The pounding grew louder and more determined. Once those monsters got it into their heads to get into a room, nothing could stop them. It was just a matter of time until they broke down one of the doors and came flooding in. So far as anyone could tell, zombies are driven by an insatiable hunger. It's not just brains they are after—they will literally eat anything they can get their hands on, so long as it's got a heartbeat. No one knows why, or even where they came from. It's not like there are any experts on the subject. It all happened so fast, no one had time to ask. Anyone who stopped and asked questions was bound to get eaten.
Benji squeezed my hand and gave me a concerned look.
“I'm working on it,” I said in response to his tense stare. “But you're probably not gonna like it.”
He swallowed hard, bracing himself for action we both knew was coming. In times like these you had to think fast or you were literally dead meat. I was just working out the finer points of my plan to throw open the front door and make a mad dash out past them straight through the courtyard, when a loud crash shook the building. Two of the windows popped, showering us with shards of broken glass and drawing loud terrified screams from several adults. The hinges on the door began to creak under the unstoppable weight of the crush of bodies trying to force their way in. We had only seconds left. I turned back to Benji, unsheathing my blade as I spoke.
“Stay right on my heels,” I said. He nodded back to me in reply. “And no matter what happens, do not fall down.”
I'd barely finished speaking when the metal door literally flew off its hinges and the putrid stench of the living dead filled the air. Their rank smell overpowered the senses as they poured into the room like demons racing up from the bowels of hell for an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord.
Chapter Two
My first instinct was to spring out and start slashing through them as they came rushing in. Benji and I were crouched so close to the door that it only made sense that they would go for us first, piling on top and pinning us down before ripping out and devouring our insides like a piping hot Extra Value Meal at McDonalds. Only they didn't. Zombies are attracted to noise and movement first. They rely on their sense of smell when they've got nothing else to work with. Benji and I sat as still as the grave these monsters should be rotting in, while the rest of the adults in the room began running around, waving their arms, and screaming at the top of their lungs in fear. They didn't stand a chance. The zombies were on them before most of them could make it out the back door to the rat trap.
I'm not gonna lie. There was a part of me that wanted to jump in and fight too, wanted to help the other people in the room as much as I wanted some kind of payback for what was happening to our world. It wasn't fear that held me back. At that point, I knew I couldn't save them and jumping in and getting myself killed wasn't going to change anything. I could feel Benji holding on to the back of my shirt, tugging on it as if he was asking me what my plan was.
I turned back to see his eyes bulging wide with fear as he watched three ghoulish-looking full grown zombie adults chew right through a man's leg. Blood squirted almost to the ceiling as the man endlessly shrieked in agony and despair. The doorway was clear. Most of the living dead were already in the room with us, snacking on anything that moved or chasing the helpless leftovers down the long corridor.
It's now or never, I thought.
Taking a deep breath and nodding at Benji, I stood up and bolted forward, sword in hand ready to slice through anything that got in my way, living or dead. Instantly several sets of jaundiced yellow eyes turned toward us. The zombie with a chunk of a man's leg in his mouth spit it out and roared in anger as we cleared the door. I didn't bother to look back. I was certain he was right behind us. I sprinted out into the courtyard, taking in the insane view of the utter carnage as I went. Every few feet, a headless zombie corpse lay twitching. Every few feet, the mangled body of a dead soldier lay ripped to shreds, camouflage stained red and black with blood and ooze. A zombie woman with long, stringy brown hair and scarlet blood covering her mouth crawled mindlessly toward us. Cut in half by gunfire, she pulled her upper torso along by scratching at the asphalt with long fingers that ended in blood red nails. I had no doubt that if she reached us she would be just as dangerous as all the other reanimated corpses. A sense of dread crept over me as I watched her for a brief moment.
How can we win if cutting them in half doesn't even stop them? I wondered to myself.
“He's gaining on us. Which way do we go?” Benji shouted, snapping me out of my horror induced stupor. A quick glance backward confirmed his words. A single zombie had followed us out of the classroom and was making good time across the gore-strewn grounds in our direction. Whatever intelligence drove these creatures was sending him our way to finish off the massacre.
“Hurry!” Benji screamed, fear grossly twisting the features of his face.
Scanning the yard I saw the route between the far eastern side buildings was wide open. I'd spent countless hours getting the lay of the land when I first arrived and I knew that across the field was Cabrillo Highway, leading south to Lompoc. The sun was already starting to set. Walking in the dark was maybe the dumbest thing we could do but we had two things going for us. The first was that zombies tended to slow down some at night. Like it or not they still had human eyes so that meant their visibility went down after dark. The other thing working in our favor was the isolated area we'd be crossing through. Zombies tended to congregate in highly populated areas, as far as anyone knew. That was probably what had driven them to overrun the base in the first place. We weren't likely to find many of them in the relatively empty space between the base and town. It wasn't like we had many options at that point, anyway. Either way, we were going to be moving at night.
Better than being trapped inside a small building and surrounded by another horde, I thought.
I pointed toward the buildings to the east.
“We're heading that way,” I said as calmly as I could, trying to sound like I was in control of myself. I could feel my hand shaking as I pointed so I dropped it back to my side.
“Watch where you’re stepping,” I cautioned, gesturing toward the ground, “so you don't slip on the blood and guts, or trip over a body, or get dragged down by a partial zom crawler like that woman.”
The zombie chasing us stopped and let out a loud shriek, sounding like a war cry. He was less than a hundred feet away. Benji and I both stopped and stared at him. Within seconds several other zombies came out from the school, sniffing the air. They turned toward us and began lumbering in our direction, the evidence of their ghastly last meal still staining their fronts.
“No time to waste,” I said. We both took off at a full run, giving it everything we had. I still had my sword in my hand. As we passed the female half zombie, she reached up toward me and bared her teeth. I brought down my katana and decapitated her with a single swipe of the blade. Benji kept glancing back as he ran, trying to see where our pursuers were. I yelled out and caught his attention.
“Don't look back,” I shouted, fire burning in my lungs. “Just keep running!”
By the time we were halfway to the buildings, the carnage beneath our feet had disappeared. The majority of the fighting happened in the open area near the school, as soldiers sacrificed their lives for us. Most of them died in vain, I thought. What if that had been my brother? I didn't have to imagine what it would have been like to know them because I had been on a first name basis with most of the enlisted men since I had arrived. I recognized too many faces on our sprint to freedom, faces frozen in death, twisted by pain and anger. So many people had already died. With a small gang of the undead still chasing us, I knew I didn't have time to mourn these fallen heroes but I made a mental note that if I made it out alive I would honor them. They deserved that mark of respect for all they had done, all they had given.
We were less than twenty feet from the buildings when I saw something moving in the shadows. My heart skipped a
beat and I felt the familiar sour sensation rising up in my guts. We were racing as fast as we could go, straight into a zombie trap. A million horrible thoughts all went through my head at once. Maybe there was a swarm of them in there, faces peeled off, nothing but teeth and sharpened bones. Like insects working together they'd used their hive mind, their animal intelligence to force us into a monstrous feeding pit. How many people were already dead in there, having been torn to bits by these disgusting monsters? Rapidly I glanced around for a way out even as my legs carried us forward. I knew that if I tried to change course too suddenly, chances were I would trip and roll right into whatever demon was hiding in the shadows waiting for us. And even if I did make it, there was no way Benji would.
If I am going to die this way then I’ll clear a path for him, I thought as I gripped the handle of my sword tighter. It was the only answer that made sense. I raised the sword in front of me and let out a loud battle cry as I charged forward toward the terrible darkness that awaited us. Before I could cross the threshold, two teenage boys stepped out of the alley and faced us. It was the Parker twins, Joel and Tom. They were covered from head-to-toe in dried blood.
What is that in their hands? I thought as they raised their arms chest high and pointed black steel at us. Guns. I’d seen them before. Not just any guns—an MK-13 and a grenade launcher. I slowed down just enough to let Benji get in front of me and then tackled him to the ground with all my might, holding him down as he squirmed and fought. The grenade flew past us a split second later.
“Cover your ears!” I yelled. Benji stopped fighting and stuffed his fingers deep into his ears as if they were foam plugs. I barely got mine in when the explosion went off. I could feel the ground we were sitting on ripple from the force of the fiery blast. I looked back to see pieces of the foul zombies flying apart. The ones who had joined the chase were now down for the count, but our main attacker was still in hot pursuit. He was less than twenty feet away. We were screwed. With my sword over ten feet away I didn't stand a chance of retrieving it before he reached us. I was going to have to use hand-to-hand combat, knowing a single bite would transform me into one of them.
“Stay down!” Tom Parker yelled. The next thing I knew a hail of bullets came ripping out of the MK-13, penetrating the soft flesh of the hell spawn and literally cutting him in half before our eyes. Strips of gray flesh, black muck, and oily red contaminated blood showered us. I did my best to cover Benji from the cascading flow of filth. It felt like the gunfire went on forever but in reality it was probably less than a minute. Tom walked over to the bullet riddled zombie and kicked him over with his foot. Despite taking so much lead and being literally sawed in half, the thing was still moving its mouth, flexing its neck muscles as it lunged at Tom with its teeth.
“Suck on this,” Tom said, sticking the barrel of his automatic weapon into the creature’s snapping mouth and blowing its blackened brains all over the asphalt.
“Where the hell did you two come from?” I asked, sitting up and wiping the mess from my clothes the best I could. So far as anyone knew, you couldn't get infected with the zombie virus by coming into contact with their blood or guts. The disease was spread by being bitten, the saliva transmitting the virus directly to the blood stream. You could bathe in a pool of undead guts and not get it, not that anyone I knew wanted to test that theory. Nothing smells as bad as the living dead. Words just can't begin to describe the disgusting stench.
“A simple thank you will suffice,” Tom said, extending his hand to help me up. I took it and got to my feet. Joel had set down his grenade launcher and was turning my blade over in his hands, mesmerized by its perfection. It made me uncomfortable to see him with it. A katana is not a toy to be played with. It's a delicate flower and a deadly instrument of justice. My blade was like my secret girlfriend and I didn't appreciate him causally putting his paws all over her.
“Thanks,” I said, turning my back to him and walking over to Joel.
“Don't mention it,” Tom said with a note of mild sarcasm.
“I believe that belongs to me,” I said, with just a hint of force in my voice. He looked up into my eyes.
“Right you are,” Joel said, immediately handing it over. Instantly I felt the muscles in my neck relaxing. “Just taking a look. No harm done.”
“How did you two survive?” Benji asked. I was glad for a reason to change the topic. “And where did you get those amazing guns?”
“We were in the mess hall when the order came to evacuate,” Joel said.
“We were way back in the kitchen, um, liberating some grub for those late night snacking fits,” Tom added, looking sheepish. “Our candy supplies were running dangerously low.”
“Right,” Joel said, taking back the conversation. “So we hear all this earsplitting screaming, chairs scraping, people stampeding out the door, just general mayhem. We pop our heads out just in time to see a soldier shut and lock the door.”
“Why would they take the time to lock the door?” The words were out of my mouth before I realized I was speaking.
“That's exactly what we said when it happened,” Tom chimed in.
“So we creep up and take a peek out the window,” Joel said, taking back the narrative. “You gotta realize at this point we have no clue what's going on. It could be a drill for all we know.”
“I was hoping we were being evacuated to new housing, to be honest,” Tom said. “There's a big spot above my bed that I am pretty sure is the start of black mold.”
“It was unreal,” Joel said, waving his arms to make his point. “First I see all the people on the base running toward the old elementary school. There are flashes of green as the soldiers run behind them, forming something like a human shield. There’s a lot of screaming . . .”
“But it's like someone screaming orders,” Tom interrupted.
“Exactly,” Joel said. “Then the screaming started getting louder and blending together more. That's when we saw the first wave of zombies attack.”
“I didn't know they could move that fast,” Tom said. “I've only ever seen them kinda moping along. Sure they’re lethal, because they don't ever let up once they catch a whiff of you.”
“We never imagined they could move like that,” Joel said. “It must have been the extreme hunger or something.”
Get to the damn point, I thought. Just as I was getting ready to lose my patience, Benji prodded them for the rest of their long, drawn out tale.
“So how did you escape?”
“We cracked a window and slipped out,” Tom said. Joel shot him a look that seemed to say thanks for ruining the story.
“I've done some research,” Joel said. “Zombies are attracted to noise and movement.”
Everybody knows that, I thought, rolling my eyes and fighting back an exasperated sigh. Joel pretended not to notice.
“They were too busy going after the cluster of screaming adults and fighting soldiers to notice us. So we slowly walked over to where the fighting had started. There were three dead soldiers just ripped to shreds lying there.”
“It was ugly stuff, man,” Tom said, looking at the ground.
“That's when we saw the second wave coming over the west wall,” Joel said dramatically.
“Zombies can't climb walls, man,” I said.
“They didn't have to climb it,” Joel countered. “They lined up against it and just pushed it over like a human tsunami. They climbed over the rubble. They were coming right for us.”
“What did you do?” Benji's eyes were wide with fear and anticipation as he listened, totally absorbed in the twin's story.
“We hid,” Tom said. “Under the bodies.”
“No way,” I blurted out.
“It's true,” Joel said, not sounding so cocky anymore. “We didn't have much of a choice, did we? The zombies were heading toward us so we got on the ground and pulled the dead bodies over us for cover, hoping it would distract them.”
“It did,” Tom said defiant
ly, puffing out his chest. “They went right past us and toward the fighting. I remember thinking I must have wet myself out of fear and not even known. Only when I got up I saw it wasn't urine—it was blood coming out of the soldier I'd pulled over me, leaking out what was left in his body. It was still warm.”
“Soaked right through our clothes,” Joel said. “We grabbed these guns and broke out as fast as we could, using the buildings for cover.”
“Why did you follow them to the school?” I asked.
“I dunno,” Tom said. “I guess we just had to know what happened.”
“I kept wishing there was some way to stop them,” Joel said. “Instead, we were as helpless as babies and couldn’t do a damn thing.” He looked upset with himself for not doing more to help. I understood the feeling. A wave of guilt crashed over me thinking about all the people we'd left behind. I swallowed it back. There would be time for self-pity and wallowing later. For now, we needed to keep it together if we were gonna make it out of this alive.
“So you've never shot that thing until just now when we arrived?” I was having a hard time wrapping my head around it all. The MK-13 was a fierce piece of machinery. Tom had handled it like it was an Xbox 360 accessory.
“Our dad is a Marine who saw action in Iraq,” Joel proudly said, the grin returning to his dirty face. “Between us, we've pretty much practiced shooting on every kind of automatic weapon imaginable.”
“Let's just say we've had a colorful childhood,” Tom added.
“Where is your dad now?”
Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde Page 2
