Blood Alley Read Online Free Page B

room.
    Pawlowski spun around to see what he tripped over and saw the body of one of the militia guards sprawled across the floor in front of the door. He screamed and crab walked backwards until his back hit the wall next to the toilet. He pointed his gun into the darkened corners of the room, eyes searching for one of the Infected before it could attack him.
    Convinced he was alone in the room, Pawlowski grabbed the dropped flashlight from the floor and pointed the beam at the corpse by the door. He slowly crawled back across the room to inspect the body, his one hand not holding the light came away sticky from the congealed blood spread across the floor.
    The body was a mess. He could not tell who the guard had been. His face was completely gone, chewed off, and a large hole existed where his stomach should have been. Bile rose in Pawlowski’s throat and he turned around away from the body and threw up on the floor.
    When he had gathered himself, he turned towards the body and placed his gun to the corpse’s temple and pulled the trigger. The sound of the gun shot echoed throughout the quarantine building. One guard accounted for, where was the other?
    Pawlowski stood back up and walked out into the hall. He raised his gun and opened the door at the end of the hallway that led into the guard’s area.
    The zombie stumbled out of the room, arms outstretched, teeth barred as it tried to pull Pawlowski into its embrace. He pulled the trigger on his gun three times as he stepped backwards. The first shot ricocheted off the wall beside the creature’s head, the second caught the zombie in the right shoulder and spun the creature around, the third, hit the zombie in the side of the head and dropped the creature to the ground.
    Pawlowski’s shoulders dropped as he realized the creature had been Dwight Simmons a longtime friend of his and militia buddy. Both guards were now accounted for.
    “Hello,” a voice cried out from behind the closed door, opposite the door that was open. “Is someone out there? Dear God! Please help me.”
    Pawlowski slid open the port on the door and shined his light into the opening. A clear set of blue eyes greeted the beam of light.
    “Let me out of here,” the voice pleaded through the opening.
    “You’re going to need to stay in there a little longer until we can sort this out,” replied Pawlowski.
    “Let me out of here, man!”
    “No, I can’t. Not now. Someone will be back shortly to help” Pawlowski said as he slid the port closed again and walked back to the front of the quarantine building.
    When he got to the front of the building he continued out into the daylight, and gasped for fresh air. His immediate first thought was to go back and find Captain Walters and let him know about the zombies in Quarantine until he realized he still did not know what happened.
    Pawlowski took his time as he reloaded his gun and then walked back into the building. He stopped by the desk at the front and grabbed the cell assignment list. Cells one, two, and four through six were empty. Three, four, seven and eight each had one detainee. He checked the name on cell eight and found it matched the name of the guy he had brought in three days earlier. How he had gotten the guards to open the door would probably never be found out.
    Pawlowski walked back down the hall and opened the viewing portal on door number three, the zombie appeared in the open space before the port was halfway open. He shoved his revolver into the open slot and pushed the barrel into the creature’s face. He pulled the trigger and watched as the zombie disappeared from his view. He stepped over to door number four and repeated the process. Once the Infected were taken care of, he then searched rest of the building for anything he might have missed.
    When Pawlowski was satisfied rest of the building was secure, he walked back to Simmons body and retrieved the keys to quarantine. He then walked out of the building, locked the doors