I Zombie I [Omnibus Edition]

by Jack Wallen

  “What would he stand to gain from playing two… wait, you think he knows about you and realizes what you’re worth? Seriously?”

  “Why do you think that? Has he given you any reason to believe he knows about – wait, has he said something to you?”

  Echo broke out in gales of laughter.

  “What? What’s so funny?”

  Echo continued to laugh until her cheeks turned bright red.

  “Us. It’s the end of the world and we’re acting like little school girls.”

  She was right – about the school girl thing. She was wrong about the end of the world. That was always a fallacy. The world, the planet Earth, would continue on. There would be no end to the world. Man was insanely arrogant to think itself powerful enough to destroy an entire planet. Now, the end of the human race? That would be a different story to tell – one not couched in lies and dogma. But once man was dead, Earth would continue on until some other parasite crawled out of the muck and mire to begin the cycle anew.

  Ultimately though, I had to tuck my paranoia away for the moment. That mistrust, however, would remain, just under the surface, until the time came when I needed to play that card and possibly save my ass.

  “So… ” Echo started. “What was it like, being there at ground zero?”

  The look shock that jolted my heart had to have registered on my system. If it did, Echo gave no indication of perception.

  “It was absolutely indescribable. There is no way words could paint the picture of chaos we endured. No way.”

  “Worse than now?”

  The question should have been simple. It wasn’t. Now is filled with fear, violence, and perpetual unrest and death. Munich was another story all together. Ground zero was a vacuum of loss and twisted perception. It was nearly impossible to put the release of the Mengele Virus into words.

  “The beginning should have been the end. That’s what we all thought – that the world had ceased to exist and we were thrust into Hell.”

  And that was that. The only words I could form to describe what we went through. Of course there was an unspoken layer I just could not dive into – the loss of Jacob Plummer. Even thinking about being responsible for sending a bullet between my lover’s eyes threatened to force me to any given corner of the room. My eyes could roll back into my head in search of some patron saint of sanity.

  Fortunately that swan dive into madness was interrupted by Gabe stepping out of the bathroom. He was naked from the waist up. I couldn’t help but notice Echo’s eyes lingering on Gabe’s tight torso. I should be feeling something so very wrong at the moment. To be honest, I was too tired to address the fact that Echo was very much a minor, and Gabe would quickly wind up tied to a lamp post if he tried anything.

  Out of nowhere I was reminded of Susan, my little angel. The thought of the girl punched me hard in the heart. Without making eye contact with anyone, I slipped into the bathroom and wound up sitting on the toilet seat. My head found its way into my hands. Tears dropped effortlessly to the ground.

  I hated these moments of weakness. The apocalypse wasn’t very forgiving of the weak. Fortunately, I was able to steal away so no one had to witness me come apart. As far as Echo, Gabe, and the rest of the world knew, Bethany Nitshimi was a rock. I had to be. And now that I was a full-on mother, there was no time for displays of fragility.

  There was time, however, for a shower. As soon as I turned the water on and the steam greeted my lungs, I knew that bliss was still an achievable dream. The heat was perfect. I wanted to weep again, only this time for joy. For a short moment, the undead, the conspiracies, the Zero Day Collective all went away. I was in heaven. I was clean. The stink of death and rot spiraled down the drain with the dirty brown water.

  When I stepped out of the shower, and wrapped a plush towel around my body, I felt pampered. And for a brief second, that was the only thing that mattered.

  The door to the bathroom eased open. It took me by surprise to see Echo and Gabe already asleep. Echo was lying on one side of the bed and Gabe in the center of the other bed. Maybe my suspicions were unfounded and the two weren’t plotting some dark hallway booty call.

  I gave Jacob one last check, slipped into the bed, and turned out the lights. The darkness that blanketed the room was genuinely glorious.

  Chapter 11

  November 21, 2016 03:09 AM

  Fargo, North Dakota

  Darkness had become my enemy. And this time the darkness was a sentient being, hot and probing. The heat of the blackness seeped inside and around every possible inch of my body. My skin came alive with the fear of the unknown. And just as the unknown became the known – everything changed. I was soaking in a hot mud bath within a spa. The sounds of tranquility were everywhere. God-awful zen music, the kind everyone seems to think is so relaxing, droned on. Yanni on Valium. Some God of a naked man, chiseled abs and chin, knelt beside my bath and offered me a drink. Inside the shiny crystal glass was a thick, brown liquid. Floating on top of the brown water was an eyeball. The eyeball looked at me and blinked. I thrashed about in shock and realized the mud bath was actually a rank, human chum-filled tank.

  A tortured chorus of baby cries filled the room, like the chime on a clock made in Hell. And then – a thunderous, vibrating ‘thunk’ was heard. Before the echo of the first ‘thunk’ faded, everyone in the spa of doom scattered.

  Thunk.

  Thunk.

  Thunk.

  The maker of noise finally appeared. It was probably ten feet high and nothing but muscle. The entire body was covered with a skin that looked like brain. The brain-skin pulsed at random. What would be the head was nothing but a jagged, rotten tooth-filled hole. At the end of the right arm was no hand, but a giant, grafted hammer made of human bone. The thing hoisted its hammer high and brought it crashing down to the floor.

  I ran. My feet slipped and slid on viscera and discarded entrails. By the time I reached the door to the spa, I was covered in brown, red, and black goo. The smell was nauseating. My gore-slick fingers slipped off the door handle. My mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out.

  The foul stench of the brain-man’s breath overtook the air around me. With each exhalation I could feel the sticky strands of hair on my cheek dry and crust over.

  Just as it seemed the monster was going to open wide and devour me whole, the Hell-baby clock chimed. The reverberating sounds of the cry sent shock waves of terror through the monster’s muscles. The thing turned and ran from the room, bashing its bone-hammer at anything that dared be in its way.

  I woke, the sound of Jacob, his cries piercing my eardrums. With eyes half-open, I got out of bed and rummaged through the food pack. Another can of formula, another bottle, another feeding. Jacob went silent as soon as the liquid hit the back of his throat.

  God, being a mother in the apocalypse was a real pain in the ass.

  It took the baby no time to suck the bottle dry. Hopefully, he’d make it through the rest of the night without another bottle or a diaper change – at least that was the plan. I needed sleep or we’d never make it to Seattle.

  When my head hit the pillow, my conscience locked onto some fragment from the dream. My subconscious mind was trying to warn me of something. I fumbled in the dark for a pen and paper. I found a pen, but no paper. On my left forearm, in giant letters, I wrote:

  SPA.

  It had to mean something. Hopefully, a rested mind in the morning would help me decipher this clue.

  Chapter 12

  November 21, 2016 10:15 AM

  Fargo, North Dakota

  “Bethany. Wake up!”

  The sound of the voice pulled me back from sleep. Thankfully, no other fucked up nightmare haunted the dark recesses of my mind.

  When I finally sat up, and my conscience was up to speed with my cloudy eyes, another sound blew the fog of sleep away.

  Moaning.

  “Where is it? Where are they?”

  I sat up, trying my best to remain as calm a
s possible. There was no reason to panic my baby and tagalongs.

  “I don’t know. Everywhere. What are we going to do?”

  Echo was near hysteria.

  My brain instantly dropped into survival mode… as if it didn’t live in that state permanently.

  “Quick. Hand me my laptop.”

  When in doubt, always fall back on what you did best. I was a hacker. Gabe handed me the backpack containing the laptop that helped me crack the Mengele Virus code. That piece of hardware would go to my grave.

  As soon as the computer was booted, I plugged into a network jack and waited for the laptop to snag an IP address from the hotel’s router. When the network indicator informed me all was good to go, I fired up my favorite network topology tool to get the lay of the land. It didn’t take long for me to locate the server hosting the feeds from the security cameras around the inside and outside of the building. Within seconds I had control of every electric eye on the premises.

  “Shit.”

  What I saw was not good. Every floor of the building was overrun by moaners. There was no way we were getting out the same way we came in.

  “Oh my god! Bethany, what are we going to do?”

  Echo finally reached full panic. I grabbed her by arms and steadied her. I stared deep into the girl’s eyes and tried to will her to calm down. It didn’t work. I had to come up with a plan and do it quickly.

  So I went back to the laptop. The cameras had all the information we needed. That information would be our freedom. I clicked through every internal camera. There was no way. The floors were flooded with the undead.

  It wasn’t until I switched to the outside camera facing our room window that I got the idea.

  “We’re going out the window. It’s only a few flights, so we can create a rope out of the sheets, climb down, and get to the car.”

  Even before I could get reactions from the crew, I was yanking sheets from the bed and tying overly cautious knots at the end of each.

  “You can’t be serious. How are we going to get Jacob out there?” Gabe surprised me by turning chicken.

  “We’ll lower you two down first. After you’re on the ground, I’ll lower the supplies and then Jacob. Once you have everything, I’ll climb down, we’ll get in the car, and drive the fuck out of here.”

  There was no push-back from either Echo or Gabe. It looked like we had a plan. We immediately put the plan into action and started packing everything up. It was a shock our voices didn’t draw unwanted attention from the undead tourists.

  “Who first?” Echo looked at me, ready to launch.

  “We should send Gabriel down with a gun. He can make sure the area is cleared before we send send anyone else, Echo.”

  “I’m good with that.” Gabe nervously nodded his head as he spoke.

  It took a moment for Echo to give in, but she did. I put Echo and Gabe in charge of splicing together the rope. I had a last minute task I wanted to take care of before I packed up the laptop. Having network connectivity was a luxury I knew wasn’t going to continue on forever, so I needed to take advantage of it while it lasted.

  The task was looking up ‘ZRT’ – the number on the downed man’s phone at the truck stop. A Google search brought up plenty of results, but it wasn’t until I hit the fifth page that I got what I was looking for.

  Zombie Response Team.

  That had to be it.

  They had a website. I checked it – they were legit. According to their site, the Zombie Response Team is a group of individuals dedicated to the eradication of the walking dead. I had the direct hotline to this group. I wrote down a few of the more prominent names for later use: Dan Parker, Joshua Garcia, and Morgan Barnhart.

  With that information in my hands, I shut down the laptop, packed it away, and started lowering our bags to the ground.

  Bam!

  A familiar knocking rocked the door of the room. The thick wood wouldn’t manage to sustain such blows for long. I had to pick up the pace. The only problem was, the last thing I had to deliver to the ground below was Jacob. There was no way I would rush the lowering of my child down three stories. But I had no choice.

  Carefully, I tied the end of the sheet to the car seat handle. I double, triple checked the knot. Once I felt it safe, I slowly lifted the car seat out the window and began to lower. Hand over shaking hand, the seat descended to the ground below.

  Bam!

  A menacing moan followed the crushing blow of the meaty sounding fist. The single moan became a chorus of moans, the single pound multiplied until a monstrous popcorn cooked on the other side of the wall.

  I continued lowering. Echo stood, arms stretched to heaven, waiting for the precious cargo.

  Bam!

  The door was about to give up the ghost. I loosened my grip and let the sheet slide. The burn of my fingers and palms came on quickly.

  Bam!

  Bam!

  Crack!

  The wood of the door splintered. Even with the continued burn, I let the sheets slide through.

  The door split in two. The sounds of moaners filled the room.

  “Got him!”

  Echo’s voice wafted up from below.

  It was my turn. With my backpack secured, I swung my left leg over and started out. One of the moaners managed to get his rotten fingers on my pack and yanked me back into the room. I collapsed on the floor. There were four of them, all glaring down at me with drooling mouths and sour-milk eyes. The fuckers never changed. The same sound, the same look. It seemed zombie would never go out of fashion.

  “You fucking bastards!”

  All four of the undead grabbed at me and lowered their gnashing mouths my way. This wasn’t the movies, they weren’t about to take turns. My legs were free, so I swung around and kicked up hard. The heel of my shoe connected with a jaw. The disgusting crunch made me want to laugh and puke at the same time. I had no idea why doing damage to a zombie made me want to laugh. There was some karmic joy in the act.

  I kicked up again, this time a swing and a miss. Fortunately, the momentum of my kick brought me back down hard enough to remind me I had a gun in my back pocket. It was like landing on your keys, only worse. Thankfully, the gun didn’t go off.

  My hand shot behind me and pulled the pistol from its hiding place. During the quick arch around my shoulders, I managed to disengage the safety. As soon as the gun was between me and the undead quartet, the trigger was pulled. The spatter of blood and brain clearly indicated the first shot hit the home of homes.

  One zombie down, three to go.

  The noise took the remaining zombies by surprise. I knew it wasn’t possible, but I swear I saw the look of fear flash through their eyes.

  I had the upper hand.

  The next zombie to come down on me found the barrel of the gun lodged all the way to his soft palette. When the trigger was pulled, the back side of his skull was aired out for his friends to behold. The twice-dead zombie dropped its full weight onto me. The dead weight of the beast was almost unmovable. The body also made a great shield. The hole in the head of the zombie was positioned perfectly so I could see the sites of my gun.

  As the third and fourth zombie attempted to get to me through their buddy, I scoped them out, pulled the trigger, and wasted yet another zombrain. Three down, one to go. I couldn’t miss.

  The fourth zombie grabbed the pile of death on top of me and yanked it out of his way. Face off time. I stood and backed away from the monster. There was no telling how many bullets remained in the gun. To be honest, I didn’t have time to find out. Instead of diving deep into the land of fighting, I pocketed my weapon, dove for the window, grabbed the sheet rope, and lowered myself out of the room. I know it would have been more responsible to take out the last zombie – but I had to get down to the ground and make sure my baby was okay. And there was no way I was about to be a hero, only to wind up orphaning Jacob. He was my soul purpose, I wasn’t about to let him down.

  The zombie reached ou
t with his hands and grabbed. He got lucky and tangled his fingers up in my hair. I wasn’t going anywhere without inflicting some serious pain on myself.

  “Come on Bethany! We have to go, now!” Echo called up in desperation.

  Oh how I wished I could. But with zombie fingers tangled up in ones hair, it’s not terribly easy to get away. All I could do was hope for the best. The best, of course, didn’t include me forcing my way down and losing a large hunk of hair in the process.

  I still had my gun. The only challenge would be to continue to hold onto the rope with one hand and aim the pistol with the other. Fear was a powerful motivator. I twisted the rope around my right wrist and, once the rope felt secure enough, released my left hand so it could reach around into my pocket and grab the weapon. As soon as my arm reached around me, my body started spinning. The tangled hair started growing tighter with each spin. The flesh on my skull grew angry with strain. I wanted to kick physics in the junk at the moment. There was no time for high wire acts.

  My fingers felt the cold metal of the pistol and grabbed. As soon as I had my hand wrapped around the handle of the weapon, I swung it around and forced the barrel into the right eye of the zombie. I could feel the squish and pop of the eyeball and, when I did, I sent the barrel on home. The gun dug in about an inch until it hit bone. The brain of the zombie made for the perfect silencer. When the trigger was pulled, the sound was like an overripe watermelon crashing and splashing to the ground and nothing more.

  There was no time to cheer, no time to enjoy the victory. Any moment the hotel would be overrun by moaners. The second the scent of live flesh traveled around area, the place would be crawling with the walking dead.

  I hit the ground running – literally. My feet barely gave my body time to recover from the transition to solid ground before I was sprinting, full steam, to the car. Echo already had Jacob buckled in and both passengers were impatient to get the fuck out of this undead dodge.

  As the Audi tires barked their frustration at my punching the gas pedal to the floor, I saw a mass of moaners converging on the parking lot. How we managed to get away so close to critical mass, I’ll never know.