General Population (13 page)

"We're coming for you, Chief!"
 

The two escorts stepped up their pace and rate of fire, splattering the zombie force as they approached. Their numbers were now starting to drop considerably, but there was still plenty of danger heading for them.

"Now's our chance. Let's go!" said Maddix, who struggled to open the door and practically fell into the stairway.
 

Roberts and Javier both increased their firing, urging the other constables to move quicker. The wave of grabbing arms was getting really thick, and the two began swinging their shotguns like bats to push them away just enough for them to get through.
 

They were only a few yards away when one of the wolves appeared out of the zombie parade and took a swipe at the face of the constable, and sent him to the ground. Within seconds, a flesh-biter was on top of him, snarling and grabbing at his ankles.

"Fuck you," said the constable as he directed his shotgun toward the head of the creature and pulled the trigger. Click. The monster bit down into the leg of the constable.
 

"No!"
 

The second constable rushed to his friend's aid, but the swarm was becoming too thick and dozens of walking bodies surrounded the doomed man and joined in on the feast. His cries for help punctured the echoes of grunts and snarls.

Javier yelled for the remaining constable to get inside. He reluctantly obeyed and ran through the door.
 

The eyes of his dying subordinate looked up at him; they were already changing, but the humanity was still there, and they begged for mercy. He had one clear shot to his head so he took aim … also nothing.
 

Another click. He was out of ammunition.
 

"Don't leave me like this, Chief!" His voice sounded different. The infection was working through his body fast. "Don't … let … me … ah!" He could feel himself being turned around and twisted from the inside. His veins and skin burned as the infection shot through him, but then stopped.
 

The muscles in his face relaxed and he realized it didn't hurt so much anymore. He did not feel anything at all—just hungry. He was so very hungry. Hungry.

"I'm so sorry!" Javier turned and escaped into the office, slamming the door behind him. Seconds later he could hear the pounding of the army behind it.
 

"There wasn't anything you could do, Chief," said Roberts.
 

"Let's get upstairs. That door won't hold for long."

Maddix couldn't even get himself up the first step without tripping. His adrenaline was ebbing and he was starting to lose his strength again. He wouldn't have too much left in reserve if this kept up. The two constables each took an arm and dragged the wounded overseer up the stairs.

The smell of burned wood and flesh still permeated the office. Roberts was almost too distracted by the smell to notice the silver tipped stake coming at his face.

"Tara, it's us!" shouted Maddix.

"Oh my God, what happened to you?"

"Police brutality."
 

Tara eyeballed all three constables with disdain.

"It wasn't us, two of our men got hit by those bugs," Roberts explained.
 

Everyone could see the two naked men lying on the ground bleeding. The sight of Tara with barely a mark on her impressed the men. Maddix flashed her a proud smile despite his swollen and aching face. When they sat him down in what was left of his chair, Maddix was sad to see that his desk was almost entirely destroyed except for the foundation.

"We don't have a lot of time. Do you have more ammunition?" asked Javier.

Tara nodded and motioned to the cabinet. The three constables quickly began stocking up.

"We need to get to the roof," said Maddix. He fought back his pain, got to his feet, and ejected the empty clip from his gun. "Toss me a few of those."

"We don't have shotgun shells so take the spare gun. I'll be okay without one," said Tara. She moved to Maddix’s side and put his arm around her shoulder. "I'll help Maddix, you guys keep the path open?"

"I've still got a few shots left. I'll take up the rear," replied the constable with the shotgun.

"Okay, let's move through the bookcase and make sure to close it behind us. Should make it harder for them to figure out where we went."

The cracking of the outside door grew louder.
 

"They're getting through. We need to go now," Roberts demanded.

Tara took the lead into the library with Maddix in tow, followed by Javier and his men.

"Don't forget the bookcase … what's your name?" asked Tara.

"Just call me Smitty, ma'am. Everyone does."

"You got it, Smitty."

They all hustled through the bookcase. Taking one quick glance at the front entrance Smitty saw that several zombies were pounding and clawing their way through the door. He could see one in clear view through a hole they had created in their pursuit. He took aim with his shotgun and blasted it in the face, knocking back the others and causing the zombies behind him to stumble.

"That's for eating Travis you pieces of shit!"

Smitty followed the others through the bookcase, making sure to close it behind him before heading up to the sleeping space. A set of drop-down stairs hung from the ceiling in the hallway, but there wasn't any sign of the others.

"Get up here," the voice of Javier came from the top of the stairs. "We need to pull these up in case they get through."

Smitty took one last check to see if they were followed before claiming the steps to the roof. The constables were spread out near the corners of the building carefully peeking over the edge to check the situation on the street.

Javier pulled up the stairs and secured them tight.

"It's out of control down there," said Roberts. "They're still trying to get in, though, so I think we've fooled ’em for now."

"What about those wolves? They can't smell us up here?" asked Smitty, while he reloaded his shotgun.

"Nah, I think the smell of all those zombies will mask our scent us for a while. Besides, they don't seem to be thinking too straight."

"These three buildings are pretty close to each other, so we can jump across each one. The last one will be Ephrain's shop. We should keep going," said Maddix.
 

"Are you sure we can trust him?" asked Javier.

"Let's hope so. In any case, we don't have any other way back down."

"And then what?"
 

"I don't know yet. I'm a mess, though, and he's got stuff that can help."

Javier and Maddix nodded in agreement. Tara helped Maddix to his feet with Roberts once again resuming the role of crutch. No matter how much hell he had been through, Maddix refused to give up and pushed himself just a little bit harder and then harder still. Despite the small victories they had achieved he knew the worst was probably yet to come.

The last building wasn't as close together as Maddix had thought and required a five-foot jump. Not a difficult task for a healthy individual but every hard step was like having broken glass travel up through each nerve in his body. Add to the fact that they had to practically throw him across made it ten times more painful.
 

The small group spent a few minutes to help Maddix collect himself before finally reaching the door to the pharmacy. Javier pulled and turned on the knob, but as luck would have it, it was locked. Considering all that they had gone through and all the lives lost, he couldn't keep himself from pounding on the door like a madman. The noise caused a stir in the sea of zombies in the street.

"Not so loud, Chief. They might hear us up here," said Roberts.

"We need to get in there now," Javier snapped, before rapping on the door even harder.
 

The sound of footsteps and cursing could be heard coming from behind the door. Everyone rejoiced at the sweet music of a sliding deadbolt. The door swung open to reveal Ephrain Ketter standing there with a long club in his hand.

"What in the hell is going on … Constables?" said Ephrain. He looked around at the five and locked his eyes on Maddix. "He looks bad. Quick! Let's get him downstairs."

Roberts and Smitty picked Maddix up off the ground and helped him down the stairs. Every step they took was just another small ounce of pain for Maddix. The running and jumping—or rather being thrown—had increased the swelling on his joints, and ruined his mobility completely. He was lucky to have made it as far as he had.

Ephrain pointed them in the direction of his bedroom. It was more of a closet with small bed on one side and a tiny bookcase next to it. It didn't appear to be very restful, but it would be enough for the broken overseer. The constables slowly laid him down on the bed. Maddix was surprised to discover it was quite comfortable, and he took a few seconds to close his eyes and try to ignore the pain shooting through his muscles.

"Is there anything you can do for him?" asked Tara.

"Yeah, he's beaten up pretty bad but it doesn't look like anything is bleeding inside. I can get the swelling down. Be right back."
 

Ephrain rushed out of the room and into his main shop.

With the excitement starting to recede, their legs could no longer stand them up and the constables slumped down on various spaces on the floor. Due to the small area they had to sit shoulder to shoulder, but respecting personal space was not a priority for them at the moment. It had been the most trying hour of their entire lives. Javier closed his eyes and buried his face in his palms, thinking about all the men that had been killed or might be wandering the streets as zombies.

"So what's next, Chief?" inquired Smitty.

"We wait here for now. Hopefully, Monsieur Benbrook has a plan."

"First we deal with this," said Tara, pointing to the massive bruises covering Maddix's face and arms.

"But then what? We can't fight this. Chief, tell her—"

"At ease, Constable," ordered Roberts.
 

Constable Roberts wasn't one to give to panic and didn't allow others in his command to either. He gave Smitty a reassuring look before squeezing his arm out and putting it around the shoulder of his underling.

"I'm just saying, this wasn't what I signed up for."

"Oh, and you remember what it is you signed up for?" asked Roberts, sarcastically.

"Well no, but—"

"We'll figure it out, Smitty. All of us," Tara stated.

Ephrain walked in with a small ceramic bowl that emitted a foul-smelling steam.

"Oh my God," said Maddix. "What the fuck is that?"

"Relax, boy. It'll put some hair on your chest." Ephrain grinned ear-to-ear.

"I think I'm okay now," Maddix muttered. He tried to rise from the bed but the swelling had gotten too severe and he couldn't even move a muscle. He sank back into the pillow in defeat.

"Lay down, boy. This will fix you up real quick. Take your shirt off."

Tara helped Maddix slip out of his bloodstained shirt, gasping when she saw the severity of the bruises on his chest. How he managed to survive and continue fighting was beyond her comprehension.

Ephrain started rubbing disgusting ooze into Maddix's left arm first, and then stopped at the shoulder.
 

"How does that feel?" asked Ephrain.

"It burns a little," Maddix answered. His arm flinched as the burning became worse.
 

"If it starts to hurt more that means it's working into the muscles."
 

Ephrain began working the rest of his torso and right arm.
 

"Once the burning stops you'll feel like a new man."

Sure enough, the burning did stop and the pain was almost completely gone. There was a little stiffness from where he had been beaten, but it worked itself out as he stretched his muscles. The bruising slowly began to fade as the medicine began to work itself through the injuries.

"That's amazing. What is that stuff?" Tara inquired.

"A little ointment I came up with when I was experimenting with jellyfish. Well—"

"Jellyfish?" interrupted Javier.

"Yeah, I was extracting venom for a new paralyzing agent."

Javier rolled his eyes. "Of course."
 

"Anyway, I was catching these jellyfish and I noticed that some of the starfish and stuff would get trapped in the nets and sometimes their arms would break off. I kept a few of them in aquariums to study later and I would notice that their limbs would grow back. I figured that's gotta be useful, so I did some experiments and came up with this stuff."

"Are you telling me that can grow people's arms back?" asked Roberts.

Ephrain scoffed at the notion and worked on Maddix's back.
 

"No, but it does help to heal torn muscles and opened wounds. It's like a new and improved healing balm. Once it gets into the skin, it accelerates the healing process. Doesn't last long but it works fast enough to fix you up good."

Maddix took over for Ephrain and rubbed the ointment into the bruised part of his legs and feet before grabbing his shirt from Tara. Rising from the bed, he stretched out his arms and back to get the stiffness out. He almost felt like a new man once all the kinks were worked out of his joints.
 

Maddix looked at everyone sitting on the floor. They had gone the distance and they were tired, beaten, and feeling hopeless. He only hoped they were up for the next challenge they would have to face. He felt especially bad for what Javier was feeling, and a little responsible, too. He may have been right about everything and they probably would have been better off if he had just decided to end things when they started. No apology or action would make up for his naïve sensibilities, but they would all have to work together now if they were going to make it through this. The choices they would have to make from here on in would decide the fate of the world outside.

"Now that this chemistry lesson is over, can we figure out what to do next?" said Javier.