Chapter One - The Leadership Seminar Buffet
Hiding behind the heavy marble of the teller's stations wasn't going to protect Lisa Korolenko from the crowd of zombies massing outside.She peeked over the counter to see Logan Swanson standing confidently in the center of the bank, pointing with the security guard's gun. "Cover those doors!" he shouted at the bank's manager. Mister Shankly was used to giving orders, but he moved now without questioning. On the floor, the mangled corpse of the security guard had already stopped bleeding.
Lisa watched Mister Shankly barricade the door with plush chairs and potted ferns. None of the seminars her boss attended had prepared him for this, and she was glad Logan was taking charge of the situation instead. The teller, Helen Witherspoon, and two customers were hiding with Lisa behind the counter, and Helen whimpered in panic. Lisa put an arm around her. She wanted to comfort her coworker, but she didn't know what to say. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a look at the security monitors. The zombies were surrounding the building, more of them every minute.
Logan heard Helen whimper and leaned over the counter. "Don't worry," he told his girlfriend. "I'll handle this." He held up the gun for emphasis. One of the customers started to stand up. He was angry about something. "No." Logan shook his head. "I said I'd handle it." The other customer pulled his friend back behind the teller's station, and he sat down again with his arms across his chest and his back against the deposit slips.
"Not that stuff. Get the desk!" Logan shouted, and he turned to help Mister Shankly barricade the door. The pile of plants and chairs was already starting to fall apart as the zombies pounded from the outside.
Lisa's desk was the closest to the door, so they went for that one. Logan stuck the gun into the back of his jeans as the two men stood on either end of it. He said, "We're gonna slide it over there, then tip it against the doors. Ready?"
Mister Shankly nodded. As they carried her desk across the room, Lisa watched the handles of her purse bob back and forth. Her medicine was inside. Would it be silly to ask for it now? She didn't want to go over there.
They lifted the desk over the fallen security guard. Blood was soaked through his uniform, and his right arm was contorted into an impossible position. He was dead. Lisa had known Vince for years, worked with him, liked him. He'd always been nice to her, but when the zombies had attacked, he'd panicked. Now he was just gone, and when he came back, he'd be nothing but a mindless killer. They'd have to destroy the body before it reanimated.
At the doors, Logan knocked away her boss's barricade with one shove. He gave a condescending look at Mister Shankly. There was a sound of breaking wood. A hand burst through the door and grabbed Logan's arm.
Logan reached for the gun, but the hand pulled him hard against the door. He couldn't move. He stayed calm and hooked his leg over the desk, kicking off Lisa's new snow globe. "Push," he shouted to Mister Shankly. He was ready to barricade the door with his last act if he had to, but the bank manager was frozen, watching Logan struggle against the rotting hand.
Logan tried to get away, but undeath had given the zombie incredible strength. Lisa knew Logan didn't stand a chance. "Help him," she said to her boss. Her boss did nothing. Another hand, then another, burst through the door. Logan couldn't fight them all.
Kaveh Hisami stood up again. He was tired of hiding. He was tired of being the immigrant who pretended to be an American, and he was tired of working the line at what passed for ethnic cuisine in this town when he knew he could do things ten times better. He picked up the baseball bat where Logan had dropped it on the way in, and he slammed it into the hand that pinned Logan to the door.
Logan took a step back and drew the gun. "Get behind me," he said. Kaveh stayed where he was, gripping the bat.
Logan shot each of the intruding hands, but they didn't stop grabbing the air. "What are those things?" said Kaveh. Logan fired again, but the click, click, click said the gun was empty.
Kaveh gave him points for accuracy, but you have to keep track of your ammo. He could tell Logan had never cooked twenty dinners at the same time. Kaveh had. He knew their only bullets were the two clips left in the dead guard's belt.
"The desk!" shouted Logan.
Logan and Kaveh dropped their weapons and pushed on the desk. It was heavy, but it finally went down, covering the bottom two thirds of the doors and knocking away the hands. It would hold them back for a while.
Logan leaned forward. One of the holes wasn't completely covered, and you could see outside. "Hand me the gun," he said.
The door splintered in his face. Logan clenched his eyes and never saw the hands that grabbed him by the head and pulled him over the top of the desk.
Kaveh grabbed for Logan's feet as they disappeared through the new hole in the door. He caught nothing but air. He heard the screaming as those things tore Logan apart. He hadn't liked the guy, but he hadn't wanted this.
Kaveh picked up the gun. He pointed it towards the door, but the creatures were busy. He ejected the empty clip, went to the body of the security guard and got himself a fresh one. He couldn't fight them all, but he might make a gap in the crowd, and he and Speedy could escape.
"Give me that," said a voice. It was the manager. He meant the gun.
"No," said Kaveh. The manager was slow and fat. He froze at the first sign of trouble. He didn't deserve the gun.
"You're in my bank," said the manager. He was an idiot. He only wanted it all of a sudden because what he saw "in his bank" was an Arab with a gun, and that scared him more than what was outside.
Kaveh put the fresh clip into the handle of the gun. He knew the manager wasn't gonna give him the loan he'd applied for, even before the attack. He knew what these people thought of him, and they didn't want him to open his own restaurant. He returned the manager's bitter glare.
From behind the counter, the blonde woman screamed. She must have figured out what had happened to her boyfriend. She drowned out Logan's yells from outside, and the creatures remembered what they came for.
The manager was too close to the door. They grabbed him and pulled him over the desk, but he stopped at the door and stayed pinned. He wouldn't fit through the hole. He was too fat.
He tried to struggle his way loose as more arms punched their way inside. The hole was getting bigger. The blonde screamed again. Kaveh aimed the gun at those arms, but the manager kept getting in the way.
The manager saw Kaveh pointing the gun at him. He looked over at Lisa behind the counter. "Do something!" he shouted. "I'll promote you." He was about to be pulled outside and ripped apart, but he was still more afraid of Kaveh.
Lisa stepped forward, biting her lip. She should listen to her boss. This was his branch. He was in charge. The hole in the door was now almost big enough for him to fit through, but as long as they didn't bite him, he could be saved. She just didn't know how. The zombies outnumbered them ten to one. They had the bank surrounded. She took another step forward. Mister Shankly screamed, and she saw blood coming down his back. It was too late. "Get his keys," Lisa decided. "We'll hide in the vault." She wasn't getting that promotion.
Mister Shankly screamed again. "No. Help me!"
Lisa shook her head. "It's too late for you."
She saw Kaveh go closer and grab the keys from Mister Shankly's belt just as the door gave way and dozens of rotting hands pulled her boss into the warm summer air. Through the hole, three zombies were already climbing in over the desk.
"Speedy!" shouted Kaveh. Without discussion, his business partner came from behind the counter, picking up the baseball bat on the way, and stood in front of the desk.
He swung the bat. Two of the zombies fell to the ground. Kaveh shot the third in the chest, but it kept coming. He didn't know as much about zombies as Lisa did. "Aim for the head," she said.
Kaveh fired again, splattering the zombie's brains on the carpet as it fell to the ground.
"Thanks," said Kaveh. He tossed her the keys.
Lisa caught them. "Come on, Helen." Helen stared blankly ahead. She hadn't made a sound since she'd stopped screaming. Near the doors, Kaveh fired two more shots, but Helen didn't blink. Lisa pulled her hand, and Helen followed blindly to the vault.
There were more gunshots behind them as Lisa unlocked the giant circular door. She'd been in the vault before, but she'd never been able to open the heavy door by herself. She looked at the dazed Helen and realized she didn't have a choice. She put her foot against the doorframe, raising the hem of her business skirt, and pulled. Inch by inch, the door opened.
She pulled Helen's hand, and they went inside. "Close the door," whispered Helen, her eyes unfocused.
"No," said Lisa, "I'm giving them a chance." She couldn't see the rest of the bank from where she was, so she waited to see who would come around the corner first. If it was human, she'd let them in. If it was anyone else... Either way, she braced herself to close the door as quickly as possible, to save whoever she could.
More gunshots. That was a good sign. Zombies didn't use guns.
Shadows on the wall. Lisa bent her legs to pull the door handle, but it was them, the human beings. Kaveh turned and fired two more shots before dashing into the vault.
Lisa pulled the metal door handle with all her strength. The door swung quickly.
A zombie arm reached in and was severed by the weight of the door. It fell to the ground. Lisa didn't know she had that kind of strength in her. As she locked the door, she watched the arm closely, but it didn't move on its own. They weren't that kind of zombie.
"Okay," said Kaveh, looking around the vault with a hand to his shoulder. "How do we get out of here?"
Time to learn The Rules.
