by Thonas Rand
This group was the definition of hardcore survivors.
“I’m sure you see that crawler on your side, right?” Milla said.
“Yup,” Lauren responded.
A slow walker came out of a store and stumbled toward the Humvee much faster than the crawler. “I got it,” Derek said as he picked up a sniper rifle with a silencer on the barrel.
He took aim out the window and pulled the trigger, hitting it in the head; it fell backwards onto the pavement in a thud. “Bingo, bitch.” he said to it.
“Thanks,” Bear said through the radio.
Derek saw Bear in the side mirror of the Humvee and gave him a thumb up with a grin.
“Okay, Bear, take a look for any gas stations,” Ardent said.
“Yeah, okay.” He grabbed a pair of binoculars and stepped out of the Humvee.
Ardent saw the dead crawler in his side mirror getting to Lauren’s door; he didn’t say anything because he knew her routine and her hate for them.
The crawler got to the truck and reached up at the door, it scratched and clawed to get a hold of something to pull itself up. Lauren rolled down her window and glanced down at it. Milla didn’t like what was going on with her, but she kept quiet. Lauren stared at it in morbid fascination. “Come on, you can do it,” she whispered to it.
The thing responded to her with a low hiss-growl; its throat was torn open and its larynx damaged. It pushed itself up on its one stub of a knee and grabbed onto the door handle.
“That’s it, fucker,” she said hatefully.
It reached with its other hand and grabbed hold of the bottom of the door window, it pulled with everything it had and its head came up over the window opening.
“Lauren?” Milla said.
The thing’s blistered, discolored eyes saw Lauren, and she looked right back into its empty pupils.
It was two feet away and began to reach for her—most of the skin on its arm was loose and so dry, that it moved with the wind like old paper.
“Lauren!” Milla said in urgency.
Before it got any closer, Lauren opened her door and knocked it off. Once it was back on the pavement, Lauren put the truck in reverse, looked down at the thing and backed her truck onto it. She pinned it to the street with a dry crunch-crackle sound. She stopped the truck and put it in park before the wheel ran over its head, she wanted it pinned alive.
“Jesus, woman,” Derek said under his breath.
Lauren heard and glanced back at him. “Bingo, bitch,” she said with a satisfied smile.
Bear adjusted the focus on the binoculars and looked down the road ahead of him—
There was nothing.
He looked left toward the ocean and scanned the streets. Nothing in that direction either, only burned out and destroyed buildings, but no gas stations.
He turned around and looked down the street toward the east, it was the same picture for miles.
“Anything?’ Ardent asked.
“No.” He continued to scan. Then he saw something a distance away. “Wait…” he adjusted the focus on the movement that he saw—it was the dead, a couple dozen rounded a corner of an intersection less than a mile from them. “Walkers.”
Ardent looked. “How many?”
Bear realized something. “Not walkers, they’re runners.”
“How many, Bear?”
“At least 150.”
The two vehicles were in the middle of the intersection fully exposed.
“Have they seen us?” Ardent asked.
“No, but they’re heading in our direction.”
Bear continued to watch them as he got back into the Humvee, and then saw something disturbing—it was more than a couple hundred, it was just the tip of a massive horde that came around the corner, hundreds of them filled the intersection as they moved along in a fast pace in search of something to kill and eat, anything.
“Oh shit,” Bear said.
“What is it?” Ardent asked.
“It’s a horde.”
“How big?”
“I’m not sure, they’re still coming around the corner. Maybe a couple thousand.”
Ardent got his radio. “Listen up, we got a horde coming our way a mile down the road. They haven’t seen us yet, so were gonna move away slowly. Over.”
“Copy that, over,” Lauren answered and turned to Milla and Derek. “We got a horde.”
“Shit! Where?” Derek said and looked down the road and saw it. “Fuck me.”
“Okay,” Ardent said into his radio. “Here we go, put it in drive and don’t give it any gas, we’re gonna drift out of their sight. Over.”
“Understood, let’s go. Over.” Lauren answered.
Ardent put the vehicle in drive, but didn’t touch the gas pedal, and the Humvee began to slowly move forward out of the intersection where they were exposed. Lauren did the same and her truck rolled, releasing the dead thing under her front tire, but the rear tire got to it and flattened the crawler’s skull in a splat.
They were almost out of the intersection, just a few more feet. “They still haven’t seen us,” Bear said with his eyes in the binoculars. “There must be at least 3,000 of them now, it’s the biggest horde I’ve ever seen.”
The two vehicles were almost free and clear, until the sun broke through some of the ruddy clouds and shinned off the windows of their cars, which were cleaner than any other intact storefront glass in the street. Reflected beams of sunlight bounced off their windows in the direction of the huge group of the dead—
They saw it…
And then they saw them.
The horde broke out in roars and bellows at the sight of something shinny that was moving. The ones at the head of the horde ran in the direction of the cars and then the rest of them followed—
Three thousand dead creatures all ran in unison…
“Goddamnit!” Bear reported.
“They’ve seen us?” Ardent asked.
“Yeah and they’re coming. Fast!”
Ardent spoke in the radio and hit the gas. “They’ve seen us! Move! Move it! Over.”
“We don’t have gas for this! Over.” Lauren shot back.
“I know.” Ardent said but not in the radio. “We need to find a place to hide.”
“Drive, I’ll look!” Bear replied.
There wasn’t any real place to hide in this area, only small buildings that were gutted and exposed. Ardent drove at forty miles an hour—he couldn’t risk driving too fast because that would consume what little gas that they had left and he had to make sure that they didn’t drive into any kind of road obstruction.
Lauren looked in her rearview and saw the first of the horde reach the intersection that they had left half a mile back—there were so many of them that it was like an eclipse that blacked out any free space in the street and sidewalks, some tore through storefronts. Their howls and roars were deafening, but that was outmatched by the thunder of their stomping feet—the sound of a stampede from Hell.
They drove through another major intersection and looked both ways for a place to hide; nothing was on the left, but on the right, hundreds of dead stenches ran in their direction. They were a quarter of a mile away.
“Is that another horde?” Ardent asked.
“No, I think it’s the same one!” Bear answered.
“Goddamnit! Look at all those dead bastards!” Derek said.
The strongest ones in the horde were so desperate to get them that they were trampling over the slower ones in their way.
It was ravenous chaos.
“This isn’t good,” Lauren said.
Milla was sarcastic. “Nah, we’ll be fine!”
Derek took a grenade out of a bag, pulled the pin and threw it at the horde with everything he had. It hit the street and bounced toward them, it exploded and took out five of them.
Five out of four thousand…
Ardent’s voice came over the radio. “Guys, don’t waste our weapons on them! Over.”
D
erek grabbed the radio. “Then find us somewhere to go! Over.”
Ardent didn’t respond as he concentrated on the street ahead, he slowed down at the next intersection and saw something to the left, toward the ocean—
It was a group of small buildings, maybe six or so, the tallest one looked a little over ten stories. They were two miles away, but in their situation—it might as well be a million.
“There!” Ardent said as he increased the Humvee’s speed.
“Can we make it?” Bear asked.
Ardent looked at the gas gauge—the indicator needle was below empty. “I hope so.”
They were almost halfway there and then in the intersection behind them, where they turned, the horde of the dead converged from all three streets as they continued after the cars.
Ardent’s face suddenly wrinkled with dread—the Humvee’s motor sputtered and stalled, it was choking on fumes.
“Oh no, no!” Ardent said.
The engine kicked back in, but stalled again, it was going to die soon…
And so would they.
“Why is he slowing down?” Lauren said.
Her answer came through the radio. “We’re running out of gas, go on ahead and look for a place to hide! Over,” Bear reported.
“Get in my truck! Over.” she told them.
“There’s no time, go on ahead, we’ll be right behind you! Out,” Bear told her.
Lauren didn’t like this and she expressed it when she past them by, her eyes told Ardent and Bear what she was thinking and they could see it—this is stupid and you’re gonna die.
She kept going and left them in her dust…
The buildings they were headed to were just a half a mile away. Most of them were burned out shells of skeletal concrete, places that the infected had already overrun and destroyed, a couple of office and apartment buildings, and a storage building. All of them were no good as places of safety, except for one—the largest building in the center of this cluster. It was about twelve stories of tan-colored Art Deco architecture, with two smaller wings on both sides that were several stories high. It looked like a hospital, but the ten-foot stone wall that completely surrounded it gave it that prison look. The sign at the closed gate was the answer: SAINT ANGELES MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL accompanied by the seal of California.
On the inside of the tall gate—a fifty-five-passenger bus was parked across it for reinforcement. People must be inside…
Someone watched Lauren’s truck pass the Humvee on the street, heading in the hospital’s direction. Anthony Rebollo, a twenty-something kid with shaggy, dark brown hair, he looked more like a patient at the hospital than an employee. He was currently on the twelfth floor roof with a high-powered sniper rifle that was painted in a tan that matched the color of the building; it was urban camouflage. Right down to the silencer on the barrel, including the long-range scope that he was using to watch the approaching vehicles. “What do we have here?” he said to himself.
He panned to the Humvee and could tell that something was wrong with it.
“Why are you guys in such a hurry?” he asked himself.
He guided the scope and looked behind the Humvee, there was nothing but empty street, so he looked farther back and then he saw them—
“Oh, Jesus!”
He put down the rifle and ran down the stairs…
Lauren’s truck burned the corner and they were there. She stopped and looked at all the buildings for some shelter to hide, but all they saw were useless buildings.
“We’ll be fine?” Milla said again. “We’re screwed.”
“Over there!” Derek pointed to the hospital that was down the block.
Lauren hit the gas, and then her engine sputtered.
“No, baby! Come on!” she said to her truck.
The truck quickly regained power.
“That’s my boy!” she said.
And they raced off toward the hospital.
Ardent had the gas pedal floored but the engine didn’t give him its best, it sputtered and moaned for fuel, and then it finally died out. He put it in neutral and they were coasting at 50 miles an hour. The corner where they saw Lauren turn was a couple hundred feet ahead and the horde was growing larger behind them. It was only a few hundred feet at their tail.
Bear’s eyes were in despair, “Sir, I wanted to say that it was an honor—“
“—Stow that shit for later, Bear, don’t just sit there, do something!” Ardent shouted.
Bear snapped out of it, he got out of his seat and got up into the machine gun turret. He spun the gun turret to the rear, racked the gun’s charging handle and let rage loose—large projectiles flew at the horde, the muzzle flashes from the barrel were bigger than Bear’s body and the result was many of them blasted in half that dappled the others in coagulated blood, but many more trampled over the body parts to continue the chase. A couple dozen rounds later, the machine gun stopped firing. It was empty.
“We’re outta fifty!” Bear shouted.
Ardent handed him an M-4, and Bear fired at them with the weapon, but the smaller bullets did nothing, unless they hit the sweet spot, which was difficult at that distance from a moving vehicle.
“Useless!” Bear said.
He dropped the weapon back in the Humvee and grabbed two explosive packages, he set the timer on one and threw it in path of the oncoming horde; he set the timer on the second one and chucked it.
“Eat this!” he shouted.
The Humvee was slowing rapidly, but they reached the corner and Ardent pulled hard on the wheel to turn because the vehicle had no power.
Lauren, Milla, and Derek were out of the truck and pounding on the hospital gate, but no one answered them. “There’s fucking nobody in there!” Derek shouted.
The street was littered with dozens of bodies of the undead and all of them had been shot in the head, the obvious work of the sniper on the hospital roof.
“There has to be, it’s locked tight and look at all these dead things, somebody shot them!” Milla said.
“Whoever did this is either gone or they’re ignoring us,” Lauren added.
“We don’t have time for this!” Derek said and then he looked back in the street. “Manhole! Let’s go, Lauren, move the truck!”
Lauren got behind the wheel, and Derek grabbed a crowbar from the truck, he went over to the manhole, kicked a body off it and pried the cover open. The manhole was nothing but darkness below, and luckily, only darkness was heard, no undead.
Then they heard the explosions from around the block…
The horde had just reached the two explosives in the street when they detonated and destroyed dozens of them in a fiery blast. It slowed them down for a moment, but then they continued the chase…
Lauren pulled the front of the truck right up to the manhole; Derek guided her to stop over it with just enough room for them to crawl in.
The Humvee barely made it as it rolled up a hundred feet back.
“Come on, in the manhole, let’s go!” Lauren shouted to them.
Ardent and Bear got out and started to unload their gear, which was two duffel bags, two backpacks, and a few weapons. Derek was ready at the manhole tossing everything down that was thrown to him. “Faster guys, they’re coming!”
And they were…
The first thing that they heard—felt—was the ground vibrating from so many thousands of feet that pounded to get at them and then the screeching of the stenches reached them from around the corner.
They were close…
“Hurry!” Derek yelled.
And then a lone corpse ran out of a building at Derek’s back.
“Behind you!” Lauren shouted.
Derek drew his sidearm and turned, but it was too late, the dead thing was going to get at him, until its head exploded—Milla shot it and saved him—Derek mouthed I love you to her, and she smiled at something that she already knew.
“Let’s go, they’re here!” Lauren shouted.
Th
e mob of corpses barreled around the corner and came at them as a tsunami.
They were one block away…
Bear armed an explosive package, tossed it in the Humvee, and then ran to catch up with the others as Ardent went down the manhole first.
Lauren slapped the hood of her truck, said, “Bye, Mongo,” and climbed down.
Ardent was ready with his rifle when he stepped off the ladder; the tunnel was dark and rancid with dirty, black water that was up to his calves. He turned on the flashlight attached to his weapon and scanned both directions. It was clear. There weren’t even any rats. Lauren climbed down and then Milla was next.
Before Bear went down, he activated another explosive charge and tossed it in Lauren’s truck. He dropped in the hole, and only Derek was left. He was about to climb down when he looked through the gap under the truck’s wheels and watched, in awe, as the horde reached the Humvee and attacked it with such force that they overturned the three-ton machine as if it were a go-cart. They came for the truck next, and Derek pulled the manhole cover over himself.
It dropped shut with a clang.
In the tunnel, they were all geared up and ready with their weapons when Derek got down there.
“This looks familiar,” Derek said, and Milla chuckled.
They could hear the dead destroying Lauren’s truck in search of them and the sounds of smashing steel and breaking glass was unbelievably fast. Bear took a remote detonator out of his pocket; he turned it on and armed it.
“Can I do it?” Lauren asked him.
Bear handed her the device and she placed her finger on the trigger…
“Fire in the hole,” she said.
And she depressed the button—
Up top, the Humvee and the truck erupted simultaneously with explosions that blew apart dozens of the undead. The black smoke and debris cleared, leaving the other four thousand still looking for the food they chased there.
They weren’t leaving.
The group was safe in the sewer, for now.
A mixture of melted truck material and fire began to flow through the small manhole access notch and drip down amongst them as they listened to the finality of their vehicles and a few of the undead. The glowing fire drops streaked down and fizzled out in the black water.
