The Zombie Chro [99] - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

by Mark Clodi

  It was Charlie's turn to shrug, “I guess, they should, I mean they do surgeries here, maybe the elevators are not considered a medical necessity?” As he finished talking one of the lights flickered on, then the elevator alarm started buzzing. The buzzing stopped and the button light went off, then the elevator started moving up. It stopped faster than Juan thought it should and the doors opened, they were on the third floor. Not hesitating Juan jumped out, followed closely by Nanci and Charlie. “Stairs okay?” Juan asked. No one objected and they were soon pounding their way up the remaining floors to the roof access. The roof door opened to the north and as they made it out onto the roof they stopped dead in their tracks.

  “Madre de Dios.” Nanci gasped and crossed herself as she went to her knees.

  Before them was a cloud they have never seen before, yet they all knew what it was from textbooks and old films. Someone had dropped a nuclear bomb on Denver, north of the downtown area, it looked more like they had bombed the airport. Juan put his arm around Nanci's shoulder and they stood staring dumbfounded for seconds which seemed to stretch into hours before they heard a voice behind them.

  “Hey, I'm okay, thanks for checking man!”

  Looking over his shoulder, Juan saw Jack, he was pale and looked like he had seen a ghost or worse yet kissed one.

  The snappy retort Juan had been going to call out died on his lips, replaced with, “Jack, what man? What is it?”

  “Oh you mean aside from 'the man' bombing the working class to save themselves? Yeah it is worse. What's missing Juan?”

  Looking around Juan couldn't tell, he saw the machine gun sitting up where he thought it might be, facing down slope to the north. The boxes of ammo were beside it and the whole mess had a tarp pulled halfway over it, probably to fend off the afternoon rains. It looked like the guys had set up their radio too, on a couple ammo boxes sat what looked like a satellite disk, pointed slightly south and west. Juan didn't see anything unusual and shrugged his shoulders slightly and shook his head at Jack.

  “Maybe I should ask, 'Who is missing?'”

  A light went on in Juan's head, “Ah! Where are the guardsmen?”

  “Dead.” came Jack's flat reply.

  “What?! What happened?” asked Juan, looking around for zombies or bodies or something to indicate what had happened, seeing nothing he repeated his question, “What happened?”

  Nanci and Charlie turned to look around and face Jack, who sat down on the boxes the satellite dish was on.

  “I went with the guys back down, right? After the lesson on how to fire, reload the guns, they even gave us a primer on cleaning them too, though we didn't do that, they left us a manual. Anyway I headed downstairs, carrying this rifle and thinking, 'Why the heck am I going downstairs?' I mean I can't carry an ammo box by myself and we had an odd number of guys, so I am going along humping this gun as a guard? After we stopped for a bathroom break in the ER I told the others I would wait for them on the roof. So I get on the elevator and headed up here and the door is shut. We had propped it open with a piece of wood to make it easier to pull the boxes up here, right? So I was like, 'this is weird' and went to push the door open, no go. And I know that is wrong, because the door has a push handle, it cannot be locked from inside. I push harder and still nothing, so I thought they were fucking around with me, you know mess around with the wanna-be hippie or something, maybe a little military hazing to get their jollies. I hear Ted talking on the radio, he is speaking to somebody, only I can't hear what he is saying, he is talking kinda low. So I yell out, 'Hey, open the damn door!', they didn't, so I yelled louder, then started swearing, nothing. Well, I thought about it, this place has a couple of wings, so maybe there is another roof access door, only we haven't cleared the other side yet, so no way am I going through the stairs on the other side.”

  Taking a breath, Jack continued, “So I got a little harder on the door. Really pushing it, then hitting it and it started to give a little, I couldn't see out, but eventually I could work my hand through and felt a piece of wood they had propped under the door handle on the outside. A bit more shoving and I was able to work it free and get onto the roof.”

  “Ted was the only one I saw, he was standing over there, heading towards the vents.” Jack stood up, he headed over to the venting and various pipes that snaked up through the roof. Walking around on the other side of them the group saw three ropes tied off on three different pipes, the ropes were taunt and led over the side of the building.

  “Anyway I see Ted over there and I am like, 'Ted? Man what is going on?', all he said was he was sorry, then he pull a loop of rope up off the roof and wraps it around his neck and jumps off the fucking building! Right in front of me! I ran to the edge and tried to pull him up.” Jack gestured to the edge of the roof, Juan and Charlie peered over cautiously, Charlie pulled back quickly, Juan just stood there leaned over the edge of the building looking down, he stood that way for probably thirty seconds, looking at the three bodies that dangled about ten feet from the top of the roof, none of them were moving, all of them looked like they had long necks, obscenely long, boneless necks. One of them, Sanchez? His tongue was protruding, dark purple and glistening wet from between his lips, all of the corpse's eyes were open.

  “Juan?” Jack called, pulling him by the shoulders, back from the edge. Juan looked blank for a second then turned to Nanci and held her tight for a quick hug.

  “Let me finish, here, before we decide what to do. I saw Ted do this and was trying to pull him up when the radio came back on, some guy on the other end, asking for Ted, I grabbed it, said, 'Ted is dead'. The voice swore, then came back on and said there was a bomb on the way, thanks to the relay booster Ted had set up, there was little immediate danger in my area, but I shouldn't look north for about a minute, in fact, I might want to get under cover. I asked where? Where was the bomb going to impact at? Thinking of the Mike's Club store, he just came back and said, the radio station, then, impact in twelve seconds. That's when I came over and started shouting for you.”

  “Shit.” shaking his head Charlie continued, “These guys relayed the coordinates for the drop! These guys nuked us!”

  Nodding, Jack said, “Looks that way. I wonder how much of what they told us was true? Probably it was a mix, huh? I just don't get why they would kill themselves.”

  Juan pointed to the satellite disk, “That still work?”

  Shrugging Charlie said, “Don't know. I doubt it, ain't there supposed to be an emp wave or something that kills all batteries and radios when it goes off?”

  “It won't hurt to try.” Juan went over and clicked on the rather old fashion microphone, “Hello?”

  Immediately a voice came back, “Who is this?”

  “This is Juan Bustillo, who is this?”

  “Juan this is Ed Stanson of the 19th Special Forces Group, currently stationed out of Fort Carson. Where are you Juan? Has there been an explosion nearby?”

  Laughing quietly, Juan replied, “An explosion? Yeah, there was a bomb dropped up here.”

  “Okay how safe is your position? Were you close to the explosion, did you feel a heat wave or have any debris or dust fallen near you?”

  “No, no we are far away. The bomb fell over by the airport, I think, we are on the south side of Denver, probably twenty miles away.”

  “Good! Juan that is good! Are you further to the west than the explosion? Further west of it?”

  “Yeah, yeah we are, why?”

  “The winds, they will carry the dust from the bomb and the dust will be radioactive. I think you are out of harms way. Do you know the address of where you are at? Do you see any street signs?”

  “Ah, no, no address, I know where I am, you aren't going to bomb us are you?”

  “What? No, no, what are you talking about? We want to rescue you, send people to come and get you.”

  Chapter 25

  Dave was crouched down behind the broken glass of the store front, he was looking out at the group
edging towards his motorcycle, there were eight of them. A stranger group he could not have imagined. Just kids, older kids, they had weapons, not just bats or pieces of pipe, but what looked like actual swords, one of them had an ax, some of them were wearing what looked like armor, chain links woven together in an integrated pattern. Pretty really. And pretty stupid, Dave thought, bullets were not stopped by the stuff they were wearing and he doubted the large shields three of them were toting would do much to deflect a thirty eight caliber piece of lead either. Dave loved stupidity. The kids had a couple of little ones with them too, a boy and a girl.

  “So.” he whispered to his boy, “You want a boy for a friend or a girlfriend?” The boy, who Dave had named, 'Nuke', was much better than he had been at six this morning. Thanks in large part to a man who had fell for the old, 'gun on the seat' thing around seven thirty. The guy was massive, three hundred pounds if he was a hundred and he was slow, which was awesome. Dave just waited for the fat slob to approach the gun then he and the kid stepped out of the store and got his attention. The man, almost to the gun, was already sweating beads in the cool morning air and he did not stop to look at Dave or the kid, he knew he had to get the gun and when he did, he whipped it around and pointed it at Dave. Dave had kept coming closer, in a slow walk, not even bothering to take his own pistol out of his holster. He had kept the gun loaded, but not with a bullet in the chamber, the fat guy surprised Dave by knowing how to chamber a round, but when the gun simply clicked, the guy had deflated, he had looked noticeably smaller and pale. Dave kind of wanted to drag it out, play with the dude a little, however the man was so pathetic looking that he opted for a quick pistol whip upside the head, while the guy was down Nuke jumped on his leg and started feasting, the fat guy was not out though, after being bitten and pistol whipped he still swung around and punched Nuke a good blow to the head. It never ceased to amaze Dave how people fought for their lost causes. He had to hit the guy three more times before he went down and then they both enjoyed a good breakfast. Dave had been taking a lot of hits lately and the extra charge he had gotten from fatty seemed just the thing to push him back up to full strength.

  Nuke seemed to benefit far more from his meal than Dave, the pure amounts that he consumed amazed Dave and by the time he was done eating he could not only talk coherently, but his little belly was so distended that Dave was tempted to call him 'Ethiopia', instead of 'Nuke'. That was a couple hours ago and Nuke had vomited a vile ichor and shat more of it out, once in his pants, which disgusted Dave so much that he beat the boy and had made him go naked until he was sure he was not going to go any more. Now Nuke had on some loose sweat pants, easy to get down in emergencies, plus a pair of Nike's which seemed to fit him well enough, on top was Rockies t-shirt two sizes too big.

  Answering his question, Nuke said, “Boy, no girls.”

  Dave smiled cruelly and said, “Shows what you know stupid. The girl can open doors your wanker never will. Adults go ape shit for girls in distress. I'll take them both. No, you'll take them both and if either of them winds up dead, so will you. I got no use for people who don't do as I say. Got it?”

  Nuke nodded and they continued to watch as the group outside had a discussion, about eighty feet away at the end of the block. One of the girls had a bow, a goddamn bow and arrow. Dave smiled. “Christ, girlfriend, this isn't some sort of stupid game.” Still it would pay to be prudent, what if she knew how to use it. Shoot her first, or at least at her, then take out the bigger boys. Six shots for six people, and Dave knew he would miss. At least once, probably; he would be lucky to hit three of them, they were not slow zombies he could throw rocks at. Yeah figure on getting three of them down, then either re-load and shoot the rest of them or just go mano-a-mano, there was no way in hell they could win, Dave was feeling very, very strong right now.

  Turning to Nuke Dave said, “Get the kids knocked out or break a leg or something, so they can't go fast, then make sure any of them I shoot stay down, then jump anyone I am fighting from behind. You are not to run away, you die out there to keep me from dying, got it?” Dave put an extra mental push into his words, it gave him a feeling that Nuke could not disobey him, he was not sure if it would, time would tell.

  Ah good, the group was making a decision, the right decision, to investigate the motorcycle and gun. The group came forward warily, at about forty feet from the motorcycle two of the heavily armored guys and the boy came forward, the rest of the took up a holding position. The third guy with a shield and the ax had a revolver, he took it out and held it down along his body. He looked inexperienced holding it, funny really he looked more confident when he had been holding the ax. 'Target One' changed to him in Dave's mind, revolver guy gets two bullets, girl with the bow, gets one, two guys in front each get one, then whoever looks most threatening gets the last one. Plus there would be misses. The boy in front had a long dagger out, probably nothing to worry about, he was half Dave's size. “Watch the boy he has a big knife.”, Dave said to Nuke, who stood quietly watching with big eyes as the trio approached the cycle and gun.

  Dave had told Nuke earlier that the signal for the attack was when anyone touched the gun. His reasoning was that anyone who grabbed the gun would be distracted by it, try to get it to work and in those crucial seconds where they figured out it didn't work, they would be dead.

  The three guys stood there looking at the bike from about fifteen feet away, Dave could not quite hear what they were saying, but they were pointed to the blood on the ground where fatty had died. 'Shit', thought Dave, 'I should have moved the fucking bike twenty feet away or so, it is so obviously a trap they will never fall for it now.'

  Yet they did, the older guys stopped and looked around, they sent the boy up with his knife, he approached the bike, and flicked the gun off the seat. Dave said, “Good enough, go!” to Nuke who looked confused as to if flicking the gun off the seat with a knife was the same thing as touching it with their hand. “Go!”

  Dave pulled his revolver out and got a bead on the kid with the gun. Meanwhile Nuke scrambled towards the group out the front door of the building they had been hiding. Dave watched him go and also watched as the older boy with the gun raised it and prepared to fire. Dave pulled the trigger and fired until the young man went down, 'Was that two shots? Or three?' he thought to himself, 'Goddamn it! I am too far away!'

  Pulling himself up Dave burst out of the front of the store and watched as the girl with the bow put an arrow into Nuke from about twenty feet away, Nuke was running for the little girl first and the arrow, which went through his forearm and pinned it to his neck, not slowing him up in the slightest.

  'Gotta get closer to the chick with the bow!' this was Dave's only thought as he charged towards the 'rear' group to get a shot off, ignoring, the three people closer to his motorcycle, who were about fifteen feet away. Nuke slammed into the little girl, an all pro football star could not have done a better job of knocking her on her ass. As they went down Dave closed to within 'accurate' pistol range, or about thirty feet from the young woman, he sighted down the gun, going for a torso shot and just as he was about to pull the trigger he hand was knocked aside and the gun went flying. Staring in amazement at his arm Dave saw a long sliver of metal sticking out of it, about eighteen inches long.

  “Sonuvabitch!” he cried, it was the little kid's dagger, sticking through his arm! Dave had expected the trio to run away, not stand there facing down a guy with a pistol. Turning Dave saw the little kid looking smug and worried at the same time, obviously happy with his throw and afraid of what was coming. Only he was not alone, the two larger boys jumped in front of him and stood shoulder to shoulder, one of them yelling to the boy, “Stay back Matt!” and the advanced on Dave.

  Giving them his full attention, Dave mimicked them, “Oh yes, stay back Matt! And stick around, me and you are gonna have a long talk once I get rid of these bozos!” As he said this an arrow appeared out of his shoulder. “Fucking Christ!” Dave yelled, a little higher a
nd the arrow would have hit him in the head. To prevent any further bow shots Dave jumped forward into the two young men, 'let bow and arrow girl get a shot off now.' he thought, thinking she wouldn't risk firing for fear of hitting her friends.

  As he slammed into the taller boy's shield both of them took swings at him with their swords. One sword bit deeply into Dave's lower leg, breaking the bone, however as he spun aside he was able to dodge the other blow entirely. Not quite breaking through the two Dave jumped back, keeping them between him and the archer and trying to buy time for his leg to heal to the point where he could use it again. The boy Matt had picked the Glock up off the ground was trying to figure out how to use it. Dave saw Nuke running at him from the side, Nuke had sprouted two more arrows, one in his back and another in one of his legs, neither of which stopped him from tackling Matt into the Harley.

  While this by-play was going on the taller young man had lumbered forward and tried to hit Dave, they were talking quietly to themselves, planning their moves and Dave figured he had better just handle them one at a time. Behind the young men the bow woman was trying to get a shot on him or Nuke, the other two in that group were bent over the guy on the ground and the little girl, checking to see if they were alright.

  Dave feinted back at the smaller boy, then jumped sideways into the larger one, knocking his sword aside with ease. Once close in Dave smashed the kid in the face three times, then swept his hand down on the kid's shield arm, probably breaking it, the kid was tough and spun away from Dave and stayed on his feet, shrugging off the pain of his broken nose and split lips and trying to bring his shield back up into line. He did get his sword up and between them, which put all three of them in a line giving the archer another shot, which took Dave right in the neck, he gurgled and pulled at the arrow. He felt, then saw the slender blade of the other kids enter through his back and come out of his stomach, with Dave impaled the bigger boy stepped up and swung at Dave's head, trying to end the combat. Dave's gestures were a ruse however, the neck shot hurt like hell, but was not a blow that slowed him down, and the impalement? Well the kid in back should have taken a head shot, not stabbed him through the chest.