POW! (Book 1): The Zombie Days

by Wonder, Peter

  Fucking nailed it!

  "How the hell is that possible? Do zombies even think? I mean . . . they're already dead, right? I wish Jose wasn't dead. Goddamn it," I mumbled.

  "I'm sorry. You two must have been close," said Evelyn.

  "Yeah. He was my sponsor when I checked in to the unit forever ago. Since then, we have been real good friends. And if there was anyone that would be able to help us out of this situation . . . or even just shine a little bit of light on the subject, it would be him."

  "I'm sorry, Peter," said Evelyn with a tender embrace.

  No time for sadness. It's time to get to work, Pete.

  "Thanks," I said, trying to shake off the emotion. "Whatever that thing is, it looks like it's not the only one. I see at least four more of them on the other tables. I'm guessing the whole team went out into the woods to test the latest one. That’s why we haven’t seen anyone yet. I wish that dickhead Cliff would have let us know before we risked our asses to get in here."

  "That seems to make the most sense to me. So what do we do about it now?" Evelyn seemed to feel the need to rush to find her father. Maybe it was just adrenaline pumping through her due to the gunfight outside.

  "I know you can hear just as well as I that there is a battle going on just above us, so we should use our time here wisely and see what else might have been going on down here. I'm going to start off by seeing what's down this hallway," I said, heading toward the darkness.

  "And I thought you were an idiot for coming down here in the first place. Now look at you. You’re just full of grand ideas, aren't you?" grumbled Carolina.

  "You're right, Carolina. You ladies can wait right here. I'll go see what's going on by myself."

  I headed down the hall with the only source of light. I was only slightly surprised to find that the girls followed close behind.

  Pointing my light straight down the hallway, it looked like I’d entered a prison block. This part of the school definitely matched what the outside would leave you expecting to find. There were cells all the way down on both sides of the corridor, as far as I could tell. All except for the first door on my left, that is. This door looked like it may have once belonged to a janitor’s closet. I opened it slowly. I figured that it seemed safe enough, since there were no sounds from inside, so I opened the door a little further and headed in.

  When I poked my light in the little room it lit up, and I could tell that it must have been the ammunition supply room of the block. There were stacks of full .556 and .762 magazines for the rifles and 9mm magazines for the pistols. Awesome! There were also flak jackets, Kevlar helmets, and various other types of ammunition that wasn't right for our gear, but I just ignored that stuff as I filled my backpack with the proper items. I also grabbed a stretch of rope that was coiled up on the wall, because you never can be too prepared.

  It looked like there must be some sort of military affiliation with this research team; or at least there must have been at some point in time. This must be bigger than I’d imagined.

  I ejected my magazine with the incendiary rounds in favor of the more plentiful ball rounds, which would be much safer indoors. I put the ejected mag into my cargo pocket for easy access later.

  It was time to see what was in all of these cells. We exited the janitor's closet/armory and turned back into the hall. No way they had this many prisoners inside of this small camp. I turned my rifle towards the first cell to illuminate it.

  Zombie...

  "Really? Do you see what happens when you start with that politically correct bullshit? Things like this shouldn't be in here. They should be far from that which they would like to feast upon: Us living humans!" I stated to the once Zombie Rights Activist, Evelyn.

  "I don't think this is a political statement, Peter. I

  think this is a part of their experiments. Look at them. They aren't snapping at us or trying to get at us in any way. It's like they've been tamed. Maybe they've found a way to stop or even cure them!" Evelyn was grinning from ear to ear, clearly excited at her father’s work, as we continued down the hallway. She have been quite a daddy’s girl. Looking up above the cell door, I could see all of the cells in this hallway were numbered. We were heading down toward cell number one.

  "I don't exactly understand how the hell any of this is possible, but I suppose it's safe to say at this point that stranger things, indeed, have happened."

  "That's the spirit, Pete! Now let's go help out Kyle and get to my dad," Evelyn exclaimed.

  "Hang on, let's see what's at the end of this thing," I said, continuing down the hall.

  "Why? What else do we need?" Carolina asked in a dreading tone.

  "I'm just trying to be realistic, here. If something seems too good to be true, it's probably going to bite your face off." I made my way deeper into the corridor. We were at cell fifteen. I could see the back wall of the hallway, now. There was another janitor's closet type door. We walked nearly to the end of the hall and I looked at the closet. I opened the door hoping for more good news.

  Success.

  "Check it out, ladies! We found the generator!"

  I got it running and the lights above us flickered on, allowing me to turn off my rifle’s mounted light and conserve the battery.

  "Oh my goodness, that's so much less creepy," declared Carolina, but once she looked at the zombie that was in the cage next to her, her to jump and scream—evidently, it was still plenty creepy. He was just leaning against the cage looking at her as if he was waiting for a bus. He was missing half of his face, including his left eyeball. His teeth and cheek bone showing through on the same side.

  There was a sound from down the hall. It sounded like there was some activity down in cell number one. I had to see for myself.

  "Don't go that way, Pete! Let's just get out of here!" Evelyn begged.

  "Yeah, I'll be right there. Just give me a quick second." I was right near the cell now.

  "Braiiii . . . nnnnssss . . ." came the groan from the cell.

  "What the FUCK?!" I shouted, looking at the abomination.

  "What is it?!" asked the girls from behind me.

  "Uhhhh . . . Homeboy over here just said brains . . ."

  "BRAAAAIINNNNS!" the thing shouted now.

  The raspy voice caused me to jump. Then, I was really pissed off. "These people fucked up on saving the world, big time. These things don't usually talk, do they? I don't often get this close, unless some hot girl asks me very nicely to try to arrest one. And that’s only happened one time that I’m willing to admit freely."

  "It sure is a first for me. I’ve never heard them say anything more than an uneasy groan, which I don’t exactly consider to be any form of talking at all," Evelyn agreed.

  "I'm sure there's no way this could end badly, right?" I asked. "Is there any possible explanation for this monstrosity? You’re the smart one on this expedition. What are your thoughts on the matter, Evelyn?"

  "If I had to make a wild guess I would have to say that in an attempt to get into their heads to manipulate their thought patterns, the test subjects may have accidentally gotten a glimpse into the head of the scientist performing said tests. It looks like the research team may have unintentionally begun developing the minds of their test subjects, and now this one seems to be actually gaining the ability to speak," Evelyn said, nicely summing up my fears.

  "Wow, you’re just full of awesome guesses, aren’t you? Just double checking, but is that as bad as it sounds in my head?" I asked.

  "We have to stop them. NOW," she said. "If they can learn to speak, there is no telling how far their intelligence could grow. You're the military guy, Pete, so I don't have to tell you it's always better to be smarter than your enemy."

  We hurried down the hall and into the lab where the ladder had been.

  "Should we take one of these brain antenna things with us? Or is there no use for them out there?" I asked anyone willing to answer.

  "Leave it, it's just extra weight now, and your
bag looks like it's about to burst as things are. That thing must be pretty heavy," Evelyn noted.

  "I'm sure it won't be for too much longer," I said as the gunfire thundered away outside. "Let's head up to the roof and find Kyle, I’m sure he’ll be glad to have some rounds that he can blow through quickly. Trying to take the fewest amount of shots must be killing him," I said as I headed up the ladder.

  As I popped out of the floor, I saw feet. Then I saw legs. Thank God, it was just Kyle. Knowing I wasn’t about to be eaten, a wave of relief flowed through my body.

  "Where the fuck have you guys been?!" he asked, eyes wide in surprise at seeing us pop out of the hole.

  I felt how Jose must have just a short while ago when I was asking for an explanation. "There's no way to explain this shit right this minute, man. The world has gone mad. The dead are rising and some idiot genius is making them smarter on accident."

  "Are you sure it's an accident? What if they're trying to

  turn them into a weapon?" he asked.

  We all stood in stunned, horrified silence.

  "God damn it, Kyle . . ."

  "What? Did I say something wrong?"

  "You just made life a little more horrible for everybody. Nothing new for you, man. How does it look outside?"

  "Not too good, bro. There are so many of them. This shit is retarded! Jerry must have been able to set a chain reaction that turned every damn person in that apartment into a fucking zombie. It's like it was labeled 'walking cemetery, just add Jerry.' "

  "I think we can help out with that, at least a little bit, anyway." I opened up my backpack and showed him its new contents.

  "Oh baby! Come to Daddy!" he said, nearly drooling over the rounds.

  "Go ahead and toss one of these babies in. We need to save the other rounds—they're very precious with our current enemy and we should conserve them until we are in big trouble."

  "A’ight, homie, but we just may need them a little sooner than you probably think. Come on and let's head back up to the roof." Kyle grabbed the coil of rope I’d wrapped around myself in an attempt to lighten my load a little.

  "Thanks, bud. I feel lighter than air, now."

  "Eat a dick, Pete."

  "Man, I thought you'd be in a good mood the way you begged to go up there and blow shit to hell. Sorry, Mr. Sensitive," I said as we headed down the hall once more.

  "Sorry, bro. It's just been a long day. I missed my noon massage appointment, and you know how I get."

  "It's all good, man. After all of this, we'll all go get mani/pedis and then go out for some ice cream afterwards," I said, still managing a smile after all the horrible things I had just learned.

  "Ugh, that sounds like absolute heaven. I could use a nice girl’s night out of being pampered," Kyle joked back.

  We were almost to the end of the hall where the stairwell was located.

  "What the hell is wrong with the two of you?!" asked Carolina.

  "Way too much to be discussed right now. This will take us up to the roof. Let's go." Kyle led the way.

  Up.

  Up.

  Up.

  Door. We bolted through it. Kyle got to the edge of the building before the rest of us and shouted below, "How you guys holding up?"

  "This totally sucks donkey balls! We're running low on ammo!" shouted Mac.

  "I got your back, Mac! Heads up!" I hollered down.

  Mac looked up as I tossed down mag after mag of .762 rounds for his AK—six magazines in total. Cliff had some ammunition stored up inside of his guard shack for his own weapon.

  "Back in action, Jackson! Get some!" Mac shouted, sending his bolt home on a fresh magazine.

  Now that one problem was taken care of, I thought I'd look up at the street to see what kind of threat we were dealing with.

  "Uh . . . Have y'all tried shooting any of them?" The street was full of hungry zombies that were rapidly descending on our location. I noticed they were having a lot of trouble negotiating their way around their fallen ghoul brothers.

  "Y'all ain't shit for plans, are you?" I accused. "See that intersection down there? Let's focus our fire over there. We'll try to build up a wall of dead zombie bodies to prevent their continued assault, which ought to leave us with enough time to find an escape while they attempt to find a new route to the buffet that is us. This way we can save our POW shots and use our rounds more efficiently. Anyone have a better idea?"

  Silence. Damn, I'm good.

  We began firing at the horde. It seemed to be working even in the early stages. This was good, but I thought that I could improve upon this with a little bit more organization.

  "Cease fire! There are four of us. To ensure no one tries for the same deadite and avoid wasting what ammo we have left, we'll split the street into four sectors of fire. Cliff, you'll take the first quarter of the road. Kyle, you're the second quarter. After that it's me and then finally Mac. Ladies, if you wouldn't mind cracking off a few rounds into those that are approaching the gate it would be a fantastic help. RESUME THE BLOOD BATH!"

  I wondered how often that sentence had been shouted in human history. It was, quite possibly, the most fitting thing I could have said. Sure there was no arterial spray—they're already dead, and therefore, have no heartbeat to push the blood around to squirt out of their many wounds. But, the rounds would rip off chunks of flesh wherever they struck and they would destroy their frail heads entirely. The zombies would then fall, and the higher the wall got the lower their heads could be below their feet. It was like watching that syrup as it poured out of the bottle and onto our pancakes. They essentially turned into gruesome Mrs. Butterworth’s Blood Bottles. I felt like sharing this image of undead pancakes with the girls, but decided they wouldn't enjoy the imagery nearly as much as I did. The street was a river of thick, old, nearly black blood. I found it rather funny to watch as some of them slipped around in it as they tried to get closer to us.

  "When this is all over, I can't wait to describe this to an artist. I'm going to have a painting of this above my fireplace!" I shouted, perhaps enjoying the moment a little bit too much.

  "Not if you plan on me ever being there!” cried Evelyn. “This is disgusting, and I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to unsmell this gruesome scene! The only thing keeping me from throwing up all over the place is the thought of how delicious that syrup was on those pancakes. I'd hate for all of it to go to waste."

  I laughed out loud.

  "What?" asked Evelyn. It looked like she was happily thinking of the syrup.

  "If I told you I'm sure you'd only be more pissed at this situation. Trust me!" I laughed.

  "We have to get to my dad, Pete! How the hell are we going to get down off of this roof?"

  "I haven't found a way to just yet, darling. In case you hadn’t noticed, I've been a tad bit busy. Give me a second to think," I said, still shooting.

  I stood and began to walk the perimeter of the roof, looking for a way to flee the over run camp. First things first, we'll need a way off of this roof. I opened the door that led back into the school.

  "BRAINS!"

  Okay, looks like the smart one escaped. I grabbed a large barrel that was being stored on the roof as a rain catch and moved it in front of the door. That ought to hold him, but how would we get down? Clearly going back the way we came was no longer an option.

  I walked around the roof to the side nearest to where we had last seen Jose. For some reason, there was one lone zombie down there standing by the fence, not far from the headless corpse of Jose. Aside from that, the street seemed clear. This would serve my plan perfectly. I ran over to the others.

  "HEY!” They stopped firing and looked at me. “That's just about good enough, wouldn’t you say? Mac and Cliff, wait until you hear the cue, then come to us. There's nothing left here for you guys. Until you get the signal, just keep picking them off." I turned to my roof crew. "You three, follow me."

  "What cue?" yelled Cliff. It was too late. We had already gon
e. He and Mac continued about business as usual.

  I grabbed the rope from around Kyle’s neck.

  "I've got a bad feeling about this," said Carolina.

  I walked over to the roof-mounted air conditioning unit and wrapped one ends of the rope around it and securely tied it off. I then walked over to the edge of the building and dropped the slack off, watching as it fell to the ground. It was just long enough.

  "I'm pretty sure you can all guess what's about to happen here,” I said. “We're going to have to climb down the rope if we want to get out of this hellhole alive."

  "And then jump over the razor wire into that guy’s mouth? Great plan, Einstein." I think Carolina was reverting back to her old ways; not a fan of mine.

  "Are you guys ready? Kyle, you’re going to go ahead and climb down first. Then I’ll send Carolina, Evelyn, and finally me. Let's do this. But first-"

  I released my current magazine and ejected the round in the chamber, placing it back in the magazine. I then grabbed the one in my cargo pocket, inserted it, and put a fresh incendiary round in the chamber. I took aim at the single zombie down below and fired the incendiary round into his gut.

  ***POW***

  The zombie exploded and with it a good sized chunk of both of the fences.

  Kyle went over the edge immediately after the explosion.

  "I'm down, send Carolina!" he shouted from the bottom.

  "Just hold on tight. It'll only last a second," I said, looking Carolina in the eye and trying my best to make her feel comfortable. She grabbed the rope and hesitantly went over. Her face was painted with nervousness, but she did what was needed.

  As I looked down, I saw Mac and Cliff arriving at Kyle's location. It looked like they knew what their cue after all. Carolina was now safely on the ground as the three men were there to help her land softly.

  "You're up next," I said to Evelyn. I saw below that Kyle had sent the other two down the road to make sure that our path ahead would be clear.

  I watched below as Evelyn reached the ground. I grabbed the rope and I slid down, wondering how my luck would go. In this situation it seemed as though the rope could either snap and I would be dead the moment I landed or I could reach the bottom to be informed that all of the zombies were dead and life would return to normal. What an odd string of luck I'd had these past few days.