Authors: William Kenney
They were seemingly mindless, only driven to kill and consume.
Conor turned, studying the ladders. The girls had gone first and were near the top.
"What the hell?" he called out. "Get a guy up there. Those manhole covers are not light. They may not be able to lift those things. Hurry, I don't know if this grate's going to hold."
"Ah, damn. Hold up, girls," their father called out as he started up the ladder behind them shaking his head.
The heavy grate was bending inwards under the weight of the undead. One bolt broke loose from the concrete wall and flew across the room to ricochet above their heads.
"We're just about outta time, brother," Aiden said, watching as the girl's father shoved the manhole cover up and slid it away with a loud scraping sound. Behind them, Klaus was assisting one of the old ladies up the ladder. She was almost sitting on his shoulder as she climbed and soon she reached the top and managed to pull herself out.
Klaus began to climb back down.
"Klaus, what are you doing? Get out while you can, man!" Conor shouted.
"The others will need help, too," Klaus replied, his breathing heavy as he searched below him for the next rung. He was a big guy and the climb had taken a lot out of him.
"No, we'll take care of it," said Conor. "Get yourself and the others to safety."
"You sure?" asked Klaus.
"Yes! Go!" Aiden said as he helped one of the ladies to the ladder.
The zombies were growing louder and more crazed as they sensed their quarry might escape. They struggled so violently that bits of them broke off and fell to the ground, a finger here and groups of teeth there. Soon the grate was covered with a gelatinous slime, the combination of blood and drool.
More bolts snapped as the creatures surged forward, crawling over each other to be the first to the feast.
Conor helped the others, choosing which would go in what order.
"Ya'll are gone have to help my fat ass up that thing, too," Uncle Leo said to Conor as the last of the women disappeared through the manhole. His companions were on their way up when part of the grate folded inward, the metal finally weakened to the point of failure.
Only Conor and Uncle Leo remained, both staring wide-eyed as the first of the monsters started to force its way through the opening, wriggling and thrashing its body about.
"Fuck, man," Uncle Leo shouted. "I don't know if I can do this!"
"Start climbing, man. We're both getting out of here," Conor urged.
Uncle Leo was a large man, close to four hundred pounds and none too fit. Just getting his foot up to the first rung was a monumental task.
"Bobo! Ink! Get yo asses down here! Help me up!" he screamed.
Bobo's face appeared above, silhouetted against the sky.
"What? You shittin' me? You can't even climb a goddamned ladder? Fuuu..." Bobo said, shaking his head. He was soon back down, pulling hard on Uncle Leo's arms, helping him get up each rung.
The first zombie was through, immediately standing and glaring at Conor who was still at the bottom of the ladder.
"Hurry!" he shouted as the thing screamed and ran at him, arms outstretched, rotten fingers grasping. Conor looked frantically around him for some sort of weapon, settling on a shaft of metal about four feet long, possibly the support for a street sign by the looks of it. He snatched it up as the thing reached him.
Conor swung it two-handed at the thing's throat, laying it wide-open, the head falling to the side, suspended by a short length of stretched flesh that left it hanging on its shoulder. The creature stopped, stumbling about, arms still reaching out for Conor as fluid ran down its chest. Conor threw a solid kick into its chest, knocking it to the ground as he turned back to the ladder.
There was now room for him to get out of reach of the rest of the zombies.
"Come on, yo!" Bobo called out as he helped Uncle Leo up out of the hole. "The whole thing's comin' down!"
Conor took one last look at the grate just as it broke loose and fell inward, dozens of the undead toppling forward and quickly rising to their feet. In a flash, he was up the ladder, staring down at the rushing mass of bodies as he reached the top. To his horror, the headless monster that he had fought had risen again and was blindly lunging out for living flesh.
"Hurry, brother," Aiden called down, reaching out to pull Conor free of the sewer. Below, the zombies were trying to climb the ladder, their broken dead limbs slowing them significantly. They growled loudly in frustration, the whites of their eyes and teeth the last things visible as Conor shoved the manhole cover back home.
He took a look at their present surroundings, standing in the middle of a downtown street as the sun was beginning to rise, the wind having picked up, blowing dust in his eyes. What he saw left him speechless. It had only taken a single night and the city resembled a warzone, fires smoldering everywhere, cars totaled, corpses littering the sidewalks by the hundreds. Above it all he could see the hazy image of the Gateway Arch, though now the topmost section was missing, crooked fingers of steel jutting out from the breach.
In a near alleyway he heard guttural jabbering, more zombies on the way.
The others had taken cover in an underground parking garage, huddled together in the darkness just inside the entrance. Together, Aiden and Conor ran to them, pulling them all out of sight.
"This shit's not like all those movies, man," said Bobo in a hushed tone.
"What do you mean?" Conor asked, peering out at the zombies that lumbered out of the alleyway and into the street. They looked straight at Conor as if they had heard him speak.
Not possible. We're too far away.
"I mean you cut that motherfucker's head off and it got back up," said Bobo.
Conor raised a hand to silence him, then motioned for all of them to move farther into the parking structure. They ran through rows of vehicles, moving toward the building that it fronted. They tried the nearest door, found it unlocked and ducked inside.
Conor held a finger to his lips as he took a few tentative steps into what appeared to be a receptionist area and large lobby. The power was out and it was quiet within.
"Doris says I can have applesauce," Albert blurted out suddenly, his voice echoing in the room.
"Shhh..." several of the others said and then they heard a scuffled down the hallway. Something had been alerted to their presence. Something had heard Albert's voice.
"Oh, goddamn," Uncle Leo whispered, glancing down the hall. It was a typical office building with multiple doors on either side of the corridor. At the far end, they noticed blood stains on the carpet as if something had been dragged around the corner.
On its hands and knees a dead thing came into view, shreds of meat hanging from its teeth. In life it had been a woman, long matted hair now hanging in clumps from its skull. One eye was missing, only a dark, dripping hollow left in its place. Upon seeing them, its posture stiffened, single eye staring with hunger as it rose to its feet.
Mina screamed, her father trying to quickly silence her.
The sound of breaking glass exploded somewhere behind them as her scream got the attention of the creatures outside. Conor could not see them yet, but the sound of an army of the dead grew louder and louder as the monsters converged on their location.
The dead woman at the end of the hall lurched forward, running with an awkward gait, bouncing off the walls, leaving her bodily fluids in streaks as she rushed toward them, barking like a mad dog.
"Fuck this shit!" Bobo shouted and backed away, scanning the doors around them. One door gave access to the stairwell. He wrenched the door open and ran inside, glancing up and down the steps. "Come on, ya'll!" he called out, motioning them inside.
Vernon stood between the zombie woman and his daughters, his hands balled into fists.
"Get them outta here," he said as the zombie crashed into him, fingernails tearing at the skin of his cheeks as he tried to push her back. He shoved her away, blood running down his face as he punched her hard in the face, dislodging what was left of her nose.
Klaus abruptly appeared at Vernon's side, black-handled scissors in his hand as he lunged for the dead woman. After a few tries, he managed to bury the blades in her good eye, sending her spinning in circles as she screeched and clawed at the walls.
"She's blind. Let's get out of here," Klaus said, pulling Vernon along behind him.
Immediately the zombie locked on to the sound of Klaus' voice and came running directly at him. He side-stepped, tripping her and stomping on her head as she struggled on the floor. Her brittle skull caved in, soupy brains running out onto the carpet.
Still she did not die. She continued thrashing, attempting to stand.
"Bobo's right," Klaus whispered. "These are like the zombies you see in the movies. These things don't seem to die. Ever."
They were all in the stairwell with the door closed behind them when hundreds of the dead came crashing down the corridor, growling, eyes darting about erratically, searching for the living things that they had heard.
Aiden held the door closed, staring through the small rectangular window while keeping his face from view. It took several tense minutes for the horde to pass, their horrible noise eventually fading into the distance. He turned to look at the others, their faces full of absolute terror and hopelessness.
He held up his hand, silently asking them to wait while he pulled his cellphone from his pocket. He typed out a message, the others standing by for two minutes as he finished. Then he passed the phone to the others, allowing each to read what he had written.
They can hear a pin drop. We have to be completely silent. Turn off the ringers on your phones. Just in case. If you have something to say - type it like this.
Each person nodded as they read it, setting their phones to silent mode.
Uncle Leo handed his phone to Aiden.
Roof?
it read.
They showed it to everyone, the majority agreeing with the plan. They were soon climbing the stairs as quietly as possible, occasionally hearing the disturbing sounds of the undead on various floors as they passed.
Reaching the rooftop, they found the wind strong and rustling in their ears. As one they slowly made their way to the roof's edge and stopped, staring in disbelief at the ruined city below.
"My God. This can't be happening," Gibby said, running a hand through his black hair. "Can't be real. Just no fucking way."
St. Louis was covered in a grey haze, an after-effect of the numerous fires and explosions that had occurred overnight. Some buildings in the distance still burned, the orange flames dancing above the horizon. In the streets directly beneath them were thousands of walking corpses, milling about, bouncing off one another as they scanned the area for new prey.
On the pavement between the zombies feet could be seen countless human skeletons, stark white and completely stripped clean of flesh.
The group stepped away from the edge, forming a loose circle.
"I think it's safe to talk, but keep it quiet," Conor said. "This wind is so loud, I don't think they can hear us."
"What are we going to do, Dad?" asked Trish, covering her mouth with her hand as her sister put an arm around her. "I want Mom."
"I - I don't know, honey," he replied. "Give me a minute to think."
"Phone lines are dead," said one of the old ladies in frustration.
"Yeah, same here," said Aiden with a frown.
"Well, obviously this is only temporary," Klaus said, referring to their rooftop refuge. "We can't stay here."
"Why not?" asked Gibby. "You want to go back down there?"
"No food. No water. No shelter from the elements. Need I go on?" Klaus said.
Gibby looked at his feet and shook his head.
"We need guns," Vernon said.
"Shotguns," Aiden added. "Pistols and rifles won't help much against these things. At least with a shotgun, you can blow their head off or a leg. Slow 'em down."
"Right. Head shots don't really matter," said Conor. "All those videos games we played were bullshit."
"All right. Where are we going to find guns?" Gibby asked. "Don't you think the gun stores have all been picked clean by now?"
"Nah. Not yet," said Uncle Leo. "Gone take a few days for that to happen. First things first. How the hell we gettin' down from here, ya'll? Fly?"
"We'll have to go back down through the building," said Klaus. "It's the only way."
"Shit," said Bobo with a nod from Leo.
"We know it's not like the Living Dead movies," said Aiden. "Damaging the brain doesn't matter much, which makes fighting these things a real pain in the ass. Blinding them helps, but they can still hear the tiniest sound, zero in on you quick."
"I don't know if I can make it, man," Uncle Leo said, avoiding the eyes of the others.
"Why not?" asked Mina.
"Cuz I'm fat, child," he answered. "Straight up fat. Those stairs almost gave me a heart attack."