These Strangers Whose Faces I Know: Part 2
5 hours later
“We have to decide where we are going. Does anyone have any ideas?” Veronica asked, looking at Logan and Dick. This would be an excellent time for one of them to have a brilliant idea.
Dick turned the television on, scanning for news broadcasts. “Maybe we can find a place that doesn’t have zombies?”
But the longer they looked at the different stations the clearer it became, Neptune, LA, Toronto, London… the world… had zombies. They would not be able to hide from them, no matter where they went.
“How much gas do you have in your truck Dick?” Logan asked, “That will greatly determine where we can go, since I don’t think any of us want to be in charge of refuelling.”
Veronica was about to respond, when she heard her phone begin to ring and began digging in her bag for it. “Hello?”
“Veronica, it’s me - Dad.” Keith’s voice was faint on the other end, the background full of static.
“Where are you? Are you okay?” Veronica tried to talk slowly, to be distinct, but she had so many questions running through her head.
“I’m… stuck…radio… they’re coming.”
“Dad? You’re cutting out.. I can’t hear you.” Veronica began to panic, and seeing her freeze up Logan took the phone from her.
“Mr. Mars? It’s Logan, where are you?” He asked, hoping he would be able to understand Keith.
“Radio station, thirteenth floor… hurry.” Logan barely got the location before the line died but he was sure that Keith was afraid and since he didn’t know Mr. Mars did fear - that was enough for him.
Handing the phone back to Veronica, Logan pulled out the map he had found in Dick’s truck the other night. It showed the route that they would have to take to get to LA from Neptune.
“Veronica? I think we should go find your dad in LA.”
“What? LA? I thought we decided that was too crazy, a suicide mission.” Dick looked at Logan like he was crazy, “I’m too pretty to die.”
Veronica punched Dick in the arm, “Let’s go find my dad.”
They packed up the things they felt were required for a road trip to LA and got ready to leave the suite. Veronica didn’t like the idea of packing a crowbar for the journey down to the lobby area but she didn’t like the idea of being dead any more so she went with it.
Logan was leading them to the stairwell, since even though Dick was usually just being an ass he did have a point about the elevator. Checking one last time that his gun was indeed loaded, he pulled open the access door and prepared himself for the worst.
Scanning up and down, it appeared to be empty. He leaned forward a bit and gestured for Veronica and Dick to join him. I feel like a reject from some Rainbow 6 movie adaptation.
Slowly, with caution that she would have found laughable in any other situation, the three of them made it down from the top of the building and were about to enter the lobby area. It was impossible to see from inside the stairwell what they would be facing when they left it. Looking around them once more, Veronica nodded and steeled herself to open the door, grateful at this moment that she was the one without the gun.
The door opened easily, Logan and Dick swept the lobby area and saw nothing of any concern and the three stepped out.
“Alright, Dick,” Veronica looked at him, “you have your keys, right?”
“Keys?” Dick’s face was a mask of confusion, but he grinned as Veronica prepared to hit him. “Of course I have my keys. Let’s go.”
They were running through the lobby area towards what they hoped was safety, when then it happened. A hand reached out towards Veronica, reaching for her arm to try to pull her toward its slack jaw and constant moan. Just as she was opening her mouth to scream for help she saw a dot appear on it’s forehead and heard the resounding crack of the gun that Dick was holding in his right hand. Shock overcame her, and she felt Logan reach down for her hand and pull her towards the exit.
It wasn’t until they were in his truck and on their way to LA that Veronica remembered to thank Dick.
“It was nothing, seriously.” Dick replied, actually being humble for once.
“You saved my life,” Veronica said incredulously.
“You would have done the same for me,” Dick said simply.
She was slowly starting to realize that Dick knew something she didn’t. He had figured out what she was only now learning. They might be the only people left on earth, they might be all they had and if there was ever a time to mend fences - it was now.
“Thanks,” Veronica looked over at Dick and smiled. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad, maybe they would get to LA and find her dad and everything would be okay.
It was unfortunate that at this moment when Veronica felt that everything could actually be okay was when they saw trouble up ahead. True to the newscasts, the highways were pretty blocked and their quick jaunt up to LA was going to take longer than anticipated. Empty cars were left haphazardly across the highway, and Veronica was fairly certain that the ninety-minute journey would take closer to three at the rate they could go.
“Whatever you do, don’t stop driving Dick.” Logan looked at the abandoned cars, some of which had bloody handprints on the windows.
Dick just grinned, put his foot down on the accelerator and pressed play on his CD player. Rob Zombie’s Living Dead Girl blared out at them. At the looks he was getting from the other two Dick shrugged and said, “It seemed appropriate.”
Veronica watched out the window as they got closer and closer to LA. It seemed that the closer they got, the more desolate it became. Just as they hit the outskirts, she was starting to wonder if there was anyone left in LA at all. Pulling out her laptop, she logged onto the local wireless Internet trying to find out more information about what was happening to people. All she could find were stories about the gruesome acts they committed and about how it was apparently worldwide and no one could figure out a cure.
“Learn anything new?” Logan asked as he looked over and saw her laptop.
“People are being encouraged to stay out of heavily populated areas by CNN, to stay out of unpopulated areas by NBC, to go to the hospitals or churches by FOX and finally to stay away from hospitals and other areas of refuge by CBS.” Veronica couldn’t help rolling her eyes as she gave Logan the completely contradictory information.
"So, as usual, no one knows what to do and the networks have their heads up their asses?" Dick laughed, and looked at Veronica and Logan, "What? Beav was all about the news and shit."
"So when you spoke to my dad, where did he say he was?" Veronica asked, looking a Logan.
"Thirteenth floor of the Radio Station." Logan replied, already seeing problems with the three of them getting to the radio station, let alone the thirteenth floor. "You should try calling him again."
Veronica pulled her phone out of her pocket, and saw that she had apparently missed a call. Dialling her voicemail, she was surprised to find it was a call from her dad. "I have a message from my dad."
"Maybe he's not in the tower of zombies anymore?" Dick said. "Anywhere that doesn't involve me going into a pit of zombies is cool with me."
"It just sounds like he's walking around." Veronica was puzzled, but as what happened began to dawn on her she became frightened, "I think he called my by accident... I can hear the moaning, and shouting, and oh god... screaming."
"We need to know where he is... anything helpful?" Logan was trying to let her deal with this, but time was running out and it was getting later in the day.
"No, I just heard a door slam and then the phone cut out." Veronica tried to fight back the panic that was threatening to overtake her.
"Can't you do some PI shit, and like track him down?" Dick asked, "Like your dad did that time you were out too late with Logan last summer. That was funny."
"Shut up Dick." Logan glared at Dick, not wanting their new friendship to be fucked because of Dick's big mouth.
"Dick! You're a genius." Veronica pulled out her laptop again and started typing. "I think I found him. He's at the KABC offices on La Cienega, on the twelfth floor."
Dick pulled over and turned around in the direction that Veronica had mentioned. "Better mount up folks, because we might have to fight all the way up."
Logan started pulling out the weapons they had stashed earlier, Veronica pulled her hair back and set her phone to vibrate. They looked at each other and Veronica mouthed, "thank you," before grabbing the crowbar and packing the rest of her supplies away. Logan placed his hand on her shoulder and tried to let her know that they would be okay, that everything would be okay.
Dick pointed through the main window at the office building. Although the road was apparently clear, it appeared that there were quite a few zombies inside. "I don't think the main entrance is the way to go."
"Hey, can you get building plans?" Logan asked, "I know you usually have someone else to do this, but it would be very helpful."
"I can try to get them," Veronica said, looking somewhat doubtful of her skills. "This is something I would usually have Mac do, but if I can get into the city database it should be simple."
"For the moment Dick, drive around back." Logan started making sure that they had enough ammunition.
Veronica searched through the city database for any trace of building plans. Just as she was going to give up, she found the location of the city plans. Hooking up her PDA to the computer, she downloaded the plans for KABC's offices. Then she looked through them to find out everything else she might need to know about this building: air conditioning ducts, water mains, security systems, anything that might make it easier to get in or out of the building. Looking at the plans it seemed as though their best entry point would be the cargo bay. From there they could get in through the service entrance.
"I found them and I think I know our way in. If we go in through the service entrance we would have a simple route up to the twelfth floor," Veronica pointed out the way she was describing. "And to top it off there shouldn't be that much staff between our entry point and our exit point. So I think any zombie activity should be fairly low."
"From the plans it looks like those hallways are fairly narrow, so it shouldn't be hard to defend ourselves," Dick leaned in closer. "And it seems that a lot of these doors are fire doors so if we trip the alarm system most of them should lock down for us. We could go in through this door here, trip the alarm and then get to the fire stairs off the service corridor. Should be fairly simple for us."
Logan gaped at Dick and Veronica was unable to keep the dazed expression from her eyes, "When did you get to be smart? That's a really good plan."
"You never played video games as a child did you?" Dick wasn't surprised that Veronica didn't think he had any skills but he had thought Logan would be more supportive. "I also used to kick ass at Capture the Flag. So do we go ahead or what?"
Veronica nodded and opened the door to get out of the truck. Walking quickly towards the building, she peered through the window to make sure there was no one behind it before motioning Dick and Logan closer. Pulling open the door, she followed closely behind Logan into the building, Dick brought up the rear. Although she felt somewhat ridiculous moving through the building in silence, holding up their weapons for the quite possible fight against the undead, Veronica also realized that it had been a while since she felt this alive. The three of them were working to save her dad’s life and rescue him from a building full of zombies and all she could think about was that she was doing something - something that mattered.
“Long way from the dirty picture business, eh Mars?” Dick had leaned forward, and was whispering in her ear. “You should really hold that crowbar higher up, in case you need to swing it.”
Veronica grinned; still unbelieving that Dick was offering advice, much less good advice. She hefted the crowbar up higher and saw that Logan had found the stairwell. Moving into position she prepared to open the door, hoping that the guys wouldn’t have to shoot anything. Knowing, with a sick certainty, that their survival might rest upon them being completely silent. Once they know we are here, I think we might be fucked. She thought as she opened the door, which blessedly showed an empty staircase.
“Logan, we have to hurry,” Veronica whispered. “You heard my dad.”
Logan nodded and whispered back, “We should go quickly up the stairs then. Hopefully… they won’t know where we have gone.”
“These stairs are going to echo, metal and concrete does not make for a stealthy entrance,” Veronica nodded towards the stairs. “We will need to move quickly.”
The three of them looked at each other and began running up the stairs. The pounding of their footsteps made any aim towards silent movements laughable, but they kept going knowing that the sooner they made it to the twelfth floor, the sooner they could get out of LA altogether.
Reaching the twelfth floor the three of them paused to catch their breaths, sure that on the other side of this door they would find zombies. Dick was about to check the final plan when he heard the moans. No matter what you are told, zombies can indeed climb stairs and they were coming now from both directions.
Looking up, he knew that Logan and Veronica heard them too. Quickly throwing off her pack, Veronica began digging through it and having found the other blunt instruments she passed one to each of them. Dick offered her his other handgun, but she refused.
“Ready?” She asked, before opening the door. On the other side there nothing, silence and an empty hallway. She blinked, knowing that couldn’t be right, that the building couldn’t be empty.
Logan stepped out into the hallway, and that’s when she saw it. A hand. Reaching towards Logan. Grasping for him. She raised the crow bar and struck at it, continuing to hit it when the body turned towards her, continued hitting it until it fell to the ground unmoving. Dick had in the meantime pulled Logan back from the hallway, and both were currently staring at Veronica.
“Well if it isn’t Veronica the zombie killer.” Dick said, smile breaking out on his face. “You’re alright, Mars.”
“Thanks.” She looked at Logan, he was a bit shaken from his close encounter of the undead kind.
Preparing themselves for what lay beyond the door, the three of them managed to run down the hallway to the office at the end with little interruption. Who knew that using a crowbar would be so easy, it’s almost like it is part of my arm. Veronica was surprised at how adept she was getting at beating back the zombies, however she still was happy to see the end of the hallway appear before her.
“Dad?” Veronica called out as she opened the door, Logan and Dick sweeping the room before they all stepped inside.
“Veronica?” Keith sounded surprised, “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t have come.”
“I couldn’t just leave you here.” Veronica was running forward, leaning into her father’s embrace.
“We have to get out of here,” Keith said over Veronica’s head. “The army is coming.”
“What?” Dick and Logan said simultaneously.
“The army?” Veronica asked. “Why?”
“They have decided that there is no way to contain this, and their only option is an air strike. It’s happening everywhere, Pairs, London, Budapest.”
“They are just going to kill everyone?”
“It’s not like there are that many left, Veronica,” Keith said quietly. “How many people have you seen today?”
Logan reached into his bag and pulled out a gun. He handed it over to Keith and after seeing his raised eyebrows, began to speak. “After we saw what was happening in Neptune, I thought we might need some protection.”
“We raided my dad’s collection,” Dick grinned. “But don’t worry, V stayed to mainly the non-ballistic weapons.”
“Mainly?” Keith looked at Veronica.
“What? I have a crossbow,” Veronica said, continuing with a fake pout. “I haven’t even used it yet.”
“So the army? Air strikes? When?” Logan brought the group back on topic. “We should get out of here.”
Keith nodded and after the plan was explained to him, began catching on that things are no longer as they seemed. I never thought the day would come when I was getting strategy tips from a Casablancas.
The group moved back to the door and out into the hallway. It seemed that while this level was still rather unoccupied, they knew the same would not be said for the stairwell. Once they were standing at the door, they could see the mass of bodies inside, and Veronica remembered something she had seen on the plans.
“Hey guys, we should use the elevators.” Veronica started to say, but was cut off by Keith.
“Sweetie, the elevators aren’t working right now.”
“This is no time to patronize me, even if you are my patron.” Veronica said, knowing that he couldn’t stop himself from making every bad joke known to man. “I don’t mean use the elevator, we should use the shaft.”
Dick giggled a bit until he caught the glares coming at him from everyone else. “Sorry, but she said shaft.”
“Just when we think you are on a whole new level, you sink right back down.”
Veronica outlined her plan for them to pry open the elevator doors and then climb down the shaft, exiting onto the second floor and then being able to get a clear run to the staircase and out the service entrance again. During the discussion it has seemed like the elevator part would be the hardest, but that was before they got to the second floor. It was teeming with zombies. It had apparently been some kind of temp agency and considering that it was payday, the place had been packed.
Everyone grabbed their weapons and prepared for what could turn out to be the last fight of their lives. Using the crowbar to open the doors, Logan and Dick held them while Veronica used the cross bow to take out a couple of the zombies.
“Guess those archery lessons really did pay off.” Keith said smugly.
“I hated taking archery and I think you said it would make me a better person. Not a zombie killing machine,” Veronica whispered back, a small smirk on her face.
Four arrows later, they thought they might have the window needed to get out. Running down the hallway, they fended off the zombies, grabbed the door handle, and pulled it open, spilling into the empty stairwell. They could hear the sounds of the mass of zombies above them. Without a second thought, they ran down the stairs, out the service door and jumped into Dick’s truck.
Dick wasted no time in pulling out of the parking lot, and getting on the road out of town. “So where exactly are we headed?”
“Neptune?” Veronica questioned.
“As good a destination as any, I guess.” Logan replied. Keith was oddly quiet, like he couldn’t believe what he had just seen.
Dick got onto the return route to Neptune, pressed play on his CD player.
The zombies were having fun
The party had just begun
The guests included Wolf Man
Dracula and his son
Veronica grinned over at Dick, “When did you make this?”
“Last night, I couldn’t sleep.” He smiled as he answered.
Looking out the window, Veronica felt a certain calm come over her. They were alive and they had gotten Keith out of LA. What else could go wrong? Everyone was - well they all were - safe. Veronica knew that they would all sleep well tonight, when they got back to Neptune.
Suddenly Keith turned the stereo to radio, and found a news broadcast.
If anyone hears this.. we are now positive that the contamination has spread beyond the limits that the army can deal with. Tactical strikes are no longer an option. If you are hearing this you have to get in touch with the nearest army base and get them to pick you up. They fear that the only way to outlive this disaster is to move to enclosed living areas. Camps are being set up as we speak, and until we know how this happened - no one is safe outside.
The message was apparently on repeat, because it just started up again from the beginning. Veronica felt her newly formed viewpoint shatter. The army wasn’t going to fix this, they couldn’t fix this. The world as they knew it wasn’t possible anymore.
“Well, I guess that answers the question of Stanford or Hearst for me.” Veronica heard her own voice and realized that she must have spoken aloud.
Dick started to ask where he should be driving to when they all heard a grating sound coming from under the hood of his truck, followed by smoke. Everyone looked around, they were actually in the middle of nowhere. Nothing could be seen for miles, except for a lonely water tower.
“What’s a water tower doing out here?” Logan asked. “It’s not exactly prime farming land.”
“I don’t know.” Keith kept looking out the window, “but it’s the only thing for miles.”
Veronica looked out the back window, apparently their exit from LA hadn’t been as unassuming as they might have hoped, and she could see people moving towards them from the horizon.
“We can’t stay here.” Dick gestured at the truck, “you saw those cars on the freeway, the people were torn out of them.”
“Where are we supposed to go Dick?” Logan couldn’t help but yell at Dick. Just as things were going their way… They had made it into a zombie infested building for fucks sake to die out in the desert? No fucking way.
He looked up at the water tower in the distance, and out the back window at the advancing hoard. Decision made, he started packing up his weapon and supplies. Opening the door, he grabbed his pack and began walking toward the water tower.
“Logan!” Veronica called after him, “What are you doing?”
“We can’t just stay here and die Veronica,” Logan called back to her. “If we stay in that truck, we will die. If we make it to the water tower, we could live. I’m going with live.”
Veronica looked at Logan, looked towards the water tower she could barely make out, at her dad, and finally back again at the zombies slowly advancing. Grabbing her bag, she got out of the truck to join Logan. “He’s right, Dad. We can’t stay here and die.”
Sensing that the entire group was going against him, Keith realized that it wasn’t really an option. It was one simple decision. Stay and die, or leave and possibly live.
“I’ll take possible life over certain death any day,” Dick said as he got out of the truck. “But I hate to leave my baby.”
Keith grabbed the remaining supplies and joined the others on the trek out to the tower.
Half and hour later
Just as they reached the tower, Keith finally connected with the local army base. The connection was weak, but they were able to understand that there are four healthy people being surrounded out in the desert. Four people that need help.
Climbing up the water tower is one of the least fun things any of them have done. Or at least it would have been, until they realized the absolute suckitude that is waiting up a water tower while your only escape is slowly blocked by things that want to eat you. Of course, the only thing that could possibly make that worse, is if your ride never comes. Since at the moment, the zombies are getting steadily closer - some are even trying to climb - and they are only getting shorter on ammunition, and the army is nowhere in sight. Although now that she thinks about it, that might be a chopper in the distance. The world might not end, and the zombies might not win.
One can only hope.