Zombie Rush

  “Sit back down, Gunner; they’re going to come on board, trust me,” he said as he brandished a small handgun that had been tucked into the back of his pants.

  Ally shook her head. She knew that she shouldn’t have left the canoe and she knew that approaching strangers was not smart at any time, let alone now. She glared at him and wished that she had a gun so she could shoot him and his depraved smirk.

  “You fucking suck! Ya fuckin’ pervert,” Ally said as she walked back toward the canoe that was on the upside of the dam.

  “Hold it there, missy, or I am going to shoot you,” he said.

  Elise simply stood there, horrified by how the situation had panned out.

  “Go ahead, it’s not like I give a crap anymore,” Ally replied and kept walking. Walking and waiting for the bullet to tear through her flesh.

  “Is there something that I can help you with?” a new voice shouted from another boat that had quietly pulled in behind the stern of the cabin cruiser. A middle-aged man stood there with a rifle held loosely in his hand, waiting for a response from shore.

  Ally looked at the newly arrived man and instantly felt safer. Even from a distance, he reminded her of her uncle, Tanner, and she knew he wouldn’t put up with any shit.

  “That depends,” Ally shouted. “Are you a wannabe rapist too?” Her words and tone were sarcastic, but they sent the newly arrived man into instant action. His rifle flew up on to his shoulder as the pervert pulled his handgun around to point it at the newcomer.

  Chapter Twelve:

  Mercy, mercy

  Ernie met the two-car convoy as it entered the encampment, and he immediately went back to talk to Benson as he hopped out of the truck. A kid hung by his side like they were attached. Ernie had always been fond of Benson because of the air of mystery surrounding him. Nobody really knew much about him other than he had been a cop for about two years in Hot Springs. He was also the designated marksman trainer at the range and knew way too much about ordinance to be simply a cop for his whole life. Ernie felt a stab of jealousy at the kid hanging by his side, but the look on Benson’s face said that he wasn’t to be trifled with.

  “Where is the ammo, Ernie?” he said with a look that burned right through the young recruit, who didn’t waste a moment in telling him.

  “In my truck.” How did he know? wondered Ernie. Benson didn’t hold his gaze or look at him in some knowing way, but Ernie knew that there was something wrong. He watched him walk over to the Chrysler and lean in the window.

  “Malcolm, you’re with me… you too,” he said as he slapped the passenger’s side window. The door opened and for some reason Ernie couldn’t take his eyes from it. Who was it and why did Benson want him with him? A huge boot stepped out of the door, stabilizing itself on the concrete. Long black hair flashed around the door’s edge as whoever it was leaned out to get his other foot set, and when he stood, his head damn near topped out at seven feet.

  Ernie found himself staring into the cold, piercing eyes of Tommy. He thought Tommy had been killed on the bridge, yet there he was. He couldn’t hide from it or deny it to himself any longer; he turned his back on his friends and ran when they needed him, but it wasn’t until Tommy’s eyes confronted him that he even realized it himself. In his mind, he fought until he could no longer fight and ran when he was the last one not bitten—now he knew that wasn’t true.

  “We’re going to talk later, Ernie,” Benson said from off to his side. “Keep doing what you’re doing, but stay where I can find you.”

  He stepped in closer and grabbed the .357 from his holster. “Tommy needs to borrow this,” he said as he handed the gun to the giant man who was suddenly so close that Ernie could only focus on his chest.

  Ernie gradually looked up towards the giant’s face expecting him to be glaring at him, but he wasn’t. Instead, Tommy didn’t even acknowledge that he existed, forcing Ernie to sidestep as the giant Native American walked through where he stood.

  “No gun, Ernie, just keep doing what you are and you’ll be fine without one until I get back and we square up with the lieutenant.”

  Ernie nodded his head and backed into the crowd. He knew that he had fucked up in a big way, and he didn’t know what they would do about it.” He saw Benson lean over and talk to the boy who had arrived with him.

  ****

  “I need you to look after Danny and Krissy for me,” Benson said to Justin. The boy was still in shock over what he had seen and simply nodded his head. Benson knew that it was tough on the kid. Twenty-four hours ago he was worried about nothing more than his own existence. Then he saw his whole family wiped out and wasn’t even affected by it until a complete stranger sacrificed his own life for them. Benson could tell that had an impact on the boy and he hoped that he would come out of it okay.

  Benson, Tommy, and Malcolm headed toward Dick’s Sporting Goods, which had yet to be cleared. He was amazed at the amount of work completed in such a short time but knew that the hordes were coming off the beaches in droves, and unless they could be stopped, they all would suffer the consequences. They needed to clear the buildings a.s.a.p. and then get on the walls.

  “Excuse me, officer,” a man said from behind, stopping Benson. The group as a whole turned to face the person who spoke. It was an older man who walked with another man who looked as if they could be related.

  “Kind of busy right now, sir, can this wait?”

  “Yeah, we all are but no, this can’t wait. I was put in charge by Lieutenant Reynolds to fortify the walls surrounding the lot but I could really use some military personnel or at least those with knowledge of certain procedures,” said the older man, struggling to be polite. Benson could tell that this was a man who was used to being in charge.

  “Look, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think that there is going to be enough time, mister. The zombies have left the beach and are less than an hour behind us right now.”

  “That is important data, Officer. Brett call that in to Sam on the radio, phone service is beginning to get sketchy.” He turned back to Benson. “We were ready for that one, most of the streets through downtown are already blocked with weighted dumpsters and abandoned vehicles We’ve been holding off on the main arteries until Skitter and Buck get here.”

  “Skit and the other driver are back; they just brought us in. I don’t know if his name is Buck though.”

  “Buck is here? I need him up here with me; Brett, call that disco tech guy and tell him to send the trucks out.”

  “Disco tech guy?”

  “Yeah, he has three promo vans with speakers that will light up the night. He’s also equipped with flares and will draw the zombies off to several different parts of the city until we get set up completely. We don’t want them all hitting us at once.”

  “Oh,” Benson replied as he looked at the older man who had come up with so many plans that left him truly flabbergasted. “So what do you need from me, sir?”

  “Military help, help with strategy, shooters.”

  “I am on my way to procure more ammo from Dick’s Sporting Goods because we’re pretty lean on rounds. Over where Skit is, is an older man who came in with me; he said that he was ex-military but I don’t know what branch or to what extent. Shooters? I don’t know what to tell you other than we will have the three of us once I get my business taken care of.”

  “Oh, okay… then come find me when you are done. If you would, that is,” the man said as his eyes burrowed into his legal pad and he strode away into the night. Halfway to the sporting goods store, Benson heard loud thrash metal music starting to play off in the distance; he shook his head in amazement.

  ****

  Lisa stood next to the hospital doors with her baton in one hand and her sidearm in the other. The view of the lobby told her that her original plan simply wasn’t going to work. They needed many more trained people in order to completely clear out this building. There was simply too much building for the people that she had. The
only thing working in their favor was that not everybody in the building was infected. By tomorrow they might be though. There wasn’t a chance that she would simply stumble upon trained fighters who could work in concert with each other. It was going to be a mess but she had to trust that if they were willing then they might just be capable.

  She had no choice. She had to protect the rescuers as much as those who needed to be rescued. “Oh, where was Benson when she needed him?” She almost called for Ernie but decided against it.

  “Okay, change of plans,” she said as she turned around and faced the ragtag band of fighters with her. “We’re going to clear the lobby all the way to the back entrance first before we head into the wings. We stay together in a group and don’t let any zombies in behind us. Oh, and watch where your neighbor is, we don’t need to accidentally kill each other.” She finished just as her phone signaled that she had a new text message. She ignored it and entered the vapor lock between the doors. She could see stumblers out in the main lobby but right at the entrance it was clear. As she opened the second set of doors, she could hear many of the undead scratching and tearing at various doors that lined the lobby.

  “There are people in those rooms; we’ll clear those first,” she whispered and then signaled that Tyrell should take his group to the doors on the right side of the circular lobby area. One was a Dunn Brothers coffee shop and the other was labeled administrators.

  The group entered the lobby timidly. No one was willing to run away as their guts were telling them to do, but no one wanted to take the first step either. It was almost a blessing when the decision was taken out of their hands. The door opening was enough to draw all dead eyes on the group.

  “Okay, spread out and give yourself room to fight. You have to destroy their brain or they are going to eat you,” Lisa said, regretting her decision to get them involved, but she couldn’t do it herself.

  One of the men who had witnessed her shooting Norman after he was infected was suddenly wading through a crowd of zombies far out in front of the group. He swung his axe handle as if he was in the big leagues. She knew he couldn’t keep up that pace, but he was already too far away. His glasses flew off his face and his swings became more haphazard as he tried to spot his glasses on the floor. When the Zs crowded closer, a halberd plunged into the back of one of their skulls as Tyrell in full renaissance regalia came in from behind. Beneath his stroke came the other two who had watched Norman’s assisted suicide, one with a machete and the other with a baseball bat. The three attacked with a fervor that was reassuring to Lisa. She swung her police baton as she moved in the opposite direction then realized nobody other than a girl who was barely out of her teens had her back. The girl pushed and poked with a chunk of rebar. She couldn’t kill very well with it, but she was able to keep them back. Lisa was also having a hard time actually getting them to drop, even though she swung with all of her might. It dawned on her as the weight of zombies built up front of her that she was going to have to go against her own rule.

  She pulled the Glock from her holster and fired once, twice, and a third; zombies fell with brains spraying across the lobby from the backs of their heads. With them bunching this close, all she had to do was move and shoot and one would fall.

  The girl went to work on a smaller Z, bashing in its head with the rebar and bending the half-inch piece of soft steel into a complete U-shape, rendering it useless. A long buck knife appeared in her hand and was plunged up under the chin of another, pulling her to the ground as the knife lodged in the skull. She didn’t let go as she put one arm up to hold another off while manipulating her small tennis shoes onto each side of the dead zombie’s face to pull her knife free.

  Lisa tried to bring her gun around in time to help but she knew that she would be too slow. The one the girl held off with her left arm was leaning in to bite the small arm of the girl. This was turning into a disaster as the lobby filled up with more of the dead that were attracted to the commotion.

  A large black mouth with canine teeth was suddenly around the back of the zombie’s neck, dragging it backwards away from the girl and on to the floor; the girl’s knife came free. A custom-made stainless steel battle mace came over the top of the young girl’s head as Amber took out another zombie that was lunging at the girl. Amber helped her up with a hand under her arm and pulled her behind her as she advanced with Lisa.

  Tonka came off the one he had dragged off the girl, leaving it crippled with a broken neck after his powerful jaws did what they were trained to do. He danced around the incoming Zs, causing a distraction and hamstringing whenever he got the opportunity. It lightened the press in front of Lisa, who had switched mags and was now actually taking time to aim. The girl who had fallen stepped up and slid her knife into the brain of the fallen zombie that Tonka had crippled in a latent act of revenge and Lisa smiled. These are the kind of people I need by my side in all of this.

  The group with her wasn’t trained and didn’t perform as a cohesive unit, but they had been running and hiding from these creatures all day long and now they had a chance to fight back. A few of the role players became effective as they wielded their custom-made weapons. It was obvious that they had trained themselves to a point and had just been leery about actually using them to kill. The array of what people used as weapons was startling; hammers, axes, and crowbars were to be expected, but the long metal stem from a floor lamp and the bloodied broken spike of an O-Cedar broom handle were a surprise. They didn’t have much, but what they did have they made count.

  Some of them saw Lisa using her semi-auto and carefully stood behind the group, thinning out the herd with carefully placed shots from their hunting rifles. Lisa felt a tug on the strap of her newly acquired .22 Magnum and let it slide into the young girl’s hands as she pulled the Rhino out from inside her coat.

  The noise slowly died down as the last of the zombies fell; unfortunately, three from their group—including one of the role players—had to be killed after having been bit. They knew their fates and cried at what was being done but all of them knew the end result if it wasn’t handled in this way. So they took their bullet with tears in their eyes and their heads held high, each one a grim reminder of Norman.

  She looked at the faces of those who followed her into the hospital and wondered if every battle was the thrill of victory versus the remorse of those lost. It was enough to make her hang her head and weep but she couldn’t, there was just too much to do yet.

  “Good job, people. Let’s check the rooms one at a time; boys on that side, girls with me,” Lisa said.

  She gave Amber a nod of appreciation as she put her arm around the shoulder of the teen who had backed her up and now had the .22 Magnum. “You shoot pretty good for a kid,” Lisa said as she passed more rounds to the girl.

  “Been shooting my whole life. My dad is a cop.”

  “A cop? Maybe I know him.”

  “You do, he goes by Krupp though his first name is John. He's mentioned you a couple of times; he doesn’t really like you though.” She paused, waiting for a reaction. When none came, she continued, “Don’t worry about it though; he doesn’t like me too much either… not since I started dating anyways.” She smiled and Lisa let out a little chuckle.

  “I was on patrol with him this morning but we got split up. I don’t know how he’s doing.”

  “Dad? He’s fine. I haven’t seen him, but I just can’t see him as being one of the first to drop. He had a prepper’s stash somewhere, probably trying to get that together. He’ll be fine,” she said without a hint of doubt in her tone.

  “I am sure that he will. Police, the lobby is safe,” she said to a locked door and heard a dead bolt turn. A small blonde head popped into view and she first thought that she was looking at a child but then saw the scrubs and eventually saw the nametag with the letters RN beside the name. “Hi Christine, are you ready to jump back into the world yet?” Lisa said with a smile.

  “Oh thank God, I thought we were going
to die in here,” Christine responded.

  “Not tonight, dear. Tell me something… has anybody in there been bit?”

  “Yes, but we treated it so it shouldn’t get infected.”

  “Step out of the room, Christine,” said Lisa, her tone suddenly cold and causing Christine to take a step back.

  “What, what is it?”

  “Just step out of the room. Who was bitten?”

  “Bud, he’s over on the cot lying down. He is in a little bit of shock and running a fever but that should pass.”

  “It is not going to pass, Christine, trust me. He’s infected and he has to be… is it just you and him in here?”

  “Yeah, I hope some of the others got away. They came at us so fast,” said Christine, her nerves perceptibly on edge. “We thought that they were patients; oh, we should have listened to what they said on the news feed.”

  “Yes, you should have; it might have saved Bud’s life. It appears there are a few who made it but you’re the first I’ve found. I’ll take care of Bud so you can get back to work.”

  “Work? My shift was over two hours ago.”

  “Those rules don’t apply anymore, Christine. Sorry, but this is a whole new ball game and nurses are coming in at a premium.”

  Bud didn’t even blink an eye as she pressed the barrel to his temple. Lisa couldn’t even tell if he was aware of what was happening, but it wouldn’t be long now. She could see it in the pastiness of his skin, the sagging, dark bags under hollowed eyes, and the appearance that his mouth was dry.

  She put her hand to his cheek and wondered if she could take the time to watch the process.

  His skin was ice, his heart slowing. When the change came, in an instant his skin heated up. Pores began seeping pus-like fluids as his body cooked itself from the inside. Eyes glazed over as everything that he was melted away and his mind became a blank slate with only one objective.