Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde (13 page)

“Next,” he said. I stood up.

“I'm next,” I replied.

“You know the drill,” Tank frowned. “You make a break for it
or try to be a hero and I will rip your arms off for real this time. Is that
clear?”

“I understand,” I said calmly.

“Then let's go.”

Tank led me out and locked the door. He slid the key back
into his pocket.

That's not going to be a problem anymore
, I thought.

We walked down the hall, passing John's empty office. My
eyes lingered on the big map on the wall. Tank shoved me on before I could get
a good glimpse of it.

“Keep going,” he said roughly.

There will be time later tonight
, I reminded myself.

I walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind me,
locking it even though I knew Tank could easily knock the door down if he
wanted to get to me. I turned the water on and did my business. While I was in
there alone I went over my plan. At midnight I would strike, unlocking the
doors to the secret room from our side and pulling them open. Hopefully, there
would be no guard there but if there was, the element of surprise would work in
our favor. I'd cover his head with a pillow case and choke him out. Then we'd
all have to sneak out, find car keys, steal a car, sneak out of the
neighborhood undetected, and slip back to the heart of a war zone to look for a
missing person—all before high tailing it out of town with bikers chasing
us.

This is insane
, I thought.
There are too many
things to plan, too much left to chance. It's never going to work.

I beat back the pessimism with an internal pep talk:
It
has to work. I have no other choice. Whatever happens, we’ll make it work. We
will fight until we are free and on our way. Sure the odds are against us, but
it's been that way since Z-day and we've survived. We will adapt to whatever
surprises come our way.

Adapt and survive. That was what Moto always said.

A loud banging at the door brought me back to reality.

“Hurry up in there,” Tank yelled. “I ain't got all night.”

I flushed, pulled up my pants, washed my hands, and unlocked
the door again.

Tank practically yanked me out of the room and shoved me
down the hall.

“When are we going to see John?”

“Tomorrow,” Tank responded. “He said he'll sit down with you
first thing after church.”

“Church?”
I gave him an odd look. Somehow I couldn't
picture them as God fearing Bible thumpers.

“That's right, little sinner,” Tank cried out. “What? Did
you think we were a bunch of Godless heathens like them biker trash?”

“Doesn't the Bible say to turn the other cheek?” I asked.

“It says a lot of things,” Tank scolded, growing annoyed at
having his faith challenged. “I'm not up to a theology lesson from a snot nosed
punk kid like you right now. So shut it.”

“Sorry,” I offered, turning my stare to the ground to give
him the impression I truly was.

“You know,” he pondered, unlocking the door. “We were all
hoping things would turn out different with you.”

Before I could answer, he shoved me into the room. I
collided with Benji and we both fell on the bed. The door clicked again and I
knew it was now locked shut. I tiptoed over and put my ear to the keyhole,
listening for the sound of footsteps. Benji tried to speak but I waved him
silent with my hand. It sounded like heavy footsteps pacing back and forth in
the hallway.

I pointed over to the corner where Tom was still sitting
staring off into space. Benji and I huddled around him to whisper.

“What's the plan?” Benji asked.

“The guards get changed at midnight,” I said.

“How will we know what time it is?” Benji asked.

Tom pulled back his jacket to reveal a kid's wristwatch. The
time was eight thirty.

“That takes care of that,” I laughed. “Thanks Tom.”

Tom blinked in reply.

“So how are we going to escape?”

“I am still working on that,” I chuckled.

“What does that mean?”

“It means there are a lot of things involved in this
escape,” I said, annoyed. “There is a whole lot that can and probably will go
wrong. We need to be honest with ourselves about that right from the start if
we are going to make this work. We need to stay flexible and never let go of
our goal.”

“Freedom,” Benji whispered.

“Joel,” Tom mumbled.

“All the above,” I added.

For the next few hours I kept my mind busy, turning the plan
over and over in my head, mostly to keep myself from falling asleep again. I
dreamed up one possibility after another and then imagined what I would have to
do to overcome the obstacles they presented. I thought about Tank's words, how
they had hoped I would go along with their plan from the start and join them.
It would have been a whole lot easier to escape if I had gone along with their
plans for me. I wished I would have thought that through a little more, instead
of just blurting out whatever came to mind. It was too late now for regrets.

When it got close to midnight, Tom tapped me on the shoulder
and pointed to the door. I knelt down again and put my ear to the keyhole once
more. I could hear loud snoring. At points it even shook the door slightly. A
dull, male sounding voice resonated on the other side. There was some commotion
that sounded like someone standing up. The door moved. For a moment I was
afraid they were going to open it and check on us. I glanced back to see Tom
and Benji ready to pounce. I waved them back with my hand. It was too late to
pretend we were sleeping. A few tedious moments passed and then I heard the men
talking outside.

“It's a ridiculous assignment,” the voice said. “They are
just kids. How much trouble could they be?”

“It's not up to you to make that call,” the other voice
said. “John wants us to keep an eye on them. That's what we're going to do.”

“I thought he said the kid with the sword was joining our
movement?” There was heavy sarcasm in his voice. “Thought he was supposed to be
officer material. Guess that didn't work out.”

“Stop asking questions or I will have you court-martialed,”
the voice threatened.

“Take it easy,” the guy replied.

“I've been stuck watching a door all day,” the man said.
“I'm hungry and I’m tired. See you in the morning.”

I heard one of them walk away. It sounded like the other
slumped down into almost the same position the first had, with his back against
the door. This part was going to be easy. I would simply unlock the door, pull
it open fast, and choke the guard out. With a little luck he'd have a set of
car keys on him. That meant all we had to do was check the map and get my sword
on the way out. No way was I leaving without it!

I turned and made the thumbs up to Benji who took one of the
pillowcases off the bed and held it ready to bag the guards head. Tom grabbed a
bronze bust of Hitler off the shelf. If the guy made too much noise we were
going to knock him out. I only hoped Tom wouldn't hit him too hard. The closer
it got to midnight, the more Tom seemed to come back to life. There was a
growing fire in him, fueled by revenge. These people were misguided, no doubt
about it. It was wrong to hold us against our will, wrong to treat us like
kids, but I didn't think they deserved to die for it.

The guys got real close to me. I put the key up to the lock,
threading it into the key hole and slowly pushed it all the way in. Making as little
noise as I could, I turned the key until the door clicked. We all froze in
fear. I put my ear to the door but didn't hear anything. If the guard was
sleeping up against the door, the click could easily have woken him.

At least I know Tom will clobber him if he tries to come
through the door before I get it open,
I thought.

Just when I figured I couldn't take any more, I heard a low
snore coming from the other side of the door. I nodded one more time to the
guys, then stood up and yanked the door open. The guard, a small, middle aged
man with a bald spot on the back of his head fell over into the room without
making a sound. Benji threw the pillowcase over his head and Tom hit him hard
twice on his crown. He went limp almost immediately.

“Well that was easier than I expected,” I whispered. I
turned out the guys pockets. He had a small square of chocolate and a deck of
playing cards. There were no keys. This was going to be harder than I had
imagined.

“Stick close to me,” I ordered, slipping out the door and
picking up the man's dropped gun. The house was dead quiet. I walked down the
hall to John's office. I stopped and listened for signs of life in the house,
but there were none. It was almost as if we were the only ones left. The
thought gave me chills but I didn't know why.

“Okay,” I said. “Keep your eyes open. If anyone comes near
or if that guy gets up, don't hesitate to raise the alarm. It's going to take
all of us to get out of here in one piece and we are not leaving anyone behind
this time.”

I went into the office and partially shut the door. Using
only the light coming in the window from the cracks in the blinds, I traced a
line with my finger across the map from where we were to the barricade. I
checked for routes from there that led down toward the highway. There was one
that ran along an old cemetery and came to what looked like a dead end. We had
been lied to by John for sure. The only way out of town was right through the
far side of New Lompoc, miles from where the war was happening. There was no
way for me to know that this morning when I had first seen the map but now that
I had been to the fight it couldn't be more obvious.

“She was telling the truth,” I mumbled in disbelief. Before
I could turn to tell the others the good news, I felt two sets of big arms loop
around either side of my neck and pull me off the ground. The air came out of
me in a rush as the arms tightened like two angry, tattooed boa constrictors.
My feet kicked uselessly at the ground below. I heard my gun drop to the floor.

“Well, look who came out for a midnight stroll,” the man's
voice said.

Tank was going to strangle me to death. It had been a trap
and I had walked right into it.

“My daughter cannot tell a lie,” Tank crooned, his voice
coming out of the darkness. “She just has too big of a heart. Poor thing. I
blame myself for naming her Tammy. People don't realize it's short for Tammany,
which of course is Irish for honesty.”

If I could have drawn in a breath I might have told him I
was Irish too. I was not above playing the race card, especially since I knew
the guy was a white supremacist. It was no use. My head was swimming. His arms
felt like they were made out of metal. I scratched at them but he didn't give
an inch. It was as if he couldn't even feel it.

“It's only one of her weaknesses, unfortunately,” Tank said
causally while I kicked and fought for air. Had he been in the room the whole
time waiting for us? She'd set us up? Of course she did. Why would she help us?
It didn't make any sense. He told her to trick us so he would have an excuse to
get rid of me. John was still hoping to turn us to his side. Tank was worried I
might challenge him in the months to come. With me out of the way, things could
go back to normal. First I had to fight off Joel and now Tank! The biggest
difference being that Joel only wanted to kick my butt. I had no doubt at that
moment that Tank was trying to kill me.

“The other is her beauty,” Tank mused absentmindedly, as if
he strangled sixteen-year-olds to death every day for sport. “She gets that
from her mother, may she rest in peace. Don't feel too bad. You're not the
first to fall for her act. The note-in-the-soup trick works every time. You eat
the evidence and no one can blame me. I'm just doing my job keeping you from
escaping. Later on I will tell John you confessed to being a Unity Gang spy and
that it was no accident you were on the road waiting for us. John's a great man
but he suffers from paranoia, especially since his brother burned to death.”

My vision was going completely black. Tiny little pops of
light appeared and vanished. I renewed my struggle.
Where are my friends?
Why aren't they helping me?

“Usually I don't take this much pleasure in killing a
non-zombie,” Tank confessed, “but ever since you sucker kicked me in the jaw,
I've been looking forward to the moment when I would finally get to watch the
light go out of your eyes.”

At the rate he's going it won't be much longer now.

I went limp and let him hold me up.

Let him tire himself out
, I thought.
I'm going to
need all the brain power I have left if I am going to get out of this. Think!
Think! Think!

Moto had taught me how to slip out of attacks from behind,
but in every instance they involved having my feet on the ground. I never
imagined I would be up against a giant. My mind raced, trying to think of
weapons I might have on me. My pockets were empty. I could try to head-butt him
unexpectedly but there was no guarantee that would work. More than likely it
would just upset him more and he'd snap my neck like a twig.

Tank was still talking but his words were starting to sound
farther away. They had a dull echo and I couldn't tell if they were coming from
inside my head or not. My fingers instinctually found his hands and gripped them.
They felt like knotty branches from a tree.

His fingers
, I thought.
That's it!

The short training sessions Moto and I had done on Chin Na
came flooding back to me all at once. By applying a small amount of force on
his joints I could produce a huge amount of pain, forcing him to release me.
Just twisting his hand the wrong way would be enough to completely bring him
under my control if I did it right.