Devil's Details: Z Is For Zombie Book 4

by catt dahman

  “Misty and Nick. You will stay here and leap frog people out. After we check them, they will come here. You check them, and then send them up to Rae and whoever is there by now. If anyone comes through without being cleared, you put him down. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Misty said, “slow and steady. Check the necks, too, especially.”

  “Why don’t you stay with Misty, and Nick can help us?” Kim suggested.

  “I out-rank you. And No. How many down here, Conner?John?”

  “Anyone you don’t out-rank in your mind, Beth?” Kim asked. She ignored him.

  “Maybe a hundred. They went running. We have Maryanne down here…kids….” Gunfire, more yells, and screams rang out.

  “One…two times two is four, times two is eight, time two is sixteen,” Kim muttered. “It’ll spread fast.”

  “Guys,” Rev called, “Len just got here.”

  “Hey, Boss.”

  “Hey, Beth. Can’t stay out of trouble, huh? Heard it took three men to hold Juan down so that he didn’t come barreling in for you.”

  “Tell him I’m fine. We’re quarantined, Len. We will secure and send up those we know are cleared, but we may be looking for a hybrid.”

  “I figured that out with Doc and Steve upstairs. First man died with his throat cut.Be careful; people aren’t playing nicely. We don’t know who did this, but after they cut the first man’s throat, they ate part of him, raw; get my meaning? Then they bit the woman, and she got infected from the bite.”

  Beth called back to tell him Misty and Teeg would be checking people to send up stairs. They would be checked for bites, infection, or numbers written on the neck, or anything else that looked wrong. “ I know what you mean. He is the cop and PR, not me.”

  “Hey, Kimball.”

  “Hey, Len?”

  “Glad you’re back with us for sure, now. Having fun yet?” Len laughed with no humor.

  “Always something going wrong.”

  “Do me a favor? Get my gal Beth back safely? Mark is yelling to get Misty out. And if you could, get Maryanne and Toni for me?”

  “Done deal,” Kim promised, “we’ll get everyone out.”

  “You need me?”

  “We have it. They need you available there, Len. I’m on it.”

  “Strange. I’ve been right here before,” Conner said. He was made to ‘run the gauntlet’ by a group of raiders who enjoyed the entertainment. Down here, they found zombies, trash collected in the storage rooms, items stored, the former owner, traps and tricks to catch them, Norman Pope’s collection of child porn, and some poorly buried, small skeletons that were removed and properly buried later.

  “Dead end there,” Conner said, “see the arrow Julia drew? Right here is where we had a big battle with some.One was bitten; Tim was his name; it feels like a lifetime ago, and it feels like yesterday. I went with him into that room and put him down.”

  “You okay, Conner? You know this area better than we do, but if you can’t do it, tell me, Hon,” Beth said, “it’s gotta be hell reliving that.”

  “I can do it.” Conner nodded his head and yanked the door to the storage room open. Tim’s body was long gone, but over two dozen people in the compound on the floor, waiting.

  “We refused anyone else in. We checked each other, and no one else could come in.”

  “Good. Let’s get you all checked again. Can you help us by checking each other and looking at the back of necks carefully for a tattooed number?” Kim asked. “That neck check is important.”

  Five more came down the hall, terrified and worried, and three more came out of a closet. Beth asked them to wait to be checked.

  In a few minutes, the rest said they were cleared, and Kim walked to the other door telling Misty and Teeg to check them again; he believed everyone should be fine.

  Already seven more were checked. Carl stood with them until they could go to Misty and Teeg.

  In the next section, Conner said storage rooms were mostly full of trash, but one contained sports equipment, where he and his team found the baseball bats they used as weapons, saving their lives as they tried to find a way out.

  In the third room, a family sent by the raiders turned in the night and infected the rest of her family. They were put down, and those bodies also were removed.

  Kim grabbed a few bats to help them out if they ran out of bullets.

  In the other room, several children, two teachers, and other people waited patiently, dressed mostly in pajamas, tee shirts and underwear, and nightgowns.

  Kim felt bad at once that one of the children was bitten, his arm bandaged with a strip of shirt. One teacher looked ashamed, “We didn’t have anything else, but he didn’t want to see it bleeding.There’s a man running around biting. We didn’t know what to do or how to do it when after….” She was in tears now.

  “You did what you could. Any other injuries?” John asked, “You okay?”

  “Yes. We’re okay. No. There are no other injuries,” the other teacher said.“It was a woman biting. I’m positive. We decided maybe there were two? Maybe? It all happened so fast, and everyone ran in all directions, and we found he was bitten; it isn’t a bad bite, but….”

  “Any bite. I know.”

  These people were to be checked. John knelt down, and he was able to see the mark, a bite, a little flesh removed and pus beginning to fill the area. At least he checked and made sure.

  “Can you help me with something?” he asked the little boy. The child nodded, bravely ignoring the pain in his arm from the nasty bite that already smelled of infection. He shivered with his rising fever and said his stomach felt bad. Teeg stepped into the room with John and the boy and closed the door with a sad look on his face.

  Teeg always took things hard; he had a sensitive side.

  Beth and the rest stood guard, dreading this.

  “See that stain on that wall?” John showed the little boy where to look. “I’m gonna try something, and you tell me if that stain starts looking like something else…like if you ever looked at clouds and imagined them as things like an elephant or a truck?” The child had.

  Teeg already started leaking at the eyes.

  “Now, you watch that old water stain, and tell me when it looks like…ohhh an angel, okay?”

  “Okay.” The boy watched the stain as John raised his gun silently behind him.

  John used one shot.

  “I hope you’re already seeing plenty of angels now.” He grabbed a towel from the side and draped it over the child’s face. His eyes were wet, but Teeg was crying openly. They walked out, closing the door behind them. Beth hugged Teeg.

  “Just sucks. How could someone bring the infection down here and cause this?” Teeg asked, with anger in his voice.

  Conner led the way again, remembering what they saw here months before; he hadn’t been here since then. “Used to be old mattresses in here.” He pointed to the door before him. “The old nut kept all kinds of junk…pack-ratted it.” He tried the doorknob.

  “Identify yourself.”

  “It’s Conner. That you, Cory?”

  “Hey, Dawg.” Cory grinned as he opened the door. “We buckled down and stayed right here.” He was one of the younger guys on Mark’s team and was there with gun in hand.Twenty or thirty more sat in the big room; all were in good spirits and happy to see help.

  “You all seem to be doing well.”

  Maria, the pretty Hispanic woman, who liked Carl, smiled. She was training with Steve and Doc with nursing. “Well, we all got checked, and no one was allowed in by Cory. He had everyone singing and talking; we were doing really well here. He protected us.”

  “Maria, can you and Cory do a neck check for numbers tattooed?”

  Both began at once.

  “They are totally peaceful here. What did Cory do? Drug them?”

  “Hey, I heard that, and no, I don’t do that shit anymore. I’m clean, Dawg.” He used the infection as his second chance, or his last chance since he
used his street smarts and gun experience for something positive finally, and not gang banging on the streets. His mother, who was with them, was proud of the changes he made and said the infection saved his life, which was ironic.

  “Stop calling people ‘Dawg’.” Teeg laughed.

  A woman shrugged. “Why worry? We’re uninfected. Cory has us safe as can be and told us that other people would be along soon. Cory seemed calm, so we were, too.”

  When they were cleared, Beth pulled Cory to the side, “Hey, you did an amazing job with this. I’ll make sure Len and George hear that from me personally. Thank you. Can you send Carl to us, and will you join Misty and Nick in checking all before they go upstairs?”

  “Be glad to. You be careful down here, Beth, all of you.”

  They waited until Carl joined them. Conner opened a door, checked inside, and closed the door. This was where the pedophile hid bodies, in a room with a floor of dirt. When they dug up the dirt to bury those, they found five skeletons. Bad memories were here.

  “If you go this way, it circles with ways off of the main hall. Ahead is what the raiders marked as Stage 2. The way we went held two traps, and both are sprung.First, you’ll see the rocks that took my hand; the other one is a pit you can only get over by leaping.

  When we were first in here, they stuck damned snakes in the pit, but I heard they killed them, so it’s just the pit. I was hurt and couldn’t jump really. Julia had this plan, insane; I ran with her pulling me over with her.Alex and Juan, they’re pretty big guys, Juan especially; they used a baseball bat between them, ran with us, and used it to knock me on over to the other side. I couldn’t believe it worked.”

  “Julia had a good plan, then.”

  “We made it because of her.”

  “Conner, John, Teeg, you take the one…the hall…Conner knows. Kim, Carl, and I will take the other and meet you or stay looking,” Beth said. “Don’t cross the pit unless you absolutely have to. Wait for us, okay?”

  Kim took the lead as they walked. With his hat on, boots tapping the floor, and gun in hand, he looked as if he were back when they were trapped, hid in the hospital, and searched for survivors. It took Beth back in memories.

  In one room, they found a couple they sent on after a quick check, but a few were hiding in other rooms, glad to see help arrive.Most of the rooms were empty. All people who were found were checked and sent upstairs to the big house. They were exhausted.

  In the next room, they stood for a second, trying to figure it out. Two people lay dead on one side with little blood around their bodies, despite their bloody clothing. The man lay in a big pool of blood. In the corner was a new guy to Mark’s team, called Boston, for his accent. Beside him were four people; Boston sat with his gun in a shaking hand, clearly glad to see help.

  “Hey,” Beth said, “how are your people, Boston?”

  “Okay. Better now that you’re here.”

  “What happened?”

  “We ran in. They ran in. Wicked bastards were infected.”

  Carl knelt at the two that were off to one side. “Yep. Bites on their arms and faces. Good shooting.”

  One of the women named Wendy said, “They came at us, moaning and clawing…like they do…and Boston got them; it was horrible.” She was crying. “He…he…the man...the one there….”

  “He started yelling and throwing things. One was his wife, I guess,” Boston added, “He tried to gut me.”

  Carl went to the man who wasn’t bitten just shot in the chest. A big knife was still clutched in one of his big hands. “Dead.”

  Wendy sniffed. “He came at us with the knife.”

  Beth felt hopeful. “Is that our killer? He numbered?”

  “Nope.”

  Beth was checking the women while Kim checked the man and younger teen. “Clear.”

  “They’re clear.Boston, can I check you, and make sure you have no injuries?” Carl asked.

  The man nodded, handing the gun to Kim; it was empty of ammunition. They had been very lucky that no more came along.

  “I think he’s in shock,” the other man offered.

  Carl told Kim and Beth that he would take the five to the rest to be checked. When they were gone, Kim looked at Beth with a grin, “Like old times. Huh?”

  “Too much like them. What a mess, Kim, what have we done?” WHO?

  “We didn’t do a damned thing. I think Dr. Diamond did it. If that is why this happened or maybe he caused the whole infection like you blame him for, I dunno, Beth. You okay? Stressed?”

  “Naw. Why would I be stressed in a basement where my friends were tortured and where zombies, along with civvies and maybe a hybrid-biting people, were? Or if you wanna go back, is it that I’m pregnant, you vanished, and a bunch of zombies took over the world? What stress, Kim?” answered Beth.

  “Wow, I’m part of two of your top three reasons.”

  “Well, not sure I can blame you for the zombies, or I would.”

  “When I sat in that tub and Ricky tried to get the blood off of me after I scalped the first man, I decided right then you would never stand me again:I was a monster. Len says I should have spoken to you and not decided for you.”

  “Len is a smart man.”

  “Len says if you weren’t with Juan, you and I would have worked it out and been together. He doesn’t blame Juan, just says it happened.”

  Beth closed another door. “I don’t jump man to man.Kim, we’ve danced around this a while now. I am in a bad spot, and maybe I did it. But the thing is I love both of you. That’s how it is. Now, you can like that or not, but it’s fact.” Why he wanted to talk about this now, she didn’t know. She wanted to avoid this conversation.

  He grinned. “I knew you loved me.”

  Before she could move away, he was kissing her. When they parted, Beth was crying. “I can’t do this. Please. Let’s finish this, and get some sense made before you do that again, please.”

  Kim felt emotions shift from happiness to have kissed her, to lust, to anger at the situation, to jealousy and anger at Juan, to desperation. Rage built inside him, but he tried to hold it in. He knew Beth was mad at him, Juan, and herself. But she said they had things to do before he did it again. Before. He liked the sound of that. It was hope.

  Gunshots echoed.

  “That was the last door; we must be close to where it circles.” Beth and Kim ran. They rounded a corner and ran again and then slowed down as huge rocks blocked the hallway in places. People died here, Conner lost his hand here, and Johnny lost her pinky when the rocks fell. From the other way, Carl ran to them; he found another dozen along his way and checked them, sending them on.

  “What happened?” Beth asked as they came to a sudden stop.

  The hallway was bisected by a pit; from the other side, people waved back feebly. Alex was there with Teeg who sat squatted, crying into his hands with John busy behind them. Conner stood on the near side and then moved his butt against a wall, eyes haunted and staring into nothing.

  Kim motioned Beth and Carl to stay back as he went forward. He spoke to Conner, and then John came over to the edge and spoke to Kim from the other side. Then, Alex came over to whisper. Kim looked back at the rest and whispered more; Kim went back to Conner and knelt a little while. From the other side, Kevin took a huge leap across the pit, landing close to Kim.

  “Carl, I want you, Kevin, and Teeg…he’s coming over in a bit, and John is coming back for a little bit. He’s a good jumper; you four need to go back through everything, checking the rooms. Go get Misty, Nick, and Cory to help you. Alex thinks we missed a few rooms and turns, so mark them. Rae and Rev can keep it sealed until you all get done.”

  Carl looked to Beth, wondering why Kim was issuing orders. He wasn’t angry but trained and curious.

  “Why are you giving orders?” irritated, Beth asked Kim.

  “Beth, you seldom listen to me. This one time, could you?”

  “I doubt it,” she shot back. Teeg and John flew over the
pit. John knelt by Conner while Teeg walked over.

  “I want a sitrep and now. Is Conner injured?” Beth demanded.

  “No,” Kim said, “just a sec, Alex. We’re catching up here and making a plan.”

  “What you’re seeing,” John explained, “is that people really panicked and went running when this happened. It was chaos. A couple was bitten.”

  “Is Alex okay?”

  “Yes, Beth. I checked; he has checked. They are cleared; only a few rooms over there were. They are cleared,” John said.

  “And Alex and those will wait by the river. Another team can re-check them and get them to the big house. They can’t handle trying to get back here and having to jump again. So we’ll go get a team to meet them,” Kim said.

  “Meanwhile, the rest can clear the rooms we missed. You and I are going to get cleared and go topside with them.”

  “Did you miss that I am in charge here, Kimball?”

  “Not now. I just relieved you of duties.”

  Beth looked around, but no one would meet her eyes. In a flash, she slapped Kim as hard as she could. “What gives you the right? If anyone relieves me, it will be Conner or Teeg.”

  He absently rubbed his cheek, “They can’t right now. Beth, look at them. Can either make hard choices right now?”

  She watched Teeg drying his eyes but still looking as if he might cry again. Conner’s eyes were red and wet; she never saw him cry.She heard that he did not tear up even when he lost his hand to Juan’s unskilled make shift surgery. She missed something vital. Both looked, right now, emotionally spent.

  She took a few steps towards the pit. Something was wrong here.

  Teeg grabbed her in a bear hug. “Don’t, Bethy, please.”

  “Some of the people jumped over, Beth. They all went over, and Alex and Kevin went to hold things down; they were first. But then when the shamblers started coming this way, a few people were caught right here. One fought back and was infected. A few tried to get over, some did, but then there was less room to get a running start. The ones left were backed up to the pit behind them with zeds in front.”

  “Oh, Hail.” Carl breathed.