The Zombie Virus (Book 1) (25 page)

“Move! Move!” I shouted at Kera when the
crowd at the dock shifted our way. Without hesitating she picked up
her shotgun and jumped down into the dumpster. I followed her with
a rifle under each arm. We bounded out of the dumpster on the
opposite side from the approaching crowd of infected and
immediately beat feet up the pavement as fast as our legs could
carry us.

The horde picked up their pace when they
spotted us. We hopped the curb and rushed up an embankment to a
back road that was thankfully clear. I kept glancing over my
shoulder at the gaining mob. There must have been two hundred of
them now.

Kera suddenly veered away from me when we
approached a cross street, dropped to the ground, rolled into the
curbside opening of a sewer and disappeared into its dark interior.
Her pack briefly caught on the lip as she slid out of sight.

The Loonies were approaching fast, just
seconds away from reaching me. I jigged to the right after Kera,
sliding the pack off as I dove for the opening. I threw both rifles
into the squat rectangular hole and shoved my pack in behind them
letting its weight help pull me through head first. The concrete
scraped both of my elbows raw as I squirmed through the tight
opening. I fell nearly five feet to the hard, wet bottom, knocking
the breath out of me.

Kera was sitting in the water beside me, her
breath coming in gasps. I sat up, picking up the rifles and the
pack from a gurgling stream of dirty water and slinging them over
my shoulders. I attached my rifle back to its chest rig and cinched
it tight.

The bright daylight flooded down from the
rectangular opening a couple of feet over my head and into the
small box we found ourselves in. Concrete tubes maybe thirty-six
inches in diameter led off in two different directions.

Kera put her hand over her mouth to muffle a
scream. An arm reached through the bright opening clawing for us,
followed by the rage-distorted face of a male Loony, its bearded
face grime covered. It snapped its teeth at us and snarled,
squeezing further into the entrance. I could see the shadowy shapes
of many more around it.

With a whimper, Kera started crawling down
one of the dark pipes, her soaked sweatpants barely hampering her
flight into the unknown.

Shit! I thought to myself and followed her
into the blackness of the tunnel. I fucking hate confined places! I
had the presence of mind to switch on my headlamp as I scrambled on
elbows and knees, splashing through the water after her. My stomach
tightened when I heard the thump of a body falling into the space
behind me. I had to belly crawl because of the pack and the rifle
on my back, which was made all the more difficult with the Colt
rifle strapped tightly to my chest, but fear was an amazing
motivator and I scrambled down the dank, dark tunnel with amazing
speed.

I kept urging Kera to move faster. They were
in here with us. I could hear a scraping noise behind me in the
dark as they clawed their way after me. I wished that I could be up
on the street in the bright, hot summer sunshine, anywhere but down
here in this tight coffin of cement.

I pushed on, near panic, not only from what
was behind me, but also from being trapped in this cramped, dark
place so far underground. Claustrophobia wrapped its confining
walls of dread tighter about me, threatening to overwhelm me with
its fear induced panic.

The hair on the back of my neck rose. A
slithering sound and heavy breathing reached my ears from close
behind me. I could hear many bodies pulling themselves after me.
The sugary sweetness of their odor wafted past me in the cool, damp
air.

Kera hadn’t turned on her light. She plunged
ahead into the darkness in full-blown panic, emitting gasping sobs
as she wormed her way down the sloping tunnel, my light
illuminating her pumping legs. The repetitive clank of her shotgun
against the hard cement echoed eerily past me sounding like some
peg-legged pirate running through the dark .

Something clawed at my boot and I screamed. I
bumped my head hard against the roof, knocking out my light.
Blackness engulfed me.

My brain was immobilized with utter panic and
adrenaline gave me a burst of speed. I was in pitch-blackness now
with bloodthirsty creatures filling the tunnel behind me. My breath
was pumping from my lungs in loud, hoarse gasps and terror shot
through my veins. I didn’t want to die down here in this stinking
sewer!

I could see them in my mind’s eye, clogging
the tunnel like starving rats, fighting to get to us. Something
again grabbed my boot, firmly this time, and I rolled onto my back
in a panic. Another clawed hand grasped my leg and a low feral
growl rumbled from the darkness. I kicked hard with my free leg
into the utter blackness, trying to yank my other leg free of its
grasp. My boot connected solidly and the grip released.

I scrambled away on my back, crab-crawling in
a mindless attempt to escape. The small pack on my back and the two
rifles worked together in a tangle to halt my advance. I could hear
more growls and movement of many infected shimmying through the
hole in pursuit. I tried desperately to turn back over to free
myself from the jam, then a strong hand closed around my ankle and
yanked me savagely back up the tunnel. My breath stopped in a gasp.
Fear, like a cold, tight ball, formed in my stomach.

My hand searched frantically for the handgun
holstered at my hip and after what seemed like a lifetime my hand
closed around its welcomed grip.

The thing that had me was pulling itself
slowly up the length of my body and I could smell its rank breath
in the darkness.

I freed the gun, pushed it forward until it
contacted flesh, and pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening in
the enclosed space and a painful ringing filled my head. The weight
of the creature pinned my legs as it fell dead. It was yanked
roughly backwards off of me and another tried to take its place. I
shot the gun twice more up the length of the tunnel, then turned
onto my stomach and crawled as fast as I could away from the things
that pursued me in the thick darkness.

I could no longer hear Kera ahead of me. She
had never paused in her headlong rush to escape as panic pushed her
further into the confining drainpipe. I couldn’t blame her.

I crawled onward down the steep drain,
listening for any close sounds of pursuit. When I was able to get
my panic under control I stopped and carefully listened. Over the
ringing in my ears I could hear them far back behind me. I reached
up and fiddled with my headlamp and was awarded with the tunnel
being filled with its bright white light. I let out a whispered
‘thank you’ of relief.

I shined the light back the way I had come
and could see movement at the edge of the light’s illumination.
Fear tightened my chest again and I rolled over and continued my
sloshing, headlong crawl through the cold concrete tube.

The tunnel dumped out into another
rectangular concrete catch basin. Kera sat in the inch-deep water
in a ball, rocking with her arms tightly wrapped around her drawn
up knees. The shotgun lay next to her. She looked up at me with a
questioning look in her frightened eyes when I emerged from the
pipe.

Sunlight streamed down from the opening over
our heads with a powerful, warm brilliance. I wanted to escape into
its bright salvation.

“They’re close behind me,” I said
breathlessly in answer to her questioning stare. The concrete box
we found ourselves in was a twin of the one we started in except
for an extra drain piping into it.

“I’ve never been so scared,” Kera whispered,
shaking in fear.

“I know. Me neither.” I stood and looked out
the opening to the drain to a wide thoroughfare.

We must have crawled at least a block to the
next intersection. I could see across the road to the same pharmacy
we had been behind yesterday.

“I can hear them!” Kera squealed in terror.
She unwound herself and picked up the shotgun, backing away from
the pipe we had escaped from.

“Don’t shoot yet!” I warned her when she
pointed the shotgun at the drain’s opening. “If there are any of
the Loonies up on the street we don’t want to let them know we’re
here.”

“We gotta get out of here!” Panic was
building again in her voice. Her soaked sweatpants were nearly
falling off her hips.

I could hear the scratching of the
approaching creatures in the pipe getting closer.

“Come on, you go first. I’ll help you
out.”

She slid next to me in the tight quarters and
pushed her shotgun and pack through the opening which stood at
about her eye level. She grabbed the edge, I lifted her by the
waist, and she wiggled through and into the hot sun. I unslung my
rifles and pack and handed them through the tight rectangular
opening and then pushed my arms through into the comforting
daylight and started clawing my way out.

Kera grabbed me by my armpits and tried to
help pull me up and out of the small mouth of the storm drain. I
was almost there, my butt scraping against the top of the rim as I
inched my way onto the hot asphalt. Without warning I felt a
powerful hand close around my left calf and snatch me backwards
into the dark mouth of the drain.

“Pull, Kera!” I screamed in terror, kicking
with my free leg. Clawed hands were digging into the flesh of my
legs as they brutally tried to jerk me backwards. I rolled onto my
side and jammed my arms against the opening and tried pushing away,
fighting with all my strength against the pull of their iron
grip.

Kera let go of one arm and a fraction of a
second later the sound of the shotgun ripped through the quiet
street. She had shoved the barrel in the hole past me and pulled
the trigger. It gave me the momentary reprieve I needed to push
myself up and out of the confining drain. I scrambled away from the
opening as straining hands reached out for me.

“There’s more coming!” Kera cried.

I looked up and saw at least a dozen racing
toward us from several directions. I picked up my pack and guns and
sprinted across the intersection, dragging Kera by the hand behind
me. Halfway across she released my hand.

I looked back over my shoulder in time to see
Kera’s legs get tangled up in her wet, drooping sweatpants and she
tumbled to the pavement. A Loony threw itself over the trunk of a
stalled car and fell onto her back with a loud snarl. Before she
could even attempt to fight it off it grabbed a handful of her dark
hair and savagely rammed her head into the concrete. Her headlamp
took most of the blow and exploded into pieces. She kicked feebly
trying to free herself from his greater weight. I rushed back to
her, dropping the pack and a rifle.

He pulled up her head and again slammed it
down viciously onto the hard pavement. Blood erupted from her nose
and mouth. I ran up and used the short rifle as a club and batted
it across the temple. It rolled sideways then instantly bounded to
its feet, snarling at me. I turned the rifle around and shot it
through the forehead.

I glanced down at Kera, who lay unmoving in
an expanding puddle of bright red blood. I looked back up at the
closing swarm and shouldered my rifle. I sighted in on two more
Loonies who were only yards away and closing fast and shot them
both. I let the gun fall to my side and knelt down to the girl. A
light pain-filled moan escaped her torn lips, she was still
alive!

I gathered her up in my arms and ran as fast
as I could manage across the intersection, leaving behind our
packs, her shotgun and Holly’s rifle. Blood continued to pour from
her ravaged face and busted forehead, leaving a clear trail as I
ran to escape the pursuing Loonies.

Like déjà vu I found myself heading to the
same expanse of woods that we had been in last night. I was at the
end of my rope, I didn’t know what else to do or where else to go.
I didn’t want this girl to die on me.

I ran through the parking lot of the pharmacy
for the woods on the other side. At the last moment I changed my
mind and veered off toward the building. If Kera needed medical
attention, at least I might be able to find something to help her
in there. I prayed that the store would be free of Loonies during
the day.

I glanced back over my shoulder as I ran
through the broken doors; less than a dozen Loonies were chasing
us. I laid Kera down on the trash strewn floor and leaped to a
large magazine rack against the side wall by the entrance. I
muscled it over across the store’s threshold until it blocked the
doors. I spied a heavy looking open-topped case filled with Fourth
of July clearance items, and with considerable effort skidded it
across the linoleum floor to help block the entryway.

Hopeful that my handiwork would slow, if not
stop, the creatures from gaining easy access to the interior, I
grabbed Kera by the arms and dragged her deeper into the store,
leaving a bright smear of blood trailing after her.

Behind me, fists started banging on the metal
rack that blocked the entrance. I dragged Kera to the rear of the
store and hefted her over the pharmaceutical counter onto the
carpeted floor beyond. I laid her between the rows of shelves that
held the prescription medication. Her head and face looked swollen
with angry red and purple bruising. The skin of her forehead had
broken open in a long bloody gash and her nose and lips were split
and puffy. I was thankful she hadn’t lost any teeth.

I pulled off her wet, tangled pants and
tossed them aside, leaving her wearing her stained white shorts.
The sound of banging from the front of the store was growing
louder. I threw a lab coat that was hanging on a rack over her
prone body and raced down to the retail floor to gather supplies to
treat her.

I didn’t have the skills or knowledge that my
wife had, although I had enough first aid experience and knowledge
to be dangerous. I began throwing supplies in a hand-basket until I
had what I thought I needed. Someone was violently shaking the
metal shelving unit blocking the door and I chanced a peek around a
display case, however, I could only see shadowed movement on the
other side. So far the blockade was holding. I prayed that they
would just give up and go away if I kept quiet. My hopes weren’t
high.