Heroes of the Undead | Book 1 | The Culling

by Meredith, Peter

  Someone gave him bleach and he happily doused himself with it. When he looked up, he saw that everyone was in the bathroom with him.

  “I found this,” Maddy said, handing him a zippered warm-up jacket. It smelled of stale sweat and weed.

  Wilkes’ lips were curled as he looked at the ragged group in the harsh light. “Okay. I got room for these three.” He pointed at Bryce, Maddy and Griff. “The rest of you may want to hole up here for the duration.”

  “Hold on!” Victoria cried. “Who is this guy? Is he FBI, too?”

  “Who I am is none of your business, ma’am,” Wilkes told her. “I’d barricade the doors and keep away from the windows. I’ll send help when I can.”

  This left the group speechless. Victoria looked back and forth from Bryce to Griff and then to Maddy, before she darted to the door and threw her body against it. “No. Nope. No way. You are taking me and my daughter with you. Tell him Agent Meyers.”

  Wilkes began to bluster. Griff cut across him. “You’ll take us all. I don’t care if we have to sit on each other’s laps, we’re all going. And we’re going to the Federal Building.”

  “I have my orders,” Wilkes stated, “and they don’t involve any extras or any side trips. I’ll drive you to Magnus Plaza or you can walk wherever. It’s your choice.”

  “I choose Magnus Plaza!” Victoria cried, clutching at Wilkes. “We’re small. Put us in the fucking trunk. I don’t care. Just take us with you.”

  Jayson also was not above begging. In a fog of wine-breath, he said, “You gotta take me too. I can fight. Ask these guys. And I know the subways like the back of my hand. Come on, Jack. You gotta…”

  “Enough!” Griff snapped. “We’re not going to Magnus Plaza. We’re going to the Federal Building and that’s final.”

  “Maybe we should ask these two,” Wilkes said, indicating Bryce and Maddy. “Maybe after all this they might want to take Magnus up on his offer.”

  Maddy refused to look at Bryce, or anyone really. She went to the closest sink, ran water and watched the stream. She wanted to be safe. That took precedent over everything. But “safe” was a fluid concept with varying degrees. Magnus might be able to offer her immediate safety, but how could she trust a man who had started the apocalypse on purpose?

  What would someone like that do to her the moment she outlived her usefulness? “Of course, I have to live long enough to outlive my usefulness before I worry about that,” she muttered under her breath. She was torn in indecision and decided not to decide. She’d let Bryce decide, and knew that she wouldn’t be happy whichever way he went.

  But he couldn’t decide either, mainly because he didn’t know which way Maddy would go. He decided to stall. “How’d you find us?”

  Wilkes wasn’t expecting the question, and by the way his eyes shifted, Bryce guessed that his answer would be a lie.

  “Easy. You told me where you were going. It wasn’t hard to follow you…and we have a drone. It was a piece of cake.”

  This seemed logical, so where was the lie? Maybe there wasn’t one. He stared hard at Wilkes. The mercenary stared just as hard back—hiding something. Griff broke the staring contest. “The FBI can protect you. Wilkes is proof that you’re important to Magnus, just as we thought.”

  “You are important,” Wilkes agreed, heatedly. “And yes, I am the proof. Me, and the two Yukons, and my seven men! What is the FBI giving you except one kiddie agent? Nothing. You won’t make it four blocks let alone four miles. You need me. How many rounds do you guys got between you? A dozen?”

  Griff decided this was as good a time as any to check. “I have nine. Maddy?”

  “Four.” Maddy glanced at Victoria who gave a little embarrassed shrug. She had dropped the empty gun ages ago and couldn’t remember where.

  13 bullets? The number was a shock.

  “We need to go with this guy,” Victoria stated, unequivocally as if hers was the only vote. “He’s the only one making any sense.”

  “What about your husband?” Bryce asked.

  She went pale and her eyes shifted away as she answered, “It’s what he would want. He’d want his wife and daughter safe. Besides, we probably have half the zombies in the city after us. I bet he’s already there.” She looked down at Tessa. “Him and Jordan. They are fast and strong.”

  Bryce heard the lies as she spoke them. Deep down she guessed they were already dead.

  “Maybe we should go to Magnus Plaza for their sakes,” Maddy said. “I don’t think all of us will make it if we keep going south.” This included herself but it felt more like charity when she added the others.

  “Listen to her, Bryce,” Wilkes insisted. “We’ll let them pile in. We can be uptown in an hour, safe and sound.”

  This smelled of more lies. Bryce’s eyes turned flinty as he gazed hard at the merc. Where were the lies? Sure, Wilkes might drive them all uptown, but would any of them be allowed into the compound? Or would it just be Maddy and Bryce? Griff had made it pretty clear that Magnus was only recruiting the very best and brightest. That wasn’t this group. It wasn’t even Wilkes.

  “You still after that million?” Bryce asked softly. “You still think it’s worth it?” Wilkes didn’t need to answer for Bryce to know he had hit the mark. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. There are banks all over the city. All empty. All waiting for someone to pop in and take what they want. So…if it’s not money you’re risking your life for, what is it?”

  He grunted out a laugh. “You’re my ticket inside. They said it was fascinating that you were still alive. That was the word the egg-head used. Fascinating. I thought it was a fucking miracle, but it’s a miracle that’s gonna work in my favor. I worked out a deal. If I get you two back, me and the boys get to go in.”

  “What a great deal, for you,” Griff said. “But they aren’t going to let the rest of us inside, are they?”

  Wilkes’ face went sour. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s worth a shot isn’t it?”

  Maddy shook her head. “No. Not even a little.” She couldn’t imagine pushing the Harrimans out into a street filled with the dead. “How about this. You get us down to the FBI headquarters and we’ll see if they let you in. If you behave honorably, I’ll put in a good word for you.” It’s strange she used the word: honorably. She used to chide people for supporting colonialism when they used the word.

  It felt weird but correct this time.

  “Me too,” Griff said. “You know the boys in Virginia will want to know everything there is to know about Magnus. It could mean a trip out of the city.”

  Mrs. Harriman raised a hand. “For all of us? I don’t know if I can keep going and Walt’s knees are all swollen, and…” Her husband squeezed her hand and shook his head. No one wanted to hear about his knees.

  “I hope so,” Griff told her, “but I don’t know for certain. What I do know is that you’ll have a better chance with us than with this guy and Magnus.”

  Jayson put his hand out and touched Griff’s sleeve. “What about my family? My pops is up in Queens and…”

  Wilkes slapped his hands together in anger. “We don’t have time for this! I have two vehicles outside and they aren’t going to wait around forever.” He stormed out of the bathroom and into the dark hall with its colorful movie posters and red velvet ropes.

  No one followed.

  He was back in seconds. “Fine. We’ll go to the FBI first.”

  Chapter 21

  The group ran to the front of the theater where the smell of the popcorn became almost dizzying to Bryce, who was once again starving. It had the opposite effect on Maddy, who went green and began to pant in an effort not to puke.

  Wilkes barely noticed the smell as he tromped to the doors and stared out at a street clogged with cars and a sky filled with dark smoke. A smattering of zombies trailed down the street. There were no Yukons in sight. “Son of a bitch!” Wilkes hissed. He dug out a radio. “Where the fuck are you guys?”

  His radio crackled: “It
got too hot and we had to vacate. Coming around in five.”

  “Okay, roger that. We’re going to need to make some room.” He glanced back at the group, with a curled lip. “We’re picking up a total of eight. It’ll be four per vehicle.” There was silence from the radio which had Wilkes shaking his head in anger. “We have the fucking room. They’ll go in the back. Four and four.”

  The other radio operator took half a minute to respond with a bland, “Roger that.”

  Like a bull, Wilkes blew hot air from both nostrils as he turned. He stared at the pathetic group. “Okay. The grandparents and mom and daughter go in car two. The others will be with me in the lead vehicle.”

  They looked back and forth at each other. Jayson had a new bottle of wine in hand, a red this time. He drank it like it was water. Tessa was blank-eyed and held her mother’s hand in a fierce grip. Victoria wasn’t happy with the seating assignments and started in on Wilkes as if he were the manager of the local Waffle House who had just told her they were fresh out of blueberry syrup.

  Bryce wasn’t about to let five-minutes go to waste. Beneath the smell of popcorn was the familiar scent of hotdogs. He leapt over the concession stand counter and went for the frankfurters that had been left out by employees who’d had a front row seat to the beginning of the apocalypse. It was a wonder they turned off the lights before fleeing.

  The frankfurters were cold and that was fine with Bryce. He grabbed one and stuffed it into his mouth like a stogie. With his hands free, he snatched up another five and dropped them into a popcorn bag. A sampling of candy bars also went into the bag, as well as some gummy-worms.

  “Tessa?” he called to the girl. Her mom was still giving Wilkes an earful. “You want anything? They got mega-Snickers. Or I can get the slushy machine going. Ooh, Dippin’ Dots!”

  Like a nervous stray, she eased forward, stopping just shy of the counter as if Bryce was one of those strangers who offered kids candy her mom was always going on about. “I like Dippin’ Dots.” She took the plastic bowl and spoon from Bryce. She jerked her head in a quick bow as way of thanks, something Bryce found oddly proper.

  “And what about you, Maddy?”

  Although the sight of the candy only added to her discomfort, the idea of the frankfurters burned through her nausea. She needed meat. “Just a hotdog. No bun or anything.” Her stomach tried to rebel at the first bite. After that she inhaled the rest and asked for seconds. She had just ripped off a hunk of her second frankfurter when the big black SUVs pulled up on the sidewalk right out front.

  Wilkes screamed for them to move as the doors opened and armed men leapt out guns blazing. It had been relatively peaceful out front for the previous couple of minutes. Now there were zombies everywhere, almost as if they had been lying in wait.

  Victoria led the way, yanking Tessa outside and right into the first vehicle. Griff followed them inside. Then Jayson, and finally, the Harrimans. Now there wasn’t room for the mercenaries who were shooting down the dead. Wilkes yelled curses as he shoved Maddy and Bryce towards the second vehicle.

  Maddy slid in and then crawled into the backseat and Bryce was about to follow when something caught his eye and he stopped.

  The demon was there. It and the skinny one-armed Puerto Rican. It had been waiting to trap Bryce and the others. Now, it was in a fury, pushing the dead faster at the two vehicles. It stopped only to glare at Bryce. Their eye-contact was broken moments later as Wilkes pushed him into the vehicle, forcing him into the far back with Maddy. Then they were speeding away, bouncing over the dead and clipping cars.

  “Change of plans,” Wilkes said into his radio. “We’re going south. The FBI is going to get us out of the city.”

  In the seat next to him, the driver stared at Wilkes in shock. “The FBI? What the fuck? Since when?”

  “Since…” Wilkes blinked, realizing that he had the two people he needed to get into Magnus’ steel fortress. “Never mind. Continue as planned.” He looked back at Maddy and Bryce’s shocked faces. “Sorry but I got a sure thing with Magnus. All you guys can offer…”

  Unseen, Maddy slid her gun from her pocket. She grabbed the hair of the man in front of her and stuck the gun an inch from his ear as she aimed at Wilkes. Her finger on the trigger. “You’ll go south or you won’t go anywhere,” Maddy said. Wilkes smirked and the mercenary with the gun next to his ear only gave it a casual glance, as if unafraid.

  “You won’t shoot,” Wilkes said. His eyes flicked to the other man in the middle seat. He hadn’t put his gun away yet; he brought it up and aimed it at the side of Maddy’s head. She could smell the acrid propellant drifting from the bore and she felt the heat from it on her ear.

  “You think that’ll keep me from killing you? After everything I’ve seen, getting shot in the head doesn’t scare me at all.”

  Wilkes grinned. He had cold, uncaring eyes. “Looks like we’re in a pickle that only you can fix. You see, we’re going to keep on driving back north, so either get shooting or get your fucking finger off the trigger.” As if she were holding nothing but an empty squirt gun, he turned from her and looked down at a map of the city.

  They were currently heading east on 12th. Really, they were on the sidewalk. Ahead of them, the lead SUV gunned its engines and roared into a Mercedes that was halfway up on the sidewalk blocking their way.

  “Raptor 1, what are you doing?” Wilkes yelled into his radio. “This route is not clear. I repeat…” The Yukon bucked as they ran over a body. “It is not clear.”

  “I have you in sight,” the radio crackled. “Hang a right. Your next right.”

  “I think you meant impasse, not pickle,” Maddy said around a grin. “You know to the right is south?”

  Wilkes was thrown against his door as the driver heaved the car into a hard turn. They couldn’t afford to slow down. The dead were streaming in from all over the place, including from above. Bodies fell from rooftops to thud unpleasantly all around them.

  “Now a right,” Raptor 1 said, speaking through the radio. “Right, and another right. There you are. I got you in sight.” The lead Yukon was plowing through trash and the occasional zombie. Both SUVs turned right once more and were now heading north.

  “There’s too many!” someone with a radio in the lead vehicle screamed.

  Raptor 1 cried, “Speed up! You’re going to have to ram through.”

  Bryce, who had slid into the middle of the bench, had a good view of what was coming. He leaned back, bracing himself as the first SUV blasted into a crowd of dead creatures. Grey, half-clothed bodies went flying. Blood rained down on the second SUV. Blood and a head. It thudded onto the windshield and clung there, a ghastly ornament.

  The driver was smart enough not to attempt to use his windshield wipers. This was not true of the lead driver. In a sweep of the wipers, he blinded himself. His windshield became a red-grey mess and, instinctively, he slowed. Their only chance had been momentum and when they lost it, there was no getting it back.

  “Reverse!” Wilkes screamed.

  Maddy and Bryce ducked to the sides as the driver flung an arm back, torqued around in his seat and began driving the big machine in reverse at full speed. The engine whined as they shot backwards. Now the dead were smacking inches from where Maddy and Bryce were sitting. Bryce turned around, holding his pole at the ready and it wasn’t long before the glass cracked. Then it shattered as they hit a big flabby beast of a woman.

  She had to be near on four-hundred pounds and by then their backward momentum was too weak to overcome such resistance. She and four others went down under the SUV’s wheels and the vehicle high-centered over the pile of wiggling bodies. The driver reacted poorly; he yanked the gear down to drive and tried to drive forward off the bodies only to be smashed into by the other SUV.

  That was it for the vehicles. They were swarmed from front and back. Wilkes began barking orders and everyone piled out the left side of the vehicle closest to the buildings and found themselves outside something
called The Bean. The rich scent of coffee came to Bryce as did the stench of urine and feces dripping from the pants of some of the zombies.

  He also caught a whiff of…popcorn?

  A quick look through the mayhem confirmed they were only half a block from the theater they had just abandoned.

  BAM! BAM! BAM!

  The mercs were clearing a path through the zombies. With the sidewalks flooding with creatures, the lead mercs ran between the two Yukons, stepping on bodies that weren’t just still warm, but still moving. They went up and over the cars in the street, while above them, a small drone buzzed.

  Bryce hated being out in the open. It was wrong. The dead were completely focused on them, and now they were surging from alleys and beneath cars. Some threw themselves out windows and more fell from rooftops.

  Maddy grabbed his arm as they crossed front to back over a station wagon. “Look!” The demon was there, moving to cut them off. “We can’t be out here.” She was right. The demon was too fast and the zombies were unrelenting. A foot chase out in the open would always be in their favor. She pulled him off the car and then, before he even had his feet completely under him, she pushed him towards a lurching zombie. He still had the pipe and he leveled the creature with one swing.

  “Get back here!” Wilkes bellowed over the sound of guns firing. Their group was already spread out in a ragged jumble across the width of the street.

  Griff was in the back with one of the mercs, a barrel-chested man named Nick Withers. They were trying desperately to protect the Harrimans who were slow going up and down the cars. Victoria was shoving Tessa along; with so much danger all around, the little girl was unraveling fast. Jayson was running with his thumb corked in his bottle to keep the last of it from spilling.