by Ivan Turner
“Goodbye, Peter,” she said, turning away. “Good luck.”
He looked at her, then again at his bloody hand. Then he charged at her. But he was weak and she was fully prepared. Turning nonchalantly, she shoved the taser into his belly and watched with a satisfied smirk and he went to the floor in a heap of uncontrollable flesh.
***
When Heron finally made it around the front of the building, they were loading Shawn into one ambulance and Marcus into another. There were police cars and vans everywhere. There were regular police as well as his own men. There was a big crowd of nervous spectators that they had corralled into the middle of the street. Zombie cops with rifles were firing upon a group that had come around the opposite side of the building. It was a group similar in size to the group that had attacked Heron. Apparently, someone had freed the stock.
Spinelli came up to him and gave him a quick report that he didn’t even hear. They hadn’t moved inside the building yet, but it was imminent. It suddenly occurred to him that he had left Smith behind while in pursuit of Shawn. Looking around, he spotted him close to the entrance, giving orders to some of the squad members preparing to enter the arena. Heron went up to him.
“You look like shit, Lieutenant.”
Heron nodded. “Are you okay? I’m sorry.”
“Don’t sweat it. The kid was your priority. I had a run-in with Culph, though. He got away with my gun.”
Heron dismissed it with a wave. “He saved my life. He’s earned his head start.”
While glad that he wasn’t being held accountable, he didn’t exactly share Heron’s opinion of the situation.
“Lieutenant?” Heron turned to see a uniformed patrolman coming toward him. Following close behind was Abby. “This lady says she knows you.”
“Anthony, what happened?” she asked him.
He looked at her and wondered. Why was she there? Why had she brought him there? He shook his head and addressed the officer. “Do you have a car?”
Confused, the man nodded. “Take her home.”
“Please, Anthony,” Abby said. “I need to…”
He shoved his hand into her face. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear anything tonight. Just go home to your family and explain it to them. You can explain it to me tomorrow.”
“Sir,” the officer said. “I can’t really just…”
Heron glared at him. “I said drive her home. Abby, you text me when you get there.”
Without further argument, the two of them walked off. Abby hesitated and looked back twice, but the policeman urged her forward. He didn’t like taking orders, especially from someone who wasn’t even his commander. But the zombie task force was the flavor of the month and Heron, as their lieutenant, was a big shot. Better to do what he said and deal with his own captain later.
“Are you okay?” Smith asked Heron as he began rubbing at his eyes and cheeks.
“I need to go, Greg. Can you clean this mess up? I know you have a home to go to also, but I don’t think I can… I just…”
“It’s all right, lieutenant,” Smith said, patting Heron on the shoulder. “You go and get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Heron shuddered. Tomorrow.
He walked the two blocks to his car. The entire perimeter was loaded with cops. Never in the history of the Bronx has those streets ever been safer. Getting in and turning it over, he rolled down the window despite the frigid air and peeled away from the curb. He started off toward home, but found himself changing course along the way. Before he knew it he was in Manhattan and pulling up in front of his headquarters. He walked in, nodded solemnly to the man at the front desk, and went for the elevator. The night’s events would generate a whole lot of paperwork but he didn’t go to his office. Instead he went to the basement. There was still a guard posted by Linda’s cage. Heron found a sleepy young man who didn’t have enough seniority to get out of that crappy shift. Heron dismissed him, but told him to hang around in case he decided he wanted to go home. When the man was out of earshot, the lieutenant pulled up a chair and sat four feet from the cage. For a while, he just stared in at Linda and she stared back at him.
“We killed a lot of zombies tonight,” he told her. “How many of them, do you suppose, were like you? You know. Special.”
She didn’t answer. She just stared at him.
“I didn’t want to hurt them,” he told her. “But they were attacking me. That makes it self defense, right? But they don’t know any better, do they? They’re just hungry is all. But not you. You know better. Why do you know better?”
He paused for a bit, just staring at her. Breathing. Then, "I won't hurt you, though, Linda. I won't let them get you."
He stayed like that for a long time, just looking at her and saying something every once in a while. And all the while, she just stared at him with her dead eyes, never moving, never even blinking. In the background, the young officer watched as Heron finally stopped talking and, resting his elbows on his knees, dipped his face into his hands. As each new guard came on duty, the last one pointed out the lone figure by the cage. No one could tell whether or not he was sleeping, but they were afraid to disturb him. So they left him and he sat like that until the sun touched the sky on Saturday morning.
***
“Thank you,” Abby said to the young officer as he pulled up in front of her home. “I’m sorry to be such trouble.”
“It’s no trouble at all, ma’am.”
But she knew better. All the way back to her apartment, he’d sulked. She wasn’t sure whether he was upset at having been asked to play chauffer or having been forced from the scene of the action. Either way, she felt a little bad.
Getting out of the car, she sent Heron a quick text, to which he never responded.
Waving to the officer, she walked into the building and started up the stairs. She saw the cruiser’s lights go on as it pulled away.
As Abby took the stairs, one at a time, she felt the fatigue grow inside of her. It was as if each step drained not only her physical strength but her strength of will as well. Halfway up, she remembered Peter and Melissa and pulled out her phone. She tried to call Peter but he didn’t pick up. She didn’t have a number for Melissa. In fact, she wasn’t even sure that Melissa had a cell phone. Well, it was too late to do anything about it. She sent Heron another text, asking him to be on the lookout for them, and then almost completed her journey up to the front door.
Martin was standing there leaning against the door frame. “I saw the police car's lights,” he said. "Where've you been?"
She stood three steps down, just staring up at him. She couldn't bear the look in his eyes, the accusing tone of his voice. Sometimes, Martin seemed a shell of the man she’d married. Responsibility and unemployment had taken its toll on him. But she knew that he had just learned to reserve his strength. And he was as strong as ever. He was the most solid and reliable person she had ever known. Their marriage had brought her a stability that she had always craved without even realizing it. Their arguments in the past had been superficial, but this… She had lied to him. She had shut him out. She had turned her back on him. And where it had landed her? He’d been right about everything. She couldn’t defeat her demons by facing them in this way. She was kidding herself.
She and Peter both.
And this realization took the very last of her resolve and crushed it beneath its heel. She collapsed in a heap right there on the stairs and began to sob into the worn carpet. Martin didn’t hesitate. He went to her side, sat on the steps with her and enfolded her in his arms. He kissed the top of her head and said there, there, love over and over again.
If it weren’t for Martin's forgiveness, Abby Benjamin might have been lost that night. Through it all, she had known that she had walked out on him and understood that she deserved it if she lost him forever. But she hadn’t. He was there for her. He would always be there for her. So that night, while everyone else around her fell apart, Abby
Benjamin was saved.
***
At some point during the night, while the police were cleaning out the inside of the warehouse and taking statements from the remnants of the crowd, and collecting the bodies of the zombies that had found their way around the front, the body of John Arrick jerked once and came to life. Mindless, driven by nothing more than a need to feed, it lurched to its feet, swayed for a moment, and then wandered away in search of its first meal of human flesh.
***
Next month, Smith and Naughton intervene on behalf of the crumbling Anthony Heron. But while the lieutenant is taking a few days off and regrouping with his family, the zombies are pressing ever harder toward their final domination of New York City. Visit the best and worst parts of the city next month in Zombies! Episode 8: The Good, the Bad, and the Zombie
***
If you like these books, please show your appreciation and make them known to others by reviewing them. A few stars and a couple of kind words puts them in the spotlight.
Spread the infection! If you like this series, please recommend it to friends and family and other lovers of zombie stories. Writers put words on paper, but readers bring those words to life.
Have questions or comments for the author? Send me an email at [email protected]. You can also look me up on facebook or start following me on twitter. Your comments are always welcome!
***
Be sure to check out what happens when the Jury starts punishing people for their crimes in past lives and sets their sites on a rabbi who is believed to have been Adolf Hitler in The Book of Revelations, available for all your reading devices from all of your ebook stores.
For an epic (and involuntary) journey through time at a breakneck pace, join Mathew Cristian as he narrates his adventures as a Forty Leaper. Forty Leap is available for all your reading devices from all of your ebook stores. Read the first half for free.
