Long Live The Dead

by Barry Michael

  “Is there anybody there? Doctors? This is Robert Howard.”

  No answer.

  He turned to Baudoin and Fallon. “If someone inside there is infected and they… ‘turn’ will they be able to let themselves out?”

  In the dim glow he could just make out as they both shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads. He couldn’t waste time thinking so making a split second decision he stepped back and fired at the lock. The basic lock shredded instantly unlike the reinforced door to the armory and he only had to push to the door open with the smoking barrel.

  Inside was bright and white, all of the surfaces either laminate or steel, cold and sterile. There were bloody handprints along the draws and surfaces on the back wall but nobody was visible.

  Suddenly in a flash someone filled the doorway and grabbed the barrel of the gun. He hadn’t chambered the next round yet and jerked the gun back in shock.

  Still freshly dead the creature’s grip was strong enough to pull the slide forward ejecting the spent casing, trying not to think Robert shoved the gun forward completing the chambering action and pulled the trigger.

  Blood and shattered spine erupted from the dead doctor’s back and sprayed the room beyond. Still holding onto the gun it sat down suddenly without the use of its legs and Robert had to stagger forward trying to keep his weapon in his hand.

  Baudoin slipped into the room and ventilated the ghoul’s skull. It instantly let go and fell back into its own bloody pool of fluids.

  The others came in and swept the room quickly and Robert looked down at the doctor. It was Dr. Smith Sr., he thought about what Lucas had said about Ghouls retaining something of themselves for a while after they came back. Smith Jr. must have come down here to see his father, drawn by his former life and ended up destroying it.

  There were two gun retorts from an adjoining room and Robert was snapped from his trance.

  “All clear.” Fallon said stepping back into the main room. She looked up at the ceiling lights. “Why is there light here?”

  He looked up himself. “These rooms are on a different circuit from the main lights. The power didn’t blow, Someone must have shut off the main lights on purpose.”

  “Maybe, or maybe one of them tripped into the panel?” Jackson offered.

  “I don’t know. We should try and check it out though, It will be a lot safer with the lights on. I’ll run up there really quick and check it out.”

  “You should not go alone.” Baudoin said firmly.

  “Okay, you come with me then, we will finish sweeping the floor and then at the stairs you two can go down and we will go up – let’s go.”

  They stepped back out into the darkness and worked their way down the hallway towards the stairs.

  Greene strode confidently back down the dark hallway, the world to him glowed a bright neon green. Even in the darkest corners a light in the invisible spectrum shone out from his goggles and reflected everything back to him in near perfect clarity.

  As he passed by the large door-less entryway that led to the Machine shop he squinted in anticipation of the flare of light he expected from the open ramp doorway but in a fraction of a second the glasses automatically dialed themselves down so that his vision never blew out.

  He laughed out loud. His great-grandfather had spared no expense when stocking his little hidey-hole in the sand even to the point of using state of the art technologies developed by his own military contracts and never available to the public.

  And soon it would all be his, his rightful kingdom. He would spare the lives of a few of the more attractive nubile young girls - if there were any left - as his personal harem and this would be his subterranean palace.

  Maybe, he thought as he stood in front of the elevator and pushed the call button he wouldn’t kill Sterns, he’d kill the others yes but that little tubby fuck wasn’t anything – He could keep him for years as his personal punching bag, sure one day he would probably succumb to his injuries but he was sure that he could make it last a good long time.

  The elevator came and he got on, again the night vision goggles adjusted to the light that was still on inside the elevator car.

  He pushed the button for four and switched off the overhead light and readied himself to step out even before the doors had closed. There was nothing that he could do about the door’s bell but hope that sterns and the others were far enough away or so distracted that they wouldn’t hear it.

  Just in case they were nearby though he made sure that the MP-5 was set to full auto and ready to fire. It would be a shame if he had to kill them all in a simple spray of bullets but oh well.

  His heart was beating rapidly and he was starting to breathe heavily in nervous anticipation as he listened to the floors go by.

  At the bottom he held his breath and waited off to the side in case they had heard the elevator coming and were waiting for him.

  He counted to five and stuck his head out. Nothing outside the elevator but long green grainy hallways. He slipped out and making sure the more lethal of the two guns was ready he glanced in either direction trying to make as educated a guess as possible as to which way they went.

  The infra-red light generated by the night vision goggles only went so far – about three hundred feet and then the darkness reclaimed everything. Taking his time he watched for the tell tale signs of flashlights, if he didn’t see any he would just quietly and careful start walking and hope to come up on their backs.

  He was about to give up when he saw the extra glow in the darkness off to his left around the corner at the end of the hallway.

  Not wasting any more time he sprinted as quietly as he could down to the right, as he got closer he could slow down but he didn’t know how long he would have before they reached the stairwell and he didn’t want to be chasing them floor to floor.

  Although he was confident that they would have cleared the floor as they went he still used some caution, if he was attacked by a missed ghoul his plan would be ruined.

  Reaching the end of the first hallway he slowed and carefully peered out and seeing nothing ran on to the next corner.

  Repeating the process he glanced out and saw them about half way down the hall facing away as he predicted and walking slowly along checking each door.

  He would need to get closer, the effective range of the non lethal sock rounds were about twenty feet so he would have to get closer.

  Glancing at the ground making sure that there was nothing to trip him he stepped silently out and stalked his ignorant prey hoping none of them would turn and shine their light back his way. If they did his response would be quick and bloody but he didn’t want that if he could help it.

  He closed the gap to about twenty five feet and couldn’t wait any more. He raised the Neostead and aimed carefully at the back of Ira’s head.

  XXIX

  Pulling the trigger the shotgun roared and released the small rounded pouch of lead shot, it hit true and Ira collapsed forwards like a rag doll as Greene chambered another shell and took aim at Lucas.

  Even if the fool was only carrying a sword he seemed the more deadly threat. Lucas span at the sudden sound and Greene had to fire on the fly – he missed the head but the soft flexible round impacted into the monk’s shoulder and he cried out in pain and dropped the Katana.

  Tommy, his companions falling on either side of him didn’t know which way to turn, he faltered first one way and then the next before finally turning to face their attacker.

  A non-lethal round hit him in the gut and knocked out his breath, he doubled over and stumbled backwards trying not to let his finger contract on the trigger incase he accidentally shot one of his friends.

  Behind his goggles Greene sneered, he knew he could take down these simpletons. It was too easy. He stepped forward and primed the shotgun to fire again and took his time deciding who to shoot first.

  Ira was laying face down - unconscious if not dead, Lucas was holding his right arm useless and dangling at
his side grimacing in pain – he wasn’t about to try any of his ninja crap any time soon and then there was Tommy.

  The sad pathetic loser was folded in half and wheezing like an asthmatic who had just run a marathon. So many choices he thought, who to shoot first - and where? Maybe he should flip the brat over and shoot him in the balls? Make sure he was really out of the game for a while.

  Or what about a nice shot to the side of the knee from close range? That would keep the monk grounded.

  He decided to let fate decide and starting with Lucas began to recite the child’s game. “Eenie-Meany-Miney-Moe…”

  They finished clearing the rest of the floor fairly quickly sweeping the open spaces of the hydroponic gardens didn’t take long, the main lights were out but the special low wattage lighting that fed the plants were still on casting a yellow glow over everything and they killed three more zombies. Reaching the end of the hallway they were back at the stairs and Robert turned to the others.

  “Okay, Baudoin come with me and you two go one down, we’ll try to be quick and catch up. If we can’t fix the lights we’ll bring more torches or something.”

  Fallon led the way down the stairs and Jackson followed behind her, his gun raised and ready.

  Not needing the light Robert bounded up the stairs two and three at a time, he had to slow down so that Baudoin could keep up and to use his light to make sure that nothing was waiting for them on the stairs above.

  When they made it to the upper level light coming in from the open ramp doors negated the use of the flashlight and they could both sprint down the hall fairly quickly until they reached the other side and darkness started to take over again.

  Baudoin led the way now sweeping the light around the hallway watching for anything that was different or out of place now.

  “Go towards the weapons room and carry on past - the breaker room is further down on the right.”

  Moving quickly they reached the Armory and Robert stopped. “Wait.”

  He looked at the door, it was standing open now, he was sure that he had pulled it closed.

  “Didn’t I close this?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “Damnit. Bring the light over here.”

  He quickly surveyed the room and it was obvious someone had been here, draws where left pulled out and more was missing than they had taken. He wasn’t sure what and wasn’t going to waste too much time figuring it out.

  “Over here,” he said pointing. Baudoin move the light over to a cupboard and Robert opened it. Inside were shelves of different types of portable battery-less emergency lights, he grabbed one of the larger brighter models and began cranking a charge on it.

  “Okay, let’s go get the lights on first.”

  Letting the shotgun dangle by its strap he focused on cranking the light, which started blinking to life almost immediately.

  There was nothing between them and the breaker room and by the time they reached it the super bright xenon lamp was illuminated everything within its wide cone.

  Sweeping the light around revealed that there was nobody else in the hallway or inside the large electrical room.

  He moved over to the large main breakers for each floor, they were all clearly marked and it was obvious which ones had been turned off.

  He snapped each one back into place and the lights flared back to life overhead.

  Greene’s dark green world suddenly flared a hundred times brighter and despite the rapid equalization of the high tech goggles he was momentarily blinded. Snarling in frustration he ripped them off and threw them aside.

  “Damn that was fast, I was hoping for a little more time than that,” he said blinking his eyes to try and clear his vision.

  Breathing heavily with excitement he started walking forward again. “Now, where was I? I lost track…”

  He stopped next to Lucas who was still leaning against the wall slowly gaining control over the pain in his arm.

  “Does that hurt?” Greene asked sarcastically. “Yeah your shoulder looks dislocated, here I’ve had some medical training let me see if I can’t pop it back into place” He raised the butt of the shotgun and hammered it down into Lucas’s arm.

  Lucas screamed in pain and sagged, sliding down the wall.

  “Oops, maybe I was wrong, maybe it’s broken? Huh Oh well, I tried.”

  Laughing he stepped towards Tommy again and fired another round at his gut. The flexible round clipped Tommy’s right arm, his hand spasmed and the MP-5 slipped from his grasp and he stumbled a few more steps backwards.

  “Oh-oh, you went and dropped your weapon, you never were a very good soldier – clumsy fuck.”

  Not really aiming he fired another shot in Tommy’s legs, the bean bag bounced off of the floor and ricocheted up into the retreating man’s shin. He hopped backwards favoring his other leg, making it a few more steps before finally losing his balance and falling.

  Pumping another round into the chamber Greene stepped over to his prone victim and leveled the gun at his head holding it mere inches away from his already bruised and beaten face.

  “I thought about keeping you alive for a while, but I just don’t think I can do it. Of course if you wanted to beg for your life, now would be the time – I might still consider it.”

  He looked down at Tommy and waited expectantly for a response.

  “You’re cracked asshole, you want me to beg for you to kill me slowly? No wonder your mother killed herself.”

  “What did you say?”

  “You heard me psycho – everybody knows it. Your mom couldn’t take looking at you any more and she cut her own wrists.”

  “What did I tell you? When we were kids and I kicked your ass so hard you pissed you pants – I said if you ever said anything about my mother again I would kill you. Did you think that I was joking? Do you think that here and now I won’t do it?”

  “I think you’re a piece of shit bully and your mother should have killed you before she killed herself.”

  Greene lost all emotion and in a dead calm he stood up straight and let the shotgun go so that it dangled by its shoulder strap. He grabbed his MP-5 and aimed it at Tommy’s right eye. “Time for you to make one more stain – Sterns.”

  Tommy looked up at Greene the black promise of death filling half his vision.

  Suddenly there was a blur of red black motion and Greene was gone, he was staring up at nothing but ceiling and the air was filled with screaming.

  Rolling away from the noise Tommy propped himself up on his elbow and saw the source – there was a twisting flailing tangle of limbs as Greene thrashed and tried to free himself from the grip of a ghoul that was ripping at his face and neck.

  In their scuffle they had worked their way into the area that hadn’t yet been checked and from a darkened open doorway the zombie had flown at Greene and tackled him.

  Trying to get to any of his weapons he had to keep blocking the virus fueled rage of the living dead woman who was rabidly attacking anything in front of her.

  Tommy slowly managed to get to his feet and retrieved his dropped weapon. He watched the vicious mauling and tried not to feel anything but couldn’t help a little sorrow, as despicable as Greene was no one deserved to be eaten alive.

  Making sure that there were no more surprises waiting to fly at him from the darkness of the unchecked room he opened fire on the bloody snarl of bodies in the hallway, emptying the clip into both carcasses’ skulls to be certain they were completely dead.

  The hallway filled with the echo of the staccato gunfire -firing a dozen phantom bullets more than the gun actually had.

  Standing over the bodies Tommy ejected the empty magazine and loaded a full one. He chambered the first round and the sharp click broke him from his thoughts.

  “Are you okay?” he asked Lucas as he stooped down next to him.

  Lucas was sweating and holding his injured arm “I’m fine – Ira,” he managed with a shaky breath nodding towards the boy.

&n
bsp; Turning around and staying low he gently checked for Ira’s pulse.

  He moaned and Tommy tried to ease him over to check his face. There was blood already drying across his chin and cheek from where he had probably hit his nose in the fall but other than that he looked unhurt.

  Ira moaned and brought a shaky hand up to the back of his head and the thick mop of tangled dreads “Ow.”

  “Yeah, take it easy – I think your hair softened some of the impact but you could still have broken something.”

  He helped Ira get to his feet and keep his balance as the rush of blood made the hallway spin. Slowly as the double image of the world came together Ira reached up, massaged his neck and tried to gently roll his head.

  When he was sure that the boy was stable enough he turned to check on Lucas again and found him on his feet and binding his limp useless arm to his body with part of his robes.

  “Do you think it is broken?” Tommy asked.

  “No, I do not think so, but I will be fine for a while – we must keep moving, the others may need our help.”

  “Okay, come on lets go.”

  He reached down and grabbed the fallen Katana and handed it to Lucas, when he turned to help Ira he saw the boy had already retrieved his MP-5 and was standing ready, waiting for them.

  Smiling crookedly at the boy’s unwavering bravery he stepped forward and limping they continued on to the end of the hall.

  Shutting off the lamp Robert shoved it into his bag and they ran back to the stairs and down to the second level to catch up with the others.

  When they got to the top of the stairs they could already hear the gunfire from two floors up and ran even faster.

  They got there just in time to meet Fallon and Jackson in retreat – the swarm of virus ridden zombies was slowly forcing them back towards the stairs.

  The scene before them stopped him in his tracks several steps from the bottom and as Robert surveyed the sea of bodies he decided to use their slightly higher vantage point to shoot over the heads of the others and try to help thin out the onrushing mass.