Byron : A Zombie Tale (Part 1) (15 page)

We pushed our way through the horde of undead, but they were packed in so tight that it was nearly impossible to get through the surging mass of corpses. I grabbed Elise by the hand and dragged her to the side of the roadway. We had to find a quicker way – a way to get past all of the bodies shuffling along the road.

“Can you enhance our bodies to help us get to my friends?” I asked out loud. Elise simply looked at me curiously, but then realized that I was asking the microorganisms inside me.

We can,
the chorus replied.
What types of enhancements do you need? If we were able to take control…

“Absolutely NOT!” I shouted. “You are not taking control of my body. It is MY BODY!” Elise jumped as she heard me. I was sure that she could imagine the conversation that was going on in my head.

Sorry,
the chorus said.
We only wanted to point out that it would be much more efficient for us to anticipate and modify your body as we need to overcome an obstacle rather than wait for your interpretation of the best change you could imagine. But yes, we can modify your body. What do you need?

I looked at the surrounding environment. We needed to climb up to the rooftops and be able to leap from one to the other. That would be the fastest way to make it to The Sanctuary. It was just as this thought occurred to me that I saw a pair of shadows pass overhead.

“Dammit!” I shouted. “They’re running along the rooftops. They know that we’re onto them. We have to get up there and after them.”

They are more efficient. The colony is in control of the body and will automatically adapt to any environmental change.

“NO!” I shouted again. “I am not letting you take control of my body!” I ran toward the nearest building and leapt to grab anything I could. But, my leap took me far higher than I’d ever expected. In a single bound I was on top of the second-story roof and running after the damned beasts. Elise, I was pleased to see, was running swiftly beside me. The colonies were willing to change my body to adapt, but I had to let them know what I needed.

“We need strength, speed, quick reactions, and to leap very far.” I yelled to Elise, but also as an alert to the organisms inside me. My body suddenly accelerated at an amazing rate. I was closing in on the beasts we had just been fighting. And then, I turned away and leapt over to a different building. I knew another way to get there that didn’t follow the road. “Follow me,” I said to Elise.

We leapt from rooftop to rooftop at amazing speed. I couldn’t believe that any human could move so fast without being strapped to some kind of rocket-powered propulsion system. In a matter of minutes we’d reached John’s apartment. Jumping down from the rooftop, I sprinted across the ground to the window.

“Evan,” I yelled, “drop the rope!” There was no reply. Goddamit! “Evan, there’s a whole horde of these damn things coming here, drop the rope!”

“Byron!” It was John, “what the hell are you doing here?”

“Trying to save your ass, you damn fool!” I yelled at him. “Now drop the rope, there’s not much time.” The rope came down from the window and we wasted no time climbing in. Of course, it wasn’t until we’d gotten inside that I realized I probably could have just leapt up to the window sill.

Inside, I was faced again with Evan’s familiar old shotgun. I looked him right in the eye, “I hope you got more shells for that thing.” Pointing to the window, where I could see the throng of corpses begin to shuffle into view, I said, “there’s a whole load of whoop-ass coming this way.” I smiled at him and patted him on the shoulder as I walked past. But, with my other hand I whipped the shotgun from his hands, cracked the breach open and dropped the shells on the floor. Seeing his stunned expression, I told him, “sorry, Evan. I can’t risk you wasting any ammunition accidentally shooting me again.”

It never even occurred to me that Evan was absolutely rigid and hadn’t moved. I looked at him and his faced was pale, but it was also looking out the window. I turned around and saw immediately what had caused his condition. The massive horde of undead I’d pointed to had grown significantly and was approaching fast.

I looked at John, “They’re here for you guys!”

“So, what the hell happened to you?” John asked. “You look…better…more alive!”

“It’s a long story,” I replied, “but thanks for noticing. When and if we manage to survive this, I’ll have to tell you about it.”

As I watched out the window I could see that some of our self-aware pals were down there directing the crowd. Then, without any bellowed commands, or shouts of direction, the nearing mass of walking dead flesh began to separate into different groups. It was surreal – almost like watching Moses part the Red Sea, except – pardon the pun – this would have been the Dead Sea.

I knew instantly what their groupings meant – they were working tactically. They would try to flank and surround us instead of a massive head-on assault. And then, I saw a group of self-aware beasts gather together in front of us. These were different from the others as they were armed with bladed weapons and were staring straight up at the windows of our apartment. All in all, I counted two hundred head
s among the group of creatures milling about directly in front of the building. I didn’t know how many were flanking us to the sides and back.

“John,” I said, “we’re in serious trouble here.”

He laughed and motioned to Evan who had once again pulled out his pig’s blood balloon cannon. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of this.” I knew that this was wrong – they were just going to make things worse by shooting off their little ‘diversions.’ But, before I could stop Evan he had launched a balloon into the crowd.

As the blood-filled
Mylar orb arced through the open window and into the waiting throng below I could see some perverse pleasure on Evan’s face. However, that same face paled as the balloon burst against several of the beasts and none of them moved a muscle. They were somehow disciplined – and stood their ground.

“What the…” Evan’s rhetorical question faded away. “I don’t understand. They should be clambering all over each other to get the fresh blood.”

I could smell the truth in his statement, the blood was very fresh. It made me thirsty and I could see that Elise was, too.

I slapped the gun out of Evan’s hands. “Evan, listen up, you’re out of your league on this. These things are something different than what you
’ve been dealing with, and they're being commanded by some very crafty beasts.”

“Commanded?” Evan asked.

I nodded. “Yes, commanded.” I pointed to a couple of the self-aware ones. “Do you see those? They are smart, and can adapt their bodies to any environment, and they have brought the rest of them here. I mean, look outside Evan. Look! They’ve flanked us. Does that strike you as something a mindless feeding machine would do?”

He shook his head, only I wasn’t sure if he was answering my question of just lost in disbelief. “Okay,” I began, “the short version goes like this – we are all infected with colonies of microorganisms that feed on blood to survive. These colonies have taken control of their bodies. Only Elise and I have remained in control above the colonies. The colonies cannot survive long on human blood alone, and so become mindless freaks, but those that feed on animal blood become very strong and smart. The ones that are leading this whole thing are animal-feeders, while the ones following are human-feeders.”

Evan looked me in the eyes. “Okay,” he said, “now what?”

“We need to figure out some way to get out of here,” I told him. “With the hundreds of beasts out there right now, we’re not going to survive long.”

John and Elise started taking inventory of all of their weapons. “Not good,” he reported, “we’re almost out of shotgun shells, blood, and only have two baseball bats left.” He glared over at Evan, “somebody threw some stuff out the window.” Evan cowed a little.

It suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t seen Tim or Pam. “Hey, John,” I said, “where are the lovebirds? We’ll need all the living bodies we can muster.”

John hung his head. “There’s a bit of a complication.” But, he never finished his thought as I heard Elise yell for me from one of the back rooms. I crossed the short distance to Elise in a fraction of a second. She was standing in the doorway of the third bedroom with one of her swords drawn.

“What’s going on?” I asked. But, as Elise stepped aside I became very much aware of the problem. Pam was lying dead on the floor, her head lolling to one side at a strange angle. Tim was in the corner of the room clasping a freely bleeding wound. I knew instantly that he’d been bitten.

“John,” I yelled out as he finally approached the room, “how much animal blood do we have?”

“About enough to fill two or three big balloons,” Evan answered.

“Okay, good,” I replied. “I need you all to trust me. Evan, John, keep an eye out front. Elise and I will take care of this.”

John looked at me before walking away and said with sadness in his voice, “I couldn’t do it, Byron. He’s like a real brother to me. Just like you.” He patted me on my shoulder as he left the room. I nodded and then watched him leave.

Tim was feverish, but wouldn’t tear his eyes away from Pam’s dead form. Without a word, I walked over to him and snapped his neck.

“If I bite someone, will they become infected?” I asked out loud.

Elise shook her head, “I don’t know. But, I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”

Our colony will spread to another host, yes. We are always looking for a new host to colonize.

“Good, I replied.” I cringed at the thought of what I had to do. But, these were my friends and I had to do something to help them. “Elise, please ask Evan to help you get some animal blood. These two are going to need it.”

I stepped over to Pam’s lifeless body and bit deep into her wrist. Her blood tasted disgusting to me and I spat it out on the floor next to her body, but it was still warm. I wasn’t sure if the colony would spread without a beating heart to pump it through her system. So, I began giving her chest compressions in an attempt to circulate her blood.

Elise had returned after several minutes. She brought with her a very small cup of animal blood. I could smell it, it was so tempting – so inviting. Elise didn’t say anything, but simply watched me work. In the far corner of the room I could see Tim’s body begin to writhe around.

“Elise,” I implored, “could you take over? I need to attend to Tim.” She nodded and smiled at me. I hoped that she understood what I was trying to do, and why! As I stepped toward Tim, I could see him open his eyes and begin looking around the room.

“Tim, buddy,” I said to him, “are you okay? How do you feel?” He didn’t answer me and kept scanning the room. As I approached him, I noticed too that he hadn’t been repulsed by the warning sent off by my colony. “Tim?”

His eyes locked on me and narrowed to slits. Something was terribly wrong, I could feel it in my gut. This wasn’t right. I lowered my hand to my sword and slowly began to draw the steel from its scabbard.

“Tim, buddy?” I tried again, “are you in there?”

He didn’t respond. As I was about a single step away from him his hand shot out at me, attempting to grasp my throat. The steel of my sword flashed quickly as it leapt from the scabbard and began its arc toward his neck. Tim’s eyes grew wide and he pulled his hand away, throwing himself back laughing.

My sword stopped mere millimeters from his throat and I stood there staring at my friend’s now undead body unsure of what to make of the situation. Amidst peals of laughter I could hear Tim say, “man, you should’ve seen your face. Priceless!”

Now, to say that I was angry at this point would have been the understatement of the millennium. I wanted to mash Tim’s nose into his face. So, I did. I felt the bones break beneath my fist with a satisfying crunch. Tim, however, only kept laughing. “Is that all you got?” he taunted me with, “bring it!”

“Goddamn it, Tim!” I bellowed. “I almost cut your friggin’ head off!” But, my tirade would have to wait as Elise interrupted.

“Byron!” she called to me. “It looks like the girl is coming around.”

“Okay,” I replied, nodding. “Just be careful that she’s hasn’t gone completely over.” I took the cup of blood from where Elise had set it on the floor and handed it to Tim. “Here, drink this, you’ll feel better.”

When the four of us emerged from the back bedroom nearly twenty minutes later John’s face went pale. “You survived!” he cried as he ran to give Tim a big hug, “thank God!”

I had to admit, our odds were getting better. But, we still needed to escape. As I watched Tim and John hug, it suddenly occurred to me that we had out ace in the hole. Or, more appropriately, our aces!

I had a plan. With Tim and Pam having joined the ranks of the living dead, we were going to be far less encumbered than if Elise and I alone had tried to carry everybody out of The Sanctuary. That we would lose our hold on this place was certain. We were heavily outnumbered and surrounded on all sides by hordes of undead beasts being directed by malicious self-aware creatures. This was a strange hell of a world in which we had found ourselves.

The plan was quite simple. We would run. However, it was the particulars of that plan that became complicated. We needed to find some way to get out of a surrounded apartment building and get far past the creatures below. Toward this end, we had several elements working in our favor: the colonies of microorganisms which inhabited our bodies and repaired them could also modify and enhance us; there were only a handful of self-aware beasts outside our stronghold below; and, average mindless flesh-eaters were still repelled by our colonies. This meant that the only enemies down there which could give us trouble were the self-aware ones, who, by the way, were also quite nasty in temperament.

So, to me, the choice was simple. Survival meant running. John would have to give up his precious apartment and take to the road. We all would have to leave town for good and head for someplace where humans were still alive and strong. I remembered Pam saying that she had heard that there were military checkpoints along the major border crossings from New Jersey due to the quarantine, and we decided that we had to get there. At least if John and Evan could cross to somewhere safe it would be worth it. It was the only way for them to be safe.

We decided that we would head for
Pennsylvania. It seemed a safer bet that we would be less likely to be swarmed by an undead horde in a much more rural area like that. With any hope, we could encounter one of the checkpoints and convince the military to let us through. We gathered all of the supplies we could carry. Pam and Elise would carry the supplies, Tim and I would carry Evan and John. I spoke aloud to the colonies within us all that we would need immense speed, powerful leaping legs, quick reflexes, and lots of stamina for the trip ahead. In return, they reminded me that all of the colonies needed to feed. I agreed that once we were safely beyond the danger below that we would feed.

For weapons, we kept one or two baseball bats, the swords that we had picked up in the other apartment, and Evan’s shotgun. Unfortunately, Evan only had a handful of shotgun shells remaining for the weapon. I hoped that once we got out of the area we could find a sporting goods store somewhere that may have had additional ammunition.

We were as ready as we would ever be. And, it was not a moment too soon. Outside in the hallway I could hear walking, shuffling and loud bangs. It took me a moment, but I quickly figured out that the banging was a result of the self-aware creatures breaking down doors so that the apartments could be searched. It worried me how crafty these bastards were.

Suddenly, we heard banging against the wall in John’s actual apartment. They had made their way into his place, despite the obstacles we had placed in the way. I was sure that they would soon figure out where the panel was that connected the two units. Mere seconds later, we heard banging on the door to this apartment. We had no time left. We had to leave. However, as we approached the window which we’d been using as our sole means of egress, we were greeted by the half-rotten faces of two sentient beasts clutching the window sill.

Evan was quick to respond and opened up both of the shotgun’s barrels into the window opening simultaneously. Amazingly, he struck both creatures, but was himself thrown onto his ass by the force of the weapon’s discharge. Elise snatched the gun from his hand with blurring speed, snapped the breach and reloaded in the blink of an eye. There would be more beasts any second, of that we could be certain. And, we were not at all disappointed in that knowledge for as Evan began to rise to his feet two more of the beasts clambered through the window opening and into the room.

They moved fast. Tim rushed forward with his baseball bat and managed to cave one of their heads in. The other, however, I took down with a flash of my sword. I approached the window and looked out – the sun had begun to drop below the horizon and the assault had begun. We were absolutely out of time.

Sheathing my sword, I grabbed a hold of Evan and climbed out the window. My fingers dug into the mortar joints between the building’s brick skin as I clambered up to the rooftop with lightning speed. Tim followed close behind with John holding on to his back while Pam and Elise followed them up with the supplies.

From the apartment’s rooftop we gained a new perspective on our predicament. Whereas we’d seen only about two hundred beasts from the vantage point of our window, it became readily apparent that this assault was overkill – literally. I counted more than two thousand creatures surrounding the building with the bulk of the force either behind or to the sides. Rooftops in all directions were occupied by one or two of the self-aware beasts, or Zombie Lords as I eventually came to call them. While the general undead populace, or common Zombies, maintained a massive force on the ground. Yes- I’d finally conceded to use that word.

“This doesn’t look good,” Evan said to me over my shoulder. “We’re dead meat.”

I chuckled a little at his inadvertent joke. “Nah,” I replied, “just a few of us. Us dead folks need to make sure you living folks stay that way.” As I scanned the nearby rooftops I heard Elise call out to me. Turning in her direction I could see that several Lords had made their way over to us. They’d come from a building in her direction, which if I’d remembered correctly, was where we needed to go to reach the
Delaware River.

Setting Evan down, I unsheathed my sword and ran full tilt at the beasts. Elise, too, had drawn her weapon and was engaging the Lords. The beasts were fast! Faster, in fact, than the ones we’d earlier fought before we’d reached The Sanctuary. However, we were able to ultimately dispatch them.

Of course, the unfortunate demise of these creatures meant that our path had been cleared to some degree. I called to Pam to follow and leapt from our rooftop with Evan once again clinging to my back for dear life. I was pleasantly surprised that my leap had been powerful enough to span the nearly hundred-foot distance between buildings and landed firmly on the next building. Running as fast as I could, I leapt from this to another rooftop.

In this manner we continued for quite some time. We didn’t need to worry about the bulk of the Zombies following us as their movement without an influx of blood was far less than that of a typical human. Instead, we needed to worry about the Lords who were hot on our trail. As I turned my head to inspect our team, I could see that the damnable creatures were only one or two rooftops away and closing fast. There had to be at least ten to fifteen of them pursuing us. Still, I didn’t have the luxury of time to devise some elaborate method of evading them. Instead, I simply attempted to squeeze as much speed as I could from my legs. Though, I knew that there would ultimately be some kind of a fight as we were heavily encumbered while they were not.

It had been about twenty minutes of running from rooftop to rooftop since we’d left John’s apartment and we’d managed to put a great distance between us and the massive horde of undead. But, with the Lords-a-leaping after us, I decided our efforts would be best served by finally jumping to the ground and running flat out. Yet, even as my foot struck the lawn below me I could hear the wild shrieks of the blood-thirsty beasts behind me. They were too close and, encumbered as we were, we were moving too slow.

I dropped Evan to the ground and whirled with my sword drawn. It was time for a standoff. We’d made enough progress to put the bulk of the beasts behind us and now needed to deal with our handful of crafty pursuers. As Tim landed he shucked John from his back and Pam and Elise put down the supplies. We formed a circle around John, Evan, and the supplies with our backs toward them. I could hear Evan loading his shotgun and John grabbed the last available baseball bat.