The Most Uncommon Cold I - Life in the Time of Zombies (11 page)

     “Go there!”  Tim yelled and pointed.

     Listening to the simple, undeveloped speech, I was reminded of the old Westerns where Indians were shown as savages.  Then it occurred to me that maybe these things were not much different.  The almost animal-like movements of the group fit the picture of primitive man.  Before I could catch myself a laugh burst from my chest, and Glen stared at me with concern and some suspicion. 

     “
You’re not losing it, are you?” he asked with a shaky voice and shakier smile. 

     I considered the
question carefully before replying, “Maybe I am.  I don’t know. Just thinking that those things sort of look like cavemen.”

    
Glen’s smile was instantly replaced by an expression of confusion. “Look at them.  They seem totally confused by everything, not able to put a complex thought together,” I explained.

     Glen was quiet and just turned back to look at the things below us.
We watched several of them stretch their arms upward pointlessly trying to reach the ladder which was at least ten feet beyond their reach. 

     There was a
short woman with curly, blonde hair in a worn white bathrobe who had her arm stretched upward and was spinning around slowly. I am not sure why this woman more than any of the others struck a chord within me.  For some reason, her appearance put everything into perspective.  I imagined her at home nursing what she thought was just another cold.   Maybe her husband and two children had left the house that morning thinking she would be fine when they got home.  But now it was pretty clear that nothing was going to be fine for a terribly long time, if ever.

     Finally, I felt my body shaking by itself.  Without having realized it, I had been crying.  My face was wet with the tears that rolled
down my cheeks.  I started to say something but found that I could not force the words from my mouth. 

      Glen moved next to me and gently turned me away from the scene and toward the wall behind us. 

      “We need to get out of here,” he said quietly.  “The ladder to the roof is over here.”  He led me over to the wall like a parent would lead a small child to bed. 

     Directly in front of me was a weathered white metal ladder bolted to the cinder block wall. 
I looked up to see it leading into the darkness above.  I am not sure just how long I stood there gazing upward, but Glen broke my paralysis by nudging me toward the ladder.

    
“Let’s head up to the roof.  I’m not sure how long before these things find their way up here,” he said.  “I’ll be right behind you.”

     I shuffled forward without thinking and grabbed the cold metal of the ladder and began climbing.  Behind me was the sound of Glen climbing and the occasional groan from the things below, but I did not look back.  I
simply kept climbing.   When I was two rungs from the top of the ladder, there was a crash of some metal barrels beneath us and a shout, “Here!”

    
“Sounds like they’re coming!”  Glen yelled up.

     I scrambled to the top of the ladder and swung around to stand on the roof.  I spun around to help Glen onto
the roof.  He was breathing as if he had just run a marathon.  It was the first time that I had noticed just how large he was and worried about his ability to move fast enough to stay away from our pursuers. 

     As if my thoughts had been spoken aloud, Glen said through heavy breaths, “Guess I should have spent a little more time treating my body li
ke a temple.  Don’t worry I won’t slow you down.”

     “I know that,” I answered and tried to
show a bright smile. “Now what?”

    
Glen looked at me as if the question made no sense.  After a moment, he said, “Well, to tell the truth, I didn’t seriously consider anything beyond getting up here.  Sorry.”  He looked genuinely apologetic.

     “No need to be so
rry, Glen,” I answered.  “I don’t think either of us has been in a situation like this before.”

     He was clearly pleased by my comment. “I have only been
up here a few times before...When I...uh...needed a break, but I’m pretty sure this is the only way up here.  There’s a storage shed up here where the building owner stored maintenance supplies.”

    
We both looked down to see those creatures had gathered.  Some were still under the place where we had pulled up the ladder, stretching to reach it.  Others were bunched up to the right.  Neither of us had any idea what may have captured their interest there.

    
“Looks like they may find a way to get up here,” Glen said with a voice that cracked with fear.

    
“It does seem they move on instinct, doesn’t it?”  I continued without waiting for an answer.  “Well, most of them just shuffle along, but not a couple spoke.  They seemed smarter.”

    “Yes, but I
’m not sure that this is the right time to discuss their behavior. It may not be long before they figure out a way to get to that ladder.” Glen had replaced the fear in his voice with determination. 

     I looked at the ladder and then at the young pastor.  A thought occurred to me, and I asked, “Are there any tools like wrenches or hammers in that shed?”

     “I think so,” he said as he started across the roof in search of the shed.

      I moved quickly to catch up with the
pastor and slow him down, “Glen, we need to be careful. Even though I don’t think any of those things are up here, you never know.” 

     My warning seemed to
drain the energy out of him, and he walked slowly toward the shed.  I felt sort of guilty for ruining his mood, but it was more important to keep him alive. 

     After a moment, Glen turned to look at me.  I was happy to see the
energy appeared to have returned.  “So what exactly are we looking for?”

      “Well, I noticed that the
ladder is bolted into the wall.  We could unbolt it and pull it to the roof until we need to use it.  That should keep us safe up here.”  As I listened to my idea spoken aloud, I was rather proud to have come up with it. 

    
Glen’s smile made me feel even prouder.  “That sounds good!”

    
The silver corrugated metal structure was about twenty by thirty feet and looked like it had been beaten with a baseball bat.  I was confused for a minute since there did not seem to be a door to the place.  Glen motioned for me to follow him. For some reason, the building had been set up so that the entrance was around the back, out of sight.  When I saw the battered, slightly off-kilter sliding door, my heart sank.

     Hanging on the latch was a
large silver padlock. 

     “Goddammit!”  I yelled louder than was wise. “Uh, sorry, Glen.  But Goddammit!  Why does this stupid shed at the top of a building away from everybody
need to be locked?”

     I was surprised
and a little irritated to hear a chuckle coming from my companion. I looked over at his smiling face, and that did not help my mood.

    
“We’re kind of in the shit here, Glen.  I don’t see what’s so funny.” I hissed.

    
“Nothing.  It’s just that...”  He walked over to the padlock and twisted it.  “They never lock it. I don’t think anyone even has...had the key.” 

     He lifted the lock out of the latch and started to push the door open.  I stepped forward and stopped him. 
“Careful, it looks like some of those things have been trying to get in here. The shed is pretty beat up.  They might have managed to slip inside.”

     Glen stepped
back from the door and regarded me with curiosity.  Then as if something just occurred to him, he started chuckling again.

     “Again with the chuckling?” He was
definitely starting to get on my nerves. 

    
“Sorry, what you’re thinking about people trying to break in makes sense,” Glen said, sounding apologetic again. “It’s just that the building looked that way when they brought it up here.  Jim Larson, the building owner, got a good deal on it from some construction company downtown.”  He stepped slowly forward and pulled the door open as if he was worried about offending me. 

     The interior of the
shed was pitch black, and I was not real comfortable about charging inside even if my reaction might bring more chuckles from my companion. 

     Glen glanced at me and then, without hesitation, walked into the dark of the shed.
I heard some shuffling around, and something like a coffee can falling on the concrete floor.  Then nothing for a few seconds. Just as I was about to call out for him, there was a flash of light in the shed.  He had turned on one of those small battery-operated fluorescent lanterns.

     “Let there be light,
” he announced.  “I think there’s a toolbox over here.”  He nodded toward the back corner, and I followed his lead. 

     We found a dusty old
red metal toolbox that looked as if it hadn’t been opened in many years.  But what mattered was that inside we found a monkey wrench, hammer, and a large ratchet wrench. 

     At about the same time that we
found the tools, a loud metal crash came from below. 

     “Getting closer!”  Glen said as he headed back to the ladder.  I was close behind with the tools in hand.

     We peered over the ledge to see the mob had made its way up some crates in the corner of the alley onto the platform.  For a second, I saw a trail of ants moving as one toward food.  Now that they had reached the higher platform, the things seemed lost as to what to do next.  There was a man in a dark business suit who was simply walking from one end of the platform to the other. A tall thin woman with blood covering her long nightgown stood absolutely still right under them.  I looked but did not see the blonde in the pink bathrobe and wondered for a second what happened to her.

     My original
idea had been to climb down the ladder and remove all the bolts so that we could pull it up to the roof.  However, that plan was out the window since there was no way that either of us could climb down the ladder with those things waiting below.  The new plan was to loosen as many of the bolt as possible and see what happened.    It might not have been the best plan, but it was something.

     Glen held the lantern above the top of the
ladder so I could see to put the ratchet over the bolt head. I pulled on the handle with all my strength, but the bolt refused to budge. After setting the lantern down, he helped me pull on the handle, but it still would not move.

     I took off the
tool to take a look at the bolt.  Without saying anything, Glen darted away with the lantern.  I was too focused on the problem of the bolt to consider his quick departure. The bolt looked as thoug it had never been anything other than a part of the ladder. I didn’t see any weld marks around it, but I couldn’t see any space between the bolt and the ladder.  Of course, without the lantern, it was difficult to see much of anything clearly. 

     Thinking back on it now, I am not
entirely sure exactly what I thought would happen.  All I know is that it was probably the dumbest thing I have ever done.  It made sense to me at the time that maybe the bolt would come loose if I pounded it with the hammer. As soon as the sound of the hammer striking the bolt rang out, I knew that I had made a terrible mistake. The soft shuffling sound had been constant, but I hadn’t consciously noticed until it was suddenly gone.

Chapter 8

     I looked down into the darkness and could just make out the shapes of those thing gathered closely together at the bottom of the ladder.  The first sound was a sort of metallic clank.  It sounded as though someone had slapped the ladder.  Then for a moment there was silence. 

    It was a brief moment that allowed me to
consider Glen’s desertion.  I could not blame him for not wanting to stick around and wait for these things to stream up and over the ladder.  Just as I was considering any other options, the lantern flashed on nearby and Glen’s smiling face came into view.

     “Did I miss anything?” 
he asked as if he was having a fabulous time.

    “Not much.  I was just thinking
nasty thoughts about you for taking off on me,” I said as casually as possible. “Where did you go?”

     “I thought we could use this,” Glen said as he showed
me the short metal pipe he was holding.  “Hopefully, it will be enough of a lever to get those bolts to move. Did I hear you hit that bolt with the hammer?”

     My face got red.  “Uh ...
yeah, big mistake...Well, we better get to it. Those things are about ready to start climbing.” 

     As if my words had guided them, we heard a scratching sound on the ladder. Glen moved the lantern over so we could see that some of
the things had already begun climbing. That was enough to get us moving. Glen set the lantern down quickly and handed me the pipe which I dropped as I tried to slide it onto the wrench handle.  The clang of the pipe falling on the rooftop exploded through the night.