Stuck in China for the Zombie Apocalypse

Zombies!!!

"Sensei, can you carry him?" I asked.

He nodded but I stopped him from moving just yet. I opened my bag and removed two pairs of socks. One pair was folded into a ball and the other – stretchy knee-highs – I pulled out and separated. I shoved the ball of socks (they were clean!) into his mouth and tied the other one like a gag to keep the socks in his mouth.

"What do you think you are doing?"

I restrained the urge to slap her again and made myself explain.

"I saw a woman get bit by one of those things and then she turned into one herself. His injury was caused by a scratch from one of them. I don't know if he'll turn into a zombie or not. I don't want my Sensei being bitten and zombified just because we're trying to help out."

Once again, she listened to reason and stopped complaining. We started our trek up what quickly felt like endless flights of stairs. When Sensei was too tired to go on, Mei Yin and I dragged him – one of us on either side. For someone who looked slender and scholarly, Xiao Dan was surprisingly heavy.

I don't know how long it took us to climb up to the penthouse. We had to stop several times to regain our strength and I was feeling feverish myself. I didn't tell anyone, though. Our first priority was finding a safe place. I was sure that there would be zombies in the stairwell sooner or later. When we finally reached the top, I was so grateful that I felt like crying.

"Wait," I stopped Mei Ying from opening the door. "Is there anyone in the penthouse now? Do you know?"

Her baffled look told me she didn't know.

"How do we open the door once we get there?" I asked next.

Mei Ying smiled broadly and fished a plastic card from her purse.

"This opens every door in the hotel," she told me proudly.

"Great." I knelt down and opened my backpack again. I pulled out my sword and seax, making Mei Ying's eyes open wide.

My sword had been carefully crafted by my middle brother. He was the community blacksmith but weapons were his hobby. He researched and worked for several years before he created my falchion and the smaller seax I used in my other hand.

"If there are zombies, these will come in handy."

"How did you get these on the plane?" Sensei Matthews demanded.

"I had it shipped in a sealed container," I told him with unhidden smugness. "Then I just slipped it into my backpack while you were looking for your duffel."

Sensei Matthews wasn't as impressed as I had hoped he would be but he stood up again with Xiao Dan over his shoulders in a firefighter's hold. I nodded to Mei Ying to open the door and stood at the ready with my weapons.

It was a bit anticlimactic when the door swung open to utter silence.

"Better safe than sorry," I told myself silently.

The penthouse suite was empty but the mess left behind made it obvious that the previous occupants had only recently left. While Sensei settled Xiao Dan on the fancy leather couch, Mei Ying looked for the medicine kit. I gathered several towels and put them under Xiao Dan's injured arm. Then I took my seax and began cutting away the black flesh while Sensei held Xiao Dan still. Even unconscious, it hurt him.

Mei Ying screamed at us again but we ignored her until all the black flesh had been removed and there was no trace of black in the blood flowing from his arm. Then I sprinkled a clotting powder from the kit Mei Ying had brought back onto the gash on his arm. After I was sure he was no longer bleeding, I wrapped his arm in gauze pads and gauze.

"Watch this," I ordered Mei Ying as I gathered the bloody towels and washcloths together. I went to the balcony and threw them over the side and pointed at the zombies below that went became frenzied and clustered in a group around the bloody cloth.

"They can definitely smell blood," I pointed out.

"But why did you mutilate his arm?"

"Didn't you see how black the wound was? Whatever it is that makes those zombies was in that black stuff. Now we need to watch him carefully. I suggest that you tie his hands and feet. If he turns into a zombie, we will have a chance to deal with him before he hurts us."

I removed the gag in his mouth while I spoke and drew a glass of water for Xiao Dan. I handed the water and two anti-pyretic pills to her with the instruction to feed it to him if he could still swallow.

"All we can do now is wait," I said at the end. I was completely spent and felt more feverish than ever.

"I can wait," Mei Ying replied in a snotty tone, "but you need to get out of here!"

"What?" I felt like my tired and feverish brain couldn't make sense of her words.

"You got hit by a piece of that green stuff – there's a mark on your forehead. And your face is flushed. You're about to turn into a zombie yourself!"

"You don't know that!" Sensei Matthews argued. "We can tie her up too."

"No! It's MY hotel and I say she leaves!"

Before Sensei Matthews could argue further, I walked out the door. I needed to find a place where I could wait out this fever and make sure I couldn't hurt anyone if I turned into a zombie.