by Perrin Briar
Undead. Outside the walls. Had something else gotten their attention, or had the alarm been the catalyst? They could watch the videos back again later, but right then they needed to do something about it.
Dana banged at the machine. She had no idea what the buttons, levers, and switches did. But one of them must turn the alarm off.
Hugo came running into the security camera room, hair sticking up with a serious case of bed hair.
“What’s going on?” Hugo said. “Why’s the alarm going off?”
“I think you just answered your own question,” Dana said.
“Turn it off!” Hugo said.
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Dana said, pressing every flashing button she could see.
Hugo reached under the desk and flicked a switch. The alarm went off. The damage had already been done. Now the alarm had been replaced by the groan of the undead. It would attract even more zombies.
Like a dinner bell.
And there, popping like a party was taking place somewhere, was gunfire. On the monitors, they found the culprit. A single soldier. He was banging on the front gate with one hand and blowing away the undead with the other.
“Undead are in the woods,” Hugo said. “They’re hot on his tail. If we hurry, we can let him in without letting in the zombies.”
Dana is silent a moment before making up her mind. Saving someone versus letting the undead inside.
“Dana?” Hugo said, spurring her into action.
“All right,” Dana said. “I’ll go let him in.”
“I can do it,” Hugo said.
“You can work the security desk,” Dana said. “Stick to what you know.”
She took off at a run. For once she wanted to have a normal day without having to put her life in God’s hands.
Chapter Forty-Eight
DANA RUN THROUGH the house fully loaded with her arsenal. The soldier saw her running toward him through the gap in the fence. He looked relieved.
“Let me in!” he shouted.
“What do you think I’m doing?” Dana said. “And stop-”
The soldier opened fire in the direction of the undead.
“What?” he shouted.
“I said, stop shooting!” Dana said. “You’re getting their attention.”
“If I don’t shoot I’ll be dead in minutes,” the soldier said.
“If you keep shooting, we’ll all be dead in minutes,” Dana said.
“Fine,” the soldier said. “Hurry up! Hurry! Hurry!”
Dana opened the gate. The soldier entered and spun around as Dana slammed the gate closed again. The moment she put the locks in place, the undead banged on the gate.
“Jesus!” the soldiers said. “Boy, am I glad I ran into you!”
His excitement froze, along with the smile on his face. It curdled as he took Dana in. Her pale expression, the visible veins on her face and arms…
Dana was so used to seeing her appearance she had forgotten what she now looked like. An undead.
The soldier took an unconscious step back.
“What are you?” he said.
“I’m Resistant,” Dana said.
“Resistant?” the soldier said. “What does that even mean?”
“It means I was bitten, infected, but I have a resistance to the virus,” Dana said.
“Resistance?” the soldier said. “No one is has a resistance.”
“I don’t know what you’ve been told, but I can assure you, I am Resistant. Otherwise, I would have turned by now already.”
“This isn’t possible,” the soldier said. “Command said-”
“Forget what command said,” Dana said. “Believe what you see with your eyes.”
The soldier took Dana in, eyes still wide. It was difficult changing an opinion when it had been so deeply ingrained. Dana watched him carefully.
“Can the undead use weapons?” Dana said. “Can they talk? Have conversations with you? Of course not. Use your brain.”
The soldier’s rifle began to drift up. In Dana’s direction.
“I’d be careful where you point that barrel of yours,” Dana said.
She had her own rifle in her hands and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
“No,” the soldier said. “Of course you’re not infected.”
“I am infected,” Dana said. “But I’m not about to turn into a monster right now.”
Right now. That, at least, was the truth.
“Put your rifle down,” Dana said.
“My rifle?” the soldier said. “Why?”
“Before, when we rescued you, you had no reason to attack us,” Dana said. “But now you reacted this way to us, I’m not so sure. Put your gun down.”
“I can’t,” the soldier said.
“You will,” Dana said. “Or you’re going back out the gate.”
The soldier looked from Dana to the gate and back again. He couldn’t believe she would actually threaten such a thing, never mind actually mean it. He bent down and put his weapons on the grass. Dana wasn’t about to take any risks.
“Good,” Dana said. “Leave the weapons there. We’ll collect them later. Follow me.”
The soldier hugged his arm close to his body. It was injured, not that Dana needed to see it to know that. She could taste it, the strong iron smell of it filling her senses. Just as she was certain it would have filled the undead outside the front gates right then, driving them into a frenzy.
It was easy for Dana to pull her senses away from that strong fragrance. She wondered how long that would last before the scent filled her every sense and she couldn’t control herself. She suddenly felt very sad.
She didn’t want to become one of those things. When the time came for her to take action to prevent that from happening, she would do it?
“Now, do you mind telling me who the hell you are?” Dana said.
Chapter Forty-Nine
“I’M SORRY FOR bringing all this down on you,” the soldier said. “I was running for my life. I didn’t know anyone else would be here.”
His name was Stewart. He had been a corporal in the United States Army.
“Our base was attacked,” Stewart said. “They started coming slow, real slow, just a few at a time. We thought it was a cinch. These things were easy to beat. They were so stupid. No match for our superior weapons. But then more of them came. The most difficult thing was they never stopped. It was an endless flood. They kept coming, without end.
“There was no way to hold them back. The officers were replaced every few hours. It got ugly fast and never felt like we were winning, merely poking a giant monster. You never think about how many people there are in the world, about how there’s seemingly no end to them. Then one day, a huge influx came at us. We couldn’t cope, couldn’t hold them back. We were out of ammo, out of luck, out of time. The soldiers scattered, and the undead gave chase. I’ve been running ever since.”
“Did you hear anything about a new Eden?” Dana said. “Or something about taking civilians away somewhere to start again?”
“Only rumors,” Stewart said with a shrug. “Nothing more than that.”
“What rumors?” Dana said.
“Only that they were going to go somewhere remote,” Stewart said. “It might be the desert, the mountains. I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
“Her sister was taken by soldiers to the university,” Hugo said. “When we got there, they had already taken her somewhere else.”
“I’m sorry,” Stewart said. “I don’t know where they went. I was nowhere near the university.”
“When did you get that?” Dana said, nodding to the bloodied cloth strapped to Stewart’s arm.
He pulled it off, revealing a familiar crescent moon-shaped chunk.
“When were you bitten?” Dana said.
“About five minutes ago,” Stewart said. “When I got to the woods.”
Five minutes. If Dana had been faster with making her decision to help him, perhaps he wo
uldn’t have been bitten. Was that all life was? A series of bad decisions?
“Ten minutes,” Dana said. “That gives you an hour, give or take, before you turn, or you become one of us.”
“Resistant,” Stewart said with the air of someone dubious about what he had heard. “We were told everyone who gets bitten turns into one of those things.”
“We still might,” Dana said. “But it takes us a lot longer than an hour.”
Stewart frowned, taking in this piece of information. Then he slapped a hand to his forehead.
“Oh God,” he said.
“What?” Hugo said.
“If it’s true some people have a resistance to the virus…” Stewart said. “It means I probably shot some people like you.”
A thick silence passed over the group.
“Most likely,” Dana said.
Stewart paled.
“Oh my God,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it,” Dana said. “But we’ll try to avoid doing the same tonight. We’re going to lock this door, keeping you in here. It’s for our protection. We’ll come back in an hour to see how you’re holding up. Don’t try to run away or escape in the meantime. We’ll have no choice but to put you down.”
The threat was clear in her voice. They would shoot him if he even attempted it. Until now, Dana and Hugo had always been the ones under the boot heel. Now, they were the ones with the upper hand. It felt good.
Hoorah.
Chapter Fifty
THE PROBLEM WITH being rich for many people was their inability to live as if they didn’t have the money. They had it and needed to spend it on something. Preferably something the neighbors could see and be envious of. It was an exhausting way to live. The good news was it meant this particular family had invested in a fleet of expensive automobiles.
Dana drove the Bentley, Hugo the Ferarri. They parked them in front of the gate. They would help brace the weight of the undead pressing on it from the other side. Despite consciously not revving the engines, the sound had driven the undead into a frenzy. They pounded on the gates even harder.
Dana and Hugo got out of their vehicles. The gate was already beginning to buckle inward.
“It’s okay,” Hugo said. “They’ll never get over the wall.”
“No, but they can get through the gate,” Dana said. “It’s already beginning to buckle under their weight.”
“We can’t give this place up,” Hugo said. “We only just got here!”
Dana looked at the gate. There was always a simple, easy solution. You needed to approach it the right way.
“It needs to hold a little longer,” she said.
“A little longer for what?” Hugo said.
“For me to distract the herd and get them to move onto pastures new,” Dana said. “It worked before. Why not again?”
“I’ll come with you,” Hugo said.
“You stay here,” Dana said. “Someone needs to keep an eye on this gate and make sure none of those things get inside.”
“How are you going to distract them?” Hugo said.
“The other houses,” Dana said. “I’ll set off their alarms. They’re all big. I’m sure we’re not the only ones with our own power supply.”
“And if they don’t have their own supply?” Hugo said.
“They will,” Dana said.
They have to.
Chapter Fifty-One
DANA CHECKED her equipment. She was fully loaded once more. She wondered if she would ever get to remove these things. Or were they the standard uniform these days?
“What’ll we do with Stewart?” Hugo said.
“Exactly what we said we would,” Dana said. “Keep him in there. We’ll check on him when I get back. Don’t leave that gate. Not one of those things can get in here. And if they do spill inside, run.”
“Where shall we meet if this place does get compromised?” Hugo said.
“Across the river,” Dana said. “At the house on the other side.”
“And if it’s infested?” Hugo said.
Dana sighed. Hugo always needed a plan.
“Then wait in the middle of the river for me,” Dana said.
“Okay,” Hugo said.
They were heading toward the boathouse. There are several boats. One small yacht, perfect for a family sailing trip. It was entirely too large for Dana’s needs, as well as her sailing skills. She climbed onboard a small rowboat.
She pushed off the jetty with her leg and let the river pull her away. She let the current take her and watched as the house, and Hugo shrank and disappeared.
She considered for the briefest of moments the fact she could leave, could go somewhere else and start a new life by herself. She could find Max by herself and leave everyone else behind. They weren’t her responsibility.
It was a safe house, one they could use. Despite all her faults, Debbie had actually come through for them when it came to this place. She could be relied upon to protect her own skin. And Hugo was right: Max would need somewhere safe later after she had found her.
Stealth was important. Dana only began to row and make noise after she deemed she had passed enough houses. The last thing they needed was for more of those things to come at them.
The problem with being on the water like this was if the undead actually caught sight of you. Now you were floating along the coast, the undead following at a similar speed. You had little chance of making landfall. The only option then was to cross the river and hit the coast on the other side.
Then the problem became how did you cross back over again? You would need to wait for a bridge. Then you would need to sprint ahead and cross the bridge and make a stand, wiping out the undead.
Luckily, that didn’t happen. The soldier’s gunshots and following breach of the alarm had been enough to draw all the undead in the area.
Lucky us.
The rowboat’s hull made a gentle jolt as it pushed to the coast. Dana hopped out and hastily pulled it up the coast. She might need it if she had to make a hasty retreat back to the safety of the water.
She was in the backyard of a smaller, but still impressive, house along the coast. It was painted white and had a fancy pair of French windows that opened onto a large wooden deck. Ideal for small family gatherings and BBQs.
Dana didn’t waste a second in rushing to the back door. She knew the fragility of the gates, the number of undead increasing and pressing down with greater fervor.
She picked up a small water feature of a trumpet-playing angel. The water was still flowing, which meant there must still be power here. Right? She smashed the French window.
The alarm went off immediately, a high-pitched tring like the bell at high school. Dana didn’t need to wait to see if the alarm would do as she had hoped. The undead couldn’t help but be drawn to it.
Dana ran across the lawn, toward the hedge that divided this property from the next. She found a bald patch and ran through it. It snatched at her clothes and hair. She pulled herself free and found herself in the next house’s backyard.
There was a swimming pool here, with floating zombies on top. They were unmoving. Nice to know the undead couldn’t swim, but other than that, there was nothing here for Dana to learn.
She picked up a brick that had formerly been used to prop open the back door and beat at the flimsy wood. The glass smashed and the door’s delicate wooden frame gave way. There was no alarm. Dana beat at the door again.
Still no sound.
She peered through the window and identified the sensor that should have been set off. There was no light. It was dead, without power.
“Damn,” Dana said.
This house did not have its own backup generator. Dana only hoped the next house would.
As she turned to leave she caught the groan of a dozen zombies over the hedge. The undead were being drawn toward the house’s alarm. Good. Her plan was working.
Dana moved onto the next house. She smashed the rear window but found
this one too had no power.
Damn.
How was she going to distract the zombies to get them to move farther away without the house alarms?
Then she saw the answer. A mobile alarm.
What had caused them so much pain and annoyance in the past could now be their salvation.
Cars.
Chapter Fifty-Two
HUGO WAS NERVOUS. He was always nervous. He had been ever since he was a kid. He was even nervous when he didn’t have anything to be nervous about. Why? Because at any point he expected something to go wrong that would make him nervous. But it had helped keep him alive. Hugo could identify potential issues before they could manifest themselves.
He was watching the front gate on the security monitor. The undead had been close to getting in, fists pounding on the metal gate, fingers tearing at any gaps they found, ripping it open like a Christmas present.
An alarm went off somewhere down the street.
The undead turned to face it. It took a moment for them to register what it was. Then they turned and began peeling away. Hugo breathed a sigh of relief.
Then there was a crunch.
A zombie floundered through a hole in the gate and spilled onto the front lawn. Hugo watched, enrapt, curious if more of the demons would follow suit. Thankfully they didn’t, preferring to head toward the screeching alarm instead.
Hugo grabbed his weapons and ran across the yard to meet it. Even Hugo could handle a single zombie. It took little effort to put it down. A zombie’s strength was in numbers. One could unknowingly distract a victim while the other attacked.
The zombie was still getting to its feet when Hugo approached it. He took out his blade and held it in front of himself. He would perform the same simple trick Dana had the previous day. He would let the undead impale itself through the eye on the blade.
Simple, easy, efficient and, most important of all, silent.
