Chapter 28
The ghouls maneuvered, thrashed, and fought their way through the jungle of junk. Over a dozen zombies quickly made it through, and the others weren’t far behind. Jim, just as frightened as I was, grabbed a pipe and started swinging.
The closet one snarled like an attack dog. I took aim at its wrinkled forehead and pulled the trigger. The gunshot riled the others up, and they moaned and reached for me. I knew it was risky to fire, because Kirk or the spectators or snipers might hear, but I had no choice but to fire off another round. I was hell-bent on escaping, so a hailstorm of bullets tore into the undead.
A second later, something clawed at my pant leg. As its rotting teeth tried to bite into my ankle, I slammed the heel of my boot into its sorry head. Its skull crunched like a porcelain vase. I shot another rotter right in the face as I flung off two more, then slammed another magazine into the gun.
“We gotta get outta here!” Jim shouted. “Gimme a hand!”
Together, we lifted the manhole lid. Jim grabbed the red backpack and scurried down the ladder into the darkness. He screamed when a loud, gruff moan erupted from below.
A chill shot up my spine. “How many?” I shouted, certain that we were about to face zombies galore, no matter which direction we went.
“It’s Pit Bull!” he said, his voice stricken with panic.
I shined the flashlight down. A tall zombie had grabbed Jim with one hand and was lunging for his neck. With quick reflexes, I reached for my knife and threw it into the zombie’ head. It backed up, as if it was dazed, but it quickly pounced on him again for the kill. Jim thrashed as he tried to fight the snapping thing off of him. Just as the zombie went to sink its teeth into Jim’s neck, I aimed my gun and pulled the trigger.
“Get down here!” Jim said as the thing crumpled at his feet. “Get down here now!”
I took one last look at the dozens of zombies behind me, then scurried down in through the manhole. As green and black hands reached for me, I grabbed the lid and secured it in the opening. Panting for breath, I hurried down the rusty ladder.
Jim pointed at the zombie I had killed. “You got him,” he said.
I pulled my knife from the dead zombie. “I thought you said those two escaped.”
He let out a long breath. “I thought they did, but I guess Pit Bull didn’t fare as well as we did.”
“Are you sure that’s him?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’s still got that spiked collar, his trademark.”
I looked at the zombie and realized he was handcuffed to the wall by one hand. “Looks like The Butcher left him to die.”
“They hated one another, in the ring and outside it.”
My gaze narrowed. “Is this how we’re gonna end up?”
“We didn’t come this far for me to kill you...or vice versa.” He handed me another backpack. “I found two more, one for you and one for me. They left a nice stockpile down here. Consider this a truce.”
“I’m up for that,” I said, combining the supplies from the red backpack with the ones in the fuller backpack.
“You didn’t kill my brother. That psycho Claire did. I can’t blame you for it.”
I didn’t appreciate the things he was saying about Claire as he went on with his rant, especially since he had no right to refer to her as a psycho when his brother was absolutely certifiable. However, I also knew it would do no good to strike up an argument with him. For the time being, we had to be allies. I ignored his rambling and shoved as many supplies as I could into the fresh backpack, then threw it over my shoulders. “We gotta move,” I said. “I’m sure that gunfire will have people coming for us.”
Instead of following me, Jim just stood there, looking down at the filthy, damp floor.
“Let’s go!”
A sob emerged from him.
“What’s wrong? Were you bitten?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
He shook my shoulders. “I just... I can’t believe I’m free, that I’m actually still alive. I thought we were dead back there.”
“If you wanna keep it that way, we’ve gotta get a move-on.”
He nodded. “What were the chances that we’d survive that?”
“One in a billion,” I said, grinning.
“Hmm. Maybe we oughtta start playing the lotto.” Jim smiled and shined a flashlight ahead, and we started briskly walking. “Thing is, maybe you shouldn’t have let off all that gunfire,” he said as we trudged along.
“Hmm. Well, maybe I shoulda just let that zombified Pit Bull bite you then. Talk about a bad case of rabies.”
“One shot might not have been so noticeable, but you went all Rambo on those zombies at the top.”
“I had no choice. Too many were coming at me. I couldn’t fight them all off with a baseball bat. It was do or die.”
He peered around in the darkness. “How the heck do we find our way out of here?” he asked, wrinkling his nose up at the stench.
“Just look for light shining through a manhole cover.”
“I wonder what they think of them gunshots?” he asked.
“I don’t know. The crowd was pretty loud, and we were way down low, in a blind spot.”
“Yeah. They did see us fall into a pit of zombies.”
“I don’t really care what they think. We’re way ahead of them. I just wanna get as far away as possible from the lunatics who zip-lined me down to a stage surrounded by zombies.”
“There are a lotta lunatics in this world,” he said.
“Yep,” I said, because there was no denying that.
“I know Z was one of them. I realized my brother had a screw loose the second he murdered all those innocent people at the bottom of the hill near your apartment building. He killed ‘em all in cold blood, just to prove a point. He was a cruel man, and I hated that, but I had to love him ‘cause he was blood. I was angry when he died, mad at that Claire chick, but I guess...well, from what I seen here, with this Kirk jerk, I know the world is better without tyrants like Z in it.”
“You’re mad at Claire for shooting him in self-defense, but he locked me and her in a factory and tried to feed us to zombies, then set the building on fire. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he also threw Claire into an ice-cold pool in the middle of winter, full of snapping zombies. I hate to say it, but I’d have to agree with you that your brother was a lunatic.”
“I guess I see why she shot him. I thought she was bitten, but it must’ve been just a gash, ‘cause she never turned.”
I wasn’t about to explain the truth, because I didn’t want Jim to know that we had access to a serum that made her immune to zombie bites. That had to be our little secret, and I couldn’t divulge it to just anyone. “Well, Z thought she was bitten, too, so he had no remorse for what he did to her.”
“That was cold. He tried to take a woman’s life without batting an eyelash.” He shook his head. “Ya know, I don’t know why he was like that. Mama musta dropped him on his head one too many times. I bought into his crap for a while, but I knew he was up to no good.”
“Let’s not talk about Z,” I said. “He was your brother, and I’m sure you don’t want to hear me bashing him. Maybe it’s best to just let him rest in peace.”
Suddenly, moaning and footsteps caught my attention, and I saw something hobbling toward us from the left. When it staggered into view, Jim pointed his gun.
I yanked his arm. “No! If there are more down here, they’ll be on us like—”
“White on rice,” he repeated for the umpteenth time, grinning. “You’re right,” he said, nodding.
I reached for my knife. As the corpse stumbled closer, I plunged my knife into its head. It dropped into a dirty puddle of water without so much as one sound. I then pointed up ahead. “Look!”
Jim’s eyes widened in surprise as he caught sight of streams of daylight shining through the holes in an upcoming manhole lid. “Ya think they’re up there waiting for us?” he asked.
“Not unless you orchestrated it or are in on one of Kirk’s ludicrous tests.”
He shook his head as we approached the ladder. “Goodness, the things you think up. And people say I’m crazy.”
I chuckled.
“Hey, wait,” he said. “Before we go, I have something I want to give you.” He reached into his pocket and handed me my pocketknife back.
I was stunned. “Kirk’s people took this from me when they first captured me. It was a present for my eighteenth birthday.”
“It ended up with a friend of mine and he told me the story. I thought you should have it, so I got it back for you.”
“How did you get it past Kirk?” I asked.
“One of my buddies slipped it to me on top of the roof. I told him I needed it to kill you.”
I chuckled, then slipped it deep into my pocket. “Thank you, Jim. This means a lot to me.”
“No problem.”
I cautiously followed him up the ladder.
He lifted the lid, and we both sighed in relief that it opened so easily. He climbed up one more rung of the ladder and stuck his head out on the surface of the street.
“See anything?” I asked.
“Looks clear,” he said. “Today just might be our lucky day.”
Jim climbed out, and I quickly scaled the rest of the ladder and squeezed out of the manhole and onto the street. I glanced around and so no one, living or living dead.
“We did it!” Jim said. “Now let’s get outta here. We gotta run, fast as our legs can carry us, before they figure out what’s going on and come after us. Maybe we can snag a car, find a map.”
I couldn’t believe we were finally free from Kirk and his band of lunatics. I had no idea if Jackie and the others were still alive, but I had to get back to Fairport and find out. If they were still alive, if their death was just some ploy Kirk drummed up to manipulate me, I knew they would be busy planning another rescue attempt. The last thing I needed was for them to put themselves in danger again. I knew if Kirk got his hands on Nick or Val, they would be doomed to fight, just like I was.
“I know heading east will take us outta town,” Jim said.
I nodded. “Then east we go.”
Zing!
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a bullet hit Jim right in the throat, sending a stream of blood down his chest. Within seconds, another bullet struck him in the forehead. He fell over and crashed to the concrete.
Sniper! I thought, looking down at the dead man in a panic and, surprisingly, with great pity.
Chapter 29
With lightning speed and no time to mourn the fallen father of six, I ran toward the closest building. The front window was shattered, so I jumped inside. Bullets flew overhead as Kirk’s men continued with their onslaught. I ducked and kept low as I crawled through the aisles of the cooking store, clanging pots and pans and utensils along the way. I groaned when I slammed my knee down on a fancy ice cream scoop. I was sure there had to be a back way out, and going that way would be a lot safer than risking sniper fire on the street.
As if my human enemies were not enough, a zombie was suddenly towering over me. My fingers instinctively reached for a frying pan on the shelf. I jumped at the zombie and whacked it in the head. It stumbled a few steps back and fell, but more growls came from behind me. Two more undead lumbered toward me, but I was ready to take them on with a culinary arsenal. I didn’t want to use my gun and stir up more zombies.
Suddenly, a hailstorm of bullets flew into the place, tearing a few zombies to shreds. I ran to the end of the aisle and knocked over several shelves and display racks to create a barricade as more bullets flew toward me. One ricocheted off the wall and nearly nailed me in the head.
My flashlight wavered in my hand as I hunted for the back exit. I knew anything could come out of nowhere and reach for me, so I had to be constantly on guard. I was ready to run, but I had to be smart about it.
I glanced down a corridor and saw a door at the end, marked with a placard that said, “Employees Only.” My heart practically leapt out of my chest as I walked into the dark area, because I had no idea what could be waiting for me back here. Holding my gun with one hand and my flashlight with the other, I took soft, quick steps. The hall and the lounge appeared to be abandoned, but I had to be on constant alert.
No way out. I had to keep going.
I opened the door to another huge room filled with shelves and boxes. I knew I was in some kind of warehouse area. Gun drawn, I scooted around some towering boxes.
Clear.
My heart was beating a million miles a minute. I ran past some more boxes and shelves. How do I get out of here? I kept moving through the room, just thankful it was empty. I never had lucky breaks like this. I didn’t think any zombies were back here. It was just me and a few rats that ran past my feet.
When I finally saw the “Exit” sign across the room, I let out a sigh of relief. That quickly gave way to doubt, as I wondered if Kirk’s men would be expecting me to go that route. Are they waiting for me out there? I wondered. Did I really beat them to the punch?
I peered around me, one more time, shining my flashlight.
Nothing.
My boots echoed across the floor as I ran through the dark warehouse room. When I got to the exit, I took a deep breath. If Kirk was behind that door, I was so screwed. I pointed my gun, ready to fire if I had to.
I slowly opened the back door. A zombie as tall as a basketball player with festering skin and white eyes reached for me. Glancing up, I fired. I didn’t want to fire the gun and alert anyone else to my location but I just wanted out of here. Its head gushed black liquid, and I kicked the corpse away with my boot. It fell back against a garbage dumpster, leaving a long, black smear on the green metal.
I stumbled through the streets lost. After rounding the corner, I ran down the narrow alley and turned left, then right. I had no idea where I was going. I only knew I had to get out of there, and I remembered that Jim had said to head east. I glanced over my shoulder and saw a figure sprinting toward me. It was definitely one of Kirk’s guys. A swift swivel back around revealed that I was blocked by a fence, at what might literally turn into a dead end. Refusing to give in so easily, I got a running start and shimmied up the metal fence and threw my body over it with all the precision of an Olympic pole-vaulter.
I landed on my side, but the pain didn’t faze me. Scrambling to my feet, I zigzagged down a couple streets, then made a few more sharp lefts and rights and darted behind another building. I caught my breath and ran, never looking over my shoulder. I hurried down a flight of concrete steps, into a parking garage. Glancing around, I didn’t see any undead. What I did see, much to my relief, was a whole bunch of cars to choose from.
Everything was a blur, but I quickly hopped into a blue car that had a full gas tank. I had no problem hotwiring it, and I found a map in the glove box that would guide me through the most obscure route out of town. I knew it was best to avoid the main roads, because I was sure Kirk had roadblocks and ambushes set up already.
I drove through alleyways and side streets like a maniac and finally found a relatively unknown way out of town. When I spotted a horde blocking the road ahead of me, I threw the car in reverse and went down a different road. As soon as the coast was clear, I stopped for a minute to take a glance at the map. “Why couldn’t I have stolen one with GPS?” I scolded myself, studying the folded paper carefully. The gas was dwindling, and I had to be careful not to waste it by going too far out of the way.
When I was far from town, I stopped to study the map again. No use going the wrong way.
Suddenly, a dead hand started pounding on the window. I looked out at the horrible atrocity and saw that a crowbar was lodged deep in its skull. I debated getting out and stealing the weapon, but I already had a knife, and two guns with ammo. I lost the bat somewhere along the way, not sure exactly where. I put the map away and grabbed a can of cherry cola and some Vienna sausages from the ba
ckpack.
The thing banged again.
“Sorry, buddy,” I said. “It’s dinner time...and I’m not gonna be your main course.” I found it funny and a bit sad that I was so accustomed to zombies that they didn’t even faze me anymore. Still, the thing was annoying, and I was way too whipped to fight it, so I just drove away.
I sped down the road hoping to get home before nightfall. As I wolfed down the food and soda, I thought about Jim. We had been enemies for a long time, but in the end, he had proven to be a friend. Like the rest of us, all he wanted was a fresh start, to get away and start over. Now, he would never have that chance. I had seen a spark of goodness in him, and I felt bad for the family he had left behind. Without his plan and his help, I would still have been in that city, held against my will and forced to fight.
Clearly, Kirk had heard the gunfire and put two and two together. There were snipers already positioned when we came out of the manhole, and if I hadn’t run off the way I did, I would have had a bullet in my head too. I bet Kirk had every manhole cover in town guarded. Still, I regretted that I hadn’t stuck around long enough to give Jim a burial. He died on the cold, lonely asphalt, and I hated that, but when it came to survival, I knew I had to get out of there. All things considered, I’m sure he woulda done the same thing, I thought to myself, before they were on him like...white on rice.
Chapter 30
Hours later, I pulled into the apartment complex. I rushed out of the car and saw Grandma, Ed, and Steven walking across the parking lot to greet me. “Hey!” I said, relieved to see familiar faces.
“You’re alive!” Ed shouted. “He didn’t kill you! I’ve got to get Rachel!”
“Great to see you, man!” Steven shouted. “How on earth did you manage to escape?”
“Long story.”
He looked down at my bloody clothes. “I can see that.”
“Come inside my apartment,” Grandma said. “You have to be freezing.”
“I will, but not right now. I’m a nervous wreck.”
She looked at Steven. “Get him a blanket from your trunk.”
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