Cassie (Adrian's Undead Diary Book 8)

by Chris Philbrook

  Michelle winced in the back as the vehicle shook ever so slightly as the bodies tumbled round and round against the plow blade, eventually skipping to the side and around the squat vehicle. Each collision with a body was a resounding thump that shook her. Michelle had seen more than her fair share of nightmare, but this was different. Almost every time when she was in danger, they were running FROM it, not TOWARDS it.

  Quan responded to Adrian with good news, “Nothing big guy. We’re two miles out staged and ready. We can be in range in less than five minutes. Population is pretty clear too.”

  Kevin leaned in slightly, never taking his eyes off his section of the road for danger. He spoke to Adrian, “We’re maybe five minutes out as well. They can probably move.”

  Adrian nodded, steering the truck over and into another shambling dead body. The dead woman wearing a barista's smock bounced off the plow blade with a metallic bang. “Alright, if you want to move now, go for it. Kevin says we’re about five minutes from detonator range as well. Barring traffic of course.”

  “Ha. Copy that. We’re moving.”

  Adrian clipped the walkie on his belt and returned his hand to the steering wheel. “We won’t be in walkie range when we reach detonator range on the hospital garage. We’ll have to relay messages through Spring Meadow. Even then it’ll be dicey.”

  Kevin smirked. “This plan is awesome. Remind me again why I’m doing this.”

  “You have a crush on me.”

  “Oh yeah. Totally forgot about how much I am fixated on your dick. Just can’t imagine a life without it.” Kevin’s delivery was monotone.

  “You two are something else,” Michelle said from slightly behind them. She was laughing, as were Hal and Abby further back in the ambulance.

  Adrian agreed with her, “We are indeed Ms. Lewis. We are indeed.”

  *****

  The sound of the parking garage exploding on the other side of the city was incredibly loud, even though they were miles away. It echoed and rumbled the chest. No radio warning forecasted the demise of the massive concrete structure, so when the series of explosions rocked the sky and sent the birds soaring from their perches, all that Adrian could mumble was, “Holy shit.”

  Kevin leaned down and looked to the left across Adrian and saw the plume of smoke and dust jetting into the sky several miles away. From the size of the cloud of debris issuing upwards, Kevin judged that the entire structure had succumbed to Quan’s careful placement of explosives. “Well, I’d say 'operation blow that shit up over there' went down successfully. Hopefully everyone made it okay.”

  Adrian scooped up the walkie off his belt and transmitted, “Quan? Ethan? Can you guys get this?” There was no response. Adrian tried a different tactic, “Agnes? Can you read this?”

  A few seconds later Agnes came back over the walkie. Her delivery was awkward, like she hadn't used one before, “Yes— Adrian.”

  “Can you try to get Quan or Ethan on the walkie and see how they’re doing? We’re further out than you from them. Need you to act as our pony express.” Adrian tilted his chin towards a few undead shuffling across the street fifty yards ahead of them. The three zombies moved with intent across the street, heading towards the very distant explosion, ignoring the lumbering rescue truck. It was working.

  “That’s a great fucking sign,” Kevin said quietly. Adrian nodded, waiting for Agnes to respond. A few moments later she did.

  “Adrian, Ethan just radioed and said they were on their way back to the Factory, and that everything went well. He said there were a lot of zombies in the building.”

  “Fantastic thank you. Tell them I said thank you please,” Adrian put the walkie away on his belt.

  “We’re about there, man. We can hit the detonator.” Kevin looked over as he reached down to a small backpack where he’d stored the small explosives detonator. He pulled it out quickly and looked it over, confirming how to operate the device.

  Adrian down shifted the truck and brought it to a rest in the center of an intersection. Hal and Abby leaned over the sights of their weapons, looking out the back door windows, preparing for the stop. They were always in greater danger when the vehicle wasn’t moving. Adrian lifted his carbine from the floor and rested it on his own door after rolling the window down. He scanned for targets as Kevin put the batteries into the detonator, and prepared to hit the switch.

  “Grab your britches kids,” Kevin said softly, and he hit the switch.

  Nothing happened.

  Kevin hit the switch again, and the same as last time, nothing happened.

  “What the fuck?” Adrian asked, looking back to Kevin quickly. Kevin looked up to make sure nothing was approaching the vehicle, then back down to the detonator. He checked the batteries to make sure they were in the device, and then tried the switch again.

  Suddenly a thump hit the passenger door of the truck. Kevin leaned into the vehicle as a hand covered in dried blood and bile reached high to drag nasty fingers along the edge of the window frame. A zombie had approached in their dead spot.

  “Fuck,” Kevin said, drawing his sidearm. He postured up, getting a good look down at the corpse trying to claw and climb its way into the ambulance. He thumbed his Beretta’s safety off and popped off a round into the face leering up at him. Inside the truck the snap of the gun going off was incredibly loud. Michelle covered her ears as a reflex. The body crumpled to the pavement, fully dead. Kevin slipped the pistol back into the holster on his thigh, and triggered the detonator again. Nothing happened.

  “What do we do?” Michelle asked, sensing the sudden change of events. She watched the spent shell casing from Kevin’s shot spin like a top on the floor of the ambulance.

  “We should abort. I don’t think the single building collapse is enough of a distraction. I think we need both,” Kevin said, searching the outside for more undead sneaking up on them. He didn’t look to Adrian for his opinion. He already made up his mind.

  Adrian looked at Michelle. She had a mixture of fear and dejection on her face. Somewhere deep inside her Adrian could sense a huge amount of disappointment over having to cancel the trip into the city. She wanted Adrian to find closure almost as much as Adrian wanted it for himself. Both of their hearts were on the line, stupid as it may sound in his head.

  Adrian already knew what was next. “We go forward. The first explosion is more than enough. The second location has already drawn in enough for us to make it downtown. The explosions were always overkill anyway.”

  Kevin slowly rotated his head to his friend. The slow speed of the motion and Kevin’s upraised eyebrows told Adrian everything he needed to know.

  “You don’t have to go. No one else has to go. It’s okay.”

  Kevin guffawed, “Yeah fuck you, like that’s an option. I’ll go.”

  “We were in this today no matter what Adrian,” Abby said quickly.

  “Aye mate. Sink or swim,” Hal said, fully in league with his woman as well as Adrian.

  Adrian looked to Michelle, already knowing what she’d say, “Adrian I’ll be going wherever you and Kevin go today.”

  “So be it. Thank you.” Adrian rested his carbine next to his thigh, put the truck back into drive, and gave it the gas.

  *****

  “Contact left, five,” Kevin said loudly right before he shouldered his M4 and snapped off a rapid series of shots, dropping two of the zombies he’d just called out. He would've hit more, but shooting while driving was harder in real life than it was in the movies.

  “Contact rear right, three in an alley,” Abby said equally as loud, and with just as much confidence. She brought her AR up to her own tinier shoulder, and fired a handful of shots, almost as accurately as Kevin. Michelle sat in her centered spot, her hands over her ears again, trying to protect her hearing from the incredibly loud gunfire, made that much worse by the tight confines in the vehicle.

  Adrian didn’t respond as Hal called out contact in his sector as well. Adrian looked to his left an
d saw a handful of the walking dead shuffling out of the storefronts and alleys they drove past. The sweat on his eyebrow stung as it dripped into his eye. He wiped it away and felt the plow’s blade impact more of the shamblers in the street. They were surrounded, and the further they drove, the worse it got. Looking ahead he could see dozens of undead scattered in the street, closing in on them like piranha at a feeding frenzy. Soon there would be too many to simply drive through.

  “Fuck this. We need to find a better route in. Get 'em on our heels,” Adrian barked out, aiming the heavy ambulance towards the next street he could turn on. The easiest, most clear route was east, towards the hospital garage where the explosives had failed. This would be an uncharted route for the group.

  "GO GO GO!” Kevin nearly screamed, rattling off the remainder of his magazine at the thick front line of the army of the damned, amazingly hitting almost a half dozen zombies in the head. Adrian was peripherally aware of the amazing shooting display and felt a rush. He heard Abby and Hal’s guns barking constantly as they made the turn towards the hospital. Adrian wished the area near the parking garage was clearer than the area here. Hopefully the noise and fires created a void of undead they could slip through.

  Adrian gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles lost all their color.

  *****

  “He comes for you.”

  Cassie’s body jerked to life in the silent, pitch black elevator. Her sluggish, mostly dead mind struggled to wrap itself around the idea of the man she loved coming for her. Like water and oil her thoughts circled and clashed. The corrupted, rotten portion of what was left of Cassie wanted blood, hot flesh torn from the bone. It wanted vengeance. The underlying sweetness and purity of Cassie was both excited to see the man she loved, and fearful of how little control she had over herself. That part of Cassie knew with certainty the other part would try to hurt him. The Voice would see to it, and there was precious little she could do about it. She could fight, but it would a war.

  “Go to him. Use the old one’s body now like good puppets.”

  Melanie and Cassie’s bodies creakily got to their feet, and reached out with blind hands until they reached the body of Alan. Alan’s corpse was lethargic, stirring only slightly as the two female zombies began to yank and pull on one of his decayed and weakened arms. Melanie leaned down in the darkness and began to eat away at the shoulder meat, biting the flesh open for it to tear free easier. After several minutes of frantic, uncoordinated tugging, and biting, the arm came loose from the shoulder. Melanie took the arm and slowly began hitting the elevator door with it. The exposed shoulder bone eventually chipped and cracked, breaking in half and splintering into a jagged edge. One half of the arm fell to the floor where Cassie picked it up.

  Melanie took the sharp shard of Alan’s arm bone and crudely jammed it into the gap in the doors of the elevator. Cassie’s corpse wedged her bone into the space as well, and the two zombies slowly began the process of prying the doors apart using body parts.

  Minutes later, the two dead women had the interior door of the elevator apart. The escape from their wretched prison was in full, rotten swing.

  *****

  “It’s clearing up. We’re about two blocks from the hospital. Right near one of the radios we hung from the traffic lights. Should be smooth sailing from here to there, then we cut north and go about five blocks. Let’s try to go guns silent for a bit,” Adrian yelled out. Kevin nodded emphatically, wiping his brow of sweat and swapping the magazine in his weapon. Abby and Hal did the same in the back. Adrian was incredibly thankful they’d brought so many magazines.

  “How are you not all deaf? All this gunfire is so amazingly loud,” Michelle said, rubbing her temples.

  “What?!” Adrian asked back, turning to look at her.

  “I asked how are you not all deaf?!” Michelle said again, louder this time.

  “What?!” Kevin responded back to her, looking to see what she said.

  “Oh real funny. Hilarious. You two are a bunch of clowns.”

  Kevin and Adrian shared a grin, and both turned forward.

  That’s when the world rose up on them, heaving the pavement six feet high underneath the rescue truck, flipping it on its side as it careened down the street out of control, twisting metal and plastic into unrecognizable shapes. Something incredibly powerful had just exploded underneath the truck. The humans inside were tossed around like blood filled ice in a drink shaker.

  The world went dark for the five occupants of the shattered vehicle.

  And Michelle thought the guns were loud.

  *****

  Michelle opened her eyes and immediately realized something was wrong with the right eye. Everything was pink, and it stung like an angry bee had gotten trapped inside it. Her mouth tasted coppery, and she spit blood. The taste in her mouth reminded her of the night she witnessed horrors in the Glade. She blinked repeatedly, winking blood free, returning her vision to something approaching normal. The taste lingered still. She was atop a cabinet affixed to the side of the ambulance. The ambulance itself had been turned on its side from what she thought must have been an explosion, and the entire front of the vehicle, where the engine was, had been demolished somehow. She looked out the shattered windshield and saw nothing but motor parts, bent steel, and what remained of the hood.

  Her head hurt very much.

  Adrian was still strapped to his seat, dangling into the center of the vehicle, knocked unconscious. She watched as a steady stream of blood pitter-pattered from his jaw across the truck. It drizzled across the cabin to where Kevin had sat, hitting the ground outside near where his head should have been. But he wasn’t in the seat. The window and door where he had been sitting was gone; only pavement remained. A pool of Adrian’s blood the size of a dinner plate was now staining the street.

  Michelle panned her head around the cabin, seeing where Kevin’s body came to rest. He was face down just half a foot from her, still inside the safety of the vehicle. She gently shook the cobwebs from her head with a few deep breaths, and reached down to touch his neck. She felt a strong thumping against her finger, and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Behind her she saw Abby, who had just sat up and rubbed her forehead. She was free of injury, but from the look on her face she had been shaken badly by the surprise that had just been unleashed on them. Abby shook Hal’s leg and he roused shortly after. Michelle awkwardly stepped over the debris scattered in the vehicle trying to get to Adrian. She stepped on the stock of his weapon and for no good reason picked it up. She had no idea how to use it, but she knew stepping on it was bad.

  “Adrian, babe you gotta wake up,” Michelle said, kneeling near him, trying to avoid the blood coming from the large gash on the underside of his chin. She shook his shoulder slightly, and he jerked to life, scrambling to get to his sidearm. When his eyes locked onto Michelle’s he stopped moving immediately, staring at her, assessing the situation. He looked past her and saw Kevin sitting up, shaking his rattled brain back into place.

  “What the fuck happened?” Adrian asked, still hanging sideways in the driver’s seat. He grabbed the bent steering wheel to shore his halted, falling body.

  “IED maybe. Mine. Not sure. Something fairly big hit us. Or we hit it,” Kevin said softly, gathering his M4 from the side of the vehicle he sat on. He checked the action to ensure the weapon was functional.

  “Fuck my life,” Adrian said, spinning his torso to right himself. He put a foot on something sturdy under what was left of the dash and clicked the belt free. He caught his weight with his hands and slowly lowered himself to the pavement that was covered in his own blood. Michelle looked around and saw a large bandage that had been knocked free of a cabinet. She reached up and pressed it to his chin, staunching the steady flow of blood. The white bandage turned dark.

  “Gather everything we might need. We need to move fast or we’ll be surrounded big time. That explosion will draw in some serious bad news and time is a factor,” Kevin sa
id as he gathered medical supplies and two of the satchel style bags of spare magazines they’d brought. He reached up to the side of the vehicle that passed as the ceiling and popped the latch on a long cabinet. A long, tubular weapon dropped out, and he caught it deftly.

  “Seriously Kevin? You brought a fucking AT4?” Adrian asked incredulously, taking his weapon from Michelle as she affixed the bandage to his chin. He seemed groggy to the others, but was focusing fast.

  “You’re asking that question like bringing it WASN’T sensible brother. If I had an aircraft carrier and a hundred shit-filled slingshots I’d have brought those motherfuckers too. Carried the sumbitches downtown myself.” Kevin said nonchalantly. “How’s the back look Abby?”

  Abby leaned over and peered out the small windows in the back of the ambulance. “It doesn’t look that bad, maybe ten or twelve out there. Nothing we can’t handle. Wait, wait. Maybe twenty.”

  “Alright, everyone ready?” Kevin asked.

  “We’re still moving on the target right?” Adrian asked. He leaned back slightly to see through the small openings through the wreckage. He saw a small number of undead coming their way.

  “What the fuck are we going to do when we get there? Do we seem combat effective to you?” Kevin asked, looking at him.

  “Not much has changed man. We're all upright. Just buy me time. We aren't far, and I won’t be long.”

  Kevin looked around the inside of the truck, looking for something that might inspire him. He looked for something that might give him an idea that’d allow them to finish this godforsaken mission. He saw Quan’s failed detonator propped up against a broken crutch and picked it up. He thought for a few seconds, and then an idea hit him. “We can do this if we split up into two groups. One group heads out to wherever the fuck you think Cassie is. I’ll take a second group to the garage and see if I can’t get the damn explosives to go. If I can blow it, we’ll be on easy street. At the very least, I’ll chuck some grenades and see if I can’t steal a fucking car for the ride home.”