Zombie Rush 2 (6 page)

Lisa stared at him for a long time before replying.

“Fresh foot, Ed, I can do that. The past is gone and the future is ours. Peace?” Lisa said, knowing that she would remember that there will always be a line or an edge with Krupp that she would never be able to cross.

“Peace,” Krupp returned, and Lisa surprised him with a genuine hug, which he returned, albeit reluctantly.

She turned to Benson. “All right, I’ll be the figurehead since I really don’t want to interfere with what you got going and would probably muck it up. I have some other things that I want to take care of anyway,” she said, thinking of the conversation she needed to have with the mysterious Ally, who was still unconscious in the hospital. “But when I get back, I need to know how we are going to keep the power and water on as well as the other infrastructure issues.”

“The hydroelectric plant up north will keep us going for a couple of days but we’ll have to get a handle on it for indefinite use. We already have a small crew up there keeping the spillways open. Take a radio with you when you go, cell phones are dying out,” Krupp added.

“Hydroelectric plant, do we need to protect it?” Lisa asked.

“Good call, we should also consider the propane storage facility and a few other places as places that need to be looked at. The job just keeps getting bigger.”

“I was surprised at the group you chose to head up, Benson.”

“That expansion phase is better handled by people with construction and military types. I’m better with working the population.”

“I thought that you were a soldier, Art?” Lisa asked.

“I was; just not with the military,” he replied in a way that made it clear that he wasn’t saying more. Lisa shrugged it off before she continued.

“Have you seen Tonka around?”

“No. Sorry, no one has seen him since the zombie breakthrough last night,” Benson said.

Lisa felt her heart drop through her chest. She felt kind of lost for a couple of seconds. She didn’t even like dogs until yesterday and now … was he gone?

“How about Skit? Where’s he at?”

“Ahhh, tied to a chair in the AT&T building since he tried to cave in your head with a chunk of rebar.”

“Really? He just didn’t want me to kill his friend who had turned is all that was.”

“He still hit a cop,” Krupp jumped in, having heard the story.

“Yeah, look … I’ll catch up with you in a couple of days. I have to see to some things.”

“A couple of days? What the …”

“Don’t worry, you’ll hear your
figurehead
on the radio a couple of times before then,” she finished and walked off, leaving them to wonder and watch as she headed toward the AT&T building.

“Kind of a smartass, isn’t she?” Krupp said to Benson under his breath.

“Yeah, but she grows on you.”

“So does fungus,” Krupp said, which made Benson glance at him sharply. “I’m just sayin’.”

Benson nodded his head and then looked into Krupp’s eyes full on so there was no mistaking that he meant what he said. “Don’t draw a bead on her again, Ed. She’s good people, whether you like her or not. We need her. The people need her. Just so you know; this … is a warning.”

“Hopefully those days are gone,” Krupp said as he slapped Benson on his shoulder before catching up to Cat and heading toward the lunch line—which is what it was being called regardless what time of day it was.

Chapter Five

Skitter Pop

Lisa entered the AT&T building to find Ernie, whom she had almost forgotten about, standing guard over Skit. He stood looking out the window with one foot up on a chair like he was in an old western movie. She could tell from a couple of welts and the glare Skit had for Ernie that the kid had slapped his prisoner more than once.

“Did you hit him, Ernie?” she said as she came up behind.

He straightened up and looked at Lisa, startled. “Ah, no … I mean, he tried to escape but other than that, no. We got along real well, didn’t we, Skitter Pop?” Ernie said in a manner that reminded Lisa of a big brother who was trying to intimidate his little brother from telling his mom what happened while she was at work. He was trying to be the big man by intimidating a bound man and treating her like an idiot for not being able to see through it.

“Escape? To where?” Lisa had the sudden urge to hit Ernie. She didn’t know if it was the situation on the bridge when he abandoned Tanner or just his cocky smartass attitude right here in front of her. Either way, it was enough. It only took a second before Ernie was on the floor looking up at her in shock, rubbing his chin. She stooped down and took the .357 out of his holster and the speed loader packs from his belt. She then grabbed the .38 out of his boot holster and noticed that he was wearing a pair of three hundred dollar boots designed for just that purpose. She had seen them advertised and thought then that it was overkill to be purchased only by the most lame.

“No guns for you, Ernie; not until you grow up and learn some consideration for others. Got it? Good. I catch you with one again and it will not go well … I mean it.”

She then walked over to Skit and threw the .357 on his lap before she cut the zip tie that bound his wrists. He started to say something, but she cut him off.

“Shut up and come with me. We got some work to do.” They were outside when Skit caught up to her.

“Hey, he’s not the kind of guy to take something like what just happened lightly, you know?”

“What, is he going to hit me with a chunk of rebar?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I was just … reactin’; you know?”

“I do know, Skit. I didn’t want to shoot Buck either, especially since this was all his idea. I thought he was a gonad at first, but he turned out to be topnotch and I am going to miss him.”

“Whooah, what the hell was that?! Emotion? Compassion? I mean you’re not all of a sudden going to melt on me, are you?”

“Yeah, real great. The woman who has saved your life every day since she met you, and you’re going to start kicking her when she is down? Real nice.”

“So you understand why I hit you. Am I forgiven?” Skit asked.

“Skit …” she paused and looked at him for several seconds, wondering how she was going to word what she wanted to say. It wasn’t a crush or anything romantic at all, it was just …

“You’re like, my only friend, okay? I know we just met yesterday, but there was a connection; even when I thought you were a drug addict. That’s why I didn’t shoot you. I never really had a friend before because of who my parents were and how we moved a lot. I never needed a friend, but with everything that’s happening …”

“It’s cool, I get it. I am the complete opposite, in that most of the people in this city are, or were, my friends. You’re really creeping me out right now, so could you go back to the Raging Reynolds? It’s somehow safer,” Skit said sarcastically, and she smiled, not knowing if that should have hurt her feelings or made her laugh.

“It’s Lisa, by the way.”

“I know that, wait … are you sayin’ I can call you that, or somethin’?”

“You can call me Lisa as long as you remember that these people have to realize that I am still in charge.”

“I get that. We cool. I appreciate you understanding why I hit you.”

“I understand. The fuckers at the hospital only shaved a part of my head for the stitches, so we’re going to have to remedy that.”

“I can help you there. I went to cosmetology school and worked in the field before Jonah started paying me too much money.”

A stereotypical flashing red light went off in her head. She didn’t want to categorize and she could tell he was just waiting for her to ask, so she did.

“Are you gay, Skit?”

“Couldn’t resist, could you? You just had to ask … why is that, I wonder?”

“Are you?”

“Make your play, woman, and find out,” he said with a smirk and kept on walking.

“Fucker.”

“You really do have a potty mouth, you know.”

****

“That girl was messed up,” Skitter said after they left the hospital and geared up before heading to the wall.

“Yeah, poor kid. At least we now have a name and description.”

“Nope.”

“What do you mean nope?” Lisa said.

“You got yourself an 8x10 glossy. Mount Ida Hospital was just a branch of this one, so his picture was in the lobby on the wall and when I say ‘was,’ I mean
was
. I took some copies and passed them off to that tall guy … what was his name?” Skit said before pulling a gently rolled high-resolution photo.

“Mitch. His name is Mitch, if I remember right.” She looked at the photo and somehow felt deflated because the serial killer the area had feared for so long looked so plain. Not tall or short, full head of hair but not quite. A half-smile with medium lips. She felt that the only extraordinary thing about him was that he was so pasty white. White to the point where he almost matched his lab coat, his blue eyes a startling contrast. His plainness almost took the fight right out of her, but then she noticed something behind the smile that—when combined with the emotionless eyes, left her gut hollow. She was looking for hate; this man had no hate.

He only had pleasure. A mocking superiority cast to his features that put the rest of humanity beneath him.

“Do you really think it is the Skinner?” asked Skit, referring to the street name the pre-apocalypse slayer had been labeled with.

“I do. His MO fits with his training, and he has studied all over the world. Some of the techniques in his murders imply things like acupuncture, leeching, and of course … the neck tie.”

“The neck tie, does that mean what I think it means?”

“Yes, it does,” Lisa said gravely. “I was looking for someone with at least some medical training, if not working in the field, so this makes sense. I wonder if he would have left the girl alive if the zombies hadn’t arrived.”

“Well …” Skit started, and then stopped, not knowing if he should continue.

“Well what?”

“Well, she is just a kid, and she has a pretty good gash on her head from that propeller, not to mention what she had gone through to get here.”

“Yes, so what are you trying to say?”

“Can you trust her information?” Skit asked, not knowing how Lisa would react to it.

“That’s kind of the deal with witnesses and information in general, Skit. You can never take any of it at one hundred percent. Five witnesses at a crime scene can describe a car or a person in five different ways because each person looks at things differently, but this is different.”

“How so?”

“Well, she knew the man. He was her doctor and had been her doctor for years before today. She was seeing him on a routine low stress visit when it all went down, so I think there is a lot of credibility behind her words,” Lisa said as they started to climb the ladder at one of the exit points to the compound.

“Okay, so you find him and arrest him; then what? I mean, there aren’t many judges left and jail isn’t an option.”

His statement caused Lisa to smile in a way that sent shivers up his spine.

“There is a new type of justice in the world, Skit. I might not be a judge, but in today’s new world, I can certainly be the executioner.”

Skit nodded his head; he knew she would feel that way, but he was surprised at how candid she was about it.

“So, why aren’t we taking the Chrysler or your truck?”

“In the future we will, but right now, we have to get a feel for the land. A lot has to happen for us to take back the city, Skit. And I need to know how it feels.”

“The city. You mean the entire city, like free of zombies and shit?”

“Yep. The whole city reclaimed; that is the goal, and we don’t have much time to do it. They are thinking that a couple of hundred people will trickle in over the next couple of weeks. My gut tells me it will be a lot more than that … much, much more.”

Lisa watched the two men lower the ladder into cleared streets. She secured her gear and made sure that an acquired machete and her baton were accessible. Gunfire this close to the encampment exit would not be good, because of noise and the potential to shoot someone still living. She checked out Skit’s gear—Colleen’s .45 that Lisa acquired and the #8 rebar that he had hit her over the head with—and shrugged at the sparsity of it. He had enough to watch her back, but only barely just enough.

It was the scream of a runner that greeted her first steps on the outside, and she spun with her baton instantly in hand. The runner was around a corner in battle with a skid loader that was making quick work of it. She flinched as she saw the rolling mass of bloody flesh and bone being pushed into a pile by a large front-end loader, and she wondered what kind of world they were going to live in. Was everyone going to become so desensitized that we would no longer be truly human? How important was it to go after one killer when there were so many slaughters happening right in front of her? She wished that she had the answers, but the truth was she didn’t and she didn’t know if she ever would.

“Before we deal with him, we’re going to do a little recon of the city and see what kinds of resources are still available,” Lisa whispered to Skit once they had tucked in behind some houses. “We also have to get to the radio station and do another broadcast. Rumor has it that some National Guard troops have set up there, as well as at the armory by the court house, so consider those our safe zones. Keep your revolver in your holster with the safety off and don’t use it until I say so. I have the suppressor on my M4, so I’ll do the shooting until you’re needed, all right? Just use that rebar and keep your eyes open.”

“I feel like someone’s watching us already. You don’t think that the Skinner was on to you, do you?” Skit said nervously as he scanned the area. “I wish Tonka wouldn’t have been swarmed last night.”

“Swarmed? You saw that?”

Skit put his head down, looking at the ground. “Sorry, I thought that you knew.”

“I knew he was missing, but I didn’t know … well, how did it happen?”

“He was with a group of larger dogs. Some of them even had flack vests, so I assume that they were cop dogs.”

“Cops, just cops, or K9s,” Lisa explained.

“They tore into the far end of the line and held it until the zombie mass swallowed them up. I don’t see how any could have survived.”

“Damn,” Lisa said, trying to control her emotions and feeling the throb from the rebar come back to her head. She put her hand to her forehead and looked at Skit, trying to keep the tears from her eyes. “I sure am glad that you hit like a girl.”

She pushed out before making a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob. The tears started to well in her eyes as she looked at Skit who was suddenly her only friend in the world.

“I didn’t even know that I liked dogs until yesterday.” Her hands shook as she tried to control her emotions. She loved him. She just met him but she loved him, and now he was gone. “No, don’t touch me or it will get worse. I can save it until we get to my apartment.”

“Your apartment?”

“Yeah, water and power is still on, so hopefully we can get a shower in. I got some clothes you can wear; being gay, you’ll be comfortable in them,” she chided, trying to wriggle confirmation.

“Who said I was gay? You got some twisted fantasies, girl.” Skit slowed and put two fingers on the inside of her elbow, slowing her as he indicated what he saw up ahead.

“Looters. Yeah, I don’t get people. Something like this going on and they’re worried about crap they can’t eat,” Lisa said about a group of thugs a couple of blocks away. “There’s nothing the two of us can do about it now. We’ll just have to let the compound take care of them when they start clearing buildings this afternoon.”

“I’m not concerned with what they are stealing; it’s what they represent that has me worried. Look at their flag.”

“Stars and bars. I see them all over down here, so what?”

“Look again. That circle in the center has been added, and it ain’t good,” Skit said as he drew farther into the alley.

Lisa looked closer and saw the warped swastika built within the design of the centered circle.
Fuck! The last thing we need is fucking racists.

“Come on, Skit. We don’t hide from people like that,” Lisa said, and walked to the center of the intersection, still a block away from the group of looters. She looked for a reason to go and confront them that went beyond the acquisition of items but didn’t see anything. The holder of their flag stepped out and made it evident that she had been seen. She put the M4 up to her eye just to see how brave boy wonder really was. As suspected, he tucked in behind a car and Lisa lowered her rifle before she and Skit moved off into the direction they needed to go, leaving the looters behind.