Derrick figured the EDZRT was over, which made him double down on it. He had a good job delivering pizza’s and convinced his parents to let him work a year and take classes at the community college before heading to Colorado School of Mines, to study forestry. He was supposed to be saving for college, but instead put his money into turning the old Suzuki Samurai his dad gave him into an armored vehicle worthy of the looming apocalypse and acquiring more deadly weapons.
Derrick often felt a he may be crazy, but then he met Dwayne at work and decided he was relatively sane. Dwayne, though only twenty six was a two tour veteran of Afghanistan. He too believed strongly some sort of world ending event was just around the corner. He did not limit his potential apocalypses to just the zombie variety, but was happy to make himself part of the EDZRT. He showed how in the desert they used scrap metal to reinforce the Humvees against IEDS. Along with weapons and tactics he learned how to weld in the army, so he and Derrick truly did construct an improvised armored vehicle.
When fully armored and the gun turret in place the little four wheel drive Suzuki only sat two, with room for a third manning the gun, so they went to work on an ancient Chevy Suburban Dwayne bought for cheap from his cousin. Soon enough they had two apocalypse ready vehicles and seating for the whole team, plus a few more.
Wayne's welding skills also turned their kind of cheesy blunt and blade weapons into instruments of death.
Lita’s returns from Boulder had been sporadic. She was still short, but had filled out in the right places and her skin cleared up. She still had the glasses, but sometime in the last few years glasses had somehow became cool. Unlike Fat, she was not still proudly shunned by the in crowd. Yet when Derrick told her what he and Dwayne were doing, and how they were training even more intensely, she started showing up more regularly. He could not make it often, but Fat was all in whenever he was in town.
Summer break from college had been going on for a couple weeks and not only was the training going awesome, but Derrick and Lita were spending plenty of time together, sometimes alone in the dark and naked.
One of the downfalls of living at home was Derrick’s parents still expected him to do chores. He had just finished mowing the lawn when Dwayne called.
“You watching the game?”
“No, had to mow the lawn, besides the Rocks suck, again.”
“Well forget the game bro, it’s on.”
“What do you mean?”
“Time to step up, because shit has gone down. Mobilize the team, we gear up at my place.”
Chapter 3
Day 1: Don, Donna, and Don jr.
They could see Coors Field from the deck of their penthouse apartment and it would be easy enough to walk over and see the game in person, but after a long week selling mutual funds, Don prefered the comfort of his very expensive place and his top of the line television for watching the Rockies play baseball.
As he often did, Don fell asleep watching the game and was sitting in his chair snoring when Donna’s water broke. It was expected, she had been pregnant the whole nine months plus a few days. The bags were packed and the Dr. was on call. They hustled out to the elevator so fast Don did not turn off the television. The carnage at Coors Field played without audience as they headed down the elevator into the parking garage.
“I feel like he is coming,” Donna said.
“Don’t worry we’ll make it. Everyone I know rushed to the hospital only to wait another twelve hours before the baby arrives.” Don said as he texted their doctor to let him know the time had come.
“Not my mother, supposedly we were ten minutes away from me being born in the lobby.”
“No shit?”
“Nope, same thing with my brother. The Descottos are an impatient bunch. When it is time to go, they go.”
“You’re not a Descotto anymore.”
“Sure, but does my uterus and Don Jr. know that?”
Don looked at the elevator display showing what floor they were on and willed it to move faster.
The parking garage for their apartment was insulated and they had enough other things on their minds they did not notice the madness going on outside. As he pulled out into the street Don’s only concern was getting Donna to the hospital before she gave birth in his Land Rover.
He turned into the street and a man moving on both his hands and feet darted in front of the Land Rover. Don braked and swerved, but still hit the odd moving man with a dirty face. The man bounced up a smacked into the windshield before falling off the side of hood.
Donna screamed and Don cursed as he tried to steer back into this lane, but a car going far too fast for this residential street clipped him. Don lost control and his car jumped the curb and did not come to a stop until he had plowed into a light pole.
Seeing he was relatively unharmed, he turned to Donna.
“Other than I’m about to drop a bouncing baby boy I’m fine,” she said.
Don tried to start up the car, thinking maybe it was just some body damage and he could take care of it after he got his very pregnant wife to the hospital. The engine refused to turn over. He could feel the panic setting in. He needed a plan and he needed it now. He was reaching for his phone to call a cab or an Uber when the passenger door flew open.
“Are you two okay?” a well dressed man Don figured to about his dad’s age asked.
Don continued retrieving his phone, which did not want to get out of his pocket while Donna pointed to her belly, “Other than this, yeah.”
“You need to get off the street,” the man said.
“We need to get to the hospital.”
“That’s not happening,” the man said pointing down the street.
Don looked and for the first time saw the incredible traffic snarl in front of them. The sedan that had clipped him rear ended one of the stopped cars, making what had to be a bad situation worse.
“What the hell is up with the traffic? It’s Sunday and the game is still in like the fourth inning.”
“I have no idea,” the man said, Don noticed for the first time how jumpy the man seemed. He was constantly looking in every direction, “but it is bad, real bad. You need to get inside now.”
“No, I’m having a baby, literally right now. I need a doctor and a hospital.”
“I’m a doctor, and I know for a fact you can have a baby without a hospital, but we do need to get off the street.”
He took Donna’s arm and she let him help her out of the Land Rover.
“I guess our apartment will have to do Dr. . .”
“Stills, Dr. Stills.”
"You’re an obstetrician?”
“No, general practice. But I’m the best you’ve got, and trust me if I knew a better way I’d be all for it. Can we have this conversation inside though?”
Don got out too and saw a block or so down the road was not much better. For the first time he saw people get out of their cars and start running.
“What are they running from?”
The man started to answer, but then they saw for themselves. Three of them standing directly in front of the apartment. All covered in blood and nasty bite wounds, staring at them with dead, but hungry yellow eyes.
Dr. Stills motioned at the apartment building behind them, “Maybe someone else’s apartment?”
“Uh, yeah,” Donna said already moving towards the other building.
Don reached the door first, but stopped as even through the shaded glass doors leading to the lobby he could see another pair of menacing discolored eyes. The glass shook as whatever it was threw itself against the door.
They looked back and saw the three begin ambling toward them. Their teeth clanged together as they bit air in anticipation of getting to chew flesh. With the wrecked Land Rover blocking going up the sidewalk they started running the opposite direction, toward the traffic jam. Thankfully the three outside were slow. They were about to the corner when a priest, or what had been a priest, stepped in front of them. He bit down hard
on nothing, sending pieces of his front tooth flying. He reached for Donna, but Don pulled her away. Despite the collar and the bible still clutched in his left hand this priest was offering no salvation. They looked back to see the one inside shatter the glass door and fall onto the sidewalk.
This one was a mess of cuts from running through the thick glass, but did not seem bothered by it. Like the others it was a mess before going through the window. Unlike the others, the blood on its mouth did not seem to be all its own. It crouched and they had a feeling it would not be stumbling towards them, but was about to charge like a bull.
They not hear the shot just saw the damage it did to the head of the thing about to attack them. They turned to see the yellow eyed priest go down as it took a bullet to the temple. They saw the girl with a gun and a ponytail moving their way.
A young man was with her, a big guy, but not slow, brandishing a crowbar. He ran past her, got into a power hitters stance and bashed in the head of one the trio from the front of the apartment with a textbook swing. He hit it hard enough its chin was resting on its spine when it fell. One of the others turned toward him and he dropped it with the crowbar too. Unlike the first one he hit, this one was trying to get back up so he stabbed it in the eye with the sharp end of the crowbar.
He pulled the bar free sending a lot of blood and think yellow gunk flying into the air. He switched his grip on the crowbar and put the last one down with another home run swing.
Donna let out a loud groan and grabbed her sizeable belly before dropping to her knees, “I think he’s coming. Right now.”
“We need to get her inside,” Dr. Stills said.
The girl with the gun gave the home run hitter a nod and he went to help Donna into the apartment building while the girl kept looking for threats through the sights of her rifle. Once they were inside she joined them.
As they entered the elevator Donna said, “I feel like I should push.”
“Try to resist that impulse,” Dr. Stills said.
“Remember the breathing from Lamaze class honey,” Don said as he mashed the button for the top floor.
“I don’t think they covered giving birth in an elevator,” she said, but still started breathing the way they had taught her in class. They managed to make it to the top floor without Donna giving birth.
“Anything we can do to help?” the crowbar guy asked.
“Google delivering babies maybe there is a youtube video,” Dr. Stills said.
“Please tell me you are kidding,” Donna said as they helped her into the bedroom.
“Of course I am,” the Dr. said, though if such a video existed he would not mind watching it.
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” the girl said, “I’m not getting any service.”
Even if they had been able to find some video instruction it would not have mattered, two minutes after lying down on the bed all eight pounds and two ounces of Don Jr. had left his mother and entered the world.
Chapter 4
Day 7: D.J. Janice
“Well good morning survivors in greater Denver Metro area and beyond. It is fifteen minutes past the hour, forty five minutes from the top of the hour. The commute is as usual covered with zombies and abandoned vehicles, or at least as far as I can tell broadcasting from here in LoDo.”
“Did I call them zombies? Well, yes I did and will continue to do so until someone comes up with something better. As a public service let me pass on some important information to my fellow survivors listening to the shortwave morning zoo with D.J. Janice. While they are slow moving and dumb as dirt, if they have recently eaten they can move very fast for short distances. They aren’t running any marathons, but they are world class in the sixty yard dash. If you see one of these yellow eyed things crouching get some distance between you and them and get it like yesterday, because they are coming for you and doing it fast. Also do not, I repeat do not make eye contact, especially with a crouching one. According our very unscientific research once they have looked you in the eye they develop an appetite for you, and this hunger will not be satisfied by anything but a bite of you. It doesn’t mean they won’t bite someone else if they get in the way, just that when they are done they will be coming for you, and they will find you. Even though my good buddy here left one in the dust he. . .”
Janice saw Chase come into the living room. He was making his ‘what the fuck’ face at her.
She mouthed ‘Is this okay?’ and he shook his head no.
“Sorry for the dead air fellow survivors, but my associated does not like being talked about over the air. So let me finish my public service announcements and let my faithful listeners go about trying to stay alive.”
“If you have to encounter these zombies up close and personal, head trauma and only head trauma will put them down for the really long count.”
“If you are listening to this, you have access to a shortwave radio, since this is my only current means of providing you with information and entertainment on your morning commute to nowhere, it is possible you have heard the message about the evacuation point at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, in lovely Morrison just West of the Mile High city, but if somehow you missed it, now you know, thanks to the one and only D.J. Janice.”
"I advise strongly you head for the one and only Red Rocks. I would be there myself, but circumstances have me staying inside the city for a little while longer.”
“I’m going to open up the phone lines here in a second, if anyone wants to talk about the overwhelming issue of the day, namely what the hell happened to cause this mess I welcome your opinions. I will say if any version of ‘Its God’s revenge for homosexuals, Democrats, Republicans, Muslims, Catholics, Mormons, Baptists, etc., is what you are going to say, please save it. I’ve heard them all before. If you have some actual information to pass on, not just opinion, I’d love to hear it. I’ve heard a few times about some trucks transporting a biological weapon across town getting into a traffic accident and unleashing this nastiness across downtown. If you were like actually there I would love to hear from you.”
“As always the request line is open, just keep the radio on channel seven and press the button to talk. I can’t say I will play it, mainly because I have no way to play music here at the penthouse studios. But, I will talk to you and maybe if you need some help, I will do what I can, which sadly ain’t much. In order to save what little battery power I have left I’m only going to keep the lines open for another half hour, but if you can’t call this morning I will be doing my drive time afternoon broadcast sometime around four o’clock.”
Janice left the channel open and waited for someone to respond. When she had first holed up here in the apartment of her friend Donna, along with her husband Don, their newborn Don Jr., and three strangers, she had gotten a lot of responses. Janice never figured so many people out there would still have short wave radios. She never planned to have one either, it was a gift from her aunt. She was a kind old widow with more money than sense. When she heard how a young D.J. Janice was into radio she sent her one for Christmas, never considering Janice was into a completely different kind of radio. She never used it, except a few times when she first got it and a few more late at night after a bender, but she liked her crazy Aunt too much to get rid of it.
When the chaos began, she was glued to the television watching coverage of something happening just outside her building. Janice always spent Sunday watching at least one twenty hour news network, looking for things to talk about when she and ‘Wildman Rodger’ did the morning show for Denver’s lowest rated rock station.
When the power went out, she started thinking about her friend Donna who was due to give birth three days ago. Janice tried to call, but her phone had no service. Thankfully the power went out before she reached the elevator and not after, or she still might be in it. They were only a few floors up, close enough she could take the stairs.
Janice found the baby had arrived, along with Chase, Jennifer, and Dr. Stills. Chase and
Jennifer were shyly accepting thanks for apparently saving everybody’s ass. Don promised to give Don Jr. the middle name of Chase, and if the next baby was a girl she would for sure be a Jennifer.
The young couple left but not for long. The elevator was out and fighting their way through 24 floors of bite crazy undead was not appealing. Jennifer said she did not think she had enough bullets. After some discussion Janice mentioned the shortwave.
They decided the best thing to do would be to have Janice call for help. If Chase and Jennifer had not come along she would have never made it back to her place. Jennifer was good with the rifle and he could do serious damage with the crowbar. Janice was also glad they decided to take the radio up to Donna’s. Otherwise she may have been trapped by herself in her one bedroom, instead of trapped in the penthouse with five other people and a newborn. Things were cramped, but Janice would rather put up with a lot less space than face the possible end of the world by herself.
Once they got in Chase, Don, Jennifer, and Dr. Stills barricaded the stairwell a floor down while Janice called for help.
One week later and no help had come and they were pretty sure none was coming.
“Sorry, “ Janice said to Chase who was looking out the atlas they had found in Don’s closet and sipping on what had to be one of the last water bottles they had. Like the shortwave, the atlas was a lucky find. With map quest on the computer and GPS standard on every smartphone very few people under the age of sixty had maps anymore, “I didn’t know you had a problem with me telling your story over the air.”
Dead Sector (Book 2): Denver Page 2
