to Park. He nodded, his rifle ready.

  "Okay," she said. "Everyone be careful. We're going to check it

  out."

  She pulled on the door and it opened easily. Slowly, carefully,

  Angie stepped inside. Park followed. Angie stepped farther inside,

  hearing the others file in behind her.

  "Hello?" she said.

  Nothing.

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  Then she heard it. Sounds from the kitchen, low and insistent.

  Something like muttering. Or maybe moaning.

  And chewing. It was faint, but Angie had no doubt. She heard

  chewing.

  "Fuck," she said, low and sighing.

  Park cocked the rifle next to her. "Too bad they're where the

  food is."

  Angie nodded. She turned to the others. She spoke low, not

  wanting to alert the creatures in the other room. "Everyone be quiet and

  go slow. If we surprise them, we should be able to overpower them

  easily."

  She slung the rifle off her shoulder and crept forward. Park and

  the others followed. The sounds of chewing grew louder as they

  approached the kitchen. Teeth tore and jaws gnashed.

  Angie reached the doorway to the kitchen and paused. She

  looked back to make sure everyone was ready. Park and others nodded.

  Angie nodded back and rounded the corner.

  A group of people sat on the floor. In the dim light from an

  overhead bulb, Angie saw a mass of bloody meat between them. They

  greedily shoved the meat into their mouths, pulled off hunks and

  chewed.

  "Go!" said Angie, leveling her rifle at the nearest one. Park

  stepped in and aimed. The others came around the corner, weapons

  ready.

  The people on the floor looked up, blinking. The one nearest to

  Angie dropped his meat. His eyes grew wide. He understood what was

  happening.

  "Wait!" she yelled. Park lowered his rifle, frowning.

  "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" said one of the people on the floor.

  He dropped the raw meat he was chewing and stood. "We aren't dead!"

  Angie frowned, looking around. She saw wax paper and

  masking tape, stained red with blood, wadded on the floor next to the

  pile of meat. She realized.

  She put her hand to her mouth.

  Park snorted, slinging his rifle back over his shoulder.

  "I know its disgusting," said the man standing. The others also

  dropped their meat and stood. "But it's all that's left. They took

  everything else. They smashed the stoves and ovens. Nothing works.

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  Its all gone."

  "Who took everything else?" said Angie.

  "The Keepers," said a young red-headed woman. She stood,

  wiping blood from her mouth. "I saw it."

  The people behind Angie grew restless. She heard them shifting

  position and muttering. They realized there was no food here.

  The young red-headed woman stepped over to Angie. "The

  Keepers came out of the Bites a few hours ago. They offered food to

  everyone who would join them. They killed everyone who refused."

  "Except you," said Park. Angie heard mutters of distrust from

  the people behind her.

  The young woman nodded. "I hid. I saw it happen. About half

  an hour after that, they brought out wheelbarrows full of food. Cans,

  boxes, everything. They left. I was too scared to follow."

  Angie sighed and rubbed her temples. "Any idea where they

  were going?"

  The young red-headed woman shook her head. "No."

  "Where's the food?" yelled someone in the crowd behind

  Angie.

  "Unless you all would like some frozen raw meat," said Park,

  "there isn't any."

  Angry mutters spread through the crowd.

  "Everyone stay calm," said Angie. "The Keepers have probably

  gone to where Gregory is. They took all the nonperishables. They

  probably intend to regroup at the backup station with him. There's no

  kitchen there, so they couldn't take the meat."

  "How the fuck does that help us now?" yelled someone else in

  the crowd. Others muttered their agreement.

  "This is a minor setback," said Angie, ignoring the angry

  muttering that followed. "We know where they're going. It's where we

  were going after this anyway. We're just making one trip now instead

  of two. If we can just wait a little longer..."

  The crowd grew angrier. They yelled back at Angie, too many

  voices to pick out any one statement.

  The light flickered in the kitchen. Everyone stopped, staring at

  the bulb overhead.

  "How long until the power goes off completely?" said Park.

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  "Who knows," said Angie. "I'm sure the only reason its stayed

  on this long is that the stations are automated."

  She looked back at the crowd. They had calmed, but not much.

  She cleared her throat. "Everyone listen to me. We have to stick

  together here. We have to..."

  Loud groans came from outside.

  "Shit," said Park, turning toward the big room. The people

  crowding the doorway backed up. Angie pushed past Park and them,

  into the big room to look outside.

  A large mob of corpses were stumbling toward the doors.

  "All the yelling must have caught their attention," said Park,

  readying his rifle.

  "Are there any other doors out of here?" yelled Angie.

  "Yes!" said someone behind her. "There's a service door that

  leads out from the kitchen!"

  "Everyone move!" yelled Angie, pushing back past the crowd

  of people. She saw fear on their faces. She wondered how many of

  them had fought corpses before. She guessed not many. She understood

  why so many of them focused their aggression on the Keepers. The

  Keepers were alive. People knew how to handle living people. These

  things were something new and awful.

  Angie looked side to side for a few seconds. She found a metal

  door at the back wall of the kitchen. She moved toward it. Park and the

  crowd followed behind her. The others, the ones who'd been eating the

  raw meat, joined the larger group.

  Angie reached the door and grabbed the large metal handle. She

  tugged and the door swung open.

  Outside, in the rain, stood two zebras. They were pacing

  angrily, huffing and snorting at nothing.

  Then they saw Angie.

  "Hey guys," she said, backing back into the kitchen. "Any

  chance on us getting past?"

  The zebras snorted and rushed at the doorway. Angie slammed

  the door and held it shut as the zebras rammed into it. The force of the

  impact shook the door and Angie's frame.

  "Yeah," she said, as Park stepped up to help her. "That's what I

  thought."

  Angie and Park pushed against the door as it shuddered a

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  second time. "We gotta lock this thing," she said, grunting with effort.

  She heard the closest members of the group rush up behind her. She

  heard a flurry of activity.

  "Here!" said someone, handing Angie a large, long padlock.

  The door shuddered a third time as Angie scanned the handle,

  looking for where the padlock could conceivably go. She found a round

  hole in the handle and slid the padlock through it. She clicked it into

  place and stepped back. Park stepped back too. The door shuddered and

  held.

  The groans became louder. Angie ran back to the big room. The

  corpses were close to the front doors. Angie ran to the doors and locked

  them. The corpses groaned as they reached the glass and pawed at it.

  Park stepped up next to her, peering out at the corpses. "What

  do you think? Let them in and beat the hell out of them?"

  Angie considered it, frowning at the corpses and back at the

  armed group she'd assembled. "I don't know. We would have the

  corpses in a bottleneck, but I'm afraid of trapping these people in here

  with them. If something goes wrong, there's no way out."

  "What have you done?" yelled someone in the crowd. "You've

  trapped us all in here!"

  Angie ignored them, scanning the room for something she

  could use. She found a velvet rope threaded through several pedestals

  standing in the corner. Angie recognized it as the rope the restaurant

  would set up to organize long lines. She looked up at the large skylight

  in the center of the room. Gray sky showed behind the rain-pelted

  glass.

  She looked back at the doors. Corpses were piling up against it,

  slapping on the glass. The glass was already cracked. She looked at

  Park, then pointed at a large table in the middle of the room. "Okay,

  Park, you and some others move that table under the skylight."

  She ran over to unthread the rope from the pedestals. She heard

  Park and a few others moving the table.

  When the rope was free she ran back to the table. She looked

  quickly up and down, gauging the distance from the table to the

  skylight. Rain pounded down. The corpses outside beat on the doors.

  Cracks spread along the glass.

  Angie climbed onto the table. Park nodded to himself and did

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  the same.

  "You get where I'm going with this?" said Angie, dropping the

  rope on the table and unshouldering her rifle.

  "Believe I do," said Park.

  Angie turned her rifle around so that the butt faced upward. She

  rammed it against the skylight. The glass cracked. Rain began to seep

  through. Park rammed it and the cracks spread. Angie grunted and

  rammed upward a third time, slamming the butt of her rifle into the

  skylight.

  It shattered, spilling glass to the table and onto the floor below.

  People jumped out of the way. Rain poured through the opening,

  slamming down onto the table and soaking Angie and Park in seconds.

  Angie did her best to ignore the rain. She reshouldered her rifle

  and stooped down to grab the rope.

  "I got this," said Park, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. He

  hopped up from the table, catching the edge of the skylight. He hung

  there for a moment, rocking to build momentum, then pulled himself up

  and outside, onto the roof.

  Angie straightened, holding the rope. Park got down on his

  knees, leaning back into the room. Rain poured down, pounding onto

  the table. The corpses clawed at the doors. Cracks spread, growing loud

  enough to be heard over the rain.

  Park reached down, toward Angie. "Here."

  Angie handed him one end of the rope. Park stood, pulling the

  rope up with him. Angie tied a quick loop in the other end.

  "Everybody, up and out!" she yelled.

  People started rushing toward the table. One by one, they

  climbed on and grabbed hold of the loop in the rope. Park pulled them

  up, then tossed the loop end of the rope back onto the table. Several

  people slipped in the rain soaking the table. Angie kept her eyes on the

  doors. The cracks spread as the corpses banged on them. She took her

  rifle from her shoulder and waited, ready if time ran out. Several people

  gathered behind her, brandishing their shovels and tools.

  After another minute of scrambling and climbing, just a handful

  were left down in the Bites. A corpse outside slammed its dead fist on

  the door. The glass gave, a chunk of it falling to the floor. The corpse

  started pawing at the hole, oblivious to how the edges ripped at its skin.

  "Go go go!" yelled Angie to those gathered behind her. They

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  rushed over and climbed onto the table. One by one, as quickly as they

  could manage, they grabbed hold of the rope and Park and the others

  above hoisted them up and out. Angie kept her eyes on the doors.

  Another corpse slammed into the glass. The cracks spread and

  the glass shattered inward. The frontmost corpses, tearing themselves to

  shreds in the process, pushed inside, groaning and gnashing their teeth.

  Angie cocked her rifle and carefully fired. A dart embedded in the

  forehead of the closest one, a young man with organs spilling from

  large wounds in his torso. The man jerked and fell. Angie shouldered

  the rifle and ran to the table.

  She climbed up as the corpses drew nearer. Rain pounded on

  her face and shoulders. She sputtered and looked around for the rope.

  The corpses were close. She could hear them. She found the rope and

  grabbed hold with both hands. "Pull!" she yelled.

  Park did, wrenching her up as hands closed on her legs. She

  kicked downward, feeling her foot connect with skull. Something

  groaned, gurgling in the rain, and let go. Angie was pulled up and onto

  the roof.

  Angie rolled onto the roof and stood, dropping her end of the

  rope. Rain pounded down everywhere as she looked around. The group

  she'd assembled stood huddled together, looking nervous. Below,

  Angie saw the corpses stumbling around the Bites. Those directly under

  the skylight looked upward, reaching and grasping at the falling rain.

  They blinked their dead eyes as water pooled in their rotting skin.

  Angie looked back to those on the roof. They all looked back

  expectantly. Park looked like he wondered what she had in mind next.

  "Okay," she started. "Everyone just give me a second and..."

  A woman at the back screamed as two dark shapes swooped

  down from the gray sky. Screeching sounds echoed around through the

  rain.

  "The fuck?" yelled Park. People stumbled around in panic. One

  fell, screaming, from the roof.

  Angie ran, pushing her way through the crowd, to the source of

  the panic. A young woman lay bloody and dead. Rain pattered on her

  bloody skin, streaking red across the roof.

  "What the hell happened?" Angie yelled.

  Screeching came from above. Angie looked up and saw the two

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  dark shapes circling, preparing to dive again. She squinted into the rain.

  Two hawks, now freed from their exhibit, sped toward her and the

  others.

  "Get out of the way!" yelled Angie, ducking aside and pulling

  those closest with her. The hawks dove into the crowd, screeching and

  clawing. People stumbled to each side, desperate to get away. Several

  fell. Angie heard them scream and thump onto the pavement below.

  She heard bones snapping and people screaming.

  Angie pulled her rifle from her shoulder and leveled it at the

  closest of the two birds. She fired. The dart just missed, grazing the

  hawk and knocking it off course. The hawk screeched in fury as both

  birds raced forward along the roof. They clawed at everyone who stood

  close. Angie cocked and fired again. The dart thudded into the

  underside of one of the birds, sending it into a long spiral. The bird

  spun away from the roof and collided with a nearby tree. The remaining

  bird barreled on ahead, clawing and screeching.

  "No no no!" yelled a young man, backing away from the hawk

  as it raced toward him.

  "Look out!" yelled Park from behind him but was too late. The

  young man stepped backward over the edge of the skylight. He fell

  screaming, into the Bites.

  Angie rushed to the edge, kneeling so fast she almost slipped

  over the side. She picked up the rope and was prepared to toss it down

  to the man. She was too late. Corpses had him. The man screamed from

  the table. He lay flat on his back, arms and legs held down by corpses.

  They bent over his torso, biting and tearing. He screamed, blood

  pouring from his mouth and bubbling in the falling rain. The corpses

  pulled hunks of meat and organs from his twitching body. Angie

  dropped the rope and held out her arms to stop those who were rushing

  up behind her. She shook her head silently and looked up at Park.

  Park's back was to her. He had his rifle pointed to the sky,

  moving slowly to follow the path of the remaining hawk. The hawk

  screeched as it turned, coming back around for another attack.

  People started backing away as the hawk drew near. Park didn't

  move. He kept the rifle trained on the hawk.

  "Park," said Angie from her kneeling position. She slowly

  stood, moving to grab him and pull him aside.

  "Not yet," said Park.

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  The hawk drew closer, screeching and clawing.

  "Now," said Park, and fired.

  The dart thudded into the hawk's chest. Park stepped aside as

  the hawk plummeted past him, spinning round and round. It crashed to