Free Unfed by Kirsty McKay Page B

hurdle before Russ lends a helping hand and hoists her onto the roof from behind. Her cheeks are flushed, and I don’t think it’s just from the thrill of the chase. I never cease to wonder at that girl’s ability to irritate. She glares at me.
    “Couldn’t you move your fat arse any faster?” she says. “Those things were practically snapping at my heels.”
    The retort is so tempting, but I ignore her and look over the side down into the courtyard again. It is fast filling with zoms, the bodies pooling around the bottom of the ladder. They’re looking up. It’s worrying; they’ve figured out where we’ve gone, and one of them is reaching up for the rungs, trying to climb.
    Russ blocks my vision momentarily, smiling at me as he reaches the final rung and steps out onto the roof.
    “So where to?” His eyes dart to Pete, who is still doing his wall-fondling over at the other side of the roof. “Hey … what’s … ?” He looks up at the ceiling and I see him making the same connections. “Where’s the exit?”
    “Doesn’t appear to be one,” I say.
    Russ shakes his head and runs over to where Pete is. We all follow.
    “What are you all talking about?” Alice’s worldview hasn’t quite grasped the truth as yet. “Oh my god!” She slaps the glass wall.
    “Got to be a door, something.” Russ takes off, running. He’s fast; you can’t help but admire that. Team Cheery Chomper stand and watch while he runs a circuit around us like a collie dog, finally returning barely out of breath.
    “There’s no way out,” he says.
    “We’re underground,” Pete mutters. I look up at him sharply. Alice stares at him like he smells bad.
    “Excuse me?” she says.
    “You’re excused.” He sits down on the gravel and puts his head between his knees. “We’re still underground, though.”
    “Explain,” I say.
    Still with head down, Pete shoots out an arm and gestures around him. “I should have guessed. Where would the safest place be for a military hospital? Underground. Hidden, protected, secret.”
    “Seriously?” Russ says. “Seems pretty incredible to me.”
    “Why?” Pete lifts his head and fixes him with his pale green eyes. “There are subterranean military hospitals in the Channel Islands left over from the Second World War; they are tourist attractions now. And there’s an old nuclear bunker in Scotland that housed several hundred people during the Cold War. One hundred feet below. I visited it last summer.”
    “You would,” says Alice.
    “And those are just a couple of examples we know about,” Pete says. “Just think of all the ones we don’t.”
    “So if this place is so secret, so hidden and so protected, how come it’s overrun with the Undead?” I say. “Did they come down the chimney while no one was looking? Hide in the laundry baskets and smuggle themselves inside?”
    “Perhaps they were here already,” Pete says. “It’s a hospital, after all. Perhaps they were trying to treat them, or perhaps they were dead bodies who reanimated.”
    “Whatever,” Alice says. “Chances are they just sniffed her out.” Shepoints at me. “Everywhere she goes, they follow. What matters is how we escape.”
    “Right,” Russ says, then shoots me an apologetic look. “About the last bit, I mean.”
    “Very right,” says Pete. “Quite often these places are booby-trapped. Or there’s some kind of fail-safe. When a facility is compromised, it automatically floods to ensure no one gets out.”
    “Are you kidding me?” I yell at him.
    “Well, the ones with the Nazi wounded were,” he says.
    “Nazi zombies now?” Alice groans.
    “Keep your big-girl panties on, Alice, there are no Nazis here,” I snap at her. “Isn’t it enough for you that we find out we’re several stories below Raccoon City?” The ref is lost on her, as I knew it would be. “What’s important is there must be a way out, and chances are, we gotta get back in before we get out.” I point to the air