by Derek Slaton
Frank nodded. “With any luck, all the noise we’ve made here will have drawn the zombies from that area to over here.”
“Looks like we’re going shopping,” Marie said.
Freeman chuckled. “You women and your shopping.”
She tilted her head to glare at him. “You wanna get your ass beat by a girl?” Her voice was low and menacing, and Freeman stood up from his seat abruptly.
“I… Cap, I’ll go get the boys ready,” he stammered.
Frank grinned. “Probably a good idea.”
Freeman grabbed his coffee cup and took Chad’s arm. “Come on, bud, gonna need you to draw us a map on something we can carry.”
Owens hacked as the duo headed away, a nice glob of pinkish phlegm hitting the carpet with a wet plop.
“Frank, we need to talk about Owens,” Marie said quietly. “I’m not sure he’s fit to be in the field.”
The Captain crossed his arms. “He’s holding his own, but please, share your concerns.”
“Between the virus and the infected hand bite,” she began, pausing as the Corporal hacked again, “and the coughing fits, he doesn’t have long.”
“What do you propose?” Frank asked.
She took a deep breath. “There are lots of hotel suites he’d be comfortable in.”
“I… I don’t know,” the Captain chewed his lip.
“You guys are aware that this virus causes zombification, not deafness, right?” Owens groaned. He sat up as Frank and Marie glanced at each other in embarrassment, and readied his weapon. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen the fuck up. I’d rather walk into a crowd of those fuckers holding a block of C4 than spend my last hours being all cozy in some overpriced fucking hotel room. I’m a warrior, and I’m going to go out a warrior. Anybody have a fucking problem with that?”
The other two shook their heads in unison.
“Good,” Owens glanced at the empty coffee pot. “Now where’s that coffee boy? I could use a cup.”
Marie motioned towards Edward. “He’s over by the door, there.”
Owens nodded to Frank. “Cap,” he acknowledged as he got to his feet, and then nodded to Marie. “Ma’am.” Then he headed off in search of a caffeine boost.
“Looks like we got our answer.” Frank let out a deep breath.
She shook her head. “He’s a tough motherfucker, but I’m still gonna be keeping an eye on him,” she promised.
Frank smiled. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Okay Chad,” Frank said as they took formation around the door to the mall. “When we get through these doors, I want you to shut them, gently I might add. You give us three minutes before chaining them back up just in case we have to make a hasty retreat. Then, I’m gonna need you to make sure this door is constantly manned. I doubt we’re going to be coming back through here, but I don’t want to be locked out of we do.”
The hotel attendant nodded gravely. “Yes sir. I’ll make sure it’s taken care of.”
Frank clapped him on the back. “Good man.”
“So, according to Chad, the walkway to the office building is about a hundred and fifty yards away,” Freeman piped up. “It’s a straight shot, but it’s a hell of a haul.” He shoved the hand-drawn map back into his breast pocket.
The Captain nodded. “Hopefully they’ve thinned out a bit since the last time we were here,” he said.
“Oh, and be prepared to run like a motherfucker if we get discovered,” Freeman added.
Marie rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
“Eh, it’s better than Pumpkin Spice,” the Corporal replied with a shrug.
She winked at him. “Captain Pumpkin Spice it is.”
“Goddammit,” he muttered.
Frank shook his head in amusement. “When we get to the skywalk, Reyes and Gardner are on chain duty. Lock that son of a bitch up tight. Freeman and Webb, you’re on cleanup duty in the walkway. If it’s moving, shoot it. Owens, Marie, the three of us are support. Everybody good?” He paused for a round of yes, sir, and nodded. “All right, let’s hit it.”
Gardner and Reyes readied themselves at the doors as the Captain counted down from three. At one, they flung the doors open, and Frank and Freeman led the charge through into the mall. There was a small group of zombies milling about across the open gap in the floor, with one rogue one facing away from them against the railing.
Frank darted up and buried his knife in the back of its head, catching the body as it crumpled so they would stay silent. He watched the small group down the way to make sure they hadn’t noticed the intruders, and then motioned for his group to move. Chad and the hotel staff very gently shut the doors behind them,
Frank led his caravan through the mall, senses on high alert. A small group of five zombies wandered out from a storefront, and the two lead soldiers readied their knives. One of the corpses shrieked when it noticed them, echoing throughout the hallway.
His cover blown, the Captain popped off a shot in the zombie’s face, blowing its head clean off. Freeman and Owens squeezed off several rounds, finishing off the others in the pack. The gunshots echoed, making way for the sound of zombie moans and screams growing louder and louder.
“Run!” Frank cried, and the group tore off through the mall.
Eighty yards to the skywalk.
Zombies poured out of every hallway and storefront. Ten zombies staggered into their path from a clothing store, random scarves and tank tops stuck to their rotting flesh as they burst through the displays.
“Freeman, bowl them over!” Frank yelled, and he and the Corporal unloaded a barrage of bullets into the fashionista zombies in front of them. They staggered and dropped a few, and when the duo reached them they lowered their shoulders like linebackers to take them out. The domino effect sent most of the corpses to the tiles, creating a lane for the group to run through.
Fifty yards to the skywalk.
Almost a hundred zombies screamed after them, slowly gaining as the soldiers ran. Gardner peeked over his shoulder and saw that the gap between them was only about twenty yards, and pulled a grenade. He dropped it on the floor as he ran.
“Fire in the hole!” he yelled.
Their pursuers swarmed over it just as it detonated. It didn’t kill a ton of them, but did a great job of knocking them to the ground and tripping up the ones behind for a few precious moments.
Twenty yards to the skywalk.
Freeman and Frank were the first to spot the zombies in the walkway, and opened fire as they continued to run towards their destination. They struck two of them in the chest, sending them tumbling back into their brethren, and as Frank crossed the threshold they took out the remaining stumbling corpses behind.
“Owens, help them with the doors!” the Captain barked. “Webb, on me!”
Freeman, Frank and Webb took a triangle formation, the latter in center rear as they quickly moved down the walkway. The zombies still writhing received bullets in the head, and then the trio raised their guns to the new ones barreling towards them from the office building.
At first it was just a trickle, but as they got closer to the doorway, they saw a flood of corpses tearing down the inner stairs.
“We need chains!” Freeman screamed back over his shoulder, and the three of them slammed their bodies into the doors to attempt to close them.
Gardner, Reyes and Owens weren’t paying attention, struggling to get their own set of doors closed and chained. Marie grabbed one of the lengths of chain from the floor and sprinted towards the office building. She dropped it at their feet, pulling her handgun to fire at the two zombies wedged in between the doors. She grabbed the fallen corpses and jerked them inside, allowing the soldiers to get the doors officially shut.
Once secured and chained, the three men collapsed to the ground as the other trio approached them.
“Mall doors are secure,” Reyes said. “They ain’t getting through there.”
“Same with these,” Webb replied, chest heaving. “Unfortunately, we aren’t getting through them either.”
Freeman sighed. “Well, we made it a block at least.”
“You still owe me a hundred bucks,” Marie teased. “You better not be giving up that easy.”
He shrugged. “Maybe we can hit the street.” He leaned over and looked down at the road, where a sea of zombies stared straight back up at him. “Or not.”
Frank looked up towards the office building, noting a set of windows directly over the skywalk. “Freeman, you like the Jeffersons, don’t you?”
“What sort of cold-hearted soulless person doesn’t like the Jeffersons?” the Corporal replied, putting a shocked hand to his heart.
“Well, we’re gonna emulate them,” Frank nodded. “Because we’re movin’ on up.” He pointed, and the team all looked at the window, gathering around.
Freeman nodded. “All right, if someone boosts me up there, I’m pretty sure I can get that pane of glass dislodged and-”
Marie cut him off by firing two shots in rapid succession at the glass, shattering it.
The Corporal jumped back to avoid the shower of glass, mind reeling. “We can… get climbing…” he trailed off and then glared at the woman when he realized what had actually happened.
“Webb, Freeman, give me a boost,” Frank instructed, and the two soldiers came together to lift him up on top of the skywalk. The roof was about ten feet of the ground, and he had to really reach to manage to get a hand hold. He grunted as he lifted himself up through the hole.
“You good, Cap?” Freeman called.
“Yeah, give me a minute,” Frank replied. “Gonna peek in at the office and see what we’re in for.” He moved cautiously across the metal struts of the skywalk, not wanting to risk putting weight on any of the glass. He reached the building and cupped his hands around his face to peek inside. There was a darkened cubicle farm, but he couldn’t make out any specific movement.
He made his way back to the hole and looked down at the expectant faces of his team. “I don’t see any movement in there, which means there’s probably a thousand of those fuckers in there. But it’s our best bet at this point.” He knelt and then laid face down to take Webb’s outstretched arm as they boosted him up. “Mind the glass, don’t know how strong it is.”
One by one, they all climbed up on top, and soon they stood in two single file lines across the metal struts facing the office building.
“Looks like there’s a conference room to the right,” the Captain said. “That’s our rally point, so if we aren’t alone in there we’ll at least have a fighting chance.” He nodded to Freeman, who was beside him in front, and they both fired several shots into the giant window. It shattered in a fantastic display of sparking glass shards.
As soon as the last giant large piece fell, they hopped over the sill quickly, doing a tactical sweep as they led the way to the conference room. Freeman immediately ran across it to the front door, a zombie surprising him in the doorway. He ducked in shock and tripped it up, holding it by the throat as it hit the floor. He slammed the door repeatedly into its head until there was a gooey mass where its head had been. He raised his gun at the sound of moans and movement in the darkness of the corridor.
“We got company Cap, where are we going?” the Corporal asked.
Frank strode over to him. “We gotta go across,” he said.
“You wanna run, or bait ‘em?” Freeman asked, but Owens devolved into a harsh coughing fit. The Captain and Corporal glanced at each other and immediately closed and locked the door, heading back over as Marie helped Owens into a chair. He spat a glob of blood between his shoes and sputtered for a moment before standing up, running the back of his hand across his mouth.
“Sorry about that, Cap, I’m good to go,” he said firmly.
Frank nodded. “You’re good, Owens.”
They all jumped as a zombie slammed against the conference room window. Two more followed, all of them in business casual, gaping wounds across their throats and arms.
Webb wrinkled his nose. “Looks like they had a meeting this morning that went south real quick,” he said, pointing at the blood-spattered whiteboard. Several of the chairs had been knocked over, and Freeman stepped up to the window. He knocked loudly on the glass.
“Anybody else out there?” he yelled.
Another zombie staggered forward to join its coworkers, but no other corpses came forward.
“Line ‘em up, boys,” Frank instructed, and they stepped up to the window, each aiming at a zombie. In unison they fired, dropping all of the corpses through the glass. “The other walkway is straight across,” the Captain said. “Stay frosty, though.”
Freeman opened the door quietly, peeking out, and then Frank led the way through. There was a loud banging sound behind one of the walls, but the doors were all sealed, so they ignored it. When they got to the opposite side of the building, Frank looked down the window at the end of the hallway at the roof of the skywalk below.
“Hand me that chair, Freeman,” he suggested, and the Corporal grabbed an office chair from the cubicle behind him and rolled it to the Captain. Frank swung the legs into the glass a few times, and on the third swing the window shattered, the chair flying right through it and bouncing off the skywalk to the street below.
“Freeman, you’re up,” Frank instructed. “Get across and check the apartment building.”
The Corporal saluted. “On it, Cap.” He lowered himself from the window down onto a metal strut, and carefully walked across to the other side. He peered into the apartment hallway and then turned to give Frank a thumbs-up.
“Marie, you’re next,” the Captain said, holding out his hand to her. One by one, he lowered the team down to the skywalk roof. Gardner was the last one to go down, and began to cross as the banging from inside the hallway suddenly stopped.
“Cap, you OK?” he asked, turning to look up at the gaping window.
Frank turned to answer him, when a zombie suddenly screeched at him. The Captain whipped around and raised his weapon, but the corpse was on him too fast. He managed to grab the zombie’s throat, but the force of impact was enough to fling them both out the window.
He vaguely heard his team shrieking for him as his back hit the glass roof of the skywalk, the zombie’s only mission to snap wildly at his face. The glass gave way mere seconds later, sending them both falling into the walkway. Frank managed to roll over, driving his attacker’s head into the floor and liquefying it upon impact.
“Holy fuck, Cap!” Gardner cried, the closest to the shattered roof. He reached down through the hole at his dazed comrade. “I got you Cap, come on!” he urged, eyes wild.
Frank finally came to his senses and leapt to his feet, but before he was able to reach up, several zombies burst through the skywalk door. He tore down the hallway, and the Corporal screamed, lowering his gun to open fire at the oncoming horde.
Reyes shot out the glass beneath him, and he and Freeman knelt down at the approaching Frank.
“Come on Cap, you got this!” Reyes yelled, stretching his arm down as far as it would go. Frank skidded to a stop as zombies crashed through the apartment doors on the other side, quickly overtaking Reyes and Freeman’s position. He looked from side to side, realizing he was trapped, and then saw a broken down bus on its side underneath the skywalk.
He fired off a few shots into the window and then leapt through it as it shattered, just out of reach of the clawing fingers grasping for his flesh.
He landed hard on the bus, about ten feet down, and did a shoulder roll to minimize the impact as best he could. At the thuds of zombies falling after him, he took off running, and skidded down to the asphalt, whipping around to aim. A few shots rang out and he looked up to see Gardner and Reyes had taken the corpses out.
Gardner gave him a thumbs-up, but the moment was short-lived as more zombies thumped down in pursuit. They gave cover fire, watching helplessly as Frank tu
rned and tore off into the night.
Freeman was pale and wide-eyed, his team turning to him to issue new orders. Marie pursed her lips at the realization that he was in shock.
“Hey,” she said, and punched him in the shoulder. “You got this, Freeman. So what are we doing?”
He shook himself and gave her a nod, silently thanking her for the return to reality. “All right listen up, we’re gonna get in here, find us a vacant apartment and give the Captain ten minutes to make contact,” he said firmly. “If we don’t hear from him, we press on. The mission is still the same and we have seventy some odd people who need our help. Y’all with me?”
There was a round of yes, sir and he nodded, shooting out the window into the apartment building.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Frank ran across the darkened street, hugging the wall to minimize his visibility in the shadows as best he could. He knelt down at the first door he found and gently pushed on it, but it wouldn’t budge. He approached an intersection and noted a horde of zombies down the block. A car fire burned nearby, illuminating the crossing.
He clenched his jaw. He’d surely be spotted if he tried to cross there. There were a few rows of cars bridging the intersection, all of them bumper to bumper in a pileup. The Captain sighed to himself, knowing that way would be even more dangerous with so many places for zombies to be hiding. But the risk to remain undetected seemed worth it, so he ducked low, shimmying over two sedans into the gap between numerous wrecks.
He drew his knife and handgun, hoping to not have to use the latter, but figuring that if he had to go down, he could go down knowing he took some of them with him.
Frank stayed crouched as he moved, swift and silent and out of sight of the windows of the smashed cars. As he approached the fire car he took a knee, and then quickly rolled away as a bloody hand smacked into the top of his head. He gazed up, an overweight zombie trapped in the back of a luxury car. The arm hung out of a window, but it was only halfway down, making the rotund corpse zero threat to the Captain.