by Sawyer, JT
Carlie clutched her weapon and bounded along as a flood of biped monsters snapped and shrieked at her, pushing each other to get ahead. She ran down the corridor, making a sharp right turn until she came to a cobblestone-and-glass passage that connected the nursing and pharmacy buildings. She ran through the cylindrical corridor, coming to the stairs leading to mortuary sciences. Carlie paused and removed the sweaty dress jacket that was tied around her waist. She flung it inside an open office. If these things key in on human scent, then this might buy me some time. Only one way to find out.
She locked the office door and headed into the stairwell as a cacophony of piercing shrieks filled the halls behind her.
Chapter 31
Jared poured the last of his water over his head, the droplets running over his blue button-down shirt. Despite the thick walls of the basement structure, the temperature was slowly rising and he knew they would only have a few hours left before people started succumbing to heat exhaustion.
He looked over at Amy, who was curled up asleep on the cold cement floor, and wondered what his life might have been like if he had gone to school instead of spending his years hawking stolen goods, hustling others, and getting shuffled around juvenile detention centers.
His mind was jolted back to the present when he heard thumping against the metal doors. He ran up to the entrance, holding his pistol before his face. The rest of the group was awake and muffled cries of terror could be heard. He raised his hand for the rest of the group to be quiet as he pressed his ear to the warm stainless-steel door.
Barely audible through the thick metal was the voice of a man yelling to open up. “DEA agents…we’re here to get you out.”
Chapter 32
Damn…why does it have to be federal agents again? Jared thought. He turned and looked back at the red-faced group of students, their eyes rollercoaster wild.
His hand hesitated, hovering over the door lock.
“Why don’t you let them in?” said Amy, who was standing behind him.
“Yeah, right. I was just making sure it sounded safe out there,” he said, flipping the latch on the handle and yanking it back. As the door swung inward, Jared saw two heavily armed, scruffy officers enter. The rest of the students rushed forward, encircling the men.
“Are we ever glad to see you,” said Amy.
Jared tucked his pistol into his waist and half-smiled at the two men.
“You the one in charge here?” said Shane, glancing down at the weapon and back up at Jared.
“Yeah, you could say that,” he replied, seeing Amy roll her eyes.
“Look, we don’t have much time. The creatures outside are massing and you are the only morsels left on campus. We need to get out of here ASAP. How many people you got?”
“There are ten of us,” said Amy while pushing past Jared, stepping on his Nikes.
“Where to? Those things are all over. That’s why we’ve been holed up in here,” said Jared.
“The creatures were spread around earlier in search of victims but you are the last group left on campus so they will be descending on this building as soon as they can locate you.”
“Well, what’s the plan, Sheriff?” said Jared.
“There’s a series of storm drains at the end of the hallway, beneath this sub-level. We’ll head there and make our way underneath the campus, back north towards our facility. We should be able to get within about a quarter of a mile of our tactical operations center. From there, we’re gonna practice our sprinting skills.”
“That’s your plan—crawl through sewage and then play zombie tag on the streets?” said Jared.
“Unless you’d rather join the cadaver museum in here, grab your shit and follow us.”
The rest of the students were crowding around the doorway. Jared turned and grabbed his daypack and then joined the others. Shane was in the hallway as the others pushed their way out of the room.
“From my laptop images, it’s about two hundred yards to the storm drains,” whispered Shane. “Once we’re inside, we’ve got a few twists and turns, which should take a few hours, and then we’ll go over the plan for hitting the streets above. Keep the formation tight and we’ll get through this. Rory will come up the rear,” he said, nodding back to his friend, who was keeping watch on the corridor that they had just come from.
“Boss,” Rory shouted. “I hear movement headed this way. We gotta roll.”
Chapter 33
As Shane stepped into the hallway, he saw Carlie leaping down the last flight of stairs towards them. She was heavily laden with weapons and wore a pale look.
“Run…run…all of you…there are hundreds of them headed this way,” she said.
Shane turned and bolted in the other direction with the others following him as Carlie caught up. “No offense, Carlie, but what the hell are you doing here?”
“You know me—always needing to be in charge. I thought I’d give you some pointers on how to run a proper extraction,” she said in between breaths as they sprinted into the darkness with the light from Shane’s headlamp bouncing off the walls. “I think I lost those things in the tangle of hallways above but probably not for long.”
As they approached a corridor intersection, Shane raised his fist, motioning for the others to stop, then realizing they probably didn’t understand military hand signals. He turned around and lifted his hand. As everyone came to a halt, he shined his headlamp down the corridor at the t-section.
“Here, hold this,” he said, handing his backpack to Amy, who was standing behind him. He removed the laptop and scanned the real-time imagery of their surroundings, noting that the passage to the right led to the storm drains. He panned out, taking in the larger picture of the building and adjoining structures while people pushed in around him to see.
“What is that throbbing red mass by the nursing building?” said Amy, pointing to the screen.
“That’s the flesh-eating mob waiting to get their paws on us. Must be a thousand or more creatures now compared to the size of that glob an hour ago when I checked.”
“What are they all doing, just waiting there like that?” said Amy.
“Not sure, but a few hours ago there were eleven other groups of survivors on campus and each time the size of the cluster would increase before those things attacked. They must be massing, waiting for another chance to locate us.”
“How will they even find us down here?” said a voice from the back.
“I think they’ve got a heightened sense of smell. I’ve seen them locate others from inside closed buildings,” he said, shutting the computer. “Let’s push on. Then we can get the hell out of here before another feeding frenzy begins.”
Carlie moved up alongside Shane. “Looks like there’s no chance Matias could’ve gotten back to airlift this many people out of here after all.”
“Yep, the storm drains are our only option now,” said Shane.
Chapter 34
As they neared the terminus of the corridor, Shane saw two gray steel doors ahead. They were marked with the words, Water Treatment. The doors were locked so he smashed the knob with the butt of his rifle and swung them open.
He entered and surveyed the wall to the right, which held a row of switches alongside a circuit-breaker box. He flipped up a red handle for the emergency generators and saw the overhead lights flicker on in the room.
“Excelente,” he said, turning off his headlamp and walking into the cavernous chamber. Carlie grabbed a clipboard off the wall and studied the floor plan.
“Rory, slide a metal pipe through the two door handles and then I want everyone to grab tables, chairs, tool cabinets and place them against the door,” said Shane.
As Shane and Carlie were surveying the layout, Jared came over. Shane looked at the two Glocks in Jared’s belt. “So, where did you get the pieces?”
“Off a U.S. Marshal who was dead on Drachman Street, a few blocks from here.”
“How do you know he was a marshal? Those
guys mostly use plain clothes and unmarked cars,” said Carlie, analyzing the man’s features.
“Because he had a Tommy-Lee swagger about him, more so than most cops,” Jared said, looking over Shane’s rough beard and tan face. “Not you, though—you look more like a deer hunter out of Deliverance.”
“I thought you said the marshal was dead.”
“Yeah, yeah—he was already dead. A bunch of those things had jumped him and his partner while I was nearby. There was nothing I could do to help.”
Shane just frowned and returned his gaze to the floor plans. “Alright, looks like the tunnel we need is just up ahead. Everybody follow me and we can be on our way.”
Carlie, Jared, and Shane walked beside each other down the room.
“You from Georgia originally?” said Carlie, trying to decipher the man’s accent.
“Louisiana—honest-to-God born-in-the bayou—but not from one of those cousins-marrying-cousins kinda families. No, ma’am, my kin were royalty before the war, but then, that’s probably what you were noticing when I saw you checking me out back there.”
“Oh, please.” Carlie laughed—a sound she hadn’t heard in a long time. “You need some water. The mind gets squirrely when a person gets dehydrated.”
Before Jared could reply, the sound of thumping on the metal doors behind them echoed off the cement walls of the water treatment facility.
“Seems like we’re always just barely one step ahead of those things,” said Shane.
Chapter 35
When they reached the storm drain, Shane and four others twisted off the rusty manhole cover. It was three feet in diameter and weighed two-hundred pounds. They slid it to the side and let it slam on the ground. The sound of fast-moving water emanated from the tunnel below.
Shane peered inside and saw a torrent of knee-deep water racing through the cylindrical passage. He leaned back and scratched his head while shooting a glance at Carlie, who was raising her eyebrows.
“Was this part of your plan, skipper?” said Jared.
“The thunderstorm up top must have been more severe than I thought to have moved all this water through here,” Shane said.
Shane stood with his arms folded while Amy pushed her way forward to look inside the entrance. “Where does this lead again?” she said.
“South,” said Shane.
“To an actual place away from these onion-eyed freaks or into the open desert with cougars and snakes?” said Jared.
“Kill the sarcasm before you spook the others.”
“I kept the others alive this long, Wyatt Earp.”
“Like hell—you’d still be out on the streets if I hadn’t let you in a few hours ago,” said Amy.
“And you’ve both done a bang-up job, so let’s cowboy on and get the fuck out of here already,” said Shane, motioning to Bird Beak and Floor Mop at the front. “Let’s go. The water ain’t getting any lower. This is our only way out.”
The two students peered inside while the rest of the students huddled around the opening, whispering their concerns to each other.
“Those things will be through those doors any time, boss,” shouted Rory, who was running back from the main chamber.
“Look, if you guys hop in there, you’ll at least have a fighting chance. This drain heads away from the city so you should end up in the undeveloped regions a mile or two from campus. If you stay here there’s no chance—it’s over.”
The metal doors in the distance gave way, crashing to the ground as the first wave of creatures began pouring through the water treatment room, their piercing shrieks echoing off the cement walls.
Chapter 36
Carlie and Rory stood side by side with their weapons raised while Shane began getting the others into the drain. First to go were Tex-Mex and Chatty Cathy, followed by Bird Beak, whom Shane had to push in.
As Carlie and Rory began shooting, the creatures flooded in through the room. The staccato of gunfire echoed off the narrow confines of the chamber. Within minutes, a pile of spent brass began accumulating on the dusty floor beside both shooters and a hazy ribbon of gun smoke wafted along the ceiling. As the body count rose, the frenzied beasts climbed over the growing mound of fallen carcasses choking the path. Replacing the magazine in her M4, Carlie shot a one-armed maintenance worker whose head looked like a moldy scarecrow. She leaned back towards Shane, shouting above the gunfire. “We’re almost out of space in here—they’re closing in fast.”
“Copy that. Only a few more people left to go,” said Shane, who had just finished helping Floor Mop into the storm drain.
Jared looked back with a crooked smile at Shane. “Maybe all the firepower has got those things demoralized.”
“OK, Jared, get on the ready line—you’re next,” Shane said, glancing down at Jared’s wrist, and at the exposed handcuff.
“What if I get E coli or something—I haven’t had a tetanus shot in years,” Jared said coyly.
“This is a river trip straight to hell—the rapids alone will probably kill you,” said Shane. “Move it or I’ll kick your ass in myself.”
“You gotta work on your persuasion skills a little more,” Jared said, and then plunged into the frothy mess below.
As Shane unslung his rifle and turned to fix his sights on an approaching creature, he heard the sound of the ceiling vent above being smashed. Before he could react, the mesh screen broke free and a brutish figure clad in a soiled baseball jersey crashed down on Rory. It mauled him on the neck and then lunged at his face. Carlie turned and kicked it in the throat, sending it backwards, and then shot it twice in the head.
Shane rushed forward, pulling a bandanna out of his vest pocket and swabbing the seeping wound. Part of Rory’s muscle was torn out and two deep lacerations ran down his right cheek. Carlie continued holding the perimeter while slapping in her last magazine.
Rory was bleeding heavily from the gash and Shane could see his friend’s eyes darting around as rivulets of arterial blood ran down onto his pants. “You and Carlie better go. I got this,” muttered Rory, holding the soiled bandanna against his neck and motioning for Shane to head into the storm drain.
“No, we’re going together or not at all,” said Shane.
“That ain’t how this poker game is gonna play out, amigo, and you know it. I’m done for but you two can still get out. Now go,” he said, shoving Shane back and removing a grenade from his vest. Shane stood up and staggered back to the storm drain, looking into the determined eyes of his friend.
Carlie finished her last round and tossed the M4 on the ground, removing her pistol. She was retreating in a half-squat as more creatures slithered over the carcasses before them. She reluctantly headed to the drain, crouching opposite Shane, both of them peering into the foamy river below and then glancing back up at the oncoming horde.
Shane looked at Rory, who let out a contorted grin. “Go, my friend. I’ll hold the line,” he said, pulling the pin on the grenade and tossing it into the crowd that was nearly upon him.
Shane grabbed Carlie’s hand, pushing her, then jumped in behind as the room ignited in a barrage of cement and flying limbs.
Chapter 37
The silty water rushed over Carlie as they were swept through the frigid torrent. Only the intermittent light from Shane’s headlamp illuminated the cement passage ahead as he struggled to keep his head above the waves.
They both bobbed along in the swift current, slamming against the narrow sides and along the rough bottom. Carlie felt like she was reliving her swift-water rescue training in Florida, except that this water reeked of city streets and the cement underneath kept painfully smacking her tailbone. She focused on the flickering images of Shane’s headlamp until she saw the circular disk of white light ahead where the storm drain ended in the desert. She braced for the impact, futilely attempting to use her shoes as brakes on the slick surface. Carlie felt Shane’s boots colliding with her back as the force of the water spewed them out of the tunnel. She shot forward
eight feet into an algae-filled pond of silt and debris, thrusting her forearms across her face like a boxer and slamming forward into the quagmire.
She went under for a second and then quickly forced herself up from the putrescent pool. Carlie stood up, immediately sinking into the silty mess until the sand was at knee level. In the early morning light, she could make out the rest of the group scattered around, helping each other out of the quagmire. Carlie could feel the sand impacted in her ears and shook her head violently, sending debris showering down upon Shane.
“Woman, you look just like I feel,” he said, wiping the grime off his face and removing a line of silt from below his right eye.
Carlie shrugged and then studied the landscape around them. To her rear was the large aqueduct they had emerged from below a cement embankment by a two-lane road. To the right and left was an immense drainage basin whose bottom was lined with pea gravel, with the occasional cattail rearing its columnar form.
In the distance before her was a row of jagged mountains of sandstone that rose like an earthen backbone along the southern horizon. Saguaro cacti peppered the low desert leading up to the mountain range, standing like green sentinels. The only movement in the region was from the crusty bunch of students around her. The thunderstorm behind them was pushing away, miles to the north, over the Santa Catalina Mountains.
“You know where we are, don’t you?” said Shane, still smacking the sand off his vest.
“Yeah, I used to drive by this place on the way to our old shooting range.”