Zombie Rush

by Joseph Hansen

  “Where are you going to be in case we need you?” Leon asked.

  “I’m going to clear the hospital.”

  “Alone?” Bryan exclaimed. “I mean… don’t you want us to go with you?”

  “Hell, no; I have Tonka with me and we are going to recruit the Knights Templar over yonder,” she said with more than a little sarcasm.

  “Oh heck ya,” Leon exclaimed. “The local SCA chapter; you know some of those guys have their mail and weapons custom made from stainless steel? It’s a lot better than the stuff from back in the day.”

  “Gotta go, gentlemen; we have lots of work to do and I want to meet back here in one hour so move out.”

  The Dojo Springs boys moved out with a smile and soon acquired a large group of followers as they approached the Longhorn Steak house with their customized spear-type weapons. The long, thin, pick-like blade and the weighted ball at the opposite end caused her to wonder if they knew this zombie thing was actually going to happen. They claimed to have more, but their dojo was deep inside enemy territory now.

  Lisa walked directly over to the group dressed in medieval battle regalia, complete with white shawl-covered breastplates with various insignia. The brilliant-white one with a red cross covering its length stood out to her as a potential representative, so she stopped directly in front of him. Tonka stopped a little farther back and ten feet off to her right side, where he could watch the entire group. She looked at the dog for just a moment, marveling at him being the best cop she had ever worked with. No discussion or even opinion, he just responded to every situation perfectly.

  “Hello! Welcome to my nightmare,” she said, trying to put a light spin upon their situation. Several responded with milady in phony old English accents, but the man she approached was all modern-day salesman.

  “Hi, how are ya? I’m Bud Johnson, but call me Butch if you want to get my attention. What can I do for you today?”

  “Uhhh, help me clear the hospital, if you will,” she replied, a little put off by the man’s casual nature, and she just didn’t like salesmen.

  “We were thinking that the army would probably be doing that when they get here,” he replied in a nervous tone. She heard a sword slide slightly out of a sheath, causing Tonka to take stance and square off with a growl at one man in particular. The rest of the group just looked scared, which was completely opposite of what she expected. These people play fight on weekends yet now they were loathe to…

  “You guys are all a bunch of wusses,” said the man who had attracted Tonka’s attention. He slid his sword back into its scabbard and stepped forth, literally shoving Butch out of the way. “No wonder why you always lose.”

  “Yeah, well look who has survived this long,” a snide female voice shouted out. “My people would have already cleared this site.”

  “Your people didn’t survive… we did.” Butch jabbed then turned to Lisa and said, “Don’t mind them; they mainly come to the events in costume and don’t really do much of the fighting. Me and Amber over there are another story. I’m Tyrell Washington.”

  “Well, you’re all going to have to fight today, so get your game face on,” she said, spurring several indignant looks. It was evident that these people were not fighters and their skills were more suited to an arcade than a battlefield. Sadly, she couldn’t take that into consideration. They had melee weapons and that was what she needed.

  “Here are your options, fight with me or give your weapons to someone who will fight with me and the rest of you are assigned to other tasks or take your toys and share them with the zombies outside the gates. The world has changed and one of the biggest changes is everything in the city belongs to the city and I am the administrator. You have until I get to the hospital to decide. Follow me,” Lisa said.

  She didn’t have time for discussion. She started walking, ignoring the group’s protests and whining as a whole. Tyrell and Amber followed instantly; the potential for real conflict was an opportunity these two could not ignore. Several others followed shortly after leaving only two that Tonka had to nip at to get moving. They actually thought that they had a choice, Lisa smiled inwardly. With her, everyone had a choice; with Tonka… not so much.

  The hospital was quite a distance from the main focus but it was critical to their survival. She signaled to several others who looked capable; some of those from the walk from the radio station also followed along, giving them a good mix of close to forty people. She suddenly noticed that everybody seemed focused on her and her whereabouts as if they were waiting for her to make a move or set some sort of precedent.

  She set up some shooters with her behind the hospital because they hadn’t gotten that area completely blocked off with storage containers or semi-trailers, although every couple of minutes another trailer would be set. She could see several front-end loaders with cabs and skid loaders keeping the majority of the zombies at bay so the others could work. There was also a group of people taking out any other stragglers that might get by the machines, but she knew that still it wouldn’t be enough. Once the Zs on the beach heard the commotion, they would be heading right for them and that mass would take more than just excavating equipment to hold back. They needed this wall up and they needed it quickly. She wished they had talked to her before laying it all out. There were still hundreds of feet to go as opposed to the little parking lot she had planned on. She watched a line of semis coming in the compound all with the same intent. They would drive right in, drop their trailer, and haul out to pick up something else. All they could do was pray that they got it plugged up in time.

  Her group crossed Higdon Ferry Road and into the back parking lot of the hospital. The building kept getting bigger and bigger as she approached, and she knew that this was going to be a much larger job than she had initially thought. The only idea that prompted her forward was the fact that now the lights were on and there was no telling when they would go out. Lisa had no desire to clear a building even if it was early evening so it was best to do it while you still had electricity.

  She had an overwhelming feeling of foreboding that she forced down when she looked up at some of the lit rooms and saw people waving at them and trying to get their attention. She waved back and tried to signal with her hands that they should stay put. They rounded the corner of the hospital with over thirty in her group, all armed with guns, baseball bats, and swords. Tyrell was carrying something that she thought was called a “halberd” and his partner, Amber, carried a battle mace as they advanced on several zombies stumbling about in front of the entrance.

  Lisa wasn’t surprised that none of them were runners; she figured that the runners would be out on the prowl hunting instead of waiting for something to fall into their lap. A couple of the other SCA players joined them and they soon cleared the front entry to the building.

  Lisa stopped and turned to face the group of mish-mashed warriors, wondering who should do what. She regretted not keeping some of the familiars with her and settled on Tyrell since she at least knew his name.

  “Okay people, we have to clear this hospital of dead. There are bound to be patients and staff who are healthy and we need them; however, there might be infected too. Butch is going to stay in the lobby with a few who are going to check the survivors for bites and direct people outside. I need you, you, you, you, and you to stay with him.” She picked older people, as the rest might have to deal with stairs. “Okay, then I need this half of the group to get with Tyrell here; you’re going to start in the basement and work your way up floor by floor. I’m going to take my group up to the top floor and work our way down. Try not to use your guns, use clubs and spears instead, we have a lot of valuable things in here that we don’t want damaged and we don’t want bullets hitting healthy people on the other side of the wall. If you don’t have a club or some type of melee weapon, you’ll have to find something to modify into one as we move along. Closet rods, hammers, and coat racks are all good options, just try to leave the building in one pi
ece. I don’t know what we’ll find in here and I don’t know how good of fighters you are, but you were smart enough to make it this far, so let’s see if we can use those wits a little while longer,” she finished. She thought about asking if there were questions, but then decided against it for time reasons.

  ****

  Ally’s body continued to shake from the sobbing that started after their near death in the fishing village. She didn’t cry for herself or their current situation. The young, resilient girl mourned the loss of her father who was killed as a zombie while his house burned. She cried because she practically lost the woman who killed her infected father and was now her only lifeline to reality. Elise was silently paddling in the stern with her two-by-four as Ally lamented over her mother.

  Movement out on the lake caught Ally’s tear-filled eyes. She looked up and saw a boat moving slowly in an ever-widening circle. It moved slowly but was way too fast to catch up to.

  “We have to catch that boat,” Elise said from behind her.

  “Are you nuts? It’s moving way too fast,” Ally argued.

  “We don’t have a choice, Ally; it’s over twenty miles of open water just to get to the dam. It will take days to get that far with only a board as a paddle and weapon. We have no idea what’s on that boat, it could be food or weapons or… who knows what. But we do know it will get us to the dam in less than an hour. We don’t have a choice so start thinking on how you’re going to make the jump.”

  Ally wanted to argue but she couldn’t; Elise was right, they couldn’t stay here in a canoe with nothing. She looked at the boat moving in an ever-widening circle. Then she looked at the eight-foot rope that seemed permanently attached to the bow of the canoe.

  “Just get us close so that it comes alongside of us.”

  Ally saw Elise struggling with the board, trying to get the canoe into position. The boat looped over ten feet away and Elise grunted to get them close enough for the next go round. She held the rope in her hand, forming a loop as she waited. The speedboat looked like one that sportsmen use in the area with a flatter top and lots of compartments. It was about three-quarters of its way through the circuit when they realized that they had misjudged. The boat came around with its keel pointed straight toward the broadside center of the canoe.

  Ally heard Elise working her board frantically, but without a real paddle there wasn’t much she could do. They both drew back in fear of what was coming when a stray thought entered Ally’s head. This was what they wanted. They wanted the boat to get close enough to catch it and now that it was coming right at them, they were going to shy away and end up in the water without even a canoe. She couldn’t let that happen, too much had already victimized the two of them so letting an abandoned boat finish them off was out of the question. She pulled her legs under her and waited. The boat bore down upon them, seeming to gain speed but Ally knew that was simply her imagination. She focused upon a smaller motor that sat crosswise on the bow and hoped it was mounted solidly enough to hold her weight.

  When it was ten feet away, she knew that she had to lunge before impact or it would throw her leap off. Five feet… two feet… she lunged, causing many things to happen at once. The weight of her feet pushed the bow of the canoe down, taking power away from her spring. The direction pushed the bow away from the oncoming boat in a swinging pattern that made Elise in the back as a pivot point. This caused Ally’s gallant leap for life look like a flop and her hand hit hard on the bow beneath the small plastic motor and down in the water.

  One minute she was looking at how she could roll over the edge and into a dry boat, the next she was under water, wondering which way she had to swim in order to avoid the propeller. A bump on her head and the water turning red with blood told her that she had chosen wrong.

  She floated with her face down in the water, barely able to keep from opening her mouth and drawing water into her lungs. It didn’t matter now though; the canoe and Elise were probably gone, and she was bleeding out. She could feel the warmth of her own blood as it surrounded her head.

  Suddenly, a hand grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her to the side of the boat. She heard a woman’s voice screaming her name. Her face was pulled out of the water and she opened her eyes to see Elise looking down at her screaming Ally! Ally!

  She took in oxygen and noticed how it tasted of water and fish, being so close to the surface. An underlying scent of something she had smelled enough of today leached through to overrule everything: death. The lake smelled of death, and there were dead in the lake. She panicked and righted herself, not caring that any dead in the lake were far to the north where they left them at the burning fishing village. She pulled out of Elise’s grasp, latched on to the swimming ladder, and pulled herself onboard.

  “Oh honey, let me look at that.”

  “How did you get onboard?” Ally asked as Elise took a look at the propeller wound on the top of Ally’s head.

  “When you jumped, you swung the bow out and me right next to the driver’s seat; I was able to reach over and throw the boat in neutral. Hey, you were pretty graceful on that leap,” she finished with gentle sarcasm.

  “Yeah, it was a little trickier than I thought.”

  “Yeah, kind of hard to practice that one,” Elise said as she searched the console on the driver’s side before finding a first aid kit in the passenger glove box. Limited on gauze for a head wound, but there was enough disinfectant, tape, and super glue to make up for it.

  “Do you know what you are doing?”

  “For the most part; I’ve taken care of enough drunken head and face wounds to know how to keep you out of the hospital, at least for a while anyway. I’m going to have to cut your hair though and this peroxide might leave a light spot.”

  “Whatever,” Ally shrugged. “Who is he?” She asked as she indicated a man’s body lying on the floor with a knife sticking out from the bottom of his chin.

  “The scene kind of tells the story, doesn’t it? Two get on the boat, one is bitten. The one that is bitten gets killed but not before biting the other, who then falls or jumps into the water and loses the boat. Too bad for them but lucky for us, and we even get a knife in the deal… well, after we yank it out of his head, that is,” Elise finished as she dried Ally’s scalp then squirted some of the super glue in the wound before she pinched it tight.

  “As soon as I am done holding this, I’ll toss him over while you stay still. It’s only about a two-inch cut, but it is kind of deep. Not bone deep, but it’s going to want to bleed some more—especially if you start moving around.” She let go of the wound and without Novocain or any numbing agents, Ally could tell that it had stayed together. The wound began to throb, keeping pace with her heart as she watched Elise half-drag half-push the zombie to the edge where she could simply roll him over the side.

  A half hour later found the two sitting on a hillside overlooking the waters below the dam, marveling at how many boats were parked there. Judging by constant stream of people in and out of the port-a-potties, the public area appeared to be held by the living. Boats parked on the up and down sides of the dam left Ally wondering how long they could sustain themselves there. Probably for quite some time if the zombies never found them.

  “So what’s the plan?” Ally asked.

  “Well, we can hang out here or we trade for a ride down to Hot Springs.”

  “Trade? What have we got to trade?” she asked. Elise smiled and opened her hand, showing the keys to the boat that they had acquired.

  “What about the canoe? We still have that and with the paddles on board, we should be able to make it down there pretty quickly,” Ally said.

  “No, it’s still twenty-five miles to Hot Springs… maybe more on water. The only trail we could maneuver it down goes right next to that electrical plant on the other side. It looks deserted but you can never be sure.”

  “Okay, I’m too tired to fight about it, and I don’t want to lug a canoe down the hill so let’s do
it your way,” Ally said.

  She searched for more that they could use from the boat and was disappointed when there wasn’t any food. They basically salvaged a knife out of a zombie’s skull, a small first aid kit, and a multi tool that was tucked in next to the first aid kit. It was a fishing boat but it was strangely devoid of gear, so Ally figured they left in a hurry and didn’t have time to load their tackle.

  They waved at several of the boats out in the river, all of which seemed to ignore them except one small cabin cruiser that was one of the farthest away from them. It slowly moved toward them through the field of boats, creating an ominous feel to the approach.

  “How are you ladies doing?” said a man in his early twenties. He was wearing a t-shirt with cut-off sleeves that exposed long, tanned arms. He was handsome and polite, but there was something behind his smile that sent up flags in Ally and she reached out and grabbed Elise’s arm.

  “Oh no, thanks for coming over but I was trying to signal some of my friends out there,” Elise said, having also picked up on something from the man.

  “Well, hop on board and I will slide you out there,” he said with a little motion of his hips when he said slide. He was obviously wasn’t thinking about helping two women out of a jam as much as he was thinking about helping himself into something much warmer.

  “Ah, no thanks; they’ll see us soon enough,” Elise replied and couldn’t help but show surprise when another man suddenly appeared at the bow.

  “I highly recommend that you take Jed here up on his offer. You never know, it may come with benefits.” The man was older, probably in his forties, and balding. The teeth in his smarmy smile appeared as though they had been neglected for years and his t-shirt showed stains from more than just today.