Zombie D.O.A. (16 page)

The marine quick-marched out of the room and Basher turned instantly to Dangerfield, “I thought I said, no names,”
he
said.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Dangerfield said, coming to attention, “I’ll see he’s disciplined.”

“Disciplined my ass,” Basher said, “Man like that’s a danger to himself and his fellow marines. Transfer him to roving patrols, sector 3.”

“Yes, sir!
” Dangerfield said and swallowed hard.

“Now!”
Basher screamed.

“
Sir
, yes sir!” Dangerfield replied
,
already heading for the door.

Basher turned to me and smiled, “Well, now that the introductions have formally been made, let me just say that I’m a big fan.”

He stood looking at me, enjoying himself, like someone will enjoy practicing a skill they know they’re good at. When he measured that he’d achieved his desired effect he continued.

“Well
, not
of you
personally
, but of fighters in general. Done a bit of boxing myself.”

“By the look of your nose you weren’t very good at it.”

He laughed then, a humorless laugh that alm
ost mas
ked his anger at the slight.

“Heavyweight champion five years running at Lejuene
, although, not of course a professional like yourself,” he said with a hint of defensiveness in his voice.

“I heard Lejuene is where the
y
send all the pussy marines,” I said.

Basher laughed his flat laugh again. “You’re a funny guy Chris,” he said, “I like you.”

He picked up a meat cleaver from a counter, ran his thumb along the blade, “Sharp,” he said.

From outside came the sound of machine gun fire. Basher ignored it.

“You want to know the best part of my job
,
Chris,” Basher said.

“The free clothes?”

This time Basher didn
’t laugh.

“It’s getting results. Giving Uncle Sam good value for his dollar. You see Chris, I might not be much of a boxer, especially when compared to someone like yourself, but at what I do, at my specialty, I’m Ali and Foreman and Smokin’ Joe Frasier all rolled into one, you better believe it.”

He put down the cleaver and picked up what looked like a long-handled grapefruit spoon, slapped it ag
ainst
his
palm
three times.

”The man you were with, he have a name?”

“You know his name.”

“True, but
tell me anyway, just so I know we’re on the same page.”

“He said his name’s Joe Thursday.”

Basher laughed, “Joe fucking Thursday,” he said, “that’s rich. And this
Joe
Thursday
, he tell you what he does for a living?”

“He’s an actor,” I said.

“An actor,” he snorted. He didn’t tell you here’s a hired killer, wanted by every federal agency outside of Fish and Wildlife.”

“He didn’t see fit to share that with me, no.”

“Did he tell you that he’s in possessio
n of valuable government assets?
Assets that could help us resolve this current…crisis.
”

“No.”

“Where were you headed
?

“Headed?”

“Yeah, when my men found you, crawling around in the sewers, where were you headed?”

“To the park.”

Basher grunted, banged on his palm with the spoon again. Outside there was another burst of gunfire, closer this time, more intense. Basher nodded to one of the guards and the man jogged out, probably to check on the commotion.

“So you want me to believe, that a man wanted by every federal agency in the country is just going to trot into a military base and give himself up.”

“I’m not asking you to believe it, just telling you it’s true.”

Outside there was more gunfire, the sound of glass breaking and then someone shouting, “Get down! Get down!”, followed by a series of explosions.

“You like gra
pefruit, Chris?” Basher asked. When I didn’t answer,
he said,
“
I do too, breakfast of fucking champions
, right
.
Hell, I reckon I could clean out a grapefruit in ten seconds flat, using one of these things.
”

He banged out a little staccato rhythm on his palm with the spoon. “So how long
do you think it
would take me to scoop out
one of your eyes?
”

There was a
nother explosion from outside, this one big enough to rattle some plates from the shelves. They crashed to the floor just as Lieutenant Dangerfield burst into the room. He rushed over to Basher and whispered urgently in his ear. There was more gunfire from out
side and someone was screaming.

“Get me a bird on the roof in five minutes,”
Basher
said to Dangerfield, “five minutes you hear. And lieutenant, I need you to hold this location, no matter what
,
you hear
me
, no matter what!

“Sir!” Dangerfield shouted and rushed from the room.

“Up!” Basher shouted at me, then to the guard “Soldier,
I believe you’re needed outside.
”

“Sir!”

The soldier headed for the exit and then started firing as the creatures poured into the kitchen.

“Move!” Basher
said
, as he unholstered his sidearm and started firing. He grabbed me by the chain of the handcuffs and pulled me towards the fire exit. We hit the stairs on the run and started upward, Basher in the lead
dragging
me along.

On the fourth floor we had to cross a foyer to reach the door leading out to the roof. After the sounds of the battle raging below it was deathly qui
et
up
t
here
,
and dark, with the lights out.

We moved slowly
, unsure of what
might be
out there.  I could hear the whup-whup-whup sound of the helicopter landing on the roof.
Then a ting as one of the lifts in the foyer slid open.

Basher was slightly in front of me,
and the creature flew straight into him and bit
him in
the
neck. He was knocked sideways and released his grip on me.

The
zombie was at least Basher’s siz
e and had him pinned down, its teeth shredding the air, inches from his nose. For a moment I was tempted to just make a run for it, but
I couldn’t do it.

Instead, I kicked the creature in the ribs as hard as I could. He grunted and turned his attention towards me, giving Basher a shot. He fired into the thing’s brain, and it collapsed on the carpet.

Basher got awkwardly to his feet and put his hand to his neck. It came away sticky with blo
od. He said simply, “I been bit,
” and then he emptied his magazine into the body of creature on the floor. He continued even when the gun stopped firing.

“Major
!
” I shouted, “We gotta go!”

“I been bit,” he said reloading his weapon. Then he placed the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Behind me I heard another ‘ting’ as
the next
lift arrived. I wasn’t about to stick around to see what this one excreted. I ran for the door and pushed my way through. On the rooftop the helicopter hovered
a few inches off the ground, it
s cargo door open.
I dived in
.

“Go!” I screamed.

One of the pilots looked back at me, “Where’s the major!” he shouted over the rotors.

“He’s dead!” I shouted
back
, “now
let’s get the
hell
outa here!”

The pilots looked
at each other and nodded. On the roof I could see the first of the
things stumble through the door
. As the chopper started to rise, one of them made a charge towards it.
He dived
for
the landing skids missing by inches and tumbling into the darkness as we cleared the building and turned towards the park.

I woke to the sound of birds singing.  I was in a soft bed with clean white linen. A white mosquito net was drawn around the bed allowing soft, warm sunlight to filter through.

For
the first time since this thing started I felt at ease, like my mind didn’t have to deal with some immediate and deadly crisis. That illusion only lasted for a
brief
moment
and then I realized that I was
handcuffed to the bed and the events of the previous evening came tumbling back into my mind.

I remembered being interrogated in the hotel kitchen, the major, the helicopter ride, arriving at the base, questions, being stripped, examined, more questions, an injection to the neck, then blackness.

I yanked on the chain, heard it rattle against the bed frame, “Hey,” I shouted, “Hey, I need help here!” It was then that I noticed the familiar shape of the man in the bed next to me.

“Joe?” I said. “Joe Thursday? That you?”

It was hard to make him out through the two mosquito nets that covered our respective
beds
, but
I could have sworn it was Joe. If it was though, he remained both silent and immobile.

“Joe,” I hissed. “That you?”

“Keep it down, champ
,
” he mumbled. “You want to blow my cover?”

“Shit on a stick, Joe, it is you!” I said.  “What the hell happened?
How’d you get here?
I though you were dead.”