by Gareth Wood
“Now what?” Lee asked.
I moved to help support Williams again, sliding my arm around her from one side while Hannigan did the same from the other.
“Now we hustle,” I said.
We crossed the remaining distance to the road and stairs as fast as we could. Near the stairs up to the pedestrian bridge there was a chain link fence that separated the University grounds from the road. On the other side of the fence were silent cars, trucks, mini-vans and even a city bus, all covered in snow and many occupied by corpses either animate or inanimate. A few zombies wandered between the vehicles, and a few more simply stood there waiting for something to catch their attention.
Between those and the ones now following us across the grounds, there might have been forty or fifty undead in sight. We climbed the stairs up four short flights to the top, and stood on the bridge deck. Darren and Lee led the way, standing between the rest of us and four of the walking dead that were coming towards them across the bridge. Darren looked back at me.
“We’ll never be quiet enough now,” he said.
“I know. Fuck it, we’ll just have to move faster. Shoot them.”
Darren turned back and took aim, and when they were within twenty feet from us he opened fire. Lee shot as well, and they quickly killed the four things. Within seconds the echoes of their shots were spreading across the area. I looked down onto Crowchild Trail beneath us, and saw that we now had the attention of every zombie within several hundred meters. That was a lot of the undead. Fortunately for us the pedestrian bridge was well above the road, and the road was walled off on the other side.
We moved across the bridge, Williams leaving a trail of blood. She started shivering as we reached the far side. As we stopped to look down the stairs to the neighbourhood street on the far side of the bridge, I pointed with my free hand to the northeast. The mall was plainly visible just a few blocks away.
“That’s our pick up,” I said. The parking lot was fairly clear of both cars and zombies at the moment.
Williams slumped between us, and we had to catch her. Her head rolled back and she nearly passed out. The bandage on her neck was crimson, and I could see blood still leaking out.
“Janet!” Hannigan lowered her to the ground and took hold of her chin. “Wake up, Janet!”
She coughed, and grimaced at the pain, but opened her eyes and focused. She was frighteningly pale now.
Her lips moved. “I think you’re gonna have to leave me, Cherry,” she said. She was very quiet.
Amanda suddenly shot at something at the far end of the bridge. I looked up and saw a zombie fall backwards with a great portion of the top of its skull missing. More were coming up the steps to the bridge from the University now.
“Whatever you’re going to do, do it soon,” Amanda said.
“Leave me. Run,” Williams whispered.
“Fuck that!” Hannigan said, and looked at me pleadingly. Together we grabbed her and pulled her up. She cried out from the pain, and together we descended the stairs.
There were at least forty of the undead on this side street, right now all of them moving towards us but all spaced out along the road, between cars, or on snow-covered lawns.
“Can you take her yourself?” I asked Hannigan.
“Hell yes,” he replied, and took more of her weight as I stepped out and drew my Browning.
“Here we go,” I said to everyone. “Single shots only, so make them count. Move fast and cover each other. And nobody panic, okay? Everyone ready?”
Darren and Amanda gave me a thumbs up, Sanji nodded, and Lee said “Yes, sir!” and actually saluted. Hannigan was busy holding up Williams, who moaned. Close enough. We moved.
Spread out, we had a much easier time with targets. With Williams and Hannigan unable to fight we had to protect them, as they moved the slowest. We walked about ten meters north along the street before one of the undead got close enough to be a danger. I shot it through the face and it sagged like a puppet whose strings had been cut. After that it was a shooting gallery. Gunfire echoed off the houses and University buildings and the stone wall between us and Crowchild Trail. We stopped every dozen paces or so to shoot anything too close to us. Behind us they came out of the houses, from back yards and alleyways, and soon there were a hundred or more in low speed pursuit following us as we killed the ones in our path.
We had almost made it to the road at the end of this block when I made a mistake. I got a little too close to a pick-up truck, a rusting blue and green Toyota parked halfway up onto the sidewalk. My attention was on a zombie in a dressing gown and curlers that was coming towards me and looking hungry. As I pulled the trigger my peripheral vision warned me. I saw movement close to my right and twisted that direction, and the bullet I had fired missed. There was another undead in the bed of the truck, and it lunged at me. It landed on my shoulders as I tried to turn, too late. We both crashed to the ground and snow went down the back of my collar. I dropped my Browning in the snow and threw my hands up to grab the neck of the thing as it leaned down to bite. My gloved hands sank into rotten neck tissues and I felt bones and vertebrae. I squeezed and pushed, but the angle was bad and I could only hold the thing off, not get it away from me.
I heard gunfire, but the teeth snapping at me held all of my attention. I shoved desperately, tried to get my feet between us, but the zombie had other ideas. It grabbed at my head, and I pulled a hand away to punch it in the face. When my fist moved in front of its face it snapped teeth at my fingers. It grabbed my throat and started pulling itself towards me, mouth open wide to tear my throat out, and that is when Sanji clubbed it in the temple with his shotgun.
Dead flesh was knocked away from me, and a single gunshot rang out, and then Amanda was there helping me to my feet.
“You okay, boss? Are you bit?” She looked me over carefully. My throat was sore from the cold dead hands, but I gave her a thumbs up. “I’m okay,” I croaked.
Three zombies were lying dead in the snow, including the one with curlers. I could hear the helicopters coming.
I brushed myself off and found my Browning. Sanji came up and I put my hand on his shoulder.
“Thanks, I thought I was lunch.”
“You should be more careful. I would not want to have to be the one to tell your wife... you know?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Sanji.” I looked around again at the group of us. We all looked like hell.
Just up the road were the burned out remnants of a medium sized church, blackened brick walls, some of which still stood. One wall had collapsed and fallen on the two white vans that were parked next to it.
The pursuing undead were getting closer. We moved on, killing another seven of the dead in the next block, passing the church and several other burned houses, a dozen abandoned cars.
We crossed the road to the mall parking lot and I could see the helicopters coming now over the roofs of abandoned houses. The lot was mostly empty of both the undead and cars, and the helicopters should be able to land easily. We stopped by a dented and scratched Hyundai and lowered Williams to sit beside it. Lee came to take a look at her while the rest of us stood in a circle and waited. There were a few hundred of the undead coming our way from the street we had just left, another twenty of them moving our way across the parking lot. The helicopters were very loud.
Darren and Amanda started waving to the helicopters coming in, and they watched as Ashley Singer landed a dozen meters away.
“Let’s go! Let’s go,” I shouted, and we started to get aboard.
“Sir?” I turned, and Lee was calling me.
“Yes?”
Lee came up to me and shouted in my ears, and over the roar of the helicopter I had to strain to hear him.
“It’s Janet, sir. Williams? She isn’t going to make it.”
“How soon?” I asked.
“Real soon. She’s lost too much blood, and I don’t think she’ll make it back on the copter. Plus, you know, she was bitten.” He looked awa
y a moment, back at his squadmate.
“We’ll take her home,” I said. “She deserves a proper funeral. Do you have a euthanasia kit?”
“Yes, sir. She said she didn’t want it yet. I gave her a couple shots of morphine already.”
“Good.” I went over to her, and knelt down.
“Williams?” She looked up at me blearily. I took out the software disk and showed it to her.
“This is what we were after. Thanks to you and Jacobson we have it now, so maybe we can find a reason behind this shit. And we’re not going to leave you behind. Don’t worry about that.”
She nodded and leaned her head back. I felt awful for her, and Jacobson too. But honestly I was surprised that more of us had not died inside. I helped pull her up, and we climbed aboard the helicopter as the undead closed in.
* * *
Janet Williams died on the flight back. She made it onto the helicopter with a lot of help, and we wrapped her in blankets and sat her between us. Lee held her right hand, and Hannigan sat across from her and held her left. She slipped into unconsciousness just after we took off from the parking lot, and died about halfway back. We all watched her carefully for any sign of reanimation, but she stayed safely dead all the way. A gurney was waiting when we arrived, and we loaded her aboard. Lee and Hannigan went with her when the attendants wheeled her body inside. My team looked at each other and shared a moment of guilty relief that it was over, and then we picked up our gear and went inside. The whole thing had taken just over an hour and a half.
* * *
Our flight in to Cold Lake four days later was crowded. It was a small jet with about two dozen passengers aboard—my team and nineteen others who were rotating back to the safe areas for a while. A day ago the plane had arrived in Calgary with a full load of new personnel for the airport. Major Couper had told us we were being sent home for some downtime, and I had welcomed the news. We had packed and gotten ready, and waited for the plane to take us home.
I am very tired, and my hands have been shaking slightly since we came back from the University. I have not shown the others, though I think Nathan has noticed. I think I need a rest, some time away from the horrors with my family and friends. Maybe in a few weeks or a month I will be ready to go back to work again, but not just now.
Research into Caroline’s immunity has begun, and I am told the software I am bringing to Cold Lake might make it possible to work out how this all happened and what the cause really is. And after that, maybe we can find a cure.
Nathan sat next to me, and we spoke about our plans. I had spoken to Major Couper and officially accepted the job offer. I would take over in two days as the new Salvage Team director. I had offered Nathan the position of my assistant, and he had accepted. Sanji had also accepted the job as a trainer. Both Darren and Amanda were thinking over the same job offers, and I was fairly certain they would accept. After this mission we had all had enough of the undead for a while, and the downtime in Cold Lake was going to do us some good, I hoped.
We arrived after dark, treating us to a view of the airport and the town itself lit up with some streetlights and signs. It was almost like the old days. We descended and touched down, and taxied in to the terminal. Looking out the windows we could see other aircraft, including a few fighter jets and helicopters. There was a bustle of activity all around as planes were fuelled or repaired.
The plane stopped on the tarmac, and we climbed down a set of wheeled stairs. We walked inside the building, where a large group of people had gathered to meet the arrivals, family and friends mostly. Darren and I dropped our bags near the front doors of the terminal and went to help the others, and soon Amanda, Nathan and Sanji joined us.
Jay Singh, Sanji’s brother, turned up to meet him. He came over and shook my hand.
“How are you, Brian? You look terrible,” Jay said, shaking his head.
“I’m alright,” I lied. “It’s been a rough few weeks, though.”
“Jessica tells me that you are taking a job here as director of the Salvage Teams. Is that so?”
“You bet. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Good! I assume you have convinced my fool of a brother to work here as well?”
“Ha! Yeah,” I said, “he’s going to keep on working with me.”
“Well, I hope to see you all soon. Jessica is looking very well. But now I must take my brother out to have some good food.”
“Take care, Jay,” I said.
Nathan and Amanda had no family to meet them, so Amanda offered to take Nathan with her and show him around for a few days. They came up to me together, holding bags and wearing warm coats.
“Seeya in a few days, Boss,” Amanda said, and hugged me.
“Boss? Does that mean you’ll take the job?”
“I think so. That way I can spread my good cheer to more people.”
“She is letting me stay with her until I get a place of my own,” Nathan said.
“See you in a few days, then,” I said, and shook his hand. They wandered off together, and I wondered where Jess was.
Darren sat nearby on a bench. He was coming back with me tonight and would probably go on tomorrow morning to his own place. I looked up and saw my wife coming.
“Brian!” she called. Jess looked so good! She had brought Megan and Michael with her, and they both looked bigger than the last time I had seen them. I met her halfway and hugged her tight, kissed her, and hugged her again. Then it was time for the children and I spent a minute talking to them. Then we gathered our things and went to the bus. Private cars were only for emergencies, so we all took the bus into town.
On the way home Jess held my hand and told me about her pregnancy. Morning sickness hadn’t been too bad, and she was due in early June.
“Thought of any new names?” I asked her.
“A few,” she smiled, her other hand resting on her belly, “But it’s more complicated than I thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“I had an ultrasound a few days ago. Tell me, Brian, do twins run in your family?”
Afterword
I have taken certain artistic liberties in both this book and in the previous volume in this series, Rise. There are places described in these books that I have never visited, and so I might have some of the details wrong. In other cases I deliberately changed things to make it a better story, or to enable the action to progress in a better fashion. For example, the biology building at the University of Calgary has a few less floors than I described, but I think it works better the way I wrote it.
I have been asked by many people, “What is the cause of the dead rising?” I can tell you honestly that I’m not going to tell you. In this universe there is a specific cause, but I think you’ll have more fun guessing than if I told you what it was. It has been hinted at, and that’s all I’ll say.
There are many people who deserve thanks for letting me bounce ideas off them, or for encouraging me, or just listening to the ranting about the inevitable zombie apocalypse that we all know is coming. Consider these books to be fair warning.
Thanks to my editor Felicia A. Sullivan, who did an excellent job of taking my rough clay and forming it into something intelligible.
Many thanks to Stephanie Wood, Kirin Wood, Jude Harrison (for making me explain this whole zombie thing, in detail), Nerissa Hymers, James Cyr, Gaerwen Herben, Shannon Ward, Rosemary Stegman, Marquita Milliken, Allison Walters, Ian Racine (tentacles!), Jim Martin, Alejandro Colucci, Jacob Kier and Permuted Press, Vicente Garcia and Dolmen Editorial, Paul Cote, Leaha Maisonneuve, and Rosa Sudar.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Table of Contents
Title Page
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
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Gareth Wood, Rise (Book 2): Age of the Dead
