Episode 6 - Skirmish with the Undead
My ID tag hanging from the rear view mirror shakes at every turn I make, the sun reflecting from the plastic lamination. I can see my photo pasted on the card and the text below it which says -- "Sgt Leun Sotelo - Duty Investigator, Precinct 6". I realized only yesterday that there are no more cops in the city, they were all killed -- no, eaten by the zombies... that's more precise. Beside me is Debbie, the come-backing actress. At the backseat is a girl who says her name is Kris. She's still in trauma, I guess. But she talks, nevertheless. She recounted how they were attacked by the zombies inside the cinema. How her boyfriend died and lived again. She's an intelligent girl, she knew what really happened to her boyfriend.
Previously, I took out a thick folder from the car's trunk and handed it to Debbie. The folder was given to me by my commander, instructing me to assist the army scientist in the conduct of his experiment. I supplied him with names of convicts due for execution. I made negotiations with the justice department and coordinated with the court. The scientist was experimenting with chemical warfare and he needs a subject -- a human guinea pig. I didn't care, the convicts were all hardened criminals, the society won't even miss them! I may have to speak with the scientist again. He may have some answers to what happened yesterday. How the dead lived again and became zombies. Maybe he can make a serum -- an antidote!
Or maybe, they're on it already! Maybe that's the reason why they haven't sent in the cavalry.
We arrived at the Army headquarters sooner than I expected. I didn't parked at its gate, I stopped at a distance, at a location above street level. My police instincts tell me so. I have to make a reconnaissance first to see if everything's well down there. I scooped up my binoculars from the backseat and took a peep beyond the gate. I can see people walking around the camp. They're wearing fatigue uniforms, obviously. I adjusted my lens and took a closer look at these people. It's then that I noticed that they're no longer people. They're zombies! Just as I've thought. The headquarters was completely overrun by the zombies! But what about the scientist? Did he survive the attack? Did we come a long way for nothing?
"I have to go down there, see if the scientist is still alive."
"We are coming with you, Leun. We don't stand a chance against the zombies here."
I looked at Debbie and Kris. They're scared. Yes, they cannot fight these monsters alone if I leave them, but there are many zombies inside the army camp, too. We're taking a great risk if the three of us will go down and enter the camp. I know they know that, but I also know they feel safer when they're with me.
"Okay, but you have to stick close to me."
Debbie and Kris nodded their heads.
We alighted from the police car. I took out my baby armalite from the trunk and gave Debbie my machete. Kris, however, took out my baseball bat and swung it from right to left. I can sense her frailty, her innocence. Her short white skirt smeared with dried blood. Poor girl. She's barely above her teens and yet she has to come with me into battle.
The sun is already up our heads. I can tell it's noon without looking at my watch. The heat of the sun seeping through our clothes, making us perspire all the more. As we go down the slope towards the army headquarters, I can see Debbie's face writhing in pain, carrying the heavy machete on her shoulders, its handle grazing her soft skin. Kris is more agonizing to watch, her fair skin reddening under the heat of the sun, her arms falling sheepishly as she holds the baseball bat close to her body.
This is my army, this is my platoon. What we hold right now are our only weapons to survive what has become of humanity. My only wish is to see the army scientist alive. To see the army commander alive. There are firearms and ammunitions inside the headquarters. We can use it to defend ourselves further. They have trucks, they have gasoline and most importantly, they have food inside. All we have to do is kill all the zombies in the headquarters and we might have a chance to survive.
The zombies seemed to sense our arrival. They all turned their heads towards us and watched us approach the army gates. I held on to my baby armalite firmly and aimed it at the zombies. I looked back at Debbie and Kris. I can see them both shaking. Scared. Dead scared. I cocked my weapon and fired single shots onto the heads of the undead. They fall one by one, but many still approach us. My baby armalite cracked heavily at my every heave. Spent shells go flying to the air, hitting my forehead at times. But it didn't matter. I squeezed at my trigger and blasted rounds after rounds, changing clips when bullets run out.
Debbie is unforgiving. She lifted the machete high up in the air and drove it hard on a zombie's head, causing it to split. She flailed the blade from left to right, cutting legs and limbs. She yelled out her battle cry like a soldier, took zombies after zombies. The trauma had hardened her heart. Her machete's blade glistens from the sun, as it goes up and down on throats upon throats.
Kris is different. She has that feminine aura in her, but she hits hard. She seemed to keep her poise intact even as she was breaking skulls and bones. She plunges the baseball bat awkwardly but the effects are the same. The zombies keep falling down under her. Dark blood spurted as she hits one skull to another. Her face full of blood but she kept on going. Like a battering ram to a fortified gate. She is unrelenting. Her experience in the mall yesterday had made her tough. She seemed not scared anymore.
In fact, we're all not scared anymore. Our harrowing experiences had made us braver, tougher and fiercer. They have made us smart. To us, the zombies are but wild dogs that deserves to be beaten. We dominated the battlefield, zombies fall into each other. Severed heads flew as we run past from them and into the headquarters' main entrance. Debbie gathered wooden crates and placed them on top of each other. She shattered the windows and climbed in as I fired shots to cover her. Kris followed suit and climbed the windows. I joined in, slung my armalite behind me and flung my body through the window. Once inside, I pushed one steel filing cabinet and blocked the windows, Debbie and Kris getting ropes and chains to lock the steel cabinet in place.
"We're safe!" I felt like a high school baseball player who just stole a base.
Kris was panting heavily, her clothes literally soaked with blood, sweat and tears. But she is unharmed. And so is Debbie. We have successfully ran past scores of zombies unharmed. We made it through!
I discarded my empty clip and loaded a new one. There is one person that I have to see now!
"Time to see a certain army scientist."
READ NEXT EPISODE
Comments
Post a Comment