Val and Kate slammed the door shut.
“Crap!” I yelled. “We have to find a back door.”
“Quick! Back to the other side of the store!” Kate yelled and led the way.
Chapter 10
We had found the pharmacy and had gotten Lucas the precious antibiotics he needed for his infected wound. The only problem was that we couldn’t get out the front door. Dozens of zombies were waiting outside for us, and there was no way the three of us could take them all on. The pharmacy was a relatively strong fortress, with a locked steel door and bulletproof windows, but we couldn’t stay in there forever.
“What about those stairs Dean saw?” Kate suggested.
Val nodded. “We can see what’s up there. If it’s clear, we can look out the windows and find the best escape route.”
“I like it,” I said, shining my flashlight around the room, dodging and stepping over dead bodies. “Let’s go.” I hopped the marble counter and made my way to the door I’d discovered. Kate slowly opened it, and I held my bat at the ready. Nothing jumped out at us, and I let out the breath that was frozen in my throat.
“I’m going first,” Val said. “I can see better than you two.”
We agreed and followed her up the creaking stairs, shining our flashlights around. As we ventured farther, one step at a time, my nerves were on edge. The smell of dust was overwhelming, but I would have taken that any day over the stink of death that we’d walked through downstairs. The walls slanted steeply upward into a narrow ceiling, and miscellaneous supplies, shrink wrap, bubble wrap, and boxes were stored in messy, unorganized piles. Everything was draped with spider webs, and I wiped the sticky threads on my pants.
We walked to the window and looked down. From that vantage point, we could see that there was no possible way we were going to get out through the front door; the street was crowded with zombies, the dead shuffling around in every direction, looking for their next meal.
Kate pushed the curtains aside and peered out. “There are hordes of them out there. Why are there so many?”
“And to think, we were just out there walking those very streets,” Val said, her voice cracking with tension. “Maybe we shoulda taken Mary and George up on their offer for a ride.”
“You know as well as I do that we couldn’t leave the others behind,” I said. I hoped the others were okay, and I worried that they might have the same idea as we did and head for the pharmacy. “If Nick and the girls come here, they’ll be eaten alive in a matter of seconds,” I said.
We walked to the other side of the attic and glanced out through the dusty, threadbare curtains. There were only about three dozen zombies out there, far fewer than in front of the drugstore.
Val nervously ran a hand through her hair. “Think, people. How are we gonna get out of here?”
I leaned back against the boxes behind me so she could look out the window and see what we were up against.
“We can’t take them all on, no matter which direction we go,” Kate said. “I say we wait it out. When they realize they can’t get in to eat us, they’ll move on and look for food elsewhere.”
“Yeah, but the others will think something happened to us,” Val responded. “They’ll come looking for us and walk right into a trap.”
“I’m not staying the night here, and I won’t sit here and act like bait to get Nick, Jackie, and Asia killed,” I said. “Besides, Lucas won’t survive that long. There’s gotta be a way out.”
“And how do you plan to fight them all off?” Val said. “Look, Dean, Nick is my brother, too, and I care about Lucas and the others as much as you do, but I’ve already buried enough people I loved. I won’t bury you too. I just won’t.”
The emotion in my sister’s voice was undeniable, and I was moved by the sad look in her eyes. My sister hadn’t really known me that long, but she loved me and would do anything to protect me, even from myself. Tears welled up, and I took a moment to compose myself. My hand trembled as I rubbed my face, my brain still circling around Val’s words. “I get it, Val, but why can’t we just—”
All of a sudden, a green arm sprung out from the boxes and wrapped around my throat. The attic was somehow populated with a terrible trio of zombies. A woman with messy, long white hair and milky, dead eyes moaned as she lumbered toward me. I kicked her in the chest and simultaneously whacked the zombie behind me with my bat; it crashed into a heap of boxes. The white-haired woman came back for more, along with a lanky man. I got into proper stance, moved my arms, wrists, and shoulders into position, and aimed for direct contact with the zombie’s skull. I swung with as much force as possible in such a tight space, sending the woman flying, and then I turned and hit the man, killing him with one whack.
“Dean!” Val called. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Where did they come from?” Kate asked, wiping blood off her face.
“I don’t know, but now we’ve really gotta get out of here.” As I looked out the window again, an idea struck me. “If we can make it to that U-Haul truck out there, Val can hotwire it.”
“There’s a low gable roof,” Kate said. “Maybe we can shimmy down it and hop on top of the U-Haul.”
“We can break a window and open the door,” I said. “I’ll spray ‘em with the fire extinguisher so they don’t scratch Val through the broken window while she’s hotwiring the truck.”
“No need,” Val reminded me. “I’m immune, remember? I’m more worried about something taking a healthy bite out of my neck.” Her face brightened. “It’s a great plan, Dean, but we’ll have to be quick. As soon as they catch our scent, they’ll be all over us like ants on a picnic.”
Terror was written all over Kate’s face. “Uh, guys…can we go over this in a little more detail?” She was brave when it came to small battles with a few zombies, but the thought of an epic war against hordes of them freaked her out more than a little, and the thought of heading straight into masses of them wasn’t doing her nerves any favors.
Val nodded and tried to reassure her. “Look, it’s really simple. The second this window is opened, we have to scoot down the gable. We’ll get into position and jump onto the truck, slide down the hood, get on the ground, break into the truck via the window, and hop in. While I’m hotwiring the thing, you two spray the heck out of the zombies so they don’t make Swiss cheese of me through the window.”
“It sounds crazy,” Kate said.
“Kate, insanity might be all we’ve got right now,” I said, nodding out the window to the savages.
“What if the truck doesn’t work or there isn’t any gas in it? It’s quite a gamble.”
I heard the popping and snapping of bubble wrap, and my stomach clenched. I was sure more zombies were approaching, but when I spun around, I saw that it was only a rat. I whacked it like a golf ball, and there was one less rodent in the world. “It’s a gamble to stay in here too,” I said.
“Why’d you kill it?” Kate said, ever the animal lover. “You oughtta save all that deadly force for the zombies, not helpless animals.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I said.
She shook her head. “You love saying that to me.”
“Zombies love rats like we love chocolate. I was able to escape from a barn of zombies by tossing dead rats.”
Val smiled. “Fantastic. We can use rats to lure them away from the U-Haul door to give us time to break through the window.”
“Maybe the door won’t be locked,” Kate said.
“With our luck? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was welded shut,” Val said.
“You really think we can pull this off?” Kate asked.
“I dunno,” Val said, releasing a long breath, “but it’s the best plan we’ve got. Dean, you keep killing rats or even mice if you see any. Kate and I will go grab the fire extinguishers from downstairs.”
“I saw a toolbox under the counter,” I informed her. “You’ll need a screwdriver to hotwire the truck, right
?”
“Right.” She smiled at me and took off with Kate right behind her.
With the crackers Lucas had packed, I lured out the starving rodents. I killed so many rats and mice that I lost count, and I gathered up their furry little corpses and placed them in a plastic bag. “Aw, rats,” I joked when I dropped one. Just as I scooped it up, I heard a loud crash downstairs, and a tingle shot down my spine. “What the…?”
Chapter 11
I grabbed my bag of rats and my trusty Louisville Slugger. Groans and shouts were coming from downstairs, and I knew the girls had to be under attack by zombies, but I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see. As soon as I exited the attic stairs, my eyes flew wide open and my mouth fell agape. A large group of the infected had flooded the room. I immediately started throwing rats off to the side, and zombies began fighting and piling on top of one another, trying to get to the easy meal. I started swinging my bat and smacking any remaining corpses to clear a pathway to Val and Kate.
Val pulled the pin from her fire extinguisher and sprayed the undead with white foam. Immediately, they became disoriented and fumbled around, tripping and crashing into the walls, and moans and hisses filled the room, along with the crunching of bones as some of the zombies enjoyed their delicious rodent snacks.
“Upstairs!” I yelled, but when I spun around to lead the girls up, I realized the unsprayed zombies were blocking the door. Val and Kate ferociously fought them, while I took on the two coming straight toward me, knocking them out with two quick blows.
“Dean!” Val shouted. “C’mon!”
“Got any more rats?” Kate shouted.
Unfortunately, I had dropped the bag of ghouls’ goodies when I’d started clobbering zombies. I glanced around and spotted it on the floor, sticking out from under a dead zombie. Cringing, I reached in and wiggled the bag out. I half-expected the zombie’s hand to clutch my wrist, but to my relief, the dead thing stayed that way.
The girls had managed to topple several zombies, but now their dead bodies were blocking the door, so I couldn’t shut it. I’d had plenty of zombie-climbing practice back at the bridge, so I scaled the nasty pile and coaxed the girls to follow me. Our enemies were not as sure-footed, and some of them didn’t even have feet, so they’d stumble on the blockade, giving us a head start. “Got the screwdriver?” I yelled as I sprinted up the stairs, knowing we were, ironically, screwed without it.
“Yeah,” Val replied.
By the time I got to the window, Kate had already climbed through.
I stuffed my bag of dead rats into my black bag and slung it over my shoulder. “Go!” I told Val. “I’m not leaving until I know you’re safely out.”
She shook her head but didn’t waste any time arguing, knowing I could be just as stubborn as she was, a trait that clearly ran in the family. She slipped out the window and motioned me to follow her.
Just as I started to make my exit, a zombie grabbed my shirt and pulled me backward, while another one grabbed my ankle.
“Dean!” Val shouted, frantically crawling back in.
With a fierce thrust, I kicked the zombie in the jaw, forcing it to let go of my foot.
Val swung her hammer and smashed the other zombie’s skull, then pushed me toward the window. “Go!” she shouted.
Panic flooded through me. I climbed out too fast and lost my footing, then tumbled down the gable. I grasped at the roof with my hands along the way, but there was nothing to grab.
Kate reached for me and grabbed my hand to stop my fall, but in the process, she lost her grip on the fire extinguisher, and it rolled several feet away from her.
My heart was pounding a million miles a minute as I looked back up to see if there was any sign of my sister, who’d saved me yet again. “Val!” I screamed.
With a thud, Val jumped out the window just as zombies reached for her, snapping their jaws like piranhas. “Go! Go! Go!” she yelled, spreading out her hands to catch herself so she wouldn’t fall off the roof. “Get to that truck and smash the window out! I’m right behind you.”
My eyes darted about nervously as I focused on the jump. The U-Haul truck was close enough that there was no way we’d miss it, but zombies were already gathering around it, as if they knew our plans and sensed that a meal was near. I had hoped we’d have a minute or two before they noticed us, but we had no such luck. “Kate,” I said, “there are too many. They’re already surrounding the truck.”
“We can make it if we hurry,” she said. “We kinda have to now.”
I swallowed back the rising panic and swore to myself that I’d stay strong.
“We can’t go back inside!” Val shouted. “They’re coming in from that empty hallway, the one you blocked with the bookcase. There are dozens of them. Haul your butts to that U-Haul now!”
Kate grabbed the fire extinguisher that was resting on the edge of the roof and held it tightly as she jumped on top of the truck.
I jumped behind her and landed with a loud thump on the metal roof, and in the next second, I heard Val landing behind me.
Just as Kate was about to slip to the hood, Val pulled her back. “You’ll never make it!” she shouted over the sickening chorus of hungry moans, “and I’ve got no gun to cover you.”
Our plan was foiled. Zombies had surrounded our truck, and there was no way to jump down and open the door or break the window.
“Somebody said there’s always a Plan B, right?” Kate yelled. “Maybe you oughtta fill me in on that, huh?”
“We’ve gotta break the windshield,” I yelled. “We can reach it from here.”
Without waiting for their go-ahead, I swung at the glass with my bat, using all my might. Cracks spread out like spider webs in the thick window. Val must have thought it was a good idea, because she followed suit and began smashing her hammer against it, one powerful blow after another. Finally, the glass shattered, and my sister quickly jumped in through the broken window, followed by Kate.
“Come on, Dean!” Kate said.
“No!” I yelled. “The zombies are too thick to drive through. I’ll try to distract them with the rats. Maybe I can thin our screaming fan club out a little.”
“Don’t waste the rats, Dean. Wait till I hotwire the truck,” Val shouted. “It might take me a minute.”
“Fine,” I said, “but hurry, sis!”
Zombies stumbled around the truck and raised their grasping hands in the air, unleashing a refrain of hellish moans and groans. They pounded on the truck until it began to shake. We were completely surrounded by cold, lifeless creatures who wanted nothing more than to rip into our flesh with their decayed, rotting mouths, and I knew it wasn’t just a bad dream.
When the U-Haul engine roared to life a moment later, I let out a sigh of relief, but there were so many of them that I knew we’d never be able to move the truck unless I could distract them. I reached into my bag, grabbed a bloody rat by the tail, and flung it into the hungry crowd. The zombies pounced on their dead prey like wild, hungry lions on a helpless gazelle. I threw more rodents in every direction, anything to get them to move away from the truck so we could leave.
Once the crowd thinned out a bit, Val hit the gas. The truck surged forward a few feet, but we were still blocked by the flesh-eating crowd. I wildly threw more rodents, and the truck inched forward a few more feet, its wheels screeching on the pavement.
“Throw more rats!” Kate said.
“I’m all out!” I yelled. “Give me the fire extinguisher.”
Kate handed it up to me, and I began spraying down the remaining zombies that were slowly lumbering around the truck. They stumbled back, allowing us to make a bit of forward progress. As I sprayed the creatures, they seemed to suddenly lose focus and began stumbling around in confusion, moving in different directions and finally dispersing. The truck jerked forward, and I was thrown on my stomach. My fingers gripped around the metal luggage carrier bolted on the roof.
“Dean, get in!” Val shouted.
&n
bsp; There wasn’t enough time for me to crawl to the safety of the cab, because zombies were stumbling back toward the truck. In seconds, we’d be blocked in again, and I was all out of rats, and the fire extinguisher was empty. “Just go! I’ll hang on.”
The U-Haul drove down the street, and I hung on to the metal bar. Zombies shambled toward us, but they couldn’t catch up, even though we were only moving ten MPH. Val made a few turns, then abruptly stopped in a zombie-free zone, but she left the engine running for a quick getaway. “Get in!” she shouted.
I jumped down to the hood, then slid to the ground.
“Watch for broken glass,” Val yelled out the window. “The seat is covered with the stuff.”
When Kate opened the door and pulled me in, I let out a long breath as relief flooded every fiber of my body.
“We did it!” Kate said, embracing me tightly.
A sudden grin crossed Val’s lips.
I threw my arms around my sister. My hands shook, but I tried to play it cool, calm, and collected, even though I was still a nervous wreck inside. “You two were just amazing back there,” I said.
“We all were,” Val said, putting the truck into gear. “Now let’s go find the others.”
We drove back to the BMV and saw one lonely zombie lumbering around the door. It glanced at me with wild eyes. Its cheeks were sunken in, and it was completely naked and sickeningly thin, like a walking skeleton. I was sure Claire had to be freaking out, because she was in there by herself with a sick and unconscious Lucas.
As we made our way inside, the zombie made the last mistake of its reanimated life and lunged toward my sister. Val easily slung it on the grass, and I cringed when I heard its ribs break on impact. “I got this,” she said calmly. “Go make sure Claire and Lucas are okay.”
I nodded and rushed over to the door and knocked. “Claire, it’s me. Let us in.”
The door slowly opened, and Claire motioned us in, then hurried back to Lucas. “That zombie has been pounding on the walls and door for an hour!”
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 10
