The Plague Runner

by Burgy, P. J.

  “You need a break, Jim?” Ash asked. He began to fire down at the Infected as they were caught in the UV lamps. The guard aiming the light stayed focused on his job, ignoring Kara as she took a spot near him.

  “No,” Jim stated. He took down three or four more Infected with just as many shots. Each a head shot. He trained his rifle back and forth, aiming. Another Infected went down. Then another. “Goddamn waste of bullets though!”

  “There’ll be less of ‘em tomorrow night, Jim,” Ash said, his tone reassuring.

  “That’s what you said last night!” Jim fired off a shot.

  Kara leaned over the rail, aimed her rifle out into the darkness beyond the lights. The dogs were still going crazy behind her. There would be more coming. More Wailers. She could hear their cries in the night.

  She saw one come into view and before it could reel away from the UV lamp, Kara fired. She hit it in the chest, saw the blood spray in the torch light, and watched as it fled back into the darkness.

  “Head shots, Kara. Head shots,” Jim hissed.

  “I was aiming for the head. I missed,” she said, loud enough to be heard.

  Ash appeared beside her then, setting the barrel of his rifle on the wall and crouching. His voice was rough, edgy, and she heard a tinge of annoyance in his tone. “Enough damage to a major organ and it will go down.”

  Jim replied, “Head shot is faster. If it lives, it’ll heal. It’ll come back.”

  More pale bodies ran into the purple glow of the lamps, and while most recoiled away from the pain there were a few that rolled and grappled with the ground. The Wailers unfortunate enough to fall were quickly dispatched by Jim. His aim was impressive as well, but Jim was fast, no hesitation between each shot.

  Kara watched as five or six of the things pulled back from the UV torch and ran along the very edge of the light, keeping just out of range. They disappeared into the night only to reappear fifty feet away, near an unmanned lamp. One or two attempted to jump on the wall to scale it only to slide back down. With no suitable gaps or protrusions along the surface of the sheeting, there was nothing to get a hold of for the things to climb.

  Her brows lifted and she stiffened. “They’re trying to get up the wall.”

  Someone rushed up the ladder to man the light and drove the Infected off as soon as the torch swung in their direction. The Infected howled and shrieked, running off and out of view. A large male charged the wall and then bolted back into the shadows of the night just as quickly.

  “That’s twenty-five feet of smooth steel. They’re not getting up over that. Ever,” Ash muttered under his breath and took down a muscular female with long black hair. It went down thrashing and stopped moving after Ash put a bullet in her chest, shooting her through the heart.

  Jim snickered. “Some of them can jump pretty high, Boss-man. Better not jinx us.”

  “Not that high.” Ash took down a wiry male and it rolled a good five feet before coming to a stop. A second male appeared and ducked back as soon as the UV seared its skin.

  Kara flinched as she heard the screaming of the Infected.

  That sound. That unceasing, wailing sound.

  Men were calling to one another in the distance, Kara could hear them. The radio crackled and a woman’s voice spoke, garbled, ‘-about ten down here- - some heading your way...’

  “Damn, this is going to be a hell of a mess to clean in the morning.” The guard shining the UV lamp sounded irritated and swung the light around to push back a group of five or six Infected that came from the left. They shrieked and dropped back.

  Kara took another few shots, taking a second to aim for the head. She was successful after one or two misses and felt a swell of pride in her chest when she brought down a large, blood stained male. She turned to look at Jim, ready to brag, a big grin on her face. But, when she saw him, her smile faded.

  Jim was focused and yet a thousand miles away. One after another, after another, the Infected fell. Each muted shot took down a Wailer, most of which were within the wide spotlights and then others that had strayed too close to the UV. Eventually, Jim had to reload, and Kara heard him humming to himself. It was barely audible over the sound of the barking dogs, the guns, and the wailing Infected, but she heard it, soft and airy. The tune he was humming sounded jovial, but Jim looked deadly serious, his eyes cold and his expression vacant.

  She didn’t recognize him at times like these.

  Ash spoke into her ear, pulling her attention away from Jim’s melody. “This’ll go on all night. You might as well go back to bed.”

  “I’m fine,” she replied.

  “He’s right, Kara. You need to run tomorrow. Go to bed,” Jim echoed Ash’s words, and she blinked at him, not having expected her friend to chime in; he had been somewhere else, somewhere far away, and yet he had still been there on the wall, listening, aware.

  “Fine. Fine.” She turned toward the ladder, but not before noticing Ash’s furrowed brows and wrinkled nose. He was looking at Jim, only shifting his gaze onto her when he caught her glance. It was a quick exchange and she instantly knew that Ash wasn’t happy. She held her rifle at her side, shook her head at Ash and then moved to descend from the platform.

  “Goodnight, boys,” she said and then carefully made her way to the ground.

  After hours of being unable to fall asleep with the sound of the Infected and the dogs merging into one horrible choir, Kara did manage to get a few hours of rest.

  She became aware of the morning, opening her eyes to see the light streaming in through the barred windows in the far corner of the room. She rolled over and was surprised to see Ash there, sleeping on his side facing her, curled up like a child. Kara didn’t remember when he had gotten back into bed, but he hadn’t disturbed her. That fact bothered her.

  He was still fully dressed, shoes and everything, and had gotten the bottom of the bed dirty from mud that he’d dragged in. She studied his face, visually tracing the contours of his closed eyes, his slightly parted lips. Ash must have been dreaming, his eyes moving under the lids. He was smooth skinned, his tan light compared to her russet brown. Whatever annoyance she had felt for Ash the previous evening washed away as she watched him sleep.

  She leaned in, kissing his forehead. “Hey.”

  “Hm.” Ash woke up with a gentle start, taking in a breath of air. She smiled as their eyes met.

  “I knew if I didn’t wake you up and say goodbye, you’d hate me forever,” she told him.

  “Mm.” He made a groggy sound and then slid an arm around her middle, pulling her close and burying his face into her chest. “Or you could stay.”

  “I also knew you would say that,” she said.

  “Well, you haven’t said ‘goodbye’ yet.” He sounded like he would fall back to sleep, his tone dreamy and soft.

  “You know I can’t stay.” She ran her fingers through his short, tawny hair.

  He grunted. “You could.”

  “That wouldn’t do anyone any good, would it?”

  “I don’t count?” He pulled her closer, refusing to let go when she shifted.

  “Someone has to run.” She kissed the top of his head.

  “Then let someone else do it.” He was giving up, loosening his hold on her. When she pulled away, he let go, and she slid around to sit on the edge of the bed. Her back to him, he watched her with tired eyes. “Let someone else run for the fort towns. There’s plenty of able bodied, crazy sons-of-bitches willing.”

  “No, there aren’t.” She stood up, went to the folding chair where her clothes waited, and proceeded to get dressed. As she fought with her hair to get it up into a ponytail, she caught Ash staring at her. “What?”

  “I just miss you. I miss you so much when you're away.”

  “I miss you too.”

  “Stay a couple days then.”

  She shook her head. “I can't. Not this time. Maybe next time, okay?”

  “Why?”

  “I have a few things to run
to Blue Lagoon. Can't be late. I'll come back though, you know that. I'll be back.”

  “I have to wait another few months? A half a year? What are we doing, Kara? What are we?” he asked.

  She eyed him. “We are what you made us.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that you chose this. I can't settle here. I can't settle anywhere. I love you, but you knew how I felt and chose this life anyway. I'll visit, but I won't stay. You knew that, and you still chose this. I'm sorry.”

  He watched her with heavy lidded eyes. “Those were the dreams of children who didn't know what was out there, who thought that a fort was a deathtrap and the world was freedom. But we've both seen what's out there, Kara. The rover days are years behind us all, and your legs won't last forever. One day, you won't finish a run and I'll never know where you fell.”

  “You wouldn't look for me?”

  “I'd never stop looking, Kara. Never. But we both know what it's like out there,” he replied. “I just don't want to think about it. I can't think about it.”

  “Then don't, and just enjoy the time we have.”

  “I can't enjoy it when I know it might be the last time I see you.”

  Her tone soured. “So don't enjoy it, and let me go.”

  “Why not let me go first?”

  “You'd like that, wouldn't you? If I called it quits for you? No, you don't get the easy out. You knew who I was when you met me. You're the one who changed. Not me,” she said. “Never me.”

  “Sometimes I think you want to die out there.”

  “Yeah? Is that so?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I don't want to die. But if I do die, it was because I was too slow, or I was distracted. It was because I was worrying about you so much,” she said.

  “I don't think I matter to you at all.”

  “Then maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.” Kara pulled her black, fingerless gloves on after drawing them from her pants pocket. She flexed her hands, making fists. She bent to pick her backpack up off of the floor and threw it over her shoulder. She gave Ash one last glare and then stalked off toward the door at the corner of the room.

  “Kara, wait…” Ash called to her.

  She pushed the door open without looking back.

  Kara stepped outside into the morning air and was immediately smacked in the sinuses by the pungent scent of burning flesh. She stifled a gag, squinted, and adjusted her backpack. The walk down through the little houses and buildings didn’t take too long, and the main gate wasn’t far off. Kara had a stop to make first before leaving Pleasant Tree and followed the stony path where it diverged to the right about halfway through the center of the town.

  The citizens were up, tending to their morning chores. Laundry hung on long lines between houses and trees, or from wires connected to tall poles. A few children, the oldest having to be around ten, ran around one of the trees and knocked over a pole, the clothes now spread out over the grass. An older woman came out and yelled at them, the kids scattering like fall leaves to escape from her wrath. It made Kara laugh. She was getting closer, and she saw a little wooden fence housing a very stout and grumpy looking horse. She met the horse at the fence gate and gave his long face a pat. Right beside the fence was a small house, an apple tree growing out front.

  The apples were ripe, a few having fallen to the grass below, and a young girl with yellow hair was gathering what she could reach. A smaller child, a toddler with long, curly blonde hair, was assisting, and picked up the fruit at the base of the tree, offering it to her older sister. Their dresses were sewn from patches of other dresses, cobbled together from other articles of clothing, and recycled many, many times. Their feet were bare and dirty. When the older sister saw Kara, her eyes lit up.

  “Kara!” she exclaimed.

  “Kara! Kara!” The smaller girl dropped the apple she was holding, stomping her feet and dancing.

  “Hey there, Lena, Ramona.” Kara approached, dropping down, and readied herself to catch the smaller girl in her open arms just as she reached the roots of the tree. “Ramona, look at you!”

  “Dad said you’d come to see us before you left.” The older girl, Lena, said. She had brown eyes, like her mother, and the same dark-hued skin. She had Jim’s blonde hair, and had also acquired his natural smirk. It amused Kara to see Jim’s most infamous facial expression on his sweet daughter’s face. Lena had also inherited Jim’s height, and came nearly eye to eye with Kara when they were standing near one another. Her hair was allowed to hang loose, spilling across her narrow shoulders down to the middle of her back.

  In contrast, little Ramona had light yellow hair, blue eyes, and a fairer complexion. They were sisters, through and through, but it never ceased to amaze Kara how the same two people could make such different children each time, with each birth.

  “I take it he’s sleeping.” Kara stood up, holding Ramona in her arms, and noted Lena’s quick nod. Kara stumbled, catching her balance. “Whoof, Ramona. You're getting so big. You're lucky I'm strong.”

  “So strong!” Ramona flexed her tiny arms.

  “Will you ride Percy with me, Kara? Before you go?” Lena asked.

  “I don't have the time today, I'm sorry,” Kara replied, arms aching a little as she held Ramona.

  “You said the next time you visited that you would ride the pony with me.” The girl crossed her arms, tapping her bare foot on the ground and giving Kara a stern glare.

  “Next time, I promise.” Kara offered a sheepish grin.

  “You said that too,” Lena muttered.

  “Did I?”

  “Yes. It was 61 days ago. You had your black and green camo jacket on, and you'd gotten mosquito bites on your face. You were running Mac his gun parts and you had tea with Mom, then had drinks with Dad. You said you were too tired to ride. You promised next time. Again,” Lena said.

  “Damn, kid. You got me. I always forget what a memory you got.” Kara sighed. “Well, I'm disappointing you again, ain't I? I didn't save much time for my return trip. It's my fault. I'm sorry, Lena.”

  “It's okay, I forgive you, this time. But next time you see me, we're riding.” Lena looked up at the tree. “Did you want some apples for your run back?”

  “If your mom says it’s okay. You guys need to eat too,” Kara replied.

  “I ate five,” Ramona said. “Too many.”

  “She got really sick,” Lena stated. “It wasn’t the apples. Fort bug.”

  “Yeah, huh? I heard. Looking healthy now though, huh? I’m gonna pop in and see your mom, okay? I gotta put you down, honey. Come on.” Kara felt the child clinging to her as she lowered the girl’s feet to the grass. Ramona released Kara’s shoulders and grumbled before sitting on a nearby root under the tree.

  Kara went into the little house, pushing open the hatch door that Jim had installed. It was bright inside, the many windows large. The kitchen was filled with freshly washed dishes, a bucket of water sitting on the countertop. Plates had been set on the round, wooden table in the corner, the chairs pushed in and tidy. Annie kept a clean house, even with four girls and Jim bouncing around inside the walls.

  “Annie?” Kara called out.

  “Kara? I’m in the sewing room. Come on in.” Annie’s voice was warm and inviting.

  Kara entered the small space of the sewing room. There was a single cloth chair, a desk, cabinets covered in yawn and fabric, torn up pieces of cloth and blankets, ruined dresses, ripped slacks, shredded shirts, worn through socks, and all other manner of materials for Annie to work on. Annie Kalamon had spent a lot of time arranging and sorting everything in the room, down to the tackle box of needles and thread and the pincushions set on top of the desk in a circular pattern. A candle burned in the corner of the room, the smell reminding Kara of baking cookies, a memory she found pleasant in the moment but bittersweet immediately after. The room was lit by the open windows, the light fixtures along the ceiling dim.

  Ann
ie was a dark-skinned woman with long, thick brown hair that she kept in a loose braid. She smiled with full lips, her almond shaped eyes shining with joy, and placed her sewing down on the short table next to her chair. Standing, Annie brushed herself off, clearing bits of fabric from the front of her blue dress. She was steady on her feet for someone so noticeably pregnant, having no trouble at all as she stepped forward and met Kara in the doorway.

  The two women embraced.

  “Hello, Annie,” Kara said.

  “How are you?” Annie asked.

  “I’m good. About to head back to Blue Lagoon, wanted to see you.”

  “Did you eat?” Annie pulled back, hands on Kara’s shoulders. She narrowed her eyes at Kara’s quirky smile and shook her head. “You can have breakfast here. You can’t make that run on an empty stomach.”

  “Actually, sometimes it’s better-”

  “You are having breakfast here.” Annie slipped away from Kara and made her way into the kitchen. Kara sighed to herself in frustration; it seemed that there was no choice but to follow.

  “Where are Hollie and Sarah?” Kara asked, sitting down at the kitchen table.

  Annie lit the fire on the stovetop and rifled through the cabinet. When she turned to look at Kara, her lips were parted, her eyes distant for a brief moment. Annie turned back to the shelves and grabbed a can, closing the cabinet door. “Fort bug. They’re in their rooms.”

  “Oh. Still?” Kara tilted her head.

  Annie laughed softly. “They’re fine now, completely healthy, but fort rules still stand. Quarantine. They are restless. Driving me crazy.”

  “I’m glad they’re better.” Kara touched the round rim of the plate in front of her, feeling a chip in the porcelain. She glanced at Annie, hearing the grinding of the hand-held can opener and the low crackle of a fire.

  “Are you worried you’ll get sick? I’m sorry. I told Jim to tell you.”

  “Jim mentioned it. I’m not afraid of a fort bug. Besides, he’s back at work, looks healthy as a horse, and you look good. If you’d been sneezing and wheezing, I wouldn’t have come in.” Kara laughed a bit, taking in a soft breath and clearing her throat when she met Annie’s eyes.