Hurricane Dan (A Zombie Novel) (8 page)

Chapter 15

             
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" demanded the store manager. "You can't just come in here and throw our products all over the floor."

Dan could feel Zoey leaning against him, probably trying to get as far away from the manager as possible.

The lady was stone-faced from forty years of retail in a busy city. She may have once been beautiful but life had worn her down. The blond hair that hugged her cheeks was faded at the roots and wrinkles stretched from her eyes and cheeks.

"And what is this? Swords? You can't bring weapons into my store!"

Dan wasn't in the mood to take crap from anybody. "Why don't you try and do something about it, see where that gets you."

"How dare you. Get out, get out now!"

"Please calm down, ma'am," said Randy, turning to see all the commotion.

"Calm down? Calm down?" the manager stammered. "Get out of my store!"

Barns stood up. "But we would be dyin’ out there."

The lady looked disgusted to be in his very presence. "I don't care what you are doing, but you can be sure you won't be doing it here!"

"You want to bet?" asked Dan.

"We can't go back out there," said Zoey.

"You can and you will."

"What seems to be the problem?" said a man about Barns's size with a buzz-cut.

He had tanned skin as if he had lived on a beach for the past year and his shirt clung to his muscles. Where Barns had fat, this man had none.

Lady Rose stepped out as if to block the man's path. "There is no problem, just a minuscule misunderstanding, that’s all."

The man ignored her as he passed, brushing her aside with one hand.

"These people have been causing trouble and damaging store property," said the manager. "I am trying to make them leave but they refuse."

"Is that so?" asked the man. He looked at Dan and Zoey as if he were getting ready to physically toss them out of the store.

Dan hopped down from the table and walked up so he was face to face with him. He only came up to the man's chin so he had to look up. "Yeah, that is so."

Dan was ready to take whatever this guy could throw at him. There was no way he was going to allow their group to be tossed back out onto the street.

Barns walked up and stood at his side, he was eye-level with the man. "You best be on ya way now. We just looking for a safe place. You ain't gone take it from us."

He could feel Zoey stand up behind him. Even Lady Rose and Randy moved closer.

"You can stay," said the man, glancing back and forth at the people standing before him. "Just don't make any more trouble."

"What?" demanded the manager.

"Come on, Mary," said the man. "As long as these people agree to behave, I'm not throwing them out."

"But they have weapons!"

"Maybe we should consider getting our own, I don't think it is getting any better outside."

The manager had turned red faced but didn't say anything as she walked away with the man. Her tendons stuck out as she squeezed the hem of her dress.

"I told ya Dan," said Barns. "People like dat don't like me around."

Zoey patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, big guy, we like you around."

"Quit being so egalitarian
," said Lady Rose. "We need to find him some clean clothes if he is ever going to fit in. Perhaps we can find him something here." She began looking around as if she were about to pluck something off one of the racks.

Barns followed her, acting like he was really interested in her opinion. Whether he actually was or not, only he knew.

"You plan on using that backpack?" Dan asked Randy.

Randy looked at the backpack sitting by his leg. "Nah, I just didn't know what to do after the helicopter crashed. It didn't feel right leaving the poor guy’s stuff sitting in the street.”

Dan picked up the backpack and unzipped it. The thing was filled with college level textbooks, mainly on vector spaces. He dumped it all out on the floor, the books fell open to random pages as they spilled into the aisle. Randy eyed him suspiciously as he slid his briefcase into the backpack and put it on.

"I don't think he is going to need that stuff anymore," he said.

Randy nodded, "I would assume not."

Dan looked over his shoulder and down at the street when he heard a scream. The scream had come from a lady in the store, she was pointing at one of the cops. The guy had been overwhelmed by two zombies and was currently pinned on the ground.

"Barns!" Dan yelled, unsheathing his katana and taking off down the escalator.

He flew down the steps, hitting the floor and blowing past the manager who had just confronted him. The lady jumped sideways in alarm and tripped on a table, falling into a rack of clothing.

Dan burst through the double doors and ran up to the fallen cop. He beheaded the first zombie and impaled the second at the base of the skull.

The cop immediately pushed the bodies off and stood up. He held his hand over his arm, blood oozing through his fingers.

"Fuck!" He spat. "I ran out of bullets."

By the looks of his wound, Dan knew it was only a matter of time before he turned. It wasn’t as bad as some of the wounds he had seen, but when the guy moved his hand he could see four teeth marks where the blood was coming from.

"It's a good thing you had that sword, my goose would have been cooked."

"No offense," said Dan. "But you have been bitten. You're probably going to turn."

"Maybe," said the cop "maybe not. Only time will tell."

"No, definitely, that's how it works."

Right then, Barns burst through the glass doors with his baseball bat at the ready. He was now wearing a flannel shirt that, when coupled with all his facial hair, made him look like a grizzly lumberjack.

"I'm here, Dan," he said. "Where da zombies be?"

"Right there," said Dan, pointing to the two dead corpses on the ground.

Dan heard a gunshot and looked through the glass storefront. The other cop was holding his own at the other end, oblivious to what had just happened to his partner.

"You did good, Dan," said Barns. "Stopped 'em from movin’!"

"I have to go let my partner know what's going on, do you think you can keep things under control over here while I do?"

Looking down the street, there were hundreds of stumbling people as far as he could see. Smoke, destruction, death, it wafted around them like some horrific version of the Macy's Day Parade. Fortunately, there were only three close enough to be an immediate threat and only a small number were moving in their direction.

"Go for it," said Dan to the cop.

Dan began moving for the first zombie as the cop walked away. He had to watch his step or risk tripping over one of the many dead bodies that had accumulated over the hours since the cops had started protecting the store.

He was just about close enough to strike when Zoey jumped past and did the dirty work for him. It startled him, he had been so focused that for a moment he thought he might be getting attacked from behind. He almost swung the katana.  Luckily he only flinched.

He was caught off guard again when she punched him twice in the shoulder.

"Two for flinching," she exclaimed as he drew back.

She had her hood down and her dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her face was smooth, and her eyeliner made her eyes look dark.

"I thought you were inside," he said.

"Well, I was, and then I saw you running out of the door in panic mode. I knew I had to get out here because you wouldn't be thinking straight if you were panicking.”

"I wasn't panicking."

"No?" She smiled. "Then I guess I misjudged as you were screaming for Barns and knocking over that poor woman."

"So it is panic to call out for a little assistance?"

"That was, yes."

Dan lifted his katana as another zombie approached. He dropped the blade in the top of its head, splitting it like butter all the way to the chest. The thing fell to its knees first, and then flat on its face. Dan stepped back and took a deep breath.

"Does this look like somebody who is panicking to you?"

She laughed, though she looked a little disturbed. "I guess I was mistaken."

Two more zombies came out from a restaurant across the street. They moved faster than the stumblers, moving at a moderate jog. Dan took out the first but didn't have time to recover before the second one reached him. He tried to pull the sword back but the thing was already within a radius that he couldn’t maneuver well enough.

It only brushed his shoulder with its fingertips, before Zoey took off its head. Dan had heard the whistle of the tip of her sword as it whizzed past his ear. It was not a very comforting sound.

They heard a solid thump and looked back to see Barns beating another zombie into the ground.

A third zombie was coming out of the restaurant; Zoey crossed the street to meet it at the door. She went through the eye socket with her sword to take out its brain.

"New rule," called Dan. "We stay on this side of the street."

He didn’t like the idea of her crossing the street and putting so much distance between them.

"Aw, what's a matter, is Dan scared?"

"Think about it, we have strength in numbers. For every foot we separate, it gets more and more dangerous."

She looked skeptical, "I don't think it is that bad yet."

No sooner than she had spoken, a nearby window in the restaurant shattered and a zombie came diving out at her.

She was caught off guard, swinging the sword and only coming up about waist high. The zombie was cleaved almost in half, it was enough to make it fall to the ground. The thing kept coming, dragging its limp, lower half as it went. It grabbed her ankle, opened its mouth wide, and bit down. Zoey thrust her sword into its head as it did.

"Damn it!" she said, sitting down and holding her ankle.

Dan had just reached her side of the street; he grabbed her heel and lifted her pant leg. What he saw was a dark purple ring.

"It didn't break the skin," he said, astonished. "You must have killed it before it could."

"Looks like it’s my lucky day."

Two buildings down and three stories up, more windows began to shatter as three zombies came tumbling out. They landed hard, getting back up and standing with broken bodies. Two of them had feet that dragged behind the fragmented bones they used to walk on. The third reached out with twisted arms.

A few more zombies burst from the next floor up, one from the basement level. A similar phenomenon began happening to a building on the other side of the street. One stumbled off the roof and smashed a red car that was sitting against the sidewalk.

A zombie fell from an apartment three stories above a restaurant. It tore through an awning and crushed a table that had been set up on the sidewalk.

As it stood up, Dan started noticing the same thing happening up and down the city in every direction. The buildings were like hives, feeding zombies into the street.

"Lucky is not the word I would use," he said, watching the numbers grow.

Zoey cut down the zombie that had fallen through the awning. "I don't think we are going to be able to hold out against so many."

Dan felt the vise as they began moving in from all directions. Their numbers doubled, tripled, anything living was fast becoming eradicated.

"I know."

Chapter 16

             
"We've got all the people that we are gonna get," said the cop, coming back to their side of the building. "We are out of bullets and have to close the doors."

"And then what?" asked Dan.

"The riot police and National Guard should be getting the streets back under control pretty soon. Until they do, we are going to wait it out on the roof."

Dan didn't like the idea of being trapped on the roof but couldn't think of anything better. "Okay, but we had better hurry. Another minute and we will be overrun for sure."

"Okay, let's get inside," the cop said loud enough so Barns could hear him.

Barns looked back from clobbering a zombie in the head. "Don't leave me!" He turned and almost started running as he made his way to the door. The cops held the door open for him to go in.

Zoey held her hand up, encouraging Dan to lead the way. "After you."

An awfully friendly gesture considering all the walking corpses closing in on them.

Once they were all inside, the two cops closed the door and locked it. The one that had been bitten coughed, and Dan couldn't help but notice the little droplets of blood on his hand before he wiped it on his pants.

"Alright," said the infected cop. "We need everybody to move to the upper floor. We are going to wait this out on the roof."

There was no objection from the crowd, they seemed eager to get to higher ground. A couple of seconds after everyone started moving for the escalators was when the first zombie hit the glass at the front of the building.

It smeared blood that was turning black in its rotting hand. It pounded repeatedly, spreading more black blood across the glass.

A second zombie came, then a third and a fourth. Small cracks were beginning to show in the bloodied glass.

The people inside the store were beginning to panic. The escalators were too narrow for everybody to all go up at once. They shoved each other as they fought for a higher spot.

"Are you guys coming?" Randy yelled.

Dan turned to see him and Lady Rose leaning over the balcony on the second level. They peered nervously at the growing number of zombies at the front of the store. Dan also noticed that Zoey, Barns and he were the only three not joining the crowd pushing their way up the escalators.

His attention snapped toward the front of the store as the crackling grew louder. There was a large zigzagging crack that shot from one end of the window to the other, like clear lightning.

He tightened his grip on the sword and lifted it over his shoulder like a baseball bat. Zoey and Barns saw him and did the same. He knew the window wouldn't hold long enough for everybody to make it to safety. So he was going to have to slow them down by force.

As the zombies’ numbers began to double it became hard to see the street behind them. They glared into the store, flashing bloody teeth and hideous wounds, smearing blood so thick the window looked like it had been painted that way.

"Zoey, come on!" Randy yelled down at them.

All at once the window gave way, disintegrating into thousands of tiny crystals that rained down on the monsters that were now climbing in.

Watching the horde moving towards him, Dan could only think one thing—fuck this!

He took a second look at the escalator; it was completely clogged with panicking people. They would never make it up that way alive. He looked around, searching for a second option. He scanned the room fast, filled with hopeless despair until he spotted them.

Lining the walls were giant wooden shelves that held small stacks of clothing. Where the top of the shelf passed under the second floor it only had a foot or two of clearance. Once upon a time it would have reminded Dan of a bookshelf in an old library. Right then it was looking a lot more like a ladder.

"We have to get to the wall," he yelled.

He wanted to run but was forced to face his attackers. He swung, decapitating the first and burying the blade into the skull of the second.

They hit them like a raging river hits a boulder, splitting at the tips of their swords and rushing past to attack the escalator.

The screams had already started before the zombies even reached them; it wasn't until afterwards that pain could be heard in those cries.

Dan was surrounded, standing back to back with Zoey and Barns, killing anything that tried to invade their space. Enough of the zombies continued past them, their attention on the other people, to make it possible with enough effort.

He began to shuffle his feet, trying to work his way to the edge of the zombies. "We have to move or we are gonna die!"

He was glad to see Zoey and Barns were sticking right with him. Unfortunately, his muscles were growing fatigued and he was no longer able to completely decapitate his enemy. He had to try stabbing upwards, hitting them under the chin to get to the brain. This turned out to be a lot harder in practice than it was in the mind.

"Run!" he yelled when he felt they were close enough to the edge.

He shoved the last two zombies that were blocking their path, causing them to fall down. The racks of clothing stood before him like a jungle as he dove in.

Zoey and Barns were parallel with him as they took off running through the store. They cut straight through the clothes, as opposed to running diagonally, until they crossed an aisle. Some of the racks toppled over as the clothes snagged them on the way by. The zombies were in pursuit, fanning out and taking every possible path.

More zombies were coming into the store to join the others. Some headed straight for the escalators, some for Dan, Zoey and Barns.

Dan sheathed his katana and slung it over his shoulder in time to reach the wall and leap for the highest shelf he could reach. His hand landed on a pair of pants and he immediately knew he had made a mistake.

As soon as the weight of his body hit the shelf, he yanked the pants and they slipped right off. Oh shit, was the dominant thought in his mind.

"Dan!" He heard Zoey yell moments before he landed flat on his back.

It hadn't been that far a fall but it had knocked the wind out of him. The fact that he had already been out of breath from the sprint across the store made getting up one of the hardest things he had ever done.

By the time he was just starting to climb the shelf, Zoey was already at the top and Barns was getting close.

A chill ran up Dan's spine as he heard the groans growing closer. He did his best to ignore them and worked on the tedious task of climbing the shelf. He had to keep pushing stacks of clothes out of the way in order to keep from slipping off again.

"Come on, Dan, climb!" Barns cheered him on from the top.

It wasn't until his feet were on the fourth step that his lungs relaxed and he was able to take a gasping breath.

"Don't slow down," Zoey warned.

No shit! He thought to himself as he pulled higher.

A zombie grabbed his ankle and yanked. Dan was caught off guard by the force of it. His other foot was out in the air, only his hands were holding him to the shelf, and they were slipping. His arms began to shake the more parallel he was to the ground.

As a last ditch effort, he pulled in with his captured foot and kicked out with his free one. His heel landed square in the nose of the zombie; his foot slipped out of its hand.

As he came crashing back into the shelf, his hands slipped off. Barns caught his wrist before he could fall.

"No mo’ messin’ round, we got to go," Barns declared as he helped pull Dan to the top.

Zoey grabbed his shoulder. "Thought we lost you there for a second."

From his vantage point on the top of the shelves, Dan had a pretty good view of what was going on in the rest of the building.

The zombies had reached the top of the escalator and were now chasing the stragglers through the second floor. One man was chased by three zombies that tackled him into the railing, shattering the glass and causing them all to tumble back to the first floor. The man was dead on impact.

There were no more living people on the first floor; the dead now filled the aisles.

Barns climbed the railing to the second level first, followed by Dan and Zoey. There were only a few zombies between them and the second escalator, and they went down easy enough. The last one had fallen onto the escalator, forcing them to ride up with the body.

The third level was made for shoes. High heels, sneakers, flip-flops, every shoe imaginable was laid out on tables across the room. To the right of the escalators was a door with an exit sign over it; one of the cops was holding it open.

"Is there anybody else?" he asked as they approached.

Dan could only shake his head as he walked past.

Inside was ten feet of stairs they had to climb before going through another door and onto the roof.

The first thing Dan noticed was how good the fresh air felt on his face. The second was that the other cop was on the ground, having a seizure.