Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 2): Substation (The Last Stand of Gary Sykes) by Philip A. McClimon Page A

child.
    “Gary, I…”  Her words trailed off, a silent plea to be released from this burden.
    “It’s okay, you need to be with your family.  I got this. You need to get home,” Gary said. 
    For Beverly it was all her conscience needed to allow her to go.
    As she turned, a thought occurred to Gary.  “Your car is in employee parking, right?” Gary said.
    Beverly stopped and nodded.  Gary went over to the far wall where several sets of keys were hanging.
    “Don’t take your car, it’s too far away.  Take one of the repair trucks.  They’re closer and heavier.  Keep the windows wound up tight and plow through anything that tries to hitch a ride,” he said.  Coming back over to her, he handed her the keys to truck number three.
    “There’s a button in the truck that opens the automatic gate,” Gary said.
    Beverly nodded, then reached out and pulled Gary into a big hug.  Tears filled her eyes.  She pulled away, then ran for the door and was gone.
    Gary sighed.  Mack and Reggie weren’t coming back and he knew it.  Homeland was not going to secure the facility and he knew that too.  He told Beverly that he had this, but the one thing he didn’t know was how to make those words a reality all by himself.

Six
    As Beverly left the control room, she let the door close behind her.  She knew Gary had wanted her to take one of the trucks, but how would she explain that when the authorities came looking.  Gary was a good guy and she genuinely liked him as a person and so overlooked his eccentricities that others used as a source of personal amusement and ridicule.  Sure some shit had hit the fan, but the end of the world?  Gary had been playing too many of his games and it had allowed him to work his post-apocalyptic dream-scape into a fervor.  Beverly opened her purse and dropped the truck keys in, then retrieved her own.  Instead of taking a right out of the control room, which would have led her to the exit and the trucks, she hung a left and headed toward the front of the building and the parking lot.  She pulled the exit door open and stepped out into the night. 
    It was clear and mostly quiet, save for the sound of sirens from emergency vehicles off in the distance.  She walked across the gravel yard and headed to the parking lot at a brisk pace with her head down.  The night had been crazy enough, and even though she didn’t think it was a bad as Gary made out, she didn’t need to freak herself out anymore by seeing things in the shadows.  She would get to her car and lock the doors and not stop until she pulled into her garage. 
    As she approached the curb that formed the boundary between the plant and parking lot, she fumbled with her keys, looking for the ignition.  Finding it, she looked up and froze.  Her car keys dropped to the ground and her jaw threatened to follow.  In front of her, in a loose grouping that spread the whole width of the parking lot, a large horde of Undead shuffled by.  She kept perfectly still as they passed, not seeming to notice her.  Beverly held her breath and stifled a scream that wanted to blow from her chest.  Realizing she had dropped her keys, she cast her eyes down without moving her head, but could not see them.  Slowly, she bent her knees and lowered herself to the ground, keeping her eyes straight ahead on the zombies that looked like they were running the slowest marathon in history.  Her breath came out in short gasps as her hand shot around on the ground trying to find her keys.  So concerned was she about finding them, she failed to notice her purse sliding down her arm.  It slipped off her shoulder and hit the asphalt with a thud.  The open purse fell over, the momentum spilling out her cell phone which shot across the pavement out into the parking lot.  The noise caught the attention of several Shufflers, many which bore the wounds of their initiation.  Damaged bodies with torn flesh hanging off faces and torsos stopped and