Haven (The Breadwinner Trilogy) (15 page)

IX

Andrew and Ben were the best shots by far, both expertly trained in firearms.  They argued back and forth over who would stay and cover from the roof and who would go in the trio to retrieve the trucks.  Veronica piped in that she was the fastest and most agile, but Ben pointed out that she didn’t know how to drive.

“I’m going.”  Michelle interrupted the men.  “Ben stays here to cover from the roof, you were military,
so you’re probably a better long range shot than the cop.  It’s Gary’s plan so he’ll come with me and Andrew.  The rest of you, just be ready.”  There was no further argument, she’d made her point rationally and was ready to do business.

The group worked quickly, piling up the food, water, medicine and other supplies they’d gathered during the last several weeks at Emerald Park.  Just as Gary had instructed, their spoils were stacked neatly and organized, easily accessible to the truck once the entrance to the fire door was opened and the truck was backed up to the building.  Andrew slipped away momentarily into the showroom of the jewelry store.  The room had an eerie feel to it, it held a dusty coldness that gave him chills.  The multicolored paint on the large windows reminded him of the abundance of stained glass in the churches he attended once upon a time.  He could hear the faint sounds of the undead outside, shuffling about pointlessly and moaning in unison.  He silently thanked God that they were unaware of his presence as he scanned the glass cases of engagement rings.  He slipped behind the counter and slid the back open, reaching in and pulling out a stunning white gold ring with a breathtaking solitaire diamond, it sparkled even in the dimly lit showroom.  The ring would need no resizing, it would fit perfectly on Juliette’s delicate finger.  He grinned and slipped it into his pocket, patting it and turning to leave.  Ben stood in the doorway and smiled, clapping Andrew on the back as he passed, “Congrats dude.”

“Don’t be congratulatin’ me yet, might be the end of the world but she still might not say yes.”  Andrew responded with a laugh.

The men met the rest of the group on the roof once all the supplies were stacked and ready.  They could hear Michelle screaming before they even made it all the way up.

“I don’t care what kind of day you had!  Get over it!”  Michelle had her finger in Catherine’s face.  “This is all fucked!”

Ben and Andrew jogged over to the corner of the roof where the speaker setup was.  “What’s going on?”  Andrew furrowed his brow.

“Dr. Idiot left everything uncovered last night.  Take a look around, see how it’s all nice and wet?  That’s called rain.”  Her hair was a wild mess and her eyes were full of anger.

“I’m so sorry.  I, I just didn’t even think about it.”  Catherine stammered and raised a hand to her forehead.

“Look, Michelle, I was up here too last night.  It’s as much as my fault.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Michelle shook her head at Ben, “it wasn’t your responsibility.”

“There’s a whole cell phone store down there full of phones and speakers.  It’s not a big deal, we’ll just swap everything out.  All this did was just cost us some extra time.”

Michelle laughed hysterically.  “How many weeks do you think we’ve been here?  This is the last of the charged phones.  All that extra shit downstairs is dead!  All of it!”  Gary was busy fiddling with the phones on the ground, pulling the batteries out and attempting to dry out the insides.  Michelle kicked one of the speakers beside him and he jumped as it went flying, water splashing out of it as it slid and bounced across the roof.  “Like I said, this is fucked.”  She pulled a cigarette out and let out an exasperated sigh, “Can somebody please give me a lighter?”

Ben tossed his to her and walked over to the ledge where Catherine and Lulu were standing, quietly talking.  The eaters below were in a frenzy, attracted to all the yelling and excitement on the roof.  They’d nearly doubled in their numbers overnight.  Ben looked down into the crowd full of snapping mouths and glazed eyes gazing up at him, blood soaked hands hungrily reaching upwards, clawing at the building, clawing at one another.

“If one person can cause all this,” Lulu pointed down at the dead, “there’s no reason that a whole group of us wouldn’t be able to bring the whole damn parking lot over here.”  She scanned the lot as she spoke, eyeing the clusters that had formed throughout the shopping center.  She couldn’t imagine what an aerial view would look like, she shuddered to think how many hundreds more there were lurking around Emerald Park that she couldn’t see.

“It’s our only option.  The whole building is surrounded, our only saving grace is that they have no idea how to get inside.”  Catherine’s eyes were red, her face even more pale than the usual.  She looked exhausted.

Veronica joined them near the ledge, arms folded across her chest.  She wore Lulu’s clothes, a much better fit than her oversized findings from Gary’s collection and despite the bandaged face, was looking more like her fierce self in this moment.  She spotted the entrance to Target.  Amidst the dead shuffling by the entry way lie a grisly pile of human remains that the dead neglected to devour.  Samson’s blood still streaked the glass in such a manner that even the rain couldn’t wash it away.  She felt her face grow hot and her nostrils flare.  Ben watched her as without a word she retrieved the speaker Michelle had kicked away.  With a powerful scream she reared her arm back and launched the useless electronic into a group of eaters that seemed to be ignoring the building.  The group below them, as if attending a show, roared in response, soon joined by more roaming eaters that now were aware of the food on the roof.  Catherine picked up the other speaker and followed suit.  Soon enough, everyone on the roof was hollering and throwing things, causing such a raucous that if they hadn’t already been up and walking, the dead would have been awakened. 

“Where are the keys for the bike chains you keep on the doors downstairs?”  Andrew asked Michelle.

“In the salon, why?”

“Doesn’t look like we’re gonna be going out the fire door.  There’s way too many of ‘em.”

“Now would be as good a time as any to get our asses movin’ Gary!”  Andrew and Michelle were already running toward the roof hatch.

“Somebody needs to lock us out!  Lu, come on!”  Michelle called out before heading downstairs, Lulu grabbed Gary’s arm and sprinted for the hatch.

“Ben, you’ve got us covered, yeah?”  Gary shouted back at him as he ran.

“Don’t you worry your bald British head, my friend.  Be careful out there!” 

Michelle moved swiftly and gracefully through the building, grabbing a backpack and Francis’ set of keys in one fell swoop from the salon.  She gave the room one last look around before leaving for good.  She tossed the keys to Lulu and began tying her hair back tightly.  “Ya gotta be fast Lu, you can do this,
I know you.”  For once Lulu appeared confident, and even though these weren’t the best of circumstances, she was never more proud to have such a friend in the woman.  She pulled her in and hugged her tightly before stepping into place behind Gary.

“Everybody armed?”  Michelle and Gary nodded in unison as Andrew put his hand on the café’s door handle, “Alright, brace yourselves,
let’s go.”

The four of them ran through the putrid stench of the café straight for the front doors.  None of them spoke.  They held their breath as best they could as Lulu removed the bike lock from the doors and turned the deadbolt.  Gary, Andrew and Michelle bolted through the entrance and Lulu quickly pulled them shut, sliding the bolt and replacing the bike lock.  Her hands shook and her heart pounded as she slammed the café door behind her for good and dry heaved in the fire corridor.

The wet ground proved to be a bad cover for the trio headed toward the banking complex.  Their shoes noisily slapped the pavement and splashed puddles as they ran.  At least the sky was overcast, today was not the day they needed the blinding Florida sun in their eyes.  The rest of the group on the roof continued to yell and scream, attempting to create as much of a distraction as possible.  Random shots rang out as Ben fired into the dead that surrounded them.

“Incoming!”  Gary cried out.

Andrew raised his pistol and fired, two eaters had come up on their left and lunged at Gary.  Gary was able to dodge the first but was knocked to the ground by the deadweight of the second just as Andrew put a bullet in its head.  Michelle sprinted passed him and Andrew grabbed his arm and pulled him along, barely stopping to give him enough time to regain his footing.  “Gotta keep movin’ man!”

They bobbed and weaved through cars once they made it to the highway, the dead were still in hot pursuit.  Gary turned just in time to see an eater as it crawled its way across the hood of a vehicle at an alarming rate.  The clothes were falling off of its emaciated frame, chunks of flesh missing from its neck and arms, it was almost right on top of Michelle when Gary finally got a shot off.  The bullet exited the other side of its head, producing a sickening black cloud of gore and rot.  Michelle barely flinched.

The group made it up to the abandoned building and headed for the back.  Industrial fencing and barbed wire at least 12 feet high ran the perimeter of the lot that the armored trucks were kept in.  “Keep ‘em off me!”  Michelle cried out as she dropped the backpack to the ground and removed one of the bike locks she’d stuffed inside.  Gary and Andrew fought off the dead with blasts of gunfire while she readjusted the bag on her back and shot at the fence.  “Fuck!  Concentrate, concentrate.”  She coached herself as she took one more careful shot at the lock on the fence and the gate popped open.  “Let’s go!  Let’s go!”  The three of them scurried behind the temporary safety of the fence and Michelle snapped the lock into place, pulling back her hand just in time as the bloated, formerly middle aged store clerk waddled up to the fence and chomped his teeth down.  The eater’s teeth cracked and broke off against the metal, Michelle’s look of horror turned to relief as she checked and rechecked her fingers for any break in the skin.  She grinned at the eater, black blood and pus oozing from its rotten mouth.  “Fuck you, fatty.  No lunch for you today.”  She hurried to catch up with Gary and Andrew.  Andrew attempted to break through the glass to get the bank’s doors unlocked but just as he figured, it was shatter proof.  He fired three rounds into the lock on the door and pulled it open, ushering the others inside.

The inside of the bank smelled surprisingly fresh and clean.  The office furniture, minus the settled dust, was immaculate and the carpet felt plush and new.  Michelle peered through the blinds and saw the growing crowd at the fence.  “Hey, I don’t know how long that’s gonna hold.  We need to find these keys and get going.” 

“I’ll check the offices.  You two, get movin’.”  Andrew began tearing the place apart.  Gary jumped over the teller’s counter and disappeared around the corner while Michelle ran upstairs to search the second floor.  After what seemed like an eternity of precious wasted time, Gary emerged from the back with a handful of truck keys.

“I’m superstitious.  They’ve got to be the right numbers.”  He laid out a few sets of keys on a desk. 

Andrew rolled his eyes.  “You kiddin’ me?”

“No.  I am not.”  Gary carefully thought about which set of keys to which truck he would choose and Andrew called out to Michelle, grabbing a random set off the desk. 

A crash was heard outside and Andrew made it to the window just in time to see the dead pouring through the vulnerable gate like lava.  “We gotta move!  Now!”  Michelle heard the noise outside and the urgency in Andrew’s voice and put two and two together, rushing down the stairs into the lobby. 

Gary calmly lifted a set of keys and dangled them in front of his face.  “Okay, we can go.”  The cheer in his voice made Andrew sick but there wasn’t any time for emotions.  The three of them plowed through the side entrance as the horde of undead made their way into the back of the bank.  They raced to the trucks that matched the numbers on the keys and separated, Andrew to his truck, Michelle and Gary to theirs. 

“Get in the back, you’ll be more useful at lifting all that shit into the truck.”  Gary nodded and they heard the roar of an engine somewhere off in the lot.  “Andrew’s ready, let’s get this thing started.”  Michelle hesitated for a moment before turning the key in the ignition.  She thought of all those awful parts in horror movies where the car wouldn’t start just as the killer crashed through the window and caught up to his victim.  An eater’s face suddenly appeared in the driver’s side window, pounding on the armored truck and screaming.  She jumped and a scream escaped her lips.

“What is it?”  Gary, concerned, hollered from the back of the truck.

Michelle shook her head and started the truck.  She eyed the dead thing pushing its face against the window, smearing it’s disgusting fluids all over the glass like a snail, snarling at her like a dog.  “Everything’s fine.”  She put the oversized truck into gear and floored it, she briefly checked the side mirror to see that Andrew was following and yelled for Gary to hang on.  The truck smashed through the gate, plowing through the dead and making it onto the road with barely a scratch on it.  She eased the truck through the backed up traffic and car accidents and onto the other side of the highway, sliding into Emerald Park and toward the building.  She could see as everyone began to run for the hatch, eager to load the approaching truck up.  She smiled, for once, in a world like this, things were going as planned.

“Alright Gary, get ready.  This isn’t going to be easy.”  Michelle swung the truck around, the enormous tires rolling over and crushing bodies that should have already been dead.  Skulls and body parts crunched under the truck’s weight, howls filled the air and the truck, as massive as it was, shook from the dead repeatedly slamming into it.  Fortunately for Gary, he was on the back end and they were not so interested.  He crouched at the back doors, watching for his chance through the small window, Michelle slowly rolled backward toward the fire exit door.  It flew open and the terrified face of Lulu appeared, she screamed and recoiled into the building as she saw the horrific scene of carnage before her.  “Back it up faster!  Go!”  Gary held on to the metal grating on either side of him and braced himself as the truck’s momentum shifted and was brought to an abrupt halt just shy of crashing into the building.  His chest heaved and his heart pounded.  Lulu peeked out at him.  “That was a close one, eh?”