Devouring The Dead (Book 1) (19 page)

“Holy shit,” said Brad next to him
, putting a hand on Tom’s back.

“We have to keep going, look.”
Benzo pointed down into the tunnel as the rest of the group caught up with them. The zombies from the city plaza were running up the ramp, pouring out of the tunnel like a pack of animals.

“To the centre, let’s go,” said Christina.

“I don’t want to go back inside,” said Jessica looking around the streets in wonder. “We could end up trapped again.”

“You want to stay out here?” said Brad. “Be my guest.”

“We have to hide,” said Parker. “We can’t keep running like this.”

Ranjit
was on his knees, gasping for breath.

“
We can’t stay here. I’m going with her,” said Reggie running after Christina. She was across the street with Caterina and almost to the entrance already.

Benzo
pulled Ranjit up. “Come on, mate.”

They
all ran across to catch up with the others to find Christina pounding on the doors.

“It’s empty
. You can see inside, but the doors are locked.” They peered into the dim entrance hall. There were tall posters advertising a financial investment show with the Fiscal Industries logo prominently displayed. The lights were off and the internal doors were shut. Clearly, nobody was around.

Brad swung the
metal desk leg he had been carrying with him at the glass door and a small crack spread across it.

“No
, stop!” said Tom. “If we break in, they’ll just follow us in. We need to find a better way; something more discreet where they can’t follow us. Let’s check round the side, there must be a back door, a fire escape or something?”

They ran around the side of the building, and were briefly out of sight of the road. Christina pointed out the fire escape. A set of rusty metal steps led up to a door about twenty feet from the ground.

“There!” She ran and they climbed the steps quickly. At the top, she yanked on the door but it wouldn’t budge. Brad looked at Tom expectantly.

“Do it,”
Tom said.

Brad swung the metal leg at the small window in the door and it broke immediately. Brad pushed the glass away and reached his arm inside. He managed to push down on the exit handle and the door opened.

“Okay, everyone, let’s get in quick before they see us,” said Tom.

Brad went into the room
, and one by one, they climbed the steps into the conference centre. Ranjit, at the back of the group, closed the door behind him. As he did so, the first of the dead chasing them spilled into the yard below. He could see them looking around, wondering where the living had gone. Ranjit quietly shut the door before the zombies could see them and follow.

* * * *

“So where now?” They had entered a meeting room and there was a small horseshoe shaped table. They sank into the chairs, tired and drained.

“We should find another room,” said Tom. “I don’t
think they saw where we went, but they’ll hear us, see us, or bloody smell us through that broken window. We should find somewhere else.”

“True,” said Brad. “
We’re not safe yet. Do you want to lead the way, Christina?”

She looked at Brad holding the desk leg and bit her tongue. “I haven’t been up here, only in the
large hall downstairs. I can’t imagine it’s too hard to find our way around though.”

She got up and pushed her chair back.
Caterina got up and took Christina’s hand.

“Just tread quietly and be careful
, please,” said Jackson. “We don’t know for certain this place is safe yet.”

Brad rolled his eyes and the weary group traipsed out o
f the room with Ranjit last again.

Leaving the
small meeting room, they went into a sparse hallway. There was a plastic plant and a water cooler at the end, but otherwise, it was as nondescript as every other corridor back at the building they had just left. Christina pushed open doors as they progressed down the corridor, every time finding empty rooms just like the one they had left.

“I think we’re above the Nelson room,” she said standing at the top of a small staircase.

“Whoopee fucking do,” said Brad. “And?”

Christina sighed. “It’s a smaller version of the large hall. It’s
completely internal so there are no windows. It’s big enough for us to get some rest and some space,” she said taking the stairs carefully, listening out for any hint of trouble.

At the bottom of the stairs
, they were confronted with a set of double doors with the words, ‘Nelson Room,’ above them. Christina pushed the doors open and stepped inside. She smiled and let out a small ‘yes’ under her breath.

The room was set up for a conference.
There were no windows and only one more set of doors on the far side. In the middle of the room were tables and chairs, while at the end of the room, was a projector and screen. By the wall, another long table had been set out for lunch and was full of piles of food: pastries, sandwiches, wraps, and fruit, all covered in cellophane.

Tom closed the door and rubbed his eyes. He watched as the group dispersed once more,
Ranjit plonking himself straight down on a chair, while the others took as much food as they could carry.

“Some of this is still fresh,” said
Benzo peeling a banana.

“Some of it isn’t,” said Jackson
, holding up a mouldy salmon sandwich. “Careful what you eat, guys.”

As the weary group sat
, ate, and drank, Tom pulled a table in front of one of the doorways. Jessica grabbed one end to help him.

“Good idea,” she said.

“I just think we should be extra careful,” he said positioning the table directly under the door handles. “How are you doing, Jess?”

“Al
l right, I suppose.”

Jessica rummaged through the food and pulled out a bag of crisps. She offered them to Tom.

“Thanks,” Tom said taking a handful. He sat down on a chair and Jessica sat down beside him. “So this Ranjit bloke, you know him very well?”

They looked over
at Ranjit. He was the furthest away from them, apparently happy to keep himself distant. His face was red and he was still puffing, exhausted from the run. Tom thought he looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

“Not very well
,” said Jessica. “I’ve met him a couple of times, but I’ve just heard rumours really.” Her voice lowered and she leant forward. As she looked at him, Tom had to force himself to concentrate on what she was saying. She was attractive, but there was clearly something between her and Parker which he didn’t want to get involved in.

“He likes to pretend he’s this big shot security officer, family man, whatever. He monitors the cameras. Well, monitored. I heard he got cameras put in the toilets, the changing rooms, everywhere; all under the guise of protecting us
. We all knew why really. He’s a creep. He sits in his office on his fat backside all day and thinks he’s better than the rest of us.”

“Well
, he seems harmless, but I suppose you never know, right?” Tom took another handful of crisps. “If he hadn’t opened the underground gate, we wouldn’t have gotten out of there, you know.”

“Be careful, Tom. I don’t trust him.” Jessica put her hand on his knee and he resisted the urge to take hold of her. Tom nodded.

“Don’t worry, careful is my middle name now. It used to be danger, but, you know...”

Jessica gave a small giggle. “I’m going to talk to Christina, see how Cat’s doing
.”

As she walked away
, Tom sat back. There were hushed conversations going on around the room; Brad, Benzo, and Reggie were deep in discussion about something. Jackson was lying on the floor, stretching his back out and rubbing his feet. Parker was on his own and Tom went over to see him.

“How you
doin’?” asked Parker.

“I don’t know,” said Tom. “I really don’t.”

“You know we can’t stay here long. Those things out there will know we’re here. Somehow, they’ll find us. They’ll find a way in and then...”

“What do you think we should do? Where should we go? Part of me just wants to go home
and crawl into bed. Part of me doesn’t give a shit if I don’t see the sun come up tomorrow.” Tom rolled his head on his shoulders. “I know I should eat, but I can’t. I can’t relax.”

He opened a can of lemonade and sipped. Parker thought about
how to answer.

“If anyone wants to go home
, let them. As long as they know they’ll be on their own out there, then there’s no point stopping them.” Parker let the apple he was trying to eat fall to his lap. He had only had two small bites.

“I think it’s safe to assume the whole city is fucked by now though. If you ask me, we should try to get out.
Get out of the city completely. The city airport’s not far from here, you know. If we can get there, maybe we’ll find some help; could be a way out. I don’t know what else to suggest really.”

“I was thinking about that,” said Tom. “
I don’t know if the airport is still operating, but it’s probably our best bet. If there’s nothing there, then...shit, I don’t know. We could see if we can get on a boat or something?” Tom put the can of lemonade on the floor next to Parker’s half-eaten apple.

Parker
suddenly winced and his whole body tensed. He drew in a sharp breath.

“Are you okay, Parker? You look a little pale.”
Even with the lack of sleep, Parker looked visibly ill, dark patches forming under his eyes.

Parker looked around the room. “Come with me.” He got up and headed to the door. Tom followed.

“Hey, where are you two going?” said Jessica, getting up.

“
Just going to check around and make sure we’re safe,” said Parker. “Stay here, we won’t be long.”

Jessica sat back down
next to Caterina, and Parker and Tom left. Passing the bathroom opposite them, Parker went to the next door he saw, just across the hallway, and tried the handle. It opened, and casting a glance around the room, saw it was empty; just another empty office.

“Shut the door
, mate,” said Parker.

Tom closed the door quietly and sat down in one of the leather chairs.

“What is it?”

Parker began rolling his sleeve up and Tom knew; he knew before he saw the bite marks and bruises. He knew without needing to look at the blisters running up the length of Parker’s arm.

“Fuck. Parker, how the fuck..?”

“Jill.
In the underground. It was dark and so fast I wasn’t sure at first if she had even got me.” Parker began rolling his sleeve down.

Tom got up and
sent the chair back on its wheels so it crashed into the wall.

“
This is bollocks! Parker, there must be something we can do? If we head straight to the airport now...maybe there’s a cure for the infection. Maybe we can...”

Parker was shaking his head. “No. You know there’s no cure. If there was
, there wouldn’t be a thousand zombies outside our door right now. Even if there was, it’s too late for me. How long did Freddy last? An hour? Two? Three?”

Tom felt angry
. This wasn’t part of the plan. Why Parker? He felt guilty, but he wished it had been Ranjit, or Christina, or Caterina; anyone but Parker. Then he felt scared. What if Parker dropped down dead right now and turned into one of those zombies.

“So when I said
we
should get to the airport, I wasn’t speaking literally. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to be able to hide this much longer. I can feel it, Tom. I can feel the infection. My arm tingles and I feel dizzy all the time.” Parker rolled down his sleeve.

“So nobody else know
s?” asked Tom.

“No. I think
it’s best we keep it that way as long as possible. I want to tell Jess before anyone else.”

Tom couldn’t believe how calm Parker was. If it had been him
, he would’ve shouted the house down and let everyone know he was sick.

“If we can get to the airport quickly though
, mate, perhaps we can get you out too? We don’t know for certain yet how big this thing is. It might be just the city, you know? The rest of the country might be fine...”

Parker looked at Tom with raised eyebrows. “Doubtful. Anyway
, how are you going to get to the airport? It’s not going to be quick by the looks of what’s out there.”

“I don’t know,” said Tom. “I just don’t fucking know anything anymore.” He felt frustrated. They had left one prison to find themselves in another. On top of it all
, Parker was dying.

“Look, let’s go back in there and talk about it. Don’t put pressure on yourself to come up with all the answers.” Parker swooned and grabbed the corner of the desk. “I need to sit down.”

Tom took Parker and helped him back to the others. They paused before the double doors.