Fighting to Survive (11 page)

“
Sorry,
”
Travis muttered.

Their
destination was the first floor lobby. The idea was to clear out the
center of the first floor first and work outwards. The lobby was
quite large, so they were taking the left-hand side. Another group
was taking the right. Two halls lead to the lobby.

Katie
walked slowly, her steps measured, cautious. Nearing the archway
leading into the lobby, she took a deep breath. If the front door was
open, they were most likely fucked. Sunlight was very visible on the
far wall, illuminating their way. Something was open.

Travis
and Roger behind her, she moved slowly along the wall, and out onto
the tiled floor, her boots making soft tapping sounds. The enormous
oak staircase cut the lobby in half and they slipped along its side.
Katie glanced upwards, toward the railing and the second floor.

Nothing.

Slowly,
one of the large windows came into view. Light was pouring in through
it, but the front doors were closed. Chained, in fact.

She
sighed with relief and turned to see a zombie staring at her. It was
a maid, standing on the stairs. Her head was hanging by sinews and
flopped sideways on her chest. She would have appeared headless from
the behind. But from her angle, she could clearly see the barely
attached head and its crazed eyes. It was obviously too confused by
its condition to know what to do. It scuttled one way then the other,
uncoordinated.

“
Damn,
”
Roger whispered.

Katie
drew her bowie knife from her belt and approached the creature
slowly. It blinked at her, its mouth open, trying to scream at her,
and started snapping its jaws at her. Again it swayed back and forth,
obviously not sure how to move toward its prey.

With
a grunt, Katie shoved the creature over and it landed hard on the
stairs. Its head flopped to one side, its teeth snapping. Lifting
the knife over her shoulder, Katie narrowed her eyes, aimed, and
struck the zombie through the eye as hard as she could. The knife hit
bone and she twisted, pushing further in. The jaws stopped snapping.
Katie braced her foot on the head and drew out her knife. Cleaning
the blade on the dead maid
’
s
dress, she looked up to see Roger and Travis looking at her in shock.

“
What?
”

“
Damn,
”
Roger said.

Katie
looked around and saw the other team lead by Katarina entering the
far side of the room. They signaled that they were clear and Katie
nodded.

The
walkie-talkie sputtered,
“
Dining
room! Now! Fuck Fuck! Fuck!
”
Jenni
’
s
voice was frantic.

The
gun shots began.

2. Nothing Ever
Goes As Planned

In some ways it was
just like a video game. You fired until the gun clicked empty,
reloaded, fired again, reloaded...

There
just needed to be an annoying male voice telling you when to reload
and it would be perfect. But there wasn
’
t
and the zombies rushing them weren
’
t
carbon copies of each other and wouldn
’
t
vanish when hit. They were dressed alike in their waiter costume, but
very different. Some were almost sprinting toward them. Others were
struggling just to walk. The more whole
“
I
obviously died by my throat being bit out
”
were fast and the
“
I
got swarmed by a bunch of them and obviously got really eaten up
”
staggered.

The
runners went down fast, since they were the front of the pack, but
they were so quick they closed the gap between the living and the
undead with startling swiftness.

Luckily,
Ashley and Ned did exactly what they were supposed to do. Mike had
taught them to divide up the zombies into, as he put it,
“
Pie
slices
”
with everyone taking one slice to concentrate on. Jenni fired right
down the center. Ashley fired at anything to the left of them as Ned
took care of those on the right.

The
swarming zombies fell quickly as the shots hit them true. Some even
tripped over their comrades, landing hard on their faces, before
having their heads blown off.

The
three humans backed up slowly, all trying not to panic as the gush of
zombies faded out to a trickle. As the last shot echoed through the
room and the last zombie toppled forward, they all three let out the
breaths they had been holding.

“
We
did it!
”
Ashley beamed happily.

Jenni
nodded grimly, and said,
“
But
listen.
”

From
the distance was the sound of running feet, grunts and growls.

“
Shit,
they
’
re
coming,
”
Ned muttered.

They
ran across the dining room, jumping over the dead bodies, moving to
the far side. Jenni began to shove over the heavy tables, making a
barrier as fast as she could. The other two joined her.

Mike,
Nerit, and the rest of their teams ran in the door. Seeing the
upturned tables and all the dead bodies, they quickly understood what
was happening.

“
Check
the kitchen,
”
Mike ordered.

Nerit
moved faster than any woman her age should be able to and motioned to
Shane to heave her up onto the bar behind the upturned tables. She
immediately aimed toward the main doors.

The
grunting, moaning, screaming zombies were drawing closer.

“
Kitchen
is clear with only a back door into the side street,
”
Felix said.

“
If
we have to, that
’
s
the way we
’
ll
fall back,
”
Mike answered.

The
dining room doors busted open and Travis, Katie and Roger ran in.
Katie sprinted across the room, evading the tables and bodies, with
Travis close behind. Roger huffed, as his huge girth swayed as he
moved, but he managed to reach the overturned tables just as the
doors swung open again.

Katarina's
team ran in. They rushed headlong through the tables, knocking over
chairs, and tripping in their panicked state. The reason for their
desperation became quickly clear. The doors never closed for they
caught on the mangled, mutilated bodies of the dead right behind the
last team.

Katarina
fell in her haste to get around a table. The first zombie in the mob
reached down to grab her and Nerit put a hole through his head.

There
was hesitation to fire from the people huddled behind the tables.
With three people running in desperate haste toward them and blocking
their view, Nerit took a majority of the shots.

Jenni
aimed for the zombies furthest from the running humans and fired off
a few shots. She could feel the tension growing steadily as the room
slowly filled.

Katarina
managed to get up and run again, but four more zombies grabbed hold
of her denim jacket. She twisted, yanked, and squirmed her way out of
the jacket and broke free, running again.

Jenni
heard a man
’
s
scream and barely saw one of the men, whose name she did not
remember, go down. Gunshots rang out steadily, but the man kept
screaming.

“
Nerit!
”
Mike
’
s
voice was an order.

Another
shot, then the man stopped screaming.

Katarina
reached the tables and squirmed behind them. She quickly turned to
fire at a zombie in hot pursuit.

There
was no sign of the other man. He had gone down so silently, no one
had noticed. The room was now clogged with the undead. They were
tripping over their dead comrades and falling over chairs and tables.
The most agile had pursued Katarina, but as they had drawn near the
barricade, they had gone down in a hail of bullets.

Jenni
kept firing, aiming as much as she could, but she was terrified and
that terror made some of her shots go wide.

Her
gun clicked empty, and Mike shouted at her,
“
Reload.
”

She
almost burst out laughing.

3. The Madness of
War

Katie found herself
wedged behind a table with her back against the wall with Travis
beside her and Nerit standing on the bar behind them. She hated being
stuck in the corner.

The
gun kept jerking in her hands. Her fingers ached as she tried to aim
true and take the heads off as many of the zombies as possible. There
had been estimates that only twenty people were in the hotel. That
estimate had been seriously low. At least a dozen lay dead on the
ground and maybe thirty were still moving around and trying to get to
the living flesh.

A
zombie pushed his way past a nearby table and charged at the
barricade. He hit the table Katie was behind and it started to tip.
Pressing her back against the wall and bracing the table with one
foot, she aimed at his head as he snarled, reaching for her. Pulling
the trigger, she was already flinching, knowing blood and gore would
splatter her.

“
Gross,
”
she muttered as wiped brains off her face, and aimed at the next one
rushing toward them.

Next
to her, Travis was busy reloading someone else
’
s
gun for them. Jenni was screaming at the zombies as she fired.
Nerit was cold and calculating above them as she systematically
eliminated the quickest of the undead, leaving the slower, more
mutilated ones staggering toward the tables.

“
Gawddammit!
Why are there so many?
”
Felix exclaimed.

Beside
him, Shane didn't answer as he shoved the end of his rifle into a
snarling zombie mouth and fired.

Four
zombies hit the barricade at the same time and some people had to
stop firing so they could brace it. Nerit was in the midst of
reloading so Travis picked up a heavy candlestick and brought it down
hard on the head of one of the female zombies snarling at them.

Katie
screamed as something grabbed her leg. She looked down to see the
hand of a zombie gripping her ankle. It had reached through the gap
between the table and wall. Its growling face was barely visible.
With surprising strength, it tugged on her, sending her tumbling
backward into the bar.

Travis
brought the candlestick down hard on the head of another zombie as
more hit the barricades. Now only a few people were firing into the
crowd of zombies. The others tried to keep the tables from toppling
over and allowing the zombies through. The room was filled with the
screams of the humans and the growls of the zombies.

It
seemed everyone was shouting at once: Mike ordering people to hold
the tables in place, Katarina screaming that her table was slipping,
Nerit telling everyone to be calm, Felix and Shane were shouting as
several zombies were trying to topple their table, Katie screaming
because the zombie was dragging her leg out into the open. It was
chaos.

Travis
continued to slam the candlestick downward, blood and gore flying
everywhere. One of the zombies grabbed his arm and, for a horrible
moment, everyone panicked. Nerit put a bullet through the zombie
’
s
head, but more were grabbing at Travis
’
s
arm.