“How’d you get stuck?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions, just get us out! They’re on top of us!”
Pap!
“Trust me, it isn’t any better down here,” he muttered as he stepped back a rung on the ladder.
Tony swung his axe and the pipe made a heavy clanging noise.
Abbey turned to look at him, “Hurry! There’s a bunch coming!”
The grate bent upward on his third swing, and it broke on the fourth, swinging down on a hinge.
“It’s open, c’mon!” Ali yelled to her compatriots.
Pap-pap-pap!
Tony backed farther down the ladder and helped Ali as she came out of the confined space. Billy was next, and he gave the re-killed offensive tackle zombie a few good kicks for added measure. A filthy hand missing the ring and pinky fingers had reached about chest level of the horizontal dead man, and was doing its best to grab Billy. Melanie came next, followed by the kids. They all moved toward the exit across the macerator grille.
When Martin tried to make his escape, the creature behind the one with the arrow in its eye had moved up enough to grab Martin’s hair. He pulled himself away, but lost a few locks in the process. Tony, who was now as covered in pipe-scum as the crawlers were, helped him down. The twice-dead zombie had moved forward considerably, pushed by his dead brethren. His head and shoulders hung down out of the grate.
“Tony, we have to go!” Abbey shouted, and ran to the group.
Dead people flooded into the macerator room after Abbey: at least a dozen shambling figures, covered in blood, some missing limbs. Caleb screamed and pointed at them. Some came at Tony, but the majority went for the larger group of survivors who had moved some distance away.
Pap-click…
“Shit!” Abbey yelled, fumbling with a second magazine.
Twang!
An arrow was suddenly sticking out of the skinless forehead of the closest undead, who collapsed lifeless. Ali fired a second arrow, but missed her target and got the chest of the creature behind. “Come on! We need to move!” She nocked another arrow and fired again.
Abby drew the slide on the pistol after she had slammed a second magazine home. She aimed carefully and fired into the oncoming horde.
Tony kicked the ladder out of the way, and was about to run down the corridor when the dead man and the undead young woman that had grabbed Martin fell from above. It was a glancing blow, but it still knocked Tony down. He struggled away from the bodies and got up quickly. The young woman had grabbed his pant leg, so he brought his axe down on her wrist, nearly severing her hand. He dispatched one zombie with his axe, and avoided two others as he caught up to Abbey. Together they followed the rest of the group of survivors through the connecting tunnel and moved on.
The living humans were much faster than the dead ones, but the dead just didn’t give up. Billy and Martin were up front, followed by Melanie and the kids, Ali, and Abbey, with Tony bringing up the rear as they moved quickly down the tunnel. They lost sight of the pursuing dead as they sped down the old sewer, shoes slapping on the bricks. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath when the tunnel opened up into a much wider passageway. This part of the system was partially submerged.
“We have to go through there?” demanded Ali.
Martin looked at her and spoke in a gruff tone, “Yeah, it’s only about sixty feet or so, and it never gets more than chest deep on me. Billy, pick up Caleb, and Melanie will have to take Noah. It’s over their heads in the middle. We would have come out right there,” he indicated a pipe entrance about three feet higher than the water level, “if the pipe wasn’t crushed. Let’s go, I can hear them coming.”
Martin was indeed correct. Moans could be heard behind the group even though the undead couldn’t yet be seen through the gloom.
“Come here, pal,” Billy grabbed Caleb and followed Martin into the water. “It’s warm!”
“That’s all the poop n pee!” Caleb shouted and made a face. “Ew!”
“Actually it’s because it heats up when the… AHH!” Martin disappeared beneath the tepid water. He was struggling and splashing, and when he resurfaced, he wasn’t alone. A dead woman had come from under the water and latched on to his clothes. She was trying to bite him in the face. Billy had to back away to keep Caleb from the new attacker. “Help him quick!” Ali and Abbey couldn’t fire their weapons for fear of hitting Martin, so Tony strode forward and used the butt end of the axe handle to thump the creature on the temple. Unfazed, the thing seemed to redouble its efforts to chew on Martin’s nose. Tony grabbed the zombie’s left arm and pulled it away while Martin pushed. Abbey waded to the struggling trio, put the barrel of the pistol to the creature’s head and fired point blank. The deafening shot took the side of the thing’s head off, and it released its grip on Martin and slid beneath the water.
The entire episode had taken less than thirty seconds, but it was enough time for the small pursuing horde to almost catch up.
Ali shined the flashlight to the rear and announced, “They’re right behind us! There’s a lot!”
The group had started forward when Caleb, looking behind them over Billy’s shoulder, pointed and said, “They won’t come in the water, look!”
The boy was right. The creatures had stopped where the water started. Unfortunately, the ones in the back continued crowding forward, pushing the ones in the front into the water with small splashes. The first creature stood and stared at the cluster of humans. Already wet, the thing must have decided it wasn’t going to be a problem to move forward, and it did just that. Three steps in it fell forward and disappeared. Its friends still would not progress on their own, but they kept getting pushed by the ones behind them. There were many more than the dozen or so that had come into the macerator room.
“Where are they all coming from?” Melanie asked. “There’s so many!”
“Enough! Let’s go before we get bitten on the ankles!” Ali yelled.
“But there could be ten of them in front of us under the water!”
“Yeah there could be,” countered Ali, “but there’s definitely a bunch behind us! We need to move!”
Martin started forward again, and the small group waded after him. Noah was quietly crying, as was his mother. The ceiling of the tunnel was only about a foot above the surface of the lukewarm water, and Melanie who was only about five foot six, was struggling to keep Noah’s face dry.
Eventually, Billy noticed that the water was only at the middle of Martin’s back, and the group was progressing steadily upward. Totally silent, the survivors exited the water after only a few minutes. The tunnel ramped slightly higher in this section, and in moments they came to a ladder extending up. “This is the treatment plant,” Tony told them from the rear. The group walked a little past the ladder to allow Tony access. The cover wasn’t a heavy street-type manhole cover, but a small hinged piece of steel. Using a key, Tony tried to open the lock. “It’s stuck!”
Abbey walked back to where they had exited the water, keeping watch behind them. Billy had put Caleb down, and was watching the forward tunnel. Tony looked back down the ladder and called, “Gimme some light up here!” Ali shined the light up as Abbey started yelling.
Abbey was staring at the water when she began to see it stirring a few feet away. She squinted at what she thought was a turtle swimming toward her. She realized she was seeing the top of a hairless skull, which was attached to one of many zombies coming at her through the flooded tunnel. Each step revealed more of the thing as it came toward her.
She raised her pistol and aimed at the first thing to step forward, its eyes breaking the surface of the water and focusing directly on her. “They’re coming! Hurry!” The yell seemed to encourage the creature, and it actually sped up a little, raising its arms in a classic zombie attack posture. When its head cleared the black water, it opened its mouth and liquid poured out as it tried to moan.
Pap!
Abbey fired into the crowd, hit
ting the first target, snapping the creature’s head back. It fell backward into its friends. Abbey backed up, firing.
Billy set Caleb down and pulled out his ice axes.
Ali grabbed his shoulder “Billy, no…”
“Had enough, Ali. Besides, I gotta up my tally! I’ve only got forty eight so far. I bet there’s somebody out there with fifty, and we can’t have that! Everybody behind me.”
Abbey squeezed by him, and climbed the ladder behind Tony. She held up a pen light to help him to see better.
“Hurry.” Billy said, unperturbed by the proximity of so many hungry undead.
Melanie started yelling for Tony to hurry, and Martin looked scared for the first time. “Shoulda stayed in my damn house. It was made out of steel for Christ’s sake.” The boys both began to cry.
Billy walked to the oncoming horde and readied his weapons. The creatures pushed their re-killed brother out of the way and skulked toward Billy eagerly. The first one, a teenaged boy in a Golden State Warriors tank top brought his one arm and the bare, broken humerus of the other up and came forward. Billy strode up to him and the creature stopped in its tracks, being pushed and shoved by the ones behind it. The thing looked confused as Billy said “Really? REALLY? After all of this I’ve lost my appeal again?” He swung the axe and it stuck in the zombie’s head. The dead Warriors fan took another step and fell forward, taking the axe with it. The crowd was focused on Billy, some still not out of the water, and attempting to push. Melanie screamed, and in a comical parody of motion, the creatures leaned to the left or right to look past Billy. The mass of dead things immediately surged forward and Billy started hacking with all his might. They were not attacking him, just trying to get by him.
“Why!” he yelled, “Why not!” as he used the hammer end of the axe to crush the eye socket of a firefighter with red eyes. “FIFTY!” He hacked and bashed the crowd as they tried to press on by him, but he fought like a caged tiger and slowed their progress considerably.
“I got it!” Tony yelled down the ladder, “Come on!” He pushed the cover up and climbed the rest of the ladder, entering the room above. He took a quick look around, and stuck his hand down to Abbey. “Get the kids up!” he yelled, pulling Abbey up with him.
Martin grabbed Melanie by the shoulder and spun her to face him. “Go, I’ll pass the kids to you!” Melanie climbed up a few rungs, and Martin and Ali grabbed Noah and passed him to her. She passed Noah to Abbey and Tony, and they repeated the same thing with Caleb.
“Get…Going…!” Billy called from in front of them, obviously short of breath. “Fifty-three, fifty-four!” Billy’s back was almost to Ali as Ali climbed the ladder upward. As Martin tried to climb, clammy hands shot past Billy and grabbed Martin’s clothes. Billy fought harder, as did Martin, and they won, as Martin shot up the ladder. He held his hand back toward the tunnel, “Billy, come on! Give me your hand!”
“Just go! I’ll be fine! Close the lid if they climb up!” Billy was pushed further down the tunnel, and out of sight by the throng of zombies. The ones in front reached for Martin, but they too were pushed by the ones behind. Martin shook his head and finished the climb. The things didn’t seem to know how to follow and reached up at him longingly as he sat atop the access hole looking down on them.
“Mr. Martin, where’s Billy?” asked a wide-eyed Caleb.
“He’s gone.”
“He was a hero right there…” Tony said and stood. “We have to figure out if we’re alone or not. Abbey, you stay here with Martin, Mel, and the kids. Ali you come with me.”
“But Billy…”
“He’s gone. There’s no comin’ back from that, you saw how many there was.” Tony gave one look back at the reaching sea of dead, hawked a giant loogie, and spit down into the crowd before shutting the hinged cover and locking it with a twist of a T handle.
25
Captain McInerney had ordered double deck watch as soon as the Florida had surfaced and revealed itself to Alcatraz. Passive radar sweeps were also ordered for each quarter hour, and it was one of these sweeps that had shown two blips heading from the mainland at speed toward the survivors new bastion.
Shortly after the missile had struck Alcatraz, while those in the command center were still getting to their feet, one of the submarine’s missile tubes flew open and a huge white projectile streaked toward the mainland in retaliation. It was loud.
Rick scrambled up and ran for the stairs.
Dallas helped McInerney to his feet, wincing a little as his ears still rung from the deafening roar that had shaken the building. “What the hell is that?” he asked looking up. Most of the building was still intact, so those in the command center couldn’t see the missile contrail. Dallas continued to view the ceiling in confusion.
“A Tomahawk, fired from my boat.”
“A what?”
“A big damn missile.”
“Who’s shooting at us?”
“Don’t k now yet, might have been land based, but if Jensen’s reverse trajectory is accurate, anything within fifty feet of that missile impact is already vapor.” The commander sparked up his radio: “Jensen, report. Give me a SITREP on my boat.
“Sub’s fine sir! They might have the toys, but they don’t have the talent. Looks like it might have been a TOW, and it impacted on the water behind us. Piss-poor assault heading on the missile operator’s part sir.”
“Are you under?”
“Yes sir, but just. Billings says there’s not enough depth here to go deeper than thirty feet under. We’re above periscope depth, but submerged.”
“Excellent. Where did that ML originate?”
“Land based, less than two thousand meters away.”
“Tell me you hit them back, Jensen!”
“Roger that sir, impact confirmed. Do you want to send a team?”
“Negative, sit tight and keep monitoring. McInerney out.” The commander lowered his radio and turned to face those in the room with him. “Ok, is anybody hurt? Where’s Meara?
There were minor cuts and bruises, but no broken bones in the command center.
“We’re gonna need a new building,” Dallas supposed out loud— “this one’s all busted up. Let’s put out them fires.”
Rick found Sam with the other kids. He grabbed her and gave her a huge bear hug, checking her for injuries as he did so. She was fine, but a small boy was crying in Juanita’s lap as she looked at his arm. The boy, Jimmy, had been playing on a table and had fallen off when the missile impact shook the ground.
The rest of the children swarmed around Rick, all demanding to know what had happened.
Rick let go of Sam and looked at the kids. “We’re not sure, but don’t worry, it will be ok. We’re safe here. You guys stay with Juanita, I’ll get some bandaids, and a doctor to look at Jimmy. Come with me, Sam.”
“Ok daddy.”
Rick left the room, Sam in tow. They found Meara and Pitt coming up a flight of stairs.
“How are we looking, Mike?”
Pitt spoke up, “No casualties as of yet. They hit the ground between two buildings, you got splash damage, but the structure is old and couldn’t take the impact from the blast wave. We probably shouldn’t use that part of the Industries Building until we can fix it. I don’t want anybody falling through the weakened floor.”
No one had been killed in the missile attack on Alcatraz. There were several injuries, the worst being Jimmy’s broken arm. The corpsman from the submarine had arrived and was checking him and the other injured out. Several people were setting up a rudimentary infirmary on the first floor of the industries building at the corpsman’s request.
Rick found Martinez guarding Martingale and his cronies, whose complaints were now interspersed with demands for information since the missiles flew. Martinez was grateful for the interruption, and the excuse to move down the hall to where the protests were somewhat muffled.
“So I can come with you then, Rick?”
“I wouldn’t ha
ve it any other way, buddy. I told them you were an integral part of the mission, and that I trust you.”
“So you lied? Twice?”
Rick laughed, “Yeah, the trust thing. Probably be drunk before we get off the island, damn bum.”
“Daddy! Language!”
“Sorry kid, that was grown-up talk. You’re right though, I need to take it easy. Pabs, I need to talk to Sammy for a minute, ok?”
“Sure.” Martinez pointed at Sam with mock menace, “don’t you beat up my pal now!”
“Oh, he’s mine!” She threatened, and giggled. Martinez slung his rifle over his shoulder and waved as he walked toward a group of people surveying damage done to their refuge.
“Sam, I have to…” Rick trailed off, not sure how to explain, but Sam came to his rescue.
“I know. You’re leaving, and I can’t come with you. I don’t like it.” She folder her arms, looking very serious, and extremely mature. She looks like her mother, Rick thought. Oh shit…
“I’m sorry, but I have to go get your mom. She has something that might help, and we need to make sure she’s safe. Grandpa, Juanita, and Mike will still be here, and if there’s trouble, well, Mike will take care of it.”
“How come the soldiers can’t go get her? Why do you need to go?”
“I know the location. I know where she is and how to get to her. I could tell the soldiers, but I might have to think quick if there are issues when we get there. There could be thousands of—” Rick stopped talking abruptly and looked at his child.
“I know, Daddy. Dead people. There might be a lot of them in Boston.”
“I certainly never thought I would hear somebody say that.”
“Yeah, who knew huh?” She looked at her shoes and started crying.
A lump in his throat, Rick tried to console his daughter. “Honey, I’ve got to go. There’s no other way. I know exactly where she is, what building she’s in, which floor, even which rooms. The soldiers could go and never find her through all the… the…”
“The zombies.”
“Yeah, the zombies.”
Run: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller Page 19
