Faster and faster they walked, chancing a glance behind them
every few steps. The “thing” in the tunnel could no longer be seen, since their
eyes had adjusted to the better light outside. Even though it was now night,
their new zombie-vision made things a lot brighter. Finally, they made it back
to the mangled ledge.
“So now what?” Ronnie asked.
“Beats me. Everything that could help us is sitting in that
duffel bag back there.”
They scrutinized their situation, but were still no closer to
a solution on how to cross. They both must have had the same tingling feeling,
at the same moment, because the two of them glanced back at the tunnel. There,
just out of reach of the dim light, were those penetrating eyes again. It
didn’t move closer, but the fact that it had advanced to the entrance gave them
both anxiety.
“Oh snap!” Ronnie said. “This thing is seriously giving me
the creeps, bro.”
“Fuck. Okay buddy, we REALLY need to find a way across. It’s
not an option now.”
Ronnie must have had an idea, because he looked over the
ledge and then got a huge, shit-eating grin on his face. Nathan could almost
hear a bell ding as if to signify his friend’s revelation.
“Dude, so we’re zombies right?”
“So it would seem, what’s your point?” Nathan asked, keeping
an eye on the eyes that kept an eye on them. “How is that going to get us
across? Even we can’t jump that far.”
“Bro, we don’t have to jump OVER the gap.”
Nathan tore his gaze from the tunnel and looked back to his
friend. He wasn’t sure where this was going, but he had a gut feeling he didn’t
want to know.
“We just have to jump down.”
Before Nathan could object, Ronnie smiled, gave a little
wave, and then swan dived off the wrecked trestle. A loud, metallic “clang”
chimed as the Hot Dog King spanked his head off a twisted I-beam that extended
out into the gap below them. A few short moments later came a splash as he hit
the river.
Nathan leaned over, sure that his friend had just killed
himself...Assuming that was possible.
“Ronnie! RONNIE!” he yelled. Stealing a glance back to the
tunnel, the silvery eyes remained fixated on him. For the moment, he was still
safe. But safety in numbers just jumped off a fucking bridge. He peered back
over the tracks and scanned the water for any sign of life, or un-life, as it
were.
Ronnie finally breached the surface of the water. He seemed
to be alive-ish and well. He gave a “thumbs-up” and began to swim towards the
bridge’s support pylon.
“Watch that first step bro, it’s a fucking doozie!” he yelled
up. “Shit! I think I broke my collar bone!”
A loud roar erupted from the tunnel. Nathan jumped off the
ledge without thinking, glancing back as he glided through the air. The eyes
began to advance from the dark recesses of the tunnel. A shadow began to
appear, but Nathan had passed below the tracks before he could make out the
beast that had emerged. He fell towards the icy river below, taking care not to
smack into a stray I-beam. A moment later he was in the water.
As Nathan surfaced, he was surprised that the fall didn’t
hurt at all and that the frigid water was barely noticeable; a slight tingle of
the skin. He swam over to where Ronnie was gripping onto a hand-hold in the
pylon.
“Get to the shore. Now!” Nathan exclaimed.
The two headed for shore as fast as they could. Soon, they
crawled out of the icy river and up onto the embankment, shifting their position
under the end of the bridge.
“We can’t stay here,” said Nathan. “Whatever was in the tunnel
started to come at me as I jumped.”
“Is that what I heard? I thought you were just super excited
to follow me down,” replied Ronnie. “So what was it anyway?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t able to get a good look. All I could
make out was a dark, blurry shape. Whatever it was though, it was huge.”
They looked up and down the river banks, looking for any sign
of immediate danger. None could be seen, yet they heard voices, along with some
vehicle engines above them at the foot of the bridge. Nathan indicated to Ronnie
with a hand gesture that they should keep quiet and then pointed up. Ronnie
acknowledged and gave the “OK” signal back.
The duo sat and listened for a few minutes, trying to discern
if the voices belonged to a friend or foe. From the sound of it, they sat
underneath a detachment of National Guard troops; most likely the unit that
blew the bridge. Some of the men reacted to the loud roar that had bellowed
from the tunnel at the opposite end of the bridge; barking orders left and
right.
Gunfire still echoed throughout the South Side. The stench of
a burning city and an increasing death toll wafted to the zombie buddies and
infected their nostrils with the sweet smell of human flesh.
“Do you smell bacon?” Ronnie asked in a hushed voice.
“Yeah, I think so. That’s kind of odd, don’t you think?”
“It’s really makin’ me hungry, bro.”
Nathan wasn’t sure if it was the power of suggestion or the
smell of burning bodies, but he was acutely aware of the knot that had formed
in his stomach. The waves of body pain were also beginning to return. The two
looked at each other, thinking the same thing.
“I refuse to eat a person,” Nathan replied to Ronnie’s head
nod to the troops above them.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he conceded. “Most likely end
up getting wasted anyway.” He sat and thought for a moment.
“Hey, do you think maybe they could help us get to your
place? I mean, that’s what they’re here for isn’t it? To help people?”
Nathan didn’t need to think about his response. “Really,
dude? I doubt that they’ll do anything other than try to shoot us into
oblivion. They’re not our friends anymore.”
“Alright brotha, so what’s the plan now?”
Nathan contemplated their options. Much to his dismay, he
realized that he had taken the tunnel in the wrong direction. His original plan
was to take the subway through downtown to the new North Shore Connector. That
ran underneath the Allegheny River to the North Shore and emerged next to the
football and baseball stadiums. This would have positioned them on the correct
side of town. Instead, he went the opposite way, which took him farther south. To
get home, they would need to cross a river again.
The geography wasn’t the only problem. That little girl,
Sunshine and her zombie horde, had chased him through town and into the subway.
He had no way of knowing her intentions or whether they would cross paths
again, but he was damn sure that the two of them didn’t stand a chance against
the army that she was amassing. Then there was the military. The National Guard
didn’t have the manpower to contain the entire city; he was sure that military
support would be on the way. They would issue “shoot on sight” orders for all
infected civilians, which made them enemy number two. Last but not least, was
the unknown presence which followed them to the bridge. It was large and
sounded extremely powerful and didn’t sound too friendly either. Say hello to
threat number three.
Moving forward was the only option. They needed to travel
north along the river, but the banks were spotty and in most places, were
non-existent this close to the city proper. Their only chance was to reach the
top of Mount Washington, which rose up behind Station Square and overlooked the
skyscrapers of the Golden Triangle.
“Okay, I think we need to get to Mount Washington, take that
down to the West End Circle and then cross the river there. Hopefully, the
Guard wasn’t able to blow that bridge, but we’ll need to get there before the
cavalry arrives.”
Ronnie contemplated the proposal for a moment. “You know
we’re gonna have to fight our way through those troops above us, right?” he
whispered back.
“Yeah, I was thinking about that. You had said before, on the
bridge, that we’re a lot faster now and we can jump pretty high. Could we just
run past them? Maybe they won’t have time to react and we’ll be able to reach
the nearest building before they can get a shot off.”
“Hmmm... Seems like they’re all on high alert. I don’t think
we’ll be able to get by them that quick.”
Nathan was afraid of this. He didn’t like the idea of
fighting a squad of heavily armed humans. He hated the idea of killing them
even more. “Well, I say we make a break for it. If we get shot at, just duck
and weave and pray we don’t get hit.”
“That’s your plan? Run and pray we don’t get hit? Man, fuck
that shit, bro. I bet we could take ‘em.”
“We’re not even sure what our weaknesses are and I don’t know
about you, but I’m starving. The faster we can get out of here, the faster we
can find something to eat.”
Ronnie thought about this for a moment. “Why don’t we just
eat those guys?” he asked, pointing up at the bridge.
“Besides the fact that we’d be eating people? I think that
would be bad for us, bro. I noticed something when I was making my way to the
subway station. Most of the other zombies are raving, murdering, blood-thirsty
monsters. I did see a couple infected people act differently. They weren’t
eating anyone and they almost looked like the thought of it disgusted them.”
Ronnie remembered something from his attack. “Yeah, man, that
old guy who bit me was acting really wonky too. He kept telling me that he
didn’t want to eat me and then he bit into me like I was a fiber cupcake with
Viagra sprinkles.”
“So what if the reason you and I can think and talk and use
logic like a human is due to what we eat? When I woke up and you started
explaining our current situation, I had wondered why we weren’t mindless
idiots,” Nathan offered.
“No man, I’ve always been an idiot,” Ronnie joked.
Nathan dismissed the comment and continued. “What if we don’t
completely change unless we eat human flesh? Eating the rats took the hunger
away for a while, but we didn’t get any dumber, so it must be safe for us to
eat animals. There must be something in human flesh that triggers the rest of
the change.”
Ronnie was getting impatient. He was never good at sitting
still for long and was eager to do something...anything. “I guess that makes
sense. All I know is that I don’t want to keep trolling under this fucking
bridge anymore.”
“Fair enough,” Nathan agreed. “Let’s try to get to the top of
the nearest building. We should have a better chance if we can get to the
rooftops.”
“Lead the way, homie,” Ronnie replied, excited to finally be
doing something. The hunger started to get to him.
They looked up and down the riverbanks. “Okay, let’s split
up. You go topside over there, and I’ll go up on this side. That should confuse
the troops and buy us a few seconds before they know what’s going on.”
Ronnie gave the thumbs-up and moved to the opposite side of
the bridge.
“Hey Ronnie, remember, don’t kill anyone.”
Ronnie waved him off nonchalantly. Nathan held up his hand
and counted off with his clawed fingers. One. Two. Three. In a flash, the two
zombies bounded up the hill and onto ground level. Nathan appeared behind an
armored transport of some kind and miraculously, wasn’t seen by any of the
troops that were by the tracks. Ronnie wasn’t so lucky. He popped out directly
in front of five soldiers.
There was an awkward moment of surprise as the troops and the
zombie just stared at each other, completely dumbfounded. Then, as if on cue,
the soldiers readied their weapons. Ronnie’s new reflexes were better and he
caught the arm of the nearest soldier as he took aim. The zombie jumped into
the air so fast, that he took the soldier’s arm with him, tearing it from the socket
with a wet snap. The other men in the group opened fire immediately on the
creature that had just disarmed their comrade.
The remaining men in the unit sprang into action and began
their assault on the zombie, who was now jumping around and in an attempt to
dodge the automatic fire. Nathan, still unnoticed, scanned the area.
Shit.
Yet again, he miscalculated their position. Station Square sat beyond a huge
parking lot to their right. There were no suitable buildings nearby that could
offer cover. Luckily, the lot was full of cars. Lots and lots of cars.
He jumped on top of the armored personnel carrier and
screeched the most horrifying zombie screech he could muster. The entire unit
turned towards him and opened fire. Like Ronnie, he began to leap and run about
erratically.
“Head for the cars! Head for the cars!” Nathan yelled.
Ronnie took a quick glance around and saw his friend heading
in the direction of the cars to the right. He turned and followed while the
glowing tracers from the weapon rounds whizzed by. They reached the parking lot
in mere moments and disappeared among the abandoned vehicles.
The soldiers gave chase, spreading their formation as they
reached the lot. A loud explosion boomed to the left of Nathan as a car burst
into fire from a grenade. A second blast came in from the right. The two
friends weaved through the lot, leaping low to the ground on all fours.
Wow,
this is kind of cool,
Nathan thought as he reveled in the new agility that
his condition had afforded him. Fires cropped up throughout the lot as the
National Guard continued the pursuit.
Finally, the pair made it through the parking lot. They made
a beeline to the nearest rooftop. Digging into the brick and concrete walls,
they scaled the side of the Grand Concourse restaurant. Once atop the building,
they continued across the various shops and eateries until they had traversed
the heart of Station Square in a matter of seconds.
The soldiers were far behind and completely unaware of their
location. They continued to do a systematic sweep of the parking lot and had
just made it to the last line of cars as the two zombies jumped down to ground.
Dead ahead, Nathan and Ronnie saw the funicular that led from
Station Square to the top of Mt. Washington. The popular tourist attraction looked
deserted and as luck would have it, one of the two tram cars sat in the lower
terminal of the Monongahela Incline. The two glanced at each other and headed
towards the tram.