Zombie D.O.A. Series Four: The Complete Series Four

by JJ Zep

  “Hey! Hey fellers!” he shouted. The soldiers turned towards him as one, bringing up their weapons as they did. Joe stepped up the pace, hobbling towards them with his exaggerated limp. “Hey fellers!”

  “Who the fuck are you?” the soldier standing in the firing hatch shouted. “And what the hell are you doing on the streets? There’s a curfew.”

  Joe had now closed the distance to twenty feet. He stopped, broke into his most engaging smile. “Phew!” he said gasping out an expulsion of air. “Almost did myself an injury getting here.”

  “I asked you a question, old man. What the hell are you doing out here?”

  “I’ve been looking for my boys,” Joe said. “But I see that you found them.” He turned to the kids, who looked no older than fifteen. “And you boys are in a heap of trouble once I get you home. Didn’t I tell you to stay put?”

  The kids looked back at him as though he were talking in a foreign tongue. Joe turned to the soldier in the Humvee. “I’m sorry if they caused you any trouble, officer. Rest assured that they’ll be disciplined as soon as I get them home.”

  “It’s Corporal, dipshit, not officer. And you won’t be getting them home. In case you missed the broadcast, the penalty for being caught on the streets is summary execution. Now stand back. We’ll get to you in a minute.” He turned to his crew. “Parnell, you keep an eye on this old fuck. Stokes, Frederickson, take care of the brats.”

  One of the soldiers broke away from the others, his rifle held loosely at hip height, a smile on his lips. Joe let him make a few paces then stepped forward quickly, closing the gap. Before Parnell realized what was happening Joe was on top of him. Joe reached out and grabbed the barrel of the rifle, twisted it, spinning Parnell around, breaking his trigger-finger in the process.

  Parnell let out a scream that sounded like an air raid siren. The Corporal spun towards them. He opened his mouth to shout something, as Joe pressed Parnell’s mutilated finger down on the trigger of his rifle. The bullet knocked out the Corporal’s front teeth en route to blowing out the back of his brain.

  The other two soldiers had been screened from the action by the Humvee. Now they came charging around it, firing. Their bullets riddled Parnell’s body as Joe got off a burst, cutting both of them down. He allowed Parnell to slump to the tarmac, wrenching the rifle free as he did.

  He rounded the Humvee as the driver backed up and made a turn in the road. “You kids! Get the hell out of here!” Joe shouted. “And stay off the goddamn streets!” The boys backed off, wide-eyed, then turned and ran. The Humvee turned and raced back down Morningside Avenue.

  Joe tossed the M-16 carbine aside, jogged back to where he’d hidden his AK, scooped it up. He crossed the road towards the barricade, heard the sound of a Humvee, not retreating but racing in his direction. The vehicle rounded the corner in a screech of tires. Unlike the other, this one was packing a fifty-mil.

  eighteen

  Ruby heard the rattle of gunfire, small arms first and then the thud of a fifty from the other side of the wall. Now she picked up the shifting of rubble at the barricade, someone moving quickly, clumsily. Human or Z? She couldn’t be sure, but whoever it was, he was heading in her direction. She looked down at Eddy’s sleeping form, his chest rising and falling in rapid dog-like breaths as the infection worked its way through his bloodstream. He’d be asleep for a while yet, she reckoned. Better to see who was out there. She didn’t want anyone creeping up on them.

  She moved suddenly, springing from her sitting position into a crouch with the agility of a cat, then peering around the counter, through the shattered storefront, into the deserted street beyond. Bright sunshine reflected back from the stone facades of the dilapidated buildings opposite, a few scraps of paper swirled and fluttered in a breeze that also sent down a waft of smoke. She smelled blood, the acrid, lingering scent of gunpowder and something stronger, something burning.

  She gave Eddy a final sideways glance, then scurried from cover, moving in silent strides. She stopped just short of the storefront, dropped again into a crouch. Military training, as well as instinct, told her never to peer through a gap at head height. That was a good way to draw a bullet. Behind her Eddy coughed, that distinctive dry hack. It wouldn’t be long now. She just prayed he’d hold out until she’d dealt with the intruder.

  Somewhere, distant, a Humvee revved up.

  Ruby dropped onto her belly, pulled herself forward and eased her head through the gap, turning slightly, so she had a view to her right, back towards the barricade. It was smoky out there and she heard the crackle of flame. Now, the sound of the Humvee reached her again, closer than before, its engine a deep-throated rumble. The thud of a fifty-mil suddenly rattled across the frigid morning, ripping chunks of plaster from the buildings opposite. The intruder was on the move again. Ruby heard brick and plaster shift under his feet as he ran for cover from the fifty shells. Now she saw him, emerging from the smoke at a hobbling run, a run she recognized…Uncle Joe!

  Ruby was on her feet in an instant. She stepped through onto the sidewalk, directly into Uncle Joe’s path. For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to see her, but now he did and his face did a rapid transition from shock, to relief, to delight.

  “In here!” Ruby hissed, directing him into the store and to cover behind the counter. Behind them, she heard the Humvee screech to a halt, heard doors open and soldiers disembarking to shouted commands. They were coming.

  nineteen

  “So you’ve got a few Z’s coming through a gap in the wall,” Colonel Benson said. “Deal with it!”

  “Not just a few Z’s, sir,” the captain said, “and its not just a hole in the wall either, they’re coming through the Lincoln Tunnel.”

  “I don’t give a shit if they’re coming down a stairway from Heaven,” Benson said. “Get a squad down there, play them that little lullaby, and bring them to the main holding area at Battery Park. Then get the wall filled in. Pull in some civilians to do the work if you have to. Dismissed, soldier.”

  Benson turned back towards Chris, “Now where were we?”

  “You were telling me that you haven’t been able to find Joe Thursday,” Chris said. What he didn’t say, what he badly wanted to ask, but couldn’t, was whether they’d found his family. If they had searched the whole building and found nothing, that must mean Joe had gotten Kelly and the kids to safety. At least he prayed so.

  “Ah yes,” Benson started to say before the young captain cut him off.

  “Begging your pardon, Colonel Benson sir,” he said.

  Benson turned slowly towards the man, his already ashen complexion turning a new shade of gray. “I gave you a direct order, captain, so there’d better be a goddamn good reason why you’re still standing there with that dumb-assed expression on your face.”

  “Yes sir, it’s just –”

  “Spit it out soldier!”

  “It’s just that they ain’t responding to any of the frequencies sir.”

  “What?” Benson said. “None of them?”

  “None, sir.”

  Benson looked perplexed, almost comically so, but it was the reaction of the doctor that caught Chris’ attention. Up until now, she’d sat there, chain smoking, saying nothing, a surly expression etched on her pock marked face. Chris had seen her interest perk up somewhat at the mention of the Lincoln Tunnel, but when the captain had mentioned the Z’s not responding to the radio signals, she’d actually leaned forward in her seat, her expression that of someone who’d just experienced a eureka moment.

  “Colonel?” she cut in now.

  “What?” Benson barked, swinging towards her.

  The doctor proffered him with a coy smile that was pure deception. “I’m sure there’s some mistake here, some hick signalman who’s got his wires crossed. Those frequencies have been extensively tested. There’s no way they can fail.”

  “And,” Benson said impatiently, but Chris could see he was relieved by the doctor’s explanation.
/>   “Why don’t I take a drive up to the tunnel and check this out?” the doctor said.

  Benson thought for less than a second. “Yeah,” he said. “That sounds good. Check it out and radio back to let me know.” He turned to the captain. “Garner, I want you to take Dr. Payne along to –”

  “But sir–”

  “One more word out of you soldier and I’ll have you shoveling Z shit until you retire. Now move!”

  twenty

  Joe had hoped that the soldiers would come in on foot, but the sound of the Humvee revving up as it powered its way through the wreckage, told him otherwise. The three of them, him, Ruby and this guy whose name Ruby said was Eddy, were crammed in behind the counter. That would hide them, as long as the soldiers stayed on the streets. If the soldiers came looking though, if they found them in here, that fifty would reduce their hiding place to tinder, and them along with it. What concerned him most was Eddy. The guy had been bitten, that much was clear. He could turn at any moment and if he did in this confined space, the Corporation troopers were going to be the least of their problems.

  He needed some idea of what was going on outside, preferably without having to peer over the counter top. He gestured to Ruby for her sword. She looked back at him suspiciously, cast a furtive glance towards Eddy, still in a seemingly deep sleep on the concrete floor. Joe gave her a grin, shook his head in reassurance, nudged the counter front with the toe of his boot. Ruby seemed to understand, she unsheathed the Katana and passed it to him.

  The front of the counter was rotten plywood and he easily punched a small hole through it. Then he angled his head so he had a view through the peephole into the street. Immediately, he picked up movement, a soldier on the opposite side, scanning the buildings. The soldier made a few hand gestures, calling his comrades forward. Now, the Humvee revved up, crunching the rubble underfoot. This wasn’t good.

  Joe scanned his gaze around the small room, looking for another way out. There was none. For better or worse, they were trapped here. The sound of a footfall drew his attention back to the front of the store. He aligned his eye to the peephole and peered through. One of the troopers was standing on the sidewalk, tracking the trail of blood across the snow. Behind him, the Humvee rolled into view, the gunner standing upright in the firing hatch. The soldier took a tentative step into the store, crunching glass underfoot as he did. Joe slunk down in his sitting position, raised the AK, lined it up with the edge of the counter. If the soldier peered over the top he was going to get a bullet in the brain. Joe signaled to Ruby to flatten herself against the floor. Then he waited.

  Another tentative footfall. Now a shout from outside, “Hey! Hey, Barnes! We clear in there?”

  “Guess so,” Barnes shouted, his voice booming through the confined space. He started to turn.

  It was then that Eddy woke.

  The transformation from human to zombie is sometimes slow and torturous, other times rapid and violent. In one moment, Eddy Montague was fast asleep, his chest rising and falling in quick breaths. In the next he was awake and ravenous. In his peripheral vision, Joe saw Eddy make a grab for Ruby’s ankle, saw Ruby twist and kick out with her free leg, catching Eddy in the chest. Eddy was already starting to rise and the blow forced him backward, crashing him into the rotten frame of the counter, which collapsed leaving them totally exposed. The soldier, already halfway through the gap in the window, turned, his eyes widening as he took in the scene. He began to swing up his carbine, but before he could fire, Eddy hurtled across the small space and clattered into him, dragging him to the ground.

  Joe brought the AK up and fired at the fifty-mil gunner as he tried frantically to swing the gun towards them. The man suddenly pitched and rocked in the firing hatch, getting off a burst that flew high and wide. The Humvee hurtled forward and raced away, heading deeper into the wastelands. From the street to his left Joe heard shouts, the sound of running feet, all but drowned out by the screams of the soldier as Eddy Montague buried his face in the man’s neck. A spurt of arterial blood fountained towards the ceiling and Joe heard the sickening crunch of teeth on cartilage, then the vile sounds of Eddy feeding as the soldier convulsed on the floor. He stepped past, headed for the window, peered to his left, as a spray of bullets slammed into the building. Joe saw the muzzle flash, saw the shooter half concealed behind a pile of brickwork, the idiot not even bothering to move. He could take the man out with a single shot. First though, he had to deal with Eddy, still ripping at the corpse of the soldier. He raised the AK and put a single bullet in the back of Eddy’s head.

  The shot drew a fresh response from the soldiers, a spattering of fire that was wildly off target and gave away the position of the other two, left and right of their colleague a bit higher in the rubble pile with good cover and arcs of fire.

  “I can draw them out,” Ruby said beside him.

  “Don’t you even think about it,” Joe said. “They’ve got –”

  But before he could complete his sentence, Ruby was through the door, sprinting into the street, flipping into a series of cartwheels that rendered her a blur of movement. The soldiers took the bait, rising from cover to fire at her. Joe stepped onto the sidewalk and took them out with three evenly spaced shots.

  twenty one

  Dr. Alex Payne was concerned, excited, and just a little bit pissed. The breach at the Lincoln Tunnel had to be Marin, just had to be. But why had he deviated from the plan? Why hadn’t he waited until things had settled before making his move, like they’d agreed? She’d know the answer to that soon enough. For now she had another conundrum to solve. How the hell was she going to get him out of this mess when there were two squads of soldiers racing to intercept him?

  By the time they made the turn into 9th Avenue, her concern had been elevated to a new level. Up ahead she could hear the rattle of small arms fire, the thud of fifties. As soon as the Humvees screeched to a halt on the approach road to the tunnel, and before Captain Garner could stop her, she was out of the door, stalking across the tarmac.

  The road sloped gently down to the tunnel mouths where a section of wall had collapsed, or rather been blown, judging by the blackening of the façade and the scattered brickwork. The pavement was littered with the skeletal, gray-skinned bodies of dead zombies. As she watched, a trio of the creatures pushed through the gap and lurched up the ramp. The soldiers allowed them to make a few yards before cutting them down.

  “Stop firing!” Alex shouted. “Stop goddamn firing, I say!”

  “Begging your pardon captain,” Garner said. “But this here’s a military operation under my command. I’ll thank you not to give commands to my men.”

  “A military cluster fuck is what it is,” Alex spat. “Crank up that radio. Let’s get control of this situation.”

  “Radio doesn’t work,” Garner said. “I thought I was clear on that.”

  “Doesn’t work, my ass. Let’s just –”

  “Sir?”

  Garner looked towards the gunner, then towards the tunnel. His mouth suddenly gaped open. Alex followed his gaze and saw right away what had caused his reaction. Her heart gave a little skip. In between the grotesque creatures stood a familiar figure. Marin was dressed in blue jeans, a plaid shirt and a tweed coat. He had a rucksack on his back and seemed to be holding something in his hand, something that glinted in the wintry sun. The Z’s milled around him, no longer trying to force their way up the ramp, seemingly under Scolfield’s control.

  “Greetings!” Scolfield called from the bottom of the ramp. “Wow! Is that the way you welcome visitors to Manhattan these days?”

  “Who the hell are you?” Garner called out.

  “I’m Marin Scolfield,” Scolfield came back. “Don’t you remember me? I’m a friend of Bobo’s. I was with you guys in Hackensack. Dr. Payne will vouch for me. Hi, Alex,” he added proffering her with that boyish smile that she so loved.

  “Marin,” Alex said back, hoping the quiver in her voice wasn’t obvious.

&nb
sp; “Well, whoever the hell you are, you need to get out of there in a hurry. I’m going to be turning my fifties on those things. Unless you want to be caught in the crossfire I suggest you haul ass.”

  Alex had been focusing all of her attention on Marin. Now, at the mention of the Z’s, she suddenly realized how quickly their numbers had swelled. They filled the entire approach, from one restraining wall to the other, a mass of grotesque alien creatures. Still they poured through the gap in the wall. And yet none of them advanced up the ramp.

  “Save your bullets,” Marin said. “I got this. Just tell me where you’re holding the others and I’ll march this crew right into your enclosure.” As if to illustrate the point, he took a pace forward. The Z’s stepped forward in lockstep.

  “Stand them down!” Garner barked. “Don’t move them any closer! We will fire on you!”

  “Ease up there Rambo. Like I said, I got this.” He took another step. Every Z on the approach road shuffled forward with him, hundreds of the things.

  “Stand down!” Garner shouted. But his voice was less confident than it had been just a minute ago. Alex reckoned he was trying to figure the odds of cutting down the Z’s before they reached the top of the ramp. Right now, it looked about fifty-fifty.

  Still more creatures spilled out from the tunnel. Scolfield took another deliberate, exaggerated, step forward. He was grinning, the sunlight reflecting off his glasses giving him the appearance of some cyclopean god.

  “Gunners!” Captain Garner barked out. “On my command, open up on them with everything you’ve got. He turned back towards Scolfield. “This is your last chance,” he said.

  But Scolfield didn’t seem too interested in last chances. He stepped back into the melee, working his way in among the zombies, disappearing among them.