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  Zombie Rush 4

  By Joseph Hansen

  CHAPTER ONE

  Childhood’s End

  Cat closed the eyes of her friend as she lay within the circle of helpless people. Helpless to stop what had already happened, helpless to save Ally’s life, helpless to stop Benson from bleeding out, and helpless to make herself feel whole again. As helpless and useless as Cat herself was … had been. He had grabbed her and used her own gun to kill the only friend she had left in the world, and she had been helpless to stop him. Helpless, useless … wasted. She started to cry, and Carlos—who had rushed over—helped her to her feet and held her while she struggled with her emotions.

  Benson is hurt!

  She turned to Benson; he was being cared for by one of the soldiers who carried a med bag. The black girl who had come in on the APC held a cloth tightly to his thigh, where massive amounts of dark-colored blood seeped through and puddled under him. His skin was drained of color as his unconscious head hung to the side. A stretcher was pulled out of the APC and soldiers quickly rolled him onto it as the medic tied a tourniquet and finished hooking up an IV. The hospital was a good half mile away, but at Colonel Jeffers instructions, four soldiers—along with the medic—lifted the stretcher, moved out, and maintained a fast run until they reached the hospital.

  Cat scanned the crowd that was looking toward her for direction, her eyes rimmed red. Malcolm looked at her encouragingly while the colonel appeared more as a bird of prey, looking to pounce on a rodent. Most, however, looked upon her expectantly; it was that which she responded to.

  “Carlos, will you and your men take care of Ally before you head back to the front?”

  “Roger, Council Member Krupp,” Carlos said formally, as much for the colonel as anyone else. His formal tone snapped Cat back to the task at hand even more. It forced her to realize that she was the one being looked upon to lead at the worst of times. She smiled reassuringly at the guard soldier, who returned it without so much as a twitch to his features.

  She turned to the newcomers who had come in after their ordeal with Web up on the roof. “We have all new people go through a checkup over at the hospital. There, you will be allowed to clean up and get some fresh clothes, as well as have any medical issues you may have taken care of. There is a waiting list, but it has to be done before you can mingle with the general populace.”

  Kodiak and Charlie had already left for the hospital. Although Cat didn’t know them, she saw where they were headed and suspected they were the ones Lisa sent from Benton to hunt Web. They weren’t described to Cat but it was more that they moved as if they had some sort of purpose or authority. They looked like they belonged.

  “At the main feed lot, you will be assigned sleeping arrangements until you get more settled, as well as tasks where your skill sets may contribute most. If you have any issues, you may contact any council member or me. Their pictures have been posted on the board in the hospital; please look at it and learn who they are because they are your voice.” Cat finished and waited for questions before she looked toward the colonel.

  “Thank you for your assistance, Colonel, I appreciate it. Any advice or information that you may have will surely be welcome. Have accommodations for you and your men been arranged?” Cat asked, not having been privy to the conversation the colonel had previously had with Benson.

  “Yes; we will be at the school. Please send any other military personnel there as they come in.” The colonel was not sure how much of his conversation with Benson really mattered now … especially if he died.

  “I will inform them of your location.” Cat was suddenly wary. She turned and walked away. She didn’t know why the colonel set her on edge, but she trusted her instincts; he made her feel more like lunch than the person in charge.

  Fuck, what should I be doing now? Web? The compound? The compound. “Malcolm, what do we need to do for the repopulation of the airport neighborhoods?”

  “Practically did itself, Cat. We have a triage center down there, which has helped tremendously. The woman stationed there is a nurse—or at least she was in Puerto Rico—and she doesn’t want to leave her home. Eventually we will get her into the hospital, but like most people, she is more than a little shaken up by everything.”

  “Cat, here.” A woman stepped out of a minivan and shoved a satellite phone into Cat’s hands. “It’s Lieutenant Reynolds.”

  “Hi, Lisa. Yeah … uh … things didn’t turn out so well on this end.”

  “You should have killed him outright.”

  “Me? I didn’t even get close to him until it was too late. Then he took my gun and killed Ally while a giant dog attacked Benson and, well … he got away.”

  “A giant dog, huh?” Lisa replied, knowing which dog it had been. God damn it, how can I be so fucking stupid? If it comes from Web, it’s bad. I should have killed Sedge as soon as I saw the transmitter. Fuck, why didn’t I? Lisa questioned herself as she stared at the small piece of bone in her hand that her thumb unconsciously rubbed.

  “Yeah, some big guy with a spear caught the dog and killed him.”

  “Dean. That’s Dean. Is he still there?”

  “No, he went after Web.”

  “The three of them?”

  “No, Web cut up the pretty girl’s face really badly so the kid walked her over to the hospital,” Cat said, trying to remember everything that had happened, while stifling her grief. She had to be tough; there was no one else. Yet she couldn’t stop the tears as she thought about Ally.

  “So Dean went after Web alone? Fuck!” Lisa was amazed at how much damage was caused by that bastard. “Listen, it’s not your fault. I’m sorry about Ally, but you have to pick up the reins. Neither your dad nor I can come back right now, so you got to pick up and run with it. Can you do that?”

  “I got it, Lieutenant. Any instructions?” Cat said as she choked back her emotions.

  “Keep expanding and repopulating the areas we claim. Move toward the hotels and apartment buildings; they should be easier to maintain and they hold more people.”

  “Roger.”

  “Take it easy, Cat.” Lisa silently wished there was more she could say to ease her pain, but there wasn’t. “Here’s your dad,” Lisa said and then passed the phone over to Krupp.

  “I wish I could be there with you, Cat, but things are tough out here so you’re just going to have to step up to the plate,” Krupp said as he watched Lisa’s face. He noticed Lu shift into a stance that suggested she was slightly annoyed, but annoyed at what? She looked at Krupp with bored eyes that quickly flashed to anger when he paid any attention to Lisa. The fact that she was out here while they prepared for the horde was absurd. He regretted ever meeting her … until night came—the times when he took a few private moments to rest and she so willingly provided comfort. Comfort he resisted and denied at first, until she persisted just a little more. The cool evenings warmed up quickly as he acquired release and passion without the complication of caring.

  “I love you too, honey,” he said to his daughter as he ended the call. Krupp shifted his focus back to Lisa. “I hope we haven’t stretched ourselves too thin.”

  “I think
we absolutely have stretched ourselves too thin,” Lisa replied. “How could we not? I’m hoping that as people come in, some leaders will step up. This is the beginning of a very long war, my friend; I damn sure hope that we are not alone in it.” Lisa stopped talking as a scent came to her that she couldn’t believe was real.

  “What the hell is that?” Lisa’s taste buds started to sweat, and an audible stomach growl came from Skit.

  “Oh, a freezer on one of the reefers broke down. It had thirty thousand pounds of chicken in it. It sat for over a day and was close to spoiling, so they decided to feed everyone fried chicken for the next couple of days,” Krupp said just as a steaming pan of the glorious bird was brought into the tent.

  They all gathered around, staring at the heap of grease and protein, each of them afraid to take the first bite in case it was an illusion. Lu reached out timidly, breaking the trance as each of them reached in for their share while napkins and sodas were passed around. Needs of survival had overwhelmed the needs of the situation and fresh fried chicken was just what the doctor ordered.

  The tent was soon filled with the sounds of rustling napkins, chewing food, and soda cans being opened. For a fleeting moment, in spite of all of the bad happening, life was good.

  *

  Skit, Lisa, and Tonka left the tent where they had gathered for planning after the blast. They found Mitch and Temple waiting for them by the Chrysler 300.

  “Hi, Mitch,” Lisa said as she handed a bag of fried chicken to each of them. Temple looked in the bag as if he had never seen chicken before, then he shrugged and closed up the bag.

  “Mitch, I’m going to send you with the med team. They’re going to hit some clinics and smaller facilities to get what we may need for equipment; you can point out which might be best for our purposes. Stay out of the major hospitals; we’ll hit those as a group after we get more shooters. Nobody dies this time around, all right? We have too much of that happening lately as it is. Temple, you’re going to be our official car watcher so hop in back and play with your tablet,” Lisa said, not expecting much from the man except that he was alive and had a brain they might someday have a use for.

  “Very well, Lieutenant. I have come up with some theories that you might be interested in, if you would care to listen,” Temple said, freezing everybody in their tracks. Nobody knew what he had been working on and, although they all wanted to hear what the geeky man had to say, they prayed it wasn’t how to cut costs or streamline their work force. Lisa had hopes that it was a solution to their current situation, but doubted it because Temple was brilliant but flawed; he only had the ability to focus on one goal until it was complete. He would focus with singularity and extreme detail on a situation, but seeing much beyond that exceeded his capabilities.

  “Go ahead, Temp,” Lisa said as she looked at him over the car’s roof.

  “Well, I have been studying the dead—or zombies, if you will—and I am noticing that their bodies are still prone to the natural decay of any human being. The pallor mortis was evident initially and should stay a constant throughout the decay process. The algor mortis seems to be quite delayed—or I am unable to detect it in a standing corpse—as it should have happened within the first hours of death. I am noticing the effects of livor mortis, which would be displayed in the bloating of the ankles as they fill with fluids and should result in slowing them down. But the thing that is most noticeable is the rigor mortis. Typically, three days after rigor mortis passes, the body moves into the secondary flaccidity phase of decomposition, but it hasn’t yet; at least not to any of them that I have seen. However, I am seeing signs that it eventually will,” Temple said as if he were talking to a panel of colleagues.

  “I understood maybe a quarter of that, Temple. Please try and explain yourself in terms that I can understand,” Lisa said.

  “He is saying”—Mitch jumped in—“that the body is still going through the natural decay process and it’s just a matter of time before their bodies just won’t work anymore. Isn’t that right, Temple?”

  “Yes, that is exactly right. The problem is that the decay process has been severely retarded by something but should soon reach that secondary flaccidity phase.”

  “Okay, what is the secondary flaccidity phase, Temple?” Lisa prodded.

  “It’s where the muscles have acquired so much decay that the tissue damage should prevent their use, even on the most rudimentary level.”

  “How do you know this?” Skit jumped in, trying to speed things up.

  “Well, when I combine my visual gatherings with the smell of decomposition in the air, the fluid settling, as well as the bloating process, I would say that it is only a matter of time before they resolve themselves into a natural state of immobilization and, eventually… true death,” Temple said without emotion.

  The three of them stared at him as if he had dropped a grenade—which, in a way, he had. They had resigned themselves to a life of fighting hordes of undead, and now they were told it wouldn’t last forever and may be over sooner rather than later.

  “How much time?” Skit asked with a slight smile cracking his lips.

  “I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I should be able to with access to certain data banks.”

  “Well, what do you need?” Lisa asked. “Do you want an office or a house? Something where you have more room? This is important stuff here, Temp. If you can figure it out, we would like to know.”

  “Well, for now, being with you and observing the situation better would help most. The calculations themselves will only take a couple of days.”

  Mitch placed his hands on his hips as he leveled a gaze halfway between glare and stare. “So this nightmare is going to end all by itself; that’s what you are saying, right?”

  “Nothing is definite at this point; it’s all theory and conjecture, but I think so … yes,” Temple responded.

  Lisa redirected the group back to their present situation. “Okay, this doesn’t change a thing at this moment. Let’s go about our assignments, and keep all this to yourself for now. Remember, nobody dies today, all right?”

  “Shouldn’t we at least tell Tasha at the station so she can get the word out?” Skit asked, feeling that news like this should go viral.

  “All we have is speculation at this point, Skit. Keep your eyes open and see if it comes to pass on at least one before we start shouting it to the world,” Lisa replied. “First we survive, right?”

  “Right,” Mitch and Skit said as Temple climbed into the back seat with his tablet and sat next to Tonka. Mitch headed off to join up with the med-evac crew and Skit hopped into the driver’s seat as an operator came to the window and handed him a box of face masks.

  “Wear these until you’re a mile past the kill zone and north of the interstate. Operators have been commenting about blood mists coating their windshields, and a couple people have been vomiting. We don’t know if it will hurt you, but why take the chance when we have a lot of these available?”

  Once they were all masked, they headed down the smaller state highway that ran parallel to the interstate. It only took a couple of minutes for blood splotches to appear upon their masks.

  The sky looked overcast with reddish-gray clouds, but was blue in a 360-degree turn on the edges. Lisa knew that, being a windless day, the clouds over them were what they had created the day before. She studied them and believed she could see tints of red from all of the zombie blood they had blasted into the atmosphere. That was a factor she never considered; how much infection did they spread around themselves with the explosions?

  On impulse, she grabbed the radio and checked the frequency to make sure it was on the number that most of the workers were on.

  “Attention, everyone. This is Lisa Reynolds. We need everyone to be hyper vigilant in watching each other today. There is a mist of blood and other things in the air, and we don’t know how that could affect us as individuals. Keep masks on and if anyone collapses, we need you to isolate and w
atch them. If they revive normally, carry on with your business. If they die, then you need to contact someone in charge immediately. Out.”

  Lisa set the radio down and gave a quick smile to Skit, who was about to say something until the radio flared to life. It was Emerson, one of the front-end loader drivers.

  “I had three go down so far today. All of them revived, but were sicker than dogs. I had them taken to the triage at the Kum-and-Go on Exit 123. Over.”

  “Were they ambulatory, Emerson? Over.”

  “No, we carted them. They claimed to have trouble breathing, had lost their color, and were weak. Other than that, it seemed as though they would survive. Over.” A dead space filled the frequency before a new voice came on.

  “This is Janice at the Kum-and-Go on Exit 123. One of the men brought to us has gone ballistic. He tried to kill one of our care providers and the other two seem to be agitated. One is getting very agitated, and the other looks to be on death’s door but restless. Over.”

  “Janice, this is Lisa. I need you to watch them closely and restrain the one who is getting agitated; we don’t know what kind of effect this mist could have. Is there a way we could purge their lungs? Over.”

  “Not with what we have here—if it can be done at all. I suppose we could find a way to make them sneeze. Sounds silly, but it should clear a lot of crap out for them. Over.”

  “I would think mists of zombie blood would kill them, Janice. Do what you think is best; just don’t let them come back as infected. Out.”

  “Roger and out.”

  “Let’s go find your kids, Skit.”

  “We’d better hurry; that smoke tells me that half the city is on fire.”

  “That will be new,” Lisa said, wondering what could possibly happen next.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Kids

  There was a point when the Little Rock assault force had to deal with a mass of late-coming Zs lagging behind the ones destroyed the day before on the outskirts of the city. Seven skid steers were unloaded and went to work on the mass. The larger equipment stayed trailered until they reached one of the primary destinations of either a major hospital or food bank, or a horde too large for the smaller, lighter equipment.