Fortunes & Failures - 03 (19 page)

Coming to a stop under the sagging and dead streetlight, Kevin shrugged off the shotgun and sheathed his blade. Giving one of the few remaining cars a wide berth just in case something lurked underneath, he walked up to within a dozen yards of the building. Casting another look back at the growing throng already in pursuit of him, he leveled the barrel at the lower left corner of the giant window and fired.

The tinted glass seemed to turn white for a fraction of a second before it cascaded in a wave of glistening cubes of treated glass that poured into the parking lot and showroom floor. Between that noise and the sound of the shotgun blast, every head was turned his direction.

“Come and get it!” Kevin hollered. He’d already spotted his escape route.



“That’s it,” Aleah announced as the echo of Kevin’s shotgun blast seemed to hang in the air for several seconds along with another sound that she thought must be breaking glass.

“So now we count to a hundred?” Heather asked.

Aleah peeked over the fence. Every zombie in sight was either turning, or already headed up the road to where the blast came from. “Actually,” Aleah lowered herself and faced the younger girl, “I think we need to move now. We’ll be moving against the flow, all we need to do is stay out of sight.”

“Can I say something?” Heather’s voice sounded uncharacteristically meek.

“Sure.”

“I wasn’t big on horror movies, but I’ve seen a few. It seems to me that, besides the topless girl who trips and sprains her ankle when the monster is chasing her, it was always the person who changed the plan that ends up getting killed.”

“Then you should be safe,” Aleah said way too cheerfully. With that, she headed for the gate and slipped out between the house and the covered boat parked for eternity beside it.

“It never goes well for the idiot tagging along, either,” Heather mumbled, then took off in pursuit of the blonde ponytail that had just vanished around the corner.

She rounded the corner as Aleah was pulling her sharpened metal-tipped spear from the eye socket of a huge woman in what was left of a green, fuzzy bathrobe. She had a lot of the standard injuries that you got used to seeing in the undead over time. But there was something about this one that made her stop. One enormous breast had been ripped up pretty bad, but the other one was simply gone; an odd-shaped, puckered scar that was a stark white contrast stood out on the dead skin.

“Breast cancer survivor,” Aleah said as she wiped off the end of her weapon on the least filthy part of the bathrobe.

“How sad,” Heather sighed, following Aleah as she moved out into the street.

It was mostly clear as the two stayed hunched down between a pair of parked cars to get a better look. The only zombie in sight was a gaunt figure standing in the wiondow of a large house a couple of lots down in the McMansion-dotted neighborhood. It pawed feebly at the glass.

“We go on three,” Aleah hissed. “Through that hedge and over that chain link fence. Have your weapon out just in case there’s something nasty waiting on the other side. Beyond that yard we should have the park. Look first, then up and over the fence in the back yard.”

Heather nodded and Aleah commenced the countdown, taking off at a sprint just before saying “Three!” Heather followed and the pair arrived almost simultaneously at the fence in the back of the house they’d skirted down the side of.

Heather was up and had one leg over when she froze. Aleah pulled herself up and almost fell backwards. She managed to keep her grip and pulled herself up alongside Heather.

“Holy crap!” Aleah breathed.



Kevin brought the butt of his shotgun up and slammed it into the front window. The reverberation hurt both wrists, but the glass had a nasty spiderweb. Two more hits finally did it and the window broke. He cast one look over his shoulder, making certain that the zombies closing in were no threat to grab his foot as he climbed through the ticket booth window of the ten-screen multiplex.

Careful not to snag himself on any of the shards jutting from the edges, Kevin climbed in. The door opened and he found himself in a mostly dark lobby. There was just enough ambient light to see by. Taking a deep sniff, he relaxed a little. The only thing he smelled was the lingering and well-permeated scent of stale popcorn. His mouth began to water at the memory of his former favorite snackfood.

Closing the door to the ticket office behind him, he ventured into the lobby. He heard a few things skitter away from him in the shadows and hoped rats didn’t turn like dogs apparently did. His eyes took in the variety of posters under banners like “COMING SOON” and “NOW PLAYING” and he felt a weird pang of regret and sadness.

He rounded a corner and screamed. Picking himself up off the floor, he willed his heart rate to slow back down. A life-sized cutout of Alyson Hannigan dressed in tight leather and holding an axe over her head glared back. He looked closer and notinced LEDs where her eyes were.
Probably glows red
, he thought. Taking a closer look, he was actually amused by her attempt at an evil snarl. He couldn’t help it as his eyes drifted down to her prominently displayed cleavage.

Disturbed at how aroused he was becoming from a cardboard cutout of somebody who was likely a walking corpse now, he moved on. He ducked under a handrail and strolled up a ramp that opened to a long cooridor with darkened signs hanging over each set of double doors. He did some quick guesswork and chose the third set on the right. It opened to pitch blackness.

Waiting for a few moments to ensure that there were no hidden surprises, Kevin wedged the door open with a pushcart that had a garbage can on it. Taking a deep breath, he waded into the blackness. He was forced to feel around once he was beyond the weak arc of light oozing through the open door and used the rows of seat to guide himself down the aisle. Eventually he found the curtained exit cooridor that would lead to the parking lot on the side of the theater. He pushed the handle only to find it locked. He considered his options and decided that it was unlikely he would find a magic set of keys.

“Oh well,” he muttered, “I was supposed to create a diversion.”

He felt the door and found what he guessed to be the locking portion of the pushbar mechanism. Stepping back he aimed the shotgun in what he hoped was the right general direction and fired. The noise was deafening. He recalled his past blunder when he’d fired a gun in the cab of a truck. The ringing in his ears was tremendous and he scolded himself for not taking a few seconds to stuff something in them.

Kicking the door, it flew open on the third try and immediately Kevin was blinded by the sudden burst of light. A set of hands latched on to his wrist and Kevin screamed. He’d taken off the protective gloves when he’d searched for the door lock and they still dangled uselessly from his back pocket. Reflexsively, he jerked back and brought the shotgun up. The kick sent him tumbling back and caused him to lose his grip on the weapon. He heard it clatter to the floor, and in his current state, it was basically lost for good.

The dark blob that materialized in his slowly recovering vision grabbed him, and they tumbled to the floor. Fortunately for Kevin, he landed on top and was able to push away from what now could be seen as a female zombie. Most of her lower jaw had been disintegrated by the blast. Kevin struggled to his feet and stumbled forward and into the sunlight.

He gathered his bearings and discovered that he was in a narrow alley-like cooridor that ran alongside the theater. Setting off at a jog, Kevin gave the few Dumpsters that dotted the alley a wide berth. He scanned the tall fence on his left and realized that an apartment complex was on the other side of it. He passed a few spaces where he could see through the fence and spotted small back patios of concrete with waist high wooden fencing that had been mostly torn away everyplace he could actually see.

Reaching the end of the alley, Kevin dodged a few zombies that were wandering around. Peeking out, he saw the parking lot mob continuing to grow in front of the theater where he’d disappeared. He imagined that, like a water glass, eventually the lot would fill and the zombies would spill over down this alley.

Using a pair of mercifully empty vehicles for cover, he stayed low and cut through another side lot. A bowling alley provided him with cover once more in the form of another back alley. He caught a huge break as the only zombie in sight was an upper torso that dragged itself impotently along in his wake with what was left of its one remaining arm that had been brutally snapped off just above the elbow. Kevin briefly considered the degree of pain that an injury like that must’ve felt like and hoped that it’d occurred after the man had died. He hurdled a dried corpse as he reached the end of this alley and took another look before venturing forth.

He took a moment to plot his path and found a way that he would only be exposed during one brief portion of his trip across the street. Once across, he’d have to get past a row of businesses—a dry cleaners, a hair salon, a travel agency with pictures of exotic locales still hanging in the intact front window—then it was back through the residential area and to his eventual reunion with Heather and Aleah. He hoped things were going smoothly for them.



Bodies littered the ground. This was the putrid remains of a military killing field. Unfortunately, it looked as if they’d not yet received the memo on the importance of the headshot. The scorched grass, shattered trees and mangled swing-sets were all evidence of explosives at work; that, and thousands of rounds from heavy machineguns. However, it was the remains of the undead that littered the ground that gave away the real story.

While not one body remained intact, numerous heads dotted the scene. Their moving jaws and darting eyes provided a macabre landscape that seemed to move but was, in reality, mostly stationary. A head with the shoulders and one arm intact was the largest mobile zombie in sight. It clutched and released anything that the hand came into contact with. Occasionally it would rise up and topple over depending on the exaggerated movement of the arm.

It was possible that there’d been even more undead gunned down here, but anything with any real mobility had long since migrated. Not one patch of grass could be seen amongst the carnage.

“Too many to count,” Aleah replied with a dismissive wave. “Let’s not worry about it. They ain’t going anywhere, and we have a job to do.”

At first, the pair walked gingerly through the sea of dried viscera, body parts, and clicking teeth. It began to sound like some sort of demonic symphony performed by giant insects.

“Watch you step, Aleah,” Heather yelped when the older woman stepped on an intact femur and almost tripped.

Aleah froze, took a moment to compose herself efore continuing onward. Heather waited patiently, staring down into a set of dead eyes that watched her every move from a head that belonged to a girl that could’ve been young enough to be a friend of her little sister’s.

After what felt like an eternity, they reached the collapsed fence that had obviously been erected to contain those within the park. Looking left, they could see the crest of the hill where Kevin had led the zombies. What looked like a car dealership sat atop the crest of that hill and that seemed to be where a lot of the zombiues were gathered; although it looked like they were filtering off down the road to the left. Only a couple remained in this area.
Probaly coming from farther away
, Aleah surmised.

They avoided those few and put one down as they crossed the road to the pharmacy. A couple more were heading their way as they reached the door to theior destination.

“You do the cutting and I will watch your back,” Aleah said, unslinging her spear. “There are a couple getting close that I will take down so we don’t have a crowd at the door.”

Heather opened the pouch that Kevin had entrusted to her and produced the tool she needed. She began cutting as Aleah stepped away to meet the nearest threat and was surprised at how loud the sound of cutting glass proved to be. The sound of a skull being cracked sounded a few seconds later. She heard more noises behind her as the other woman dealt death to any zombie that drew near. In moments, Heather was spitting on the suction cups like Kevin had instructed and was pressing them on to the glass of the entry door in the center of the big square she’d cut.

Occassionally she would glance over her shoulder to ensure something wasn’t creeping up on her. Still, she jumped when Aleah sidled up beside her. One firm tug, and the square of glass came free with a grinding rasp. Heather ducked inside and accepted the backpacks as they were handed through.

“How’s it smell in there?” Aleah whispered.

“Musty,” Heather replied.

Aleah crawled in and stood up. Taking a look around, she pulled out her copy of the list Peter had given each of them. They moved down the aisles cautiously and began dropping things into their packs.



Scaling what seemed like the millionth fence, Kevin paused to wipe the sweat from his eyes. His shoulders slumped as three figures lumbered towards him, their hands reaching, their mouths open in ghastly moans and yowls. An answering chorus came from the undead family trapped inside the house watching through the gore-streaked sliding glass door. A three- or four-year-old boy in grimy underpants pressed his face to the glass and seemed to just be content to stare as if he’d figured that there was no way he could get out and sink his teeth into the warm flesh just a few yards away.