Rotting to the Core (Keep Your Crowbar Handy Book 2) (18 page)

“Nice to be appreciated,” Jake grumbled, and
searched the echoing expanse for any sign of movement that wasn't
rodent-based as they continued onward.

The tunnel cut sharply to the right and ended
abruptly at a sheer cinder block wall. A series of rungs painted in
bright 'Safety Regulation Approved' yellow were set into its face,
which provided access from the building above. Jake stuck their
flashlight between his teeth and pulled the Hammer from its holster
on his hip, before setting one foot on the first rung to climb
up.

“Want me to go first?” Kat had her sword in a
Zatochi grip, blade stretched back along the length her
forearm.

Jake shook his head and pointed upwards with
his repeater. “I'll do it. You wouldn't have enough wriggle room to
free the hatch holding it, and if there are any maggot-heads up
there I can put them down quickly with this monster.”

Kat stared at the monstrous weapon pointedly.
“At least your toy there won't be thunderclap-loud, like normally.
Not with that suppressor.”

“Yeah-yeah.” Jake pulled aforementioned
suppressor from his tac-vest and began cautiously screwing the can
onto the weapon's barrel. Regardless of its durability, if he
cross-threaded it there was a darned good chance it could cause the
weapon to misfire or worse. Worse being either: A-exploding in his
hand, or B-exploding in his hand and taking off some of his fingers
in the process, or C-exploding in his hand taking off some of his
fingers
then
alerting a shit-load of nearby zombies to their
presence. That would likely get the three of them dead in short
order.

O'Connor scaled the rungs and put his
shoulder against the heavy plate above. There was quite a bit of
noise from the battle between Rebecca’s' sheeple and the
encroaching zombies, so he couldn't tell if there was anyone, or
anything in the outbuilding. Echoes of moans, punctuated with the
sharp cracks of panicked gunfire, permeated from behind Kat and
Penny below, so he was extra-cautious (if there was such a thing
during the apocalypse) when he raised the access cover just a few
inches. Only more darkness greeted him and Jake pushed up further,
just enough to get the flashlight held in his mouth over the lip of
the hole. When nothing reacted to the encroaching beam, he pushed
the hatch over and back until it stopped just past 110 degrees, and
passed the LED torch about swiftly. The tunnel came out in the rear
of what appeared to be a large, forty by sixty maintenance bay and
currently, he was the only thing moving within. A vehicle door was
on the far south wall and an access door sat in the western wall,
but without Jake's flashlight the darkness was oppressive.

“It looks clear. You guys can come on,” Jake
called into the tunnel, making sure to track the muzzle of his
Hammer along with his flashlight's beam as the women made their way
up the well-used rungs behind him.

“This is where they use to repair the
eighteen-wheelers that hauled what trains offloaded all over the
county,” Penny told Jake, as Kat hopped nimbly through the opening
after her and pulled the hatch shut once more. “If there'd been any
of them here that ran, we could've used one to just bust past the
horde out there. Rolled right on through them, like a locomotive
through a herd of goats.”

Jake began striding for the far side of the
garage. “Don't bet on it. We managed to avoid this group back in
town, but there's a crap-load of them. All those body parts would
be more than enough to bust tires, tear engine belts, hole the
radiator, and gum up the undercarriage on a big-rig. Once we were
trapped they'd have climbed over one-another trying to get inside,
busted out the windows, and we'd have been dinner.”

“He's right. Better to do it our way.” Kat
agreed.

Penny gave them an expectant look. “And how's
that?”

“I'm glad you asked. Today's episode of the
'Kat and Jake Show' is brought to you by the letter 'S'. As in
sneaky, silent, sly, and stealthy like a shadow.” Kat padded past
the writer to the solid looking door, then went into 'ninja sensory
mode'.

Penny checked her Beretta and shot the pretty
Asian a skeptical glance. “What the hell is she doing?” she
asked.

“You wouldn't believe me. Just give her a
bit.” Jake shut his mouth and motioned to Carson for silence.

Kat didn't move. She barely breathed. After a
minute, she came back to the present and shook her head. “I can't
get much. There's a ton of them around the grainery already, so we
need to move. Like, right freakin' now.”

The three checked their weapons once more and
prepared to exit the garage as Jake told Penny the plan. “Alright,
once we're outside head for the east side of the fence line. It's
the one closest to us and, since those things are coming from the
west, farthest from the horde. Kat will go over the top first
because she can climb way better than either one of us. You'll go
next, and I'll follow once you're on the other side so the two of
you can cover me. I've got more mass, so it will take me a little
longer. When we get out there, don't fire off any rounds unless you
absolutely have to. Loud noise will draw zombies away from the main
building towards us, so use this if they get too close.” Jake
passed Deputy Carson his crowbar.

“What am I supposed to do with this? Lever a
zombie to death?” she demanded, but holstered her Beretta
again.

He chuckled. “Hey, the thing's saved my life
a few times now. Stick with bashing them with the hook end if you
can, but you can use the chisel tip to stab with too. Just try not
to get in close. That tends to be rather messy.”

“To say the least.” Kat told her. “Let me
tell you, zombie goop? Yuck. With a side of 'gross'. And a big ol'
helping of 'ew!'. It's a royal pain to get out of your hair too.
This one time, there was—”

“Kat.” Jake's voice was tight.

“Hmm?” She nodded. “Oh. Gotcha. I'm good.
Focusing now.”

“You know what? I'm reasonably certain
Obi-wan Kenobi never heard things like that from his companions,”
Jake grumbled under his breath.

Kat giggled. “Uh-huh. Two words: Jar
Jar.”

Jake gave her a hard look. “We don't talk
about him. Ever.”

“I can't believe you people have managed to
survive this long.” Penny looked back and forth between them with
an unbelieving expression.

“Never mind.” Kat was still grinning. “Let's
get a move on 'kay?”

“Fine. But I'm telling you: Jedi didn't have
to put up with this shit.” O'Connor took hold of the door handle,
twisted, and pulled it open.

“Fuck.” He quickly shut the door again and
latched the deadbolt. “Uh, yeah.
Run
.”

Kat and Jake took off at a sprint for the
western side of the building.

Good Deputy Carson was caught flat-footed,
still staring at their 'assholes and elbows' when zombies began
pounding on the door only five feet away. She jumped in surprise,
backpedaled, and hurried back through the garage in their wake,
away from the sound of dozens of hands pounding against the wall
outside. By the time she caught up with the others, dozens had
become a hundred. Then two.

“Kat, get that thing open!” Jake turned
beside her next to the vehicle door and put the sights of his
Hammer squarely on the western entrance. The far door—hell, the
whole
wall—
was vibrating under the impact of
hunger-maddened fists.

Cho was already way ahead of him. “It's not
locked, but there's no power! We have to pull it up!” She began
yanking on the chain dangling down from the pulley system on the
door's upper edge, but her trim frame didn't have enough weight to
move the mechanism.

“Deputy, watch the far end!” Jake holstered
his pistol, ran at the wall, and jumped. He put one foot against
the steel and—in a clumsy impression of Kat's own abilities in the
alley behind Foster's safe-house— managed a decent leap into the
air. Whether it was skill, adrenaline, or just pure unbridled fear
that allowed the writer to generate such incredible force with his
legs didn't matter. Jake's hands clamped around the chain as his
boots dangled a good four feet from the cement surface of the
floor. Evidently, Kat thought his idea was so good she made a
vertical leap of her own to lock her arms around his waist. They
hung there, suspended by the main strength in Jake's arms as Penny
stared at the thundering against the far wall.

“It's not moving!” Jake called down.

“Yeah, I get that!” Kat yelled. “Pull
harder!”

“How?” he demanded.

“Gee, I don't know. Use your arms!” Kat began
kicking her legs up and down, yanking on his hips.

Jake began shaking the chain, even though the
links bit into his palms.

“Guys? You need to hurry!” Penny pointed
Jake’s crowbar at the far entrance. The wall was dented inward in
several places around the doorframe, and the door itself was
beginning to cave.

“Jake, we're dead if we don't work that free,
right now!” Kat yelled up at him. “Either get this thing moving or
get your clothes off, because I'm going out screaming one way or
another!”

“Move! Move-move-move-move-move!” With every
bellow, Jake yanked the both of them skyward then dropped their
weight against the chain. His arms were starting to burn.
“Goddammit, MOVE!”

With a final jerk, their combined weight
pulled the jammed chain free. The bay door rose two feet as Jake
and Kat dropped back to the floor. Jake lost his grip on the chain,
but managed not to crush her when he landed flat on his ass. Kat's
landing was far more agile, even with the leather pants and biker
boots. She'd come down in a three-point stance, like a linebacker
waiting for the word 'Hike'.

A blue-haired, pixie-like linebacker with
a great rack
, he thought.
Damn, my tailbone hurts.

“Well?” Penny demanded, still understandably
focused on the weakening far door.

Kat went horizontal three inches off the
floor on all fours like she was at the bottom of a push-up and
quickly scanned the outside. “It's clear. They haven't made it
around yet.”

“Go, go!” Jake made for the opening,
motioning the women out before him. Kat dropped and rolled out
under the door in a blur, with Carson not far behind. When Jake had
a moment to think about it that didn't involve fleeing for his
life, it seemed as if Penny was actually checking out Kat's behind
as she scrambled after the ninja-girl. The far door of the garage
impacted against the concrete floor with an ear bruising clang,
just as he was about to scurry beneath the steel edge. Jake glanced
towards the noise and froze. It was a stupid move, he knew, but he
couldn't help it. The zombies were inside.

They were legion. Prior to a few months back,
O'Connor hadn't appreciated the concept of the word. There, within
the ambiguous safety of too-thin, steel walls, he was shown the
true meaning. The dead were nearly rabid with hunger. They pushed
through the doorway like maggots squirming from a bloated corpse,
heedless of the sharp edges on the now-battered frame and walls
that tore at their cold flesh. Some few fell beneath the initial
push, and were trod upon by yet more as the dead piled into the
garage. Jake realized he was staring at them, nearly hypnotized by
the awful spectacle of mindless dead flowing clumsily into the
room, and he tried to shake it off. They were hideous in the
extreme. Some were missing arms, or entire chest cavities. Others
resembled emaciated stick-figures, only held together by what
little muscle fiber and sinew was left upon their long-consumed
torsos. Not a few were missing parts of their faces, ears, jaws,
throats
.
Many were missing
eyes,
either one or both.
Jake shuddered at the thought of forever roaming around, hungry and
blind, after dying. A fate worse than death, that.

Jake looked into the piss-yellow eyes of one
particularly angry specimen as the thing oriented upon him. Its
gray teeth clacked together like a pair of castanets played by
Charlie Benante—longtime drummer for the speed metal band,
Anthrax—after way too much cocaine. A piece of one tooth snapped
off and went flying, spinning freely through the air to imbed
firmly in one of the other ghoul’s shoulders.

This is what hell will look like,
Jake
thought.

“Jake! Come on!”

Kat's voice from outside broke him out of his
reverie. O'Connor turned and ran for his life.

He dove under the bay door, maybe twenty feet
ahead of the lead rank of creatures inside, and rolled to his feet.
“Go! Head for the fence!”

Neither Kat nor Penny needed to be told
twice. They were right on his heels as he ran for the distant
chain-link.

Behind them, the trio could hear the ongoing
battle between Rebecca's people and the dead continuing. It didn't
sound good for 'Mama Moo-moo” and her little cult of personality.
Fully half of the living were either out of ammunition, or were
vainly attempting to secure the grainery, while the infected
pressed forward like a moaning, California mudslide.

Penny stopped and grabbed at Kat's shoulder
as she passed by. “Hey! Do you see that?”

Kat's eyes followed the Deputies’ shaking
finger. “Oh-my-god. Jake, those zombie just coming through the
front gate? They're
running.”

“What?” Jake's head whipped around as he
plowed to a halt.

Sure enough, a pack of maybe fifteen or so
infected were headed for the grainery, at speed. The things weren't
actually 'running' per say, but they sure-as-hell weren't moving at
the shambling gait of an average zombie either. It was more like
watching, someone who had issues with their center of gravity—

and were really drunk—trying to jog. Some of
the creatures kept weaving back and forth, stumbling over their own
feet and having to correct course over and over, but moving damn
fast. Jake didn't want to believe it. To date, none of their group
had ever seen the dead do anything even close to what they were
seeing.