Cash had been right, though. As good a shot as Spade was, as much as we were able to keep moving forward, there seemed an endless stream of monsters converging. Simply an endless wave of them.
It felt hard not to run. Running seemed more natural. If we ran, there would be no way to stay in a tight group; no way for the encircling protection to work as well as it had been. Fighting the urge to sprint took willpower.
“Something’s on fire,” Dave said.
“I smell that,” Sues said. “I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”
“It’s behind us,” Spencer said. “A house or something. Forget about it. We’re going the opposite way. Keep moving.”
“I’m out,” Spade said. “Out.”
My heart and stomach swapped spots. I think my knees wobbled some. “Now what?”
“Me, too,” Pettenski said.
Spencer nodded. “We’re going to run. Launch grenades there, and there. And there.”
Spencer pointed to the front, left and right. At angles.
Spade threw the first grenade. It landed toward Lake Avenue, at the largest group of gathered zombies. Limbs flew when it exploded.
There was little time to take in the horror. We were running. I kept my arms behind me, holding onto Cash. Charlene and Allison were on either side.
More grenades detonated around us, the soldiers pulled pins and tossed more and more as we ran. It was an effective way to take out large numbers of zombies at once. But not all of them. Not nearly enough of them,
Over all, it did seem to be working. “Dave,” I said.
“We’re right behind you,” he said.
That was what I wanted to hear. We came to the Lake Avenue intersection. The O’Rourke Bridge was dead ahead.
“Fast zombies, sir,” Spade said. “I’ve got one left.”
“Pettenski?” Spencer said.
“One.”
We ran. They talked. Spencer used his radio. “Sergeant Vitale? Sergeant? This is Corporal Spencer.”
I just noticed the pod in his ear. I wasn’t going to be able to hear the second half of the conversation. I did not know where Spade spotted the zombies. Must be behind us, but I couldn’t look back, because I would trip. Cash and I would go down. I needed to pay attention to my footing--on reaching our destination.
The one thing that looked a little promising was that the bridge finally appeared clear.
“Throw them,” Spencer said.
I did not see where the last two grenades were launched, but I heard them explode. It was behind us.
“We’re out,” Spade said.
I ran as fast, and as hard as I could. Felt the burning in my lungs. Muscles around my stomach tightened. Squeezed. I wouldn’t be able to keep it up. Adrenaline only lasted so long. We’d been at it awhile, and I felt drained.
“Keep running, Daddy,” Cash said. I wondered if he heard my thoughts, or read my mind.
“We’re not stopping, not until we’re somewhere safe.”
Spencer said, “Pettenski! Pettenski, get back here!”
“Sir,” Spade said.
“No, we keep running.”
I had to look. I did not like being blind.
Pettenski had stopped on the bridge. He held a long knife in each hand. He was going to take them on alone. With knives.
“I can’t let him do this alone,” Spade said.
“We have orders. We need to get the civilians to the Coast Guard. You know that, Private First Class! Pettenski is buying us time to complete this mission. You will stay with us!” Spencer sounded as winded as I felt.
No one ran very fast right now. Pettenski earned all of our attention. You might call him crazy, a rebel, but to me, Pettenski was a hero. A martyr.
The first fast zombie reached Pettenski. He dropped down, swept its leg, and drove his blade into the back of its neck once it landed face down on the asphalt. Like a coiled spring, Pettenski shot back up to his feet in time to grab the arm of a second zombie. He drove the blade into its throat, and sliced.
Spade took off.
“Spade!” Spencer said.
When Spade didn’t stop, when he continued toward Pettenski, Spencer turned to us. “We’re moving. Now.”
“We have to help them,” Dave said.
“They are trained soldiers. They have combat experience. They can take care of themselves. Now move it!” Spencer pointed east. “Now!”
Spade yelled and then jumped into the fight. He kicked over a zombie, dropped a knee onto its back, lifted its head by its hair, and drew his blade across its throat.
My kids saw more than they needed. “Let’s go,” I said to Dave.
Dave took Sues by the hand.
Allison was crying. I bit my upper lip. There were no words.
Charlene was already following Corporal Spencer.
It didn’t feel right leaving two soldiers behind. Did not feel right at all.
Chapter Four
On the opposite end of the O’Rourke Bridge were more disabled vehicles. The hood was up revealing the engine compartment of an SUV. One of those small Italian cars was on its side, up on the sidewalk of the bridge. Others were smashed together.
When people inoculated with the vaccination changed into zombies, it happened fast enough. They actually change. How long the incubation period lasted, I had no idea. Like I’d said earlier, seemed like everyone changed on the same day, though, which, when you thought about it, didn’t make sense. None at all, but it still felt that way.
“Sergeant, we crossed the bridge. Headed down to the marina now.” Spencer waved with his arm. We were taking the Joy Lane footpath. “Yes, sir.”
The path led to Marina Drive. The river we’d just crossed, we now headed back toward. Sailboats and yachts filled parking spots in a large lot. The Genesee River emptied into Lake Ontario. It wasn’t an oddity, but was one several rivers that ran south to north. There was no mistaking it, as it was muddy brown, and smelly. Some of the larger boats still sat in slips.
“Coast Guard has a boat on the way to get us,” Spencer said.
Clouds filled the sky. There might be another storm. At the very least, it was going to rain.
Spencer yelled into his radio, “Spade. Pettenski. Let’s go. Let’s go!”
I wished I had heard if they answered. The Corporal gave no indication. We didn’t stop. “Are they coming?” I said.
“Keep going,” Spencer said.
“We can’t leave them. They’re right there,” Dave said, and pointed up at the bridge.
“Spade. Pettenski.” Spencer looked intently at Dave, as if he was attempting to say, I’m trying, I’m trying.
“We should go back for them,” I said.
“The boat’s coming.”
“It can wait,” Dave said. “Sues, you stay here.”
I told Allison the same thing. “Watch my kids.”
“I cannot let you go,” Spencer said. He had no ammo and no grenades, so the only way he could stop us was physically. I had no doubt he could do it, but would he try?
I heard the Coast Guard. The silence around us was shattered by the engine puttering in the river. “We’ll be fast,” I said.
“Daddy, no,” Cash said.
Charlene took his hand. “Hurry back,” she said.
Dave and I ran fast. I ignored the stitch in my side and pressed my hand against the pain. It was not going to slow me. The sound of that boat getting closer just screamed salvation.
“We don’t have any weapons,” Dave said.
I ignored him. We rounded the walk to the bridge and stopped.
Pettenski was down. Zombies were on top of him. They pulled and ripped at his flesh. Spade was about to throw creatures off his comrade. It would be useless at this point.
“Spade,” I shouted. “Spade!”
He wasn’t going to be able to save Pettenski.
Dave and I ran at them.
Spade looked at us, waved us away.
There were more z
ombies on the bridge. They took up four lanes, moving like a mob. Slow, sluggish, but deadly.
The milky white skin that glazed their eyes was almost too much to bear. You wanted to look away, close your own eyes and wish them gone, and wish the nightmare over.
“Come with us, Spade,” Dave said. “We can’t save Pettenski. We can’t.”
Spade kicked the head of a zombie with combat boots. Must have been steel-toe, because I heard the crunch from where we were.
“Let’s go,” I shouted. “Now!”
Spade looked torn. “Now, Spade. Now,” Dave said.
Perhaps sensing the uselessness, Spade left Pettenski. Pettenski was beyond healing, beyond mending. He was dead.
Spade ran at us with fast zombies chasing after him. Five, no, six of them. The creatures sprinted. Spade didn’t have a chance.
I ran toward Spade.
The man had been fighting for over five minutes, puncturing and annihilating a whole host of undead. He was raw, and worn out.
“Knife,” I yelled as I got close.
He tossed it; I caught it, and ran past him.
I drove the blade into the closest zombie. It went through the eyeball. The jagged blade sawed into the brain. I shoved my foot into its gut and pulled the knife free. I spun to my right, all the way around, and buried the blade into the throat of another.
Thick black blood oozed from the wound, coating my hand. The zombie pulled back. I lost my grip. The knife was still lodged in place.
The other four zombies were almost on me.
I lunged forward and used both hands to retrieve the weapon just as I was tackled.
It was on me. Up close. Its flesh was purple, and pasty. Those milky white eyeballs. Bits of human flesh wedged between teeth as its mouth opened wide. It looked as if its nose had been chewed off completely. Black gums, rancid breath, and a darting black tongue came at me.
I stabbed it over and over in the back and side, feeling the blade bounce across bone. It had to be doing damage inside, severing things and shredding others.
The zombie seemed unaffected.
It was all about the brain, the central nervous system. It truly was the only way to stop them. Only, I couldn’t get at its head.
Its hands wrapped around my throat. I fought with one arm to wriggle free, to no avail. It kept snapping teeth at me, jousting its head forward hard, but my forearm deflected the bites.
It was going to be the end. There were far too many zombies on the bridge. Even if I managed to get away from this one, it would be only a fraction of a second before…
Bullets rang out. A lot of them. A machinegun was being fired.
The zombie on me was pulled off and tossed aside.
Dave huffed and puffed. He was covered in dark blood. He jumped onto the zombie’s skull with both feet as I slowly sat up and pushed my way up to stand. That skull shattered. Brain matter squished out from every orifice.
A Humvee was on the bridge, cleaning house.
The gunner on top reminded me of Han Solo in the gun pit of the Millennium Falcon. The cavalry arrived.
Dave grabbed my arm, turned me. Spade was down by Joy Lane. We raced toward him. My heart hammered inside my chest. Rolling tears felt cold against my skin. I thought it had been over; my kids would have been orphaned.
Spade waved toward the Humvee, and let out a whoop.
We rounded Joy and cut to Mariana Drive.
I saw the Coast Guard boat docking. My kids ran for it. They didn’t yet see me. They didn’t look back. Zombies closed in on them.
Chapter Five
Spade reached the zombies headed for the Coast Guard first, just as shots sounded. The zombies dropped one by one. None made it to the vessel. None able to harm my kids, Allison, or Sues.
Spencer was on the boat, pulling them in. The river current bounced the vessel up and down. Splashes from the wake crashed over the dock.
We jumped over fallen zombies, ignoring the headshots; the thick black blood oozing from bullet hole sized shattered skulls.
“Second Humvee is up there,” Spade said. Spencer nodded. He turned and said something to a crewman.
The revving engine of the Humvee came from behind. As I set a shoe onto the craft, and as Spencer offered down a hand to hoist me up and over, I looked back. Once safely on the ship, I watched.
All the noise. Boats, Humvees, machine guns . . . zombies came from everywhere. Looking up, I saw still more on the bridge. Several climbed over the side and fell lifeless into the river. They wanted us to the point of plunging to a most certain death? They just kept . . . you couldn’t say jumped. It was clearly falling. They hated rain, but would water kill them? Could they swim?
I couldn’t look away. What started as a few, turned into several, and the further from the bridge we were, the more that went over. It was a wave of infected humans. They plunged into the icy river. It was both a sad and terrifying sight; one that was burned into my mind, a memory I would not be able to lose no matter how hard I tried.
The gunner up top on the Humvee climbed down and opened the back door. A soldier, two guys and a female got out. They looked like we must have just over an hour ago. Terrified. Wide-eyed. Breathless.
The driver and passenger in the military vehicle used their rifles to decimate zombies. None as accurate as Spade, but they killed creatures like there was no tomorrow. In our case, that might not be far from the truth.
There were seven of them, four military and what looked like three civilians, and they all ran for the small Coast Guard vessel. Allison stood next to me, and Cash was holding her hand. The two seemed to have bonded. Charlene stood in front of me, made a twitching motion, like if I didn’t have a hand on her shoulder, she might jump off the boat and run to assist in an attempt to help them reach us more quickly.
“Marfione,” Spade said. “Where are the others?”
“They didn’t make it,” Marfione said. “We didn’t get a radio transmission, but we found the Humvee. The bodies. Wasn’t zombies. Someone opened fire on them. It was a massacre. Must have caught them off guard. I don’t know what happened there. No idea.”
The civilians climbed onto the vessel first. Allison and I assisted as much as we could. I didn’t want to be in the way. Standing around and watching ate at my nerves. All I kept thinking about was Josh, Dave’s brother. He’d not been killed by zombies, but by someone with a rifle. Shot and killed for no good reason. It had been senseless. Violent and senseless. I wondered if the same person or group that had killed him was responsible for the attack on the third Humvee? Now was not the time.
When all four military personnel from the second Humvee were on board, Spencer shouted something to the crewman at the helm. The craft bounced and bobbed away from the dock just as a handful of zombies reached the slip.
A crewman with a gun took a few headshots. It didn’t deter them. They didn’t back away, or run off. At this point, it didn’t matter. We were in the water, moving north with the current of the Genesee.
I watched the bridge. All of the zombies pressed against the chest high wall had arms stretched out reaching for us. Fingers wiggled in jerky movements. Then they would be up on the wall and falling over. The splashes were big, but silent. The whine ringing from the Coast Guard’s engine drowned out any other sound.
Then I felt it. The sense washed over me. It was the first time in days, weeks, maybe. A total sense of relief. With help from friends, I’d found and rescued my kids and now . . . was it finally safe to feel safe? The military was evacuating us from the area, bound to take us somewhere secure and protected. Life might not ever be the same, but all that kept running through my mind was that we’d made it.
We’d survived.
I knew I was smiling.
Dave looked at me, cocked his head to one side and was smiling, too. We shook hands. A quick hug.
“We’re going to be all right,” he said. “We’re going to be just fine.”
The tears shed felt bittersw
eet. Our journey cost lives. People, friends really, that won’t ever be forgotten. Ever. “Thank you, Dave, for everything.”
Cash latched onto my leg. I’m sure my flood of emotions confused him. I knelt down.
“Where are they going to take us?” he said.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, yet, but somewhere safe, you can be sure of that. We’re going to someplace away from all of these monsters.”
He bit his lower lip as if he was digesting my words. When he nodded and smiled, I realized it had finally sunk in for him, too.
When I stood up, Charlene took my hand. I loved it. I was surrounded by the people who meant the most to me.
“Come here,” I said to Allison. She was not to be left out. She was family.
Sues was silent, though, and looking past me.
I turned to see what held her attention. The three other civilians were huddled close, whispering. Maybe having a similar conversation. The two guys sat on either side of the female. They all sat bent forward with elbows on their knees.
The talking stopped when a female with the Coast Guard knelt between them. She set a medical bag down and opened it up. One of the guys, the white one, rolled up his sleeve. He did it slowly. The black guy in the group watched me.
I saw a bloody forearm and raw meat from a gaping, jagged gash.
The black guy and I locked eyes. He nodded. It was slight. Looked like a way to say, thank you for your concern, but we’re good here. Move along. There’s nothing more to see.
I turned away. Wasn’t my business.
Carrying blankets, Marfione walked past us. He handed them out. The black guy wrapped one around the woman’s shoulders, the white guy’s shoulders, and then did the same with the third for himself.
“You guys want some?” Marfione said. He talked to me. I noticed what was happening. I was addressed, because I was assumed to be in charge of my group of people. I hoped I was wrong, because I didn’t want it to be that way. Shouldn’t be that way. Just like with Dave and Josh--we’d all bond. Eventually.
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