Dia of the Dead (16 page)

“She’s still after us!” I yelled.

Swear words joined labored breaths and footsteps, and we hustled up the stairs two and three at a time.  Sloane didn’t let up. She was right there, growling and breathing her rot onto me. Brendan ran into the door, pressing the metal bar to get it open. It took a half second longer than expected and caused a mini pile up. Kaci and Reagan ran into his back, yelling at him to get the door open, as he pressed the bar frantically. I didn’t stop running. If I did, Sloane would have me. Brendan got the door open and the other girls stumbled into the hall. He held the door open, waving me through. I ran past him and he shut the door in Sloane’s face. The latch caught, shutting her out. 

“I should never have to work out ever again,” Kaci panted.
Reagan echoed her sentiments. We paused to catch our breath. I readjusted my arm in the sling and suggested we hurry and move on.  Brendan knocked over one of the metal trashcans and rolled it to the door to block it. He stepped back, examining his work. 

“This may not be enough to hold her,” he said.

“Do we have to run anymore? I’m tiiiiiirrrreeeeddd,” Kaci complained.

“We’re all tired but we have to keep going,” I said. “Suck it up.”

Kaci groaned but moved along with the rest of the group. We ran quickly and quietly down the hall, each of us with our hands up—or in my case, hand up—ready to protect ourselves if we came across any more zombies. There was a thump behind us. I looked over my shoulder at where we’d left Sloane. The trashcan rattled, moving a bit from the door. Another thump. I paused, dropping my arm and turned around completely. There was another thump then another and another. With each one, the door opened a bit more until the trashcan rolled away. 

Sloane’s hand slapped the wall, leaving a bloody handprint. She dragged herself along, slithering the rest of her body out of the door and into the hallway with a low, long moan. I turned on heel and ran as fast as I could, bypassing Brendan who had slowed down to a jog.

“What’s going on, Dia?” he asked, increasing his speed to keep up with me.

“She got through the door.” 

Brendan turned his head and made a gurgled sound that sounded like he had choked on a scream. He turned back toward me with terror in his eyes and told everyone to run faster. We ran through the halls, past Mason who was still in his mirror. Kaci reached out for him but Reagan slapped down her arm just in time. Kaci whimpered and lowered her arm.

I le
d the way with no idea where I was going. I saw an opportunity and charged the door to Hair and Makeup. We burst through it, stumbling into the midst of yet another zombie crisis. Katrina was in the middle of being attacked by Jared the hairstylist. His hands were clenched around her upper arms— lifting her plump body in the air— her feet hovering a few inches above the floor.  He shook her like a ragdoll, snapping at her face and neck with his stained teeth. Even though her brown face was contorted in fear, she wiggled, keeping him from biting her cheek.

We closed the door behind us but Sloane being the ever-persistent zombie that she was, tried bulldozing her way in. Reagan and Kaci pressed their weight against the door to keep her out. I dashed over to Katrina as she shrieked for help.

“What’re you doing?” Brendan asked.

“Looking for something to use to help Katrina. I think it was her I heard earlier,” I said as I went over to the row of makeup stations that lined the wall.

“We need your help over here,” Kaci said. “She’s going to get in.”

The two of them were struggling to keep the door closed. I turned back to Katrina and Jared. “She needs my help more.”

Hair and Makeup wasn’t as rich in potential weapons as Props had been. I checked Katrina’s station first. She had bottles, jars, and palettes of creams, glosses, and polishes used to take a person from blah to beautiful all spread out along the counter top. There was nothing I could use to stop Jared.

Brendan seemed to have a similar mission. He overturned furniture in search of something. I tried Jared’s station next. He had several combs and brushes, curling and flat irons, bobby pins, and several cans of different hairsprays. I grabbed one of the curling irons and checked back on Brendan.

He had completely disassembled one of the director-style chairs that the stylists used to lounge around in between assignments. His eyes met mine with fierce intensity as he held on to one of its wooden legs. He gave me a nod. It was go time.

Brendan ran toward Jared, hitting him repeatedly in the back and head with the piece of wood. Jared maintained his grip on Katrina. Brendan launched another barrage of strikes to little effect. He needed my help. I crouched low to the ground, sneaking past Jared and stood up behind Katrina. Holding the curling iron like a knife, I jammed it into Jared’s eye.  A spray of black liquid rained down, covering most of Katrina’s face and shirt. The both of us gagged from the rancid stench, but I held onto the curling iron, driving it deeper into Jared’s eye socket.

He loosened his hold on Katrin
a,
and she wiggled free. We scrambled to the other side of the room to help the other girls with the door. Our added weight kept Sloane out but didn’t do much to stop her from trying to get inside.

Brendan went one-on-one with the one-eyed Jared, using the piece of wood to poke at him. Jared advanced. Brendan took a few quick steps backward then stopped to square his stance. In one quick movement he squatted low and with a sweep of his leg, sent Jared to the ground. Brendan pounced and when he stepped away, there was a piece of wood sticking out of Jared’s head. He was still.

Brendan panted as he came over to join us at the door.

“Thank you so much,” Katrina said, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her body trembled. “I don’t know what was up with him. He came in saying he’d been bitten by Blake outside, then he just freaked. He threw up and started shaking. I was in the middle of calling for help when he attacked me.  Look at what he did.” She raised the sleeve of her navy shirt and showed off a mark on her arm to the group.

“The son of bitch bit me,” she grumbled.

Our eyes darted from one another, each of us wearing a look of pre-panic.

“Uh…how long ago did he bite you?” I asked, slowly backing away from Katrina. 

“Right before you all got here. Can you believe this shit? Something weird is definitely going on around here today. First Missy’s passing—bless her heart—then Jared. Not to mention all of the screaming and running I’ve been hearing all damn day. And you guys. You came bursting through the door like there was a fire, destroyed my room, and stabbed Jared in the face with a broken chair. What is going on?” She put her fists on her hips and stared at us, waiting for her answer.

I forced an awkward smile that was more of my mouth hanging open, showing my teeth, than an actual smile. Everyone else wore a similar expression.

“Well?” she asked, shifting her stance. Her fear was long gone and quickly replaced by annoyance.

Brendan forced a laugh while Kaci’s left cheek did a nervous twitch and Reagan stood with her arms folded.

“What is going on around here?! What happened to your arm? Why are you all covered in—is that blood? Who’s out there?” She pointed a hot pink fingernail at the door.

“Someone you don’t want to come in here,” Kaci said.

“We need you to can it with the questions, Kat,” Reagan said forcefully, stepping away from the door. It opened a little wider than it had before allowing Sloane to get a hand in. We shouted a collective “Whoa
!,
” and I quickly filled in her position with my back, using my legs to push my body against the door. Brendan grabbed another part of the chair and stabbed her hand with it. Katrina screamed as the hand fell to the floor. 

Kaci—being the closest —peeked through the crack in the door, screamed and kicked at the ground, quickly closing the door.

“It fell off! Her hand fell off!” Kaci closed her eyes and shook her head. “This is a dream. An extremely long and extremely weird dream. It has to be.”

Katrina’s mouth hung open in shock. She muttered something to herself and mimed the sign of the cross.

“What is going on?” Her eyes were the size of half dollars.

“The end of the world!” Kaci screamed dramatically.

I drew in a breath. “It’s probably not the end of the world quite yet, but we need to stay here a while so we could figure out our next mov
e,
” I said calmly.

“Am I in dange—oh.” She clutched her stomach. “I don’t think my lunch settled well.” 

“Uh oh,” Kaci muttered next to me.

We all knew what was going to happen next.

“We need to get the hell out of here,” Reagan said.

“Maybe we should see if she’ll be all right,” Brendan retorted.

“Am I in trouble?”  Katrina’s face flushed. “Oh man, I think I’m going to vom—” She covered her mouth with her hands, ran over to a waste bin and began to retch.

“Oh no,” Kaci gasped. 

I went back to the door and formed a little huddle in front of it with the rest of the group.

“What should we do now?” Brendan whispered. 

“I have no idea,” I said.

“What about her?” Reagan pointed at Katrina still bent over the wastebasket, puking. “How long do you think it’s going to be until she kicks the bucket and becomes one of them?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have this thing down to an exact science but probably soon,” I said.

“Maybe we can split up. Some of us can stay here and some of us can go look for a way out,” Brendan offered.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea—splitting up. The last time we did that, we lost Mason. There’s safety in numbers. If we want to make it somewhere safe—wherever that may be—we need to stick together. That leaves us with two options. Either we go as a group or we stay as a group.”

“I think I’m with Dia on this one,” Reagan said. “If I’m going to become a zombie, you assholes are becoming zombies with me.”

“Once we take care of Katrina, we can stay here for a while. Should we stay or should we go try to find a safer spot?” Brendan asked. “We need to make a decision quickly.”

“Let’s take a vot
e,
” I said.

There weren’t any “stays.”

“I guess we know what we have to do next,” Brendan said.

We decided to wait until Katrina’s skin paled and the bruises appeared before we did what we had to do and settled in until that time came. Without knowing exactly how long it’d take, everyone tried reaching their families in the meantime.

“Helen’s probably safe in our panic roo
m,
and Phillip was supposed to fly out to New York after a meeting later on this evening. He’s probably already on his way ther
e,
” Reagan announced, her voice lacking its snarky edge. It sounded like she was trying to convince herself of her parents’ safety rather than the rest of us.

Brendan and Kaci didn’t have much luck contacting their families either. I pulled out my phone and prepared myself for a similar outcome. I inhaled deeply while I turned it on and held it as several notification flashed on the screen. I had a dozen missed calls and several voicemail messages, all from Mom. My stomach knotted as her voice filled my ear.

In the first she said she’d received my message and wanted to know what time I’d be home. Her concern grew in the next couple of messages she left. They told the story of how she came to realize something wasn’t right at Helena Gardens after Alicia bit our elderly neighbor Ms. Townsend. They were followed by several panicked messages checking in on me as she ran for her life in the zombie-filled halls of our apartment building with Frank’s familiar yapping in the background.

Tears welled in my eyes as I listened to her final message. Her voice seemed far away and it didn’t help that the phone kept fading in and out but I was able to make out most of what she said. She told me she was on her way to the studio to get me and if she didn’t make it, she loved me and was extremely proud of the young woman I’d become. She left her final message only an hour ago. A lot could’ve happened in an hour. I hurried to call her only to have it go to voicemail. I tried again and again with the same result. Panic twisted in my gut. I had to find her. I stood up.

“We can’t stay here,” I said, my heart beating fast.

Everyone looked at me.

“Du
h.
”

I rolled my eyes at Reagan. “No
t
her
e
like this room. I’m talking abou
t
her
e
the lot. We can’t stay at Bixby Studios. It’s not safe. We have to get out into the city and try to find our families. Even though we can’t reach them, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re zombies. We have to go out into the city and find them.” I could hear the panic in my voice.

I looked at Brendan, Reagan, and Kaci. They were all considering my suggestion. That’s when I noticed how quiet the room was. Something was missing.

“Do you guys hear that?” I asked.

“What?” Kaci chirped.