undead. He screamed something, but they could not hear it over the blaring music. Amazingly the zombies stopped attacking and formed a circle around him, a circle that parted to let three super zombies move to the edges.

“You seeing this? Are you getting this?” Katie asked.

“Yeah, same as you.” said Randy, who had a small pair of binoculars to his eyes. Both of them intently watched the show as they crouched down behind the parapet of the building.

Heath stood up straight and Katie almost shot him then, she had a clear line to him and he would have died instantly. But Heath clearly mouthed 'Not yet.' very slowly. The super zombies in front of him didn't seem to notice, but he had followed up his overly slow, exaggerated words for Katie with some conversation she could not catch, it seemed to include a lot of swear words, from what she could tell. Quick as a flash the three super zombies attacked Heath, he avoided one zombie completely, brought his knife down on another one's arm, severing it between the elbow and shoulder and was hit fully by the third. Heath's knife tumbled from his hand to the ground, but he brought his pistol up and slammed it into the side of the zombie's head as they tumbled to the ground. The zombie, a heavy set Caucasian who looked to be in his mid twenties, was not killed, but released his grip on Heath's knife arm to clutch at its head. Rolling and standing Heath swept the feet out from under the zombie with the severed arm. The third, zombie an African American woman with tight, curly hair and ivory teeth charged Heath, but it was a feint and when he reacted to her charge, she ducked sideways and rolled to the ground beyond him, clutching her prize in one hand; Heath's dropped kukri. The head injured zombie was on its feet again, forcing Heath to act, he launched a kick with a heavy boot at the already injured head. He followed it up with a quick spinning backhand with his pistol that caved in the heavy set man's fore head. The zombie fell backwards and didn't move again.

“He put that pistol through the guy's skull. I know he is strong, but that is, that is just not possible.” Randy said.

“I know, and he looks like he is on fast forward, he is matching them in speed, I don't know how long he can keep that up.”

The answer was not long at all. The one armed zombie tackled Heath from the side as he was spinning to face the woman with his knife. They were both pushed towards the front of the stage by the blow, but neither fell. Heath used the opportunity to smash directly down onto the top of the grappling zombie's head, which took it out of the fight almost immediately. His victory over the second zombie was short lived when a metal blade appeared, as if by magic, cutting through his right side, just under his rib cage. The blade passed through his flesh and abdomen almost to his spine and he immediately sagged downward. The woman caught him by the neck from behind and supported him with one hand. Letting go of the knife she spun him around and held him up in front of her. Heath's head slumped to one side, bringing his face into Katie's view, a bubble of blood formed on his lips.

“Do it.” Randy said gruffly.

Katie looked at her lover, he was a pale gray now, sweating profusely from the exertion of climbing the stairs while wearing his camo suit. His breathing was still ragged, while hers had slowed down to normal after the long climb up. She nodded and sighted down her rifle, looking towards the strip of green between them and the water front. A moment later a single shot rang out and both he and Katie slumped quickly behind the parapet of the building out of sight.

Chapter 43

“What the fuck just happened?” Harry shouted, clutching his head. Aubrey slumped against a counter set to one side of the main hall.

“My guess.” she started as she pulled herself up and dusted off her shirt, “Is that Ramey just got killed in Nebraska. We've got to pull the zombies into Iowa now, while they are still close by.” Aubrey's voice was cold and logical. “This is going to take some effort.”

“How?” Harry started, then simply nodded and closed his eyes. “It is a battle of wills and we are five hundred miles away!”

“We'll give up the center and pull zombies in from Kansas City and from the north, near, Sioux City. That will keep them busy for the time being, even if the main attacks are disjointed.”

“What about the east side?”

“We wait a day, let the west side draw the reinforcements away, then we crash the party with everyone we have there.”

“How did this happen?”

“We underestimated Ramey's opponent. It had to be one of Neil's guys. Fucking Sentry was a moron to decentralized control like this.”

Harry nodded, a light sheen of blood had broken out on his forehead, a few minutes went by before Ella barged through the front doors of the Art Institute, “There is gunfire from two different areas outside, I thought we only had one group of people to deal with?”

Harry looked at Aubrey, “Well?”

“Collect these local guys, now we need them alive more than ever. Have Ella do it, she hasn't really been that useful anyway.”

Ella folded her arms and responded acidly, “Don't let her talk to me like that! Make her go clean up this mess, she is the one who didn't tell you they were coming into town!”

Aubrey looked levelly at Ella, “Ella, I do not have time for this shit. Can you control thousands of zombies from five hundred miles away? How about even one zombie from a block away?”

The other woman sputtered and pointed, then Harry intervened, “What Aubrey means Ella, is that your talents would be better served running down the ten or so people with the guns, I am sure you can get them here in one piece for us to…play with. Just take care of this for me would you? I need to have a few very stern words with Aubrey and then her and I need to finish up this other little problem that I haven't had a chance to tell you about. So please, could you run these humans down?”

Ella folded her arms across her chest, Aubrey pointedly ignored her by closing her eyes. Finally Harry cleared his throat and asked, “Please dear?”

“I don't have to bring them all back do I?”

Sighing Harry said, “I supposed you can play with one. Only one! Pick someone young and stupid looking and make sure he isn't damaged so much that we can't pick his brains if we need to bring him back to health. Just in case he knows something.”

Smiling Ella said, “Okay Harry! I will do it! You can count on me.” Beaming the woman pointed out a couple of super zombies who were still holding the doors open and said, “Come with me boys we are going after some bad guys!”

The doors silently closed and Aubrey cracked one eye and said, “She is high maintenance.”

“A bitch too. I think our experiment is about over with her.”

“I hope she brings some of them back alive. We will need the energy, we can kill them and question them afterward. I wonder what would happen if we drained their blood out and then fed it to them, would the energy from their own blood be enough to bring them back? We know the blood holds onto it longer than it takes for someone to die.”

Harry shook his head, “You come up with the damnedest things. We can try it. We will, unless we need it too badly.”

Chapter 44

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