chapter twelve

“Balddee, you fuck-moot! You built the fucking barricade the wrong way!” screamed Mule, running up next to Harmon who stood holding the Kent Hrbek special, watching the four corpses knock over the cube walls that were in front of them.

Harmon’s grip around his bat tightened. “We need to fall back.”

“No! We have to fight them. If not now, when?” exclaimed Balddee.

“I don’t believe this is a fight we can win. We outnumber them but they’re stronger, we still don’t know for sure how they die and we don’t have any weapons.” Harmon said, grabbing Balddee’s forearm, easing it back down. “We’ll hole up in Mule’s office while we think of a way to take them all out.”

Harmon held the bat aloft while the rest of the group retreated into Mule’s office. Once inside they moved Mule’s desk to barricade the door aware, this time, of which way the door swung. As they moved the desk bottles of alcohol dropped out from the desk.

“Mule,” Satchel or Bel commented, “You might have a drinking problem.”

“Yeah, well I aim to change that real fast.” Mule said, removing the top of a bottle of whiskey and taking a heavy pull.

A hollow thumping sound began as the door creaked but did not give. Balddee leaned his back into the desk and did his best to keep it flush with the door.

Harmon looked around the room, “What do we have and how do we stop them? Mule, do you keep any weapons in your office?”

“Why, in fuck’s name, would I keep a weapon in my office? We posted a fucking sign saying that guns were fucking banned on the premise.”

Dirty Orpheus, sprawled against the back wall between Satchel and Bel. “We could make Malotov Cocktails out of all of this booze.”

Harmon looked over at Dirty, “Good idea. Use your socks for wicks and get started.”

“Wait,” Mule exasperated. “Do you have any idea how long it takes to amass a collection like this? I am aware that our lives are in mortal danger but maybe we should all consider that a good secondary plan. There must be something else we can do. What about the emergency exit plan that Maxey was looking for?”

“No good,” Balddee said, leaning into the desk to force it back against the door.

“That emergency exit was out of Dr. Gonzo’s office.” Harmon spoke, “She reinforced that wall so she could hang up all the pictures of her cat. Besides we would have to go through those guys in the hall just to get there.”

“Well, this just fucking sucks.” Mule said, holding onto a bottle of Johnny Walker Green which Dirty snatched forcing one of his dirty socks into the mouth.

The door began to give way. “How much longer can you hold the door?”

Balddee grimaced from where one of the desk drawers was digging into his back and looked at Harmon with a face of rage, “Not much.”

The top of the door exploded and the savage fury of the dead peered in.