Deadrise

by Steven R. Gardner

  Chapter 3

  Saturday, June 16, 2001

  Salt Lake City, UT

  9:04 AM

  They made it a few blocks east before they ran across their first major obstacle. It was a major 4-way intersection, and it was the scene of a large traffic jam. It appeared that they weren’t the only ones who had decided to get the hell out of town since the army had pulled back. The traffic was bumper to bumper, and if it was this bad down here, Zack could only imagine how bad it must be on the freeway.

  Both vehicles flipped U-turns and headed west, hoping to try for another freeway entrance. As they drove, they noticed the occasional car abandon in the middle of the road. The sounds of gunfire both far and near was a constant, and they noticed the number of zombies was growing steadily. In some places, there were already large numbers of them, wandering about aimlessly. As they drove west, they noticed five of the creatures had pulled down an elderly man and were in the process of devouring him. One zombie was chewing on his neck, another on one of his arms. The other three pulled his stomach apart and fought over the roping strands of his intestines. The old man still kicked feebly as a large pool of blood spread beneath him. Frank shielded David’s eyes from the carnage. The others turned away, horrified beyond speech.

  Ahead the traffic was jammed up for several blocks. Discouraged they turned around and pulled into the parking lot of a small fast food place. The blinds were pulled shut, and the parking lot was empty save for them. They parked side by side, so the passenger door of the truck and the drivers door of the station wagon were parallel with each other.

  “We’re going to have a hell of a time with that traffic.” Frank said. “It seems everybody had the same idea as us.”

  “What the hell should we do?” asked Matt. “We can’t go back to the house. More of Benny’s thugs might come looking for us.”

  “I really don’t feel like battling that traffic. My nerves are shot.”

  “We’ve got to find some place to hole up for the night.” Zack said. In the side view mirror he could see a school behind the fast food place, and a couple of zombies staggering about in the large parking lot.

  From the east, the sound of gunfire startled them all. They looked up to see a gun battle ensuing between the occupants of several cars stuck in the traffic.

  “Things are out of control. We have to get off the street.” Frank said.

  “We could go into that high school back there.” Zack pointed over his shoulder.

  “That’s where my kids went.”

  “I doubt the police would respond to any alarms.” Matt said.

  “Its worth a look.”

  “I can’t believe we’re going to hide in the school.” Susan muttered from the back seat of the station wagon.

  “Do you have any better ideas?” Frank asked.

  “Why can’t we just go back home?” asked David.

  “I told you, more of those gang bastards will be looking for us. I don’t want to shoot anyone else.”

  They gave the two zombies in the school parking lot a wide berth. The dead things slowly turned back around and began after them. The parking lot was huge, wrapping around to the other side of the school. In back of the school nearly a dozen cars were parked haphazardly, scattered about like children’s toys. A half dozen zombies were milling around back there as well. They saw that one of the back doors to the school was wide open, and a zombie was entering.

  There were already zombies in the school.

  They continued around toward the south side of the school and brought the vehicles to a halt near another set of double doors. The closest zombie was in the street out front of the school, easily fifty feet away. But it was not alone. There were several others just beyond it, and they all began their slow, plodding march towards the small band of refugees. Beyond them near the driving range, three school busses were parked neatly in a row.

  Zack quickly exited the truck, took aim at the nearest zombie and blasted a hole through its head.

  Frank was aiming at another zombie. One shot, one less zombie. Frank took one more parting shot, killing another zombie before turning to the back of the wagon. Matt pulled both Zack’s and his knapsack from the bed of the truck and slung them over his shoulder.

  The zombie’s drew ever nearer.

  Zack dropped three more before Matt was beside him. There were only two more, and he and Frank finished them off quickly.

  They gathered their things and piled into the school and Frank swung the door shut behind them.

  Matt and Zack immediately moved ahead, scanning the darkened hallway for zombies. The way ahead was cast in an eerie glow from the doors behind them, but this carried only a few meters. Beyond that, the hall way was pitch black. Occasionally, perhaps every one hundred feet, the darkness was splashed with pools of sunlight from open classroom doors located along the length of the building.

  “I can’t see shit.” Matt said.

  “Neither can I.” Zack said.

  Frank stepped up behind them, a flashlight in his hand. He activated it, casting a narrow lance of light through the darkness.

  “There’s a bomb shelter in this school. I know where it’s at.” David said excitedly.

  “Which way?” Matt asked. He walked beside Frank, rifle held ready to fire. It was taking all of his self-control to remain calm. The fight at the house had really tweaked him out. He was breathing quick and shallow, and his heart was pumping ninety miles an hour.

  Relax Matt. It’s nothing you can’t handle!

  He wished he could believe his own thoughts, but he was having a hard time coping with what had been happening. All the stress of the last several months had finally gotten to him and today had been the boiling point, where his brain and body had just about all they could take. He and Zack had both gotten less than ten hours of sleep in the last three days. He was exhausted both physically and mentally, yet so amped from adrenaline that he couldn’t relax. His body was running on overdrive now, easily his fourth or fifth wind. He wished only to find the bomb shelter and lock himself in so he could unwind and try to sleep.

  “What’s that?” Matt asked. David had told him where to go, but his mental exhaustion was so great that he hadn’t even registered it until several seconds later.

  “I said go straight until you come to a large hall branching to the right.” David repeated with a tone of adolescent condescension.

  “David.” Frank said sternly.

  They continued down the hallway, Frank’s flashlight sweeping across the darkness like a moat house beacon. They passed several classrooms. All the doors were locked and those with windows revealed rooms with empty desks and pulled shades, so only thin slivers of daylight seeped in through the edges. From out of the darkness came a hollow moan, echoing through the empty hallway.

  Matt felt his finger tightening on the trigger. “Where is that coming from?” He tracked the barrel of his rifle in an arc to cover the whole hallway. They heard a shuffle in the darkness, another moan, and Frank’s flashlight swept across a scarecrow figure with a powdery white face, drooping head, dangling arms, and puckering wounds in its chest cavity. Everyone gasped with shock.

  “There it-” began David, but the roar of Matt’s assault rifle cut him off…three quick shots into the zombies face. The blast of the rifle in the empty hallway was near deafening, filling all of their ears were with a sharp ringing. Frank swung the light around in time to catch a glimpse of the creature crumbling to the ground, the wall beside where it had stood was dripping with brains and blood and bits of skull.

  “Are there anymore?” Matt shouted. Matt and Frank stepped out to peer down the hallway. The thin flashlight beam probed the recesses of the nearest shadows… Nothing. But one hundred feet down the hallway, standing in front of two large double doors that led outside, were three zombies. And they were coming this way!

  “Plug your ears!” called Matt and took three careful shots, drilling all three zombies right between the ey
es.

  “We have to go down this hallway.” David said.

  “I knew you were going to say that.” Zack said.

  They hurried along, David providing directions. He led them through a storage room to a set of stairs that took them down to the schools boiler room. It was as dark and silent as a tomb. The only light was from the single flashlight. They huddled together as Frank swept the beam across the large room.

  “Right there!” Exclaimed David. The beam of light froze. There was another large steel doorway that David said led down to the bomb shelter. But the door was locked.

  “How the hell are we going to get in?” asked Matt.

  “Just shoot it open” said Frank.

  “Shoot it.” Matt said.

  “Everybody get back.” Zack said.

  They moved behind him as he backed away from the door. He aimed and fired three quick shots into the lock. His head was a hall of ringing bells. Zack moved up to the door and tugged on the handle. It swung open in his hand.

  “Lets go.”

  Matt took point down the long stairwell, which descended perhaps one hundred feet to another large metal door, which resembled an old naval pressure door with the wheel lock set in the center.

  It took the combined strength of Matt and Frank to crank the wheel unlocked. The door opened outward, and they stepped through into darkness. Frank fumbled about for a moment and found the switch and the room was bathed in light from the ceiling. They were in a room perhaps fifteen feet square, made entirely of cold, hard steel. Another pressure door was set in the middle of the floor. It was the only other way in or out. Zack was the last through the door, and when he pulled it closed behind him, it made a dull thud. He spun the wheel tight, and then pulled a lever locking mechanism that prevented anyone from opening the door on the outside.

  “At least we know nobody is down here.” Frank said.

  Zack opened the door set into the floor and saw a long, narrow metal shaft leading down. A thick steel ladder was set into one wall with small fluorescent tubes lighting the shaft. Frank went first, followed by Matt, David, Sharon, Susan, and finally Zack. He closed the door after him, spinning the wheel and setting the lock.

  Frank descended what he guessed to be another fifty feet before stepping off the ladder into a large empty darkness. He panned the flashlight around, the beam revealing little of the vast space. Frank turned the light to the nearest wall, finding a set of several light switches. He threw them all as Matt stepped off the ladder.

  The light’s came on to reveal a huge concrete room, 40’ x 100’. There were five large metal doors, two down each side, and one at the far end of the room. Hundreds of cardboard boxes with the red cross symbol were stacked in one corner of the room going all the way to the 20’ ceiling. Beside them were dozens of plastic, fifty-gallon barrels filled with clear liquid.

  “Look at that.” said Frank softly. As they walked the length of the room, they saw dozen’s of cases of toilet paper, blanket’s, first aid medicine, bandages, winter clothing, gloves, pillows and a dozen other assorted things.

  “Can you believe all of this stuff is down here? Untouched!” Matt exclaimed.

  Zack was digging into one of the crates. “Spam here.”

  David was rifling through another. “Chicken noodle soup.”

  “I bet those barrel’s are water.” Frank said.

  They checked the five metal doors, and they all opened into rooms half as large as the main room. All five were filled with small folding army cots.

  “I’ll be a son of a bitch,” laughed Frank. “This place is a gold mine.”

  “This place has to be as safe as anyplace else.” Matt said.

  “Safer.” replied Zack. He moved to one of the cots and lie across it, exhaling heavily. He could feel the exhaustion wash through him like a warm, heavy blanket, comforting and welcome. “I need sleep. Very badly.”

  “I think we all could use some rest.” Sharon said. “Lord knows how little we’ve slept these past few days.”

  They all lay aside what ever they were carrying, and stretched out, trying to get comfortable. Within minutes, Sharon, Susan, and David were asleep. Frank, Matt, and Zack still sat awake, talking.

  “I bet we could hold up here for several months without having to worry about those things.” Matt said.

  “Those things aren’t all we have to worry about.” Frank said. “You think my son was the only one who knew this shelter was here? We’re lucky as hell there was nobody here when we arrived. We can’t expect our luck to last.”

  “So you’re saying we should get out of here as soon as possible?” Zack asked.

  “No, not right away. We could survive in this place for months if we had to, but we have to know what’s going on outside. Besides, it would take us a week just to get on the freeway.”

  “And here’s something else to think about.” Zack said, “Say we do stay hidden here safely here for awhile. Things aren’t going to get better, they’ll get worse. Can you imagine how bad it’s going to be when we do eventually have to leave? There will be hundreds, maybe thousands of those creatures out there.”

  “I knew we should have gone with Kelly and Adam.” Matt said.

  “Like I said,” Frank began, “We don’t have to be in a big hurry to leave, but we shouldn’t plan on being here for more than a couple weeks. And since we are here, we better try and get a radio or a television down here so we can see what’s going on.”

  “They probably have that stuff down here.” Zack said. “I bet there’s a CB somewhere in here.”

  They set about exploring the shelter, and to their dismay found nothing even remotely like a television or a radio.

  “What the hell kind of bomb shelter is this?” exclaimed Matt. His stress and fatigue were beginning to wear him down.

  “Easy Matt.” chuckled Frank. “We can go up into the school later and get a radio. Right now we all could use some sleep.” Nobody made any objections about that. They all settled down onto their cots. Perhaps it was the quiet. Perhaps it was the knowledge that they were safer down here than they had been since things first broke down a few months ago. Whatever the reason, they were all sound asleep in mere minutes…

  Frank awoke suddenly, eyes snapping open in wide horror as the sands of some horrible dream were washed away with the tide of sleep. He sat up slowly. His body was stiff and sluggish. His rifle lay at his side, his left arm cradling it. Beside him Sharon stirred, but did not awaken. He was thirsty. Damn how a cold beer would go down right now. He got up and walked to the other side of the room, to the large stack of cardboard boxes filled with Civil Defense canned rations, and the barrels of distilled water, one of which they had tapped earlier. There was a tin cup, courtesy of the supplies down here in the bomb shelter, sitting on a crate. Frank dipped it into the top of the barrel and drank deeply. Once his thirst was slaked, he realized that he was hungry. With a shrug he tore into one of the boxes of canned spam.

  His rifling around in the boxes stirred everyone awake and they all shared in a breakfast of cold spam and room temperature water.

  “How long were we asleep?” Frank asked.

  “Almost six hours.” Matt replied.

  “That’s more than we’ve got in the past four days.” Zack muttered.

  “I could go for about six more.” Sharon said. They all nodded in silent agreement. Ever

  “But since we’re up we might as well go up into the school and find a radio.” Matt said.

  “Up above? In the school?” Sharon looked at them as if they were fools. “You can’t be serious. We barely made it down here with our lives earlier today. And now you want to run right back up there?” She looked to Frank for support, but his look told her that he wanted to go above as well. “FRANK?” she exclaimed, her look widening in surprise.

  “Sharon we need a radio. How else are we going to know what’s happening?”

  “But what about those…things?” Her face was cracking with fear at
the thought of him leaving her.

  “We have guns. Those creatures are slow. We can easily outrun them. If-”

  “No!” she said sharply, cutting him off. “You’re not going up there! You’re staying down here with your family!”

  “Sharon I-”

  “FRANK!” this time it was a scream. Everyone fell still. “Please, don’t leave us?” she was on the verge of tears.

  “I won’t.” he said softly, resigned. He turned to Zack and Matt. “Sorry guys but you’re going to have to do this one without me.” There was genuine regret in his eyes. He had been looking forward to going up and getting a look.

  “No problem.” Zack said, clapping him on the shoulder.

  “Are you sure you two can handle it? Maybe you should wait awhile?”

  “We’ll be fine.” Matt said.

  “I can go.” David said.

  “You’ll do no such thing!” Sharon bolted right back. “You are going to stay down here!”

  “They’re going to need help.” David retorted. “I can do it.” David looked to his father. “Dad? You know they could use the extra hand up there. I know how to handle myself. You know that dad.”

  “No!” his mother said again. “I don’t want any argument. You and your father are staying here!”

  “Sharon!” Frank’s voice was stern. “If we are going to survive we are going to have to contribute to the effort!” She remained silent. “Matt and Zack had the decency to ask us to come with them. Without them, that bastard Benny and his gang buddies would’ve killed us, or we would have been swarmed by those creatures in the house. But they helped us to escape. We have to contribute our part. We owe them that much at least. If you insist that I stay here with you then I will. But David is a man now. He can take care of himself. I taught him good. He will go with them. They will need his help. Do you understand?” he looked at her long and hard.

  “Yes.” she said softly.

  “Good.” he replied. Then he reached out and embraced his wife tightly. She clung to him, heavy sob’s wracking her body. He looked up at Matt and Zack as if to ask what am I supposed to do?