POW! (Book 1): The Zombie Days (16 page)

"Why would I trust you, anyway?” he asked. “You slammed my head in the goddamn door."

I looked at him without saying anything at first. I just blinked once or twice in disbelief. "Seriously? Do I have to say it? You shoved your brick of a hand through my face and stomach multiple times with no provocation at all. You just did it because you enjoyed it. If nothing else, I’d say we're just about even on that level. Wouldn't you say?"

"I guess so. I haven't really gotten to beat many people up lately. I've been kind of frustrated, I guess."

"Well, let’s go unleash your frustrations on the doctor. And I've got something else for you to think about. Assuming that I’m right, and you bashing the crazies out of the doctor's skull does work, who will he have to thank for it? I'm sure he wouldn't forget about you in his future business endeavors if you were the one who rescued him, right?"

Vincent let that one sink in for just a minute.

"Plus, I have the keys and if you decide not to come help us, you'll kind of be stuck in here with this other guy," I concluded.

At this point, the other dude started to come around.

"What the fuck? Vincent, not you too!” he said, horrified. “I was hoping you would be able to rescue me. Shit. This just got a whole lot fucking worse."

"I am rescuing you. We're on their side now, Andrew. Let us out, Peter."

"What do you mean we’re on their side? You fucking traitor!” Andrew lashed out. “The doc is gonna be pissed right the fuck off when he hears about this."

"You don't want to join us?” Vincent asked, sounding unconcerned. “That's just fine with me. We'll come get you later. I don't know how long it's going to be, so just sit tight, alright?"

"Fuuuuuck . . ." Andrew hung his head. It was fun watching The Hulk argue with puny Bruce Banner. "Okay, I give; I’m with you guys. Let's go ahead and kick this mutiny off. I'm not going to be stuck in here as a prisoner all by myself while you all go out and get yourselves killed by zombies. What do we have to do?" he asked.

"We have to go stop the doctor from using his precious device and destroying everything that's left,” Vincent summed up. “You good with that?"

Andrew had a sickened look on his face. "It doesn't really look like I have much of a choice in the matter, now do I?"

"Great to have you on board, Andrew! I'm Pete and this is Mac. You'll meet the rest of our little crew in just a little while. Thanks for agreeing to do this, Vincent. I know it probably wasn't an easy decision for you to make."

"I'm nowhere near the genius that my boss is, but I know the difference between right and wrong. This world could use as much good as we can give it right now."

"I knew I'd like you, man. Thank God you're cool and not a giant douche," I said.

"I'm cool too, guy!" chimed in the weasely little Andrew.

"I'm sure you are, bro. Like I said, we’re glad to have you aboard," I lied as I uncuffed Vincent. I tossed the keys to Mac so he could release the other new member to our party. He took off the cuffs, handed them back to Andrew, and began to walk over to me.

"Now!" cried Andrew as he jumped onto Mac's back like a spider monkey. Mac tossed the little man completely over his head and he landed on his back at Mac's feet.

Expecting to be the next victim of this pre-planned attack, I twirled around to find Vincent looking down at his coworker with a grin on his face.

"Are ya all finished up, fucker?" he asked.

"I guess I may have read the situation wrong,” Andrew said as he winced in agony. “Just give me a second and I'll be good to go. Sorry, guys."

“Are you ready to stop being such a little bitch and start being a bro?" I asked the guy on the floor.

"Yup. Lesson learned. I said I'm sorry, can we just move past this, guys?"

"What do you say, big man? Can we trust him?” I asked Vincent.

“I think he knows better than to fuck with me and my boys. He made a mistake. Let's pretend this didn't happen. We're all good here, fellas."

I walked over to Andrew and offered to help him up to his feet. He grabbed my hand and slowly pulled himself up.

"Thanks, dude," he groaned.

"How many more of you are there in this place?" I asked either one of the former security guards.

"Guys with guns?” Vincent asked. “It's just the two of us. But there are about ten of them on the research team including Doctor K. They have a bunch of those helmet things. They've been testing them out and messing with them in different ways, but it's always Doctor K who wears and tests the thing. I think it must be some kind of ego thing. Anytime someone else tries to put it on, he kind of flips out like a goddamn psychopath."

"Yeah, that's pretty much what I expected. It turns out that his thoughts are somewhat zombified since he started fucking around with his metal hat."

"What do you mean zombified?” Vincent asked. “He's not going to start going around trying to eat the living, is he?"

"I don’t think so. At least, I sure hope not. What I meant is that he can't see danger in his current need to satisfy his most prevalent urge,” I clarified. “Luckily, that urge—as far as I know—is not to consume human flesh, but to attempt to 'cure' the undead problem. And that would be fine, if it worked properly. Look, we don't have time to go over all of your questions and stuff right now. Let's get out of here and meet up with the rest of the team. Sound good?"

"Good point. After you, Pete." Vincent extended a hand and gestured to the locked door. It was time for the moment of truth. I'd have to turn my back on him and hope he was really on our side. I didn't really have another choice in the matter if I wanted a chance at stopping the doctor for the good of all mankind.

I slipped the key into the lock and opened the door. I nervously looked back and was very pleased when I saw that I’d not been murdered by my new friend.
He's officially one of us. I must have gotten through to him.

I started to head down the hall before being called by the others.

"Exit's this way, Pete," called out Mac laughing at me. Goddamn it. I turned around and followed behind of the pack like a jackass. The others were still grinning at my lack of direction when I caught up to them. We made a turn down a hall. I think it might have been the same one that the storage closet was in, but I really wasn't paying attention to that at the moment.

“If you’re the only two security guards, then who was it that surrounded the rest of my friends?” I asked.

“Since we’re so short staffed, the researches were called upon to help out with the capture mission,” he said.

Damn, we were taken out by a team of scientists. How pathetic.

Some stairs at the end of the hall led up to two huge, thick metal doors which Vincent opened by pressing a series of backlit buttons on the wall. The doors opened into the forest. I wasn't expecting it to have been so deep in the woods; the trees were really dense in this particular area.

"I heard that there were a whole shit ton of the deadites out here. Is that true?" I asked, slightly worried about Evelyn and the others.

"The fuck is a deadite? Zombies?” Vincent asked. “Nah, that's just something we say before bringing anyone out here. It helps to get rid of the people that wouldn't be willing to save their own asses should the need arise. Who did you hear that from, anyway?"

"One of our friends was part of your little research team that didn't make it out here,” I informed him. “Sadly, he didn't quite make it back to the camp, either. In fact, I don't think there’s anyone at all left alive back there. It was a pretty fucked up day, as I’m sure you can imagine."

"Sorry to hear that, man,” Vincent said. “I didn't live there before all this happened, but I'm sorry for your loss. Luckily, the truth is that there really aren't many of them out here in the woods at all. We usually have to try to lure them to us before they can begin testing that thing out."

Chapter Twenty

We emerged from the underground facility and I began to search around for Kyle, Bully, and the girls. It was much darker outside than I’d been expecting. Once I had emerged, it felt like we had only been down there for a very short while. I heard a crack from behind us and turned to point my rifle toward it. I saw Kyle stand up from a pile of leaves in which he had everyone hiding and immediately lowered my weapon.

"Why the hell would you crack a stick, dude?" I asked him. "I thought you were a zombie creeping up on us or some shit!"

"I was trying to signal you so you could find us without alerting any of the aforementioned zombies or the thugs that you rolled out with. Are you okay?" he asked with his rifle ready to rescue us from our presumed captures, even though they clearly presented no threat to anyone at the moment.

"They're with us, bro,” I informed him. “Relax."

"You got both of them on our side?" he asked, lowering the weapon. "Damn dude, you are good."

"Guys, this is Kyle, Carolina, Evelyn, and the kid is Little Bully. He's not much of a talker, but watch your junk around him. He’s been known to punch a dick without warning. And you guys, this is Andrew and Vincent the Giant. They're going to be assisting us in our rescue operation."

Evelyn ran over to me with a great big smile on her face and threw her arms around my neck. "You're amazing," she whispered in my ear and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

"Have you guys seen anyone come out of these doors before us?" I asked.

"No, this is the first time those doors have opened up since we’ve been out here, homie. Why do you ask?" said Kyle.

"The doctor and the device seem to have gone missing. We—or should I say—
I
think they’ve gone out to find more subjects to do their testing on. We have to find him like right now, before he can do any more damage."

"Your new friends don't know where they took off to?" Evelyn asked.

"Nope, they used to tell us when they'd head out, but lately Doc K has been a giant drama queen and has been super secretive about his bullshit experiments. So we have no idea what's going on," explained Vincent.

“Actually, I saw him taking the thing out the back entrance. I’m pretty convinced he went out to test it. You know that look he gets on his face,” said Andrew to Vincent.

"So how are we supposed to find them out here in the middle of butt fucking nowhere?" Kyle tossed in his two cents.

"I can take us to the site where they were going to do their experiments back in the day,” offered Vincent. “I don't see why he would have changed the spot, especially if his switch has been flipped to zombie mode as you've said."

"Perfect. How far is this special testing spot?" I asked.

"It's only about a half a mile away. We can be there in no time, so let's get on our way, guys. Maybe he hasn’t gotten started just yet." I didn't like not being in charge, but I guessed Vincent was the go to guy out for the moment. I followed closely behind him along with the rest of our group.

"I'd like to take a second to point out that we should try to remain as quiet as possible. We're trying to sneak up on the doctor so he doesn't run away and get eaten by a zombie or anything crazy like that. We're trying to rescue him while at the same time not trying to attract any zombies to us."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about that, Pete," Vincent said. "Attracting zombies is exactly what Doctor K is up to right now. I'd put money in it, if I had any."

Chapter Twenty One

We made our way through the woods at a fairly decent pace. At one point, Andrew tripped and I had to help him to get back up to his feet. I was really glad that I didn't decide to give this dude a gun back yet.

"You alright, man?" I asked him out of annoyance more than anything else.

"No, I think I rolled my ankle or something," he said in a whiny voice.

"Well, this is no time to slow down. Lean on my shoulder if you need to and let's get moving. Hopefully, we can get this whole thing over with tonight." After the way things went down with Cliff, I really didn’t want to be upset at anyone. Especially at a time when getting killed by a zombie was a real possibility.

He put his arm around my neck and I had to drag his pathetic ass along, trailing the rest of the pack.

Up ahead, I saw that Vincent had everyone hold tight. Within seconds I’d dragged Andrew up to the gang and asked just what the fuck was going on.

"We're almost there, but it doesn't feel quite right. I can smell the scent of the dead in the air. There must be quite a few of them somewhere nearby. We'd all better get ready for some bad news coming up," Vincent informed us.

"Alright, homie. If we have to throw down, I know we’re ready for it. You should see the state of chaos that we left that camp in. It probably looks like a red Jell-O giant took a great big shit all up inside of that walled off area. I bet that place is so fucking thick with flies that you couldn't even breathe if you even managed to get in there in the first place!" The grin on Kyle's face let me know he was trying to impress our new friends while making the girls thoroughly nauseated.

"Was that before or after they all got Harvard degrees?" quipped Vincent. I was really beginning to like this dude.

After a slight pause, I cupped my hand on Evelyn's jaw and gave her a long passionate kiss. We gazed into each other’s gaze for a brief second.

"What was that for?" she asked with a big smile.

"Oh, you know . . . just in case we all die," I replied with a smile.

I watched her face as her expression morphed from contentment to disappointment to a hint of worry. I thought it was pretty funny to watch.

"Just kiddin', babe, we'll all be fine . . . probably . . . The fact that they're smart doesn't mean we can't make them explode like the rest of them that we’ve encountered."

"Explode, huh?” asked Vincent. “You think you're just going to throw your grenades at them in their current state of enlightenment? What if they throw them back or something?"

"If they're that smart, then we still have our secret weapon against them. The POW Shots! See, if you shoot them in the gut with an incendiary round they pop like a gore balloon!" I said with a great big smile lighting up my face.

Vincent's face exploded with joy and excitement. "And you have some incendiary rounds? That's so fucking badass, Pete!" said the enormous man while slapping me on the back.

"Yeah, I'm kind of the one that figured it all out. It was sort of named after me and shit. It's pretty awesome. Too bad we're running a little bit low on the rounds, though. We'll have to be careful how we use them. But, we do still have the grenades to fall back on. I think we'll do just fine in all of this. Now, I think that's enough of a delay. Everyone be as quiet as a mouse, and let's go see what we find out at this test site. Bully, you stay close to Evelyn and Carolina, okay? Andrew, I’m going to give you your rifle back so you can stay back and keep an extra eye out and keep them safe, alright? With your injured ankle you won’t be all that great in a fight against them." I really didn’t think he’d put up much of a good fight even if he was at his best.

Bully gave his usual nod as Evelyn put her arm around his shoulders and pulled him in close. Carolina wrapped her arm around the wormy Andrew and helped him to continue hobbling along on his way.

I stepped out in front next to Vincent and we all began our stroll toward the powerful scent of the dead. Adrenalin was pumping through my veins and I was slightly excited to see the mad doctor in action. I imagined him like a wizard casting spells on the walking dead.

As we got nearer to the source of the smell, we could hear a dull murmur off in the distance. All of the trees in this area made it impossible to see too far ahead of us. The testing facility could have been twenty yards ahead of us for all I could tell.

"I really hope that it clears out a little bit when we get to this testing site of yours," I whispered to Vincent, who was on my left.

"Yeah man, we're almost there. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to tell once we've arrived."

"Why is that? Is there a big arch above it with the words 'Welcome to the test site' scrawled on it?" I asked.

"Not exactly. You'll see, man, it's basically like a big ass concrete trench that the zombies can't get over."

"So, you're saying that we're safe over here on this side?"

"I'm saying there's a big ass trench out here in a location where we usually have to try to find them rather than them finding us. I'm also saying that it smells like a cemetery farted out here, so you’re free to do with that information what you will, Pete."

"So it's a coin toss. I got you."

Vincent rolled his eyes at me and kept walking onward. Up ahead, the trees began to thin out a bit and the murmuring continued to get louder and louder.

"Those are the fucking voices of the dead. They're speaking, dude." Vincent cringed as he spoke the words.

"We don't know that just yet, bro. Calm down. They could just be saying 'Uuuugh' or some shit for all we know."

Then I heard a female voice from out of the cacophony.

"
They . . . approach
," she shrieked with her nose up in the air.

"Okay, Vincent.
That
was a voice."

"Fuck, man,” whined Andrew. “The doctor said that this bitch was bad news. Fuck this shit, guys. Let's just get out of here. There's no reason for us all to get eaten today."

"Andrew, dude, this is no time to be a coward. Quit shaking in your little boots or they'll get you while you're busy pissing in your panties."

Andrew swallowed hard and did his best to steady himself. He damn sure didn't wish to be left behind to fend for himself in a situation like this. I wondered how he’d come to be one of the only two guards for the research team.

“Repeat after me, man,” I said to Andrew. “ ‘I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.’ ”

“What the fuck kind of gay shit is that? I’m not saying all of that shit.”

“It’s what Paul Muad’dib says before he- you know what, nevermind, bro. I don’t think we have the time to try to make you into a man right now, anyway.”

“Pete’s such a nerd,” Kyle informed everyone.

We neared the edge of the tree line where I had everyone stop a few paces away. Vincent and I walked up to the clearing and were able to observe the doctor. He was standing behind the queen of the undead as she commanded her army of corpses and held him prisoner with his magical brain bowl atop his head.

I looked at Vincent and he looked back at me. Together we walked back to the group and I addressed them.

"Okay, guys,” said Vincent. “Our situation isn't looking too great, as you can well imagine. There are a whole lot of them and they have a leader. Also, they have taken a prisoner."

"DAD!" cried Evelyn.

I gave a somber nod. "This is going to be quite a challenge, but I think we can do this. Are you guys with me?"

"We've come this far, homie, I don't think you've gotta worry about any of us abandoning you any time too soon," Kyle reassured me.

"Damn straight, Kyle. You know we've got your back, so let's get at it, Pete," added Mac.

"My mom and I still have the pistols, so we'll do what we can while keeping Little Bully away from them," Evelyn said as Carolina and Bully both nodded in agreement.

“I’m here to do whatever I can, too, Pete,” chimed in Andrew, although no one really acknowledged him.

"I'm all set to get these creeps out of the way, too,” said Vincent. “They're all that stands between me and my much deserved fortune. The sooner we can all get this done, the sooner I can happily live out the rest of my days as a fat cat."

"We all get some kind of cut too, right, Vin? After all, if it wasn't for us, the doctor would just be missing and basically as good as dead!"

"Kyle, right now really isn't the best time for entering contractual negotiations,” I said. “You guys need to stop your fantasizing and get your heads in the game. Plus, we'll probably need a lawyer present for when we make that kind of deal. Let's focus for now, kids. The bottom line here is we need to keep the doctor alive and take out the queen. After the queen goes down, I’m sure the rest will go back to their stupid mindless ways. They’ll have nothing to fight for—just plain instinct once more. Now, I want no explosions near the doctor. Is that understood? This is, above all else, a rescue mission, got it? Now, are you guys ready?"

"Yeah, homie. My bad. Let's do this."

"Sorry for getting sidetracked, Pete,” said Vincent. “Let's do it to it."

Mac threw out a nod in my direction to let me know that he, too, was as ready as he’d ever get. It was time to go to war.

I passed each member of our team a few extra magazines as well as a grenade to use as a last resort, or a way to get them out of a sticky situation. After all, we had plenty to go around. Once I felt as though everyone was sufficiently armed, we made our way up to the tree line.

I pulled out a grenade and showed it to everyone. My plan was to toss it into an area that was thick with them and take out a good sized chunk of them right off the bat. I pulled the pin and lobbed the grenade into the trench.

The thing exploded, and when it did I saw two halves of a single zombie go flying up in the air. It was just a torso and a set of legs. It looked like he must have sacrificed himself by diving on the grenade to save the rest of his undead platoon.

I was dumbfounded and felt my jaw drop in surprise as my eyes widened. This was going to be a lot worse than I’d initially thought. We now had the attention of all of our enemies at once. The ones that were out of the trench, on the other side by the queen, charged at us and did a crowd-surf maneuver over the others as she pointed at us with a horrific nub of a finger and groaned a nightmare-inducing sound.

"Holy shit! That bitch is like Evil Marie Antoinette leading her army," shouted Kyle.

"You're thinking of Joan of Arc, dude,” I corrected him. “Marie Antoinette is the French chick that got beheaded. Joan of Arc is the one who led the French army with God's guidance," Vincent corrected him.

"No, man
you're
thinking of Noah's Arc from the Bible. You're all dicked up. He led a bunch of animals into a boat. Besides, the only zombie in the Bible was Jesus," Kyle volleyed back.

"Let them eat cock!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs as I readied my rifle. "FIRE!"

We unleashed on the first wave of them and they went down easily enough. One by one they all fell.

"Uh, has anyone else noticed that these bastards are a lot faster than any of the others that we've encountered thus far?" asked Mac.

"I'm guessing that their minds have grown enough to be able to force their muscles to move faster, despite their current state of rigor mortis. Perhaps it’s all part of an effort to save their queen," Evelyn offered up.

Silence.

"To put it more simply, they can move faster now.
A lot
faster," she said.

"Ooohhhh . . ." Everyone could now decipher the smart lady's message.

Some of the zombies down in the trench were beginning to lie down in order to form a set of stairs made out of living corpses. The ones that were still vertical began to make their way toward us, climbing over their companions to rise out of the trench that was like a massive tomb. We unleashed another series of rounds as they rose up and began to approach us. The queen had made her way to the control booth of this testing facility site with the doctor. The control booth was made out of the same concrete as everything else that had been related to this whole, crazy area. We could just barely view them through the small, thick, bullet-proof glass window. In order to get to their new love booth, we were going to have to somehow cross the trench and meet her face to face.

Once the final zombie of the second wave had taken his rightful place on the ground amongst his fallen brothers in death, it was our turn to advance.

I had everyone pull out a grenade and toss it into the trench in order to save on rounds. There was no telling what may still lie ahead of us before we could destroy their leader.

The grenades dropped down into the trench where the dead were peacefully waiting with no chance of escape. The explosives went off and sent puss, blood, and all the bits and pieces of zombie goodness flying straight up from the pit like a crack from Hell had just sneezed out some gore filled fireworks.