“Scout?” she ask as if she doesn’t believe her eyes.
“Hey,” I manage to say. Seeing her alive again has me in shock as well.
“You’re alive!” Fawn exclaims. She reaches out a hand and pulls me to my feet and wraps me in one of her bear hugs. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
There are bodies all over the ground from the stray bullets that were flying around the crowded tunnel. Anyone that is still alive is rushing away from the scene. I watch as they recede down in the darkness of the caves.
Lorento groans on the ground and the sound causes Fawn to look in her direction. Quentin winces in pain as he kneels beside Lorento. I notice there is a dark red stain just below his knee. Fawn hurries over to Lorento and applies pressure to the wound in her chest.
“Where is Schoenheim?” Lorento coughs.
I look back to see him feeling around for his glasses on the floor.
“He’s fine,” I assure Lorento.
“Get him out of here,” she chokes.
I start to give her some kind of assurance that we will get the scientist to safety, but she cuts me off by lifting the gun with her quivering hand and pointing it at my face.
“Just go,” she gags. Her head collapses back on the ground. Her pupils gaze up at the ceiling, then her head lolls slightly to the side and I realize she is gone. Fawn lowers her head and lifts her bloody hands off Lorento’s body. I spot the satchel on the ground beside her and I remember the satellite phone. I grab the leather bag and slip my head and shoulder through the strap.
“Come on,” Quentin urges the doctor as he pulls him up by the arm.
“Let me look at your leg,” Fawn says as she gets to her feet.
Quentin just waves her away and cringes as he drags the stumbling doctor to his feet alongside him.
I grab Fawn by the shoulder and hold her until I have her attention.
“Listen to me,” I tell her. “You have to run. Take the doctor and go. There is a helicopter waiting a mile southeast of here.”
“I’d rather stay together,” Fawn says. “Let me help you.”
“You can’t,” I remind her. I glance over at Quentin as he hobbles toward us. “We’ll just slow you down anyway.”
The sound of gunshots closes in on our position. I look back and can see the muzzle flashes around the corner on the dark stone walls. Fawn pinches her lips together and gives me a sharp nod. Then she takes the scientist by the arm, and leads him through the dark tunnel.
Quentin leans his forearm on my shoulder and rests for a moment. I wrap my arm around his waist and help him as he limps along beside me. Quentin pauses as we approach Dom lying on the ground. She has a taken a painful looking round to the kneecap and another to the shoulder.
“Quentin,” Dom gasps. She reaches out a hand, but Quentin just stares at it. “Help me.”
Quentin scowls down at her pleading face.
“We have to keep moving,” I urge Quentin.
“Help me up,” Dom demands. “You know me.”
“I know you all right,” Quentin growls.
“You can’t leave me like this,” Dom pleads. “Please. I’ll do anything. You know I will.”
Quentin takes his hand off my shoulder and kneels down and reaches out a hand toward Dom. It seems like he is considering helping her, but then he grabs the collar of her shirt into a fist.
“Fuck you, Dom.” Quentin snaps as he shoves her back down toward the ground. “It’s my turn to leave your ass to die.”
He gets back to his feet and jerks his head to let me know he’s ready to move. Dom twists around on her belly and claws at the ground to grab at our boots as we walk away.
“Quentin,” she screams. “Come back here.”
“Let’s go,” Quentin urges me. He places a hand on my shoulder as he limps down the corridor beside me.
“You fucking monkey piece of shit!” Dom screams behind us.
I hear the sounds of the victims from firefight returning from the dead. Even as the dead descend on Dom and she howls in pain, Quentin just lowers his eyes and hobbles forward. The dead moan and she screams louder and then they tear into her throat and she gurgles and goes quiet, and the only noise in between the approaching rifle reports is the sound of the dead devouring her flesh.
“She had it coming,” Quentin mumbles to himself.
Another sound causes me to turn around. I hear voices coming toward us. Bishop barks orders at some of his men. I try to urge Quentin to hurry but he stumbles and there is a cracking sound from his leg as he collapses to the ground. He grimaces to keep from bawling in agony. For a moment, I watch in frozen silence as Bishop and about a dozen of his men round the corner about a hundred yards away and approach our position.
There is a stack of crates along the wall and I bend down and grab Quentin by the shoulders and drag him along the floor. He scoots himself along to help me until his back rests against the crate.
“How many?” Quentin asks me.
“At least ten,” I whisper.
“Shit,” Quentin mutters.
I peer around the crates to see Bishop’s men and notice that Lorento’s corpse is getting up. The sight fills me with remorse. I should have never left her like that. She was a heartless bitch, but she doesn’t deserve to be like this. Bishop pauses in his tracks when he spots her.
“Good God almighty,” Bishop exclaims. “Will you look at that?” He indicates the corpse to the other men nearby.
“Just go, Scout,” Quentin says. “I can hold them off long enough for you to get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I tell him.
“Look at me,” Quentin holds up his bloody hand. “I’m not getting out of this shit.”
“You’re not quite as pretty as I remember,” Bishop laughs. I glance over to see him lift a boot and kick Lorento’s corpse in the face. It topples her over, but she immediately pushes up from the ground again.
“Go, Scout,” Quentin says. “Now.”
“We can take them out,” I insist.
“No,” Quentin shakes his head. He reaches up his bloody hand and clenches my shoulder. “Please go now. Don’t make me die down her for nothing.”
“Give me that ax,” Bishop says.
I nod to Quentin and squeeze his hand before I let him go. The sound of glass breaking draws my attention back down the corridor. As I rise, one of the men tosses Bishop a fire ax. He catches it with one hand and turns around to face Lorento again.
“I have to admit,” he says. “I’ve been looking forward to this for awhile.”
He brings the ax down on her neck as I turn to run. I don’t dare look back.The only thing I want to do now is get the doctor to the helicopter and get the hell out of here. The firefight ignites a few moments later.
“Come get some, motherfuckers,” Quentin yells.
But the shooting doesn’t last very long. There’s a howl of pain a few moments later. Then nothing except the approaching moans of the dead.
Forty-Two
I step outside through the bay doors of the main entrance and raise my rifle as I scan the shapes in the dim light in the hopes of spotting the white lab coat. The corpses are scattered up and down the road, feasting on bodies scattered on the ground. Sporadic bursts of machine gun fire rattle nearby. Out here without any weapons, or hell even any pants, I don’t give the mad scientist much of a chance.
“Schoenheim!” I call out. Maybe that was stupid, but I felt like I had to do it even if it draws attention to me. Not like I’ll be sticking around here long anyway.
A corpse staggers toward me from the field on my left. I fire several rounds at the thing but miss the mark in the darkness. The mag clicks empty so I pull the rifle back and smash the thing in the face with the back end of it. It crumples to the ground for a moment before it struggles back up again.
Several more shambling figures emerge behind the corpse I just took down. The sound of an assault rifle inside the compound reminds me th
at Bishop is not that far behind. There is no time to wait around here. I have to start moving in the direction of the helicopter and hope that Fawn was able to get the scientist out of here.
I hustle up the drive, weaving between the corpses as I load a fresh magazine. I spot a worn dirt trail through the grass on the left and I head for it. Before I get there, I hear more shots fired behind me. The bullets zip passed me as I stumble to the ground. Over my shoulder, I spot a trio of figures emerging from the compound. It’s Bishop, flanked by two of his scumbags. I can tell it is him because he still carries the blood-soaked ax. A corpse lunges toward him and he raises the ax and slams the blade into the face of the corpse. He removes the ax from the skull and wipes the blood off his face.
As I get back to my feet, I realize Bishop and his men haven’t actually spotted me yet. The bullets that nearly tore me apart were only strays that missed the corpses. I know I should turn and run away as fast as I can before they get any closer. But I know this might be my only chance to kill Bishop and get revenge for everyone he has killed.
I lift the rifle to my eye and begin firing. My first burst manages to hit the soldier to the left of Bishop in the leg. The man yowls as he buckles over on the pavement. Bishop and the other soldier crouch and scurry in different directions for cover as I open fire again. I keep spraying bullets until the mag is spent and Bishop lunges behind a Humvee.
Instead of waiting around to find out if I hit the bastard, I turn to sprint up the trail and immediately collide with a towering corpse. A yelp of terror escapes my mouth as I use the rifle to fend the thing away. It takes every ounce of strength to keep the giant dead man from sinking his teeth into my face. It clutches the rifle with both hands as it lunges forward. As much as I try, I can’t twist the weapon free from the dead hands. Bullets tear into the dirt beside me as Bishop and his man fire in my direction. I finally just sidestep and release the rifle sending the corpse sprawling on the ground. There isn’t much I can do now except to leave the rifle behind and make a run for it. I don’t like it, but at least I still have the handgun and my knife if I need them.
As another volley of bullets pursues me, I scramble over the path toward the hillside. Before I can reach the top, I feel a cramping ache in my behind. I stumble forward a few more steps then collapse on the ground and grab at my leg. My fingers come away wet after touching the hole in my jeans. It only takes me a second to realize I must have been shot, in the ass no less.
“Fuck,” I growl as I struggle to get back on my feet again. Instead of running the best I can manage is an urgent limp. Out of pain and anger I grip the pistol, raise it up and fire several wild rounds behind me as I retreat into a shroud of darkness beneath the canopy of trees. The moans of the dead seem to be coming from everywhere in the woods around me. Behind me I hear Bishop tell the other guy to “man the fuck up.”
“I ain’t fucking going in there,” the man insists.
“You afraid, Charlie?” Bishop growls. “Afraid of one little girl in the woods? You goddamn pussy, get the hell in there.”
“Come on, Bishop,” Charlie pleads. “Those things are everywhere, man. Let’s get the fuck out of here. What the—”
A burst of automatic rifle fire ends the discussion.
I slip the knife from my jacket pocket as I retreat deeper into the woods. Even as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I struggle to make out the shapes, but I can tell from the moans and the sounds of snapping twigs that the dead have me surrounded. As I drag my ass from the trunk of one tree to the next, I try to avoid thinking how screwed I really am right now. I’m not even completely sure I am still headed toward the helicopter.
I pause to scan the dark shapes in the woods again and to slow my breathing. It seems like my heart is beating so hard that anything close by could hear it. When I glance back in the direction I came from, I spot a tall shape moving toward me quietly over the branches. A corpse comes snarling at the figure from the side and then there is a grunt and the sound of bone cracking, and the corpse falls to the ground and goes silent.
Any hopes I had that Bishop might give up disappear from my mind. I turn around and limp to the next tree, making too much noise as I drag my gimpy leg over the leaves and twigs. A corpse with long hair and a bikini comes toward me from left, crashing through the foliage as it hisses. I can’t even outrun the thing anymore, so I lean against the tree and wait. As it reaches me, I jab the knife upwards into the neck of the thing. The blade goes halfway in and skewers the corpse as it snaps at me. I grab the thing by the hair and drive the knife up with all the strength I can manage until it is buried to the hilt. The chick in the swimsuit finally goes limp and collapses to the ground.
After I remove the knife again, I look around for Bishop but there is no sign of him. My blood runs cold as my head swivels from side to side to scan the woods. I know I need to keep moving, but the fear of making the wrong move has me bound to the trunk of the tree.
“Where are you, princess?” Bishop beckons.
A corpse growls at the sound and shuffles through the trees. I hear a grunt as Bishop brings down the fire ax and silences the thing for good.
It sounds like he is just a few yards behind the tree I am using for cover. My fingers tighten around the grip of the handgun as I lean to the left to peer around the tree trunk. In the sparse moonlight, I can barely make out his frame in the darkness. Bishop grunts as he pries the fire ax free from the skull of a corpse on the ground and looks up to scan the woods again.
I duck back behind the tree as he begins to laugh softly to himself. If I stay hidden, maybe he will abandon the search or move on to another area of the woods. The other option is I can take my chances and take a shot at him.
“Come on out, Scout,” Bishop says. “I know you’re out here.”
Another corpse staggers toward the sound of his voice on my right. The sound of it hissing and crashing through the brush cuts off after the sound of an axe cracking bones. The cramping pain in my ass begins to throb. I need to take the shot. Running isn’t an option. If I stay put it’s just a matter of time before Bishop finds me or a corpse stumbles upon me in the darkness.
I pivot around the tree, raise the handgun and fire the rest of the rounds at the figure in the darkness. Several shots tear through his chest and abdomen and the last bullet punctures his skull and drops him to the ground. The body remains motionless on the ground so I lower the gun and step out from behind the trunk of the tree.
The sound of the gunshots seems to echo endlessly through the air. Even after I know the noise is gone, I still hear it in my mind. As I move toward the lifeless body on the ground, I feel a tightening in my chest. I killed another human being. Even if he deserved it, I still killed him in cold blood. I thought that I would get some satisfaction or resolution from doing it, but I feel nothing at all.
When I look down at the face of the man I shot, I realize it isn’t Bishop at all. It was a corpse.
I look up and start to search the forest, but when I turn my head I see the butt of a rifle heading toward my face.
Not again.
There is a sharp crack as the stock strikes my nose and I sends me sprawling back on the ground. My vision blurs as I reach a hand up to my face. Somehow I managed not to lose consciousness this time, but my balance is totally gone and I can’t seem to form any words. In a daze, I raise the gun and try to fire but nothing happens. Bishop laughs as he shoulders his rifle. He reaches down and rips the gun from my hands and tosses it into the woods. Bishop pauses his pursuit to swing his axe at a corpse that crashes through the branches. While he is distracted I turn to try get to my feet. I stumble and crash to the ground. My balance is still gone from the blow to the head. So, I crawl away on my hands and knees.
“Where do you think you’re going, Scout?” Bishop sneers.
A boot crashes into my midsection and knocks the wind out of me and flips me on my back. I try to swallow oxygen but my diaphragm is paralyzed. I drag myself over the ground
a few inches on my back until Bishop bends down and grabs a fistful of my shirt and pulls me close to his face.
“You got a lot of nerve,” he growls. "I offered to take you in and take care of you and your asshole friends."
A fist appears out of the darkness and bashes the left side of my face. Bishop gets on his knees and straddles my body on the ground. He leans close until I feel his breath on my face.
“And this is the thanks I get?”
Another blow falls on the right side of my jaw. It sounds like something cracks inside my face. My body goes limp as Bishop pulls me up by the shirt again.
“You have any idea who you are messing with?” Bishop sneers. “Nobody does this to me. Nobody.”
His fist crashes into my bloody nose again and everything dims for a moment. The moans of the dead fill the night air. It also sounds like a dog keeps barking nearby, but I can’t be sure of what is going on anymore. Through the blurry slits of my eyes, I see Bishop standing above me.
I wait for the next punch to land without even trying to fight him off anymore. His fist crashes into my eye socket and snaps my head back against the ground. With my blurred vision of the spinning world, I see Bishop cringe and shake the hand he hit me with. At least I hurt the bastard. I cough out a laugh, but have to stop to swallow blood.
“What's so goddamn funny?” Bishop says. He rubs at his knuckles. “You lost. You're about to die out here. Laugh it up, princess.”
He pulls back his other fist and punches me again. I let out a groan as the world goes dark again. This is it. I wish he'd just get it over with.
“You might kill me,” I say. “But you didn't win.”
“Wrong,” Bishop bares his teeth.
“You've got nothing now,” I tell him. “Nothing.”
“Shut your damn mouth, woman,” Bishop growls.
I watch as his fist goes up in the air, then close my eyes and wait for it to be over. My rattled brain suddenly reminds me of the knife still clutched in my hand. Moving my limbs seems impossible at the moment. Even though the voice in my head keeps telling me to stab him, I just can't seem to find the strength to save myself.
Rise of the Dead (Book 2): Return of the Dead Page 26