The Last Infection: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (19 page)

“Jenn?” Jafar’s thick accent stunned her. “Get in here
.”

“Dad, come on.”

She waited for her father, and then pulled him in as Jafar leaned out behind them and fired. The room was a mess. Most of the tables were turned over and several lifeless bodies littered the ground in-between. The wall of windows along the exterior was shattered. Chris’ head popped up and he locked eyes with her. He was holding a gun, pointing the barrel directly at Isabel’s forehead.

“
Some things have changed since you left,” he said.

“I gathered.”

“Jenn?”

She turned in time to catch
Alicen as she slammed into her and wrapped her arms around her. Jenn dropped the gun and returned the hug. Jake was close behind his sister, smiling from ear to ear.

“We thou
ght we lost you,” the boy said.

Jenn shook her head. She
located Michael and Sarah with Jafar near the doors.

“No chance,” she said.

“It makes sense now,” Tom said as he came to a stop by his daughter. His eyes were on the kids. “It makes a lot of sense.”

“There’s not much time for introductions,” Jenn said
, turning her attention back to Chris.

He looked at her father and nodded, not willing to ask where her mother was.

“I don’t suppose he knows a safe way out of here?” Chris asked.

Jenn turned to her father
, but found him focused on the broken windows.

“That will draw them out,” Tom said walking toward the glass. “There’s no getting out now.”

“What’s he talking about?” Chris asked.

Jenn shook her head. Tom reached the wall and looked
down at the streets far below.

“I’m afraid this rescue will be the death of all of us,” Tom said. “Come see for yourself.”

Jenn followed her father with Alicen in tow. Chris pulled Isabel up and urged her to walk. Tom never moved; his eyes locked on the view below. Jenn came to a stop beside him and looked out.

The street
looked alive. The entire view shimmered as a ripple moved along the road from one side to the other. It took a moment for Jenn to realize what she was looking at. They moved like a well-oiled machine, an uncountable number of figures. The forms rushed across the street and poured into the hotel. The sheer size of the mass overwhelmed her and a single question trickled out of her mouth as a sudden dread crept into her mind.

“What is that?”

Her father never looked up, his mind equally engrossed by the sight, but he provided an alarming reply.

“The infected.”

20.

They swarmed
over everything. The infected moved with an unimaginable precision that could not be misconstrued as anything else, but coordination. They crawled out from every doorway and broken window of the buildings along the main drag. There was no denying the implications of what it all meant.

“They’re communicating with one another.”

Chris heard Tom, but it took a few seconds for the words to sink in. He thought back to the woman beyond the fence outside Dumont and Jafar’s warning in the recesses of the survivors cave. He forced Isabel to stop moving.

“Why are they out in the light?”
He asked dumbfounded.

“They’ve evolved,” Tom replied. “They’ve build a tolerance to it.”

“You won’t make it out of here alive,” Isabel said trying to resist his grip.

“Shut up,” he said. “If we don’t make it out, you don’t make it out.”

Chris pushed her towards the back wall and kept the gun trained on her head. He motioned her toward the corner so he could get a look at the view below. He found something far beyond what he imaged. The immensity of it hit him in the gut and his thoughts trickled from his lip.

“
There are so many.”

His attention was on the amassing army of infected
, but he saw Isabel’s movements out of the corner of his eye. Chris turned in time to see her bring a small pistol up from underneath her pant leg. He pulled the trigger without thinking. The resulting shot struck her in the chest and the impact threw her back against the wall. She slid to the ground, smearing blood as she went.

“So much for a bargaining chip,” Tom said.

“She was going to shoot me,” Chris said in his defense.

Jenn brushed it off with a wave. “We’ve got bigger problems, remember?” She pointed out the window.

Another shot from Jafar pulled Chris’ attention back to the hall. He took one last look at Isabel’s slumped body, and then headed for the door.

“
There’s either the fire exit or the elevators.”

Jafar nodded.

“It will be a long climb down the elevator shaft.”

“Don’t forget what we left on the bottom floor,” Sarah
said. “Why don’t we hold up here?”

“They’ll get in eventu
ally,” Tom said. “We’ve been holding them off for months. They keep those damn zombies down there to hold us in place.”

“How can this be?
” Chris asked. “What happened to the mindless creatures? How’s this happening?”

“They’ve evolved,” Jafar said, repeating
Tom’s assertion. “Everything that’s ever walked the earth has evolved.”

“But not like this,” Chris said. “They’re sick, remember. It’s a disease
, that’s what we were told before everything fell apart.”

“What did they know?” Jafar countered. “If they knew so
much, why didn’t they stop it?”

“We re
ally don’t have time for this,” Jenn reminded them.

“Alright,” Chris said, turning his
interest to Tom. “Why would they be able to get in now?”

“
I’m guessing the people Jenn let out upstairs will make a run for it.” Tom scratched the patchy bristles around his chin. “They’re being shot at by Isabel’s group. They’re not thinking. They won’t try the elevators, they’ll use the stairs.”

“We tired that,” Michael said. “They’re blocked off.”

“Isabel sends people down with guns during the attacks to hold the infected and keep the dead at bay. Without them there…” he shrugged, “…who knows how long the barricades will hold.”

“How long could
they hold out that way?” Jafar asked. “There’s no way they have enough ammunition.”

“You’re asking the wrong guy,” Tom said.
“I know supplies were getting short. Isabel was looking for a way out.”

Chris scanned the room. “Th
e people trying to get out on the stairway exits will draw a crowd.”

“Might be our only chance,” Jenn said.

Chris headed for the door, stopping short of the hall. He popped his head out for a view of the layout. As best he could tell, two people remained huddled close to the exit door. There was a series of movements in the stairwell that spoke to the actions of the escapes.

“What do you think the rest of the people will do?” Chris asked. “
…the ones in the common hall on the floors below us.”

Tom shrugged. “How the
hell should I know? They might all lose it if word spreads that Isabel’s dead.”

The remark gave Chris an idea. He handed his gun to Jafar
and headed back to the windows. He had Isabel’s bloody corpse hanging over his shoulder when he returned. He leaned out far enough from the doorway so his face could be seen from the exit.

“You might want to look for a new line of work,” he
shouted, then tossed Isabel’s body out into the center of the hall. Chris took his gun back and gave his idea a few minutes to work. He looked back out into the hall and the gunmen were gone.

They moved in a coordinated
group toward the center of the hall. They kept the kids in the middle, surrounded by a mass of guns much larger than they had when they started. They reached the elevators and spread out to cover both directions of the hall. Chris focused his attention on the doors closest to the south end of the hall, convinced it was the same shaft they came up.

Jafar and Michael managed to get the doors open
, revealing the darkened plunge that waited. Chris wedged one of the acquired rifles between the doors and peered over the edge. The light from the hall only reached a few floors down. A smile crept across Chris’ face at the sight of the narrow rope ladder daggling out in the center of the shaft. He slung his newly acquired shotgun over his shoulder and reached out for the rope.

Jafar went first followed
closely by Sarah, then Michael. Chris held the others up. There was movement at the far end of the hall and he didn’t want everyone stuck out on the ladder if someone decided to come have a look. Several people popped out into the hall, but none of them advanced. They were scared and unarmed. Cries for help filtered between gunshots and frantic shouts echoing from the stairways.

“They’re all running for it,” Tom said. “
Damn fools.”

“What else
do you want them to do?” Chris asked sharply. “They’re terrified. They’ve been held hostage here. It’s a natural reaction.”

“Let’s worry about what we’re going to do,” Jenn said.

Chris felt a pull on the ladder. He wouldn’t be able to hold it once Tom and Jenn got on. “Jake, get on there.” Alicen was standing between her brother and Jenn.

“I don’t want to climb,”
Alicen said, pushing herself behind Jenn. “It’s too far.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Chris said. “You have to go after your brother.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I re
ally don’t care what you want to do.”

“Enough,” Jenn
said, peering over her shoulder at the little girl. “I’m coming right after you. If I can do this, so can you.”

Alicen
tossed the idea around and slowly nodded. Jake already had two hands on the ladder. He encouraged his sister with a smile, and stepped off the edge of the hall out into the shaft. Chris braced himself and pressed his feet against the open elevator doors. He held on to the ladder with both hands.

“Let’s go,” he said urging
Alicen to move, “as soon as Jake’s head disappears.”

Alicen
watched from her position behind Jenn. Jake kept his eyes focused on each rung as he moved down, but he managed to look at her before he disappeared.

“Nothing to it,” he said.

Alicen took a few hesitant steps forward then maneuvered herself in front of Chris. She grabbed hold of the ladder and stepped off. The little girl climbed with the skill of a monkey, disappearing a few seconds later.

“How
are you going to do this?” Jenn asked as she prepared to climb.

“I’ll figure something out,” Chris replied between grunts. The combined weight on the ladder was pushing his strength to the brink. “
Get on there before I lose it.”

She stepped
over his leg and ducked between his arms. “Make damn sure you make it down there.” She grabbed hold and started to climb.

Chris leaned back and pulled with all his might. He felt his grip slipping and knew he couldn’t hold on for much longer. “Go
,” was all he managed. Tom didn’t waste time arguing. He was less cordial than his daughter was, squeezing between Chris’ arms. He’d stepped onto the ladder and Chris’ strength gave out.

The ladder swung away from the elevator door as Chris fell back on the floor. He listened for a scream
, but nothing echoed up the shaft. The size of Tom’s eyes spoke volumes. The old man was moving, but the swing kept his pace at a slow crawl.

A group of people pushed their way in
through the exit at one end of the hall. They appeared more interested in the remains of Isabel’s personal rooms than the elevators. A trickle of interested parties at the near end of the corridor captured more of Chris’ attention. No one had pushed out into the hall, but the flow of people making their way down to the lower floors concerned him. If Tom was right, the more people tried to get out of the stairwells, the more likely the infected would get in.

Chris pulled the rifle out from between the elevator doors and spread his feet to hold it open. He tossed the extra rifle on the ground behind him. Tom had descended far enough to be hidden by the darkness. There was nothing left to consider,
the group had chosen its fate.

Chris steadied
himself and leaned out. He started to fall forward when terror grabbed hold of him. He held his breath and steadied his aim. Both of his hands hit a ladder rung at the same time and he grabbed hold. His body swung forward and for a moment, he was suspended in the darkness as the elevator doors closed behind him.

He felt
for the ladder with his feet and pressed both boots down for a solid hold. A slow, long breath pushed through his lips as he started his descent. The climb went slow and steady. The sounds echoing up the shaft were a bizarre mix of moaning from the dead, faint distant screams, and a humming tune from Alicen. It felt like an eternity before the light from the lower levels was strong enough to reach the climbers. Chris heard Jafar before he could see him.

“Almost there.”

His wide shouldered silhouette was highlighted by the edge of an open elevator door. The light illuminated the undead a few floors below, trapped at the bottom of the elevator shaft for an eternity. Jafar had hold of one side of the ladder and Michael had the other. They pulled as Chris climbed and soon everyone gathered at the edge of the elevator, peering out at an empty ticketing floor. The screams were louder and the gunshots closer. The moaning of the dead was accented by the growls of the infected. The truth of what pulled the dead away from the elevators was clear before Tom tried to explain it.

“They’re drawing them in.”

Chris started toward the escalators.

“Keep quiet and don’t stop movi
ng. We have to get to the bus.”

The sounds of chaos grew with every step. The shrieks were blood curdling. The
echo of the dead rose to a fleshy feast, making it impossible to block out the fate of the people trying to escape. Chris reached the top of the escalators before the first signs of trouble came into view.

The endless sea of
undead had pushed their way out onto the gaming floor and there was no sign of the infected. The problem stemmed from the distance between the escalators and the main doors. The entire length of the front hall was open on both sides and offered a clear view. The moment Chris and the others set foot on the first floor, they would be exposed.

“We can wait it out.”

Sarah’s voice was low, but still too loud for comfort. Chris could hear the subtle hint of anxiety in her tone. He got down on his knees and took a look around at the group. The panic showed through on all of them. The sounds of the dead and infected in a feeding frenzy was more than any of them could bear.

“Load up as much as you can,” Chris said
, deciding not to address Sarah’s suggestion directly. “We only have one shot at this and there’s no turning back.” He made sure everyone had at least one gun. He loaded a pistol for Jake. “No matter what,” he went from one pair of eyes to the next, “don’t stop moving.”

“We can wait,” Sarah said again. She nearly dropped her
gun as she spoke. Michael had to grab hold of her hands to keep her from shaking.

“We’re not going to do that,” Chris said. He got up to his feet when he was ready. “Let’s go.”

He was heading down the escalator before anyone could object. As far as Chris was concerned, nothing was more important than reaching the bus. He was convinced that staying in the building was suicide. They couldn’t control the other people and if Tom was correct, the infected would soon work their way up to the higher floors.