Rise of the Desperate: Donald Carter's Zombie Survival Guide

Chapter 5: Meeting Another Survivor

Donald apparently lucked out, as there were no zombies on the next floor, or at least none he could see. He took a moment to survey the scene as he considered whether he should check the floor before moving on. It was the fourth floor, so he had to go down three more flights of stairs before he could leave the building. Then he could finally see how bad it was outside.

He could try checking the situation by looking out the windows, but he had avoided them. While he would like to have a logical reason behind it, the truth was that he was just afraid of heights. As long as he didn't see how far away the ground was, he was fine. Deciding to forgo searching the floor, he headed straight for the stairs, heading for the third floor, when he heard noise.

Immediately, he spun around with his ax swinging. His axe hit nothing but air. With a frown, he studied the surrounding area again. It might have been his imagination, but he didn't want to die just because he decided to ignore a possible threat. Moving further into the room, he kept his ax raised in case he needed to use it while searching for the source of the noise.

Hearing it again, he turned in that direction. Walking slowly towards the cubicle, he felt his heart race. Just before he turned the corner, he stopped and peeked around the corner. There were no zombies in sight, but he didn't give up. He narrowed his eyes as he searched for any clues when he saw something shift at the corner of his eye.

Like a hawk, his head snapped towards the movement, and he realized there was something underneath the table. Given his position, he couldn't see what was there, despite the sun still being out. Donald debated whether he should take the risk of getting closer to investigate what it was or retreat. It didn't take long for him to come to a decision. Since he had already gotten this far, he might as well see it through.

Stepping away, he cleared his throat and asked, "Is someone there?"

Several moments passed, and nothing happened. He wasn't sure if he should take it as a good or bad sign. It was good that no zombies popped out because of his voice, but that didn't automatically mean there were no zombies. If it were a zombie underneath the table, it might not react to sound. As he was weighing his next options, he finally got an answer.

"Hello?" a voice asked from underneath the table.

"Are you a survivor? My name is Donald Carter," he said as he stared at where the person should be.

After a few minutes, a woman crawled out. She was obviously roughed up, and his eyes immediately scanned her for any bite marks. He couldn't be too careful. She might have been infected and would turn at any moment. There didn't appear to be any signs of possible infected wounds. However, it was possible that she was hiding them from him.

"Thank god. I'm Amanda Parker," she said as her eyes frantically searched the area for zombies.

"What were you doing underneath the table?" Donald asked as he lowered his ax slightly.

"What do you think?" she snapped before adding in a lower voice, "I was trying to get away from the zombies."

"They didn't notice you?" he asked.

Amanda shook her head. "I got lucky, but not everyone else did."

Remembering the bodies he passed back, he wrinkled his nose. While it was great to find a survivor, he wasn't sure what he should do now. Given her outfit, it would be difficult for her to run. He wasn't sure why she thought wearing a pencil skirt was a good idea to wear at the office, but she was likely the first person to die if they had to run from zombies.

Donald was tempted to leave her behind, as she would just increase his chances of being killed by zombies unless he used her as bait. He highly doubted that she would willingly let him though. If she had been a man or wearing different clothing, he wouldn't have batted an eye. It would be a rational decision. However, his human heart won.

"I'm going to leave this place. Do you want to come with me?" he asked as he removed one hand from his ax and held it out to her.

She hesitated before taking his hand. "Thank you. I'll do my best to support you."

"First, we should do something about your clothes," he said as he pointedly looked down at her skirt.

Instead of getting flustered or upset at where his eyes went, she grimaced. "I don't normally wear this. It just happened to be a bad day."

"Do you have an extra pair of clothes?" Donald asked.

With a nod, Amanda said, "I keep a change of clothes in the drawers."

When she bent down to open the drawer, he pointedly looked away to check the surroundings. So far, they had gotten lucky that no zombies decided to show up to ambush them. However, the longer they stayed, the more uneasy he felt. It was best if they hurried and left, but a change of clothes wasn't the only thing they needed.

"I'm decent," she called, and he looked back to see she was wearing a pair of thick pants. "Are we ready to go?"

"We should see if there are any supplies we can grab. I doubt we'll be able to find things easily once we get out of here," he said.

Amanda nodded. "You've got a point."

They went through the entire area while watching out for zombies and found some lunches left behind by their coworkers. Luckily, they were unopened. They did feel a bit guilty for stealing someone's lunch, but it was possible they were dead or weren't going to return for it. It was going to spoil, so they might as well eat it themselves. Amanda grabbed her bag to carry half of it.

The other half was left in Donald's possession. They were also able to find some more water and a pair of scissors to arm Amanda. She grimaced but didn't complain. He didn't reveal that he had other weapons on him that she could use. It would be a mistake to reveal everything he had to a total stranger, even if they were working together to survive the zombies.

"Are we good to go?" she asked.

He nodded. "We should head to the next floor."