![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
r4punz3lTitle: Vampires vs. Zombies PRT
Chapter Rating: R, for language, ultraviolent zombie mayhem
Chapter Summary: In which our heroes finally meet up.
Disclaimer: #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement
All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Word Count: ~3500
Author's Note: Continued thanks tothemistoklis for beta-reading and constructive suggestions.
Previous chapters
Chapter 27
“So what’s your brilliant plan, again?” Rebecca asked Ivy. The two girls and Adam were crouched behind a gas pump, while Aasif and Stephen rolled tires to form a rough blockade around the gas station. The news van was parked behind the car wash, pointed in the general direction of Fox studios. Olivia was inside the convenience store, raiding it for supplies. Jon was at another gas pump, nearer the tire blockade.
“Burn them all,” Ivy said. She carefully poured gasoline into another empty glass soda bottle, and handed it to Adam, who stuffed the top with a shredded rag. He upended the bottle, soaking the rag wick in the gasoline, and then set it aside. There were seven other Molotov cocktails sitting in a box, ready to throw.
“That’s the last one,” Ivy said. “You really don’t think plastic will work?”
“The plastic will melt,” Adam said. “Trust me.”
Ivy looked at Adam carefully. “You really are an evil genius, aren’t you,” she said.
“Don’t tell my parents,” Adam said. “They think I’m the good twin.”
“Hello,” Rebecca said, waving her hand in front of Adam’s face. “Still waiting for an explanation over here.”
“Basically, we hole up here, and torch any zombies that get near us. Then, Stephen says Rachel Maddow will come and pick us up. Then we go and kill Glenn Beck.”
“But we just filled up the news van,” Rebecca said. “So we can turn it into a flaming Trojan Horse of death?”
“Maybe. Or we could use Rachel’s vehicle,” Ivy said. “Look, aren’t we just relying on the saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy? We’re going to have to improvise anyway, so what’s the point of making a detailed plan that we’re probably never going to get to use?”
“Good point,” Rebecca admitted. “What do you want me to do?”
“Take these,” Adam said, holing the box of Molotov cocktails. “Carefully. Jon’s supposed to have some more ready. Get behind the tire pile, and get ready to throw when the zombies get close enough.”
“We are going to burn the whole city down, aren’t we?” Rebecca said as she carefully walked.
“I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already,” Ivy said. “You’d think the Army would have been burning the corpses.”
“They’re not part of the Zombie Squad,” Adam said. “They think the things in movies can never happen.”
“Well, they know better now, don’t they?” Ivy muttered. “What else can we burn?”
“I’d rather have something to shoot them with,” Adam said. “Or at least throw things at them.”
“You can’t,” Ivy said. “And neither can I. That’s why Rebecca’s going. Of the three of us, she can actually throw something at a target, and hit it.”
“I thought I was finished with that sort of thing once I didn’t have to take phys ed anymore,” Adam said.
“Me, too,” Ivy said. He patted Adam’s shoulder. “Can you make a flamethrower?” she asked, eying the gas pumps.
“I wouldn’t use the pump directly,” Adam said. “The fire would probably just feed up the gas stream, and get into the storage tanks underground.”
“And that would be bad?” Ivy guessed.
“Well, we’d blow up the gas station,” Adam said. “So if we were still standing here, then yes, it would be bad.”
“Remote start?” Ivy asked hopefully.
“Not enough time,” Adam said. “Look.”
Ivy looked. The zombies were plainly visible now, but still out of throwing range. “Crap,” she muttered.
“Indeed,” Adam replied.
&&&
Rebecca walked slowly over to Jon’s position. The bottles in the box clinked against each other softly. Jon looked up at the noise, and gave Rebecca a grin. “Those for me?” he asked, as he stopped his last bottle.
“I’m supposed to help you throw these things,” Rebecca replied. “Ivy said.”
“Well, Ivy’s running the show here,” Jon said. He moved over a bit, giving Rebecca a little more space behind the wall of tires. “You any good at throwing?”
“Better than Ivy or Adam,” Rebecca said. She crouched down beside Jon, and peeked up over the top of the barricade.
The zombies were coming. They shuffled with purpose, straight ahead. Some were badly damaged from previous fights. Limbs were dangling at unnatural angles, or missing altogether. As Ivy watched, a female zombie’s legs failed her entirely. The knees collapsed, and she fell. The zombies behind her didn’t notice, and kept plodding along, right over her broken body. In no time at all, all that was left of her was a gooey splotch on the pavement.
Rebecca shuddered.
“Almost in range!” Ivy shouted. Rebecca glanced back to see her best friend and her boyfriend manipulating a ladder. Adam held the base, as Ivy climbed to the top, the ladder resting against an overturned SUV. “Prepare to launch!”
“She’s got a career at NASA when this is over,” Jon said. He picked up one of the homemade firebombs. Rebecca did the same. “Ready, kid?” Jon asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” Rebecca said. She kept her gaze fixed on the approaching zombies. Her thoughts narrowed to one topic: find a target, and hit it. The zombie horde moved closer and closer.
“Fire!” Ivy yelled, as the zombies crossed the yellow lines painted on the street.
Rebecca flicked a lighter taken from the convenience store, and lit the wick. She counted to five, and then hurled the bottle at the nearest zombie, a male in a red Mets t-shirt. The bottle hit him square in the forehead. He stumbled backward as the bottle exploded into thousands of shards, the fuel igniting his clothing. The fire spread to the zombies nearest him quickly. Rebecca watched as flames licked from zombie to zombie. There were muffled “whumps” as pockets of methane ignited. The zombies kept coming.
Jon hurled his bottle then, knocking down two zombies. Their skulls smashed like rotten pumpkins as they hit the pavement. The fire spread through the crowd, joining Rebecca’s fire.
The wave of walking dead had reached the curb. They were now on the gas station property. Then the front line of zombies fell, shrieking. Those with arms clawed at their heads. There was a loud “pop,” and Rebecca stared back as first one, and then another zombie’s skull burst open.
“They overheated,” she said to Jon. “Their brains boiled over in their skulls!” She smiled brightly at him, and then turned back to Ivy. “You are frakking brilliant, Ivy!” she shouted.
Ivy gave her a thumbs-up, and hollered, “Fire!”
Rebecca launched her second bottle, and cheered as it hit. Jon threw his own bottle right after her. If he was excited, he didn’t show it.
&&&
Olivia filled another gas can. This was the fifth one, and Aasif was looking for more. Olivia had no idea how long it was going to take them to get to Fox studios, and this was the absolute last time she wanted to stop.
“I think that’s plenty,” Stephen said. “We have to have room for us to get in the van, you know.”
Olivia sighed, and shook the last drops into the red canister, before screwing on the lid. “I just want to be prepared,” she said.
“We are,” Stephen said. “Come on, let’s watch the fight.”
“Just watch?” Olivia said. “Why can’t we help?”
“Because there were only seventeen glass bottles,” Stephen said, leading the way to the convenience store. “So that’s how many Molotov cocktails we could make. The best pitchers are throwing them now.” He opened the back door, and walked through the store to the front, by the gas pumps.
“Jon and Rebecca?” Olivia asked, as she looked out toward the tire barricade.
“Yep,” Stephen said.
“Where’s Aasif?” Olivia asked.
“Up here,” Aasif called. Olivia turned back to see Aasif leaning over the edge of the roof.
“What are you doing up there?” Stephen asked.
“Getting the long-range weapons ready,” Aasif said. “Get up here and help.” He pointed to a ladder propped up against the corner of the store.
Stephen looked at Olivia and shrugged. Then he climbed up the ladder. Olivia followed.
Aasif had been busy, Olivia noted. Using bungee cords and some long posts Olivia didn’t recognize, Aasif had constructed a giant slingshot on the convenience store roof.
“Wow,” Stephen said appreciatively. “Nice slingshot.”
“Thanks,” Aasif said. “I need you two to hold onto the uprights, while I load and fire this thing.”
“What did you use to make these?” Olivia asked, as she grabbed hold of one tall post. It was metal, and had a crisscross pattern of short bars between four long metal rods.
“I don’t know,” Aasif said. “I think it’s spare parts from the car wash.”
“Awesome,” Stephen said, as he braced the other upright. “What are we firing at them?”
“Anything that wasn’t nailed down,” Aasif said. “Or edible.” He picked up a gallon bottle of windshield washer fluid, nestled it into the sling, and pulled back. “Ready, set, go!” He released the band, and the bottle sailed out into the invading horde, knocking into one zombie. That set off a chain reaction, as the zombie fell backwards, limbs flailing. Five other zombies were brought down.
“Yes!” Olivia shouted. “That was awesome!”
Aasif grinned, and reloaded the slingshot. “Let’s see how these undead bastards like motor oil.”
“I want a turn,” Stephen said
“You can take the next one. Everyone gets two shots,” Olivia said.
They rotated through completely, twice, before the situation turned ugly. Jon and Rebecca had used up all of their Molotov cocktails. They had moved on to stage two: lighting tires on fire, and rolling them at the zombies. But even that was only a temporary measure. Too many tires rolled meant no barricade.
The slingshot was working, but not well enough. The bungee cords were wearing out, fast. Aasif had brought more up, but he hadn’t woven them into cradles. Olivia was trying to do that now, but it was taking too long.
Stephen realized that every zombie battle he was in was following a pattern: oncoming attack, preparing for battle, scoring some early victories, but in the end, abandoning the post, and running for safety elsewhere.
“Could really use the Shadow Host right about now,” Stephen said. Olivia glanced up at him, and frowned, before recognition dawned in her eyes. She gave him a brief smile, and returned to knotting bungee cords. Aasif ignored him.
&&&
Rachel was several blocks away, when she ran into a wall of zombies. She ran over a few of them, and knocked several others over. “Shit!” she cried. She reached out to smack the horn out of habit, but stopped herself just in time. Most of the zombies hadn’t seen her. They were too intent on their prey to see anything else. Rachel took a deep breath, and then concentrated.
“Please, please come here. I need your help,” she murmured. She reached out to every friendly zombie she could find, and pleaded that they come to her. Compared to the sea of undead before her, her forces would be small. And it would take awhile to get there. “Hold on, guys,” she said. “I’m coming. I just have to wait for my friends.”
&&&
“Fuck!” Rebecca yelled. “That’s the last tire. We can’t roll any more or we won’t have a wall.”
“Fall back!” Ivy ordered. She slid down the ladder and hit the pavement. Adam tipped the ladder back, and rotated it. He held one end, and Ivy grabbed the other, forming a rough shield. A shield with holes in it, Rebecca thought, as she watched Ivy and Adam approach.
Jon took a step back from the barricade. “Now what?” he asked.
“Fall back to the store,” Adam said. “And then to the news van. We’re gonna have to run soon.” He lifted up the ladder, Ivy straining to reach as high as he did. Rebecca ducked under, and grabbed hold. Jon imitated her, and the four of them walked backwards, holding the ladder between them and the zombies trickling through the tire barricade.
“Rachel will get here,” Jon said with a certainty he did not feel. Rachel’s texts had been terse, but she hadn’t mentioned Anderson or Keith. Jon was sure the news wouldn’t be good, but he couldn’t really think about it. There were hands trying to grab his hair that kept distracting him.
Jon yelped, and turned, terrified the zombies had attacked from the rear. But it was Stephen, sliding down the ladder propped against the convenience store. He wrapped his hands around any part of Jon he could reach. Jon tried to return the caresses, but the ladder was awkward in his grasp.
“Get up here,” Stephen said.
“Car wash is more secure,” Ivy countered.
“Better view up here,” Stephen said. “And we can retreat to the car wash if we have to.”
“When,” Rebecca muttered. No one answered her.
Ivy and Adam turned their ladder, and propped it next to Stephen’s. They climbed up quickly, Rebecca in between them. Stephen tugged on Jon’s hair again, and Jon followed him up the ladder.
Once on top of the store, the college students pulled up their ladder, and extended it as far as they could. With two of them pushing, and one of them steering, they got the ladder to form a bridge to the car wash. It looked wobbly to Jon, and he tried not to think about having to cross that.
“Pull up the other ladder,” Ivy said. “Move it to the other side, so we can get down closer to the van.” She stepped over quickly, ducking as Aasif let fly the last bottle of motor oil. Olivia followed her, but as she turned, one of the bungee cords failed. It snapped back, and hit Olivia in the side of the face, right next to her eye.
“Ouch!” Olivia cried. She cupped a hand over her face, and stumbled, off balance.
“Careful!” Ivy and Stephen cried. Ivy reached out to grab Olivia’s arm, but Olivia teetered on the edge of the roof, and fell, leaving Ivy with her sleeve fluttering in her hand.
“Olivia!” Jon yelled.
“Olivia!” Aasif shouted. Both men raced to the edge of the roof. Olivia had landed on her feet. She groaned in pain as she leaned against the side of the building for support. She looked up, blood running down her cheek, and tried to smile.
“Olivia!” Rebecca called. “You need to get back up here, right now!”
Olivia turned to see the first wave of zombies pass the gas pumps. They were less than ten feet away. She turned toward the ladder and took a step.
Her ankle collapsed under her weight. Olivia sank to the ground, moaning in pain. The sound, or perhaps the scent of her blood, spurred the zombies onward, even faster.
“Olivia!” Aasif yelled. He slid down the ladder, and scooped her up. “Come on!” he cried. “Come on.”
Olivia bit her lip as Aasif pulled her onto his back. She gripped his shoulders tightly as he began to climb.
The zombies began to swarm the store, some smashing windows and wandering inside. Aasif climbed several more rungs, his torso and most of Olivia’s out of harm’s way. Stephen and Jon reached down towards Olivia, but she was still too far away to grab.
Aasif screamed, and dropped. “Fucking bastards got my leg!” he roared. Olivia kicked out weakly, knocking a few grabby hands back. But there were too many of them.
“No!” Jon screamed. “No, God damn it!” Stephen wrapped his arms around Jon, dragging him back from the edge.
“Look!” Adam yelled. Another group of zombies was approaching. But these zombies surrounded a battered grey minivan. A minivan with the horn blaring.
“Rachel,” Stephen breathed. “With her own Army of the Dead.”
Jon gasped, and laughed weakly. Ivy stared at the approaching van, her hands twisted together, as in prayer. Rebecca and Adam whooped and hugged.
The van slammed through the first horde, splattering zombies everywhere. Stray arms and legs flopped and writhed blindly, as Rachel flung open her door, and stepped out of the van. She stomped hard on a hand, flattening it. She grinned up at the team on the roof. “Looks like I got here just in time.”
Olivia screamed again, clutching desperately at Aasif as the zombies below dragged at her.
“Stop them!” Rachel cried, pointed at Olivia and Aasif.
A handful of zombies broke away from the loose circle surrounding the minivan, and headed for Aasif and Olivia. Jon groaned as they approached, bun instead of making a grab for the living, undead hands reached for, and tore off, other undead hands. Rachel’s zombies fell upon the attacking zombies, and tore them to shreds.
“Holy crap,” Rebecca breathed.
It looked like a regular feeding frenzy, Ivy noticed. Except for one thing: the zombies were not eating each other. When a zombie attacked a living person, anything that was torn loose ended up in the zombie’s mouth. But Rachel’s zombies seemed to know that their prey was just like them, and therefore not tasty. Or so it seemed.
Seconds later, it was over. Aasif and Olivia were clear, and Rachel’s zombies stood as protective sentries in a loose semi-circle around them, and the base of the ladder.
“What are you doing up there?” Rachel called, leaning out of the window as she drove up to the convenience store.
“Enjoying the view,” Stephen called back.
“What took you so long?” Jon asked. He looked better: less worried, and stood steadier on his feet. But he still clung to Stephen’s hand like he was the last lifeboat on the Titanic.
“You know how fast these things move, right?” Rachel said. “Not fast enough.”
Moaning and snarls broke out, and everyone turned to look. The hostile zombies were regrouping. Their approach looked more orderly this time, and they outnumbered Rachel’s zombie force by orders of magnitude.
“We can’t stay here,” Rachel called up. “Get down here at let’s go.”
“What about the news van?” Ivy asked. “It’s better supplied with food, and gas.”
Olivia pulled away from Aasif, and tried to limp to Rachel’s van. Her leg gave out under her weight, and she sank to the pavement, biting her lip to keep from screaming. Aasif wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close, so her weight rested against him. “I can’t walk,” Olivia said through gritted teeth. “You’re gonna have to leave me.”
“No,” Jon said firmly. “I’m not leaving anyone else behind.”
“Jon,” Stephen said. “We have to. Beck knows we’re coming. The more time we give him to prepare, the harder he will be to beat.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Aasif said. “No, Jon,” he went on, cutting off Jon’s argument. “I’ll make sure she stays safe. You guys can come pick us up when you’re finished.”
“I’m not some fucking damsel in distress, you know,” Olivia snapped. “I don’t need anyone’s protection.”
“Yes, you do,” Aasif said. “And there’s no shame in that.”
Olivia sighed. “And I wanted to kick some more zombie ass,” she complained.
“You will,” Aasif said softly, as he brushed her hair back behind her ear.
“You guys should take the news van,” Ivy said. “Pull it into the car wash, and close the front and back doors.”
“Good idea,” Rebecca said. “You’ll be safer in there, and you’ll have a way to escape if you have to.”
“Get back to Sam and Jason and the kids at the bowling alley if you can,” Stephen said.
“For God’s sake,” Aasif said, gently lifting Olivia to her feet. “You make it sound like you’re never coming back. It’s not a suicide mission….” He trailed off then.
“We’re walking into Mordor with the One Ring,” Stephen said. “We probably won’t be walking out.”
“Because Gandalf will come with giant eagles,” Olivia said. Stephen just smiled at her sadly.
“Let’s get going,” Rebecca said, breaking the somber mood. She walked over to Olivia, and draped Olivia’s free arm across her shoulders. She tugged gently, and Aasif followed her through the convenience store. Olivia was quickly loaded into the van. Adam fussed with the car wash for a moment, before Stephen and Jon just yanked the garage door open. Aasif drove the van inside, and Jon and Stephen closed the door behind it. At the car wash’s exit, Rachel helped Ivy yank the door closed as well.
Aasif and Olivia waved, as the door closed, shutting them inside a concrete bunker. Or their tomb, Ivy thought darkly. She shook her head to clear it.
“You kids don’t want to stay?” Jon asked. His forehead was creased with worry lines again.
Ivy shook her head. “I’m in this till the end,” she said.
“And we’re going with her,” Adam said. Rebecca nodded.
“Well, come on then,” Rachel said. She pushed a button, and something beeped. “Shit. How do you open these automatic side doors?” Rachel muttered. She hit a few more buttons, before the door finally slid open, jerkily. Ivy, Rachel, and Adam climbed into the back seat, while Jon and Stephen took the captain’s chairs in the middle. Stephen shut the door, and Rachel pulled away slowly, the phalanx of zombies following.
“Hey, if we’re walking to Mordor, who’s Frodo?” Ivy asked suddenly. “And do we have a Gollum?”
Stephen turned around to face Ivy, his eyes bright and excited. “Well, I’m Aragorn,” he began. Jon, Rebecca, and Adam groaned.
Chapter Rating: R, for language, ultraviolent zombie mayhem
Chapter Summary: In which our heroes finally meet up.
Disclaimer: #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement
All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Word Count: ~3500
Author's Note: Continued thanks to
themistoklis for beta-reading and constructive suggestions.Previous chapters
Chapter 27
“So what’s your brilliant plan, again?” Rebecca asked Ivy. The two girls and Adam were crouched behind a gas pump, while Aasif and Stephen rolled tires to form a rough blockade around the gas station. The news van was parked behind the car wash, pointed in the general direction of Fox studios. Olivia was inside the convenience store, raiding it for supplies. Jon was at another gas pump, nearer the tire blockade.
“Burn them all,” Ivy said. She carefully poured gasoline into another empty glass soda bottle, and handed it to Adam, who stuffed the top with a shredded rag. He upended the bottle, soaking the rag wick in the gasoline, and then set it aside. There were seven other Molotov cocktails sitting in a box, ready to throw.
“That’s the last one,” Ivy said. “You really don’t think plastic will work?”
“The plastic will melt,” Adam said. “Trust me.”
Ivy looked at Adam carefully. “You really are an evil genius, aren’t you,” she said.
“Don’t tell my parents,” Adam said. “They think I’m the good twin.”
“Hello,” Rebecca said, waving her hand in front of Adam’s face. “Still waiting for an explanation over here.”
“Basically, we hole up here, and torch any zombies that get near us. Then, Stephen says Rachel Maddow will come and pick us up. Then we go and kill Glenn Beck.”
“But we just filled up the news van,” Rebecca said. “So we can turn it into a flaming Trojan Horse of death?”
“Maybe. Or we could use Rachel’s vehicle,” Ivy said. “Look, aren’t we just relying on the saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy? We’re going to have to improvise anyway, so what’s the point of making a detailed plan that we’re probably never going to get to use?”
“Good point,” Rebecca admitted. “What do you want me to do?”
“Take these,” Adam said, holing the box of Molotov cocktails. “Carefully. Jon’s supposed to have some more ready. Get behind the tire pile, and get ready to throw when the zombies get close enough.”
“We are going to burn the whole city down, aren’t we?” Rebecca said as she carefully walked.
“I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already,” Ivy said. “You’d think the Army would have been burning the corpses.”
“They’re not part of the Zombie Squad,” Adam said. “They think the things in movies can never happen.”
“Well, they know better now, don’t they?” Ivy muttered. “What else can we burn?”
“I’d rather have something to shoot them with,” Adam said. “Or at least throw things at them.”
“You can’t,” Ivy said. “And neither can I. That’s why Rebecca’s going. Of the three of us, she can actually throw something at a target, and hit it.”
“I thought I was finished with that sort of thing once I didn’t have to take phys ed anymore,” Adam said.
“Me, too,” Ivy said. He patted Adam’s shoulder. “Can you make a flamethrower?” she asked, eying the gas pumps.
“I wouldn’t use the pump directly,” Adam said. “The fire would probably just feed up the gas stream, and get into the storage tanks underground.”
“And that would be bad?” Ivy guessed.
“Well, we’d blow up the gas station,” Adam said. “So if we were still standing here, then yes, it would be bad.”
“Remote start?” Ivy asked hopefully.
“Not enough time,” Adam said. “Look.”
Ivy looked. The zombies were plainly visible now, but still out of throwing range. “Crap,” she muttered.
“Indeed,” Adam replied.
&&&
Rebecca walked slowly over to Jon’s position. The bottles in the box clinked against each other softly. Jon looked up at the noise, and gave Rebecca a grin. “Those for me?” he asked, as he stopped his last bottle.
“I’m supposed to help you throw these things,” Rebecca replied. “Ivy said.”
“Well, Ivy’s running the show here,” Jon said. He moved over a bit, giving Rebecca a little more space behind the wall of tires. “You any good at throwing?”
“Better than Ivy or Adam,” Rebecca said. She crouched down beside Jon, and peeked up over the top of the barricade.
The zombies were coming. They shuffled with purpose, straight ahead. Some were badly damaged from previous fights. Limbs were dangling at unnatural angles, or missing altogether. As Ivy watched, a female zombie’s legs failed her entirely. The knees collapsed, and she fell. The zombies behind her didn’t notice, and kept plodding along, right over her broken body. In no time at all, all that was left of her was a gooey splotch on the pavement.
Rebecca shuddered.
“Almost in range!” Ivy shouted. Rebecca glanced back to see her best friend and her boyfriend manipulating a ladder. Adam held the base, as Ivy climbed to the top, the ladder resting against an overturned SUV. “Prepare to launch!”
“She’s got a career at NASA when this is over,” Jon said. He picked up one of the homemade firebombs. Rebecca did the same. “Ready, kid?” Jon asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” Rebecca said. She kept her gaze fixed on the approaching zombies. Her thoughts narrowed to one topic: find a target, and hit it. The zombie horde moved closer and closer.
“Fire!” Ivy yelled, as the zombies crossed the yellow lines painted on the street.
Rebecca flicked a lighter taken from the convenience store, and lit the wick. She counted to five, and then hurled the bottle at the nearest zombie, a male in a red Mets t-shirt. The bottle hit him square in the forehead. He stumbled backward as the bottle exploded into thousands of shards, the fuel igniting his clothing. The fire spread to the zombies nearest him quickly. Rebecca watched as flames licked from zombie to zombie. There were muffled “whumps” as pockets of methane ignited. The zombies kept coming.
Jon hurled his bottle then, knocking down two zombies. Their skulls smashed like rotten pumpkins as they hit the pavement. The fire spread through the crowd, joining Rebecca’s fire.
The wave of walking dead had reached the curb. They were now on the gas station property. Then the front line of zombies fell, shrieking. Those with arms clawed at their heads. There was a loud “pop,” and Rebecca stared back as first one, and then another zombie’s skull burst open.
“They overheated,” she said to Jon. “Their brains boiled over in their skulls!” She smiled brightly at him, and then turned back to Ivy. “You are frakking brilliant, Ivy!” she shouted.
Ivy gave her a thumbs-up, and hollered, “Fire!”
Rebecca launched her second bottle, and cheered as it hit. Jon threw his own bottle right after her. If he was excited, he didn’t show it.
&&&
Olivia filled another gas can. This was the fifth one, and Aasif was looking for more. Olivia had no idea how long it was going to take them to get to Fox studios, and this was the absolute last time she wanted to stop.
“I think that’s plenty,” Stephen said. “We have to have room for us to get in the van, you know.”
Olivia sighed, and shook the last drops into the red canister, before screwing on the lid. “I just want to be prepared,” she said.
“We are,” Stephen said. “Come on, let’s watch the fight.”
“Just watch?” Olivia said. “Why can’t we help?”
“Because there were only seventeen glass bottles,” Stephen said, leading the way to the convenience store. “So that’s how many Molotov cocktails we could make. The best pitchers are throwing them now.” He opened the back door, and walked through the store to the front, by the gas pumps.
“Jon and Rebecca?” Olivia asked, as she looked out toward the tire barricade.
“Yep,” Stephen said.
“Where’s Aasif?” Olivia asked.
“Up here,” Aasif called. Olivia turned back to see Aasif leaning over the edge of the roof.
“What are you doing up there?” Stephen asked.
“Getting the long-range weapons ready,” Aasif said. “Get up here and help.” He pointed to a ladder propped up against the corner of the store.
Stephen looked at Olivia and shrugged. Then he climbed up the ladder. Olivia followed.
Aasif had been busy, Olivia noted. Using bungee cords and some long posts Olivia didn’t recognize, Aasif had constructed a giant slingshot on the convenience store roof.
“Wow,” Stephen said appreciatively. “Nice slingshot.”
“Thanks,” Aasif said. “I need you two to hold onto the uprights, while I load and fire this thing.”
“What did you use to make these?” Olivia asked, as she grabbed hold of one tall post. It was metal, and had a crisscross pattern of short bars between four long metal rods.
“I don’t know,” Aasif said. “I think it’s spare parts from the car wash.”
“Awesome,” Stephen said, as he braced the other upright. “What are we firing at them?”
“Anything that wasn’t nailed down,” Aasif said. “Or edible.” He picked up a gallon bottle of windshield washer fluid, nestled it into the sling, and pulled back. “Ready, set, go!” He released the band, and the bottle sailed out into the invading horde, knocking into one zombie. That set off a chain reaction, as the zombie fell backwards, limbs flailing. Five other zombies were brought down.
“Yes!” Olivia shouted. “That was awesome!”
Aasif grinned, and reloaded the slingshot. “Let’s see how these undead bastards like motor oil.”
“I want a turn,” Stephen said
“You can take the next one. Everyone gets two shots,” Olivia said.
They rotated through completely, twice, before the situation turned ugly. Jon and Rebecca had used up all of their Molotov cocktails. They had moved on to stage two: lighting tires on fire, and rolling them at the zombies. But even that was only a temporary measure. Too many tires rolled meant no barricade.
The slingshot was working, but not well enough. The bungee cords were wearing out, fast. Aasif had brought more up, but he hadn’t woven them into cradles. Olivia was trying to do that now, but it was taking too long.
Stephen realized that every zombie battle he was in was following a pattern: oncoming attack, preparing for battle, scoring some early victories, but in the end, abandoning the post, and running for safety elsewhere.
“Could really use the Shadow Host right about now,” Stephen said. Olivia glanced up at him, and frowned, before recognition dawned in her eyes. She gave him a brief smile, and returned to knotting bungee cords. Aasif ignored him.
&&&
Rachel was several blocks away, when she ran into a wall of zombies. She ran over a few of them, and knocked several others over. “Shit!” she cried. She reached out to smack the horn out of habit, but stopped herself just in time. Most of the zombies hadn’t seen her. They were too intent on their prey to see anything else. Rachel took a deep breath, and then concentrated.
“Please, please come here. I need your help,” she murmured. She reached out to every friendly zombie she could find, and pleaded that they come to her. Compared to the sea of undead before her, her forces would be small. And it would take awhile to get there. “Hold on, guys,” she said. “I’m coming. I just have to wait for my friends.”
&&&
“Fuck!” Rebecca yelled. “That’s the last tire. We can’t roll any more or we won’t have a wall.”
“Fall back!” Ivy ordered. She slid down the ladder and hit the pavement. Adam tipped the ladder back, and rotated it. He held one end, and Ivy grabbed the other, forming a rough shield. A shield with holes in it, Rebecca thought, as she watched Ivy and Adam approach.
Jon took a step back from the barricade. “Now what?” he asked.
“Fall back to the store,” Adam said. “And then to the news van. We’re gonna have to run soon.” He lifted up the ladder, Ivy straining to reach as high as he did. Rebecca ducked under, and grabbed hold. Jon imitated her, and the four of them walked backwards, holding the ladder between them and the zombies trickling through the tire barricade.
“Rachel will get here,” Jon said with a certainty he did not feel. Rachel’s texts had been terse, but she hadn’t mentioned Anderson or Keith. Jon was sure the news wouldn’t be good, but he couldn’t really think about it. There were hands trying to grab his hair that kept distracting him.
Jon yelped, and turned, terrified the zombies had attacked from the rear. But it was Stephen, sliding down the ladder propped against the convenience store. He wrapped his hands around any part of Jon he could reach. Jon tried to return the caresses, but the ladder was awkward in his grasp.
“Get up here,” Stephen said.
“Car wash is more secure,” Ivy countered.
“Better view up here,” Stephen said. “And we can retreat to the car wash if we have to.”
“When,” Rebecca muttered. No one answered her.
Ivy and Adam turned their ladder, and propped it next to Stephen’s. They climbed up quickly, Rebecca in between them. Stephen tugged on Jon’s hair again, and Jon followed him up the ladder.
Once on top of the store, the college students pulled up their ladder, and extended it as far as they could. With two of them pushing, and one of them steering, they got the ladder to form a bridge to the car wash. It looked wobbly to Jon, and he tried not to think about having to cross that.
“Pull up the other ladder,” Ivy said. “Move it to the other side, so we can get down closer to the van.” She stepped over quickly, ducking as Aasif let fly the last bottle of motor oil. Olivia followed her, but as she turned, one of the bungee cords failed. It snapped back, and hit Olivia in the side of the face, right next to her eye.
“Ouch!” Olivia cried. She cupped a hand over her face, and stumbled, off balance.
“Careful!” Ivy and Stephen cried. Ivy reached out to grab Olivia’s arm, but Olivia teetered on the edge of the roof, and fell, leaving Ivy with her sleeve fluttering in her hand.
“Olivia!” Jon yelled.
“Olivia!” Aasif shouted. Both men raced to the edge of the roof. Olivia had landed on her feet. She groaned in pain as she leaned against the side of the building for support. She looked up, blood running down her cheek, and tried to smile.
“Olivia!” Rebecca called. “You need to get back up here, right now!”
Olivia turned to see the first wave of zombies pass the gas pumps. They were less than ten feet away. She turned toward the ladder and took a step.
Her ankle collapsed under her weight. Olivia sank to the ground, moaning in pain. The sound, or perhaps the scent of her blood, spurred the zombies onward, even faster.
“Olivia!” Aasif yelled. He slid down the ladder, and scooped her up. “Come on!” he cried. “Come on.”
Olivia bit her lip as Aasif pulled her onto his back. She gripped his shoulders tightly as he began to climb.
The zombies began to swarm the store, some smashing windows and wandering inside. Aasif climbed several more rungs, his torso and most of Olivia’s out of harm’s way. Stephen and Jon reached down towards Olivia, but she was still too far away to grab.
Aasif screamed, and dropped. “Fucking bastards got my leg!” he roared. Olivia kicked out weakly, knocking a few grabby hands back. But there were too many of them.
“No!” Jon screamed. “No, God damn it!” Stephen wrapped his arms around Jon, dragging him back from the edge.
“Look!” Adam yelled. Another group of zombies was approaching. But these zombies surrounded a battered grey minivan. A minivan with the horn blaring.
“Rachel,” Stephen breathed. “With her own Army of the Dead.”
Jon gasped, and laughed weakly. Ivy stared at the approaching van, her hands twisted together, as in prayer. Rebecca and Adam whooped and hugged.
The van slammed through the first horde, splattering zombies everywhere. Stray arms and legs flopped and writhed blindly, as Rachel flung open her door, and stepped out of the van. She stomped hard on a hand, flattening it. She grinned up at the team on the roof. “Looks like I got here just in time.”
Olivia screamed again, clutching desperately at Aasif as the zombies below dragged at her.
“Stop them!” Rachel cried, pointed at Olivia and Aasif.
A handful of zombies broke away from the loose circle surrounding the minivan, and headed for Aasif and Olivia. Jon groaned as they approached, bun instead of making a grab for the living, undead hands reached for, and tore off, other undead hands. Rachel’s zombies fell upon the attacking zombies, and tore them to shreds.
“Holy crap,” Rebecca breathed.
It looked like a regular feeding frenzy, Ivy noticed. Except for one thing: the zombies were not eating each other. When a zombie attacked a living person, anything that was torn loose ended up in the zombie’s mouth. But Rachel’s zombies seemed to know that their prey was just like them, and therefore not tasty. Or so it seemed.
Seconds later, it was over. Aasif and Olivia were clear, and Rachel’s zombies stood as protective sentries in a loose semi-circle around them, and the base of the ladder.
“What are you doing up there?” Rachel called, leaning out of the window as she drove up to the convenience store.
“Enjoying the view,” Stephen called back.
“What took you so long?” Jon asked. He looked better: less worried, and stood steadier on his feet. But he still clung to Stephen’s hand like he was the last lifeboat on the Titanic.
“You know how fast these things move, right?” Rachel said. “Not fast enough.”
Moaning and snarls broke out, and everyone turned to look. The hostile zombies were regrouping. Their approach looked more orderly this time, and they outnumbered Rachel’s zombie force by orders of magnitude.
“We can’t stay here,” Rachel called up. “Get down here at let’s go.”
“What about the news van?” Ivy asked. “It’s better supplied with food, and gas.”
Olivia pulled away from Aasif, and tried to limp to Rachel’s van. Her leg gave out under her weight, and she sank to the pavement, biting her lip to keep from screaming. Aasif wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close, so her weight rested against him. “I can’t walk,” Olivia said through gritted teeth. “You’re gonna have to leave me.”
“No,” Jon said firmly. “I’m not leaving anyone else behind.”
“Jon,” Stephen said. “We have to. Beck knows we’re coming. The more time we give him to prepare, the harder he will be to beat.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Aasif said. “No, Jon,” he went on, cutting off Jon’s argument. “I’ll make sure she stays safe. You guys can come pick us up when you’re finished.”
“I’m not some fucking damsel in distress, you know,” Olivia snapped. “I don’t need anyone’s protection.”
“Yes, you do,” Aasif said. “And there’s no shame in that.”
Olivia sighed. “And I wanted to kick some more zombie ass,” she complained.
“You will,” Aasif said softly, as he brushed her hair back behind her ear.
“You guys should take the news van,” Ivy said. “Pull it into the car wash, and close the front and back doors.”
“Good idea,” Rebecca said. “You’ll be safer in there, and you’ll have a way to escape if you have to.”
“Get back to Sam and Jason and the kids at the bowling alley if you can,” Stephen said.
“For God’s sake,” Aasif said, gently lifting Olivia to her feet. “You make it sound like you’re never coming back. It’s not a suicide mission….” He trailed off then.
“We’re walking into Mordor with the One Ring,” Stephen said. “We probably won’t be walking out.”
“Because Gandalf will come with giant eagles,” Olivia said. Stephen just smiled at her sadly.
“Let’s get going,” Rebecca said, breaking the somber mood. She walked over to Olivia, and draped Olivia’s free arm across her shoulders. She tugged gently, and Aasif followed her through the convenience store. Olivia was quickly loaded into the van. Adam fussed with the car wash for a moment, before Stephen and Jon just yanked the garage door open. Aasif drove the van inside, and Jon and Stephen closed the door behind it. At the car wash’s exit, Rachel helped Ivy yank the door closed as well.
Aasif and Olivia waved, as the door closed, shutting them inside a concrete bunker. Or their tomb, Ivy thought darkly. She shook her head to clear it.
“You kids don’t want to stay?” Jon asked. His forehead was creased with worry lines again.
Ivy shook her head. “I’m in this till the end,” she said.
“And we’re going with her,” Adam said. Rebecca nodded.
“Well, come on then,” Rachel said. She pushed a button, and something beeped. “Shit. How do you open these automatic side doors?” Rachel muttered. She hit a few more buttons, before the door finally slid open, jerkily. Ivy, Rachel, and Adam climbed into the back seat, while Jon and Stephen took the captain’s chairs in the middle. Stephen shut the door, and Rachel pulled away slowly, the phalanx of zombies following.
“Hey, if we’re walking to Mordor, who’s Frodo?” Ivy asked suddenly. “And do we have a Gollum?”
Stephen turned around to face Ivy, his eyes bright and excited. “Well, I’m Aragorn,” he began. Jon, Rebecca, and Adam groaned.
