Chapter 3: Spilling the Blood of the Innocent
"Hey mister, you alright?" a voice called from above.
Chuck looked up to see it was the same bespectacled mall employee who had been at the door, along with a younger man in a matching dark green t-shirt and shorts at his side.
"Yeah, I'm...I'm fine," he replied while feeling two pairs of hands gripping him from under his arms and helping him back to his feet, "I'm fine, thanks."
"Daddy! What's happening here?" the voice of his beloved Katey called out.
Chuck looked down into her crystal blue eyes and could see the fear and confusion plain as day. He looked back to the gated entrance to see those weird people still out there clawing away at the glass, their glossed over eyes void of any traces of humanity.
"I don't know sweetie," he replied shaking his head sadly.
"But I'm scared," Katey muttered.
Chuck got down onto a knee and pulled his daughter into a tight hug. He wanted to tell her so badly that this was all just one huge nightmare and that things were going to be alright.
But he would have been lying.
Things were not alright. Things were messed up far beyond comprehension and again he was left asking himself what was responsible for making a bunch of people suddenly go crazy.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise," he whispered into her ear before giving her a kiss on the forehead and rising back to his feet.
"Hey, you mind making yourselves useful?" called an older man in a sweat-stained white dress shirt, "Hey! Bring that over here!" he called to the green-clad man motioning towards a nearby wooden bench as he reached for a propane tank, only to bump into a visibly confused older woman, "Quit screwin' around!" he rudely snapped.
Chuck took his daughter by the hand and took in his surroundings finding himself in the mall's entrance plaza, a wide open corridor filled mostly with clothing stores and a few other specialty outlets. Most of the space at the front was dominated by a giant clock with a large cartoon bumblebee atop it, something he found a bit childish for an establishment aimed mostly at grownups.
More and more of those sick people were piling against the front doors as the three men worked at a feverish pace to erect a patchwork barricade made from wooden benches, potted plants, discarded 2x4's, and anything else they could get their hands on.
In addition to the three men and the disturbed old lady, there were the two men who had provided cover as he came in from the Al Fresca Plaza, both of them talking about some cowardly friend they were separated from, the two women who entered ahead of him and Katey, the blonde trying to comfort her distraught friend, an arguing middle-aged couple near the lowered gate, and lastly a young man in a yellow t-shirt pacing back and forth with a wooden baseball bat in hand, trying to convince himself he was not afraid of the 'zombies' as he called them.
No wait – there was one more person present.
Reclining against a support pillar was a young woman who had to be in her early to mid-20's with long auburn hair worn in a ponytail and dressed in a green jacket with multiple pockets and a pair of blue jeans. A small travel pack was strapped to her side and when she turned her head he noticed a Bluetooth unit in her right ear. She looked to be in deep thought and when she looked towards Chuck it was then he finally took notice of her emerald eyes.
"Hey! This is no time to ogle pretty girls, son!" a voice called out and Chuck turned to find the older man from the barricade walking towards him, the sweat visibly cascading from his balding head like a waterfall, "You lookin' to get yourself eaten alive by zombies?!"
Chuck stared towards the man incredulously and took the time to gather his words before replying, "What? Did you just say 'zombies?'"
"Take a look out there!" the man said pointing towards the doors, "If those ain't zombies, what would you call 'em? There's been more and more of 'em since the past hour. Now they're all that's out there."
"Zombies," he heard Katey whispering to herself before the man chuckled aloud.
"Eh look on the bright side," he said nudging Chuck, "Zombies are stupid and slow. We should be safe in here."
Again Chuck stared uneasily towards the man wondering if he had truly lost it.
"Zombies don't exist," he told himself, "Only in those trashy late night horror flicks you used to sneak down and watch with your brother when Mom and Dad were sleeping."
"You hear that ladies and gentlemen? Zombies do exist and have converged upon Willamette, Colorado!" a woman's voice called out from above.
Chuck turned to find an attractive Asian-American woman descending the staircase behind him with a hand-held camera in hand, followed closely by a short, balding African-American mall employee reaching after her.
"Ma'am, I really don't think you should be going down there!" the man called out in a raspy voice.
"Nonsense! The people have to know the truth!" the woman shot back focusing her camera towards the front entrance and zooming in on the zombies, "Watch closely people. Zombies are out there," she spoke to the audience she believed would view the footage.
"And who the hell are you?" Chuck snapped as the woman got close to him.
"Do not be alarmed. Not all hope is lost as evidenced by the iron will of a select few survivors," the woman said zooming her camera's lens in on the former motocross champion.
"Lady, if you don't tell me what the hell is going on here then I honestly doubt your scoop will be seeing the light of day!" Chuck said lunging for the camera, only for the woman to leap backwards and nearly knock over the janitor behind her.
"Rebecca Chang, Channel 6 Action News," the woman introduced herself, "You are live at ground zero of the zombie apocalypse."
"Okay seriously, what's with all this 'zombie' bullshit? Zombies only exist in the movies!" Chuck snapped clutching at his throbbing temples.
"Oh really? Then how do you explain those 'things' out there?" the aggressive reporter asked cocking an eyebrow.
"Something is afoot and I must document this at once!" she declared switching her camera back on.
"Well go do your documenting elsewhere," Chuck snapped.
"Your funeral," the woman muttered under her breath before making her way over to the two men and attempting to get an interview with them.
"About damn time. I swear that lady was gonna drive me up the wall if I had to spend another second around her. With everything that's goin' on here all she's worried about is getting some damned scoop," the elderly janitor sighed shaking his head before extending his hand, "Otis Washington."
"Chuck Greene," the former champ said returning the handshake and leaning closer to the older man, "Is it true what she's saying about those things being zombies?"
The janitor shook his head again, "I ain't got no clue, son. One second me an' Freddie over there are workin' the ducts an' next thing we know, everything's goin' to hell in a hand basket!"
Chuck felt a heavy tug on his jacket's sleeve and he looked down to see Katey burying her face into his side as the distraught older woman approached.
"Madonna!" the woman called out before rushing towards the trio, "Have you seen my baby? I can't leave without my precious little sweetie doggy. Oh, where is my Madonna? Where is she? Oh, oh!"
Chuck was getting a bad feeling about this and looked into his little girl's eyes one last time before turning his attention to the janitor, "Otis, I need you to take my daughter somewhere safe. She doesn't need to be seeing any of this."
"But Daddy-" Katey protested, only to be cut off by her father's hand clutching the back of her head. He took a knee so he was looking directly into her eyes.
"Katey, listen to me. You need to go with the nice man. I promise I will be up in a few minutes to get you. Can you do this for me?"
The little girl's eyes widened in disbelief as she looked back and forth between her father and the old man. It took some time before she began to slowly nod her head and again threw her arms around him.
"Okay, but please be safe," she weakly replied.
"I will be back for you. I promise," Chuck said rising back to his feet.
"Here," Otis said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a key, "Look, I'm not supposed to be doing this, but you seem like a good kid. This key will get you into the maintenance room over there," he said motioning towards a set of double doors next to the Sports High sporting goods store, "There should be some things over there to help you out if you ever need 'em."
"My pops always said I was the 'resourceful type.'" Chuck said accepting the key, "Thanks."
Chuck then looked down to Katey one last time and kissed her on top of her head, "I love you. Now go with Mr. Washington."
"Sure thing Daddy," Katey said taking Otis' hand.
"Come along little lady. I'm sure Greg's still got some of those candy bars left in his secret stash," Otis said leading her hand-in-hand up the stairs, eliciting and excited cheer from the 8-year old.
Chuck made his way over to the double doors and entered the maintenance room, a small space filled mostly with toolboxes and shelves full of miscellaneous junk. At the center was a workbench where a wooden baseball bat and a box full of nails waited for him. The resourceful biker wasted no time in getting to work, only wishing he had a radio on hand to blast some of the heavy metal he always liked listening to as he labored in his garage. Within seconds he was done and held his new contraption in hand.
"You're not exactly a howitzer, but you'll have to do for now," he said aloud taking a few practice swings with his newly-crafted spiked bat.
Chuck made his way back into the entrance plaza where he was again approached by the man in charge of the barricade.
"Alright then! Feel like makin' yourself useful? Take a look around the mall and bring anything we can use for the barricade back here. Andale! C'mon! Pronto!"
"Whatever you say," Chuck grumbled making his way past the pacing man and bickering couple, about to pick up a metal trashcan when about brewing confrontation caught his attention, one between the ever gutsy Rebecca and some odd old man in a burgundy blazer.
"You! Stop right there!" the old man shouted piking his cane through the bars, "Do you have any idea what you've done? Why did you summon me to this place? What are you planning?"
"I was hoping you would be so kind as to fill us in on what is really happening here," Rebecca replied zooming her camera's lens in on the old man's face, to which he responded by trying to knock it out of her hands with his cane.
"Madonna!"
"What the hell?" Chuck asked returning his attention to the front barricade.
"My Madonna is out there! Ohhhh!" the old lady called out rushing towards the front doors and trying to move a wooden bench out of the way.
"What are you thinking?" one of the men said rushing after her.
"Knock it off!" the other cried grabbing onto the woman.
"What the hell is that lady's problem?" Chuck asked clenching onto his spiked bat with white knuckled anticipation.
Both men were fighting valiantly to prevent the disturbed old woman from breaking through their barricade, yet her desire to save her beloved Madonna had given her some kind of strange psycho power that enabled her to push both of the younger, larger men off with the strength of a man twice her size.
"Wait, baby! I'm saving you baby. Wait for me sweetie! Madonna! Madonna!" she cried as she finally managed to work her way through and open one of the doors, only for the zombies to grab hold and pull her through.
"Oh shit! They're inside!" cried the balding self-appointed leader, but it was too late and within seconds the zombies were pouring through and overwhelming him along with the other two men near the barricade.
"What in the hell are you people doing?" a voice boomed from above and Chuck looked up to see a bald, dark-skinned man in a tan dress shirt and tie standing on the mezzanine.
"Run! Quick! Move! Get over here! Everyone! Move this way! Quick! To the stairs! Move!" he shouted waving everybody towards the nearby stairwell.
Unfortunately his voice was drowned out by the combined moans of the zombies filtering in and the deep booms of a shotgun as the plaid-shirted man and his pipe-wielding friend attempted to fight back along with that middle-aged man, all three finding themselves quickly overrun and torn apart. It wasn't long before the fidgety man, the injured wife and the depressed lady joined them, leaving only the blonde-haired lady in the white zip-up sweater, who feebly attempted to fight back against the approaching zombies by pushing them away, yet they would rise to their feet a second later to resume their hunt.
"Not today freak," Chuck said aloud and began swinging away with his spiked baseball bat, knocking over any zombie in his way as he approached the woman.
"For the fences!" he shouted as he drew his arms back and delivered a powerful swing to the head of a beefy biker, sending his head flying away from his shoulders and hitting the nearest wall with a sickly splatter. It wasn't long before he was finally reaching the woman, jabbing a female zombie in the torso before following up with a strike to the head, knocking her to the floor with several nails sticking out.
"Are you alright, miss?" Chuck said taking a protective position in front of the woman.
"Verlene," the woman replied, "Please get me out of here," she sobbed while looking over to where her best friend now lay dead.
"Stay behind me," Chuck instructed drawing his spiked bat backwards and going for another swing that dropped two zombies at once.
There was still a sizable horde in front of the former motocross racer, yet he wasn't going to let that deter him from getting back to his daughter. He brought his bat up and impaled a lanky man through the temple with one of the bat's nails before kicking his limp body backwards and swinging into the face of an obese man, pulling it away with large chunks of flesh embedded upon the nails.
"Follow me!" Chuck called to the woman but before he could advance any farther he felt a pair of bony hands clasping onto his shoulders and attempting to pull him backwards, only for the ex-champ to slam the undead menace backwards with all his body weight.
"Gonna have to work for your dinner, asshole!" he shouted before delivering a field goal kick to the head of a crawling adversary. He brought his bat up to another zombie in front of him and reduced its head to hamburger meat, just as a loud pop rang out from behind and he found himself splattered with skull fragments.
"Gotta watch your six there, cowboy!" Rebecca Chang called from behind, a smoking pistol in her hands.
Chuck grimaced at the gooey chunks covering his beloved racing jacket, but quickly shrugged off the following waves of nausea as he took Verlene by the hand and dragged her towards the stairwell. "C'mon!"
More pops sounded as Rebecca followed after the duo with Chuck stopping on occasion to pummel any zombies that had gotten too close for comfort. They were almost at the stairs when Verlene came to a sudden halt.
"Dana!" she cried.
"What the-" Chuck spoke just before freezing in place.
He looked over to see the same woman Verlene had been comforting suddenly rising back to her feet, just mere moments after having her throat and intestines torn out. Her skin had now taken on the same pallid hue as the other zombies and her eyes were devoid of their former color. She looked towards the three survivors and let out a monstrous roar.
"C'mon, we have to go!" Chuck said grabbing the young woman by the hand, yet she struggled against his mighty grip.
"No, I can't leave my friend behind!" Verlene protested.
"But she's not your friend anymore!" he retorted, "She's...something else..."
Still, Verlene fought against his grasp as he attempted to lead her up the stairs and with one final desperate tug managed to free herself, yet unfortunately she would lose her balance and go tumbling over the railing, landing at an awkward angle that snapped her spinal column. Not even a second passed before three zombies were converging upon her and turning her into dessert.
Rebecca gasped in horror while Chuck looked away and grimaced before taking a few deep breaths and calming himself, "C'mon," he said taking the reporter by the hand and leading her towards the security office with more of those zombies hot on their tail.
It wasn't long before they were throwing themselves through the door and then sprinting down a narrow hallway where they came to another door and again threw themselves through, nearly landing on their faces.
"Daddy!"
Chuck pushed himself to his knees to see his daughter running towards him, only to halt herself when she noticed him covered in blood.
"I came back like I promised," he replied, feeling slightly embarrassed when she noticed his blood-drenched spiked bat lying on the floor next to him.
The former motocross racer pushed himself back to his feet and then reached down to help Rebecca back to hers. They were now in some rather dull generator room where Otis and the other dark-skinned man were waiting for them, in addition to a buxom blonde in a gray sport coat and matching skirt with a pair of glasses that gave her the stereotypical 'naughty librarian' look.
"Where are the others?" the nameless man demanded.
"I'm afraid we're all that's left," Rebecca answered.
The man stared grimly ahead before nodding to Otis. The elder janitor nodded back and made sure the door behind them was shut before pulling out a blowtorch and proceeding to seal it off from the inside.
"What?" Chuck asked in confusion.
"As long as those things are in the mall we better not use this door," the man spoke before making his way over to an air duct and put his ear to it. When he was sure it was safe he opened a small hatch.
"What are you doing?" Rebecca asked.
"The air ducts. They'll get us back into the mall. Apparently, those things aren't smart enough to use the ducts so they won't be a factor," he replied.
"Wait a minute...you want to get back in there? What for?" Chuck demanded.
The man ignored him and fully opened the hatch, looking around before climbing inside.
"Hey! Hey!" Chuck called, but the man had disappeared and he was left throwing up his hands in defeat before turning back to the blonde woman, now reclining against the air duct and staring at Rebecca.
"Nice camera. Are you some kind of journalist?" she asked.
Rebecca gasped and stared back in shock. "You don't know who I am? I'm Rebecca Chang! Channel 6 Action News!"
"I get the feeling she doesn't watch too much TV," Chuck cut in.
"Could you show me what you've got so far?" the woman asked extending her hand.
Rebecca made her way over and flipped open the previewer to show everything she had recorded.
"You really seem to know what you're doing," the woman commented.
"This is going to be the scoop of a lifetime," the reporter replied, her dogged ambition irking Chuck to no end, viewing it as a trivial matter when compared to the loss of human life.
"Who are you guys anyway?" Chuck demanded walking up to the other woman.
The recording then came to the confrontation with the combative old man, the nameless woman suddenly surprised.
"And what are you?" he added.
"I found that guy near the entrance. An odd fellow if there ever was one. Did he do something?" Rebecca asked.
"Nope. Thanks for showing me though," the woman replied beginning to walk away from them.
"Hey, we're not done talking yet. Just who are you guys?" the biker demanded.
The woman stopped in the doorway leading to the adjoining monitor room and turned to face them, "I'm Jessie. The man you saw earlier is Brad. That's all I'm authorized to tell you," she replied before entering and taking a seat at the desk.
"Who the hell do these people think they are?" Chuck asked looking over to Rebecca.
"If you ask me, they have 'government' written all over them. For whom and what, I don't know exactly," the reporter replied, tapping a finger against her chin in thought.
Chuck was fed up with being kept in the dark and walked over to the monitor room where Jessie was seated at the desk watching the happenings on the monitors, the grainy black and white feeds displaying various scenes of carnage that would make anybody else squeamish, yet she watched over them as if she had seen this stuff plenty of times before, leaving him to wonder if she was more experienced in the field than her age seemed to indicate.
"Look, I am a citizen of the United States of America and if you know what the hell is going on here I damn sure have a right to know!" Chuck said standing protectively in front of his daughter.
"I can't answer your questions," Jessie replied sounding visibly agitated and diverting her attention to an overhead monitor where a young woman was being pulled out of her car and torn into by a small group of zombies.
"Something seriously messed up is happening here and I'm starting to think you might have an idea as to what it is. If you know something then we have a right to know! Is this some kind of screwed up terrorist attack we didn't know about? What? Spit it out!" Chuck said struggling to maintain his composure.
Jessie exhaled deeply before she spoke, "Even if we rounded up everyone responsible and arrested them, I've still got my hands full with everything else that's going on around here. I'm deeply sorry, but I wish I could give you more answers Mister..."
"Greene, Chuck Greene," the biker replied, not in the mood for formalities.
"Mr. Greene, we are doing everything we can in our power. Please stay out of the way and let us do our jobs," Jessie replied before returning her attention to the monitors.
It was a fruitless effort and Chuck sighed heavily as he looked back at Rebecca.
"So what now?" he asked while rubbing his throbbing temple, "Gracie Government over there isn't being very helpful."
"We find the truth ourselves," she replied, the determination plain as day in her dark eyes.
"Seriously? You're going back out there, there with all those...zombies?" Chuck asked, forcing himself to spit out the last word.
"Well we're not going to get our answers standing around here, are we?" she asked motioning to their drab surroundings.
"Correction, your answers," Chuck retorted, "I could honestly give two shits less about your 'scoop of the century,'" he said before looking over to Katey, his beloved daughter now back in the duct room socializing with Otis, "All I care about is protecting my daughter and getting us out of here in one piece."
The mention of getting out suddenly left him wondering how he would get out of there.
He wondered if the authorities had any awareness of what was occurring in the city. If so, they would likely have all entrances into the city blocked off. There had to be another means of escape and when he saw a wall-mounted telephone in the duct room an idea came to mind.
"What are you doing?" Rebecca asked.
"I'm calling an old friend of mine who owes me a favor. Real good guy. He's a private helicopter pilot and he should be able to get us out of here," Chuck said lifting the receiver and dialing the number.
He could hear the phone ringing on the other end, a welcome sign that the phone lines were still functioning, yet he couldn't help but grow more anxious with every ring, mentally screaming at his friend to pick up. It wouldn't be until the sixth ring when he would finally hear the phone picking up.
"Ed DeLuca Enterprises, Ed speaking," the hearty voice called out from the other end.
"Ed, it's me Chuck."
"Well I'll be damned! If it ain't good ol' Chuck Greene! How ya' been ol' buddy? It's been a long damned time!" he enthusiastically boomed.
"I'm not gonna lie. Right now things are pretty shitty. I'd tell you, but I don't think you'd believe me," the biker sighed pacing back and forth.
"Heh, I was gonna say you sound like someone took a major shit in your punch bowl. What's going on?"
"Look, I'm stranded in the Willamette Parkview Mall. Something seriously screwed up is going on and it's got people going crazy and killing each other left and right. I don't know what caused it, but there's a lot of people dead and the tally's growing by the second. I'm holed up in the security office with Katey and a few others, but it's not looking good. Remember how you told me that you owed me a favor? Well I'm cashing it in."
"Well a promise is a promise. What do you need?"
"I need you to get your old lady and get us out of here," Chuck spoke, the 'old lady' in question being Ed's personal helicopter.
The charter pilot sighed heavily before replying, "She's in the shop right now. I know, I know yeah it's a bitch of a situation, but anything for you buddy. I'll need some time."
"How much time are we talking?"
"72 hours."
Chuck found himself wanting to throw the phone against the wall as hard as he could, but yet he managed to calm himself and let out a strangled "Fine."
"I know man. I'm sorry, but she's gotta get some parts replaced and I gotta make sure everything's in good working order after that or else I'm gonna crash before I can even take off! But I will be there. That's a promise. I'm getting on it right now! Just you wait and-"
There was a loud squelch and then suddenly nothing.
"Ed? Ed, are you there? Ed!" Chuck shouted before hanging up the phone and then lifting the receiver again, but hearing no dial tone from the other end.
"Damn it! Well that's just great," the biker grumbled.
"What's wrong?" Rebecca inquired.
"It's gonna take him three days to get over here," Chuck grumbled.
"Plenty of time to get my story," Rebecca piped up without missing a beat, inviting awed looks from Chuck and Otis.
"Lady, are you insane? Do you have any idea of what is going on out there? There have got to be hundreds...no thousands of those 'zombies' running around out there! Didn't you see what what they did to all of those people in the entrance plaza?" Chuck shouted, his daughter looking frightened at the sight of her father yelling, "And not only that the phone lines just got cut! There won't be a cavalry coming to get us. We're sitting ducks here!"
The plucky reporter placed her hands on her hips and stared nonchalantly towards the former motocross champion, "Do you really believe I am some damsel-in-distress not capable of fending for herself? Believe me, I've been through enough to tell you I'm perfectly capable."
She pulled out her pistol and cocked the hammer to emphasize her point, "You seem to forget I actually saved you from one of those zombies out there. You're welcome by the way."
The woman brushed past him and made her way to the opened hatch pulling herself through before Otis could protest.
"Yeah, well I honestly doubt this is unlike anything you've ever been through before!" Chuck shouted into the vent, his only answer being the echo of his own voice.
He shook his head and disgust and looked over to the old janitor, who sighed heavily before turning to him, "You ain't plannin' on goin' out there after her are you? I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Looks like I don't have much choice," Chuck replied shrugging his shoulders.
Otis groaned bitterly, "You young folks never listen to me. Well if you're going to go at least take this," he said reaching into his pocket and producing a small black and yellow hand-held device, "It's a transceiver so we can stay in touch all throughout the mall. You'd better take this map too," he said pulling out a folded up piece of paper and handing it to him.
"Thanks," Chuck spoke before turning back to Katey and kneeling before her.
"I promise I will be back for you. Okay? You behave for the nice people. You hear me?" he said before kissing her on the forehead.
"I will Daddy. Please be safe!"
Chuck looked back to Otis one last time and nodded.
"Those things are all over the mall. Be careful out there," the janitor rasped before stepping aside.
"I will and thanks," Chuck replied before climbing into the ventilation duct.
XXXXX
Author's Note: And so concludes our latest installment of the "Case Greene" reboot where we got to see several familiar faces making their presence felt and me breaking the 4th wall with the heavy metal, a reference to that music playing in the background whenever they show Chuck crafting a combo weapon.
Well I think that's all I have to say for now so as always read and review. This is Metal Harbinger saying SPREAD THE SICKNESS, ONE MIND AT A TIME! \m/