The Regulators - 02

by Michael Clary

  After that, I began to hack and slash my way through them once again. Yet the damage was already done. They had managed to slow me down too much and I couldn’t build up any more speed.

  The next thing I knew, they had grabbed a hold of my backpack which was attached to my tactical vest. I didn’t want to lose my tactical vest, especially under those circumstances; it had that wonderful little bite collar to protect my neck. I just didn’t really have much of a choice. I undid all the buckles in rapid fire and let the dirty bastards yank it off of me.

  All during this, I never once stopped moving forward. They may have slowed me down considerably, but they were never able to stop me. Those cold dead fingers kept on reaching and grabbing, but I kept on moving. Somehow, I even retained my hat.

  When things got bad enough, when the zombies were so thick that I was no longer able to push forward, I abruptly changed direction. I stopped charging into them and instead, after ducking low and taking out the legs of the few shamblers on my left, I headed up the road instead of across. It was a brilliant move on my part. I wish I could say that I planned on doing it from the get go.

  Regardless, it worked. The way ahead cleared up almost immediately. The mass was also so determined to run me down that they completely forgot about my teammates. I ran for all I was worth up the road. I had plenty of cardio to give this group the chase of their lives and then leave them in the dust when they were far enough away from my buddies.

  And then I just about froze in my tracks.

  I felt the icy grip of true fear crawling up my spine. I had left Merrick behind. She was right behind me when I charged the mob, but as soon as I was free I couldn’t find her.

  I had gained about half a block when I realized this. The zombies were closing the distance rapidly as I stood there like a jackass and wondered what to do.

  I was just getting ready to charge back into them when I heard her bark.

  “You were going to charge back into them for your dog?”

  Wouldn’t you?

  Anyway, I didn’t have to. I heard her bark and then I saw her emerge right through the middle of the mass. She must have gotten confused like they did when I changed directions. I started to run again, and she was able to catch up to me easily.

  Together, we rounded a corner and made an immediate left on the first street available. I was doing my damndest to shake them off our tail, but for some reason I was suddenly not feeling very well. I kind of felt like how a person feels when they start catching the flu, everything began to ache and my entire body felt sort of weaker.

  In any case, I figured I had given the boys more than enough time to load up the survivors into the Jeeps so I reached up to tap my earpiece. I wanted to let the team know I was going to head back after I lost the zombies. The earpiece wasn’t there. I must have lost it when they were all trying to grab a hold of me. To make matters worse, my hand came away bloody.

  I always wear fingerless gloves when I go on missions. It just feels more natural when I have some bare skin on the trigger. In my mind at least, it also gives me a better grip on my weapons.

  I felt the wetness of the blood on the bare skin of my fingers immediately. I frantically began to search the area between my shoulder and my ear for an injury. It wasn’t an easy thing to do while I was running, but I found the small wound on my neck. I felt the sting of it when my finger came into contact with the torn skin.

  I had been bitten.

  It must have happened after I lost my tactical vest complete with bite collar. I was probably so pumped up on adrenaline I never even realized I was being bitten.

  I was already feeling the effects.

  It wasn’t horrible yet, but I was feeling them, and they seemed to be worsening. I was rather alarmed by all of this and did my best to stay calm and in control while I came up with a plan. As things stood, I had lost contact with my team; I was bitten and starting to get sick; and I had a few hundred zombies about fifty feet behind me.

  “A few hundred?”

  Yeah. The group was growing due to all the noise they were making, not to mention the screams.

  All in all, I had cause to be alarmed. I needed to take care of my bite wound immediately, but healing required a natural element. Water and a hot bath in one of the many empty houses would take care of that. I just needed to lose all of my rotting friends despite my waning strength in order to get there. Outrunning them and regrouping with my team was no longer an option. I wasn’t sure I could move fast enough for that anymore, let alone have the strength to get back to the guys if I did somehow manage to lose the zombies.

  I had no idea how long it would take before I weakened to the point that I could no longer run, and I didn’t want to find out. The only option left to me was to find a hiding place and heal myself.

  “You can’t be killed by a zombie bite correct? It can only sicken you?”

  Incorrect. I can most certainly be killed by an untreated bite. I can also be turned by a zombie bite. It would take a lot longer to fuck me up than your average bear, but if I can’t let nature do its work and heal me up, I’m just as dead as anyone else.

  I ran straight into the nearest house. I damn near shattered the flimsy front door with my shoulder, but after stumbling around the house for a few moments I was breaking through the back door as well and racing across the small yard.

  At the rear of the backyard, was a ten foot high rock wall. I picked up Merrick and tossed her over. I made a jump for it. And missed. I jumped again. And missed. Merrick was barking at me from the top. I’m not sure if she was just pissed because I tossed her or if she was telling me to hurry up. Regardless, on the third jump I hooked my tomahawk over the edge and pulled myself up.

  It was a jump that would normally be no problem to me. I was getting weaker and weaker. The zombies came through the house and filled the yard just as I scrambled over the edge into another backyard. They were climbing over one another in an effort to pursue me.

  I paused for a moment to catch my breath and then I was on the move again.

  There was no reason to go through this house so we ran towards the side gate and made our way to the front yard.

  No luck. A mass of shamblers were already turning the corner of the street to our left. It was a pretty bad situation. I knew I wasn’t going to have enough energy to outdistance them. The zombie toxins were spreading through my system way too fast. I decided to crash through house after house and lose them that way.

  Merrick and I bolted straight across the street and through the front doors of the closest home. We had a pretty good head start on our pursuers, but they had the numbers and their screams would only add to those numbers.

  We charged through the house and headed straight into the backyard. I could hear the sound of an approaching helicopter from somewhere in the distance. I didn’t bother looking for it. It would never be able to pick me up because it would be swarmed upon landing.

  We hopped over the backyard wall. Fortunately that wall wasn’t as tall as the previous one, and we ended up in yet another backyard. We went around to the side of the house and out the gate. The chopper was closer now, but I still didn’t pay much attention to it. I was heading down this new street and through another new house.

  “Do all the homes in El Paso have rock walls in their backyards?”

  Pretty much. I’m sure there are a few odd balls, but for the most part everyone on the West side uses a rock wall to separate their yards and give themselves some privacy. The only thing that varies is the height of the wall.

  The rest of my evening went pretty much the same way. In a house, out a house, through a yard, down the street. I was getting slower and slower. My muscles were starting to cramp up hideously. I found myself having to take breaks in order to catch my breath.

  There were plenty of times in which I thought I finally lost them only to be suddenly surrounded all over again. Fighting my way out of those situations was becoming hazardous in my weakened state. At s
ome point, even swinging my tomahawk became tiresome and I drew my Sig out of its holster and screwed on its silencer. It was a lot easier to shoot than chop.

  The moments in which they caught up to me were the worst. I had to start all over again in order to gain some distance. The zombie virus was having a grand ole time with my body during all of this. The cramps in my legs and arms were horrible. I was sweating profusely, my nose was running, I was freezing cold and my stomach was in knots.

  My body was about to fail me. In that, I had no doubts. The only thing that kept me moving was my own stubborn refusal to die. Every now and then, the helicopter would get close. I remember hearing it, but I never bothered to look up. For all I knew, it was right above me and then I would lose it along with the shamblers whenever I ducked into a new and random house.

  “This went on until dawn?”

  Just about, but don’t get me wrong here, there were plenty of breaks. I found little hiding places quite often enough. Sometimes it would be in a house and sometimes in an abandoned car. Sometimes I was even able to rest for a good half hour before the zombies would roust me out.

  It was really bad as it got closer to day break. I was losing consciousness and stumbling around instead of running. I don’t remember crossing Mesa. I don’t remember taking refuge in a house that belonged to an old high school friend of mine.

  Suddenly, Merrick was tugging on my sleeve, and I was awake. I had no idea where I was and no idea where my pursuers were. I was just sitting in a dark hallway inside an even darker house.

  I could barely breathe. I was dying.

  If Merrick hadn’t awakened me, I probably would have just died in my sleep.

  I couldn’t run anymore. In fact, I was barely able to drag myself to the nearest window and peer down on the street. Somehow, I had managed to find a two story house and even climb up the stairs to the second story. I didn’t recognize the neighborhood below. I saw a lot of zombies running around, but they had nowhere near the numbers they had had earlier.

  It looked like I was safe or at least safe from being eaten. I had actually managed to give them all the slip even though I couldn’t remember doing it. When I think about it now, it must have been pure dumb luck. I must have slipped into my old buddy’s house at just the right moment, when there were no searching eyes around to give me away.

  Of course I didn’t know it was my old buddy’s house at the time. I was half dead after all, and all I knew was that I had to heal myself. That became my new pressing concern. I needed a water source.

  There was actually blood, or some sort of bile leaking from my eyes, ears and nose as I crawled from room to room in search of a bathroom. I knew a running sink and a toilet weren’t going to be enough, so I passed the first bathroom I came upon and continued to the last door in the hallway.

  As luck would have it, the door led to the master bedroom and inside the master bedroom was an enormous bathroom complete with a large sunken tub. It was a good thing. At that point, I was having problems focusing. I never would have made it down the stairs in search of a tub or shower on the lower floors.

  I vaguely remember pulling myself into the tub; then I must have passed out. Merrick’s high pitched barking woke me up. I couldn’t have been out too long; the sky in the window was still a nighttime sky. I needed to turn the water on, but the pain in my joints was incredible. I could barely move my arm to the faucet.

  I tried to lift my back from the bottom of the tub in order to reach the knobs, but the pain actually made me cry out in agony, and I fell back almost immediately. I could no longer move enough to reach out and turn on the water. I just couldn’t lift myself, but Merrick’s whiney and high pitched bark kept me conscious.

  I was just staring at the knob. It was so close and yet so far away. Maybe I even laughed a little. My head was the last thing to drop. The strain on my neck was just too much, and I could no longer hold my head up. The thud my head made when it hit the porcelain actually hurt my ears, and I remember doing just one final thing before I died.

  I angrily kicked at the damn knob.

  “You died?”

  I might of. It sure felt like it, but that’s not the important part. The important part was my temper tantrum. My kick actually managed to lift up the knob. The tub began to fill up around me. I didn’t actually recognize that I had achieved my goal, mind you. I was pretty much dead to the world at that point.

  The sun was out when I finally opened my eyes. Merrick was whining again. She hates getting wet, and the tub had overflowed a long time ago. I sat up immediately and turned off the water.

  I sat up.

  It took a moment to realize it, but I had actually managed to heal. I started laughing. Then, I looked at the water and realized it was an ugly brown color. It was also pretty damn cold, so I drained it out, cleaned up the tub and refilled it with hot water.

  I was far from being healed completely. My entire body was on fire, and my head was pounding. Yet, I was still alive. I was on my way; I just needed more time.

  As the tub was filling up, I was able to take off my clothes and drape them over an open window to dry in the morning sun. I went downstairs to see how secure the house was. The front door was wide open, as was the back door. I quietly closed each door and locked them up. There were a few shamblers in the backyard, but they didn’t see me. When I was satisfied of my security, I headed back upstairs and hopped back in the tub while Merrick played watch dog for me.

  It felt good to let the water do its magic. I was hurting pretty bad. The funny thing was, I’ve taken some pretty serious injuries and recovered rapidly once I came into contact with water or something green and growing. The sheer amount of time it was taking to fix me up gave evidence to how narrowly I escaped being turned.

  It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

  I kept wondering if there was something I did wrong. I was wondering why the situation had gotten so badly out of control so rapidly. The street was completely empty and then it was suddenly filled with the dead. It was almost as if the zombies were hiding from us and laying in wait for our arrival, but zombies don’t hide or lay in wait. Zombies mindlessly charge and attack. Well, if the zombies were relatively brainless, that meant someone else came in and set a trap for us, and we walked right into it.

  A trap!

  We walked into a trap!

  I sat straight up in the bath. I was royally freaked out. Nothing was amiss except for the panic attack I had just given poor Merrick. I was still safe. I lowered myself back into the water and continued to heal.

  “A trap?”

  Yes, it had to be a trap. Someone had to have led all the zombies into those houses and kept them there somehow, at least until we were far enough away from the cars that driving away wasn’t an option. Someone must have also gotten those survivors to the same street either before or after the zombies were secured in the houses and backyards.

  It was the only thing that made sense. If the zombies had just happened to be in the neighborhood, they would have charged us immediately. They wouldn’t have waited for some of us to get out of the Jeep and look around. We had walked into a trap.

  “Okay, so you just realized that someone set up a very deadly trap. Obviously, they wanted to kill you. What were you thinking when the shock of the situation wore off?”

  I was thinking that someone was going to get their ass kicked.

  However, the first thing I needed to do was recover. I needed time for that. When the water finally cooled, I left the tub feeling much, much better. I wasn’t perfect and I was pretty much exhausted, but most of the pain had receded.

  The first thing I did was clean off my weapons. I had somehow managed to unclick my utility belt before I climbed into the water. I didn’t remember doing it, but I was glad that I did. Wet ammo wouldn’t exactly help me out of a tight spot. Still, the belt was lying on the same floor that was soaked due to the over filling tub. I dried the belt and weapons off as best I could, laid the belt itself n
ear the window to dry and climbed into the large bed in the master bedroom. I had my Sig in my hand as I drifted off to sleep. Merrick hopped up as well and curled up close. She put her head on my lap. It’s probably a pretty common thing that dogs do, but at the moment it was reassuring. I knew it was safe to close my eyes because she would watch over me. I slept like a baby.

  It was dark when I woke up.

  I took another bath to finish the job. I was rewarded by a vast amount of energy. I felt good. It had taken some time, but I was back to normal. I put on my clothes and gear next. They were a little stiff, but at least they were dry.

  I had no idea where I was.

  I went downstairs and out into the backyard. There were still some zombies there. I shot them immediately before they could let out a scream. I didn’t want to spend the rest of the evening running again. After they dropped, I went to the rock wall and took a look at my surroundings.

  I was a stone’s throw away from Sunland Park Drive. In a bit of confusion, I looked back at my temporary lodgings and realized that it was the old home of my high school buddy. The interior was different, but the exterior was unmistakable. I laughed at the situation and wondered idly whether or not I had sought refuge in a slightly familiar place, or if I had just stumbled in here by pure coincidence.

  Then I realized just how far I was from the rest of my team by foot. That sobering thought wiped the smile right off my face before I realized there were abandoned cars all over the place. I didn’t need to walk back; I could freakin’ drive back. I went back into the house and entered the garage. There was, I kid you not, an actual cherry condition 1977 Firebird Trans Am. I was in love. All I could think about were those old Smokey and the Bandit movies that I used to watch when I was a kid. I was in geek heaven. This thing still had the bird on the hood. I was going back to my team in style.

  I quickly checked the dash; there were no keys in the ignition. I ransacked the house for about an hour before I finally found them in a kitchen drawer. The car rumbled like a thunder god when I revved up the engine. I buckled Merrick into the passenger seat, hit the button for the garage door, and squealed down the driveway.