The Turning: A Tale of the Living Dead (28 page)

Jeff pitched forward inside,
falling to his knees.  He screamed in pain and rolled onto his back, clutching
his right knee. 

“My knee!” he cried. 

Dave came in first and swiftly kicked
Jeff’s side.  The two guards and White Bandanna followed, with Blue Bandanna
staying behind, one pressing the button on the panel and the other bending down
to haul Jeff to his feet as White Bandanna saluted Blue.  

Jeff drove his foot into the guard’s
nuts.  A satisfying grunt and crunch filled the small space as the guard
double-over and Jeff snatched his gun from his holster.  He raised it and fired
one into the guard’s chest and then shot the guard by the doors.  As that guard
pitched backwards, Jeff came up with the gun, stuck it into White Bandanna's
open, shocked mouth, and fired once.  Brains and blood spattered the ceiling as
White Bandannas skull top flew off, spinning through the air like a brittle
toupee and bouncing off the walls of the elevator.  The remaining guard,
already shot, scrabbled at his holster but he was unable to draw the firearm
before Jeff spun and pounced on him.  He stuck his gun into the guard’s chest
and fired twice.  The guard twitched, his eyes as wide as Frisbees, blinked
once, and died.  

Jeff stood and faced Dave, who
stumbled back against the wall.

“Please,” Dave said.

Jeff stuffed the gun into the back
of his pants and his hands shot out, grabbing Dave around his throat.  He
squeezed, hard, Dave’s neck so skinny that his fingers met at the back.  Jeff
pressed his thumbs into Dave’s larynx, crushing the windpipe and forcing him
down to the floor.  Jeff rode him, pushing his weight into the choke, spittle
dripping from his sneered lips, his eyes intense and full of hatred.  He leaned
in close to Dave until their noses were touching.

“I gave you your chance,” Jeff
said. 

Dave’s face turned purple and then
black, his tongue jutting from the corner of his mouth.  His eyes bugged out
and his hands desperately clawed at Jeff’s arms but Dave was too skinny and too
weak. 

Jeff put his full weight into the
grip. He could feel Dave’s muscles straining against his hands but they did
little good.  He was a man possessed, filled with a rage he hadn’t known since
he watched his beloved Jenny being raped and tortured by those men on
Alcatraz.  Only this rage was much worse. 

He did not stop until Dave’s neck
snapped.

The elevator door dinged.  They’d
reached the bottom floor.  He’d killed four men in the time it took to drop
four floors.  As the doors opened, Jeff pushed the buttons for the second,
third, and fourth floors.  He whipped out the gun, ready to fire, as the doors
opened to reveal an empty lobby.  A couple of guards stood near the entrance
doors, chatting amiably, but that was all.  They did not see him as the doors
closed and the elevator climbed back up.

Jeff rifled through the guards’
things, taking the other two guns and stuffing them into his pockets.  The
elevator reached floor number two and dinged, the doors opening.  No one was
there.  Jeff stood as the doors slid shut.  He waited as the elevator climbed
to the third floor and then remembered Dave and his keys.  He spun and dropped
and tore through Dave’s pants until he found the key ring in question.  He
figured one of them had to go to the small building where the pipe to the
outside world was hidden, and if he had any hope of escape, it was going to be
by that route.

The elevator stopped at the third
floor.  The doors opened with a ringing bell.  The corridor was empty.  Jeff
stuck his head out and looked up and down the hallway but saw no one.  He
quickly grabbed a guard and pulled his body so that it blocked the doors open. 
He reached over and tore the jacket off White Bandanna and put it on, fixing
the bandanna around his left bicep, just like the guard.  He snatched the hat
off the other guard and slapped it on top of his head.  Satisfied, he hauled
the dead guard back into the elevator and allowed the doors to close.

At his feet, the dead stirred.

Jeff stared at the doors as they
closed, emptying his mind for what was to come.  Jenny was up there, in the
hands of those degenerate bastards, and even if it meant his death, he would go
in and save her.

The first guard he shot moaned and
reached out, his fingers clutching at the back of Jeff’s left heel. 

The second guard, the one shot
twice in the chest, sat up, groaning.  Blood poured from the tiny holes in the
front and gushed from the big exit wounds in his back.

Dave raised, silent, his throat
crushed so he couldn’t make any noise.  His purple, swollen face a giant bruise
and his glassy, dead eyes stared out and fixated on Jeff.

The doors dinged and opened. 

Jeff pulled out two guns, one in
each hand, and stepped into the hallway.  He stopped and waited as the zombies
in the elevator found their feet and lurched forward.  The doors were about to
close on them when Jeff stuck his hand out.  They opened up and he snatched his
hand away from a guard’s snapping mouth.

He shuffled back against the wall
and waited as the two guards and Dave stumbled from the elevator and reached
for him.  Moving slow and keeping just out of their reach, Jeff led them down
the hall towards the break room. 

There were ten guards in all,
talking and laughing.  Jeff listened, huddled outside the open doorway, as one
of the zombie guards clutched at his back.  Jeff pulled away, grabbing the
zombie by its arm and swinging it into the break room.  Hot on its heels was
the other guard and Jeff grabbed it and slung it in, as well.  He stepped back
and grabbed Dave by the shirt, holding him at arm’s length and listened.

A scream pealed from the room,
followed by another.  Jeff stepped into the doorway and snuck a glance as
pandemonium ensued.  The first zombie guard had shuffled over to a guy sitting
at a table eating a bowl of chicken noodle soup.  The zombie leaned down bit
the guard’s neck, tearing out a large chunk as the guard screamed and jerked
backwards, the blood gushing from his neck splattering into his soup, turning
the yellow liquid pink and then crimson.  The zombie munched on the chunk of
neck as it ripped the guard’s ear off.  The other guards looked up in shock,
their expressions betraying their confusion, and their confusion betraying
their lives. The second zombie stumbled into their midst, clawing one guard’s
eye out and shredding the cheek of another.  The guard with the missing eye
pulled his gun and fired wildly, shooting two of his comrades.  The room stank
of blood, sweat, fear, and gunpowder. 

After that, it all went to hell,
guards firing, zombies munching, and the dead turning and rising to join their
brothers.  In the space of a minute six guards were dead and the other four
were shoved into a corner, sliding on the slick blood, surrounded and firing in
panic.

Jeff dashed down the hallway,
yanking Dave along with him.  The zombie kept trying to dip its head and bite
his wrist, but Jeff held him firm so it couldn't. 

Up ahead, at the bend in the
corridor, he heard commotion as another group of guards ran down towards the
break room.  They came around the corner, four of them, their weapons drawn.

“Back there!” Jeff screamed. 
“Zombies!”
The guards ran past him, hardly paying him mind.  He kept jogging forward and,
when he reached the corner, he spun Dave around and pushed him in front of him,
grabbing his shirt and shoving the zombie into the lead.  They rounded the
corner.  Up ahead were the two Pink guards, guns drawn.  Jeff charged Dave
forward.

“It’s me!” he shouted from behind
the zombie.  “It’s Dave!  You gotta help me!” 

The Pinks stared at the figure
rushing them, confused.  Jeff shoved Dave onto the guard on the right and shot
the guard on the left in the chest.  Blood exploded, peppering the doors with
chunks of flesh and gobs of his heart.  He shuddered and fell to the floor as
Dave bit the other Pink guard on the nose, tearing it off as the Pink guard
shoved his gun into Dave’s belly and fired until the clip was empty and Dave’s
guts lay strewn across the floor behind him.

Jeff rifled through the dead
Pink’s pockets until he found the keys to the apartment.  Smiling, he looked
over at Dave, munching on the other Pink guard’s face.  Blood was everywhere as
the man screamed, punching and clawing at Dave.  His face was gone, sliding
between Dave’s greedy, slurping lips, leaving behind a red, glistening mask of
raw nerves and exposed meat.   

Jeff unlocked the door.

  “Sir!” he screamed inside. 
“There’s been a breach in security!  We need to move you and your family out
now!”

Parker appeared at the end of the
hallway, grimace on his face.  He stomped towards the open door, angry. 

Jeff stepped inside and fired
twice into Parker’s stomach.  Parker went down in a bleeding heap, his eyes
wide with disbelief.

“I told you to just let me go,”
Jeff said.  “You stupid fuck.”

Something hot and loud slammed
Jeff’s left shoulder and spun him around.  His legs went out from under him and
he fell to the floor, suddenly sick and dizzy, his back against the wall by the
door.  He looked up, his hand finding the spot where the bullet had struck him
and came away dripping blood.  

Ellen appeared around the corner,
gun pointed at him and Jenny cradled in her left arm.  She glared at Jeff, her
fierce anger like invisible laser beams. 

“Good one, honey,” Parker said. 
He coughed, spitting up a wad of blood.  “Shoot that son of a bitch again. 
Kill his ass.”
Jeff swung his gun and aimed it at Parker.  “You shoot me and I shoot him,” he
said.

Parker laughed.  “Don’t listen to
him, baby. He’s spent.  He ain’t got nothing left.  He won’t shoot you ‘cause
you have the kid, and he won’t shoot me ‘cause he knows if he does, you’ll kill
him.  Isn’t that right, boy?”

Jeff eyed Parker and Ellen.  He
had a decision to make.  If he went for Ellen, he could hurt Jenny.  If he went
for Parker, Ellen would surely kill him and then Jenny would be stuck with that
evil bitch. 

“Put the gun down,” Parker said,
coughing.  “And I might let you walk out of here.  It takes a lot of guts to
come back here and take me on, I’ll give you that.  You get up and leave and
you won’t get bothered.”
“I want my child,” Jeff said.

“She’s mine!” Ellen shrieked. 
“Mine!” Her hands gripped Jenny tight, the one with the gun sliding up and
under Jenny so that it was pointed at the wall. 

Jeff saw his chance.

He fired twice.  The first bullet
punched Ellen’s gut and the second clipped her right knee.  She fell to the
side, Jenny on her left hip, dropping her gun and landing on her right side. 
Jenny slid from her hold and rolled onto the floor.  She looked up at Jeff and
smiled.

Parker grabbed Jenny, his bloody
hands clamping on her left leg.  He yanked her into the air, holding her upside
down so she shielded him from Jeff’s shot. 

“I’ll drop the bitch,” Parker
said.  “I’ll drop her on her head and then I’ll stomp it and split it like a
rotten melon, you fucking bastard.”
“Put her down,” Jeff said.  “Let her go and I’ll leave.”

“You killed my wife!” Parker
shouted.  “You killed Ellen!”
Parker fumbled for his sidearm, still in the holster on his thigh.  He was
using Jenny as cover until he could get his gun.

Down the hallway, gunfire rang
out, followed by a series of screams.  The sounds drifted down to the lower
floors.

“You fucker,” Parker said.  He
snapped the strap on the holster.

Behind him, Jeff heard something
scratch on the door.  He smiled and lunged up, his fingers scrabbling over the
doorknob as Parker’s palm found his gun’s handle.  Jeff turned the knob and
jerked the door open, hiding behind it. 

Dave lurched through the entrance,
followed by one of the Pink Bandanna zombies.  They headed straight towards
Parker and, as they did, Jeff raised his gun, waiting for his moment.

Parker pulled his pistol and laid
on his side, pointing it at Pink Bandanna.  Jeff fired at nearly the same
instant as Parker, and as Parker’s bullet exploded the head of Pink Bandanna,
Jeff’s bullet bit him under his raised arm, slicing through the soft tissue and
blasting out the left side of Parker’s neck.

Jenny, held slightly to the side to
give Parker a clear line of sight, slipped from the man’s weak grip and slid
off, slick with blood.  She looked up, about to cry, as Dave stumbled over,
reaching out for her.

Parker, spraying blood from the
ruptured artery in his neck, aimed his gun at Jenny, his hand shaking.  Jeff
fired again, the bullet slamming into Parker’s chest and spinning him so that
his legs crashed into the wall next to Ellen’s sprawled body.  He spasmed, his
body jitterbugging on the floor, doing a last dance with death.

Dave bent down, his teeth clacking
together as his fingers scraped the top of Jenny’s head.  She ducked under his
clutch, popped up to her feet, and ran through Dave's open legs. 

“Da, da!” Jenny cried, her arms
open.  She fell into him and Jeff hugged her tight  as he raised his gun,
sighted the back of Dave’s head, and fired.  Dave’s face blew off in one big
chunk, slapping the wall opposite him and sticking there, a flap of skin
staring back at Jeff and then slowly sliding to the floor.  Dave pitched forward,
twitched, and didn’t move again.

Jeff kissed the side of Jenny’s
face, crying.  He held her tight, the pain in his shoulder an afterthought as
he whispered reassurances to her.  He apologized for letting them get her and
kissed her cheeks and forehead as she squealed with delight.

Down the hall, more moans came,
the living dead rising and shuffling towards them.  Jeff kicked the door shut
and locked it.  He didn’t have much time before they got too thick out there
and he wouldn’t be able to get out.