Zombies Apocalypse

Chapter 10

“Help the others,” she demanded, a growl deep in her throat, as if warning him against trying to talk her out of anything. “Don’t worry about me.”

Gabriel wanted to say something. He wanted to tell her that she was the only one he was worried about. He wanted to say that if she didn’t survive he would consider all his effort to have been pointless. He wanted to say a lot of things, but he knew how ridiculous he was being. So instead he bit his lip, fought back his growing fear, and shifted his position to peer into the passenger side window.

Ryan’s head was turned away and dangling. It bobbed up and down to every slight movement of the vehicle. His arms hung similarly loose, dangling down across the car and bumping Mac as he made a series of frantic movements. Gabriel squinted, trying to get a better view of what he was doing, but it was almost impossible to tell past the cracked glass and Ryan’s motionless body.

Realizing that time was quickly running short, Gabriel pulled at the door handle and lifted, pushing the door up to the open position. It was a lot more difficult to open the door straight upwards than he had expected it to be, but he didn’t let it stop him. With a terrible, squealing creak it popped into place at its full extension and Gabriel leaned into the doorway.

“I’m stuck!” Mac called to him, motioning toward his seatbelt. “It won’t unbuckle!”

Gabriel frowned, taking in everything before him. There wasn’t much he could do with Ryan in the way, not that he felt there was much he could do regardless. Still, there was something about the level of stillness from Ryan that struck Gabriel as disturbing. He reached out and felt at the man’s neck for a pulse. As soon as he made contact, he could tell something was wrong. Necks shouldn’t feel like that. He fought back the urge to recoil and kept searching for a pulse. He couldn’t feel anything.

A cold feGabriel ng dropped over him, wrapping him up and forcing his skin to tingle from head to toe. Slouching, he turned back to the others. “I… I think this one’s dead.”

“What!?” Rob exclaimed, a terrified look crossing over his features.

“I… I-” Gabriel began, but he could get no further. Rob jumped up to the top of the vehicle, pushing Gabriel aside and diving into the door.

“Ryan!” the man screamed, desperately. “Ryan!”

Gabriel dropped to the ground, unsure of exactly what was happening, but painfully aware that they were almost completely out of time. He glanced at the only two still outside the car with him. It was just him and the two kids. That might be all he could save. Turning, he looked for his car, considering the possibility that he should go and get it now, and worry about who would be coming with him at that point.

Gabriel was so caught up in his worry that he almost didn’t notice as one of the creatures came around the side of the SUV.

“Shit!” he exclaimed before he could censor himself. He grimaced and turned back to Tyler and Mandy. “Um… pretend you didn’t hear that,” he added.

“I’m fourteen,” Tyler admonished. “I’ve heard the word ‘shit’ before.”

Gabriel thought that over for a second, and then shrugged his shoulders in defeat. “Fair enough,” he replied, and turned his attention back to the more pressing matter. The creature was barely moving, as though it were unsure of which direction it intended to travel now that it was this close to its prey. Not really knowing what else to do, Gabriel raised his fists and began a slight hop of a dance, as though he intended to box with the creature. “All right,” he called to it, “come on. Let’s do this.” With mock bravado, he pounded his left fist into his right hand a couple times as he spoke, daring the creature onwards.

A noise like thunder rang out, and despite himself he cringed, coiling up and freezing in place even though he had no idea what he was trying to hide from. It took him a moment to realize that his “opponent” now lay on the ground, motionless. The sound had been gunfire.

Looking up and to his left, Gabriel realized Jake had raised herself up far enough out of the doorway to have seen the creature’s approach, and had taken aim and fired on the creature from that position. She holstered her gun and pulled herself the rest of the way out of the car.

“Are you crazy?” Gabriel hissed. “That was loud enough to bring the entire city down on us!”

“Well then, you better go get the car, now, and stop procrastinating,” she shot back, venom thick in her voice.

He opened his mouth to respond, but only a few guttural noises rolled out, nothing coherent. Letting out a sigh, he admitted to himself that she was right. He gave the sternest look he could muster at the two children. “Wait here,” he commanded, then hurried off to his car.

On the way, one of the creatures stepped into his path. He didn’t have time to stop for it, and instead bent over like a linebacker and bowled it down. It tried to grab at him while it went down, but he was moving too quickly for it to grasp. He continued on at full tilt, quickly taking stock of the remaining creatures nearest his car. There were a couple near the front left side of the car, blocking off his path to the driver’s side door. He wasn’t all too willing to keep trying his football technique, especially against two so close together. A third was actually quite close to the driver’s side door itself, and seemed to have found a quicker way to make use of the stiff-jointed walk all the creatures had. It shambled along with almost a waddle, quickly shifting from foot to foot, covering much more distance much more quickly than the others were. Lastly, far to the other side of the car, a large group of probably five or six neared the rear bumper, making a path around that side of the vehicle even less feasible. A plan quickly formed in his head, and he hoped he had the kind of balance and dexterity he would need to pull it off.

Not stopping to consider how feasible this plan was, Gabriel launched himself up onto the front hood of his car, putting himself just out of reach of the front most two creatures. Taking two quick steps he rocketed outwards towards the third, the one nearest the driver’s side door. Bringing his right leg up, he kicked it square in the chest. The creature stumbled backwards and collapsed onto its backside. His plan had worked surprisingly well, but he hadn’t taken into account how much momentum he would have upon landing. He hit the ground and stumbled forward for several more steps, trying desperately to slow to a stop.

Finally, he managed to get a hold of his momentum and get turned back around. However, this had given the other two creatures along the front of the car enough time to do the same, and they were already making their way back toward him.

He looked around frantically for any means of escape, and then a bizarre idea occurred to him. It was so unexpected he actually let out a chuckle. He bent forward, reaching for the door handle of the car, and then flung the door open as hard as he could, briefly thanking God that he had thought to unlock the door earlier.

The door hit the two creatures with a resounding “crack,” and they stumbled back a couple steps but did not fall down. Still, it was enough to give Gabriel the room he needed to dive into the driver’s seat and slam the door shut before they could grab at him. He hit the door lock, jammed the key into the ignition, and turned it. The car roared to life, a sound that echoed like the most beautiful melody in Gabriel ’s ears. He affectionately patted the steering wheel and smiled. “Good car,” he added, in a whisper.

With a flurry of motion he threw the car into reverse and pounded on the gas pedal. A squeal of tires split the air and the car launched backwards. The parking lot had become an obstacle course of ambulant undead monsters, and navigating through them was no easy feat. Every time he thought he had a clear path, one or more would move in and he’d have to quickly change direction. It didn’t help any that the parking lot was so small and constricted, either.

Despite all this, he was able to make it through without incident and pulled up around the side of the overturned SUV. Jake was on the ground by now, holding up Nancy, who she’d apparently manage to wake up, despite the gash bleeding rather profusely on her head. Jake motioned the children over to the vehicle, and the two kids quickly climbed into the back seat. Nancy followed unsteadily behind, helped into place by the younger woman. Once all three were safely inside, Jake closed the back door.

She turned away, looking up at the open front passenger door of the SUV. “Rob!” she called, but there was no response. “Rob,” she repeated, again to no avail. “Mac? Ryan? Somebody! Come on! It’s time to go.” She waited a few seconds for any kind of response, and then repeated her call. After several more seconds, she bit her lip and flexed her fingers nervously. Every muscle in her body told her to flee, but her heart wanted to help her friends. Just as she was about to give up hope, the long, thin nose of a shotgun poked out of the open portal, followed seconds later by the unkempt, hairy face of Mac.

He pulled himself out of the car and dropped to the ground. He waved the shotgun at Jake dismissively. “Go on, get out of here.” He said. Without another word he began walking around to the front of the SUV.

“What?” Jake demanded, incredulous. “Are you kidding? We can’t just leave you here!”