Broken (Book 3 of The Guardian Interviews)

by Michael Clary

  I used ten sets of disks placing them all at different heights along the walls. When I was finished and once again standing next to Dudley, I had about ten feet of hallway covered with lasers.

  “Were they really lasers?”

  Oh yeah, they were lasers. They would cut through just about anything that passed in front of the beam. Being a Regulator has its perks. We get to be the first to play with all the new gadgets that come down the pipeline.

  The disks were a great booby-trap, but they did have some serious limitations. The battery life was only about forty-five minutes. The disks were only good for about ten or fifteen cuts before they burned out. Also, absent direct sunlight, the lasers themselves were very visible. An enemy would be able to spot the trap easily and from a pretty big distance.

  “The zombies wouldn’t spot them though, would they?”

  Well, I’m sure the zombies saw the lasers. They’re just too stupid to try and avoid them. Regardless, the disk lasers would slow them down when it came time to make a run for it.

  “Jax,” Nick said over my earpiece. “I can see the helicopter. Get your ass up here.”

  I looked over at Dudley, who gave me a nod and stopped firing. We should have taken off immediately, but both of us were just a little too curious to see how well the disks would work.

  The first zombie crawled through the window; she was followed by another and another one after that. She locked eyes with us for just a brief moment, screamed and charged us. The laser took both her legs off at the knee. She then took to crawling after us and screamed out in rage and frustration only to run headfirst into the next laser and drop lifelessly to the ground in a heap. The top part of her head had been sliced off in a perfectly straight line.

  “I’m glad I invented those,” Dudley whispered.

  I gave a brief laugh and watched as the other zombies charged towards us only to fall to pieces when they met the lasers.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  We ran back the way we had come, but as soon as we had entered the stairwell, we heard a cacophony of screams coming from above us. I silently planned on having words with my team about clearing buildings if I survived long enough to do so.

  “How many?” Dudley asked.

  “Too many and not enough ammo,” I answered.

  “We’re about to get boxed in.”

  “No shit,” I answered.

  I popped my head out of the stairwell and looked around frantically. The hallways on the first floor were filled with those flimsy fake-wood doors. If the zombies saw us enter them or managed to locate us later, those things would crumple in a heartbeat.

  The screams above us were becoming louder and louder. I was also beginning to hear the sounds of many, many different pairs of feet scrape against the concrete steps. I reached into one of the pouches on my utility belt and brought out a handful of marble sized steel balls. I threw the balls up the stairs.

  “Looks like down is our only option,” I said.

  I led the way. After two flights of stairs we arrived at another metal door. The door was unlocked and we entered the darkness inside just as we heard the loud pops of the steel balls I had thrown up the stairs.

  “They were another booby-trap?”

  Yeah, they were pretty nasty. Essentially they made a small explosion whenever they were squished. However, the explosion was small enough that it wasn’t fatal to whoever was unlucky enough to step on one of them. Yet, it was strong enough to break the person’s leg or ankle, and I’m talking about a real break: one that you can’t walk away from.

  Just for goofs once, Dudley and I bought a bag of marbles, spray painted them silver and scattered them all around Georgie’s bed while he was asleep. You should have heard him scream when he woke up and started stepping on them. Ever since then, we started calling them Georgie’s boom balls.

  Anyway, the room we entered was pitch black. I took a step forward and went tumbling down a bunch of stairs before I managed to grab a hold of the railing. A soft growl answered the noise I made.

  My mp7 had gotten twisted around behind me on its sling, so I frantically yanked out the Sig Sauer from my side holster only to realize that I still couldn’t see a damn thing. I was pulling off my backpack in order to retrieve my flashlight when the large room flooded with a dim light.

  Dudley was still at the top of the stairs. He had somehow managed to find the light switch.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “All except my ego,” I replied. “Lock the door behind you.”

  I looked around the room as soon as I heard the click of the lock. We were in a flooded basement. I couldn’t tell how deep the water was, but it seemed to be pretty deep, and the water line reached up to just a few steps below me. There was an earthy, moldy smell in the air, and that was joined together with the all too familiar smell of rot and decay.

  The basement was rather large. It easily spanned the length and width of the building, without all the doors and hallways to make it appear smaller. It was just one big open area. Floating on the water were pieces of wood and soaked papers. I also saw the upper halves of filing cabinets and boilers. Apparently, the space had been used for storage.

  None of that really concerned me, though.

  Something had growled at me and it didn’t sound like a zombie. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I wanted to find out before it swam up and took a bite out of me.

  “What are you looking for?” asked Dudley.

  “Something growled before you hit the lights.”

  “What was it?” asked Dudley.

  “If I knew that I would have told you,” I answered.

  “Over there!” Dudley shouted with a point of his finger.

  I trained my eyes over to the darkened corner he was pointing at. Whatever he saw was no longer there, but the water was still rippling in that area.

  “What did you see?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure what it was, but I’m pretty sure it was humanoid. It had a really weird color, sort of pinkish. It went into the water.”

  The area we were looking at was the darkest place in the entire room. I used my flashlight to get a better view, and I really didn’t like what I saw.

  The ground was built up in that area with mud. It created a small island above the water line. Above the muddy island, were five corpses hanging upside down from the ceiling. We had stumbled upon something’s lair.

  “Jaxon,” Georgie said through my ear piece. “Where are you? The helicopter is here.”

  “We’re trapped in the basement,” I answered. “You assholes didn’t clear the building and we got surrounded.”

  “Should we come and get you?”

  “No. Use the machine guns on the chopper to take out the shamblers still outside the building. After that, replenish what supplies you need and head over to the next building we picked out and continue the job. Just make sure you clear the new building before you start attracting any zombies to your area.”

  “You want us to just leave you guys there?” Georgie asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “We’ll figure a way out.”

  “Jax,” Georgie said. “There are thousands of zombies trying to get inside the building right now. Are you sure you want us to leave you?”

  “There isn’t much you can do right now anyway,” I answered. “We may just have to hide out until they get bored and leave. I’ll radio you if we run into anything we can’t handle.”

  “Alright,” Georgie said before signing off.

  We sat quietly for about five minutes listening to the ruckus coming from above us. Things had certainly picked up while we were inside the building.

  “I can’t believe there are thousands of zombies above us,” Dudley said dejectedly.

  “I can’t believe none of them tracked us down here,” I replied.

  I really wasn’t too worried about the zombies at the moment. I was much more concerned about what was swimming around in the dark water below me. Ev
ery now and then I would see a ripple of movement across the still surface.

  “Do you think it was a zombie?” I asked.

  “Zombies don’t normally hang their victims upside down,” Dudley answered. “So no, I don’t think it was a zombie that I saw.”

  “You think it was a vampire?” I asked.

  “I fucking hope not,” Dudley answered. “I’ve had enough of those bastards.”

  “I don’t think it was a vampire,” I said. “Vampires like fresh blood. They keep their victims alive and in pits like that one you found.”

  “Just shut up about vampires,” Dudley grumbled. “I don’t want to talk about vampires. You’re freaking me out.”

  “How am I freaking you out?” I asked.

  “Dude, we’re in a dark cellar that’s filled with water. There is a rotting food source in the darkest corner. And something is swimming around underneath us. I want to get the hell out of here.”

  “I want you to know that I listened to everything you just said,” I answered. “However, you failed to explain to me what I did to freak you out.”

  “Now you’re just fucking with me.”

  “I’m not,” I answered. “I’m just wondering why you want to blame me for freaking you out, when in fact you are to blame for our current predicament.”

  “How am I to blame?” Dudley demanded.

  “Because you morons didn’t clear the building,” I answered.

  “We probably should have cleared the building,” Dudley agreed.

  I was trying hard not to laugh, and I just couldn’t resist one more jab.

  “So what do you think is in that water?” I asked.

  “Would you shut the hell up?” Dudley snapped.

  “Fine,” I answered. “I really don’t feel like talking to you anymore anyway.”

  “Good,” Dudley said. “Let’s just sit here quietly until enough of the shamblers leave, and then we’ll make a break for it.”

  I couldn’t pick on him anymore. Dudley was obviously freaked out. I mean, I knew he was a little edgy, but I had no idea that he was as worried as he was. He’s normally a pretty steady guy.

  “What do you think was causing him to be so unnerved?”

  I can only guess. It’s not like he’d ever tell me, but I’m guessing the thousands of zombies thundering around and screaming their heads off above us, combined with the new and unknown threat below us was the cause. Also, the new threat was intelligent. It’s never good to have something intelligent trying to eat you.

  “How do you know it was intelligent?”

  Because it tied its victims to the ceiling: tying something up takes intelligence. That meant that there was a pinkish hued creature with an unknown degree of intelligence swimming below us with an appetite for human flesh.

  “Why were you so calm?”

  Who said I was calm? I wasn’t anywhere near calm. I was just channeling my energy into picking on Dudley so I wouldn’t freak out with him. Anyway, back to the basement.

  I tapped my earpiece.

  “I’m here,” Hardin asked.

  “What do you think we’re dealing with?” I asked.

  “No idea,” Hardin replied. “The video I’m looking at isn’t very clear. I sent it over to Miriam, and she isn’t sure either. Maybe you could work your way closer to the den so I could have a better look.”

  I looked over at Dudley and he was mouthing the words, ‘Hell no’ at me.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I answered before signing off.

  I really didn’t want to sit around and wait for whatever it was to attack me. That’s just not my idea of a good time. I would much rather have the deck stacked in my favor and go on the offensive. So, I pulled the grappling hook and rope out of my backpack.

  My target was a very large filing cabinet about eight feet away. Now the movies always make it look rather easy but I can assure you that trying to cast a grappling hook over to another object and actually make it stick is a very difficult thing to do. I missed my first try and didn’t fail to notice the smirk on Dudley’s face.

  Around thirty attempts later, my grappling hook finally found a purchase. I took my end of the line and tied it tightly to the railing of the staircase.

  “Are you seriously going to do this?” Dudley asked.

  I didn’t answer him at first simply because I felt the answer was rather obvious. Also, the entire time I was attempting to make my grappling hook stick on to the filing cabinet he hadn’t said a word. Aside from his smirk, he had no reaction at all. He probably never thought I’d get the grappling hook to stick. Plus, I was little shocked that he was actually speaking to me again.

  “Yeah,” I finally answered after he began cursing under his breath.

  “Whatever’s in that water is going to wait until you’re halfway across, and then it’s going to jump out at you.”

  “That only happens in horror films numb nuts.”

  “You wait,” Dudley replied.

  There was no chance in Hell I was going to be able to use the line as a tightrope. I just don’t have that kind of balance. Instead, I hung from the rope with my hands and feet and pulled myself towards the filing cabinet.

  When I reached the halfway mark, I must admit that I got a little nervous. I started looking over my shoulder towards the water beneath me. I was half expecting a giant shark-thing to burst from the water.

  “Any second now,” Dudley announced as he lifted up his pistol and pointed it towards the water.

  “I never really liked you,” I told him.

  Finally, I reached the filing cabinet and pulled myself on top of it. The top of the metal was wet and slippery. When the pounding on the basement door began, I jumped so high I almost lost my balance and fell into the water.

  The zombies had located our hiding spot.

  “This could be a problem, Jax,” Dudley said.

  “Yeah,” I answered.

  I was doing my best to ignore the pounding on the door. My attention was focused on the task at hand, and I didn’t welcome the interruption. Besides, the door looked to be extremely sturdy. I had a bit of time.

  From the filing cabinet, I jumped close to six feet and landed on a slightly smaller cabinet. This cabinet was just as slippery as the last one and I slid right to the side with the bottom half of my body hanging over the edge. I rapidly pulled myself up while visions of a shark-man filled my mind. Once I was on top of the cabinet, I looked down below me at the water and noticed that it was rippling.

  “Did you see anything,” I asked Dudley.

  “Why? What’s happened?”

  I didn’t bother to answer him. All he was really concerned about were the zombies piling up outside the door to the basement.

  From the second filing cabinet, I hopped to the side of a boiler. I shimmied my way to the opposite side of the bulbous hunk of machinery and launched myself towards a third filing cabinet. I had another game of slip and slide there before I was able to get myself secure.

  The pounding on the basement door was becoming louder.

  “How’s it going over there?” I asked.

  “The door is holding but I’m not sure for how long.”

  “How many are out there?” I asked.

  “What do you want me to do?” Dudley snarled back at me, “Open the door and count them?”

  “Testy little girl, aren’t you?” I retorted.

  From the final filing cabinet, I was able to jump towards the ceiling and grab an exposed pipe. From there I went hand over hand until I reached the muddy island. I let go of the pipe and landed on the gooey surface. I briefly wondered where the mud came from, but as it wasn’t immediately important, I let the thought drop.

  On one corner of the small island I saw what must have been a nest. It was a mass of shredded foam and fabric piled up on the sides and flattened in the middle. I took out my flashlight and started searching for clues. There weren’t any to be found in the nest. So, I shined the light towards the mud a
nd found footprints. Judging by the size and shape of them, they were all created by the same creature.

  The moment I had seen the hanging bodies, I was certain we weren’t dealing with zombies. When I saw the footprints, I knew we weren’t dealing with a vampire either. I still had had doubts up until I saw the footprints, but upon seeing them I was positive it wasn’t a vampire. The creature responsible only had three toes, and each toe had a ridiculously long claw.

  The pounding on the door increased to the point in which the door was shaking on its hinges. Dudley had repositioned himself farther down the stairs with his pistol trained on the wobbling door.

  I went over to the hanging bodies. I found a bite mark on the first one I looked at. It was pretty difficult to miss; a huge chunk was missing from the side of its neck. It didn’t take long to find the bite mark on the second corpse either. It was located on its dangling arm, and by the looks of it, it was rather severe.

  “Are you seeing this?” I asked Hardin after tapping my earpiece.

  “Those are zombie bites. It looks like all the victims were infected,” Hardin answered.

  “Any ideas?” I asked.

  “Miriam thinks it could be a few things, but she isn’t positive on any of them. Get a closer look at the body in the far back if you can.”

  I grumbled some sort of response and went to the corpse farthest from my position. This body was missing pieces. In fact, it was missing a lot of pieces. Something had been eating it and the wounds looked rather fresh.

  Then I noticed the most shocking thing at all.

  The body was riddled with bullet holes. Closer inspection on the other bodies showed me that all of the corpses suffered bullet wounds. In three of them alone, the only wounds aside from the zombie bite was a single bullet hole in the forehead.

  I heard a gurgling in the water just a few feet from the bank of the small island I was standing on.

  “Hardin,” I said after tapping my earpiece. “Whatever this thing is, it’s feeding on dead zombies.”

  “Well, a dead zombie is just a corpse,” Hardin replied. “These zombies were caused by a curse. I believe that once the brain is destroyed the zombie becomes just a regular dead body.”