Free After Life by Daniel Kelley Page B

her heels.
    “You two are crazy!” Calvin called after them, almost laughing. “You’re gonna fucking die just so you can see an empty room or a pair of bodies.”
    Michelle glanced out of the corner of her eyes at Donnie, who had turned to look back at Calvin, and Michelle saw his eyes open wide. “Look out!” he cried.
    Michelle spun around too, just in time to see a female zombie — Jeanine Malloy had once been its name — bite into Calvin’s neck. It had come from the restroom behind him. He never had a chance.
    Both Michelle and Donnie raised their guns, but Calvin pushed the zombie back into the restroom, and he followed. Seconds later, they heard a gunshot, and Calvin stepped back out. “Go!” he called.
    Donnie followed his order and continued toward Madison’s office. Michelle had no such intentions. She took two steps toward Calvin, her gun still raised. Before she could do anything, though, he lifted his own gun and fired into his temple.
    Michelle watched him fall. Tears in her eyes, she turned and ran after Donnie. The stench at that end of the hallway was almost unbearable, and her eyes stung just being there. When they reached the office, she pushed at the door. It was unlocked, but there was something blocking the door. She could only open it about four inches.
    Michelle pushed and felt the door give another inch or so. Donnie stepped up to help, and together the two of them pushed the door all the way open.

Chapter 11: Bites, Scratches
    Andy came across some bodies on the eighth-floor landing. The history wasn’t hard to determine. The first, the body of an older man, maybe 60, lay face-up, with a bullet hole through its forehead, blood smeared through its beard, and a bloody mark on its right leg. The second, a few feet away, was another man, maybe 20 years his junior. He had bloody marks around his shoulder and a hole in his temple that must have come from the weapon still in his hand. Several feet away was a younger body, one of the students, with blood around its mouth and a bullet hole in the neck, but it was still twitching in its death throes. Andy ended its existence with another gunshot that he thought merciful.
    Other than that group, Andy and the girls hadn’t seen any bodies — living, dead or otherwise — since entering the building. Celia had gasped when they first caught sight of the landing, but Stacy had walked right past. Andy tucked his gun back into its holster and walked over to the younger man’s body.
    “Daddy, what are you doing?” Celia asked.
    Andy didn’t answer. He knelt down over the man’s body, lifted the man’s arm and removed the weapon from his hand.
    “Daddy?” Celia repeated.             
    He looked up at her. The gun he had just picked up felt heavier than his, but after a glance, he saw they used the same ammunition. He pulled his weapon back out and passed it to his daughter. “You need a gun,” he said.
    Celia looked at the weapon for a moment with a scared look, but took it at last.
    “All right,” he said, standing up. “Keep going.”
    They made it the rest of the way down to the ground level without incident. Andy stopped the girls just inside the door, wanting to check the outside world for himself first. He peered out the door’s small window.
    Outside, Andy saw the chaos he expected. There were bodies scattered around, and several of the survivors — mostly the kids, the students — were crying or had gone catatonic. One of the first things he saw was a girl who sat motionless as a zombie ran up to her. She made no effort to fight it as it tore into her skin, barely even crying out at the bites. A few feet away, he saw a broken zombie flailing around. It had two obviously broken legs and probably a broken arm as well, and was dragging itself along by its one intact limb, dragging itself toward the catatonic girl and her attacker. Andy recognized it as the first zombie they had seen — the one that had plunged out the