Anarchy

by Peter Meredith

  And Maddy’s mind was so bent on what was coming that she “heard” the sound in her mind a fraction of a second too late. The can plinked and rattled, catching a little downward slope—the sound seemed to go on and on. When it finally stopped, it was replaced by a low moan and suddenly a zombie that had been hiding from the sun in the back of a delivery truck was there.

  It was a big one; six feet in height with broad shoulders and thick arms. Other than a single scratch on its cheek, it was completely intact. It had been a man seven hours before; a man who had thought he would be able to save his zombie daughter if only he could get her to the “authorities.” The one scratch had turned him and now his daughter was completely forgotten. All he cared about was feeding. It charged forward, its black-gummed mouth stretched wide.

  Maddy hefted the pipe and as she did, time seemed to both speed up and shrink. Her ability to see the world beforehand compressed until there was only a blink between the future and the past and the only thing she knew for certain was that the iron jaws of the trap were crashing down, set off by one kicked can.

  Chapter 29

  The beast was big and fast, but it was dumb and its fighting technique was the epitome of simplistic. It came on with its clawed hands outstretched towards Victoria who was two steps closer to it than Maddy was.

  Maddy slid to the older woman’s left, readying the pipe, thinking she knew how the next couple of seconds were going to play out—the creature would go for Victoria and Maddy would take out its knees as it went by. And she was wrong. Her vision of the future had compressed too much and her mind was half on the zombie and half on some coming danger, that she didn’t see Victoria darting behind her at all and didn’t know she was there until Maddy felt a hand on her shoulder.

  She was far too close, especially as the pipe was not a dart and stab sort of weapon; not in her hands, at least. Maddy needed room to swing the pipe. “Get away, for Christ’s sake,” Maddy snarled. There was no time for that. The creature was on her before Victoria could do much beyond release the remains of Maddy’s ragged shirt.

  As Maddy couldn’t dodge left or right for fear of the creature simply attacking Victoria, and she couldn’t retreat with the woman right behind her, she was stuck attacking at a great disadvantage in strength, but at a great advantage in speed and craftiness.

  She sprang forward fully upright, and then, in a blink, she ducked down beneath its outstretched hands and drove the pipe at the ground between its legs. She then threw herself to the side, hauling the pipe over with her. With so much weight going at so many angles, something had to give and it would either be the pipe itself, Maddy’s grip on it, or the creature’s left knee.

  There was a sharp crack as the zombie’s leg bent forty-five degrees in the wrong direction. It took one long halting step and came crashing down, right at Victoria’s feet. She knew enough to try to jump back and as she did, the zombie stuck out a long arm and caught her around the ankle. Down she went on her ass and immediately started trying to kick herself free as the creature dragged her across the pavement to its now grinning mouth.

  In the crash and tumble, Maddy had lost her grip on the pipe and saw that it was even then rolling away. She could not protect Victoria and run for the pipe at the same time. The promise she had made gave her only one choice and she leapt full onto the back of the zombie and, using all her weight, as well as all the strength in her shoulders and back, she grabbed a fistful of its hair and slammed the zombie’s face into the street.

  Its nose was crushed into a bleeding blob, its lips were torn nearly off, and its three front teeth bounced away. That first strike was a gimme. In the movies people can be smashed over and over in this position. In real life, unless there is a great strength disparity between two rivals, or the person is knocked by the first strike into something just this side of unconsciousness, you will only be able to smash the head just the one time.

  Maddy had been raised on movies and when she tried to drive the creature’s face into the street again, it had far less effect and she did little more than grind its blob of a nose into the pavement. What was worse, she felt the creature come fully alive beneath her and it was tremendously strong. With its deadly claws and rending teeth, she likened it to jumping on the back of a bear. Except bears felt pain.

  She drove her fist into the back of the thing’s head, once, twice, three times and still it tried to stand with her on top.

  Through straining, gritted teeth, she hissed at Victoria, “Get the pipe!” The woman had been scooting away. The pipe was their only hope. Maddy crashed her fist again and again into the thing’s head with the same result as she would have had if she were punching the street instead.

  The creature tried to stand and in an instinctive move that made no sense, Maddy clenched her legs around its middle and pushed down on its head with both hands. The zombie had its own instincts, and it was to buck her off. With all the grace of a drunk college girl trying to ride a mechanical bull for the first time, she clung desperately as it raised its butt up, only to drop it suddenly then rear up and back.

  For reasons beyond her, she tried to maintain her grip, when she could just as easily have pushed off and stood up. But she had the tiger by the tail and letting go would be disastrous; she’d be unarmed and face to face with something that was beyond her abilities. It was bad enough even with her current slight advantage, especially when it stood, and she clung like a toddler getting a piggyback ride. It twisted back and forth trying to reach her and the world whipped by in a blur, first in one direction, then the other, then back around and into the side of the minivan.

  They were both staggered by the force of the impact. Still, she refused to let go until Victoria came charging up and swatted the beast with the dank end of the pipe. Maddy only let go because the zombie, who hadn’t noticed being hit by the pipe at all, charged Victoria. The piggyback analogy, while absurd was spot on, and Maddy bounced along for a few strides before dropping off and aiming a kick at the back foot of the zombie, hitting it in mid-stride.

  With a dramatic flair and without an ounce of self-preservation, it flung out its arms as it went down, face-first where yet another tooth shot from its mouth.

  “The pipe!” Maddy cried.

  Victoria had been making weak jabbing motions towards the zombie before its fall. These had done nothing but antagonize the creature. She was happy to get rid of the weapon. It was heavy and stupid, fit only for a neanderthal. She tossed it over the zombie as she backpedaled, which made for a weak “throw,” if it could even be called that since it didn’t travel more than a foot and a half.

  Maddy had foreseen this and leaped forward, caught the pipe with hands that were even then drawing back and proceeded to drive it around in a great windmill chop that crashed through the dome of the zombie’s head. It was dead where it stood and yet, it didn’t fall and nor did it close its eyes. It had become a statue made of decomposing meat.

  Victoria eased around the corpse, never taking her eyes from it. If anything, the last few days had taught her was that you could never trust a corpse. Maddy snatched her hand and dragged her to the side of the minivan. They had nothing to fear from this one body.

  It was all the others that had her heart racing. The fight had just been loud enough to stir up the zombies in the building across the street and now they came slinking out, cringing from the sun. That they weren’t running was proof that they hadn’t gotten a good look at either of the two women, but their high, frightened voices were enough to draw the monsters out.

  “Which way?” Victoria hissed. Maddy was unmoving, crouched down, seeming less animated than the dead.

  Holding her head cocked just so, she held up a finger. Their trap was not as complete as it had been. There was the tiniest crack within the darkness surrounding them. It was just a sliver of light—and Maddy didn’t trust it at all. She saw how their escape began, but not how it ended. This vision started with an open manhole cover…a cover that had been lod
ged firmly in place minutes before.

  Someone had opened it, knowing that she would sense it.

  It was an invitation, one that had only been extended in the most extreme of circumstances. Had Maddy seen the open hole ten minutes before, she would have run straight away from it, knowing that it could not lead anywhere good. Now she had no other options. “Except south. Maybe.”

  Victoria had her head canted back as she stared with determined horror at the oncoming zombies. Maddy gave her sleeve a quick tug before she proceeded to scurry along the minivan which led to a low-slung BMW with a broken driver side window and old blood dried in a streak down its door. They crouched even lower as they hugged that bloody door. By then, the zombies were struggling over the first line of cars, searching like blind rats.

  The two women passed three more cars before Maddy caught the wet scent of mold and stagnant water. Dropping to all fours, she saw the open manhole cover twenty feet away under the back end of a pickup truck. It was deepest black down in the hole, and there was no telling what kind of creature had pushed it open, though she pictured something dark and slithering, and yet the hole beckoned, promising escape and safety, and a relief from her mounting terror. She resisted the urge to crawl back down into the sewers beneath the city.

  She didn’t trust it, not by a long shot. Someone had gone to a great deal of trouble setting her up for this exact moment and it wasn’t for her own good.

  “We’ll go south for a few blocks and then we’ll see what’s what,” she told Victoria, waited for the woman’s instant argument, and when that thankfully didn’t come, she began to hurry in a crouch to the next car. This was a MINI-Cooper, a kid-sized vehicle that forced the two into a stooped waddle.

  Victoria’s back let out a sharp, unwelcome twinge, threatening to go out on her if she didn’t immediately assume a new stance. She had to choose between standing straight and being seen or crawling and being left behind. She chose a modified version of the first; she stood but with her shoulders hunched and her chin tucked in. Had she been cheating on her husband and meeting some boy toy at a downtown restaraunt, walking like this would’ve made some sense. As it was, she appeared very much like a human woman walking about in the middle of an apocalypse.

  Despite her awkward attempt, she escaped the attention of every zombie on the street as a wild-eyed dog that had been trapped in a red Jeep started barking. The creatures turned their dull eyes towards it and stared without any emotion as the crazed animal snarled and gnashed its teeth, spitting out a yellow foam in its frenzy. The poor creature was spent in seconds and leaned against the car’s window panting.

  Victoria had stared along with the other zombies, but once it started licking at the yellow foam, she looked away. There were more zombies ahead, ranging along the sides of the street. At first, she thought the dog’s barking had drawn them out into the bright light; however, they were all turned away, staring up the street. She followed their gaze and saw a long-limbed creature drop down from one of the stout little apartment buildings that lined the right side of the street.

  Although the creature was just over seventy yards away it could’ve been five hundred yards and she would have still recognized its thin body and pale naked flesh. The Spider Demon had once more hunted them down.

  Her, Victoria thought. It had hunted Maddy down. She didn’t believe any demon would put this much effort, or really any effort into hunting a normal person such as herself. She was just wondering if she could ditch Maddy when the demon stared across the seventy yards and seemed to look straight into her face and snagged her gaze. She tried to blink. She tried to look away. She tried to scream. Victoria could do nothing except stare until a strong hand grabbed her shoulder and yanked her down.

  “What’re you doing?” Victoria asked, hearing a drunk version of herself. There was a fine static washing over her mind which made thinking difficult. Everything was a puzzle. Why was she on hands and knees behind a car? And why were there gaping tears in the knees of her jeans? And what was with all the moaning?

  Maddy spoke or maybe yelled. It was hard to tell which. Either way the words passed right over her without sticking. “Huh? Could you repeap dat?” Yep, I’m drunk, she was just thinking when Maddy started pulling her back the way they had come. “Hey. I ‘member that little car,” she said of the MINI-Cooper, and there was the truck. She hit the side of it and once more was pulled to the ground.

  “Hey!” Maddy barked into her face. “Snap out of it.” Her silver eyes were as large and bright as newly minted quarters. They were difficult to look into and just as difficult to pull away from, but when Victoria did, she felt that the turned-around world had righted itself at least as far as it could with zombies storming over cars to get at them. “Get in there,” Maddy ordered, shoving Victoria under the pickup truck and at a black hole in the street.

  “What? In there? Are you kidding?”

  She wasn’t kidding and as proof, Maddy forced the smaller woman right at the hole giving Victoria the choice between falling in head first or climbing into the pit beneath the world like a civilized person. Thankfully, there was a ladder, though it was nothing to boast over. The rungs were altogether tiny, as though they had been made for a child or some hairy jungle primate. As well they were slimed-over so that she was always on the verge of slipping and falling into what appeared to be an endless abyss.

  Indeed, the abyss turned out to have an ending and one that came more quickly than expected. Ten rungs down, Victoria’s foot came down with a splash. Cold black water invaded her shoes as she found herself stooped over in a sewer tunnel. Even with the light sifting down from above, there was little to see. The tunnel went in two directions. To the north it looked wet and nasty. She expected very much the same view to the south, but as she turned in that direction, there came a heavy clank from above and the light was extinguished, gone forever.

  Maddy could see just fine and dropped down next to Victoria, who jumped but held back a shriek. “This way,” Maddy said.

  “Which way is this way?” Victoria said. “I can’t see a thing.”

  “You have ears. Use ‘em.”

  Victoria was using them. With perfect clarity, she could hear zombies scraping at the manhole cover. If they got it open, there’d be nowhere to run and no way to fight…she refused to think about that, as she followed after Maddy who was going at a tremendous pace bent over and scurrying forward with the pipe clinking on the tunnel floor with every other step.

  Speed was more important than silence, and they raced forward for two blocks before they came to a side tunnel. Maddy didn’t hesitate and plunged down it. She then came to a spot where the pipe split in two with one passage boring deeper into the darkness at a thirty-degree slant. Again, she didn’t slow and dropped down to let the current of old rainwater hurry them along.

  There were more turns which she seemed to either take or ignore without a thought. With so few options to them, her inner workings ran on a simple good/bad algorithm, though in truth it was closer to bad/worse, and at one point she came to a complete standstill. She had found a spot where their options were a terrifying death and a torturous one.

  She stopped so suddenly that Victoria ran into her. “What is it?”

  Maddy’s answer surprised her. She pointed up at the rounded ceiling of the tunnel an inch above her head. “It’s here,” she whispered. The Spider Demon was somewhere above them and it too had come to a halt.

  Chapter 30

  Maddy shook her head, placing her free hand gently on Victoria’s shoulder. Now was not the time for an indignant outburst, an argument or even a simple question. Victoria picked up on Maddy’s fear and didn’t just keep silent, she remained perfectly still.

  Seconds ticked away and as they did, there came a distant metallic scraping noise. The zombies had finally pulled up the manhole cover and now a haunting moan drifted down into the tunnels.

  Victoria stiffened, her fear swelling. Maddy squeezed down on that shoulder
and seemed to squeeze down on her fear at the same time. They stood like this as the moans grew in volume and in number. The dead were flooding into the tunnels, and still Maddy refused to budge, until, without warning, she sped to the left, dragging Victoria along.

  “The way out of this is getting a little tight,” Maddy told her just as they came to another sewer line. Maddy looked both ways before plunging on, saying over her shoulder, “We’re being forced south again.”

  “By who? Or what? The Spider Demon?”

  Maddy paused, turned part way around, feeling the wall with her free hand. There was a familiar sensation to the chase; however, it was too vague or the association too tenuous for her to grasp it. “I’m not sure. I’m not even sure that it matters. The only thing I know is that I’m getting sick of it.” She leaned in close to Victoria and stared with her silver eyes. “I need to know what you want to do. If we turn north, it’s going to get really hairy. On the other hand, I have no idea what will happen if we go south.”

  “North,” Victoria answered, quickly. She was afraid she would change her mind if she hesitated even a second. Maddy drew in a long breath, nodding as she did. She was about to turn away when Victoria grabbed her arm. “I wanted to say thank you now, just in case something bad really does happen. I know what you and Bryce have done for me and I know I should’ve shown you or told you guys how much I appreciate it.” A laundry list of excuses sprang to the tip of her tongue, but she bit them back. No one wanted to hear excuses for bad manners.

  It was a little late to thank Bryce and just then it felt more like an expression of guilt rather than gratitude. Still, Maddy answered, “You’re welcome,” with all the grace she could muster. It was all the time they had for civility. Alarm bells were going off in Maddy’s head. She took Victoria’s hand and plunged onward, racing square into the teeth of a trap.