Free Pandora: A Novel of the Zombie Apocalypse by Richard McCrohan

the television screen, and answered it.
    “Hello?”
    “Jack, it’s Nicky,” Nicky whispered.
    “Nicky, are you home? Why are you whispering?” Jack asked, puzzled.
    “No. I’m still here in New York.”
    “Still in the city?” he retorted. “What happened? And why are you whispering?”
    “We’re downtown somewhere. I think maybe Little Italy. We’re hiding in a basement stairwell until dark.”
    “Hiding?” he said. “Who’s ‘we’?”
    “Do you remember the six other people I was trying to get to the ferry with?”
    “Yeah,” he replied.
    “Well, there are only three of us now. One was attacked as soon as we left the restaurant. Two others were killed by zombies on the way here. Another person, a poor girl named Marianne, was bitten on the leg when we got to the Village. When we found out, we were afraid of her dying and turning into one of them, so we ran.” Nicky sniffed now, still whispering. “She…she was sobbing and trying to keep up with us, but we were so scared that we lost her in the maze of streets. There are more and more of these dead things on the streets now. They’re attacking everyone they can find. We’re hoping we’ll have a better chance of slipping past them at night. Jack, I have my ringer turned off, so you can’t call me. I don’t want the ring to attract their attention. I’ll call you when I can. I love you.”
    “I love you too,” he said. “Please, please be careful.”
    The call ended, but Jack was still looking at the cell phone in his hand. He said a little prayer for Nicole’s safety.
    Sean and Linda came downstairs holding hands, so everything was apparently all right again. The four of them made dinner together then sat down to eat and talk. It was good for them to be together. All the stress they were feeling lightened a little.
    When eleven o’clock came, they all decided to go to bed. As they were shutting down the house, Jack’s cell phone rang again. He looked and saw it was Nicky again. Answering right away, he said, “Hi. Are you okay?”
    “Yes,” she said. “We made it to the ferry terminal. I can see it at the end of the street. There are about a dozen of those things down the street, but they’re behind us. It’s dark around here, so I don’t think we’ll be noticed. Look, Jack, my battery is just about dead, so I’m going to turn my phone off until we get to the other side of the river.”
    Just then Jack heard the sound of someone knocking over a garbage can.
    “Oh, shit,” Nicky hissed. “I’ve got to go. They see us.”
    Just before she turned off the phone, Jack heard someone yell loudly, “Run! Here they come. Just run!”
    Jack looked at his friends, who were watching. “There’s trouble, but Nicky is resilient. She’s tough. If anyone can get through this, she can.”
    With that somber closing note, they all retired for the evening.

    The cell phone on Mike’s nightstand was ringing. Bleary-eyed, he reached for the offending device. He saw it was quarter after two in the morning.
    “Mmm, hello?” he mumbled.
    “Michael?” a female voice asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “Michael, it’s Sue.”
    Now awake, Mike sat up. “Sue, is there a problem? Is there trouble there?”
    “Yes,” she replied. “Some of the infected got free of their bindings and attacked the other patients. Betty Pasko, one of the RNs on my floor, was bitten and killed. We finally succeeded in killing the undead that broke away, when the other victims started turning also. The head of the ER, Dr. Patel, and some other doctor from the CDC had made it up here earlier, and they tried to hold off the zombies so we could get away, but soon there were too many. They pushed a hospital bed across thedoorway to the wing and held it there, but the zombies came up and just climbed over and fell on them like animals.”
    “Sue, you’ve done enough there,” Michael said firmly. “It’s time to get out of there before they kill you too.”
    “I know, I