Machines of the Dead 3

by David Bernstein

  He was following her. Planning on sneaking up from behind, and what—shoot her in the back? Slit her throat? Shove her off the roof?

  Maria froze at hearing the crunch of snow.

  A door slammed.

  She spun around and saw two zombies come around the corner of the roof access structure. She shot each one in the head, splattering their brains across the snow, and then rushed to the roof exit door, and saw that it was closed. She grabbed the handle, but the door wouldn’t open. Whoever was stalking her was having fun. Playing a game. He’d sent two undead after her, but why? He had to know she would easily take them out. Maybe he was hoping to get her to use all her ammo. He could have simply crept up behind her and blown her off the roof. In order to get the undead to the roof, the shooter would have had to manhandle them. That meant taking a chance with his safety. And for what, to screw with her?

  She let loose an audible breath, feeling the pressure of the situation pressing down on her. She couldn’t waste time. She’d been fooled. Cable wanted her trapped on the roof. Her only guess as to why was so that he would have plenty of time to go after Jack and Zaun. He wanted to fight them one on one. Since he’d been beaten by Zaun, maybe he felt wounded and needed to prove himself by taking them all out on his own, one at a time. Why he hadn’t offed her, she didn’t know.

  Maria stared across the roof at the exit on the opposite side. She could try the door, but it would most likely be locked. And if it wasn’t, it would be because Cable wanted her to head that way.

  She spun around, headed to the edge of the roof and saw the rope dangling a few feet away from the backside of the roof access's roof. Cable wouldn’t expect her to take that route, so that’s the route she decided upon. But she couldn’t reach it without leaning way out, and even then she’d probably have to leap. Jumping out to grab the rope was one thing, but leaping sideways along the building was another. Not enough spring or a slip, and she’d plummet to the ground. She would need to get onto the roof of the stairwell which was about eight feet up.

  Standing back at the door, she studied the structure it was attached to. She returned the Glock to its holster, took a few steps back, and then ran. She jumped up as she approached the door and was able to get her right foot onto the handle. A moment later, she lost her footing, slipped, and fell.

  Dusting herself off, she realized the run-and-gun approach wouldn’t work, and stretched her leg, wedging her foot in the door handle. With her leg muscles straining, she grunted and jumped up. Her fingers brushed the lip of the roof, but she managed to get two of them to catch.

  Barely holding on, she adjusted and got a better grip by using all her fingers before latching on with both hands and pulling herself up so that she was able to sling her right foot onto the roof. From there, she wormed her entire leg over the edge and used her thigh to haul herself up and onto the flat roof.

  Laying on her back, she took a second to catch her breath, and then was up and ready to move. The rope appeared to be securely tied off to some kind of hook that had been hammered in place. She tugged on it and found it was indeed safe to use, then walked over to the edge.

  The wind howled against her. She shivered as a chill made its way down her back. She pulled the coat tighter, wishing she’d worn gloves. They would make the climb down easier and quicker. She would have to move hand over hand, quickly but cautiously. If she fell and broke a leg, they’d all be screwed.

  Gunshots sounded again. From her position, Maria had a view of the entire highway and surrounding area. She saw Jack, arm outstretched. It jerked and a zombie nearing him fell. Maria smiled, knowing Jack was alive and holding is own. But undead dotted the landscape and more were coming. There were no large packs, just stragglers coming from the woods around the mall. But that didn’t mean the place wouldn’t be overrun with the undead soon. Right now, there were enough of them to cause a problem. She couldn’t see Zaun and was grateful he was staying put. And he hadn’t fired the Browning, at least to her knowledge. He was the ghost; the unseen backup. Maria nodded, seeing things were still okay.

  Kneeling at the roof’s edge, she grabbed the rope and moved into position to descend.

  Chapter 2

  Cable stood on the landing above the stairwell, the darkness welcoming. He’d seen Maria coming long before she arrived at the building. He could have picked her off at any time, but then he’d seen her scuttle across the field and make her way to him. The game was on. The trio was separated. She’d come alone, leaving Zaun under the overpass and Jack to fend for himself. Originally, he had thought she might go back and attempt to rescue Jack which would have allowed him to injure her with a precise shot to the arm or leg. Nothing life-threatening. He’d then have Zaun all to himself and another chance to defeat him in battle. Maria would be claimed as his own, and they’d start a family somewhere. Life was all about second chances. The world was different now; no rules, no laws, and no order. But things rarely went as planned. So the hunt was on.

  Jack was alive, but severely injured, and he’d been bitten. It wouldn’t be long before he was a member of the undead. Cable wanted to kill him with his bare hands, but as long as he got to Zaun, he’d be satisfied.

  After tying off the rope to the roof, he shimmied down and followed Maria inside, keeping back so she wouldn’t hear or sense him. He never thought things would go so easily. He had imagined with her training that she’d prove to be a greater adversary that she was, but it was still fun. She went right for the roof as he’d expected. He was glad she hadn’t checked all the offices, or she would’ve found the undead he stashed. In small numbers they were easy to handle and easier to kill. After grabbing two of the rotting bastards, he got them to the roof and almost burst with laughter when the gunshots sounded. He only wished he could have seen her reaction.

  With both roof access doors locked, he knew she’d eventually find the rope. Maria was a survivor and wouldn’t give up. He heard her against the door, and then on the roof of the stairwell, his plan working wonderfully.

  Giving Maria a minute, figuring that was enough time for her to be in the act of descending, he left the stairwell and climbed up to the roof. He went over to the edge and looked down, now holding his hunting knife in his hand. Maria was only a quarter of the way down. Depending how she hit the ground, she could suffer a broken ankle or leg or arm. Or she could land okay and just suffer some bruising. But if he let her get much lower, she’d surely receive little pain at all.

  Not wanting to waste another second, he got on his hands and knees. “So nice to see you again, Maria,” he said. The woman looked up, her eyes wide with panic. He saw her go for her gun, but he was faster, already prepared, and sliced the rope with his knife.

  Maria let loose a substantial yelp as she plummeted to the ground. She landed on her side with a thud, the snow fanning out around her.

  Cable pulled his sidearm, ready to put a bullet into her calf, but hesitated. She wasn’t moving, clearly knocked unconscious. He turned and hurried down the stairs to the second floor. If he didn’t have to injure her, it would be better for him. With little in the way of medical supplies, there was the chance her wound would get infected.

  He deserved a second chance in this new world. He was a killer, no doubt, but he could change. Use his skills to protect his wife and children. Maria would come around; she’d have to. Once she saw what a great father he was, she’d learn to love him—or at least learn to need him.

  He raced down the second floor hallway and took the stairs that led outside and to the front of the building. As he made his way past the storefronts, a hint of doubt crept into his mind that she’d still be there. Maybe she had been playing possum and was gone, or was waiting for him to come around the building and blow him away.

  With gun in hand, he peered around the corner of the building and saw her lying in the snow. He relaxed and approached her, feeling confident, until he heard the shot and was thrown into the wall.

  Chapter 3

&n
bsp; Zaun kept an eye on Jack and Maria, using the rifle’s scope to get a closer view of the goings on. Jack didn’t move from his position, making the task of watching him much less difficult than following Maria, who often went out of his sights. Not being able to rescue Jack or help Maria more directly was eating away at him. At least Jack was conscious and defending himself, taking out any undead that came his way. But Zaun didn’t think he looked so good. His friend’s shooting arm dropped quickly to the ground after every shot, as if holding up the weapon was a tiring chore. Jack sat against the snowmobile and hadn’t moved since he’d crawled over to it. Zaun needed to get to him soon.

  Maria was on the roof. He’d seen Cable slide down a rope. He’d wanted to take a shot, but was afraid he’d miss and screw up whatever Maria had going on over there. He needed to trust her. He moved his eye back to Jack, making sure the man was conscious, and when he moved back to check on what Maria was up to, he saw her on the ground. The rope was gone. He hadn’t seen what happened, but guessed it had been cut when Maria was using it. Cable had known she was there.

  Scanning the building, he didn’t see Cable. Anxiety built. Maria wasn’t moving, and he wondered if she’d been shot. He didn’t remember hearing any gunshots, so he didn’t think so. It was time for him to get over there and help her.

  About to get up, he spotted Cable as the man shot out of a door in the front of the building. Before he knew it, Cable was standing over Maria, gun out.

  It was now or never. He held his breath and took aim, lining up the scope’s crosshairs with the psychopath’s head. Damn, he was shaking. It was cold and he was nervous. There was a chance he’d miss such a small target. If he hit, it would be a kill shot, but if he missed, Cable would most likely escape. Maybe even kill Maria.

  Zaun adjusted his aim, focusing on Cable’s torso, a much larger target. He let out his breath, relaxing and pulled the trigger. The gun jerked and roared. Cable spun like a top and crashed into the wall before he slumped to the ground. Zaun kept an eye on him for a moment, seeing no movement. He stood and hollered in triumph, then hobbled over to the snowmobile, stashed the rifle securely and started the machine.

  After pulling on his helmet, he hit the throttle and raced out to Jack where a number of undead were approaching.

  “What took you so . . . long?” Jack asked, laughing. His thick pant leg—where the bullet had ripped through—was darkened, rich with blood. The snow around him was a rich shade of crimson. With his visor up, Zaun was able to see how pale Jack’s color was, the flesh whiter than the outlying landscape.

  “Had a few things I needed to take care of,” Zaun said as he dismounted the sled. Sliding his sword from the sheath, he sliced the first zombie he encountered, removing its head easily. The next bot-controlled corpse—a hardly decomposed female with long blonde hair and missing half her face—Zaun put down with a thrust to the head. He quickly removed the heads from three more undead before returning to Jack.

  “Let’s get you out of here,” Zaun said, and bent to help Jack up. Jack cried out.

  “Okay, buddy,” Zaun said. “Let’s try something else.” Zaun got behind Jack and dragged him across the snow, leaving a trail of red behind, and over to the snowmobile. He lifted Jack onto the seat and positioned him.

  “Damn, I feel like shit,” Jack joked. He slumped back, Zaun grabbing him before he fell off the seat. He held onto Zaun. “I’m okay.”

  Zaun wasn’t so sure and wondered what was going to happen when they raced out of there. “Hold on a sec,” he told Jack, then gathered his backpack, gear and weapons, and strapped them to the back of his and Maria’s supplies. For a moment, he thought the sled was going to tip backward, the mound of supplies overwhelmingly high, but it was nothing compared to the snowmobile’s front-end weight.

  Zaun jumped on the sled, reached back, and pulled Jack’s arms around his waist. He interlocked his gloved fingers and told him to hold on with all he had. Keeping a hand tightly over Jack’s crossed fingers so they wouldn’t come apart, Zaun hit the gas and headed to the strip mall.

  Jack cried out in pain with every dip and bounce. Zaun felt his arms go limp a few times and strained to hold onto him. Finally, Jack slipped free and tumbled off the sled. Zaun hopped off and scooped him up, ignoring his friend’s angst. This time, Zaun sat Jack against the mountain of supplies, strapping him in place with a few bungee cords. “Sorry man, but you’re little more than cargo now.”

  Zaun got back on the sled and sped over to Maria. She was still lying on the ground, not moving. Cable was gone, but there were splatterings of blood in the snow and against the brick work of the building. Damn it, he hadn’t killed him. But at least he’d wounded him.

  Zaun glanced around, making sure the psycho wasn’t near, and saw a trail of blood and bootprints leading to the rear of the building. The desire to run Cable down and finish the job tore at his soul. He could easily finish the guy off, but at what cost? Jack’s and Maria’s lives? He couldn’t risk it.

  Keeping the snowmobile engine running, he crouched next to Maria and flipped up his visor. He was afraid to move her. “Maria,” he said. “Maria.” He bent to her ear and told her she needed to get up. Removing his glove, he felt for a pulse and breathed easier when he found one.

  Zaun gently patted her cheek. When she didn’t respond, he shook her, needing her to wake up. Her eyelids fluttered before opening. “Zaun?”

  “Yeah, it’s me,” he said, smiling.

  “What . . .?”

  “You took a spill off the building.”

  She moved to sit up and yelped in pain. “My shoulder . . . It’s dislocated.”

  “Shit. What do I do?”

  “Where’s Cable?” she asked, glancing around.

  “I shot him. He took off.”

  “Okay. Help me sit up.” Maria held out her uninjured arm and Zaun assisted her. She groaned, jaw muscles flexing. “Rotate my arm, slowly.”

  Zaun gripped her wrist and moved it in an arch until it was straight up in the air. Maria was groaning, but told him to keep going. He pushed out and down, Maria grimacing more.

  “Pull and push now, fast,” she said.

  Zaun yanked outward, then shoved the bone back in place. Maria screamed for a second, then held her arm.

  “It’s back in place,” she said. “Damn that hurt.” She looked up and finally saw Jack, her face brightening. “You got him.”

  “Yeah. But he’s not doing so good.” Jack was slouched on the sled, head tilted, clearly unconscious. ‘

  Maria and Zaun climbed onto the exceedingly crowded snowmobile. “Where to?” Zaun asked.

  “Head to the Galleria mall. We need shelter and have to assess Jack’s condition.”

  Zaun took off, Maria keeping an eye behind them for Cable, but by the time they crested the highway via the overpass, the view of the strip mall was gone.

  The mall entrance doors were locked, boarded over. Undead roamed the parking lot and were coming their way. Zaun drove around, checking various entrances, but all were sealed up, making him wonder if someone else had taken up residence in the place. But the structure was huge. The place was the size of a small city. It had four floors and multiple parking structures, a movie theater, IMAX theater, Best Buy and a shitload of other stores. Attached to the mall up on a small hill was a Home Depot. Zaun decided to head there.

  The front doors were smashed out, gaping holes for anyone or anything to come and go through. The snow around the entrance was undisturbed. A good sign. Zaun drove the snowmobile inside and killed the engine a few feet from the entrance.

  “We need to get this entrance boarded up,” Maria said.

  Zaun agreed, and unless the wood supply had been raided, they could easily seal up the entryway. But if a horde formed outside, they would need something more secure than sheets of plywood and 2x4s.

  “All those undead down in the parking lot and everywhere else are going to head here. Damn snowmobile is loud.”

  “We’ll
just have to get some heavy stuff to blockade the entrance with,” Maria said, wincing and holding her shoulder as she looked around.

  “I have an idea,” Zaun said. “Help me get Jack and our gear off the snowmobile.”

  “Why?”

  “We need a distraction, a target for the undead to swarm on. I’ll ride out and blow it up, then sneak back here.”

  Maria eyed him and appeared to be thinking. She turned and headed to the blasted-out entranceway and surveyed the parking lot below. Zaun followed.

  Most of the undead were heading toward them, still a ways off. With the deep snow and their slow shambling, the zombies wouldn’t reach the Home Depot for a while, but by then more would have gathered, the small group becoming a small horde.

  “I’m not wasting the snowmobile and risking us being stranded here,” Maria said. “If we need to get out of here in a hurry, we’ll need it.”

  “Then we better get to stopping up this huge-ass gap.”

  Chapter 4

  The store’s interior was pitch black, the flashlights’ beams unable to breach the vastness of the place. Aisles disappeared into the abyss, both in height and length. But having visited numerous Home Depots, Zaun and Maria found the lumber section with relative ease, the air filled with the scent of machine cut wood.

  They loaded sheets of plywood, 2x4s and long 2x6s onto orange-colored flatbed carts, and then ushered them over to the entrance. Maria’s shoulder throbbed with pain, causing her to cry out a few times, but she dug deep and worked through the angst, knowing their lives depended on her and Zaun.

  Finding saws, hammers and nails, they quickly constructed a frame and support structure, then nailed plywood in place. The makeshift wall stood 8 feet tall—the length of the plywood—and completely blocked the entrance. But it was hardly strong enough to keep out a mass of undead should they come barreling into the place.