Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Since the Sirens (19 page)

Liam took a long time. So long that Victoria tapped him on his
back to get his attention and find out what was the hold up.

Liam turned around and put his finger over his lips to suggest
silence. Then he pointed to the window and sat down hard on the
topmost step. Victoria took her turn and spent a similar amount of
time studying the scene.

Then she sat down next to him.

Liam was an emotional mess. The whole climb up he was desperately
clinging to the flashlight, unusually afraid of the crush of pure
black around them. His misstep with Victoria made him feel alone on
the ascent. He thought reaching the top would be a relief. He now
felt lower than ever. Seeing the scene through the window further
beat down his mental fortitude. And he had no way to deal with the
new problem. He felt a tear slide down his face and tried to wipe it
away quickly. He didn't know if Victoria had been looking at his
face, but the motion was unmistakable. The sniffle didn't help. She
took his hand and they sat in silence for a few minutes. Her touch
gave him strength, though he couldn't explain what exactly he was
feeling at that moment. Protective of her? Was she protecting him?
Were they helping each other cope?

“You want to know something funny? I left my gun downstairs.
I put it in my backpack last night because I didn't want to sleep
with it tucked into my pants. I figured it would keep waking me up as
I rolled around on the hard floor. I really wanted to get some good
sleep after our day yesterday. Everything happened so fast with the
police request I didn't think about grabbing my pistol again. I
thought I was going to be the hero and protect you and Grandma, but
I'm turning out to be anything but.”

She squeezed his hand and then let go as she began talking.

“Do you want to know something funny too? I never got my
replacement shoes. I was hoping she'd find sneakers to go with my
cocktail dress!” She pointed down to her dress pumps with the
heels broken off. “I tried walking the steps in bare feet, but
the metal grating made it unbearable. I'm surprised you didn't hear
me yelping while I was trying it out. Too bad that cop on speed
wasn't able to get me those shoes huh?”

They both had a quiet laugh at that, breaking the tension.

“OK, we can't go back down without trying to get in there. I
don't think I could climb these stairs again. I say we think of a
plan to deal with this guy and then do what we came here to do so we
can go home.”

Liam replied, “I agree but what should we do? Once that
thing sees us it is going to pursue us forever.”

They discussed their limited options and settled on the only
viable plan available to the weaponless pair.

Liam took up a position next to the door while Victoria opened the
door and yelled loudly at the dead park ranger. The man began moving
down the curved floor above them in the tram unloading area, picking
up speed as he came at his loud-mouthed prey.

The ranger came through the door at a good clip; Victoria crouched
down behind the door and held it open. Liam, standing behind the door
and above Victoria saw the ranger come through. It really didn't take
much of a push to keep his momentum moving toward the steep staircase
in front of him. He tumbled face-first down the flight while Victoria
and Liam passed through the door and slammed it shut. It took about
thirty seconds for the ranger to regain his footing, climb back up
the stairs, and then wail at them through the small glass window.
They had successfully switched places with a dead man.

Looking up the final stretch of the Arch, they could just see the
apex with all its windows for the observation ports. They could not
see the companion tram-unloading area over the top and down the other
leg.

“I wonder if there are more undead on the other side?”

“All we can do is move forward and deal with things as they
come. You ready to reach the top of this bitch?”

Liam realized he probably shouldn't have used that word in mixed
company, but Victoria didn't seem to mind.

“I'm not one for cussing, but yes, after what we've been
through I'm not going to be picky. Let's climb this female dog!”

Together they went over the top.

4

There were no more zombies on the other side. There was a lot of
blood on the floor however. The best guess they could come up with
was the ranger had attacked someone in the observation area and the
injured party or parties had made it to the steps going down the
north leg, leaving the ranger to wander around in this confined space
until fresh meat showed up.

“My god there is a lot of blood up here.”

Liam's stomach turned at the sight of so much blood, remembering
Angie's cat didn't help either. Or the foot. But he was able to keep
his proverbial lunch down, a fact he was very grateful while in the
presence of Victoria.

“Let's stay away from that tram station for now as it could
be slippery.”

Liam agreed, but added, “We have to go down one of the
sides. We know at least one zombie is waiting for us in the south
leg. I wonder if there are any in the north leg?”

“We'll save that as a delightful surprise for when we're
done up here.”

Liam thought to himself he'd like to be more prepared, but he had
to admit there was really no way to know which was safer. Might as
well focus on the task at hand. Victoria seemed to handle the chaos
better.

They both moved to the topmost section of the Arch—designated
with a marker stating they were 630 feet above the ground.

The interior of the observation area is about the width of a
typical subway car or municipal bus. The floor has the same curvature
as the top section of the Arch as seen from outside, but the windows
are slanted at about 45 degree angles away from the interior and sit
on a low shelf, so that when you look out the narrow portal you are
practically lying on your belly. Small children often lay down on the
windows, usually with a concerned parent holding their legs as if the
glass was about to blow out.

The slanted windows gave Liam and Victoria a glorious view of the
entire Arch grounds, as well as clear views in all directions with
the exception of directly north or south, as those were blocked by
the legs of the structure itself. To the west was the sprawl of
downtown St. Louis. To the east was the river and numerous bridges
linking Missouri with Illinois. One massive bridge to the north was
new and modern-looking with twin piers rising high above, providing
anchor points for hundreds of bundles of suspension cables. Liam,
always thinking of his books, remembered a similar bridge from one of
his zombie paperbacks. The name Steubenville stuck out. The heroes in
that story died blowing the bridge. He shuddered at having to do such
a thing. He wondered if he would ever have to resort to such
desperation.

They got their bearings and focused their attention on the western
half of the park, nearest the city. There were people on the
riverfront side, but the captain had said the infected were coming
almost entirely from the city side. Looking down, they both realized
how hard it was to see particular people.

“Binoculars would have been a great thing to have up here.”

Victoria responded, “and a catered lunch would have really
made this climb worthwhile.”

She gave him a big smile as she pulled out the radio and called
down. Liam was relieved when a man answered the radio, and not the
crazy-fast talking woman who sent them up here.

“This is Victoria and Liam. We're in position up in the
Arch.”

After ensuring she wasn't still on the air she said to Liam, “I'm
not sure what the protocol is, do I say 'over' when I'm done?”

Liam shrugged as he had no idea either.

The radio crackled, “This is Arch base. We want you to
report if any of the lines are compromised. If you see a line
buckling with too many...crazies...let us know before the line
collapses and we'll send help to that position. Over.”

They both looked out again, trying to see if any of the lines were
breaking. The muzzle flashes on the exterior lines of defense made it
easy to see that outline. At that moment everyone seemed to be
holding the plague at bay. Liam was happy to see the lone tank moving
back and forth along a frontage street, using its mass to crush the
undead in front of it. There were three Marine vehicles, each parked
between buildings so they could send round after round down the long
street corridors. Each time they lanced out, a small thread of plague
victims would evaporate.

“No sir. We don't see any problems areas yet. Over.”

“Roger that. Please report in if anything changes. Out.”
Victoria put the radio down.

“So how long do wait up here?”

Liam had no answer. But he could spend all day up here with
Victoria if he had to.

His enthusiasm was tempered when he remembered Grandma was still
downstairs, alone.

They settled in and waited. Each took turns moving to different
windows to try to see if anything happened that would be of interest
to the police below. It wasn't long before they made their first
call.

“Hello Arch base. This is Arch—”

“What are we calling ourselves?” Victoria keyed off
the mic, and wondered aloud.

“Arch summit?”

“—this is Arch summit. We are seeing a mass of zombies
to the north pushing back the line up there. It looks pretty
serious.”

“Thank you Arch summit. Will do. Out.”

They both watched as a small group of men and women moved through
the crowd to a point on the northern line. Neither could see what
happened in any great detail, but they agreed the line returned to
where it was, and appeared stable.

“It's like white blood cells going to fight a virus.”
Victoria said. “We are in charge of sending the white blood
cells where they're needed. They attack and push back the deadly
virus.”

Liam appreciated her analogy but looking down on the entire scene
he thought she had it backward. Infected were stumbling down roadways
as far as he could see. The little clump of cells below—mankind—was
resisting the endless white blood cells being sent by the zombie host
now controlling the rest of the city. It made Liam feel the futility
of the thin ring of defense upon which they were depending for their
very survival.

We have to get out of here.

For now though, he had a job to do.

A little later they noticed a single barge tow floating free in the river. From high above they watched it collide with the pylons of several upstream bridges, pausing on each leg as it scraped by, and then resumed its trek downriver. At the point closest to them on the water, they could see directly into the sunken hold. Even from such distance the tight mass of infected inside was easily recognizable, all moving without purpose in their open-topped prison. The boat avoided the last two bridges out of downtown and was quickly drawn away by the current.

“Well, that's one way to get rid of them.”

Hours went by as they watched.

Then the applecart went flying.

Victoria struggled to key the radio and make her call.

5

“Hello Arch base. Come in. This is Arch summit.”

It required a few repeated calls, but someone finally answered. It
was a woman, but it wasn't clear if it was Jenkins again. They
requested Victoria's report.

“We are seeing a large mass of people on the north side
moving toward the south. They are shooting live people. We can see
flashes of guns down, aimed at each other. Crowds are running away
but there are just too many people down there to escape. I say again,
these are people shooting other people—not zombies.

“Crap. Hold on a second. Over.”

The radio was silent for a long minute.

Liam and Victoria continued to look down. The mass of renegade
people had come in near the water of the riverfront, where the cordon
was thin. They were moving directly for the Arch.

As if learning the fact at the same time, the radio crackled, “We
see them. They are here. Looks like several gangs and other
criminals. No Boy Scouts out there. You guys better get down from
there. Out.”

“That's it?” Liam didn't know what to expect of their
mission. Did they give the police the information fast enough to make
a difference?

One last look down they could see the cordon was holding most of
the way around the park, but in the north it took confusing twists
and turns. It was destabilizing. Liam had read about this a hundred
times in his books.
The point where mankind does something stupid
to allow the infection to destroy a perfectly good sanctuary.

“OK Victoria, now it's time to think about which side we are
going to go down. Do we choose door A and go back down the way we
came, with a raging sick ranger to deal with? Do we choose door B and
go down the blood-filled stairwell with an unknown number of zombies?
Oh and as a special bonus, we can come out at the base of the north
side where even now a gun-toting crowd is closing in?”

“Can I choose door C and jump out a window please?”

“They gave me a parachute, so yeah.” Liam gave her a
big smile because she was also smiling.

“It’s good to see we both still have our sense of
humor intact, despite the insanity down there.”

“Yeah, I just want to get back to Grandma now. I have to get
her out of the Arch before those criminals break in.”

“You think they will make it into the Arch museum? What
about all the police?”

“I think the police will fight hard to protect their
families, but look at the swarm of attackers. There's just too many.
And if the northern line falls, we'll have bigger problems than armed
criminal gangs.”

Looking at their options, Liam considered.

“Do you think we could open the door and let the ranger back
up into the observation area, and then give him the slip as we run
back down and shut the door?”