by JJ Zep
A universe of stars exploded across his vision. Joe felt a sweep of vertigo that threatened to overbalance him. His damaged ankle flashed a distress signal and almost buckled under him. Joe steadied himself, fought past the pain. If he fell now, he knew he’d never have the strength to lift Hooley again. They’d be Z bait. Two of the creatures had finished with the Dumfries, and were looking up from their kill. Looking for fresh meat.
thirty four
Ruby couldn’t remember when last she’d seen this many Z’s in one place. The woods were alive with the things, all of them blundering through the undergrowth on a southeasterly path. It was as though they were being drawn towards Big Bear Lake by some invisible force. She accessed the hive mind and opened up a path, tried to discover what was driving them.
One of those violent images jumped into her mind, filling her vision. A man hovered over a naked woman, his hands on her midriff, the angle obscuring what he was doing to her. Now the angle switched and Ruby saw his face, saw his hands pushed, fingers down, against the woman’s ribcage, pulling, tearing… Jesus, God, was that even possible?
She withdrew quickly from the hive, her breath coming in short gasps, nausea swirling in her gut. Ruby was no stranger to violence but what she’d seen, a woman being literally…
She blotted the thought from her mind, scooped Pearl up into her arms and start running. Getting into town had taken on a newfound urgency.
The woods opened up onto a road that looked familiar. Ruby looked along the track, as it twisted downhill through the trees. Her instincts told her to follow, and she obeyed. A hundred yards down, the road branched off and she saw a mailbox at the junction. The name on the box said ‘Hoolihan.’
A memory came flooding back, Uncle Joe teasing Hooley about putting the box up, Hooley countering that Joe had obviously never seen, ‘The Postman,’ with Kevin Costner.
Pearl shifted in her arms. “You okay kiddo?” Ruby asked.
“I’m scared,” Pearl whispered.
Ruby looked into the child’s eyes and saw the moonlit forest reflected back from them. Dark shapes shifting among the trees. One of them broke from cover and crashed across the path just in front of her, moving in that familiar loping gait. Now she spotted another, angling down the slope. These were no longer following the trajectory of the main group. These were hunting.
*****
The easy part was getting Hooley across the floor. The difficulty was going to be getting him to the storm door. Joe looked over his shoulder and up the twelve steps he’d have to climb. Right now they looked about as high as Everest.
He worked his left foot onto the first step, anchored it and then lifted his damaged right and hauled Hooley up after him. He backed up another step and another, the muscles in his arms and lower back screaming for respite, his ankle beyond pain. Another step. Joe looked to the enticing sliver of moonlight that spilled between the storm doors and teased him with the proximity of his salvation. So near and yet so far. He needed a breather, one he could scarcely afford.
A crash from the cellar drew his attention to the hellish scene playing out there, the ghoulish shadows thrown by the kerosene lamp, the zombies squabbling over the gristle and bone at the Dumfries buffet, more of them dropping through the door like rancid meat through a grinder, the stench of them, abattoir and sewer. One of the creatures, a fresh kill wearing the black uniform of the Pendragon infantry, stood up from Creed Dumfries’ ravaged corpse and looked across the expanse of the cellar, its dead eyes fixing on the stairway. Then it stumbled forward, drawing others with it.
Joe braced himself and hauled Hooley up another step. But he could already see that he wasn’t going to make it before the creatures got to him. The former Pendragon soldier had already covered half the distance, buffeting off the crates and boxes that barred its way. It wore a blood beard and the front of its shirt was thick with congealed gore. One of its ears flapped loose from its head, hanging by a tendon. But none of those details was of particular interest to Joe. What attracted his attention was the pistol the thing wore on its hip. That was the winning lotto ticket that was going to get him and Hooley out of here.
But only if he seized the chance immediately.
He lowered Hooley to the stairs and stepped over him and dropped three steps back into the cellar, meeting the zombie head on. The thing swiped at him with a clawed fist and Joe ducked under the blow, got behind the Z and slammed its face into the wall. In an instant, his hand was on the butt of the pistol, releasing the cover strap and yanking it free. He spun the Z around and sent it careening into its advancing brethren. In the cluttered cellar, it was like scoring a strike.
Joe wasn’t sticking around to admire his handiwork. He made for the stairs, grabbed a handful of Hooley’s collar and dragged him none too gently up the remaining steps. He had a lead on them now. They weren’t going to catch him.
He applied his shoulder to the storm door and felt it open outwards, the mag wheels he’d placed there sliding easily away. But the door had only given up a few inches when it clunked up against something. Joe tried again, pushing harder this time. The door wouldn’t budge.
“Like I need this shit today,” Joe growled. He got an eye to the gap and peered through, trying to identify the obstruction. There was a vehicle parked up against the house. Joe could make out the insignia of the Big Bear Lake Police Department on its door panel.
*****
The first thing Ruby noticed was the police car, parked in the shadows at the side of the house. Then she tracked her eye towards the front yard where Hooley’s old Chevy truck stood with Z’s streaming past it. Something was attracting them towards the house, something with a more immediate pull than the force calling them to Big Bear Lake. That could only mean one thing. There was someone inside. She just hoped it wasn’t Hooley and Janet.
A flicker drew her attention back to the side of the house. She saw it again now, a faint glimmer of light seeping through between the storm doors. It was then that she heard shots.
*****
The 9-mil bucked in his hand and the head on the lead Z exploded. It was thrown back into its brethren, dragging them down with it. Joe shifted his aim right and took down another, scored a third headshot with his next bullet. The pistol felt weighty in his hand, meaning it had a near full clip. That wasn’t going to be enough. The cellar was a writhing like a snake pit of undead creatures. He and Hooley were going to be eaten alive. And all because that bonehead, Dumfries, couldn’t find a better place to park. He fired off two quick shots, fire-shift-fire. How many more bullets? Six? Eight?
Clawed hands reached towards him. Joe let them come. Placed the barrel against a Z’s forehead and pulled the trigger, sending it tumbling and creating a mini avalanche on the narrow staircase.
That bought him a few valuable seconds and he used them to attack the door again, slamming into it with his shoulder. It was useless. The door gave a few inches and no more.
He turned back to the cellar where the Z’s were gathering for their next onslaught. It was likely to be the last. He was almost out of bullets. Should he save a couple of rounds for himself and Hooley? To hell with that, he decided, he was going to go down fighting.
He drew a bead on one of the zombies, tightened his finger on the trigger and then eased off. An idea occurred to him, a simple idea that was going to get him and Hooley out of this.
thirty five
Joe steadied the pistol, held it three inches away from the rusty hinge and fired. The percussion was a clap of thunder in the narrow staircase, the muzzle flash like lightning. A shower of splinters prickled his skin. He lowered his aim, lined up on the other hinge and pulled off another round. Something snagged his arm. Joe struck out with the pistol, using the trigger guard as a knuckle-duster, catching the Z on the side of the head and sending if sprawling.
He turned back to the door, crashed into it with his shoulder and felt it tear away from the frame and clatter against the side of the SUV. He reached thr
ough and pushed it aside, oblivious to the weight of it, to the splinters that tore as his hands.
The gap between the vehicle and the house was narrow, too narrow for him to squeeze through. Under then. He peered under the vehicle and saw that there were Z’s in the yard too, lots of them.
“Z’s,” he muttered under his breath. “The gift that keeps giving.”
That was a problem he’d have to deal with when the time came. Right now he needed to get out of the cellar. And he had to do it quick. Something snagged at his leg and he kicked out then turned and fired two shots before the pistol clicked on an empty chamber.
It was do or die now. Joe got a grip on Hooley’s shirt collar another on the seat of his jeans. “Sorry about this compadre,” he said. He bunched his muscles and launched Hooley through the gap, grazing the top of Hooley’s head against the underside of the SUV in the process.
Joe scrambled towards the gap, ducked his head and dug in with his elbows dragging himself forward. Then his momentum was suddenly broken when a strong grip closed on his ankle. He kicked out and failed to break the hold. He was being pulled back into the cellar, digging his fingers in, trying to gain purchase. His hand closed on something smooth and cool to the touch and he realized in an instant what it was, one on the mag wheels he’d used to secure the storm door. Then he was dragged back in to darkness.
The collision with the top step almost jarred the wheel from his grip but he held on, twisted his body and swung, even as the Z angled in for a bite. He caught the creature at the side of the head, sending it staggering back. Then he scrambled out into the night again, crawling out under the SUV just as he saw Hooley being dragged out the other side.
“No!” Joe screamed.
He scrambled after Hooley, pulling himself out from under the vehicle into the midst of the Z’s, risking certain death and not caring. The Z’s backed away from him, forming a wide circle around the woman who hovered over Hooley, her head to his chest, listening for a heartbeat.
Joe had believed he’d never see Ruby again. He’d assumed she was dead. He’d been wrong on both counts.
thirty six
“It’s too soon to tell,” Doc Whitfield said. “Jojo needs to rest. The next 48 hours are going to be critical.”
Chris looked down on the pallid face of his son, the fresh bandage around his head already spotted with blood. He looked across the bed to Kelly, her hand on Jojo’s arm, a frown creasing her brow, as though she were willing him back to wellness. Beside Kelly, Ferret was less composed, her eyes puffy with crying, face drawn into a mask of despair. Samantha stood behind Ferret, making adjustments to the drip that was feeding fluids into Jojo’s veins. Jojo looked almost restful. A half-smile appeared to rest on his lips.
“How soon can he be moved, doc?” The question needed to be asked, even if it was going to upset Kelly and Ferret.
“He can’t,” Shane responded. “At least not for a day or two. Even then –”
“I’m not talking about a long trip,” Chris cut in. “Just half a mile up the road to the Lakes Mall.”
Kelly flashed him a look. “Didn’t you hear the doctor? He can’t be moved and that’s the end of it.”
“There may be no choice in the matter, Kel. When those Z’s get here –”
“If those Z’s get here,” Kelly interrupted. Kelly assumed what Chris had come to regard as her combative pose, jaw jutting ever so slightly, eyes fixed and determined. He’d seldom won an argument with her when she was in this mood. This one, he realized, he had to win.
“When those Z’s get here,” he insisted. “Didn’t you hear what Wackjob said? There are thousands of them, hundreds of thousands, headed up route 18. We’re right in their path.”
“They’ll find the town deserted and move through,” Kelly said.
“You know this for sure? What if you’re wrong?”
“Then we barricade ourselves in and wait it out here.”
Chris gave her a look of exasperation that was almost always a mistake when arguing with Kelly. “We can’t hold the hospital,” he said. “Not against this many, not with the resources we’ve got.”
“We’ll have to,” Kelly said. “Jojo can’t be moved.”
Chris shot a desperate look towards Shane. “Doc, help me out here.”
“I’d prefer that we didn’t move him,” Shane said.
“We won’t be,” Kelly cut in.
“But,” the doctor continued. “If we really have to, if there really is no other choice, then half a mile to the mall should be okay. But it will have to be in the ambulance.”
“Agreed,” Chris said, already backing towards the door. “I’ll go and get it ready. Ferret and Sam, you can ride along with me and the doc. Kel, you bring the Jeep around to the side and round up the others.” He turned towards the door.
“No,” Kelly said behind him.
Chris turned to face her. In all the years that he and Kelly had been together he’d rarely felt anger towards his wife. He felt it now.
“What do you mean no?”
“I mean no,” Kelly said. “You heard Shane. Only if there’s no other choice.”
“There is no other choice. Don’t you understand that? For God’s sake Kelly, why must you always be so stubborn?”
For a moment Kelly maintained her defiant posture. Then her bottom lip began to tremble and tears welled up and spilled over. “The last time we had to run from a situation like this, I lost a child,” she said. “I won’t do it again.”
And there it was. The one thing he couldn’t get by, the one point on which Kelly would not be swayed. Chris may well have been forced to back down, to accede, if Jojo hadn’t chosen that precise moment to utter five words.
“Dad’s right. We should go.”
thirty seven
“Hold on Hooley. Don’t you go quitting on me now.”
Ruby looked into the rearview mirror and picked out Uncle Joe in the shadows of the cab. Hooley’s head was cradled in Joe's lap, and Joe was stroking Hooley’s hair as gently as a mother might do to soothe an ailing child. She still wasn’t sure what had happened back at the house. She knew only that Hooley had been shot by a man named Dumfries and that a staircase had collapsed, trapping Hooley and Joe in the cellar. That was all academic anyway. The equation was simple, either they got medical attention for Hooley, or he was going to die. He was probably going to die anyway, if the ragged tone of his breathing was anything to go by.
She directed her attention back to the road in front of her, looked past Pearl in the passenger seat to the moonlit lake on her left.
They’d broken through the main body of Z’s a while back, allowing her to make up some time. Now, as the cutoff appeared out of the dark, she slowed the vehicle and banked it left, lined it up on the white line dissecting the road and put her foot down.
The SUV lurched forward, gaining speed as its headlights carved apart the darkness. Ruby held it steady, applied the brakes as the end of the cutoff loomed, rattled down the off-ramp. A sharp right brought her onto Big Bear Boulevard. The route from here was a half-mile down the town’s main thoroughfare, following a gradual curve that would deposit her right in front of the hospital.
A zombie lurched into the beam of her headlights and she plowed into it and drove it under her wheels. Now a pair of the creatures materialized out of the dark and she barely slowed as she swiped them aside. The Lakes Mall appeared to her right as the road entered the curve. She could see zombies crossing the mall’s parking lot, more of them pouring in from the side streets like drunken revelers joining a parade. She swerved as a group of the things stumbled out of the trees to the left of the road. This was a different group, she realized, than the one they’d left behind. The question was why so many of them were converging on a backwater like Big Bear Lake. What was drawing them?
*****
“Joe,” Hooley said, his voice a harsh whisper.
Joe looked down at the face of his friend, contorted in pain in the di
m moonlight seeping into the cab.
“Don’t speak, compadre. Almost there.”
“Joe, I’m dying.”
“You ain’t dying, you cracker sum bitch. You got a flesh wound that’s all.”
“I’m dying, Joe.”
Hooley was silent a moment, the sound of his ragged breathing filling the cab. Joe had heard that sound before, from comrades he’d left behind in Africa, from Sam Suchet breathing his last beside a desolate stretch of California highway. Hooley wasn’t going to be joining them any time soon, he decided. Not on his watch.
When Hooley spoke again, his voice was barely audible. “I’m dying Joe. I’m going home.”
“You ain’t dying you Texan pussy. We’re getting you to the hospital. Now quit whining before I kill you myself.”
The Lakes Mall flew by the window, its forecourt teaming with Z’s. Joe had a moment to wonder if Chris was holed up there rather than at the hospital. No, there wouldn’t have been time. The Z’s had descended on the town faster than any of them had expected. Chris had to still be at the hospital. He had to.
“You’ve been a good, friend Joe.”
“Jesus Christ Hoolihan, what part of shut the fuck up don’t you understand?”
“I’m going home to Janet.”
*****
The long dead traffic lights that marked the intersection with Garstin Road loomed out of the dark, but already Ruby could see that they were going to have a problem. The intersection was thick with Z’s. More of them were spilling out of the woods to the left, seeping onto the blacktop like polluted effluent.
“Hold on!” Ruby shouted as she stood on the brakes, sending the SUV into a slide. For a moment, she was sure that the vehicle was going to flip, but somehow it managed to hold the road. She heard a series of meaty slaps as the vehicle drifted into the midst of the Z’s, shuddered to a halt and cut out.