Our Undead (66 page)

Holden:
Who's being technical again?

Sharp:
Fuck off, traitor!

Holden:
Weakling.

Sharp:
Man, you can suck m-

Erika:
THAT'S ENOUGH!
God
damn
it. Stop acting like you're in preschool.

Erika's outburst works in
settling down her teammates. Really, only Sharp needed to be tamed.
Holden is a beast, but he is more of a sleeping giant. His only
facial expression, whether pummeling someone's face in or enjoying
his favorite meal, is grim, and slight variants of grim. It's part
of the reason he is able to vex Sharp so quickly. To Denver, Holden
is just a smug bastard who was lucky enough to be blessed with a
little more body mass.

Gwen:
Is
this how it always is with you guys?

Erika:
No.
Not really. Usually only in high-pressure
situations.

Gwen:
Well
then, I guess this would qualify.

Erika:
Yes. It would… but still… Hey, there was something I was
wondering, Gwen. I might as well ask you now while we have no
choice but to wait.

Gwen:
What
is it?

Erika:
The
passcode in the artillery room. What was it? How did you figure it
out?

Gwen:
Oh,
that.
You mean the code that Feleider failed to tell me
about.

She shoots a disdainful
look at the General who scoffs at her.

Feleider:
It must have slipped my mind.

Gwen:
I
bet… It was Kerrick. He helped me figure it out. When he thought we
were done for, he cursed Suhh-Suhh's name, and it popped into my
head. 4-1-1-5-4-4-1-1-5-4; hush-hush. I just shuffled the letters
around, like an anagram, and then I put it in number
speak.

Erika:
I
don't get it.

Gwen:
You
know, hush-hush, like
*shhhhh*
. Like, it's a
secret.

Erika:
No,
I get that. It's the number part. How did you get… ugh, you know
what? Just forget it. I should just be glad we're getting out of
here, to safety.

Gwen:
I'm
sorry to burst your bubble, but we're not even half way home. When
we get to the top, we still have to run like hell. The explosion is
going to cause the ground to cave in, and who knows how far the
blast radius is going to be. We're not even close to being
safe.

Kerrick:
You just said, "bubble butt". If you were talking to anyone
else except Erika Blaze, I'd say you were way off,
buuutt
…

He shoots a flirtatious
glance at Erika, looking her up and down, his eyes landing on her
backside. She responds with looks of playful skepticism.

Erika:
Heh.. Matthew, do you ever stop and think about
what-

Sector333-3:
***ALERT… PURGING WILL COMMENCE IN… ONE
MINUTE…***

Gwen:
Oh,
God…

Sharp:
How
much longer is it gonna take this thing to get to the
top!?

Above the big red button,
are two sets of numbers, one large and one small. Both numbers are
counting down, the larger number much faster than the smaller
one.

Gwen:
Thirty-seven seconds. We're just under a thousand feet away,
but you should know that this lift doesn't take us all the way to
the top. For safety purposes, it stops early. We're going to have
to climb the last, I don't know, fifty to a hundred feet. There
should be a ladder that leads to an escape hatch.

Sharp:
(sighs)
Okay, listen up! When
the lift doors open, we have to move fast. Margaret, I'm gonna need
you on my back again. As soon as the doors open, Gwen goes first,
Billy is next, then you, Blaze. Matty is after you, and Margaret
and I are last.

Erika:
What about these two?

Sharp had been addressing
his group only, Erika is referring to Holden and General, the odd
men out. They watch and listen in silence to Sharp giving everyone
their instructions. Holden is as serious as usual, but the General
seems to be getting a little antsy.

Sharp:
Those two are on their own.

The rest of the elevator
trip is spent watching the numbers count down. At seven seconds
from the surface, the compound computer serves them their last
warning.

Sector333-3:
***ALERT… PURGING WILL COMMENCE IN… THIRTY SECONDS…
TWENTY-NINE… TWENTY-EIGHT… TWENTY-SEVEN…***

Sharp:
Okay, let's do this. Maybe you should take those crutches off
for now. You won't need them for the next sixty seconds. Don't
worry. I'll keep you safe.

With four seconds till the
lift's arrival, Sharp offers his back to Margaret, who get's on
willingly after unstrapping her forearm crutches. She holds them
tightly between her chest and Sharp's back, and clutches his
shoulders and around his neck as firmly as she can without choking
him. For extra security, she also wraps her legs around his mid
section. Sharp stands erect again, as the lift counter stops at
zero.

Sharp:
Okay, let's
do
this!

When the lift doors open,
General Feleider darts out first with no regard for any of the
others. As luck would have it, the ladder Gwen had been speculating
about is not far away. The General is already making his way
up.

Back inside the elevator,
the group waits for Holden to make the same move as his
co-conspirator, but instead he stands there, staring them down,
perhaps, waiting for his team's group to leave first.

Sharp:
What the hell?! Get going, hulk!!

Holden does what Sharp
tells him to do. He leaves the lift and starts climbing the ladder,
but not because he is listening to Sharp's command. He knows that
if he were to offer them the lead, Sharp would use it as some
excuse to argue. His ego would never let Holden look like a hero.
They would stay in there forever, arguing about who should leave
first. It was fun to push Sharp's buttons every now and again, but
now is definitely not one of those times. With the odd men out, the
rest jump into action.

Sharp:
All
right, Gwen, Billy, Blaze, Matthew!

Each body runs out when
they hear their name. The ladder is about twenty feet away from the
entrance of the lift. When Sharp and Margaret run out, Sharp takes
a look up to see how far away the escape hatch is. Gwen was right.
It looks to be about seventy to ninety feet above them. By the time
everyone is on the steel ladder and making their way up, the
compound's timer is at fifteen seconds.

Sector333-3:
***… FOURTEEN… THIRTEEN…***

Sharp:
HURRY UP, PEOPLE!!

They climb as fast as they
can, but there's no passing the person in lead, Professor Gwen. She
tries her best to go faster, but the professor isn't use to
escaping up ladders at high speed.

Sector333-3:
***… EIGHT… SEVEN… SIX…***

Gwen tries to go faster,
but the mixture of panic in her system makes it hard for her to
make her body move at the speed she wants it to. She slips up a few
times but manages to hang on and continue moving upward.

With his large head start,
General Feleider makes it out on to the surface before the
compound's self-destruction begins. He unlocks the hatch and climbs
out into the twilight of the day. When he gets to his feet he has
no time to think, but instantly bolts off into the same direction
that he was facing when he had exited. A few seconds later, Holden
breaches the surface. He immediately starts running as well. It
would gain him nothing to wait for his team, except a snide remark
from Sharp after all is said and done. That is, if they survive
this. If nothing else, at least he left the hatch open for
them.

<><><>

Far below our conceivable
survivors, a city-sized population of people are still living a
brief nightmare. It is a devastating scene with injured fathers
being trampled over, brothers and sisters being eaten alive,
mother's crying over their lost children, being ripped away from
them too soon by starving flesh eaters. Mr. and Mrs. Alomar are
among the many. They're dead bodies lie separate from one another,
in two completely different parts of the compound. Some families
have been fortunate enough to find a place of peace to run out
their last seconds, huddled closely together in their private rooms
and in secluded bathroom stalls. But most fight for their lives.
They fight, not so that they can live them, but most instinctively
feel that dying in a fiery blast would be much less painful then
being slowly ripped apart and eaten alive.

Sector333-3:
***…THREE… TWO… ONE…***

Zero is never called out.
In its place, an inferno fills the airspace in every room, corner,
and crevice of the Sector. The self-destruction sequence initiated
by the good Doctor Alyster, comes to fruition and red-orange flames
engulf the old man's slouched over body when his lab goes up. Still
vertically suspended in Laboratory D-9, his head hanging slack, Abe
as well, begins his own cremation process.

Far above the ones who
burn, Gwen has almost made it to the escape hatch. She, as well as
all of those following under her on the ladder, feels the rumble of
the eruptions going on below. They cause Gwen to hesitate, and she
hugs the ladder as to not plummet.

Sharp:
MOVE!!

His loud bark doesn't work,
but a little encouragement from Billy, who is just under her on the
ladder, gets Professor Gwen moving again. A few seconds later and
Gwen's head breaks through to the surface. She climbs out and looks
around. The ground under her feet is shaking, making it difficult
to stand as she searches the landscape, but she manages to spot
Holden and Feleider's figures off in the distance getting further
and further away. Billy hops out right behind her and stands
waiting at the hatch's opening, looking down to see if everyone is
making it up all right. He is shocked when he glances up and finds
Professor Gwen still standing there.

Billy:
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! RUN!! GO!!

She does as the young boy
says and starts running in the same direction as the ones already
ahead of her. Erika Blaze jumps out a couple of seconds after
Billy.

Erika:
What are you doing?!

Billy:
Waiting for Margaret!!

Erika:
She's fine!! Come on!!

Kerrick jumps out while
Erika is trying to convince Billy to move.

Kerrick:
Uh guys, we should be running!!!

He doesn't stop to chat,
but yells the obvious as he chases down Gwen. Erika grabs Billy by
the hand and yanks him away from the hole. He tries to resist, but
only for a second. There's no way he would ever be able to over
power Erika, but he sees Sharp and Margaret as they are just
climbing out, so he does what the super soldier commands and starts
running. He is right to not worry. Sharp and Margaret exit through
the escape hatch safely and are soon right behind
everyone.

Her head bounces up and
down on Sharp's left shoulder, and her chin knocks into it over and
over. This time, instead of feeling annoyed about it, Margaret
holds on tighter to avoid it. She presses her cheek hard into his
shoulder and waits for things to run their course. Before closing
her eyes, for a minute she looks off into the golden sky. The sun
has just started to set, and it looks beautiful. If it is the last
sight she gets to take in, that would be just fine.

But it wouldn't be, not if
Sharp has anything to do with it. He carries both her and a duffel
bag heavy with guns and ammo, but runs at the pace of an Olympic
sprinter. Even with the tremors becoming stronger by the second,
his feet guide him accurately and effectively forward, as do
Erika's and Kerrick's. Billy and Gwen are having a bit of trouble,
but Billy soon gets the hang of it, the key being to run with
quicker steps and longer strides. The group of five are quickly
catching up to the professor, who is trying her best. She runs as
fast as her legs can go, but as a hematologist, she never did find
time to become physically astute.

When they had all emerged
from the escape hatch and felt the ground trembling, it came
accompanied by a low growling, a resonance from the explosions
going on below. As they have been running, that growling has
gradually become louder and soon turns into a loud cracking noise,
as if lightning is striking non-stop. A trained ear can tell that
the cracking is coming from behind them, and Kerrick takes a second
to look over his shoulder while running.