by Tahnee Fritz
“Let’s go, Bridge.” Ryder calls from behind me.
I turn around, swallowing the lump in my throat, and walk back to his side. He puts his arm over my shoulders and I help ease the pain in his ribs as he walks.
We meet the others at the gate, which the guards are mercifully opening for us. I guess just seeing all of us coming back in one piece was enough to get them to be decent people for once. Good thing, because I’m tired of being the mean, forceful Bridget and ready to get some sleep. I know everyone else here tonight is wanting the same thing. We’ve all seen and gone through too many weird and horrifying things for one night.
So glad it’s over.
The guards make sure to check us all over for bite marks or scratches to weed out any possibilities of one of us turning into a monster. I don’t blame them for being worried about that sort of thing. Out of the ten of us who survived the night, none of us were injured to the point of becoming one of the undead. Still, the guards stop us from going any further into the city until they have their questions answered.
“Where’s Nick and the rest of our men?” one of them shouts at us.
The three of Nick’s men who survived step forward. There’s Seth, the young man who helped us get to the trail in the woods. The big guy who saved my life earlier and a shorter man with a long beard. The big guy, who’s name I really need to learn, moves closer to the other guards and takes a deep breath.
“He’s dead and all of us would be if these people didn’t show up when they did. Those vamps had no interest in staying true to their words tonight, they wanted all of us.” He says.
“No more of this trading humans for safety.” The short, bearded man adds in. “From now on, all of us live here in peace and fight when those beasts show up at our doorstep. Buying safety isn’t an option anymore.”
“And who’s idea is this?” the guard asks with anger in his eyes.
The three of Nick’s men step aside and look at me, “It’s her idea.”
“A traveler? They don’t know anything about running a city like this. They don’t know anything about keeping more than just themselves safe and they can barely do that.” The guard retorts.
I can hear the angry sighs and quiet comments after that remark. All of us in this small group are travelers. We’ve come a long way to get where we are today and I think we’re all doing a damn good job at it. This guy, who has probably been sheltered his whole, pitiful existence, knows nothing of what we’ve been through to still be standing here today
I shake my head and step forward, “Then how do you explain that after five years of traveling and living on the road not knowing if we’ll eat one night and starve the next, that we are still alive? That all of us have managed to survive the hardships of this life knowing death will forever be knocking at our door when we least expect it? Explain to me how you know this and you can go back to keeping your precious city safe by whatever means you think are right.”
The guard gawks at me for a moment. His mouth open as though he wants to say something, but the words just won’t come out. None of those men could possibly understand what we go through on a day to day basis out on the road. They don’t know how to go night after night hoping to wake up alive in the morning and not wind up as someone’s dinner. They don’t know the fear we have gone through or the death we have seen. The only thing these men know how to do, is ruin the lives of people who are really trying to make a difference. We are the ones who are doing our best at keeping the human race alive and ahead of the game.
With Ryder at my side, I walk away from the gate and step right next to the guard, “Didn’t think you could.” I say loud enough for everyone to hear, then keep walking down the street.
The rest of my group follow along with us, ignoring the guards completely as they laugh and hug each other like they’ve never done before. I look over my shoulder, glancing at the faces and taking in those who survived. Dwayne walks with the few survivors from our original group. The older woman crying for the loss of her friends. Two of the prisoners we rescued, walk together with smiles on their faces about making it another night.
Then, when I’m about to lose hope and they weren’t able to survive, my eyes pass over two familiar faces. Jim has his arm tightly around Sherry, keeping her close by his side. He smiles when he sees me and I smile back. Sherry passes me a huge grin and waves.
We might have lost a few brave souls tonight, but we were able to make a difference in this city. We were able to fight back and save whatever traveler who decides to come this way for a few nights of safety. I never thought I could ever make a difference as big or as important to the human race as this one.
It’s a pretty good feeling.
I wake up in the morning to the sun shining through the window. The breeze flowing in through the open door of the balcony. I can hear birds chirping and can smell the fresh air creeping inside. Ryder is lying on the bed of our hotel room next to me with his arm draped over my stomach. Both of us slept in our clothes, mainly because we were way too exhausted after climbing up the flights of stairs and just crashed on the bed and passed out almost immediately.
We deserved it too.
All of the others went back to their friends in whatever that building was Dwayne lead us to. Jim and Sherry had to make a stop there to pick up Dillon then they came back to the hotel with us and went to their own room. I’ve never seen anyone so grateful about being alive until I looked at Sherry’s face when we got back to the hotel. She gave me such a bear hug, I thought my eyes were going to bulge out of my head. Would have been worth it though.
I glance at the watch on my wrist, almost ten o’clock. Soon we’ll be hitting the road again and this will all be a horrible memory. After leaving this place, I will never stay in another hotel again. Bad things seem to happen and the owners of those establishments tend to not be the kind of people I would like to associate myself with. From a man who used the monsters as a form of entertainment, to a man who chose to feed them with his own kind, hotels, or anything of that sort, are completely off my list of places to stay. I hope with Nick out of the picture from here on out, this city will be the peaceful, welcoming place the world needs it to be.
A yawn escapes me and I sit up in bed. Ryder stirs and rolls onto his back. I glance over to him and he smiles. I return the favor as my eyes drift down to the bruise on the right side of his chest. It’s about the size of a grapefruit and is slightly swollen. He couldn’t sleep on it at all throughout the night and I was hoping it wouldn’t be so bad when we woke up. I can see that I’m wrong just by looking at the purple spot on his side. I got lucky and my wrist eventually stopped hurting over the night. Doesn’t even hurt when I bend it.
“You feeling alright today?” I ask.
He nods, “Better than last night. Once we get on the road and as far away from this place as possible, I’ll be even better.”
“Me too.”
I slide my feet out of bed and set them on the floor. My boots are sitting next to our bags at the end of the bed. Ryder’s shoes are there as well with Dwayne’s jacket draped over his bag. We’ll have to return that before we hit the road again. We’ll have to stock up on food and fresh water before we leave the city as well.
I reach for my boots and slip my feet into each one, then zip them up. Ryder sits up in bed next to me and I hear him wince when he puts pressure on his side. I see the pained look in his eyes as he places a hand over his bruise.
“Are you sure we should leave today? I mean, would you rather stay until you’re completely healed and able to walk without being in a tremendous amount of pain?” I ask.
He quickly shakes his head, “No, I’d rather face the pain of walking a million miles than force myself to heal in a place where they could take either one of us away again. I don’t care what they said last night, I’ll never be able to trust them.”
“I understand that, but I really think that with Nick out of the picture, this city will be better off. He
was the one behind everything and without him, travelers shouldn’t have to worry about stopping here anymore.” I reply.
“I hope you’re right about that, but I still don’t want to take any chances.” He says, “Will you hand me my bag and my shoes, please?”
I nod and reach for his things, “Then we’ll leave as soon as we have everything we need. It’s still a long road to Des Moines and we’ll need food and everything else.”
I set his bag on the bed and he takes his shoes and puts them on his feet. It takes him a little longer, but he eventually gets them over his feet and goes about tying them. He refuses my offer of helping him with his shoes even though I can see that it hurts him to bend over like that to tie them.
Stubborn boy.
I stand up, grab my bag, and walk across the room to the bathroom while he’s busy getting a shirt out of his bag. I stare at myself in the mirror. It’s dark, but I can still see my reflection. My hair’s a disaster, in desperate need of attention. I reach inside my bag and pull out my brush and hair tie. I wince with every snag I hit with the brush, then pull it back in a ponytail with my bangs shoved off to the side. We’ll be on the road for a while and wearing my hair down will just get in the way.
I put my brush away and zip up my backpack. I take another long look at myself in the mirror and smile. My family would be so proud of the person staring back at me. She has done some pretty amazing things over the last few days. She’s saved someone’s life without realizing it, she killed a ton of zombies and even a few vamps along the way, and she even helped stop a madman from killing thousands of humans in the process. That girl staring back at me is pretty awesome and I’m glad to know her on a very personal level.
With the smile still on my face, I fling my bag over my shoulders and walk back out into the main room. Ryder is now wearing a plain black t-shirt with the strap of his shoulder bag across his body and ready to go. He’s holding my gun and I reach out to take it from him. We remembered to reload it when we got back to the hotel room last night. That was a necessity that took priority over sleep. You never know when something bad could happen and you don’t want to be unprepared for it.
“Ready to go?” he asks.
I look around the room. We’ve only been here a couple of days and have already made quite a few great memories in this room alone. My first kiss took place on the bed which lead me to my first act of flirtatiousness on the balcony. I fell in love with Ryder as we held each other on the floor right next to the bed and I felt like my world was ripped away from me when I thought I’d never see him again. This room and the memories it holds will be the only thing I miss about this place. That and the delicious blueberry pie we enjoyed when we first got here.
I turn my eyes back to Ryder and say, “More than ready.”
He smiles and I follow him to the door. He pulls it open and both of us head out into the hallway. I leave the door wide open and walk across the dirty carpeted floor. Walking past the old drinking fountain where Ryder was so rudely taken away from me for a brief spell. Slowly descending the five flights of stairs, stopping at every other landing so Ryder could catch his breath. It’s hard work to walk down all those stairs with bruised and possibly broken ribs. Without an actual hospital, we’ll never know what’s really wrong with him.
We get to the lobby and I let out a much needed sigh of relief when my feet hit the very last step. I’ve been walking across this country for the good majority of the last five years and you would think five flights of stairs would be nothing, but it can really get you winded. Especially when you’re helping someone who’s having problems of his own.
There’s a small group of people leaning against the wall next to the exit in the lobby. There’s six of them standing there and I recognize all of them. Sherry stands with her father and cousin, that raggedy teddy bear still in his grip. The big guy, who’s name I still don’t know, is standing next to Jim and Seth is right next to Sherry. Dwayne stands close to the door, a smile on his face as we approach them.
All of them have bags either on their backs or on the floor waiting to go.
“What’s going on? Why are you guys just standing here?” I ask.
Sherry smiles and steps forward, “Well, dad and I were talking last night and we wanted to join you and Ryder and go north. These guys overheard and wanted to tag along.”
“We’re not tagging along. We’re all going the same direction so why not travel together.” Dwayne chimes in.
“What about the others?” I ask.
Dwayne shrugs, “Some plan on staying here to stay safe and alive. Most of the others left early this morning. The guards at the gate didn’t even try stopping them.”
“That’s good. Those people deserve a head start on a new life somewhere and I hope they make it.” I reply. “But why do you want to travel with us? We’re just two kids heading for a city that might not even be there.”
“The other travelers have people they care about, either with them or they’re planning on finding them out there. We don’t have anybody.” Dwayne states. “Jim and his small family are all they have left and you know that. I lost my entire family when I came to this place. Seth and the big guy, Carter,” finally I learn his name, “their families are all out there somewhere. They don’t know if they’re still alive and they’ll never know if they stay here. Traveling with two kids to a place that is only rumored to be true is the only thing we have going for us. If it’s not there, then at least we’ll still be together and can look out for one another.”
I smile and glance down at my feet, “I’m glad to know all of you want to join us. It will be nice to have more than one person traveling with me.”
“There’s one more thing you should know before we leave.” Jim adds.
“What’s that?” Ryder and I say at the same time.
“About those zombies from last night, the ones that ripped the vamps apart,” Jim says, “some of the guards here found them on the road about a mile outside the gate. They’re all dead, Bridget. Every last one of them. Not by bullet wounds to the head or some other physical force strong enough to bring them down. They just died naturally.”
“So the poison from the vampires wasn’t able to change them into something even worse than a zombie?” I ask, “That’s just awesome. I mean, it would have been great if somehow that was the miracle cure for the zombies, but knowing they won’t be walking around the planet as some mixture of both creatures makes things a lot better.”
“Still doesn’t explain why they attacked the vamps in the first place.” Ryder says.
I shake my head, “I don’t think we’ll ever fully understand why they sacrificed their lives to save us. Maybe some small part of them is still human after all and they’d rather die than see the rest of our civilization crumble under the vamps. Maybe those few who I’ve seen hesitate before attacking a living being, are just the beginning of a change being made in them.”
“I hope you’re right.” Dwayne says.
“Me too.” I reply.
The big guy, Carter, steps away from the wall and flings his bag over his shoulder, “Enough with all that zombie and vampire nonsense. I’m ready to hit the road.”
The others grab their bags as well and start to head for the door. Seth holds it open for all of us to walk through and just before leaving, I take one last look behind me. The high ceilings, the crystal chandelier still hanging in its place. The insane amount of stairs leading up to rooms that I’ll never see again.
I won’t miss this place one bit.
Part Three
We crossed into Iowa two days ago. It’s been three weeks since we left Hatfeld and none of us have bothered looking back and it has been a long three weeks. First off, the little army guarding the city, didn’t really want us to leave. They refused to open the gates for us, until Carter made it hard for them to keep us inside anymore. He is, after all, three times bigger than any other grown man I’ve been around and he can be quite intimidating,
especially with that deep voice of his to match his appearance. He didn’t hurt any of the guards at the gate, but he sure made it seem like he was going to.
Secondly, a mile away from the city we ran into the bodies of dead zombies cluttering the highway. Just like Jim had said, every last one of them who bit into the body of a vampire was lying dead on that road. I recognized the one who saved us from Zeke and I actually felt bad seeing the thing lying in a small pool of his brown, mushy blood. He saved my life and Ryder’s and I’ll never understand why he did it, but I’ll always be somewhat grateful.
Lastly, as with every trek we humans set ourselves upon, problems naturally occurred. We thought we had enough food to last us a month, but we were wrong. Mainly because we didn’t ration it as well as we should have and we ate more some nights than on others and that took a toll on our food. We have just enough left now for one more meal, then we’re out of luck unless we make it to Des Moines soon. I’m positive my dad would’ve scolded me if he were around to see how much food I wasted along with these guys. Probably even smack me upside the head and I honestly couldn’t blame him.
There were quite a lot of zombies on the journey north. Most of them were the same normal zombies who ran for us the second they smelled us. We took care of them without a problem. I was able to relieve some tension and shoot quite a few of them in the head. Not going to brag, but my count is much higher than anyone else’s in the group. Luckily, no one was bitten or scratched during any of our encounters. A few close calls that we were able to handle without a major problem.
