by Jack Wallen
The Audi gracefully pulled out of the driveway. The tiniest part of me would have enjoyed the irony of backing over a moaner. The mighty crush of its skull would have been the sweetest of music. That didn’t happen. The only sound was the rich rubber of the tires gliding over the smoothest pavement I’d ever driven on.
Eat the rich baby.
Chapter 4
November 18, 2016 12:25 PM
Zombie Response Team, Pennsylvania Unit
The screamer had the young girl pinned to the ground, his cold, white fingers tangled in her curly, red hair. The thing pulled the girl’s head up close and personal to its mouth and let loose a raging, primal scream. The girl had already fallen just under the surface of consciousness and couldn’t feel the wind and smell the rot from the mouth of the monster.
After a second hell mouth roar, the zombie cracked the skull to the ground. The wet thud made it clear this wasn’t the first crushing blow. Under the skin, the bone had already caved in. Shards of bone sliced through the blood-brain barrier, rendering the girl’s brain nothing more than an entrée for the undead.
The screamer lifted the skull to its face and roared once again. This time, when the head met the sidewalk, the bone and flesh gave way. An oozing pool of blood flowed between the monster’s fingers. The zombie flipped the girl over, dug its fingers into the newly fashioned hole, and pulled apart the skull.
Lifeless fingers dug into the human-head pudding and pulled out chunks of brain. The slippery, rubbery mass went from finger to mouth. As the dead man chewed the first bite of his meal, his nearly-useless eyeballs rolled up into his head – a living dead ecstasy.
“Shit, that’s disgusting!”
Olivia’s whisper sailed on a brisk wind all the way to the ears of the dining zombie. The screamer dropped its meal and let loose a skin-shrinking scream.
“Oh fuck Olivia! It heard you.” Jon panicked. Jon always panicked. If his partner had a bullet for every time he panicked, she’d have enough ammo to wipe out the entire zombie population.
Olivia refused to acknowledge Jon’s mental anguish and instead connected the silencer to her pistol.
“Let me show you how the Zombie Response Team takes care of brain-munchers like this.”
The screamer rushed the duo; as one crouched and aimed, the other pissed his pants. Olivia sucked in a deep breath and held her torso tight.
Thirty yards.
“Olivia! Do something!”
Twenty yards.
“Come on!”
Ten yards.
“We’re gonna die!”
The huff of the silenced weapon sent the bullet charging through the air and into the space just above the right eyebrow. The screamer dropped instantly. The only sound was the moaning and whining of Jon, who had knelt to the ground with his head covered and his eyes closed tigh, the smell of his urine rising to meet anyone around and above him.
Olivia knocked Jon over with a knee to the shoulder.
“Get up chicken shit. The meat puppet is down.”
Jon stood and brushed his pants off. When he realized he’d pissed himself, his face burned bright red and his jaw quivered.
“Don’t worry, Missy, I won’t tell anyone you wet the bed.” Olivia laughed as she double-tapped the screamer.
One of the prime directives of the Zombie Rescue Team was to ensure all undead not get up for a third shot at life, that meant double-tapping – or sending a close-range killing blow into the skull. Take no chances; leave no trace of life behind.
Olivia pulled out her mobile and dialed Morgan Barnhart’s cell. Morgan was one of the founders of the Zombie Response Team. Originally from Texas, Morgan had temporarily relocated to Seattle to help Jamal with the Washington division of ZRT.
“Morgan, this is Olivia Stemler, Pennsylvania Unit. The last of the screamers has been neutralized in the area we believe should be their last pit stop in the state. What are our orders?”
The orders were simple and clear – remain in the area until the travelers had cleared and passed the area. Once they were sure Bethany was on her way out of the state, the ZRT Pennsylvania Mobile Unit could return to their headquarters and back under the charge of the senior state officer.
“Yes ma’am.” Was all Olivia said before she hung up.
When she turned back to Jon, he was gone. She found him digging through the trunk of the car for a pair of pants. It was cold and the soaked crotch of the pair he wore was growing chilly.
“Don’t you have any sweats or something I could wear?”
Olivia laughed. She was lucky to have packed extra sleeping gear. Pants? Doubtful.
“I might have a skirt in there you could wear.” Olivia laughed.
Jon turned and flipped the girl off.
“If it were warmer, I might take you up on that.”
“I’d pay to see it.”
Jon turned his full attention to his partner. “How much?”
Another round of laughter peeled from Olivia’s mouth. “What does it matter? You can’t spend it anyway. Didn’t you get the memo, jackass? The only currency of value now is food and ammunition. Everything else is shit.”
After a bit of rooting, Jon came up with a pair of old Carhart overalls.
“Wow, ‘Liv, didn’t know you were in the closet! Sexy.”
Before Olivia could smack Jon upside the face with a razor-sharp retort, the sound of car tread had them diving for cover.
“Why are we hiding?”
Olivia hadn’t filled Jon in on every finer detail of the mission.
“We have to make sure no one is tracking Bethany. So we stay in the shadows until we know for sure she’s in the clear. If she is being followed, we take them out. That’s all I know.”
The couple tucked themselves into the car and locked the doors. Olivia had parked the black sedan, in a lot among other autos, to keep it from looking out of place.
The Audi pulled into the abandoned gas station slash food mart and came to a stop at one of the gas pumps. Bethany stepped out of the car, stretched, and began the process of filling up. Before she could get the gas flowing, she had to head inside and okay the ‘sale’. As she was walking toward the building, a younger girl stepped out of the passenger seat. The girl had her head buried in a cell phone. When she came up for air, she danced around a bit and opened the back door of the car. After a moment, she pulled back with a baby in her arms.
“Holy shit.” Olivia whispered.
“What? What is it?” Jon sat up to get a look. “You mean the chick?”
Olivia smacked the back of Jon’s head. “You’re a fucking tool bag Jon. No, not the chick, the baby, don’t you know who that is?”
Jon stared ahead in silence, clearly ignorant of what he was witnessing.
“That’s baby Jacob.”
Silence.
“Jesus crap Jon, don’t you know anything? That baby might be the new messiah, the second coming, the fucking savior of the human race!”
“As in biblical?”
Olivia stared on in silence for a moment. “Kinda. Yeah.”
Bethany returned to the car and began filling up the tank. She instructed the other girl to run inside. Before the younger female took off, she handed the baby to Bethany. When the woman held the baby, her face lit up as if the apocalypse had never happened.
“I have to get this on film.” Olivia pulled a digital camera out of her bag and started snapping shots. “Morgan will be thrilled to see these.”
Jon stared at Olivia as if the woman was starting to sprout extra appendages. “Is there something going on I don’t know about?”
Olivia continued snapping pictures. “Like what Jon?”
“I don’t know… like are we really the good guys or does the Zombie Response Team have something planned for Bethany they’d rather not share with the rest of the world?”
The photo-shoot ended abruptly with Olivia punching Jon in the shoulder.
“The ZRT saved your ass from certain de
ath you piss face, dirt bag. What good would it do for us to spend every waking moment saving people like you from this plague of death, only to off the one woman who could single handedly save the planet?”
Jon’s eyes lit up like roman candles. “I never implied you were planning to kill her. What made you think that?” The young man started stuttering in fear. “So you are planning… ”
“Jon, listen to me. The Zombie Response Team is not going to harm Bethany or her baby. The only plans they have are to make sure that woman reaches Seattle safely and then let her help in rebuilding an army to take down the Zero Day Collective. You know, the bad guys.”
“Shit! Duck!”
Jon grabbed Olivia and yanked her down hard, as the Audi rolled out of the gas station. As the dust settled, Jon hopped back into the driver’s seat and started to fire up the engine. Olivia pulled his hand away from the ignition and grabbed her mobile. As she dialed the number for the Zombie Response Team headquarters, she removed the keys from the ignition and dropped them in her lap.
“Morgan, this is Olivia Stemler reporting in. Bethany has just left the station. They should be exiting the state within the hour. We’ll hang back and wait to see if anyone was tailing them. Once we know they’re in the clear, we’ll pursue the car. It’s a gray, Audi A4. I didn’t catch the license number. Right. Thank you.”
Olivia hung up and turned to Jon with a look that could easily char his soul to a bitter black. “You don’t listen well, do you?”
*
The ZRT unit waited fifteen minutes before Olivia handed Jon the keys. They filled up the tank, and cleaned the remaining scraps of food from the food mart before taking off after Bethany. Jon was instructed to do everything he could to catch up to the Audi, but remain out of sight. Bethany couldn’t know they were there.
“This would be so much easier if we had a helicopter. I’m licensed to fly, you know.” Jon’s bragging fell on deaf ears.
Olivia had military-grade binoculars glued to her eyes. If they lost Bethany, the mission could fail. If the mission failed – who knew what would happen to mankind.
“Watch out!”
A screamer leaped out in front of the car, catching Jon off guard. Just before the car would have driven straight into the walking bag of death, Olivia grabbed the wheel and gave it a jerk. The car veered off to the side of the zombie with an angry screech. Jon managed to right the trajectory just before the sedan threatened to t-bone a fence. The car came to a jerking halt in the middle of the road.
Jon was just about to celebrate his driving heroics, when Olivia’s gunshot yanked him back into the world of the real.
“Drive, Jon, drive!”
The roar of the monster, and another gunshot, threatened to deafen the living. Olivia’s aim was off its usual mark. The screamer jumped onto the car before the tires could announce their exit.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!”
“Jon, drive!”
The car tires barked on the pavement as the pedal hit the floor. The screamer held on. It knew what delicious treats lay within.
“What are we going to do Olivia?”
Olivia dropped her window and undid her seat belt.
“Olivia, what are you doing?”
“Saving our asses chicken boy. Keep the car on the road, moving forward preferably.”
Without another word, Olivia stood, the upper half of her body hanging out of the window. As soon as the screamer noticed the girl, he started pulling his way to the passenger side of the car. The beast let loose a roar to shame the screaming car engine.
A pale, white hand of death reached up from the hood of the car. Olivia knew that one hand could crush her skull. She aimed the pistol, held her breath, and squeezed the trigger.
A brown, sticky rain splattered the windshield before the screamer was thrown to the pavement. Olivia slid back into the passenger seat just as Jon hit the windshield washers. At first, the mess smeared the glass and blocked his view. A rush of fluid cleaned the way to reveal a zombie-free highway ahead.
“Fuck!” Oliva released what tension remained.
“That was amazing. Jesus, you are fearless.”
“And we are lucky bastards.” Olivia pointed ahead. The line drawn between her fingertip and the horizon revealed a small, gray blur on the road ahead. Olivia pulled her binoculars to her eyes to confirm what she was already certain of. “It’s them. Don’t get any closer. We can’t let them know they’re being followed.”
Chapter 5
November 18, 2016 9:15 PM
Near Chicago, Illinois
Eight hours. I drove eight hours straight. We stopped a couple of times for gas, food, and potty stops. My legs threatened to revolt and leave my upper body stranded. What was truly astounding was that nothing stood in our way, no moaners, screamers, Zero Day Collective operatives, starving survivors, break downs, or teenage meltdowns. It was a strange miracle; something I would never have believed in, something I still question and probably will until my last, dying breath.
But I do fear that our luck would soon wear thin. I pointed the car on the straight and narrow to Seattle, thinking the quickest route between two points was the most logical. My logic failed to take into consideration the population of a city like Chicago. It’s 2016, the population of Chicago was reaching four million. If even just a quarter of that population has turned, that is still one million brain-munching zombies. Our odds of surviving those numbers are infinitesimal.
“Christ Bethany! Look at the road.” Echo’s model-thin arm was reaching forward – nearly into the beam of light cutting through the thickening fog.
Abandoned cars littered the highway. They weren’t so thick as to keep us from moving forward, but the further we drove in, the thicker they became. The gray ash, from the explosion a year ago, still coated the landscape as if time decided to ignore the area. A fraction of my brain wanted to turn on the car radio and tune into some creepy music, just pretend this was nothing more than a movie.
Wouldn’t that be nice? Close my eyes and make believe I was sitting on a couch, with a huge bowl of kettle corn in my lap, watching an old Romero zombie flick. Or The Stand. Gary Sinise would run by any minute and scare the shit out of me. The popcorn bowl would fly out of my lap and who ever I was with at the moment would point and laugh.
But that’s not our current truth. The hate-filled horror ahead of us was reality and now, more than any other moment in history, reality bites.
“What do we do?” Echo whispered, adding to the creepfest surrounding us.
“We keep driving. But we’re going to not go through the city. I was hoping to look for a friend and find a decent hotel to stay in… but there’s no fucking way I’m risking this. It was a stupid idea to begin with. Grab the map and find us the most direct route out of here.”
Echo didn’t argue. Why would she? I admitted to my mistake and hastily changed our course immediately. The only problem we had was the highway was growing more and more clogged with abandoned cars, trucks, and semis. It looked like our path forward wouldn’t take us much further. I really had no desire to back track.
“In about a mile there’ll be an exit; take that and it should get us around the city. Go either West or South – whichever way.”
There was a hint of doubt in Echo’s voice. Now was not the time for doubt. I had her read off the exits and nearest highways. She was right. The next exit was our target.
“Oh shit.”
Echo’s whisper filled the car with doom. We’d finally reached the national impound lot. Abandoned cars blocked the way. There was no going forward. I stopped the car with enough room to turn around and opened the door to step out.
“What are you doing? Are you nuts?” Echo grabbed for my arm but I slipped out of her grasp.
“I’m just going to see if we can get around the cars. I won’t go far.”
I didn’t need to go but a few yards from the side of Audi to know there was no way we were going forward. The highway was
a graveyard of vehicles. The only sound was the cold wind whipping and weaving in between the abandoned hulks. I closed my eyes and took in the absolute nothingness of the moment.
At least the silence was not interrupted by screaming, moaning, or gunshots. At this very brief second, I got to experience a peace I hadn’t felt in a long time. I could keep my eyes closed and that peace would remain. I could die right now with a lie to free my conscience.
As I drifted deep within the wells and recesses of my mind, I saw Jacob – In the cell, lying on the floor in shock, standing with Susan holding handfuls of candy, in a bathroom drooling over my panties. His warm smile comforted me.
Those memories would never leave. They were the only connection to a past I had. It seemed my life began at Jacob and would probably end at Jacob as well. It was the apocalypse; at least I had something to hold on to. The only thing most people had to grasp for was the hope to stay alive, to not become a meal for the monsters.
“What are we going to do?”
Echo’s voice startled me. I was so lost in my head I didn’t even hear her approach.
When I turned to look at the young girl, it was clear the threat of defeat lay just under the surface of her psyche. She needed something to hook her sanity to. I couldn’t give that to her now. I could, however, give her human comfort. So I wrapped my arms around her tiny frame and squeezed as tightly as I could.
“We’re going to get in that car, have a bite to eat, lock the doors, and go to sleep. When we wake in the morning we’ll turn around and get ourselves back on track.”
It wasn’t ideal, but it was our best hope at the moment. I was exhausted. I couldn’t drive another mile without the threat of nodding off at the wheel. I hated the idea of falling asleep in the middle of an open area, but we really had no choice.
“I’ll pull the car up so it blends in with the rest of them. Once we seal ourselves up inside, we’ll be safe.”
I lied. I had no idea if a car could seal our scent away from the zombie olfactory.
“I hate this silence. I’d love to hear the sounds of cars, or laughter, or a concert right now.” Echo smiled up at me. “I guess that’s what happens when you grow up on the streets. You get used to a symphony of chaos around you and silence becomes your enemy. I can deal with gunshots, riots, gang wars – but silence? Not so much.”