Undead Freaks (3 page)

But it turned out their luck wasn't as solid
as he thought.

4

There was a cluster of zombies coming up the
driveway. Maybe ten, maybe more. They looked fresh, and you could
see the bite marks on a lot of them. Wrists and necks and biceps
with chunks of meat torn away. A few of them had their arms out in
the classic pose.

Frank looked to the sides and he saw more of
the damn things coming from the yard. These were the real killers.
They were running low and fast, tongues hanging out. Their faces
were grey and murderous.

Frank thought it was like they'd tracked them
from the rollover. Undead bloodhounds. He wanted to know if zombies
had a sense of smell. It would make sense.

"Hang on," said Frank. He stepped on the gas
and the car shot forward. It flew out of the garage headed straight
for the cluster in front of them. Frank figured that the only way
of getting through them was to bust through. He'd seen what the
undead could do to parked cars. You weren't safe in
those.

"Ohhhh – oh shit," said Kelly from the back
seat. Frank couldn't see the look on her face because he was
looking the zombies straight on, gunning for the thinnest looking
hole.

Wishful thinking. This was going to leave a
dent or two.

Kelly was terrified but she couldn't do much
more than make her own sick moan. A second later they were smashing
through bodies. There were thumps and the sound of flesh separating
and bones cracking. Kelly saw blood splatter on the windshield and
closed her eyes as tight as she could.

The flesh bumps stopped and Kelly opened her
eyes again. The blood was still there in streaks on the windshield
and side windows. Kelly thought:
Terry's
gonna be pissed with me for fucking up the car.

Frank put the car into a hard right drift. He
wasn't slowing down for anyone now. There might be survivors but it
didn't seem like this was a job for two town cops, a busty rich
girl, and a souped-up German car. This was a hardcore problem. The
government was going to have to step in. And by government he meant
people with big guns.

He sped down Brookside Drive until he hit
Winchester Ave, and then he swerved into another hard turn. The
tires made a nice sound as the back end wagged free, and Frank
liked the pickup on this car. It wasn't bad for Kraut shit. He
still liked his Crown Vic, but that was just him. The engine revved
right up and he pointed them on the road out of town. There was no
telling how far the damn outbreak had spread.

The houses whizzed by and now Frank was
smiling again. He flicked on the wipers and washer fluid. Some of
the blood washed away. Some of it smeared in red streaks. He looked
over and Todd was looking at him, staring.

Frank said, "What? You eye raping me
again?"

"Fuck no. I'm no homo. You just seem calm is
all."

"That's cause we have a sweet ride, guns, and
a way out of this mess."

Kelly said, "What about me? You have me in the
back seat, remember? Damsel in distress shit, right? You think the
outbreak has spread?"

Frank didn't want to answer any more of her
questions.

Kelly said, "I'm talking to you, Frank. Has it
spread? Can you outdrive it?"

Without looking back at her, he said, "I look
like fucking Google to you, princess? Thank you for the use of your
vehicle and the generous donation of firepower, but when I want you
to ask me twenty questions, I'll let you know. Until then, please
shut the fuck up and keep your seat belt fastened."

He kept his eyes on the road. All clear so
far. It was looking good. And that was the way the three people in
that car wanted things to work, even if Kelly was getting annoyed
with Frank's attitude. They were getting close to Westridge Drive,
which had an on-ramp onto the Turnpike. Then they'd be able to
cover some serious ground. Maybe make it to Boston in less than
ninety minutes.

The sign for the Turnpike popped up, which
meant that the on-ramp was 1.2 miles away. Frank knew it by heart.
Town limit was coming up to. He gunned it around the last bend,
pushing the traction limit on the big, wide tires as he did about
eighty-five in the corner.

He stepped on the gas one more time, his eyes
flicking down to the tach as the engine revved up near redline. And
that was when Kelly and Todd both screamed at the same time. Words
didn't have time to leave their mouths.

Frank knew all about that. It was a stress
reflex for people who weren't used to operating under pressure.
He'd expected better from Todd, but Todd was new enough that
freezing could still happen.

Frank's eyes flicked forward a half mile and
he saw it too. This shit had gotten big fast. And then the bullets
started to pop into the car.

5

Frank swerved to get the bullets off them. The
tires hadn't been hit yet, but the fire was tracking them. The back
window blew out. Then his window. Frank remembered that sound, of
bullets going close by his head. Just like I-Raq.

He stepped on the brake, swung the wheel hard,
and then fed in gas. The car swung in a wide arc, screeching the
expensive tires and leaving rubber on the road along with some tire
smoke in the air. He stepped on the gas one more time and then hit
the wheel. There was some screeching but the M3 was a champ at
turning engine power into acceleration.

Frank raised his voice and shouted: "Fucking
goddam it. Fuckers were shooting at us. At
us
."

"That looked like the Army,” said Todd. "You
see the equipment back there?"

Frank knew the kid was right. And they were
lucky they didn't get a Hellfire missile up their asses. There
could have been a chopper, but they got lucky and the bird wasn't
flying. Things had a way of going pear shaped real fast when you
were on the wrong end of the US Army's spear.

Frank had to think.

Now he was speeding right back into the
outbreak. Into the hot zone. He had hostile friendlies behind him.
The term didn't sound right to him, but that's what they were. They
weren't letting anyone out alive, not by the looks of the welcome
they'd given them.

Hot lead. What a nice surprise that had
been.

Frank drove another mile, not far enough to
get close to Brookside and the swarm that he knew was there. He
didn't like getting forced back in. He pulled the car over. Kelly
lowered her window. Not that it mattered, with the back window shot
out. The car wasn't safe unless they were moving fast.

Frank looked at Todd and Kelly. These two
people were his best shot at getting out alive. They had to stick
together on this or they'd get munched on just like everyone else
in this damn town.

"Here's what we know," said Frank. "Zombies on
the inside. Army on the perimeter keeping everyone locked in tight.
This is a hot zone and no one's getting out alive by the looks of
it. So we have to come up with a plan, people."

"What about the Presumpscot?" said Todd. "We
could head over and do a river crossing. There might be fewer of
those things in the woods."

Frank thought about it and shrugged. "Maybe.
We might make it to the other side. But if I know the Army, they've
got drones circling overhead and they'll take us out if they spot
us trying to run. Infrared catches a lot. They use it down south at
the border."

"I'm not giving up, Frank," said Kelly. "You
think they're using drones, but what if they're not? What if the
army is just as freaked out as we are and they're losing control of
the situation? What if this thing has already spread out of
town?"

"Your point?" said Frank.

"I say we get out by air,” said
Kelly.

Frank laughed. "Fucking air. I like it. You
going to call one of your husband's rich friends to come pick us up
with a chopper?"

"Come on," said Todd to Frank, "listen to her.
She might have something."

Frank looked at Todd with a dark look. "So now
you're on her side?"

"I'm saying we're in a fucked up mess and
maybe we should listen to what she has to say, is all."

"Okay," said Frank. "Listening."

Kelly said: "There's a big red barn down off
Calvert Hills road. Some fields, too. That's Ray Morrison's place.
He has planes there. I've seen three of them parked down there. He
started giving me lessons once. I even soloed. Terry told me as
long as I wasn't fucking him it was fine." She regretted putting in
the part about the fucking, but it was true. It just came out of
her mouth.

"So you're saying you can fly us out of this?"
said Frank. "And then what? We get shot down?"

Kelly looked into her lap, at the gun. "How
many of them are there, you think? Do you think half the town's
gone? Maybe more? There might be thousands of them, Frank. I know
we don't have enough bullets."

"Maybe we do what she says," said Todd,
looking hopeful. Frank hated the hopeful look. Fucking new guys
were susceptible to it. But the part that Frank hated more was that
maybe Kelly was right. Maybe there was no way to shoot themselves
out of the mess and they'd have to chance flying out.

"Okay," said Frank. "We're gonna go to the
Morrison place. And you're going to show us how you fly one of
those fancy airplanes, Kelly. Show us your hot stuff."

Frank pulled them back onto the road and now
as he drove to the Morrison place he went fast but not as fast as
before. He didn't want to crash into a swarm of the undead on the
way. Busting through ten of them was one thing. A hundred might not
be so easy. They went up over a knoll and came to an intersection
with Blackwoods Road. There was a traffic light flashing
red.

Frank rolled on through. Now when he thought
about it, maybe Kelly's idea about taking a plane wasn't so bad.
But he was still pissed at the Army for shooting at them. That was
one of the low points of his day for sure.

That was when Frank got a tingling feeling in
his arm that spread to the back of his neck. He felt like something
was about to go very wrong. He knew not to ignore the feeling. It
had saved his ass more times than he could count.

Frank was right. In under sixty seconds,
they'd all be running for their lives.

6

Smart zombies. Those weren't supposed to
exist; then again, zombies were supposed to be fiction too. Frank
had instincts and his instincts were telling him that they were
being watched. He slowed the car down to a crawl.

"Why'd you do that?" said Kelly from the back
seat.

"Something's not right," said
Frank.

Todd looked at his partner, worried. "What is
it?"

"I don't know yet," said Frank. There were
trees and houses on both sides of the road. He knew that the road
narrowed up ahead, down to a single lane. It was the fastest way to
get across town to the Morrison place from where they
were.

He came up to the narrow part of the road and
saw it. There was no way they were getting through with the car.
There was an overturned Oakhurst milk truck in the road.

Frank stopped the car and looked in his
rear-view while he popped the car into reverse. He didn't hesitate.
He knew they didn't have much time. He started to back up and he
was about to pull a 180 J-turn when he saw them.

The swarm.

They were coming up the road behind them. They
looked like an undead army. 24 hours ago they'd been wives and
husbands and kids. Now they were monsters.

An advance contingent of freaks was running in
an arrow formation, pumping their arms. Some of them looked like
they'd been on the Calvert Falls football team. Big kids with
bulging biceps and thick calves. The slower ones were behind,
limping with their mouths hanging open. Frank knew there was no way
they had enough bullets to stop them.

Frank stopped the car and looked back at the
milk truck on its side. It was a trap. They were in a fucking trap
and he knew it.

"Out of the car now. And take the guns," said
Frank.

"What?" said Kelly.

Frank opened his door and took the AR-15 from
Todd. Kelly and Todd jumped out of the car. Now Frank could hear
the moans; they came loud and deep. There were screams, too.
Inhuman ones. It was like wild animals coming at them. Getting
closer by the second.

"Which way?" said Kelly. Her face was twisted
in fear, her eyes wide and getting wider.

Frank had a sense that running up the road
away from the swarm would lead them deeper into the ambush. That
was Survival Instincts 101. That left only one more option, and it
wasn't a good one. They'd have to split for the woods.

"Follow me," said Frank. He nodded to the
woods on the side and started running. Kelly and Todd broke into a
run after him. They ran through the ditch on the side of the road,
which was just soft mud this time of year, and then up into the
trees. It turned into a steep hill. Nowhere to go but
up.