Ashton Memorial by Kody Boye, Robert R. Best, Laura Best, Deedee Davies Page A

toward the parking lot.
    Time seemed to slow down. Maylee and Dalton
grabbed the left-hand railing. Park grabbed what was left of the
front railing. Angie tipped backward, grabbing at nothing.
    Park reached out and caught her wrist. Angie
jerked to a halt, straining her shoulder.
    For a second they hung there, shaken and
panting. Seconds inched by. Maylee and Dalton clung to their
railing. Park had one hand on his railing and the other hand
clutched around Angie's wrist. Angie had her feet on the edge of
the deck. Her back bent backward, her head pointed toward the
parking lot.
    Angie slowly looked up and saw the corpse
laying on the deck next to Park. The corpse groaned, then slid
toward Angie.
    Angie gasped and time began
to speed up. “Inside!” she yelled as the corpse plummeted toward
her.
    Dalton and Maylee scrambled off the deck and
into the apartment. Angie leaned to one side, doing her best to
avoid the falling corpse. Her wrist, wet with rain, slipped in
Park's grip. He clutched tighter, his knuckles turning white.
    Moaning and reaching, the corpse bounced off
Angie's shoulder and fell to the truck below. Angie heard the
windshield shatter.
    Park grunted and pulled Angie toward him.
Angie reached up with her free hand and grabbed the edge of the
deck doorway. Time returned to normal.
    Then the deck broke free of the wall.
    Angie screamed and pulled herself into the
apartment. Park, still clutching her wrist, began falling. Angie
spun and grabbed Park's arm with both hands. She put her foot up on
the door frame to brace herself. The deck crashed into the truck
beneath Park. The side windows of the truck exploded, shooting
glass out to either side.
    Angie's back strained. Park kicked at the
wall, trying to get traction. The wood of the ruined deck shifted
below, hunks of it falling away from the truck. The corpses of
Uncle Bobby and the woman in the closet appeared underneath.
Bobby's face was split from his fall and the woman's legs were
broken. They moaned, gargling in the rain, and reached for Park.
Their fingers scraped the bottom of his boots.
    “Shit!” Park said, kicking
at the corpses and trying again and again to get a foothold. His
boots slipped off the wet brick of the wall and dangled back over
the corpses.
    “Hold on!” yelled Angie.
She pulled as hard as she could. Park inched up, but not enough.
And not nearly fast enough.
    “Kids!” Angie yelled.
“Help!”
    Maylee and Dalton rushed up behind her.
Maylee grabbed hold of Park's arm. Angie felt cold sweat as
Maylee's hands brushed hers and knew how scared Maylee was. Dalton
grabbed hold of Angie's waist.
    Angie readjusted her foot on the inside of
the door frame. Despite her nap in the car, she was shaking from
exhaustion. Her back ached. Her knee burned.
    She drew in a breath.
“Pull!” she yelled. She and the kids pulled. Park moved upward,
more steadily than before. Then he stopped. Suddenly he seemed
twice as heavy.
    Angie strained her eyes
downward, not wanting to bend forward and lose any of the lift they
had gained. “Shit!” she yelled.
    Uncle Bobby was dangling from Park's left
leg. He moaned and bit at Park's boot.
    “Fucker!” Park yelled,
kicking at Bobby with his right boot.
    Park kicked again, harder than before. The
motion sent a shudder up his arm and into Angie, Dalton and Maylee.
Maylee's grip slipped off. Park dropped several inches. Angie's
back pulled hard and Dalton dug his arms into Angie's waist.
    “Shit!” yelled Park. He
dropped closer to the corpses below. Bobby tried to bite him
farther up the leg. Park's kicks were the only thing keeping the
corpses at bay. The woman from the closet could not stand on her
broken legs. She reached up, her bloody fingers grasping at Park.
The legless corpse from the truck bed was climbing over the roof of
the truck. Angie's whole body shook. She knew she couldn't hold on
much longer.
    “Sorry!” yelled Maylee. She
reached past Angie's hands and grabbed hold of Park's arm.