Cage The Dead (5 page)

“First we need to get past them,” Gaia said, seeing no other path to get by the cab. Nick simply nodded.

The zombie sniffed the air as they neared and spun on them and ran toward them like, Gaia imagined, a bat out of hell.

“Get behind me,” Nick said, leveling the barrel of the weapon at the zombie, but not pulling the trigger. Gaia looked at him pleadingly as he glanced back at her. As it got to within a few paces, he pulled the trigger, and the zombie’s head jerked backward under the impact and the rest of its body hit the pavement, stopping just short of Nick.

The gunshot rang out in the open space, echoing in the distance.

“One bullet left,” Nick mentioned, strapping the rifle back over his shoulder.

Gaia began to make her way toward the zoo entrance, walking past the vehicle with little regard.

“Check the cab,” Nick said as she stopped and doubled back. “He might have a gun for his own protection.”

“Good call,” Gaia agreed, watching Nick as he rifled around inside the cab. Moments later, he returned, holding up his findings. Gaia saw a pistol in one hand, and what could only be described as a machete in the other, complete with leather sheath. It appeared to Gaia to be at least a foot long blade.

“I found this in between the seats,” Nick said, handing her the machete. “Now gimme my knife back, I think that will more than make up for it.” He smiled at the absurdity of his claim and Gaia did exactly that, unstrapping the belted knife and handing it back to Nick, and replacing it with the leather sheath that held the machete. “You want this pistol?”

“I suppose,” she said, trying to find a comfortable place on her waist to store the long blade and then taking the gun from him and inspecting it.

“Looks like a 9 mm of some kind. Safety on the top there,” Nick said, pointing that out to her. “Just slide it on and off…and please be careful with it.”

“Right. I shot the tranq gun, so…this is totally different.” She laughed as soon as she finished the sentence and the pair of them began to climb the lengthy steps back up toward the zoo’s interior.” But seriously, I’ve fired guns before…with Adam.” Nick said nothing, seemingly ignoring that statement.

As soon as they passed the ticket booth, they found a zombie bent over the remains of something unidentifiable. Gaia could not tell if it was human remains or animal, but either way it infuriated her.

Before the thing could even sense the two of them, she stealthily approached it and reared back to strike. She paused however as the thing turned to regard her, and Gaia could recognize immediately that it was only a young child. Or, until recently at least, it had been a child. Its face was reminiscent of a young female, one that could have even been her eight or ten years ago, with shoulder length blonde hair.

That was when Nick, unbeknownst to her in her odd reverie, grasped the machete from her hand and drove the blade right through the undead creature’s eyes. Gaia recoiled at that, not even registering what was happening right away.

“Gaia, these things aren’t fucking human anymore,” Nick said sharply. “You're gonna get yourself killed and we can’t afford that right now.” Nick grasped Gaia by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. “Adam needs you. And I need you. Stay focused.”

“Right…sorry…shit.”

“It’s okay. I get it. These things were human beings not all that long ago,” Nick said agreeably. “But we need to put all of that aside and concentrate on getting into that lab.”

The pair of them heard a growl from behind and turned slowly to eventually stare back into the face of one of the grizzlies.

“It’s Oscar,” Nick whispered. Gaia could see that the big bear was wounded, but couldn’t tell how badly.

“Is he gonna be okay?”

“Looks to be superficial, but I ain’t gonna get close enough to be sure,” Nick responded. “He won’t follow us, either. Just keep moving.”

The pair backed away from the huge mammal and were about to make their way further into the zoo when Gaia noted something past Oscar in the distance. She completely panicked and stumbled backward, falling to the seat of her pants.

“What?” Nick asked her. And then he fell silent as he saw it too.

Behind them, gathering in the parking lot in which they had just left, stood a mob of the living dead.

“Where did they come from?!”

“Haven’t a God damn clue,” Nick spat. “But I
do
know that we need to get out of here. And quick. Looks like they haven’t seen us yet.”

“But I need to go back to see if Adam—“ Nick reached out and grabbed her fast, holding her tightly as she squirmed. Then she stopped and stared at him.

“The latch on the bus is locked, the zombies aren’t smart enough to open it, and he probably isn’t in any shape to even move, let alone make enough of a fuss to attract their attention,” Nick countered. “Besides, if you don’t get him the meds in the facility….”

Nick let the inference resonate, Gaia easily accepting of its grim meaning and also appreciating the fact that Nick did not finish the sentence.

“Yeah, they are too far away. All right. If we cut through the petting zoo, we can make it to the bathrooms and the vet house is right next to it,” Gaia suggested, making her way toward the intended destination.

As they neared the petting zoo area, they noticed many more of the wandering dead. And it looked to Gaia as if they had just feasted on some of the animals within the enclosure there as many hunks of gore and flash lay strewn about. Hedgerows, a path, and a section of fencing separated them from the zombies. Gaia counted at least five of them, still feeding on the fleshy remains.

“We have to double back and work our way around out into the bird enclosure,” Gaia said. Nick again, nodded and followed as she led her way back along the main path into the zoo and then crossed to the opposite side. Some birds and goats wandered around the area, grazing and otherwise completely unaware of the zombie threat that lay not far away.

Gaia tried her best to shoo the animals toward the outer edges of the fencing, further away from the half dozen that feasted nearby. She also understood that they needed to get rid of the zombie threat somehow. That would be the only way for them and the animals to survive in even the short term.

“How can we rid the grounds of these
fuckers
?” Gaia asked, frustrated at the events that had taken place and still barely able to come to grips with them. “They’re going to kill of our animals, Nick!” He simply sighed after drawing a long deep breath, knelt and looked skyward as if he were searching for an answer.

Gaia knew very little about Nick personally, but what she did know, was that for the last few years, he had done a great deal to help the zoo. He’d done everything from help repair the enclosures, to caring for the grounds to the helping the staff feed and water the animals. It was an admirable endeavor to help keep things going around the zoo. But, Gaia admitted, that she did not know what this strange turn of events would do to him.

“I wish I knew, Gee,” he said, calling her by the nickname that few used. “But I am thinking on it.” Gaia grasped one of the remaining goats, trying to force it to follow the others, but instead it remained behind, stubbornly retaliating with a unique series of bleats.

It was then that the half dozen zombies that were only minutes ago in the petting zoo, began to make their way at breakneck speeds toward them.

Chapter 4

“Shit!” Gaia spat furiously, removing the gun from where she had it tucked inside the small of her back. She looked at it and switched off the safety, offering ti to Nick. “You do it…please.”

He took the weapon from her and fired off three quick and accurate shots, downing the first three quickly. Gaia removed her machete from its sheath as the remaining three continued along, one of them tripping over the fallen zombie. Nick fired again and another one fell just as the fifth one made it to them.

Gaia swung her machete with surprising strength, of which she did not know she was capable. However, she erroneously connected with its neck instead of its head as she stepped backward, putting her plant foot in a divot, and changing her trajectory slightly. Then she fell backward altogether, as the thing’s head hung from the host at a ninety-degree angle, representing something so macabre, that she could not have imagined such a thing in even her wildest nightmares. The zombie’s head continued to chomp its teeth in anticipation of flesh, as the body fell over her, pinning her to the ground. Its detached head chomped away and discharged a stream of blood, but it faced away from her, missing her completely.

Then a shot rang out in the open space. The jaw stopped chomping and the body went limp.

Gaia struggled mightily, shifting and kicking the body off her. As she rolled to her side, she saw Nick, who was pinned to the ground beneath the remaining zombie, as it clawed and snapped its teeth at him. Gaia sprung to her feet, wanting to return the favor. She retrieved her fallen machete as Nick fought to keep the creature’s teeth from finding purchase in his flesh.

She ran to his side and in one swipe severed the zombie’s head fully as it rolled away from them. Nick shoved the corpse off him and remained on the grass, breathing heavily and spitting something out of his mouth. When she looked down at him, he had a smattering of blood in his hair and on the right side of his face, which he was desperately wiping away with the sleeve of his jacket.

“Shit!” he spat, as Gaia tore a piece of clothing from one of the zombies and handed it to Nick, who proceeded to wipe the remaining gore from his face.

That was when she turned to see a dozen more zombies in the distance heading their way from down the path.

Nick, having had to have seen the look on her face, yanked her leg, telling her to go prone. “There’s more of them, isn’t there?” he asked as he checked the gun. “Seven rounds left,” he mentioned absently. “Did they see you?”

“I don’t think so,” she answered. How are they…?”

“It’s the sounds, Gaia. They are drawn to the sounds,” Nick said, nodding his affirmation. “Adam’s theory was right on the mark! Son of a bitch. The gunshots ringing out in the open spaces are drawing them in. I fired the rifle in the parking lot and it echoed throughout that open area, right? And now this. It’s gotta be true.”

Indeed, Gaia felt stupid in that moment at not having understood that after all the clues. It was not only the smells of flesh that attracted or stimulated them, but it was sound, too. Though she had a hard time wrapping her head around those facts as the creatures were essentially lifeless.

“How can something with no lungs or senses smell or hear?” Nick shrugged, speaking aloud what she was just thinking. “If we can’t use guns, what the hell are we supposed to do?!” Gaia whispered incredulously.

“We’ll have to just figure that one out,” Nick explained, peeking above the lengthy blades of grass which hid them, to see that the zombies had scattered in different directions. “And soon.”

“We gotta get out of here!” Gaia whispered anxiously. She could once again feel her heart pounding in her chest under the anxiety.

“We will.” Nick craned his head around and removed something from his jacket. Gaia recognized a pair of binoculars that he now held over his eyes as he peered around. Then he nodded his head toward one of the outer fencings.

Gaia stared off into the distance but saw nothing that stood out as the answer to their prayers. Nick handed her the binoculars and pointed to the far end of the enclosure, where the edge of the thickets stood a border of the zoo. Leaning against the fencing, she noted a handful of tools, including a shovel, a pitchfork and a rather large pick.

“Shawn and the rest of the grounds crew were fixing a section of fencing over there,” Nick mentioned with a grin. His smile quickly began to fade as he got to his knees and noted one of the undead wandering in their direction. As soon as Nick locked eyes with the abomination, it began to race toward them at incredible speeds, Gaia noted, thinking the things being propelled by none other than the devil himself.

They both stood and ran as fast as they could, and she was actually pulling Nick along as she held his hand. Gaia could run for miles without so much as breathing hard, recalling several marathons she had run in the not so distant past, combined with being, as Adam often said, a ‘health nut’. As Adam came into her thoughts, she pumped her legs even harder, feeling the anchor of Nick’s weight, but continuing along faster and faster. She was also thankful that her gap between her obsessive exercise routines, and her current bout of laziness, was not separated by any more time than it already was.

The pair reached the tools and Nick, stumbling the last few paces, sprawled out on the ground behind her and slid head first into the fencing, his hat flying off in the process. She stood frozen with doubt for a brief instant, staring at the archaic tools and knowing that things were about to get much more gruesome. That trepidation had her doubting that she could do what needed to be done and she glanced over the tools laid out before her, she almost couldn’t bear it.

Almost
.

 Gaia, suddenly remembering that her actions were now spurred on by the needs of both Adam and Nick, and instilled with the accompanying courage that recollection provided, grasped a rounded point digging shovel tightly in both hands and swung it at the approaching zombie. The strength provided by her purpose combined with the speed at which the zombie was recklessly running toward its prey resulted in a devastating eruption of gore that sprayed backward, covering the grassy canopy with a myriad of colored gore and blood. The nearby goats and birds continued to run away from the carnage, back into a corner some fifty paces away.

Gaia shuddered at the impact and resulting scene, barely holding back her own vomit. Instead, she choked down the bile, extended a hand and helped Nick to his feet. He quickly grasped a pitchfork, tested its weight and nodded to Gaia.

“Thanks, I owe you one,” he said, jabbing at the empty air and testing his weapon. “This’ll work nicely.”

“I don’t think you owe me anything, Nick. Now, let’s get to that damned veterinary lab.”

Gaia knew that the facility of which she spoke was attached to the main house, in which no one really lived any longer, but which Kristen had tended to and cleaned on a bi-weekly basis by another crew. Even Nick chose not to live here for one reason or another, though he had never divulged that reason to anyone. Gaia only knew that he lived off the grounds, somewhere nearby.

The house and accompanying veterinary hospital were in a huge space in the attached building and the food supplies were mostly kept in a storage shed with three massive freezers to store food. There was a backup generator in the basement beneath the veterinary lab, too, with enough fuel to last a month or two in case of emergencies, she recalled.

As they approached the backside of the washrooms, Gaia was able to make around the corner to peek at the house in the distance.

The entire front side of the house was swarming with the undead versions of what might be considered an entire class of children.

There were at least two dozen of them. Her heart sank at the sight.

“What
now
?!”

“We need to gather them up and trap them…kill them all somehow in one fell swoop.”

“I’m all for it, Nick. Just how are we going to do that, though?”

“Gimme a minute. I’m thinking.” With that request spoken, Nick once more removed the binoculars and scanned the area for several minutes. After a few more moments of silence, Gaia heard something approaching and readied her shovel again.

From around the corner, preceded by its shadow, was another zombie. It was in in the zookeeper’s uniform like the one she wore, but its body was in the shadows cast by the restroom on the grassy ground. Emerging from the gloom of those shadows was the distorted face of Aubrey.

But it wasn’t Aubrey…not exactly. Instead, it was a caricature of what she had once been. Her formerly brown eyes were in a haze, sort of pale, wide and full of malevolence. She was no longer the woman Gaia had known and cared for, but she was now something less than human—a wretched automaton, driven only by the insatiable desire to feast on flesh. This point was never more evident to Gaia than in this very moment.

It raced toward Gaia and Nick, though he had not seen her yet, his focus still on the landscape and happenings in the distance. Gaia braced the shovel against her side meaning for the thing that was once Aubrey to run into it directly.

And she did just that. Only she did not stop against the steel tip of the shovel. Instead, she proceeded past the tip as it penetrated her rotting flesh that felt strangely unnatural to Gaia. The momentum of the undead body propelled it forward as the tip of the digging tool came out the back and the undead-Aubrey continued along its path, as the shaft of the shovel guided it along toward its destination.

Gaia was completely dazed by the turn of events that she was under a spell of both astonishment and horror that held her unmoving—so much so that she did not react as Aubrey’s undead fingers grasped her arms. Nor did she notice the business end of Nick’s pitchfork as it penetrated the creature’s skull, stopping the zombie in its tracks.

Nick shook Gaia just then and she came to, recognizing Nick suddenly for who he was.

“Gaia! Snap out of it!” Nick said, as she finally recognized that he was shaking her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, slumping against the side of the restroom’s outer wall and avoiding eye contact with the dead zombie as Nick retracted his pitchfork from the creature’s skull and retrieved his binoculars from where they lay on the grass beside Gaia.

“Hey,” Nick said, kneeling beside her. “I know it’s not easy. She was my friend, too. But she isn’t anymore. She died yesterday. You know that.” Nick grasped her chin and forced her eyes to stare back at his. “You with me?”

“I know!” Gaia yelped and she pulled free of his grasp, irritated at the truth of his words. She stared at the corpse of her one time friend and colleague, not understanding the point of this whole thing called life.

Is this a test of some kind?
She wondered, sliding back up along the wall and steeling her resolve, remembering that Adam needed her to be brave above all else.

“So, what’s the plan? You think of anything that can help?”

“I do see
something
,” Nick said, handing Gaia the binoculars and pointing toward the barn in the distance that is situated next to the house. “And I have an idea. Not sure you’ll like it though.”

“What am I looking at?” Gaia asked. “You mean the gas cans? You want to set the barn on fire?”

“Yep, the barn. If we can get a gas can or two, we pour it all over the inside there, draw ‘em in and torch ‘em. Probably kill most of ‘em.”

Gaia looked all around the building and thought for a moment. It seemed like it could work. There was nothing close to the building that would catch fire, and there was certainly a second level up there where they could climb up and escape out the window.”

“So, draw them in, climb to the hayloft and escape through the window?”

“Well, that‘ll work, yeah,” Nick said. “Not sure what other live bait we can gather other than us, so we’ll have to do it. Just need to sneak inside there. That’s the hard part.”

“Well, we can certainly draw the whole lot of ‘em inside, sure. Might be a good idea if we set up the trap with a little preparation.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I mean, if we are going to draw them inside, maybe we can lean a ladder up against the side of the barn to climb down.”

“That sounds like a great idea and I know for a fact that there’s one on the side of the house there,” Nick said, pointing to the house that was a distance away from the barn.

Gaia laughed aloud as she maneuvered the binoculars across the sea of undead flesh gathered in front of the house.

“Is there something amusing about us risking our lives that I’m missing,” Nick asked sarcastically as Gaia lowered the binoculars and handed them back to him.