Part 7

His revolver had fallen to the floor. He gripped the cleaver with both hands and spun on his heel driving the blade through the necks of three undead. Bloodless and emotionless, the zombies fell to the floor around him. Karl continued swinging his weapon wildly, effectively. The closing crowd began to overwhelm him as he fatigued. An arm grabbed his wrist, his throat became throttled by another.. As he choked, he heard his cleaver fall to the ground with a clang. his head spun around to look into the lifeless eyes that meant to destroy him. He stared at the attackers neck where chunks of rotting flesh were missing. He convulsed as the ghouls stench washed over him. He fell to the floor roughly after wriggling free. He clawed for the revolver on the ground...one shot is all he needed after all.
*
Garrett took a step forward, peered around the edge of the door frame. The elevator hung open, dark. Hail pummeled the windows and he continued to glare at the blank entrance. He stepped forward and into the elevator. It was vacant apart from a corpse. Kyle's arm was leaning aloft against the wall of the elevator. By looking over the corpse, he saw that Kyle had intended to puncture his own heart, but instead deflated a lung and still bled to death. He bowed his head in realization of Kyle's intentions, he had tried escaping, but by a sick twist of fate, the power and failed him twice in a row. Once sending him to his death, the second, not allowing him to escape it.
Garrett walked to the lifeless body and gripped the blades handle that was still embedded in Kyle's chest. Pulling it from him with a squelch he muttered, “Steak.”
*
Running, Ryan reached the front door of Ranger Hall, yanked it open, swiped his ID heard the lock click, pulled open the second door and charged up the stairs.
*
Ashley glared at Garrett.
Ryan approached them, “What's going on?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” responded Garrett with a grim smile on his face.
“What the hell do you mean nothing is wrong!!! You sit there, tell me you're sorry, make me think you're going to blow my face off! And then you say NOTHING IS WRONG!?!” Ashley screamed hysterically.
“Whoa. Chill ou-” attempted Ryan.
“Chill out? CHILL OUT? Is that even possible? I don't know if you realized this...but our friends are DYING. Dying, Ryan. Do you know what that means?! That means they never come ba-”
“It means that we better stay calm. So that we can live, and tell the world what happened.” Ryan said simply. “It means that we need to stay calm...Garrett? Where'd you get that knife?”
“Kyle gave it to me.” Garrett stated murkily.
“You found Kyle? Is he...?” Ryan began to whisper after realizing how loud they were being.
“Oh yeah. Totally dead. He could be set up in front of a Human Anatomy class, everything is all there.”
“Damn...” Ashley trailed off. “Why didn't you tell me that?” she asked looking at Garrett.
Ryan nodded in agreement.
“Ryan...where's Karl?”
Suddenly reality hit them all. Karl was gone. Ryan bowed his head. Garrett showed Ryan his mangled and disfigured hand and Ryan said nothing. Garrett glanced out the window and saw Mike Benson running away from a pack of zombies. He counted five of them.
*
Mike sprinted and began to weave through the apartment buildings. He kept looking back. How is this possible!? How can they still be here! How can they be gaining ground? He thought frantically. He screamed in terror and through his arms over his head, slipped on a rock and fell flat on his face. He felt his nose break and blood squirt from it onto the ground. He turned to face his predators, his eyes opened wide in sheer fear. He screamed again. Got up and ran towards the parking lot.
*
They moved together, all five of them, towards the Ranger Hall parking lot. Following. Seeking their prey. In the shadows, they remained hidden and met other zombies in the vehicle filled lot.
*
On the floor of Wylie, Karl bled profusely, the zombies clawed and tore at him. He felt teeth scrape his skin and fingers claw at his eyes. He took the pain. Wouldn't let them gain pride from his pain, his struggling. He cocked his arm, swung his fist and connected with a zombie square in the jaw. He looked down at himself, saw the blood, felt lightheaded, and fell limp. The zombies feasted upon his suddenly willing body.