Zombie D.O.A. by Jj Zep Page B

spoon, slapped it ag ainst his palm three times.
    ”The man you were with, he have a name?”
    “You know his name.”
    “True, but tell me anyway, just so I know we’re on the same page.”
    “He said his name’s Joe Thursday.”
    Basher laughed, “Joe fucking Thursday,” he said, “that’s rich. And this Joe Thursday , he tell you what he does for a living?”
    “He’s an actor,” I said.
    “An actor,” he snorted. He didn’t tell you here’s a hired killer, wanted by every federal agency outside of Fish and Wildlife.”
    “He didn’t see fit to share that with me, no.”
    “Did he tell you that he’s in possessio n of valuable government assets? Assets that could help us resolve this current…crisis. ”
    “No.”
    “Where were you headed ?
    “Headed?”
    “Yeah, when my men found you, crawling around in the sewers, where were you headed?”
    “To the park.”
    Basher grunted, banged on his palm with the spoon again. Outside there was another burst of gunfire, closer this time, more intense. Basher nodded to one of the guards and the man jogged out, probably to check on the commotion.
    “So you want me to believe, that a man wanted by every federal agency in the country is just going to trot into a military base and give himself up.”
    “I’m not asking you to believe it, just telling you it’s true.”
    Outside there was more gunfire, the sound of glass breaking and then someone shouting, “Get down! Get down!”, followed by a series of explosions.
    “You like gra pefruit, Chris?” Basher asked. When I didn’t answer, he said, “ I do too, breakfast of fucking champions , right . Hell, I reckon I could clean out a grapefruit in ten seconds flat, using one of these things. ”
    He banged out a little staccato rhythm on his palm with the spoon. “So how long do you think it would take me to scoop out one of your eyes? ”
    There was a nother explosion from outside, this one big enough to rattle some plates from the shelves. They crashed to the floor just as Lieutenant Dangerfield burst into the room. He rushed over to Basher and whispered urgently in his ear. There was more gunfire from out side and someone was screaming.
    “Get me a bird on the roof in five minutes,” Basher said to Dangerfield, “five minutes you hear. And lieutenant, I need you to hold this location, no matter what , you hear me , no matter what!
    “Sir!” Dangerfield shouted and rushed from the room.
    “Up!” Basher shouted at me, then to the guard “Soldier, I believe you’re needed outside. ”
    “Sir!”
    The soldier headed for the exit and then started firing as the creatures poured into the kitchen.
    “Move!” Basher said , as he unholstered his sidearm and started firing. He grabbed me by the chain of the handcuffs and pulled me towards the fire exit. We hit the stairs on the run and started upward, Basher in the lead dragging me along.
    On the fourth floor we had to cross a foyer to reach the door leading out to the roof. After the sounds of the battle raging below it was deathly qui et up t here , and dark, with the lights out.
    We moved slowly , unsure of what might be out there.  I could hear the whup-whup-whup sound of the helicopter landing on the roof. Then a ting as one of the lifts in the foyer slid open.
    Basher was slightly in front of me, and the creature flew straight into him and bit him in the neck. He was knocked sideways and released his grip on me.
    The zombie was at least Basher’s siz e and had him pinned down, its teeth shredding the air, inches from his nose. For a moment I was tempted to just make a run for it, but I couldn’t do it.
    Instead, I kicked the creature in the ribs as hard as I could. He grunted and turned his attention towards me, giving Basher a shot. He fired into the thing’s brain, and it collapsed on the carpet.
    Basher got awkwardly to his feet and put his hand to his neck. It came away sticky with blo od. He said simply, “I been bit, ” and then he