by Dalton Wolf
“No. I think I can hold out one more night,” the elder man admitted firmly.
“Do you have food and water?”
“Yes. I have the supplies the Army left here. They have no need of them now.”
“Ok. Listen for us to radio in the morning. We’ll be there as soon as we can get a plan together.”
“There is a very large number of Infected still roaming around here, Calvin,” the doctor warned.
“I don’t suppose the Army left the keys nearby, did they?”
“No, I think they were afraid I would drive off. I believe I could have saved them if they’d left me the keys. But they were trapped and separated from their vehicle and the guy in this turret wasted all of his ammunition trying to make a corridor for them to run through. When his ammunition was depleted, he charged out to be with the others, screaming the whole time. It was very heroic, but never reached their position. In the end the captain turned them and ran to the East towards some building. These Infected are much more energetic, though, so I doubt they made it.”
“We’ll worry about that in the morning,” Calvin said, suddenly feeling very tired and trying to stop the room from spinning as his vision narrowed.
“Are you sure you want to come when the Army has already failed? There really are very many Infected out there, perhaps a thousand, and I don’t know how many more on the back streets. I…I would understand if you refused to come.”
“You’re still our best hope, Doc. I think we’ll be able to figure something out. We don’t always just charge in. We’ll figure out a plan.”
“Ok. I’ll leave the radio on.”
“Stay safe, Doc,” Calvin said and put the mic back on its rest, sitting on the edge of the desk to keep from falling over. But he said nothing to the others.
“A thousand,” Tripper breathed. “How the hell are we going to take on that many zombies and still get someone in there to retrieve the case?”
“I’m sure it’s not as many as that,” Calvin said hesitantly. “Every time we see a lot, it seems like a thousand and we still manage to finish the job. Besides, I’ve already got a plan working,” he shot them a self-satisfied smirk, but was really only trying to hide a sudden light-headedness.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Athena said forcefully. “You need to rest, Calvin. You were shot, remember.”
“Of course I remember. My chest feels like an elephant is sitting on it,” he finally admitted. “But I’ll be alright,” he assured her.
“I’m not so sure. You’re paler than I’ve ever seen you…”
“I’m fine, Rosebud,” he kissed her softly on the cheek.
“Would you tell me if you weren’t?” she demanded.
A simple smile and a squeeze of her hand was his only reply. “Everyone do what you have to do for a good night’s rest. We have work in the morning.”
Mrs. Grissom and Mrs. Berg had already taken over the building, making food for everyone and preparing snacks for their future trips. Mr. and Mrs. Rosenthal had found a replacement for Athena in doting on Alex and the Worm and were having the time of their lives playing games.
The parents had completely understood when informed by the ‘kids’ that they were all going to stay at Hephaestus’ place, noting that there were too few comfortable places to sleep in the Fortress. Megan had not spoken since being hauled up to the roof and had been sleeping since their return. She’d stopped responding to anyone after dinner and sat staring at a wall until Mrs. Rosenthal had grabbed her hand and half-led, half-pulled her to a room and helped her get ready for bed. She was out before the sheets (table cloths) had been pulled over her body. After the doctor’s call, the gang spent another hour showing the parents where everything was and how to use the facilities of the building and then they headed for the Dungeon. Although it was about an equal distance to the Dungeon as to the Doctor, they estimated there were probably a thousand fewer Infected standing between them and Hef’s place.
The families hugged and said their goodbyes, just in case, and Calvin went over instructions again and again for the parents on how to keep a proper watch and asked for assurances that they would keep a constant presence in the radio room. Eventually it was the parents who shooed them out of the building for some peace and quiet.
Upon their arrival at the Dungeon, everyone but Trip and Joel kept their partying to a minimum, knowing how big a day they were going to have in the morning. Calvin took some pain meds and the blood thinners the doctor had given him and went immediately to sleep. He had never felt so tired in his entire life. If anyone had asked how he was feeling at that point, he would have sworn with absolute certainty that a demon was slowly sucking out his soul.
Cowboys and Zombies
One hour after official dawn the two custom vehicles sat in the intersection of Burlington and 210 Highway staring down the street at an ocean of undead milling around something in the distance. Calvin had woken feeling refreshed, though still annoyingly drained and weak. Athena had let him sleep later than he’d asked while she and the others prepared everything they needed for the journey. Hef had finally given Scaggs her very own portable nail gun the previous evening and the excited actress had spent several hours practicing.
Their hope to preview the area using the tower cam had been dashed. Even though the tower was tall enough to see over the downtown buildings, this area was downhill, far away, and had a few hundred little trees lining the four-lane road. A patchy fog floating through the valley had settled over the area they needed to see most. Magnifying the view to its highest resolution, all they spied were glimpses through the trees of one or two zombies, hints and glimmers of dead shuffling between some of the buildings. Everyone had taken a turn examining the video and had agreed that it didn’t look that bad, mainly because they didn’t have a choice and truly wished it to be so. The doctor needed help. Needless to say, once again they were wholly unprepared for the reality that had now bitch-slapped them, hard.
“What’s your plan, Chief?” Felicia asked from the Hedgehog’s driver’s seat.
“Let me think a minute…” he muttered, absent-mindedly rubbing his chest.
They were staring at a lot of zombies.
Starting just a few blocks away, the road ahead seethed with circling, shuffling freaks of nature from building to building, moving through the lessening, ground-hugging fog from one side of the street to the other and all the way down to where they could barely see machine gun turrets of the two military vehicles and, not too far past that, possibly another vehicle sitting high-centered in the fountain. And all around this, zombies marched wall-to-wall as far into the distance as they could see. Like the thousands of drunks spiraling down the ramps of Arrowhead after a home game, this horde would be going nowhere until someone made them. This was far too many to just go barging in with guns blazing, and they weren’t even counting the hundreds the soldiers must have already killed again.
“How come every time we see them, there are so many more than the last time?” Athena complained.
“I’d like to say you’re imagining things,” Sarah said quietly. “But we do seem to be staring at quite a bit of evidence to support your conclusion.”
“I hope it’s not because we’re losing more people than dead,” Tripper noted ominously.
“Me too,” Scaggs agreed.
Since the parents were watching the Fortress, there would be no more staying back for anyone unless they went out on a simple run for supplies. The newest couple sat close together in the back of the Hedgehog, side-by-side, holding hands and whispering. Everyone had noticed a subtle change in their relationship. Both now appeared flushed and jittery. Neither could stay far from the other for long and both would sneak off at the drop of a hat only to be found a few minutes later in some unused office or hallway whispering, holding hands or kissing. The previous night Scaggs had moved her things into the same room as Gus, leaving Felicia in the awkward position of having to make up reasons to not stay wit
h Joel. The actress had explained quite logically that it wasn’t that she wasn’t into him; it was just that she wasn’t ready to move that fast. It had taken only one hour of trying to sleep alone for her to knock on Joel’s door and although she still insisted to everyone who did not ask and definitely didn’t care that absolutely nothing had happened, the crimson glow that flooded her features whenever she looked at Joel failed to support her vigorous denials. The mindless, beaming grin that stretched her cheeks whenever anyone looked her way was a decent indicator to her inner glee...until they’d rounded the corner onto Burlington, that is.
Even the power of love could not burn through the overwhelming dread a few thousand zombies could throw at them. Or perhaps, like Dementors, they fed on happiness as well as flesh. Up to that moment the young actress had believed that they were making progress—they all had believed it. Their own successes and various observations of the area had placed a firm belief into their minds that maybe the barricades in all of those neighborhoods were holding, that maybe the living were finally winning. “I thought we were winning?” she observed in a confused whisper over the mic.
“And I thought we had all watched the same movies?” Calvin noted bitterly, perhaps letting out too much of his own disappointment. “The dead are like a Tsunami. They flow into the living areas in wave after wave until everything is washed away.”
“I was hoping the good guys were at least starting to catch up,” Scaggs muttered.
“The only way to start gaining ground, I think, is for us to end this,” Calvin insisted. “If we can stop it, then maybe we can get ahead again.”
“But, I mean with all those barricades and everyone now knowing more about what’s going on and having better ideas on how to kill them…I mean, kill them again. And the government is supposed to be dropping in supplies. I don’t know how that whole thing is going, but this is Kansas City, you guys always seem to work it out together, right?” she asked.
“Thanks for those kind thoughts of the people around here,” Athena said graciously. “But I don’t think you ever know how something like this is going to affect a city or how the nation is going to respond until the event actually happens. I mean, look at New Orleans after Katrina. It took weeks just to get them water, but they had a hundred-mile-perimeter wall up around this city within a day. I guess it really depends on who is in position to do things when the bad things happen.”
“Yeah,” Trip agreed. “Good people do bad things when they’re scared, and bad people can do really good things for good people when things go bad. And of course, bad people can still do very bad things. You just never know until it happens. Both people and towns can surprise you. Maybe even countries and governments.”
“I haven’t been surprised by a lot of people,” Scaggs said. “But I really believed in my heart that this city could hold it together. I mean, it may just be your sports that kick ass, but that energy stays with people and it seeps into their bones. We felt it as total strangers and it was awesome! You have a proud city that is mostly ignored by the rest of the country and that has given you an attitude that just might still help pull you through this. I mean, if anyone can pull through this.”
“Or it’ll cause everyone to stay and die because they’re too damned stubborn to admit defeat,” Tripper grimaced.
“Way to be the pessimist, honey,” Sarah mouthed sarcastically. “We’ve already got Calvin, we don’t need another.”
“I’m more of a realist,” Calvin argued, but he didn’t press it.
“Geeze, I thought Gus was supposed to be the gloomy one,” Scaggs commented out of the side of her mouth.
It took several minutes staring into the distance for the others to laugh, but when they did, it took several more minutes to stop.
“You’re so fracking awesome,” Gus kissed her soundly on the lips.
“It wasn’t that great,” Scaggs seemed surprised.
“Timing is everything,” Tripper saluted her. “You caught us all off-guard.”
“Is that car dealership still up there on the left?” Calvin asked with a big smile now to match Felicia’s, grasping desperately at some positive energy and holding on with everything he had before it could skitter away again.
“Not really,” Trip said. “But I think there might be a Kia lot up there somewhere.”
“Nice,” Calvin muttered.
“Ok, let’s cross here to the west and head through the field to the tracks.”
“You want to drive on the tracks?” Felicia asked, an uncertain set to her jaw.
“You can handle it. It’s pretty flat in there.”
“Why can’t we take a street?”
“Because there aren’t any other streets between us and that gathering of dead,” Calvin responded evenly. “We’ll take the tracks to Tennis Court.”
“Ok…doesn’t seem the time to play a match, but whatever.”
“We’re not going to play,” Calvin sighed.
“Then what good is a tennis court?” she asked, her voice shaking as she drove over the bumpy open field to a large opening in the old wooden fence by the tracks.
“Not a tennis court. Just Tennis Court. It’s a street.” Trip informed her.
“That’s funny. Is there a big tennis building there?”
“You know, oddly enough I believe there is. Go figure.”
The Hedgehog bounced and shook as only a vehicle that is riding on railroad tracks but not using rail worthy wheels can do. It is a feeling impossible to describe to anyone who has never tried it, but it is highly recommended to never try it on an active railroad…or at any time. In fact, one should never drive on railroad tracks without official permission and officially approved vehicles. However, much of the excitement of this dangerous and unlawful act was filtered by the knowledge that it was highly unlikely there would be any trains to dodge because they had already killed most of the engineers and there was this little end-of-the-world emergency that was keeping the rest at home this day. Calvin didn’t mind not having to dodge trains, however, having come to the conclusion just this morning that danger was highly over-rated.
Felicia and Sarah navigated their respective vehicles over the tracks for nearly a quarter mile, well past the beginnings of the mob of dead gathered around the fountain where the road split into North Oak Trafficway and Nine Highway. The tracks sat two blocks away from the main road, though, and the occupants of the two custom vehicles saw very little activity behind the offset warehouses and factories. The few Lurkers that leapt from the alleys and buildings were quickly dispatched by the turrets or bumpers. Calvin did not want to get out until he had to. Unfortunately that time had arrived.
“I think it’s this last one here,” he pointed ahead to a long, low, whitish building, probably a small warehouse. “That street between there is where we need to go, but drive to the end of this building first. I want to get a closer look at what we’re heading into.”
Felicia nodded, inching along the building until she was just a few feet from the corner and Calvin gave her a sign to stop. He jumped out, edging along the wall and listening with one axe out and both ears straining to hear around the corner. He jumped at a shadow sneaking up behind him, only to find Athena sliding up quietly with a wink.
“There used to be a bunch of trees here…” he said hesitantly, eying the perfectly manicured lawn ahead with low shrubs and a tiny fountain.
“They were infected with some bug and had to be chopped down,” Sarah’s voice informed him knowledgeably in his earpiece. “The entire lawn has been professionally landscaped to match the park across the way.”
He looked at Athena, barely recognizable in her armor except for the fact that her face shield and helm were both up. Her dark, almond-shaped eyes always seemed to be hiding a joke but this day only a mask of concern looked back. She had cried for hours during the night after seeing how the bruising had spread, now covering his entire chest in a puke-fest collage of the ugliest colors ever invented by man o
r god. He had worked overtime, and worked her overtime, to assure her that he was ok, that it was a normal healing process. A fact he insisted she should have known as a licensed medical whatzit. And when the pain had woken him in the middle of the night and he waited for the meds to take, they had shared a passionate, but very tender hour as both felt a little more keenly just how precious life could be.
Any other time he would have loved to be here beside the love of his life enjoying another gorgeous Kansas City park, but he had a feeling this was not going to be a picnic.
“Well?” he asked her.
“I’m not going out there alone,” she stated firmly.
“On three, we both look out.”
She nodded.
“One, two, three,” they said together and both peeked out.
“Oh my,” Athena said, hauling her head back in just as fast as she’d cast it out.
“There’s another big park behind the fountain,” Calvin noted.
Trip and Sarah were suddenly by their side, Gus and Scaggs behind them.
“What, you want to go on a picnic when we’re done?” Tripper quipped.
“I was thinking of a picnic, but that’s clearly not happening,” Calvin mused.
“I think he means they seem to be drawn to grassy and tree-covered areas as opposed to buildings and such,” Sarah noted.
“Yes, but not our park over by the Fortress for some reason…” Calvin countered.
“True. But there are larger parks around there to draw them,” Sarah pointed out.
“But what about the television tower? No parks,” Tripper argued.
“Not so,” Gus argued from the back. “There are two places. One big field next to it and one behind it. How could you not have seen that?”
“I did see open areas, but I couldn’t see grass or trees. I was driving. I had to watch the sea of dead threatening to capsize us.”
“Didn’t you only drive the first time?” Scaggs dredged her memory.
“Don’t you have some hand-holding to do back in middle-school?” Trip snapped back in good humor.
