Total Apoc Trilogy (Book 3): Horde Ravaged

by Gallier, TW

  For a few minutes I watched some zombies shuffling down the alley. One of them tested the door, even pounded on it for a few minutes. And then they shuffled off. Did he really think someone would open it?

  Mr. McKinney said the last wave of zombies had passed before we came up on the roof for the night. We discussed leaving right then, but the allure of a full night's sleep was too much. I still wasn't sure if it was best to leave at night or during the day. Both times provided certain benefits.

  Olivia took a deep breath, drawing my attention. Her hand patted the place I'd vacated, and then her head came up. I waved. She sat up and looked around, before putting on her boots. She was able to join me without arming for bear, which I found remarkable. Instead, she wrapped the blanket around herself and joined me.

  We sat in the corner together, the blanket around us both, and stared out over the dark, serene city. I savored that moment, knowing we'd be fighting for our lives too soon.

  "Shh," she said.

  I perked up, listening intently for any sounds of danger. Instead, it was one of the others. He stood up, looked around, and then put on his shoes. I figured he was going downstairs to one of the bathrooms. The toilets still worked. That made me wonder if we should try for another shower before leaving. We never knew when we'd be able to bath again.

  "I have to go pee after he comes back," Olivia said. "Come with me."

  I completely understood. Even up there, it was scary to be alone. One day, maybe, we wouldn't have to be afraid of everyone and everything.

  I was starting to drift off when I heard an odd sound down in the alley.

  "What was that?" Olivia asked.

  We stood up and looked down into the alley. I was stunned speechless. The back door stood wide open and Scott was creeping down the alley.

  "What the hell is he doing?" she asked. "Should we wake someone?"

  "No. This is not a good time to make a ruckus," I said.

  I could imagine a few of the survivors getting angry and loud. Scott was risking their lives with his little quest. If he was discovered by zombies, and then they spotted him running back through the back door, then all hell could break loose. We might even be stuck here with the others until winter or beyond.

  Visions of zombie hordes surrounding the high-rise like back in Emory filled my mind. My heart raced and my throat tightened.

  "Arm up," I said. "Wake Ralph. We might have to haul ass."

  I continued to watch Scott. At least he was being as careful as one could be, looking around corners before moving and such. It didn't take long to figure out his objective. He went straight to the nearest abandoned car, opened the door, and popped the hood. Unfortunately, he made enough noise removing the battery that I could hear him.

  Looking around, I spotted lots of movement. Small groups of zombies were everywhere, though none in line of sight with Scott. Not yet. Some of them started heading toward that noise. Scott was fast, though, and I was confident he'd get the battery out and back into the building before any of the zombies discovered him.

  All hell would break loose when his companions found the chance he took. I really didn't want to be around for that firestorm. Some of those people were high strung.

  "What's happening?" Ralph asked when he and Olivia joined me.

  "He's after a car battery," I whispered. "I guess he wants to get the ham radio running again."

  "He better hurry," Olivia said. She pointed to the street on the other side of the building. "Walkers coming.

  I'd missed them. There had to be hundreds of them. Scott hefted the battery. I sighed. He'd make it. No problem. It'd be close, but it would all be okay. And then he went to another car instead of coming back inside.

  "Oh my god," Olivia said.

  "Zombies!" Ralph cried when three walkers burst out of the night shadows just feet away from Scott.

  He dropped the battery and pulled a pistol.

  Pap! Pap-pap!

  "What's happening?" Mr. McKinney said as most of the others sat up in bed.

  "Scott snuck out and was trying to get a car battery," I said. "Looks like zombies caught him."

  Everyone rushed to that side of the building to look down. It wasn't good. The zombies had closed with him. Scott was putting up a pretty good fight, even winning. But we could see more coming from both directions on that street. Other zombies were moving between the surrounding buildings across the street, too.

  I aimed my M16A2 down. "We can help him if you allow us to shoot down from up here," I said.

  "No!" a woman cried. "That'll alert the zombies that we're up here."

  "That's my son!" Mrs. McKinney screamed.

  "Hush, Doris," the woman said. "He put us all at risk, so he's getting what he deserves."

  "How dare you!"

  "Shhh," several others urged.

  "Oooh, shit," Ralph said, pretty much voicing everyone's thought when Scott went down under a pile of zombies. "It's too late for him."

  "Oh God. Oh God," Mrs. McKinney gasped, before starting to sob uncontrollably.

  My eyes burned. I blinked away tears. What could I do? Was there something I could've done differently? Even if we'd warned the others as soon as we spotted him there was no way we could've stopped that from happening. In fact, there might have been more people out there when the zombies converged on him.

  I froze, all the air rushing out of my lungs. I looked over the side at all of the zombies in the alley, and entering the back door.

  "He left the back door open."

  Everyone on that roof turned to stare incredulously at me. Then they rushed to the alley side and looked down. No one moved or spoke for a long moment. There were so many of those vicious monsters down there. And now they were coming up after us.

  "Your god-forsaken son is going to be the death of us all!" that woman screamed.

  "We have to get out of here!" I shouted. "This building is no longer a safe haven."

  "Follow us," Ralph called as we headed for the stairwell.

  "Grab any and all weapons," Olivia said. "Fighting our way out is our only hope!"

  Zombies started pouring out onto the roof.

  Chapter 12

  I opened up on the zombies. They began splitting up, spreading out across the roof. There were survivors all over, and mostly children between us and the zombies. That limited where we could shoot. So we just advanced on the stairwell door.

  Ralph's and my M16A2s filled the air with Ratta-tat-tat-tat. Olivia used her shotgun right off, and it BOOMED like thunder. A half dozen other pistols, and the McKinney's shotgun also joined the chorus. Zombies were dropping left and right, but there was just too many of them.

  The stairwell might be full of zombies from top to bottom, but what else could we do?

  "Ralph, shoot a grenade into the stairwell," I called.

  "Hell yeah," he said.

  Ka-Boom!

  That scared a lot of the survivors, but the zombies already on the roof were unfazed. A woman threw herself screaming off the roof. Then a child followed her. I couldn't imagine such despair that I'd rather commit suicide rather than go down fighting.

  "Reload, Ralph," I shouted above the din of battle. "I want you to fire a few more down into the stairwell once we reach it."

  My magazine was empty at that point. I was forced to butt-slap and club them with it before I had time to reload. Somehow I managed to get the empty magazine back into a belt pouch.

  The grenade cleared the top of the stairwell down to the next level. No zombies were coming out, and the ones on the roof had spread out, so we had a clear path to the door. The other survivors mostly followed us. A few were cornered. I saw Phil go down. He'd be rising soon as a zombie.

  "Are you ready, Ralph?"

  "Yep!"

  I led the way through the stairwell door. Dead zombies were everywhere. Olivia and I leaned over the railing and shot down into the zombies still climbing the stairs. We cleared out a few more. I signaled her to back up.
>
  "Hit them, Ralph."

  Ka-BOOM!

  "Holy crap!" I cried. The explosion was deafening in that stairwell. Instant numb ears. My ears rang like crazy. Ralph reloaded, leaned over the railing, and fired again. I put my fingers in my ears. "Damn!"

  Ka-BOOM!

  "Follow me!"

  I stumbled down the stairs littered with dead zombies. Olivia, Ralph, and the others followed.

  "Close and lock the door behind you," Olivia called back.

  Whether anyone heard and would obey was doubtful. Every one of them was in a blind panic. My friends and I were probably the only ones who'd ever really fought the zombies.

  I shouldered my rifle and pulled the machete. We only had so much ammo, and it was going to be pretty close quarters. The first two flights were almost zombie free, but I glanced into the top floor lounge and spotted zombies wandering around.

  "Watch out for zombies coming at us from each floor," I called.

  "How many are there?" a woman asked.

  "A butt ton," I said. "Just kill any you see."

  The 9th floor door was closed, so I continued down without looking. I didn't really want to know how many were behind that door. Maybe I should've, because seconds later our survivor friends started screaming and shouting as the monsters came pouring out into the stairwell.

  "Keep moving!" Ralph shouted. "Grenade!"

  Ralph leaned over the railing, and shot down that small gap that went all the way to the ground floor. Ka-Boom! It was muffled just enough to not be killer on my ears like the first grenades. Or maybe my ears were already that numb.

  When I looked back there were less than two dozen of the high-rises survivors still with us. I couldn't think about it or I'd be sick. Their worst nightmare came true. I couldn't help but wonder if we in any way caused it.

  Olivia and I continued down shoulder to shoulder, hacking down zombies. They didn't really try to defend themselves, so it wasn't hard splitting their skulls. Well, our arms tired quickly. When Olivia wavered, Ralph took her place. Finally, by the 4th floor, I couldn't do it anymore. So I pulled my pistol.

  "Really?" Ralph asked.

  "Close quarters and the M16 ammo is more valuable," I said.

  Ralph and Olivia pulled their pistols. We continued down thrust-kicking and shooting zombies in the face. Only two of them could come at us at a time, and periodically Ralph would shoot another grenade down the stairwell.

  That's when a shit ton of zombies plowed into us from the 4th floor door. Olivia turned around so fast she tripped, taking me out as well. We continued firing at zombies, but just not as effectively. Ralph cried out and shot a grenade point blank into the landing below us. Shrapnel peppered all of us, but didn't help our friends above.

  I watched in horror as Mrs. McKinney was bitten three times. Her eyes widened, before she looked like she was going to puke. She seemed dazed a moment, and then rage filled her face. She was a zombie.

  Mrs. McKinney immediate turned on her own family. More of them were now zombies than not. I knew then they were all lost.

  "We have to get out of here NOW!" I screamed.

  All three of us opened up with M16A2s on that little horde of zombies. We mowed those zombies down hoping to find some survivors. There weren't any.

  "I think I'm going to be sick," Ralph muttered.

  "Be sick later," I said. "Come on."

  We pulled pistols again. And down we went. We could go as fast as we wanted now. No one was holding us back. Ralph used his grenade launcher until his bandolier of grenades was depleted.

  The 3rd floor door was open. Ralph fired his last grenade through it before we reached it. I peeked in as we passed and saw a fire through the open door into an apartment. The curtains were burning. Did the grenade do that?

  "Fire!"

  "Just two more floors until we're out of here," Ralph said.

  We moved past the door, pistols firing, feet kicking. I think we knocked as many down as we shot outright. They came up those stairs quickly, but a little unsteadily. It was the only thing that saved us. If the zombies even leaned a little forward we might not have been able to kick them back into the others. They would've overwhelmed us.

  "We have to escape off the next floor," Olivia said. "Remember, the ground floor was sealed off tight."

  I'd forgotten about that. The balcony we'd accessed the building was just to the side of the back door where the zombies were entering. So that route was denied us. We'd have to hope the front of the building was clear.

  "I'm on my last pistol magazine," Olivia said.

  I was too preoccupied to check, but I was probably about empty, too. We were halfway to the 2nd floor.

  "Switch to M16s!" I cried, holstering my pistol.

  I had my rifle in hand in a flash, and opened up. That cleared the area enough for my friends to switch weapons. Then we all unloaded a magazine on them. Changing magazines as we charged down the corpse strewn stairs wasn't easy, but we were ready for them when we reached the 2nd floor.

  Olivia led the way through the door. Ralph went next and to her left, and then me. I turned to the right. The hallway was filled with zombies testing locked doors. The apartment through which we entered was open.

  We sprayed the hallway for a few seconds, and then I rushed to the opposite door. I tried to kick it open, but it didn’t budge. Olivia used her shotgun to blow the knob away. But there was a deadbolt.

  More zombies were coming out of the stairs and two other apartments. We didn't have time to break through.

  "Shit, follow me!"

  I took off for the back of the building. We had to leave the way we entered. No choice.

  Zombies plowed into us halfway to the balcony. One of them chomped down on my shoulder, really hard. My heavy camo shirt protected me from broken skin. I pushed the barrel of the M16A2 under his jaw and blew his brain all over the ceiling. Ralph and Olivia managed to kill their assailants, too. Then we killed four more before we slammed the slider closed behind us.

  "That's only going to hold them about five seconds," Olivia said.

  "Jump!" I cried. I released the slider and climbed up on the railing. The closed dumpster was below us, so the fall wasn't that far. It was the dozens of zombies trying to get into the back door that worried me. "Now."

  We all pushed off at the same time. Our booted feet hit the dumpster with a resounding BOOM. That got every zombie's attention.

  "Over the fence!" I cried as I leapt off the dumpster.

  The eight foot high concrete wall wasn't far. We raced straight to it, jumped, hauled ourselves over, and dropped into crouches.

  "I lost my shotgun," Olivia said.

  "I'll get you a new one for Christmas," I said.

  "Promise?"

  Zombie hands appeared on the wall above us, so I took off toward the alley behind the strip mall. It was actually two strip malls, back to back, with an alley between them. We were committed to the alley before zombies stepped out from behind dumpsters and out of doors before us.

  With even more behind us, I opened fire and continued to jog down the alley. The landscape I'd seen from atop the high-rise filled my head. Was there a safe place we could go? Before us was a residential neighborhood, then a river, and beyond that more mixed retail and residential.

  A considerable horde of a few dozen zombies trailed behind us. An explosion made us and the zombies stop and look back at the high-rise. The bottom four floors were completely engulfed in flames. Smoke billowed out the top, and many of the balconies on the other floors. It there were any survivors or zombies still in that building, then they were dead from all of that smoke. Then I noticed the zombies seemed transfixed by the burning building.

  I pulled my friends over to a store's back door that was ajar. Damage showed a survivor had jimmied it open. We went in cautiously, quietly pulling the door closed behind us. Then we quickly moved boxes in front of the door. It wasn't enough to keep anyone out, but hopefully the not so bright walkers would m
ove on.

  Ralph led the way out of the storage rooms in back and out into the main store. It was a sporting goods store. Most of the merchandise appeared to be apparel. Sweat suits. Running shoes. But weapons, camping equipment like gas stoves and such were already taken. We didn't find anything to help us.

  Several of the display windows up front were smashed, too. After checking to ensure the coast was clear, I led the way toward the darker residential area. It looked like an older, established neighborhood with lots of mature hardwood trees.

  "Keep your eyes open for possible transportation," I reminded them. "Pickups and full-sized vans would be best."

  "Not a jeep?" Olivia asked.

  "I've had enough open-air," I replied. "And I want to drive sometimes."

  "Fine. Steal my glory," she said with a grin.

  The homes had front entry garages, so no alleys. Zombies were spotted on the main street going west, so we moved over to the next, a smaller purely residential street. Cars lined that street, both on the curb and in driveways. Unfortunately, it was a wealthier neighborhood, so the cars weren't old enough to have survived the EMP blasts.

  "I bet a lot of these houses have ATVs in their garages," Ralph said.

  "We don't have time to search them."

  "Kyle, can we find a house to stop?" Olivia asked. "We all need to reload our empty magazines."

  She had a point. I didn't want to stop, but better safe than sorry. We went up to the front door of the next house. It was locked. We debated jimmying it open, or continuing until we found an unlocked door. Zombies could get inside unlocked doors. The vote to jimmy was two to one, Ralph and I outvoted Olivia.

  "Sorry," I said.

  The crowbar was in the pack. I pulled it out and went to work on the door. That door made a god-awful noise as the jamb shattered. Two zombies let out low wails immediately. Yeah, we took off running.

  "They're after us," Ralph gasped out as we slowed to a jog.

  "You think?" Olivia said.

  "Shut up."

  "You're stupid."

  "Tempers, children," I said. "Let's be angry at the zombies, okay?"

  I didn't blame them. We finally caught a break finding that high-rise, and it all went to hell in a flash. I couldn't stop thinking about all of those poor children.