Black Out

1 Purged, Just Kidding

“Behind you!” Brainy shouted. Jac turned her head just in time to see the zombie she just took out get back up. Obviously he didn’t need a heart or arm to live. Jac grabbed the foot long, steak fork thingy from the counter next to her, ran forward and plunged it through the zombie’s eye and into its brain. Maybe he’d finally take the hint and die already. A mush and bone hand grabbed her right shoulder and spun her around

Gross. This zombie was once a girl, before the sickness got to her. Her dim glowing, yellow eyes told Jac that this zombie had been infected for about a month already, and wouldn’t be hard to kill. Jac grabbed the arm on her shoulder and twisted it, with a quick snap it went limp, but the zombie continued to flap it about. Next, to finish this thing off. She grabbed the axe from the head of the zombie to her left. It was heavy but she managed to lift it just enough to slice through the neck of the zombie in front of her. Black goo seeped out of its throat; it was as thick as corn syrup. It took the zombie a second to process the fact that it was supposed to die now.

When it finally fell over, Jac saw Brainy fighting his own zombie, it was about half his size yet still he had trouble taking it out. It looked like he was dancing with the dang thing.

“Move!” Jac stepped closer grabbed the zombie kids head and smashed it hard against the brick wall of the kitchen. There was a crackling sound as its head shattered.

“Come on we gotta find the others.” Jac grabbed the bag of cans and headed for the lobby. Hopefully Serge and the others hadn’t run into any other zombies.

“I thought this place was supposed to be purged?” Brainy said jogging to catch up with her.

“It wouldn’t be the first time they were wrong.” Jac muttered. When a place was “purged” it meant that all the zombies in that area were wiped out. Apparently no one realized that it could just be re-inhabited.

They walked quietly but quickly down the hall. Jac heard moaning in front of her a ways and pressed flat against the wall pulling Brainy next to her. Jac held her breathe and peeked around the corner. Five zombies were limping their way down the opposite hall leading towards the back of the hotel. There were quite a few zombies here for being purged. She waited impatiently till the last zombies were out of sight. She started to breathe again and hurried down the hall away from the zombies.

 Jac turned the corner into the lounge of the abandoned hotel. Matt stood at the door with rifle in hand and Ann stood a few feet to his left.  No sign of the Serge or Janet.

“We need to leave. Now!” Jac started rushing towards them.

“What? Where’s Janet?” Ann asked as her started searching in the direction her older sister headed.

“I don’t know but this place is crawling with diseased.”

“That’s not possible this place was purged.” Matt said.

“Clearly they missed a spot, and besides if you really believed that then you wouldn’t be holding the gun like that.” Jac pointed to the loaded rifle adjusted into a shooting position.

“We’re not—“Matt started but was cut off by the Serge.

“Move! Move! Move!” the Serge came running down the stairs with Janet hard on his heels. Jac didn’t need to be told twice; she turned towards the two big doors and bolted out of them. She reached the Hummer, swung the passenger’s door wide open and jumped in with Ann right next to her. Brainy, Matt and Janet jumped into the backseat. Now all they waited for was Serge with the keys. Jac stared at the broken glass doors of the abandoned hotel. No Serge. Crap.

“Janet, where’s the Serge?”

“I don’t know. He was right behind me.”

“Gun. Now.” Without question the rifle was passed to the front. Jac slid out of the car. She jogged to the doors and then slowed when she got a yard from them. She took it one step at a time.

“Serge?” She whispered no answer. A few breathes later she tried again this time a little louder. “Serge?” It was completely silent, not even the sound of zombies in ear shoot.

With a deep breath Jac raised the gun higher and readied herself to shoot anything that moved. Slowly she began to step over the broken glass, which was once the door, and entered the building. It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. “Sergeant MacCleave?”

“Keep your voice down.” Her eyes shot to the direction of the hidden voice. He was kneeling on one knee with his gun on the top of the other one. Jac quietly rushed over and took a similar position.

“Serge what are—“

“Shh!” He put his finger to his mouth, held it there for a second and then pointed. There several yards away stood three zombies; they couldn’t be told apart from such a distance. One held a gun and… were their eyes deceiving them, was it loading the gun? He wasn’t just loading it he was doing it the exact same Ann would. It was unmistakably the Ann way of loading a gun, the way he held the butt of the gun in between his knees, held the barrel right at the end with his left hand and then when he was done loading it he grabbed it with his right hand and closed it. Nobody loads their gun like that except for Ann.

She stared confused at the zombie. That couldn’t be Ann the transformation wasn’t that quick and plus she just saw her in the car. Jac jumped as the Sergeant blew off the head of the Ann like zombie. She took no time to react and shot at one of the other zombies that were now heading straight for them. That left one, which jumped and knocked Jac to her back. A short struggle and a gunshot latter the headless zombie fell limp on top of Jac. Black goo spilled all over her T-shirt.

“Time to go.” Serge grabbed Jac by her upper arm and pulled her to her feet. “This place is gonna be swarming with them any minute.” Out the door they shot and sure enough by the time they reached the hummer the faint sound or zombies moaning came from just inside the building. The keys were in the ignition and the car was started before you could say “Bob’s your Uncle.” Switching the car to drive, the Serge took off a cross the parking lot, accelerating to 90mph in three seconds flat.