Waking Up Dead

knowledge that had quivered around the edges up till now and it hit her. With that realization her heart raced and her stomach dropped to her knees. She looked to Sebastian, to Jay, then Pete, and finally to Luke.

“Oh my God…”

“What the hell is that? What is that sound?”

The question came from the doctor, his hand paused on the door, and she realized then that Sebastian had no idea what the melody of groans meant or what the volume said about how close they were. Only she and Luke knew, only the two of them understood, and before either could even say another word, they walked forward automatically and took each other’s hands. The barriers they’d lived with for the last few days swayed before crumbling completely and green eyes found blue.

“Lock the door, Seb,” she said softly, her eyes still held with Luke’s. “They’re too close.”

“What?” Pete pushed the doctor aside and made to grab the door handle. “Of course they’re not!”

“Listen,” Luke said. “Just listen.”

And they all paused, even Pete, and they listened. The death groans were reaching a fever pitch now and combined with the sounds of God-knew-how-many feet pounding on the earth floor. Jackson guessed the zombies were maybe a dozen yards away at most. There was no time to run for the truck, no time to run at all.

Luke reached out a hand and stroked down the side of her face. Jackson leaned into his touch, shivering slightly from the feel of it.

“What the hell is that?” Pete asked. “What is it?”

“It’s pretty much the end,” Luke said, and Jackson nodded against his hand, surprised to find how much that thought hurt.

“It is at that.”

Pete growled, stepping forward, his face tight with anger. “The end? We can take down a bunch. Don’t count us out yet.”

And Jackson sighed, her hand clasping Luke’s. “A bunch yes, but not this many.”

“What many? What is it?”

Green to blue, green to blue, and nothing else but that.

“It’s a horde.”

Chapter Thirty-five

The possibilities of getting out of this one were slim. Luke knew that instinctively. This wasn’t like the fight outside Kelly’s Clothing or the bakery or even the garage. This was a whole other shit storm.

Fuck.

“We should move back into the secure room,” he said. “There are too many places out here for them to breach.”

Jackson nodded her agreement and without waiting for any of the others, they sprinted back to the smaller room. The redheaded zombie snarled when she saw them and pulled against her bonds. Her groan joined that of the horde, and Luke wondered if maybe she could hear her brothers and sisters on the other side. He looked into her calculating eyes and scowled. Alive or dead, human or no, he hated them all. The nature of their virus did not change that for him. A zombie was a zombie and the only thing they were good for was beheading.

“What’s the plan then, baby?” Jackson asked and he laughed, just like she’d wanted him to do.

“Isn’t the planning your job? You make the plan, do the plan, live the plan.”

“Yeah, ideas aren’t exactly whizzing right now,” she said. “Maybe we could tunnel out? Zombie style.”

“Um, we’ll use Sebastian’s equipment, won’t take long at all. A year or two to make camp?”

She shrugged. “A couple of years is nothing, took me that long to walk from New York to you.”

“Let’s get right on that then.”

Pete, Sebastian, and Jay barreled through the door seconds later, the doctor clearly out of breath. “I locked and barred the door,” he spluttered. “But what are we going to do? A horde means a horde right? Like a lot?”

“Yeah,” Jackson said. “A lot.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“Just working that out right now,” Luke replied.

The outer shack door juddered and Luke swallowed the ball of frantic energy trying to leap up his throat. He worked out the layout in his mind, options for escape discarded one after the other. The shack was made of some sort of concrete, and there were no windows beyond a couple of small ones in the ceiling of the main room. They were barred though and he doubted the zombies were thin enough to get through them—his group certainly wasn’t. Already they were pounding on the main door so there was no chance of getting out that way, and the only other exit door—here in the small room—had been barred up when Sebastian had taken over. Jackson had told him it worked as a possible escape, always have an exit, baby, by removing the bars. But that it would take a while to get them all free.

“Luke?” Jackson prompted. “What are you thinking?”

“That we need another door.”

The redheaded zombie groaned.

“There’s only that one.” She pointed to the corner. “It’s secure but we could leave through it from this side. Just need to get those bars off. It’ll take about ten minutes between the two of us.”

“And then what?” Pete asked. “You said loads. How many is loads?”

Luke shrugged, trying to look composed but failing epically. “About a hundred.”

“You’re fucking joking.”

“I wish.”

They pounded again, only this time zombies were pounding on the front door, the sides, and even a couple on the ceiling. “There’s the weak spot,” Jackson said, pointing upward. “It’s sheet metal. Will keep them out for maybe ten minutes.”

“Same time it takes to get the bars off.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But like Pete said, we go out there and then what? We can’t fight twenty odd each.”

“So it’s a choice between fighting and dying in here or doing it out there.”

“This room is secure,” Sebastian said. “I made sure to reinforce the roof. We can stay safe in here for maybe a half hour before they get through the second layer, or maybe go under.” He shook his head and began picking up syringes. “So yeah, a half hour?”

A huge judder sounded then and they all turned to look into the outer room and watch the main door begin to buckle.

“Fuck,” Luke breathed. “A choice between running and hoping to make it or trapping ourselves in here. Which are we going to do? Which gives us more of a chance?”

Another huge smash rumbled through the building, and the door frame began to bend. The metal door was being removed from the concrete itself, and Luke knew there must be dozens pounding against it to get that sort of effect. He swallowed drily and played the options over again—seeing nothing that would possibly work.

“Maybe we should—” He began, though he didn’t really even know what he was going to say, not that it mattered anyway, because the moment the words left his mouth the outer door collapsed, crumpling in on itself, and behind it stood more zombies than Luke could even begin to count. It was like the drive through them all over again, their snarling faces so fucking close, only this time there was no quick escape, no getting away in a handful of seconds.

“Shut the fucking door,” Pete roared. “Now.”

And Jackson leaped forward before Luke even began to move, shutting it just as the horde filled the main room.

…

The door shut with a thud that perfectly matched the racing beat thrumming through Jackson’s chest. She secured it and took just a moment to pause against the metal, taking a deep breath as she did so. Seeing the horde before—was it even the same one?—had been pretty skeevy, but this kicked its