The Rising Dead (21 page)

“How old are you?” Holt looked seriously disturbed.

I shouldn't be here
, he thought.
I'm one of God's soldiers now.

“What are you the fucking cops now?”

“Don't worry,” she said, rolling onto her back and spreading her legs. A smile crossed her face as she exposed herself to Holt. “I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

“Ain't she beautiful?” Vance snickered. “And so very tight.”

“She looks infected,” Holt said. “You both do. You've got the devil in you for sure.”

Holt thumped his crowbar in his hands as he stared at them.

“Chill out,” the girl said, looking nervous. “Do some lines with us. I've always wanted to have a threesome.”

“Yeah man,” Vance said, a thin layer of perspiration beaded across his brow. “What's the big deal?”

“You're violating God's laws,” Holt said.

They both laughed at him.

“The world as we know it has ended and you want to quote me the Bible?” Vance put his hand on Holt's shoulder. Holt looked over to see there were bite marks running up and down Vance's arms as well. “McAnus always said you were a dick. I think he just didn't get your brand of humor.”

“I'm not kidding,” Holt said, stepping back. “You've been bit. You are one of them now. It's just a matter of time before both of you transform.”

“All the more reason to party hard,” the girl said, rolling over and snorting a huge line. Black blood began to drip down her face when she came back up and she rubbed it away.

The smile slid off Vance's face. He started looking really nervous.

“Look,” Vance started, “I'll tell you what I know and then you've got to go. Deal?”

“Deal,” Holt said with a smile.

“Okay so when everything started I just locked myself in and hid,” Vance said. “Hours went by and it got all quiet, sort of. I mean there were still people out there eating each other, but they ran out of fresh meat so to speak. That's when I got really worried.”

“Go on,” Holt said calmly.

“So I heard gun fire and then voices,” Vance said. “I went to follow the sound of the commotion and saw McAnus and Parker going into the crazy ex-military dudes apartment.”

“What happened next?”

“I don't know,” Vance said. “They shut and locked the door just as a fresh wave of creepy dead guys came along. I turned and ran but they were in every direction I headed. That's when I saw her.”

Holt and Vance turned and stared at the girl. She smiled at them as she played with herself, rolling around high out of her mind.

“She was being attacked by three guys,” Vance said. “At first I thought they were raping her but then the closer I got I could see they were biting her arms.”

“What did you do?”

“What do you think I did?” Vance looked upset. “I fought them off and brought her back here.”

“Is that how you got bit?”

“Fucking eh,” Vance replied. “I'm a fucking hero here man, trying to enjoy what little time I've got left before God knows what happens.”

Holt smiled.

“That's a good story,” he said. “Tell you what, I'm going to do you a huge favor.”

“Oh yeah?” Vance smiled, relaxing a little.

“Boys,” the girls cooed to them from the mattress. “Let's not waste any more time fighting when we could be doing so many better things.”

“I couldn't agree more,” Holt said. Vance smiled and let out a sigh.

“Man you really had me there,” he said. “For a moment I thought you might be trying to kill me. Come get a rail of this shit. It's amazing by the way. I think it's the cleanest meth I've ever tasted in my life.”

Vance turned towards the girl and Holt wasted no time bringing down his crowbar into his skull. Vance fell over with no more than a thud as blood poured from his skull. The girl opened her mouth to scream but barely got a squeak out before Holt silenced her with a series of hard blows to the neck and head. Standing over them he made sure they weren't coming back.

“Sorry guys,” Holt said in earnest. “But it was for your own good.”

He turned and headed back out into the courtyard just in time to hear a loud explosion rock the grounds and lift him off his feet.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Max washed her hands in the sink for what felt like a small eternity, turning over in her head what Gunner had said to them. It all kinda made sense in a sick way. Still, Parker had made a valid point. Gunner was a paranoid creep, an ex-military whack job and a self-confessed conspiracy nut. Was he the one they should be trusting with their lives?

I wish I could talk to my father,
she thought.
He’d know what to do
. She said a silent prayer in her heart that he was still alive, that this madness hadn't taken him away from her forever. The thought of a world without him in it was too much to bear. She fought back tears.

No,
she told herself in a stern voice.
You didn’t shed tears when this happened and you’re not going to shed them now.
Max knew that if she let her guard down now she would be utterly lost. She regretted the emotion she'd shown Parker when he came to her room. It made her sick to her stomach to think she'd been so weak. It wasn't going to happen again. She promised herself that much.

Pull it together,
her inner voice commanded. She splashed cold water on her face.

She'd felt out of control since the moment that guy had attacked the girl behind her apartment. She splashed cold water on her face again. It had to have an effect at some point, she figured. She heard Gemma stifle a sob behind her on the toilet. How did she get stuck with this vapid, trendy mall chick? She was like the epitome of a Valley Girl, even though she probably didn't even know what that meant. Max didn't understand how it had come to this, with her being left to babysit a rich, spoiled girlie girl.

“How you doing?” Gemma didn't answer. Max figured that she was still in a state of shock over what it took to get into the apartment, seeing all those people gunned down.

Gunner was right about one thing,
Max thought.
Girls like Gemma don’t survive things like this.
It was true. They froze up when they needed to move. They screamed when they should be quiet. They went into shock and never came back out. She was going to have to adapt fast if she didn't want to become a Happy Meal for the undead. The only reason she was still with them was because she'd been with Travis and Parker when this all went down. Under any other circumstances, she would be out there with the rest of the undead freaks.

“You still with us?” Max wasn't cut out to play the supportive role. It just went against everything she'd grown to believe about herself. She wasn't the compassionate type. She was tough, elusive, maybe even mysterious. Supportive never made the list.

“I'm fine,” Gemma said at last, sounding like she was trying to make herself believe it. Max rolled her eyes. This was not how she had expected to spend the end of the world, locked in a room with a jock, a geek, a princess, and a basket case. It was like a twisted version of the Breakfast Club. She smirked as she realized that made her Judd Nelson, the criminal.

“Let's get back with the group,” Max said. “We've got to figure out what our next move is gonna be.”

A loud grunt came from the living room. Both girls froze. They hadn't bothered to check the rest of the apartment, assuming they were alone. Gunner had huge bolted locks on the door and had boarded up the windows. When they got back he locked them in and they went straight down to the command center under his bed. No one ever thought to check the kitchen for uninvited guests that might have found their way in during Gunner's absence.

Stupid,
thought Max,
I’m such an idiot.

Gemma pulled her panties up just as the ghoulish face of a former neighbor came into sight. He was still wearing his work uniform and the name tag sewn on read JIMENEZ. His face looked swollen and feverish. His eyes were jaundiced and blood ran freely from his nose into his open mouth. He roared up at them fiercely then sprang forward with incredible speed. Max had little time to do more than react. She grabbed the door and pulled it towards her, falling into the bathtub but using the door as a shield. The infected man shot right past her and grabbed Gemma, his cold hand wrapping around her leg. The strong penetrating odor coming from his mouth was the worst thing she had ever encountered in her life. It smelled like stagnant water filled with the rotting corpses of animals. Gemma kicked at him with her free leg but she was unable to free herself from his chilled iron grip. He brought his mouth closer to her leg, preparing to tear a chunk out of her as she pulled away. Gemma closed her eyes and screamed from the bottom of her lungs, flinching as she prepared to feel his teeth tear into her skin.

Max, placing her hands on both sides of the shower wall and powering through with her back muscles, brought her right foot up in front of her, swinging out of the deep tub. She followed through with her left foot, her Doc Martin boot connecting with the side of Jimenez's face and sending him onto his back. Gemma skittered out, slipping on the now piss wet tile in her hurry and smacking her face on the side of the wall. Her arms scrambled on the slick surface trying to keep herself upright, but found no purchase. She tumbled in a panicky cartwheel back to the ground. Jimenez had already flipped back over, the blow to the head hadn't slowed him for even an instant. He was crawling on all fours toward Max with his mouth open and teeth snapping at the air. Max took a cautious step back, making sure not to trip over Gemma in the process, her left hand finding the metal trash bin. She was prepared when Jimenez lunged at her, quickly moving out of his reach and swinging the basket around until it collided full force with his face. Gemma was up again. She screamed uselessly for a second time. Max turned and pulled the metal trash can toward her, scraping it loudly on the floor. She had just enough time to see that Gemma was blocking their escape, eyes closed, her hands uselessly clutching the sides of her head.

This chick is gonna get us both killed,
Max thought.

She raised the small metal trash can high over her head. When Jimenez burst at them, arms flailing like a wild beast, Max brought it down with all the strength she had, connecting with the back of his skull in a sickening thud. He was rising up again in no time, his movements jerky and uncoordinated like a wino.

Gemma threw the door open, her head turned toward the action, and the door smacked her in the face. She crashed to the floor once more, her arms wind-milling out and catching Max in the process, sending her back into the hard wall without warning. Max had the wind knocked clean out of her from the impact. She slipped to the floor and Gemma pinned her down with her weight as she landed in her lap. Jimenez staggered toward them.

I must have damaged something with that last hit,
Max thought.
He’s not incapacitated, but he’s definitely had the juice zapped out of him.

Max frantically tried to shove Gemma's dead weight off of her lap, but the frightened girl didn't budge. Jimenez was within striking distance. Soon he would be on top of them. Max kicked her right leg out as hard as she could. It collided with his left knee as he lumbered forward, sending him involuntarily spinning around. Her wind returned and she screamed at Gemma.

“Get the hell off me!”

Gemma snapped out of it and stood up, turning around and helping her up. Max didn't waste any time bolting for the bedroom door this time. She wasn't going to be zombie food because some idiot girl couldn't keep her wits about her. The hatch to the command center was still open. Max made short work of crawling back down into the converted storage space. Gemma was right behind her, practically clinging to her back. As Max rocketed through the door, Gemma let out a shocked cry. Max turned to see Jimenez had a handful of Gemma's long blonde hair and was trying to pull her back into the bedroom.

Max wheeled around and drove a hard and precise knuckle punch into Jimenez's throat, then drove an upward blow to his wrist, knocking his grip loose. Gemma fell to the floor with a squeal.

“What the hell is going on?” Parker shouted. Gunner turned and saw Jimenez hanging in the crawlspace, dazed from the force of the blow to the throat. Gunner jumped to his feet and drew his gun. Marching quickly forward he advanced, arms raised to keep the barrel level and even with Jimenez's head until he had a clean shot. Max backed up behind Gunner. Jimenez stuck out both his arms and lunged toward them, the appearance of a smile crossing his face. Gunner didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger and shot him between the eyes, blowing a hole clean through his head. The spray covered Gemma with blood and brains. Jimenez fell into the command center with a loud thud and lay still. Blood poured from the enormous gunshot wound in his head.

“Did you open the apartment door?” Gunner's eyes were wild. He still had the gun up.

“No,” Max quickly replied. “I swear.”

“Son of a bitch must have been in here the whole time,” Gunner said, lowering the gun at last.

Gemma shook with fear. He'd almost managed to get his filthy mouth on her when Max ran out of the bathroom, deserting her. The adrenaline had goosed her back to reality, making her sprint out on Max's heels, clinging to her back side. The feeling of her heart pounding in her chest made her want to puke. She swooned from the panic overload. Fear flooded her as Gunner moved toward her.

“You okay?” Gunner asked. She shook her head but didn't make eye contact with him. Icy cold fear flooded her insides. She knew in her heart that he wouldn't hesitate to kill her, the same way the security guard at the hospital had murdered Candy. If he thought for a second she was sick he would put her down without a word. She began to take big gulps of air.

“I'm fine,” Max said quickly. They all turned to Gemma.

“I'm can't breathe,” she said, pushing herself away from them.

“Get her a bag to breath in,” Gunner said. “She's hyperventilating from the shock.”