Zombie River Run

by Javan Bonds

  ☠☠☠

  The family of three stood in front of the hangar. Everything was strangely quiet as was usual since May Day. Not counting the few times they had been in conflict with one of the former humans, Ken’s family had been extremely lucky thus far. He could only cross his fingers in hopes that the cards would continue to be dealt in their favor. They stood in the light, timid to take a step into the black unknown.

  Finally, Ken made the first move into the shadow. His surroundings remained completely still. No tooth or nail assaulted him. At least this part of BAE seemed completely abandon. He gestured for his wife and daughter to follow, growing confident that they were alone. They came closer to the back wall, lined with tools and assorted equipment that could not be made out in the inky darkness.

  Movement could be heard. Bare feet shuffling. A ragged female voice whispered. “Here they come again. Get ready!”

  Hearing anything other than a snarling hiss gave Ken pause. Realizing his group could’ve been ambushed at any time by living humans that knew their location, he spoke loudly and clearly. “We are only survivors. We came here looking for salvage. We do not intend to cause harm in any way. Forgive us for intruding and we will be on our way.” He began backing up as he spoke.

  The same tired female spoke. “You’re alive? I thought I heard boots. Come help us!”

  Three battered, naked, unwashed women were trapped in the oil pit in the floor of the hangar. The undead had done nothing more than push heavy objects over the grate to prevent their exit. Zombies had been feeding them scraps to keep the women alive. They had remained prisoner for what seemed like years. Keeping them caged, the revenant’s must have been using them for something. Ashamed, the now freed prisoners were reluctant to talk about their captivity.

  ☠☠☠

  Of the three, Sheila was finally the only one willing to speak openly. All of them had been so abused mentally and physically, they seemed unsure of how to accept generosity. Ken, Kel, and their daughter Kyndle, tentatively avoided discussing the details of their imprisonment. If they had gone through what Ken suspected, it was too horrible to talk about.

  There were a million questions running through all the family members’ heads. Ken told Kel he wasn’t even going to begin to speculate on why blood and saliva were infectious and semen was not. Everything about this situation was indescribably disturbing. Thank God the peevies ain’t here he told Kyndle just as he turned to face the sunlight beaming through the opening in the hanger.

  The Tims patriarch blinked at the bright sun. A dark silhouette of a man stood alone and unmoving, casting a long shadow on the floor. The man had watched the survivors help the prisoners. Or at least, what used to be a man. The peevie’s growl grew in intensity until it let out a loud, echoing bark. The first move had just been made.

  “José!” One of the confused rape victims turned with a giddy shout. “I didn’t want him to touch me. They made me. I swear. I’m only for you!” The demented woman pushed away from Kel and rushed at the peevie with arms spread.

  She continued running and screaming, asking José’s forgiveness. Several other zombies appeared from behind José. As one, they began moving forward.

  José naturally led the charging horde. Coming to the crying human, it didn’t expectedly bite. It only took her head in its hand and pushed her violently to the side. The leader had a new priority. Its eyes were fixed on the defiant humans on the other side of the hangar.

  Puzzlement only lasted briefly for the weak woman. Her head impacted the hard cement and ruptured. Brains immediately began oozing. Her brittle bones gave no resistance and her skull collapsed as easily as an egg shell. The peevies were in luck, this yoke already appeared scrambled. More than one of the infected beasts couldn’t resist a free lunch and hurried over to lap up the tasty buffet.

  Ken, his family, and the newly rescued survivors ran into the attached building. The door opened to a smaller office building coated in a horrendous amount of black shit. Every surface was covered in layers of excrement. Swarms of flies were so thick they seemed almost solid.

  Sheila pointed to a room to her left. “We can block the door with that desk!” She and the other rape survivor rushed into the room.

  At the same moment, Ken noticed a room lined with filing cabinets. It looked easily fortifiable. With only a gesture, he and his wife headed into this room. They could only hope makeshift barricades would be enough.

  At the rear of the group, Kyndle paused as both pairs separated. Before she could follow her parents, she looked over her shoulder to see the animals falling over each other. They came bounding around the corner and she continued running down the hall.

  “Baby!” Kel screamed and tried to rush into oncoming doom to try and protect her daughter. With a heavy heart, Ken held onto his wife and shut the door.

  ☠☠☠

  Devin and I followed Kyndle around a turn in the hallway. Stopping abruptly, we were face to face with at least dozens of blunatics. A few of them spotted us just as we spotted them. A bark let the others know there was new prey afoot.

  We could see over the shoulders of the charging peevies that they had already gotten into one of the rooms. Obviously the room with both women, the screaming was nearly unbearable. Not slowly harvesting pieces, the damn zombies were literally ripping the women apart. There were rationing each digit, each appendage to the joints, and each ounce of gushing blood. The other room must have been better barricaded and was more difficult to get into.

  The horrendous agony these women must’ve been experiencing was beyond words. It was like being drawn and quartered times ten. I have no idea how they were able to stay conscious while they watched their own fresh limbs be cleaned to the bone. It nearly makes me spew now, just thinking about those fucking monsters tearing apart joints to get to the chewy tendons and ligaments.

  Battle hardened; we NFOs sprayed our M4s at the coming throng. I gave a spare pistol to our new ally who kept an eye on our six. Empty mag after empty mag of 5.56 dropped at our feet as we thinned the mass before us. Finally, we could see to the creeps bashing at the stacked filing cabinets inside the next destroyed door.

  Enemies were ripped to shreds before us. The smell of feces and blood intermingled and almost overpowered our olfactory systems. Kyndle rapid fired her pistol while she screamed for her parents.

  Through the door, we could make out several of the naked animals holding what must have been Ken to the ground on his side. He screamed and fought back as his head violently bounced against an aluminum desk. Just then, we noticed a filing cabinet on top of the desk being pushed to the edge. It was intended to fall on his head, crushing his skull and ending his life. The peevie pushing the filing cabinet was none other than José.

  “Daddy!” Kyndle launched herself forward, terrified for her father. She sent rounds at the revenant’s surrounding him, but to no avail.

  José looked up and seemed to smile at the girl as the filing cabinet tipped over the edge. Ken probably didn’t feel the final blow as his face disappeared under the heavy metal container. Pumping blood rocketed from the still beating heart. The daughter of Ken Tims raved as she ran at José. The creature dropped and scooped something off the floor, near her mothers’ bloody shirt, as its fellows scarfed up the hot remains.

  Kyndle spit, cussed, and squeezed the trigger of her empty pistol at José. It ran straight at her as she ran at the large ghoul. She paid no attention to the living peevies around her and they ignored her, realizing their leader had marked this prey.

  I called for her and tried to get her to move out of the way. She was close enough now that the empty pistol flew out of her hand and bounced uselessly off José’s chest. Crashing into one another, they grappled before José spun her around and pressed what it had picked up from the floor earlier to her neck. A jagged piece of bone.

  Realizing the blue team had lost this fight, José was trying to come out with its life. Kyndle froze when
tiny rivulets of blood started spurting from her neck. Down to just our pistols, we couldn’t do anything more than wait and watch. José began backing to the exit, trying to escape without being defeated.

  Pistols trained on the reanimated corpse and its human shield, we slowly followed it out the back door onto the tarmac. After a certain distance, José assumed the getaway would be easy. It ran the sharp piece of white bone across Kyndle Tims’s carotid and dropped her with gallons of blood pouring from her neck. Shots from my pistol went wide and came nowhere close to even scratching José.

  In his rage Devin’s mind flashed.

  A bathtub.

  His sister.

  A loss that had ripped his soul to its core.

  “Taylor!” Devin screamed, throwing himself forward, not even bothering to fire his G19.

  Grabbing the end of the logging chain that was over his shoulder, my copilot ran forward. Pulling it free e drew his arm back and finally swung his chrome chain in an attempt to lasso the undead beast.

  The chain wrapped around José’s neck like it had been choreographed. An unstoppable force just met a moving object and it fucking stopped it, by God! The chain pulled José and it crashed onto its back. The final move of this chess game had just been made.

  Devin planted his feet as he yanked the chain, pulling his doomed enemy painfully toward him. The rough tarmac tore José apart. Baking asphalt made blue skin sizzle. Every piece of flesh caught and ripped, leaving trails of blood and ragged skin in its wake. Ghost Rider was laughing madly as the distance quickly closed.

  He stood over bloodied hamburger with eyes and a mouth. “You fucking villainous piece of shit! You could have just left her and gotten away free but you are too greedy. This is what you fucking deserve.” He pulled the pistol from his hip and double tapped the zombie right between its yellow eyes.

  I knew this whole scenario hit too close to home for my copilot. He saw the death of his sister every day in his mind. And there she laid again, blood pooling around her head on a lonely tarmac. We had saved no one as of yet.

  If Devin is aware of the future, why did he allow this to happen? Couldn’t he have stopped it? He would probably say something about how it was supposed to happen. It was apparent by his wet face that he knew before José even took a hostage. I guess he’s just a mouthpiece with no control.

  ☠☠☠

  Turning to give my friend a bit of privacy after we laid Kyndle to rest, I started walking back to the BAE hangar. Just for kicks, I decided to enter the sealed bay. I opened one of the smaller doors, cracked a glow stick, and tossed it in.

  In the middle of the bay, prepped ready for flight, sat a pristine MH-60S Seahawk. The gray whirly bird was completely immaculate and had remained untouched since May Day. We would be leaving this airport in a different kind of EAGLE.

  19

  Slice and Dice

  THE CORA WAS still in Alabama. Continuing west and ultimately south, the sojourners moved at what seemed like a snail’s pace. They normally came across at least one dam per day. All the crew was sick of trudging into one musky tomb after another.

  Food, ammo, and all other supplies were constantly being used up. This was expected, but occasional trips would be made ashore to replenish the stores. When it came to retrieving replacement parts for firearms, stockpiling weapons, and filling 55 gallon drums with ammunition, The Expert volunteered for these missions.

  Hammer, suited up in Metroid Prime Samus armor, and stood ready as usual to defend her country. Kumar wore a Clone Trooper suit and carried his trusty talwaar. The Medicine Man appeared battle-ready in the bodysuit of Darth Vader sans Cape. All made their way down the gangplank.

  The trio headed to a pawn shop that was located a few blocks from the docked vessel. The Expert ordered “Remember, melee first, firearms second and only if under attack.”

  She pulled her M4 from over her shoulder and left Anduril strapped over the other. The other two similarly held their HK submachine guns at the ready. They closed on the building, slowing their momentum to move more silently.

  Though not expecting an ambush or a simple all out attack, The Expert had learned there was no reason to take chances. She would rather not take unnecessary risks back in the day–in her career as a Marine Captain– against the communists. She was especially careful now with these naked tangos.

  Hammer pushed the door in and leaned around the corner while crouching. The bell chimed when the door reached its apex and a questioning animal grunt could be heard. A balding blunatic hurriedly came around the corner to see what made the noise.

  What was once an elderly man came sliding in nastiness covering the floor. The Expert couldn’t get a steady aim on the creature as it appeared to take a dive and slide for home plate. She was wishing for a silencer before she took the shot, regretting the crew had yet to find such accessories. One 5.56 round being fired might not draw the attention of the entire blue world.

  Before the cannibal’s momentum could be slowed by the front wall of the building, it let out an ear shattering screech, ringing the dinner bell for any former humans in the area.

  The Expert sent a three round burst at the revenant as the final note of the call left its mouth. The bottom round impacted the sternum and stuck in the thick chest bone. The wound was extremely painful but not fatal; the abomination would have survived had it not been for the next pieces of lead.

  The second round impacted milliseconds later an inch above the first. The bullet sank into the chest cavity, vaporizing arteries, bronchial tubes, esophagus, and other things necessary for life. It then tore through the spine and exploded out the creature’s back.

  The third round hit right under the Adam’s apple, destroying any chance of it ever making sound again. Death was now assured for this beast, with arterial blood gushing from its throat. Unable to cry out, scream in agony, or even whimper, the peevie sank silently into a rapidly growing pool of its own lifeblood.

  It was too late to stop the harsh scream for blue reinforcements, the only thing the main protagonists could do was rush into the building, quickly secure it, and prepare for the horde.

  The three armored humans charged into the pawn shop, searching for more nudists. Hammer dropped one that was too busy devouring the sloppy carcass of an animal to have noticed the call from its fellow zombie.

  The blue ape was on its hands and knees, tearing into the bloody entrails when she sent one round into its brown eye. If the creature reacted, there was no sign it knew what was happening.

  The bullet ripped through intestines, major organs, and finally exploded out of the mouth. The creature looked up as the bullet shot from its pie hole, giving the illusion of projectile vomiting blood onto the wall on its other side. It fell into its disgusting meal, undead blood mixing with that of the downed animal.

  The Expert smiled to herself. “That tango will never excrete feces again.”

  Kumar rolled around the corner and was backed up by The Medicine Man. They witnessed a truly chilling scene. A female zombie was stretched out over a bed of leaves. It was gnawing the last few tender morsels from an almost clean bone. Strands of bloody fat clung to what appeared to be a rib bone. Each piece was sucked down by the completely naked former human.

  Dr. George had to stifle a gasp. The female had an enlarged stomach and was apparently a few months pregnant. The HITs froze, staring at what would be the coming generation of the infected.

  The cardiologist wanted to capture this creature, to study the fetus to gather knowledge about what they could be expecting. He knew, though, they didn’t have time to incapacitate and secure the afflicted for its transport back to the Viva Ancora. One of his goals was to study an infected fetus and its host.

  He whispered sadly to his fellow. “Do it.”

  The Blue Clone Trooper readied his weapon as the beast sat up, hearing the click. It let out a keening hiss when it took in the two figures on the other side of the room. The bone
it had been chewing on was released from its teeth and rolled down the blood covered chest.

  The animal had been drenched in body fluids for months. The only washing it may have received was from an occasional rain. As it began to push itself from the floor The Phantom launched a three round burst at its head. It didn’t have the time to register what was taking place as three bullets sank into the cranium.

  The top half of the head exploded sending gray matter and bloodied bone fragments haphazardly around the room. The blood caked hair was vaporized leaving no evidence that the thing was ever a brunette.

  As the creature fell back dead, The Medicine Man sincerely wished they could return to extricate the fetus for closer study. It went without saying that this body would disappear before they could return from the Cora.

  They had locked the door but that would only slow the monsters. Blood was in the air. Not enticing human blood, but the afflicted would smell their fallen brothers and break through the glass door to find out what happened. The humans would be found sooner rather than later.

  The three protagonists completed their circle of the building and felt they had removed all enemies. The only thing left to do was prepare for a coming onslaught. They began pushing shelving units against the door and surrounding picture windows; knowing they would not hold the enemy more than a few seconds.

  Disguised as a Sith Lord, the doctor pushed an aluminum desk in front of the doorway to a small office. He instructed The Expert to position squarely in front of the opening. She opened her pack containing extra full magazines, stretching her fingers in anticipation of the battle to come.

  Objects slamming into glass were the first sounds recognizable by the humans. First one item, then many more and finally, the glass began to crack. The shelving units were being pushed. The screeching of metal on linoleum was a painfully distinct sound. Hoping it would hold for a few more minutes the team waited.