Day One (Book 2): Choices (20 page)

The seriousness of the situation stumbled out of the darkness and slammed into the door across from me. I looked to see several undead just outside the door, their lifeless eyes were stuck on me as they banged and clawed at the door. I simply smiled at them and waved.

One escape route of mine was now cut off. I had one remaining, although with the amount of gunfire, which I’m more than positive was traveling far beyond the complex grounds, others would soon join the hunt, if not already underway. I had to leave soon… there was no other option.

“Rush him!” I heard a voice shout. “Just go, stop standing around!”

I flipped the selector switch from semi to full-auto and braced myself against the wall. If they were going to advance upon me once again, then I would take what little motivation they had and replace it with utter fear and a wall of lead.

“GET HIM!” The voice added, more demanding this time around.

The gunfire increased in sheer volume, so I was certain they were coming for me. I didn’t have to stick my head out and make a perfect target of myself, pure logic told me that, however, I did thrust the SBR into the hallway and pulled the trigger. The weapon recoiled again and again in my hands as the seventy-seven grain bullets exited the barrel and zipped down the hallway at several thousand feet per second, contacting human flesh and punching through a split second before a second and third round followed.

It was too violently loud for me to hear if I had hit any of the approaching Guard’s this time around, but with a lull in the suppressive gunfire, I figured I had either taken all of the advancing assholes out, or they were simply finding cover to keep from getting killed. The SBR jerked one last time and fell silent; I wasted no time in ejecting the magazine and pulling a fresh one, inserting it into the mag well.

“I’m really starting to get bored down here, Officer Morris!” I shouted as I hit the bolt release and the bolt stripped a live round as it slammed home. “I thought you guys really wanted to kill me?” There was no reply. There was no violent comment telling me that I would be the one to die. The gunfire had stopped and it was as silent as death down the hallway. I wondered what they were up to and kept my ears open, listening for the slightest sound that I could register as being out of place. I knew they couldn’t get to me directly, so they would have to find another way, as I didn’t see them giving up and just letting me leave now. I had taken the life of their dear Professor, so I knew that at least Morris was aware of what the sick bastard had been doing all along.

It was at this moment that I heard the familiar sound of the rotor blades beating the air and knew that Johnny and Kember had made it to the chopper. I felt the weight on my shoulders, which I didn’t even know was there to begin with, dissipate, although it didn’t last long, and it screamed to me why the gunfire had stopped. I could no longer hear any of the Guards. They had to be going for the chopper. Not good.

Johnny would be on his toes, especially with all the Guards in the complex running crazy and shooting, and I was comfortable with him watching my daughter. He wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her, he never had in the past, but my concern was not for weather or not he would defend her. It was based solely on the fact that with the blades turning, the turbine roaring, and the gunfire below, he might not hear them creeping up on him. The last thing I needed right now was a hostage situation to deal with.

I grabbed the radio and quickly brought it to my mouth.

Several more bangs upon the door called my attention back to the dead outside. A week above ground had started to take its toll on them, leading me to believe that none of them would be able to run, which meant I could easily get away from them. “They shuffle. I run. No problem,” I said aloud.

The intensity of the gunfight still surged through my veins. With my weapon topped off and eager to send anyone in my way straight to hell, I made the first in a series of mistakes, which would ultimately spell disaster if I didn’t learn to make better choices. I pushed my body around the corner, instead of making the call to Johnny, expecting to see only those I had shot and came face-to-face with a single Guard. The barrel of his Glock was just inches from my face, but the suppressor on my SBR was just inches from his chest. We both froze as if not expecting the other to be there.

“Freeze,” he said. “Drop your weapon and put your hands up.”

I was close enough to actually see the bullet in the chamber, yet it all happened so fast that the fear was still lagging behind, which was a good thing. Soon it would catch up to me though and I would be at the mercy of its indecisive throws.

The Guard slapped my rifle away and had it not been for the one pint sling holding it firmly to my body, it would have fallen away and made me a very easy target. With the next full motion, he pushed me backward as I fought to keep the barrel of his Glock from crossing my face once more. If I failed he would splatter my brains all over the far wall and I was done for.

The far wall met us with a violent collision. I took most of the force and had to fight to keep conscious, although breathing became difficult, I still pressed forward and attempted to push him off of me. His hand spun wildly and it took both my hands just to keep his power from overwhelming me. In the back of my mind I wished for the Young Woman and her shooting abilities, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen this time. I was on my own against the world and to stay alive I would have to be worse than those things that were trying to kill me.

I screamed as I fought with the Guard. His gun went off a few times and my ears felt as though they had been hit by those bullets. Everything around me was fading slowly and I had to do something bright within the next few seconds or else.

“You’re going to die, right here!” He shouted.

Two more shots exited his pistol before I was able to swing it to my right. Another shot was fired and hit the chain holding the double doors closed, yet neither of us realized that. I was focused on counting his rounds and planning a massive counter-attack when he was empty – if I lived that long.

He punched at me, missed and hit the wall, squealed like a little girl and gave me enough time to better take control of the weapon in his hand while I used my right hand to retrieve my own pistol. I shoved it into his stomach and watched the fear light in his eyes. He was too busy trying to keep control of his own gun that he didn’t have the time to swat mine away.

I fired once.

He flinched and looked into my eyes, astounded that I had shot him point blank. I’d never been so close to someone that I was in the process of killing before. So far it had been from a distance or from cover. I saw not only the pain in his eyes, but also the fear and realization that he was about to die. Death had a nasty, yet in your face, kind of way to show you that you were not in control.

I saw my moment of opportunity in this struggle between life and death and I took it. I pushed off the wall and we both stumbled somehow, although I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, losing my grip on him halfway through the movement. He tried to catch himself, but he was too far off balance to do anything other than flail forward while trying unsuccessfully to stop. He hit the double doors and the left door partially opened. He quickly turned around to see me still trying to recover from being off balance myself. “I got you now!” He shouted and brought his Glock up to shoot me, however, before he could get a bead on me, the door was abruptly pulled open and he turned his head to see several of the undead engulf him. He screamed as they grabbed and pulled him out into the night. His weapon discharged several times and two of the dead closest to the door entered the complex after me.

I shot both of them down and headed down the hallway.

The Guard’s screams for mercy filled my ears as I ran down the hallway. I tried to block them out, but I knew what they were doing to him and it wasn’t right, no matter how vile he was or how warped his mind had become. No one should have to endure the death he was experiencing, especially one just following orders.

It took all of the fortitude I had to keep moving. There was nothing I could do for him now. He had ultimately sealed his own fate the moment he moved into this complex and let others seduce him into their wicked deeds.

Chapter Nine.

Johnny had the chopper running. Its huge blades swept through the air in an endless circle, blasting the turbine exhaust toward the roof and kicking up years of debris. He had strapped Kember into the seat beside him and took turns scanning the instrument cluster, and then the roof ahead of him. The bird sat facing the roof access, allowing him a perfect view if anyone were to approach them, giving him ample time to pull his weapon and defend them if needed. The Guards would have to scale the walls of the complex or use another roof access in order to get to them from a different angle.

Johnny scanned behind them a few times and turned to catch Kember looking at him. Her little face appeared to hold an expression of concern, as she looked in the back seat for her daddy and couldn’t find him.

“Hey, your daddy’s’ going to be okay little one. You’ll see,” he said to her.

Kember looked at the familiar face staring back at her and seemed to understand what Johnny had said. “Daddy,” she said and smiled.

“Daddy’s coming,” he said and looked away, mumbling under his breathe. “I hope he is, anyway.”

I shot down the second hallway like a bullet. The maze of hallways had me confused and running blindly in no certain direction. I was desperately trying to find the correct one that would lead me to the roof access and the chopper that was waiting patiently for me. I just hoped I reached them before the Guard’s did. I pushed harder.

Down a second hallway I passed a large cafeteria with perfectly placed tables, organized in ten rows with three long tables per row. In the far back were the food lines and several openings to the kitchen, at least that’s what I was guessing anyway. As with other parts of the complex I had been to, it was barren and appeared to have been that way for some time.

At the end of the hallway I spotted a narrow door to the left. Upon further inspection I found a flight of gray stairs ascending out of sight. These had to be the stirs I had frantically been searching for. I spun a few times and knelt near the door, listening for the slightest sound of an ambush, as I had met no resistance thus far. Something told me they had a special present waiting for me, maybe just up those stairs where I would have no cover from their fire and would be an easy target.

I pulled the SBR close to my body, holding it by the magazine, and withdrew my pistol. In an enclosed area, such as a stairwell, my SBR would burden my movement and if they were waiting for me just out of sight, I wanted to be able to at least get a few of them before retreating, and then as they came down for me I could finish them with the short rifle.

I could sense the inherent fear trying to pulverize its way back into me, yet I remained focused on each of the landings as I came to them, instead of worrying about the fast approaching emotional state that was trying to chase me down. I moved with precise confidence and watched the floors above me like a hawk.

At the top of the stairs I could see the metal door leading out onto the roof and still hadn’t run into any Guards. Where were they? I knew they heard the chopper and that’s why they left me, but it didn’t explain why I had not heard anything from them since. My gut said that I had killed to many of them and they were going after Johnny and my Daughter to get me to cooperate with them, or give up. If they reached them first, I’d have no choice but to surrender and the moment I did, they would probably still kill Johnny and Kember in front of me as revenge for Smith.

“Maybe I took the wrong stairwell?” I said aloud. It was a possibility since I didn’t really know the layout of the school complex. My Ex had never placed me on the list to pick up my own child if something ever happened… how thoughtful of her. The Guards on the other hand would know this place, every stairwell, hallway, and cranny like the back of their own hands, so where had they gone?

No resistance equals the element of surprise.
My mind told me, although I wasn’t completely sold on that idea or that it would be in my favor. It was a fifty-fifty chance at best, but one I was willing to gamble upon.

I switched back to my short rifle and gave a few seconds of thought on how to open the door. Should I do it forcefully and rush into the unknown, or quietly and creep into it? Both ways held their own set of rules and consequences, which meant I had to take the lesser of two evils in order to ensure my survival, and those depending upon me, to live a few minutes longer.

“How do I get myself into these things?” I asked and softly put my ear to the door. I registered no noises from the other side and considered it to be safe, however, there could have been countless handguns pointed directly at the door just waiting for me to burst through it before they put me down once and for all. “Here goes nothing,” I said, psyching myself up for the unknown. “I swear to god that if I get out of this, we are flying to a deserted island somewhere and staying there, just the three of us until this thing is over with.”

I burst through the door, choosing to take the quicker of the two choices and make my presence known instantly; maybe I could catch a few of them of guard and drop their numbers even further before the bullets started flying.