Killer Z

by Miller, Greg L.

  “Sir, please calm down,” a guard says to Kyle.

  “Screw you! It’s a free country,” Kyle shrills and backs into a table.

  A police officer enters the room. The cop gives Rebecca a brief look and scans Kyle and Fred. Juliet and Harry sit on a mat in the far corner.

  “Please, sir. I think he’s been abusing drugs,” Fred says and offers Kyle’s backpack to the officer.

  “Give that back!” Kyle shrieks and pulls out his gun.

  The guards draw their guns as Kyle tries to shoot but his gun clicks empty.

  “Should we shoot him?” a guard asks.

  “Maybe he’s infected,” another says.

  “Wait! Don’t shoot my son!” Fred yells in shock.

  “Becket can decide,” the cop says.

  “Dad, you dumb old fuck! What have you done?”

  The guards tackle Kyle as he reaches for the flare gun. The police officer opens the backpack and reveals Killer Z, a gold bar, cash, and a rare jewel.

  “Is that the Hope Diamond?” a guard asks.

  “It needed protecting from the earthquake. I’m a Smithsonian employee!”

  “Son, you stole diamonds too?”

  “Handcuff the thief,” the guard says.

  “This is Killer Z,” the police officer announces. “We have reason to believe addicts on Killer Z are a danger. Everyone line up against the wall.”

  “Time to leave, Rebecca.”

  “What about Mark?” Rebecca hisses as they slip out of the building.

  “We can’t go back inside. They’ll lock us up with the others.”

  “Michael, it’s so not fair!”

  “No, it’s not fair you tricked me into taking that damn drug.”

  They weave and duck through the scattered wreckage covering Pennsylvania Avenue without a flashlight. In the commotion they forgot their belongings but fires in the surrounding buildings provide dim light.

  “Why don’t you take responsibility? I never made you take anything and I was only trying to help your pain.”

  A deafening bang stops their heated communication.

  Michael grabs her hand and they run to the side of a ruined building. He presses her against the crumbling brick wall.

  “Michael, what’s happening?”

  “Keep quiet.”

  “I can’t see anything with you smothering me.”

  A man wearing only boxers runs down the dark street chased by a dozen armed men. M2 shoots a single burst from an AK-47 into the man’s back and then sprays the corpse with twenty five bullets in two seconds. Trailing the gang is a group of leashed and handcuffed woman.

  “Maybe we should go back to the post office,” Rebecca says.

  Michael agrees and they sneak back to the building only to find a smaller group of armed men standing on the steps.

  “Do I have your attention?” Andrew yells to the building.

  “What do you want,” Becket shouts from a window.

  Michael and Rebecca keep to the shadows.

  “We want everything,” Andrew shouts and points at the building. “Ok boys, give ‘er another spray down to show we mean business.”

  Return fire comes from the upper windows. The gang ducks for cover and shoots back.

  “Let’s get Seth and score more guns,” Andrew says.

  Rebecca sneezes. The armed men twirl and point their guns at the married couple.

  “What do we have here?” Andrew sneers.

  Andrew wraps an arm around Rebecca’s neck and tears her away from Michael.

  “Let me go, asshole!” Rebecca cries as she tries elbowing Andrew.

  Andrew backhands her and takes out handcuffs.

  “Leave her alone,” Michael screams.

  His head explodes in pain as the butt of a gun slams into his temple. Everything goes black.

  ***

  Head hurting, Michael opens his eyes. All around him are masterpieces with horribly drawn faces are crudely painted over them Sprawled around him are four corpses with slit throats.

  “Ahhh, the sacrifice awakens,” Seth says. “I was showing Rebecca my latest masterpiece.”

  Rebecca stands next to a skinny, disheveled man with thinning ginger hair and beady eyes. Seth holds a pistol in one hand and a pill in another.

  “Take your damn pill and shove it up your ass!” Rebecca snaps.

  “Is she always such a bitch after getting laid? We had fun passing her around. Here bitch, you deserve a bonus for doing such a wonderful job.”

  Rebecca slaps the pill out of Seth’s hand and the Z falls to the floor. Seth smacks her and she lands next to Michael. Her face is battered and bruised.

  “Are you ok?” Michael asks.

  “No, he’s going to kill us,” she says, her eyes fixed on the madman.

  “Bitchhh,” Seth interrupts with a roar. “Come here and get me off.”

  “Screw you faggot!”

  “Stupid, greedy, lazy bitch...”

  “Seth!” a thug yells into the room. “What do you want to do with the Old Post Office?”

  “Did you find Lin?”

  “We know he took the Zs inside but they’re armed and have the place locked down.”

  “Bring me his head.”

  “Andrew needs you downstairs to help figure out a plan.”

  Seth strides from the room mumbling, “Why do I have to do everything?”

  The double doors click shut. A guard takes position with a rifle resting in his arms. Rebecca stares at the pill lying on the floor and looks at the guard.

  She gets to her feet and says, “Please, let us go. You already had your fun with me.”

  The guard ignores her.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Seth has the Zs.”

  “You mean that?” she asks, pointing the fallen pill.

  The guard walks over and bends over. Rebecca seizes a painter’s stool and smacks the thug on the back of the head. He crumples to the floor.

  Michael and Rebecca look at each other. She runs to the door and locks it as he picks up the guard’s gun. A few seconds later the door rattles.

  “Open up,” Seth says and knocks.

  “How are we getting out?” Michael asks, holding the gun awkwardly.

  Rebecca snatches the rifle from his hands and jams the gun through the door handles. She peers out of the broken window.

  “Shit Michael, we’re three stories up.”

  “Open the mother fucking doors!” Seth screams and rattles the door.

  Rebecca searches the guard’s pockets. “I would rather die than let them touch me again.”

  “They deserve to die.”

  “There’s over forty of them downstairs and they have other prisoners. We can’t fight them off.”

  Rebecca pulls a grey plastic explosive from the thug’s pocket. Etched on its side is stenciled C4. She stares at it and says, “I want to take fate in my own hands. I don’t want to be a zombie.”

  “Break the door down!” Seth booms.

  She looks at Michael. Finally, with a sad but resigned expression on his face, he nods. Rebecca places the plastic explosive in the center of Seth’s masterpiece.

  “Might as well go out with a bang,” Rebecca says with a little broken laugh. “If we’re lucky we can take them with us.”

  Fire axes smack into the door and the wood splinters. Rebecca presses the buttons to set the timer as Michael stares at the hellish paintings. He knows she’s right. It’s too late for them.

  Michael pulls her close and holds her tightly as the screen on the timer reads: 10.9.8…

  “I want their arms and legs torn from their torsos!” Seth rages.

  The door crumbles. 7.6.5…

  Andrew leads a dozen blood thirsty men into the room.

  “I love you Michael, with my whole heart.”

  “I love you too, Rebecca. I have from the moment I first saw you.”

  4.3.2.1… BOOOOM.

  35

  Larry sneak
s through the ravaged streets. The bells toll as he reaches the church. The streets are full of zombies. The undead turn and stare at the sanctuary as the fifth bell echoes. The mob groans and run up the steps, flinging themselves at the doors.

  “Be gone hell spawn,” the priest yells from a window.

  A large explosion echoes from the west. The horde becomes a mass of moving flesh as they migrate toward the explosion. Eight zombies remain scratching at the doors.

  “Go away undead spawn!” the priest yells.

  The zombies are extremely agitated by the priest’s voice and don’t notice six armed men approaching. Larry knows the men aren’t up to any good and climbs through a broken window of a video store. He drops the duffle bag, retrieves extra assault rifle clips, and lies on his tummy on a table near the window with the rifle pointing at the street. The thugs stop out of sight of the zombies and discuss a plan of attack. Larry squeezes a single round at a thug’s head.

  Bang.

  One of the six armed men falls to the street. The remaining five thugs look around in alarm. They point at the church and open fire at the zombies.

  Bang Bang.

  Two more thugs fall. The zombies swarm the remaining thug and feast. Larry sneaks to the church and bangs on the door.

  “An answered prayer!” the priest says and opens the door.

  Larry runs into the church, yelling, “Hurry, shut the door. Where’s Natalie?”

  “You have a lot of balls coming back,” Bob says.

  “You’re not happy to see me?” Larry hesitates at the unfriendly greeting.

  He rummages in the duffle bag for a few side arms and places the guns on the entry table.

  “Bob, show the cop where we put the prisoner.”

  “Prisoner?” Larry questions as a burst of gun fire hits the front of the church.

  “Shit, you let some go?” Bob asks.

  “No. More than likely it’s their buddies. What prisoner?”

  “Look!” Bob yells. “Look at what your evil bitch did to our children!”

  Crying comes from the inner sanctum. Larry looks inside. Children are laid out on the floor before a large wooden cross. Near the children mourning parents wail.

  “What happened to the kids? Where’s Natalie?”

  Bob’s eyes full of rage as he blurts, “The bitch murdered our children.”

  “What?”

  “She poisoned them.”

  “Natalie? That’s a serious accusation, sir. Why would she do that?”

  “Ask her yourself! She’s in there,” Bob points to a closed storage room.

  “Let me talk to her in private.”

  “You got five minutes.”

  Larry enters the small storage room filled with bingo cards, collection bowls, bibles and pamphlets. Natalie sits on a folding chair, hands bound and blindfolded.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” she begs.

  “What’s did you do Natalie?”

  “Larry?”

  He unties her hands. The church shakes under gun fire. An explosion is followed by crash. He peeks out of the room but ducks back in as armed men enter the church guns blazing.

  “Larry, what’s happening?”

  “What does it sound like?”

  Larry barricades the door with Natalie’s chair. She takes off the blindfold.

  “You left me to die with the wolves.”

  “Did you murder those kids?”

  “You mean the zombie children?”

  “Did you or did you not poison them?”

  “You can’t murder what’s already dead.”

  “Were they breathing before you poisoned them?”

  “This is the house of the Lord!” the priest bellows.

  “Told you we’d be back,” M2 laughs as he shoots the priest. “Someone see if Lin and the stash are here.”

  “I’m sorry, Larry. Jesus told me to do it.”

  “You’re crazy!”

  “They needed to sleep.”

  A new round of gun fire shakes from within the church as the thugs try defending themselves against zombies drawn by the sounds.

  Natalie grabs his sleeve. “I had to Larry. You understand, don’t you?”

  An icy chill rips up his spine.

  “We’re trapped in here,” Natalie frets.

  “Shut up, murderous cunt. We’re going to have to make a run for it.”

  Larry opens the door.

  “I don’t want to.”

  “Jesus will keep you safe, remember.”

  “Jesus will protect me, but I don’t know about you.”

  “Are you ready?” he asks, not waiting for a reply.

  He grabs Natalie by the shirt and propels her into the monsters. Immediately several zombies seize her. As the ravenous zombies drive her to the floor he slips out of the storage room and runs out the door.

  36

  Seth rages on the smoldering steps of the National Portrait Gallery. Black smoke billows overhead as the sun rises through heavy grey clouds of a new day.

  “What are we going to do now boss? We lost most of the men and Lin wasn’t in the church. No one is. Hell, I’m lucky I made it out of there,” M2 says as seagulls sweep between destroyed buildings. “Man, I need a Z.”

  “The Zs are gone,” Seth snarls. “We need to find Lin.

  “I sent our last war party an hour ago to that post office building.”

  “Why aren’t they back yet?”

  “Who knows?”

  Only six thugs escaped the burning Portrait Gallery. It’s impossible for Seth to think past the rage. His vision blurs.

  “Seth, are you getting cataracts, man?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Nothing, we need more Zs.”

  “Shut up about Zs,” he snarls and pounds a fist on the step. “My masterpiece is in ruins. Where’s this post office?”

  M2 points to the west and Seth bellows, “Dogs, we’re off to war!”

  A disheveled man in a business suit emerges from the entry way behind them. The thugs on the street gawk at Seth and M2.

  “What are you freaks looking at?” Seth asks.

  The zombie groans, low and menacing.

  “Zombie!” A thug yells.

  “Cap his ass,” Seth orders.

  Uneasiness ripples through the group as more zombies spill from the buildings.

  “We’re surrounded!” M2 shrieks.

  Rising from the rubble are dozens of zombies. Some look like normal people but others have horrible wounds and objects protruding from their bodies. They move fast, only the mortally wounded shuffle.

  “What the hell?”

  “Where have you been?” M2 says as he starts shooting. “These freaks have been roaming the city all night.”

  Seth shoots the guard in the chest. Gunfire fills the street. Corpses flop to the pavement but instead of staying down they stand, run and crawl for the living. One after another, the thugs fall and turn. He no longer hears the report of the gun. The infuriating pistol doesn’t stop the zombies. A thug runs up the steps only to be tackled by zombie fast food worker. Ears ringing, he doesn’t hear the man scream.

  “They’re everywhere,” M2 yells.

  “They don’t want to stay dead,” Seth shouts ghouls away.

  Rebecca lurches into view. Her face and body are a charred ruin. M2 shoots her in the shoulder as he stomps on another’s face. She stumbles back a step then lunges for Seth. He fires two rounds at her. The bullets catch her in the chest and arm but she keeps coming. She swipes away his gun and tackles him, pinning him with dead weight as her foul teeth tear into his shoulder.

  “Help me!”

  She gruesomely grins at him and attempts a second chomp. He bucks against her, reaching desperately for his knife. Luck is in his favor as he grasps the handle and jams the blade into her neck. The steel slices through soft flesh but doesn’t stop the attack. With a roar he thrusts the knife into her face over and over. Zombie gore spills over h
im as he withdraws the blade. She shudders and falls on top of him.

  “Get up!” M2 shrills as he drags Seth to his feet.

  Only two of his men along with M2 remain. Like an endless tide, more zombies fill the street.

  “This way,” Seth says.

  They enter a damaged pizzeria.

  “Block those doors,” he orders as the zombies follow.

  The undead throw themselves at the windows and doors.

  One of the thugs says, “Don’t let those fuckers in.”

  “Don’t talk so loud,” M2 says and checks his bullets.

  Seth collapses into a chair and flexes his arm. It doesn’t want to work. The tendons and muscles are torn and it burns. Seth dry swallows two Zs and gives the others one each.

  “The bitch got the better of you,” M2 says.

  “People who get bit turn into them,” a thug says with a shaky voice, his gun trained on Seth.

  The thug breaks eye contact as a zombie tries to crawl through a broken window. M2 empties his clip into its face. With the thug distracted by the attack, Seth tears the gun from the thug’s hands.

  “Die, bitch.” Seth shoots the thug in the forehead. The others stare in wary silence.

  “Anyone else worried about me turning into a zombie?” Seth snarls.

  “Don’t worry about me,” M2 babbles.

  The other thug backs away. He bumps into a wall near another broken window and hands seize him. The undead pull the screaming man through the broken glass.

  “There’s too many!” M2 yells. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They flee through the rear exit as zombies flood the lobby.

  37

  “Let’s bow our heads and pray,” Fred says.

  A guard on the opposite side of the locked door coughs.

  Hands trembling, he holds a King James Bible in front of the sick looking prisoners. Not wanting to leave Kyle alone, he volunteered to take care of them. Around the dark and stuffy room eight detainees sit in office chairs. All of them bow their heads in prayer except for Kyle and Lin.

  “Dad, why didn’t you listen to the guards when they told you were stupid for coming in here?”

  Fred looks at Kyle and the detainees stop praying. He wants to speak of hope and compassion but doesn’t know how to say it.