He let out a frustrated breath and kicked the zombie one last time.
We followed Ed in complete silence as he led us through the subterranean network. I was surprised at how well the kid knew his way around. The entire tunnel was coated in a gross layer of slime that hung from the ceiling in disgusting formations.
“Snotsicles,” Ed said.
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
After walking for what seemed like forever and crossing a few more smart blockades, Ed finally stopped and pointed up. “This is the way out.”
I glanced up at the metal rungs embedded in the wall, leading up to the surface. Light glared through the round openings.
“Are you sure?” Steven asked.
Ed shot him a confident look. “Positive.”
I clambered up the rungs two at a time, with the others right on my tail. At the top, I heaved the manhole cover with all my might, and it finally slipped loose. Fresh air greeted me, and I sucked in a lungful. I glanced around until I caught sight of the girl in the distance. She had long, curly hair and was petrified, clinging to a bronze rendition of a decorated officer sitting on a horse. The statue was situated atop a huge pillar, and a pack of hungry zombies prowled around it.
Chapter 16
I wondered how long Steven’s girlfriend had been forced to sit on the bronze horse with zombies prancing below her. The one thing I knew for sure was that we had to get her out of there as quickly as possible. The sun was setting, and darkness would not be our friend. “I see her,” I said.
“I knew Rachel was still alive,” he whispered.
I slowly climbed out, hid behind a white car, and peered ahead. The zombies were still completely fixated on Rachel, shuffling aimlessly around the statue, bumping into each other, and snarling like wild animals.
“Time for me to do my magic, guys,” Ed said, then took off like lightning.
I stared ahead at a bald zombie that was chomping away at something. When I peered closer, I about gagged. I could see fingers; it was eating a human hand. “We need a better hiding place,” I whispered to Steven as my stomach churned. They hadn’t caught sight of us, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before some of them would spot us and alert the others that there was fresh meat lurking about.
Swallowing hard as beads of sweat rolled down his face, he nodded.
I stared at the undead army of hideous creatures all around me, then darted my eyes in other directions. Off to the right, there was a row of unkempt bushes that we could sneak into. I motioned toward the new hiding spot just as a small group of zombies began lumbering straight in our direction. The leader had wide, gaping gashes on its cheek and chin, and the skin around its eyes was black and sunken. I thought maybe we could make a run for the bushes, but a dozen zombies were now coming from that exact direction. Crap! “Under the car,” I whispered. I crawled underneath the vehicle and pressed myself as close to the ground as I could get.
Steven flattened himself on the hard cement, his eyes wide as the group stumbled past the exact spot where we’d just been seconds ago.
I wiped my brow and tried to still my racing heart. Little did the flesh-eaters know that a meal lay right at their decrepit feet.
A few long, lonely minutes passed. I didn’t like that the zombies were hanging out by the car, and I wondered if they had captured our scent.
Steven suddenly let out a yelp as something dragged him back a few inches. “They got me!” he said, trying to hit their fingers with the bat.
“Kick!” I frantically said.
A look of pure terror spread across his face as he fought to get his leg free.
The flesh-eaters started making their feeding frenzy noises, and the whole group seemed excited. More clumsy, rotting hands began to grab and reach under the car. Dirty fingernails clawed dangerously close to my sweaty face. When the next swipe came, I inched back. A zombie with a torn, sliced face reached for me. It looked like it was demon possessed, and the deep growl it let out sent shivers up my spine.
We were drawing too much attention, and I knew we needed to get away. Firing a gun would draw even more attention, but Steven was in a dangerous situation, and I knew if I didn’t act fast, zombies would bite into his thigh like it was the colonel’s original recipe any second. Grabbing my gun, I aimed and fired at the zombie that had a tight grip on his boot. When the thing let go, Steven moved a few inches closer to me.
I watched their shuffling feet as they walked around. I stared at torn pants in various styles and colors, covered in complete filth, mud, and dried blood. Some of the foot-draggers wore ripped shoes, while others had only one shoe or no shoes at all. There were dead, rotting feet pounding the pavement as the creatures tried to quench their bloodthirsty appetites.
“What now?” Steven asked.
“Stay put.”
“But they know we’re here,” he said in a panic. “They’ll never go away. If more come, they’ll overturn this car to get to us.”
“Going out there would be worse.” And I highly doubt they can turn this car over, I thought. Worst case scenario, they’d drag us out and…
“At least then we can make a run for it,” he said.
“There’re already dozens surrounding the car,” I breathed out.
“I know, but we can’t stay here,” he said.
My hands began to tremble in fear. “I know. Just give me a minute to think.”
“Think fast, man!”
Recalling that zombies didn’t have great motor skills or hand-eye coordination, a thought struck me. “Follow me!”
He nodded.
I army-crawled toward the next car in line. The infected weren’t trained bloodhounds, and they were too dumb to realize we could move from car to car, down the line of all the automobiles parked around the curb. As we moved along, time became a blur. I didn’t know what was taking Ed so long, since his only job was to drop off a boom box and start blasting music. If something happened to that kid, I’ll never forgive myself, I thought. I don’t know how many cars I crawled under, but it was at least ten, and not one zombie followed us. They might have outnumbered us, but they could never outsmart us.
“There she is,” Steven said, peering out from under the last car. “We need to get her attention.” He tried to flag her down, but she couldn’t see him under the car.
“Let’s just wait for Ed,” I whispered. “We’re safe down here.”
“No,” he said. “We can hide in that dump truck. They’ll never see us. Rachel needs to know I’m here.” Without waiting for any response from me, he took off and headed toward his girlfriend.
I didn’t want to leave my hiding spot, but I didn’t want to leave the idiot with no backup either. With my gun drawn, I hurried over and jumped inside the dump truck next to Steven. The front end was completely totaled. I wasn’t sure what had caused the accident, but the heavy-duty vehicle was crushed up against a tree, and it provided us with some much-needed cover. I peeked out and scanned the area. There were so many of them out there, getting ever closer, and I held my breath as more sweat ran down my face. Never in my life would I have thought I’d miss a sewer, but in that moment, I would have given anything to be back underground in that smelly labyrinth.
Steven tried to jump out, but I pulled him back.
“Don’t play hero,” I whispered. “Just stick to the plan.” I knew if he went out there in a blaze of glory and started shooting, he’d ruin everything. I let out a trembling breath as a cool breeze swept over my sweaty face. “You lure those things over here, and you’d better hope they rip you to shreds before I have a chance to,” I said firmly. “You won’t do Rachel any good by letting her watch you die.”
“Right,” he said, calming down a bit. “You’re right.”
I contemplated going back under the car and staying as far away as I could from Steven, who wasn’t thinking clearly. His panic and grief for his girlfriend made him somewhat of a loose cannon, but he needed me. I didn’t have the same emotion
al ties to the girl, and I could think straight. I knew what it was like to insanely put it all on the line to save a loved one, but I didn’t want Steven to get himself or any of us killed by acting foolishly just to save the one he cherished the most.
Silently, Steven and I frantically waved until Rachel spotted us.
“Steven! Please help me!” she yelled.
As if on cue, loud music began to blare from the shop, and while I’d never been a fan of hip-hop, it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.
The corpses immediately turned their heads and began shuffling past us, as if they were hypnotized by the sound. Nick, Lucas, and Val had taught me well: Zombies were easily distracted, stupid, and predictable, and we could use that to our advantage.
“It’s working!” Steven said, his shoulders shrugging in relief.
I saw Ed frantically looking for us and tried to wave him over, but when he didn’t see us, Rachel pointed him in our direction.
“I put it high on a shelf,” Ed whispered. “I set it to repeat.”
“It’s clearing,” I said, “but just give it another minute to make sure.”
While we waited, I stared down at my scuffed, muddy boots. All of us stank to high heaven, even worse than the zombies.
Most of the undead had lumbered toward the open door of the antique store to investigate where the music was coming from. When we saw that the place was clear, we motioned Rachel to climb down and sprinted over.
She jumped into Steven’s arm, tears flowing down her face. “Thank you for coming, Steven. I knew you would!”
“Let’s go,” he said, yanking her hand.
“Look out!” Rachel screamed, pointing behind me.
I spun around and saw a zombie in a white, bloody dress with long, black fingernails reaching for me. Deep cuts stretched down her face. With a fierce kick, I delivered a thunderous blow. She flew back and hit a marble statue, then crashed into the grass. Steven tried to shoot her in the head, but I grabbed his arm to stop him. “Are you crazier than old Jim or what?” I whispered. “That’ll be their dinner bell!”
Ed grabbed Steven’s arm tightly. “C’mon, dude!”
We ran past all the swirling trash in the street and back to the manhole cover that we’d left slightly ajar for a quick escape. I pushed the heavy cover to the side and rushed down the metal rungs. My boots stomped over glass shards and through the green algae slime, and I almost slipped, but I managed to regain my balance by holding my arms out. I thought of my brother; if he had seen me down there in that wet, dark, cement tube, he would have freaked out.
Ed splashed in front of us as he led the way, his wavering flashlight beam illuminating the way, and I made a face as hundreds of cockroaches scurried across the wall.
Steven walked briskly through the tunnel, never letting go of Rachel’s hand. “Where’re Charlie and Amanda?” he asked.
“They’re…dead,” Rachel whispered, her chest heaving with ragged breaths. “Torn apart right before my eyes. It was awful, Stevie.”
“I’m sorry,” Steven said. “I wish we could’ve saved them too.”
“I know,” she said, her voice trembling. She then glanced up at me. “I’m Rachel.”
I walked faster to keep up with Steven. “I’m Dean. We’re staying at the lab with you guys for a few weeks.”
She shot me a sincere look of gratitude. “I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my life.”
I smiled. “I couldn’t leave you hanging on a statue, could I?”
She grinned back. “I guess not.”
After a few twists and turns, Ed abruptly stopped.
I peered into the dim light up ahead. I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear faint splashing and those awful groans I’d learned to dread. My stomach clenched, and I suddenly felt like a caged rat. Suddenly, the grass seemed much greener on the zombie-populated streets, where we had plenty of room to fight. The subterranean landscape was unfamiliar territory, and I knew the zombies had the advantage.
The wide tunnel suddenly split into three parallel chambers, and Ed led us down the one to the right.
After a few minutes, I began to hear a slurping sound, like something was eating. “You guys hear that?” I asked.
Ed shined his flashlight up ahead into the darkness, revealing human forms hunched over, sucking on something. One stood, and blood ran down its mouth as it held up a headless rat. It released a guttural howl.
“Zombies!” Ed whispered, trying not to alert them to our presence.
It was too late, though, because they immediately began scrambling through the murky water toward us. Their hungry moans pierced my ears.
Ed motioned us to take the next tunnel to the right.
I bolted, following his lead. When he abruptly stopped, I gazed around. “What?”
He shined his flashlight down on a thin string that served as a tripwire. “Careful, man.”
I glanced up and swallowed. Precariously hanging from the ceiling was a huge log with spears sticking out of it, a deadly trap that certainly wouldn’t feel very good if it slammed into anyone. I stepped over the tripwire and raced down the tunnel. When I heard a loud thud, I hoped the trap had taken lots of them out or that it had at least slowed them down.
We took so many turns in such a hurry that everything became a blur. The hair on my neck rose when I heard more moans from the undead behind us, coming from zombies that had followed us from the adjacent tunnels.
“Dead end!” Rachel gasped.
My flashlight beam bounced around the dark, slimy wall blocking our path. I glanced at Ed, my heart racing. “I thought you knew these tunnels!”
“I guess I got confused, man. Sorry!”
“Confused?” Steven said. “Our lives are literally in your hands!”
Ed fumbled with the straps on his headlamp nervously. “We need to go back one tunnel, then turn left.”
I let out a breath and assessed my situation. “There are only a few zombies. Instead of running from them and getting ourselves lost worse, I say we take them on and get back on track.”
Steven nodded, shining his light ahead. “One a piece should do the trick.”
Ed bolted for the skinny zombie and hit it in the kneecaps. Thrown off balance, it fell forward, its neck hanging awkwardly as it sank into the deep puddle. Rachel finished it off with her steel-toed boot. I decided to take down the zombie that looked like a mailman, dressed in a torn, dirty postal uniform. I thumped it with my bat, then reared back for another swing. It crashed back into the puddle next to the red-headed zombie Steven had just taken out.
Steven tugged my arm. “Let’s go!”
We followed Ed and were back on track in no time. He led us deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels, trying to make it harder for the zombies to follow us. Either that, or he was lost.
When more growls echoed in the air from in front of us, I stopped to survey the situation. I spotted four or five zombies.
“It’s doable. We can take ‘em,” Steven said.
“Remember, no gunfire!” Ed reminded us. “Man, these savage freaks are party-crashers. I say we just have ourselves a good ol’ zombie decapitation party.”
“Get ready!” Steven shouted, holding his bat in a death grip.
The first one approached, and I had my target in sight. The zombie was short, with long black hair, dressed in gym shorts and a filthy, slimed-up t-shirt. It moved slowly toward me with an awkward gait. “The main guest of honor has arrived. Shall we get this party started?” I clutched my Louisville Slugger in my hand tightly and whacked its head; it crashed motionless into the wall.
The next one was wearing green shorts and a matching t-shirt. Ed drove the curve of the crowbar straight into its gnarly knees, and it stumbled back, knocking the one behind it over with a splash. I finished it off, and the crack of its bones echoed all around us.
A towering, once muscular zombie took me by surprise. I couldn’t reach its head, so I hit it in the knees, but it didn�
�t fall as expected. I kicked it, but it only took a few steps back. Its white eyes widened as it moaned in anticipation of a fresh meal. It opened its mouth of cracked, jagged teeth. At that point, things seemed to melt into slow motion. As it came for me, I dropped my bat and whipped out my gun. Aiming carefully for the center of its forehead, I pulled the trigger just as it lunged for my face. This time, it fell backward with a thud and splash.
“A gun? Man, I thought you took Zombies 101?” Ed scolded. “Now they’ll all be coming!”
“I didn’t have a choice! Maybe if I had better backup—”
Steven wiped his face with his sleeve. “Better backup? Man, Rachel and I took down four zombies!”
“Right, and it wasn’t like I was standing there twiddling my thumbs,” Ed snapped.
“Sorry,” I said, realizing I’d been quite rude. “I just—”
My explanation was interrupted by a choir of guttural moans echoing throughout the sewer, and fear flooded through me as I watched dozens stumbling in the drain toward us.
I glanced at the others. “We can’t take them all on!”
“I know another way!” Ed shouted. “Follow me!”
“Wait,” I said. “Maybe we can slow them down.”
“How?” Rachel asked.
“A zombie blockade,” I replied.
Steven and I began firing shots, dropping the front line of zombies to the ground. The noise was magnified, and my ears rang as the ones behind started to stumble and fall.
“That’s good!” Steven said. “Let’s go!”
We backtracked and took a sharp turn to the left. Ed took us through the secret passages of the underground world he knew like the back of his hand. I was thankful we had the kid, the urban mole, because I would have had no idea how to get out of there. I was also very thankful for the headlamp; without light, my bat, and my gun, I would have been dead a long time ago.
I jerked my head back, straining to listen. “Hear that?” I asked as I noticed hissing and garbled moans coming from both sides of us. Sweat trickled down my neck and back.
“Yep,” Steven said. “Sounds like we’ve got more company, boys and girls.”
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 16