It came from around the corner of the container fast and silent—not seen by anyone—and grabbed Benson’s arm, sinking its teeth into the sleeve of his tactical jacket. Danny reacted first and used his head like a battering ram to push the creature away from his dad. Lisa followed up with her baton, slamming it with adrenalin-fueled instinct. A sickening crack of a human skull splitting stored in her mind as the creature fell to the ground.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. We gotta move,” Lisa said as she looked at the infected not twenty-five yards from them on the other side of the containers, searching for their next meal. “Where do we meet up with the extortionist?”
“Where do you think?” Benson rolled his eyes and looked around the edge.
“What? Not the other side of the island. What the hell… why?”
“Hey, I was following you and we didn’t have many options at the time. Hell, we’re lucky to have made it this far. Danny, you have to stay very quiet, okay?” he said, and Danny nodded his head. “I am going to put you up top but you can’t jump up and down like you usually do, okay? You first, Krissy; keep him quiet.” When Benson finished, his daughter nodded her head as she lifted her foot into his clasped hands. Lisa slipped behind him to watch the crowd gravitating toward their side of the container. There was a padlock on the end door so she assumed it was used as a storage shed.
“Okay, it’s your turn,” Benson said as he held his hands out for Lisa to put her foot into.
“Then how are you getting up there? It’s too high to jump and I probably can’t lift you from up there.”
“I’m not going up; I am going to provide a distraction so you can lead them to Justin.”
“Oh no, you’re not going to saddle me with kids. No fucking way, boy!” Lisa replied trying to sound comical through the panic from her voice.
“You really have issues with kids, don’t you?” Benson said as he heard Danny just starting to struggle with his sister on top of the container.
“You better go; I’ll lead them down the beach while you take your kids. Don’t worry, I play hockey all winter long up in Connecticut; I’m in shape and can keep ahead of them.”
“Hockey?” Benson responded as he fit his foot into her clasped hands.
“Yeah, it is a sport you play when it gets cold,” Lisa said as she heaved him upward.
“I know what freaking hockey is,” Benson said as he looked down on her.
“Daddy, don’t swear,” she heard Danny say.
“I didn’t, buddy. Where will we find you?” Benson whispered from the top of the container.
“I don’t know, Art… I just don’t know,” was all she had time to say as the first Z came around the corner of the container. She backed up and slid her shotgun off of her back, although she knew she wouldn’t have time to fire. She shattered the extendable plastic stock on the head of the first and shoved him back into the horde. It gave her time to bring the shotgun to bear and fire pointblank into the face of the second before she took off running. She fired two more to the left, into the crowd, and three to the right just to get their attention then ran for the shoreline, hoping there were no runners in the group. She dropped the mag, which was now empty and slid shells from the bandoleer into the breach as she continued to run, easily outdistancing the horde.
Lisa stopped and turned on her pursuers. Sending one more for noise effect into the horde, she was able to see one drop and Benson and his kids on top of the container watching the area clean out around them. She also saw what looked to be several runners struggling through the mass of dead trying to get to the front so they could have first dibs on her. Having seen them before told her that she could not outrun them without a good, long head start. She replaced her spent round and turned to run before stopping in her tracks at the crowd of undead that had suddenly appeared amongst the houses in front of her. If she hadn’t stopped to shoot that last round, they would have appeared right as she was trying to make it through between the homes.
Again she found herself in a noose that was slowly tightening on her. A scream directed her attention to one of the runners, who had broken through the throng from behind and she fired wide in her haste. She backed up a couple steps and fired again, but the wasted time allowed a couple more runners to break from the slow-moving pack. Her situation was dire, and she could see Benson starting to line up a shot, but with his revolver, it would be too far to be effective. She waved him off then turned and ran, trying to put some distance between her and the runners, even though there was really nowhere to go. The area between the houses was filled with dead and the roads were completely shut off with the hordes seeming to be focused on her.
Lisa could see people hiding in their homes and peeking out through the drapes and there was still enough of a cop left in her that she couldn’t put any of them in danger. She saw a front door hanging ajar and she went for it, runners closing from both sides almost cutting her off. She sent two rounds right and three left as she spun before bursting through the opening, where she let fly the last two behind her back in hopes of stopping up the entry. It half-worked and the half that didn’t work fell on top of her; its teeth locking on her holster. Hoping the shard would be strong enough to get through the skull, she slammed the shattered butt of the Mossberg down on its head. It stopped moving but more were starting to clog the entrance to the house. Lisa scrambled to her feet and made for what she assumed was the kitchen.
“Fuck!” she shouted as she ran through the galley-style kitchen and into the dining room without seeing a patio or back door. Her other options were the hallway to the bedrooms and the stairs down to a door that she assumed was the garage. She didn’t remember a garage on the front of the home so she decided on the hallway. A bedroom door opened and a very large, half-naked man stepped into the hallway glaring at her. Lisa froze; the man took notice of her uniform and then the zombies filling the house and ran back into the room. Lisa didn’t take the time to pay him further attention and opted for the stairs instead.
She eyed the door at a landing halfway down and prayed that it led to an exit of some sort and not a closet. She felt hands brush the back of her shirt as she rapidly descended. She had to sidestep as a zombie fell over the railing and rolled past the landing down the second set of stairs. She grabbed the handle and jumped through the doorway, just barely getting it closed before several bodies piled into it. She practically fell over herself trying to get away from the door then put her hand on the hood of a car parked in the garage as she caught her breath, her eyes not leaving the door. She heard the large man screaming upstairs and felt bad that she led the zombies to him, but it was better him than her. She couldn’t help it; that was simply how she felt. She could try to justify it by saying that one glance told her the guy was scum—because it did—but the truth was she wasn’t ready to die and if his cries thinned the pursuit on her… so be it.
She took her last six shells out of the belt draped over her shoulder, marveling that it was still with her. The shattered butt of the Mossberg looked as if it was dead too but she knew it was good for at least the six shells she had left before it would become nothing more than a club. The only windows were on the garage door at the front and showed nothing but stumbling bodies gathering. She had no idea what lay beyond the rear entry, but she really didn’t have much choice; the banging from inside the house became more pronounced as the door itself seemed to be bulging at the seams. She quickly checked the car but saw no key in the ignition so with a sudden, yet still undecided resolve, she burst out the back door and into the virtually empty fenced yard of the town home. A six-foot high privacy fence surrounded the perimeter, leaving the yard empty other than a dog chained up in front of his house. By the way the grass was worn in a pattern with his lead, it looked as though he had been out there for a while—if not always.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before both decided the other wasn’t a threat. Though in a fenced yard, the dog was still
tethered and he was looking very anxious to be away. Lisa made for the back gate but then stopped. She wasn’t a kid person but she never had any issues with dogs, and his big brown eyes seemed to plead with her.
“Okay, but you better not be one of those pit bulls that’ll chew my face off or something,” she said as she untethered him while thinking that he might even create a distraction and give her a break. A crash from the garage and the sight of bodies falling and stumbling from the door sent her running for the back gate, the dog forgotten; at least it would have been forgotten if it wasn’t sticking right at her side. She quietly closed the gate behind and turned to find herself on a small path between the fence line and a thick hedgerow. The dog began to lead the way down the path—not in a panic or running wildly like Lisa expected, but cautiously and watchful instead.
Why the hell not? Running seems to get me nowhere except trapped, she thought. Following the dog—who looked to be some sort of hound—seemed right; it actually seemed better than right, it seemed smart. They walked for the length of two backyards when the hound froze in its tracks, nose forward, tail stiff… alerted to something.
She got up close and stood next to the dog, not seeing or hearing anything. Suddenly, the dog turned and quietly buried himself into the hedgerow then looked to Lisa as if she was nuts for just standing there. She followed suit and scrunched down as small as she could get, sitting right next to the hound who had become her guide. He sat straight and tall with his ears attuned to all sides.
The path was suddenly filled with legs slowly stumbling and limping by. It was as large as the horde that chased her into the house and they appeared to be searching.
She froze, as did her new companion, watching the procession. It was the whack of his tail on her back that told her he was making a move out the back of the hedgerow and onto the sidewalk that bordered another parking lot. Ever watchful, the hound moved silently across the lot and behind a metal shed before ducking behind a fence and into a large yard. She quickly followed, and just as more Zs came into view, she slid in and held her breath until she was sure that they hadn’t been seen. There was a scraping sound coming from inside the pole barn in the yard; a relentless aimless sound, which told her exactly what was in there, but the dog was persistent and started digging at the door.
“You’re on your own if you’re heading into a nest of these things,” Lisa whispered, but the hound just kept digging at the door. She could hear the scratching and moans coming from the other side and assumed there was only one inside, but again, there was no way to know for certain. She shouldered her Mossberg and pulled her baton; this was going have to be smooth, quick, and silent. She envisioned letting it come out and bashing its head in. But as she turned the knob on the door, her plan changed and she heaved the door in, knocking the zombie backwards and on to the ground then completed her plan by crushing its skull while it was prone on its back. She then quickly closed the door, shrouding them in darkness before throwing a slide bolt and securing it.
Lisa put her back to the door, trying to let her eyes adjust to the gloom. The hound was sniffing something small on the floor in the center of the room. Something about his stance forced Lisa to look at it, and she was horrified to find a puppy barely three weeks old with its midsection eaten. The tiny corpse was cold, but she was relieved to know that they at least didn’t change into zombies. Two more minute figures littered the floor, trailing in a line to a closed door that had a large, worn opening underneath more than large enough for a puppy to skirt through. She didn’t have to look at the other two, even though the hound acknowledged each one with a sniff and a lick.
Lisa made her way to the closed door, not really hearing anything but not hearing nothing either.
There was something going on behind that door, something powerful, something with the strength to change the world in its own subtle way and she thought she knew what it was. She reached her hand out slowly and turned the knob before slowly opening the door. A small heat lamp shined down on the picture-perfect scene of motherhood.
Three remaining puppies suckled upon the teats of a perfect-looking border collie who looked up at Lisa with bright shining eyes. The hound walked in and instantly sniffed noses with the collie and then started cleaning each pup in turn.
“Oh fuck, what the hell are we going to do now?”
****
The moaning and bodies thumping around down below told Ally that she was above the lobby. She tried to make her way toward what she guessed was the entrance; they had come through it many times in the past, but everything was different up here. There was a grate in the middle of the ceiling yet nothing stable like the top of a wall or ductwork to crawl on around it, but she needed to see what was down there.
She looked at the suspended ceiling that was hanging by thick wire attached to the main roof joists above. The track itself was flimsy and would by no means support her weight, but the wire looked more than strong enough and the main joists above offered a perfectly sized bar for her hands to clasp. It was a risk, but she had to find out what she was dealing with.
She started out hand over hand using the slim tracks as balance by just putting the slightest amount of weight on them. Her slight frame and athletic history was the only way she could keep going, but she found herself wishing that she had been in gymnastics instead of volleyball. For the first time in her life, being a little taller was working against her. Ally could feel the track start to bend every time she stepped too far away from a vertical suspension wire, but she found that she could stand where they attached to the tracking. Her arms and shoulders ached by the time she got to the plastic grid where she could look down into the room below, and what she saw made her want to throw up. What the doctor had done to her mother paled in comparison. Two people, face to face, gnawed the flesh off of what was obviously a human arm. She felt the bile starting to fill her mouth and she struggled to choke it back down. She must have dry heaved or gagged because both heads looked up in her direction. They must not have been able to see through the grate and both went back to their eating after a brief scan.
Ally angled her body to see more of the room and saw several more of the blank faces feasting on what she could only assume were human body parts. A closer look showed the lobby area covered in blackish-red fluids with chunks of meat and bone scattered about.
She hugged the wire tighter and closed her eyes as she tried to think things through. This was like that stupid TV show where that guy wakes up in a hospital full of zombies, yet worse because this was real and the zombies filled the floor beneath her.
Think, think, think, she screamed internally while struggling to push thoughts of her mother to the side. Okay, where am I compared to the exit? She leaned out and looked down into the lobby again and saw that she was on the opposite side of the building than where she needed to be. Somehow she needed to get the zombies over to this side of the lobby while she was over there… but how?
Looking around the space, she saw that it was lit only by the small amount of light leaking through the grate where she stood and the backs of the fluorescent light housings. She saw several types of wire, some of which must have been for electricity and a smaller one for… what? She didn’t know but what she did know was that if she held on to the plastic and never touched the wire itself, she shouldn’t get shocked when she tore it out.
If I could dangle something... Ally yanked on a piece of smaller wire and smiled when she felt it release from some unseen connection within the wall. She turned and did the same thing from the other direction before crawling way out on the duct system and as far away from her exit as she could. This was it, decision time and she needed to do it right, and fast. Her one advantage was that she only had to crawl along a small section of ducting before she reached the top of a wall that she could walk hunched over on and make pretty good time.
Ally dug through her mom’s purse and pulled out the can of mace and a ring of keys from her mom’s work. She tied a b
unch of tissues found in a side pocket, careful not to block the jingle sound from the keys. Tying the thin wire to the key ring and the heavy can of mace, she placed it on the far side of one of the pressed paper panels. She lifted the panel out and saw the zombies looking up at the hole after being attracted to the movement. She slipped the panel down through the hole and threw it at a zombie, hitting him in the head and leaving him totally unfazed. Then she screamed.
“Hey you stupid mother fuckers, I’m over here! Yeah, you, you dumb sonofabitches! Get your asses over here.” She kept yelling for a minute or two before crawling off the duct and on to the top of the wall, where she yanked on the wire, sending the small noisy projectile down into the room where it hug just inches beneath the ceiling tile. She stopped and jerked it sporadically as she made her way to what she thought was the exit.
Stationed above where she thought the door was, she struggled for a couple of seconds about how to go about the next step. She could cautiously pull out a tile and check below, but that might alert them the way it had just minutes before. Or, she could do a quick hang drop and hope there weren’t any there and that she didn’t twist an ankle. The latter plan won out. She gave the wire a couple more big jerks before she spun, grabbed the wall, and plunged through the pressed paper tile and down into the room below. She gave herself a mental pat on the back after seeing that all the zombies who now faced her were on the other side of the room. She turned to go out the door and felt her stomach drop as she saw more zombies trapped between the double entry vapor lock doors. She didn’t have to look to know that the sound now behind her was the previously distracted zombies bearing down on her. The door to the room where she had been was right next to her but she had locked it.
Shit!
Chapter Six:
Ernie
He didn’t know what to expect, but Ernie was primed and ready; the kid’s body was shaking with adrenaline as Tommy watched him from the side view mirror of Ernie’s truck. Even in his cell, Tommy had heard how well Ernie did on the range and was the unofficial shooter of the department. Now, however, they were in a situation where he would be shooting moving targets that wanted to eat him; Tommy hoped the kid’s skills would prevail over his nerves, but he doubted it.
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