by Grivante
With that, a door slammed shut and the various weaponized dead around the room moved toward them, blocking off their pursuit of the doctor.
“No!” JJ cried out.
Judas struggled to cut through the bonds holding his brother as he still clutched the grenade in one hand. Once free, Jonah stood, tore off his gag and ran to the table, grabbing the weapons left there by the men.
“Don’t worry, JJ, there’s an access to the helipad back where we came in, we can stop her and rescue Xanadu.” Jonah smiled at his brother as he checked the assault rifle, then bent and grabbed Brutus and JJ’s revolver from the wooden crate. “I’m sure glad to see you, Judas. She said you were dead, that you’d driven Sasha into the pit.”
Judas’s cheeks burned red at that as he cut JJ free.
“Me too,” JJ said beaming up at him. “I thought you were gone!”
“So, about that,” Judas said as Jonah came back with the weapons, handing JJ her Pink Lady. She took it and smiled.
Jonah raised an eyebrow at him. “What about it?”
“I did.”
“You did what?”
“I drove Sasha into the pit.”
“You what?” Both Jonah and JJ exclaimed.
“It was the only way I could get rid of them. It was getting dark out there and when their eyes went dim, I knew she wasn’t controlling them. I figured it was my only chance. So, I got them following me and drove her over the edge, thinking the damage wouldn’t be too bad if she dropped onto the next road, but they’d still follow.”
Jonah continued looking at him with a scrunched forehead. “So what was Nitsau ranting about?”
“Well,” Judas shrugged. “On my way out I accidentally hit the nitrous switch and Sasha shot off like a rocket, torpedoed straight to the bottom and when she impacted, the ammo and stuff…” He held out his hands. “Sorry.”
Jonah’s face steamed, but then JJ wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “Don’t worry, Judas. It’s only a truck, trucks can be replaced. I’m just glad you’re alive.”
“Yeah, me too,” Jonah nodded, cooling a little.
“Oh,” Judas said. “I saved the 8-ball though and…” he ran his free hand along his pockets until he found what he was looking for and withdrew the half-smoked cigar of Jonah’s. “… this.”
Jonah grinned at him and took it. “Thanks, bro. Now let’s get out of here and finish this.” He indicated the approaching dead who were ten feet away and fired a burst from the assault rifle at the nearest of them. Most of the rounds tinked off, but one found its home, straight into the eye, and the zombie dropped.
“What the hell are those?” Judas asked, backing toward the exit and drawing his Glock.
“Nitsau’s toys. They’re heavily armored. Unless you get a lucky shot through the eyes, you can’t stop them.”
“What about this?” Judas held up the grenade as they moved to the doorway.
“Fire will work!” Jonah nodded. “Zombies hate fire, but let's make sure we’re outta here.” He opened the door to the hallway and motioned them out.
In the hall, Judas turned back to the room, at that same moment the zombie's eyes flared bright green, and switched from stumbling dead to raging monsters, charging straight for them.
“Oh shit!” Judas cried, tossing the incendiary grenade. “Run!”
The trio tore down the corridor, reaching the far door and bursting through just as the windows exploded. Shards of glass and flames engulfing everything. The screams of the burning dead rang out, followed by a wave of heat as they dove for the floor.
“Whoa,” Judas said, rolling over and shaking his head. “That was close.”
“We’re nothing if not the kings of close calls,” Jonah said, standing and offering JJ a hand.
Hot air continued to wash over them as smoke filled the air.
“This place is gonna burn. Let’s keep moving.” Jonah nodded toward the exit at the far side of the room.
Judas trotted ahead, getting to the door and swinging it open, but turning back to look at JJ and Jonah. “This way to doggie rescue and happily ever after,” he said, grinning and gesturing them through.
JJ looked through it and screamed.
A fresh group of armored dead with bright green eyes streamed toward them.
Judas spun and faced the zombies, saw them coming and slammed the door shut, putting his weight against it. The clang of metal against metal sounded as they impacted on the other side.
From the smoking hallway behind them, a still moving corpse walked out and Jonah blasted two shots straight into its skull at close range, dropping it.
The reek of burning corpses stifled the air.
“Quick,” Judas shouted at him. “You two get out of sight.” He pointed to the piece of furniture covered with a sheet in the far corner.
Jonah moved but scrunched his forehead in confusion. “What are you thinking, Judas?”
“Just get out of sight,” his brother said. “I’ve got this.”
Jonah hesitated but followed JJ, who crouched low behind the couch.
Judas ran from the door to another one further along the same wall. “Before I found you, I checked this room, there’s a stairwell behind this door that leads below,” he opened it, then jogged back to the first one and put his hand on the knob. “I’ll get them to follow me, make her think they are chasing all of us. That way you can get to the helipad and stop her.”
“But Judas,” Jonah said, “What—”
“No, ‘but Judas’s’. Hide so she doesn’t see you,” he said and swung the door open. He spun and ran to the other side, stopping to fire at the zombies as they stumbled into the room, getting their attention. They snapped in his direction and he took off down the staircase.
Jonah and JJ huddled behind the couch, watching as the dead disappeared in pursuit of Judas. Once they had left, they both let their breath out.
“That crazy bastard,” Jonah said.
“He better be okay or… or…” JJ shook her head in frustration. “I’ll kill him!”
“I’ll be right there with you,” Jonah said, standing. “But for now, let’s take advantage of the opportunity he’s given us and go give Dr. Nitsau a surprise of our own.”
JJ smiled at him and clutched her revolver tight. “Oh, I’ve got a surprise or two for her, all right!”
Judas ran as fast as he could, charging down the stairs as the metal-on-metal clanging of the pursuing zombies sounded behind him. From the racket they made, it resembled a marching band in a head-on-collision with a truck full of ball-bearings. That should buy him plenty of time. The stairwell only contained a small strip of lighting and he didn't know where it led. He'd checked it out earlier but didn't descend, sensing that his brother and JJ were not that way.
When he reached the bottom, he discovered it opened into a large wide hallway, similar to what you'd find in a sports stadium. Some lights on, others off and a few flickering. It reeked of death and decay. Rotted bits of flesh and blood lined the floors and walls.
This must have been where they stored the dead they’d sent outside… which meant... Judas looked to his right and grinned. “That should lead me to the entrance.”
He studied the slippery looking floor, covered with bloody muck and goo, gave it an ‘uck’ face and pinched his nose shut. He chose each step with care. In the distance, he noticed a dim light shining through the small windows of the double doors that led into the garage. “Well that was easy,” he smirked.
Behind him, the armored dead poured into the hall in pursuit, filling it with clanging metal and grunts. The haunting echoes this created made Judas run even faster.
When he reached the door, he peered through its window and gasped. There she was. Dr. Nitsau stood in the center of the garage near the open shop doors, her eyes were green and, from behind her, a crowd of twenty or thirty stragglers that hadn’t taken his bait into the pit moved inside. Beside her, one of her guards stood weaponless, looking around n
ervously. The other, with Xanadu in the cage, climbed the staircase toward the helipad.
Judas felt a huge sense of relief, pulled the assault rifle slung across his shoulders into position and pushed on the bar to open the doors. They shook but didn’t move. He pressed harder. Still nothing. He stepped back a pace, then lunged into them, making a loud banging noise. They were locked.
He turned and glanced down the corridor, the dead were only thirty feet behind him and coming fast.
Part XXIII - Ashes to Ashes
Jonah and JJ ran through the hall passed the now empty cafeteria and back through the series of rooms and corridors they had searched earlier, finally arriving at the bottom of the staircase that exited into the shop.
Jonah held his hand up for JJ to stop so he could take in the situation.
“She’s right there,” JJ said from beside him and tried to push past.
“Hold on a minute,” Jonah said, blocking her with his arm. “I’m trying to get a clear view of what’s going on. I don’t see Xanadu.”
The doctor's eyes were green and the man next to her stared out into the parking area, mouth hanging open.
“She’s calling in the rest of the dead to make sure we can’t pursue her,” he said and put his hand on the push-bar to open the door. “It’s gonna get crowded!” They burst through, just as the first of the zombies crossed the threshold into the garage from outside.
A series of muffled gun shots sounded, and Jonah searched for the source of the noise. In the rear of the garage, he noticed the double doors shake and Judas’s face appear in the small window, before disappearing again, followed by more muffled blasts.
“Shit, Judas is trapped,” Jonah growled, raising Brutus and aiming it at the green-eyed doctor.
His voice caught Dr. Nitsau’s attention and her head jerked in his direction. Her right arm jutted out, pointing directly at him, and the dead charged toward them.
Xanadu barked from above. JJ’s face snapped upward, seeing the man running across the mezzanine catwalk with the cage in his arms toward the helipad door. She raised the pink lady and fired at him. Jonah did the same with Brutus at Dr. Nitsau.
Judas shot a blast into the approaching dead, resulting in nothing more than a lot of noise and bullets ricocheting around the small space. He turned back to the doors, glanced out the window and witnessed his brother and JJ storm in, guns blazing. “Thank you,” he whispered, backed up a few steps and unloaded the magazine into the door, perforating it until it resembled a colander. It shook, the air reeking of burnt nitroglycerin from the spent rounds. He slammed into the exit again, expecting it to pop open, but it held fast.
“Oh fuck,” he cried, feeling the presence of the monsters at his back and spun. Their mass of metal spikes and blades scraped along the sides of the concrete walls as they neared. He clutched for his Glock but instead, his hand came to rest on the one remaining incendiary grenade on his vest. He yanked it free, pulled the pin, and dropped it to the floor.
“Come and get me you rotten motherfuckers!”
Jonah’s shot missed Dr. Nitsau, but exploded the head of her guard, covering her in a shower of blood and brains.
JJ fired and didn’t stop until her gun clicked empty. All of her rounds found their target. Knocking the man against the wall, leaving a bloody Rorschach blot behind him as he stumbled forward, the crate containing Xanadu swinging in his grip. He smacked into the bar that ran across the top of the catwalk, slumped over it, then he and Xanadu, cage and all, fell over the edge, plummeting toward the cement floor.
The dead streaming in from outside were about to overrun them. Jonah turned Brutus to the nearest one, firing and dropping it, then on to the next. Their eyes were dull and empty but there were too many and they’d be overwhelmed in seconds. He heard JJ cry out, saw the man and the dog falling from the mezzanine and then heard her shouting his name.
“Xannnnadddoooooooo!”
From nowhere, the disco-sounding music flared to life and time took a leisurely stroll through their heartbeats. They watched in horror as Xanadu didn’t float down, but instead plunged like a lead weight, glowing a bright white from head to toe, then the dead were on them.
They screamed as his cage slammed into the ground.
A brilliant flash burst forth from Xanadu, sending an arc of light and heat through the space. It engulfed everything, followed by a popping sound and a loud explosion. A puff of smoke came from the double doors in back, tendrils of it drifting through the holes Judas had created.
The brightness blinded Jonah and JJ. They shielded their faces, screaming, crying out, and stood there in shocked silence. They blinked to regain their vision in the now eerily quiet garage. Directly before them, arms outstretched only inches away, were a dozen grey, almost powdery forms. The zombies frozen in their tracks.
JJ reached out and touched the one nearest her with the barrel of her gun, its arm broke off, fell to the ground, and poofed to dust. “Oh my god,” she whispered, reaching out and smacking the form in the chest. The whole thing collapsed into a heap of grey ash.
Next to her, Jonah still blinked, looking around in awe as a few of the forms toppled from their own weight. The ones before them looked the same, turned to ash by the light wave that… he hunted for Xanadu, but couldn't see past the grey shapes.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” JJ said in amazed wonder. “It’s like he went super-nova, sent out this lethal blast that turned them to ash.” She shook her head. “Where is he?” She brushed passed Jonah, knocking over a few more of the zombie statues as she broke into a run. He followed.
The cage lay in ruins on the floor, around it a black ring of soot. In the center sat Xanadu, his form unmoving, sitting back on his haunches, staring straight ahead, gray and ashen.
“Oh my god!” JJ screamed, dropping to her knees in front of him, “Oh my god, oh my god, he’s just like them.” She looked up at Jonah, face red, tears streaming. “No, no, no! He’s gone. If I touch him, he’ll… he’ll fall apart.”
Jonah stared down at her, helpless as she held out a trembling hand to touch her best friend. As he watched, her strawberry-blonde hair shimmered, a streak of white appearing through the center.
Her fingers grazed the top of his muzzle and her posture changed, head tilting to the right. She placed her palm on top of Xanadu's form and patted it. He was solid, not ash like the others, but… “He’s a statue.” She said, turning to face Jonah who lowered himself to her side, then glanced away to the back of the garage.
She followed his gaze to where smoke billowed from the doors. “What is it?”
Jonah gulped. “Before…” He waved his right hand around at the room, still holding Brutus in it. “I saw Judas on the other side of that door.”
He stood and stepped in that direction, heart sinking, the smell of burnt flesh growing stronger as he neared. His mouth had gone dry and his knees trembled. The door was hot, glowing in some places even, but it was open now, the smoke dissipating as it drifted into the high ceiling of the shop. Piles of ash and melted metal lined the long hallway.
Jonah’s legs shook and gave out as he reached the entry. He hit the concrete and let out a giant sob that wracked his body. “Noooooo! Nooo.” Tears rained, mixing with ash before him as he wailed. “Judas, god dammit.”
JJ came up behind him, crumpling against him, her hair now completely white and together they knelt there, weeping.
An unknown amount of time passed as they sat there, clutching at one another, crying and staring at the gray dust. Something brown caught Jonah’s eye. He reached for it, brushed away part of the ash, and pulled out the half-burnt remains of Judas’s wallet. It flipped open, revealing the melted but beaming grin on his driver’s license photo.
Jonah chuckled at this. He remembered how that night, shit, only two nights ago, when they were out celebrating, Judas had told them they wouldn't let him smile when they took his picture. Evidently, they didn’t allow
smiles anymore. Only, he couldn’t stop. He was so damn happy and proud, he couldn't help but beam at the camera. Every time he tried not to, his face twisted like a lunatic, so they relented and let him smile in the photo.
JJ’s hand encircled his around the license. Together they stared at it, breathing deep. Then, her head snapped to look behind them. Her white hair whipped across his cheek, a hiss escaping her lips. “Nitsau!”
She was up and moving before Jonah could react, but he was on her heels a moment later. Ahead of them stood at least three dozen of the undead ash statues, but through the middle, leading outside, a path had been made as a form crawled away, knocking them over.
Fifty feet up the ramp way, they spotted her, crawling, pulling herself along with her left arm and gasping at the air. When they overtook her, she glared up at them with one human eye. A coating of ash covered the sunken right side of her face and most of that part of her body. Her right arm hung limp and useless, portions of it completely missing.
Whatever the magic fire was that Xanadu, no, JJ thought to herself, Xian-Do, unleashed, it turned everything dead to ash. A quick image flashed through her mind and she looked back at the solid form of Xanadu. But at what cost?
She grabbed Dr. Nitsau by the lapels of the lab coat, hauled her to her feet, and then lunged, slamming her body into the side wall. Nitsau coughed, blood running from her lips and over her chin.
“Guess what, bitch?” JJ said. “You lost. You’re never touching my dog or my boys…” JJ’s mouth hung open. She stepped back, letting the dying woman slump to the ground as rage overtook her. She raised her boot up and slammed it into Dr. Nitsau’s face, and kept doing so until Jonah pulled her away, leaving behind an unrecognizable pile of smashed flesh and bone.
“Stop, honey,” he said, wrapping her tight and pulling her backward. JJ kicked and fought in his grasp as he whispered. “She’s gone.”
JJ’s body went slack, the adrenaline fading.