POW! (Book 1): The Zombie Days (13 page)

"It’s fine, they're not going to make it up to the roof. I doubt they'd be able to climb up that narrow ladder to get here."

Carolina made it across the street. Kyle and Mac were there to receive her and to help her down and out of the makeshift harness.

"You're up next, sexy." I grabbed a hand full of ass and helped her up to the cable. There was another crunch downstairs followed by a loud crashing. "Are you good?" I asked her.

"I'll try to make it across as fast as I can." She rushed her words with a terrified expression on her face.

"Just go slow and smooth. It's not a race. Just get there safely. There’s nothing bad that’s going to happen to me, okay?" She started her way across the rope rather than continuing the conversation.

I headed over to the hole to see the situation below. There was no sign of them upstairs yet, so I wasn't worried. I shut the hatch and went back to enjoy the view of Evelyn’s ass waving back and forth with her feet up on the rope. I heard another crashing sound below and suspected they were getting inside by now.

I still wasn't worried. Even if they made it in and overfilled the place, they probably couldn't make it to the roof. I saw Evelyn make it down onto the other roof, watching closely to make sure no one got too handsy with her. I could tell that Carolina had the same idea in mind.

I fastened my front pack to the line with a piece of rope and pushed it out toward the middle of the road. I went back and opened the hatch. The zombies were pouring in now and beginning to fill the top floor. I left the hatch open as I made my way to the cable. I hopped on with both hands and put my feet up on the rope in the same way that Evelyn had gone across. I began to make my way to the next building, but decided to stop when I made it half way over. I reached into my cargo pocket and withdrew a grenade. Holding the explosive in one hand and the cable with the other, I pulled the pin with my teeth and tossed it into the open hatch down into the upstairs room that was now full of zombies.

***BOOM***

The cable in my hands vibrated from the blast. That hurt like a son of a bitch, but I wouldn’t let that ruin my experience. Smoke billowed out of the small hole along with bits of gore. I made it the rest of the way across the street. When I dismounted the rope I was met by two disgusted faces and two quite pleased faces.

"
Awesome
!" shouted Kyle and Mac.

"Was that really necessary?" shouted Carolina, holding her ears.

"It probably wasn't necessary, but it was awesome. I've never thrown a grenade to actually blow something up before! It was so much more fucking cool than it was during training!" I was met with high fives from the boys and a giggle from Evelyn. “Besides, the sound should attract the attention of more zombies to that area which, in turn, should lessen the odds of us running into any of them for a while. What's the word on downstairs, guys?"

"All looks good. I just had to take a piss when I first got over here, sorry for the hold up," said Kyle.

"That’s awesome news, man. Well, now that we've crossed the river of the dead, shall we continue on?" I extended a hand, gesturing toward the door leading to stairs that would lead us off of this roof.

Everyone made their way into the building.

As we entered the restaurant, I was met with the inevitable question from Mac. "Can we grab some lunch, man? Them peaches just didn’t quite do the trick for me this mornin’."

"No way, dude. I know they don't know that we're over here, but they’re way too close and there are far too many of them for my comfort. Not to mention there are undoubtedly even more on the way after that blast. I think we should get out of here as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, I guess you’re right, man," he said as he slouched his shoulders forward.

As I walked by the restroom, I heard a squish beneath my foot.

"God damn it, Kyle,” I said. “You know, you probably could have gotten a little closer to the urinal before you took aim.

You knew we were going have to come through here."

"Sorry about that, Pete. I've just always hated this stupid restaurant. Snooty French bastards."

"Yeah, you sure showed them. Now I've got piss on my boots. Take that Frenchies!" I snorted.

"Okay, okay. My bad, settle down. Let's check outside the door. It stinks in here," he replied with a chuckle.

"You're such a turd." I laughed as I walked to the rear entrance of the restaurant. I slowly opened the door. It all looked clear out back, but the sound of the zombie flood in the front was quite unsettling. It sounded like a horror film. You could hear them groan and drag their feet as they shambled their way along the street. There were so many of them trying to get into the gunsmith shop that they kept bumping into the front window of the French restaurant.

I went back inside.

"Alright guys, it looks clear to me, but we're going to have to keep our volume at an absolute minimum. This is pretty much the worst possible time to be noticed by one of them. Saying that we’re outnumbered is perhaps a bit of an understatement."

I opened up the back door, and everyone headed out of the urine-scented restaurant in a single file line. Everything still looked clear on the road, so we stayed in the middle of it to avoid any more window encounters like the one Cliff had fallen victim to.

Since I was in the back of our little group, I would continue to turn around every so often to make sure that no one was following us. Everything seemed to be going perfectly well . . . and then I heard it.

"
BRAINS!
"

We all stopped at the sound of it, but started walking again just a little bit faster right after. "God damn it! Stupid fucking geniuses had to teach this fucking thing how to say 'BRAAAAAINS' of all things? Stupid fucking assholes couldn’t have possibly picked something fucking creepier," I muttered to myself.

And then it appeared from behind us with two other zombies—one on each shoulder. They looked at us and it seemed like they smiled a devious smile in our direction. They each shrieked their favorite word again:
"BRAAAAIIIIINNNSS!"

"How'd I let you talk me into coming out on this rescue mission with you, Pete?" asked Kyle in a nervous tone.

"That is so not how it all went down, bro."

Rather than heading straight for us, the zombies unexpectedly went around a corner, down an alley.

"Uhhh . . . well, look at that,” I said. “They must be full or something. Either that or they know not to fuck with Kyle and me. Maybe they’ve heard stories from their buddies. No worries, kids. Let’s just continue onward, I guess."

We continued ahead at a slightly quicker pace without mentioning the encounter, but I think we were all more than a little freaked out at the thought of there being three of the smart ones so near to us. I continued turning around every so often and saw no sign of being followed by them or any of the other zombies. The street remained totally empty, except for us. I was feeling pretty good, so I said to the guys up front, "I think we're clear, we can slow up a little bit."

That's when we passed another alley and the smart ones jumped out to grab the person in the back of the pack.

Me.

I grabbed the knife from my belt in the blink of an eye, but the zombie closest to it actually grabbed my hand to stop me. I, in turn, grabbed his elbow, dropped my bodyweight, and threw him over my head at the other two.
Damn, dead people are really light.
I swung my knife over to them, ready to chop those motherfuckers to little cold chunks of meat but, before I had the chance to do so, their heads erupted like little gore filled volcanoes. I looked over and saw Mac and Kyle lowering their weapons.

I looked down at my knife hand where the zombie had grabbed me. It was covered in thick, sticky blood. I couldn’t tell how much of it was coming out of the wound that must have been inflicted, but it looked awfully dark for it to be all mine.

"Oh, fuuuuuuuck!" I dropped my front pack and dumped it out, spreading its contents on the ground before me right in the middle of the street. I fell down to my knees and grabbed the first aid kit as soon as I saw it spill out from the pile. I opened the bottle of iodine and poured some of it on the section of my arm that was covered in blood. I grabbed one of the rags and spread the iodine all around.

I felt no pain at all. My arm must be dead from the zombie bite already and I wondered how long it would be until I would become one of them. I continued scrubbing the area to find the wound, but I couldn't find one. I looked at the headless corpse in the green shirt; that was the one that had grabbed my arm. I hadn't noticed at first, but he was entirely covered in blood below his elbows. He must have been a busy boy before he found us.

I looked up at everyone and took a deep breath of relief. At that moment, they could have been passed off as zombies. Their eyes were empty of any emotion; minds too afraid to offer up a single thought on my condition. I'm pretty sure their hearts even stopped beating for a short while. I had to say something to break the tension. They were all too shaken up to approach me to render any sort of aid. If they had and I turned, they’d be fucked.

"Sorry guys, I should have seen that com-"

"Are you okay?" Evelyn shouted in horror while gasping for air after going without it for so long.

"Yeah, I thought he ripped half of my arm off and infected me, but I don't see any cuts or anything. I think I’m going to be okay." I was trembling, but didn't want to appear frightened. I had to be strong for the group. "You really should have seen the look on your faces, though." You couldn't tell from the smile I wore, but my heart raced as adrenaline pumped through my body.

I began to collect the items that I’d dumped and I sloppily shoved them back into the bag. Everyone came over and helped me pick up all of the scattered items. I was still shaking from the close call. I was so glad that it wasn't going to be the end for me just yet. I could go on to see another day; or at least more of this one. Even more so, I was glad that no one else had to be attacked by the trio of evil geniuses.

I zipped up the pack. Before I could throw it back on my chest, Evelyn had her arms wrapped around me, and her lips pressed against mine.

She pulled back. "If you ever scare me like that again I’ll slap you silly!” she exclaimed.

"I'm s-"

She slapped me square in the face before I could get anything else out.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist."

"Totally cool, if you didn't I'm sure Kyle would have. I have a very slapable face. And not only that, but it kind of helps me snap out of whatever it is that’s going on inside my head."

"Thanks, now I’ve missed out on a fully warranted slap," chuckled Kyle, walking back and giving me a pat on the back. “Glad you survived that close encounter of the dead kind, homie.”

I looked over at him and slapped him across his face while he was least expecting it.

"Don't be a girl, Kyle. This is no time to be scared, bro." I could see something change in his eyes. "Wow! That really does work, doesn’t it? Feel better?" I asked him.

He smiled. "Actually yeah. I do feel better. Thanks, man."

"Unless anyone else could use a good slap, I think we should keep going on our way. Let's go, guys." I continued down the street.

Chapter Fifteen

After walking a couple of blocks, Kyle made it apparent that he couldn't bear the silence any longer.

"Are we going to talk about what just happened or are we just going to pretend that it was nothing?" he blurted out.

"I have no idea what to even say about it, man. Those things were super fucked up. Instead of just trying to eat me, I think that one of them actually tried to pick a fight with me! When and if we find these science assholes, I'm going to bitch slap the
fuck
out of them for what they’ve unleashed upon us."

"No ifs, Peter, we are going to find them. And don't be so angry with them just yet. I’m sure this is probably just some horrible accident." Evelyn was obviously trying to calm me down—but failing.

"Oh, well then, as long as it was an accident it's fine, right? Like if they accidentally dropped a nuke on us it would be just fine? No. Their intent isn't what matters. These idiots are supposed to think of this shit
before
they destroy what's left of our living human race. If they aren't going to consider the possible consequences of their actions, then they shouldn't have been able to take any action at all."

"Uhhh, guys," said Kyle, trying to gain our attention.

"Okay, they clearly made a mistake," Evelyn continued, "but you saw all of the zombies that were in those cells back at the school laboratory. It doesn't look to me like they just came up with a plan one day and ran with it. They clearly did their testing, but sometimes mistakes can still happen."

Kyle tried again. "Hey, guys?"

"Not right now, Kyle. You're the one who wanted to talk about it, now you’ve got to deal with it. So, Evelyn, you think they honestly had no idea that this was a possibility? That they just thought there was no chance that they could wind up-"

"
FUCK! GUYS!
There is a goddamn kid at the end of the street! What are we going to do?" Kyle shouted out of frustration.

I looked up and snapped out of the conversation I was having. Kyle had his rifle at the ready, but it wasn’t quite pointed at the kid in the middle of the road. I walked up to Kyle and slapped his muzzle down.

"What the hell is the matter with you, dude? It’s just a kid." I looked back at the kid that was standing in the road ahead of us. It was a boy, probably around eight to ten years old. I began to walk towards the child.

"Are you alright, pal? Are you all by yourself out here?" I asked.

The boy didn’t answer me. He just looked back at me as if I was one of them. I began to walk towards him as I gestured for the rest of the group to remain behind. The boy moved into a posture from which he could easily run away if he felt at all threatened. I wondered how long he’d been on his own.

"It's okay, we're all alright. We're trying to get rid of all the bad guys. You can come with us and we'll keep you safe, alright? I know you must be hungry, huh? Would you like a little something to eat? I think I’ve got something special for you." Keeping a smile on my face, I reached into my cargo pocket and pulled out a bag of Skittles that I’d been saving from an MRE that I’d eaten earlier.

The boy must have recognized the bag, because his eyes widened and he now began to approach me at a cautious pace.

"There ya go, l’il dude. We're friends now, so don't be afraid of us, okay?" I could see him much more clearly now. At first, I’d thought he was wearing a dirty red shirt, but now it looked as though something very awful must have happened in his recent past—he was entirely covered in dried blood. It must not have been his own blood or he likely would have craved our flesh much more than the candy I was now offering him. We arrived in our arbitrary meeting place and he grabbed the bag of candy from my hand. He looked at my arm, which was still stained red with blood, and he froze. I showed him my flesh was unbroken by rotating my arm around.

"Looks like you've had to deal with them too, huh? My name is Pete. What's yours?"

He tore open the red bag and stuffed a handful of the sugary pellets into his face.

"Not much of a talker, are you? That's okay. I wasn't always so vocal myself. And when I was your age the biggest worry I had was that I might be made fun of at school or get cooties from a girl. See my friends over there? They’re really nice people. They’re going to help me stop the bad guys. Would you like to go over there and meet them?" I asked him.

I stood from the squatting position I’d assumed when I offered up the candy to him, and I turned towards the group. I placed my hand on the boy’s shoulder and gave him a small nudge to get his feet moving. When we reached the main pack, we were greeted with big smiles, like everyone was a Disneyland employee all of a sudden.

"Who's your new friend, Peter?" asked Evelyn with a beautiful smile as she crouched down to meet the boy at eye level.

The kid stood half behind me and buried the hidden half of his face in my back. I would have hid, too, if this was my first meeting with such a pretty girl.

"He hasn't told me his name. I don't think he can talk. By the looks of things, I'd say a traumatic event would be the root cause but I'm no psychologist, believe it or not. Can we keep him, guys?” I asked. “I think I'm going to call him Jake!"

I looked back at ‘Jake,’ who now had a small grin on his face. "Come on out and say hi to everyone, bud. They're not gonna bi- . . . Uh . . . They're all cool. Those two guys and I used to serve in the Marines together, so we'll keep you real safe. And that pretty lady over there is Evelyn. She's my girlfriend, so that cute kid act ain't gonna work on her, sorry. And this is her mom, Carolina. She . . . makes really good pie." I shuttered at the thought of pie.

Jake looked from person to person and tossed another handful of candy into his mouth. I could hear the crunch as he worked his jaws around the sugar.

"I think he's out here all alone, guys. And we can't just leave him here by himself. I know it's probably not exactly safe in the woods either, but he's got a better chance out there with us than he does just sitting here all by himself. You all know what we just left behind back there. I think we really should be on our way to get out of here as quick as possible. I'm still hopeful that we can catch up to these fuc- uh, this research team today. Are we all on the same page, here?" I asked.

"Man, I just want to get home. This quest blows."

"Shut up Kyle, at least you still got a home to go back to," Mac shot back.

"Hey guys, this is really not the time for anyone to start their own little pity party,” I broke in. “We've come this far already and we're bound to be nearly finished with this idiotic task. And Mac, I told you there's a place for you, bro. It's a slightly longer walk to get there, but there are some pretty good people up there. You'll like it. Now, let's get the hell out of here before Hurricane Zombie comes over and rains down a world of shit down on us. Sorry kid. I've got a bad mouth. I'll try to say earmuffs or something next time."

He shoveled the last of the Skittles into his open mouth and our party of six "livers" continued on our journey. After four more blocks of much appreciated silence, we entered the woods.