Chapter 6: The Launch
Kyler glanced in the rear-view mirror. He could vaguely make out the shapes of the Zombies starting to converge on the entrance to the access road. He knew they’d be following him. What he didn’t know was that some were much faster than others. The virus impacted people in different ways. It gave some of its victims almost superhuman strength. In some cases the virus would open up the adrenal glands and keep that adrenaline pumping non-stop. These Zombies could lift small cars, they could jump higher than most NBA dunking champions and they were very in tune with their surroundings.
The slow Zombies would take a while to make it all the way down the road to the launch. The slower ones would’ve been able to pass for dead to a layman. Their heart beat was imperceptible. Their breathing was extremely shallow. Their brain activity was almost zilch except when they detected an uninfected. That was the only thing that could get them excited. It was the way the virus had developed. It had to have a way to perpetuate itself, so it couldn’t just kill its host. It needed to keep the host bodies alive to feed on them. It also needed to have a way to spread. It did that through saliva and blood when the infected attacked an uninfected. The messier the attack the more likely the infection would be spread. In rare cases the virus had managed to go airborne as well. That’d helped it spread across all of Europe and Africa in mere days.
Kyler saw two shapes lurching towards him on the road up ahead. Thinking they were Zombies he sped up until the shapes started waving at him. Realizing he was in the process of running down two humans Kyler slowed the truck down. He finally recognized the two through the broken glass of the windshield as he got closer to them. He drove the truck up beside them and pressed the button to roll the window down.
“What the… “Mike started to say before Kyler interrupted him.
“Just get in! No time to talk right now! Get in the truck and I’ll explain while we go to get the others!” To their credit Mike and Seth both jumped into the car and shut the door immediately without saying another word. The silence didn’t last long.
“Is this blood everywhere? Why’s the back window shattered? Is that a dead body in the back of my truck? Start talking.” Mike was looking all over the place trying to figure out what was going on. Seth was trying to make himself levitate over the seat, so he wouldn’t be sliding around in whatever fluid was coating the passenger seat. Kyler was trying to remember when a Zombie had managed to get on the passenger seat but the whole fiasco with the scoutmaster was a blur to him at this point.
“It’s Zombies. Just like in the movies, I think. They got my mom and everyone. I barely got away.”
“Zombies? Your mom?” Mike asked. He was staring at Kyler like he’d just said an army of flying monkeys had flown over to offer them all free slushies made of elephant piss. He was too confused to even remember to cuss.
“Did you see my mom?” Seth asked.
“I think so. I know I saw my mom and the scoutmaster and there was a lot of other ones. We need to get everybody in the canoes and back on the river now. I don’t think we’ll all fit in the truck.” Kyler was trying to think of the best way to escape. He didn’t have a lot of faith in the truck making it through a whole pack of the Zombies attacking it. Especially if a bunch of the scouts were unprotected in the back.
“Ok. As soon as we make it to camp, we all get out and start screaming for everyone to get the canoes in the river and start paddling. Do you think the Zombies can swim? Are you sure about what you saw?” Mike was having a hard time processing all of this. He’d agreed to walk out to the road with Seth primarily because he wanted to walk off the nasty hangover he’d woke up with. Dealing with Zombies and a hangover with no breakfast to speak of was not the best way to start the day.
“I’m sure that people are killing people and ripping them apart. Zombies kind of sums it up. I know my mom tried to kill me – “It finally hit Kyler that his mom was gone. He’d seen her eyes and known it wasn’t really his mom anymore. With all the running for his life he’d been doing he hadn’t had time to dwell on it until now. His mom was gone. Now he didn’t have any parents. He was alone. His mom was dead because of him. Because she’d had to come out here and get him. Kyler sobbed a few times and blinked back the tears threatening to screw up his vision.
That did it for Mike. He knew Kyler well. The boy wouldn’t be crying for no reason. The tears were more proof to him that something horrific was going on than the dead body in the back and his smashed-up truck. He awkwardly reached over and patted Kyler’s back as Kyler slammed on the brakes. They skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust beside the grassy area the troop had spent the night in.
The scouts looked up in curiosity as the passenger and drivers’ doors of the bright yellow truck flew open. Mike, Seth and Kyler all jumped out yelling for everyone to get the canoes in the river. A few of the scouts slowly began to move towards the canoes. Most of them just continued to stand and stare in bewilderment at the three people waving their arms around and screaming about Zombies. Most of them thought it was some kind of prank and refused to move. The older ones figured that Mike had hit a deer and they were using the messed-up fender and windshield to try and pull a fast one on the kids in troop.
The scouts who’d walked over to the canoes just stood there without actually touching the canoes. It was a good bit of work to drag them down to the river. Especially if they needed to load all the gear back into them. They wanted to find out what this was all about before they did all that work. Especially if they were doing all that work just for a practical joke. It wouldn’t have been the first time Mike had pulled a joke that he thought was hilarious and everyone else just thought was super annoying. Everyone else’s annoyance and frustration at him typically just making him laugh even harder. There’s a word for people like Mike.
Kyler decided to lead by example. He went and started dragging one of the canoes down to the river. That got the other kids rolling. Another one of them started pulling down a canoe with Seth. A few of them started gathering their gear together.
“Mike!” Kyler yelled. “Get your gun!”
Mike nodded and ran over to his old beat up alice pack. Pretty much everything Mike owned was old and beat up except his truck. Well, at least his truck had been nice up until it’d been used to ram through a bunch of Zombies. Mike finally found his pistol and yelled that he had it. Then he bent back down against and started rummaging around for his extra magazines.
They’d dragged three of the seven canoes down to the river at this point. A few of the scouts were still standing around looking lost but most of them were carrying packs and equipment down to where the canoes would be launched from. Thinking of how long it’d taken him to walk to the access road that morning Kyler figured they still had a little bit of time left. They should be able to get the canoes with their gear into the river in the next few minutes. Then they’d be gone before the first Zombies even got close enough to see them.
Kyler took a look down the road towards the forest to make sure he didn’t see anything coming yet. His mouth dropped open as he saw the line of Zombies emerging from the woods and sprinting towards them at full speed. The Zombies were going to be on them in seconds instead to the minutes he’d thought they had. Indecision gripped Kyler as he looked from the canoes to the truck.
“Mike! The Zombies are coming! Shoot them!” Kyler yelled as he ran backwards dragging another canoe down to the water’s edge.
Mike turned towards the Zombies sprinting at them. His eyes widened. From this distance they just looked like a group of people who were running really fast. He fired two warning shots up into the air. That just made the Zombies run faster. Mike didn’t know it, but he’d just alerted even more Zombies in the area to run this way. The Zombies associated noise with the uninfected and would converge on any unnatural noise they heard to investigate. Loud noises in this new normal could be likened to pouring chum into the water near a school of sharks.
Mike could
n’t bring himself to sight in and kill one of the people running at them. What if they were just normal people running at them for some reason? He wasn’t a murderer. He’d shot at people when he was in the marines, but he was never sure if he actually hit anyone or not. It’d been his whole platoon blasting away at insurgents. In that case, they’d been fired upon. Getting shot at made it pretty easy to pull the trigger.
There was a woman in a jogging suit leading the pack coming at them. She was grimacing as she ran. She let out a piercing shriek that was devoid of humanity. The shriek did it for Mike. He went ahead and sent two bullets in her direction then sighted in on the next Zombie. This one was a fit looking man who was just wearing boxers. His legs were scraped up from running through the briars and the woods. He didn’t have any shoes on, but he didn’t seem to care. By the look on his face all he cared about was getting at the kids. Mike put a round into the guy. The Zombie somersaulted forward before coming to a rest on the ground.
Kyler was screaming for the kids to get into the canoes. Mike watched as Kyler pushed one of the canoes out into the river. The two scouts on the canoe were frantically trying to paddle. One of the charging Zombies ran full speed into the water and tipped the canoe over. Kyler waded towards the Zombie who’d already ripped into one of the scouts. Mike tried to get a clear shot, but the man had gone into the water after the other scout who was frantically swimming out towards the middle of the river.
The Zombies were on them now. The piercing shrieks of the Zombies mixed with the screams of terror as the scouts scattered in different directions trying to outrun the demons among them. Mike emptied his magazine by spinning in a full circle and randomly shooting every Zombie he saw. He was fumbling around for another magazine when he saw one of the scouts get taken down by what looked like a teenaged girl Zombie. Mike shoved his pistol in its holster and gave up looking for the extra magazine. He ran and jumped on the girl. He ripped her off the scout and threw her on the ground where he proceeded to smash his boot into her face over and over again until the skull cracked. The girl finally stopped trying to grab him and lay still.
Mike looked back at the scout laying on the ground. The girl Zombie had bit the poor kids nose off. The scout’s blood was gushing all over his face. Mike picked up the scout and started walking towards his truck. All around him he saw the scouts being dragged to the ground by the incoming Zombies. One ran right past him to run into the forest chasing down the scouts who’d tried to escape that way. Mike opened the truck bed and put the young scout in. He ripped off his own shirt and tried to stop the bleeding.
Meanwhile, Kyler had stabbed the Zombie to death who’d run into the water but now there were two more Zombies coming at him through the shallows. On the other side of the Zombies he saw Seth making a run for the cover of the trees. He wasn’t going to make it. There was an older woman loping along behind him at full speed. She probably would’ve already caught him, but it looked like she was limping for some reason. She might have been one of the Zombies Mike had put a round into.
Summoning up his open field running back skills Kyler dodged through the Zombies trying to grab him and sprinted for Seth. He scooped Seth up and threw him across his shoulder. He ran as fast as he could for the bright yellow F-150 that was now their only chance. He saw Mike standing behind the truck taking his shirt off for some reason. Kyler started to yell for him to shoot the Zombies chasing him, but something tackled him from behind before he could yell anything.
He hit the ground hard. He could taste dirt and blood in his mouth. He was dizzy, and his jaw ached. He shoved the pain to the side and tried to figure out where he’d dropped his knife. He felt hands wrapping around the back of his neck. He swung his head back as hard as he could to try and head butt the Zombie who must be spread out on top of him. He connected and felt the Zombies nose break. A second later he was deafened by the sounds of a gun firing right next to him.
He looked up and saw Mike standing there with Seth thrown over his shoulder. He had his hand stretched down to help Kyler up off the ground. Kyler reached up and grabbed the offered hand. He pulled himself quickly to his feet.
“I’m good. Let’s get in the truck!” Kyler was holding up the keys to show he still had them. They ran the last few feet to the truck. As they got there one of the scouts stood up in the back of the truck bed and let loose one of those awful shrieks. Kyler had time to notice the kid was missing his nose before Mike put a round through the kids face. That funeral was going to need to be a closed casket affair.
Mike snagged the keys from Kyler. Seth got in the middle and Kyler slid over to the passenger side. Zombies were converging on them from all sides as Mike got the truck started and shifted into drive. Instead of immediately heading up the road he looped around the field first trying to see if he could spot any scouts that’d made it and needed help. They didn’t see any, so he wheeled the truck around and headed for the access road. Zombies were all around them trying to grab the truck as it went by. A few of them tried to jump on the hood or get in the back to get at them but Mike was able to dodge them or fling them off.
They almost got stuck driving around a mob of the slow-moving Zombies who’d been coming down the main access road. The tires started spinning and Kyler started asking if he had it in four-wheel drive or not.
“You want to get out and unlock the tires?” Mike yelled back at him with sweat beading up on his forehead. He cussed a steady stream until one of the wheels caught and the truck surged forward. They busted through the thin line of Zombies in front of them before the more substantial mass surrounded them. Once past that large group of the slow-moving ones they quickly outpaced the few who were still running behind them.
They passed by the minivan and the suburban as they headed out of the park.
“I’m sorry about both of your moms.” Mike said. “All we’ve got now is each other and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we all make it through whatever this is.”
He was answered by silence. They all knew there was no longer a way to guarantee anyone’s safety. The veneer of safety that the modern world had painted over everything had disappeared. It was amazing how quickly civilization had managed to fall apart.
Chapter 7: The Ferry
Kelly woke up with a pounding headache. Why had they drunk that much? Why was the room still spinning? Their first night away from the kids on these getaways seemed to always lead to the same thing. The annual hangover. The sudden freedom from children and their normal responsibilities always left them giddy and incapable of making sound decisions when it came to moderation. If they followed their normal tradition, they’d swear off alcohol in the morning then decide to ‘just have a glass of wine’ with dinner tonight. Kelly sighed and poked her elbow into Randy’s chest. He snorted and moved away from her, so she poked him harder.
“What?” He asked in a loud and grumpy voice without opening his eyes.
“I need water and coffee and aspirin and maybe some pancakes or something?”
“Is there a genie levitating at the bottom of the bed that you’re talking to right now or do you expect me to open my eyes? If I open my eyes, I’m going to have to acknowledge how horrible my head and stomach feel. I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”
“We split a bottle of wine and had a couple glasses of champagne you wuss. Now man up and go get me the water and the coffee and the aspirin.” Kelly said. She poked him again to show she meant business.
“What about the pancakes?” Randy asked as he climbed out of bed and started pulling on his pants. He looked around the room for the remote to turn down the volume on the TV. They’d left it turned on with the volume cranked up the night before. Showed how hard the wine had hit him since he normally needed complete darkness and silence to fall asleep. The news was showing yet another attack on a group of police. With the volume turned all the way up it was like every word was a screwdriver being shoved into his eyes.
“Wait! Turn it back up!” K
elly was sitting straight up in bed with her eyes glued to the TV now. It looked like she’d completely forgotten she had a hangover. Randy fumbled around with the remote and turned the volume back up. That’s when he noticed the text on the screen was talking about Winter Springs, FL. He started watching intently as well. The video flipped to attacks in California next then showed a riot in progress in Philadelphia. A talking head came on and said not to worry. According to the nervous looking newsman the National Guard and local law enforcement said the situation was under control.
“The word we’ve received is that terrorists have managed to pollute the water supplies of several urban areas with the same drug that’s been impacting other parts of the world. The drug is causing people to turn extremely violent and suffer from hallucinations. The police and the national guard have been activated to keep the situation under control.”
A Small World Page 5
