by S. Ganley
Making eye contact with Shellie, Kyle used a few hand gestures to show her what he wanted her to do. She nodded her head to signify that she understood and would do as he asked. Keeping their bodies low to the ground and as close to the back side of the desk as possible they switched positions with Kyle creeping his way to the far edge of the outer left wing of the desk and Shellie crouched and ready opposite him the right end. Kyle peeked around the edge of the wing and saw that the two zombies that had left the bunkroom had stopped near the front door, their noses sniffing at the air and their heads turning wildly from side to side. They seemed to be having trouble locking in on their scents even though they were only a few feet away. Whatever their difficulty was in locating the two of them it played in their favor, their confusion appeared to be keeping them in that one spot for the time being and their distance from the desk couldn't get any better given the dimensions of the room they were all in. Looking back over his shoulder he locked eyes with Shellie, held up three fingers and closed them into his fist in a silent countdown. Once the last finger disappeared from view, Shellie jumped to her feet and as loudly as possible darted back towards the backroom bathroom area.
From the corner of the desk Kyle saw the zombie closest to him snap his head in Shellie's direction once she popped up into his peripheral vision. As soon as that zombie's head turned away to track Shellie, Kyle was in motion. Keeping low to the ground to try and mask his form with the desk for as long as possible, he darted around the corner and grabbed for the rifle. As he had expected, his movements were noted by the zombie who was just about to start moving towards Shellie and for a brief second or two he was indecisive on which target to pursue first. That brief moment of hesitation was what Kyle had hoped for and he used the time to start rapidly backing away towards the far wall while raising the rifle to his shoulder and lining up his first shot. He squeezed the trigger and from a distance of little more than fifteen feet was almost guaranteed a bullseye. The bullet punched a neat hole in the bridge of the zombie’s nose as it turned back towards Kyle. The resulting splash of brain matter that coated the wall behind him just outside of the bunkroom was like a drunken attempt at some type of abstract wall art. The other two zombies were already moving towards Kyle and coming on fast, forcing him to continue backing wildly towards the fall wall, but he was rapidly running out of room to maneuver. His second shot was off by only a fraction and actually took off his targets earlobe but didn't even result in so much as a flinch from the owner of that ear. His back hit the wall just as his next shot struck home and punctured that zombie through the eye dropping him to the floor like a sack of potatoes. The third zombie had already crossed the room and was within arm’s reach before Kyle could manage a shot at his head. The barrel of the rifle was aimed at a point high on its chest and all Kyle could think to do was pull the trigger repeatedly. The shots rippled across the zombie’s chest, digging out a groove from nipple to nipple but did nothing to stop his approach. Out of options and with nowhere else to fall back to he did the first thing that came to mind and lunged forward with the barrel of the rifle driving it into the groove in the zombie’s chest. As soon as he felt resistance as the end of the barrel struck solid bone he pushed off with his right foot and drove his weight forward as if driving a bayonet tipped rifle into the body of an attacker. Only in this case there was no sharp knife at the end of his weapon only the edge of the flash suppressor against bone. The distance of the body of the rifle kept the two men separated by just far enough that neither could reach the other with their hands. They were in a standoff very similar to when he was stuck with his arms wrapped around the body of the zombie in the bunkroom not long before. Kyle knew that this standoff was not going to last even half as long as the earlier one, the zombie had his full body weight available to him and was thrashing against the end of the rifle with strength that he could not counter for any length of time. To make it worse he was forced to mimic the zombie’s movements from side to side because each time he moved like that, Kyle could feel the flash suppressor sliding along the narrow ridge of bone it was resting against. If the end of the rifle slipped free and punched through open space inside the zombie’s body, the remainder of the barrel would disappear into its chest bringing them into arms reach of each other. From that point it would be a test of pure strength and Kyle knew he would be on the losing end of that contest. Even though he outweighed this zombie by at least thirty or forty pounds and it seemed he was in much better physical condition, the absolutely unrelenting and raw strength that just one of those things was capable of bringing into a fight overrode what would normally be his natural advantage. There was a blur of movement in the back corner of the room that Kyle could just see over the shoulder of the zombie as he twisted his body back to his left fighting against the end of the rifle buried into his chest. For a fleeting second Kyle thought that one or more additional zombies had responded to the sound of his gunfire and were now about to jump into the fray, what happened next was not at all what he had expected.
The blast of the shotgun deafened Kyle as the sound was severely enhanced by being in the enclosed space of the station's lobby. In addition to the incredible ringing in his ears he felt a white hot pain explode across his lower abdomen sending red flashes through his vision. The zombie had suddenly ceased its struggles and merely leaned forward against the barrel of his rifle, arms dropped uselessly to its sides. Kyle looked at its face and saw that through the puss and mucus filling it eyeballs what he thought may have been the last remnants of what had once been its iris from when it had been a living human being as they rolled backwards towards the top of the eye sockets. He could feel a warm sticky fluid running along his side and down to his midsection, he knew it was blood and he also knew that he had been shot but could not tell how bad it was. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pushed off from the wall as hard as he could and shoved the rifle forward until the zombie finally tilted backwards just enough to slip off the end of the rifle and drop to the floor. It was when he finally crashed onto the ground that Kyle was able to see the buckshot pattern across his upper back along with two or three tiny holes in the rear of its head.
It was only after the zombie was free from the end of his rifle and Kyle was able to slump back against the wall behind him that he finally saw his savior across the room. When he had first realized that someone had blasted a round from the shotgun into the back of the zombie he had naturally assumed that he would find Shellie standing across the room from him. He thought that she must have doubled back from the bathroom and somehow made her way behind the two zombies while they were focused on him, retrieved the shotgun and got off a shot just at that last moment. What he found instead was a sickly looking Kimberly staring back at him from where she was now sprawled out on the floor near the front door. The combination of weakness from being sick along with the recoil of the shotgun had sent her tumbling down to the floor on her backside. Kyle had not seen the woman awake since joining up with Garrett and Calvin and it seemed odd to be suddenly staring at her like that.
"Kimberly?" he called out.
She looked pale and weak, Kyle thought she might pass out at any second. He couldn't see any obvious wounds on her body, but the zombies must have found her in the bunkroom, he had seen the two at his feet coming out of that room when he ran into the lobby with Shellie. Kimberly had also screamed bloody murder, most likely as a result of waking up and seeing the two zombies standing over her, that was sure to have gotten them fired up and agitated. He was amazed that they had not simply torn her to pieces, much less made a meal out of a good portion of her body.
Darting back into the lobby, Shellie took in the scene. Kyle slumped against the far wall two zombie bodies at his feet and blood soaking through the side of his shirt and pants. She was just about to run to his side when she noticed Kimberly on the floor near the door.
Kyle motioned towards Kimberly, "Check on her. I'm fine."
He knew that he was not fine, the blo
od loss was already starting to make him dizzy, but the police officer in him would not allow himself to be tended to before others. Clamping his hand tight against the wound to help staunch the flow of blood, he slowly moved off from the wall and gingerly tried to take a couple of steps forward. His head started to swim after only a few paces and his vision narrowed, reaching the outer wing of the central desk he stopped and grasped hold of the desk to steady himself and catch his breath. Shellie was crouched over Kimberly talking to her and reaching an arm around her to help her try and stand. Kyle couldn't hear the exact words she was saying but he did catch that soothing and caring voice of hers as she spoke with Kimberly. Every now and then she would glance over towards him clearly distressed that she was unable to help him at that moment. Hearing her voice and seeing the pained expression on her face as a result of his condition helped to energize him a little bit and he felt just enough strength returning to stagger the rest of the way across the room.
The door was still standing wide open and he wanted to get it closed and locked before they had anymore unwelcomed guests. After all the fireworks inside the station, he was sure that it would just be a matter of time before more of them showed up. Taking it slow and easy and maintaining as much pressure against the wounds along his side as he could tolerate, he made his way across the room to the door. Darkness had fallen completely at that point and the pitch blackness outside was unnerving. During the previous nights they had the benefit of clear skies and moonlight to illuminate the forest around the station. As luck would have it, the one night he really could have used that light there was a dense layer of clouds threatening a late night rainstorm to blot out the moon. His eyes were only able to see as far as the start of the trees several feet in front of the building and from there it was nothing but a solid layer of darkness, but he didn't need to see anything to know that they were in trouble. The distinct moaning and footfalls in the nearby woods told him that their little hideout was no longer a very well-kept secret. If they were that close to the station already, then they knew exactly where they were going. Kyle closed the door and slid the wooden bar down along the inside while also twisting the lock on the knob. Since the park was located in a very wealthy part of the region, great pains had gone into the construction of buildings such as that Ranger Station to ensure that it made as small a footprint on the landscape as possible as well as to design it to blend as naturally as possible with its surroundings. With the exterior designed to resemble a classic wooden cabin, the windows were all constructed with wooden flaps that could be closed to block any light from inside spilling out into the woods and disrupting the tranquility of the forest at night. The windows were also shoulder height from the ground and much smaller than a traditional window. With the flaps for all the windows closed tight and the front door securely locked and barred, Kyle believed they would be safe inside from any zombies trying to force their way in. But, they were also trapped and when the rest of their group tried to return, they would be walking right into a nasty little surprise.
Shellie had managed to get Kimberly to her feet and together they were making their way back to the bunkroom. Kyle stated to move towards her to give her a hand but a sudden stabbing pain cried out from the wounds along his side, causing him to sit down on top of the small table next to the door and lean his body against the wall while it worked itself out. In a few minutes Shellie returned from the bunkroom, she rushed over to Kyle's side and immediately began examining his wounds.
"How is she?" Kyle asked through gritted teeth as she tried as gently as possible to pull his blood soaked shirt up and away to allow her to examine his injuries.
"Fine, her fever is down and she is weak. She fell right to sleep once she got into bed. She is also going to have one hell of a welt on her shoulder from holding the shotgun wrong when she fired it. She’s lucky she didn't break anything." She cringed as the shirt fell away and his wound came into view, "I'm a little more worried about you at the moment. It looks like four entry wounds and only two exits, most of it looks superficial, just through your body fat."
He could tell by how she was talking that the worst was yet to come, "only most of it, not all?"
"I'm not a doctor, but judging by how dark some of the blood is from one of the entries, and by its location. A pellet may have hit a kidney, there may be internal bleeding."
She didn't need to say anymore, if an internal organ like a kidney had been hit and was bleeding freely, without proper medical care he would bleed to death over time. For now all they could do was clean and dress the wound to staunch as much bleeding as possible, after that all he could do was wait and hope for the best.
"There is some bandaging material and soap in the locker room. Can you clean and dress what you can see for me? It’s in a difficult spot for me to reach." He asked.
Shellie returned to the locker room and came back with the necessary supplies as well as a small bucket filled with water to help clean his wounds. Kyle held the torn lower half of his shirt off to the side to allow her easy access to the injury.
"How the hell did she not get torn apart or at least bit?" Kyle asked as he cast his gaze towards the bunkroom where he could just make out Shellie's sleeping form tucked under the blankets.
"Shhhh, keep your voice down. You don't want to wake her up." Shellie scolded. "She told me that she woke up when they came into the room and bumped against the bed. Both of them looked her over and even sniffed at her but didn't try to touch her or bite her. Even when she couldn't help but scream they just stood there looking at her and after a minute or so just walked out of the room."
Kyle thought about that for a while, there was just so much they didn't know about the zombies and how they acted. The one thing he thought they knew very well was that their primary motivation for everything they did was the pursuit of human flesh. For these zombies to pass on such an easy victim as Kimberly was completely out of the norm from what they had seen so far.
"Well, for whatever reason they left her alone, she sure saved my sorry ass. Another few seconds and that would have been game over for me."
"Yes, and another couple inches over with that shotgun blast and it wouldn't have mattered either. It’s just a good thing that it," she gestured towards the zombie that Kimberly had shot, "took the brunt of the shot. Kimberly said she had never fired a gun before and when she saw you and the zombie fighting she didn't know what else to do."
Kyle would never blame her for him getting shot, the alternative would have been much worse. Even if the wounds eventually killed him he would remain indebted to Kimberly for what she did.
Both of them froze as they heard a creaking sound from outside the front door, they had grown accustomed to the third step leading up to the porch making that sound when someone stepped on it. Straining their ears they could hear multiple footfalls along the porch followed by scrapping sounds against the front wall and door. There was no doubt that zombies were just outside the door at that point, but they didn't seem to be overly eager to try and force their way inside. Instead of banging and beating against the door it sounded like they were just casually milling about on the porch. Through the thick wooden door and walls they could just hear enough to know that they had company but couldn't detect the moaning or other distinguishing noises they had grown used to when zombies were nearby. Whatever they were doing outside didn’t really matter at the moment, there was nothing Kyle or Shellie could do about it. What really mattered was that they were trapped for the time being, they could only hope that if they continued to remain quiet the zombies would eventually lose interest and wonder off. Shellie turned back to her chores of cleaning and bandaging Kyle's wounds while Kyle gritted his teeth and did his best not to cry out in pain.
Chapter 9
Garrett woke everyone as soon as the first tendrils of sunlight began brightening up the storm shelter. Since the pounding against the door had stopped several hours earlier and they had heard nothing throughout the rest of the night,
Garrett felt it was worth the chance to crack the door open and take a peek outside. With Calvin, Doug and Miranda standing ready to slam against the door if they had to suddenly shut it again, Garrett carefully released the locks and turned the knob pulling the door open an inch at a time. The hallway just outside the door came into view and appeared empty, all that remained was the lingering smell of rotting flesh hanging heavily in the air. Garrett nodded towards the rest of the group and gingerly stepped out past the door and pressed his body tight against the near wall as he took several cautious steps forward to get a look around the corner at the rest of the basement. Two steps short of reaching the corner he froze in his tracks and held a fist up over his head signaling for anyone coming along behind him to stop.
