Bryant Park was already
in sight again. Daniels was exhausted from the four-block sprint and
had to slow. Bunker caught up and slowed to a jog next to him,
“What’s the matter, old man? Out of shape?”
Daniels stopped and put
his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He turned his head toward
the approaching horde. They were still on the move, but more than a
block away now. The sprint had put some distance between them.
“What do you want to
do?” Bunker asked.
Daniels was beginning
to recover and gave Bunker a look of desperation.
The pack of dead moved
closer without slowing.
“At least, there are
no more runners,” Bunker said looking through the EOTech Scope.
“Maybe not now, but
they’re out there. We can’t keep standing here. We have to get
moving again.”
Bunker panned the area
with the scope, looking in every direction, “But where?”
“Which way is the
river?”
Bunker pointed to the
west, “I’m pretty sure it’s that direction, but you’ll have
to confirm with Destiny. Have you got a plan?”
“I have an idea that
will buy us some time.”
The dead were less than
fifty yards away now. Destiny and the kids waited on the solarium
steps as Daniels came into their view. He made a motion for them to
start running again when shots rang out above their heads.
Shattered glass fell
from the windows of the high buildings above while a barrage of
gunfire thundered in the sky. Daniels and Bunker hit the ground and
covered their heads. Bullets whizzed by and tore up grass around
them.
“Who the hell is
shooting up there?”
“I don’t know,”
said Daniels, “but look at the zombies. They’re dropping like
flies.
Bunker watched as the
steel rain from above tore the zombies into pieces. Heads, legs,
arms, and parts of torsos flew in every direction. Gunfire echoed
between the buildings.
“What the hell are
they using up there, cannons?” Daniels asked glancing out from
under his covered head.
The bewildered men
watched huge rounds traveling through the air. The sheer size of the
lead projectiles was enough to create a light, warm, breeze that
carried the stench of grizzly goo turning the men’s stomachs.
What seemed like an
hour later had been less than two minutes. The shelling paused while
single shots took out the few remaining zombies.
The men on the ground
uncovered their heads and assessed the damage. The walking, moaning
horde had been reduced to a pile of rotting flesh. Death moans
stirred in the pack and Daniels watched as two zombie women struggled
to their feet. One was missing both of her arms. The second looked as
though it had come out of the attack unscathed, only to be dropped by
a single sniper round. The shot had killed her before she had ever
heard it coming. The second zombie, still standing, turned her head
up to listen to a southern man’s taunts, which came from above,
“Leave her, boys. She’s mine.”
Bunker also scanned the
window from where the carnage came. He caught movement on the fifth
floor. It wasn’t that of a person, but rather a large yellow tipped
grenade on the end of a bazooka type weapon.
With all the movies he
had seen, Bunker knew the name of the device. It was a Russian RPG.
The RGP was short for Rocket Propelled Grenade.
“Put your head down,
Daniels. It’s an RPG.”
There was a loud pop
followed by the hiss of the accelerating ordinance. It struck the
ground with a hollow sounding thump. The armless zombie disappeared
as flames engulfed it.
Daniels was sure he
heard a “Woo hoo,” echo off surrounding buildings.
Bunker and Daniels lay
perfectly still, as to not be confused with one of the dead.
“You boys okay down
there?” the voice called down from the fifth floor.
Daniels and Bunker
still refused to move.
“Hey, you, Cop. I’m
talking to you.” The voice called out.
Daniels lifted his
weary arms in the air as he looked up at the building. He expected to
see a twenty-something-year-old kid hanging out of the window. The
man in the window looked as though he was in his mid to late
thirties. Even from this distance, Daniels could see he was muscular,
supporting a black beard and Oakley shooting sunglasses. Covered in
camo clothing and wearing a tan baseball hat backward gave him an
intimidating and confident look. It reminded Daniels of Ty when he
played catcher for his little league baseball team.
“We’re okay,”
Daniels said, waving one of his arms at the stranger.
“Put your arms down,”
the bearded man said, “you and your friend had better come up here
where it’s safe. All that firing we just did is going to attract a
hell of a lot more of those assholes. Use the green door on the south
side of the building.
Daniels gave the man a
thumb up and motioned for Destiny and the kids to join him. Together
they worked their way around to the south side.
Outside the building
door, were more signs of slaughter. Dead were strewn across the
sidewalk and planters. Their bodies were disjointed and flattened.
“What happened to
them?” Sage asked.
Destiny looked up at
the broken out windows above, “I’ll tell you what happened girl.
These shit kickers threw all these here dead out the window for fun.
I appreciate what they just done for us, but we don’t need ‘um.”
Bunker and Daniels
looked at each other but didn’t say anything. She was right. They
didn’t know who these guys were, and they seemed pretty gung ho.
Daniels wasn’t
looking for a fight; his priority was getting to his family.
He rested his hand on
Destiny’s shoulder, “I understand your concerns, Des, but to me,
they look like military. I’ve seen guys dressed like that in the
Middle East War footage. They’re probably part of some elite
military group.”
“Or, they’re part
of some group that’s here to exterminate all of us.” Destiny
retorted.
“I’ll tell you why
you’re wrong. First, they’re military. They might know of some
safe-haven or uninfected areas. They may be able to give us the
inside scoop. We can find out what the government is doing to fix
this.
Second, if they wanted
to kill us, they could have done it when we were lying on the ground.
Taking us out would have been as easy as annihilating those zombies.
Maybe they need us, and maybe we need them. We won’t know for sure
until we talk with them.”
Destiny thought about
it for a few seconds, but still wasn’t convinced, “I hope you’re
right, and if you’re wrong, I’m gonna kick your ass.”
Bunker gave the door a
push, but it was barricaded from the inside.
“Hang on, folks,”
the voice on the inside yelled. After a few loud bangs and a metal
scraping sounds, the door swung open. Another man in a backward hat
was standing there. He was younger than the one they had spoken to
before. He also lacked the beard.
“Come in quick, so I
can get this thing locked back up. There’s more infected coming
from the east. Master Sergeant is up there alone.”
Daniels helped the
soldier lift the heavy steel bar off the floor and secured it across
the door.
“Thanks for the help.
That thing is heavy,” the soldier said.
Kaden noticed the black
2-way communicator microphone strapped to his neck and thought it was
cool. Daniels saw the M4 and a belt full of grenades. He didn’t
think the soldier looked cool; he thought he looked deadly.
“Hey, guys, nice to
meet you. I’m Petty Officer Beck. You can just call me Beck. Master
Chief Sawyer is upstairs waiting for us. He’s the Bullfrog around
here.”
“Bullfrog?” Ceci
asked.
“Sorry. I forgot
you’re civilians. It means he’s been around the longest on our
team. But I guess that’s not hard to do, considering there are only
two of us left.”
“Team?” Bunker
questioned.
“We’re the last of
our Seal Team. We were sent on a special mission to try and located a
doctor that may have the cure... I better stop there. I’m not sure
how much information I’m allowed to disseminate to you. You’ll
have to ask the Master Chief.”
“I’m Daniels, this
is Bunker, and over there are Destiny, Kaden, and Cecilia. You can
call her Ceci if you prefer.”
“Nice to meet you,
folks. Let’s get you upstairs. We’ve got some bottled water up
there. None of you drank any of that tap water shit have you?”
Kaden held up his
backpack, “Nothing but bottled for us.”
“That’s great.
Okay, folks. Let's head upstairs.”
Beck led the way to the
stairs and walked past.
“Hey Beck,” Bunker
called out, “Don’t we want to take the stairs?”
Beck kept walking a few
more steps, stopped at the elevator, and pushed the button. The
elevator dinged, and the doors slid open.
“Why walk when we can
travel in style?” Beck said, as he stepped into the elevator.
Cecilia looked
concerned, “What if the power goes out while we’re in there?”
“No worries. The
power is pretty stable in this grid, but when it goes out, we just
pry the doors open. It’s easy, and it beats walking up and down
those stairs all day.”
They all followed Beck
into the elevator car. Cecilia took a deep breath as the doors closed
in front of them.
Daniels put his arm
around her, “It’s okay, honey. Nothing is going to happen. I
promise you. Close your eyes and I’ll tell you when we’re there.”
Before her eyes closed
all the way, the elevator dinged.
“Don’t bother,
we’re here,” Daniels said removing his arm.
The doors opened. The
bearded man from the window was standing there with a hand in the air
waving, and a smile on his face, “Hi, folks. It’s a pleasure to
meet you. I don’t suppose any of you are Dr. Sophie Simone or Col.
Robert Aiken?”
I ran around the
recently acquired Humvee to Chevy’s door and looked back at
everyone. They were still standing there looking at me.
“Stop staring at me
and help. A zombie bit Chevy!” I screamed.
Mom and Cowboy rushed
over and helped me drag him out of the back seat. We laid him on the
ground and stood over him. He lay there staring back at us like we
were idiots, “What the hell is wrong with you guys?”
I'm all right. I can
stand up and walk. I don’t even feel sick.”
He may not have felt
sick, but everyone could tell Chevy was much paler now than he was
this morning.
Mom wrapped her arms
around him and gave him a big hug, “What happened, honey?”
Chevy sat up and told
his story again, “I was trying to find the keys for a sweet ass
Lamborghini that Ty destroyed on the way over here. You know, I
thought it’d be cool to take it for a spin. I always wanted to
drive one. So anyway, I couldn’t find the keys on the key board. I
thought I’d try the desk drawers. While I was checking, I had my
back to the bathroom. I had never cleared the room to make sure it
was empty. It was my stupidity. I just assumed since the warehouse
was locked, there wouldn’t be anyone in there. I would have never
guessed the caretaker had an apartment in the building. You know what
happens when you assume, right, Mom?”
Mom smiled and rubbed
Chevy’s cheek, “Yes, I know, honey.”
“I guess he made an
ass out of me. I turned around and fought with him, and it took a
minute before I could get a shot off. I got him though, but it wasn’t
until after he got me.” Chevy held up the bite wound on his arm.
The teeth impressions were already turning black, and the dark tint
was spreading away from the wound. Mom pulled him in close and hugged
him tight. She didn’t make any noise, but tears were flowing
uncontrollably from her eyes.
To my surprise, Sidara
also dropped to her knees, hugging Chevy, and bawling. She wasn’t
alone. Over the next few minutes, everyone took turns talking with
Chevy. Some of us laughed, some of us cried. We all said goodbye in
our own way. He was laughing while telling the story of the time he
jumped his truck at the golf course. Everyone laughed and seemed
happy. But no one was.
It was the same feeling
I got when I went to see a family friend in the hospital. It was
years ago, she had been diagnosed with brain cancer a month earlier,
and now only had days to live.
We told jokes and
stories. Everyone seemed to be happy. But nobody was. She was sick,
very sick. My mind kept telling me when I walked out of that hospital
room; I’d never see Nina again, and I didn’t. One day she was
there, and the next she was gone.
That’s what was
happening now. Only it wasn’t a family friend. It was Chevy, my
best friend. My brother.
I sat on the ground
next to Chevy, joking and poking holes in his stories. I even found
myself holding his hand. He held it back. We laughed and joked, but I
knew he was afraid, afraid of dying and, even more, afraid of turning
into a zombie. He looked over at remnants of the burned zombies who
caught fire from the explosion. He squeezed my hand tighter and said,
“Don’t let that happen to me, Ty.”
I squeezed back, “I
won’t. I promise.”
Sophie walked over and
asked if she could look at Chevy’s bite. He raised his arm as she
knelt down next to him. She examined the bite and asked, “How are
you feeling?”
Chevy tried to work up
a smile while he spoke, “Well, considering I won’t see another
sunrise, I say I'm doing as well as can be expected.”
Sophie held up her
stethoscope, “Do you mind if I take a listen?”
Chevy laughed, “By
all means, Doc.”
Sophie lifted up his
shirt and rested the end of the stethoscope on his chest.
“Oh, that’s cold,”
he said flinching away.
“Come on you big
baby,” she teased, replacing the stethoscope and ordering him to
take a deep breath, again and again.