Ashton Memorial (22 page)

She turned to look at her kids. Dalton was
shivering in the cold. Maylee was clutching her bat and staring at
the approaching corpses. The look of determination on her face
broke Angie's heart.

She looked at Park. He nodded.

“I know,” he said. “We're
getting inside. I'm not letting your kids get killed and I'm surer
than fuck getting to mine.”

Angie nodded. “So let's
move, then.”

The four of them picked their way through
the barrels until they got to the other side of the truck bed.
Angie could hear the corpses closing in behind them. A few of them
were already pawing at the truck.

One by one they hopped off the other side of
the truck. They almost stumbled at the downward slant of the hill.
Angie peered into the dark. Rain ran down her face.

“There better be another
entrance nearby,” she said.

“There is,” said Dalton.
“There's a gate up ahead.”

“How do you know
that?”

“I love the zoo,
Mom.”

Maylee sniffed in the rain.
“I'd love to get inside.”

The groans grew louder
behind them. “Come on,” said Angie. “We gotta move.”

They took three hurried steps down the hill.
They stopped when a groaning mob of corpses emerged from the dark
in front of them.

* * *

Ella shivered as she approached a small
storage building set among some bushes. The trees groaned and
twisted in the wind around her. She couldn't shake the feeling the
trees were groaning at her. Twisting to grab at her.

She stepped up to the door and fished the
keycard from her jacket. She moved to hold the card up to the
reader, then froze. She had a clear image of Stepdad waiting behind
the door. Waiting to attack her. To keep Lori from her. Maybe he
even had a gun.

Ella shivered, mostly from the cold. But
just mostly.

Her only hope would be to surprise him. To
throw open the door and rush inside. Maybe he'd be sitting down.
Maybe even sleeping. Ella could free Lori before he'd have a chance
to hurt either of them.

Could she hurt Stepdad? Standing there in
the cold and wet dark, she would have liked to. But was she capable
of it?

She drew herself up, did her best to ignore
the creaking trees around her, and held the keycard to the reader
next to the door. The light clicked from red to green. She shoved
the door open with her shoulder, screaming and hoping the noise
would startle Stepdad.

The room was dark and empty.

She stood in the dark,
panting and shaking. “Shit,” she whispered.

A woman emerged from the corner of the room.
Her hair was wild and tangled, and her clothes were wet.

“You!” said the woman,
stepping closer.

Ella stepped back. Her back went tight when she
recognized the woman. It was the one who'd pointed her out in the
crowd at the Bites. The one who'd yelled for the others to grab
her.

“I'm sorry,” said Ella,
backing toward the door. “I was just looking for my
sister.”

“You won't make me leave!”
the woman yelled, her eyes wide and feral. “This is my room! I
found it! I broke the window! I cut my arms getting inside! This is
mine!”

Blood ran down the woman's arms and onto the
floor. Rain pattered through a smashed window in the back of the
room.

“I'm sorry,” Ella repeated,
taking another step backward. “I'll just go.”

“You can't take it!” yelled
the woman, looking through Ella more than at her. “I'll kill
you!”

The woman lunged at her. Ella screamed and
ran from the building. She ran back out into the rain, not
bothering to shut the door.

* * *

Angie held out her arms to block Maylee and
Dalton behind her. She stepped back, taking them back with her. The
mob of corpses shuffled closer to them. The rain pelted on the
corpse's heads as they jerked their dead bodies toward Angie, the
kids and Park.

“Shit,” said
Angie.

“Yeah,” said Park, taking
the rifle from his shoulder.

“There's too many of them
for that,” said Angie.

“Don't insult me,” said
Park. He turned and aimed back up the hill. At one of the tires on
the truck.

Angie stepped backward
again, pushing the kids with her. The mob grew closer. “You know
what you're doing?”

“Never did,” said Park. He
cocked the rifle.

“Great,” said Angie. She
stared at the corpses. No way they were getting to her kids. She'd
tear each corpse apart herself if she had to. She knew it was
crazy. Crazy was all she had left.

Park sighed. “And that's
three.”

He fired. The rear tire of the truck jerked
and started deflating. The air squealed as it rushed out of the
tire. One corner of the truck bed slumped, shifting the barrels
downward.

“We should get the fuck out
of the way,” said Park.

Angie nodded and pulled the kids to one
side. The corpses were close behind them. She could almost feel
their hands closing in.

The tire exploded and collapsed. The truck
dropped violently and barrels began toppling off. The noise of the
barrels clanging on the pavement drowned out everything else. Some
rolled, some toppled end over end. Chunks of pavement flew off with
each strike of metal on pavement.

“Run!” yelled
Angie.

They all rushed toward the zoo. Barrels flew
past them, sounding like small cars going by, smashing into the
approaching corpses. Corpse bodies broke and squelched as barrels
crushed them into the street.

They were halfway to the sidewalk when
Dalton fell. He stumbled on his bad foot and crumpled to his
knees.

Angie turned, watching Dalton drop as though
in slow motion. Barrels flew by him, crunching corpses and breaking
the pavement underneath.

“Dalton!” Angie raced back.
She dodged a rusty barrel as it careened by, crushing a corpse
who'd been coming up behind her.

“Mom!” said Dalton,
reaching up to her from the pavement. Angie rushed over and grabbed
his hand. She heard a loud clanging in front of her. In front of
Dalton.

She looked up. A large metal barrel was
falling toward them, end over end. It was inches away.

“Mom!” yelled
Dalton.

Angie dropped to her knees, covering Dalton
with her body. Pain shot through her legs as the pavement ground
into her kneecaps. She put her head down on the road, cradling
Dalton's head in her arms.

“Mom!” he screamed, muffled
by her body.

With a loud “clang” the
edge of the barrel hit the road inches from the top of Angie's
head. So close she felt the weight of the barrel tug at her
hair.

Dalton squirmed underneath her. Angie drew
up her feet as close as she could manage. The darkness around them
grew deeper as the barrel loomed overhead. For a moment all she
could hear was her and Dalton breathing. She braced herself,
waiting to be crushed.

Another clang rang out. She felt the other
end of the barrel crunch into the pavement inches from her toes.
The darkness lessened as the barrel continued on behind them.

Angie lifted her head and let out a breath
she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She turned to watch the
barrel flipping end over end, away from them. A corpse grunted at
it seconds before being crushed. Gray slop spread out in its
path.

“Mom?” said Dalton
underneath her.

Angie turned back to him.
She smiled down at him. “Shit, huh?”

Dalton nodded.

“You okay?”

He nodded again.

Angie stood and helped Dalton up. Maylee and
Park were standing on the sidewalk, staring.

“Well fuck the hell out of
me,” said Park.

“Mom!” said
Maylee.

Corpses groaned from farther down the hill.
The clanging of the barrels was receding. The crushed ones would be
replaced soon.

“Come on,” said Angie. “The
gate, remember?”

Park and Maylee nodded. Angie and Dalton
rushed over, Dalton still limping. They all rushed down the
sidewalk until they came to a large metal gate set into the wall.
The darkened zoo was visible behind it. A lone light, set over an
abandoned vendor cart, revealed no one.

All four of them grabbed hold of the gate
and started shaking it. They all yelled into the darkness beyond
it. Angie wondered if they'd really seen anyone behind the door
earlier. She pushed the thought down. There had to be someone.
There had to be.

“Let us in!” she yelled,
slamming her hand into the gate.

* * *

Ella ran until her lungs burned. She
stopped, panting in the rain. She'd run blindly, imagining the
crazy woman behind her. If she didn't know the zoo as well as she
did, even in the dark, she'd be completely lost by now.

She knew the zoo too well to be lost. It
should have been comforting. But Mom was dead, Lori was a hostage
somewhere and the world had gone crazy. Comfort was a thing of the
past.

She stood under a lone light, looking around
to get her bearings. She was near the polar bear exhibit. There
were two of them, Ella knew. Tony and Tina, she called them.

She rubbed her cold hands on her jeans,
trying to get warm. The rain stung her face. She heard animal
whines coming from her side. From the direction of the polar
bears.

“Tony?” she said.
“Tina?”

She took a step toward the exhibit, then
stopped. She remembered the way Ray had looked at her, the way he'd
craned his neck around and screeched. Did all the animals hate her
now?

More whining came, followed by a small
growl.

“Tony?” Ella said. She
stepped over until the exhibit appeared in the dim
light.

It was Tina who'd been whining. She was
pacing the exhibit, limping with one paw held up close to her
body.

“Oh Tina,” said Ella,
running the rest of the way to the exhibit. She leaned against the
glass fence separating the visitors from the exhibits. She leaned
her head out over the deep, concrete-lined trench that kept the
bears in their enclosure. “You poor girl. What
happened?”

Tina noticed Ella. She bared her teeth and
growled.

Ella blinked and took a
step back. “Tina?”

Tina roared at Ella and limped to the edge
of the trench. Rain pounded the ground.

“Tina, please,” said Ella,
feeling like she might cry. Why did everything hate her? “You're
hurt.”

Tina bellowed and leapt at Ella. She leapt
out over the trench. Ella screamed and jumped back. Tina made it
halfway to the fence before dropping down into the trench. There
was a horrible crunching sound, and Tina howled as she hit the
concrete bottom.

“Tina!” yelled Ella,
running back to the fence. She leaned out and looked over. Tina lay
crumpled in the bottom of the trench, her legs at odd angles and
obviously broken.

Ella gripped the glass
fence and leaned down farther. Tears ran down her face, mixing with
the rain. “Tina!”

Tina looked up. She roared and bit at Ella.
She strained upward, and Ella had no doubt she'd jump again if she
was able to stand.

Ella heard new growls coming from the
exhibit. She looked up from the trench to see Tony, the other polar
bear, crouching next to the inflatable ball Ella had watched him
play with many times. Tony bared his teeth and growled. He strode
forward, toward the trench. Ella knew what was coming.

“Tony don't,” she said,
shaking in the cold rain. “You can't make it.”

Tony roared and leapt. Ella jumped back
reflexively. Tony plummeted down into the trench, just like Tina.
Ella screamed as he fell. She braced herself, flinching at the yelp
and crunching of bone as Tony connected with the concrete bottom of
the trench. Ella stepped over and looked down. Tony lay next to
Tina, twisted like his back was broken. He roared up at her, blood
coming from his snout.

Ella stepped back from the fence, crying.
She walked backward, away from the exhibit, until she couldn't hear
the growling of the bears anymore. She wiped her eyes, forcing
herself to calm down. She had to keep it together. She had to find
Lori.

She stopped, listening. She wasn't sure. It
could have been the rain or the wind. But she could have sworn she
heard the sound of metal banging. And people shouting.

* * *

Angie gripped the gate and
shook it as hard as she could. “Hey!” she yelled, forcing down the
thought she was shouting to no one. “Let us in!”

Park and the kids pounded at the gate,
shouting along with her. The noise they made echoed around in the
dark. Angie heard groans approaching them. They were running out of
time.

“Dammit dammit dammit,”
grumbled Park beside her. She could hear the desperation creeping
into his voice.

“Let us in!” yelled Dalton.
He shook the gate as hard as his small frame would allow. He
stopped, staring. Then he pointed inside. “Look!”

Angie stopped pounding on the gate, almost
not believing what she saw. A young girl stepped into the lone
light by the vending station. She had a jacket drawn tightly around
her, and she looked shaken and scared.

“You see her, right?” said
Dalton.

“I see her!” said Park.
“Hey! You! Let us in!”

The girl backed away from them, looking at
them with wide eyes.