Before she could change her mind, she used the tire iron to break the lock. The crush of dead bodies against the door forced it open with a bang, and Lindsey stumbled backward to avoid the grasping arms. Fingers brushed her back as she turned to hurry up the fire escape. At the top, she watched the dead begin to climb the stairs, causing her to wonder if she had made a huge mistake. If too many of the corpses crowded onto the fire escape, they just might overload it and pull it from the wall of the building. While it would solve the problem of clearing the second floor, it would also leave Lindsey stranded with no way down.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped onto the roof and waited, weapon ready as each footstep up the metal stairs was punctuated with a loud clang. When the first of the dead reached the top, Lindsey waited for it to come to her, and she finished it off in the middle of the roof. The second one arrived just seconds later, but it also met with a quick final death. There was a slight gap as an old, dead woman in a bathrobe held the next group up. Lindsey used the time to drag the two bodies aside, not wanting to trip over them while fighting. When the robed woman finally made it up, there were two others right behind her, and they were both large males that didn’t appear to be too damaged. Knowing they’d be fast, Lindsey went for the biggest one first, but the other male managed to come at her from the side. She quickly moved back, but before long they’d pushed her almost all the way to the edge of the roof as more ghouls began to emerge from the fire escape.
Breathing hard, Lindsey wiped the sweat off of her hands and got a better grip on her weapon. She charged the old woman, who was between the other two, and dropped her with a single swing of the tire iron. When Lindsey tried to step over the fallen body to get away from the male on her right, he lunged at her and managed to get a grip on her shirt, bringing her to a sudden halt. Lindsey spun around and hit him in the face twice, finally dropping him. By that time, she could smell the rancid breath of the third corpse, and hear the clicking of its teeth just inches from the back of her neck. She stepped away quickly, almost tripping over the body of the robed woman. It took her three tries to drop the large male since his long arms kept blocking her swings.
Lindsey turned to assess the situation behind her. There were four more already on the roof and probably others on their way up. She ran to the zombie that was closest to her and put him to rest. Circling around the next two, she got one in the back of the head then turned to face a dead woman whose white blouse was soaked in blood. Lindsey’s right arm was aching horribly, but she didn’t dare switch hands since there was already blood running down her left shirtsleeve, and she didn’t want to make the wound worse. As she swung her weapon, her wrist was grabbed from behind, knocking the tire iron to the ground. Lindsey was able to slip her arm free before the dead thing got a good hold of her, but it was necessary to lead the ghouls away before she could go back for her weapon. Two more walking corpses had reached the roof by that time.
Lindsey managed to grab the tire iron just before one of the creatures reached her, but he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. She struggled to free her good arm as the snarling beast opened its jaws to reveal a mouthful of blood-crusted teeth. While she managed to get a hand on his neck to hold him back for the moment, he was too strong for her to fight, and she began to realize that she was probably not going to be able to free herself. The dead woman with bloodied white blouse was moving in, and Lindsey could see the other two moving her way as well. One was missing half of his face, while the other dragged entrails from a gaping hole in his midsection.
So this is how it’s going to end. She wasn’t even going to have the option of jumping from the roof. Instead, they were going to kill her and make her one of them. Lindsey would spend the rest of her days on the apartment roof until time and weather took its toll and allowed her to rot away into true death.
“No!” she said, realizing she had one move left to try. Earlier, Wayne had dropped her because he’d been unable to hold her up once she began to lose consciousness. She relaxed her body and dropped her weight, pulling the ghoul down with her. As they fell, the creature loosened its grip, and Lindsey turned to slam her weapon into its head. Penned in by the others, she didn’t bother trying to stand but quickly crawled between two of them as they reached for her. Fortunately, she was faster than they were and she was able to get to her feet.
Lindsey was glad to see that nothing else had come up the stairs, but she was exhausted and wasn’t sure she could handle the small crowd that was still on the roof. Taking out the easy ones first, she managed to thin the numbers then concentrated on the others. Moving constantly, she managed to kill off the rest, one at a time, though, it took several minutes to do it. When she was done, she dropped to the ground, trying to catch her breath while keeping an eye on the stairs.
She lay on the roof amongst the corpses for almost ten minutes, not sure she had the strength to get up. Had there been any more of them, Lindsey was certain she would not have survived. Eventually she pushed herself to her feet again, checking to make sure that the stairs were clear before making her way down to the second floor. There were only a few crawlers, and it wasn’t worth expending the energy to put them out of their misery. A quick check revealed five open doors. She closed all of them except one, making a mark on each one with the tire iron. There was no way to be certain that the rooms were empty without checking them, but they were a better bet than the apartments with closed doors.
Lindsey entered the first apartment cautiously and did a thorough check before returning to the kitchen. She was thrilled to see that the water was still running, and she drank from the faucet, trying to do it slowly. A quick check of the kitchen for food offered no results, but she had better luck at the second apartment where a cupboard was stocked with cans of soup. Exhausted from her ordeal, she collapsed on a sofa after eating and slept for an hour, waking to the sound of moans from the street below.
The stairwell to the first floor was empty, giving Lindsey some hope that she’d get out of her predicament alive, but when she looked through the window into the lobby, her heart dropped. It was filled with the dead. Knowing there was no way she could take on that many of them in her exhausted condition, she made her way back up the stairs to the apartment she’d found earlier, closing the door behind her.
~*~
St. Mary’s Hospital, Lansing
Wombat stood in the crow’s nest, staring out the window at the park. He heard someone enter the room behind him, but he didn’t bother to turn to see who it was.
“You hanging in there?” Snake asked.
“I’m just kind of numb,” Wombat said. “Right now, I almost wish I hadn’t survived the fall.”
“I’m sorry, dude,” Snake said, knowing the younger biker wasn’t talking about his physical pain. “You know we all miss her.”
“I know.”
Wombat watched out the window as a lone figure came into sight, limping down the road toward the hospital.
“There’s another one,” he said, picking up the binoculars.
Survivors had been trickling in from the walled community. Apparently, many of them hadn’t been there by choice and were now seeking refuge elsewhere. Everybody in the hospital understood the risk, and the decision had been made not to turn anybody away unless they appeared to be a threat. So far, every refugee had been invited to stay.
This one was wearing a checkered hunting jacket and a baseball cap and was carrying a tire iron. There were several dead behind him, closing in.
Snake picked up the radio to call down to the guards who were manning the gate. “Got another one coming toward the gate. Looks like he could use some help.”
Wombat stepped a little closer to the window and watched as the man turned to swing his weapon at the closest of the dead.
“That’s Lindsey.”
“No,” Snake said, putting the radio down. “Don’t do this to yourself, dude. I wish it were Lindsey, but Reynolds says she’s dead, and I don’t t
hink he was lying about it. That looks like a guy to me, anyway.”
“Look at the sleeves,” Wombat said, handing Snake the binoculars as he started to walk toward the door. “See how they hang past her fingers? It’s a woman wearing a man’s shirt. I know how Lindsey looks when she swings a tire iron. It’s her.”
He headed for the elevator as quickly as he could manage, but when it didn’t come fast enough, he went to the stairs instead.
Snake knew he couldn’t reason with his friend, so he followed him instead. At the first floor, Wombat pushed through the door and limped into the parking lot with Snake still behind him.
~*~
Lindsey could see the hospital rising up above the gabion walls that she’d helped to build. The gate was less than a block away, but she was beginning to wonder if she’d make it that far.
The final leg of her trip had been an ordeal. Many of the dead had wandered off by the time she had returned to the first floor, but she’d still had to fight her way out to the street. Her body had been pushed to its limit by then, and each step had taken effort. Still, she had kept moving, killing the mindless dead as she walked the last couple of miles home.
Her injured ankle hadn’t been much of a problem until she had turned to take out a ghoul just a few minutes earlier. She wasn’t even sure what she had done, but now each step was agony and she worried that her ankle was going to give out before she made it to the gate. If she stumbled now, it would be the end of her. More dead were moving in from the streets and alleys, and Lindsey knew that even if she made it to the wall, she’d have to get someone’s attention to open the gate. By then, it might be too late.
Keep moving. She kept her eyes on the gate, dodging the dead when they got too close, killing them when there was no other choice. Keep moving.
When the gate began to lift, she thought she was seeing things.
Fish and Dumbo rushed out, weapons in hand as they began to fight their way toward her.
“Hurry up, buddy!” Dumbo yelled.
“I can’t,” she yelled back. “I twisted my ankle.”
Fish squinted, looking at her a little closer.
“Xena?” he asked, turning to take out a couple more of the creatures. He and Dumbo ran to meet her, flanking her as they made their way back to the gate.
“Yes, it’s me,” she said. “I am so glad to see you guys.”
“We heard you’d been killed,” Dumbo said.
“Almost,” she said, walking as quickly as possible with the two bikers as they continued to fend off the dead.
“Someone really did a number on you,” Fish added, looking at her battered face.
“Yes, he did,” she said, slowing to take out a ghoul who had gotten a little too close.
Helga and Keith ran out to join them, making short work of the small horde as the group made their way back inside the gate.
“Lindsey?” Keith asked when he got a better look. He looked just as shocked as the two bikers had been.
“Let me guess,” she said with a smile. “You thought I was dead.”
“Reynolds heard it on the radio,” he said, giving her a quick hug. “Glad to see it’s not true.”
Helga even managed to nod in agreement, which surprised Lindsey.
“Lee probably thought it was true,” Lindsey said. “The guard that beat me reported my death so he wouldn’t have to bring me back.”
“Wayne,” Keith said.
“How did you know?” she asked, surprised.
“We went after you and Doune. Reynolds found Wayne and beat the crap out of him,” Keith said.
“Good,” she said. “Did you find Dr. Doune?”
“Yes, he’s back.”
“Voluntarily?” she asked.
“Yes,” Keith grinned. “He was happy to come back, believe it or not.”
As they approached the gate to the parking lot, she saw Wolf, who wore the same look of astonishment that she’d seen on the faces of the others.
“Xena!” he yelled, pulling her into a hug.
“Good to see you, Wolf,” she said. “I never thought I’d see you guys again.”
They waited for the second gate to open, and when it did, Lindsey came to a dead stop. Standing in front of her was Wombat, looking even more battered than she was, but alive. She tried to say something, anything, but nothing would come out. She reached out a hand toward him, but she was afraid to touch him, knowing he must be in great pain.
“You’re alive,” she said, still having a hard time believing it.
“That’s what I was going to say to you,” he replied. Leaning down, he pulled her close with his good arm and kissed her, not stopping even when the others started cheering.
~*^*~
~64~
Western Oregon
“She should have left him behind and come with us,” Rayburn said, for at least the fiftieth time since they’d driven away from Miranda’s house.
“George, that’s something she’s got to figure out for herself,” Dan said, repeating the answer he’d given George many times already. “Besides, we had no idea what we were going to be up against once we left her place. It’s easy to say in hindsight that she should have come with us.”
It had been a long, grueling trip from Whispering Springs, but their journey was almost over, at least for a while. There had been legions of the dead along the way. George had been keeping track, and he thought they’d killed three hundred and eighty five during the time it had taken them to reach Oregon. Dan didn’t care how many kills they’d made. He was just glad that they were almost to their destination.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” George asked.
“I hope so,” Dan said. “She did really well out there the last day. As long as she keeps practicing, I think she’s got a good chance.”
The sun was getting low in the sky as Hixson and Rayburn pulled down the dirt road that was exactly where Miranda had told them it would be. She had given them directions in case they ever happened to make it up that way, and Dan had made it his intended destination from the moment she’d told him about it. It had sounded perfect. He hadn’t mentioned his plans because he knew that if anybody came along asking questions, it would be best if she didn’t have the answers.
Hixson got out to open the gate then closed it again after driving through. He noticed that the fence needed some work, which he would be happy to do if given the opportunity. Hopefully Miranda’s family members wouldn’t shoot first and ask questions later if they were still on the property.
Berry bushes lined both sides of the drive, almost forming a tunnel, and when the truck emerged on the other side, Dan stopped to take in the sight. The house was up on a hill with a barn and other buildings behind it. There was farmland all around, framed by thick woods. A large creek ran through the middle of the property, pausing only to empty itself into a pond before continuing on its way out the other side. The scattered clouds gave color to the setting sun, and Rayburn seemed to be in awe as he whispered, “It’s beautiful.”
“It sure is. I can see why Miranda wants to come back,” Dan said before continuing up to the house. He saw some signs of life, though not of the human variety. Chickens wandered around the yard, and Dan could see that the fence around their pen had been ripped out. He sighed, knowing it wasn’t likely that they were going to find the family alive.
He laid his weapon on the seat, so he wouldn’t cause any undo alarm if there did happen to be someone in residence. Both men got out and approached the house, making no effort to be silent.
“Look,” Rayburn said, pointing at traces of blood on the front porch.
“Not good,” Dan said, raising a hand to knock on the door.
Only silence greeted their ears as Dan knocked again. After a few minutes, he finally walked around the house, hoping to see signs of life. When he returned to the front door where George had waited, he shook his head.
“I wish there was some way we could let Miranda know that she shou
ldn’t bother coming up here,” he said. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like for her to go through so much, just to find her family home abandoned.
“She’ll be devastated,” George said.
Both men tensed up when they heard the click of the lock. The door opened, just a crack.
“Did you say you know Miranda?” a male voice asked.
“Yes, we do,” Dan said, holding up the note she’d written. “If you’re her father, she wrote a message for you and the rest of the family, just in case we made it up this way.”
“She’s alive?” he asked. The door opened a little wider, revealing the face of a man with round glasses. Though the man’s hair was graying, Dan could see that it had once been the same color as Miranda’s, and he had the same pale blue eyes as his daughter.
“Miranda’s alive? We haven’t heard from her in almost two weeks.”
“She’s alive,” Dan said with a smile. “And she’s planning on coming up this way eventually.”
The man turned away for a moment. “Miranda’s all right!” he said to someone behind him.
Moments later, the door opened wide, and the two men were ushered in. As the door closed behind them and the sun finally dropped below the horizon, lights were turned on inside, illuminating the cozy living room as the family gathered around, all talking at once.
Dan smiled, knowing that he was going to have a hard time dragging George away when it was time to go, but he wasn’t going to worry about that just yet.
~*~
St. Mary’s Hospital, Lansing
Snake had heard from Reynolds several times over the previous week, and the pilot had been keeping them updated on the happenings at the Lansing compound. It hadn’t been a surprise when a meeting had been requested by Al, the man who was running the compound in the wake of Henry’s death.
Dead, But Not For Long (Book 2): Pestilence and Promise Page 56
