Long Live The Dead

by Barry Michael

  Jackson was firing in small bursts trying to aim for heads but walking backwards to stay out of reach and holding the gun with his left hand meant his aim was off, he was taking some of the ghouls down but not many. Mostly he seemed only to be slowing them down, stopping some in their tracks and knocking others backwards.

  Meanwhile Fallon was shooting with a steady rhythmic cadence; shot after shot after shot she used a single bullet to decollate another onrushing attacker.

  Robert tried to follow her example and take aim with a careful calculated detachment - but once again found himself having to block out assertive memories of the people he was shooting even as he fired lethal shots through their heads.

  Above the din of gunfire and the tumultuous horde of undead souls he could still hear the screaming, it sounded louder now, high pitched and close by - that made sense in the new twisted logic that seemed to rule the world, the legion of ghouls had converged upon a pocket of uninfected survivors and were clawing tooth and nail to get in.

  As he listened to the screams he came to two simultaneous realizations, nowhere among the ghouls that he had encountered had there been any children and now he knew why – they were all here, gathered somewhere nearby.

  He didn’t have to think long to work out where he they were either; the library was centrally located, easy for fleeing people to reach and it was where classes where taught so depending on when the zombie virus had infiltrated the bunker most of the children would have already been there.

  Fueled on by this knowledge he tried to move faster without losing any accuracy, an urgency now to his actions.

  Out of his periphery he sensed as much as saw movement coming up the stairs and realized that it was Tommy, Lucas and Ira joining the fray.

  With two more guns in the fight the tide turned faster, the roar of automatic weapons grew and drowned out the all other noise – either that or continued racketed abuse was simply deadening their ability to hear anything but the basso blasts of the MP-5’s.

  After the eternity of a few seconds the blanket of fallen bodies was starting to stretch down the hallway away from them but they did not advance, having cut themselves a swath of relative safety they stood their ground on the stairs and took down the last of the attacking ghouls from a distance.

  The silence was deafening after the last echoes had died away, the roar of blood through veins and a hiss of mental white noise rushing in to fill the void left by the battle.

  Slowly somewhere through the high pitched ringing in their ears the screaming continued and somewhere further off so did the macabre moans of undead hunger.

  Robert stepped down into the tangle of dead bodies, careful to try and step between the bodies and not on them. Behind him Jackson was flagging; leaning against the railing, his face was bathed with sweat from shooting the large automatic rifle and the stress it put across his shoulders and chest.

  “Henry, how are you doing?”

  “I’ll be okay, my arms’ just aching.”

  “Okay well I want you to stay here – cover us in case anyone gets up again.”

  Breathing heavily Jackson just nodded an affirmative and relaxed a little more against the hand rail.

  Turning to the others he finally got a good look at Ira, Lucas and Tommy.

  “Jesus, are you guys okay? What happened?”

  “Greene somehow got loose, paid us a visit. He’s dead.” Tommy said simply as he looked around at the carnage about their feet.

  “Huh, that’s one less thing to worry about I guess,” he looked over everyone’s injuries and looked down the hall to where the moaning and screaming still continued.

  “Lucas – are you still okay to fight?”

  Stretching his back and standing a little taller despite his obvious discomfort he said “’Till the end.”

  “Okay good, hopefully there aren’t many more left. Tommy, I want you to head down to the entrance at this end. Be careful in case whoever is inside is armed but try to explain what’s going on and calm them down, take Ira with you. Everyone else come with me.”

  XXX

  Leading the others through the gruesome task of walking down the hall Robert scanned the bodies around his feet for any signs of movement just in case someone should lurch back to life and attack them, after all they had survived it would be a senseless way to die now.

  There was no movement from the dead as they passed.

  Lucas followed second and Fallon covered their backs, once they had made it through the human mine-field of corpses Robert relaxed a little and took the opportunity to reload both shotguns before they faced what would hopefully be the last of the undead viral victims.

  “Okay there is only one other entrance to the Library that is where everyone is probably holed up. When we come up on this corner here the door is going to be on the right about hand way down the hall, just like the one at the other end –”

  He was cut off by a sudden flash of movement, from a darkened doorway they were passing a dark blur burst from the shadows. Before he could bring his gun to bare Lucas was between him and his attacker and in a flash of sharpened steel the ghoul was missing its head and half an arm.

  Robert pumped the shotgun ready as the body fell and with a elaborate whirling motion Lucas whipped the blood from the blade as easily with his left hand as he would his right.

  “Thanks,” Robert managed slightly embarrassed.

  “You’re welcome.”

  With no more places to hide between them and the corner they sprinted carefully up to it and staying across the hall stepped out to face the final fight.

  Tommy jogged carefully down the hallway with Ira behind in a bloody game of ‘follow the leader’ through bodies.

  The entrance to the library wasn’t far down the hall and there was only one door along the opposite wall, he checked it quickly and found it locked.

  He rapped his knuckles against the door in a rapid version of ‘shave and a haircut’ that he thought would be beyond the abilities of even the freshest reanimated zombie but received no ‘two bits’ in response, only silence.

  Moving on he ran up to large double doors to the library and repeated the jaunty tune. Inside there was a gasp and hushed chatter.

  “Is everyone okay? This is Tommy Sterns”

  “Tommy!?” a man’s voice answered.

  “Yeah, listen everything is going to be okay. Who’s that?”

  On the other side there noises of rushed movement and indistinct chattering, he scanned the hallways in both directions for movement while he listened.

  Finally a woman’s voice answered. “Tommy?”

  “Mom?” He tried not to cry at the sound of her voice.

  There was more chatter inside, raised voices now and then he could hear furniture being moved back away from the door.

  Slowly one of the doors opened a crack and a man’s face filled it – it was painted a pastel shade of it’s usual deep brown hue but Tommy recognized it as one of the high council members.

  “Hey Mr. Singh”

  “It is him! He’s… okay!”

  The face disappeared from the gap and with more screeching of wood and metal the door opened wider, he stepped forward and slipped inside.

  At first there was a high murmur of hope which faltered only slightly when people caught sight of his bruised and battered face.

  He searched the faces all clambering around him until he found his mother. She was already crying but when she saw his face fresh tears burst down her cheeks and she sobbed. Making sure to hold his gun to the side he hugged her, kissing her forehead then pulling her head to his chest, holding her as tight as he could with his free hand.

  “It’s okay, I’m okay, I’m okay”

  After several seconds of just breathing her in, he lifted his head from hers and looked about the others. “Everything is going to be over soon – its okay”

  “Tommy, what is going on?” Mr. Singh asked.

  “It’s kind of hard to explain Sir,
the virus, the Cataclysm Plague. It wasn’t what we thought it was and it’s still here.”

  A scared murmur now spread through the crowd.

  “It’s okay, it’s going to be okay – Listen, is anyone in here hurt? Did anyone get bitten or hurt?”

  “No, no, we’re all fine Tommy,” another voice said from behind him. He span around at the sound of his father’s voice and trying not to let go of his mother welcomed another embrace.

  “Okay, that’s good. Look – there are just a few more of the infected at the other door, Robert and the others are already heading to take care of them.”

  There was a gasp of shock as Ira jumped up onto on to one of the tables and most people saw him for the first time – his long dreads pulled back with a bandana the adolescent boy carrying the semi-automatic rifle, his face smeared with dirt and blood was quite a sight.

  “It’s okay, this is Ira, he’s with us.”

  Reluctantly easing from between his parents he moved further into the room, out into the open.

  “Ira – you stay there and guard this door, some of the others too. The rest of you –”

  Gunfire erupted outside the other doors and a scream rang out from the children huddled in the middle of the library.

  “Okay, the rest of you let’s make sure the other door holds.”

  The group gathered at the north end of the library was smaller then the first but they fought no less viciously and died no more easily.

  Lucas span, sliced and kicked his way through the first wave off to the right and Robert and Fallon tried to pick off the others that were drawn to the easier prey as they pushed their way around to the left.

  The MP-5 and the Neostead roared and spat and one by one familiar faces distorted with undead hunger and rage were ruined, obliterated to bloody chum.

  For the first time since first seeing the sea of zombies in the hallway Robert froze again when a too familiar face turned towards him.

  Half of his face was coated in blood, it filled his right eye with crusty red brown drying slime and ran down face – the rancid tears of the dead Robert thought. Pennebaker’s neck had been ripped out spaying him with his own blood to the point where he looked like a bisected Jekyll and Hyde, half the good man he had once been and half demon.

  But that was just skin deep he thought, underneath the man he had known, the one who had practically raised him like a son was gone, there was only the virus inside him now.

  When Pennebaker’s animate corpse lunged at him Robert broke from his horror and raised the gun squeezing the trigger just like this very man had once taught him and in a thunderous spray of bone and brain he was gone.

  None of the others were quite so hard after that, in a few blood drenched minutes it was all over and only the living stood in the hallway.

  All Robert could hear as he walked up to the door was his own breathing and the blood rushing though his veins.

  He could feel his body weakening the prolonged rush of adrenaline was ebbing away and he fought it. In theory the killing was over but they were far from done, all he wanted to do was sleep but he knew that if he tried the dead would rise again – pursue him into his dreams where everything he would do would be wrong. None of his guns would shoot, his feet would betray him and he would stumble and fall only to be mobbed and eaten alive.

  No it wasn’t over yet. They had a lot to do before they could rest.

  He beat his fist calmly against the door and waited. After several second he could hear talking and movement and the doors opened.

  A dozen men filled the doorway pushing back the barricades and opening both doors wide.

  There was a murmur of shock as they saw the carnage outside the room and Robert scanned the faces as he walked forward. The gathering parted before him and he took everything in, the thriving colony just days before had counted in the hundreds and now consisted of perhaps seventy five men and women and children.

  There might be others too elsewhere in the bunker, more survivors and more ghouls. There were a lot of little corners where people could be hiding and they would have to search them all before they could let down their guards and relax.

  He found Tommy among the crowd. “Is everybody okay?”

  “Yeah they’re fine.”

  “Good,” he nodded as tried to scan every face, asses who had survived. He had almost given up hope when his eye fell upon his mother’s relieved face.

  She stood up from her place on the floor, across the room protecting the huddled mass of younger children.

  He slipped through the crowd and embraced her, closing his eyes and breathing in the smell of her. “Oh thank God – are you okay?”

  “I am fine - now that you are here,” She said her voice breaking and eyes streaming down her caramel cheeks.

  “What about Dad, is he here?”

  Not able to say anything she just shook her head.

  He embraced her tighter unsure what to say himself until finally he managed to force words from his throat. “I’m so sorry Mom. Everything is going to be okay”

  She held both of her hand caressing his cheeks as she looked up into his face. “I know son, I know. I love you.”

  “I love you too mom.”

  He kissed her on the forehead and slipped away, turning back to face the room. Everyone was looking to him for what to do next.

  “H-How long have you been in here?” he asked looking for Mr. Singh again the only face from the council he had seen.

  “This is our third day,” the older man replied coming to the front of the crowd himself.

  “Okay, first order of business then is food and water. I think that everyone should still stay here for now… if that’s okay sir?”

  “Absolutely Mr. Howard. Whatever you think is best.”

  “Right, why don’t we start by blocking one of the doors again just in case. That way we only have to watch one.”

  He nodded toward the north door that they had just entered through and part of the crowd broke off to start blocking the door again without having to be told.

  “And next we need to make a couple of trips down to the kitchen. We’ll start with water and whatever doesn’t need to be cooked first. I think that five people should be enough – Tommy I want you to lead the team and Baudoin can you go with them?”

  “Of course,” he said nodding.

  “Here, just in case,” Robert said offering out one of the two Neosteads to go with the group going for food.

  “Is there anyone from medical here?” he asked the room and looked around. A small hand shot up over the crowd.

  “Here!” came an equally small voice in response.

  Harmony Quinn a nurse he recognized pushed through to the front standing shoulder tall to everyone around her, her red hair pulled back in a tight ponytail.

  “Hey Harmony, listen, go with the food team down to the stairway – Jackson is there he has a wound in his shoulder I’d like you to look at.”

  “O-okay” she managed sounding a little unsure at the prospect of leaving the safety of the room.

  He took in a deep breath and let out a long sigh as he rolled his neck and rubbed at it with his free hand.

  Watching Tommy’s group leave he tried to think of what else to do next.

  “Okay Lucas, I want you and Ira to stay here and guard the door. Then I am going to need three volunteers to help us… cleaning up he hallway.”

  There was a noise of uncertainty that rippled through the group but three men finally stepped forward.

  “Okay thank you, Fallon will you help us please?”

  Remaining silent she eyed him strangely and nodded.

  “Okay everyone, everything is going to be okay now. I promise.” he said making sure to look over and smile at the children, As much to ease their fear as his own at the thought of having to move all of the bodies.

  They worked in near silence, just the occasional word of direction, a muttered curse or prayer after a slip or loved one was found a
mong the remains.

  Using thick heavy gloves and a large cart from the Machine shop they were able to move two or three bodies at a time from the hallway up onto the first level and then load them into a trailer that they hooked up to the Humvee.

  When they had made several trips they moved the bodies up to the surface and began to make a large mound, stacking them as carefully and reverently as possible.

  When the pile stood to their chests they stopped and started another, two of the men who had volunteered had to stop, breaking down in tears they went back to the library.

  Baudoin came back up with two replacements bringing with them some food and they took over the grizzly task so the others could take a short break.

  Robert sat with his side to the mounds and stared out across the desert, he didn’t want to look at them or think about what he knew he must do but he also didn’t want to let them out of his sight either - just in case.

  He ate the simple wraps of Tempeh, tomatoes and spinach silently letting his body chew and swallow automatically, not aware of the taste of it.

  Fallon came and sat next to him, facing him - keeping her opposite side towards the bodies. After a she said “I’m sorry”

  “For what?”

  “For what happened here, to your home.”

  “Thank you, but it isn’t your fault.”

  “It isn’t your fault either you know that don’t you?”

  He waited, hesitating before he answered. “I guess.”

  He took another bite of his food and chewed it.

  “I just… I just keep thinking that if I hadn’t have insisted that we go to Helheim, that we would have come back here and we could have stopped this. Caught it sooner, warned everyone.”

  She shrugged. “Perhaps, but what is done is done. It can not be changed.”

  He chewed those words then over in his mind as he stared down at the last bite of his wrap before popping it into his mouth without thinking.