text: Eventually you approach the opening at the end of the tunnel, where it empties into a large underground subway station. Your heart sinks as you draw near and hear the echoing din of a large mass of zombies from within. You hover in the darkness of the tunnel, carefully venturing forward just enough to get a look inside.
  
  A hundred and some of the former subway passengers – all trapped in the rush hour mob and unable to escape the initial outbreak – pack the area, half on the landing platform itself and half down on the tracks.
  
  Those on the tracks look a lot worse for wear; most torn up from the subway crash you just came from – or even other crashes farther up ahead. They moan and snarl at each other, jostling and crowding toward the edge of the loading platform, trying most ineffectually at climbing up the four foot ledge. Occasionally one does manage to get up, but is quickly pulled back down by the rest trying to climb up over its back.
  
  You are reminded of a bucket of crabs. You remember once seeing one in Maine – there's another memory – you don't need to put a lid on a full bucket of crabs; they all try to climb up over each other. The moment one gets to the top, it is collectively grabbed by the rest and dragged back down to the bottom of the bucket.
  
  You snap out of your reflection and focus on the area itself. The zombies don't see you yet and you doubt they'd hear you over the clamor, unless you did something to intentionally attract their attention.
  
  The station is large and tiled, with a high vaulted ceiling and a large placard reading: "Fox Park Station". You see that the light is coming from a large number of battery powered emergency lights along the top of the walls. You also see, just beyond the crowded landing platform, two exits. The first is a turnstile gate at your end of the platform with an escalator and set of stairs going up on the other side. The second is an open set of stairs and an escalator at the far end of the platform beyond all the zombies.
  
  On the track level itself are two sets of rails, both empty of any trains. Apparently, the platform side is for stopping, while the outer track is for passing through. As the trains all go the same way through the tunnels, you know there must also be another tunnel and station nearby for the trains going in the opposite direction. Typically, it would be close enough that you could buy a ticket in the terminal above the tunnels and then simply come down the right set of escalators to your platform.
  
  You spot a dingy red metal door in the outer wall of the tunnel opposite the landing platform. While the light's not great, there is enough that you can make out the words on its surface: "Railway Workers Only!"
  
  As you stand in the shadows of the tunnel looking over the scene, you also spot a four foot long piece of heavy planking, lying on the ground where you would exit the tunnel. You'll have to be sure not to trip over it when you are ready to go.
  
  Man there are a lot of zombies in here!
  
  Given that, you think over your options – The open stairs and escalator at the far end of the landing platform is a no go – way too many zombies to get past even to think about it. Then there is the turnstile exit gate with the escalator and stairs on the other side. The problem with that is: to get to the stairs you'll have to hop onto the landing platform with hundreds of zombies and make it to the turnstile exit gate and jam it before they swarm you. There is also the matter of the turnstiles being one-way. If there are zombies on the other side of it, you won't be able to come back the way you came.
  
  The red door option on the other side of the tunnel would be much easier to get to, but if you're detected, the zombies on the tracks will move after you and block your way back to the tunnels. You don't even know if it's locked or even goes anywhere – for all you know it may just be an access door to firefighting equipment – though you would think it would say so if that was the case... 
  
  You could also try to sneak past the horde altogether, while they are distracted, in order to continue further down the tunnels towards the center of the city. If the rest of the stations are like this one though, then you'll have to deal with getting out of the tunnels sooner or later... 
  
  You could also just turn around and head back the way you came; trying instead to leave the city altogether rather than move any deeper into it.
  
  After weighing your odds, you:
  > use the heavy fire extinguisher to disorient and bull-rush your way through the zombie hoard to the turnstile gate
  Good thing you brought this heavy fire extinguisher, you think, as you pull the pin and ready it for the onslaught. You're thinking that you can use it as a battering ram to bowl your way through and then blast the zombies in the face with the contents to hopefully confuse them long enough to dive through the turnstile.
  
  Taking a deep breath, you rush out from the shadows of the tunnel and over to the nearest edge of the landing platform. As all the zombies on the tracks are looking in the direction of the zombies already on the platform, you are able to get right up to the edge of the zombie crowd and brush past two or three of them before vaulting up onto the upper level – the fire extinguisher clanging loudly on the tiles as you do so.
  
  There is an abrupt silence, as all attention is suddenly drawn to you, and then a roar of agitated groans and wails. As one, the entire zombie hoard starts toward you. Of course, you weren't waiting to see what they'd do, so you're already running full speed toward the turnstile gate at this point. Unfortunately, the zombie swarm had already partially blocked your path; and with them now actively moving toward you, you'll need to bust past at least five or six of them before you can get to the gate.
  
  You level the heavy fire extinguisher in front of you and ram at full speed into the first two zombies with a yell – sending them flying back into two more and toppling all four of them. Almost there you think, swinging the heavy fire extinguisher with both hands at the nearest of those left standing. The butt of the extinguisher slams into the creature's head just below the ear – shattering the thing's jaw and knocking its head so far to the side that its neck snaps loudly. It falls to the ground twitching violently.
  
  You still have one standing between you and your goal when you feel grasping hands all over your back. It seems that your initial crash into the zombies has drastically slowed your forward momentum. With horror you feel yourself suddenly being pulled backward into the crowd. The book bag you think! They have hold of your book bag! You drop one shoulder and spin out of the book bag freeing yourself of the hoard on the landing platform, but exposing your back to the one standing between you and the turnstile gate. Knowing that it must be lunging at you even now, you do something radical and drop to the ground before rolling away to the side and emptying the contents of the fire extinguisher at your attackers.
  
  A violent blast of white powder spews up into the faces of the zombies standing over you and fills the air with a cloud of the stuff. The zombies stop short for just a moment, apparently blinded, or at least confused by the sudden stimuli. Not wasting the advantage, you scramble the last few feet toward the turnstile gate – when something grabs your leg and threatens to drag you back into the hoard.
  
  It's one of the prone zombies you knocked down in your charge – you had almost forgot about them in the mounting panic of your situation. Looking, you can see all four of them beginning to get back up, but the closest of them has grabbed a hold of your pant leg and is now sinking its teeth deep into your calf. You cry out in pain as the ugly thing rips free a wide strip of your flesh and grins – mouth dripping your own blood. Still having a hold of the fire extinguisher, you curse loudly and slam the butt of it down on the zombie's head with all your might. A gruesome spray of wet gore splats across your legs as the thing's head pops like a melon between the butt of the extinguisher and hard tile floor. You force yourself to ignore your own injury and the revulsion of such a gory sight – skittering through the turnstile before the rest of the zombies can get to you.
  
  Immediately, the zombie hoard tries to reach through the bars of the gate to get at you. Looking at the stairs and escalator, you see that there are no zombies on this side of the gate – Phew! Maybe you'll get out of this yet. The problem is that you're now bleeding from the burning bite on back of your leg and are currently stuck holding the gate yourself to keep the zombies from following you through it. You need something to jam it shut with.
  
  Looking for the heavy fire extinguisher, you see that you dropped it in order to make it to the gate in time. Damn; you could have used it! That just leaves two options – sacrifice your crowbar to lockup the turnstile – or simply make a run for the stairs (hoping your injured leg will carry you through), knowing that the zombies will follow, but only just a few at a time through the confined space of the turnstile gate... 
  
  Also, you have lost your book bag and the med kit, signal flares, and proper flashlight within (though you still have the penlight on your keychain).
  > let go and make a break for the stairs (keeping your crowbar)
  You deice that you need your crowbar too much to leave it behind and make a break for the stairs, letting go of the turnstile gate and running as fast as you can go with a limp.
  
  Two zombies immediately force themselves through the turnstile gate, but the press of those behind them completely jams up the works. One zombie even gets stuck between the turnstile and gate and is slowly being crushed. As long as the zombies all continue pushing forward at once, no more will be able to get through.
  
  Seeing this you:
  > beat the crap out of the two zombies following you with your crowbar, before going up the stairs
  Normally, you could easily outrun the two staggering zombies, but the injury in your leg has slowed you down noticeably; and right now, you're only just keeping ahead of them. You move a little ways up the stairs to gain the advantage of higher ground and wait with your crowbar to meet the two zombies climbing sluggishly up after you. The throng of angry zombies meanwhile, still tries to push through the gate after you, but is unable to pass. They glare at you with frustrated moans and snarls, flattening the trapped zombie in the process.
  
  When the first zombie gets head level with your waist you swing for the fences and clock it in the side of the head so hard, that its ear explodes under the blow, and it is sent flying over sideways off the steps. It crashes heavily to the hard tile floor below and remains still for a moment, but then slowly begins to right itself.
  
  The second zombie keeps coming and reaches to grab at your legs, but you anticipate such a move and backpedal up the stairs a bit more, giving you room to wind up a brutal overhead swing. Your crowbar lands on top of the nasty creature's head so hard that its skull caves in with a cracking-splorch – and a bloody spray of teeth splatter your feet as they shoot out of what was once the awful thing's mouth.
  
  By this time, the first zombie has staggered back up and is heading for the stairs again. You see a long red welt raised up on the side of its head, where its ear used to be. You again raise you crowbar over your head and wait. When it gets up to you on the stairs, you kick its chest hard, sending it once more tumbling back down to the tile floor below. This time however, you hurry after it and plunge the chisel-end of your crowbar into the back of its head before it can get up again. The thing convulses violently a moment and then goes still, before you pull your crowbar out of its skull with a wet sucking sound.
  
  You glance over at the turnstile gate, relieved to see that the agitated zombies are still jamming it up with their hapless compatriot.
  
  Limping up the stairs to the subway's main corridor, you see the wide concrete and tile entryway into the subway itself; and you can actually see the exit to your left, beyond a bank of narrow token-operated turnstiles. Unfortunately, a huge mass of zombies crowd the area – both in front of the turnstiles and on the other side, where the tunnel itself simply opens without walls to the outside. You stifle a gag, as the smell of blood and death is overpowering here. Looking at the floor of the main corridor, you shudder to see hundreds of ripped open and dismembered bodies lying in sticky footprint-tracked pools of maggot and fly infested blood. You force yourself to ignore the nauseating massacre and take in the more pertinent details of the scene.
  
  Directly across from the stairway you just came up is another stairway headed back down. The sign over the stairs reads: "North Platform." You know that this is the stairway that leads back down to the other end of the platform you just escaped. It's a good thing zombies are stupid – or they could just turn from the turnstile gate you blocked and come right up those stairs unimpeded.
  
  To your right, the subway's main corridor goes another hundred or so feet and ends at another set of opposing stairs, where a much smaller group of ten or twelve zombies mill about. The signs above these stairways read: "South Platform" and "Exit Only" respectively. You know they would take you down to the subway's southbound platform – no doubt just as zombie infested as the north platform was.
  
  Between you and that far end of the corridor – about fifty feet away – are three sets of doors. The first door is on the opposite side of the tunnel from you and is a security door broken off the top hinges. It hangs open at an odd angle and looks bent out slightly, as if it had been forced open recently. It has a pushpin key lock in it, but doesn't look like it can be closed anymore, and has the words: "Transit Authority: Subway Personnel Only" is written on its face.
  
  The second door is on your side of the tunnel, just a little further down from the first. It is also a security door, closed and locked with a pushpin key lock, and reads: "Security Office" on the front. Next to the door itself is a huge smashed out window – creating a six foot wide, four foot high, opening into the security area beyond. The bloody body of a security guard hangs out of the window frame, the back half of his head apparently blown out from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Below the window frame is a scattering of broken glass and a bloody pile of corpses – some you note with huge holes in their heads as well. You also think you can see the pistol the guard must have used to blow his brains out, lying in the gore.
  
  The final set of doors, about thirty feet further down the tunnel from the security office, are the doors to the men and women's restrooms.
  
  Given the circumstances, you have to rule out the exit. There is no way you're going to be able to get through all those zombies. They would tear you apart, like all the other unfortunates that now litter the floor.
  
  There is also no point in going back down to either subway platform. That would be suicide.
  
  You really don't have to go to the bathroom all that bad; so there's no point getting trapped in a restroom. Besides, you can think of a lot more pleasant places to be killed by zombies anyway.
  
  That leaves the broken transit authority door or the security office door (with the pistol).
  
  Given the distance between both groups of zombies and the doors, you estimate that you can get to either door before the zombies can get to you – even if they spot you. If you can sneak undetected however, that will help even more.
  > run for the broken transit authority door
  You sprint across the main corridor for the broken transit authority door, hoping to get far enough ahead of the zombies that it won't matter that they see you – which unfortunately, they all do. With a loud clamor of wails and wheezing snarls, the massive hoard of walking dead jammed up at the at the turnstiles, notices your movement and falls forward toward you in a sudden jerky run. Damn; these ones are moving much faster than you expected!
  
  Looking toward the smaller group of ten to twelve zombies at the other end of the corridor, you see that they too have all seen you and are now coming at you as well – lumbering forward with a clumsy gait.
  > oh shit!
  You rush through the broken transit authority door and see that you are in a short hallway, leading from the broken door about thirty feet to a set of private restrooms (men and women's) at the far end. Another corridor joins the hallway about halfway down its length on the left.
  
  With the horde of ravenous zombies just moments behind, you move quickly to the corridor leading off the hallway and look down it to see a long corridor lit by emergency lighting. A number of office doors, some open and some closed, line each side – while what's left of two mangled corpses litter the hallway in a splattering of gore. As you look, you see a zombie stumble out of one of the office doors to wander aimlessly down the hall away from you.
  
  At the far end of the corridor, beyond the lone zombie with its back to you, you can also see another security door, this one intact, but also shut and secured with a pushpin key lock.
  
  Great; you're about to be sandwiched between the zombie ahead and the coming horde from behind – you'd better decide what to do fast... 
  > take out the lone zombie with your crowbar, allowing a few moments access to the security door before the other two zombies show up behind you
  You sprint right up the corridor, toward the lone zombie near the closed security door. As you come up from behind, the zombie turns to see what the commotion is and catches your heavy crowbar right across the eyes. You hit it so hard – and with the momentum of your run – that the entire front of its face folds in and both eyeballs pop right out of its head. The thing topples over in a crimson spray – and does not get back up. Looking back down the corridor behind you, you don't yet see the following zombies, but can hear them drawing closer. You might have ten seconds – if you're lucky.
  
  Quickly looking at the pushpin key lock securing the door, you see that it has nine pins (zero through nine) and a turning knob. Having worked with these before, in some of the secured areas of the Summit Tower, you know that you punch in a four digit combination and then turn the knob to open the door.
  
  Examining the pushpins themselves, you note that the '1', '2', and '9' pins seem a bit more worn than the rest; and that the '9' pin looks the most worn of all. If the wear indicates the pins used in the combination, then you're looking at a combination using a '1', '2', and two '9's. Being an accountant, you quickly do the math in your head – leaving you with only twelve combinations.
  
  You try:
  > 1299
  Not the right combination. You'd better hurry; time is running out!
  
  You try: