The Plague Runner

by Burgy, P. J.

  “Why did he do that?” Lena asked, sitting on the grass next to Kara. She was holding a dandelion between her fingertips, twisting the stem and twirling the yellow flower.

  “He is what he is, Lena. I’m sorry,” Kara answered.

  “I liked Trap,” the girl whispered.

  “I did too. He was a lucky mutt. Up until today.” Kara swallowed, and then cleared her throat. “He saved your life, you know. He was a good dog.”

  “A very good dog,” Lena said.

  “We have to go soon,” Kara told her. “I know what just happened was terrible, but we’ve got to go see if Russell is up and able to get moving.”

  “I bet he feels really bad about what he did,” Lena stated.

  Kara stood up, waiting for Lena to do the same.

  Kara shined her red flashlight down into the basement, not liking the scraping and scuffling noises coming from down there. Slowly, Kara descended the stairs while Lena stood waiting up on the grass. Kara took each step carefully, and when she reached the bottom, she shined her light around the area until she stopped on Russell’s knelt form.

  He was pulling dirt from a pile beside him into a hole directly in front of him, where the concrete had been pulled up from the basement floor to expose the soil. When he acknowledged her presence, it was by pausing momentarily, glancing over at her with his blackened eyes, and then turning away to resume his burial. She walked up to him, looking down at the hole he’d dug, and saw tufts of fur mixed in with the soil.

  “I’m sorry.” His voice was ragged.

  She took in a soft breath of air, the smell of death fresh and pungent. It smelled of bile and blood. She felt sick to the stomach. “Russ.”

  “His name was Trap, wasn’t it?”

  “Russ, look…”

  “You need to leave me here. You need to go on without me.” Russell continued to pull dirt into the grave, pausing again to look up at Kara. The black stains around his eyes ran down along his cheeks to his jaw, his chin coated in blood. “I’m too dangerous. You have to go.”

  “We need you, Russ,” she said. “This was an accident.”

  “This wasn’t an accident! This is what I am!” He raised his voice and then finished burying the dog, pressing down on the dirt with his palms. “This is what I am.”

  “But...”

  “It could be you next time! Or the girl! Is that what you want?” Russell remained kneeling but moved around to face Kara, his head dropping and his teeth shining in the red light. “Even if I do eat, I’m dangerous. Don’t you get it? I’ve lost my mind. I should have told you, but the fever, it did things to my head, Kara. I don’t need to be starving to go insane. I knew Meredith!”

  Kara stood there, lips parted.

  “What?”

  “I forgot I knew her!” he muttered, looking to the ground, and then at his dirty hands, his fingers splayed as he studied his palms. “I was in the hive for a time, then left. I forgot. I can’t trust my memory, Kara. I can’t trust my mind. I’d been okay on my own for so long, and then you showed up. I thought I’d forget you too, but I couldn’t get you out of my head, so I followed you. I want redemption for what I’ve done, but what good is it if I can’t change? What good does it do if I save you only to kill you later, out of the blue, because I’ve lost it? Please, just go on without me.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Russell,” Lena’s voice came from the steps.

  Russell stared at the girl and Kara turned around to see her standing a few feet behind. Lena approached, holding the dandelion in her fingers from earlier, and came up to Russell, only a foot away. She reached out, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

  Russell tried to pry her off gently. “You can’t, I’m-”

  “I’m immune, don’t worry,” Lena said. “Don’t blame yourself. I know you’re very sick, and you couldn’t help it, but I saw you go for him over me. You looked at me, but went for Trap. I know you're sorry. You are a good person.”

  Russell was dumbstruck by the look of his face.

  “I, uh-”

  “It’s okay. If you don’t want to come with us, I understand,” Lena said, letting go of him and backing away. He stared at her, blinking, and Lena shrugged. “We got this far, and we’ve got to warn Kara’s fort. I don’t want anything bad to happen to her family, like what happened to mine. She said we have to go soon though.”

  Kara swallowed. “It would be easier if you came, Russell. You know the way out of the city. You could check for Infected out there, in the houses, where we could stay the nights. Please.”

  Russell looked to Kara, and then to Lena, back and forth. He licked his lips and then forced himself to stand. “I will go with you. But, the sun…”

  “The blanket will do for now. But we’ll find you something better, I promise,” Kara said, shrugging and then letting out a sigh. “And you’ll need to eat, Russ. No more going hungry just to keep from, well, whatever it is you thought you would do.”

  “You’d think I was disgusting,” Russell said.

  “I won’t.” Kara went to grab for the blanket on the floor and brought it over to him. “Hell, you want to eat under the blanket? I don’t care. Eat in front of me. Whatever. Russ, I’ve seen things, man. You have no idea. Just eat, you idiot.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She shot him a look. “I am.”

  He stood up, taking the blanket from Kara, studying it with his black and red eyes. He raised his gaze to her face after a moment and then grunted. “The sooner we find me a helmet, the better. I can run faster than your horse, and we’ll get farther with you two riding than walking.”

  “Angel,” Lena said.

  He tilted his head. “Hrm?”

  “Okay, let’s get a move on.” Kara went to the steps, waiting for Russell to arrive next to her wearing his sheet. He was grumbling under his breath as they went up and into the daylight.

  Angel was reluctant to let her previous passenger back on, but after a few attempts Russell was able to mount the horse and even patted the side of her neck to show a bit of affection for the beast. Whether the horse believed him or not, she carried him nonetheless, and Kara led her along by the bridle lead, fingers clasped around the leather.

  Lena had been sat in front of Russell, as she’d ridden with Kara in the hive, and hummed as they went through the city streets as a brisker clip than before. With Russell, looking like a ghost from an old, silly movie, able to hold himself up in the saddle along with the girl, Kara was able to set her own pace alongside and ahead of Angel. Eventually, Kara discovered that she needn’t even hold into the leather lead and could run beside the animal without fear of the horse taking off in a different direction. Well trained and fearless indeed.

  Kara would rattle off a street name now and then, pausing at an intersection, and Russell would instruct her on the direction to take with little to no hesitation in his voice each time.

  “You remember the city well enough,” Kara called out over the sound of the clacking hooves beside her, her pace consistent as she jogged along. There were dented and rusted trash cans ahead of them, easy to avoid, and a crack in the asphalt exposed some of the sewers beneath the city. Kara jumped the three feet, as did Angel, as Lena yipped in excitement.

  “I mapped it years ago,” he replied.

  A few hours had gone by and Lena complained of being hungry. Kara realized that she was actually pretty hungry too, and she kept her eyes open for any sign of movement, or any trees with fruit, or bushes with berries. When she saw the blackberry bush, she stopped Angel near an old, three story building on a corner, the businesses on the right all caved in and spreading into the street. The sun was high, and it was a little after noon, so Kara figured they’d have a little time to forage. She helped Lena off of the horse and the two began pick and eat the ripened fruit. It was a bit overripe but Kara didn’t mind it. This was food, and that is what mattered for now.

  “What will we feed Russell?” Lena asked.

 
“I can wait for nightfall," he said.

  Kara regarded the blanketed man. “You sure?”

  “I’ve eaten recently…” Russell muttered.

  Kara went back to eating berries, acutely aware of the silence that followed.

  The day was passing, the sun moving through the sky as they reached an area with fewer multi-level buildings and more tall, narrow row homes. Kara saw the odd business or corner store as they traveled, and found herself staring at a clear field on the left, the abandoned school catching her attention. Angel slowed as Kara did, matching her new pace. Big, flat buildings like that made her nervous as she imagined all of the Wailers in there waiting for sunset. Russell was somehow aware of the school as well, and he turned on the saddle.

  “There’s a nest nearby,” he stated.

  “So we don’t want to linger too long out here,” Kara replied.

  Russell shook his head. “No, no, we don’t.”

  They moved along quickly.

  After only a short time of travel, Russell gagged up bile under the blanket, and grumbled to himself.

  “Ew.” Lena mumbled, straining to look back.

  “Sorry.”

  “Russ, you getting hungry?” Kara asked, stopping the horse and looking up at the blanketed figure in the saddle. Lena was apt to slide down into Kara’s arms, frowning deeply the entire time. Kara watched Lena walk over to sit on the sidewalk near the burnt husk of a van.

  “Yeah,” Russell said.

  Kara scowled. “Still got a few more hours of daylight. Can you make it?”

  “I can try.” Russell told her.

  “Can I walk? I’m sorry, Russell, just, the smell…” Lena said.

  “I get it. Yeah. Walk.”

  Chapter Ten

  Another hour in, on a stretch of a suburban street with broken, crumbling houses and abandoned cars on either side of them, the horse began to act anxious, going from a fast trot to nearly a stop before Kara could get her moving again by grabbing the reigns. Russell sat up on the horse, head tilting under the blanket. He had sensed something as well, his posture under the white sheet becoming alert, stiff.

  “We have to get off the street,” Russell said, his tone hushed.

  “What?” Kara looked up at him.

  “Off the street, we have to get off the street,” Russell repeated.

  “Lena, get close. Come on,” Kara called Lena over, taking the girl by the shoulder as she took a look around at the houses and the many broken windows. Kara was directing Lena, pulling the horse toward one of the houses, eyes scouring the surrounding area for any shelter available. “Where do we go, Russ? There’s nowhere to go.”

  There was a soft ‘pfft’ and something struck the ground by Kara’s feet. She froze to the spot. Where she stood, there was a house ten feet from her, an open garage beckoning, and the grass around her feet was tall and wild. She’d heard the bullet though. There was a sniper out there. Kara slowly began to hold her arms up while Lena shivered, clinging to her side.

  “Kara?” Lena asked.

  “We aren’t alone,” Kara whispered.

  “We have to take cover,” Russell said.

  Kara’s eyes narrowed and she turned around, hands up. She was looking for the sniper, scowling at the rooftops across the street. “Nowhere to go, Russ.”

  “HOLD!” It was a male voice, across the way, from the houses Kara was currently glaring at. “Don’t move! Stay right where you are!”

  “Son of a…” Kara muttered. She raised her voice in reply, “Just passing through! No harm, no trespass! Just passing through!”

  “I bet you are!” The voice called back.

  “Male. Middle aged. Smoker. Drinker.” Russell had his head tilted upward under the blanket. “Not alone. Male. Younger. Smoker. Drinker. Bleeding.”

  “Quiet, Russ,” Kara breathed.

  “Stay right there,” The voice said. “Hands up, all of you!”

  Lena raised her hands first, then Kara. The only one out of compliance was Russell, and Kara turned back, saw that he hadn’t moved, and hissed at him while she elbowed his leg.

  Grunting, he did his best to put his hands up under the sheet.

  From across the street, a form emerged from one of the houses. Dressed in mismatched armor and padding, his motorcycle helmet black and gray with red flames along the sides, the blood red handprint of the Brethren slapped onto his chest, and a sniper rifle held pointed at them, he came walking across asphalt toward them. He wasn’t alone.

  A larger figure wearing a similar helmet, the colors green and purple, and equally mismatched armor, followed behind him, a baseball bat wrapped with barbwire held on his massive shoulder and a lantern hooked to his belt. Two members of the Red Brethren here, on the outskirts of the city, in an area teaming with the Infected. The two stopped five feet from Kara, Russell, and Lena, keeping back as the horse snorted and stomped a hoof. Kara frowned, wondering if there were more.

  Her question was answered as soon as the smaller of the two, the sniper, spoke, “Just the two of us out here. Kind of lonely. But, looks like we got a lady at least. A daughter too. Does the girl cook?”

  “Excuse me?” Kara clenched her jaw.

  “Never mind. You got a fever casualty with you? Eh? Husband? Boyfriend?” The sniper asked. “Looks done for.”

  The bigger one chuckled behind the visor.

  “Open your vest. Empty your pockets. Go on,” The sniper said.

  Kara dug her hands into her pockets only to bring them back out empty, palms opened toward the two Red Brethren marauders.

  The sniper was not to be fooled. “I see something. Right pocket. Try again or I'll take your knee out. Put it on the grass. Come on.”

  Kara presented the pocketknife and then set it down on the ground.

  Pleased, the sniper nodded. “That's better. Can't have yah armed and dangerous.”

  “I’ll kick your ass,” Russell said.

  “I like your sheet. Are you a ghost for Halloween?” The sniper chuckled.

  “Let us go, please. We’re in a hurry,” Kara said.

  “Ah, no no. You can relax. We’ve got you.” The smaller Brethren kept his gun trained on Russell despite talking to Kara, and he canted his head. “No hurry now, dear. You’re safe.”

  “You want to take this somewhere?” Russell leaned toward the Brethren, and then did his best to dismount Angel. Though unable to see where he would land, Russell’s boots hit the ground evenly, his shoulders down. He was hunched, keeping low, the blanket hanging to his shins.

  “Spry for a dead man.” The sniper took a step back. “I got a gun, mate. I know you can’t see from under your little spook sheet, but I do. Ask your girlie.”

  “Russ,” Kara whispered.

  “What do you think, Sped? Husband and wife, and their little girl, wandering out here. Husband, sick and dying. Where do you think they were going, huh?” The sniper asked, chuckling afterward. “Where in the world would they be going with their old man half dead? I'm very curious, and I'd love to hear the story.”

  “I’m very much alive.” Russell took a step toward the brethren.

  “He’s military. Ex-military. So, when he says he could kick your ass, he thinks he can. But he can’t,” Kara said, hands out, palms facing the two men. “He’s sick, yeah. It’s gotten to his brain. Our safe house was overrun and we had to leave. We were trying to get as far from the city as possible. He was bitten protecting us. We couldn’t leave him behind. His mind is going, but he's still my husband. I love him dearly.”

  Russell pivoted toward Kara and visibly canted his head, the white sheet masking his expression. Kara looked over at the ghost beside her, glad to be blind to his reaction.

  “Is that right?” The sniper lowered his gun slightly and laughed. “That’s a sad story, love. Well, lucky you came upon us, eh? This is my son, Sped. I’m Dale. We can put the old man down for you, no charge, and keep you here with us.”

  “That doesn’t seem very honorab
le,” Kara stated. “I mean, he was a fighter all his life, you know. And you’re going to take him out with a single bullet to the brain? I can’t respect a man who kills a hero like that. You want to kill my husband? Fight him, hand to hand, and beat him. Do that, and I’ll be all yours, willingly. If you’re man enough.”

  “Oh ho!” Dale backed away a few feet, lowering the sniper rifle completely before throwing it over his shoulder. “Sped, you hear that? I mean, I like them any way they are, but willing is my favorite. What do you think, son? You think you can take him?”

  “Your son? Fighting for you?” Kara asked.

  “You weren’t specific,” Dale replied.

  “He’s, ah, he’s contagious, though, isn’t he?” Sped’s deep voice resonated from behind his closed visor. The tall man used his free hand, gloved, to lift the visor and expose his eyes and nose to the light. He looked like he’d taken a few hard hits to the face recently. “I don’t want to get his muck on me.”

  “Just keep covered. That’ll do,” Dale said. “Just don’t get any of it in your mouth or eyes.”

  “Ka-?” Lena gripped Kara’s side and blinked quickly. “...ah, Mommy?”

  “It’s okay, baby. These nice men are going to take care of Daddy, okay?” Kara held the girl’s gaze and forced a smile. “Why don’t you let me and my daughter go around that car? She shouldn’t see this.”

  “Go on. Hide then,” Dale said.

  “The garage,” Kara called out as she ushered Lena away. “You’ll have to do in the garage. He’s light sensitive, and he’ll be blinded. Not honorable to fight a blind man either.”

  “Are you seri- Fine,” Dale muttered. “Take him into the garage and shut it, Sped.”

  “But then I won’t be able to see!” Sped protested.

  “Light the lantern then, you prat,” Dale said.

  Sped looked down to his own hip. “Ah yeah, but…”

  “Scared?” Russell asked.

  “I ain’t scared of a black fever wretch!” Sped barked and then threw his barbwire bat down to the grass, rolling his shoulders and then punching his own open palm in a rapid succession. “Okay, let’s do this. Man to man.”