Dead, but Not for Long (42 page)

Snake stopped and glanced up the stairs.

“There’s someone else here?” Climbing four more
flights of stairs was going to put a big crimp in their schedule, but he wasn’t
about to let anybody die. He’d go alone if he had to.

“We’re pretty sure he died,” Claire said, sadly. “We
haven’t heard anything from him for days. Even if he is still alive, he already
told us he’d never leave the building. His dad built it and I guess he’s got
some sentimental attachment to it.”

Snake debated a moment longer, but finally kept on
moving down the stairs. He couldn’t justify risking the others in the group for
someone who wasn’t going to join them willingly, if he was even still alive.

“No point in climbing up there, then,” Snake said
then added. “You guys will be safe at the hospital. The military promised to
leave it alone.”

“We saw the helicopter land on your roof,” Jackson
asked. “It looked like they were dropping people off.”

“They’ve been dropping off survivors and supplies,”
Snake said, “but now they’re evacuating the hospital to a shelter out in the
country. Some of us will be staying and you guys can figure out if you want to stay or go.”

“So you know what’s going on out there?” Jackson
asked. “We’ve had no way to get information. My satellite based system is on
the sixth floor and I couldn’t get to it.”

“You can get online with that even if the internet
is out?” Snake asked as they reached the seventh floor and kept going.

“Yes,” Jackson said. “It doesn’t use the local
systems. I suppose we don’t have time to stop by the sixth floor and get it?”

Snake hesitated as they reached the next landing. “What time is it?” he asked.

When Jackson answered, Snake debated for a moment.

“If we can do it fast,” Snake said. “Once the
Coast Guard helicopters leave today, we won’t be getting any updates. It would
be great if we could get information when we want it.”

“I agree,” Jackson said.

“I hope you guys don’t mind riding on the back of
a Harley. We didn’t bring our truck,” Snake said then turned to Wolf and
Smiley. “Why don’t you two start shuttling these guys to the hospital? I’ll
stay and help Jackson here to get what he needs.”

“I’ll wait in the lobby with the rest of the group,”
Lindsey said, checking her gun. “I’ve got this, just in case the infected start
coming back.”

Snake nodded. “If you run into trouble, yell and
we’ll get down there as fast as we can.”

“We could just walk,” Dustin said. “It’s not that far.

“It’s not far,” Snake said, “but you’d have to
walk past the park and it’s not lit. I wouldn’t advise it.”

The two bikers and Lindsey began the trek down the
stairs with twenty survivors in tow. When they reached the lobby, Wolf and
Smiley checked to make sure the parking lot was clear. Once they deemed it
safe, Wolf said, “We’ll be taking you over two at a time.”

He pointed to two of them. “You two are going with
us. We’ll be back for the rest of you. Decide who goes next before we get back.”

He got on his motorcycle and a woman climbed on behind him. Dustin sat behind Smiley.

“Hang on,” Wolf said. “The dead will try to grab
for us, but I can avoid them easily enough. Just don’t panic and throw us off balance.”

He started the motorcycle with a loud roar and Smiley did the same. The two bikers shot out of the parking lot, knowing they
had little time to transfer all twenty survivors to the hospital before sunrise.

~*~

Snake and Jackson started down the sixth floor
hallway, taking out the dead along the way and closing doors. When the floor
was secure, Jackson unlocked one of the doors and they stepped inside. Snake
checked the room quickly but there was nobody, living or dead, inside. As
Jackson hurried to get his equipment, Snake took a call from one of the men at the warehouse.

“We’ve got them trapped inside,” the voice said
over the radio. “There's a bunch of tires inside and we're trying to get them
lit, hoping they'll help torch the building, but we can't seem to get them
burning. Should we just leave it? Maybe they’ll hit the building with bombs.”

“Did you throw some gas on it?” Snake asked.

“Sure did,” the biker answered. “We soaked the
place in diesel fuel, but when we dropped a lit rag in there, nothing happened. Just went out.”

"Guys! Gas and diesel ain't the same thing.
Anyone ever hear of a glow plug?" Snake asked sarcastically. "Diesel
has to be heated up pretty good to ignite. Throw some gas on it. That should
get the diesel burning."

~*~

At the warehouse, the dead were beginning to pound
on the metal doors which were starting to visibly bow.

“Hey! Someone needs to siphon some gas out of a couple of these cars,”
the biker with the radio yelled, pointing to the parking lot. “Now!”

“I saw a garden hose in back,” someone said. “Buckets, too.”

Within minutes, they had two five-gallon buckets
full of gasoline and were lifting them to the window. The zombies below ignored
the shower and continued to press against the metal door. This time, the fuel
ignited. Within minutes, the floor, the tires, and the horde of undead were all
aflame. The men retreated to a safe distance to watch the thick black smoke
billow from the roof.

“I just hope they all burn before the building
collapses,” one of the men said. “I’d hate to see a bunch of zombies running
around in flames, spreading fire as they go. Guess we should stick around a bit
and make sure?”

Moose imagined his friend’s scenario of a sea of
burning zombies coming after them. “I was kind of hoping a roof collapse would
crush most of them, or at least the ones whose brains weren’t baked.”

The other biker stared at the building. “I guess
we’d better stick around to see who’s right. For once, I hope it’s you.”

One of the others listened as the two men pondered the fate of the zombies.

“I’m thinking you’re both gonna be right,” he
said. “We can plan on some of them getting out alive, or at least moving. We’d
better surround the building and wait. Anyone see a swarm of those things
coming out, yell for backup.”

The men dispersed around the building, watched, and waited.

“You know, if someone would just run and get some
marshmallows, we could follow a couple of the burning ones around,” one of
the men said, but the biker next to him silenced him with a look.

“Hey, man, I was just kidding.”

“I know,” the other biker said, “but you’re making me hungry.”

~*~

Jackson quickly packed up two cases, nodding
toward a nearby table. “I’ve got my laptop but there’s another good one there
if you want to bring it.”

Snake grabbed it, saying, “Might as well.”

Jackson picked up some cables and a few odds and
ends and stuffed them into his backpack. “That should do it,” he said.

“Okay, let’s get out of here,” Snake said, moving
to the door as he keyed his radio. “How are you guys doing?”

He had a brief conversation on the radio as he
walked down the stairs then he ended the call as they reached the lobby. When
they stepped outside, he saw that the group of survivors had dwindled in
numbers. Wolf and Smiley returned moments later and Snake stepped over to speak to them.

“This is going to take too long and I can’t stay to
help. I need to get to the warehouse,” he said. He counted eight left in the
group of survivors plus Lindsey, who all would need transportation back. “Five
more trips back. Not sure there’s gonna be time.”

“Maybe one of these cars has keys in it,” Jackson
said, nodding toward a few vehicles in the parking lot.”

“You should check the ones that look like my
grandma parked them,” Wolf said, pointing to one that was sitting in the middle
of the driving lane. “I’m betting that some of these vehicles were left in a
hurry and may have the keys still in them. While you do that, we’ll take a
couple more of these guys back.”

“I got a call from the boys and they’re running
out of ammo,” Snake told Wolf. “I don’t want them trying to make it back
without a way to defend themselves. I need to get to the truck and get some
ammo to take to the warehouse.”

Wolf went to his bike and dug through a
compartment, pulling out several magazines. Turning to Snake, he said, “Here,
take these if you want to go now. Seems to be a pretty standard round with the
guys. We can bring the ammo to the warehouse after we drop everybody off.”

“Good idea, Snake said. “See you shortly.”

Wolf nodded, motioning for the next two in the
group to join him and Smiley.

Lindsey and Jackson began to search for car keys
with the six remaining survivors.

When Wolf and Smiley returned, the others were
still trying to find a car with keys in it. Wolf scanned the lot and saw a late
model pickup that was parked with one wheel in a grassy median, like the driver
had left it suddenly.

Approaching the truck on the passenger’s side, he
reached out and grabbed the door handle, but hesitated after easing it open a
couple of inches. The windows were tinted, making it difficult to see inside,
so he pressed his face close to the glass and peered into the cab. Seeing a set
of keys dangling from the ignition and a fuzzy set of dice hanging from the
mirror, he grinned as he mused at what the owner must have been like. He was
about to pull the door open the rest of the way when a rotting corpse flopped
up from the seat and slammed its ashen face against the window, breaking a
couple of teeth as it bit in vain against the glass. Startled, Wolf jumped
backwards and stumbled. The creature’s weight caused the door to open, and it
tumbled to the ground and began to crawl toward Wolf, who was now scooting
backwards at a much slower pace than the ghoul was moving forward.

~*^*~

Oblivious to what was happening on the other side
of the parking lot, Lindsey was thrilled when she finally got one of the cars
to start. She smiled broadly and rolled the window down, telling the others to
get in. As the last of them got into the car and closed the door, Lindsey
noticed Wolf and his plight. The creature was gaining on the biker and it
didn’t look like Wolf would make it to his feet in time. As he continued his
crab walk, Lindsey saw that he was in a good position to kick it in the head,
at least, if he still had the strength. The guy was in his sixties and she was
sure he had to be feeling it.

“Hang on, everybody,” she said, gunning the
engine. The zombie had almost reached its prey and Lindsey’s window of
opportunity was closing quickly. Barely missing Wolf, who instinctively pulled
his feet back, she rolled over the ghoul with a sickening crunch then backed up over it again.

After one more pass over the corpse to make sure
it stayed dead, Lindsey stopped the car several yards past Wolf and threw it
into park, though she did not turn the engine off. When she was sure that her
shaking legs would hold her up, she got out and walked over to check on the biker.

Wolf lay on his back, catching his breath as she approached.

“Getting too old for this,” he said. “I think I’ll
let the younger guys go on the next excursion.”

“Are you all right?” Lindsey asked, looking down at him.

“I’m fine. I swear, I’ll never say anything again about woman drivers.”

He reached his hand out for her to pull him up.

“And my high school Driver’s Ed teacher said I’d
never be a good driver,” she scoffed as she took his hand and pulled. “He tried
to tell me that it was inappropriate to hit a pedestrian but I guess he never
took into account the possibility of a zombie apocalypse.”

Wolf grunted as Lindsey pulled him to his feet.

“I think most judges would take that into
consideration,” he replied. “As long as the judge ain’t no zombie.”

Lindsey didn’t like the thought of a zombie judge
and jury. And while it would never happen in the literal sense, what they had
at the present wasn’t much better. Their world could be completely overrun by
the undead, leaving the zombies in charge of the fate of humanity. It could
very well be happening already if Lansing was any indication of how things were
in the rest of the world.

“That’s a scary thought,” she said, glancing
around now to see more of the infected approaching. “Guess we’d better get
moving.”

She jumped back into the car and let Wolf and Smiley take the lead.

~*~

When Snake arrived at the warehouse, the smell of
burning rubber permeated the air. The heat and the smoke were making the men
constantly back up, forming an ever widening circle around the building.

“Can’t be much left of ‘em,” one man said.

“We’ll see,” another replied, hopeful that his friend was right.

One of the bikers was so intent on watching the
fire, that he didn’t notice what was sneaking up behind him. The sound of the
roaring flames and the falling timber covered the sounds of the shuffling
footsteps, and it wasn’t until one of the others yelled and pointed behind the
man that he knew. He whirled around to find not just one, but two of the undead
within arm’s reach. He dropped the first one with a bullet between the eyes,
but there was no time for a second shot before he was grabbed.

This one was huge. He looked like he could have
been a body builder when he’d been alive, and death hadn’t done much to
decrease his strength. The biker struggled to get away but he was losing the
fight as the hulking creature’s teeth moved closer and closer to his neck. He
could smell its rancid breath as he fought with all his might to hold it back.

The ghoul forced his teeth inches away from the biker’s face and was about to clamp down
when its jaws suddenly slackened and it dropped to the ground.

Snake pulled his skewer from the corpse’s ear with
a yank and wiped the blood off on its clothing.