Broken (Book 3 of The Guardian Interviews)

by Michael Clary

  “So what is it then?” I asked.

  “No clue.”

  A loud, hair-raising growl sounded out from the darkness of the water. I immediately drew my pistol and fired off a shot in the direction it came from. I’m positive I missed, but the water began to churn.

  “Jaxon,” Hardin said. “I’m thinking that whatever it is you’re dealing with isn’t too happy about you being so close to its food source. Perhaps you should move away.”

  “No arguments here,” I answered.

  Dudley was screaming something at me. I think he wanted to know what was going on. I didn’t have time to answer him. Instead, I jumped into the air and once again grabbed a hold of the exposed pipe.

  I went hand over hand towards the nearest filing cabinet. I swung my body and released my hold. My aim was good. I slid when I hit the wet surface, but I still managed to grasp a hold of the edge before I went over the side.

  I looked over at Dudley.

  Things weren’t looking too great for him. The door was beginning to buckle and warp. I was shocked that the hinges were holding, but the door itself was in pretty bad shape.

  “Jax!” Shouted Dudley. “What do you want me to do here?”

  The corner of the door began to bend inward. I saw rotted hands reaching through and grasping for prey. I futilely looked around the basement for something he could use to reinforce the failing door but there was nothing to be seen.

  Worst of all, I was too far away from him to help and something was lurking in the water between us.

  The water churned and frothed once again. This time it happened right next to the filing cabinet with the grappling hook still attached to it. The cabinet wobbled in the whirling water, and then tipped over onto its side.

  Needless to say, I was panicking.

  I looked towards Dudley. Dudley looked towards me, and the door bent even further. I saw the upper half of a zombie shredding its own skin as it pushed itself through the too small opening. It used to be a teenager but now he was missing an eye along with most of the orbital bones in that area. He was wearing a t-shirt that was so dirty, I could no longer read the logo. His shorts were stained with blood and other juices that had oozed from the wounds in his hip where he had been attacked.

  Dudley took aim and brought him down with one shot. His brain matter sprayed through the exit wound, and the gunk landed upon the many, many shamblers desperately trying to take its place.

  “Jump in the water!” I shouted.

  Chapter 2

  Dudley

  Dudley walked into the meeting room wearing board shorts and one of those wife beater t-shirts. He had his Elvis style sunglasses pushed high up on his forehead and sandals on his feet. He looked as if he had just gotten out of the shower. Even his dark hair was mussed up, which was an unusual thing for him.

  I just finished up my workout, little lady. I considered coming to this all sweaty and pumped up but I was worried you might not be able to contain yourself.

  “Well, that’s very thoughtful of you.”

  It was. Now tell me, does this interview have anything to do with the hint I gave you the last time we talked?

  “It does indeed.”

  Crazy times: not all of it is easy to talk about. Where do you want me to start?

  “Jaxon left off with the two of you being stuck in a basement. Something was in the water, and zombies were coming through the door.”

  That’s a pretty good place to kick things off. A shitty situation for me though. The funny thing was I kept wondering why Jax was so interested in whatever was in that water. He kept trying to figure out what it was, and I just didn’t understand why he cared so much. Let whatever the hell was in that water stay there and start focusing on the zombies trying to find and eat us.

  It wasn’t until they started getting through the door that I understood what was so important about finding out what was in the water. Jaxon knew from the very beginning that the zombies would eventually find us and come through the door. He knew we would eventually need to go into the water to escape them.

  “And Jaxon didn’t want something new attacking you when you made your escape.”

  Exactly. You see, shamblers can’t swim. They just sink. Most of the time they won’t even go anywhere near the water unless they see prey: then they’ll charge right in after them. Jaxon was hoping to get both of us hidden in the water before the zombies got through the door.

  The creature swimming around in there jacked up our timing. We should have been hiding in the water way before the shamblers actually got a visual on us. If we had managed that, they probably would have just avoided the water and left the room. Still, even though we had been discovered, jumping in the water and hoping for the best was my only viable option. It was either that or be swarmed by the horde coming through the door. I just had a major problem getting into that dirty-ass water regardless of how limited my options were, and I really didn’t need to hear my uncle state the obvious.

  “Jump in the water!” Jaxon shouted.

  “Are you fucking crazy?” I asked.

  “Jump in before you run out of ammo.”

  The joke was on him. I had just fired my last shot. I pulled free my machete and began to hack at the zombies trying to force themselves into the room.

  “I’m not jumping in that water!” I shouted.

  “You don’t have a choice,” Jaxon answered. “I’ll cover you.”

  “I’m not jumping in that water,” I repeated. “That’s poo-poo water.”

  “It’s what?” asked Jaxon.

  “It’s poo-poo water,” I said again.

  I guess I should explain before we get any farther. Yes, I was concerned about the creature from the basement lagoon, but I was far more concerned about what also might be floating in the water. You see, I’m very particular about keeping myself clean. Jaxon, who is a clean freak as well, likes to call me a germaphobe, and he used to take great pleasure in having people touch my hands after I had just washed them. It used to drive me crazy.

  “Wait a second. You were more concerned about the dirty water than you were about whatever creature was in there and the zombies at the door?”

  Hmm, maybe I am a germaphobe.

  Regardless, I was having issues.

  “What do you mean poo-poo water?” Jaxon asked.

  “Well the water had to come from somewhere. I’m guessing a sewage line burst somewhere. That’s poo-poo water, and I’m not getting in it.”

  “It’s not poo-poo water you ass hat,” Jaxon said. “It doesn’t smell bad.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. “The entire room smells bad.”

  That was no exaggeration either. The room smelled like old socks and rotten flesh. I didn’t exactly put my nose to the water to have a whiff but I couldn’t imagine it would be something refreshing.

  “This is moving water,” Jaxon said. “It’s coming from a fresh source. This isn’t sewage.”

  “It looks pretty still to me,” I shot back while hacking away at the zombies coming through the bent door.

  “It looks still but it isn’t. If this was still water, it would be stagnant and nasty. This water isn’t stagnant.”

  “I’M NOT GETTING IN THE POO-POO WATER,” I shouted!

  As we were arguing, the zombies were making the hole in the door wider and wider. I knew in my heart I wouldn’t be able to hold them off much longer. I just didn’t want to jump in the gross water.

  “Get in the damn water,” Jaxon growled.

  “You get in the damn water,” I answered.

  The noise coming from the shamblers was incredibly loud. Add that to my screaming at Jaxon and we were really bringing down the house. I’ve been to rock concerts that created less noise. Hang around large hordes of zombies and you kind of get used to the noise levels. Unfortunately for me, the creature in the water probably didn’t hang around zombies much. It didn’t seem to be a big fan of all the commotion.

  “Dudl
ey,” Jax said. “Look behind you.”

  I didn’t want to look. I really didn’t. I simply didn’t want to face any more bad news. I’d enough crappy news for one day, and the zombies pushing through the door was just icing on the cake. We’d already dealt with the machine gun breaking on the roof and our building getting infiltrated. It was probably time to go home and have a nap.

  I looked.

  A clawed hand was out of the water and grabbing hold of the first dry step. Mind you, I’ve seen some clawed hands before on zombies and vampires but none of them even compared to the back scratchers on this thing. They were four inches long, thick, black, and looked evil sharp. Almost like a mutated badger or something.

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered.

  The head of the beast began to rise from the dark water.

  “Jump,” Jaxon shouted.

  The claws made it pretty easy for me. Don’t get me wrong: the zombies are rough. But I guess since the team has faced them so many times, they had kind of lost their edge. I really didn’t want to be anywhere near the receiving end of those claws.

  I jumped into the water.

  I swam as hard and as fast as I possibly could swim. I aimed my body right for the same filing cabinet that Jaxon was using. I just knew the beast was right behind me. I could just feel that clawed hand grabbing onto my leg and pulling me underwater.

  It never attacked.

  I reached my uncle just as the shamblers opened the hole in the door wide enough to pour into onto the stairway.

  “Check it out,” Jaxon whispered after he had helped me out of the water.

  The zombies were massing onto the stairs but their attention wasn’t on us at all. Instead, they were focused on the humanoid creature that had climbed out of the water before them. It wasn’t pink upon closer inspection. It had a sort of milky-white skin that was almost but not quite transparent. The blood pumping through its veins just gave the skin a slight tinge. You could also see the vague shapes of internal organs as well. It was pretty nasty. The head of the creature was elongated, with small ears, a big huge mouth, and a wide nose.

  The creature wasn’t all that large as it stood there hunched over the stairs, facing down the zombies. I’m positive it was less than six feet tall, but it was still intimidating as hell. It wasn’t just the claws either, not that I’d forgotten about those, but the mouth was just plain scary. It seemed almost overcrowded with oversized, jagged teeth. The thing looked like it could bite through a metal girder.

  The zombies had one of those brief moments of indecision when they realized that their intended prey had been replaced by something else. Something that probably didn’t smell even remotely human. The creature not only held its ground in front of them, but it bellowed forth a roar that should have come from a much larger creature.

  Yet, it didn’t attack.

  The zombies charged forth. The creature didn’t run: it didn’t jump back into the water. It stood its ground, and when the first shambler approached and grabbed hold of its neck, I thought it would all be over.

  Instead, the creature reacted violently.

  It slammed its clawed hand down on top of the shambler’s head so hard, the head caved in. After that, the zombies washed over it in a great big wave. The creature was buried beneath them in seconds.

  “We need to find a way out of here,” Jaxon whispered.

  “Maybe after they eat that thing, they’ll forget all about us.”

  “I don’t think the zombies can hurt it,” Jaxon whispered.

  “How do you figure? They are currently devouring it.”

  “When that first zombie attacked, there was no wound. I don’t think it was able to bite through the monster’s skin.”

  As if to prove Jaxon right, the creature stood up beneath the mound of undead that had amassed on top of it. It bellowed out another roar and advanced up the steps in order to bite and scratch at the advancing horde.

  The battle wasn’t going to last forever. There were just way too many zombies pushing their way through the hole in the door. Eventually, their sheer numbers were going to drag the creature down. Ten zombies may not be able to puncture its hide but one hundred or more zombies all pulling its skin in different directions was a different story entirely.

  In the middle of its attack, the creature seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion. It gave a last few swats with its clawed hands and then jumped over the railing of the staircase and vanished into the dark water.

  The zombies pursued it.

  Some of them jumped over the railing, while others floundered down the stairs and ended up wading around the room with their hands held above their heads as if they were afraid to get their shirt sleeves wet.

  “We gotta move,” Jax whispered.

  “Where the hell are we gonna go?” I asked. “We’re kind of trapped in here.”

  “No,” Jaxon whispered. “There has to be a way out. I bet it’s under the water.”

  “Oh, I really hate you right now.”

  “We need to move now. If the shamblers fill up the room, we’ll never find the way out.”

  Jax didn’t wait for me to reply this time. He was probably sick of hearing me complain. Instead, he quietly lowered himself into the water. I grumbled and fumed but I eventually joined him.

  The water came up to our shoulders and it was cold as hell. We tried to stay hidden behind the various objects as we made our way around the room. That worked pretty well. The zombies also weren’t venturing too far from the staircase. Evidently they thought the creature was still in that area.

  Jaxon led the way back to the muddy island with the upside down corpses.

  “How are we going to find the way out if it’s under water?” I asked.

  “I’m hoping I’ll feel a current. This water has to be escaping somehow.”

  The moaning and groaning noises coming from all the shamblers were annoyingly loud. They just didn’t know how to shut up when they found something worth eating. On the plus side, it seemed as if the bulk of the horde had lost interest. There were still definitely a lot of zombies in the water and on the stairs, but it didn’t seem as if any more of them were coming into the room. At the very least, that was a relief. All we needed to do was find the exit without being seen, and we’d be home free.

  The first scream made me jump.

  The second scream made Jaxon curse.

  The many screams that followed made us run like hell, and that wasn’t very easy being chest deep in dark water. We had gotten lucky when the cellar-dweller climbed out of the water onto the stairs. The zombies forgot all about me and concentrated on the creature. Unfortunately, we had once again been discovered.

  One of them just happened to look over in the right direction at the right time and saw us moving along the far wall. It was bound to happen. There were just too many searching eyes.

  I looked towards the staircase, and immediately regretted it. The stairs were once again being flooded and more of the horde was entering the water.

  “This is bad!” I shouted!

  “Rarely gets worse,” Jaxon answered.

  He shoved his mp7 into my arms and pulled out his flashlight.

  “Take out the ones closest to us,” Jaxon said.

  He dove under the water. It was a weird feeling when he went under. I almost felt like I was alone in the room without backup. I didn’t like it; having someone next to you working toward the same goal makes things easier, especially when that someone is my uncle. With Jaxon around, it’s hard to imagine yourself failing.

  I know that might seem weird. We lost people. We lose them all the time, in all honesty. We’re far from invincible. It’s just that, for some reason, Jax gives people the belief that they can win. No matter how hard things tend to get, he never contemplates defeat.

  I was missing my shots.

  Tension and stress can do that to a person. The first thing to go in extreme situations is hand/eye coordination. I’m normally pretty good at
controlling myself, but this was something sort of new to me. Like I said, I felt alone.

  A zombie had somehow gotten to within ten feet of me. Its wet face had this doughy skin that looked as if it were about to peel right off its skull. Its screams were watery, so it must have taken water into its lungs.

  I fired, and I missed.

  I fired again, and hit a shoulder.

  The corpse jerked with the impact but it kept on coming. For a brief moment I blamed the gun. The sights had to be off in a bad way. Then I realized my hands were fiercely shaking, and the shamblers were getting closer.

  I finally nailed it right before it could get its hands on me. The body dropped face down in the water and floated there. I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. I didn’t have the opportunity. There were too many zombies willing to take its place.

  I fired and fired from my position. I had no idea how many bullets I had left, and the thought of running empty was freaking me out even more. They were just too close. The smell coming off them was even worse when it mixed with the water.

  I found myself trying to back away from them but I was unable to do so since my back was already against the wall. Instead, I mentally chided myself and pushed forward. It isn’t easy to make yourself walk towards an advancing horde of zombies but I did it.

  All in all, the speed of the shamblers was really affected by the water. They were splashing and thrashing trying to close the distance but their frenzied movements only served to slow them down.

  I stopped advancing. I forced myself to remain calm. I picked my shots and brought them down. I had excellent results at first, but my success was short-lived. There were just too many of them.

  I began to retreat towards the wall once again. This time it wasn’t a matter of nerves. I was now moving backwards to avoid being overrun.

  The screams were so loud inside the basement, I neither heard nor noticed Jaxon come up from behind me and wrap his arms around my chest. I immediately freaked right the fuck out. I thought for sure one of the shamblers had gotten ahold of me.

  “Relax, Dudley!” Jaxon shouted. “Hold your breath!”