Dead Life (Book 4) (3 page)

              “That's fine with me,” Gina told her. “You take the center and I'll go left. Steve you got the right flank.”

              It looked like the girls wanted to handle this one so I let Cindy move out about five feet ahead and five feet to the left of me. Gina gave about the same amount of space on her side and the three of us moved in. As we got closer I could see that having the center person take the lead was a bad idea. All seven of the zombies had their attention focused on Cindy. There was no way she'd be able to handle them all at once. Gina and I needed to move up before Cindy was overwhelmed.

              “Gina we need to move up. Try to split them.”

              Cindy stopped moving forward. Gina and I moved up and over to try to spread them out a bit.

              “Hey ugly!” Gina yelled “Look what I've got for you.”

              For a split second I thought she was talking to me. When I realized she was trying to get the tightly packed group of zombies to split up some I joined her. Being the eloquent wordsmith I am I yelled “hey” at them several times to no avail. For some reason they were fixated on Cindy and paying no attention to Gina or me.

              “What should I do?” Gina yelled.

              “Move in. Start taking them out. Cindy back up slowly and keep your sword up.”

              Cindy backed away and kept jabbing her sword into the lead zombies chest. It was keeping him off of her but wasn't doing anything towards stopping it's attack. To make matters worse the others were closing in on her. Even though they moved slowly they were relentless. If Gina and I didn't do something fast Cindy would be taken in a few seconds. I stepped in to take out the zombie closest to me. I drew my sword back and struck it in the back of the neck taking the head off in one motion. I saw Cindy push her sword up under the chin of the zombie closest to her driving the tip up into the brain. This brought Cindy in too close to the next two zombies. One of them reached out and grabbed her by the arm and started pulling it up to the monsters waiting teeth. Cindy was about to be bitten and there was nothing I could do about it.

              Then time slowed down. Black blood flew up from the zombie's arm as the rest of it's body, except for the head, which flew off in the opposite direction fell to the ground. Something moved past me and I was vaguely aware that it was Gina. Cindy was pulling away from the creature's snapping teeth as it's arm came away from the body and she fell on her ass. Thankfully she was safe for the moment. I could now turn my attention to the other four zombies and try to get this finished before any of us got hurt. Remember how I said time had slowed down? Now it sped back up and was going way past normal speed. In a blur of silver and black blood Gina took out the other four zombies before I could make a move. Every time I saw the glint of silver I was sure I heard a blood curdling scream. Two heads came off with the first stroke. One of the two zombies was at least a foot taller than the other. How in the hell did she do that? The next one she got on the backstroke taking off just the top of the head. Then she stepped up and side kicked the last one in the stomach. That was the worst. Blood, guts, and god knows what else exploded out of it's mouth. The poor bastard flew back about eight feet and just laid on the ground. I think it was afraid to get back up. I would have been. Gina walked up to it and pushed her sword through it's eye socket.

              “Cindy honey, are you okay?” Gina asked as she helped Cindy to her feet. “What about you honey? Did you get bit?”

              I managed to stammer a “no” in response.

              “Are you sure? I was worried about you. What with all that screaming you were doing.”

              “I'm fine,” Cindy finally managed to say. She was staring at Gina with the same shocked look on her face I was sure I had on mine.

              “That wasn't me doing all that screaming. Was it?”

              “It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it,” Gina said.

              I heard a commotion and saw a sprinter coming at us from the same direction as the other seven zombies. Gina ran at it and faded to the left drawing it's attention to that side. Then she spun to the right, ducked down, and took off both of the zombie's legs below the knees as she came up. As it fell to the ground she gave it a short little love tap to the back of the head with her sword spilling it's brains. Then she wiped her sword off on the fallen zombies shirt.

              “I don't know about you but I feel a whole lot safer all of a sudden,” Cindy said.

Chapter 3

              Dr. Parks threw Lily over his shoulder. Her eyes came open and she looked at me and smiled. I hoped she had something planned because I was sure out of ideas. The zombie made his way over to the gurney where I was still strapped down. He began fumbling with the straps in an effort to get me loose. He was having trouble keeping Lily balanced on his shoulder and getting the straps undone and I could see the anger on his face. It started to moan just like the rest of them did when they were getting ready to feed.

              “If you bite me I'll be of no use to you. I can't get you on that chopper if I'm dead.”

              He bent down and put his ugly face right in mine. “I'm not going to eat you yet. These fucking straps are pissing me off. My hands aren't working right.” His fetid breath smelled worse than he did and I thought I was going to vomit in his face. I wondered if that would piss him off or make him hungry. Fortunately, I was able to keep from hurling in his face so we didn't have to find out.

              Dr. Parks went back to pulling on the straps binding my wrists. While he was fighting with them Lily reached in the pocket of his lab coat and grabbed the key he had used to remove the chains from her wrists. She held it tightly in her fist waiting for the right moment to pass them to Sergeant Adams.

              “Tell you what doc you get my wrists loose and I'll take care of the rest. Better yet, why don't you let the Sergeant out of his handcuffs and let him get me out of here?”

              “Yeah doc. Let me out of here. I'll give you a hand.”

              “I've almost got the straps off of you. I'm dead not brain dead. When I get you off that table you had better not try anything Captain. All it takes is one little bite and your little girlfriend is dead.”

              “Just get me loose. I'll get you out of here before the Calvary arrives.”

              “What I want you to do is get me to General Simmons. He's the one I want.”

              “Then we're all in agreement here doc. My mission was to get you out of this place and take you to the General. If that's what you want too then we're all on the same page. Hell you could even bring the Sergeant with us.”

              “You want him out of there pretty badly. That's not going to happen. I said I'd let him live and I will keep my word on that.”

              It took the zombie about five minutes to get me loose. Lily kept looking at me like I was supposed to do something to help him. All I could do was wait for him to get my hands free. When he was finally able to do that I was able to remove the straps from my ankles and the one across my forehead. I sat up from the table and looked around the room. I could see our weapons on the counter on the far side of the room. John would have to bring those to us when he got loose. I needed to create a distraction so
Lily could get the keys to the Sergeant.             

              “I see you looking around. Remember all it takes is one little bite.”

              “Just trying to get my bearings. Did you have to hit me so hard? My head is killing me. I feel like I'm going to throw up.”

              “You should be thankful you're still alive. Now get up off that table and let's get going.”

              As dramatically as I could I turned on the table and put my feet on the ground. I stood up slowly brought my hands up to my head and pretended to swoon. Letting my knees buckle I fell to the ground. On the way down I fell into a cart of medical instruments knocking them everywhere. I hoped the distraction mixed with the noise the tray of instruments made crashing to the ground would give Lily an opportunity to toss the keys to the Sergeant. From where I lay on the ground I looked to Lily. She gave me a thumbs up. My ruse had been successful.

              “I'll give you five seconds to get up off the ground. After that you're all dead.”

              I got to my feet as quickly as I could while still trying to maintain my act; which in all honesty wasn't that much of an act considering I had just woken up from being knocked unconscious.

              “You go first Captain. I'll be right behind you so don't try anything. I'm doing everything in my power to keep from biting this girl in the ass as it is. Just give me an excuse.”

              I didn't like the way he was looking at Lily. I could tell he was telling the truth. He kept looking from me to her ass, which was just inches from his mouth. The son of a bitch was drooling the entire time and the back of her pants were coated in the vile diseased saliva that flowed freely from his mouth. I couldn't get the picture out of my head of him biting Lily and tearing a huge chunk of flesh from her. I needed to get moving so the Sergeant would have a chance to get free from his chains and put a bullet in this fucker.

              “Doc you need to calm down. You bite her and you'll never get out of here. Don't forget about General Simmons. You need me to fly you out to the battleship he's on.”

              “I'm doing the best I can. Let's get going.”

              He had me go into the next room. I recognized it as the room I had fallen into from the elevator. The panel that had given way on Lily and I was still open. Things had happened so quickly before I hadn't had a chance to look around the room. Wholesale slaughter must have taken place here. Dried blood was everywhere. The walls were splattered, the counters, and every piece of medical equipment in the room was covered with blood.

              He had me go through the hidden doorway and into the elevator. “What happened back there?”

              “That's the room I was reborn in. Dr. Hall did such a good job bringing me back from the brink I almost felt bad when I ate him and his assistant. Reach back through that hatch and close the panel.”

              I had to get down on my knees and lean back through the opening to grab the top of the panel so I could close it. When I looked back into the room Sergeant Adams was coming through the doorway. He gave me a thumbs up as I pulled the panel back into place. Before I had a chance to get back to my feet I felt the elevator begin the journey back to the top floor. When I got back up and looked at Dr. Parks I could see his lips moving. He was talking to himself.

              “Something wrong doc?”

              “I should have eaten him. What's wrong with me? I ate Dr. Hall. I tried to eat all of my assistants. Why didn't I eat him?”

              “Maybe you have a little humanity left in you. Why don't you let us go?”

              “Oh that's not going to happen. I'll tell you what though. If you behave, when we get to the carrier maybe I'll let you go.”

              The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Everything seemed to be as we'd left it. Dead zombies were everywhere.

              “Look what you did to my children. They can't help what they are you know. The hunger, it drives them.”

              “We didn't do this. You did.”

              “That depends on how you look at things. All I did was try to save lives. Your government took my research and tried to turn it into a weapon. They set up a separate lab and started their own experiments. They did this. Not me.”

              “Yeah, but you spread the virus.”

              “That's right, I did. They thought I was a fool. That I could be led on a leash. They promised to help me restore my reputation. But I knew what they wanted the whole time. I set them up. I didn't know it would be like this, but oh it is beautiful.”

              There was no use trying to argue with this creature. He was as crazy as a shit house rat. The longer I kept him talking though the more time it gave Sergeant Adams to get up that staircase. Our radios wouldn't work down inside the missile silo and I hoped the Sergeant could alert Lieutenant Price as to what was headed his way before we got there. If something happened to our pilot we would all be stuck out here.
He dropped Lily in a heap by the door and opened a hidden panel exposing a keypad. He typed in some numbers and closed the panel.

              “See if you can wake her up. I'm tired of carrying her.”

              I knelt down next to Lily and went through the motions of trying to awaken her. It didn't take long for her to come around since she was awake already.

              “What happened?” she asked.

              “Dr. Parks captured us. Sergeant Adams is still down in the silo. We're headed back to the chopper and I'm going to fly us out of here.”

              “Is that the doctor? He looks like one of the zombies.”

              “It's a long story. He got infected but before he changed...”

              “Tell her later,” he said. “Quit stalling. Take me to the chopper.”

              “I'll tell you on the way Corporal,” I said. “What did you just do?”

              “After we leave, the next time that door opens the installation blows. They'll have five minutes. Gives them just enough time to get down to the lab. Then the fail safe system kicks in. The bottom chambers fill with gas, then it all goes sky high.”

              “You said you'd let Adams live.”

              “I did, didn't I. Guess I lied.” He reached down and grabbed a fistful of Lily's hair, dragging her to her feet. “Take the lead Captain.”

              We went out the door. Parks kept pushing Lily out in front of him and pulling her back by the hair. She reached up and grabbed his hand in an attempt to ease the pain. The doctor responded by pulling her back to his mouth and trying to bite her hand. Lily let go and was able to move her hand just as his teeth closed on a mouthful of her hair.

              “I wouldn't try that again,” he said. “Maybe it's too late. Do you think the virus transmits through hair?”

              I looked back at him and he smiled through a mouth filled with the hair he'd bitten off Lily. Then he chewed and swallowed.

              “Move!”

              I wanted to do something, anything. This bastard was going to die and I wanted to be the one to take him out. The anger etched across Lily's face told me she was just as mad as I was. She mouthed the words “I'm okay” and nodded her head as best she could with a zombie holding her tightly by the hair. She was letting me know she was okay and to keep moving. I went out the gate and moved down the path-road leading to the landing pad. I walked as slow as I possibly could trying to give the Sergeant a chance to catch up to us.

              “I may be a zombie but even I can move faster than this. Pick up the pace.”

              Having no choice I started walking faster. We passed the radio we had hung in the trees on our way in. I needed to think of something fast. Soon we would be back to the helicopter and once we got there I'd run out of options. With the pilot hopefully gone we'd be stuck there with one very angry zombie. Then the radio we'd left in the trees squawked and I heard the three most beautiful words come from just off the path. “Hey fuck face.”

              Parks spun around, still holding Lily by the hair, and a shot rang out from behind us.

              “Run!” Sergeant Adams yelled.

              Lily grunted in pain as we both took off down the path. Another shot rang out. We ran a little further and stopped. I took Lily in my arms and held her tight.

              “Get this off of me,” Lily said.

              She broke our embrace and stepped back. Half of Parks arm, from the elbow down, was still clenching her hair. Sergeant Adams' first shot had hit the zombie in the elbow. That must have been why Lily cried out in pain when we ran off. The arm tore off as she pulled away. I grabbed the arm and pulled. It didn't come loose and Lily's head jerked down with the arm when I pulled.

              “What the fuck is wrong with you. Pry it's fingers out of there.”

              “I'm sorry.”

              I went to work on it's fingers and was finally able to get it loose, along with a large chunk of Lily's hair. She was going to need a visit to a hair salon when this was all over. I got most of the hair out of it's hand and held it out to Lily.

              “Do you want this?”

              She just glared at me and rubbed her head. “Get rid of it.”

              I dropped the hair and threw the arm into the woods. Sergeant Adams ran up and un-slung our rifles from his shoulder, handing them to Lily and me.

              “He's still out there. My second shot must have only grazed his head and he ran off into the woods.”

              “Do we go after him?” Lily asked.

              “No. Let's get the hell out of here. Hopefully that thing will starve out here.”

              “You think those things starve?” Sergeant Adams asked.

              “Right now I don't care. I'm just glad we're all still alive,” I said.

              We could hear the chopper starting up as we headed through the forest. Sergeant Adams had radioed ahead and told the pilot to fire it up after he heard shots fired. It was a miracle that we were going to make it out of here alive. I wouldn't let my emotions override clear thinking like this again. Dr. Parks needed to die for what he'd done. I just had to accept the fact that I wasn't going to be the one to kill him. I doubted he'd make it out of this forest alive. If he did somebody else would have to take care of him. In a few minutes we would be miles from here. As we made our way to the chopper Sergeant Adam's radio came to life.