Zombie Warfare: Impact Series - Book 3

by Craig Halloran

  She kicked the door with her toe.

  “Nope. We have back-up generators for that sort of thing. You know, you don’t have to be a scientist to figure out you need a back-up generator.” She shook her head.

  “So,” Rudy interrupted, “You’re telling me that this place is filled with students. College girls? In zombie makeup?” He bobbed his head. “That’s sexy.”

  Henry punched him in the arm.

  “Ow!” Rudy said, rubbing it. “What did you—”

  Tori socked him in the same arm with her zombie fist. Rudy stumbled into the wall.

  “Ow!”

  “Shut up,” Tori said.

  Jo Ann and Karen’s eyes got real wide.

  “Uh,” Karen said, backing away, “I’ll see if I can flag a camera down.”

  Rudy followed her.

  “Don’t you have radios?” Henry said.

  “Yes, but we never use them. And we can’t have our cell phones in here either.” She patted Henry’s arm. “This happens. It’ll be alright. Just give it a few minutes.” She looked at Tori. “Sorry.”

  “It’s alright.”

  Henry backed against the wall and squatted down. Took off his glasses, yawned and rubbed his eyes. He tried to block out all the echoing num-num’s in the corridor. He’d do anything to check into a motel for a few days and forget about all of this. He just wanted to get away. Start all over. The WHS wouldn’t allow that. They’d made that indirectly clear. Several times. They owned him. All of them. Play and live. Rebel and die. A dirty Game of Life, where little peg-like zombies ride in the car with you until you retire in the Adams Family Mansion at the end.

  “You look so tired,” Tori said, sliding down beside him. “I’m sorry.” She leaned her head on his shoulder.

  He patted her knee.

  “It’s alright.” He looked up at Jo Ann. “So, as long as we’re waiting, do you care to share what is going on behind this door?” He pounded it with his fist.

  “We call it The HUB. There’s another door that leads to Zombie Central, but you’ll learn about that later. That’s where the zombies come in and out. The HUB’s for us. It makes me think of an abandoned space station but it used to be a JC Penny’s once. The bottom level is full of work stations, vendeteria, makeup and wardrobe stations. The upper level’s been modified into apartments, bathrooms and such. It’s not much, but the students seem to like it.”

  “How long do you and Karen stay here?”

  “We do a week on. Week off. 7 day stretches.”

  “That doesn’t sound too bad, Henry,” Tori said.

  “Well,” Jo Ann said, “You’ll stay here for the first thirty days, for orientation. And it’ll make you stir crazy.” She smiled. “It goes fast though. Lots of work to do.”

  Henry nodded. Jo Ann seemed nice. Karen too. They weren’t uptight like the other employees at the Rehab. Their attitude was positive and not weird. It was refreshing.

  “Now if we could just get this door open, we could get you guys settled in. Let you breathe a little. I know this is a big place, but it always feels stuffy.”

  Like a tomb filled with moving dead people.

  Three zombies shuffled by. One in a green ballcap, a woman, was looking at him. Henry swore it winked.

  “Did you see—”

  Pop!

  Tori jerked and Jo Ann jumped back. The door swung open. A small man popped out with black hair, scraggily chin hair and a lab coat.

  “Hey Guys!” he said.

  It was Weege.

  Henry had mixed feelings. He helped Tori up from the floor.

  “Hi Weege,” he said, extending his hand.

  “What? We don’t shake. We hug, Henry!” The little man embraced him, then Tori. “I’m so happy to see you guys. I didn’t think you’d ever get here.”

  “How long have you been here?” Henry said.

  “A few hours. Come on. Come on in. I’ll show you around. Where’s Rudy?”

  “Weeeeege!” Rudy roared, jogging their way.

  They high fived.

  “Man, I’m glad to see you. Is this place full of college chicks?”

  “The best and brightest. Sometimes they’re even friendly.”

  Weege started back inside. Jo Ann jerked him back by the collar.

  “Are these doors working now or not?”

  “Oh, oh yeah.” He shoved the door closed, locking them all back inside the mall.

  “Weege!” Tori said.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay. Just doing an upgrade.”

  Jo Ann shooed him aside. Pressed her thumb on the pad. The red light flipped to green. The latch popped in. She pulled the door open.

  “Go on in, guys,” she said.

  “Weege,” a voice shouted from down the hall.

  Henry heard Tori suck her breath in through her teeth. He looked back at Jo Ann. “Aren’t you guys coming?”

  Karen was shaking her head.

  “Uh, we’ll catch up with you later,” Jo Ann whispered, “We’d rather bathe the zombies than listen to Alice. Bye now.”

  Henry felt his own tomb close when she shut the door behind them.

  “Oh no.”

  ***

  Paul hunched over the urinals inside one of the Zombie Mall’s restrooms. They were the same as they had always been: white plaster walls with blue, white and yellow tiles on the floor, except they needed security pad access. Craig checked underneath the stalls and pushed open the doors.

  “I’m not listening to this,” Paul said, zipping his pants. He headed for the sink.

  Craig hopped up on the counter beside him. “You need to fix your makeup. You don’t look enough like a zombie. More like a college nerd with gray skin and ruddy hair.”

  “My hair’s not ruddy. It’s the same as yours, Stupid.”

  They were the same. Identical. Thick tawny hair. Blue eyes. Athletic. Closing in on six feet in height.

  “Listen, Paul,” Craig said, slapping his brother on the shoulder. “It will be legendary!”

  Paul shoved his hand away. Turned on the water in the sink.

  “Shut up, will you?” he whispered. “I’m not losing everything I’ve worked for because of you. Mom and Dad will kill you. Then they’ll kill me for letting you do it. Try it. Just shut up about it.”

  Craig turned to face the mirror. Checked his face and smiled.

  “Don’t you wish you were as handsome as me?”

  “What?”

  “On the inside I mean. I’ve got the glow and you’ve got a cloud.”

  Paul shut off the sink and snatched some paper towels. Craig had his merits and Paul had his own. True, Craig was more fun and open. Knew more jokes. Drank more beer. Dated more women. Had a nicer car. Talked really loud. Made his presence known in the bars. Tended to push things to the limit. And when he got in trouble, Paul got in trouble with him. He tossed his towels away and headed for the door. Craig cut him off.

  “Listen to me, just listen to what I have in mind.”

  “You don’t have a mind, at least not in a positive sense, but rather a demented one.”

  Paul was the babysitter. Liked the fun and the quiet. Dated the same girl for the past two years. Had an old truck he took everywhere, particularly where he’d hunt and fish a lot. They were the same, in the sense they liked the same things, but very different in how they went about it.

  “Paul, no one will notice. It’s just one night. Reco night. It’ll totally freak out the pledges.”

  “We, er you rather, will get caught.”

  “I’ve got it all figured out. And besides I never get caught. Remember the time we stole that Camry from the car lot and took Debbie and Terri out? I didn’t get caught then, and I had the car back the next day.”

  “It was Lisa and Kim. And no you didn’t get caught because you parked the car by a crack house and called it in.”

  Craig was laughing.

  “Oh yeah, I totally forgot I pinned it on those crackhe
ads. See? I did a good thing. Got that crackhouse shut down.”

  “This is different. You’re talking about biohazardous materials now. A contagion. A virus.”

  “Pfft! There won’t be another Outbreak with all the Dew around. You know that.”

  “But they can still turn people. Kill people. How can you be so stupid? Geez, I can’t believe I’m still listening to this.”

  Craig was hard to deal with. When he made up his mind, there was little you could do to change it. Paul had to talk him through it until he saw the shortcomings of his plan. Problem was, Craig was as short sighted as he was determined.

  “We’ll just take one of the little ones. That tiny fella, the jockey that everyone loses. I can slip him out with the garbage. We’ll toss him into the truck and have an Awesome Reco night.”

  “It’s a felony, you idiot! Someone will tell. We’ll get caught.”

  “No one in the Manor will say anything. They’re sworn to secrecy.”

  “You can’t be that naive. What happens when you blackball a pledge? He’ll rat us out.”

  “No one’s getting ‘balled.”

  “You ball pledges all the time. You ‘balled my little brother!”

  “He was a dork.”

  Paul poked him in the chest.

  “I’m warning you, don’t try this.”

  Craig’s eyes narrowed.

  “You don’t think I can do it, do you?”

  “Oh, I know you can do it. But you’ll get busted on this one. Trust me. And besides, the zombies have trackers on them.”

  “No they don’t. You’re just saying that.”

  Paul didn’t know, but he wasn’t asking either. Ask questions you get fired.

  “Well, wouldn’t you put trackers on them?”

  Craig shrugged.

  “And just think, someone is bound to video you making a zombie do a beer bong.”

  Craig’s face lit up.

  “That’s a great idea. A drunk zombie. Can they get drunk?”

  “Sure, and you can teach it to do push-ups with the pledges too. Maybe you can make the pledges sing the KA rose to it.”

  “Alright, alright. I’ll let go. Man, Brother, you’d be a lot more fun if you just acted on your ideas. They’re good ones.”

  “Glad you came to your senses,” Paul said, following Craig out. He bent his neck and started his zombie gate. Craig limped away. “Where you going?”

  “I’m after that new dental school gal, Leslie.”

  “Good luck with that, and it’s Lisa, stupid.”

  Craig grinned and shuffled away.

  He’s lying. He gave up on that too easily. There’s no Leslie or Lisa.

  CHAPTER 22

  -Washington, D.C.-

  It had been hours. Nate watched the monitor image of Don Baker curled up inside the trailer. Louie, the zombie, bumped around the interior of the trailer, back and forth, his sluggard pace becoming quicker.

  Walker and Oliver sat just outside the trailer, talking quietly and smoking.

  “He has to know more,” Nate said, rubbing his neck. He sighed. Interrogation is not what I’m made for. He’d laid out all his cards. Creating doubt. Causing fear. He’d done everything, but Don still hadn’t offered anything helpful. The old man had been burying the truth for decades. Any helpful fragment wouldn’t come willingly.

  Ashley sat nearby, eyeing a television screen. The news showed a throng of protesters picketing all over downtown D.C. They held a variety of colorful signs.

  Free the zombies. Zombies have rights. Killing zombies is murder.

  Ashley huffed a silent laugh. Nate felt her eyes glancing over him from time to time.

  “What are you thinking?” he finally asked.

  “Let me see if I can find your friend, Henry. He has to be somewhere in the system. It shouldn’t be that hard for me or Walker to locate him.” She offered a smile and wriggled her fingers. “I can do it all quiet-like.”

  Nate shook his head. Chewed on his fingernails. The WHS had a net too big. Leaving digital signatures was out. Walker was smart. He handled everything by word of mouth. He said you could still get things done the old fashioned way. That it was how countless wars in history were won. Others lost. It took patience in an impatient world though.

  “Let me make one call,” Ashley urged. She pulled open a metal desk drawer filled with packages of unopened burner phones. “They’re good, but they aren’t that good. And the landlines are still safe too. ZR gets all kinds of classified information. Someone will know something about Henry Bawkula. The WHS keeps logs, digital and on paper. That’s how our operation works.”

  ZR. Zombie Rebels. That’s what they called themselves. An odd movement that showed up spray painted on overpasses here and there. Nate wasn’t sure if what she was talking about was the same thing or not.

  “Maybe,” he said, looking back at the monitor. “Let’s just give it some more time.”

  She shoved the drawer shut and said, “Alright, but if you’re too paranoid, we aren’t going to stop anything. At some point we’re just going to have to do what we have to do.”

  Nate felt odd. For some strange reason he was being groomed to assume the role of leader, but he’d never felt like much of a leader. He was bright, but a goof off. Never took things very seriously. He accidently saved the world once and now, actual living and breathing people expected him to do it again. Was the leadership in this world that severely lacking? Did people have to count on a guy like him?

  Ashley started feeding bullets into a 15 round pistol clip.

  “You been using those things long?” Nate said.

  “It’s called a weapon. And no, no training until the zombies came. Of course, I was pretty young then. Not a lot of kids getting heavy weapons training, aside from the video games, which I’ve always been awesome at.” She jammed the clip in the pistol. Started loading another.

  “Have you killed many zombies?”

  “That’s the only way you can become a rebel. You’ve got to hate them. You have to want to kill them. It’s us or them.”

  “Why do you hate them?”

  She looked up at him.

  “Hate too strong a word for your tender ears?”

  “No,” Nate said, offering a slight smile, “It’s just that so many people are infatuated with them these days. Especially young people. It’s just surprising.”

  “Well, that’s only because they haven’t seen their friends and family eaten … alive. And those gory scenes are all but banned from television and Youtube. Even during the anniversary of the Outbreak, you don’t even see a nugget of anything.” Her bright blue eyes darkened. “But I remember. And I blast a tunnel in one of their heads every chance I get. Twenty one and counting.”

  “Damn,” Nate said, leaning back. “Well, that’s certainly the most effective way to stop them. Do you think they’ll ever find a real cure for them?”

  She got out of her chair and twirled her pistol on her finger. “They say there is no cure for evil.” She stuffed it in her holster. “Death is the only cure for evil.”

  “Well, what about Louie? You seem to care for him.”

  “I do, but I also know that if the time comes, I’ll have to do what I have to do. But for now, he’s cool. He’s not trying to eat me. Plus, I’ve never wasted a kid. Not even a zombie kid.”

  “Well, if we go anywhere, I’m riding with you.”

  The trailer started to thump from the inside.

  “Hey! Hey! Let me out of here!” Don screamed from inside.

  Nate turned towards the trailer. Fists were pounding at the walls from the inside. Walker and Oliver were on their feet.

  Don was screaming at the top of his lungs. Right at the camera. Louie pawed all over the man. Pushy.

  “Tell us something useful, Bub!” Walker yelled at the door. “Or you aren’t getting out of anywhere.”

  “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

  Nate switched the audio on to the came
ra inside the trailer. Louie’s grunts were getting hungry. Heavy. Biting teeth were clacking.

  “Then start talking!” Walker yelled again.

  Don was shoving Louie in the face, his expression horrified.

  “There’s a key WHS Facility that Ravenloft likes! Lots of tests. Advances. He gets off on the stuff.” He shoved Louie away. “Get away from me! It’s like Christmas to him there. Most of the top scientists are there too. Never been, but he talks about it. Brags about it even, but never shares.”

  “Where is it?” Walker shouted.

  “Facilty 105. Morgantown.” Don punched Louie in the head. “Ow!”

  “Hey!” Ashley yelled at the monitor.

  “Ask him about Henry!” Nate yelled over.

  Walker shook his head.

  “Do it!”

  “What about Bawkula?” Walker yelled.

  “They’ll kill him. Probably sent him to Morgantown to run the zombies against him. That’s what they did at the Daycare and the Rehab. That’s it. That’s all I can offer! Please let me out of here!”

  “I can make a call,” Ashley said. “We’ve got good people there. Won’t even take a minute.”

  “Ow! Ow!” Don screamed. “It’s biting me! Noooo!”

  Louie’s teeth were latched onto Don’s arm. His jaws were sunk deep.

  “Let him out!” Nate said, running over with a bottle of Dew.

  Oliver took the bottle and jumped into the trailer.

  Walker led Don back out seconds later. His arm was bleeding through his shirt. His face ashen and eyes watering. He was mumbling. “I-I can’t believe this.” He started shaking and wheezing.

  Walker stuffed him in a chair. Checked his listless eyes.

  “He’s a goner. Any final requests, Jackass?”

  “Please, please, just kill me. I don’t want to be a zombie.”

  Walker pulled out is pistol and pressed it on Don’s forehead.

  “I can do that. But first, it there anything else you’d like to add?”

  “No, no, I swear, I have nothing.”

  “Wait a minute,” Nate said, “let me ask him something.”

  Walker pulled his gun back with a shrug.

  Nate kneeled in front of Don.

  “If you could do it all over again, would you do the same thing again?”

  Don’s head slumped over Nate’s way.

  “I suppose not. Like it matters now.” He rolled his neck back towards Walker. “Go ahead, make my day.”