by Mark Clodi
Chapter 46
Max and Stewart walked down a wide exhibit corridor towards the front of the building. “How many Max?” asked Stewart checking the loads on her pistol and the shot gun she was carrying yet again.
“I can see two who are really powerful. A half dozen more of the smart ones. Shoot anything that comes towards us. I know I will.”
“You can't tell what they look like or anything can you?”
“No. Well you know how Red looked in the field?”
“Not really, it was dark.”
“He looked alive. These guys, look stronger than him by a long shot, so shoot at the ones you think are alive first.”
“Fair enough.”
They rounded a bend and could see the main gallery and entrance to the Art Institute far ahead. Between them and the front doors the floor gleamed as if it were freshly cleaned, there were a couple things out of place, someone had thrown some rags on the floor near the far end, the rag piles stood out and pulled Max's vision towards them. His brain screamed 'gun!' as the first shots rang out. Stewart was thrown backwards by a fusillade of bullets and Max felt a sharp sting on his upper arm as he spun wildly and backpedaled for the corner they had just rounded.
Max made the corner and ran right into a woman dragging Ruben and Kirk by one arm each. Quick as lightning she let go of both men and clapped Max on both sides of the head. He reeled in pain and dropped his gun. Max almost stepped back into the hall to get away from the woman, but she saved him from being shot by grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pulling him towards her. Max made a feeble attempt to punch her in the stomach, which she blocked easily, pulling her arm back she punched him one, two, three times in the face.
“We done yet?” the woman asked.
Max gurgled and looked behind her at the men on the floor. Ruben was staring at him and shook his head 'no' slightly, an indication that Max took to mean that he should not fight anymore. Sagging in the woman's grasp he said, “Done.”
“Good. Some of them like their meat tender, but I find all this punching makes my hands hurt.” Calling around the corner the woman yelled, “Harry? It's me! Ella! I am coming out, I got these guys, three of them, plus the one you shot. Send some help down here to carry them along would you?”
“You got it.” a masculine voice called back, “You only left three of them alive?”
“So far, there are a few stragglers outside, but the gang will bring them in.” Turning back to Max, Ella said, “Move.” while gesturing for him to go around the corner. She bent to grab Ruben and Kirk's arms, but Ruben shook her off and lifted himself to his feet.
“I can walk myself. Let me get him.” Ruben said, while pulling Kirk upright and putting the man's arm around his shoulder.
“That leaves me on body duty. No, fuck that. You!” she pointed at Max, “Grab her and lets....are you bleeding?” she said, breaking off suddenly and looking at his arm, she reached towards it tentatively and Max pulled away. “You are! That is just...lovely...”
Ruben and Max stared at her as she gazed at the blood dripping from Max's sleeve.
Max looked down at Stewart, then at his shotgun which lay between him and her, he stepped around the corner bent down, then felt a body next to his, looking up he saw Ella standing over him, “I wasn't born last night, buddy.” One of her feet was on the barrel of Max's gun. He sighed and grabbed Stewart by the arms and pulled her up. She was heavy, her rifle clattered off of her body to the floor as Max tossed her over his shoulder and stood up.
Grunting Max moved in front of Ella, along with the other two men. Ella reached down and grabbed both of the guns from the floor, where a few drops of blood marred the surface, why this gave her pause, she couldn't say, instead she shrugged and herded the men towards the front of the building.
Stewart's hand kept bumping into Max and he was very aware of her pistol digging into his shoulder, Ella hadn't said anything about it when he pulled her up, she had been too focused on the guns laying on the floor. The troop of them slowly moved towards the main hall and the two intelligent zombies who had been waiting in ambush for them. Max tried to keep up with his surroundings, he was thinking furiously, trying to find a way out of the mess they were in. The side passages looked promising, but he wasn't going to outdistance Ella with Stewart on his back. Her hand bumped into him again and seemed to claw at his pants. Finally it hit him, she was alive. He hadn't seen any blood from her wounds and she, unlike him, had been wearing a bullet proof vest. The vest was on under her military clothing. Max had taken a helmet from the soldiers, but it was now sitting around the corner behind him, a lost artifact from Ella's punching.
Max shrugged his shoulder twice and squeezed Stewart's leg where he was carrying her. She responded by tensing the muscles in her leg.
“You okay Ruben?” Max asked, immediately followed by “Yes?” as Stewart squeezed the muscles of her leg again.
“Fine as a Turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving Max. You?”
“Well my face feels, hell Ruben I don't know how to describe it. I think my cheek is broken. I have all my teeth though.”
“Then you're doing better than me.” the man replied.
“Can you can walk okay?” Stewart tensed her leg once.
“Sure, I was just a little beat down is all, she got to me first outside. I wore her down for you. After Kirk wore her down for me.”
This prompted a laugh from Ella behind them.
“Geezus, if that was her wore down I don't think I'd want to see her at a hundred percent. Can you fight again?” Stewart tensed her calf once.
“Maybe in a couple of weeks, this little bronco wore me out Max.” Ruben answered, then asked, “How is your arm?”
“Feels fine. I think they just winged me.” Max said nodding to one of the smart zombies on the floor as they passed. “I think it was lefty there.” he said, turning slightly to look back down the hall. The zombie on the floor smiled up at him as if to say, 'nothing personal'.
Looking back at Ella, Max asked, “How'd you get in behind us so fast?”
“Does it matter? Less talky-talky, more walkie-walkie.” She made a pushing motion with her hands, as if shooing them forward. Both guns were slung over her shoulder by their straps.
“Are we that easy to take down that you don't even keep a gun on us?”
The woman smiled, “I didn't need one the first time and won't need one when I smack you so hard you fly into next Tuesday. Stop stalling and walk.”
Max turned back and stepped into the grand hall, “You are fast, I'll give you that.” Then a thought struck him and he looked back at the woman. He stopped dead in his tracks and said, “You are alive!”
“So?”
“But you...you're so fast! And you're on their side!” Max said shouting.
“So?” she asked again. Ella stepped around Max and made her way to a large chair that was set up on one side of the room. A middle aged zombie was sitting there, Max could tell he was a super even without using his special sight, the other woman to one side of him was younger, perhaps thirty when she died, she was slim and beautiful, with brown hair that verged on red and dark eyes. Both of these undead had sun browned skin and wore business attire, her in a conservative skirt with a white blouse and matching jacket, he in a tight fitting black suit.
“Harry, I brought you the prisoners as you told me to.”
“Only three alive, plus one half dead.” the woman sneered from one side. “We told you to bring them all back, I hope you had the rest of them turned at the very least.”
Ella gave the woman a dismissive glance and said, “You know the zombies don't like following my orders precisely, there were more causalities than expected.”
“How many did we lose?” Harry asked. He seemed distracted to Max, as if his focus wasn't here or that he didn't really care what the answer to his question was.
Shrugging Ella said, “I don't know, they came in through the park, the runners on the street broke
too soon and we lost a bunch out there. No cover, I told them to wait.”
From the hallway that Ella had taken them down the two zombies on the floor started firing their rifles at an unseen foe. After a moment a line of bullets riddled the floor of the hallway, stitching across one of the zombie's head and neck, but only hitting the other one in the shoulder. The damage to the second one was enough to make it impossible for him to fire his rifle and bullets flew down the corridor in such profusion that for a moment the single prone zombie was obscured by the dust raised from the rounds chipping holes in the floor.
Stewart regained her feet and pulled out her pistol before Max even realized she was moving, turning she started firing from the hip at Harry and continued to walk her gun up towards his head as she went. Only Harry wasn't there, he started moving as soon as Stewart and had ducked behind Ella. A fast zombie jumped towards Stewart, attempting to hit her blind side, but she spun and shot his teeth though the back of his head. Max finally felt in control of himself, he ducked sideways into another smart zombie, catching it by surprise as it rushed Stewart. They both fell backwards and Max had just enough time to see Ruben and Kirk separate and crouch down. Kirk leaned towards the zombie Stewart had killed and wrested an ancient revolver from its belt as the next wave of minions approached. Stewart turned to get a bead on Harry only to have her hand knocked brutally down by Ella's fist.
“Fuck!” Stewart yelled while punching the woman in the face. Ella's head rocked back and blood flew in a spray behind her, she continued to fall back in a roll and ended up spinning sideways in a crouch facing Stewart. Aubrey and Harry had stopped and were just watching. Ruben was in the best position to see all of the fighting, he noted Bill's arrival with some of the boys, he saw Max wrestling feebly with the smart zombie at the foot of Harry's chair and he saw Kirk take the first of three shots at Harry from his crouched position by the corpse nearby. The first shot rang out and a picture behind the zombie sprung a hole in it, shot number two hit Aubrey in the chest and splattered the wall behind her with gore. Then Kirk fell sideways, shot by one of the gun toting zombies headed their way. Even on the floor Kirk was a soldier to the end, he lined up one last shot and winged Harry in the right leg. The zombie hardly flinched and another round of gunfire stilled Kirk forever.
Ruben raised his hands to shoulder height and two of the zombie aimed guns at him, though the old man thought they were going to shoot him, they held back. Harry picked Aubrey up off of the floor and leaned close to whisper something in her ear. The woman's eyes met those of Ruben for a moment, then she finished getting up and turned to watch the fight between the two women. From her crouched position Ella launched herself at Stewart, who ducked sideways just as fast and landed another short blow to the other woman's ear as she went by. Ella screamed and lashed out with a kick sideways, Stewart took the blow on her thigh and had to backpedal to avoid falling down. This gave Ella her chance and she ran towards Stewart with both of her arms held wide. Stewart again side stepped and chopped her hand into Ella's elbow while trapping the woman's hand with her other arm, there was a sharp crack and Ella screamed in pain as her arm was broken.
Pulling the woman by her broken arm Stewart stomped down hard on Ella's foot, which caused the woman to scream again. Ella had one free hand and swung it around and connected soundly with the back of Stewart's head, causing the police officer to lose her grip on the broken arm. Pulling away Ella cradled her arm for a second, then pulled it straight out, while releasing another scream of agony. Stewart was dazed and stumbled into Ruben, who caught her and turned her around to face the other woman. The two gun toting zombies watching Ruben glanced at Harry, who shook his head slightly, indicating he didn't want them to interfere. Seeing this Ruben said “Go get her!” and pushed Stewart back towards Ella.
Bill got to the corner leading into the main galley of the Art Institute first and immediately pulled back when gun fire peppered the area.. Crouching down he risked a peek and saw a half dozen zombies with various pistols and rifles looking towards his position. One of the fast zombies came running around the corner firing two pistols, his charge was brought up short by Javier and Bart. Chen was back at the last corner they had passed, watching the hall behind them to make sure no one followed them.
“Grenade?” asked Javier, after a moment of waiting in vain for the other zombies to charge blindly around the corner at them.
Bill shook his head, “No, Ruben is up there. Max and Stewart too. It looks like they got Kirk.”
“How many?”
“Four guys watching the hallway, a couple watching Ruben, one wrestling with Max, Stewart is fighting some woman and there are a couple others standing against the wall just watching everything.” Bill said, running the images through his mind quickly.
“What do we do Sarg? We can't just sit here. They will bring more up behind us.”
Bill thought for a moment, then nodded. “Gimme a grenade. You take one too and follow my lead.”
Max could not get the goddamned zombie off of him. In high school and even in college he had wrestled for the schools he attended. He was never a top performer, but he liked the attitude and the way he could eat pretty much anything during training and not gain weight so he had kept it up until he got married. While he was not a champion by any means, he knew how to wrestle, something his opponent did not know. The problem was his opponent was very strong and didn't react to pain the way a living person would. The normal holds of any given match were fairly easy to apply, but the zombie was just using brute strength to break free from them. Then it hit him, he was fighting by the rules, the rules of a game that no longer had any meaning in his current context. I need to let go of the reins on this one. Wrestling, like chess, involved planning ahead to win the match. If your opponent was new to the sport the easiest wins were achieved with the most basic of moves, however, much like a game of chess, seasoned veterans developed counter moves.
Stewart was seeing double, shaking her head wasn't helping. The two Ella's in front of her were only swinging one arm, but which one was the real one? A blow landed on her cheek and she tasted blood in her mouth, then she took a hit to the stomach, that one didn't hurt as much, her vest absorbed most of the blow. She used the opportunity to punch Ella in the throat, her follow up blow missed the 'other Ella', but the shot to the neck seemed to give the woman pause. Both fighters stepped back, Stewart blinked her eyes and tried to get the Ella's to merge. For her part Ella was only interested in landing a killing blow, her arm was causing her tremendous pain, it felt like there were a thousand worms burrowing through her muscles and bones. Experimentally she flexed her fingers on that hand, they moved! Bending her arm slightly only led to pain, however when she did so something seemed to twitch in her elbow and it didn't hurt as bad as it had a moment ago. Smiling she looked on as Stewart continued shaking her head.
“What's the matter bitch? Having vision problems? Just wait until I rip out your eyes!”
“Talk, talk, talk. Why is it all the goddamned zombies just want to talk?” Stewart replied, still she made no move forward, she was waiting, thinking of her Akido lessons and preparing herself.
“You want action? I don't think you really do? You're stalling.” Ella said, which, truth be told, so was she.
Stewart made a sudden step forward, causing Ella to move sideways, which caused Stewart to bark out a short laugh, “Made you flinch.”
Ella heard Aubrey laugh as well, which sent her into a rage, focusing she ran forward to Stewart and at the last second twitched herself sideways. Ella knew the other woman had some training and she was hoping to thwart any moves Stewart had planned. Her plan worked, Stewart had reached out to pull Ella sideways, but the last instant move had put the woman in the wrong place, the two crashed together and bounced apart. Ella had managed to catch onto Stewart's military shirt and ripped the tough fabric apart as they separated, revealing the bullet proof vest the officer was wearing.
“Hah! Bitch! I knew you
couldn't have taken a punch from me and still stand.”
Stewart sighed and just gestured 'Come on' with her hands, her vision had cleared and once again there was just one Ella standing in front of her. Her opponent jumped forward and then ducked down low, sliding under Stewart. For a split second Stewart thought about jumping onto her, but then decided against it, she was not an expert at holds or wrestling and had done well enough using kicks and punches so far. She tried to spring away, but Ella's hand reached out and caught her above the right ankle, the other women twisted and squeezed, putting all her effort into it, but Stewart had momentum on her side and broke away to roll and regain her feet. Ella was up again like lightening and pounced on the now limping Stewart, who barely pivoted in time to take the punch on her vest instead of her hip. The blow lifted her from her feet and sunk her into Harry's chair, kicking upwards she nailed Ella in the crotch with her military boot. Ella stumbled and caught herself on one arm of the chair, putting her and Stewart's heads close together.
Stewart looked at her and whispered, “You know they will kill you. They are not helping you. Come with us.”
This shocked Ella more than anything, she felt a bubble of laughter well up inside of her and she said, “You? You? Where were you when I needed help? Where were any of you? I was left here! They saved me! They took care of me, gave me power!” Ella started punching Stewart in the chair, hitting the woman in the face and occasionally landing a blow on her arms or legs, but avoiding the vest covered area entirely.