the
labyrinthine passages, they arrived at the tunnel’s end, near a set of concrete
steps that led up to a steel door. Both men turned their motorcycles around and
turned off the engines. Shiro slung two spear guns over his back, alongside his
black-handled katana sword, while Yoshi gathered a spear gun and an arm-length
hollow steel pipe. Yoshi pulled out a plastic vial of blended fish guts and
dabbed a few drops around his jacket collar and pants cuffs then handed it to
Shiro. The odor was similar to the rotting trash and remains lining the streets
above and would cloak their scent.
Shiro trotted up the stairs, his headlamp
lighting the way. He listened for movement beyond the barrier and then slid the
padlock and chain from the door. Peering through the opening, he saw the
moonlit silhouettes of several creatures ambling along the sidewalk beyond the
window in the lobby of the subway conductor’s office. He squatted low and
scurried up to a ticket counter and then made his way along the stuccoed wall
until he was at the rear exit.
He slowly opened the door and slipped
outside while holding it for Yoshi, who placed a small wooden wedge in the
doorframe to keep it slightly ajar. They always had wedges with them for
securing doorways and never entered a place unless they had at least three
familiar escape routes available. The alleyway behind the subway administrative
building was fenced off on both sides but the men still scanned the path to the
distribution center two blocks ahead.
They trotted down the long alley, stopping
beside a dumpster near the terminus with the street. Shiro pulled an IPod and
speaker from his pack and turned it on so the pre-recorded music of Taylor
Swift was blaring. He grimaced at the grating sounds before he shoved the
device into a white tube sock and then flung it over the fence into a clump of
raggedy bushes beside a park. It landed next to a dozen other bulbous socks
stuck in the brush but whose devices were long since spent.
Shiro and Yoshi then sprinted in the
opposite direction towards the distant fence while zombies began flowing around
the outskirts of the buildings towards the grating music. They waited behind a
pile of toppled pallets, watching the undead denizens of Osaka flood through
the streets enroute to the noise. Shiro scanned the alley across from them,
staring at the distribution center ahead, partly shrouded in the shadow of the
immense hospital to the right.
Chapter 14
Shane looked down at his watch,
specifically at the date of August 25, once more. The day the page turned on
humanity’s future. Could it really have been only a year ago this fucking
nightmare started? It seems like this is the only world I’ve known—like the
other one was just a dream. He glanced over at Carlie, who was half-awake.
She had hardly looked at him the entire trip. He wanted to move beside her and
pull her into his arms. How he longed for the tension between them to slip
away. Hell, pandemic or not, relationship problems between men and women
haven’t changed. I should have talked with her before all of this—let her know
what I was thinking. Shit, what was I thinking? He shook his head. Only
about doing the right thing, once again. Take one for the team like always. He clenched his fists and then forced himself up and walked towards the
cockpit. Just give me my rifle and show me the enemy and I will destroy him—time
to get on with this fight already and stop lingering in the past.
Compton the pilot and his navigator Hadley
were discussing their approach vector when Shane entered the narrow confines.
He could see downtown Osaka in the distance, the derelict forms of skyscrapers
jutting up like extinguished candles, their forms backlit by an intense white
light emanating from the north. The streets were pulsing with movement,
darkened forms hobbling along the litter-strewn pavement. Shane had witnessed
the carnage in other cities laid waste by the zombie hordes but his
labyrinthine passages, they arrived at the tunnel’s end, near a set of concrete
steps that led up to a steel door. Both men turned their motorcycles around and
turned off the engines. Shiro slung two spear guns over his back, alongside his
black-handled katana sword, while Yoshi gathered a spear gun and an arm-length
hollow steel pipe. Yoshi pulled out a plastic vial of blended fish guts and
dabbed a few drops around his jacket collar and pants cuffs then handed it to
Shiro. The odor was similar to the rotting trash and remains lining the streets
above and would cloak their scent.
Shiro trotted up the stairs, his headlamp
lighting the way. He listened for movement beyond the barrier and then slid the
padlock and chain from the door. Peering through the opening, he saw the
moonlit silhouettes of several creatures ambling along the sidewalk beyond the
window in the lobby of the subway conductor’s office. He squatted low and
scurried up to a ticket counter and then made his way along the stuccoed wall
until he was at the rear exit.
He slowly opened the door and slipped
outside while holding it for Yoshi, who placed a small wooden wedge in the
doorframe to keep it slightly ajar. They always had wedges with them for
securing doorways and never entered a place unless they had at least three
familiar escape routes available. The alleyway behind the subway administrative
building was fenced off on both sides but the men still scanned the path to the
distribution center two blocks ahead.
They trotted down the long alley, stopping
beside a dumpster near the terminus with the street. Shiro pulled an IPod and
speaker from his pack and turned it on so the pre-recorded music of Taylor
Swift was blaring. He grimaced at the grating sounds before he shoved the
device into a white tube sock and then flung it over the fence into a clump of
raggedy bushes beside a park. It landed next to a dozen other bulbous socks
stuck in the brush but whose devices were long since spent.
Shiro and Yoshi then sprinted in the
opposite direction towards the distant fence while zombies began flowing around
the outskirts of the buildings towards the grating music. They waited behind a
pile of toppled pallets, watching the undead denizens of Osaka flood through
the streets enroute to the noise. Shiro scanned the alley across from them,
staring at the distribution center ahead, partly shrouded in the shadow of the
immense hospital to the right.
Chapter 14
Shane looked down at his watch,
specifically at the date of August 25, once more. The day the page turned on
humanity’s future. Could it really have been only a year ago this fucking
nightmare started? It seems like this is the only world I’ve known—like the
other one was just a dream. He glanced over at Carlie, who was half-awake.
She had hardly looked at him the entire trip. He wanted to move beside her and
pull her into his arms. How he longed for the tension between them to slip
away. Hell, pandemic or not, relationship problems between men and women
haven’t changed. I should have talked with her before all of this—let her know
what I was thinking. Shit, what was I thinking? He shook his head. Only
about doing the right thing, once again. Take one for the team like always. He clenched his fists and then forced himself up and walked towards the
cockpit. Just give me my rifle and show me the enemy and I will destroy him—time
to get on with this fight already and stop lingering in the past.
Compton the pilot and his navigator Hadley
were discussing their approach vector when Shane entered the narrow confines.
He could see downtown Osaka in the distance, the derelict forms of skyscrapers
jutting up like extinguished candles, their forms backlit by an intense white
light emanating from the north. The streets were pulsing with movement,
darkened forms hobbling along the litter-strewn pavement. Shane had witnessed
the carnage in other cities laid waste by the zombie hordes but his
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