by A. J. Sikes
“Is that—” Meg started to ask, just as the man shook and his hands began to clutch at the air. His mouth opened and he let out a howl of pain as he fell to his knees and spasmed on the pavement. His arms and legs flailed and his screams forced an echo of terror into Meg’s ears. Still she ran toward him.
“Help me! I can’t see them! They’re everywhere! Help!”
Meg sank her axe into his skull, hearing the fatal crack of bone and feeling the blade crush through to the pavement. The man’s body twitched and went still.
Meg pulled her axe free and used the handle to push her face shield up. She spit to the side, over and over again, fearing she’d got even a drop of infected blood into her mouth somehow. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d swallowed some and would become a monster herself at any moment.
“Meg?” Rex said from the doorway. “Are you hurt? Did he bite you?”
Staring at Rex, Meg waited. She breathed deep and listened to her heart beat, the blood rushing in her ears, and the sounds of violence cascading around the city in every direction.
You’re okay. You’re good.
She knew she was okay. It was just her involuntary reflex.
Contaminated bodily fluids. You didn’t get any on you. You’re fine. You’re covered up.
“I’m fine, Rex,” she said, dropping her shield into place and stepping forward. Rex left the doorway so she could come into the house.
Rex had gone back to the app floor where Eric was setting up the survivors on the cots.
“Eric,” Meg said. “We need to wash out the chief’s office.”
He nodded and brought the hose over. While Meg held the broken door open, Using the Bowring again, Eric braced himself on one knee and sent a torrent of water into the office space, pushing as much blood and mess as he could out into the street. Papers and pens, the phone, the chief’s mug. All of it went out the door.
It wasn’t anything close to real decontamination, but it would have to do. As a last step, Meg braced herself in the doorway while Eric sprayed her down with a weaker flow from the hose, cleaning off the spatters of blood that decorated her jacket, trousers, and boots.
Back inside, Rex and Eric performed a quick triage of the survivors, sending anyone with blood on their clothing anywhere to join Meg.
To the survivors, Meg said, “We need to shower. Get cleaned off. If you were outside, and you’re not hurt, come with me. We need to decontaminate ourselves.”
She shivered when she thought about the stinging sensation that would come from using the disinfecting soaps they had, but it was necessary. Even one droplet of infected blood in the wrong place could mean disaster for everyone.
Nothing’s going to slow you down, Meg. Nothing at all.
Rex finished shoving the dirty lockers in front of the doorway to the chief’s office while a line of five women and four children joined Meg at the stairs. The others, close to a dozen women of all ages and colors, huddled together at the back of the floor. Only one woman wearing a headscarf stayed near the cots, holding her baby close to her body. Meg could tell the woman was uncomfortable about the situation. Eric seemed to sense it, and with the firehose in his hands again, he approached the woman, staying a few steps back.
“Ma’am? Have you or your child come into contact with anybody who was infected? Have you touched—”
“Yes,” the woman almost shouted in reply before she broke into sobs.
“Ma’am, did—Was it someone who was infected? Did you get any blood on you?”
“No. But my husband was dead. I—I touched him,” the woman said, turning tear-stained eyes to Eric, then looking directly at Meg, as if she believed Meg could somehow help her. “I knew I should not, but—There is nowhere I can go to purify my body.”
Meg felt her heart clench inside. She felt the tears flowing down her cheeks as she watched the Muslim woman struggling with her own suffering.
“We have two showers upstairs,” Meg said. Then, to Eric and Rex, she asked, “Have any of the guys used it yet?”
Both men shook their heads, and Meg nodded her thanks before she turned to the Muslim woman again.
“I cleaned the engineer’s bathroom at the end of my last shift, and nobody’s used it since. It’s the best we can do for a woman’s bathroom, and I’m the only woman on the crew.”
The Muslim woman didn’t seem to understand what Meg meant, so she continued.
“You can use it first, and by yourself. The rest of us will take turns in the common shower until you’re done. I know it’s not perfect, but will that work?”
The woman nodded and almost broke a smile across her mouth. She wiped at her tears and held her baby to her. The infant stirred and let out a meek cry.
“She is hungry,” the woman said, and a new look of discomfort fell across her face.
“You can use the engineer’s room for that, too. It has a door that locks.”
Rex had come to stand near Meg. He seemed unhappy they were paying so much attention to the Muslim woman, but he didn’t say anything. The other survivors were all too shocked to do anything, but stand there huddled together, so Meg turned to go up the stairs, motioning for them to follow.
“Eric and me will keep an eye out,” Rex said, his voice echoing up behind Meg as she climbed the stairs.
The shower turned out better than Meg thought it would. The soap stung, and the sponge she used to wash herself was about as soft as a handful of dry sand. But it’s what they had available, and at the end of it she was clean and felt safe from any contamination.
She’d broken out a supply of sponges and given one to each of the survivors. Mothers had to share with their children so they’d have enough, and that mostly went over okay. Only one person grumbled about the Muslim girl getting her own sponge, and one for her baby, and a shower all to herself. Meg wanted to say something, but knew better. Tension was high enough already, and xenophobia would become a problem no matter what Meg had to say. She could either come down hard on these people or let them learn the lesson on their own.
Better that we all learn to swallow our pride in our own way. We’ll survive by sticking together.
With each of them showered, and Meg in her full turnout gear again, they gathered on the app floor to settle in and talk about their plans for the coming night.
— 14 —
Sunnyside, Queens
The corporal next to Jed scanned the rooftops as they moved down Queens Boulevard. They’d just crossed the intersection with Grand Avenue and Broadway when Jed caught movement in an empty lot at the corner. A flash of something small and white near the fence surrounding the lot. Construction cranes sat there, empty and dead, but in weird positions, like they’d been left in a rush. A Bobcat was jammed up next to the fence. Its little loader bucket was raised all the way, like somebody had used it to jump out of the lot.
That’s where Jed thought he’d seen movement, right by the Bobcat. Another flash of white caught his eye. But then they were past the lot and moving deeper into Elmhurst.
Just a cat, or a raccoon, or some shit.
The convoy rolled on, but would slow sometimes at intersections, and a metal screeching would echo down the street. The first time it happened, Jed couldn’t figure it out until his truck moved through the intersection. The wrecked cars that had blocked the road sat in heaps, tangled up and smashed together. The lead truck had pushed them out of the way. It wasn’t like that at every corner, but it happened often enough that Jed worried they’d get ambushed by the monsters. But the city was really quiet. Like, he’d never seen New York so quiet, not even on a Sunday morning when everyone was supposed to be in church. Still had the bums and crackheads staggering around the ’hood at least.
But now, it was like the city was dead already. Nothing but a stray cat darting under a bush to hide, and wrecked cars here and there. He glimpsed another flash of white high up on an apartment and Jed felt his finger curl around the trigger. He lifted his muzzle and scanned the buildings nea
rby. A boy peeked from behind a curtain in a second-story apartment window. The kid waved at Jed.
Little dude probably thinks we’re all here to save him. Shit.
Jed would’ve saved the kid if he had to, but that would mean stopping the truck and walking around on the street, climbing over wrecked cars and trash. And bodies. Jed had wondered if the monsters took people away to eat. He hadn’t seen any bodies when he and Chips were running that morning, or when he’d hooked up with the Army guys outside his grandma’s place. But he saw the bodies now. Lots of them, all tangled up inside the cars, bloody and broken apart. And the street up ahead was filled with corpses.
The kid was probably still back there waving as the last truck in the convoy rolled past his apartment. Jed felt a tug on his heart for a second, but he knew there was no saving that kid. There was no saving anybody but himself.
The soldiers behind him must have seen the kid, because they started talking up a storm. Jed was going to tell them he’d seen the kid and wished they could have helped him, but one of the other guys started firing. The sergeant up front hollered “Cease fire! Cease fire!” and gave the hand sign as he rushed back and slapped the soldier’s hand away from his trigger.
“The fuck’s the matter with you, son? You hear the order to light it up? Who gave the order? Corporal Haskins,” the sergeant yelled at the black dude next to Jed.
“Yes, Sergeant,” the corporal said back.
“Keep your squad in line!” The sergeant gave the soldier who’d started shooting a whack on the helmet.
The soldier shrank back, but didn’t say anything. The sergeant gave the whole truck a glare and went back to his position up front.
“Eyes out, on the city. High and low. And you report when you see something. You do not fire until you are ordered to do so. Hooah?”
Every man in the truck replied, and Jed joined in, even though he was watching the truck behind them. They were second to last in the convoy, and the one in the back was lagging a bit.
“Sergeant,” Jed said.
“What?” the man said, not turning around.
“The truck in back. They’re—”
“You supposed to be watching the truck behind us or your zone of fire, Private?”
“My—Shit!”
As Jed and now the other soldiers watched, the rear truck jerked, skidded sideways and began to tip. The men in the back held on, trying to stay in the bed, but the truck went up on one set of wheels and came crashing down on its side. Soldiers spilled out of the bed and landed on the pavement.
Up front in Jed’s truck, the sergeant banged on the cab and yelled for them to stop.
“First squad, dismount! Second squad, cover them and watch for movement. You see anything looks hostile, now you shoot it.”
Jed wasn’t sure, but he thought something sprayed inside the cab of the last truck in the split second before it went over. He was going to say something, but he felt the man behind him pushing him. Then the sergeant gave him an earful.
“Let’s go, Welch!” the sergeant yelled.
Corporal Haskins was already off the truck and moving with his weapon up, getting closer to the soldiers lying in the street. One of them wasn’t moving at all, but the others were all rolling around holding their arms or sides, except for one guy who was up on his feet and backpedaling from the truck.
“Hey,” Haskins called out to the guy. “You wanna help them up? Some of them hurt.”
Jed jumped off the truck and moved to join the guy who was backing away. He looked like he knew what was up and didn’t want any part of it.
Only fool out here has any sense. Shit’s going down. We should just go. Get the guys ain’t hurt and just go.
Jed caught up to the guy and put a hand on his shoulder. The soldier spun around and had his rifle up in Jed’s grill.
“Stay the fuck off me!” the soldier screamed at him. The guy was just a kid, barely out of high school probably. And his face was crazy, like he’d seen the inside of hell.
Jed backed off and the dude lowered his rifle. But he kept stepping backward, moving his head left to right and looking like you did when the big kids found you on the schoolyard in summer. His eyes were all big and his mouth kept shaking like he wanted to say something. Jed got a few more steps away from the kid and went back to scanning the area. Corporal Haskins held a position between the trucks. He was right out in the open, watching the street and the high rises across the way. The rest of the squad from Jed’s truck had reached the guys who fell and were helping them up.
The sergeant shouted something. Then Jed heard the pop-pop-pop of M16s. He scanned around the trucks and spotted movement again, from one of the high-rise apartments across the boulevard.
But the gunfire was aimed down low, street level somewhere, and Jed couldn’t see anything to shoot at from where he was. Corporal Haskins fired at something across the street while the rest of the squad helped the injured guys get to the truck. Jed tucked back up against the tailgate. He was in full view of the injured guys and the squad helping them, so he did his best to act like he was holding a covering position. Jed scanned the area with his weapon at the ready and kept flashing a glance at the corporal, who was popping off rounds.
Jed almost saw the monsters in time. He’d turned to check where the crazy kid had gone. He heard something back there, at the edge of the street, and was looking around the end of the truck to see what it was. Then a swarm of the monsters just tore into Haskins. The corporal vanished under a knot of sickly white skin and sprays of blood. Jed pivoted and brought his weapon up in time to take out one that was coming his way, charging at him on all fours like a mad dog. He lit it up with three rounds to the chest, and the monster fell on its face with blood leaking out of everything.
Haskins was done, just gone under the mass of shrieking monsters that leaped on him. A foot and one hand were all Jed could see of the man. Jed heard more gunfire from the truck now, and the sergeant was still shouting. The guys in the street scrambled for the truck, and two of them had to stop to reposition the unconscious guy they were carrying.
Jed went to help and reached a hand to take the injured guy’s weapon, but they all barged into Jed and shoved him out of their way.
“Just fucking shoot them!” one of the soldiers yelled at him as they moved for the truck bed. “Shoot the fucking things!”
Jed backed up a step. He lifted his weapon, but the half dozen monsters that had taken out Haskins were all dead now, shot to shit by the guys still in the truck. A series of shrieks and growls echoed across the boulevard and Jed looked in the direction of the sound, across the street. A cascade of pale white flesh raced down the high rises, like ants pouring out of a hive. He could hear their joints clicking and snapping as they moved, and the shrieks and snarls they made nearly turned Jed’s stomach inside out. He backed up another step, bumping into the truck. Someone up there was yelling his name, telling him to get up on the truck. But Jed knew where he was going. He turned on his heels and ran like hell.
***
Shouts and gunfire shifted to screams and howls of pain behind him. Jed raced down a street that cut off the boulevard and ran between two buildings, sucking in air and pushing it out as fast as he could. He skidded to a stop when he heard a car alarm nearby. Lights flashed in time with the alarm on a BMW with tinted windows. The car was angled into a parking space behind the buildings. The driver’s side door was open, but Jed didn’t see any movement. He brought his weapon up and went closer until he saw blood on the ground, and then an M16 lying beside the rear bumper.
Jed went closer still, keeping some distance from the car as he went around the bumper. The crazy young soldier from before had been torn up and left in a heap on the other side of the car. Blood spattered across the doors on the passenger side, and the windshield was smashed in like something big had landed on it.
Jed snapped his rifle up and aimed at the roof of the building beside him. It was two stories high, just like t
he row houses across the way. Jed scanned left and right and moved to the kid’s body. He still had ammo on him.
Right as Jed reached for the kid’s harness, the body twitched and the legs began kicking. The kid was still alive. His chest was ripped up and blood was all over him, but he was still alive.
Jed didn’t waste a second before he aimed and fired right into his chin. A bloody mess spattered from inside the kid’s helmet and his body went still again. Waiting a beat, Jed kept his aim but flicked his head back and forth, and up, to check for movement.
He looked at the kid’s ammo pouches now. They were dripping with blood. He’d have to touch it. In a rush, Jed backed away from the body, casting around the area as he moved out, making sure nothing had snuck up to watch him. He’d seen the way the swarm moved from the high rises. He’d also seen one of them sitting on top of a parked car, watching the others.
Fucking things ain’t zombies, like that dude said. They can think. They’re smart as hell.
Jed could still hear the pop-pop-pop of small arms from back where the trucks were. An engine roared and then cut out and Jed heard the screeching of metal on metal. He moved across the street, farther from the sounds and the screams.
The row houses behind him were all painted dark colors, some of them red and others brown or black. Trees shaded the fronts and concealed the windows, but Jed could tell some of the houses were occupied, and not by monsters. Curtains flicked back and forth and faces peered out from some windows.
A scream from down the street put Jed on the move in the other direction. He ran, ducking low behind parked cars and keeping an eye on rooftops and trees as he went. He had to get inside. If he stayed out on the street—
Shrieking and howling echoed into the afternoon sky along with more gunfire. Something big opened up a few streets over and Jed felt the heavy choop-choop of a grenade launcher, followed by a string of detonations that shook some of the houses nearby. He was careful to keep an eye out this time, watching for movement anywhere in his area. With his rifle up, Jed scanned left to right, from the street level up to the rooftops.