by JJ Zep
He paused, lowered the bullhorn, scanned his gaze left to right, already taking stock. The numbers seemed to be weighted slightly towards women and children. The children, of course, would have to be cut, some of the women too, and the elderly. They were of no use to him.
“Many of you will be wondering what initiated these cataclysmic events. I myself have many unanswered questions. What I can tell you is this. The perpetrator of this vile attack on our city was the Pendragon Corporation, operating out of California. It was they who blew the barricades, friends, they who drew the zombie hordes into the city, they who have the blood of your loved ones on their hands.”
Scolfield wasn’t sure if his message was getting through. The crowd stood motionless, silent, intent. “The building behind me, is the Coler-Goldwater Hospital,” Scolfield continued. “You’ll be housed here over the next few days while my men and I take stock of the situation. This is for your own safety friends, so I’ll ask for your full co-operation.”
“Who the hell are you?” a voice called from the crowd.
Scolfield flashed his best politician’s smile. “I’m Marin Scolfield,” he said. “Right now I’m the only thing standing between you and the ravenous hordes over the river in Manhattan. So please, I ask again, let’s not make this anymore difficult than it needs to be.”
“What if we want to leave?” a voice called, the same voice, Scolfield realized. He glared into the massed ranks, hoping to find its source. He didn’t need troublemakers on his island.
“Those who want to leave and take their chances with the Z’s are free to do so. I ask only that you approach my men courteously and depart in an orderly fashion. Please don’t try swimming the river as some of your colleagues have done. Even if the hypothermia doesn’t get you, you’re almost certain to drown. The East River flows at close on four knots, friends. The lighthouse you see at the end was put there for a reason. Now, any more questions?”
“When do we eat?”
“A good question,” Scolfield chuckled. “My men are bringing in supplies from Queens as we speak. First though we need to get you folks settled in the hospital. It’s going to be a cold night.”
He placed the loudhailer on the roof of the cab, dropped onto the running board then vaulted to the ground, beckoning Eriksson towards him even as he landed. “The woman,” he said, “the one your men apprehended earlier. Take her up to the ICU.”
eight
“So you take Scolfield out with a sniper shot from distance, what about the Z’s?”
“The Corporation rolled into town broadcasting their radio signals from their Humvees. Those vehicles are scattered all over town, we light a few of those up and march the Z’s right out of here.”
Joe’s idea was solid, more than solid, it was brilliant in its simplicity. More to the point, it was low risk. For the first time, Chris actually believed that they might all get out of here alive.
“Still means we have to track down the varmint,” Hooley said. “Where’s the yellow bellied sum bitch likely to be holed up? City Hall?”
“Doubt it,” Joe said. “Those Z’s of his tore up the place pretty good, so he won’t be there. We’re going to have to lay low until dark, then hit the streets and see if we can track him. In the meanwhile, I thought I might try to find a perch, cast the glasses around and see if I can pick up anything.”
He turned to Ruby. “Want to join me, Rube? I could use your eyes up there.”
Ruby didn’t answer. She sat tensed, head cocked at an angle, brow furrowed in concentration.
“What is it, Ruby?” Chris said.
“Someone coming,” Ruby said. “You don’t hear that?”
Chris focused his hearing and at first picked nothing up. Then a sound reached him, the splutter-pop of an off-road motorcycle.
“What the hell?” Joe said rising into a crouch, the sniper rifle in his hand.
Ruby was already moving towards the mouth of the alley and Chris followed, jogging to keep up. The sound of the motorcycle was louder. Ruby peered around the corner into the street.
“Two of them,” she said over her shoulder. She turned to face Chris, her expression perplexed.
“What is it, Rube?”
“Dead Men,” Ruby said.
“What’s that?” Hooley said, reaching them just ahead of Joe. “I thought you said Dead Men.” He edged past Chris and popped his head around the corner.
“Son of a bitch!” Hooley spat as Joe yanked him back. “Them low-down, two-bit, people-eating sum bitches. Ain’t they got enough folks in Oklahoma to torment. What they doing this far out east?”
“More to the point, what are they doing in Manhattan?” Chris said. “Can’t see Scolfield inviting them in.”
“Not unless they’re working together,” Joe said, and Chris had barely had time to absorb that frightening thought when there was a burst of gunfire. Then the motorcycle engines were revved up and then killed. The silence that followed was supplanted by a terrified cry.
“Pleeeaassse!”
Chris dropped into a crouch, angled his head around the edge of the building. He had a view of the street where a young girl, no more than a teenager, cowered in the dirt. The two men hovering over her looked like giants by comparison.
“Please don’t hurt me. Pleeeassse!”
“Will you listen to that, Travis? Sounds like we got ourselves a screamer.”
“Fine set of lungs on her too, ain’t she?”
“Damn fine.”
“What’s going on?” Hooley said.
“Couple of bikers roughing up a girl,” Chris said over his shoulder.
“And we’re just going to stand by and let them do it?”
“Steady on there, big feller. We can’t afford to let them know we’re here.”
“Steady on, my patootie,” Hooley said. “I ain’t standing by for no Dead Men beating up on a kid. Never have and never will.” Before anyone could stop him he stepped from cover and walked briskly into the middle of the road.
“Hey! Hey dipshits! How about you boys quit grab-assing and polka with a man for a change?”
nine
Alex came to consciousness by degrees. The first thing she became aware of was the throbbing in her jaw, a dull ache that told her immediately that it had been dislocated. Next came the memory of how she’d acquired that particular injury, the guard raising the rifle butt and jabbing it into her face. Now she began to make sense of her surroundings, a long room with a row of beds against either wall, long shadows creeping up the off-white walls and across the ceiling, the pervading smell of damp and mustiness overlaying a subtle medicinal scent. She was in a hospital. Having slotted that piece of the puzzle into place a few other things started to make sense, she was lying in a bed, a couple of drip-lines running to the crook of her arm. She angled her head and could see two sachets attached to a frame, one containing a dark liquid, the other light. She squinted her eyes to get a better look at what those sachets contained, but already alarm bells were beginning to jangle. That feeling of unease gained traction as she tried to rise and felt the handcuff cut into her wrist. Now panic arrived fully-fledged. She yanked at the chain, heard it rattle against the metal frame of the cot.
“Hey!” she screeched. “Somebody! Get me the fuck out of here! Somebody!”
Her voice reverberated through the empty building, mocking her. “Hello? Who’s out there? You’d better let me loose, you hear me? I’m a personal friend of Marin Scolfield. You call Mr. Scolfield in here right now, you hear?”
If anyone was out there, they weren’t paying her any mind. Panic welled up again and she didn’t bother to still it. “Hey! You motherfuckers had better get your asses in here right now. Get in here right now! I’m not fucking around anymore!”
“Calm down, Alex.”
The voice, emanating from the darkness in the corner of the room, carried a familiar undertone of vague amusement.
“Marin?”
A stirring in the shadows, t
he creak of an ancient chair as he stood. She could make him out, his silhouette not quite as dark as the surroundings.
“Marin, oh thank God, it’s you. For a moment there…have you got the key to these cuffs? Those men, those filthy bikers, they attacked me Marin, beat and kicked me and then knocked me unconscious. I want them to pay, you hear me?”
“All in good time, my dear,” Marin said. He stepped into view, appearing from the dark like an apparition.
“All in good time? What do you mean, all in good time? I want out of here. Now!”
“Not possible, I’m afraid.”
“Not possible? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Alex, Alex, Alex,” Marin said. He’d reached the bedside, stood looking down at her like a patronizing parent. “You really don’t know what’s going on do you?”
“What’s going on is I’m chained to this bed. Let me loose.”
Scolfield examined the drips, adjusted the valves on them.
“Quit messing around,” Alex said. “I’m warning you.”
Scolfield let out a giggle that was somehow terrifying. “Aren’t you going to ask what’s in these drips?” he said.
“Blood and plasma,” Alex said. “Now, let me…” The realization hit her hard, so obvious now that the connection was made that she wondered why she hadn’t figured it out immediately. “You wouldn’t.”
“But why wouldn’t I, Alex? After all you’ve done to bring my plans to fruition, I can’t think of anyone more deserving.”
“No!”
“Congratulations, Alex. You’ll be the first of my new batch. You’ll be my Eve.”
ten
For a moment the two bikers seemed stunned, but only for a moment. Then they turned towards Hooley and their faces cracked into matching, black-toothed grins.
“Holy crap, Travis! It’s Hooley-fucking-Hoolihan.”
“Shee-it! Stevo, I believe you’re right. Hey Hooley, what’s up, pard? What you doing in these parts? Ain’t seen you in… what… two years? We figured you was dead. Ain’t that right, Stevo?”
“Like the man says. We figured the Z’s got you or maybe you ate a bullet after your wife and boy lit out and left you high and dry.”
Hooley looked across the twenty yards separating him from the two men. He recognized them both from his days back in Whelan, back when Vernon Pratt was still leading the Dead Men. Time hadn’t improved them much, neither in looks nor temperament.
“You boys let that little girl loose,” he said. “And there won’t be any trouble.”
“Trouble?” Steve said. “Hell, we don’t want no trouble, Hooley, specially not with a good ol’ boy like y’all.” He seemed to contemplate for a moment. “You want in on the action, is that it? Tell you what, you hustle up some kindling and we’ll cut you in for a slice or two. How’s that do ya?”
“Yeah,” Travis chuckled. “And while you’re doing that we’ll get to tenderizing the little bitch’s sweet ass.”
“I asked you boys civil,” Hooley said. “I won’t ask again. Let the girl go.”
“That a threat?” Travis said. “Cause that sounded to me suspiciously like a threat. What’s your opinion on the matter, Stevo?”
“Sounded like a threat to me,” Steve said, withdrawing a large hunting knife from his belt. “Damned uncivil way to talk to an old acquaintance. And a fellow Texan at that.”
“Was thinking similar myself,” Travis said. He spat into the dirt and then without warning swept his rifle up in an arc towards Hooley.
Hooley went for his own weapon, but he’d barely brought it up when two shots barked to his left. A patch of crimson blossomed on Travis’s chest, as he pitched forward on to his knees and then flat into the dirt, a wide-eyed expression never leaving his face. Then Steve was screaming.
“Jesssuss! Oh, Jessuss Christ that huuurrts!”
Joe stepped from cover holding the sniper’s rifle, Chris and Ruby beside him. “That’s another one you owe me Hoolihan,” he said.
“Had it covered,” Hooley said.
“The hell you did.”
“Aah Christ, I’m shot… I’m shot!” Steve cried, sucking in rapid breaths through clenched teeth.
“Hang in there feller,” Joe said. “We’ll get to you momentarily. Rube, you want to check on the girl?”
While Ruby did that, Joe walked over to Steve, who was now curled into a ball. His hand squeezing at the wound, trying in vain to stem the flow of blood from the ruptured artery in his leg.
“Help…help me, mister” Steve pleaded, the bravado of thirty seconds ago long gone. “I’m bleeding out here.”
“Should have thought about that before you took to beating up on little girls, you sum bitch. What are you Dead Men doing this far east, anyhow?”
“I’ll handle this, Hooley,” Joe said. He looked down at Steve, slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and produced an ampoule. “Morphine. Yours in exchange for a little information.”
“Give it,” Steve pleaded.
“You give first,” Joe said. “What are you doing in New York?”
“Fuck you.”
“Fine,” Joe said slipping the morphine back into his pocket.
“Okay, okay,” Steve said, his voice slightly slurred now, the blood beginning to pool around him. “Some feller hired us.”
“Who?”
“Stonefield.”
“Scolfield?”
“That’s the one. Oh, Jesus man, I’m cold. I’m dying.”
“You ain’t dying,” Joe said. “Scolfield hired you to do what?”
“To rustle up some folks, move them to the island. Please mister, I need that morphine.”
“What island?”
Steve didn’t answer, his head lolled.
“Hooley,” Joe said. “Rip up that pants leg of his, expose some flesh.”
“You ain’t going to waste that morphine on this sack of shit are you?”
“A deal’s a deal. Do it.”
Hooley dropped into a squat beside Steve, removed the hunting knife from his grasp, used it to rip open the pants leg.
“Jab him,” Joe said, handing the ampoule to Hooley.
“Save it,” Hooley said, his fingers pressed to the man’s wrist. “Ol’ Steve’s already barbequing with Satan.”
eleven
“He said they were hired to move people to the island,” Joe said. “Which Island? Ellis? Randall?”
“Has to be somewhere they can walk people to,” Chris said. “So count out Ellis Island. More than likely Randall or Roosevelt.”
“Yeah Roosevelt, I forgot about that. He could march them over the Queensboro and loop back from there across the Roosevelt Island Bridge. Nice narrow strip of land, limited access, easily defendable. Makes sense.”
“So does Randall. Straight over the Triboro, only two access points to defend.”
They sat in silence for a moment, each considering the possibilities.
“I have a feeling it’s Roosevelt,” Joe said eventually. “Let’s start there. If we’re wrong we can always work our way to the Queens side of Randall Island. He’ll be less likely to expect anyone approaching from that end.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Chris said. “What about the girl?”
“We leave her here. She can keep Justine company.”
“We heading out?” Hooley said, approaching from the mouth of the alley where he’d just traded guard duty with Ruby.
“Soon as its dark enough,” Joe said, casting an eye towards the early evening sky. “Which will be in about twenty. I suggest you boys kit up.”
“Good,” Hooley said, “Cause there’s some biker scum I got me some unfinished business with.”
twelve
Alex woke with a ravenous hunger. It was dark in the room, the shadows of late afternoon supplanted by the uniform black of early evening. How long had she been out? Hours? Days? She wasn’t sure and she didn’t care. Didn’t care about much of anything but the gnawing in her belly
, the taste of blood in her mouth. She sat up on the cot and felt the cuffs cut into her wrists and yank her back. No pain accompanied the sensation, which she found strange. But now that she thought about it she had no pain at all, not from the beating she’d sustained, nor from her broken jaw. They must have doped her up with painkillers she decided, maybe through the drip that was still attached to her arm. No, that had been …that had been… She tried to remember and couldn’t. Maybe that blow to the head had given her a concussion.
There was a noise from outside, footsteps, voices. Alex turned her head and could make out a faint sliver of light coming in at floor level. Now the footsteps stopped and the door swung open, letting in a blaze of whiteness. Alex squeezed her eyes tightly shut then opened them a slit. She could make out a shape framed by the light, a number of other figures in the background. They stepped into the room and she heard their footsteps crossing the floor. She picked up something else too, that faint electrical Z hum. To her dismay, she found herself joining in, the buzz seeming to emanate from her temples.
“Alex?” Scolfield said as he stopped beside the bed. He placed a lantern on the bedside table, made some adjustments and then lit a match. Yellow light suddenly bled from the lamp, illuminating the scene in an ugly buttery glow. She could make out the figures hovering behind Scolfield now, some of the nastiest Z’s she’d ever seen.
Alex turned towards him, opened her eyes. “What have you done to me?” she slurred in a voice barely recognizable as her own. Her tongue felt thick and swollen, as though it filled her entire mouth.
“Exactly what we agreed on dearest. I’ve given you the gift of immortality.”
“You’ve infected me with contaminated blood.”
“Not just blood,” Scolfield said. “If I’d done that you’d already be like one of these slobbering creatures behind me. But you’re not, you’re one of the new breed – faster, smarter, more agile and, once I add my final little twist, more aggressive, way more aggressive.”
