she said with a big smile, "Now I can start a new wardrobe."

Tick-Tock turned to go but was halted when Marcia asked, "Where are the light switches?"

"Probably in back in the storeroom," he replied.

Looking apprehensively in the store lit only by
night-lights, she said, "Can you -."

"Not a problem." Tick-Tock replied, "Let me get Meat and Donna going and I'll be right back."

From across the Galleria, Mary called out, "Get the ones in the shoe store too while you're at it."

Grimacing slightly at the implied order, Tick-Tock ignored her as he led Meat and Donna to the glass door leading into the deli. Glancing in, he could see the shadowy shapes of the tables with chairs stacked upside down on them
to his right and the counter, lit only by the illumination coming from two soda coolers, on his left. He couldn't spot any of the dead outside through the two rows of glass windows and the door set in the outer corner wall, but that didn't mean they weren't there. It looked spooky but deserted inside, and he thought momentarily of giving his pistol to Meat but discarded the idea. For one thing, they hadn't had time to train the aging hippie in its use, and for another, if he panicked and shot at his reflection in one of the windows they would all be screwed.

Looking around one more time inside the deli, Tick-Tock was sure it was deserted. Reaching over, he unlocked the doors as he said, "Check that back entry before you both go in. Stay low and move fast. If it's open, get your ass back here. If it's locked
, wave and let me know so I can go turn on the lights for her highness, Mary, in the shoe store." Pulling his pistol from its holster, Tick-Tock waited for Meat to go inside before crouching in the doorway to cover him. Meat scrambled forward on all fours to the door and gently pushed against it. Turning he waved that it was okay.

In a
hushed voice Tick-Tock said, "Pull on it to make sure."

Meat did as ordered and then waved again.

Tick-Tock looked over to Donna and said, "All right kid, you're on." Before holstering his weapon and heading back into the common area.

With a feelin
g of relief that the building was truly secured, Tick-Tock ignored Mary's dirty look as he went to turn on the lights for Marcia.

***

Her name was Teri but she wasn't aware of that. Neither did she realize where she was or how she got there.

Three days earlier she had been the manager and owner of the Teri's
Deli in the Galleria of the Garnett Bank Building. Not being pretentious, she left her name off the sign, so all its customers knew it as simply The Deli. She was proud of her successful business and content with her life.

That was before she had been bitten.

Teri knew what was coming. She had seen the stories on the news and the articles posted on the Internet. She would experience a slight seizure before death, then an awakening to an existence of searching for and dining on human flesh. After all she had accomplished, she now felt powerless over her life and found this fate to be unacceptable.

With no family and few friends, Teri went to the one place she loved more than anywhere else
. The place where she was in control. The place that she had started from nothing and turned into something.

It wa
s late Sunday evening when she entered the deli from the outside entrance and locked it behind her. Before coming over, she had phoned her staff and told them the store would be closed indefinitely. With all that was going on in the world, they understood.

Teri took a long look at the business she had built before going into her office. Moving to her desk, she opened the center drawer and reached in
the back, extracting the .357 Magnum she kept there before setting it on the blotter in front of her.

She had bought the pistol after being robbed by one of the local junkies
but had never fired it. She always kept it loaded and knew it would do her little good stored in the office desk drawer, but she liked the peace of mind it gave her. After being bitten by a child in her neighborhood, and after weighing her options, she decided to finally take it out and put it to use. She would sit in the place she loved best and reflect on her life, concentrating on the good times she had experienced in her forty-five years. When she felt the first tremors start to take her, she would place the barrel of the pistol under her chin and squeeze the trigger.

Teri thought she had planned for everything in this last act of her life, but what she didn't count on was the swiftness in which the disease took her. She never felt the first seizure that racked her body and dropped her to the floor
; one moment she was thinking about a boy she had dated in high school, and the next, nothing.

The thing that arose
moments later from the floor had no concept of Teri. It only knew it must eat. Moving to the door, it managed after some time to unlock and open it and exit into the kitchen area. In search of food, it ignored the smell of dead, spiced meats that wafted around it and wandered throughout the restaurant looking for fresh, human flesh.

Restricted by the locked doors leading out of the deli, it found it couldn't free itself to roam in search of food.
Although the office had a bolt that could be turned by hand, the exits to the outside and to the Galleria could only be opened with a key, and this action was beyond it.

Frustrated and hungry, it retreated back into the office, only occasionally venturing out again when
its febrile mind forgot that it was trapped.

It had no idea how much time passed before it heard noises and
whispered voices out in the deli. It sensed food nearby as the salty smell of human sweat and flesh came to its nose.

Struggling to its feet from where it sat on the floor, it left the office and staggered into the kitchen. Ten feet away
through a swinging door was the service area and beyond that the dining area. With a gait that steadied as it moved, the thing that had been Teri drooled as it made for the swinging door.

"Stay low," Meat said in a whisper. "We'll start by the back wall and work our way around. We'll have to come back with the tape and something to cover the glass in the door later." Donna nodded and crawled on all fours after her boyfriend as he led the way across the dining area. They stopped at the first window and sat for a few seconds, catching their breath
, before Meat slowly rose up like a meercat looking out of its burrow for predators.

Meat's eyes took in the parking garage across a grass strip
, but he could see none of the dead. Sinking back down, he turned to tell Donna to move to the next window in line. This was when he saw a shadowy figure move around the service counter and head toward them. In the dim light, he thought it was one of their people and said, "Get down damn it, get down! They'll notice you."

Donna turned to see who Meat was talking to and went rigid as her blood ran cold from fear. Halloween
Eve, when the dead rose up from the sewers, she had made a frantic drive to Meat's house after he called and told her that he had seen all hell breaking loose on the TV and was going to the station. Although her drive wasn't as long and complex as Steve’s that night, she had witnessed many more of the dead lurching around the streets of Clearwater and would never forget the way they moved.

In exactly the same way as the thing now coming toward her
did.

With Meat blocking the front and hemmed in
at both sides by tables, Donna did the only thing she could do to protect herself. Spinning on to her back, she kicked out at the aberration coming toward her as she tilted her head back and let out a bloodcurdling shriek of terror.

Steve had cut one of the locks loose and was working on
a second when he heard Donna’s cry. Dropping the bolt cutters, he picked up his pistol and rushed for the deli.