When they reached the theater, they decided they didn’t really feel much like fooling around after that. They picked out seats close to each other and got comfortable. Both Ben and Jeremy were long gone to slumber-land. Tori began to close her eyes and drift away, when she felt something touch her hand. It was Lexx. He set his hand down on top of hers and they both fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Ben opened his eyes. He’d grown accustomed to waking up in strange places the past few days, so the fact that he was in a theater didn’t alarm him at all. He sat up and stretched his arms toward the ceiling. The theater chairs were the comfiest thing he’d slept on recently, but they still left him a little stiff and sore. He missed his bed. He’d even settle for his old bed at his parent’s. Hopefully, he’d be sleeping in that by tonight.
No one else was awake yet. He didn’t even remember Lexx and Tori coming back in last night. The last thing he remembered was asking Jeremy if they were together. He smiled at the thought of those two hitting it off. With everything that was going on in the world right now, it was nice to know that people can still fall in love. It gave Ben hope.
He quietly got up from his seat and made his way to the Coke machine. He winced at the noise of it filling the cup. It was a little louder than he expected. Or maybe because it was so quiet, that only made it seem louder. He filled the cup and took a sip. Delicious.
Ben decided to go check on LJ while the others slept in. They needed their rest. Ben on the other hand knew that he didn’t need much sleep to recharge. Four- six hours at the most. Any more than that and he’d be groggy. His sleep patterns were probably developed during college and set in stone when he started working for “The Lady.” Being her social media manager was a lot harder than what some might think. She can be quiet demanding on when she wanted her tweets to go out. A lot of the locals didn’t care for her, but Ben admired her. She made herself into something. You have to give her credit for that.
As he walked down the hallways of the massive building, he wondered what the place was like before the dead started coming back to life. Would it have been bustling with workers and office drones right now? Were they busy this time of year or slow? He wiped sleep from his eyes as he turned the corner to the hallway where LJ was located. He stopped dead in his tracks.
The door was missing from its hinges. Missing was an understatement. It looked like it had been ripped off. There was still wood from the door attached to the hinges, but the door was sitting out in the hallway.
This is not good, Ben thought.
He ran up to the door and held his hand up to his mouth in shock. The room was covered in blood. A huge puddle of fresh, crimson blood covered the floor, and handprints were all over the walls. Footprints led from the puddle and out into the hallway. LJ was nowhere to be found.
“Oh shit,” Ben muttered.
He had to go wake the others and tell them. He turned and ran back the way he came. His mind was racing.
Did zombies get in? Did they eat LJ? Did he turn into one of them?
The thoughts kept jumping into his mind. Then, he heard the roar.
It wasn’t a moan. And it wasn’t like the runners’ shrieks. It was a roar. A scary-as-hell roar. It came from somewhere in the building, but Ben couldn’t pinpoint it, because it seemed to bounce off all the walls.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” he began to recite over and over to himself.
Could it be something new? First the zombies, and then the runners, and now something new? Ben shivered at the thought. The crazies were bad enough. Hell, they haven’t even really fought any of those! They always ran from them! If there’s something worse than those…
Ben ran like hell.
He came flying around the corner into the main foyer area.
Almost there, he thought.
And there it was.
The thing that made the sound. It was huge. Seven-eight feet tall, massive build, grotesque muscles that shredded the skin upon growing. The skin hanging off its frame like loose rags. The muscles themselves seemed to be pulsating. Possibly even still growing. Its left shoulder almost looked like it had a tumor growing from it, but it was all grotesque muscle. The thing’s neck was probably as big as Ben’s waist. It stood there like a ‘roided-out monument to all that was evil.
But then Ben realized something. This was no new creature. It wasn’t some evolution of the dead infection or some demon from the abyss. Ben shuddered.
It was LJ.
The man must have turned during the night and when he did, he turned into something really, really nasty. The infection, or whatever it is that is doing all this, must have affected him differently somehow, causing the man to mutate into this monster.
Monster.
The word echoed in Ben’s head. Ben began to back away slowly from the infected LJ, but the thing had already seen him. It let out a deafening bellow. Ben was unarmed and he cursed himself for not grabbing something. He took off running for the auditorium.
He ran as fast as he could, but could feel the beast gaining behind him. With each step the thing took, the floor shook. Ben never turned to see how close it was getting. He could smell it getting closer.
“Guys! Guys! Wake up!” Ben yelled.
And the next thing he knew, he was flying through the air. It had picked Ben off the ground and thrown him back in the direction of the main entrance. He hit the ground with tremendous force. He was sure that he cracked a rib. Wincing at the pain, he tried to get to his feet, but the thing was already back on top of him.
It began to pummel him, over and over, with its giant fists. He tried to hold his hands up to deflect the blows, but his arms snapped against the pressure. It seemed to have no desire to eat Ben. It only wanted to kill him. And it was succeeding.
His vision began to go blurry, but at this point, he didn’t really care. He just wanted it to be over. This was it for him. He just hoped the others are able to get away. He hoped his shouting was enough warning. The monster lifted him up by the leg, staring into Ben’s face with its black eyes and then tore the man in two, splitting him at the waist.
***
Jeremy snapped awake when he heard Ben’s yelling. Something was wrong. He jumped up out of his seat and grabbed the Beretta from his bag. Tori and Lexx were right behind him, each armed with the rifle and shotgun, respectively.
“It sounded like it came from the hall,” Jeremy yelled, as he ran to the hallway.
There was no one there. He continued moving down the hall.
Maybe Ben ran away from something, he thought.
There could be z’s in the building and Ben had to get away quick. He yelled to warn them. Jeremy ran into the main room and came to an abrupt stop.
“No!” he yelled.
There was Ben. What was left of him. Pieces of his body lay in a bloody pool of carnage. Something had torn Ben limb from limb. Jeremy couldn’t believe it.
“No, no, no,” he cried. “Ben… no…”
The others came up behind him and put their hands on his shoulders, to try and hold him steady. Jeremy fell to his knees and just stared into the mess of what was once Ben. He felt anger began to surge through his veins again. The rage was building. His body trembled, and his fists clenched, as the adrenaline skyrocketed throughout him.
“What did this?” he asked. “There aren’t even any bite marks.”
Tori looked at Lexx.
“It must have been LJ,” she said.
“LJ? A zombie wouldn’t do this. A zombie would still be here, eating him.”
“We think LJ had some issues.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, turning to look at the couple. His face was red.
“We overheard him talking in his sleep. He was talking about how he killed everyone that was with him at the ports, even his friend. That’s why he doesn’t remember, because he got the rage and killed everyone,” she said calmly.
When Jeremy heard her say something about the rage,
he tried to calm himself down. He wouldn’t lose control of himself like LJ had. He wouldn’t kill his friends. But, he might kill LJ.
“But why this with Ben?” Jeremy asked, confused why it only killed Ben and did not eat him.
“Maybe the combination of the rage and the infection made him something worse, man,” Lexx said. He knelt down to Jeremy’s eye level. The look on his face was one of sympathy and concern.
“We need to get going now, Jeremy. There’s nothing we can do for Ben now,” Tori said. She looked around, making sure the coast was still clear. Jeremy nodded, but he couldn’t feel the strength in his legs to stand up yet.
“Ben was a good man. For the short time I knew him, I’m glad I did,” she added. “But there is nothing we can do-”
She was interrupted when they heard a faint moan. Their heads all turned slowly and looked towards the source of the moan.
It was Ben.
His head moved around, jaws snapping up and down. His eyes caught sight of the group and it began to try and move towards them. Only the head moved. It seemed agitated that it was not getting nearer to its food. Jeremy stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes.
“There is one last thing we can do for him,” he said.
Jeremy pointed the pistol’s barrel at what was once Ben’s head and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was answered by a roar in the distance.
Chapter Twenty Nine
“We need to leave! Now!” Tori demanded.
They ran for the auditorium.
“Let’s just grab what we can and get to the truck,” she yelled as they entered the room. “Lexx, leave the Coke!”
“Aww, mom!” he mock-whined as he began to stuff food back into bags.
Jeremy fumbled with his bag, trying to get the Padre’s journal back into it. He remembered reading it the night before, but must have fallen asleep reading it. Right now, he was focused on getting his bag packed.
He couldn’t believe Ben was gone. He’d only known the guy a few days, but they really bonded over them. Fighting for your life with someone will do that. He didn’t even know his last name. It was then that he realized that they were heading to Ben’s parents. They had no idea how to get there. Ben was going to switch spots with Tori once they got closer and explain how to get there. Now he was gone. They now had nowhere to go.
Jeremy immediately felt bad for even thinking about it like that. Ben was dead. If his parents were still alive, they had no way to know their son was dead. Jeremy tried not to think about that and just focused on getting everything together.
“Y’all ready?” Lexx asked.
“I am,” Tori said. “Jeremy, you gonna make it?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he said.
They ran back out into the hallway. Jeremy looked out the windows to the right. The area between the building and interstate was now covered with zombies.
“Oh no,” he said, stopping mid-run to stare out the window.
“What?” Tori yelled before stopping herself and looking.
The three of them stood there and watched as what looked like hundreds of zombies shambled across the landscape. The massive group they saw the day before must have followed them here. They took a long time, but they got here and now Jeremy and the others were completely surrounded. They might have a shot if they got to the truck.
“C’mon, let’s go!” Tori said, tugging on Jeremy’s sleeve.
They began running again. Jeremy’s bag slapped up and down on his back. He held two pistols in his hands. He knew one had half a clip, the other was only missing one bullet. He thought about the other ammo. Lexx’s shotgun had three shells and Tori’s rifle had maybe five rounds left in it. Maybe four.
As they entered the main foyer area, they heard a roar again. This time much closer. Looking up they saw what was once LJ standing on the balcony of the second floor. Its dark, blackened eyes fell on them. It roared again and then jumped from the balcony. It landed on its feet, putting cracks in the floor.
“Die, you son of a bitch!” Jeremy yelled as he began unloading one of the pistols into the monster. The bullets hit in the chest first, but slowly rose upwards as Jeremy readjusted his aim. The last round in the clip hit the thing right square in the forehead. Its head flew back.
But it didn’t die. Blood poured from the wound, but the beast seems unfazed. It bellowed and lunged for Jeremy.
“I shot it in the fucking head!” he yelled, as the thing came at him.
Boom.
Lexx blasted the thing dead on with the shotgun, sending it sprawling. He looked at Tori and then to Jeremy.
“Jeremy, get her out of here,” he said.
Jeremy looked at the man dumbfounded. Tori began to protest, but he pulled her in quickly and planted one right on her lips.
“Victoria, I really did want to bone the shit out of you,” he said with a coy smile before pushing her back into Jeremy’s direction. The infected Lumberjack was getting back up and rearing to attack.
“Jeremy, now!”
Jeremy grabbed Tori by the wrist and pulled her away from Lexx and towards the truck. Lexx pumped another round into the shotgun.
“C’mon big boy! Come and get it!”
Jeremy didn’t look back to see what happened, but barely made out the shotgun blast over the sound of his own beating heart.
***
Jeremy’s mind shifted into “shit-storm survival mode.” He was still having to pull Tori by the wrist. She was no longer resisting, but she wasn’t really willfully following him. Her eyes were glazed over. He felt bad for her, he did, but he had to get her out of here. For Lexx.
He kicked open the door to the loading dock. They ran outside, but quickly about-faced. The loading dock area was being swarmed by the dead.
“Shit!” Jeremy cursed.
His cursing brought the unwanted attention of the dead and they began their shambling towards him and Tori. He pushed her back through the door and slammed it shut. What to do? The truck was surrounded. The front was covered with z’s and Lexx was fighting LJ to the death in the foyer. Where were they going to go?
His thoughts were interrupted when a group of z’s came around a hallway corner.
They were in the building too? Not good. Not good.
Jeremy grabbed Tori and pulled her in the opposite direction of the oncoming zombies.
“Tori! I need you to snap out of it! We have to get out of here!”
She seemed to acknowledge his words, but they didn’t sink in. She remained lost in her own thoughts. He continued to pull her along until they finally lost their zombie tail. There was a door marked, “Custodial Office.” He opened the door and pushed her inside. He quickly closed the door, locking it just as fast. He pushed a file cabinet in front of the door, just to be on the safe side. Collapsing against the wall and onto the floor, Jeremy thought about how epically fucked they were.
***
Lexx didn’t have time to see if they got to safety or not. The beast lunged at him as Jeremy and Tori ran away. He blasted it again with the shotgun, but the buckshot only grazed the thing this time. It was able to still hit Lexx, bringing its clawed fist across his shoulder. The pain was immense, but Lexx was able to keep himself together. One shell left. He had to do something.
If he could just lure it into the assembly area, there had to be something there that could kill this thing. He brought the butt end of the gun across the thing’s face. It grimaced, but didn’t seem too fazed by the blow.
Duh, Lexx. If it got shot in the FACE and walked it off, I’m pretty sure you smacking in the head won’t do anything, he thought. Touché self, touché.
It did however give him enough time to distance himself from the monster. Lexx scrambled towards the assembly area doors. He could hear LJ right behind him; he looked back in his peripheral and could have sworn he saw the thing down on all fours. He bust through the double doors into the large open area where the construction vehicles were built.
The beast came barreling through the doors but was greeted by Lexx, who had the shotgun ready and aimed.
He let the last shell go, blasting the beast right square on! It was peppered with buckshot; the blast itself sent the creature back through the doors.
That should give me a second to try and find something, Lexx thought.
He looked all around. Over on a workbench lay a giant monkey wrench. He went over and grabbed it. It was at least two feet long. He opened the claw so that it was open a few inches.
Let’s see how he likes taking one of these to the head.
Lexx began running for the other side of the room when the monster came bursting back through the doors, sending the doors flying off in different directions. He hid himself out of the beast’s sight and waited for it to get close enough so he could bring the business end of the wrench down on its head.
LJ sat there for a moment, hunched over. It began to sniff the air. It was trying to smell Lexx out. Lexx smelt himself.
Oh man. I stink, he thought.
The monster began to slowly walk in the direction of where Lexx was hiding.
C’mon, get closer you bastard.
It crept closer and closer. Lexx waited. He had to time this just right. If he missed, well, he could be dead. He was determined to bring the open claw right down on the thing’s skull. It may have shaken off the bullet, maybe Jeremy hit it wrong. There’s no way it could survive a direct blow to the head with this bad boy.
Now!
Lexx screamed inside his head as he swung out and brought the wrench down on the beast’s skull as hard as he could. The claw sunk into meaty flesh and hit bone. The wrench end pushed through, breaking through the thick plate of bone and ripping into its brain. There was a loud crack and the beast went tense, pulling Lexx forward. It lashed out in a last ditch effort and sent Lexx flying. He hit a fabrication machine and slunk to the floor. What was once LJ convulsed and then went limp. A thick and dark, coagulated blood gelled onto the floor from the wound.
A New Death (Savannah's Only Zombie Novel) Page 18
