Knight of the Dead (Book 3): Fortress

by Smorynski, Ron

  "Yes," Dad said. "No worry."

  They left as the man and his family looked on. Dad couldn't stall any longer. He turned with Randall and left.

  They got to the third floor and found another set of keys, and another set of motorcycle gear. There were lots of food items and other great stuff to salvage but this wasn't the time. There were more people on the third floor. There were a dozen together. They had barricaded one apartment, collecting as much food and water as they could. They had a sign out the balcony. Dad had ignored these. "Alive. Need Help."

  The signs were dotted around the city and had merely become part of the landscape. Dad saw plenty with zombies leaping out so figured there wasn't much concern. But this one had a dozen people, all adults. Several looked near death, old and weak. The younger ones had a chance. All had the semblance of a holocaust type starvation. They were not completely that bad, but heading that way.

  Seeing two strong men in armor gave them hope. He told them of the other family, to get them, and to collect more food and water. They had cleared the apartments so it was safe to go out and collect more supplies. He'd figure out a way to get them all back safe to the school.

  They went back down stairs to the lobby. Randall had keys to two motorcycles. They glanced at each other before they exited the stairwell to the lobby. They could hear a bunch of zombies moaning and choking.

  Steve, Lena and Lisa were fighting a horde stuck at the lobby doors. They were bravely hacking away at the wall of flailing arms and gnashing teeth. The zombies had collided and bottle necked with many dead stuck amidst them. They were slowly oozing through the crackling entrance way.

  The only other doorway was to the underground parking lot. Dad motioned for Randall to go that way. "Hurry up, through the parking area!"

  They back stepped through the doorway: Randall, Lena, Lisa, Steve. Dad let them pass as he shut the door. The zombies broke their blockage and slammed up against the door to the underground parking. It was a nice steel door. It would hold. He turned and hurried into the base level parking area.

  He saw to his right. They were spreading outside along the parking garage gate. There was a small mass of them, mostly slower ones. The zombies easily spotted them racing through the parking area.

  "Damn it! Lure a bunch away, but more come to fill the area!" Steve huffed.

  "Back exit! Hurry!" Randall yelled.

  Dad saw them going out the back. He hastened over. It was a rear exit to a small courtyard and a filthy pool. Several zombies were in there, and probably several stuck in the gunk of the dark fetid pool. It was easy enough to dispense with the zombies. Thankfully, with the power out, none of the key controlled gates were locked. They passed through the cluttered pool area to a back door that led out to an alley.

  Before they left, they heard the screams of "Help!"

  Dad knew and turned to look up. The people up on the balcony were screaming in their weakness. In his haste, Dad had forgotten that the zombies poured into the apartment lobby and had spilled up into the stairwell. The people must have attracted them with their cries for help.

  Dad gritted his teeth and yelled up at them. "Shut up! They can hear you!"

  "Please! Oh God! Help!" they screamed from their balcony.

  Dad stared up unsure. Did he cause this?

  "There's too many!" Randall grunted, holding the back gate open, ready to run.

  8. Battle

  "Lena, Lisa, go back in the garage! Use the gate like a wall and kill as many as you can. Steve, you go with me!" Dad ordered.

  "I can help," Randall replied.

  "No! Your armor is too weak! Stay with them!" Dad grunted.

  "We're going?" Steve blurted.

  Dad hammer-fisted Steve with encouragement and Steve returned the bravado. They entered one of the doors leading to the pool area. The courtyard stairs went up to the stairwell. The zombies rushing up to the apartment levels immediately turned and leapt down upon them. Dad was like a tower in his metal armor. They leapt down and bounced off him. Many fell in severed parts as he flashed his sword.

  Steve, as large as Dad, did not have the weight of his steel. He had the lighter samurai pieces, thick padding and plastic. He had to brace with his shield and push back with each collision. They were light enough that if prepared, it worked. But several of them at a time made him slip and fall back. Steve was healthy and agile. He quickly scrambled even as zombies grabbed at him and bit hard on his arm. His armor worked as he grunted in fear. He dropped to his knee and stared a nightmarish moment at his quivering arm. Tears nearly burst as he gasped. The padded armor held.

  Dad turned and dispensed with the scrambling beasts. He reeled back around as zombies continued to come. It felt like they couldn't make any headway up to get the survivors, but at least he halted the zombie advance. There was no telling how many were already up there.

  He heard yelling, Spanish words far up. It was more of desperate commands than full out panic. Amador might be controlling the situation somehow. Dad and Steve felt vigor to push harder. Steve got up, breathing, taking on each zombie quickly and effectively.

  There was finally some room to advance. Zombies were stuck at the doorway from the lobby. Steve pushed one back into them and stabbed repeatedly, creating a blockage. The zombie dead would fall at the doorway with more falling over them. Steve capitalized by stabbing their heads. A pile of zombies formed, blocking the rest, at least for awhile. Steve continually added zombie atop zombie to the pile. It looked crazy but it worked.

  The other zombies did not pull out the pile to free it, but merely fell atop it, one after the other. Steve stabbed continually, pushing and kicking.

  "Hold them there!" Dad roared, smacking Steve's shoulder. Steve grunted.

  Dad went up the stairs, working to draw the remaining zombies back down. He yelled with each kill. The zombies further up the stairs turned back down finally. They weren't as good at scrambling down steps as they were going up. Most fell forward, cracking limbs or spines and crawling in contorted ways. It gave Dad time to hack and slash as they slid down toward him.

  He looked up to see Amador. He had arms wrapped in clothes with duct tape, a machete and a small handaxe. He wore thick clothes and a construction helm. Not bad for a hasty get up. He was splattered with zombie blood but impressively stable and ready.

  He was definitely an illegal alien. No native Angeleno had the workplace endurance to come out fighting like that. He tipped his helm as Dad got closer.

  "Get everyone now!"

  Amador hurried up. "Hey? Hey? All! Come now! Safe! Hurry! Man in knight here! Hurry! Knight here! Man in knight!"

  It took longer than Dad liked. He heard Steve grunting below, still fighting. Dad, anxious, hurried up the stairs. It was exhilarating fighting zombies but downright exhausting climbing stairs. He got to the third floor and saw Amador's small children stare at him. His wife rushed up. Behind was the whole group of weak hideaways.

  "Come on!" Dad growled at them.

  With much trepidation, they hurried as he turned and rushed down the stairs. They followed as best they could. Amador rushed in front to help Dad fight if needed.

  Dad got down to Steve who was still holding at the door, with more body parts piling around him. A head gaped near Steve's feet. Dad stomped on it. He looked back and saw Amador still up one flight waving for them to hurry. Dad saw someone slip and fall, screaming in panic. But it wasn't because of zombies, well not live ones, merely the shock of slipping amongst the undead that were bloody dead.

  "Come on!" Dad yelled as best he could above the roar of moans.

  "Andale!" Amador said, shaking. He shrugged frustratingly at Dad and then hurried back up the stairs to help.

  Dad turned, "Steve switch!"

  Steve was exhausted holding them up, doing the same push with the same muscles. Dad stuck his shield in and pushed up against the wall of zombies at the doorway. It almost seemed like a wall of weak flailing arms. Steve backed away, shaking off
the worn areas, getting blood flow back into his muscles.

  "Get them out to the courtyard. Call Lena and them back. I'll hold them till you get them outside!" Dad growled as he pushed. The zombies were stuck at the doorway, most not sure which way to push exactly. Many were just reaching over or pushed half against the wall, and blocking others. Dad saw as they were squeezing and crushing each other, trying to grasp Dad or any human flesh and tear it apart. It was difficult to stand. The floor was awash with blood and body parts. The mound of dead-dead ones oozed below him, slowly pushing out.

  Steve waved them through as they finally came down the stairs. It was a dozen gaunt weak figures. Some were able but all were clumsy. They screamed at the sight of Dad holding up the demonic pile of dead ones and flailing ones. A young lady tried to scream and flee back upstairs but others grabbed her. Amador came up to help but Dad motioned him away. "Help them!"

  They had all finally left down the stairs and into the pool area. Dad saw Lena come to help her father. Dad saw her and felt strength as he held the crazed clogged zombies at the doorway. They were so tangled in their own dead who blocked the way. He only had to push against them. When he saw one pull out a dead zombie, like it was digging, he merely stabbed and it blocked the spot for him.

  "Dad?!"

  "Lena, are they clear down there," Dad asked.

  Lena bent to see into the pool area. "Yeah, they went out the other side."

  "I'm gonna let this go. We probably got a few seconds to get over there. You ready?"

  "Yep!"

  Dad let go and they hurried down the stairs to the pool area. They rushed across to the other side, to the gated exit that opened to the alley way. The air, still foul, seemed refreshing. It whistled in his helm.

  They could hear the splash of zombies falling into the muddy pool water. Many fell, splashing into the muck. The vast majority toppled in. Zombies don't think to go around.

  They exited and closed the gate. They stared a moment at the vast puddling of foul water and foul zombies. A few quick ones made it to the gate but kept it closed with their desire to push up against one another as they reached through the bars. It would hold for awhile, especially since the vast majority were clogged in the splashing spreading ooze in the pool.

  They hurried out to the alleyway and went toward the school, through a shaded area of trees and shrubs. There were more fences and gates, but in their armor it was easy enough to climb and roll over. Dad kept his body close to the fence and eased over. He didn't want to land and crack an ankle. He warned Lena of the same.

  As they exited between the apartments, they saw the street that led to the front of the school and turned left down it. They didn't see Steve or the group.

  "Where'd they go?" Dad worried.

  "The fences Dad, they must have gone the other way. Those people couldn't climb the fences," Lena said.

  "The wrong way, damn it."

  Dad and Lena stayed hidden back amidst the shrubs and porches of homes. They could traverse through the shrubbery as opposed to being out in the open on the sidewalk and between parked cars.

  "They're on the street behind us," Dad figured. "Let's go down and around, meet them."

  They easily hustled through the area. It was oddly like a little garden of covered foliage and ad hoc fences. They could hear the zombies up on Hollywood Boulevard, moaning in their settling way. That was a good sign. They weren't being alerted by them or Steve's group of survivors. Dad knew they left them roaming back there all around those parked motorcycles. They had keys to two of them. They'd have to get them later.

  Dad and Lena saw Charlotte on the roof watching them. They waved. She waved back. She pointed toward the other way repeatedly and harshly.

  "Not good," Dad huffed. "Let's go."

  They hurried down and saw a smaller side street between the old courtyard style bungalow apartments. It was an odd alley stuck in the neighborhood. It was where they found Amy or she found them. It had one row of parked cars and a narrow tree covered lane that ended at some old shoddy garages. Did Steve lead them this way? It was like a maze in there.

  Dad didn't mind it so much. It gave them cover. Zombies began crashing through the shrubs and shoddy wooden fences. Dad and Lena took them on. They sliced, hacked, and pierced their way down the narrow street tucked into this Hollywood neighborhood. Zombie after zombie charged them and they swung at the right moment, each moving forward in turn. Dad swung. Lena stepped up. She swung. Dad stepped up. He swung. They got a breather and Dad looked back. He smacked Lena on the back.

  "Ow! What?"

  "Oh yeah!"

  Lena looked back. There were a couple of dozen dead zombies behind them, all hacked up, down the alley. A couple of decapitated heads sat like gaping fish and a few bodies twitched.

  "I got the most," Lena said.

  "Mm-hmm."

  9. Trapped

  They hurried through a driveway by a series of bungalow garages to a chain link fence. They practically made a full circle facing the rear of the apartment complex on the other side. Steve's fleeing group was no where to be seen.

  "Damnit," Dad huffed. He turned. "What the?"

  Lena turned.

  It was Lisa. She looked like she had just killed a lot of zombies. She waved at them. They hustled back the way they came.

  "Where'd you come from?" Dad asked.

  She pointed. "From back there, they're hiding." She pointed to the end of the alley, through a small opening in a shoddy wooden fence.

  "Hiding?" Dad asked.

  "We're waiting for you. There were a lot of zombies," Lisa said.

  "Let's go," Lena whined.

  Steve came out. "Oh man, thank God." He turned back and waved at the group. They were hiding in another flimsy garage shack behind a wooden fencing. This little maze was a configuration of bungalow type apartments with old garage shacks. These buildings looked like they were built for screenwriters on studio lots.

  Dad waved them to follow. They hurried back along the alleyway with all the dead zombies, back to the neighborhood street.

  At the end of the alley, zombies suddenly appeared. A fast group was searching about. They seemed very alive, very assertive in searching. Were they sniffing? Dad couldn't tell.

  "Andele! Go that way!" Amador yelled.

  Dad gritted his teeth in anger, turning back.

  Amador waved for them to sneak into the yard of a house, to hurry that way. He stopped and looked at Dad, realizing his mistake.

  The zombies barked loud and vicious, alerted by Amador's yell.

  "Shut the fuck up!" Dad yelled at Amador, who quivered apologetically. "Lena, Lisa, take them to the school, through the yard!" He waved. The people scrambled in pain and panic amidst the shrubs and fencing. "Amador, you ass! You stay here and fight!"

  "Dad no!" Lena said. "He can't!"

  The ones that seemed to be sniffing with purpose came first and then the regular zombies came behind them.

  Dad waved them off. "Steve, let's do this!"

  Steve stared. "I can't. I can't fight anymore," he groaned.

  Dad marched ahead, slashing at the fast zombies. He easily cut through two of them, then the next two backed off. Dad hesitated his swing, realizing that they had retreated. He stared a moment unsure. He had to angle his helmet down to look through the main slit of the visor. These zombies were different. He only had a moment to read them. He saw corded muscles and a snarl of knowing. They were stronger as if they were not rotting away. You couldn't just pick them out of a crowd of zombies. They looked almost exactly like zombies, like the fast zombies, only faster and with purpose.

  He saw them stare at him not with dead eyes but with focus and hatred. They shifted back and forth, even as other zombies rushed in.

  Zombies came in before Dad could recover from the surprise. Then those fast aware ones leapt at him, grappling him. His arms were caught and unable to swing. He couldn't believe it. He just didn't expect it. These were demonic ones, intellige
nt, aware. He thought of ghouls in fantasy games. Zombies were slow undead robots. But ghouls were more animal-like undead, more rabid and fast. And they were more aware, acting like hyenas or demons. It's all he could think of as he was stuck staring closely at eyes that stared back, grappling to hold him from swinging. The damn things were holding his arms down as zombies came in to find weaknesses. Ghouls! He thought he saw a forked tongue. Demonic! Ghouls!

  Lena and Lisa suddenly punched forward with their naginatas, cutting deep into necks, eyes, and chests. One ghoul grabbed at Lena's spear as it sunk into its chest. It pulled itself through to slash at her. She let go and pulled her blade, slicing its head off in one motion. She put the sword back and pulled her naginata out as it dropped.

  Dad, now free, bashed and slashed. He knocked them down or got them to stumble, while his blade instantaneously sliced their neck or cranium. The fast wave of ghoulish types were all dead. They may be more aware, but they cut just as easily as regular zombies. More zombies were coming.

  "Take them to the school!" Dad hissed.

  Steve rushed back with the group. Randall came up to fight. He was a bit dodgy in his stance, waiting for them to meet his desktop shield. He wasn't as solid in weight or footing when the zombies came and knocked him back. He stumbled as he swung, slicing hands and arms but not effectively stopping them.

  Dad stepped back and shoulder bashed ones going for Randall, giving him a moment to deal with the few grabbing at his armor and biting plastics. "Let's go!" Dad yelled. "You need to train more!"

  Randall grunted and yelped back.

  They turned to follow through the fencing and backyards, clambering and meandering quickly through. The group was ahead of them. A zombie rushed from the front and took someone down. Dad could not tell who. Steve rushed up and sliced at it, killing the zombie. But it was too late for the survivor. She screamed frantic as blood spewed from a neck bite. She went into shock.

  More zombies rushed in. The group scattered amidst the backyard furnishings and shrubbery, screaming in weakened panic. Dad stomped forward, waving and shouting. He caught the attention of several but not all the zombies. He hacked and slashed hurriedly. Amador killed one with his machete, shaking uncontrollably.