Zombie D.O.A. (11 page)

“Sheet!” Frank said and made a hasty check of my bonds.

“He’s gone, he’s gone,
” Shirl said excitedly.

Working quickly now, Frank cut through the rope on my
feet.  “I don’t have to tell you
what will happen if you kick out at me now do I?” Frank said.
“
Now when I tell you to spread ‘em, you…”

“Frank,” Shirl said again.

I looked up and saw at least a dozen of the creatures entering the
alley. They moved cautiously, and I was again reminded of a pack of hyenas or wild dogs approaching mortally wounded prey.

“Sheet!” Frank hissed again and then to Zeke, “Z
eke get through the fence.
” Zeke was watching the things approach and seemed hypnotized. Frank kicked out at him and
Zeke
suddenly became aware of the danger and scrambled through the hole in the fence.

Behind me I heard Shirl say, “Oh God, oh god,” and start to recite a mangled version of the Lord’s Prayer.

Frank looked at me and grinned, “Shucks, I ain’t got time to tie your feet mister. This i
s your lucky day.” He dropped the
knife on the floor, deliberately out of reach, and then scrambled through the hole.

“Zip her up,” he shouted
an
d
I heard the
fence rattling
as they secured the gap and then presumably stood back to watch the show.

There were now
twenty or more of the
creatures
in the alley. They continued to edge forward, and I could start to make ou
t some individuals. A fat woman
clutching a tiny red handbag, a man in a striped butcher’s apron holding a
cleaver, a
couple of young university types in Columbia sweatshirts.

“Man, that bitch is ugly,” I heard Frank say and then
he
and Zeke laughed.

I should have been terrified, but instead I felt a cold determination to continue living. My right hand was tightly bound, but the left had been tied
more hastily, and had some give. W
ith the added effect of the grease on my hand I felt I
could work it loose. The question was whether I could do so in time.

The
creatures
in the alley continued to
grow
in both numbers and boldness. A few squabbles developed among them and I heard snaps and snarls and growls. Now I could make out their rage-filled faces, could see their terrible injuries and their awful corpse like grins. The smell of them now reached my nostrils, rotting flesh, vomit and raw sewage.

I continued to work my left hand and felt the rope slip over the mound of my thumb. “He’s getting loose,” Zeke
hissed
.

“No he ain’t,” Frank said, and I fe
lt him grab my hair through the
fence.

At that moment, the fat woman let out a screech and charged and the creatures joined her in a headlong rush that resembled a hungry
,
carnivorous wall.

I gave one last desperate yank on the rope
and
felt if sear my skin
,
but
the bond on my right hand held
. Behind me I could hear Shirl screaming as the creatures closed the distance. The two Columbia students were now in the lead, their faces contorted with utter rage.

I could see the knife on the floor but I knew I didn’t have time to reach it. Instead, I
twisted round and felt a handful of my hair part company with my scalp as I pulled free of Frank’s grip. 

I
grabbed my bound right wrist with my freed left and pulled with every o
u
nce of strength left in my body. The fence was old and badly rusted and I felt it give immediately. The braces holding the chain link to the support poles split like clothes pegs
,
as the
fence
was peeled back.

Shirl was still screaming and I heard the professor shout “Steady on
,
”
as the creatures poured through the gap.

I was thrown against the wall, with the fence f
orming a barrier between me and
them
.  B
ut I
still
had to
free my right hand.  For the moment the creatures seemed not to notice me as they worked on Frank and his crew, Shirl and Zeke were already down but Frank was putting up a fight while the professor held a few of them at bay with a wine bottle.

I worked frantically at the knots and had almost freed myself when I saw the fat woman approaching. She walked quickly, taking small steps, her red handbag
still
looped over her arm.  She snarled at me, showing her
broken
teeth and I gave one final yank to free my hand.

I heard a
crack
as one of the fence pos
ts snapped. It
swung towards us
, bringing with it a dense tangle of razor wire. It caught the fat woman squarely in the back of the head and her face momentarily registered a look of surprise before the lights went out.

I freed myself from the fence and scrambled onto the dumpster, then I grabbed the third or forth r
ung of the ladder and pulled my
self up. I scrambled upward faster than Long John Silver’s cabin boy heading for the crows nest.

Halfway up I looked back to see that Frank had been overwhelmed. The professor too had fallen and he looked skyward, as the creatures fed. His face showed no fear. It was as though a
prophecy
had been fulfilled.

By the time I reached home it was early evening.  The street resembled a battlefield, with mutilated corpses, burned out cars, bullet holes and smashed windows. One of the apartment blocks was
on fire
, and a hydrant had been ruptured, the water now reduced to a trickle. 

It was quiet, too quiet and I approached my apartment building cautiously. The glass in the front door had been smashed which was not a good sign, but inside everything seemed normal. I almost expected to hear classical music coming from the Kranski’s apartment as I climbed the stairs.

There was no music coming from the Kra
nski’s
,
but their door was ajar.
Also not a good sign, t
he woman was notoriously paranoid at the best of times.

Kranski could wait though. I had more important things to worry about. Ruby. I entered my apartment with the sound of my own heartbeat
playing timpani
in my ears. I had no idea what I would find.

Ruby might be dead, taken,
or
she might be waiting to sink her teeth into me. If she
had been
teething at one day she may
well
have grown to be a toddler by now in some
virally accelerated
growth spurt.
Crazy as that sounds, it seemed like a genuine possibility to me right then.

I headed down the passage on cat’s feet. The door to our bedroom was ajar and I pushed it back and slid into the darkness. As my eyes adjusted I became aware of a figure si
tting in the chair in the far corner of the room
.

“Who’s the
re?” I said.

No reply.

“Who’s there? I repeated.

No reply.

I reached for the light and threw the switch
. Nothing. The power was out. I walked t
o the window and
pulled
the shades open, not caring if the movement was spotted from the street.

In the chair sat Mr
s.
Kranski,
not blinking even though the light was shining directly into her face
.
There was blood on her jowls and one of her eyes dangled on a stalk, reaching almost to her cheekbone
. Her neck and the front of her dress
were
a mess of blackened blood.

In her lap she cradled Ruby, dressed in
a sailor outfit that
Rosie had bought for her, sucking contentedly on a bottle of pinkish fluid.

Kranski looked at me like a reproachful mother-in-law and
rocked Ruby gently in her arms while she
mumbled
some demented
melody
.

I took a step towards her and she hissed like an angry tomcat and opened her mouth in a toothless snarl. Under different circumstances it may have been funny, but with her cradling Ruby, I wasn’t laughing.

“Mrs. Kranski,” I said using my calmest, most reasonable
tone
. “It’s me, Chris Collins.”

“I know who you are, motherfucker, “ Kranski hissed. She stared at me with her one
pale-
blue eye as though daring me to speak again.
She placed a hand on Ruby’s neck and flexed her long bony fingers, deliberately running a jagged fingernail close to the child’s jugular.

“I don’t want any trouble, “ I said. “Just give me my daughter and I’ll leave.”

Kranski continued to rock, continued to mumble, continued to hold Ruby hostage.

“Mrs Kran
ski, I…”

“They’re coming you know.
Coming for your little girl.
”

“Who? Who’s coming?”

“The dead ones. And their king.”

The old lady seemed to have lost it big time. “Their king?” I asked. Who’s their king?”

“You’ll see. They’re coming.
They told me so.
”

Ruby had finished her bottle and seemed to have drifted off to sleep. I weighed up my options. I could
tackle
Kranski head on, take the baby from her and leave. But what if she dug those vicious looking claws into Ruby’s neck? Could Ruby survive that? I didn’t think so.

Negotiation was obviously not an option, so all that remained was to wait her out. Wait till she fell asleep or got hungry. Did these things even sleep?

I
sat down on the bed and
was trying to figure this out,
when
there was a light
knock at the bedroom door, and a man’s voice said, “Anyone home?
”
S
tartled
, I jumped up and was instantly in a fighter’s stance. “Anyone home?” the man struck his head round the door.