Yet it appeared to be working. He could see the twin predators following the glow stick and chasing along beside him out of the corner of his eye, Even as he looked, a third one joined the pursuit.

Deke shot across the entrance of the store and reached the doorway to the restaurant at a dead run. The sound of the monsters slapping and sliding against the glass as they pursued filled him with both hope and dread. They were taking the bait, but the inevitable outcome had only been forestalled by a few seconds. When he turned to run away from the glass, they would be coming through the windows after him. In his current shape he might, or might not, be able to outrun them to the kitchen.

But if he was going to die, he could at least see to it that it happened with a firewall between the monsters and Stacey.

He slammed open the door to the restaurant, preparing to yell for the people in the kitchen to get ready to block the door. Instead he almost stumbled to a halt at the sight of Harley and Marisa staring at him with shock in the middle of the darkened diner.

What the hell? Weren't they supposed to be on the roof or something?

Realizing his split second of free time was up, he shouted a warning and ran towards them.

"Incoming!" he screamed, and an instant later the crash of the window shattering sounded behind him.

The roar of the storm filled the diner, and along with it he heard the scrabbling of the monsters as they poured into the breach after him.

The dead were now inside restaurant.

Chapter Nine: Resurgence.

Resurgence Rachel.

"Incoming!"

Rachel jerked her head up in the process of helping Grandpa Tom unbolt a small steel table from the adjoining grill. The aged trucker had figured out the table was just long enough that if they pushed it against the swinging door, it would wedge against the broken down old dishwasher and jam the door shut. She hoped he was right because it sounded like they were about to need to put his idea into practice.

Her heart seized up at the unmistakable sound of one of the large windows in the restaurant shattering. The glass had been breached, and the dead were now about to be inside with them! Somewhere in the diner Marisa shrieked and cursed all in one breath. She thought she made out Harley yelling something, but then another sound jerked her attention away.

"Doc!" Stacey's scream floated down the hall amid the sudden pounding on the employee door. "Let me IN! Hurry!"

Rachel stood up, torn in confusion. What was going on? What should she do? What the hell was Deke doing in the diner? Why was Stacey still in the store? The chaos was coming from the diner, but if Deke was in the diner didn't that mean Stacey was alone in the store? With only a split second to decide, and nothing else to go on, Rachel made her choice and dashed down the hallway towards the employee door.

"Tom!" she called over her shoulder. "Do whatever you can! I'll be right back!" She saw the old man rise from his work and pull the hunting knife he carried in the sheath at his back before refocusing on the door ahead.

Things would just have to hold together without her for a few seconds.

With the zombies all outside, they had unlocked the door between the store and diner earlier. It was a decision she had not been crazy about at the time, but had gone along with in the name of quick retreat in case somebody got cut off from the kitchen. But now, even if the zombies were currently in the diner, leaving one of them alone in the store with nothing but an unlocked swinging door between them and the horde was not her idea of an option.

She reached the metal door, where it literally vibrated from the pounding of the girl on the other side.

"I'm here, Stacey!"

She grasped the door handle, praying the girl didn't fall in on her with a bunch of death-headed horrors ripping her to pieces. On the other hand, sounds of crashing and struggle now came from the kitchen so things might not be any safer back here. Part of her wondered if she wasn't about to let the girl in just so she could die with the rest of them here in the back.

She pulled open the door, only to have the waitress almost knock her over on her way inside.

"Deke!" the girl screamed as she barreled past the vet and towards the kitchen. "The purse!"

It seemed Stacey was still hale and hearty.

"You're welcome!" Rachel shouted after her while shutting the door.

For a brief second she wondered if she were the only woman here who actually ran away from fights. At the same time, she knew there was strength in numbers and their odds of survival improved markedly with each of them that were willing to work or fight together. So the only real choice was to get back there and add two more hands to their side of the fray. If nothing else, she could help whoever was trying to hold the door shut.

Then she stopped in horror as she realized she wasn't going to get the choice. A knot of combatants slammed against the rear wall of the kitchen, and proceeded to roll along the wall in her direction. The fight was coming to her. And it was a nasty one.

The thing must have died in a fire.

It was charred and blackened from head to toe. And since a corpse like this would have required a closed coffin for the funeral, they hadn't bothered dressing the body. It really didn't matter. Only its height gave her reason to believe it might have once been male, since the monstrosity fighting with Harley and Deke looked more like a burnt scarecrow than anything else. Its teeth showed a startling white against the rest of the seared skull, but other than that it was almost impossible to make features out.

At the moment those teeth were also stained red because they had just closed over one of Harley's hands. He fought to free himself by slamming the thing against one side of the hall and then the other. Blood ran down the man's shoulder and back where the monster clawed with its free hand.

Deke hung on to its other arm with grim tenacity, using his weight to try and keep that hand out of the fight. He was bleeding again as well. His shoulder punctures had reopened, and a fresh line of blood ran down the side of his face from what must have been a head wound under his hair.

Rachel didn't know how much longer he was going to manage it since the monster was slamming him back and forth with the same ferocity Harley was unleashing on it. She could also just make out Stacey on the other side of the thrashing combatants. The veterinarian wondered if the little waitress had lost her mind because it looked like she was trying to find a way to get into the fight.

Harley grunted in pain as the monster bit down, and used his trapped hand to momentarily pin its head against the wall. He hurled three ferocious forearm smashes against its cranium, each one obviously intended to crush it's brainpan against the cinder bricks. But the blackened skull held and the monster slammed the man back against the opposite side of the hallway instead.

If it hadn't already had Harley's hand in its jaws, it could have bitten his face off at that very moment.

But now that its back was away from the wall, Rachel could also see the thing must have encountered Grandpa Tom at one point. The handle of the old man's knife protruded from its ribcage near the spine. The monster showed no sign the weapon bothered it in the least, which Rachel knew better than anybody else that it wouldn't. The vulnerable areas on this monster were small, and most were well protected.

Most of them.

"Deke, Harley, hang on..." she gasped, then stumbled as Deke was slammed into her.

Rachel managed to recover and move back in as the monster swung the boy the other way and into Stacey on the other side. The little waitress clutched him as if to add her own weight to the pull on the things arm, but at the same time seemed to be grabbing at something hanging from Deke's shoulder. The doctor ignored them and started to reach for the knife.

Unfortunately, her timing was off.

Harley now slammed the thing back across the hallway. Using his body to pin the monster's loose arm against the wall he used his free hand to try and pry the skull's jaws open. His face was red from the effort he was expending. This only lasted for a few seconds before the mass of bodies crashed back against the other wall again.

"Dammit, doc!" he gritted out. "How the hell is this bastard so strong!?"

Rachel ignored the question and tried to stay focused on her objective. A second later she saw her opportunity and darted forward to grab the handle of the old man's knife. Her hand closed on the weapon and she fought to pull it free. But that was when Harley managed to push the thing off of him again and up against the opposite wall.

Or it would have been up against the opposite wall if Rachel hadn't been trapped behind it.

"Oof! No!" She gagged, and struggled to get free. The smell of burnt flesh and formaldehyde filled her nose and caused her to retch. With the knife trapped against the wall with her, she decided she could at least help by using her other hand to try and snag the arm the monster was using to claw at Harley.

It was like grabbing a steel bar.

The power of the thing as it ripped the woman from behind it astonished her.

They've been feeding, and they're getting stronger, the clinical side of her brain observed with a detachment utterly unsuited to the current circumstance. These things are getting deadlier by the hour.

Then the matter at hand took up her full attention as the five of them now toppled over onto the floor in a thrashing heap.

For a moment, Rachel just concentrated on not getting squashed. This was pretty much impossible since the entire group had fallen in her direction. All of their clothes were now blackened from wrestling with the vile thing, and the situation kept getting worse by the second. People were tiring, but this monster wasn't.

At the same time, Rachel realized she now had the hunting knife free in her hand. She wasted no time into putting it to use. She might not be a fighter, but she was a surgeon...and by God she knew how to cut where it counted.

Bringing the knife up alongside the monster's head, she inserted the blade behind the masseter muscle and started to saw. It was tough work. The corpse continued to struggle, and the muscle seemed to be almost some flexible form of wood. But Rachel gritted her teeth and held on, pulling on the blade for all she was worth. She had dissected things before, but never had they put up such a fight.

Then the muscle parted and the knife suddenly came free.

Deke gave a gasp as the point of the blade jumped and cut his forehead, and Rachel remembered with embarrassment how the old man had warned of that very thing before cutting the other monster earlier. But at the same time, the monster's jaw unhinged and Harley managed to pull his hand free of its teeth.

Yet that was also when the horror lashed out again, this time throwing Deke and Stacey clear of it. Harley pushed back himself, getting his feet between himself and the creature and using them to shove it away from him and Rachel. Having all their combined weight off of her was a relief. At the same time, she realized they may have just made a terrible mistake.

The zombie lurched to its feet, now free of her and Harley and loomed over the four of them on the floor. Its jaw now hung at an odd angle from her impromptu surgery. But despite giving the monster an even more ghastly appearance, the damage hadn't made it any less dangerous. Especially not now.

With them lying all around it, it had its pick of targets...and it wasted no time in making a choice.

The charred abomination turned and faced in the direction of the younger two, and once again spread it's talons to attack. Rachel couldn't see the pair for Harley laying half on top of her. She screamed a warning, knowing it was useless, and watched in horror as the grisly creature lunged downward in their direction.

Then a thunderous bang blasted through the tiny area, almost deafening her.

Bits of skull and brain splattered across the ceiling, and the corpse stiffened and stood straight up. Rachel watched in shock as the horrid corpse teetered there for a second. Then, as if in slow motion, the thing fell backwards. Rachel and Harley just managed to role away from each other in time for the monster to land between them...with most of the back of its skull missing.

Rachel scrambled to her hands and knees and looked over to see Stacey lying on her back with a snub nosed pistol still pointed where the monster stood a few seconds earlier. The girl's eyes were wide and showing lots of whites, and her breathing came in short gasps.

"Is it dead?" Stacey panted. "Doc, is it dead? Make sure it's dead!"

All it took was a glance over at the cavity in the back of the thing's skull for Rachel to know this monster wouldn't be getting up again. What little brain it had to work with now clung to the ceiling in clumps. This particular cadaver had rejoined the dearly departed in a very final way.

"Oh, it's dead," she reported.

Rachel pulled herself over against the wall and leaned against it with a sigh. She glanced across at Harley who had done the same on the opposite side of the hall. Blood smeared on the wall behind him, and he held his hand protectively under his arm. She realized she would be playing doctor again shortly.

"Are you sure?"

A glance back over revealed the little waitress to still be holding up the gun. Deke was just starting the process of laying his hand on the girl's arm and trying to get her to lower the weapon. He looked as surprised by the firearm's appearance as the rest of them.

"I'm sure," Rachel soothed. "It won't be getting up again. So, tell me... where have you been hiding that little gem all evening?"

"Oh, this?" The girl refocused on the gun in her hand, then handed it over to Deke. "Deke found Gladys's purse in the store, and I just remembered that Gladys carried a gun in it. I've never shot a pistol before."

They all looked at the girl in astonishment.

"Well," Harley groaned as he started to struggle to his feet, "you sure made that first shot count. You blew this bastard's brains everywhere."

"Yeah," Stacey's pale face matched her shaky voice. "I sorta noticed that. Yay me...and now we're going to celebrate by Deke taking me to the little girl's room, because I'm about to be really, really sick."

That motivated them to move.

The three of them managed to get up and hustle the small waitress down the hall, before sending her and Deke into the darkened store beyond. Then, shutting the door again so no light would show into the store beyond and attract unwanted attention, they slumped once more against the walls. But only for a second...

"Que paso?"

They both looked over to see Marisa standing at the end of the hallway, regarding them with folded arms and a dour expression. Rachel realized with a guilty start she must have been dealing with the door, with nothing but a sick old man for help. She must have done a good job of it, because they were all still alive.

"Grandpa and I have the door blocked, so we're okay," Marisa answered her unasked question. "But there's about a dozen of them in the restaurant."

The girl walked over and prodded the dead monster with her bat.

"So, who's back here shooting up the place?"

Treating Harley was as distracting as it was a relief.

On the one hand, the man never made so much as a sound while she cleaned the long lacerations on his back. On the other, she couldn't help but notice the physique that went along with the handsome face and felt an uncharitable stab of resentment towards the two other women in the room. Being the odd woman out in this little group was beginning to bug her, and Rachel decided if she survived this it was time for her to get back out into the world.

The time for mourning was definitely over. When she found civilization again, she intended to hit the first dance floor that crossed her path.

On the other hand she couldn't help but chuckle inside at the way the taller waitress studiously ignored the process. Marisa was in the act of removing her raincoat from an excursion to the roof, and gave every sign of being absorbed in doing that and finding a place to put her wet umbrella. But to Rachel's experienced eye the girl may as well have been wearing a sign that read, "I am sooo not paying attention to the gorgeous hunk of man in the room."

"Okay, Harley." She refocused on the task at hand. "Let's pull that hand out so I can take a look at it."

He lifted his hand from where it had been soaking in a sink full of hot soapy water, and she took it and held it up to the light.

Fortunately, during the fight he had forced the hand deep into the monster's jaws where the molars had been doing most of the damage. Otherwise he would have most likely lost half his hand. As it was, a deep semi-circular bite mark stood out in bloody relief, and the last two fingers on his hand had swollen up like sausages.

"Can you feel this?" she asked as she gently pinched the end of each finger.

He nodded in affirmation, which relieved her. At least the nerve hadn't been severed. The bite was just in the right place to do that kind of damage.

"Okay," she instructed. "Now make a fist."

He complied, but she noticed he wasn't able to fully close the last two fingers. Which was exactly what she had feared. The hand would heal with time, but for now its use was limited.

"Harley," she spoke up and looked him firmly in the eye. "I'm going to get straight to the bad news. Your plan to climb that power cable is now out of the question."

Harley had filled them in on the plan while Marisa locked the doors between the diner and the store, before heading up to the roof. Rachel thought the overall scheme had been a little crazy in the first place, but admitted the idea of using Grandpa Tom's truck to get them all out of here had been inspired.

The man grimaced and tried to clench his fist tighter.

"Forget it," Rachel snapped. "I don't care how tough you are, your hand won't have the grip to support you. That bastard chewed it up good, and you're lucky the damn thing is still attached."

The tall redneck obviously didn't want to hear it, but she could tell he was too smart to argue with reality. Another experimental flex of his hand, and she could see the resignation in his face.

"Yeah," Harley sighed. "I suppose you're right."