After Siege (As the World Dies 4)

After making sure she had enough slack in her line, Emma took Monica’s hand and stepped across the gap. It took all her willpower not to look at the swarm of zombies fighting to enter the restroom. When she was sure of her footing, she pushed off from the bus. It took her a second to catch her balance. In that time, her heart almost came to a complete stop.

Monica placed a stabilizing hand on her arm. “Gotcha. You’re good. You’ve got this.”

Emma cautiously dropped into a kneeling stance to study their predicament.

The corrugated metal roof had been bolted to supports. There had been three panels lying side-by-side and in the collapse two panels had wrenched apart. This was the only reason Belinda was still alive. She’d dropped into a

stall, while one of the panels had fallen outside of it and was wedged against the stall door. The stainless steel walls of the stall shuddered under the violent assault of the zombies crowding into the bathroom.

Juan held onto the inclined roof panel with one hand while reaching with the other toward Belinda. She was standing on the toilet stretching to catch his hand, but her small frame was far too short to close the gap. Exhausted from her ordeal, she swayed on the toilet seat. The door to the second stall was open and it was filled with the dead. The dividing wall was starting to dent under the desperate beating of decaying hands.

Juan wasn’t in a great position either. The panel holding his weight rested against the top of the neighboring stall and was bent at an angle, so that his legs were suspended over the undead crowd. He was in just as precarious position as the woman he was trying to save. How he had expected to rescue Belinda made no sense to Emma. He was clearly on the verge of losing his grip and falling. There wasn’t a plausible way he could reach Belinda and hoist her up.

“Juan, we’ll get her! You need to pull yourself up onto the roof! You’re just dangling dinner over the zombies and making the situation worse! Get up here!” Monica barked out with an authority that Emma appreciated.

“I need to save Belinda!”

“You’re being a fucking moron, Juan de la Torre! Get your ass up here before you get both of you eaten!”

The writhing bodies beneath Juan’s feet were growing more agitated by the sound of human voices. Time was swiftly running out for everyone, including the rescuers. They had to move fast. Emma tested the remaining intact roof panel. The metal was scorching hot beneath her gloved hand. It groaned as she leaned some pressure on it, but remained in place.

“Those rusted bolts are holding,” Monica pointed out. “But I don’t think it will support too much weight.”

Emma tested her safety line again. She had just enough slack to implement her quickly forming plan. “I’ll have to risk it. Crawling onto it will get me close to where she is so I can lower myself down to get her. Once I have her, you and Juan can hoist us up.”

“Did you hear her, Juan? Get up here and help!”

Perhaps some sense penetrated his thick skull and it had registered in Juan’s mind that he was in just as much danger as Belinda. Or maybe it was the prospect of being part of Belinda’s rescue. Either way, Juan made an effort to catch the edge of the roof with his other hand. The twisted panel holding him up made it difficult, so his cousin moved to assist him. Monica straddled the top of the wall so she could brace herself as she leaned over to help.

Fear etched onto his expression, Juan desperately reached for his cousin’s hand. Kicking his legs in an attempt to propel himself upward, he only managed to stir up the zombies beneath him. That worked to Belinda’s benefit by temporarily distracting the undead from their attacks on the stall she was trapped within. Emma had planned to wait until Juan was safely on the wall and then climb down, but she decided to take advantage of the zombies focusing on him.

The top of the stainless steel stall partition was only a few feet below her perch. In normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be difficult to lower herself and climb down into the stall with Belinda, but currently the space around it was completely crammed full of the rotting, foul-smelling creatures.

Belinda sank against the wall and slowly slid down until she was crouched on the toilet lid. Head craned, she watched Emma, her gaze pleading for rescue. Emma cautiously rolled onto her stomach and lowered her legs over the edge of the roof, her feet searching for purchase on the top of the stall divider. Inching slowly downward, Emma clutched a peak in the corrugated metal. The last thing she wanted to do was lose her grip and fall. It was a relief when her heels hooked over the top of the partition. With a grin, she lowered the rest of her body into the building, squatting down so she was below the roof. Emma’s appearance over the heads of the zombies immediately sent them into a new frenzy. Their hands started to hammer against the divider beneath her, rattling her, and only her grip on the roof above kept her from pitching into them.

The situation was far worse than Emma had realized. The constant press of the zombie bodies against the stalls was forcing the partition to gradually slant toward Belinda, and already a few brackets had torn free from the wall. Only the collapsed roof panel, the fact the stalls were floor-length, and sheer luck had kept Belinda out of the reach of the zombies.

“This whole thing is about to come down on us, Belinda. I need you to take my hand right now so they can hoist us up.” Emma didn’t look behind her to check on Juan’s progress. She had to trust that he would make it to safety and that his strength combined with Monica’s would be able to pull them up.

At first she thought Belinda was going to ignore her, since she appeared frozen with fear, but slowly, the woman forced herself to stand. Bracing her hands against the solid wall behind her, Belinda climbed onto the seat. Emma’s fingers dug into the corrugated metal roof to keep steady while stretching out with one hand toward Belinda. The partition Emma was perched on rocked under the onslaught of the zombies. Belinda was about to grasp her hand when something gripped Emma’s ankles. Tossing a startled look over her shoulder, she saw a tall male zombie scrabbling at her boots. Before she could decide what to do, he pulled Emma off balance and she tipped forward. As she fell into the stall, the line tightened sharply around her torso. Again, her breath was nearly knocked out of her, but she was secure. Emma grasped Belinda, jerked her into her arms, and the two women dangled over the toilet as the stainless steel partition started to bend toward them.

“Pull us up!” she shouted, hoping Juan and Monica were ready to rescue them.

Her answer was a sharp yank on the line.

“We got you!” Monica replied.

“Hold on to Belinda!” Juan called down.

In painful, jerky tugs, Juan and Monica pulled the two women up. There wasn’t too much distance from where they hung to safety, but every second was terrifying as they dangled helplessly, protected only by the slowly-collapsing stall. When they neared the edge of the remaining section of the roof, Emma dared to plant her boots on the stall divider to hold them steady. A few rotting fingers scrabbled on the soles of her boots. Juan leaned over and gripped Belinda’s wrists, dragging her up and out of sight in one swift motion. The roof panel shuddered beneath their combined weight.

The metal partition gave way beneath Emma with a loud groan.

“Shit!”

Emma quickly pulled her knees up to her chest. Holding onto the line, she rapidly swung over the zombie heads toward the wall. She kicked up her legs just before she struck it, but only managed to hook one ankle onto the top. Because there wasn’t any slack in the rope, she was unable to maneuver to safety and was stretched tight in a precarious position above the rampaging zombies below.

Behind her, the stainless steel partitions crumpled with a loud metallic moan, wrenching the dividers away from the walls so the brackets tugged free of the cement. The destruction sent a tremor through the entire building. A substantial amount of the zombies were instantly trapped beneath the falling debris. The undead thrashed about, attempting to free themselves, but only managed to become more entangled with the limbs and clothing of their companions.