Die Dead Enough Read online

  "Get out of there!" they could hear. "We'll try to clear the way, but you got to go!"

  The gunshots rang out again, blasting chunks of flesh from the zombies, dropping dozens more. Conor stomped on the gas pedal and shoved his way through the crowd, the van picking up speed as the rear end swung to and fro, tires spinning on the guts and gore that now covered the pavement. Then, as one, the creatures turned their heads toward the rooftop, their mouths stretching open in a unified roar, and they bolted for the building.

  Aiden could see it happening from the passenger side as the van peeled off down the street.

  "No... oh, man...they are fucked. These things are attracted to sound," he moaned as he stared back behind them at the disappearing stampede that converged on the source of the unforgiving bullets. He could see the zombies crashing through windows and doors, some climbing the very walls to try to reach the gunmen. "They saved us, but they doomed themselves..."

  The intersection was jammed with cars, several now on fire as people ran in every direction, many chased by zombies. Conor had to jerk the wheel to the left to avoid a mindless group of men, running haphazardly across the street, one holding the bleeding stump of his arm. The van's tires squealed as the vehicle changed direction, now heading west down Laclede's Landing Boulevard.

  "Watch it, man!" Gibby called out from just behind Conor's head. "This is a one-way street - and you're going the wrong way!"

  Conor didn't have time to talk as he weaved around stalled cars and try to avoid the clusters of maddened monsters that had now taken over the city. Everywhere people were dying, devoured by the things.

  Fires had broken out in many places, throwing stark shadows into the street as they raced past. On their right they passed an alleyway, a flurry of action grabbing their attention as they witnessed a large man defending his woman with a tire iron. He was swinging the thing viciously around his head in a circle as the zombies surrounded him, half-rotten faces intent on tasting his flesh.

  "Hold it," Aiden said, staring intently through the glass. "Conor, isn't that Klaus?"

  "What?" Conor replied as he slowed the van to take a look. There was no mistaking his friend, big dude, white goatee. Conor called him Klaus the Viking. "Jesus, it is!"

  Conor paused for a moment, staring at the steering wheel, conflicted.

  I can't just ignore this. Klaus's been my friend for a long, long time.

  "Slide the side door open, Gibby," Conor said, glancing around outside.

  "Fuuuuck that!" came the response.

  "Goddammit," Aiden cursed, spinning and jumping in the back seat, shoving Gibby to the side. He quickly peered over the seat into the rear for some sort of weapon. Microphone stand. He leaned over, snatched one from the back and disassembled it, spinning the base free and throwing it to the side.

  Aiden quickly slid the door open, mic stand in hand.

  "Klaus! Klaus! Over here!" he shouted and immediately, dead-things spun on their heels, bodies swaying as they considered this new attraction. "It's Aiden, Conor's brother!"

  Klaus turned, searching for the source of the voice, his wife clinging to him, trying to hide her face in his back. He split another zombie's skull and then noticed the van, his eyes growing wide with hope. They could see him mouth something to his wife and her head pop up as Klaus kicked out at another pair of monsters as they came for him.

  "Come on, man!" Conor called out, noticing groups of zombies beginning to stampede toward them. "There's no more time!"

  Klaus made a break for it, cracking another across the skull with the tire iron and shouldering it to the side. It fell to its back, its arms and legs still jerking and clawing out for victims. Klaus pulled his wife along, a blonde-haired woman a little on the large side, who was not making his job any easier. She was too frightened to cooperate and each time she saw another zombie, she froze in place.

  They were only a hundred yards from the van.

  "Hurry up!" Aiden said as a zombie reached the van and lurched toward him, its jaw hanging oddly on its face, Cardinals baseball cap seemingly welded to its decayed forehead. Aiden kicked out, sending the thing stumbling backward, but another joined it, grabbing Aiden by the jacket and nearly pulling him from the van. He had almost lost his balance and pitched headfirst into the street, but Gibby grabbed him by the collar and hauled him back into the seat.

  Aiden drove the microphone stand into the thing's eye. It went deeper than he expected - perhaps because the tissue had been dead for some time - the stand breaking through the back of the skull and shooting black, chunky brains everywhere. The microphone stand became stuck, the zombie impaled on it, reaching out for Aiden, its remaining eye focused on him with an animal hatred.

  More were on their way.

  Aiden braced himself and kicked out, yanking the stand out, falling back into the seat.

  Klaus and his wife had nearly reached the sidewalk, but suddenly the woman fell. They could see that a legless zombie had grabbed her around the ankle and ripped her from Klaus's grasp. Klaus spun and shouted her name, racing back to stomp on the thing, his heavy boot caving in the front of the thing's head. He pulled her to her feet, but another group of zombies had reached them, fingernails and teeth reaching out for them.

  "Shit!" Aiden said and jumped from the van, sprinting toward them. He ducked as a zombie came from behind a parked car, its arms outstretched, reaching for his head. It missed him completely, but headed for the open door of the van. Gibby, upon seeing this, nearly shit himself, reaching back for the door handle. He was shoved back as Conor launched himself into the back seat.

  "You close that door and I'll kill you. We're not leaving my brother here to die," Conor said in anger. The zombie reached them, jaws chomping as it leaned into the van. Conor kicked out as hard as he could, the thing's sternum cracking as his Doc Martin caved in its chest. All those years of Tae Kwon Do finally paid off, it seemed.

  The creature was not deterred, only coughing up a black foam and returning.

  Conor glanced around him for some sort of weapon, but there was nothing near at hand. On instinct he grabbed the door handle and jerked the van's door closed on the zombie's head, globs of cold blood leaping from its eye sockets and hitting the front of his shirt. He reopened the door and shoved the thing out, where it collapsed in the gutter.

  "You guys, come on!" Conor screamed as Aiden slammed into the group of zombies that had cornered Klaus. He held the microphone stand across his body and used it to shove the six or so monsters back as Klaus pulled his wife around them and lumbered toward Conor's van.

  Aiden had knocked the zombies from their feet, but they had pulled the microphone stand from his hands. He quickly turned and fled, passing Klaus as he made for Conor and Gibby.

  "Come on, dude," he said, pulling Klaus by the elbow. "Shit's getting hot out here..."

  "No kidding," Klaus replied, his breathing rapid and hoarse from the exertion. "We just have to make it to the van, Diane. You can do this."

  "I can't breathe, honey," she gasped, literally hanging from his shirt. "and my leg hurts bad."

  "It's just a few more steps," Aiden said, grabbing her by the arm and helping Klaus carry her forward. To their right an elderly couple fell beneath a biting cluster of zombies, the old man's cane snapping as they took he and his wife to the ground. Just up the street two cars crashed into one another, their drivers now in dire straits, their vehicles swarmed by the zombies.

  Gunshots.

  Flames bursting from windows.

  The growls of the undead and the screams of the soon to be.

  It was a madhouse, the senses assaulted from every direction at once.

  "Klaus! Get in, man!" Conor shouted, waving his arms. In his peripheral vision he caught sight of a large mob of zombies running down the sidewalk toward them. Klaus, Diane and Aiden had to hurry or they would be cut off. "Aiden, get them in here!"

  At that time, Aiden also took notice of the approaching monsters and literally shoved Dia
ne from behind, both hands in her back. She lurched ahead, lost her footing and fell at the edge of the sidewalk. Klaus turned to help her up, only about eight feet away from the open van door.

  "Grab her, come on!" Conor screamed, his voice cracking as he jumped from the van and grabbed one of Diane's arms, throwing it over her shoulder. "Aiden, get in the van! Take the driver's seat!"

  The thundering of the zombies' feet on the pavement grew in volume and intensity as they closed the gap. Klaus and Conor pulled Diane to her feet, completely supporting her weight between them and dragged her to the van. Conor jumped inside, helping Klaus as he helped Diane into the door.

  Klaus was not fast enough.

  Decomposing fingers wrapped around one of Diane's outstretched legs and began to pull. Immediately the single zombie was joined by others, also latching on to the lower half of her body.

  "No!" Klaus cried out, jerking Diane backward with all his strength. "Conor, help me! They've got her!"

  Conor jumped to his side, wrapping his hands around Diane's arm and kicking out with his boot, catching a zombie square in the face. It did not phase the thing. Even together, Klaus and Conor were far outnumbered. The resistance was too great.

  "Fuck!" Conor shouted as he nearly lost his grip. The zombies were crazed, having fresh meat within their grasp and they began to tear at her legs and bite with their bloody teeth. She screamed so loud that Conor's ears rang even after a night of performing. Diane slid farther out of the van, the tug-of-war shifting heavily into the zombies' favor.

  "God, no..." Klaus moaned as the strain became to much for his arms. "Please...Diane!"

  She was thrashing in pain and terror, knowing what fate had befallen her. She turned and caught their eyes and they could see her pure fright as her shoes came free and teeth sank into her feet, blood squirting into the night air.

  There was no way to save her.

  The zombies were crawling up her body toward the van, ripping her clothing and flesh as they sought out more meat.

  "We gotta let her go, Klaus..." Conor said, kicking at the zombies that began to move closer. "It's too late."

  "No. I can't!" Klaus screamed, his arms bulging with the effort. Suddenly he fell backward, the weight somehow less heavy. He was able to pull Diane up a bit, her head level with his chest. Her face turned and he could see that she was in complete shock and incoherent.

  "Klaus, let her go." Conor said, pointing down below into the horde. They had torn one of her legs from her body and were in the process of brutally consuming it. Blood pulsed from the stump, several of the monsters dropping to their knees to lap it up with their blackened tongues.

  When Klaus saw this, he howled in grief, the sound of it vibrating the roof of the van. He put his hand to Diane's cheek, the zombies now returning to her other leg, trying to pull her away once more. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head and her mouth hung open. She was so far gone that the pain no longer registered.

  "Diane? Diane, I'm sorry, Honey..." Klaus whispered, tears and snot running down his face as he cried.

  From up the street another large horde of zombies came running, their skeletal arms flailing about as if they swam through the air.

  "Klaus!" Aiden shouted, revving the engine and pulling the van forward a few feet. "I'm sorry, man, but it's over. You have to let her go!"

  Conor was kicking out like a madman, keeping the dead things from climbing into the van. He was scratched all over his forearms. He would soon be overrun.

  Klaus looked to Conor, then back to Diane. He gritted his teeth and cursed, slamming his fist against the floor of the van.

  "I love you..." he mumbled as he kissed her forehead and with a long sigh, he released her, the zombies instantly tearing her away. He closed his eyes as Conor smashed another one in the face and slid the door shut. One of the creatures managed to get its arm inside as the door slammed, chopping it from its body. It fell to the floor, fingers clasping, then opening, reaching out for anything to destroy.

  "Aiden, go!" Conor called out and the tires squealed, the rear-end of the van swinging out wide as Aiden pulled away from the curb, throwing everyone across the back seat. The van scraped the side of several parked cars as he regained control and roared up the street. There were dead bodies everywhere, most being gnawed upon and dismembered. In the flickering firelight, people ran in every direction, their shadows bouncing around chaotically, making the entire scene one of confusion.

  It took no time at all for downtown St. Louis to be completely overwhelmed by the living corpses, those who were bitten almost instantly transforming into more of the same and carrying on the bloodbath.

  "Where you going, Aiden?" Gibby asked from just behind his left ear. It seemed as if the van had been going in circles and never truly managing to leave the city. Aiden had shattered the right headlight on his way out of the Landing and one wiper was standing straight up after a group of zombies had been struck, rolling over the hood before they hurtled past.

  "I don't know," Aiden said, biting his lip. "All the major streets are blocked. Everyone had the same idea - get the fuck outta Dodge. Not sure where to go, just need time to think..."

  "This is insanity," said Conor, now sitting in the passenger seat. "I mean, this shit's just not possible, is it? Am I losing my mind?"

  "The stories were all true, man," Klaus said in a low voice from the back. "That shit in Korea, those videos... all true."

  They all spun to look at him, this being the first thing he had said since losing his wife.

  "It's the goddamned end of the world," he added, putting his head in his hands. "It just can't be real..."

  It was a strange sight - seeing the big guy brought to tears - and the others looked away in discomfort.

  Things that could only be zombies slammed against the van as it cruised down the littered street. Aiden had nowhere to go, all the main avenues of escape impassable, but he didn't dare stop. He knew that eventually they would run out of gas and have no choice. Then they would be done for.

  "We need a place to hide, like right now," Gibby said staring out the side window at the massacre that now had the undead outnumbering the living. "What about the Arch?"

  "Fuck no!" Conor said. "That's a stupid idea. Even if you could get up to the top, you'd be trapped up there. You'd starve to death. When we drove by, the base was swarming with those bastards. No way."

  Gibby turned back to the window, feeling defeated. It had been a stupid idea, but what else could they do?

  "We need to reach the top of a building," Aiden said, staring at the nearby rooftops as they drove by. "But getting to the top... that's going to be nearly impossible."

  "Yeah, but that might be our only hope," Conor replied.

  They rounded a corner, turning left, feasting monsters covering the center of the street. As the headlight hit them, many of them turned, bloodshot eyes staring in insatiable hunger, entrails hanging from their teeth. Aiden swung the van wide, the tires going up on the sidewalk as he passed, clipping a mailbox and sending it rolling.

  They could hear and feel the zombies claw at the vehicle with a grating sound, like the proverbial chalkboard. Aiden accelerated, covering three blocks in no time, leaving the corpses behind. He took another left, having no other option. A burned out Greyhound bus blocked the street on the right and a brick building had collapsed straight ahead, flames licking the sky.

  As he straightened the van, his light hit a group of people sprinting down the sidewalk. About two-hundred yards ahead of them, a man stood holding a manhole cover open, helping others descend the iron rungs that led below.

  "That's it!" Aiden called out, pointing to the group. "The sewer tunnels are as safe as any place right now. Come on!"

  He slammed on the brakes just ahead of the man holding the sewer lid, the tires screeching much louder than he had intended. They could hear the man shouting at them but could not make out his words.

  "Right! Grab whatever's important to you and l
et's get the fuck out of here! Get the flashlight out of the glove compartment," Conor said. He reached over and pulled the keys from the ignition, then turned the volume knob on the radio all the way up. He crossed into the back seat, then into the cargo area. He grabbed two guitar cases and passed one up front to Aiden. "No way I'm leaving this."

  "I heard that," replied Aiden, motioning to the sliding side door next to Klaus. "Klaus? You ready, man? We gotta scoot."

  Klaus sighed and nodded slowly, reaching for the door handle.

  "You guys ready?" he said, looking from face to face.

  "Wait!" Gibby said, throwing his hands up. "What about my shit? Who's gonna help me?"

  "You expect us to carry all of your drums down there?" Aiden asked. "Not gonna happen, dude. Besides, they're not gonna fit down that manhole. Leave it. We gotta go."

  Gibby grumbled, tucking his drumstick bag under his arm and staring at his equipment in the back of the van.

  That shit cost me an arm and a leg... and a nut.

  "Here we go, guys," Klaus said and threw the door to the side. The crazed sounds of the besieged city hit them as they jumped down to the street and they could feel the tension around them. Gibby was the last one out and he slammed the door behind him, praying that his drums remained unharmed.

  Conor glanced up and down the street. It seemed clear of zombies for now, but it was difficult to tell without working streetlights.

  "Go," he said and made a crouching run for the manhole and the dozen or so people that were in the process of entering it. The others were right behind him, their shoes scuffing the pavement loudly as they crossed.

  "No!" someone barked as they drew close. The man with supporting the manhole cover was shaking his head vigorously. "Get away. We found this place. You find your own. We'll be safe here and I don't trust anyone right now. Now get going!"

  "Quiet, buddy," Gibby said, finger to his lips. "Noises bring these things runnin'. Now give us a break and let us in."