Dead Life (Book 2) (6 page)

              After breakfast, we all went up to the roof to look around.  There were hundreds of zombies below.  Something was different.  We had to stay away from the edge because the zombies kept looking up.  It was as if they knew we were up here.  If one saw us, it would become agitated and get the ones around it stirred up.  Once the moaning started, things got pretty loud down there.  And the more noise they made, the more zombies they drew in.  If this kept up, we'd never get out.

              There weren't as many zombies in the back of the store by our vehicles.  If we waited much longer, just the mass of bodies would make it impossible to drive through.  It was decided.  Today we were leaving.  We were ready to go.  It was just going to be a matter of getting from the truck to the Hummer.  Al was going to drive the truck and I would take the Hummer.  When we got to a clear spot, Gina would join me in the Hummer.  Until then, I'd be alone.

              We came down off the roof to the sound of crashes coming from the front of the store.  All of us went up to see what was going on.  One of the zombies had a shopping cart and was pushing it into the outside door.  The rest of the horde was standing back to give him a run at the door.  He'd crash into the door, bounce off, and then make another run at it.  This zombie was definitely different from the others.  He knew what he was doing and the lock wasn't going to hold much longer.  He backed up and made another attempt at it.  The door crashed open.  There was one more door and then they'd be in.

              The bastards had changed.  Instead of crowding into the open door, they stood back and waited for him to break through the next door.  He went out, got another cart, and started on the next door.

              “We're going now.”  Al shouted.

              All of us ran to the back of the store.  I ran the overhead door up and hurried to the front of the truck.  There were too many of them outside.  I'd never make it to the Hummer. 

              Al was right behind me.  “We'll have to leave it.” 

              “We can't.  You know we need it.  What if need the four wheel drive to get through?”  I was pissed, not at Al, but at the situation.

              “They'll be in here any minute.  We don't have time to argue.  Get out of the way.”

              “Is this a machine gun?”  It was Josh.  He had Al's Bushmaster .223.  It had a two hundred round magazine and had been modified to be fully automatic.

              “Put that down, son.  We have no time for this shit.”   The spit flew from Al's mouth as he hollered at Josh. Trying to take the machine gun from him.

              “I'm going out there.  I'll get us out of here.”  Josh said.

              “You'll never make it kid.  There's too many of them.”

              “You think I care?  My wife and unborn baby are gone.  We'll never find them.  What have I got to live for?  Let me go.”  He put the gun under his chin.  “You decide.”

              “Fine, if you say you're ready to die, then go on out there.  I'll even help you do it.”  Al went back in the truck and grabbed a shotgun and two grenades.  “Take these.  Pull the pin and you have about eight seconds.  Don't set them off by the vehicles.  You'll kill us all.”

              “Please don't do this, Josh.”  Rita was crying and trying to grab Josh's shirt.

              “I'll be fine, kiddo.  I'm not going to die now.  You guys can pick me up after you get clear.  Rick, Rita, I love you guys.”

              Rick and Rita were both crying by now.  They both knew there was no way Josh was going to survive if he went out that door. Cindy did her best to calm things down.  She told them to sit down in the back of the truck and wait.  Gina and I each got a shotgun and headed to the front of the truck.  Al was talking quietly with Josh and when he was done, they went back into the store. 

              They stood at the exit door.  Josh nodded to Al.  That was when all hell broke loose.  Al pushed the door open and fired the shotgun out the door.  He racked back the pump and continued firing five  rounds of buckshot in quick succession.  Any of the undead standing outside that door had to have been shredded.  He stepped back and looked at Josh.  Neither one of them said a word.  Josh stepped out and Al closed the door behind him.

              I sat in the truck and watched Josh walk out into that sea of monsters.  I thought to myself that Josh was walking into the Dead Sea.  Al climbed into the cab of the truck and rolled down the window on the passenger side.  There was a raised walkway to the man door leading into the receiving area.  This is where Josh walked, firing short bursts from the Bushmaster and then walking forward to fire again.  The zombies surrounding the Hummer moved off towards Josh. 

              “It's almost clear.  Wait for a few more to move off and then go for it.  Don't fire the shotgun until you have to.  Try to shoot in front of Josh.  Clear a path for him.  Maybe he can make it to the Hummer.  Go now!”  Al shouted.

              As I opened the door of the truck, I could hear the zombies hitting the back of it.  They were in the store.  We'd gotten out just in time.  It was clear so I opened the door to the Hummer and got in.  I slid over to the passenger side and rolled down the window.  Al's shotgun roared.  He was sitting on the  sill of the open window of the truck firing into the mass of bodies surrounding Josh.  I opened fire also.  It was pointless.  They were going to get him no matter what we did.

              He wasn't ten feet from me and there was nothing I could do to save him.  He fired the Bushmaster one last time and it was empty.  Josh looked at me and said, “You better go now.  Here.”  Josh threw the rifle to me.  I reached out the window and caught it.  I couldn't believe how calm he was.  The undead swarmed him.  As they grabbed, bit, and clawed him, he pulled the pin on the grenade.  I had eight seconds to haul ass.

              From the corner of my eye, I saw the truck move forward.  Al wasn't waiting for that grenade to blow shit out of everything and neither was I.  The Hummer fired right up.  I threw it in reverse and stomped on the gas.  The explosion from the grenade rocked the Hummer but somehow I made it out.  I guess there were enough bodies surrounding Josh to absorb the shrapnel.  At least Josh didn't suffer long.  He most certainly died instantly. I couldn't help but think about the eight seconds of hell he must have gone through, waiting for the grenade to go off.

              I looked for the truck.  Al was sitting about a hundred feet away. Waiting to see if I would make it out of there or not.  He started forward again and I followed in his tracks.  Most of the zombies had made it into the store but there were still plenty left on the lot for Al to run down on his way out.

              Instead of heading straight out onto the street, Al made a point of swerving around a bit.  He enjoyed killing the zombies.  Maybe he enjoyed it a little too much.  It was almost as if he was afraid we were going to run out of zombies before he had destroyed his fair share.

Chapter 12

              There was a highway right in front of the store but the National Guard trucks were blocking access to the on ramp.  It really didn't make a difference because traffic was blocking all the lanes.  It looked like a parking lot.  There was no reason to even try using it as a way out of the city.  We were going to have to use side streets to get out of St. Charles.  There were several different roads accessing Highway 70 and we were hoping one of these would be clear.

              Gina had joined me in the Hummer and was looking at one of the maps we'd taken from the store trying to find a route that would get us to the highway.  Al was still in front of us and we decided to see if we could reach him on the radio.

              “Hey up there!  You guys got your ears on?”  Gina asked.

              “Al says you didn't say over.  Over.”  It was Cindy.

              “Sorry, what do you think would be the best way to get to the highway?  Over.” 

              “Just follow us.  We're going to try to find a safe place to pull over.”

              That didn't look to be an easy proposition.  We were on Jungermann, a four lane road that had a center left hand turn lane down the middle.  There were cars everywhere and roaming in between the cars were zombies.  We were able to travel at about five to ten miles an hour.  Weaving in and out of abandoned cars, we tried to avoid the accidents that were everywhere.  I didn't know what was worse:  running over the zombies that Al had already run down or driving over dead bodies.  Occasionally, a zombie would walk into my path after Al passed by and I'd run him down.  I was thankful for the large wooden bumpers we'd put on the fronts of our vehicles.  There was no way the Hummer would have made it through all the collisions.

              “That hardware store that went out of business is up ahead.  If the parking lot is empty, let's try and stop there.”  Gina said.

              “That sounds good.  Call Cindy and let her know.”

              Gina called and told them her idea.  Al didn't like it but agreed to check it out.  He thought it was too close to the main road.  I think the only reason he said he'd stop was because he wanted to get Rita out of the back of the truck.  She was upset about Josh and every time we talked on the radios, I could hear her sobbing in the background.  He had decided that after stopping, she would ride with us.  Gina was going to try and calm her down.  I hoped she'd be able to help Rita otherwise we were in for a long drive.

              When we got to the empty hardware store, we were able to stop.  The lot was free of zombies.  There was one car on the parking lot.  All its' doors were flung open and no one was around.  The Meyers parking area was full of zombies.  Why wasn't this one?  I thought maybe it was because the place was empty.  If that was the case, then my theory about the zombies not knowing we were in the store was wrong.  Somehow they'd sensed we were in there.  It was something all of us would have to talk about.

              We all got out of the vehicles.  Rita went straight from the truck to the Hummer.  I cleared a space for her in the back seat and she got in.  The others had gathered in the middle of the lot away from the truck.  It was smart.  We were getting an unobstructed view of the area.  We wanted to watch and make sure no zombies were creeping up on us.

              “If we take this road, we'll be able to avoid all this congestion.  If we stay on Jungermann, we'll probably come to an accident we can't get around.”  Gina outlined on the map.

              “She's right, Al.”  Cindy said.  “We need to get off this main road.”

              “Plus, we can't go down Mexico Road.  The Rec Plex is down there and the hospital is too.”  I added.  “Both are probably swarming with zombies.”

              “The Guard were idiots to have these people gather anywhere near that hospital.  Think about it.  People were being attacked, scratched, and bitten.  The natural thing to do was take them to the hospital.  There, they turned, attacked others and made more zombies.  I hate the fuckers.”  Al said sounding disgusted. 

              I had no idea if Al was talking about the Guard or the zombies.

              Just then Rick tapped me on the shoulder.  “We're drawing some attention.”

              Al took his rifle off his shoulder and took aim at the three zombies coming on to the lot.

              “Hang on Al.  I want to try something.”  I drew my sword out of it's sheath and headed for the zombies.  “Keep me covered.”

              I had sharpened my sword since the last time using it and wanted to try it out.  It was probably best that we didn't make a whole lot of noise down here either.  All that would happen is we'd end up with a shitload of zombies after us.

              The zombie in the middle was about five feet in front of the other two.  I went straight at them and started moving to his left.  When he also moved to the left and tried to grab at me, I broke right and swung the sword at his throat.  His head came off his neck with ease.  I let the momentum of the swing carry through and dropped into a crouch.  I brought the sword back hard, catching the zombie to his right across the back of her leg.  I caught her right behind the knee and that's where her lower leg came off.  The zombie fell to the ground at my side.  Actually, it almost landed on me.  I'd have to be more careful. 

              The last zombie was still about five feet away.  It was moaning as it came at me.  Then the moan turned into a roar.  It was as if the thing was angry.  The look on it's face went from impassive to a scowl.  I backed away from it and took a step to the right bringing the sword down across the thing's outstretched arms.  Both hands dropped off at the wrists.  The zombie looked at the area where it's hands should have been and then looked at me.  He looked even madder.  It scared the shit out of me.  I brought the sword up over my head and came down hard on the top of it's head.  The skull split all the way down to his nose.  He was done.

              The zombie, whose leg I'd taken off, grabbed my foot and tripped me.  I went down hard on my ass.  She was coming at me while dragging herself across the ground.  It's mouth was open and she was about to bite my leg when I pulled my leg back, kicked out, and hit her in the face.  Her head snapped back.  That's when Al stomped on her head and crushed her skull.  Greyish colored brains spurted from her smashed head.