A woman broke free from the approaching horde on the island and ran toward them, screaming for help. Tommy could see bite marks all over her face and she looked to be holding a flap of flesh on her forearm that dripped with blood.
Her screams and horror had an effect on Ernie’s mind; his overzealous lust to shoot seemed to instantly deflate. Suddenly it dawned on the young man that these were people who got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. This wasn’t a video game or ducks at a carnival shooting booth; these were real people. It was a hard lesson for the boy to learn and not the best place to learn it, but it was happening nevertheless.
Tommy saw Tanner set his sights on the woman; she froze in her tracks, clearly not understanding why his rifle was centered on her forehead. He watched as Ernie took a step toward his boss in an attempt to stop him.
Tanner knew how and why the infection was spreading. Aware that the woman was a citizen he had sworn to protect and serve, he also knew that the best way to do that was to put a bullet right through her forehead. Tommy and Ernie both flinched as Tanner squeezed the trigger.
“Holy fuck!” Ernie exclaimed as the bullet passed through the woman’s head, dropping her onto the pavement.
“She was infected, Ernie; now pay attention to your front,” Tanner said. He noticed that Colleen hadn’t even reacted and was still intent on the targets crawling over the barricade of bodies and vehicles.
“I don’t think we are going to be able to hold them, Chief,” she said as the mass of bodies heading their way steadily grew.
“We don’t have to hold them if we can stay ahead of them, Colleen. Just shoot the runners that break through and we should be able to stay in front of the rest,” Tanner said just as a couple of runners skirted around an end and headed straight at Ernie.
Ernie sighted the first and pulled the trigger, sending a splash of blood out the back of its head. He put his sights to the second one and drew a bead, seeing for the first time the rage-filled, unfocused eyes that bore down on the young police recruit. He saw the creature’s desire to feed, the wanton lust for blood as it pressed itself to a greater speed, arms flailing to give itself just that much more speed. “Shoot it, Ernie!” Colleen shouted out as she adjusted to her target. She wondered what was holding up the kid who was so anxious to start shooting right from the get-go.
“Ernie!” Tommy shouted from the truck after hearing Colleen’s panicked shout.
The deep voice of the Ojibwa triggered something inside Ernie and he pulled the trigger, but his indecision altered his trajectory and the bullet ended up blowing off an ear as the creature continued forward. Colleen fired but her barrel was in mid swing at the moment and didn’t even graze the beast. Her second shot skimmed off the back of its head and she didn’t take a third because Ernie was too close. Instead, she ran toward him as Ernie pulled his rifle across his chest to keep the runner at bay. The zombie was much bigger and stronger than Ernie and easily swatted the rifle out of the way, knocking the skinny kid down in the process. Tanner couldn’t shoot because Colleen had put herself in the line of fire when she ran in Ernie’s direction.
Tommy wanted to leave the truck to help the kid but remembered his orders and resigned himself to simply watch the impending macabre destruction of the youth. Only thirty feet separated them, but it might as well have been a mile when he saw the infected had already taken the poor kid to the ground for its feast.
Automatic weapon fire suddenly ripped through the air; sprays of blood and chunks of skull flew from the head of the runner on top of Ernie. The twice-dead corpse collapsed on the skinny kid, covering his face and front with gore. The reservist who had saved him was next to him a moment later, pulling him out from underneath the body. Ernie quickly retrieved his rifle, looked the soldier in the eye, and nodded a thank you.
“Keep your head on, kid; they aren’t people anymore.”
“Yeah, I know… it’s just that I… I…”
“I know, believe me I know, but you gotta work through this quick or you’re going to get yourself and those around you killed,” he said and gave Ernie a slap on the shoulder before returning to his position in second line.
As he saw Tanner take down a runner and Colleen stand rock solid in the center with an eye on him, Ernie took up his position. He began to shake when he realized that they had lost some ground with his failures. He hoped he would regain the fortitude that gave him the courage he’d had just minutes before. He was too young and inexperienced to know that standing against these monsters as his knees shook and his bladder and bowels threatened to release was what courage truly was—not the egomaniac ranting of his earlier feelings. More flooded the barrier as scatterings of runners barged ahead. The group had fallen into a pattern of sending round after round down the street. Shots were sounding behind him, and the noticeable rumble of the giant bulldozers had come to a stop and everyone started screaming at once.
“The dozers are out; everyone line up behind the loaders. Watch the flanks! Get the van in behind the first one and the truck behind the second. Fill the truck bed with shooters!” Tommy felt what could only be construed as panic set in as the reserve leader started shouting out instructions. He looked at Colleen and saw her shooting nonstop, just as Ernie was struggling to do. He extended his view and saw Tanner doing the same until a zombie fell on him from the side.
“Chief!” Tommy shouted then left the truck to go help the man who had gotten him out of the cell.
“Get back in that truck!” Tanner yelled, but Tommy ignored him and continued at a sprint toward him.
Ernie was feeling the urgency overwhelming him and nobody seemed to be reacting quick enough. The horde seemed to just keep getting bigger and bigger no matter how many bullets were sent into their masses. When his butt hit the bumper of his truck, he could no longer resist the urge and ran around to the open driver’s door that Tommy had just vacated and hopped in. He threw it into gear and spun it around to pull up next to Colleen.
“Get in, get in!” he shouted as he looked in the mirror at the infected filling in behind the front-end loaders and into the space where the truck was. He tilted his rearview for a second and saw the last of the soldiers climbing into the cabs of the big equipment with the drivers, the cab-less D8s abandoned. He looked right and saw their leader, Jerry, pulled from his perch and swarmed by a mob of flesh eaters. It was time to run.
“Hurry, Colleen, we gotta go!” he shouted as he saw more latching onto Tanner even as the giant Tommy beat them back. “Tommy!” he shouted and got no response.
Colleen wanted to run and jump into the truck with Ernie, but the zombies were too close and the truck was too far away. She fired as she edged closer to the vehicle, wondering how their plan had collapsed so completely.
“Help me, Ernie,” she yelled, knowing that a couple of shots from him might make the difference. When she turned to look at him, he and the truck were gone—speeding off in the direction they had just come from, back toward the city and into the horde. Her jaw dropped as she realized she was just abandoned and was probably never going to get the chance to pay him back for running out on her.
Three rounds later and her carbine was empty. She dropped the mag and fumbled in her pouch, only to find it empty just as two of the slower moving zombies were virtually upon her.
“Tanner!” she screamed—not realizing he was already dead—as she dragged her Sig .40 out of its holster and took out the two closest, giving her a minute to look around. She was an island of life trapped within a sea of dead. Firing in all directions, she emptied her sig; it wasn’t enough, but allowed her the few seconds needed to drop the mag and slide in a fresh one. Tanner was gone, the military and their construction equipment… also gone. She thought she saw Tommy still struggling, but Ernie and his wonderful truck were nothing but a distant scene as he approached the wall of bodies off in the distance made by the reservists. A hand grabbed her left arm as dull teeth sank into her flesh, ripping more than cutting. Mo
re teeth sank into her thigh and shoulder. She still had at least nine rounds in the mag, but she knew that she would only fire one more. Her pain and the potential of un-death ended with that last round as all thoughts of extracting revenge from Ernie’s hide vanished with the top of her skull. Her hand never released the gun and would lie there long after her body decomposed.
Ernie didn’t think what he had just done was cowardice; he gave her the chance and she didn’t react fast enough—same with Tanner and Tommy. If he had waited, they all would have died.
He threw both aftermarket switches on his dash and with the increased engine rpms, the truck instantly swelled to beyond normal truck height. He drove through the mass of walkers, not even bothering to avoid them. There were way too many and he had to focus on getting enough momentum up to climb the mound he was approaching. He hit the wall of piled corpses at under forty mph but thought it would be fast enough. He didn’t expect the bodies to act like a mountain of mud, constantly trying to suck his tires down into the mulch of flesh and bones. He only made it halfway before he had to back up and roll down into the horde. He slammed it into gear and skirted a group, cringing when the windshield shattered from a body that flew up and over the hood.
He headed for the island, thinking there may be enough room to get around the semi blocking the bridge. At the last moment, he changed his mind and cranked it hard to the left, practically rolling the truck. The mound of bodies was lower there and he was able to get up and over onto the virtually clear highway. He drove a little farther until the road was completely clear, put the truck in park, and expelled his pent up anxieties with one long exhale.
For the first time, it struck him that he was alone. Deb, Colleen, Tanner, and Tommy were probably all dead; or worse… turned. He was tempted to look at himself in the mirror but couldn’t quite get himself to do so. In his mind, he was justified in his actions—it was about survival. That was all he did, survive, and he had no regrets about that. He didn’t realize that the look in Colleen’s eye and her cry for help would haunt him endlessly. He started up the truck and slowly headed back into the city, wondering where he should go or what he should do now. The city looked empty. Abandoned cars lined the streets, scattered aimlessly where they stopped, some still running. Ernie felt totally alone. With nowhere else to go, he headed in the direction of his apartment.
Tommy pulled away from Tanner as the third zombie latched on to the chief. He backed away and watched as Tanner put his revolver up to his head, turning to avoid the spray just as the shot rang out. Looking up, he saw Ernie driving away and headed for downtown, leaving Colleen alone. He wanted to run to and help Colleen but knew that he wasn’t going to make it in time.
After she reloaded her pistol, Colleen fired three out of the fresh magazine. She then saw the first of several zombies bite down upon her arm, rending through the sleeve of her lightweight jacket and into the flesh. She punched it in the face, forcing it off her arm, and finished it with two rounds to the head. The horde closed in on her from the front and was quickly swarming her. She fumbled with her gun, almost losing it, and then screamed as she felt the flesh being torn from her chest and thigh by flat teeth. She could sense her strength waning with each spurt from her femoral artery as she struggled to bring her semi-automatic up. Tommy screamed at her as she struggled through the mass of arms, legs, and torsos to jam the barrel up under her chin.
“No!” he shouted again, but she never even looked at him before the top of her head disappeared in a spray of gore. He didn’t know why he tried to stop her; she was bitten and there was no hope, but it seemed that was what he was supposed to do.
On the verge of hyperventilating over what he just saw happen to such a nice girl, Tommy stopped in his tracks. Of all the people he dealt with while in the holding cell, Colleen and Tanner were the only two who went out of their way to try to talk to him. Now he had seen both take their own lives in a desperate attempt to die on their own terms. He didn’t like it, couldn’t appreciate it, or even understand it, but he did respect it.
He turned and saw the SWAT van with Jen inside trying to keep up with the still moving heavy equipment, the bulldozers having been abandoned just as he had been. He danced away from the crowds that had overwhelmed the two downed officers and made a decision.
Having been raised on a reservation in Minnesota that didn’t approve of modern society and the sports that came with it, Tommy had never played American football but he did know how to throw his weight around. At six foot six with a thick stocky body, he was able to push most of the zombies away before they could gain purchase on him. With Ernie gone and the soldiers dead or disappeared, Tommy only had one option—dive over the side of the bridge. A space cleared and he ran, leaping far out into the air and managing to get his feet under him for the splashdown that was sure to come.
He splashed hard into the water yet maintained his senses enough to shorten his plunge, knowing there were dead in the water but not knowing how deep. He surfaced and instantly surveyed the scene around him. Zombies littered the shoreline on both sides and filled the pilings under the bridge, along every rock surrounding it. Tommy had no choice but to swim north, away from the bridge toward the 70 Bridge and whatever fate awaited him. He had spent a lot of time in the water and knew that he could go quite a ways upstream before he would have to rest.
****
Ally didn’t have time to think; she had committed to an action and had to react to whatever came, so she bolted for the only open door she could see and slammed it shut behind her, sealing herself within a toddler playroom. A miniature jungle gym made from large cast plastic with blinding colors, and plastic balls and rings of the same color littered the gray, tight-pile carpet. A slight tug on her legging caused her to jump up onto the plastic slide just as the first of the zombies from the main lobby slammed into the windows lining the wall into the main lobby. The room was dark below the windows, casting half of the floor in shadow, but she thought she could see something moving. It appeared to be trying to stand but something was stopping it, so it just wriggled its way across the floor. A child’s head broke into the light and it continued to struggle toward her as Ally was mesmerized by the scene.
It didn’t take long before a set of shoulders was visible, followed by the rest of the girl’s back as she wriggled forward. The bottom of her shirt was ragged and bloody, her legs… gone. Ally saw the lower part of her spine swirling in the air as she tried to reach her, but with nothing attached, it appeared to spin in the air like a one-bladed pinwheel.
A scuffle from behind grabbed Ally’s attention; she spun around only to see a young boy exposed in the light from the knees up, trapped within some kind of octagon hole designed for kids to crawl through. He had marks on his arms and face that looked as if he had been bitten, and when he moved in her direction, he dragged the whole toy land contraption with him.
“Ohhhh,” she whimpered. She collapsed to her knees and watched as the kid caught in the octagon struggled to get closer. She still hadn’t been able to completely stop the tears from wrapping her mother up. A fucking hospital sheet of all things. She had convinced herself earlier that she would come back and get her body for a proper burial when she found her dad, but she knew that wasn’t true. She would never be able to come back—if she was even able to get out to begin with.
The trapped child wiggled closer; one of its hands was restrained completely by the contraption it was trapped in while the other pulled itself along, both legs stuck up into the air behind it. Ally’s eyes were drawn down to her own hand as the thing’s hand slapped down right next to hers. She shuddered but didn’t pull away. The horror of her mother’s butchered body was etched in her mind and she knew it would be easier if she just let go and allowed this child to bite her. Just one bite was all it would take; that’s what all of the movies and stories said about zombies. One bite and it is over; all of the pain, the fear, the hate… all just gone. She watched as the hand seemed to rise in slow mo
tion before coming down upon hers.
The skin-on-skin contact was a shock. It was tepid and felt nothing like flesh and bone. This wasn’t a child; there was no warmth here, and yet, it wasn’t cold and clammy. It was stiff and hard with immobile joints lending a strength that surprised her. She tried to yank her hand away from the zombie, but it wouldn’t give an inch as it pulled her hand closer to its mouth.
Stale stench came from a breathless mouth as he leaned closer. Ally punched him in the head to keep his ivory from connecting with her skin, suddenly fearing what a bite would do. She punched again, and it still wouldn’t let go so she began pounding on his face, feeling the bone crumbling with her blows, the rage of her mother’s death spurring her on. When her hands got sore, she rose to her feet, kicking it time and time again. Her kicks were actually starting to have an effect on the zombie kid; it was slowing. Its arms went limp at its sides as its neck cocked oddly. She stood and looked at it for a moment until a hand from behind grabbed her ankle and pulled. A scream escaped as she turned to see the whipping spinal cord of the crawler who had been across the room. Her adrenaline rushed to new heights as she stomped on the creature’s head until it too stopped advancing. Their eyes moved and their jaws continued to open and close in rhythm with the moans from the zombies pressed against the toddler room windows and door.
Ally tried to calm her breathing as she looked at the dead stares of undead observers outside the room. There was no way she could take them on; there were just too many. She leaned back against the wall and wondered how long it would take for them to get to her. She brought her hand up to her ears and pulled the hair away from her face, her fingers getting tangled in the blinds behind her. The window… she spun and pulled the blind’s string, excited to see that the window was a slider. Relax, you have time, she told herself as she took stock of her situation.
Zombie Rush Page 9