One of the zombies slammed into the side of the Hummer, then another. I automatically slapped my hand down to lock the doors.
“Reverse!” Kyle screamed as he twisted around to get a better view.
I put the Hummer in gear and stomped on the accelerator, throwing us forward. The rear wheels lifted up then crashed down again. I realized that we drove over one of them behind us. Another one was hanging onto the hood, just below the windshield wipers, pulling at the antenna to get better leverage.
Go! Go! Go! It was like a compact disc skipping rapidly in my head.
As I turned the first corner, the beast flew off into a parked Honda Civic. I sped around the final corner to exit the garage, feeling slightly dizzy. I remember hoping that the streets would not be as deadlocked with stalled traffic as it appeared from the rooftop.
Wishful thinking. The army of the Dead were visible, just a few blocks away.
As we pulled out on to the street with the engine grumbling, a number of heads lifted up through the open windows of the cars. There were clearly too many zombies to make it through on foot.
Looking over my shoulder, I could see a bunch of the faster ones catching up. Smashing my foot down on the gas pedal, I rammed through two smaller cars, and up onto the sidewalk. We drove right through a small group of the dead. They flipped up over the hood, one of their heads smashing on the front grill. Black ooze flowed up the windshield.
I fumbled with the buttons until Kyle reached over and hit the wipers. Through the black, stomach churning streaks, we saw the ferry still docked up ahead.
The approaching horde’s moans were audible over the engine, as well as the gunshots echoing from the boat. We could even hear it through the thick glass of the Hummer. Those creatures were on our ass, and we still had to make it through one block of this shit. I could see the green grass from the park in front of us, urging me to accelerate more.
Using the sheer size of the vehicle, we drove through a glass bus terminal, knocked over a fire hydrant and drove over a Lamborghini. Many of the cars still had their owners safely buckled in. Of course, they were now zombies, who had been bitten and turned while driving. They lacked the brain function to unbuckle their own seat belts.
If it had been any other vehicle, there was no way that we would have made it. I have to say the Hummer was what saved us. My boss’s Hummer saved us. I almost hate to admit it.
The tires bumped over the curb as we reached the park. I had a fleeting thought of never being so happy to see grass as right then. We could see a group of armed men dressed in black, stationed at the waterfront perimeter protecting the ferry. They were taking pot shots at any dead that came close. They had a few larger caliber machine guns with which they were simply mowing down the approaching horde.
We ran through a number of crippled zombies filled with bullet holes struggling on the ground, and knocked several more out of my way. One of shooters waved us over as the group split to let the Hummer through. We came to a screeching halt on the ferry.
With my foot still depressed on the brake, a distant voice next to me said, “Park.”
I didn’t move, clenching my body tight.
Kyle lifted his hand just enough to get my attention again.
“Put it in park.”
I all but slammed the gearshift to park, breathing a heavy sigh of relief.
Chapter 5
Friend or Foe? Does it even matter?
The ferryboat immediately pushed off of the dock. At first glance, I could tell that it was an older vessel. Rust sat in place of paint on most of the siding, and the engine was chugging along a little louder than one would expect. Looking around, I could see a younger man, clearly the captain of the ship, at the steering wheel through a large glass window on the second floor that overlooked the front where we sat in the Hummer.
My heart still painfully racing, I glanced back towards the shore. The guys running the boat had stopped firing, though the dead were literally running into the water. I watched in surprise as they went knee deep, waist deep, and then submerged completely, disappearing under the surface. I hoped they couldn’t swim.
“No telling how many of them are drifting around down there.” Kyle said, as if reading my thoughts. He wiped the beads of sweat from his brow, scrutinizing the people on the deck of the boat.
“Seems to be around twenty of them,” he said quietly.
“They don’t look to be military or police,” I commented equally as low.
“At this point, I don’t care who they are. They just saved our lives. Not a lot of that going around these days.” He motioned back towards the buildings from where we had escaped.
“Yeah,” I snorted sharply. “I’m hoping we run into that little bald son-of-a-bitch again.”
“Not too many people you can trust right about now,” he agreed.
Eyeing him carefully, I said, “You’re about the only person I trust at the moment.”
“My sentiment exactly. We should watch each other’s back. No telling what these guys want.” Kyle tipped his chin toward our rescuers.
I nodded my head in agreement.
Now that we had a chance to breathe, Kyle and I checked out the Hummer, digging around for any hidden gems that would help with this mess. Kyle peered into the glove compartment, and sighed with disappointment as we realized there were no weapons hiding behind its casing. Instead, he found a Twinkie and a Kit Kat. With a grin, he asked, “Pastry or Chocolate?”
My stomach contracted sharply, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before.
“Pastry,” I said. He handed me the Twinkie, and I tore into the package, feeling famished.
As I dropped crumbs onto my own filthy, blood stained, white, button up shirt and black tie, I continued to survey the car. There was a coat in the back seat along with a bunch of old wrappers from various types of junk food. Candy, chips, pastries; there was even a half-eaten sandwich back there. It only confirmed to me that my now retired boss was a bit of a filthy pig while he was alive.
A few from the group on the deck of the boat were now watching us rooting through the Hummer. One of them pointed over in our direction and three of them started walking toward us. They were dressed in similar clothing. All black jump suits. Not any one outfit was quite the same as the next. Clearly, they had a dress code of some sort, but it wasn’t a uniform that they all “received.”
“You ready for this?” I asked nervously.
“I sure hope so,” Kyle said with a more than serious face.
We both opened our doors and stepped out of the Hummer to greet the men who saved our lives. Now, we just had to find out why.
With stone faces, all three of them stood there for a moment, sizing us up. We were doing the same back to them.
The largest in the group stepped forward. I remember thinking that I had never seen a real mustache like the one he wore. It was a monster of a ‘stache,’ stretching across his face and then back up into his sideburns. That coupled with a brown oversized cowboy hat and his black jump suit made me think some of the old toys I played with as a child. Give him a plastic machine gun, a backpack and a Kung Fu grip, and he’s the perfect GI Joe Action figure.
“You guys are nuts,” he proclaimed with a smile, as he extended his hand.
I reached over and shook it, replying, “We were thinking the same thing about you. We’ve been watching you all morning, fighting off those creatures, saving people fleeing from the city. Who are you?”
Mr. ’Stache spoke rather casually. “We’re the dudes who just saved your asses. Let’s just say that we’ve been expecting this sort of thing for a while, and we’ve been prepared for it just as long.”