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  “Great attitude,” Lucas said.

  “This building’s falling apart more with every single step we take, crumbling under our feet,” Buddy whined. “We all need to get outta here. Max told us to cover you, not to die for you!”

  “Do you know what those notes can do for humanity?” Lucas snapped. “There’s a cure out there, man. Jackie is living proof!”

  “Look, pal, we all want a cure just as bad as you do. We wouldn’t have come in here at all if we didn’t,” Buddy retorted. “We all wanna see mankind beat this thing, but going on a suicide mission ain’t gonna save nobody. We keep trolling through this rubble, they’ll just have to dig under more bodies to get to the research.”

  Nick waved a dismissive hand, then turned and walked in another direction. “I know another way. We passed a corridor a little way back. Anybody who’s coming, get a move-on. The rest of you know the way out.”

  Some of the men quickly said their goodbyes and scurried away, but a few stuck with us, including Buddy, who complained more than anyone. I was thankful that they didn’t all desert us, but I secretly wished he’d been one of the ones to run away, because he was getting on everyone’s nerves.

  My feet crunched over the debris as we briskly walked, with Jackie in the lead. When we got to the spot, we realized the entrance was blocked by a layer of concrete that had slid down from the floor above.

  Jackie glanced around and pointed to another hall just north of us. “Let’s go that way,” she suggested.

  Tall beams crisscrossed high above us, with more to the left and right, like the very gates of Hell. It really didn’t faze me much, considering that we’d all been living a hellish existence already, and we were more than ready to fight any demons that came our way. We turned the bend and walked down another long corridor, only to be confronted by yet another dead end, a blockage of metal and debris.

  “What now?” Claire asked.

  Nick pointed to a breach in the wall. He slipped through the jagged edges and disappeared into the darkness. I followed him and realized we were in the hospital gift shop. Everything was covered in debris, dirt, and pebbles, and there was a horrible teddy bear on the floor, with one of its eyes missing, holding a big heart that said “Get Well.”

  Suddenly, a loud noise echoed in the air. I quickly aimed my flashlight in the direction of the noise and saw the double-doors moving back and forth.

  Bang-bang-bang-bang!

  I walked over the debris and maneuvered through the store. A pile of concrete on the ground kept the doors from opening all the way, but something desperately wanted in. Suddenly, a long, vertical line of fingers burst through the crack. I gasped as that sickeningly familiar moaning reverberated through the air. Black, dead fingers waved through the gap, from the top of the door to the bottom.

  “Oh my gosh!” Claire said. “How can they wiggle their fingers through that high? None of them are that tall.”

  “They must be stacked up,” I said. “I don’t even wanna know how many there are.”

  “The floor collapsed,” Lucas said. “They fell in! Anybody up for a little zombie Jenga?”

  “The men must’ve missed one of the upstairs rooms when they were taking out the stragglers,” Val said. “Charlie was trying to build a whole army, so there were a lot of them.”

  Asia looked at us, her eyes wide. “Let’s find a different way!”

  “The only way to Charlie’s safe is through those doors,” Jackie said. “The other way is completely blocked off.”

  The door began to inch open, slowly and methodically, like a slow-motion scene out of some awful horror movie; only this time, I was actually there instead of sitting in a red velvet seat, safely behind a giant bucket of extra-buttery popcorn. Dread washed over me, but without a second thought, I grabbed Buddy’s axe and pried it through the metal handles so they couldn’t get through.

  The zombies pounced and heaved their rotting corpses against the door. The door shook violently, the banging and pounding growing worse with every passing second. One of the undead nuisances peeked in through the gap in the door and met my gaze with that familiar cold stare, those unforgettable, nightmarish, evil, milky-white eyes. They only lived to rip the flesh off the living, and I lived to rip their brains out. Even wide awake, our nightmares were all too real.

  “Look!” Val shouted.

  I gasped as the doors begin to rip off their hinges. I knew if we didn’t run, we’d be fighting a barrage of rotting, starving demons.

  Wood splintered, and the moans grew louder.

  “Move out!” Nick barked.

  “Run!” I shouted.

  Crack!

  I glanced over my shoulder as I frantically climbed through the debris. My heart thundered when the doors burst open and zombies scrambled in like football players ripping through a homecoming banner. The only trouble was, they had too many men on the field.

  Chapter 2

  Zombies poured in, locking their hungry gaze on my flesh. My heart raced, and adrenaline surged through me.

  “Up here!” Nick shouted.

  Lucas was the next to yell for us. When I glanced over, I saw him standing atop a huge pile of rocks, climbing through another crack in the wall high above our heads. I ducked beneath another toppled beam and headed over to meet them. As I did, my foot sank into the debris, and I found myself lodged between two rocks. Droplets of sweat rolled down my face as I watched zombies stumble in my direction. How can everything go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds?

  “Get outta there, Dean!” Nick yelled.

  Black nails reached for me. I took aim and pulled the trigger, shattering the zombie’s head. In an instant, another reached for me, and I squeezed the trigger again, then pulled my foot as hard as I could, to no avail. Val stepped in front of me and fired a round into the undead army, till her gun clicked empty. Asia let out a few well-placed shots, nailing anything that got too close to me or my sister. Nick aimed carefully and blasted another deadhead when it took a clumsy step toward me. Val slammed in a new magazine and took aim for the fiend that was only a few feet away. When she pulled the trigger, the thing’s head flew back, and the body fell over. Lucas put a few zombies down with multiple headshots that landed precisely on target. I’d never been so happy that my friends and siblings were such good marksmen.

  My foot loosened, and I scrambled up just as a zombie grabbed my arm. I spun around and kicked it, sending it crashing into another decaying monster and a table full of coffee cups on display. Heaving a sigh of relief that its putrid black nails hadn’t penetrated my coat, I reloaded.

  “My foot’s free!” I yelled to my sister.

  “Good,” she said. “Now c’mon!”

  Together, we carefully scaled a tall pile of rocks and concrete. Val maneuvered through the rubble behind me. When we got to the top, I felt better. From that vantage point, we had a view of the entire room, and the zombies were not sure-footed enough to follow us up there. Nevertheless, as safe as I felt, I knew it was only a temporary illusion, a false hope. We were never safe, not for a minute. I shined the light around and saw the others waiting by a large crack in the ceiling.

  “All clear!” Nick said. “Follow me.”

  I hurried over, and Nick told me to climb into a gap in the wall. He reached his hand down and helped Kate up. One by one, everyone climbed up and squeezed through the jagged opening. The building let out a groan, but we almost didn’t hear it, since we were quickly becoming desensitized to it. I wiped the sweat off my face and took a deep breath to calm my racing heart.

  Jackie looked around, trying to place where we were. “Okay,” she said, nodding. “I think I’ve got my bearings. C’mon.” She motioned us down the corridor in a hurry. Time was of the essence, and it was good to have a tour guide through the dark, dilapidated maze.

  Suddenly, I heard a moan coming from the left, and nothing about it sounded human. ”Not again,” I grumbled.

  “Rotters up ahead,” Val said.


  A chill shot up my spine. I peeked around her and saw zombies in tattered white scrubs, dead nurses, doctors, and other medical staff clumsily approaching.

  Nick looked at me. “You take the left. I’ll handle the right.”

  I nodded, tightening my finger on the trigger. When I heard a snarl, I took careful aim at the grotesque monster emerging from the shadows. It groaned through clenched black teeth. With my gun aimed squarely at its forehead, I pulled the trigger. It fell forward, and I had to sidestep out of its way. When I saw another one, an even more ghastly blonde with a skeletal face, I quickly disposed of her with my weapon. Two more came behind her, so I squeezed off two quick shots to take them down. The girls took down a few more.

  Suddenly, the moans stopped.

  “I think we got ‘em all,” Claire said, lowering her weapon.

  “That remains to be seen,” Buddy mumbled.

  Nancy smiled. “Good job, guys.”

  “There’s more ahead,” Asia said. “The corridor turns. Not sure how many.”

  Nick looked at us. “Let me go scout it out real quick, so we don’t walk into a trap. I’ll be right back.”

  “Take Jackie with you, so you don’t get lost,” Lucas said.

  Nick and Jackie went ahead to survey the area, to make sure it was safe for us to pass.

  I kept my gun drawn. My nerves were on edge as we waited, and the seconds seemed to tick by like hours. It reminded me too much of the lab I’d been trapped in; I unhappily recalled running around in the dark like a rat in a maze, wondering if I was ever going to get out. I had escaped that, only to relive the nightmare again. Will any of us get out of this alive? I wondered but dared not say. I didn’t want to upset the others or add fuel to complaining Buddy’s fire. I had to move past my fears, like always, because I was a true survivor. The zombie apocalypse had already left a lasting mark on my life, but I refused to let it victimize me. Life was hard, and we had all lost much, but we would heal and move on. That horrible story was not my identity. The man I would become had far more to do with how I pushed through it, and my sister and brother were perfect examples of the never-give-up heroes that I wanted to be.

  Suddenly, Nick slipped past me in a panic. “Zombies up ahead, tons of rotters! We woulda walked right into them.”

  “How many?” Lucas asked. “Can’t we just take them out?”

  Nick grimly shook his head. “Far too many. We’re sorely outnumbered.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Asia said.

  Moans echoed from behind us, coming from way down the hall.

  “Uh, guys,” Claire said, “they’re coming from the other way too!”

  “They must’ve locked on to our scent,” Kate breathed out.

  “Well, the white freaks are coming!” Buddy screamed. “So what exactly is the plan?”

  I glanced around and saw zombies were slowly coming from both directions.

  “Attack or retreat?” Claire asked.

  Nick pondered. “There’s no exit, no escape. If we fight the large herd in front of us, we’ll just be ambushed from the back.”

  “Not good odds, if ya ask me,” Lucas said. “You gotta pick your battles, man, and this isn’t the one. They’ll just block us in and tear us to shreds. Let’s hide in one of these rooms till they pass.”

  I edged closer to the door and knocked, then listened intently but heard nothing—no moans, banging, footsteps, or rustling. I wrapped my fingers around the knob and jiggled it but still heard only silence.

  “Sounds like a good place,” Claire whispered. “C’mon.”

  I hesitantly opened the door as my breath hitched in my throat. My flashlight shook in my hand, and I glanced around. The beam landed on a cherry desk and bookshelves, indicating that we had wandered in to one of the administrative offices. Each and every shadow made me nervous. I took cautious steps, alert to every sound, smell, and sight. Everyone moved in behind me and began to sweep the room with their own eyes and flashlights.

  “Clear,” Nick said.

  Val rushed over and locked the door. “Don’t need any uninvited guests,” she said.

  I looked at Jackie. “Why were those nurses and doctors still here? I thought Charlie booted them all out.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. He kept them in the basement, for experiments. They must’ve gotten loose.”

  “Great,” Buddy said. “An undead hospital staff on the loose. We can’t stay here long.”

  “We really have no choice but to hole up in here,” Nick said. “We can’t fight that many.”

  “Says you,” Buddy spat.

  “I think we could take them on,” Nancy insisted.

  Nick met her gaze. “That cockiness is gonna get us all killed.”

  She pushed her black hair out of her face. “I’m not conceited,” she said, frowning at him. “I’m more...convinced. I say we fight. We can’t just sit around in here waiting to be their buffet.”

  Nick was never one to back down. “I’m not fighting this time, Nancy, but if you insist, I’ll happily open the door for you. I’m a gentleman like that.”

  “Gentleman my...” She rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and stayed put, sticking her bottom lip out in a pout like a spoiled little girl.

  “I second Nick’s opinion,” Lucas said, backing my brother up. “We haven’t lived this long by being idiots.”

  “If we just stay here and be quiet for a few minutes, they’ll probably pass us by,” Claire said.

  “We don’t have that kinda time,” Rex chimed in. “In case you haven’t noticed, this place very well might become our tomb.”

  “Fighting the white demons would be stupid,” Lucas said. “Now, either help us barricade this place or get the heck out!”

  We started hauling furniture over and placing it in front of the door. Asia, Kate, and I managed to move the huge, heavy desk, and Jackie and Val placed bookshelves behind it as a brace.

  I walked to the other side of the room, looking for anything we could use. When the floorboard creaked behind me, I swung around and pointed my gun.

  “Whoa there!” Kate said, clutching her heart. “It’s just me.”

  “S-sorry,” I stuttered nervously. “I just...”

  “It’s okay,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have sneaked up on you like that.” She suddenly grabbed my arm. “Watch the hole in the floor though. That first step looks like a doozy.”

  “Yeah, we can’t have the birthday boy disappearing on us, can we?” Claire said.

  “You remembered?”

  She nodded and grinned at me. “Of course. Birthdays are quickly becoming rare for a lot of people these days. Each one is a special occasion, right?”

  “Right,” I said, blushing a bit. I shined my light into the hole and could see the room below us. My stomach clenched. “Is the floor gonna collapse on us?” I asked.

  Buddy began to pace around the sturdy parts of the floor, which were few and far between. “Most of this floor feels like a trampoline. It’s gonna cave any minute. Boxing ourselves in here was a horrible idea!”

  Nick shined the flashlight at him. “Listen, we didn’t have a choice. Swarms of them are coming from both ways.”

  “Yeah. We can’t take all them on,” Lucas whispered. “If you’ll shut up with all your complaining and whining, maybe they’ll just go away so we can get outta here.”

  A few minutes passed, and we all stayed quiet. Moans lingered in the air, and the shuffling of dead feet made me nervous. When something banged on the door, a cold chill shot through me. We’d hoped they would grow bored and leave, but they kept pounding, demanding to be fed. The door began to creak and shake, and I knew we had nowhere to go if they managed to break it down.

  “There are too many,” Claire said. “Those hinges are gonna break, just like before.”

  I shivered in horror, because I knew she was right. ”We need a Plan B...quick!” I said. I glanced over at the hole in the floor, and shined my flashlight down into it ag
ain. “Maybe we could...” My words caught in my throat when my beam landed on a few zombies covered in green slime and moss. Grunting, the monstrous faces glanced up. They started to move, and I heard a splashing sound. “What the heck?” I asked, wrinkling my brow in confusion.

  “It’s a pool!” Claire said.

  Blinking, I peered down and saw that she was right. The zombies were frolicking around in the brown water, and the sign on the wall read, “St. Catherine’s Rehabilitation & Exercise Pool.”

  “Darn it,” Lucas said. “I forgot my club card and my Speedos. I guess we’ll just have to sneak down there.”

  “Are you crazy?” Rex asked. “Diving and breaking my neck isn’t gonna help any of us!”

  “Yeah,” Buddy said, “and in case you didn’t notice, the pool’s already occupied.”

  Nick hurried over and pointed his own flashlight down. “It could work.”

  “How many zombies are there?” Val asked.

  “Just a few swamp things,” I answered, staring down at the green atrocities. “We can easily take them out.”

  “Let me see,” Val said, peering down with her night vision, an added bonus.

  “Well?” Lucas asked.

  “At least a dozen,” she replied.

  “Hmm. Well, all things considered, I guess we’re going for a dip,” Lucas said.

  “You expect us to jump into that toxic waste dump?” Asia asked, incredulous.

  “This is not the time to act like a princess,” Lucas retorted.

  “What!? You know that’s not me!” she said. “It’s just that we have no idea what’s lurking in that filthy water.”

  “It’s a chance we have to take,” Kate replied grimly. “We don’t have many options left.”

  Val looked down. “We’ll spray a storm of bullets. That should give us a fighting chance.”

  “Then let’s start cleaning house,” Claire said.

  She pointed her gun into the hole, followed by Val. They fired at anything that moved. The gunfire echoed, and the zombies outside our door grew even louder. The girls sprayed a burst of 9mm rounds that shattered glass, killed zombies, and lodged in the marble walls and floor.