by Mark Clodi
As a punching bag Stewart thought, I am doing okay. The blows were falling like rain, and they hurt. She swept her arm over her face, aware that somehow Ella was using her broken arm again. If she can heal, so can I! I just need a little time to recover. She reached out and grabbed Ella's shirt and pulled the woman down to her legs, pushing her head down between her knees Stewart caught a glimpse of Max with his arm around a zombie throat, his other hand was twisting the thing's head sideways, oh so slowly.
Ella didn't go down that easy, her arm was working again and Stewart's move had caught her off guard, but she was not hurt. She grabbed the legs of the chair and pushed up with her legs, the chair lifted and flipped over, dumping Stewart to the ground. Raising the heavy piece of furniture over her head Ella brought it down on top of the woman on the floor. The chair shattered leaving a club like leg in Ella's good hand, Stewart, meanwhile was moving feebly on the cool tiles of the Art Institute. Risking a glance over at Harry, she was pleased to see Aubrey frowning, but Harry ever so gently nodded his head and Ella smile as she moved forward and hit Stewart in the head. Blood splattered onto the floor and Ella raised the chair leg to her mouth to savor the blood of her enemy. To Ella, nothing tasted as sweet as this.
Max screamed as he watched Ella club Stewart in the head, this seemed to give him the extra energy he needed to finished twisting the zombie's neck in his arms, the crack as it gave sounded like a gunshot, pushing his way to his feet he started towards Ella as she finished licking the blood off the end of the club. Ruben stepped forward in front of Max, “I can take her, you see to the cop.”
Max looked at the old man in disbelief. “What?”
“I got her.”
“Old man you don't know what you are talking about. I won't even waste time with you. I could bend you like a pretzel or rip your head off with my bare hands.” said Ella tossing the chair leg away from here. Her eyes followed the bloody end until it struck the wall and rebounded to spin lazily, the blood calling to her, she almost started towards the club, then remembered the woman was right behind her, waiting to be devoured, she half turned, when Ruben spoke again.
“No Max, I got this one, trust me.” Max looked into the old man's eyes seeing him wink, he continued in a whisper, “Just get your lady friend out of here.”
Ella looked back to Ruben, then to Harry, who glanced surreptitiously at Aubrey who shrugged her shoulders and said, “Fuck it. What could they tell us anyway, kill them all Ella for all I care.”
This gave Ella pause, who was giving the orders here? Behind her the blood continued to pour out of the head of the police woman, she could hear the heart beat, each pump caused the stain on the floor to grow a little larger.
“You ain't afraid of an old fart like me are ya?” asked Ruben, “I got grandchildren older than you.”
“You're dead old man, you just don't know it yet.”
Ruben stepped sideways away from Max, locking Ella's eyes with his own, “We'll see.“ he put his hand on the combat knife at his belt, Max thought he saw it tremble a little. “Go Max!”
Max went, skirting Ella he rushed to Stewart's side to see if she were still alive, not even considering looking at her with his special vision.
“You think a knife is going to help you?” taunted Ella.
“I think so, yeah.”
“Well go ahead, then.” 'This old fool was slower than even the other guy was, at least the police woman was a challenge', Ella thought, 'Gramps will be dead in seconds.'
“Well since you've said to, I think I will.” Ruben pulled the knife out and pointed it at Ella, who laughed at the way it was shaking in his hands.
“You're trembling old man, be careful not to drop it.”
“I'm okay.”
'Always do the unexpected.' Ruben thought, 'she doesn't even see this coming.' Glancing at the two zombies that had stayed out of the fighting so far, 'Something tells me they might.'
Ruben stepped closer to Ella, who did not back away, but sneered at him, “Now what? You stab me?”
“Not yet.” said Ruben, taking the blade of his knife in his left hand and holding the handle out to the woman.
“You're giving the knife to me? What the fuck are you playing at?”
“If you have the knife I win.”
“The fuck you say.” said Ella ripping the knife out of Ruben's hand.
'Ice' thought Ruben, 'it's like someone put something cold on my hand, really, really cold.' His blood started flowing out of his cut hand to splatter on the floor. 'I hope this works.'
“Now I have the...” Ella began, then looked at the blood pouring form Ruben's hand, “...and you...” She was infatuated with the bleeding, every precious drop raining down in front of her, she stood still a moment, the knife forgotten. 'This was what he meant, he thought I would be infatuated with the bleeding and not be able to act. He was wrong.' Ella tilted her head up and started to laugh.
Ruben, seeing his opportunity thrust his bleeding hand over her mouth. In the flash of a second everything changed, Ella's laughter was cut off and her mouth sucked greedily at Ruben's hand. She tried to stop herself, tried to pull back, but she wanted it. She felt the old man beside her, but her focus had narrowed down to feeding. Ruben's good arm took the knife gently from Ella's unresisting fingers.
A series of shots rang out as the zombies watching the hallway fired at Bill, one bullet hit his Kevlar helmet and pushed him back around the corner, where he grinned sheepishly at Javier. Bart, crouched down by one side of the hallway, took a shot as one of the zombies moved over slightly to try and get a clear line of sight on the men.
“I'm okay, the zombies are where they were before, just toss it a little to the left, I will put mine on the two smart ones by front doors. Ready?” Bill asked.
Bart nodded and Javier said, “Let's do it.” while hefting his grenade.
Letting loose a burst of automatic fire to cover them, Bart stepped forward first, he had been hoping his lower position would give him the cover he needed, but that was a false hope as all three of the zombies shot him. He died giving Bill and Javier a chance to toss in two hand grenades, one landed spot on coming to rest near the foot of the trio of zombies just out of sight from the hallway. Bill's grenade was flung farther, but took a bad bounce and landed to the right of his intended target, coming to rest between Max and Harry, who was just starting forward to help Ella.
When he saw the grenade, Harry let out a yell and jumped backwards grabbing Aubrey and knocking them both to the ground in front of the plate glass window near the front of the building. The trio of zombies firing at Bart also scattered, jumping every which way, trying to get away from the explosive. Javier and Bill put their rifles up to their shoulders and took careful aim at the fleeing figures. Javier had agreed to shoot for the leftmost zombie, if they reacted as Bill hoped they would, Bill had a bead on the one on the right. Both of those zombies were taken out of action with controlled bursts of gunfire. The middle zombie was too busy fleeing to notice his companions being destroyed, but luck was with him and neither Bill, nor Javier's follow up shots hit him in the head.
Ruben saw the grenades land on the floor, but was not distracted from what he was doing, despite the urge to throw himself down. Ella followed his bleeding hand as he lowered it, soon enough she was on her knees in front of him. Her eyes had turned back in her head until only the white pupils were showing and she sucked the blood from his hand. Raising the knife he stabbed it straight through the top of her skull. The blade sank in to the hilt and he could not pull it free as Ella fell sideways.
“Goddamn it. Now I got no weapons.” Ruben said, looking around. He spotted the grenade still on the floor three steps away from him. It hadn't gone off. The pin was still in it. Grinning he moved forward and scooped it up, then immediately fell prone as the lone zombie with a gun fired towards him.
Max had made it to Stewart and was trying to stem the flow of blood from her head when the grenades came flying into the
room. At first he didn't realize what that small black object sitting six feet away between him and Harry was. His brain prompted his sluggish body to move and he dropped himself between Stewart and the grenade, trying to shield her body from the explosion. Gunfire went off creating a deafening roar in the room that seemed to echo endlessly from the tile and marble finish. It took Max a moment to realize the grenade hadn't gone off. By the time he looked up he saw Ruben ducking down to avoid being shot by the only zombie with a gun left in the room. Glancing over he saw Bill and Javier taking cover behind the bodies laying on the floor, their opponent had better cover behind the heavy desk at the entrance. Harry and Aubrey were just getting up, when Max saw Ruben slide the hand grenade over towards them. The old fool grinned at Max, displaying a slender piece of metal wire in his hand. Max realized it was the pin from the grenade half a moment before the explosion tore through the building.
Chapter 47
Something was going on down below, Katie heard small arms fire from the Art Institute and was sure at least one bullet had crashed through one of the windows of the place out into the street.
Behind her the pounding on the door started up again. Casting a quick glance over her shoulder Katie made sure the door was still holding. Randy and her had taken a long metal pole they found and wedged it under the door's handle when they came up the stairs. They were lucky to have found anything to brace the door with, if they hadn't, well Katie didn't like to think of the world of hurt she would be in right now, fighting off zombies behind her and trying to get a bead on the worst bad guy of all. There hadn't been that many zombies in the building as they climbed to the roof, the pounding had started minutes after Randy took a header over the edge. Looking down Katie saw his body was still there, he had not turned. 'Probably he kept his presence of mind until the last and landed head first.' Katie thought.
“Status.” the voice cut jarringly into her thoughts from the radio. 'What the fuck? They were not supposed to call me.'
“Uh, still operational.” she said tentatively, not knowing exactly how to respond. Randy had handled the communication end of things for the team.
“Affirmative. We are standing by for fire orders.”
“Good. I think I will send them in shortly.” The pounding on the door stopped, “Can I get the missions to land in a specific order? So I say 'go' and you drop the missions one after another?”
There was not reply for a moment, then the radio crackled and a voice said, “Affirmative. What order and how long of an interval between missions?”
“Order is one, three, two. No delay between one and three, a three minute delay between three and two.”
“Affirmative. You say 'go' and we will drop in that order.” the man's voice on the other end hesitated, “Three is still your position?”
“Affirmative.”
“Confirm.”
“I confirm.”
“Are you sure?”
“Confirm God damn it! What are we playing a game here? Do your goddamned job and let me do mine!”
“Confirmed. Sorry.”
“Don't get all emotional on me now.”
“Say 'go' and we will started the drop, eta after 'go' is thirty seconds.”
“That's better. And buddy?”
“Yeah?”
“You better make those big drops. If I don't get them, you guys need to.”
“Understood.”
“Too bad we don't have access to nukes.” Katie muttered, then stopped, realizing she had switched the mic on.
Quiet laughter flowed into her ear, “Yeah too bad. Good luck...and, well...good luck.”
Katie thought the man might have been going say to get out of the way of the artillery, but then he maybe thought better of it, they both knew she wasn't going to get out of this one.
Behind her a single loud thump rattled the door, the bar they had put up bend in the middle and the door opened about a foot. Twirling Katie braced her gun on her knee and targeted the door. An arm reached through, feeling around for the brace, she aimed and took one shot, the bullet hit the elbow and a cry of pain screamed from inside the stairwell as the arm was quickly retracted. Down on the street an explosion rattled the windows. Spinning again, Katie leaned over to get a better look at what was happening. A couple of zombies had been blown out of the window; a man and a woman. Both looked like the type she classified as 'super' and she took aim in their general direction as another loud bang sounded behind her.
'Ah well it is go time isn't it, hope my suit is up to snuff.' She took a bead on the zombie man's head as he leaped to his feet and faced the inside of the Art building.
Into her mic Katie whispered softly, “Go.”
Chapter 48
“Jesus fucking Christ Harry!” Max heard the woman's voice call out from the street. He could barely hear anything above the ringing in his ears so the woman must have been shouting in order for him to make it out. 'Great they are affected by the hearing loss too.' Looking around Max watched as Bill and another soldier fired on the last zombie in the room. The thing made the bad decision to stick its head over the heavy counter it was hiding behind and the two soldiers blew it off.
Ruben checked Kirk's body quickly and pulled the gun out from where it was still clenched in the old man's hand, he then headed over to Max.
“Go get them, keep them running. I'll take care of her now.” He said, tucking the pistol in his belt while he reached around and pulled some bandages from a pocket in his combat webbing.
Max looked to Stewart, then to Ruben and then to where Bill and Javier were getting up.
“What would she do? Just go Max, I can manage her.”
Finally Max relented and moved to the front of the building, pausing only to retrieve his shotgun. Bill and Javier were reloading as they paced Max from the other side of the room.
“I am retreating out the way we came, meet me at the door to the courtyard.” Ruben called after them.
“Reload Max.” Bill said. Max felt around for some shotgun shells and was surprised to find he still had a pocketful. The three of them approached the windows in a line and looked out to see zombies pouring into the area in front of the building.
“Good God.” Javier muttered, then pointed, “There!”
Bill and Max followed his finger and saw that Aubrey and Harry were standing by a large ornamental sculpture at the base of the long wide stair case, where they were taking cover from Bill and Max.
“Where is our sniper?” Max wondered.
“They are around, I hope they are anyway. We better fire at them and keep their attention on us, to give the sniper a chance to shoot.” said Bill as he readied a hand grenade.
Up above on the roof of the building across the street from them Katie took aim on the two zombies that had come out of the Art Institute. The two had been moving around since they were blown out of the building, finally they had stopped behind a huge piece of what passed for 'art' at the base of the stair. Perfect cover from the Art Institute, but no cover at all from her. Katie took a bead on the woman this time, trying not to count the number of seconds she had before the artillery landed. She saw the hand grenade fly as she squeezed off a bullet, she saw the woman zombie jump up a microsecond before Katie's bullet hit her in the head, the zombie woman went down.
“Fuck.” Katie whispered, the shot had looked clean, but the last minute jump had resulted in a neck shot instead of a head shot. 'Well I can pick it up in a minute after I tag Barbie's Ken.'
The hand grenade went off and the male zombie threw himself flat at the bottom of the stairs. The zombies rushing into the street were still too far away to provide the man or woman down there with any cover. Katie lined up her shot, wondering how long it would be until the first of the artillery hit, by her count it was already overdue.
Max led the charge out of the building as soon as the hand grenade went off, his fast moves caught Bill and Javier by surprise and he was halfway down the steps before they started moving
.
“Did you know he was going to do that?” Javier asked panting.
“No.”
Max saw Harry laying on the sidewalk next to the bottom step, behind the sculpture Aubrey was twitching, injured, but not out of it. 'I knew the grenade wouldn't work.' Max thought, lining up his first shot on Harry. The zombie twisted sideways and raised his arm in front of his head, the shotgun shell passed through the thing's forearm severing its hand. Some of the shot peppered Harry's face as well and sent the zombie reeling backward from where it was trying to get up.
Bill and Javier fired into the zombies that were closing in on the front of the building while Max took another shot at Harry. Moving fast Harry dodged and rolled to his feet while Max tracked him. Running to point blank range Max pulled the trigger again, Harry couldn't dodge completely out of the way, the shot caught him in the shoulder of his missing hand and twirled him around completely so that he was facing one of the zombies walking towards him. This female zombie was pushing a baby carriage, a bloody splattered light blue carriage trimmed with dark blue padding. The young mother was wearing a set of gray sweat pants and an oversized baseball shirt, her black hair rested on the fair skin of her face, making a perfect frame for her hazel eyes. In the carriage a small hand flailed out of the stroller, it too was bloody and missing the smallest two fingers. Harry ducked sideways and sent a command to the mother to throw her carriage at Max as a distraction. His command was too late; Max shot the woman full on in the face as Harry dodged to one side, exploding her head like a balloon and spraying red ocher chunks onto the zombies behind her.
'How many shots does he have?' Harry thought, running sideways and then spinning to face Max.
Max was concerned with his ammunition too, he tracked Harry with the gun and struggled to reload the shotgun's magazine by sliding another shell into it. Harry took the opportunity and stepped into Max, knocking the shotgun sideways off target. The zombie then seized Max by the throat and lifted him up off of the ground.
