The Zombie Chronicles - Book 6 - Revelation (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 11

  The bear swatted me to the ground with a single swipe, a lucky break for me, since I knew bears could decapitate a moose in one fell swoop of the paw. My rifle was thrown aside and hit the ground with a clang. The beast, now even more agitated, growled at me and came closer, but Lucas suddenly distracted it.

  It swiped at him, but he was quick as lightning and dodged the blow, then skillfully aimed and fired off a round. Lucas may as well have been using a fly swatter, because the gun was ineffective at bringing the creature down.

  Meanwhile, I crawled behind a metal trashcan and started firing off shots with my handgun. The bear was blocking the alleyway. As my eyes were darting around in search of an exit, the bear’s teeth suddenly crunched the trashcan I hid behind. Just as it went in for another bite with those snarling jaws, I grabbed the other metal trashcan to use a shield. The bear’s teeth sank into the aluminum, ripping it like tissue paper.

  Crap!

  Lucas grabbed my arm and pointed to a gap in a wooden door.

  Adrenaline flooded through me, fueling my legs to run toward the gap, with the terrifying teddy right behind us. My heart thundered as I squeezed through, with Lucas in tow.

  Inside, the building was completely dark, other than the small sliver of light coming through the crack that had saved our lives.

  We aren’t alone, I realized when undead moans sliced through the darkness, causing the hairs on the back of my next to rise. Part of me just wanted to start shooting, but I knew I needed to conserve ammo. The bear hadn’t left and continued to snarl and growl, pawing at the gap we’d sneaked through. “Lucas, we can’t stay in here!” I said.

  “If it’s only a couple of those slime-balls, I’d rather take my chances with them than the bear. Just gimme a second to find my flashlight, and we’ll see what we’re up against.”

  “Hurry! I can hear more than one.” Heavy breathing and raspy whispers echoed all around me, and for a moment, I considered that we might have been better off staying in the alley with the furry freak. I was suddenly seized with fear as something gripped my boot and squeezed.

  “Something’s got my foot!” Lucas yelled.

  “Mine too!”

  He shone his light downward, and I gasped. The floor was littered with hundreds of zombies, crawling on their stomach like snails because someone had cut off their legs.

  “What the…?” Lucas screamed.

  “I-I don’t know,” I stuttered, aghast. It didn’t seem to make sense, but I had no time to reason why because they were sliding and squirming toward me, snapping their jaws. I aimed my boot at the closest one, which was trying to gnaw on my leg like a drumstick, and I kicked it hard. Its head slumped to the side, and its bony fingers released its grip just in time for me to step back from another one that was reaching for me. I aimed and fired, killing anything that tried to sink its teeth into me.

  A shot rang out as Lucas pulled the trigger and nailed the zombie that was trying to make a meal out of him. “This is the craziest thing I’ve seen yet,” Lucas shouted.

  The gunfire drew the attention of a thin woman with short black hair, waving her arms frantically from the ledge on the second floor. “Go!” she screamed. “You have to get out of here!”

  I looked for stairs or a way up, but I didn’t see one.

  “Look, lady, we can’t go back out there. There’s this bear, and—” Lucas said, trying to explain our dire circumstances, but she didn’t care.

  “If my husband were here, he’d shoot you,” she yelled.

  “What’s with the zombie amputees?” I asked.

  “That’s our security system. It keeps the riffraff like you out of here!”

  “Why did you cut off their legs?”

  “We’re safe that way, me and my kids. They’ll bite anything that dares to come in here. If ya don’t believe me, ask the two thugs they bit last night. I still gotta fix that door.” When the bear roared, the woman cocked her head. “What the heck did you bring to my doorstep!?”

  Two more of creepy crawlers slithered toward me, one missing an eye and the other missing one and a half of its ears. I kicked the cyclops off and crunched its skull under the heel of my boot, and Lucas butted the other one with his rifle. In an instant more were nudging their way toward us, hissing and moaning. We knew we had to get out of there, but our odds with the bear didn’t seem much better.

  To make matters worse, the woman was aiming a rifle at us. “I’ll give ya ten seconds before I blow your heads off. Ten…nine…”

  Lucas looked at me, and I’d never seen such defeat and fear in his eyes before. “I can take her out,” he whispered.

  “No!” I said. “She’s a living person. You can’t just shoot her!”

  “…five…four…” she continued to count, waving the rifle at us.

  I didn’t want Lucas to shoot her, but I knew if I wasn’t there, he would have already done it. Truth be told, it was all about survival, and she really wasn’t giving us a choice. After all, facing the bear would be a certain death sentence.

  “Do you wanna live another day or what?” Lucas asked. “The only acceptable outcome is our survival, Dean—at all costs.”

  “I know, but…” I grabbed his arm. “She’s just trying to survive, like us. Please don’t do it. She said she has kids, and—”

  He pushed me away. “I’ll just wound her. She’s leaving me no other choice.”

  “…three…two…”

  CRASH!

  When the noise of the bear bursting inside boomed into my eardrums, my heart thundered. I screamed for the woman to throw a ladder or rope down, but she wouldn’t budge. I’d risked my life so many times for strangers, yet few were willing to do the same for me.

  The bear roared as it knocked bricks and concrete and drywall aside.

  As I aimed my gun at its head and fired, the crawling zombies became my allies, sinking their teeth into the furry flesh, clamping down on its leg until the pink meat under the skin began to show.

  The bear shook its head and roared even louder, then bit down into one of the zombies and started feasting.

  Lucas and I slowly walked along the wall and past it as it slurped on zombie intestines like it was eating linguini.

  Unfortunately, my shirt snagged a nail as I scrambled through the gap, tearing my shirt, but I barely felt the sting. Once we were in the alley again, I looked around for my rifle and found it lying on the ground by the shredded aluminum that had been garbage cans only moments earlier. I reached for my rifle and flung the strap over my shoulder.

  We took off down the alley as fast as we could. I dared one last look over my shoulder and saw the bear in the distance, chewing on zombie parts and bleeding from a gash in its leg.

  Up the alley, we passed by a dead zombie. I clearly saw four deep claw marks raked down its face, from its scalp to its decayed neck. Its head had been half-eaten, and I knew it was the work of our zombified bear. When I saw the Land Rover in the distance, I bolted toward it like it was the finish line in a marathon. I jumped in and screamed for Lucas to start the engine. When he fumbled for the keys, my heart stopped beating. The bear was right behind us, so close that I could see its white eyes and snarling jaws. “Go!” I shouted.

  Chapter 18

  Finally, the engine turned over, and Lucas stepped on the gas. I knew a bear could run forty miles an hour, so we had to push the truck faster than that. Unfortunately, the alley was cluttered with abandoned cars and debris, so there was no way to accelerate fast enough to outrun the bear.

  Suddenly, Lucas threw on the brakes, slamming me back against the seat.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. “Go!”

  He pointed out the windshield and shook his head. “Can’t,” he said.

  I looked in front of us and saw a huge yellow bulldozer, a crane, and some other sort of construction equipment that blocked us from going any farther. I glanced behind me, and fear coursed through my vein as the roaring bear charged. Taking a deep breath, I concentrate
d. I focused on my target, holding my finger on the trigger. I peered through the scope of my rifle, aimed straight for its broad head, then fired. After a loud blast, the bear crashed to the ground.

  “You did it!” Lucas shouted.

  I let out a sigh of relief. “Bear-ly,” I joked sheepishly.

  “Shut up. It’s dead, isn’t it?” Lucas said. “You nailed it with one shot between the eyes.”

  As we exited the truck and slowly walked over to examine the animal, I thought back to every horror movie I’d ever seen. The bad guys always popped back up again for one last hoorah. In no mood for round two, I aimed for the bear’s head, just in case. Its bitten leg was twitching, and its mouth was agape in a grotesque, unnatural-looking contortion, as if it had been frozen in a scream. I was sure it was dead, but just to be sure, I slowly touched its leg with my boot. The bear continued to twitch but didn’t move.

  “What’s a grizzly bear doing here?” I asked. “We’re not in California.”

  “True, but even more importantly, how did it become a zombie? If this virus is airborne, we’re screwed.”

  “I don’t think that’s the case. A lot of animals aren’t infected. If it was airborne, it would affect them all, but it hasn’t.”

  “Yet.” He blew out a breath. “But let’s try to remain optimistic. Maybe it only infects certain animals…but which ones?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know.”

  “That’s the big question,” he said. “We now know the virus can attack animals of any size. We’ve seen it affect dogs and raccoons, now a bear, and that one guy even mentioned a squirrel.”

  “Maybe somebody was keeping the bear as a pet or in a zoo or something, and an infected rat bit it,” I offered.

  “Or…maybe it got infected when it fed on zombies. He was crunching through them like a bucket of KFC back there. I guess it would help to know if the bear has been roaming around or was in a cage and broke out.”

  “Should we haul it back to the lab for tests?” he joked.

  “Right. We’re gonna strap a 1,200-pound animal on the hood.”

  “Gotcha ya! he laughed. “I just hope the carcass is still here when we get back. The straggler zombies will devour that thing like it’s Thanksgiving day. The scientists probably just need some tissue samples.” He grabbed a burlap sack from the back of the truck. “Let’s take its head. I’m sure they can get what they need from the brain. There’s a chainsaw in the back,” he said nonchalantly, as if it was something we did every day.

  “Uh…I’m not really the barbaric type,” I said.

  “The lab can’t run tests without samples, Dean. We need to contain this thing before it spreads across the world, if it hasn’t already. To do that, we need answers, and the only way the brainiacs are gonna get ‘em is if we run tests on this thing. It’s not like I’m some hunter looking for a trophy to hang on our apartment wall.”

  I knew he was right: There were so many questions, and the only way to answer them was for the scientists to examine the tissues. “Fine. Just do what you gotta do…but don’t mind me if I puke.”

  “Just for the record,” Lucas said, “that bear woulda gladly pinned you down the same way a cat pins down a mouse and eaten you alive, chunk by chunk, oblivious to your screams. He would’ve started by ripping the soft tissue from your legs and butt and—”

  I waved him away. It would have been a horrible way to go, and I didn’t even want to think about it. With my hands still shaking, I loaded a round into my rifle and slung it over my shoulder, just in case anything else decided to attack. I glanced at Lucas. “The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a stupid idea to get the head. You might be infected in the process, with all that blood and ooze flying around. Let’s just leave it alone. We can bring a team back to collect tissue samples.”

  “Seriously, I’m quite the butcher,” Lucas said, grinning evilly and turning on the chainsaw.

  “Um…as much as I believe you, I don’t think we should. It’s one thing to scoop up a dead animal and bag it all in one piece, but it’s another thing entirely to decapitate it. There’s not enough hand sanitizer in the world for that. And besides, if you needed a head, then why didn’t you just take the wolf’s? All you did was cut off the leg. So why can’t you do the same here? That’s much easier and less messy.”

  He playfully nudged me. “That’s what I planned on doing in the first place. Just wanted to yank your chain.”

  I shot him a glare because I wasn’t amused.

  He smiled. “I’m sorry. I like messing with you.”

  “Obviously.”

  “You’re so much fun and you get so worked up.”

  “Let’s just hurry up. This whole thing gives me the creeps. And be careful too.”

  I covered Lucas while he got our specimen, and then we took off for the lab.

  * * *

  When we got back to the lab, only Charlie was there, and all the others had left. Their protocol was to leave one person in the building at all times. I wondered how safe it was to leave anyone there alone, and I mentioned it to Charlie, but he assured me the place was always boarded up, tight and secure, and that the city was safe—at least for the time being. “There’s only a few stragglers,” he said, “and they aren’t much of a threat.” Still, he was armed with a rifle he’d looted from one of the raids, so I knew he was a bit rattled, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

  We told Charlie about all we’d encountered and presented him with the wolf parts and the bear leg.

  Stunned, he looked at me. “Wow. How does it feel to take down a grizzly?”

  “It was nothin’ for the best marksman in these parts,” I said, feigning humility.

  Lucas gave me a fist-bump. “You deserve a medal, and I guarantee your big bro and sis will be proud.”

  Charlie grabbed the bag. “I’ll run tests on these immediately and see what we can come up with.”

  “Great,” I said.

  “You boys oughtta head back to the apartment because this might take a while. I’ll inform you the second I learn anything.”

  “I think we’ll stick around for a while. We’ve gotta stay on top of this animal outbreak,” Lucas said. “We need to fix it before it spreads like wildfire.”

  “I know. It’s our top priority,” Charlie said. “Jonathon stayed up all night trying to figure out the cause. If it spreads to the entire animal population, we could be in more trouble than we already are.”

  He led us into the lab and showed us some of his findings, but all they’d really learned was what we already knew: The animals were infected with the zombie virus.

  Lucas and Charlie chatted for a while about guns, and Lucas gave him some tips about his new rifle. When Charlie left to go get his weapon, Lucas followed. He loved teaching people how to shoot, and I was happy to help him learn to be a sharpshooter, since I seldom ever missed a shot.

  While they were gone, I went downstairs to the kitchen to get some bottled water. Lanterns hung strategically and lit the way. Just as I was about to head upstairs, I thought about the ring that Val had found in the crack in that very corridor. I studied the area, wondering again how it had gotten there, since I’d given it to Jackie and had never seen her take it off. I pictured a scientist stealing the ring off her finger as they put Jackie in the bodybag. Then I imagined her rushing back into the building and hurrying up the stairs and dropping the ring. Didn’t she know she dropped it? Wouldn’t she have heard it hit the stairs? Did she have a confrontation of some sort and lose it in a fight, or did some guy steal it to give it to his wife or girlfriend or trade it for something? It suddenly dawned on me that my class ring would be of little value to anyone else, so stealing made even less sense. Nobody there would want my class ring, because it was certainly of no monetary value or sentimental worth to anyone but me and Jackie. Things were all about survival, so even diamonds had lost their worth next to things like knives, guns, food, and water. With that in mind, I could only imagin
e that the ring had to have fallen off of Jackie’s finger, and that made me wonder if they had, in fact, carried her body up the stairs, possibly for an autopsy.

  I headed upstairs and walked to the end of the corridor. I slowly checked every room, scanning every nook and cranny for any evidence. I sneaked past the room where Charlie and Lucas were talking, and they were too immersed in their guns-and-ammo conversation to even notice me. When I found nothing incriminating, I went back to the stairway, where the ring had been found.

  Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong, I thought. Maybe I should check downstairs. I grabbed one of the hanging lanterns and walked into the basement. As little Ben had said, it was quite the scary place, and it nearly took my breath away. I had to remind myself more than once that there were no zombies lurking in the building. Even still, I was overcome by a nightmarish vision of a pack of zombies coming out to devour me. I blinked the horrible thought away and took another daring step.

  Suddenly, I heard something: Footsteps, coming down the stairs! And the voices didn’t sound like Charlie or Lucas either. It was somebody else. I turned off my lantern and bolted behind a stack of towering crates, then whipped out my gun. I peered through the cracks between the wood slats and saw two scientists, one carrying a lantern and the other holding a crate with fluttering wings sticking out of it. Clucking? What are they doing with…chickens?

  They walked to the huge steel door and unlocked the padlock, then walked inside, leaving the door slightly ajar. From the room, a rattling moan whispered in the darkness, followed by a chorus of zombie moans.

  I held the lantern up high to see and hoped my heartbeat couldn’t be heard as it pounded behind my ribs. My gut said to run, but my legs seemed to be frozen to the concrete floor. I could hear the sounds, but I couldn’t see the zombies, and that made the whole thing even more unnerving. I desperately wanted to peek into the open door, but I didn’t want to risk being caught snooping around. They were obviously going to great efforts to hide something, and I wasn’t sure what they’d do to me if they found me down there. I decided to remain still and see what I could overhear as they spoke faintly.