Rise (8 page)

After a minute I knocked again, this time a little harder. I was beginning to think that I had the wrong building when I heard something inside. A sound of furniture being moved, and a voice that said “Hello?” I said, “Open the door” to him, and a few seconds later the door opened, and a man was standing there staring at me in amazement. He was heavy-set, maybe in his late forties, and looked very tired. His eyes were red and puffy, and he was wearing a filthy track suit. I said hello and stepped inside. I asked him if he was Dave, and he nodded, and then he was hugging me and crying and saying how happy he was that I was there. He thought he was dreaming when he heard me knocking, and then was convinced that it was a zombie that had somehow climbed the ladder. I broke away from him and shut the door behind me, sure that Jess had seen me go in. She was watching for us to leave now, and would be our insurance.

I introduced myself to Dave and asked if he was alright, if he could travel. Still crying in relief he told me he was fine, but that all his colleagues were dead. He told me the power was still on in parts of the city, and that the water had run until five days ago. He showed me where he slept and lived in the studio. He had no weapons, but had boarded up the stairs, using desks and conference tables. He asked where I came from, so I told him how we had heard his broadcast, and had decided to rescue him. He was eager to get going, so we spent a few minutes gathering what he’d need, like some food (he had raided a cafeteria on the first floor), extra clothes, and a knife he’d found. I had him change into his darkest clothing, and put all his things into my pack. I asked him if he knew how to use a gun, and when he nodded I handed him the Glock. We then went into the studio where he stopped the record that was playing and announced he was being rescued and that 94X FM was going off the air now. He wished good luck to any listeners, and shut it down.

Thus it was that 24 minutes after entering the building, we went out the way I came in. I checked and the undead were all still pre-occupied with the fire, so we climbed down the fire escape and dropped to the ground. I took out my flashlight and flashed it towards where Jess was waiting, our signal to her that I was coming back. She flashed it back once, and we set off directly towards her. We ran. Stealth was not an option now, just getting to the river was our only goal. We made it halfway when I saw a muzzle flash as Jess fired a shot. Behind me a walking dead had just joined the truly dead, but that also alerted the others to our presence, and they gave chase. We were far faster than they were, so made it to the fence and started climbing just as Jess was taking a fourth shot. Dave climbed over first. He was out of shape from sitting in his booth for so long, but adrenalin got him over the top. I followed, and we got over to the train car just as Jess was dropping down. She said she had shot five of them as they started to pursue, and I quickly introduced her to Dave. He started to hug her too, but she said we had no time, and we got moving. We made it about a hundred yards when we ran into the three we had seen staring at the sky earlier. It was so dark I nearly didn’t see them in time, but I guess they were attracted to the gunshots. They suddenly loomed out at us, and I raised the carbine and shot at them. One fell right away, and the other two kept coming. I shot again, and then Dave shot too, and the other two fell. We ran past them a good hundred yards before we slowed and went into stealth mode again. We carried on like this for a long time, slowly creeping towards the garage, and hiding and resting as often as we could. Dawn came, and we found ourselves a good kilometer from Sarah and the others. Enough undead were about on the streets that we decided to hole up in a house until night again, then make it back to the garage. We went down a back alley until we found a house in decent shape, and approached it. Just as we got to the back door a zombie appeared around the corner and lurched at us. Not wanting to fire our guns, I turned the carbine around and clubbed the creature in the skull as it was reaching for me. Three blows and it went down, and I kept on clubbing it until it stopped moving.

By then Jess had the door open and we went in. We checked the house carefully and found the front door open and a corpse rotting in the hallway, blood everywhere, and bits of tissue scattered around. No undead though, so we closed the front door, grabbed a sheet and dragged the corpse out back. We shut ourselves in just as it started to rain again, and spent the next hour searching for anything useful and barricading the various entry points. We had warned Sarah and Darren that we might have to spend the day in the city, so not to worry about us unless we didn’t return by midnight the next day.

We spent the rest of that day trading stories with Dave, and trying to find something to carry the various treasures we had found in the house. Toiletries, mostly, but also some clothes, a few canned soups and a pocket multi-tool. We eventually got a blue pack from the upstairs bedroom, and I tossed in a few of the paperback books I found on a bookshelf. Jess was rummaging in the basement when she found a camping stove that backpackers use, and a full container of fuel. There was also a set of camping pots, and we took that as well. The prospect of hot food made us all drool. We resisted the urge while we were in the house, though, since we had no idea if the undead would be able to detect the cooking food.

At nightfall, after a careful scan of the streets and alleys, we moved out. Dave was feeling a lot better due to some real rest, and we had taken turns sleeping during the day. Amazing what a few hours in a real bed can do for you. We left out the back, and soon we were making good time away from the house and towards the garage. We had to avoid a small group of zombies who were aimlessly wandering about, and that took some time. The rain kept coming, and all three of us were wet and chilled by the time we reached the garage. We got to the side of the garage, and I peeked inside. There was Sarah, sitting in a chair, fast asleep, and Darren was walking around holding his gun. I knocked quietly, and Sarah jumped up and ran to the door. She opened it and we all piled in. There were introductions and hugs all around, and then we had a look at the little extra loot we had secured. Darren told me that there had been no trouble at all. A few undead had walked past earlier in the day, but showed no interest in the garage. We all celebrated by heating up some instant coffee, the first we had had in a long time. Jess went to see Michael, and I went to check on her to see if she wanted some coffee, and found the two of them asleep on the cot we had found in the front office. I left them alone and went back to the quiet party. That was last night. Now we have left the city outskirts again and are driving along a utility road that goes northwest of the city. We plan to head for the coast now. We’ll find a place up ahead to stop.

Just northwest of Prince George there is, or rather
was
a brand new mall complex with theaters, a Revy, a large grocery store, and a few restaurants. And
two thousand
zombies. We saw the roof of the complex over the treetops, and in typical stupid fashion, the road led right to it. We had seen almost none of the undead since we got onto this road, just three in a field, and one staring at us from a bucket truck that we passed. We were actually wondering where all the Prince George undead had gone when we turned the corner and found out. About a hundred yards ahead the road dipped down towards the mall complex. A torn down sign showed the picture of the place as it was supposed to appear. It was far from that ideal now. I slammed on the brakes as fast as I could, and Jess, driving the Odyssey behind me, came to a stop as well. Sarah and Darren and I just stared at the sight before us. Less than a hundred and fifty yards from our vehicles was a vast swarm of the undead. Hundreds and hundreds of them, all shuffling about in front of the grocery store, those closest to us just starting to turn around and look at the foolish living meals that had just appeared. Right up to the doors and windows were parked several large vans and trucks, including two armoured trucks. They were parked end to end and sealed the glass off from the walking dead quite effectively. I heard Darren whisper, “Jesus fucking Christ,”, and then I snapped out of it. I slammed the Rav4 in reverse, and started backing up to turn around. I looked in the rear view and saw that Jess was already about a hundred feet away turning around. I looked back out front and saw that a few hundred of the dead were walking, shuffling, or in a few cases actually moving at a limping jog towards us. Behind them,
several hundred more
were starting to turn our way!

With the Rav4 in reverse, I backed away while Darren and Sarah brought up guns. I hoped we wouldn’t have to fire them inside the vehicle; it would leave us all deaf. Just as I was turning around a dozen or more of the walking corpses emerged from the trees around us. We could hear them moaning and gasping through the glass, and one smashed its fist onto the glass on Darren’s side, leaving a moist brown and red smear, but not even cracking the glass. Darren yelled anyways, and was lifting the gun he had to point at the zombie when Sarah yelled at him not to fire, and I gunned it. We were all pinned to our seats as I accelerated. Ahead I could see the tail lights of the van, a few hundred feet away already, and between us and them were at least two dozen undead. They all appeared to have come onto the road from the trees, and the side nearest the shops at that. My guess at this point was that somebody inside the shopping center was doing a
Dawn of the Dead
thing, and from the activity of the corpses, they must still be alive. That mattered a whole lot less to me than the fact that we’d all be dead really soon if we didn’t get far away from here very quickly. The road ahead was cluttered with the walking dead, and I tried, I really tried, but I could not avoid them all. At least four went under the tires, seven more (I was counting) bounced off the bumper, and one actually grabbed onto the hood for several seconds before my mad swerving shook her off.

Far ahead, I saw the van pull up and wait a few seconds to see if we were coming. That was stupid, and something we’d all have to talk about if we got out of this. She should have just left us; we don’t know how many more of these things are in the woods here. It could be over ten thousand. Prince George was a pretty big city. She started going again when it was clear that we were not going to get stopped by the undead on the road. She stayed well ahead of us, and I could actually see a few of the creatures come onto the road behind the van as we drove. Darren said that a huge number of them were on the pavement behind us, looked like hundreds. I looked, and he was right. Several hundred at least. I hoped this would take the pressure off the people in the grocery store, whoever they were, for a little time at least. Maybe they could even make a break for it.

About two kilometers down the road the tire pressure light started blinking. I could feel the car pulling to one side, and I knew with a sinking feeling of dread that we had a flat tire. I told Sarah and Darren that we had to stop. At least we had nearly caught up to Jess, DJ Dave and Michael. When I pulled over, I hopped out and told Sarah and Darren to guard me. I ran to the back, popped the tailgate, and started hauling gear and food and things out of the back to get at the spare tire kit. The tire itself was on the back of the vehicle. I took the jack and started lifting the vehicle, and I took a look at the tire as soon as I could. I could hear the hiss, and see gore and bits of flesh and a chunk of bone embedded in the tire. With Darren guarding my back with a 12-gauge shotgun I felt a whole lot better about this, but I still wanted to get it changed in under five minutes. Sarah brought me the spare as I took the nuts off the flat. I rolled the flat to the back and lifted it onto the carrier, then loaded the spare on and tightened the nuts as fast as I could. To hell with balancing, I just spun them on fast.

Once that was done we got back in and drove away. Behind us in the mirror I could see the swarm getting closer, and we were all happy to leave them behind. Ten kilometers north we pulled over so we could talk with Jess and Dave, and we all agreed that this had been too close a call. Nobody got hurt, but it was still too close. I mentioned my thoughts about survivors in the center, and Dave agreed it was certainly possible, but none of us thought we could do much to help them. Tricking a few of them into walking the wrong way was one thing, but dealing with a thousand or more? That was suicide.

We also all agreed we wanted a few hundred kilometers between us and them as soon as possible. It looked like north it was, then.

The laptop is acting up. I may have to reformat the drive, but I want to burn a copy of this file before I do that. I don’t want to lose this file; it’s an important record for me as well as anyone who finds it after I am gone, whenever that might be.

We haven’t gone far. I have been having feelings of guilt about leaving the possible survivors back there in the grocery store. So has Sarah, and Dave mentioned it to me too. Darren seems to be willing to go along with whatever we decide, and Jess says she wants to protect Michael but other live people are important too. The only trouble is we don’t have any effective way of dealing with over a thousand walking corpses. We don’t have the ammo, the numbers of live people, or a plan, really. But what we are going to do, now that the shock and panic is over, is see if we can use our best weapons to formulate a plan for getting the survivors out.

The first thing we need to do is get information. If there are survivors in that complex, we need to know how many and in what condition they are in. We need a way to communicate. Dave tells us that he had, or maybe still has, a good set of two-way radios, good for up to 5 km range, in his apartment in Prince George. Going to get them is out of the question, but if we can find something similar in a house or car nearby, we can maybe get in a position to fling one onto the shopping center roof or something.