The Dead Road: The Complete Collection

by Paine, Robert

  I looked into his face. "Holy shit." It was all I could think to say.

  He patted my shoulder. "Yeah, man. C'mon. Let's get moving before more of them show up."

  I could feel the cold and damp patch of blood on my back. I started unstrapping my pack. "I need to change this shirt. If they can track us by smell, I can't have the scent of their blood and brains all over me."

  "Smell? You think they can smell us?" Roger's voice was quavering. He hadn't found his strength like Eli had, not yet.

  "Well I doubt it's sight. It's dark out here, and that one walked away from the light to come for us. I can still see your truck from here."

  "Maybe she..." Roger looked down at the bleeding carcass. "Maybe it heard us."

  I fished a pair of cargo pants out of my pack. The black fabric was sturdy military surplus, almost canvas. It was too hot to wear these during the outing, but the new turn of events made me a lot less worried about sweating and more worried about keeping someone from biting through my pants. "If it heard us, then that's more reason to stay quiet, isn't it? Eli, cover me while I change." Eli picked up my rifle and started looking around, peering wide-eyed into the darkness. I started unlacing my boots. "And Roger, would it have killed you to say 'behind you'? I mean, saying my name over and over doesn't make me turn around, does it?"

  Roger sighed, hanging his head. "Yeah, sorry about that."

  I yanked my boots off one at a time. My socks were wet and smelled rank. I pull them off as well, rolled them into a ball, and tossed them into the woods. "We gotta start talking like we're in the army or something. Short sentences, nothing that isn't important, and conveying as much information in as few words as possible. 'Alex, behind you' is a lot better than saying 'Alex' and waiting for me to say 'What?' you know?" I pulled out the plastic bag of rain gear, and fished out my last pair of clean socks, then stood up to push my jeans off.

  I held them up to look at them as best I could in the darkness. I could see the wet stains along the back, a bloody mess from the waistband down to the knee. Held at arm's length I could still smell the foulness. It was the same kind of smell that comes from rotten meat. I tossed them aside as well, and stepped into the fresh pants.

  "Alex?" Eli's voice was shaky.

  I turned to look up at him. I had it on the tip of my tongue to chastise him, to ask him what we just talked about. I wanted to start again about how we had to use the right words quickly to convey the information needed. To explain how it was useless to just say my name and wait for a reply when something important was happening. I wanted to say all of it, but I didn't.

  In the shadowy haze I could make out silhouettes, backlit by the red glow of the brake lights above us. Humanoid figures shambled towards us. The red light creating an almost demonic visage. They made no sound other than the shuffling of their feet against the dirt. There were over a dozen, converging on us slowly. Eli took a step back towards me, looked at me with a fear stricken gaze, and the took off in a run, bolting down the hill as fast as his legs would carry him. Roger followed a moment later. I grabbed my pack and followed, but it only took two steps for me to realize that I made a critical error. My boots were still laying on the road.

  The things were coming directly at us. They were not veering off to investigate the awful-smelling jeans. The one at the front of the pack took a stiff, awkward step past the body of one Eli had killed with his hatchet. However they sensed us, they knew we were alive, and that meant we were food. I hesitated a moment, calculating in my head if I could make it to my boots and back out of their reach before one of them got a hold of me. From below I heard Eli shout "Alex! C'mon man!" I turned from the cluster of shambling things and ran down the hill.

  At first I didn't notice that my feet were bare. I slung my pack as I ran, taking bounding steps down the incline, my system flooded with adrenaline and endorphins. My feet slapped against the dirt with every step. I could hear the cluster of things up the hill, shambling and groaning. It seemed they got louder the closer they got to us, or perhaps it was frustration as their prey once again slipped away. all I knew at the time was I had to run. I had to get as far away from those things as I could.

  Trees blurred by me as I ran. I didn't notice the rocks and sticks I was landing on with my unprotected feet. Somewhere my body was registering the pain, but my brain didn't process it, didn't let it interfere with the base instinct to get away from those things. I ran until my legs felt like rubber, and each breath burned in my lungs. I regretted every day I skipped going to the gym. I regretted every fast food cheeseburger I ate instead of packing my own lunch. I couldn't hear the shambling and groaning anymore, but if it was because I had gotten far enough away, or I just couldn't hear over my own pulse pounding in my ears I couldn't say.

  Further ahead I could see Eli and Roger stop themselves at the edge of an embankment. The road turned to the left, and directly in front was a small rise of earth, and beyond that a sudden drop. We called this curve "The Hook," and had joked about skiing or snowboarding down this road just to make this jump - not that any of us were good enough to do it. There was a reason we came up here in the summer, and stuck to our home cities for the winter.

  I slowed my pace and stopped beside them. I was out of breath, and my feet were really starting to regret my decision. Roger was at the edge of the drop, peering down into the black nothingness below. It was a dark night, and aside from the tops of the trees below it was like staring into an abyss. Roger shook his head.

  "What's the matter?" I whispered.

  He closed his eyes for a moment before he spoke, like he was weighing his words carefully. I had seen him do this countless times when on an important phone call. It was his way of collecting himself before delivering bad news. "If we're at The Hook that means almost nine miles down to the lot where your car is parked. I thought we were closer."

  My heart sank. "Nine miles? Back at camp you said five."

  "Well, I was wrong. I thought we were down further. It's probably five as the crow flies, maybe less, but the road heads north for a while along this ridge, before it turns back to the east."

  I peered into the distance. I saw a gap in the trees off in the distance, a break in the sea of leaves that swayed below us. A tiny point of light glowed in the middle, barely visible through the canopy. I convinced myself that beacon of light was the parking lot. That the winding country road that led back to Stockton and then the highway was just beyond.

  Eli didn't turn around. His eyes were glued watching up the hill. "What if we climb down?"

  Roger shook his head. "I'm no rock climber. We'd never make it."

  I turned to Roger. "I'm not sure we'll make it on foot. I don't think those things up there are going to get tired. We've got ten minutes, maybe twenty, until they're on us again. If we go down we put miles between us and them. They can't climb, or at least, I really fucking hope they can't climb."

  Eli nodded as he spoke, "Yeah, man. I mean, there were too many. We can't just keep running. We gotta lose'em, and we can't do that running along a road."

  I smirked a little, "I don't think I'm very good for off-road either." I gestured to my bare feet.

  Eli winced, "Aw, shit man, what happened to your boots?"

  "I was changing my socks when that cluster found us. I didn't get a chance to put them on again, and it was too risky to go back for them."

  Roger threw up his arms, "Christ, Alex! You're going to hike nine miles in bare feet?"

  I shook my head and dropped my pack. "No, I'm going to climb down, and then hike five miles in bare feet."

  Eli nodded again. "Fuck'n A." He dropped his pack and unzipped the top, pulling out his camera bag and slinging it over one shoulder. "Time to lighten the load."

  Roger watched us with a look on his face of utter disbelief. "You guys are crazy!"

  I took my rifle from Eli, then kneeled down to start fishing in my pack for my extra ammunition. "Roger, we don't have time to argue. If you wanna take the long
way, go. Stick to the road, go as fast as you can. If you make it, then, give us as much time as you can, then get out of here."

  "How? My truck's up there, remember? What am I going to do? Keep running?"

  Eli reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys of his car. "Here, man. If you get there and we're not there, take my wheels. We've got Alex's car."

  Roger took the keys. "Down the road about two or three miles towards town is a wooden bridge. I'll wait at the lot as long as I can, then I'll head there and wait again. If I don't see you-"

  I cut him off. "Wooden bridge, got it. We'll be there. Now go. Those things aren't far."

  He nodded. For a moment he looked like he was going to shake our hands, or maybe hug us, but no one was willing to say goodbye. We were all thinking it, but no one was going to say it. He turned and jogged down the road.

  I walked to the edge again and looked down. There was a small ledge, two feet across, about ten feet down, and a few cracks and crags on the way. That was our best bet from here. "Well Eli... no time like the present, right bud?"

  He swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, man."

  I pointed down to the ledge. "Make for there." From further up the hill I could faintly hear a chorus of groans echoing in the night. "And hurry."

  We both moved with renewed vigor, the sounds of the approaching cluster of groaning monsters was enough to put spring back into our tired and sore legs. Judging by the echoes the group had grown. I wasn't going to wait long enough to see by how much.

  I laid down on the ground and threw my legs over the edge, feeling along the rock with my toes for something I could put my weight on. My toes scraped against a jagged ridge and I winced. I looked to the side and saw Eli was already half way to the ledge. I shifted to the left and groped around with my feet some more, until I finally found a suitable spot. I lowered myself as carefully as I could, shifting my weight from my belly against the edge to my legs.

  Pain shot through my feet. The rocky ledge was uneven with a sharp edge that dug into the arch of my foot. I winced as I settled onto the rocks, and lowered my hands to a shallow crack in the rocks at shoulder height. Eli looked at me from his perch to my right. "You okay, man?" I nodded hesitantly. This was going to be a long climb.

  There was a hissing groan from above. One of the things shuffled to the edge, then pitched over the side, tumbling forward as if it hadn't noticed the sudden drop. It whooshed past me, snarling frantically as it fell. It missed by only a few feet. Had it taken a step to the right it would have hit me on the way down and taken me with it. I could hear the wet, slapping sounds as it struck the cliff face on its way down. My heart was pounding in my ears. I swallowed the metallic adrenaline taste back into my throat. Tree branches below us broke, and there was a heavy thud as it hit the ground. I looked up, expecting more to begin cascading over the side.

  It seemed they learned from a single mistake. I could make out the shadows of them shuffling above us. They had turned, and were walking parallel to the edge, following the road after Roger. They groaned and sputtered as they moved, excited by the smell of us just below them, frustrated by their inability to get to us. None of them looked over the side, or tried to reach us, they just walked by. Seeing one of their number must have been enough to send the message that this was not a viable course. I wondered if they had some sort of hive mind, that the experiences of one were shared by the whole. The prospect made my mind reel with the possibilities. Did that mean there was some queen somewhere, some massive un-living beast that guided these all as they looked for humans to infect? Did they all know what one knew, spreading like a massive bed of moss or fungus, stretching over the land, in search of prey?

  I swallowed hard, trying to get my heart to stop racing. I was hyperventilating. The implications of what was happening above me scrambled my thoughts. I closed my eyes. They just learned. They saw one of their number fall and they shifted. That's all. Nothing more I opened them again and looked down. I could see Eli making his way down the rocks. I ignored the shambling throng of monsters a few feet over my head and instead planned my descent.

  *****

  I don't know how much time passed before I reached the bottom. Every step became agony. I could feel blood on the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands. My arms and legs shook. When I landed my first step on solid ground I almost wept. I sat heavily on the dirt, taking deep breaths, trying to calm my pounding heart.

  Eli found me as I sat. He looked tired, his face streaked with sweat and dirt. He laid a hand on my shoulder and I could see his own fingertips were bloody and raw. It hadn't been an easy climb for him either. "You alright, brother?"

  I nodded, still breathing too heavily to respond. He sat beside me, both of us leaning back against the rocks. He pointed to a dark mass in the shadows, just ahead. "That's our jumper. When I got down here it was dragging itself with one arm, trying to make it to the cliff. Its legs were shattered, and one of its arms had come off somewhere in the trees. I looked around but didn't find it."

  I looked at Eli incredulously. "That thing was still coming?"

  He nodded. "I smashed its head in with a rock. That was when it stopped. I think it's all about the head, you know? Like those old horror movies, they just don't stop comin' unless you put a bullet in their brains."

  I stared into the darkness at the malformed lump on the ground. "When that one fell the rest of them turned. I don't know if they learned from his mistake, or if they're being guided in some way."

  Eli shrugged. "If they're being led it's by the hand of the devil himself. Either way, we gotta get movin' again man. It's no good to sit here. If they can smell us, we got enough stink between us to get them comin' our way for miles around." He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder before getting to his feet.

  I struggled to stand, letting out a hiss through clenched teeth as I put weight on my ruined feet. The pain was shocking, but it jolted me awake like a bucket of cold water. Eli was right. Between our sweat and our blood, if these things did track by scent we would be easy to find. Sitting with our backs to a wall was a sure way to get surrounded. I started to limp after Eli, clenching my jaw, fighting through the daggers of pain that shot through my legs. "Do you know where we're going, Eli?"

  He gave me a thumbs up. "If we keep heading this way, away from the cliff, we'll reach the road. Even if we don't make a straight line, the road loops from the left over in front of us. It just matters if we get to close or far from the parking lot."

  I nodded. Walking was an exercise of will, forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other. Every pebble or twig I stepped on make my feet burn. The alternative was to lay down, let those things find me, tear me apart, or worse, make me into one of them. My blood went cold at the thought.

  Eli slowed his pace to walk alongside me. "How many of them do you think were in that group up there?"

  I shrugged. "Looked like a couple dozen from where I was, but I didn't exactly take a head count."

  "It's the slow season up here, man. I mean, how many campers are on this mountain?"

  I shrugged again. "I have no idea, but, that could be all of them."

  "Right, so, follow me here. If that's all of them, how long would it take to walk from one end of the mountain to the other? A few days at least, right? So for all these people to get bit and turned, and to walk around gathering up like a pack of wild dogs, that means this shit probably started before we even came up here."

  "I've been thinking about that myself, like, where did it start. Patient zero, you know? It's not an airborne virus or something, or else it would have gotten us. Jake didn't go until he was bitten, so it's safe to assume that it's transmitted by bite, like rabies. Now, I'd like to think that we would have heard something on the news if these things were walking around Manhattan, and it would take longer than a week for someone to walk from there to here anyway."

  "Yeah, so, what's that all mean?"

  I winced as I stepped on a stick, my foot j
umping upward like I stepped in fire. Eli put his hand out to help me, and I leaned against him as I tried to re-establish my stride. "It means that this thing, whatever it is, probably started somewhere up here. Not the mountains per se, but in Vermont or New Hampshire. It means there may be a perimeter, some sort of boundary we can get to where this stuff isn't happening yet. Maybe a military cordon, or something."

  Eli nodded, his eyes widening, "Yeah man! There's gotta be someplace we can drive to. I mean, driving's faster than walking, right? If it started here, and only got as far as those things can walk, then, hell, maybe we should make for Boston."

  I nodded, patting him on the shoulder. "Right. Sounds like a plan to me."