Dead Bones - Six Pack. The Ultimate Zombie Collection

by Ian Woodhead

  He sat down in front of the monitor in the vague hope that somehow his presence would magically make the internet come back on. Those horrible words stubbornly refused to shift. He’d experienced a connection loss before, but never for so long; it must have been at least a full hour since the net failed. Wayne glanced at the bottom corner of the screen, frowning.

  “No, that’s bollocks, it can’t have been two hours.” He gazed up and saw to his surprise that he’d almost completed the model. “Christ on a fecking bike, it doesn’t look half bad, Wayne.”

  At least he hadn’t wasted the missing time. He sighed and wandered what he was going to do about the internet. Despite his love for all things techno, he’d never been that technologically minded. He certainly had no idea about how to fix the PC’s connection. In the past, he just turned everything off then turned it all back on again, that usually did the trick. If that failed, he gave his brother a ring.

  Then again, in the past, Wayne wasn’t just ten kills away from being crowned Zombie Fiend, the highest rank you could get on Dead City Rising. Would his kill count be saved if he did turn everything off? Oh, this was a fecking travesty.

  “Come on, Wayne, stop acting like a little baby. It’s probably already saved on their server.”

  Yeah, maybe everything would be okay. God, he fecking hoped so. He’d been playing Dead City Rising all day. His clan had already cleared out several districts and had been cautiously making their way towards the shopping centre when the calamity struck.

  He almost pushed his fist through the fecking screen when the connection failed; God, he was annoyed. Not only at the internet fecking up but with one of his clan mates. Wayne had been the clan leader for nearly two months now; he’d guided and nurtured the others, turning them all from a bunch of complete noobs into one of the best clan fighters in the league. Yet, one of their number thought he knew best. It didn’t matter that Wayne had played this map hundreds of times, oh no. Dead Avenger thought he was the top dog.

  The dumb fecker had ignored Wayne’s advice to stay together and had wandered into an abandoned building to look for ammo. Wayne had tried to explain that the building was a zombie re-spawn location but thought Wayne was lying. The connection had been lost before Wayne had time to go after him.

  He left the PC to go through its usual booting up motions and wandered into the kitchen in search of food. He knew that there was still a sizable portion of leftover chicken Madras still in the fridge. He still had a tin of beans in the cupboard, add a few slices of bread, and he’d have a meal fit for a fecking king.

  Wayne heard a loud bang outside, it sounded like someone had let off a load of fireworks; he went over to the window to investigate, and there was a red glow in the distance. That was the housing estate, it looked as though the local reprobates had set fire to a few houses again. Dead Avenger lives on there somewhere. Wayne remembered him telling the rest of the clan about the place last week. From what he said, it didn’t sound like a place that Wayne would like to live on.

  He looked down and noticed a few people lying on the ground, no doubt passed out from drinking. He had heard a fair bit of noise outside his window earlier, it must have been pretty loud, these windows are supposed to be soundproof. Wayne sighed and padded back into the kitchen, he was so glad that he’d never indulged in the pastime of clubbing and binge drinking. He had far better things to spend his money on.

  As he opened the fridge, somebody knocked on his door. Wayne hadn’t expected that to happen. Nobody called for him. It couldn’t be his brother; besides, he always used the code. He didn’t really talk to the other people in the Mill. There were only six apartments on the top level, and the others were as private as he was.

  Somebody knocked again.

  “Wait a second!” he shouted. He placed the foil container on the counter and hurried out of the kitchen; he hoped that whoever it was wouldn’t keep him long, his stomach had just realised that he hadn’t put anything in there for hours.

  The chances were that it was some kids from the apartments below him fooling about. He noticed that his computer had restarted but there was still no connection. He glanced at the Lego model; it looked as though he’d be spending a little more time on that tonight.

  He grabbed the handle, deciding to give his brother a ring; he wouldn’t be able to come out tonight as it was too late, but he may be able to give him some advice. He pressed the button next to the door that activated the monitor, but the camera outside showed him the walkway was empty. He sighed, so it was kids. How annoying.

  He’d have to report this. Wayne paid good money for this apartment, he’d have a word with that good for nothing janitor in the morning.

  “Too many distractions, my food is calling me.”

  As he turned, the door banged again.

  Oh, this had gone beyond annoying. Someone out there was going to receive a piece of his mind. He activated the monitor again and gasped. On the wall opposite someone had daubed the words ‘help me’ in what looked like blood.

  He pulled open the door, not knowing what to think. The walkway was still empty. Wayne padded over to the wall and tentatively touched the substance on the wall. It felt like blood. What on earth was fecking going on?

  “Hello, is anybody here?”

  He then saw a bike chain wrapped through the handles of the fire door; he shook his head, was that there earlier? He hadn’t noticed, but then again, Wayne always used the lift anyway. He looked at the writing and nodded in realisation—it must be kids. The chain will be the work of the caretaker, trying to stop them.

  “It obviously didn’t work.”

  They must be hiding in that apartment opposite, it was the only place they could be, but it wasn’t his concern. He hurried back to his open door, he didn’t want kids seeing his stuff, they’d want to play with it and they’d ruin everything.

  As he retreated to the safety of his room, he heard someone moaning, it was a really deep sound; that noise couldn’t have come from any child. The hairs on arms stood up. Someone really is hurt. Wayne rushed into other apartment

  “Where are you? Do you need a doctor?”

  He stopped by a door, slowly turned and gazed into a bedroom, and saw a blood soaked figure trying to get off the bed. Wayne knew the guy before, it’s the guy who lives next to him; he’s also, judging by the ragged hole in his rib cage, dead.

  The man groaned louder, Wayne then saw a length of chain leading from the man’s ankle to the metal bed post.

  “Is this real?”

  Someone has handcuffed him to the bed. Wayne’s senses completed ten laps around the inside of his head. His eyes were showing him what should only exist in a game. He stepped into the room. He was looking at a fecking real zombie!

  The thing on the bed lunged for him, Wayne squealed and jumped back as the dead man fell off the bed. He giggled. Wayne couldn’t help it, the zombie looked like a trussed up chicken.

  “I’ve been here before,” he murmured. Wayne nodded to himself; he had as well. Level eighteen on Dead City Rising, to be precise. There was a bedroom just like this; he remembered bursting in here with three of his clan-mates. He also recalled another zombie bursting out of the wardrobe. Wayne was fortunate enough to still have a butcher’s cleaver.

  “I’m going to need a weapon. You wait just there.” He shouted.

  God, this was just brilliant! The zombie apocalypse had started and Wayne was right in the middle of it. He rushed out the bedroom.

  “I’ll need my clan-mates.” He stopped dead. Oh, how fecking ironic; the only clan-mate close by was that fecking knob-head, Dead Avenger. He wondered how he was doing.

  Wayne entered his apartment and shut the door and headed for his bedroom. He went through a stage a couple of years back of collecting everything he thought he’d need to survive in case the apocalypse ever happened. He’d been younger then with more money than sense. At eighteen, he honestly thought that the dead were going to rise at any minute.
/>   “I should have kept collecting, instead of switching to Lego.”

  His wardrobe was full of everything from machetes, crossbows, body armour, and swords. The only thing he didn’t have was a firearm. Not that it mattered, unlike the other clans, his team went for close quarter butchery. That was probably the reason why they’d managed to penetrate so far into the game. Guns were all very pretty and impressive but not all that quiet. You might as well have huge neon arrows pointing down at you saying here we are, please eat me. Wayne remembered how long it took him to drill this lesson into Dead Avenger’s thick head.

  Wayne decided to go for the leather look, he hoped the boots would still fit him. Those beauties cost him over three hundred pounds, he bought them at a star trek convention over a decade ago. He couldn’t believe how excited he was.

  As he ran his hand along the wall, feeling for the light switch, Wayne’s nose detected an unusual odour; it smelled like fecking perfume. Suddenly someone grabbed his arm, and Wayne screamed in fright. Someone then pushed him back, Wayne slipped and hit the ground. The bedroom was then bathed in bright light. He looked up and saw his neighbour smiling down at him.

  “Hello there, Wayne. Do you remember me?

  He looked at the naked man covered in wet blood. He then jerked his head to the side when he noticed someone else in the room. Oh my God, it was her! He’d seen this woman a couple of times in the past, she had to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

  The blonde woman then stood up and walked towards him, smiling. “Thank you Wayne. You are so sweet.”

  She leaned over, Wayne felt his heart would explode when her large breasts brushed against his face.

  “I want to make love,” she whispered.

  Wayne’s throat closed up. She then grabbed his arms and pulled him up; her strength was unreal, and she moved him like he weighed no more than a sack full of feathers. She then threw him on the bed and straddled him. Wayne watched the other man approach. He began to massage her shoulders.

  “Look how excited he is, Vincent.”

  The other man nodded, “Yes, my Mistress, not as excited as I am though. Please hurry, the waiting is becoming unbearable.”

  The woman laughed and stroked Wayne’s cheek. “He doesn’t like it when I play with my food. He thinks I’m teasing him. I’ve told him that he can’t have me until I’m sated. I’m such a naughty girl.”

  Wayne cried out when she dug one of her nails into his cheek; he felt his warm blood flowing down his skin. Wayne watched the woman’s playful appearance suddenly change. The woman sitting on him no longer resemble a sex kitten, the creature above him now looked like a hungry predator.

  “Oh, please, Mistress.” The man shouted. “Do him!”

  Wayne screamed as the woman opened her mouth, lunged down, and bit into the side of his neck.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Just one more corridor to cross and another flight of stairs, and then we’re home free. The bouncer had spoken those words to Craig a few minutes ago. He’d even smiled—well, attempted to. Laurence’s attitude towards him had softened somewhat since the incident with the girls. It wasn’t exactly friendly, but at least he hadn’t told Craig to stop fucking whining at him.

  “Wait up,” Craig whispered.

  Laurence didn’t slow down, but he didn’t speed up either.

  Craig wondered if Laurence’s almost confidence boosting words had just been a spur of the moment thing. A way of covering up the shock of finding those fire doors shut and bolted on the other side.

  That so wasn’t fair. They’d both stared through the reinforced glass windows after Laurence had discovered the thick chain wrapped around the handles.

  He daren’t ask him what they were going to do if the other door was chained shut as well. Craig hurried past a fire exit, eager to catch up with Laurence.

  The big man had finally stopped; he gazed up at the ceiling. There was no point in asking him what he was doing, they had both heard those things up there clambering about. They’d been following them ever since they had set foot onto this level and they hadn’t been all that subtle in their movements.

  It must be the same creatures that had dropped onto them on the level below—he hoped it was anyway, and he shivered at the notion that there could be more. He stopped beside Laurence and followed his gaze, wondering why they hadn’t attacked them … unless they were still full from eating bits off the girls, or maybe they were scared of the bouncer’s gun.

  Laurence suddenly ran over to an apartment door, pushed down the handle, and slipped inside.

  “What the hell?” he rushed over, not wanting to be left alone. As soon as he reached the door, it opened and Lawrence pulled him in. He pushed Craig out of the way and locked the door.

  “The apartment looks safe.” He nodded towards the bedroom. “Just don’t go in there.”

  “There’s a dead thing in there?”

  Laurence shook his head, “No, there’s two of them, and stop fretting, lad. They’re just walking, rotting bags of stupid. They can’t open doors.

  The kids had dropped into the corridor. Craig could hear them scratching at the door.

  “There were only a couple of them when we pushed through those fire-doors. I reckon that there’s at least six of the little fuckers out there now.” He paused. “I didn’t think it would be long for them to gain enough confidence to try and take us out.” He pulled out his pistol and stared into the barrel. “It looks as though they do learn after all.”

  Craig walked over to the living room window and gazed out onto the dark street. Nothing out there moved, the area was deserted. He looked past the canal towards the estate; those fires were no longer visible. The landscape looked so peaceful, normal even. It was almost as if nothing had happened, that this was just some very bad trip. That scenario could even be believable as long as he didn’t look too closely. Further down the street lay an overturned car, and there was a large amount of dark liquid splashed across the pavement on the other side of the street. It was too dark to make out the colour, but he knew he wouldn’t be wrong if it was blood coloured.

  He sighed and wished that he could find a way to know out if his parents were still alive. He took his mobile phone out of his pocket and sighed again when he saw the no signal display. “Do you think those things will wait for us?”

  Lawrence shrugged. “I’m betting that they won’t, kid. We can’t be the only survivors in this fucking place. I reckon they’ll move on and hunt down prey that won’t fight back.”

  Craig looked up at the ceiling.

  “Don’t you worry about them getting inside? They’ll be a wall separating this room and the corridor.”

  He turned back to the window, wondering how he could be so sure. The area beyond the mill was still devoid of anything moving. Craig wondered if he should risk losing Laurence and take his chances outside. Once they’d left here, he could double back and push through that fire escape.

  Had he given up hope of saving his sister? Craig remembered what those things running with Stacey were capable of doing. Even if by some miracle he did manage to secure her, what would he do with her? Somehow Craig doubted that the hospitals were the safest places to go.

  “What the fuck?” Laurence muttered. “Something is happening out there, I think they’re fighting.”

  Craig hurried over, noticed the monitor embedded into the wall and pressed a few random buttons beneath it. The black screen cleared, showing four of the children crawling over a sprawled body old an old woman.”

  “Oh, Jesus, that poor woman.”

  “Don’t start getting all sentimental, lad. Look at her legs, she was dead before they jumped her.”

  He followed his pointed finger and saw the several bite marks down her calf. The old woman didn’t seem all that bothered about those things crawling all over her. She rolled onto her front and slowly got back on her feet. One of the children ran forward and bit out a chunk of flesh from her thigh. He then pulled a
face, spat the flesh onto the floor and ran to the others.

  “It looks like they need their food to have a heart beat.”

  Craig watched the woman slumber down the corridor until she disappeared from view. The children approached the door and started to draw their fingernails down the wood. “I don’t think they are going anywhere, Laurence. What are we going to do?” He walked over to the monitor, intending to turn it off; he couldn’t bear to look at those faces anymore.

  “Wait, don’t you fucking touch that. We have more company.”

  Craig watched a blond haired, naked woman run through the group of kids. He blinked. “Did that really happen?”

  Laurence nodded. “I think I’m going mad.”

  The woman then stopped. She walked backwards and looked up into the camera. She winked and licked her lips. One of the girls then ran up the wall opposite the woman and dived on her back, digging her little nails into the pale skin.

  The abrupt change in her expression was terrifying; she went from a seductive and beautiful woman into something almost bestial. She turned and screamed then reached behind her and grabbed the young girl’s arm. The woman ripped the girl off her back, taking away a large piece of the woman’s skin.

  She didn’t even seem to notice the lacerations, the woman just carried on smashing the girl into the wall. Craig turned away, sickened.

  “Go hide in the kitchen.”

  “What?”

  The man put his hands on Craig’s shoulders and pushed him towards the closed door. “Don’t fucking question me, just do it. That woman knows we’re in here and she wants us.” Laurence spun Craig around and crouched down beside him. “Go on, lad. Go into the kitchen and hide.”

  “You’re not going to sacrifice yourself are you?”

  The man tried to smile and laugh off Craig’s accusation but he wasn’t fooled.

  “Of course, I’m not.” He tapped the pistol. “As soon as she comes through the door, I intend to blast the bitch.” He pushed the boy towards the door, “Now do as you’re fucking told.”