Day 352 - Untitled Zombie Story Chapter 8.3 - (1,522 words)

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UNTITLED ZOMBIE STORY

By Wayne Webb

Chapter 8.3

He was down on the ground and hugging the sides of the buildings, the alleyways between them were thin and blocked off at each end by the exterior walls in most cases, sometimes there was a tight gap between the wall and the building, but mostly it was just a series of dark enclaves he could negotiate and sink into if there was anyone passing by.

The town, if that’s what it really was, seemed devoid of life with the exception of the guards and the reception at the hospital. From his vantage point he could seen nothing of the residential areas of the town, and there had to be some right? I mean why go to the effort of walling in the center of small country town and then guarding it so closely, if there were no people inside to guard?

He was making his way around the southern edge of the town, using the walls and alleyways as cover, though he was apparently in little danger of being caught. The devices that kept the undead at bay outside the walls were sufficient protection and inside there was no population to protect so the guards were essentially guarding nothing.

Except for that Clinic/Hospital at the opposite side of the center square of the town.  Either the town was named Hereford or the Hospital was. He had been driving with Derek for the better part of a day away from the last place he recognized, the city where they had exchanged Margaret for the annoyingly perky and possibly psychotic Angela.

They could be anywhere, states and borders had little meaning these days apart from abandoned towns with signs proclaiming allegiances and state birds on them.  There were plenty of people alive but Derek could not attest to how many that was. People were spread few and far between these days, and he hoped James had found some nice ones in that new City that Ben had been espousing, but with the way things had been turning out since going off with Mr. Johnson, he had wondered if he had not abandoned his brother to a worse fate than his own.  Of course now he knew it for certain, James had been drugged and brought here.

It made no sense, why would Ben split them up like that and then risk it all by leaving him in the car with that Angela person?

A few buildings further along and within a hundred more feet of the hospital entrance he froze as he heard the muffled sound of gunfire and then an explosion in the distance. Derek pressed himself into the wall of the next building her was going to pass and slid back into the darkness, waiting for whatever came next.

There was more gunfire, it sounded very muffled, like maybe it was inside the building, then more of a crumpled boom like the explosion too was being muffled by cotton wool. Whatever was going down was violent and prolonged and maybe he should be considering a different direction.

This town was not his problem. Getting James and himself free was the problem at hand, and the problems of this town and whoever was in this gunfight were not his concern.

Derek was tensing his body to run silently back the way he had come along and find an alternate route away from the violence and the gunplay when he felt the wall he was leaning against vibrate with a deep bass beat. A rhythmic beat that was heavy and he swore he could hear music over top of it, stirring and swelling like the end of  a symphony, a natural crescendo.

Then came the applause and the building shook and moved in time with a few hundred feet.

He knew what he had stumbled across all of a sudden and a new plan came to him just then.

Derek moved to the front of the alleyway and peered around the corner to see the same façade that he had not spotted before as he entered the alleyway from the rear this time around through a two foot access way and clambering over some of the building materials left over from propping up the walls of the town.

This was a movie theatre, and the residents of the town were apparently inside enjoying a film. That was the gunfire and the explosions, the music and the sudden rush of movement as the movie ended. There would be a substantial amount of people exiting the front of the cinema in a few minutes by the feel of the vibrations.

It would be the perfect cover, he just needed to blend into the crowd and not look at anyone directly, just move confidently on his own and walk calmly across the square if anyone was going that way. If not then they were potentially going to go places beyond or nearby and he could get where he wanted to be much quicker and easier.

The crowd poured out into the street and there was a few hundred people, jostling and all talking at once, excited about the film. Once a few dozen people had moved onto the sidewalk past where he was Derek boldly stepped out and just walked in behind a group of men and women who were talking very loudly about the film. He went a few meters and then peeled away, as if he had forgotten something was turning back to go and get it while he could.

He ran at a light jogging pace and crossed most of the distance to the hospital entrance where a few people were milling about and obviously going to go inside the building. A woman carrying a couple of bags and a box tripped and fell right in front of him, she was heading to the hospital too and the contents of her load went all over the road they were crossing.

Derek did not think and started to help her gather them up instantly, regretting making himself so conspicuous like that but unable to help himself out of this habit of being a gentleman.

“Let me help you with that Ma’am.” He offered quietly and naturally and started gathering papers.

The woman who wore a name badge with her photo on it, was named Sarah Wong and she was flustered and annoyed by her clumsiness, she did not look at Derek’s face she just sighed heavily and acted embarrassed at her spill.

“Thank you, thank you, I’m just going to the Clinic, do you mind? I’m sorry I don’t know your name… do I?”

“Tom.” Said Derek, and looked her straight in the eye with what he hoped was a charming and winning smile, something that his brother did naturally and he did never when he did not have to.

“Tom? Oh yes Tom. Of course, I am sorry I should have remembered, I am terrible at names, sorry.” She had accepted his presence and did not realsise that she had never met before. She was probably used to running into people and not recalling who they were, so acceptance was her coping mechanism in social situations like this one.

Derek just nodded and picked up the box as Sarah placed sheaf after sheaf of her work into the box. “Sorry” she said again, “I was in a bit of a Rush and left home a little late, I should have dropped these off before the movie… but I was late and I didn’t want to miss anything, it’s been a while you see.”

Derek understood he was supposed to respond, but he was unsure how to do so without giving away that he was not a local.

They were walking towards the Clinic entrance and the guards that were there looked their way briefly and then dismissed them as irrelevant, making them essentially invisible after that.

Perfect. Thought Derek,  but then he felt like Sarah was waiting for him to say something but he could not think what.

“What did you think?” He said and nodded back at the cinema building.

“Oh I have seen it before, but it’s … it’s the experience of going out and seeing a movie. With people you know? I thought before … you know, before… that I would not miss the crowds and the masses of insensitive jerks who over populate the cities, but now?” Sarah smiled and looked at Derek with some admiration.  “Afterwards? Well it’s good that we picked who we picked right? I mean no one would have stopped to help me before the Cull. But you did.”

The Cull? Derek picked up on the word having extra meaning, but he did not know what, he would have to come back to that.

He opened his mouth to say something when an explosion half the town away rudely interrupted him, by the front gate, which was now swinging open, and the undead, no longer passive and quiet, were shuffling in through and into the town.

Everyone in the street froze for a minute and Derek included, he had no idea what was going on.