by Steven Till
The duo sat and listened for a few minutes, trying to discern if the voices belonged to a friend or foe. From the sound of it, they sat underneath a detachment of National Guard troops; most likely the unit that blew the bridge. Some of the men reacted to the loud roar that had bellowed from the tunnel at the opposite end of the bridge; barking orders left and right.
Gunfire still echoed throughout the South Side. The stench of a burning city and an increasing death toll wafted to the zombie buddies and infected their nostrils with the sweet smell of human flesh.
“Do you smell bacon?” Ronnie asked in a hushed voice.
“Yeah, I think so. That’s kind of odd, don’t you think?”
“It’s really makin’ me hungry, bro.”
Nathan wasn’t sure if it was the power of suggestion or the smell of burning bodies, but he was acutely aware of the knot that had formed in his stomach. The waves of body pain were also beginning to return. The two looked at each other, thinking the same thing.
“I refuse to eat a person,” Nathan replied to Ronnie’s head nod to the troops above them.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he conceded. “Most likely end up getting wasted anyway.” He sat and thought for a moment.
“Hey, do you think maybe they could help us get to your place? I mean, that’s what they’re here for isn’t it? To help people?”
Nathan didn’t need to think about his response. “Really, dude? I doubt that they’ll do anything other than try to shoot us into oblivion. They’re not our friends anymore.”
“Alright brotha, so what’s the plan now?”
Nathan contemplated their options. Much to his dismay, he realized that he had taken the tunnel in the wrong direction. His original plan was to take the subway through downtown to the new North Shore Connector. That ran underneath the Allegheny River to the North Shore and emerged next to the football and baseball stadiums. This would have positioned them on the correct side of town. Instead, he went the opposite way, which took him farther south. To get home, they would need to cross a river again.
The geography wasn’t the only problem. That little girl, Sunshine and her zombie horde, had chased him through town and into the subway. He had no way of knowing her intentions or whether they would cross paths again, but he was damn sure that the two of them didn’t stand a chance against the army that she was amassing. Then there was the military. The National Guard didn’t have the manpower to contain the entire city; he was sure that military support would be on the way. They would issue “shoot on sight” orders for all infected civilians, which made them enemy number two. Last but not least, was the unknown presence which followed them to the bridge. It was large and sounded extremely powerful and didn’t sound too friendly either. Say hello to threat number three.
Moving forward was the only option. They needed to travel north along the river, but the banks were spotty and in most places, were non-existent this close to the city proper. Their only chance was to reach the top of Mount Washington, which rose up behind Station Square and overlooked the skyscrapers of the Golden Triangle.
“Okay, I think we need to get to Mount Washington, take that down to the West End Circle and then cross the river there. Hopefully, the Guard wasn’t able to blow that bridge, but we’ll need to get there before the cavalry arrives.”
Ronnie contemplated the proposal for a moment. “You know we’re gonna have to fight our way through those troops above us, right?” he whispered back.
“Yeah, I was thinking about that. You had said before, on the bridge, that we’re a lot faster now and we can jump pretty high. Could we just run past them? Maybe they won’t have time to react and we’ll be able to reach the nearest building before they can get a shot off.”
“Hmmm... Seems like they’re all on high alert. I don’t think we’ll be able to get by them that quick.”
Nathan was afraid of this. He didn’t like the idea of fighting a squad of heavily armed humans. He hated the idea of killing them even more. “Well, I say we make a break for it. If we get shot at, just duck and weave and pray we don’t get hit.”
“That’s your plan? Run and pray we don’t get hit? Man, fuck that shit, bro. I bet we could take ‘em.”
“We’re not even sure what our weaknesses are and I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. The faster we can get out of here, the faster we can find something to eat.”
Ronnie thought about this for a moment. “Why don’t we just eat those guys?” he asked, pointing up at the bridge.
“Besides the fact that we’d be eating people? I think that would be bad for us, bro. I noticed something when I was making my way to the subway station. Most of the other zombies are raving, murdering, blood-thirsty monsters. I did see a couple infected people act differently. They weren’t eating anyone and they almost looked like the thought of it disgusted them.”
Ronnie remembered something from his attack. “Yeah, man, that old guy who bit me was acting really wonky too. He kept telling me that he didn’t want to eat me and then he bit into me like I was a fiber cupcake with Viagra sprinkles.”
“So what if the reason you and I can think and talk and use logic like a human is due to what we eat? When I woke up and you started explaining our current situation, I had wondered why we weren’t mindless idiots,” Nathan offered.
“No man, I’ve always been an idiot,” Ronnie joked.
Nathan dismissed the comment and continued. “What if we don’t completely change unless we eat human flesh? Eating the rats took the hunger away for a while, but we didn’t get any dumber, so it must be safe for us to eat animals. There must be something in human flesh that triggers the rest of the change.”
Ronnie was getting impatient. He was never good at sitting still for long and was eager to do something...anything. “I guess that makes sense. All I know is that I don’t want to keep trolling under this fucking bridge anymore.”
“Fair enough,” Nathan agreed. “Let’s try to get to the top of the nearest building. We should have a better chance if we can get to the rooftops.”
“Lead the way, homie,” Ronnie replied, excited to finally be doing something. The hunger started to get to him.
They looked up and down the riverbanks. “Okay, let’s split up. You go topside over there, and I’ll go up on this side. That should confuse the troops and buy us a few seconds before they know what’s going on.”
Ronnie gave the thumbs-up and moved to the opposite side of the bridge.
“Hey Ronnie, remember, don’t kill anyone.”
Ronnie waved him off nonchalantly. Nathan held up his hand and counted off with his clawed fingers. One. Two. Three. In a flash, the two zombies bounded up the hill and onto ground level. Nathan appeared behind an armored transport of some kind and miraculously, wasn’t seen by any of the troops that were by the tracks. Ronnie wasn’t so lucky. He popped out directly in front of five soldiers.
There was an awkward moment of surprise as the troops and the zombie just stared at each other, completely dumbfounded. Then, as if on cue, the soldiers readied their weapons. Ronnie’s new reflexes were better and he caught the arm of the nearest soldier as he took aim. The zombie jumped into the air so fast, that he took the soldier’s arm with him, tearing it from the socket with a wet snap. The other men in the group opened fire immediately on the creature that had just disarmed their comrade.
The remaining men in the unit sprang into action and began their assault on the zombie, who was now jumping around and in an attempt to dodge the automatic fire. Nathan, still unnoticed, scanned the area. Shit. Yet again, he miscalculated their position. Station Square sat beyond a huge parking lot to their right. There were no suitable buildings nearby that could offer cover. Luckily, the lot was full of cars. Lots and lots of cars.
He jumped on top of the armored personnel carrier and screeched the most horrifying zombie screech he could muster. The entire unit turned towards him and opened fire. Like Ronnie, he began to leap and run abo
ut erratically.
“Head for the cars! Head for the cars!” Nathan yelled.
Ronnie took a quick glance around and saw his friend heading in the direction of the cars to the right. He turned and followed while the glowing tracers from the weapon rounds whizzed by. They reached the parking lot in mere moments and disappeared among the abandoned vehicles.
The soldiers gave chase, spreading their formation as they reached the lot. A loud explosion boomed to the left of Nathan as a car burst into fire from a grenade. A second blast came in from the right. The two friends weaved through the lot, leaping low to the ground on all fours. Wow, this is kind of cool, Nathan thought as he reveled in the new agility that his condition had afforded him. Fires cropped up throughout the lot as the National Guard continued the pursuit.
Finally, the pair made it through the parking lot. They made a beeline to the nearest rooftop. Digging into the brick and concrete walls, they scaled the side of the Grand Concourse restaurant. Once atop the building, they continued across the various shops and eateries until they had traversed the heart of Station Square in a matter of seconds.
The soldiers were far behind and completely unaware of their location. They continued to do a systematic sweep of the parking lot and had just made it to the last line of cars as the two zombies jumped down to ground.
Dead ahead, Nathan and Ronnie saw the funicular that led from Station Square to the top of Mt. Washington. The popular tourist attraction looked deserted and as luck would have it, one of the two tram cars sat in the lower terminal of the Monongahela Incline. The two glanced at each other and headed towards the tram.
They approached the cable-car-like enclosure. Ronnie climbed through the shattered front window.
"I bet it doesn't have power," Nathan guessed. "We're going to have to climb the tracks like a ladder."
Ronnie ignored the comment and looked down at the operator control panel. He saw a large green button in the center of the dash. Giving a shrug, he pushed it. The tram came to life and lurched upwards. The brakes halted the tram from moving. Ronnie gave a toothy smile.
"You were saying?"
Nathan jumped through the open window and joined his friend inside the car. He looked at the operator controls and saw a huge lever next to the control panel. He jerked the lever all the way back, which released the brakes. The tram car lurched again and began the steady climb up the face of Mt. Washington. When they started their ascent, the tram at the top of the mountain began to head down. At the halfway point, the two cars would pass each other. Nathan could see the other tram come into view out the right window. The military must have been using the tram car as a hiding spot. When the two cars were side-by-side, four bewildered soldiers saw two zombies staring at them from the opposite car. Ronnie waved.
The confounded soldiers disappeared below them as the trams continued their trip. Soon the car stopped at the Mt. Washington station. Mayhem was everywhere, as zombies and humans ran around, screaming and screeching and eating and bleeding and dying all over the place. The dynamic duo ignored everything and scampered up the tall apartment tower across the street.
After reaching the top, they each took a side of the roof to scout. Confident that they weren’t followed and that they were, in fact alone, the two sat behind the ledge and rested. They looked out over the city and tried to wrap their heads around the scene that still unfolded before their new dead eyes.
The South Side was completely imbibed in flames and the majority of downtown was a war zone. Forward air squadrons from the Air Force baptized the skyscrapers with rockets, bombs, and napalm. Apache attack helicopters swooped in from the west and rained bullets from their fifty caliber Vulcan cannons into unseen enemies below.
Beyond the city, more explosions flashed up above the tree line as the carnage spread into the suburbs. The orange light cast an eerie glow against the dark grey clouds of the cold December night. This was the day that it all ended. This was the day that a collective scream signaled the death of humanity.
“My God.”
Those were the only words that Nathan Ackland could say as he saw his city, his home, destroy itself. They sat and watched as the Army moved in to assume control from the National Guard. Below their perch on the roof, the zombies continued their feast on any human survivors they could find. Some people put up a fight. Some even succeeded in killing a few of the creepers, but that just prolonged the inevitable.
The overwhelming smell of the fresh blood below brought waves of hunger pain to his stomach, which felt like a crushing ball of agony. He could almost taste the delicious flesh, as if it were right next to him. Nathan became aware that there was a strange crunching/slurping sound beside him. Turning his head, he saw Ronnie chewing on the fingers of the Guardsman’s arm, which he apparently carried with him the whole way from the bridge.
“Dude!”
Ronnie looked over casually. “What?”
“What the fuck, man?” Nathan asked, pointing to the mangled arm hanging out of his friend’s mouth.
Finally realizing what he was doing, Ronnie pulled the remains of the arm from his face and tossed it over the side of the building. “Oh shit bro, I’m sorry. I didn’t even know I was doing that! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I don't wanna go all stupid, man!”
“Just calm the hell down. Maybe you didn’t eat enough of it.”
Ronnie panicked. “Dude, promise me that if I go all postal and crazy like all the others, you’ll be a brother and end me?”
“Dude, if you ghoul out on me, I’m putting you on a leash and keeping you for a pet,” he replied, trying to hide a smile.
Ronnie paused. “Aw, man, you had me going there for a minute...”
“Let’s try to find something to eat that’s NOT human. Maybe it will counteract the effects."
Within minutes, they had eaten several pigeons, which were bountiful on this rooftop. Just in time too, as the hunger and pain were almost past the breaking point for them. The pain receded back into oblivion, signaling another temporary reprieve from the insatiable craving.
Nathan looked over at his friend, who still had a few feathers stuck to his blood-smeared cheek. “How ya feeling?”
“Um, I think I’m okay. I don’t feel any different. Looks like it worked,” he replied, wiping his face with his sleeve.
“Good to hear.”
Ronnie gave a satisfied nod. Then his eyes narrowed as he began to look at Nathan's bare chest through his unzipped jacket. “Holy shit, bro, you're shot!”
“What? Really?” Nathan looked down and saw what had caught Ronnie’s attention. Bullet holes riddled his chest, twelve in all. Thin trails of thick, dark blood had run from each of the wounds, but they were no longer bleeding. Then something strange began to happen. Little by little, the holes began to shrink in size. They were healing.
The two zombies stood there in awe as each bullet ejected themselves out of every hole. The mangled slugs fell to the rooftop one by one, causing a rhythmic rain of lead on the tar paper where they stood. Tap, tap, tap...tap, tap...tap, tap, tap, tap...tap...tap, tap.
Ronnie laughed and raised his hand, pointing at the bullets as they fell. “Oh snap! You got tagged hardcore!” The motion of his arm had lifted his jacket, which allowed a torrent of malformed bullet slugs to pour from underneath his coat. “Oh, fuck!”
He immediately unzipped the down parka and lifted his shirt, which was now well vented, and exposed his torso. There were over twice the amount of bullet wounds from the automatic weapons fire as Nathan had. It was clear that they sucked at evasion tactics.
A few moments later, their injuries had completely healed. The only remaining trace of the attack on their pale skin were faint red dots, which were continuing to fade, and the dried blood from the initial bleeding.
Strange how neither of us felt any of the shots, Nathan thought. He figured that pain from the Hunger had been so intense, that it masked the pain from the bullets. Or perhaps in their new physiological make-up, they sen
sed pain differently. He knew that they felt pain when they needed to feed, which meant the pain receptors in their nerves were still intact. It didn’t matter, but it fascinated him.
Nathan shook himself back to reality and looked at the devastated city that had shimmered so valiantly in the winter snow just hours ago. “Okay, I think we’ve wasted enough time here. It looks like regular army has arrived, so the military presence is going to be formidable. We need to make tracks to the West End.”
Ronnie wore a blank expression on his face as he zoned out for a moment. He snapped out of it and realized that Nathan was talking to him. “Huh? Oh, yeah, sounds good.”
“You alright?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”
They walked to the far side of the roof and jumped over the alley onto the adjacent roof. They stayed up high to avoid the mess in the streets. The less people they came into contact with—zombie or human—the better. They reached the ledge of another building and leaped to the next, which was significantly taller. They dug in with their claws and scaled the wall; chunks of brick and mortar fell to the ground with each movement.
What they didn’t realize was that far below them, a lone zombie sat in the alley feasting on the leg of a local weatherman. It glanced at the rubble falling from above and then directed its attention up to the source. It stared at the two zombies scaling the face of the building. Instantly, the image of Nathan and Ronnie sparked something inside the creeper’s brain. Faster than a blink of an eye, the image broadcast out on unseen pathways down the mountain and across the water, until it found its destination.
Walking steadily along a high support beam which was still intact, the large group of undead moved perilously across the ruined Fort Pitt Bridge. Her pupils dilated as the blurry image imprinted onto her optic nerve. Sunshine stopped dead in her tracks, causing several her ranks to topple into the watery abyss below
There you are... she thought as a maniacal grin stretched across her face.
CHAPTER 20 INSIDE VOICE
