Survival Of The Fittest by Catherine Holland (novel24 .TXT) 📖

"Are you crazy?" Danni replied, Gabby shook her head, and passed Danni the shoulder bag, "No, I'm deadly serious, those infected will be waking up soon, and I don't know how secure the building is." Danni simply looked at her, then stared at the shoulder bag.

Gabby shook the bag, gaining Danni's attention, "Danni, I'll be right behind you, I swear it, but I need to know that Angel is safe. Can you do this?" Danni slowly nodded her head, and then gingerly took the shoulder bag, she went to open the car door, but Gabby shook her head, "Not yet, wait two minutes."

She then climbed into the back of the car, and opened one of the duffel bags, she rummaged around until she found a fully loaded clip, after inserting the clip into the gun, she shoved it into the waistband of her jeans, then opened the boot and stepped out, dragging the bag with her.

Gabby walked around the car and tapped twice on the window, she then opened the passenger side door, and unclipped Angel's car seat harness, lifting the heavy load into her arms, she waited until Danni opened her door, the shoulder bag in hand. "Take Angel, and go inside, if any of your colleagues can move fast, send them out."

Danni nodded, and headed inside the office with Angel, a few moments later, four men emerged, and looked at her curiously, Gabby shook her head, and said, "My name is Gabby, please save the questions for the moment, I'll gladly answer them in a short while, for now though, if you can empty the boot, and take everything inside, It'll be much appreciated."

Without waiting for an answer, Gabby led the men to the boot of her car, and pointed, she then withdrew one of her swords, and started cutting off the heads of the infected. She risked a quick glance at the sky, and swore, the storm clouds were nearly on top of them. She looked at the men, and said, "How many more bags?"

One of them called back, "Three, plus a travel-cot." Gabby took out her gun, and said, "Make it quick, we're running out of time." Gabby heard her boot close, and followed the men inside, she walked past the infected, and paused to empty the chamber into their bodies, before stepping through the open door, and closing it behind her, then making sure it was locked.

As she turned around, Gabby saw the small group of survivors, looking at her with a mixture of emotions, ranging from blatant mistrust, to nervousness, and astonishment, she looked at the man with the mistrust in his eyes, and said, "Could you show me around, please? I need to know that the building is secure, the infected will start waking up as soon as the storm hits."

The man looked at her coldly, and replied, "Who are you?" She sighed, and replied, "My name is Gabby, in most of the bags that were brought in, there's food, tea and coffee, please, help yourselves." The man said, "So, what are you doing here?" Gabby narrowed her eyes, and replied, "That's a bit obvious, don't you think? What in the hell, were you thinking of, sending Danni outside with no weapons, when a storm is due to hit, do you want her to get killed?"

The man suddenly sighed, and ran his hand through his shock of short white hair, he couldn't have been more than thirty five, but it suited him. "We don't have any weapons here, apart from spoons, and maybe the odd knife and fork, it was daytime and the storm wasn't due for a good couple of hours, we thought she'd be fine."

Gabby shook her head, "Why the hell didn't you drive her? It would've been a lot quicker." Their silence was all the answer she needed, she shook her head in disgust, and went to walk past the man, and towards the sound of Angel crying. The man blocked her path, and Gabby walked up to him, until they were almost nose to nose.

"You may not like me, and I honestly couldn't give a shit, but if you want to make until dawn without losing anyone, you'll let me pass, and do my job." Another man came out of a side office, and said, "Let her pass, and give her what she needs." Gabby nodded at him, "Thank you." The man nodded in return, then returned to the side office.

The man in front of her, stood to the side, then said, "There isn't much to see of the office, this room here -," he said, pointing to the side room where the other man had gone, "- is what we call the back office, it's fairly secure as we managed to block the window, and re-inforce the door."

As he spoke, he pointed to what he meant, Gabby approved of the way they'd blocked out the window, but at first glance, the door was a different matter entirely. It looked as though all it would take, was of a few infected to push against it, and the door would buckle. She could see the handles, and said, "Does that door open inwards, or outwards?"

The man replied, "Inwards." Gabby frowned, "Is there a door handle on the outside?" The man shook his head, "No, it's meant to be used as a fire escape." Her frown deepened, "Then why is it blocked like that?" The man said, "We needed the space for sleeping." Gabby took a closer look at the door, and said, "The handle is a pump bar, is it still connected to an alarm?"

The man replied, "Yes, why?" Gabby looked at him, "Help me move it, if we move those computers onto a single desk, you'll have all the sleeping room you need, as well as extra weapons, do you have CCTV here, and does it work?" The man replied, "Yes, we have CCTV, but as far as I know, the sound has never worked, where is that table being moved to?"

Gabby had tried to move the table, but found it was jammed tight to the door, in effect, preventing the door from being opened, and making it look buckled. Gabby shook her head, "Nowhere, it's jammed in tight, whoever put it there, knew what they were doing."

As she turned to look at the man, she saw a muscle jump in his jaw, and said, "I'm sorry, he must've been a great man." The man looked at her, and replied, "He was, let's keep moving, shall we? The next place is the kitchen and bathrooms." Twenty minutes later, Gabby knew the weakest point of the office, which was out back, near the toilets, the top half of the door was made of glass, and only a chain bolted across it, kept it locked.

Gabby looked at the men, then said, "This isn't the most secure place I've stayed in, but it's too late to find anywhere else, that will have to wait until morning, providing the storm breaks early." Just as she finished talking, the heavens opened, and the sky was filled with lightning, and the cracking booms of thunder.

The rains fell soon after, and as Gabby pulled the first bag of weapons towards her, she could hear Angel screaming from the other room, and hear Danni trying to comfort her. The man with the cold eyes, was watching as she loaded the bullets into the clips, then inserted the clips into the guns, and made sure the gun was ready to fire.

After Gabby had loaded up several guns, she stood up and placed two of them in the waistband of her jeans, then went into the back office, she opened the shoulder bag and pulled out a bottle of milk, as she glanced towards thr main office door, she could see the infected getting to their feet. It wouldn't be long before they tried to find a way in.

Gabby heated the milk in the microwave, and tested it, before going back into the side room and handing the bottle to Danni, then said, "Regardless of what you hear, do not move, or leave Angel, I'm counting on you to protect her." Danni nodded, and replied, "She'll be safe with me." From another part of the office, there was a dull thudding sound, as though something was repeatedly being hit.

She made her way towards the noise, and saw the infected hammering against the glass, which was shuddering under the force of the blows. "What kind of glass is that?" Gabby asked aloud, the man with the cold eyes, replied, "It's not glass, it's plastic, but it's bulletproof." Gabby nodded, then noticed the cracks, there were three of them, and they ran from the centre of the plastic glass, to the frame.

The man with the cold eyes, said, "Those are pressure cracks, from where the vent was placed in the centre, instead of at the bottom, those things have been trying to break through it for a while, but it's held." She nodded, then replied, "What's out the back? The door out back is half glass, and half wood, it's the weakest point in the office."

The man shrugged, then said, "Ask Danni, she'd know what's out there." Gabby narrowedher eyes, and replied, "What's your name?" He replied, "Daryl, why?" Gabby shrugged, "No reason, it's just so I know who I'm talking too." She then turned around and walked into the back office, where Danni was sat with Angel in her arms.

Five minutes later, Gabby knew that the back door led to flats, the weakest point in the office had just become the strongest, as there were a set of metal gates that the former residents had to open with a key to gain entry to the flats. She walked into the kitchen and sat on the floor, leaving herself a clear view of the infected at the front of the office.

Daryl approached her soon afterwards, and stood watching as she assembled, and loaded more weapons, placing them into a bag. Gabby didn't avert her gaze, but said, "Are you sure that that plexi-glass will hold until dawn?" Daryl replied, "Yes, I'm sure." After a few minutes of silence, Gabby sighed, then said, "Just ask, whatever it is, and don't act so surprised, you wouldn't talk to me unless you wanted something, it's too obvious."

Daryl let out a sound, halfway between a chuckle and a sigh, but still said nothing. Gabby waited, her attention split into several different directions, the infected at the front door, Angel in the back room, loading her guns, the quiet murmur of voices scattered around her, and Daryl, who sat down in a chair to her right.

At first, the silence was strained, Gabby was on high alert, for anything out of the oridinary, and for Angel's cry. In her peripheral vision, she could see that Daryl was relaxed, his eyes were closed, but he was still alert, she could see that the muscles under his shirt were strained, and he was too still. To find out how alert he was, Gabby moved slightly, her jeans making a soft scuffing noise on the floor.

Daryl's eyes snapped open, and carefully looked around himself, before closing his eyes once more, Gabby smiled to herself and continued loading the guns. Twenty minutes later, she had two full bags of loaded weapons, so after making herself a mug of coffee, and checking on Angel, she opened the back pack and took out her sword cleaning kit, as well as her swords from their sheath on her back.

She was lost in thought, and in the soothing motions of rubbing the bloodstains from the blade, that her memories came forward, to torment her once again:

Gabby could hear the death rattle in the mother's throat, blood was pumping freely from the gaping wounds in her neck, her eyes were open, and rapidly changing, from a golden brown, to