They were going to make it.
A scream behind him.
Reeves had stopped climbing, and Hemp turned his head to see four hands
gripping
both of Reeves’ ankles
, attempting to pull him from the ladder
.
“Damn it!”
shouted Reeves, looking down at the creatures. He turned his face toward Hemp.
“I … can’t use my weapon!” he cried, struggling to stay on the ladder. “If I do … they’ll pull me … off!”
He managed to gain one more rung through sheer arm strength. Both feet fell from the ladder and now it was all arms keeping him from falling victim to the zombies below. His gun dangled uselessly from its strap over his shoulder.
“Hold on, Kev!” shouted Flex, pulling a 9mm from his drop holster. He climbed back down three rungs, forcing Hemp backwards as well.
Reeves screamed in agony, and Hemp looked below to see one of the creatures had clawed its way up another rung, sinking its teeth into his ankle.
To Hemp’s horror, he saw Reeves’ fingers sliding from the rung.
“
Hemp!” shouted Flex
. “Take Kev’s wrist! Now!”
Hemp
wasted no time. He reached down and clamped his hand around Reeves’ wrist, pulling him up enough that his fingers again curled around the steel ladder.
“Can
you hold on?” he said to Reeves.
Reeves didn’t answer. His grip renewed, he tried to kick the creature from his ankle, and in three attempts, he was successful. Two others still gripped his other leg.
Above the two men, Flex
, using one strong arm and one foot hooked on the edge of the ladder rung, swung out and held
his
9mm
pistol
at the end of his reach.
Hemp twisted out of the line of fire as far as he could. Flex
fired four times at the heads and arms of the creatures
clutching
Kevin Reeves.
The fingers released as the bodies dropped away.
“Climb!” shouted Hemp, and Flex swung back onto the ladder and up through the hatch.
Night had fallen.
Hemp and a shaky Reeves followed behind Flex, and as they all got to the roof, they fell onto their backs, breathing hard and exhausted.
Hemp got to his knees and
crawled quick
l
y
back
to the hatch, slamming it closed.
Flex looked at him. “Buddy, you think they can climb?”
Hemp shook his head, exhausted. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Reeves had sat up and was examining his ankles.
Both were badly scratched.
“We’ll need to get that cleaned up soon,” said Hemp. “Make sure it doesn’t get infected.”
Flex glanced quickly at Hemp, then turned away.
But Hemp saw it.
So did Reeves.
“Guys,” said Reeves. “Should I worry?”
Hemp responded slowly. “I’d come to believe that if you carried the immunity that you didn’t have to worry about infection from bites or scratches. Gem was bitten, and we used a pure urushiol solution on her injury, but one of the kids … well, one of them turned.”
Kev’s eyes pleaded. “When?”
“We just found
out
about it,” said Flex. “The kids were handling it. They didn’t want us to tell anyone.”
“Well, if he turned, it’s important.”
“He wasn’t bitten,” said Hemp. “He killed himself, but afterward, he turned.”
“And you didn’t believe that was possible?”
“No. But it was more of a guess than anything else,” said Hemp. “Which means that I may have also been wrong about those who were immune not becoming diggers.”
“Let’s get back to the infection thing,” said Reeves. “If what you believe is true, I am in a hurry here. We need to find a way off this roof and out of here.”
“How many you think were in there?” asked Flex.
“I’d put it at over a hundred,” said Hemp. “Most went right to the outer perimeter. Blocked all the exits.”
“Smart, right?” asked Reeves. “Indirect domination. Make sure we’ve got nowhere to go so they can get us in their own time.”
“This is fucked up,” said Flex.
Hemp got to his feet and walked to the edge of the roof. The gravel crunched beneath his
boots
as he reached the corner and looked over.
“C’mon, gentlemen. “Everyone go and look for an exterior ladder or somewhere we can climb.”
The men split up, with Hemp taking the south side of the building, and the others heading west and north. They’d approached the building on the east side and had not made note of any features on the outside of the structure
there
.
“Over here!” shouted Kev, who had developed a limp. “It’s not a ladder, but it’s something.”
They ran over. They heard a pounding behind them and turned to see the hatch opening a few inches, then closing again. Hemp stared at it for too long, then turned back to where
Reeves
pointed.
“Dumpster?” asked Hemp.
“It’s all we got unless you want to chance asphalt,” said Flex.
“Looks like there’s cardboard in it,” said Kev. “Don’t know what’s under the cardboard, but –”
“It’s all we got,” said Flex.
The hatch burst open, and the top of Corn Silk’s head emerged.
“Who the fuck
is
that bitch?” asked Flex, swinging his gun around
.
She stopped and
quickly crouched just before
Flex fired. His rounds ripped into the three zombies that had emerged from the hatch behind her, even as more crawled
up through the access panel
, but she was now flat on the surface of the roof
.
Both
males and females
poured through the hatch and onto the roof, and Flex’s rounds had taken out several of them before his gun fell silent.
Not all of the females appeared to be pregnant, but it did not mean, Hemp knew, that they weren’t. Anywhere from a few weeks to 9 months – any of them would be experiencing extremely high estrogen levels.
“We don’t have extra rounds, and we can’t take them all!” said Hemp. “We need to get off the roof and to the truck! It’s our only shot. Kev, you go first, and
go now
!”
“Give me your gun
first
, Kev,” said Flex
.
Kev handed it over
and
Flex turned
toward
Corn Silk, who had gotten to her feet
and begun to advance on them
again
.
She stopped and dropped.
Fast. Lightning fast.
Hemp stared in disbelief.
“This is bullshit!” said Flex, and stormed toward her. As he approached, she
spider-
crawled backward, away from him, her dead eyes staring at him – at his weapon.
Hemp turned toward Kev. “Go
now
!”
Reeves stood on the edge of the roof for ten seconds, clearly gauging the jump and trajectory. The dumpster was approximately five feet from the building, and the drop was around fourteen feet.
He jumped. When he hit the interior of the dumpster
with a thud
, Hemp heard him scream. The scream was followed by
a constant moan, and Hemp heard Reeves say, “Shit.”
“What is it, Kev? Are you okay?”
“No!” he shouted. “Got something through my side. I don’t know. Rebar or something. Thick … metal.”
“Can you move?”
“Not far,” he said.
“Damn, it hurts.”
Hemp looked back at Flex, but now the roof was crowded with the creatures. They had continued crawling from the hatch with more coordination than they should have had. The WAT-6 might have been preventing a frenzy, but they all seemed to know they were to come after us.
How could that be? Hemp thought.
“Flex! We need to get the hell off here, so if you’re going to kill her, you’d better get to it, chap!”
Flex stood over Corn Silk as she reached the edge of the roof. He raised the weapon.
She slipped over the edge, out of sight.
Hemp stared. The other walkers kept closing in on him, the nearest now around ten feet away.
“Flex! Run!”
“She jumped!” he said in disbelief, even as he ran back toward Hemp.
“I’m as far out of the way as I can get,” said Kev from below.
“Get down here!”
Hemp
stared at the group of mostly males. They had lost much of their organization, milling about the roof now, no longer pursuing them as before. Perhaps without the guidance of Corn Silk, combined with the WAT-6, they no longer recognized Hemp and Flex as their targets.
Just in case his theory was wrong, Hemp turned and
fired into the heads and bodies of the creatures who were closest now.
Flex reached him, turned, and fired into the crowd as well. They both continued taking out the
bloodthirsty walkers
using single shots until their guns both clicked.
Hemp looked down at the dumpster. As Kev
had
landed within
,
the
impact
had pushed the wheeled dumpster
another foot or so away from the building. Kev
lay
on his back with something protruding from his side
, his agonized face staring up at Hemp
.
Hemp could see it was a
metal shaft of some kind. There was only a three-foot area available in which to land. If he miscalculated his leap, Hemp would either impale himself on the steel that had
punctured Reeves or
hit the steel rim
on the other side
.
“Go, Hemp. They’re coming.”
As Hemp looked down, he saw more zombies come from around the building, moving toward the dumpster. Their eyes were all looking upward toward the roof, and did not seem to know that Kev was
only yards from where they now advanced
.
Hemp jumped feet first, and landed cleanly, falling against the inside wall of the dumpster. The cardboard compressed, and he was lucky enough to avoid being run through with steel.
He turned to Kev, who lay on his back, a cylindrical rod of some kind protruding through his ribcage.
“I haven’t much time, Kev. I’m going to lift you. Just a bit.”
“Okay,” said Kev, gritting his teeth.
Hemp put his arm beneath Reeves’ back and used it a sort of fulcrum. The rod retracted into him the same distance.
“It’s connected to something else, Kev,” said Hemp. “That’s good news, actually. I’m going to do my best to pull you off of it. When I do – if I can – I want you to press your ha
n
d against the front wound. Can you do that?”
“Remains to be seen,” he said, his voice hoarse.
Hemp stood in a crouched position, his legs straddling Reeves. He hooked both hands beneath his arms and counted off.
“One … two … three.”
And he pulled, his pumping heart
charging
his veins with adrenaline.
There was a sucking sound as Reeves’ body came clean of the spike. Still holding him, Hemp kicked at the rod with his right leg, moving it aside. Something shifted beneath the pile, obviously the connected piece of steel.
“Can you kneel?”
“Maybe,” said Reeves. Hemp pulled him up and forward, and Kev leaned against the front of the dumpster, steadying himself.
“I’m going to stuff some of this paper into the entry wound. You hold your hand over the front, tight. If you start to feel faint, stuff paper in that, too. Ready?”
“Hell no.”
“Okay. Ready.” Hemp took a piece of paper and wadded it tightly in his hand.
He reached behind Reeves and pulled up his shirt. Moving his hand up his back, he found the wound and began working the paper in.
Reeves screamed just as Hemp was satisfied it would hold.
“Sorry, Kev. I’m really sorry. Now move as far to the left as you can … just a foot or so. I need to get out and Flex needs to get down from there.”
He got
on
his feet and peered over the edge. There were five or six of
the freaks
coming
toward the dumpster.
Hemp looked at Reeves, then jerked his head back to the creatures.
Corn Silk was crawling along the macadam behind them, one leg horribly twisted.
She had
lost her relatively smooth mobility, but not her determination
. She was making her way to them
to finish what she had started, no doubt
.