Duke was the first to get out of his state of shock, and he yelled at the others to open fire or run to the vehicles. He once more took the massive sledgehammer from Ted and ran at the zombie. The undead was distracted by his own roar and did not see Duke coming. Duke’s chest felt constricted, his heart was pumping and he was loaded with adrenaline. He swung the hammer in a circular movement from left to right and hit the monster against the shoulder. Duke put all of his strength into this blow. His opponent stumbled sideways for several steps, but then regained control. The monster glanced at it shoulder and saw that it was dislocated, but it ignored this injury. Duke looked at the spot he had hit. What kind of bullshit is this? The bones seemed to be healing themselves.
Then the zombie knocked the hammer out of Duke’s hand with a sudden backhand blow and pulled Duke toward him with his other arm. Duke thought this was the end and simply waited to be bitten but instead, the monster tossed him away with all its might. Duke noticed he was no longer touching the ground and that the distance between him and the beast was increasing. He did not know whether to be glad about this observation because everything was happening so damned fast. Soon, the question was no longer relevant when his body crashed through a window, he landed on his back and slid ten feet across the wooden floor, until his head collided with a wall. Duke lost consciousness.
Richard Fuller could hardly believe his eyes. In front of him Duke Powel, a man with the stature of a grizzly bear, was thrown through the air like a toy and flew backward through a window pane into a house. It was a moment beyond all logic. He heard a rattling sound. What could that be?
“Machine gun fire,” Fuller whispered. He saw Toby standing on one of the off-road vehicles and shooting in the direction of the zombie. Bullets whistled through the air, and some found their target, causing the zombie to cry out. Toby hit him twice in the belly and once in the thigh. Fuller felt as if he was in a movie. People screamed and tried to get out of the line of fire. Shots whipped through the air and destroyed house fronts. A woman behind the monster looked down incredulously and saw her bleeding hand. Toby had hit her in the stomach. She fell down and stopped moving. Fuller glanced at the undead creature again. He had the impression that half an eternity had passed, even though it was only a few seconds. The zombie looked briefly at the bullet holes in its body, but they were already closing up. The beast seemed to have an extremely regenerative metabolism. Nevertheless, it tried to escape the machine gun rounds and ran into a side street. The speed of the zombie was breathtaking. Within no time it had disappeared among the narrow streets.
The rational and analytical part of Fuller’s brain gradually took over again. “TOBY, YOU FOOL. CEASE FIRE, YOU KEEP HITTING OUR OWN PEOPLE! FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE, STOP SHOOTING!” He made a horizontal motion across his throat with his finger. Toby understood and ceased firing.
At that very moment, the zombie ran forward again and rammed a man who was trying to find refuge in one of the 3.5-ton trucks. The man’s body was completely shattered by the impact. A woman swung her machete from behind the zombie and hit it in the back. As the back was covered with strong muscles, the skin of the creature split over a wide area. The beast howled like mad and turned around, full of rage. Since its body towered over the woman by several feet, Fuller could not see what happened next. Suddenly, the zombie started running again and disappeared between the houses. The woman who had managed to wound the undead lay on the ground, blood gushing from her mouth and ears. The monster’s hands had cracked her skull like a walnut. Fuller looked around, and saw all the members of his outside team were panicking. This had nothing to do anymore with their routine encounters with the undead. Nothing in Fuller’s guidebook had prepared them for such an extreme situation, and as the colossal zombie was now out of sight, it could be hiding anywhere. For the first time in a long while, Richard Fuller felt unease rising in him.
Duke Powell opened his eyes and groaned. His ribs ached and he felt as if he had been run over by an 18-wheeler truck. What the fuck happened? Then it dawned on him. The giant zombie had thrown him through the window of a building like a toy, and then Duke had hit his head and passed out. He stumbled to his feet, while his eyes slowly started to focus again. Outside he heard a racket of gunshots and a lot of yelling. Duke dragged himself outside and steadied himself in front of the building and pulled his two hammers from their belt loops. When he stood in the street, he saw that the remainder of the group was involved in several fights. Many zombies had been attracted by the noise of the fighting and were attacking the survivors. To Duke, the most horrific scene was the sight of two corpses near the truck, where the bodies had been completely deformed and crushed. They were lying in the dirt, and blood was slowly seeping into the ground. There was no trace of that running giant zombie. Three more zombies emerged near a building and started lurching toward the convoy. Duke did not think twice and ran at them. He drove the peen of his hammer deep into the back of the skull of one zombie. All tension left the body of the undead creature and it fell to the ground. One of the other monsters turned and clumsily tried to reach for Duke’s face. He easily dodged backward and pushed the upper edge of his hammer at the beast’s eyes and nose. The zombie stumbled briefly, but then resumed the attack and reached for him with both arms. Duke quickly spun around so that the creature slid past him. When he had finished his turn, he hit the back of the monster’s head with both of his hammers. His enemy groaned and slid to the knees before falling flat on its face. The zombie no longer moved.
Duke was ready to take on the last of the three zombies, but then he saw that Pam had already finished it off. He initially had not even noticed the shot, but he saw the steaming exit wound in the back of the creature’s skull and briefly nodded approval to Pam. Duke looked around again and witnessed the chaos that still reigned. Some people had fallen victim to the rampaging undead, and a man held his wife–who had been bitten–in his arms and tried to console her. She smiled at him and stroked his cheek. Duke saw that she said something to her husband, and then she pulled her revolver and shot herself in the head. Her body sagged into his arms, and he placed her lovingly on the ground, as if to make sure she did not hit anything, while all hell was raging around them.
Duke spied the sledgehammer that the giant beast had knocked out of his hands. He put his smaller hammers back into their loops and picked up the large one. Where could Fuller be? After searching for a moment, Duke discovered him near the convoy, surrounded by a ring of corpses. The man is good.
Duke ran in Fuller’s direction. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the huge zombie burst through a wooden garden fence and ran toward Duke. Duke saw the monster out of the corner of his eye and threw himself forward and onto the ground. The zombie crashed against the wall of a house and fell backward. Seemingly dazed, it shook itself and uttered loud gargling sounds. Duke jumped up and ran toward the convoy. When he reached Fuller, he hardly had enough breath left to speak.
“What kind of beast is that?” he gasped. “The fucker just doesn’t want to die!”
Fuller nodded. “I have an idea. Follow me.” Duke was in no mood to argue and ran after Fuller. Fuller jumped on the fire truck and stood at the water gun.
“You drive. Pursue the beast as well as you can.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“DRIVE!” Fuller yelled and Duke started the engine.
“Ram the zombie and force it away from the others. Once there are no survivors nearby, drive along the side of the monster. It doesn’t matter which side.”
Duke did not understand what Fuller was trying to do, but he had no time for questions. So far, the man’s actions had shown him to be very smart, so Duke decided to trust him. The vehicle raced at the enormous enemy, which was already turning toward the other survivors. Duke floored the accelerator and drove directly at the monster. The zombie saw the vehicle barreling down the street and tried to flee again, running as fast as it could. Duke was going thirty miles an hour, but the zo
mbie was running ahead of them at the same speed. After a while they had left the rest of the group behind, so now no one would be endangered anymore.
“Try to keep to its side and drive it ahead of us.” Duke followed this order and steered to the left of the undead which was still running at full speed. Suddenly, he saw a blinding light. Duke did not realize what had happened and looked in the rearview mirror. He saw Richard Fuller, who stood by the supposed water cannon and pressed the trigger. What came out of the nozzle wasn’t water, though, but burning gasoline which Fuller aimed at the zombie. The first gush hit the walls of houses, and the reflected heat almost singed Duke’s eyebrows. Holy shit! That’s no fucking fire-fighting vehicle, it’s a mobile flamethrower!
“CLOSER!” yelled Fuller from above over the noise of the engine. Duke jerked the steering wheel to the right and got the vehicle about ten feet closer to the zombie. The creature seemed to sense the danger posed by the fire and tried to accelerate even more. Another ball of fire shot from the nozzle and set a bus stop aflame but this time, though, Fuller had also hit the fleeing monster’s leg. The zombie uttered a horrible scream and while still running kept slapping its burning thigh to extinguish the flames. Duke saw their chance and went for broke. Like a rugby player coming out of a blind spot, he rammed the zombie with the truck at full speed. The monster stumbled over its own legs and rapidly somersaulted, while still partially burning. After about ten yards, its body collided with a street light and tore it out of the ground by the force of the impact. Duke and Fuller did not hesitate and continued the chase. Duke yanked the emergency brake and made the vehicle understeer through abruptly pressing the accelerator. Then he jerked the steering wheel to the left and released the emergency brake. With tires squealing, the truck performed a U-turn and Duke was once more aiming for the zombie, which was still lying dazed on the ground. Duke almost pushed the brake pedal through the floor and he yanked the steering wheel again. The vehicle slid sideways across the street and came to a stop near the undead creature. Fuller did not hesitate a second and unleashed an inferno from the flamethrower. He bathed the giant in a bright flash of fire, which burned the flesh from its bones. The horrible scream of pain soon ended, as Fuller shot more burning gasoline on the beast. Its skin burst and charred. Water evaporated from its muscles, and the body contracted with sizzling and crackling sounds. Then the monster fully collapsed, lay motionless on the ground and continued to burn. Richard Fuller sagged sweating into his seat behind the flamethrower.
“Fucking shit,” he murmured. Duke did not know why, but he suddenly had to smile.
“That’s the first time I heard you speak like a normal person,” he called out of the window.
“Then let’s forget this outburst soon and chalk it up to an excess of emotions, Mr. Powell. What was this extraordinary mutation? We never had to deal with something like that before.”
Duke got out and looked up at Fuller. “I don’t have the faintest idea, Mr. Fuller, but there’s nothing left of the beast for us to examine.”
Fuller nodded and left the vehicle. “By the way. Good driving, Mr. Powell.”
The two of them silently looked at the fire. The zombie’s body had by now almost completely turned to ashes. Both of them were sure this particular zombie would never rise again. The fire gradually reached other buildings and burned brighter. They better be getting back to Sanctuary.
Duke and Fuller drove to the rest of the group. The other men and women had eliminated the remaining undead attackers, but not without casualties–eleven people had lost their life looting Reefe. When Richard Fuller got out, Jenna ran toward him.
“The area should be secure now, Mr. Fuller. What about the huge monster?”
“Mr. Powell and I took care of it. There is no more danger.” He nodded at Duke. “Even though this was a dark day for us, we should thank Mr. Powell. Without him and his courageous actions, more good people would have died today.”
When other members of the group came near, some applauded. Others were too exhausted, but gave Duke and Fuller grateful looks. Duke glanced at Richard Fuller and remembered what was needed for a good conspiracy. This was the foundation.
In spite of the fire, Fuller insisted in taking everything from the houses not yet aflame and left a truck and four men behind. When the convoy started out for Sanctuary, Duke looked in the rearview mirror. The small town was ablaze.
38A Difficult Road
Even though it was just a few hundred yards, it took them almost half an hour to cover the rest of the cave. Screw’s injury had dramatically slowed down the group and while they had given him painkillers, his knee seemed to be seriously damaged. It wasn’t just that every step caused him excruciating pain, but Ray and Nika were also completely exhausted after supporting the tall man the entire way. Scott could not help with this chore, either, because he had obviously lost too much blood. When they stepped out of the darkness into the light of day, all of them held their arms in front of their eyes to get used to the brightness. Soon afterwards they could see what was beyond the cave.
They stood on a rise from which they could see the surroundings quite well. A gravel path led downhill into the forest where Reefe must be located. Ray examined the map and scowled when he looked ahead again. He pointed at a column of smoke rising into the sky a few miles from them.
“I‘m afraid Reefe is back there–or what‘s left of it.”
One could almost feel how the optimism of the group rapidly declined.
“We have to take a break somewhere. Screw can hardly go on, and we also should take a closer look at his knee–and apart from that, I cannot hold him up much longer,” Nika said.
Ray knew she was right. He himself had to struggle with every step by now, and they could also see that Scott was anything but well.
“Screw, how much longer can you go on?” Ray asked.
“To be honest, I feel like my knee‘s going to explode soon. But when you say we have to go on, we‘ll do it.”
“We‘re almost there. Up here, we‘re sitting ducks. Let‘s try to go on.”
After exactly twenty minutes, Screw collapsed for the first time. Ray and Nika could not hold him up anymore, as the brawny mechanic was now dead weight for them to support. His face was distorted in pain, he held his knee and rolled back and forth while moaning. Fortunately for them, they had not seen any undead since the Waterfall Caves which could have exploited their unfortunate situation.
“Here, take some more,” Ray said and offered him more painkillers and a water bottle. Screw did not hesitate for a moment.
While the others waited for the medication to soothe Screw’s discomfort, they also drank some water and ate some of the food they had found earlier that morning in Redstone. Even though no one was in the mood for food, they knew they had to keep their strength up.
Ray kneeled in front of Watson and patted the dog, while he used a cloth to remove dried remainders of the alpha zombie’s blood and flesh from the Rottweiler’s mouth. According to Abbadon, animals could not get infected with the virus, but Ray did not want his dog to run around with fragments of that creature still on his face.
When Scott returned from following the call of nature, he carried a sturdy branch, which forked on one end. Scott must have cut off the branch to create a makeshift crutch for Screw. The muscular lumberjack also had some smaller branches, which he used for a crude splint on Screw’s leg.
“Let’s try now,” Scott said. “It might help you reach Sanctuary.”
Screw actually managed to support himself on one side with the primitive crutch, while Ray, Nika and now Scott alternated in propping him up on the other so he could walk.
While the afternoon sun moved westward, the four survivors dragged themselves toward the column of smoke, with Watson at their side. The painkillers seemed to be working, as Screw did not look as worn-out anymore. A few zombies that crossed their path were dispatched quickly and silently.
Dusk was already falling when the
y reached the outskirts of the small settlement. Even from afar they could see that most of the houses in Reefe were aflame. When they passed the sign with the name of the town, it was clear they would not be able to spend the night here. The heat from the fires made sweat appear on Ray’s forehead while he talked to them.
“Stay alert and keep close to each other. We can’t afford another surprise like the one in the cave. I think–”
His words were interrupted by the revving of an engine nearby. Ray placed a finger over his mouth and crept to the corner of the next house. When he peered around the building, he saw a group of three men loading a 3.5-ton truck idling in front of a large house that had not yet fallen prey to the flames, while another man sat behind the steering wheel. It looked as if they were just loading the last pieces of gathered loot.
Ray weighed his options: They could try finding a suitable place in the forest to spend the night, and they could then continue on foot tomorrow and hope that Screw’s condition would not get worse. If they were lucky, they might reach Sanctuary in three days, considering their current speed. Or, they could approach these men and hope that they were friendly. Nika stepped next to him and looked at him expectantly. While Ray was thinking, two of the men closed the tailgate of the truck. The third one was already in the passenger seat. It was now or never.
“Follow me–and do exactly what I‘m doing,” Ray hissed at the others. Then he emerged from behind the house with arms raised and walked in the direction of the truck. Nika followed his example, and Screw limped forward, supported by Scott.
Evolution Z (Book 3): Stage Three Page 16
