The complex was huge and entirely walled in. He stopped at the entrance. The dead were packed tightly into the place. They were smashed against the steel gates, and very few were moving. The apartments were spaced out in buildings of eight units each. There was no way into the place. He backed up, intending to circle the entire complex.
Thousands of fluttering pieces of paper were attached to the wall. He had seen this before. People left notes for loved ones in a variety of places. He wondered if his sister might have left a note. He got out to look. He walked along, looking over the notes. His sister would have left something identifiable. He didn’t see anything and realized that his sister would have left something obnoxiously identifiable, not a mere scrap of paper on a wall.
He circled the complex slowly until he saw it. A large piece of white plastic was duct-taped top and bottom to a telephone pole. It was a garbage bag, and what made it so obviously from his sister was the drawing on the bag.
In black permanent marker was a sketch of him, a version she’d first drawn many years ago on a paper place mat in a restaurant. He was six, and it upset him so much she drew it many more times, each version less flattering than the last. He got more upset each time she drew it and she laughed harder. It had ceased to be upsetting a long time ago but was now a joke between them.
He went to examine the sign. It was taped tight, and he discovered the roll of tape hanging off the rear of the pole as if whoever was taping it up had to take off fast. He started ripping it down and found a folded-up piece of plastic inside the bag. Not only was there an artistic flair to her work, there was also practicality in sealing the note in plastic and writing it on plastic as well, not to mention the care she’d taken to make sure it was easy for him to find. He read the note and dropped it. He was a mixture of aggravated, relieved, and amused.
Cooper,
I am safe with friends. We have to go get people. Not sure when I will be in Monterey, they say weeks. I will try to make it home to look for you or for a message.
If you are reading this, you are stupid. I told you not to come up here.
Love,
Ellen
“This just sucks,” he said aloud. He was sure she’d never told him that, but maybe she had. He started driving back to where he’d left Dale.
His big sister would never let him get hurt. She would protect him fiercely, but the minute she knew he was safe she would make fun of him to no end. She would make him feel like an idiot for caring about her and coming all the way up here. Oh well, if the tables were turned he would act like he was unaware of what she did to save him and not say thank you. That would drive her nuts to no end.
He would have loved to find her safe and sound, but he was relieved he didn’t find her dead or find no trace of her at all. There was a good chance she was OK, so to keep his spirits up he spent the ride back thinking of how he could turn the tables on her when he found her safe and sound. Maybe he could deny having come all the way up here and tell her he was at a friend’s house playing computer games the entire time. He also thought about Ana and what he should do now. He had some time on his hands.
§
It was late afternoon when Dale heard the door slam. He ran to the window with his gun. It was the kid, Cooper, and he was back quickly. Did he forget something? He was concerned until Cooper told his amusing story.
“Well, I’m in no rush now. I think I’m going to the parking garage for a while before heading to Monterey.”
“I was going to meet the folks at the parking structure when you got back, but it’s almost dark now. You want to wait till morning?”
“Yes, I’m exhausted. And I stink, so I’m going to clean up and change clothes—again.”
Later, Cooper was sound asleep on a sofa when something woke him. It was Dale walking past the windows of the main office. Cooper sat up and watched him as he paced back and forth. He would stop to look out the window every so often. Then pace some more.
“You OK?”
“Yeah. I thought I’d sleep like a rock. Sorry I woke you.”
The moon was bright tonight, and the city was visible in black and dark grays. Less than half a mile away, Dale saw a series of flashes illuminating the face of a building. It looked like gunfire. He didn’t think much of it at first, but it kept bothering him, piquing his interest. Who was that? Was someone in trouble? He tried to shake it off and turned from the window.
“There any food around here?” Dale was hungry, trying to take his mind off the flashes. He didn’t need to investigate. He wasn’t a cop anymore. It was probably a transformer shorting, or someone shooting the dead. It could be anything.
“Here.” Cooper handed him some warm soda and cheese crackers. Dale went back to staring out the window.
“You OK?” It was obvious something was on Dale’s mind.
“Yeah. Yeah,” he answered absently. He wasn’t a cop anymore, he kept telling himself. Leave it alone. He ate some crackers and drank half a warm diet soda. If the zombies didn’t kill him, eating shit like this would. He turned from the window.
“I need to go do something. Sit tight until I get back.” Dale checked his pistol out of habit. He started for the door, just one quick look.
“Hey, where are you going?” Cooper was more than a little curious. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“I saw flashes over across the highway. I was just going to take a look, make sure things are OK. I’ll be back.”
“Make sure things are OK? You’re going to walk out…there in the middle of the night to see if things are OK?” Cooper let it drop. He remembered it was none of his business. He realized he just didn’t want to be left alone. He enjoyed having the company.
“Once a cop, always a cop, I guess.” Dale turned to open the door.
“Wait, would you mind if I came with you?”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking me. I’m asking you.” Cooper was already pulling his boots on and pulling his gear together. “We should stick together.”
§
Minutes dragged in the dark silence. Cooper kept a vigilant watch on all sides while moving as cautiously and as silently as possible. He could hear Dale clumping loudly as he walked. He also cut too close to the edges of buildings when he turned a corner.
Cooper found himself hanging back from Dale. He was sure the guy would get surprised by a deadhead.
Man, he’s gonna get one or both of us killed at this rate
.
He tapped Dale on the shoulder. Dale stopped and leaned into listen.
Cooper whispered, “No offense, but we need to walk as quietly as possible. Don’t cut the corners so close. Um, yeah, sorry, I just picked up a few things on the way here. Moving slower will get us there quicker, if that makes sense.”
Dale agreed and asked Cooper to take the lead. He wanted to watch how he operated. He seemed to have a natural instinct for covert movement.
As they drew closer to the spot, Cooper recognized the street and the fencing. He sniffed the air. There was a slight breeze and he detected no dead, upwind at least. He crossed the street and entered the long-term parking lot of the airport. Once inside the fencing he felt a little safer. He stopped.
“This is the area where you saw the flashes?”
“Yeah,” Dale whispered. “It must have come from the structure at the other end of the lot.”
“Makes sense. This is where I saw the people I told you about and the giant hole,” Cooper said. Dale nodded in the affirmative.
As they proceeded with slow caution across the massive lot, the wind shifted a bit, and suddenly they were gagging on the smell of rotting flesh. Cooper struggled not to retch, as the smell was beyond disgusting.
The strength of the smell told Cooper there were a lot of rotting dead bodies out there, but he had no idea if they were a mile away or just yards from them in the dark.
42.
Wendy sprang into the car, over the body of her dead friend, and landed in the driver’s seat on her hands. As she pulled her legs in, she felt her friend’s body beneath her sliding out of the car. She hated that they got Sally’s body, what they would do with it—were doing with it as they dragged it from the vehicle. But Wendy would have wanted that to happen to her body if it would save a friend’s life, and she suspected Sally would have wanted that too. She squeezed into the tight bucket seat, started the car, and took off quickly, leaving the dead behind busy with Sally.
She watched them as she drove off, hunched over her friend and tearing her to pieces. Fortunately, she couldn’t see Sally, just the swarm of activity around her. But surely the red chunks they pulled back and gnawed on were part of her, as were the pieces of clothing and hair that flew over their shoulders. She saw a strand of innards stretched far as a feasting zombie stumbled backward with his precious handful and fell on his back. Strands of flesh were pulled in all directions, and she could stand no more. She looked away and headed to the Costco.
She decided to ram her car through the big rolling doors and let an army of dead into the place. If she died, that was OK. She had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do, and no one to do it with. But by the time she made it to the Costco, it was dark. She slowed down. In her headlights she could see the dead massing around the building. Specifically, they were thick around the entrance.
She headed over. The lights and the sound of her engine drew their attention. They approached her car as she drove slowly to meet them. Several were still hunched over an object by the door she was sure used to be a human. They were still eating handfuls of gore pulled from the hollowed-out corpse. One blood-smeared corpse sat chewing on what looked like a femur. She let the dead approach her to clear them from the door. Then she started to back away slowly, pulling them away from the Costco. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do now. How could she tell if anyone was inside? Could she get inside undetected?
Once the dead were across the parking lot, she drove a few blocks away before turning. She was going to come up behind the building and didn’t want the dead following her. The streets were dark and quiet. She sped up a little and left the dead behind, hoping she could find some way to help the girls.
On the drive over, Wendy had time to think things through and had decided not to ram the door. She didn’t want to hit the girls or simply get herself killed. She decided to see what she could see first. Being patient was hard, but first she needed to try to determine who was in the Costco. Then the hard part, how to deal with them.
§
Banjo and the six other bikers walked silently to the parking structure and entered the ground floor. It was dark and quiet, and they had trouble seeing where they were going. They quickly discovered that the ramps and stairs had been removed.
“Fuck this.” Banjo was stomping back to the front of the structure. “Come on.”
“Man, we can find a way up there.” Acid was following Banjo. The others were all coming together after having searched the ground floor.
“Nah, I ain’t climbing up there like a monkey. Those fuckers are coming down here. Muscle, you got that fucking cannon of yours handy?”
“Sure do.” Muscle pulled the chrome cannon from its holster and held it up.
They came from beneath the garage and walked several yards out from the structure. They stopped, turned, and Banjo gestured upward as if to say, “Now get their attention.”
Muscle raised the gun and fired three shots at the upper floors of the structure. The flashes lit up the area around the men and blinded them. The boom left them partially deaf with ringing ears.
Banjo was yelling, “Do I have your attention?”
It was quiet for a few minutes. Henry felt a slap on his back. He turned, vision slowly returning, ears still numb and ringing. It was Weed.
“Follow me, brother. We should be back a ways from all this.” The old biker walked off.
Henry followed Weed into the darkness, farther from the garage. He was at the point, past the point really, when he needed to take action to help the folks in the garage. He didn’t want to walk off into the dark with this old stoned biker while innocent people were murdered. But he followed anyway, cursing himself for his indecision and hesitation.
§
Everyone heard the gunshots and sprang up to look for each other. Ron immediately took action. As he was sitting on the sofa with Donna, one of the bullets struck the ceiling above his head, blowing concrete chips and dust on them. He was trying to remain calm, but he was frantic. He heard a voice shouting but focused on getting the group together. He was sure it was the biker that had tried to kill him.
“Everyone follow me.” He was walking hurriedly backward toward the ramp that led to the roof. “”Hurry. Hurry.” He was beckoning them to follow.
Lisa tried to ask what was going on. Ana was glued to her side, but all they got from Donna was that they were in danger and had to follow them.
I kind of figured that one out after the gunshots and yelling
, Lisa thought.
In the center of the parking structure’s roof was a cinderblock building about eight feet tall. It was considerably larger than the two shafts below it. It contained, among other things, the pulleys and mechanisms for the two elevators. The group had previously discussed safety and the possibility of having to hide in the structure. The door to the cement structure locked from the inside and was a solid metal exterior door. It had what appeared to be a heavy-duty locking knob keeping it closed, and it wasn’t easily opened without a key. The elevator doors on every floor were similarly heavy duty, and when closed, a latch fell in place that made opening them, without the proper tools, almost impossible.