DEAD Snapshot Box Set, Vol. 1 [#1-#4]

by Brown, TW

  That earned him a smack in the cheek with the butt of the gun. He felt the hot pain of split skin followed by a trickle of blood running down the side of his face. His right eye started to blur and his vision dimmed just a bit for a few seconds. But he refused to acknowledge the blow by reacting or even wiping the blood away.

  “That doesn’t mean I have to kill you quick.” The woman leaned forward, her sour breath adding to the already unpleasant situation for Jonathan.

  “And you are saying that these so-called raiders and rapists are the bad guys? I mean, I get it. There are some bad people doing bad things and taking advantage of this situation, but what makes this anything close to right?” He sort of looked around to indicate the scene of carnage surrounding them.

  “The days of right and wrong are over. It is simply about survival now.”

  “That’s a pretty narrow view.”

  “The days are past when you give people the benefit of the doubt, young man.” The woman eased back out of the cab of the truck and motioned Jonathan to follow. “So is television therapy, tabloid shows passing themselves off as news, and participation trophies.”

  Jonathan edged his way out of the truck and almost fell, his vision on the right side now virtually non-existent. The woman with the gun made no effort to prevent his fall and actually stepped back as he landed gracelessly in the trampled grass of the roadside.

  “What does any of that have to do with anything?”

  “Exactly,” the woman answered cryptically.

  Great, he thought as he saw two dozen women moving around the wreckage, I get to die at the hands of a lunatic.

  “Now, get on your knees and lace your fingers behind your head,” the woman ordered.

  Jonathan did as he was instructed. He saw the bodies of his companions being dragged from the vehicle and tossed unceremoniously into the weeds and brush that grew alongside the highway. Part of him wanted to jump to his feet and just go out swinging as he watched two women swing the body of Alex Singleton by his wrists and ankles back and forth twice. On the third swing, they let go and the body flew a few feet and landed with a meaty slap on top of the growing pile of his stripped down team members.

  “You gonna give us something useful, or do we have to do this the hard and ugly way?” the woman asked.

  She looked Jonathan in the eyes as she spoke. What he saw was a total emptiness. This woman did not care about him one way or the other. This wasn’t a ploy or a bluff. She was going to kill him eventually. His only option was whether his last moments were filled with horrible agony, or he simply took a quick bullet to the head. He weighed his options and came to the conclusion that it was very likely that she would get her answers one way or the other.

  “Liberty,” he sighed. “Our group is from over in Liberty.”

  The world went dark in the blink of an eye.

  ***

  They jogged past the sign that read “PHARMACY” with an arrow pointing down a long hallway. Jamie stepped over a corpse sprawled on the floor and motioned for the team to follow. She slowed at each spot along the hallway where an intersection occurred.

  It was unnerving to say the least the way noises echoed in this massive building-turned-tomb. The sounds of moans could be heard along with those horrific baby cries. That was still the hardest thing to hear in Jamie’s opinion. In her mind, she knew that there could very well be that one time when a baby might actually be the source of that sound, but the baby cry had become such a cautionary tale that people were becoming numb to the noise.

  At two separate intersections she was rewarded by stepping into a zombie that had come to a stop and was simply standing there waiting. They reminded her of spiders in that sense, and this was their web. Much like the spider, as soon as they sensed her presence, they moved in for the kill, but fortunately they were very slow and awkward. She usually managed to drive her spiked staff into its head before it even managed to take a full step.

  They finally reached a set of service windows where people would hand over their prescription slips and then sit in the big lobby at their back and await for the medication to be bottled and ready for them to take home.

  She motioned for two members of her team to take down the few zombies roaming around the chairs and assorted plants and magazine racks. She and the other three hurried to the customer service windows where they already had their first stroke of luck. The metal roll-down doors had not been lowered and locked by whomever it was that had last been working in the pharmacy.

  Jamie pulled the knife that Ivan had given her. The tip of the handle had a nifty little knob that supposedly shattered even emergency glass. She did as he’d instructed and rapped it against the bottom right corner of the window. Sure enough, it went white with cracks. She used her gloved fist and shoved in, sending a cascade of tiny cubes of glass.

  “Cool,” she breathed.

  Turning with a smile, she climbed up and in. Looking around, it seemed that the last person working here had obviously had at least some idea of what was happening. There were a lot of emptied pill lockers. Still, there were several things on the list that were plentiful. Also, there were little bags on a set of shelves with unclaimed prescriptions just waiting.

  After a quick assessment, it was clear that they would basically be able to empty this room out if they stuffed all their packs full and had some of those out in the lobby hand in theirs. In no time, they had the little room emptied of anything useful.

  One at a time, she and the others climbed out. They were right by a set of doors that led outside. The only trouble with that came in the form of the fifty or so zombies all gathered around, pawing at the glass. There was even one that had gotten stuck in the revolving door. Its arm had somehow been wedged in between the jamb and the revolving door itself. By the looks of things, it would not be stuck in there much longer. The limb looked twisted and deformed to the point of snapping in two with just a few more yanks.

  “Back the way we came,” Jamie announced.

  She remained just as cautious on the return trip. Being careless at this point was just stupid. They only had one corner left, and a surge of hope had filled her. She should have known better.

  For whatever reason that drives a zombie to do what they do, they rounded that last corner to the lobby by the exit to discover it thick with the undead. There had been the sounds of moans and all that since they entered the building; the emptiness had made being able to judge the nearness of the sound almost impossible.

  “Okay, we head back the way we just came,” Jamie announced. “There is a second passage that leads to a service corridor. Sophie said that there is a metal door, and we will have to pry it open. It’s gonna be noisy, which is why it was only for emergency use, but it is there or we risk the exit back at the pharmacy lobby area.”

  She led them back, glancing at the piece of paper that Sophie had given her. She had to keep looking up to see the little plaques mounted on the walls to confirm that she was going the right direction. At last they rounded a corner that led only about twenty feet and ended in a solid metal door.

  She had two members of the team rush to the door with the pry bars and start attacking the latch. It only took about thirty seconds, but between the noise and seeing the pursuing zombies round the corner just a short distance away, it felt to Jamie like it took forever.

  Jamie had her back to the pair opening the door as she watched the approaching horde. The frightened scream from behind her and in the direction of the door caused her to jump and spin, turning her back to a wall of walking death that was drawing frighteningly near. She turned just in time to see both her team being enveloped by a writhing wall of undead arms.

  One of them looked right at her, eyes wide with fear, but she was certain that she saw reproach and accusation as well. If it were not for the fact that the individual was shrieking in agony and a zombie leaned in and tore a chunk from his cheek while another ripped away a piece of the side of his neck, she was positive
that the person would be cursing her name.

  The other had been pulled to the floor and three of the undead were ripping at clothing as they sought the soft flesh of the belly. This one was kicking and flailing, but could not be seen except for those thrashing legs that jutted from the pack of zombies that had dragged him down.

  “Run!” Jamie yelled. “We take our chances at the doors exiting the pharmacy.”

  She bolted, hearing the footfalls of the others falling in behind. They retraced their steps and emerged in the lobby. Already, at least ten zombies had filtered in from the different hallways that opened up from this large, open room.

  An idea struck Jamie as her team came to a stop. All of them were casting furtive looks over their shoulders back the way they’d come as if they expected the zombies to suddenly gain the ability to run and appear hot on their tails instead of the good ways back they should all be.

  She gave the undead outside an appraising look and noticed how they were all riled up at the re-arrival of her and her group. The others in the room were all re-orienting on them and beginning their awkward stumbles and shambles in the new direction towards fresh meat.

  “Michelle, you and the others go to the far end of the windows,” Jamie instructed.

  “What about them?” the woman managed, visibly frightened as well as winded as she gestured to the zombies that had come back like the tide.

  “Kill them obviously.” With that, Jamie edged back closer to the shadows and moved in the opposite direction she’d sent her people. “I want you to start tapping on the window. Make some noise and draw them to you. I am going to break the window at the far end once it is relatively clear. As soon as I do, make a run for it.”

  She kept checking back and forth between her people and their progress attracting the zombies gathered outside and then taking looks each direction at the main hallways. A few lone stragglers arrived first from the hallway across the lobby from her but closest to where her team was making noise. When the group that had been following them rounded the far corner, she knew they had run out of time. It was going to have to be good enough.

  Moments later, there was a loud crack and the sound of a massive window cascading down in a glass rainstorm. Jamie and her team emerged and dashed to the tree-lined road that would take them back to the townhouse. They had just reached Monroe Street when a series of screams came from back towards the hospital.

  ***

  Bo looked down to see a teenaged boy zombie trying to gnaw on his steel-toed boot. With his free leg, he kicked hard and smashed it in the face, crushing its nose, but doing little other damage; certainly not enough to get the zombie to let go. He jerked away and managed to get to his feet before it could grab him again. He stabbed down on the back of the head of this one and felt the tip of his machete scrape on the tiled floor.

  More of the team seemed to be involved in fighting zombies than in grabbing supplies and Bo was thinking that this trip might not be worth what they came away with if something didn’t change soon. Another zombie, this one a female in dark and heavily stained scrubs, staggered out from behind a hanging divider. This one had a syringe still hanging from one arm just below a very tightly cinched piece of rubber tubing.

  Bo did not have the time to ponder the scenario that would lead to such a situation. He simply stepped in and drove his blade up and under the jaw. Jerking back, the zombie fell and he moved for the next one after checking on Sarah. She had popped a wall locker open and was busy scooping the contents into her open pack.

  Good for her, Bo thought. She isn’t wasting time reading labels. Let Sophie sort this shit out when we get it back home.

  The raid was now in full swing as half the group fought off zombies while the other half tried to grab as much as they could and stuff it into their packs. There was almost no conversation with the exception of the occasional “Look out!” or “There’s one!”

  Bo had just taken one down and turned to find the next. He looked around and saw the others who had been doing battle looking around with the same looks of confusion on their faces. There did not seem to be another zombie around. At least there were none in the actual emergency treatment area.

  “Okay, folks,” Bo called. All heads turned to him and he flashed a smile. “Grab what else you can stuff into the packs and—”

  A distant shriek cut him off. Everybody winced and seemed to hold his or her breath. When it mercifully stopped, there was silence except for the sounds of heavy breathing as the group slowly exhaled almost in unison and sucked in the next huge breath.

  “Okay, that sounded like maybe one or two people,” Bo said a bit quieter than before. “Not saying that is a good thing, but…” He fumbled for what to say and finally threw his hands up in the air. “You all know what I mean. Now grab what you can and let’s get the hell out of this place.”

  They did not need to be told twice. There were a couple of last minute snatches and grabs as people took the last few things available to them and then assembled at the door.

  “Okay, we have no idea what we drew to us with all this noise,” Bo lectured. “I want you all to be ready for a fight. The objective is to get outside as fast as you can. I know that we had a thing about taking down everything we saw on the way in, but now it is about getting out alive. That means you keep moving forward no matter what happens. If one of us falls, you can’t go back for them. They either make it out or they don’t.”

  “What if the way is blocked?” somebody spoke up.

  The sounds of moans and hands pawing at the door to the treatment area of the emergency room seemed almost thunderous in the few seconds before Bo answered. “We don’t have a choice. I don’t know about any of you, but I have no idea where those three doors lead to.” He pointed to the various other exits for emphasis. “It could take us deeper into the hospital and this is not a place that I want to get lost in.”

  That seemed to settle it for everybody. They all took a few seconds to cinch their backpacks tighter, check their weapons, and their protective gear.

  Bo counted down and then pulled the door open. In the time since they had come in, cleaned it out, and then moved into the actual emergency room to gather supplies (and kill the zombies that had lingered since the hospital fell), the waiting room had become overrun with the undead.

  Somebody let out a startled cry, but Bo simply gritted his teeth and stepped through the doorway and chopped hard, bringing his machete down on the crown of a man in a filthy HAZMAT suit. The zombies had apparently done the hard work, ripping away the hood when this poor soul had been attacked.

  He felt something latch onto his left leg as he took a few steps forward to meet the oncoming wall of undeath. Glancing down, he saw a child of maybe six or seven emerging from under an end table that had probably held an array of old, dog-eared magazines once upon a time. Without hesitation he brought his gloved fist down on the top of the zombie child’s head. It sprawled flat and he stomped hard on its back as he put down the next zombie to stagger forward. As soon as he pulled his blade free, he stabbed down. He did not need to look to confirm his kill; the sudden cease in movement under his boot told him all that he needed to know.

  “Run for the exit!” Bo bellowed.

  He heard a gasp from his left and glanced over to see Sarah Gilstrap just standing face to face with a female zombie. It was wearing a Pickens County Sheriff’s uniform.

  “Oh, Jenny,” Sarah choked out as she pushed the zombie away as it reached for her.

  Bo noticed that she was not making any move to end the creature and he turned back to take the thing down, breaking his own rule. He was pretty sure that Jenny had been Adam’s sister. He grabbed it from behind and by the shoulder, spinning it away from Sarah so that she would not see the thing’s face. With one swift move, he drove his weapon into its right eye socket and then pushed it away and into another pair of zombies that were closing in. He started to resume his exit when he realized that Sarah wasn’t moving. She was star
ing down at the body of the zombie that he’d just killed.

  “Let’s go!” Bo snapped. Still the woman did not respond or even act as if she’d heard him. He slapped her hard across the cheek.

  “I just can’t,” the woman whispered.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Bo snarled. He grabbed the woman by the arm and jerked her forward and then slung her past him in the direction of the exit.

  Sarah stumbled and collided with two other members of the team. All three fell to the ground in a heap. Bo cursed and grabbed the first person he came to by the back of the neck, yanking him to his feet. He reached for the next as something clutched at his backpack, pulling him sideways, causing him to trip over one of his fallen comrades.

  Landing on his stomach, Bo felt whatever had grabbed him fall on top of him, effectively pinning him to the floor.

  He could feel dead hands pawing at him and trying to get at his flesh through the pack and the heavy leather jacket that he wore. Heaving back with one elbow, he felt it connect solidly to the thing on his back, but it had almost no effect as the zombie continued to maul him.

  Another of the undead fell on his legs and he felt his knee twist painfully. Looking straight ahead, his eyes met Sarah’s. She had her head turned as she held a zombie inches from her face as it snapped and gnashed its teeth.

  A surge of strength seemed to fill all of Bo’s extremities and he pushed up and made it to his hands and knees. His machete was a few feet away, but his KA-BAR was still on his belt and he whipped it out. Reaching around, he grabbed a handful of hair and jerked the zombie forward so that he could stick it with his blade. Another of the undead fell on him, knocking him sideways.

  With a snarl, Bo rolled and ended up on his side. A zombie was just leaning down to take a bite out of his arm and he jerked away in the nick of time. A scream sounded from behind him, but he could not tell if it was Sarah. The scream was shrill and quickly reached a pitch that hurt his ears.