EYEHEARTZOMBIES

Seth had finally regained enough control of himself to get up out of his chair. He grabbed the flashlight from where it sat on the desk. Someone had turned it off. He flicked the switch and grabbed Ruth’s hand. Together they ran to the basement stairs door. He yanked it open and led the way down, the light pointed at the stairs so neither of them would trip.

At the bottom, he pulled her toward the office of the reference librarian. The door was still open and he went in and grabbed the phone and handed it to her. She still had one hand up to her mouth, but she took the phone and stared at him, wide-eyed. “Ruth! Ruth, listen. I need you to call the police. Tell them to send…. Tell them to send someone! Tell them what’s happened! OK? Can you do that?” She nodded weakly and he handed her the flashlight which she took with the hand that had been at her mouth. “Come on, Ruth. Sit down and call ‘em.” He put a hand to her back and gently pushed her toward the desk. She nodded again and he turned and ran out of the room.

He ran back toward the stairs and passed the column before he remembered the fire extinguisher. He ran back in the darkness, the extinguisher barely illuminated by the glow coming from the weakening flashlight in the office. He heard Ruth dialing the phone and sobbing quietly. He grabbed the fire extinguisher and set about releasing it from the wall. It was held on by a plastic strap that was clipped at one side. He undid the latch and caught it as it fell out of its brace. Damn, it was heavy. He wrapped his arms around it and ran back for the stairs, a lot slower with his cargo.

He climbed the stairs slowly, but two at a time, and reached the door as quickly as possible. He opened it again and saw that everyone had moved back from Naomi, who was still feeding on the paramedic. She had tired of the neck, apparently, and was chewing on the woman’s right arm now, since it was the only one accessible. She wasn’t paying any attention to the people around her and lay chewing on the medical woman’s arm contentedly.

Seth ran into the room and sat the extinguisher down on the ground. He pulled the pin and pointed the black rubber tube at the dead girl. He pulled the handle up and a jet of white powder flew out of the apparatus and coated girl and paramedic in a ghostly white. The girl kept chewing at first, but stopped after a few seconds. Seth didn’t know if the cold from the foam or the simple fact of being attacked caused her to turn around. She looked back over her shoulder at him with glazed eyes and he stopped spraying.

“What are you doing!” the male paramedic yelled at him. “Don’t stop! She’s fucking eating Mary! Do something!” His eyes were wide with fear, his pupils hiding his irises in the dim light of the high-up windows. Seth pointed the tube at Naomi again and pulled the handle. Another jet of white came out, but she didn’t respond this time. A quick jerk of her head and a horrible ripping sound filled the room. Skin and cloth tear very similarly.

“God, give me that,” Elijah stepped out from behind the circulation desk where he had gone to get away from the suddenly reanimated girl and grabbed the fire extinguisher. He didn’t trigger it, but picked it up around its width and strode toward Naomi and the paramedic. Raising the metal tube high over his head, he screamed and rammed it down, connecting solidly with Naomi’s head. She gurgled and he slammed it down again. And again. And again. Blood splattered as he broke skin and bone on the top of her head. She tried to turn and get to him by pushing off of the paramedic.

Mary slid on the blood-slicked tile and Naomi scrambled to stay somewhat upright. She reached out and grabbed Elijah’s leg and pulled herself toward him. He tried to hit her again with the fire extinguisher, but she turned herself around to his back and reached up to get a better hold. She pulled herself in close and bit down on the back of his thigh. He screamed again and kicked backward, knocking her head away from his leg. He dropped the fire extinguisher and started pulling at her fingers that were wrapped around his legs.

She dropped away from him a little, swining on one arm, and tried to throw herself back onto him to bite again. He kicked with his free foot, stomped on her stomach and legs. She gurgle-screamed and flailed an arm at his kicking foot, the food temporarily forgotten. He screamed “Fuck you!” at the top of his lungs, and she gurgled back at him.

A metal clang rang out in the room and everyone looked up from Naomi’s face to see that Jones had grabbed the fire extinguisher and had nailed her on the head again. She hissed at him, spit and blood both flying through air, and he rammed it home again. Her eyes rolled back in the sockets and she let go of Elijah’s leg, sliding to the ground. Jones smacked her in the head again and Elijah kicked her in the face, breaking her nose. Blood oozed out of the wound and mixed with his and the paramedic’s blood on her mouth. She finally lay still.

The room breathed in as a group. Elijah bent over again, looking like he was going to hurl, and screamed “Fuck you!” in Naomi’s face again. He screamed it a few more times, his face turning as red as the blood on the floor. Finally he sat down where he was and tried to get a look at his leg.