An hour passed before the call to go to the roof came. Quietly, people piled into the elevators and crept up the stairs. When they reached the roof, the first helicopter had landed and soldiers were lining the perimeter. Other soldiers came forward to direct the refugees to the helicopter.
As her fellow employees followed the soldiers to safety, the girl searched for the familiar face she desperately needed to see. Finally, she spotted him. With a cry of relief, she threw herself into the arms of her boyfriend.
"I'm so glad you're safe," he murmured. She smiled, feeling protected and safe.
But that feeling soon shattered. Gunshots rang out and the screaming began.
"How did they get up here?" the commander shouted.
The girl's eyes flew over the rooftop. Zombies were everywhere. Emerging from the floor below, climbing over the side of the building, shambling out from behind objects. Almost as if they knew all these people would be here. An ambush? No, zombies were too stupid for that. Weren't they?
A zombie jumped from a niche in the roof by one of the helicopters. The group of refugees screamed and ran from it. Zombies swarmed up the roof.
"Get on the helicopter!" the commander yelled. Some people obeyed, but others kept running in a panic.
The girl, who had been at the back of the crowd, was jostled and carried farther away from the helicopter. Not all of us can fit in it anyway, she realized. The commander must have realized that too because he started yelling. "Inside! Get inside!" He shouted more commands for those of his men who were left, and they formed a ragged aisle to the exit.
The helicopter took off, zombies hanging from it, as the remaining people staggered through the door and continued onto the stairs. Two soldiers led the way and the rest took up the rear, covering the escape. Every way the group turned was blocked off by zombies. Finally, they were forced to take refuge in a room on the fourth floor of the Wilk. Zombies pounded on the door, moaning loudly, and the door shook alarmingly. Even the walls suddenly seemed fragile.
"We can't last in here forever," someone said nervously.
The commander, who'd been examining the room and peering through the glass lining the back wall, made a quick decision. "We're going out the window."
The declaration was met with looks of disbelief from the Cougareat employees, but the soldiers got right to work. They pulled cords from clips on their belts and started securing them to pillars in the room. Catching the girl's wide-eyed stare, a soldier smiled grimly. "We came prepared," he said.
The commander frowned at him. "Not prepared enough. We should have been prepared for the ambush on the roof."
The soldier nodded, his face clouding with sadness and pain. No doubt he'd lost friends in the attack on the roof.
Another soldier finished cutting through the glass and they dropped the lines down. Six soldiers and the commander were all that was left of the original force. Six out of twenty.
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