Lie Zombie Lie (I Zombie)

by Jack Wallen

  The mouths of the inanimate heads all opened freakishly wide and blood began spraying from the gaping hole. The fountains of blood raised the level of the ocean. Slowly the bloody water made its way over my head until I was completely under water.

  Drowning in the blood of my baby.

  The crushing pressure of the bloody water threatened to cave in the bones of my skull.

  When I woke from the nightmare I was alone, swimming in an ocean of darkness. There was no comfort, no hope. After a moment of cold sweat and heart palpitation, I managed to somehow calm down enough to not feel as if I were going to rip off my skin and set myself on fire.

  “I’ll find you Jacob.” My voice whispered over and over until my brain was too tired to remain among the conscious.

  Chapter 28

  November 26, 2016 9:17 AM

  Seattle, Washington Underground City

  “Bethany! You okay babe?” Jamal greeted me with a wide grin and wider open arms. When those arms wrapped around me, every bit of horror briefly eased away.

  “Bad news B.” Echo ruined the moment.

  “I can’t take any more bad news. Please tell me this isn’t about Jacob? Is he okay?”

  When I looked around the room, it was instantly clear the bad news had nothing to do with Jacob.

  “We’re surrounded by boners.” Morgan spit out the phrase before Josh could poke her in the ribs and start giggling like a school boy.

  “What? I’m sorry, it’s funny. Boners! We’re calling them boners.” All of a sudden, Josh looked like he belonged in some Hollywood bromance film. “Isn’t there some strange irony to be found in calling a zombie a boner?”

  Everyone shook their head.

  “You guys are no damn fun.” Josh was instantly deflated.

  For the briefest of moments, the drowning nightmare came back to me. It wasn’t the blood or the sight of Jacob’s ripping mouth that tugged at my conscience, but the noise.

  “I have an idea.” Before I realized it, the sentence escaped from between my lips. All eyes were on me. “Ultra Sonic Weapon.”

  Thankfully, Jamal and I always thought on some parallel wavelength. Like some too-close couple that always finished one another’s thoughts, Jamal and I bore into one another’s heads and knew the very thought process that ebbed and flowed within.

  “Bethany, that is brilliant.” Jamal grinned.

  Everyone else stared on in confusion.

  Morgan raised her hand. “Mind filling the rest of us in on the brilliance?”

  I let Jamal have the floor.

  “An Ultra Sonic Weapon uses sound waves to injure, incapacitate, or kill a target. Bethany created one as the first line of defense against the undead.”

  “The Obliterator?” Echo chimed in.

  “Exactly. Bethany’s new idea, I believe, is to take this one step further and use sound to break through the exoskeletons of the zombies surrounding us. We already have the hardware in place. All we have to do is figure out the right decibel, frequency, and oscillation to ruin that dead man’s party.”

  It was Josh’s turn to question. “Can you do that? I mean, won’t a sound that loud damage everything in the area?”

  Josh had a point. But really, who cared? Nothing was safe from ruin now. The entire planet was little more than a massive heap of rubble. Wasteland was the new urban sprawl. Who gave two shits if Seattle fell to dust. I voiced that opinion and no one in the room seemed to object.

  “So long as we are within the confines of the underground city, I don’t think the sound will have any effect on us. Twenty feet of concrete and Earth has some fairly impressive sound dampening qualities.” Jamal cleared up anyone’s lingering fear that a sonic blast loud enough to crack through inch-thick bone armor would have any effect on those of us below ground.

  “But what about survivors up top?” Echo’s question ground us to a halt. “We can’t just go blasting noise loud enough to kill without giving them fair warning. Right?”

  The likelihood of there being survivors in the area was minuscule, but Echo was right. Since the Mengele Virus hit, I was in the business of saving the lives of the innocent. But this situation… this was a bowl full of tricky. I had a son to save and the only thing in my way of giving chase was a horde of bone-armored zombies. Instinct was tugging hard at my trigger finger.

  “Simple. Before we blast the sound, we broadcast a warning. Duck and cover your ears bitches!” Jamal to the rescue.

  Everyone agreed the plan was our only option. That meant one thing – Jamal and I had to get to work fast to geek out the numbers necessary to break through the undead barrier. We sent everyone else off on a search and recover mission. We had no way of knowing if there were other survivors here in the underground. There was also a need to gather provisions – food, water, weapons. Always prepared! Was the new motto of the undead nation.

  Caught up in the restored silence of the room, Jamal and I could do what we did best – think.

  “We’re looking at anywhere from seven hundred kilohertz to three point six megahertz” Jamal looked up from his keyboard. “B…I think we can do this.”

  A sigh escaped my lips. It wasn’t intentional. “We don’t really have a choice.”

  My reply brought the room to an uncomfortable silence. I didn’t mean for my words to seem so harsh, but there it was.

  “I’m sorry Jamal. I didn’t…”

  Jamal smiled back at me. “No need to apologize Bethany. I understand. We’re all on edge…you especially. But don’t worry, we’ll find Jacob and kick the shit out of the Zero Day Collective. Remember, you did it once before and that was when they were at full strength.”

  Hearing Jacob’s name again put my heart in a vise and wrenched out every ounce of blood and sorrow that remained. I wanted to cry and die simultaneously. But if I was to succeed in returning Jacob into my arms, I had to refrain from falling apart. I was certain the Zero Day Collective was depending upon me donning my finest straight jacket fashion and living my remaining days drooling in a padded and stained corner of some forgotten lab. To that notion I would have but one thing to say:

  Fuck you!

  Flowing thick through my veins was the stuff of motherhood. And like a Brechtian Mother Courage, I would have my child back at any and all costs.

  “You know what we need?” Jamal’s voice yanked me out of my inner turmoil.

  “Jamal, if you say we need to run tests on one of the dead boners, I’ll kiss you on the face.”

  When Jamal’s face lit up like a metal halide light, I instantly pulled him to me and laid the kiss that we’d both been patiently waiting for on his lips. I figured, what the hell. It was only a matter of time before I moved on from my recent tragedy, so why not take my present back to my past and march it all, hand in hand, into the future.

  I pulled back. Jamal’s eyes remained closed, the glow on his face was palpable. It was the first time, since we were all raped by Mengele, that I’d seen another human truly happy. All from a single kiss.

  “I’ve been waiting for that kiss since school.” Jamal smiled. “You can’t imagine what that means to me.”

  Truth be told, I could.

  “Seriously, I’d love to sit here and fawn all over you, but maybe we’d be better served dragging a dead zombie in here and shattering the armor plating off his body with a little night music?”

  My proclamation deflated Jamal just a bit. But we both knew the human race couldn’t wait for a little hormone tête-à-tête. So we both exited the room in search of a boner.

  Had that thought passed through the space between our minds and infiltrated Jamal’s inner circle of thought, we’d be incapacitated with laughter.

  “Over there!” Jamal pointed to one of the armor-clad zombies laying face-down in the hallway. Even dead the things were disturbing to behold. They were much larger than standard zombie fare – in both height and musculature.

  “These things seem like they came straight out of Hell. How do you t
hink they evolved so quickly?” I knew there was no way to answer the question, but I asked anyway.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say it was similar to severe eczema. The skin cells mutated and reproduced at a rate so fast they built up a hard crust. Because of the mutation, the crust continued to build up and harden, until it formed the exoskeleton.” Oddly enough, Jamal’s explanation was as disturbing as anything I’d seen. It was also, most likely, dead on.

  “You grab the head, I’ll get the feet.” I directed Jamal, hoping to distract him from lecture mode. The last thing I needed at the moment was information on zombie skin care.

  We positioned ourselves at the polar ends of the stilled monster and each wrapped hands around the extremities. On a count of three we heaved, but didn’t ho.

  “This thing weighs a ton! And no, Jamal, I don’t need you to tell me how much of an exaggeration that was.”

  “But…”

  “A ton. Leave it at that. How in the Hell are we going to move this thing?”

  Jamal raised a finger, as if to point to the light bulb that had just gone off over his head. He excused himself and stepped away for a moment, leaving me alone with the undead. How many times had I been face to face with this plague? I wanted to put my foot through the lead-like skull of the zombie. This thing that I stared down upon was the evolution of the death of man. There was some poetry in the moment that I didn’t want to acknowledge.

  Before my brain could send the order to my foot to crush, Jamal returned, wheeling a dolly in front of him. “Ta da!”

  “Really? You want us to strap this thing to that and then wheel it to the lab? Seriously? Wouldn’t it just be easier to bring the lab here? Besides, how are we going to test an ultra sonic weapon down here without blowing out our eardrums, our bowels, and possibly our brains?”

  That stopped Jamal in his tracks.

  “Well shit. I hadn’t thought of that. Wait. We have the sound studio. The STC rating of those walls is seventy-five plus. You could fly an airplane through these halls and that broadcasting room would remain absolutely silent. We set up the testing area in the hall outside the room and you and I will be safe and sound within. I just have to repair the door.”

  And there was Jamal’s pat me on the back grin. I had to hand it to the man – he was adorable when he was brilliant. And he was always brilliant.

  “Shall we strap on a zombie?”

  *

  After Jamal had replaced the door to the studio, we grabbed the nearest boner to be used for the experiment. The boner we picked out was heavy. Really heavy. Clearly, the bulk was in the armor plating. Even when the thing’s arm swung down, the shift in mass nearly took both me and Jamal down to the floor. We did eventually get the zombie strapped to the dolly and wheeled to our makeshift hallway laboratory. Jamal was finishing up the experiment as I went off in search of the others. There was no way we could set off this USW with the rest of our gang wandering around the underground city. The second the sonic waves reset the pressure in the air around their bodies, they’d be deaf, blind, and who knew what else.

  So, it was best to locate everyone and wrangle them back into the broadcast booth. That is, if everyone would fit. Who knew how many survivors were hanging out with us in the underground. The only fact I had in my back pocket related to those small groups that went off in search of supplies. I had to be okay with the idea that they would be the only ones that would return with me. Of course if anyone else were to get picked up in the march back, I wouldn’t complain – so long as they weren’t either zombie or ZDC.

  The underground city was a ghost town. The cold, hard floor was lined with the dead undead. Moaners, screamers, and boners alike covered the cracked floor. At times it was hard to get any semblance of footing. The idea of slipping and falling on top of one of the undead made me want to will myself into superhero status and fly out of this rotten existence.

  Supergirl I was not.

  Chapter 29

  November 26, 2016 12:12 PM

  Zombie Response Team: Anchorage Alaska Unit

  The snow fell silently. The heavy blanket of beauty made it nearly impossible to see beyond three feet. It was impossible to use hand signals to the team that surrounded the Center for Disease Control. Since radio chatter was nothing more than a death sentence, the team had to stay as close together as possible.

  Breaking into the CDC was impossible – or would have been. Thankfully, one of the Anchorage police officers had not bought into the bribe offered up by the strange group that came in and took over. The bribe was little more than a handful of dollars and a bottle of whiskey. The purpose of the whiskey was obvious. But with nothing resembling commerce remaining on the planet, the dollars seemed a hollow, if not romantic, gesture. That same officer happily helped the Zombie Response Team into the CDC.

  “Once inside, we go stealth and split into two-man teams.” Captain Jeremy Stinson whispered. His rank was honorary – he never served a second in the military. Even without the training, leadership came naturally and his men followed him, rank and file.

  A wind raked bitter cold against exposed skin. The Anchorage Zombie Response Team was tough. Alaska winter was tougher. The soldiers knew they had to get inside. The temperature was plummeting and would soon be below zero.

  Thanks to the passed out police officer, the entrance to the CDC was not only unlocked, but unguarded.

  “Candy from babies.” Manuel Menolos prematurely bragged.

  Charlie Sloan smacked Menolos on the back of the head. “You mean candy from pinatas?”

  “Watch your face, Biscocho.”

  Stinson glared at the two men, who instantly dropped back to silence. “Ladies, do I have your permission to return to the mission? Or would you rather do each other’s nails and maybe have a panty-clad pillow fight? Whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

  “I want everyone to file into that building in pairs. Cover every square inch until you find the target. As soon as contact is established, radio your position and stand tight. When the location of the target is known, everyone make their way in and prepare to fight. But remember, the target must make it out unharmed. Anyone shoot that baby and they answer to the entire human race. We cannot afford to fuck this one up people. Are you ready?”

  Nods went around the group and the first of the men slipped into the cover of the unknown. Stinson was the last to enter. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the entrance, the door hissed shut behind him. The team was washed away in absolute darkness.

  “Fuck!”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I can’t see shit!”

  “Dios mio!”

  And then, the sound of horror greeted the Zombie Response Team. At first it was just a single screamer’s voice ripping through the darkened halls. Joining that wretched noise was another, and then another, and another – until it was a Hell-born cacophony of death. The rattling echo of sound was disorienting. Unable to locate the source of the sound, it was impossible to know just where (or if) safety could be found.

  “Anyone packing night vision?” Stinson demanded. “If you have it, wear it and lead us out of here.”

  “On it sir.” It was Menolos. Always Faithful was his nickname and with good reason.

  “Oh fuck!” Manuel screamed out.

  “SITREP Menolos!” Stinson barked.

  “Shit! They’re surrounding us.”

  Without second thought, Stinson pulled his only rescue flare from his pocket and ignited it. He instantly wished he hadn’t. There are certain situations where ignorance might well be bliss. This was one of those situations. The flare revealed the group of soldiers was in fact, surrounded by the undead. Useless, sour eyes stared on through the dark night. The monsters knew exactly where their target was and there was no obvious means of escape.

  The thread of an idea began to wind its way through Stinson’s brain.

  The leader whispered. “Everyone pull out your weapon and stand in a circle. Back to cente
r and aim directly outward. As soon as you’re in the circle, sound off. When I give the order, aim out and fire.”

  “But sir,” the soldiers began to complain.

  “I don’t want to hear it. This is our only option. On my mark. Ready… and go!”

  One by one, the soldiers announced they were in position. Stinson counted until his last man was in place and then he gave the order to fire.

  The deafening sound of too many large-caliber weapons in a too small space rang out. The mechanical death rattle was quickly drowned out by the roaring of screamers. Accompanying the noise was the strobe light flicker from the weapons, bringing yet another level of horror to the sight.

  Without the benefit of constant light, aim was not a luxury the soldiers could afford. It was point, shoot, and hope.

  Rattle and roar.

  “They’re not going down!” Menolos cried out.

  “Aim higher!” Replied Stinson. “For the head!”

  Before a single barrel could raise an inch, a wall-shaking roar crashed through the building. The noise was part Jurassic Park, part Wolfman, part Exorcist. One by one the weapons went silent

  “What the…”

  Again the monstrous roar washed over the room. Unfortunately, for the soldiers, the current wave of undead paid no attention to what was behind door number three and continued marching inward. Before another shot was fired, the sound of cracking skull broke a brief silence.

  “They’re on us!” Menolos cried out.

  Chapter 30

  November 26, 2016 1:23 PM

  Underground City Seattle, Washington

  We managed to locate Echo, Morgan, and Josh. Everyone else had either perished or fled. Unfortunately, that meant my chemist was lost as well. I’d have to remember to hit Morgan up for a backup scientist later on. The thought felt cold on my conscience, but we lived in a state of only the strong survive. That did, however, make things simple. Not only could we all fit inside the recording studio for the testing, our chances of survival were far greater than had we corralled together an entire battalion of survivors.