Deadlocked 7 (24 page)

“There,” said Laura. “That should stop the air from going to them.”

“I never knew they needed to breathe,” said Harrison.

“Yeah, me neither,” said Billy. “I’ve seen them walk underwater before.”

“I think they need oxygen,” said Ben. “But maybe they can last a while without it. Maybe they go into a catatonic state when they can’t breathe.”

“That must be how they kept the fuckers underground in these cages until they needed them,” said Harrison. “It’s how they’re storing them.”

“But we’ve seen the things walk out of lakes before,” said Billy.

“Maybe not,” said Laura. “Maybe they just washed up on shore and then got a breath of fresh air and came back to life.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” said Billy. “We cut off their oxygen. Let’s see if they go back to sleep.”

“If the oxygen tanks don’t explode and kill us all first,” said Billy.

“Damn it, kid,” said Harrison. “What did I say about bringing that up? Fucking shit, it’s getting damn hot in here. I always figured I’d end up burning in hell, but I never thought it’d be in the basement of a church.”

Billy took off his shirt and used it to wipe his face. He smeared a mess of blood and ash onto the cloth and then threw it over his shoulder. Next he stuck his thumbs under the white brace that kept his back straight and pulled it forward to let it breathe.

The room outside of the cell was filling with smoke, but the zombies continued to pound on the glass. Even as the temperature rose and the glass started to get hot to the touch, the creatures continued to press themselves against it. The sweltering heat caused everyone to sweat profusely, and the glass filled with steam. It was exhausting just to stand in the cell, but none of them were willing to sit in the mess below.

Laura was drenched in sweat and leaned against the glass, but it was so hot that it burned her skin and she moved away. She looked at the smear she left behind and saw that their zombie neighbors were now sitting on the floor, something she’d never seen an undead do before.

“Hey, look at this,” she said as she wiped away more of the condensation on the glass. The Greys looked up at her, and one even started to try and stand, but then settled back down. They didn’t look much different than normal, except that they were seated. The creatures weren’t sweating, and their eyes were as wide as ever, belying their seemingly sleepy state.

“I guess your theory’s right,” said Billy. “The bastards need oxygen after all.”

“Took them long enough to go back to sleep,” said Harrison. “Feels like we’ve been in here for half a day.”

“I doubt it’s been more than
twenty minutes,” said Ben.

“Why am I holding your damn dog?” asked Harrison. “Here, you take him for a bit. He feels like a sweaty gym sock in my arms.”

Ben took Stubs and scratched the dog’s ear. Stubs whined and panted, his tongue flopping much further from his mouth than seemed possible from his short, stocky body.

Something outside of the cell thudded and the group looked at the door, uncertain where the noise had come from. Then they heard another
, similar sound, and a man’s scream. The voice was dulled by their enclosure, but it wasn’t a zombie. Someone was alive out there.

“Do you hear that?” asked Billy.

“Yeah,” said Ben. “Someone’s calling your name,” he said to Laura.

“Are you sure?” she asked and started to wipe the moisture away from the glass door.

She cleaned the door just in time for them to see a red axe slam into a zombie’s head. They all screamed in shock as a masked man appeared in front of the cell. He slammed his fists into the door and continued to scream Laura’s name.

“Well, let him in!” Billy pointed at the handle.

Laura grabbed it, but the metal seared her and she retracted her hand. The man outside saw her attempt and grabbed the handle on his side. He pulled it, and the air inside whistled as it was pulled out. The heat outside of the cell was far more intense than Laura had expected and she grabbed the masked man and pulled him in fast.

“Close the door!”

He turned and tried to pull the door shut, but a zombie’s arm had flopped out when it had opened. Laura grabbed the corpse and pulled it back until the firefighter was able to get the door to close.

“Who in the hell are you?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s me,” said the stranger, his voice garbled by the mask. He pulled the plastic shield away to reveal his sweat drenched face.

Laura cried out with joy and wrapped her arms around him. Then she let go suddenly and cringed. “You’re blazing hot. Holy crap, it feels like I’m trying to hold a hot potato. Get that suit off.”

Zack tugged at the buckles in and attempt to get the jacket off. “This damn thing is a pain in the ass to get on and off.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” asked Billy.

“I came back for Laura.”

“Are you insane?” asked Laura, but her soft tone and teary eyes revealed how thankful she was to see him. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”

“You didn’t think I was going to leave you here, did you? Haven’t you learned anything about me in all these years?”

She stomped her foot in mock annoyance. “Hurry up and get that damn jacket off so I can kiss you.”

“I’m trying,” he said and tugged at the stubborn buckles.

“How the hell did you find us?” asked Harrison.

“I just followed the noise of the zombies,” said Zack. “When I got to the basement, I heard them down this way and figured they were after you. Never would’ve guessed you were sitting in a glass prison full of zombie bits.”

“This is how they were storing the Greys,” said Billy.

“Would you get that damn suit off?” asked Laura impatiently.

“Babe, give me a minute,” said Zack. “I’m getting there.”

“Fuck it,” she said and grabbed his cheeks. She pressed herself against him, ignoring the blazing hot suit, and kissed Zack hard. She didn’t even mind his sweat soaked beard. The she moved back and wiped away her tears. “I thought I lost you.”

“It’s going to take more than a burning church and a few hundred zombies to lose me, kid.”

“Aw, this is sweet,” said Harrison. “I mean, it’d be sweet if it weren’t so fucked up, what with the zombies and all. You guys make a nice couple. You should get married.”

Zack shook his head. “I’ve already asked her too many times and all she ever does is turn me down.”

“Try me again sometime,” said Laura, but then she pointed at the floor and laughed as she added, “But not here. Not now. This would be a fucked up place to propose to someone.”

“Tell me when you’re ready, kid, and I’ll get down on one knee.”

Chapter Twenty – From the Ashes

Two years after the apocalypse

Reagan is in the room with the tortured girl, facing the image of his son.

“This is some sort of trick,” said Reagan, but his hands trembled as he fiddled with the tubes that connected the prisoner to the hanging bags of fluid. The plastic strands hung from the clear bags and plugged into circular ports on her side that had valves that, when turned, detached the tubes. He got to work, unplugging the weeping child from the contraption and revealing the grotesque holes in her body that the tubes fed into.

“Reagan, you need to listen to me,” said the man on the computer.
“We don’t want to kill you. We need you. Just come quietly and we won’t have any trouble. Go out of that room and turn left. If you don’t, I have ways of forcing you to do what I ask.”

Reagan dared to glance, but the vision of his lost son on that screen was too much for him to take. His mind spun with a mix of anger and dread, sorrow and fury. He looked back down at the tortured patient, which turned his stomach in a different way. “Stop fucking with me.”

“If you’d just listen to me for a minute, I could explain…”

Reagan pulled his pistol and pointed it at the screen. He had every intention of pulling the trigger to silence the
false image. These bastards had used a computer to create a representation of Jim, and he knew it couldn’t really be his son. Jim had turned into a zombie on the first day of the apocalypse and killed Reagan’s wife, Arlene. Reagan had been the one to find them.

He remembered opening the door of their apartment and yelling his wife’s name. He could still hear the noise his boots made on the wood floor, and how the apartment had been ransacked, as if burglars had come to tear it apart and left it in shambles. Reagan held on to every miniscule detail of that moment, although he often prayed to forget.

Arlene was on the floor in a pool of blood at the end of the hall, their adopted son perched over her, his hands deep in her abdomen. His eyes were white, and his mouth was splattered with blood. He turned and growled at Reagan, then returned to his meal.

Reagan had cried out his son’s name, at first in shock and then in sorrow. Then he drew his pistol and murdered his boy
, his reason for living.

Now he was standing over a helpless, writhing child, again
pointing his pistol at his son’s face. He paused and his heart raced.

The man on the screen said, “No!” But Reagan pulled the trigger.

The screen shattered as the bullet passed through and lodged in the concrete wall behind. A fountain of sparks blew out of the back of the computer followed by a gush of black smoke.

“You need to see this, Reagan,” said Billy from the hall. “Hurry up in there.”

Reagan went back to the girl and pulled out the remaining tubes. She whimpered when he tried to pick her up and jerked away from his hands.

“I’m going to get you out of here.” He looked back at the hall and saw the plume of smoke from the diesel fire clouding above Billy.

“It hurts,” she said.

He saw thick, clear fluid leaking from the holes in her side. Her gown had been made to accommodate the ports, as if the military was doing this procedure so often that they had to have clothing manufactured specifically for it.

“You’re going to be okay,” he said and tried again to lift her.

“My body hurts. My bones hurt. I just want to die so I can be with my mommy again.”

The girl’s barbaric braces were lying on the floor. The soldiers had stripped her of them when they had put her in this chair. Reagan ignored the braces, unsure why she would need them, and tried to get Hero’s shirt over her mouth to protect her from the smoke.

“No, no, darling,” said Reagan. “Don’t say that. You don’t mean that. Let me help you.” He grabbed her, and she tried to push him away. She slapped his chest and clawed at his cheeks, but he lifted her anyway
.

“Let’s go, Reagan!” said Billy, his rifle aimed down the hall.

The child cried in pain as Reagan carried her. There was something wrong with her body. It seemed like her joints were moving too liberally, as if he were carrying a doll with loosened hinges. He could hear the sound of her elbow as it popped out of socket, and then snapped back in when her arm moved toward her chest.

“The fire that was in front of the doors got sucked inside of the rooms for a second,” said Billy. “It was like someone had a vacuum in there and was trying to put out the fire by sucking it up.”

“What?” asked Reagan. It was hard to fathom what Billy was saying. He was too focused on the wailing child in his arms.

“Then the doors all opened, but nothing came out.”

Reagan looked at the opened doors and saw that the fires were still burning in front of them. If there were soldiers inside, they were hopefully blinded by the thick smoke.

“
Let’s just get out of here,” said Reagan.

They ducked to avoid the
black smoke, but it stung Reagan’s eyes as he went. He had his shirt wrapped over his nose and mouth, but the odor was strong enough to bleed through, causing the taste of fuel to fill his mouth. They neared the first door and Billy pointed his rifle inside, shining the attached flashlight through the rising black smoke.

It was nearly impossible to see anything beyond the fire, but Reagan thought he saw a human figure. Then the girl in his arms cried out and something inside of the room answered her. That’s when the people hiding in the room
s were revealed as they moaned and growled.

“Zombies!”

The fire at the doors had pushed the undead to the opposite side of their rooms, but the lure of a screaming child was too much for them to bear. They sprinted for the doorway, and flew through the flames. One of them slammed into Billy and knocked him to his knees. The creature was standing halfway in the flames, and his clothes ignited as he tried to devour Billy.

Reagan tried to set the girl down on her feet, but her legs gave out beneath her and she fell to the floor. He
was sorry to have hurt her as she lay on the floor screaming, her knees bent in impossible directions, but he had to save Billy.