Guts (the original interactive zombie apocalypse survival story)

46 - Escape the Parade of the Undead

Something hits the door with a loud thump! and a throaty grahh! follows. More thumps. The undead are trying to get to you through the door, the walls, and the windows. The small place seems to shrink, the walls sinking in on you. It feels as though you're in a flimsy cardboard box and they're all around, thumping and groaning, dying to get a taste of your flesh.

"We have to make a break for it," Quinn announces, he's checking the clip in one of his handguns.

"Yeah, but how? They're everywhere," you say. Your voice is shaking, but you're trying to stay in control. It's taking a lot of effort. All the oxygen seems to be sucked out of the room, as if you're being sealed inside a giant plastic vacuumed storage bag. "We can't-we can't get out." The weight of your words make your breaths become shallow and rapid.

"Hey now, focus," Quinn says, drawing your attention by grabbing your shirt. "You can do this. Look, there may be a lot of them, but we're smarter. We'll figure a way, okay? Okay?" He waits for you to nod and agree before he lets go.

"You're right. We just gotta think," you say, lowering yourself into a leather cushioned chair meant for customers to sit and wait. "What draws their attention?"

"Scent and sound." Quinn is pacing the length of the shop. His heavy boots somehow making only the slightest thuds. Meanwhile, the things outside are still bumping and banging away.

"Right, so we need something noisy...can't really do smell-"

Quinn stops pacing, so you stop speaking immediately. "Yes, we can. We can do smell." He laughs as if he's just realized something he was surprised he hadn't figured out sooner. "All we need is. . . ."

He walks over to the wall behind the chair you're sitting in. It's an inside wall, so there are no undead outside it. Only another shop, but you can't remember what kind of shop it was. Quinn knocks on the wall, listening carefully as if someone will say "who is it?" or politely invite him in. He knocks again in another place.

"Yes!" he says.

"What?" you ask, completely lost.

"It's just drywall. We can bust through a space big enough to fit through."

"But they're everywhere. Even if we get over there-"

"Just stand back."

Quinn knocks a few gardening magazines off an side table and grabs it firmly by two of its legs. He slams it into the lower part of the wall hard.  Paint and chalk-like wall crumbles fly everywhere. He does it again. One more time and the table breaks. He's almost through, so he start kicking it instead. You join in, kicking the wall, trying to drown out the growls and snarls of the undead outside.

Once you have a decent-sized hole in the lower wall, Quinn peeks through. "Okay. Follow me."

He starts crawling through. You look back to see the door shaking as the undead throw their arms and bodies against it. They're doing the same thing to the side of the building. It isn't as if they can comprehend what a door is, or that it even opens. When it does open, however, they'll all pile through it and blunder along in search of any living creature. All that beating must be taking a toll on that regular shop door. You pray that Quinn's idea will work as you follow him through the hole in the wall.