The trio were getting excited once more and fought against each other and the door in their attempt to reach me. I wouldn’t be able to hold them off for much longer. As I pushed against their combined weight with the door, I managed to pin them between it and the wall. I was now slipping in Sandra’s blood, and there was no way I would be able to keep them at bay for much longer. Sandra had provided these monsters with their supper of Buttock à la Sandra, and now they craved Crème de la Blaine, a meal that I was in no mood to serve.
Cold, dead hands gripped my hands and forearms, trying to pull me closer towards eager and snapping mouths. They roared in my face only inches away. The cold exhaust from their guts forced its way into my nose. I can only describe the smell as unbelievable. Never have I been exposed to anything so pungent, so utterly, indescribably rancid. Imagine, if you can, the worst dog fart ever, and if you happen to love those wonderful entities, you’ll know exactly where I’m coming from. Dog farts have to be the worst of all. They invade one’s space and rape the shit out of your most sensitive senses. Oh, you can scream and you can cry, you can even beg it to stop, but it won’t, not ever! Your fine, pure-breed pedigree pooch will lie there on its back, its legs rigid and its ass pointing in your direction. You should wonder, how is it that the mutt happens to always be pointing in the right direction during the gaseous evacuation? Coincidence? I think not! I put it to you that he is proud and feels the need to share. His fart will just sit there lingering, burning even the hair in your nose. My God! Even your eyes will attempt to hide from that foul odor.
If you’re particularly blessed and have a pooch that indulges in anything it comes across, from a rotting mouse to four-week-old pizza, just to really turn your stomach, your dear four-legged friend might even chow down on a solid piece of dog shit, sometimes even swallowing it in one go. If that’s your dog, then you’re not alone, and you have my sympathy. So, having summed that up nicely, you should really appreciate the onslaught on my senses during the attack.
I had finally managed to open the door as far as it could open but soon began to slide backwards. I didn’t have the grip to be able to fight against their continual resistance. My back had been turned, but I heard Joe and the others make their way past me and toward the freedom that was so close. I guess it was fitting that they should survive while I had been given the chance to make a difference to their lives. I was happy with that. Finally, and for reasons I had yet to understand and probably never would, I had done something meaningful and good. I had changed in so many ways that, had my mother survived, she would not know the man before her.
Knives slashed and stabbed; a cleaver struck downwards at an angle, cutting deeply into one zombie’s neck. It immediately lost control over its arms, which flopped by its sides, becoming motionless. Its knees gave way and the beast collapsed. As it fell to the floor, the zombie continued its howling but was now paralyzed and was no longer a menace to anyone.
A skewer slid past my left ear, close enough for me to be concerned about accidental piercings, but not close enough to draw blood. I watched with glee as it entered the second zombie’s nostril, forcing the zombie’s head backwards. Its head slammed against the prison wall behind it, and it roared in anger or agony—I don’t know which. As the delicate hand pushed the skewer ever deeper into the nasal cavity of the doomed zombie, it passed deep into the thing’s already partially dead brain. The skewer had been pushed with a strength lent by passion and anger. The steel spike penetrated the zombie’s brain and broke through the brain casing, striking the wall with a thud. This zombie died—again, I guess—and for a few seconds it remained standing with its head tilted backwards. Death had come instantly and permanently this time.
As it fell away, landing on top of the first zombie, its lifeless form now hindered the struggles of the third zombie, which was desperately seeking my flesh to feed upon. I looked over my left shoulder directly into Lucy’s smoldering eyes. She smiled back, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end as I once again felt my foundations give way and wanted, with all my soul, to fall into hers. To say I became charged is an understatement; I felt fucking fantastic!
I turned my mind back to the lone zombie that currently and desperately sought my attention. Grabbing it by its hair in the same manner that I had dealt with Sandra, I now did so with this overzealous zombie. Its head was slightly larger than Sandra’s, causing its skull to audibly crack as it passed through the gap between the bars. In frustration, it wailed and roared, but I wasn’t finished yet—not by a fucking mile! I grabbed one arm at a time and, levering it against the steel bars in the door, I snapped each one in turn. The zombie roared in anger. Unable to use its arms any longer, it snapped its mouth open and closed, causing several teeth to crack and break. Dark blood seeped from the self-inflicted wounds and poured out from its mouth. Green viscous fluid oozed and mixed with congealing blood as the beast continued to bite at me, still only inches away from my head.
I looked over my right shoulder and expected to see Joe wielding the cleaver that had almost beheaded the first zombie. Instead, Violet stood there, empowered and looking twenty years younger. I must have appeared shocked as she responded to my questioning gaze.
“Guessed you might need a hand! Are you going to stand there forever, sonny?” Violet added with a seemingly cheeky grin.
She knew something but was apparently happy enough to keep it to herself for the time being.
I turned away from the door and was just about to make my way toward the exit when Lucy hit me with her body. She pressed against me, and her hands found my head. With more than an ounce of force, she held my face and drew it down to meet hers. Our lips touched, and when they touched, oh God! When they touched, fire and passion burnt between us; it was beyond reality. I wanted to devour her, to swallow her whole, every iota; I wanted to be in her and she in me. The pain and anguish of desire was almost too much to bear. I had to have her!
Lucy drew back from the embrace. The look on her face was one of confusion and bewilderment as she backed away further, then ran for the exit. Violet placed a hand on my shoulder, and we shared a moment before she too drew away, but not before she deposited a single sentence with me. Violet looked at me, then gripped my upper arms with a strength unusual for her generation.
“Blaine,” she said. “I think you have a fan!”
The echoing sounds of destruction reached us while echoing from deep within the prison. In the distance I could imagine the zombie hordes massing for their next attack and heading for our location. It was only after long moments that I finally made out what had caused the commotion. The washroom door had finally collapsed against the weight of a thousand zombies that had pressed themselves into the relatively small space. The door hit the opposing wall, and the partially liquefied remains of a thousand zombies flooded from the doorway into the corridor in a macabre scene not dissimilar to the elevator scene in The Cabin in the Woods. Body parts not larger than a hand flowed into the corridor space, creating a mini-tsunami of the spilt and liquidated. From the depths of the prison, I heard a zombie’s call to arms. The call came from far further than the washroom though.
Looking back to Violet, I met her gaze. She had obviously heard the same horrific howl coming from deeper within the prison.
“I think we outstayed our welcome, sonny. Would you mind giving an old lady a little assistance?” Violet said with a warm smile.
Pulling the steel door to and relocking it, I hoped it might award us a few minutes as the new horde forced their way through this last barricade between us and freedom.
“Of course! Let’s get outta here,” I responded.
And with Violet, I pursued Lucy down the corridor toward the ever-darkening exit. From behind we could hear the approaching horde. It wouldn’t be long before they hit the temporary barricade. The question on both our minds was; how long would it take to break it from its hinges?. As we approached the massive hole in the wall, I could see both Lucy and Hen
ry beside the closest SUV looking our way, while Joe seemed to be searching for something—probably the keys, I guessed. Violet must have been reading my mind as we approached the massive hole in the wall.
“Wow, sonny, did you do that?” she asked incredulously.
“No, it was like that when I came down here the first time,” I responded. “No idea how it happened!”
“Hey, look. Henry and Lucy are waving!” Violet said, and waved back at the young woman and her husband.
I saw them waving, but that was no friendly “Hi, there” wave; that was something else. Given where we were and our situation, and given the fact that a thousand zombies were currently fully employed in seeking us out and ensuring our destruction, I hazarded a guess that we had a new surprise heading our way. With difficulty, I picked up my pace and ran to the SUV where both Lucy and Henry stood waiting for us. Joe punched the air, when all of a sudden the vehicle spurted into life. He revved the engine a few more times before letting it idle. I reached the SUV and dropped Violet beside Henry. She immediately hugged her husband.
“God, I was worried sick! Are you okay, honey pie?” Henry asked with real concern.
“I’m fine, you old codger. Had to go back and help the young ’uns out of a tight spot!” she offered, and purposely omitted the gruesome details of her actions of only a few minutes ago.
“Move it!” Joe yelled with a voice full of terror and anxiety. “Get into the fucking car now!”
Probably not the best or wisest decision is to ignore lifesaving advice—in this case offered by Joe—and instead turn to take a look at why he offered this advice in the first place. Needless to say, my curiosity had been piqued and required that it be sated by turning to face whatever he was hollering about.
The hordes were twofold as they came. One charged—well, to be accurate, they charged off the roof, landing on the concrete slabs with sickening thuds. At first I thought this was really not a problem, as they would not retain their mobility after landing so badly. However, they began piling on top of each other, thereby providing a soft and comfortable platform for the rest to hit at speed. They did so of course without the adverse effects normally associated with bone coming into contact with concrete at a high velocity. The second horde now came pouring out of the collapsed prison wall. They teemed, and I realized very quickly that we had only minutes, or even seconds, to spare and make good our escape.
The howling intensified when the zombie hordes locked on to me and started their final approach on a vector heading directly toward me. A howling much closer to me than I would have expected literally caused me to jump right out of my skin as Lucy screamed at me from behind. Joe had meanwhile started the SUV, loaded up Henry, Violet, and Lucy, and positioned the car with its off-side passenger door right beside me. Turning back to the car, I found Lucy leaning on a partially rolled-down window and yelling that I ought to get in the car immediately or I’d find her shoe wedged in my butt so far that I’d be tasting shoe polish for a week. I yielded to her threat. It sounded far too painful even for me, and besides, I really disliked its taste.
She swung open the SUV’s door to let me in. Leaning out, she screamed, “C’mon, let’s go!”
Joe had the SUV in gear, with his foot hovering above the accelerator pedal. He had seen the two hordes swarm together at the base of the building. The sinking feeling in his chest hit home when he noticed the zombie horde lock on to the SUV’s position. Noting this to himself, Joe realized that if he did not make a break for it now, he would probably end up being the zombies’ next tasty morsel. It was for this reason that when Lucy screamed “C’mon, let’s go!,” he reacted by slamming his foot down on the pedal, causing the vehicle to lurch forward.
Lucy lost her balance and was flung out of the car door from her precarious perch. She hit the grass facedown, almost breaking her small but perfectly formed nose, she wondered briefly what the hell had just happened while her brain tried to figure out what she was doing face down. Dazed, she felt herself being lifted off the ground. Opening her eyes, she saw the ground rushing past at an unbelievable rate and a pair of legs and feet pounding away faster than they had a right to. Each pounding of the feet on grass caused the air to be pushed from her lungs, and she realized that she had been slung over someone’s shoulder.
She strained to look up and wished that she had not, for the sight that welcomed her was one that caused sheer terror. Hundreds of zombies were in hot pursuit of her and whoever was carrying her. The closest was now almost on top of them. As the zombie grasped for its fleeing meal, its outstretched hands grabbed at thin air only inches from Lucy’s upturned face. Lucy managed to focus on the seemingly Olympic-class runner that was the closing zombie. If the fact that a zombie was within nail-biting range was not enough, then the realization and recognition of who that zombie was would ensure that she’d relive these moments for the rest of her days, and especially her nights, in utter horror. It was none other than Necktie Eddie, the man she had put to death yesterday, the man that had taken her parents’ lives. Was this some kind of cosmic revenge or karmic eye-for-an-eye justice?
“What sort of fucked-up universe is this?” she mumbled to herself as she let her head drop.
I felt Lucy stir as I ran with all the energy I could spare, but I was flagging. My leg muscles burned with the effort, and my chest heaved as it battled to draw oxygen from the air to fuel our escape. I dared a look over my shoulder and saw just how close my pursuer was. It was just out of arm’s reach, but not by much. I’d collapse from exhaustion way before these zombies. They did not need air to breathe nor food to eat; they didn’t feel pain or exhaustion. They would continue until their bodies had nothing more to give, but until then they would just . . . keep . . . on . . . going!
The SUV had come to a stop several hundred yards distant. God only knew why Joe gave me that distance to run. Hell! God only knew why he had dashed off like that in the first place. If I made it, I’d be sure to ask him nice and gentle like.
The zombie horde still pursued. However, they were some way back now, which afforded me the time to deal with the single monster on my tail. We were closing the distance to the SUV when I decided to take a dive. While ensuring that Lucy was thrown to the side, avoiding any possible contact with the zombie, I rolled and spun to face it. I recognized the zombie in front of me: Necktie Eddie was his name. I was far too versed in my trade to allow a moment’s delay to hinder my actions. Eddie flung himself forward with unimaginable speed, almost catching me off guard as I dodged to his left and slammed both my fists into the base of his neck. As he went down to the ground, I followed behind him closely, landing on his back, and began pounding the back of his skull with punches. Eddie didn’t even seem to notice my weight as he flipped me off his back and onto the grass as if I were a two-year-old. He scrambled toward me, landing on top, and brought his primary weapon to bear: his teeth. I gripped both his wrists and was able to keep his gnashing teeth away from my face. Saliva and a viscous green fluid poured from his gaping mouth, missing me narrowly. I noticed the horde was rapidly closing the distance toward us. Over my other shoulder I saw the SUV in the distance begin its U-turn and head toward us. Good, I thought. Lucy’s safe!
I figured that as long as she was safe, then I could die a happy man. Already she had awakened something deep inside me, something that had never seen the light of day, nor even night for that matter.
Digging deep into the reservoir that fueled my heart and my will to live, I collected my remaining reserves and released Eddie’s wrists. His hands immediately sought out my throat, while I pushed mine with as much speed as I could muster. They shot inward and managed to grip both Eddie’s upper and lower jaw, and with everything I had in my reserves, I pulled his teeth apart. I felt the bones start to give way to the awful pressure I applied, and as his hands found their target, I sensed the time remaining to me in this world would soon be at an end. But before his jaw broke, Eddie’s head was ripped from my grip as it flew
away from me, along with the rest of his body. He lay sprawled on the grass, unmoving and apparently dead. With Eddie now disengaged from my neck, I looked up to see a bloody but beautiful face with burning eyes. She winked at me as she spun the steel bar that had been used to dispatch Eddie so effectively.
“So? You want a ride?” she asked as she ran her fingers through her hair.
Getting to my feet, I looked down to Eddie’s corpse, then back to Lucy.
“Finally got your man, eh?” I asked as I brushed off my trousers.
“In more ways than one, I think!” she replied, then added, “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!” Then she blinked once in what I can only describe as a downright provocative way before opening the door to the SUV that had arrived as I fought with Eddie. “C’mon. Unless you wanna stay with your buddies?”
Looking back over my shoulder, I contemplated my options quickly, then followed Lucy and leaped into the SUV. Turning around to check on our pursuers, I saw that the horde had stopped running now and were instead slowly making their way toward us. For a moment I wondered why, and it occurred to me that perhaps Eddie’s demise was a contributing factor. Or perhaps not. Who knows? Maybe if I live long enough, I will get to answer a few of these questions.
Death Row Apocalypse Page 23
