by Mark Gordon
Chapter 29
The Hunt
As Sally stood in the foyer of the seemingly deserted office building, she could feel her heart beating like a drum. Dylan was methodically surveying the layout of the place and didn’t appear nervous at all.
“How many of these things have you shot?” she asked, not really sure that she wanted to know the answer.
“Not enough,” he replied bitterly. “It looks safe enough now, but don’t take anything for granted. I haven’t seen any of these crazies come out in the daylight yet, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen. I usually do a sweep from the top floors first, because that’s where it’s brightest. I haven’t found any zombies in any of those floors yet, but I don’t want to miss any, so I check anyway.”
“What will I do if you find a nest here?” Sally asked nervously.
“Nothing. Just follow my lead. I’ve brought you with me because I can see strength in you that most of the others don’t have. If I can train somebody to help me wipe these freaks off the face of the earth, then I’ll be satisfied, but I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.” He gazed into Sally’s eyes. “Especially people I really like. So for today, I just need you to stay out of the way. Up until yesterday, killing them was like shooting fish in a barrel. They’d just lie there. But I think their behaviour’s changing.”
“Tell me about yesterday. I want to know.”
He thought about it briefly then replied, “Well, basically I think they’re becoming more aware of their surroundings. Yesterday after I shot the first one, another one woke up and attacked me. It was like a reflex action, though, like a really primitive defense mechanism. I’m not even sure they were actually conscious in any real sense, but it definitely means we have to be much more careful from now on.”
He put his right hand on Sally’s shoulder. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
She thought about the creature that had stared her down when she was on her balcony two nights earlier. “I’m sure. Let’s go.”
As they worked their way down from the top floor, Dylan offered safety instructions, the main being to pay attention and not relax. Sally found it a peculiar experience strolling through the abandoned office building in this weird, new world. The computers, paper work and filing systems that once controlled people’s lives were now nothing more than relics, consigned to become nothing more than a footnote in the history of human civilisation. Sally wondered what the city would look like in one hundred years, or one thousand. She wondered if future humans would find her city as mysterious as she found the pyramids. They walked on.
As Dylan had predicted, the upper floors had been empty of hiders, and it didn’t take them long to reach the ground floor again. Sally knew, however, that the worst was yet to come, as they headed to the staircase that would take them to the basement car park levels of the building. Dylan told her that it was always a different experience cleaning out these areas, depending on the building. Some were completely abandoned while others housed nests of up to thirty comatose bodies. On the first day it had just been a matter of putting a bullet in the head of each zombie systematically, as they lay in a state of hibernation, but after yesterday’s attack it was clear that a big nest would be beyond his capabilities now. If they located a pod of more than four or five creatures, he would leave them for a larger team to clean up on another day.
Before they headed down the stairs to the basement, Dylan flicked on the flashlight that was taped to his gun and told Sally to switch hers on too. As they crept down the stairs he told her to keep at least five paces behind him and to yell if she saw anything out of the ordinary. The further they descended the more frightened Sally became. Their flashlights only illuminated one small area of the gloomy space at a time, and the long, shifting shadows that were being thrown onto the concrete walls created an eerie, threatening environment. She looked to Dylan for some reassurance, but he continued walking, shining his beam into every possible hiding space, including the windows of parked cars and dumpsters. After Dylan had satisfied himself that this particular floor was not a home for the creatures, he called Sally closer to him.
“Is it empty? Can we go now?” she asked hopefully.
He smiled gently, sensing her apprehensiveness, and answered, “No, not yet. There’s another basement level below this one.”
He shone his flashlight towards the down ramp and took her hand gently.
“Maybe you should sit this one out. I can take you back up to the street and I can finish this search on my own. No big deal.”
But Sally knew it was a big deal. This tough, resilient man had trusted her enough to invite her along on this monster hunt, and despite the knot of fear that was sitting in her stomach like a chunk of broken glass, she knew that she had to see it through. She understood that this was a test, and if she failed Dylan would probably become just another person at St Jude’s who would nod to her across the breakfast table each morning; and suddenly, just like that, she realised that she wanted more than just friendship from him. She wanted a lover.
“No. I want to stay with you,” she said. “I want to help. I’m really, really scared, but I want to stay with you so that I can learn how to survive.” She looked at him, wondering how he would respond to her plea.
“Are you sure? Now’s the time to pull out if you’re not up for it.”
She considered her decision. “No. I’m totally up for it. Just tell me what to do.”
He smiled. “Sure. Let’s get going”.
As they headed down the ramp into the sub-basement Dylan reached into his pocket and pulled out two pairs of earplugs. “If we find a nest we’ll need these. Gunshots echo in here like you wouldn’t believe. I found that out the first day. My ears are still ringing.”
Sally took the earplugs and put them in her pocket as they headed into the darkest corner of the car park.
It turned out to be a small nest they found. Four bodies huddled together in an alcove behind a large concrete pillar. Sally couldn’t move. These were the first zombies she’d seen in their sleeping state. It was almost too bizarre for her to comprehend. Three men and a woman dressed for a day at the office, apart from the grime and blood that covered them from head to toe. They seemed paler than they should be, and there was a roughness to their skin that looked very unlike that of a normal person. They didn’t look as if they were asleep, though; they looked different somehow. She couldn’t put her finger on it exactly, but she felt like she was looking at new state of being. Possibly somewhere between being asleep and being dead.
“Look what they’ve done.” Dylan said, shining the flashlight onto the floor where the creatures slept.
Instead of unforgiving, cold concrete, they slumbered on a bed of broken and flattened cardboard boxes. Sally looked at Dylan, “Have you seen that before?”
“No. That’s new,” he replied. “And scary. Let’s do this and get out of here. If we get split up just head out the way we came in. I want you to go back over near the down ramp and wait for me. There should only be four shots – one for each of them. Keep your flashlight on. If you hear less than four shots or anything else that sounds wrong, just get the hell out of here. Don’t wait for me. Do you understand? This is not a game. Make sure you follow my instructions, okay?”
Sally nodded her head and said, “Please be careful”. Then she turned her back on him and went to wait by the ramp.
Sally couldn’t see what was happening after Dylan disappeared behind the delivery van but she could hear metallic clicking noises that she assumed were related to Dylan preparing his gun for shooting. Remembering her earplugs, she quickly fished them from her pocket and jammed them into her ears just before the first shot rang out. The noise was deafening, and she felt buried in sound as first one, and then two blasts rocked the concrete bunker. There was a slight pause, and then she heard the third shot ring out and echo chaotically around in the car park. She stood unmoving, waiting for the fourth shot, desperate for Dylan to
return and take her back into the daylight, but there was only silence. Where was the fourth shot? Sally ripped the earplugs from her ears and was gripped by fear as she realised she could hear scuffling sounds coming from behind the van. Time seemed to stand still as she frantically shone her flashlight toward the vehicle. She saw only shifting shadows. Then there was a muffled scream; more sounds of struggling, and the fourth, overwhelmingly loud gunshot, followed immediately by the sound of something wet sloshing onto the concrete floor.
Sally froze, and dropped her flashlight, feeling as if her whole future hung in the balance for that split second. Then, just as she was about to scream Dylan’s name, a spectral figure lurched from behind the van and rushed towards her, as she stood rooted to the spot by a deep, almost prehistoric fear. As the dark figure got closer she threw her arms up in front of her face, then realised with relief that it was Dylan. “Quick! Pick up your flashlight!" he yelled. "We have to get out of here! There are others!”
Sally could see that he’d been injured, as an occasional silvery spot of blood hit the floor and mingled with the engine oil that had dripped from the parked cars, but she managed to locate the flashlight. She grabbed Dylan by the hand and led him as fast as she could toward the upper level of the car park. She didn’t know where the blood was coming from, but there was no time to worry about that now.
“Quick!” Dylan urged. “I can hear them!”
Sally could hear them too, and the adrenaline coursing through her body drove her forward, away from them as fast as she could move. She reached the upper level of the basement, out of breath from exertion and terror, and allowed herself to think they were going to make it. She couldn’t hear the creatures behind her anymore, and ahead she could see faint daylight spilling down the stairwell from the foyer. She turned and smiled at Dylan, “We’re nearly there, look.”
He nodded, grimacing.
Then two hiders burst out from behind a large, air-conditioning conduit near the exit and their escape route was cut off.
“Where’s your gun?” she shouted frantically, as Dylan looked at her, eyes full of fear, shaking his head.
“Fuck!” she screamed, as the zombies came at them.
