Chronicles of the Undead | Book 1 | Urban Gridlock

by Hernandez, Jaime

  SWAT teams arrived in record time, fully outfitted in protective gear with shields, batons, and various firearms. They formed a solid line standing side by side with their shields in front of them. They pushed forward in an attempt to take control of the crowd while sharpshooters took up elevated positions behind the line. The bloody crowd fearlessly pushed against the sorely outnumbered SWAT teams and their shields, causing them to quickly lose ground and fall out of formation. The wounded and the walking dead poured in and out of every nearby building entrance on the square until there was no longer a front line for the SWAT team to attempt to maintain. Officers started firing their weapons in every direction as the threat from the growing masses surrounded them from all sides.

  Gunfire began to erupt at such a fast pace that it sounded like automatic machine gun fire, the result of so many weapons being discharged simultaneously and repeatedly. Max watched as SWAT team members and sharpshooters fired into the growing crowd of hundreds. Innocent people and infected alike were shot indiscriminately as the cops struggled to reclaim some sort of control over the situation. The undead were dangerously close to outnumbering the living. The crowds of scared, bitten people who didn’t realize they were already dead added to those numbers.

  Ambulances filled quickly and sped off to nearby hospitals as newly arrived ambulances continuously took their place. A steady stream of screaming, crying, bleeding people walked, ran and stumbled to awaiting paramedics who quickly loaded them up. The cycle was repeated countless times until the growing surge of undead began to swarm the ambulances. Confused and overwhelmed paramedics initially thought that the dead were victims in need of treatment, not realizing their mistake until it was too late to act. In a matter of minutes the ambulances were surrounded as the undead converged upon them, the paramedics rapidly falling to the deadly onslaught. Some stayed down, having mercifully received wounds that prevented them from reanimating. Most were not so lucky as gradually one after another clumsily found their feet. With missing ears and fingers, holes in cheeks, shoulders and necks, rings of bite marks running down arms and legs, shiny ropes of intestines slipping from body cavities, skeletal ribs on prominent display, nearly a hundred paramedics joined the ranks of the undead.

  Watching from their vantage point six stories above the melee, Max and Jesse were quickly able to discern that a bite was a death sentence after seeing so many people die from their wounds only to rise up again as the walking dead. While horrified and shocked at what they were watching below, their elevated, removed perspective allowed them to see what very few people on the ground could.

  “Are you seeing this? That’s the fifth dead person I’ve seen go down from a headshot,” Jesse yelled and pointed. With the crowd surging past what appeared to be at least a couple thousand people, Max had trouble seeing exactly where Jesse was pointing. “Everyone else gets back up or at least crawls on their hands and knees. There’s another one!” he yelled. Max watched and realized he’d been seeing the same thing but hadn’t processed it yet as Jesse had.

  “You’re right, I see it. The headshots are staying down, holy fuck, they’re the only ones staying down,” Max hollered back. “Damn it, they can’t see it down there. They’re not aiming for the head.” They watched as more of the first responders went down. The paramedics didn’t know and couldn’t see that bite wounds were deadly. Ambulances had already transported countless bite victims to several of the nearest hospitals.

  A loud out of place thumping and harmonic vibration preluded a local news channel helicopter’s sudden appearance overhead. It hovered above the top of the Terminal Tower building before descending to just over the roof of the hotel only a couple hundred feet away from Max and Jesse. The noise from the black and red helicopter emblazoned with NEWS Channel 8 on its side drowned out all of the screams and sirens from Public Square down below. However it did nothing to dampen their view of the ongoing chaos and death unfolding before them. The crowd was so large that it was becoming impossible to discern the dead from the living. Every nearby building within their view had people streaming in and out of them, no doubt furthering the spread of the infection as the wounded ran inside to the perceived notion of safety beyond each set of doors.

  The news chopper flying so closely above the hotel made conversation impossible and caused wind speed to pick up drastically where Max and Jesse were perched on the scaffolding. The added fear of being blown to the ground below caused them to double check their safety lines and harnesses, just as the helicopter flew over and past them to hover above the casino on the other side of the square.

  The helicopter’s movement drew their eyes back toward the casino. The entrance was nearly hidden from view by the pulsating crowd, but the huge mirrored three story windows to the left suddenly burst outward as dozens of undead clamored through them. The havoc below had fully encompassed the insides of the surrounding buildings. Max thought about the number of entrances to the casino, the Terminal Tower and the hotel on the sides and rear of the buildings that were out of his line of sight.

  “Holy shit, just think about what it must look like on the other side of the building. Who knows how many thousands of dead are surrounding us?” Max said to Jesse.

  The streets beyond the square below were crowded with first responder vehicles, taxis, city buses and occasional civilian cars. Some braked hard to avoid the crowds now encroaching on the streets only to become quickly surrounded by the undead, while others either mowed down everyone in their path or struck other vehicles in their panicked escape attempts. Those who were surrounded had so many ambulatory bodies pressed against them that they couldn’t move their vehicles. The buildup of pressure from undead bodies pushing toward them slowly caused windows to crack and break inward, dooming every last person unlucky enough to be caught inside of a trapped vehicle. Wrecked cars started to fill the streets leaving the area nearly impassable to other vehicles. Max watched as a half dozen of the undead were run down by a taxi driver weaving his way through the mess, only to see them reappear moments later crawling out from beneath and behind the cab. Three of them slowly made their way back to their feet while another two began an agonizingly slow crawl in search of a fresh victim. The two crawlers appeared to have broken legs, but they steadily pulled themselves forward on their shredded and bloodied hands and arms. Only one stayed down, his skull smashed by the car’s tires.

  Most of the square and surrounding streets were full of the dead. While the living tried to run through and between them to escape, the crowd of dead grew thicker until they swallowed up the living among them. Screams rang out, but most were quickly silenced as new screams took their place. People continued to run away while the dead slowly and awkwardly shuffled around. They moved clumsily but appeared to have iron grips once they grabbed hold of someone.

  “Mother of fuck,” Max exclaimed as Jesse looked his way. “They’re fucking zombies!”

  Chapter 2

  Day 1

  Annalise Lopez was washing dishes while the TV blared in the background. She looked out the window over the sink to watch her kids playing in the pool. They were growing up so fast. Camille was fourteen and Damon was going to be thirteen next month. They were excited about the cookout tomorrow because they’d see Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jesse, and they would get to swim with their kids. Max, Anna, Jesse and Michelle had all grown up in the same neighborhood and had gone to school together. Max and Anna had married young and started their family when they were both twenty-three. Jesse and Michelle had married a year before them and were like family. Their kids were nearly the same ages and were growing up the best of friends. Lucia was fourteen, about to start high school with Camille. Joey was thirteen and headed into 8th grade alongside Damon.

  Anna thought back to when she and Michelle had both been pregnant together their first time around with Camille and Lucia. They were already best friends, but the pregnancies brought them even closer. They were surprised and excited that it happened a second time when they w
ere both pregnant with their boys. They boys were born only a few months apart. It just seemed like life was meant to work out that way for them. They felt like one big family, even more so with their children all being close. Living just a few minutes from each other meant they saw each other often.

  Anna was looking forward to tomorrow. It would be the first weekend Max and Jesse had off in weeks. She and the kids had really been missing Max with all of his recent overtime. Camille and Damon were ecstatic that he had managed to open the pool for the summer. He was a hard worker and took good care of his family. Even with his recent long hours, he’d taken the time each evening all week long to work on the pool. Today was the first day the kids got to use it. Everyone was looking forward to tomorrow.

  Unfortunately, Anna had to work on Sunday afternoon. She was bummed that she would miss one of Max’s days off, but she would enjoy the day Saturday and sleep in late on Sunday before she had to head to work. She was a nurse and worked part-time at the VA hospital. She loved her job. Nursing was a part of her, but she was especially passionate about working with veterans. She hardly considered herself to be anything resembling politically correct, she wasn’t easily offended, and she was as likable as she was attractive. The vets loved her because they didn’t have to tiptoe around her or use a filter before they spoke. She counted herself lucky that she had a job that she genuinely enjoyed and found fulfilling.

  Anna was brought out of her daydreaming by squeals from outside. The dishes nearly done, she looked out again at her kids in the pool. Damon was trying to dunk Camille in the deep end resulting in lots of splashing and laughter. A different kind of squeal, this time coming from the TV, quickly drew her attention to the news that had been blaring in the background. Last night she’d seen some news reports of widespread rioting overseas throughout Europe and Asia. The reports had been crazy and hadn’t made much sense, but she’d been half asleep watching the news in bed. Now she was shocked to see reports of the same thing happening here, all over the East Coast and spreading inwardly to the west.

  She sat down in a trance watching the live news feed. The female reporter stood outside the Philadelphia Airport while scenes of chaos unfolded behind her. A plane had crashed just off the runway only moments earlier. One of the plane’s emergency doors was open and a large, inflated slide ran from the door to the ground. People were stumbling down the slide as firefighters and rescue workers rushed to assist them. People were screaming and crying, many of them bloody, all of them trying to run away from the plane. Others looked to be covered with blood, but they were quiet and shuffled about slowly, seemingly in shock.

  A short distance behind the reporter, those who shuffled and stumbled around started to grab or fall onto the rescue workers. A lot of the firefighters and EMTs seemed to quickly become covered with blood. The cameraman zoomed in and the camera went from steady to shaky as the zoomed in images appeared. The rescue workers were being attacked by the passengers from the plane. The passengers were biting them. One close-up caught an EMT fighting off a middle aged woman who took a bite out of his cheek. As he tried to push her away, another passenger’s hands grasped his shoulder from behind and bit down on it. The EMT was clearly screaming as he fell to the ground. The two passengers went to the ground with him as one held tight to the EMT’s shirt, tearing it open as he fell. The woman used her hands and teeth to tear into his abdomen, pulling out his intestines then both passengers fed on him.

  Off camera the mic picked up the voice of the cameraman as he started yelling to the reporter that they needed to get out of there. She looked confused and annoyed at his interruption, but she turned to see exactly what he was seeing. The reporter looked just in time to see the two passengers lose interest in the downed EMT as the now clearly dead man slowly and awkwardly sat up with the remains of his intestines falling out of his abdomen, then hobbled up onto his feet to join the others. He grabbed the nearest rescue worker from behind and sank his teeth into the woman’s throat, pulling a large chunk of skin and muscle into his mouth. The newsfeed cut out abruptly.

  After a few seconds of blank screen, a breaking news banner flashed across the TV. Local News Channel 8 anchors were at their desk with horrified looks on their faces. One of the women struggled to speak but was spared when the newsfeed suddenly cut to live chopper footage of downtown Cleveland. Anna hardly heard a word the reporter said because on her TV she saw the gruesome scene developing around Tower City, where Max was working. Zoomed in cameras caught images so violent that the airport footage seemed tame in comparison. There were dead people everywhere. But they didn’t stay dead. She watched in horror as the dead feasted on the living. All over the square and well beyond, the camera caught scenes of carnage that seemed impossible. She tried to focus on the hotel to see if she could see Max, Jesse or any of the construction crew, but it was hopeless. There was too much chaos happening everywhere for the camera to stay focused near the hotel for any length of time.

  Anna grabbed her cellphone and immediately called Max, but the call didn’t go through. She tried again and again but kept getting a recording that all circuits were busy. “Oh my god. The kids!”

  Camille and Damon were having a splash fight when the patio door opened onto the deck and their mom burst through yelling. Startled by her sudden appearance and confused by her yelling, they both had a delayed reaction responding to her.

  “Get out of the pool now! Hurry up, get inside the house right now,” she hollered at them. To their credit, they took her seriously and both rushed out of the pool. As they grabbed their towels she herded them through the patio door as quickly as possible. She slammed it shut, locked it and put the security bar in place.

  As they stood inside dripping on the hardwood floor with confusion written all over their faces, Anna rushed to look out the front windows of the living room. There was nothing there. She looked back at Camille and Damon. “Stay inside, go change,” she quickly admonished.

  She stepped out to the enclosed sunporch to get a closer look at the front yard. Nothing. Their front yard was heavily wooded and surrounded by a six foot privacy fence that nearly blended in with the trees. Near the very front of the yard the privacy fence met a formidable dark brown brick wall with a heavy wrought iron gate. Max and Jesse had built the brick wall two summers ago. They had spent as much time building as they had drinking beers and had a blast doing it. Max had wanted their property to have full privacy. From the street a passersby would see the large grouping of trees without realizing that a house sat behind the woods.

  Anna silently crept forward until she reached the gate on the brick wall. She didn’t see anyone. No cars drove by. Everything seemed to be quiet like a normal day. She walked the length of the wall to where it met the privacy fence. Still nothing. So she decided to walk the perimeter of the fence around the entire house. Their house wasn’t big or fancy, but it was home and the pride they took in it showed. It was a simple brick ranch built on a nice piece of wooded property. The privacy fence ran the entire length of the property with trees interspersed around the fence. There was a large open area in the back yard surrounding the pool, but the sides and rear of the yard were full of trees. At the very end of their back yard, trees butted up to the back side of their fence on a similarly developed piece of property behind theirs. Anna looked over the fence and saw nothing unusual. But she knew the dead would be coming.

  Back inside, she found Camille and Damon waiting for her by the front door, still in their swimsuits.

  “What’s going on Mom?” Camille asked, her voice fearful. Anna looked down at her mini me as she thought for a moment about what she was going to say. Camille was a slightly smaller version of her mom. She had long dark hair, piercing green eyes and a bright smile that revealed huge dimples whenever she smiled. Her beautiful complexion made her look like she had a perfect tan year round. Camille also inherited Anna’s stubborn, smart and generous nature. Damon looked more like his dad. He had Max’s dark eyes, black hair and s
trong jaw, but he was at that awkward stage where his features were starting to develop a masculine look yet still had a boyish innocence. He was incredibly smart, hilarious and fun loving.

  “Go get dressed. Quickly,” Anna said as she looked at their faces, the faces of her two precious babies, who were both about to lose their remaining innocence.

  She picked up her cell phone to try Max again. This time there was no ringing, no recorded message, just a static silence.

  “Damn it,” She yelled. She almost threw the phone at the wall but caught herself and thought better of it. It might work later. It might be her only lifeline to Max. She looked up to see Camille and Damon in the doorway. The TV was still on and had caught their attention.

  The news footage from downtown was replaying as a news anchor spoke over it. After a couple minutes the news anchor said something about breaking news and the newsfeed cut to a new live report coming from the Cleveland Hopkins Airport. The reporter was inside the airport in the baggage claim area. Scene after scene behind him showed blood drenched people either running and screaming or clumsily, quietly shuffling around. Anna recognized the reporter. He was famous in Cleveland for his risk taking and cutting edge style which had garnered him several awards. He was talking about the dead. He spoke rapidly and with a flourish as he described the dead attacking the living. He reported that bites were fatal and that every person who was bitten would become one of the dead. He explained that the only way to stop the dead was to shoot them in the head. Their brains had to be destroyed. In his typical over the top style, he held up a handgun as if to demonstrate. The camera started shaking as the cameraman yelled to him that they had to get out of there, but the reporter was insistent. He was damn good at his job and he knew he would become a legend when he pulled this off. He sternly told the camera operator to wait, then turned and shot one of the approaching dead in the chest. As it continued to move closer to him, he shot it point blank in the head. The dead man dropped immediately. The reporter opened his mouth to speak again when an unexpected scream poured from him. The camera shot expanded to show a crawling dead teenager pulling a huge chunk of stringy flesh and muscle from the man’s calf. The camera dropped to the ground just as the reporter did. It caught a brief image of the dead teenager reaching for the screaming reporter’s neck, before the picture went blank.