J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

Other lights found their way to it, peering through the smoke her weapon had belched out, and the other three approached slowly from behind.

The magazine of Zoe's rifle hit the concrete floor with a loud, metallic clack and she reached behind her for another, her eyes still on the zombie she had just killed.

One of the soldiers behind her assured, "I think you got him."

"Okay," one of the men at the control panel announced. "I've switched over to natural gas. The boiler's heating up and the generator should restart in a few minutes."

A moment passed and everyone waited silently.

The generator clicked loudly, then there was something of a scrape from within it. It began to turn with a loud whine, faster and faster until its mechanical whines became a steady hum. The lights flickered, then slowly they began to come back on, one by one, and in another half a moment the entire room was illuminated.

Looking around them with wide eyes, the team finally realized that every shadow and every open doorway, every gap between panels, everywhere there were zombies staring at them. Each team member turned a full circle, seeing that they were surrounded, and weapons were held ready as the zombies began to lumber forward.

"Okay," the soldier beside Zoe started. "I think we could really have done without the lights."

Zoe reached behind her and took another magazine from her back pocket, and as she slapped it into her weapon, she suggested, "Maybe you guys should find a safe place to shoot from. I'm going to see if I can find the other guys." Without waiting for anyone to respond to her, she pulled back the bolt on her M-4 and let it slam back into place with a loud clack, then she turned and strode right at a group of seven zombies that was advancing. As expected, they largely ignored her, but they appeared to be moving differently, more deliberately and their steps were less clumsy. She barely took a mental note when she raised her weapon to the closest one, about twenty feet away, and took careful aim. Pulling the trigger once, she sent her round perfectly into his forehead, and he fell just as she expected. Stopping her advance to steady her aim, she fired again and another fell, then another, and another. Her sixth shot missed, but her seventh connected. Turning to her right, she fired on others as they emerged from an open room, dropping three of them before they could make much progress toward their quarry.

All knew that ammunition would be an issue and everyone took careful aim. Each shot had to count, and nearly every one did.

The door that had been scratched up clicked and it was pushed open, and Zoe found her aim going that way, but she lowered her weapon as she saw four soldiers and Zachary's father emerge and assume defensive positions around the door, and they all took aim at the zombies that were advancing on the rescue team.

With this part of the fight under control, Zoe turned and trotted around the big generator to find other zombies that were not being fired on already, and she would not be disappointed.

Another door across the room led into a dark hallway and more were emerging. They were about fifty feet away, but Zoe wanted to be nice and close to them so she raised her weapon to her eye and advanced with steady steps, and at about fifteen feet she began to shoot. One after another fell and they seemed oblivious as to why. When her weapon made an empty click and her bolt locked open, she dropped the spent magazine and reached around her back for another, slapping it in place in a couple of seconds and releasing the bolt to allow it to slam back into place and chamber her next round.

A growl and some maniacal cry sounded from her left and she looked to see one of them wearing a white tee shirt and blue jeans charging her at a fast run. He was forty feet away and advancing on her like some beast from her nightmares, and she backed away, raising her weapon to her eye. Too focused and excited to be afraid, she let the mad-dog zombie close to within about ten feet before she pulled the trigger, and she fired three times, hitting it twice in the head before it reached her. Moving aside, she watched as it fell to the floor right where she had been standing.

This side of the room was suddenly clear and she glanced about to find any stragglers. Still hearing gunfire from the other side of the generator, she turned and ran that way, pausing as she came up on a group of zombies that was still on their slow, methodical advanced toward the people who fought desperately to defend themselves. Raising her weapon, Zoe picked them off one by one at close range, and when the last one fell, the gunfire from the other side ceased and only the loud hum of the generator could be heard.

Over the generator, Zoe yelled, "Hey guys. I'm coming around, okay? Nobody shoot me!"

"Come on, Princess," one of the soldiers yelled back. "You're clear."

Hesitantly, she strode around the generator, leaning forward to see that no one was aiming at her, and as she saw the first of the team, she strode faster toward them and reported, "I ran into one of those mad-dog ones over there and it tried to get me but I got it instead."

The woman soldier nodded to her and confirmed, "We shot three of them."

Alfred leaned his shotgun against the pipe rail that surrounded the generator and shook his head. "First time I seen them mad-dogs runnin' with the regulars."

The engineer informed, "It sounds like they're evolving, much faster than anyone thought they would." He looked to the control panel and added, "We also need to get more generators on line and we should see about shutting down grids. The draw's too much with the current level of consumption."

"Suddenly leave hundreds of survivors in the dark?" another soldier barked.

"They're in the dark now," the engineer pointed out. "Look. We have limited resources here. I don't know how long the natural gas reserves will hold out, we got no way to get coal here and we've got to cut back usage somehow or we'll blow this thing up, and then we'll have real problems."

"Bottom line is," the engineer started grimly, "someone's going to have to stay here and babysit this thing. We've been damn lucky the last month or so that it held out like it did. We're also going to have to go through the city and shut off everything in the hospital's grid that's running that we don't need running."

"Gonna be dark, soon," Alfred observed.

Silence gripped them, interrupted only by the hum of the generator.

One of the soldiers removed a radio from his belt and headed toward the exit. "I'd better inform the Colonel that we'll be staying tonight. We should also take stock of what ammo we have left and what food and water we can find in this place."

CHAPTER 10

The night went without incident. Sentries were posted at the only ways in and relieved every two hours, but nothing more was seen and no more zombies approached. Few of them slept for more than an hour or so.

A couple of hours before dawn, Zoe succumbed to fatigue and she found herself wandering toward the conference room that had been selected for their rally point. The room had a long, oval table in it, comfortable, deep cushioned leather chairs surrounding it, and two couches of the same leather on one wall. There was a refrigerator that still had food and cans of soda in it, a pantry on one end with a small sink and even a few bottles of liquor were found. It was a comfortable room and two members of the team were already there when Zoe arrived, her hat pulled down low over her eyes and her rifle slung clumsily over her shoulder.

She stopped inside and looked to one of the couches, seeing Zachary was already there, sitting on one end of the closest couch with a blanket over him. His head was down and resting in his palm, his elbow was propped on the arm of the couch and held his head up and he appeared to be dozing.