Hard Choice

Hard Choice

Copyright @ 2015 By Charlotte A. Hoaks

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical including photocopy, recording, or any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to
people or places, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Without struggle we fail to notice when we
have found true happiness.

To my family, all my love.

Mayhem reigned on the streets of San
Antonio. It was no different on the thoroughfare in front of the
small business center. Far from the Riverwalk and the tourist
attractions of the city, vehicles blocked the building access and
sidewalks in front of the office building. Cars, pickups and even a
city bus had been abandoned amid the chaos of multiple crashes. The
result was half a dozen roadblocks. Some accidents had only been
fender benders while others left bodies barely clinging to life in
the wreckage. That is until the undead found them.

The two women in the fourth-floor office
watched as the frightened people tried to escape the terror of the
bloodied monsters chasing them. One by one the few remaining
survivors fell prey to the dead. Their screams of pain penetrated
the thin glass of the building’s windows loud and clear.

“Oh, my God!” The dark-haired woman standing
at the window gasped. Her face mirrored the horror of what she
witnessed. She turned to a bleached blonde sitting at a desk across
the aisle from the window.

“That man has half his faces gone, and his
intestines are hanging around his knees. It’s like the Internet
said, they have to be dead. Norma, we should have left with the
others?”

“We have that conference call with corporate
in thirty minutes. We’re going to stay right here and take that
call. The military can clean up this mess, Lynette?” Norma wiped at
her smudged eye makeup. “They caused it and they have to fix
it.”

“It wasn’t the military. It was a terrorist
attack on the base.”

“Do you believe everything you read on the
Internet?” She turned back to her computer and began pecking at the
keys with her long acrylic nails. “You’ll need to adjust everyone’s
timesheet in your group, and get it done before you leave for the
day.”

“We can’t stay,” Lynette argued. “Look
what’s going on!”

“If you leave, I’ll dock your
timesheet.”

“Well, I’m not staying. You can sit here
adjusting timesheets or cowering in the closet, I don’t give a
damn!”

“I’ll fire you!” Norma threatened.

Lynette forced a humorless chortle. “Fire
me? Really?”

Norma stood up and walked to the window and
glanced down at the street. She tapped an acrylic nail on the
glass. “Look at those crazy people attacking each other. You can’t
leave any more than I can. Besides, I’m your boss and you can’t
leave until I say you can leave.”

“My boss?” Lynette shrugged. “That doesn’t
mean squat now. I’m leaving.”

She sat down at her desk and slipped her
feet out of her heels. Pulling a canvas bag from under her desk,
she retrieved a pair of jogging shoes. She placed the well-worn
Niki’s on the floor and reached inside again for a pair of socks.
She slipped on the socks and then stepped into the running shoes.
She pulled the laces tight, tied the strings, and made a final knot
with the loops.

“I won’t let you leave me alone.” Norma
declared.

Lynette emptied the canvas bag of magazines,
hairspray, curling iron and other grooming essentials. She dumped
her handbag on the floor and sorted through the contents. She
picked up her car keys, her wallet, half dozen wet wipes, a bottle
of hand sanitizer, a knife with four-inch-fold-out blade, a handful
of tissues, a sewing kit and a small bottle of Tylenol. She ran her
hand through the pile of clutter one last time and picked up two
safety pins and added them to the bag.

When she was satisfied she had found
everything of value, she stood up and glanced over her desk into
the cube across the aisle. She spotted what she was hoping to find.
A cane with a metal handle the fellow cube dweller had been given
for his birthday the previous week. She wondered about the owner
since he hadn’t made it into work that morning, but shrugged away
thoughts of him and glanced around his office for anything else she
could use.

“You can’t take that. It belongs to Carl.”
Norma protested.

“Do you see Carl here?” Lynette asked. “He’s
not here and won’t be coming back anytime soon, so I’m taking
it.”

Lynette walked past Norma and hurried toward
the break room. She could hear the heavy set, bottle-blonde woman
close on her heels.

“What are you doing now?” Norma
demanded.

“Whatever I have to do to get out of this
mess.”

Lynette walked past the vending machines to
the supply closet, raised the cane and slammed the heavy metal end
down on the cheap door knob. The metal knob shattered and fell to
the floor in a clatter of pieces. She stepped inside the small
supply closet and emptied a box of power bars into the canvas bag
hanging across her body. She threw in packages of nuts, and all the
dried fruit mix from another box. She added three bottles of water,
tested the weight and grabbed another. With the last one settled in
the bag, she tore open a power bar and ate it in two bites.

“That’s stealing!” Norma protested. “You
have to pay for that. It comes out of petty cash, and I have to
balance at the end of the month.”

Lynette settled in a chair at the table and
opened a bottle of water. When the bottle was half empty, she set
it on the table. “I know you’re having a problem with accepting
this situation, but I’m not sitting here and waiting for help that
won’t ever come. The infected will either get in or we’d run out of
food. You can come with me or stay, up to you.” She got to her
feet. “If you want to leave, be ready when I come out of the
bathroom.”

Finishing the remaining water, she tossed
the bottle in the recycle bin. She turned and left the break room
heading for the bathroom. After using the toilet, she stood at the
sink and looked into the mirror.
Would she leave Norma? The
woman was a miserable person most of the time, but could she leave
her alone if she refused to come? She’d have no choice,
right?

After splashing water on her face, Lynette
wiped the droplets away with a handful of rough paper towels. She
adjusted the bag on her shoulder, picked up the cane, and pushed
the door open.

Norma stood in front of the opening. “You
can’t leave me.”

Lynette stepped around her and answered.
“I’m not staying.”

“Then you have to take me with you. I rode
the bus.”

Lynette looked at Norma’s feet crammed into
spike heels with pointed toes. “You won’t make it twenty feet with
those shoes.”

Norma sniffled. “I don’t have any other
shoes.”

Lynette sighed. “Then find some. Check every
cube.”

While Norma went from cube to cube looking
for shoes, Lynette walked up to Norma’s desk and grabbed the huge
bag she used for a purse. She turned it upside down.

The contents spilled out on the floor in a
messy pile and a weighty thud. Lynette brushed away a pile of
tissues and saw a handgun. She picked up the .38, checked the load
then dropped it into her own bag. After sorting through the rest of
the clutter she found a small box of ammunition and dropped it in
her bag as well.

By the time Norma reappeared, Lynette had
added supplies to the big purse similar to her own in addition to a
knife from the break room. It was a large cheap blade that had been
left behind after a celebration or office gathering a few months
ago.

“What are you doing with a gun, Norma?”
Lynette pulled the .38 from her bag.

“Oh, was that in there? Before my husband
died, he bought it for me when I started working late.” She
shrugged. “I forgot about it. I’ve only fired it twice.”

“Then I’m keeping it,” Lynette announced and
looked at a ragged pair of jogging shoes in her hand. “Get the
shoes on then we’re leaving. You can carry this knife.” She slammed
the stuffed bag into Norma’s chest.

Norma slumped on a chair, kicked off her
heels and stepped into the shoes. “I’ll probably get athlete’s
foot. These belong to the new kid with red hair. He’s always
covered in scabs or something.”

“That was psoriasis. Now shut up and get the
shoes on or I’ll leave you.”

“You can’t, I’m your manager.” Norma
snorted.

Lynette stopped and turned to face Norma.
“There’s no more piss-ant company. You’re nothing to me and if you
threaten me again, I’ll leave you here and not look back. Am I
making myself clear?” Norma whimpered, but Lynette continued. “And
pop off those ridiculous nails before we get outside so you can use
that knife to protect yourself.”

Lynette turned away and headed for the
office door. Behind her, she could hear the first acrylic nail snap
from Norma’s finger. She sniffed and gasped at the pain of removing
each of the remaining unnatural claws.

“You don’t have to be so mean.” Norma
whimpered.

“Remember the way you treated people around
here for the last two years?” Lynette glanced over her shoulder,
but Norma’s face was a study of denial.

Lynette opened the heavy wooden door and
looked up and down the hallway. When she saw nothing, she stepped
out into the hall and headed toward the distance stairwell not
bothering to see if Norma was following. When they neared the
elevator, Norma reached out and pushed the button and stopped to
wait for the elevator.

“No!” Lynette kept walking.

“Why?” Norma followed with a groan. “It’s
four flights.”

Lynette opened the door to the stairs just
as the elevator doors swished open. She looked back at the sound to
see two infected stumbling from the opening. Norma bolted through
the door knocking Lynette on her knees.

“Norma!” Lynette got to her feet and turned
to see Norma staring at the infected shuffling toward them. She
pushed Norma back. “Out of the way!”

Norma stumbled back, and Lynette slammed the
door closed. She glanced from side to side looking for a way to jam
the door.

“Give me the knife!”

“But…”

“They can push against the handle and follow
us!”

When Norma failed to relinquish the blade,
Lynette grabbed her wrist and pressed a thumbnail into the nerve at
her wrist causing her to drop the blade.

Lynette picked up the knife and jammed it
between the door and frame on the floor. She shoved the cane into
Norma’s hand.

“Don’t lose it!” She ordered as she headed
for the stairs.

Together the two women hurried down the
flight of stairs to the third floor landing. When they got to the
landing, Lynette hesitated and pressed her ear against the door.
She heard nothing from inside so she turned and headed down the
concrete stairs again with Norma following behind. Suddenly the
silence was shattered with a body slammed against the door
overhead. Norma jumped and bumped into Lynette again. After a
pause, the sound echoed from above again.

Lynette righted herself on the stairs and
turned back to Norma with a scowl. Norma stopped in her tracks.
Taking a deep breath, she headed down the stairs again.

Lynette snarled. “They can’t get through the
door. Stay off my back.”

She got to the next landing and pressed her
ear to the door again; she heard nothing. She crossed the landing
and headed down the steps ignoring the rasping sound of Norma’s
labored breathing. When she got to the bottom floor door, she
stopped.

Again she listened but could hear little
above Norma’s gasping. She shot Norma an annoyed glance then turned
back to open the door into the lobby. The exit door to the parking
lot was ten feet from the stairwell. They could cross the short
distance then run to her car, only three rows back. With so many
people having left the office early, there shouldn’t be many cars
and hopefully, few infected.

She opened the door to move forward and
heard something. A moment later, Lynette recognized the sound.
Someone crying.

She whispered over her shoulder. “Someone is
out there.”

Norma sniveled. “What are we going to do?
They could be infected.”

“They could also be fine and need our help,”
Lynette answered. “Stay here and don’t let the door close. You’ll
lock me out.”