That guy at the armory desk was still barking at him, and when Roger walked out into the hall beyond, the warning sirens were still going off. This would have bothered him if it didn’t drown out the still squealing Staff Sargent, or whatever his title was. He didn’t care. He could have been King of the Sugarplum Fairies, and it didn’t make any difference.
“Roger. Roger!” He looked back. Elliott was pushing his way forward. The rather large hallway was a thrum of people, wall to wall, everyone trying to get from one place to the next. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for everyone seeming to be trying to go a different damned direction. The dogs snaked around and between legs, keeping close. Aubry had a death grip on his shirt to keep with him.
“What?” he called back, annoyed: the longer they stood the thicker the crowd around them became. They were never going to get through all this.
“Where are we going?” Elliott, shouted over the noise, the voices were reaching a level where it was hard to hear the announcements.
Head to your designated stations, this is not a drill.
“We are. “ He stopped as a stream of people ran between them, not even stopping to say anything. “We are trying to get to the garage, there are going to be cars there, we can get the hell out of this forsaken place!”
“What do you mean?” Elliott asked. He was clearly still not understanding just what was going on here. As they stood in the middle of the hall, Spot and Pat scampered up one side of the hall then circled back, running to the other in a slow meticulous orbit of the party.
“This place is done for, my boy. It is time that we got the hell out of Dodge before we become undead food.” Roger tried to raise his hands to emphasize his point but ended up hitting some enlisted man in the side of the head. It was becoming clear to him how the zombie epidemic ate its way through Comic-Con in a matter minutes and not hours.
“Junie,” Elliott said.
“Yes?”
“No, I mean have you seen Junie?” Elliott said bobbing up on tiptoe looking for her.
“Oh for Christ’s sake, what the hell is with the girls in this bloody troop?”
“Hey!”
“Oh sorry, Aubrey dear.”
“Junie?” Elliott shouted over the people trying to find her.“Junie!”
“Sir!” Someone grabbed Roger by the should and spun him around. “I’m going to need you to not stand in the middle of this hall, you are causing a fire hazard.”
“I’m creating a hazard, are you blood joking?” Roger blustered at him.
“Sir, keep it moving, we are going to get you all to safe location.”
Elliot was still calling for Junie and pushing forward, Flipps not looking too pleased eithe. At least he had the common sense to not try to yell over the noise.
“Sir!” the man yelled again, “I won’t say it again!”
“We bloody well heard you,” he growled back and reluctantly started to move, but slowly, trying to wait for Elliott and Fipps to join them.
“I can’t find Junue anywhere!” Elliott said, pained.
“She’ll show up when you least expect it.”
“Who will show up?” Junie said, sipping from her tactical mug. She frowned and readjusted, trying to find the best way to hold a cup that was attached to a grenade launcher.
Roger held out his hand to her, not even the slightest bit surprised.
“Junie!” Elliott said, relieved. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Oh I was following Shavian, but she was going the other way. I really only saw her for a few seconds and she looked really pre-occupied.”
“What?” the group shouted as one.
“She was in doctors’ clothes. Did she become a doctor?”