by Gunther, Cy
“Do you want to sleep yet?” Ernst asked him.
Adam shook his head. “I’ve got another sixty-seven cameras to check, then I’ll crash. What about you?”
“I’m actually pretty tired tonight. I’m going to go get Lee stretched out on the bunk, probably stretch out on the floor after.”
“I shouldn’t be more than an hour or so,” Adam said, “just to let you know.”
“I appreciate it.” Ernst gave Diane a final pat, got down off of the counter, and wandered back to his room.
Adam went back to the laptop, clicked on the next camera, and found the dead eating a fresh kill. Sighing he saved the image, and moved on.
Brian
“So,” Brian said, “Corey and I rigged up a ladder to the top of the warehouse, which actually let us get a pretty good look at downtown. Well, where the bookstore is.”
“And we’re pretty lucky,” Corey added.
Brian nodded. “Yeah, no shit.”
Ernst, Adam, and Lee looked at him.
Brian cleared his throat. “Anyway, we’ve got some dead traffic leading up in front of our place to the intersection with Commercial Drive. Once, there, though, it’s pretty good. Looks like the fire department kept its section of the road clear, especially since it doesn’t run anywhere near Waltner Airfield. We’re lucky too that the bookstore’s right on the corner of Main and East Hollis Street, because Main Street is all sorts of fucked up.”
“We figure though,” Corey added, “that if we ride in the back, and Adam keeps a steady pace, we can use his pick-up as a tactical.”
“We can take out any of the dead who get too close, have a solid firing platform that’s higher than the dead, and be able to cover Adam’s entrance and exit from the store.”
Lee nodded. “Actually sounds pretty solid, marines.”
Brian grinned.
“I’ve got my med bag ready,” Adam said, patting it. “So, I’m ready whenever you two are.”
“We’re good to go now,” Brian said. “We’ve got extra ammo.”
“And food and water,” Corey said, “just in case this turns into a massive cluster fuck.”
“I’ve got a handheld, too,” Adam said, looking over at Ernst and Lee. “I’ll let you know when we get the person, and what the status is.”
“I’ve got my handheld,” Ernst said, motioning to the unit clipped to his belt, “so now it’s just time to go.”
Brian nodded, looking over at Corey, who nodded back. “Okay,” Brian said, “let’s do it then.”
He and his brother picked up their rucksacks with the extra supplies and followed Adam as he led the way out of the warehouse.
“You know,” Brian said, “we’re going to need to come up with a name for this place.”
“For what place?” Corey asked.
“This,” Brian said, waving his A4 at the warehouse. “We can’t just keep call it ‘here’ or ‘Ernst’s place,’ can we?” He looked over at Ernst.
Ernst shrugged, smiling. “Call it whatever the fuck you want, Brian. It’s really low on my list of things to do.”
Brian felt his face go red, but Ernst slapped him on the back.
“Don’t sweat it, kid,” the older man said. “This situation is so fucking surreal I don’t know what to do.”
Lee nodded. “I used to joke about a zombie apocalypse, but this is really just not funny.”
“No shit,” Adam said, tossing his pack into the front seat.
Brian tossed his rucksack into the bed of the truck, as did Corey, then the two of them climbed in. Outside the gate the dead still lingered, walking aimlessly back and forth.
“Ready?” Adam asked.
Everyone nodded.
Adam got into the truck and started it and Brian and Corey settled up against the cab of the truck, A4s resting on the roof, safeties off. The dead turned to face the sound of the engine, and they began to moan, arms rising up as Ernst and Lee walked to the gate. Lee raised an A4 up to her shoulder as Ernst punched in the code.
Brian realized, suddenly, that Ernst was smiling and humming as he did it.
Then the man had his rifle up, the .22 barking as Ernst started shooting the dead closest to the gate. Brian, Corey, and Lee all followed suit, and in a moment Adam was driving out over the fallen undead.
Adam continued to drive on ahead as Ernst paused to close the gate, Lee keeping him covered. Ahead of them, nearly blocking the road, was Lee’s humvee. More dead moved around it, a wave seeking to drown Adam’s pick-up.
But Brian and Corey kept firing.
“Changing mags,” Brian said, reloading.
“Got it.”
Within a heartbeat Brian was firing again.
“Changing mags,” Corey said.
“Got it.”
Brian and his brother kept up a steady fire, leaving a clear path for Lee and Ernst to the humvee as the pick-up bounced over bodies. Once past the humvee he and Corey kept their eyes on the road. As the pavement widened and the buildings fell away, fewer dead could be seen, but they were still present. They all took up the moan as the truck passed by, arms rising up, shambling gait propelling them after the truck.
“Christ we’re gonna have a hell of a time on the way back,” Corey muttered.
“No we won’t,” Brian said. “As soon as we hit that bookstore, we start taking the fuckers out. It’ll be just like at the range.”
Corey looked over at him and grinned. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Then again, we’re pretty much fucked any way that you look at it.”
“Yes we are,” Brian agreed.
They reached the intersection of Main and East Hollis, and there was the bookstore, the sign in plain sight. Adam parked the truck as close as he could to the curb, and left the engine running as he got out, pack in hand. He said nothing as he ran to the door, which was already opening to reveal an old black man with an ancient looking bolt action rifle in his hand.
Brian brought his attention back to the street though as Corey opened up. Sighting over the iron, Brian let all his tension slip away as he began killing dead, the recoil of the A4 soothing.
Lee
Lee opened the door to the humvee and nearly gagged, the stench of Andrews spilling out over her.
Ernst’s hand steadied her. “Door unlocked?” he asked.
She nodded.
He walked around the front of the humvee, brought his rifle up, fired off a few rounds, and went to the passenger side door. He popped it open, the body slumping towards him. Ernst’s expression never changed as he grabbed a handful of Andrews’ BDU blouse and hauled the corpse out onto the road.
Ernst looked at her across the seats.
“You good to drive?”
She nodded again.
“Good,” Ernst smiled. “I’m feeling a little exposed out of my hole.”
He shut the door and turned his attention back to the street.
Lee climbed in, ignoring the smell as she checked the back, making sure that nothing had climbed in during the night.
Clear, thank God, she thought, and closed the door behind her.
The humvee started up, the engine growling. Ernst fired a few more shots, glancing over his shoulder at her as she shifted and eased the vehicle forward. Ernst walked slowly alongside of her, glancing down to step over bodies, his eyes scanning. Lee switched her attention back to the road, looking for any dead that might come between them and the gate. She kept the pace slow, hating the fact that he was out in the street, but Ernst had said it’d be best, and he’d told her the code, should anything happen.
A quick look at him showed that he was smiling, switching out the mag on the weapon. Then the rifle spoke again, and she looked back to the gate. Jack and Diane, the giant dogs, ran back and forth behind the gate, tails wagging.
Within moments she was stopped in front of the gate. She put the humvee in park, climbed out, and stepped over to the lock. Ernst nodded to her and she punched in the code. The gate started sliding back
when the dogs began to growl and Ernst said, “Down.”
Lee dropped to the pavement, the .22 barking once.
A body thudded behind her.
“We’re good,” Ernst said, and turned his attention back to the street.
Lee stood up and caught sight of a teenager wearing a running outfit lying on its face. Most of its back was gone, chewed away.
Lee swallowed back her breakfast and got into the humvee.
Once inside of the gate she killed the engine and sat quietly in vehicle. Behind her Ernst fired a few more shots, closed the gate, and walked over to see her.
“Are you going to make it, Sergeant?”
She nodded.
“The teenager?”
She nodded again.
“It’s tough,” he said softly, looking out at the street of corpses, “but they’re already dead. We can’t worry about them.”
“I know,” she said, looking up. “I just wish I knew whether or not my family was alive. My brother likes to run.”
“Maybe the grid’ll be back up soon. Or at least cell service. Plus we can check your radio,” Ernst said, nodding towards the humvee’s radio, “and I’ll dig out the Ham radio. I hope that we’ll be able to pick something up other than emergency broadcasts.”
“Yeah, me too,” Lee said. She got out of the humvee, the wind blowing the stench of the dead towards them. “We’re going to have to do something about those bodies. That’s about as far from sanitary as you can possibly get.”
Ernst nodded. “Probably have to burn them.”
“After the others get back,” Lee said, looking at the alleys and streets branching off of the street in front of them. “We’ll need some security if we’re out there making all that noise and lighting a damned bonfire.”
“That we will.”
Lee looked at the humvee, the dents and the blood, the jammed .50 cal on the top. “Got a hose that I could use? That little bitch needs a bath.”
Adam
The first thing Adam noticed was an extremely well cared for M1 Garand rifle in the old man’s hands. The second thing he noticed was the man’s baseball hat. Red with yellow words: Chosin Frozen.
“Marine?” the old man asked, looking down at the pack in Adam’s hands.
“Nope. Retired Army, but I’ve got a pair of Marine riflemen with me.”
“No other kind,” the old man said. “Got a safe place for us?”
“Yup,” Adam said. “How many of you are there?”
“Four,” the old man said. He turned away and called out in some language towards the back of the store. A young Chinese woman appeared, holding an infant to her breast, and the hand of a young boy.
“This is Emily,” the old man said. “Her daughter is Susan, and her son is Michael.”
“Are any of you hurt?”
The old man shook his head.
“Need to take anything?”
The old man reached behind a bookcase and pulled out an ancient looking seabag. “This is all I need, and they have just the clothes on their backs.”
“Adam!” Corey called from out front.
“Yeah?”
“We got a wave coming up from the hospital, you better haul ass!”
Adam looked back at the old man. “Do they speak any English?”
“Not much,” the old man said.
“Okay, get them in the cab of the truck out front. You too. I can fit all of you in there. Just toss your bag in the back with the twins.”
The old man nodded, then turned and spoke to the woman and her children in Chinese.
Adam went out the front door, Brian keeping a steady watch on the City Hall side of East Hollis Street, picking off the dead shambling towards them. Corey’s fire was quicker and Adam saw the larger wave of dead moving towards them. Patients, doctors, nurses, civilians, all of them dead and moaning.
Adam stepped out a little ways in front of the truck, tossing his pack into the bed and bringing his own rifle up to bear. He added his fire to Corey’s, picking each target carefully, looking for the leaders of the pack. The woman hurried out with her children, whispering to the little boy in Chinese, urging him into the cab of the truck. She climbed in quickly behind him. Adam glanced back and caught sight of the old man throwing his sea bag into the bed of the truck, Brian looking over at him.
“Holy shit, Master Guns!”
The old black man smiled. “Should have known you two little bastards would find a way through.”
Corey looked back, grinning. “Good to see you, Master Guns.”
“Help me in, Brian,” Master Guns said, and Brian did so immediately. The Chinese woman closed the passenger side door, while Adam dropped a few more of the dead.
“Everyone good?” he asked.
“We’re clear,” Master Guns said. “I’ll ride back here with the boys just in case we need another rifle.”
“Sounds good to me,” Adam said. He dropped his rifle down, flipped the safety on, and climbed into the cab. He smiled at the woman, popped the truck into drive, and moved away from the bookstore. The little boy sat between his mother and Adam, looking up at him. The infant girl stared at him wide-eyed, and the mother wore a haggard expression.
Adam brought his attention back to the road. In a moment he heard the Master Guns’ Garand join the A4s.
Fighting the urge to increase his speed Adam kept the vehicle steady, steering around abandoned vehicles and bodies. The traffic lights were out, and the skies streaked by lines of greasy black and gray columns from burning buildings. Occasionally the men in the bed fired, but even that tapered off as they made their way back towards Ernst’s.
Adam picked up the handheld and keyed it. “Ernst.”
“Go ahead.”
“Picked up the survivors.”
“How many?”
“Four in all. One female, two children, and an old Marine.”
Ernst chuckled over the radio. “Good.”
“Did you manage to salvage the humvee?”
“Yes. What’s your ETA?”
“Five.”
“I copy. I’ll meet you at the gate. Be careful, they seem to be getting a little thicker since you left.”
“Got it.”
Adam put the radio back onto the dash and avoided a large Hispanic man who was missing half of his face. The Garand spoke, and the corpse dropped.
Adam followed the now familiar path to the warehouse, and in a moment he saw what Ernst had meant. Forty or fifty of the dead had gathered out in front of the gate, Lee pointedly ignoring them while she sprayed down the humvee. Ernst stood behind the gate, smoking a pipe and waving at Adam. Adam shook his head, trying not to laugh.
Fucking absurd, he thought. Just absurd.
He watched as Ernst brought his .22 up and began to fire. Master Guns said something to the twins and in a moment the A4s and Garand joined in. Adam watched, fascinated, as the bodies dropped. Some of the dead tried to turn and face the truck, but the whole affair was over in a matter of moments.
Ernst stepped out as the gate opened, slinging the rifle and pulling on a pair of gloves. He started dragging bodies out of the way, Lee joining him. They cleared a small path for the truck, Lee waving them forward.
When the gate was closing behind them Adam shut off the engine, smiled at the nervous woman and her children, and climbed out.
Ernst nodded. “We’ll need to find a place to burn those later today. We can’t have them there.”
Jack and Diane came padding out of the warehouse, tails wagging. The mother and her children shied away from the dogs. “It’s okay,” Adam said, “they’re good dogs.”
Master Guns translated, the woman nodding but still holding onto her kids. Adam sighed and pulled his and the old man’s bags out of the bed.
“Come on,” Ernst smiled, “let’s get out of the sun and get some introductions made, okay?”
“Lead the way,” Master Guns said, “we’ll follow.”
Ernst turned away, the
old man walking stiffly behind him, the women and children close on the old man’s heels. Lee glanced once at her humvee, then, she went towards the warehouse entrance as well. Brian took the Master Guns’ bag from Adam, and Corey fell in beside him. Adam and the dogs brought up the rear, listening to the moans of the dead echoing off of nearby buildings.
Terrence
“I live, or lived, above the bookstore,” Terrence said, holding the cup of coffee with both hands. “I knew Sally the owner well, and I’d open the place for her when she was running late. My back stairs led down into the hallway where the store’s back door is. The morning after it all started I took my rifle with me and went down to make sure Sally was alright.” He shook his head. “I still don’t know if she is. When I went to the front Emily and her kids were trying to get in. They were being chased by her husband.
“I put two in his chest, realized that he wasn’t stopping, and put the third through his eye.
“We locked the door and hid after that.”
Terrence looked at the others and asked, “What is going on? Do any of you know?”
Adam, who sat on the floor of the small room on the first sub-level with his dogs, nodded. “Did you ever see the movie ‘Night of the Living Dead’?”
“That black and white about the dead coming back to life?” Terrence asked.
“That’s the one.”
“Why?”
“That’s what happening, Terrence,” Adam said.
The man’s eyes were steady, and there was no sign of humor in them.
“Well,” Terrence said, sitting back in the chair, “that’s a little bit of crazy.”
“No,” Ernst said, “that’s a whole lot of crazy.”
Terrence nodded, turning his attention to Emily and saying in Chinese, “The dead are walking.”
Both of the children were asleep on her lap as she looked at him. “That would explain the things that we saw, wouldn’t it.”
“Yes.”
“Will the children be safe here?”
Switching back to English, Terrence said, “Emily wants to know if her children will be safe here.”
Ernst nodded. “They should be fine. I built this for about fifty people, if it was needed. There’s enough food and supplies for at least a few years, if not longer, and I made sure that it could stand against basic assaults by living people. I’m assuming that we’ll be okay against the dead, but we’ll figure that out as we go.”