Escape From Metro City

by Mandel, Richard

  "No story," Nye corrected. "The truth. That is, our truth. Not their truth. Our truth, just as we've been doing all along. The only truth they need to know, as it's the only truth worth telling and the only truth that the public ever needs to know."

  de Voormand shook his head, although he was still smiling. "I'm afraid the press is having a difficult time buying our truth as we've been telling them, given all that has happened so far."

  "They will eventually," Nye responded with conviction, "once we ensure that our truth is the only truth that can be obtained. After all, we can't have either the press or the public engaging in needless speculation, urban legends, and wild conspiracy theories. They need to be led to our truth in such a way that they will accept it no matter what, even if it means we have to have a hand in shaping events towards their reaching our truth. Do I make myself clear?"

  "Absolutely, sir."

  "Good."

  With that, both men fell silent. The limo continued to move down the highway until it disappeared from sight.

  Chapter 8

  The Last Survivor

  The first thing Lisa and Mercy saw as they neared the stairwell landing for the first floor were three shapes moving up towards them. They had just reached the next-to-last landing to where they were now and were about to make the final turn towards the landing that the two women were now on. The zombie of Officer Joe Frisco was in the lead, and it was accompanied by two other police zombies. One was in the remains of a normal uniform, while the other was an armored type. It wore both a bloody and torn dark blue SWAT coverall and a bloodstained Kevlar body armor vest on top of that. The last thing two of the three zombies felt were a veritable fusillade of .38 ACP bullets and 5.56mm NATO standard assault rifle rounds tearing through their heads and upper bodies, as both Lisa and Mercy stood their ground and opened fire. Both the Frisco and normal police zombies went down immediately, letting out screeching wails as they did, but the armored zombie did not drop. Its armor vest had protected it from most of its hits, and the few that found parts of its body to hit only seemed to make it angry. It jerked around this way and that until the rain of incoming fire ended, then it let out an angry roar and began to run the rest of the way towards the two women. It was stopped cold in its tracks by the angry bark and bite of an AK-47 assault rifle on full auto. Lisa had swapped guns once she realized what was happening, and now directed a steady stream of fire at the armored zombie with a weapon that had just enough punch to pierce its body armor, given how short a range to target was involved. It stumbled back, lost its footing, and began to wail as it tumbled over the rail and then fell down the center of the stairwell shaft. Less than two seconds later there was a bone shattering krak! as it hit the bottom and broke both its back and its neck. It never moved again.

  Lisa and Mercy did not wait to enjoy their victory. Their time was limited, so they quickly made their way around the first two zombie bodies as they hurried down to the station's basement level. They looked at the body of the third just long enough to make sure it was permanently out of commission, and then readied themselves for opening the basement level stairwell door. Lisa had swapped weapons again on the move in an effort to conserve her ammo for their group's best assault rifle, and now held her MAC-11 in her hands once again. At a nod from Lisa, Mercy yanked open the door and stepped aside, quickly pulling up her assault rifle in order to bring it to bear on any target that came through that door. It was a good thing she did, because an infected K-9 leapt through directly at Lisa. A burst from Mercy's M-16 knocked it aside as Lisa dodged downward and scrambled towards Mercy, and then her own MAC-11 was up and she too was firing at the infected K-9. It went down in a writhing pile of agonized yelping, which finally stopped when it quit moving and lay still in a pool of its own blood next to the body of the broken zombie in the center of the stairwell floor. Both women heard the ticking sound of claws across a concrete surface as soon as that kill was done. They were the same they had heard in the alley earlier, and that they knew to be the sound of an infected dog charging to the attack. This time both were in plain view of the open stairwell door and could see the darkened hallway beyond, so they set themselves and waited. About two seconds later a second infected K-9 rounded a corner at the far end of the hallway and commenced a dead run towards them. They dropped it less than a third of the way with their combined machine pistol and assault rifle fire. They remained where they were and listened, but all remained silent until they heard a strong voice cry out with a thick Spanish accent. "Hey! Anyone there? I want out! Me last human left! Please!!"

  Lisa turned to Mercy. "That would be Raul, I think," she said.

  Mercy nodded. "Let's go get him."

  The pair edged their way down the hall. As they drew closer to its end, they could see that not only was there another open hallway to their left, but also two doors to their right. The first one was closed and a quick test proved it to be locked. A sign next to it read ARMORY. The second was an open doorway to their right directly across from the other hallway. Its sign read KENNELS, and the fact that the door was wide open explained much.

  "Hello?" the not so distant voice pleaded again. "Anyone there? ¿Hola? ¿Hay alguien ahí?"

  "Definitely Raul, I'd say," Mercy half-whispered to Lisa.

  "Uh-huh," Lisa responded. She kept moving ahead, slowly and carefully, her MAC-11 raised and at the ready, and Mercy did likewise.

  The hallway ended in a large barred-off area with a single barred sliding door, which was currently open. In a fair-sized cubby hole off to one side were a duty officer's desk, a large double-door metal storage cabinet, and a smaller three-drawer filing cabinet. The duty officer's desk had the expected clutter on it, and there was nothing obviously useful in it. Of more interest to the pair was what lay beyond the metal bars. It was a cell bay with six average sized cells, enclosed on three sides by concrete-lined cinder block walls just like those used in the rest of the basement. The fourth or front side of each cell had the expected metal bar frames embedded in the walls and inset sliding barred metal doors, practically identical to those at the front of the bay. All of the cell doors were closed and locked so their occupants could not escape. Five of these held zombies, and they began to moan and howl and reach through the bars towards the two human women as soon as they were aware of their presence close by. The sixth cell held a human. It was the one at the far end and to the right from the cell bay's sliding door. He was practically plastered against the front bars of his own cell at the corner farthest away from the next adjoining cell, so its zombie couldn't reach him, and he looked towards the two women with pleading eyes and a fearful face. "Ah! Senoritas! Please let me out! I am not infected, and I want out of here!! ¡Me cago en la hostia! Please!!!"

  "All right, all right, settle down!" Lisa half-shouted at the man. "Give us a little bit, okay?"

  "Si," the man said, still looking fearful and clutching at the bars. He gave a sideways look at the zombie in the cell next to him, and then back at the women again. "Hurry!"

  Lisa moved close to Mercy so she could hear her above the din of the incarcerated zombies. "To reach him, we've got to go straight past those other zombies. The only way to do that is to walk in the exact center of the hallway. Veer just a little bit to either side, and one of those other zombies will grab you."

  "Tricky," Mercy said, looking down the cell bay and then back at Lisa.

  "I'll do it," Lisa offered. "You stay here and get your gear ready, so you can test him once he gets out."

  "Right," Mercy said, as she moved over to the desk and began to set up her medical gear. "I'll also check out this stuff here. Maybe I can find something useful."

  "Right," Lisa said with a nod. She then turned back to the cell bay, took in a deep breath, let it out again, then she began to move down the exact center of the cell bay's hallway with her MAC-11 in a walking carry.

  It was just like the ancient Greek myth of old. The zombies in the other cells were like the lions in one version
she had read, straining at the most extreme to get her, arms fully extended and clawed fingers raking empty air mere centimeters away from her on either side. She could have shot them, of course, and that would have been that, but she didn't want to waste ammo like that when they were already locked up and there was another way. It was a nerve-wracking way to be sure, but it was a way, and it worked. It took Lisa less than half-a-minute to walk the gauntlet of the zombies, and then she was at the front back corner of the farthest cell on the right, and holding the hand of one very frightened Mexican illegal.

  "Gracias, senorita," the man exclaimed. "You've got some cojones!" He realized what he had said, and then his face broke into a nervous grin. "Oh, I am sorry. You know what I mean," he added quickly.

  "I know," Lisa said, smiling back at him. The zombies in the other cells continued to whine and moan and reach through their bars in a vain effort to get at her, but she ignored them. She let go of the man's hand and then began to fish around in one of her pockets. "Raul, is it?"

  "Si. Raul Esteban. I'm from Guadalajara." Raul's face suddenly broke into a big grin. "Hey, I know you! You the stock car racer, Lisa Stanridge! I watch you on TV. You good, and you pretty too."

  Lisa couldn't help but laugh. "Why, thank you."

  "How you know my name?"

  "Officer Frisco told us," Lisa said, as she fished the cell keys out of her pocket and began to try each of them on Raul's cell door.

  "Joe!" Raul exclaimed. "Where is he?"

  "He's dead," Lisa said quickly. "Let's leave it at that." The next-to-last key on the ring proved to be the right one. The lock on Raul's cell door clicked, and then Lisa slid it open.

  Raul emerged at once but stopped beside Lisa. He now looked sad. "Oh, I am sorry to hear that. Officer Frisco, he good man." He now looked down the cell bay hallway, currently full of waving and clawing zombie arms on either side and echoing with zombie cries, and gulped. "So how we get back out, Senorita Stanridge?"

  "Just call me Lisa," Lisa said, "and we do it the same way I got down here. Stick to the center of the aisle and don't go to either side for anything, unless you want a permanent embrace from our undead friends there."

  Raul shuddered. "Why not shoot them?"

  "And waste ammo?" Lisa gave Raul an encouraging look. "You can do it, Raul. If a girl like me can do it, then a big guy like you surely can."

  Raul laughed nervously. "Me, I not so big. You half-head taller than me, Lisa."

  "But you're stocky, and I'll bet you're strong too," Lisa further encouraged. "What kind of work do you do?"

  "Manual jobs," Raul said. "Road work, construction, buildings. When I can get them and when they don't check my papers. I got to work on skyscraper once, in Dallas. That was incredible, working so high up."

  "Then think of this like that," Lisa said. "You're back on the job in Dallas, and you're having to walk one of those I-beams high up on that skyscraper. Know what I mean?"

  Raul gave Lisa a look, then gulped and nodded. "Si. Okay. I do it. Gracias, Lisa."

  "You're welcome."

  Just under a half-minute later the two were out of the cell bay without even a scratch, and Mercy was giving Raul a quick once-over. She had already drawn a sample of Raul's blood and was testing it with her portable analyzer. "I have to test your blood to make sure you don't have the virus, just to be sure," she explained, "and then I'm going to give you something to make sure you never get it. I also have to make sure your blood and what I'm about to give you is compatible." She looked up at him. "You're very lucky, you know, being locked up and isolated like that."

  Raul shook his head. "It no fun, I tell you. I also very hungry. I have plenty water, but I no eat anything for two days. Nobody left to bring me any."

  "There's a candy bar in the side drawer of this desk," Mercy noted. "It'll have to do for now. Lisa, could you get it for Raul? He can eat it after I'm done."

  "Sure," Lisa said, as she moved around the pair so she could get at the desk drawers.

  "Gracias, senorita ... senorita ..."

  "Parks," Mercy said. "Mercy Parks, but you can call me Mercy." She finished what she was doing with Raul's blood sample, and then looked up at him. "You're clear, Raul, as I hoped you'd be, and your blood checks out. There's just one more thing left to do, and that's to make sure you never get the virus."

  "How you do that?"

  "I'm going to give you some of Lisa's blood," Mercy said, as she pulled a vial out of her small medical bag with a handwritten label containing a rich red liquid.

  "What?" Raul exclaimed.

  "Don't worry," Mercy said, as she opened a package containing a hypodermic, stuck the needle in one end of the vial, then drew out a carefully measured amount of the liquid. "Your blood types are compatible. Not an exact match, but compatible. This is going to be like a PRP injection, only I'm doing it with Lisa's blood instead of yours. I know you don't know what that is, so I'll explain as I'm doing it. Put your right arm on the desk please. That's good. Ah, nice veins. Hold on ... stick." With that, she stuck the needle of the hypo into one of Raul's surface veins. She continued to talk as she slowly and carefully injected the sample of Lisa's blood into Raul's vein. "A PRP injection is when they take out some of your own blood, concentrate it, and put it back in to help out elsewhere in your body. In this case, Lisa's immune because her body makes better stuff than we use to immunize people against the virus. That's why I'm giving you some of her blood instead of mine. Hers is a lot better, and it's possible that your own body might learn how to make the stuff in her blood too. Not only will you be immune after that, but any kids you might have later will be too."

  Raul laughed nervously. "I no plan that far ahead yet."

  Mercy allowed herself to smile. "Understandable. I'd normally use an IV for this but I don't have one, so I've got to do it this way and I've got to do it very carefully. Just a little more ... there. All done. Coming out now ... there. Hold this please, while I wrap it." A few seconds later Mercy was packing up her gear, and Raul was looking at a medical wrap holding a sterile pad against the inner part of his right elbow.

  "Here," Lisa said, handing Raul the candy bar.

  "Ah! Gracias, Lisa!" Raul exclaimed, as he tore off the wrapper and all but inhaled the candy bar in just a few bites.

  It was at that moment that they heard fast-moving footsteps approaching. Lisa already had her MAC-11 up and covering the hallway as Mercy reached for her M-16, which she had leaned up against the storage cabinet before setting up for Raul, who also looked around in alarm. To everyone's great relief they saw Cy make the turn and run down towards them. "Cy!" Lisa exclaimed, lowering her weapon.

  "Lisa!" Cy called back as he came into the room and joined them. He stopped in front of Lisa, and looks passed between both of them. Then the moment was gone and Cy was addressing the other two people in the room. "Mercy. Oh, and you must be Raul." He took his hand from the stock of his shotgun and offered it to the stoutly built Mexican. "Welcome to our little survival party."

  "Si," Raul replied, taking Cy's hand and shaking it firmly. "Glad to be part of it."

  Cy then turned and positioned himself so he could address everyone. "Listen up, folks. I've been in touch with General Ryan outside the quarantine line. They know we're here and they've been trying to get to us, but they've not been successful." He now gave Lisa a grin. "Our winged friends out there go after their helicopters every time they try to fly in to pick us up."

  "They're no friends of mine," Lisa said evenly. "Sounds to me like the Raven Mocker is having fun with us."

  "Raven Mocker?" Raul said, and the fear returned to his face again. "Oh no! I hear about her from some of my Indian friends on the job. !Ella es una mala hijo de puta!"

  Cy had to fight the urge to laugh, and could not stop a big grin from forming on his face. "Take it easy, Raul," he said. "We're only talking about flocks of infected crows here, not some Indian legend."

  Mercy cocked an eyebrow. "You know Spanish?" she asked.
"What'd he say?"

  "A little," Cy responded. "You don't want to know."

  "And the raven," Lisa added. "Don't forget the raven, the one that keeps following us."

  "¡Ai, yi, yi!" Raul said, and now he looked worried. "Out of the frying pan into the fire, as you say!"

  "Well the crows aren't after us," Cy said evenly. "They're only going after the Army helicopters, and that raven doesn't do anything but watch us. Me, I think it's just a bird that's taken a fancy to us, like strays sometimes do to people who are nice to them, and I'm going to treat it just like any old bird until I'm proven wrong. In the meantime, let's focus on the here and now, folks, and our present predicament. General Ryan says his spotters in the air tell him that the zombies are ganging back up outside beyond our fire barricade, which is burning low. He also says that more zombies are coming up from the other side of the block."

  "Oh, God," Lisa replied. "We've got to get out of here before there's too many of them to break out."

  "After we stop by the station Armory first and make a quick search for those armor vests we wanted," Cy reminded her. "You ladies did remember to pick up the keys, right?"

  "Right," Lisa said, as she pulled the smaller of the two key rings out of one of her firesuit pockets and held it up before him.

  "Good," Raul said, giving her a smile. Lisa smiled back and then put the keys back in her pocket as he continued. "Remember, getting those armor vests is part of the reason why we're here." He now looked to the others. "And while we're at it, we've got to get Raul here some weapons."

  "Si," Raul agreed.

  Cy waved towards the hallway and then put his free hand back on the stock of his shotgun. "Then let's move, people. Time's a-wastin' and we don't have much of it left."

  Their subsequent visit to the station's Armory was a short and hurried one. Unlike the weapons stores at the National Guard Armory and the Metro City Medical security office this one had been fairly well emptied. There were still items of value they could pick up and use despite that. There was a lone Star Model S pistol in the emptied small arms locker, there were still a couple of boxes left of .38 ACP ammo to go with it, and there was both a full box of 5.56mm NATO standard assault rifle rounds and enough loose shells lying about to almost fill half of a second box. There was also a police rucksack with MCPD markings similar to the ones Lisa and Cy wore. All of them agreed it should be Raul's, as he had none. Cy had in turn given all of the 5.56mm ammo they had found along with the two boxes of .38 ACP to Raul to fill it. He had then handed Raul the Star pistol, then unslung and handed the stout Mexican both his M-16A1 assault rifle and his bandolier, which by now was mostly full of empty clips. "These are just loaners, okay?" he said. "They're the Army's, not mine. You can fill the clips with those shells when we have time."