And yet, the two vamps and one zombie to my left were jointly cornering a bat-man.Then there was that fallen bat-man in the right corner of the room serving as a shared platter for three zombies and one vamp.
Insanity.
Suddenly, three zombies munching on a dead bat-man lifted their heads all at the same time, as if they were puppets on the strings of a single puppet master.And they turned back to look straight at me with their milky-white eyes.
Oookay.Enough of this freak show.
I bolted.Back to the stairwell and up.If the zombiesabandoned their feast to give chase, with them beingWorld-War-Zfast, I would be screwed.
No one followed me.Phew.I kept climbing, desperate to put a few floors between me and the monster buffet.Just as I bypassed the door to the ninth floor, it flew open.
I froze several steps away.
A bat-man emerged, his blue skin covered in blood and guts.Sword in hand, he was breathing heavily.A set of black eyes devoid of pupils zeroed in on me.
I didn’t move.I didn’t dare breathe.
All the creatures responsible for the second apocalypse–at least, those encountered by people who had lived to tell the tale before the radios had gone silent–killed humans.With his massive wings, the bat-man could get to me in seconds, regardless of how fast I could run.Better to face death head-on.
He sniffed the air in my direction and spread his wings.
I crouched, tiny knife ready.
The bat-man flew away.Down the stairwell, quickly disappearing from sight.
I let out the breath I was holding.My hand around the knife relaxed.I might survive, after all–
The door swung open again.A whole bunch of zombies came pouring out into the stairwell.Seriously?
I ran up, and they gave chase.I was so tired already, what was I going to do?I couldn’t just pick a random floor to try for the fire escape ladder, not with so many of the floors being unsafe and those things right behind me!
As I reached the top floor, I was left with a single option.Legs and lungs burning, I made a dash for the entrance to the single room up here.A conference hall, which at my last visit had its furniture replaced with cocktail tables.
What was it with history repeating itself today?Really now.
I shut the heavy door behind me right as several sets ofdecomposing hands reached for me.One turn of the lock, and I blocked out their blood-chilling snarls.
Only to hear the wet, unmistakable sound of something munching behind me.
– 2 –
Crazy Stuff
From one buffet onto another.Lucky me.
Just five or six steps away from where I stood, amid overturned cocktail tables, broken glasses, scattered food remnants, and bodies at various stages of decomposition, four zombies were eating a bat-man.
The zombies couldn’t have possibly missed my loud entry, yet they didn’t so much as spare me a glance.Maybe they preferred a bat-man to a Sue dish?I wasn’t staying long enough to find out.
I had to reach the double doors at the far end of the hall.Beyond lay a corridor leading to the emergency exit and the fire escape ladder.My freedom from this nightmare was mere steps away!
I got moving, keeping close to the walls.No one paid me any attention.Halfway to the exit, I got to see the victim’s face.
God.The bat-man was still alive.He lay still and silent, but his eyes were wide open and staring back at me.Pain and determination warred in their dark depths, making me pause in my tracks.
The creature’s gaze shifted to my left.I followed it to what turned out to be a sword lying next to a vampire’s headless body.
The bat-man wanted me to get the sword.To help.
