Empire

39 Mine

So it came to be that, as Voorhees dragged the headless bodies of Lauren and Thom to the roof of City Hall, he found a man waiting on the roof of the police department and was greeted with a wave and a smile.

"So you're the city's policeman?" The man called.

Voorhees dropped the bound feet he held in either hand and hissed "Quiet!"

The man shrugged. "They're all busy." He gestured downward, and Voorhees peered over the edge. On the plaza, a pickup truck was making lazy circles. The rotters still left in the vicinity had gathered around and were lurching feebly at it with each pass.

There was a goddamn rotter behind the wheel.

"I'm Baron Tetch." The man said.

"Senior P.O. Voorhees." Came the reply. The cop gritted his teeth. He'd left the shotgun inside.

"The last of a dying breed." Tetch remarked. He studied the sky, still stained with smoke. "I'm not dead yet." Voorhees called back.

"You found my little girl, didn't you?" Asked Tetch. "Saved her life. I can't thank you enough. I'd offer you a ride out of town with us, but there isn't any more room in the truck."

"There would be if you dumped that corpse out of it."

Two gunshots rang out. Voorhees stumbled toward the edge again.

A well-dressed rotter, standing outside the entrance to the PD, had kneecapped another one that tried to get inside. Voorhees watched in horrified fascination as the undead reloaded its revolver.

"Those corpses mean a great deal to me." Tetch said as he followed Voorhees' gaze.

"Of course. They're your brothers and sisters."

"So Lily's been talking." That cold smile never left Tetch's face. "You want to bargain, then?"

"There's no bargain to be made." Voorhees let his voice rise in volume. If it attracted any attention, Tetch's little helpers could deal with it. "You're responsible for more deaths than I can remember. You think I'm going to hand over that girl to you?"

"Going to arrest me?"

"Doesn't seem like there'd be much point."

Tetch clasped his hands and cocked his head. Waiting for Voorhees to exhaust his bravado and realize that he was the lesser man. To give up the child. Instead, the cop stepped to the edge of the roof.

"She's talked about other things. You like 'em young, don't you Baron?"

The young man's arrogance drained from his face and he was the pathetic little worm that Voorhees had seen all along. The yawning space between them seemed to contract, Tetch's shoulders dropping, his stance changed from threatening to threatened.

"I can see why you prefer the company of those maggot-eaten retards. They don't judge you, do they? They don't care what you do in your house out there in the swamp. Out there, you're the only man Lily needs — isn't that right?"

Tetch's lip curled as he glared in the cop's direction, but he wouldn't look directly at him. Voorhees pushed further. "I've been here a long time. I know people like you. You think you can do whatever you want. But this city still has a cop." He slipped his hand into his trench coat. "And no, I'm not going to arrest you."

Tetch shook his head angrily. This wasn't going the way he'd planned. Voorhees grinned, even though the hand in his coat was closed around nothing but a belt loop. "I don't think I even have handcuffs. Lost 'em at the shelter. You hear about that? Did your dogs report back to you about the bang-up job they did?" He stifled a chuckle. It didn't register that he'd done it with the hand in his coat. "Speaking of which, we hacked that skull-faced rotter to pieces. Was he your favorite doggy?"

It was Tetch's turn to chuckle.

"Not really." He said.

Then he shouted "KILL" and the doggy guarding the PD snapped the revolver upward and fired.

It missed Voorhees by a hair. He threw himself to the rooftop. Another shot grazed the edge of the building, spitting dust into the cop's eyes.

"Pull out your gun and shoot me!" Tetch laughed. He clapped his hands and turned away. He was leaving. Leaving without-

No-

Voorhees began a frantic crawl toward the access door. "DUNCAN!!" He bellowed. "THEY'RE INSIDE!!!"

Down below, the undead gunman, Gerald, walked across the plaza to the de-barricaded City Hall entrance. Prudence and Bailey were already making their way across the lobby.

On the fourth floor, Jenna heard Voorhees' voice bouncing down the stairwell. "What's he saying?" She asked Duncan. He didn't hear her; he was letting Lily see the shotgun, warding her curious hands away with an attempt at a stern look.

Cheryl poked her head past Jenna into the stairwell. "Voorhees?…He's saying something about 'inside'. Voorhees!"

The two women stood in the doorway and listened for a response. It came.

"That sounded like a moan. Like he's hurt!" Cheryl whispered.

"That came from downstairs," Jenna gasped.

A thin woman appeared on the landing below. Cheryl was halfway down the stairs when she realized the woman was dead, but she ran into its arms anyway, senselessly, shrieking all the while; and Prudence, embracing her, clamped rotted teeth down on her cheek just beneath the eye.

Duncan shoved Jenna aside and took aim. Cheryl turned, her face a bloody screaming hole, and he blew her away.

Gerald staggered into view and fired wildly. Duncan and Jenna fell back. The shotgun clattered at the rotters' feet. Bailey passed Gerald as the latter emptied the revolver and reloaded from his pocket.

"God! God!" Duncan stammered, covering Jenna with his arms, protecting and restraining her at the same time, watching Bailey come up — but the zombie simply made a left into the fourth-floor hallway.

Lily let out a terrible cry.

"No!" Jenna tried to thrust Duncan off of her. A bullet whined past the pair as they struggled. "Stay down!!" He yelled. "LILY!!" She wailed.

Bailey emerged with the girl writhing in his grip. Gerald clumsily ascended the stairs and trained the revolver on the two adults. Lily strained at them from over Bailey's shoulder. "DON'T LET THEM TAKE ME!! PLEEEEEAASE!!!"

Voorhees stumbled down the stairs from the roof. He saw Gerald and leapt to the floor just before a flurry of gunshots chewed up the wall where he'd been. "Shotgun," he breathed, slapping at Duncan, "shotgun-" Then he realized it wasn't in the man's hands.

Gerald continued to lay down suppressing fire. There was a hollow click. He lowered his head to reload.

Voorhees leapt over the stairs and slammed into him, dashing Gerald's skull against the wall. They fell in a mess of thrashing limbs. He heard the others coming down after him, saw Jenna tear the revolver from the undead's hand. She rushed downstairs after the others.

A few ferals had entered the lobby. Bailey swatted them out of his path. Simeon and Tetch waited right outside in the idling truck. "Hurry now!" Tetch yelled encouragingly.

Jenna burst into the lobby — and right into a feral. They went down with a crash. The revolver flew into the shadows. Bailey and Prudence crawled into back of the pickup, holding Lily down, and it sped out of view.

Jenna went limp with horror as the feral straddled her.

Duncan cracked its temple with the butt of the shotgun. The zombie sagged; he jammed the gun into its desiccated belly and blew it in half.

Gerald's twitching body, head crushed beyond recognition, thundered down the stairs. Voorhees followed, shattering another rotter's fractured grin with his fist on his way to the doorway. "Oh God."

He turned to the others. "Back upstairs NOW!"

They fled past the shambling dead, who stared blankly at one another as they tried to process what had just happened. The halved rotter lying on the floor blinked at its smoking innards.