POW! (Book 1): The Zombie Days (8 page)

Jerry must have been pretty pissed off. He didn't bother to say a single word to Mac one way or the other. He just kept staring and coming straight towards us. I knew all of the signs, and I knew that Mac did, too. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself yet. Rather than ruining it for him, I waited to see if he came to the same conclusion on his own.

"You know what, man?
Fuck
you, then! I ain't been nothin' but cool to you. And this is how you're gonna act when I need a small favor from you? You're being a giant dick right now. Just get the hell out of our way, then!"

But he didn't. In fact, he was still getting closer. Close enough that the others should now be able to tell that this wasn't the Jerry that Mac had in mind.

"Mac, we have to put him down, bro," Kyle let him down in a gentle voice.

"Fuck, man. This is bullshit! I'm so sick of these motherfuckers killing everybody!"

Mac rose up his AK and blew a hole through Jerry’s head. He squeezed three more rounds off into his torso while unleashing a frustrated grown. I was well aware of the way he felt right now. It was all too familiar.

I’d like to say that it was nice meeting you, Jerry.

"It looks to me like he ran into a bit of bad luck while making his rounds. I'm sorry, bud.” I tried to console him, but I don't think it worked out too well. Things like this were never easy and he was likely going to be pretty broken up about it for some time.

"That's not the biggest problem we got right now,” said Mac. “If Jerry turned, then there are probably more of them out there. I highly doubt it was a personal decision of his to turn into a dea- zombie. Y'all can head back to my place and wait this out if you want."

"We're on a bit of a time crunch here, man. Plus, you might need some extra help since you're one dude down. We’re not about to abandon you in your time of need. These assholes multiply like rabbits on Viagra," I said.

"We're here for ya, Mac," said Kyle. "Ladies, you stick close to us, alright? I'll take the rear watch and cover out asses."

"Thanks, guys,” said Mac. “I guess a little extra help wouldn't hurt at the moment. Let's go see what we got goin' on."

Chapter Twelve

We continued on in the direction of the converted apartment building. Unfortunately for us, as far as we could tell, that was where Jerry had come from.

We didn't have to travel far to see what Jerry had set us up for. Soon, there was a no shit, full blown horde of zombies coming straight our way from around the corner.

"Looks like good ol' Jerry made it to the apartment before we were able to get the fuck out of this place. It also looks like he was able to make a whole bunch of nice new friends for us to play with,” I observed.

“This place is fucked, man. It's so FUCKED! I hate it here, and I’m sick of everything trying to kill everybody!" Morgan began taking headshots one at a time.

***CRACK***

***CRACK***

***CRACK***

"Look, bro. We gotta retreat from this. Let's go to the school. There are just too many of these deadites to take on head to head in a street battle. Let's just fall back for now and come up with a better plan, Mac. There’s no way that your boy Cliff will be able to keep us out now." At least I’d found a way to get into that school.

"Deaders," Mac corrected me between shots. "Actually . . . I think I might like deadites a little bit more, though. We should have had you come down for a naming contest."

“Yeah, no shit. I live to call people and things stupid names, Black.”

We turned and ran back toward the school. Jose was standing in the same exact spot where we’d left him just a short while ago. His back was facing us, so I went up to him to get his attention and get him on the same page as us.

"You alright, man? Did you shit your pants or something? We have to get inside, NOW! The whole town is after u-"

Jose turned around and started snapping at us, trying to bite anything that was near his mouth. I was reaching out to grab his shoulder as he swirled around and he nearly nabbed one of my fingers. Luck was not on our side during this, our final encounter with Jose.

"Fucking chattering teeth!" I shouted at the ghoulish figure that was no longer Jose.

I brought my rifle up, but his head was no longer there by the time I could have pulled the trigger. It was just pink mist in the wind.

"I'm so over all of this stupid zombie shit," said Kyle, lowering his rifle.

"Let's keep going, guys. It's right up around the corner over here," said Mac.

As we rounded the corner, Mac shouted out, "Cliff, we're comin' in whether you like it or not, man! There's a shit load of them deadites out here, so open the fucking gate up! NOW, Hurry!"

"Nice try, but I can't let you in, Mac. Why are you so desperate to get in here, anyway? That's a new low to say we've been overrun with deaders, or whatever you called them, man. It’s obvious that Bender over on the other side just told you no, too. Go on and get to work, Mac. This is pathetic. You’re better than this," Cliff shouted back.

The horde was slowly trickling around the corner now and it looked like the bodies would keep on coming strong. We turned our backs on Cliff and began to fire.

***POW***

"Damnit, Kyle, there might be livites out there, headshots only," I said. "We don't want any explosions if innocents can get caught in the blast."

"Sorry, homie, but that was bad-fucking-ass!! Livites? Come on, man, that's so much worse than livers, bro. What's wrong with you, Pete?"

"You're right. Let's pretend I didn't say that. It's kind of a stressful situation. I'm not exactly at my comedic best. I’m sure you can understand that. Let’s just stick with calling us people, alright?" I uttered between shots.

“What the fuck are you assholes shooting at?! It’s not funny, someone could get hurt out there!” Cliff yelled at us from the window of his box, still believing that we were trying to swindle him.

"Let us in, you asshole!" Carolina commanded Cliff.

Sticking his head out the window, a wide-eyed and frightened asshole called Cliff ran to the first gate. He fumbled around with his key ring, looking to unlock the padlock that was dangling from the thick chain.

More zombies kept coming at us.

"Hurry it up, Cliff," said Mac.

"One down," Cliff shouted back to him as he dropped the first lock, swung open the first gate, and moved on to the next.

***CRACK***

***CRACK***

***CRACK***

***CRACK***

"C’mon, Cliff! You’re almost there! Just a little more!" cheered Evelyn as Cliff tried to quickly find the next key.

"GOT IT! Get in here, hurry!"

We spun on our heels and ran inside. Out of breath, Cliff locked both of the gates behind him. We were safe for now . . . hopefully.

"Thanks Cliff," said Mac.

I would have said it also, but I was already deep in planning mode.

***

Step 1: Get everyone inside the school building/compound.

Step 2: Explode a few zombies to thin out their numbers while also avoiding an unwanted build up and possible collapse at the gate.

Step 3: Explore the school for clues as to what the fuck is ahead of us and where the doctor could be now.

Step: Don't fucking die.

***

"You three hurry up and get inside. I'll wait out here and try to keep them at bay with Mac and Cliff. Kyle, you need to watch the girls for a few minutes. Make sure there's nothing fucked up in there that’s going to kill them or you. We'll be in shortly," I instructed.

The three amigos took off into the school.
They should be out of danger for right now,
I thought.

"You guys focus your fire on the ones closest to the fence and I'll take out those that are toward the back of the group to keep the fence intact," I told the remaining two.

"Good thinking," said Mac.

"Am I missing something?" asked Cliff.

Rather than explain what I meant to Cliff, I took aim back toward the intersection that the zombies were pouring out from. There were zombies crawling all over the place, some were tripping over those that had already fallen. One well-placed shot should let him know exactly what our enemy would be up against.

***POW***

"Jesus Titty-Fucking Christ!" I think Cliff was slightly surprised by the explosion. Body parts were raining down atop other zombies. I saw one of them that was now wearing a bloodied stump of a hand as a fashionable new hat that slowly dribbled its blood down his face.

"Get to work, Cliff. Mac and I can't get them all!"

Cliff shut his agape mouth, sighted in, and began firing.

***POW***

I took out about another dozen. The POW shot was proving to be a most effective weapon against our foes that had us overwhelmingly outnumbered. Their numbers seemed to be thinning out quite a bit already.

"I'll take out one more cluster of them and then I'll head inside to see what we can accomplish in there. You guys should be able to hold them off," I told the other two as I sighted in on another target.

***POW***

I turned and headed inside without bothering to watch the awesome violence that I’d just unleashed upon the undead force.

"You guys okay?" I asked Kyle once I was inside.

"No, dude. That sounded fucking awesome! We're all safe and shit if that's what you meant, but I feel like I missed out a little bit." I felt a little bad that poor Kyle had been left out of our reindeer games.

"I'll let you get some next time, lil fella. Thanks for watching our girls."

"Nah, it's my pleasure, homie. You know I love the ladies," he said, looking at Carolina.

"Dude . . . you really creep me out sometimes. Judging by the look on Evelyn’s face, I’m not alone in that matter." I looked over at Evelyn, who was nodding in an uncomfortable fashion.

"Dude, what the fuck are you talki-"

"Let's go see what we can find out about this whole bullshit operation they’ve got going on here. What the hell would they need two physicists for?" I asked Evelyn.

"Well . . . my dad isn't just a physicist. He's a very smart man. He just happened to work primarily as a physicist back in the real world. He also holds degrees in biology, chemistry, and neurology."

"Oh good, that should really help us to narrow down what they may have been doing. Actually, how about we try to find a way to the roof, that way we can see how many of them are really out there. Even if we find anything here, we won't be able to leave until it's safe enough to do so."

"I got it homie, I'll go up top and you can stay with the girls this time. I think I've got more ammunition left than you do, anyhow," Kyle volunteered.

"Okay, we'll split up. If you’re able to get up there be mindful of the fence. We don't want to help them knock it down, got it?"

"No POW shots near the fence. Got it."

"POW shot . . . I kinda love that." I smiled at the thought. "Alright, man. Good luck. And keep an eye out while you’re still in here, too. We don't know what to expect. When we've got what we need, we’ll either meet out front or come find you. Let's go ahead and break off."

Carolina, Evelyn and I took off to the left side of the hallway while Kyle took off down the right. We didn't know what we would find in either direction, but we kind of said our goodbyes already so staying together would have just been awkward at this point.

Our trio was now headed down a corridor filled with doors. We peaked into each room, looking for some obvious sign of what their nefarious plan could have been. It looked like most of the rooms were now used as living quarters for the research team rather than classes. We opened the shut doors. I kicked in the ones that were locked. It seemed there was nothing interesting in any of them. There were no people to be found in any of them, which I found very discomforting.

"Well, I imagine we must be getting pretty close to something," I said, mostly in an effort to convince myself that there was still hope.

"I sure hope so. There isn't much hall left to go," said Evelyn.

We got to the last door in the hall. The room beyond it was basically the same as the rest of them. I walked in and there appeared to be nothing special about this room, either.

"There has got to be something here . . . but what could it be?" I wondered out loud.

I went through the drawers of a nearby desk. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing useful in it. There was a whiteboard on the wall, but it was blank. I just wandered around the room in my disappointment. Then, I stubbed my toe and tripped, falling on the floor like a toddler learning to walk.

"What the fuck?" I said, sitting up.

"Are you okay?" asked Evelyn.

"Yeah, I think I must have tripped over this rug. Stupid thing."

The rug had moved slightly when I tripped over it. Upon closer inspection, I saw a crease in the floor that was now barely visible on the edge of the rug. I moved the rest of the rug out of the way. It was a door; I’d tripped over the key sticking out of it.

"Looks like someone took off in a hurry," said Carolina.

"Or someone was just an idiot and forgot their key," I countered.

I grabbed the metal ring and lifted the door open.

"You don't really think we need to go down there, do ya, Pete?" Evelyn asked in a tiny frightened voice.

I looked up at her as I began my descent.

***POW***

Kyle must have found a way up to the roof.

"Y'all can stay here if you think it's safer, but there's got to be something down here, and I'm going to find it," I

said, descending the ladder.

"Your new boyfriend is kind of an idiot, isn't he?" asked Carolina.

"I can hear you, ya know? My head is still in this room."

"He might not be the brightest man we’ve ever met, but he sure seems to have a whole lot of luck on his side. It's been working out for us so far. I'm going with him, Mom, and I suggest you do the same."

"Oh great, you're an idiot couple, now. How lovely is that?" Carolina mumbled under her breath.

"I can still hear you, ya know. I haven't gone all the way down yet!" shouted Evelyn, much in the same tone I had.

"I know, I know. I'm coming, too. Make way for idiot number three," she grumbled, dreading whatever we may find at the bottom of the ladder.

And the three of us were now down in the school’s dark basement.

***POW***

It sounded like Kyle was really enjoying himself.

I squeezed the pistol grip of my rifle to activate the mounted flashlight which illuminated the basement.

Bingo.

"It looks like we found the lab," I said as Evelyn was reaching the bottom of the ladder.

As I shined my light around the room, I saw that it was much larger than the one above. There was also a long hallway directly underneath the one that had led us here. I decided to inspect the lab first. There were large metal tables, each one with its own office chair in front of it. Each table also had its own computer set up on it, and I couldn't help but think there must be some sort of power source somewhere down in this place. Further inspection would have to come shortly.