Portlandtown: A Tale of the Oregon Wyldes (36 page)

The zombies closed in.

“Shoot them in the head,” Joseph yelled.

One officer glanced Joseph’s way as the other attempted to reload his pistol. He was fast, but not fast enough. The zombie was on top of him before he could raise the weapon.

Joseph stepped forward, kicking the creature in the leg, crushing its knee, and sending it sprawling to the ground. A second zombie lunged but caught only air as Joseph slipped under its outstretched arms.

The officer finished his reload and fired point-blank into the nearest target. Three shots to the heart did nothing. A fourth shot struck the creature square in the forehead and it crumpled to the ground. The shot had not come from the policeman’s weapon.

Joseph knew immediately who had fired the shot. He recognized the sound of the gun, just as he had known he would. It was the Hanged Man’s red-handled pistol, wielded by the marshal from atop the bar.

“Get down!” the marshal barked, and nearly all who heard him did as ordered.

The marshal fired again, striking another zombie in the head. It hiccupped, blinked, and fell to the floor a lifeless corpse. The marshal repeated the action again and again with similar results. His sixth shot took the ear off a short zombie but didn’t knock it down. The marshal didn’t bother to reload. He didn’t have to. The seventh shot hit the creature in the eye, bringing it down instantly.

“Hit ’em in the head, men!” cried the marshal. “That’ll take ’em down.”

The marshal engaged once more and was soon joined by both police officers and several other armed locals. Unfortunately, none of the other shooters was the marshal’s equal in accuracy or judgment. Two zombies went down, along with three members of the crowd, struck by stray bullets. The chaotic scene worsened as the crowd scrambled to avoid being shot, attacked, or both.

Joseph did his best to make sure neither he nor Kate was in the line of fire and then refocused on an exit strategy. The situation had not improved. More zombies continued to pour into the hall. Many were shot, but in doing so ended up as obstacles to a quick escape. Joseph plotted what he believed was the best course and then found Kate’s hand.

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Joseph took a deep breath and lifted his voice above the chaos. “Marshal, we need a path!”

The marshal was already attempting to do just that, but all the damn people were making it difficult. He steadied his aim and fired.

Two zombies directly in front of Joseph and Kate fell on the spot. That was enough. They ran, Joseph first, jumping over bodies and scooting around the outstretched arms of a livelier corpse. Kate had to spin around the same creature as it reoriented its attack to her. That brought her face-to-face with a dead woman who briefly mirrored Kate’s surprise in her expression before opening her mouth wide. The creature never got the chance to bite, as Joseph grabbed a handful of its long, black hair and yanked it away from his wife.

Kate’s eyes widened. “Behind you!”

Joseph was already moving, taking the legs out from under both zombies that had come at them. He grabbed Kate’s hand and led her to the front entrance. A single zombie stood on the other side of the door.

“Get down!” Joseph yelled.

Joseph opened the door and hit the deck along with Kate. The zombie stood, confused, for a moment, never getting the chance to enter the hall before a bullet blew what remained of its brain out through the back of its skull. It fell to the floor in a heap.

Joseph hesitated, waiting for his senses to sound the all clear. There was chaos all around them, except directly in front. It was the best they were going to get.

“Let’s go,” he said, and together they ran out into the storm.

*   *   *

Edmonds pushed Kick over the edge of the platform, which was now barely three feet above the floodwaters. Maddie helped her brother to his feet and then offered a hand to the weatherman. Once they were all safely atop the deserted stage, Edmonds gathered both kids before him.

“Are you hurt?”

“No, but one of them tried to bite me,” Kick said.

“They attacked a man,” Maddie said. “I think they might have killed him.”

“I saw.”

“I don’t understand,” Maddie said. “Why are they hurting people?”

Edmonds shook his head.

“Who are they?”

Edmonds looked over his shoulder. A single zombie struggled through the water near the other side of the street. A little farther down, a pair of creatures bobbed in the water. It was too dark to see what they were after, but Edmonds had an idea.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I was on a rooftop collecting data when I saw the first. I thought he was just a drunk, lost in the storm. But he wasn’t moving right. And then I saw more.”

“More?”

Edmonds nodded. “Dozens.”

Maddie found her brother’s hand and held it tightly.

“They look sick,” Kick said.

“Worse than that,” Maddie said. “One of them didn’t have any eyes.”

“And his face was all cut up and stitched back together, and his chest, too.”

“His chest? How so?”

Kick drew a large Y across his torso.

Edmonds cringed. He’d seen such a pattern before. Before deciding on meteorology, he’d briefly considered a career in medicine. It had taken half of one Human Anatomy class to change his mind. The image that had stuck with him was that of a woman laid out on a large slab and the Y-shaped incision the instructor made in her torso to begin the examination. The fact that she was already dead had not made it any easier to watch.

What Kick’s observation implied about the strange folks currently wandering the streets of Portland terrified Edmonds. He decided not to share this information with the kids.

“Where are your parents?”

Kick pointed across the plaza. “They were in the hotel with everybody else.”

“I heard gunshots,” added Maddie.

Edmonds nodded. He’d seen the creatures flock to the front of the hotel and force their way inside. Several festival booths currently blocked his view of the main entrance, but he could still see numerous zombies milling about the sidewalk.

When the lights in the main hall went out, the collective scream from the people trapped inside was loud enough to be heard above the rain.

“If they’ve got guns, they can protect themselves,” Edmonds said, hoping it was true.

“Do you have a gun?”

“No, but I think we’re safe up here. They don’t seem to climb very well.”

“I don’t think they have to,” Kick said, pointing across the platform.

One of the creatures stumbled off a ramp at the far corner of the stage. It picked itself up and angled toward Edmonds and the twins as two more zombies made it across to the platform.

“Maybe if you talk to them,” Kick said. “You’re an adult. Maybe they’ll listen.”

Edmonds doubted his age would improve his chances at communication but figured it was worth a shot.

“Gentlemen, do you need help?”

One of the creatures moaned. All three stumbled forward more quickly.

“If you’re in need of medical assistance, I’m sure we can locate a proper physician.”

The zombies closed to thirty feet. Kick recognized the female figure with the long, black hair.

“We should leave now,” Maddie said, pulling on Mr. Edmonds’s arm.

“I agree.”

The trio turned back to the street to see two more of the creatures wading toward them through the floodwaters.

“What do we do?”

“Jump,” Edmonds said. “The water will slow them down.”

“It’ll slow us down, too,” Maddie said.

“We can swim,” Kick said. “And they can’t see us if we stay under water.”

Edmonds glanced over his shoulder. The zombies were almost on top of them.

“Get to the other side of the street if you can,” he said. “Go!”

Both kids jumped from the stage. Out of the corner of her eye, Maddie saw Edmonds turn to face their attackers and then she hit the water. She popped up almost immediately, but Mr. Edmonds was gone. From her low vantage point she could see the heads and shoulders of the creatures above the edge of the stage, but not the weatherman.

And then something grabbed her shoulder.

“Maddie, come on,” Kick said, pulling his sister back toward the stage.

“But Mr. Edmonds said the other side of the street…”

“There are too many of them!”

Kick disappeared beneath the water and then popped up a few seconds later on the other side of the scaffolding under the stage.

“Swim under, Maddie. Take my hand.”

Maddie took a deep breath and ducked below the surface. She found her brother’s hand in the dark and let it guide her between the wooden slats that crisscrossed under the platform. When she came up, there was barely a foot of clearance between the bottom of the stage and the rising water.

“I don’t think they can get to us,” Kick said.

“Are you sure?”

Kick pointed to a zombie bumping up against the scaffolding a few yards away. It reached a hand between the slats but progressed no farther.

“They can’t think it through. They’re not very smart. What happened to Mr. Edmonds?”

Maddie shook her head.

Kick wiped the water from his face. His mind raced through the possibilities, but he forced it to stop before his superior visualization skills kicked in.

“Maybe he got past them.”

“Maybe,” Maddie said, then made a quick survey of their surroundings. The stage was built on very slight hill, which meant the water was already touching the bottom of the platform on the other size of the plaza. They’d actually climbed under at the highest point on the street, but if the waters continued to rise at their current pace, their heads would be under water soon.

“The water is still rising,” she said. “We can’t stay here or we’ll run out of room to breathe.”

“We need to find Mom and Dad,” Kick said. “They’re already looking for us.”

“Are you sure?”

“Aren’t you?”

She was. There was no doubt in her mind, and that was a problem.

“They won’t find us if we stay hidden.”

Kick nodded. “And they won’t stop looking, which means they’ll be out there with them.”

Maddie glanced back at the street. There were three zombies at the edge of the structure now, struggling to push through the slats but gaining no ground. One had managed to force its head through an opening but was stuck, its face partially submerged in the water. There was movement beyond the barrier, but in the dark it was difficult to see. Maddie tried to listen, searching for something tangible between the raindrops. What she heard was the low moan of hundreds of wooden slats slowly breaking.

“Oh, no,” Maddie said.

Kick looked at his sister and knew. A moment later, the platform creaked loudly and shifted above their heads, sinking two inches as the support structure began to collapse.

“This way,” Kick said, pushing his sister in the opposite direction of the water flow.

The platform dropped another few inches, forcing the twins beneath the surface. Kick popped up to get his bearings and one last breath. Maddie was up a second later.

“Take a deep breath,” Kick said.

“Got it,” Maddie said, then took her brother’s hand.

The platform dropped onto the water just as the kids ducked under the surface. Maddie opened her eyes but could see nothing but black. She closed them again and pushed forward until her free hand found the wooden structure still holding the back side of the platform in place. It was leaning toward them but hadn’t yet collapsed. It would soon.

Maddie felt her brother tug on her hand, leading her toward an opening just large enough to navigate. She got both hands on the wood and pulled herself through, only to have her dress catch on the structure. Maddie suddenly became keenly aware of the burning sensation in her chest. How long had she been under? Thirty seconds? A minute? She wouldn’t last much longer. She felt her brother’s hands around her ankles, trying to free her. And then she sensed something else—a body, dropped into the water directly in front of her. Hands were reaching out, trying to find her. She felt her dress tear, she was loose, but it was too late. It had her.

Maddie broke the surface, gasping for air and struggling against the hands that had pulled her to safety.

“Maddie! It’s okay, I got you.”

Maddie opened her eyes to find she was in her father’s grasp. The panic in her chest finally eased and she hugged him.

“Maddie, give me your hand!”

It was her mother, reaching from the partially sunken platform. For a moment, Maddie refused to let go, fearful of what might take hold of her beneath the surface. Then she remembered her brother.

“Kick!” she said, taking her mother’s hand. “He’s still down there.”

But Joseph was already under the water. He was up seconds later, Kick limp in his arms. He brought him to the edge of the stage and handed him over to Kate.

“Behind you!” Maddie screamed.

The zombie closed on Joseph and would have grabbed him around the neck had he not disappeared under the surface. The creature dunked its head briefly into the water but refused to stay submerged. The water had risen almost to shoulder level and it was having trouble staying upright. Finally, it noticed Kate, who at the edge of the platform seemed an easier target. Before it could make a move, the zombie was sucked into the black.

Kate never took her eyes off her son. He’d been unconscious when Joseph handed him over, and now a trickle of blood was running down his forehead. Kate found a small gash in his scalp, and when she touched it, Kick immediately began coughing up water.

Satisfied that her brother was alive, Maddie turned back to the water. It was an agonizing ten seconds before her father burst through the surface.

“Dad!”

Joseph pulled himself onto the stage and into his daughter’s arms. She would not let him go this time.

Joseph looked to his son. “How is he?”

“Hit his head,” Kate said. “Swallowed quite a bit of water, too, but I think he’ll be all right.”

Joseph put a hand on his son’s face. “You’re not a fish, you know?”

Kick blinked several times and smiled weakly.