Dead Sector (Book 2): Denver

by Jason Hartwell

  Derrick hit the gas and impaled him on a spike as he leaped at them. Even though he had a sharpened metal rod through his heart he was still trying to reach them, swinging his arms and gnashing his teeth as he slid down the spike and hit the hood. He was pulling the spike through the side of his body when Lita got on the turret gun and double tapped him in the forehead.

  Derrick stomped on the gas pedal planning on taking out more of these crazies with his weaponized mini jeep. Only the next person to cross his path was a clearly still human woman pulling a toddler with her as she fled the scene. Derrick swerved hard to avoid her and managed not to impale a mother and her young child. The Suzuki Samurai, as they were apt to do, tipped over, skidding to a stop on one of the custom spikes protruding from the passenger side door.

  Derrick was wearing his seat belt and was not hurt. If he was okay then he figured Fat was not injured either. Lita, however, was more or less on the roof and was tossed into the street. Derrick saw her laying motionless, and for the first time since he was in the eighth grade the idea of fighting zombies did not sound fun anymore.

  It did not matter if it was fun or not, he could see three of them headed for Lita, moving slow but getting close. From behind under his seat he pulled the matching Mac-10's and firing on semi auto took them all down. Seeing the three of them fall, suddenly killing zombies was fun again. Except Lita still had not moved.

  He headed for her, pausing when he heard a shotgun blast behind him. He turned to see Fat standing on the fallen Suzuki smoking shotgun in his hands.

  "Thomas turned into a zombie and shit, so I blew his head off and shit," He said, adding, "Go get Lita. I've got your back."

  Derrick was headed toward her when he saw a S.W.A.T. guy get knocked over by one of the zombies. He put some bullets in the zombies head. The cop rose and gave a wave of thanks. While he was waving a the body of another cop at his feet sat up and bit him in the leg. Derrick shot them both.

  He moved to Lita, who was just sitting up.

  "That really hurt," she said.

  "I'm just glad you are okay."

  "Am I?" She asked giving herself a quick check, "Everything hurts, but I think I am. This armor you and Dwayne made really works."

  "Can you stand?"

  She answered by rising to her feet.

  Fat moved to them firing his shotgun, until it no longer had any shells. He dropped it and drew his pistols as he reached them. They looked around, anyone still alive seemed to have left. It appeared the only people still on the freeway were the three of them and a bunch of hungry zombies. The zombies appeared to have figured this out and were heading their way.

  "I think we are going to need more bullets," Fat said.

  ****

  Dwayne and Luis had already run out of bullets. Luis drew a pair of hammers from his belt and took out the first one to get in range. Dwayne kicked the first one near him in the chest to give him time to pull the bat-blade from the zombie whose skull he buried it in. He then crushed another zombie skull with it.

  Luis was pounding in another zombie cranium when one of the fast moving ones took him down from behind. Dwayne took out the zombie while it was ripping flesh from Luis' face with its teeth.

  "Sorry kid," he said, before doing the same to Luis.

  Dwayne figured he was soon to be joining poor Luis. There were to many of them and he did not have eyes in the back of his head. He looked around for an escape and found it.

  *****

  With his guns empty Derrick drew his own bat-blade. Fat drew his homemade weapon, a sledgehammer on one end with a battle axe type blade on the other. Lita had lost almost all her gear when she was thrown from the car. All she had was a pair switchblades. The were standing back to back to back, when one of the police armored vehicles ran down the nearest approaching zombies. They were surprised to see Dwayne behind the wheel.

  "Get in," Dwayne said, "the back is still open.

  They all piled in and shut the door as Dwayne pinned the gas pedal to the floor.

  "Is it just me," Lita said, "or is he headed the wrong way?"

  Derrick went to the front, where he could see into the cab and through the front windshield, "Depends, do you consider the right way going into city?"

  "We are kind of out of bullets."

  Derrick looked at the open metal cases lining the front of the armored car. The police had left a lot of gear, including guns and ammunition inside, "Not anymore."

  "I just hope there is a bathroom where he is going," Fat said, "I still have to pee."

  Chapter 6

  Day 6: Jimmy's 7-11

  Everyone thought Jimmy Huang was crazy to keep the security drop chain door. Unlike the previous tenant, his store never closed, he had no need for secure his convenience store for the night. Some said he never got rid of the roll up door made of chains of steel because he was too cheap to spend the money to have it removed. They were partially right, but Jimmy grew up in Los Angeles, and came from a long line of small store owners. He had seen the riots after the Rodney King verdict first hand. He knew the value of good security, it was the same reason he had a shotgun and a box of shells in his office.

  Both things kept him and Terry, the young idiot who was working the counter on Sunday alive when things went crazy. After three days of eating convenience store fare, except for the microwave stuff since it was even more disgusting cold, Terry along with a few customers was ready to make a break for it. Jimmy tried to get them to stay, he was sure they would be rescued, but they were determined.

  Three days later Jimmy was beginning to doubt his decision. When he saw the armored car marked Police pull up to his gas pumps he felt his decision to stay had been justified. When the people who exited the vehicle looked more like extras in a Mad Max movie he wished he had left. One was clearly to short to be police and another much to fat.

  He was a little impressed at the way they cleared the area of any yellow eyed crazies hanging around. He still kept the shotgun in hand, at best this bunch had stolen a police vehicle. While three of them took up defensive positions the only African American of the bunch approached the store.

  "Can you turn on the pumps?" He asked.

  "No," Jimmy said, "they are electrical."

  The man nodded, looked at the pile of dead on the sidewalk and then looked at Jimmy's shotgun.

  "You do all this?"

  Jimmy nodded.

  "Nice work. I'd offer to let you come with us, but I'm not sure we have enough fuel to get more than a couple of blocks."

  "You need fuel. I have fuel."

  "I thought you said the pumps. . ."

  "I can open the door to the tanks underneath, and we can siphon the gas."

  "Well come on out and lets get this done."

  "Sure, but I need cash up front."

  "Seriously?"

  "I'm in business here."

  "Look around, money don't mean shit anymore."

  "Then you should not mind giving me yours."

  Dwayne checked his pockets, came up with five bucks and some change, "I don't suppose you take a debit card?"

  Jimmy shook his head.

  "Let me take a collection."

  Dwayne returned with about twenty bucks. Derrick and Fat found keeping their wallets on them while armored up was uncomfortable, so they had left them in the Suzuki. Lita, like Dwayne, never carried much cash, preferring to use her debit card.

  "Get you about five gallons," Jimmy told him.

  Dwayne shook his head, "Won't be enough."

  "Where are you going?"

  "Army set up an evac point at Red Rocks, how about we give you a ride there for the balance?"

  Jimmy thought about it for a second, thinking he did not think he could trust this bunch, plus the fact was it was his store and he did not want to leave it. "No, someone has to watch the store," he said.

  Dwayne looked like he wanted to argue, but instead he said, "You have spray paint?"

  "Sure."

 
"Green?"

  Jimmy nodded, said, "Five bucks."

  Dwayne paid him, and using his new purchase crossed out were it said police on the armored. He then carefully painted EDZRT on the side.

  After he was done they retreated to the inside of the truck.

  "We could take it from him," Dwayne said, "though I think he would make it tough."

  "Even if it were easy, that is not what we are about," Lita said.

  Fat and Derrick nodded in agreement.

  "Glad to see you all feel that way," Dwayne said, "I feel the same. However we still need to fuel this thing up somehow or we ain't getting back to the freeway."

  No one said anything for a few long seconds and then Fat spoke up, "What about D.J. Janice."

  "Who?"

  "Some chick I heard on the cops radio. She's broadcasting on the short wave every morning and afternoon."

  "So?" Dwayne said.

  "Maybe she will float us a loan."

  "You're going to Stanford, right?"

  "Yeah."

  "And as a student of the Yale of the West Coast your idea is we hit up a voice on the radio, who none of us know, for some money."

  "You have a better idea?"

  Chapter 7

  Everybody

  Dwayne opened the window between the back carrier and the cab, and said to Fat,”You sure you can do this?”

  “Yeah, as a kid I was weird about mechanical stuff, I went through a long elevator phase,” Fat said tapping the full five gallon gas can they had commandeered for the mission. They bargained with Jimmy to fill it in exchange for some shotgun shells.

  “As a kid?” Dwayne said giving him a look.

  “Little kid.”

  Dwyane gave him another look.

  “Okay, I’m still weird, but I can get the elevator started.”

  Dwayne nodded and shut the window.

  Fat looked at the others in back of the carrier with him, said, “I feel someone should have made a ‘I didn’t know cheeseburgers were mechanical joke.”

  “I was concentrating on the job,” Derrick said.

  “I was going to say tacos, but I think cheeseburgers might be better,” Lita said.

  Fat gave her a high five as Dwayne backed the armored carrier through the front door of Don and Donna’s building. Lita flung open the back door to the carrier and two yellow eyed bastards (the EDZRT official name for the walking dead) suffered head shots from Fats gun.

  Lita hopped out and Dwayne joined her in providing cover. Derrick hauled the gas can out of the carrier. Fat came out last covering everyone’s back.

  From scouting they knew the door to the basement was on the left, Lita took out two of them on the way with well placed head shots, while Dwayne took care of two himself using his blade bat. Like they figured it was locked. Dwayne put away his bat, brought up his shotgun, and fired the lock-buster round the SWAT team had been kind enough to leave behind and took care of the door.

  Chances someone had died in the basement and turned seemed remote, but Lita still led the way down with her gun ready to fire. Derrick followed and Dwayne stayed up on the top covering the doorway since they couldn’t latch it after the lock-buster round did its thing.

  There was not much down there and using a flashlight Fat was able to find the back-up generator for the elevator. He pointed it out to Derrick, who brought the gas can over while Lita covered the stairs in case anything got by Dwayne.

  “So you weren’t full of shit,” Derrick said seeing the back-up generator Fat said all elevators were required to have one to rescue anyone stuck during a power outage.

  They were supposed to kick on automatically, and as far as they knew it had, but they generator would have run out of fuel long ago. Fat found the gas cap but it was sealed tight with rust born from years of neglect. Fat twisted hard but could not get it to budge.

  Derrick took a turn, banging on it with his bat blade a couple times to knock off the rust. He took off his glove since he felt he could not get a good grip with it on. He turned hard but a rusty edge cut into his hand drawing blood. The blood made the cap slippery so he moved away to wipe the blood off his hand.

  Fat gave it another shot while Derrick cleaned his wound, and this time he was able to unscrew the cap.

  Derrick filled the tank and Fat hit the big red button that fired up the generator.

  “Get on the radio and tell them we are on the way up,” Fat said.

  ***

  Everyone was gathered around Janice’s radio waiting for the call from the EDZRT.

  Donna was holding a very still Don Jr. while she cried softly. Dr. Stills had spent a long time trying to find a heartbeat, but he had assured Donna he had. They heard the armored carrier crash into the building and ever since then had been anticipating a call. They had no reason to think the EDZRT was taking their time getting to them, but every minute past seemed a minute longer than Don Jr. had.

  They were geared up and ready to go, Jennifer had the only gun, but was down to three cartridges. She was disappointed Don did not exercise his second amendment rights. Janice had Chases crow bar. They had all agreed Chase was the best qualified to use Don’s aluminum softball bat. Don had armed himself with a twenty five pound kettle bell. Dr. Stills had the biggest knife in the house along with a wimpy looking hammer, good only for the tacks used to hang pictures.

  Chase, unlike Jennifer, had no problem with a guy who did not own guns, he did not own any himself, but was a little disgusted with Don’s lack of tools. The only other tool in the house was a small screwdriver which Don had in his pocket.

  “I still don’t know about this,” Don said as they waited, “they could be coming her to rob us.”

  “We don’t have a lot of choice,” Dr. Stills said motioning to the Donna and the baby.

  Before Don could respond the radio crackled, “Elevators working.”

  Janice scooped up her radio and the headed for the elevator. This was the genius of the EDZRT’s plan: being in the penthouse they could move to the elevator without being exposed to any yellow eyed bastards (upon hearing Derrick use the term when he told them their plan the penthouse group had adopted it as their official term too). They could get to the lobby were the armed and trained EDZRT could get them into their armored vehicle.

  Don punched the button and they could hear the cable moving in the elevator shaft. Again they found themselves waiting as the elevator made its way up to the top floor. Donna stood in front staring at the door as if she could will it to get there faster.

  The door finally opened. Only it was not empty, waiting inside was certain undead Chicago Cubs fan. Donna was in front. With the baby in her hands all she could do was scream as the Cubs fan moved toward her.

  ***

  Dwanye's shotgun roared liquefying the head of a yellow eyed bastard. He pumped in a new shell and took out another one. He stepped out of the doorway and made room for the others to come through. They moved through the lobby mowing down whatever walking dead had ambled into the apartment building. With no fresh blood to feed on they were all slow moving, making them easy targets for the recently battle hardened EDZRT.

  “Keep this area clear,” Dwayne commanded pointing to the space between the elevator doors and the carrier.

  The other three took up positions around the elevator. They could see by the lighted display over the doors the car was climbing to the top floor at a steady rate.

  Dwayne went past the truck to look into the street, and did not like what he saw. With live bodies to eat becoming a rarity downtown it appeared every yellowed eyed bastard in the LoDo area was converging on the apartment building, probably drawn by the noise. Luckily they were moving slow, but Dwayne and his team would need to hurry or there would be too many bodies for even the armored carrier to plow through.

  Derrick saw a yellow eyed old lady lope out of the apartments rental office. He took a shot and hit her in the shoulder. The bullet knocked her off course and she stumbled into the basement do
or and then tumbled down the stairs.

  “You don’t think she will mess with the generator do you?” he asked Lita.

  “When have they cared about generators?” she replied.

  ***

  Dr. Stills shoved her aside as the undead Cubs fan approached. He swung his hammer and as he swung the head flew off so all he hit the Cubs fan with was a not very thick wooden handle. Cubs fan sunk his teeth into Dr. Stills shoulder as he kept moving forward.

  Jennifer tried to get a shot, putting the gun right up to Cubs fan’s big head in an effort not to shoot Dr. Stills. Before she could pull the trigger they barreled into her sending one of her three remaining rounds into the ceiling.

  Her feet became entangled with the Dr.’s and the both fell to the ground, taking Janice with them. Don saw the Cub’s fan, his mouth now filled with the Dr’s blood look his way. Don dropped the kettlebell and turned to run back into his apartment. He did not see Chase moving to use his bat and ran right into him, putting them both on the floor.

  Don quickly scrambled to his feet and headed inside, locking the door behind him.

  “Hey,” Chase yelled, seeing the Cubs fan leaning over to sink his teeth into Jennifer, who was struggling to untangle herself from a bleeding Dr. Stills, "the Cubs suck."

  Cubs fan looked over and they locked eyes again. With some of the Dr’s blood in him Cubs fan moved quick. Chase go the bat up and using the bat was able to keep Cubs Fan from biting him. Cubs Fan was heavy though, even a week in a stopped elevator had not reduced much of his bulk. Chase pushed back but could not get the Cubs Fan off of him. He was able to hold him back, but he could already feel his muscles tire against the constant pressure of the obese zombie pushing down on him.

  There was a shot and Chase saw a bit of Cubs Fan’s ear get shaved off.

  He heard Jennifer say, “Get off me,” and then the second shot. This time Cubs Fan lost the top half of his head. Without him pushing forward Chase was able to move him aside and get to his feet.

  Jennifer had gotten loose of Dr. Stills and stood up. She looked at Chase and was about to say something when Chase yelled, “Duck.”