Dead America: Lowcountry | Book 5 | Lowcountry [Part 5]

by Slaton, Derek

  She pursed her lips for a moment. “How close to the doors?” she asked. “What if it draws a bunch of those things out to us?”

  “Pick your moment,” he replied. “There’s nothing else close enough that it would make a difference.”

  Hawk scoffed. “No, of course not, you know there aren’t a bunch of dudes with guns outside that could come in through the same door we did and help us or anything,” he muttered.

  “We’ll try,” Grace replied simply. “I supposed there’s no place near wherever the decoy team is to shoot out the horde?”

  “Negative,” No Name replied. “That would be the easiest option, but there’s no roof access there.”

  “Of course there isn’t,” Hawk said, shaking his head and downing the rest of his coffee.

  Grace sighed. “Okay,” she said into the walkie-talkie, “I’ll report back soon, one way or the other.” She clicked off the radio before any reply, not wanting to hear his voice anymore. Regardless of him seeming more sympathetic than his comrades, he was still putting them through this, and she was sick of listening to his voice.

  “So, this is fun,” Hawk said, voice high in sarcasm.

  Grace nodded and drank the rest of the mug, smacking her lips together. “At least the brew was good,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime,” he replied, and then got down from their stools.

  They approached the barrier slowly, sticking to the shadows.

  “I don’t even know why they’re still here,” she whispered. “You’d think that after no movement for a while, they’d have gone after the noise.”

  Hawk shrugged. “Maybe they can smell us in here,” he suggested. “It’s hard to imagine they have any kind of memory with dead brains… like do they remember that we came in here and have the mental capacity to know that we’re trapped?”

  “Don’t know,” she replied, and shook her head. It was unsettling to think about these things having any kind of thought process. But there wasn’t any use ruminating on it. They were stuck in here, and nine corpses needed to get out of their way before they could make a run for the doors.

  She wished they’d have been able to communicate with Troy. She could see the sporting goods store, and wondered if they were close enough that if they made a bunch of noise, the zombies would go their way.

  But again, these types of thought trains were useless. All she could do was hope that maybe he was watching, and would come out if they got into a grapple.

  There was the crack of gunfire and the ghouls snapped around, all save for one. Eight of them took off, and Grace didn’t waste any time.

  She threw the bolt and opened the barrier, lunging forward and swinging at the remaining zombie, dropping it to the floor. She took off for the doors, but the zombies were already disinterested in the gunfire.

  She’d been hoping that they would get all the way under that panel so the mercenary above could take them out, but no such luck as they reared on her and Hawk.

  He nearly smashed into the back of her as she stopped short, preparing to sprint back to the coffee shop.

  “Heyooo!” somebody bellowed, and there was a clatter of metal as Troy darted out from the sporting goods store, a baseball bat in his hand.

  The zombies seemed confused for a moment, looking back and forth as if unsure which human would taste the best, and Grace took advantage of the situation. She lunged and stabbed at one that had its back turned closest to her and then leapt back as the noise drew the attention of its partner.

  Hawk took care of that one, smashing it in the side of the skull with his weapon, and Troy let out another holler as he neared them.

  The five still standing ran for him, and Grace and Hawk tore after them, swinging hard.

  Troy’s baseball bat connected with one’s face, sending the body staggering back into its friends, and the back two fell with wet crunches as metal crushed their skulls. The final ghoul flailed around as the others fell on top of it, and Grace leaned forward, stabbing it in the face before it could get free.

  Aaron skidded up to them, clutching his tire iron with wide eyes.

  “Oh, you decided to join us?” Troy drawled.

  “We have to get into the store!” Grace urged, and took off for the doors, three teammates in tow.

  “Wait, inside?!” Troy cried, though he followed her in.

  She and Hawk closed the doors, bolting them down, and then turned around to face the horde of hungry ghouls turning around to face them.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Grace dove to the right, slamming into a ghoul in a department store uniform, sending it over the railing to the first floor below. They were on a mezzanine, a store escalator in the center next to an elevator in a glass tube.

  The first floor crawled with zombies, but there were enough up where they were to be deadly.

  “We need to block the escalator!” she cried, and it was true, but they were going to have to fight their way there.

  Hawk grabbed a rolling rack of clothes, swinging it around and letting it go to smack into a group of zombies running at him. They got tangled up and fell in a heap, the hangers clattering to the floor as the rack fell over.

  Troy followed his lead, and thrust a second rack at Aaron, who was simply standing open-mouthed in fear.

  “Get your shit together!” he barked. “We’ve got to fight!”

  Grace flew past them to the wall, wrapping her fingers around a sturdy-looking shoe shelf. It was fastened to the wall, so she climbed it like a ladder until she balanced on top of it, pressed back against the wall. She pulled the handgun from the back of her pants, took aim at one of the ghouls closest to Hawk, and fired.

  The bullet hit its mark, and the noise caught the attention of the bulk of the creatures. They ran towards her, their fingertips just brushing the tops of the shelf. Shoes fell everywhere as they flailed for her, but she focused on the ones still unperturbed by her.

  The trio of ghouls stuck under Hawk’s rolling rack found their footing and launched towards Aaron. Grace fired three times, taking out two with headshots and hitting the third in the shoulder. The cluster around her grew, drawing most of the zombies to the noise of the gun.

  “Block the escalator!” she screamed, as she spotted some ghouls attempting to get up the frozen stairs below. Despite their clumsiness, with enough flailing and determination, she didn’t want to bank on them not being able to get up.

  Hawk and Troy brained two more ghouls near them, and then grabbed their rolling racks of doom, pulling them towards the escalators. Aaron staggered over to the railing, looking down to the floor, and Grace’s blood boiled. She couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to put a bullet in his head, put him out of his misery.

  But she wasn’t a murderer. Killing zombies was one thing… killing a human was another. Of course, if he kept up this level of uselessness, it likely wouldn’t be long before he was a zombie, and she’d have to put him down anyway. But they’d cross that bridge if and when they came to it.

  Hawk and Troy shoved rack after rack down the stairs, and the noise began to draw the back of Grace’s group, easily now at twenty or so.

  She took aim and fired at one that was closest to the boys, dropping it and putting the heat back on her. A particularly tall zombie clawed at the tip of her shoe, and she grunted, kicking out and steadying her balance before swinging down with her crowbar to take it out.

  When the escalator was sufficiently full of metal and clothing, creating the most effective barrier they could build, Hawk and Troy turned back to her.

  “If you try to get them from the back, I’ll keep drawing them back to me with the gun,” Grace called, and they both nodded.

  Troy glanced over at Aaron, who was still clutching the railing, looking down at the sea of angry ghouls below. He stalked over and grabbed the man by the arm.

  “Get your ass in gear or I’ll throw you over myself,” he snapped.

  Aaron clenched his jaw, defiance in his ga
ze, but it was laced in stone fear at the threat. He nodded jerkily, and they came to stand with Hawk.

  Grace fired again, at a zombie in the middle of the horde to make sure the falling body wouldn’t draw attention to the back, and then the three men went to work.

  They darted forward, each smacking down a skull. Hawk managed to stab a second ghoul before jumping back, and Aaron and Troy retreated immediately as creatures whipped around.

  Grace was ready and aiming, and popped off three quick shots in succession, dropping three distracted zombies in the back. Another hand brushed her shoe, and she swung with her crowbar again.

  She overestimated her balance and had a moment of panic where she thought she might topple right into the mini-horde. She windmilled her arms and pressed up on the balls of her feet, and her heart hammered in her chest as she regained her balance, pressing her back against the wall and breathing heavy.

  She steadied herself and watched Hawk, Troy, and Aaron lunge forward again, each taking down another ghoul. Once they leapt back into the clear, she popped off a few more shots, keeping her other hand firmly against the wall to keep herself grounded. Her aim was off a touch, and only two of the ghouls fell, but they were thinning the herd nicely.

  When they were down to five, she holstered her gun, hoping that she hadn’t wasted too many bullets that they’d need later. Hawk stabbed a ghoul in the face and then used the corpse to bowl over two other zombies.

  Grace shimmied until she was above him and then dropped down behind him, darting around to lunge at one of the ghouls trying to get the drop on Troy. Aaron swung wildly at his zombie, but his blow glanced off of its neck, and it latched onto his arm. He screamed as it bit into his tricep, and tried to wrench his arm out of its teeth, to no avail.

  Grace moved towards him, but the zombies Hawk was wrestling with pulled away and tore for the easy meal. Between the three of them, they tackled Aaron to the floor, and his screams quickly turned to gurgles.

  “While they’re distracted!” Grace hissed, though her blood ran cold at the thought of it. Hadn’t she thought about shooting Aaron? Hadn’t she thought he wouldn’t survive? And here he was, on the ground, being feasted on, the perfect distraction for destroying the threat. Her mouth tasted like bile.

  They rushed over, each stabbing down at a ghoul, and the bodies fell limp on top of Aaron. He was barely alive, his eyes rolling as his head lolled back and forth, blood pouring from his mouth and throat.

  Grace swallowed hard. “Sorry,” she whispered, and then stabbed him in the eye socket with her crowbar.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The trio stepped back, tentatively relieved they’d survived this leg of the battle. The moans and groans and snarls echoing up from the first floor didn’t do anything to comfort them, however, because the battle was far from over.

  “We need to clear this floor,” Grace said, checking to make sure her gun and walkie-talkie were still there.

  Hawk nodded. “I don’t think there’s anything else, considering all the noise we made,” he pointed out, “but a sweep would be best.”

  They readied their weapons and headed past the escalator, glancing down to make sure that the pileup of clothing racks were still doing their job. A few had dislodged at the bottom, but the ghouls hadn’t made it even a quarter of the way up, so they were okay for now.

  They wove their way through housewares and linens, making sure there were no more zombies hiding anywhere, which there didn’t seem to be. When they came out the other side, they looked down off of the mezzanine to the terror below.

  There was a clatter as some of the rabid creatures pulled down a few more clothing racks, struggling beneath them but freeing up half of the escalators.

  “How many bullets do you have left?” Troy asked, though his tone betrayed that he knew the answer already.

  Grace shook her head. She didn’t even need to look. “Not enough,” she replied dryly.

  Hawk chewed his lip for a moment. “That’s not going to hold forever,” he said. “What are we going to do, here?”

  “No chance our buddies outside can come in and mop this up?” Troy asked, wrinkling his nose.

  “Nope,” Grace replied, shaking her head. “We gotta clear in here and then draw the mall zombies to us. Somehow.” She sighed. “But that’s later. What are we going to do now?”

  Hawk rubbed his forehead. “I have an idea…” he drawled, trailing off. “But I don’t really like it.”

  “Spit it out,” Troy said, waving a hand at him.

  Hawk motioned to the elevator. “We’ve still got power. We could take the elevator down.”

  “They’d be on us as soon as the doors open,” Grace replied, brow furrowing. “We’d be stuck.”

  “Not if we ride on the top of the car,” he replied, and then winced. “See? Don’t like it.”

  But she had a thoughtful expression on her face. “It would work.”

  “That’s not a very big elevator shaft,” Troy mused.

  She nodded. “That’s why you’re going to stay up here,” she said. “You stay at the top of the escalator, make sure that the barricade holds, and Hawk and I will ride down and kill whatever ends up attracted by the doors opening. Once it’s clear, we’ll play cat and mouse like we did up here.”

  He gaped at her. “Except with a lot more of those things,” he protested.

  “And you’ll have to make noise without a gun,” she replied. “I think we might need it more downstairs, just in case.”

  Troy shook his head. “Okay, girl, I don’t have any other ideas,” he admitted.

  “I’ll get prying on the ceiling panel,” Hawk said, holding up his crowbar.

  The trio headed for the elevator, and Grace clapped Troy on the back as they passed by it to the escalators. “Cause enough of a ruckus and we should be able to just take them all out from behind,” she said.

  “I don’t know, that’s quite a group,” he replied, shaking his head. “What do I do if they start getting too far up?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at a few shoe displays. “Toss whatever you can on top of them,” she instructed. “Just try not to hit us.” She cracked a small smile.

  “I’ll do my best,” he said, putting a hand on his chest.

  Grace jogged back over to Hawk, who was just pulling the ceiling door of the elevator open. The sliding doors began to close automatically, and she stuck out a hand to push them back.

  “Got it?” she asked, and he nodded.

  “Yep, come here, I’ll give you a boost,” he replied, lacing his fingers together to make a step out of his hands.

  She shook her head. “How about I give you a boost?” she asked. “I think you can probably pull me up through that hole better than I can pull you.”

  “Fair enough,” he replied, and moved over to the door open button, mashing on it as she took a position beneath the trapdoor. She laced her fingers together and then gave him a nod.

  Hawk stepped forward and put a foot in her hand, pushing off of the ground. Grace hauled up as hard as she could, and he reached up into the hole, grabbing the sides and pulling himself up.

  She darted over to the door and hit the button again to keep the doors open just as they started to close, and then smashed the first floor button before darting back underneath the hole. Hawk’s arm hung through, waiting, and she crouched as low as she could, leaping into the air. She managed to grasp his wrist, and he pulled her up enough with a grunt so she could grab the side of the hole, pulling herself up just as the doors gave a ding and closed, beginning the descent.

  “How are we going to do this?” Hawk asked. “I know it was my idea, but depending on how many get in…”

  Grace shrugged. “We can try to stab them, and if that doesn’t work I’ll shoot them until I run out of bullets,” she replied. “Hopefully I don’t have to do that, and Troy and draw enough of them to the escalators.”

  “Guess we didn’t think that far,” Hawk muttered. “If they sw
arm over here, we’re stuck in this elevator shaft.”

  She shook her head. “We can either climb, or Troy can push the button for us,” she replied, as the elevator reached the bottom floor. “But one thing at a time.”

  The doors gave a ding and slid open. They watched through the glass shaft as three zombies tore towards them, slamming into the elevator, looking around, confused.

  Troy began to smack the metal racks with his crowbar, making a ruckus, and one of the ghouls took off, the rest on the bottom floor converging on the escalators. The two in the elevator seemed at a loss, bumping into each other, and then bouncing off the walls of the small elevator.

  Grace pursed her lips. She didn’t think she’d be able to reach low enough with her weapon to stab one, so they had to hope they’d just leave. After what felt like forever, the two zombies managed to bonk their way out the door, shoving each other to tear towards the escalator.

  “We’ve got to hurry,” Hawk murmured, motioning.

  The sheer amount of zombies tangled in the clothing racks was easily thirty, and the flailing bodies continued to dislodge the haphazard barricade.

  Grace nodded and hung her legs into the hole, taking a deep breath before dropping down. She immediately ducked out of the way, pressing her back against the button panel, out of sight of the horde. Hawk came next, and did the same, across the way on the other side of the elevator car.

  She pointed to him and then motioned to a makeup kiosk on his side of the store. He peered out and nodded, and she jerked her thumb over her shoulder, to signal that she would go the other way.

  They made sure the coast was clear, and then darted out of the elevator, each running off in their own direction.

  As soon as Grace cleared the elevator shaft, a duo of zombies appeared from behind a magazine display, surprising her. She ducked her shoulder and slammed into one, sending it flying backwards. She swung around immediately, burying her crowbar into the temple of the other one, and stopped long enough to stab the fallen ghoul before sprinting behind a larger shelf of magazines and stationery supplies.