Man Eaters (27 page)

Butcher started capping any zombies near Dallas’s door. “She won’t leave without you.”

“Goddammit, Dallas, go! They’re coming!” Roper popped a few more, but the wave that was coming wouldn’t be stopped with the ammo they had.

“Make a path for her,” Roper said, firing into the man eaters wandering around the Hummer.

“To?”

“Not the antique store. How about that card shop over there?”

Roper nodded. They had to do something fast. The horde was closing in on the town, and once they got in, Dallas would be trapped. They would never be able to kill that many hovering around the Hummer.

“Dallas!” Roper called down. “Dallas, get out of the Hummer!”

When the driver’s door opened, Dallas pulled her rifle with her and shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up. The nearest man eater was only ten feet away. It wasn’t coming at her, but just stood there long enough for Butcher to take care of her with a single shot.

“Over here!” Roper waved her arms. “Get to the card store! We’ll create a path!”

Dallas nodded and saw Butcher pointing behind her. When Dallas turned, she understood what horde meant.

Like a wall of water in a flooded street, an army of zombies hobbled into town. There had to be hundreds of them. She realized this slight hesitation had cost her a few steps but, suddenly, heads began exploding all around her as Butcher and Roper covered for her.

Taking off running, Dallas made it to the card shop and immediately started barricading the double glass doors, throwing everything she could in front of the doors. As she did, she could hear gunshots and knew Roper and Dallas were buying her just enough time to get her door barricaded.

Heart racing, Dallas pushed furniture, filing cabinets and display cases against the door. Once the door was blocked, she peered out a small crack and watched as a few initial zombies wandered around moaning, but strangely, not one had followed her.

Not one.

Instead, they bumped into each other while a dozen or so made their way to the antique store.

The gunfire stopped suddenly, and when Dallas looked out the little slit, she saw the beginning of the horde fan out as they took over the street.

As she peered through the opening, she couldn’t figure out what was bothering her, and as she watched, she had the strangest feeling…the oddest thought that…that the zombies were actually looking for something.

****

Roper

“That’s enough,” Butcher said, lightly laying her hand on Roper’s shoulder. “She’s safe inside.”

As Roper lowered her rifle, she stared in disbelief as the horde plodded into the city, moaning, wandering, and bumping into each other and anything in their path.

“What the hell?” Cue-Ball stared at them as they moved like an amorphous blob. “What the fuck are they doing?”

Butcher cocked her head this way and that as she studied the slow moving horde. She watched in muted silence as her medic’s brain kicked into gear, putting together pieces of a puzzle that had been gnawing at the back of her brain for days. When at last she figured it out, she quietly murmured. “I’ll be damned.”

Roper joined her just as the pounding on the rooftop door began. “What do you see?”

“Jesus,” Cue-Ball said. “What are they looking for? Us?”

Butcher slowly, hesitatingly shook her head as the last piece fell into place. “You know, I would have said yes a few days ago, but look at their numbers. They’ve managed to coalesce—to grow bigger. They seem to be collecting others along the way, but I don’t think they’re looking for us.”

“Not us, but humans?” asked Roper.

Butcher shook her head again as the pounding on the door continued. “All this time, we’ve been thinking that they’re driven by some sort of bizarre hunger, that they are consumed by the drive to eat human flesh…but I think we’ve been off base. I think there’s more to it than that.”

“How so?” Cue asked, backing away from the door and the loud thumping from behind it. “Better make it quick.”

“We’ve been told this is a virus, right? But the virus doesn’t see itself that way. I’ve been struggling with something for a couple of days now…the way they act seemed so familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. The horde is acting like while blood cells. I knew their actions looked familiar, but not until I saw them today, from up here did I figure them out.” She shook her head. “Like I was looking through a microscope.”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Me, too.”

Butcher looked over Cue’s shoulder. The door remained closed. “White blood cells circulate in the blood so they can go to an infection and battle it. Neutrophils kill bacteria by actually ingesting them. By eating them.” She paused for emphasis.

“Oh shit.”

“I still don’t follow,” Cue said.

Butcher checked the door once more. “The zombies don’t see themselves as a virus—”

“They see us as the virus.” Roper interjected.

Butcher ran her hand through her hair. “The way they collect other zombies is what happens when immature neutrophils sense an infection is present. They are attracted by certain chemicals and then kill the bacteria by a process called phagocytosis, in which they completely surround the bacteria and digest them. Sound familiar?”

“Let me get this straight. You’re saying those things think we’re the bacteria? And that’s why they eat us?”

Butcher nodded. “That explains why they’re gathering together and why they eat only human flesh. Whatever turned them into zombies initially, programmed them to act like white blood cells.”

“Jesus Christ on a cracker, Butcher. What do we do with that information?” asked Roper.

Before Butcher could answer her, a scraping sound caught everyone’s attention. The door behind them had actually pushed open six inches as the T-bar bent against the constant strain against the door.

“Shit.”

“We gotta get out of here,” Cue-Ball said, as the T-bar bent a little more.

Running to the edge of the roof, he looked over it. “We’re screwed. A jump this far will break bones.”

Roper took her rope off her belt. “One elevator coming up.”

“Are you crazy? We’ll never make it. It’s way worse down there.”

“We won’t make it up here, either.” Roper tied the rope to a four-inch copper pipe and turned to Butcher. “Go to the bakery next to the card shop. Make contact with Dallas and figure out how to get back to the Hummer to get us out of here.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you.” Roper looked to at Cue-Ball. “You coming?”

“Like I have a choice.”

“You go after Butcher. Follow her to the bakery.” Roper grabbed his arm. “Follow. Her.”

“I heard you.”

“We’ll cover you from the bakery then,” Butcher said.

As Roper tested the rope, she looked over at the card shop. No eaters were hanging around it, which she thought odd since a food source had entered it. As she looked at the door, she realized Dallas had removed most of the barricade.

“Change of plans. Dallas has removed the barricade from the door. We need to stay together if at all possible, so head to the card shop.”

“That’s better. When she sees us coming, she can help cover.” Butcher agreed.

Tossing the rope over the side, and seeing that the drop would now only be two stories, Roper looked into Butcher’s face. “See you on the ground.”

“You sure as shit better.”

Together, Roper and Cue-Ball cleared a landing for Butcher, who rappelled quickly down the rope, landed, and took off running for the card store, bashing the head in of any zombie in her way.

Those man eaters aware of her presence were quickly put down by Roper, and as she reached the card shop, Dallas opened the door, pulled her in, and closed it again.

“She made that look easy,” Cue-Ball said.

The moaning from behind them was louder now. The door was open enough that they could put their arms through.

“Go!”

Cue-Ball was much slower getting down the rope and as Roper covered him, the door behind her burst open.

The first three eaters fell on their already mangled faces, allowing Roper to fire at the next two fighting to get over the three struggling to get up. She could hear Dallas and Butcher’s weapons as they covered Cue-Ball, but she knew she probably was not going to make it this time.

When the first three finally got out of the way, Roper knew she had to make a run for it or they would be on her before she could get to the rope.

Flinging her rifle over her shoulder, Roper grabbed the rope and started lowering herself. Hand over hand, she made it to the middle of the rope before man eater bodies began falling all around her.

“Oh fuck,” she muttered, hanging on tightly as a zombie brushed by her shoulder. Like sheep off a cliff, the zombies walked off the edge of the roof, and in horror, Roper knew it was only a matter of time before one of them fell and took her with them.

That time came sooner than she wanted.

****

Dallas

The moment she saw the rope go over the edge, Dallas started taking the barricade away from one of the glass doors. The zombies that had walked by the doors were no longer hanging around, but there were still at least three dozen or more wandering around the streets. She would need to cover them if they were going to come down the rope. The rope only went to the bottom of the middle of the second floor. They’d still have a good twenty-foot drop after that.

Dallas could only imagine what was happening on the roof that made Roper choose to go down the side of the building, but it must be bad for them to lower themselves into the crowd of man eaters.

Once the door was cleared, Dallas shouldered her rifle and waited.

Butcher was the first to rappel down the rope, and she did so quickly, the man eaters had no time to react. She hit the ground in a crouched position, sprang up and bolted toward Dallas, who stepped back into the card shop with Butcher in her grasp just as Roper shot two zombies in the head.

“What the hell is going on up there?” Dallas asked.

“They came up the stairs and are just about through the barricade. We had no choice.” Butcher looked over Dallas’s shoulder and saw Cue-Ball struggling down the rope.

Opening the door, Dallas and Butcher cleared the area around him, and when he fell, he landed on two dead zombies. Butcher dispatched two more, who had reached for him, but it was obvious to her he wouldn’t make it to the card shop.

As Cue-Ball rose and got his bearings, he, too, realized he wouldn’t make it, so he turned his rifle around and began smashing faces as he made his way to the Hummer. Just as he flung open the passenger door, a zombie bit at his arm, narrowly missing it, and received a smashed in face for his efforts. Once in the Hummer, Cue-Ball locked the doors as the horde surrounded it, banging on the windows and moaning.

“There she is,” Dallas said, opening the door just as Roper started down the rope.

Butcher leveled her rifle at the few who were under the rope, but did not fire. All of the creatures were now moving toward the Hummer.

“Cue must be crapping his pants right about now.”

“Oh god.” Dallas lowered her rifle as she watched the first three zombies walk right off the roof and splat on the ground below. “Oh, Christ, no.”

“What are they doing?” Butcher asked incredulously.

“They have no depth perception or sense of fear,” Dallas replied, thinking back through the ever-growing zombie file Einstein filled in her mind.

Just then, one of the man eaters struck Roper’s shoulder as it plummeted to the ground, but Roper managed to hang on.

“Oh no. No, no, no,” Dallas let her rifle fall to her side as she took five steps toward the street.

“Dallas, get back here.”

Looking down the street at the approaching horde, Dallas knew there was not enough time. Not unless…and then it happened.

One of the falling zombies smashed right into Roper, knocking her off the rope. She plummeted down, landing with a thud on top of one of the jumpers, breaking her fall, a loud whooshing sound escaped her mouth as all air left her.

Dallas took one look to her left and knew it was over for Roper. There just wasn’t enough time to get to her and get her to safety.

Turning to Butcher, she said, “Take care of Einstein for me, will you?”

“You can’t help her, Dallas. She’s done. Get back in here.”

Shrugging, Dallas said, “Everyone dies sometime, right? I read a book once. The main character said I’d rather die with her than live without her. Once they get to us, end it. Please.” Dallas bolted out to the street, zig-zagging around the walking dead until she came to Roper, who was just getting to her feet and trying to suck in air.

“What…the hell…are you…doing?” Roper panted.

“Keeping a promise.” Dallas looked to her left, then her right. There was no place for them to go. There were hundreds on either side, all making their way to the Hummer where a trapped Cue-Ball lay in a ball

“Dallas, no.”

Dallas smiled softly. “Too late. We’re hosed, but at least we’re together.” Putting her arms around Roper’s neck, Dallas pulled her close and whispered, “Close your eyes and think about one of the greatest places in the world you’d like to take me.”

Dallas felt Roper clutching her back as the two women stood in the middle of the street surrounded by the moaning, fetid man eaters swaying back and forth as they ambled toward them and the Hummer.

Ten feet.

Eight feet.

Five feet.

That moaning was so incredibly loud, Dallas could barely hear Roper when she said, “If I didn’t know we were gonna die, I’d kill you for this.”

Dallas’s entire body trembled at what she knew was coming: Being eaten alive as the man eaters tore out her intestines and ripped her muscles off her bones. How long did the pain last? Did you feel every bite, every claw scratch? Did you just finally bleed out and die? When you think about how you might die, being eaten by another human being probably didn’t make the list, and Dallas clenched her eyes, hoping it went quickly—waiting for Butcher’s bullet to end this fear.