Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (Book 4): Resolution (15 page)

Feeling a surge of helplessness overtake
her, Danielle said, “There’s nowhere to hide from those things.
They just don’t stop.”

William grabbed Danielle’s arm when the
first cracks appeared in the glass and quickly became spreading
webs of fissures. “C’mon dammit. We can’t stay here.”

Through the moaning buzz, Danielle thought
she heard something else; something familiar and promising. She
swore she heard voices, human voices. She resisted William’s pull
and strained to listen.

William tugged again, and Danielle pulled
her arm free and took a step away from him. She said, “Shhh! I can
hear something.”

Confused, William answered, “Yeah. Me too.
That’s why we got to run. C’mon little girl.”

“No. Listen. Can’t you hear that? It’s
voices
, not moans.”

Gus wasn’t waiting around. He wandered
deeper into the darkened bar to the front of the room where a pair
of large windows looked out over the street below. He tried to
navigate the floor, covered with broken bottles, dishes, and
furniture, and finally made it to the windows. Pulling back the
shade only enough for him to be able to get a good look and let in
a minute glimmer of light from outside, he peered out. He rubbed
his eyes and looked more closely.

“She’s right,” he called back to them.
“There’s some people out there. Real people I mean. They’re kicking
the shit outta those things.”

Gus watched as the two men and two women in
the used baseball bats and some other heavy tools to wade into a
crowd of about ten of those things and that was just what he was
able to see from his limited vantage point. There may have been
more of the monsters but he couldn’t tell.

The people attacked the monsters ruthlessly,
killing or incapacitating them with every swing or thrust. The four
of them created a path of blood and destruction through the street
and to the Anchor Inn’s front door.

When the sounds of hands and fists hitting
the front door dissipated, William went back down the stairs and
stood at the door listening, his mouth too dry to swallow. He
couldn’t find the courage to open the door. Standing there though
and not knowing what awaited him on the other side was enough to
stall his intentions.

Then, Danielle was standing next to him.
They looked at one another and pushed the door together.
Thankfully, the door opened without obstruction, meaning no one was
standing on the outside waiting for them. All of the creatures had
been drawn away from the door by the approach of the other
people.

William moved to the front steps just
outside the front door and looked into the street where he saw a
man swinging an aluminum baseball bat around like a ninja or a Jedi
wielding his saber. He handled the bat like a man with a lot of
practice doing it. It was both reassuring and troubling to
William.

Out of instinct, William placed himself
between Danielle and the newcomers. People capable of such wanton
devastation were not to be taken lightly or complacently. William
watched the group pummel the final two walking dead to the ground
then look at him standing in the doorway.

A man in the group said, “Get inside before
the others come back. We have to get out of sight.”

He was emphatic but not desperate; almost
calm, as if this were just another task on another day for him and
the others with him. Danielle nodded and, without a word, followed
his command.

They ducked into the hotel entrance, hiding
themselves from any approaching ghouls. The man, not much older
than Danielle, said to the other man in his group, “Jerry, we need
them to keep moving down the road away from us. Any ideas?”

Jerry nodded. “Yeah, I think I can arrange
something. Maybe I can throw a bottle down away from us. Draw them
downstream a bit.”

Looking up the stairs and into the darker
room beyond, the man said, “We should probably all move back that
direction. Just in case.”

Watching and listening from the top of the
stairs, Gus said to Jerry, “There’s a door on the other side of the
bar. We can go up to the third floor. Should be able to get some
good height and distance. But why do we need to do that?”

Jerry climbed the stairs in a flash and was
following Gus across the bar toward the other entrance. “Sound,” he
said. “They’re attracted to sound.”

The two men stepped over the now lifeless
body of Heidi the bartender with the axe handle standing and
pointing to the ceiling like a low budget version of Excalibur.

Recognizing the corpse as having recently
been dispatched, the young man said, “Nice work. You?”

Gus managed an awkward smile. The mutilated
corpse with the axe handle sprouting from its throat was perhaps
the most horrible thing Gus had ever seen and he was being
complimented on having done it. He was taken a little off guard by
the sentiment.

Gus grabbed an empty Bacardi Rum bottle from
atop the bar and met Jerry at the back entrance to the bar, which
sat on the second floor and opened onto a steep metal staircase.
The two men went out the door.

Standing at the window and peeking through a
tiny opening in the blinds, Danielle watched from the shadows as
the new group of ghoulish people in the street reached not too far
from the bar’s street side entrance. They stood waiting, yet they
were anything but dormant. They jerked spasmodically, their heads
tilting from the left to the right as if they were trying to figure
an answer to a question they couldn’t remember. They snarled and
growled in confused frustration, their limbs responding to the same
stimulus trembled with tics and spasms.

She was reminded of Kameron and his inhuman
responses to stimuli. She could see the same hate-filled rage in
their faces that she saw in her friend’s those many days ago. She
couldn’t imagine still standing out there in their midst. It was
too terrifying to even consider in her mind.

Danielle looked over at the new faces with
her and saw only business in their eyes. She was thankful for their
emergence but nervous about their intent. These weren’t ordinary
people like her, William, and Gus. They scared her, but not in the
same way that those ghouls in the street scared her.

The exploding glass bottle somewhere out of
view and up the street surprised Danielle and significantly the
beasts in the street. As one, the things turned their heads and
then their bodies toward the sound, shuffling excitedly up the road
and away from the Anchor Inn.

The door on the far side of the bar opened
and closed again quickly, bringing with it another sigh of relief
from all of them. With a sense of calm returning along with Jerry
and Gus, the man leading the new group of people said to Danielle,
William, and Gus, “I’m Neil. It’s good to see you folks.”

They were quiet for a long time. Everyone
shared curious, if a little guarded, looks with one another. There
were so many questions that needed to be asked. The room was
charged with excitement and trepidation, but no words. No one knew
how to begin.

For a good long while, no one dared move.
William stood at the top of the stairs looking down at the others
below him. He eyed each of the newcomers, including the three
children with them.

The two men and one of the women especially
got his attention. They looked so rough and serious. Each of the
three sported rifles strapped across their backs and pistols on
their hips. The man identifying himself as Neil was also carrying a
shotgun.

The oldest child, a boy, was armed with a
small-caliber hunting rifle as well. They had more guns on them
than they had people in their group. The two little girls however,
were utterly disarming in their eyes. There was no fear or malice
to be had in either of them, and for that reason, William relaxed
his grip on the revolver.

Hunger finally got the better of some of the
newcomers, who crowded up the steps and into the bar area that had
also doubled as a restaurant during the day. They found bags of
chips, cans of nuts, and drink garnishes in jars under the bar.
They passed around the food, which was only barely technically
food, each taking a bit and passing it down. It appeared to
Danielle that these people hadn’t eaten in days and she was right.
The adults made certain that the kids had eaten before any of them
took their handfuls.

Neil pointed to the kitchen door and the
window that looked into the dark room beyond. He asked, “Is there
anything left in there?”

Perplexed by the quickness with which
these... strangers were getting comfortable, William finally asked,
“Who are you people?”

With his mouth still full of peanut butter
and crackers, Neil answered, “We’re just like you. Ordinary people
trying to stay alive.”

“Have you been here in Whittier all this
time?”

Neil looked over at Emma, sitting not too
far off and downing some kind of orange sports drink. “No. We just
got into Whittier today. We heard a gunshot and found you. Just
sheer luck really.”

Absently, Emma said, “You shouldn’t shoot
unless you have to. It draws zekes to you.” She scarcely looked up
from the jar of maraschino cherries in front of her.

“Zekes?”

“It’s what we started calling them awhile
back,” Jerry explained. “It was easier than saying zombie this or
undead that.”

William rolled in his mind what Jerry had
just said before he spoke again. “So that’s it then? Those folks
out there. They’re dead? I mean, they
should
be dead?”

“That’s it in a nutshell,” Emma answered
emotionlessly. “Doesn’t seem hardly possible, but there you have
it.” She didn’t raise her eyes from the jar holding the sweet red
jewels in the sugary, syrupy juice as she summed up the
situation.

Gus, frustrated that he had yet to lay his
hands on some liquor, said, “But how? Why? Where did it all
start?”

Emma glanced over at Jules and Danny,
sitting near a pile of snack-sized bags of chips, most already
opened. She knew the story well but did not possess the patience to
relate it at the moment. “What does it really matter how it started
or why? Would it matter one way or the other? It’s just the way it
is, whether we like it or not.”

Emma was maneuvering something in her mouth
and then produced a tied cherry stem. “What about here?” she asked
then. “How did those things get in Whittier? The tunnel is closed.
I kind of thought it would have shut them out. What happened?”

“Bad luck really,” Danielle said. She looked
at Gus and William and answered for the three of them, “I guess it
was on that first day...it must’ve been. Some guy who’d gotten
infected made it inside the tunnel in a cab before the gate was
shut. The cabby had no idea. Poor guy has blamed himself ever
since. It wasn’t his fault, just bad luck. Damned shame really.
This would have been the ideal hiding spot.”

Jerry asked, “Where have you been
hiding?”

“What makes you think we haven’t been here
all along?” William asked, not hiding his suspicion.

“It just seems like you guys were out
looking for something is all,” Jerry said. “Like you were on a
mission and planned on going back to somewhere else. Are you in
that big building? The Buckner Building or whatever it’s
called?”

Gus shook his head as he looked at his two
companions. He understood the need for caution but was not very
adept at subterfuge and so didn’t offer any further
explanation.

William finally said, “There are others. Not
a bunch, but a few just outside of town. We’ve got a tight group
that looks out for one another. I guess you could say we’re in a
safe spot. We haven’t seen any of those things...yet. Seein’ them
now though, I think maybe we should take some steps to make it a
little more secure.”

With that said, Danielle wondered aloud,
“How did you guys get in here if the tunnel is still closed? It’s
still closed isn’t it?”

William’s comment shot a silent alarm
through Neil’s, Emma’s, Jerry’s, and Jess’ minds as they
immediately thought of the militia back in Soldotna and the
little
community
they had created. It was an experiment in control, intimidation,
and cruelty. Jess had survived living there for months and had seen
the true cost of compromising what was right for what was deemed
safe. She wasn’t willing to let that happen again no matter the
cost. Her first thought was to go back over the mountain and find
somewhere else to hide. She’d had enough of letting others decide
her fate. The look she shot to Neil made her thoughts perfectly
clear.

Neil looked almost apologetic when he
answered Danielle, trying to roll over in his mind what William had
said, “There’s a service trail that runs over the mountain. It’s
not too terribly easy to find, but if you know where it is,
well.... We started on it early this morning and, like I said
before, we got into town in time to hear your gunshot. It was a
lucky coincidence running into you. Emma’s right though. You
shouldn’t use these things unless you have to. They’re drawn to the
sound like sharks to blood.” He raised the assault rifle he was
carrying to clarify his reference. “If you can face them in ones
and twos they aren’t that bad, but you wanna avoid packs of ‘em.
And if you get bit, then it’s over.”

Neil wanted to ask for some more details
about the community William mentioned but some growing noises
outside caused all of them to duck down again and silence their
voices. The shuffling of footsteps was accompanied by an aggressive
buzzing sensation that upset Danielle’s stomach and gave her a
headache. It was those things’ blunt, soul-crushing moans which
filled her with such disgust. While Danielle, William, and Gus were
all frozen with fear from the sounds and the rising unexplained
nausea, the others with them all tensed, but in a manner consistent
with a spring ready to explode outward. Neil, Jerry, Emma and the
others all seemed much harder and seasoned. They carried the sharp
edge of survivors who’d lived through the worst of what the world
had to offer. Danielle was both scared and reassured to have these
newcomers with them.