The Demented Z (Book 3): Contagion (20 page)

None of them were prepared for gunfire.
  Eli had barely poked his head into the
hallway when the
snap
of the first
round caused him to duck back. Several
more shots zipped by, finding the empty air where his head used to be.
  The shots stopped as quickly as they started,
leaving an eerie silence.

Tom shouted into the hall, “We’re friendly.
  Do you need help?”

Nothing.

“We mean you no harm.”

“Go away.” A gruff
voice yelled.

“Can we just talk?”

“GO AWAY!”

Tom turned back to the others.
  “There has to be something up here.”
  His eyes glanced over each of their
faces. “We need to either talk to them
or—“

Hank leaned against the wall, his face looking completely
drained. He mumbled just loud enough for
Tom to hear, “Whatever it takes.”

Abby shook her head.  
“I don’t know. Their just people
like us. What if we—“

She was interrupted by a loud
clang
from far below them.  
Faint growls and shrieks filtered up, echoing off the concrete.

Tom turned back to the open door.
   He shouted into the lit hallway, “They’re
coming. They’ll overwhelm us all.”

No response. Tom
could hear mumbled voices. At least two
people in a semi-heated debate.

“They’re coming up.”  
Abby whispered as she looked down the stairwell’s open center.

Tom didn’t know if she could see down into the darkness, but
by sound alone it was clear they were filtering into the stairwell and pushing
up the stairs. He hoped they would move
off into the lower levels, but he definitely wouldn’t count on it.
  “We don’t have much time.”
  He shouted into the hall.

“Go down to seven.”

“We can’t get the door open.”
  Tom lied.

There was a hesitation and then the voice came back, “Go
away.”

Growls were getting louder as demented continued to make
their way up the stairs. The open doors
may be swallowing up some, but not all.

“They’re going to kill us and flood this floor.”
  Tom shouted.

The sound of metal
clanging
across the cement sounded from the hall.  
Tom was looking through the open doorway when the grenade came bouncing
into view.

“Grenade!”
  He shouted while ducking back behind the
cover of the cement wall. An ear ringing
explosion followed.

“I can see them.”  
Abby shouted from the stairwell’s edge.

“We have to take them.”  
Tom said.

Eli moved forward, right next to the open doorway.

Tom looked him in the eye.  
“You ready?”

Eli nodded his head.  
“I will move quick to the other side of the hall and drop low.”

“I’ll cover from this side.  
Make your shots count, we’ll be in the open and need to make it quick.”

Eli rushed through the open doorway with his rifle
raised.
Pop…pop…pop
.
  He fired rapidly while side stepping across
the hall and dropping to a knee on the far side.

Tom leaned out far enough to get his rifle to a firing
position. Boxes lined both sides of the
hall, narrowing it to the width of a couple men side by side.
  Thirty yards down the hall was what amounted
to a short bunker made of sandbags.
  A head and rifle poked above the top.
  His muzzle flashed as he fired at Eli.
  The gunfire echoed loudly off of the cement
walls.

Eli dropped to his belly and slithered forward, using the
boxes for cover. Bullets ripped into the
cement by his legs, sending gray chips flying.

Tom opened up on the bunker.  
His shots tore into the burlap and then the man’s head.
  Gunfire continued from somewhere out of Tom’s
sight.

Moving up onto one knee, Eli looked over at Tom and signaled
that there were two more.

Abby screamed from the stairwell.

Tom’s heart raced.  
From where he was, he couldn’t get an angle to see the other two
men. He heard a voice and then the
familiar clang of metal hitting concrete.  
“Cover!” He shouted while
sprinting forward.

Eli leaned out from behind his box bunker and began firing
rapidly, brass shell casings bouncing off the wall and falling to the cement.

The grenade that Tom knew was coming bounced out from between
the two rows of boxes, flipping and turning from its awkward shape.
  Tom bent down, reached out with his left
hand, and caught the ball of death in his palm.  
With a grunt he tossed it hard back down the hall.
  Both he and Eli ducked back against the wall,
hoping the boxes would be an adequate shield.

There was a thunderous, rapid
boom
. Dust and bits of
debris flew past, chasing the sound they would never catch.

Eli never hesitated.  
He was moving between the boxes with his rifle tight to his shoulder, scanning
for targets. Tom swept in behind
him. His mind was still a bit foggy from
the grenade’s concussion.

“Clear.”
Eli whisper-shouted when he reached the end of the hall.
  He had his rifle aimed at the floor behind
the sand bag bunker.

Gunfire erupted from behind them.
  Tom turned and raced back toward the
stairwell. He found Hank in the doorway
with his pistol out. Just beyond him,
Abby was firing down the stairs.

“Move Abby.” Hank
shouted.

She began backing away, still firing into a line of demented.

Tom tapped Hank on the shoulder.
  “Clear here, fall back.”
  He moved up next to Abby and began firing
into the oncoming horde. “Hit ‘em in the legs then fall back.”

Both of them began firing into the legs of the infected,
causing them to bunch up and topple over one another, forming a dam of bodies.
  Abby and Tom quickly backed out of the
stairwell, pulling the door closed behind them.  
Tom looked around for some way to lock the door, but with only a
crashbar the door had no mechanism to keep it closed.

“Leave it.” Abby
said.

All three of them retreated down the hall to Eli.
  He was on the other side of the sandbags,
leaning up against a door, ear pressed to the metal, listening.
  Above his head, painted in ragged blue paint,
were the words, “The Ark.” The words
gave Tom pause.

“I hear voices inside.”  
Eli said, turning to the group.  
“Can’t make out what they are saying.”

“Locked?” Tom asked.

Eli gave the handle a firm, slow twist.
  “Doesn’t feel like it.”

Loud
bangs
at the
stairwell door reminded each of them that they had to get out of the hall.

“Sweep in quick.” Tom
said. “Eli, move in to the left.
  I’ll cover right.”
  He looked back to Abby, unsure how battle
ready she was. “You
good with this?”

“I’m ready.”

“Okay, you come in behind us and watch the middle.
  Hank, use your pistol…watch our backs.”

They all quickly swapped out magazines and charged their
weapons. Once everyone stood ready, Tom
turned to Eli and gave him a nod. Eli
gave the handle a slow turn and once he felt the bolt release from the strike
plate, he shoved the door and burst into the room.
  Tom swept in right behind him.
  Abby and Hank waited a beat, staying behind the
protection of the cement wall.

Deafening gunfire erupted from inside the room.
  Bullets streaked through the doorway,
slamming into the wall across the hall.  
The shooters adjusted to Tom and Eli’s movements.
  As soon as the gunfire ceased hitting the
wall, Abby spun into the open doorway with her rifle ready.

Inside the room was total chaos.
  Tom and Eli had barely entered the room
before they were the targets of more than a half dozen shooters.
  They had barely dodged to the sides before a
hail of bullets ripped through the air behind them.

Eli moved fast to the left, returning gunfire as he
ran. Without any immediate cover, he
continued across the room, eyeing a stack of blue water drums near the
wall. Gunfire raked the wall behind him.

Tom grunted in pain when a round clipped his shoulder.
  Un-slowed, he dove for a mountain of canned
goods stacked haphazardly behind a long table.  
Thwok
… Thwok …
Thwok
. Cans
absorbed round after round.  
He quickly crawled to the far side, rolled onto his shoulder, and opened
up on the nearest shooter. His shots
found their target, dropping the man from sight.
  Using his boots, he shoved himself further
along the floor, looking for another target.

The focus of combat surged through Abby.
  Many people froze when the bullets started
flying, but she felt oddly comfortable.  
Maybe it was her quick reflexes and amazing hand-eye coordination,
developed from months of obstacle training, or maybe it was just her
personality, but everyone else seemed to be in slow motion.
  She began systematically picking a target,
taking slow trigger pulls, and moving on to the next.
  One after another she continued to drop
attackers.

Water streamed from the barrels as shots tore through the
thin plastic. Eli eased out from behind
cover just enough to get a sight picture.  
He focused through the splashing water and began methodically firing at
movement. The cacophony of noises was
unbelievable. The gunfire created a
nearly constant, chest pounding
thrum
.

Tom could no longer see any of the attackers.
  He looked ahead to a low counter that ran
perpendicular to the sets of counters, tables, and desks that the attackers
were using for cover. With a quick
glance back to the open doorway he debated letting them know he was moving, but
decided against it. Staying as low as
possible, he ran in a crouch across the open space between the stacked cans and
the counter. He wasn’t hit by gunfire
and didn’t hear any rounds hitting in his direction, giving him hope that
nobody noticed his movement.

Abby ducked back into the hall as a hail of gunfire ripped
through the air. Sharp, hot pain flared
in her side as a bullet clipped her waist.  
She growled loudly, more from anger at not dodging quick
enough than pain. Her surging adrenaline
kept the pain at a manageable level. A
quick look down the hall let her know that the demented had not yet opened the
stairwell door.

“They’re trying.”  
Hank said, sensing her question.

Her lips tightened in grim determination as she nodded her
head in response.

“We don’t have much time.”

Bullets still flew through the opening and slammed into the
far wall, blocking her ability to get back in the fight.

Eli screamed out in pain as a bullet tore through his
hand. “Ahhh.” He
ducked back behind the barrels. His
shooting hand’s thumb hung limply by bits of white gristle.
  Blood gushed from the ragged wound.
  He became light headed.
  Eyes closed, he took deep, steady breaths,
trying to keep from passing out. Bullets
continued to thud into the barrels and slap against the cement wall.

Tom stayed low as he moved to the corner of the
counter. He dropped to one knee.
  Rifle raised, he leaned out from cover.
  Directly in front of him were several men
crouched behind various forms of cover.  
All of them were focused on the fight in front of them, and had no idea
Tom had flanked them. He almost felt bad
about the broadside attack, but knew they wouldn’t hesitate if given the same
opportunity. With a flick of his thumb
he switched his M4 to full auto. The
steady barrage of lead that followed only lasted a few seconds.
  Every one of their attackers toppled to the floor,
blood dotting their clothes and ragged holes punched through their flesh.
  Tom hesitated, scanning for movement.
  “Clear!”
  He shouted.

Abby was watching the stairwell door jiggling from the
demented that wanted in when Tom let them all know that the room was
clear. Relief flooded over her.
  She was just debating on what to do if the
door burst open and infected began streaming in.
  “Hank, let’s move.”
  She said.

He didn’t budge. His
eyes stared at the ceiling as he leaned up against the wall.

“Hank!”
  She shouted while grabbing his shirt.

His head whipped around, eyes squinted and glaring.
  For a second his mouth pulled back in an
angry grimace and then as fast as it came, his face melted back to normal.
  “What?”  
He said with a look of confusion.

“You okay?”

“Fine…just tired.”

“Clear inside, let’s move.”

The two of them swept inside the room and closed the door
behind them. Abby searched for a way to
lock the door, but it was void of anything but a bare handle.
  She turned, searching for the others.
  Tom moved along the back of the room with his
rifle still held at the ready. Eli was
just getting up from behind a stack of blue barrels.
  He had his rifle slung and was cradling his
hand to his chest.

“You okay?” She asked
as Eli approached.

His face was white as a ghost.
  In a soft voice he said, “Hand…bone…I
thought…caught my.” He looked around for
a bit and then added, “Thumb got.”

“Relax, you’re not making sense.”
  She rested a hand on his shoulder.
  “I’m going to help Tom.
  Stay by the door and listen for infected.”

Eli’s head whipped toward the door.
  He took a step back.
  After a couple slow breaths he seemed to
clear his mind a bit. He looked back toward
Abby and gave a nod.

Tom had moved to a pair of closed doors in the far corner of
the room. Both lacked any markings.
  He turned back to Abby and waved her over.

She ran over, climbing up and over a low desk that was
riddled with bullet holes. “What’s
up?” She whispered as she stepped up
next to him.

“Couple doors.
  We gotta clear
these.” He glanced back to Hank and
Eli. “How are those two?”