The air inside the cab was pleasantly warm, and after a restless night spent tossing and turning, the prospect of a nap looked alluring. But just as Nadia was about to doze off, Lisa yanked the steering wheel to the left.
Nadia jumped when the truck struck something with a loud bang, and a figure went flying over the hood. “What the hell was that?”
Lisa laughed. “I thought I’d wake you up. You were sleeping so nicely there in the backseat. Besides, we’re here.”
“Here?” Nadia mumbled, confused for a second.
“The Civic center, remember?” Cat said. “Come on, let’s have a look. I can’t wait to see my mom again.”
“Great,” Nadia replied with a big smile on her face, hoping for Cat’s sake her mother was there.
Chapter 4 - Cat
Cat climbed out of the cab with a spring in her step. Her mother’s note had explained that the authorities had set up a center here for survivors, and despite all the bad things she’d heard about places like these, she was choosing to be optimistic. “My mom’s here, I just know it.”
The zombie Lisa had hit with their truck groaned from its spot on the tar, its limbs crushed and broken. A twinge of sympathy filled her breast. The infected looked young, its arms and legs short and slender though it was hard to tell much more than that.
Nadia plunged a screwdriver through its eye, ending its misery, and Cat hoped the poor soul could find peace now. She made her way past the front of the truck with a shudder. A thick smear of blood coated the hood, and she shook her head. “Why does it seem like all we do during the apocalypse is wash cars?”
Lisa nodded. “I know. This one’s on me.”
“Ugh.” With a last shiver and shake, Cat made her way toward the large steel gates that guarded the entrance to the library and civic center. They were imposing, and the walls that surrounded the property was solid. Cat took that as a good sign and craned her head to look inside. “Hello?”
Nobody answered, and nothing moved as far as she could see which wasn’t saying much. The driveway leading to the parking lot was bare, and a long row of hedges hid the lot and main entrance from view. The security booth was empty, too, and Cat wondered how they were supposed to get inside if there was nobody to unlock for them.
Lisa joined her side and reached out to touch the gate. To their immense surprise, it moved with a slight creak. Lisa glanced at Cat and shrugged before pushing it harder. This time the gate swung open wide enough to allow one of them to slip through.
“It’s unlocked,” Lisa said, gesturing at the whole of it. “No chains, nothing.”
“I see so,” Cat answered as her hopes began to fade. “That’s bad news for us.”
“Yeah, but let’s not give up just yet. We don’t know what’s going on inside,” Lisa said, extending a hand to pat Cat on the shoulder.
Cat recognized the gesture for what it was, false optimism in the face of overwhelming odds. Still, she had hope. Hope that somehow her mom was inside, safe and sound.
They pushed the gates all the way open and stepped inside, every sense on high alert. Lisa removed her machete from its sheath and checked the load in her gun. “Careful, guys.”
Cat nodded and shifted her AK-47 into position so she could quickly get hold of it while both hands gripped her walking stick. “I’m ready for anything.”
“Nadia, maybe you should stay with the truck? We can’t afford to lose our ride or anything inside it,” Lisa said. “It’s a sitting duck out here.”
Nadia nodded. “Roger. You two go ahead but keep your eyes open and come running if you find trouble.”
“We will,” Cat said as she took the lead, walking down the long driveway toward the parking lot.
She crossed the open space as quickly as her bad leg allowed but slowed the nearer she got to the lot. As she approached the corner of the hedges, a glint caught her eye, and she bent down to examine it. An empty shell casing. Her eyes panned across the ground, spotting several more, and she rose to her feet slowly.
“What is it?” Lisa asked, coming up behind her.
“Shots fired. Lots of them.”
Cat took a few more steps, clearing the overgrown hedges, and the lot came into view. She gasped, unable to breathe, her hopes dashed in an instant. Bodies lay sprawled across the space, tossed about like broken dolls. Dark splotches on the concrete marked dried bloodstains. A discarded shoe lay rotting in the sun, and a backpack sat next to one of the parked cars. Its passenger door stood open, and a smear of blood marred the white paint.
With a heavy heart, she kept going and checked the other cars. One carried a load of canned goods and bottled water, another had a few suitcases in it filled with clothes. The rest were abandoned, locked, and empty. “Looks like a few people tried to escape,” Cat said.
“A few of them succeeded,” Lisa murmured, pointing to several sets of rubber tire marks that swerved toward the gate.
“Yeah, looks like it,” Cat agreed.
“One of them could’ve been your mom,” Lisa said in tentative tones.
“Guess so,” Cat agreed but without any real conviction.
“Do you want to keep going?” Lisa asked.
Cat sighed. “I don’t know. I put all my hopes on this place. Stupid.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Lisa said.
“I should’ve guessed,” Cat insisted, looking at the destruction around her. Her gaze led up the front steps of the main entrance to the massive double doors that stood half-open, waiting. “We might as well check inside. Maybe we find something useful.”
“All right.”
Cat walked up the stairs, running a hand over one of the pillars that flanked the entrance. The double doors were cracked open, the glass panels thick with dust and grime. A fine layer of sand lay on the floor, covering the marble tiles, and dried leaves were piled in a corner. “Whatever happened here, it was months ago.”
“Yes, it seems so,” Lisa said, her expression one of pity. “But let’s have a look anyway. Maybe you’re right, and we find something we can use. Your mom could even have left you another message.”
“You think so?” Cat asked, eager to cling to hope even though she knew the chances of it being true was slim. It was hope that pushed her onward, hope that kept her going even though she knew it might well end in tragedy.
“Worth a try, right?” Lisa said. She pushed one-half of the doors open and stepped inside.
Cat followed but paused, waiting until her eyes adjusted to the dim interior. Not a single sound issued from inside the vast building, but there was lots to see…and smell.
The air was thick with dust, but more than that, it reeked of death and decay. Old death. The floors were strewn with debris. Moldy paper, broken glass, brass shell casings, and bodies. Plenty of them.
Cat approached the nearest one with her heart in her throat. The corpse lay face down, and the cause of death was apparant. A bullet to the head. With one cautious foot, she rolled the man onto his back. His contorted face and blood-stained teeth told her what she needed to know even though he was long dead, a dried out husk of a human being. Zombie.
She moved deeper inside, flinching when her boots landed in a patch of dried blood. It stuck to her soles and made a sucking sound when she walked. There was blood everywhere. Smeared on the walls, puddled on the floor, spattered on the windows. The scene was a lot worse than the one outside where the sun and rain had done their work to sanitize the area. Here, it was much more immediate.
Next to her, a pale Lisa checked each body, making sure none of them still contained any form of life. “So many dead.”
“It’s hard to believe anyone escaped,” Cat agreed.
“Yes, but some did,” Lisa said in a halfhearted attempt to cheer Cat.
Cat didn’t reply, weighing up their options, instead. Beyond the grand foyer, three doors presented themselves. To the left, a great glass one announced the library with ornate gold lettering.
Cat moved cl
oser, peering through the dirt-stained pane. The room beyond was a mystery, shrouded in gloom and lined with shelves full of abandoned books. It was difficult to make out any details, nor could she spot any movement.
“Anything?” Lisa asked in a low whisper.
“Nope, it’s too dark inside,” Cat said, moving away from the glass with a shudder.
“I guess that leads to the civic center?” Lisa said as she pointed to a big wooden double door with brass handles. It occupied the center wall and was flanked by brass plates full of names and lettering that meant little to Cat.
“It does,” Cat said before pointing to another glass door to the right, “and that goes to the admin area, offices, and so on.”
Lisa sidled up to the wooden doors, giving one of the handles an experimental shake. The door hardly moved, securely set in its hinges. “It’s closed solidly, at least. Nothing undead will come through there unless we let it. The problem is, we don’t know what’s on the other side.”
Cat looked at the admin door. “I’d bet if there were people anywhere, it’d be where the bathrooms, tuck shop, and cafeteria used to be.”
Lisa hesitated before replying in measured tones, “Maybe there were people here once, but not anymore.” She indicated the scene of death around them. “And judging by these corpses, there was an outbreak inside. If there were any survivors, they’re long gone by now.”
Cat nodded, aware that Lisa was trying to let her down easy. “But, if my mom left a message as you said…”
“I know what I said, but let’s be honest. We don’t know that she did, Cat. We don’t even know if she ever made it here, or if she did, if she made it out.”
“I know, Lisa,” Cat said, fighting against the rising tide of despair within her veins. “But I owe it to her to have a look, don’t I?”
“Do you? It’s a huge risk, Cat.” Lisa tapped a finger against the wooden door. “For all we know, there might be a horde of zombies just waiting to bust out and eat us on the other side of this.”
Cat looked down at her hands, surprised to find they were shaking. “It’s my mom, Lisa.”
“I know, sweetie, but this place is a deathtrap, and there’s only the three of us. Would your mom have wanted you to risk your life like this? The lives of your friends?”
Cat shook her head, misery replacing the hope that had buoyed her before. “No, she wouldn’t.”
Unable to stop herself, she walked toward the admin door and leaned in. It was just as dirty as the other one, and she wiped her palm across the grimy surface of the glass as she peered inside. “I just wish I knew if she was here or not. If she got away.”
“I’m sure she did, sweetie, but we’ve got to go ”
Suddenly, a set of hands banged against the frosted pane, the silhouette of a person appearing from the recesses inside. Cat shrieked in fright, jumping backward. Her feet hit something soft, and she fell over, landing hard on her ass. A long-dead woman grinned at her from its spot on the floor, the cause of her fall.
Cat hardly registered the pain in her back or the dead woman beneath her legs. Instead, her frightened gaze fixed on the figure that groaned with unearthly longing before throwing its entire body at the glass. The door shuddered in its frame, its hinges creaking as the zombie battered at it with its fists, its horrifying snarls filling the air.
A second figure joined it, and a third. Then a fourth. More and more infected emerged from the interior of the office block, adding their weight to the fray. They were all intent on one thing: Fresh prey.
Cat sat frozen on the floor as her mind scrambled to keep up. It was all too much to comprehend. Her mother…was she one of them? One of the undead crying out for her flesh? “Mom?”
“Cat, get up. Now!” Lisa cried, breaking Cat out of her funk. She ran over and extended a hand, her expression wild.
Cat reached up and gripped it. As their palms met the glass door shattered into a million pieces. The shards rained over them, glinting like a shower of diamonds as it caught a beam of light.
Cat locked eyes with Lisa, their terror uniform as dozens of zombies flooded the foyer, each racing to get to them first. She had time for one single thought before the first infected reached them: Is this it? Did I kill us both this time?
Chapter 5 - Lisa
“Cat, get up!” Lisa cried as she yanked Cat to her feet.
Her friend responded by whipping out her cane and giving Lisa a quick nod. “I’m good.”
Satisfied that Cat was herself, Lisa whirled in time to meet the first charging zombie with a sweeping blow from her machete. The blade sliced through the tender flesh of its throat and hacked apart the vertebrae. Droplets of black blood sprayed into the air. Reversing the blow, Lisa angled the weapon downward and cut apart a second infected’s knee, rendering it cripple. It fell over and lay writhing on the tile floor as it tried to get up.
The first zombie lurched about in a way that might have been funny if the situation wasn’t so dire, its head flopping about from side to side as it rasped through its ruined throat. Its hands flailed in all directions, and its eyes swiveled in their sockets as it tried to pinpoint Lisa. It tripped up two of its friends, however, giving Lisa a tiny bit of breathing room.
A quick thrust through the soft flesh underneath the chin put down another zombie as Lisa’s machete cut through the brain like a hot knife through butter.
Another infected, this one a young woman with a pair of thick glasses and a hair bun, grabbed Lisa’s left arm, pulling her off-balance. Instead of resisting, Lisa went with it, knocking what she was sure used to be a librarian off her feet and into two more oncoming zombies. The trio went down in a tangle of limbs, arms and legs flailing.
Lisa turned to find Cat fighting like a she-devil, her walking stick clubbing skulls left, right, and center. Two zombies were down with broken necks, and another tried to crawl around on crushed arms without much success.
Alarm bells flared when Lisa spotted another one that had snuck up behind her friend. Cat’s jacket had come undone, and the nape of her neck gleamed in the light, soft and exposed. The zombie leaned in for a bite, its rotted teeth bared in a death head’s grin.
With no time to waste, Lisa dropped her machete and whipped out her gun, placing a single bullet between its eyes. The blast rang throughout the enclosed space, and her ears rang with a loud buzz. Aware that the shot would summon every zombie within a ten-block radius, Lisa knew they had to get out of there and fast.
“Run,” Lisa cried, sprinting past Cat and grabbing her by the arm. “There’s too many for us to fight.”
Cat obeyed, swinging her stick to knock aside another zombie that tried to cut them off. They made for the exit, a throng of zombies on their heels. Though not fresh, the zombies had led a sheltered existence inside the civic center, protected from the worst of the elements. This had allowed the virus to keep them in better shape than most…and they were fast.
Lisa hit the exit shoulder first, and pain shot throughout her arm and collarbone as the doors burst open. Her feet carried her to the steps, still dragging Cat by the hand. Her boot landed on the first step with a dull crunch, and before she realized it she was falling, the tile coming loose beneath her foot as the weathered grout crumbled with time and age.
She went flying face forward, attempting to twist sideways at the last minute to avoid breaking every tooth in her mouth. Her upper arm connected with the edge of the third step, followed by her ribs and hip. Her teeth clipped together from the impact, cutting her tongue, and blood filled her mouth with its telltale metallic tang.
Her body didn’t slow but continued rolling down the steps, head over heels, ass over head, until she couldn’t tell which way was up or down anymore. She landed with a dull thud at the bottom, each bone in her body screaming in protest at the abuse. Pain shivered throughout her nerve endings, but it was almost immediately suppressed by a rush of adrenalin. Lisa groaned, shaking her head for clarity while fighting to get back to her feet.<
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“Lisa, get up. I can’t hold them off much longer!” Cat cried.
Lisa cast a quick look over her shoulder and was appalled to see Cat attempting to fight three zombies at once while backing down the steps. Her sword was out, and she wielded both it and its wooden sheath with superb accuracy, her movements a blur. But she was rapidly losing ground, her actions slowing as her muscles tired, and Lisa could see her bad leg shaking with the effort of keeping her balanced.
With supreme effort, Lisa got her hands underneath her chest and levered her aching body off the ground. Her eyes fell on her gun. It lay several meters away, too far to reach in time.
In the distance, Nadia shouted, and Lisa spotted her running toward them, but she’d arrive too late to help, and Lisa feared for the worst as she hobbled toward her fallen pistol.
Suddenly, a slender figure darted past her, carrying a flaming glass bottle. Lisa stared in amazement as a teen boy tossed what turned out to be a petrol bomb into the crowd of zombies streaming through the door.
He grabbed Cat by the back of her collar and pulled her off the steps as a great ball of fire exploded into the air, igniting the infected still fighting to reach them. Cat whirled and nearly decapitated the boy with her sword before stopping herself in time. “What the…?”
“No time, lady,” the boy cried, grabbing her hand “Run.”
Wasting no time, he turned tail and sprinted away from the civic center, dragging an astonished looking Cat along behind him.
Still befuddled by her fall, Lisa gaped at the spectacle in front of her. The zombies were still coming, though they were now on fire. They screeched and snarled as the flames engulfed them, melting eyeballs and sizzling skin from flesh until they resembled raw hamburger. The smell of cooked pork filled the air, and Lisa’s stomach heaved as the stench filled her nostrils.
A hand grabbed her by the arm, and another shoved her gun into her grasp while a boyish young voice shouted, “Run, ma’am. Now!”
Children of the Apocalypse: Mega Boxed Set Page 133