Hamsikker 3

by Russ Watts

  “How long do you think it took him to eat them? They must’ve been in there a while,” said Dakota. Her faith was being sorely tested today. How long was He going to let this go on for? How many more had to die?

  “Whoever it was, they’re gone. God rest,” said Jonas. There was no way back for whoever that poor soul had been. They were just lucky Lukas hadn’t joined them. He took Dakota’s hand and pressed the baseball bat into it. “Take this. Just in case. We should keep moving. Those gunshots will bring more out.”

  Dakota and Jonas headed toward Lukas. Without warning, Lukas raised his gun, pointing it at them. Even through the teeming rain, Jonas could see Lukas’s face. His eyes were wide open, his hands trembling.

  “Lukas, what are you doing?” asked Dakota. No way was this happening again. Lukas wouldn’t do that to them. She gripped Jonas’s hand in terror. She was so sure that Lukas was on their side, yet she had thought the same about Javier.

  “Both of you…run!”

  Lukas fired, and the bullet whistled past Jonas’s ear. He instinctively ducked, and turned to see a zombie fall right behind him. That wasn’t all he saw. As the lightening lit up the sky, he saw what Lukas had seen. A multitude of zombies was coming at them, pouring out of seemingly nowhere. They must have been inside the houses, dormant, waiting for something to bring them out. There was no way back now. It seemed as if the whole of Thunder Bay was after them.

  “Come on, Dakota,” Jonas shouted, as Lukas shot again, dropping a runner right behind them, “we’ve got to get out of here!”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Darting under the awning of a barbershop, Jonas pushed Dakota back and fired. He took out a runner and shot another in the leg which slowed it down. Lukas and Dakota shot back, too, firing at the advancing crowd. The brief shelter from the rain enabled them to aim more precisely, and by the size of the crowd, they needed to. Through the cloak of rain the zombies emerged as one. The courier van was quickly engulfed by the advancing mob, such was their number, and the street was filled by a chorus of groans that was audible even over the incessant rain.

  “I thought this place looked quiet,” said Dakota. “Shows what I know,” she said, as she put a bullet between the eyes of a thin man.

  “Let’s keep moving,” said Jonas. Thunder Bay had a population of thousands. He sincerely hoped they weren’t all walking dead. “Downhill. We need to lose them in these shops. We can’t risk going straight to Janey’s and taking them with us.”

  Jonas fired once again, reloaded his gun, and then ran out into the road with Lukas and Dakota following him closely. Jonas knew where he wanted to go, but he was going to have to take the long way round. At the bottom of the hill was a small inlet. The bridge over it led into parkland, and Janey’s house was somewhere inside along the edge of the lake. That little red house had never seemed so far away as it did now. If Jonas took them straight down the hill and over the bridge, the park would become infested with zombies. He had to make sure that didn’t happen. If they ended up staying in Thunder Bay, they could worry about thinning out the number of dead later. Right now, he had to concentrate on leading them away from Janey’s. Jonas dodged the outstretched hands of an old woman, and shot her in the face. Gristle and bone showered over his hands as the old woman fell, but Jonas had no time to clean it off. More were coming and fast. He turned to run, and slipped on a wet magazine. He tried to stay upright, but found his feet dancing away from under him as he ran straight onto more magazines.

  His gun skipped out of his hands across the road as he landed with a firm thud, and his eyes caught on the adjacent travel store. Its large windows were empty of glass except for some sharp shards on the ground, and the main entranceway was exposed where a large red door flapped open in the wind. Racks of soggy brochures had fallen over, and many of the advertisements had blown out onto the street. Jonas jumped up quickly, and scooped up his gun just as another zombie reached him. Turning to shoot it, he was surprised to find it went right past him. Then he saw Dakota.

  She pulled up her gun and fired, but only hit the zombie in the shoulder. It charged into her, knocking her off her feet, and Jonas watched them both tumble to the ground. Dakota’s bat flew from her hands, rolling under a car.

  “Dakota!” Jonas couldn’t shoot with both of them so close. There was no clear shot, and he saw Lukas was too far ahead. He wouldn’t be able to get back in time to help, so Jonas ran. He ran to save his wife, hoping he would be in time.

  Bullets whistled past his head as he ran through the rain, and he knew Lukas was doing what he could, stopping the zombies behind him. He could see the zombie and Dakota rolling on the ground, locked in a tussle that neither seemed destined to win. The zombie was an old man, still dressed in a check shirt with scruffy black jeans. He wore an old cap, and would almost be able to pass as human if it weren’t for the bloody hole in his neck.

  “Dakota, hold on,” Jonas shouted.

  When he reached her, he could see that her arms were trembling with the effort of keeping the zombie off her. Jonas put his arms around it, and pulled the man back. Instantly the zombie’s attention was turned, and Jonas found the man turning around, trying to bite him. They grappled briefly, but Jonas had the upper hand. He spun the man away from him, and fired quickly, blowing the man’s head apart. Jonas grabbed Dakota’s hand.

  “You okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” she said breathlessly.

  They ran to join Lukas, careful not to skid over the slippery surface of the road.

  “This is too much,” he said as he fired his gun at another zombie. “We need to shake them off. I’m almost out.”

  “I’m almost out too. We need a short-cut.” Dakota swept her hair from her face. “They must outnumber us fifty to one.”

  Jonas looked for a way out; a place they could go for shelter. They had to get off the street. It was acting like a funnel for the zombies, and if they continued going directly downhill they were never going to be rid of them. He shot at another runner, a young boy, and it spun in the swirling wind and rain before falling to the road, dead. Thunder boomed overhead, rattling the windowpanes, before lightening lit up the road again. Jonas shielded his eyes from the constant rain and saw the dead coming for them in droves. He saw old men and women, even children, oblivious to each other, but walking side by side down the hill to the three of them. Some zombies had missing limbs, some exposed their innards, and others had bones protruding from their bodies where skin and muscle had been torn asunder.

  “This way,” Jonas said, pointing to a side road. “We have to get off the main street and lose them.”

  They ran across a small intersection, weaving between the cars. Jonas ducked into the doorway of a toy shop. There was a plastic doll in the window, its face surrounded by thick wiry hair, and it wore a shabby white dress. Its eyes were black, and it stared out through the window at him unblinking. A small tattoo of a dragon had been etched onto its cheek, and it held a small bag in its hands. Jonas felt almost as creeped out by it as he did the zombies.

  “Over there, past the arcade and over the lot, there’s a sports center of some sort. See it? We’re going for it. We’ll try to lose them.”

  Lukas looked at the large sports center, its outline barely visible through the rain. “What if it’s locked up, and we can’t get in?”

  “Then we’ll keep running until we find something else. The horde will hopefully pass us by while we stay safe and dry, hidden behind those huge walls. It must be safer than somewhere small like this where we could get trapped,” Jonas said, indicating the toy store.

  “And the scary ass doll has got nothing to do with it, right?” asked Dakota, looking at it through the window. “Now that is fugly.”

  “Right,” replied Jonas. “Look, it would be better to take our chances in the center than remain outside and have to battle this lot. You two okay? Dakota, are you up to this?” She nodded, but Jonas could see she was exhausted. He just needed her to get throu
gh this, and once they were at Janey’s they could begin to relax. “We’re almost there. This is just a quick diversion. We have to throw them off, all right?”

  Dakota nodded again, and then Jonas was off, picking his way through the streets, ducking behind every car, trying to make it difficult for the zombies to track them. When he was halfway across the parking lot, he cast a glance behind him. Beyond Lukas and Dakota he could see the dead. Some were following, but not all. It was as if they were following a leader. It was if they simply followed the one in front of them. There was no way they could see clearly, not in this horrible weather.

  Jonas ran up to the main entrance of the sports center. It was dark inside, and he pushed on the glass doors. They wouldn’t budge, and he peered inside. There was a reception area and a turnstile, a couple of doors, and a stairway leading to an upper viewing area. At the far end of the foyer was a door that had been left open. Through it Jonas could see a swimming pool and a high diving board. It seemed perfectly empty, and the water was still. It was so dark, though, that he couldn’t be sure.

  “See if there’s a side door.” Jonas knew the quickest thing to do would be to shoot the lock or the glass, but then there would be no way of closing the doors behind them.

  Seconds later he heard Dakota call out. “Here. It’s open.”

  Racing to join her, he found Dakota standing in a doorway, one foot already inside. He ushered her in, then Lukas, and then he slammed the door behind him. Instantly the noise of the pelting rain died down, and he felt like he could breathe again. He looked around for something to block the doorway but there was nothing. They were in some sort of service corridor, its walls smooth and gray, and a green unlit emergency exit sign above the door.

  “Come on,” said Jonas as he wiped the water from his face and shook his head. “Let’s just hope they don’t figure out how to get in. I think we’ve a good chance of this working. We’ll work our way slowly through the center and find another way out.”

  He held his gun out in front of him and began down the corridor. Reaching a door at the far end, Jonas pressed his ear against it. He was listening for sounds coming from within, anything at all that might suggest they weren’t alone, but he couldn’t hear a thing. Looking at Lukas, he indicated he was going to open the door.

  “Ready?”

  Lukas pressed himself against the wall. “Go for it.”

  Jonas pushed the door handle, but nothing happened. He pushed again, but still nothing. Dakota put her hand over his, and pulled the handle, easing the door open with a simple click.

  “Ready?” she asked with a glint in her eye.

  “I knew that,” Jonas said, winking at Dakota. He looked at Lukas, and then pulled the door wide open. Nothing jumped out at them, no surge of zombies rushed them, and the door simply swung back with a faint squeak.

  Lukas passed through into the center first. “It’s fine. It’s empty,” he said, and Jonas and Dakota followed him in.

  Their feet squeaked as they walked on the tiled floor, and Lukas proceeded to the first door he saw. Inside he found a large gym complete with running machines, weights, and a whole heap of trashed gear. The bar bells were scattered across the floor, and one huge mirror that stretched the entire length of the wall was cracked. On a gym mat were a couple of dead bodies, flies swarming around them indicating that they weren’t going to be getting up again. There was no indication of anyone else inside. There was no sound either, just the faint regular sound of dripping water, and no other exit that he could see. There seemed little point in checking out the changing rooms, and he closed the door.

  “Nothing,” he said, looking back at the main entranceway. There were distant figures shambling through the parking lot. “I suggest we go upstairs. It’s too open down here, and we’re too visible. We need to put some space between us and them. Give ourselves a better chance of getting out of here. A couple of minutes, and we should be safe to come back down.”

  Lukas led them up a flight of stairs which indicated a seating area for non-swimmers. They passed a couple more dead bodies on the stairway, but the bodies were too far gone to be reanimated. It appeared as though most of them had been eaten. Lukas hoped they might find a food court or a kitchen. Despite everything, he was beginning to feel hungry. As they proceeded through the viewing area, Lukas found a vending machine. However, it had been completely emptied, and he kept going back into another corridor, looking for some place safe they could wait it out and maybe find a snack. Still, there was that sound of dripping water.

  Jonas questioned the wisdom of going too deeply into the building. “We can just sit it out here, Lukas. There’s no need to check out every room.”

  “I’m just saying that if we’re going to spend some time here, we may as well check it out. We could find something useful: guns, weapons…food.”

  “We just need to stay put and hide for a while,” said Dakota. “Let’s stop here,” she said, pointing to an empty office.

  Lukas shook his head. “Look, we’re here and we’re safe. We may as well have a look around. The place is empty.”

  Lukas swung open a door, and stared into a gloomy exercise room lined with floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Gym equipment had been discarded and left strewn everywhere: dumbbells, towels, skip ropes, exercise mats, and large fitness balls. Each and every item was covered in blood. Lukas shook his head. He wasn’t going to find anything here.

  The dripping of water became louder, and it became apparent to Jonas that something was wrong. It sounded less like a dripping, and more like a gushing sound. As they walked down the narrow corridor, Jonas realized his feet were wet. There were two inches of water lining the corridor, yet he couldn’t see the source of it. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to find a hole in the roof or a burst pipe, but there was nothing noticeable that would cause the flooding.

  “Hey, Lukas, be careful,” said Jonas. “We don’t need to be in here for hours. We should go back down and see if they’ve passed. We might need to find another exit.” They passed by another room, and Jonas took a look out of a small square window down into the parking lot. The horde of dead was right there, directly beneath them, and Jonas quickly pulled back out of sight. What pleased him was that they weren’t hanging around the main entrance but moving past it. It looked like the zombies were passing them by, but he couldn’t be sure, not yet. “Lukas, you hear me?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” replied Lukas. “Just stay away from the windows, Hamsikker. They’re close, but they don’t know we’re here. I think we’re safe up here.”

  Jonas kicked the water pooling at his feet and went back to the corridor. It sounded as if it was raining inside now. The air was damp, and he didn’t think there was an inch of him still dry. His clothes were soaked through, and now his feet were too. There had to be a leak in the roof.

  Lukas was stood in ankle deep water now up ahead of Dakota and Jonas. Pushing open a door carefully, he looked inside, turned around and smiled. “What did I tell you? There’s a staff kitchen in here. Looks like we’ve hit the jack…”

  With a huge cracking sound, Lukas suddenly disappeared. Jonas was looking at him, and the next he was simply gone. The cracking sound grew louder, and was replaced by what sounded like thunder. The water around Jonas’s ankles began to rush forward, threatening to sweep him off his feet.

  “Jonas?” Up ahead Dakota turned and reached out for her husband.

  As Jonas tried to grab hold of her, she disappeared too. Her scream bounced off the walls as she fell, and then Jonas felt the floor beneath him give away too. Finally, he understood. The whole floor was giving away, probably weakened by the flooding, unable to withstand the weight of the three of them walking on it. A torrent of water cascaded over his head as he fell, and though it was only seconds, it seemed like an eternity before he landed. He tried to look for Dakota, but it wasn’t just water that obscured his vision. Floor tiles and plaster bombarded him as he fell, and he became completely disorientated. Waiting for
the inevitable impact that would surely kill them, or at least render them incapable of walking, he wished he could see Dakota one last time. He wished he could drag her out of this place and send her some place safe, perhaps back to stay with Bishop. He tried to call out for her, but his mouth filled with water. He flapped his arms as if he could fly, and then abruptly hit the water below.

  It was like he had jumped into the ocean, so cold was the water that surrounded his body. He kicked furiously, trying to reach the surface, desperate for oxygen to replace the water he had swallowed. He blinked his eyes open, but as soon as he did they stung, and he caught only a glimpse of light before he had to close them again. Kicking his legs out, and trying to swim upwards, he finally broke the surface of the water and coughed.

  “Dakota? Dakota, where are you?” Jonas retched, and spat out the foul water that had gotten into his mouth. It tasted like a foul cocktail of chemicals and blood. Was there chlorine in there or bleach? He spat again, and wiped his eyes.

  “Dakota!” Jonas shouted for her, wishing she would scream. At least then he would know she was all right.

  Jonas looked around, trying to find her, trying to figure out where the hell they were. Evidently the floor they had been walking on was directly above the center’s vast swimming pool, and they had landed directly in the middle of the main pool. To one side of the huge room they were now in Jonas saw a row of seats. To the other side he saw two open doors that led to change rooms. There was a high diving board beneath a clock that had stopped at three o’clock. A tearing sound filled his ears, and then more plaster rained down on him. The ceiling was giving way, and more of it was coming down. They had to get out of there quickly. He was treading water as best he could, unable to feel the bottom of the pool. He knew Dakota could swim, but in this mess, with the roof caving in on them, anything could happen. He had to get her out of there.

  Jonas became aware of a body slipping by him. It was face down, and not moving. The brown hair was wrapped around the woman’s face, and the skin on her arms pale and wrinkled.