Cassie (Adrian's Undead Diary Book 8) (33 page)

“Go to him. Use the old one’s body now like good puppets.”

Melanie and Cassie’s bodies creakily got to their feet, and reached out with blind hands until they reached the body of Alan. Alan’s corpse was lethargic, stirring only slightly as the two female zombies began to yank and pull on one of his decayed and weakened arms. Melanie leaned down in the darkness and began to eat away at the shoulder meat, biting the flesh open for it to tear free easier. After several minutes of frantic, uncoordinated tugging, and biting, the arm came loose from the shoulder. Melanie took the arm and slowly began hitting the elevator door with it. The exposed shoulder bone eventually chipped and cracked, breaking in half and splintering into a jagged edge. One half of the arm fell to the floor where Cassie picked it up.

Melanie took the sharp shard of Alan’s arm bone and crudely jammed it into the gap in the doors of the elevator. Cassie’s corpse wedged her bone into the space as well, and the two zombies slowly began the process of prying the doors apart using body parts.
 

Minutes later, the two dead women had the interior door of the elevator apart. The escape from their wretched prison was in full, rotten swing.

*****

“It’s clearing up. We’re about two blocks from the hospital. Right near one of the radios we hung from the traffic lights. Should be smooth sailing from here to there, then we cut north and go about five blocks. Let’s try to go guns silent for a bit,” Adrian yelled out. Kevin nodded emphatically, wiping his brow of sweat and swapping the magazine in his weapon. Abby and Hal did the same in the back. Adrian was incredibly thankful they’d brought so many magazines.

“How are you not all deaf? All this gunfire is so amazingly loud,” Michelle said, rubbing her temples.

“What?!” Adrian asked back, turning to look at her.

“I asked how are you not all deaf?!” Michelle said again, louder this time.

“What?!” Kevin responded back to her, looking to see what she said.

“Oh real funny. Hilarious. You two are a bunch of clowns.”

Kevin and Adrian shared a grin, and both turned forward.
 

That’s when the world rose up on them, heaving the pavement six feet high underneath the rescue truck, flipping it on its side as it careened down the street out of control, twisting metal and plastic into unrecognizable shapes. Something incredibly powerful had just exploded underneath the truck. The humans inside were tossed around like blood filled ice in a drink shaker.

The world went dark for the five occupants of the shattered vehicle.

And Michelle thought the guns were loud.

*****

Michelle opened her eyes and immediately realized something was wrong with the right eye. Everything was pink, and it stung like an angry bee had gotten trapped inside it. Her mouth tasted coppery, and she spit blood. The taste in her mouth reminded her of the night she witnessed horrors in the Glade. She blinked repeatedly, winking blood free, returning her vision to something approaching normal. The
 
taste lingered still. She was atop a cabinet affixed to the side of the ambulance. The ambulance itself had been turned on its side from what she thought must have been an explosion, and the entire front of the vehicle, where the engine was, had been demolished somehow. She looked out the shattered windshield and saw nothing but motor parts, bent steel, and what remained of the hood.
 

Her head hurt very much.

Adrian was still strapped to his seat, dangling into the center of the vehicle, knocked unconscious. She watched as a steady stream of blood pitter-pattered from his jaw across the truck. It drizzled across the cabin to where Kevin had sat, hitting the ground outside near where his head should have been. But he wasn’t in the seat. The window and door where he had been sitting was gone; only pavement remained. A pool of Adrian’s blood the size of a dinner plate was now staining the street.

Michelle panned her head around the cabin, seeing where Kevin’s body came to rest. He was face down just half a foot from her, still inside the safety of the vehicle. She gently shook the cobwebs from her head with a few deep breaths, and reached down to touch his neck. She felt a strong thumping against her finger, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Behind her she saw Abby, who had just sat up and rubbed her forehead. She was free of injury, but from the look on her face she had been shaken badly by the surprise that had just been unleashed on them. Abby shook Hal’s leg and he roused shortly after. Michelle awkwardly stepped over the debris scattered in the vehicle trying to get to Adrian. She stepped on the stock of his weapon and for no good reason picked it up. She had no idea how to use it, but she knew stepping on it was bad.

“Adrian, babe you gotta wake up,” Michelle said, kneeling near him, trying to avoid the blood coming from the large gash on the underside of his chin. She shook his shoulder slightly, and he jerked to life, scrambling to get to his sidearm. When his eyes locked onto Michelle’s he stopped moving immediately, staring at her, assessing the situation. He looked past her and saw Kevin sitting up, shaking his rattled brain back into place.

“What the fuck happened?” Adrian asked, still hanging sideways in the driver’s seat. He grabbed the bent steering wheel to shore his halted, falling body.

“IED maybe. Mine. Not sure. Something fairly big hit us. Or we hit it,” Kevin said softly, gathering his M4 from the side of the vehicle he sat on. He checked the action to ensure the weapon was functional.

“Fuck my life,” Adrian said, spinning his torso to right himself. He put a foot on something sturdy under what was left of the dash and clicked the belt free. He caught his weight with his hands and slowly lowered himself to the pavement that was covered in his own blood. Michelle looked around and saw a large bandage that had been knocked free of a cabinet. She reached up and pressed it to his chin, staunching the steady flow of blood. The white bandage turned dark.

“Gather everything we might need. We need to move fast or we’ll be surrounded big time. That explosion will draw in some serious bad news and time is a factor,” Kevin said as he gathered medical supplies and two of the satchel style bags of spare magazines they’d brought. He reached up to the side of the vehicle that passed as the ceiling and popped the latch on a long cabinet. A long, tubular weapon dropped out, and he caught it deftly.

“Seriously Kevin? You brought a fucking AT4?” Adrian asked incredulously, taking his weapon from Michelle as she affixed the bandage to his chin. He seemed groggy to the others, but was focusing fast.

“You’re asking that question like bringing it WASN’T sensible brother. If I had an aircraft carrier and a hundred shit-filled slingshots I’d have brought those motherfuckers too. Carried the sumbitches downtown myself.” Kevin said nonchalantly. “How’s the back look Abby?”

Abby leaned over and peered out the small windows in the back of the ambulance. “It doesn’t look that bad, maybe ten or twelve out there. Nothing we can’t handle. Wait, wait. Maybe twenty.”

“Alright, everyone ready?” Kevin asked.

“We’re still moving on the target right?” Adrian asked. He leaned back slightly to see through the small openings through the wreckage. He saw a small number of undead coming their way.

“What the fuck are we going to do when we get there? Do we seem combat effective to you?” Kevin asked, looking at him.

“Not much has changed man. We're all upright. Just buy me time. We aren't far, and I won’t be long.”

Kevin looked around the inside of the truck, looking for something that might inspire him. He looked for something that might give him an idea that’d allow them to finish this godforsaken mission. He saw Quan’s failed detonator propped up against a broken crutch and picked it up. He thought for a few seconds, and then an idea hit him. “We can do this if we split up into two groups. One group heads out to wherever the fuck you think Cassie is. I’ll take a second group to the garage and see if I can’t get the damn explosives to go. If I can blow it, we’ll be on easy street. At the very least, I’ll chuck some grenades and see if I can’t steal a fucking car for the ride home.”

“I’ll go with Adrian,” Michelle said.

After a moment’s conversation Hal added, “We’ll go with Kevin. He’ll need cover to fix whatever is wrong with the explosives.”

Adrian nodded, feeling his waist for the walkie that was miraculously still attached. He pulled it free and started talking, “Agnes, you there? Anyone receiving this?”

“Yes Adrian go ahead,” the tall woman responded, her voice scratchy from the distance. She sounded less awkward.

“Our vehicle has been hit by some kind of explosive device. We’re on foot. If you can pass the message along to the others and get them informed that’d be great. We’re two blocks due west of the hospital parking garage. If they send anyone, have them get into radio contact with us when they get in the area.”

“Okay I’ll call them right now,” Agnes said. Adrian turned down the radio as he heard her pass the message along to people who he couldn’t hear.
 

“I thought you said you didn’t want anyone else to risk their asses for this?” Kevin said, checking to make sure his weapon was still working.

“I don’t want anyone risking their ass for me. I want them to come pull your asses out of this fire. I could give a shit if I burn and rot,” Adrian said, motioning for Abby and Hal to get ready to open the double doors at the back of the ambulance. “Here, take this,” Adrian said, freeing his Kimber 10mm pistol and magazine pouches for it from his thigh and belt. He handed them to Michelle and helped her strap the weapon on.

“Thanks. I don’t really know how to use it though,” Michelle said, looking at Adrian’s big brown eyes, showing him her fear of the weapon.

“The safety is off. Point it at what you want to shoot and pull the trigger. When it clicks dry, push this button, pull the empty mag out and put a new magazine in. Then hit that button. Even if you can’t hit the head the muzzle velocity of the round should send them stumbling for a few seconds. It’ll give us time.” Adrian showed her how to swap the magazine quickly before sliding the pistol into the holster. Michelle nodded, fearful of the weapon of war.

“Ready?” Kevin asked.

“I didn’t bring any condoms. Oh well, let’s go anyway. Any port in a storm.”

“Let’s rawdog this motherfucker. Fucking A. Abby, Hal, lead the way.” Kevin shouldered his weapon as the young couple lowered and lifted the rear doors of the lopsided ambulance simultaneously.

The crowd of undead at the rear of the ambulance were still yards away, except for two who were danger close. As Hal and Abby raised the barrels of their rifles up to take them out, they were blinded and deafened by the road exploding again. Thirty paces out and on the other side of a parked car the pavement and part of the sidewalk vaulted into the air, sending a pair of the dead pinwheeling into the air, their bodies mangled. Most of the dead bodies approaching the tattered group of survivors were tossed to the ground from the explosion.

"Holy fucking shit!" Abby screamed as she shielded herself from pieces of falling dead body, and black chunks of scorched asphalt. It rained down with loud plunks on the now flipped over ambulance. It was a stroke of mercy that they were all still inside the vehicle. Were they out, they'd have been hit by falling debris.

"Mines? What the bloody fuck?" Hal yelled out as the undead got to their feet.

Two undead had made their way to within feet of the back door. A male and female zombie were shambling forward, teeth grinding and fingers clawing, dressed in blood soaked business casual. Hal acquired one face, pulled the trigger, found the second face and did the same. The undead couple weren’t even face down on the ground by the time he was out and looking for more targets. After a quick 360 degree check of the environment he dropped to a knee and started firing as fast as he could find heads to shoot at. The explosion had only bought them seconds.

Abby and Kevin were on his heels, covering his back and taking down their own targets. Adrian walked into the sunlight out the back of the ambulance, holding Michelle’s hand without realizing it. The air smelled of cordite, ozone, and burning flesh. He watched as his three shooters absolutely decimated the thirty or so undead surrounding their position in the street. He suddenly felt a perk of hope in his heart. We might be able to do this.

“Holy fuck, look at the road in front of the truck. What are those? Is that what just blew up?” Abby said as she pointed down the street. Every five feet or so were small craters or tiny unexploded bomblets. They were scattered about as if they’d been dropped randomly from the sky. They had a faint menace to them, like an angry wasp in the air hovering near your face.

Adrian took Michelle around the side of the ruined rescue truck and looked. His eyebrows perked up in surprise. “I think those are unexploded cluster bombs. The Spring Meadow people said something about this. Who the fuck approved dropping these here in the city?”

Kevin looked over his shoulder at the bombs, and then went back to his shooting. “Some retard general most likely. Brigadier General Lead Paint Chips and his aide-de-camp Captain Sex Withmuhsister. Everyone be careful where you step. Adrian, you and your runway model need to get moving.” Kevin snapped off a few more rounds as more undead came into view.

“Kevin, comms check in thirty seconds. Switch to the military gear,” Adrian said loud enough for his friend to hear him over the gunfire.
 

“Roger that. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Make good decisions. Be handsome,” Kevin said back.

"Anything else?" Adrian asked his best friend.

Kevin shook his head and shot a zombie fifty yards out. "No, you already said you didn't have condoms."

"That I did. See you three soon," Adrian said, and he took Michelle's hand. The Souls took off running, Adrian letting go of her small hand to put his free hand on the M203 slung under the front of his M4. He slowed his pace for a few moments, steadying himself, snapping off a few rounds at a few undead that were in the direction he and Michelle were heading. Michelle was taken by surprise at how easy the large man made the shooting look. She always knew Kevin and his men could shoot; they were professionals by trade. Adrian had never shown that level of skill to her before. She suddenly felt the same pang of hope that Adrian had felt moments before.