The Rot: Book 2

Chapter 21

Once I caught my breath, I ran out of the back room with Nicole and out into the lobby. Everyone was sitting at the end of the room, staying away from the front doors.

"Reid!" Cynthia gasped when she saw me walk into the lobby. She ran up and gave me a hug. Great, more awkward human contact. "You made it."

"I don't know if you're bragging or complaining, Cyn," I replied.

Cynthia slapped my arm, "Shut up."

The dead things outside were still pounding away. "I dunno if that outer glass is going to hold," Mick said.

"Yeah, I know," I responded. "They want in here. But, I think I know how to get rid of them."

"How?" Nicole asked.

"I'll need Janice and her pipe wrench."

Once we were back outside, Janice and I huddled behind the building. "What are you planning now, Reid?" whispered Janice.

I peeked around the corner. I didn't see the biters, but I heard them. The dead things were still slapping on the door glass and trying to get into the building. I looked back at Janice, "Get that wrench ready."

Janice nodded, "Okay. I still don't know what you're up to, Reid."

"Don't worry, Janice. When I give you the word, swing that wrench, got it?"

"Yeah."

I stood out in the open and blurted out, "Hey, yo."

The two stenches stopped their pounding on the front door and looked at me. To my relief, the biters were roughly the same height.

"Alright, you dumb fucks. Come on, get your dinner." The two stenches charged out after me, and I ran by Janice, "Aim high."

"Huh?" Janice asked.

"Now!"

"Fuck it," Janice swung the pipe wrench and connected with the heads of both eaters, knocking the dead things down to the ground.

The first biter that sat upright, an older man wearing a light brown suit and had a full, white beard, had the top of his skull caved in by Janice's pipe wrench. The other corpse, a guy wearing a leather jacket and black slacks had my axe blade buried into his forehead. There, got that done.

Janice looked around the area nervously, "Come on, Reid. Let's get back inside."

Hey, she didn't have to tell me twice. We headed back into the office just as it was getting dark. To be on the safe side, Mick and I dragged one of the bulky, heavy, examination tables out and placed it in front of the back door. Just in the off chance Carter lured some of his dead friends back our way.

I damn near collapsed in the lobby when all was said and done. I plopped down on the floor. "What a fucked up, shitty day."

Mick patted me on the back, "You saved our bacon, Reid."

"You're making me hungry."

"Sorry," Mick replied, laughing

I took a very deep breath and exhaled. "Okay. What the fuck happened? We go out, get supplies, and all hell breaks loose back here."

"We don't know, Reid," Cynthia answered. "A little while after you, Angie, and Janice left, a bunch of stenches arrived. Scared the piss out of us, I can tell you that much."

"Yeah, the dead fuckers just kind of showed up here. Like back at the warehouse," Mick added.

"You think it was Carter?" Cyn asked me.