Chapter Eight

In the morning we dressed and brought our bags into the lobby to find Jesse and Evan staring wide-eyed at the glass front door. I followed their gaze and saw what looked like the army of orks from Lord of the Rings charging at us from across the highway. All of the zombies in the area had somehow sensed the only living thing within miles and had banded together to destroy them.

“Evan,” Cameron said, glancing back and forth between my brother and the mob of the undead. “We need your help. Please think as hard as you can. What do we do?” Evan shook his head in bewilderment and muttered that he didn’t know what to do.

“But…” I mumbled. “But you’re the idea guy.”

“Well the idea guy is out an idea, Emmy! Sorry to disappoint!” Evan shouted at me. Evan never shouted at me.

“My friend Sam once told me that in a situation like this you should block off all the entrances but one,” said Jesse. “I think it’s supposed to like…concentrate the flow or something.” He paused for a moment. “Of course he had no real experience with zombies and I’m sure he’s been turned into a human shish kebab by now.” He looked awkwardly at the floor.

“It’s not much,” said Cameron, doing all she could not to look back at the door. “But I suppose it’s as close to a plan as we’re going to get. Evan, you stay here while Emmy, Jesse, and I board up the other doors, okay?” He nodded and we all ran off to the entrances.

I had just locked and pushed a chair in front of the last door when I heard a shout from the lobby. The zombies had reached the front.

I sprinted back to my brother and saw the crowd of monsters slamming their fists and skulls against the glass wall and door we had barred closed. Then, suddenly, a loud bang rang through the room and a huge crack shot across the surface of the glass. One more pound and the whole wall shattered into a million pieces.

A giant crowd of zombies poured into the room. Soon all that could be heard were the thuds and swishes of our weapons tearing through dead flesh. They came in waves and we had no trouble cutting down line after line until, at last, there came a huge mob, too many zombies to count. And they were charging forward as fast as zombies can go. We all froze with fear. I shook myself and looked around, trying to find something, anything, I could use as a weapon.

Then I looked up. A huge chandelier hung in the center of the room, swinging slightly as a result of our current war on zombies. I grinned and leapt up onto a bench, then the shelf next to it holding tourist brochures. I kicked them off my platform (honestly who wanted to visit the deepest darkest caves in southern California anyway?) and stood as close to the edge as I could without the shelf toppling over.

“Guys!” I yelled just loud enough to be heard over the gurgling and moaning of the approaching mob, “When I say ‘now’ get as close to the walls as you can as fast as you can get there!” The three of them looked at me as if I had just told them not to worry because a three headed money would come down from the heavens and save us. “Just do it!” They nodded.

I stood on the platform gripping the axe in my hand so hard my knuckles turned white. The crowd reached us, but I kept still until they had all entered the room. I gulped then shouted “NOW!” My friends sprinted to the walls as I leapt into the air from my shelf and slashed the chord holding the light fixture to the ceiling. Down it fell, crushing many of the zombies and trapping the others. Jesse and Evan ran up and hugged me.

“That was incredible!” Jesse gushed. Evan said something to the same effect but I was too busy looking at the girl writing on the floor in pain to hear him. I thanked them and pushed away, then walked over to Cameron. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “You weren’t bitten again, were you?” She shook her head no and clutched her thigh. “Your wound?” She pulled back her pant leg so I could see the bite mark from the night before. It was swelling and had become discolored, but not the way a bruise would look. The skin around where the zombies teeth had pierced her skin looked gray, almost like dead flesh. “Shit,” I whispered, then turned back to the boys. “We have to go now. Get her in the car.”

We all climbed in the va n and took off for Canada.