by Damon Hunter
Ana looked down and saw the strain on the knots. She decided to wait until Donna reached the ground.
At least three hotel room doors had vampire rotters pounding on them. Thankfully none of the vampers trying to get into the hall had the girth of the one who killed Jo. One door, however, was starting to crack. If another one climbed into the same room as the fat vamper there would be nothing to slow him down.
Lumpy looked over at the stairwell and saw a hand grabbing the edge of the opening. The ambler pile grew faster than any of them had anticipated. He had one of the broadswords sheathed behind his back. He put the rifle strap over his shoulder and drew the blade. He chopped off the ambler’s fingers and watched it tumble down the hill made of his fellow infected.
Lumpy brought the sword down on the next two closest to reaching the fourth floor, splitting open their skulls and sending them to the bottom of the stairwell. He moved the door stop they used to keep the door open and moved to the window.
“You think the door is going to stop them?” Bar said.
Lumpy didn’t have a good answer as he looked down at Donna and Katelin’s progress.
Donna had reached the end. She had shimmied down as far as she could but was still a good seven feet from the ground.
“You’re going to have to drop,” Lumpy said. “You don’t want to come back up.”
Donna was tempted to tell Lumpy to go to hell, but she knew he was right. Even if it was safe in the hotel, she didn’t figure she had the strength to climb up three and a half floors.
She let go. The ground came up faster than expected, but she bent her knees and rolled on impact. She stood up and dusted herself off. She may have gained a few bruises, but nothing was sprained or broken.
Donna looked up to see Katelin nearing the end of the rope and Ana starting the climb down. Donna drew her rifle and checked the alley. It was still clear of any infected. She kept the gun ready as Katelin got ready to drop down.
“Two down,” Bar said as the head of an ambler pushed open the stairway door.
Lumpy kicked the door shut and another one rolled down the pile. While Donna and Katelin had shimmied down, at least five other doors had a vampire infected pounding on them. One had a green-tinted arm sticking through, grabbing at air in hopes of sinking its claws into someone.
While Lumpy went back to monitoring Ana make her way down, Bar looked into his room and saw a bikini-clad young lady climb onto the balcony. If she had not grown tusks and had big boils all over her tan-and-green body, she could have been a model. Bar shot her in the head.
He went back to the window and saw Ana hit the ground and roll to her feet unharmed.
“You’re next, kid,” Bar said.
“Nope, you go.”
“Look kid, I’m a washed-up old alcoholic, and you’re not. Grab the rope.”
“You said you were a sailor, you have a boat in the harbor?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, we don’t. Even if we did, none of us know shit about boats. If our ride doesn’t work out we need an alternate escape route.”
Bar didn’t like it, but the kid had a point.
“Besides, I’m a total badass and I have both a sword and a machine gun.”
Bar nodded and grabbed a handful of sheet. It took some work to get his large body out the window, but he managed. By the time he got out, the vampire rotter had gotten his shoulder out the door. Lumpy drew his broadsword and cut the arm off. He congratulated himself on how well he had sharpened the blade as he kicked the stairwell door shut again.
He took a look out the window. Bar had not gotten very far, and his knots were straining to hold his bulk. Lumpy wondered if he had made a mistake.
CHAPTER 15
Sea-Shell Motel, Oceanside, CA
Katelin took aim at an ambler at the mouth of the alley. Ana tapped her shoulder gently, and said “Wait.”
Katelin lowered her guns.
“I think our gunfire might draw them to us. The stairwell filled up awfully fast after Dino started shooting.”
Katelin nodded. It made sense.
They both looked up to see Bar was making progress. He still had a little way to go and Lumpy had yet to start. Ana drew her hatchet. The ambler turned her way just in time to take a blade to the forehead. It took some effort to get her axe free, but when she did the ambler dropped to the ground.
Bar hung as low as he could before he dropped to the ground. Everyone was sure he would sprain an ankle, but he rolled with the impact and stood up no worse for wear.
He looked up. When Lumpy did not appear, he yelled, “Come on, damn it.”
Lumpy was turning to go down when one of the doors burst open and he found himself sharing the hall with another vampire rotter. If it had come through facing toward Lumpy instead of down the hall he would have been done for, but he was able to pump a trio of bullets into it as it turned to charge.
He felt something touch his shoulder and turned to see an ambler had made it to the fourth floor. He jabbed the butt of his rifle into its face, knocking it off of him. He kicked it back into another ambler who had reached the floor. He swung the gun around and dropped them with a three-round burst that went through the lead one and into the second one. They fell to reveal another one reaching the top. Lumpy swung the gun like a bat and sent this one flying back into the stairwell.
Lumpy glanced at the stairwell before he slammed the door shut, sending another ambler rolling down the pile. Seeing so many amblers about to breach the doorway made him wish he hadn’t. He put the rifle on his shoulder and went out the window.
He looked back into the hall as he started down, seeing another vampire rotter break down the door and enter the hall. He didn’t stick around to watch, but he could have sworn instead of charging him, this one went to one of the doors where his fellow infected were pounding and started trying to beat down the door from the other side.
Lumpy was going down as fast as he could. He figured if they could climb up the balconies, they could probably climb down a rope. He reached the top of the second floor when the knot of the first door knob pulled loose. Bar’s back-up knot on the second door held. The short fall almost dislodged Lumpy’s grip. He was only holding on with one hand when he bounced off the wall, but he managed to keep his grip long enough to get his other hand on the sheet.
He was lowering himself again, thinking falling to the second door handle would make it easier when he had to drop to the ground.
He was feeling good, he was almost there, when the vampire rotter appeared at the window. Ana put a bullet in its head, but not before it slashed the sheet, sending Lumpy falling into the alley.
Bar and Ana moved to Lumpy, who did not roll to his feet. Katelin and Donna noticed amblers moving to the alley on both sides. It looked like Ana’s gunfire theory was correct.
CHAPTER 16
TMRT Bunker, San Francisco, CA
Vance had dressed and given Ashley a long kiss before going to gather his gear. He could not stall any longer. If he was going to go, he had to go now.
With all his gear ready, he did take the time to boot up the internet and check for word from his ex-wife. He needed to wait for Ashley to get ready up top anyway.
No word from Donna, which he took as bad news. If she had made it out safely she would have let him know. The other news was not any better. Lockdown on the Quarantine Zone had been moved up. If they were not out of the QZ in the next hour, they were not getting out without Vance’s help.
Vance was checking out his ‘Sick Slaying Stick,’ a weapon invented for taking on amblers. It was a long bar, built with alloy metals, making it lighter than it appeared to be but solid enough to do serious damage.
One end was a heavy club; it was deadly enough on its own but with a press of a button its sharp spikes would cover the ball end. The other end acted like an oversized stiletto knife. Another press of a button on the long staff and a small sword-sized blade would thrust out the non-club end.
He twirled it
and practiced a few thrusts. He checked to make sure the spikes and the blade came out and went back in like they should. He had already cleaned and sharpened the weapon after its last use, but he checked the edge of the blade anyway. Unless any vampire rotters showed up, this would be his primary weapon crossing the bridge.
“I’m jealous,” a voice that was not Ashley said as Vance moved on to checking his guns one more time.
He turned to see Holiday was awake and sitting up.
Vance almost told the man he was awake, but figured Holiday knew that much. Instead he asked, “Jealous of what?”
“She is hot. I mean I always had a policy of not dating women who could kick my ass, but for her I might have made an exception.”
“You heard us.”
“It’s a small place and you two are kind of loud.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad to see someone enjoying life. You two married?”
“She is. Once we get out of here, she’ll go back to her family. Given the situation, I don’t know if this even counts as cheating.”
“Her husband might see that differently.”
“I suppose he might. Good to see you awake.”
“Good to be awake, though everything hurts.”
“Evac is coming. Maybe as soon as tonight. You and Ash will be out of the QZ soon. You can get some real medical attention.”
“Sounds good to me. No offense, you guys did great with what you had.”
“None taken.”
“You said they would be evacuating me and Ash. Sounds like you’re staying.”
“Not exactly, but I’m not going on the evac either. Speaking of which, I have to get moving. I’ll tell Ashley you’re awake.”
“I was coming in and out before,” he said. “I heard you talking before but couldn’t wake up enough to chime in.”
“No worries, I wasn’t expecting you to contribute.”
“But you should want me to.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, don’t you think I tried to get the hell out of town? I mean what could be worse in this situation than a place as crowded as San Francisco? You think I was hanging around because I wanted to?”
“Honestly, I never gave why you were here a thought. It wasn’t important.”
“It is now. Your hot friend is right, the roads are a fucking impassable mess in all directions. You aren’t driving anywhere.”
Vance nodded. He wasn’t surprised. “I’ve got to try.”
“I get that, but you won’t make it.”
“Probably not, but the chances are still better for them than if I don’t try.”
“You know I was planning to take a boat out of here. It’s why I made my way back to the bay.”
“You wouldn’t have made it. Drones, along with the Navy, are patrolling the coast. As soon as you approached breaking quarantine in any direction, they would have sunk your boat and you with it.”
“Yeah, I figured they had something. I watched a guy heading west in a yacht get blown to bits. I figured mines, which I thought with a small craft I might be able to navigate.”
“He may have hit a mine. I think they did that too, but the main issue is the drones. Anything without a TMRT transponder is toast.”
“You could hug the coast all the way down on a boat. Be a lot faster than trying to navigate the roads.”
“I’d still need a transponder.”
“You have one in the transport on the other side of the bridge?”
“Yeah, which is why—”
“Can’t you take it out?”
Vance paused before answering. He had never considered taking the transponder. It ran on a separate battery. It would work just as well outside the transport as it would in. He felt dumb for not considering the possibility.
“I suppose I could,” Vance said. “Problem is, I don’t know shit about boats.”
“I do,” Holiday said as he swung into a seated position.
“You don’t look ready to cross the bridge.”
He rubbed his legs. “Give me an hour to get my legs back.”
“I’ve already wasted enough time.”
“Doing the naked horizontal rodeo is never a waste of time, my friend. Especially with a specimen like Ashley. Besides, if you had left, you were looking at a couple days at best. By sea we can make it less than one. Waiting is actually going to save you time.”
Ashley entered the bunker and started to ask why Vance had not left when she saw Holiday.
“Good to see you back. I wasn’t sure we would.”
“I’m not a badass TMRT like you two, but I have proven to be hard to kill in the past. Your boyfriend is considering a new plan.”
Ashley almost corrected him for calling Vance her boyfriend but decided to let it go, asking instead, “What would that be?”
“Holiday here is a sailor. He seems to think it would be better to take the transponder and go via the water.”
Ashley thought about that a second. “He may be right.”
“Of course I am,” Holiday said as he gingerly got to his feet. He almost fell, but held onto his cot and eventually steadied himself.
“Problem will be getting him across the bridge.”
“Hey, I’m already standing. Give me some time to get the blood flowing, maybe get something to eat, and I’ll be ready to go.”
Vance checked his watch. “He says I can still get there today if I give him an hour.”
“In that case, what do you want, Holiday? Gray goop with a faint aftertaste of bacon and eggs, or gray goop with a faint aftertaste of spaghetti and meatballs?”
“Let’s go bacon and eggs. I was never a big fan anyway, unlike spaghetti.”
“Good plan, the memory of the gray goop does tend to ruin things.”
While Holiday ate, Vance sent another message to his ex-wife.
“If you haven’t gotten out yet, you have less than an hour. If you’re still in the QZ after that, do not leave. They patrol the QZ zone with armed drones, you will not make it. If all fails get to the water. I’ll be coming by boat.”
He was about to hit send when he added, “Have Katelin turn on her phone.”
The tracking software he had secretly installed would not do any good with the phone turned off.
CHAPTER 17
Oceanside, CA
“Maybe we should hold our fire. Since it draws them to us,” Ana said as she drew her hatchet.
Donna raised her rifle, saying, “That ship has sailed, honey,” before mowing down the closest trio of infected with a series of short bursts.
Katelin and Bar helped Lumpy to his feet, but he couldn’t stand on his own.
“I think I broke something,” he said as Bar held him up.
“Can you move if I help you?” Bar asked as Katelin let him hold up Lumpy so she could draw her guns and take out an ambler that had gotten too close for comfort.
“Yeah,” he said. “Figures the fat guy would get hurt.”
“You’re not the only fat guy here. Don’t worry about it.”
“You saying you wouldn’t rather be lugging around one of the girls?”
“No, but that is as much about smell as it is weight,” Bar said as he looked around. With all the amblers coming into the alley he didn’t see anywhere to carry Lumpy to anyway.
“Maybe you should leave me,” Lumpy said, “give yourself and them a chance.”
Bar held up Lumpy with one hand and drew his own pistol. “Shut up, kid.”
The alley on both sides was filling up and Donna knew going back into the hotel was a bad idea. The building across the alley might have possibilities. She took down another ambler and moved to the door.
It was locked, but the lock didn’t survive two bursts of three rounds from her AR-15. She kicked the door open the rest of the way.
She stepped back and used the light on the gun to look inside. Seeing nothing but a short, dark hallway she said, “Everybody inside.”
Donna did her best to close the door as she went inside. When she glanced back before going inside, she was pretty sure she saw a couple of the faster, more aggressive vampire rotters moving through the mass of infected.
The next door was unlocked. Ana was the first through, followed by Katelin. Donna waited until Bar and Lumpy had gotten through before she stepped in and locked the door behind her.
She turned to see they were in a liquor store. Bar was eying the cooler like he might want to grab another cold one. Everyone else was looking out the front windows. The road was a maze of wrecked and abandoned vehicles, but it seemed most of the amblers had moved into the hotel or the alley. They had a clear shot at getting to the Urban Assault Wagon.
Before Donna could feel too good about their chances, she heard Katelin say, “Uh, Mom.”
She turned to see a short man with a big pistol pointed at her daughter’s head. Ana had already put her gun down and raised her hands.
“You need to leave my store,” he said.
“No problem,” Donna said. “Take the gun off my daughter’s head, please.”
“Okay, just leave your guns and go.”
“Look, Chen,” Bar said, “After all the money I’ve spent here you ought to treat me better.”
“You only buy cheap shit. Drop the guns and go.”
“We need them.”
“So do I. This thing only has six shots and there are a hell of a lot more than six infected out there. I do have enough to kill this girl though.”
“Given we are among few on team human around here, maybe we should be working together,” Ana said. “Come with us and we can give you more weapons.”
“I think I’ll stay here and take them all.”
Donna put down her gun. “Fine, let her go.”
