Hurricane Dan (A Zombie Novel) (7 page)

Chapter 13

             
"Open up, Randy," Zoey said, pounding on a wooden apartment door.

They were in a hallway on the second floor of a rundown apartment complex. The floors were made of wood that had started to turn black from all the dirty feet that had walked their surface. The walls had been painted gray and covered in stale pictures of flowers. Dan sniffed the air and winced, the place smelled like moldy crackers.

The door burst open, "Zoey?"

The kid couldn't have been more than twenty-five. He was tall and skinny with jet black hair, spiked into a faux-hawk. He wore rectangular glasses that managed to make him look smart and stylish at the same time. Dan hated him.

He seemed awfully surprised to see Dan and Barns accompanying his lady friend. "Who the hell are these guys, Zoey?"

"Relax Randy, they are my friends," she said. "And we need your help."

The guy looked irritated. "You haven't called me in two weeks. You can't just show up here with a bunch of strangers."

"We ain't no strangers," said Barns, holding out his hands. "I be Barns."

Randy just looked at him like he was stupid, "And homeless ones at that."

"Randy, we need to borrow a few of your swords," said Zoey.

This made the guy smile: "So you need something, I should have known."

The way he looked at her made Dan's skin crawl. He was sizing her up like she was some kind of meat.

Zoey took in a nervous breath. "Can we come in?"

"I tell you what," he said, glancing up and down her body. "You can come inside. Leave your friends out here while we make a deal."

Zoey didn't look thrilled by this conclusion but she started making a move for the door anyways. That was where Dan drew the line.

He handed his briefcase to Barns who took it with a questioning look. He lowered his shoulder and hit the door with all his weight. It wasn’t worth explaining his actions, he preferred forgiveness over permission. It was a life or death situation and he wasn’t about to mess around. The door flew open and Dan grabbed the stumbling stranger, pinning him against the wall with two handfuls of his shirt.

"That isn’t gonna happen."

Randy looked frightened, as if he were about to cry. "Get out of my house."

"That's not happening either."

"If you don't leave right now, I will call the cops and they will take you to jail."

Dan laughed but let him go. "No cop is coming here."

Randy pulled out a large and shiny cellphone and dialed nine, one, one. He stood there for a minute before hanging up. "It's busy."

"No shit it's busy," said Dan.

Zoey walked past them looking more confident than she had a moment before.

"What the hell, Zoey, this is bullshit," said Randy.

"Randy, try not being a complete asshole for once in your life," she said.

"You broke into my house!"

"We need your help and we are not leaving here without it."

"We need a few of your swords," said Dan.

Randy looked like he didn't know what to do. "I don't give a shit what you want, buddy. Don't even talk to me."

They were now following Zoey deeper into the apartment. The place was dirty, the guy never cleaned up after himself. Energy drinks and pizza boxes seemed to gather themselves on every surface, as if they were a plague. The only clean spot was on a desk in front of three large computer monitors. The monitors were lined up like a regular command center.

"We just need to borrow them for a little while," said Zoey.

"For what reason could you possibly need one of my swords?"

She shrugged, "Zombies are taking over the city."

"What?"

Dan decided further explanation was needed. "People are getting sick and attacking other people. The disease is spread by bite—"

"I know what zombies are, you noob. I just don't get what the hell you are talking about."

"It's happening, Randy," said Zoey. "Right now, right outside your door."

"What are you trying to say?"

"People be getting eaten. Damn, open ya ears," said Barns.

Randy shook his head as if he were waking from a bad dream. "Are you guys fucking with me? Which one of you is holding a camera?"

"No, Randy," said Zoey. "This is real, we need your help."

He ignored her, flicking on a big screen TV that was hanging on the wall.

The emergency alert system was in full effect, blaring loud noises and warning people to stay indoors. Randy stared at it for a good minute. When he turned back his expression had changed.

"If you guys are heading for shelter, I am coming with you."

"We want your swords," said Dan.

"Deal." He began moving through the apartment, coming to a bedroom with a messed up bed and layer upon layer of dirty clothes on the floor. He led them to a giant dresser and used two hands to swing it open.

Inside there were three samurai swords and two broad swords; all were in their holsters.

"These are my babies," said Randy.

Zoey reached in and grabbed two of the samurai swords and handed one to Dan. Randy grabbed one of the broad swords for himself.

"I played some a dat baseball when I was little, mind if ah use that?" Barns asked.

Dan noticed an old wooden baseball bat resting in the bottom of the dresser.

"I bought that on eBay a few years back, it's signed by Frankie (the crow) Crosetti," said Randy. "Might as well use it. If the world is really going to be destroyed it won't matter who signed it."

"Yes!" said Barns, grabbing the bat and looking it over as if it were gold. "I gets my own bat."

Dan began moving for the exit. "Let's get back to that safe area before it is too late."

"Not so fast," said Randy, cutting off his path to the door.

"What?" demanded Dan.

Randy ran over to his closet and started digging through a pile of junk. "I collect more than swords, let me get the rest of my stuff."

"You have thirty seconds and then we are leaving without you."

"Whatever," said Randy, not looking back. He came out with a bulletproof vest and shiny brass knuckles. They were forced to sit and wait as he slipped on goth pants and large black boots. It wasn’t until the vest was on that they finally were able to leave.

Once they were moving Dan felt a whole lot better. He couldn’t stand sitting still when he knew his window of opportunity was closing. His legs might have been aching as he made his way down the stairs, from all the extra exertion he had been putting on them, but at least he was doing something about his situation.

They were almost out of the complex when they heard a loud crash coming from one of the closer rooms. It sounded like something very large and made out of glass had been thrown on the ground.

Randy immediately turned for the apartment door.

"Let's keep moving," said Dan.

"No," said Randy. "Follow me!" He kicked the door but it didn't budge. "You! Homeless Santa, bash this thing open," he said to Barns.

Dan gritted his teeth; this guy was going to get them killed for no reason at all.

Barns repeatedly put all his weight into the door and on the third try, it flew open.

There were four zombies in the small apartment, they had torn the entire place to pieces. The stuffing had been ripped from the couch and spread on everything, the walls had been clawed to hell with bloody fingers and everything had been knocked over. There was clearly no one alive inside.

Randy ran in first, stabbing the nearest zombie in the chest. Zoey and Barns filed in behind him, Zoey decapitating one and Barns cracking the skulls of the other two. Dan walked up to Randy who was about to be bitten by the zombie sliding its way toward the hilt of his sword. The thing had been impaled and yet it pushed itself further up the blade to get to him.

Dan stabbed with his sword, going in through the chin and bursting out of the top of its skull.

The zombie fell, Randy's sword went with it. Randy had to bend down and pry it from the dead carcass with two hands.

"Good job, guys," he said, standing up.

"This was stupid," said Dan turning back towards the door. "We didn't even save anybody."

"Yeah, but we killed four of them. If everyone would do that, the entire city would be zombie-free."

"I don't think we have enough swords to compensate the entire city," said Zoey as she followed Dan out the door.

Barns had found a pint of vodka lying on the floor; it was half full. He twisted off the cap and easily chugged it all. "Whew doggy, good t’ing we come in here!"

He hummed merrily all the way down the stairs and to the front door.  

The moment Dan opened the door to the street he found himself face to face with another zombie. It happened so fast that Dan had let the thing get two fistfuls of his shirt.

The zombie was leaning in for a bite when Barns stepped up and shattered the vodka bottle over its head. It fell, but was quick to start getting up, so he finished it off with the baseball bat.

They heard a gunshot to the right and looked in time to see a zombie’s chest blow out across the street. The thing left its chest behind and kept moving forward, overcoming a greasy haired man and his shotgun.

At this point it appeared that anybody still alive had either found a weapon or was badly injured.

Dan swung his katana, decapitating another zombie as it approached.

Looking around, he figured the zombies outnumbered the healthy people, three to one. The dead were beginning to mass.

"Dis no good,” said Barns.

Zoey came down on one with her sword, burying it deep into its skull. She had to yank hard to get it free.

"Shouldn't we be moving?" she said as she pried the sword away.

Dan stopped gawking at all the battles going on up and down the street. "Yeah, let’s go. If we don't get there soon, I have a feeling we might never make it ... not alive, that is."

Chapter 14

             
It was beginning to rain people.

They were jumping from the windows and rooftops, crashing down all over the place. Some fell with zombies still eating them alive on the way down, others had only been bitten and didn't want to turn out like their friends, a few jumped because that was simply their preferred way to go. It was a mass exodus. People of every age, shape, and size took the leap. They were the weaker willed, the ones that could not face what was coming, what was already there.

After the third body had hit the pavement, Dan directed their group to walk down the center of the street. He had no fear of traffic because there no longer was any. Anybody with a vehicle had either crashed it or realized most of the roads were blocked anyways, ditching their vehicle for shelter.

Dan now had to keep one eye looking up in order to stop somebody from falling on them. The last thing he needed was for somebody to break their leg because somebody else decided to jump off a roof. In that particular scenario he was assuming it would be better for the group, as a whole, if that person broke their neck rather than their leg. They would not be so hard to leave behind in that situation.

Zombies were coming at them from everywhere too. They crept out from the buildings as his group passed. Moving in packs of twos and threes, stumbling their way into decapitation by sword.

Dan had given up trying to help every single person they came across. He couldn’t go ten feet without finding somebody in need of help. There was a guy on his back on the opposite side of the street, kicking up at a zombie, successfully keeping it from biting him. A woman was trapped on the roof of her van by three teenage zombies. She stomped them down whenever one began climbing up. There was a store a little ways back, two people held the door shut as a zombie tried to fight its way in. One of the city buses was parked in the center of the road with flat tires. A bunch of people had packed inside and were working together to keep any unwanted guests from getting inside. They offered Dan’s group refuge as he passed but he respectfully declined. As far as Dan was concerned, the thing was a giant zombie Twinkie.

Most of the people just ran back and forth, from building to building, screaming their heads off. There were a lot of sirens echoing up and down the streets as well, along with the occasional gunshot. It all mixed together with the screams to make perhaps the most terrible sound Dan had ever heard.

It felt like every new street was worse than the last. There were fewer people and more zombies every second.

A few times they encountered a crowd of living. The groups of people were usually fleeing their offices and apartments, they weren't ready for the wave of living dead that met them on the street.

Dan tried to save any he could, while still moving for safety. Most were lost, adding a staggering number of new zombies to the mix. The last time it happened, he was only able to save a young businessman and an aristocratic woman.

The man wore a plain work suit, while the woman had on a stylish dress that flashed a lot of cleavage and a bow wrapped around her neck.

Dan had been moving through the confused crowd with the others, trying to distinguish the sick from the alive. He killed as many zombies as he could and watched Barns, Zoey and Randy doing the same. They called for the people to follow them to safety but it was just too chaotic for anyone to hear. In the end, Dan had just grabbed the businessman on the way by; Zoey had done the same with the woman.

"Get your hands off of me, you crass little girl," said the woman, yanking her gloved hand free.

The businessman hiked a black backpack higher onto his shoulder and rubbed the back of his neck with a shaky hand. "Thanks, man, you saved my life."

"We're not out of the woods yet," said Dan.

A zombie was coming at them from the crowd, moving with its mouth wide. The thing looked like a middle-aged construction worker that had just fallen down a flight of stairs. It only had one eye; the other had been ripped out. It dragged its bum leg as it limped towards them.

Dan brought the sword around at head height, hitting the zombie in the temple and cleaving deep into its brain. It dropped motionless to the ground.

Barns looked shocked to see their new companions. "You gots people? I want ta get people too. I'm goin’ back."

He turned to head for the crowd but Dan caught his arm. "We can't go back, Barns. There are more zombies in that crowd every second, we have to keep moving."

Barns looked disappointed as he nodded his head in understanding. "Okay, Dan, but next time I get some people safe too."

They were almost through the next block when Dan spotted a shadow moving towards them on the ground. He looked up to see a helicopter spinning out of control roughly a hundred stories above them. There was no smoke, Dan assumed the driver must have been bitten, that or one of the passengers. Either way the thing was losing altitude fast. It spun through the air as if the rear propeller had been shot by some invisible rocket. As it got closer to the buildings, Dan imagined anybody still on it, and in their right mind, would be puking their guts out in fear.

The helicopter slammed into the side of a building in a plume of fire, twisted metal and broken glass.

One of the propeller blades shot through the air, impaling a building on the other side of the street. The repercussion caused every window in a thirty foot radius to implode.

As soon as the helicopter had struck the building, Dan came to a horrifying realization; the flaming wreckage was about to start raining down on top of them.

He yelled to do the one thing his body ached to avoid: "Run!"

Nobody objected, they all took off in a headlong sprint, passing by countless zombies. Chunks of metal crashed down all around like hail sent straight from hell. Dan avoided two zombies by jumping on a car that had crashed sideways in the street, sliding across its hood.

What happened next felt to Dan like it was in slow motion. The businessman was shoving a zombie to the ground as he passed by. He looked over, making eye contact. That was when the body of the helicopter landed. Both the businessman and the zombie vanished in an instant. The force of the impact shattered the pavement and sent Dan flying into a nearby car.

The world went fuzzy and began to spin after that. Dan wasn’t completely sure where he was at anymore.

He felt a hand pulling on his arm. Somebody was trying to yell at him through the ringing in his ears. He was staring down at the pavement, at broken glass from the car he had been thrown into. He must have blacked out for a moment.

"...moving and we have to do it now!" Zoey yelled.

He tried to get up but the world was still spinning; there was fire, and helicopter parts everywhere.

Barns was running in circles, clobbering any zombie that got too close. Dan spotted Randy picking up a backpack; it was all that was left of the businessman.

"Help me pick him up," said Zoey, putting his arm over her head and lifting.

The aristocratic woman helped her lift and he was soon on his feet, hobbling along with his arms on their shoulders.

"My briefcase," said Dan, realizing it was no longer in his hand.

Zoey lifted it in front of him to show that she had both his briefcase and his katana. "Don't worry, big guy, I won't let you show up for work without your supplies.”

He felt a wave of relief at the sight of his things. He would have crawled back had they forgotten them.

It was slow going with the three of them trying to move as one unit. Luckily, Dan was beginning to think that his injuries weren't all that bad.

They hadn't gone thirty feet before he felt he could hobble a little on his own. The initial dizziness was wearing off pretty quick. That was good because he was slowing the group down, allowing more zombies to come at them. He followed closely behind the others, letting them carve the path while he tried to reorient himself.

They heard a gunshot up the street, when they looked they saw a cop. It was the safe area.

The cop pointed his gun at them as they approached.

"Easy, we are alive," said Randy.

The cop turned his back on them, revealing that it was drenched in sweat. "Hey, Jay, looks like we got four more."

Another cop came out of the clothing store. "Any of you been bitten?"

"None of us have been bitten, now let us through," demanded the aristocratic woman.

"Alright," said the cop. "But I have to give you all the once over before I let you in."

He made them line up as he looked them over. It reminded Dan of being at an airport security checkpoint. He eyed their weapons for a while, looking like he might confiscate them. His eyes lingered on a gash in Dan’s forehead before letting them pass. Dan breathed a sigh of relief as they went inside.

They were met at the door with a breeze and the warm scent of lilacs. The clothing store had been built on a grand scale. There was a ton of floor space ranging on three levels, two escalators zigzagged up and down, from floor to floor. All the clothing was sectioned off into different areas, hanging on round metal racks. Every so often there were rosewood tables that held all kinds of accessories: sunglasses, necklaces, bracelets. All the fixtures were white, the railings made of glass.

"I don't belong in no place like this," said Barns as they passed the threshold of the store.

There were a lot of people inside, they hung together in packs all over the place. They looked tired and scared, many were crying.

"You can say that again," said the aristocratic woman.

"What the hell is your problem, woman?" said Dan.

She lowered her shades to look him in the eyes. "My name is not woman, it is Lady Rose."

"Lady Rose," said Zoey in a mocking tone.

Lady Rose looked at her in disgust. "Ugh, you wretched little creature. Who taught you to dress like that anyway? You are wearing perhaps the most detestable clothes ever put on a girl."

"At least I'm not dressed like Cruella De Vil."

"What is the putrid smell?" Lady Rose went on, ignoring Zoey. "Is that you?"

Barns nodded. "Yeah."

"My goodness, you would think you had already been bitten."

They heard guns going off as the cops continued to protect the front of the store. Dan turned to watch. One of the cops took down a zombie with his nightstick, saving precious bullets.

"Let's find a place to rest," he said.

Everybody followed him as he went up one of the escalators and down one of the main aisles, coming to a stop at one of the rosewood tables. He reached out with one hand and swept all the merchandise onto the floor and sat down on the table. Zoey hopped up next to him, Barns sat down Indian style on the floor: Lady Rose and Randy leaned against the glass railing, looking down at the rest of the store.

"Are you okay?" Zoey asked.

Dan was confused, he knew he was tired, it must have been making him look distraught or something. "I'm good, just another day in the jolly old zombie apocalypse."

"You sure? You took one hell of a whopping against the side of that car when the helicopter crashed."

"Oh, that. To be honest, I still feel a little dizzy but it’s coming back to me."

"I can't believe that happened," she said. "I can't believe any of this is happening."

He saw she was subconsciously playing with the string of her hoodie, her hands tainted with little specks of blood. They were also shaking.

Dan reached behind them and pulled a cardigan sweater off of one of the racks. He put it on over her shoulders and began to rub her back. He was about to try and say something reassuring when he spotted the store manager. She was tall and lanky in a skin-tight dress and she was furious, coming straight towards them.