The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (22 page)

Silently, Steven and I frantically waved until Rachel spotted us.

“Steven! Please help me!” she yelled.

As if on cue, loud music began to blare from the shop, and while I’d never been a fan of hip-hop, it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.

The corpses immediately turned their heads and began shuffling past us, as if they were hypnotized by the sound. Nick, Lucas, and Val had taught me well: Zombies were easily distracted, stupid, and predictable, and we could use that to our advantage.

“It’s working!” Steven said, his shoulders shrugging in relief.

I saw Ed frantically looking for us and tried to wave him over, but when he didn’t see us, Rachel pointed him in our direction.

“I put it high on a shelf,” Ed whispered. “I set it to repeat.”

“It’s clearing,” I said, “but just give it another minute to make sure.”

While we waited, I stared down at my scuffed, muddy boots. All of us stank to high heaven, even worse than the zombies.

Most of the undead had lumbered toward the open door of the antique store to investigate where the music was coming from. When we saw that the place was clear, we motioned Rachel to climb down and sprinted over.

She jumped into Steven’s arm, tears flowing down her face. “Thank you for coming, Steven. I knew you would!”

“Let’s go,” he said, yanking her hand.

“Look out!” Rachel screamed, pointing behind me.

I spun around and saw a zombie in a white, bloody dress with long, black fingernails reaching for me. Deep cuts stretched down her face. With a fierce kick, I delivered a thunderous blow. She flew back and hit a marble statue, then crashed into the grass. Steven tried to shoot her in the head, but I grabbed his arm to stop him. “Are you crazier than old Jim or what?” I whispered. “That’ll be their dinner bell!”

Ed grabbed Steven’s arm tightly. “C’mon, dude!”

We ran past all the swirling trash in the street and back to the manhole cover that we’d left slightly ajar for a quick escape. I pushed the heavy cover to the side and rushed down the metal rungs. My boots stomped over glass shards and through the green algae slime, and I almost slipped, but I managed to regain my balance by holding my arms out. I thought of my brother; if he had seen me down there in that wet, dark, cement tube, he would have freaked out.

Ed splashed in front of us as he led the way, his wavering flashlight beam illuminating the way, and I made a face as hundreds of cockroaches scurried across the wall.

Steven walked briskly through the tunnel, never letting go of Rachel’s hand. “Where’re Charlie and Amanda?” he asked.

“They’re…dead,” Rachel whispered, her chest heaving with ragged breaths. “Torn apart right before my eyes. It was awful, Stevie.”

“I’m sorry,” Steven said. “I wish we could’ve saved them too.”

“I know,” she said, her voice trembling. She then glanced up at me. “I’m Rachel.”

I walked faster to keep up with Steven. “I’m Dean. We’re staying at the lab with you guys for a few weeks.”

She shot me a sincere look of gratitude. “I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my life.”

I smiled. “I couldn’t leave you hanging on a statue, could I?”

She grinned back. “I guess not.”

After a few twists and turns, Ed abruptly stopped.

I peered into the dim light up ahead. I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear faint splashing and those awful groans I’d learned to dread. My stomach clenched, and I suddenly felt like a caged rat. Suddenly, the grass seemed much greener on the zombie-populated streets, where we had plenty of room to fight. The subterranean landscape was unfamiliar territory, and I knew the zombies had the advantage.

The wide tunnel suddenly split into three parallel chambers, and Ed led us down the one to the right.

After a few minutes, I began to hear a slurping sound, like something was eating. “You guys hear that?” I asked.

Ed shined his flashlight up ahead into the darkness, revealing human forms hunched over, sucking on something. One stood, and blood ran down its mouth as it held up a headless rat. It released a guttural howl.

“Zombies!” Ed whispered, trying not to alert them to our presence.

It was too late, though, because they immediately began scrambling through the murky water toward us. Their hungry moans pierced my ears.

Ed motioned us to take the next tunnel to the right.

I bolted, following his lead. When he abruptly stopped, I gazed around. “What?”

He shined his flashlight down on a thin string that served as a tripwire. “Careful, man.”

I glanced up and swallowed. Precariously hanging from the ceiling was a huge log with spears sticking out of it, a deadly trap that certainly wouldn’t feel very good if it slammed into anyone. I stepped over the tripwire and raced down the tunnel. When I heard a loud
thud,
I hoped the trap had taken lots of them out or that it had at least slowed them down.

We took so many turns in such a hurry that everything became a blur. The hair on my neck rose when I heard more moans from the undead behind us, coming from zombies that had followed us from the adjacent tunnels.

“Dead end!” Rachel gasped.

My flashlight beam bounced around the dark, slimy wall blocking our path. I glanced at Ed, my heart racing. “I thought you knew these tunnels!”

“I guess I got confused, man. Sorry!”

“Confused?” Steven said. “Our lives are literally in your hands!”

Ed fumbled with the straps on his headlamp nervously. “We need to go back one tunnel, then turn left.”

I let out a breath and assessed my situation. “There are only a few zombies. Instead of running from them and getting ourselves lost worse, I say we take them on and get back on track.”

Steven nodded, shining his light ahead. “One a piece should do the trick.”

Ed bolted for the skinny zombie and hit it in the kneecaps. Thrown off balance, it fell forward, its neck hanging awkwardly as it sank into the deep puddle. Rachel finished it off with her steel-toed boot. I decided to take down the zombie that looked like a mailman, dressed in a torn, dirty postal uniform. I thumped it with my bat, then reared back for another swing. It crashed back into the puddle next to the red-headed zombie Steven had just taken out.

Steven tugged my arm. “Let’s go!”

We followed Ed and were back on track in no time. He led us deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels, trying to make it harder for the zombies to follow us. Either that, or he was lost.

When more growls echoed in the air from in front of us, I stopped to survey the situation. I spotted four or five zombies.

“It’s doable. We can take ‘em,” Steven said.

“Remember, no gunfire!” Ed reminded us. “Man, these savage freaks are party-crashers. I say we just have ourselves a good ol’ zombie decapitation party.”

“Get ready!” Steven shouted, holding his bat in a death grip.

The first one approached, and I had my target in sight. The zombie was short, with long black hair, dressed in gym shorts and a filthy, slimed-up t-shirt. It moved slowly toward me with an awkward gait. “The main guest of honor has arrived. Shall we get this party started?” I clutched my Louisville Slugger in my hand tightly and whacked its head; it crashed motionless into the wall.

The next one was wearing green shorts and a matching t-shirt. Ed drove the curve of the crowbar straight into its gnarly knees, and it stumbled back, knocking the one behind it over with a
splash
. I finished it off, and the crack of its bones echoed all around us.

A towering, once muscular zombie took me by surprise. I couldn’t reach its head, so I hit it in the knees, but it didn’t fall as expected. I kicked it, but it only took a few steps back. Its white eyes widened as it moaned in anticipation of a fresh meal. It opened its mouth of cracked, jagged teeth. At that point, things seemed to melt into slow motion. As it came for me, I dropped my bat and whipped out my gun. Aiming carefully for the center of its forehead, I pulled the trigger just as it lunged for my face. This time, it fell backward with a
thud
and
splash
.

“A gun? Man, I thought you took Zombies 101?” Ed scolded. “Now they’ll all be coming!”

“I didn’t have a choice! Maybe if I had better backup—”

Steven wiped his face with his sleeve. “Better backup? Man, Rachel and I took down four zombies!”

“Right, and it wasn’t like I was standing there twiddling my thumbs,” Ed snapped.

“Sorry,” I said, realizing I’d been quite rude. “I just—”

My explanation was interrupted by a choir of guttural moans echoing throughout the sewer, and fear flooded through me as I watched dozens stumbling in the drain toward us.

I glanced at the others. “We can’t take them all on!”

“I know another way!” Ed shouted. “Follow me!”

“Wait,” I said. “Maybe we can slow them down.”

“How?” Rachel asked.

“A zombie blockade,” I replied.

Steven and I began firing shots, dropping the front line of zombies to the ground. The noise was magnified, and my ears rang as the ones behind started to stumble and fall.

“That’s good!” Steven said. “Let’s go!”

We backtracked and took a sharp turn to the left. Ed took us through the secret passages of the underground world he knew like the back of his hand. I was thankful we had the kid, the urban mole, because I would have had no idea how to get out of there. I was also very thankful for the headlamp; without light, my bat, and my gun, I would have been dead a long time ago.

I jerked my head back, straining to listen. “Hear that?” I asked as I noticed hissing and garbled moans coming from both sides of us. Sweat trickled down my neck and back.

“Yep,” Steven said. “Sounds like we’ve got more company, boys and girls.”

Chapter 17

I tried to hold it together as my mind scrambled for a way out and zombies approached us from both directions.

“We have to get outta here!” Rachel shouted.

“Let’s head out at the next manhole,” I said.

“At least up there, we have more open space and places to hide,” Ed said.

“We’re through the worst part of the city,” Steven added.

It was agreed: We would take our chances on the surface.

As soon as we reached the next manhole cover, Steven tried to heave it off, but it wouldn’t budge. He let out a few curses and tried again. “It’s not working!” Steven said. “We need a bottle jack.”

The distorted echoes grew closer, and my heart pounded. “Get down,” I said, then raced up as soon as he was out of the way. With all my strength, I pushed it, but the lid would not open, not even a crack.

Ed sucked in mouthfuls of air as he caught his breath. His green eyes bulged underneath the disheveled mess of blond hair. “There’s probably a car parked on top of it.”

Rachel peered down the tunnel, letting out a shaky breath. “They’re getting closer!”

Sweat dripped from my brow as I clambered down. “Where’s the next manhole?”

Like a madman, I followed Ed and rushed to the next one. I scurried up and pushed on it, and it moved easily. It was a relief to know that we’d be out of that nightmarish maze once and for all. As I slid it over, I could hear the gurgling moans of the infected, and their vile gibberish made the hair on my neck stand on end. A zombie dragged its tattered foot along the ground just inches away from me, its arms limp and dangling in a lifeless fashion. As I glanced out for a better look, I was mortified. There had to be hundreds of them shuffling down the street. We were smack dab in the middle of a stampede of the mangled undead, and if we crawled out of that sewer, we’d be dragged into a herd and ripped apart by reaching hands, sharp fingernails, and jagged teeth.

Rotting arms reached for me, and I frantically shut the lid with a loud hiss echoing behind me. I wished that Nick or Lucas had come with me.
I never should’ve done this without them. What was I thinking? How are we gonna get outta here alive?

“Oh my gosh,” Rachel whispered. “We’re so screwed.”

“We have two choices,” I whispered. “
Downtown Dodge ‘Em
or
Subterranean Terror Maze
? Name your game.” I tried to make it sound funny, but terror seized me as we all exchanged horrified looks.

“How about…neither?” Rachel said.

“We’ll never make it alive on the streets,” I whispered. “So
Subterranean Terror Maze
it is.” I shot Ed a look. “Where’s the next manhole?” Shuffling footsteps splashed closer as the moans grew more intense, and I could barely breathe.

“I see them!” Rachel said. “Run!”

“The next open manhole is…well, truth is, we’ll never make it,” Ed said, then turned back the way we came. “C’mon!”

“He’s right,” Steven said, glancing ahead. “Our two guns, a crowbar, and bats aren’t gonna cut it.”

“Is there any other way outta here?” I frantically asked as we bolted down the tunnel.

“There’s a small tunnel to the left, but we’ll have to take out the zombies in front of us.”