“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck. I don’t know if she is telling the truth, maybe they have hostages?”stated Max. Calling out he said, “Nancy, prop open the door so we can see if you have any others still alive in there!”
“Oh Maxy, that is just a ploy to try and blow my fucking head off, and you know it! I would rather you came in after them, it will make my job easier if it comes to fighting.”
“Fuck, don’t believe that bitch Max, she was in marketing!” whispered Steve.
“I know, I know, I know. How can we leave if there is a chance any of them are still alive? I know Dave is dead, and it does not look too good for Walt either, but all the others? I mean could they kill that many people that quickly?”
“They were sleepy Max, it wouldn't have been much of a fight. We gotta decide man, the door behind us could be wide open.” said Stewart.
“Fuck, why do I have to decide?” complained Max
Stewart just looked at him, as if reading the hopelessness on his face, then said, “We leave. Now. It is not worth one of us getting chowed by fucking superwoman zombie in there. Lets go.”
Max just looked at Stewart, noting that no one was actually leaving yet, not even Stewart, then chocked out, “Not worth the risk, lets go.” Feeling a strange mix of relief and cowardice at the same time.
With that they started easing backward, Stewart made Tom give her the reloaded shot gun and whispered to him to lead the group back towards the stairway, to watch out for the girl who got away, and that she was going to try to take a shot at the woman in the office, by waiting for fifteen or twenty seconds after everyone else had gone out of sight. Stewart hid in a crouched position in the cube opening and aimed the shot gun at the hole in the door. In the poor light she was pretty hard to see and Maxed wished Nancy a violent, sudden end as he backed off towards the stairs. About halfway down towards the stairs they came across a lot of blood, but no body of Dave, the other 'naughty night pisser' whose blood they assumed it was. No zombie girl and no Jimbo either. Max warned the others that he had seen a male zombie run off this way too, and that Dave was now possibly a third zombie they would have to deal with.
“Shit this just gets better and better. How long do we wait for Stewart before we go back?” asked Steve.
“About three minutes or if we hear anything.” replied Max. They waited in grim silence waiting, for anything. After about two minutes Stewart came down the hallway to them, she was coated in blood, and smelled like road kill that had been laying in the hot sun. Noticing Max’s wrinkled nose she shrugged, “You have been worse, in fact you are not all that clean now, but I wasn’t bit, you weren’t either, right?” Max shook his head ‘no’, Stewart shrugged and continued, “So everything will be okay.”
“Not for the rest of the crew in the office.” said Tom
They all turned to look at him, and one by one, gave him a ‘what can we do?’ sort of look. “I think they were all dead already.” said Steve, “Lets get to the cars and get out of here.”
Chapter 21
They were not all dead.
From Nancy’s point of view the raid went far worse than expected, she had lost a couple of girls, and Jim, no real loss, for the gain of what? A meal? And the need to build her gang back up? And no fucking Fred. This was it, no more “Mrs fucking nice zombie gal”as soon as possible she was going to get her hands on some guns and learn, the hard way if necessary, how to shoot them.
The next time she ran into some police or hillbillies she would be prepared. Hell, where could she get bullet proof vests? She watched through the doorway as the one they called Stewart slowly departed. Obviously the living did not know she could see them with a sort of zombie vision that did not require light, and just as obviously they had been hoping she would stick her head out to a more favorable location, like where it could get blown off.
'Fucking Jimbo, what the hell happened to him? Max must have brained him, but where did Max come from? It is an office' Nancy rationalized 'he could have been hiding anywhere.' Something nagged at her thoughts, how could Max have sprinted up the corridor to bash them? That was it! He bashed in one of the girl’s heads with a trash can, like the kind you find in a bathroom.
Nancy waited until she heard the last woman enter the stairwell, then nodded towards V. “You got these under control V?” nodding towards an older woman, Kirkpatrick’s young secretary and a middle aged man who were all that was left of what Nancy thought of as her ‘Pantry’. Veronica, definitely worse for the wear, nodded back slowly and carefully her eyes never leaving the food.
“Okay, I will tell you what V, you can eat the first one of them who gives you ANY trouble, got it?” Turning towards the food, she repeated her question, “YOU got it?”they all nodded ‘yes’ vigorously.
Nancy slipped out the door towards the hallway. She was surprised to find Julie was not dead. The poor dear had been feigning her second death, lying like a slug with a bad head wound and most of her torso blow away in the office behind the desk. Nancy pulled her into the office and soothed her, saying, “I know it hurts Julie, I know, shhhh, shhh, it will be okay, you just rest up here. I will be back soon and we will decide what to do.”
Again Nancy made her way towards the bathroom, again she was brought up short, another girl was crawling out of the cubicles near the stairwell door! The second of the trio of girls, whom Nancy had expected to have been killed, was also alive and in good shape! 'Well, maybe this raid did not go so badly after all!' she thought to herself. 'Time to name this one I guess.' She mumbled to herself, “You! I never learned your name, Julie was ‘Gap Girl’, what do you want to be called? Old name or a new one? C’mon, I got things to do girl!”
The zombie stammered out, “I wa-was Julie too.”
“Oh of all the damn luck! Well ‘Julie too’ I can’t have two Julies running around and the original hardly likes ‘Gap Girl’ as a name, it is more of a title, what is your second choice?”
“Um-um, Trish? My old middle. Name.” said Julie who was now Trish.
“Fair enough Trish, you hide in this cube and keep your eyes out for anyone coming back from the stairwell and your ears on any sounds coming from the office. If you hear anything from the office bang on the bathroom door as you go by and run help sister Julie, got that? Otherwise, just yell for help and keep your head down?”
Trish, nodded yes and Nancy bent over in the hallway and picked up a dented trash can that was not too far from what Nancy suspected was her only casualty of this raid. Dented and gooey from hitting her gal, she walked the bin back into the men’s room. Sure enough the one there was missing. Not positive evidence, but goddamn good enough for Nancy. “Jimbo you lying sack of shit, you better hope someone else finds you before I do, ‘cause I am not going to be nice if we meet again.”
Nancy headed back to the hallway gathered up Trish and they both went back into the office with the others. Looking the situation over Nancy knew she had to do something about or for Julie, she would not leave her there handicapped, so it was time for healing or for finishing her off. Which one of the three left got to get eaten to see if they could stimulate Julie’s healing powers? Ah, a volunteer! The younger woman’s hand raised into the air tentatively, ‘This is great’, thought Nancy, ‘If only all the food would be so co-operative!’ Out loud she asked, “Yes?”as she pointed to the girl.
“I…I, gotta go pee, please! I really gotta go bad.”
“V, you up to taking the food into the bathroom for a quick pee and then bringing her back?”