“Lets roll.” Whispered Stewart. They checked the front doors, saw they were zombie free and burst outside into the night and ran towards the cars. They were loaded and ready to go in seconds and both vehicles started without hardly a sputter. Getting out of the parking lot was no problem at all and as they turned onto the street Max could swear he saw the zombie 'Jimbo' leading another zombie up the street by his tie.
Chapter 24
Amelia and Diane rushed out of the bathroom, bum rushing the zombie girl who reacted faster than they would have thought possible as she had suffered from a shotgun blast to the upper torso. Amelia shoved her rubber plunger into the zombies face and pushed her backwards, while Diane rushed headlong for the stairwell, the continuing screaming from Kirkpatrick’s office covered the noise of their encounter with the zombie girl. As Diane rushed past the prone zombie it reached out with it's good arm and grabbed her ankle. Amelia could tell that Diane was beyond the normal ‘fight or flight’ mode and could also hear that her breathing was becoming irregular and sharp. Amelia beat on the girl with the plunger. However a plunger was just not the sort of weapon needed to kill this zombie, and probably not any zombie. Amelia jumped into a nearby cubical and grabbed the computer monitor off the desk, pulling an assortment of wire and cables loose as she rushed out to smash it down on the girl’s head, the resulting crash was loud, loud enough to alert the queen in the office? Amelia did not wait to find out. Diane was on her hands and knees gasping for breath trying to reach the stairwell, one hand fumbling in her pocket, Amelia reached her and lifted her up, half dragging her into the relative safety of the stairs. They leaned on the doors and Diane’s hand came up with a small tube of asthma medication, which she inhaled immediately. Amelia guided her down the stairs trying not to fall as they both stumbled downward to the ground floor.
The lobby was cast in an eerie red light, tail lights! The sound of a car leaving was too much for Amelia to bear, she ran towards the door, leaving Diane behind, and screamed, “Wait! Wait God dammit! Wait!” to no avail, the cars were gone. Diane came up to her, a shocked look on her face, “They left us?” she wheezed. “Oh fuck.”
Amelia turned back to Diane and said, “Yeah, my dumb fucking luck, sorry Diane, I have a way with dumb fucking luck. Nothing ultimately bad happens, just enough to make my life a living fucking hell. And now you are caught up….” Here Amelia trailed off and looked beyond Diane.
“What?” asked Diane turning around to look, “What is it?”
“The copy machine light is green, it isn't in 'sleep mode' anymore, so they photo copied something.” said Amelia as she pushed past Diane to the machine, she looked at the codes and then pressed a few buttons on the machine, saying, “I am going to get a copy of it from memory and print it off.” The machine clicked on and spat out a copy with three addresses on it, with names for “Tom”, “Steve’s Sister” and “Max’s House” written above the corresponding address.
“Clever trick” said Diane, “But did they leave the original?” Diane lifted the cover and sure enough the paper pad was still lying on the top of the printer face down. “See?
She grabbed the pad, tore off the first sheet and stuffed it into her pocket, “Now we each have a copy. Oh and lets not advertise that we used the machine, okay?” With that she reached over and held down the power button until the machine clicked off.
“Good” said Amelia, “That clears the memory too. Lets get to my car.” With that they left the lobby of Mac, Co., a pad of paper on the lobby counter softly rustled as the wind from opening the door blew through.
Outside Amelia said, “Lets just go nice and slow, maybe we won’t be noticed so quickly. My car is just over there.” The two women could not have chosen a better time to leave the building, just moments before two automobiles had left attracting and distracting all the nearby zombies and they made it to Amelia’s car wedged between two others before they attracted the attention of a zombie near the edge of the parking lot. Diane leaned up against the car next to Amelia's and tried to regain her breath. Amelia reached into her pocket and then let out a whimper, “Oh no. Oh-no. Oh-No-oh-no-no!”
“What? What?” demanded Diane
“My keys are in my purse, in my desk in Kirkpatrick’s office!” sobbed Amelia.
Diane smiled and said, “Don’t worry honey, we can take my car.” she held out a key chain and clicked a remote unlock button, the lights flashed and doors made a ‘snick’ sound as they unlocked, “You drive, I am not so sure I can.”
Diane hopped in the passenger door and Amelia wasted no time scooting around to the driver’s side and climbing in before the zombie reached the vehicle. “Wow” she said, “I never drove a 'Caddy' before!”
“No time like the present, it is an automatic, you won’t have any problems. Where are we heading?”
Amelia looked at her as she sped out of the Mac Co. parking lot, “Well the list has three addresses, I would have to guess they are in some order, probably from the first place to the last place they plan to end up. I say we head for Max’s house instead of trying to chase them around the city. Besides, I grew up in Arvada, I know right were this is.”
“Why go after them at all? Why not go somewhere else?”
“I, I don’t know exactly. Max and Stewart have stayed alive so far, they might have a plan and I just can’t think of one right now. So”, she shrugged, “I want them to do the work of figuring out where to go. They owe us that for leaving us behind.”
Diane gave Amelia a sideways look and responded, “Amelia, dear, we are still alive so far too. Don’t underestimate us.”
Chapter 25
“You dumb little bitch!” Nancy spat, looking down at Veronica, who sat cowering on the floor, “I give you one little task, one simple thing to do, ‘keep the meat from escaping’ and you cannot handle bringing them to the bathroom?” Nancy turned towards the window in Kirkpatrick’s office and watched as a Cadillac sped out onto the street, making towards the highway in the pre-dawn light.
“Well V I am not in such a forgiving mood right now, anyway you can see Julie got the lions share of the meat, there ain’t much energy left unless I miss my guess. Trish you might as well eat what is left, it looks like Veronica let her supper get away.” Turning back to Veronica she said, “V you are the hunter returned home without any protein, your job today is going to be to find us more. And by ‘us’ I mean me and you, I could use a bite. If you don’t find anything suitable I may give cannibalism a try.”
“W-what? Cannibalism?” whispered Veronica.
“I mean you, V. You. C’mon lets evaluate our options here and decide what to do. Trish, check the guys pockets, look for car keys dear. It seems everyone is driving these days, maybe we should jump on the bandwagon too?”
A quick search revealed the man was carrying keys for a Chevy, scanning the lot Nancy could make out several cars remaining and a van, but she was not a car person before becoming a member of the undead and the change had not imparted her with any of that mystic knowledge either.
“V? You know cars? No? Trish? Julie? Oh for Christ sake the minute we need Jimbo, he is not around. Well we do it the hard way, check each Chevy until the key fits, there can't be that many of them in the lot. Julie you ready to roll yet?”
Nancy had been amazed at the progress of Julie since she fed her most of the man they had slain in Kirkpatrick’s office, her torso had fully re-attached, she could stand up and she seemed more mentally alert than before the shotgun blasts. She still needed more meat, the healing process had slowed down dramatically after the first five minutes and she was barely mobile. The point was, she was not a loss, a four girl gang, that was a modest power in this new world.