After Genocide: The Dead Live Again (5 page)

“Thanks,” Mike replies. 

              Out of all the S.P.O.S.A team members, Mike is the only one with long hair and a much more toned body stature than the others. 

“I apologize for the wrongful and intruding welcome especially in the middle of the night,” says Kelly.

“Well thank you,” Pam replies. 

“Well since we were too busy for warm welcomes let me introduce you my friends and one brother: Max, Six, Pamela and Blade our dog; and well there is Ruby but I’m pretty sure she is just hiding,” I say.

              “Pamela who played volleyball for Edcouch Elsa Yellow Jackets?” asks Kelly.

“Yeah, hey I remember you,” replies Pam.  Blade let out a loud bark, “What’s wrong with him?” asks Mark.

“Oh I believe he is mad because we left his introduction out. This is Blade our guard dog and friend,” I say and Blade barks.

“Highly trained if you ask me,” says Aaron. 

              Blade walk over to the S.P.O.S.A agents and begins to smell them and acknowledge their smell.  Michael crouched and began to pet Blade, “Nice dog,” he commented.

“Thanks,” replies Max.

“So Six, that’s a cool name or is it a nickname?” she asks and Six smiles.

“Well nickname actually. It’s what I earned at the Marines,” implied Six. Pam and I look at Six.

“Wow, a Marine that’s impressive for you or almost anybody to be a Marine and alive. I hear it’s a tough training and if that does not make you crazy or disturbed then the gruesome combat and experience does; in a way, it’s kind of hard to find a conscience Marine, but I’m impressed with you Six,” she says.

Six let out a small blush at the grotesque but yet non-fictional truth.

              “A small question, what does SPOSA stand for?” asks Max.

“Oh yeah S.P.O.S.A stands for Special Police Officer Secret Agency,” replies Eduardo.

“Oh good to know,” comments Max. 

              There is a change of mood and questions; “Our mission has been to search for any survivors around the counties and bring them to special military bases for protection and salvation,” says Kelly.

“So how did you suspect human life or if anybody is here?” asks Six.

“Well for starters no other store around this area has it’s lights on, second of all this store did have its lights on, and finally, several creatures were surrounding the back doors and a few on the front,” replies Aaron. 

              Just when all is in place, there is a sudden shattering of glass echoing through the Wal-Mart, “What is that?” Eduardo is concerned about the noise.

There is the sound of a woman screaming, then it happened, Ruby is rushing towards us yelling: “Run. Run for your lives.” She runs past us, and then we could hear them, the zombies had broken into the Wal-Mart.

“Oh shit, let’s get out of here!” yelled Mark. The zombies come rushing at us snarling and wanting a piece of meat from our body; their red eyes, long sharp nails, huge teeth, inside out skin; the thought of it just sickens me. 

              As we run, Mark would fire a few shots and take one or two zombies down but it isn’t enough, the monsters keep multiplying; it’s like if more had rushed at the smell of flesh or the sound of screaming, heck maybe the helicopter attracted more attention than it had seemed. We rushed through the door that led to the stairway, while Mark and Eduardo covered the rest of us; but as we ran up the stairs, Eduardo trips on one of the stairs while trying to go up. Mark noticed his fallen comrade and went back like a good friend; he knew the risks of his job and is willing to make a sacrifice so others could live, a noble thing to do indeed.

              Six and I paused to look at Eduardo and Mark on the floor while the rest of the group went to the roof top; I look up and see a security gate hiding, made of pure steel; like a burglar bar door. There is a red button beside me that controls the door above, Mark looks up at me, “Do it! Close the damn door!” he yelled. I take no chances and hit the red button and the door begins to come down in the middle of the stairway separating the zombies from the rest of us. There is nothing Six and I could have done except go and regroup with the others on the roof. 

              The fog is still thick and the growls of other zombies are echoing around the open space. A morning breeze with this fog and it looks like mist is taking over. The helicopter is there waiting for us. Six and I told the rest of the group what happened, Max steps towards the edge of the roof, he looks down at the zombies gathered around and paused to gaze.

“I hate you all!” Max yells and he begins to fire one of his shotguns uncontrollably at the zombies. I run to him and stop him from shooting.

“Max come on get a hold of yourself, save your ammunition,” I say.

              All of a sudden there is a loud thud in the distance; “Did anybody else hear the loud noise?” asks Mike. We stay quiet as a group for we feared something terrible is near.

Ch. 5: Polymerized Mutation

There is the sound of grunting nearby, Blade began to act weird, growling at nothing.

“What’s wrong with Blade?” I ask.

“It knows something we don’t,” replies Michael. A hand grabs hold of the roof’s edge; and then another hand. Slowly two figures began to rise from hiding and exposed their faces, we were in shock; it is Mark and Eduardo. Pam made a face of disgust and she looks like she wanted to vomit, I didn’t blame her; the sight of watching Eduardo and Mark’s bodies is just grotesque.

It’s like they were almost torn apart, eyes hanging out, skin torn, limbs were backwards and twisted; their uniform or what is left of it is basically rags torn and covered with blood. 

              The two once human figures were now zombies, barely walking with their twisted limbs, but there is something odd about these two zombies; how did they get to climb to the top? Eduardo and Mark look at each other and look up, they opened their mouths and something from the inside of the bodies reached out and attached themselves to one another. The two became knotted in something I can’t explain it is like a polymerization, but with the mutation helping; as if somehow the virus is evolving to do numerous things besides zombies, now it could make a super zombie?

              Eventually the polymerization stopped and the bodies of Mark and Eduardo were nowhere in sight, we look up; a ten foot monster is standing about fifteen feet away from our group. 

“Oh shit,” Mike gasped.

“Max, you can waste all the ammunition now,” I say as I stared at the monster. 

“Nobody ever told me the virus could do this,” said Six.

“Nobody knew the virus is capable of evolving so fast and strong to have the ability to make something so horrible and just out of this world,” I say.

              Ten feet tall, muscular, deformed from the face and body, still with a mouth and sharp teeth and long nails; the skin is not inside out or peeled. On the contrary, the skin is a brown color, and the zombie had the usual red eyes. Its head with no hair, the monster is bald, you could see the veins throbbing, and the heartbeat made our palms sweat, and a shiver is felt down my spine.

              It looks our direction with those bold eyes and it takes one step making the roof quake. Hope this place is strong enough to hold it stomping around like The Incredible Hulk? I’m in shock, my mouth went dry; Pam couldn’t keep her finger steady and Six stared. 

“I don’t think it’s hungry,” I say.

“What?” asks Pam?

“Its eyes say that it just wants to kill us,” I reply.

“Oh now you think like a zombie?” asks Pam.

“No time to argue.”

              I drew out my pistol and we begin to shoot the monster, but bullets didn’t seem to affect him very easy, the skin is thick like body armor. It began to walk towards us, the face it made, it‘s like it is mad at us; like if Mark and Eduardo wanted me and Six to shoot them when they were being attacked back at the stairway, as if they were punishing us for that. A strange feeling gave me spooks like if the souls of our two fallen friends/comrades were still lurking around, except this time they were not going to help us. 

              I stopped firing, “Hold your fire everyone the bullets are doing no good,” I say.

“So what the fuck are we supposed to do?” asks Aaron.

I look at Six’s waist, the grenades and now he looks at his waist and he followed my idea.

“Joe you’re the shit man” he says. 

“Okay here is the plan. We circle around the creature; Six, Max, Ruby and Kelly will take the left side and carefully spread out. Me, Joe, Mike and Aaron will take the right side and spread out there. The team on the left side will throw grenades at the monster while the team on the right side will distract it. Everybody get that?” Pam ordered.

“What about Blade?” a concerned Max asks.

“I’m sure Blade is smarter than all of us put together,” Pam comforts.   

“Could I offer a suggestion, you guys fight that thing and I hide safe and sound,” says Ruby.

Pam rolled her eyes, “There is no time, just throw grenades at it,” she replies.

“But I’m a girl,” argued Ruby.  

              “Hey guys if you look, isn’t it weird the monster has no sexual orientation?” Mike commented.

“Mike focus man,” says Six. We spread out into our two teams following everything according to plan. The creature stared at us, trying to figure out our next move, as if it were thinking. Six’s team went to hide near some air-conditioners that were operating adequately.

“Okay here you go guys,” says Six and he divided the grenades six per person.

“If you need more, just reach into the bag.”

My team assembled on the right side, we aim and just as we were about to open fire, Blade ran right under the monster and let out a bark.

“Blade!” Max yells.

              “Get back!” says Pam.

“Let the dog go if he wants,” I told her.

“Focus on the firing.” We cocked our weapons, and began to fire a few rounds at the zombie. The creature looks both ways and it appears lost for a few minutes, then Max threw a grenade at it; “Duck!” I yelled, and then an explosion on the zombie’s body.  

              Pieces of skin fly and the creature turned angrily at Six’s group and let out a face of aggression; our group continued to fire at the monster, and we began to take steps and open our circled position for accuracy on the weapons.

              We continued to fire bullets flying all over the roof and the leftovers falling on the ground creating a clink sound each time a piece hit the roof. Kelly throws a grenade at the creature, it exploded on impact as it hit the creature’s chest then Ruby tried throwing a grenade. 

She removed the clip and kept it, “No, throw it,” says Max and Ruby threw the grenade too fast and missed the monster and landed near my feet. 

“Oh shit,” I say and rolled to the side and the others moved away from the grenade as well.

The grenade exploded and it made a hole on the roof of the store. There is a minor creaking sound as some pieces collapse and fall inside.

“Ruby, go hide behind the air conditioner okay,” six told her and Ruby just takes off. The monster began to walk towards Six’s group slowly but walking. Nothing looks like it is going to stop its destination. But as the creature walks there is a certain change of direction for it; the monster look as if it is going to Six’s group, the direction is accurate but we were not. The monster began to walk slowly towards Pam, who is at the end of our team shooting it.             

              I noticed the creatures shift in movement and I began to follow it cautiously; as I approached closer, Aaron tried to rush and tackle the creature but unfortunately the creature swung his arm at Aaron and it sent him flying back several feet. At a distance Aaron looked much more dead than alive but to my surprise he is just unconscious; the monster began to move again and I pursued it with caution. 

              It kept getting closer and closer to Pam with each step it took. I began to try and think of a diversion but nothing could cross my mind, as if I was lost. 

“Hey ugly,” I yelled at the creature and it just made a snarl but it is not enough to attract its attention. Pam tried to juke him out but made a simple mistake and she tripped relinquishing her weapon in the process.

              I began to run without thinking, a charge and tried to tackle the creature myself but the monster made a quick turn and caught me with its hand and lifts me in the air. 

I dropped my pistol, and with one hand grab his wrist and tried to push it off but the monster is too strong. 

              I carefully reach for my knife, and stab it on the ulna. The monster lets out a roar and released the grip he has on me. I pull my knife out and land with both feet on the ground. The zombie tries to pound me to the ground and I roll away to the side. I notice Pam is up on her feet now and moving as far away as possible.