Running With The Horde (Book 2): Delusions of Monsters (19 page)

Now he was doing his best to follow Dick and his ragtag group of kidnapped scientists through a manmade tunnel. Naked light bulbs lit the way every 25 yards. The air was cold and the sound of feet pounding on cement echoed off the walls and ceiling. It was impossible to hear any chatter through the noise but Andrew didn’t think anyone was talking. If he knew his colleagues, they would be terrified and meekly following after Dick like lambs. Andrew didn’t think he was going to kill them. If he had been planning on that, he would have done it already back in the facility.

They had been doing a slow jog for nearly three miles. Andrew knew because he was counting each light bulb they passed beneath and he was now up to 119. Ahead of him someone cried out and stumbled, dropping his or her bundle onto the floor. The group took the opportunity to stop and breathe. Most of them had their hands on their knees or were just plopped on the ground in exhaustion but nobody bothered to see to their fallen comrade. Andrew jogged up to the sobbing heap on the ground, who turned out to Savannah.

“Are you okay, Savannah?” he asked as he grabbed her elbow and pulled her to her feet.

Before she could answer Dick came dashing back from where he’d been leading the pack. “Listen up, shit sacks, I know you are tired and confused but we are almost out of here. All of this will make sense shortly. Can you walk, Savannah?”

“Not very fast, I turned my ankle,” she said.

“Fuck!” he yelled, startling everyone. He grabbed the large bag Savannah had been carrying and slung it around his shoulder. He was already hauling a bag of a similar size but seemed no worse for the wear with the added weight. “All right, Andrew, you have Savanah duty. Everybody up, we’ve got another half mile to go.”

This elicited a chorus of groans. “Hey,” Dick said, “I brought the roof down on those soldiers but understand this, the Syndicate will have at least two more response teams on our asses any minute now if they aren’t already. If you want to be down here when they arrive, be my guest but I can tell you I trained them to shoot traitors on sight so if they catch you they will kill you,” then he turned and resumed his jog through the tunnel.

Not surprisingly, the group suddenly caught their second wind and began a zombie shuffle in Dick’s wake. They weren’t moving very fast but even so Andrew found he and Savannah were falling behind the group at an alarming rate. She had one arm around his shoulder. Between her limp and the pack on his back their pace was agonizingly slow. Soon they couldn’t see the group at all and Andrew did his best to get them moving faster.

“Stop, Andrew, I can’t do it,” Savannah said between breaths.

“You have to do it, there’s no choice.”

“No, there is a choice, you leave me behind. There is no need for us both to die.”

“Hush, Savannah, I’m not leaving you.”

She grabbed his arm with surprising strength, “Andrew, listen to me, what we’ve been doing. What we’ve done. It’s evil in its purest form. I know you know that. Our excuse has always been fear of Dick and basic scientific curiosity but we can’t sit back any longer. Something has gone terribly wrong. Dick has done something even the Syndicate didn’t anticipate and now we’re all that’s left to try to stop something terrible from being unleashed on the world. You have to leave me.”

Noise from back the way they had come reached their ears and they both shot nervous glances behind them. “Seriously, Andrew, go now. They aren’t going to shoot me.” She shoved him away and nearly fell over in the process.

Andrew took a final look at her before adjusting his pack and resuming his run in the direction Dick and the others had gone. “I’m sorry, Savannah,” he called over his shoulder but if she said anything in return he was already too far away to hear it.

A vigorous five minutes later he ran around a bend in the tunnel and reached its end. Another ladder disappeared up into a dark shaft. Dick was waiting at the bottom with a rifle pointed in Andrew’s direction. “What the fuck took you so long? I was just about to leave without you. Where the hell is Savannah, did you leave her?”

“I,” Andrew replied between gasps of air, “had to, she insisted. She couldn’t walk. Then we could hear them coming behind us. Savannah doesn’t think they will harm her.”

Gunshots rang out almost as if in reply to Andrew’s statement. The blasts echoing through the tunnel chamber like a string of never-ending fire crackers.

“C’mon, we’ve got to go,” Dick yelled over the ruckus. “Get up the ladder and into the chopper and tell the pilot I will join you in a moment.”

Dick had a small bag with him which he took and disappeared around the bend in the tunnel. Andrew didn’t have to be in Special Forces to understand Dick was going leave the Syndicate security team an unpleasant surprise when they got to the end of the tunnel. He scurried up the ladder with his pack bouncing in rhythm on each rung.

The ladder seemed endless; he stopped counting after 50 rungs and concentrated on just putting one arm over the next and moving his legs. His body was on fire with exertion and he was afraid to look down but eventually he could see he was coming to the top. Moonlight poured through the narrow opening and he could even make out a few stars. A cool rush of desert air greeted him like an old friend when he finally crested the top of the tunnel shaft. He climbed out and laid on the ground, his limbs trembling like he’d just finished a triathlon. He cursed the day he ever met Dick and got to his feet. Leaning over the access portal he strained and thought he could hear Dick climbing the ladder. He didn’t want to be standing around like an idiot when that maniac popped out.

Andrew scanned the horizon but couldn’t see much. Dick had said for him to get to the chopper but he didn’t hear anything. Perhaps they had left and he and Dick were screwed. In the moonlight he could see a narrow path which he followed for a good thirty yards before he spied a clearing with a dark shape in the middle. That had to be the chopper standing idle.

With a burst of energy he didn’t know he had left, Andrew bolted for the clearing anxious to get there before Dick caught up with him. Suddenly the dark shape of a man loomed up in front of him like a ghoul and they collided. The other man shouted and cursed as Andrew lay momentarily stunned on top of him.

With the wind knocked out of him, Andrew wanted to scream but he only managed a small high-pitched squeak of terror just before the other man roughly shoved him off and demanded to know who he was. Andrew went about gathering himself in almost total darkness while he explained he was with Dick. As he went to stand he realized he’d been sitting on something hard and rectangular. He scooped up the item and slipped it into his pocket as the man continued to question him. Although he hadn’t actually seen one in a number of years, he was almost certain he had just filched the man’s cell phone.

“Dick said there would be two more, where is the other one?” the man asked.

“She, uh, didn’t make it.” Andrew replied softly.

“And Dick?”

Andrew was sorely tempted to say Dick also didn’t make it but quickly quashed that urge. If Dick made it to the helicopter before it lifted off then Andrew would be a dead man. Furthermore, he had no way of knowing how loyal this man was to Dick.  “He assured me he would be along shortly.”

“Great,” the man mumbled. “Then get your ass on the chopper.”

Andrew was mentally kicking himself as he approached open side door of what looked like a large military helicopter. That was regret he had heard in the soldiers voice. Andrew had guessed wrong and missed an opportunity to finally be free of Dick.

The others were already onboard along with a pilot. The group was quietly chatting like this was the most exciting thing that had happened to them in years. In a way Andrew supposed it was.

John was seated just inside the door and took the heavy pack from Andrew as he climbed aboard. “You made it!” John said with a smile, “We didn’t even realize you weren’t with us until we climbed out of the hole. Where’s Savanah?”

“She didn’t make it,” Andrew replied flatly. With that the happy mood in the helicopter was squashed. Andrew plopped into a seat as far away from the others as possible. After a few minutes the air started to get stale and Andrew thought about climbing out again until Dick returned.

Before he could move the helicopter bounced a solid foot off the ground. This was followed immediately by an uncomfortable thump. A muted explosion from deep in the Earth reverberated through the chopper. John and Dharmesh had fallen from their seats and Sarah shouted in alarm.

The pilot started the engine and Andrew could hear and feel the blades start to spin. The door slid open and there was Dick. He tossed his packs onboard and then he and the sentry followed. Dick took the only remaining passenger seat while the soldier pushed past Andrew to the co-pilot’s chair.

“Get this bird in the air,” Dick shouted.

The helicopter lifted off the ground slowly at first but gaining speed as it climbed. Andrew had to admit he felt exhilarated while he experienced his first helicopter ride. The sky around the chopper opening up into the vast expanse of the nighttime sky. It took his breath in a not unpleasant sensation until he glanced to the western skyline and spotted the orange glow of a raging fire.

Area 51, his prison for so very long, was burning. The idea of it should’ve made him happy but instead he was deeply unsettled. He looked at Dick. The man was staring out the window at the fading orange glow. His face bore an expression of grim victory. Savannah had been right. What they’d done to enable the Syndicate’s mind control plan had been evil. But somehow Dick had made it worse, Andrew just didn’t know how yet.

“Where are we going, Dick?” John shouted over the sound of the helicopter.

“Minneapolis,” Dick yelled back.

“What? Why in the hell would you take us to one of the pilot cities? The Syndicate will catch us for sure!”

“Because,” Dick said, “Minneapolis will be one of the last safe places in the country before too much longer.”

The group start assailing Dick with a barrage of questions but he had clearly said everything he was going to say. He settled back in his chair and seemed to relax. After a moment he glanced at Andrew with a terrifying grin. Andrew looked away, certain that Dick had done something to change the game plan from what the Syndicate had originally intended. But for the life of him, Andrew had no idea what that could have been. He absently fingered the phone in the darkness of the helicopter’s interior. He would need to be careful but as soon as he could he was going to call the only phone number he could remember and beg for help.

The Present

We ran and ran, the dog and his boy, down the two blocks of Riverplace past the movie theater and the factories beyond until a stitch in my side insisted that I stop and breathe deeply for a while. Mandy dropped to the snow bank panting as I faced back the way we’d come to see if the Creep was chasing us. In my mind he had been right on our heels the entire way but the only tracks behind us were our own. This was good because in all the excitement I had lost the knife. We were defenseless.

There was no one behind us. No ominous noises or shadows approaching from afar. Just an empty street, the burbling sound of the slow moving Mississippi River and an endless blanket of snow, I wondered again if I’d hallucinated everything. I boxed that horrible thought up and shoved it into a back shelf of my mind to possibly be examined later but most likely not.

The weight of everything that had happened the last few hours hit me again and knocked me into a soft snow bank. Mandy was up in a flash and licking my face. I was reminded that even in the worst of circumstances a happy dog can make things better. I brushed some of the snow off her thick coat and got to my feet. I said, “C’mon, girl, we gotta get out of this weather.”

The parking lot we were in offered no protection from the elements. The closest things were two factories and the movie theater. I had no desire to go inside the factories. They looked ghostly, mechanical and completely unwelcoming. It was going to have to be the theater. I had seen movies there before. I remember it being old but cozy feeling.

We backtracked through the snow the way we had come. Our tracks were already lost to fresh snow cover and the illusive Creep was ever on my mind. What in the hell was he and where had he come from? The terrible feeling of being hunted was getting to me so I closed my eyes and called ten of the undead to my position. I was fortunate in that they hadn’t scattered too far since the fight with the city soldiers so by the time Mandy and I trudged up to the theater entrance, they were waiting for us.

When she spotted them Mandy started growling low in her throat, the fur on her back standing almost straight up. When I saw them I was overcome with relief. My gang of street toughs were back in play, the Creep couldn’t get me now. I spent a moment calming the dog down. Mandy got there but reluctantly. It was clear she wouldn’t be up for any tummy rubs or fetch games with my new colleagues. I made it very clear to them with a stern thought that the dog was mine and not to be touched. I am not sure why this worked, why any of my zombie abilities worked but they always did.

The doors to the theater were strong thick glass in metal frames. They were bolted shut as well as chained from the inside. While these deterrents may have kept me and Mandy out, they were nothing against 10 coordinated zombies. The foyer of the musty building was damp and dark as I stamped my feet free of snow. Mandy shook herself with enthusiasm spraying water on the zombies who didn’t seem to mind.

After considerable debate during which the zombies and Mandy were of no help, I decided to leave two of them at the door as sentries in case the Creep was out there somewhere waiting to get in. If my friends were still alive and showed up, I figured they could easily dispatch two zombies. My debate was over leaving
more
of them to guard the door. I was terrified of the Creep; he had taken on magical properties in my mind. I was sure he was something even beyond the undead. He was an evil warlock or a demon personified. I was also worried that he was already somewhere in the theater with me. If that turned out to be the case it wouldn’t matter how many zombie guards I left at the door. I could have argued with myself all night but in the end I was cold and hungry and needed to get moving so I just left two.

With my posse in tow I moved through two more glass doors into the dark ticketing lobby by feel. To my left was a long hallway that I remembered led to a number of theater auditoriums. Straight ahead was the ticket and concession booth enclosed by a long L shaped bar. Further ahead to my right was another hallway leading to the larger auditoriums used for the movies slotted to earn the most ticket revenue.

There were already two zombies in the building; I could sense them standing listlessly in a film room above one of the smaller auditoriums. They were trapped in the tiny, secure room because they were zombies and therefore kind of stupid. They had both been employees of the movie theater and had thought it would be a good place to hide out. Their idea had been good for they had supplies and a fortified position. What ended up killing them was just bad luck.  Ryan had been bitten on a supply run only a few weeks earlier. Shawn didn’t have the heart to leave him as he succumbed to the infection. He had died and reanimated in his sleep while she slept next to him and the rest was history. At least they died together.

In a moment I had them out of the room and en route to join my group in the lobby, each carrying a handful of snacks from their tiny hoard. Mandy and I took a break to devour some processed food.

Refueled and ready to rock, I hopped over the counter and searched with my hands for a flashlight. This was a long painstaking process which resulted in sticky fingers and no flashlight. I did find a lighter. The long kind usually used for lighting gas grills or ranges.

I had to flick it three times before it stayed lit. Next I found a metal trash bucket and filled it with paper I doused in popcorn grease. I touched the flame to the paper and soon I had a functional yet awkward torch. I couldn’t carry it because of the obvious burn risks so I had one of the zombies carry it and walk in front of me. His name was Chad and yes, I felt bad about it. I found two hot pads and made him wear those to alleviate my guilt. Plus I didn’t want the aroma of burning, rancid flesh to add any extra ambiance to the already depressing place.

With our bellies full and shelter from the storm, Mandy and I began exploring the place with the zombies as escorts from auditorium to auditorium. I tried pretending that I worked for the theater and was giving a tour to a group of executives from corporate who were in town for a surprise audit but it wasn’t all that enjoyable so I stopped. Aside from the theater rooms themselves there were a couple of supply closets, an employee lounge and an office for management. I found a bunch more food, mostly candy but I wasn’t complaining. I also commandeered a flashlight and some keys from a corpse in the office who had shot himself in the head. That was a happy find.

At the end of the hallway of smaller theaters was a door marked private and it was locked. It was a heavy steel number with no window. The kind that usually led to a basement furnace room. It was the only room I hadn’t looked in. I fumbled around with the keys until I found the one that fit and the door opened with a stubborn groan. The smell of old basement greeted me as I shined the flashlight down a long staircase of ancient wood.

Although a heavy steel railing had been added in the years since she had used it, I recognized Eva’s cellar instantly. Could this really be the old bakery? I didn’t know all that much about the history of Northeast, Minneapolis let alone this particular theater but it did appear my eyes weren’t lying, this was the place.

Spurred on by the sudden excitement of discovery, Mandy and I dashed down the rickety steps like a couple of reckless gymnasts. We made it safely to the bottom and were getting ready to start searching for the tunnel entrance when the zombies coming down behind us caved in the entire staircase in a glorious roar of snapping wood and bone.

“Fuck!” I called out as both the dog and I dove away from the small avalanche of wood splinters and bodies. I scrambled to my feet to assess the damage while Mandy jumped around barking and sniffing at the undead lying in a big pile. A cloud of nasty air floated into my face and I started coughing and gagging.

The burning bucket miraculously remained upright near the base of the pile casting a somber glow across the room. It looked like a Halloween orgy gone wrong.  My bodyguards were mostly toast. Three near the top were moving slightly but were clearly too busted up to stand. The rest of the pile was unmoving. They were actually fully dead. Only Shawn remained at the top of the landing looking down at me. She had been the only smart one not to follow the crowd of lemmings that had overwhelmed the old staircase.

“Well good for you, Shawn, well done. Perhaps there is hope for you yet,” I called up to her. I smiled to show her I was proud just as she stepped off the landing and smacked face down on the cement floor. It was so sudden, so final and yes, I cried.

She would have been my ace in hole. If the tunnel didn’t exist I now had no chance of climbing out of the cellar which was easily twenty feet from the landing to the floor.

Wiping the tears and dust from my eyes, I snatched up Mandy’s leash and the flashlight as I surveyed the room. A lot had changed since Eva’s day. The hard packed dirt floor had been replaced by cement many years ago. I could tell because it was dirty and starting to crumble in places. There were still shelves but they were sturdy metal now and filled with supplies one would expect to keep a movie theater stocked. Why they decided not to replace the staircase was a mystery. Unfortunately, management was no longer around for me to ask.

The room was as large as I remembered and as I neared the back wall where the door should be, a growing knot of dread filled my belly. As I shined the light around the last shelf I closed my eyes and willed the door to be there. Of all the things that had gone wrong over the last few hours I deserved something to go my way. I was owed this. It was my right and my destiny for that door to be there waiting for me to open it.

I opened my eyes to a solid brick wall. “Fuck!” I screamed for the second time in five minutes. Mandy looked up at me with her tail wagging. I sighed and patted her gently on the head. “It’s okay, girl, we’ll figure something out,” I told her.

Truth was I didn’t know what we would do. We were effectively trapped inside the cellar. Then I remembered I had left two zombie guards out by the front door. I closed my eyes to take control of them but I couldn’t find them, they were gone. If they had simply wandered off, I could’ve located them which meant they were no longer undead but for real dead.

Images of the Creep flashed through my mind. I could see him skulking through the long dark hallway stealing glances at his reflection in the windows as he glided past. Or even worse, he was already standing at the doorway to the basement staring down in bemused silence at my predicament. I looped the end of Mandy’s leash around a hook protruding from one of the shelves and leaned around the edge to get a look at the fallen staircase. The trash bucket was emanating a soft glow indicating the papers and other materials were now only embers.  I couldn’t see the doorway so I moved out of my hiding place on my belly and army crawled for a closer look. I tried not to make any noise but the sound of my clothing scraping along the cement sounded to my ears like the percussion section of an orchestra.

The doorway was a tapestry of shadows through which I could see nothing. I laid there staring up at it until my neck started to go stiff. I could hear Mandy whining behind me. A bead of sweat slipped from my stocking cap into my eye. I batted it away with a gloved hand and got to my feet, convinced I was alone. Mandy whined again.

“What’s the matter with your friend?” the sing-song voice spoke into the darkness.

I think I shit my pants as I screamed.  The sound hadn’t come from up in the doorway. The Creep was in the cellar with me. I swung the flashlight through the air as I did a full spin. Of course I didn’t hit him, he wasn’t that close. I did a second spin but much slower, shining the light around the room, the shadows dancing around my beam. I didn’t see him and I couldn’t hear him because Mandy was barking up a storm. I edged back around the shelf toward where the dog was leashed. She stopped barking as I drew nearer but I could hear her panting. I didn’t dare turn around for fear of the Creep rushing me as I looked away. Memories of that long butcher knife flittering in my head. I kept stepping backwards until I felt Mandy’s hot breath on the back of my leg.  I could see the end of the leash on the hook near the side of my head, the leather taut as it led to the dog behind me.

In the darkness from the wall to my left came a rustling and my heart skipped into double time. I turned my flashlight toward the sound, illuminating Mandy crawling toward me on her belly like she had when I found her in the bar. She started whining again and I held my arms out to let her know everything was okay but she wouldn’t come any further. It was then I realized I could still feel hot breath on the back of my leg.

I froze.

The breathing stopped.

Mandy hid her face in her paws.

A hand, long and spider-like, encircled my left leg just below the calf, the grip tightening as he used me for leverage to stand. There was so much I wanted to say but I couldn’t speak, so much I wanted to do but I couldn’t move because of fear-induced paralysis. I felt his presence loom large behind me as he stood. He was taller than I thought. I could feel that same hot breath on top of my head. Under my chin I felt the chill of cold steel on my neck. It would seem I was about to meet the same fate as Marybeth in the cold damp basement so close to my goal. Part of me was terrified about the prospect of death. Part of me was disappointed I would never get to explore that tunnel. Would I be able to die? Would the super virus in my body even let me?

“Pass me the flashlight, shit-fer-brains,” he growled into my ear. The sing-song quality of his voice was gone, replaced by a twangy, guttural tone I knew I would hear in my nightmares if I lived through this experience. I slowly passed him the flashlight which he delicately plucked from my hands. He switched off the beam plunging us into darkness.