Chapter 4 - Seperation

Most of the staff and crew were inside the news building, as well as the few pedestrians who arrived at the beginning of the outbreak. Obviously, Gingy and Ossy were the last ones in. Whether luck or determination had kept them alive, it didn’t matter - as long as they could escape this madness together. Luckily, for them, a carpenter was in the room during the lockdown, and using his extra tools, he managed to add a few more locks onto the door in order to keep it secure from the zombies.

A man stood up, aggravated. Gingy recognized him as the anchorman on MSN News. “We should turn the power back on,” he persuaded to his audience. “Broadcast messages to the city for anyone that may still be alive.”

A woman sighed. “For the last time, Goryu, no!” Her tone of voice seemed to indicate that she had known him for a while. A co-worker, perhaps?

“I just wanna do my job,” he retorted. “I feel so useless if I can’t tell the people what’s happening...” He stroked his chin, thinking.

“Any extra food, guys?” Ossy asked. The couple hadn’t eaten in a while now, and the hunger was starting to build. The same woman from before answered.

“Those rations we gave out a while ago were the last,” she said apologetically. “You’ll just have to tough it out.”

“I got it!” Goryu suddenly shouted, albeit with a soft undertone. “I’ll go downstairs and look through the windows, and I'll update you all on the situation!”

“Don’t do such a stupid thing,” one man snapped. “It’s a waste of time.”

“For all we know, there could be a helicopter out there! Or a SWAT group! Someone that can save our lives!” he argued pleadingly.

“That’s idiotic,” Gingy muttered. He hadn’t spoken to the rest of the survivors in a while. “If a rescue team is out there, they'd be smart enough to know that people would hide in a large building like this.”

“I’m checking,” Goryu replied in a finalistic manner. Gingy grunted but said nothing. He didn’t care much, anyway. If the anchorman wanted to do something to relieve his boredom, fine. They were all bored.

Everyone heard the sound of multiple locks shifting as they were disengaged. Suddenly, memory shook TheGingerbreadMan. The zombies had already broken in downstairs – no one knew because Gingy, Ossy, or their mysterious benefactor hadn’t told the rest.

“Don’t open that door!”

He suddenly burst running towards the door, but it was too late. Goryu had opened the door in a wide arc, and a zombie lumbering on the stairs thrust itself onto him.

The pained screams from the man drove everyone into panic. Soon, Goryu’s body slumped down with the zombie over him, gnawing through his flesh. A few more zombies walked inside the room, their heavy moans indicating their hunger. Gingy turned around. “Ossy! Where are you?”

Ossy had stood up alongside everyone else, but she was pushed backwards by the weight of the mob. Her cries were lost amidst the random screams that were peppering throughout the room. The survivors were in a mess. Some people ran in random directions, not knowing where to go; some ran in specific directions, having known the layout of the building beforehand; and some tried to follow that flow, but only ended up getting in the way.

Ossy braced herself and prevented the wave of people from pushing her away. “Ging-“

A zombie appeared suddenly in front of her, hidden between all of its prey. It clamped itself down on a pedestrian’s neck, piercing her jugular vein. Blood spilled everywhere, splattering itself across Ossy’s face and blinding her. She turned back the way she came, trying to clear her line of vision. She looked back, but she couldn’t even tell where in the room she was, let alone her boyfriend. A feminine hand clutched her wrist. It was the woman who conversed with Goryu. “Follow me! I know where to go!”

“But my boyfri-” she began, but she was yanked away before she could finish, avoiding one of the infected by a hair. Going through a door kept open by the mass of people passing through it, they came down a hall with three pathways.

“Left,” the woman said, pulling on Ossy. “It leads to an exit!”

They broke off from most of the others, who blindly went forward out of fear.

Gingy dodged to the left, moving out of the way of a zombie’s outstretched arms. A left hook sent him careening into one of his brothers, sending them both over. A female zombie came from his right. A jab to her forehead sent the zombie flying. “Ossy!” He ran down into the other side of the room, following the group of people. Passing a door, he saw the path split up three ways.

‘She was probably carried down the straightaway with everyone else,’ he thought to himself. ‘To be found hiding amongst that large group...’

He ran straight down the hallway, determined to find her.

Previous | Next