Walter “Walt” Coggins had been one of the “hiders” and had gladly volunteered to take his turn at watch in the main lobby. Walt now lounged in the security guards chair near the front entrance while the rest of the people rested in Kirkpatrick’s office area. Walt had been the facilities maintenance supervisor and considered the MAC Co building his home away from home. He was in his late sixties and had planned to work three more years before he retired. After the death of his wife seven years ago Walt had made the unconscious decision to adopt MAC Co and it's employees as his second family. Walt knew everyone that worked there, at one time or another he had passed them in the hallway, replaced a light above their desk, fixed a jammed copier, or had in some other way provided the kind, friendly service that he had become well known for.
The security monitor beeped starting Walt out of his thoughts. He had been staring at the ceiling with his hands clasped behind his head contemplating if a person who had been a vegetarian became a zombie, whether that had any effect on their appetite for meat. Quickly he read the new entry, “Nancy Wieden, Marketing Department, 3:17 a.m., Loading Bay Exterior Card Reader, Approved.”
Miss Wieden? Walt knew Nancy well since she usually worked late hours and he had routinely performed much of his building maintenance during that time so as to not disrupt the general employee population. On numerous occasions, when she had time, they would talk about their lives outside of MAC Co. Yes, he knew Nancy and he was extremely happy that she had made it to the safety of his building.
His excitement got the best of him and before Walt knew it he had left the security guard station and was making tracks to be the first one to welcome Nancy. Walt cut through the middle of the lobby to a nondescript door to the loading docks, passing the one stairwell that had not been blocked off and making his way to the storage rooms outside the loading docks, rooms he knew and loved so well.
Every night at ten the building automatically switched to an energy saver mode so Walt wasn’t surprised when he entered the dimly lit loading area. Only one out of every four lights were illuminated but it was enough for Walt to see a small group of people heading down the hall, away from him.
“Miss Wieden is that you?” The sound of his voice caused the entire group to come to a sudden stop. He could see a figure at the back of the group turn around and when she stepped under one of the illuminated fixtures he was able to confirm that, yes, it was Miss Wieden.
“Walt?”
“Yes Miss Wieden, it’s me and I can’t tell you how glad I am to see that you are ok! I’ve been so worried about you, for that matter, all the other folks who never showed up today. Well, it sure is a blessing to see your face.”
“Other folks? Walt, be a dear and tell me, have you seen Fred from accounting? I really need to speak with him.”
“Fred? Why no, I can’t say that I have seen him, we have some parts of the building shut off, those…but if Fred were in one of them he would have shown up by now. Why? Surely this doesn’t have anything to do with business Miss Wieden, haven’t you seen what’s been going on out there? We’ve got bigger problems to deal with. We should get you up to Kirkpatrick’s office and the let others know you and your friends are alright.” Walt said acknowledging that Nancy was not alone.
“Can you recall if anyone in Kirkpatrick’s office mentioned seeing Fred?”
Walt rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “No, no, I can’t say that any of them have said anything about him to me.”
Her tone now changed from businesslike to a considerably more friendly manner, “OK then, no harm done, I just would really like to see him. Come over here Walt, I want to introduce you to my new friends.”
The light above Nancy shown down on her like a spot light hiding her face in a dark shadow cast from her brightly lit hair. Her friends, as she called them, were just dark shapes outside of the spot light and Walt could not make out any details. For some reason he hesitated at first and then he remembered that this was Nancy, his friend who he was glad to see was unharmed. As he approached Nancy and her friends a thought entered his old brain.
“Miss Wieden, why do you need Fred so badly?”
“Well Walt, if you need to know. He has something on me and I want to get rid of him.” Nancy replied. Walt had just a fraction of a second to pull back and he was too slow. Nancy and her friends pounced on him like a pack of hungry wolves and tore the life out of him.
Chapter 20
Max couldn’t sleep. Not a surprise given his location, the hard floor inside a cubical at work. However, with the kind of day he had been having he really expected to be able to do more than doze. Part of it was trying to sleep in an unfamiliar area, the noises were unfamiliar and some primeval sense told Max his ‘home’ was being invaded, and kept waking him up. Around three thirty Max opted to go empty his bladder and see if that magic would help get him to sleep again. He was not the only one unable to sleep, he saw several others moving around too, and someone had made a pot of coffee, probably to bring down to Walt. He entered the bathroom and had a feeling of dejavu as there was some serious shuffling going on in the stall, however, after a second the stall opened to reveal a guy named Dave, who Max didn’t really know. Dave nodded sheepishly, as if to say, “Sorry about the smell” and went to wash his hands while Max stood at the urinal. He left while Max was taking his turn at the sink and Max heard him grunt just outside the door.
“What the fu-”, was all Max heard Dave say. It was enough to cause adrenaline to pump into his veins, a feeling Max had grown all too familiar with in the last twenty four hours, abruptly he shut off the water faucet. Out of habit he grabbed paper towels and dried his hands. He cautiously went to the door and listened quietly, he heard a slightly familiar woman’s voice whispering, “Keep quiet Jimbo! Drag him to the cube with the others, we might get a clean sweep after all. V? Have you found the ones with the guns yet? Quiet everyone, maybe we can catch them snoozing. Let me check out the bathrooms to see if we have any other naughty night pissers on our hands.”
Max tensed himself, this was it, no weapons and a zombie bitch getting ready to come in and munch him. He anxiously looked around for something to defend himself with. Nothing came to mind and he heard the door swing open whirling around he was stunned to see it was not his door, apparently it was the door to the women’s bathroom. Quietly Max re-appraised his situation. The handicap bar, if he could pry that off he could bash someone with it, going into the stall he reached down, braced his feet on the ground and lifted as hard as he could. It was fastened too well, he was able to get it loose, but not break it off. Wait! A toilet plunger! A wooden rod fourteen inches long was not much, but better than nothing. Oh and the metal trash can could be slid out of the wall too! Max backed out of the stall, keeping his eyes on the door while backing towards the garbage can. The men’s room door swung open and a large male zombie stepped in. He immediately spotted Max and swung towards him. He was slow, though, 'Thank God, a break!' thought Max. Max grabbed the trash bin with one hand while pointing the toilet plunger, rubber suction cup first, towards the zombie. He sat the stainless steel trash bin in front of him like a make shift shield. The zombie, just stood there, apparently evaluating the situation, then he shuffled back to the door, slowly opened it and left!
Max stood for a second breathing hard, and then heard the women’s bathroom door open and a female voice quietly say, “Well Jimbo, any other wee-wee birds?”
“No one.” Max heard the zombie man say. Dumbfounded Max listened to the woman's voice reply.