by Grivante
“Judas?” she said, pleading.
He got in, smiled at her, and put his fist on the shifter while Jonah got inside. “JJ, we’ve gotta do something and the best option is to get you two inside. If you can find and eliminate Dr. Nitsau, these will be much easier to deal with. I’ll keep them busy and join you if the opportunity presents itself.” He shifted into first gear as Jonah slammed his door shut.
On the window of the 8-ball, the phrase ‘Outlook Good’ appeared.
Judas smirked and pointed at it. “See, even mom agrees.”
JJ smiled at this and pecked him on the cheek. “Ok, but you better be okay.”
Judas leaned forward and looked over at Jonah. “You ready?”
“Yep!” He nodded. “Get us as close as you can.”
Outside, the sun hung above the horizon line, beginning the slow descent into night. Shadows grew long around them. Judas clicked on the headlights, illuminating the approaching dead. He gave Sasha gas to get her moving, pointing her straight at the mass of zombies coming at them, picking up speed and shifting gears like a pro. For the first time ever, he didn't feel scared of messing up. He had his license now. He’d proven he could do it and, without the pressure, it was just plain fun to drive.
Jonah and JJ sat ready to launch themselves out the passenger door as soon as they were by the building.
“Hey, maybe I should use the nitrous and blast through them,” Judas joked, reaching over and flipping the plastic shield off the switch.
“No,” Jonah barked, smacking the cover closed. “Sending us hurtling into that mass of bodies would smash us—”
“I know!” Judas snapped back. “I was only playing around, I’m not an idiot, you know. I was blowing off steam.” He turned the truck, angling away from the zombies and toward the building.
Jonah bit his lip and gave Judas a sharp look, before relenting. “Sorry.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Judas said. “I can see how you’d think I'd do it, but maybe while I’m out here giving them the run around I’ll get to use it. That would be fun.”
Jonah laughed at that. “Yeah, I was kinda looking forward to getting to play with it too.”
The brothers reached over and fist-bumped across the cab.
JJ grabbed their hands and planted kisses on them. “You two are adorable. But it makes me wish I’d told them to put flame throwers on this bad girl for you. Can you imagine how much fun you’d have if she could breathe fire?”
“That would be so cool,” Judas said, shifting gears.
“Yeah,” Jonah nodded, opening and closing Brutus's chambers and checking it was fully loaded. “That's an add-on we will have to make happen!”
“Here we come! Dr. Nitsau I’ve got a special delivery for you!” Judas yelled as they flew past the lumbering zombies and neared the door of the facility. He slammed on the brakes, turning the wheel and sliding Sasha to a stop right in front.
“Keep her safe, bro!” Judas shouted, leaning forward and offering his fist to his brother again.
Jonah glanced at him, their eyes locking long enough for him to give a gentle nod, then their fists connected. “You got it, bro!” Jonah opened his door, slid out, and offered his three-fingered left hand up to JJ. “Come on, sweets, let’s go get Xanadu!”
Before she moved, she turned and grabbed Judas’s cheeks in her hands, pulled him close with tears in her eyes, and kissed him. Lips parting, leaving a sweet taste in his mouth he savored for the next several minutes.
“I love you,” she whispered, before turning and sliding out the door.
Judas’s face turned bright red, and a lump caught in his throat as he watched them run into the building. His eyes misted and he said in a hoarse voice, “I love you, too.”
A glance to his left showed that the green-eyed dead were nearing. He clicked the eject button on the CD player and removed JJ’s Rick Springfield CD and inserted his copy of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. As the disc whirred to life, he looked down at his combat vest and the four grenades strapped there. “Eenie, meanie, miney, moe,” he said, hand coming to rest on one of the two frag grenades. He peeled out as the music started, clicking the switch to lower his window, and tossed the grenade at the zombies.
His head rocked forward with the opening beats of the song. He smiled as it roared to life, punctuated by the explosion behind him. This was going to be a blast.
Inside the building, they found themselves in a wide-open mechanic's shop surrounded by workbenches and equipment of various types. The floor was littered with blood and debris from the undead horde who had exited through there into the parking lot. Scraps of clothing, dozens of fingers, toes, and even a few appendages lay on the ground.
“Keep your gas mask at the ready,” Jonah whispered to JJ. “Once she knows we're inside, she may do like she did before and poison the whole damn compound in order to kill us.”
“Do you think she has other employees here?”
Jonah stopped to consider the thought. “Given there was only the van outside, it’s probably just the doctor and her security team. But I have no doubt she’d still kill everyone.”
“Good point. Where do we go?”
There were three doors in the garage. A large double-door in the rear center that, from the slimy trail of stains and carnage, Jonah assumed was where the dead came from. They were closed and looked as if they led to a storage area. The other was to their left, near a staircase that lead up to a mezzanine section. The mezzanine included a catwalk in the upper corner, where another metal staircase ran to an exit with a symbol of a helicopter on it.
“I’m thinking we take this one.” Jonah nodded toward the door nearest them.
It opened into a stairwell that climbed one floor to a hallway with several doors. “We’ll have to check them all,” Jonah said. “Hopefully we’ll get lucky.”
They made their way down the corridor, looking through the windows of those rooms that had them and cautiously opening others that didn’t. For the most part, all they found were dust-covered and unused furnishings. They cleared two areas that were pretty much identical and then came to one that appeared to be an old cafeteria. Inside it were a few dozen dead though they weren’t the normal rotting corpses that had pursued them by the hundreds outside.
These looked dormant, but alive. Their visible skin was green and muscular, metal plating covered the rest, including large helmets shielding everything but their eyes. Spikes protruded from the plates and blades jutted from gauntlets on their hands. These had been made for war.
“Oh my god,” JJ said, covering her mouth.
Jonah held up a finger.
“They haven’t seen us and,” he indicated the hallway they were in that ran straight to a door on the far end. The cafeteria lay to the left and had a large sliding glass door separating it from the hall. “They can’t get out here unless we let them out.”
“Thank god,” JJ whispered. “What do you think they’re for?”
Jonah’s face scrunched and he wrinkled his nose. “Probably for us, or anyone else that might try to stop her if they knew what she was doing. Her own private zombie special forces. Let’s crawl on all fours, stay close to the inner wall and make our way to the far door. We'll have to hope that’ll keep them from noticing we’re here. The only spot of concern is the cafeteria door itself.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s all glass, nothing for us to hide behind. But I’m not too worried. If they see us, they might get riled up, but as long as they stay put, we’ll be fine."
“Ok,” JJ nodded and got on the floor.
“Ma’am, they’re inside the facility.”
Dr. Nitsau’s head shifted from side-to-side, eyes green and clouded.
“Ma’am,” the man’s voice repeated. Her jaw moved in a biting motion and the man stepped back. It was eerie watching her take them over. He was never quite sure if she was in command of them or if they were in control of her.
“Ma’am
.” He yelled it this time and the green light in her eyes faded, her dark pupils coming into focus.
“What is it?” she asked in a slow rumble, blinking before turning to glare at him.
“They’re inside!” He pointed at a display of their internal security feed, which showed Jonah and JJ crawling in the hallway.
Dr. Nitsau’s forehead wrinkled as she growled, stretching her jaw out and biting the air before her. “Lock the hall door and open the cafeteria.”
“Yea, ma’am,” the man said, hustling back to the computer and clicking buttons.
Dr. Nitsau’s nostrils flared as she took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were bright green.
Jonah and JJ shuffled across the dirty floor, keeping quiet except a few, “Icks!” and “Grosses” from JJ. They passed the cafeteria entrance without incident. Jonah let out a sigh of relief and hurried their pace towards the far door.
He heard the click before he knew what it was. Then, he realized it was the sound of a lock bolt engaging on the door in front of them and his stomach sank. The whoosh of the lunchroom door opening behind them a moment later made him jump to his feet, gesturing to help JJ up.
“Hurry! She knows we're here!”
“What?” JJ said, standing and taking Jonah’s offered hand.
They both twisted and looked inside where the group of armored and weaponized dead were alive with movement, eyes glowing green and heading toward the open door.
“Oh shit!” JJ cried out. “Let’s go.” She turned to run for the door at the end of the hall but stopped when Jonah grabbed her arm and shook his head.
“It’s no good. She locked it.”
“She what?” JJ broke past him and ran to it, trying the handle anyway and discovering it was indeed locked.
Jonah joined her and they spun, watching as the dead poured into the corridor in pursuit. Metal encased the first one's entire skull except for its eyes and mouth. Large blades were welded to braces on its arms. The one directly behind it was similar but covered in spikes from head to toe, like an Iron Maiden turned inside out. More and more of the monstrous creations followed, coming straight for them.
Part XX - If You Want Blood
“What are we gonna do?” JJ asked.
Jonah had Brutus out and raised at head height. “If we can shoot them in the eyes, we can kill them.”
“I don’t know about you,” JJ said, “but I’m not that that good of a shot.”
He pulled the trigger, filling the hallway with the deafening blast of his revolver.
The bladed zombie stumbled backward. The attempt had been on point, mostly. A large dent appeared in its forehead, but it kept moving.
“Jonah?” JJ looked at him with wide panic-stricken eyes. “We can’t—”
Jonah bit on his lip. “Dammit! No, we can’t.” He turned to the exit. “We’ve only got one chance!”
“What?” JJ asked, then nodded as he lifted Brutus and pointed it at the handle. She did the same with her Pink Lady.
They fired, pounding bullets into and around the latch until their guns clicked empty. Jonah swept his leg up and slammed it into the door right below the smoking ruins of the lock. It gave way, the mangled handle falling out and clunking to the ground.
“Oh, thank god,” JJ said, turning to see the crowd of twisted zombies behind them.
“Go, go!” Jonah yelled, holstering Brutus and grabbing the assault rifle slung across his back.
They moved into the next room and Jonah peppered the monsters with bursts from the weapon. They tinged and tanged off the metal armor, or sank uselessly into dead flesh. He dropped the gun and let it hang from the strap over his chest. “Worthless,” he muttered and turned to JJ.
“Let’s…” His voice faltered and his mouth hung open. Two men with assault rifles of their own stood near the opposite wall, pointing them straight at the pair.
“Don’t move,” one of them said.
Judas spun the truck around at the far side of the dark and empty lot. The sun had set, and the zombies’ eyes glowed like lighters at a rock concert as they lumbered in his direction. AC/DC blasted from the speakers and he smiled. He hadn’t had this much fun in a long, long time. Well, the other night with JJ maybe, and again today in the alley. This thought had him giggling to himself, his cheeks reddening again as he remembered the drunken debauchery of their celebration. And while that made his skin tingle with a mix of excitement and embarrassment, he wondered if they’d do it again someday.
“What a life we lead,” he said out loud, tilting his head as he noticed Jonah’s cigar sticking out of the ashtray. “I wonder if he knows he left that.” He reached out, picked it up and, before he knew it, put it in his mouth. The rush of nicotine hit his system as soon as his lips connected with the tobacco leaf wrapper, leaving his tongue tingling.
“Whoa,” he whispered, “It’s been so long I forgot what the nicotine buzz felt like.” He scanned around for a lighter, only stopping himself because he couldn't find anything to light it with. “I can’t believe I was about to do that.” He took it out of his mouth and slipped it into a pocket on his vest. “I’ll bring it to him right after I get rid of these jackasses.”
The dead continued to lumber toward him and he sighed, fidgeting with knobs and switches as he waited for them to grow closer. He flipped the shield on the nitrous switch open and closed a few times, ending with it open. “I can do this all damn day, Natasha,” he said, looking at the building and wondering how his brother and JJ were doing.
As he stared ahead of him, waiting for them to get near enough, the lights in their eyes faded, like watching a power outage fall across a city. “Okay,” he sat tall. “Time to figure out how to lose these wannabe hitchhikers for good.”
He’d decided on a plan a while ago, he realized it wasn’t great, Jonah would've come up with something better than the Evel Knievel like idea Judas had. They couldn't deal with a herd like this without a massive weapon of some kind and even as big as DeeDee was, she didn’t have enough ammo to do the job. Which left him with only one choice. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said, patting a hand on the dashboard. From the stereo, AC/DC’s 'If You Want Blood’ started.
“I hope Jonah and JJ won’t be too mad.” He peeked out the window and up to the sky. “You too, dad.” The truck rolled and, even though he couldn’t see it in the dark of the cab, the magic 8-ball displayed the phrase, ‘My sources say no.’
He cruised by the dead, revving the engine so they’d follow him, driving slow and steady back to the other side of the compound until he lined up with the far fence, the horde of mindless creatures at his tailgate.
In the rearview mirror, he could see the dwindling light of the sun as it disappeared. Ahead of him, only dry desert ground stretched out, illuminated by the truck's headlights. It was approximately two-hundred and twenty-seven yards from where he sat to the edge of the cliff, he’d counted twice as he led Nitsau around on the goose chase. At fifteen miles per hour, it would take him thirty-one seconds to reach it. He'd have the music blasting and the horn blowing the whole way and bail at the thirty-second mark. If all went as planned, the truck would roll over the side and down to the next segment of road that circled the pit. The noise and commotion would draw the dead to follow it, killing or trapping most of them. Sasha, hopefully, wouldn’t be demolished by the fall and he'd land on the upper road, getting out of their path before they came over the top
When the zombies reached the tailgate, he shifted into gear and got Sasha chugging along, giving her just enough gas to keep them close, but not letting them overtake him. He considered pulling Jonah’s cigar back out of his pocket, making his heart race. "This is crazy! I’m sorry, girl!” he said, opening the door and doing one more quick check to make certain everything he carried was secure. He took his hand off the shifter, twisting his body to face outside, then it hit him. Sasha might be okay, at least salvageable he hoped, but, he glanced at the 8-ball.
> In the display window, the message read, ‘Don’t Panic’. I've never seen that one before, Judas thought and despite the guidance, he did exactly that. He grabbed hold of the 8-ball and spun it to separate it from the shifting arm. “C’mon, c’mon!” As it turned, he scanned ahead and saw only darkness. He was almost there. His heart thudded in his chest.
The music blared. ‘If you want blooooood!’ and shifted into a downbeat. The 8-ball came loose and fell onto the passenger's side floorboard. “Shit!” Judas yelled and dove for it, scooping it off the floor and turning back right as he felt the shift in gravity from the front of the truck going over the edge. The music surged, the voice of lead singer Brian Johnson bringing it home. ‘You got it!’
He leapt, and as he did so, his foot hit the red nitrous switch into the on position, engaging the gas. He fell out into open air as, behind him, the propulsion system engaged with a blasting whoosh. Instead of toppling a few levels, Sasha jumped forward, propelled by the nitrous like a rocket, music dwindling. Judas hit the dirt, clutching the 8-ball tight, and rolled over twice, gasping for breath as he lay at the side of the road, looking down as Sasha shot through the air.
The dead fell behind him onto the path. At first it was only a few, then dozens as they reached the edge in their mindless pursuit, knocking each other over like dominos.
Sasha impacted far below. The song ended with a crunch of metal, punctuated by an explosion as the truck’s gas tank ignited, which set off the remaining ammunition, lighting up the sky like the Fourth of July.
The flames illuminated the pit and the falling corpses. Their momentum carried them forward and flattened those that were trying to stand. The sound of squished, trampled bodies filled the air as Judas scurried backward, moving his way up the road toward the compound. So far only a couple of them had noticed him, but the continuous flow of bodies from above knocked them down and away. Hundreds of them now, he saw and smiled to himself. It had worked. He peered down at the burning, smoking remains of their beloved truck and felt a pang of guilt.