Campagna Jason

White Ash on Bone: A Zombie Novel

White Ash on Bone:

A Zombie Novel

By Jason Campagna

From Bianca’s Diary

“There is something you need to understand about Butler, while our problems have not always been with the un-dead, we have certainly had problems with the un-living.  In Western Pennsylvania, the lack of sunshine gave some of our residents a gray hue.  On any given day driving around the city, it was hard to tell the difference between a zombie and your average citizen.  Seeing a ghoulish looking figure limping down an alley was a common occurrence in Butler.”

Chapter One

Donna thought of herself as a Saxonburg girl. Graduating from Knoch High School, she attended college at Penn State Erie.  All through school, she hoped to find work back near her home in Butler County.  After graduation, she took the summer off to travel in Europe with a couple of friends.

When the fun in Europe was over, Donna returned home and applied for a number of jobs.  Most didn’t pan out, but she saw an ad to work as a court reporter at the county courthouse.

The courthouse turned out to be an interesting place to work, on many levels, one of which was gossip.  You could tell someone a secret, and by the end of the workday, everyone in the building would hear about it.

Donna found this out the hard way.  She accepted an offer to lunch with one of the Sheriff’s Deputies.  Steve was his name.  This apparently ticked off one of the County Commissioners.  He had designs of his own on the young woman.

It didn’t take long before Donna’s boss, Rita, warned her to keep her legs closed when it came to men in the building.  Rita explained there were a number of girls around the facility who had gone down that path, and she didn’t want to be one of them.

Two hours later, Donna found out that Steve had made a bet with his fellow officers about how long it would take to get her in bed.  One of the deputies went so far as to make a flyer advertising the bet.  Donna picked up a copy of the flyer sitting on her desk when she arrived at work the next morning.  It was a picture of Donna walking through the lobby of the building.  The flyer read, “Will this beauty fall to the charms of the beast?  All bets 10 dollars.”

The next day, Donna posted her resignation listing an uncomfortable work environment.  She packed up her boxes and was headed out the door. Rita stopped her.  Donna was asked to visit the Chairman of the County Commissioners office.  When she arrived, the Chairman and the County Solicitor begged to make amends with her. They offered her a ten thousand dollar raise if she didn’t seek legal action over the bet.  Apparently, they had been down this path before.

The money would go a long way to paying off her college loans, so she reluctantly agreed to stay.  Her stipulation was that Steve got rotated to prison duty.

A month passed, and Donna felt better about work.  Steve’s punishment kept the sex addicts well away from Donna’s desk.

Then it began.

The blare of Donna’s alarm clock shouted in her ears.

Throwing her blanket back, she rolled over in bed.  She reached her hand out and silenced the villain on her dresser.  Today’s Wednesday, she thought.  This meant any case where a plea bargain was not met would likely go to trial.  Today was game day at the office.

Donna stepped into the shower and let the hot water pour over her skin.  Her spine tingled as her body adjusted to the hot water’s embrace.

Shower completed, Donna dried and straightened her dark hair. It shined in the mirror, and she gave it a final brush.  She cracked a smile, and waved good-bye to her image; this was a habit she had picked up as a little girl.

She skipped breakfast, grabbed her car keys off the table, and left her apartment heading straight to work.

All of the cases had settled out of court, so the morning turned out to be uneventful.  She had lunch with Rita, who gossiped with her about the homosexuality of one of the judges.  The judge had been caught several times dressed in drag around town, while his wife remained oblivious to his charades.

After lunch, Donna got assigned to cover an arraignment in courtroom six with Judge Henderson.  In the courtroom, Donna set up her typing machine off to the side of the judge’s bench.  She took her seat and picked a piece of lint off her black suit then waited for the festivities to start.  She could hear Judge Henderson and one of the assistant district attorneys talking.

“What do you mean you don’t know who this guy is?” the Judge said.

The attorney straightened his solid blue tie and responded.  “They brought him in last night.  He was standing in the middle of Main Street.  They said he was stoned so bad that he wouldn’t respond to the officers who picked him up.  We threw him in the drunk-tank, but he started attacking the other prisoners. The deputies isolated him, and today he’s still not talking.  We can’t hold him any longer without charging him, unless you sign off on it.”

“You’ll have to bring him in for me to see his condition,” the Judge said.  “I’m going to want him checked out by the hospital and a shrink.”

A few minutes later, four deputies escorted the prisoner in.  His hands were cuffed behind his back. Two deputies in blue uniforms flanked him, half guiding, half dragging him by the arms. To control his violence, they blinded the prisoner by covering his head in a black hood before removing him from his cell.

They shoved him into his seat.

Donna rolled her eyes in disgust. Steve was among the deputies.  He looked over at Donna and winked at her.

“You’re going to have to remove that hood in the courtroom,” the Judge said. “This isn’t the third world.”  The deputies looked at each other and the Judge with a bit of worry.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life finishing this proceeding, remove it now,” the Judge ordered.  Steve reached out to untie the cord that held the hood over the man’s head.  He pulled the hood off the prisoner.

There was a pale look to the man’s skin.  The prisoner locked lifeless eyes onto Donna.  “What’s your name?” the Judge said.  The prisoner kept looking at Donna.  “I asked you a question, and you will answer it,” the Judge demanded.

The prisoner tried to rise, but Steve pushed him back down.  The man turned his head to the right at Steve, and he lunged his face into Steve’s arm.  Steve screamed in pain and let go of the prisoner’s shoulder.  The momentary freedom was all it took for the prisoner to rise and hurl his teeth into Steve’s throat.

The other deputies pushed the prisoner to the floor.  Steve clutched at his throat.  Blood gushed between his fingers.  He tried to sit on a nearby chair but missed and fell to the carpeted floor.

A portly deputy, Randall Rodgers, tried to help Steve by applying pressure to his neck wound.  “Hang in there buddy,” Rodgers said.

“Clear the courtroom!” Judge Henderson ordered.  More deputies arrived to help secure the room while bystanders in the room tried to clear out.  Donna watched from her seat in shock.

Deputy Rodgers started wheezing while he tried to help Steve.  He watched as life faded from Steve’s eyes.  “Steve, come on Steve. Stay with me buddy,” he shouted. It didn’t help; Steve died. Rodgers hovered over the lifeless body.  He wiped sweat from his forehead and turned his face to tell the deputies.  They were continuing to struggle with the prisoner.

Rodgers felt the body beneath him stir, but before he could turn his head down, Steve grabbed at him.  Teeth tore into the portly deputy.  Rodgers pushed away and fell over on to his back. He tried desperately to get away from Steve.

Donna unconsciously stood.  She knocked over her typing machine as she watched the struggling men.

Judge Henderson tried to restrain Steve, thinking he was only injured.  Steve turned on him, biting and ripping at the Judges clothes.

Rodgers continued to push away and turned to Donna.

“Help me,” he pleaded at her.  He reached out to Donna with a bloody hand. Donna backed away from the wet crimson, until she bumped into the wall behind her.

Rodgers efforts to move slowed. He slumped to the floor, his body twitched.

The judge managed to slip away from Steve. He escaped behind the door to the Judge’s Chambers and locked it behind him.

Steve turned on the deputies who were trying to restrain the prisoner.  He rushed into the huddle of blue deputies and sent bodies to the ground. A renewed melee ensued.

Rodgers’ eyes flicked open to the world of the undead.  His head turned, and he fixed his sights on Donna.  She continued to back away along the wall as Rodgers crawled to his feet.  He knocked several chairs out of his way to get to her. She continued to back away.

A badly injured deputy had enough with the prisoner and removed his service pistol.  A gunshot roared out in the courtroom.

Rodgers turned his head at the noise from the gunman.  He charged the deputy and fell on him from behind.  The collision made the deputy accidently discharged another round from the gun.  The round caught one of the other officers in the shoulder; the man went down.

Donna fled the courtroom pushing chairs out of her way as she went. Her nose was filled with the faint scent of gunpowder.  From outside the room, the muffled gunshot had summoned curious county office workers to the scene.

Donna screamed at them to get more help.  A number of men ran inside the courtroom to see what they could do to assist the deputies.  Other people pulled out cell-phones, but Donna fled past them. She ran up the grand marble staircase of the courthouse to the upper floor.  She ran away from shouts behind her. Fear and instinct drove her.

A number of years before, the County had built an Annex to the Court House across the street.  They connected both buildings on the second floor via a bridge.  After shootings in other courthouses around the nation, they sealed off the main courthouse and made the Annex the only way in and out.

Donna was afraid of getting caught in the violence behind her.  Her only desire was to get to the safety of the Annex.  As she ran up the steps, she felt her shoulders and hands shaking from the adrenaline pumping through her body.

Behind her, the melee spilled into the hallway.  She heard more shouting and some kind of furniture screeching against the marble floor.

She made it across the bridge to the Annex.  Donna stood there catching her breath beside an open steel security door.  The door was meant to separate the buildings in an emergency.  Law enforcement officers passed her running in the direction of the courthouse.  A number of injured filed across the bridge assisted by fellow county workers.

The sound of gunshots reached out from the courthouse; their booms echoed across the bridge like the beating of a drum.  A loud click sounded from the open security door.  It swung closed, locking away whatever nightmare was occurring on the other side of the bridge.

The building’s Public Announcement system kicked in, a man’s voice issued directions.  Attention: the Butler County Court House has been locked down due to an emergency.  As part of standard emergency procedure, the Annex will now be evacuated.  Please proceed to the nearest exit.  All county employees are to report to their respective department heads in Diamond Park at the front of the Court House.  Please evacuate safely, and assist those around you who may need help.

County workers emerged from their offices and filled the hallway.  Donna continued to stand against the wall staring at the closed security door.  No one noticed her.  After a few minutes, the hallway stood empty except for Donna.

A “thud,” sounded from the other side of the security door.  Donna pushed off the wall and took a half step toward the door.

“Hello,” Donna said, “is someone there?”

“Thud, thud, thud,” someone beat at the metal.

Near the top of the door was a small view-port.  Donna did not have the angle to see who was making the noise. She moved closer to the window, but the pounding stopped.  She edged closer and stood up on her toes to see through the window, a hand grabbed her arm from behind.  Donna screamed.

“Miss,” a deputy said, “you need to clear out.  The building is being evacuated.”

“Someone’s there,” Donna said.  The deputy wasn’t listening, and he was already pulling her to the stairwell that led to an exit.

Halfway to the stairwell, the pounding started again.  The deputy stopped and turned back at the sound.  He grabbed his radio from his belt.

“We’ve got movement on the bridge,” the deputy spoke into the radio.

Roger that.  Hold position until we get the building evacuated. We will get you some back up.

The deputy turned to Donna, “Get the hell out of here.”

The pounding on the door increased, and Donna felt her heart begin its own pounding in response.  She fled down the stairs and out of the building.

On the street, she followed other people toward Diamond Park.  She looked up at the Annex Bridge and tried to see who was inside the enclosure.  Sunlight glared off the windows, blocking any view to the inside of the bridge.

Donna heard muffled pops of gunfire from the building. She ran the rest of the way to the safety of the park.

A number of Butler City and Butler Township police were arriving on the scene.  They created a perimeter around the government center and the park.  The wounded, about a dozen, had been brought out of the courthouse and separated for triage.  Some had major injuries.

The Butler County Airport housed a number of Life Flight helicopters. Donna watched one of these helicopters land a few blocks away to transport some of the seriously injured to Pittsburgh.  The other injured were sent a mile away to the Butler hospital.

Donna heard a police sergeant talking on his radio; apparently, no one knew what exactly was going on in the courthouse.

“I need info,” the officer said on his radio.  “I’m not sending anyone else in, until we have some intel.  And get someone to start clearing these people out.  If those are gunshots, we need a bigger perimeter.”

A half an hour had passed, before the emergency responders looked like they were finally ready to go in.

At that moment, shapes appeared at the front glass doors of courthouse.  People were banging on the glass to get out.  Donna could see Deputies, County Employees, and even Judge Henderson.  They all looked wounded and desperate to get out.  Time seemed to slow down.  Donna watched as the glass rippled like water under the pounding. There were no dramatic cracks; the glass just shattered, and bodies came spilling out of the building.

Several Police Officers rushed over to help the injured, and the rescuers disappeared into the crowd flowing out of the building.  Donna felt like a child again at the beach.  She had once tried to build a sand castle too close to the ocean.  A strong wave would crash in and the castle would vanish in its wake.

The crowd of some 200 first responders and county workers watched transfixed at the sight of the bloodied mob.  They ripped into several officers.  The mob pushed through them and fanned out heading at the staring crowd.  A dozen more people went down before the gunfire started.  The mob, perhaps forty strong, kept advancing across the street and into park.

Someone yelled, “Run.”

Donna ran out of the park, and headed North on Main Street.  Traffic was stopped. She ran between the rows of parked vehicles.

People were coming out of the cars and stores.  The gunfire and screams attracted more people to the chaos.

Someone opened their car door, and it slammed into Donna’s side knocking her over.  She felt stinging shock in her hands when she attempted to break her fall.  The jolt of impact went through her body as the rest of her mass connected with the solid pavement of Main Street.  Her upper lip tingled, and she tasted blood mixed with motor exhaust.

Donna tried to get back up but was knocked over again by people running by.  She crawled around to the back of a car and managed to pull herself up.

She turned to look back at the park to see the mob had grown, and forms continued to pour of the Court House.

Butler County’s finest fired shot after shot into the mob only to find gnashing teeth tearing at them.  Screams filled the air, and people were ripped apart.

There is a funny thing about people when they watch disasters in person.  When people are in danger, they will run only as far as they can turn around and watch whatever crisis is unfolding. To the undead, this acts only to create an ever-expanding wave of carnage following their prey.

The mob of undead filtered into the stopped traffic.  They smashed their way into cars still occupied by their drivers.  Window after window popped to the sound of breaking glass.

One shocked woman walked up to the mob in a dazed state. “Why are you doing this?” she asked.

They answered her question by knocking her over the hood of a blue sub-compact.  She screamed for help, but the undead clawed at her.  Her arms flailed and beat at her attackers.

She screamed in agony; everyone watching viewed the woman’s detached leg hoisted into the air by the dead.  Dozens of hands momentarily pawed at the flesh until they realized it was no longer part of the living.

A new reality dawned upon the watching crowd.  They ran in horror, leaving their own wake of carnage and devastation in their bid for survival.

Donna ran two blocks North, then down a side street.  There were two men fighting in front of an open car door.  The vehicle sat at the edge of traffic and looked like it could make it out to the open street behind it.  The men were fighting for the car.

Thinking she might also be trying to take the car, one of the men turned on Donna and punched her hard in the face.  She fell to the ground.  Blackness filled her vision.

The other man pulled a knife on Donna’s attacker and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest.  He jumped in the car and drove off.

A nearby couple had seen Donna get attacked and went to her aid. Donna’s eyes rolled, semi-conscious.  They picked her up and carried her half a block where they found people piling into a red pickup.  The couple managed to pass her off to the people in the bed of the truck.

On the corner behind the couple, the undead emerged.  The driver of the pickup truck hit the gas before the couple had a chance to get in.  They couple ran for their lives trying to catch up.  “Wait you bastards,” the man screamed at the truck.

Inside the truck, the driver asked the other passengers, “Do you think she could be one of those fucking crazy people?”  No one answered.  They had all seen people who appeared injured attacking other people.

The driver slammed on the breaks bringing the truck to a stop. They placed Donna next to a dumpster along the sidewalk.  They sped off, leaving Donna knocked out. The dark held no peace for her.  She dreamed of a naked Deputy Rodgers, blood smeared across his chest, coming after her.

More than an hour passed while Donna lay there.  She heard a voice asking the same question again and again.  It slowly brought her back to reality.

A pair of dark eyes asked her, “Did they bite you?”

“I, ahhh, no they didn’t,” she heard her own voice mumble.

Donna’s vision blurred again, and darkness threatened to overtake her.  She felt sore all over and tasted the tinge of blood in her mouth.

“Do you know what is going on?” the man asked.

Donna’s head spun while the man tried to keep her awake by talking to her.  She noticed wetness from what must be tears falling down her face.  Her mouth felt dry.  “I was at the court house and had just returned from my lunch break…,” Donna told him her story.

###

Jack listened to her; he could see her regain some of her composure.  Each word seemed to help her back from the abyss of a confused mind.  When she finished talking, he offered his hand.  "I'm Jack Cotta.  What's your name?"

"Donna Greco," she said.  "Where am I?"

"I was driving back from the YMCA and saw some women attacking an old man,” Jack said.  “I stopped my car to see what was going on. When I was halfway out of the car, I noticed they were biting huge chunks out of the guy.  They were like animals.  It was a feeding frenzy. I looked across the intersection and saw the same scene being played out everywhere for blocks."

"What did you do?" Donna said.

Jack sighed.  "I did the only thing that made sense.  I got back into the car and locked the doors.  I hung a right and sped off to the West end of town trying to get home.  That’s where I came across you.  There was a traffic accident near Doughboy Park.  It looked like a number of cars were in a big pile up at the intersection.  I got blocked in the traffic, so I pulled up on the sidewalk and decided to ditch my vehicle.  I hopped out of the car and noticed you crumpled up in a ball.  You were covered in glass from one of the vehicles.  So I dragged you into the bar.  Welcome to the Manhattan by the way."

Donna picked herself off the floor and scanned the room.  The wooden bar was roughly in the shape of a triangular island; it was located the middle of the establishment.  Round stools outlined the bar.  They reminded her of piers at a dock.  A random mix of circular and square shaped tables sat scattered around the perimeter of the Manhattan.  The air carried the scent of cigarette ash and stale beer.

"I would have the bartender get you drink,” Jack said.  “Believe me; I think we could both use it. But at the moment, he's being eaten by a couple of neighborhood kids across the street."

Jack searched behind the bar and pulled out a rag. He walked over to a sink and turned on the faucet.  He soaked the rag under a stream of hot water and offered the rag to her.

"Here, you can use this to clean up with."

Donna took the cloth and felt the warmth in her hands.  She brought it up and buried her face in its relieving heat.

"The way I see it," Jack said, "you have two options."  "You can come with me, or you can lock this place up and stay here."

"You're going back out there?" Donna said.

"Yeah, I have to," he said.  "My house is just a few blocks away, and my cat is there.  Don’t worry though, she doesn't bite."

The statement made Donna think back to Jack's earlier question. "Why did you ask if I’d been bitten?" Donna said.

"Well, when you were out of it, more of those crazies showed up.  I’ve been watching them through the peephole in the door.  They don’t seem to attack each other from what I can tell.  But like the bartender over there, after people are chewed on, they seem to get up after awhile and join the crazies.”

"I saw the same thing at the courthouse," Donna replied.  "I don’t get it; no one should be able to get up after that."

"Donna, there is a lot I don’t get about today. I’m not going to hang out here defenseless and try and figure it out. I could be doing that at home with my guns.  So what is it going be, you coming with, or staying?"

She thought about it a minute.  “I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t see how we’re going to make it out of here with all those things out there.  The cops couldn’t stop them.”

Jack gestured her to the peephole.  "Before you woke up, a big Mac truck came though and pushed some of those cars out of the way. It seems to have freed my car on the sidewalk.  It’s all a matter of getting to my car while hauling ass as fast as possible."

Donna leaned up to the peephole. She could see the car fifteen feet from the door.  The thought of going back outside made her stomach churn and her hands shake.  She caught a look at herself in the bar’s mirror; she was a sad sight.  She had a swollen bloody lip and a black eye.  Usually, her long dark hair was shiny and beautiful; now, it was caked with blood and bits of glass.  Her once-fashionable black business suit was torn and tattered.  She looked down and noticed that she had no shoes or memory of when she lost them.  Pain, yes then there was the pain from the bruises, scrapes, and general abuse that her body had undergone.

"It’s clearing up out there,” Jack said. “We should go."

Donna felt fear surge in her, she felt like she was going to vomit where she stood.  Jack grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out the door.

Each step sent a jolt of pain through her legs and feet as they approached Jack’s car.  Under normal conditions, Donna's injuries would have slowed her down, but fear and adrenaline drove her on.

As they reached the car, the bartender came around the corner.  The side of his entire face was chewed off as well as a large section of his right arm.  Bone showed through in many places, and a low moan emanated from him as he lurched forward toward his prey.

Jack kicked the bartender square in the chest and sent him sprawling backwards.

Donna managed to open the door just in time for Jack to shove her unceremoniously inside.  Not wasting time to go for the other side, Jack jumped in behind her and climbed over to the driver seat.

His key stabbed at the ignition a couple of times before plunging into the hole. Jack fired the ignition.  Donna saw the bartender get up as Jack dropped the vehicle into drive.

The bartender managed to get his face right next to Donna's window before Jack pealed tire and launched the vehicle away from the creature.

After six blocks and a few turns, they arrived at Jack’s house.  He owned a three story brick home on a corner lot; it had a fenced-in back yard along a side alley.

Faced with the turmoil of events, the area was quiet and free of activity.  Jack led her inside and locked the door behind them.  "Here’s the plan,” he said.  “Those things might try and smash through a window.  My house has a few weak spots on the ground floor, but I don’t think they have the coordination to climb up to the second story. I have some wood in the basement, and we can utilize some closet doors from upstairs to cover the windows."

Jack reached into a kitchen cabinet and produced a pistol, "Just in case we have guests."

After he loaded the weapon and secured it to his hip, he redirected his attention to Donna.  "Listen, I need you to try the phones, TV, anything; but don’t make too much noise, or open the blinds."  He raced down the steps to the basement leaving Donna alone.

She tried the phone first.  The line was dead.  The TV was working, and there was news on a Pittsburgh station; but it only said that some kind of incident was going on in Butler, and news crews were en route.

Jack emerged from the basement carrying boards, "Did you find out anything?"

"No," she said, "just that they have news choppers on the way."

"Check the internet," he said. "I have a computer up on the third floor."

It took less than twenty minutes for Jack to produce five doors from closets and bedrooms on the upper floors.  He quietly placed each in position near a window or door.  It took another half hour for him to bolt the doors over the three windows from the inside and reinforce the doors.

By that time, the television was broadcasting images from a news chopper over Butler.  It showed pictures of complete carnage in the streets.  Mostly the footage showed groups of people surrounding cars or trucks stuck in gridlock. People were slowly pounding their way into the vehicles.  They watched people being pulled out of cars or trucks and torn to pieces.

“This is news chopper 10 reporting over the City of Butler, North of Pittsburgh.  Earlier, there were reports of some type of civil unrest in the downtown area of Butler.  From what we can see, there appears to be some kind of rioting taking place in the streets.  It looks as if traffic has come to a standstill in many areas.  In fact, there appears to be multiple car wrecks throughout the city.  For those of you watching this footage, I have no explanation for what might be causing such turmoil in the- my god did you see that?  They tore his arm off!”

Chapter Two

John Marks sat stunned as he watched the scenes play out on the television.  It was the first hard information he had on what was going on.  It was also the only communication he had from downtown Butler.  As the Emergency Management Coordinator for Butler County, John was supposed to coordinate the emergency services of the County.

Butler was fortunate to have one of the best Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) in the State. So good in fact, during 9/11, Butler County helped coordinated emergency services for responding to the crashed plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The EOC was situated on top of a hill about three miles southeast of downtown Butler.  Today, it was a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing for the fact that the EOC was not in the riot and a curse that there was no line of sight to observe what was going on.  With no further communication coming from the scene, there was little to go on.

John had sent a couple of police officers down the hill to try and establish communication, but the streets were jammed with vehicles.  They last reported that people coming out of downtown were hysterical, claiming people were being eaten.

That was the last he had heard from them.  In fact, nothing was coming out of the County Seat of Butler.  No communication from the County Commissioners’ office, or the City Mayor’s office; it was as if there was no one left.  The phones were pretty much jammed, but Internet and radio were still operational.  John could hear small arms fire sounding from all over Butler valley whenever he stuck his head out the door of the building.

John composed an e-mail to the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security and the Governor’s office.

Be advised, Butler City is declaring an emergency and requesting State support ASAP.  Rioting in downtown Butler has overrun County and City government centers.

We cannot currently account for over 200 Police and 60 other emergency responders who were dispatched on scene.  Radio communication is operational but with no response.  A TV helicopter on scene is showing abandoned first responder equipment, rioting, and possible cannibalism.

John thought a moment and deleted the cannibalism part.

We are currently setting up the Clear Water Mall, Butler County Airport, Butler Hospital, and this EOC as evac stations and assembly points.”

###

Kimberly liked to help people, so it did not surprise her family when she volunteered at the hospital.  With her blond hair, blue eyes, and red uniform, it took no time at all for the 23 year old to become quite a favorite with the guys at the hospital.

Ordinarily, she would be helping distribute meals this time of day. Today was anything but ordinary.  Dozens of people were arriving at the hospital wounded and bloody.  It quickly overwhelmed the ER.

"Kimberly, honey, we need you to assist Rebecca down at the ER registration desk.  You’re going to be her gopher," the floor nurse said.

"What’s a gopher?" Kimberly asked.

"You know, go for this go for that,” the nurse said.  You’d better get down there."

Butler Hospital had undergone many renovations and building projects in its history. These projects left it a virtual maze of corridors, stairwells, and elevators.  Kimberly made her way through a twist of hallways to the ER.  On the way, she noticed through a window that Life-Flight was taking off.  The helicopter was taking a patient to Pittsburgh for better care.

I wonder if I’ll see Mike down in the ER, Kimberly thought to herself.

Dr. Mike Carson was a resident physician at Butler Hospital.  He had taken an interest in Kimberly early on.  In his early thirties, most women considered Dr. Carson good looking.  He was a tall with a strong build.  Kimberly liked the smell of his spiced body wash.

Kimberly found herself completely taken with him, and she loved his attention.  She no longer cared that Dr. Carson was married.  She had met the attractive Mrs. Alison Carson on a number of occasions, and felt the woman's icy stare.  Despite the stare, Mrs. Carson treated Kimberly with a measure of politeness.  Kimberly felt guilty about it, but it didn’t stop her from sessions in the utility closet with Dr. Carson.

In a few weeks, Kim and Dr. Carson would be traveling together to the Dominican Republic.  He told his wife he would be traveling to a medical conference in San Antonio, Texas.

When Kimberly reported to the main desk of the ER, the room was in chaos.  Countless open wounds had canvassed the ER in a dark red macabre.  Curtains, windows, floors, and ER workers were spattered and sometimes splashed in an unhealthy dose of blood.

Kimberly was instructed to help with patient histories for the countless walking wounded who were turning up in increasing waves.  The hospital's ER could only handle so much traffic before the halls of the hospital were added to the triage system.  As the halls filled, Kimberly was instructed to help expand emergency capacity to the front parking lot of the hospital.

Many of the patients arrived on foot and were frantic. Their story was universal; they claimed they were attacked by crazy people downtown.  The patients insisted that these lunatics attempted to bite and tear at them, but they had managed to get away.

In the parking lot, a woman approached Kim, carrying what must have been her little girl. "You have to help my baby,” the woman shouted. “They hurt her real bad."

The mother’s clothing was marred with the blood of the girl.  It was obvious that the child had lost a dangerous amount.  The flesh that was not covered in blood appeared devoid of color.  The child hung like a rag doll in the mother's arms.  It looked devoid of life.

Dr. Carson suddenly appeared from behind Kim and grabbed the child from the mother.  "My god," Carson said.

He placed the child on a gurney and bent over to check for vitals while applying pressure to the wound.  The child began to emit a slow groan from her frail form.  The child's eyes opened and fixed on Carson.  "It's going to be ok sweetheart," he said.

"Shh, baby, mommy is here," the mother said through a face-full of tears. “Mommy won't leave you.”

The three of them were crouched over the child. Carson began to become puzzled that he couldn't find a pulse.  The child reached out for Carson's hand, and he realized three of the girl's fingers had been torn off.  A fourth finger hung by a small piece of skin.

Kimberly felt bile begin to rise up from her stomach, and she fled to find the nearest restroom.

Carson grabbed for the girl's wrist, and he applied pressure behind the wound.  The child’s face lunged at Carson's arm.  It sunk teeth deep into his flesh.  The mother desperately grabbed for her injured child, and Carson screamed out in pain.

"I need help,” shouted Carson, “someone hold her please."

"What are you doing?” the mother gasped.  “You’re hurting her."  The mother tried to intervene and separate her daughter from Carson, but the child turned on her.  The child's teeth found the softness of her mother's neck.  Blood sprayed from the internal pressure of the mother's heart.

Carson's eyes darted desperately around the parking lot.  He sought some source from which to call for help, but his eyes only took in a scene of utter anarchy.  A melee of several fights had started. People were thrashing and tearing at each other.  Some people attempted to stop the fights.  Others ran from the violence. Shouting and screams filled the air.

Kimberly didn’t make it inside the hospital before she bent over to vomit.  It weakened her knees, and she felt dizzy on her feet.  She collapsed and just managed to sit upright on the sidewalk curb.

Glass shattered behind her, and she turned to see three women push a man through the window to the ground.  They fell on him with violence.  The man was individually stronger than any of the women, but they outnumbered him and were relentless as they tore at his body.  He punched and kicked at them, but they ignored his blows.  She saw the man’s intestines appear in one of the women’s hands.  The man screamed as the woman pulled foot after foot of intestines from his abdomen.  Kimberly picked herself up off the ground and ran into the building to find help.

Inside the hospital, lifesaving efforts had turned into desperate bids for survival by the staff.  Kimberly was forced into a stairwell after being chased by one of the undead.  In the stairwell, she found that two of the undead were a floor below her.  They scurried up the steps to get at her.

“Please don’t hurt me,” Kimberly pleaded as she ran up the steps.  They came on anyway.  She screamed for help, but her breath became heavy from the effort to climb flight after flight.  She could hear their footsteps pounding up behind her.

Kimberly gained some distance on her pursuers and threw open the door to the next level she came across.  In the hallway of the floor, people thrashed and kicked at one another.  A hand reached out from the other side of the door and brushed against her sleeve barely missing.  Kimberly pulled the door closed as fast as she could.  She could hear someone scratching on the door while footsteps closed in behind her.  She continued up the steps pausing at each level only to find the same struggle playing out on each floor.

Kimberly’s energy depleted with every step.  In a desperate bid, she ran out of the stairwell into the 10th floor main hallway.  The undead were there and were summoned to the sound of the door closing behind her.

She threw herself into a nearby utility closet and locked it behind her.  It was dark in the closet; the only illumination was coming in from the the hallway outside.  Shadows danced in the light underneath the door as forms closed in.  She fumbled along the walls looking for a light switch.  On the door to the closet, the undead beat away.

###

Donna sat on a couch in Jack’s house.  The two of them had taken refuge on the third floor.  What had once been an attic, had been fully finished and converted into an office with a living room.

Donna stroked Jack’s cat, “What’s your cat’s name?”

“Naomi,” he replied. “She’s more than just a cat; she’s practically my child.”

Jack paced from window to window, keeping a constant vigil on his property.  He suggested that she take a shower and wash off the grime from her ordeal.

Donna was amazed at how good the shower felt.  It washed away some of the trauma but not all of it.  None of what she had seen seemed real to her.  She sat in an over-sized sweater and sweat-pants that belonged to Jack.  The clothes felt warm and soft on her, even though they were too large.  The cat also helped restore a sense of counterbalance to the fear in her heart.  For the moment, she almost felt safe.  They were silent for a time and listened to the occasional gunfire going off in various places in the city.

Jack stood by the window with his fingers holding two slats of a blind apart.  He looked through the opening down at the brick lined street below.  “My neighbor is looking up at me,” Jack said.

Donna turned her head to look at him.  “Is he trying to get your attention?” Donna asked.

“No, he is just standing there,” Jack said.  “He’s also missing an arm.”

Naomi, sensing the tension, shifted uneasily on Donna’s lap.  Donna’s heart beat faster at the thought of the armless neighbor below.  “I don’t understand how this can be happening,” she said.

A door opened to a house directly behind the armless man, and the elderly widow, Mrs. McDermit, emerged from her house.  Jack could hear her ask the man if he was hurt.

“Oh god,” Jack gasped.

The armless man turned and began moving in the direction of McDermit.

Donna set the cat down and moved to the window.  She parted the blinds and watched as the man closed in on the old lady.  “Jack, we have to help her,” Donna said, but Jack was already rushing down the stairs.

He burst through the front door of his home and ran across the street. He could see he was not going to make it in time.  McDermit was already a crumpled mass under the creature’s form.

Using all his momentum, Jack sent the ghoul crashing into the porch railing with a well-placed kick.  The railing cracked under the ghoul’s weight and the one-armed man went through it.

The creature rose, this time with its attention directed at Jack.  The lifeless eyes of the ghoul fixed on Jack as it moved forward.  The one remaining arm of the ghoul reached out at Jack. Its lips parted to reveal teeth covered in fat laden flesh from McDermit.

Jack felt his guts turn, and fear sent pain shooting up and down his spine.  Nearly panicked, he reached for his .45 while he backed up away from the ghoul.

Donna screamed, “Look out for the curb,” but it was too late. Jack could already feel himself tripping over it.

Hitting the ground, Jack desperately scrambled in reverse across the brick street.  The ghoul was looming closer.

Jack realized he couldn’t escape the creature, and he went for the gun again.

The holster yielded the weapon as the ghoul closed in. At the last instant, the gun erupted.  Jack placed a round directly into the chest of the creature.

The 1911 handgun was designed for military use.  Not only would it put a bullet through you, but it had power enough to throw a charging enemy backwards.  True to its nature, it threw the creature over backwards on the ground; it also blew out a section of its chest.

Jack used the time to scramble up on one knee and he re-leveled the gun at his target; it was still moving.  The one arm of the ghoul fought and found the leverage to pull its ravaged body erect.  Another explosion from Jack’s gun hurled the creature to the ground. The impact sent a section of its face going in a different direction. The zombie again moved to stand back up.

“Fuck this,” Jack screamed as he aimed the next round straight at the ghoul’s head.  The round blew the remaining portion of the head into gruesome mixture of bone and brain matter on the brick.

Jack pulled himself off the ground and noticed McDermit getting up. She looked at him with the same glazed eyes the other man had. “Shit, Mrs. McDermit, you deserve better than this, I’m sorry.”

McDermit’s only answer was her fixed stare as she moved on Jack.  Jack knew he had only two rounds left in the clip, so he let McDermit close the distance before he pulled the trigger.  The gun thundered. He placed a merciful round in her head ending whatever nightmare had overcome her.

Donna hastened to Jack on the street, and she pulled on his arm. “There are several more down the street,” she said.  Jack allowed himself to be led back into the house without another word.

Chapter Three

Paul Sulla was not a typical elected official.  At the age of 21 he became the youngest person to be serving in office in Pennsylvania. His election to the office of Township Supervisor was narrowly won by two votes after a long door-to-door campaign.

In his campaign flyers, Paul featured himself sitting on his father’s green John Deere tractor.  The flyer read, “Community values, one generation to the next.  The Sulla family had been farming in the area for the last seventy some years but had never taken an interest in politics until now.  He decided to run for office after his mother lost a five year battle to breast cancer.  Before her death, she told Paul that she always pictured him making a career in politics.  The election caused quite a stir at the time in Penn Township, but a few years had passed since then.

Paul had put on a couple of years and a rather dashing goatee since then.  He enjoyed serving his community on the three-member board.  Every Friday, Paul would head in to the township office to sign checks so that the municipality could pay its bills.  Paul would usually go in to the office in the morning, but a friend was having issues with wiring on a boat. Paul agreed to help his friend fix the problem.

What Paul had thought would be an easy fix turned out to be a wiring nightmare.  The morning hours had bled away, and time rolled well past lunch before Paul figured out that someone had reversed the positive and negative leads on the boat.

Paul said his goodbyes to his friend and headed into the township office where, George, the township secretary would likely have the checks waiting to be signed.

George had been recently hired by the municipality to replace the manager who had just retired.  While still new, George was fairly meticulous with his accounting background but had zero experience dealing with anything emergency related.  In fairness, it was his third week on the job.

Sulla parked his car by the building’s flagpole and headed for the front office of the township building.  George rushed out into the parking lot to meet him.

"Thank god you’re here," George said. "I can't reach anyone, and I don’t know what to do."

Sulla with a serious look on his face asked, "What's going on?"

"There’s something happening in downtown Butler,” George said. “I don’t know what, but I can't reach our emergency services.  We received a number of calls from the Butler County EOC asking for assistance from every local police and fire department.  We responded, and our guys went to help."

The township had a long-standing mutual-aid agreement with its neighboring municipalities. It was not unusual for situations to arise where officers would render such aid.

"Paul," George said, "It's been hours since any of our people have responded on the radio.”

"Have you been able to get in contact with the other supervisors?" Sulla asked.

"No, they’re both at their regular jobs in Pittsburgh, and the phones are jammed," George said.

"Well, I guess it is on me then," Sulla said.  A few minutes later, George joined Paul in the police department section of the building.  Paul turned the volume of the police radio up, and they both began to listen.

"Mall Command Center to EOC, we have about 30 personnel, 800 civilians, and 60 injuries.  We are turning all southbound traffic around north of the mall, and we are directing refugees into the food court here.  EOC, we are requesting an update on those ambulances."

"This is EOC, we copy that. We're negative on ambulances to your position at this time. We do not have communications with Butler Hospital.  Slippery Rock Hospital should be considered the new evacuation site for your injured."

Sulla grabbed the microphone and pressed the push to talk button, "This is Penn Township requesting any information on our dispatched emergency service personnel."

"EOC to Penn, it’s good to hear from you.  Negative on any information, we are just as in the dark as you at the moment.  Penn, we are requesting that you turn all North bound traffic around on Route 8, and that you prepare for civilian refugees fleeing the city.  One last thing, there are reports of rioting so make sure your people are armed."

"George, call the guys from down in the road department and get them up here.  Load up every gun, flare, and walkie-talkie we got into one of the squad cars. Have them meet me down at the restaurant on Route 8.  Tell them I want traffic turned around at the southern edge of the township.  I also want all of our trucks loaded up with any Jersey Barriers we have, and get them to the restaurant as well."

Paul Sulla scratched at his facial hair and thought.  "Call the school district, and inform them of the situation.  Tell them they should consider whatever emergency contingency plans they have for a lockdown or evacuation.  Tell them that whatever they are going to do, do it now because I want their busses available in two hours.  We may need them for evacuation."

"You want me to do anything else?" George said.

"Stay here, and try and get me any information you can. Also try and round up some back up for us from the South," Sulla said. “I can’t imagine what in the world is going on for the EOC to tell us to arm ourselves.  I can only imagine terrorism, but what the hell would they want in Butler of all places?”

Sulla stood and headed for the door; his hand paused on the doorknob.  "George, make sure you lock the door behind me."

Sulla went into the equipment room and selected a black jacket with yellow reflector strips on the arms.  On the back of the jacket the reflection material read, "PENN TOWNSHIP".  Sulla also grabbed a riot shotgun and an AR-15.  He stuffed ammo for each weapon into a duffle bag and took the keys for the unmarked police cruiser still in the squad bay.  Sulla did a quick radio check to the EOC and George.  He then left the municipal building.

The diner in Penn Township is best described as a greasy spoon, but the food’s always been good.  It’s located along Route 8, and the building is well into its years.  The likeness of Humpty Dumpty sits atop the diner.  The Egg Man has needed a paint job since at least 1980.

Sulla entered the restaurant announced by the squeaky hinged front door. More than a dozen pairs of aged eyes turned to look at the young man.  Sulla looked at the old-timers haunting the restaurant.  They represented a celebrated category of the American experience.  They were veterans.

"Gentleman," Sulla said, "I'll make this as short as possible.  As some of you know, I’m Paul Sulla, Township Supervisor here in Penn.  The Butler County Emergency Operations Center has contacted us asking us to turn traffic around.  There has been some kind of event in the City of Butler.  The County EOC has lost contact with the officers and personal sent in to help; this includes our own township’s officers.  I know many of you served in the armed forces at one point or another. The township needs your help.  I need your help."

The old-timers looked at Sulla and didn’t answer.

Sulla went on. "Anyone who volunteers will have their bills picked up today by the township.”

"Now you’re talking our language," said one of the old guys.

Three Road Department trucks pulled into the parking lot outside.  "Anyone who can help is asked to be outside in five minutes,” Sulla said.  “If you have a gun with you, or you can get to one in the next 15 minutes do so now."

Outside the restaurant Sulla looked at the crowd. Between the road department, restaurant patrons, and other personnel George had managed to send his way, Sulla had 28 volunteers.

In the restaurant, Sulla had discovered a man by the name of Dan Wilson who used to be a State Trooper.  Wilson had recently retired from service and moved to Penn Township.

Sulla half expected to find Wilson at the restaurant and offered him an emergency position working for the township.

The traffic heading north was stopped by members of the road department who set up roadblocks.  Sulla split the volunteers into different teams.  He sent five men out to round up more volunteers. They would then assemble at the airport.

One of the veterans had been a radio operator in Vietnam. Sulla sent him up to the municipal building to take over for George.  Sulla sent a dozen other people off to pick up guns from their homes.  They were to then go to the airport and help organize the evacuation point.

The rest, Wilson included, would take the squad car and a couple of road department trucks north to the edge of the township to see what was going on in Butler.

Sulla distributed radios and weapons to the men, and then everyone moved out.

The northern edge of the township seemed normal at first.  As they crested the hill, Sulla could see smoke rising from Butler in the distance. A number of people from the Chevy dealership stood at the intersection watching the smoke.

Sulla had one of the road department trucks deploy jersey barriers across the north bound lanes at the intersection.  They could hear gunfire from the valley below. The few cars heading south on Route 8 roared through the intersection going way over the speed limit; they didn’t bother to stop.

"Let’s drop some flares," Wilson said, "so we can flag some of these people down and find out what's going on."

Sulla asked the dealership employees if they knew anything.  They shook their heads no, but said that a number of people had driven down to the city to see what was going; none of them had come back.

Sulla thanked them and then asked them to close shop.  "You guys should look in on your families.  Either head south, or go to the airport for safety.  I would ask that you folks stop at all the business south of here and any homes you see and encourage people to clear out."

None of them seemed thrilled about this, but they agreed to the request.  A few of them indicated that they had concealed carry permits or a rifle in their truck and offered to stay.

Wilson managed to pull a car over.  Two of its five occupants were injured.

"You guys got to get out of here," the driver pleaded, "you can't stop them."

"Stop who?" Wilson said.

"I don’t know,” the driver said. “They’re like fucking zombies or something. They’re tearing apart anyone they get a hold of.  It’s fucking chaos down there.”

"What about the police?" Sulla said.

"Police... the only cop I saw was eating a little boy," the man said.

One of the vets shouted out, "We got walking wounded coming up the road."

"Shit that’s them, we just passed them up,” the driver said. “We’re getting the fuck out of here," the driver sped off without waiting for permission to go.

Down the road four people limped toward the Penn Township force.  "Those people on foot look like they are injured," Wilson said.

"What about what the driver just said?" asked Sulla.

"Demented or on drugs,” Wilson said.  “I'm going to go down there and talk to these people.”

"What about the gunfire and smoke?" Sulla pointed out.

"I don’t like it one bit,” Wilson said, “but I refuse to believe, even for a second, anything that nut just said.”  At that, Wilson took off down the hill at a jog to the four injured people.  He stopped short of them.  He could see they were badly injured.   All four of them locked onto Wilson with their eyes.

"Are you folks okay?" the retired Trooper asked.

They plodded toward him with no response.

"I asked, if you folks are okay?"  No response.  "If you need medical attention- I am an officer of the law, and you will respond."

The four kept coming. Wilson stepped back and pulled his firearm. Wilson fired a round in the air.  The four didn’t even flinch at the gunshot.

In all of Wilson's years in law enforcement, he had never seen anything like this; his hands started to shake.  He looked back to Sulla and his men, and he realized how far away they were and how close the four injured people were.  They seemed unnatural somehow.

A primal instinct in Wilson smelled death on the four.  For the first time in his life, Wilson decided he’d better run.  Even with adrenaline pumping through his system, the hill took its toll on Wilson's body.  He made it thirty feet up the hill when he felt the first stab of pain in his arm.

Please god, not now, Wilson prayed to himself as the second stab of pain shot through him.  He fell to the ground and tried to grab at something to steady himself as he struggled for life.  The dead came on, desperate to finish what remained of Wilson.

"Go, go!" he heard someone scream; it was Sulla.

Sulla had been watching Wilson, and it dawned on him the man was having a heart attack while trying to run.

Sulla charged down the hill with the riot shotgun.  The others were not prepared for the charge and were slow to follow.  Sulla could tell he was not going to reach Wilson in time.  The four people fell on the old trooper, but it was too late. Wilson was already dead.

Their attack only lasted a few seconds, until even in their diminished capacity, they could see Wilson was no longer of value.

"Back," Sulla ordered them.  They moved to embrace Sulla.  He fired the shotgun at the nearest zombie.  The blast knocked it over, and it rolled for a good fifteen feet down the hill.

"What in hell were you thinking Su-" one of the vets yelled, but stopped when he saw the zombie getting back up.

Oh my god, Sulla thought, and he pumped a round into the next zombie.  The blast caught it dead center and blew a huge hole in its abdomen.  It fell over, but kept clawing forward leaving its lower half behind it.

He aimed higher on the next attacker and pulled the trigger.  The man's head blew apart in two different directions.   He didn’t get back up.

Sulla's volunteers took up a line on either side of him and opened fire on the remaining ghouls.  The barrage turned the zombies into chunks of flesh.

"Cease fire," Sulla ordered.  One of the creature's head lay intact, decapitated from the body.  Sulla watched its eyes track him as he moved closer to it.

"Do you guys see this shit?" Sulla asked the group standing around him.

"I’m seeing it," one of the dealership salesmen said. “This is fucked up."

The head of the ghoul tried to bite at Sulla as he drew near.  Sulla looked at the other body parts to see them unmoving.  "It's just like it's out of a mother fucking horror movie," Sulla said.  "New rule, head shots only." He looked down at the moving head, "Someone bag this freak show.  I imagine someone is going to win a Nobel Prize for studying this thing."

"What about officer Wilson, do you think he is going to turn into one of them?" one of the men asked.

Sulla looked at all the bodies.  "All these things came up the hill injured and mauled. Wilson died just before they got him from what I saw.  We won’t know for sure unless Wilson gets back up.  Let’s get back to the trucks and call this into the EOC.  They’re going to need to know about the head shots."  He looked down the hill, half a mile away, and he saw movement on the road.  Hundreds of shapes were at the bottom of the hill moving south in his direction.

"That’s a whole mess of trouble coming this way boss," one of the men said.

Sulla noticed a few of his guys were carrying rifles with mounted scopes.

Bob Owen could see Sulla regarding him, and he nodded in understanding.  Even as a child Bob had been good with rifles.  When his number came up in the draft, the U.S. Army also learned of Bob's exceptional skills with a rifle.  Bob didn’t enjoy the killing, but he knew it helped protect the men he served with in Vietnam.  Bob let his thumb caress the stock on his .308 and introduced himself to Sulla.

Sulla's plan involved fighting a delaying action in stages.  Bob and a couple other guys, who were decent shots, would set up in the back of pickup trucks.  The trucks would drive down the road to decrease the distance to the hoard.  They would start to thin the undead on the road from the back of the trucks.  Every time the dead would get close enough, they would just drive the trucks back to a safe distance.

While this was occurring, the Road Department would be setting up the biggest roadblock they could manage.  A mile south of their location, Route 8 enters a big dip, where it goes over a creek.  The bridge could be barricaded with the Jersey Barriers.   The bridge marked the only place where the zombies heading south could be funneled and stopped.

At that point Sulla would commit every gun he could round up to hold the zombies at the bridge.  If he couldn't hold, Sulla would continue to pull back in stages to the airport.  Hopefully by then, help would arrive.

There were other places east and west the zombies could get across the water, but the horde coming down the road needed to be slowed down.

All the while, other volunteers would try and evacuate as many people south to Pittsburgh, or to the Butler County Airport.

Sulla sent a couple of the guys that were with him to the Airport.  He wanted them to help out with securing the fenced in facility.  The gates needed locked down, and Sulla wanted to make sure he had people who saw what's coming securing those gates.  In the distance, Sulla heard the rotor pitch of a helicopter, and it sounded like it was headed in his direction.

###

Captain Rick Anderson, of the Pennsylvania National Guard, commanded the Reserve Center in Butler County.  The unit had been deployed to Afghanistan three months ago leaving behind only a few personnel to handle logistical issues and paperwork.  New recruits and soldiers rotating home, for whatever reason, would report in to the post off and on.

Captain Anderson, had completed two tours of Iraq in the regular army, and he retired to the Pennsylvania Guard unit as its senior stateside officer a month ago.  With the position would come a promotion to Major, but the paperwork had not been fully processed yet.

From the post, Captain Anderson listened as the County EOC lost cohesion with emergency responders in the field.  In his opinion, it was almost complete anarchy.

From what Captain Anderson could tell, the shit had really hit the fan in Butler.  He expected to get a call from the Governor’s office at any moment asking him to mobilize what personnel he could to help.

The good thing about guardsmen is when emergencies happen the men just report in on their own.  Many had already arrived, and were listening to the radio with Anderson.

If Anderson did get orders to move out, he would at least be at platoon strength.

The phone rang, but it didn’t come from the Governor’s office, it came from the VA hospital next door.  The call came from Joe Swanson; he was an administrator at the hospital.

Joe was a portly fellow with thick black rimmed glasses.  Anderson had hung out with Joey just a couple of days ago.  They had gone down to one of the bars in Lyndora, and they enjoyed some brew and a couple of deep fried Twinkies.  While they were there, Anderson met several of the locals who were old chums with Joe.  They introduced Anderson to Joey’s official nickname, “Joey Bag of Donuts.”  Ever since then, Anderson automatically thought, “Joey Bag of Donuts,” when he came across Mr. Joe Swanson.

Anderson picked up the ringing phone on his desk, “This is Captain Anderson,” he said.

“Rick, it’s Joe, we need help,” the man on the other end of the phone wheezed.  “We have people tearing up the place and attacking my staff.  They killed one of my security officers-,” his sentence was interrupted by gunfire in the background.  “Shit, did you hear that?” Joe said.

“Joey,” Anderson said.  “Get somewhere safe, we’re on our way.”  The line had already gone dead.

###

The chopper Sulla heard turned out to be a news chopper for channel six.  When they saw the people with municipal equipment and guns, they decided to set down the chopper and get the story.  They landed right on Route 8 in front of the dealership.

A woman, followed by a cameraman, emerged from the chopper.  Peggy Davil had been shocked from the images her crew had taken from the air.  They had been trying to find a safe place to land in Butler for the past hour that would be close enough to the crisis to get on-location information.  They had swung by the Butler County Airport to refuel and learned Penn Township had an elected official directing operations just north of the airport on Route 8.

After taking off, it only took them a couple of minutes to find Sulla’s location.

Peggy got out of the news-chopper and asked a young man carrying some kind of machinegun where she could find Paul Sulla.  He grinned back at her and extended his hand.

“You’re looking at him, and I need your helicopter.”

“What did you have in mind?” Peggy asked.

“First, let me show you something,” Sulla said.

He led her to the back of a pickup truck and opened a cooler.  Peggy looked inside to see a severed head covered in blood.  Its eyes looked up at Peggy, and its mouth opened and closed.

“Holy shit,” Peggy said. “Fred, get this on camera,” she said to her cameraman.

Sulla then explained what he wanted.  “I need to see what’s coming at us from the air, and I need to see it firsthand.  If you want, while we are in the air, you can send your cameraman down the road to where our sharpshooters are. But I need to take your chopper up now.”

Peggy smelled news awards in her future.  “I think that sounds reasonable,” she said.

From the air, Sulla’s heart sank as he viewed his hometown of Butler.  The dead ravaged the city, and fires burned out of control.  Zombies surrounded buildings where the living struggled for survival.  Survivors waved franticly at the chopper from rooftops.  He observed muzzle flashes from every quarter of the city as people battled the undead.

An over-flight of the hospital showed that it too had been overrun by the ghouls.  On the roof of the hospital, a blond girl and a man in blue scrubs waved at the chopper.  The roof of the hospital had a landing pad designed for life-flight.

“Let’s pick them up,” Sulla directed.

###

Kimberly had been alone in the dark utility closet for what seemed like forever.

The zombies outside the door continued to try and beat their way in to get at her.  Their relentless and voiceless efforts nearly drove the young girl insane.  At first, she tried to remain silent thinking they might go away after a while.  Then she screamed for help. No one answered except the pounding on the door.  After hours of crying and praying, she discovered a steel ladder built on the back wall of the closet.  She climbed up in the dark.

During one of the many hospital renovations, the ladder had led to the roof.  One of the renovations enclosed the ladder inside, and the new wing was constructed over it. Kimberly could hear other people calling for help through the walls as she climbed up the ladder.

The top of the ladder ended onto a section that had once been the roof. Now, it might have been a balcony from the dungeons of the Phantom of the Opera.  Kimberly found a door on the balcony, the doorknob locked from her side.  Light poured through the bottom of the door.

Kimberly opened the door and found herself in another utility closet, but the closet featured a window outside of which was the top of the hospital and the landing pad.  She had only been up here once, but she knew outside the closet was a small lobby with an elevator and stairwell to the landing pad.  She opened the door and screamed as an axe swung at her face.

"No" she managed to scream.

Dr. Carson pulled the axe back at the last moment.

"Oh thank god, Kimberly."  Carson took her in his arms and their lips met.  The couple shared stories of their respective escapes.  Dr. Carson had managed to get to the room unscathed except for a wound to the arm.  He neglected to tell her the wound was from a bite.

"We should be safe up here, for now,” Carson said. “I jammed all the access ways.”  They settled in on the floor to wait.

"Does your arm hurt?" Kimberly said.

"Yeah, but I think you can help me take my mind off the pain," he said.  The young girl smiled, and he pulled her in close for an embrace.

Chapter Four

Captain Anderson's assault to rescue the VA left ten of his men dead.  To his new understanding, this meant they were part of the group of zombies trying to kill him.

They had no trouble getting to the VA, but once inside the problems started.

The guardsmen quickly found their rounds nearly worthless against the onslaught of ghouls.  Five veteran guardsmen were lost right from the outset.   The surviving VA hospital staff urged the guardsmen up a stairwell to a hastily barricaded second floor. Anderson’s platoon managed to break contact with the undead, but not before another five of his men fell.

Of a hospital staff usually numbering around three-hundred, forty-one managed to reach the safety of the barricade.  The rest were either trapped in other parts of the VA, or among the undead.

Captain Anderson got busy on his field radio trying to reach military assets on Guard frequencies. Andersen knew that the 911th Air Reserve in Pittsburgh might have one of their C-130's in range.  He used his call sign, "Guard Whisky Six-One," and asked for anyone to respond.

"This is Air Force Tango Foxtrot Delta, we read you Whisky Six."

"This is Captain Rick Anderson, Pennsylvania National Guard.  The city of Butler is a major Charlie-Foxtrot.  We are held up in the Butler County Veterans Administration Hospital; we are under siege on the second floor.  I am officially requesting an over-flight of Butler City to confirm crisis and request boots on the ground."

"Roger that ground-pounder, we will bump your request up the ladder, hang-tight. Tango Foxtrot out."

Anderson breathed a sigh of relief; at least someone up the chain of command would know to listen in.

Sergeant Ryan Winters sat in the next room over listening to his field radio.  He had it tuned in to civilian emergency frequencies.

"EOC to all ears, Penn Township reports that the only way to stop the things is to shoot them in the head.  The EOC should no longer be considered an evacuation point we are being over-" The communication from the emergency center abruptly ended.

###

Sulla heard the final broadcast from the EOC center in the news chopper.  After rescuing the two people from the hospital roof, Sulla directed the chopper back over town.  Then he swung them over to his men’s position on Route 8.

Halfway there, Sulla saw an explosion from the direction of Sunny View hill and location of the EOC.

Sulla directed the helicopter to fly over the EOC.  The pass over of the area revealed a gas line spewing fire into the air.  A pickup truck had run into some kind of junction for gas pipes.   Bodies littered the ground, several upper torsos stirred in pieces of their former selves.

“The driver,” Sulla said, “must have lost control of the vehicle while being attacked by those things.  The explosion then traveled by pipe to the EOC.” Smoke poured out of the dying building.

Sulla’s heart sank for the people killed inside. Their efforts to organize a response would be badly missed in the coming hours.  Sulla broadcast the demise of the EOC from the chopper, and then directed the helo back over Route 8 to his men fighting the undead.

“My god, look at how many are coming down that road,” Peggy said. Heading south on the highway, thousands of forms moved.

Sulla got on the radio and asked George to get a hold of the roadblock turning traffic around south of the township.  He needed them to find a couple of big-ticket items, and he needed them as fast as possible.  He also wanted George to contact the Governor and find out why in the hell the military hadn’t been called in yet.

The chopper landed at the bridge barricade now well into its construction in the middle of the bridge.  From the ground Sulla noticed the sun hanging just above the edge of the horizon.  Great, it’s going to be dark real soon he thought to himself.

###

"Sir, this Sulla guy on the radio says the EOC just got toasted from a gas line explosion," Sergeant Winters said.

Captain Anderson's radio chimed in its own report.  "This is Tango Foxtrot Delta to Whisky Six One; we are a go on fly by. ETA in 10 minutes."

"Copy that, Tango Foxtrot,” Anderson said. “Whisky Six out."

"The EOC's last broadcast was to waste these things in the head, if you want them to stay down," Sergeant Winters said.

Anderson looked out the second story window at the growing crowd of undead gathering on the VA lawn.  Anderson grinned at one of his soldiers and nodded at the window.  "Bust one of those windows out. Let’s do some experimenting in the name of science and the guard," Anderson ordered.

The soldier picked up a chair, and smashed it against the window.  The glass cracked but didn’t break.  The second swing brought a satisfying shower of glass falling away from the chair.

Captain Anderson brought his M-16 up and sighted in on a man with a bat-man shirt ambling across the lawn.  Anderson lined up the green dot of his scope right over the man's heart and squeezed the trigger.  In an instant, the round exploded from the weapon and cut through the air to impact dead center in the target’s heart.

The man took a step back and then kept coming.  It looked up into the window, attracted to the noise.

"I guess," Sergeant Winters said," that science says that fucker’s either wearing body armor under that shirt, or he's some kind of fucking monster, Sir."

Anderson realigned his aim to the ghoul's head and fired a second round.  A red mist puffed from its head, and he toppled over backwards.  He didn’t get up or move.

"That may be Sergeant Winters, but the Guard says stay the fuck dead," Captain Anderson said.

The guardsmen cheered in approval.

"Listen up," Anderson shouted.  His men and the VA survivors quieted down.  "We know how to kill these things, but we don’t have the ammo to take them on from here.  The longer we stay here, the more of those things we’re going to have to take on to get out.  We are moving out in 5 minutes to get back to depot and rearm.  Lace your shit together, and make sure we don’t lose any survivors on our way out."

###

Three minutes from Butler City, Air Force Tango Foxtrot Delta could see smoke on the horizon.  This particular C-130, boasted the title of being a gunship. The craft had Gatling guns mounted on each side of the fuselage.

Up until sighting the smoke, the crew thought that the whole thing might have been a joke being played on them.  The Co-pilot adjusted the plane’s radio to try and catch some civilian emergency broadcasts.  They caught a couple of minutes worth of chatter from Penn Township.  It sounded like the Township was as trying to organize emergency efforts near the Butler County Airport.

The pilot brought the gunship in lower to get a better visual on their pass of downtown Butler.  The C-130 broke the horizon over the valley top and got its view of the Butler County Court House.  The building was in full blaze.  Dozens of other fires burned around the town.

"Fuck me," the co-pilot said.

To their left a massive fireball reached into the sky.  From their vantage point the explosion ripped out with a shockwave that tore into the surrounding buildings leveling them to dust.  The plane bounced on the shockwave of the blast, but the pilot maintained control.

"This is gun crew one.  We got visuals of movement on the ground. We might have equipment failure back here; we see movement from multiple civilians but negative on thermals."  The crewmen then added, "Hold on sec, thermals are working fine.  I see all the fires, and some civs are normal who are waving from rooftops.  What the heck?   The people on the ground that are trying to get at the rooftops show no heat; what is going on down there...?"

###

Phil Malone worked for the Butler County Sheriff's department as a deputy. He was on duty the night when the unknown prisoner needed locked down.  The prisoner didn’t to respond to orders and kept trying to attack the deputies.  They threw him in the drunk-tank where he instantly beset his fellow inmates.

Malone, and two other deputies, rushed in to break up the fight.  Malone knocked him to the ground and tried to get a chokehold on the guy.  The guy's teeth pierced the skin of Malone's arm and sunk in to the bone.   The prisoner then pulled away and tore out a huge chunk of meaty flesh.  Blood gushed from a severed artery.  In pain, Malone let go of the guy, but the prisoner kept at him.   The crazed guy took another bite out of Malone's arm.  The other deputies tried to restrain the prisoner, but he was on top of Malone chewing the shit out of him.

A newly-arrived guard managed to pull Malone out of the holding cell while other deputies subdued the prisoner.

"Shit, we need to get Malone to the hospital," the guard said.

Malone felt dizzy from the loss of blood and passed out.

He spent the rest of the night in the ER at Butler Hospital.  The doctor did his best to stabilize the bleeding.  He gave Malone a transfusion for the loss of blood, and cleaned the wounds.  The staff informed him that he had lost a good deal of muscle tissue around the wounds.  He would need skin grafts at the minimum.

Malone felt tired, but his wife sat at his bedside. Their relationship had been on the rocks for months.  The two of them had been discussing divorce the day before the incident.  Her presence made him feel loved.  “Perhaps we can patch things up,” Malone’s wife told him while holding his hand in the hospital bed.

In the morning, Butler Hospital transferred Malone by ambulance to another facility.  They moved him to Oakland Hospital in Pittsburgh.  There, he could receive better treatment in preparation for future surgeries to his wounds.

Around lunchtime, Malone fell into a comma.  Five hours later he flat lined.

Chapter Five

Rex sat at the stone topped Casino bar drinking a Coke. He wondered where the future was taking him and his wife Ginger.  His watch showed 15 minutes until his appointment with the Casino manager.  Rex’s eyes drifted down the length of the bar. He lost conscience thought as he stared into oblivion.

"Excuse me, what are you staring at?" a young woman rebuked him from two seats down.

Rex realized his gaze bore into the girl.  She had long blonde hair, brown eyes, and full lips covered in black lipstick.  Her lips were a little pouty.  She was decked out in a tight skirt, hose, and a spaghetti-strap top, everything in jet black.  On the blonde’s right bicep there appeared to be some kind of zombie tattoo; she had the Goth thing going on.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare at you,” Rex said. “I was kind of dazing off.”

"That’s okay," she said, giving him a slight smile and the possibility of a flirtatious encounter.

"I have to ask though,” Rex said.  “Is that a zombie on your arm?"

"Yes it is," she replied with her smile growing a hint more.

"So what made you decide to go with a zombie tattoo?" Rex said.

"First off, it’s not real; yet. It’s just airbrushed," she said.  "Second, I hope it’ll remind me never to let my guard down when it involves dealing with the living dead," she said with a giggle.

Rex smiled at her, and took her in again.  The dark Goth-clothing was a contrast to the blond hair and sweet attitude.

"Art or theater major?" Rex asked.

"Neither, I’m a med-student," she said.

"They let you dress like that for medical school?" Rex asked.

"No,” she said. “But I’m on break, and I enjoy going out on a limb.  It makes me feel like a teenager.  Now I have a question for you. Do you always look so serious?"

"Only now,” Rex said. “When I was younger I had more the look of a trouble maker. I guess it’s the reason the first time I took my wife out, my future father-in-law didn’t like the look on my face.   Before he let us leave on our date, he took me up stairs, where he kept his loaded shotgun. He wore the serious look back then.”

"Oh, I still see the trouble, but I can also see you’re all business tonight.  What are you here for?" she said.

"I’m here for a job interview," Rex said.

"You must be here to see my Uncle Carmine, he’s the manager here. Look, here he comes, I’ll introduce you.  By the way my name is Maize," she said.

He smiled and offered his own name, "My name is Rex, and it’s a pleasure."

###

Rex looked into the rearview mirror of his Chrysler Sebring convertible and thought, "I’m one serious looking guy." It's the kind of half-serious, half-jest comment anyone makes while talking to them self in the car.  His dark hair and eyes matched a manly looking "Leonidas" beard.  The beard was a feature his wife held judgment on until it grew in, and then it was all the rage.

Recently, Rex quit his job working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to seek a more profitable job in the private sector.  Working with national security left zero room for error. He had to be right 100 percent of the time, doing his job, while the terrorists had to get it right just once for disaster. It sickened Rex to watch the politicians and public forget what a mean world we lived in.  Terrorists could not be dissuaded from their fanatical goals, they could only be killed.  He served his time hunting them in, but he felt really glad to put it behind him.

He headed home back to Butler after his interview.  He had applied to be the head at the security department of the Casino. The interview went well, thanks to the girl at the bar. Uncle Carmine had offered Rex the job on the spot.  Now he needed to decide if he wanted to put up with horrendous snow that Erie got every year.  Better save it for later.  The wife is going to want a say in this, Rex thought.

With the two-hour drive home nearly completed, Rex relaxed and watched the lines of Interstate 79 rhythmically roll past his convertible.  His iPod played from a selection of Johnny Cash.

Rex and his wife recently moved back to Pennsylvania from living in D.C. and had temporally moved in with his wife’s parents.  The in-laws owned a spacious brick home back a long tree-covered private lane.  It's the kind of house with white pillars in the front and a swimming pool in the back yard.  As Cash sang out ballads to Rex, he thought about finishing off the long drive with a good soak in the hot tub sitting on his in-laws back porch.

He pulled out his cell-phone to call Ginger and to tell her to pick up some steaks, but then decided not to and threw the phone down on the seat beside him.  The Grove City exit was coming up, and he wanted to take some back roads home.  During their college years, Rex and Ginger attended Grove City College; it was a very conservative and close knit Christian school.  Students there often left campus to seek out more adult extracurricular activities that were frowned upon by the school. Taking some of those back roads would stir up some fond memories that the couple shared.

The pavement underneath the convertible changed from Interstate, to State Route, and then to rural back roads.  The sun splashed its final rays of light on Rex and darkness filled its place.

Cash continued to sing out fateful lyrics. Rex reminisced at several wonderful years of romance and marriage with Ginger.  Transitioning from old memories he thought about the weekend ahead with his wife and family.  He felt his foot become a little heavier on the pedal thinking about his wife's strawberry blonde hair, dark eyes, and warm embrace.  Yes, he thought, it should be a good weekend.

Several miles away from his in-laws home, he saw the flashing lights of two police cruisers on either side of the road. He could barely make out the reflection of plastic orange barricades blocking the road.  "It’s awful early at night for a sobriety checkpoint," Rex said to himself.  The checkpoint stood off in the distance; his turn came well before that.  For the last few miles, Cash sang out, "When the Man Comes Round."  He tapped his fingers to the music on the steering wheel.

Entering the private drive and rounding the bend, Rex viewed the home alive with light.  In the garage sat his mother-in-law's convertible, the trunk was left open.  Rex slowed down getting ready to stop, while at the same time, he flipped the switch to bring his convertible top back into place.  Both the car and its top came to rest at the same time.  The engine died on command.  Rex grabbed his duffle bag and headed into the house.

Walking past his mother in-law’s car, he noticed several grocery bags still in the trunk and the door into the house gaped open.  He entered the house and felt an invisible hand touch his back.

When something felt wrong to Rex, he always described the sensation as an unwanted hand about to lightly press its self against his skin.  The lights, open doors, and grocery bags played a disturbing contrast to the absolute silence of the house.  His senses sharpened, and he looked for anything else out of order as he closed the door behind him.  Across the hallway and past the kitchen, he could see randomly generated light from the plasma screen television likely muted in the living room.

Rex relaxed at the normality of this, and he eased his way to the living room with his duffle bag in hand.  He would hopefully greet his wife and her family relaxing there.  Rex rounded the corner to find the television muted on a shopping channel; the room was empty. The sliding glass door to the back porch stood wide open.  This is officially getting weird, he thought.  He dropped his bag and briefly poked his head out the back door to find the porch and pool lit up, but no one was around.  Rex called into the home, "Hello."  No one answered.  All the facts pointed to danger, but for one, his wife's absent car from the driveway.

He reached for his cell-phone to call Ginger and remembered throwing the phone into the passenger seat of the car.  I guess I’ll just get in the hot tub and wait, Rex thought.  He grabbed his shorts from his bag and decided to change in the living room; after all, it was clear no one was around.  Out on the back porch, he pulled back the hot-tub cover and felt the warm water rise up to meet his eager muscles.  He sat on the side of the tub about to swing himself over the edge and into the water, but it didn’t feel right.  That damn invisible hand applied its touch to his senses.  He felt exposed, vulnerable.  Perhaps it’s because I’m only in my shorts, Rex thought.  He looked around annoyed at the darkness beyond the backlights. Anyone could be watching from beyond his vision, while he sat exposed, lit up like a Christmas tree.  Rex battled with his instincts of danger and his logic that said he is over reacting. His wife's family could be this careless leaving the house open at times.

“Fuck it,” he said.  He went back inside to his bag and removed his sidearm. He pictured Ginger making fun of him for having his gun sitting by the side of the hot tub when they got home.  He smiled, "They’ll never know, if I throw a towel over the gun."

Rex slid into the warm water half relaxing and half vigilant.  He waited in silence as When the Man Comes Round echoed in his head.

Seconds accumulated into minutes.  The warmth soaked into his muscles. Cash faded away.  Rex slid deeper into the hot water. He sunk down up to his chin. It felt like a warm blanket.  His eyes closed.  He listened to his rhythmic breathing and steady wind coming from the northwest.  The wind seemed to deliver an occasional popping noise of someone setting off illegal fireworks far in the distance.  There was nothing new with that.  He dozed off.

He stood at the altar in the Grove City College Chapel. The name never did the stone building justice with its vaulted arches, stained glass windows, pipe organ and stone floor. He thought of it as a cathedral and was elated that Ginger wanted to marry him there.  Rex waited at the altar for Ginger with his family and friends watching.  The pipe organ called the bride down the aisle, and he watched her with adoration.  She did not make eye contact with him, but remained fixated directly ahead of herself.  Ginger carefully made her way up the steps to the altar. She was directly level with Rex when she turned to him. She amazed Rex.  Ginger was also swept up in emotion and she directed all the love in the world at him though her eyes.  The two shared a moment of complete contentment and love. He knew he would never be alone.

The hand returned.  It told Rex he was no longer alone.  He opened his eyes to see the shape of a man 100 feet away perfectly silhouetted by a light directly behind him.  The man was looking into the window of the house. He turned, dismissing the house, and stumbled closer to Rex.  The man wore an orange Cincinnati Bengals T-shirt.  Rex knew he hadn’t been spotted yet.  The man continued to stumble as if he were drunk or wounded.

What the hell is wrong with this guy, Rex wondered. He was about to ask the guy.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another man barely 10 feet away coming directly at him with outstretched arms and hands curled like talons.

"Hey!" Rex screamed. He rushed out of the hot-tub angling for his gun. The water splashed, displaced by the violent motion. He reached the weapon, but the attacker was upon him.  There was no time to issue a warning or even level the weapon at the guy.

Rex pivoted to his right and spun. The bottom end of the weapon crashed down on the attacker.

The attacker’s hand shifted the placement of the blow. It glanced off the man's jaw clearly breaking it and sending teeth flying.

The man was unfazed at the blow and kept pushing his weight on Rex.  He pushed in on him as if to try and bite him. Rex shoved back and scrambled for space.  His back connected with the brick exterior of the home ending any hopes of evasion.

Light from inside the house revealed the glazed eyes of the attacker.

Rex managed to level the weapon at point-blank range. He squeezed the trigger multiple times and explosions in rapid succession emptied the clip.  The attacker was knocked back and down on the ground. As soon as the motion was arrested, the man rose again.

The man in the Bengals T-shirt was a lot closer now.  He headed directly at Rex.

React or die, Rex thought.  He dropped his gun and charged his first attacker grabbing the man's head in both hands.  He drove him back with all his strength toward a brick column that held up the porch overhang.  He drove the man's head into the corner of the brick column and heard the skull crack like an egg.

In the heat of the moment, Rex continued to smash the head until the form crumpled to the ground dead or dying.

"Bengals", tried to grab Rex, but his body was still slippery from the water.  Rex retreated backwards to the sliding glass door and slammed it closed on the new attacker.

Rex knew this would buy him only a little time. Despite the adrenaline rush, the air-conditioning inside the house chilled his dripping wet skin.  The man outside began to pound on the glass.

Two more ambling forms arrived in the yard and made their way to join "Bengals" effort to break into the house.  Rex saw his gun lying on the ground outside.  Its ammo depleted and out of reach, the gun was useless for the moment.

Rex raced up stairs to his father-in-law’s closet.  Leaning against the wall rested the shotgun; there was a box of shells at its base.  He took a moment to try and familiarize himself with the weapon, but he heard the glass door give out.

He slid four shells into the magazine then loaded one into the chamber with the satisfying and hallmark sound shotguns make when pumped.  He waited at the top of the steps for the nightmare to come to him.

A woman in a bra and jeans rounded the stairway below Rex. Her left arm hung limp and bloody, but she didn’t seem to mind.  Her body looked covered in blood, but it appeared she was not actively bleeding. She looked like she had died several hours ago, but for the fact that she was coming up the steps.  Rex worried the woman would shrug off the blast from the shotgun.  His first attacker had shaken off a full clip of .45 caliber rounds.

Rex leveled the shotgun at the woman, a perfect angle to her head.  He squeezed, and nothing happened. "Shit!" he said.  His fingers found the safety near the trigger guard in a fraction of a moment; he didn’t waste any time to pull the trigger.

The blast caught the woman full in the face.  Her body went flying down the stairs. She didn’t get up.

Headshots seem to work, Rex thought.  He pumped another shell into the magazine not knowing how many more of these things would follow.

The other two were attracted to the chaos on the stairs and rounded the bend in the hallway with "Bengals" bringing up the rear.

Rex forced himself to remain calm and let them come to him.

He allowed them to get halfway up the stairs before two blasts from the shotgun dispatched into the first man; it sent both the man and "Bengals" back down the steps.

"Bengals" looked up the steps at Rex with lifeless eyes and opened his mouth revealing blood-stained-teeth.  "Bengals" began to rise and struggle over the inert bodies of its fallen compatriots.

Rex pulled the trigger once more and hot flaming shot erupted from the weapon and blew apart "Bengal’s" head.  The body crumpled over backwards down the stairs.

Reloading his weapon, he took a moment to take stock of the situation.  His mind traced back to the police blockade, the abandoned house, and the girl with the zombie tattoo. "Oh shit," Rex thought.  He moved over to the bedroom window and stuck his head outside.  There was no longer any trace of wind.  What he thought was fireworks were now clearly sporadic gunfire; it came from every direction.  Rex's mouth fell open to form the word "zombies."

Two headlights turned the corner up the private drive, and Rex caught the briefest glint of red from the car, his wife Ginger's car.  Rex knew that he and his wife would have to make some big decisions this weekend.

###

Alison sat at the mall with her nails and hair done, prepared for an evening out on the town that wouldn’t happen.  She couldn’t face an evening at home alone, so she continued to sit where Mike told her he would meet her.

The life of a physician's spouse never lived up to the glamour that most people would expect.  Medical school itself was a survival experience as many couples found the stresses and temptations too much.  The first year of Mike's medical school went okay, Alison had a support group.  There were plenty of other spouses going through the same experience. Once they moved away for Mike Carson to start his clinical rotations, Alison felt herself cut off from friends and family.  Carson had been a physician for a couple of years now, but the loneliness hadn’t abated for Alison.  They moved to Butler a year ago, but she still had not made many friends in the community. Alison felt like she had to make things right with her husband before she could focus on building any other relationships.

Alison wanted connection and love from her husband, but the only thing fate brought to her was a food court employee.

"Miss," the man said, "Would you like a free sample of cheese steak?"  Alison was so lost in thought that she didn’t hear the man.  After a few seconds, he wondered off.

She envisioned her husband in another woman's arms.  Hardly a woman and more of a girl, she thought.  Her finger lightly pushed at a grey plastic pepper shaker.  It wasn’t the first time her husband cheated on her; it was just the latest.  Back in medical school, Mike Carson had cheated on her with a fellow student.  It should have cost them their marriage, but Alison agreed to stay. She feared the consequences of facing the future alone.

Yet again, she had confirmation of his unfaithfulness.  Earlier in the day, she went to surprise him at work.  She drove to the hospital and pulled into the parking garage to find a spot. On the second level, she found a convenient space and backed in.  She pulled out her cell phone and dialed her husband.  The phone rang three times before Carson picked up.

"Hey birthday girl," Carson said, "What's up?"

"I thought I'd come find you at the hospital today," Alison said.  There was a pause on his end.

"Don’t bother, I'm not there yet," Carson said.

Alison sat in her car and watched while a doctor in a white lab coat and a young girl walked hand-in-hand through the garage away from her.  She recognized her husband instantly.  Alison squeezed the steering wheel in shock.  It felt like her heart was falling off a cliff, but she managed to keep her voice even on the phone.

"Where are you?" she said. Again there was a pause.

"We had that tour of the timber yards this morning," Carson said.

"I don’t remember you telling me about that," she said.

"Sure you do,” he said.  It's where they get the White Ash to make Louisville Sluggers.  They get it here in Pennsylvania.  We drove up early this morning.  I told you all about the trip last week."

Alison could see Carson stop and pull the girl in close to him.

"Listen, babe. I want to focus on driving, but I wanted to let you know that I love you with everything in my heart.  You’re the best part of me, and I'd walk through fire to make you happy."

It was the most heartfelt, sincere thing Carson had ever said to Alison, and he held another woman in his arms saying it.  She would have never believed it was a lie, if she didn’t see him holding the other girl as he said it.  He hung up the phone and walked away with the girl never knowing his wife had seen him.

Alison had always been considered attractive with her black hair and tight body.  She shared the black hair with her late grandmother who was Spanish by birth.  Her mother said she only looked better with age.  She didn’t feel that way.  She felt like her self-confidence was slipping away.  She had tried to feel good today.  She worked out this morning, had her hair and nails done, put on a pair of expensive earrings, and wore her favorite tight fitting jeans.   It was all for nothing.  Today, Alison knew she would celebrate her 33rd birthday alone. She knew Carson would text her to say that he had to cover for a fellow physician and would be late for their celebration.  This would mean he was off with his latest conquest.

She extended her index finger toward the strawberry smoothie and pushed it away from her bit by bit.  Condensation from the plastic container pooled on her French-tipped nail.  “I wonder where I can get some rum to put in this,” Alison said to herself.

Despite her inner turmoil, Alison noticed that things were happening at the mall.  A number of police and EMTs were walking around the food court.  Several EMTs brought in gurneys and boxes of medical equipment.  They stacked the boxes on the gurneys and pushed them next to the wall.  They were clearly setting up shop.

The mall's public announcement system clicked on.  "Attention Clear Water Mall shoppers, there has been an incident downtown Butler, and the Clear Water Mall has been designated as an evacuation point for area residents.  The Center Township Police department has informed us that for the time being, everyone is asked to stay inside the mall for their own safety. Do not to attempt to leave."

So perhaps Mike didn’t stand me up, Alison thought to herself.  At least he wouldn’t be spending his time with that girl.

The food court sat near one of the mall's main entrances. Through the plate glass doors Alison saw the flashing lights of several ambulances pulling up outside the door.  Inside, mall staff and EMTs continued to clear space that might be needed by the authorities.

Things changed dramatically in the next couple of hours. The mall began to fill with hundreds of frightened people.  Some of the refugees scurried out into the mall as if they were looking for a place to hide.  Outside, emergency services had set up a makeshift treatment center with ambulances and gurneys.  Alison could see the EMTs busy dealing with some of the more serious cases out there.

The mall announcer clicked on again. "Ladies and gentleman, the police are asking that we clear out the food court area except for the injured.  There is plenty of seating in the court yard area in front of the jewelry store."

Alison got up to start walking, when she noticed that one of the patients outside appeared to be trying to attack a paramedic. A number of people were trying to restrain the man.  Alison watched as another paramedic crew gave up on a patient and covered the body. When the paramedics walked away, the body began to move.  An older woman near the door also saw the body move and began to scream, "Oh my god, it's happening here."

Other refugees watched frozen. The man got up and grabbed the nearest EMT and embraced him fully with arms and teeth.  Several people in the watching crowd screamed, and others tried to scatter away, but many fell and got caught in a stampede.

Alison ran from the crowd, not even bothering to grab her purse. Up ahead, she could see an electronics store employee lowering the steel gate to his store.  Alison managed to duck under the closing gate with several other people before it closed.

A single gunshot brought additional screams from the crowd. The one shot turned into several, dozens, and hundreds. They came from both ends of the mall and then only came screaming.

Outside of the store, people continued to run in every direction, like caged rats looking for an escape in a sealed box.

"What's happening?" a man inside the electronics store asked with tears streaming down his face.

"We heard on the CB radio that people downtown were turning on each other and tearing each other apart," said a store employee. His nametag identified him to customers as Ted.  “We decided to lock ourselves in to make sure whatever is happening out there couldn’t get in.”

###

One hour earlier.

Don Burgess, an off duty State Police Trooper headed south on Route 8 from Slippery Rock.  Ten miles outside of Butler, he came to a roadblock that was turning traffic around.

He pulled his car to the side of the road, but the local law enforcement officer ordered Burgess back in his car.  Burgess ignored the local. "I’m Lt. Burgess, State Trooper, out of Meadville. What’s going on here?"

The local police officer visibly relaxed at the Trooper’s identification.

"It's, it’s a mad house in Butler,” the man said. “People are tearing each other apart. They say murder and cannibalism is taking place everywhere. There’s been no radio contact from anybody in the downtown area in hours.  Hell, even the EOC isn’t responding anymore.  The last thing the EOC said was to shoot the rioters in the head."

Burgess didn’t know what to think.  What he had just been told sounded insane.  Riots happened, but not in towns like Butler and not in ways like this idiot is saying, Burgess thought.  "Who's in charge now?" Burgess said.

"Penn Township’s still broadcasting,” the man said. “They’re evacuating people to the Butler County Airport. There’s another evacuation point just south of here at the mall; I’m sure they could use your help."

Burgess turned and walked back to his car.

"One other thing” the man said, “I hope you got your service piece with you.”

Of course I have.  You stupid bastard, thought Burgess.  It was a widely known requirement for any off duty State Trooper to carry at all times.

Burgess didn’t know what to believe about the local's story, but when he tried to use his cell phone the circuits were full.  Burgess went to his trunk and opened the gun case to his AR-15.  It was clear that something was going on, and his AR-15 would be of little use, if not at arm’s reach.  Burgess also grabbed his spare uniform from the trunk and changed in the car.

Burgess threw his portable blue magnetic emergency light onto the roof of the car and dropped the transmission into drive.  The sedan's tires sprayed gravel as it headed south.

Almost at the mall and with windows down, Burgess could hear gunfire from the checkpoint.  He could see police cruiser's lights flashing in the fading moments of day.  Officers were using their cars as cover. They appeared to be firing into a crowd of people, some running while others appeared to be attacking one another.

Burgess brought his sedan in behind the cruisers and scrambled out with his AR-15.

"What the hell is-" Burgess’ question died mid-sentence while he watched two rounds blow through the heart of a man in a yellow polo shirt.  The man kept coming forward as if nothing had happened.  A round hit him square in the head; polo shirt went down for good.

One of the other officers, a fellow state Trooper, screamed at Burgess, "If they aren’t running and screaming shoot them in the head."

In the distance, Burgess saw a man running from two women.  The man tripped.  The women fell on him and appeared to be biting and clawing at him.  The man punched and kicked at the women knocking them back, but they kept at him.  Another man fell on the victim, pressing down on his legs.  The guy screamed desperately for help but only more attackers came.

Dozens of people managed to escape the edge of the melee to head to the mall. In their wake came dozens of ambling forms.

At thirty yards away, one cop opened fire with his service pistol.

"Hold your fire till they’re closer,” the other State Trooper screamed. “You’re just wasting ammo if they’re that far away."

"What's happened to these people?" Burgess shouted to the other cops.

"Fuck if I know, but if you don’t shoot them in the head, they keep coming like the mother fucking terminator," shouted one of the officers.

Burgess brought up his AR-15 and scoped in on a target, a woman.  He couldn't shoot a woman, so he picked another target.  He found a man with a shaved head and mustache. Perfect, Burgess thought. The skinhead had his throat torn out, and Burgess could see the man's spinal cord.  The wound was an impossible injury for anyone to incur and stay mobile.

"I got range with the AR," Burgess told the others.

Burgess green dotted the man's shoulder and pulled the trigger.  The round plugged the skinhead true to the mark.  He kept coming like nothing had touched him.  Burgess was sold, he moved the dot to the man's forehead and squeezed.  The skinhead dropped, the other zombies kept coming.

Burgess lined up another headshot on a man wearing a blood-caked button up shirt.  The man's head jerked back as the bullet caught him dead center in his forehead.

Several more zombies dropped as Burgess lined up shot after shot, only seconds had passed.

One of the officers reached into his car to switch on the headlights, so they could see down the darkening road south of them.  The headlights revealed hundreds of bodies moving north through abandoned cars.

Closer to the squad cars, there were at least a dozen undead mere feet away from the police.

"Hit‘em now," Burgess shouted.

The police opened fire in mass. The bullets found their marks. The gunfire created a shower of organic mass as bodies dropped over.

The thunder of the blasts ended with the sounds of spent shell casings cascading down on the pavement.  A few casings prolonged their chorus a moment longer by rolling off the cruisers hoods.

The horde of hundreds continued their advance into the headlights.

"We’re going to have to pull back to the mall,” Burgess said. “We can’t take that many."  Three gunshots from the direction of the mall punctuated Burgess' statement.

"Oh shit, they are behind us," shouted the other State Trooper.

Burgess ordered them into their cars and up to the mall.  The radio in his cruiser with crackled a plea for help from mall security.

The police cruisers sped up the mall entrance ramp and entered the parking lot. Hundreds of zombies already were scattered around the south half of the lot and several had reached the ambulance station.

If Burgess hadn’t ordered them to abandon the roadblock they would have been completely flanked by the horde.

The lot, like the road, was a complete free for all as living struggled to flee the dead.

The ambulance crews struggled to free themselves from the dead.  A police officer stationed to assist the EMTs fired shot after shot into one of the attackers.  Catching the zombie in the mid-section did nothing to stop it.  The bullets, however, did quite a job on the glass doors into the mall, shattering them.

Emergency personnel fell back into the perceived safety of the mall. The zombies followed them through the shattered glass.

Burgess drove his car right up on the sidewalk behind the ambulances and knocked over several blood-stained stretchers.  His car plowed into the rear-most zombie headed into the mall and crushed it under his car.

He threw his door open and popped out of the car with his AR.  Burgess used the roof of his cruiser to steady his aim and he lined up his rifle with the zombies in the mall.  Panicked screams emanated from within the building.

Burgess fired round after round at the dead while the other police cars took up position behind him.

To his right Burgess heard the shot of an officer dispatching a zombie thrashing on the ground.  Other officers took up positions on either side of the mall entrance preparing to make a tactical advance into the building.  Burgess slapped another magazine into his gun and then continued to rain fire on his targets.

Behind him, other officers facing the lot began to lay down fire as other zombies closed in.

"Go, move," Burgess ordered.

The police advanced into the mall dispatching zombies in front of them as they fell back from the zombies in the lot.  They took up position in the food court as the dead funneled into the mall.

Burgess let loose with a round from his AR; he could hear people scream at the crack of his rifle throughout the mall.  Three zombies replaced the one Burgess had just downed.  He fired several more rounds and dropped more of the undead.

Passing through the zombies, the bullets shattered yet more glass doors.  The horde poured in through the openings.

Burgess and the other officers let loose with a hail of gunfire culling dozens of the undead.

He sighted in on another target when his gun was jerked to the left.

A zombie that survived the initial assault into the mall grasped at Burgess.

Burgess raised his hand to push the ghoul away only to find his fingers in its mouth.  He felt searing pain and a bone-crunching snap as finger after finger came lose in the zombie's mouth.  He fell over, and the zombie dropped on top of him.

With his other hand, Burgess tried to free his service pistol while the zombie continued to eat at his hand. More fingers came off.  Burgess screamed, and his eyes watered in pain.

His gun came loose, but he lacked the fingers on his other hand required to chamber the first round.  He pounded the gun into the side of the zombie’s head and knocked it off of him.

He twisted to his side and tried to get up when he felt teeth bite into the back of his neck.

Another officer shot the zombie biting into Burgess' back.

Blood poured out of Burgess's wounds.  He could feel himself weakening.

All around them, the zombies were overrunning the police in the food court.

"Shoot me," Burgess told the officer.

The man aimed the gun at Burgess’ head and pulled the trigger; the revolver was empty.  The dead fell on both of them in the next heartbeat.

Burgess joined the horde. After getting up, he moved without direction down the mall.  At first he had no will. He moved or stood still for no reason. Burgess had no memory or rational thought or feeling.  He existed and nothing more.  Then he noticed something about the electronics store.  Inside the store was something he desperately wanted.

Burgess, covered in blood and his shirt half torn off, tried to force his way through the store security gate.  When he pounded on the gate, blood spattered from his left palm; it lacked fingers.  Each thrust brought additional red spackle until his entire wrist got caught between the bars.

A teenage boy saw the cop and ran up to Burgess thinking the trooper had a key to get into the protection of the store.  Burgess turned and lunged at the boy snapping with his teeth, but his caught wrist tethered him back.  The other hand managed to get a hold of the teenager’s hair and pulled him to the gate with Burgess.  The kid screamed and thrashed trying to get away but to no avail.  Two other ghouls entered the fray and fell on the teen with flashing teeth. They tore the boy apart while the group in the electronics store helplessly watched.

"I think it would be safer in the back store room," Ted, the store employee, said.

As if in response to the comment, Burgess' head turned to face the people huddled inside.  He pushed on the gate trying to force his way into the store.

Alison and the group fled to the back of the store into the “employees’ only” section.  They locked the door behind them and secured it with a stack of boxes.  From the noise, it sounded like at least a few zombies were now trying to break down the gate.

"What the hell is going on with these people; why are they doing this?" Alison said.

"I don’t know," a blond girl wearing a Steelers jersey said, "but I get the feeling if we stay here, we’re going to end up like that kid." The blonde introduced herself as Ginger.

"Let’s not get any crazy ideas," Ted said. “If you try and leave, those things will get you.  They must be all over the mall by now, and even the police are attacking people."

"Does anyone have cell service?" Alison said.

"The circuits are busy," replied Ted.

"I'm not going to stay here and die,” Ginger said.  “Is there any other way out of here?"

"Yeah,” Ted replied.  “In the back of the store is a service corridor, it runs the entire length of the mall.  There’s an exit about two-hundred feet from here.  But if those things got into the other stores, they are bound to be back there.  Plus they’ll be in the parking lot.”

"My car is parked fairly close to here," Ginger said. "It's less than a hundred yards.  If we can make it to the car, my parents have a house a few miles away.  I have to get home to my parents and husband.  He should be there by now, and we have guns there."

"I’ll go," Alison said, "What about the rest of you?"

They looked away and remained silent, but Ted spoke up.  "Please stay, they’ll tear you two apart."

"If we stick together, we can make it," Ginger said.

Ted pushed the glasses up on his nose, "It would just mean that we would all die together."

"That may happen anyway, if we stay here," Alison said.

Alison and Ginger approached the door to the back corridor and gently opened it to peek out.  It was empty.

"If you go out there,” Ted spoke, "you’re not going to get back in here, if you get in trouble.  I’m sorry, but I am going to have to barricade the door behind you."

With a look of disgust Alison and Ginger left the group behind.  When the door closed, they could hear boxes being piled up behind the other side.

"What a chicken-shit," Ginger said.

They made it perhaps ten feet from the door when a loud crash came from behind the door they left.

They could hear Ted scream in panic, "The gate must have caved in."

A crowd of zombies attracted to the noise of the gate collapse pushed their way into the store.  Ted's screams drew the dead further back into the store toward the storage room. There they confronted the cheap construction wood door that separated the living from the dead.  The weight of zombies pressed in on the door.  To its credit, the door held out, but its entire frame gave in pushing the top of the stacked boxes over.

The survivors rushed to the service entrance corridor and tried to move away Ted's newly stacked barricade of boxes.  In the scramble to the door, they fell into each other.  Behind them, the zombies were breaking the “employees’ only” barrier down, and clawing their way over the breached door frame.  Two of the creatures got through the press of the undead and rolled to the floor. Their hands reached out at Ted.

Ted tried to kick away at the one creature, but it grabbed on to his leg and sunk his teeth into Ted's shin.  Ted screamed out in pain.  One of the other survivors grabbed hold of the zombie to try and drag him off Ted only to be embraced from behind by several pairs of outstretched hands.

In the service corridor, Alison and Ginger ran.  The noise from electronics store attracted several ambling forms from further down the passage behind the girls.

"I think we’re faster than them,” Alison said.  "Just make sure you don’t lose your keys."

"When we get outside, keep running," Ginger said. "Don’t stop for anything.  My car is a red Saturn sitting off by its self."

They burst through the door and into the dimly lit parking lot.  There were a couple of vehicles driving through the lot with figures of people chasing them.  One of the vehicles slammed into a parked minivan; glass shattered from the impact.  The undead caught up with the vehicle, and climbed their way through the window to get at the driver.

Ginger pointed at her car sitting alone under one of the lot's light-poles, "There it is."

Behind them, the service door to the mall burst open; a dozen or more ghouls took chase after the two girls.

The girls sprinted their way to the car passing rows of vehicles.

Out from behind a parked van, a zombie stepped in front of Alison and tried to grab her.  Alison ran smack into the zombie and knocked him over with kinetic energy.  She plunged into a rolling fall to the ground, but managed to get right back up a number of feet away from the zombie.  She kept running while ignoring the sting from her hands.

Ginger reached the car and unlocked it with her remote control.  Alison opened the passenger door to the car by the time Ginger brought the engine to life.

Out of no-where, a young teenage girl appeared in the headlights and then ran to the back passenger door.  She banged on the window desperately.  The undead from inside the mall were about to catch up with her.

"Let me in, let me in," the girl pleaded.

Ginger unlocked the door, and the girl scrambled inside to the safety of the back seat.  Ginger slammed on the gas and left the undead grasping at the moving vehicle.

More of the creatures closed in on the car from all sides.  Ginger swerved left and right trying to avoid them and other parked cars.  Bodies bounced off the sides of the car more than a couple times.  She found an empty lane and accelerated away from the mall heading north.

Driving home, they could see house after house under siege from the undead.

"My God, they’re everywhere," Alison said.

"Please Lord; don’t let them be at my parents’ house.  Let my family be safe," Ginger prayed aloud.

"What do we do, if they are there?" the teenage girl in the backseat said.

Ginger's mind tried to play out a scenario of what she would do if she found her family dead from these things.  Her mind couldn’t comprehend any kind of sane reaction.

A woman ran out into the road in front of the car waving her arms franticly. Her clothes were torn like she had been running through the woods that she emerged from.

Ginger caught the briefest glimpse of her mother’s face, and she slammed on her brakes.  The woman dove to the side of the road to avoid being hit.

A zombie emerged from the woods after its prey and limped dead center into the path of the car. The impact hurled the zombie forward twenty feet, and it continued to roll for another ten, but it started to get right back up.

Ginger's mom struggled up from the ground and limped to the car.

"Hurry up," said the girl in the back seat while she opened the door for the woman.

Ginger turned around and looked into the back seat at her winded mother. Her mother, Vicky, worked out a lot and occasionally did marathons.  Ginger thought her mom looked worse than she did when she finished one.

"Mom, are you okay; where's Dad?"

Vicky pointed to the front of the car.  "He's right there, baby.  They got him, and he's been trying to get me ever since."

Ginger looked up to see her father walking toward the car.

"We need to move,” Alison said, "or he's going to try and get in."

Ginger pressed on the gas and maneuvered the car off the road and into a yard on the right avoiding her father.  The car plowed into a mailbox and knocked it under the vehicle.  Ginger drove the car back onto the road and the mailbox hung along for a few moments, screeching metal and throwing sparks.

Ten minutes later, Ginger's red Saturn pulled into her Mom's driveway.  The lights to the house were all on.

Rex hung out of her Mom's bedroom window waving at the car.  He held her father’s shotgun in his other hand.

Ginger pulled the car into the yard below the window to the protective cover of the gun and got out.

"Ginger," Rex said, "I don’t know if you know what's-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw his mother-in-law get out of the car.  Rex didn’t see his father-in-law and filled in the blanks without asking any questions.

"I’ll be right down, don’t move," Rex said as he disappeared from the window.

From the outside, they could see him come halfway down the steps through the window in front of the stairs.  He then jumped over to the side of the stair rail and went out of view.  A moment later, Rex opened the door, gun at the ready, wearing only pineapple-covered swimming trunks.

"They came at me when I was in the hot-tub.” he said. “I killed one out back then they followed me in the house. There's a few bodies behind the door here, so don’t be alarmed when you see them.  You have to shoot them in the head or they don’t want to die... or stay dead," he explained.

Rex handed his mother-in-law the shotgun and turned back toward the bodies.  He grabbed on to the legs of the first body dragged the bodies out of the house one at a time.  The corpses left a smear of red on the hardwood floor.  Everyone watched in silence and kept an eye out for more zombies.

He waved for everyone to move close to him, "We’re going to stick together and move as a group.  Let’s keep as quiet as possible and not panic."

Rex led the way down the stone pathway that curved around the side of the house to the garage.  He paused at the corner and peered out into the night while willing his eyes to cut past the edges of darkness.

"The garage is all metal and block with steel fire doors," He said.  "We can hold up there till the morning. Hopefully by then, we’ll have a plan and perhaps know what the hell is going on."

He thought about his options.  When they moved to Pennsylvania, they moved in with the in-laws temporarily.  The majority of their property sat at the far end of the driveway in a white storage pod.  Among the pods inventory were several of Rex's guns and a decent cache of ammo.  He also thought about his in-laws brand new all black Dodge Ram mega-cab.  Rex had a vision about driving over the undead and laughing.

Ten minutes later, the group watched the garage door rattle closed while they sat safely inside the pickup in the garage.

Rex and Alison had collected all his guns and ammo from the storage pod.  The guns included one AK-47, a Chinese made SKS, 2 Springfield Armory .40 cal XDs, a twelve-gauge shotgun, and a .308 “deer” rifle.  He also managed to retrieve his .45 from the back of the house. The rest of the girls had moved the truck into the garage and collected food from the house.  Ginger also managed to get her husband some better looking clothes to put on.

Ginger flipped on the radio while the other girls tried to get a cell phone signal.  Throughout the night, they exchanged stories and listened to intermittent emergency radio broadcasts.

Chapter Six

In Pittsburgh, three nurses rushed into Malone's room with a crash cart. Alarms screamed out the dead man's condition.  The bed stood empty, but a trail of lead wires guided their eyes to the standing figure of Malone who grabbed the closest nurse and pulled the man close.

"Restrain him," the male nurse ordered the others.

Malone's face sunk into the man's shoulder.

"Fuck!" the nurse screamed.  "Get him off me."

Malone and the man fell to the floor while the other two nurses tried to pull Malone's dead weight off him.

Malone pressed in on his victim taking bits of flesh in his mouth every time he could get his face close enough.  In the tussle, someone kicked the crash cart, and it wheeled back out into the hallway.

One by one they stopped fighting Malone as life ebbed from their bodies.  Malone picked himself off the floor and left the room.  He walked down the hallway and out of the wing.  The level of the hospital that Malone had been admitted to housed a bridge that connected to the parking garage across the street.  The glass doors obliged Malone's advance by sliding open at his approach, and he shuffled out through them.

Back in Malone's room, the lifeless medical staff picked themselves off the reddened floor and wandered back into the hallway.  In the abstract, they went back to work.  They rounded on the hundred or so other patients on the floor that were under their care.

In the parking garage, Malone rounded a structural pier, and ran into a middle-aged woman carrying several helium balloons.  The woman threw her hands out at the naked Malone and somehow the balloons became wrapped around Malone's neck.

This was all happening in front of a security camera, but no one was watching at the moment.  Security was responding to what they thought was some kind of riot from gang-bangers on the third floor.

Malone lost interest in the woman fairly soon.  She had a heart condition and gave out to cardiac arrest after just a couple of moments of being eaten.  Her last thought as light vanished from her eyes was that she thought she was being raped.

Malone left her and continued on.  His naked form dressed only in the balloons strung, around his neck reading, "It's A Boy!"

On the bottom floor of the garage, Malone found the parking-lot attendant sitting in a tollbooth.  The Hispanic attendant was sitting on a stool and reading the sports page.  He listened to some kind of salsa music on his iPod.

Malone's feet tripped on the curb in front of the open door to the booth and fell into the booth in front of the attendant.

The balloons wacked into the attendant's paper, and he found himself face to face with, "It's A Boy!"

On the floor, Malone grabbed the man's ankle and bit with his teeth.

The attendant jerked from the pain and fell over backwards off the stool.  His head cracked into the back of the booth dazing his vision.

In life, Malone was one of the rare birds who never enjoyed Mexican cuisine.  In his undead state, he didn’t mind it one bit.

Malone crawled on top of the dazed attendant who continued to try and free himself.

The attendant strained to push Malone off him, but lacked the strength to break the larger man's weight.  Death pressed back down on him.  Fear turned to desperation, then exhaustion.

The zombie paid no attention to the despair and shock that set in on his victim's face.

Malone finished his job in the booth and moved on.  He walked out of the parking garage into the afternoon light in the city.  Pittsburgh had thousands of people that Malone wanted to meet.

Back in the Hospital, the plague of the dead spread from floor to floor.  Hospital Security succumbed to the undead before they could call for help from the police.  A number of people managed to call for help, but the delay added numbers to the growing collection of undead near the heart of Oakland in Pittsburgh.

Several waves of officers succumbed before emergency services hit the complete panic button.  At that point, shit was spilling over into the streets.

Some people managed to barricade themselves into sections of the hospital while others fled.  The wounded who managed to escape headed to other hospitals or home where they would die within hours and reanimate as the undead.

###

Sulla and his ad-hoc militia waited at the bridge.  Two sets of double-stacked jersey barriers divided the bridge into sections.  Sulla figured they had to hold the zombies at the bridge at all costs.  The first barrier would slow the zombies down. This would hopefully allow the defenders to take a few extra cracks at a headshot. If the zombies managed to make it to the second barrier thirty yards distant, it was time to fall back up to the top of the hill to a barrier currently under construction.  Several cars were positioned to light up the kill zones when darkness approached.

The pickups that Sulla sent out with snipers had done hearty work on the dead, but the distance to the bridge had closed.  The men scrambled out of their trucks and over the barriers to make it to the safety of the militia lines.  A quarter of a mile behind them thousands of undead followed in their wake.

"Listen up!" Sulla said, "No one fires until they are close enough to get a clean shot on the head."  The men lined up in a straight line along the southern barrier and checked their guns.

Peggy Davil's cameraman, Fred, had elected to stay behind and provide a live feed to the news channel in Pittsburgh.  It took awhile, but the affiliate channel had convinced the parent network the footage was real.  Fred's camera feed now fed into millions of homes around the world.

The leading zombie was a young teenage girl; she lacked a jaw.

"Baby," a militia man stuttered.  "That’s my baby girl."

Sulla recognized the grief-stricken man.  He had lost everyone in his family last year in a house fire, everyone but his daughter. The local newspaper had done several articles about it at the time, and the community had been heartbroken.

It was too much for the father to handle.  He moved to the edge of the bridge without saying another word. He raised a pistol to his head, and pulled the trigger.  His body fell over the side of the bridge. For a moment, everyone was stunned.  Sulla could picture the man still standing there, but he was gone.

"Here they come!" someone shouted.

The militia of some sixty men refocused their attention on the undead.  The riflemen opened fire all along the line and several zombies fell.

Kayla, the girl’s name is Kayla, Sulla thought.  All around the girl zombies fell, but she continued.  Bullets flew all around her, but it was as if no one had the heart to end it.  She was the last surviving member of her family.  She was dead but somehow not.

Sulla raised his gun and directed the sights to the girl's head, but someone shot her before he could pull the trigger.  The old sniper put his hand on Sulla's shoulder.

"Some things you don’t want on your conscience," the sniper said.

The militia fired non-stop and dozens of zombies dropped in front of them.  The zombies stacked up behind the first barrier and got pressed against it from the growing mass behind them.  Several that were shot in the head remained erect because there was no room to fall.

The undead flailed out with their arms and struggled against the press.  Here and there, they would fall over the barrier and be taken out by militia bullets.

In a few places, zombies pulled themselves on top of their brethren and tried to crawl forward.

The bodies stacked on top of each other as the militia brought them to their end, again.  The first barricade could no longer be seen.  It was buried under a mass of dead bodies.  The zombies crawled over the growing mound and pressed forward.  The pile rolled forward and looked like it came alive like a slow moving blob.

Sulla realized that they couldn’t hold the barricade; there were too many zombies coming down the road.  The defenders would either run out of ammunition, or be plain over run by the horde if they continued their current defense.  It was time for plan B.  Sulla keyed his radio.

"Bring the trucks and tankers up; it’s time to move everyone back," Sulla said.

Two eighteen-wheelers carrying gasoline rumbled on to the bridge and stopped just behind the defenders.  Everyone understood a bomb had just been parked up their ass, and no one lacked motivation to retreat south down the highway.

Sulla and a couple of the sniper's stayed at the front of the rigs to cover the drivers long enough for everyone to make it to a vehicle and get up the hill behind them.  The zombies were now coming over the second barricade on the bridge, feet away from Sulla.  He did the sensible thing and ran for his life to a waiting truck while the dead reached out behind him.

Halfway up the hill, the truck stopped, and everyone with a gun took aim at the tanker trucks.  Everyone was scared as hell, but no one wanted to miss out on an opportunity to blow up a fuel truck.

The first shot cracked out and found its mark.  It started the chain reaction that caused liquid fuel to rapidly turn into an expanding fireball.  The sky lit up.  The tank burst open and engulfed the other tanker which was being pushed on its side when it too exploded.  The twin shockwave pushed out in every direction.  The middle span of the bridge collapsed, and everything within a hundred yards was engulfed in flames.  The shockwave reached up the hill and knocked Sulla out of the bed of the truck to the ground.  The windows of the vehicle shattered from the blast and scattered all over the road.

Sulla turned over on the ground to find the camera guy, Fred, beside him.  His camera was knocked loose and lay broken on the ground.

Upthe hill, Sulla's men cheered while they took their positions at the last barricade.

###

Anderson took a deep breath and kicked in the door to the stair well.  Two of his troopers rushed into the well and instantly opened fire.  Anderson rushed in behind them and saw one of the troopers locked up with a zombie.  Anderson brought the butt of his rifle crashing into the skull of the creature, and it went slack.  The trooper pushed it to the ground and stomped the head in with his boot.  Shots rang out as other soldiers continued down the stairwell.

From the floor above them, the door burst open.  Anderson looked up to see a handful of survivors taking the opportunity to flee with the soldiers.

“Stay close if you want to live,” Anderson ordered them.

Anderson moved to the bottom of the stairwell where his men were already set up in a line to breach through the door to the main level of the hospital.  The hallway outside was flooded with the undead.

Anderson nodded at Sergeant Winters, and Winters kicked in the door.  The first soldier through the door slipped on muck that was coating the floor.  He sent bullets spraying out at randomly into the zombies.  Three rounds went through the chest of an undead nurse in pink scrubs.

A zombie that had been standing near the door pushed the off-balance soldier to the ground.  The next guard behind him put a round through the creature’s head and moved out into the hallway.  More soldiers rushed out the door and formed up back-to-back to create a multi directional line of fire.  The rifles flashed out angry red flames as they green dotted the undead. Zombies fell all around them.

The guardsmen’s semi-automatic weapons banged out in the marble lined hallway.  The smoke from the weapons set off the sprinklers in the corridor making an already slick floor damn near impossible.

Anderson led the group sliding down the hallway to an exit; behind him, the rear guard continued to fire occasional rounds as they engaged targets.

From the exit, it was a quarter of a mile back to the armory and dozens of zombies milled about the landscape.

“Once we start out there,” Anderson said, “we don’t stop for shit.”

“Sir,” Winters said, “we’re pretty low on ammo.”

“Just make do,” Anderson said.  “You civilians better make sure you stay in the center of the group.”

They moved out of the building through motion-activated sliding glass doors.

To get back to the armory, they would have to cross two-hundred yards of empty space and then through rows of single story brick residences.  Past the buildings was a tree lined dirt road that connected to the armory.

The zombies locked onto the group, and closed in from all sides.  The soldiers had to slow down because several of the civilians were struggling with injuries.  They continued to drop zombie after zombie, but ammo was becoming a real issue.

Anderson heard soldier after soldier shout, “Out of ammo.”  Anderson recognized his group was about to become a moving buffet.

“New plan,” Anderson shouted, “Grab the injured; we’re going to have to run for it.”

Several of his men doubled up to assist in carrying the wounded.  The group picked up its pace, but lacking firepower, the zombies edged closer.  The group was forced to fight hand to hand battles on the run with the undead.

Winters ran up to the nearest zombie and bludgeoned it in the face with his rifle.  He kept moving toward his destination as the zombie fell to the ground.

A guardsman on the other side of the group found his feet wrapped up with a zombie when he tried a similar move.  Three other soldiers and two civilians stopped to help the downed man.  They fell behind the main group, and a dozen zombies filled in the gap.

“Don’t stop!” Anderson shouted, but it was too late.

Unarmed, the civilians were torn to pieces leaving the soldiers to fend for themselves.

The cut off soldiers swung their rifles like clubs hitting the zombies around them.  They beat three of the undead to the ground.  They tried to fight back to back, but a dozen or more of the undead came at them from all sides.  They pushed in at the soldiers at the same time, and the living disappeared under the wave with screams.

Anderson watched from a distance while his men were cut off and overwhelmed.  I’ll never forgive myself, Anderson thought.  He moved on with his 10 remaining troops and 30 civilians.

They raced past the burning brick residential buildings.  Smoke billowed out of broken windows.  Anderson noticed a child’s big-wheel that was too close to one of the burning buildings; the wheels were half melted into the ground.  The VA campus housed a fire department, but the firefighters were either with the undead, or had run off.

The rest of the trip they ran down the dirt road that went through a patch of woods to the armory.  The path was clear, and the rest of the trip went without incident.

Anderson ordered a couple of his men to secure the gates to the armory, and he led everyone else into the main building. A number of civilians in vehicles pulled over on the highway when they saw the soldiers.

“Sir,” Winters said, “we’ve got civilians on the highway looking for sanctuary.”

“As long as they’re not zombies, let anybody in that we safely can,” Anderson said.  “And if they can handle a weapon, give them one.”

In the fading light, Anderson heard two large booms in the distance.  “Winters,” Anderson said, “Get on the radio and find out what is going on out there.”

The Sergeant grabbed his radio and put the speaker to his ear.  “Sir, from what I can gather, Penn Township just blew up two fuel trucks.  They set them off on the bridge on Route 8 to slow the zombies down.  They are directing anyone who can make it to bring ammo and food the Butler County Airport.”

“Alright, Anderson said. The back roads should still be open. Let’s pack up everything not nailed down and load it in the Strykers and Humvees.  We’ll move out as soon as we have the gear and civilians squared away.”

###

Peggy Davil sat in an aircraft hanger of the 911th Air Reserve Base attached to the Pittsburgh International Airport.  Sulla had given her the severed zombie head in a cooler, and asked her to get it to the proper authorities.  Her news chopper headed to the base that stationed the C-130 that did the over flight of Butler.  The military had promptly quarantined her and her pilot in the hanger.  An intelligence officer who identified himself as Major Smith sat across a table from Davil.  He wore bio-chemical gear giving him inhuman proportions.

Flanking Major Smith were two Air Police in the same gear but with the addition of rifles.

Several medical personnel had taken blood, hair, and saliva samples of her and her pilot when they arrived on base.  Since then, they returned every hour to retake samples.  Major Smith updated them on their current situation.

"The best we can tell, the head you brought us is scientifically dead,” the Major said.  “Yet it continues to animate for reasons we don’t yet understand.  The medicos have found no trace of infection in you or your pilot.  That being said, we are going to continue to monitor you. We don’t know what we’re dealing with or how the pathology of this thing works.  We’re putting the head you brought us on a transport and sending it to a secure facility out West where we can properly study it.  The government is asking that the two of you go along as well.  You’re already in a quarantine situation, and you have first hand knowledge of what we’re dealing with.  It is very important for National Security that you cooperate."

"What's going to happen with the people in Butler?" the pilot asked.

The Major shifted in his seat.  “The Administration is in information gathering mode.  We repositioned a satellite over Western Pennsylvania at about one this morning.  We got a pretty good thermal mapping of Butler County, and it showed some pretty disturbing trends.  It is important to understand that thermal traces are observable for up to 24 hours after death, and our equipment can see through structures.  What we estimate is that 65 percent of observable heat traces in and around the city of Butler are post mortem traces.  The normal thermals appear to be clustered in buildings or in the area of the County Airport.

The President has issued an order that he will not commit troops until we know how the contagion is spread.

“Is Pittsburgh being secured?” Davil asked.

“Pittsburgh,” the Major replied, “is fighting for its life as we speak.”  His shoulders seem to sag a bit and he continued.  “We also have reports of activity in Cleveland, Wheeling, Erie, and Harrisburg.  In other words, as people are fleeing the area they are somehow spreading the infection.”

“Listen,” the pilot explained, “I have a family I have to get to. I’m not going with you guys.”

“If you try to leave, these soldiers have already been ordered to shoot you,” the Major said.

“You’re not doing shit, I have rights,” the pilot responded.

“Please,” Peggy cut in, “It’s obvious we have lives here and threats are the last thing going-”

The pilot stood up and flipped the table in the direction of the Major and his guards.  One of the guards brought up his M-16 as the pilot turned to run for the door.

Peggy watched him flick off the safety, and she dove for the floor.  The guard pulled the trigger and shot the pilot in the leg.  The wound dropped the pilot who continued to slide on the floor for several feet.

"I had hoped we could be civilized about this," the Major said.  "Restrain them both, I’m not going to take any other chances, and see to it that he gets that leg looked at."

Chapter Seven

Alison sat in the back seat of the black Mega Cab Dodge Ram that was safely inside a closed garage bay. Hours had passed as the group had listened to the radio.  Eventually, everyone had fallen asleep except for Alison and Rex. He sat in the seat on her left directly behind the driver. While they were both awake, neither had said a word in hours.  Alison spun her wedding ring on her finger; the activity kept her hands busy throughout the night.  A teenaged girl, Brandi, slept on Alison's right shoulder; they had rescued her from the mall parking lot.

The radio continued to report on the spreading violence.  The only safe zone in the area seemed to be the Butler County Airport.

"Unless we can get out of the region," Rex said, "we should head to the Airport at daybreak.  I know it's South of us, but if we cut through the Western edge of Butler, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.  There is an old oil town a couple miles from the bridge they blew on Route 8.  It has an old one-lane iron grate bridge that goes across the creek.  The bridge is only a couple of miles from the back end of the airport."

"Do you think we can make it that far?" Alison said.

"I’d say we have better odds than if we stay here,” Rex said.  “Besides, if we’re at an airport we have better chance of getting help.  If not, we can always steal a plane and get the heck out of Dodge."

Would Mike be as calm as this guy, Alison wondered.  Her mind kept coming back to her husband through out the night.  She continued to play with her wedding ring as if playing with it might somehow produce the answers her mind sought.

Yes I love him, she thought, but I love the idea of him.  He is not the same guy I met all those years ago.  I’ve given him everything and he’s given me whatever is left over.

"Rex," Alison said. "What do you think is causing this?"

"Your guess would be as good as mine,” Rex said.  “Hell, it could be those Mayan prophecies of 2012 coming true.”

"This is what the Mayans predicted?" Alison said.

"I don’t think anyone has a real clue about what the Mayans predicted anymore," Rex said.  "When the Spanish conquered that part of the world they brought the inquisition with them.  The Mayan’s civilization was pretty well collapsed on its own by that time, but they had a lot of written history to draw back on.  The Catholics went on a book burning spree with most of the Mayan libraries and few survived."

"How do know all this?" Alison said.

"I did quite a bit of traveling down there through what was once the various Mayan States.  I wonder how the Mayans are going to act when they hear about the dead walking here."

"There are still Mayans around?" Alison said.  “I would have never guessed.”

"Yep," Rex said.  "We call a lot of them Mexicans.  The Yucatan is full of indigenous populations of them and while they are good Catholics on the surface, the old gods still exist to some.  On the one trip, I had hired a guide to take me through an abandoned Mayan complex.  On the way there, I saw some ruins on the side of the highway by an overpass.  I asked what kind of ruins they were and who built them.  The guide responded that they were in fact not ruins but were a shrine to a local spirit.  I asked him to explain further because that didn’t make any sense to me.  He explained that when they constructed the overpass they tore down ruins of an ancient shrine to an old god at the site.  The bridge they built cracked and fell apart with in six months of completion.  So they rebuilt the bridge.  Keep in mind we are talking about modern construction for heavy traffic.  That bridge fell in too.”

“That’s pretty weird,” Alison said.  “Then again after tonight I would say anything is possible.  What happened next?”

They brought in the best engineers from Mexico City to build the third bridge,” Rex said.  “That bridge fell in as well.  One of the engineers was sitting around one day and talking with a local. It comes up in the conversation that an old shrine was torn down on the site.  The government then did the only thing left to do; they rebuilt the shrine and local people made offerings to the old god.  The new bridge stands to this day the guide explained to me; but of course, I can see it with my own eyes.  That may sound crazy, but it’s less crazy to me now with dead people walking around trying to eat the living.”

It’s the end of the world, Alison thought and here I am sharing it with strangers.  "I wish my husband was here," Alison said.

On the radio, the voice of Mike Carson began to speak.  “I’d be happy to give you some information.  My name is Doctor Mike Carson from Butler Memorial Hospital.  Penn Township has established a secure zone here at the Butler County Airport.  We have established emergency and medical services at the facility and encourage anyone who can safely get here to do so.

What we are dealing with seems to be aspects of the body functioning after death.  Before Butler Memorial fell, I witnessed several bite patients expire and later begin to function again.  Medically speaking they are in fact dead.  I have heard the term zombies thrown around quite a bit, and for the moment, it seems to be an apt description.

I want to stress to the listeners to avoid contact with these "zombies" and to be extremely cautious when dealing with people that have been bitten.

I can also confirm by direct observation that the only way to effectively stop one of these zombies is by causing severe trauma to the brain."

"What do you mean by severe trauma?" the radio news reporter asked.

"Shoot them, or smash their brains in," Carson responded.  "Listen, I can't overstate the danger that the public is dealing with in the current crisis.  Out of an entire hospital only myself and my assistant Kimberly Horne managed to escape death."

"Can we talk to your assistant as well Dr. Carson?" the reporter asked.

"Kim, honey, come over here please," Carson said.

"Kimberly Horne," the radioman said, "is standing perhaps 10 yards away by a gate to the airport helping screen people for injuries before they are admitted to the facility.  Can you tell the listeners what happened to you back at Butler Memorial Hospital?" the newsman asked.

"I thought I was going to die; those things were attacking everyone.  They were after me too, but I managed to run away from them.  Then I found Mike, and he was there for me and protected me on the roof of the hospital.  Then a helicopter landed and rescued us.  It brought us here where we were asked to help out organizing the airport."

Alison's mouth dropped open in the car as she listened to her husband and Kimberly talk on the radio.  She took her wedding ring off her finger and pushed it into her pocket.

"Rex, can you show me how to use a gun before we get to the airport?" Alison asked.

Vicky lashed out in the driver's seat at some nightmare she was having.  Her fist hit the horn hard enough for a brief blast from under the truck’s hood.  Everyone in the vehicle jolted awake at the noise.  Alison felt her heart pounding.

"What's wrong?" Ginger shouted.

"Nothing, I had a bad dream," Vicky replied.

Outside the garage, something slammed on the garage door.

"I think the horn attracted some attention," Rex said.

"Do you think it’s one of them?" Alison said.  She realized she was clutching onto Rex’s knee while Brandi was glued onto her with fistfuls of her clothing.  Rex nodded.

"It's Dad," Ginger said.

"You don’t know that," Rex said.

Vicky reached over to open the door of the truck.

"What are you doing Vicky?" Brandi asked with concern bleeding into her voice.

"If it’s my husband then someone has to take care of him,” Vicky said.  “I don’t want my daughter to have to see it.  I’ll go out through the side door behind the truck and take a look."  She opened her door and stepped out pulling her shotgun with her.  Rex popped his door open blocking her path.  "Rex," Vicki warned, "Get out of my way. Your job is to protect my baby girl."

"Fine, but I’m going to be right behind you,” Rex said.  “Ginger, get up front behind the wheel.  Alison, let me show you how a revolver works."  Rex gave Alison a box of ammo and his grandfather's silver .38 special. "You got six shots so make sure you’re no farther than a couple of arms lengths and put a bullet straight to the head."

Ginger checked her .40 XDM from the front seat and sat waiting to turn the engine on.

Alison sat halfway out of the door behind Ginger waiting to back up Rex and Vicky.  Brandi was sitting in the front passenger seat twisting on the grip of a hammer that she had found at some point during the night.

Vicky approached the door leading back into the house with Rex following.

"Vicky," Rex said, "I have a bad feeling about this; let’s just get back in the truck and drive."

She ignored him and opened the door. She stepped inside.

Alison couldn’t see much past Rex, but she heard the shot from Vicky's shotgun, and heard her scream, "Nooooo."

Rex stepped back into the garage and fired as his mother-in-law was pushed to the ground by a number of figures from inside the house.  Two zombies rushed into the garage after Rex and pushed him up against the back of the truck.  Rex managed to get his .45 up to the first zombie's head and pull the trigger.

Alison jumped out of the truck and brought her revolver to the head of the second zombie. It was about to bite down on Rex's arm.  She blasted its brains out on the wall before it could bite him.  Rex shoved the body back into the house, and it fell on top of the writhing mass of bodies on the floor.

Rex sent three systematic shots into the ghouls ending their gorging on his mother-in-law.

Vicky lay on the ground taking shallow breaths.  Her eyes locked with Rex.  She tried to speak but with some difficulty.

"Don’t. Let. Ginger." Vicky managed. Then she died.

Rex's hands shook, and his shoulders heaved in silence while he held back tears.

"Where's my Mom, Rex?" Ginger shouted.

Ginger tried to get out of the truck, but Brandi threw her arms around her and squeezed as hard as she could.

Rex brought his gun up to aim it at Vicky's head, but his hands shook.

Alison watched Vicky's lifeless body come back from death and refocus on Rex.  Vicky raised her arm reaching out to Rex.  Alison fired a shot hitting Vicky in the forehead ending her nightmares forever.

Rex stood pointing his own gun at Vicky until Alison reached out and touched his arm.  The touch brought him back from the abyss he was frozen in.

In the truck, Ginger buried her face into Brandi's shoulder.  Alison could hear items crashing to the floor from deeper inside the house.  Alison caught the briefest glimpse of a zombie rounding the corner inside the house, but Rex slammed the door of the garage in its face.  The door thumped as the zombie beat on it from the other side.  Behind her, Alison could hear another zombie beating on the main garage door.

"Back in the truck," Rex said, "It’s time to get out of here before we're trapped."

Rex opened the driver's door and nodded his head at Brandi to get in the back.  The girls broke their embrace and Ginger faced her husband.

"Ginger, we have to go, and we need you baby," Rex said.  "We both know you’re a better shot than me. We need you to kill anything if it is about to get in while we're driving."

Ginger wiped her eyes and hugged her husband.  "I can do it," she said, "Just get me out of here."

Rex got behind the wheel and brought the diesel engine to life.  He reached up and his hand hovered by the button to remotely open the garage door and reveal the horrors outside.  Alison felt her stomach tremble at the danger that awaited them outside.

He pushed the button and the motor of the door opener grinded to life.  The door in front of the truck jerked upward and revealed the outside inch by inch while it climbed.  The truck filled with the smell of smoke from the outside world.  Rex pulled down on the stick dropping the vehicle into drive, and the door rose over the hood of the truck.

Outside, figures stood in the way of the vehicle.  Alison recognized one of them as Ginger's father.

"I'm sorry," Rex said and slammed on the gas.

The zombies moved at the truck, and Rex plowed into them.  Two were run over outright as the vehicle exited the garage.

Alison watched Ginger's father reach out for the truck on the driver’s side.  The zombie glanced off the moving truck, but his hand smeared briefly across Alison's window.

Rex slowed the vehicle to a manageable level when they cleared the danger and made it down the private drive.  He turned right at the first intersection of the subdivision’s road.  They could see two houses that were on fire side by side up the street.

The undead animated the neighborhood.  In one driveway, zombies struggled, en mass, to enter an open car door.  At a red shuttered house, they beat on the door.

Shots fired out of various windows of one house as people defended it from the undead.  The noise drew more zombies to the scene.  It was clear to everyone in the truck that there were too many zombies for the people inside to possibly hold off, but there was not much they could do to help them.

Rex slowed the truck down and beeped the horn.  Some of the zombies turned at the sound and headed to the truck.  Rex kept up the beeping and started to lead them down the road like the pided piper.  It couldn't last.

More of the undead moved at the truck from the front, and Rex was forced to hit the gas.

"I'm sorry," Rex said, "If we keep trying to help them, the truck is going to get swarmed with the bastards."

“It is what it is,” Ginger said trying to numb herself to the pain. They drove off.

###

Jack lay beside Donna on the floor with his cat, he watched over their sleeping forms.  Outside, occasional pops of gunfire sounded out in the darkness.

It had been three years since Jack had been this close to a woman.  He still talked to the girl of his dreams and played out their lives together in his mind; her name was Karen and she had been Jack's world.

"Jack, I want to go look at houses today,” Karen said. “I found this cute three story brick home that was just placed on the market and it looks too good to pass up."

"Babe, we can't afford a house right now," Jack said.  "I know we have the money for a down payment, but a house is a long term commitment."

Karen flashed him a smile with her full lips that set off her dark hair and eyes.  She slid over closer on the couch next to Jack and took his hand.  "I've already made the appointment, so you'll just have to go to keep me from buying it," Karen said. She squeezed Jack's hand and grinned at him playfully.

The problem was that after looking at it, Jack loved the house.  It had been completely rebuilt by the previous owner with more quality finish than most new houses possessed.  They made an offer on the house and moved in with in a month.  A few weeks later, Jack received a promotion at the shipping company where he worked.

He felt blessed sitting in his new home at the dinner table with his wife.  "I think we need to think about adding an addition to our family,” Karen said. “It’s kind of lonely in the house with just the two of us."

"You got me with the house," Jack replied, "I’m not going to fall for that trick twice this year.  Plus, I thought we discussed that we were not ready for kids yet."

Karen pointed her fork at Jack.  "Come on, it could be fun," she said.  “I know what you like.”

"No."

"I promise to feed it and take care of it," she pleaded.

"I should hope so,” Jack said.  “Just think of the horror of pushing all that on me.  I’ve never even changed a diaper."

"Who said anything about diapers?" Karen said.

"I’d think it would get messy pretty quick with out them," he said.

"I'm talking about getting a cat," Karen said.

"You're a bad girl,” Jack said.  “You had me going there."

"I always have you going babe," Karen smiled.  "Seriously though, I was talking to my mom last week and she wants to do something nice for us.  I told her I wanted to get a cat, and she offered to buy us a Siamese cat like the one she grew up with as a kid."

"Haven't you seen that Disney movie," Jack said. "Those cats are mean; plus, they are all thin and alien looking."

"I'll have you know that’s a load of crap," Karen said.  "Siamese cats have gotten a bad rap from that movie over the years.  I can assure you that they are quite loyal loving cats; my aunt has two of them.  Plus, the ones in the movie are bred to be all skinny and alien looking, but I'm talking about a traditional Siamese."

"Ok, so what the hell is a traditional Siamese?" Jack said.

"They’re a normal sized feline with the shape of a big housecat,” Karen said.  “But they have the brown coloration with the blue eyes you would expect of Siamese."

"And you're sure they're not all alien looking?" Jack said.

"Yes, I’m sure,” Karen said. “You’re such a silly little goober."

The next day Jack found himself sitting in his car with his wife Karen in front of a Cattery sign.  "What the hell is a cattery?" Jack asked his wife.

Karen punched his arm, "The first rule of Fight Club is we don’t talk about Fight Club," Karen said.

"So maybe this won’t be so bad after all," Jack said, "But I do notice that you seem to have all these little decisions mapped out ahead of time before you spring them on me."

"Nonsense," Karen replied. "If I had any such intentions I wouldn't have brought you along to pick the cat with me.  Let's not waste any more time. I want to go pick out our new baby."

Walking in the door of the Cattery, Jack was greeted by dozens of pairs of deep blue eyes.

"Oh you must be Karen and Jack," a man said sitting behind a desk.  "The kitties seem to like you Jack."

Jack felt a slight weight on the back of his coat.

"Oh Jack, look at you," Karen said.

Jacked turned his head back and looked down to find the source of the weight, but he could not see over his shoulder.  He twisted to his left and right and looking down under his armpits to finally catch a glimpse of two legs hanging in the air.

"Oh, she's so cute Jack," Karen sang.

"That’s my little Eclipse," the man said.  "She is one of my breeders, and as luck would have it, she had some of the kittens that I have for sale.  You two must be good people, if she is trying to get your attention to visit her babies."

"And we know cats are a good judge of character," Karen added.

“Is that seriously the best sales pitch the two of you could come up with,” Jack said.

“Be nice Jack,” Karen said, “Or you’re going to upset Eclipse.”

The man led the couple behind a glass enclosure to Eclipse's litter.

"Pick whichever one or ones you want," the man said.

The little cats ran and played in their enclosure, barely taking the time out of their games with each other to notice Jack and Karen.  The couple inspected the litter comparing temperament, gender, or anything else that could possibly distinguish between the nearly identical cats.  Jack looked down at his watch and realized an hour had passed while the couple struggled with their decision.

"Karen, you realize we have spent more time on choosing a kitten then it did for us to decide to buy our house."

"Well, we have to make sure it’s the right choice, and they are all so cute, but I think I know which one I want."

"Which one?" Jack said.

"This little one by the water dish has been watching you for the past five minutes,” Karen said.  She reached down and picked the little kitten up; she pulled the kitten’s tail back and smiled.  "She's a girl Jack, and the way she was watching you, she will keep an eye on you when I am not at home.  We'll call her Naomi," Karen said as she petted the kitten.

Jack reached out in the darkness of his house and petted Naomi.  I wish you were here Karen, he thought.  In the darkness, Donna had enough of the same features as Karen that he felt tempted to entertain the fantasy that she was his wife.

That wouldn't be fair, Jack, he thought to himself in his wife's voice.  He often thought of his wife talking to him in his head.  He recognized it for what it was. It was how a horribly hurt widower coped with the loss of his wife.

Karen's voice continued on in his head, "It's been three years since I died. I told you I wanted you to be happy and move on.  This is an unusual circumstance, and she needs your protection, so don’t feel guilty about her sleeping next to you.  Just watch out for my Naomi and don’t worry about any feelings of guilt you may have."

It was nice to feel a woman beside him, Jack thought.

"I won’t hold this against you," Karen's voice said in his head, "I want you to be happy, Jack, and if a girl is willing to respect and love you like I did, then don’t you dare push her away."

Jack realized the strain in his face as muscles had been holding his eyes shut against the strain behind them.  He purged the thoughts from his mind and listened to the world outside while trying to focus on the day ahead of them.

Donna woke up beside Jack and his cat Naomi.  She enjoyed Jack's warmth beside her until reality rushed back into her mind.  They had barricaded themselves on the third floor of Jack’s home after an explosion down the street.  The propane depot took out a number of buildings around it when it went and caught dozens of homes on fire.  The direction of the wind saved Jack’s home from the blaze, but it attracted a number of zombies.

The explosion also took out the power leaving the two without up-to-date information.

Donna reached out and petted the soft fur of the cat. Naomi opened her eyes and purred at the attention.

“It's going to be morning soon,” Jack said, “We should work on getting out of here soon.”

“Do you think there are still people at the airport?” Donna asked.

“One way or another, we’re going to have to find out,” Jack said.  “I figure we throw what we can into my car and make it as far as we can.  I have an old .22 caliber rifle you can use.  It’s lightweight, and I have tons of ammo for it.  You're going to have to let them get real close though if you want the ammo to punch through a skull.”

“I can handle that,” Donna said, “My dad used to let me shoot his all the time.”

“If you want, I can try and get you to your family,” Jack offered.

“Thanks but they are on vacation in Mexico at the moment.  I sent then an e-mail on your computer before the explosion,” Donna said.

“Donna,” Jack said, “I don’t think what is happening is going to stop; it's going to spread like a virus around the world.”

Donna thought about the impact of that statement and how it would change her life forever.  There is no going home ever again she thought.

“If that is the case,” Jack continued, “Then we need to think about where we can lay up and survive for years to come.  The roads are going to be a mess, but I have a pilot’s license, and we’re headed to the airport.  If we can make it there, then we can fly out of the region with anybody we can fit aboard. What do you think?  Are you in?”

“If it means staying alive, I’d consider just about anything at this point,” Donna said.

Donna heard a muffled thump sound from two stories below them.  It was followed a moment later by the sound of breaking glass.

“Hello,” someone called out from below.  “We know you’re up there, let us in before those things get us.”

“Shit!” Jack said “Grab what you can it’s time to go before we have every zombie in the city trying to eat these idiots.”

Donna grabbed Naomi and zipped her safely inside a shoulder strapped cat carrier.  Jack pulled the .22 and a shotgun out of the closet and filled up a bag full of ammo.

“Follow me,” Jack ordered as noise continued to sound from below.

He moved into the bathroom, in the back of the house on the third floor, and opened the window.

Donna looked down and saw that the window stood over the back porch roof.

“I’ll lower you and Naomi down, don’t fall,” Jack said.

Donna adjusted the cat bag to her back and eased out the window.  Jack took her hands and lowered her an extra few feet until she found purchase on the roof.

Jack lowered both guns to her.

“If you won’t let us up, we are going to burn the place down,” a man screamed from inside the house.

Jack dropped down beside her on the roof and produced keys to his car from inside his pocket.  He unlocked the car doors with the remote.

“Jack,” Donna whispered, “We have to go now.”

A number of zombies were shuffling up the alley in their direction.

Donna moved to the side of the roof to lower herself and slipped.

Jack fell to his stomach and grabbed Donna by the arm slowing her fall.

She landed on her feet and fell to the side, Naomi let out a disapproving hiss from inside her bag.

“Get in the car and start it,” Jack yelled from the roof as he lowered the guns to her.

Donna raced to the vehicle in full view of the zombies coming down the alley.

She opened the door and put the cat carrier in the back seat and threw herself into the driver’s seat.

Jack dropped to the ground at the same time a man came out the back door of Jack’s house.

The man was pointing a gun at Donna in the car.  “You’re not goanna fucking leave me, girl,” the man said. “Get outta the car,” he shouted.

A bullet ripped through the man’s chest from behind.  Jack lowered his shotgun and picked himself off the ground from behind the man.  Stepping over the intruder, Jack put another round through the man’s head.

Jack ran to the passenger door and pulled it open.  He paused there and fired a couple of shots at the approaching zombies.  Two fell over when rounds hit them in the head; the rest moved forward.  Jack got in the car, and Donna pushed the vehicle onto the road.

Donna saw a woman emerge from Jack's house with a zombie clawing at her from behind.  The zombies in the alley rushed to join in on the kill.

"Head straight down the street to the blast area," Jack said.  "Hansen Avenue might be blocked off, so we can cut through the shopping plaza behind the gas depot.  The plaza should be clear enough to get us to the Pickle Gate Crossing Bridge."

Donna drove the car down the street; the tires sang and rumbled on the brick lined road.  The smoke from burning houses cut across the path in front of her, and she was forced to slow down so that she could see.

A zombie stepped into her path from out of the smoke and she cut the wheel hard to the left to avoid it.  The car smacked into the side of the creature and sent it spinning to the ground.

"Keep going, you’re doing fine," Jack encouraged beside her.

At the intersection where the depot had been, nothing of the former structure remained.  Donna drove the vehicle around a downed power line and cleared the blast zone.  The shopping plaza was in fact empty and provided safe passage to the bridge.  They drove past the empty stores and then by a number of buildings intended to be an industrial park.

The whole plaza they were driving through used to be the site of Pullman Standard.  The factory had built rail cars during its day. Many old timers remembered eating in the Pullman dining car on passenger trains.  The city had pulled down the factory in stages with the shopping center being Phase One.

"I jog through here every day," Jack said. "There is a service road straight past that building that goes underneath the bridge.  We should be able to drive up the ramp the wrong way and cross the bridge."

Donna moved the car up the road and onto the ramp.  She could see that Hansen Avenue had been blocked and the detour was worth it.  The bridge to her left had a number of stopped cars on it but seemed passable down the opposing traffic lane.

Donna turned the car on to the bridge and slammed straight into a ghoul as it came out from behind a car.  It rolled up on to the hood and fell off the vehicle on Jack’s side.  Donna kept driving while other zombies on the bridge tried to close in on the vehicle from ahead.

She pushed the vehicle into the left lane and hit the accelerator to get past the growing crowd.  The car squeaked past the group, but one of them managed to reach out as they passed.

Its hand smacked into Jack’s window and smashed the glass out.  Jack brushed glass from his shirt and pants on to the floor of the vehicle.

Donna swerved to the left and the car scraped against the concrete barrier of the bridge taking out the driver's side mirror.  She pulled to the right and the sound of screeching metal abated.

At the end of the bridge, the intersection was partially blocked by an SUV that had wrecked into a compact car.  The vehicles sat like burnt out corpses smoldering from the fire that had consumed them. A zombie standing to the side of the road turned to face the approaching car.

"Jack watch out, I have to slow down."

The zombie stepped on to the road only feet away from Jack's side of the car.  Its hands reached out to claw its way into the glassless window and get to the passengers inside.

Jack raised his gun and fired a round at the creature nearly point blank.  The round penetrated into the zombie's jaw and sent it flying over backwards.

Donna hit the gas once again as they cleared around the side of the wreck.  The road ahead looked clear.

"Don’t go too fast," Jack said, "We might round a bend and come across another accident."

Donna eased up on the gas slowing the vehicle down to around 35 miles-per-hour.  She breathed out and felt her fingers aching from how hard she squeezed the steering wheel.  She let the blood flow back into them by relaxing her grip.

The road ahead was covered in a thick blanket of smoke.

"Jack, I bet the shopping plaza by the sewage plant is on fire."

"It could also be the gas station or hotel," he replied.

A figure emerged out of the smoke; the man's clothes and flesh had been burned off, yet he still walked.

Donna drove the vehicle by him and into the wall of smoke. The thick cloud poured into the vehicle.  Her visibility cut down to around ten feet, and she was forced to slow the vehicle.

She covered her mouth and coughed when smoke hit her lungs and her eyes burned.  She tensed waiting for the dead to emerge from the smoke and attack them.

The vehicle punched through the ash to clear air.

Donna reached out and hit the window button on her side of the car to help clear out the lingering smoke in the car.

To the right they drove past a Burger King; an SUV sat half inserted into the front glass of the building.  A body hung inert out of the driver's side window.

Halfway up the hill heading south on Route 8, things got interesting.

They came across the first dead body lying on the road.

"Hold up," Jack told Donna.

She slowed the vehicle to a stop to the left of the body.  Jack opened the door and stood up halfway out of the vehicle.

"Been shot", Jack stated.

Donna looked around the area, scanning for zombies.  Up off the road, and underneath a billboard, a zombie moved in their direction.  "Look by the billboard, Jack."

"I see them," Jack said.  "The rest of the area looks good.  In fact, this is as good an opportunity as any we could hope for."

"Opportunity for what?” Donna said.

"Grab your .22; it’s time for you to be blooded."

Donna pulled the latch and pushed on her car door; it took a bit of effort with the added weight of the hill pressing down.  She brought the gun up in her hands and examined the wood-stocked, bolt-action rifle.

"Do you need some help?" Jack said.

"No it's exactly like one of my Dad's guns."

Jack continued to examine the body on the highway while Donna loaded ammunition into the gun.

"Donna, the good news is that someone obviously knows how to kill these things.  Looks like a few dozen more of them were killed up the road.  The bad news is that whoever did these things in is no longer here.  In other words, what ever they were dealing with they could no longer hold the ground they were standing on."

The zombie continued at them; when it got closer, they could see it was wearing a grey suit and yellow tie.  The suit had dark red sections from where he had bled underneath.  His white button-up-shirt hung open at the waist and was torn.

"This guy dressed for his own funeral," Jack smirked.

"Yeah, bet he was a lawyer," Donna replied.  She brought the rifle up to her eye and aimed it across the roof of the car at the zombie.

"Shit, if that’s a lawyer how are we going to know if it’s a zombie or not?" Jack said.

Bang!  Donna fired the gun at the man now 25 yards away.  The bullet hit him on the right side of the head above the ear.  The round bounced off the side of the head not having the force to penetrate the skull at this range.  It sent a tuft of skin flapping off the skull that continued to hang down over his ear.

Donna felt her stomach tense as the zombie continued to approach.  Keep breathing she thought to her self.

"Donna,” Jack said.  “He could still be a lawyer. They are known to be thick in the head."

Jack moved around behind the car as the zombie dropped the yardage to them.  Donna pulled the bolt open and chambered another round.

She remembered her Dad telling her about shooting as a kid.  Don’t pull the trigger, her dad would say. Just squeeze with the tip of your finger as you exhale.  The zombie was less than ten yards away.

Bang!  The round hit it dead center in the forehead.  The head jerked back, and the body fell forward falling on the pavement.  It didn’t move.

"I’m going to put another round in its head just to make sure,” Donna said.  She walked around the side of vehicle and loaded another round with Jack following close behind.  The zombie lay face down on the pavement re-expired.

"Looks like the round didn’t penetrate out the back," Jack said.  "Punctured the skull on entry, but didn’t have enough snot to get out the back.  Bet it kind of rattled around in there a bit."

Donna brought the gun up and fired into the head again.  It made a mess on the concrete around the dead man's mutilated body.

"We’d better go," Donna said, "but if he was a lawyer we should have used silver bullets to make sure he doesn’t come back."

The joke helped her stomach relax, but she felt her hands shaking now after the fact.  Jack reached out and touched her shoulder.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Just nerves," she replied.  “I'm scared."

"Donna, you're doing better than me, you had to pull me off the street yesterday in front of my house.  We just need to learn to deal with this, and we can make it.  The airport is only a few miles down the road."

Inside the car, the cat "meowed" out.

"Naomi, it’s cool, we are getting back in the car now," Jack said.

Donna got behind the wheel of the car and drove them up the hill.  Corpses dotted the highway, and she swerved left and right to avoid them.  At the top of the hill by the car dealerships, the bodies covered most of the road forcing her off to the side as she drove.

"God help us," Donna said, "There are so many bodies."

"Looks like it thins out a bit as the highway heads into the dip, but someone made a good effort to thin them out."

Donna weaved the vehicle through the bodies dotting the highway for the next couple of miles till they reached the northern edge of the big dip in the highway.  On the opposite edge of the dip across the valley, they could see several emergency vehicles with their light bars flashing behind some kind of roadblock.

"Jack!" Donna said, "There are police over there."

"Look down," Jack said.  "The authorities might as well be on the moon for all it's going to matter to us.  Somebody blew up the bridge."

Dozens of vehicles were left parked near their end of the bridge.  Obviously there were survivors who arrived throughout the night to find the bridge blown.  Many of the doors to the vehicles hung open.

"It’s the end of life as we know it,” Donna said.  “People know they’re not coming back to their cars."

As they got closer, they could see hundreds of bodies in front of the vehicles.  Donna slowed Jack's car to a stop a hundred yards up the highway.

"Looks like we’re going to have to back track or take a side road," Donna said.  "There was one near the top of the hill we can take."

"Actually there is a side road on the other side of that van to the left.  It’s kind of cut into the hill so you can’t see it at the moment."

They neared the van and found a few bodies blocking the path around the van.  Jack reached under his seat and pulled out a pair of work gloves.  "I am going to have to move those bodies if we want to get through," Jack said.

"Do you think that’s a good idea?" she said.

"I don’t see much choice," he replied.

Donna watched as Jack got out of the vehicle with his shotgun.  It looked like the driver's door to the van was open from her vantage point.  Jack was already pulling a body out of the way with his shotgun strapped over his back.

"Check to see if there are keys in the van,” Donna said. “We might be able to just take it if there are."

Jack motioned her to be quiet, and he pointed down the hill.  Donna opened her car door and stood up to get a better view over hill. Hundreds of zombies milled about on the banks and in the creek.

Jack leaned halfway in the van and started its engine.  Donna thought about what its driver must have done.  The bridge was out when they arrived, but they could see police lights up the hill.  They must have ditched the vehicle thinking they could cross on foot underneath the bridge.

I bet he’s down there with the undead looking at us right now, she thought.  Donna grabbed the cat and moved her into the van.  "Did you check the back of this thing?"

"Hell yes," Jack whispered, "Do you know how many horror movies are running through my mind right now about something being back there. It’s empty, but I keep looking back there anyway.  I think the driver must have tried to hot foot it under the bridge only to meet the welcoming committee down there."

Jack closed the driver's door and waved for Donna to get in.  He looked past Donna at his car.  "Throw my car keys back at my car, someone might need them."

Jack turned the wheel in the direction of the side road and pushed the gas.  There were a few bodies in the way of the vehicle, but the van pitched back and forth as it ran them over.

"That makes me sick," Donna said.

She saw Jack’s face twist in revulsion as the sound of crunching reached their ears.

Chapter Eight

Officer Bill Eason had moved to Pittsburgh five years ago to take a job with the city police.  It was his first job in law enforcement, and every stop made his heart pound.  Eason didn’t have a wife or kid to support, so he spent all his energy on the job.  After a couple of months, he adjusted to the role and earned the respect of his fellow officers.

His particular beat was the North Side of Pittsburgh, which had major drug problems.  Eason worked with some area residents to create a neighborhood watch program.  He encouraged the adults of the community to spend an hour a night sitting on their porches.  They would take notes if they saw something amiss.  For his part, Eason would stop by the volunteer’s homes once every couple of weeks to chat for a bit and make sure everything was alright.  The first 6 months of the program led to 132 arrests and 90 convictions.  In the second 6 months, the arrest rate dropped to 20, this worried Eason at first, but it caught the attention of several special investigation units.  His neighborhood watch had earned a reputation with drug dealers.  They no longer wanted to push their product in the area.

Eason won a citation from the Mayor’s office.  He won the Outstanding Officer of the Year award.  He got promoted and was assigned to expand his program to other troubled areas of the city.

That was all over now.

The past 15 hours made Eason feel like a rookie cop again.  He was called in on his day off because of what he thought was civil unrest in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh.  Within a couple of hours, everything he thought he knew about the world abruptly changed.  They lost half of the city’s finest before he could even report in.

Eason sat in his squad car gasping for breath.  He had just run several city blocks to make it back to his vehicle.  A woman ran by his car crying as she fled on foot, her breath was visible in the first morning chill of the year.  Eason held his 9mm service pistol in his hand and closed his eyes.  The metal end the barrel felt cold on his shaved head.

His radio crackled with reports from all over the city.  Downtown Pittsburgh was fairly quiet as very few residencies were located there.  Oakland on the other hand housed a number of intersecting universities including the University of Pittsburgh.  By the time Eason arrived at the rally point in Oakland, they’d figured out you had to shoot them in the head.

They thought they had the dorms locked down but injured kids died and then spread the carnage inside after they came back.  Hundreds of zombies swarmed over Oakland tearing into anything that moved.  By midnight, hundreds of dead turned into thousands.

Eason never imagined he would have to shoot kids.  He could still picture them tearing at each other.  One minute he was putting down the dead and then there were too many to deal with.  His night was spent surviving each block.

Command ordered them out of Oakland around 3 A.M. and told them to rally back downtown.  Less than half the police left alive in Oakland made it to the rally. Eason knew several officers who got in their car and drove off never looking back.

Eason could see the University’s Cathedral of Learning from his squad car.  The building was a towering inferno lighting up the dark morning sky.

"Command to all units, the Mayor’s office is now ordering an evacuation of the city.  A military response is expected in the next few hours.  We are going to try and establish a safe zone around the football stadium.  Helicopters can land inside the stadium and evacuate civilians as well as land troops to reestablish order in the city.  All fire stations will be sounding air-raid sirens non-stop after this broadcast.  TV and radio are now broadcasting evacuation instructions based upon areas in the city.

On a final note, good luck to you all. God help us."

Eason dropped the gun away from his head. He knew he would still have friends heading to the stadium to help out.  He couldn’t let them down.

Down the street, he could see a zombie trying to break into a building to get at someone.  Eason started his car and drove in the opposite direction leaving whoever it was to their fate.  In the distance, air-raid sirens started their slow whine.

Eason arrived at the stadium 15 minutes later in a line of emergency response vehicles.  Police and firefighters were rushing around on foot in an attempt to get logistics in place for civilians who would be arriving soon.  Eason parked his police cruiser right in front of the stadium.

“Eason!” a man shouted. “Over here, we got C gate.”

Eason looked to see it was his station Captain Shane Fennel.

“What’s the plan?” Eason said.

“We push the civilians into the stands,” Fennel said.  “Then the choppers come in and drop troops off and take the civs away.  Separate out anyone who’s injured.”

“Where do we send them?” Eason asked.

“The military wants them over in the baseball park across the parking lot,” Fennel said.  There was a loud thumping of helicopters in the distance.  “Sounds like military equipment. You can always tell because they have bigger power-plants than the civilian equipment; it gives them deeper base.”

Flying up the Ohio River came four Apache gunships visibly loaded with missiles.  They flew side by side at a leisurely pace up stream to the confluence of the three rivers.  At the point, they broke off by twos, one group heading up the Allegheny and the other the Monongahela.  They continued to watch the pair of Apaches on their side of the river heading up the Allegheny.

The choppers elevated above a series of bridges and turned to the side facing Oakland.

“Must be scouting the situation,” Eason said.

In the distance came the sound of static crackling that rolled in long bursts.  The Apaches had opened up with their chain guns.

Fennel shook his head, “Indian wars all over again.”

“What?” Eason said.

“Lots of fighting took place here back in the 1700’s,” Fennel said.  “You’re standing on the Indian side of the river right now.”

The Apache chain guns cut out and the chopper engines whined up in pitch as they shifted position.

The next sounds carried down by the river were multiple whooshing sounds followed by explosions.

“Shit!” said Eason, “I think they just took out the Washington’s Crossing Bridge.”

“Lot of good that will do," said Fennel, "Those things must have been getting across the bridges all night.”

"More helicopters," Eason pointed down river.  Ten Black Hawks approached the point and then slowed to a hover over Point Park.  The park held the half buried ruins of the city’s namesake, Fort Pitt. The fort had once dominated the entire Ohio Valley to the Mississippi.  Today, the fort had a front row seat to the end of the world.

Three of the Black Hawks broke off from the rest and turned to the football stadium.  One by one, they landed in the middle of the field.  Troops disembarked wearing bio-chemical gear.

An hour later, Eason found himself facing a crowd of panicked civilians.  People rushed to the stadium in droves.  In the first half hour, they jammed the early morning streets of the North Side.  While zombies had been dispersing into the North Side of the city for hours, encountering one was still random.  The police tried to keep the traffic moving but the increasing attacks brought movement to a stop.

Eason had seen the same thing happen in Oakland across the river.  You had people sitting in bumper to bumper traffic when one of those creatures meanders over and tries getting inside a vehicle to get at someone.  He thought about what that would be like to view that from the driver’s seat of the car behind the one being attacked.  Eason pictured being stuck with no room to drive anywhere.  “Option A,” you hang tight and pray some one will show up and help the situation.  “Option B,” you run like hell, Eason thought.

The crowd running to the stadium from everywhere was option B.  Eason’s job was to sort out the wounded for the military and send them to the other stadium across the parking lot.  He was told to tell people the military had medical attention for them there.

The football stadium had fairly solid iron gates crested with the football team’s logo.  The police had closed all the gates but one in each section, so they could properly inspect people as they made their way to safety.

The military had landed and taken charge of the situation.  Three soldiers stood behind Eason and another police officer.  The soldiers held their guns at the ready.  A number of people were yelling at him and the soldiers.

“C’mon those fucking things are everywhere, let us in!” someone shouted.

“You get in once it's your turn,” one of the other police officer shouted.

Across the parking lot at the baseball park came rapid popping of gunfire.  The crowd in front of Eason became silent, but the air carried a chorus of distant screams.

He turned away from the crowd and reached for his radio.  Over his shoulder he looked at the soldiers with their weapons pointed in the crowd’s direction.  Eason locked eyes with one of the soldier's through his bio-chemical suit.

The soldier adjusted his trigger finger closer to the guard of the weapon and shook his head, "No," ever so slightly.

Call it in and die, Eason thought.  He dropped his hand away from the radio.  The soldier nodded for Eason to step back away from the checkpoint.

"Going to need a word with you officer," the soldier said.

The soldier led him back into the stadium out of hearing range of anyone else.  "Am I going to have a problem with you?" the soldier said.

"You’re shooting the injured over there, aren't you?" Eason said.

"It comes right from the top, Sir, nothing to be done about it,” the soldier replied.  “If someone is injured, we separate and dispatch the threat.  They were supposed to hold off on the dirty work over there for another half hour, but sometimes shit doesn't work out the way you plan."

"If you shoot me the crowd will see it, and believe me they are going to panic," Eason replied.

"Be cool," the soldier said.  "Perhaps we both get to see tomorrow."

The back of the crowd in front of the gate let out a cry as people pressed up against the line to the stadium.  The dead had followed the fleeing people into the parking lot.  The gate where Eason was working stood as a cul-du-sac with all but one of the gates open.  People rushed to get into the stadium only to find themselves pressed into a death trap.  As the crowd pushed in, their own efforts forced the outward open gate closed.

Eason watched helpless while dozens of people were trampled and crushed by the weight of the stampede.

The zombies closed the distance and found the back of the crowd.  A sniper on one of the stadium ramps opened up on the undead but hit civilians as a by-product of every shot.

The undead mixed into the crowd as they attacked.

A squad of soldiers ran up from around the river-side of the stadium but stopped short of the refugees.  They formed a skirmish line facing the stadium and brought their guns up.

The soldier with Eason grabbed him by the arm.  "Get out of the gate area.  If they have to open fire, we’re going to be right in the kill zone," the soldier said.

They ran for cover as the squad outside opened up on anything that ran at them.

Hours later, Eason leaned against a structural pier near the gate he had tried to evacuate civilians through.  He reached into his pocket and found a cellophane wrapped package of cigarettes; he pulled one out and lit it. He inhaled deeply and held his breath for several seconds before exhaling.

In front of him, hundreds of the undead clawed and banged at the metal gates of the stadium.

“You know,” Fennel said, “We’re going to die here like the British.”

“I rather not have a history lesson just now,” Eason said.

Fennel ignored Eason’s comment.  “General Braddock was sent up here to take the French Fort Duquesne.  It sat right where Fort Pitt was constructed.  The Indians ambushed the British up river from here and routed them.  They brought back the British captives, but the French wouldn’t let the Indians kill them inside the fort. Instead, the Indians crossed over to this side of the river and butchered the prisoners pretty much here.  Go figure we would build a football stadium over it, and even have a “Red Zone” where all the people were killed.”

“Did we finish the count?” Eason said.

“Yeah, we managed to pack in about 14,000 terrified pork-chops into this slaughter house,” Fennel said.  “Most of them are in the stands.  How’s it looking outside?”

Eason nodded at the gate, “Too many hungry customers.  The good news is that military landed some people across the river downtown and they have been doing alright.  On the other hand, the South Side got over run, and the dead are raising hell up in Mount Washington and Mount Oliver.  The North Side is wasted.  They intermixed with some of your more unlucky pork-chops outside. It was mid-evil out there.  We would have been better off with swords and axes.”

Eason took another hit of his cigarette and flicked the ash. “Look at them,” Eason said.  “They are climbing over each other to get through those gates at us.  Sooner or later, they’re going to either form a ramp of bodies over the barricade, or the gates are going to give out from the weight of that mess. You can already see the gate bouncing a little.  We were shooting them at first, but you have to get real close not to hit the metal mesh of the gate.  Plus, an unmoving body just gives them something to stand on.  There were dozens then, now look at it, must be hundreds of them out there.”

“You should see the river side gate,” Fennel said.  “There must be a thousand of them.  By the way, the military scrapped the evacuation plans.”

“What the hell are they thinking?” Eason said.  “Are they going to just let them overrun us?”

“They don’t know where to move us,” Fennel said.  “From what a Captain told me, this shit is spreading to other cities.  Best they can tell is that people who get bitten by those things die after several hours.  Sometimes, the victims have the time to drive to other cities before they turn.  This morning there are reports of this shit starting in Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Buffalo, and New York just to name a few.  I’m sure there are plenty of small towns out there too.”

“What about your family?” Eason said.

“My wife and grandchild are in section 213; I don’t know where my daughter is.  My wife says she never made it home last night.”

“I hope she’s alright," Eason said.  "We’re pretty close in age and I always wanted to ask her out.”

“I’d never let my baby date the likes of you,” Fennel said. “But under the circumstances, I hope you get the chance.”  He reached out and offered his hand for Eason to shake.

“I don’t have any family," Eason said, "but I'll stand by yours no matter what happens.”

“I appreciate it,” Fennel said.  “I need you to do something else.”  He grabbed Eason’s shoulder and squeezed like a vice-grip.  “If it comes to it, don’t let those things get my grandchild.”

I should have shot myself while I had the chance, Eason thought.

“If I was smart, I would have have told them to get into one of the taller buildings downtown,” Fennel said.  Some of them have helicopter pads on their roofs.  Too bad those things have the stadium surrounded.”

A staccato of rapid gunfire echoed through the concrete halls of the stadium.

River side! River side… the gate is buckling, all units fall back to secondary positions."

Eason dropped his cigarette and ran up the stadium ramp leading to the next level.  From there he and Fennel rode an escalator to the club level and pushed through an unlocked gate leading out into the stands.  A Blackhawk was sitting idle on the 50-yard line.  Across the stadium he could see the river-side gate with the section in question swaying back and forth by at least a foot.

In another section of the gate, a huge mound of the undead had formed a pile of bodies large enough for one of the undead to grab the top of the gate and pull itself over.  A soldier pointed his weapon at the creature and fired off a shot that left the ghoul unmoving.

By ones and twos the undead were spilling over the top while more soldiers rushed to take up a firing line near the gate.  In the stands, thousands of spectators hustled to get as far away from the failing gate as possible.

Built into each corner of the stadium were spiral ramps that led to every level of the facility.  Soldiers took up positions on the inward facing arc of both spirals on the riverside of the stadium.  They opened fire into the growing mound.

On the field, the Black Hawk’s engine let out a high-pitched whine as its starting engine kicked in.  The blades on top of the helicopter spun slowly to life. The whine picked up in tempo while the blades picked up exponential speed.  Eason felt the first push of air from the chopper and it brought with it the taste of engine exhaust and gunpowder.

A sign on the wall beside him read, "Section 213."  The seats were empty.

"Helen" Fennel shouted. "We have to find my family.”  The private club boxes sat above the section and a number of people had managed to pull themselves up into them.  People were pointing down at the helicopter on the field.

"Oh my God," Eason said, "Those idiots are going-" The sound of the helicopter drowned his words out.

At least a hundred people that had been sitting in the stands had jumped the railing onto the field.  They ran to the perceived safety of the chopper from every direction while it was gaining the power to take off.  The skids were just lifting off as several people dove inside.  It continued to lift, but a few more people managed to get a hold of the skids near the front of the craft.  Unbalanced, the Black Hawk drifted forward to the river as it climbed about ten feet off the ground.  A couple of the people fell off the skids or let go to fall to the grass.  The craft pitched to the right, and its tail swung 180 degrees to the left from the weight change.

A woman was slung out of the spinning craft.  Eason watched her long hair flowing in the air.  Her arms flailed in empty space while she sailed downward to her death.  The Black Hawk spun down the field out of control in the direction of the river.

The riverside of the stadium had only a small section of seating a dozen or more rows deep.  In normal times, local high school bands would be seated here during football games.  Directly behind this section was the plaza where soldiers were desperately trying to hold the gate. Some of them heard the chopper coming and ran to get out of the way.

The skids of the helicopter hit the top few rows of the seats. It was enough to roll the top of the vehicle with its blades pitching forward to the ground.  The blades hit concrete and sheared off into the plaza, they cut through running bodies like grass.  The impact of the blades caused the chopper to jerk to the right sending the tail spinning around.  The tail blades spun out into the plaza like a giant lawn mower mulching a couple of unlucky soldiers.  With the main rotor blades gone from the top of the chopper, the craft flipped over and slid across the plaza.  It smashed into a section of the gate which buckled outward.  The crash bent open a small gap in the gate.

The chopper sat on its side smoking.  A crewmember inside the wreck crawled out of the top.  Nearby, several zombies squeezed through the gap in the damaged gate.  The soldier dropped to the ground and limped away from the craft as fast as his injured leg could carry him.  The zombies lumbered behind him feet away.

Eason could see a pool of liquid forming on the ground by the chopper.  Oh shit, he thought. If I can see fuel from here-

The helicopter caught fire as another guy pulled himself out of the wreckage.  The flames reached up to surround the broken craft and engulfed the survivor.  The body fell back inside, never to be seen again.  The flames reached out and lit the zombies chasing the soldier like matches.  The fire missed the soldier, but he fell to the ground from the blast.  He flailed helplessly on the ground from the blistering heat.

The flames rose up from the pyre and licked through the bars of the gate.  Behind the stadium, on the river, a tug used to push barges sailed past.  Its decks were lined with dozens of people fleeing the area on the ancient waterway.  They watched the bodies’ burn from their ship.

"I am Dido and this is my funeral," Eason whispered to himself.

At the gate, zombies continued to spill over in multiple sections. The soldiers who were left on the plaza level pulled back to the ramps on either side of the end zone.

Eason watched one of the men momentarily pause his retreat long enough to pitch something over the gate at the horde.

Bang.

The explosion ripped through a clump of the undead trying to scale the growing mound of bodies over the gate.  Dozens of ghouls around them were knocked over from the energy of the blast.

On the ramps above, other defenders took cue and readied their own grenades.  They tossed them into the crowd in unison.  The explosions tore a visible hole in the mass of the undead attacking the stadium, but the gap was quickly filled in.

"Shane," a woman shouted.

Eason turned to see Fennel's wife Helen, carrying a baby, as she hurried down the steps behind them from a higher section.

Fennel ran up the stairs and met his wife half way. He wrapped his arms around her and the child.

Eason's radio crackled on his hip, the speaker didn’t identify himself.  "That’s it we’re fucked!" the man said.

"What are you talking about, the greenies can just keep blasting them with grenades," another man responded.

"I’m standing on the East ramp with them, and they say that the grenades they had were brought by just a few guys," said the first man.

Chapter Nine

Sulla sat in the administrative office at the Butler County Airport.  They had moved into the room a radio designed with an array of frequencies to talk with planes.  Shortly after Sulla destroyed the bridge on Route 8, Captain Anderson contacted him on the radio over the emergency channel. Their conversation went something like the following.

“This is Captain Anderson of the Pennsylvania National Guard; I need to talk to Paul Sulla.”

“This is Sulla.  Go.”

“I have about two-hundred civilians I’m loading in a convoy and bringing to you,” Anderson said.

“Cool, where are you coming from, and how many soldiers are you bringing?” Sulla said.

“We are at the Butler VA armory. I only have about twenty soldiers, but more may filter in throughout the night.  What’s your situation there?” Anderson said.

“Dude, I need ammo.  In addition, I have about three-hundred people, give or take, forting up here at the airport.  About a hundred of them have guns, and we have formed an ad-hoc militia to hold the area.  So how soon are you coming over, so I know when I’ll have to start cleaning the house for the totally awesome party we’re going to have?”

“I will be loading trucks all night.  We’ll convoy over in the morning with everything that can be carried for a pot-luck” Anderson said.  “Oh, by the way, I hear your last party knocked the main bridge down to get to you.  Is there anything else I should know about?”

“Yeah, sorry about the bridge” Sulla said. “You’re kind of on the other side. But if it makes you feel better, I have another bridge.  Speaking of which, you may want to close that door behind you on your way through."

The conversation had gone on for several more minutes before both men got back to their own crisis.

The night had brought no sleep to Sulla's eyes, and his hand rested on a cup of coffee that Dr. Carson's assistant, Kimberly, had brought him.  I don’t even drink coffee he thought, but the warmth feels good in my hand.

A number of people had disappeared during the night.  Sulla didn’t think they were dead because their vehicles were missing.  Everyone had family that they wanted to find.  Sulla knew that if those people could find their loved ones, they would be back.

Sulla's father and younger sister, Bianca, had made it to the airport fairly early on to help out.  The two of them were currently watching a section of fence on the airport property.

Knocking out the bridge had scattered the horde buying the community valuable time. Hundreds of zombies fell over the gap in the bridge to their end below, but most of them survived to roam the creek bed.

Sulla waited all night for help to arrive from Pittsburgh, and then he heard the reports out of Oakland.  Butler was small potatoes compared to the river city, and the big boys had other worries now.

Sulla watched Kimberly serve coffee to the five other people sitting at the conference table.  The people assembled had emerged as the ad-hoc leaders of the militia supporting Sulla.  Dr. Carson sat at the opposite end of the table eyeing Kimberly.

When Sulla picked them up in the helicopter, he noticed that Carson was wearing the girl on his arm like a watch.  He didn’t pay much attention then, but now it stood out to Sulla as a direct contradiction to the wedding band on the good Doctor’s finger.

“As we all know, things are bad,” Sulla said.  “Other than Captain Anderson’s unit, I don’t think we can expect to see any help.  To make matters worse we had a number of people slip out on their own to collect family.  I think our first order of business today is to organize parties to round up local family members that are still outside the fence.”

To Sulla’s right sat Eric Mullins, a Middlesex Township Police officer.  He nodded in agreement with Sulla.

“Eric, I’d like you to work with guys from our road department and any other police left to form up these parties.  Let’s start with trying to find the families of mission critical people like the Doc here.”

Kimberly’s head snapped around to look at Carson from the side of the conference table.  She had been mid-pour of filling a cup of coffee, and she spilled some of it.

“I appreciate the offer,” Carson said, “But my spouse was at the Mall when it got attacked.  After seeing what happened at the Hospital, I’m under no illusions about her odds.”

Kimberly put down a cup and walked out of the conference room.  Her face felt flushed at the conversation behind her and her heart wanted to explode out of her chest.  Down the hall, she pushed open the door to the women’s room and turned on the faucet.  She bent over and filled her hands with water and splashed it on her face.

What kind of person am I, she thought.  I’ve wronged this woman, and now she is probably dead, and my first reaction is that I’m happy that he is all mine now.  Kimberly remembered an Easter Sunday when she was a little girl.  Her mother had dropped her off at Sunday school for the first time.  She sat around a table eating vanilla wafers in her new white dress with blue trim.  The teacher taught them about how it was wrong to take what was not yours.  To illustrate the point, the teacher took Kimberly’s cookies away.  It hurt Kimberly's feelings to single her out like that, but the teacher gave them back later.

“I’m so sorry Alison,” she said to the mirror in front of her.  “I’ve wronged you, and there is nothing I can do to make it up.”

In her pocket, her cell phone vibrated for the first time since the outbreak started.  She pulled the phone out and saw her mother’s number on the display.

Kimberly’s parents had been having marital problems for as long as she could remember.  Her father drove trucks for a living and one day he took a job out west driving a rig between military bases in the desert.  The separation proved to be a good thing for the marriage and it stayed that way for several years.  One day her mom announced to Kimberly that her father wanted them to move out west with him.  At this point, she was grown up and had her own apartment in Butler, which Dr. Carson had been moonlighting at for a few months.  She urged her mother to take the opportunity to patch things up with her father and make the move, but she would not be going along.

“Kimberly, thank God,” her mother said on the phone.  “Doug, I got through, pick up the other phone.  We’ve been trying to reach you all night, are you alright?”

“Mommy I need you.” Kimberly said.

“Are you hurt baby?”

“No, but it’s awful here,” Kimberly said.

“Where are you at; are you safe?”

“I’m at the County airport with other people,” Kimberly said.

“Kim, honey,” her father said, “If there’s any pilots there I want you on the next plane out.  I don’t care what it takes or where it’s going; you just get out and get as far away from there as possible.  Do you hear me?”

“Yes daddy,” Kimberly said.

“I’m serious about this Kim, anything it takes.”

“I’m so sorry, I love you both,” Kimberly said.

“Baby you don’t need to be sorry; you just worry about taking care of-,” her mother said as the phone went dead.

Kimberly realized the phone cut out, but finished her statement anyway.  “I’m so sorry that I’m not the girl you tried to raise me to be.”

She knew the guilt over Alison would eat at her, but she also knew she wouldn’t stop or leave him.

In the meeting room, Sulla was on a conference call on the radio with Anderson and several state and military officials.

“And where are you now Captain,” General Raul asked over the radio.

“We are currently in route to Sulla’s position at the airport,” Anderson said.  The transmission carried the unmistakable sound of gunfire in the background.

“What we really need is an assessment of how to deal with these things,” the General asked.

“Sir,” Anderson said, “Literally the only way to put them down is a bullet to the head.  Shooting them anywhere else only slows them down a bit.  They can’t exactly run, but they can manage better than a walk if they are intact.  If you want any other pointers, Sulla is the guy to talk to from a response point of view.”

Sulla and the people with him had joined the conversation late.  Anderson had insisted that Sulla be included in the meeting, and it had taken several minutes to patch him through.

“How about it Sulla,” the General asked.

“Sir,” Anderson broke in.  “Sulla needs to know about Intel’s projections that were discussed earlier.”

“I agree,” said someone from the Governor’s office.

“Fill him in, Captain,” the General said.

“Basically,” Anderson said, “We have tracked a number of cases to other cities that have originated in Butler.  The injured became sick, died and joined the undead.  We managed to contain the situation in a couple of the cities but not all of them.  We locked it down in Buffalo and D.C., but New York, and Chicago are in a state of flux.  Some bean counters have run a number of rough computer models, and the results look bad.  Best-case scenario, we are looking at hundreds of thousands to millions dead with in the week.  I don’t think I need to spell out the worst case.  Hold on a sec.”

Three gunshots blasted over the radio.

“Sulla, what can you tell us from your experience?” the general said.

“We lost our first waves of emergency responders because we didn’t know what we were dealing with; some damn good people bought it.  First, you need to make sure everyone knows how to kill them.  Then you need to put a gun in every person’s hand that you can trust not to shoot you in the back.  Make sure they have plenty of ammo; so far that has been a huge pain in the ass.  Right now, I could be pushing into Butler, but I don’t have the ammo to hold my position and deal with the numbers of them in the city.  You also need to start organizing people now.  Get your responder’s families together, and make sure they are safe.”

“Mr. Sulla, this is Chris Ricks from the Governor’s office.  You don’t honestly think we should be passing out guns to civilians do you?”

“Mr. Ricks if it weren’t for those civilians with guns I’d, be room temperature but still looking for my next meal.”

This pencil pusher from Harrisburg just became an enemy, Sulla thought.  Who cares, I have bigger issues to deal with.

"I think I have what I need to advise the President," the General said.  "The state of Pennsylvania has, of course, its own sovereign authority when it comes to its Guard units.  Good luck to all of you."

Sulla and Anderson switched back to the local emergency radio band.  "Anderson, when you get here I think we need to talk," Sulla said.

###

Jack stopped the van beside an old woman sitting on the hood of a 1950's vintage Chevy that was decades into the process of decay.  A shotgun sat across her lap as she sang "Amazing Grace" to herself.

The junk yard had been there Jack's entire life and housed thousands of old vehicles.  Who ever had owned it had long ago stopped bringing in new wrecks to the property, and the yard had turned into a time capsule of a past age.  Trees had grown up through many of the wrecks as life asserted its claim on their forgotten husks. The sun and time had burned away the once brightly colored paint leaving only faint glimpses of their former glory.

Jack rolled down his window, "Ma’am, do you need some help?"

"This was my Daddy's property, and I don’t plan on leaving’ it," she replied.  "I do appreciate your concern though; of all the vehicles that have gone by since yesterday, you’re the first one to stop and check in on me.  Come to think of it, no one has stopped to check in on me in months, but that’ll be over soon.  My name is Ruth, Ruth Denton.  Who would you be young man?"

"Name’s, Jack. Ma’am, it’s not exactly safe to be sitting outside at the moment."

"I may be old, but I’m not a damn fool.  I’ve a television, and know all about it."

Jack opened the door of the van and stepped out.

"I didn’t mean to imply anything. I just wanted to make sure nothing happened to you."

"Well of course something’s going to happen to me.  Look at me; I’m older than these junkers.  I don’t have time left to be running all over God's creation.  My life’s been here and I’m going to die among these relics one way or another.  I expect I’ll have company soon enough to see me out."

"If that’s how you feel, why the shotgun?" Jack said.

"I’ve been shooting vermin round this yard for better than 50 years, why should it be any different when they come?  They’ll win out in the end, like time, and chew my bones, but I’ll line them up like these wrecks here until it’s my time."

"Can we do anything for you before we go?" Jack said.

"No, but since you’re the only live people I’m likely to talk to before the end I'll do you a kindness and send you off with a parting gift.  Come on round this here car, I got a secret to show you."

Ruth slid off the hood of the car and led him around the back of the vehicle.  She pulled open the trunk to the sound of screechy hinges.  She reached in and pulled out a wooden case of mason jars filled with liquid.

"My Daddy set this place up to make shine during Prohibition.  He taught me how to make it when I was a little girl.  You young people be carful with this stuff, it’s got a lot more piss than what you kids drink these days.  Come on, I'll walk with you back to your van and meet that pretty girl you got there."

Ruth followed him back to the van limping a bit as she carried her shotgun in two hands.  Donna slid over to the driver’s seat and leaned out the open window.  Jack passed the case of Mason jars to Donna who put them on the floor inside.

“My goodness,” Rush said, “You’re such a pretty thing to have all those bruises on your face.  You better not tell me Jack here had anything to do with that.”

“No, he didn’t,” Donna replied, “But I’d be in worse shape, if he hadn’t come along.”

“Good, good,” Ruth replied, “Well what's your name then, darling?”

“Donna.”

“My name’s Ruth, and this here’s my place.  Come here Jack, because I got something I want to tell the two of you.  I was telling Jack that I ain’t going to leave this place, and I accept the fact that my end is at hand.  That makes me a dying old woman with a bit of wisdom to impart.”

Jack moved closer and watched while Ruth took Donna’s hand.

“I’m eighty-seven years old and have seen many a change during my years. I don’t know if these are the End of Day’s like they talk about in The Good Book, but I can tell you this. It’s the end of days, as you know it.  The generations before now were made of harder stuff.  We knew things and how to do by ourselves with out having to call someone to fix stuff for us.  There was real sacrifice and hardship. Many a strong man broke his body down to dust at a young age, just to put a little bit on the table.  You younger folk ain’t ready to face those days again, and you don’t know the things we knew about the world.  Even the rudimentary common stuff of my day, like making soap, smoking meat, or distilling is going to be something you’re going to have to figure out from a damn book.  I've seen this evil getting ready to befall us for decades now.  Not that I knew it would be like this, but that it would leave the younger people in the street like orphans after a war.”

“There’s going to start being people out there looking out for themselves.  They may want what you have and be willing to take it.  Then there are going be just plain evil people that will inflict ill on the world for their own amusement.  You have to be ready for it. Be ready to be your own law.  Necessity is going to dictate a lot of things on you, and I pray you can bear it.  You’re the only vehicle I’ve seen come down that road behind you since yesterday, so I assume whatever is behind you is something the two of you survived together.  You may not be a couple, but you’re in a different world then the one you left behind down that road.  You have a responsibility to each other now, an obligation and one that should not be lightly abandoned.”

“In all my years, I never was married nor had kids of my own.  I want to spend my last hours thinking of you two as my kids.  Give me your hand now, Jack.”

Ruth rested her shotgun on the side of the van and took Jack’s hand and placed it on top of her hand holding Donna’s.

“Jack, you watch out for my little girl, Donna here.  They have tried to take her, but I want you to try and find a safe place for her.  Donna, you take care of my only son Jack.  I can tell from his eyes that he’s suffered a great loss in his life.  I saw that same look on my father’s eyes after he lost my mother.  Make him happy as it may be in your power, and bring water to a weary soul.  Now, I’m going say a prayer for the two of you. I want you to get, without a word, after I’m done.  That road behind you, and in front of you, carries death with it. You best be gone, before it catches you.”

“Dear, Lord, hear the final prayer of your daughter Ruth. I hear you calling me home. I pray for the courage to meet it here among this cemetery of the world behind us.  I pray for blessings for my two children here.  Their way is beset by the bones of our dying world.  Help them break those bones. May they may find brighter lands in their future with green pastures and blue skies.”

Naomi had jumped up into Donna’s lap and peered out the window with her blue eyes looking at Ruth.

“I’ve never seen more beautiful eyes in my whole life,” Ruth said.  “I’m going to go sit on the hood of my car and think about those eyes till it’s my time.  Shouldn’t be long.”

Ruth offered her hand to the cat.  Naomi smelled her hand and gave it a small lick and blinked at the old lady.  “You keep watching over him like she wanted,” Ruth said.  Without another word she turned around and walked off.

“Jack, are you all right?” Donna asked.

“Yeah, I just want to get out of here if it’s all right with you,” Jack said.

“I’m ready to go, look behind us,” she said.

In the distance, came five of the undead crossing a field a quarter-mile away.

Donna slid back over into the passenger seat holding Naomi while Jack got back in the truck.

“What creeps me out,” Donna said, “is how I can’t fault anything she said about our generation.”

###

"This is it, turn right here," Brandi said pointing at the driveway leading off route 68 to her parent's house.

Alison's head pounded with a headache from stress.  Getting out of Butler had been a close call.  What Rex couldn't drive around he had smashed through to make it out of Butler.  Red handprints smeared the windows of the vehicle where the undead managed to reach the sides when Rex was forced to slow down for too long.

Alison didn’t want to think about the family they had come across, but their faces were fresh in her mind.

A couple carrying their two young children ran out into the street as the truck was passing them by.  Three times as many zombies were chasing the family.  Rex slowed down, and the father had pushed his wife and children onto the back of the fiberglass covered truck bed.  A zombie grabbed the man by the back of his shirt and yanked him to the ground.

Alison opened the back window and shouted to the woman, "Get the kids inside.”

Two more zombies came at the truck from the passenger side, and the one creature's hand caught inside the woman's shoe.  The shoe went flipping in the air, but the vehicles momentum was enough to send the woman and one of the children sliding off the back of the truck.

Alison reached out the back window of the vehicle to try and grab the last child, but inches away from her lunge the child jumped off the vehicle to go to its mother.

"No," Alison screamed and pounded the bed cover as she watched the undead tear into the family.  A zombie picked up one of the kids.  The child kicked and punched out at the ghoul with no effect.  Alison felt hands grab on to her from inside the truck and pull her back in.  She closed her eyes to the family's fate.

At Brandi's house her parents turned out to be alive.  Her father had stepped outside of the white vinyl-sided home with a shotgun at the ready.

Brandi threw her door open before the vehicle stopped and greeted her father.  "Daddy, it’s me, where is Mom?"  A woman rushed out of the inside of the house and the couple ran to meet their daughter. Everyone exited the truck and exchanged introductions with Brandi's parents.

"I'm Carl and this is my wife Sue. I can’t thank you folks enough for bringing our baby home."

"Ginger and Alison helped me get out of the mall,” Brandi said. “Without them I wouldn't have made it home."

"Your Dad wanted to go looking for you," Sue said. "But I made him stay home in case you made it here.  We’ve been watching the news, and it's starting to get real sketchy.  They’ve been showing footage of refugees at the stadium in Pittsburgh.  They’re surrounded by thousands of them."

"What about the army?" Rex said.

"Confused," said Carl.  "The media’s having a field day with the government’s response.  Most of our combat units are overseas in Afghanistan so they’re working on what they have left.  They’re talking about it taking weeks to months to pull the troops back home.  The State and Federal government was in the process of sending help here, but then it started happening in Pittsburgh.  They got some units in there, but the President has since ordered that they redeploy to the bigger cities that are having problems."

"So we have been triaged," Alison said.

"Basically," Carl said.

"What about the County Airport?" Rex said.

"They’re still there," Carl replied.  "Are you thinking of heading that way?"

"Yep," Rex said. "You and your family are more than welcome to join us.  I don’t think you want to be hanging around here when those things show up.  If they’re after someone in a house they keep at it till they break in or another opportunity presents itself.  They’re cracking open houses like crab shells. We've seen it hundreds of times this morning.  I suppose you could fort your place up if you had enough time and if you had the supplies to hold out.

Carl eyed the AK-47 in Rex's hands.  "No, I'm afraid I’m not as well prepared as you seem to be.

Rex smiled, "Just as Obama said, some of us cling to guns and religion.”

"We should eat first," Sue broke in.  "While you load up the SUV, Carl, Brandi, and I can fix some food.  We don’t know when we’ll get another chance."

"Good idea," Ginger said, "Just give me something to keep busy with."

The group broke off to cook and pack up.  Alison stayed behind at the truck with Rex.  "What are you doing?" Alison said.

"I'm going to watch the road," Rex said. "I also want to break up a few of these ammo crates into pouches."

"Do you need some help?" she said.

"Sure, these crates marked with 7.62 are the ammo for the AK-47s and the SKSs.  Some of the crates have ammo that is pre-packed in stripper clips.  Those can be used to fast load an SKS.  Drop those in these pouches here.  If the ammo is loose, you can load into these magazines here in this bag.  We should have done this last night, but I was afraid that the doors would come bursting open at any second."

Alison opened a box of ammo full of the stripper clips and grabbed a handful to push into a pouch.

"Do you think your wife is okay?" she asked.

"Looks like she’s trying to keep busy; I suppose it’s a good thing," Rex said.  "I shouldn’t have let her mom run into the house last night."

"It's not your fault, Rex," Alison said, "And you don’t need to second guess yourself right now."

"What about Ginger?" Rex said. "I can deal with my own ghosts, but I don’t know if I can handle it if she blames me."

"She's a lucky girl, Rex.  Even if it does take her some time, she is going to remember that."

"And if she doesn't remember?" Rex said.

"Then I’ll remind her of the fact," Alison said.  "I’ll also tell her about my life having a husband that cheats on me.  I don’t know if you remember, but last night they had a doctor they were interviewing at the airport."

"Your husband?" Rex said.

"And his special assistant," Alison replied.  "While I’m out here struggling for my life, she's with him."

"I'm sorry," Rex said.

"Don’t be sorry for me,” Alison said. “I’ve made my own choices in life. I did this to myself."

"What are you going to do when we get to the airport?" Rex asked.

"Do you think it's even worth it at this point?" Alison said.  "I mean the world is ending and he is a piece of shit.  At best, I can't say much better for myself.  I loved him yes, but I stayed in the marriage because of the money he makes as a doctor.  What does that say about me? I'm not much better than a whore.  But I can’t even feel bad about that cause I let those poor kids get killed with their parents."

Alison's knees buckled and hit the gravel on the driveway.  She lowered her face to the ground and dug her fingers into the rocks and squeezed until it hurt.

"He never would give me kids," she sobbed.

Alison felt soft warm hands lift and separate her face from the ground and she looked up into Ginger's face.

"I came out to see if I could help with the ammo," Ginger said. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I didn’t know what else to do."

Rex knelt beside Alison and took one her hands clutching the stones.  He eased her hand open letting the gravel to patter against the ground.

"I really need to thank you Alison," Ginger said, "You reminded me that we’re all going to be dealing with things.  I’d rather deal with them together than to lock myself apart.  If you want, you can be part of our family and we’ll deal with whatever comes."

Alison felt the tension ease from the other hand and several stones came tumbling out.  She stopped the last two stones in her hand and held on to them.  "That sounds nice,” Alison said.  “When we get to the airport I have to confront them.  After I do that, if your offer still stands I'll go wherever."

###

Donna stood beside Jack in one of the offices inside a hanger at the airport.  Naomi sat on a desk behind them bathing herself after being cooped up in her carrier for too long.

She held on to Jack’s hand while they watched the television feed being broadcast from the stadium in Pittsburgh.  The camera zoomed in on a dark winged shape in the sky.

“C-130,” Jack said, “Bet it’s a gun ship.”

The craft dipped a wing and slowly turned to circle the stadium.

“Oh, shit,” Jack said as the plane’s midsection came alive and breathed fire.  The cameraman pulled the zoom back revealing a long chain of tracer fire reaching to the ground.  The hail of bullets ripped into the mass of zombies pushing their way through a fallen gate near a smoldering chopper.  Dozens of the undead fell by the second as fire from heaven rained down on them.

Donna could tell that the effort was too late.  The dead were pouring in by the hundreds and were fanning out inside the stadium.  The gunners in the plane would be forced to shoot closer and closer to the civilians.

In the middle of the field, a squad of soldiers fought back-to-back while the undead came at them from two different directions.

“They must be getting through somewhere else to be getting on the field like that,” Donna said.

“I can’t watch this anymore, Donna, it’s making me sick.”

She reached out and turned the television off.  The room filled with silence.  Outside of the room, Donna could hear voices carrying on a conversation in the larger part of the hanger.

“Jack, can I ask you a question?”

“What do you want to know?”

“I saw a picture of you and your wife back at your house.” Donna said.  “I figure you didn’t get divorced cause it was still hanging up.  What happened?”

“She had a stroke,” he said.  “It’s pretty rare for someone so young to die like that.  We didn’t know it at the time, but she had something called Familial Combined Hyperlipidemia.  She was adopted, so her parents didn’t have her biological family’s history.  She also took birth control that caused an increased risk of stroke.  I had to spend a year fending off lawyers wanting to bring legal action against the pharmaceutical companies.  I didn’t bother; it wasn’t going to bring her back to me.”

“I’m sorry,” Donna said. “I hope I didn’t upset you.”

“I’ve been upset about it for years, you didn’t cause it.”

Donna squeezed his hand then let go, she walked over to the desk and petted the cat.

“What about you?” he asked.

“My dad didn’t let me date a whole lot in high school,” Donna said. “Not that he needed to discourage it. I was pretty shy.  In college I went a little wild at times with the introduction of alcohol, but nothing serious. Oh, I did nearly make a huge mistake on a trip to Europe.”

“What happened?” he asked.

“I was dating this French political science major,” Donna said.  “One day he got pretty drunk in front of his friends and started ranting about how America was the source of everything wrong with the world.  He blamed me for being part of it. He called me his charity case.  I was devastated.  He was my first real crush and he turned out to be such a jerk.  It’s kind of like that for me.  I date the wrong guys to find out they have other intentions.  It’s like there is something wrong with me that they can zero in on.  It’s kind of kept me from dating anyone seriously for the past couple of years.”

###

Captain Rick Anderson’s convoy arrived at the airport to the cheers of civilians and militia at the gate.  The convoy had cut its way through the carnage.

Anderson stepped out of his Stryker and was greeted by a younger man extending his hand to the Captain.  “Pleased to meet you in person Captain, I’m Paul Sulla.”

“Let me introduce Sergeant Ryan Winters, he is my acting number two,” said Anderson.  Sulla and Winters shook hands.

“Captain what do you need from us?” Sulla said.

“I’d like to set up in the main hanger with my vehicles and unload supplies,” Anderson said.  “If you can take the civilians off my hands we can focus on breaking and blowing things up.  I also have a population of armed civilians that I can turn over to your militia.  For now, I’d like to keep things separate when it comes to unit organization.  I can also pass out a little heavier hardware than the deer rifles your boys seem to be carrying.”

An hour later, Anderson and Winters sat around a conference table with a number of people; Sulla introduced the panel to the Captain.  In the background, a muted television played scenes of the undead attacks from around the country.

“This is Dr. Mike Carson; he represents three physicians and two nurses here,” Sulla said.

Anderson saw a man across the table from the doctor stiffen at the doctor’s name and drop a hand as if to reach for a gun on his hip.  Anderson automatically did the same, but stopped short of pulling it out.  The man turned his head to face Anderson and for an instant they locked eyes.  The man nodded and smiled at Anderson, no one else in the room had the faintest idea the exchange had occurred.  Sulla continued the introductions.

“Jack Cotta is representing the 10 pilots that we have at the airport, and Mr. Cotta, why do you have a cat?”

“Co-pilot,” Jack said. “I can’t navigate worth shit without her.”

Sulla rolled his eyes and continued.

“Seated across from the doctor is Rex Weyland.  He’s an old friend of mine who showed up a few minutes ago.  Rex did something or other for Homeland Security and is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, so I wanted him here.”

Anderson took note of Rex; he looked tired from the night but still sharp.  That man is dangerous, Anderson thought, and he apparently has a reason to hate the doctor.

“Captain Anderson will give us a brief outline about the larger picture,” Sulla said.

Anderson cleared his throat and picked up a sheet of paper.  “At 0800 this morning, I left the Reserve depot with roughly 200 civilians and a platoon of Guardsmen.  The convoy consisted of 15 Humvees, 10 Strykers, 5 Water Buffalos, 2 fuel tankers and 10 M35A2 flatbed trucks.  The M35’s hauled 50,000 MRE rations, 600 blankets, 5 diesel generators, 300 M-16s, 500,000 rounds of 5.56, 10,000 rounds of 9mm, and 3,000 rounds of 12 gauge shotgun cartridges.  We also stashed in 10,000 rounds of old .30-06 that has been left lying around since World War II.  I have Sergeant Winters preparing another list of equipment that we will be handing out to your people as soon as we can get it unpacked.  There will be some goodies such as field radios and night vision for sentries.”

“Our overall situation,” Anderson continued, “is that, as you can see on the television, we are completely boxed in from every direction.  There may be smaller pockets of resistance in the area, but short of Pittsburgh, this facility is the only safe zone.  I use the term loosely.  Western Pennsylvania is looking to be the worst disaster area in regard to a loss to human life since Haiti.  That will be shortly replaced by projections from New York that estimate greater than 3,000 uncontained zombies in the streets.  In a dense area like New York, we estimate that a single zombie can kill 2 to 5 people in an hour.  The police were pro-active in putting the early zombies down, but panic in the streets caused a monster of a traffic jam.  The police could only trickle into the area and there were 30 percent casualties to NYPD officers in the first few hours.”

“There are over 8 million people in the city,” Carson said.

“Correct,” Anderson said. “And half of them have ignored warnings to stay indoors and are fleeing on foot for their lives.  If they can’t get the numbers of expansion in check, New York will be looking at over 100,000 undead attacking the city in a few hours.  The math after that makes our problems look like a vacation.  With the outbreak spreading like it is, I can’t stress enough that we are unlikely to get help.  Ever.”

The last word left a long silence in the room.

“What about the rest of the country?” Jack Cotta said.

“Panicked,” replied Anderson.  “The President and his staff left Washington aboard Air Force One.  The vast majority of the country is still untouched by the outbreaks, but roadblocks are starting to go up on State boarders.  We expect to see martial law declared before this evening.”

Jack raised his hand, “I have a question.  If we’re unlikely to get help, how long can we last here?”

All eyes turned to Captain Anderson.  “I’d comfortably say from the set up we have here, we have weeks to months.  Let me also say, however, that a week ago if you would have asked me how long we could hold out against the undead I would have thought you were crazy.  Today, I have to stop and wonder if there are going to be any other insane possibilities that decide to blow up in my face.”

“You mean like Shippingport,” Rex added.

Anderson had a bad feeling that he wasn’t going to like what he heard next, “What about it?”

Rex scratched his beard, “If I remember correctly, its twenty-ish miles west of us and is home to a reactor.”

“Do we need to worry about it?” Sulla said.

“Yeah,” Rex replied, “There are people that maintain it as well as some fail-safes, but I worked with a guy who worked there.  He liked to talk endlessly about the plant.  I don’t know if you have ever seen the clouds the reactor forms, but that is water vapor.  Those radioactive rods are really hot and need the water to keep them from catching fire.  Even if the plant goes into standby mode, the water still needs to be cycled and replaced.  If that plant is left alone long enough, think Chernobyl.  Heck, think of Japan.”

“So that’s it,” Sulla said, “Unless the situation takes a 180 degree turn we are looking at that reactor finishing off anything left in Western Pennsylvania.”

“So what are our options?” Carson said.

“Driving out is possible,” Anderson said, “But highly problematic.”

“How about it Jack?” Sulla asked.

“Yeah, given enough time we could fly everyone out, but to where?” Jack said.

“Let’s put aside the where for now, what kind of capacity do we have?” Anderson said.

“There are ten of us who can fly at the moment, two of whom can handle those Learjet 60s in hanger three.  Capacity though as the Captain here asked about, is going to be the problem.  Stand alone, we can haul thirty people out of here per trip with an extremely light cargo load.  Those numbers could change quite a bit depending on where.  So to work with just moving people out, that’s something like twenty round trips.  It’s an undertaking, but possible with time.  If you want to move some of the hardware, it’ll take more and frankly some of it won’t fit.  There is another option however.”

“Go on,” said Anderson.

“A couple of the pilots are commercial and can handle much heavier craft, if we want to go get bigger planes from somewhere else.  Or you can get a couple of those C-130’s from the 911th in Pittsburgh.”

“This is a lot to chew on,” Sulla said. “What do you think Captain?”

“I need time,” Anderson replied. “Let me try and bump this up the chain, I doubt they will send us the planes, but I can at least try.  As an officer, I can’t condone theft, especially if Martial Law is declared; however, Sulla, you still have jurisdiction here and we are still operating separately.”

The cat that had been sleeping on Jack Cotta’s lap woke up and sniffed at the air.  Anderson watched the owner pet the cat, but it jumped up on the table continuing to sniff.  Its nose slowed down and zeroed in on one direction.  The cat took a tentative step and halted as its tail grew to three times the size in width.

“What’s wrong Naomi?” Jack said.

The cat’s ears bent back and she stepped away from Carson and then she hissed at him.

Jack grabbed the cat and pulled her away from the table.

“She’s had a rough day; I’ll take her out of here,” Jack said.

Anderson looked at Carson’s pale face.  “Are you all right Doc?” Anderson asked.

Carson coughed into his hand, “Excuse me, no I’m not.  I was on call for 24 hours before all this started.  I’m afraid I am quite fatigued.  I’ll pull through though.”

“You should rack out while you have the chance, Doc,” Anderson said.  “You never know when you’re going to get another chance.”

“If you don’t mind I think I’ll take your advice and go lay down for a bit.  I’ll be in the office in hanger two if anyone needs me.”

Chapter Ten

Rex walked across the tarmac of the airport to his parked truck where Ginger and Alison waited.  Carl’s red SUV sat beside the black Dodge but the family was nowhere in site.  Ginger and Alison were sharing a bottle of water in the back seat of the truck with the doors open.

“How did it go cowboy?” Alison said.

“Slightly better than totally fucked,” Rex said, “Got any more water?”

“Sure do,” Alison said.  “Grabbed one for you just in case.”

Ginger opened the cap to the bottle and handed it to Rex.  The water was warm, but he gulped it down till it was empty.

“You finished that pretty quick,” Ginger said.

“Yeah lot of hot air in that room, I never did like meetings,” Rex said.  “The short version is Sulla deputized me. I’m not sure he has the power, but I don’t think anyone cares.  The plan is that we’re going to fly out, hopefully before we all die.  We may have to go steal some planes if the military decides to leave us hanging.  By the way, I have news for you Alison; how do you want it?”

Alison wiped her palms on her jeans.  “Just give it to me.”

“I saw your husband, and he’s headed over to hanger two to take a nap in one of the offices.  I didn’t come across his friend, but I’ve heard he brought an assistant.”

“Alison,” Ginger said, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to let him know what a piece of shit he is for leaving me out there to die, while he saved his slut.

“Do you think he might react violently?” Ginger said.

“Our marriage is messed up, but it’s never been like that,” Alison said.

“I’m still going to send Rex with you,” Ginger said.  “He can at least be in earshot. I'll stay here and watch the stuff.”

“Thanks Ginger, but I don’t want to leave you here by yourself,” Alison said.

Ginger waved at a group of people walking toward their trucks.  “Nonsense, here comes Brandi and her parents right now.”

“I guess that settles it,” Alison said. "Rex, if you don’t mind, I’m ready to get this over with."  Rex and Alison walked down the tarmac past rows of parked cars approaching hanger 2 in the distance.  Refugees milled about their vehicles trying cell phones or exchanging stories with one another.

"There is a suite of offices in the back of the hanger," Rex said.  "He's supposed to be set up in office seven.  I’ll wait outside a short distance away and give you some privacy, but I will be fairly close just in case."

"Holy cow, Rex, is that you?" a girl shouted from behind a parked car.  "It is you, I’m so glad to see a familiar face," the girl said.  He stopped and saw a girl with blonde hair and black lipstick running toward him with out-stretched arms.  She threw her arms around him and squeezed. "This must be your wife. I'm Mazie.  I met Rex at the Casino yesterday up in Erie."

"Actually,” Rex said, “This is my friend Alison. My wife Ginger is back that way watching our gear."

Go figure Alison thought, I am on the way to deal with ending my marriage and some gothic chick is holding me up.

"How did you end up here?" Rex asked Mazie.

"I was heading back to school in Kentucky.  I drove south along Interstate 79 and the highway was blocked off near Cranberry.  There was a big traffic jam, but I managed to squeeze my car through to get to a smaller back road.  I heard on the radio this morning that the airport here was safe, and I found it with my GPS."

"Rex," Alison said, "I’m going to head over to the hanger, you can catch up when you get a chance.  It sounds like your friend here might like to join our group at the trucks."

"Could I?" Mazie said. "Because that would be great, I've been freaked out all night.  Let me grab my stuff from my car, and I can follow you to your truck."

"That’ll work fine," Alison encouraged Rex.

Might keep him out of trouble if I decide to shoot my bastard husband, Alison thought.  She turned and walked in the direction of the hanger leaving Rex and Mazie behind.

Maybe everything will be ok, she thought.  I’ll enter the room and find him thrilled to see me, and it’ll have all been a misunderstanding.  Fat chance, she conceded to herself. I’m that girl who the other wives whisper about when they gossip.  They feel sorry for me, but that doesn’t stop them from giggling.  My life was supposed to be different, but can I stop loving him, she wondered.  No, I cant, he’s my husband, and I committed my life to him.

I can’t be that girl; I should just walk in, pull the trigger and leave.  Why’d you do this to me, Carson, she thought.  I gave you everything in my life, but it wasn’t enough.  If only I could run from this and drive away, but where could I hide from the pain?  It hurts to breathe, she thought.  Please heart, stop beating and spare me.

Alison found that she was standing in front of office number seven inside hanger two.  She wiped the sweat from her trembling hands and reached out to the door.  Her fingertips found the metal of the doorknob cool to the touch.  She closed her eyes and waited, feeling the metal gradually warm from her fingers.

Carson’s heart raced as he finished off Kimberly’s young body underneath him on the desk.  I love it, Carson thought.  These young girls just need constant gardening.

He hadn’t been feeling well when he headed back to the office, but Kimberly insisted she could make him feel better.  Come to think of it, he thought, I do feel better.  Carson massaged his arm near the area where the girl at the hospital had managed to bite him.  The bite was small and he had cleaned the wound thoroughly the first chance he had.

The light fever could just be a normal infection setting in, Carson thought.  It’s possible I’m immune and a vaccination could be derived from my antibodies.  That would be awesome, he thought.  I could set myself up with a whole harem of girls in the new world if that happened.  If it turns out I’m going to die from this, then I am at least going to go out nailing every piece of ass I can manage.

“Carson,” Kim said, “do you think we can get married?”

It’s what they all want, Carson thought; commitment.  I sort of committed to Alison, and if the world was a better place she might be here with me.  It’s a shame I didn’t get to give her the diamond necklace I bought for her birthday.

“We don’t need to talk about that right now.”

“You don’t think she could still be alive?” Kimberly said.

“No, she was waiting for me at the mall when it got hit. Let’s not think about that.  Here, I bought you a present. I was saving it for you as a surprise.”  Carson pulled a small square box out of his pocket.

“I managed to hang on to it all through the hospital,” he added.  Carson removed the necklace from the box, “Let me put it on you.”

The door creaked open behind Kimberly. Alison walked in and the door swung closed behind her.  She pointed a silver revolver at Carson.  “Let me help you two with that,” Alison said.  Kimberly scrambled for her clothes and pulled them over her exposed body.  “I want to hear you try and explain this to me. Go ahead and try.”

“You were happy enough to pretend it wasn’t happening as long as you could have your upscale lifestyle.  Now put down the gun before you shoot somebody,” he said.

“I’m not talking just about that Carson.  Did you even try to find me while I was out struggling for my life?”

“He couldn’t,” Kimberly spoke up.  “He’s a doctor.  He had responsibilities at the hospital and here.”

“Bitch, don’t tell me about my husband.  In fact, you’d do well to just keep your fucking mouth shut.  He may be a doctor, but that doesn’t excuse him from his responsibilities to me.”

“Alison, put down the gun.  Someone could get hurt,” Carson ordered.

“So you were planning on flying out of here without another thought of me, cute.  Problem is there seem to be a lot of people here and not many planes or pilots.  I bet there’s going to be a space problem, but I bet you weren’t worried about that as a doctor.  Well I’m going to make sure they know what a piece of shit you are, and how you left your wife out there while you were here fucking this bitch.  I bet the crowd will be real happy about that.  Especially the ones being left behind knowing someone could have your seat.”

Alison smiled at him, “I hope you enjoyed fucking her as much as I’m going to enjoy screwing the two of you over."

Mike moved around the desk placing himself in front of Kimberly.  “Listen baby, I’ve hurt you.  You didn’t deserve this.  Leave Kimberly out of it, it’s my fault.”

Carson let his body go limp in a sign of submission then lashed out at Alison.  His left palm connected with the side of the gun and sent it sailing harmlessly to the floor.  It clanked and skidded to a stop along the office wall.

He swung his right hand at Alison’s head, his fist tightening to a hard knot.  The blow caught her full in the side of the face. Her head twisted to the right, and she fell over on the floor stunned.  A spatter of dark red dotted the floor near her mouth.

Carson leaned down and grabbed Alison by the back of the hair, and yanked her face around.

“Don’t you ever threaten a man, you worthless bitch.”

He slammed her head against the floor and Alison’s body went limp.

“What did you do?” Kimberly said.

I’m a monster he thought.  Get a hold of yourself, Carson.  I’m a doctor; I have people’s lives in my hands every day.  This is no different than a day at work.

“Kimberly, honey,” he said, “You saw the gun. She was threatening you.  She could have killed us, but I stopped her to save you.”

“Is she dead?” Kimberly said.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said.  “We have to get rid of her.  If people find out, they’re going to come after both of us.  We have to be cool, or this could blow up in our face."

"This isn’t right, Carson,” Kim said. “I don’t know if I can do this."

"I know,” Carson said. “I can't believe she would put us in this position, but I won’t let her screw up our lives together."

He put his hand on Kim's bare shoulder.  "I’d do anything for you."  She leaned her head forward on his chest and hugged him.

I should snap her neck and be done with it, he thought.  "What do you think we should do with her, Kimberly?"

"I don’t know, she replied."

He caressed her hair, "We can’t leave her here.  Someone could find her."

"We could drive her out of here and leave her somewhere," Kimberly suggested.

Carson held Kimberly close to his chest and smiled.  She's my accomplice now, he thought.  Hell, I might even be able to blame it all on her if need be.  "That’s a good idea, I think it’ll work," he said.  "I can use the SUV parked in the hanger and pull it up to the door. We can throw a tarp over her and drive out of here.  If someone asks, we can tell them someone died and we’ve been told to dump the bodies outside the facility to keep disease from spreading.  We’ll need to do that anyway."

Carson had used the truck a couple of times during the day and still had the keys.  The hanger was empty, and he had no trouble moving it right up to the office door.  He opened the rear cargo hatch and grabbed a military blanket that had been handed out to him and headed back into the office.

His wife lay motionless on the ground.  He knelt down beside her and checked her pulse.

"She's still alive, Kim, find something to tie her hands and feet with."  He laid the blanket down beside her and rolled her body over on it.

Kimberly dug through the office utility closet until she found a roll of duct tape.

"Carson, will this work?" Kimberly said.

He nodded his head, and she handed the roll over to him.

He spun the roll on his finger looking for the seam.  He peeled several inches of the tape out and stuck it over Alison's mouth.  He picked her head up off the ground and wrapped it around her head twice.  Carson repeated the process with her hands and feet immobilizing his wife.  He then wrapped her body up in the wool blanket completely covering her body.  "Help me sit her up so we can wrap her body," Carson said.

Kimberly obeyed his command, but her hands were trembling.  Carson watched her face for a moment and gave her his best smile.  "It'll be ok, I promise," he said.

"Do you love me?" she asked.

"You know I do," he replied.

He opened the door to make sure the hanger was empty.

"It’s clear," he said. "Grab her feet, and I'll get the head.  They carried her to the back of the truck and placed Alison inside.

"See honey," he said, "The tough part is over.  Let’s get going."  They got in the vehicle and drove off.

###

Rex dumped Mazie off with his wife at the truck.  He spent several minutes making introductions and explaining to Ginger how he knew the girl.  He cut the conversation off as soon as he could and headed off in the direction he last saw Alison.

A white SUV drove out of the open hanger door and passed in front of Rex a dozen yards away.  Inside the vehicle, Rex caught a glimpse of a girl in the passenger seat with Doc Carson driving.  The girl was clearly not Alison.  Rex scanned the people in the immediate area.  He didn’t see her anywhere.

"Alison," he shouted to the crowd, no one responded.

He hurried in the direction of the hanger and passed through the partially open bay door. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.  "Alison, are you in here?" Rex said.  He felt the hand of warning place its uneasy touch to his back.  He ran to the office marked number seven and threw the door open.  The office was dark.  He reached out along the wall and flipped the light switch, but the office remained black.

Rex grabbed a small key-chain flashlight in his pocket.  It clicked on and stabbed light into the darkness of the room.  A silver glint by the wall caught the light and he recognized his grandfather's revolver the instant he zeroed the light on it.  "Oh, shit."

He bent down and picked up his grandfather's gun.  Turning toward the door, his flashlight revealed red spatter on the floor.

"That bastard," he said.  Rex took off at a sprint bolting through the door. Outside of the hanger, he ran to the first vehicle he saw.  It happened to be a red Polaris 550 with a teenager sitting on top of it.  “Hey kid, did you happen to see which way that white SUV went?”

“Didn’t watch,” the kid responded.  “But I know where he went.  He saw my Polaris and asked me if I was from the area.  Told him my father’s farm was just down the road.  He told me he was a doctor and said that we needed a place close by outside the fence to dispose of any of the ghoul’s bodies.  I told him just where to go.”

Rex grinned at the youth, “Show me.”  The ATV's engine roared to life and its tires peeled out as it accelerated in the direction of the gate.

In the truck, Kimberly squeezed her hands forcing the blood out of her fingers.  The growing numbness in her hands did little to keep Alison out of her mind.  What am I doing she thought.  Oh Daddy, I should have listened to you.  Who am I kidding, I made my bed and now I have to sleep in it.  It'll be ok, she thought, Carson will fix everything.

The two soldiers guarding the gate had waved the couple through easily enough.  Carson had told them they were going to grab medicine from his house down the road and would be back shortly.  The guards had warned them to be careful and that they would have to be inspected when they came back.

Carson drove them north down a back road that paralleled Route 8 a mile to the east.  The scenery consisted of old farmhouses and wooded lots.

He slowed the vehicle down at the edge of a wooden lot and a cornfield.  He turned down a small dirt road used by tractors and pulled the vehicle to a stop near three old bales of hay left over from last season.  He reached up and pushed the transmission into park then dropped his head to the steering wheel.

"Carson, are you alright?" Kim said.

"My head hurts,” Carson said, “and I feel like I might be getting a fever."

In the back of the truck, Alison's mind woke from the edge of the abyss.  Her head swam with nausea and pain.  Her eyes cracked open revealing nothing, blackness encased her.  Something was holding her, suffocating her as she tried to move.

Air, she thought.  Her jaw ached, but when she tried to open her mouth she found it sealed shut.  She felt the bonds of duct tape holding her tightly in its grip.  The sticky substance pulled at her skin and hair if she tried to move.  Each attempted movement brought a new wave of pain to her head.  Her hands stung with numbness, and she realized she was laying facedown.  She tried to open her hands, but they were folded together with the fingers interlaced, the tape was wrapped around them fusing them into a knot.

She breathed deeper through her nose for air, but a blanket wrapped around her kept her lungs pleading for more.  She tried to kick out with her legs only to find them bound fast together.

A picture of a mummy thousands of years old formed her head.  Its body wrapped tightly in bandages.  Buried alive, she thought.  Adrenaline dumped into her heart and panic ate like acid through her mind.

"We'll dump the body here," Carson said.

Carson, Alison thought. The name felt like someone squeezing her heart, but a part of her felt thankful to hear any voice.  Any voice meant life and that held the monster of despair in its chains for the moment.

"You would never hurt me, would you?" Kimberly asked.

"Never," Carson said, "I need you so much.  Now more than ever."  Carson used the same voice on Alison when she had caught him cheating on her back in med school.

Alison heard the door to the truck open.  "Come on let’s get this over with and move on with our lives," Carson said.

Panic filled Alison’s heart once again.  Not like this, God, please not like this, she prayed.  She felt a wetness filling her eyes in the dark.  The back door opened and Alison felt heat from late summer air warm the blanket surrounding her.

Hands grabbed on to Alison's legs; she stiffened as she was pulled backwards.

"Did you see?" Kimberly said.  "I think she's alive."

"Kim, we have to do this, now keep pulling."

"I can’t,” Kim said. “This isn’t right.  If she’s alive we can’t do this. I can’t do this."

"What choice do we have, Kim?"

"We have to help her, she's hurt,” Kim said.  “She's your wife, you can’t do this to her.  Please, Carson.  Help her, and we can run away.  They won’t find us."

"Where are we going to run to?" Carson said.  "Those things are everywhere eating everyone they can get their fucking hands on.  What do you think is going to happen if we help her?  You think they’re going to say, “Bad Doctor Carson and little Kim; let’s put them on trial.”  You'll be lucky if they don’t rape you before they put a bullet in you."

Carson's hands squeezed on Alison's ankles like vice-grips; she moaned, but it was stifled by the tape gagging her mouth.

"Stop it,” Kim pleaded. “You’re hurting her."

Alison heard the smacking sound of flesh hitting flesh. It was followed shortly by a thump of a body hitting the ground. She heard Kim moaning.  "You promised you'd never hurt me," Kimberly whimpered softly.

Alison's body was ripped from the back of the truck; her feet hit the ground, and the weight of her body bent back her knees.  Her shoulders were shoved and she fell to the ground on her back.

Alison heard the girl take a deep breath in, "You’re a fucking monster, Carson."

"That’s it," Carson said. The gravel on the road was kicked around and stones thumped against the military blanket surrounding Alison.

"No," Kimberly pleaded.  Alison could hear the girl being hit over and over again.  Carson wheezed from the efforts of beating the girl senseless.  Alison struggled against her bonds, but they held her fast.  Gravel shifted as a heavy object was drug beside Alison. She could feel something soft but solid against her shoulder.

"I'm sorry Alison," Kimberly whimpered.

"That’ll be enough talk out of you," Carson said in a dead-pan voice.  The sound of duct tape being pulled off the roll was all Alison heard for several more seconds.

"Give me your hands," Carson ordered.  "It's a real shame girl. I can't take you back there now."

Carson coughed deep and hard, then he spit.  His breathing was all that filled the darkness in front of Alison; she could tell he was hovering over them.

The blanket on her face was pulled, but the tape resisted.  Carson's hands tore at it, jerking Alison's head around.  The pain from her wounds made her feel like she was falling.  Darkness gave way to a blur of light and the shadow, as Alison's eyes struggled to make sense of the world through her tears.  Fresh air filled Alison’s lungs and brought with it the smell of warm hay.

“I hope you’re happy, Alison,” Carson said. “You’ve ruined everything.”  Carson coughed hard into the sleeve of his shirt.  He dropped to his knees and wiped sweat from his forehead.  He pulled the shirt off his back and threw it off to the side of the road.

“I’m sick,” he said.  “I got attacked by one of those things at the hospital yesterday.  I thought I cleaned the wound out good enough, but I guess some of it made it through.  If it’s viral, it could have been a low viral load, or it could be that I have a resistance. I might survive it.”

Carson coughed again.

“You both think I’m a monster,” he said.  “Well I’m not.  Alison, you didn’t give me a choice coming in with a gun like that.  You threatened me, and no one threatens me, not now not ever.  Kim, I really can’t have you telling on me.  I didn’t make it this far in life for a minimum wage tramp to hand me over to the authorities.  This virus is either going to kill me, or I’m going to survive and set myself up real good with those people back there.  Either way, I’m going to deal with the two of you, so what do you say we play a little game?”

Alison turned her head to her left to look at Kimberly.  Kim turned her face at Alison revealing tears running down her cheek.  Her face was swollen from being beaten.  Her right eye had a dark red patch with a spider web of red lines extending outward from the bloodshot orb.  Another line of red liquid drew down from her nose and mixed over the silver of the duct tape holding her mouth shut.  Kimberly’s eyes pleaded the case of her crime; her soul cried out through those eyes at Alison.

“I think I’m going to have a little fun with the both of you.  Each of you is going to get to watch as I have my way with the other.  Then when I’m all finished with both of you, we’re going to sit back and wait.  If I die, then I’m more than likely going to come back.  Then one of you gets to be lucky enough to watch my corpse feast on the other before I move on to the next.  That’ll make me worthy of the monster that you two seem to see in me.”

Carson pointed at Kimberly, “I think I’ll start with you Kim, it’ll give Alison more time to think about us.”

Kimberly broke her eye contact with Alison and turned her head in the opposite direction.  Kim’s chest and stomach convulsed in deep sobs.  From the trees, a pair of crows cawed down at the scene.

Carson loomed over Kimberly, contrasted by the bright blue sky behind him.  The dark shapes of the crows flew over Carson’s silhouette like dark specters.

Alison’s ears throbbed from a sharp crack.  Her head ached from the buzzing whine in her head.  The deafening pitch soared through her ear-drums like they were being squeezed through a pin-hole. Carson staggered back and fell out of sight.

“Ahhhhhh”, he moaned, “My shoulder.”

“When I was a young kid,” a man’s voice said, “my dad told me animals are always trying to tell us things.  Those crows took off telling you a bigger fucking predator was coming this way.  I listen; that cat back at the meeting, must have been telling us about your bite mark.  Might have been even telling us about what a freak you are.”

Rex stepped into Alison’s view with an AK-47 pointing in the direction of her out-of-sight husband.  His gun spat fire as the Spartan let lose another round.  Alison watched the shell casing spin up into the air flipping end over end. It whistled downward to clank on the top of the truck.

“Doc, next round goes in your heart if you keep trying to move.”

Carson cried in agony.  “Please don’t hurt me, it’s not my fault.  She attacked me.”

Rex knelt down between the truck and Alison, and set his rifle down.  From his pocket he pulled out a knife; it clicked open in his hand. He looked down at Alison; her face was bruised much like the girl beside her.  Their eyes were wild with fright and desperation.

"Alison, can you hear me?" he said.

She nodded her head yes at him.

"I’m going to cut you out of this tape, but I don’t want you to move so just hang in there and listen to my voice."  He moved the blade near her face and slid it under the blanket cutting at cloth and tape.  He cut the blanket off her chest and down to her stomach.  He saw the ball of massed tape around both her hands.  Rex found the end of the tape and pealed it back unwrapping her hands a layer at a time.  He faced the doctor and spared him a glance as he continued to untie Alison.  The doctor lay on the ground groaning but alive.

"He lumped you up pretty good,” Rex said to Alison. “But he's in pretty bad shape at the moment.  I shot him twice, once in each shoulder."

Rex untwisted the last layer on Alison's hands except for the one against the skin.  "This part is going to sting a little," He said.  He yanked at the tape separating it from the skin of her hand.  Alison's eyes winced in pain, but her hands separated free of their bondage.  She flexed her fingers while he went to work on cutting the tape from her arms.  He pulled the tape away from her clothing and cut the gap between.  Alison reached up with her freed arms and hands and pulled on the tape closing her mouth.  She dug her finger at the seam and pealed the tape away from her skin.  Alison sucked in a deep breath as she broke the seal on her mouth.  The tape popped open freeing her face.

"I thought I was dead," Alison's voice cracked.  He cut away the last of the tape on her leg's completely freeing the young woman.  She tried to sit up but dropped back down after only getting a few inches off the ground.

"Not too fast" Rex said.  "You likely have a concussion. Let me help you into a sitting position."

"I don’t know how you found me,” Alison said. “Thank you, Rex. Thank you."

"I'm sorry I was late," he said.

"No, it was the best birthday present anyone has ever given me," Alison said.

"Put your arm around me,” Rex said. “I’m going to sit you in the back of the truck."  He easily lifted her into the open cargo hatch of the SUV.  He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a familiar .38.  "You dropped something," he said as he handed it to her. “What's her part in this?"  Kimberly looked up at Rex and Alison with pleading tearful eyes.

"Mistress." Alison said.  "She was in on it."  Terror spread across Kimberly's face and her body convulsed in muffled sobs.

In the sky, the crows came cawing back across the cornfield with a dozen more of their brethren.  "Ha ha ha," Mike laughed on the ground.  "Did you see that?"  "Did the birds tell you?  They said the dead are coming. They’re coming to get you fuckers?"

Alison braced herself on the side of the vehicle with one hand and stood up facing Mike.  In her left hand her thumb pulled the hammer back on the .38 special. "Mike," she said, "You really disappointed me on my birthday."

She squeezed the trigger and the gun jumped in her hand.  Mike took the slug right in the face.  His brains exploded out of the back of his head.

Rex pulled his .45 and clicked the safety off walking over to Mike's body.  The heavy caliber round barked out louder than its little sister as he put another round in Mike's head.

He walked over to Kim, the girl continued to sob on the ground.  "Alison says you're guilty," Rex stated.  "We don’t have a lot of time, because your boy-toy over there was right.  We’re not alone here, and those things are likely coming across the field right now.  We've made a hell of racket with the guns, so they know right where to find you.  I’m going to ask you a question, and I can’t stress enough that you be completely honest.  Since your mouth is all tapped up, simple yes or no answers will do fine.  Are you guilty?"

A wash of liquid streamed down Kimberly's face as she tightly closed her eyes, her head shook, "Yes."

Alison walked over to Kim with the gun in her hand and pointed it at Kimberly.

"You deserve it," Alison said.  Alison then lowered the gun and kneeled down.  "I think Kim and I can settle up later."  She reached down and snapped the necklace Mike had placed on Kimberly's neck.  "I have a feeling Carson bought this for me."  She threw the necklace on Carson's dead corpse while Rex bent down and cut away the tape holding Kimberly.

Chapter Eleven

Eason closed the gate on the ramp behind him that led out to the seats of the East upper decks.  Mike and his wife Helen were cut off from the press of people and lost on the level below.

The dead had pushed through three of the main gates and taken over the lower levels of the stadium.  There were people still down there trying to climb to higher levels, but the dead outnumbered them.  The dead had shattered the glass below him to the club level and decimated the people taking refuge there.  There might still be people hiding in the luxury suites, assuming someone had the keys to open them up.

Eason pulled the slide on his shotgun open and pushed several cartridges into the magazine.  Behind him, people scrambled up walkways to get into higher seats.

Three of the undead rounded the ramp and locked on to Eason standing on the other side of the gate. Eason pushed the breach of the shotgun closed and stuck the barrel through the metal bars of the gate. The closest zombie wore the uniform of a City of Pittsburgh Police Officer.  The zombie was Mike Fennel.

Eason backed away from the gate as Mike scrambled up the ramp at him.

He depressed the button on his radio, "North side upper deck gate secure."

"This is South gate, we couldn't get it closed, there’re coming thr-," the message was cut short.

Ordinance screeched from overhead gunships as they unloaded on the undead.

"It won’t matter now," Eason said.

He walked over to the concrete balcony overlooking the baseball stadium across the parking lot.  In the sky above him, his eyes caught the movement of a grey multi-engine jet at high altitude.  Eason recognized the plane.

The first time he had seen it was in Mrs. Cooper's Social Studies class back in the 6th grade.  Mrs. Cooper taught the class about the ongoing cold war with the Soviet Union.  She assigned the class a project to write a paper about some aspect of the cold war.  In the school library, Eason found a book on jet planes that the United States used.  He flipped through the pages, but stopped and studied an unusual plan with eight engines and huge wings.  The book called the plane a B-51 Stratofortress.  The book told Eason that the plane carried large payloads of bombs or nuclear weapons.

Eason noticed that the sound of the gunships that had been trying to hold back the undead were no longer to be heard.

Across the parking lot the baseball stadium erupted into a towering inferno of flame and debris.  The walls of the park collapsed outward and the shockwave ripped out in all directions.  Vehicles in the parking lot blew into the air like dandelion seeds cast into the wind.  Others were hurled like wrecking balls tearing into anything unfortunate enough to get in their path.  At least one smashed through the glass into the club east section of the football stadium below him.

The shockwave reached out across the river and smashed into the glass barriers of the skyscrapers across the street.  A waterfall of shards fell to the streets along the entire north edge of the Pittsburgh skyline.

A wall of brown powderized building material raced out from the blast. Eason dropped down behind a concrete wall as it washed over the building.

A heavy cloud of burnt chalk filled Eason's mouth and his ears screamed from the explosion.  He put his hand to his mouth and coughed, but he only sucked in more dust.  For several seconds the world was filled with silence, then the banging sound of debris as it fell from the air and hit the stadium.

Eason heard a chorus of screams from people above him in the upper deck seating as material rained down on them.  Something large slammed into the upper deck shaking the entire side of the stadium.  He caught a glimpse of a stadium seat from the ballpark falling past his outlook.

The light bank above the concession stand flickered and went out.  In the distance, Eason heard air-raid sirens wind down as they lost power.  Eason's radio crackled incoherently as multiple operators jammed each other's broadcasts.

He picked himself off the ground covered in grist and grime.  He looked back at the gate holding the dead back on the ramp.

Mike Fennel's corpse was covered in a thick layer of dirt.  The dust covered the zombie's eyes and it turned away from Eason.  Mike walked in a new direction toward the sound of the blast and hit the waist-high concrete barrier of the ramp.  Mike doubled over the barrier and fell over the edge to fall hundreds of feet to the gates below.

"The dust is blinding them," he said.

Eason grabbed his radio and squeezed, "The dust has blinded some of them; it’s sticking to their eyes.  We have to make a break for it while we have a chance."

The radio waves remained jammed, but two soldiers ran up to him coming from the south gate.  Behind them, gunfire rattled off and echoed down the level.

Eason waved at them, but they shouted at him before he could talk.

"They broke though behind us," said a soldier with a nametag of Hoover on his pocket.

"The dust is in their eyes, they can't see," Eason said.

"Then they must be following the gunfire," replied Hoover.

"It doesn't matter now," said the other soldier, her nametag read, Jones.  "The radios are being jammed by the Air Force, and they just fucking bombed our guys over at the baseball field."

"You sure they can't see?" asked Hoover.

"Yeah," said Eason, "He looked past me and walked right over the edge.  A lot of them have to be as blind as fucking bats right now."

"I say we make run for it," said Jones.

"What about everyone else?" asked Hoover.

"I don’t hear gunfire from back there," Eason said.

"Yeah," said Jones, "that’s bad news."  "What do we want to do about the civilians on the deck above us?"

"How are we going to explain to a thousand people to keep their mouths shut?" Hoover replied.

"We can’t," Eason said.  He knew he would regret this later. "And I don’t think there are enough of us left to stop this.

"No way man," Hoover said, "I took an oath.”

"How are you going to fulfill that oath by ending up getting killed here?" Jones said.

"I can’t make it alone," Eason said. "But the three of us just might have a shot."

"Ok, say we make it out, then where to?" Hoover said while clearing his M-16.

"Those C-130s are coming from 911th at Pittsburgh International," Jones said.  "If we can make it there, we should be alright."

"That’s 15 miles away," Eason said.

"Then I hope you had a good breakfast,” Jones said, “cause your about to burn some calories.”

###

Captain Rick Anderson slammed his radio headset against the metal bulkhead of the Command Stryker.  Outside the front window of the Stryker, Anderson noticed the yellow of school buses lined up inside the airport.

“They’re out of their minds,” Anderson said.  “We can’t bomb our own people.”

“And our orders?” asked Sergeant Ryan Winters.

Anderson picked up the printout of the orders he had received from Division; they were not marked with a signature.

“Captain Anderson,” he read, “As of 1400 hours, martial law has been declared across the continental United States.  You are hereby ordered to abandon all refugees after eliminating all wounded.  You will link up with additional guard forces at the Beaver Falls Reserve Center by 2100 tonight.”

Anderson crumpled the printout, “Someone orders a massacre of civilians and doesn’t have the courage to put their name to it.  Sergeant, I have no intention of following what I consider to be illegal orders.”

“Sir,” Winters said, “I think the Air Force is jamming communication south of us; it’s all garbled down there now.”

“Have we heard anything else from the C-130s that were ordered to break off from Pittsburgh?” Anderson said.

“Negative,” Winters replied. “The last transmission I heard 15 minutes ago ordered them out of the way to make room for the B-52’s run.  The Hercules’ pilots seemed pretty pissed and asked for confirmation twice.”

“Get me those pilots as soon as the jamming quits,” Anderson ordered.  “I don’t care what it-.”  The noise of a large plane stopped Anderson in mid-sentence.  He turned around and looked out the open back ramp of the Stryker.  Out of view, Anderson heard the screech of tires hitting the runway and the engines of the plane throttle back.  A camouflaged green C-130 raced past his view as it feathered its props to slow down.

“Belay that Winters,” Anderson said. “In fact, go radio silent.”

The C-130 slowed to a crawl near the end of the runway and turned a right U-turn on to the taxiway.  The props of the plane re-throttled giving it the momentum to carry down the lane.  People moved out of the plane’s way well in advance of its approach.  It cruised past the hanger and administration building and moved to the end of the taxiway as if it was about to realign at the end of the runway for take-off.  Instead, the plane shut down at the end of the taxiway.

Anderson’s Stryker rolled to a stop as the back cargo hatch of the Hercules opened, and its pilot walked down the ramp.

“Major Sam Warren,” the pilot said as Anderson exchanged salutes with him.

“Captain Rick Anderson. Sir, can I assume you are having radio troubles that you would need to land.”

“Let’s be blunt here, Captain,” Major Warren said. “We just bombed our own people, both military and civilians alike.  I refused to move my plane, and my co-pilot was ordered by coded message to subdue me and take over the mission.  He complied with his order long enough to move the plane out of harm’s way then turned command back over to me.  Our Air Police have orders to arrest us the moment we land back at the 911th.  I am afraid that under the circumstances my crew may be shot on sight.  Considering that you are in the same boat as the people that were just bombed in Pittsburgh, I’d rather surrender to you, Captain.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that Sir,” Anderson said.  “I have orders to quit this post and abandon the civilians.  I was also instructed to kill anyone injured regardless of circumstances.  I have no intention of following those orders, Sir.”

“Then what do you suggest, Captain?” Major Warren said.

“They’re going to line us up with a firing squad for sure Sir,” Anderson said. “We might as well make it a conspiracy.  What about the rest of your squadron?”

“Grounded,” said Warren, “They headed home and have been ordered to re-fuel, re-arm, and stand by.  We can decrypt through the jamming and we heard that there are some problems at the airside of the civilian terminal at Pittsburgh International.  Supposedly, a few of the infected made it through security before they expired.  The terminal is teaming with the undead.  What’s your status here?

“Stable,” Anderson said.  “The local government managed to get organized and form a militia to deal with the immediate problems.  With what we brought them we could hold out here for months.  The problem is we are concerned about what is going to happen to the nuke reactor to the West of us if things go from completely fucked, to no chance of survival fucked.  By the way, that’s a nice plane you’ve got there.  How many people does it hold?”

“Just under a hundred if we’re not carrying toys like your Stryker there,” the Major said.

###

“You wanted to talk to me, Rex,” Paul Sulla said as he walked up to Rex’s black truck.

Rex noticed that his old high school friend looked tired.

“You look like you need a nap” Rex said.

“Yeah,” Paul said, “I do.  But I don’t think I’m going to get one, especially after I heard about that trouble you ran into a couple of hours back.  Is there anything I can do?”

Rex looked over at Alison sitting with his wife inside the cab. “I think things are as calm as they can be for the moment,” Rex said.  “I’m sure if we’re lucky enough, we might get to deal with the emotional aspects of this in the future.  Let’s put that aside for now; I wanted you to meet someone.  Paul, this is Mazie.  She’s a med-student at a school down south. She’s the reason I wanted to talk to you.

“What about?” Paul said.

“Mazie may be able to help us,” Rex said.  “I’ll let her explain it though.”

“I’m a 4th year med-student in Pikeville, Kentucky,” Mazie said.  I was headed back to school for a seminar when I got sidetracked here.  Well, Rex here was telling me about the problem with the radiation, and that we needed to find a place to bug-out to. Pikeville could be an ideal place to go off the grid.”

“I’m listening,” Sulla said.

Mazie continued, “Pikeville is smack dab in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains; it’s a two hour drive to the next biggest city or even an interstate.  The population of Pikeville is pretty small.  It’s a huge county, takes a little more than an hour to drive through on roads that wind through the mountains.”

“Can we fly in?” Sulla said.

“Yeah,” Mazie said.  “They have an airport that sits on top of a mountain about 10 miles outside of town.  There are only two roads that cut up the mountain to get to it, and there is nothing around it.  The rumor is that the only reason they built it was to smuggle in drugs late at night.  I’d say that they really put it there because someone in Washington needs votes from people in their district.”

Another man walked up to the conversation carrying some type of aviation book.  “Rex,” Sulla said, “You remember Jack from the meeting earlier; we were going to meet to discuss where to run to.  This will fit perfectly.”

“What did I miss?” asked Jack.

“Pikeville, Kentucky,” Sulla replied.

Jack opened his spiral bound book and flipped through the pages.  “PBX is the Federal Aviation Administration designation for the airport,” Jack said.  He ran his index finger down the page.  “The weight limit may be a problem if we use that C-130.  I am sure the pilots are going to have to consider this. The smaller planes here will have no problem; it’s even inside our maximum envelope of fuel.”

Twenty minutes later, Major Sam Warren and Captain Rick Anderson joined the conversation.

“That’s rugged country,” said Warren. “I’ve flown over those mountains; they are nothing to sneeze at.”

“What about the airstrip?” Jack said.

“Let me see the book,” said Warren.  “Yeah, that weight limit is a problem.  We for sure can land, but we may tear the runway to hell when we do it.  Of course this other section of the field to the west looks like it’s not paved.  We can land on grass or dirt if need be.  I don’t see this as a huge problem, but I would like one of your planes to run a pass on the airstrip before we go.  In relation to this, I have good and bad news.”

“Which is?” Sulla said.

“There are three other birds fueled and ready to join us at the 911th,” Warren said.  “The bad news is there are zombies on the runway at Pittsburgh International.  We don’t have to worry about the guards; they have bugged out on other planes.  The squadron was ordered to move to Dayton Ohio to support Wright Patterson Air Force Base.  The birds sitting there disobeyed orders because they want to help us.  We’re going to have to figure out a way to clear the runway and get them off the ground.”

“Major,” Jack said, “Why don’t you use your gunship?”

“We dumped all our ammo killing zombies before we broke off mission,” said Warren.

“There are two life-flight helicopters sitting on the other side of the main hanger,” Jack said.  “I don’t suppose you can fly one.”

“As a matter of fact I can,” Warren said.  That’s what I do as a civilian for my day job.”

“So we fly some ground people in and shoot up the dead, drag them off to the side then fly out,” Jack said.

“Easy enough on paper,” said Rex.

“It’s a fenced-in facility,” said Warren.  “So it might not be too bad till Murphy’s Law turns it into a nightmare.”

“Well,” Sulla said, “what do you think Captain Anderson? Should we put together a team to do this?”

###

The meeting had broken up hours ago with the decision to head out just before daybreak.  Rex had moved his group to the other side of hanger two so his gear would be closer to the life-flight helicopters and a single engine Cessna that was to be used in the operation.  Rex was sitting on the back gate of the black Dodge Ram cleaning an AK-47.  Jack Cotta stood by the back of the truck petting his cat Naomi.  Ginger, Alison, Donna, and Mazie stood by watching Rex clean the weapon.

Kimberly lay inside the truck curled into a ball.  Rex hadn't heard the girl utter more than a couple of words since he brought her back from the field.  Rex had expected her to disappear into the crowd of people at the airport, too ashamed to show her face.  Instead, she seemed to have accepted Alison as having some authority over her.

Ginger on the other hand, had plenty to say about Rex's inclusion in the rescue party to free the planes.

"I don’t care, Rex," Ginger said. "You're not going with them; I need you. You're not a soldier, and you have a responsibility to me."

"I'm sorry Ginger, I do," Rex said. "But right now that responsibility means I have to make sure there is enough room to fit all of us on a plane."

"There is another option," Jack said.  "I mean I'd feel real shitty about it, but we could take one of the larger civilian planes and scat right out of here."

"If only it were as easy as that," said Rex.  "But we would need to leave too much hardware behind.  What would happen a few weeks from now when we might need that stuff to survive?  Trust me, I want to bug out, but I have to consider the longer game of survival here."

Jack nodded his head, "Yeah, I have to agree with you.  They would probably shoot us down as we took off anyway."

"But why does it have to be you?" said Ginger.

"You know why," Rex said.  "I worked out of there for months.  If something went wrong and we had to work around the terminals I know the place like the back of my hand."

"I'm afraid I'm with Ginger on this," Alison said.  "This is an unnecessary risk; you should stay."

"I'll look after him," Jack said.  "If something goes wrong, I can land on a much shorter runway.  I can fly in like Han Solo on the Millennium Falcon and swoop Rex to safety."

Donna picked up Naomi from the back of the truck. "Jack, I don’t like the idea of you going either.  I'm not going to let you take Naomi with you on the plane.  I’ll keep her with me.  You should know we've talked, and the two of us will never forgive you if you do something stupid enough to get yourself killed."

Jacks face reddened and he petted Naomi's soft brown fur as Donna held the cat in her arms.

"Jack," Rex said, "you should tell Leia and Chewbacca that we’ll be fine tomorrow.  We’re going to come back and then we’re going to get the hell out of here, all of us."

###

Later that night, the group rested safely inside the hanger.  The air in the hanger remained hot long into the hours of the night.  Mazie had moved inside the truck to try and sleep on the front bench seat; Kim was laid out on the seats behind her.  The windows of the truck were open to keep the temperature in the cab from becoming unbearable.

Rex had ripped off the fiberglass bed cover of the truck so there would be a place for Ginger, Alison, and him to sleep.  Ginger had laid their sleeping bags over top of one another to make as thick a mattress as possible. Rex lay inside the bed of the truck spooning his wife from behind.  Alison faced the couple on her side as the entire party listened to news the radio.

The city of New York is undergoing a crisis of apocalyptic proportions.  Earlier today around four in the afternoon, martial law was declared by the President of the United States.  “In New York, in a desperate attempt to contain the situation, the Air Force began a process of destroying all bridges leading to the island.  This occurred even while civilian foot and vehicle traffic was attempting to cross the various bridges.  The effort proved to be of little use as New Jersey is already reporting mass undead activity. As of eight this evening the New York City Mayor’s office indicated that it is now impossible to contain the outbreaks running rampant in Gotham’s streets.  Some estimates put the number of undead in the streets of New York at greater than 100,000.

In Washington D.C., several outbreaks have been contained, but authorities remain cautious as refugee population shifts bring constant threats of new outbreaks.  The government shut down the beltway interstates to civilian traffic only to see a major crisis develop in neighboring Fredrick, Virginia and several other towns near the Federal District.

The FAA has closed down civilian airlines in hopes that the spread of the outbreak can be slowed down in other major U.S. cities.  The move came perhaps just hours late for the cities of Atlanta, Miami, and Dallas.  These cities are now officially reporting undead activity.  The outbreaks are also causing problems across the nation as people are making runs on local grocery and hardware stores.  The city of Detroit is attempting to put down mass looting and riots in the already economically stricken region.

The crisis is drawing mixed reaction from around the world. Some countries like Great Britain and Japan have offered aid and prayer. In other places such as the Middle East, there are several unconfirmed reports that Americans and anyone they have come into contact with have been quarantined and executed.  Similar stories are now also coming out of Africa and Asia.

One thing is for sure, every country around the world is attempting to cut itself off from the continent of America when it comes to air travel and shipping.  The growing disaster has caused markets to crash around the world today and most markets have decided to close trading for the immediate future. We are now getting a news alert out of California; I will transfer over to Casey Douglass in San Diego.”

The broadcaster’s voice changed over to a woman’s voice.

“Thanks Mike,” the woman said.  “The sun has been set for only a couple of hours here in San Diego and there are now unconfirmed reports of zombie activity among the homeless population of the city.  Earlier tonight, several victims were attacked in the gas light district of the city.  Police have detained the victims, who are believed to be homeless.  Authorities hope to monitor their status over the next several hours.  Witnesses report that there are other victims who fled the area.  Police are now desperate to locate the attacker and other potential victims.  Shore Police from the naval station have been brought in to assist local law enforcement in the search.  When asked if they believe these attacks are zombie related, officials’ state that they are not taking any chances when dealing with public safety.”

“Thanks Casey,” male broadcaster said.  “In Chicago, the situation has also continued to deteriorate.  Early in the day, an accident broke a key water main while the city struggled to deal with the undead.  The lack of water pressure wrecked the efforts of firefighters struggling to put out several fires associated with the outbreak.  As the day progressed, civil organization collapsed into complete chaos in the downtown area.  The Chicago skyline is now ablaze as multiple fires rage unchecked.  The inferno can reportedly be seen as many as forty miles away in the night sky.  The news around the nation seems bleak this evening; the government is obviously at a loss with how to deal with the magnitude of the disaster that is unfolding.  Many governments are outright collapsing in the face of the crisis leaving everyday Americans facing this apocalypse alone in the dark.”

Rex watched Alison while he squeezed his wife in his arms.  The side of Alison’s face showed a dark purple in the low light of the hanger.  Alison had turned on her back after the broadcaster’s alone comment.  Ginger reached out and took Alison by her hand.

“Hey,” Ginger said, “You’re not going to face this alone, Alison.”  She spoke her next statement so the others in the truck could hear, “We’re all in this together. We have to look out for each other.”

Hours later, Rex lay awake looking at the shadowy ceiling of the hanger.  As far as Rex could tell everyone else was asleep despite the occasional distant pop of gunfire.

“Rex,” Alison whispered, “Are you awake?”  Rex turned his head to the left to face the woman.  “Is Rex, really your name?”

Rex grinned at the girl, “It’s a nickname.”  He turned his head back to the ceiling and closed his eyes.

“So are you going to tell me the story behind it?” she asked.

“I think I’ll pass,” said Rex.

“If you don’t tell me” Alison said, “I can always ask Ginger in the morning.”

“You could ask Ginger,” Rex said, “but she doesn’t know.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Ginger said with her eyes still closed. “Now tell her, or I’ll wake everyone up for the story.”

“Go back to sleep, Ginger,” Rex said, “I don’t need ganged up on.”

“Get used to it, baby, the last time I looked you’ve added a lot of estrogen into your life,” Ginger said.

“You’d better listen to your wife,” added Alison.  “In your husband’s defense, you did bring me home.”

“Oh sure I did,” Ginger replied, “But he brought in the two after that.”  Ginger smiled and closed her eyes again. She snuggled back against Rex.

“So back in the 80s,” Rex said, “my father was into the whole monster truck thing.  He owned a truck called Tyrannosaur that traveled around the monster truck circuit.”

“Really,” Alison said, “I used to have a picture of Bigfoot hanging on the wall of my bedroom as a little girl.”

“Flirt,” Ginger said while keeping her eyes shut.

“Anyway,” Rex continued, “I was really little myself and used to like to roar like a dinosaur while sitting in the truck before shows.  There was this picture of me hanging out the driver’s side window with my fingers all curled out like claws, roaring my head off.  The caption read, “Tyrannosaur’s little Rex roars at the crowd.”  The picture was ridiculous, and I’m glad You Tube wasn’t around back then.  After that, everyone called me Rex.”

Alison smiled at him, “Can I hear it?” she giggled.

“Hear what?” Rex said.

“I want to hear you roar like a dinosaur,” Alison said.

“Estrogen,” Rex sighed.

Chapter Twelve

The helicopter skid bumped against the ground, and Rex felt the cool morning air rush inside the vehicle when Captain Anderson threw the door open.  Anderson and Winters were the first out of the helicopter followed by three other guardsmen.  Rex and Sulla followed the group onto the concrete of the runway.

Anderson waved them over away from the helicopter, and the machine cranked up its engine and took off behind them.

The group didn’t need to search for the zombies to clear them away from the runway; the noise from the helicopter drew them to the spot like magnets.  At least 50 zombies closed in on the group from multiple vectors.

“Listen up,” ordered Anderson. “We are going to move into the grass between the runway and taxiway and let them come to us.  We’re going to put them down at close range so we don’t have to worry about dragging them off the runway.”

The group followed Anderson into the island of grass in the sea of concrete.  The blades of grass were wet with the condensation left over from the early morning-dew.  The ground sloped gently downward to a storm drain positioned in the center of the island.  Anderson stopped on the grate of the catch basin.

“We hold this ground,” Anderson ordered.  “From a semi-circle five feet apart from the guy next to you and don’t shoot till they’re less than 15 feet away.”

“If you haven’t already, lock and load with safeties off,” added Winters.  “Watch your fields of fire, and that goes double for you two civilians.”

The first zombie headed at them from the direction of the terminal sitting several hundred yards in the distance.  It was a woman dressed in a blue uniform with a red stained white undershirt.

“Stewardess,” one of the guardsmen shouted.  She crossed over the grass and closed in on the group headed for Winters.

“They call them flight attendants now,” Winters said. “It’s disrespectful to call her a stew.”

Winter’s gun cracked out at the zombie.  Rex watched a large section of the back of her skull detach with hair connected to it as the bullet exited her head.  The body dropped to the grass and became inert.

“So I doubt we can expect to see a beverage cart anytime soon then,” said one of the other soldiers.

“Can the chatter,” said Anderson. “Let’s focus on the job at hand.”

Another zombie came limping onto the grass in Rex’s line of fire.  The man’s scalp had somehow been peeled off and the morning sun’s rays glistened off the white and red surface of his exposed skull.  The zombie wore a ground crew jacket with orange and white reflective strips on his shirt and sleeves.

“You got them, Rex?” Anderson asked as the zombie closed the distance.

Rex felt the sun warm the back of his neck as he brought the AK-47 up.  He pressed the butt of the wooden stock up against his shoulder and his fingers lined up outside the metal trigger guard of the weapon.  The sights lined up on the ground crewman’s head, and he repositioned his trigger finger to the kill position.  Rex breathed out and squeezed the trigger.  The gun slammed back against his shoulder, and the crack of ignited gunpowder filled his ears.  Rex’s eyes barely had time to register the ejected shell casing flying into the air.  The zombie's head fell to the left as its throat blew out to the back and the side.  The creature fell to the ground with its spinal column shattered at the neck.

Rex breathed shallow short breaths as adrenaline pulsed through his body.

“Just relax,” Anderson said. “Take your time and breathe.  Your shot was lined up perfect; you just got a little twitchy at the end.”

Rex lined up the gun on the downed zombie and let loose another round.  The bullet smashed through the top of the creature’s head, spraying its body behind it with gore.

“Practice time is over,” Anderson said. “We got a group of them inbound.  Looks like the fuckers are going to hit us at the same time.”

“Watch your fields of fire,” ordered Winters.

A group of 8 zombies approached the island from multiple directions arriving at roughly the same time.  Rex heard the soldiers behind him open fire.  He felt the temptation to turn around, but he had two more zombies approaching him from his front.  Rex lined up a ghoul in his sights and felt a hot shell casing hit his back from behind.  His AK cracked out yet again adding to the chorus of destruction.   In the sky, Rex could make out Jack Cotta’s plane as it banked around the airport as the group made their stand against the undead.

Several minutes later, dozens of bodies were stacked up in a ring around the group on the grass island.  The moisture in the morning air rapidly depleted as the sun cooked up to full power.  The heat started to ripple on the tarmac causing distortions whenever Rex looked down the runway.

“Here’s the plan,” Anderson said.  “We’ve killed the deadheads that want to party, we’re going to have to flush out the rest.  We split into two groups and clear each end of the runway.  When we reach each end of the runway we radio the birds, which will then roll out and take off.  The chopper lands on one end and picks up one group.  After that, Cotta flies in on the other and end of the runway and picks up the other group.”

“What if we run across a large group of them?” Sulla asked.

“Then we radio it in and both groups fall back to here and we deal with them together,” replied Anderson.  “Sergeant, take Privates Kovalcik and Callen with you to clean out the terminal side of the runway.”

Anderson locked eyes with Rex, “We shouldn’t have to go into the airport, but you better take Rex with you just in case.  Sulla you’re with me.”

“I’m afraid I’ll to go with Rex,” Sulla said.  “His little clan of Amazons pulled me aside this morning and accused me of getting him into this.  If he doesn’t come back, it might not go well for me,” Sulla joked.  “Besides,” he continued, “we’re old friends, I want to be there if they run into trouble.”

Anderson nodded, “Fine, now let’s liberate some planes.”

“All right,” said Winters, “you heard the man. Let’s move.”

Rex fell into place to the left of Sulla as they headed off down the taxiway in the direction of the airport parking lot at the far end of the runway.

Pittsburgh International was laid out around a central hub with four concourses extending out from the center.  On their right in the distance, the end of B concourse extended out at them.

“Sulla, did the girls really talk to you this morning?” Rex said.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” Sulla replied, “I came out of the shitter this morning to find your wife and that girl you pulled out of the body bag waiting for me with guns pointing at my head.”

“Maybe we should have brought them,” Winters said.

“Ginger was pretty torn up with the loss of her parents,” Rex said.  “I think she’s dealing by trying to make a new family with the people we picked up.”

"You’re going to have your hands full with the two of them," Sulla said.

"Sounds like the girl you picked up is getting all doe eyed on you," Winters said.  "I've seen that stuff play out on deployment.  A guy and a girl go through hard times together, and the next thing you know, they’re fuck buddies."

"Oh shit, we're fucked," said Callen.

The group had walked out past the end of the concourse gates to the space between it and the next arm of gates.  A US Airways jet, sitting on the end of the concourse coupled with a jet way, had blocked their view inside the massive opening.  Past the obstruction they had walked into view of the undead.

An entire window section of the concourse had been shattered at some point in time during the airport being overrun.  A food service truck marked, "Meal Wagon," sat coupled to the front of an aircraft it had been servicing. A mass of undead surrounded the truck beating and pushing on the vehicle. A man stood on top of the truck waving and screaming at them.

"Hey, over here." The man screamed.  "Please help me."

"He's a little more fucked than we are," said Kovalcik.

"They must have somehow come through the plane," Sulla said.

"There is a section of the concourse windows smashed out in front of the truck," Rex pointed out.

"Unlucky bastard," Winters said, "Must have seen him from the inside and blown the window out when there was enough of them."

"How the heck did we miss this from the air?" Callen said.

"Sun was just up," Winters said. "That area was in a big dark shadow at the time.  Let’s get back into cover and get the rest of the group. There is no way in hell we can tango with that many."

Down the runway behind them, automatic weapons fire broke the silence of the moment and rattled out.  The noise turned every head in the mass of undead assaulting the truck.

"Oh shit, they see us," Callen.

"Why didn’t they come out with all the gunfire before?" Kovalcik said.

"There was nothing to see then," Rex said, "Now they’ve got something to look at other than Mr. Meal Wagon."

The closest zombie took its first step in the direction of the group; behind it, hundreds followed.

"We can't go back, they’ll follow us onto the runway," Sulla said.

"Get ready to fire," Winters ordered.

"We can't shoot," screamed Rex while he pointed at a fuel truck sitting to their left.

"I know what to do," Sulla said, "Follow me."

“I should have stayed back with all of that estrogen,” Rex breathed to himself while he ran down the taxiway.

Sulla ran in the direction of the end of the next concourse away from a horde of hundreds ghouls.  This also had them running in the general direction of the fuel truck.

“What the fuck are you doing, Sulla?” screamed Winters.  “That’s the fucking fuel truck we are running at.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Sulla replied, “Just keep running, and get your ass around the corner of the concourse.”  Rex noticed for the first time that a section of the concourse they were running at was jammed full of dead.  The glass shattered under their pounding and bodies spilled onto the pavement like water.  One by one, the dead picked themselves up off the ground and joined the chase.

###

Anderson had a bad feeling, as he made his way down the runway in the direction of the 911th.   The base shared the runways with the civilian airport.  He had tried to radio the C-130s sitting on the tarmac, and his answer was silence.

He approached the planes with his men to his right and left in a skirmish line formation.  They walked past the planes and approached the corner of the nearest hanger.  Anderson and his men rounded the corner and saw the flight crews standing in a line shoulder-to-shoulder facing in the opposite direction.  Behind the flight crews were 5 soldiers with military police bands around their arms.  They were pointing guns at the flight crews.

“There they are, Captain,” one of his soldiers said. “What the heck?”  In unison, both prisoners and guards turned toward Anderson.

A Major stepped out from behind the guards and three of his men followed the Major as he approached Anderson.  “Captain,” said the Major, “Do you want to explain to me who you are, and why you are here?”

“I'm Rick Anderson, Pennsylvania National Guard out of Butler.”

“Sir,” Anderson asked, “Why are you detaining these men?”

“These men abandoned their duty, Captain.  Are you associated with them?” he asked as he continued forward.

Anderson avoided the question, “I’m afraid I need their services to evacuate some civilians.”

The Major stopped and reached for his holstered side arm, “Shoot them,” he ordered the military police.

Anderson brought his own gun up as he dropped to the ground.  He squeezed the trigger and hit the Major in the stomach, but the Military Police were already firing on him.  Anderson didn’t feel the bullets as they tore through his chest, but their impact knocked him over on the ground.  Anderson’s men had their own weapons firing and both groups shot at each other at point-blank range.

Anderson thought about the gunfight at the OK corral as he struggled to bring his weapon back up.  Bodies dropped all around Anderson, but two of his men were left standing.

The flight crews had dropped to the ground leaving the other two Military Police to have a clear shot at Anderson’s group.  They raised their guns and rained automatic weapons fire killing his last two men.

A man hobbled out from behind a building behind the last two MP’s.  The man wore the blues of a Pittsburgh City Police officer and he carried a shotgun.  The man also looked badly burned.

The cop pointed the shotgun at the nearest MP and pulled the trigger.  The buckshot tore into the shoulder and face of the MP, killing him instantly.  The other soldier turned and fired at the cop who was in the middle of pumping another round into the chamber.

The cop fell on his back, but managed to raise the weapon again and fired.  The MP fell over and ceased moving.

A flight officer got up and seized an M-16 off the nearest dead MP.

“Grab their weapons,” he ordered.

Anderson opened his mouth to talk, but found he couldn’t breathe right.  His voice gurgled as his lungs filled with blood.

Another of the flight officers ran over to Anderson and ripped his fatigues open.

“Hang in there,” he said, “We knew you were coming and were trying to stall them from shooting us.”

Anderson grabbed his hand and threw it off.

“I’m dead, he managed but each word took more effort.  He took in one last breath, “Fly.”

Anderson’s head went slack and rolled to the side.

###

Sulla led the group to the end of the next concourse with the dead closing the distance to their right.  The fuel truck sat on the corner of the building in front of the group.

His plan had been to dump the fuel and light it to create a wall of fire to keep the undead back.  The undead were too close to have time to make that work, and more were falling out of the broken windows of the airport terminal in front of them.

If we keep running, he thought, they are going to follow us and some may end up on the runway.  They could have used the helicopter to lead them away but the dead were too close, and its pilot was making a visual pass on the nuclear reactor 10 miles away.

"Shit," Winters said as he listened in on his radio. "The Cap and our team got wasted on the other side, but the planes are ready to go."

"What about the chopper?" asked Sulla.

"Eight minutes away," said the Sergeant.

Winters grabbed his radio and pushed the button to transmit, "We got major problems down here, but the runway is currently clear.  I advise you to dust off like there is no tomorrow."

Sulla ran to the truck and grabbed on to a ladder attached to the back end.

"Get out of here," Sulla shouted while he climbed.  "One of us has to keep them here like the Meal Wagon Guy."

"That’s suicide," Winters said.

"No," Sulla replied, "it’s the life of hundreds of kids back at Butler."  The zombies closed the distance to the fuel truck to 50 yards.

"Then I am staying with you," Rex said, and he reached for the ladder.

"Bullshit," Winters said, "You got a wife asshole; get out of here."

Winters pushed him out of the way and climbed the ladder with Kovalcik and Callen following.

"All of you need to get out of here," yelled Sulla.

"I'm not going to let a civilian die for me," Winters said.

"Fucking right," agreed Callen.  "Sulla, you should go too, we got this."

"There’s no time,” Sulla said. "They see me and they’re too close.  Rex," said Sulla, "You got about ten seconds to run like hell before they tear you apart."  Winters pulled his field radio off his belt and tossed it at Rex.

The deep whine of a C-130 throttling up for takeoff came rumbling down the runway.

Rex could see the shadows of the dead cast on the concrete underneath the fuel truck.  He turned and ran for the corner with everything he had.  Behind him, gunfire erupted from the top of the truck.

"Come and get some," Winters yelled above the staccato.

Rex's feet pounded on the concrete as he raced past a baggage cart.  The first C-130 flew by on his left, its wheels taking off into the air.

Rex looked over his shoulder and saw the shadow of the fuel truck engulfed by the bodies of the undead surrounding it.  One zombie walked out past the corner following the noise and sight of the plane.  A bullet smashed into its head, and it fell forward on the concrete.  Rex turned and kept running. He heard the second plane throttle up while it made its way down the airstrip.

The radio Rex carried crackled, "This is Major Warren. I’m in-bound over the terminal with the chopper."

Rex brought the radio up to his mouth, "This is Rex.  The rest of my group is sitting on a fuel truck on the runway side of the terminal.  They are holding off a crowd of zombies."

"Roger that, I can see them.  I am going to try and hover over them and pick them up."

Rex stopped at the far corner of the end of the concourse; he looked around the corner and didn’t see any movement of zombies.  Behind him, the engines of the helicopter replaced the sounds of gunfire.  Rex moved away from the wall of the terminal and looked up into the sky back in the direction of the fuel truck.  The chopper glided toward the fuel truck from over the terminal.  It lowered in the sky and slowed as it neared the area where the group held off the horde of zombies.

Rex breathed a sigh of relief as the chopper neared Sulla’s position. "They’re going to make-"

He was thrown over, and his ears filled with a roar until the world went silent around him.  A ball of fire reached up into the sky and batted the helicopter like an insect.  The shock wave pushed the craft over and spun its tail like a top.  It twisted in a death spiral that carried it out into the airspace just above the runway.  A C-130 barreled down the runway lifting off the ground just behind the spinning helicopter.  The plane banked to the side to try and avoid a collision, but the helicopter smashed into its wing.  The helicopter was driven straight into the ground from the mass of the heavier vehicle.  The wing of the plane jerked up into the air as its engine caught fire and trailed smoke behind it.

The pilot managed to straighten the wings, but the loss of momentum carried the plane down and over the embankment of the roadway leading into the landside terminal at the far end of the runway.  Out of the sight of Rex, the C-130 crashed into the long-term parking lot of the airport.  Black smoke and red flame rose from its crash.

The smell of charred human flesh and fuel filled Rex's nose and mouth.  He rolled up onto his shoulder facing the runway and felt a wetness running down his face.  His hand reached up to his face and pulled a chunk of glass out of his forehead above his left eye.

The radio lying on the ground next to him crackled, "This is AF-One-One-Three. Major Warren's chopper just took out One-One-Two.  We are past the point of no return. I think we can make it."

On the runway, the C-130 barreled down strip and punched through the rising smoke of the wrecked helicopter burning on the tarmac.

Rex heard a thump behind him.  He turned back at the noise to see a zombie had fallen out of the shattered windows of the smoking concourse above him.  Flames were rising out of the end of the terminal closest to the blast.

The male zombie wearing a pilot's uniform pushed itself half way up until its leg bowed at an obviously broken point between its foot and knee.  The creature fell back over but after a moment dragged itself in the direction of Rex with its hands and legs.  The bone of the broken leg clubbed out behind it.

Rex went to grab for his AK but the blast had knocked it ten feet away.  He pushed himself into a sitting position slightly straining under the weight of the thousand 7.62 rounds he carried on his chest.

The zombie lunged out to grab his leg, but Rex kicked back and pushed himself out of the way as its hand brushed his boot.

He gritted his teeth and kicked out at the creature.  His foot impacted with the pilot’s jaw, and it crunched backward shattering teeth and bone.   The zombie latched onto his leg before he could pull it away.  It bit down on the leather of Rex's boot.  Its jaw was shattered, but Rex felt its hands tighten on his leg.

The last C-130 roared by behind Rex as it took off into the air.

"This is AF-two-six-zero we are the last one off the ground and we are all clear."

"Roger that," said Cotta.  "Rex, are you still with me down there?"

Rex tried to kick the creature off his leg, but it held fast and was trying to claw its way up his body.  Rex reached down and grabbed for his holstered .45.  The first round wasn’t chambered, so Rex pulled the weapon back into the air.  The zombie crawled up his body heading for his face.  Rex brought the weapon crashing down on the top of the zombie's head.  The blow cracked against its skull and momentarily the zombie went slack.

He kicked out from underneath it and rolled over onto his feet.  The zombie regained whatever amounted to its senses and reached out for Rex again.  He stepped back and cocked the slide back on his .45; it slammed a round into the chamber on its return.  He lightly squeezed the trigger until the gun erupted in his hand.  The round struck true in the zombie's head and painted a red splash on the tarmac.  Rex scanned the area, but it was clear.  Then he reached down and picked up the radio.

"This is Rex, everyone else is dead."

"Where are you?" Cotta said.

"I’m at end of the burning section of the terminal," Rex said.  The sound of a small plane’s engine droned over the crackling of fire in the background.

"I’ve got a visual on you,” Cotta said.  “Listen, you got more of those things falling out of the broken windows of the next concourse back; you need to get the hell out of there."

Rex walked over to his AK and picked it back up.

"Roger that, I’m headed toward the land-side section of the airport."

"Copy that,” Cotta said. “I can land where they park the Regional Jets, but you’d better hurry."

The first zombie rounded the corner behind him and locked onto Rex, several more popped out behind it.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder and took off running in the opposite direction.

The small plane landed in the distance a half-mile away.  Rex wiped the blood out of his eye and looked over his shoulder to see dozens of the undead following him.  He had the distance on them, but he felt hunted.

Cotta’s plane was in front of him. It slowed and turned sharply to the right in his direction and back the way it landed setting up for takeoff.  Zombies poured out of a glass gate to the regional jet section of the tarmac.

”New plan,” Cotta said. “Keep coming toward me, I’m going to try and close the distance to you.  We need to be outta here before my new fan club meets your fan club."

"No, shit," said Rex, "and I don’t do autographs."

Rex pumped his legs harder across a grass section of the airport; his lungs were desperate for more air.  Come on Rex, he thought, push it.  Cotta's plane closed the distance faster than Rex could, but it stopped next to the grass.

"I'm not going to push our luck by getting stuck in the grass,” Cotta said. “I suggest you hurry."

Rex was close enough to see someone in the passenger’s seat pop open the side window and take aim at the oncoming undead.  Several shots popped out of the plane by the time Rex rounded its tail.  Rex was surprised to see Donna leaning out the open door with a rifle in her hand. If she had managed to knock any of them out, the mass of undead approaching the plane swallowed the bodies in their wake. Donna jumped out of the plane covering Rex while he scrambled over the final distance.

Donna pulled the rifle up to his shoulder and took aim at the nearest zombie, a woman in a red business suit.  She squeezed the trigger, and the zombie tumbled over.  The body tripped the ghoul behind it creating a cascade of falling zombies.  Donna flipped the safety on the rifle and climbed into the open door of the plane behind Rex.

Jack throttled the plane, and it lurched forward away from death’s reaching hands.  The undead continued to follow the plane, but every second they fell away from their hearts only desire.

"Hang on," Jack said, "I'm not going to bother with the runway."

Cotta pushed the plane down the tarmac of the concrete terminal apron and the small craft quickly picked up speed.  The Cessna's wheels left the ground as its wings and engine clawed into the sky.  Jack banked the plane to the left to bring their heading around to face north.

Rex looked past the pilot down at the burning terminal below.  The fuel truck had torn through a section of the concourse collapsing a section of the building.  A crater existed where the truck had been.

"You would all be dead," Jack said. "If they hadn’t blown that truck, all of you could have been caught between groups of those things."

Jack leveled the wings of the plane and the final resting place of the men who liberated the C-130s dipped below the horizon forever.

###

Hours later, Alison and Ginger sat inside the late Captain Anderson's Stryker.  Rex and an Air Force Captain, Dan Arnett, were talking outside the hatch of the vehicle.  The death of the Captain, Sergeant, and Paul Sulla ripped a sizeable whole in the organization of the survivors at the airport.

Captain Arnett and his C-130s had been challenged by an Air Force radar station out of Ohio and were forced to drop to the deck after F-16s were dispatched to escort them home.  Three of the five remaining C-130s broke off, lured the fighters away and were either forced to land back in Ohio or be shot down.  Now there were only three heavy lifting planes back at the Butler Airport, including Major Warren's former craft.

"If we take off now," Arnett said, "we are likely to get shot down or forced to land back at Wright Patterson."

"It's not going to be too hard for them to figure out we are here," Rex said.

"The crews disabled their GPS systems before takeoff," Arnett said.  "They flew up toward the Great Lakes before breaking off back down South here.  I think they are going to have more pressing things on their agenda than looking for us.  The tactical nets are buzzing with activity, and those fighters are going to be re-tasked to bombing missions on bridges if I had my guess."

Inside the Stryker, Alison spun the black dial on the short-wave radio system.  She settled in on a frequency and a British man's voice crackled to life on the radio.

"The Russian President has just issued a statement demanding that the United States take drastic action to control the outbreaks spreading in North America.  He went on to indicate that Russia has a right and responsibility as a sovereign nation to protect its citizens and the citizens of the world from the threat posed by the outbreak.  Russia is now threatening nuclear detonations if the United States will not take action to reduce the threat.  We are told that the American President has responded by stating that now is not the time for threats, but rather a time to set aside differences to work toward common goals.

The United States maybe attempting to comply with Russian demands as there are now rumors of the chemical weapons stockpiles being prepared to use on infected zones.

In related news, New York City appears to be a total loss for the Americans despite the efforts of increased military support.  Police and emergency personnel are still trying to maintain a safe zone in Time Square, but plans are already underway to fully evacuate the last remaining safe zones before they are overrun.

The nations of Mexico and Canada are now both admitting to outbreak activity within their borders.  Mexico's Yucatan peninsula fell victim to the outbreak. Reportedly, a dozen of the undead emerged from the jungle and surrounded a small town.  They are spreading panic throughout the region. This is causing some in the scientific community to question the origins of patient zero.  Currently, it is believed that the outbreak started in Western Pennsylvania."

"Hey," Rex said poking his head in the vehicle. "Anything we should know about?"

Alison exchanged a look with Ginger, "Russia is threatening to nuke us, and we’re possibly getting ready to use chemical weapons on our own soil."

"This changes things," Captain Arnett said. "We need to be ready to go."

"It's for the best," Rex said. "People are leaving in droves as the rumors of Pittsburgh getting bombed spread around.  People are also talking about your C-130s getting shot down if we take off in them."

"I'm sorry," said the Captain, "I can't imagine what they think the results will be to commit such atrocities."

"And the Russians?" Ginger said.

"Will kill us all," said Captain Arnett, "if they feel threatened enough."

"So what's the plan then?" said Alison.

"We are loading the supplies and equipment that the Guard carried with their convoy," said the Captain.

"In addition," Rex said, "Jack and several of the civilian pilots are getting ready to fly out to that airport in Kentucky.  Jack has assured me there is room on those planes for the two of you, plus Mazie and Kimberly."

"You're coming with us Rex," Ginger demanded.

Rex smiled at his wife and gave her hand a quick squeeze, "I'll follow in one of the C-130's."

The group's attention shifted back toward the BBC announcer coming through over the shortwave.

"We are now getting confirmation that in fact there has been a large detonation inside of Manhattan proper.  Merchant ships in the Atlantic near the city of New York report an intense flash of light from the direction of city.  We are also getting grainy video feed of a rising mushroom cloud over-"

Static overtook the British accent on the shortwave.

"God help us all," Captain Arnett said while raising his hand to his head.  "That static is consistent with a nuclear blast."

"There had to be millions of people alive there," Ginger said.

"If it was the Russians or Chinese," the Captain said, "our boys have standing orders to fire back.  Most likely it came from a sub in the Atlantic so everyone can claim ignorance, but more are likely to fall.  We need to get the fuck out of here before someone remembers where this shit started."

A pilot in green flight suite ran across the tarmac waving his arms at the Stryker.  "Captain," the pilot shouted, "it just went over the airwaves, we are at DEFCON 1.  The Russians are admitting they nuked us."

"Evac," the Captain shouted back.  "We scramble out in ten minutes.  Load everyone and everything you can and take off."

The pilot turned and ran in the direction of the C-130s sitting in line by the taxiway.

Donna and Jack ran up to the Stryker from the other direction.  "What's going on?" Donna said with worry bleeding into her voice.

"Nukes," Alison said.

"This can’t be happening,” Donna said.  “Where?"

"New York," Rex said.  "Grab your stuff and get on a plane."

"We have a problem with Kimberly," Donna said.  "She got sick a little bit ago, and well, Mazie thinks she caught it from the doctor."

Alison brought a hand to her mouth, "He slept with her after he was bit."

"Exactly," Donna said, "What do we do?"

Alison closed her eyes, "Carson you fucking monster," she said.

"Mazie says she needs to watch her turn and document what happens if we want to even try and figure out what's going on."

"Do it," the Captain said.  "You said there is a med-school down where we’re going in Kentucky; maybe they can figure this shit out.  I suggest you all get your butts on a plane, unless you would rather stay here and get a suntan."

###

Kimberly felt flushed and weak; beads of sweat had formed on her forehead and her hands shook.  She starred at the white painted drywall of the office and wondered about the people who constructed the office.  "There were people who built this room," Kimberly said.  "They came to work and spent hours in here working.  They were safe and everything was fine in the world.  I bet they told dirty jokes and bitched about their boss behind his back."  Mazie stood with her back to the wall watching Kimberly, and Jack did the same watching from a desk.  "Do you really think I have it?" Kimberly asked.

"Time will tell," Mazie said. "But if it's transferred through bodily fluids, then you were exposed during intercourse."

"Please, help me," Kimberly sobbed into her hand.

"There is nothing to be done," Mazie said. "Time will tell, and you might not have it.  The best we can do is to monitor your condition and take precautions that you don’t harm or infect others if you turn."  Mazie walked over to Kimberly's side and placed her hand on the girl's arm.  "Listen, there are going to be people outside that room that are going to want to put a bullet in you before we even know what you have for sure."

"My parents are out West," Kimberly said, "They’ll never know what happened to me, will they?"

"Shh, don’t think about things like that," Mazie said.

"No, he's killed me,” Kimberly said.  “If I had listened to my parents, I wouldn't be in this mess," she sobbed.

"Kim," Mazie said, "I don’t think any of us are going home again.  I can tell you this, should you be infected, you might help us save others."

"What do you mean?" Kimberly said.

"Meaning," Mazie said, "I’m going to keep anybody from putting a bullet in your head no matter what happens.  You need to be prepared for us to take precautions to make sure you don’t hurt anyone, should the worst happen."

The door to the office opened.  Rex walked in.  "How's she doing?" Rex said.

"Fever," said Mazie, "And elevated blood pressure."

"How long does she have?" replied Rex.

Mazie paused for a moment, "It's anyone's guess, could be minutes, hours, or days.  She might not have it at all, but I think it's highly likely."

"Where's the cat?" Rex asked Jack, "It didn’t like the doctor."

"She's already in the plane," Jack said.

"Kimberly," Rex said, "we are hauling ass out of here, but I’m going to make sure you get on a plane."

Rex walked over to Kimberly and scooped her up.  Kimberly felt dizzy at the movement, but wrapped her arm around Rex's neck.  "Thank you," she said.

Mazie opened the door to the office and Rex led the way out.  In the hall, Kimberly caught sight of Alison and Ginger waiting.  Ginger didn’t look at her but Alison held a fixed gaze with silver pistol in her hand.

Outside the building, the last ray of sunshine gave its last hint of light and faded over the horizon.   One of the few remaining guardsmen walked up and addressed Rex.

"Captain Arnett asked me to escort your group to his C-130 for transport."

"Lead the way," Rex replied.

"You got this Rex?" Jack Cotta asked.

"Go on; get your plane outta here, Jack,” Rex said.  “We’ll meet up for some moonshine down south.”  Jack grabbed Donna by the hand and turned away with the girl and ran toward his plane on the other side of the concrete parking lot.

Kimberly could see the green olive drab plane Rex was carrying her to.  The rear ramp was lowered and a light from inside the plane showed crewmen securing a Stryker to the deck of the craft.

The C-130s engine emitted a whine from its gas turbine compression system that climbed in pitch to a continuous scream in the air.  The right prop closest to the plane turned and rapidly picked up speed. For a moment the prop appeared to spin in the other direction, but it was only an optical illusion.   The scream picked up intensity as the second prop on the right swirled in motion.

The sky to the south of the plane flickered alive with crimson flashes in the direction of Pittsburgh.

Kimberly opened her mouth and shouted in Rex's ear, "What's happening?"  The sound of the plane drowned out her question as Rex carried her up the ramp.

A crewman met Rex halfway up the ramp carrying duct tape in his hand and pointing at Kimberly.  Another crewman lowered the ramp to the Stryker now secured inside the plane and nodded for her to get in.  Behind them, the ramp was closing.  Rex set her inside the vehicle and she tried to lift her hands but found the world going black.

###

Doctor Stephen Brandon walked up to a black steel fire door guarded by a soldier carrying an M-16.

“Identification, Sir,” the guard requested.

Doctor Brandon pulled his identification card off his scrubs and handed it to the guard.  The soldier looked over the card and handed it back to the doctor.

“They are waiting inside for you, Doc,” the guard said. “If you try and leave before you are cleared, I will shoot you without thinking about it.”

The guard opened the door for Brandon and waved him through.  The door clanked shut behind the doctor and heard keys locking it behind him.  It was the first time Brandon had ever seen any type of security at the med school let alone the military on campus.

Brandon walked down a white blocked hallway and through another set of black fire doors.  On the other side, he was greeted by five people in blue bio-hazard suits. He recognized Doctor Sally Perkins, an infectious disease specialist, behind the mask of one of the suits.  She pointed at an extra bio suit hanging on a coat rack.

“This is Doctor Stephen Brandon,” Sally Perkins said. “He is the only Pathologist in Pike County, but don’t let that fool you; he is one of the best in the state.”

“Do you really have one of those things here?” Brandon asked.

“One of our fourth year med-students brought it in with those military transports that landed up at the airport.  Her name is Mazie Harrison, and she will be assisting with today’s procedures.  Mazie has been with the subject since it expired and monitored the patient while she was alive.  The other three people are here to minimize the risk of the subject spreading the infection.”

Brandon grabbed the rubberized suit from the rack and placed her first leg into the suit.  “What do I need to know?” Brandon said.

“Don’t get bit,” said one of the figures in a bio-hazard suits.

Brandon noticed that the guy had placed a square of silver duct tape over his left breast.  The name “Rex” was written in green marker on the silver surface.  The woman beside him had a similar name badge, but it read “Alison” in much neater hand writing.

Brandon finished climbing into the suit and sealed himself in.  He followed Doctor Sally Perkins and the rest of the group through heavy steel doors marked, “Anatomy Lab.”

Eleven silver dissection tables sat empty.  The twelfth table sat in the middle of the room.  A young woman’s body struggled against a series of makeshift restraints holding the girl down.

He noticed that along the far wall stood a framed picture of Willie Stargell.  A brown Louisville Slugger sat on a display shelf below the picture.

“Student Doctor Harrison,” Brandon said, “please fill us in on the history.”

The three medical professionals surrounded the subject while the others hung back.  “The girl’s name was Kimberly,” Mazie said. “She was in her early 20’s and volunteered at the hospital in Butler County.  The patient’s history was that of a healthy young girl.  She did indicate that she broke her left arm in a biking accident when she was eleven.  The patient complained of extreme fatigue, trouble breathing and a cold sweat before expiration.  She died of an unknown cause, mostly likely heart failure. Shortly after, she reanimated."

"Time of death?" requested Brandon.

"Yesterday," Mazie said, "at 8:16 in the evening."  Kimberly's body continued to struggle under its bonds as it locked eyes with Doctor Brandon.

"Let's recheck vitals," Brandon ordered.  "Sally, can you check for blood pressure."

Sally Perkins slid the blood pressure cuff around the zombie’s right arm and inflated the bag.  She put her stethoscope to the arm and listened.  "Negative blood pressure and no pulse," Perkins said.

Brandon reached down and probed the zombie's neck.  The creature strained to lower its head, but its forehead remained strapped to the table.  The duct tape on Kimberly's mouth turned red and the jaw moved open and closed.

"Look at that," Perkins said, "I think she's biting through her lips."

Brandon removed his hands, "The neck is supple, no masses," he said.  "The skin is also cool to the touch."

Perkins moved her stethoscope to the subject's chest and listened.  She then moved the scope over each side of the zombie's chest in turn, "Negative heart or lung sound."

Brandon massaged at Kimberly's stomach, "Abdomen is stiff, and non-distended.  Neurologically, she appears to be tracking our movements fairly easy."

"We ran an EEG before you got here," said Doctor Perkins.  "There was diminished activity in the central parietal, temporal and occipital lobes.  No frontal lobe activity present."

Behind the head of the patient, Rex pulled the Louisville Slugger off the display on the wall and turned the bat over in his hands.  He was trying to avoid watching the autopsy.  "I bet this autograph is a knockoff," Rex mumbled to himself.

"We took more than a dozen blood samples," Doctor Perkins said. "We had them sent off to the hospital and will be waiting for whatever work ups we decide."

"I don’t think we would gain anything by dissection, but we might as well go through with it while we are all dressed up," said Brandon.  "Tissue samples from several regions might be in order as well as a sample of brain tissue."

Brandon picked up a scalpel from a tray of instruments and paused holding the blade in the air.  "We are going to risk injury if we operate on patient that is capable of minor movement.  Anyone got any ideas on how to expire the patient?"

Alison reached out and took hold of the White Ash lumber from Pennsylvania out of Rex's hands.  She turned the wood over in her hands until Brandon could read the black lettering that had been burned into the wood.

"I have an idea," Alison said as she raised the bat into the air.  The lumber fell through the air and ended its journey with the crack of White Ash on bone.

END

Thank you for reading my novel. I am currently in the process of writing the sequel. I anticipate its release in early 2013.

If you are interested in following the series, feel free to join the White Ash on Bone fan page on Facebook. In addition, if you enjoyed the read, please leave a short review on Amazon.

Copyright Submitted 2012 by Jason Campagna

All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanically, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and author of this book.  This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission.  The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, or associated with, or sponsored by, the trademark owners.

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Campagna Jason White Ash on Bone: A Zombie Novel