Grabbing the well used and old fashioned looking microphone Heath pressed the button down and was rewarded with a clicking noise from all the speakers of the park.
“Hello? Is this thing on? Well ladies and gentlemen and zombies. I would like to welcome you to the park today to celebrate…to just celebrate life. That is what we are celebrating; living here in Chicago on a sunny day in July. These songs go out to my good friends Katie and Randy; I sure hope they are safe and making progress in their lives. I didn't know you long, but I think I knew you well.” The door was up and the zombies were starting to head towards the stage. 'Almost like a normal concert.' he thought. Heath made sure the volume was turned up as high as it would go. Behind him the door started to buckle.
“It is just about time for the stage show. Enjoy it folks.” Pressing play on his mp3 player Heath unshouldered his rifle and stepped out of the booth, then walked the short distance to center stage. He went down on one knee and took his first shot at a zombie near the middle of the street where he had come from. The shot, through a fluke, training or luck, struck true and the zombie's head exploded into bloody fragments. The first song, “Iowa”, played until Heath ran out of rifle ammo, as the song wound down he tossed the rifle down and drew his pistol and knife. The zombies were crawling onto the stage now as the next random track began to play, laughing Heath threw himself into the fight as 'Let the Bodies Hit the Floor' played throughout the park.
On the rooftop Katie and Randy were able to watch the man fighting on the stage, the building was high enough to give them a perfect view over the trees and of all their objectives.
“It isn't real. No one can fight like that. No one…” Katie said.
“Unbelievable. Only in movies…” Randy said, then stopped, “Katie, get your rifle ready. I wouldn't want to be eaten alive. It's the least we can do.”
“Got it.” she quickly set up her rifle, muttering, “Hold on, hold on, just a few more seconds…okay, I got him. He is moving too fast. Christ!”
Randy looked pale in the afternoon sunlight, “Well you don't want to shoot him yet, this is…this is art. Wait until they catch him. If they can.”
Heath's movements on the stage sprang closer when Katie put her eye to the rifle's sights. The zombies could not touch him, the mob was too slow. Heath's pistol was empty, but he used the weapon as a club swinging it around to crush in the skulls and throats of the zombies that reached for him. He never stayed in one place for more than a moment and Katie saw the sheen of sweat on his face as he danced his last moves for the crowd of undead. He screamed something, but they could not hear it over the blaring music. Amazingly the zombies stopped attacking and formed a circle around him, a circle that parted to let three super zombies move to the edges.
“You seeing this? Are you getting this?” Katie asked.
“Yeah, same as you.” said Randy, who had a small pair of binoculars to his eyes. Both of them intently watched the show as they crouched down behind the parapet of the building.
Heath stood up straight and Katie almost shot him then, she had a clear line to him and he would have died instantly. But Heath clearly mouthed 'Not yet.' very slowly. The super zombies in front of him didn't seem to notice, but he had followed up his overly slow, exaggerated words for Katie with some conversation she could not catch, it seemed to include a lot of swear words, from what she could tell. Quick as a flash the three super zombies attacked Heath, he avoided one zombie completely, brought his knife down on another one's arm, severing it between the elbow and shoulder and was hit fully by the third. Heath's knife tumbled from his hand to the ground, but he brought his pistol up and slammed it into the side of the zombie's head as they tumbled to the ground. The zombie, a heavy set Caucasian who looked to be in his mid twenties, was not killed, but released his grip on Heath's knife arm to clutch at its head. Rolling and standing Heath swept the feet out from under the zombie with the severed arm. The third, zombie an African American woman with tight, curly hair and ivory teeth charged Heath, but it was a feint and when he reacted to her charge, she ducked sideways and rolled to the ground beyond him, clutching her prize in one hand; Heath's dropped kukri. The head injured zombie was on its feet again, forcing Heath to act, he launched a kick with a heavy boot at the already injured head. He followed it up with a quick spinning backhand with his pistol that caved in the heavy set man's fore head. The zombie fell backwards and didn't move again.
“He put that pistol through the guy's skull. I know he is strong, but that is, that is just not possible.” Randy said.
“I know, and he looks like he is on fast forward, he is matching them in speed, I don't know how long he can keep that up.”
The answer was not long at all. The one armed zombie tackled Heath from the side as he was spinning to face the woman with his knife. They were both pushed towards the front of the stage by the blow, but neither fell. Heath used the opportunity to smash directly down onto the top of the grappling zombie's head, which took it out of the fight almost immediately. His victory over the second zombie was short lived when a metal blade appeared, as if by magic, cutting through his right side, just under his rib cage. The blade passed through his flesh and abdomen almost to his spine and he immediately sagged downward. The woman caught him by the neck from behind and supported him with one hand. Letting go of the knife she spun him around and held him up in front of her. Heath's head slumped to one side, bringing his face into Katie's view, a bubble of blood formed on his lips.
“Do it.” Randy said gruffly.
Katie looked at her lover, he was a pale gray now, sweating profusely from the exertion of climbing the stairs while wearing his camo suit. His breathing was still ragged, while hers had slowed down to normal after the long climb up. She nodded and sighted down her rifle, looking towards the strip of green between them and the water front. A moment later a single shot rang out and both he and Katie slumped quickly behind the parapet of the building out of sight.
Chapter 43
“What the fuck just happened?” Harry shouted, clutching his head. Aubrey slumped against a counter set to one side of the main hall.
“My guess.” she started as she pulled herself up and dusted off her shirt, “Is that Ramey just got killed in Nebraska. We've got to pull the zombies into Iowa now, while they are still close by.” Aubrey's voice was cold and logical. “This is going to take some effort.”
“How?” Harry started, then simply nodded and closed his eyes. “It is a battle of wills and we are five hundred miles away!”
“We'll give up the center and pull zombies in from Kansas City and from the north, near, Sioux City. That will keep them busy for the time being, even if the main attacks are disjointed.”
“What about the east side?”
“We wait a day, let the west side draw the reinforcements away, then we crash the party with everyone we have there.”
“How did this happen?”
“We underestimated Ramey's opponent. It had to be one of Neil's guys. Fucking Sentry was a moron to decentralized control like this.”
Harry nodded, a light sheen of blood had broken out on his forehead, a few minutes went by before Ella barged through the front doors of the Art Institute, “There is gunfire from two different areas outside, I thought we only had one group of people to deal with?”