Zombie Apocalypse: Scent of Sulphur

The four were transfixed by the sight before them as they stood by the ledge atop the apartment building. The light of the setting sun slipped between two buildings adjacent to the firehouse, a brighter ray framed the nightmare that lay in the street. They could see it clearly now.
A roughly round, flesh colored mound the size of a bus. Just visible on its surface they could make out a spiderweb of red veins that faded to gray and were replaced from moment to moment. It rumbled and pulsed, shaking the ground slightly.
"What is that thing? I've never se--" Swift cut off at Rrwatch's frantic gestures for silence. Satisfied that all would remain quiet, he motioned for them to huddle close. He began to whisper.
"You three clear that door as quickly and quietly as you can. I'll stay here and see what it does. Noise already draws zombies, and I really don't care to find out if it draws these too. We get inside, hole up as best we can until tomorrow, and when morning comes we put as much distance between us and that as possible. All agreed?"
"Don't have to tell me twice, Watch." Swift whispered back.
"Why not just go back down the fire escape? I know it might be a little louder, but there could be zombies in there. What if we end up fighting our way to the bottom and the noise draws that thing? Wouldn't we be trapped?" said Val, barely audible.
"We don't know much about that thing out there. I'd rather not be running from it in the dark, and already tired from today's excursion. Plus, if we didn't know about that, what else might we not have seen? We'll just settle into the top floor. If that thing moves again, then the one on lookout will feel it." She still looked concerned, but no one seemed to have a better idea.
The others moved away from the ledge to clear the door of its improvised reinforcements, the wooden wedges sliding out from the door easily. The two-by-four jammed under the handle slipped from Wadey's grasp, but he managed to catch it with his foot before it could hit the ground. Across the way the thing seemed to have settled down. They gave a collective sigh of relief. Very quietly.
The door hinges squeaked ever so slightly as it swung open towards them. The stairwell inside was black as pitch. Out came the flashlights. The air was musty, but the lack of rotting flesh scent was encouraging. Val took the lead and peeked into the door to the top floor. No stench. No blood sprays. She stood guard on the door while the others made a room by room search through the floor's eight apartments. Clean. Even had some canned goods. They took one with a window facing the firehouse's direction. Though the mound wasn't visible from it, they would see it if it moved toward them, should they somehow not feel it. The night passed slowly.

Wadey, who'd taken the last turn at watch, woke them as the light of dawn came through the window. Heading up through the stairwell, they emerged onto the roof again. A look toward the firehouse showed that the blog thing was still there.
And something else.
Two figures were down in the street that ran alongside the apartment building, about a block passed where the thing sat by the garage door one over from the corner nearest the block. Rrwatch raised his rifle to his shoulder to look through the scope.
People...
Not zombies, but real, living people! Were these the survivors from the camp? You could see the tops of the warehouses by the lake dock a few blocks beyond them. He looked more closely at them.
A man and woman. The man had one arm? No, it was there, just bound to his chest. And how on earth could he stand the heat with that heavy coat? The woman stayed to the center of the road, casually swinging the shotgun in her hands left and right.
"What is it?" asked Val.
"A man and a woman. Living." he said, the last word still tinged with surprise. His eyes suddenly went wide, and his tone changed to an alarmed one. "They're going to pass right near it!"
"We have to warn them!" She gathered in breath for a scream, but he forestalled her.
"No noise! Just wave for all you're worth. Wadey, Swift, head down the fire escape on this side fast and quiet as you can. We'll stay here to get their attention." Hands and guns raised to the sky, they began trying to get the newcomers to see them, hoping they would notice in time and didn't yell when they did.


Ninja and Cel made their way along the empty street. No amount of pointing out how dangerous it was to walk down the middle could persuade her to move to the relative safety of the sidewalks. Too cramped, she had said. With her out there for all the zombies in the world to see, there was nothing for it but to stick close and be ready to fight or run when they were eventually spotted by something. He reached up and lifted his katana a couple of inches before letting it fall back, checking that it was free in its scabbard. His arm was still badly broken, but his other was still good. Good enough, anyway. He squinted into the store windows as they passed them, but had so far found only their reflections.
The wind shifted and a rank scent caught them full in the face.
"Oh, my god..." said Cel between coughing fits. He pulled out a spare mask and offered it to her.
"It'll help." he said. "I've smelled this before. In the hospital." She tied the mask in place and her coughing subsided, but she still looked pale.
"Those flesh things you mentioned? Well, at least they didn't do anything."
"They destroyed the hospital."
"By being heavy. It's not like it was a deliberate attack. We need to get a look at those anyway." she said as they neared the intersection ahead.
There was a sound like canvas ripping.

Rrwatch looked in stunned horror as the thing moved. It was shrinking, but getting taller? Stretching itself up. Soon something began to form. Four, no, five points on the thing began to emerge, getting larger.
No! It was one piece, all five joining together and becoming more defined as it rose into the air. A hand. Broken and misshapen, but still very clearly a hand.
"God no..." Val whispered next to him. If it were to move sideways now it would brush the roof of the firehouse, a good fifteen feet at least! The base was only the size of a small car now.
"LOOK OUT!" he screamed before he could think. Val was only a heartbeat behind, firing a shot in the thing's direction. It wouldn't hit at this range, but the noise would help. The hand began to fall toward the street.

Cel's head whipped around toward the sudden gunshot. Could the others be here? Where was it coming from? There! On top of that building. But they were screaming? They should know better if they'd survi--
A hand grasped her shoulder and roughly threw her back the way they'd come. She nearly fired before she saw it was Ninja, leaping backwards to follow her.
There was a deafening roar as something--a giant hand?!--crushed the ground where they'd been standing. The thing before them began to grow in size.
"OVER HERE!" a deep voice bellowed a ways down the street. She caught sight of a large man waving frantically on a fire escape.
"We have to move. Can we get around it safely?"
"It doesn't look too quick. Run for it and I'll follow." he said, drawing his blade. They circled the increasingly large mass. Nothing remained of the hand shape, It wasn't an arm pulling itself closer. Rather, it simply seemed to flow from where it had been to be where the hand had come down. She let loose a blast of buckshot.
It barely seemed to notice. The pellets buried themselves inside the thing, but there was little spray. No wounds were visible inside the mass of red veins pulsing over the thing's surface.
They ran.
It had gathered itself up again and seemed to be extending toward them.
They ran faster.

Atop the building, Rrwatch and Val rained bullets down on the thing in the street. Its flesh rippled with the impacts, but it kept coming. Did it have no vital organs at all? Even zombies died when you blew their heads off! But surely it was too heavy to make it up here at least. He'd seen the crater it left when it had swiped, for lack of a better word, at the two newcomers. They could hold it off and barricade themselves inside until they could find a way to kill it, or at least keep out the zombies that would almost certainly swarm them after this much noise.
They sped up the fire escape driven by terror, the four of them pounding up the stairs. They might make the ten flight run in record time, but it wouldn't be enough. They were through the halfway point on the stairs, but the thing was sitting below it and reaching up.
At the three quarter mark, the fire escape lurched as the thing latched on. The man with one arm slipped and nearly fell, but Swift caught him and pulled him back.
It appeared to be gathering itself again, but not toward the stairs. The surface on top of the thing momentarily parted, and suddenly a tendril shot out from it and slammed into the building. There was the sound of glass breaking as the building shook slightly. Another parting, followed by another tendril, only higher up.
It was climbing.
Heavy panting announced the arrival of his friends at the top of the building. He's been so shocked that he hadn't been able to take his eyes from the thing. Wait.
"Where's Wadey?"
"He went in on a lower floor." said Cel breathlessly. "Ninja is with him. I know it's not the time, but thank you. We're only alive because of your warning. Heck of a way to say hello to old friends." They all four shared a brief smile, but it faded as she asked, "What are we going to do?" Not afraid, just unsure.
More impacts shook the building. The thing was nearly halfway up now. They began reloading, for all the good it would do. Cel switched from buck to slugs, saying how the former had appeared nearly useless.
As they looked down at the thing trying to think, a head popped from a window on the eighth floor straight below. Wadey.
"What are you doing?" Rrwatch called.
"Waiting." He hefted his axes. The idea clicked into place. Clever, but would it work?
"It's worth a try." Ninja's head joined Wadey's in looking out for a moment, but on the ninth floor just below. They nodded and retreated back inside. The thing wasn't far away now.
"Let's back up and give it room." said Val.

A tendril appeared atop the ledge, wrapping around it. Then another, and another as the monstrosity began to haul itself up. The side facing them parted. It roared, opening its new mouth wide and buffeted them with a dizzying stench. Their eyes watered almost instantly, but they held their ground. Inside the mouth he could see--no, they weren't teeth. Bones. Rows of  broken and jagged bones. Some still stained a pinkish red, others bleached white. One still had the flesh of a red veined hand clinging to it. What is this thing?
Just as they were about to open fire, it screamed again. There was a quieter, but still audible roar from below as Wadey and Ninja began to go to work with their blades. It began to howl, but the mouth closed over as something else emerged in its place.
Eyes. Dozens of eyes, all crammed together. Some were empty sockets. Some were milky white with decay, but not all. It turned its mass toward it's right--insofar as the thing could have a right or left side--and peered down below.
There was a distant sound like a pop, and a moment later blood bloomed among the sockets. Again. Again.
The eyes faded back out, the mouth returning with a murderous cry. This was it. It had to happen now.

Swift and Cel dashed forward. He lived up to his name as his hands became a blur of strikes on the tendrils to one side, trying to make them lose their hold. Cel simply blew apart one on the other side. Rrwatch and Val emptied their guns into the gaping maw above their friends. It lurched backwards, nearly at the brink now. Getting as close as she dared, Cel slammed the barrels of her shotgun in among the thing's substitute teeth and fired. Crimson spray fountained from above it.
The horror fell.

"Grab on to something!" yelled Rrwatch. They grabbed a/c units, pipes, each other and waited only moments.
With a gut wrenching, sickening, wonderful sound of crunching bone, the thing slammed wetly into ground below. The entire block groaned as the impact shook the buildings to their foundations. Blessedly, they seemed to be holding.
The survivors lay there panting for breath, rancid though the air still seemed. Eventually, there was a crackling from Cel's radio at her waist. The others made for the ledge to be certain the thing was truly gone. Much of it seemed to have liquified on impact, and the small crater in the ground was filled with goo. Though the surrounding road and buildings had certainly gotten a generous coating of it as well.
"Are you guys alright? What was that noise? Um, over."
Cel dragged herself up from the ground to the ledge and gazed down the road at the warehouses just barely visible next to the lake. She caught a tiny glint of light and began to laugh.
"Hello? Over?" She took hold of herself with some effort, enough to answer.
"We're okay, Jolli." she said, as Wadey and Ninja emerged from the stairwell and onto the roof. "Better than okay. And tell Kid he gets a gold trophy for those shots."
"Thank heavens. Hmm? Kid says 'It was easy and only worth a silver?' whatever that means. Now, would you care to tell me?" She could only laugh again. The others just looked confused. Ninja took up his radio.
"Jolli, have you fixed that boat yet?"
"Nearly, why? What's going on? Please? Over?"
"It's important. I'll explain when we get there, but we need to be ready to move now." He turned to the others. Cel's laughter faded to giggles, and those cut off abruptly as her eyes widened. She looked ready to cry.
"What is it?" said Val.
"Two days ago we raided the Surgery Center downtown for supplies. You may have heard it collapse if you were in the area."
"We did. Saw the dust cloud too." Swift said.
"It wasn't anything we did. Too much weight, you see." He gestured with his chin at the ledge. "It was full of those things."