A World Reborn (Book 2): Global Outbreak

by Thompson, Chris

  The door to the bus opened revealing Kevin. He fired at the Reborn facing away from him, winging one and seemingly killing another. He started to move towards the wrecked front doors, weaving as he ran to avoid the Reborn who had begun to fire at him. The Ancillary and Melissa used their weapons on the Reborn targeting him, wounding some and driving others into cover behind vehicles. As the tide of infected surged toward them, the traitorous Reborn seemed to be considering retreat. Melissa hoped it might give them a limited window of opportunity to reach the bus and drive away.

  “Come on!” Melissa barked at the Ancillary as she returned swiftly into the corridor, where she called Roy urgently. He turned and limped quickly after them. They reached the front doors in the same moment Kevin did, moving over the debris of the doors and former barricades.

  “We were wondering what happened to you.” Melissa told him.

  “I ran into some problems. Let’s go!” He replied briskly. They had barely started towards the bus when a sudden, loud sound rang out from the top of one of the buildings across the street, followed almost immediately by the bus exploding in a massive ball of flame. The heavy metal frame was carried over and glass and debris shot out from their devastated means of escape. The quartet froze and looked on in horror. The surviving infected, some having been obliterated in the explosion, were surging with renewed vigor, the sound and scale of the explosion drawing them towards the police station. A second group, which was growing larger as they watched, had closed off the end of the street and were currently assaulting the rebel Reborn - whose escape they had unequivocally cut short. The left side of the street was an unbroken sea of undead faces, although Melissa saw some alleyways that might have been a way out, but gunfire from the rooftops forced the foursome to retreat back into the police station. Once back in the main avenue of the inverted T junction, Melissa punched the wall and cursed profusely. They were trapped, and within minutes, the infected would be upon them.

  Chapter Twelve

  Melissa wasn’t about to give up, but she knew their options were limited. Their only hope was to keep the infected at bay until they could take advantage of a situation which gave them a chance to escape. Her mind raced, switching between half-baked plans and desperate ideas, none of which she had the time to execute and none of which had any hope of success in the present circumstances.

  “We need to move some of the furniture from the corridors up against this doorway so we can slow them down. If we can block off the hole then that should slow them enough for us to gun some down.” Melissa declared. She started towards one of the barricades on her left, and was joined a moment later by the Ancillary who helped her heave a heavy desk back to the doorway behind the reception desk. Kevin and Roy got involved, forming a chain to bring chairs and other furniture to allow the construction of a barricade that was likely going to be ineffective at best. As the final piece went in place, the first infected reached the entrance. Its hand latched onto the ragged, exterior door frame and it pulled itself into view. Melissa quickly tried to decide whether it would be best to let the leaders get close and use a knife to kill them quietly in the hope it would cause the majority to pass by, but then the sound of glass being broken down the corridor towards the holding cells interrupted her thoughts and led her to believe the infected were already swarming in through the other entrances. They were completely out of time.

  “Roy, cover the cells area, Kevin the office on the right, the Ancillary and I will hold this area.” Melissa instructed. Roy moved without a word, hurrying off with his weapon held ready to fire in his hand. Kevin looked uncertain, his eyes moving confusedly between Melissa and the Ancillary, who simply smiled at him, and then he took off to cover the windows Melissa and the Ancillary had previously been defending. Only when he had gone did Melissa realize he had been unaware the Ancillary had joined her and Roy in the defense of the police station.

  “When they get inside and we can’t hold them back, we’ll retreat to the second floor!” Melissa yelled, ejecting her mostly spent magazine and replacing it with a fresh one.

  “There’s still a way out.” The Ancillary declared, raising her shotgun and pointing it towards the doorway. A half dozen more infected were there now, just behind the first who was shuffling forward with its arms outstretched.

  “Unless you can fly, I doubt it.”

  “Tell me you’re ready to meet with the Teacher and you’ll find out.”

  “If I tell you just so we can escape, doesn’t it lose meaning?”

  “No, because you’re a strong willed person; if you truly weren’t willing to meet with him then I believe you’d rather die than accept help from me.”

  Melissa scoffed and braced her assault rifle against her shoulder. She took a deep breath, thinking to herself that this wasn’t massively different from the first time she’d first picked up a weapon to defend herself. Galgambwe had been where she’d taken her first life, holed up in a building defending herself from a seemingly endless enemy. Now, in a police station in the American midwest, she was doing it again.

  Gunfire from her right indicated that Kevin was engaging the infected; it was followed immediately by shots on her left from Roy. The infected in the reception area moved left and right around the desk with incensed urgency now that there was living flesh almost within reach: the smell of blood, both from their wounds and the dead Reborn, and the loud, aggravating sound. Melissa and the Ancillary opened fire in unison, each wordlessly picking different targets. Melissa fired as precisely as she could; single shots that slammed into the foreheads of each infected she aimed at, blowing their brains out and stopping their reanimated bodies. Each one she felled was immediately replaced by another then another, each new infected face snapping its jaws and focusing a glassy, unerring stare at the meals before them. The Ancillary fired swiftly and accurately, depleting her shotgun and forcing her to quickly reload with fresh shells. The infected were slowing only a fraction as they stumbled against the bodies of their fallen companions. There was only a half dozen or so feet between Melissa and the infected, and each one that died made the barrier between them denser and higher, but it wasn’t impenetrable. Sooner or later they would climb over the bodies and the pressure of their numbers would dismantle their hurriedly constructed barricade. Melissa ejected her magazine and loaded a fresh one, instinctively taking a step back from the barricade as the outstretched arm of an infected clawed its way towards her. She slammed a shot into its head and into the head of the two creatures behind it. The Ancillary fought fearlessly, reaching into the pocket of her robe and groping for more shells, but her hand came up empty. She tossed the gun to the ground and retrieved the pistol she had been given previously, which had been tucked into her belt. She fired, her shots ringing out in unison with Melissa’s, each bullet killing another infected. The chorus of moans and angered groans from the infected were almost louder than the gunshots, their unholy, hungry song echoing around the walls of the police station. Melissa realized they were out of time in their current position; she looked on in horror as the infected pressed against the barricade. The duo continued to fire, but those they killed now dropped dead on top of it, their weight causing the barricade to jostle as more infected pushed against it from behind. Melissa glanced left and saw Roy firing as he retreated towards them, while the infected spilled out from an office a few paces away from him.

  “Melissa!” He called out a moment later as he reached one of the hallway barricades he had erected earlier, clambering awkwardly over it and taking up a new firing position. Kevin was still firing and was presumably able to hold his position, but if Melissa and the Ancillary couldn’t hold theirs and were overwhelmed before he retreated, he could be cut off. Moreover, if the infected pressing from Roy’s side advanced too far they could all be cut off from their intended avenue of escape.

  Melissa gritted her teeth and kept firing, doing her best to increase the speed at which she was bringing down the infected; unfortunately, the effort c
aused some of her shots to go wide, so she slowed down, thinking back to her training, and killed with less speed but more precision.

  “The barricade won’t hold much longer, Witness!” The Ancillary announced.

  “Keep firing!” Melissa called back.

  “I intend to, but we need to be ready to move!”

  “Kevin, we can’t keep them back much longer!” Melissa yelled as loudly as she could.

  “If you need to go then go! I’ll take the other stairs!” Kevin replied, jogging Melissa’s memory that there was a second set of stairs at the end of the corridor he was on; through the door which also housed the now depleted armory that Roy must have told him about.

  The furniture they had assembled as a boundary began to collapse; the stacked filing cabinets and chairs tumbling backwards loudly and slamming onto the floor as the heavy desk was irrevocably pushed backwards. The dead infected were being crushed under the feet of those behind as the latter pressed forward; their teeth gnashing while they issued ravenous growls from features contorted with rage. They even clawed at each other to overtake the one in front, so desperate were they to reach Melissa and the Ancillary and the free meal they represented. Melissa and the Ancillary were forced to reload at the same time, and in those few seconds, one began to clamber over the desk and a filing cabinet - which was the last obstruction left on top of it - desperate to reach the living and feast upon them. Melissa managed to get one of her last remaining magazines reloaded and fired a kill shot, causing it to slump and drop to the ground at her feet. The Ancillary killed the next, and then twisted to fire upon those advancing behind the first infected to breach their defensive line. Melissa started to move towards the corridor that would lead to the second floor. She knew it was hopeless and they would soon be forced to give up their position.

  “Roy, move!” She issued harshly. He retreated quickly, following them into the corridor and taking his place on Melissa’s left as they retreated step by step towards the elevator.

  “We need to fall back a little quicker.” The Ancillary declared calmly.

  “Kevin, get out of there!” Melissa yelled. The infected were pouring in from the front doors, pushing past the remains of the barricade and advancing towards them. Some were likely heading towards Kevin’s position, but Melissa couldn’t see him nor could she help him. All she could see was the wall of infected moving towards them, with nothing to slow them down.

  Melissa, Roy and the Ancillary fired on the infected as they retreated, moving backwards quickly but carefully. They killed a dozen only to find them immediately replaced by another two dozen; the horde seemingly without end. Moments later, they found themselves at the elevator and stairs. The Ancillary moved to the stairwell door and opened it, gesturing for the other two to get inside. Melissa took a last look over her shoulder at the swelling numbers following them - which had to be fifty or more - as she stepped inside. Once within the dingy grey stairwell, the Ancillary shut the door behind them. Both she and Melissa looked for some way to secure the door further, but there was nothing, so Melissa hoped there was something they could block the second floor door with to buy them more time. They moved quickly up the stairs - or rather, as quickly as they could with two individuals with leg injuries.

  Once at the door of the second floor, Melissa shoved it open, hearing as she did heavy impacts on the lower one. It would hold for a time, but eventually the weight of the infected would tear it down.

  “Kevin!” Melissa called out loudly, but there was no response. She started to move quickly along the main corridor, glancing over her shoulder at the Ancillary and Roy.

  “Block this door off with whatever you can find!” She barked as she made her way to the other staircase. When Melissa reached the turn at the end, she remembered the rooftop access stairs were on the left - a potentially useful final fallback option when they, inevitably, needed it. She broke right and sprinted down the long corridor towards the second stairwell. She heard continued gunshots and then an agonized scream a moment before she laid her hand on the door handle. Fearing she was already too late, she pulled the door open and readied her rifle with one movement before advancing quickly down the stairs. She could hear the infected’s ravenous chorus and a fresh scream from below.

  “I’m coming, Kevin! Hold on!” She yelled, though she knew he might already be turned before she got down the stairs.

  Melissa moved as quickly as her legs would carry her, and after she rounded the corner looked on in horror when she saw Kevin’s left arm being held by the infected as he desperately braced himself against the door. From the blood spurts over the wall and door and the agonized cries he was issuing, it was clear they were gnawing upon it. To make matters worse, the feeding frenzy had so incensed the infected they were soon going to overpower him and shove the door inward, and there was nothing Kevin could do to stop it. Melissa raced to him, moved to the gap in the door where they were pushing it open and aimed her weapon through it. She fired, the shots loud and echoing in the narrow chamber, and killed the infected that had Kevin’s hand and arm in their mouths. Unfortunately, their proximity to the door and the weight of the infected behind meant the door couldn’t close. She looked at Kevin and saw none of the signs of him turning into an infected; he was pale, probably from pain and shock, but he wasn’t convulsing as those who were turning did.

  “Are you okay to run?” She asked him quickly, lending her own weight against the door to buy them a few more seconds.

  “Yeah.” Kevin replied breathlessly, his bloody arm and hand hanging limply at his side.

  “We’ve got to get to the next floor and barricade the door at the top of the stairs. We’ve got to move, Kevin, and we’ve got to do it together. Ready?”

  Kevin nodded. She observed he’d lost his assault rifle and was holding his sidearm in his right hand. Melissa gave a quick countdown from three and then they charged towards the stairs, the infected immediately spilling into the stairwell. They roared and moaned, angered that their meal was escaping their hungry grasp, and then they shambled forward; those at the back pressing against those in front of them. By the time Melissa and Kevin were rounding the halfway point of the stairs, the infected had reached the bottom but were struggling to move their stiff limbs up the steps. Melissa saw they had slowed and it flashed through her mind as they sped on that perhaps the rigor mortis in their legs was making it difficult for them to make the necessary movements or, she reasoned absently, perhaps it was because their brains were having trouble remembering how to ascend stairs. Whatever the cause, she was grateful for the blockade that was forming as the front runners were trampled by those behind.

  Melissa and Kevin reached the door to the second floor and slammed through it, shutting it with a resounding bang behind them. Kevin moved to a nearby office and, despite his injury, helped Melissa move a hefty filing cabinet over to the door, dropping it so it lay across the floor. They grabbed a few other items and quickly assembled them in place, but the infected were already up against the door, pounding it and pressing their bodies against it. Melissa and Kevin retreated a few paces down the corridor then dragged out enough furniture from the nearby offices to form a firing line. With that done, Kevin slumped to the ground, his back against the desk that formed the solid base of their defensive barricade. Melissa knelt beside him, her assault rifle hanging at her side. She took hold of his injured left arm and looked it over, the sight making her feel just a little sick. Kevin had lost a chunk from his forearm in two places, but his hand had taken the brunt of the assault, costing him his fore and middle fingers entirely, down to the second joint of his ring finger and most of his pinky. Blood was oozing from the wounds and he winced painfully as Melissa examined him. She took her knife and cut away the sleeve of his jacket and then the sleeve of the shirt, using both to bandage the wounds as tightly as she could. It wouldn’t last long and wasn’t even going to be all that effective. Still, she figured, it was better than nothing, and when they were free of
this accursed place they could find a drug store and tend the wounds properly.

  “The good news,” she announced as she yanked hard on the bandage around his hand, making him gasp loudly, “is that you’re immune to the virus.”

  “Yay.” Kevin responded weakly.

  “What happened to you out there?”

  “I was attacked. I took a Reborn prisoner but I couldn’t keep an eye on him and the infected after his collar was deactivated... mine already was, so I was forced to drop him off.”

  “You didn’t kill him?”

  “He was unarmed.”

  Melissa nodded.

  “So, what’s the plan?” He questioned.

  “Hold them here as long as we can, then we go to the roof.” Melissa responded.

  “And then what?”

  “We cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  “Please...” He started weakly, focusing himself before starting again. “Please don’t let them get me.”

  Melissa knew what he was asking and nodded in response.

  “Same here.” She replied, and he returned her affirmative gesture.

  The pounding on the doors was increasing, and no doubt they would be through them soon, but the group had a brief moment of respite. With a promise to Kevin she’d be back, Melissa left and sought out Roy and the Ancillary. She discovered they had blocked off the other stairwell door with as much furniture as the pair could manage, and were now checking their remaining ammunition.