The woman’s name is Brandi, with an I. That’s how she says it, even though Rich didn’t ask. She races beside him like a track runner, easily matching his longer strides, keeping close to him in the darkness. They outpace their followers, and though Rich knows other zombies see them along the way back to the lab, none manage to trail them for very long. By the time they reach the Infectious Disease Center, they’re alone.
He leads her around the back of the building to a service entrance. When the outbreak started, he barricaded the front glass doors with plywood and disconnected the keypad to prevent anyone from entering the building except him. The only way in—or out—was through this side door, with the key he kept on a piece of string tied around his neck. Now he bends down to use the ke
