We're going to make it to the car, Shawn thought. These people know what they're doing.
A zombie child came at Shawn from the left and he hesitated. Even though it was no longer alive, it was still a kid. He had children. He swung the shovel but the zombie was already too close to him, and it glanced off a shoulder.
Becky took a swing and smashed the child in the face, driving it back and to the ground. Becky, still grinning, took another shot with the shovel, hitting the child in the torso.
"Aim for the head," Shawn said to her. He looked up just as two more zombie children shambled up to them. He whacked one in the head and spun around to reset his arm for the other when he saw it latch onto Becky's arm.
Becky, about to drop another shovel hit on the prone zombie, turned and tried to fend off the zombie with the shovel, but it was already too close.
The zombie clamped down on her forearm and took a bite. Becky screamed in pain. Shawn connected with the zombie's head with such force it split the skull in twain. The blow also knocked Becky to the ground, on top of the other zombie, who tried to bite her other arm.
Shawn threw his wife off the zombie and demolished its face, swinging in abandon and trying not to look at his crying wife. This isn't happening, we're going to escape and live a long and wonderful life together and find our children safe and sound, and…
"Shawn… you need to kill me," Becky said.
"No way." He was attacking every zombie around him, adrenalin pushing him beyond normal limits. There were bodies all around him now, crushed skulls and the pavement slick with gore.
"We need to move," Stew yelled from the side of the car. Shawn could see Stew and his wife plus the bank woman already at the car, and Bethany was starting the motorcycle. "Hurry up."
* * * * *
"I'm bit. I'm going to turn into one of them," Becky said between sobs. "I don't want to eat people. You have to kill me."
"Never." Shawn bent down next to his wife, hoping the blood on her arm wasn't hers. The gaping wound was gushing blood, though, and her small hands couldn't keep it from flowing between her fingers. "I'm not going to leave you."
"Last chance, buddy. Leave her and get in the car. We have to move," Stew yelled.
"Go without us. I'm staying."
"Don't do this, save yourself," Gerri yelled. Shawn heard the car start. "She wouldn't want you to die."
Shawn looked down at his wife and smiled. "I'm not going to leave you."
"I'm supposed to tell you to go," Becky said softly. "The right thing to do is for you to leave me here or kill me. It's how this usually works."
"When have we ever followed the stupid rules?"
They heard the car and motorcycle pulling out of the parking lot.
Becky closed her eyes and her body shuddered.
Shawn stood and smacked two more zombies in the head, the last blow cracking the wooden handle of the shovel. Undaunted, he picked up his wife's and struck again. And again.
He was going to die with her today, but it would be by her bite.
Once Shawn was comfortable he had enough space around them, he sat down next to her on the ground and pulled Becky close to him, knowing within seconds the transformation would be complete and she would sink her teeth into his neck.
David
David led them across the parking lot and out of the marina. When they reached the road they continued south toward Shibumi. They hadn’t gone 50 feet when Brewski whistled from the back. David & Ike turned and saw the problem. The horizon beyond the bridge was dotted with zombies; several dozen of them walking slowly toward them. From this distance they looked like a large group of people strolling casually along the parkway without a care in the world.
“Shit,” Ike said.
“It would be in our best interest to move quickly,” David said
They picked up the pace, as much as Angela could handle, to put some distance between them and the hoard.
After ten minutes, Shelly trotted up to David.
“Angela needs to rest,” she said. “She can’t keep up this pace.”
David turned and scanned the horizon. They had successfully widened the gap between themselves and the zombies.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s stop and sit down for a few minutes.”
At a bend in the road, they stopped and knelt next to a telephone company switchgear cabinet in the shade of a large oak tree. Jill passed out bottles of water.
“One good thing about all this,” Marybeth said. “Things are much more quiet and peaceful these days.”
“Yeah,” Angela said, “because everybody’s either dead or dying.”
“We’re not,” Marybeth said.
“Not yet,” Angela said.
“Stop that,” Shelly scolded. “That kind of talk doesn’t help us at all.”
“Shelly’s right,” David said. “We’re alive right now, and that’s what counts. What happened yesterday and what’s going to happen tomorrow doesn’t matter. What matters is right now.”
“Well right now,” Brewski interrupted, “we’re about to have visitors.”
He pointed to the west where several zombies were emerging from behind a cluster of condominiums.
“And the hits just keep on coming,” Ike said. “We better get moving.”
They resumed their march to the south with zombies following them from two different directions.
“How much further to the boat?” Marybeth asked.
“Ten more minutes,” David told her.
“And how long until the boat will be fixed?” Shelly asked.
“It’ll probably take about 45 minutes,” David said. “Give or take.”
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ll feel a lot safer once we’re on the boat and moving,” Marybeth said.
“Me too,” Angela said. “As long as I can sit down.”
“I want a glass of wine,” Jill said.
“Let’s stay focused here, people,” Ike said. “Keep your eyes open.”
When they turned off the road and walked behind a row of condominiums leading to the dock, a pair of zombies turned the corner at the opposite end of the building, heading directly toward them.
“Damn it,” Ike said.
John Murphy stepped up and fired an arrow. It struck one of the zombies in the face and the creature slowly crumpled to the ground. The other one, unfazed by the loss of his companion, moved slowly, but steadily toward them. John loaded another arrow into his cross bow and fired. The arrow whizzed by the zombies head, missing by inches. The zombie was less than 20 feet away and John fired again. The arrow hit the zombie in the left shoulder, having no affect on it at all. He reached back to his shoulder quiver for another arrow. The arrow slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.
“Hurry,” Angela pleaded as John felt the ground for the arrow without taking his eyes off the shuffling zombie.
The arrow fumbled out of John’s hand as he tried to load it and fell to the ground again and he bent to pick it up.
A gunshot sounded.
John stood with the arrow to see the zombie plastered against the wall of the building less than ten feet away, the majority of his head gone.
Ike tucked his .45 into his belt.
“Sorry,” he said. “But we were running out of time. Now we have to hustle.”
“Why? It’s dead,” Angela said.
“The gun shot,” Shelly told her.
“Exactly right,” Ike said. “It’s like ringing the dinner bell.”
“Great,” Angela said.
Ike walked away quickly, followed by the group, to the corner of the building. They could see Shibumi, exactly as they had left her.
“A hundred and fifty feet,” David said. “And we’re home free.”
The only response was a scream.
Ike spun around bringing his gun out, ready to shoot another zombie, but what he saw was almost more problematic than more undead.
Angela lay on the ground,
clutching her belly, screaming in pain.
“Oh my God,” she said. “Not now! Please, God, not now.”
Shelly knelt next to the pregnant woman and held her hand.
“Try to relax, hon,” she said. “Try to breathe.”
“Fucking lovely,” Brewski said.
“Form a perimeter, 50 feet out,” Ike ordered.
Ike, David, Jill, Darlene, John and Brewski fanned out and formed a semi-circle around Angela, using the building to cover their backs.
Angela’s cries got louder, despite Shelly’s attempts to calm her.
“This should be fun,” Ike said to David.
“I suspect we’re having more fun than Angela,” David said. “All in how you look at it.”
“Good point.”
“Banzai,” Brewski said.
Brewski leapt toward a trio of zombies approaching from the left. He swung his golf club at their heads taking all three of them out with two mighty swings.
“Little help over here,” he called.
John Murphy fired an arrow into the mouth of a fourth and Jill’s rolling pin flattened the head of a fifth.
“How we doing over there, Shelly?” Ike called.
“We’re just having a little picnic,” Shelly shot back. “How do you think we’re doing?”
Angela punctuated the sarcasm with a scream.
Ike fired three shots, dropping another three zombies.
One more zombie turned the corner and shuffled toward them. Ike raised his gun, but David lunged at the creature, swinging his machete and decapitating it with one stroke.
They regrouped and fell back into position and five minutes later all was quiet, including Angela.
“Did she have the baby?” Brewski asked, not wanting to turn around and look.
“No,” Shelly answered, “it was just false labor, but we need to get her somewhere to lie down fast.”
“Okay, Brewski, looks like your carrying her,” Ike said. “Let’s get it on.”
Brewski picked Angela up and they moved toward the boat. With less than 75 feet to go, the entire group froze in their tracks as zombies began walking up out of the water of the Intracoastal.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Ike said. “Some days you just can’t catch a break - looks like we’re going back that way.”
They turned and moved as fast as they could back toward the road, staying close to the building.
“Why don’t we go inside the building?” Shelly asked as they approached a door hanging on by one hinge.
The group halted in front of the door, looking to Ike and David for an answer.
“We don’t know what’s inside, or if there are any escape routes once we go in. I don’t think we should box ourselves in,” Ike said.
“But Angela needs to lie down,” Marybeth said.
“I understand that,” Ike said, “but we’ve got zombies right behind us and more out on the road heading this way. We shouldn’t go in there blind and we don’t have time for recon. Let’s keep moving.”
“To where?” Shelly asked.
Ike had no answer.
“I hate to say it, but what about going back there?” Darlene offered, pointing across the road to European Village.
“We just left there and we barely made it out alive,” Ike said.
“I know that,” Darlene said. “I’m thinking now that we’re gone there’s nothing left in there for the zombies to want. Maybe they’ve moved on.”
There was a moment of silence as they considered the possibility.
“Hey,” Brewski said. “Can we make a decision soon? She’s getting heavy.”
“And we’ve got company,” John added, pointing toward Shibumi where several dripping wet zombies were slowly approaching.
John fired an arrow at the leader, a middle aged woman dressed in ragged business attire accessorized with brown seaweed. The arrow struck her in the nose, passed through her decaying skull and hit the man behind her in the chin. The pair crumbled to the ground. The rest of the zombies stepped over them and continued toward the group.
“Decision time,” Darlene said to Ike.
Ike nodded and looked toward the three-story European Village.
“Looks like we don’t have much choice,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Angela let out a cry.
“Let’s make it fast,” Brewski said.
Rick
"I really don't need sugar," Rick said, scratching his unkempt beard and grinning. "But I do need you ladies to stop yelling so much. Not only are the zombies going to hear you, but you also woke me from a solid nap. In all this heat it's rare I can pass out without sweating to death."
"Who are you?" Ambroz asked.
"Oh, sorry." Rick wiped his hand on his dirty shirt and extended his hand. "I'm Rick. I live next door. You have a great bar, by the way." He smiled again. "Well, I guess you did."
Cesar stood behind Ambroz holding a lamp.
"What do you want?" Ambroz asked.
"Nothing. I just need you two to keep it down. I'm trying to sleep."
"Where did you come from?" Ambroz asked, clearly perplexed.
Rick wondered if he was slow or just trying to be cute. He wanted to goof on him and talk really, really slow, but these two seemed really high strung. "I live next door. I'm minding my own business and trying to catch some zzz's. I'm not getting any younger. It's way too hot and my air conditioning ain't what it used to be. But at least my electric bill isn't so high anymore. Anyway… it was great meeting you two. Maybe I'll see you around." Rick started walking away and stopped. "Hey, where'd everyone go?"
"Are you kidding me?" Ambroz asked. "It's the end of the world as we know it."
"And I feel fine," Rick quickly added with a laugh.
"Is there something wrong with you?" Cesar asked.
"It's a song… forget it. You two seem like a load of fun, but I'm going back to bed. Keep the noise down, ladies."
Rick was hungry but he decided there would be plenty of time to grab some food later. Maybe a trip to Farley's to scare up some grub and a warm beer. Whether or not this was truly the end, and humanity was about to fade out and go the way of the dinosaur, Rick was still tired.
Darlene
Ike led the group to a spot next to one of the massive bridge pilings in front of European Village. The zombies from the water were still exploring the condos across the street and the two packs they had seen after leaving the marina were still far enough away to afford them a few minutes of relative safety.
“Everybody just stay here while I take a quick look inside,” Ike said.
“I’m going with you,” Darlene said.
“Not necessary,” he told her.
“You’ll need somebody to watch your back. We’re not going to argue about it. Let’s go,” she said.
Before he could reply, she was three steps ahead of him.
“Let’s go,” she repeated.
He joined her and, using the carcasses of cars as temporary way-points, they made their way to the entrance of the compound. Bodies of the undead littered the ground, along with corpses of those who had been alive, but didn’t survive the siege.
Crouched behind the remains of a black limo, Darlene peeked around the rear bumper and into the courtyard.
“It’s pretty quiet,” she said. “I saw two or three zombies scuffling about. If there aren’t too many, we might be able to reclaim the place.”
“Let’s get a closer look before we bring the others over,” Ike said.
They low walked from the limo to the covered entry and crept toward the courtyard, stopping just short of the entrance.
“That’s not encouraging,” Ike said, seeing more than thirty zombies roaming the courtyard and going in and out of the various stores.
“It could be worse,” Darlene said.
She poked her head out for a look around the corner. When she leapt back, she slammed into Ike, dropping her pipe onto the pavers. The clanging echoed loudly and befo
re she could pick it up a zombie turned the corner and grabbed her by the hair.
Reacting quickly, Ike grabbed the zombie’s arm and twisted it violently. With the arm locked out in front of him and Darlene scrambling away, he smashed his forearm into the zombie’s elbow. The arm snapped and dangled like a broken twig, but the zombie’s only reaction was to turn his dead eyes on Ike and bare his putrid, blood covered teeth.
Darlene drove her pipe through its eye, and then drove the zombie’s head against the masonry wall. It exploded in a mess of blood and brains. She used the pipe to lower the corpse to the ground, then stepped on the head and pulled the pipe free.
“Maybe we should go back to the others and come up with a plan,” she said.
“Good idea,” Ike said.
As they emerged into the bright sunshine, they heard a voice.
“Hey, help me.”
They exchanged a glance, and then looked around for the source.
Seeing nobody, they resumed walking.
“Hey, up here.”
Once again they stopped and looked at each other, then turned to face the building.
“Up here!” the voice called.
They looked to the roof of the entry and saw a bald man wearing an old Gold’s Gym tee-shirt.
“I need to get down. Is it clear?” the man said.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Ike said. “How long have you been up there?”
“I don’t know, a couple hours I guess. I came up to see how many more were coming; the hatch closed.”
“How’d you get up there?”
“The stairs, right inside the door down there,” Ike saw the door he spoke of, “just go to the top of the stairs and climb the ladder to the hatch. The hatch is locked from the inside; I can’t get down.”
Ike looked at Darlene.
“Looks like a better spot for recon. You go back to the others and I’ll go up there and check things out.”
“Okay, but don’t take too long, remember we’ve got a woman back there ready to have a baby.”
“Roger that,” Ike said, then he spoke to the man on the roof… “Sit tight, I’m on my way.”
Dying Days Ultimate Box Set 1 Page 43
