LZR-1143 (Book 4): Desolation (38 page)

I flinched at each ripple ahead as the water churned and eddied, the leak causing the flooding clearly pushing the water quickly through the room as some unknown drainage and overflow system kept the space from filling completely. In the distance, possible twenty feet away, I caught a glimpse of the first creature. It stood silently between a bank of dead computers and a collection of converging pipes, swaying slightly in the water.
 

A ball cap obscured part of its face and its hands rose halfway to its belly repeatedly, before falling to its sides. It didn’t turn as we moved slowly past, the noise of the churning water covering our advance.
 

I turned slightly, glad to see that Eli and Rosy couldn’t see the threat. My right hand tightened on the machete, the plastic and steel handle a comforting feeling as we moved slowly forward.
 

Two more appeared to our right as we moved away from the steps, their forms resolving as the angle that had hidden them before became more obtuse.
 

Like their compatriot on the other side, they simply stood, dormant and twitching. As I watched, their details became clearer and I saw that one creature faced a small desk adorned with pictures of small children and a personalized coffee mug, its face appearing to me to be forlorn. Knowing that I was applying my own narrative to the scene—that it was, indeed, impossible for that man standing in that position in this moment to be the man who belonged to that desk in a former life—I still indulged the sad fantasy. That this corpse continued to stand guard, silently and without knowing why, over the vestiges of a life that it had lost months before.
 

The second form leaned against a large pipe three feet behind the other creature, dark blue business suit covered in mold and dirt and blood.
 

Both creatures simply stared and rocked. Limbs twitching.

I swallowed heavily as we approached the center of the room and I saw the stationary forms of at least seven or eight more among the pipes and desks of the large space, all staring into the distance, all ignoring our silent passage.
 

In the center of the room, the top of a large bank of computers and gauges was a halfway marker, and to the left of this obstruction a large whiteboard was still in place, diagrams for some obscure routing of water flows still visible, written in a hurried scrawl in now-faded ink. Ahead, the barely perceptible red lettering promising exit beckoned invitingly.

As I took a breath and began the second half of our trek, I felt two quick tugs on my left arm and turned quickly, careful not to disturb too much water or splash as I scanned the room behind us. Eli’s eyes were large and I watched as he simply pointed to his right, behind the large table.
 

The top of a single head had emerged from the water, visible from the eyes up. Its hair was matted and thin, as if it had been pulled out in large chunks. The skin, a pasty, cold white, showed the ravages of water damage and cold, with dark blue veins pushing out against the pallid, thin skin. It hovered motionless on the other side of the table, eyes reflecting the barest hint of the light that existed in the room.
 

I stared at the creature, wondering whether it sensed us. Wondering why it was so low in the water instead of standing like the others. As much as it unnerved me, I watched the eyes. They stared ahead, flickering slowly from side to side, as if scanning. As if suspicious of something it could not see or hear, but knew to be there.
 

And then there was only a ripple of water.
 

The head had disappeared.
 

Okay, folks. It was time to leave.

Pulling Eli forward, I scanned the area ahead and our path was still clear to the doorway—no more than a hundred feet.
 

Now, more than a dozen more of the creatures were visible among the rows of pipes and computers and gauges, and I gulped air quietly as I pushed my legs through the icy water, trying not to make noise as the water surged around us.
 

To my right, less than ten feet away, I thought I saw another abnormal ripple—not the movement of churning water, but the movement of something submerging. Like a turtle disappearing silently under the surface.

Must move faster.
 

Must move faster.

Behind me, Eli’s hand tugged on my sleeve again as I heard the sharp intake of breath from Rosy. Her eyes were stricken with fear—it was a wonder she was still moving. Tears ran freely down her face and her hands shook as they clutched Eli’s pack for dear life. As I turned to look at Eli’s gesture I froze, unable to move fast enough to prevent what happened next.

Behind Rosy, a clumsy form slowly emerged from the dark water. Only feet behind her, and obscured in its awkward approach by the same sounds of moving water that were hiding us, its hands—pallid, cold and hungry—found Rosy’s shoulders faster than I thought possible, pulling the shorter woman back as its head darted forward for her neck, teeth gleaming even in the dim light.
 

Her scream was short, but it was loud. And very, very human.

Her body pinwheeled backward, disappearing in a thrashing of arms and legs beneath the surface of the water. Her head appeared once as I put Eli behind me and sought to at least end her pain. But I wasn’t going to reach into the dark of the water searching for her.
 

We were very suddenly on a strict clock.
 

Now, the noise of water rushing into the room was matched by the moans of the undead and the sounds of their shuffling feet displacing water as they honed in on the sound of the scream.

***

I had always been afraid of the dark.
 

My earliest memories are replete with visceral fears of horned, warty things snaking out from underneath my bed, grabbing me by the shoulders and pulling me back into the dark closet, or taking my ankles in a gnarled hand and dragging me into the basement through the slats in the stairs. In fact, one of the most enduring nightmares of my childhood involved a basement much like this room—dark, confusing and full of frightening apparitions.

As Rosy’s body disappeared underneath the water I realized two things: first, there were very likely many more of these things underneath the surface of the flood water, and second, they could somehow hunt by sound or vibration or some other pain-in-the-ass method of finding humans to chomp on.
 

Both of these facts meant that our escape chances had just decreased dramatically.

We were still only half way to the other side when Eli’s hand found my own, and I tightened my grip on the suddenly insufficient-seeming machete.

I struggled to keep my movements small and slow, suspecting that it was our disturbance of the water that allowed the creatures to hone in on our location. Rosy’s scream had opened Pandora’s box, however, and that was complicating our erstwhile stealth.
 

Eli’s hand tightened on mine as a creature stumbled forward, crossing perpendicular to us, merely five feet ahead.

More ripples were spreading across the moving water, disclosing movement underneath the deep water. The liquid was cold against our legs—and Eli’s torso—and I suppressed a shiver as three more wandered ahead of us at diagonal vectors, reaching and stumbling in the darkness, eyes searching for us in a hungry frenzy.
 

Swallowing hard, I slowed to a stop. The movement in the water behind us had become frantic and confused, the surface boiling with activity as heads and hands emerged suddenly, grasping for air, hoping for flesh.

The three ahead of us slowed to a stop, drawn now to the noise of those coming to the surface behind us.

Shit on a zombie stick.

The fuckers in back were going to draw those asshats toward us. Behind me, Eli’s fingernails were digging into my palm, as the three creatures stumbled toward us now, eyes still searching, faces drawn in a rictus of hunger and malevolence.

Okay then. It’s on.

Surging forward, pulling the boy from his feet, my blade flashed in the darkness, taking the first zombie in the neck, separating its head from its body in a single stroke.
 

Its companions, now infuriated by the sound of humanity that they could not locate, hissed and grasped, one of them managing to find my sword-arm and tangle my sleeve in its broken fingers. I shrugged off the brittle grasp as its head came within the radius of my next stroke, cursing as I simply leveled it with my elbow, sending it to its knees in the water with the force of the blow. It looked up as I raised my right leg, bringing my boot down on its upturned face, mangled skin and milky eyes separating as the thick sole crushed its skull.
 

The last creature shambled forward, arms reaching. Sidestepping and forcing Eli behind me again, I leveled my machete and swung forward, suddenly stopping the swing as it reached its spine.

No, I have something else planned for you, I realized.

My hand found its shirt, pulling the confused creature in a tight circle, and spinning it toward the far corner of the room, directing its energy away from us. A single boot to the back helped it along as it splashed loudly into the deep water, arms flailing and legs churning as it hissed and moaned.
 

I pushed Eli ahead of me now, watching as the creature pulled itself to its feet and was almost immediately pulled under the water by one of its friends, confused by the noise and the lack of light, unable to smell each other in the water. Several more peeled away from moving in our direction, following our decoy.

Eli’s hand was shaking in mine as we crossed the next thirty feet, stumbling slowly over obscured obstacles as we passed within several yards of at least ten more creatures, all activated and energized by the noise and the activity.

Finally, as we neared the raised stairwell reaching promisingly out of the darkness of the water, I began to take heart. We were nearly there.

My hand found the cold metal of the railing, and I pulled Eli up and out of the water, placing him on the dry ground of the cement platform and pushing away from the cold swirling flood. As I focused on the door ahead of me, my foot caught behind me and I turned to search for the obstruction.
 

Too late, I realized it was a hand, and I lost my footing while my other leg was grasped by another creature. Two more surged to the surface behind the first pair, mouths opening and brackish water draining from their rotten faces as they lumbered forward.
 

Thrashing, I tried to dislodge my ankles, but their grip was too secure. My machete had flown from my grasp when I fell, and behind me I heard Eli yell once, even as my hand searched for the handrail, desperate to keep me from sliding further into the water. The zombies’ heads shot forward, trying to bite through my moving legs.
 

Not now
, I nearly screamed. We were so fucking close. I cursed loudly and screamed as I surrendered to the water and took the fight to the enemy.
 

Water closed in around my eyes and face, the cold nearly forcing the air from my lungs. Their grip on my legs had loosened, my sudden change in direction having confused them and shaken the iron grasp. But it was a short-lived victory. There were four of them here with me in the awkward space, the thick cold water inhibiting my movements and working to neutralize my superior strength and speed. But there were doubtlessly more coming. If I was going to survive, I had to move fast.

My rifle was still attached to my chest at the single point harness, but it was bent under my body awkwardly, pulled to the side and around my torso by the direction of my slide into the water. Next to me, the closest zombie had grasped my right arm and was pulling it up and out of the water. To my left, another was thrashing in place, arms darting into the darkness, searching for purchase on my flesh or clothes—anything that would lever me back up, to its waiting mouth.
 

Left hand slipping down to my calf, I managed to wrap my cold fingers around the hilt of the long knife strapped inside my boot, and I found a way to put my weight back on my feet. Just in time, as the other two creatures had joined the party.
 

Surging up and out, I exploded from the water, pushing a stiff-arm into the creature on my right, sending its bloated torso against the concrete wall behind, then spinning my left arm in a tight arc, taking the creature on my left in the temple with the knife. Crumpling with a hand on my arm, fingers spasming in final death, it pulled me slightly off balance and I spun further into the water, cursing as I met the embrace of a third zombie, its head flashing forward immediately.
 

Grimacing, I turned and used its momentum to send it down and away, left hand coming down on its skull as it slipped under my raised arm, knife coming away from the head matted with blood.
 

The last two came forward as one, hands raised and mouths agape. Without pausing, each of my hands found each of their throats, and they squirmed in my solid grip as I angrily pushed forward. Hands scrabbled against my arms as I slammed the two thrashing heads against the concrete wall.
 

The bones of the two skulls made a thick, dull cracking sound and I felt the energy of the undead drain from each, like I had siphoned the gas from their tanks.
 

Tossing the bodies into the water, I hurried up the stairs, sparing a single kick for the next group of creatures that was pushing forward, forced into a funnel at the bottom of the stairs. Ahead of me, Eli had his bag open and was staring in my direction.
 

“Mike?” he asked, voice shaking but even. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” I managed, recovering my machete from the platform near Eli and sheathing the knife. The larger blade went back into its sheath as well, as I charged my carbine and faced the water behind us. My right hand moved from the gun to the door, finding the handle and pushing the lever down. Begrudgingly, the handle moved, creaking and groaning in the darkness.