Free Tower Of The Dead: A Zombie Novel by J.V. Roberts

taking up the center, squishing and kneading the bodies in its path with its rumbling treads. Some of the soldiers pause to shoot anything still twitching.
    “We gotta move.” I lift Tasia and Alisa, their knees shaky, and move them towards the door to the sixth-floor hallway.
    Once inside, I move ahead, sweeping the area with the barrel of my AK.
    Nothing moving.
    “What now?” Tasia asks. “The stairs are destroyed. Elevator is down. What the hell are we gonna do now?”
    She’s starting to unravel.
    Hell, we all are, she’s just letting it leak through.
    “They only took out two floors; most of the staircase is still in one piece.”
    “Oh, that’s great, we can just jump down to the third floor and hope we don’t break our goddamn legs.”
    “Tasia, really?”
    “What?” Tasia looks down at Alisa. “Everything she’s seen today and you’re worried about my language?”
    “Alright, whatever, we ain’t got the time to quarrel. I’ve got an idea to get us down where we need to be.”
    I turn right into the hall. There’s no resistance to be found. My target is straight ahead of me, carved out by the sunlight; the window. Tasia doesn’t know what I’m thinking and I don’t figure on telling her just yet. It’s going to be hard enough getting her to agree to my crazy-ass plan and getting her in place is half the battle; I’ll take the easy victories where I can get them at this point.
    “You want to tell me what you’re thinking?” she asks.
    “Just stay close. Clear left and I’ll clear right. Let’s make sure we’re alone before we do any more talking.”
    There are doors that have been left ajar and there are bodies on the floor, there are televisions and radios filling the air with muffled noise. Nothing stirring. I take a knee by the window and wait another minute just to be sure.
    “Seems quiet,” Tasia says.
    “Seems that way.” I raise my head above the window sill. Three feet in front of me is the brick wall of the neighboring apartment high rise. Seventy feet below me is the floor of the alley that separates the two buildings. Directly above my head is the pipe for the sprinkler system. “We need a sheet.”
    “For what?”
    I look down into the alley again.
    Tasia catches on. “You’re outta your damn mind!”
    “You got a better idea?”
    “Then jumping out of a window? I’m sure I can come up with something.”
    “It’s not jumping out of a window. The staircase is out. There’s no other way down.”
    Tasia sets the stock of her AK on the ground, cocks a hip, and waves her finger in my face. “I’d rather sit here and chance an air strike then send Alisa out there!”
    “Would you? Would you, really? Cause guess what, if they are sending an air strike, we’re dead, all three of us. At least this way we have a chance.”
    “What’s an air strike?” Alisa’s curiosity refuses to die.
    I squeeze her shoulder. “It’s nothing good, sweetie. But you don’t need to worry about that.”
    “There’s got to be a better way.” Tasia’s eyes are welling up. She’s feeling the press of desperation.
    “If there is, we don’t have time to think of it. We’ve got to move.”
    “Okay,” Tasia sucks a deep breath in through her nose and exhales through her mouth, fighting off the encroaching tears, “you’re right. Let’s do it.”
    I double check the doors to my left and right, both are open. “We need two sheets. We’ll link them together, tie one end around that pipe, and climb down.”
    “Let’s get as many as we can and get down to the ground.”
    I shake my head. “Too many moving pieces; I don’t want one of them coming loose on us. Plus, I don’t think she can hold on that long.”
    “I can too!” Alisa protests.
    “You stay here with her. I’ll get what we need.”
    Tasia nods. “Hurry back.”
    “Holler if you need me.”
    I choose the door on the right. No particular reason except that I’m a few steps closer.
    These apartments are