Zombies part 2

The girl stifled her gag reflex and fought the uncontrollable urge to scream. Except she couldn't scream. She could barely breathe through her fear. Forcing herself to move, her hand scrabbled for the door behind her, and she yanked it open, squeezing into the small open space. She tried to shut the door behind her.

The zombie grabbed the door.

She pulled the door with all her strength and weight, slamming the zombie's fingers in it. Ew ew ew. Resolutely, she locked the door, and only then did she take stock of her surroundings. She couldn't see any zombies in the back room, but she couldn't see any people either. The stores looked as if the people had just up and left---in Scoreboard Grill, hamburger patties sat on the grill, although the grill was turned off---but there was no sign of a struggle. Almost like they knew and had just quietly left. Why didn't anyone tell me?? The had probably tried but hadn't been able to. Her store was so isolated from the other stores.

The girl peeked through the bars of Taco Bells. Zombies shuffled around the Cougareat, more and more appearing as she watched. How had she not noticed? She marveled at her luck in getting to the backdoor safely. The zombies must have cleared at just the right time. They were probably surrounding her store now. She became aware of pounding on the door she had just escaped through. She needed to get out of there.

Well. Time to do reconnaissance. First to change and get her phone. She went down to the locker room without seeing a single soul. When she opened the door to the locker room, though, she was greeted by all the other female employees.

"Thank goodness you're safe!" one of them exclaimed. "We sent someone to get you, but they never came back. We left the door unlocked for you, though."

The girl stared at them. She felt a huge relief they hadn't abandoned her, but suddenly what had happened hit her with full force. She'd been running on adrenaline so far, and now it disappeared. Pushing past the other employees, many of whom were curled up crying or staring around with a lost expression, she ran into a bathroom stall and threw up into the toilet. Retching, she huddled on the floor and tried to take deep breaths.

When she'd finally gotten herself under control, she emerged from the bathroom and stall and looked for her locker. She quickly changed, taking in the air of despair, hopelessness, and even disbelief. "So what's the plan?" she asked.

They stared at her blankly. "We're waiting for help to come," one of them volunteered.

Another nodded. "Yes. We called 911. They're sending the military in and are going to get us all out from the roof in helicopters."

Seemed as good a plan as any, and after all, there wasn't anything she could do to help. She was weaponless and untrained. And she really didn't want to see another zombie. They were a thousand times more gruesome in real life than they were in video games.

The girl left the safety of the locker for a couple minutes and stood in the empty hallway where she got reception. She called her mom's cell.

"Oh honey! Are you alright!? We were so worried!" It took several minutes to calm her mom down, but she eventually found out that the zombies had originated from downtown Provo. The authorities didn't know the cause yet, but they had quickly evacuated the surrounding cities and were setting up safe houses.

"From what I saw on the news, though, it looks like there are breakouts all over the world," her mom continued. "But no on knows who or what made them. At least, no one's talking."

After getting off the phone with her mom, the girl called her boyfriend to make sure he was safe. He'd been frantic with worry for her too. So worried, in fact, that he'd taken a plane into Utah as soon as he'd heard rumors on the news and twitter about a zombie apocalypse. Luckily for him, he managed to get on the last plane that was actually allowed to take off. All subsequent planes were ordered to stay on the ground.

Her boyfriend had military connections because his dad was a veteran. "They're going to let me help load people onto the helicopters," he said confidently. "The military is stretched very thin right now and are taking some volunteers. But there's no zombies on the roof, or anywhere close to that level, so there'll be absolutely no danger."

The girl smiled in relief. "Good. I'm excited to see you! Although this isn't how I imagined seeing you again . . ."

They talked for a couple minutes before the girl returned to the locker room and told those in there what she had learned.

"There's guys in the other locker room." It was the same girl who'd told her about the military coming in helicopters. "I'll go knock on the door and let them know what's going on."