Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 2): Substation (The Last Stand of Gary Sykes) (9 page)

“I mean it’s fine to want to help survivors, Gary, but that means
We
have to survive long enough to do it!” Beverly cried.

“Let me think!” Gary shouted.

Beverly jumped at his retort and Gary felt bad and tried to placate.

“I’m sorry, Bev.  I’ll figure this out,” he said.

He put his fingers to his temples, looking like he was trying to tune in a frequency in his head.  Beverly stared at him and expended all her mental energy trying to give Gary the time he needed and not just scream at him to hurry.  Finally, Gary’s face lit up and he snapped his fingers.

“Zombies can’t use the stairs!” Gary shouted.

Beverly gasped in relief and grabbed Gary’s hands.  Her relief was short lived as she failed to grasp the import that so clearly had impressed Gary.  He saw the look on her face.

“On flat level surfaces, Zombies do fine.  They can chase you forever, but up and down steep inclines, inclines like stairs for instance, they are no good.  Whatever virus reanimates them doesn’t equip them with an advanced set of motor skills,” Gary said.

Beverly squinted her eyes at Gary and shook her head.

“Gary, how do you even know that?” she asked

Gary blanched.  “Well, you know, it’s one theory, that has been advanced… in a lot of movies…”

Beverly was a nanosecond away from ape-shit.  “What movies, Gary?”

Gary shrugged off the question.  “I don’t remember!  But I think the theory is sound, and unless you can think of something  better—”

“Okay! Fine!  What do we need to do?” Beverly said.

Gary turned away, his tone much softer.  “Well, we need to open the door and let them chase me down the stairs,” he said.

Beverly reacted like cold water had just been thrown in her face.  Her eyes blinked rapidly as she grabbed Gary’s shoulder and spun him around.

“What?!” she screamed.

“I will be able to run back up the stairs, but they won’t.  Then I get back in the truck and it’s off we go,” Gary said, offering a smile that he hoped would seal the deal but which failed miserably.

“And what will I be doing while you’re playing mad dash with the neighbors, Gary?” Beverly said.

Gary kept his smile as his last line of defense and looked at Beverly. 

“You stand to the side of the door, and open it.  I’ll stand in front, distracting them.  When it’s all clear, you run to the truck and wait for me.  Easy P-”

Beverly pointed a finger at Gary’s face.  “No, Gary! Not Easy Peasy!”

She stormed over to the door shouting the whole way.

“Not Easy Peasy, Gary!”

When she got to the door, she put her back to the wall and with her left hand grabbed the handle.  Gary took up position in front of the door.  He felt the blood turn to water in his veins.  The reaction was immediate as the Zombies began to clamor and push at the door when they saw him.  Gary rubbed the sweat from his palms onto his pants and nodded to Beverly.

“Okay… Now!” he said.

Beverly reached over with her right hand and flipped the deadbolt then pulled the door open.  She held the door tight against her, sheltered in the triangle of space between the door and wall.  Through the broken glass she watched as Gary disappeared down the stairs.  Beverly counted ten Zombies not four plow through the door and after Gary.  When the last one disappeared below, she shoved the door away and sprang for the exit.  She didn’t take the time to look around, but flew to the driver side door and jumped inside the truck.

Gary raced down the stairs.  With only four zombies to contend with, he figured he would not have to run too far before running back up the stairs.  He got to the bottom and ran half way to the terminals before he turned his head to ensure that the Undead had all made it down.  The water in his veins threatened to flood his pants as he saw that the four had turned into a lot more.  He yelped and then quickened his pace, banking to the right and around the far end of the line of terminals. 

He looked to his side and felt some relief that the Zombies, rather than negotiating the stairs, had come tumbling down them and were slow to get to their feet.  Then he kicked himself for feeling relieved that Zombies had chased him down the stairs in the first place.  They shambled to their feet and renewed the chase around the line of terminals. Gary ran down the back side and aimed left toward the stairs.  The last of the Runners followed Gary around the line of Terminals as Gary emerged from the other end and headed for the stairs.  Like an Olympic hurdler, Gary bounded up the steps.  When he got to the top he stopped and looked back down.  He burst into nervous laughter as he watched the Zombies fail to negotiate the stairs.  They fell prostrate as they attempted to mount the incline.  His enjoyment of the moment was short lived as he watched them first fall, but then begin to clamor over each other.  Like ants building a bridge with their bodies, the Zombies did not stop, but simply pushed forward over each other, advancing up the steps in a ghastly struggle.

Beverly sat hunched in her seat and stared out the windshield at the open door of the Western Interconnection building.  She kept a death grip on the steering wheel and revved the engine as the seconds ticked away with no sign yet of Gary.  Her emotions, stretched to the breaking point, finally snapped.  Beverly reached down and put the truck in reverse.  She was about to pull away when Gary came running out of the building.  The passenger door flew open and Gary threw himself in, spilling into Beverly’s lap. 

“Did it work?!” Beverly screamed.

Gary braced himself against the dash with one hand and wiped his stringy hair from his face with the other.

“Well, sorta.  They definitely have trouble with stairs, but they know about the buddy system just fine,” Gary said, not taking his eyes off the front of the building.

Beverly knit her brow in confusion, but did not stop to clarify.  She stomped on the gas.  The big truck rumbled away from the building, flattening a group of three shufflers behind them.  Beverly cranked the wheel and headed for the Eastern Interconnection.

The Eastern Interconnection building loomed in the distance.  Gary turned and grabbed the door handle, preparing to jump out.  Rather than slowing the truck and bringing it in close to the front entrance, Beverly stepped down harder on the gas.  The big engine roared as it dawned on Gary that they were not slowing.

“What are you doing?!” he screamed.

Beverly kept her eyes straight ahead.  “You know women.  We love to make an entrance!” she said, gripping the steering wheel even tighter.

Beside her, Gary held onto the handle above his head and put his left foot on the dash, pressing himself back into his seat as he braced for impact. 

“I DON’T know about women, I’m a Nerd, remember!” he shouted.

Beverly shook her head.  “Aww, come on, Gary.  I thought Nerds read stuff!” she said.

Gary took a sharp intake of breath as the view of the building filled their windshield. 

“My studies have shown that the stuff in books about Women is highly unreliable!”

Gary’s voice rose several octaves as the nose of the truck plowed through the front of the building, coming to a rocking, tumultuous stop at the top of the stairs.  Beverly looked around at what she had done.  A pleased look came over her face as she calmly undid her seatbelt.

“Okay, we’re here.  Let’s do this,” she said, grabbing the bolt-cutters and jumping out of the truck.

On the passenger side, Gary still clung to the strap over his head with his right hand.  His left hand and foot were still stuck to the dashboard.  He stared out of the windshield as the adrenaline pumped through his system.

“Insert snarky one liner about women drivers here,” he said as the dust settled and debris fell from above, bouncing off the hood of the truck.

“Are you coming?” Beverly called from the front of the truck.

Gary stared at her through the windshield for several seconds, then tentatively opened the passenger door and crawled out.  He stood by the side of the truck and looked back at the hole they punched through the front of the building before turning and following Beverly down the stair.

“That really worked out better than I thought it would.  Those things can’t get around the truck to get inside, and we don’t have to go back out to get in the truck.  Talk about your drive-thru, huh?” she said as she bounced down the stairs.

Gary stared in shock at the back of Beverly’s head as he followed her down.  Outside, the Dead pushed and clamored at the rear of the truck to no avail.

Ninety seconds later, Gary and Beverly came racing back up the stairs.  Beverly jumped behind the wheel as Gary climbed in next to her. 

“Alright!  One more like this and we are home free,” Beverly said as she dropped the truck into reverse.  The truck lumbered out and away from the eviscerated building, cutting a wake through the Clamoring Dead as they fell on either side and were crushed into the dirt.

Beverly and Gary bounced across the yard towards the Texas Interconnection.  The wave of positive energy that filled them just seconds before drained out of Gary as they approached the building. 

“Oh, crap!” Gary said.

“What?” Beverly said as she began to accelerate the truck in anticipation of her grand entrance.

“Well, remember how I said that Texans thought they were better than everybody else which is why they had to have their own grid?”

“Yeah,” Beverly said.

“Well, Texans like to build monuments,” Gary said.

The racing engine of the big truck dropped to an idle, an audible cue matching Beverly’s sinking feeling as they slowed to a stop in front of the Texas Interconnection building.  Out in front and blocking any chance of the truck plowing through the front sat a huge stone monument to the history of energy in Texas. 

“We can’t even pull close to the doors because of that thing!” Beverly said.

Gary leaned over and looked out the driver side window at the building. 

“Well, I guess we walk from here,” Beverly said, unbuckling her seat belt. 

She was about to reach for the door, when Gary grabbed her shoulder.  Beverly turned and saw Gary looking at the driver side mirror.  She spun her head around and saw what Gary was looking at in the mirror.  Behind them a horde of Undead came rolling towards them.

“Shit!” Beverly screamed and hit the gas.  The truck jumped forward, gaining speed as it raced away.

“What now, Gary?!  How bad do you want to save Texas?” Beverly asked.

“Texans are people, too.  Maybe they will build a monument to us!” Gary shouted as he looked at his own side mirror, watching the horde drop away.

“Okay, what do you want me to do?” Beverly asked.

Gary thought a moment, then looked out the back window of the cab and saw the bucket lift.

“Quick, pull around to the back of the building.  I have an idea!” Gary said. 

Beverly looked sharply at him but didn’t question.  She turned the wheel and headed around to the back of the building.

“What are you thinking, Gary?  Is there a door we can ram through back here?” Beverly asked.

The question was answered for her as she rounded the corner and saw that the whole length of the building was an edifice of concrete block.  Midway down was a single steel door. 

“Unless you have a key, we’re not getting in that way, Gary,” Beverly said.

“Pull up parallel to the building, close.  I’m going to go in through the roof,” Gary said.

“The roof?  How-” Beverly’s words were cut off as Gary thumbed back at the bucket lift.

She looked out the back window at the lift then turned and stomped on the gas.  Beverly raced to the back of the building and ran the truck parallel to the wall as Gary instructed, almost tearing her side mirror off before coming to a stop.  She looked to her side and realized she would not be able to open her door because of how close she was to the wall.  She turned and reached for her bolt-cutters, but they weren’t there.  Beverly looked up sharply at Gary.

“Gary, what are you doing?” she asked.

“Someone has to stay down here in the truck.  If the truck is surrounded and we’re both outside we won’t be able to get back in and we’ll never get back to the main building,” Gary said.

“Fine, then let me go!” Beverly said.

Gary shook his head.  “No, Bev, whatever happens, you have to get away from this place.  If I don’t come back out, or if you get surrounded and it starts to look bad, you need to get out of here, okay?” Gary said.

“But what about the locks, Gary?  You need me to cut the locks,” she said.

Gary smiled.  “I’ll be fine.  I’ll just have to use the force, you know, like Luke when he was attacking the Death Star,” Gary said.

Beverly was about to protest further but Gary slipped out of the truck and slammed the door.  Beverly turned in a panic and watched as Gary climbed the back of the truck and hopped into the bucket lift.  Seconds later she heard the whine of hydraulics as the lift began its slow ascent towards the roof.  Movement caught her eye and she looked in the passenger side mirror.  An army of the Dead was running towards the truck.