Zombie Rush 2

by Hansen, Joseph

  ***

  The only thought in her mind was Oh fuck when she awoke. Her hands were bound above her head and she was stripped naked down to her waist, leaving her upper body completely exposed. Is he some kind of rapist now?

  She didn’t have to see him to know who it was. Lisa had been fucking with the doctor, toying, and trying to bring him out into the open, and she thought she was prepared. She didn’t think he would be able to set things up this quickly. Then again, why couldn’t he?

  With a simple disguise he could go anywhere with people, waving and smiling all the while. He had been one step ahead of her the whole time, even before he knew she was after him, which was … Could he have been in the compound when I went to talk to Ally? Hell, he would be familiar with the entire security system cameras and all … fuck! For all she knew, that connection could extend anywhere.

  She tried to scan the room and saw a bank of portraits on the wall, and there he was, the same picture Skit had, smiling back at her and she said it again, “Fuck.”

  His was the center of three persons, one an older woman with a stethoscope and the other an older man in a lab coat.

  “Welcome back to the world of the living,” a good-natured voice said as he approached the bedside. “I see that you have noticed the co-founders’ portraits. This was mainly my brainchild; the others donated time and money for tax reasons.”

  “Why would I give a fuck?”

  “You have such a delicious potty mouth. I think I am falling, Rey. You could be the one, you know.”

  “Yeah? Why don’t you take me camping and we’ll sing Kumbay-fucking-ya together and roast marshmallows over an open fire. You know, maybe just shutting the fuck up and doing what you’re going to do is the best choice right now.”

  “What, and miss out on all of this? Never. You’re just being judgmental. You and I both know that every girl wants to marry a doctor.”

  “Not every girl, dipshit.”

  “Well then, you are one of a few select individuals, Rey.”

  “Don’t call me that, dickhead.”

  “Okay, Lisa, I can give you that. You may call me Craig in honor of the racist bastard that we gunned down together. That was quite a show, wasn’t it? Our first and only collaboration.”

  “It wasn’t a show, asshole. It was real life.”

  “More like real death, wouldn’t you say? I have to be honest. By the way you started out, I thought you would be a lot harder to get control of than you were.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Lisa’s tone was regretful. She would be damned if she showed this guy a lick of fear, but the truth was that she was more terrified than she ever thought possible. It was a struggle to retain her bladder, and her entire being wanted to shudder, but the doctor fed off of that. Fear and terror were what he craved. She could feel his eyes penetrating her, looking for a sign, so she became stone cold and defiant.

  “So, now that I have your undivided attention, I want to inform you that I will be describing every procedure we do here, no matter how minute. Full disclosure is the best policy, I think, and I feel that you have a right to know.” His eyes lingered a little too long on her naked upper body.

  “Take a picture; it’ll last longer,” she said, peeved at his wandering eyes.

  “Have no fear, Lisa; everything is being filmed in great detail. I have to say though, I have seen a lot of breasts, but yours … yours are pretty spectacular.”

  “Just fucking kill me, all right?”

  “Ah, but the world has changed. I no longer have to worry about a practice or my livelihood. Just like when I got into my forties and realized I didn’t have to rape every victim. It was a good thing, and opened the doors to men. Now I realize that I don’t have to kill every subject, and it might even have its own rewards; allowing them to walk in fear knowing that one day, I will return. Ally will be my first test of that and you my second. So kill you? That's just not an option. You're too much of a delightful challenge for that.” He paused and walked around to the side of the table so he could look right down at her, his eyes locking on hers.

  “You see, the true question is, in what capacity will I leave you? I will do my best, but pain management without drugs can be a very touchy thing.” He held up a long, wiry needle and spun it so its limp form caused the light to dance in her vision.

  “I studied for a time in the Far East and picked up some hobbies that I have become quite proficient at; not to mention fond of. Now keep in mind, I am not certified or professionally trained, so there may be some mistakes. I am going to ask you to remain perfectly still because some of the pain insertion points can also cause your bowels to release if we’re not careful.” Web gently turned her on to her side and twisted the needle into her skin.

  Her hip and leg lost feeling and her tongue started to sweat. Her stomach juices started to churn and she felt …

  “Do you feel nauseated?” She nodded like a good patient. “Gooood. I don’t smell anything, so that means your bowels held. I think we got it,” the doctor said as they fell into a natural rhythm of doctor-patient relationship that made Lisa want to puke, but she was helpless and completely unable to stop it.

  “You should feel numb in your lower back and down your hip and leg.”

  She nodded and bit her lip as she tried to control the tears that wanted to flow.

  “Good. We’re doing great, Lisa. Now I am going to continue the pain blocks up your spine and into your neck.” He got out several more needles. A different portion of her body vanished from her sense with every insertion as he continued with his delighted rhetoric.

  Lisa had never felt so helpless, and she was torn between hating him more and more every second and just wanting to die. If she could have held her breath until life passed from her body, she would have; she had never imagined that a horror like this could ever occur. Her eyes locked on her guns and ammo stacked with her shirt and TAC vest on a table in the corner just a few feet away, and prayed they would magically come to her so she could kill the bastard.

  Web gave each needle a kink so he could roll her onto her back and smiled as he looked in to her face.

  “Done; now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Well, at least not as bad as it is going to be taking them out, and you can trust me on that. Okay, on to the next step. I’m getting anxious because I am starving, but all good things in time.

  “You seem to have lost your voice, Lisa. Is there anything you want to say?”

  Lisa shook her head and squeezed her eyes tightly together when she noticed him looking at her breasts again. He reached up and squeezed her right one hard, but she couldn’t feel it.

  “You know, in some of the groups which I belong to, people prefer to start here,” he said, indicating the gland that was pushing out between his fingers. “But I tell you, from a culinary standpoint, there really isn’t much there. Most will go for a forearm or calf to start, but that is just too much meat for one person, and it doesn’t store well. Besides … I am a rib man.”

  ***

  By the time they reached the road that led to the facility, they had lost three more but gained five, which was how it had been since the day it all started. Solomon started with Charlie, Lester, and three of his coworkers. Now he only knew Charlie and Lester, but they were thirty strong and each looked to them as the leaders. The parking lot was designed to hold twenty cars. The rest was cleared, open field. He went up to the gate and looked down the lane, seeing a guard lying fried to a crisp inside the fence. He must have been infected the first night and touched the fence. Another active zombie was trapped in the guard booth at the gate and was starting to stink like decomposition, but his lust to feed never waned as he moaned and thrashed about inside.

  Solomon saw the camera track his progress as he approached the gate. When he was six feet from it, a red light came on with a mechanical warning.

  “Caution, this fence is electrified to fifty thousand volts. Anyone touching or trying to break through will be killed instantly.
”

  “I can see you watching me. Why don’t you just talk to us like human beings?” Solomon said.

  “I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to leave this facility immediately, or I will call the authorities,” the human guard’s voice spoke over the speaker.

  “There aren’t any authorities for you to call, boy. It’s all gone. Cops, the courts, your job, my wife … all gone. There’s only us. We are the new force in town so let us in and we’ll see how we can help each other.”

  ***

  Jesse was distraught and didn’t know what he should do. No one showed up for scheduled delivery or even to fill the sandwich machine, which was contracted to be switched out every day. It was a union demand on their last contract. He watched as Tony fried himself on the fence and sadly, he was glad. He didn’t need to see these zombies up close. His Internet was down as of the first day when the company server somewhere around Little Rock went offline. He had never been to the main office, so he didn’t know for sure. He was supposed to hear from the main office every four hours but hadn’t heard from them for the last two days.

  What he feared would happen—correct that—what he knew would happen came to fruition on the third day … the day when the sandwich machine ran out of sandwiches, the glass broken the day before. A gang of rough-looking men and women came from the city. It wasn’t like they were trying to sneak up on him; it was more like they didn’t want to make noise just for the sake of making noise.

  Jesse didn’t know what was going on out in the world. No TVs were allowed at work and he wasn’t allowed to bring his cell phone in from the car. All he had was a basic email program built in to their emergency system, and an AM/FM radio.

  He followed the goings on in Hot Springs on the small radio and tried to contact them through email since the outgoing seemed to work. But of course, the main office screened all incoming messages before they got to the staff. All he could tell anyone was that he was alone in an environmentally controlled security storage facility. There was not much more to tell other than that. He had a map of quadrants but had no idea what was stored in those quadrants. He wasn’t allowed out of the shack until his shift was done, which was when the door opened. Everybody thought there was someone in Little Rock controlling the door, but Jesse now suspected the door lock was tied directly to the time clock. When his relief checked in, the door would unlock. The only other time would be a fire or natural disaster.

  The day the man with the walking stick showed up was a day from his worst nightmares. A part of him wanted to surrender, but he couldn’t even if he tried because of the security of the enclosure.

  ***

  “Come on, bud; come out and talk to us for a couple of minutes. That’s all, just talk. Man, you know me. You told me to get back into the cab of my truck just the other day. No smoking, right?” Solomon pleaded with the man in the guardhouse, trying to appeal to his humanity.

  “I remember you. You’re the one who gave me attitude. I reported you to my superiors, and they said you would not be back here again. Yet here you are, off duty, trying to break into a secure facility,” the guard replied.

  “Look …” Solomon started, his temper long past lost, but still trying to not make it evident. “We’re not trying to break in to steal things. We’re trying to break in so that we can hide. You don’t know what it’s like out here, bro. The whole city has turned into flesh-eating zombies.”

  Jesse paused for a long time, soaking it in. A part of him wanted to let them in, but another part knew that they would run roughshod all over the place and there could be dangerous things inside. He typed out a quick email to Tasha at the radio station. He hoped it would help even though he’d never get a reply. Then he leaned down to the speaker with a one-word reply.

  “No.”

  “No? What do you mean ‘no’? I’m going to have a car run right through this fucking fence, asshole.” Solomon’s anger-filled shout forced Jesse to push another button labeled “high alert.” He didn’t know what this button did because the complex had everything pre-programmed into it.

  Solomon jumped to the side as tire-slashing blades snapped into place, completely surrounding the fenced-in structure in staggered patterns up to thirty feet out.

  “I wouldn’t recommend that. I have notified authorities as to your presence, so please just leave.

  “Good! We could use some authorities around here. We ain’t leaving, chump, so just get that through your head.” Solomon was so heated he started snapping out orders. “Get some people out in the woods there, Lester, and make sure no zombies are sneaking up on us. And put someone down on that road too. I already see one stumbler coming this way. God damn it, what the fuck, people? Am I the only one paying attention here?”

  His eyes landed on Kodiak. Kodiak was obviously her dancer name, but she was unwilling to give up the moniker, so he went with it. Out of the six gained from the club where they originally held up; only three remained. A girl named Candy and a bouncer named Stanley was still with them, and Kodiak; all of whom stayed pretty close to each other.

  “Kodiak, have someone take that cube van up that slope so it can get enough speed to pop a hole in this fence.”

  “How is it going to get to the fence with all of these tire blades in the way?”

  “I don’t fucking know, Kodi; just do as I ask, will you please?”

  “All right, I’ll do it. Just back off a bit, will ya, Dean?”

  “Back off a bit? Are you fucking serious? This is the last place in Benton where we have a chance to survive this shit and some fucking Boy Scout is standing in our way. So I am a little pissed about that right now, okay?”

  On any other day, he would have been throwing dollar bills at the tall raven-haired woman just to see a little more skin. Today was not that day. She did, however, have a good head on her shoulders, and he could use some insights. He calmed himself a bit before saying, “Hey, when you get that done, come see me, all right?”

  “All right, but remember, cash doesn’t count anymore,” she replied, thinking that he was interested in something totally different than he was.

  “Naw, girlie. Not talking about that, at least not until we get through that gate. I need to pick your brain.”

  She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. “That would be new, now wouldn’t it, Dean?”

  With that, she turned away, leaving Dean with a view of her retreating backside.

  After Kodiak found a driver and set the cube van up the slope from the main gate, she returned to Solomon. “So, what are you thinking?”

  “I don’t know, to be honest. I’m stumped. It’s just a chain-fucking-link fence; we should be able to get through that without any issues. If we had a grenade launcher or some dynamite we could blow the gate off of its hinges, but we don’t have that.”

  Kodiak scanned the fence as her mind worked.

  “What are you thinking?” Dean asked.

  “I’m thinking through the fence, over the fence, under the fence. Helicopter … which we don’t have. Hang glider, which we also don’t have. Battering ram or explosives, which we don’t have; shovel … we have a couple of shovels.” She held up the one she had been using as a weapon.

  “There’s concrete footing surrounding the property. We can’t dig through that,” Solomon said, impressed with her train of thought.

  “How deep can that go? Four feet, six feet, maybe eight? I would dig eight feet to avoid zombies. All we need to do is get a couple of us in there, and the guard is toast.”

  “Yeah, the little prick deserves to die for putting us through this shit,” Solomon added.

  “We’re probably going to need him to explain the facility to us, Dean.”

  “Damn, you are smart. Why aren’t you leading us?”

  “I don’t know; something about me talking to a group of men vacates their brains of all intelligible thought.” Kodiak then smiled; the same one that always cost Dean an extra twenty at the end of the night.
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br />   “I guess there is that, isn’t there? Let’s keep the van thing working in hopes that it distracts boy wonder in there, and we’ll get some diggers on the far side … down where the fence comes close to the woods.”

  “Sounds good, boss,” she said with a smile that suddenly put their relationship on a level he never expected from a woman, let alone this woman.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ed and Cat

  Cat was heading back to a bunk after spending the last few hours up on a lift picking off zombies when she saw the man who was always with Lisa rush through the gate. He was out of breath and with two dogs who looked just as ragged.

  “Where is the lieutenant?” she asked.

  Skit recognized her and remembered that her dad was a cop that he knew pretty well from back in the real world. “Where is your dad?”

  “Dad? He’s over here—c’mon, I’ll take you to him.” She started leading the way, even before she finished the sentence.

  Cat stood back to the side and listened as Skit relayed the story of snipers and zombies being released. His friend needed help, but he couldn’t go back out there alone. He was so winded that he didn’t know if he could go back out there at all.

  Fifteen minutes later, Krupp made his way to the gate in the same garb he had salvaged from his storage locker the day before. The gear he could find in camp was sufficient, but his own gear was high end and customized to fit him. He snapped his fingers and Tonka, who Krupp had known while he was an active-duty officer, joined his side.

  “You stay here and get some rest, Skit. I need to move light, and you look as if you could use some food.”

  “Nope, comin’ with ya. I’m reloaded and had a sandwich, so I’m good to go. Besides, you need me to show you the way.”

  Krupp shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  He then looked beyond Skit and started shaking his head. “Nope. No way in hell are you coming with us. It’s dangerous out there,” he said to his daughter, who showed up fully loaded, carrying the .22 magnum that Lisa had given her and a couple of Glocks in holsters.