by Brown, TW
“Hell, if it weren’t for seeing the women, I woulda kept on going and never given you guys a second thought,” Gene admitted to Jason that next day.
However, with the slight influx of people, the demands for essentials rose as well. That meant more trips out to some of the outlying areas. Most recently, they had been taking the long (long at least by the new world standards) trip to Happy Valley. They had discovered a large trailer park and huge housing development right beside each other.
That first trip in, they were able to confirm that both locations were apparently abandoned. The manufactured home community had been at least halfway destroyed by fires, and the housing development was crawling with undead, but both appeared void of any living resistance, and thus, an ideal target.
That was a lesson they had learned after clearing out that first small community that Jason had pin-pointed. Once it was stripped, they had looked for a new location. They had simply rolled into another similar development, only to have a hidden gunman open fire. The truck had taken a few hits, but nothing that put the vehicle out of action.
Juanita had asked why they were hitting places so far from home one evening when Jason and Erin had returned from a run to Carver where they had loaded up a treasure trove of canned goods from a small roadside restaurant.
“If we hit all of the places close by first, then we will be screwed when the gasoline runs dry or starts to go bad. We need to hit the farthest places we dare right now and work our way in,” Jason explained.
Today, Ken and a brother and sister that had joined the group the same day that the Rag and Bone man had first come by, were out on a run to Happy Valley. They were expected back any time now since it was a standing rule that nobody be out after dark. That was when the “Crazies” ran wild.
The Crazies were not any specific group. This was simply the term that had been adopted for the singles and small groups of wanna-be bandits and, for lack of a better term, vandals. These singles and small packs of feral humans were solely intent upon setting fires, hurting others not in their little clique, and general mischief.
It was the consensus that the Rag and Bone man somehow fell afoul of the Crazies. He was discovered by Erin and a few of the others on a run. His cart and bicycle had been pounded into a nearly unrecognizable hunk of twisted metal. His body looked to have suffered the same fate. In addition to a ferocious beating, he was hung from one of the massive and now useless power line tower structures that cut through the countryside.
Just as Jason was finishing with his meal—the idea of breakfast, lunch, and dinner were no longer applicable since they ate whatever was available and at sporadic times throughout the day—the sound of an approaching vehicle made him leave the relatively cool shade of the barn and step outside.
Sure enough, Ken’s truck was heading their way. It was kicking up a great deal of dust, and it took Jason a minute to realize that it was weaving as it came up the road. The added dust was coming from the tires hitting the gravel and dirt that bordered the country road on both sides. Jason broke into a run. He knew that all it would take was for the tires to go just a bit too far on one side or the other and that pickup would be dropping into that deep ditch that ran along either side of the road.
“What is it?” Juanita asked as his jog shifted into a sprint and he dashed past the garden where a few of the community’s residents were working.
“Ken’s back, and something is wrong!” Jason called over his shoulder.
His voice obviously carried, because the sounds of tools being dropped and other people rushing after him came an instant later. By the time he reached the gate, the pickup had actually rolled to a slow crawl. Jason saw Ken alone in the cab. There was no sign of the brother and sister that had accompanied him. He suddenly felt guilty that he could not recall their names. He reached the gate and vaulted over.
The door to the truck opened and Ken fell out, hitting the ground hard and then sliding into the ditch. As Jason reached the man, he searched for, but saw no signs of blood. That was a relief until he reached Ken and rolled him over onto his back. He was almost blue. Putting a hand to the man’s face, he felt little to no breath, and he was not even sure it was breathing he did feel as much as it might be from the gentle summer breeze.
Leaning down, he searched the man’s throat for a pulse and did not find one. He unzipped the man’s jacket and then tore open his shirt. Using his fingers to find the bottom of the ribcage where the xiphoid process would be, he gave it a good four fingers of space and then placed his palm on the man’s chest and began compressions.
After the first series of ten compressions, he leaned down to place his ear on the man’s chest. Still nothing. By now, Juanita and some of the others arrived. Jason looked up at the woman.
“I need your help. I could do it, but…” His voice trailed off and he flushed. “Look, after I give the next compressions, I want you to give him two breaths.”
With that, Jason returned to his task. He wished that he actually knew how to perform CPR properly. He would have to wing it and hope that it worked. As he finished his next series of compressions, Juanita tilted Ken’s head back, plugged his nose, and opened his mouth with her thumb before leaning down and administering two full breaths. They did this for three more tries and Jason once again listened to the man’s chest. He thought he might have felt or heard something, but he couldn’t be sure.
He went through the ten compressions again and just as Juanita finished the second breath, Ken moaned. Unfortunately, that had the effect of causing everybody to scramble or jump back in fear. After all, the man was nothing close to normal flesh tone with his blue tint. When Ken muttered an obscenity, everybody instantly relaxed.
“Ken said a naughty word,” Gabriel whispered, causing everybody to let loose with a little nervous laughter as the tension had not yet fully subsided.
“Yes he did,” Erin agreed. “We can punish him later.”
“Later?” Ken moaned. “Feels like somebody hit me in the chest with a baseball bat.” He shielded his eyes and squinted up at Jason. “Was that you, convict?”
Jason nodded. “Umm, yeah. Juanita and I gave you CPR…I think.”
“Well, thank you. I imagine that you saved my life,” he managed around a few winces and groans, his voice a barely audible whisper.
“You’re welcome,” Jason said with a nod.
“That don’t mean we’re gonna be drinkin’ buddies or anything,” the man added after Juanita had accepted a canteen that somebody offered and given Ken a sip.
“Never thought that it would.”
Jason rose to his feet and moved back a few steps. He had a few people step in and give him a hand picking up the man and moving him to the rear of the truck. He was briefly aware and only a little disappointed at the apparently meager amount of goods that had been scavenged and loaded into the truck. Barely enough to make it worth the precious amount of gas that had been used. Not to mention the fact that Ken had returned without the brother and sister.
Once they got to the barn and got Ken situated and comfortable, the man related the story of what had happened and why he had come back alone.
***
Ken pulled up to the duplex and shut off the truck. Turning to the pair beside him, he made a point to take a breath before speaking. These two were acting like this was a damned field trip. That was a good way to end up dead…or worse.
“Okay, see the gray house?” He pointed and the pair both nodded enthusiastically. “That is our first target. We go in and make the kitchen and bathrooms the top priority. Understand?”
Again they nodded, and everybody piled out of the cab and into the street that was already throwing back some good heat as the sun rose to its midday apex. Stepping over a corpse that was rotting in the street, he did not fail to notice that it looked as if the body had been nibbled at. Somebody had put a bullet in this thing’s forehead. He could even make out the traces of burnt flesh around the entry hole.
Walking up the path to the front door, Ken scanned the windows. Over the course of events, it had been discovered that most zombies made their way to a window sooner or later. They were filthy and left some nasty smears on the glass. None of the windows in the front of the house showed any signs of the undead, and he tried the doorknob. It was locked, but he quickly produced a metal device that Jason had fashioned and popped the lock with ease.
Pausing at the entry, he took a sniff. It was musty and there was a hint of rot, but nothing to indicate that a zombie might be present. The kitchen was through an archway on the right as they hurried up the narrow corridor. It was not a very good haul. Obviously these people had either taken what they could carry or, and this was a possibility that Juanita pointed out one day, maybe they were just at the end of a cycle before shopping. After all, who kept everything stocked at all times? Most people went to the store, loaded up, and then went back in a week or so as things began to run low, leaving the spur of the moment items that they really had no use for like the cans of garbonzo beans that seem to appear in every cupboard.
It did not take much longer than an hour to search the house and pick everything that they needed. On three separate occasions he had to tell either Chris or Jerri to quit poking through drawers. Clothing was not a priority.
Just as they exited the house and were about to hit the other half of this duplex, Ken caught the scent of the undead. He held up his hand to silence the droning whispers being exchanged between his cohorts. Thankfully, they both hushed in an instant. Ken even heard the familiar rasp of weapons being drawn from leather sheaths.
The sound was coming from the row of hedges that separated the driveway of this half of the duplex from the driveway of the house that was their next target after they tossed the garbage bags of the stuff that they had gathered into the back of the truck.
Ken was about to lean down, thinking that the sound was coming from a zombie that was unable to stand or walk. He’d seen plenty of that sort, so this was no big deal. Then the Pit-bull crept from the brush. It showed no signs of being bitten, but its eyes were that hideous milky white with the black tracers. Ken instantly thought of the body in the street he’d seen that had been picked at by something.
The realization came as he brought his machete down on the animal’s head to end it; there was nobody around to feed these poor creatures. Their domestication would lead to their demise, but when forced with starvation, picky eating goes by the wayside—his steady diet of those aforementioned garbonzo beans standing as testimony to that fact. This was further evidence that dogs were apparently able to contract this same horrible infection or disease or whatever the hell it was that had taken down humanity.
He had passed other animals, many dead by now as nobody showed up to feed the poor things. Up until now, he had not seen a single animal as a zombie since what he had hoped was a fluke with that dog after Rose died. This discovery was upsetting to say the least.
After unloading their bags into the truck, the three of them went to the next house. The windows were a filthy mess and he was still ten feet from the door when the terrible smell hit him.
“Can I do the door thing?” Chris asked.
At just over six feet tall and already showing obvious signs of weight loss as the Apocalypse Diet melted away the pounds, he was down to about two hundred and eighty pounds from his well over three hundred that he weighed when first arriving. Still, his round face and gap-toothed grin reminded Ken of Augustus Gloop from the old (and his mind only) film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The kid was either an idiot, or that smile was frozen on his face. His dark hair was in need of some washing as it was starting to clump.
And then there was Jerri. She was the polar opposite of her brother. Where he was obese and terrible clumsy, she was slim to the point of skinny. The lack of food would have her down to nothing but a skeleton before much longer. Of course her breasts would not suffer, since they were so blatantly fake to the point of almost comical, considering how slight the rest of her body was by comparison. Where her brother had dark hair, Jerri had blonde. However, the lack of any beauty salons were taking its toll as the roots grew out to a more sandy and natural color.
The one feature that bonded the pair were the eyes. They were a vibrant hazel that had flecks of a golden color swimming in them. That…and the constant smile. Both of them were always smiling like they knew some wonderful secret. Personally, it annoyed Ken to no end.
Ken did not like the idea of following Tweedledee and Tweedledummer into this situation, but they needed to learn. With a hint of trepidation, he stepped aside and let Chris lead the way.
The young man showed the proper caution at the door and turned with a huge grin after trying the doorknob and discovering it unlocked. He had turned the knob and opened it partway. That was when things went bad in a hurry.
A hand snaked out from the crack. It was just a foot or so off the ground, and Ken was the first to see it. Unfortunately, he could not shout the warning in time as Chris was already shoving the door open and preparing to enter.
He tripped over the arm and had the misfortune of his sister bumping into him and sending him sprawling forward. That actually shoved the door open the rest of the way. The good news was that the owner of the tiny arm did not weigh enough to keep the door from opening, and it lost its grip on Chris’ leg as he fell. The bad news came in the form of the five zombies that were stumbling into the hallway.
One of them, a man who looked like he spent every waking moment in the gym, was first to pounce. It flopped down on Chris, causing the young man to let out a pained “oof” as his lungs emptied of oxygen. Chris’ sister Jerri was no help as she screamed and started to back away, tripping in the process and knocking Ken back, preventing him from rendering assistance to the downed young man in the doorway.
Next came that horrible scream. Ken was just recovering, and in the act of stepping around Jerri, when he saw the second zombie fall on Chris. Its mouth latched onto the sleeve of his heavy leather jacket and tugged in futility. Unfortunately, the first zombie found the man’s face. More specifically, it found the meat just below the left eye. It clamped down and began to tear.
By now, the other three zombies pounced, and Chris all but vanished with the exception of his legs which pounded the ground furiously as the screaming kicked up another notch until one of the zombies obviously found his throat. There was a jet of blood that managed to squirt through the cluster of undead that were now pawing and tearing at the man.
Ken backed away as Jerri turned to him and screamed, “Help him!”
“He’s beyond any help, kid,” Ken said. He winced at the cold flatness of his voice as he stated the reality of the situation with appalling bluntness.
That answer was not good enough for the young lady. Her face twisted into a mask of fury as she ran to her brother’s aid. She grabbed one of his flailing legs and began to pull. There was another awful gurgle and one of the zombies tumbled away from the soon-to-be dead young man and landed on its side right in front of Jerri’s feet.
Ken backed away as the hands reached out for the woman’s ankles and grabbed hold. Jerri actually lucked out. At least that is the way Ken saw it as he continued to move away from the carnage. As she fell, her skull struck a huge concrete planter with some sort of tree that was a dried husk of its former self without the owners to water it. There was a thud and a snap. He only looked long enough to see the awkward angle that her head sat. Jerri’s eyes rolled back in their sockets and she shuddered violently once and was still before the zombie crept up her body and began to paw at her.
Reaching the relative safety of the pickup, Ken saw several of the undead emerging from the shadows, open garages and eve
n a few front doors of the duplexes up and down this road. This had only been the second run on this particular community, obviously the undead had not been lured away by anything as of yet. As Ken started up the pickup, he hoped that most would follow him out through the arched brick entry. That would make future runs to this place that much easier.
As he drove away, he could not tear his eyes from the rearview mirror. He saw many of the undead clustered around the two bodies of Chris and Jerri. He should have never let that fool boy go first. Up until the very end, the boy thought that this was some immersive video game or some other equally ridiculous nonsense. In short, the kid had not taken it seriously and now he and his sister were dead.
At last he reached the highway when he felt something like a gunshot to his chest. His left arm went numb and he started to experience a double vision of sorts as his eyes watered terribly. Ken Simpson was no fool; he knew damn well that this was a heart attack.
His hands kept slipping on the wheel and everything went in and out of focus as the pain came in waves, each one more intense than the last. His air was driven from him as he struggled. He knew that he was as good as dead. He thought that he could see the blackened ruin of the house and the big red barn that was now his home along with Jason, Juanita, and all the others. If he could just reach the gate, then just maybe…
Ken’s eyes shut and his hand slipped from the steering wheel. Fortunately, his foot came off the gas pedal as well and the truck coasted to a stop.
***
“How is he?” Jason asked as he and some of the others came in from a day of working on the barricades.
“Grouchy!” Gabriel muttered.
This response received a few titters from everybody, but Juanita shot the boy a scolding glance and turned back to answer the question. “He seems like he is recovering okay. That slurred speech is actually fading. I think he will be back to normal in a few more weeks.”
