The Common Cold (Book 2): A Zombie Chronicle-Cabin Fever (18 page)

Mike set the helicopter down and shut off the engine. BB had
already shut his down; hopefully the lack of moving blades would reduce the zombies’
interest in what they were doing.

Securing the helicopter doors all of the crews gathered
together by the wicket door.

“So what have we got?” Mike asked, his demeanour all
business.

“We counted five of what I reckon are cheetahs. They are
hanging out on the top of the shelving stacks, probably waiting to ambush
people like us.” Rob explained.

“There doesn’t appear to be power in the building either,”
Chuck noted. “It’s like the inside of a whale in there.”

“What, smells like fish?” BB offered.

“No, you ass,” Chuck replied, not entirely irritated at
Brad’s flippant manner.
“Dark.”

“Ah,” was all BB said in reply. “Did either of you see what
might have been a generator on your walk around the building?”

“There are a couple of smaller buildings off to that side,”
Chuck said. “It’s possible one has a backup generator.”

“Take me to it,” Joshua asked. He looked like he was at last
relaxing, perhaps even relishing his part in their foray; maybe facing death
was preferable to being on the helicopter.

Chuck and Joshua walked away in the direction of the described
buildings, Danny in tow and gun at the ready. Mike, Rob and Zoë remained at the
small door, keeping watch.

“These bastards, these cheetahs, seem to have a real animal
cunning. It was clear these,” Rob said pointing at the door, “
are
just waiting to pounce. We were probably the first prey
they’ve seen and so didn’t react quick enough to catch us.”

“Nothing surprises me after what I’ve seen them do under the
snow,” Zoë remarked, her trigger finger nervously ticking against the trigger
guard.
“Crafty little fuckers.”

“We’ll get through this,” Mike said; it seemed to be an
order. “If we just remember our training and keep our heads.”

His words were interrupted by a loud, electrical click quickly
followed by an indignant screech that came from inside the building.

“I guess we have power now,” BB observed. At that moment
Danny, Chuck and Joshua ran around the corner, beaming at their success.

“I was right,” Chuck stated. “One of the buildings is a
generator house. Joshua managed to turn it on so we ought to have power for the
lights now.”

“I left the light switch on in there so we ought to have light
the other side of the door,” Rob outlined the situation. “That probably
explained the cry we just heard.”

“Good,” Mike replied. “I want us all to go in as quickly as
possible. Don’t fan out; I want us all to be able to protect each other’s backs
so stay together at all costs. If these creatures have hunting skills, they
might well try and separate one of us from the rest. Don’t be tempted to follow
one on your own.”

“One of them might still be near this door so we’ll have to
go in carefully,” Rob warned. “I’ll go in first; I know the layout of the immediate
area.” Jeez, did I just volunteer, he asked himself.

“I’m with you, Rob,” Chuck offered. Knowing the layout as
well he knew Rob would need backup if they were to stand a chance.

“Okay, let’s do it.”

Rob pushed at the door a little, the crack it revealed
showed bright light inside. “Yes,” he exclaimed in relief. He quickly pushed
the door fully open so that it slammed against the wall, proving that nothing
was lying in wait immediately behind it; meanwhile directly in front of them
they could clearly see one of the creatures standing some way off, swaying as
it apparently assessed what was coming in.

“Wait!” Danny urged. “That thing is setting a trap.”

“What?” Rob asked.

“While you’re looking at it, I bet there’s another hidden just
away from the door but against the wall.” Danny pointed to the wall either side
of the door.

Rob looked at his friend, his face draining of colour as he realised
that what he’d suggested had a ring of high probability to it.

“Stand back in case of ricochets,” Mike announced.

They stood back and Mike raked the thin steel wall with
gunfire, aiming at head height on the first pass. An angry screech sounded
followed by scurrying as the tables were turned on their attackers inside the
building. Without waiting and wanting to use the chaos of the unexpected, Rob
ducked inside closely followed by Chuck and Danny. Down to their right a
cheetah was laid out on the floor, dead, a neat hole in its temple proving the
accuracy of Mike’s shooting. The three of them stayed near the door, covering
each other as they took in the situation in front of them. One of the shelving
stacks swayed a little as one of the fleeing cheetahs had scurried up to the
top of the column. The rest could clearly be seen as they took refuge behind
the shelving.

“Look at them climb!” Rob exclaimed. “Is this fencing going
to be worth anything if they can just climb it at will?”

“Good question, man,” Danny replied.

“The fence will hold back the mass of slow ones, so I guess
it’s a start,” Mike said after a moment.

“Perhaps it could be electrified at the top,” Chuck
suggested.

Whatever the solution, it just proved that nothing was going
to be handed to the survivors on a
platter,
no matter
how easy it seemed at first.

“It’s almost like they’ve given up the ambush,” Chuck said,
trying to understand their behaviour. It did indeed look like the creatures were
cowering in what seemed to pass for fear. Was it possible they could have a
leader in their group? Their behaviour certainly seemed to indicate as much. If
it was their leader dead on the ground, it showed they didn’t lead from the
rear but actively participated in the plan, very much like the wild cats they
mimicked.

“Right, before they regroup, let’s kill them all,” Danny
urged. Using careful and deliberate shots, the three began to decimate the
ranks of the Infected. Hearing the shooting, Mike and Zoë burst in and
contributed to the slaughter. Cornered, the creatures found their courage once
more and began to run towards the spitting lead, leaping onto and through the
shelving in an effort to get closer before making the final pounce at their deadly
prey. By the time the fight was over, no fewer than four of the zombies had
managed to get close to their prey and now lay at the feet of their killers,
demonstrating their deadly intent and determination. The five Rob and Chuck had
originally seen appeared to be the tip of the iceberg; counting the corpses
afterwards they had eradicated no fewer than thirteen zombie cheetahs, a couple
of them dressed in suits and ties, the others in work overalls. Two wore field
jackets with the word FEMA stamped in white on their backs. It appeared that no
emergency situation training had prepared the human race for their downfall.

“We need to split into two teams to sweep this building, in
a sort of pincer movement,” Mike explained when the firing ceased. “If we stay
together as a single group they can just make their way to the opposite end of
the building to us and we’ll never catch them.”

“I agree,” Zoë
said,
a look of
deadly determination on her face. “Where’s Joshua?” she asked, suddenly afraid
for him.

“He stayed outside,” Mike said. “He doesn’t have a gun.”

“Let me check on him before we do this,” Danny said. He felt
uncomfortable that one of their
number
was alone
outside. He should be safe but should wasn’t the same as the definitive
article. Popping outside he saw Joshua, pressed hard against the wall, trying
to make
himself
as small as possible.
“Hi, Joshua.
It’s okay, mate. We’re just going to do a final
sweep of the building and then we’re ready to do what we came for. I’ll call
you when we’re done.” Joshua nodded and visibly relaxed a little. I’m going to
have to teach him how to shoot, Danny thought, we can’t afford to have him
completely depend on us for protection, for his sake as much as ours. Come to
think of it, we have quite a few people in the group we need to teach to shoot.
They would have to address that need as soon as possible - everyone had to be
capable of killing, and doing it well for survival.

Ducking back into the building, he took up position with Zoë
and Rob, while BB, Chuck and Mike formed the second group and made their way
across to the other side of the building. With the lights on it was going to be
much harder for the undead to hide themselves; that in
itself
might well make them more desperate in their defence, like cornered rats.
Standing away from the stacks it enabled them to see the surface of each shelf;
the planking that formed the surface left gaps through which movement could be
detected if one of the cheetahs was occupying the higher layers. Danny noticed
there were four light blue doors on their side of the warehouse. Making sure
they were locked, he made a mental note to come back and check them once they
had cleared the main area.

After fifteen minutes of painstaking search the two teams
met up in the middle. Not a single zombie had survived.

“I just want to check the side-rooms I found at the
beginning of the search,” Danny said. “You want to come with me, Rob?”

“Sure, let’s see what we can find.”

“While you’re doing that, we’ll get the front main door open
and start looking for what we need,” Mike said.

Danny trotted over to the doors they had discovered earlier.
With no keys to be found they kicked them open, checking them one at a time,
but their search revealed nothing but a kitchenette and a couple of storage
cupboards, one full of cleaning equipment and the other with more MREs, neatly
packed into brown boxes. The fourth door was more heavily secured but the lock was
still vulnerable to a bullet and in no time gave way. It revealed a small
armoury containing a couple of guns but a lot of ammunition boxes.

“Can we ever have too much ammo, Rob?” Danny asked.

“Wow. I think the answer is no.”

“Once we have this fencing malarkey underway, we’ll have to
get going on with that shooting training we discussed. Get us some brownie
points with the ladies.”

“What?”

“English expression, don’t ask. Just know it’s a good thing.”

“Fair enough.”

“You know, when I went outside to check on Joshua, he was
making himself as small as he could,
trying
not to be
noticed; he looked terrified. I think he’ll be happier when he can shoot, at
least for self-defence.
Same with the others.”

“I agree with you, buddy. With this lot it’ll be easy and we
shouldn’t run low for quite a while.”

Satisfied with their search they went around to the front of
the building. The main roller door was up, letting in the sunshine. BB had
found a fork-lift truck and had driven it into place. The fencing was obvious
and the fact that it was packaged together with all the ancillary components
bagged up and tied to the rolls of chain link wire was a serious benefit to
their immediate needs. Clearly someone had given it a great deal of thought.

“Hey, guys. Check this out!” Zoë called excitedly across the
building.

“What is it?” Rob asked. There were two large, black wooden
boxes lined up together on a single shelf. It looked like the type used to
transport sound systems for rock bands.

“It’s an LRAD,” she offered enigmatically.

“And what the hell’s that when it’s at home?” Danny asked.

“It’s what’s called a Long Range Acoustic Device.”

“Still none the wiser,” Rob said, tiring of this game.

“It’s like the most powerful music system ever devised, only
it’s intended for the military and some police forces,” BB said, clearing up some
of the confusion.

“I’m guessing it’s not for great beach parties,” Danny
offered.

“Ha-ha. Very good, Danny,” Mike replied. “No. it was designed
for crowd dispersal and search and rescue. If it’s aimed in your direction you
can hear announcements and other sounds from easily a mile away. It’s like the
sound is inside your head, there’s no escape from it.”

“Do you think the zombies would react to it?” Danny
wondered. “They seem to be drawn to the sound of the helicopter. How powerful
is this thing?”

“Well, it can be used by the military to incapacitate
people.” Mike paused for a moment, thinking about what Danny had intimated. “I
wonder if it could kill these mothers,” he continued, thinking out loud.

“If it could, it would be in greater numbers than we could
shoot in a week.”

“It would be guaranteed to clear an area; you can’t hide
behind a tree to avoid its effects.”

“Damn. We have to take this back, and today,” Danny said
enthusiastically. “This might just be more valuable than a fence. Where does
the sound come from? Does it play music? Would it zap the bastards under the
snow?” Danny’s mind was in overdrive, thinking about their defence over the
coming winter. He was as freaked out as everyone else at the thought of zombies
crawling under the snow. Next they’ll be able to swim and grab us as we’re
fishing, he thought, we’ll never be able to swim in the lakes; they’ll
overshadow the whole area like sharks in the water.

“All you need is an MP3 player.”

“Or
an
iPhone with music?” Danny asked,
continuing the train of thought.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’ve got everything from
Everlast
to Beethoven on my phone; there must be something the buggers don’t like.
Something with a lot of bass I’d guess would do the trick.”

“Who knows, but I like the idea. Let’s get this onto the
helicopter and do a run with some other supplies to make the trip back
worthwhile.”

“Well, there’s loads of ammo in one of the side rooms,”
Danny suggested. “We need to train up the non-shooters among us and that’ll
take loads, I’m sure.”