Michael Ford - Z

“So now what?” said Josh. “You kill us?”

Clatter feigned shock. “Of course not,” he said. “They do.” He nodded toward the stairs, where a dozen or more zombies were shambling toward the lobby. “And now I will say good-bye,” said Clatter. He, Seamus, and Finnegan walked rapidly toward the waiting elevator, stepping inside. As the doors shut, Clatter tipped his hat and smiled. “Good luck!” he called out.

Scrawl glanced at the zombies, then ran for the elevator. “Help me!” he yelled to the others.

Josh, Charlie, and Firecracker joined him at the doors. Scrawl looked up at the needle over the door. It was only halfway between the lobby and the basement. He shoved the grate that covered the elevator doors aside and started prying them open.

“What are you doing?” Josh said. “We have to get to the second floor.”

“We can’t let them get out of here,” said Scrawl, trying to force his fingers into the crack between the doors. “If we don’t stop him, Clatter will keep on doing what he’s been doing. He’ll just replace us with other players. More people will die.”

“And how are we going to stop him?” Charlie asked.

“There’s a hand brake on top of the elevator,” Scrawl said. “The mechanics used them for stopping the car during shaft maintenance, when they rode on the roof to access the pulleys. If I can get to it, I can stop the car between floors and trap them there. That way the police will know just where to find them.”

“There’s no time for that,” Firecracker said.

“Not if you keep arguing,” said Scrawl. “Now help me get these doors open.”

Firecracker and Josh took one door while Scrawl and Charlie took the other. At first the doors wouldn’t budge, but then they reluctantly creaked open. Josh peered inside. He could just see the top of the elevator car.

“We’ll wait for you upstairs,” Josh told him. “In room 237.”

Scrawl shook his head. “Don’t wait,” he said. “In case something goes wrong, I want you on the way to the police. Now get out of here.”

Josh started to object, but Scrawl was already lowering himself into the shaft. He clung to the ladder. “Go!” he yelled. “Now!”

Josh and the others turned and faced the zombies. In order to get to the stairs, they were going to have to fight their way through, and they had no weapons left. Even then, they had no idea what waited for them in room 237. It could be nothing, Josh thought. We could be walking right into a trap. But it was their only chance.

“We can’t kill them,” Josh said. “So let’s just get through them. Don’t let them grab you, or you’ll probably get bit.”

“Really?” Firecracker said. “Thanks for the tip.” He grinned at Josh. “Race you to the second floor,” he said, and took off.

Josh watched as his friend ran straight at one of the zombies at the front of the pack, a fat man wearing a blood-spattered butcher’s apron. Firecracker lowered his shoulder and hit the z square in the chest, sending him flying backward into some of the other zombies. They fell like bowling pins, and Firecracker shouted, “Strike!” triumphantly.

Charlie and Josh followed him, dodging the zombies that grasped clumsily at their clothes. Firecracker was already halfway up the first flight of stairs, calling for them to hurry. Charlie ducked under the arms of a zombie woman swinging her purse like a weapon—and Josh, who was behind her, was hit right in the face by it. He fell backward, hitting his head on the tile floor.

Stunned, he couldn’t move. He saw the zombie woman’s face as she leaned over him. Her milky eyes rolled back in her head and her mouth opened, revealing broken teeth. She dropped her purse and reached for him with hands covered in sores.

“Back off, meatbag!” he heard Charlie yell.

The zombie woman turned her head, snarling, as Charlie’s foot hit her in the stomach. The z let out a grunt and was flung to the side. Then Charlie was grabbing Josh’s hand and pulling him to his feet. His head throbbed as he stood, and for a moment he thought he might faint.

“Come on!” Charlie encouraged him. “We’re almost there.”

Josh forced himself to move. He saw the stairs ahead of them, clear of z’s. They just had to get to the second floor. His feet moved up the steps as behind them the zombies moaned in frustration. Josh knew they would follow, and even though they moved slowly, there were a lot more of them.

As they reached the landing, a body fell in front of them, almost hitting them. The zombie—a teenage boy—twitched frantically, trying to move his broken limbs.

“Sorry!” Firecracker yelled, looking at them over the balcony. “I didn’t know you were there.”

Charlie and Josh stepped over the z and ran up the rest of the stairs. Josh’s head still hurt, but it was clearing. When they met up with Firecracker in the second-floor hallway, he looked at the number on the nearest door.

“Room 237 is this way,” Firecracker said, pointing to the left. “And we should probably hurry. Company’s coming.”

Josh and Charlie turned and saw four zombies coming up the stairs, moving with surprising quickness. The three friends dashed down the hall, finding the room about halfway down. They’d passed the room during their sweep of the floor, but because it was locked, they had assumed it was zombie free. Digging the key from his pocket, Josh jabbed it into the keyhole and turned it. For a moment nothing happened, and Josh’s stomach sank. The four z’s were getting closer.

Then there was a click and the lock slid open. Firecracker and Charlie slipped into the room, with Josh entering last. He slammed the door shut and turned the lock just as a zombie face appeared in the window, pressing its bloody mouth against the glass.

Josh turned away from it and surveyed the room. They didn’t have much time. The z’s would either break the glass or break the door down. Whatever was in the room Josh and the others had to find it, and soon.

But the room was empty. Completely empty. There wasn’t a chair, a desk, a bed—not even any trash.

“What is this?” Firecracker said. He turned and looked at Josh. “I told you this was a trap. Now we’re stuck in here, and sooner or later those things are going to get in.” He pointed at the door, where the faces of two more zombies were peering in at them. They were also banging on the door, and it shook in its frame.

“Not so fast,” said Charlie. “There’s a closet.”

“Oh, a closet,” said Firecracker. “That makes everything better. We can just hide in there until the meatbags go away.”

Ignoring him, Charlie went to the door in the wall and turned the knob. She pulled the door open, stepping back in case there were any surprises inside. When nothing jumped out, she looked in.

“What is it?” Josh asked.

Charlie shook her head. “I’m not sure,” she answered.

“Well you’d better figure it out in the next thirty seconds,” said Firecracker. “That door isn’t going to hold.”

There was pounding on the door, followed by the sound of breaking glass. Outside, the zombies’ moans grew more frantic. “Like I said,” Firecracker yelped, pushing Charlie into the closet as he grabbed Josh by the wrist and pulled him inside too.

There was barely room for the three of them in the closet. Not that it really mattered. As far as Josh could tell, they were simply inside an ordinary closet, an empty ordinary closet. There were no weapons in it, not even coat hangers. The only thing in there was a single old-fashioned lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.

The sound of breaking glass came again, and Josh peered out to see a zombie reaching through the window of the room’s door and grabbing its doorknob from the inside. Soon the room would be filled with z’s, and there would be no escaping them this time. There were too many of them, and without weapons Josh and his friends would be zombie food.