Our Undead (65 page)

He turned around and gets
to see the inside of the room, notice it, for the first
time.

Sharp:
Holy sweet sunshine…

Kerrick:
That,
was
exactly
what I was gonna
say.

When he turns around, Sharp
is greeted by racks upon racks of firearms and just as much ammo,
all spread out neatly on each wall to his left and right. He walks
deeper inside, strolling along and gawking at all of the pieces in
their majesty. The walls are lined with assault rifles, machine
guns, shotguns and pistols, with their respective munitions located
under them; fully loaded mags, clips and scopes.

Sharp:
What is this? Are we in the right place!?

Gwen:
Yes!
The lift should be through this door!

Gwen walks up to a door
located on the opposite side of the room. Unlike, the last one,
this door has a keypad for code punching.

Erika:
It's an emergency exit. Obviously, only for VIPs and
soldiers. This must be some sort of last stop artillery shop for
those escaping. There are duffel bags here. Let's grab what we can
and get the hell up out of here.

Kerrick:
Sweet Saint Maria…

Sharp and Erika leer at
Kerrick for his horribly timed remark.

Kerrick:
What?! He stole mine!

His teammates ignore him,
and Erika tosses a bag each to Sharp and Kerrick. They begin
quickly taking all the weaponry they need, filling up their duffel
bags. They each take for themselves a couple of pistols, a shotgun,
assault rifle, and all the ammo their bags can handle. Erika opts
for a sub-machine gun instead of an assault rifle, for more agility
and less weight.

Kerrick:
It looks like someone got here before us. There're some guns
missing.

Erika:
Holden and the General. They must be ahead. We have to-- Oh,
my sweet goodness…

Erika finds a section
dedicated to grenades of all different varieties. She puts her
shotgun back on its rack and piles as many grenades as she can into
her bag. She takes mostly frags but makes sure to get some of the
other kind, as well, mainly offensive and illuminating.

Billy and Margaret are near
to her and watch her excitedly stuff her bag. They have never seen
so many guns in one room at the same time. They both never really
liked the things very much, but seeing so many in one place has an
almost hypnotizing effect on them. If she were not in such a
loathsome mood, Billy expects Margaret would have already spouted
some witty remark about it. Instead, she limps around on her
crutches, impassively examining the showcase.

Billy:
This is kind of like the safe rooms in ‘Right 4 Death’, don't
you think? Wish they had some arrows though. Hey, what are you
doing?

He jogs over to Margaret,
who has picked up a smaller sized carrying case for herself. She
stands by the handguns, looking over them, grimacing. They are all
the same, Desert Eagles, but she feels them all out. Finally, one
calls to her, and she picks it up and puts it into her bag, then
fills it with as many boxes of bullets as it can handle.

Billy:
I
thought you were against guns.

Sharp:
She's smart. You forget what it's like up there already?
Those things outside the door are everywhere. You'd better take one
yourself.

Billy:
Naw.

Margaret overlooks Billy's
conjecture. Yes, she had stated that she didn't like guns, but
beside the department store, she had never really had the chance to
get her hands on one. She might as well take advantage of this
moment, regardless of the viable scrutiny. She limps over to Gwen
by the next door, ready to move on. Billy follows behind her and
everyone in the room is then startled by the sound of metal
scraping against metal. Their attention is drawn to the barricaded
door.

Sharp:
The
goofs are getting heavy! Let's move on! Gwen, why isn't that door
open yet?!

Gwen:
My
access code didn't work… I don't… I don't know what it is… I don't
even know what it could be… Fuck!…
FUCK!
That
bastard
never
told me about any other code.

She tries her own code
again, and the indicator light over the number pad flashes
red.

Erika:
Who?

Gwen:
That stupid fucking General!

Erika:
Okay, just relax. Can you think of anything it might
be?

Gwen:
Uhhh, 8-5-5-4-0-7-3?… 7-3-1-2-1-5?… 8-1-7-6-4?…
1-3-8-5-7-8-1-2-0?... 5-8-7-8-1-7?

Erika:
What is that? What are you doing? I'm not a doctor
or
a professor. I
don't know what this is. Does anyone know what she's
doing?

Gwen:
Ugh,
I don't know what the code could be…

Sector333-3:
***ALERT… PURGING WILL COMMENCE IN… FIVE
MINUTES…***

Kerrick:
Hell… so this is how it ends, uh, in a heavily loaded
artillery room with unattainable freedom on one side and man-eating
goofs on the other? Fuck you, Suhh-Suhh! If we're gonna die, let
the goofs in! I wanna get some use out of these
babies!

He raises and strokes the
assault rifle in his hands with love, waiting for the creeping
cabinet to open just enough for the horde outside to come pouring
in. The goofs only need to work a little harder and open it just a
little further. Gwen's eye's light up when she hears what Kerrick
says. She turns to the pad and starts punching in
numbers.

Erika:
You
figured it out?!

Gwen:
We'll see.

When she finishes putting
in the numbers, the indicator light above the pad flashes green
this time.

Gwen:
YES!
Oh, God,
yes.

The door slides open and
just in time. At that very moment, the zombies from the hall push
the barricade in far enough and start trickling inside the room,
one by one.

Erika:
Get
inside!

The group hurries into the next room. Kerrick is
the last to enter. He aims his rifle at the zombies trotting toward
him, but makes the hard decision to wait for his moment. Hopefully,
they would survive, and he'd still get a chance to use his beloved
arms. He goes into the dark room, and the door closes behind him.
The zombies fall short and end up pummeling yet another
door.

THE END OF THE
BEGGINING

This next room is a dark
one, even darker than the late Doctor Alyster's laboratory. When
they enter, they walk on top of steel grating, a platform raised
high above an orange glowing underbelly. The metal platform
converges into a bridge in front of them that crosses over the
seemingly bottomless glowing pit. On each side of the crossing are
large machines, cranking and churning. Steam escapes them and a
light mist makes the place a little cloudy, but not enough to
impair anyone's vision completely.

Gwen:
FELEIDER!!!

Gwen screams at the figures
on the other side of the bridge and everyone follows her voice to
find General Feleider and Holden standing there in front of the
lift that has yet to open. As soon as Feleider sees them, he fires
at them with his pistol. They all duck out of the way (except
Margaret), and the General's shot is a failed attempt. He aims at
them again, but Erika is much faster than him and fires first. She
shoots the gun right out of his hand. He shakes and rubs his fist
in pain, and they hear him cussing from where they stand. Holden
watches them, but doesn't raise his gun. Even as they run across
the bridge to join him and the General, he let's them cross
safely.

Kerrick:
Thanks for not trying to kill us.

Holden:
I
have no reason to kill you. Don't give me one.

Sharp:
I
guess there's a little loyalty left in those treacherous bones,
hey?

Erika:
Relax, guys. If you want to fight, do it when we get to the
surface.

Gwen:
If
we get there. How long ago
did you guys power on the lift?

Feleider:
(still rubbing hand)
Ugh, five
minutes ago.

Gwen:
Then
it should
be
here by now!

As if on cue, all of the
flashing yellow lights around the lift's entrance turn to a solid
green, and an alert sounds. They hear the door unlocking itself,
and then the horizontal slit begins to separate.

Gwen:
Come
on! Come on!

They hardly wait for the
entrance to get completely open before everybody runs inside. This
lift is considerably smaller compared to the lifts in the main
hall. It could probably only fit about fifty people, while the
others had the potential to hold hundreds. There is only one button
on the inside beside the door, a fat red one with a sign above it
that reads, "GROUND LEVEL". As soon as she is sure everyone is in,
Professor Gwen slams her palm down on the big red button. The top
and bottom portions of the door meet back in the center, and the
lift begins to rise.

Inside the emergency
elevator, the alarm still sounds from its speakers reminding its
occupants of their impending doom. The rotating red light in the
middle of the lift's ceiling adds to the dramatics of it all. For a
large portion of the first half of the ride up, no one says a word
to each other. The groups stand separated with Sharp, Kerrick,
Erika and Gwen on one side, and Holden and the General on the
other. Margaret stands indifferently in the center, and Billy stays
near to her. Each side casts doubtful looks back and forth at one
another. Billy doesn't know which side to trust. From what he has
seen, either side is liable of initiating confrontation. The only
three people he trusts in this moment are; Margaret, who's eyes
never leave the ground. Gwen, who looks more troubled by the ride
than the riders. And himself.

Gwen:
Jesus Christ… There isn't enough time. We're not going to
make it.

Sharp:
Yes, we are. We have too. There's still someone's ass I need
to kick.

Holden:
Heh…

Sharp:
What the hell are you laughing at,
traitor?!

Holden:
You're naivety has always amused me… in small doses, and from
time to time.

Sharp:
I'm
naive? I seem to remember a certain summer on a certain mountain in
Nepal, when a certain someone knocked another certain someone on
his
ass
…
out
cold!

Holden:
I
remember slipping on some ice and falling seventy feet. I got
knocked out when I hit my head on the rocks. So, I guess, score one
for the Himalayas.

Sharp:
Oh,
please, like some rocks could crack that thick skull of yours. It
was my fist that put you to sleep when I knocked your ass off the
cliff. You were sleeping like a baby as soon as I made you
airborne.

Holden:
That's false.

Sharp:
Well, what about that time in the Sahara when I caught your
back and choked you out? I put you to sleep that time
too.

Holden:
It
was windy. You may have gotten my back, but the only reason you got
your arms around my neck was because my throat caught some
sand.

Sharp:
Wha-- Are you-- What kind of an excuse is
that?!

Erika:
Will you guys cut it out?!

Holden:
When you can beat me without the assistance of the elements,
then maybe I'll start thinking of you as a worthy
adversary.

Sharp:
You
know, you should really take a step outside and breathe in some of
the nice fresh reality out here, cause you've been stuck in denial
for way too long! I guess you don't remember that time in the hills
of Chile, when I picked you up and body slammed you through the
roof of that house.. of that strange old couple?

Holden:
The roof gave way. You fell in too.

Sharp:
You're being
so
technical! I had you off
both
of your feet and
you
hit their
living room floor first. Therefore, it qualifies as a
body-slam.