Beyond the Barriers (Novella): Ghouls (9 page)

I
ignored
the smell of body odor and blood and kissed her. She stank like she’d been kept in a sweat box for a week. But here she was and I couldn’t have been happier.

“Katherine!”

The others pushed past us and fled down the stairs while smoke continued to fill the building. I clung to Katherine and she clung to me.

“Great. We got her, let’s go, man,” Scott said from behind me.

I held her and pulled her tightly against my chest.

“Erik. How did you find me?” she asked.

I touched her wounded face and wished I had the person who had done this to her in front of me. I’d take him apart. But now was not the time to go hunting them down. For all I knew, it was one of the assholes who’d tried to turn me. As smoke swirled around us, I shook my head. There was time for
us
now. There would be a moment when we were free of this and we would be able to talk and love.

“Long story, my love. Stay close. We’re getting out of here.”

“You have to be careful. There’s a lot of green-eyes out there,” she said.

I tugged her hand and drew her after me.

“I know. We’ve been dealing with them with extreme prejudice,” I said.

“Erik. The ghouls are smart, and they knew there was a large force outside. That’s what some of the men were talking about,” she said. “They just moved us up to the second floor and locked the room before setting the place on fire.”

We moved to the stairs as the people we’d rescued fled before us. They ran into the main room and headed for the door. I refused to let go of Katherine’s hand as we descended the steps.

“Shit. What should we do?” Scott asked.

“Stay tight, people. We’re getting the hell out of here,” I said, hoping my voice carried conviction.

Above us the flames crackled as the fire spread. We’d entered without a problem. There hadn’t been a force waiting for us. How long had we been in here? Ten minutes?

With Thomas and Sloane outside, not to mention Lisa’s force providing cover fire on the compound, I thought we stood a pretty good chance of making a run for it.

Then I realized the shooting had died down.

“Can we get out that way?” I asked pointing to the other side of the building.

“Maybe,” Katherine said. “They usually keep the doors secured on that side. That’s where they do a lot of experiments.”

“Jesus,” Scott breathed.

One of the survivors screamed.

I dashed into the dilapidated main room and through the doorway where I spotted the source of fear.

There were dozens outside. One of the green-eyed bastards went down with a bullet hole in the center of their face. Gunfire rippled again but it sounded like a lone shooter. The group of people we’d freed took cover behind anything they could find as the army advanced on the door. They came en masse, with little regard for themselves. Ghouls surrounded by a small army of the dead.

“I hope Lisa didn’t leave before this party got started,” I said.

“I can’t let them take me again, Erik. Please. If it looks like that’s going to happen, you have to take care of it. I can’t live that horror again,” Katherine pleaded.

I looked her in the eye and nodded even though, in the back of my mind, I doubted I’d be able to kill her.

I moved to the window I’d spotted Katherine through and poked my head out, hoping that Thomas and Sloane didn’t shoot it off. I hit the window with the butt of my handgun. It cracked so I hit it again until shards broke and fell to the ground.

“Thomas. You out there?” I yelled.

“Yeah. We’re about to make a run for it though. You need to do the same. Meet with Lisa’s group on the south side of the compound. Go now,” he called back.

The army of ghouls and undead closed in on the doorway. I heard Thomas move away and fire a few more times.

“Grab anything you can and fight back,” I yelled.

A man and a woman clamped their hands together and ran past us. I guess Scott decided to try and set an example. He walked into the room with the little revolver held high and stopped in the center of the space. He planted his legs, lifted the gun, and fired three times. One ghoul went down and a guy missing most of his jaw spun into another undead directly behind him.

“Fight back!” He yelled.

Some of the survivors were paralyzed with fear but a couple found makeshift weapons. One was a fold up chair. The survivor held it over his head like he was at a wrestling match. When the first undead appeared he sucked in a breath, ran forward, and hit the zombie so hard it was smashed to the floor.

“Katherine, clear that window and find something to put over the edge. That’s how we’re getting out,” I said.

“How will we get everyone out of that space before we’re overrun?”

“Let me handle that. I have an idea,” I said even though I had shit.

The doorway was small. With any luck Scott and I, plus one or two survivors, could keep the little entryway clogged with bodies so they couldn’t all flood in at once.

Smoke rolled down the stairway and something
cracked
overhead. Then there was a rending sound as a wall caved in above.

Katherine tossed things out of cabinets until she found an old rug, then she started to clear the broken glass. The problem with the window was that it was so small we’d only be able to get one person out at a time.

I strode into the main room and backed up Scott. He aimed and fired again but missed his target. The round took down a zombie in the rear ranks.

“Listen up,” I said to the little group. “We have a way out but we need to fall back in small groups.”

One of the men turned to regard me. He was a teenager and one of his eyes was overtaken by blood under the iris and the skin around it was purple. He wore a pair of sweat pants and a shirt covered in Disney characters. What there was of it had dried bloodstains. He looked like he wanted to jump out of his own skin.

“Man. Shit. What are we going to do?” He said.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“I’m Colin and I’m scared. Is the window ready? Need to get out of here, man!”

“Keep a level head, Colin, and I’ll see all of us out of here. Got it?”

He nodded, but then he rushed past me. Several others in the little group took the hint and also moved. They scrambled for the window, knocking Katherine out of the way in the process. She’d gotten most of the glass out but had left a ragged row on the bottom of the frame. Colin didn’t care. He leapt upward and shimmied over the windowsill. I didn’t see it but I heard skin tear. He screeched in pain but that didn’t stop him.

He stopped struggling for a few seconds, and then let out a loud yell. Then his body was pulled out of the window. He
thumped
on the other side and yelled for help. Then his yells turned to screams.

Katherine risked a glance outside and fled back from the window. One of the other survivors popped their head out even as Katherine yelled at him not to. Hands covered in wounds grasped the man’s head and pulled. He let out a yelp and tried to tear away but fingers got his shirt and he was pulled out of the window.

“We can’t get out that way.” Katherine yelled, voice filled with revulsion.

The stairwell
crackled
as flames finally reached it. Then flames, fed by the open window and door, leapt out to lick the ceiling.

We were trapped.

T
he heat
from the flames made me want to grab Katherine’s hand and run. If we didn’t get out of the building, we were going to be roasted alive. Smoke became thick and forced us to drop low. The few survivors from upstairs milled around the open door forcing back the undead as they tried to enter. Ghouls stood in the back of the mass, guiding their minions.

I moved away from the window and stood so I could see outside. At least five of them waited there. I shot one in the head and that made the others duck out of sight. I moved closer to the window and pumped another round into the gun. When one of the ghouls’ heads came into view, I shot the top off. It exploded in a mass of bone, brain, and blood. The twice dead corpse fell away.

Scott fired until he was empty so I tossed him my handgun and extra magazine.

“Katherine. Show me the other way out,” I said.

She guided me to a heavy door in the back of the room. I tested the knob and found it was hot.

“Shit,” I said.

“What?”

“Fire on the other side.”

“That’s the only other way out, the rest of the windows are boarded up. We lived like animals in here while they experimented on us.”

“Guess we have two ways out. One really. We’re going to have to rush them.” I said.

Scott turned and looked at me like I was crazy. Katherine and I reached his side, and I immediately saw what the problem was. More of the ghouls and undead had come to bear on our position. They stood in a group that was three or four thick. Even if we ran flat out, we’d never carve a path through them.

I tossed open cabinets, looking in vain for more weapons as I fought the smoke. My throat and lungs burned with the effort. I found chains and not much else. An old wooden spoon had been left next to a pan that was covered in mold.

Scott directed the other’s in their efforts to beat back the zombies as they came through the door. Before much longer we were going to be blocked in by their corpses.

Flames roared overhead and I started to cough uncontrollably. Katherine’s eyes watered and she tugged up the remains of her sweater to cover her mouth and nose.

Scott swayed but fought on.

“Fuck!” I yelled.

“I say we make a run for it,” Scott said.

“I’m not getting taken alive again,” Katherine said.

I grimaced and contemplated another way out. If I dove out of the window could I come up behind the ghouls and take them out while Scott shot at them from the window? I wasn’t even sure how many rounds we had between us but I doubted it was enough to take them all down. Plus, I wasn’t an action hero in a movie. This was all too real.

I dropped into a crouch and considered the shotgun. I ejected shells and found I had three. Three. Scott, Katherine, and me.

I looked at my companions.

Something exploded outside then and gunfire erupted. I risked a glance and found a pair of men running toward the back door. The black guy, Joel, who’d recommended he and Jackson leave us behind, was in the lead. He shot as he moved, eyes glued to his scope, feet stepping in front of each other as he maintained a classic shooters stance.

Jackson barreled into a pair of ghouls, his wrench swinging wildly, his large frame turning him into a tank.

“We’re going out the door. Everyone get ready,” I yelled.

There were only four of them left. Heads nodded but there was despair in their eyes. More bullets flew and a pair of ghouls went down. Scott fired as he ran and managed to take one down.

The ceiling
crackled
and started to cave in. Flames rushed into the room so quickly they scorched the hairs on the back of my head and made my shirt steam from the sweat I’d accumulated over the last ten minutes.

Scott leapt through the doorway with me and Katherine close behind. I was hit almost immediately by a green-eyed fuck who reeked of rotten fish. The guy was a lot bigger than me but not all that well coordinated. He carried a pipe and, as he pushed me to the ground, he tried to bash in my head. I got the shotgun between us and fired. The blast lifted him off me and dropped him a few feet away with a gaping hole in his center.

I rolled to my side and came up in a crouch. Katherine had grabbed the molding pot on her way out the door and applied it to a zombie’s head. The hollow ring echoed as the creature went to its knees.

Scott fired until he ran dry, and then used the butt of the gun to cave in a head.

Even with Joel carefully picking off targets, there were still too many of them. We were still trapped and worse, I’d used my last few shotgun shells.

I spun the Remington around, grasped the hot barrel, and came up out of my crouch. The stock connected with a ghoul but another one leapt out of the crowd, and I was on my back again. I tried to exhale and slap my palm to alleviate some of the pressure of hitting the ground but the old judo move wasn’t timed and I lost my breath.

The ghoul pounded on my chest with his fists, and then lowered his head. Rancid breath assaulted my nose as it spoke.

“You will all join us,” it said in a voice that sounded like crunching marbles. I looked up and realized who I was fighting. It was Chris. He’d been turned into one of them.

I didn’t have room for a full blow so I used my elbow to smash the side of Chris’s head. The ghoul fell to the side and I managed to sidle away. I got to my hands and knees and retreated from the green-eyed guy. Katherine stepped over me and smashed the side of Chris’s head in with her pan. The bastard’s glowing eyes rolled up in their sockets. She hit him again for good measure but this time the handle broke. I did not think he was dead, just wounded, and that was a real shame. Too bad I didn’t have time to finish the job.

She grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet.

“Thank you, Katherine.” I said. I wanted to pull her into my arms but it would have to wait.

“Glad I get to rescue you for a change,” she said.

Jackson shouldered aside a zombie and crushed its spine with his wrench. He pointed at a break in the wall of the dead.

“Let’s go, folks. Your friends are nearby but about to be overwhelmed. No rest for the goddamn wicked.” Jackson grinned.

Katherine grabbed my hand and tugged me away. Scott joined us while Joel Kelly covered our retreat. He fired in a slow and steady manner, carefully taking aim and dropping the army of the dead one headshot at a time. Jackson broke away and smacked a zombie in the back of the neck.

“Wait!” I yelled and ran to the side of the house. Thomas had dropped his pack but he was nowhere to be seen.

I shouldered it and followed our new friends. Scott shot me a wide-eyed look

We fled from the remaining ghouls and zombies, leading them into the woods before circling back around. I gasped for breath and couldn’t keep from coughing. The smoke had burned my lungs, and I couldn’t seem to fill them with oxygen. The fight had taken a lot out of me, but the searing flames we’d fled hadn’t helped at all.

Lisa’s group was nowhere to be found but I was sure they’d been forced to retreat. If they had faced a force anywhere near the size we had just faced, then they had no choice. With the building on fire, and us trapped inside, I didn’t blame them. I just hoped Thomas and Sloane were with them.

We moved through the trees until we came across a small road. Jackson and Joel worked well as a team and took turns covering our retreat. Zombies still pursued us, judging by the sounds, but we stayed well ahead of them.

“Not much farther. We have rides,” Jackson assured us.

I nodded, too exhausted to talk. It had taken everything I had to make it this far. I felt like I was going to drop dead from exhaustion at any second.

But I had Katherine and I had new friends. I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other until we were safe.