Unfed (7 page)

I reach the bottom of the ladder first, seizing the sides and pulling myself up before my foot has even found the first rung. The metal is so
sharp it feels like it’s cutting into my hands. I wish I’d taken those gloves now — but then again, as I ascend and realize the world has a great view of my ass, I really wish a whole lot more that I had fought Alice for the sweatpants.

I take the first few rungs as fast as I dare. It’s slippery going, and I’m grappling with the towel rail. The ladder is attached so close to the wall there’s barely room to find a decent foothold without feeling like you’re falling backward. I glance down. Pete is on the ladder after me, with the best view in the world, and Russ remains on the ground with Alice, doing the persuading. I feel a wave of dizzy from looking down, and turn my attention back to where I’m headed. Gotta keep moving.

The roof looms up at me, and for the first time I wonder what will be waiting for us. I don’t relish being met by a dribbling fiend.

There’s a crash below, and a shattering of glass.

Crap
. They’re through the door. I chance another look. A flow of Undead, big and small, stream into the courtyard. It doesn’t take them long to spot us.

“Frigging hurry up!” Alice screams, halfway up the ladder.

I pull myself over the low wall at the top and step out onto a crunchy surface, eyes darting to see what foes we’ll have to face.

Hard to be sure, but I think we’re alone up here. The courtyard is a hollow square below, at the center of the hospital. There are some air-conditioning vents rising out of the surface of the roof and some bricked blocks with small doors set into the side — probably electrical junction boxes or something like that. But beyond the odd adventurous butterfly, there’s nothing moving.

And then there’s this glass ceiling above us. I suppose I expected to reach the top of the ladder and find a hatch, open it, and emerge out of
the tropical oasis into gloomy old freezing-cold Scotland again. But that’s never going to happen. The glass ceiling covers the entire roof area. Weird. We’re still inside. The ceiling is not far above me. Put it this way: If my current escape gang formed a human pyramid with a sulky Alice at the top, even she wouldn’t have to strain to touch it. And what’s more, the glass rises out of the outside edge of the building, like the whole hospital is a miniature model inside one of those terrarium things that you grow plants in. I look around again. Where’s the exit?

There’s something more than a little off. If I think about it, I kind of knew it as soon as I fell into the courtyard the first time round. The light is weird, and as I was lying there on my back holding back the zombies behind the door, I knew it just didn’t look real somehow.

I look across the roof in search of a horizon in the distance, and my brain can’t quite compute what I’m seeing.

I run to the far edge of the roof, the outside wall, and look beyond the glass.

There’s nothing out there.

The sky really is the limit.

Behind the glass walls is blackness. Not as in outer space or anything like that. A cavity, then solid matter. Rock. I can see texture, cracks, roughness.

Why in the Name of Butt would you have a hospital surrounded by rock?

I rub at the glass. It’s slightly frosted, and above us there are lights behind it, giving the impression of daylight. If I squint I can actually make out the individual bulbs.

Pete joins me, panting hard.

“Status update?” he gasps, pushing his goggles up onto his head.

“OMG, today I’m, like,
totally
inside a giant fishbowl,” I suggest.

He looks at me impatiently. “What on earth are you talking about?”

I point up to the glass. “The outside has gone.”

I watch his face as he follows the ceiling along to the far wall … and he sees what I see.

“I think we’re surrounded by rock. Like we’re in a cave or something.”

“This is incredible! Why would they … ?” He runs — and it takes a lot to prompt Pete to run — to one of the walls, feeling the glass like
the original Marcel Marceau. He shouts back at me, “We’re completely encased!”

As if on cue Alice arrives, with much fanfare and overdramatization, seeming to fall at the last hurdle before Russ lends a helping hand and hoists her onto the roof from behind. Her cheeks are flushed, and I don’t think it’s just from the thrill of the chase. I never cease to wonder at that girl’s ability to irritate. She glares at me.

“Couldn’t you move your fat arse any faster?” she says. “Those things were practically snapping at my heels.”

The retort is so tempting, but I ignore her and look over the side down into the courtyard again. It is fast filling with zoms, the bodies pooling around the bottom of the ladder. They’re looking up. It’s worrying; they’ve figured out where we’ve gone, and one of them is reaching up for the rungs, trying to climb.

Russ blocks my vision momentarily, smiling at me as he reaches the final rung and steps out onto the roof.

“So where to?” His eyes dart to Pete, who is still doing his wall-fondling over at the other side of the roof. “Hey … what’s … ?” He looks up at the ceiling and I see him making the same connections. “Where’s the exit?”

“Doesn’t appear to be one,” I say.

Russ shakes his head and runs over to where Pete is. We all follow.

“What are you all talking about?” Alice’s worldview hasn’t quite grasped the truth as yet. “Oh my god!” She slaps the glass wall.

“Got to be a door, something.” Russ takes off, running. He’s fast; you can’t help but admire that. Team Cheery Chomper stand and watch while he runs a circuit around us like a collie dog, finally returning barely out of breath.

“There’s no way out,” he says.

“We’re underground,” Pete mutters. I look up at him sharply. Alice stares at him like he smells bad.

“Excuse me?” she says.

“You’re excused.” He sits down on the gravel and puts his head between his knees. “We’re still underground, though.”

“Explain,” I say.

Still with head down, Pete shoots out an arm and gestures around him. “I should have guessed. Where would the safest place be for a military hospital? Underground. Hidden, protected, secret.”

“Seriously?” Russ says. “Seems pretty incredible to me.”

“Why?” Pete lifts his head and fixes him with his pale green eyes. “There are subterranean military hospitals in the Channel Islands left over from the Second World War; they are tourist attractions now. And there’s an old nuclear bunker in Scotland that housed several hundred people during the Cold War. One hundred feet below. I visited it last summer.”

“You would,” says Alice.

“And those are just a couple of examples we know about,” Pete says. “Just think of all the ones we don’t.”

“So if this place is so secret, so hidden and so protected, how come it’s overrun with the Undead?” I say. “Did they come down the chimney while no one was looking? Hide in the laundry baskets and smuggle themselves inside?”

“Perhaps they were here already,” Pete says. “It’s a hospital, after all. Perhaps they were trying to treat them, or perhaps they were dead bodies who reanimated.”

“Whatever,” Alice says. “Chances are they just sniffed her out.” She
points at me. “Everywhere she goes, they follow. What matters is how we escape.”

“Right,” Russ says, then shoots me an apologetic look. “About the last bit, I mean.”

“Very right,” says Pete. “Quite often these places are booby-trapped. Or there’s some kind of fail-safe. When a facility is compromised, it automatically floods to ensure no one gets out.”

“Are you kidding me?” I yell at him.

“Well, the ones with the Nazi wounded were,” he says.

“Nazi zombies now?” Alice groans.

“Keep your big-girl panties on, Alice, there are no Nazis here,” I snap at her. “Isn’t it enough for you that we find out we’re several stories below Raccoon City?” The ref is lost on her, as I knew it would be. “What’s important is there must be a way out, and chances are, we gotta get back in before we get out.” I point to the air vents. “So I’m thinking that’s our way.”

“Oh god oh god oh god,” groans Alice. “Why do you always insist on crawling through things?”

I jog up to one of them and tug at the screen on the front.

“Er, Bobby.” Pete has a smarmy look on his face. “We could just walk through the door.” He points over to the opposite roof. In the middle of the flat roof, there is what looks like a block of bricks. I think I must have written it off as another vent or a chimney or something, but it’s obvious now that it must be a small room housing a stairwell down into the building. “Let’s check it out.”

Before we can respond, there’s a cracking sound behind him, and we all look. It’s something down in the courtyard. The noise comes again, and a third time.

“Hey!” Alice shouts. “They’re shooting them.”

We rush to the wall.

“Where?” I scan the courtyard. Another shot rings out and, instinctively and as one, we all duck behind the wall. I poke my head over it. As far as I can tell, the shots are coming from somewhere across from us.

“There.” Pete gasps. “Top floor, third window from the right.”

We look. There’s a shot and a little flash, confirming he’s nailed it. But then another shot from a different direction. There are zoms down. Whoever’s firing is doing a pretty good job of picking them off.

“How many shooters?” Pete pushes up beside me, trying to get a better view while using me as a human shield, just in case. When I shrug, he looks exasperated.

“So sue me,” I hiss at him. “This is my first sniper scenario.”

“Who cares anyway?” Alice says. “They’re on our side.” And before we can anticipate her madness, she stands up and waves her arms. “Hello-ee! We’re over here! Can you save us, please?”

There’s a
ping
, brick dust flies, and Russ has tackled Alice to the ground. She lies there, her eyes wide. “They are shooting at
us
?”

“Must have been a mistake,” Russ says. “Itchy trigger finger.”

“Itchy trigger finger my arse,” says Pete, and we know what he means, but it still sounds bad. “They’re trained men. They don’t make mistakes.”

And he’s right, I’m sure of it. They know the score; they know the zoms don’t stand on roofs and wave and shout.

“Wait!” Something on the ground has caught my eye. “Survivors!” Three moving figures emerging from the remains of the glass door we had come through. There’s a gray-haired man clad in green scrubs and a woman in a suit helping a younger guy who is injured. They stick to the sides of the courtyard, away from the mob who are still mainly
underneath the ladder. They’ve seen the shooters, too, and they’re waving at them and calling out for help.

Crack
.

Crack
.

Two shots. Two hits. The man in scrubs falls first, then the woman. For a second the younger guy looks up — and I can just make out the terror and confusion on his face.

Crack
.

He’s not confused anymore. He’s still.

I drop behind the wall, a dread-ball of sick forming in my stomach.

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god!” Alice whispers. “They shot them in cold blood.” Tears start to drip down her face. “They just wanted help, and they shot them.” She looks at me, frantic. “What will they do to us?”

We flatten ourselves against the place where wall meets roof and try to disappear.

“They know we’re here, we have to move,” Russ says.

I turn to Pete. “Is this the fail-safe, then? Wipe everyone out, just to be sure?”

Pete shakes his head. “No. Fail-safe is a last resort. If we were at that stage, those shooters would be dead, too.”

“That’s something.” Russ sends me a look, and I feel a little heartened. “Come on.” He beetles along on all fours, heading to the end of our wall. “Let’s get to the door.”

I’m not sure about that. Isn’t it the way the shooters will come, now that they know we’re here? Then again, we’re kids. They have more pressing targets, namely the zombie hordes. There’s just a chance they’ll leave us till last, as long as we don’t get in their way.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow.” Alice delicately picks up her two front paws as she crawls after Russ. “This is so uncomfortable on my hands!”

“Sorry, we’ll pick the nice velvet-soft roof next time,” I say, overtaking her.

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

The shooting is almost reassuring, because it means the snipers are still where they were. Once it goes silent then we know they’ve bagged every last courtyard monster and will be on the move. I keep as low as I can, fearing for one inch of body to rise above the wall and give them something to hit. We round a corner and keep on going. So long as there’s wall to cling to, we’re OK. The real test will be to break cover and run to that door. Better hope it’s open when we get there.

And then the shooting stops. Russ must have stopped, too, because I barrel into Pete, and Alice smashes into my scantily clad behind. It’s a total pileup.

Just an expanse of roof stands between us and the door.

Russ goes for it, keeping low. I guess it’s hard to keep him back, and he’s the trailblazing type, wanting to check out the door so that the rest of us will be safe. It’s kind of sweet, but kind of irritating at the same time. I think if I’m honest, I’m just pissed he’s not Smitty. Smitty would have gone for it, too, but he’d have cracked some lame-o joke and given me a wink and managed to insult Alice all in one go. And it would have been annoying as hell, but wonderful.

“Roberta! Don’t get all sentimental on me now!”
Smitty says in my ear. And he’s right. That’s the kind of nonsense that makes a girl soft. And gets a girl killed.

Russ is crouched by the door and turning the handle slowly. That’s good. It would be oh-so-typical if the thing was locked. He opens it a little, then looks inside. This should probably be the part where something pulls him into the blackness. But luckily for all of us, it isn’t. He gives us the thumbs-up, then beckons, and we go for it. I cast a glance behind as I reach the door; the courtyard is still silent, and no one is shooting at us. I follow Alice in through the door, and Russ gives me a smile, last in, and shuts the door behind us.

We are standing at the top of a stairwell, lit with a small bulb encased in a metal mesh above our heads.

“So down to go up, right?” I grab the metal rail.

“Wait!” He holds out a hand. “Remember those guys are trained, they have weapons, and they have a plan. Don’t get too smart, don’t think you can fight them. If it comes to close quarters, leave it to me to disable them.”

“You can do that?” Alice looks like she’s going to swoon.

“I know some things,” Russ says. He winks at her. “But if I told you …”

“You’d have to kill me?” She flirts back. But somehow the whole thing gives me the shivers.

We run down the stairs. I count seven landings, and still the stairs go on. Journey to the center of the earth. My ears are popping. This is getting ridiculous. And panicky. I stop and turn to Pete.

“Ground floor is where, exactly? If we continue any farther we’re going to find the molten core.”

Pete makes a face at me, but I can see he’s grateful just to stop for a second.

“All the way down, I’m guessing. There’s got to be a lift to the surface from the lowest level,” he gasps.

We reach the next landing. I skid to a stop.

“Look!”

There’s a body. Someone in a white coat, lying down. Lying still. At first I think it’s a woman, because this person has a long, brown ponytail, but as I get a little closer, I realize it’s a man.

“Curious,” Pete says. “The hair.”

“God, I know,” says Alice. “Dreckitudinous. He must have been living underground since 1977.”

Russ chuckles. “What Pete means is that he’s supposed to be military. Who heard of an army guy with long hair? They give them all buzz cuts.”

“Yeah,” Alice replies. “Like her.”

“Maybe he does their website for them.” I crack the joke, but something is wrong with this picture.

And then it gets even wronger. Ponytail wakes up.