Siege (As the World Dies 3)

“We’re out of here,” Bill said firmly.

Jenni slipped the safety off her rifle and grabbed the bin. She followed Bill out into the hallway just as Roger and Felix came running from the direction of the stairs.

“Just run,” Felix hissed.

It was then they heard the footfalls on the stairs.

“Shit!” Jenni ran, clutching the gun in one hand and the bin in the other.

She could hear the scalpels and other tools rattling around in it, but she didn’t dare drop it. Juan needed these things.

Felix hit a door and shoved it open. They all piled into it and Roger quickly turned and locked it.

“Way out!” Felix ran toward the windows on the far side of the room.

Looking around, Jenni realized they were in some sort of dorm room.

Probably for doctors on long shifts.

“Felix!” Bill shouted.

The slender man didn’t turn around, but ran across the long room.

Sections were curtained off and Jenni realized a form was moving behind one at the far end. She could just make out its silhouette highlighted by the fading sunlight coming through the windows.

“Felix, no!”

He looked back just long enough to run straight into the last curtain. And beyond that curtain was something that reached out for him. He went down in a tumble of grunts and moans, the curtain falling over him and a dark figure.

Roger ran to help, his heavy body sweating profusely. “Felix, no, no!”

Behind Jenni, the door was struck by something large. Then the pounding began. Bill immediately pushed her aside and shoved a large metal wardrobe over in front of the door.

Felix shouted as Roger grabbed the curtain and yanked it back.

Tumbling out, Felix gasped in large breaths of air as he struggled to his feet. Behind him, a terribly mutilated and decaying soldier was chewing on a bit of Felix’s ear.

“Shit,” Roger screamed.

“What? What?” Felix exclaimed, leaping away from the zombie. “Kill it!”

Jenni shot the soldi

er as it lunged forward. It jerked backwards as the bullet tore through its chest. The second bullet sheared off the side of his head and it tumbled to the ground. Its brain slid out through the shattered skull, falling wetly to the floor. A bit of ear, with a gold earring still attached, fell out of its mouth.

“Oh, shit, no,” Felix said as his hand came up to his ear. “No, no. He ripped it off with his hand. He didn’t bite me!”

Roger raised his gun. “Sorry, Felix. ”

“No, the fucker ripped it off! It didn’t bite me!”

Pushing a desk in front of the door to brace the metal wardrobe, Bill swore under his breath. It continued to buckle and push into the room.

“We don’t have much time!”

Jenni threw the contents of the bin onto a bed and rolled it up in a sheet, then tied the ends to make a backpack. With a sigh of regret, she yanked her ax from her back and tossed it onto a bed. Pulling on the makeshift backpack with the surgical tools in it, she hurried toward the men fiercely arguing back and forth.

Felix screamed at Roger, holding his torn ear, as Roger obviously tried to get up his nerve to fire.