Ashton Memorial (31 page)

Angie turned, hoping the stairs would keep
the corpses away. But the steps weren't steep, and there weren't
that many of them. The corpses were slow and stumbling, but they
had already begun to navigate the first step. Angie knew they would
eventually reach the doors.

“The doors are automatic,”
said Angie. “They'll be able to follow us.”

She turned back to the door, looking up at
the motion sensor. She looked back to the ground and scanned it as
quickly as she could.

“Mom,” said Dalton behind
her. The corpses groaned, sounding close.

“One second,” she said,
finding a small rock set among some bushes close to the door. She
rushed over, picking up the rock as the doors slid shut. She ran
back over to the door and reared back with the rock, aiming at the
sensor. The doors slid open.

“Mom!” said
Dalton.

“What?” said Angie,
whipping her head back at Dalton. She still had the rock poised to
throw.

“If you break the thing
with the door open, they'll be able to get inside.”

Angie cocked her head back at the door. The
corpses groaned behind them. Angie stepped back. The doors slid
shut.

“But,” said Dalton behind
her, “if you break the thing with the door shut, we won't be able
to get inside.”

Angie turned to Dalton, dropping her arm to
her side. Dalton sniffed in the cold rain and looked up at her.
Behind Dalton, the corpses had staggered their way to the second
step and were working on the third.

“Dammit,” said Angie. “You
may be right. Well shit.” She hurled the rock at the nearest
corpse. It smacked into the corpse's forehead, splitting the skin
but not enough to kill it. The corpse staggered back to the first
step. The other two kept coming.

“Come on!” said Angie,
grabbing Dalton's wrist and pulling him through the open doors.
They slid shut behind them.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to
the low light. The room was hot, almost suffocating. The zoo kept
the room hot for the primates. Primate body odor hit her
nostrils.

“I smell the monkeys,” said
Dalton.

“They're behind glass,”
said Angie. “And we could always smell them before, remember? It's
fine. Come on.”

Dalton looked around, nodded and stepped
forward. Angie walked ahead, moving as quickly as she could while
still allowing Dalton to keep up with her. As she moved she
listened behind her, waiting for the moment the sliding doors
opened, letting the corpses in. She waited to hear groans behind
her.

A groan came, but from the front.

Angie stopped. Dalton almost ran into her
back.

The groan came again. It was faint, but
clearly coming from in front of them. From somewhere within the
building.

“Crap,” whispered
Dalton.

Angie nodded, frowning into the dim light.
The sudden switch from the wet cold outside to the oppressive heat
inside was making her head swim. Her stomach churned as she
realized that if the corpses behind them could get through the
sliding doors, so could any others. The whole building could be
full of them.

The doors behind them opened. Angie looked
back to see the three corpses stumble inside. The gray overcast sky
outside was brighter than the dim hallway. The three corpses were
dark, stumbling silhouettes against the door.

“Dammit,” said Angie. “Come
on.” She grabbed Dalton and ran, deeper into the
exhibit.

Groans came from in front of them, faint but
closer. Angie gripped Dalton's arm, waiting for the moment a corpse
would appear in the hall in front of them. She would hold Dalton
behind her, blocking him with her body. She imagined the pain as
the dead mouth would bite into her and rip hunks of her free. She
imagined Dalton running to safety as she bled out on the floor. She
waited for the moment to come, trying hard not to slow down from
fear. She had to be strong.

They stopped when they reached a split in
the hallway. Angie remembered now. One way led to a balcony
overlooking the large glass enclosure. The other way ran downward,
winding along at the bottom of the exhibit for a closer view. The
lower way also led to the out door. Two large wooden arrows,
painted bright cartoon colors and bolted to the wall, indicated up
and down.

Angie turned to cast a quick glance back
down the hall. They'd rounded a curve in the hallway as they ran,
but she could hear the corpses getting closer.

“Come on,” she said. She
pulled Dalton ahead and ran for the hallway leading
down.

They made it three steps when a group of
corpses came into view. Their rotting smell mingled with the humid
BO-filled air. They gurgled and reached for Angie and Dalton.
Dalton screamed.

“Back!” yelled Angie,
pushing Dalton behind her. She backed up until they were back at
the spot where the two hallways split off.

The corpses were drawing nearer on both
sides. A few more minutes, Angie knew, and they would be trapped.
Pulled down and eaten. She looked around frantically. She didn't
have a weapon. Why the hell hadn't she picked up a weapon by
now?

Her eyes landed on the large wooden arrows.
A small spotlight in the ceiling illuminated their bright happy
paint. Angie realized they were the exact same arrows she'd seen
when she and Jake first brought an infant Maylee to the zoo. She
peered more closely. The wood was splintered around the bolt
holding the arrows to the wall.

“Cheap piece of crap,” she
said. “Thank God.”

“What?” said Dalton,
sounding very nervous. The groaning corpses closed in from both
sides.

“Stay close, baby,” said
Angie. She stepped over to the arrows and grabbed hold of the top
one.

She pulled, leaning back with the effort.
The wood cracked around the bolt but the arrow held. The corpses
drew closer on both sides. Dalton pressed against her.

Angie put her right foot against the wall
and pulled again. The wood cracked further, grinding against the
bolt. The grunts and groans around her and Dalton grew louder.

“Mom,” said Dalton. He
pressed harder against Angie, clutching at her back. Angie started
sweating in the muggy air inside the building. A cold realization
came over her. She'd made a mistake wasting time on the arrow. She
and Dalton were about to die. She'd hear him scream, yelling for
help.

She pulled harder than she thought possible.
Her back and shoulders strained with effort. The corpses drew in
close. Dalton let out a low whine, like a frightened animal.

The wood around the bolt splintered and the
arrow came free of the wall. The momentum of her pull flung her
arms and the arrow outward in a wide arc. The large hunk of wood
slammed across the heads of the three corpses coming up from
behind. All was a blur of speed as her head whipped around, but she
saw the corpses had been inches away from Dalton. The three corpses
fell to one side. The far one spit dark gore onto the wall and
Angie heard its neck pop.

She spun the rest of the way around to face
the split in the hallway. The corpses coming up from the lower
level were close.

She swung the heavy wood at the head of the
nearest corpse. Its head snapped around. Angie heard the bones of
its neck pop. It gurgled as it fell against the wall. Its head
lolled but it still moved. She brought up the arrow to swing
again.

Behind her, Dalton screamed. She spun to see
the corpses, coming from behind, were righting themselves and
grasping at Dalton.

Angie grabbed Dalton by the collar and
pulled him past her, onto the upward-leading hallway. She knew it
was a mistake. She knew the hallway was a dead end. She told
herself she would beat back all the corpses. She told herself she
would win and they would be able to get back onto the lower
walkway. She desperately wished it was true.

She turned back to the corpses who'd
followed them into the building. The frontmost one, a young woman
with thick yellow fluid running from her ruptured eyes, hissed and
bit at Angie. Angie jabbed the point of the arrow into the woman's
eyes and shoved her backward. The woman fell back as yellow muck
spattered out across the wood of the arrow.

“Mom!” yelled Dalton from
behind her. She turned, calculating she only had a few seconds
before the corpses coming from outside got to her. As she turned a
cold hand closed on her shoulder. She screamed and pulled away,
almost stumbling as she finished her turn.

The corpses coming up from below were upon
her. Her face was inches from a large man with rotten teeth and
oozing sores on his cheeks. He lunged and bit at her. Angie jerked
her head back as the man's teeth snapped shut a fraction of an inch
from her nose.

“Fuck!” she yelled, mostly
to herself. She swept her leg wildly from side to side. It
connected with the large man's legs. He jerked with the impact and
fell to his knees. Angie slammed the point of the arrow downward,
embedding it into the man's head. She twisted, feeling the wood
grind into bone and pulp. The large man jerked, gurgled and
slumped, still.

Dalton yelled to her right. She whipped her
head around, conscious of the corpses coming up from below and how
close they were. Dalton was backing away, farther up the dead-end
hallway. The corpses from outside were following him, grasping and
moaning. Angie thought there were more than there should have been.
She cast a quick glance down the entranceway hall. More corpses had
come in from outside. Raw dread gripped her. She'd made a mistake.
She'd made a mistake and gotten her and her son killed.

“Dalton!” she yelled,
reaching for him. A corpse coming up from below grabbed her
shoulder. She screamed and spun to face them.

“Fuck off!” she yelled,
kicking the corpse in the stomach. It stumbled down the hallway,
toppling over the corpses behind it. The group stumbled and fell
down the incline, groaning and grasping at the walls.

She turned back to reach
for Dalton. The corpses had backed him farther up the hallway. Soon
he would pass the end of a wall separating the two hallways. Soon
he would be out of reach. She strained to the side, grabbing for
his hand. “Dalton!”

Dalton saw and reached to her. He grabbed
her hand and gripped it tightly, but the corpses coming in from
outside were too close to allow him to get to her. Several of the
corpses went down the lower hallway, pushing Angie farther
down.

“Mom!” yelled Dalton. “I'm
scared!” The corpses in both hallways pushed in closer, forcing
them both back. Farther away from each other. The wall dividing the
hallways drew near.

“I know baby, I know!”
yelled Angie, clutching desperately at his hand.

“Mom!” yelled Dalton again.
His hand was wet in the muggy air. Their hands began to slip
apart.

“Dalton!” yelled Angie. The
corpses drew closer. She could hear the ones she'd kicked down the
hallway righting themselves. Her wrist hit the edge of the dividing
wall.

“Mom!”

Their hands came apart and Dalton was pushed
out of view.

Angie screamed in anguish. The corpses drew
close, stumbling down the walkway toward her.

Bellowing in rage, she grabbed the arrow
with both hands and swung it hard at the heads of the corpses. It
connected with a sharp series of quick thuds and the nearest
corpses fell to one side.

“Dalton!” she yelled,
starting to run up the hallway, desperate to get to her son. She
stopped. There were too many corpses. She would be running to her
own death. She heard Dalton screaming above her, calling for her.
It broke her heart, but it didn't sound like he was in pain. Not
yet.

“Shit shit shit!” she spat,
whipping her head around. She felt close to tears. Her head
throbbed in the muggy heat of the building. Groans came from both
sides.

She gripped the wooden arrow desperately and
looked front and back. The corpses in front of her were getting
close. There were too many to get past by herself. No way she could
get past them and back up the upward hallway to Dalton. The ones
behind her were regaining their footing, struggling their way back
to a standing position. If she hesitated much longer she'd be
trapped.

Dalton screamed above her.
He sounded farther away, behind and above her. Like he was being
backed toward the balcony. A primal need gripped her. She had to
follow Dalton, she
had
to. She turned and ran down the exit hallway, desperate to
keep him above her. To keep as close to him as possible.

The corpses farther down the hallway were
halfway to their feet. They looked up, groaning at Angie as she ran
toward them. She didn't slow down, more conscious of Dalton's
screams than their groans.

Angie reached the corpses. She was still
running at full speed. The closest corpse, an old man with stringy
white hair and black veins running across his cheeks, hissed at
her. Angie screamed at it, more in anger than fear, and flung the
arrow toward its head. The arrow, whipping round and round in the
air, whacked into the forehead of the hissing corpse. Its head
snapped backward, thick black fluid spraying across the ceiling of
the hallway, and it fell over. Angie jumped over the prone corpse,
the corpses next to the fallen one grabbing for her but
missing.

She landed on the other side of the corpse.
Her feet slipped and she collapsed to one knee. Pain shot up her
leg but she ignored it, forcing herself to her feet, and running.
She paused for a second to pick up the fallen arrow, now battered
into an indistinct hunk of wood. Then she ran on, leaving the
corpses groaning behind her.