Black Tide Rising - eARC (10 page)

The big man’s face looked slack with exhaustion. “No, but does it matter?”

“I guess not,” Nora said. Julian Ferrar, a stocky man with silvering hair and tawny skin who ran the electron microscopy lab, handed out ammunition and stun guns.

“Shoot to kill only if you’re threatened,” he said. “We need survivors. Try not to get bit, okay? You’re at your most vulnerable as the pathogen load dips in your bloodstream. Tomorrow everyone lines up for their second dose of vaccine. I don’t want anyone to have to get stuck in isolation next to the specimens.”

Specimens
. No one was going to call them what they were: captive zombies to be used as laboratory experiments.

“How many of ’em do you want?” asked Patricia Strauss, belting her hazmat suit tight. The slim woman had been head receptionist and administrative assistant to Management, but she was a good shot.

“No more than twenty. No fewer than twelve. Truss ’em. We’ll haul them back in the bus into Shipping. Daniel’s got cages set up that ought to hold them. We ride the Jeeps.”

“Can we shoot to wound?” Ricky Pirelli asked. He was a big man whose beard was usually confined in a hairnet. Like Nora, he worked as a senior lab technician.

Julian glanced around at his hunting party, and nodded sharply. “Let’s go.”

The situation called for the use of the company vehicles, and as much of the precious supply of diesel as it took. Nora and Lou boarded a jeep with Julian and Pat and two of the dogs. A big brown Basset hound flopped itself across her lap and demanded petting.

They drove down the ridge road as the sky started to turn deep blue. A waning moon was in the western sky over the treetops. The sky smelled fresh, with no bitter, sharp scent of decaying flesh or urine from the zombies.

All that changed as they descended into the river valley. The zombies needed water, a lot of it, and they made more mess than a million pigeons. Broken branches, scattered rocks and other debris blocked the main road into Nashville. Abandoned cars showed how effective the obstruction had been at trapping victims for the alphas to carry off. Nora and the others rarely came down this way. They would be too badly outnumbered. She shook with nerves.

“Now, remember, we don’t have to get them all today,” Julian cautioned them as they drove. “Get in, get out alive.”

“Got it,” Nora and Lou chorused.

“Here we go.”

He had a boombox strapped to the front of the Jeep. As they hurtled down the hill, twangy country music rang out, echoing from point to point in the valley. Even as little as six months ago, the sound would have been swallowed up by the noise of traffic and a million other sounds of modern life. That day, that and the engine roars broke upon the ear like the last trump.

And it brought out the zombies, just as Management had said it would. Before they drove two miles, a group of filthy naked people broke out of the undergrowth and pelted after them. The second Jeep screeched around in a bootlegger’s turn and drove straight for the trio. Mike and his squad leaped out, yelling. The betas fled back into the trees, but four continued to run for the uninfected humans, seeing a potential meal. Julian brought his car around, too, seeking to herd the alphas toward the approaching bus. He slowed down enough for Pat, Nora and Lou to leap out.

Alphas might not be strictly human any more, but they weren’t stupid. They saw that they were outnumbered. The smallest, a woman with a slack belly and pendulous breasts, one badly bitten and infected, tried to make a break for it. Pat went after her, brandishing the stun gun. The woman dodged away from her, hissing like a cat. She had only the stubs of teeth in her mouth, but she carried a bent kitchen knife. She feinted with the knife. Pat triggered the stun gun, sending a crackling blue tongue out like a whip. The woman shrieked as the electricity hit her blade, making it jump out of her hand. She leaped for Pat, jagged nails out. Pat dodged her until the stunner regenerated enough for a second charge. Another blast of lightning, and the woman dropped on the road. Troy Stokes and Brenda piled out of the bus and went to collect her, careful to bind up her hands with wire ties before she came to.

The three men, crusted with feces and scabs, looked like they had once been in good enough shape to be athletes or soldiers. Nora thought the latter was more likely, since they worked together like a pack of wolves. Once they figured out the humans weren’t trying to kill them outright, they feinted here and there at the circle of hunters, looking for a way out. Mike had a stun gun in his left hand and a Luger in his right. He sent a tongue of lightning lashing out toward the biggest of the males. The stream missed, but it blinded all of the humans long enough for the zombies to rush at Julian, who was at their three o’clock. They brought him down on the pavement, tearing at his suit. Lou, Nora and the others rushed to try and drag them off.

The zombies might be naked, but they still had fingernails and teeth. The male sitting on Julian’s chest gnawed at the neck of the hazmat suit and clawed at the yellow plastic, shrieking with hunger. Lou raised the butt of his rifle and brought it down on the creature’s head. The zombie slid sideways at the last minute, so Lou’s blow hit him in the shoulder. It lashed out at him. The big man jumped backward. The second zombie leaped off Julian and grabbed Lou around the legs. Lou fell sideways. His rifle hit the ground with a clatter, but he never let go of it. He and the zombie struggled for control of the weapon. The dogs circled, snarling. The Basset hound closed its teeth on the zombie’s arm and shook it. The zombie wailed. It bit at Lou’s face, arms, chin, anything within reach. Nora moved around, looking for an opening to strike the man in the head. When he came up with a mouthful of yellow plastic, Nora swung the butt of her gun right in his face. Crunch! The zombie dropped backward, its eyes wide open, blood streaming out of its nose and mouth.

“I killed him!” Nora cried, disappointed in herself.

“Good for you,” Lou grunted, pushing the body off. He stood up. “Thanks, little sister.”

“Wily goddamn bastards!” Mike said. He rushed in and tased the third infected male. It quivered and fell over. Ricky kicked the body aside and heaved at the first zombie under its arms.

The male twisted in his hands like an eel, kicked him in the belly, and ran for the pine trees. Ricky looked at his empty hands in surprise. Nora, feeling that she had let the team down, dashed after the fleeing zombie. Lou and Pat pelted after her.

“Come back, Nora!” Lou shouted.

The sun was starting to rise above the ridge. She could see that the zombies’ path was an old animal trail that led down to the river. The brush was thin enough to step over or plunge through. She didn’t want the zombie to escape. He was yards ahead of them, taking the slope with insane leaps like his tail had been lit on fire. The shadows were tricky, though. She was a good woodswoman, but she had to slow down or break a leg.

“Let him go,” Pat called out to her. “We got two! Come on, honey. Let’s get back to the others.”

“Dammit!” Nora said. But her mind was cooling off. They turned around and headed uphill toward the blaring music. Lou led the way, brushing aside branches with his big arms and holding them for Pat and Nora to pass. He was a good man. If this went on long enough to get lonely, she would ask if he wanted to be a couple with her.

The path thinned down and diverged into a half dozen gaps in the greenery about twenty yards from the road. Lou made for the loudest noise, beyond a bunch of bushes.

As he pushed past a massive red oak, a skinny arm looped down out of the branches and grabbed him around the neck. With amazing strength, it hauled Lou off his feet. He kicked, trying to free himself. The arm hauled upward. Lou’s rifle dropped to the ground.

Pat screamed. They ran to take his legs and pull, but he disappeared up out of their reach. Through the leaves, Nora saw glinting eyes, one pair after another. At least three other alphas had been waiting there. They hauled Lou upward. He flailed and kicked at his captors.

“Help!” she screamed. “They’ve got Lou!”

“We’re coming!” Julian bellowed.

Luckily, no other trees stood close enough that the zombies could escape. They had to come down, but what would they do to Lou in the meantime?

Nora slung her gun over her shoulder and climbed after them. The red oak was thick and broad. Its rippled gray bark had plenty of hand- and footholds, obviously why the zombies had chosen it as their lookout. If it had been a month later, she could have taken a shot at the zombies and been sure of missing Lou, but the foliage was so heavy she could only see movement through the gaps.

The branches were thicker than her arms as steady as the earth, so she might as well have been climbing up stairs. She had spent plenty of years clambering around in the trees on her family’s property with her brother and sister.

“Do you see them?” Pat shouted.

“Yeah! Up about thirty feet,” Nora called back. She felt for another handhold.

“Go back down there!” Lou yelled. The zombies had dragged him up to the highest branch that would support them and hung him over the branch on his belly. Nora counted four, all men, their filthy hides soiling the sunlight that touched them. One of them leered down at her, grinning. His red hair was caked with blood and dust, but she would never in her life forget that face.

“It’s him!” she screamed. She braced herself on the branch under her feet and brought her gun up and around. The zombie mailman was no fool. As soon as he saw her rifle barrel, he moved up behind Lou. “The one who killed my family!”

“Damned fools for going up there where they can’t get out,” Mike said, moving around the oak’s huge bole. The dogs quested back and forth, some of them leaping for the lower branches. The odor of zombie excited them into a frenzy.

“It’d be smart if there were only a couple of us,” Julian said. “They could jump down on any side and run away before we could catch them.”

“Help me!” Nora shouted. “We have to save Lou!”

“We’re working on it, darlin’,” Julian called. “Somebody go get Troy. He’s got the beanbag gun.”

The big man was fighting to free himself. He had to choose between keeping his hazmat suit or his balance, and decided on the latter. One of the zombies yanked the yellow hood off with a triumphant howl. Lou scooted away on the branch and set his back against the tree trunk. The zombies clambered around like monkeys, making the same kind of hoots and grunts they did in the zoo. They made grabs for his face and ears. He bellowed as one of them gashed his cheek with a handful of ragged fingernails.

Nora couldn’t stand it any longer. She levered the gun to her shoulder and fired. The zombie that had scratched Lou gasped and dropped. He plummeted down through the branches, narrowly missing her. The body landed among the dogs, who swarmed over it.

The other zombies paid no attention to the fall of their neighbor. Lou took advantage of the distraction to swing down to the next branch and try to escape.

“Come on!” Nora shouted. “I’ll cover you.”

“I’m doing my best,” he said. The gash ran with blood. The zombies followed him avidly, trying to bite him. When she cocked her gun, the naked males’ heads perked up, and they scattered to hide behind branches. Nora tried to keep track of the trio, but they moved like squirrels. Lou gripped the trunk with both arms as he sought for a place to put his foot. Going up was a lot easier than coming down.

A shadow fell over his left shoulder.

“Look out!” she shouted, and raised the gun. One of the zombies, hanging head down, tried to hook Lou around the neck. His skinny chest was exposed for a perfect shot. Nora went to pull the trigger.

The gun flew up out of her hands. She looked up. The mailman grinned down at her and swung the rifle at her like a bludgeon. Nora turned her head just in time not to take the stock full in the face. The blow to the side of her head made her ear ring.

Another ringing sound echoed through the narrow valley. A body hurtled downward past her. Nora shook her head to try and clear it.

“Got him!” Troy cried.

When Nora got her wits back, she peered down through the leaves. The mailman lay unconscious among the milling dogs. Troy lifted the beanbag gun and aimed through the leaves, tracking yet another zombie. He fired, and the zombie attacking Lou dropped like a rock. On the ground, Brenda strapped the zombies’ arms and legs with the long plastic ties.

“Come on down here,” Julian said, beckoning. “C’mon, I’ll catch you.”

Nora clutched the bark with hands running with sweat under her protective gloves. Mike caught her and swung her off the tree as if she was a child. When he set her down, Pat came to pull her into a comforting hug.

“You okay?” she asked.

Nora looked up. “Not yet.” But as soon as Lou had dropped off the last branch and hit the ground, she ran to him and threw her arms around him. She felt his heart pounding hard in his chest. Then he put his arms around her, too. He dropped a kiss on top of her hood.

“It’s okay, little girl. We both lived, this time.”

The last zombie didn’t give a damn about its fellows, but it understood that it was defenseless. It had no intention of being a target for the big gun. Screaming like a chimpanzee, it fled up into the crown of the tree and vanished among the foliage.

Julian shook his head. “We’re not gonna get him. But we got four. That’s a good start. Management’ll have to be happy with that. Sun’s up. Every other alpha is gonna be hiding out until dusk. Let’s go back.”

Mike shooed the dogs to one side and picked up their rifles. “Thought you’d like to have these back,” he said.

Nora almost snatched hers out of his hands. “You had better believe I would,” she said.

She marched over to the red-headed zombie. Brenda had rolled him onto his belly and hogtied him so he couldn’t run away. When he saw Nora coming, he grinned up at her. Nora lowered the barrel of her gun until the mouth was touching the zombie’s forehead.

Julian came over and touched her lightly on the arm.

“You don’t want to do that, honey,” he said.