"You"d think the water would clean them up a bit," said Kylie. "make them appear less... gruesome. I don"t know about you but I think they look even more gross and disgusting wet. Especially the ones who are missing so much skin and body parts." She shuddered. "Yuck."
"They"re pretty nasty," agreed Allie.
Justice tapped on the fuel gage. "If we don"t find a way to fill up this tank soon, you"re going to be getting a much closer view of these freaks."
Kylie paled. "What are we going to do?"
"Look for a parking ramp that"s full and easily accessible," said Justice.
"Okay," said Allie.
Justice drove slowly through the downtown streets, trying to weave around the ma.s.sive crowds of undead. When one of them walked directly into their path, he was forced to stop.
"Run him over," said Allie, as the horrible creature stared into the cab and began growling.
"You shouldn"t do that," said Kylie, growing pale. "It"s still a person."
"No," said Justice. "What made them a real person has recently "left the building"."
"But, how do you really know that?" she asked. "Maybe they"re still buried somewhere inside, somewhere."
Allie"s eyebrows shot up. "Oh, come on Kylie! Look at that beast in front of us. He"s walking with half of a skull and a missing arm. If he"s buried inside of that thing than he"ll probably thank us if we put him out of his misery."
The zombie began climbing onto the front of the hood, foaming at the mouth as it stared at them with rapture.
"Oh my G.o.d!" squealed Allie as the zombie crawled clumsily to the windshield and began licking the gla.s.s with its tongue, which was split.
"What"s wrong with his tongue?" cried Kylie.
"It"s called bifurcation. It"s a surgical procedure that splits the tongue," said Justice. "He obviously had it done before becoming a zombie."
Allie grimaced. "Seriously, he had that done on purpose? So he could look like a lizard?"
Justice laughed. "Yep."
More zombies took notice of them and began surrounding the truck, scratching at the windows and growling loudly.
"Oh that is so totally gross," shuddered Kylie as another zombie stopped next to her window, his left eye barely hanging by thin, gray tendrils of flesh. The zombie opened its mouth and planted its wormy lips against the gla.s.s, as if kissing it, pa.s.sionately.
"Okay, that"s it!" hollered Allie. "Justice, please take us out of here."
"Are you sure?" he smiled at Kylie, who was pale and looked ready to hurl.
Allie nodded, vehemently. "Just get us out of here, now."
He stepped on the gas, tossing the zombie from the hood and hitting several others along the way. Unfortunately as they moved into the next block, the "gas" light popped on.
"s.h.i.t!" he groaned.
"What....what does that mean?" asked Allie.
He turned to her. "It means that we"re screwed unless we find fuel. Right now."
"There"s a "Park" sign over there," said Kylie, pointing to the next street. "It looks like a parking ramp. We just have to make it to that building."
"We"ll make that," said Justice. "Good eye."
As they entered the next street, however, more zombies stepped into their path, slowing their progress down. When they finally reached the parking ramp, Justice swore.
"What?" asked Kylie. "We made it."
"The steering wheel is starting locking up," said Justice. "Yeah, we made but there"s no way we"re going any further. s.h.i.t!"
They coasted into the entrance and stopped right as they reached the parking ticket dispenser.
"There"s a gate," moaned Allie. "And no power to lift it."
"I was going to try crashing through it," said Justice. "But we"ve just used the last of the fuel. Looks like we"re abandoning this thing."
"How are we going to do that?!" yelled Kylie as zombies began rushing the truck from behind, climbing into the bed and surrounding them on all sides.
Justice"s head was spinning as he noticed an old bald zombie who reminded him of Gollum, from "Lord of The Rings", especially when he opened his mouth and exposed several rotted teeth. As the zombie put his face against the gla.s.s and stared at him with longing, he felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck.
Precious...
"We have to get the h.e.l.l out of here before more of these things show up," he said, turning away from the drooling zombie. "I"m going to distract them and then you two are going to run."
"Run? Where?" asked Allie.
"Get to the very top of the ramp," he said. "The roof. I"ll meet you there."
"Why don"t we try the elevators first? There"s usually a door separating the elevators and the garage."
"You forget. There"s probably no electricity for the elevators. We"ll just get trapped inside with zombies surrounding us. Just meet me at the top of the ramp and we"ll try to locate another vehicle."
"What if they get you?" cried Kylie, her lips trembling.
"I won"t let them."
"But..."
"Kylie, I"ll be fine," he said, grabbing her hand. "Don"t worry about me. Just get to the top of the ramp and hide until I meet you both there."
She nodded. "Okay."
He reached under the seat and pulled out a bat. "Take this with just in case. And here," he said, opening up the glove compartment. He pulled out a large hunting knife with a black handle. "I almost forgot about this."
"I can"t use that," said Kylie as he handed the knife to her.
"You will if you need to, unless you want to die," said Justice, handing the bat to Allie. "Now, get ready to run as soon as the zombies start chasing me."
"What are you going to use?" asked Kylie.
"My gun and I still have the machete," he said, pointing towards the bed of the truck which was now completely filled with zombies. "I just have to get to it."
"How are you going to get out of the truck?" asked Allie, staring at the group of zombies pawing at the windows. "There"s, like, over twenty zombies out there."
He pulled out his revolver and unlocked the door. "Like this," he said, slamming the door into the Gollum-zombie, knocking him backwards. "The roof!" he yelled, clamoring out of the trunk and slamming the door.
The girls watched as Justice shot Gollum-zombie and then two more.
"Look out!" shrieked Kylie, as more zombies advanced towards him.
Raising the machete, he began swinging and moving away from the vehicle while the zombies followed.
"Okay," said Allie, when the zombies had all seemed to have forgotten about them. "We should go."
Kylie unlocked the pa.s.senger-side door and they both slipped out of the truck.
"Oh my G.o.d," whispered Kylie, as they crouched down. "More zombies."
Three zombies had entered the parking lot with their noses in the air, sniffing. It didn"t take them long before they noticed the commotion on the other side of the parking lot, where Justice was still swinging away, and moved in that direction.
"Come on," said Allie, grabbing Kylie"s hand.
The girls ran towards the next level of the ramp and ducked behind a van, when they noticed another zombie wandering down from the second level.
"Keep going, keep going," pleaded Allie as he shuffled closer to the van. When it stopped and began sniffing the air, both girls looked at each other in horror.
"Oh no, he must smell us," whispered Kylie.
A loud growl of excitement confirmed their suspicions and seconds later, the girls found themselves facing a hungry and very scary giant.
"Back off," said Allie, raising the bat. "Shoo!"
The lips on the dark-skinned zombie, who stood close to seven feet, turned up in a gruesome smile. He lurched towards the girls.
"Oh my G.o.d!" screamed Kylie.
Allie swung the bat as hard as she could and hit the zombie in the waist. The zombie swayed slightly backwards but then steadied itself, growling angrily.
"Hit him again!" yelled Kylie.
This time she raised the bat over her head and hit the zombie in the chest, knocking him to the ground. "Let"s go!" she cried.
The girls ran past the zombie and continued their way to the next level, pausing only to gauge the safety of their path. When it looked clear, they ran to the next two levels until Allie stopped.
"I"m tired," she gasped, out of breath. "Let"s walk the rest of the way."
"I hope n.o.body shows up and takes our food and water from the truck," said Kylie, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "I"m dying of thirst."
"Me too. I"m sure Justice will drive us back to the truck once we find another vehicle with gas."
"If he makes it," said Allie, her eyes big.
"Don"t say that. He will."
"Did you see the zombies entering the lot when we left? There were so many..."
"Justice will make it. He promised."
"We"ll see."
They walked the rest of the way in silence, reaching the roof of the parking ramp. Both girls hesitated to step into the rain as they watched it come down in heavy sheets.
"At least, there aren"t any zombies to greet us," said Allie.
"Maybe they just don"t like the rain."
"Maybe."
A growl from behind startled the girls. When they turned around, they found two gruesome half-naked zombies heading in their direction.
"Great," said Allie, gripping the bat tighter. "At least these two are a little smaller than that last dude."
The zombies appeared to be women, one much older than the other, but from the neck down they were both so chewed up and rotted, they no longer resembled females.
"I can"t do it," said Kylie, her hand shaking as she pointed the knife towards the zombies. "I just can"t."
"Fine, let"s just run," said Allie, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her into the storm. The girl"s feet splashed through the rain puddles until they reached the stairwell. When they glanced back, they noticed the two zombies hadn"t given up on them that easily.
"Let"s hide in here!" yelled Allie, grasping the door-handle. Unfortunately, it was locked. "No...no...no...," she cried. "This is not happening."
"What"s wrong? Open the door!"
"It"s locked!"
"Oh no!"
Allie stared at her friend, whose wet, dark hair was plastered against her face. "We"re going to have to kill them ourselves."
Kylie"s eyes widened in horror. "I-,"
"You have too!"
"Oh no. Oh my G.o.d!"
The younger zombie reached the girls first and Allie stepped forward, her bat held high. "Leave us alone!"