Chapter Four

When the smoke cleared, and the last zombie had been dropped to the concrete floor, Bill, Francis, and Louis looked around for Zoey. "I thought she was with you," Louis said to Francis as hey clambered over a pile of zombies. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called: "Zoey!"

"Maybe..." Bill cast a fearful glance to Francis and Louis. "Maybe she didn't make it."

"No," said Francis. "She was... she was here, and the horde came. If she had died, she'd still be...here..." His voice trailed off as he cast his light over the floor, and he came to a dead halt as the flashlight's beam brushed against the jagged hole in the concrete floor. He gulped and moved closer.

The flashlight beam plunged into the blackness, illuminating a single black-and-white high-topped tennis shoe.

* * * * *

Francis swung into the hole first, while Bill and Louis decided it would be best to take the stairs. Francis pulled the smoker's tongue off the girl's form and put his lips to her mouth. Her breath was weak and ragged. "Zoey," he murmured, giving her a gentle shake. She let out a whimper of distress but did not rouse.

He was investigating the girl's weak, irregular pulse when Bill and Louis arrived. "Is she...?" asked Louis.

"Not yet," said Francis. "Help me turn her over."

Bill and Louis knelt beside Zoey's form and helped ease her onto her back. Her red hoodie was torn, exposing a deep gash in the girl's pale, blemishless back. "Holy shit," said Bill. "What happened to her?"

"Probably from the rocks when she got dragged down," Louis observed.

Francis ignored them both, and instead pulled out his health kit. He opened it and pulled out a bottle of peroxide. "Sorry, doll, this is gonna sting...."

* * * * *

My first sensation after the big black maw swallowed me was pain. I tried to speak, but a string of swears spilled out. My eyes flickered open to the sounds of nervous laughter. "I think she's all right," said Louis.

I was on my side, facing Bill. He smirked down at me. "How ya feelin', kid?"

"Ouch," I muttered. "What... where are we?"

"You fell down," said Bill simply. "I think you got the wind knocked out of you. How do you feel now?"

"What happened to me? My back is killing me."

"Francis is fixing you up."

I cast a glance over my shoulder and saw Francis' eyes flick nervously up to mine. He smiled briefly before turning his attention back to my wounds. I could feel his warm hands pressing bandages onto my back. "This should stop the wound from getting infected."

Louis had wandered towards the door to the stairs that led down to the tracks. Apparently he heard the noise before I did, because he said, "We need to get moving. Now."

"Can you walk?" Bill asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Help me."

Bill and Francis each took a hand and hauled me to my feet. "My legs feel all right, but..." I took a step. "Well, we don't have much choice, do we? Let's move."

We made it midway up the stairs before I dropped to a knee. "What's wrong?" Bill demanded.

"I can't... I can't breathe," I gasped. The effects of my incapacitation were still dragging on me. "Go... just go... I'll be... fine." I panted in exertion, turning and facing the stairs, clutching Francis' shotgun. "I'll hold them off."

"Like hell," said Francis. He scooped me up almost effortlessly and threw me over his shoulder. "Come on, the door's open." And, to my surprise, he hustled up the stairs, across the engineering room, and up another flight to the security offices. He set me down on a wooden table in the center of the room.

"Barricade that door," Bill ordered Louis, and the pair of them got to work moving the furniture into position, hopefully blocking the infected from coming through. No sooner had they moved anything not bolted down onto position than the infected began pounding on it.

"We've got a minute, maybe two," said Louis. "You all right, Zoey?"

"I hurt all over," I muttered, trying—and I'm sure, failing—not to sound like I was whining. "But whatever. Let's go." Louis led the way into the office hallway. We found a small cache of supplies, and the boys filled up on ammo and a few incendiaries.

"Looks like a saferoom in that pawn shop," said Francis, peering out the grimy window. He pointed down the street at the only storefront with lights still on. "We can make it there and then rest up for a little while."

"We have to hurry. That barricade isn't going to last long," Bill warned as we rounded a corner and took a set of stairs down to street level. I tried to ignore the stitch in my side as I pushed the shattered glass door open.

A sickening crash told us that the barricade had fallen. "Get moving," Bill shouted, shoving me towards Francis. "I'll hold 'em off."

"Bill!" I shouted, torn between wanting to run and not wanting to leave a member of the team behind.

"Don't worry kid," he said, pulling a pipe bomb from his belt. "I've got a secret weapon."

Francis, Louis, and I ran down the street, waiting for Bill to catch up. Suddenly I heard the beep-beep-beep of the pipe bomb, and the infected raining down from the windows of the building we had just left were diverted.

Bill came running alongside the crashed semi that the rest of us had just passed. "Look out for that car," Louis said. "Looks like the security is armed."

Francis threw a hand up and we stopped in time to hear an enraged roar. There was a Tank heading right for us from inside the pawn shop. "Watch out," he warned. The Tank saw us, leapt over the car, and went straight for us.

"Move," Louis said, grabbing my arm. We ran to our left as I heard Francis' shotgun belch eight times in rapid succession. The Tank roared in anger and gave Francis a wallop that hurt to even watch. Francis flew into Bill, and they both tumbled.

Louis and I were almost to the safehouse when the Tank dropped in front of the doorway to the pawn shop. Louis opened fire, and I tried to remember where the safety was on my gun. We backed up as the Tank advanced. I finally had the safety off on my gun.

"Zoey, watch out!" Louis warned.

I looked up. The Tank had its arm raised to deliver a vicious punch to me. Louis was fumbling to reload his Uzi. I took a half-step back and fired my shotgun into the Tank's face just as he began his strike.

The kick of the shotgun threw me back a few feet into the car, shattering the glass in the passenger side window and causing a wave of pain to run through me. The alarm shrieked. "Oh bullshit," I moaned and sank to my rear end on the pavement, just as the Tank's hulking form collapsed on the ground, apparently dead.

"They're coming!" I heard Bill shout. Francis jumped onto the car, slid across the hood and dropped down next to me. "Get up, we've gotta move!" Bill shouted over his shoulder as he jumped through a broken window into the pawn shop.

"There's a safehouse just inside," Francis told me, jerking me to my feet. I followed after him, quickly filing into the saferoom just as the horde that the car alarm summoned began pouring into the pawn shop.

"Secure that door!" Bill barked. Louis slammed it shut and dropped the steel bar into place. The zombies pounded insistently on the door. Exhausted, I dropped onto a crate and rested my back against the cold wall.

"I want to go home," I murmured to nobody in particular.

The zombies were at the door, and we still had a ways to go to the evac at Mercy Hospital, but for the time being, at least we were safe. I closed my eyes and tried to will away the pain.