United States of the Dead - 04

by Joseph Talluto

  Corporal Dodge shoved as hard as he could, dislodging Elizabeth who paused to stuff an errant piece of cheek into her mouth, before heading back to her meal. Dodge turned blindly around, finally finding his voice. He screamed for all he was worth.

  “Jesus!” Private Hickson shined his light on Dodge’s shredded face and bloody clothes. Elizabeth reached up from behind and grabbed Dodge by the hair again, pulling him backwards and bending him over the counter. His hands battered uselessly at her back as she tore out his throat, blood spraying over the display.

  Hickson fired once, his bullet entering Elizabeth’s head and knocking her to the floor. Dodge twitched on the counter, already bleeding out. Hickson took careful aim and fired again, this time blowing out the top of his corporal’s head.

  “Stupid fuck,” Private Hickson growled. He moved cautiously to the now-dead corporal and retrieved the pamphlet about the National Archives. He checked to make sure it was untouched by blood and zombie gore, then hurried up to the entrance to the Capitol Building where Major Thorton and the rest of the men were waiting.

  As he rounded the corner and disappeared up the stairs, a door silently opened on the other side of the Visitor Center. Careful eyes looked for threats as the door to the tunnel leading to the Library of Congress opened wider to reveal many anxious faces.

  Private Hickson rejoined Major Thorton and the rest of the men who were lounging about, taking a rest. There were signs of violence everywhere, bullet holes in the walls, bloodstains in the corners. The room reeked of death but the major didn’t seem to notice.

  “What have you got?” he asked as soon as the private appeared.

  The private handed over the brochure. “National Archives, just up the road a bit.”

  Major Thorton looked over the information, then an errant thought occurred to him. “Weren’t there two of you?” he asked.

  Private Hickson nodded. “Corporal Dodge was bitten by a zombie he was playing with. She tore his face off.” Hickson’s voice was devoid of emotion, emphasizing how little he had cared for the late Dodge.

  “Shoot them both?” Major Thorton asked, tucking the brochure into his pocket.

  “Yessir.”

  “Good man. You’re a corporal now.”

  Corporal Hickson smiled slightly.

  “And you just inherited Indiana.” Indiana had been Dodge’s domain to govern.

  Corporal Hickson’s smile got a lot bigger.

  “All right! We found out where they are! Let’s get moving. We have a couple of blocks to run and then we are there!” Major Thorton yelled to his men. They replied in cheers, but it was difficult to tell by their faces as to whether or not they were glad to find the documents,or if they were glad to be finally finishing this mission. Out of the forty men who had left Bodie, only thirteen remained. The men had no idea that the ten men that had been dispatched to Starved Rock were dead and buried.

  As the group moved towards the exit, one of the men thought he saw movement in an adjacent chamber. He looked over his shoulder, saw no one was watching him, so he jogged back to take a quick peek.

  Private Schroder entered the rotunda viewing room and looked around at the statues accumulated there, as well as the huge murals painted on the immense ceiling. As he looked up, there was more movement he could see out of the corner of his eye. He walked deeper into the room and shined his flashlight around to see if he could find out what was going on. He didn’t worry about catching up with the other men; they would take a while to assess the situation before they moved anyway.

  A pale leg showed behind a desk and Private Schroder carefully walked over to it, circling wide in case it was attached to something undead. Getting closer, he saw that it was indeed attached to something larger, a woman wearing a business suit and with a name tag that read “Kristine.” The tag also had the symbol of the capital on it, so Schroder figured she must have been some sort of guide. Her eyes were closed and she was slumped over, like she had hidden and died of fright.

  Private Schroder straightened and was about to head back when Kristine suddenly reached out and grabbed his ankle. He was so surprised he fired his weapon and the bullet went into his own left knee.

  Pain lanced through his leg as he dropped to the floor, his weapon clattering out of reach. He watched in horror as Kristine slowly turned her head his way, his ankle still gripped in her fist. Kristine smiled at Schroder, but it was not a smile of gratitude or recognition. It was a leer of hunger as she slowly pulled his foot closer for a deadly bite.

  Private Schroder kicked out with his foot, knocking Kristine back into the desk. She fell, but immediately began getting to her feet, her eyes locked on her target like a laser-guided missile.

  Schroder grimaced in pain as he tried to crawl away. He grabbed a statue to try and stand, but his leg gave way and he crumpled to the ground. He clawed at the marble floor, but it was difficult to pull himself along.

  Meanwhile, Kristine was on her feet, moving slowly to her prize. For every step she took, she got closer and closer to the stubborn meat that just wouldn’t sit still and be eaten.

  Private Schroder frantically crawled at the door and his friends, but when he looked back, he realized Kristine was getting closer and closer. In a few steps she would be on him. Desperation fueled his efforts and he scrambled as best he could across the floor, leaving a zig-zag pattern of blood from his wounded knee.

  Behind him, Kristine bared her teeth and hissed, hunger making her move just a little bit faster. She was within just a few feet of her prey when suddenly she slipped on the blood on the floor, tumbling her sideways to the marble.

  Schroder looked back and saw that his pursuer had slipped and he dragged himself closer to the entrance. His knee was a mass of pain and he felt himself getting slightly dizzy from blood loss, but he couldn’t stop and tie up his knee because his ghoulish girlfriend would be on top of him in a heartbeat.

  Kristine managed to get back on her feet and paused to lick the blood off of her fingers before continuing her pursuit. She lurched back and forth, regaining the ground she had lost and the two of them were within spitting distance of the doorway.

  Private Schroder managed to reach the doorway, and as he did he grabbed the door frame to try to propel himself, hopefully reaching the doorknob so he could pull himself to his feet.

  Just as he grabbed the frame, a dead weight fell on his back and Private Schroder arched his back in pain as Kristine bit down hard on the junction between his neck and shoulder. Jerking her head back, she tore out a huge chunk of flesh, spraying blood all over the doorway. Private Schroder closed his eyes and died quietly as he bled out from his two wounds. Kristine fed on his body for a long time, covering herself in blood and gore.

  Outside, Private Schroder’s absence was noted, but only briefly. Major Thorton wasn’t overly concerned at this point whether or not he had ten men or a hundred. He was going to do what he wanted and reap the rewards. Men could be found anywhere to follow him. All he had to do was show them how much they had to gain and they would be his. The men were assembled under the Ulysses S. Grant statue on the west side of the capitol building. A pile of sandbags and a pile of brass casings were silent tribute to the men who tried to defend the building.

  Major Thorton looked at the brochure map again and realized they were a little farther from the Archives than he thought. If the map scale was correct, they were a little more than half a mile from the Archives, a decent distance during normal times, an impossible one during a zombie infestation.

  As he looked out over the sandbags, Thorton watched the zombies as they moved about the mall. There were some that were still headed over to the Natural History Museum, but for the most part, many of them had settled down and were in dormant mode. They would amble about aimlessly, or just stop altogether, waiting for stimulus.

  Thorton thought for a minute, then gestured for one of his Sergeants to come forward.

  “You still have those road flares?” the Major a
sked.

  “Yes, sir, I have one left,” the sergeant replied.

  Ken mulled that one over. They needed to set it off on the far side of the mall, but there was no way anyone could throw it that far. Time to get creative. Since they needed to move on the right, something on the left had to happen. Thorton looked over the terrain and saw a lot of buses and cars stalled out on the road. Maybe, maybe.

  “All right. Hand me the flare. You men wait here.” Thorton took the flare from the sergeant, noting with amusement the shocked looks on his men’s faces as he volunteered himself for what might be suicide.

  Thorton moved quickly around the reflecting pool and over to the line of trees that were on Jefferson Street. None of the woods were occupied, all of the former visitors having fled long ago. Thorton ducked quickly in between the trees and ran low to keep mostly out of sight. When he reached a spot in front of the Air and Space Museum, he lit the flare and tossed it into the window of a tour bus parked there. Using the trees for cover again, he made his way back to the statue and the relative safety of his men.

  “All right, let’s sit tight and see what happens,” Ken said as he watched the bus.

  Sure enough, the flare managed to catch a seat on fire and as one went up, another went up and soon black smoke was billowing out of the windows of the bus. The flames worked their way back to the engine, where a gas line lit and there was a muffled ‘whump’ as the tank blew. It wasn’t very loud, but it was loud enough to get the attention of a majority of the zombies on the mall. They began wandering over to where the smoke and flames were, attracted by the commotion. The ones in the front were pushed into the flames by the ones behind them and several zombies caught fire and wandered about as candles, setting fire to whatever flammable thing they bumped into, the resulting conflagration attracted the attention of even more zombies and when a car exploded, the resulting distraction was precisely what Thorton and his men needed.

  The men waited until the general drift had thinned out from the north and then they made a break for the nearest cover. The grove of trees that lined the mall on the north side near Madison Avenue were just the thing to avoid easy detection by the zombies and Major Thorton and his crew made the most of it.

  They ran through the trees, taking care not to run into any zombies that might be lost on their way to the barbeque and quickly found themselves across the street from the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Thorton checked out the area, then led the way across as his men followed in small groups. They crossed the ring of bushes and circled the pool of stagnant water, stopping only when they reached the other side. Major Thorton looked ahead and saw the National Archives Building and he was impressed. The building was massive, with tall columns protecting a huge bronze door. That door looked to be formidable, so unless they could open it right away, they might have to find another way in.

  Ken signaled his men to join him and as he looked back at a shed, he thought he saw movement in there. Probably the groundskeeper who got trapped. Nothing to care about. He thought as his men circled him.

  “We need to get across the street and into that building. There are a lot of zombies in the cars, so watch carefully. See that door? The men nodded. “That’s our goal. Move it.” Thorton threaded his way through a couple of cars and his men spread out to find their own ways. One man passing could get through, but you didn’t want to be second or third in line when the zombies woke up.

  The men passed through the stopped cars without incident, until the second to last man passed too close to a minivan. As he skimmed past, a dark arm shot out of the open window and grabbed him by the hair. The soldier was dragged screaming into the open window by several pairs of undead hands. His hands and feet beat on the side of the van until, after being bitten and torn at enough, his body fell to the ground, minus it’s head.

  The last man to cross saw what happened and promptly turned around and fled. He ran for all he was worth through the garden and onto the main grounds of the mall. He ran as hard as he could, not realizing he was passing zombie after zombie. When he finally stopped to catch his breath, he was surrounded by hundreds of ghouls, who first looked at him curiously, then hungrily.

  He had time for one thin scream as they moved in and tore him to pieces.

  Back at the Archives, Thorton and his men just stood in shock as they lost two of their number in a matter of a minute. Thorton quickly recovered and ordered his men to the door. They scrambled up the steps and tried the door without success. The big brass doors were designed to act like vault doors and there was no way they were going to finesse their way in from that entry.

  “Plan B,” Thorton said. “There has to be an employee entrance around here somewhere. Let’s move.” Ken led the way from the front of the building to the west side, looking for the door that would let him in and fulfill his destiny.

  Across the street, several eyes watched him and his men move down the street and quietly began their pursuit.

  Chapter 19

  I sat for a long time, just staring at the hatch. I didn’t feel like moving, not just yet. On the other side of that chunk of metal, one of my closest friends lay dead. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I had killed people I had known, people I was friends with, but Nate’s death just hit me in a place that wasn’t used to getting hit. I knew that Nate wouldn’t want me to make a fuss, but it was hard, knowing he was gone.

  A noise behind me caught my attention and I turned to see Tommy looking carefully out the window. Duncan was back in the middle of the shed, his rifle up and ready.

  Suddenly, Tommy stepped back into the shadows and he brought his rifle up as well. Curious, I picked up my gun and moved over by Duncan, keeping low as to not be seen by whatever was outside.

  “Zombies?” I whispered, unsnapping the flap on my vest that kept a spare M1A magazine in place.

  “Thorton.” Came the reply.

  I immediately went into battle mode. I ducked back down and went over to the far window, making sure I couldn’t be seen from the outside. I checked which way Tommy was looking and turned slowly that way. Out of the far corner of the window I could see stealthy movement making its way through the sculpture garden. From our hiding place, I could see the men as they emerged from the bushes, headed towards the Archives.

  A large blond man in front caught my eye and I realized this was my first look at an enemy I had pursued across half the country. He was a huge man, easily inches over my six feet, two inches. His broad shoulders and thick neck spoke of enormous strength and as I watched him move through the cars and lightly run up the steps, I saw an agility, which combined with his strength, made him a very dangerous man.

  Added to what I knew about what he was capable of and what he had already done, quite possibly I was looking at the living embodiment of evil.

  I raised my rifle and trained the sights on his broad, unsuspecting back, but instinct kicked in and I lowered the barrel.

  Across the room, Tommy whispered “If that’s him, shoot! We got the rest of them!”

  “Look at the walls, gents,” I said, shifting back to observe the majority of the men make their way through the cars.

  “What are you talking about—oh.” Tommy argued then fell silent.

  “Yeah. How many rounds do you think these walls will stop?” I asked. “Half our shots would be through thick cover. We might aim well but still miss. Our best move right now is to stay out of sight.”

  “We could shoot and duck into the tunnel,” Duncan suggested.

  I looked over at him. “Nate’s last shot probably attracted some more Z’s. And in all honesty, I’d rather not have my last memory of Nate be what he looks like right now.”

  Duncan looked down, then over at the hatch. I knew he missed Nate terribly, but we needed to stay focused on what we were about.

  “I miss him too, guys. Hold on.” I looked closely out the window. “Whoa!” I just watched as a man got decapitated by a van full of ghouls, which caused the la
st man in line to lose his mind and go running full tilt in the opposite direction. Tommy ducked under the window and looked out from the other side to track the man’s progress.

  “He’s across the street, still running. Still going. Passing a lot of Z’s. Still going, going. Okay, now he’s stopped. All right, they got him.” Tommy ducked back under the window and resumed observing in the original direction.

  I watched as Thorton approached the big bronze doors that used to be the main entrance. This was interesting, because those doors hadn’t been used for entrance in years. Several years back, probably around 2001, the tourist entrance was changed to a door leading under the main stairs, up a hallway and into the main viewing room. By the looks of things, Thorton had no idea there was a different way in. I watched as the group of men, now only ten strong, quickly worked their way across the building and disappeared around the corner.

  I waited a full minute before I motioned to the other two. “We gotta go. Thorton doesn’t know how to get in the building, so we still have a chance to beat him to the punch.”

  The other two nodded and we snuck out the door, keeping to the bushes and trees, working our way to the north and the street. We reached the same opening that Thorton and his men had used, but since their passage, there was a lot of activity in the cars. The van had arms sticking out of the window, trying to reach the headless body lying on the ground nearby.

  I moved to the left, skirting the worst of the cars and crossed the street with Tommy and Duncan directly behind me. We reached the other side without difficulty and hurried to the tourist entrance doors on the street level. The doors were just made of tempered glass and held in place by an electronic lock. One of the advantages of the Upheaval and lack of general power was electric locks were all but useless. Most of the time we just strolled right in where before we would have been screwed. This door had no handles on the outside, which made things a little more difficult, especially since there were about thirty zombies moving in our direction. With us moving across the street and Thorton moving around, it was a wonder we hadn’t already caused a drift.