“Oh, no, Ty” Chevy
cried.
I turned back, “Are
you okay?”
“You killed my car,
Ty. Why did you have to kill my car?”
Chevy watched, with his
mouth wide open as the car slid off the road and careened into a
tree.
“Why? Oh, that
beautiful car. Why?” Chevy blubbered.
I kept my foot on the
floor as we came out from behind The Magic Land Motel. I knew exactly
where we were. We were on the main road only about a mile from the
park, and closer to the supermarket than I thought, a little bit of
luck.
“Everyone hold on.
I’ll have us at the supermarket in five minutes.” I said, as I
turned onto the main road squealing my tires.
Chevy slid forward in
the seat so he could see out the windshield, “How do you think the
girls are doing?”
I anted up a comforting
smile, “Better than we are, I’m sure.”
I turned forward again
as a thundering explosion in the distance shook the Humvee. We
watched in awe as an enormous fireball rolled into the sky.
Daniels walked around
offering everyone more bottled water. It took about five minutes for
them to go from starving to stuffed. The plan was to start moving
again, but their bellies told them it was time for a nap. It wasn’t
safe in the city. It would be safer to take advantage of the daylight
and move out in five minutes. There'd be time to sleep when they got
out of the city. Daniels reached in his shirt pocket and pulled the
phone out again. It hadn’t rung, but with the cellular networks
sporadic service, a message might have been received without the
phone recognizing it. Daniels hit the home button. There were no new
messages. A searing twinge of fright shot through his body. The
thought that they hadn’t answered because they were dead, made him
weak in the knees.
“Knock that shit
off,” he thought to himself. It had to be the goddamn cell service.
It didn’t work that well before all this started. He wasn’t about
to let shitty service get to him now. He scrolled down to the last
message he sent. Below the text bubble it said, “Delivered.” All
the messages above it all said, “Read.” There were a thousand
reasons why he wouldn’t have read it. Daniels ran through them in
his head. Maybe they were on Interstate 87. There’s no service on
that road. That had to be it. He touched the text bubble; the
keyboard rose from the bottom of the screen, “
Ty.
We made it to Bryant Park. We’re heading for the tunnel. Please
reply when you get this, pal. I’m worried about you. Love you.
Dad.”
Daniels hit send and
followed the delivery bar across the top of the screen. The phone
dinged when the message finally sent.
“It hadn’t made
that sound before.” Daniels thought. “Maybe the previous message
didn’t send after all.”
The most he could do
now was to hope for a quick reply. Ten minutes later he found himself
still staring at the screen.
“This is ridiculous,”
he said aloud.
All eyes in the room
looked at him.
“What did you say?”
Bunker asked.
Daniels put the phone
back in his pocket, “It’s time to go I said. Everyone on their
feet. I’ll be right back.”
Daniels left the
solarium and went to the employee break room. Earlier, when he was
clearing the building with Bunker, he stumbled across a lost and
found clothing box. With a little luck, maybe he could find something
to carry the food. He rummaged through the box. It didn’t take long
for him to come across a couple of student's backpacks. With the
number of kids that came to the park daily, there was no doubt they’d
leave their stuff behind.
Daniels hustled back to
the café after finding the packs and tossed them to Ceci and Kaden,
“You guys stuff those with some food and water. We’re bound to be
hungry again at some point.”
Destiny stood up
waiting to help, “What do you need me to do?”
“You’re my
navigator, goose. Tell me how to get from here to the Lincoln
Tunnel.”
“From here, it’s
easy,” she pointed out the window, “we go west until we get to
Eleventh Avenue, and then turn south, and we’ll be on the tunnel
road.”
“Sounds easy enough,”
Daniels said, looking out the window.
The kids came back a
few minutes later, loaded with food and bottled water. Bunker
tightened up the backpacks so they would be easier to carry.
“We’re ready.”
Bunker said.
Daniels looked out the
huge tinted window, “It looks safe outside. Let’s move.”
They hadn’t been in
the solarium very long, but now they all had an uneasy feeling. The
light breeze had stopped, and the air felt stagnant. A fetid aroma
assaulted their senses. Their movements were slow and cautious as
they left the park. Up ahead of them, Bunker saw four dead crossing
the street. The dead had their noses raised like rabid dogs searching
for prey.
They were walking
toward Daniels’ group but hadn’t seen them yet.
“Do you see them?”
Bunker whispered.
Daniels nodded his head
and reached into his back pocket, “I grabbed these in the café,”
he whispered back.
Daniels handed Bunker
one of the two carving knives, “We know these things are attracted
by sound, and I’m pretty sure by smell too. Let's try not using the
guns unless we have to. I know the knives are small, but they should
get the job done.”
Bunker handed his M4 to
Kaden and took the knife from Daniels. He examined the blade and felt
its weight in his palm, “This will work. You take the two on the
right, and I’ll take the two on the left.”
“Remember,” Daniels
said, “these things die when you destroy the brain. So don’t play
around with them. We’ll circle wide and try to kill them before
they even see us coming. Destiny, you distract them by walking
straight at them. That will give us the advantage. If things don’t
go right, don’t be afraid to pull out that little P32 you’ve got
hidden in your purse.”
“Don’t you worry,
Sugar. I’ll smoke those bitches’ asses.”
“It’s now or never,
Bunker. Stay wide.” Daniels said.
Bunker broke into a
quick jog and made his wide approach. Destiny waited until they were
clear of her and she started her babbling, “Oh, shit. You zombie
bitches don’t know what’s comin'. That’s right. You just keep
comin' over here to eat me. We got a little surprise for ya.” She
didn’t just get their attention. She pissed them off. They
staggered toward her, waving their arms and moaning.
The plan was working.
They never saw the men approaching from behind.
Bunker made it there
first. He looped all the way around, paused briefly, and then drove
the knife upward from the top of the dead female’s neck. She fell
at the feet of the second zombie, pulling his attention away from
Destiny. The zombie turned in time to catch Bunker’s blade as it
entered the top of its nose. Black fluid gushed out the wound as
Bunker retracted the knife. He watched as it fell dead.
Daniels wasn’t as
lucky. He thrust his knife into the zombie’s skull killing it
instantly. When he pulled it out, to his surprise, the blade was
gone. The cheap cutlery broke at the handle leaving the blade inside
of the dead man’s brain.
The second zombie
turned and grabbed at Daniels’ shirt. He was off balance and in
trouble. Where the hell was Destiny with that P32. Daniels punched at
the zombie’s head and waited for the sound of Destiny’s gun as
they both fell to the ground. It wasn’t the shot that killed him.
It was Bunker’s blade.
“Thanks, buddy. I
thought he almost had me.”
“No problem,”
Bunker chuckled.
“Are you gonna make
Bunker do all the work?” Destiny joked.
“Ha, ha, funny. Where
the hell were you with your gun?”
“I put it away.
Bunker was kickin ass, so I just watched the show.”
Bunker let out another
little chuckle, “I was kicking ass, you know.”
“Yeah, I must have
missed it,” Daniels smirked, “get the kids over here and I’m
going to run up to the next corner and see if there are any threats.”
“Honey, maybe you
better bring Bunker, in case you need someone to save you again.”
Daniels looked back,
but did not give her the satisfaction of a response. Bunker motioned
for Ceci and Kaden to come over and watched as Daniels ran down to
the corner.
“Where’s he going?”
Ceci asked.
“He’s heading down
to the next corner, to make sure the coast is clear.”
They all snapped their
heads toward Daniels when shots rang out from around the corner. Not
just one or two, but a full magazine worth. Bunker grabbed the M4
from Kaden and sprinted toward Daniels. Shots echoed off the
buildings. Then paused, Bunker knew it was for a mag change. The
firing started again, a full mag worth. Bunker was almost to the
corner, a few seconds away. He raised his rifle and flipped off the
safety. Daniels appeared, running a dead sprint. He screamed
something when he passed Bunker.
It sounded like, “RUN!”
The ringing in Sidara’s
ears had dissipated. Pressure from teeth biting her arm slowly
brought her out of her unconscious state. The pain subsided, and
again she felt teeth bite down on her shoulder. Still partially
knocked out from the explosion, her mind became aware of her
surroundings.
“Explosion. Zombies
on fire. Biting my arm.”
Consciousness returned
like a tsunami, crashing against her, bringing her to full alertness.
She opened her eyes expecting to see the burning zombie eating her.
Instead, she woke to that beautiful gray-haired Weimaraner, pulling
her away from the burning building to safety. She was alive. The
zombies were gone. She had no idea what had happened to them. She
reached back and rubbed Charger’s head, “Thank you, girl. You
saved me.” Sidara rolled over off her back and fought to get up on
her feet.
The three burning
zombies were all lying on the ground still on fire. Across the
parking lot, Jen and Sage were dragging Luther away from the inferno.
His face was black with soot and some of the hair on his head burned
away. Sidara staggered over to help, “What happened?” she asked.
Luther shot the propane
tanks to save us all. I’m not sure if he’s breathing. We need to
get him away from the heat of that building.”
They pulled him a few
more yards, and Jen dropped to her knees and started CPR, “Come on,
Luther.”
She pumped on his chest
and breathed clean air into his lungs. He didn’t move. The
compressions expelled black smoke from his nose.
“I think he’s dead.
Stop before he bites you,” Sage said, as she covered her mouth with
her hands.
Jen looked up in
mid-compression, “He’s not going to change, they didn't bite him.
He’s going to make it. He just needs a second.”
Jen gave two more
breaths and looked up as a vehicle came to a sliding stop, a few feet
from her.
“What happened?”
Cowboy yelled as he jumped out of the vehicle and charged toward her.
He dropped down to his knees and grabbed Luther’s face with his
burly hand, “Luther, buddy. Come back. You’ve got to fight.” He
pulled the mammoth hand back and slapped Luther across the face.
Jen continued
compressions and watched as Cowboy shook and screamed for the
lifeless man to come back. Cowboy pulled back again and slapped
Luther a second time. This time as hard as he could. He wound up a
third time and stopped when he saw Luther’s eyes open. Luther
sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly, throwing him into a
coughing fit. Black mucus flew from his mouth. He rolled off his back
into a fetal position, coughing, as Cowboy patted him between the
shoulders.
“You scared me there,
buddy.” Cowboy said continuing to pat his back.
The coughing subsided,
and Luther sat up rubbing his face, “Did you have to hit me so
hard?”
Everyone chuckled with
relief.
Cowboy helped Luther to
his feet and brushed off his shoulders, “Are you sure you’re okay
pal?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
Luther rubbed the bare
skin above his eyes where he once had eyebrows, “Do I look stupid?”
Cowboy moved in for a
closer look, just inches from Luther’s face. He examined the seared
stubble, “No, you don’t look any more stupid than you looked
before, buddy. Maybe a little silly, though.”
“Oh great,” Luther
said rubbing the bare skin again.
“Is everyone else
okay?” Cowboy asked looking at Sidara’s soot covered face.
“We’re all fine.
Just a little shaken up,” Jen explained as she put her arm around
Luther, “He saved us.”
Half of Luther’s face
was glowing red from Cowboy’s slap. Now the blushing made the other
side match.
“I told you, gals.
It’s a good thing you didn’t leave him in that hole back on the
highway.”
Jen laughed as she
walked back to the Humvee, “Don’t worry, Luther. We would have
never left you in that hole.”
The sound of the V8
engine speeding down the main road caught everyone’s attention.
They watched as the Humvee jumped the curb and came to a sliding stop
running into the back of the Jeep. The Jeep rolled a few feet almost
hitting Charger.
I hopped out screaming,
“Chevy’s been bitten!”
“What happened?”
Bunker yelled as he chased after Daniels. He was screaming for
Destiny and the kids to run. Without looking back, Daniels shouted to
Bunker, “They’re everywhere. Destiny led us right into the middle
of Times Square.”
Bunker heard the eerie
hum of moans coming from behind him. He looked back as a horde of
dead, over a thousand strong, staggered close behind. Two runners
emerged from the mass of dead. Bunker stopped only long enough to put
a bullet through each of their skulls. He took off again after
Daniels. He was still screaming for the kids to run.