Zepp, J J Read online

  Then came the growling, low pitched and hungry and the sound of claws scratching on tile.

  I cradled the AK into my shoulder and curled my finger around the trigger. If they charged me in such a confined space I was done for. My best chance was to fire a pre-emptive blast into the darkness and then shoot out the plate glass at the front and make my escape that way. Of course, that would give away my position to the men in the Hummer.

  I heard another low growl from the shadows and started to tighten my finger on the trigger when a dog trotted out from the darkness. He was a big guy, with a fox-like face and a brindle colored coat with a white patch on his chest. His tail curled tightly over his back.

  The dog looked much the worst for wear with a matted coat and ribs clearly protruding from his flanks. He looked at me quizzically, his head tilted to one side. Then he sniffed the muzzle of the AK, following it along to sniff my hand, my face, and finally gave my ear a cursory lick. Then he lifted his leg and peed on my boots.

  The dog suddenly became alert and I saw the hackles rise on his back. A low growl began to vibrate in his throat. I heard it too then, scratching from above.

  I lifted my eyes slowly towards the ceiling where some of the panels had collapsed, exposing the floorboards from the apartment upstairs.

  Thin slivers of light crept through between the boards and I could see something moving around up there. A slight shift attracted my attention and I saw a bloodshot eye peering through a knot-hole in the floorboard.

  For a second I held its insane gaze and then I heard sniffing, like a dog scenting a trail and knew they had picked out the smell of my bloodied hand. I heard an angry snap, and what sounded like words spoken in some guttural tongue. Something collided hard with the floorboard and I heard it crack. Debris loosened from the damaged ceiling and crashed down into the restaurant.

  All of this happened in a split second and then I was heading towards the back of the restaurant. I figured there had to be a way out into an alley or something, and if I could use that I might be able to avoid the Hummer crew.

  Behind me I heard another loud crack, and the dog barking. I reached the back door and it was locked. The barking was more insistent now, and then it changed to high-pitched yelps.

  I looked back to see the restaurant filling with dust. Then the first of the things dropped through the hole in the ceiling and landed in a crouch. I could see the dog cowering down and then the Zombie moved towards it with improbable speed.

  I leveled to AK and fired, felt it kick, saw the Zombie go down. As I turned towards the door I fired two shots at the lock then applied my boot to it. It flew open and I slipped through, half turning as I did to see more of the things dropping into the restaurant.

  Through the plate glass I saw the Hummer come skidding to a halt in the street outside. I could hear the dog alternately barking and yelping as I exited into a small yard protected by a high fence topped with razor wire. To one side there was a row of garbage cans, to the other, several gas cylinders, in between the two was a gate, secured with a chain and padlock.

  I fired at the padlock on the run and saw it shatter. Then I was through the gate and in the alley. From the restaurant, I heard shots, and someone was screaming.

  I turned to see the dog sprint through the gate and then several of the things pouring through the back door of the restaurant into the fenced yard.

  I knelt in a firing position and got off a burst at the gas canisters. They exploded spewing flame and shrapnel and destroying everything in the yard. Two Zombies were aflame and dancing like demonic shaman.

  The dog came running towards me, passed me and just kept going.

  I exited the alley at the next road, made a right and then another, bringing me back to about half a block from Giuseppe’s. The Hummer was standing in the road, its door thrown open, I could hear shots being fired from the restaurant.

  I headed in that direction, keeping close to the storefronts, then breaking cover and making a dash for the Hummer when I was close enough.

  The vehicle was empty and idling. I jumped in, threw the shift into drive and put my foot on the accelerator. The car lurched forward, its passenger door flapping, then swinging shut.

  In the rearview mirror I saw three men run into the street. They started firing and bullets bounced off the rear window. Then suddenly the vehicle listed to one side and veered out of control. I turned hard on the wheel but it refused to obey. I felt the car become airborne and then spin slowly, as if in slow motion. It hit the ground hard and the last thing I remember was seeing sparks that reminded me of Stanley Tucci’s fireworks display.

  fifteen

  I surfaced slowly, like a diver hoping to avoid the bends. I was lying on my back on a cold hard surface. Bright lights were shining into my face and I could make out four shapes hovering over me.

  “Is it him?” one of the shapes said, a male voice.

  “Could be,” another man replied, “hard to be sure.”

  “So what if it is?” a third voice said. “I say we just feed him to the Zs”

  “Seconded,” the first voice said, “payback for Clint.”

  “Clint was an asshole,” voice three said.

  “Still.”

  “You chuckleheads want to shut the fuck up a second so I can figure this out?” a new voice said.

  Then after a while he spoke again, “Right, here what we going to do. This ain’t the dude. I know it. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do. You fuck nuts wouldn’t understand, it’s called being in charge.”

  “Sure looks like his picture, boss,” one of the others said.

  “Yeah and I look like Elvis and I don’t see any of you bunching up your panties and throwing them at me.”

  It was silent for a while and then the boss said, “Put him in with Clint.”

  “Boss?”

  “With Clint!” the boss shouted.

  “Er, boss, I think he’s trying to say something”

  The man leaned closer to me and I could see his bald head and thick, black-rimmed glasses. “Crackers, I said, “Ritz Crackers.”

  Then I passed out.

  When I came round again, I was in a cell, or more aptly a cage, like a police lockup with no walls, but bars on every side. I had a pounding headache and my midriff felt like I’d gone twelve rounds with a pretty good body puncher. There was also a dull throbbing pain in my palm and when I examined it, it was raw and slightly swollen.

  I was curled up on a cot in the corner of the cell. I sat up slowly, squinting against the brightness. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed that there was another man in the cage. He was lying on the floor in a fetal position in a pool of his own vomit.

  Next to him there was a tin plate, and in it, the remains of a meal, now congealing in bluish puke. The man was wearing a pair of camouflage combat pants, and a brown military t-shirt that had a ring of blackened blood around the collar. There was a circular wound in a bite pattern on his neck, but it seemed to be a bruise, rather than a bite wound.

  Just then I heard voices and footsteps approaching so I lay back down and pretended to be asleep.

  “Still out,” somebody said, and then I heard something raked across the bars and a voice shouting, “Wake up you lousy deadbeats!”

  “Cut that shit out!” another voice, that sounded vaguely familiar, shouted, “Bring that chair here, yes that fucking chair put it here, right here I want to be the first to see this.”

  “Holy crap, boss,” someone said, “That bite on Clint’s neck, it’s almost cleared right up.”

  “Yeah, well maybe the Pendragon Corporation got something right for once.” It was silent for a moment and then he added in a Bella Lugosi b-movie voice, “But then again, maybe not.”

  He broke into hysterical laughter and after a while his men joined him with a few uncertain chuckles.

  I opened my eyes a crack and could see a bald man sitting in a chair. Three other men were gathered around him but from my position, I could only see
their legs.

  “Fuck it,” the bald man said, “I haven’t got all day, fetch the fire hose.”

  “Yes, boss!” one of his men said with enthusiasm. He trotted off and returned after a few seconds.

  “Well, one of you chuckleheads get back there and turn the fucking thing on!” the boss shouted.

  I heard footsteps and after a moment a faint hiss and then a burst of water hit me square in the face and took my breath away.

  I staggered to my feet and the man holding the hose redirected his burst at my chest. I was pushed backward and clattered into the bars of the cell. The guy on the floor was lying in a puddle of water now, but still he slept.

  “Turn it off!” I heard the boss shout and the water was cut off instantly. I slumped to my knees feeling like I’d just been punched by Big George Foreman.

  “And get a mop!” the boss was shouting, “I get water on my shoes, and someone’s gonna pay!”

  One of his henchmen ran off and returned momentarily with a mop and bucket.

  “You!” the boss shouted at me, “What are you doing in my town!”

  Even if I’d wanted to answer, I didn’t have the breath for it. Instead I pulled myself up, using the bars. The man facing me, I was sure, was Stanley Tucci, he even bore a slight resemblance to the actor, except that he wore thick, black-framed glasses.

  “I asked you a question mister! What were you doing in my…”

  “I needed a car,” I spluttered.

  “Oh, and you thought you could just waltz onto a lot and jack one? Doesn’t anyone have any principles anymore? Is lawlessness now the norm in this country?”

  Behind him one of his men was mopping the floor, while the other two stood, arms folded and looked at me. One of them resembled a military man, all crew cut and bulging muscles. The other looked like a professional wrestler gone to seed.

  Tucci though was different, a slight guy in a blue pin-striped suit and a white open-necked shirt. He could have been a Wall Street stockbroker.

  “You killed one of my men,” Tucci said, “got another one all bit up.”

  “I didn’t kill…”

  “Don’t interrupt! he screamed. He glared at me with his complexion turning an angry shade of pink. I could see a vein pulsing at his temple.

  “You killed one of my men,“ he repeated, “You lured my men into a trap and the Z’s got one of them. The other one, Clint here, got bit up pretty bad.” He indicated the man on lying on the floor, who had yet to regain consciousness.

  “Fortunately for you, our employers have seen fit to provide us with the means to treat such injuries. Unfortunately, for you our employers are incompetent assholes, and the stuff they give us usually doesn’t work.”

  He looked now at the man on lying on the floor and said in a mock-disappointed tone, “Ah, see what I mean?”

  His men clamored round for a better look, and one of them said, “Ahh, man!”

  I looked over at Clint and saw that the wound on his neck had started bleeding.

  “Wake him up!” Tucci said.

  “Ah boss, I ain’t going in there,”

  “Use the mop you idiot!”

  The man extended the mop through the bars and started to poke at Clint’s prostrate form, which remained immobile. The neck wound seemed to be worsening, with blood now seeping from it like syrup rolling off a stack of waffles.

  Suddenly, Clint started to twitch.

  “Atta boy, here we go now,” Tucci said. “Come on, Clint, you can do it.”

  A low moan escaped from Clint and he pulled himself onto his knees and grabbed the bars with both hands.

  “There you go,” Tucci encouraged and then he let out an insane giggle and said, “Oh what fun!”

  He squatted down on his haunches and went face to face with Clint. “Come on,” he said, “do it for your old boss man.”

  Slowly, painfully, Clint pulled himself to his feet. He stood clinging to the bars with both hands, his well-muscled back turned to me.

  “Jesus, he looks like crap!” one of Tucci’s men said.

  “Shut up,” Tucci responded, “You’ll hurt his feelings.” Then to Clint he said, in the sweet voice of a pre-school teacher, “Oh Clint, I‘ve got a little surprise for you. Now close your eyes and turn around, no peeking now, turn around, go on.”

  Clint started turning slowly around. He was shorter than me, but he quite obviously worked out and paid special attention to his biceps, which were huge.

  That wasn’t what caught my attention though. What caught my attention was the ragged hole that had miraculously reappeared in his neck, and the incisors that seemed somehow too big for his mouth, a mouth that now trailed a thick line of saliva.

  Amazingly, he’d obeyed Tucci’s command to keep his eyes shut, and stood there like a five-year-old playing a game of hide-and-seek.

  “You can look now,” Tucci whispered close to his ear, and Clint’s eyes instantly flew open and I could see straight away the yellowing effect of the virus.

  I was ten feet from him in a locked cell with nowhere to hide, no weapon I could use and virtually no chance of getting out alive.

  Clint took a step forward and then kicked out at the tin plate, which still lie on the ground. It flew across the floor like a lethal Frisbee, missing my shins by a whisper and becoming lodged between the bars.

  “Get him, Clint,” one of the men said and then Clint waded forward, swaying his torso like a man walking in thick mud.

  The only thing I had available to me was the cot, so I moved quickly to my right and got behind it, putting a barrier between me and him. He tried to round the cot to the right and I feinted left, then when he went left, I moved right.

  “Come on!” one of the man shouted like a disappointed punter at a rather tame boxing match.

  “Sick him!” I heard Tucci scream.

  Clint now stood at the head of the cot, while I was at the foot. I grabbed hold of the metal bedstead and pushed it upwards so that I had him jammed against the bars. With both hands grasping the bed frame I began to push forward, hoping to get a crush on him.

  But he was just too strong. I felt the cot being pushed backward, felt it topple and felt it come crashing down with me under it. My head hit the ground and I felt a burst of stars and a sharp jolt of pain as I bit my tongue.

  “He’s under the bed! He’s under the bed,” I could hear Tucci’s men shouting like kids at a pantomime.

  From my position under the bed I could see Clint’s boots and, to his right, the tin plate jammed between the bars.

  “He’s under the bed,” Tucci’s men continued to cue him and then I heard Tucci himself say, “Oh for Christ’s sake!”

  I crawled towards the tin plate, grabbed hold of it and yanked. On the second pull it came free with a metallic screech. It had been folded by being forced between the bars and I used that start to bend the two ends together. Then I bent it back and heard it snap.

  At that moment the bed was suddenly tossed aside and Clint hovered over me. He raised his boot and then brought it down ponderously. I rolled away and came up with half of the tin plate in my hand, it’s jagged edge outward.

  Clint blundered forward with hands outstretched. I swung and felt the metal plate cut deep into his bicep. It didn’t even slow him. He got both hands around my throat and rammed me back against the bars.

  “Kill him!” I heard Tucci scream.

  I still had the makeshift blade in my hands and I drove it now into Clint’s lower abdomen. He continued squeezing my throat and I could see his lips peel back from his teeth and his face slowly pushing forward towards mine. His breath smelled gangrenous.

  Using every ounce of my fading strength, I pulled upward on the blade and felt it slice through Clint’s guts. Something warm and slippery slithered across my hand and I heard the patter of blood raining down on the cold concrete of the cell.

  Clint’s gnashing teeth were just an inch from my face when he suddenly blinked and a look of confusion flash
ed across his features. I felt his grip loosen on my throat and then quite suddenly the yellow tinge faded from his eyes and they turned a muddy green. He slid to the floor like a broken doll.

  For a moment the men outside the cell looked on with matching expressions of astonishment on their faces.

  Then Tucci broke the silence, “I always knew Clint was a pussy,” he said. “Now get this mess cleaned up. Then take this superhero up to the roof and throw him off. On second thoughts, take him over to the BOK Tower and throw him off there. Let’s see if he can fly.”

  sixteen

  One of the Resurrection men, the paunchy one, covered me with a rifle while another told me to turn round and back up to the bars. Then he slipped a pair of cuffs on me and the paunchy guy opened the cell door.

  They led me through what looked like a police station house and out onto the street. It was a beautiful morning with clear skies overhead. I wondered how long they’d held me here and wondered about Babs. Chances were Babs was dead by now and chances were I was going to be joining him soon.

  We walked down a street lined with office blocks and hotels and boutiques, and but for the absence of people and the stalled cars in the streets, we could have been strolling to an early appointment or going for a frappe at the local Starbucks.

  I found myself hoping that we’d run into some Z’s, which might create a diversion and maybe, just maybe, give me a chance to escape. But, as luck would have it, on the one day of my life when I would have been happy to see a Z they seemed to have all taken the day off.

  After a few more blocks we turned into a street marked by a sign as East 2nd Street and I could see a tall building that somewhat resembled the old World Trade Center. Not as tall of course, but still I made it at least 50 floors.

  “There’s your launch pad, superman,” one of the men joked.

  “Don’t know what you’re so fucking joyful about,” the other said. “We’re the one’s that have to walk up 52 floors. And down again. At least this asshole only has to make the journey one way.”