“Open your shade, darling,” said Beauty. “I will do the same.”
Charlie moved forward and kissed Beauty on the cheek. Then she kissed Dave and Travis. “Be really careful.”
“We will, Charlie,” said Dave. “When we get close, you guys get out of sight so you don’t distract them. I’ll radio you when we’re sure they’re following us through.”
With that, they turned and slogged through the water toward the enormous horde of Mothers and Hungerers.
Flex and the others moved another fifty feet back, just before the curve of the tunnel walls obscured them.
They watched as their friends sank into the distant gloom.
*****
“There’s no way out that I can see,” said Isis. “No doors on any of these walls other than the one through which we entered.”
The room in which they stood was around thirty feet long by fifteen feet wide. It was barren and empty.
“What’s that thing on the floor?” asked Gem, pointing with her headlamp.
“What?” asked Max, walking over to look at it. He knelt down and touched it, then leaned down and blew on it. Dust floated into the air and was chased away by his breath as he blew again.
“A star,” he said. “And it looks like there’s a carved circle around it. Keep looking.”
“There’s another one over here!” shouted Colton, on the opposite side of the room.
Not to be outdone, Ben said, “I found one!” He stood against the wall near the door.
The three they had found were centered on three of the four walls. Max continued to clear away the gathered dust and said, “This doesn’t look like just a carving. It might be a seam. This isn’t just part of the floor or a decoration. It’s gotta be something else.”
Gem moved over to the last wall and shone her light down. “Here’s a fourth one. That covers all of the walls.”
Isis looked at everyone and said, “Stand on each one. Center yourselves. Everyone else, to the middle of the room or outside.”
“They’re getting closer and there’s not enough room for everyone in here!” shouted Vikki. “Whatever you’re doing, hurry!”
“Please, everyone. Do as I instructed,” said Isis.
Gem stood on her star. Ben and Colton each stood on the ones they found, and Max stayed put on his.
“Well?” asked Serena.
Max looked up. “Ben, Colton, good job finding these. You’re totally like heroes. Unfortunately, I suspect if these are triggers of some sort, they’re probably controlled by some system of springs or counterweights.”
“Which means we need more weight than you can provide,” said Isis.
A heavy man pushed through the group. He was the tallest among them, topping 6’8”. “Where you want me?” he asked.
Colton reluctantly stepped off and said, “Here.”
Another smaller man, but bigger than Ben, emerged from the crowd of survivors and stood in front of Ben. With an audible groan, young Gammon relinquished the place he’d held.
The moment the man stepped onto the symbol, a deep rumbling began.
“Hey!” came a voice again, but this time it was clear who it was; the British accent made it clear it was Giles Batchelor. “Can you hear me?”
It was extremely muffled, but also had a strange echo behind it. Preoccupied, nobody responded immediately to Giles’ call.
“Stay where you are everyone. Let’s just ride them down,” said Max. Then he called, “We’re a little busy down here, Giles!”
Giles did not respond.
Each circular spot upon which the four stood slowly sank into the stone floor the distance of a foot. On the south side of the room, the wall slid backward three feet, pivoting as it did so. Another chamber beyond was revealed.
“Yeah!” said Gem.
“Don’t move!” said Isis. “I don’t know if it’s just your weight holding that passage open. Have your guns ready, too! We don’t know what’s in there.”
Everyone suddenly grew quiet. Fear had obviously set in at the idea that zombies might come staggering out of the darkness beyond. Isis moved toward the open stone panel.
Gem watched her as she reached it and peered inside. Disobeying Isis’ instructions, she stepped up and off of the floor trigger. It did not return to floor level, and the door beyond remained open.
Gem walked toward Isis, and as she passed the large man, whose name was Wayne Olsen, she believed – an ex-cop or something like that – she whispered, “C’mon.”
He shrugged and stepped out of the hole.
Nothing happened.
Max had been watching, and now he stepped out, too. They all nodded at the other man and he, too, climbed back to the solid floor. Everything remained as it had been.
Gem and Max moved behind Isis, who was searching the dark, newly discovered space. After a few seconds, Gem leaned over her shoulder and said, “See anything?”
Isis staggered forward and spun around, her hand over her heart. “My God, you scared the hell out of me!” she said, shaking her head. “Why did you step off the trigger points? What if the door had closed?”
Gem looked at her. “I may just look old and maybe I didn’t read the whole goddamned encyclopedia, but I figured we could just get back on those big buttons again if it did.”
“To coin a phrase you might use, Gemina, you’re a smartass,” said Isis.
“Better’n being a dumbass,” said Gem, moving toward the door. “I don’t hear any groaning or anything,” she said.
“Gemmy, here!” said Colton, running up with a torch in his hand. “Hurry! There’s like a hundred zombies and they’re really close!”
“Okay, sweetie. Stay by me.” She turned and took the torch from him before stepping through the new passageway.
“Ho-ly shit,” breathed Gem.
Colton moved beside her and said, “Wow! This is whack-a-doo-doo.”
The room had to have been twenty feet wide and possibly as much as fifty feet deep. The darkness was complete beyond the flicker of the torchlight, but what they could see was amazing.
Crates and crates of ammunition. Wall-mounted racks and pegs running floor to ceiling, holding every kind of gun she could imagine; from machine guns to handguns, rifles to shotguns. They appeared to range in age from antique to brand new. The brand new moniker was relevant to 2011 when the zombie apocalypse had begun, of course.
“Yeah, so this is why the armory is empty,” said Gem.
“It’s all down here,” said Max.”
“What the hell were they expecting, anyway?” asked Serena. “A siege?”
“What the hell is that thing?” asked Ben, pointing to a bright, brass gun that looked similar to a cannon.
“Language,” said Serena.
Gem couldn’t help smiling to herself. Thoughts of her dead son interrupted her momentary amusement, and the smile dissipated. She had let him curse from the time he could talk, and it hadn’t made him any less respectful of others.
Isis took another torch from its wall mount and lit it on Gem’s. She inspected the weapon. “It’s some version of a Gatling gun,” said Isis. “Invented by Charles Gatling in 1861.” She turned to look at Gem. “And if it works, it might save us all. Max, call everyone in here, quickly. There’s room.”
Max ran back into the antechamber. Several people were still outside in the tunnel beyond. He called, “Everyone! Hurry, now! Move this way and file in. Be quick about it, but help anyone who needs it!”
*****
“What’s taking them so long?” asked Punch.
Flex said, “Hell, turn on the light. I’m guessin’ they’re gonna follow Beauty and Travis anyway, so anything to light a fire under their asses.”
Scofield pulled out the light and shone it down the corridor. To their surprise, the horde was only twenty yards away, Beauty and Dave, with Travis in his arms, only fifteen feet ahead of them. The water was still up to their chests. Scofield wisely turned the light off again.
As the group stood in water that was waist-deep, Hemp said, “Okay. Let’s back around the corner and out of sight.”
Flex pulled out his radio and turned it on, the volume low. He turned it to channel 19 and eased forward along the wall, peering around it. After a couple of minutes, he whispered, “It’s working!”
Suddenly Lola fell backward, a scream erupting from her throat. She flailed with her arms, but could not seem to get her footing.
“Lola!” shouted Punch, and he dove through the air toward her, plunging into the water.
“What the hell is it?” asked Charlie.
“It’s … Lily!” gurgled Lola, her mouth alternately above and below the water. “They’ve … got Lily!”
Punch reached her and his hands disappeared below the surface. He yanked upward, and two rotters broke the top of the water, their teeth and ragged fingers tearing open the cloth shroud, biting into the little girl’s exposed, dead flesh.
With Punch on the rope, Lola managed to get to her feet. He kept his hands tightly wrapped around the line, while Lola turned and pulled both of her beloved knives from their sheaths.
Working her way beside Punch, she held the blades in her hands, her eyes on the water.
A head emerged. She jumped forward and plunged the razor-sharp blade into its skull, where it sank in easily. The dead rotter released the child’s body and floated away.
Punch yanked the rope again and the other abnormal surfaced, its stretched, dry skin pulling away from its face. In its mouth were pieces of Lily, and the gnashing became feasting as it moved in to replenish its mouthful.
With both hands, Lola jammed the knives into the holes where its ears had once been and twisted the blades.
It, too, sank away from them. Lola turned to face the others, the bloody knives still clutched in her fists. “That wasn’t good,” she panted. “Having Lily tied to me is like trolling for sharks.”
“Cut her loose,” said Punch. “I don’t want to chance it.”
“He’s right,” said Hemp. “She’s not going anywhere. If you like, we can carry her back where the water is shallow and her body will be there when this is all over. It’s too risky.”
Punch’s radio erupted. “They’re in, guys.”
It was Dave Gammon’s voice. “They’re following us. Steady line of them.”
“Stay on the radio until we lose you,” said Punch. “We’ll wait until they’re all in the stairwell, then we’ll close the door.”
“Roger that,” said Dave.
“They can get out, too,” said Nelson. “The steps go all the way up, so once they get to solid ground they can just step out. Even a zombie can do it.”
“We better hope so,” said Flex. He moved toward the bend in the tunnel wall and peered around it. Now the massive horde filled the width of the passageway, as though queuing for the subway. Flex couldn’t see how far up the tunnel the crowd stretched.
He turned back to the others and whispered. “There’s a lot of them. This may take a while.”
They waited and watched. The moans echoed through the cavernous subterranean tunnel and threatened to drive Flex crazy.
Nelson smoked a quick bowl. The man always kept dry weed and a Bic, and Flex often wondered how he did it.
Flex was tempted to ask for a draw off the pipe, but thought better of it. He was more likely to come up with a fart joke when he was high, rather than a strategy for their survival.
*****
Forty minutes later it was clear. A few stragglers emerged from beneath the water’s surface now and then, but the bulk of the horde had followed the trio through the corridor.
They had lost the radio communication with Gammon and Beauty over fifteen minutes before, but Dave had told them his strategy first. He intended to draw them to the west side of the city, well away from Main Street. They would then work their way south toward the pit before cutting back over.
“Let’s get moving. The water level is increasing as we speak,” said Hemp.
Everyone moved, pushing through the building water, their knives in hand. The shallower water channel was completely submerged, and Nelson stumbled into it on more than one occasion.
Flex shook his head. No matter what Nelson thought, the pot still messed with some of his motor skills. He might be able to think more clearly under the medication, and his hands might still be Subdudo fast, but he wasn’t used to walking blind through deep water, and it showed.
Charlie was already submerged up to her neck. “Hope this doesn’t get much deeper. How far to the where the zombies were?”
Scofield, who had been holding his flashlight out of the water, turned it on, directing the beam forward.
“What the hell is that?” asked Flex. They were only fifteen feet away, but it was difficult to tell what they were looking at. “Everybody to the right. Hug the wall until we figure out what’s happening.”
As they moved forward, Hemp said, “I hear water splashing. Not much, but it sounds like a small waterfall.”
Flex reached the solid wall blocking their path. Someone came up on his right side and he turned to see Trina, her long, blonde hair matted and sopping wet.
“How’d they get past here?” asked Trina.
Punch, who still carried the sleeping Hannah in his arms, said, “Judging from all those bodies right there, they went through the channel.”
“That’s where the backup is!” said Hemp. “Quickly, search for a hidden door. There must be one.”
Scofield put the light on again, and Flex turned his headlamp on. It flickered and went back out. He removed it and tapped it against his hand, and the light shone bright. Both of them illuminated the wall in front of them.
After a few minutes, Nelson said, “Guys, there’s nothing there. I’m getting used to spotting them, and there’s no door.”
“Which is apparently why these bodies are crammed into this low archway,” said Hemp. “It’s also what’s backing up the well water. Isis, Max, Gem and the others must have gone through the channel.”
“And the rotters started following them,” said Flex.
“That makes sense,” said Taylor, her teeth chattering.
Flex realized it was cold. He had been so focused on keeping himself and everyone else alive that it hadn’t hit him until he noticed Taylor fighting her shivers.
“Then we’re going that way, too,” he said, leaving the light on and moving toward the archway. He stared at it and shook his head. “A fuckin’ zombie dam.”
“Better take them out with knives,” said Charlie. “Keep the sound and vibration to a minimum. Lola, want to do some of the honors?”
“If it means we can get the hell out of this freezing ass water, absolutely.” Lola reached below the surface and brought out her two matching blades. Each had small leather straps on the ends of the handles, and she fed her hands through and gripped them.
“Be careful,” said Hemp. “One quick stab each, and Punch, Flex and I will pull them away.”
“Nel, do me a favor and take Hannah, would you?”
“Sure, bro,” he said. “Give her here.”
Punch held the little girl out and Nelson took her into his arms. She stirred, then lifted her head. “Where … am I?” she asked.
“Hey, kiddo,” said Flex. “Welcome back.”
“We’re in a tunnel, little chick,” said Nelson. “A secret passageway. We’re heading to where your mommy is.”
Hannah looked at him, her red eyes luminescent, but not nearly as bright as Flex had seen them. The Hybrid children had always fascinated him, ever since he’d first met Isis.
The thought of Isis turned his mind back to Bug. It had been a day of insurmountable loss, and it wasn’t over yet.
Flex turned back to the jammed up archway and held the light on it. It was perhaps three feet tall by the same width. From it jutted arms and legs, heads and feet, all packed in so tightly they could only moan and struggle. Water from the fast flowing wells fa
rther up the tunnels lapped at their backs as it grew deeper still.
Lola reached them and unceremoniously jabbed her knife into six skulls. Whatever parts were connected to those particular bodies fell still.
“I can’t kill the others, but I can disable them,” said Lola. With that, she sliced the tendons of inner arms and inner legs, causing them to flop rather than struggle.
“Okay, guys.”
Hemp and Punch moved in and grabbed a pair of legs, pulling with all their might. Flex waited for them to find success, but no matter how hard they pulled, the body would not come free.
“The water is putting pressure on them, for sure,” huffed Hemp, clearly exhausted from the effort.
Nelson moved over past Flex, Hannah watching everything. He stared at the blockage as Hemp and Punch pulled on yet another pair of legs and the pile shifted almost imperceptibly.
Nelson turned to face Flex with a smile. “I get it! It’s like a zombie Jenga game. We just gotta find the loose body. Hemp, take this rug rat and let me go at it.”
Flex realized immediately that under normal circumstances he would’ve laughed out loud at Nelson’s comment; now, he was too worried about Gem and the others to even crack a smile.
Nelson moved toward the jam. “Punch, grab that other leg and give it all you got.”
“You got it. On three.” Punch readied himself.
They counted off and yanked hard. The body slid out and another zombie fell into the space. More water was flowing through now, and the sound of the splashing below grew louder.
Flex moved in alongside the other two men as they identified another strategically jammed rotter. He pistoned both his arms forward into the body and the zombie rolled sideways, its mass becoming taller than it was wide. It shifted downward and seemed to float for a moment.
Punch took advantage and gripped an arm, pulling it to the side. Flex caught one of its legs and together, they walked backwards, pulling it free. They moved it close to the wall and Punch jammed his knife into its skull before releasing it, where it sank to the bottom.
Dead Hunger_The Cleansing Page 23
