The Dark Trinity (Book 1): Shuffle (19 page)
FORT PITT
The little dead girl stood in ankle-deep snow and stared at
the Fort Pitt Tunnel entrance before her. Sunshine’s eyes followed the trees up
to the top of Mt. Washington and traced the edge of the summit towards the
right. Her gaze returned back to the mouth of the tunnel and then continued on
to the left.
The man had not passed by here yet.
The Horde had made its way across the precarious bridge
support and now waited for her command. Their numbers swelled, now totaling in
the neighborhood of twelve thousand and climbing exponentially; absorbing new
members as they travelled. The trek across the decimated bridge had proved
treacherous, with many falling off of the ten inch wide I-beam. Not that it
mattered of course. None of the toppled dead had perished from the fall. They
just sank to the bottom of the river where they wandered, confused at their new
surroundings. The River Styx born anew.
Sunshine turned to her right and hissed, pointing to the
tunnel. Forty of her children scurried into the darkness and positioned
themselves behind several of the disabled vehicles inside. A maniacal grin
appeared on her face. The trap was set. The man and his companion would travel
past here and when they did, her minions would collect them and bring them to
her. Although she was certain her prey would travel this way, she wasn’t
stupid. She would take the rest of her brood and move to the summit of Mt.
Washington, should her quarry try to be smart.
With another hiss, the little queen moved forward and climbed
the steep hill face. The Horde moved as one behind her, scaling up after her on
all sides. Claws dug into the frozen earth, pulling at the roots and foliage
that covered the hillside. The dead made their way towards the summit above the
tunnel entrance.
Five minutes later, Sunshine stood on the sidewalk that
stretched along an overlook above her trap and looked out across the ruined
city as it burned. She saw military aircraft bombard downtown proper with fiery
explosions. The muzzle flashes of hundreds of weapons peppered the surrounding
urban sprawl as soldiers tried to contain the outbreak. She laughed a guttural
chuckle. Mankind couldn't contain this. No matter what the humans did, their
reign of power and control had come to an end. Their corruption of Paradise
will be cleansed. She closed her eyes and reached out with her senses. In her
mind’s eye she traversed city after city, country after country. Each image
that she perceived told the same story. Fire, death, destruction, pain, chaos,
and anarchy had spread over the globe. Languages swam in her ears and mingled
together like an audible soup. She could understand each one, but didn’t bother
to focus on one voice. They all said the same thing.
God help us.
There was no God. Not today.
She opened her eyes and allowed the flood of stimuli from her
mental “uplink” to subside. A noise caught her attention to her right. As she
turned to look for the source, an Apache attack helicopter rose over the tree
line and began firing a rain of bullets into the mass of her followers. Blood
sprayed in a geyser as .30mm rounds from the M230 chain gun ripped through her
loyal subjects.
The helicopter circled around and lowered its altitude as it
continued to cut a wide arc of carnage. It finally stopped and hovered a mere
thirty feet in front of Sunshine. The chain gun had stopped and glowed white-hot
from the barrage. Without hesitation, the girl dropped her mangled, bloody
teddy bear onto the ground, walked two feet to her left and broke off a parking
meter at the base. In one fluid motion she spun the meter over, bashed it on
the ground and snapped off the meter, spilling change onto the ground.
Raising the metal post, she effortlessly hurled the makeshift
javelin with incredible speed towards the helicopter. The pilot’s eyes grew
wide as the post shot through the canopy glass and over the gunner’s head. It
continued on through the pilot’s helmet, his skull, his brain, and out the back
of his head, embedding into his headrest. Immediately the Apache pitched
forward and crashed into the side of the mountain, erupting a huge ball of fire
into the air. As the rotor blades shredded, shrapnel flew into the Horde,
embedding into dozens of her children.
She scanned the sky and checked for more helicopters nearby.
Satisfied that they were no longer under attack, she turned towards her brood.
Many had been destroyed with that horrible gun and others still had limbs
cleaved off from the torrent of shrapnel from the crash. They’d live, sort of.
The attack had depleted her ranks significantly. She needed more. Opening her
grotesque mouth, she released a screech that echoed throughout the valley and
out into the surrounding ruins.
More of her children would hear her call and come. Sunshine
looked to the warriors before her and gave her bidding. Moments later, they
spread out in all directions, communicating with the others. Soon, the Horde
had scattered and hid themselves, save for the one hundred zombies who stayed
behind to protect their queen.
The trap can still work.
She could not afford for her
army to be surprised like that again. She moved back to the overlook and stared
out at the beautiful destruction
. HE will come. Soon.
THE ROOFTOP
The loud inhuman howl echoed in the distance. Nathan and
Ronnie stopped on a random rooftop and listened.
“Whoa, dude, what the hell was that?” Ronnie asked.
“It’s HER,” Nathan replied. A look of trepidation spread
across his face.
“Who’s HER?”
“It’s that little girl that I saw downtown, right before I
bee-lined it down into the subway.”
Ronnie laughed uncontrollably. When he had settled down
enough to talk, he looked at his friend, who wasn't laughing. “Dude, are you
telling me that you’re afraid of some punk-ass little girl?” This comment
prompted another fit of hysterical laughter.
Nathan waited a moment for the laughing fit to stop. “Look
man, there’s something really fucked up about that little girl. I don’t know
what it is, but she’s different from the other dead-heads out there. She’s
smart. She’s a thinker like we are. There’s something else too, but I can’t
figure it out. One thing for sure is that she’s their leader.”
Yet another outburst of hysterics from the former hot dog
vendor, but this time he almost toppled over the ledge of the building from
laughing so hard.
“O. M. G., dude. You’re killing me!” Ronnie gasped, but the
irony of his own comment fueled his fit.
“C’mon man, try to be serious for one minute,” Nathan managed
to interject.
“Sorry bro,” Ronnie replied, finally calming down.
“All I’m saying is that I think she might be dangerous to us.
She ordered the other zombies to attack me, which means she wants me for some
reason.”
Ronnie tried his hardest to stifle a laugh. “Pedophile,”
he retorted.
“You really are a piece of work, my friend.”
Nathan heard commotion from the street below and peered over
the ledge to check it out. Below them, dozens of creepers made their way down
the street, looking into cars and buildings as they moved.
Are they looking
for food? For more prey?
he thought as he watched the zombies search the
streets and alleys as they continued down the road.
He motioned Ronnie over to take a look. “There’s a ton of
them down there and it looks like they’re searching for something.”
Ronnie peeked over the side of the building just in time to
see a human survivor dart out of a hiding spot and bolt down the street behind
the group of dead-heads. Several of the ghouls turned to see the frantic woman
flee, but they ignored her and continued on in their search.
“Hey bro, that’s really weird,” Ronnie observed, “Why didn’t
they attack her?”
“I’m not sure. I thought they were searching for prey,
but...” Nathan grew nervous.
“What?” Ronnie asked.
Nathan turned to his friend with a dead-serious expression.
“I think WE’RE the prey.”
HOME SWEETHOME
The old station wagon sped down Babcock Boulevard as fast as
it could while it weaved around the various obstacles cluttering the road. The
bus trailed right on their heels. Sam focused on the road ahead while Evelyn
reloaded their weapons and took stock of their ammo.
With guns fully loaded, she glanced back at the bus behind
them. Its bobbing headlights danced around the interior of the car, reminding
her of one of the night clubs her and Nathan used to go to on occasion. Evelyn
hadn’t thought about him in hours. She hoped he was safe, wherever he might be.
Sam jerked the wheel to the left to avoid a pile of bodies,
then straightened out. Evelyn brought her attention back to the road and then
to the grizzled old man. His face beaded with sweat, despite the wintry chill
outside. Night had fallen and it was now close to impossible to see more than a
couple feet around them. The power had gone off earlier. Not a single street
light, traffic light, or building was lit. The various cars and buildings that
were on fire made the scene all the more frightening.
“Hey Sam, exactly where are we going?”
“Someplace safe,” was all he offered her.
Evelyn liked Sam, but his short, stubborn attitude really got
to her. “Okay, are you able to be more specific?”
Sam shot her a look and then caved in. “I own a retail outlet
where we can hold up. There aren’t any windows, and only two entrances on
ground level. It’s defensible and I’ve got it stocked with a few supplies for
just such an event.”
“You actually planned for all this?!” she asked in disbelief.
He let out a slight chuckle. “Well, not zombies per se, but
it was only a matter of time before the proverbial shit hit the fan.”
“So how close are we to this store of yours?”
“Oh, don’t you worry, we’re close. It’s right on McKnight,
past the Day’s Inn and that New Age Christian church.”
They made it to the cloverleaf that connected Babcock to
McKnight and made a sharp left, screeching onto the on-ramp. After a sharp bend
to the right, they were now cruising along the berm to avoid the main road,
which like most other roads around, choked with cars. The driver of the bus
behind them was good and didn’t miss the turn, still following them closely.
Sam was right, they were close. A few seconds after turning
onto McKnight, he turned right into a large parking lot that surrounded a
medium-sized building. The store sat centered towards the back of the lot.
Behind that, a seventy-five foot cliff reached towards the sky and provided
good defense to the back of the building. From what Evelyn could gather, there
was only a couple of feet from the back of the building to the cliff face.
Sam skidded to an abrupt halt next to the building. The bus
followed in suit, coming to rest parallel to the front of the building, its
passenger door pointing towards the store entrance. Evelyn jumped out of the
car and scoured the immediate area for any creepers. Satisfied that the coast
was clear, she opened up the back doors and began to pull out the various bags
of ammunition and supplies. Sam got out and loaded up as well.
The walked around the corner to the entrance in time to see
the bus doors open. One by one, the survivors on board emerged. They were a
motley crew, ranging in age, race and gender. Altogether there were eight of
them; three women and five men. They all looked like hell, most of them covered
in blood and grime.
Sam dropped an armful of bags and brandished his pistol at
the group. “Are any of you folks bitten?”
Everyone in the group tensed. Including the six foot eight
inch Indian fella standing in the back. Sam was almost startled at the sight of
the brown-skinned man. He was tall and built like a brick shithouse. If Sam had
to guess, he figured the guy could bench two-fifty without even breaking a
sweat.
After a brief awkward silence, a short, rather fat Hispanic
man in his early forties took a step forward. “No sir, none of us are infected.
We’re a little banged up, but none of those things got to us.”
Sam did another quick once-over of the group. Satisfied that
none of them were going to turn, he pounded on the door and picked up the load
of bags. “Bill, Pete. It’s Sam. Open the door.”
A moment later a voice sounded from the other side. “How do
we know it’s really Sam?” asked the voice.
“Open the door NOW you useless shit!”
“Hey Bill, Sam’s back!” the muffled voice yelled from behind
the door.
A second later, several locks clicked and slid open and the
door swung out. Sam pushed past the large store clerk and indicated for the
group outside to follow. Evelyn was surprised that there were lights on inside
the store. She hadn’t seen any exterior lighting on. Sam must have a generator.
Once everyone was inside, Pete locked up the door and turned
to face the group. “Gee Sam, I didn’t know you were bringing company with you,”
he said.
“Shut up and help me with this gear,” the gruff man replied.
The crowd stood in the middle of the shop. They took stock of
their surroundings and immediately became uncomfortable. Evelyn was beside
herself. She couldn’t believe that this was where they were going to make their
stand.
“Sam, are you fucking kidding me?” she asked.
Sam turned to her with one of those what’s your problem looks
on his face. “What’s your problem?”
“You own a fucking porn shop?! You think that the best place
to go is a fucking sex playground?! Why didn’t you tell me you owned a goddamn
perv store?” Evelyn chided.
“First off, I didn’t think it was relevant. Second, this IS a
defensible position. We have a cliff behind us, which means that’s one less
direction we have to protect. I’ve stocked enough food, water, and ammunition
to supply the next World War, and I saved your sorry ass from being the
brains-du-jour on some creeper’s dinner table. So if you don’t mind, a little
respect would be appreciated.”
Evelyn sank into herself, ashamed for getting so irate. He
was right, he did save her. He was also right about this building. There were
no windows, except the one in the front door. Like Sam had told her earlier,
there was only one exit out the front and one out the back, which made it much
easier to defend. “Sorry Sam,” she whispered.
“Look folks, I know that you aren’t thrilled to be making
humanity’s last stand among a slew of giant, veiny cocks and ball gags, but the
situation is what it is. Better make the best of it.” Sam turned and
continued taking inventory of the supply bags that were now splayed out on the
front counter.
The new additions from the bus settled in, resting against
the shelves of pornography. Evelyn made her way to the front door and peered
out through the blinds. She thought of Nathan. She thought of Boomer. She
thought of Julie. There was no going back to that life. Not after this. Her
hopes that Nathan was still alive dwindled with every passing hour. Soon she
would have to come to terms with the fact that he was likely dead.
