Authors: Craig Halloran
Chapter 24
Location Unknown
N
ate McDaniel’s life had been rebooted. New face. New clothes. New Job … WHS Security Squad.
What a joke.
He scratched his face. His once heavy beard was nice and trim with a touch of gray around the chin. In the mirror he tried making faces. He smiled and frowned. Made an angry face and chuckled at himself. He started to sing.
“Don’t talk stupid,” Walker said, combing his hair at the mirror by his side.
He still had that at least, the voice.
Smooth as silk and sweeter than honey.
That’s what Rose had said after they advanced their relationship several hours ago.
He followed Walker into the parking garage out of the strange building that he assumed had been his home for the past several months. His legs and face ached from the effort. Walking down the stairs winded him. He got into the passenger side of a slate gray sedan with a WHS logo on the side. The moment of eeriness passed as they pulled out of the garage and headed down the road. He thought about Rose’s sweet lips the entire car ride over. He still didn’t know where he left from for sure, but it wasn’t long before he knew exactly where he was. It was a place he had become quite fond of over the years: Washington, DC. Headquarters of the WHS and this year’s host of their Zombie Convention.
“Stay close to me. You’ve got all of the ID and credentials that you need. If someone says something to you, just nod or shake your head. Security is tight here.”
Nate wiped his sweaty hands on his pants and said in a gruff voice, “Okay.”
“Geez, that’s bad. You sound like the Hulk. But, I guess it will do.”
“Nate smash Walker,” Nate said, imitating the Incredible Hulk.
“Shad-dup.”
He rolled down his window and inhaled. The cool air was refreshing. The lights of the city and the nation’s Capitol were captivating. He loved it here. Of course, the WHS hadn’t given him much choice. Even if he could live somewhere else, he wasn’t so certain that he would. The exhilarating feeling of freedom and a new life was soon dimmed as an image of Christy Backwater was etched in his head. She had been gorgeous, seductive, and powerful. He could still feel her sticky blood on his hands. He rubbed his fingertips together.
I can’t believe she was going to kill me.
He coughed.
“I’m not putting my cigarette out, if that’s what you’re hinting at,” Walker said.
“Huh … no, I couldn’t care less. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t mind one, myself.”
“Is that so? Well, help yourself. Glove box.”
He grabbed a box of Camel non-filters.
“They still make these things?”
“In some states.”
The smoke burned his lungs as he inhaled. He sighed with a heavy breath of smoke.
“Rose isn’t gonna like that. Doctor Z, either.”
“I guess they can transplant new lungs to go with my new face, then.”
“Yeah, good one.”
Solid country gold songs were playing on the radio as Nate watched the street signs he passed by. The music wasn’t as offensive as he used to think, more soothing than anything. He didn’t figure he should expect much better from a skinny hick like Walker anyway. After a few more songs played and his second cigarette was extinguished, he figured he needed a better idea of what he was getting into.
“Walker …”
The man came to a stop at a light and said, “I know what you’re thinking. What are you going to do when we get there?”
“Well yeah … What am I going to do when I get there?”
“Follow me. Stay close. Do as I do and say. We’re going to be among your old comrades of the WHS. Watch. Listen. Maybe we’ll learn something.”
It didn’t make any sense to him. They wouldn’t say anything in front of them. He knew them well enough to know that when they had something important on their minds they would dismiss themselves. Never once did they keep him around for the more important plans. He had tried several times to include himself, but he’d usually been met with a courteous “No.”
“I’m not a spy. I’m just some dude that got lucky, is all,” he confessed. “You know that, of course, and I’m sure you resent that.”
The car was moving again.
“I know that … but … man I hate to say this … the truth is, I believe that everybody is somebody. Even an over-glamorized fornicator like you.”
“Hey!”
“Heh-heh. You know it’s true. Besides, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t’ just like all the other men in the world that wanted to be you just for a day. The star of the century.”
“It’s a joke.”
“Maybe so, but you have a purpose. You stopped the zombies once. You can stop them again. It’s probably why you are here.”
“Great. So, why are you here, then? Have you figured it out yet?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m here to kill zombies.” Walker lit up another cigarette. “And the people that make zombies.”
“Sounds pretty simple. I save the world. You kill the zombies. Maybe we should come up with a name for ourselves,” Nate suggested.
“Well, the Dynamic Duo is taken. So is the Green Hornet and Kato.”
“Hawkman and smoking Hawkman.”
“Creampuff and Studman.”
“Milk and Honey.”
“Better yet, Big Guy and Little Guy.”
“The Undertaker …”
“… and Kane.” Nate finished. “I don’t even have a real name now, do I?”
Walker tossed him a thin wallet. Inside, there was an I.D. without a picture on it. It had a name, though.
“Rick Jones. Seriously.”
“It’s all that I could think of. I’m not exactly good with names.”
It wasn’t so bad. After all, Rick Jones was a hero of sorts. If not for him, there never would have been an Incredible Hulk. The tension between the two men had subsided. Even Walker’s stiff talk had loosened up. The man’s dry sense of humor had begun to grow on him.
“Nah, it’s good. It’s not as cool as Bruce Banner, but it’s still better than Clark Kent.”
“True. I almost used Chuck Jones.”
Nate’s brows perched as he nodded. He pulled down his vanity mirror and said, “I can see that, too.”
Men could easily find common ground with one another if they were willing to speak. Sports, comic books, movies, and video games were all part of their mental playground. The doubt inside his belly about the skinny man in black began to subside. Maybe Walker was on his side. Maybe it wasn’t all a hoax.
Keep playing along.
“We’re almost to the convention center. WHS security is going to check you in. Show your ID. They scan it and your face.”
“My face?”
“Don’t worry. You’ve already been added into the database. Worst case scenario, we head back to the car … or die.”
“What?”
Walker showed him a thin-lipped smile as they pulled into the garage and said, “It’ll be okay. Besides, you’ve already died once.”
Chapter 25
Institute, WV
“H
enry! Henry!”
Someone was screaming as he gawped at the window above.
“Get down here!”
He didn’t want to move, but someone was pulling him away. He resisted.
“He’s gone, Henry! Come on, Lover, we’ve got to move on!” Tori said, tears streaming from her eyes.
They both limped towards the ladder. Tori grunted with every step.
“You okay?”
“Just my ankle.
THUMP!
A zombie dropped from the window and crashed on top of the roof.
THUMP!
Another followed.
“Get down, Tori!” he said, looking down the ladder. Rudy and Weege were down below, shouting at him.
“BAWK! COME ON!” Rudy cried.
He spotted two 4-seater utility vehicles and Security Team One. They were all waving him on. The moans behind him became even louder as one zombie rose to its feet in pursuit.
“GERONIMO!”
One of the biggest men he ever knew was jumping from the window. A sickening crunch followed as Rod landed on top of the zombie. Henry rushed over and pulled the man up from the ground. The other zombie was crawling, dragging its busted legs behind it. Henry kicked away its outstretched hand. As the pair of men stumbled to the ladder, the zombies began jumping from the windows like the building was on fire. Henry watched in awe as Rod slid down on the outer rails of the fire escape.
“MOVE, HENRY!”
Rod caught him as he leaped down the last ten feet.
“OW!”
“You’ll be okay,” Rod said, dragging him towards the awaiting vehicles.
“Thank God you’re alive!” Henry exclaimed.
Rod didn’t reply as he looked upward. Tori, Weege and Rudy were screaming. The zombies were scrambling off the top of the roof.
Rod shouted, “Get us out of here, Doug!!”
“Where? There’s nowhere to go!”
“Just go! We’ll think of something on the way.”
The Gators sped off.
Doug, Henry, Rod, and another security member were in one Gator. The Weege, Rudy, and Tori were being driven by another member. Everyone had pulled the mesh masks up from their faces. Henry almost enjoyed the cold air on his as they sped through the thick fog.
The complex had the feeling of a haunted village now. The contours of the buildings were distorted, and the blacktopped roads were hidden. All of the lampposts that littered the compound were dark, and most of the emergency lights were dim. Henry tapped Doug the driver on the shoulder.
“Stop. Let’s regroup.”
The other Gator pulled along their side. Every face was wide-eyed with horror. They were beside a small chapel that was covered in ivy. A small cemetery was nearby. Rudy retched over the side of the ATV as Tori climbed over into the seat beside Henry. Everyone was looking back and forth at one another with heads craning for any sounds of pursuit.
Weege was the first to speak.
“We have to find the director and Alice, Henry. They’ll know what to do. Let’s go to his quadrant.”
Doug was loading shells into his shotgun as he said, “Nope. We checked, or at least the other guys did. They’re either sealed up somewhere or on the run. Probably dead.”
It didn’t seem likely to Henry. Alice had to have been in on something. His gut told him that much. With so many personnel at the Zombie Conference, it didn’t seem likely that they’d leave the director behind, unless they wanted him gone as well. As for Alice, she was too much of a suck-up to be black listed. If anyone knew what was going on, he was certain that she would. In the meantime, he had to find a way out of this trap.
“Anybody have any ideas?” he said, looking around.
“More ammo. We couldn’t check the munitions depot. They might have heavier stuff in there,” one security man said.
“Some armor-piercing rounds would be nice. It’s the only thing that’ll bust through those metal skulls. Man! What’s going on here, Henry? Somebody let those zombies loose … didn’t they?” Rod said, letting out a painful groan.
“You okay?” Tori asked.
“I’m torn up. Busted bones.” Rod pulled off his mask and spit blood. “I’m still a man, though.”
Henry put his hand on the man’s shoulder and said, “Rod … everyone … I can’t say what’s going on, but it looks like the WHS is up to its dirty tricks.”
“What do you mean?” one guard asked.
“Without getting into detail, I have knowledge of experiments of theirs. There’s a formula that was supposed to cure the zombies, but instead it just sped them up. They were testing it on children, but now they’ve moved on to adults. I think they are making zombie soldiers.” He ran his fingers back through his hair. “And their first war is with us. A bunch of nobodies. Casualties of the greater good, I’d assume.”
There was silence. Only the chirping of nature’s creatures remained. Henry felt like he had sucked the hope from each and every one of them. Every face was sweaty and drained. Even his own hands were trembling. He started to continue, but Rod’s powerful voice cut him off.
“I’m not dying for nothing. I’m not a victim. If it’s a fight they want, it’s a fight I’ll give them.” The man was looking at the cross on the roof of the small church. Rod groaned as he left the Gator and said, “Everybody gather around … I want to say something.”
Henry thought he knew what the man was doing, but he didn’t think the others would respond. They all gathered in.
“Everyone hold hands and bow your heads.”
Henry grabbed Weege on his left and Tori on his right. The small circle was complete. He glanced up at the old metal cross that was illuminated in the pale moonlight.
Rod said, “God … please help us get the hell out of here alive. Amen.”
A few others mumbled the final word as well.
“Henry. Henry,” Weege was squeezing his hand.
“Yeah.”
The little man’s eyes were feverish with excitement.
“I have an idea.”
“I’m all ears.”
So was everyone else.
“We need blood. Lots of blood.”
“What for? We—”
“Ssssh!” Tori said. “Do you hear that?”
The sound was very distinct.
“Numma-numma. Numma-numma ..”.
And getting louder.
“Get back in the Gators!”
“Henry, listen to me! Let’s head for the gym! I have an idea. We have to get blood!”
Not a second after they started moving, the zombies erupted from the fog like rabid dogs.
“GO!”
The zombies were blocking their path.
Chapter 26
Washington, D.C.
N
ow, Don was the one laughing. His nephew Jack was cursing at his custom laptop.
“Impossible!”
Don swore that if that big man in the zombie suit survived, he would put him directly on his payroll and hope the man never learned he had been an associate in his attempted death. At this point, Don was titillated. The massive man slung the zombies around like rag dolls. The WHS team that worked the cameras must have been having a fit. His screen went black on several occasions, only to emerge again with another pummeling scene. He swore he felt his jaws rattle a couple of times.
“Don’t get cocky, Uncle. See, the man’s out of energy, and the zombies have just begun.”
It was a hard thing, watching the valiant man begin to die. The swarm covered the fighter. The screen didn’t pick up much of the picture, but it was pretty clear this battle was over. Don’s heart was heavy for a moment, and then something amazing happened. His view of the screen changed, and suddenly he was sailing through the air and crashing on top of a gravel roof. After the camera switched, the big man was on the lower roof and hustling over the side. Henry Bawkula was there, too.
“Yes!”
Jack sneered.
“That was just luck. Those people don’t have anywhere to run. No escape, and they are running out of ammo.”
“True, but it’s still getting closer to the dawn. Let me ask you something, Jack. Have you ever taken a moment to ever consider what it might be like if you were in there?”
“No. The only thing that matters is that I’m not in there.”
“Suppose that was you. Do you think you could survive? After all, you’re smarter than the zombies. What would you do?”
Don waited for the reply, but the only response was the man’s fingers moving feverishly over his keyboard.
“Well … I guess I’ll assume you would give up and die, then.”
“I’d think of something.”
“Ah … so, don’t you think they’ll think of something, as well?”
Jack threw his arms out in front of himself and said, “I don’t care what they think. It won’t matter. They won’t survive. No one has, so far.”
Wow!
Don couldn’t help but worry about his status with the WHS. His nephew, someone that he had brought up within that organization, was now privy to information that he was not. His stomach soured as he ran his hand over his face. He became very cold.
Jack continued his gloating.
“How much do you really know about the zombies anyway, Don?”
It was an insult. He knew as much about zombies as anybody. What he knew about the functions of the XT Serum was another matter. Still, the question pissed him off.
“Here’s what I know. They are a virus. Man made. An abomination. Something that happens, I believe, when man is saturated by evil. Mindless and hungry with an appetite that cannot be satisfied. And like any other virus, they attack. Infect. Cells and flesh. In this more extreme case, the zombies are hunting blood. They want to infect it. Everyone thinks they are flesh eaters—like cannibals—but if that were the case we wouldn’t have any zombies. They would all consume themselves.
“Although I’ve always enjoyed the headlines … ZOMBIE EATS MAN’S BRAIN, all of that is bunk. Do you know how much pressure it would take to crack a human skull? How can a man bite into another man’s head? Our teeth aren’t designed to be can openers. If a zombie ever ate a brain, it was only because it had already been spilled. Besides, what’s the best way to kill a zombie? Pierce the brain. Why would a virus kill itself? No brains, no zombies.”
Jack was nodding.
“True. But you’ve got to love all of those old movies. I bet your generation never saw that becoming real.”
“We didn’t expect to land on the moon, either. Or have a bomb that could destroy an entire country.”
“Well, it looks like every generation has its achievements, some good and some bad. Real bad. Still, Uncle, I don’t think you are telling me everything you know about the zombies. The 101 segment doesn’t help. Can’t you at least tell me where they came from? Who created the virus? About the first outbreak?”
Don didn’t like the intensity in Jack’s voice. For a moment, his nephew looked like a man obsessed with something dark. He looked Jack in the eyes and said, “You seem to already know enough, Jack. You know things that I don’t even know. You’re doing things that I wouldn’t even consider. And now, you want me to share with you everything that I know?” He cleared his throat. “I do what I do because I have to. That doesn’t mean that I enjoy it. Look at you. People are dying, and you like it. Don’t you?”
Jack tore his eyes away saying, “No.”
“It sure seems like it.”
“Can’t you just tell me who you think is behind the outbreak?”
“No.”
“Do you even know?”
Don paused before he shook his head saying, “No.”
Jack hissed through his teeth and returned his interest back to his screen. Don checked his. Only the view of the fog remained. He was relieved.
Good
“Looks like they lost them, and the time’s still ticking away.”
“They’ll sniff them out soon enough.”
Don hoped not.
“See look! They’re already on the trail.”
Don looked down at his screen just in time to see his zombie view getting run over by a Gator full of a bunch of shooting people. As exciting as that was, a troubling feeling remained. He was beginning to get a sinking feeling that he wasn’t holding the purse strings anymore. He looked over his shoulder. Oliver was still standing outside the car and smoking.
Am I still in charge here?
Maybe his nephew was … and he might be in trouble.