Resurrection (A zombie novel) #wattys2016

Chapter Twelve

Too excited to edit...
Enjoy..

Shawn pushed past the tens of terrified people that were scampering away from the building. The heat of the flames from the building was felt from where they were behind all the cars that had been used to barricade the entrance which both old and young leaped over with whatever few possessions they had magnetized to their body.

Everyone seemed oblivious of the person next to him until he grabbed someone, a short bald man.

"What happened ?" Shawn asked the man, barking to be heard above the screams that rent the air.

The mid-forties man struggled to gather himself as he muttered. He felt in Shawn's grip as if he was going to melt anytime soon, his eyes darting about as if he had been caught stealing.

He finally found his voice although it was still quivery, "The zombies...they're in there..they bite...and...and...explode...some idiot tried to kill a zombie with Molotov, you know, that shi' that comes in a bottle of gasoline and a rag...the fire spread really quickly...I..."

Shawn cut in, "Did you see a blond doctor with a woman and a small boy?"

"No...no...yes, I guess so, a guy came in with an injured woman and a young boy, her child I suppose, he said he was a doctor and helped attend to the wounded until shi' hit the fan."

Shawn's eyes left the man and strayed in the direction of the building.

So they were here. It had to be them.

"Look man, I gotta go." The man slithered from Shawn's grasp and ran off immediately.

The rat-tat-tat of a machine gun and whirr-whirr of helicopter blades became louder as the copter came into view. A rope ladder hung out the open door where a gunner stood behind the mounted gun spraying bullets generously into the side of the building. Bodies fell out the window although it was hard to discern if it was human or zombie.

The copter was packed full of people and more kept jumping onto the rope ladder from the top of the building. The pilot had a hard time controlling the machine and it swung dangerously close to the building even chipping plaster from the edge. More people kept jumping onto the ladder desperately choosing to face death by plane crash than at the hands of the prowlers.
One man jumped and missed the ladder, falling with a loud scream that jerked Shawn completely.

He moved in the direction of the building until Bob held him back. In the same instant, the blue archway over the front entrance crashed down, spraying sparks and new jolts of flame. It pinned a woman underneath and she screamed in pain as the hot metal burned into her back. No one even stopped to help her.

"You can't go in there man!" Bob shouted at him, his huge hand gripping Shawn's arm.

"You heard the man, they're in there... I'm going in." Shawn shouted back, looking from Bob's hand to his face with irritation.

"Lookit Shawn" Bob nodded to the building where flames shot out. As Shawn looked, a prowler which was alight in flames stumbled out of the building, its skin boiling as its head whipped back and forth, pieces of hot flesh falling off. It stumbled forward before exploding into little bits of charred flesh.

More infected and even some human beings ran out of the building alight in flames, their agonizing screams piercing the air.

"I have to..." Shawn regripped the shotgun in a bid to show his steely resolve and started forward.

"Shawn please" Kelly said weakly, her mind torn between fleeing and sticking close to Bob and Shawn.

He was muttering something that meant he had made up his mind when bullets thudded in front of him, kicking up concrete from the walkway. Someone beside him was flung forward by the sheer force of the bullet biting into his body.