Zombies! (Book 4): Nowhere To Hide

by Merritt, R. S.

  Kyler and Jeff kept walking. Hearts pounding in their chests. Hands inching towards their rifles. They kept walking. Without even counting Kyler could tell it’d be hopeless if it came down to shooting. There was easily a hundred Zombies standing up near them. Who knew how many more lurking in the forest proper? That wasn’t even counting the ones he knew were probably sleeping up around the overpass.

  A few of the Zombies near them moved out of the weeds and walked towards Kyler. They weren’t screeching yet which was a good sign, but they were doing that weird sniffing thing they liked to do. Kyler did a right face and started walking back across the street. Jeff executed the same maneuver following behind him. The Zombies veered to intercept them. The Zombies were moving faster and seemed slightly more focused now. It was going to turn into a run and gun here shortly.

  Kyler clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to grab his M-16 and just start blasting away. He knew Jeff was probably feeling the same way about his AK-47. Sweat was dripping down his fingertips. He could hear the Zombies getting closer behind them. The sniffing had escalated to grunting and snorting. The Zombies starting to get excited. They knew something was odd about this pair in the dark. If they smelled pheromones Kyler figured his were pumped full of fear juice at this point.

  The tree line they’d walked out of not so long ago now looked impossibly far. Kyler couldn’t even turn to see how many of the Zombies were still following them. Doing so may be what ended up revealing them. The only chance they had was to make it back to the woods on the other side of the road. Once they got there, they could lose the Zombies following them easily enough. Out here on the main road they stuck out like sore thumbs. If they could hit the tree line and get back to where they started without having to actually fire any shots, there was a slim chance they may actually survive the night. Slim sucked but it was a lot better than none.

  Kyler heard the sound of a body gurgling and falling to the road behind him. He took off running for the other side of the road. Even as he kicked it into high gear it struck him how easily he’d been able to identify the sound of a murdered body hitting the road. Jeff streaked past him. He must’ve started running right after he stabbed the Zombie in the voice box. That gurgling noise being the only noise the Zombie had made when Jeff took it out.

  A roar went up behind the two of them. A rolling hellish screeching beginning close to their position before spreading out to the Zombies still standing back in the weeds. They ran. Kyler was pounding his feet on the pavement as fast and hard as he could when he felt himself lifted off the ground. His feet comically pumping in midair as the Zombie who’d grabbed him jumped in the air with him. Kyler tried swinging his elbows behind him. He was doing everything he could think of to get the Zombie off him before they hit the ground.

  They hit the ground. The Zombie striking it’s head hard on the road. Kyler heard a crack as the Zombies face bounced off the concrete right next to him. Kyler had landed with his arms shielding his face. The arm that’d been struck by the baseball bat earlier that day crying out in renewed pain. It hurt bad enough he could feel the pain even over the adrenaline pumping through his body. He rolled hard to the left to get away from the Zombie with the cracked cranium. Another Zombie jumped on top of him as he was rolling.

  The Zombie straddled Kyler pinning him flat on his back. Kyler had both of his hands wrapped around the Zombie’s throat squeezing as hard as he could. The Zombie would eventually run out of oxygen and fall off of him, but it wasn’t going to happen fast enough. He couldn’t let go of the Zombie and grab a knife or gun because if he did the Zombie was going to bite his face off. A sharp pain to his leg caused him to kick out striking yet another Zombie in the face with his boot. The sharp pain having been this newly arrived Zombie trying to bite through his pants legs.

  With a burst of frantic energy Kyler rolled over again holding the skinny Zombie by the neck. He smashed the things head into the concrete as hard as he could and kept right on rolling. He kicked out as he felt something grabbing his pants leg. He assumed it was the same Zombie who’d tried biting him earlier. He scrambled to his feet swinging his machete all around him. He connected with the Zombie on the ground so he reached back and brought the machete down as hard as he could on that one. He brought it down again on the lifeless body of the Zombie he’d slammed the head of into the ground. Better to be sure it was dead. He started running for the tree line again.

  A scream to the right of him made him come to a stop and look over. He glanced just in time to see Jeff getting ripped apart under a pile of Zombies. His screams of terror and pain a million times worse than the bloodthirsty screeches of the Zombies. It was obvious he wasn’t going to make it. It was just as obvious the right thing to do would be to pull his pistol out and put a few rounds into the mound of bodies to end Jeff’s pain. Kyler hesitated then turned and continued running for the tree line. Behind him Jeff’s screams were buried under the screeches of the ravenous Zombies.

  Kyler ran. He knew the reason he was able to keep running was because the Zombies were busy ripping apart his friend. Ahead of him one Zombie stumbled towards him. It was an obese looking blob of a person. It was stumbling forward with a pair of shorts wrapped around it’s ankles. Long greasy hair covering most of its face as it screeched and came for Kyler. He knew he could’ve just run right around the blob, but anger took hold of him. Screaming out his challenge to the Zombie he ran towards it with the machete held high.

  He brought the machete down in an arc onto the fat Zombies arm. The machete sliced off most of the skin on the things forearm before getting stuck. Kyler ripped the machete out and dodged around the awkward Zombie. He knew he should keep running but with the Zombies back to him he turned and chopped at the things neck and shoulder like he was trying to clear a path through a dense jungle. Tears ran down his face as he hacked away in a cathartic release of pure violence. He turned and ran leaving the towering mountain of flesh bleeding from a dozen wounds to its neck and back.

  He ran into the cover of the woods. He ran through briars and vines and webs. He welcomed the pain as bushes ripped at his skin. He knew he was bleeding from everywhere he had exposed skin. The copper taste of blood in his mouth from where he’d bitten his tongue when he hit the road with the Zombie on top of him. He ran until he was too exhausted to keep going. He ran until he just couldn’t run anymore. He fell to the ground and succumbed to exhaustion. Not caring if a Zombie found him or not, he fell into an uneasy sleep in a pile of pine straw.

  He dreamed of all the friends he’d made and lost. His nightmares tinged with the wonder that he hadn’t died yet. Surrounded by so much death he didn’t understand why he kept making it. In his dreams his dead friends stared at him with accusing eyes. Their corpses laying in a row showing the wounds of how they’d died. Even with all that going on Kyler had one thought pounding through his head. He still needed to cross the street and get to those trucks. He just had no idea how he was going to be able to do that.

  At least he’d be doing it by himself this time. He couldn’t stand to watch another friend die. He wasn’t even sure he was going to be able to live with the shame of leaving Jeff to be eaten alive instead of drawing his gun. If he’d drawn his gun, his bloody body would be laying last in the row of his dead friends in reality as well as in his nightmares.

  Chapter 16: Knock Knock

  Caitlyn swung around in a semi-circle trying to point her rifle in every direction at once. She almost pulled the trigger on Tony as he came barging in from the other room. He held up his hands and she recovered her senses enough not to pull the trigger. She’d never tell him this but the main thing that saved his life was she’d been pulling on the outside of the trigger guard instead of on the trigger.

  “At least you didn’t pull the trigger. I thought you were trying to pull your moms trick and shoot me. Who’s knocking?” Tony asked. Caitlyn shrugged. She was red faced at being caught off guard like that. Tony moved closer to the door. He made
sure the lock was engaged so he could open it without anyone barging in. Once he’d verified that he cracked open the door to see what they wanted.

  “We brought you some food and water if you want it.” A voice came from the other side of the door.

  “We’re good. We have our own and everyone in here is trying to rest. Thanks a lot, but we’re not trying to take any of your supplies.” Tony said as diplomatically as he could. He thought they’d been pretty adamant on this already. As freaky as these people looked, he wasn’t too keen on eating anything they provided anyway.

  “Are you sure? We have plenty of water. We collect it in the pool on the roof so water’s not a problem. We were hoping we could trade the food for some weapons. So that we could fight our way out of here.” The man on the other side of the small crack in the door replied. He was leaning his body against the door. He was leaning in and talking right through the crack making it awkward to shut the door. Catching a whiff of the man’s breath Tony almost told them they should use that as a weapon.

  Something was off. Caitlyn sensed it too. If these people were literally swimming in drinking water, then why the massively poor hygiene. How were these people suddenly in a position to give them food? Why the sudden change in temperament? Tony started trying to gently nudge the door shut while he repeated that they were good to go. He tried letting them know they could talk later after everyone had the chance to get some rest.

  With his body pressed against the door Tony took the brunt of the shock when the large man on the other side of the door swung a large axe hard against the door. Feeling like his whole body was vibrating Tony fell back a few steps and ended up on his knees. Another loud strike on the door and the lock gave way. The door flew open and the current guests of the hotel came storming in. They brandished knives and table legs and axes. They came in fast and low. Like a stream of sewer rats running out of a pipe after an explosion.

  Caitlyn found the trigger of her rifle and pulled it. She was trying not to hit Tony and unfortunately had over adjusted. She ended up stitching a line of bullet holes up the wall into the roof. Randy and Kelly were up and moving even as the demented crew of hotel guests were piling into the room. Kelly started putting rounds into the people in front of her. Randy came up off the bed with a long knife he normally slept with in his hand. He leapt for a man on the side of the bed and shoved the knife into the guys gut. They both fell to the ground beside the bed. A bedraggled screaming woman wielding a broken chair leg jumping on top of them as they disappeared from the view of the rest of the room.

  A teen boy ran straight for Caitlyn. The boy was yelling like the rest of them, but he looked scared. Caitlyn had time to think the boy wasn’t a Zombie. He was just a boy. She hesitated too long on pulling the trigger and the boy tackled her to the ground. The screaming attacked pummeled her in a flurry of swinging fists. Myriah hit the boy in the head with the back of a machete a few times in rapid succession to save Caitlyn. Caitlyn rolled over and was getting back to her feet when an old woman jumped on her and bore her back to the ground. A young girl with her greasy hair clumped together ran for Myriah. The girl screamed and jumped for her. Myriah slammed the machete into the little girls face while she was in mid-leap.

  Kelly was standing up on the bed screaming for everyone to settle down. Two bodies were bleeding out on the bottom of the bed. Caitlyn had ripped the old woman off her and was standing up kicking the crazy witch over and over again. She was wearing a pair of heavy combat boots, so her kicks were no joke. Myriah took this all in before she felt someone grab her leg. She looked down to see a little girl trying to pull her down by the leg. She’d hit the girl hard enough to knock out some teeth and had figured that would put her out of the fight. Hating herself for it she swung the dull side of the machete hard into the little girls head to get her to stop. The girl crumpled into a lifeless pile by her feet. Her matted hair getting sticky with red blood from where Myriah had struck her.

  The tide of the attack in the small room was turning. The attackers had lost the momentum and were being rocked back on their heels. Tony was fighting his way out from under a guy who was hitting him with a table leg with a nail sticking out of it. The end of the table leg was covered in blood which didn’t bode well for Tony. Caitlyn and Myriah had emerged intact from the people who’d attacked them and were positioning themselves to go help Tony and their dad. Kelly put a bullet into the side of another guy who was standing over Tony with a knife in his hand. Then she jumped down beside the bed to help Randy. The little girls had all run into the bathroom and locked the door like they’d been told to do. They never went to bed without being able to repeat the plan. In this new world escape plans had become the new bedtime stories.

  “Stop or I’ll slit his throat!” Someone yelled from the other room. The man who’d spoken up as the leader of the group came out of the spare bedroom holding up his hostage. Caitlyn would’ve laughed out loud if she wasn’t so worried about Tony and her dad. The moron was dragging the guard they’d taken prisoner into the room. He had a big butcher knife to the guys throat.

  Two loud pistol shots echoed in the room. Tony slid the dead body of his attacker off of him and sat up. He put his back on the bed and laughed at the man. Behind him Kelly had ripped the crazy lady off Randy, and he was standing up beside her. They all leveled their weapons at the would-be hostage taker. The man holding a knife over Tony backed up until he was standing next to the prisoner taken hostage.

  Tony casually shot that guy in the head. The blood and bits of brain rained down in a mist on top of the prisoner and the leader.

  “I’ll kill him!” The man yelled. He pressed his knife hard enough into the prisoners throat to draw blood. They all watched emotionlessly. Randy finally cleared his throat before speaking. His voice sounded extremely raspy when he spoke. The crazy lady who’d jumped on top of him had tried to strangle him.

  “Go ahead. We were going to kill him at some point anyway. Did it even occur to your dumbass to wonder why we have him tied up? Are you seriously that stupid? Now tell me if we have any more attackers on the way or if this was your whole party.” Randy asked. The man was now looking around desperately as he used the prisoner as a shield. He tried to get the prisoner between him and as many of the barrels aimed at him as possible. They’d used this same bum rush approach on other groups who’d found their way to the hotel in the past and it’d always worked. The hostage thing had always worked. He’d thought they could do it with one of the little girls, but they’d all disappeared into the bathroom and locked the door so quickly that hadn’t been an option.

  “I’ll kill him right now! I’m not joking!” The man said desperately holding the knife to the terrified looking prisoner. Randy noticed the man had piss running down his leg. Seeing that rubbed Randy the wrong way.

  “Let him go now and we’ll let you walk. Way too many dead bodies in this room already.” Randy said. He pointed his gun at the ground. Tony gave him a weird look then did the same. The would-be hostage taker threw the prisoner on the ground and turned to run out the door. Tony, Kelly and Randy all shot him. The guy collapsed to the ground a bloody hole filled corpse.

  “Grab the girls. We need to get out of here. No telling what these crazy freaks will do now that we’ve killed half of them. Everybody grab your crap and be ready to roll in five.” Randy went to look down the hallway. He pointed his powerful mag lite in both directions checking to see if anyone was lurking nearby. He didn’t see anyone, so he ducked back in the room to grab his share of the supplies. Once they were loaded up, they headed down the hall towards what Randy hoped would be an exit.

  The hardest part about leaving the room had been seeing how calmly his little girls came out of the bathroom. He was bringing them up in a world where a hotel room full of dead bodies was no big deal. They seemed madder about the blood that’d gotten everywhere. Doreen was too young to really know what was going on, but he’d seen Ali and Zoey both note the dead bodies when they walked ou
t of the bathroom. There was nothing they could do about it beyond trying to find a nice place to settle into. Somewhere remote enough to leave all this madness behind.

  Randy was starting to get really annoyed with their prisoner. They’d been dragging this guy all over the place and still hadn’t gotten any really useful intel out of him. He supposed the guy had tipped them off back at the pharmacy about the drones allowing them to pull out of there just in time. He wanted to untie the guy and let him just walk normally with them but every time the guy got his hands near a weapon he tried to escape. Randy didn’t much care if the guy escaped but he didn’t want hm to run back to the Brotherhood and let them know which way they were headed.

  He didn’t trust the guy enough to untie him and let him just walk with them. He couldn’t let him go because he knew as soon as he made it back to one of the camps, he’d report on what they were up to. He couldn’t kill the guy and leave him lying in a ditch because now he’d just been around them for too long. It would be way too personal. He supposed they’d just have to keep letting the guy limp along with them for the time being. They did need to get him a box of adult diapers or something though. Even by apocalypse standards he was beyond ripe.

  They passed the rooms the people here must’ve been living in. They smelled like skunk dens. Randy was on point with Kelly behind him. Caitlyn and Myriah were in the middle herding the little ones along. Tony was in the back of the line with the prisoner trailing him on a leash. The guy was proving valuable as a target for anyone sneaking up on them at least. Randy shined a light into each room as they passed it to make sure no one was waiting to ambush them.