Waking Up Dead

Chapter Five

Jackson wasn’t sure how long she’d been waiting in the rec center, it might have been fifteen minutes, maybe even a half hour. Time seemed to stretch, or sometimes even compress, when adrenaline was calling the shots, and she had no wristwatch to tell her how many seconds had ticked by.

Part of her was antsy to head back out. The waiting was almost agonizing. But the sensible part, the bit that had kept her alive for so freaking long, held her in place, hands clenched around Mandy, legs shaking ever so slightly. But was that any wonder? Jackson had ran her skinny ass off, through gardens, side roads, over fences, managing to lose her half of the super-sized pack in the process.

Hiding out until she calmed some, and could be sure they were well and truly gone, was the sensible thing to do, and she’d taken plenty of precautions to ensure they couldn’t find her. The Lynx aftershave from the last of her stash, splashed on the entrance door, would help. Jackson wasn’t sure when it became common knowledge that the zombies had an issue with certain types of aromas, that they avoided places that stunk a certain way. It seemed like one of those facts that just was. Like cellulite.

The pole she’d found on the floor of the room that housed the swimming pool gave her an extra line of defense. Jackson had pushed it through the heavy double doors, barricading herself inside. She decided to wait in the swimming pool room because of that one door. One way in, one way out, and if the pack found her, she imagined she could create a funnel effect. Picking them off just as Tye had suggested.

Tye. Her heart clenched in a nasty sort of way as she imagined him sprinting to the boutique. She hoped to God he made it. That he’d managed to kill the pack, or better yet shake them off.

Though they’d only been together for a month, he was like a brother to her. A big, annoying brother yes, but one all the same, and Jackson knew that losing him would hurt. A lot. Because despite what she’d said, she had no desire to be alone again. Two years of the solitary life had been plenty and then some.

“Be safe, Tye,” she said, the words coming out as almost a croak, making her abruptly aware that she was ridiculously thirsty.

She lifted her left hand and swung her backpack off her shoulder. The food they’d risked so much for suddenly heavier than it should have been. Jackson rooted around a little until she found her flask. It was half-full of boiled and cooled rain water, and she drank almost all of it in one go. She would have liked to have poured some on her hands to remove any splatters of zombie gore that might be clinging to her skin, but there was none to spare.

She cast the swimming pool a quick look but there was no doubt that the water in there was stagnant. She’d be risking an infection having it anywhere near her. It would rain tonight. The clouds had been threatening it all day. You’ll have to wait till then, she told herself, imagining standing out in the downpour, shivering and cursing. For one moment that image was replaced with the wondrous memory of a shower. A hot shower, with strawberry-scented shampoo and vanilla shower gel. She closed her eyes as she imagined the water beating down on her shoulders…

A muted bang filled the air. The sound so alien in the quiet world that Jackson froze, her hot-water fantasy wiped away in a mere moment. What the hell was that? It sounded familiar and yet she could not place it. Another bang, this one entirely different and far too close. Metal on metal…crunching. Please let it be Tye. Let it be Tye.

Something groaned.

Jackson swung her backpack on without even thinking about it, hefted Mandy and ran to the side of the door.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Her whispered words were for herself. A way of controlling the panic that was already flooding her body—banishing the exhaustion that never seemed to go away unless she was doing this. Fighting for her life.

A second death groan rattled through the air just as another bang sounded, something almost like an explosion, but Jackson had no time to consider it. The zombie was so close, on the other side of the door already. Where were its pack mates? Why the fuck hadn’t she heard it get in?

Another groan and Jackson swallowed unsteadily, gripping Mandy tight. She knew what she had to do, and she had to do it fast. Because one thing was for sure, it didn’t groan because it kinda felt like it. It was calling other zombies to it, and they’d come. They always did, and after today who knew how many of them would answer the call? The rules were going the same way as hers used to do after one too many sangrias.

Do it fast. Funnel it through. “I’m coming, you bastard.”

The zombie hit the metal with a shriek. The sound of her voice, no, the sound of food, fueling its rage. But it was hitting from the wrong way. The door swung out, not in, so for the moment, she had the upper hand. Lifting the metal pole that ran through the handles, Jackson took short, swift breaths. Filling her lungs, flooding her body with oxygen. She was going to need it.

Another shriek and it hit the door again. Jackson pushed the pole away, where it rolled until it hit the dirty pool water. She swapped Mandy to her right hand and gripped the left handle. She had to time this right. Another bang and she moved into action. She pushed the door open just as the zombie pulled back to attack again. The edge of the door caught it in the face and it howled.

Not giving it time to move, Jackson kicked it right in the stomach. A nasty squelching noise smacked her ears and the stench of zombie pus filled the enclosed space. Jackson almost gagged.

She kicked it again, anger giving her power, the muscles in her legs straining from the action. The force of the impact pushed the zombie back into the other room so that it stumbled over a weight bench. It fell smack on its ass and shrieked. Jackson jumped forward, lifted Mandy, and cut straight through its leg, to the bone. A huge arc of pus and blood shot up, forcing her to move to avoid it, but she wasn’t quick enough. It soaked her jeans, from ankle to thigh.

“You bastard,” she screeched.

It reached out with its filthy hands, its bloodstained face screwed up in the nasty manner all their faces were. Desperate, feral, hungry.

“You want this? Fuck you!”

The machete went all the way through the leg this time, severing it. Jackson jumped over the limb, whirred behind it, and in one quick move, severed the head. A much easier job than the bigger leg. Skin, muscle, and bone were no match for Mandy’s perfectly honed blade.

More blood and pus splattered but Jackson barely gave it a second glance. She had no fucking time to. Where there was one zombie there were more. Her stay at the Pool Palace was officially over.

Quickly she stepped over the headless zombie into the cardio room, skirting around a treadmill, and then another. God, she remembered when the only exercise she got was on one of those things. Instruments of doom she’d called them. She’d run for five miles a day three times a week and back then she had thought it had killed her. Not being able to run five miles at a quick trot in today’s world would actually kill her. The irony was painful.

Pus—from the headless zombie, no doubt— was splattered over the exercise equipment. Drip, drip, drip it went as it hit the tiled floor. The sound amplified in the silence. She hated zombie pus. What did they do, projectile spit the stuff? She had no idea why the hell they were so full of the gacky yellow liquid.

She went through two more rooms before she reached the final door, which was open—though it should not have been. She’d carefully closed every door behind her not so long ago. Jackson paused, did a quick survey of the reception area, and then bent to eye the door handle. She was both surprised and a little panicked to see a splatter of gore on it. Had the zombie turned the handle? But why on this one and not the other? It made no sense. They didn’t, couldn’t open things. They just bashed through them. What was going on with the zombies today?

Another bang, and Jackson realized why it had sounded familiar. It was like an explosion, louder now, but still muted, and she felt her heart race. Could it be Tye or something completely random? She shivered as she realized she had no way to tell.