Machines of the Dead

Chapter 20

A long cinder block corridor, extending into the gloom stood before Jack. A body, dressed in camouflage-patterned fatigues, lay a few feet away. Blood was pooled around the body, light from the room shining brilliantly off it. There was no way the person was alive, not with the amount of blood surrounding it. The coppery odor of death filled the air, causing Jack to turn away for a moment.

Pulling out his flashlight, he scanned the immediate area. The olive green walls were layered with old blood, the colors various shades of reddish-brown, like rust spots on an old car. Only in a few places were there fresh streaks of glistening red. The man on the floor had died recently; some time in the last twenty — four hours, Jack guessed.

He stepped from the doorway, shining the light over the body. Bullet holes, for what else could they be, littered the corpse’s back and head. Shit, this wasn’t good. What the hell was going on? Maybe word about the bunker had gotten out and the dead man that lay before Jack had tried to help? Unlikely, but looking at the walls-the splattered old blood-he knew people had died here before. Some kind of kill zone? Execution area? He shook his head. None of this made sense.

“What the hell?” Zaun said, stepping up to the doorway.

“Ay Dios Mio,” Maria said, shoving between Jack and Zaun. “This can’t be good.”

“We need to keep moving,” Jack said, “no telling when the others will be on us.” He wanted nothing more than to sprint down the hall and find the busy streets of Brooklyn or Queens. He had always hated the noise, loving the quietness of his apartment, but now he longed to hear it.

Jack took the lead, stepped onto the corpse’s back, avoiding the blood-pool surrounding the body. The cadaver hissed and farted, Jack’s weight forcing out the trapped air.

The group remained quiet, listening for any sound that they might be walking into a trap. The sharp, coppery aroma lessened the farther they got from the body.

Jack wanted the Mossberg in his hands, but needed to hold the flashlight as he led the way. Up ahead, he saw an open doorway on the right. The group approached carefully, inching along the wall. Jack flashed the light inside the room for a second before pulling his hand back. Not receiving any gunfire, he nodded to the others and peeked into the room.

The place was filled with old televisions, furniture, lamps, a rug, dusty art work, and rats, their beady eyes glowing eerily back at him.

“I hate those fucking things,” Zaun said, standing beside Jack.

Moving on, the corridor led to another door, but this one appeared to be made of wood. The entire handle part of the door was missing, looking blown off. Squatting, Jack shone the light through the hole.

“Another room, ” he said. “Looks empty.” Standing back up, he pushed the door open, the hinges squealing like frightened pigs.

Finding a light switch next to the door, Jack flicked it up and the overhead lights came to life. Another dead body lay against the left wall, slumped over with a large, gaping hole in the side of its head. All around, the walls were caked with old blood as if a bomb had gone off, or a grenade. An elevator stood to the right and a set of stairs leading up, stood off to the back left.

The corpse’s leg twitched. Jack raised his weapon and fired at the thing’s head, but the leg kept moving.

“What the…?” Zaun began. “Thing should be dead.” He fired two bursts at the thing’s head, obliterating it.

“Wait,” Maria said, as a small rodent head came from a hole in the corpse’s leg.

“Fucking rat!” Zaun yelled. “Damn thing almost gave me a heart attack.”

“All right. Leave it. We need to save ammo,” Jack said.

They were definitely in the basement of a building.

“Guess we go up,” Maria suggested.

The stairs led to another security door. Jack opened it quickly and looked out into a high-ceiling, hangar-like room. The large overhead lights were on, but the place appeared vacant, as if it had emptied out a while ago. Computer stations, desks with chairs, some overturned, took up most of the floor space. Sheets of paper were strewn around the floor and garbage pails were overflowing. Multiple coffee cups littered the desks and floor.

Jack saw a few dead bodies laying about, appearing to have been gunned down, the closest crumbled up against the wall, facing away.

They were outside Manhattan-had to be, yet something bad had happened here. Jack had thought Reynolds’ superiors would be in Washington, and maybe they were, but he was clearly in the bunker’s most immediate outside-operations center.

“This isn’t good,” Maria said.

“No,” Zaun said, “but at least we didn’t have to fight our way in here. Looks like we have the place to ourselves.”

“This must be where Reynolds reported to,” Maria added, then excitedly, “Hey, we have a live one over here.”

Jack turned to see her running over to the prone figure. She placed her M4 on the ground and knelt over the body. “Sir, are you all right?”

He couldn’t believe she’d used the word “sir” but guessed it was so engrained in her, that it was a natural way of talking to someone in the military, even if that someone was part of a corrupt, underground project. Either way, a living body might get them some much needed answers.

Maria rolled the man onto his back and let out a cry as he reached up and grabbed her by the hair. Jack saw her fighting to get away, but the man pulled her to him as he raised himself up and sank his teeth into her shoulder. Maria screamed.

“It’s undead,” Jack yelled to Zaun, who was already on his way to her. Jack aimed his pistol at the thing, but couldn’t risk a shot for fear he’d hit Maria.

Zaun sprang forward, dashing to her, sword out.

Maria tried shoving the thing off of her, but like a pit bull clenching its jaws around prey, it wouldn’t budge.

Zaun was there in moments, and sank the blade of his sword into the zombie’s skull.

Maria scrambled from the corpse and tore her jacket off to see the wound. “Shit, it went through.” The flesh was shredded and bleeding. “I’ll be all right; just have to Taser me.”

“Infected, here?” Zaun asked.

“I don’t think we’re out of Manhattan,” Jack said.

“Guess we should’ve taken the left.” Zaun cleaned his blade on the dead body’s shirt and sheathed it.

Something stirred behind Jack. Turning around, he saw another undead coming toward him. Walking up to it, he took aim, and blew the zombie’s brains from its head.

“Fucking things are like rats,” Zaun spat.

“We’ll need to keep an eye out. I think it’s a good idea to make sure all the dead bodies in here are really dead.”

“I’m on it,” Zaun said, and went around the room poking his sword into each one’s head.

Jack told Maria there was no point in waiting to Taser her. The quicker the bots were dead, the better. She agreed and lay on the floor. Pulling out his Taser, he asked if she was ready. She nodded and he shot her, sending the electricity into her body, frying the bots. He hated seeing her spasm in pain, but it was only for a few seconds. When it was over, she felt fine, the Taser ha d little to no residual affects.

She stood, walked over to a chair, and let Jack clean and wrap her wounds. The bots were dead, but infection was always a possibility.

When Zaun was done with his task, he came over to Jack. “The only way out of here, besides the way we came in, is the door at the far end.” He pointed across the room. “And it requires a keycard and a code.”

“We need to find out where we are in the city,” Jack said. “We can’t stay here for long. I would imagine it’s only a matter of time before we have company again.”

“I’ll keep an eye on the stairs we came up,” Maria said.

“Zaun and I will check out the door across the room.”

Maria headed off while Jack and Zaun walked over to the door. Using the keycard and entering the code, Jack had the door open in seconds. He was surprised all the doors had the same combination, but guessed it made sense since only the high-ranking individuals had them.

The operations room led to a small office. The place had a dark brown shag carpet, yellowing walls, a cracked leather sofa and two folding chairs. Along the right wall was a receptionist’s counter, the wood paneling filthy with stains. There was a blank sign-in sheet on the counter. Potted imitation plants hung on hooks from the ceiling and there was a beat-up coffee table with magazines on it. The whole place was a decoy, an area where interference could be run in the event an undesirable walked in. There were no signs or posters indicating a product, not even a clock. The windows were blacked out and had thick, metal mesh covers on them.

Jack walked over to a door. He guessed it led to the outside. Placing his palm against it, the door felt chilly.

“Door’s cold,” he told Zaun. “So, either there’s a freezer on the other side or it leads directly outdoors.”

“Only one way to find out.”

Jack grabbed the handle, ready to turn it and pull, when an explosion sounded from the other room. He and Zaun rushed back inside the operations area.

“Stay here,” he told Zaun. “We might need cover.”

Jack sprinted around desks and chairs, kicking a plastic garbage can out of the way. Reaching the stairwell, he saw Maria hanging over the railing, firing her machine gun.

“What’s happening?” Jack shouted.

“We’ve got company. I don’t know how many, but I managed to wound a couple.”

Jack wasn’t sure what to do. Stay and fight, or run? Heading into the city was dangerous, the undead were everywhere, but staying and fighting could prove a faster death. They’d probably run out of ammo before the soldiers did, or simply be overwhelmed by their numbers, depending on how many men Reynolds had sent after them. As crazy as it was, heading into the city seemed to be their best bet.

“I think we should leave,” he said.

“Agreed.” Maria leaned over the railing, fired a few more shots, then followed Jack.

“Company?” Zaun asked as they approached.

“Yup,” Maria said.

Jack ushered them into the waiting room.

“What’s the plan?” Zaun asked.

“We head into the city. Find a building and hold up for a while. I don’t know about you two, but I’m tired as hell.”

“You know what it’s like out there, Jack,” Zaun said.

Jack’s mind flooded with the images he had seen when he went to rescue Zaun, the alley, the super, the stairwell with Big Zombie Man. He wondered how many undead were outside the door right now. They might be walking into a real shit storm, but if that was the case, they would have no choice but to stay and fight.

“It’s our best option,” Jack said. “We can’t take a chance and hope to outlast Reynolds’ men. They might outnumber and outgun us. If it is a small group, sure we could fight, but then what? More might be coming. The point is, we just don’t know, but I can tell you this, Reynolds wants us, and I bet he’s pissed off to no end.”

“He’s right, Zaun,” Maria said.

Zaun nodded.

“We ready to do this?” Jack asked.

The others nodded.

Grabbing the doorknob, he opened the door.