Dead, But Not For Long (Book 2): Pestilence and Promise

by Kinney, Matthew

  “Sure,” Moose said, “you’re a nurse, so you’re really smart. You’re really pretty, you have a hell of a body, and you’re fun to talk to.”

  “I like you, too,” Marla said, placing her head back on his shoulder.

  Snake’s voice came over the radio, dousing the glow of the moment.

  “Yeah, Boss,” Moose said.

  “Your bird still snooping around?”

  “Nope. Haven’t seen him for a while. I think we’re clear.”

  “How far are you from the walls?”

  “Not far. Probably just a few blocks.”

  “All right,” Snake said, “we’re going to get ready to saddle up and head on out. You might as well hang tight. We’ll give you the signal when we’re in place. Wrench is heading out to the pick-up point now. He’ll be waiting for you when you’re done.”

  “10-4, Boss,” Moose put the radio down and turned to Marla. “Once Wrench shows up, you’ll have to run to his car. After I do my thing, I’ll meet you there.”

  “All right,” she said. “You just tell me when.”

  Moose looked out the window, squinting at something in the distance. His first thought was that it was a zombie, because of the way it was walking, but it was moving too fast.

  “Can’t tell if that one’s dead or not,” he said. “Can you?”

  Marla lifted her head and watched for a moment. “Oh, my God, it’s Brandi. What’s she doing out here?”

  “I don’t know,” Moose said, watching as the woman hobbled along, favoring one leg. “Looks like she’s hurt.”

  He opened the car door, but Marla put a hand on his arm. “Be careful, Moose. She might be infected.”

  “Yeah, maybe that’s why she’s limping,” he said. “I wonder if she got bit. I’ll be careful.”

  He turned and kissed Marla. “I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m coming too,” Marla said, jumping out of the car to join him.

  “Okay, but stay close to me,” he said, eyes still on the approaching woman. As Brandi got closer, Moose watched her cautiously, looking for blood or other signs of a bite.

  A scream erupted behind him, followed by a disturbing thud. When moose turned to the sound of Marla’s cry, he saw Henry holding a bloodied pipe. Before the biker could react, the old man swung the weapon, and Moose was swallowed up by darkness.

  ~*~

  Lansing Compound

  Lee dropped his pistol down into his lap, unable to carry out his intended act. As terrible as he felt at the moment, he realized that killing himself wasn’t going to solve anything, although if Henry managed to make his way back, he would reconsider. It would be better than the death that would await him at the hands of the old man. He shut down the chopper and dragged his duffel bag back inside, no longer having any desire to leave. Maybe in the morning he’d change his mind, but at the moment, he just wanted to get extremely drunk. Pulling down a bottle of Tequila, he took a long swig and sat down at the table.

  ~*~

  Lansing, Michigan

  Moose began to rouse to the sound of shuffling and moaning. His head throbbed in agony, and a sharp pain was shooting through his leg. He forced his eyes open and tried to pull himself up, but his leg was being held down by a crushing weight. As he turned, his eyes focused, and he realized in a heartbeat that no matter what he did, his life was over. A myriad of emotions rushed through him as he stared at the half-rotted creature that gnawed on his leg. When defeat gave way to anger, Moose used his good leg to kick the dead thing away. A second, harder kick sent it flying as the big biker staggered to his feet, only to be met by another ghoul. A hard punch sent the zombie falling backwards, and Moose looked around to regain his bearings. His eyes came to a stop as he saw even more of the dead nearby. They paid him no heed because their attention was fixed on something else. Moose let out an anguished wail when he realized what it must be.

  ~*~

  Lindsey had quickly regained consciousness after being dropped to the ground. She’d managed to crawl away while Wayne’s attention was fixed on stopping the two escaping guards. As the dead around her had begun to move toward the wounded men, Lindsey had gotten to her feet on legs that felt as though they wouldn’t support her. Moments later, Wayne’s shout of rage had given her incentive to move faster.

  “The bitch is gone!”

  “Are we going after her?”

  “Screw it! We’ll just tell them she’s dead,” Wayne had said. “We’ll blame it on Brett.”

  It had now been an hour since she’d left her pursuers. She’d been doing her best to put some distance between herself and the compound, though she was constantly forced to change her route upon encountering large groups of the dead. She had briefly considered finding a running vehicle, but the streets in the neighborhood had not been cleared, and she knew that she could make better time on foot.

  After about an hour of walking, she spotted a large, older car. She didn’t bother searching for the key. It was the open trunk that had gotten her attention. She did a quick search and triumphantly pulled out a tire iron, just in time to use it on a ghoul that had approached her in silence. She put him out of his misery with one hard swing, but immediately felt pain in her left arm. She guessed that more of her stitches had torn open, but she wasn’t about to lift the bandage to find out. Weapon in hand, she continued her trek toward the hospital.

  ~*~

  Moose roared with rage, rushing into the huddle of creatures. He pulled them away, one by one, flinging their rotting bodies aside. He had a sick feeling that he knew who lay on the ground, holding the attention of the mob. As he worked to clear the dead away, he hoped he was wrong, that it was someone else he was going to find. Maybe it would even be the old man.

  When he had pulled away enough of the ghouls to reveal the body beneath, his hopes were crushed. Numb with pain, he took in the scene before him; Marla’s half eaten body framed in a pool of blood.

  In his trance-like state, Moose didn’t notice the two ghouls staggering toward him from behind. The first one to reach him bit down on his back, easily ripping through the t-shirt he was wearing. As Moose spun around, the second corpse sank its teeth into his shoulder, tearing a chunk of tissue from his collarbone.

  In a maniacal rage, Moose grabbed the dead thing and slammed its head into the pavement. As others surrounded him, a primal scream emerged from deep within him, and he rushed the lumbering beings, stomping their heads into oblivion as they fell. He was inflicted with painful bites from behind as he pulverized the ones on the ground. Each time, he turned with a blind fury and ended his attacker’s miserable existence in the same manner that he had dispatched the others. When the horde had been decimated, and the big biker stood, a tattered bleeding mess, one more form rose behind him.

  ~*^*~

  ~60~

  Lansing, Michigan

  Hearing the scrape of a shoe on the pavement, Moose turned slowly, his energy fading quickly. This time, his rage turned to tears. He backed up as the thing that had once been Marla stumbled toward him, her lips twisted into a snarl. He grabbed her shoulders, keeping her snapping jaws a safe distance away. Closing his eyes in anguish, he lowered her to the ground. He sobbed as he slammed her head into the unyielding pavement. The body went slack beneath his hands, and he stood, his face hard and expressionless as he limped toward the walled city, leaving a spotted trail of blood behind him.

  ~*~

  Henry eased Moose’s car up to the intersection then turned the engine off. The street was clear except for the wall that rose up at the end of the block, partially obscured by a fence. Picking up the leather jacket he’d taken from the biker, he looked it over disdainfully, but he donned it anyway.

  “Why are we stopping?” Brandi asked.

  “Think about it,” Henry sighed, “there are snipers on the wall expecting an attack. Do you think it would be wise to drive up there?”

  “But they’re expecting Moose to be coming from Woodcrest. That’s like a block or
two over.”

  “We also park our tanker full of aviation fuel behind that fence,” Henry said. “We usually try to keep it guarded against scavengers. They may have diverted the snipers to Woodcrest, but I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Are you sure they’ll recognize you?” Brandi asked.

  Henry stopped and turned toward Brandi, making no attempt to hide his frustration.

  “Every man, woman, and child in that community knows who I am. They live and die on my word. Of course they’ll know who I am. Now if you’re able to keep your mouth shut for a few more minutes, we may just make it out of here alive.”

  Brandi mockingly repeated his last few words.

  Henry stared at her for a second, his eyes narrowing. Taking a deep breath, he got out of the car and began to walk. A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the chain-link fence. The front of the fenced area was about twenty feet wide, with both sides stretching back almost sixty feet to butt against the wall. The tanker was hidden by sheet metal that lined the inside of the fence, which was going to make it difficult to climb. As Henry gazed at the wall, assessing the situation, Brandi cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Hello!”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Henry asked, clamping a hand over her mouth.

  Brandi pushed him away.

  “Someone’s got to let us in,” she said. “We can’t just climb the wall.”

  Henry shook his head. “I had a plan, and it didn’t include calling every deviant within miles to us.”

  “Okay,” she said, impatiently. “What’s your plan? I’ve had enough of this shit out here, and I’d like to get inside.”

  “Since it’s obvious that there is no one up there to drop us a ladder,” Henry said, “you will be climbing the fence. You will have to jump across to the tanker. Once there, you will climb down to the ground. Then you will open the tanker door and reach under the seat to retrieve a key. Using that key, you will open the gate and let me in. Once I’m in, I will honk the horn until somebody sees us and drops the ladder down. Do you understand this, or do I have to speak more slowly?”

  “Why do I have to climb the fence?” Brandi protested.

  “Because,” Henry said, his patience wearing thin, “you’re younger than I am. Besides, if I get over the fence before you do, I will be tempted to leave you here.”

  A look of realization came over Brandi’s face, and she began to climb. She was about halfway up when Henry heard a noise behind him. Turning, he saw that several zombies had made their way onto the street and were staggering toward him.

  “Hurry it up!” he said, stepping forward to swing his pipe at the closest one. “Your ill-conceived greeting has already attracted some attention.”

  “I’m going as fast as I can,” Brandi said. “I’m not the kind of girl that climbs fences.”

  “Just so you know,” Henry said as he smashed the pipe into the head of another ghoul, “they won’t let you in without me, and that wire fence won’t hold for long if these deviants pile against it in numbers.

  The new information seemed to make Brandi step it up a notch, and she pulled herself to the top. Looking down, she hesitated.

  “I don’t know if I can jump to that tanker. It’s a few feet away.”

  “The fence is only ten feet high,” Henry said, pausing to use his weapon again. “Even if you miss the tanker and fall, the worse you’ll do is to twist an ankle.”

  “But, I don’t know . . .”

  “Do it!” Henry shouted as he watched the number of creatures increase around him.

  Brandi closed her eyes and pushed off from the fence, flinging herself at the tanker. The top was slick, and she screamed as her feet slid down the round edges. She tried to grasp at the metal hull with her hands, but they also slid down the curved exterior. Her feet hit a small landing at the bottom of the tank with a thud, but she had no time to regain her balance before falling backward onto the ground. She lay on her back for a few seconds before sitting up with a groan.

  ~*~

  The tire iron saved Lindsey’s life again a short time later. She paused to check her wound and didn’t realize that she was almost surrounded until it was too late to slip through the crowd. She fought her way out but brushed her bandaged arm against at least one dead body during her escape. Deciding that long sleeves were a priority, she was able to find an oversized plaid hunting jacket in a nearby vehicle. She kept it unbuttoned so that she could shrug it off if something grabbed it. A short while later, she found a baseball cap and tucked her hair up into it, solving one more problem.

  By the time twilight descended, Lindsey was exhausted and was having a hard time staying alert. She guessed that she had probably only covered a few miles, but she’d often had to stop and fight off the dead, and it was wearing her down. She wasn’t going to make her way back to the hospital in the dark, so she needed to find a place to stay for the night. She decided to try to walk a little farther before stopping so she could take advantage of the last of the fading light.

  ~*~

  “I’m all right,” Brandi called to Henry as she got to her feet.

  “I’m not,” said Henry, breathing hard as he continued to fight off the growing horde. “Get the damn key!”

  Brandi brushed the dust from her clothes and walked to the cab. Climbing the step, she paused. “Driver side or passenger?”

  “Driver!” Henry yelled, growing desperate as even more of the dead began to move in from the side streets and alleys.

  Brandi felt around on the seat for a while then called back to Henry. “Did you say on the seat?”

  “Under the damn seat!” Henry bellowed. “The damn key is under the damn seat!”

  “Got it,” Brandi replied a few moments later.

  “Unlock the gate!” Henry shouted as the ghouls closed in around him. He heard the latch rattling, and relief washed over him.

  “There’s one more thing you need to do for me,” Henry said, as the gate opened.

  “What’s that?” Brandi asked.

  “Keep these deviants occupied for a while,” he said. He grabbed her by the arm and flung her in to the hungry horde of walking corpses. Closing the gate and locking it, he paused for a moment to bask in her screams.

  “Try mocking me now!” he yelled to be heard over the shrieks.

  When the screaming ceased, Henry smiled. Climbing into the driver’s seat of the tanker, he honked the air horn continuously. Within a minute, a man with a rifle peeked over the wall, aiming the weapon at Henry.

  “Do you realize who you’re pointing that at, young man?” Henry asked.

  The man’s eyes grew big, and he quickly lowered the rifle. “Sir, how’d you get over there?”

  “You just need to worry about getting me back on your side,” Henry demanded.

  “Yes, sir. I’ll get the ladder!” The man disappeared from sight, though Henry could hear him shouting to the others.

  ~*~

  Moose staggered toward the wall, barely outpacing the massive crowd of dead that were gathering behind him. He had stopped long enough to tear off his shirt and wrap it around his mangled leg, slowing the inevitable. The loss of blood had not only made him weak, but had seemingly set the infected predators into a frenzy, which in turn had attracted more of their kind. Only the thought of Marla being feasted upon by the dead gave Moose the strength to keep pushing on. Every drop of blood that leaked from his body was replaced with the desire for revenge.

  When Moose saw the car that he’d been driving earlier, he thought he might be hallucinating. Only after he touched it, feeling the hard metal against his flesh, did he believe it was real. He painfully slid through the open door into the driver’s seat, quickly slamming the door just before the first of the frenzied crowd reached the vehicle. Moose closed his eyes and sank into the seat, fighting to stay conscious as bodies slammed against the car. Blood and green liquid oozed from his wounds with every movement and soaked through the shirt he’d wrap
ped around his wounded leg. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed the radio on the seat that Marla had recently vacated, sending a fresh wave of pain through his heart. He worked to reach for it with muscles that were growing stiff.

  “Boss, you there?” The words came out slowly and painfully.

  “Moose,” the voice came back, “where the hell have you been? We’d almost given up on you.”

  “Marla’s dead, Boss,” Moose squeezed the words out as a crowd began to gather around the car. Some of them climbed onto the hood in an attempt to reach their prey.

  “Marla?” Snake asked. “What was Marla doing with you?”

  “Henry killed her,” Moose said, ignoring Snake’s question, “and I’ve been bitten bad.”

  Moose heard Snake reply, but his attention was diverted elsewhere as he glimpsed something of interest at the end of the road. He shifted his head, peering between two zombies that were doing their best to eat him through the windshield.

  About a block ahead of him, masses of the dead clawed at the chain-link fence around the tanker, but that wasn’t what had caught his interest. Visible above the fence was the upper body of a white-haired man who was apparently using the tanker as a perch.

  “Henry,” Moose sneered, rising in his seat. Motion caught his eye and he looked up at the top of the wall where someone was trying to position a ladder into place.

  “Oh, that just won’t do,” Moose said, shaking his head. He picked up his radio one last time. “Boss, I’m going in.”

  “Moose,” Snake said, sorrow in his voice. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

  Moose turned the key, and the engine roared to life. The sight of Henry made his heart pump wildly, giving him the strength to shift the car into gear and slam his foot down on the accelerator. The corpses began to slide off of the vehicle as it lurched forward, though some managed to cling to it as it gained speed. Moose raced toward the fence, swerving wildly to avoid the bodies that littered his path. He knew that even one well-placed hit could end his mission prematurely.