“Where’s the base supposed to be located?” I asked instead.
“Not far from here, but it might as well be miles with all these undead fuckers walking around.” His eyes searched the area around us, making sure we weren’t going to be spotted. “Jesus, the sound alone would have driven me insane a long time ago.” I agreed, but there had to be a somewhat safe way to enter the base, or they would have tried to move the survivors from there a long time back. Of course, even if we did happen to make it to the base, who’s to say the people there would even let us in? For all we knew, they’d leave us out in the open and ring a dinner bell for the zombies.
“We have to try,” I said after a moment. Jude’s jaw tightened as he jerked his knife out of the ground. “Even if there is only the slimmest chance that there are soldiers or civilian survivors there being held captive … we have to try and help them. My dad would have helped them.” Jude watched me as I spoke. I lifted my chin. “I have to try,” I said resolutely. Jude nodded, but he didn’t like it. That’s okay, he didn’t have to like it.
“Alright, G. I. Jane.”
Jude chuckled under his breath when I punched him in the arm. “Let’s go and try not to get killed, okay?”
“I’ll do my best, Agent,” I answered softly.
“The building is supposed to be exactly half a mile that way,” Jude said as he pointed into the city. I poked my head over the hood of the car we were squatted behind and winced. Right into the center of a mess of zombies. Vehicles were bumper to bumper as far as the eye could see, on every street, bodies lay strewn all over the place, and zombies walked in between it all … some of them were shoulder-to-shoulder with what looked like hundreds of their undead brethren. The further you looked into the city, the zombie population became even denser.
“The secret base is located beneath an old toy factory there.” What was with all the secret locations and toys? I grimaced. Creepy.
“So, what’s the plan again?” I asked.
“Run like hell?” Jude offered. That might actually be closer to the truth than either of us wanted to admit.
“You see how they’re clustered?” I asked as I squinted against the sun. Jude nodded.
“Some are in small groups or loners, but most of them are clustered in larger groups of twenty or more,” he said. I shook my head and pointed at the group closest to us.
“Yeah, but do you see where the larger groups are clustered?” I asked. Jude looked from group to group, his forehead crinkling in thought. His eyes widened fractionally.
“They are grouped together in the shadiest areas,” he murmured, thoughtfully. He moved to the other end of the vehicle and searched over the trunk of the vehicle, scoping out the area. “We might have a better chance if we can find areas like that one.” He pointed to a long spot of road and abandoned cars where only a few straggler zombies milled about in the heat of the day. “If we can move quickly, kill quickly, and get really fucking lucky, we might be able to make it to the factory by keeping to the sunniest areas.” I nodded my head. It was the best plan we had. I joined Jude at the back of the car and peeked over to the spot we were going to be running for. There were still half a dozen zombie between us and the first stretch of zombie-free zones. Not only that, once the zombies in the shade caught sight of us, being in the sunlight wouldn’t save us. We had to move quickly and there would be no room for error.
Jude held up a hand and counted down from three. Three … two … one … and we were running. My heart tripped out a frantic beat, the noise of the zombies in the city was drowned out by the blood rushing in my ears as we began our dangerous game of Russian roulette with zombies instead of bullets. Jude ran ahead of me, his knife finding the skull of a lumbering zombie halfway to the first patch of sunlight. Two more came after him and we both drove our knives into their skulls as quickly as possible before resuming our sprint across the road, weaving between cars and bodies. I didn’t dare look behind me as we ran, I couldn’t risk taking my eyes off of where we were going and I didn’t really want to know if any zombies were already following us.
Jude jumped up onto the top of a small car and landed on the other side to take down a female zombie who looked like it hadn’t fed since she’d been turned. I jumped on the roof, but my foot got caught halfway across. I landed hard on the roof, wondering how in the hell I’d gotten tripped up. I hadn’t. A zombie who must have been nearby or even in the car had grabbed my leg and was pulling me with the strength of a linebacker toward him, his mouth open with slushy green juices oozing down the front of his torn and tattered button up shirt. I raised my free booted foot and kicked him in the face three times, hearing bones crunch and rotten flesh squish, before his hold on me faltered. When he let go, I nearly screamed when Jude grabbed me by my arms to pull me the rest of the way across the little car.
“Are you done playing with the nice zombie?” Jude asked, breathing hard. I snorted as we began running once again. We ran full out, only pausing when a zombie got in our way. Run. Kill. Run. Kill. We were moving along quickly, but we were still pretty far from our destination. Jude drove his knife across the throat of a zombie as I rammed mine into the skull of one of his buddies. Another zombie materialized from behind a van and made his way toward Jude. I opened my mouth to tell him to watch out when, like out of the scene of a horror movie, zombies began pouring out from behind the van. Jude swiveled and I saw his eyes widen. I kicked the zombie off of my blade and stabbed a zombie close to me in the back of the neck. Jude sliced into a zombie and removed his knife just in time to ram it into the eye of another zombie. I made it to his side in time to find ourselves being corralled by a dozen or more zombies.
“Jude. On top of the cars,” I shouted. Jude nodded and as he slid his knife across the throat of two zombies and then pushed a huge zombie into four more closing in on us.
“Go!” he shouted. I jumped at his command and propelled myself up on the hood of a rusty, blue car. Jude shoved his knife into the skull of another zombie and I kicked one coming up behind him in the face, caving in its mushy face.
“Jude, now!” I screamed. I began running, jumping from hood to bumper, hoping Jude was right behind me. I couldn’t stop, couldn’t glance back, afraid I’d lose my footing and land on the ground at the feet of the zombie horde. I could hear the zombies, their tormented sounds getting closer, their shuffling growing louder as they worked themselves into a frenzy at the prospect of a fresh, midday meal.
Up ahead, I saw a large, run-down, factory and nearly wept from the sight. My elation was quickly grounded though, when I realized the entire perimeter of the factory was closed off by a high chain link fence with barbed wire gracing the top. I came to a spot in my car jumping where I wouldn’t be able to make the next jump. When I got to it, I jump down to the asphalt and quickly turned, glad to find Jude just a car jump behind me. His eyes scanned the factory behind me and I knew the moment his eyes found what I had. Absolute devastation was plain to read on his face.
“Keep moving, Mel,” Jude shouted as he jumped down from the car. I turned quickly and kept the gate to the factory in my line of vision, praying to God we’d be able to find a way in … and quickly. I cleared the corner of the only building left between us and the factory, my legs trembling from the pace we’d run at, when a zombie flew out of nowhere and knocked me to the ground. I scrambled back, pulling my gun out of its sheath on my leg. I held the tiny zombie off of me, but didn’t realize for a few precious seconds that I’d begun crying as soon as I realized that the zombie now trying to tear my throat out was a toddler, no older than three or four when he’d been turned. His body was a grotesque reminder of everything that was wrong in my new world, of everything that I’d tried to block from my mind and memories the last two years. The tiny tot-zombie gnashed his teeth in agitation and hunger as it strained against my hold. I lifted my gun and a sob escaped my throat. The zombie was ripped off me as I lay there, useless for the first time in a very long time. I turned my
head as Jude put the undead child down. Jude pulled me to my feet and shook me.
“Are you okay?” I nodded. “Good, cause we have problems,” Jude said as he grabbed my hand and jerked me toward the fence. We both landed against the shut the gate, hoping the chains would be faulty, or someone would come out of nowhere and let us in. Instead, just around the corner, in an alleyway we couldn’t have seen from the direction we’d just come from, dozens upon dozens of zombies stood in an almost-silent stupor in the shade of the building. Their rattling breaths and moans were the only things that gave them away.
“Oh shit,” I whispered.
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Jude whispered back. I pulled my gun out and put my knife in my left hand. “Melody … move quietly and slowly. See the side of the fence down that alleyway behind us?” I nodded, my breathing growing labored as I realized exactly how far up a creek we really were. And now it looked like were going to try and get into the factory perimeter through a side gate. Of course, the gate was down a little alleyway, which would make us cornered if the gate didn’t open there. We didn’t even have to make the choice. Dozens of zombies approached the area from where we had run and their frenzied noise and movement immediately roused the slumbering zombies in the shadow-darkened alleyway.
“Move!” Jude yelled. I didn’t hesitate. I ran full out, my legs pumping for everything I was worth, one hand gripping my blade, the other gripping my handgun. We ran up against the smaller gate and rebounded off of it. Locked.
I turned in time to see my greatest nightmare come to visit me in broad daylight. Zombies poured into the alleyway, blocking out our only escape and blocking out our only hope.
“I’m sorry, Mel,” Jude said as he pulled his gun off of his back.
“Don’t be,” I said softly, blinking back my tears. “The kiss wasn’t that bad,” I said with a grin. Jude snorted, shook his head, and then propped his gun up on his shoulder. I began squeezing off rounds, standing next to Jude as he made head shots one after another. Ten, twenty, thirty, undead dropped before us, but they seemed to multiply rather than diminish in numbers. When my gun was empty, I dropped it and pulled my knife out in front of me, waiting. It wasn’t long before the zombies advanced further and Jude dropped his empty gun next to mine.
If anything would be said of us when we were gone, it would have been that we went out kicking undead ass and not caring about taking names. As a team we were something beautifully terrifying to behold. I lost count of how many face, necks, and skulls my blade sliced through. Eventually my arm was numb of feeling and I only slashed out purely out of habit. I couldn’t feel where my blade ended and my arm began. The pile of undead in front of us grew large and somewhere in the back of my addled mind, I wondered if we would become buried beneath the rotting corpses and smothered to death rather than getting bitten. Wouldn’t that just suck? About that time I began laughing. Jude jumped beside me, the sound foreign and out of place in our world of slicing and dicing.
I dropped a zombie, but two more took its place before me. My chest hurt, my arms hurt, and I was so tired. We were fighting a fruitless war and we both knew it. Out of some perverse sense of preservation I had kept fighting this long, but I didn’t want to fight anymore. I glanced over and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jude still fighting, his arm moved so quickly I could barely make it out, his face was that of an avenging angel and I was instantly sorry we didn’t have more time. I sliced through the forehead of a girl in front of me and then … I just stopped. I watched in some sort of sick fascination as two zombies bumbled over the mound of bodies in front of me as I put my knife back in my boot.
“Melody! What the fuck are you doing?” Jude screamed at me, his voice full of terror. I blinked back tears, but I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. I closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry, daddy,” I whispered. I’d been a survivor long enough.
WHEN ARMS WRAPPED AROUND ME, I felt peace wash over me. I’d done enough, hadn’t I? Arms banded about my waist and jerked me back. I felt myself being pulled and I heard Jude yelling … but no bites came. When the shots came, I opened my eyes and found I was on the other side of the fence. Men in army fatigues had Jude on the ground, his face was in the gravel and his eyes bore into mine, accusingly. I went to move, but my arms had been pulled behind me and a large guy was there holding me in place. More shots echoed behind me.
“Let me go,” I said through gritted teeth. “I need to check on him.” The guy behind me snorted and held my arms tighter.
“Let’s get them inside, before these zombies work themselves into more of a frenzy,” someone ordered from next to me.
“You don’t have to treat us like criminals,” I snarled. The man who held me pulled me closer to his body and I immediately stiffened in his grasp.
“Sweetheart, no offense, but we don’t know you and you have to cleared of any bites before we let you free of restraints. Just be glad I know how to treat a lady and didn’t put cuffs on you like your boyfriend over there.” His southern twang caressed my cheek, and I shied away from his proximity, though I didn’t think he was trying to intimidate me. He was just stating facts. I nodded my understanding. “That’s a good girl,” he said approvingly.
“Good girl, my ass,” I muttered beneath my breath. I thought I heard the muscle head behind me chuckle, but I couldn’t be sure. I was still so weak-kneed from our run, almost death, and prompt rescue that I probably would have fallen into a heap on the ground if the guy behind me wasn’t halfway holding me up as we walked into the factory.
The inside of the factory was just what I imagined it would be—creepy. Unused machines sat collecting dust while broken parts of toys littered the floor and work spaces. Besides clowns scaring the bejeesus out of me, old dolls were a close second. Walking through an abandoned room with doll parts everywhere was going to seriously take some major therapy. I chuckled and felt everyone walking tense up. Wow, these guys needed to lighten up a bit. We were led into the back of the factory and then into what I could have only imagined used to be a small cleaning supply storage room. In the back of the room a door opened and we were shuffled down a small flight of stairs where we waited while a large door was unlocked. Down another flight of stair the next room opened up into a large holding area. Holding area with a few cells and two small, windowless rooms, that is.
“Put him in that room, the girl in the other.” Jude’s eyes met mine and I tried to smile reassuringly, but my heart was nearly pounding out of my chest. I didn’t have my gun and I was pretty sure my knife had been taken as soon as we were pulled into the fenced in area outside. I’d never felt so vulnerable. Jude was shoved into a room and I heard someone grunt out an order for him to strip down. I swallowed back the fear rising up in my throat and only barely kept from panicking. The large guy I’d yet to see, led me into the small room and turned on a small light hanging above the room from a cord. The light swayed back and forth illuminating a chair and a drain in the floor. Along with a hose hanging on the far wall.
“This should be interesting,” someone said from the doorway. I shivered involuntarily and the man behind me stiffened.
“What should be?” he snapped out at the two men standing there with their eyes on me.
“Oh, come on, Tex. You’re not going to keep all that to yourself are you?” The guys leered from where they stood and I could feel the shame of what they were insinuating wash over me. I also felt Tex vibrating in barely-repressed anger near me.
“Get the fuck out,” he growled over my shoulder. I shivered and a small sound of fear escaped my lips. One guy turned and left immediately, but a tall, pale skinned guy with shaggy blond hair curled his lip and stood there a moment longer, staring daggers at us before turning and muttering curses beneath his breath. Tex let go of my arms and walked over to the door to lock it. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair before turning back to me. His eyes found mine and they looked apologetic, but I still didn’t trust him … not even a little.
“Look, I’m sorry about this, but it needs to be done.” He walked over and stood in front of me. “Please strip down to just your bra and panties.” I flinched and he sighed. “I really am sorry. But, believe me, it’s better me than one of those other guys. I won’t hurt you. I just need to run some water over you and make sure you haven’t been bitten before we take you any further into the compound,” he explained. I stared at him a moment longer and then glanced over at the door. “They won’t be coming in. I don’t think any of them would hurt you, but taking advantage of your situation doesn’t set right with me. We don’t get many women coming into the city,” he said.
I nodded and grabbed the hem of my shirt. Get it over quickly. Don’t think about it. He was right … it could have been a lot worse … especially if that slimy-eyed guy had been the one in the room with me. I was shocked when Tex turned around to give me some semblance of privacy. Shocked and grateful. I pulled my dirty, gore-splattered shirt over my head and then unbuttoned my jeans with shaking fingers. I moaned from the stiffness in my arm when I picked up my clothing from the floor. Tex swung around, his eyes wide and his hand going to his gun. I froze and tried to smile, but failed miserably.
“Sorry, my arm feels like hell right now,” I said softly. His body relaxed a bit and he let out a breath.
“I thought there for a minute …” I winced.
“Sorry,” I said peevishly. He grinned and I found myself smiling back at a guy I didn’t know while standing in bare room in my panties and covered in filth and rot. I straightened fully and sat my clothing on the only chair in the small room. I walked toward the center of the room and met Tex’s eyes. His jaw clenched and he ran another hand through his hair before he walked over and removed the hose from the wall and turned it on.
State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) Page 10