The Demented Z (Book 3): Contagion (16 page)

The owner of the fingers was now visible.
  His hand and a pair of fingers had been
smashed, blocking the door from closing all the way.
  All that remained inside the door were bones
with meaty remnants stubbornly clinging to the gray digits.
  At least a dozen more lay beyond the rotting
body. Darkness stretched out beyond
them.

“Not abandoned.” Abby
said.

Hank stepped up to the man’s hand. “Yeah…almost
welcoming with open arms.”

A loud shriek erupted from somewhere beyond the darkness.

All of them raised their rifles, letting the lights cut
straight into the darkness; the inky black quickly swallowed the beams.
  An eerie silence hung in the air.
  Seconds turned into minutes and then the slap
of shoes on cement echoed toward them.  
It grew in volume until turning into a constant
thrum
. Their eyes were
visible before anything else. The light
glinted off of them like tiny mirrors.  
One after another, bodies filled in around the glowing eyes.
 

It took less than a second for all four of them to verify
that these were demented. The gunfire
was intense and sustained. The cacophony
of noise was disorienting as it echoed off the cement walls.
  Demented crashed to the floor like wheat
before a scythe.

“Hold!” Tom shouted.

There were a couple final shots and then silence.
  The stench of cordite hung in the air.
  Thick smoke obscured their view.

“Anyone got anything?”  
Tom asked.

Despite the flashlights hitting the smoke like headlights in
a snowstorm, there was a resounding “clear” from the others.
  A deep silence followed.
  Nobody moved.

Tom slowly lowered his rifle barrel.
  “Let’s move up and finish them.”
  He slung his rifle and grabbed the
Kabar at his side.  
“Hank, help me out. Abby and Eli,
keep your rifles ready just in case.”

As a group they moved into the dark tunnel.
  Once through the haze of smoke they could see
bodies scattered from wall to wall, sometimes two or three deep.
  A few of them feebly moved arms and legs, but
nothing threatening. As their
flashlights hit on individual faces, Tom’s worst fears were realized.
  The lifeless eyes of women, children, fathers,
and sons stared back.

“They were using this as a bunker.”
  Eli said.

“Something went south.”   
Hank grumbled as he moved over to the nearest body.
  He looked down at the tiny, pigtailed girl,
and slowly shook his head. Her fingers
on one hand slowly opened and closed, life still clinging to her brain.
  He sighed heavily, bent over, and thrust his
knife through her eye socket. The sound
of Tom joining in on the grisly task could be heard just to his side.

Abby stepped over to Eli.  
“Hear that.” She said while
pointing her rifle further down the dark tunnel.

Eli nodded his head.  
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to decide what it was.”

Tom and Hank finished their task and then all four of them
stood listening to the splashing noise.

“I’m not getting any younger.”
  Hank said.

“That’s for sure.”  
Tom jabbed.

“Hey, you’re not either.”  
Hank replied.

Eli started moving forward, carefully stepping between
bodies. His eyes and rifle remained
trained down the tunnel. His light
slowly revealed large blue barrels lining one side.
  They were stacked two high in a neat row,
extending beyond the flashlight’s piercing beam.

Tom stepped over to the nearest one and rapped on it with
the back of his hand. He listened to the
solid
thrum
and then said, “Water
storage.”

As they moved further along the line they discovered the
source of the noise. A stray bullet had
found its way to one of the upper barrels and the last of its contents still
flowed in a trickle to the cement below.  
They continued past the ruined barrel, following a stream of water that
slowly flowed down the tunnel.

“Thought we were moving downhill.”
  Abby said.

By the time Eli’s flashlight hit on bare cement wall, Tom
had counted thirty-four barrels. He did
the quick mental calculations and figured it was enough water to supply fifty
people for more than a month.
Could there be that many down here?
  There are maybe twenty dead in the tunnel
behind us.

“That’s a lot of water.”  
Hank said.

“There will be more.”  
Eli said. He glanced back at
Hank. “They would only keep extra way
out in the tunnel like this.”

Tom couldn’t argue with that logic.
  If the kid is right, then there could be lots
more inside, which could also mean lots more people…infected people.
  “Ours now.”
  He said while starting forward again.

They didn’t have to go much further before the tunnel
widened into a large room. Garbage and
chunks of splintered wood littered the floor.  
The stench of decay, feces, and mold hung thick in the air.

“Ah man, what died in here?”  
Abby said.

Hank pointed a thumb over his shoulder.
  “They did.”

Tom shifted across the floor, kicking at various items.
  “Just junk…garbage.”

“Looks like tables that got smashed to pieces.”
  Hank said, holding up a broken length of
wood.

“Eating area maybe.”
  Hank said.

Two sets of double doors stood closed along opposite walls;
bland gray faces giving away nothing. Their
paint was chipped and bore large scratches.  
Tom stood near the center of the room, looking back and forth between
the two sets of doors. Neither of them
gave off better vibes than the other.

“Any idea on the layout of these things?”
  He asked, turning to Hank.

He shook his head.  
“They’re all different.
Big, small, and everything in between.”

“Gut say anything?”

“I’m hungry.”

Tom sighed and turned to Abby and Eli.
  “You two?”

Eli started for the doors on the left.
  “Let’s clear it room by room.”
  He grabbed a handle and gave it a pull, but
the set of doors only rattled loosely.  
He turned to Abby. “Check
those.” He said nodding toward the other
set of doors.

Abby moved across the room and tested them, but found they
were locked from the other side as well.  
She turned back to Eli and shook her head.

“Cover me.” Eli said
while slinging his rifle over his shoulder.

Tom stepped forward with a hand held out. “Wait…let me.
  You cover.”

Eli hesitated for a moment and then unslung his rifle and
stepped away from the doors.

Tom bent down and shined his flashlight through the narrow
gap between the two doors. Halfway down
the door he could see the thin metal hasp that held the pair together.
  He stood up, took a step back, and said,
“Here we go.” Tom sucked in a deep
breath, stepped back with one leg, and then using every bit of strength he
slammed his boot into one of the doors, right next to the locking
mechanism. The door made a loud
crack
, but did not give.
  The gap between doors had grown and they now
sat at a slight angle. Tom’s foot
tingled with pain.

Muffled noises erupted from beyond the doors.
  It sounded distant, maybe beyond more doors,
but Tom couldn’t tell for sure. He
looked back at the others, nodded his head, and then took another hard kick at
the doors. There was a loud
pop
and the doors swung wide.
  Beyond, a square tunnel split into an
intersection, straight ahead disappearing into darkness.
  All four lights sliced at the darkness,
revealing stacks of boxes lining the cement walls.

Eli brushed past Tom, sweeping forward with his rifle at the
ready. Abby followed behind in a low
crouch. Their flashlight beams looked
like light sabers cutting at the inky blackness as they swept them back and
forth along the hall.

“Come on old man.” Hank said as he limped past.

Tom unslung his rifle and stepped gingerly on his foot.
  His toes tingled with pain from kicking at the
door. The angry sounds were louder now
and caused his heart to race. He
tightened his grip on the rifle and took a steadying breath.
 
Focus
and stay sharp
, he thought to himself.

Most of the boxes were cases of canned food.
  It only took Tom a few quick tests to decide
they were all full. As his light
stretched on into the darkness he realized that there had to be thousands of
cans. Just ahead of him, the other three
had stopped in the center of the tunnel intersection.

“This could turn into a maze, let’s stick to left turns in
case it spiders on us.” Tom said as he
made his way up to the others.

The noise quieted as they made their way away from the
intersection. It was barely audible by
the time they reached another set of double doors.
  These had a pair of small square windows
centered partway up each door. Eli moved
up to the doors, hit a quick release on his flashlight, and held it up close to
the window, peering through the glass.  
His eyes squinted trying to get a good look at the interior.

Boom
.
  Glass exploded outward, hitting Eli in the
face and raining to the floor. He
twisted sideways and collapsed to his side on the cement.
  Bright light flashed from inside the room as
gunfire raked the doors. Abby dropped to
a knee next to Eli.

“Cover rear.” Tom
shouted to Hank while sucking into the corner between the door and wall.
  “Friendly, friendly!”
  He shouted toward the broken out window.
  Silence.
  He looked down at Abby and Eli.
  In a whisper he said, “He alright?”

She turned back. “Yeah,
cut up but he’ll be fine.” After she
finished the two of them scooted to the other side of the hall.

“Think they heard you?”  
Hank said.

“We mean you no harm.”  
Tom shouted toward the window.

“I’ve got movement.”  
Hank whispered.

Tom looked down the tunnel and could just make out something
shifting in the shadows beyond the reach of Hank’s flashlight.

Hank shouted, “We mean you no harm.”

Tom had an uneasy feeling.  
They were pinned in with no cover.  
“We have to move.”
He whisper-shouted to Hank.  
“Go dark everyone.”

In an instant the area was blanketed in deep, impenetrable
darkness. The level of black was
disorienting. People were used to the
lights being off at night, but even then there were trace amounts of
light. Whether it’s the street lamp outside,
the digital clocks in the house, or the distant moon, there would be light.
  Normally a person’s pupils dilated, allowing
them to at least pick up on their surroundings.  
Underground, in a bunker, things were quite different.
  With no ambient light it was pure
darkness. It was the inky blackness of
an underground tomb.

Tom slowly lowered to one knee, continuing to peer where the
movement had been seen. He could hear
soft whispering and the shuffling of feet on concrete.
  Time ticked by in the eerie dark.
  His heart pounded in his chest, audible only
in his ears, but it sounded so loud he was sure it could be heard by the
others. With the patience of a stalking
cat, Tom and the others laid in wait.

The whispering died down.  
Tom tensed, knowing it was coming.  
His finger tightened on his trigger as he continued to aim his rifle
into the dark.

  The attack came with
shocking ferocity. Brilliant flashes
exploded in the dark tunnel; instantly followed by ear splitting
pops
and
booms
. Bullets slammed into
the concrete above Tom, showering him with chips and debris.

They had all been waiting for the shots and took advantage
of the rifle flashes. Using them like
bull’s-eyes they began firing at bright strobes.
  Both groups exchanged gunfire for several seconds.

“Cease fire!” Tom
shouted.

His group immediately stopped shooting.
  Soft groans could be heard further down the
hall. Behind Tom, on the other side of
the door, a clatter of items fell to the floor.

Unseen to anyone, Eli felt his way up the door, stuffed his
rifle through the broken out window, and began blindly firing into the
room. The bright flashes lit his face
with each trigger pull.

Tom stood and backed a couple steps from the door.
  “Breach.”
  He shouted.

Eli pulled his rifle from the door, returning everything to
inky blackness.

In a single fluid motion, Tom clicked on his flashlight and
kicked into the door as hard as he could.  
The door split wide, slamming into the interior walls with a loud
bang
.  
Tom rushed forward with his rifle at the ready.
  Eli clicked on his light and swept forward
directly behind him. The two of them
split directions as they entered.

“Down, down.” Eli
shouted.

Tom stayed focused on his own field of view.
  His light caught on movement beyond a long
row of boxes. Someone’s leg had just
slid out of view.

“Down!”
  Eli shouted again.

Boom…boom…boom…

Rifle fire erupted from Tom’s right.
  He resisted the urge to turn and check on the
kid. With determined focus he kept his
rifle trained on the boxes.

“Clear.” Eli shouted.

Tom felt relief flood over him.
  “I’ve got one in the corner.”
  He said.

“Circling.”

Tom took a slow step forward.
  “Come out.  
Hands up. We won’t harm
you.” He stole a quick glance to Eli and
saw him working his way to the far side of the room, using a long shelving unit
for cover. “If you –“

The figure leapt out from behind the boxes, pistol raised.
 
Pop
.
  The shot went wide, ricocheting off the
cement wall behind Tom.

Tom squeezed the trigger and dropped the man.
  “Clear.”  
He shouted.

Eli’s flashlight bounced around, creating shifting shadows
around the room as he continued to the back.  
The light spun and remained perpendicular to Tom’s as it shone behind
the boxes where the man had hid. The
light remained unmoving for several seconds and then Eli shouted, “Clear.”

Tom spun around and headed back out to Abby and Hank.
  She was crouched in the doorway with her
flashlight directed down the hall. He
tapped her on the back and said, “Anything?”