Chapter 1
Rogers foot slipped on a pile of refuse as he thundered through the lobby of an old office building. He slammed down onto the marble floor with a thud as his lungs compacted and spit out air. Gasping, he staggered back to his feet as someones hand grabbed his upper arm in a tight grip, pulling him towards the back of the building.
"C'mon we gotta move!" Shouted Alex over the tumult of screeching and gun fire behind them.
Without a word Roger was running again ignoring the dull pounding in his chest. When the two neared a set of double doors with the symbol for stairs on a sign above them Roger once again fell to the ground. This time for a reason he couldn't identify. Alex's sneakers squeaked on the marble as he doubled back to grab Roger.
"Get goin' you fucking idiot!" Screamed Alex, this time with no concern, just vitriol.
Alex held one of the doors open as Roger stumbled though it. Leaving the door swinging shut, Alex began running up the steps three at a time. Before following suit, Roger quickly inspected the door. There was nothing available to barricade the doors so he settled for setting the rubber door stoppers down against the floor. With that he ambled up the steps, taking two when his good leg could afford it.
Once he rounded the second landing he looked up to see Alex aiming his Beretta 92 down towards him a little over his shoulder. With a sardonic look Alex took a hand off of his pistol to give a snarky shrug.
"The fuck are you doin' down there?" Alex asked, oozing superiority as only a teenager can. He'd asked the question much more loudly than he'd thought. Once the double doors had closed the noise lowered by several orders of magnitude to where they could finally hear their foot steps echo off the stairwell walls.
"I'm putting measures in place, something you wouldn't stop to do you littl-"
Alex looked wide eyed down the stairs while Roger leaned over the side of the railing to look at the entrance. He saw an infected with its leg and half of its torso trying to squeeze through the jammed door. Through the vertical pain of glass he saw maybe two or three more behind it waiting for their opening.
"Haul it dickless!" grunted Roger as he resumed limping up the steps as fast as his leg would let him. Alex bounded up the steps ahead of him and was soon out of site. Roger fumble with the gun he had tucked in the bottom flap of his backpack. On the forth landing he finally managed to free the sawed off Browning A5, at that moment he heard the crash as the door beneath slammed open against the wall. Forgetting all about the pain he took the steps three at a time. He was moving so fast he nearly collided with Alex who stood stock still at a landing three floors up.
They stood there staring at an impenetrable wall of concrete rubble and tangled rebar. They could see pin pricks of sunlight though the narrow slits and gaps in the pile blocking them.
Alex bolted to the landing door, trying it to no avail. He looked around widely.
"Well!? What the fuck do we do now?"
Roger looked down through the gap in the stairwell. He could make out glimpses of moving figures almost three floors down. He went to the door and tried the handle, jamming it down and throwing his shoulder into the door.
"No good." He seethed
"No shit" replied Alex.
Without stopping to think Roger flipped his backpack off his shoulder and unzipped it. He pulled out a waffle hammer and pressed it against Alex's chest.
"Do something with this." said Roger, ushering Alex to the door.
As Alex began wailing on the pane of glass in the door Roger readied himself at the top on the stairs. He could hear the loud moans moving up the steps, maybe one floor down. The stench filled his nostrils. That smell, no matter how many times he'd smelled it before it still made whatever resided in his stomach boil up to the back of his throat. It smelled like chicken bones rotting inside of a to-go box for ten years, citrus and shit.
Alex kept pounded on the glass trying to rip away the metal netting incased between the plate glass. Flipping the hammer around he swung the claws into it, feverishly tugging it loose one strand at a time. Finally with enough room to slip an arm through he reached his free hand inside the window, feeling around for the bar that would open it. He heard a deafening boom ring out from behind him. He turned around to see Roger stepping slowly back towards him. He thought he heard Roger saw something like "hurry up," but couldn't quite make out the words.
Alex plunged his arm as far into the window as his height allowed him. He could just feel the bar on his finger tips but didn't have enough leverage to work with. Pulling his arm out he grabbed the hammer and stuck it back in. He was determined to bang the doors lever open. He felt Rogers body weight against him and the door. He looked around again to see Roger fire another shot into three infected closing the gap between them. One of them took the blow full force and its torso crippled in half, the lead pellets blowing out chunks of cinder behind it.
Finally with one more random blow the door gave way. Alex dropped the hammer, his arm still caught in the door. He could feel the shards of glass he hadn't knocked loose slicing his sleeve open and embedding under his skin as he yanked it out.
"Shut it! Shut it!" Screamed Roger.
He sent another shot down range, blowing back a target that was almost upon them. Alex slammed the door shut.
Roger stood up shakily, picking up the hammer as he did. Once standing he was eye to eye the last infected left. Still screeching, its face pressed as far through the narrow window as it could. Roger then sunk the claw side of the hammer into its forehead. The screeching stopped but as the infected fell back it took the hammer with it, leaving pieces of its face stuck to the broken edges.
Roger slumped against the wall and slide down it, joining Alex. The two looked at each other.
Seeing the shocked and tired look on Rogers face Alex laughed. He tried to conceal it at first but then the adrenaline wore off and he doubled over laughing hysterically. Roger looked down the hallway, suppressing the urge to laugh as well. He couldn't however rid the little grin that curled his mouth on one side.
"Knock it off, we aren't safe yet." He grumbled.
Alex straighten up slightly, chocking down his last laugh in a fit of coughs. His bloodshot eyes found Rogers. Rogers eyes were already fixed on his.
Roger hadn't known Alex for more than two days but two days was long enough for him to deduce two things. Firstly was that Alex was a smart ass. Secondly was that his reaction to stress and fear was to laugh. It wasn't always appropriate per situation but Roger figured it was better than crying, or even worse, him slipping into indolent indecision.
The kid was nearly as tall as him albeit not as broad or physically fit. Give it a few more weeks of weathering and malnutrition though, then maybe. Other than the height you couldn't find two more dissimilar people. Alex had long stringy dark hair tucked behind his ears with the aid of a blood crusted bandana. Roger was a dirty blonde who kept his hair to a close crop. Their faces were a stark contrast as well. Were as Alex had a smooth, pale face with almost no facial hair, Roger had a cracked, sun beaten face with a weeks worth of beard that hid only half of the nicks and scars he'd accumulated from all the trouble he'd gotten into.
Alex broke eye contact to pull his arm out of his checked shirt.
"You need a minute?" asked Roger quietly.
Alex breathed a sigh of exasperation.
"That goddamn window got me" he explained, tucking his arm behind his head to look at the wound on his upper arm.
Roger clicked on the pen torch he had in his pocket.
"Got you good, hold still and I can get it."
Roger unzipped his back pack and retrieved a pocket bathroom kit. He took the tweezers out, stuck the pen torch in his mouth.
Slowly he prodded the inch long shard of glass in a direction that it could be slide out, Alex making small grunts all the while.
"C'mere" said Roger with one more tug. The shard came out clean. Like a stopper in a wine bottle the blood came oozing out after it.
Alex sucked air in through his teeth. "Fucker" he exhaled.
Roger pulled a half pint of stoli from his pack and poured a little into Alex's open wound before plugging it with a cotton ball.
"Ahhhh, motherfucker." breathed Alex. Inspecting his treated arm he, pulled a roll of electrical tape from his own pack and wrap a single strand around his bicep.
Alex looked at Roger questioningly. "You think those guys followed us in here?"
"Doubtful, there was at least fifteen stalkers between them and us."
Roger reached around in his back pack, Alex continued to press him. "How the fuck come they shot at us? Why didn't they just follow us and wait to catch us off our guard?"
Roger answered him still searching his pack. "Be thankful they did. If they did it your way we'd probably both be dead right around now."
"Yeah but lettin' every stalker in the area know we're all here, fuckin' stupid."
Roger tilted his head in agreement. "They might of thought they would loose us once the sun went down, doesn't matter."
Finally finding what he was looking for, Roger slid his last two shell into the tube. "Lets get to it, I wanna get set up for the night before the sun goes down"
"I'll take the left side." Alex told him.
Roger nodded his assent.
As quickly as Roger stood up, he fell back over with a growl of pain.
Alex knelt down next to him. "You fucked up?"
Roger shifted up his pant leg to find a hole about the size of a pea in his calf slowly leaking blood into his sock.
"Damn dude you got shot!" Said Alex breathlessly.
"I got hit, probably a ricochet from downstairs. If it'd have hit full on I'd still be down there. "
Alex chimed in "Hit, shot, you gonna be able to walk?"
"Yeah, just help me up" Groaned Roger.
Once he was steadily on his feet he peaked through the broken door window soaking in the sounds before opening it to retrieve his hammer. They both started down the hallway, checking each room of their respective sides for threats or salvageables before moving on down.
At the last two doors of the hallway they met up to compare their findings before moving forward.
"Anything good?" Asked Alex.
"Just some office supplies that might come in handy, a metal trash can to. Might be able to break down a desk or something, get a fire going. How about you?"
Alex reached in his pack. "Some stale ass mints and a building plan on the wall. So pretty much fuck all."
"Better than nothi-" Roger started.
Alex cut across him "I did however..." He paused for dramatic tension. "Find these."
He held out a crumpled pack of Misty's.
Rogers eyes lit up until he saw the brand.
Alex noticed this and asked "I thought you smoked."
"I do and I'll smoke those. You just happened to find a pack that's better suited to an old hag that smells like cat piss and blows her social security on scratch offs." Replied Roger with resignation.
Alex blew a raspberry, tossing the pack to Roger. "I don't know what the fuck you're saying most of the time. So, we camping here tonight.?"
"Good a place as any."
Roger turned to look in the last room he hadn't cleared yet. It held a few desks and book shelves. One of the floor to ceiling windows had been completely blown out, big hunks of it scattered all over the room. The other windows we caked in grim and barely transparent. As a stiff wind blew in through the window he saw what made the room a winner to stay in.
"Check it out." Roger nodded into the room.
Alex poked his head around the corner.
"Fucking score old man." clenching his fist.
Roger shoved him in to the room, almost pushing him over before the kid righted himself and ran over to the water cooler in the corner of the room.
"See if it works." Roger said.
"It's not gonna be cold dumbass." Alex chastised.
"See if the taps work...idiot." Roger snapped back.
Roger walked over to where Alex stood and selected one of the mugs on the shelf next to the cooler. He picked one up that read "You're a perfect sister!" It had little paw prints all over it. He shook his head and pressed one of the taps down. Slowly the mug filled.
"It's going to taste like shit." He told Alex taking his first sip. It did.
Alex stuck out his tongue as if to gag. "Eh, why does it taste like this?"
"It's been sitting in plastic for 20 years, it's going to taste like plastic." Drawled Roger.
"No shit?"
"Noooo shit. You gonna help me barricade these doors or what?" Asked Roger.
"Yeah, what do you got?" Alex answered, looking over his shoulder at him.
Roger tossed him the hammer and one of the wooden door stoppers he'd found in another room. "Bang that under the door."
"Sure, grab me one of these chairs to stuff under the handle." Said Alex.
Roger obliged him and brought over a wooden chair that he kicked into place.
"Come help me do mine" Asked Roger.
While Alex knelt down to hammer the stopper into place Roger sat down on a chair next to the door and pulled up his pant leg to take a closer look and the hole in his leg. Sighing, he went to unzip his pack to grab his tweezers again. As he was bending over and Alex was standing up to grab nother chair the room around them exploded. Without stopping to think Roger sprang up from his sitting position to body slam Alex away. He hit him with such force that Alex was lifted off his feet and thrown into a office chair that toppled over backwards sending him tumbling next to the water cooler. Roger dived back into his corner of the room.
"Stay down!" Screamed Roger. "It's coming from across the street!"
From his prone position he looked between the desk and chair legs to see Alex huddled in a fetal position covering his face with his arms. Bits of stationary and glass rained over them both as the windows and desks in the room crackled and popped sending their remnants into the air. It only lasted another few seconds before an ominous silence resumed.
Alex parted his arms a little to look for Roger. "Rog? Rog what the fuck was that?"
"Shh, just stay down and don't fucking move." He replied with force.
The corner he was in only had about three feet of space between the now shattered window and the wall perpendicular to it. Roger quickly peaked his head out to assess the situation. No sooner did he pull his head back in that the barriage started up again, this time only lasting a second or two.
Roger knew he needed more room to move around in before he could come up with a plan. He slid up the wall a little to get a good grip on metal bookshelf and pulled it to the ground with a crash, its contests spilling onto the floor. No shot come that time. Straining himself he tilted the shelf on its side and began sliding it into place in front of the window.
Alex chirped "Dude that covers dog shit, they'll blow right through it."
Roger continued shifting and responded "I know, I'm not hiding behind it, I just don't want them knowing where I am."
He glanced over at Alex whose side of the room yielded much more cover not to mention sporting a wooly coach and a giant jug of water. A much better place to be if you potentially have to hunker down for a while.
A few seconds after he placed the shelf more gunfire range out punching holes into the sheet metal. Adding more holes to the wall behind it, it sent out tiny bits of shrapnel whizzing in all directions. One of which caught Roger about an inch under his left eye.
"Mother Fucker!" Howled Roger.
"You get hit? I mean shot?" Yelled Alex, getting up slightly.
Roger slumped against the wall dejected. "No, just nicked."
Alex laid back down still looking over at Roger. He asked "So are we getting outta here or what? You think they'll try and come over here?"
"We can't" Roger started. "It's damn near sun down and I doubt they'd brave the street trying to get to us. It'll probably be a stand off until the morning."
Roger dug through his pack looking for the rifle scoop that didn't have its home on rifle. When he took it out he rolled onto his side, putting it to his eye and peering out across the street through one of the fresh bullet holes.
"What'd ya see?"
Roger stared hard, looking at the room across the street perfectly level to their own. He searched for as many bodies as he could. "Looks like two guys so far. That's all I can see anyways."
"There was definitely more than that on the street earlier. You think some of em' got bite and the others left em'?"
"Probably not" Roger said still searching." I only remember seeing one guy with an AR-15 or something like that, and maybe another guy with a hunting rifle. The other ones probably don't have guns worth trying to aim over here. They're probably just hiding like we are."
Roger rolled back against the wall. He laid the scope on his chest. "All I can really make out is two guys. One's just on the floor and the others propped up on a desk. It's to dark to see what they've got."
Alex giggled a little bit. He looked around the room and whistled before saying "What are the fuckin' odds we'd pick a room to hid in right across the street from those cunts?"
Roger shook his head and said "Weirder things have happened."