by Dirk Patton
“Good idea, but it looks like we’re going inside.” I said to Rachel. She nodded and turned to look at the warehouse.
The back corner was where the offices were located, the roll up doors ending fifty feet to our left. Concrete steps led up to a narrow platform with another heavy, steel door. Next to the door was a bank of windows that looked out onto the lot. This was probably where the dispatchers worked, keeping an eye on the traffic in the lot. Weaving around two more trucks we reached the steps and climbed up onto the platform. Stepping in front of the windows I looked through the scope and saw a typical office. A body covered in what looked like dried blood was lying half under a desk, but I didn’t see anything else.
“Clear?” Rachel was keeping an eye on the lot to our backs while I checked the office space.
“One body on the floor, which means there’s probably at least one infected running around in there.”
At the door I pressed my ear against the steel in a vain attempt to hear any danger from the other side. All I could hear was the roar of the rain. Checking to make sure Rachel and Dog were ready I tried the knob, quite surprised when it turned freely in my hand. Holding the knob fully turned I took a deep breath and simultaneously pulled the door open and stepped back, rifle up and aimed into the dark interior. I could see shelves stacked with boxes through the scope, but nothing was moving. Dog stood in the doorway, nose twitching as he sampled the air. After a moment he took a step forward to the threshold and growled very quietly. He smelled infected, but they weren’t close.
Stepping through the door I kept the rifle up and ready. Dog, then Rachel, followed and she pulled the door closed behind us, locking the knob. She must have had the same thought as me. No reason to leave an easy, open path at our rear. Moving the rifle around so I could scan with the scope, I checked the long aisle we were standing in, then the open row in front of us as well as scanning up and along the shelving. Nothing moved or seemed to present a threat.
There were hundreds of skylights in the roof, probably enough to turn off all the lights and save a lot of electricity on sunny days. It was pitch dark outside however and the only light they let in was when lightning flashed and everything in the warehouse lit up for a fraction of a second, like being caught in a single flash of a strobe light. There were also a few weak lights attached to the ceiling as well, giving off enough illumination for us to see well enough to avoid objects on the floor. The amount of light was comparable to navigating a house at night with only night lights turned on.
To our right, parked next to the door that led to the office area were two electric golf carts. That made sense in a building this size if you wanted your employees to spend time doing anything other than just walking from point A to B. I was sorely tempted to hop into one of them. We’d be across the warehouse in just a few minutes, but with speed also came noise. They might have been electric, but their motors would whine and I suspected the tires would squeak on the painted concrete floor. Reluctantly passing on the opportunity, I started us moving forward down a long aisle.
The aisle was so long I couldn’t see the far end of it, even in the night vision scope, and we were moving across the short side of the rectangle that comprised the building. At least the aisle was wide, a necessity to get forklifts in and out. To either side heavy gauge steel shelving soared above us, every shelf full of boxes of whatever it was that moved through this warehouse. I was stepping carefully to make as little noise as possible. Behind me I could just hear Rachel’s soft footfalls. Dog’s nails, on the other hand, were clicking loudly every step he took. I stopped us and turned to look at Dog, contemplating the possibility of tying rags on his feet.
While I stood there looking at him he turned his head slightly to the side and squeezed his eyes shut before letting out an explosive sneeze that was so loud both Rachel and I jumped as it echoed through the building. Dog shook his head then sneezed again, nearly as loud, sniffed and was over it. He stood there looking at us, waiting to see what we were going to do next. After the first sneeze I’d held my breath and a moment after the second one a chorus of screams from infected females sounded from deep within the warehouse.
13
The screams echoed, which made it impossible to tell what direction they were coming from, and there were too many to identify individual voices and get a count of the number of females. Not good. We were still relatively close to the door we had come in and I thought about going back out, but that didn’t really present a good option. Time to catch the train was running out and the only reason we were in the warehouse in the first place was because we hadn’t found a better way forward.
Deciding to push on, I started moving but only covered a few feet before stopping. We needed to move quietly and Dog’s nails were making way too much noise on the hard floor. I didn’t know what we were going to do. The females would be able to zero in on the noise, and the confines of the warehouse worked to their advantage. If I’d had a suppressor for my pistol I would have had that in my hand as it was better suited for CQB – close quarters battle – but I didn’t, so I kept the rifle up and ready.
From what I thought was only a few aisles to our left I could hear running feet, again too many to identify individuals. Rachel and Dog heard it too, Dog raising his nose in the air and sniffing. I hoped his sneezes had echoed as badly as the screams and the females hadn’t been able to locate us. Watching him sniff the air I really hoped he didn’t sneeze again. Rachel had been peering around in the darkness and she stepped up to me and leaned in to whisper in my ear.
“Let’s use that,” she mumbled.
I looked back down the aisle where she pointed, not seeing anything at first, then saw what she was talking about. A low, flat, four wheeled cart was neatly tucked underneath a shelf thirty feet behind us. It had probably been used by warehouse workers who had to go around and pull items to fill orders that were less than an entire pallet of merchandise. The cart sat on four small, rubber tires and should move easily and silently across the warehouse floor. Telling Dog to stay I rushed back down the aisle, grabbed the handle and pulled it back to where he and Rachel waited. I was right. It rolled easily and nearly silently.
Parking it right next to Dog I bent, scooped him up in my arms and set him down on the flat surface of the cart. I don’t think he understood what was going on, giving me one of his hurt looks, but he didn’t protest or try to jump off. Rachel stepped in and grabbed the handle, gesturing for me to take the lead. Not wasting any more time I started us moving forward. We had only gone a dozen feet when three females entered the aisle a couple of rows to our front. Freezing in place, I watched them through the scope, only needing another half pound of pressure on the trigger to blow the closest one’s head off. They looked around briefly, heads moving more like an animal than a human as they looked, listened and sniffed, then not finding us in the dark they continued in their original direction which was at a 90 degree angle to us.
Slowly letting out a quiet breath I glanced behind to make sure Rachel was ready and started moving again, stepping slow and quiet. Rachel was moving as quietly as I was, but there was a faint rubbing sound coming from one of the cart’s axels. It was just at the threshold of my hearing and I didn’t think it would alert the females to our location. I hoped.
I froze the instant I heard a clatter of objects falling to the floor to our rear, turning quickly and stepping so that I was shoulder to shoulder with Rachel. She had frozen in place also, and I muttered in her ear for her to keep an eye on our front. Behind us two females stood in the intersection of our aisle and the closest cross row that we had just passed. One of them had apparently bumped into a work station and knocked a cup of pens and some other items to the floor. They checked the area and once again I noted the animalistic way they moved their heads.
After what seemed like hours, they turned and started moving down our aisle in the direction we had come from. I stayed rooted in place until they reached another intersection down the ais
le, then turned and started us moving forward again. Another crash a couple of aisles over made me catch my breath but I didn’t pause. I still didn’t have a good feel for how many females were hunting us, but I did know I had seen two separate groups and there were at least five. The bad news was it seemed like they were working their way through all of the aisles in the area in their search and would probably find us soon.
We passed a couple of more rows and I had taken to stopping just before each intersection we reached. I would stand and listen for a few moments, then carefully lean out and check both directions with the scope. This was slowing us down, but I know my luck and didn’t want to risk bumping in to one of the search parties. We passed another row and I slowed and glanced back at Rachel thinking it was her footsteps I was hearing. When I looked back she stopped but the footsteps continued for a moment. Shit. We’d been found and were being stalked. Where was the bitch?
The aisle to our front and rear was completely clear when I checked it with the scope. That left one of the parallel aisles. The shelving that created the aisles and towered over our heads like canyon walls was four feet deep to accommodate standard shipping pallets. The shelves were set up back to back, so that meant an eight foot deep wall of shelves between each aisle, with plenty of gaps in the stacked inventory to let sound pass through. It seemed like I had been hearing the steps with my right ear so I suspected that the female was in the next aisle to my right. Was she alone? She was obviously one of the smart ones that would stalk us rather than just scream and charge, and if there was one smart one there were probably more.
We were mid-way between intersections and I started moving back towards our rear as quietly as I could, motioning for Rachel and Dog to stay put. I strained to hear as I moved, trying to tell if the female knew I was moving and was retracing her steps to meet me. All I could hear was the drumming of the rain on the roof several stories over my head and the sound of my own heart pounding in the quiet. Lightning flashed and for a heartbeat everything lit up in electric white then went dark again. I reached the intersection, paused to check both ways then stepped out and around the shelving, losing sight of Rachel and Dog. I spent nearly a full minute to move the eight feet that comprised the width of the shelving, then stopped and with exaggerated caution peeked the rifle around the corner to check the aisle.
Back to my right was clear. To my left, at the mid-point of the aisle I saw two females standing close to the shelving. They were facing Rachel’s position and appeared to be intently listening as they waited. With no other good option I slipped my finger inside the trigger guard, steadied my aim on one of them and squeezed. The rifle popped, loud in the quiet warehouse despite being suppressed, but still nowhere near as loud as without the suppressor. One of the female’s head snapped to the side as she dropped to the floor, dead. I shifted aim as the other female reacted, trying to dash away, but I had her caught in an aisle and she could only run toward me or away from me. She chose toward, and with the element of surprise gone she let out an ear piercing scream.
I fired my second round, saw the bullet tear her cheek open and rip away a portion of her face, but she ignored the injury and kept coming. Snapping off a second round the warehouse lit up again with a strobe of lightning and I watched her head snap back then the trick of the light made her appear to freeze-frame for a moment, off balance with blood spraying out behind her into the air. I blinked and she unfroze, her feet coming out from under her as she tumbled dead to the floor. Even before her body came to a stop there were screams sounding all around me in the dark. There was no time now to do anything other than run.
I dashed back around into the aisle where Rachel and Dog waited, the skin on my back crawling as more screams sounded way too close. I covered the distance to where they waited, Dog now standing up on the cart with hackles stiff. Not slowing as I approached I yelled at them to move and Dog leapt to the floor and started leading the way towards the back of the building. He was a few paces in front of us, Rachel falling in to run at my side when three females rushed into the intersection in front of us. I had been running with the rifle up and shot one the instant I saw her, popping off a round at the second but hitting her in the shoulder. Dog had sped up and launched himself into the air, impacting the wounded female on the chest and riding her to the floor.
Rachel and I fired at the third female simultaneously, both bullets impacting her head and nearly decapitating the body. Not used to shooting while running, Rachel had slowed to take the shot and I skidded and slipped on the floor when I heard her fall. Turning I saw Rachel face down with a female astride her back. The infected had locked both hands into Rachel’s long hair and was pulling her head back in an attempt to bite into the side of her throat. Reversing direction I drew my Kukri and slashed at the infected. Normally I would have at least managed to bury the blade in her brain if not remove all of the head above her mouth, but my hands weren’t at their usual strength.
As the blade bit in I was unable to maintain the grip needed to force through the tissue and bone and only succeeded in lodging a couple of inches of it into the female’s face. This got her attention, but didn’t stop her from attacking Rachel or put her down. Cursing, I swung the rifle and clubbed her to the floor, Rachel wasting no time in scrambling away from the fight. Stepping in I kicked the female as hard as I could in the temple and her body went limp. I couldn’t tell if I’d killed her or only knocked her unconscious, but she was down and not moving. Gripping the Kukri’s handle I yanked it free, stabbed through the throat cutting into her spine and sheathed it after wiping it clean on her clothing. I spent a quick moment to scan our rear which was free of females for the moment, then turned and ran after Rachel and Dog.
14
Dog had killed the female I had wounded and was waiting for us at the intersection. Not pausing to check the row we were crossing I ran harder. Rachel paced me at my side, Dog falling in on the other side of her so she was between us as we ran. More screams sounded, some behind and some to our left, but it sounded like only a few voices. The thought occurred to me that the females were using the screams to communicate with each other, or at least maybe the smart ones were. I wasn’t really sure how that theory might help at the moment, but I filed it away to think about later when I had the opportunity.
We were almost to the next row when two more females charged into the intersection only feet in front of us. I couldn’t have stopped if I’d tried, so I didn’t. Instead, I changed my direction slightly and blasted into them. I was running with my rifle up and as I made contact with them I shoved the barrel into the throat of the one to my right and pulled the trigger in burst mode, the three rounds blowing out the back of her neck and head.
I had lowered my left shoulder and rammed it into the face of the one directly in front of me. I had at least a hundred pounds on her and was moving fast when I delivered the hit. Her head flew back as she was lifted into the air, landing flat on her back a few feet down the aisle. Her head hit the concrete floor with a loud, meaty smack and she didn’t immediately try to bounce back to her feet. Swinging the rifle I fired three rounds into her heart as I ran past.
Behind us I heard a lone scream and glanced back but couldn’t see anything. When we reached the mid-point between intersections I slid to a stop, turned to our rear and dropped to a knee as I raised the rifle. A single female was charging towards us, just leaping over the two I’d killed at the last intersection and I took a moment to steady my aim then dropped her. The bullet struck her on the bridge of the nose, instantly destroying her brain. The body flopped forward to the floor and her momentum continued as a slide for another half a dozen feet.
Aisle to our rear clear, I had just stood up when Rachel gasped as a female landed on her, knocking her to the floor and trying to tear into her throat. I was stepping forward to help her when I was knocked down as well, another female on my back. When I hit the floor I rolled and we wound up coming to a stop against the bottom cross piece of the shelvi
ng that defined the aisle. The female on me was strong and fast and I struggled to get a grip on her, finally grasping her long, thick hair. Controlling her head I slammed it into the edge of the steel shelving once, twice then a third time. On the third impact she quit struggling and her eyes rolled up in their sockets. Yanking my right hand free of her hair I drew my knife and stabbed up through her mouth into her brain before kicking the body away and rolling over to help Rachel.
Rachel had been attacked by a female that was larger than she was and was not faring very well. Scrambling across the floor on my hands and knees I pivoted on my hip and used the momentum to kick the infected in the side. She was knocked off of Rachel and rolled a couple of times before snapping back up onto her feet and leaping at us. I met her in mid leap with the blade extended and ended her battle. Dog was a dozen feet away, engaged with two females. He had torn the Achilles tendon out of one of them and she squirmed around on the floor, unable to walk, trying to reach Rachel who hadn’t gotten back to her feet.
The other female was a big woman, not fat, big like a man. She was fighting with Dog, but he was wearing her down with his speed and power. He had broken both of her forearms with his jaws and she was bleeding heavily from bite wounds in her sides and thighs where he’d taken chunks bigger than my fist out of her. She might have been infected and in a rage, but her body still had to obey basic biological principles. No amount of adrenalin is going to overcome blood loss, and she was bleeding out. Moving slower she lunged at Dog, her arms flopping uselessly, and he took the opportunity to leap into her and knock her to the floor. He had her throat in his jaws as she came to a stop on her back and then he tore her open and locked his jaws on her head until she stopped moving.