Dead Hunt (13 page)

“But once the host dies, doesn’t the glucose
and negatively charged oxygen die with them?”

“You are very perceptive, Mr. Buffer. It is
true that the zombies have no way of producing the basic building
blocks of life and this is where their cannibalistic nature comes
into play. They need a constant supply of living blood cells for
the conversion process to cycle. We do not know if it is by nature
or by design, but by limiting the hosts to only being able to
perform the most basic motor functions with practically no brain
function, it drastically reduces the amount of energy used,
allowing the zombie creatures to survive for a longer period of
time between recharges.”

“Recharges? You make it sound like we are
nothing more than batteries.”

“To the walking dead, that is exactly what we
are: batteries.”

“Well, folks, you heard it here first. The
undead walk the earth and we are the new Duracell. Once again, that
was Doctor Bajeet Chopra with his fascinating explanation of what,
and how, these zombies came to be. Thank you for joining us, Doctor
Chopra”

“You’re most welcome.”

“Up next, the weather with Jimmy MacIntosh. .
. Batteries. Amazing!”

Robin’s computer screen flashed a series of
camera views then stopped at the main door.

“Father?”

Robin’s voice startled Lucy. Her tired eyes
tried to focus on Robin’s monitor. When she saw what was displayed
there, she screamed.

“Robin! No!”

Lucy’s scream drowned the rumbling of the
steel security doors as they noisily opened.

“What’s going on?” Michael said as he jumped
to his feet.

“Look!” Lucy yelled, pointing to the monitor,
her hand trembling uncontrollably.

The screen showed a man wearing a lab coat
walking through the open door. Before the mysterious man
disappeared off screen, Michael noticed two things about him that
sent a cold chill down his spine. The man was covered in blood, and
he looked dead.

“Oh, shit,” was the only thing he could think
of saying.

“Robin, seal the lab,” Paul ordered.

Robin ignored him.

“Robin, close the doors now and seal the
lab!” Lucy demanded, but Robin did not react.

Robin’s face appeared on the screen and
announced, “Father’s home.”

CHAPTER 12 – The Attic

“Upstairs!” Paul yelled as everyone scrambled
for the door.

Paul and Lucy stopped at the bottom of the
stairs, realizing Emma was not with them. They turned to see Emma
frozen with fear.

“Emma! Run!” Lucy yelled but it was no
use.

Emma’s eyes were fixed on Heslin, her feet
paralyzed in fear. Heslin’s putrid hands reached for her.

“Paul, do something!” Lucy pleaded.

His eyes widened in horror, but he did not
move to help her. Lucy tried to run to her friend, but Paul was
holding her firmly.

“Do something! Emma! Run!” she screamed, but
neither of them moved.

Emma did not run, nor did Paul help.

“It’s too late,” Paul yelled as he pulled
Lucy up the stairs.

“No! We can help her!” Lucy pleaded as Heslin
pulled Emma towards him.

Emma screamed as his teeth sunk deep into her
neck. Lucy screamed as blood gurgled out of Emma’s throat when
Heslin ripped a huge chunk of flesh free. Lucy tried to run to her
friend, but Paul still held her back, dragging her up the stairs.
She struggled and screamed and cried, but it was no use, Paul was
too strong. Lucy watched as more of those zombie things appeared
and started ripping into Emma’s flesh.

Emma’s screams were deafening; then they
suddenly stopped.

Lucy was crying and fighting to help her
friend as Paul forced her up the stairs. They tried the first door
they came to, but it was locked. Paul threw his massive shoulder
into it, shattering the frame. As splinters shot across the room,
Lauren screamed and started to climb out the window.

“Lauren, wait!” Lucy yelled. “It’s us!”

Lauren paused on the windowsill, tears
running wildly down her cheeks, and ran to Lucy.

“I saw,” Lauren whimpered. “I saw what
happened to Emma.”

Paul looked out the window. Those creatures
were still outside, but they were headed towards the house, and
soon they too would be upstairs.

“Here!” Paul shouted, pointing to the
ceiling. “We can get into the attic. They won’t be able to climb up
there.”

He jumped and punched the hatch out of the
way. He jumped again and slowly pulled himself up into the tiny
opening in the ceiling, then reached his muscular arm down.

“Give me your hand, Lauren!” he ordered.

She reached up and he effortlessly pulled her
up through the hole.

“Lucy, c’mon!” he yelled, but she didn’t
reach up. “Lucy, give me your hand!”

“Where’s Michael?” she asked, looking back
towards the door.

“Fuck Michael! Give me your hand,” he barked
at her. “C’mon, Lucy! Michael can take care of himself, so get your
ass up here!”

Zombies started to pile into the room, and
Lucy jumped for Paul’s outstretched arm. One of the zombies reached
for her, its decomposing hand grabbing tightly around her ankle.
Paul pulled harder, yanking the zombie off its feet and almost into
the attic space with them. Its grip slipped, and it crashed to the
floor.

“Ok,” Paul said, breathing heavily. “We’re
safe for now.”

“We need to find Michael,” Lucy told him,
barely able to catch her own breath.

“No problem,” Paul huffed, “we need to be
very careful up here. This attic is not much more than a crawl
space, so we need to stay on the boards and on the frames. If you
go off the boards, you’re going to fall through the ceiling.”

“That’s not good,” Lauren said in a terrified
voice.

“No,” Paul said with a tiny smile. “That’s
not good. Ok, Lauren, you head towards that light over there. It’s
some sort of opening to let the heat out.”

Lucy wiped the sweat from her eyes. “It’s not
doing a very good job.”

“Attics get real hot,” Paul explained. “And
if we don’t get some air in here, we’ll dehydrate in a matter of
minutes.”

“What do you want me to do?” Lucy asked.

“Look for another vent,” Paul suggested. “And
when you get to them, kick them open. Do whatever you can to let
air in.”

“What are you going to do?” Lucy asked.

He wiped the sweat from his eyes and smiled.
“I’m gonna find Mikey.”

The girls slowly started crawling, Lauren
towards the light, Lucy trying to find another vent in the opposite
direction. Paul tried to follow the power lines in the dimly lit
attic. He knew each cluster of wires meant the junction box for an
overhead light in one of the rooms below. When he got to the first
cluster, he punched a hole in the ceiling. The heat was getting to
him, as sweat poured down his forehead and stung his eyes.

“Mikey,” he called, barely louder than a
whisper. “If you can hear me, whistle.”

He listened intently but heard nothing. He
crawled to another cluster of wires and punched another hole.

“Mikey, you there?”

Nothing.

“Arrgghh!” Paul heard Lauren scream. “Help
me!” she screamed again.

Paul crawled along the beams as fast as he
could go, sweat pouring down his face. As he rounded the huge,
brick chimney, he saw Lauren’s head and shoulders poking up through
the floor, her arms flailing like someone who fell through ice

“Fuck!” he yelled.

“What is it?” he heard Lucy shout, but he
could not see her in the dim light.

“She fell through!” Paul replied as he
reached Lauren and started to pull her back up.

“Damn, you’re heavy,” he grunted as Lauren
continued to scream and claw at him. “Stop squirming!” he ordered,
but she wasn’t listening. Her screams were deafening. “You’re too
heavy when you’re squirming like that.”

Paul pulled again, but he couldn’t lift
her.

“Why are you so heavy?” he grunted as he
struggled with her weight.

“Why is she so heavy?” Paul wondered.

“Fuck!” Paul yelled as realization set
in.

As Lauren continued to scream, Paul leaned
over the hole and saw dozens of hands pulling on her. Others were
biting. Lauren’s once smooth and sexy legs were pitted with deep
gashes and were gushing blood. Paul’s muscles bulged as he fought
against the pull of zombies. The awful sounds of chewing and
screaming rang in his ears as he braced his feet against the
rafters, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and pulled. This time
Lauren popped up through the hole with a wet slushy sound and
landed on his chest as he fell backwards.

“I got you!” he reassured her.

Lauren stared at him wide eyed but did not
answer.

“You’re ok now. I’ve got you.”

Lauren’s big brown eyes continued to stare at
Paul, the look of horror still frozen on her face. Lucy screamed.
Paul turned to look at Lucy, her hand shaking violently as she
pointed at Lauren. Paul looked past Lauren’s unblinking eyes and
over her shoulders. His gaze followed the curve of Lauren’s back
down to her supple waist and that was where his gaze stopped; that
was where Lauren stopped. Everything below her hips was gone. Paul
screamed.

Horrified, Paul flung Lauren’s lifeless body
away from him and scrambled towards the tiny slits of light created
by the vent. He kicked the wooden vent, shattering it into
splinters. Paul stuck his head into the tiny opening, inhaling the
air and then threw up. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he spun
around violently, pushing it away.

Lucy flew backwards across the attic from
Paul’s push and crashed through the floor. One of her feet caught
in the roof truss, preventing her from falling all the way through.
As she swung like a human pendulum, her eyes could not focus on the
zombies below her as they swayed in and out of view.

She screamed, “Paul!” Paul did not answer
her.

Lucy tried a sit up movement to grab the
edges of the hole in the ceiling. One of her hands grabbed the old
plaster, and it shattered in her grip. But the other hand had
gripped something solid. Her right arm and leg dangled helplessly
just out of reach of the zombies, while her other foot and hand
held her to the ceiling.

“Paul, I’m stuck! Help me!”

Paul still did not answer. She could hear him
kicking the vent. It sounded like he was tearing the house apart.
She managed to pull herself up a bit more. Her arms shook with the
strain. She grabbed again with her right hand, and this time got a
secure hold. Lucy was wedged between the rafters and trusses in
such a way that she could not pull herself up any further. She had
to keep her right leg pressed tightly against the ceiling, lest the
zombies below reach it. She knew it would not take long for the
strain of that maneuver to tear at her leg and stomach muscles,
eating her strength. Lucy could not risk kicking her other foot
free to try and pull herself out because that was the foot that
kept her from falling. She was stuck between the proverbial rock
and a hard place, and her grip was slipping.

“Paul!” she yelled again.

Paul stopped and turned to her.

“I’m slipping. Help me.”

He did not move.

“Paul, I’m slipping! I can’t hold on much
longer… Help me!”

Still Paul did not move.

“Get me the fuck out of here!” she yelled as
she started thrashing about, trying to pull herself into the
attic.

Lucy stopped thrashing when she saw the look
in Paul’s eyes.

“Paul?” she questioned in a now quiet
voice.

No reply, he just looked through the huge
hole he’d kicked in the wall, then back to her in a blank,
emotionless stare.

“Paul?” she said again, panic grabbing her
soul.

Lucy blinked a few times to see if her eyes
were playing tricks on her. Her fingers were growing tired and she
readjusted herself, trying to take the weight. Her mind swam
dizzily in confusion. She looked down at the monsters reaching for
her, then looked back to the hole in the wall where Paul stood just
seconds ago.

As Lucy struggled to keep from falling, she
kept mumbling the same three words over and over:

“He left me!”

CHAPTER 13 – What I Always Wanted To Do

Lucy could hear the zombies below but forced
herself to not to look. What she was hearing frightened her. As if
hanging for dear life above a group of flesh eating zombies was not
frightening enough, the sound of grunts and groans made it worse.
Then she heard what sounded like furniture being moved. Her heart
pounded in her ears. If they learned to move furniture, they would
be able to climb up and reach her! She screamed and struggled
against her twisted foot. She cried and screamed and begged and
twisted and cried some more. That’s when she felt it. The hands.
The hands reached up and gently touched her waist. So soft was the
touch that she froze instantly. Her heart pounded so hard she
thought it was going to explode, yet, despite her panic, her
muscles had failed her. They would not move; she was frozen with
pure, unadulterated fear.

She clenched her eyes tightly in frightened
anticipation as she felt something move closer to her head. She
could feel its breath in her ear just seconds before she heard,
“Shhhhh.”

It took a moment for the sound to register;
her brain was thoroughly busy watching her life flash before her
clenched eyes.

“I got you,” the voice said lovingly as those
gentle hands pushed her upwards.

Her brain was still swimming in confusion,
but she managed to wiggle herself free as she pulled herself into
the attic. She looked back and saw those same hands grab firmly
onto the rafters, and with a grunt, the head and shoulders came
into view.

“Michael!” she gasped breathlessly as she
threw her arms around him in a crushing hug. “I thought I was the
only one left.”