Mark Clodi - Outbreak

“He-ello? Is this Diane?” asked a voice on the other end of the line.

Surprised, Diane responded, “Yeah, who is this? And how did you know who I was?”

“We have caller id, I recognized your number and name from when you called twenty minutes ago. My assistant took your first call. This is Blake, by the way.”

“Hello Blake, I am pleased to meet you. I am calling to say highway six is pretty clear, we are heading westbound okay so far since the twenty five exit. You want to let everyone know that?”

“Ah, sure why the fuck not.” came his bitter response.

“What’s wrong?”

“They called me. The zombies fucking called me and and my assistants, whoever was manning the phones. And we gave them directions on how to get here. Sorry for swearing, but the ground floor is full of them now, you kind of saved my life you know. The rest of the gang was downstairs helping the ‘refugees’, I took the elevator down, we obviously still have power, the generator has not even kicked in yet. Anyway, the door opened and I saw a group of them laughing. Laughing, the bastards! They were eating the associate manager, she was my friend Diane! My friend! And they laughed and pointed at me and said ‘Thanks buddy!’ then they tried rushing the doors, but I got them closed in time. I have an elevator key, I can go to the top of the tower if I want, twelve floors up, but I came back here to the station. I mean if they get through the fire doors, they will find me no matter where I hide, right? I know this building there are not any doors stronger than the fire doors are. I locked the elevator out on my floor so they couldn't use that.”

“I am glad I warned you Blake, I am glad you are alive and probably safe, but you have a lot of power and you should use it instead of just waiting for them to come in after you.”

“What do you mean? This is a dead end Diane, no way out, except maybe jumping from the roof and we have those goddamn safety nets installed so I would only fall like two stories before being caught up in one, where I would probably die of thirst without anyone to retrieve me. Of course I could make my way to the edge of the net and continue the fall too, I guess or..”

“Cut it out Blake, cut it out! You don’t have to die there and even if you do you can at least go out helping a lot of other people. I don’t know you, but I know you were trying to help people before, now you can do even more good. Secure yourself first, throw chairs, desks, whatever in front of the fire doors..”

Interrupting Blake said, “No it wouldn’t do anything, the doors open out and …”

“Hear me out! Put the stuff in front of the doors so you can hear them coming and get out of the station if you need to, not to stop them, just don’t lean anything up against the door handle and accidentally open it, or maybe the stairwells are pretty small? You might have better luck tossing a bunch of junk down the stairwell to stop them from coming up, leave one open as an escape route maybe. We did that in the building where I was held up for awhile.”

“Oh yeah, I can do that we have a promotion where we go around to the local bars and have about twenty cases of glass cups we gave away as swag, that would make a lot of noise if they hit it, plus a few desks and chairs in the stairwell, that is going to take awhile though, there are five stairwells in the building, one at each corner and one near the elevators. Not a bad idea Diane, I might have even a few more. What else to you have?”

“Okay here is the important part, get back on the radio, you could ask people for help, tell them you need someone to come free you from the station and explain your situation, maybe. Regardless you need to get back on the air and keep telling everyone what is going on, you are it man, every other station is off the air, let people know to hit them in the head, tell them to call all their friends and spread the news that you are on the air, get people organized, right now everyone is trying to fight back on their own and we are losing, at least from my point of view, I know that of the people I spent the night with only maybe six of the twenty of us are still alive, so you gotta get people organized and have them fight back. There is no reason why the station could not be the rallying point.”

“I might even live through it. Okay I will do it, let me give you another number you can reach me at, I have the feeling this line is going to get busy really soon. Also here is my cell number in case the power totally goes out. We have a generator, but who knows how long that will last?”

Diane took his number on a small notebook she pulled out of her glove box. Amelia admired Diane’s organization skill; the last time she checked her own glove box so much stuff fell out that she had resolved to never open it again.

After Diane hung up she asked, “Well, spill it, what happened, I think I got a pretty good idea from your end of the conversation. But do you think he will make it?”

Diane went to respond when the music abruptly cut off and the dj’s voice was on the air again, “Well thanks to my good fried Diane, I am still here ladies and gentlemen. First things first anyone I told to come to the station, and you know who you are, you had best stay away, it seems Diane’s warning that some zombies can talk and act like normal humans is true and several of them fooled me and invaded the station, so it is not a safe place to be anymore. Second tell everyone we are on the air and to keep calling. I have to go and do a few things to help keep me safe and will be back on live very soon. I have recorded this while I am talking and will set it to repeat until I am back. Oh and if anyone from the first group has a lot of guns, I would certainly appreciate a helping hand getting out of here too. Be back soon folks!”

After a moments though Diane said, “I think he just might make it Amelia. I think he just might.”

Max struggled to a sitting position he felt so weak, so weak that all he could do was point his revolver at the open door and whisper to Steve, “Don’t move the car, Stewart is under the car, don’t move the car Steve!”

“Fuck, Max! Help her! Help her! Tom watch out, they are coming!”

Tom was busy pulling Stewart from under the car, Max risked one shot with the revolver, hitting the zombie in the leg, it barely seemed to phase it. Tom let go of Stewart with one hand and swung the shotgun around with the other firing into the zombies that were approaching the car. Steve pulled out the automatic pistol he had and scrambled over the seat to the open door, he fired into the zombies, bringing one down and momentarily sending the rest dodging sideways to avoid his wild fire. Tom bent back over to pull at Stewart, who was firing under the car with her gun hand and hanging on to Tom’s arm with the other.

Steve ran out of ammunition the gun clicked empty and he froze. Evidently the training he had been given was momentarily wiped from his mind and he sat there pulling the trigger to no effect. Max said in an almost normal voice, “Reload Steve. Reload Steve. Steve reload.”

Steve scrambled to reload and while the zombies pressed their advantage, Tom’s shotgun roared once more before he said, “I am out Stewart. I can’t reload with one hand.”

“Let me go Tom!” she said.

“No!”

“Let me go!”

“No!” he screamed, froth spraying out of his mouth.

A zombie loomed up behind him and Max struggled to raise the revolver, his hand was shaking so bad he could not get a clear shot and the edges of his vision started to fade into black, the fatigue and blood loss were hitting him and he started to pass out. The last thing he saw was the zombie pitching forward, the last thing he heard was the sound of Steve’s voice coming from somewhere well above him as if he, Max, had fallen into a deep mine shaft, “An a.r.r.o.w M.a.x! A.n. a.r.r.o” then he passed out.