Zombie D.O.A. Series Four: The Complete Series Four

by JJ Zep

  She turned away, walked back across the roof with Julie following behind. Be ready to leave when Joe gets here, she’d told Julie, but where was Joe? Was he even still alive?

  ***

  If he’d had more time, Joe would have timed his jump better. As it was, the Z’s were at his back, even as he made the leap from the building. He felt one of them grasp for him, its bony fingers snagging his jacket, preventing him from gaining the distance he would have liked.

  For a moment he felt as though he were suspended in mid-air, hovering above the parking lot and the certain death that waited below. He flailed with arms and legs hoping to gain an extra half-inch. The harness swung towards him, moving torturously slow and he threw out a hand towards it, fingers grasping. The pull of gravity drew him earthward. His fingertips brushed at the rough canvas loop, gained a tenuous hold. Then the harness dropped away from him as the helicopter made a sudden downward swoop. Joe felt himself falling, the harness below him, drifting away. He grabbed instead for the rope, got a grip and felt it slice immediately to the bones of his fingers. Pain flared in his hand but he clung on, hooked his free hand through the loop, closed the fingers of his damaged left hand around the wrist of his right. Blood welled from the wounded fingers and ran down his wrist. He got his head through the harness and felt the canvas bite into his armpit. The rope looped out in a wild swing, but the chopper was still descending, the upturned faces of the Z’s below racing up to meet him.

  “Oh shit!” Joe cried out, as their grasping hands reached for him. He felt for a moment as though he could walk across them, stepping on their heads. Then the combination of the ascending helicopter and the electrical winch drew him away from them. He was hurled skyward, still swinging wildly at the end of the rope, his mutilated fingers throbbing. But he was alive, goddamn it. He was alive!

  ten

  “Have you got him?” Chris shouted over the roar of the engines. Justine, standing in the block of darkness at the door said nothing. She had one hand on the rope and was leaning out, a safety harness holding her in place. Her free hand held a pistol.

  “Justine! Have you got him?” Chris shouted again.

  This time she turned towards him, a smile playing on her lips. “Yeah, we got him,” she said. “Touch and go there for a minute, but we hooked the big ol’ fish.” She indicated with her gun towards Hooley. “You,” she said. “Hooley, right? Bring me a couple of those cable ties from that box over there.”

  Hooley wavered a moment, looked at Chris.

  “Don’t look at him, look at me,” Justine said. The good humor suddenly leached from her voice. “I said bring me a couple of cable ties. You want me to cut your friend loose?” She placed a hand on the release catch of the winching mechanism.

  Hooley was on his feet in an instant. “Okay miss,” he said. “Settle down now. I’ll do like you say.” He shuffled to the box, dug around in it, shuffled across the fuselage towards Justine. “Here you go.”

  “No,” Justine said. “You hold onto that. And come over here. You get to do the honors of hauling your buddy Joe on board.” She unhooked the latch on the safety harness, backed away, keeping the gun on Hooley.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” she said. “The minute Joe steps on board, you’re going to fix his hands behind his back. Then you sit him in the seat right there next to Ruby and clip a harness on him. You got that?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Hooley said.

  “Good. And you make those bonds nice and snug because I’ll check. You try any shit with me, like not making them tight enough, giving him a chance to escape, and I’ll push you overboard. Comprender?”

  Hooley nodded.

  “On second thoughts,” Justine said. “Scrap that. You mess with me and I’m going to teach Ruby here how to fly.”

  Hooley said nothing, clipped himself into the safety harness and leaned out. “Almost here,” he shouted into the fuselage. Then, talking into the darkness. “Hey, Joe! Hey old-timer! You doin’ a-right? How you doin’ buddy?”

  Joe’s head and shoulders appeared in the doorway. Hooley leaned out towards him, going down on one knee and getting an arm around Joe’s shoulders. “Holy crap, pardner, you’re bleeding!” He turned towards Justine. “He’s bleeding.”

  “He been bitten?” Justine said, and when Hooley didn’t reply immediately. “Has he been bitten?”

  “I ain’t been bit,” Joe said, clambering on board. “Goddamn rope cut me, that’s all.” He staggered to his feet shrugged himself out of the harness. Behind him Hooley slid the fuselage door shut, cutting off the roar from outside. Joe did a quick scan of the cabin. “Hey Chris,” he said. “Thought we’d lost you.”

  “Joe,” Chris said. He was glad to see Joe, of course, but right now they had a situation to deal with. The chopper was headed north, likely towards White Plains. From there they were going to be transported to Pendleton, that much was certain. Except he wasn’t going, not with Kelly and his kids left behind. Which meant he’d have to escape. But the bonds were tight on his wrists, and with the safety harness pinning him to the seat he was pretty much trapped.

  Joe turned towards Justine, took a step forward.

  “Stand right there, Joe,” Justine said. “Holly’s going to put some bracelets on you.”

  “That’s Hooley, ma’am.”

  “Whatever.”

  “What’s this about, Justine?” Joe said. Chris could see blood dripping from Joe’s mutilated hand, pooling on the floor.

  “You don’t know, Joe? It’s what it’s always been about. I’m taking you back to Pendleton, you and Chris and Ruby.”

  “It’s over, Justine. Don’t you see that? You don’t have to do this.”

  “Oh, but I do, Joe. Duty and all that, I’m sure you understand.”

  “Duty? Duty to who exactly? Marcus Pendragon?”

  “To an ideal, Joe. To the idea of putting the world right again. Now, I’d love to stand here discussing this with you but to tell you the truth, the idea of you loose in here is making me just a little bit nervous. Would you mind putting your hands behind your back, Joe? So Hooley can do the honors.”

  “His hand’s pretty cut up,” Hooley said. “Reckon we could do with binding it.”

  “It’ll keep till we get to White Plains. Joe’s a tough old boy, teensy weensy cut’s not going to bother him too much. Ain’t that right, Joe?”

  “Okay Justine,” Joe said, holding up his hands. “You win. I’m not going to give you any trouble. But I do need to ask a favor.”

  “A favor, Joe?” Justine chuckled. “What makes you think you’re in a position to ask for favors?”

  “Not for me,” Joe said. “For Kelly.”

  eleven

  “How’s she doing?” Ana said.

  Janet looked over her shoulder, the harsh light of the hurricane lamp making her face look even more drawn than it was. The lamp cast long shadows across the ceiling, giving the scene the look of some twenties horror movie. The smell was of blood and fever, despite the overlying scent of disinfectant and the thorough job Janet and Ferret had done of scrubbing up.

  “She’s resting,” Janet said, mopping at Kelly’s brow. “That’s the best we can ask for right now.” Kelly lie on the bed beside her mother, a clean sheet drawn over her protruding belly. At least they’d managed to staunch the blood flow, Ana saw. That was good. But if they had to move her… Ana didn’t want to think about that, but she had to raise the issue. The fire was still advancing and, more alarmingly, it was accelerating, driven on by a stiff breeze that was now blowing in from the northeast.

  “Janet,” she said. “You’ve heard about the fire?”

  Janet nodded. “Julie told me.”

  “Then you know that it’s still moving towards us, picking up speed as a matter of fact. You know that –”

  “I’m not leaving,” Janet cut in.

  “I can understand why you’d say that,” Ana said, trying to keep her voice as calm and as soothing as possible.
“But the thing is, Janet. If the fire reaches us, and it will, I can assure you, this building’s going to go up like a pile of dry kindling, with us inside.”

  “I’m not leaving,” Janet said. “Not without my daughter.”

  Here was the crux. Here Ana had to make her point emphatically. “I’m not asking you to do that, Janet,” she said. “I’d never, ever consider leaving Kelly behind. We’ve fashioned a stretcher. Strangler and Carlito can –”

  “Can what? Carry her out of here to safety? That’s not going to happen Ana and you know it. How long do you think Kelly’s going to last out there?”

  “There’s a chance at least, Janet, a chance. We stay here and there’s no chance at all. We’ll be burnt alive.”

  Janet seemed to consider that for a moment. Then she turned towards Ana and her face was calm, serene even. “Here’s what I want you to do Ana,” she said. “When that fire gets close enough, when you have to leave, I want you to go.”

  Ana started to protest, but Janet held up a hand to stop her. “I want you to take my grandchildren with you. Get them to safety, Ana. God-willing their father will find them, will find you. If he’s still alive that is.”

  Kelly stirred on the bed. Her face pinched suddenly into a grimace of pain. “Mom,” she whispered in a voice so hoarse and dry it was barely recognizable as hers.

  “I’m here, sweetheart.”

  “Is Chris back from the gym yet?”

  Janet looked towards Ana. A tear spilled over and ran down her cheek.

  “No he isn’t, sweetheart. But he will be soon, I promise.”

  twelve

  If there was a hell it looked something like this, Joe decided. The city was ablaze. A wall of flame being pushed roughly southwest, engulfing everything between Harlem and the northern reaches of Central Park, right down to the Reservoir. Huge pillars of black smoke spiraled towards a sky turned red by the reflected flames. A number of buildings had fallen, others teetered like bonfires about to collapse, then gave way as the intense heat melted their metal super-structures. The fire was been driven by a northeasterly wind - that much was obvious from the path it was taking. The east side of the island, from somewhere around Madison or Park Avenue, was largely untouched. What worried Joe most was the southern front of the firestorm. That hovered at the moment around 81st Street and had begun to take hold at the Natural History Museum. The apartment building was just two blocks away.

  “There,” Joe said. “The tallest building on Columbus between 74th and 75th, about halfway down the block. That’s the one.”

  “Okay,” Justine said to the pilot. “Put her down on the roof.” She turned towards Joe. “You’d better not be fucking with me Joe, or you’ll wish you hadn’t. Now, let’s get you back to your seat.”

  She pushed the barrel of the machine pistol into Joe’s side and prodded him back towards the cabin. “Good news folks,” she said, stepping through. Looks like we’re going to make it. Joe, why don’t you take a seat?” She prodded him again and Joe crossed to the seat next to Hooley and dropped into it. Holding the gun on him, Justine reached over and popped the catch on Hooley’s harness.

  “Up,” she said, spinning Hooley around, and producing a knife, seemingly from nowhere, to snip through his bonds. Hooley instantly started rubbing at his wrists. Justine placed her hand on his back and pushed him forward. “How about you fix that safety harness on Joe. I’d hate for him to meet with an accident or anything.”

  Hooley busied himself with the task, then stepped back. Justine motioned him into the seat beside Joe. “Listen up,” she said. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Hooley here is my go-to guy. The minute we touch down on the roof, Hooley, I want you to scurry down to wherever you’ve got your people holed up. You have ten minutes to bring Kelly to the rooftop. Ten minutes, understand? You don’t make it back in that time, we take off without you.”

  “Kelly will need carrying,” Joe said. “Not sure that ten minutes will be enough.”

  “Be that as it may, ten minutes is what you’ve got.” She turned back to Hooley. “Get a couple of your men to carry her, if you must. But they come unarmed. I see weapons, I see any attempt at bravado, and I order the pilots out of here. Got that?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Hooley said.

  The helicopter banked into its approach. For a moment Joe had a view of the inferno raging below, figures running in the streets, some of them lit up like human torches. They weren’t human though, they were Z’s, he was sure of it.

  “What about my kids?” Chris said.

  “No room Chris, sorry.”

  “Course, there’s room, Joe said. “This bird will carry twelve, fourteen easily.”

  “And burn fuel doing it,” Justine said. “There’s no room for anyone else unless I drop a few of you off. Any volunteers?”

  “I’ll stay,” Joe said instantly, eliciting a chuckle from Justine.

  “Not going to happen, Joe,” she said. “Only two I’m prepared to consider are Hooley and Doctor Death over there. What do you say, Hooley? Want to be a martyr?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Hooley said. “I was planning on jumping ship anyways. No way, no how, I’m leaving my wife behind.”

  thirteen

  Ana opened the door a crack and peered inside. She indicated for Carlito and Strangler to wait, then slipped into the room, closing the door behind her. She hesitated a moment, drew a breath. Kelly lay on the bed, seemingly asleep. Janet sat in a chair beside her, eyes closed, a rosary held loosely in her hand. For a moment, Ana was sure that Janet was asleep too, but then she noticed that her lips were moving and that she was working the rosary beads between her fingers as she prayed.

  Ana had gone over and over in her mind what she was going to say to Janet. Now that the moment was here, the words dried up in her mouth. One thing was certain. She wasn’t leaving Kelly behind. If she had to bring in Carlito and Strangler to force the issue, she would. First, though, she was going to try to reason with Janet.

  She took a tentative step. “Janet?”

  “I know why you’re here, Ana,” Janet said without opening her eyes. “We’re not leaving.”

  “But –”

  “Kelly can’t be moved. It will kill her. We both know that. Besides, we’d only slow you down and put my grandchildren’s lives at risk. I won’t do that.” She opened her eyes now and Ana was amazed at the serene expression on her face. “Go now, get the kids to safety. Find Chris if you can. Leave us.”

  Everything Janet said was true of course, but Ana wasn’t going to do it. No one was being left behind. “The fire’s only a couple of blocks away,” she said.

  “Exactly why you should get going.”

  “I’m not leaving without you, Janet.”

  Janet was suddenly on her feet. “Go for God’s sake! Go! Get my grandchildren out of here!”

  “No!” Ana said, “Not without you and Kelly.”

  Janet was sobbing now, her face contorted. “Please Ana, please just go.”

  For a moment, Ana almost wavered. Then that moment was gone. Her heart went out to Janet, knew what she must be going through. But staying here was suicide and Ana wasn’t going to stand by and let that happen. She swung the door open. “Strangler, Carlito, get in here!”

  “What’s happening?” Kelly said, sitting up in the bed.

  “We’re getting out of here, Kel. We’ve made a stretcher for you. It’s time to go.” Carlito and Strangler pushed into the room carrying the makeshift litter they’d constructed from a camp bed.

  “No!” Janet said. “We are not going. Please Ana, don’t do this. Don’t!”

  Ana ignored her. Arguing the issue was only going to waste time. She turned towards Carlito. “You guys going to stand there with your thumbs up your asses, or you going to get going?”

  “Please don’t do this,” Janet continued to wail. Ana walked across, put her arms around Janet, smoothed her hair. Over Janet’s shoulder she could see Carlito and Strangler pull back the bed
clothes from Kelly’s bed, then gently lift her and slide the stretcher under her before covering her again with the sheet and the extra blankets they’d brought with them.

  Julie appeared in the doorway, dressed for travel, a rifle slung over her shoulder. “We’re ready to roll whenever you are,” she said.

  She’d barely got the words out when there was a commotion in the corridor.

  “Grammy! Grammy Capshaw!”

  Janet tensed in Ana’s embrace, pulled away, turned towards the door where Samantha had just pushed past Julie. “Grammy!” she said. “It’s Hooley!”

  fourteen

  The roar of the helicopter was thunderous, the blast of wind being pushed into the fuselage arctic, carrying with it also the acrid smell of smoke. From beyond came the snarl of flame, the crash and rumble of collapsing buildings, the banshee howl of wind. It had begun snowing too, the blizzard of snowflakes rendered luminous by the chopper’s lights, whipped into a maelstrom by its rotors. Chris barely noticed these things. His full attention was focused on the metal door that allowed access from the building onto the rooftop. It seemed like hours since Hooley had disappeared through that gap.

  “Your man Hooley’s cutting this fine,” Justine said, consulting her watch. “Another minute and we’re out of here.”

  “You’re not leaving without Kelly,” Chris said, not looking at her, his eyes fixed firmly on the door.

  “Ten minutes, Chris. That’s what I said.”

  “You’re not leaving without her, Justine. You try and so help me God, I’ll kill you.”

  Justine chuckled. “And how exactly do you propose to do that, by telepathy? Far as I know that’s Ruby’s talent, not yours. Or at least it used to be. She’s all washed up now, isn’t she? Thirty seconds.”

  Chris looked over at his daughter, realizing for the first time how quiet she’d been during the helicopter flight. Ruby sat in the seat next to the doctor, her eyes closed, brow furrowed, as though concentrating hard on a problem that stubbornly refused to be solved.