Dead America | Prequel | Ground Zero

by Slaton, Derek

  Brandon nodded and led them silently towards the heavy door. Their footfalls masked a lot better by the carpeted floor. There was a glass window on the door, but it was frosted, so all he could make out were fuzzy shapes in the sunlight. At least he could tell that the targeted light sources above meant another hallway. He took a step back as a few dark blobs staggered by.

  He took a deep breath after they passed and eased the door open a tiny crack. He noted a fire door down the hall and then quietly closed the latch again.

  “Okay, it looks like our exit is just to the right,” he whispered. “Once we get clear of the building, how far is the parking lot?”

  Candace leaned in. “Pretty close, maybe twenty yards?”

  “And your car?” he asked.

  “It’s a silver SUV, and it’s in the first handicap spot to the right of the sidewalk,” she replied.

  His brow furrowed. “Handicap?” He wrinkled his nose. “Really?”

  “Hey, don’t judge.” She crossed her arms in defiance. “You have any idea how difficult it is to find parking on this campus?”

  “Whatever, it’s lucky for us that it’s close,” Brandon replied. “Who’s got the keys?”

  Matt pulled a ring out of his pocket. “Good to go.”

  “You comfortable driving in this insanity?” the Officer asked.

  The young man nodded. “Been driving in Austin traffic all my life. I can handle it.”

  “Okay, I’m taking shotgun,” Brandon said firmly. “Gwen, you’ll be behind me, and Candace, you’re behind Matt. Any questions?” There was a chorus of no, and he straightened his shoulders. “All right. Check your weapons and let’s do this.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  The quartet of survivors tore out of the building and towards the parking lot. Candace’s silver SUV shone in the sunlight like a beacon of hope. Two zombies leapt out from behind it, coming at them quickly, and Brandon stopped, took quick aim, and shot them each in the face in succession.

  Matt blew past the corpses falling to the ground, and threw the driver’s side door open, unlocking the rest as he jumped into the seat. Brandon aimed at the screams coming from the lecture hall building as several groups of zombies poured out of the nooks and crannies and doors and behind structures, streaming towards them like a hungry rally.

  He waited for Gwen and Candace to close themselves into the relative safety of the backseat and then jumped into the passenger’s side. Matt threw the vehicle into reverse just as the first wave of zombies slammed into the hood.

  The tires squealed, and he whipped the wheel sharply to the left, spinning the SUV around quite well considering the bulky size of the vehicle. He popped it into drive and peeled out, running over a few straggler zombies in the way. He drove across parking spaces to a side street and made a hard left turn, throwing everyone in the car to the right with the violent motion.

  “Where are we headed?” Brandon asked as he braced himself against the door.

  “I-35 is a few blocks east of here,” Matt replied, eyes hyper focused on where he was steering. “I know this time of day going into town is a bitch, but hopefully the path out of town is clear.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” the Officer replied, “but it’s a good a plan as any.”

  The girls gaped at the veritable chaos surrounding them. The sidewalks were covered in pools of blood, overflowing onto the streets in crimson rivers. Body parts were strewn everywhere, some full corpses with crushed heads but mostly signs of dead having gotten up and wandered away. There were fires in a few of the storefronts, licking broken glass displays like the hungry tongues of the dead.

  Matt turned onto the main road that led to the interstate, and then immediately slammed on the brakes. “Holy shit,” he breathed.

  Hundreds of zombies packed the road, jammed between cars like sardines. There was an overturned transport truck blocking the street, having caused a traffic jam in which the hungry corpses swarmed.

  “Why are they banging on the cars?” Gwen asked, eyes wide as saucers as she stared at the sea of rotting flesh.

  Brandon swallowed hard. “Because there are people still inside.”

  She shivered and covered her mouth, sitting back in her seat to digest that information.

  “Alternate route?” Matt asked.

  Gwen squeaked as a zombie smacked into the back door, leaving a gooey red smear across the glass.

  “Maybe the Drag?” Brandon replied.

  Matt nodded. “Let’s do it.” He pulled a quick u-turn, driving over the creature who’d tried to eat Gwen through the window. He drove towards the Drag, which was a row of campus stores and bars on street level that led north.

  “Hard left, hard left!” Brandon cried as they rounded the corner and came upon shoulder-to-shoulder zombies packing the street.

  Matt’s reaction wasn’t quite fast enough, and he smacked into the front of the horde. The SUV skidded and groaned over some corpses, the zombies quickly surrounding them. Gwen shrunk down against the seat with every smack against the glass, and Candace put a hand on her shoulder, holding up her rifle with her other hand.

  “Fuck!” Matt cried as he tried to reverse. “We’re stuck!” One of the back wheels seemed to have bottomed out on a corpse underneath it.

  Brandon unclipped his seatbelt and opened the sunroof. “When I start firing, you move forward. Then I want you to pop it in reverse and floor that son of a bitch. That extra speed should get us over the hump.”

  “Got it,” Matt replied with a firm nod.

  Brandon wedged his foot onto the center console and rose through the sunroof. He took aim and began firing into the zombie heads at the front of the vehicle to give them room to gun it forward.

  Candace looked worriedly out the back window, which was quickly darkening with ghouls lining up behind them. “Y’all have to hurry, or we’re gonna be trapped.”

  Matt leaned over so he could yell up at the SWAT Officer. “Unload on them, or we’re gonna be stuck here!”

  Brandon turned and glanced behind him, watching the sea of zombies flooding the street. “Fucking hell,” he muttered, and then flipped his weapon to full auto, unloading the remainder of the mag into the corpses near the hood of the SUV.

  Matt inched forward a little further and Brandon plopped himself back into the passenger seat. As soon as his seatbelt clicked shut, the young man floored the SUV in reverse, which gave them just enough speed to ba-bump over the zombie hump.

  The tires struggled a bit with the falling corpses behind them, but the SUV managed to pick up speed as they pushed through the last line of creatures. Matt made sure he was clear of zombies before making a frantic three-point-turn.

  “Where are we going, Shelton?!” he cried as he turned into the park, driving across the grass to avoid the zombies staggering around. Some corpses were close enough to run at the roaring vehicle, but Matt had enough speed now that the zombies just bounced off of the sides like ping-pong balls.

  “Head to campus,” Brandon replied.

  Matt let out a throaty noise of disbelief. “What?”

  “Head to the tower,” the Officer motioned out the window at the UT Tower.

  Candace leaned forward to yell at him over his shoulder. “What the hell are we going to do at the tower?”

  “I don’t fuckin’ know,” Brandon groaned. “We might be able to signal a chopper.”

  “Are you kidding me?!” Gwen shrieked. “What kind of plan is that?”

  He clenched and unclenched his jaw. “It’s the best one we have at the moment, but I’m certainly open to suggestions!”

  The girls slumped back in their seats, unable to come up with a valid argument. Matt tightened his hands around the steering wheel, taking a deep breath before easing right to head towards campus. The quartet was silent for the rough ride across the park, and didn’t make a noise even when he jumped the curb onto the sidewalk, barely slowing down.

  “Two more buildings and then hang a right, it’
s a straight shot,” Candace instructed.

  Matt nodded. “Got it, hon.” He sped past more zombies, taking off a few greedy and reaching hands in the process. He punched the gas and sped around the corner at the end, but wasn’t anticipating the giant group of zombies standing just out of sight.

  The impact stopped the vehicle on a dime, the whole left side of the vehicle lurching off of the ground. As the tires smacked back down on the pavement, Matt’s teeth clacked together and he punched the brake.

  Except it wasn’t the brake, it was the gas, and the SUV went careening up a staircase on two wheels. Candace screamed something unintelligible, and Brandon barely registered enough to brace his hands against the ceiling as the vehicle flipped clean over.

  The SUV skidded to a screeching stop on its roof, and Brandon knew he had to take action or all four of them would be overwhelmed in seconds. He unclipped his seatbelt and shoved himself out of the shattered passenger’s side window. As soon as his hop half emerged, a zombie lunged for him, and he lashed out, clutching its collar in his adrenaline-fueled grip.

  It struggled and thrashed, teeth gnashing as it tried to get to its meal, and Brandon struggled for his gun. He finally managed to release it and fired point blank into the zombie’s forehead. He quickly staggered to his feet, assessing the zombies circling the overturned vehicle. He dispatched one, hoping to buy the others some time to get their bearings. He wanted to reach back in to grab Gwen, but he knew as soon as he bent over he’d be vulnerable, and he was no use to these kids if he were dead.

  He stepped forward, trying to force back the several zombies closing in on the SUV, but froze at the sound of Gwen’s panicked screams. He whipped around to see two zombies dragging her out the window, tearing her flesh with their teeth and the jagged glass sticking every which way.

  “Shelton, come on!” Candace screamed from the other side of the car.

  He grimaced as Gwen’s shrieks turned to gurgles, jaw clenched as he tore across the courtyard after Matt and Candace. Despite the adrenaline, the trio was tired and battered from the accident, and the zombies running after them were gaining ground.

  Matt hit the door first, but it was locked. Candace shoved him out of the way and unloaded a series of shots into the door handle, busting it open. Brandon shoved them through as he got there, and the three of them slammed back against it to hold the zombies outside where they belonged.

  “Look for the stairs!” Brandon screamed, and Candace pointed at the door on the far end with the sign for the stairwell.

  “There!” she cried. “Far end of the room.”

  Brandon dug in his heels with a grunt. “Okay, I got this,” he said. “You two get to the stairs and make sure it’s clear.”

  “What about you?” Candace argued. “I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself for us.”

  He let out an exasperated laugh. “I wasn’t planning on it,” he assured her. “When you get in there, I’m going to run like hell to you. Hoping I’m faster than they are.”

  “Okay, good,” the blonde replied. “Ready!” She nodded to Matt, and the couple took off for the stairwell.

  Brandon gritted his teeth as the full force of the horde smacked against his back. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take. His knees began to shake with the strain. There was a pang in his chest when he had the errant thought that Blanchard would have had a field day making fun of him if his legs buckled under the pressure.

  “Start climbing!” Candace demanded as she and Matt reached the door. “Make sure we’re clear all the way up!”

  He gripped her wrist. “What are you going to do?”

  “Cover him,” she slipped in her last mag and readied her stance as her boyfriend headed up the stairs, his own gun at the ready. She let out an ear-splitting whistle to signal to Brandon.

  The SWAT Officer nodded and jammed the barrel of his rifle into the ever-widening crack in the door. He unloaded the remainder of his mag blindly, hoping to buy himself a few precious seconds. He broke away from the door and sprinted as fast as his exhausted legs would carry him towards the stairwell.

  He burst inside just seconds before the horde and hugged the wall to the left to give Candace room to fire from the first landing. Bodies piled up behind him, and he reloaded his rifle as he passed her.

  “Get two floors above me and get ready to fire again,” he instructed, and she nodded, taking the stairs two at a time. He darted after her, stopping on a landing to fire another stream of bullets into the oncoming pack. Corpses fell left and right, slowing the ascent, some flopping over the railing and others being trampled beneath their brethren.

  He turned and bolted up, grabbing Candace’s arm on the way by. “Come on, we can make it!” he yelled, and she followed him, the two of them practically flying up the stairs and hoping to hell that Matt was okay at the top was cleared.

  “Hurry up!” the man in question yelled from the top, holding open the door to the observation deck.

  The duo leapt through the door, and Brandon slammed the door shut. It was a thick metal fire door, and it opened outwards, so whatever was still walking in the stairwell wouldn’t be able to push it open.

  Brandon did a quick sweep of the room, but found only historical pictures and texts. The room was wall-to-wall windows, save for a little employee break room on the far side, which was also empty. When it seemed that they were finally out of danger, he collapsed to the floor, laying on his back, the adrenaline flowing out of him like a waterfall.

  “Holy fuck that was a lot of stairs,” he moaned. “Never been so glad in my life to have never skipped leg day.”

  Candace nodded, catching her breath and wanting to save it by not talking. Matt walked out to the balcony and swallowed, hard.

  “Guys,” he said over his shoulder, voice somber. “I think you need to see this.”

  Brandon groaned as he sat up, and Candace took his hand to help him to his feet so they could wander out to look.

  The campus was a nightmare.

  Hundreds of zombies roamed the grounds, feasting and groaning. Smoke rose from various buildings. The I-35 in the distance was bumper-to-bumper with cars, but none of them were running, only the corpses banging back and forth in between them like rats in a maze.

  “Well, good to see that even in the apocalypse that I-35 traffic doesn’t change,” Brandon joked, and lowered himself to the ground again. He leaned against the sliding door, closing his eyes momentarily before staring upwards instead at the peaceful-looking blue sky.

  Matt wrapped an arm around his girlfriend’s waist and looked down at the exhausted Officer. “So, what do we do now?”

  “Y’all get comfortable,” Brandon replied. “I’ll keep first watch for a chopper. With any luck there will be some coming through at some point.”

  The young couple headed back inside, and he resumed staring at the clouds. He watched the lazy puffy formations and pretended that the ground wasn’t covered in the end of the world.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  3:00PM

  Brandon stood at the edge of the balcony, leaning his head on his arms on the railing, staring in the general direction of the I-35. There was a beer truck standing proudly taller than the rest of the cars, the side reflecting the afternoon sun brilliantly.

  “I know Austin is notorious for their rush hour, but this is pushing it just a bit, don’t you think?” Candace joked from the doorway and approached slowly.

  “I was just contemplating how difficult of a run it would be to get over to that truck,” he replied, pushing up so he was standing straight. “We’ve had a long day and I think we’ve earned a cold beer, don’t you?”

  The blonde trilled a laugh. “I’m mostly a tequila girl, but you wouldn’t get any complaints out of me.”

  “Hm,” Brandon replied, eyeing her with interest. “That’s funny, you didn’t strike me as a tequila girl.”

  “I grew up with Mexican neighbors who had cookouts just about every weekend,” she
explained. “They were nice enough to invite us over every time.”

  “Wait a second.” He blinked down at her and then narrowed his eyes. “Are you even old enough to drink?”

  She batted her eyelashes at him innocently. “Why yes Officer, of course I’m old enough to drink. And I would never, ever lie about it.”

  They shared a laugh, and it almost felt normal—laughing in the sunlight on a balcony.

  “Hey, what’s so funny?” Matt asked, emerging from inside as he stretched his arms high above his head.

  “Oh, just caught your girl here lying to uniformed Officer, that’s all,” Brandon teased.

  She shrugged. “Only time in my life I’m going to be able to get away with it, so might as well take advantage, right?”

  “Can’t fault you for it,” he admitted. Matt chuckled and handed out two bottles of water that he’d found in the break room. Candace immediately cracked her and chugged half of it, moaning with the feel of the liquid on her parched throat.

  “Thanks,” Brandon said, and took a few quick sips. “How are the supplies looking?”

  “Surprisingly good,” the young man replied. “Looks like they had a catered party recently, so there are a few bins of leftovers in the fridge, not to mention that cooler of bottled water.”

  The Officer let out a deep sigh of relief. “Well, it’s about time something went our way.”

  “How’s it looking out here?” Matt asked, leaning on the railing. “Any helicopters? Signs of rescue?”

  Brandon shook his head, trying to hide the disappointment in his gaze. “Saw a couple take off an hour ago flying west,” he said, motioning vaguely. “But they didn’t get anywhere close enough for me to signal them.”

  “Well, man, why don’t you go chill out for a bit?” the young man suggested. “Candace and I will keep watch.”

  “You sure?” the Officer replied.

  “Yeah, Shelton, go take a breather,” Candace assured him.

  As Brandon approached the door, his pounding on the door was more audible, and he shook his head. “Those fuckers don’t give up, do they?”