SHANE AND KARA SAT in silence holding each other as Kara wept. Adam and Brad’s sudden departure had left Kara reeling. Shane felt emotion well up in his chest as he thought of the likelihood of never seeing his sons again.
Screaming and light seeped into the dark room through the cracks around the door frame. Eventually the screaming subsided and the light flickered out. Kara fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. Shane worried that if he fell asleep his breathing would cause too much noise — so he stayed awake.
Another large rumble shook the floor beneath them. Kara woke and was hit with a wave of terror and sadness as she realized her waking life was a nightmare. Shortly after, the fire alarm began to sound. Spouts erupted with water and began to spray the entire room.
Shane quickly dragged over a table to stand on – and smashed the alarm in the room. The sound subsided from their alarm, but they could hear the sirens and zombies screeching on the other side of the door. A few minutes later, the water subsided in their room.
They began to speak softly to one another in the darkness as they rung out their clothes. They were interrupted by a knocking on the door. The floor was now silent and the knocking was gentle enough that they wondered if it was Brad and Adam with the girls.
The two panicked for a moment as they contemplated what to do. Kara in sheer hope and desperation began moving things out of the way of the door. Shane joined in to help. They got to the door, and opened it just a crack.
Before they could examine the dark room through the crack – a person burst through the door past Shane and Kara. Kara screamed and Shane closed the door and prepared to fight. When the two turned they saw a young-adult Taiwanese male huddled in the corner with his hands held firmly out in front in submission and defense.
The soaked man looked panicked, but not frenzied like the diseased people they had seen earlier. In english the man frantically said, “I will not hurt, I will not hurt you! No danger!”
Shane relaxed as he saw a tenderness and kindness in the man’s scared face. Shane moved a large bin in front of the door again and asked, “You speak English?” “Yes!” The man said equally as panicked. Shane took a step toward the man and in a calm and clear voice said, “we’re not going to hurt you. You’re safe here.”
“Thank you, thank …” the young man’s voice cracked and he began to cry. To Shane and Kara he now looked like a little boy. The two subconsciously jumped at the opportunity to forget their grief and terror; they descended to the young man’s level and in their native comforting nature, began asking him about himself and what he knew.
The young man’s ‘English name’ was James. He had learned fluent English on a study abroad trip to California. His description of what he’d seen and lived through in the last few hours landed Shane and Kara right back into the distress they sought to escape from.
JAMES EXPLAINED THAT AN explosion had gone off in the kitchens by the cafeteria where HE and his friend had been eating. The two of them ran to help those that were injured in the kitchen. James stepped away from his friend for a moment to assess the damage of the explosion throughout the rest of the kitchen. He could see that the blast had seriously damaged major support beams running along the side of the building. The building's structural integrity had been compromised. He had turned to go tell his friend – when he heard screaming again from the cafeteria. When he got back, his friend was not the same — he had begun eating the helpless victims of the explosion. Terrified, James ran to a nearby freezer and slammed the door shut. His friend’s hand, reaching for him, got caught in the door – severing it from the wrist. James sat in the corner of the freezer staring at his friend’s cold dead hand for hours.
Just when James felt he could take the cold no longer, another explosion erupted in the kitchen. The same explosion that had woken Kara. The blast knocked the door loose and James ran frantically past the wreckage to a nearby escalator — pursued by his friend's burning, flailing body. Water poured down from the sealing. Making it only a few steps, the friend fell to the floor face-down and shook violently as he burned. Getting to the escalator he saw several zombies below and chose to go further up where the dark floor seemed more clear, and where the screaming wasn’t as loud. It wasn’t long after he knocked on the locked door sheltering Shane and Kara, believing safety laid behind it.
James and Shane continued to visit while Kara laid down, she insisted she was only going to “rest her eyes.” Kara was fast asleep by the time the two finished talking. James fell asleep shortly after. Shane sat there by himself and thought of his children and grandchildren. Tears streamed down his face for the first time since this disaster broke out. Shane prayed throughout the night as horrid screeches echoed from the streets below.
SHANE WATCHED MORNING BEGIN to break on the horizon. The sun was bright and beautiful, a rare occurrence in Taiwan. In the midst of so much sadness and pain Shane took it as a sign that God was still in control. As light reached like long fingers through the buildings – the zombies in the streets moved into the shadows. They crept quickly to the quiet, dry, darkness like spiders. Shane couldn’t believe this all was really happening. It felt like a dream he surely would wake up from at any moment.
Shane woke Kara, who’s head rested gently on his leg. When Kara lifted her head, Shane realized his legs were completely numb from sitting on the hard floor all night.
Hunger clawed at their stomachs. Shane stood up and his legs wobbled beneath him. As he leaned against the wall he was grateful they were numb, as soon as they woke up, he was going to be in a world of hurt. Kara looked at her husband, she could see on his face that he was in pain, even though he attempted to mask it with a smile. She wondered how they were going to survive. Shane observed her worry, took her hand and spoke calmly, “we’ve been through worse.” Kara gave him a puzzled look, “worse?”
Shane replied, “… okay, maybe we haven’t. I just started speaking hoping wisdom would follow.” Shane and Kara chuckled; luckily for him one of his classic blunders was exactly what Kara needed.
James had woken and quietly watched their interaction. He smiled softly to himself. It made him think of his parents. Though he didn’t have the best relationship with them, remembering them in moments of love like Kara and Shane, warmed his heart.
A BLOOD CURDLING SCREAM resonated through the glass and drew their gaze to the street below. A Taiwanese man in his 40s ran with a young girl down the street. Their mother, whose scream had pierced the thick glass far above, had just been attacked by one of the blind zombies. This family had observed the zombies dart into the shadows to hide from the light, and tried their chances in the streets. They didn’t anticipate that some of the zombies were no longer bothered by the light due to their blindness. Kara, James and Shane watched as the distraught man ran away from his wife with their daughter. She had been turned by the zombie, and in spite of the sun, began running furiously towards them. The woman tackled her husband and daughter into a building. Close by in the shadows of an alley, many more zombies joined the fray and dragged their victims helplessly into the darkness.
Shane and Kara’s thoughts grew desperate again at the sight, and as they thought of Brad, Adam and the girls. Kara pulled away from the glass and in a fit cried, “I feel so helpless!” She looked at Shane with severity, “we have to do something. I can’t just wait here.” The two decided to go to the kitchens to try and salvage food for everyone when they got back. James refused to go with them, and instead just gave them directions.
As the two opened the door and walked out onto the quiet floor, James felt his stomach twist, he felt he was watching them walk to their deaths. In spite of his fear and having decided to stay, James felt his feet guide him behind them and out the door. Kara, grateful for his company, grabbed and squeezed his hand maternally. As they walked, they kept their eyes peeled for zombies. There weren’t any immediately in sight. All the lights in the building were out, and the further they walked into the floor the darker it got. As they turned the corner, James stopped them and pointed into the darkness. Huddled together were a group of zombies. They were avoiding the windows. The three continued forward undetected.
JAMES SUCCESSFULLY GOT THEM to the cafeteria in just a few minutes. Shane and Kara were relieved by how much closer it was then they realized. Upon arriving, a strong breeze met them. The air smelled foul. Natural light filled the area and not a window was intact. It was clear the cafeteria had sustained serious damage. Up towards the kitchens they could see walls blown out from the explosions. Scorched bodies covered the floor decaying in puddles of water.
The closer they wandered to the kitchen, the more obvious a gaseous odor became. Large amounts of gas continued to fill the air from the damaged stoves. The building’s support beams couldn’t take much more. The entire floor could explode again at any moment, surely collapsing the entire building. Shane looked to Kara with eyes widened in fear, “we need to leave this building now!” As they moved towards the escalators that would take them to floor level, zombies wandered into the cafeteria drawn by Shane’s yell. Shane and Kara moved back to the kitchen. Cornered, they began to look for other exits.
The damage in the walls from the explosion had left a large hole in the walls of the kitchen that opened up to the outside. About ten feet across and four feet below the hole was the large flat roof of another building. “Kara, we have to go through there! We might be able to make it to the other roof,” Shane interjected as he pointed towards the gaping hole. Kara looked at him with disbelief. The Zombies, having now spotted them, began running directly at them with furious speed. As Kara watched them close the gap she caved, “Okay, go! Go!”
Shane began sprinting as fast as he could towards the hole. He limped and blasted through the pain in his legs, and prayed they wouldn’t fail him. Kara followed closely behind. James, watching this, quickly assessed what they were doing. He looked at the zombies and could tell they were going to catch Shane and Kara before they could leap.
James let out as loud and harsh a yell as he could muster. In James’ yell was all the pain, sadness and hope left in his soul. Shane and Kara looked quickly behind and could see what he was doing. He had successfully drawn the zombies' attention. James began running quickly towards the hole.
Shane continued his run towards the hole and jumped. Shane scaled the distance and landed on his right leg first. Immediately, his foot folded – severely spraining his ankle. Kara lept shortly after, scaled the distance, and broke a lot of the fall with her right arm – injuring her wrist and hand. They both rolled a few times to a stop – sustaining large gashes from the gravel. They quickly turned and watched as James ran towards the opening after them.
James’ ran furiously. His foot smashed into a bit of rubble on the floor and he tripped rolling forward. He tried to get up, but was met by a zombie flying directly at him. The first zombie smashed into James back and then tumbled beyond him. The second zombie smashed so hard into James’ stomach that it broke the zombie's neck. As James gasped for breath, several more zombies crashed into him – covering him. Several more zombie’s piled on and began eating him alive.
Kara looked away, and Shane cried out desperately, “No!” as he watched the boy’s demise in horror.
The portion of damaged floor Shane and Kara had leapt off of collapsed and caved into the one below. In spite of the floors being soaked – dust wafted from the destruction. The building remained standing, but would not last much longer.
ADAM, BRAD, CHELSEA AND the girls waited in the room Kara and Shane had vacated not even ten minutes earlier. As Brad and Adam barricaded the door, they felt a large rumble beneath them. Dust drifted up past the window as everyone got down on the floor. The rumbling subsided after a few seconds. “We can’t stay here long,” Brad said aloud to Adam and Chelsea.
Shane and Kara not being there had left all of them distraught; horrible doubts began to fill their minds. Chelsea laid her exhausted girls to rest in a storage bin filled with damp stuffed animal squids. The girls laid there with their mother hovering over them. Chelsea looked over their small bodies as she brushed their hair out of their faces. The girls were past exhaustion. Chelsea’s stomach burned with hunger – she couldn’t even imagine how fatigued her daughters were.
Without saying a word, they all knew if they left the IKEA building, there would be no way Shana and Kara could find them. So they bided their time as long as they could justify.
Jennie opened her eyes slightly and looked at her mother – she lethargically vocalized, “Nai Nai and papa probably went to go get food. They’re probably fine.” Jennie’s raspy and tired voice drew the attention of Adam and Brad as well. Elise quickly pouted to her sister, “no we can’t leave, they won’t be able to find us. We have to stay here.”
Brad refused to look at Adam as tears streamed down his cheeks. Adam felt a heavy weight settle on his soul. It hadn’t even occurred to him that his parents may have needed his protection. Before he could despair, Brad looked at Adam and Chelsea, wiped the tears from his face and said resolutely, “They’re alive. They went to go get food.” Adam and Chelsea could see Brad was asking them to get on the same page. They all let themselves believe Shane and Kara were alive – even though the three of them knew how unlikely that was. They couldn’t afford to believe anything else.
“Adam, let’s go check the building for mom and dad,” Brad said, desperate to make a decision. Before Adam could respond to Brad, Chelsea interjected, “No! We’re staying together.” Brad agreed, seeing the desperation in Chelsea’s plea. “Okay. We’ll go together.”
OPENING THE DOOR, THEY quickly assessed the empty floor. On the opposite wall Adam quietly gestured to a sign that pointed to the cafeteria on the floor below. Brad nodded and they continued forward. When they reached the escalator — dust, the stench of rotting flesh, and the strong scent of gas filled the air. The dust cleared momentarily and Brad could see hundreds of zombies congregated below. One of the girls coughed from the dust. Brad and Adam quickly shifted everyone back again behind a corner, wary that the sound of the cough had possibly drawn the zombie’s attention.
Retreating back 20 feet or so, the group huddled into a kitchen display under the light of a large window. Adam looked outside. To his great astonishment he saw what looked like Shane limping on the roof of a building about 15 feet below them. Adam couldn’t tell if it was him or not for sure, because he didn’t have his glasses on. He got Brad’s attention.
Brad looked outside and Adam could tell from the look on his face – it was dad. Kara was further off in the distance. The two were assembling rubble on the roof – forming in large letters the signal, “R4E.”
Brad gasped in relief, and somewhat stifled an excited, “it’s them!” The girls all excitedly turned around and looked at Shane and Kara through the window. Jennie instinctively cried out loudly, “Nai Nai!” and banged once on the glass to try and get their attention before she was swept into Brad’s arms and silenced. The group sat there stunned for a moment. Just as they thought they were in the clear – a zombie turned the corner from the escalator. The girls began to tremble in fear.
Brad thought of the emergency exit and looked off in that direction. Adam, seeing this, nodded and went ahead quietly, undetected by the zombie. To Adam’s shock, when he opened the door to the dark stairwell, he could see zombies now filling the area. He quietly closed the door again, looked back at Brad, and shook his head ‘no.’
Brad in desperation searched for a way out. He looked at a mattress that was not too far away. Brad got an idea. Adam with his eyes fixed on his brother saw him look at the mattress and then the window. Adam met Brad’s eyes and looked at him with disbelief. Adam, shaking his head, in a resolve to make it work, grabbed a knife from a kitchen display and rapped it softly on the sink faucet before ducking away behind some more furniture. With small noises he managed to drag the zombie away from Brad and his family. Brad quietly dragged the mattress off the bed frame and towards the window. Close by was a fire extinguisher – Brad took it off the wall and waited for Adam’s signal.
He watched as Adam snuck up behind the distracted zombie, stealthily grabbed it from behind, and lodged the knife into its throat. He stabbed it multiple times and aggressively thrashed the creature till it stopped moving. Adam looked up at Brad covered in the zombie’s blood. Both of them were stunned that his attack had gone as well as it did. Adam saw the extinguisher in Brad’s hand and gave him a thumbs up.
Brad reared back and smashed the extinguisher into the glass window as hard as he could. The extinguisher bounced off and the glass didn’t crack. They all watched as shortly after, two more zombies crept around the corner drawn by the noise.
THE BANG ON THE window had drawn Shane and Kara’s attention. The two rushed over to the portion of the ceiling below and across from the window where their children and grandchildren were.
Adam quietly went over again to Brad’s family. Brad explained it wasn’t going to work. Adam looked at the fire extinguisher and the wedding ring on Chelsea’s finger. He whispered to Brad, “I have an idea, but I need you to buy us some time.” Brad looked at Adam helpless, but he knew there wasn’t time to ask questions.
In a fit Brad took the knife from Adam, and while softly uttering a meaningful, “shit” under his breath, walked towards the zombies to repeat Adam’s strategy. He began successfully drawing the zombies to the other side of the floor.
Adam looked at Chelsea and trepidatiously asked for her wedding ring and a piece of gum. She looked at him confused, and begged, “what?!” Adam in an effort to comfort her said, “Trust me, I saw this in a show.” He could see that didn’t help. Chelsea shook her head but then removed the ring and pulled out a piece of gum from her backpack. Adam began chewing the gum and placed the ring on the floor in front of him. He held the extinguisher above his head and looked over at Brad.
Brad had separated the two zombies. He watched as Brad grabbed the first zombie and began to kill it. Simultaneously, Adam smashed the extinguisher down onto Chelsea’s ring. The diamond popped out of the prongs of its setting and flew across the floor out of Adam’s sight. Adam was pained and began searching desperately for it. The girls had been watching and began searching the floor with him.
Brad finished killing the first zombie, but the smash of the extinguisher on the floor sent the other zombie running towards Adam and the girls. Jennie found the diamond and got Adam’s attention. Adam took the diamond from her hand, placed the gum from his mouth in the center of the window, pressed the diamond into the gum, and reared back the extinguisher.
Brad seeing the zombie charging directly at Jennie intercepted it with a swing of a chair to its legs. The zombie with broken legs flew forward and sprawled on the floor about five feet away from Jennie. Brad ran up to the still crawling zombie and smashed its head in with the chair.
Adam reared back and smashed the extinguisher into the diamond – the large glass window shattered into pieces.
Brad, without skipping a beat, cleared the glass from the rest of the window. The two brothers grabbed the mattress. Shane and Kara looked reassuringly and signaled they were ready to catch the girls.
The sound of the crashing glass attracted many more zombies. Adam and Brad threw the mattress out the window across the gap. It hit the side of the building and was about to slide off when Shane leapt and pinned the mattress with his body. Shane and Kara pulled the mattress up the rest of the way.
Adam, seeing many more zombies enter the floor – grabbed a large table, flipped it on its side, and slid it across the floor towards them. He began piling couches and tables to form a barricade, and shouted to the group behind him to “hurry!”
Brad turned to Chelsea and told her to “jump!” Chelsea hesitated in fear for a moment. “Now!” Brad shouted loudly. With Violet in her arms, she jumped across and down onto the mattress. Brad grabbed the protesting and flailing Elise and threw her across the gap towards chelsea. Chelsea handed Violet to Kara just in time to be able to catch Elise.
Adam watched as the other zombies from the emergency exit began to pile through the door, attracted by the screeches of the other zombies. Brad threw Jennie, and looked back at Adam as he began to fight off the zombies that had begun to clamor over the top of the barricaded furniture.
Just before jumping himself, Brad shouted, “Adam now!’
Adam ran in a full sprint just beyond the reach of the flailing zombies and scaled the distance. A few zombies leapt over after him. Adam upon landing on the mattress quickly got off and together Brad, Adam and Shane slid the mattress off the roof with a few zombies on it. They backed away as a few more zombies flew across the gap and smashed onto the concrete ceiling. More zombies followed after to flood the ceiling. With broken legs and arms the zombies continued to crawl towards the family.
SUDDENLY THE KITCHEN ERUPTED in a final explosion. The floor above the kitchens caved-in and the whole building began to rumble down. Massive amounts of dust filled the air like volcanic ash, as tons of concrete, metal and glass fell catastrophically to the floor. The Richards family huddled together on the other side of the building roof.
When the fallen IKEA building settled and the horrible loud crashing subsided, the girls sobbing rang through the air. Adam and Brad got up and in the smog fought off the few zombies that had followed Adam across the gap before the building fell. They persisted towards the family in spite of their broken limbs. Brad and Adam watched for the creature’s glowing eyes piercing through the gray cast, and charged at them with the rebar that lay strewn across the top of the roof.
Adam and Brad finished fighting the last of the zombies and threw their bodies over the side. They slumped down next to the family and sat there until the dust settled within the hour. They let their reunion sink in and held each other close. They couldn’t believe they had all survived.
AS THE SUN BEGAN to set, Adam and Brad opened the ceiling access door to go get food. The door led to a staircase. Luckily, a palette full of food had been stored at the bottom of the first set of stairs. Adam and Brad passed the food out to the rest as quickly as possible. Screeching could be heard throughout the stairwell. When they had emptied the palette, they closed the door. The two brothers slid a considerable amount of ruble up against the door to prevent it from being opened.
Everyone ate and the little girls were put to sleep by Brad, Chelsea and Kara. Adam, using some of the plastic wrap from the palette – wrapped his dad’s injured foot. Shane’s foot and ankle had swollen dramatically.
As the second night of the outbreak fell, very little light flickered on in the various buildings and streets. The lights that did flicker on were steadily destroyed and attacked by the zombies. The city now dwelt in great darkness like a large sleeping behemoth.
The adults watched in awe as The Grand Hotel began to catch flame amidst the darkness. Like moths drawn to light, it felt impossible not to look. They watched the disaster until the whole building fell to the ground. Watching the fire for that long, Brad also observed that some of the metros were still running off in the distance.
Brad turned to the others and softly said, “we can’t stay in the city.” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. “I feel like our best chance now is out in the country where there’s less people. And no offense dad, but we can’t really just walk out of here anymore.” Gesturing to dad’s foot and the girls.
Adam knew what his dad would suggest at this point, and before he could say a word he put up his hand to stop him, “not an option dad. No one is getting left behind. Is that understood?” Everyone nodded as Adam took a beat to look everyone in the eyes and get confirmation from each person. “I would rather die than leave any of you to fend for yourself.” Brad looked respectfully at Adam as if to say, ‘may I continue.’ Adam nodded.
Brad continued, “the only way we’re getting out of here is on a train.” Everyone gathered closer as Brad pulled out the screenshotted map on his phone. Brad pointed to a dot on the map close to where they were that read, ‘Jiantan station – Red Line.’ “I don’t know how much longer it will be working – but it’s our only hope.”
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