Whatever It Takes (2 page)

Percival sighed and frowned. Most people went searching through the pharmacy looking for narcotics of some sort. He’d reprimanded Sarah once for doing such a thing.

She seemed to be able to read his mind. “I wasn’t looking for anything not over the counter. Come ‘ere. I want to show you something.”

She reached out and tugged him by his jacket to the sole changing room with a door.

“We don’t really have time for this,” Percival said. He moved with her tug anyways though.

Sarah closed the door behind them and directed her flashlight beneath her chin so it cast long and eerie shadows on her face. It made the grin she gave him seemed otherworldly and evil.

“Guess what I found?” she asked. Her grin turned into a smirk.

“Pain-killers?”

Sarah rolled her eyes and swung her flashlight so it pointed at her other hand. Between two fingers she held a blue plastic condom wrapper. It was unopened. “I did find pain-killers, but the couple boxes of these will be more fun.”

Percival leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Later.”

Sarah dropped both her hands to her hips and plunged the small room into almost complete darkness. “Are we in a rush or something?”

“There’re other things we need to get done.”

“Like what? You’re so busy you can’t spare half an hour for me?” Sarah said in a huff. She pocketed the condom and threw open the changing room door with enough force it slammed into its neighbor. “You owe me.”

“We’re leaving earlier than expected.” Percival trailed after her. “Don’t be angry. We all have responsibilities and—“

“Fuck that. You owe me at the next rest stop.” Sarah walked away. “It better be a proper rest too. We’re all getting tired of this two hours here, four hours there shit.”

Percival followed after her. “You do understand why, right?”

“Yeah. I do. It’s why I continue to keep the morale up.” She stopped and turned to face him. “You’re good at making decisions and pointing us in the right direction. I’m good at keeping people happy-ish. You need me and I want you.”

“And I’ll make it up to you. I swear.” Percival had every intention of keeping the promise. In a world gone to hell and back, promises and a man’s good word was all there really was. Percival intended to show he was among the best in said world.

Besides, the simple act of sex helped remind him of one of the reasons to persevere and continue to survive. In a world populated by the undead, sex reminded him what it was to be alive.

“You better. A little affection wouldn’t kill you, you know?” Sarah said with a sigh.

Percival didn’t think he’d been distant. He reached out and dropped his hand onto her shoulder and turned her to him. He pulled her to him and dipped his head to hers. He gently brought his lips to hers and kissed her. “When have I ever broken a promise?”

She dropped her head to his shoulder. “Never in my knowledge. You just… make me feel alive, you know?”

He smiled and kissed her forehead. “I know. I can express a similar sentiment. We’re getting gone in a couple hours. Mind doing a little more searching in that time?”

“Alright. I might tack on another favor you owe me though,” Sarah said and accompanied it with a small smirk. “Roof?”

He nodded. “See you there.”

*

Percival lifted the shelf off of small pile of rubble. He was in the hardware section of the department store and had propped his flashlight so it shone on the toppled shelf. He struggled for a moment before getting the momentum to send it careening to the side. He wiped sweat from his brow and looked down at his prize. A sledgehammer rested among the rest of the shelf’s contents.

Percival grinned to himself. Weapons were always useful. Some were more useful than others, and weapons that were also tools were certainly among the most useful. He reached down and hefted the sledgehammer. He ran his fingers over the handle. He guessed it was some steel alloy and felt to be somewhere close to eight pounds.

He almost dropped the newly acquired weapon at the blasting sound of an air horn. Each member of his team carried an air horn and they were used only in emergencies. Extreme emergencies like a breach in their perimeter.

Percival cursed, snatched up his flashlight and sprinted down the row of shelves in the direction he thought he’d heard the air horn come from. He almost ran full speed into Roy Joy.

“What’s going on?” Percival asked.

Roy Joy shrugged. The man seemed abnormally calm given what the scream of the air horn meant. “Don’t know. I’m not omniscient, and Fredward didn’t give me any sort of warning. Maybe I should start taking my advice from—“

The rest of the statement was cut off by another blast from the air horn. This one was decidedly closer.

“Come on, they’ll need our help.” Percival took off in the direction of the air horn. He hoped everything was under control.

He rounded a corner to the sounds of gunshots. One shattered the plaster next to his head and showering him with particles. “Fuck! Hold your fire!”

Andrina swung the pistol away from him and fired at a corpse as it rushed through the open doorway. Red bloomed from the undead man’s chest in two spots. A third shot punched through his left eye and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. There were four other corpses, each with similar wounds around the open doorway.

“Sorry, Mister Polz,” Andrina said. She sounded exhausted.

“You missed, that’s the important part. Time to leave.” Percival placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle tug.

Another zombie rushed into the doorway. It paused for a moment, stared at them for another moment. For a second, Percival was certain that this man, despite blood splattered clothes and a small chunk of flesh missing from his neck, was alive. He must not have been turned for very long. His eyes hadn’t become so scratched that they looked cloudy and his pallor hadn’t entirely faded to the deathly gray-white of a zombie.

Andrina raised the pistol again and squeezed the trigger. Red blossomed on the man’s chest and he stepped back to keep his balance. The slide of the pistol remained propped open.

“Shit!” Percival uttered.

The walking corpse in the doorway threw back his head and uttered a moan. Loud and unearthly, the moan was louder than the usual zombie groan. Percival knew exactly what it was. The moan called other zombies to the victims the first had found. It would be a matter of moments before the corpses milling around the building flooded to the open door.

“Fuck!” Percival shouted in anger. He hefted the sledgehammer and dashed forward. The corpse met him halfway. Percival swung the sledgehammer around and connected the head of the heavy hammer with the head of the zombie. He closed his eyes and mouth tight as the hammer crunched through skull and drove the monster down. He felt a slight splatter of matter against his jacket and small droplets of blood struck his face.

He opened his eyes and moved away from the doorway. He frantically wiped away the blood that had splattered his face, before any could drip into his eyes or mouth. He knew that killing a zombie that caused a splatter of blood into a survivor’s eyes or mouth, or, on rarer occasions, nose was a death sentence. He shuddered at the thought.

He backed away from the doorway. The moans of the other zombies already echoed through the doorway and into the department store. Each moan was the loud, unearthly feeding moan that drew in other zombies.

He looked to Andrina, who was still fumbling to reload her pistol.

“That was dangerous, Percival,” Roy Joy said. The man had taken out his pistol and shook his head disapprovingly at Percival. “We should leave. Thomas there was calling the banquet. And I don’t think they’re exactly willing to compromise still.”

Percival stared at Roy Joy for a long moment. The sound of Andrina finally getting the magazine into her pistol and releasing the slide snapped him back to reality.

“Right, we leave. Now.” Percival cradled the sledgehammer in the crook of his arm, carefully avoiding the bloody head, and dug his air horn out. He blasted it in the agreed signal that meant it was time to leave as he led the way to the stairs. Karl and Nadia met them at the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Nadia asked. Both she and Karl had their pistols in one hand and flashlights in the other.

“Breach. Bad one at the side door. We’re leaving,” Percival answered. “They’ll be swarming in here soon, if they aren’t already.”

He led the way up the stairs, blasting the air horn once more at the peak. The air horn was answered by another air horn ahead of them and hungry, fevered moans behind. Percival expected to hear the tramp of footsteps after them at any moment.

He led the group of survivors across the second floor of the department store. Sarah and Evan were waiting for them by the door that led to the stairs to the roof.

“Go! They’re already inside,” Percival ordered. He gestured with the sledgehammer.

“What happened? Are you alright? You’ve got blood on you,” Sarah asked, her tone marked with concern. In the darkness it was difficult to read her face.

“Don’t have time, bitch,” Nadia said angrily. She yanked open the door and pushed past Evan and Sarah.

“I’m fine. We’re leaving, get up the stairs. I’ll work on barring this door.” Percival gestured for the rest of them to move through the door.

“You’re so brave,” Sarah said and disappeared into the darkness of the stairs.

Karl and Roy Joy followed with out a word. Andrina merely patted him on the shoulder and followed them.

“I’ll watch over yer shoulder,” Evan said. “Least I can do.”

Percival wasn’t about to waste more time arguing with the youth. He moved through the door and closed it. He jammed a metal folding chair up under the doorknob. It wouldn’t hold for very long, but would buy them a few seconds; or minutes if they were lucky. He regretted breaking the latch earlier. It might have held the horde for critical moments longer.

“Time to go.” He scooped up his backpack, a large camping backpack, and motorcycle helmet. He took the stairs two at a time, despite the darkness that was barely alleviated by his flashlight. He pushed open the door to the roof and stepped out into the rain. His worry that it would lighten over the course of the night was unfounded.

If anything, the rain had gotten heavier. He stared through the gray sheets of water for a moment, looking for the rest of his group. He knew they were up here somewhere.

“Over there,” Evan said. He pointed across the roof to the dark outlines of five people. Lightning flashed through the sky and dramatically illuminated the group of survivors.

“Right. Let’s go.” Percival patted Evan in the small of his back and the boy took off. Percival followed after him, tugging his helmet on as he jogged across the rain slicked roof.

The other survivors had taken three planks of wood and carefully set them across the gap between the department store and the building adjacent to it. They seemed to be waiting for Percival to give the word to abandon the building.

“Right. Give me the heaviest of the bags. I’ll go first. Only right your leader takes the first risk. Andrina, you’re second, then Roy Joy, Evan, Sarah, and Karl. Nadia, you get to draw up the rear. One person at a time on the planks.”

“What the hell? She usually pulls up the rear,” Nadia said as she pointed at Sarah.

“Your attitude needs adjusting. You go last.” Percival knew he usually had Sarah pull up the rear. He trusted her a little more than most of the others. It was also a dangerous and powerful position to be assigned, and he hoped that Nadia would see it as such. “No more complaints or questions, we’re wasting time.”

Percival took a backpack handed to him by Karl. He relinquished the sledgehammer and stepped up onto the ledge. He fixed his gaze on the hazy outline of the building across from him and began walking.

He put one foot in front of the other and held his breath through most of the journey. The boards were slick with the rain and seemed more supple as well, shifting with each step and threatening to send him tumbling to his doom.

He stepped down off the plank and onto the roof of the adjacent building. He shook from the exertion.

He dropped the backpack onto the roof and took his air horn out and blasted it twice to signal he was across and it was safe for the second to follow.

Terrible minutes passed as Andrina, Roy Joy, Evan, Sarah and Karl crossed the makeshift bridge.

Lightning crackled overhead and lit up the rooftops. It illuminated, in horrific black and white, Nadia and a horde behind her.

Percival pressed against the edge of the roof and tore off his helmet, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting. His words were lost to the rain and a roll of thunder from the clouds overhead.

Nadia climbed up onto the planks and started to cross.

A gunshot echoed from nearby and a member of the horde charging across the roof dropped. Evan worked the bolt on the hunting rifle and sighted through the scope and fired again.

The other survivors joined Percival at the edge of the roof, each shouting words of encouragement to Nadia.

Nadia was halfway across, moving far faster than any of the other survivors had. The makeshift bridge of planks was wet and slick and Nadia hadn’t quite crossed the halfway point when the first of the zombies got to the edge of the roof on the other side. It slammed into the boards on the other side.