First Date- a Novella (5 page)

“Not going to argue about that,” Malik said, looking through several lockers, then pulled out a metal baseball bat. “I’ll take it,” he mumbled as a muffled scream sounded from the women’s locker room.

Chapter 4

Daniel flew out the door and turned so hard his boots almost slid out from under him. Keeping his balance, he grabbed the women’s locker room door, yanking it open. He saw Ginger and Monica on the ground with Ginger on Monica’s back, her left arm wrapped around her throat and her right arm holding Monica’s head.

Letting out a loud grunt, Ginger twisted Monica’s head to the right as Monica snapped at the air, looking at Teresa. A loud
crack
went off as Monica’s neck snapped, and her body went limp. As Ginger crawled off, Daniel came over and saw both of Monica’s arms were broken at the elbows. “You okay?” he asked, pulling Ginger up.

Panting hard, Ginger nodded. “Yeah, Monica just zoned out, and we moved back, then she went after Teresa.”

“Good idea to break her arms first,” Daniel said as Monica’s jaws snapped shut then opened. “Jesus,” he shouted, jumping back as Malik and the stooges ran in.

Ginger moved over and looked down at Monica’s face as her jaws snapped shut, clacking her teeth, and her eyes moved to look at Ginger. “Holy shit,” Ginger shouted, jumping back. “She’s still fucking alive after I broke her neck.”

Grabbing Ginger, Daniel pulled her over and shook her until she looked up at him. “Nobody can live with a broken neck. This is some kind of infection that drives people to kill no matter what happens to their body.”

Blinking rapidly, Ginger turned to look back at Monica. “They only stopped when you hurt the brain,” she said in a low voice. “Give me your knife,” Ginger said, holding out her hand.

Pulling his knife out, Daniel flipped it open and handed it to Ginger. Ginger moved over and knelt down beside Monica. “Ginger, it’s Monica,” Teresa sobbed. “She can’t hurt us now. They might be able to help her when the police get here.”

“I’m not leaving her here in case she figures out how to move with a broken neck,” Ginger said, grabbing Monica by the hair and driving the knife into the back of her skull. Like a switch, Monica stopped moving.

Looking at Monica’s shoulder where Susan had bit her, Daniel snapped his fingers. “She was bit.”

“Glenda wasn’t bit,” Teresa said, and Daniel looked at her standing in bra and panties.

“Neither were some of the others,” Daniel mumbled then looked at Ginger. “You about ready?”

Ginger looked down at her body, wearing only her leather biking pants and boots. “I think you can see I’m not really ready,” she said, looking up with a forced grin.

With wide eyes, Daniel spun away. “Sorry,” he mumbled, looking at Malik and the stooges ogling the partially clad women. “Hey, one of them is my date, so avert your eyes, or I’ll do it for you.”

The four hurried out the door as Daniel followed. “Are you blushing, Daniel?” Ginger asked as he walked out. After they left, Ginger pulled the knife out of Monica’s skull and heard Teresa and the others crying. “That’s not helping our situation,” she said, closing the knife.

Walking over to Teresa, Ginger grabbed her arms. “Pull it together, or you won’t make it to your kids.”

Hearing that, Teresa snapped her head up, and the tears stopped. Grabbing the clothes she found, Teresa started getting dressed. Looking over at Holly and Beth, the only other female employees to survive, Ginger relaxed, seeing them get dressed in casual clothes.

After grabbing the backpack he emptied, Daniel walked back into the break room. He stopped and looked around, clearing his mind as he concentrated on the list of problems in his head. Pulling out his keys, he walked over to the supply cabinets and opened them.

Standing at each one, he scanned them for anything useful. On the second one, his eyes stopped, and a grin split his face. “One of mankind’s greatest inventions,” he said, grabbing a cellophane-wrapped six pack of gray duct tape. Shoving it in the backpack, he continued scanning and moved to the next cabinet.

As Malik came out carrying the bat, he saw Daniel stuff two rolls of para cord in the backpack he was holding. “You know, I remember when you started at that second board meeting,” he said, walking over. “They used to use yarn on their presentations, showing how everything was connected. Then up steps the new guy right in Mr. Barron’s face and says, ‘If our competitors ever saw us use yarn, they would know we were limp dick bitches.’”

Turning around with a grin, Daniel nodded. “Never expected him to put out a memo saying if anyone ever used yarn again, they would be terminated.”

Malik laughed. “I loved it when Mr. Barron asked you what we should use so we wouldn’t look like limp dicks.”

“Para cord is great stuff,” Daniel said as several thumps sounded against the door and windows.

He turned, looking at the door to see it vibrate. “Malik, stack two tables there, then move another beside them with a chair on it,” Daniel said in a low voice.

Malik moved over and grabbed a table as the stooges, Oscar, and Lonnie came out of the locker room. He waved them over to help as Daniel looked through the rest of the cabinets but didn’t find anything else except a pack of zip ties, which he put in the backpack. Looking at the counter, he saw a paper cutter. Stepping over, he pulled the pin out of the two-foot-long swing blade, removing it.

He held up the curved blade by the handle. “A bit awkward,” he mumbled but held onto it. Seeing Andy’s body, Daniel walked over and undid the tool belt. Pulling it off, he shoved it in the backpack and zipped it up.

Hearing the women’s locker room door open, he turned to see the others come out following Ginger. She walked over and looked at the two foot long curved blade of the paper cutter. “That has possibilities,” she said, holding out his knife.

Taking the knife, Daniel handed her the paper cutter. “Here, you take this,” he said, looking around, and his eyes stopped at the back corner as a grin crept up on his face.

As Daniel walked off, Ginger turned around, almost knocking down Teresa, which almost caused her to knock down Holly and Beth. “Don’t follow me that fucking close,” she hissed at them as more pounding started at the door.

Stepping away from them, Ginger looked back at Daniel at the back corner opening a red metal door with “Fire Hose: only use in case of fire,” in white letters. Stopping behind Daniel, she watched him flip open the knife and cut the shiny nozzle off. He grabbed the cut hose and pulled it out, handing her the end. “Hold this; I’m going to wrap it on your arms,” he said, yanking the hose.

A look of understanding sprang up on Ginger’s face as she held her arms out about three feet apart. “Fucking brilliant,” she grinned as Daniel wrapped the hose neatly from one arm to the other. Keeping the hose flat as he wrapped it, Ginger looked at the yard-long spool as it spun around. “How long you figure it is?”

“Over a hundred feet,” he said, continuing to neatly wrap the hose. “It’s not true tubular climbing webbing, but it should get us down.” Behind them, the door continued vibrating under the thumps, and more were sounding on the windows.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Teresa and the others helping Malik. “The others can’t rappel down,” Ginger said, trying to ignore the pounding.

“My concern is you,” Daniel said, glancing up as he yanked more hose out. “I provide the way; it’s up to them to use it. Moving out to the ground floor is suicide.”

Knowing he was right, Ginger nodded as her arms struggled to hold up the heavy hose. When he reached the end, she sighed with relief as he cut it from the valve. Taking the wrapped hose, Daniel set it on a table and grabbed the backpack he stole. Pulling out the zip ties, he tied the hose at the ends and middle so it wouldn’t unravel. Then using more ties, he secured it to his liberated backpack.

“We need to leave,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the others. “Listen, we are going over the tiles. Do not put any weight over the tiles, or you will fall through, and you will die,” he said in a low voice as the door thundered under the assault, and they heard one set of blinds rattling now as the window pushed in against it. “The metal on each side of the tiles is where you put your weight, and don’t get close to each other either, or the support will fall.”

The others stared at him in wide-eyed horror as he got up on the table and stepped on the chair, climbing up the stacked tables. Reaching down, Daniel held out his hand for Ginger. She nodded and stepped up, grabbing Teresa by the shoulder and pulling her along.

Daniel moved a ceiling tile out of the way and stood up, climbing in the ceiling. “We are heading to the board room,” he said, pulling himself up.

Joe looked around. “Where’s Gary?”

“Fuck ‘em,” Malik said, helping Holly and Beth up.

Extending his arms, Daniel crab-walked on the beams that held the three-foot-wide ceiling tiles. Ginger climbed up after him and moved ahead, looking back to make sure Teresa came up. Seeing Teresa move along the supports like a monkey, Ginger whispered, “No so fast, Teresa, or you’ll get too close to me, and it might break.”

Trembling violently, Teresa gave a nod and slowed down as the others followed her. Joe was the last one up, and Gary walked out of the locker room to find the break room empty, and now, the pounding on the door and windows sounded like thunder. “Where the fuck did they go?” he grumbled, looking around, and saw the stacked tables under a removed ceiling tile.

Running over, he climbed up on the improvised steps, almost knocking them down.
Thwack
sounded, and he looked over to see one of the thick sheets of Lexan had been pushed out of the window, and hands were ripping down the metal blinds. Whimpering, Gary climbed up, knocking the chair off as he climbed on the stacked tables, and he heard bodies hitting the floor in the break room.

Glancing down, he saw his coworkers pouring through the opening. Pulling his bulk up in the ceiling, he felt his pants get soaked as he pissed. Looking around the top of ceiling, he saw who he thought was Joe moving under some metal ducts thirty yards away. “Hey wait!” Gary yelled, pulling his legs up.

Moving off the support, Gary tried to crawl on the tile only to have his upper body fall as the foam board cracked and broke, falling to the floor. Only because his knees were on the support, Gary didn’t follow it. Looking down, he saw dozens of bloody faces looking up at him, growling and moaning.

“Please wait!” he yelled, looking at Joe hold his arms and legs out to crab walk on the supports. Joe stopped and lowered his head, looking under his body back at Gary.

“You need to come on,” he said and took off, disappearing around more duct-work.

Bawling like a child, Gary spread out his arms and held on to each support then slowly crab walked over the exposed gap as the break room was almost full of his coworkers reaching up for him. Hearing the stacked tables crash, Gary sped up as tears rained from his face.

Moving a tile, Daniel saw the conference room table. Lowering his head, he looked around and saw the room was empty. Daniel lowered his legs and dropped to the table. He reached up as Ginger put her legs through and caught her at the waist then lowered her. “Thank you,” she said with a smile and kissed his cheek.

Reaching up and grabbing Teresa by the waist, Daniel grinned as he lowered her. After helping Holly and Beth, Daniel jumped off the table. The men could drop down like he had as far as he was concerned.

Taking the liberated backpack off his chest, Daniel tossed it on the twenty-foot-long table that sat in the center of the room. Then, he pulled his backpack off, tossing it beside it. Sliding them to the end near Mr. Barron’s chair, he pulled off his jacket and hung it on the chair.

Ginger was pulling a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and heard Teresa suck in a breath and turned around to see Daniel standing without a shirt and suspenders holding his pants up. His muscles rippled under his skin. “Yeah, I’ve seen him before at the dojo, and I have to admit he makes my mouth water,” Ginger whispered at Teresa.

Joe dropped to the table as Daniel pulled on a black tank top with a skull wearing a green beret on the front. “Gary’s coming,” Joe said, jumping off the table.

“Surprised his big, stupid ass could figure out how to,” Daniel said, looking around. “Guys, we need weapons if we are to leave here.”

Putting down her bottle of water, Ginger moved over beside one of the lamps that ran along the wall. A brass pole ran from a wide, black base up to a frosted glass shade. Looking at the pole, she saw it wasn’t a single piece. Grabbing the lamp pole, she tilted it and used her foot to yank the plug from the wall.

Hearing grunting, she looked up to see two legs drop out of the ceiling. “Help me,” Gary cried out in a sobbing voice.

“We just dropped down, Gary,” Joe said, moving over to see what Ginger was doing.

With a startled cry, Gary let go and really dropped down, landing hard on the table and falling off. He landed hard on his back. “You fucking left me,” he cried out, trying to stand up and groaning from the pain of his landing.

“Yeah, so what of it?” Daniel asked, staring at Gary with a blank face. “You were getting money from wallets; how does that help the rest of us?”

“I’m saving it so they don’t lose it,” Gary snapped, wiping his face.

Daniel grinned and looked around. “You pissed your pants, Gary.”

“No I didn’t.” Gray pouted, and everyone snickered. “I’m warning you,” he said, glaring around at the group. No one, not even Teresa or the teenager Holly, looked away.