Wake the Dead

by Vanucci, Gary F.

  As he caught sight of her again, she disappeared into the upper story window of the building upon which she stood. When she reemerged from the window, she held up something that looked like a radio—no, not a radio—it was a walkie-talkie, Alex confirmed, looking through the binoculars. He could not deny as he observed her more closely, that he was immediately and entirely aware of how stunning her features were, chiseled and exotic to say the least. In that instant, it was difficult for him to look past her exterior beauty in order to focus on the task of getting her down safely.

  She gestured as if she were going to throw it, pulling Alex from his superficial ponderings, managing to offer a nod of consent. He braced himself against the tree as she threw it right toward him. He leaned and reached for it, slowed its flight briefly, as it slammed into his hand, but he ultimately dropped it, almost falling out of the tree branch himself as he did so.

  Something went flying away from the top of the talkie. He believed it to be a knob of some kind at first. As he climbed down and inspected it further, he found it to be the antennae that had come free instead.

  “Nice catch,” spoke the sweet voice through the speaker. Alex could not help but smile despite the dire situation. “It’s a good thing they are made for construction workers.”

  Alex slowly and carefully made his way back up to his perch, Shadow watching him as he climbed.

  “Hello,” Alex said, kneeling uncomfortably on the branch as Shadow stared up at him.

  “You have to push the button on the left side top in order for me to hear you, genius,” instructed the voice in a venomous tone. Alex frowned at her remark this time.

  “She’s a real charmer, eh, Shadow?” he said as he stared down at the wolf. Shadow growled, directing his stare toward the fence, no doubt sensing the threat that lay behind it.

  “Listen, I’m wanting to try to help you, but if you want me to go….”

  Uncomfortable silence ensued for well over a minute. Alex looked over to her and she sat with her head in her hands.

  “What are you proposing, Lancelot? I’ve got jokers to the front, jokers to the rear, and here I am, stuck on the roof all by my lonesome.” Alex could detect a real sense of pain and despair in her voice, as if she had only recently lost someone she held close. He recognized that feeling all too well in the recent past. Alternatively, perhaps it was that she was at her wit’s end. It could simply be indifference ruling her tone.

  “Alex. My name is Alex—not Lancelot. And I am thinking…,” he said, holding in the button and then releasing it. He paused a moment, trying to think of what he could do to help her down.

  “I can see the steam rising from your head,” she said flippantly, an accompanying laugh filtering through the talkie.

  “Could you get inside any of the connecting buildings there?” Alex asked, ignoring her comments.

  “Not really. I’ve got some dead friends in here that will probably be turning into these things soon enough. We were attacked recently, holed up in here very quietly. We were living off whatever we found within the walls until the grounds grew more and more choked with these jokers.” She paused briefly and Alex did not prod, but merely waited for her to continue. “We initially made a break for the gates, but found that some asshole had sealed them from the outside. So, we made the best of it in here. Then they finally broke in here and overwhelmed us. I’m the only one left. And I just ran out of water…and hope. No offense.”

  “I can try to create a distraction to draw them away,” Alex stated bluntly.

  “I’m all for it, Alex,” she said as she laughed from what he thought might be desperation on her part. Alex said nothing and scanned the area again. He looked to the right and finally saw the answer to his needs. Off in the distance he saw the parking lot full of cars.

  “When was the last time you ate something?” Alex asked.

  “Sometime yesterday I polished off some candy,” she started saying, “and it looks like I may have had my last meal. Haven’t had anything nutritious in days.”

  “What about drink? Can you run? What kind of shape are you in physically?”

  “Listen, Alex. I don’t know what kind of cockamamie idea you’ve got brewing in that tiny brain of yours, but unless you ring the dinner bell for the jokers here, I’m kinda fucked. So why donthca—”

  “Dinner bell, eh?” he interjected. “Gimme a minute.”

  He stared around and saw nothing that would constitute a safe avenue for her other than running to and hopping a fence. Alex saw a few jousting spears lying around what he could only imagine were once horses and had another thought.

  “You see those jousting spears to your right? In the alley there?”

  “Yes, Alex. Would you like me to joust the—“

  “Stop it. I’m trying to help you. Do you have enough strength in you to try to use one of those to pole vault the fence?” Again, there was silence for a good long while.

  “Jousting rods won’t bend and I am in no shape to attempt killing myself that way, Lancelot.”

  “Very well…by the way, what is your name?”

  “Selina.”

  “All right, Selina. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

  “Ok, I’ll be here.”

  “Shadow, stay.” The wolf looked at him, panting, and lay back down right where he was previously sitting.

  Alex raced off and back up the hill behind him and across the highway back to the trees where he parked the van. He tossed all the branches away that he had stacked against the rear doors, unlocked them and threw them open. He started digging through the back to see if he could find anything that he could use.

  He removed a quilted blanket that was covering the hollowed out area where the spare tire was kept. Inside, he found the jack and the tire iron and stared at it for moment before tossing it aside.

  Then he glanced around and remembered there was a bag of tools lying under the passenger seat. He quickly sifted through the bag, where he picked up wire cutters, pliers, wrenches, and tossed them all aside. Finally, he found the tool he desired—tin snips.

  He started up the van and repositioned it completely, turning it to face the road, just in case. His new plan would almost certainly require a quick getaway and he wanted to be prepared. He tossed the extra satchels he had brought with him back inside the van, taking only the one with the first aid supplies before locking the doors once again.

  He raced back down the hill to stand before Shadow, trying to catch his breath as he knelt before the fence. He probed and found a gap in the wood that she would be able to slide through and he snipped approximately four foot of fencing.

  He pocketed the tin snips, climbed back up the tree and pointed at the area. He grabbed the talkie and quietly spoke again. “There is a slight gap in the fence directly in front of me. Do you see that? I think you can make your way through there.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  “I can open the main gate, too, if you’d rather try to pick your way through,” Alex suggested.

  “There’s no way I can make that run.”

  “I agree. This way is more direct.”

  “I see the gap. I can make it through there…if you can somehow get the jokers out of here,” Selina said skeptically. “That seems to be the hard part.”

  “Sit tight. When you see the distraction, make for the fence and climb this tree. I’ll be back for you,” Alex stated boldly.

  “Whoever you are, Alex, you’ve got some moxy. I’ll give you that,” she said. There was a short silence and she spoke again. “What should I be looking for?”

  “You’ll know it when you see it…or hear it. Just do what I said. I’ll meet you back here soon enough. Just climb down and run for that gap when the zombies move.” With that, Alex climbed down, retrieved his fallen arrow, bent low to the wolf and stared him in the eyes. “Follow me, boy.”

  The pair picked their way through the open area quietly and Alex closed in on the area designated as the parking lot.
There was a good deal of vehicles sitting in the lot for him to pick through, neatly packed with a few missing here and there. Whenever the plague hit, all of these people must have been inside the fairgrounds. As he moved even closer to the wreckage, Alex could see more of the devastation that resulted from terrified people trying to get back onto the turnpike. Their cars were piled up, dented, burnt, and some were worse than that. It was like a domino effect of cars ramming into one another. As he observed the layout of the lot, he recognized clearly that it was an open field and if one had to get out, it would not be very difficult.

  Shadow padded after Alex as he picked his way through the maze of cars until he paused and got his bearings somewhere in the middle. He avoided the few zombies who were wandering around the lot, but when he stood to check his position again, Shadow growled and leaped.

  To his rear flank, a zombie had closed on him and he didn’t even hear it. Shadow pounced on it, his paws on its chest, biting at its chest as Alex removed his knife and jammed it though the zombie’s left eye. It twitched a few times and then remained still.

  “Saved my ass again, Shadow.”

  He began checking doors and then started looking for keys. Five cars in, he found a Chevy pickup with the keys under the visor.

  “Get in, boy,” Alex said, holding the door open. “Just in case we gotta high tail it outta here.” Shadow climbed reluctantly into the truck, he rolled down the driver side window and honked the horn in one short burst. It sounded loudly, he was relieved to find, thinking this to be the one he would use.

  He looked around and saw a few zombies to the north moving his way and he stood on the hood of the car, waited for one to get closer and let fly. The arrow penetrated its head and sent it away to disappear behind a vehicle. A second zombie to his right closed on him swiftly and again he nocked an arrow, exhaled, and let the arrow loose. It too, found its mark truly.

  He heard that zombie hit the ground as Shadow snarled again from inside the truck, his head completely out of the partially lowered driver side window.

  “What the hell are you doing?” called a man’s voice from behind him and to the left of the vehicle. Alex spun and nocked an arrow toward the sound and held it. The sun was abundant in its presence, blinding him to the source of the voice.

  Chapter 11

  “That was your dumb ass that blew the horn, I’m guessing?” accused that same callous male voice.

  As the source of the voice cleared the sun line and came into view, Alex could see a diminutive man with glasses leading them. He was a thin, muscular fellow with a thick head of brown hair, and he stared at Alex with a pair of beady eyes from behind his spectacles.

  A woman, covered head to toe in various pieces of armor followed him. She carried a hand axe and wore a shield on her right arm, and long chestnut hair flowed from beneath a tightly fitting helm of steel. No hints of flesh escaped from beneath her armor and clothing, though Alex could see that she probably hit the gym in her day, too. Her shoulders were broad and her arms well-proportioned to match, being no ‘helpless female’ by his estimation. She could take care of herself. Her dark eyes held a reserved intelligence and a stoicism that would make a poker player proud.

  Another male followed her, with grey stubble peeking through a medieval, chainmail coif, with a graying, unkempt goatee that seemed to have grown out of control. He wore a chainmail shirt, too, and carried a traditional long sword, while he held a shield strapped to his right arm. The man was burly in a mountain man sort of way, Alex summed quickly before barking a command.

  “Stop right there, please,” Alex cautioned, unsure of what else to say at seeing these people. “And yes, it was me.” He stowed his bow, removed his Beretta from his belt, and leveled it at them as he chambered a round. “Look, I don’t want any trouble

  “Nice pup,” said the bald man as he stared after Shadow.

  “It’s not a dog, it’s a wolf. Now, I don’t have anything of use, so if you are here to rob me, I’m going to put a bullet in each one of you.”

  “Easy, tiger,” said the woman, smirking at him. “We just don’t want you causing any kind of hassle for us.”

  “And we’re not here to rob you,” said the little fellow with the glasses. “We’re about to head out on a supply run, and we traditionally do that with the utmost silence.”

  “You live here!?” Alex asked incredulously.

  The three of them looked to one another and the man wearing the glasses looked back to Alex and nodded his head.

  “As I have already stated, we are staying in the castle at the far north of the fairgrounds, and are heading out to get much-needed supplies. So, if you sit out here blowing the horn, we’ve got a problem,” stated the man, bending low as if he were in physical pain during the explanation. “And, I just snuck these two armor-clad heathens with me through the fairground alleys and out, and that was hard enough. I don’t need you blowing the horn and waking up the dead. Literally.”

  “Well, then we’ve got ourselves a big issue here. I’m trying to create a distraction to get a woman free from a couple hundred zombies. I need to get those things out and away from that woman so she can get down from a roof! She’s trapped up there! I won’t just leave her up there to die.” Alex got into the car and held the gun on the group, unflinching, as the trio exchanged glances and began to whisper among themselves just as Alex leaned on the horn.

  “…begging you to stop…,” was all Alex heard over the constant blaring of the horn. They looked around with wide eyes as zombies from all over began to head their way. Alex stopped blowing the horn and stared at the trio.

  “You guys should probably get in the back,” Alex said matter-of-factly as zombies ran, crawled, and stumbled toward them. Alex continued to sound the horn for another long minute. Shadow growled, and then howled in unison with it.

  “You are one stupid mother—“

  The sound of the horn drowned out that last accusation thankfully, and Alex began to drive the truck away, picking his way through the zombies using the spaces in between the vehicles.

  “If they get close, can you use those weapons to bring them down?” Alex asked them.

  The woman holding the axe, and the man with the sword looked at each other, then back to him, and nodded confidently, the woman adding, “we’ve been doing it for months.”

  “Great. I’d rather not waste the bullets,” Alex added.

  Their attention was suddenly drawn away from each other when they collectively heard a thunderous sound from behind them. Alex turned to see what happened and witnessed a large section of the gate as it collapsed under the weight of the zombie mob.

  “That’s a problem,” mentioned the diminutive man in the back. “We were trying to contain them. Made them easier to hunt!” he yelled as Alex stepped on the gas a bit deeper.

  “Nick’s gonna be pissed,” yelled the other man as he tapped the window of the truck with his sword.

  “Sorry, man, just trying to do right by—“

  “A damsel in distress,” the woman interjected, smirking at Alex despite the relative insanity of the situation. His initial summation of this woman was mistaken, as she was genuine in her joy, approving of Alex’s decision. The impassiveness was a front, he decided.

  Alex ran into a pair of zombies, refocusing his attention on his task, as the undead creature bounced off the side and front of the vehicle respectively. He subsequently ran one of them over, causing everyone in the rear of the truck to stagger and then right themselves again. Then he spun the vehicle to the right, tearing up the grass in the process, as the tires could not tread against the dirt and grass very well with the zombie carcass underneath.

  “Hold on!” he yelled as the truck barreled down the hill toward his rendezvous point with the sardonic woman named Selina. As the distance closed, they could see zombies racing after the vehicle from all directions. Alex drove the truck so fast that he actually distanced himself from the pursuing horde of the living dead. He glanc
ed back in the rearview mirror and smiled as they were tripping over themselves to get after them. He stared at the gap in the fence and watched it ripple slightly. Then a boot appeared from behind and eventually, arms, a torso and the rest of Selina squeezed through the gap.

  He was only a dozen paces from her when she emerged fully, still crouched low, and Alex slowed the pickup truck to a crawl. Selina glanced around and witnessed the truck closing in on her. She made to stand, but a hand—one that clearly originated from something not quite human—grasped her arm firmly.

  Before Alex could reach for his gun on the dash, the man with the sword leaped from the back of the vehicle and charged toward her. As Selina tried to free herself from the vise-like grip, her footing came out from under her and she slipped.

  The rest of the zombie began to emerge from the gap, blood spitting from its mouth as it anticipated consuming a long-sought-after meal. However, instead of feasting on human flesh, it met with the cold steel of a sword, which drove through its skull, stopping it—and anything else that followed—in its tracks. Selina ran and climbed into the back of the pickup, smiling slightly at Alex.

  The swordsman also pulled something out of his own pack and Alex watched intently as the man knelt before the fence and quickly latched the snipped gate with a few plastic zip-ties while Alex turned the vehicle around.

  He looked at Alex who waved him on and the man did just that, running and jumping into the back of the pick up just as more of the zombies closed in on them. Alex drove off hastily again and began to shout at them in the back of the vehicle.

  “When I get some distance between us and them, I’m going to let the truck go! I’ve got a van parked under the trees less than a mile up the road to the east!” He gazed over at Shadow, and the wolf was surprisingly calm as the events continued to unfold.