Survive (32 page)

“Holy shit!” Kurt exclaimed as he saw the stacks upon stacks of Zeds.

“Easy, take it easy,” Emmet said as he motioned for the rest of the group, minus the three in the vehicles, to come forward slowly. He pulled a 5 cell Maglite from his belt and shined it into the room. The brighter light from his flashlight shone on the frozen bodies of Zeds, stacked exactly like the ones outside, under the snow.

“That’s why they’re outside. They filled up the inside first. Ran out of room in there,” Emmet muttered, almost to himself.

“Alright, Emmet, you and Morgan are with me,” John ordered. “Kurt, the rest of you, hold this door for us. We’re going to go check it out, and then we’re going to come back here and burn the building down on these motherfuckers. Roger, see if you can get more fuel from the station across the street. We’re going to need it for the bonfire.”

John moved into the room first. He thumbed on the little tactical light on the top of his P90. The small but powerful light cut through the darkness with ease, showing him details of every dead face or body he passed.
Why are their eyes closed?
he wondered to himself.

Emmet came close behind John, with Morgan bringing up the rear, a Glock in each hand and a miner’s light shining on his head. The small group moved through the factory, staying as close to the center of the building as they could. The piles had been stacked in such a way that two people could walk side by side between them, but no more.

“I bet this place stinks like hell come spring.” Morgan whispered. Emmet chuckled quietly.

Shadows jumped and wavered behind every stack of corpses as their lights played over them. John caught himself forgetting to breathe inside the closed helmet more than once, as he focused too intently each time he thought he saw something moving only to find it was simply a shadow. The only sound inside the huge factory came from the three sets of footsteps as the men moved deeper and deeper into the building.

Close to what had to be the center of the factory, they found a set of chipped yellow painted stairs that descended into pitch blackness. Near the stairs, the piles of Zeds had been set further back, creating a small clearing amidst the thousands of bodies.

John shined his flashlight down into the depths. A rough concrete floor lay at the bottom of the stairs, surrounded by darkness.

“Uh uh. No way, man.” Morgan whispered.

John looked back at his young cousin and nodded. “Go back. Tell Kurt and your father to start dumping gas all over the building. We’ll be out in a minute. I just want to check down here real quick. In fact, if we’re not out in ten, light the damn fire.”

Morgan looked as if he were going to argue but decided against it. He nodded, then turned and ran as fast as he could, weaving in and out of the packed Zeds, and out of sight. Moments later, John’s radio crackled. “I’m out.” John thumbed it twice, signaling his acknowledgement.

Emmet looked at John. “Age before beauty.”

John shrugged and stepped on to the stairs. “That’s okay. You’ll probably creak more than the stairs will, old man.”

Emmet chuckled and stepped down after John. John reached the basement floor and panned his light around. More Zeds, these piled in smaller piles of only five or six, lay scattered everywhere, though they seemed to be closer together towards one end of the room. John cocked his head.

“Emmet, kill the light for a minute.” Emmet shut his flashlight off seconds after John switched his own off. Stifling blackness surrounded them. Moments later, as their eyes adjusted to the gloom, they could see a slight glow beyond the more thickly packed Zeds. John turned his light back on.

“We need to see what’s down there.” He pointed towards the glow.

Emmet nodded and switched his own light back on. They moved as quickly as they could through the Zeds. Emmet looked down at a pile as they passed it.

“These don’t look fresh at all. In fact, some of these are barely held together. Older, I think.” He paused and looked around. “In fact, I don’t see a fresh one anywhere.”

John nodded and kept moving. The piles of Zeds grew so thick the closer they came to the far end of the room that they found themselves brushing against the stiff, cold bodies.

“Shit!” Emmet muttered. John heard a clattering noise behind him and turned just in time to see what was left of an arm fall to the floor. Emmet disentangled himself from the body he’d bumped into and shrugged. “Sorry.”

John turned and continued, now able to see the glow even with his light on. It seemed to be coming from a wide doorway at the end of the room, set directly in the middle of a cement wall. Zed bodies lay piled directly in front of the doorway, stacked three or four deep.

Emmet came up short as they reached the wall. “John, do you smell that?”

John shook his head. “Can’t smell much of anything inside this helmet except the bacon I had for breakfast.”

“I think it’s gas. I can’t be sure.”

John peered over the wall of bodies, into the room. A murky haze, lit from within by an orange light, met his gaze, obscuring any details of the interior of the room.

“We’re running short of time, John.” Emmet said.

“Right. Let’s get in there.” John walked forward to the center of the wall of bodies. He picked one in the middle and placed his foot on it. He pushed until the whole wall began to tip inward. Bodies spilled into the glowing room, arm and leg bones cracking audibly as they fell to the floor.

John stepped over bodies and walked in to the room. Emmet followed behind, standing in the doorway. As John walked further into murky glow, a blurry form moved past him. Something bumped him from the side. He turned, but saw nothing there.

“Something’s in here with us!” he shouted. His P90 came up, the light reflected back through the orange haze. He heard Emmet yell from behind him. He turned in time to see two Zeds, most of their flesh gone, rotting muscles and bits of bone all that remained of their once human forms, rush at Emmet. He pulled his shotgun up but the Zeds hit him first. The three crashed through the doorway and out of the room. John started towards them when something gripped his arm in an iron-hard grip. He spun toward the creature and came face to face with a bone-white skull. Dull, shriveled eyes met his gaze. A thick, purple-black tongue protruded from the creature’s mouth. Strands of muscle ran from the lower jaw down into the collar of a tattered tan jumpsuit. John brought his P90 to bear, his finger tightening on the trigger. The creature slapped the gun out of his hand.

“Youuuu dieeee...” the creature moaned, its voice deep and echoing in the room. John gasped in shocked terror as the words bounced back at him from the low ceiling. Behind him, Emmet screamed. Two more creatures, not quite as decayed as the first, came out of the gloom and grabbed John’s arms, holding him still as the first creature let go. John managed to look behind him as Emmet came hurtling back into the room propelled by a huge Zed, the same one that had rushed him before. He fell to the ground next to John, his shotgun nowhere in sight.

“What the hell?” Emmet asked, blood dripping from a deep gash in his forehead.

The Zed behind him brought a heavy, rotting hand down on the back of his head, hard. Emmet slumped over and moaned.

John felt the firm grip of his captors despite the heavy armor. The creature that had spoken stepped closer to him. John caught more movement behind the creature and felt more than saw that there were more Zeds waiting in the gloom.

The creature, John couldn’t bring himself to call it a Zed even in his own mind, reached a skeletal hand up and touched the helmet on John’s head. It tapped his face shield with a bony finger, once, twice, three times. Then, it laughed. The laugh was slow and deep, and perhaps the most frightening sound John had ever heard in his life.

I’m sorry, Sara
, John thought to himself. He struggled against the arms holding him, trying to rip them from their sockets, but they held firm. He saw Emmet stir from the corner of his eye just as the creature pulled its arm back and made a fist, preparing to drive the appendage through the face shield and in to John’s head.

“Down!” Emmet yelled as he rolled over. John looked down at him as Emmet pulled his pistol from his holster.

Confusion turned to horror as John realized what Emmet was doing. His knees buckled as he let his full weight pull himself to the ground. The two Zeds on either side of him were caught off guard and let his arms slip through their rotting fingers. John hit the ground just as Emmet fired. He saw the creature reaching down towards him right before he heard the sound of the gunshot. Sudden fire lit the room. John felt himself hurtling through the air until a wall intercepted him, slamming the breath from his lungs. Fire filled his vision right before he blacked out.

* * *

Uncertain as to how much time had passed, John blinked. Stinging sweat or blood, he wasn’t sure which, dripped into his eyes. Fire lit the room, pieces of debris, old furniture and other detritus, burned angrily all around him. John tried to sit up but something heavy lay on top of him. He pushed, struggling against the weight. Finally, the heavy burden rolled off him and he was able to sit up, despite every bone in his body protesting. A burning Zed lay next to him, most of its head and shoulders missing, having been blown off in the explosion.

Other bodies writhed nearby, most on fire. John looked to where he thought he’d been when the gas combusted, but saw no sign of the Zed pack leader. He crawled over toward the exit, trying to stay below the heavy smoke billowing throughout the room. As he neared the door, he saw movement beneath a pile of burning Zeds. He rose to his knees and pushed the burning mass off from Emmet. Emmet’s face and hands were blackened and burnt. His hair was gone completely, the skin of his face pulled tight in pain.

“Hold on, buddy. We’re getting out of here right now.”

Howls and moans echoed through the room. He heard the tread of thousands of Zeds above him as they woke from their cold-induced slumber. The Zeds outside of the room began moving as they too awoke, burning from the gas explosion.

Emmet tried to speak but no air came from his singed lungs. He looked at John, his eyes unblinking, until John realized he was gone.

Suddenly, the radio attached to John’s suit crackled to life. He looked down at his belt and saw that parts of his plastic armor had caught fire. He squashed the fire with his gloved hands and reached for his radio. The radio came out of its holster, but John could see it had been damaged from his flight into the wall. He held it up to his face and pressed the button to talk. The button fell off and dropped to the floor.

“John, Emmet, come in!” John heard over the radio. Its speaker still worked, and it was receiving.

“John! We’re under attack up here. Zeds are everywhere, and the building’s on fire! Can you hear me?” Roger’s voice echoed from the little radio.

John looked around but saw no sign of his P90. He still had his Sig on his belt, and the spikes in his arm pieces seemed to be functional, but he had no other weapons. He started towards the door, intent on escaping. Movement through the doorway, revealed by the flickering firelight, showed him the dozens, if not hundreds, of Zeds that stood between him and the staircase. Heat from the fire began to seep through the heavy armor.

“John! Can you hear me! We’ve got to fall back! There are too many of them. We’re losing up here!” John heard Roger, panic clear in his voice.
Get the hell out of here,
John screamed at them in his mind. He looked around for another exit and saw a small doorway at the far end of the little room, opposite to where he’d come in. The door had buckled and lay half in the doorway. He could see nothing from the other side.

“We’ll come back for you, John, Emmet! We’ll be back with help, I promise. Hang in there!” Roger yelled over the radio. John heard the sound of an engine start, and the stutter of a heavy machine gun. Then the radio went dead.

He moved toward the far end of the room. As he reached the buckled doorway, he caught movement from the corner of his eyes. He turned just in time to see the blackened skeletal Zed pack leader stand up, shrugging off burning Zed corpses as it stood. It turned to John and pointed.

“Youuuuu!” it screamed, its deep voice echoing eerily in the fire filled room. John turned and kicked the buckled door out of his way and ran through the doorway. The creature behind him came after him. He saw other Zeds come after him, most of them ablaze. Panic caused him to run faster. Light from the fire lit another stairway in front of him. More piles of Zeds had been here, but most had been toppled by the explosion.

Now, individual Zeds began standing up. They moved towards him, most shambling, but a few running. Howls echoed in the cavernous basement. He caught movement on the stairway ahead of him. He tried to focus on it just as a second explosion knocked him off his feet. He landed hard on the ground. Zeds all around him blew apart in the explosion. Pieces of flesh and bits of bone landed on him, a pattering rain of the dead.

Smoke cleared for a moment, and John saw movement heading towards him. A howl erupted behind him, followed by the sound of machine gun fire. Dark figures in camouflaged uniforms swept past him, deeper into the fiery basement. More gunfire followed by another explosion echoed behind him.

John remained perfectly, playing dead as the men moved past him. The smoky haze along with the hundreds of bodies laying all around him helped to hide him among the Zeds. He lay there as he listened to the gunfire. Dozens of uniformed men moved past, reinforcing those who had come first. He watched from inside his helmet, only the feet and legs visible as they thundered by. The gunfire died down, though he could hear men yelling orders. He couldn’t make out anything they said, however, until one yelled triumphantly. “Fall back! Mission accomplished.”