Heroes of the Undead | Book 1 | The Culling

by Meredith, Peter

  Bryce shrugged. If he stepped on a shard that would be it. They would have to leave him behind…alone. The thought sent a shiver up his spine. Griff caught it and told him, “You’re doing great. You and Maddy. I thought we were screwed a few times back there. Nerd power, right?”

  “Yeah.” Bryce didn’t know what he meant by that, but gave him a grin, nonetheless. “What are going to do when…” A scrape of a shoe on the stairs stopped his lips. It was a small, sly sound and it froze him.

  “What?” Griff asked, his voice not quite a whisper.

  Bryce held a finger in the air, his head cocked. The step came again, quieter now. Griff shrugged and Bryce put the finger to his lips, before holding out a hand. Griff obliged, and pulled Bryce to his feet. Maddy had heard the sound as well and had her neck twisted so she could peer around one of the supports. She saw the demon first.

  Black on black, huge and strong. It was staring across the turnstiles at the tracks where the bodies smoldered.

  “Kill it,” Bryce said, his voice a high squeak.

  Griff stepped to his right and saw the demon, though in his eyes, it looked only like a man. Sure he was big and the ugly yellow light didn’t help, but it seemed so much like a man that he hesitated. It wasn’t until the demon turned and he saw the bloody arm it carried, that he realized he was wrong. No person would carry the remains of an arm around with them.

  The demon saw Griff just as the agent raised his Glock and fired. The demon was quick and dodged to its left as the bullet took off its ear.

  “Did you guys see that?” Griff muttered, moving to his right to get a bead on the thing. It ducked down before he could fire again. In a black blur, it raced away up the stairs. “I don’t think it’s turned all the way into one of them. It knew I was aiming for it.”

  Victoria was edging into the tunnel, pulling her daughter along. “Who cares? There’s probably a million just like him, and weren’t you the one saying not to waste bullets?”

  “Yeah. You’re right.” Something about the demon didn’t seem right to Griff, and it made the hair on the back of Bryce’s neck stand up.

  Maddy hadn’t seen it. She’d been doing her best not to throw up from the fumes rising from the bodies. “Can we get out of here?” she begged.

  Griff pulled his eyes from the yellow-lit stairs. “Of course. That’s probably smart. Maddy you stick right on my tail. Then Tessa and Victoria. Bryce’ll have our back.”

  This did not sit well with Bryce. Although the demon had fled, there was no telling if it would come stalking back. The others shuffled forward a few feet, but he paused at the edge of the tunnel. The darkness seemed to have deepened. “How far is it until the next station?” By this, he meant how far was it until he could feel even the least bit safe again.

  As she counted the stops in her mind, Victoria’s eyes flicked to the ceiling where decades’ old paint was peeling. In the dark it looked like dead skin. “Uh, nine blocks about. Union Square is the next station and then Astor Place. The Six is almost a straight shot downtown. We can be at the Fed Building in two hours, if we don’t run into any more of those things. What happened to them? You guys said you knew something?”

  “They might know something,” Griff corrected. And even what they knew was pretty thin. It amounted to: Daniel Magnus could be behind this, but they don’t know what he did or how he did it, or how to fix it, or if it can be fixed. Still, it was a start. With that, he plunged into the darkness, completely unafraid of the huge black rats. Somehow, he ignored the squeaking and the quick darting movements of the vile creatures.

  Maddy could not ignore the vermin. She drew her limbs in and spent more time watching her mincing toes than where she was going. Twice she ran into Griff and both times she clung to him. What scared her more than the rats was the dank, wet darkness of the tunnel. Light down in the tunnel felt unwanted, like a trespasser who didn’t belong. Whenever they edged away from one of the dim lights, the darkness swallowed them whole and brought to life hideous creatures that lurked in the primitive portion of her brain.

  I have a PhD, she told herself. I’m a grown woman. There’s nothing in the darkness but darkness.

  Except that was not entirely true.

  Chapter 15

  They were not alone in the tunnel.

  On the raised walkway was a mound that looked like a pile of crumpled clothing sitting in the dark. Griff passed it by without even raising his weapon. Maddy saw it move and could smell the death hovering around it like a cloud. She had her gun pointed but not aimed. Her hand was shaking too badly to actually aim.

  If it attacked her in the darkness, she didn’t know how she’d be able to kill it before it got close. All it took was one bite and that would be it for her. She’d change into one of them. Unless she was already changing. Was there any other explanation for her fever and the pain etched throughout her body? At the thought, her stomach turned over again and a rumbling sour burp escaped her throat.

  The thing raised its head as they passed and sniffed at them but didn’t attack.

  A mile or so later, somewhere south of 18th Street, they came upon a group of slow shamblers groping blindly. They were between the dim lights where the darkness was deepest, where it was a force that could almost be felt. They snuffled and shuffled towards the group—there was no way to know how many there were. Three? Ten?

  Griff stopped so quickly that Maddy stepped on his shoe, nearly letting out a scream. It came out as a gasp. The sound was strangely loud, magnified by the intense quiet. Maddy slapped her free hand over her mouth as the creatures came closer. Victoria’s quivering hand on her back almost brought out another scream.

  The little group crouched, bunched together, clinging to one another as the dead came on. Maddy felt trapped. There were flesh-eating creatures in front, a killer currently off to her right, people crowded in from behind, and the darkness surrounding her, crushing inward. She began to hyperventilate and her panting was loud, despite the hand over her mouth.

  It drew the creatures ever closer.

  Victoria edged back away from Maddy and might’ve run if Bryce hadn’t been right behind her. He seemed to be standing steady, but he was really frozen in fear.

  Then one of the dead hit the third rail with a sudden shower of sparks. In the brief light, they could see the ragged line of beasts. The hideous creatures seemed to go on and on down the tunnel. There were more than enough to swallow every bullet they had and keep coming. Luckily, they were on the next track over.

  The third rail was saving the little group once again. Still, they clung to each other as the dead passed by. Their pace was that of a languid stroll on a hot July evening and it was a long hour before Griff felt it was safe enough to inch their way south. Gradually, as their fears subsided, they picked up the pace. Even Maddy was able to relax. Her fear was replaced by bone-aching weariness. By then it was late, or rather early, sometime after two in the morning. Victoria and Tessa walked, leaning in on each other. Bryce kept close, his shoulders slumped from carrying his pipe, his mouth hanging open, his head hanging.

  Griff felt the wear of the journey as well. His dress shoes, bought specifically for the trip to New York, bit into his toes with each step. The shoes had been Plinkett’s idea. The senior agent didn’t want to be seen arresting Daniel Magnus in shoes, worn at the heel and scuffed at the toe. Griff was wearing the remains of his finest suit as well. Now, the jacket was gone and his pants were stained and torn along one thigh.

  But I’m alive, he told himself. Alive and carrying on with his mission. He would get Maddy and Bryce to the FBI field office at any cost and then hope to God they would be choppered out of the city, and that he would be with them. Him and Plinkett, if he was still alive.

  This was going through his mind when he saw a soft grey light ahead. They had finally reached the Union Square station.

  Instead of relief, their fears began to flower again. The utter darkness, which had been terrifying only minutes before, w
as now the shield that had kept them safe. No one wanted to leave its protective arms and venture out into the light where the dead could see them. Even worse than leaving the darkness, the tracks suddenly diverged robbing them of the protection of the electrified rails on either side.

  Griff, who was the least familiar with the subway system, stayed in the middle, express lane. It was a mistake that became apparent as the tunnel opened onto the station. Now, there were chest-high platforms on either side of them. Brightly lit platforms, with haggard, twisted creatures roaming around on them. Griff pulled them low and had them duck-walk through the filth along the edge of the closest platform.

  In no time, Maddy’s legs were cramping and she had to stop. Despite the danger, no one complained. The suddenness of the apocalypse had left them all exhausted and they needed the break.

  With the dead wandering around almost right above them, they rested on the tracks with their feet pulled in to keep from being seen. Griff only gave them ten minutes before he was pushing them on again. While the others crab-walked, Maddy had to crawl; she was too tired to be embarrassed. Crawling had one advantage; she couldn’t see the hideous faces of the dead. She kept her chin down and kept moving.

  They crossed beneath a walkway that ran to another set of tracks. The undead were there as well. Not many, but then it didn’t take many to change their fate.

  In fact, it took only one. Thirty feet above them, a woman with long, straggly black hair leaned on the rail. Half her face was a scabbed-over ruin, but her eyes were still intact. They were bleary and unfocussed, like a drunk who’d just stumbled from a bar at closing time. She sniffed the cold air and caught their scent.

  It didn’t take a bloodhound. Bryce could smell his own fear, and the acrid whiff of Maddy’s sweat. Griff had his own male aroma just as Victoria had her female one. Tessa smelled of mud and something worse. She had stepped in a pile of undead excrement not long before and it clung to her hundred-dollar boots, rendering them almost worthless. Almost. Just then, both Maddy and Bryce would’ve given anything for a pair of shoes.

  The woman with the oozing scab for a face had on only one shoe. She’d lost the other hours before in a desperate race against a howling doctor with mad eyes and blood coating him from chin to belt. She never had a chance. The shoe was long gone, which was neither here nor there as she pulled herself over the railing and dropped down onto the tracks, hitting with bone crushing force within arm’s reach of Tessa’s shit-covered boots.

  Tessa, her eyes shocked into wide circles in her pale face, drew in a long breath to let out a scream that would be heard from one end of Manhattan to the other. She kept sucking air in as every muscle in her body went taut. Just before she exploded, Victoria spun her daughter part way around so they were face to face.

  “Don’t,” Victoria begged. She’d nearly screamed as well, but there was no rush of feet, no chorus of the dead moaning, no mob pouring down onto the tracks. It was just the one woman. She had red, stick-like bones poking up out of her sweater.

  None of them expected her to move and they all jumped when her hand shot out. Somehow, without even looking, she managed to grab Tessa by the ankle. Tessa freaked. Fear was a mountain inside her skinny, six-year-old chest. It was so enormous that for the moment she was unable to scream, unable to even kick. The fear seared through her, making her spasm and jerk as if having a seizure.

  Victoria kicked for them both, shoving backward uselessly, her feet pushing on the wooden ties as though she were backing up a ladder. There was no getting away. The zombie’s grip was iron and Victoria simply dragged it along. “Get it off of her! Get it off!” she begged in a hissing voice.

  Maddy was closest, but she had set her gun down and had scrambled away from it when the woman splatted down between her and Tessa.

  Although Griff was tired, his reflexes hadn’t yet slowed, and he had his gun out and aimed in the blink of an eye. But didn’t shoot. Situational awareness kept him from pulling the trigger. There were a dozen zombies all around them, and if he fired, they would be on them in snap; and who knew how many more were lurking along the overpass or just up the stairs out of sight.

  “Bryce, the pipe.” Griff pointed at the pipe sitting uselessly in Bryce’s right hand.

  He had been shocked into inaction. Now he reacted quickly, acting more like a warrior than a thinking scientist. The thing’s grip on Tessa’s ankle was the problem and the solution was obvious. He brought the heavy pipe up and around, and smashed it down on the thing’s wrist, breaking both the ulna and radius. This freed Tessa, who crawled onto and over her mother, desperate to get away from the zombie. Victoria scrambled away, too, though she wasn’t in any danger. The scabbed-over zombie couldn’t move, it could only flail uselessly.

  The commotion, brief as it was, had gone unnoticed, and for the moment, the group was apparently safe as they scurried away. But they weren’t out of danger, yet. The creature held out her good hand to them as though she were begging for them to come back to be eaten. When they didn’t, she opened her drooling scabby mouth and screeched at the top of her lungs.

  “Christ!” Bryce cried, flinching back from the scream. It was only when Maddy shoved him from behind that he realized it was up to him to end the scream before it brought every zombie in the station rushing down on them.

  Darting forward, he smashed the pipe down on its skull like he should’ve done in the first place. The top of its head dented inward with a revolting squish sound. After that there was a pause as everyone in the group sat unmoving, listening for the sound of zombies coming for them. It was a short pause. The damage was done, and zombies were flooding onto the platform. Griff hopped up and raced forward only to have two of the beasts fall from the walkway thirty feet above and land directly in front of him. Like the athlete he was, he hurdled them without breaking stride.

  Maddy, who couldn’t jump a curb, tried to skirt around them and almost stepped onto the third rail. She pulled her foot back just in time and as she did, Victoria knocked into her from behind, and had Maddy not been so heavy, she would’ve been thrown onto the rail. A curse ripped from her lips; however it was drowned out as Victoria started shooting at the two creatures, neither of which were capable of moving anything more than their arms.

  Too late, Griff yelled, “No!”

  The creature’s scream had been bad. The gunshots brought a legion of undead on them.

  Victoria emptied half her magazine into the two, blasting hunks of flesh and hair from them and knocking them onto their backs. She and Tessa danced through the carnage and then raced past Griff. He was taking aim at one of the faster zombies that was cutting across the platform and had a bead on Bryce, who was pushing Maddy ahead of him.

  Griff fired, snapping the bullet an inch from Bryce’s ear. The near miss turned his frightened expression into something comical, making him look as though he’d just taken a bite out of a lemon.

  With the zombie down, Griff turned and charged after Victoria and Tessa. There were more zombies near the far end of the platform, and Victoria had her gun aimed.

  “Wait!”

  Again, he was too late. Victoria began blasting away. Amazingly, she managed to kill two of them before she ran out of bullets. This left two more. One was lame and slow, and looked as though it had been half-eaten. The other was a child, no bigger than Tessa. She had a grinning black mouth and quick bare feet. Victoria took one look at it, turned and ran, dragging Tessa along with her.

  They rushed to Griff and hid behind him. Victoria was screaming about bullets; Tessa was hyperventilating again. At least one of them had their hand on Griff’s arm. His hand was too steady for this to spoil his aim, and yet, he still missed. Unbelievably, the creature had anticipated the shot and dodged just as he pulled the trigger.

  For Agent Griffin Meyers, this was his demon.

  He fired again and just like before, it juked to the side. It was closer this time, and he didn’t miss his target by much. The bullet ran a furrow
across the side of her head and a cloud of red mist hung in the air behind her, as he lined up what he could only hope was his last shot. If he missed, she would be on him before he could properly aim. She’d be on him, and he’d be missing a chunk of flesh…and he’d be infected.

  In a blink, it was four feet away, three, two…she darted to his left as he pulled the trigger and the bullet whined off one of the tracks.

  Chapter 16

  The demon girl had been too quick and he had missed. The bullet skipped off the track, sending up a spark. This spark seemed to explode into a thousand, which flashed over Griff as he threw himself to the side. His gun was still tracking the creature as he cringed from the sudden light.

  The demon girl had juked too far and had stepped on the third rail. She jitterbugged as Griff climbed to his feet. The scene was both horrible and enthralling, and he had to pull his eyes from it or die.

  More zombies were coming at them. A glance down the tracks showed him that the demon girl might have saved their little group. Zombies were spilling from the darkness at the end of the platform. They would’ve been halfway into their arms if it wasn’t for the girl. Still, they were only saved for the moment.

  “Onto the platform!” Griff cried. His voice was embarrassingly high.

  He grabbed Tessa and practically threw her onto the platform. Victoria was fit and didn’t need help. Maddy needed all the help she could get.

  While Griff helped to heave her up, Bryce was in back, facing down a small horde. He swung the pipe back and forth, whacking at the outstretched hands. Going for a head shot seemed far too risky. The zombies were three and four across; a miss could overbalance him and leave him vulnerable. It was scary close as it was.

  A look over his shoulder saw that Maddy had finally made it up. It was his turn, but there was no one to help him. The zombies were closing in on them in a semi-circle, and Griff was rushing to keep a lane open to escape, which left Bryce stuck on the tracks with zombies in front and behind.