The First 30 Days (PUBLISHED)

Eight - Day 5

"There's someone in there."

The low voice carried to where I stood dripping into the white sink. The sound had my head snapping up and my gaze glued to the door. As far as I had been able to discern, the rabid people never spoke actual words, just grunted, growled, and screamed. Intelligent conversation meant hopefully sane and safe company.

Unevenly walking to the bathroom door, I stopped to try to listen to the whispered conversation happening on the other side. All I could catch was a word here and there, not nearly enough to follow what was being said. I hesitated with my hand on the lock, the urge to be with other people somewhat tempered by the knowledge that they were strangers.

The whispering on the other side of the door continued. The desire to finally not be alone in whatever was going on, won out. I turned the lock and pushed the door open.

"Whoa! Look out!"

"It's coming out!"

Two distinctly male voices shouted over each other. Frozen in the partially opened door by the sight of someone fifty pounds heavier than me brandishing a baseball bat, I cringed and waited for the inevitable sound of my own skull caving in.

When the impact didn't come, I warily cracked an eye open. Standing a few feet away, the two men stared back at me with a mix of alarm and disbelief. "That was close," the thin one looked rapidly between me and the still raised bat.

"Jesus! Don't pop out at someone like that, especially looking like one of them!" Bat wielding guy's shoulders slumped and he glared as he gestured with the bat in my direction.

Reflexively I looked down. The days old blood covering most of my clothes had turned a rusty brown. The long strands of my hair hung in clumps, matted with dried blood and greasy from going half a week without a shower. My missing shoe caused me to limp.

I rubbed my damp palms on my jeans, uncomfortable with the realization that I looked disturbingly similar to Evie the last time I'd seen her.

"Um, hi." I had no idea what to say.

Bat guy snorted. "Hi? I almost killed you!" He began pacing in the circle of light cast by the bright bathroom lights. That was the first I noticed that it was very dark in the office, no sunlight coming in through the wall of windows. I had been asleep for a long time. "Where did you come from, anyway?"

I looked between the two men, confused by the hostile reaction I was getting from the one with the bat.

Seeing my look, the other one told me, "We've been here since the beginning. Just us, the building was empty. We checked. You startled us when you started making noise in that bathroom. We thought a dead one might have gotten in somehow."

"The roof door is usually unlocked. I work here, and when I needed some place to hide, this is where I ended up. I couldn't go home, so... Wait. What do you mean, dead ones?" I ended my ramble with a question.

"Lady, are you ok?" Great, bat guy was talking again. "Were you bit, do you have the fever?" The two of them eyed me like I could attack at any second.

Keeping a close eye on that wooden weapon of destruction, I sagged tiredly against the doorframe. "I'm not ok." Seeing their alarm, I hurried to elaborate. "I'm so confused! My roommate was sick and then she freaked out and started attacking people. I had to hide in my bathroom for days before I could get away from her. Then I got outside and looked for help, but all I found was more crazy people who tried to attack me. They chased me onto the roof. Some of them... the injuries they have... it's not possible. I just need to know what's going on!"

Bat guy moved a little closer. "But, you do realize what's happened, right?" When I just stared at him, he went on. "It's a freaking zombie apocalypse. Those people aren't sick, they're dead. And you don't want them to get their teeth into you. You aren't bit, are you?"

I slid to my butt on the hard carpet, using my sneaker less foot to hold the door open. Zombies. It was out in the open, that word that I had been avoiding for days. Now that it was out, there was no putting it back. "No, I didn't get bit." I looked up to the two men who had moved to stand nearby.

"That's good. People who get bit don't make it."

An uncomfortable silence fell then, the three of us staring at each other, no one knowing what to say. When I couldn't take it anymore, I hauled myself to my feet and looked the guys over more carefully. Bat guy was maybe ten years older than me, probably 6 feet tall, and had the athletic build of someone who worked out regularly. He was wearing sweatpants and a black t shirt bearing the logo of the gym that was located on the second floor of the building.

The other guy, shorter and thinner, had a receding hairline and was wearing typical office attire. I guess their clothing explained what they had been doing in the building in the first place. Bat guy was a gym rat. And the other one was likely working overtime at one of the cubicles currently hidden by darkness.

Despite nearly bashing my head in, which admittedly was mostly my fault, neither of them set of any warning bells for me. And bat guy had a bat. If I was going to find myself stuck with strangers, I could have done worse than these two.

Brushing at the seat of my pants, I stepped away from the door. "I'm Bri, and I'm really glad to have run into you two. What do we do now?"