Machines of the Dead (21 page)

She returned to 2F, making sure to enter the apartment as quietly as possible. The others deserved their sleep, for she wanted them alert and well-rested when it was their time to take up the watch.

She headed over to the window, walking around Jack’s sleeping form. Looking out, her jaw fell open, breath caught in her chest. Five men
—
bunker-men
—
dressed in black fatigues, carrying machine guns, were right outside the building. One of the men stepped forward, reached back, and threw something at her.

At the last second, she saw what it was—a
flash bang
grenade
,
and dove away from the window, landing behind the sofa. The sound of shattering glass, like a banshee’s scream, broke the tranquility of the moment. She covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, like a young child about to receive a tetanus shot.

The room seemed to shake around her as the grenade went off. Even with her ears
covered,
she heard the bomb’s explosion and felt its impact.

Maria never expected the guards to attack, let alone during daytime hours. She figured
they had
long given up on them.
Damn it
,
if
she had
remained at the window
she would
have seen them coming. It had been a terrible mistake to assume they wouldn’t come after them and foolish to have set up camp so near to the operations center. She needed to act fast. A blitzkrieg-like attack was upon them
;
hit hard and overwhelm.

Standing up, Maria’s ears were ringing but she was at least able to see. Jack and Zaun were rolling around on the floor, holding their ears and seeming a little more than confused. She yelled to them, telling them that they were under attack, but doubted they could hear her.

Another flashbang came in through the window. The bastards were really pouring it on. Maria dove into the bathroom, climbing into the tub just as the device went off. She saw the flash of light through her eyelids, the tub shielding her from a direct blast. Thank
goodness,
the guards didn’t have real grenades, or they’d all be dead right now. Reynolds must want them alive.

Getting up, she went back into the living room and saw the others on the floor, feeling around like the blind.

With her M4 still strapped to her back
,
she moved to the apartment’s door. She had no idea if the men were on their way up. Her ears were still ringing a little and
it
made hearing where the enemy was
,
more difficult. The group’s only chance was for her to escape and get the drop on Reynolds’ men, hoping Jack and Zaun could get their heads straight while she held them off.

She opened the door a crack. Seeing the hallway clear, she bolted from the apartment, leaped over the dead body, and went into 2R. Just as she closed the door, she thought she heard a loud scream from downstairs
. H
er booby trap at work?

Placing her M4 against the wall, she readied her sidearm.

Looking through the peephole, Maria saw four armed men come up the stairs. Where was the fifth? As the men proceeded toward 2F, their backs to her, she opened the door. 

The man closest to her turned around. His eyes widened at seeing her, but before he had a chance to raise his weapon, Maria sent a bullet through his left eye socket, dropping him quickly. Moving her aim to the second target, she fired, hitting him in the side of the head, his body falling away. The third man was pointing his gun her way, but she managed to get off a shot before he did, and watched the bullet take his ear off. The man’s hand clutched at his head and he went down. 

Before she could take out the fourth man, he was firing at her. Maria felt the bullets whiz by her head, and fell back. She landed hard on the floor, unable to roll to the side
,
the wall to her right, the door to her left.

Unable to do anything else, she waited to feel the sting of bullets.

Jack awoke to a nightmare of ringing in the ears. Sitting up, he didn’t know if he was alive or dead. Everything was white, as if he’d looked into the sun too long. His head pounded. He wondered if he was injured, his whole world in chaos. Alarm, true gut-wrenching panic, began to set in until he remembered what Maria had told him. What he was experiencing were the effects of a flashbang grenade. Had one gone off accidentally? No, that wasn’t likely, but what was likely
,
was they were under attack. It had to be Reynolds’ people. He and the others weren’t far from the warehouse. They must’ve been watching them
,
saw where they made camp and waited to strike. Reynolds must be one very pissed off person to have sent his guards out into the undead world.

Where was Maria? She was supposed to be on watch duty. Had she fallen asleep? Been captured while patrolling the building? On his hands and knees, he began feeling around for a weapon, his vision seeming to clear a little. He felt the softness of a pillow, then his backpack. His fingers came in to contact with cool metal. Wrapping his hand around the item, he knew he had a gun in his hand. Felt like his .45. Holding the weapon close to his face, he could make out its outline.

Jack remained on his hands and knees, wanting to stay low. He crawled, having no idea which direction he was moving in and smacked into something hard. Every hand-placement and knee-drag was
gut wrenching
, as he was waiting to be shoved to the floor and manhandled into cuffs.

Making his way to a wall, Jack went left, hoping he was heading in the direction of the front door. Moving along quickly, he collided into a table of some kind, figuring it to be an end table. Remembering how the room was, he turned himself around and went the other way. He came to a corner, then continued until his fingers brushed against a smooth, rounded metal object protruding from the wall. It had grooves in it as well, as if it were made into separate parts, but held together—a hinge. Then he felt a gap in the wall and the surface area changed to a smoother, wood-like feel. He’d found the door, and it was closed, indicating that no one had gotten inside yet.

Reaching up, he grabbed the doorknob and pulled himself to his feet. What sounded like muffled gunshots came from the other side of the door. Maria was probably out there and under fire. If she wasn’t in the apartment when the assault happened, then she wouldn’t be affected by the
flashbangs
.

He had to help her.

He thought about going for another gun, but didn’t want to waste time. Opening the door, he peeked out and saw a guard, the figure facing away from him. Gunfire erupted as the man fired his weapon down the hall at someone. Jack pressed the muzzle of his .45 to the back of the guy’s head and told him to drop it. 

The man’s gun stopped firing.

“I said drop—”

The guard went to spin about, attempting to duck low and bring his gun around, but Jack was faster and put a bullet into his temple.

As the corpse fell to the ground, Jack glanced across the hallway and saw Maria lying on her back, his eyesight almost normal again. He stepped forward, seeing the three downed guards. 

“Maria?” he called out, worried that she wasn’t moving and walked toward her. 

She sat up, a surprised look on her face. “Jack.”

He didn’t see any holes in her and let out the breath he’d been holding. She was all right. Then her face filled with alarm as she raised her sidearm at him.

Jack stopped. “It’s me.”

Maria fired her gun. Jack jumped to the side. She fired again. He turned to look behind him and saw one of the men he thought was dead
,
fall back against the wall. Maria fired again, and Jack saw a black hole appear in the man’s forehead as he slid to the ground.

Zaun appeared in the doorway.

Jack turned to see Maria walking toward him. “Bastard wasn’t dead. I’d only clipped his ear off. Didn’t have time to finish him with the other guy shooting at me. Thought I was a goner. You saved my ass, Jack.”

“Ditto.”

“There’s at least one more,” she said. “There were five outside the building when they attacked. Only four came up the stairs.” She explained about the chemical trap.

“So
,
maybe one’s out of commission somewhere,” Zaun said.

“We can’t know for sure.” Maria went over to the stairs.

Jack told Zaun to stay by the front window and keep an eye out. 

Maria led the way down the stairs. 

The foyer was clear of bodies. The mop bucket was on its side on the floor, and apartment 1F’s door was open.

They went inside. The living room, kitchen, and bedroom were empty, but the bathroom door was closed. Jack couldn’t remember if it had been shut the last time they were there. Maria stood to the right side of the door, Jack on the left. He reached out, grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.
Gunshots
rang out from within.

“Throw down your weapon or we’ll open fire,” Jack said.

“Fuck you.” Two more shots were fired, neither hitting the
doorframe
.

Maria motioned for Jack to cover his ears, then produced a flashbang grenade. Pulling the pin, she tossed it into the bathroom.

Jack turned away, covering his ears and closing his eyes. He heard the explosion, then the man’s scream.

Maria sprang into the doorway, gun out, and fired two rounds. Her body seemed to relax. She looked at Jack and nodded.

A man
,
Devon was his name,
in black fatigues, lay sprawled next to the toilet, two bullet holes centered in his chest. Blood trickled from the man’s mouth, his partially melted, still steaming face and irritated bright red
devil-like
eyes
were beyond gruesome. When the chemicals had mixed, they created a terribly corrosive substance. Jack wondered if the guy had even been able to see, hence the terribly fired shots.

Not wanting to touch the dead man, they left him be, but not before Maria put a bullet into his head.

Jack went over to the window, lifted one of the shades, and almost jumped back as a zombie, its jaw missing, tongue lapping at the security bars, stood before him. Lifting the shade farther, he saw the street was packed with undead. 

“Shit,” he said. “We’ve got company.”

“More soldiers?”

“No.”

Zaun came running down the stairs and into the apartment. He looked at Jack. “I see you’ve been brought up to speed on what’s happening out there.”

Jack let the shade fall back into place. “Those idiots brought the undead down on us. What were they thinking?”

“They were hoping for a quick snatch and grab,” Maria answered. “They probably figured we’d put up a fight, firing our weapons. The dead would’ve shown up either way, so why not just come at us hard.”

“How many are out there?” Jack asked.

“At least thirty,” Zaun began, “but more are coming down the street, from both directions.” 

A noise came from the hall. Jack looked over to see a female zombie, a gore-filled hole where its left eye socket had been, reach for Zaun.

Zaun spun around, grabbed the zombie’s wrist and flipped it into the room. Jack stepped up and put a bullet into its head.

“They’re coming inside.” Maria ran to the door.

Zaun raised his machine gun and blasted another zombie as it entered the hallway. Right behind it was another. As each one fell
,
another took its place.  

Maria was firing now too.

Jack ran over and joined her in the foyer. Undead after undead filed into the entrance only to be mowed down by the hail of bullets.  

With the undead pushed back, the group made their way to the second floor.

Maria and Zaun gathered the supplies from the apartment while Jack remained at the top of the stairs, shooting the zombies as they made their way inside and up the steps. When they were finished, they ran up to the third floor, then climbed the ladder to the roof. The undead were slow and probably not even up to the second floor yet.

Jack shut the hatch, breathing the frigid air deep into his lungs. Looking around, there was nothing to see but the roofs of attached buildings, as well as the buildings beyond. He tugged his coat tighter around himself as a chill crept over him, the wind cascading over his sweat-lined body.    

“Take a look at this,” Zaun said, standing near the edge of the roof.

Jack and Maria hurried over.

A huge crowd of undead took up the area in front of the building, with more coming from both ends of the street. 

“We can’t do this,” Jack said.

“Do what?” Zaun asked.

“Survive in the city. There are too many of the damn things. We won’t last long.”

“What are you saying?” Maria asked.

“That we go back to the operations center; the warehouse. Back to the tunnel and take the left fork. See where it leads.”