Chapter 13 - 14th Floor

Noticing the tear in his shirt, Mark couldn't help but drop the bar on his hand and immediately check the spot. He lifted the shirt and checked his skin.

His tan skin not even grazed and exhaled in relief. If he had even a minor scratch from one of the zombies it would be enough for him to become one. The zombies are deadly to come in contact with. 

After checking it multiple times, he rolled his shirt back down and took the rod back into his hand. Keeping the rod back in the bag and taking out the machete, he swung it directly at the head of the two zombies on the floor. He could not take the risk. So he went for the sure way to know they are dead.

"That one was too close for comfort. I need to get some better protection for the body or it would be tough when I go out and search for Kevin."

He made his way till the end of the hall and noticed the huge number of zombies in the lobby. The last few of the offices had big lobbies and hence more space. This led to more zombies in them. He carefully observed the zombies and there were around 15 zombies.

He looked closer at some zombies and found something surprising. He found out that some clothes the zombies wore weren't as bloody and tattered as the others. This could only mean one thing and that people were hiding on the floor but were raided by a horde of zombies.

He felt a bit of sorry for the poor people, but could only shake the thought away. The world was plunged into chaos where only the strong could survive from now on. He needed to steel his heart further and not get shaken up for small things like this.

After observing the pattern of the zombies further, he locked onto his target location. The old woman's office was far from his position, but he could reach it if the zombies were fewer. After thinking for a while, he kept the rod instead of the machete as the possibility of the zombies finding him was way higher than the previous floor.

After changing for the rod, he thought of an action plan. He noticed most of them were moving and not in a stationary position and planned to distract them to another place far from where he had to go. The old woman's room had the windows for walls and hence was transparent.

He cursed his luck for the nth time and formulated the plan. He went with the distraction plan instead of luring them out and looked back into the hallway. As the floor had large glass windows of the view outside, he decided on the same plan.

He searched the whole hallway for something big and strong enough to reach the windows and break it. After some searching, he found a mop in a closet to the side. He broke the handle part of the mop and was left with only the metal and wool used to clean the floor.

He came back to his position and rolled the wool tight and threw it to the furthest glass window. The metal went towards the glass and broke right through it. All the zombies snapped their heads towards the sound created and rushed towards it.

Noticing he was successful, as the zombies were busy making their way towards the broken window, Mark made his way towards the room. The room was right beside the hallway, such that the person inside can also bet the view of the cubicles on the other side of the hallway.

He observed the zombies as they slowly reached the window, and some even fell down. Mark already reached the door and went inside the room. As the windows were transparent Mark needed to make it quick before he got found out.

He quickly checked the drawers by the side of the office desk and found an inhaler. He quickly took it but found something horribly abnormal about it. He tried shaking it and found out it was empty. Not wanting to waste any more time, Mark started checking the other drawers in the desk.

As he went through the rest of the desks, Mark could not find any inhalers. He then changed his view towards the enormous wardrobe in the office and went towards it. He noticed the zombies still looking out the window and quickly opened the door.

He noticed all the variety of suits and checked through everything. He then found a small box on the below shelf and opened it. He finally found medications and inhalers. He checked the quantity inside and found it was new. As he was about to close the door back, he heard growling outside.

He slowly peeked from the door of the wardrobe and found a zombie already making its way back while growling in his direction. By its view, Mark knew he wasn't found yet but was in a dire pinch.

He noticed the zombie making its way towards him and quickly went inside the wardrobe, slowly closing the door. He found a small peephole in the door and peeked out of it. He observed as the zombie made its way inside the room and towards the wardrobe.

The zombie slowly came towards the wardrobe and with its height, it could look right through the peephole. Noticing its actions, Mark hurriedly took his head out of the way to not get caught. His heart rate increased and his back slowly became wet from the sweat.