Duyheld up his hands containing the various blades and said, “take your pick.”
Dave grabbed for the machete, not being the skilled and accurate knife thrower that the Dew-man was.
“I’ve got my Glock and my sledge, but I don’t know how much hammering’ I can do without dropping Roscoe and he becomes tender vittles for these fuckers.” Mack explained as he slung the weak and exhausted police dog over his neck like a furry, boney sack of potatoes. Roscoe’s front and rear legs hung down in front of
Mack on either side of his head.
Mack used his left hand to reach back and hold Roscoe onto him tightly and he positioned his Glock in his right hand, preparing to rush headfirst into battle.
Duy commented, “All right, fellas, I hope everyone is good with the big man above, just in case we don’t survive this. Godspeed!”
“I'm in like Flynn with the big guy!” Mackexclaimed. “I slapped him on the ass the other day and told him, ‘Good game.’ He gave me one right back.”
Dave and Duylooked at each other, puzzled and unsure of what to think of Mack’s last comment, but all three surged forward and began the onslaught of the dead.
Duy used his throwing knives like daggers, holding two in his right hand and one in his left, jabbing the blades into the chest of the first of the jaw-chomping deadbeats he encountered. Duy stabbed repeatedly, shredding the heart and throat area of the creature, which continued to edge forward, still eager to eat.
“GUYS, THIS THING AIN’T STOPPING!!!!!”
Mack had already blasted three of the beasts to smithereens with single blasts to their heads from his Glock .40 as he took great care to prevent the macabre from biting or clawing at Roscoe. “Attack the heads, guys. Seems to be more effective…”
Duy sunk the two blades in his right hand into the forehead of his nemesis with a sudden upward thrust. The creature folded like a campground tent and collapsed to the ground at Duy’s feet. A black gel-like glop seeped from its newly acquired cavity.
Dave swung his machete about as if it was a magic wand. He was slicing and carving at the creatures faces and removing noses and ears, but otherwise without much effectiveness.
The Chicago native found himself quickly backtracking as two zombies closed within three feet of him at the same time. Unbeknownst to Dave, an already slain creature whom Mack had extinguished was now lying on the ground at Dave’s feet. The tavern owner tripped over the carcass and fell backwards, landing on his hyper-extended right wrist, shattering the tiny bones within as if they were twigs beneath a Sasquatch’s foot.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Dave screamed in pain; his wrist was throbbing as one of the bones protrude through the skin. Blood squirted outwards from the compound fracture.
Duy had not planned on throwing his knives, for retrieving them wasn’t nearly as convenient as just holding onto them in the first place. And there was no guarantee that once you had released them, that you would ever get them back.
But, recognizing the danger Dave was facing, the young Asian sensation took aim. He dispatched first one knife, then the second. They found their targets and like scalpels, made precise incisions. They pierced the skulls and brains of the zombies that were about to reach Dave. The bodies dropped to the ground, much to Dave’s relief.
Now down to one weapon, Duy stood beside Mack. They fought their way forward through the crowd of maggot herders who were collectively demonstrating their strong urge to BITE. Mack was carefully holding on tightly to Roscoe, while using his legs and feet to kick closing in creatures back long enough to buy the officer time to place a single shot through another one’s head. He then would focus on another one and do the same.
Duy stabbed and stuck the monsters with a vengeance. This combination of Mack and Duy were able to clear a path much like the parting of the Red Sea. Dave used his good hand to wrap his damaged right wrist under his shirt. He held it in place as he walked behind his comrades, and they all made it to the safety of Dave’s truck.
“Duy, you gotta drive…I can’t. Here are the keys...”
Mack jumped into the back seat of the crew-cab; his furry parcel unscathed.
Duy drove the Chevy Silverado like a demon possessed. He traveled at a high rate of speed and went over and through whatever got in the truck’s path. He traversed over sidewalks to go around one pack of parasite incubators and then cut through a back alley, driving over abandoned furniture and trash cans alike.
“Woohoo!” Duy yelled as they lost sight of the crowd of creatures in the rearview mirror.
The trio headed back to north Dallas in search of medical attention for Dave, and Mack had Duydrop him off at his friend Michelle Valencia’s two-story townhouse on the way. Mack carried Roscoe in a bear hug, walking up to the front door and laying on the doorbell. A dreary and pajama-clad Michelle answered the door to see Mack holding what appeared to be a deceased Roscoe.
“Oh my God…is he… dead……???? “Not yet,” Mack murmured. “You’ve got to help him.”
Chapter Eighteen - Sex, Flies, and Videotapes
Michelle’s residence, North Dallas Jake and Mack, through their professional dealings with her over the years, had come to know and befriend Michelle Valencia. She was the lone female medical examiner for the Dallas County Coroner’s Office.
Michelle was a titillating twenty-six-year-old Hispanic woman of short stature. She featured long, usually falling, chestnut brown hair with honey tinted streaks. She had gorgeous bulbous brown eyes with long thick lashes, and a medium build body with perky, bountiful breasts and curvaceous, feminine hips.
Originally from California, she had previously been married to a man named Miguel. Miguel had left her when their son Victor was just 6 months old. For the longest time she didn’t have any idea where Miguel was, and she was grateful for that because she did not need his abusive behavior and negative personality influencing her young son.
When Miguel reappeared two years later; “changed, apologetic, and wanting to resume their relationship”, Michelle moved herself and now five-year-old Victor to Dallas in the middle of the night. She did not tell anyone her plans and moved despite not knowing a soul in Texas.
Officer McElroy put the unresponsive Roscoe down on the living room couch and explained, “We found him like this in his kennel. I don’t see or feel any wounds on him. I think he is starving. He’s so skinny.”
Michelle was not a veterinarian, but her medical training gave her enough knowledge to aid the animal and give him a fighting chance to survive. “Bring him in this back bedroom. Lay him down on the bed.”
Michelle gathered makeshift supplies and medicines to prepare a makeshift IV for Roscoe. She hoped to replenish his vital nutrients and fluids in order to revive him.
“Okay, he’s getting some fluids now, and he’s going to need a lot of rest. But he should be fine in a few days.”
Mack was instantly relieved to learn Roscoe was well on his way to recovery.
“Now that I have patched Roscoe up, how about you? I was so sorry to hear about the tragedy with Holly. Are you doing okay?”
“I guess you could say I’m starting to come to grips with the fact that she’s gone. We never had a super serious relationship; we mostly were just good friends that liked to get together to have fun on a regular basis. It was cool to hang out with her because she wasn’t a cop. I get so tired of talking about the job all the time and bringing work home with me. But I guess because her brotherinlaw was a cop too, she wasn’t always asking me to tell her my war stories.
“It’s also nice to date someone who doesn’t have a gun and shoots better than I do,” he said with a half-smile on his face.
“Seriously, though, she was a great girl. I really miss her.”
With a sympathetic tone, Michelle replied, “Well, when you’re ready to have fun again, let me know.”
Mack raised one eyebrow, obviously intrigued by Michelle’s proposition. “What exactly didyou have in mind?”
>
“Whatever you feel like, I guess the same sorta stuff you and Holly used to do.”
“Whoa, hold up. I was always under the impression that you liked women. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Michelle laughed heartily. “Haa, no. W hen I first started working here five years ago, I learned right away it was hard to be a woman in this field. Everyone that trained me and that I worked with were all men.
“It’s hard to work on a stiff when your trainer is standing behind you and workin g with a stiff too, if you know what I mean. So, I came up with the idea to start wearing more masculine clothing and act disinterested in guys. Worked like a charm!”
“Okay, well, cool. All I know is I owe you one big time for fixin’ Roscoe up.” “Yeah, you do! Why don’t you stay the night so Roscoe can get rested up and recuperate and you can work on reimbursing me.” The next morning Mack was awakened by a cold sensation to his lower region but was soon overwhelmed by the luscious scent of fresh brewing coffee and fried eggs and bacon. He found his way to the kitchen and replenished his appetite with a beautiful breakfast that the ravishing lady had prepared.
“Good morning, handsome! How did you sleep?” Michelle gushed with gratification. “I slept lik e a baby until you licked me on the ass a coupleminutes ago,” Mack said half smiling and still aroused.
“Oh, that wasn’t me. It must have been my little Chihuahua, Franky. He snuck into the bedroom when I opened the door. I think he likes you.”
Mack quickly became unaroused.
After enjoying the fresh hot meal, Mack talked about his plan to set out on an expedition in search of his mentor. Mack decided that it might behoove him to acquire some information relative to the dangers and demons he might soon be facing. He recognized that Michelle was the one person he knew that could possibly assist him in his quest for this knowledge.
“You think maybe you could shed some light on this whole outbreak thing that’s going on? Somehow, I think Jake is still possibly alive and wrapped up in this whole Infection Armageddon. Maybe if I had more intelligence on the matter, it might assist me in finding him.”
“Well, I can tell you what I know so far” Michelle offered.
“I have been participating in this regular weekly info-sharing conference calls with other medical examiners, ER doctors and nurses, EMTs and fire personnel from across the country. They have all been seeing large increases in cases of people being attacked and/or transforming into these creatures.”
“Yeah? So, what are these things anyways? Are they zombies?”
“Well, the dead and buried from before this plague was initiated are not awakening and rising out of their graves. However, we are seeing some more recently departed corpses who were somehow infected premortem becoming reanimated.”
Michelle recounted an incident she had personally encountered just days earlier.
“Just last Wednesday I was performing an autopsy on this older gentleman who had died of unknown causes. I was leaning over him from the side, working on removing the skull cap. I was about halfway through his skull with my mini circular saw when his eyes began to flutter. And then they opened. I freaked the fuck out and dropped the saw. Luckily, the blade didn’t cut me on the way down.
“So, I screamed, and some of the guys came running in. One of the docs had his golf bag in his office. He grabbed a Ping wedge club to use as a weapon. Doc’s got a pretty good swing; he whacked the THING’s head off before IT could climb down from the table. I bet the funeral home had a hell of a time preparing that one for an open casket ceremony.
“So now we each have a nail gun by our sides when we are working, and we make sure these cadavers are always strapped down tightly to the worktable. At the first sign of them waking, we slam a five-inch steel nailthrough the side of their skull. It puts them down for good, and it’s a lot easier to clean up then using the Ping.”
Disturbed by Michelle’s unnerving account, Mack posed a question for her.
“So, is there any word on what may have caused this to happen?”
“There are rumors out there that the initial outbreak was caused by the military somehow but there is no confirmation on that. But I have heard reports that authorities in Florida have found a dumping ground in the St Johns River, where up to fifty cadavers of previously missing and abducted persons ended up. All of them appeared to have been experimented on, they all seemed to be infected with an unknown virus. Officials estimated some of the corpses had been in the river for several months.
“There is no further information at this time about where these experiments took place or who may have conducted them. It is also unknown at this time if there are people out there who may have survived this testing and if so, whether they are carrying this virus as well.
“The St Johns River is a massive body of water. Thousands of vacationers and locals visit this river for recreation, swimming, fishing, waterskiing, etc. So, for the past several months these people have been flocking to this area for these reasons. However, unbeknownst to them, they were swimming in infected waters and contracting this virus. They might as well have been swimming in a pool of cyanide.
“These people returned home to their normal lives and over the days to follow, the infected ones start changing. For some the morphing was very gradual, but for others it was much more expedient.
“Scientists tracked down several people who entered the contaminated waters and conducted interviews and tests on them up until they eventually changed as well. In the interviews, they described gaining incredible strength and stamina early in the infection stages.
“But that didn’t last long, because soon the plague began to take over, corroding their brains
– turning them into angry, flesh starved beasts. They were devolving, dying, as they meandered through the five known stages of decomposition.”
Mack was intrigued. “So, they are basically alive but dying at the same time?” “Yes, pretty much. At first, internal bacteria start to digest the organ tissues and rigor mortis begins to set in. Insects such as blow flies arrive to deposit eggs in or near the natural orifices of the head and anus, as well as within any open wounds.
“All along their body is rotting out from under them, their brains do not receive or at least comprehend that message. It’s as if they are unaware that they are dead, or at least refuse to accept it. Somehow there is enough brain activity to still make some parts of the body function, albeit at very low levels.
“Depending on the rate of decomposition and the development time of particular blowfly species, eggs may hatch, and young larvae begin to feed on tissues and liquids. Blood bubbles at the nose and anaerobic bacteria in the abdomen create gases, which accumulate and results in abdominal bloating. A color change is observed in the skin along with the appearance of marbling and the odor of putrefaction becomes noticeable.
“Ants, beetles and other insects have arrived by now and are feeding on the eggs and young larvae of the flies. Deflation of the body will then result as feeding larvae remove flesh from around the head and the anus, piercing the skin and causing internal gases to release.
“Eventually the bugs and larvae feeding frenzy ends and there is a mass insect exodus as the strong odors fade and the corpse is left dry, with very little remaining other than bones, cartilage and small bits of dried skin. I find it hard to believe a body at this level of decomposition could find itself upright without simultaneously collapsing into a pile of dust and debris.
“Oh, and all of those creepy crawlies who left the carcass are now infected. They subsequently move on to land on living people who are outdoors and not protected with pesticides. The bugs and flies land directly on people, or in their mouths. The bugs bite them, crap on them, get squished on them - everything. And the toxic disease is once again spread.
“The flies also lay their eggs in the water, creating more contaminated tributaries. It’s like a neverending cycle, there’s no telling how long this will last and how
many victims it will claim.”
Mack paused to collect his thoughts and then recapped what he had just heard from Michelle.
“So,you’re telling me there’s partially living but dead people with maggots biting through their skin and feasting on their innards, with bacteria dissolving away the body organs and fluids leaking out and gases escaping. And these fuckers are still walking around?”
“Yes, and don’t forget the most important part to remember; they are eating people!” Michelle emphasized.
“So how long does it take after someone gets infected before they are walking around with maggot pets in their face?” Mack half sarcastically questioned Michelle.
Michelle chuckled, not at the situation but at the way Mack worded his question.
“The amount of time depends on how the victim becomes infected. They can contract it either through contact with the compromised water or by one of these insects, or through a zombie bite. In the case of a bite from one of the infected creatures, then it all depends how badly infected the attacker was, over what length of time they had been inflicted, and the strength and age of the victim.
“And then the decomposition rates depend upon several factors as well. Factors like temperatures, external conditions, how much and what type of clothing the victim is wearing, any drug use, body fat, so on and so forth.”
“So, do these thingsonly come out at night?” Mack asked.
“They’re not vampires.” Michelle said. “They are out and about all the hours of the day, regardless of the light conditions. Obviously,they don’t need sleep because they don’t have to get up and go to work in the morning.”
Mack grinned. “Haaa… very true. This is all so damn crazy.
“Thanks for enlightening me on this stuff. It should help immensely. Can you please keep me updated as you get more information? I would greatly appreciate it. And if anyone asks, you haven’t spoken to me or know anything about Roscoe or me or what I am doing. I don’t trust anyone other than you, Dave, Duyand Amanda.”
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