Blood Alley (4 page)

“No, I can’t. Not now. Someone will be back shortly to help” Pawlowski said as he slid the port closed again and walked back to the front of the quarantine building.

When he got to the front of the building he continued out into the daylight, and gasped for fresh air. His immediate first thought was to go back and find Captain Walters and let him know about the zombies in Quarantine until he realized he still did not know what happened.

Pawlowski took his time as he reloaded his gun and then walked back into the building. He stopped by the desk at the front and grabbed the cell assignment list. Cells one, two, and four through six were empty. Three, four, seven and eight each had one detainee. He checked the name on cell eight and found it matched the name of the guy he had brought in three days earlier. How he had gotten the guards to open the door would probably never be found out.

Pawlowski walked back down the hall and opened the viewing portal on door number three, the zombie appeared in the open space before the port was halfway open. He shoved his revolver into the open slot and pushed the barrel into the creature’s face. He pulled the trigger and watched as the zombie disappeared from his view. He stepped over to door number four and repeated the process. Once the Infected were taken care of, he then searched rest of the building for anything he might have missed.

When Pawlowski was satisfied rest of the building was secure, he walked back to Simmons body and retrieved the keys to quarantine. He then walked out of the building, locked the doors and put some yellow tape across the opening. He then turned and walked off to find Captain Walters.

VI

Captain Walters raised his fist and pounded on the door a second time. “Open up, militia,” he cried as he continued to pound on the door.

“Do you think that is going to motivate him to come to the door?” Romulus asked. “If he has been infected, the last people he is going to want to see is a member of the militia and a zombie hunter.”

“You don’t think I know what I am doing, Pike?”

“No, I really don’t think that you do,” Romulus said as he stepped back and raised his foot. He kicked forward and busted the door down. He raised the crossbow and walked into the apartment, AJ on his heels.

“Wait! We can’t just go breaking people’s doors down.”

Romulus ignored the Captain’s words as he looked around the apartment. Bile rose in his throat at the smell coming from within the place.

“Good God,” Captain Walters cried out. “What is that fucking smell? It smells like someone emptied the water sewage plant in this place.”

Romulus had to agree with Walters, but there was something else in the smell. A smell the zombie hunter was very familiar with, hidden within the smell of feces was the smell of rot and decay, the smell of Freddy’s Disease.

“He’s turning,” Romulus stated. “If he is not already turned it is going to happen soon.”

“Who’s turning?” Captain Walters asked from behind a handkerchief he had covered his mouth and nose with. “Witt?”

“Witt or whoever has been in here. I can smell the disease in here, beneath the other smells. We don’t have much time. We need to find him before he turns and infects someone else.”

Romulus returned the small crossbow to its hook on his belt and removed the sawed off shotgun from its holster. “You take the kitchen and bathroom. I’ll search down the hallway.”

Without waiting for a reply from Captain Walters, Romulus moved down the hall.

The further he moved from the front room, the colder the apartment became and the less the place smelled. He was glad he had worn his duster; the long jacket was keeping him warm.

He tried the first light switch he came to, but nothing happened. The fact the lights didn’t work was of no surprise to the zombie hunter, only a few parts of New Atlanta actually had working electricity.

He came do the first doorway in the hallway and took a quick glance into the room. Nothing but darkness greeted him. The only light in the back area of the apartment was coming from the other door at the end of the hall and it did not begin to penetrate the room Romulus was standing in front of.

Romulus reached into one of the dusters many pockets and removed a flashlight. He flicked the small light on and held it below the barrel of the shotgun with his left hand. Satisfied that nothing was going to jump out as he walked in, he stepped into the dark room.

With practiced speed, the zombie hunter moved the light about the room, the beam shined into every corner. The room was a mess with clothes spread across the floor. Every drawer on the dresser has been removed, the contents dumped on the floor. The room had no closet, but against the far wall on the other side of the messy bed was an armoire. The door of the armoire stood slightly ajar, not enough for Romulus to see inside.

“AJ,” he said, knowing the canine was somewhere around. “Search!”

The dog came out from behind Romulus’s legs and entered the room. With his nose to the floor and tail in the air, AJ began to work the room. The canine went from each pile of clothes; he searched for any sign of a zombie or the infection. When the dog reached the armoire, Romulus raised Last Chance and pointed the gun at the standing closet. AJ stuck his nose in the crack, but finding nothing of interest moved on with his search of the room.

Romulus exhaled. He had not realized he had been holding his breath until AJ had passed the armoire.

AJ finished his inspection of the room and trotted back to the zombie hunter and crouched down in front of him going to work on a flea.

Satisfied that the first room was empty, Romulus moved down the hall to the other end. He was confident that the Captain had not found anything. If he had, the man would have called out.

As he approached the other door, the dimness of the hallway receded with the light coming from within the room. Some of the gloominess of the apartment lifted with the light. A slight, cold breeze came from out of the open doorway, blowing away the stench that had followed him down the hallway. Romulus hunched his shoulders against the growing cold. He pocketed the flashlight the moment he entered the room. On the back wall, a window stood wide open filling the room with light and cold air. Romulus sent AJ in, but he knew it was to no avail, the room was empty except for the single bed in the center of the room.

When AJ made a circle of the room and returned without exposing anything, Romulus walked to the open window that had a view of a small backyard, mainly dirt that continued through to an old parking lot and the street beyond. As far as he could see, there was nobody around. Romulus looked down at the dirt below the window and could see that the weeds directly below the window were crushed. Someone had recently dropped the four feet to the ground and fled the apartment. Romulus suspected that Witt had fled the moment the Captain had pounded on the door and announced their presence. His frustration with Walters continued to rise.

Romulus walked back to the front room and found Captain Walters in a heated discussion with two of his men. “What’s going on?” he asked as he approached the men.

Walters turned from his men, clearly vexed at having been interrupted by the zombie hunter. “It’s an internal problem.”

“He was not at the brickworks,” Romulus stated, recognizing one the men as part of the group the Captain had sent to Witt’s work place.

“No, he was not and now these men want to go home and keep their families safe.”

Romulus stood for a second, staring at the two men standing beside the Captain. “Guys I understand you want to get home,” he said. “But I am sure your families know the drill. At the first sounds of the sirens, you can bet they locked the doors to your homes and sealed any windows on the ground floor,” Romulus did not wait for them to respond. “Now the best thing you can do for them is what you are now doing. Continuing the search for Conner Witt. I am sure he has been bitten. Just smell this room. Not the outhouse smell, but that other smell, that lingering sick smell underneath the smell of the shit,” he paused waiting for the men to take a deep smell. “You smell that? The rot and decay? Remember that smell, it might save your life someday. That’s the smell of the Infected, the zombies, the smell of Freddy’s Disease. If you ever smell that oder in the dark of the night or a room you just entered. You get ready. You get ready to fight or flee,” he continued staring at each of the men in turn.

“He’s right,” Captain Walters added. “Conner Witt is now either a zombie or he will be one shortly. We need to find him before anyone else gets infected. That’s the best thing you can do for your families and for everyone else in town.”

“Listen,” Romulus interjected. “We need to split up and scourer this quarter. There is no way he could not have gotten into any other part of the city. He was here recently, after the city was locked down. So he has to be in this area. It’s not that big. We should be able to locate this man within a couple hours’ time.”

“This quarter has a lot of abandoned buildings,” one of the men said.

“Get more men,” Romulus said. “Pull them from some of the other quarters. He’s not there. The men are not needed there right now. They are needed here.”

“Smith, you go to the East Gate, let Sargent Simmons know we need as many men as he can spare, tell him the request comes from me,” Captain Walter said before the man could interrupt. He turned to the other. “Wallace, you go over to the West Gate and tell Captain Jones the same thing. The zombie hunter and I will continue to search for Witt.”

The two men hesitated for only a second before they headed out the door to follow their Captain’s orders, nearly knocking over Pawlowski as he came up the two steps in front of the door.

“Pawlowski,” Captain Walters greeted the man. “What did you find out at Quarantine?”

“Well, Captain, it’s kinda like this. Both Simmons and Baker are done dead, Sir,” Pawlowski replied. “For some reason, unbeknownst to me, Baker opened the cell door and was then simultaneously attacked by the aforementioned zombie inside. That there creature then killed Baker and done bit Simmons who posthumously turned to one of them Infected. I had to dispatch the creature. Also, them other two fellers in Quarantine also turned. I put bullets in both of their heads.”

“So we have more zombies?”

“No, Sir. I checked the manifest and there was only but four detainees in Quarantine at the moment plus Simmons and Baker as guards.”

“I only counted three, Pawlowski.”

“Well, Sir, there is fourth feller and he is tucked right nice in his cell at the moment. I told him that we would be back for him later.”

“You sure everyone is accounted for?” asked the Captain.

“As sure as anyone could be, Captain.”

“We need to make sure. Go find a few of the men and head back over to Quarantine and secure the building until a Clean Up crew can get there.”

“Sir!” Pawlowski replied as he spun around and headed back to Quarantine.

“Got anymore bright ideas, Pike?” Captain Walters asked as he watched Pawlowski disappear around a corner.

“Yeah, follow me,” Romulus said as he retrieved his crossbow from the coffee table and placed the shotgun back in its holster. He then grabbed an old gray hoodie from off the sofa. Romulus then turned, made sure AJ was following and walked down the hallway, back to the room with the open window. When he reached the window, he scooped up the dog with one arm and climbed through.

When he got to the ground on the other side, he turned to make sure Captain Walters had followed him. He then set AJ down on the frozen ground and held the sweatshirt to the dog’s nose. “AJ, Find!” he commanded.

Both men stood side by side as they watched the dog move back and forth across the back yard of the old building. AJ hesitated once, and then put his nose back to the ground. The animal then turned back to Romulus and let out a single bark.

“Go,” he commanded, then turned to Captain Walters. “Try to keep up.”

AJ sprinted out of the back yard, his black body a blur, as Romulus set off after his companion.

VII

Conner crouched behind a few sparse bushes by the river. The few remaining leaves did little to conceal his hiding place.

When he first arrived at the witch’s shack, Conner had spotted a black cat walking across the front porch, past the lone rocker that sat there, but since then there had been nothing.

Now, He had been staring at the old shack for over twenty minutes and nothing had changed. Smoke still rose in slow patterns from a pipe that stuck up through the corrugated metal roof. Except for the smoke, nothing stirred.

He was worried, twice since leaving his apartment, Conner had experienced seizures. Both times he had completely lost control of his body and had fallen to the ground. He was lucky that the alarm had sounded and the streets were empty or surely someone would have seen and reported him.

Conner’s thoughts were interrupted by a noise above him. He peered up in the dark, cloudy sky and saw a flock of geese flying above him toward the river. He knew that he should recognize the birds, but his confused mind could not put a name to them.