Remorse.
None of them had a reason to save me.
Isaac’s pace had slowed. His breath was labored and he retreated from the doorway. Jagged, hacked off limbs slashed at the air, their shattered bones poking through the flesh like vicious talons.
Isaac dropped to a knee, struggling to find his breath.
He was running on fumes, chest heaving beneath the exertion.
The filing cabinet slid open an inch as the frenzy of ghouls capitalized on the respite. The scrape of metal against the tile was a foreboding reminder of what awaited them.
Isaac threw his body against the filing cabinet at a point behind the door, just out of reach of the flailing arms, but it was too far off center to properly brace it. He pressed his back against the cold metal and set his feet as best he could, but he knew that from here he could only delay the inevitable.
The ghouls had claimed too much ground for him to shore up their defenses.
Seeing that Isaac was out of options, Keeley instinctively began to run to him before he shouted her down.
‘Stay there!’ he boomed.
His voice was threatening, but his eyes were unmistakably weak.
Chapter 28
Isaac could feel the weight of the dozen or more ghouls outside as their force was transferred through the door and ultimately into his heels as he dug them in. He was catching his breath, but the adrenaline dump had sapped his muscles.
Only a matter of time…
He looked longingly at his fiancée, his wife.
As the creatures continued to savagely beat the door just behind him, his thoughts turned to whether it would be kinder to end the game on his terms. The thought of their flesh being consumed, of forever roaming these cursed halls in ravenous undeath was too much to bear.
Hopelessness washed over him.
He succumbed to defeat.
He had failed her.
‘How many bullets do you have?’
Cox didn’t reply; only continued to stare into vacant space.
Isaac repeated the question, but the corporal still didn’t turn to face him.
‘Not enough,’ was her grim response.
Isaac took a long breath and cleared his throat.
‘Not enough for what?’
His tone was grave.
Cox’s head turned subtly as she processed his intended meaning.
Keeley hadn’t missed the connotations, either.
‘Fuck that,’ she spat as she ripped the knife from out the smitten ghoul and set about examining the room.
The corporal managed a grin from where she sat; the bag felt a little lighter.
The room was square with several tall windows that didn’t admit much light despite being south-facing. Sparse shelving lined one wall with a makeshift workspace. The doors Isaac barricaded seemed the only entrance or exit. The bundle of wires along the ceiling coiled down into an industrial-sized gas generator that sat in the middle of the floor, partially concealed amid some blue tarpaulin that shrouded a series of bulky objects.
Keeley approached it cautiously. She looked over the generator, a massive construct, and ran her fingers along the various buttons and switches. She gingerly pushed the bundle of wiring aside and checked the connections; everything seemed to be in its rightful place. She grabbed the handle and pulled the recoil starter. Its draw was heavy; she needed to brace herself against it with her foot as she tugged with all her might. The pulley yielded and turned over.
The generator sputtered impotently.
It was bone dry.
She released her grip on the starter and allowed it to snap back loudly against the casing.
Undeterred, Keeley continued to search about. The rigid tarpaulin crackled as she threw the plastic back, disturbing a layer of gray dust that swirled in the shafts of dull light cast from the windows.
Her eyes widened excitedly as it revealed a series of barrels.
More specifically, barrels of petrol.
She tilted some of the containers and could tell from their weight that several yet had fuel within. Possibilities were running amuck through her thoughts, but she hadn’t any idea how to action them.
‘Holy shit,’ she started, ‘corporal?’
Consumed in her own thoughts, Cox didn’t seem to notice.
‘Corporal,’ Keeley called out more insistently, ‘corporal, I need you here!’
Cox barely heard a thing. She was replaying her near death experiences, imagining what would have happened to her had it not been for Daniel.
Or for Keeley.
Cox snapped back to reality.
In an instant she was to her feet and over to the barrels, assessing their options.
‘Alright,’ she began, rifling through the bag slung over her shoulders.
A daring smile flashed across her thin lips.
***
Jacob led them into the yard.
They took cover behind some type of military transport. They had lost sight of Anders and Sully between the wreckage, but several creatures pounded the tailgate of a vehicle some twenty yards ahead.
Their continued interest in the back of that truck could only mean one thing.
Jacob peered out, careful to not be spotted as he assessed their options. He counted four ghouls, keenly aware of the possibility that stragglers yet approached.
Emily whimpered somewhere behind him; Madison didn’t make a sound.
If it was only four, their odds would be decent; surely they could nab two by surprise. But threats unseen and uncounted, as well as untested companions, were wildcards that could easily tilt those odds against them.
Jacob gritted his teeth.
The flesh around his stitches tightened from the tension.
He described the scene by whisper to his companions and outlined the plan.
They could get a little closer before being forced into attack. They would rush the dead, hit them as one. They’d thin the gathering in one shot, and then need to deal with the melee afterwards.
Everything would hinge on timing.
Summoning what confidence he could, he led them on.
***
Isaac was in a daze and continued to pay little attention to his surroundings.
In his despair, he was virtually oblivious to the room beyond the steady blows against the door.
One of the creatures had almost slipped through. The metal edges of the door had stripped away much of its exposed flesh as fully a third of its body had forced through the gap. Isaac had mangled its arm in his earlier foray; the grayed tissue flapped about the bones of its forearm as the ghoul stabbed and parried the air, desperate but unable to reach its prey.
Cox raised the sidearm and fired one round into the thing’s head, causing it to explode against the door behind it. The report of the sidearm in such closed quarters caused Isaac to wince in pain, but brought him back into the moment.
The corporal kicked over a half empty barrel of petrol, spilling its slick contents all over the floor. The dark pool of gasoline spread out wide as it gushed from the barrel. She uncapped another and Keeley helped her tip it over.
She had almost forgotten the smell of petrol.
Isaac watched as she unwound a spool of gauze and formed a makeshift fuse, running the length of it away from the barrels back towards him and the doors.
Cox reached into the bag and pulled another small item from it.
‘You’re going out that window and hook back up with the others. I’m going to hold this door until you’re clear, then I’m going to light the fuse.’
She paused for a moment.
‘I’ll be right behind you.’
Cox lifted the strap of the messenger bag weightlessly over her head and passed it to Keeley.
Isaac and Keeley exchan
ged worried glances.
‘You don’t need to do this,’ Keeley offered as she donned the bag.
‘Yeah,’ the corporal replied flatly, ‘I really do.’
Keeley was at a loss for words.
Cox produced the Glock from the back of her waist line and plunked down next to Isaac. She pressed her back hard into the filing cabinet and pulled the spare mags from her pocket.
Cox held the sidearm by the barrel, offering its handle to Isaac.
Finding new strength in his companions, Isaac shed his hopelessness; he steeled himself and took the weapon and the spare clips.
‘Thank you, corporal,’ he began before he added, ‘… don’t be long.’
The corporal nodded.
Isaac and Keeley immediately set about trying to pry open one of the windows.
Cox pressed her back firmly into the filing cabinet and watched them work the glass, feeling the reverberations of the assault against the door filter through her body. After they determined the window wouldn’t budge, Isaac pushed Keeley back and began smashing the hatchet’s blunt end against the tempered glass, causing it to splinter and crack with each strike.
As a section of glass finally gave and daylight poured through the hole, the pace of Isaac’s blows quickened until the entire window shattered outwards into the morning sun.
Isaac cleared the shards away from the sill and scanned the yard. Satisfied it was clear, he turned to face the soldier that had taken his place. He nodded to her once before turning to offer Keeley a boost through the window.
Cox set her feet and braced against the cabinet.
The crowd outside continued to pile on, and the door was being forced open.
‘Jennifer,’ the corporal said softly, ‘it’s Jennifer.’
Neither Isaac nor Keeley immediately registered the response. They simultaneously paused and turned back to her, perhaps seeing her now for the first time as a person, as just another survivor.
Though tears welled in the corporal’s eyes, her determination shone through.
‘Jennifer,’ Isaac repeated solemnly.
Keeley smiled to her before she added the name, herself.
‘Jennifer,’ she paused, ‘we’ll see you soon.’
***
They had crossed to their next cover point without attracting any attention.
Jacob’s chest heaved as he steadied his breath.
He peered around their concealment and his heart sank.
With this new angle, a fifth and sixth ghoul were now visible.
The pieces had changed around him, but the initial plan was still the best he could come up with.
He looked at the shabby kitchen knives with contempt.
***
The immediate vicinity was clear.
As Isaac landed from the window, he grabbed Keeley’s hand and brusquely pulled her along behind him. The force of his grip jolted her muscles uncomfortably.
No telling what opposition they’d encounter; he wouldn’t risk separating, even by inches.
They neared the corner of the building and Isaac leaned out to survey the yard. He couldn’t get a solid read on it; from this approach the vehicles were all stacked up differently than he remembered.
Nevertheless, he knew it was a lot of ground to cover to get back to the apartment where the others camped.
He trusted the Glock but didn’t want to use it.
Isaac retracted from the corner and cursed under his breath.
The barracks were set in a wide open space that stretched out to the Bay, with an almost certain probability of infected nearby.
They’d need to obscure the possibility of sight lines in the distance.
They’d need to seek shelter in the tangled mess of vehicles.
***
She had watched them climb from the window with a satisfied smile as she turned over the tiny object in her hands.
It was the matchbook Daniel had collected from the Good Doctor.
She bent a single match before she plucked it, closing her eyes and feeling the rhythm of the creatures pounding just outside.
Her eyelids were heavy.
She sat in contemplative silence as she forced herself to relive unpleasant memories.
At last satisfied they had been afforded sufficient time to clear the vicinity, she struck the match carefully. She admired the tiny flame as it burst into life between her fingers.
Jennifer wondered if she’d really have time to escape the room.
Or if she even meant to.
She forced the thoughts and protests from her mind.
Unable to stifle the laugh that pierced her, she lit the fuse.
***
Keeley struggled to keep her feet as Isaac yanked her along.
They quickly crossed the distance to the assembled wreckage.
Somewhere ahead Isaac could hear the unmistakable sound of ghouls as they beat against something metal. He and Keeley kept low as they crept between the derelict vehicles, flitting between the ruins until they were overlooking a truck that had attracted significant attention. Several ghouls pounded their fists and scratched futilely at the transport, as if trying to reach whatever treasures lay within.
Isaac put his back flat against their cover and looked skywards.
He guessed they were about half the distance to the apartment across the street. These creatures were occupied, and they could likely go around. But there was no telling what lay beyond. Furthermore, something was obviously drawing the interest of the ghouls gathered here.
With only a knife and a sidearm between them, Isaac anxiously wrung his hands about the Glock.
***
It was time to move.
Jacob and Madison slipped out from their corner with Emily close behind.
Their steps were unsure at first but gathered strength as they advanced towards their quarry.
Only a few steps out…
***
The concussion from the blast shattered every window in the room, the glass littered the yard beyond as the fireball consumed all the available oxygen present. A billowing plume of black smoke poured through the openings, blotting out the sun as the flames devoured the brick structure in destructive orange light.
***
Emily’s pace slowed instantly.
The deafening thunder of the explosion reverberated all around them.
Jacob and Madison pressed on, but the ghouls’ focus had been drawn. The decaying creatures turned from whatever they had cornered in the back of the truck, their eyes flaring at the sight of new prey.
They had lost the initiative.
Jacob managed to drive his blade home into one as Madison tangled with another. Stricken, Emily was several paces back as the ghouls’ line retorted. Jacob had ripped his blade free and squared to his next target, but Madison struggled to wrench her knife from out the skull of the one she had dispatched. The limp creature was dead weight and she dragged it back with her as she tried to twist free.
Three ghouls converged on her as she fought to retrieve her weapon.
‘Here!’ Jacob shouted at the creatures, but his attempts to draw their attention went unanswered.
Recognizing a human voice, Anders and Sully each scrambled to free themselves from beneath the corpses that concealed them.
Unable to recover the blade, Madison allowed the corpse and the knife embedded within to fall to the snows as she hastily backed away. Eyes wild with hunger, the infected jaws greedily snapped at the air as their rotten hands reached for her.
Jacob knew he was cut off.
‘Help her!’ he cried at Emily, but she stood only as a statue.
Isaac and Keeley couldn’t see between the jumble of twisted vehicles.
‘Stay close, watch our back,’ Isaac ordere
d Keeley, and he rounded the corner of the vehicle and with the Glock raised.
Keeley gripped her blade tightly and followed immediately behind.
Madison continued to backpedal, her features clearly betraying her panic.
Preoccupied with his pleas to Emily, Jacob had to split his attention between her and the ghoul he circled with. It lunged and the two grappled briefly before they tumbled to the snow, his knife slipped between the collarbones of the creature and angled harmlessly downward into its chest cavity. Jacob surrendered his grip on the knife and fought hard to keep the clawing hands at bay as they rolled on the ground.
Isaac and Keeley rounded the vehicle and came out parallel to where Madison was falling back.
In the truck, Anders was first to emerge. His eyes stung with the sudden change in light, but regardless he leapt from the tailgate and into the melee. Bolstered by support from Isaac and Keeley, he sped towards Madison. Sully squinted his eyes against the light reflecting off the snow and tried to determine his target.
Isaac squeezed off three rounds. The first dropped the ghoul nearest, the second and third struck the next in line in the shoulder and jaw respectively. The creature shrugged off the shot to the shoulder, but the bullet that caught the jaw blew half its mandible off. The remnants of its jawbone barely clung on; what broken teeth survived snapped weirdly while a devastated tongue lashed and licked its ruined mouth.
Isaac cursed himself under his breath; Anders was too close now to risk another shot from this angle.
Anders grabbed the remaining ghoul by the collar. He spun the creature about and ran it head first into an adjacent vehicle. It crumpled facedown to the snow. He lifted the creature and slammed its face into the fender of the truck, collapsing one of its cheek bones and shattering its front teeth. The ghoul writhed and squirmed beneath the assault and Anders struggled to maintain control of the thing. Keeley ran to help him.
Sully shouldered the rifle.
‘Get down!’ he yelled to Madison, who instinctively dove beneath the nearest vehicle.
The ghoul with the hanging jaw fell to the snow and pawed after her. Madison’s fingers bled as she desperately clawed at the ground, digging her nails into the snow and ice to pull herself on. The ghoul managed to find a grip on her ankle, its fingers snaking around her boot as it yanked itself towards her. Instinctively, Madison kicked at the broken face and hands of her pursuer, stomping at its nose and fingers. Bone and cartilage crushed beneath her heel, but without a pain response the ghoul maintained its vice-like grip.
The Decline Page 27