“I can’t believe I’m hearing this!”
“Nobody’s telling you what to do, Benjamin!” Then Chelsea looked to Dane and asked, “You still got that gun?”
He nodded.
“Alright then…” She said. “Let’s go to the roof and see if we can’t figure out what’s going on out there. If the people honking that horn, realize we have a chopper on the roof, it’s likely they hope to get a ride.”
“Hell, I don’t blame ‘em one bit.” The pilot said, following Dane and Chelsea though the precinct.
Benjamin stayed behind with Ms. June and Shorty. Chelsea was thankful for that. The prick was driving her crazy. Who the hell did he think he was trying to control the situation? The entire thing was way over his head. For that matter, over her head. She was just thankful that this Dane character was actually being pretty level headed about the whole thing. He was right. The thing to do was call the National Guard or the military. Things were definitely out of hand. When she woke up tonight after getting all of the reports, the last thing she ever expected was all of this. Some sick people beating down the doors of the hospital, maybe, but this… this was just madness. People didn’t get back up after you shot them in the head.
They just didn’t.
TWELVE
“There’s too many of them!” Noel gritted her teeth, while holding one hand against the roof for support. “We’re going to die!”
Tom’s red GMC truck turned sharp to the right, almost tipping over, as the truck sped through the police station parking lot. When Joe had first pulled into the parking lot, he did see a lot of the slow zombies working their way toward the station out in the streets, but that wasn’t the issue. The two big vans that had blocked his view of the main entrance had become the problem. It wasn’t until he’d passed the two vans that he saw them. There were loads of the dead already at the doors of the station trying to break in. That only lasted until the truck entered their view.
Joe stopped the truck in hopes that he could turn around and make a getaway before anyone of the monsters had a chance to come after them. In a way, he expected these creatures to be slow like the ones out in the street.
One of the dead that were shuffling nearby called out. The feeble little grunt had been enough to attract attention. His subtle moan drifted across the night and into the dead ears of the hungry horde. One of the dead at the door turned and spotted the truck. Two runners were the first to peel away from the precinct’s doors. The rest followed. All were sprinters. Not a shuffler among the group.
Getting the truck back into gear, Joe fumbled with the shifter between Noel’s legs. The lead ghouls collided with the truck before the truck started to move. With more than a dozen zombies piling onto the truck, Joe couldn’t see where they were going. Countless bodies covered his view. Trusting his judgment, Joe pressed forward anyway. The truck began to move. That was when the driver side window shattered by a zombie’s head being driven forward by more bodies behind it.
Noel screamed that they were going to die.
With the glass no longer a barrier between the dead and the living, the zombie lunged forward with both hands and reached in, wrestling with Joe, as he tried to maintain control of the vehicle. Its teeth gnashed as it pulled itself farther into the truck. Although its features were already badly maimed, having smashed through the window had done a number on the creature’s face. Broken shards of glass protruded from its bleeding cheeks and forehead. Blood pooled from its animated mouth. A loose tooth dropped out and fell to the floorboard as the monster thrashed about on top of Joe. As it was pulling itself in, trying desperately to connect its teeth with flesh, slivers of glass that had embedded into its arms, cut Joe in the face. Joe screamed.
Noel feared that the end had come.
With the sudden sharp pain in his face and the fresh cut leaking light droplets of warm, red blood, Joe took his foot off the gas and shoved the creature forward. The thing’s head crashed into the steering wheel. The horn burst out, giving way to a few more short honks, as Joe repeatedly shoved the creature’s head into the wheel.
The beating didn’t slow the monster down. The zombie continued to thrash about. More arms began reaching into the busted window. Mangled hands reached past the ghoul and grasped at Joe’s shoulder and hair.
“Fuck…” Joe muttered, trying to wiggle himself free.
Noel screamed bloody murder. She was so afraid that she didn’t even realize that she had closed her eyes. Then a hand reached from her right side. She clenched tight, ready to feel the sudden sting of teeth biting down on her face. She hadn’t heard the passenger side window shatter, but she assumed in the excitement that she didn’t notice it. There were so many of them out there that the truck was violently rocking on its axles. But the sting of pain never came. She opened her eyes to see Tom reaching over her.
“Sit back,” he shouted.
It was then that she realized he was reaching for Joe’s gun. A sudden thud hit against the roof. Noel looked in the rearview mirror and noticed that a handful of ghouls had gotten into the bed and were trying to get in from the top.
She screamed again.
“Cover your ears!” Tom shouted.
The gun went off practically in Noel’s lap. She watched as the creature attacking Joe took the bullet. At close range, its head erupted in a brutal display of confetti. For some reason or another, her mind flashed to her seventh birthday. They had a piñata to play with that day and she loved it. As much as she had hoped to be the one to make the candy spill out onto the ground, she didn’t get the chance. One of her friends had sent the blow that did the job. Much like the toys and candy that cascaded out from the punctured piñata, the zombie’s head exploded. Blood and matted tissue flew in all directions. The back of its head blew out with the deafening blast. It sent blood, pink meaty brain, and clumps of hair across the dash and all over Joe.
“Back up, Joe!” Tom shouted, pointing the gun out the window.
Noel’s head was ringing and she realized that she couldn’t hear anything when Tom shouted. With the gun pointed toward the burst window, she had an idea of what he had said and leaned as far back into her seat as she could. She covered her ears with both hands this time.
The gun went off in Tom’s hand twice, then a third and fourth time. The dead that were trying to get into the truck fell away, but only for a moment. That moment was all that Joe needed.
“Drive!” Tom shouted, pulling the trigger again.
It clicked empty.
Just as another set of hands started to reach into the window, Joe kicked it into gear and gave it some gas. It was hard to maneuver the truck with a rancid body in his lap, but he made do. The truck buckled forward, pressing against the mob of bodies trying to get in. The truck easily moved the bodies aside as they picked up speed. Joe gunned it, almost colliding head-on with a parked car. He turned sharp, just in time to avoid total disaster. In under a minute, the truck was circling the parking lot and finally out of the mob’s clutches. Although, they had run over a dozen undead ghouls, they weren’t letting up. Those that could run did exactly that. They chased close behind as Joe worked his way to the back of the building.
With no more ghouls clawing to get in, Noel was reminded of the dead that were still in the bed of the truck when a loud thud on the roof got her attention. She looked over her shoulder to see two sets of legs standing in the back.
“We need to shake the ones in the back,” she shouted, unable to hear herself.
Joe slammed the clutch and hit the brake as hard as he could. Along with sending Noel and Tom crashing against the dash, the zombies in the bed of the truck flew over the roof and onto the hood before sliding down to the gravel. Without hesitation, Joe popped it back into first and proceeded to run them over. The truck bounced as it ran over their putrid bodies.
Then suddenly, the dead ghoul that was still lying in Joe’s lap started to come to life.
“Oh, shit!” Joe grunted. “Grab the whe
el!”
Noel did and just like that, Joe shoved the creature out before it had fully come to. Its teeth nearly managed to connect.
“Fuck, that was close!”
“You’re telling me!” Joe said, taking the wheel again.
With no more dead immediately endangering the truck, Joe drove around to the back of the precinct. The dead chased behind with eager anticipation. Many of the slower ghouls in the streets reached their arms out as if it would bring them closer to the truck. The night air filled with the agonizing moans of the dead. The action excited them.
“Where the hell are you going?” Noel asked.
“The back of the building!”
“Fuck that!” She insisted, looking over her shoulder at the runners still chasing the truck. “Way too many of them here. We need to go. We need to get the hell away from Clarksburg.”
“That’s the idea.”
“How exactly is barricading ourselves in a police station getting out of town, Joe?” She said, still looking over her shoulder. “With the horn going off and the gun shots, this place is going to have twice as many of these fuckers scratching to get in within the hour. Last thing I want to do is get locked into a building with them trying to get in!”
The truck turned sharply to the right and jumped a curb sending the truck into the grass. The impact jarred the passengers about. The truck passed the back of the building and began to go around to the front parking lot once more.
“She’s got a point, Joe.” Tom grunted, bracing against the dash.
“Look guys. I agree. We need to get the hell out of here. What the hell do you think I’m doing?”
“Trying to kill us, that’s what!”
“Come on, Noel. Look at the roof!” Joe pointed as they drove around the precinct for the second time. The dead were in full pursuit. “Don’t tell me you can’t see that helicopter. If it were up to me, we would be leaving by air and not on the ground. I don’t know about you, but I am done fucking around. Let’s get in the air where it’s safe.”
As much as she was done riding around in this little truck and almost getting eaten by a hungry mob of the living dead, Joe was right. Being in the air was a hell of a lot safer than being in the damn truck. She swallowed hard, knowing that it would mean that she would need to leave the safety of the truck in an attempt to get into the building. Her toes crunched tightly in her shoes as she hoped like hell that everything inside the station was safe, and that she would be guaranteed a spot on the helicopter once it did take off. She knew how that kind of thing worked. She’d seen enough movies to know. You had to be important or have something to offer in order to get at the front of the line in these kinds of situations. And if she had to, she would play her cards and be sure to be onboard when that bird decided to leave.
A loud thump jolted Noel from her thoughts. The truck collided headfirst with a female zombie. The woman’s face slammed hard against the hood. A spray of blood and gore splashed across the windshield as she fell limp to the side. The truck popped up momentarily as the back wheels rolled over her tattered remains. It didn’t stop her, and Noel didn’t even have to look back to find out. She just knew. The dead woman would be getting up, even after a hit like that. Joe turned on the wipers trying to get a better look past the bloodied mess. It smeared the gore even worse.
“Ok, Joe. If we are going to do this… how the hell do you plan to get us into the building? There are too many people out here. We would be run down the minute we stepped foot out of the truck.”
“They’re not people, Noel.” Tom hissed. “They’re the damned. They’re the soulless, Godless nation.”
“No offense, Tom. But now’s not the time.” Noel scoffed. “When I want to hear Jesus tal…”
“There’s people on the roof!” Tom interrupted.
“I see them!” Noel yelled.
Joe tried to look, but couldn’t. He was too focused on the task at hand.
The truck circled the precinct for the third time. Joe was doing his best to keep the truck’s speed moderate. He wanted to go fast enough that the runners were far enough behind, but slow enough that when he circled the building he wasn’t right on top of them. It was easier said than done. For the most part, he was keeping their numbers at the rear in hot pursuit. But that wasn’t the case with all of them. The truck collided with another zombie as it ran out hoping to reach the passengers inside. It seemed like each time they circled the building they were running into more creatures that were too slow to keep up with the pack.
“We can’t do this forever!” Tom contended. “We’re either going to run our luck, run out of gas or eventually be overrun. More of them are joining in every minute we linger out here. If we’re going to do something drastic, let’s do it already.”
“Yeah,” Noel agreed, and looked over her shoulder again.
More than thirty flesh hungry ghouls sprinted close behind the truck reaching out in hope of catching hold.
“And my vote is we…” Tom braced himself. Another zombie collided with the side of the truck as they drove past, “get back on the road and find my wife!”
“I’m sorry, Tom. I do like you and all, but I’m siding with Joe on this one. The helicopter seems like the best bet. Assuming we can get in there and in the air, think how much easier would it be for us to go find her? It just comes down to how we’re going to get inside.” Noel ran her hand through her hair. “We just need to get their numbers down so that we can get inside!”
“That’s it!” Joe said, rounding the police station for a fourth time.
“That’s what?” Noel asked.
Joe didn’t respond. Instead, he broke from circling the building. Taking a sharp left out of the parking lot and back into the adjacent street, Joe picked up speed driving away from the station.
“Where are we going now? What happened to the helicopter?”
“You were right, Noel. We need to draw them away from the building so that we have a better chance at getting in.” Joe’s grip let up some on the steering wheel as they broke away from the massive undead numbers. “It’s obvious that they’re going to follow us. They proved that by circling the building so many times.”
“Brilliant.” Tom said.
And sure enough. Noel looked over her shoulder and out the back window. Just like Joe had said, the dead, fast and slow, were working their way toward the truck and away from the building.
“Oh, my God! I love you, Joe!” Noel reached over with both hands giving Joe a big kiss on the cheek. “It’s totally going to work, isn’t it?”
“I sure as hell hope so,” Joe said, his face beet red and still stinging from the cut.
“How far away are we going to draw them away before we turn back around?” Tom asked.
“At least a few blocks.” Joe said. “I want to get far enough away that we give ourselves some time to get inside the building. But I don’t want to get so far away that the people inside think we aren’t coming back.”
“Yeah, that would suck,” Noel agreed. “I’d hate to get back and see that the helicopter has already left.”
“If that happens,” Joe assured, “we’ll get in, get some more ammo and weapons, and be on our way before we have any problems.”
With the roads ahead straight and narrow, the truck took no time to travel a few blocks. Joe stopped the truck in the middle of the road and waited.
“What the hell are we waiting for, man?”
“Just give it a second, Noel.” Joe shifted into reverse and slowly started turning the truck around to face the opposite direction.
With the truck now facing the other way, they watched as countless zombies were running them down head on.
“Go!”
“No… Not yet. I’m going to wait till they’re right on top of us before I gun it.”
“That’s just stupid, Joe. Last time that happened, one of them practically got hold of you after bursting through your window. Run those fuckers down now!”
&nb
sp; Joe didn’t say anything. He just shook his head and tightened his grip on the wheel with one hand while readying the other on the shifter between Noel’s legs. The dead drew even closer. Their frantic steps as they dashed toward the truck were like a field of track runners plodding along on the pavement.
“Seriously, Joe… Don’t let them get any closer!”
“Not till I see the whites of their eyes!”
“This ain’t some fancy western, Joe. Drive already!”
“Joe!” Tom shouted.
The first zombie crashed into the hood running at full speed. Joe let up on the clutch and the truck took off. It collided into the countless bodies. As they forced themselves through the mob, Joe felt a few hands reach into the busted window. He wasn’t going to let that happen this time and shifted gears. The truck picked up speed passing the eager cannibals. Unlike the slow pace they took to get away from the police station, Joe gunned it and had it into fourth gear in seconds. The tailpipe sputtered blackish gray fumes as he gave her all she had. The engine roared, leaving the dead fast behind.
“Alright! Now, that’s what I’m talking about!” Noel celebrated, slapping Tom a high five.
The old holy man received the excitement awkwardly, but with gladness. The plan had worked, and although it wasn’t a complete fix, it would definitely buy them some time to get into the precinct.
“Thank you, Lord!” Tom praised, as they made their way back to the building. “I’m coming, honey. Just hold tight. We’re coming for you. I promise.”
They rolled up to the building, not wasting any time. Joe insisted that they not even bother trying the front door and head to the back. There were still a lot of zombies lingering around, but they were all the slow ones that hadn’t kept up with the truck when they left. They were going to make it. As they rounded the building toward the back, Joe insisted that Tom roll down his window to see if those people were still on the roof. If they were, Tom was to get their attention. If the back doors were locked, Joe wanted someone down there to let them in right away.
Rancid: A Zombie Novel Page 14