Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel Paperback Read online

  “Ah, she can wait. Pull up a chair, watch the concert with me,” Jack smiled and gestured to the space next to him.

  Jessica decided that spending some time with Jack wouldn’t be such a bad idea. She liked Jack; they could talk about anything. In fact, she probably would have dated him a long time ago if it weren’t for the fact that he was in a serious relationship and completely gay. Although the second reason wouldn’t have stopped her from trying. He was one of the few people, outside of her family, who she would miss when she left. Her family wasn’t in this city though, so her relationship with them wouldn’t change much. Just new time zone differences to get used to.

  Jessica grabbed a chair from someone’s cubicle and sat next to Jack.

  “What are the odds of running into you, eh?” Jack laughed. “I chose this floor because I figured no one would recognise me and rat me out.”

  “Fate, I guess.” Jessica shrugged a shoulder and placed her bag on the floor. “Why didn’t you just buy a ticket? You could have and the proceeds are going to a good cause.”

  “I know, but I’m trying to save all the money I can right now.”

  “What for?”

  “Andrew and I have decided to adopt a baby.” Jack’s grin grew several times wider, lighting up all his features.

  “Oh my gosh!” Jessica squealed. She loved Andrew almost as much as she loved Jack. When she was with Cillian, they would double date, and when she left him, Andrew made an excellent shoulder to cry on and a good friend to eat ice cream with. “Congratulations! That’s so exciting.”

  “I know, right? We’re going to save up a bunch of money first to make sure we have a good financial safety cushion, and the adoption process will probably take awhile, but we’re getting the wheels rolling.”

  “I’m so happy for you.” Jessica meant it as she leaned over and hugged Jack, but in a small way, it made her very sad. Next week, the day she was supposed to get married, was also the day she and Cillian were to start trying for their own kids. “Where is Andrew? He didn’t want to sneak in here with you?”

  “You know he hates this kind of music. With him it’s classical or nothing,” Jack shrugged. “Besides, I think he has the flu. He didn’t look so good this morning. I wanted to stay there and take care of him, but he insisted I come here. He practically pushed me out the door.”

  “He never did like showing weakness,” Jessica laughed.

  “Oh, don’t I know it. Just a few days ago, this homeless man jumped us and bit him.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “I know, right? So gross. I had to fight Andrew all the way to the hospital. He kept insisting that he was fine. It’s probably how he got the flu, actually.”

  “You don’t think it could be something else, do you? Like an infection or something?”

  “Nah, they irrigated the crap out of that wound and pumped him full of antibiotics. They took blood just to be sure, but since we haven’t heard anything, I’m sure it’s nothing,” Jack waved it all off. “I guess one of the privileges of being a nurse at a hospital is that you know you’re getting the absolute best care. We ended up spending a lot more time there than we needed to because we got into a conversation with some of Andrew’s co-workers.”

  Jessica laughed, “Gee, now why does that sound familiar.” Jessica put on a knowing face and tapped her chin with her finger. Jack laughed.

  * * *

  Jessica and Jack continued to talk throughout the music about this, that, and everything. She told Jack how much she’d miss him, and he told her about how much he’d miss her. They both promised to send e-mails all the time with lots of photo attachments.

  “You’ll have to come visit Australia sometime after you adopt the baby. Either that or I’m going to fly back here to kidnap it,” Jessica joked.

  “Hey, maybe we’ll even adopt the baby from Australia. I always loved Aussie accents.” Jack often made jokes that made him seem a lot dumber than he was. He was actually very bright and Jessica had no idea how he wound up working for Linda. In Jessica’s opinion, he was the kind of guy that could have Linda working for him.

  “I wonder if I’ll pick up the accent.” This was the first time Jessica had thought about that.

  “Depends on how long you stay there I guess. If indefinitely, then you’re sure to get some kind of accent. Perhaps Russian.”

  This caused Jessica to go into fits of laughter. Picturing herself with a Russian accent was very amusing.

  “Hey, what happened to the music?” Jack turned his attention back to the window, his brows crinkling slightly.

  Jessica stopped laughing and looked out as well. “I don’t know.”

  “Why is everyone leaving?” Jack pointed towards the gates. “This thing is supposed to go on for a few more hours.”

  “Maybe some kind of emergency. A bomb threat maybe? Look how they’re all running. It must be some kind of threat.” Jessica shrugged but was concerned. They were in one of the closest buildings to the park and an explosion could easily reach them.

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe we should find a radio or a TV. They’ll probably have something on it.” Jessica got up.

  “Yeah.” Jack followed suit. “I hope it’s not another 9/11 threat.”

  “That’s too awful to think about.” Jessica shuddered. Although they were in Canada, everyone had watched that incident closely and mourned those who had died.

  The two of them looked around the cubicles for a radio. Jessica noticed more family photos, more marks of achievement, and gag items; all attempts at lightening the mood of the dreary place. Jack found a radio first and summoned Jessica over. He turned it on and tuned it to an all-news station. All they got was static.

  “Are you sure you have it on the right station?” Jessica tried to look at the dial, but Jack kept fiddling with it.

  “Of course I’m sure,” Jack’s brow crinkled more. “Andrew listens to it all the time.” He kept turning the dial slowly through the AM channels, but nothing came in on anything.

  “Try FM.” Jessica had an idea that maybe the AM receiver was just broken.

  Jack flipped a switch on the side of the pink plastic box. He started slowly going through all the stations again, but still they got nothing. “Come on, there has to be something.”

  “Could be the radio’s broken.” Jessica started looking for another one. “Oh hey, someone here left their computer on.”

  She sat down in front of it, while Jack walked over. She shifted the mouse to get it off the screen saver, and it was quickly replaced with the image of two smiling kids, likely the desk’s owners. It only took a moment for her to find the internet icon and double click it. A page opened up telling them they couldn’t connect, that something was wrong with their internet.

  “Well there goes that,” Jessica sighed, “should we look for another radio?”

  Jack shook his head. “I have a bad feeling. Whatever is happening, it’s probably safer to evacuate. I’d rather not be in a tall, glass-sided building that holds the offices of a prominent company, how about you?”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Jessica pushed back from the computer. “Still, I want to check my laptop. It has wireless.”

  They collected her bag from the seat next to the window and set the laptop on a desk. It took a few minutes to boot up, but it was a fairly new system so there wasn’t much junk to slow it down. She tried the internet right away but got the same error message. She even tried using three different types of browsers, but none of them could connect. Jack then asked her to look for a signal, but her computer couldn’t find one. With a sigh, Jessica powered down and packed up the bag.

  They walked over to the elevators where Jessica pushed the call button. She noticed Jack had abandoned the lawn chair, but when she pointed this out, Jack said just to leave it. It was cheap and about to fall apart anyway.

  “Maybe we should take the stairs,” Jack thought aloud.

  “You’re pretty paranoid about
this, aren’t you?” Jessica joked. When her computer hadn’t worked, his facial lines had deepened into a worried frown that Jessica was not used to seeing. It appeared only on rare occasions when something was going disastrously wrong, like someone was an hour late for a big meeting, or a speech was lost minutes before it had to be presented.

  Jack didn’t bite. “I just have a really bad feeling is all. Come on, let’s take the stairs.” He headed off.

  Jessica sighed but followed. “We’re on the twenty-first floor. Do you know how many stairs that is?”

  “We’re heading down. It’ll be fine.” Jack entered the stairwell first.

  That was easy for him to say. He wasn’t wearing high heels. They headed down staircase after staircase. Jack gradually picked up the pace more and more as they went.

  “What’s the rush?” Jessica managed to keep up despite the trendy heels. “I’m getting dizzy from all this turning.”

  “I just have a really bad feeling, okay? I want to get home to Andrew.”

  Jessica had never known Jack to be scared of anything. The story Jessica had been told was that Andrew and Jack had met when Jack was in the ER after breaking his leg. Apparently, there was a rogue wind while he was attempting to land after skydiving and it grabbed his parachute and threw him straight into a stand of pines. He was lucky he broke only the one leg.

  They finally made it to the ground floor and exited the stairwell. Several other people from the building were hanging around in the lobby, looking out through the large glass walls and doors. Jessica noticed a small group of people exit the elevator. She gave Jack an annoyed look but he didn’t seem to notice.

  “What’s going on?” Jack asked a group staring out the windows.

  “Chaos,” one of them answered without turning.

  Jack and Jessica walked over to join them. Outside, the streets were filled with abandoned cars and panicked people. Jessica’s view didn’t face the park, but it was obvious that’s where everyone was coming from. As they watched, a man smashed his way through a department store across the street. He used a spare tire, of all things. Shortly after he disappeared inside, three others ran in after him. Jessica noticed that one of the three had no shoes on but didn’t seem concerned about the broken glass.

  “What’s going on?” Jack asked again, since the first time he wasn’t really given a good description.

  “We’re not totally sure,” a woman dressed in cleaner’s clothes told him. “Looks like some major gang violence or something.”

  “What do you mean?” Jessica asked her.

  “Well, some people seem to be attacking other people,” she clarified. Somewhat.

  “Have you heard any news?” Jack stood next to the window and looked up and down the street.

  “No.” She shook her head. “My radio died awhile ago. And look at this.” The woman took out her cell phone and showed it to Jessica. “I have no bars here. I always did before. Now watch.” She moved her phone nearer to the window. As it reached the glass, one of the reception bars filled.

  “It looks like this building isn’t getting any reception, cell phone, radio, or internet.” Jessica remembered both the radio and the computers upstairs. “What would cause that?”

  “I don’t know,” the woman shrugged, “but several security systems around the building have been turning on and locking down. Maybe it has something to do with that?”

  “Well I’m going out there before the doors down here lock.” Jack headed toward the doors.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Jessica tailed after him. Jack was the only person she knew here and she didn’t want to end up with a bunch of strangers.

  “Good idea or not, I want to be with Andrew. He’s sick. If this is as out of control as it looks here, someone might break in and he won’t be able to defend himself.” As Jack passed through the revolving doors, Jessica could see the determined set to his face in the glass’s reflection.

  She followed him out into the street. The sounds of sirens and distant screams assaulted her ears, putting her immediately on edge. She had never realized how soundproof that glass was before now. Somewhere far away shots were fired. Then more were fired and those sounded much closer. Jessica did some quick breathing exercises and stopped a certain awful thought from invading. She focused on Jack instead.

  Jessica could understand Jack’s fear. He lived in an apartment only a few blocks away. “I’ll come with you.”

  “It’ll be dangerous.” Jack didn’t seem to pay attention to his own protest as he hurried up the street. He said the words automatically.

  “No more for me than it will be for you.” Jessica had to trot to keep up in her heels.

  Jack then stopped and turned. “I won’t want to leave you behind but those shoes will slow us both down.”

  “Here.” Jessica reached down and took off her shoes.

  “Barefoot? There could be broken glass everywhere.”

  Jessica looked around. “There.” She pointed across the street to a shop sign. “That place sells shoes. I can get new ones in a jiffy.”

  Jack sighed and glanced around nervously. In the end, he caved. “All right, but let’s do this real quick now.”

  Jessica put her heels back on and they hurried across the congested street, holding hands to keep from being separated. When they reached the shop, they found its large window smashed in and all the lights off.

  “It’s closed,” Jack sighed.

  “So?” Jessica reached through the broken window and grabbed a sneaker. She compared it to her foot.

  “That’s stealing!” Jack’s mouth hung open in shock.

  The first pair looked too small so Jessica grabbed the next and tried them. They were the right size. Not exactly Jessica’s first choice in colour or style, but they would do. She started switching her shoes.

  “Jessica!” Jack frowned.

  “What?” She reached into her bag and pulled out a business card. “I’ll leave this so they know who I am and I’ll come back later to pay. This is an emergency situation.” She then placed the card in the space the shoes had previously occupied.

  Jack sighed again but didn’t argue. Clearly his level of worry was too high; in any other circumstance, he would have made Jessica put them back. They started up the street again, Jessica’s high-heels held in one hand, Jack’s hand in the other.

  The farther they went, the more the crowd thinned out. All around them, people headed in different directions or ducked into shops and buildings. They passed by one big office building where a man was arguing with a security guard to be let in. He argued about it not being safe outside but wouldn’t say why. No one seemed to know what was going on any better than Jack or Jessica did. They all looked lost and confused, walking alone or in small groups. People barely spoke unless they were arguing about something. A few people were even crying. Jessica couldn’t believe it all. Only the varying sounds of gunshots kept her rooted in reality. She knew that sound all too well. She feared that sound.

  A man ran up from behind, shoving Jessica hard in the shoulder as he passed.

  “Hey!” Jack yelled at him as he stopped Jessica from stumbling over. The man didn’t respond. He just kept running as fast as he could.

  Jessica looked behind them. There was another man running towards them. No, not towards, at.

  * * *

  “Jack.” Jessica Clay drew her friend’s attention.

  Jack turned. They both looked at the second running man, not sure what to do. Part of his head had been scalped or something, because a huge chunk of skin hung down the side of his face. Jessica could see damaged skull bone underneath.

  Another man stepped out of an alley between Jack and Jessica, and the charging man. Jessica watched as the charging man’s eyes darted to the newcomer. He abruptly changed course. The other man saw him just in time to scream before he was bowled over.

  The ensuing violence made Jessica’s eyes go wide. She stood stock still, muscles tense li
ke a deer in the headlights.

  “We have to get out of here,” Jack shook his head, horrified. The man wouldn’t stop screaming. “Jessica.”

  Jack grabbed Jessica’s hand and tugged but she didn’t respond.

  “Jessi!” Jack grabbed Jessica’s shoulders this time and spun her to face him. He had to shake her a few times to snap her out of it.

  “I’m sorry,” Jessica whispered, dazed. She started to turn her head back towards the screaming, but Jack grabbed her face and wouldn’t let her.

  “Come on.” He grabbed her hand again and started pulling her up the street.

  Once Jessica finally started to keep pace on her own, they began jogging.

  “What was that?” Jessica finally asked, the haze around her thoughts gone.

  “I don’t know.” Jack had stopped looking around suspiciously. He now kept his gaze dead ahead, trying to avoid seeing something like that again.

  “Did you see his head?” Jessica couldn’t believe anyone could still function with a head wound like that. The bone was so white.

  Jack just nodded once in response.

  “How much further?” She wanted to get inside. Behind safe walls. Perhaps curl up in a nice small closet for a while swathed in large, puffy blankets. With a light on of course.

  “One more block,” Jack’s voice had taken on an emotionless tone. Jessica could only imagine what he was thinking about, but she figured it had something to do with Andrew.

  As they ran the last of the distance, Jessica found herself thinking of Cillian again. Despite all that had transpired between them, she hoped he was all right.

  They reached Jack’s apartment building and he entered first. He was the kind of guy who would normally hold a door for a lady, but not this time. Not today. They hurried over to the elevators.

  “Hey, where’s your doorman?” Jessica noticed that, what she thought of as a permanent fixture was missing.

  “Don’t know.” Jack kept pressing the call button and watching the numbers above the elevator doors as they descended.

  While Jack remained focused on the elevators, Jessica kept her eyes on the entrance. Not only did she notice the missing doorman, but she also noticed that Jack didn’t need to use a key to get in. She tried to remember if there was normally an electronic lock to get in here or if it was just the doorman’s job to keep out any intruders. She hoped it was just the doorman because otherwise, that would mean the lock was broken, and a broken lock was never a good sign.