Dead Surge (21 page)

“Then, by God, they will wish they had run, right before I put a bullet in them.”

I stepped carefully outside, keeping an eye out for the five that had come to reinforce the ones surrounding the van. Fortunately, they had gone around the side of the building, so we were pretty good to go. I moved to the truck and pulled out my rifle, Sarah’s rifle, and some extra ammo. Charlie kept a watch on the brush where we saw the rest disappear, but they seemed to be gone. He had holstered his gun, and held a sharp tomahawk in each hand. I understood his caution. A shot might attract all of the ones by the van, and we wanted to keep them in one place so we could get rid of them in one swoop.

As I closed the door of the truck, a little zombie came around the corner. He was a boy of about eight years old, roughly the same size as Jake, with sandy hair and blue eyes. His shirt was torn around the neck, and a raw bite wound could be seen in the same area. That was where the resemblance to anything we’d ever encountered ended.

This child’s face was twisted with fury and pain, and his eyes burned at us. His small hands were claws, and they were black with what could only have been dried blood. When he saw us, his mouth pulled into a vicious leer, and he let out what could only be described as a combination of a growl, a snarl, and oddly, a meow.

The boy took a step forward, and then pitched onto his face as a tomahawk crashed into his forehead, right above his left eye. The blade had sunk in nearly to the haft, so Charlie must have put some serious force behind it. I knew then just how jumpy Charlie was.

As Charlie retrieved his ‘hawk, I took the rifles inside. I waited for Charlie and we went up to the loft together. We didn’t have much to say. We were both kind of lost in our own thoughts. Back in the loft, we relayed to the women what we had seen, and they gave us the rundown of what was going on around the van.

“They’ve circled a bit, and then they settled into three areas,” Sarah said. “There’s four right below us, another two in the shadows over by the shed, and three in front of the van. A single one wandered off towards the front of the building…”

A minute later came the reply. “There’s a bunch of them waiting beyond the trees to the east, looks like they might be waiting for this crew to catch up. Don’t see any activity, they’re just waiting.”

The reply wasn’t encouraging. “Don’t have a rifle. Could do it with my pistol, but I can’t see them any better from here and when they see me, they’ll run.”

Chapter 44

“Let’s go. Sarah, you and Rebecca open up from up here when we signal. Charlie, I’m going for the four under the window and you take the three by the shed. Just blow them away. Don’t bother with headshots, just get them down and we’ll finish them off. “

Charlie and I ran down the stairs and back to the front. We looked cautiously out and still didn’t see anything. But we knew they were out there, waiting. Trouble was, they had time, and we didn’t.

“Offense?” Charlie asked, putting a magazine in his hand for a faster reload.

“No choice and we have the element of surprise. Hopefully, when the girls open up, they won’t scatter right into our laps,” I said, putting a magazine reload in my hand as well.

“Christ, did you have to tell me that?” Charlie said.

“Hell, man, I’m making this up as I go. Those little fuckers defy everything I’ve seen with zombies.”

We stepped outside and slowly made our way to the edge of the building. I wasn’t sure if the ones by the shed were going to be able to see us or not, but I was grateful that the sun was throwing our shadows against the building, so we didn’t have to worry about alerting them that way.

Charlie and I made our way towards the back wall, and by the time we got halfway there, I was sweating. The air was cool in the early autumn morning in Iowa, but I was sweating as if it was August in Florida. A quick glance back showed Charlie was in the same shape, and in all honesty, who could blame us? We were about to engage fast, smart zombies that could overwhelm us in a heartbeat. Charlie and maybe I could handle a bite at a time, but even our systems could be overloaded from multiple bites. It wasn’t something I was willing to try out at this particular time.

At the edge of the building, I signaled to Charlie and he nodded. Reaching for my radio, I pressed the transmit button three times. I counted to three, and then stepped out into the open, moving away from the building.

Just as I came into sight, Sarah and Rebecca opened up from the window. Immediately there was chaos. Two forms fell to the ground in front of the van, while the rest looked up in shock at the windows where the shots came from. In that instant, I opened up on the four hitting one in the head and the other in the neck, slamming them both to the ground. The others bolted from the building and darted around towards the front of the van, joining the others as they moved away from the windows which were killing them. The three by the shed were knocked to the ground by Charlie’s shots. Two of which got up immediately and began running, the third stayed dead with a shot to the head.

I fired at an exposed leg, which knocked the little girl to the pavement. She turned a hate filled stare at me seconds before her head exploded from a shot from above. The two from the shed came sprinting at Charlie and me, and we both fired several shots to halt the attack.

While I reloaded, Charlie fired single killing shots and I circled wide for the remaining three which were by the van. I couldn’t fire towards the van, so I holstered my gun and pulled out my trench ‘hawk and my knife. The thirteen inches of steel glistened in the morning as I worked around to the front of the van.

“John! Behind you!” Sarah called a warning just in time. One of the zombies had circled back and was coming at me from the back. I knelt down and swung my axe, smashing the blade into the hissing face. The body flew to the side from the impact, but I didn’t have time to admire my handiwork, as a second came running from the other direction. This time, the little shit came in low with his arms outstretched. I waited until he was close enough, then I kicked the little sucker up under the chin, cracking his neck and launching him several feet in the air.

When he landed, his teeth still clacked and clicked, and I speared him in the temple to end his troubles. As I pulled the blade out, the last one came charging around the corner, too fast for me to get with the knife. I readied another kick, hoping I wouldn’t be bitten in the process.

I needn’t have worried. A long, thin silver line split the air and neatly removed the little child’s head from its shoulders. The little girl’s long blonde hair flew up as the head sailed away, biting and snarling as it went. It bounced once on the parking lot and Charlie walked up to kill it with his tomahawk.

“Nice work, Duncan. I think I may need one of those,” I said in admiration.

“Oh, sure, steal another killer idea. First, you take Charlie’s idea for tomahawks, and now you want a sword. What if I want to be the only cool one around?” Duncan laughed at his own joke.

I didn’t pay attention. I was looking at the brush line and single figure that stood there. She was about ten years old, at least I figured from this distance. She had brown, shoulder-length hair and her face was white. Her eyes were deep-set, and from the way she was standing, it looked like she didn’t have eyes at all.

In a flash, I drew my .45, firing from the hip. I had only three shots left, but I let them all go as fast as I could pull the trigger, hoping to get lucky one last time.

My bullets went wide, and then my gun went to slide-lock. I reloaded and brought the gun up to level, but by that time, she had jumped back through the brush.

“Damn. Missed,” I said to no one in particular.

Charlie looked over to where I was shooting. “Hell, man, had you scored a hit, I would have put down my gun in homage to the master.”

“Bullshit, but thanks anyway,” I said.

“Thanks for what? You missed an easy shot,” Charlie said.

“What? Listen, you…” Whatever else I had to say was lost as about thirty little zombies came crashing through the brush and literally hurtled across the street and parking lot towards us.

We didn’t stop to debate anything else. We bolted for the two buildings. Charlie ran for the Whitebreast Inn, while Duncan and I ran for the Double D. It was standard to split up like this, in the hopes to divide the enemy, or if not, then be able to harass and flank him as needed.

Just as we split, Charlie gave one parting shot to Duncan.

“I blame you for this! I was having a really good morning!” After that, he was inside the Whitebreast Inn.

Chapter 45

Duncan and I burst through the front doors of the Double D and immediately started throwing tables and chairs in front of the glass. The only thing we were hoping to do was to slow them down.

As we tossed wooden tables and chairs, Duncan commented on the fixture’s material.

“Stuff would burn nicely, with all the alcohol soaked into it,” he said.

“Good thought, but we haven’t found the back door yet.” I replied, turning a table over to the window. Outside, the first of the zombies reached the windows and crashed against it with a meaty smack. A second hit it and I knew it was only going to be a matter of time. There were about fifteen zombies out there, so I knew we probably had divided them up. The big question was whether they had gone to the other building, or had they circled around back, trying to flush us out into hungry mouths.

“Come on, let’s get out of here before they break through,” I said, running up the stairs.

“Hang on.” Duncan removed a lighter from his pack and took up a small candle that was tossed in the corner. It was one of those little globe candles with the netting around it. He lit the candle, then carried it up and placed it on the railing of the elevated platform. The candle sent weird shadows around the room, illuminating the bodies that still hung from the upper balcony.

We made our way around the platform, heading towards the back. We had to move around the bodies, and I was tempted to cut them down, when Duncan suddenly yelled.

“Shit! Something’s got me!” He flailed at the back of his neck, and twisted, trying to get away from whatever had hooked him. I pulled out my flashlight and shined it upwards, looking for whatever had snagged Duncan. I thought some wire or some kind of Christmas lights had caught him.

I did not expect one of the hanging ladies to have grabbed his collar as he went by, holding on tightly as her neck stretched and twisted in the rope collar she had on. Her eyes were dead, and her mouth was open, allowing her swollen tongue to extend outward grotesquely. Her blue face twisted and turned, and I was actually surprised her neck was able to support her.

“Oh, boy. Hold on.” I swung quickly with my blade and severed the arm, causing Duncan to stumble forward and the zombie to swing back. I stepped up and pulled the hand off of Duncan, who was vastly relieved to be loose.

“Thanks man. What the fuck, dude? Why did these women kill themselves?” he asked.

I shined the light around the room, and sure enough, four more sets of eyes looked back at me, and here and there, a slender arm rose to try and grasp what was too far out of reach.

“I’d guess they had been infected somehow, and figured to die together. Who knows?” I wiped off my blade and kept moving, the sounds of the little zombies slamming into the glass motivating me to move further to the back. Behind us, the lone candle flickered and sputtered.

We reached the back and ducked through the Employees Only door. I kept moving towards the back, around cases and cases of liquor. Duncan’s eyes were huge as he surveyed the inventory.

“Man, this would go for a good buck back home,” he said. He was right, too. Since the Upheaval, no one really had bothered to try to make alcohol anymore, so the real stuff was rare and highly prized.

I didn’t say anything as I found the back door. It was a simple grey affair with a handmade sign that read ‘Keep Clear’. I figured it had to be the right one. I pushed the door carefully, just allowing a crack to appear. It wasn’t much, but the sun was bright enough that the little crack allowed a great deal of light in. My eyes, after being used to the dark, smarted a little from the brilliance.

Another smack sounded in the darkness, and this time it had a different quality to it. I figured we had a minute before the window broke open completely. I also figured we might as well use what we have here to take out a few more zombies.