Impact (3 page)

“Good,” she said. “Now c’mon!”

Together, we carefully scaled a tall pile of rocks and concrete. Val maneuvered through the rubble behind me. When we got to the top, I felt better. From that vantage point, we had a view of the entire room, and the zombies were not sure-footed enough to follow us up there. Nevertheless, as safe as I felt, I knew it was only a temporary illusion, a false hope. We were never safe, not for a minute. I shined the light around and saw the others waiting by a large crack in the ceiling.

“All clear!” Nick said. “Follow me.”

I hurried over, and Nick told me to climb into a gap in the wall. He reached his hand down and helped Kate up. One by one, everyone climbed up and squeezed through the jagged opening. The building let out a groan, but we almost didn’t hear it, since we were quickly becoming desensitized to it. I wiped the sweat off my face and took a deep breath to calm my racing heart.

Jackie looked around, trying to place where we were. “Okay,” she said, nodding. “I think I’ve got my bearings. C’mon.” She motioned us down the corridor in a hurry. Time was of the essence, and it was good to have a tour guide through the dark, dilapidated maze. 

Suddenly, I heard a moan coming from the left, and nothing about it sounded human. ”Not again,” I grumbled. 

“Rotters up ahead,” Val said.

A chill shot up my spine. I peeked around her and saw zombies in tattered white scrubs, dead nurses, doctors, and other medical staff clumsily approaching.

Nick looked at me. “You take the left. I’ll handle the right.”

I nodded, tightening my finger on the trigger. When I heard a snarl, I took careful aim at the grotesque monster emerging from the shadows. It groaned through clenched black teeth. With my gun aimed squarely at its forehead, I pulled the trigger. It fell forward, and I had to sidestep out of its way. When I saw another one, an even more ghastly blonde with a skeletal face, I quickly disposed of her with my weapon. Two more came behind her, so I squeezed off two quick shots to take them down. The girls took down a few more. 

Suddenly, the moans stopped.

“I think we got ‘em all,” Claire said, lowering her weapon.

“That remains to be seen,” Buddy mumbled.

Nancy smiled. “Good job, guys.”

“There’s more ahead,” Asia said. “The corridor turns. Not sure how many.”

Nick looked at us. “Let me go scout it out real quick, so we don’t walk into a trap. I’ll be right back.”

“Take Jackie with you, so you don’t get lost,” Lucas said.

Nick and Jackie went ahead to survey the area, to make sure it was safe for us to pass. 

I kept my gun drawn. My nerves were on edge as we waited, and the seconds seemed to tick by like hours. It reminded me too much of the lab I’d been trapped in; I unhappily recalled running around in the dark like a rat in a maze, wondering if I was ever going to get out. I had escaped that, only to relive the nightmare again.
Will any of us get out of this alive?
I wondered but dared not say. I didn’t want to upset the others or add fuel to complaining Buddy’s fire. I had to move past my fears, like always, because I was a true survivor. The zombie apocalypse had already left a lasting mark on my life, but I refused to let it victimize me. Life was hard, and we had all lost much, but we would heal and move on. That horrible story was not my identity. The man I would become had far more to do with how I pushed through it, and my sister and brother were perfect examples of the never-give-up heroes that I wanted to be.

Suddenly, Nick slipped past me in a panic. “Zombies up ahead, tons of rotters! We woulda walked right into them.”

“How many?” Lucas asked. “Can’t we just take them out?”

Nick grimly shook his head. “Far too many. We’re sorely outnumbered.”

“So what’s the plan?” Asia said.

Moans echoed from behind us, coming from way down the hall.

“Uh, guys,” Claire said, “they’re coming from the other way too!”

“They must’ve locked on to our scent,” Kate breathed out.

“Well, the white freaks are coming!” Buddy screamed. “So what exactly is the plan?”

I glanced around and saw zombies were slowly coming from both directions. 

“Attack or retreat?” Claire asked.

Nick pondered. “There’s no exit, no escape. If we fight the large herd in front of us, we’ll just be ambushed from the back.”

“Not good odds, if ya ask me,” Lucas said. “You gotta pick your battles, man, and this isn’t the one. They’ll just block us in and tear us to shreds. Let’s hide in one of these rooms till they pass.”

I edged closer to the door and knocked, then listened intently but heard nothing—no moans, banging, footsteps, or rustling. I wrapped my fingers around the knob and jiggled it but still heard only silence.

“Sounds like a good place,” Claire whispered. “C’mon.”

I hesitantly opened the door as my breath hitched in my throat. My flashlight shook in my hand, and I glanced around. The beam landed on a cherry desk and bookshelves, indicating that we had wandered in to one of the administrative offices. Each and every shadow made me nervous. I took cautious steps, alert to every sound, smell, and sight. Everyone moved in behind me and began to sweep the room with their own eyes and flashlights.

“Clear,” Nick said.

Val rushed over and locked the door. “Don’t need any uninvited guests,” she said.

I looked at Jackie. “Why were those nurses and doctors still here? I thought Charlie booted them all out.”

She shook her head. “Nope. He kept them in the basement, for experiments. They must’ve gotten loose.”

“Great,” Buddy said. “An undead hospital staff on the loose. We can’t stay here long.”

“We really have no choice but to hole up in here,” Nick said. “We can’t fight that many.”

“Says you,” Buddy spat.

“I think we could take them on,” Nancy insisted.

Nick met her gaze. “That cockiness is gonna get us all killed.” 

She pushed her black hair out of her face. “I’m not conceited,” she said, frowning at him. “I’m more...convinced. I say we fight. We can’t just sit around in here waiting to be their buffet.”

Nick was never one to back down. “I’m not fighting this time, Nancy, but if you insist, I’ll happily open the door for you. I’m a gentleman like that.”

“Gentleman my...” She rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and stayed put, sticking her bottom lip out in a pout like a spoiled little girl.

“I second Nick’s opinion,” Lucas said, backing my brother up. “We haven’t lived this long by being idiots.”

“If we just stay here and be quiet for a few minutes, they’ll probably pass us by,” Claire said.

“We don’t have that kinda time,” Rex chimed in. “In case you haven’t noticed, this place very well might become our tomb.”

“Fighting the white demons would be stupid,” Lucas said. “Now, either help us barricade this place or get the heck out!”

We started hauling furniture over and placing it in front of the door. Asia, Kate, and I managed to move the huge, heavy desk, and Jackie and Val placed bookshelves behind it as a brace. 

I walked to the other side of the room, looking for anything we could use. When the floorboard creaked behind me, I swung around and pointed my gun.

“Whoa there!” Kate said, clutching her heart. “It’s just me.”

“S-sorry,” I stuttered nervously. “I just...”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have sneaked up on you like that.” She suddenly grabbed my arm. “Watch the hole in the floor though. That first step looks like a doozy.”

“Yeah, we can’t have the birthday boy disappearing on us, can we?” Claire said.

“You remembered?”

She nodded and grinned at me. “Of course. Birthdays are quickly becoming rare for a lot of people these days. Each one is a special occasion, right?”

“Right,” I said, blushing a bit. I shined my light into the hole and could see the room below us. My stomach clenched. “Is the floor gonna collapse on us?” I asked.

Buddy began to pace around the sturdy parts of the floor, which were few and far between. “Most of this floor feels like a trampoline. It’s gonna cave any minute. Boxing ourselves in here was a horrible idea!”

Nick shined the flashlight at him. “Listen, we didn’t have a choice. Swarms of them are coming from both ways.”

“Yeah. We can’t take all them on,” Lucas whispered. “If you’ll shut up with all your complaining and whining, maybe they’ll just go away so we can get outta here.”

A few minutes passed, and we all stayed quiet. Moans lingered in the air, and the shuffling of dead feet made me nervous. When something banged on the door, a cold chill shot through me. We’d hoped they would grow bored and leave, but they kept pounding, demanding to be fed. The door began to creak and shake, and I knew we had nowhere to go if they managed to break it down. 

“There are too many,” Claire said. “Those hinges are gonna break, just like before.”

I shivered in horror, because I knew she was right. ”We need a Plan B...quick!” I said. I glanced over at the hole in the floor, and shined my flashlight down into it again. “Maybe we could...” My words caught in my throat when my beam landed on a few zombies covered in green slime and moss. Grunting, the monstrous faces glanced up. They started to move, and I heard a splashing sound. “What the heck?” I asked, wrinkling my brow in confusion. 

“It’s a pool!” Claire said.

Blinking, I peered down and saw that she was right. The zombies were frolicking around in the brown water, and the sign on the wall read, “St. Catherine’s Rehabilitation & Exercise Pool.”

“Darn it,” Lucas said. “I forgot my club card and my Speedos. I guess we’ll just have to sneak down there.”

“Are you crazy?” Rex asked. “Diving and breaking my neck isn’t gonna help any of us!”

“Yeah,” Buddy said, “and in case you didn’t notice, the pool’s already occupied.”

Nick hurried over and pointed his own flashlight down. “It could work.”

“How many zombies are there?” Val asked.

“Just a few swamp things,” I answered, staring down at the green atrocities. “We can easily take them out.”

“Let me see,” Val said, peering down with her night vision, an added bonus.

“Well?” Lucas asked.

“At least a dozen,” she replied.

“Hmm. Well, all things considered, I guess we’re going for a dip,” Lucas said.

“You expect us to jump into that toxic waste dump?” Asia asked, incredulous.

“This is not the time to act like a princess,” Lucas retorted.

“What!? You know that’s not me!” she said. “It’s just that we have no idea what’s lurking in that filthy water.”

“It’s a chance we have to take,” Kate replied grimly. “We don’t have many options left.”

Val looked down. “We’ll spray a storm of bullets. That should give us a fighting chance.”

“Then let’s start cleaning house,” Claire said.

She pointed her gun into the hole, followed by Val. They fired at anything that moved. The gunfire echoed, and the zombies outside our door grew even louder. The girls sprayed a burst of 9mm rounds that shattered glass, killed zombies, and lodged in the marble walls and floor.

Suddenly, the wall behind us started to crumble like a dry cake. At first, I thought it was just from the wear and tear on the building, but then I noticed a sledgehammer busting through the drywall. I aimed my gun, fearing a hybrid invasion, but a man stuck his head in.

“You might think twice before firing,” he said, looking around at all the weapons that were trained on him. “I’ve got one of your men.”

I recognized the man almost instantly as Jim, Z’s brother, who had questioned me at their camp before I escaped with Asia. I couldn’t forget the crazy whack-job after the way he’d roughed me up. 

A second later, Jim shoved someone’s head through the gap.

“Damon!” Rex shouted. “When did they get you?”

“Please help me!” Damon said, sounding desperate. “They tracked you down, heard your gunfire.”

“You know we’re trapped, right?” Nick said. “We’ve got rotters in the corridor!”

“I’m quite aware of that!” Jim snapped. “The question is, do you want this guy back alive, or should I feed him to those things...or maybe turn him into one myself?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Lucas whispered. “Just let me go in and take them out.”

“No! They’ll kill Damon!” Buddy shouted. “You play by their rules.”

“Let’s make a deal,” Jim said. “I’ll show you a back way out, a way to bypass the zombies.”

“And what do you want in return?” I asked, not trusting him one bit.

“Claire,” he said, staring at her hard. “Give her to us, and we’ll give you this fool and show you an escape route.”

“Not happening!” Nick said defensively.

“Then he dies,” Jim said calmly.

“That jerk has no idea who he’s dealing with,” Claire whispered in my ear. “I’ll kill him just like I killed his brother.”

I turned to Nick. “She killed Z. And they’re after revenge. That’s why they want her.” 

The door burst open, and my heart lurched as a chorus of threatening moans filled the room. The furniture shook and shuddered as zombies pushed and shoved at the blockade, determined to get through. I knew we couldn’t possibly take on that many, so our only choice was to do a swan dive into a dark pool or try to run down the corridor again. Negotiations were now off the table. The temporary blockade did little good, as dead nurses and doctors fumbled around the furniture, reaching for us with long, dead fingers. Fortunately, it was enough to distract them and give us the few extra precious seconds we needed.

Nick, Val, Lucas, Rex, and me charged Jim and his men, hard and fast. I could tell they didn’t expect us to take them on, especially with the zombies reaching for us through the furniture, but we weren’t about to run. It was a risk to try to save Damon with all of the undead quickly pushing their way in, but we wouldn’t leave any man behind.

One of Jim’s men swung at me and connected with my jaw. Pain exploded across my face, and rage flooded through me like a tidal wave. I swung and gave him a punch of my own, sending his head flying back. He crashed into the wall and crumbled in a trembling heap, then fell down face first.