After the End (27 page)

He ducked into the first open doorway he could find, a fish market that advertised the fresh catch of the day in the window. Unfortunately, the fish in the unrefrigerated display cases were days past fresh now. The store reeked almost worse than the odor of decaying bodies pervading the city. Ari ran through the shop and out the back door. His plan was to run a parallel course to the one the rest of the group was taking. When he reached the marina, he'd cut across to the boat. If all their diversionary tactics worked, the revenants' attention would be focused further inland, away from the docks.

There was an alley behind the fish shop and the rest of the row of buildings. He followed the narrow passage, jogging steadily, but holding back some speed in case he needed to sprint later. He paused at the corner of the last building in the row and peered around the corner. His view of the waterfront was limited by the angle, but the docks definitely looked emptier than they had earlier.

Pressing his body close to the wall, he eased around the edge and started toward the front of the building. Now he could see hordes of the undead streaming toward the car he'd abandoned. Whether it was the movement or the mannequin that had caught their attention, they were eager to check it out. Even from a distance, he could smell the burning oil rags, which he'd set fire to before he'd abandoned the car. They had burst easily into flame and he hoped they'd somehow make the entire car explode in the zombies' faces like Derrick had wished.

Ari couldn't see the rest of his group from where he was and prayed they were making their way to the boat as planned. Lila's eyes, squinting as she laughed, flashed in his mind and he wished he'd given her a proper goodbye with a good, long kiss, instead of being such a hard ass.

Suddenly, a bottle arched through the air, the glass catching the sunlight and his attention. The bottle shattered on the ground and a satisfying fireball rose from it. He mentally cheered Lila or Deb as some of the zombies ran to investigate the new distraction.

Ari retreated from the corner of the building, back in the direction from which he'd come. He needed a moment to plot out the rest of his course, cover to cover, all the way to the boat. The sunlight shone on the gray waves as he looked beyond the marina to open water. Soon they'd be out there, heading down the Hudson to freedom—or whatever passed for freedom these days. Visions of refugee camps and soldiers destroying zombies danced in his mind like sugar plums, but the mainland might not offer any more safety than what they'd found here in the city.

A flicker of movement in the corner of Ari's gaze snapped his head to the left. A zombie as silent and deadly as a stalking mountain lion was slinking toward him. Its eyes were flat and dead, but its mouth gaped wide and hungry. Blood stained the man's face and clothing, a coverall that made Ari think of Hector for a moment. An appliqué that read "Crowder's Carpet Cleaning" was stitched on the pocket. These details etched themselves in his mind as he drew his knife and launched himself at the zombie. He couldn't shoot it without drawing the notice of the others so it would have to be hand-to-hand until one of them was dead. Or deader.

Ari slashed through the air, but the zombie raised an arm that deflected his blade. The knife cut through the navy coverall and into his upraised arm before the hilt was ripped from Ari's hand.

The creature clutched at him, but Ari spun away, avoiding him by inches. He knew zombies' hands were as vice-like as a pit bull's jaws once they clamped down. He didn't even want to think about what their teeth would feel like tearing through his flesh.

Ari ran toward the alley with the zombie on his heels. He preferred to kill rather than try to outrun it, but first he had to get his knife back. The hilt still protruded from the monster's upper arm, the blade deeply embedded like a carving knife standing in a Thanksgiving turkey.

On the ground in the mouth of the alley was an empty liquor bottle. Ari remembered Sergeant Vogt's advice about urban combat. "If you're disarmed, you might have to use whatever's at hand to fight with. Being creative can save your life."

He bent to retrieve the bottle, holding it by the neck and smashing off the bottom against the wall. In seconds, the zombie was on him, weaponless but plenty lethal with its unnatural strength and gnashing teeth. Ari slashed at the thing's eyes but missed, slicing jaggedly down its cheek instead.

Repairman Zombie grabbed Ari and drew him into a tight embrace. Ari wrapped his arms around the creature as if to return a friendly hug, and plucked his knife from the zombie's arm. But having the knife in his hand didn't make it easy to cut the back of the monster's neck. He was too close, the zombie's reeking, rotted-meat breath blowing into his face, the empty eyes staring dead-on into his.

Ari sawed at the side of the creature's neck with the broken bottle with one hand, then stabbed the knife into its upper spine with the other. He missed the spine and the thing clawed at Ari's back and snapped at his face. Ari reared back to avoid its gnashing teeth, but the arms around his back were like steel bands binding him to the rotting corpse.

At a loss for how to fight the super-strength creature, he fell back on the simplest tactic he knew to get out of a clinch from his old street fighting days, a head butt. Ari slammed his forehead into the thing's nose. Pain sparkled like fireworks behind his closed eyelids, but the move served its purpose, snapping the zombie's head back. Its grip loosened just enough that Ari could squirm away from that punishing grip.

However, his knife which was still buried in the thing's back. Free of the revenant's arms, Ari darted behind his opponent and pulled the blade free. It released from the zombie's flesh with a wet, sucking sound.

The zombie started to spin around to face him, but Ari plunged his knife again, this time in the tender hollow at the base of its skull. The energy cut as abruptly as a switch being turned off and the body toppled to the ground, a discarded shell once more.

Winded and panting, Ari stood over the collapsed zombie. He scanned the area for more of the revenants. For the moment, they were all at a distance, unaware of him.

He pressed flat against the wall again, taking a moment to catch his breath and plan his next move. There was a wide open stretch between his position and another hiding spot behind a Jet Ski and watercraft shop. Then he'd have to navigate across the parking lot littered with vehicles abandoned by their owners before they'd made their desperate bid for the boats. Beyond that, he would run along the waterfront to the dock where he could just see the Bayliner he was aiming for. He wondered if any of the others had made it there yet. He couldn't see them from his position.

Ari glanced to the left, not forgetting the stealth of the zombie that had attacked him. He wouldn't be surprised again. Just then an explosion sent a shock wave rolling through the air. Ari spun back in the opposite direction, searching for its source. It wasn't the sedan he'd set on fire but another vehicle close to the ice cream shop which was one of the rest stops for the group on their way to the boat.

Ari grinned. He had no doubt either Lila or Deb, maybe both, had blown up the car. He peered around the edge of the building again to witness an orange fireball, black smoke and zombies clustering around the wreckage as if they were at a bonfire roasting weenies. The way would never be clearer than right now.

He ran for the watercraft shop, legs and arms pumping, lungs burning, and when he reached it, since the way was still clear, he didn't stop. He wove his way between the haphazard cars in the parking lot. A naked zombie woman popped from behind a pickup truck right in front of him like a pornographic jack-in-the-box, her breasts bobbing and her arms missing. Ari didn't take the time to kill her, just knocked her aside with a push that bounced her off the side of the truck like a pinball.

He reached the boardwalk and his feet pounded over wooden slats instead of asphalt. The scent of the water was almost stronger than the rotten meat on which the gulls feasted and the green trimmed Bayliner was in sight.

Ari glanced inland, checking for pursuers, and his heart dropped. Lila and Deb were running for the docks, too. Deb was obviously injured and Lila had an arm around her. Zombies were on their heels.

As Ari watched, Lila pushed Deb toward the boat and Deb lurched like a zombie herself as she staggered forward. Lila whirled to face their attackers. She took a bottle from her backpack, lit the fuse and tossed the bomb in the midst of the running zombies. Glass crashed and fumes ignited sending up a small fireball. A few zombies were engulfed in the flames, their hair or clothing catching on fire, but the rest kept coming toward Lila.

Ari ran to help her. He dodged around cars until he was close then jumped up onto a hood, grabbed the rifle strapped to his back and fired into the group of zombies. At least some of the shots cleaved the spinal cord and a few zombies dropped, their bodies tripping up the others. It was enough to slow them down a little.

But a couple of faster zombies were already on Lila. A man with a gaping chest wound seized her arm. She slung her backpack into his face and tried to jerk away, but he gripped her hard. He looked like he'd been healthy and fit when he was alive and whole. Another man wearing a charcoal gray suit and a string of entrails like a necktie took hold of Lila's other arm and lifted her hand to his mouth as if he would kiss it.

Ari sighted down the rifle, aiming for the second one's head, but Lila was too close. This was no sniper's weapon; it was meant to cut a lethal swathe, and he was no sharpshooter. He jumped off the car hood and hurtled across the ground separating him from Lila. Bending low, he plowed into the suit-wearing zombie like a linebacker, driving his shoulder into the creature's gut and pushing him backward.

The dead man seemed content to switch victims and grabbed for Ari instead of Lila. Past the thing's shoulder Ari could see many more coming. In a few seconds they'd be overrun. It was impossible for his blood to carry one more drop of adrenaline than was already scorching through his system. As if he was on industrial strength steroids, for a moment Ari was convinced he was invincible. Yelling like a madman, he pulled the knife sheathed in his belt and drove it into the cadaver's throat with all the force in his body. His arm pistoned, stabbing until the dead man slumped.

Without pause, Ari tossed the corpse aside and went for the other. The body building, chest wound zombie had Lila pinned to the ground. She was beating on his back and squirming to get out from under him as he lunged for her throat.

Ari didn't try to pull him off. Trying to break that powerful grip would be futile. Instead he sawed across the back of the thing's exposed neck with his knife, cutting through gristle and bone until the man flopped to a stop, draped over Lila like an obscene blanket. Ari hauled the body off her while Lila crab scuttled backward from underneath it.

Ari held out his hand. She seized it. And they ran, barely ahead of the rest of the pack. The creatures were right behind them. That was the problem—they weren't so impossible to kill once you knew how, but there were always more and they were as persistent as cockroaches.

The boat was near now. They'd reached the docks and were pounding toward it. But if Julie and Derrick didn't have the motor running, they'd all be trapped on board.

Ari had a death grip on Lila's hand, dragging her beside him, but he suddenly stopped and thrust her ahead of him. "You go. I'll hold 'em off."

She hesitated.

"Go!" he ordered, doing his best Sergeant Vogt impression. Without waiting to see that she obeyed, Ari spun around, took the rifle from his shoulder and peppered the approaching zombies with bullets. He sprayed back and forth as if watering a lawn with lethal chemicals. Bits of pink and red gore flew through the air like confetti.

Then his clip emptied. The gun clicked and the hailstorm of bullets stopped.

"Ari. Here!"

He turned toward Lila's voice and caught the new clip she tossed to him. He jammed it into the gun and started firing again. Stupid, brave girl hadn't run, and thank God for him she hadn't.

The revenants continued to surge toward them, only a dozen, but it was a dozen too many. Ari braced his legs and fired at their heads, scalping the faux-hawk off a once pretty girl in a once white sundress, ripping through the side of an old man's face, and hitting directly into a policeman's gaping mouth, dropping him.

"Die! Just fucking die!" he bellowed as he swung the rifle back and forth.

And then he heard the blessed sound of a motor puttering to life like a choir of angels singing. He backed down the dock, still shooting.

A second later, Derrick was beside him, also firing. Together they held off the remaining zombies, only a half dozen now, but still stupidly, relentlessly coming.

"Come on," Lila called. "We're casting off."

Ari and Derrick ran for the boat. Ari skidded on a slick of goo and started to fall. His arms pinwheeled and he nearly dropped his rifle before he caught his balance and ran on. The boards shook beneath his weight. He leaped onto the deck of the Bayliner and turned to make sure Derrick was still with him.

Derrick raced down the dock with several revenants right behind him. One tackled him and then they were all on him like a pack of hyenas. Ari jumped off the boat and ran back, firing into their midst, praying he wouldn't hit Derrick by accident.

When he got too close to shoot, Ari hit at them with the stock of the gun, bashing zombies like whack-a-moles. He wished he still had his ax, but there'd been only so many weapons he could carry. Seeing Derrick's hand beneath the pile up of zombies, he grabbed hold of it and pulled him out from under them. He hauled the kid to his feet and ran with him. This time he didn't let go of Derrick's hand until they'd reached the boat. Julie was already guiding it away from the pier. They jumped over a yard of water before hitting the deck and collapsing in a heap.

"Are you all right?" Lila dropped down beside them. "Were you bitten?"