Read Blood of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (Undead World Trilogy, Book One) Online
Authors: A.P. Fuchs
Blood of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (Undead World Trilogy, Book One) (30 page)
The heavy footfalls of the creature who had evaded them for so long were drawing nearer. Any second now Joe’d be able to see its undead form coming up the stairs. “We haven’t much time.”
“Then first things first,” August said. “Des, gimme a hand. Billie, come up beside me. Joe, you too.”
Joe stepped backward up the stairs until all four were crowded together next to the barricade of office equipment.
“It knows we’re here so no sense in keeping quiet,” August said and lifted one of the chairs he had placed there and handed it to Joe. “Toss ’er down.”
Joe took the heavy chair and dumped it over the railing. The legs broke when they smashed against the edge of a stair two flights below. August handed him another and Joe threw that one over as well, aiming for just in front of the broken one. This one broke, too, its seat ripped from its back, landing partly in front and partly on the chair already down there, creating a path that would be very difficult to climb over even for a live person never mind one that was already dead and had stumbling feet.
“Filing cabinets next,” August said and had to put his rifle and flashlight down on the desk in front of the door so he could waddle the heavy cabinet across the floor. “Billie, stay back.” She pressed herself up against the wall.
The footfalls of the zombie were getting closer as were the countless others coming from the floors below.
“Up and over?” Des asked.
“On three,” August said, and the three men grabbed hold of the paper-filled cabinet.
Joe couldn’t get a good grip with the X-09 still in his hand so he holstered it before grabbing on again.
“One,” August said.
Joe got down near the bottom and prepared to lift.
“Two.”
He ensured his feet were planted and prepared his arms and legs for one big heave of exertion.
“Three.”
The boys hoisted the cabinet up onto the railing. It teetered against the metal for a moment before Joe finished pressing his feet into the floor and pushed the thing over the edge. The cabinet sped down onto the stairs and landed with a thunderous
BOOM
. The drawers flew open and thousands of sheets of paper spilled out, creating an absolute mess on the stairway.
“Again,” August said.
The three repeated the procedure and dumped the remaining cabinet over the edge. It crashed in front of the other, filling the stairs with broken and dented metal drawers and a host of paper.
Cloom, cloom, dradoom.
The rooftop door banged against the desk in front of it and opened an inch. Gray, scaly fingers with cracked fingernails poked through and the growls of the undead filled the top of the stairwell.
Joe ran at the desk and rammed it against the door, slamming it shut, sending a spray of fingers and black blood onto the desk’s top.
“Grrrrrrnnnn.” The voice was deep and raspy.
August shone the flashlight over the railing.
Joe peered over it and felt his mouth drop at the sight of an undead man. This one wasn’t like the others and he didn’t need to be right up close to him to see that. This creature was different. Its shoulders were wide and well-muscled, with arms as long as pool cues. The thing had to duck as it poked its head out from underneath the floor above it. The creature wore a torn yellowed collar shirt and ripped brown dress pants, his entire outfit laced with crusty dried blood, ligaments and entrails.
Joe scrambled for the X-09 as the zombie began to step its long, thick legs over the chairs at the bottom of the steps.
Gun drawn, Joe lined up his shot and aimed it at the top of the dead man’s balding head. As if sensing the bullet about to be fired into its skull, the enormous zombie clamped a set of meaty fingers onto one of the broken chairs and hurled it up toward Joe. The edge of the seat caught Joe in the wrist, sending a shockwave of pain through his forearm. The X-09 went off and punctured a hole in the ceiling. Billie and Des let out a yelp.
August shoved himself beside Joe and pointed his rifle downward. No sooner was the barrel of the rifle in position did a large, gray hand grab hold of it and pull, yanking the rifle from August’s fingers.
“No!” the old man shouted.
The rooftop door broke open again, slamming into the desk with a loud bang. Des shoved the desk against the door, closing it.
The massive zombie continued its climb, stepping over the smashed filing cabinets like a normal person would negotiate climbing a rocky hill.
It was at the base of the stairs in no time.
Joe cocked the hammer, ready to take this thing down, but a long leg ending in a size-fourteen shoe plowed him in the chest, sending him onto his back. Ribs aching, his lower back wracked with pain from slamming into the sharp edge of a stair, he couldn’t get up. Billie was behind him almost immediately, her hands under his armpits, trying to help him to his feet.
At the top of the stairs, the rooftop door opened again, this time more than an inch.
“Des! The door!” she screamed.
Des pushed the desk into the door. The door moved a little, but not much. Too many bodies were on the other side, trying to force their way in.
“It’s stuck!” he yelled.
August shoved past him and told him to help him push against the desk. They did. The door closed.
Billie helped Joe to his feet. Joe snapped his legs back just as the giant zombie tried to grab him. Its haunting white gaze stole his breath. He’d never seen someone so huge in his entire life. Judging by its oversized cheekbones and forehead, the thing must have suffered from gigantism in its former life.
The door opened again and August and Des pressed against it.
“They’re coming through!” August said. “We can’t hold it.”
“This was a bad idea,” Billie said and joined the two men at the top of the stairs, helping them keep the zombies on the roof at bay.
What was Billie thinking? She had just left Joe to defend himself against this massive, walking robot of death.
He brought up the X-09, aimed and just as his finger squeezed the trigger, a huge hand swatted at the gun. The shot went off and tagged the zombie in the shoulder. It didn’t even flinch.
Suddenly, low growls and groans filled the stairwell and Joe didn’t need to look over the railing to know that the mass of the undead from below had finally ascended almost to the top floor. The zombies were getting faster. The rolling over of broken chairs and repositioning of metal filing cabinets echoed throughout the stairwell, the sound so loud he could barely hear himself think.
They had to get onto the roof. Up and over the desk and . . .
“Joe!” August shouted.
A pair of large fingers wrapped themselves around Joe’s throat, picked him up off his feet. Before he could cock the hammer on the X-09, he was already flying backward through the air. His body crashed into the drywall at the top of the stairs, just next to where Des, Billie and August pressed against the desk to keep the door closed. The back of his head hit the wall with a resounding smack and a bizarre black flash scattered across his vision. He didn’t even feel himself hit the floor. Head spinning, the stairwell he was in feeling like a world that was a million miles away, he tried to get to his feet. His legs wouldn’t move.
Through blurry vision, he watched as the massive zombie stepped up the stairs and reached for him.
Two shots fired and a pair of nails appeared beneath the dead man’s eyes, embedded in the bruised flesh of his cheekbones.
Billie.
He wanted to say thank you, wanted to wrap his arms around her and thank her for saving his life, but all went dark.
* * * *
Joe’s head drooped to the side and Des thought the trench coat-wearing gunslinger was dead.
The giant zombie on the stairs stumbled back a step and reached for the nails protruding from under its eyes.
“Shoot it again!” he shouted.
Hands shaky, Billie raised the nail gun and Des hoped against hope she was aiming between the creature’s eyes.
“Des, I can’t hold it,” August said, now sitting with his back up against the desk, his feet digging into the floor.
A sudden push from behind sent him and August skidding forward. Des pushed back with a grunt, hoping the effort was enough to slide the desk into the door and close it. The sound of dead fingers and hands slapping against the wall behind them said otherwise.
The giant zombie stomped up the steps just as a half dozen more appeared behind him.
“Joe, wake up!” Des screamed.
Billie fired the nail gun and a nail appeared in the giant zombie’s forehead. It just wasn’t deep enough to take it down. She quickly turned and got on top of Joe, slapping him in the face and chest, trying to rouse him.
The dead man grabbed Billie around the waist and yanked her off, bringing her to himself.
She shrieked.
No . . .
Des thought. “Billie!” He got to his feet and the desk skidded along the tiled floor. He didn’t care. This thing couldn’t have her. No how and no way.
The zombie opened its mouth wide, about to take a chunk out of Billie’s neck.
Rage consuming him, Des dove off the top stair and swung the iron pipe into the zombie’s jaw, snapping its head and neck to the side. The thing dropped Billie and she hit the floor with a thud.
August, now on his feet, pulled her up.
“Joe!” the old man shouted.
The desk slid further across the floor and hit Joe in the leg. The door was open a good foot and the undead began to come through.
Others piled up the stairs.
Billie had the X-09 and for a second Des thought she was going to shoot Joe. Instead, the drywall beside his head exploded, the sudden bang causing him to open his eyes.
“Let’s go!” she screamed and pulled on him to get him up.
August helped her.
Big arms pulled at Des and forced him down the stairs.
Time slowed and the weight of the heavy iron pipe in Des’s hand made him realize what it was he had to do.
At the top of the stairs, August pulled on the desk and helped Joe and Billie get on top of it. A handful of the dead began to come through. August punched one and kicked another. Billie shot one with the nail gun and handed the X-09 back to Joe, who took down the rest.
Strong arms squeezed against Des’s chest and his lungs began to close. A rib popped. It was on the same side he had injured before.
August’s eyes bore into him. The old man knew something but Des didn’t know what.
Billie turned and tears filled her eyes when she saw him. She ran toward him but Des kicked her away.
“Run . . .” he rasped. “Go. Please.” He wrestled against the zombie and stomp-kicked backward against the thing’s legs.
It tumbled back just as it reached out to grab Billie by her shirt. Its fingers missed and as Des went flying back down the stairs and he and the giant undead landed against a dozen more, he mouthed to her three words: “I love you.”
34
The Roof
“No! Des!” Billie screamed, her voice thick with tears.
Joe grabbed her from behind and tossed her onto the desk. August grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her out the rooftop door. He followed behind. Joe jumped onto the desk, slid and fell onto the other side. When he hit the ground the X-09 went off, the bullet taking down the nearest zombie.
Billie didn’t know what happened. Through teary-eyed vision, the scene changed from being just inside the stairwell to part way down the expanse of the roof, the rooftop door still open, Joe now on his feet and running out. Joe kicked the door closed and socked a zombie in the face.
Her world crashing down, she shrieked and screamed, her voice choked by her own tears.
Des was gone.
“Keep moving,” August said, giving her another shove. “You have to.”
Screaming, she cursed at him and slapped the old man then kicked him in the gut. August stumbled back a couple of steps; Joe ran up to them.
“No! Billie, stop!” He held her back as she was about to pummel the old man again for taking away her friend.
Her best friend.
Joe took her face in his hands. “Billie, look at me. Look at me!”
Crying, she tried to focus but all she could hear were her own screams.
“Get it together,” Joe said.
“Joe!” August yelled, running, waving them along.
Joe spun and took out a couple of zombies edging closer to them.
Billie surveyed the rooftop. Against a backdrop of hazy, gray clouds, over twenty undead began moving toward them.
And there was something else up there with them. Something that took a moment to register as to what it was: a helicopter.
* * * *
“You got to be kidding me,” Joe said as he pulled Billie along to meet up with August.
The helicopter sat just on the other side of a walking wall of corpses, black and unmoving, one of its skis propped up against a series of vents on the roof.
August eyed the flying machine coolly then nodded toward it. “Let’s go.”
Joe pegged off a couple of the undead moving toward them and cocked the hammer again. Billie followed his example and shot a nail into the face of one and another into a different zombie’s shoulder. She grimaced at having missed the head.