Zombie Theorem (Book 1): The Culling (16 page)
Maggie spoke up. “Just one, it came all over Dan’s face when I staked it, so he had to get all cleaned up. How about you big boy?”
Brian shook his head over his new nickname. “Only two, one must’ve had screwed up legs because it couldn’t stand so I kicked it on its back while I was dealing with it, another came out from a desk nearby. Not too hard. Let’s take this office first.”
Maggie stepped aside to watch our backs while Brian and I went in quickly. There were two clawing at the window. We got closer and Brian whistled out loud. They both turned toward him as I came in from behind one and knocked it over the head as hard as I could. It went to the floor and I finished it off with another swing. I got back up and saw Brian holding the thing by the back of the neck. He swung it around and shoved a spike into its eye and pulped its brain. He looked over and winked at me.
“Keep that up Brian and I’m going to get all sweet on you.” I winked back.
“I told you I don’t find you attractive.” Brian laughed out loud.
Maggie popped her head in. “Are you hitting on poor Dan again Brian? He’s mine so don’t mess with him or Ill kick your ass.” She smiled and blew a kiss at me. I caught the kiss and planted it on my cheek.
“I’m going to throw up!” Brian walked out of the office and toward the next one.
I followed him out. We took down the next office quickly finding it empty. “How about the lunch room?” Maggie asked inquisitively.
“I already cleared it out before we moved onto the offices.” Brian answered.
We walked over to the windows and looked down at the streets. “Looks like more emergency vehicles” Maggie informed us.
I walked away to the lobby and sat on one of the two couches, stretching my legs out, but coming up short of being able to rest my legs on a nearby table. Brian came over, plopped down next to me and stretched his legs out, he was able to reach the table easily, resting his feet on it. I know he did that on purpose to put me in my place. “You’re an ass hat, anyone ever tell you that?” I said to him.
He chuckled and thumped me on the chest. Oh man that hurt, I think he bruised my sternum, but I wasn’t going to complain out loud. Maggie came over and plopped on her own couch. Tucking her legs under her, like only girls can do. “So what are we going to do now?”
“Well I am thinking of heading out to the stairs alone to check out what is going on. A little recon I guess you could say. But first we never checked the bathrooms so let’s do that now.” Brian stood up reached down and grabbed my shirt and lifted me to my feet. “Stop being lazy let’s get this done.” He made me feel like a toddler every time he did something like that.
Maggie jumped off the couch turning on her flashlight. We entered the women’s first and cleared it quick since it was empty. The men’s had one male zombie on the ground trying to get up once our light shined on it. I walked up and swung my bat as hard as I could. The head smashed in, came off and hit the stall door. “Homerun!” Brian called out.
“Uhm guys I need to tinkle but I am not using this potty. Let’s go into the Women’s. I told you I wasn’t doing anything alone.” She walked away and entered the bathroom next door. Brian looked at me and shook his head.
We followed her in and used our own stalls. “Yeah toilet paper!” Maggie yelled out and whooped.
I smiled finished my business, came out and went to the sinks. I washed my hands and face. Brian appeared next to me smiling. “At least one of us seems happy over little things.” He washed his hands and started cleaning his bat and spikes, I followed suit.
Maggie came out all smiles and came up to the sink. “I have to do something kinda gross, sorry.” She tossed her black satin panties into the sink and started washing them with soap and water. Brian and I started to laugh.
“We did that a day or so ago. So no problem.” Commented Brian.
“Yeah Brian was upset his lacy, pink, thong was becoming brown and not pretty anymore.” I laughed and jumped backward fast, just missing Brian’s outstretched hand as it flew by. With how fast it went by, I felt like if it was able to connect I would’ve ended with a broken rib or ribs.
Maggie laughed, then ran back into her stall. “You would look sexy in those I’m sure Brian.” She yelled.
I left Brian and Maggie in the bathroom to finish what they needed to do. I made my way over to the lobby, dragged the table over to the couch to use as a footstool. I sat on the couch again and stretched out propping my feet up. Man that felt good. Brian and Maggie came out laughing over some comment or joke I never did hear. Maggie plopped down next to me, and stretched her legs out onto the table and smiled up at me. Brian grabbed his weapons, the flashlight, and geared up.
“Well you two look like you need some time alone, I’m going to go do that recon I talked about. Someone keep an eye on that door and open it quickly when I pound on it.” He walked over untied the door and disappeared.
I looked over at Maggie, as she rested her head on my shoulder. “Just need a place to rest?” I asked.
“Something like that.” She purred and snuggled in.
After 10 minutes I started getting worried over Brian and excused myself from Maggie and the couch. I grabbed my bat and stood over by the door. We had never retied it. Another three minutes crawled by. I would wait another five then go looking for him. Two passed and someone tapped on the door. I opened it quickly and Brian stormed in slamming the door. As he retied our little security lock I looked him over for any new damage. He looked whole and ok except dirty and a little more tired.
“I don’t know if we can go any further, there’s 40 or so crammed in the stairway. We need to stay here for a bit and wait to see. Hopefully they’ll disperse.”
“I have an idea.” Maggie said raising her hand.
“What’s that kiddo?” Brian asked.
“Two ideas kinda opposite of each other. First we could light some garbage cans on fire and throw them down the stairway maybe we can burn them out.”
“No good the smoke would come up here and choke us to death. But I like the way you are thinking.” I said.
“So the other is with water. We have a fire hose why don’t we crank it up and stand on the top stair and shoot them down further. The pressure should be really strong.” She added.
“Now that idea I can get behind. Blonde, brains and beauty, the whole trifecta” Brian answered.
Maggie stood there and smiled wickedly and batted her eyes at us. “And so much more.” She said biting her bottom lip and staring at me.
“Well you know me let’s just get to it. No reasons to stand around with our fingers up our asses.” Brian said.
“You’d like that though.” I said jokingly.
Brian even broke out in laughter. “Now that is a good one!” He pounded my back with the flat of his hand.
He untied the hose from the wheel and screwed it back onto the spigot. He handed me the gun. “No way man. You take the gun, I’ve never fired one before. I’ll take the hose and Maggie can take my bat.” Brian stood there staring at me for a while.
“Okay it’s a plan, grab the hose, I got my gun. Maggie, grab Dan’s bat and spikes. You are going to have to protect his rear.”
She jumped off the couch and ran over, grabbed my spikes and bat then kissed my cheek. “I’ll cover your ass don’t worry.” She winked at me.
Brian opened the door and was floored to see four zombies on the landing. Maggie cranked the water and I opened the hose nozzle. The water came out so fast I almost lost my grip on it. I fought with it just in time to bring the water down and directed at them. The water pressure blew them off the steps and down to the next landing. I followed the bodies close behind, as Brian pulled the hose all the way out so I could move freely.
I kept the water on them pushing them further and further as I descended the stairs. I finally hit the full crowd pushing them into each other and down they went. I kept moving and at some point was on my own. Brian was further back and I couldn’t concentrate on what was happening back there. I heard the gun go off and was stunned. I tried re climbing the stairs to get back to the group. The pressure was so strong I had a problem keeping my feet under me as it was pushing me back. I finally made it to our landing and saw Brian carrying Maggie back into the offices. I turned off the nozzle and followed them in. I shut the door and ran over to turn off the water shut off valve. Finally, I had to empty the hose so I could bend it. After another minute I was able to tie it at the wheel and at the door latch securing the door.
I turned to Brian and found him holding Maggie down on the ground. I ran over and fell to the floor on my knees next to them. I looked over Maggie and saw blood pouring from her stomach. I ran and gathered napkins from the bathroom and came running back. Brian was sitting back on his ass with tears running down his face.
“What the hell happened? Is she?” Tears started pouring down my face and I started having problems breathing.
“While you were moving down the stairs I was covering your butt, Maggie must not have been paying attention to the upper stairs, I heard a scream and turned in time to watch three zombies tackling her to the ground and started tearing at her. I pulled my gun and shot all three in the head. I then slipped on the water while trying to lift her and hit my back on the stairs. When you looked back I had finally gotten her up and was pulling her into the offices when you started coming back. They did so much damage, I can’t fix this. They tore her belly open and I.” He stopped and just stared at Maggie’s lifeless body.
“Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.” I reached over to Brian and took his hands, so I could clean them, of Maggie’s blood using all the napkins I had in my hands. I then pulled him close and hugged him. We both sat like that for a while just holding each other.
Weak moments happen to the best of us and even though we had been surviving in a living nightmare; to lose the one person we saved was devastating to us. I stood up wobbly and went into one of the back offices, leaving Brian to watch over Maggie. When I came back I noticed Brian had taken care of making sure Maggie would not come back as one of those monsters. I gave him a weak smile of thanks for his thoughtfulness. Using a full length overcoat, I had seen earlier. I draped it over Maggie to give her peace. I said a few words over her and started gathering my weapons.
“What are you doing Boss?” Brian asked in a whisper instead of his cock sure voice.
“To do what we had originally planned. I’m sick and tired of being locked down in this place, afraid, and never knowing when our end is coming. I’m taking that into my own hands, I will find a way out of here. You coming?” I headed toward the door.
Brian came up next to me and patted me on the back. “Let’s do this thing then.” He stated.
“We will use the water again. You need to cover me though and make sure to not get killed. If the water pressure dies, maybe, we can get down another floor at least.” I planned out.
I untied the hose from the door latch and the wheel. Then spun the wheel bringing our pressure to full on the hose. Brian opened the door quickly and I opened the nozzle and shot a full stream over the landing. Nothing was there but I kept it up anyway. I walked toward the stairs and started making my way down. I still hadn’t run into any of the zombies but I kept advancing. We made it to the next floor and I figured I had enough hose to go for one more. Where did all the zombies go? They had been packed in the stairway tightly. We kept going and I theorized I knew where they had gone. The door at the next floor landing was open. I ran out of hose at this point so I turned off the nozzle and turned to Brian.
“I bet if we move fast we can make it to the bottom.” I said.
“Finally we can get out of here.” He said with relief written on his face.
We then heard screaming coming from the open door. I didn’t even think, I grabbed my bat that I had stuck into the straps of my pack, and headed for the door. I felt Brian next to me and knew he had his gun ready.
We made entry and immediately turned and secured the door. We made our way into the lobby and stayed on alert for more screams. We heard someone yelling and we took off in that direction. We found at least twenty zombies trying to break into an office. Brian used six quick shots from his gun and took a zombie out with each one. He then replaced the magazine with a new one, stuck it into his waistband and we waded into the crowd using our bats to make room. I had just caved in a third zombie’s head and my arms felt like Jell-O but I wasn’t going to stop, I hit another one but it was fresher and I didn’t crack the skull. I grabbed a spike off my belt and shoved it home into the zombie’s eye and pulled it back out as it fell to the ground. I noticed the zombies had turned their attention on us so I moved back making them come to me, giving my poor arms a rest. I saw Brian had knocked down six and was copying my, withdrawal method.
We only had four left, thank god because I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up. I watched as three came my way and only one turned to Brian. Fuck me they must be able to sense I was the weaker prey. Just then I thought about Maggie lying dead upstairs. I felt a surge of anger swell up inside me and I roared in anger and moved forward. I booted the first zombie in the chest knocking it down to the ground. As the next one reached out I swung for the fences and its head came apart like a piñata at a Mexican birthday, but instead of candy and prizes, bits of bones, brains and that black shit came exploding out. I sidestepped the one on the floor and shoved the last one against the wall. I came down hard to my knees, using the momentum to crush the Zombie’s head on the floor to mush with the bat.
I pushed myself to my feet and went after the last one again, my vision was turning red from anger. I yelled out every obscenity I could think of and went at it as hard as I could. Next thing I knew Brian was pulling me back. I had taken the zombie down to the ground bashing its head on the floor with my hands. Its head was a mass of fluid, bits of hair, and broken bone. It had ripped the bottom of my polo shirt and my pants were soiled with blood and fluids. I was breathing heavily, and my vision was slowly coming back, the red crimson subsiding.
