Necrose Apocalypse [The Complete Collection]

by Tim Moon

  Brickell Key still sounded like a good place to hide out. It would be relatively quick to get there, from where I was, but getting there alive was a whole other story.

  The events of the last couple of weeks played through my mind. Shortly after the outbreak people had fled the city in droves, causing traffic jams and accidents. Fights broke out and people died. Riots started, buildings burned, and shit was trashed. The military and police instituted road blocks and quarantine centers. The news covered it 24/7 until one day, they just stopped broadcasting.

  The last thing we had watched before the news went off the air was about the failed quarantine centers. They couldn’t save the uninfected. Aerial footage showed that, if anything, the quarantine centers were zombie magnets.

  Katie tried to talk me into going to a quarantine center. I said hell no, if I was going anywhere it was out of town. Roger said he’d go along with me, but he wasn’t thrilled about Miami. He was a real city slicker.

  I turned away from the window, my vision blurred, and I gripped the conference table. Both of them were gone. Katie’s pleas echoed so clearly that I covered my ears.

  It wasn’t my fault. How could I have helped her? Zombies had come from every direction. I was lucky to have made it out alive. It was a fucking miracle. My fists slammed against the table as I raged against the goddamned zombies.

  Glancing over at the bodies, I felt a sudden urge to hurl them over the railing at the bastards waiting in the room below to eat me.

  Could I throw them over the edge? They looked kind of heavy.

  “Fuck it,” I growled, shoving aside a chair.

  I pulled the door open and held it with one foot. Stretching forward, I grabbed tall guy by the ankle of one leg and heaved. He slid a couple of inches.

  Okay, that wasn’t the best strategy.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to focus my sluggish mind. My stomach grumbled and my limbs felt weak. I’d never gone days without food before. I could already tell that starving would be a horrible way to die. No, no, no, I had to stay positive. I wouldn’t starve. That wasn’t going to happen. I was going to live. By the end of the day, I’d be kicking back in a fancy apartment on the island, but first things first.

  I let the door go and it closed slowly until it snapped shut. Tall guy would be the toughest but thankfully he was also the closest to the door. Stepping closer, I stood over his body with a foot on either side of his legs. I grabbed him by the belt with both hands and slowly began to walk backwards towards the door, dragging his stinking corpse closer.

  Once I was close enough to the door, I let go and stood up, heaving like I’d just finished a marathon. Anger still burned inside, and I knew there was no way I was going to quit. I was going to bomb the lobby below with these bodies. If I scored a couple of extra kills, then I’d be happy.

  The morning was already hot and I was sweating. I took a drink of water. I needed food ASAP.

  “Okay, man. You are going for a ride,” I muttered with determination.

  Using my foot to hold the door open, I yanked the tall man out into the hallway. Everything was going smoothly until his arm got stuck behind the door, wedging it in his armpit.

  “You have to fight to the very end, huh?” I wiped the sweat trickling down my forehead. “Dick.”

  I didn’t want to waste my energy shifting the entire body so I just crudely yanked his arm up, folding it up over the remnants of his head so it was out of the way. After checking for other obstructions, I pulled him the rest of the way out into the hallway.

  For a second I felt like a bouncer tossing out drunks. A small, weak bouncer. But still, it was going to be cool to chuck them over the railing.

  Time for the short guy. I stood up with a smile that quickly faded as my head swam. The floor seemed to be swelling like waves. My hand shot out to brace myself in the doorway.

  More water. More rest.

  I sat on the conference table staring out the window while I rested and hydrated. My legs swung back and forth under the table. The thought of bombing the lobby made me smile again. It was a sick humor, I know. But fuck it. It’s the end of days, why hold back? No one was around to judge me.

  The bodies were disgusting. Of course, the worst parts were the stumps where the corpses’ heads should be. Revulsion swelled inside me.

  They weren’t going to move themselves. Up and at ‘em.

  I tried my best to lift them up without looking at the mess, but it was difficult. And the smell – well, nothing could prepare a person for that.

  I held my breath as long as I could. When I sucked in a breath, heaving the body of tall guy up onto the railing, something dripped on my neck and bile burned the back of my throat. Pushing aside thoughts of what it was sliding over my collar bone, I leaned the body against the railing. Squatting down, I heaved him up on the railing so he folded over it like a damp washcloth.

  The four bodies swaying from the nooses were disturbing. Without a way to cut the rope, they would be there until the tendons and ligaments decayed and the bones fell apart.

  Further down, I go my first real view of the horde inside the building. Their numbers were absurd. Shaking my head, I turned away.

  As the tall guy hung draped on the railing, I hefted up the other guy. My arms tightened around his chest like an anaconda and he unleashed the most righteous fart you’ve ever heard in your life.

  The nuclear bomb of all farts.

  I dropped him and back pedaled a few steps, trying to stifle laughter while also retaining my stomach contents, meager as they were. The smell was horrific. It permeated the area like a thick cloud.

  I swear you could see green gas billow up, engulfing me in a nightmarish fog. Tears sprung to my eyes as I busted up laughing. I retreated to the office and waved my hands wildly to clear the air.

  I couldn’t wait around all day. Food was high on my priority list, not to mention escaping the building. Once I regained my composure, I went back out to finish the job. This time, I didn’t squeeze as hard, as I lifted up his body.

  There was no point in draping him over the edge like tall guy, so I just let his body flop over the edge. Then I flung his legs up and watched as he slowly toppled through the air like a rag doll. Short stack crushed three infected under his weight. They hit the floor with a resounding thud that forced a spurt of blood and viscera out of his neck stump. It looked like someone stomped on a tube of toothpaste.

  The impact knocked down other infected like dominoes. It didn’t draw the attention of the others though. Not like an uninfected human would have. Zombies didn’t seem to have an interest in their own kind.

  However, noise was noise and the room began to fill up with more infected that wandered in from – wherever. Fucking cockroaches.

  If more infected entered the area below, that was not only more targets, but fewer infected elsewhere that I would have to fight or avoid. Most likely avoid. I was too tired to fight.

  The others trampled the bodies of the short guy and his victims. Even from several stories up I could hear the mob’s grunts and groans, and the snapping bones of the fallen.

  I slid tall guy along the railing to aim for the bulk of the zombies. They were packed in tightly, near one of the building’s columns. With this guy’s added size, he should take out even more infected. I grabbed his ankles and levered the body over the edge.

  I felt a disturbingly satisfied smile curl my lips as I watched the body fall and obliterate half a dozen infected, not counting the crippled or fallen. They would become casualties too, I figured.

  Even as I laughed with joy at the success, a slight twinge of guilt tugged at my mind. I still pumped my fist in the air though. These weren’t the bodies of actual people in the traditional sense. Once the humans became zombies, their humanity evaporated.

  More infected swarmed in pressing the horde in even more tightly. I wished there was another body to toss.

  “Fuck you all very much,” I shouted. A few
heads turned up but most just jostled around, agitated by the sound of prey.

  I turned away. It was time to get the hell out of here.

  87

  The push bar on the stairwell door thumped as I carefully pushed it. I cracked it open. Through the sliver of opening the stairwell looked clear, so I shoved it open.

  Ah yeah, time to go!

  The door swung halfway open and hit something. An arm whipped around the corner, clobbering me on the top of my head as I stepped through into the doorway. Not so clear.

  The arm flailed and I tried to duck out of the way. Apparently the staircase hadn’t cleared after all. A pair of infected stumbled into view and lurched towards me. Try as I might, I couldn’t pull the door closed because the arm that hit me was wedged behind the push bar.

  A woman’s jagged nails tore lines in my arm like a wild cat. I gasped at the flash of pain and backpedaled, losing my grip on the door. Infected immediately filled the space.

  Now the door was wide open and a burning sensation spread from my forearm up to my shoulder. Blood streamed to my elbow and dripped onto the floor. In a rage, I kicked her back against the railing.

  She didn’t fall over the edge and I was about to try again, when I was forced back as another infected forced his way through the door. Several others followed in his wake. He grabbed my arm. My instincts told me to run but there was nowhere to go. His teeth clacked as they snapped menacingly inches from my face. He forced me back against the wall.

  I thrust out with both hands and managed to shove him off me. He stumbled back and I tried to go for my mop handle which had fallen to the floor. There was no time.

  “Shit, shit, shit.” They were coming for me.

  Ducking to the side to avoid the lazy swipes of the next zombie, I saw that the door was still wedged open by that idiot’s arm. The woman I had kicked came back. She lunged at me. I twisted away and kicked at her again. The blow hit her in the ribs and she fell in front of the guy who was swiping at me, tripping him up. They collapsed to the floor in a thrashing pile of arms and legs.

  The fight was stirring the infected down in the lobby. A chorus of growls, moans, and other inhuman noises filled the wretched air. My back hit something hard. My eyes snapped open in surprise thinking I was about to meet my fate. The tables had turned and so had my positioning. I’d been backed into a corner near the stairwell doorway. Now I was blocked from the conference room by four infected. I spun around to make sure none were sneaking up on me. The stairs looked clear so I bolted past the tangled zombies, lamenting the loss of my precious water.

  I could hear infected trudging upstairs towards me, sliding against the walls and groaning in anticipation. One on the landing went flying as I kicked him.

  I looked upstairs.

  No, damn it!

  Upstairs was the direction of idiots. Everyone who watched horror movies knew this. The stairwell was clear but I didn’t like it.

  Four zombies were now at my back and the way down was obviously riddled with infected, I had little choice. Up I went.

  Apparently baby Jesus was otherwise occupied. Or watching me run stairs was amusing. Either way, I wasn’t too happy with him.

  The stairwell wasn’t as dark as I would have imagined and it was getting lighter the higher I went. The doors on the next few levels were locked. So I kept going up and up towards the light.

  My legs began to ache worse than anything I’d ever felt before. Lactic acid felt like it was leaking from my pores. This was worse than hiking up Mount Katahdin at the end of the Appalachian Trail a few summers ago. Way worse than Bukhansan in Seoul and even worse than climbing Denali in Alaska.

  Gritting my teeth against the pain that shot up my thighs and into my hips and lower back, I forged on. If I could climb mountains, I could climb a building.

  There was no telling how far behind the infected were or how many pursued me. Sacrificing quiet progress for comfort, I began to slide along the wall to relieve some of the weight on my legs. I grabbed the railing with hands and pulled. It helped a little. There was no choice.

  My life had devolved into one simple truth: climb or die. Suffer the temporary pain or sit there and be torn to shreds. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’d rather jump out a window.

  The next floor landing had no door. I paused.

  While this floor lacked the finishing touches that the other floor had, it had five construction workers in various... How could I describe it? They were like unfinished puzzles scattered on the floor with body parts were scattered everywhere.

  Disarray! They were in various states of disarray. That was it. Blood splatter was everywhere. Dexter would love that.

  A fresh wave of pungent odor made my throat constrict as it tried to block it from reaching my lungs.

  The four construction workers remained mobile as infected. They must have heard me choking on the reeking air because they turned in unison and shuffled towards me. It was almost funny how they did a group slow-walk, like yellow vest gangsters looking for a fight.

  There was nothing comical about their intentions. Evidence of what they would do to me lay all over the floor.

  Unable to permanently separate myself from my nightmare, I raced upstairs without a second thought. Adrenalin coursed through me and the pain seemed to have left my legs as I climbed higher. Seconds felt like days. Each step felt like ten. Sweat dripped off my chin. Blood trickled down my arm.

  All of a sudden everything was bright and I knew I’d reached the roof.

  The final landing was encased on three sides with floor to ceiling windows, which explained all the light. There was no time to enjoy the unique design, however.

  Huffing like a steam engine, I burst out through the door and onto the roof. I threw my arms up to shield my face like a vampire exposed to the sun. After two days indoors, it felt like I might actually burst into flames. Although it hurt, the fresh air was glorious. A smirk creased my lips because the thought of bursting into flames almost sounded appealing given my circumstances.

  My vision came back and I surveyed my new digs. A knot formed in my stomach. I was trapped on the roof of a building being pursued by an army of zombies. With even more behind them.

  Fuck my life.

  88

  The expansive roof was dotted with a few structures. Most were utility systems for the building, such as ventilation. There was a large antenna offset from the center and a massive construction crane rose from the far corner like a flag pole. A large portion of the roof was taken up by an unfinished square platform that rose above the main roof top.

  The platform could have been the start of a helicopter landing pad. There wasn’t a chopper and even if there was I had no idea how to fly one.

  What kind of building is this supposed to be?

  I immediately rushed to the other side to check for another stairwell. Surely a building this large would have two. My spark of hope was dashed in an instant as I skidded to a halt.

  My stomach dropped as I teetered on the edge of a massive drop-off. I scooted back, clutching my chest to keep my heart from leaping out. Giant steel I-beams had fallen at some point and crushed the corner of the building where the stairwell was. Bent re-bar poked out of the crushed concrete like twisted fingers. Edging as close as I dared, it looked at what appeared to be a drop of at least two floors, before things looked stable.

  Damn; so much for that idea.

  The wind kicked up. I sucked in a breath and almost pissed my pants as vertigo hit me again. I scrambled back from the edge. It felt like the floor shifted.

  Wiping a fresh sheen of sweat from my brow, I walked around and checked the rest of the roof for any possible escape. I ran to the other side of the building and continued my search but it was the same everywhere. No escape other than the stairwell that I knew was full of flesh chewing asshats.

  The futility of running like a rat in a maze dawned on me. It was worse though, I was a rat caught in a maze on a sinking ship. There
was nothing to do and nowhere to go. Just sheer walls all the way to the street, and all of the streets were filled with infected.

  With a heavy sigh, I sat on the helipad to think, but all that came to mind was food. The pang of hunger fueled fantasies of delicious treats such as steak and potatoes, and pork sandwiches with pickles and grilled onions. Iced tea with lemons and French toast with eggs and bacon.

  Glorious torture.

  I laid back and groaned. My mouth would be watering if it could, but the fantasy just made me acutely aware of how parched I felt. All my water was downstairs in the conference room. It may as well be on the first floor.

  My eyelids fluttered and then closed. Thick clouds blocked the sun so the temperature was bearable. I just needed a few minutes to rest and think through the situation.

  Faint, steady thumping grew in intensity. I sat up and looked around. At first I didn’t see anything. Was it coming from street level? Or was there a helicopter flying by? I jumped to my feet and scanned the cloudy sky.

  Fueled by adrenalin, I jogged a circuit around the building’s perimeter. The sound faded near the crane and crumbled corner, but grew as I ran back to the other side. The thumping grew to pounding, which rose in volume until I realized that it was coming from the glass shelter encasing the stairwell.

  My heart skipped a beat when I saw the small landing area packed with zombies. It was as if all the infected in the building had followed me to the roof.

  Up here I was even more exposed than on the lower level in the conference room. This was worse than being in the streets. There was nowhere to go but down, and it was a long way down.

  Somehow the door held up against the fists and heads banging against it, but it was clear that at any moment it could burst open. Thankfully it opened inward, not out to the roof. Surely that was a code violation. Thank God for that! Without another place to hide and no weapons, I began to panic.