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Dr Burke and Silas stared at the computer monitor in disbelief. Knocking persistently at the door were a two men and a young girl. There was no way they could have known a hidden door was there but there they were.

"How...what...?" Was all Dr Burke could say.

"How do they know about the room?" Silas asked, puzzled. "Are they colleagues of yours?"

"What? No." Dr Burke said scratching his head. "I have no idea who they are."

The knocking persisted. It was violent and very loud.
"They are going to bring the whole zombie world down here with all that racket!" Dr Burke said angrily.

"Hey, whats all the noise about?" Caleb said as he entered the room with Efe. "Is that knocking?"

"Some folks are at the door." Silas said.

"Wait...is that..." Caleb took a closer look at the monitor then suddenly let out a whoop of joy.

"Hey folks, its the klausers!" Caleb motioned excitedly for the doctor. " They made it here! Open up and let them in!"

"How did they know you guys were here?" Silas asked still puzzled.

"I called them last night." Efe said and held up a mobile phone. "We are neighbors. We said we'd contact each other if we found a safe place. Come on and open the door."

"No!" Dr Burke said through gritted teeth. "We are stretching our resources as it is! This is my place and I'm not opening the door for anyone else. If you don't like it you can go and join them.

The two Nigerians stared at the doctor for a while, then Efe stalked off angrily.

"Efe, wait! Doctor..." Caleb said, "listen to reason. There was no way we could have known we weren't supposedto contact anyone else. AAfter these guys come in we won't call any other person."

"Why didn't you even tell me yoyhad a cell phone?!" Dr Burke almost screamed. "Do you k ow how valuable it is in a time like this? And you wastes credits calling your friends over?"

"Oh, Efe has loads of credit. We burst into an abandoned store before we came here." Caleb said, looking at the monitor apprehensively as the knocking continued. "Come on man, let them in. There's a little girl out there for goodness sake."

There was some commotion in the inner room and Efe appeared in the computer room brandishing his shotgun. He pointed it violently at the doctor.

"Whoa there!" Silas shouted going in front of the doctor.

"Open that door now or I swear I'll blast the both of you.!" He shouted. Caleb said nothing but backed away.

"You cant kill us both." Dr Burke said. "At the very least you can't kill me. There are things about this room that only I have the information for. Heck, you guys don't even know how to open the door."

"I don't care!" Efe shouted and pointed the gun straight at Silas' chest. "Open the door or I shoot both of you and shoot the door until it opens! Then we can collect all we need and leave this stupid place!"

"Efe..." Caleb began.

"A beg leave me jo! You know say I like that babe Na hin this fool wan make zombie chop?!"

He cocked the shotgun and pointed it at the two men again. Dr Burke had remained behind Silas but he wasn't sure he was going to be totally safe if the man decided to pull the trigger. Everything was going to hell fast.

"I'm going to count to three." Efe said. "One! Two!..."

The next morning found Dr. Burke gritting his teeth incessantly. Last night had been horrible. Being a very principled and quiet man, not to mention socially impaired, he had gone through last night's hosting and laughing among the Nigerians and Silas as if he were going through torture. They had decided early on to leave him out of their talks because he didn't seem interested in communication of that sort. That in itself didn't annoy him. What pissed him off was the way they had consumed the food he was rationing out. It was after the second helping that he had put his foot down and it was even Caleb and not Silas that had sided with him on the matter. He was seriously regretting bringing Silas along with him in the first place but then he realised without Silas he wouldn't have survived in the corridor long enough to enter the panic room. Whether he liked it or not he owed Silas his life. This fact irked him no end.

Silas on the other hand was glad for the new company. Just spending a few minutes alone with the doctor and he knew they weren't going to get along so well. Caleb and his crew were funny and loud and joked about everything, even their zombie experience. It made the atmosphere relaxed and gave him the much desired distraction he needed to avoid thinking about his dead wife.

Silas came out of the inner room and saw the doctor at the controls in the computer room. The doctor was feeding information into the laptop and was also listening to an online radio, one of the few ones left in the U.S that was still functional. The owner called himself "Zombie FM" and seemed to have locked himself in his studio when the whole chaos began.

"The scientists down at Alaska are coming up with a kind of antidote to the zombie virus. They have isolated monoclonal antibodies and tried it on lab rats and it seems to be working." The doctor said as Silas approached.

"That's good news then, right? Soon they should be able to sort out this whole mess." Silas replied.

The doctor didn't reply but continued to fiddle with his computer.

There was an awkward moment of silence between them. Silas broke it first.

"Look, there was no way I was going to let those zombies chow down on these people. I'm sorry I broke your rules but come on they are a little too stringent. I don't think I could have just sat here and let them become zombie dinner."

The doctor sighed. "The rules are for a reason. The more people we have in here the more difficult it is going to be to control everyone. You can see how difficult it was to search for bite marks last night."

Silas chuckled. "Doctor, you told a group of guys you have never met to strip naked in front of you and you started using your torch to prod them! It was kind of embarrassing."

"But necessary!" The doctor challenged.

"Efe still thinks you are gay after that incident"

"What?"

"Never mind". Silas said trying hard not to laugh. "Look, you are still in charge and they look like cooperative people. I don't think you'll have any problems."

The sudden sound of heavy banging outside the hidden door made them almost jump out of their skins.