Zombie Tales: Primrose Court Apt. 305 by Robert Decoteau Read Free Book Online

minutes had passed, I had caught
my breath and I noticed Colby wasn't breathing hard
anymore.
    “Hey, Colby?” I asked into the
silence.
    Mathew thumping the door a few more
times was the only response. He had moved back to bang his face
against my stall again. I could see the tips of his shoes from
where I sat.
    I briefly weighed the idea of lying
down on the floor and trying to slide under the alloy walls of the
stalls to the area by the urinals. If I was quiet, I might be able
to get out of the restroom without Mathew even knowing I was gone.
There was about a foot of empty space under the walls and I didn't
think I could manage it. I'm not a fat guy, but squeezing under
there would be tight. Plus, Colby had bled all over the floor in
his unit and I wasn't keen on the thought of squirming through that
puddle.
    I then pictured myself wedged under
that wall with Colby bleeding to death on the toilet above me when
help finally came. I could just picture the rest of the office
holding back their laughter as the fire department dismantled the
aluminum alloy wall pinning me to the tile floor.
    I figured since I had already been
climbing around the restroom like it was my own personal jungle
gym, I would make my way across the top of the stalls and then
lower myself down to the floor. I hoped this weirdo only had a
thing for Colby and if I just stayed out of it, I'd be all
right.
    I pulled myself back up on the wall,
taking a moment to look down at Colby. He was sprawled, back
against the chrome pipes behind the toilet. The thin hair on his
head was matted with sweat and his face was pale. His bloody arm
was rolled palm up and suspended between his knees. Streaks of
blood ran from the angry wound on his forearm down to his wrist
where it dripped into the large puddle at his feet. There was a lot
of blood.
    I felt like an idiot shifting around on
top of the stalls just inches from the ceiling. If someone had
walked in at that moment, I would have been hard pressed to explain
myself. Slowly, I crossed the stall Colby occupied, moving from our
adjoining wall across his door to the next wall over. I pushed the
door of the last stall shut so I could use it to cross to the last
wall, but also to keep Mathew Stubs out.
    As I got my knees on Colby's other wall
I felt his hands grip my right leg. I flipped my left leg over the
divider and yelled as my crotch was planted firmly on the one inch
wide partition. Slipping sideways, I lunged and caught the last
wall with my left hand, stopping my fall. I hung suspended above
the toilet, clinging to one wall and straddling the other. My
muscles strained, I wouldn't be able to hold myself up for much
longer.
    “What the fuck, Colby,” I shouted,
tugging at my leg, trying to break his grasp. I felt pressure on
the toe of my dress shoe, “let go you asshole.”
    The pressure increased as I curled my
toes up and yanked my leg out of his hands. I fell, a mass of
flailing arms and legs, landing hard on my back half on the toilet
in the cramped little space two stalls over from where I started. I
had the wind knocked out of me and could feel a giant Charlie horse
just under my left shoulder blade where I connected with the edge
of the U shaped seat of the porcelain toilet.
    “You are a fucking asshole,” I yelled
at Colby's shoes, not more than two feet away from my face as I
laid on the floor in his blood, “That wasn't funny, you
bastard.”
    Colby didn't say anything. I could see
from where I laid on the floor that Mathew was on the move again.
He was shifting toward my new stall using that old man gate of his.
I scrambled up to my knees and slid the lock into place just as he
reached the door.
    It took me several minutes to recover
most of my composure and some of my dignity as I twisted and
turned, trying to right myself in the close confines of the little
cubicle. I took a few moments to rest on the edge of the plastic
seat. I cupped my hand over my scrotum through my slacks, wondering
if