Max heard footsteps, quick footsteps, running footsteps. Steve was coming. If he could hold the door for just a little longer Steve would be there and they could trap the thing in the men’s room.
The door was now about a foot open. Above his head he could hear the slapping of flesh on the metal of the door.
“Hold it right there!” The yell came from the lobby and was that of a woman. Max lifted his head and looked right into the barrel of a pistol. It was a police officer, a blond female police officer. Her feet were spread apart for stability and she held the gun firmly clasped between both hands. Her left eye was pinched shut but Max could clearly see her right eye looking down the barrel at him.
“I said hold it right there!”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Don't move!”
“There is a…” 'There’s a what?' Max thought. 'A zombie eating someone on the other side who wants to eat me you if you don’t blow his head off? Would a trained officer of the law believe this story?' Not likely.
“…I’ve got a murderer trapped and if you don’t do something about it we are both in big trouble.”
Max then heard two sounds. The first being the squeaking of his hands sliding across the floor. He was soon pinned between the door and the adjacent wall.
The second sound was a loud explosion that was amplified by the hard surfaces of the floor and walls. His ears were left ringing in the aftermath of the shot.
Max pushed his hands against the wall and fell back against the floor. The men’s room door did not completely close. There was a set of blood stained designer suit pants pinned between the door and the frame.
“Murderer, huh? Looked more like a zombie to me.” The officer said. Max turned his head towards her. She was standing above him with an outstretched hand. He grabbed it. It was warm but not sweaty. Must be the training. Regardless, it made him feel a little safer. She pulled Max to his feet.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I think most of this blood is someone else’s. What took you so long?”
“Hey, count yourself lucky, we’ve been dealing with these problems all morning. Had I not been on my way back to the station when I got the call you would have been on your own.”
She grabbed the radio from her belt and spoke into it. “Officer Stewart to HQ.” They both waited for a response.
“Officer Stewart to HQ.”
As they listened to the silence on the radio Max took survey of Officer Stewart. She looked to be in her mid twenties and stood a little over five and a half feet tall. She wore the standard Denver Police uniform, dark blue, with a black leather belt housing multiple items; handcuffs, pepper spray, a club, her side arm. Her left forearm was wrapped with a bandage. She wore no hat but her hair was pulled back into a tight pony tail. 'To Serve and Protect' read a small gold pin above her badge. Max thought that she was surprisingly cute for a cop.
“Are there others like him wandering around here?” Stewart asked as she pointed at the feet sticking out the doorway.
“Yeah, two, or possibly three now, that I know of.”
“What about normal people, any of those left in here?”
Normal? That sounded funny. Max guessed that Steve could pass as normal.
“Ah, yes, one more, Steve, back the other way. But that’s all I’ve seen this morning.”
“Actually, I’m right here.” Steve said as he crept from an office entrance.
Just how long had Steve been there? Had he witnessed the entire thing and made no attempt to help him? Max wouldn’t put it past Steve to do a thing like that. It seemed unimaginable but he guessed that some people would do anything to protect themselves. Max retrieved his bat and looked at Steve and Officer Stewart, “What do we do now?”
Chapter 4
“For starters lets see if we can block most of the doors, at least we need to push furniture up against them and make it hard for the lumbering undead to get into the building. Then we round up any survivors, then we finish off any trapped undead, clearing the building room by room.” Said Stewart.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa there little lady.” said Steve raising his hands in front of him as he spoke, “Undead? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Alright tough guy, listen and listen carefully. All morning we’ve been getting calls where people are being attacked, um, no, more like eaten by other people. There were a few calls as early as last night. Some pizza delivery guy chowed a family of four. I’ve personally taken out nine of the things so far, including that guy in the men’s room. Now, if I were you, I would call my friends and family and tell them to start boarding up their window and…”
“Oh shit, I gotta call my wife.” Max said as he fumbled for his cell phone. Once he got it out and started a call back to his home, he moved down the corridor a little to get away from Steve and Officer Stewarts' arguing, which was growing quite heated. “C’mon, c’mon, pick up honey, pick it up!”
“Hello?” a sleepy voice said on the other end of the line.
“Sarah! Sarah! Are you okay baby?”asked Max.
“Okay? Okay? Max what are you talking about, of course I am fine. What has happened? What is wrong?”
Standing there in blood coated clothing that was hardening around his body like an eggshell, Max really didn’t know where to begin.
“Sarah, things have gone wrong, there are some really bad people out running around the city and I want you and the kids to stay safe. In fact I want you to stay more than safe. Barricade the back door and the doors from the garage, move tables and chairs in front of them. Leave the front door locked and dead bolted, if I can get home I will come to the front door. Then I want you to..”
“Max, Max, stop it Max! What are you talking about? Bad people? What bad people? Terrorists? In Denver? Why would they come for me? Is it your job?”
”No, no honey, nothing like that okay, worse in a way, they won’t come for you….Hold on a sec honey… Hey Steve! Stewart! Keep it down you wanna just tell everything in hearing distance we are here? Go move the furniture in the lobby in front of the doors, okay, but stop yelling! Sorry hon, no I don’t have time to tell you everything, but I guess there are some really bad people running around and there could be a lot of them from what I just heard. You need to take the kids and hide up in the attic, bring water, food, blankets, everything. Get the porta-potty I use for camping out of the garage and move it up there if you can do it. You have to promise me you will stay there no matter what you hear in the house, if everything is quiet you can probably come down to use the bathroom when you need to. Oh, fill up the tub with water and the sinks and any containers we have laying around too.”
“Max, I am looking out the drapes, there are some people out there walking around really slow, like they are on drugs or something.”
A chill went up Max’s spine, “Honey, don’t let them see you, the uh, druggies are very, very violent! Slow but violent, like, um, zombies. And they will kill you and the kids if you let them see you!” Max was practically screaming into the phone now, “Take your cell phone up into the attic the zo..druggies have lower coordination when they are..high and cannot climb things really well.”
“Max you are scaring me, you're scared too, aren't you? I will do it, you just get someplace safe, come home if you can. I will get the kids up into the attic right now and wait for you, are you coming home right now?”
“As soon as I can baby, as soon as I can.”
“Max” said Sarah with near hysteria in her voice, “Max are you going to be okay?”
“Relax baby, relax, I have a police officer here with me, she’ll take care of me, I am more worried about you. I don’t know what’s happening in the rest of the city but from what I hear, it’s not good. That’s why I want you to get the kids, some food and some water up into the attic. Just do it okay? Honey, one more thing.”