America the Dead (21 page)

“Grab that wedge and shove it under the door,” I said, pointing to the stick by his foot. Duncan complied and saw what I wanted him to do. He grabbed the other three and pounded them under the door as well. It wasn’t much, but it would have to buy us a few precious seconds.

“
Come on
!” shouted Tommy from above, the hands shaking furiously.

“Go!” I said to Duncan.

Duncan impressed the hell out of me by stepping away from the door, bringing up his rifle and firing five times through the opening. Thumps against the door proved his accuracy.

“Thank me later,” he said as he stood on the small chair, grasping Tommy’s hands. In an instant he was up through the opening, then two more hands appeared. I let go of the door just as the zombies fell against it again, cracking it open and surging into the room, falling down over their dead companions. I leaped for the hands, knowing if I missed I was dead.

Thankfully, strong hands grasped me and I was pulled up through the ceiling with both men lifting me, zombie hands literally sliding off my boots as I passed from their clutches.

I stepped down onto support beams, realizing that this was an unfinished part of the attic and we could still fall through the ceiling if we weren’t careful.

I looked over at the two men. “Thanks,” I said.

“Anytime.” Tommy said. “But we aren’t safe yet.”

“Right. Let’s look around and see if we can’t find a way out of here.” I moved carefully into the attic, stepping around a brick chimney and heading over to what looked like a window.

Below us, the dead groaned at the hole that ate their dinner, unable to comprehend what had happened. They could likely still smell us and hear us, but they had no way to pursue. Thank God.

The window was nailed shut and painted black, but a tap with my knife handle cracked it quickly enough and I looked out the hole at the side of the building next to this one. I peered down, seeing there was no way we were going to make it down three floors without injury, so jumping was out. The building next to us was four stories, so we couldn’t escape that way, either.

The cracked window let in a decent amount of light, enough to see the other window on the far end of the attic. Tommy worked his way over there and popped a hole in the glass of that window. Looking around, he smiled back at us.

“Good news,” he said.

“What’s that?” I replied.

“Got a fire escape here.”

“Any bad news?”

Tommy looked out again. “Quite a few Z’s out there, but they look to be moving towards the other side of the building.”

“All right. Well, let’s hope they stay true to form for a bit and don’t look up. Let’s get the glass out as quietly as possible, then we’ll make our way up to the roof. These buildings are close together, so we should be able to make it back near the RV, or someplace where Nate can get us,” I said, pulling out my pickaxe to pry out the glass in the window.

“Think Nate’s okay?” Duncan asked, wincing as a piece of glass cracked under my work.

“He’d better be.” I said, trying to mask my concern for my friend.

We worked quickly, making an opening big enough to escape and in short order we were on the roof. I jogged over to the front and looked down.

Holy Mother of God. There had to be two hundred zombies down there, trying to get into the front of the pharmacy. We had to move fast, because if one of them happened to see us, we were in a serious race.

From the distance to the next building, it was clear we had to go away from our objective. The building next door was too tall to try and get onto the roof. And the building after that was a two story, so it was useless to try and gain any ground that way. The building on the other side was the same level, so it was a quick jog and a jump to get to the next building. The one after that was a full floor lower and further away to boot.

But desperation leads to determination and I jumped first, after throwing my backpack and pickaxe over ahead of me. I aimed for a roof access to break the fall, missed completely and wound up rolling ass over teakettle across the roof. I stood up to see Duncan and Tommy laughing at me, then I got to laugh as the two of them did the same thing.

We had one more building to go and fortunately, it was the same height. Unfortunately, it was also about twelve feet between the buildings. Gritting my teeth, I took a long running start and sailed over the opening, skidding to a stop about halfway across the roof. Tommy went next and I stood near the edge to grab him if he went short. He didn’t and we both waited for Duncan to screw up the courage to move. It took a while, but he finally did it, pumping his arms like a piston and breathing like a steam engine. He launched himself like he was flying and did a graceless belly flop onto the gravel roof of the building.

Tommy and I covered our mouths, convulsing with silent laughter at the sight, made worse by the dire consequences of getting caught. Kind of like getting the giggles at a funeral. Duncan salvaged as much pride as he had left and flipped us both off.

Wiping my eyes, I looked over the back of the building and saw the way was clear. We scrambled down as quickly as we could, unbelieving in our luck.

Or we would have, had Tommy’s melee weapon not hit the side of the ladder opening as he went down. The entire fire escape resonated with the impact and it vibrated for a second, sending waves of sound out into the air.

Duncan and I froze on the ground as Tommy slid the rest of the way down. He looked at the two of us, shrugged and said, “Dinner bell.”

“Jesus,” was all I could say as I ran down the alley, the two of them in tow. We had to be careful to attract as little attention as possible. There were hundreds of Z’s out there, possibly thousands and we were on our own with just what we were carrying. I had a vague feeling of déjà vu as I sprinted past the rear of the pharmacy.

At the end of the buildings, I looked carefully out and around, hoping to see no one and that was exactly what I didn’t see. Dozens of zombies were on the move and they were coming out from all over, galvanized by their brethren to hunt food they thought was nearby. I looked over at the gas station and I was both relieved and furious at the same time, if such a thing was possible. I knew Nate was okay, but only because the RV was missing.

“What the hell?” Tommy asked, sticking his head around the corner.

“Are you kidding me?” Duncan chimed in. I glanced back at him since he hadn’t even bothered to look. He just shrugged. “Hey, I’m a team player.”

“Hang on,” I said. “Nate wouldn’t leave unless he had to, or he figured it was absolutely necessary.” I went on. “He saw us run into the building, but knew there was no way we were getting out the front. If he moved, he can draw attention to himself and away from us.” I pulled my radio. “And we get hold of him, thusly. Nate, you alive? Over.”

The radio came to life. “Holy fucking shit, you idiots made it. I figured you probably would, but you had me scared there, boy. Where the hell are you? Over.”

“We’re in the alley behind the buildings. The Z’s haven’t found us yet, but it’s just a matter of time. Whoops, over.” I ducked back behind the corner of the building as two zombies stumbled into view. I hoped like hell they hadn’t seen me.

“Can you head north on that 40 road for a bit?” Nate said. “I’m down by a small garbage truck company. Over.”

“How far is ‘a bit’? Over.”

“Half mile. Tops. Over.”

“On our way. Talon out.” I put the radio away and turned to the other two, who were swinging weapons at my head. I dove forward into a roll and came up with my rifle at the ready, just in time to see Duncan flatten a small teen zombie and Tommy level a larger male. Both crumpled without a sound.

The two wiped off their weapons and turned to me. “We gotta go, I’m thinking,” said Tommy.

“Roger that. Weapons out. We keep moving. Shoot it if it’s in the way, otherwise, just run past. Follow me.” I pressed my carbine into my shoulder in a low-ready position.

We moved out at a quick jog, running along the main road. After about forty feet, we could hear the moans of the dead as they spotted us and gave chase. I looked back once to see if there were any little fast ones to worry about, but there didn’t seem to be any at the moment. We would know in a few minutes after they had outstripped their contemporaries.

We moved down the road and headed east, passing a few older, Victorian-style homes that seemed to be in nearly every small town in America. Each one we passed we gave a once-over and in every case, the homes seemed fine. The only evidence that there was any problem was a few homes looked like they had been left open after their inhabitants had left.

After a couple minutes of jogging, Duncan got my attention.

“Zombies on the left,” he said.

“Got it, just keep moving,” I said, angling away a bit to get past them.

Tommy spoke up. “Fast ones, coming up from the rear.”

I looked back. Sure enough, four little quick ones were running ahead of the others. They weren’t at a full run, but were way quicker than older ones would have been

“Let’s get some distance from these others, then take them out,” I said, moving a little faster. Tommy and Duncan kept up, although we were starting to get a little winded.

After about another fifty yards, I slowed to a stop and turned around, taking aim at the little Z’s who were barreling down on us.

“I got the one on the left. Call it,” I said to Tommy and Duncan.

“Got the middle,” Tommy said.

“Got the right,” Duncan said.

“Whenever you have the shot. First one down takes the leftover,” I said, lining up the little kid’s head. In another life this casualness would have horrified me, but a lot had changed since the end of the world.

I was aiming my shot when Duncan fired first, knocking down his target and swinging his aim to another. I fired once, sending a little girl tumbling forward. Tommy fired, shifted his aim, then fired again. His second shot was true and finished off a small boy. Duncan waited a second, then kneeled quickly and fired, blasting back a Z, nearly flipping it completely over.

“Took you two,” Duncan said over his shoulder.

“My front sight is a liar, thank you very much.” Tommy said defensively.

“Later, gents. We got more company.” I pointed to another horde coming down a side street, with more spilling out of various homes and businesses.

“Man, this is like a bad dream,” Duncan said as we started running again.

“I don’t have dreams anymore.” Tommy said darkly as he brought up the rear.

We ran down the street, passing a small corner strip mall. There was a cleaner’s, a White Hen and a thing called the Black Cow. I guessed the last was an ice cream place. On the far side of the strip mall was a restaurant and veterinary office. Several cars were parked in normal places, making me wonder yet again what the real story behind this town was.

I looked up the road and finally saw the RV. Nate was flashing the lights and doing everything he could to get our attention. We ran towards the truck and I glanced back the way we came.

Nearly a thousand zombies were headed our way, some much faster than others, but all of them were making good progress. I’d need a wall, twenty men with two hundred rounds of ammo each and whole boatload of luck before I would even attempt to try to take this town back. That or a deep freeze and sledgehammer.

We ran up past a second abandoned ice cream parlor called the Creamery and we were fifty feet from our sanctuary when a group of fast-moving zombies ambushed us in the parking lot of the business.

There wasn’t time to fire a weapon, they were on us that fast. There were five of them and had any of us fired, we might have hit each other. It was pure hand to hand.

I punched one of them to the ground, holding it down with a foot on its neck while I elbowed another in the head, spinning it away from me. A third got hold of my vest and lunged in for a bite at my stomach, thwarted only by the AR magazines in my front pockets. I tangled my hand in its greasy hair and viciously wrenched its head around, snapping its neck. The second one was on its feet and after me again, coming in low and fast. I stepped off the one on the ground and drew my blade, a simple Buck Nighthawk Tanto. I liked this blade because it could punch through sheet metal and skulls with equal enthusiasm. As the zombie neared, I pivoted away from the snapping teeth and plunged the knife hilt-deep into the back of its neck. The powerful blade sheared through its spinal cord and paralyzed it instantly. I turned my attention to the one on the ground, who had crawled up and was rearing its head back for a bite on Duncan’s calf, Duncan being occupied with a squirmy Z who refused to hold still and die.

“No!” I yelled, reaching down and grabbing the zombie’s ankle and hauling it away from Duncan. The ghoul twisted around and blackened teeth streaked at me like a striking rattler. I swung my blade up hard and slammed it under the chin of the zombie, burying it in the brain pan of the monster. The zombie looked surprised for an instant, then slumped dead.

I pulled out my blade and quickly searched for new threats, not seeing any but watching Duncan and Tommy finish off their enemies. I quickly wiped my blade off and picked up the rifle I had dropped in the fight.