Mad Swine (Book 2): Dead Winter

by Steven Pajak

  Off in the distance on to the south, I saw specks of dark color that dotted the snowy field. After about a quarter of a mile it seemed as though the dark splotches were moving. I dug into my coat pocket with my free hand and pulled out a small pair of foldable binoculars. The tiny spectacles had been part of a bird watching kit I’d purchased for Katie when she’d become a Brownie.

  Holding the binoculars up to my eyes while I continued to keep pace wasn’t working well so I halted. Lowering the binoculars to that I could get a visual on the specks with my eyes, I found them again, and indeed, whatever they were, they were moving. Looking through the glasses again, I honed in and focused. Suddenly I held my breath, trying to keep the binoculars steady. Through the glasses I saw a small group of people moving in from the south, coming directly toward Route 20. There were at least eight by my count, and from the awkward way they were moving, I knew immediately they were not living humans.

  Jamming the binoculars into my pocket, I started running. My damn back pack and SKS kept trying to slip off my shoulder as I ran, and each time I took a step, the SKS barrel bumped the back of my head.

  “We’ve got company,” I said when I caught up to my team. “Albert, push Ray. Everybody run forward. Come on, move quickly now.”

  Although I could see fear come into each of their eyes, they acted quickly. Al took up his position behind Ray, who crossed his arms against his chest to keep them out of the way, allowing Albert to really get some speed. Araceli and Belinda both took up positions on Wesley’s flanks, and the boy untied Cody’s leash so that the dog could run beside him.

  The sounds of our feet pounding the pavement must have caught Justin’s attention because he turned around to look in our general direction. He raised his hands, palms up, in a questioning gesture. Still running, the damn SKS pounding the shit out of the back of my skull, I jabbed my hand several times in the direction of the crazies.

  Justin spotted the roving band of undead just as our two teams came together. “Shit!”

  “Everybody form up!” I shouted. I pushed through to the front of our group and before I could call out, Lara’s team had already halted and I could see that Brian and Chandra had also become aware of our visitors. “Move up to Lara! Come on, faster people. Move, move, move!”

  I was almost breathless by the time we formed up into our tactical arrangement, with Ray, Wesley and the more vulnerable members of our group at our center. I stood next to Lara, with Justin on my left and Brian and Chandra to her right. Again digging out my binoculars, I handed them down to Brian who took them and glassed the area.

  After a few seconds he handed the binoculars to Lara and said, “They’re coming right at us, and they’re moving quite quickly.”

  “Do we try to outrun them?” I asked.

  “I don’t think we can.” Lara was still looking through the binoculars. “Do we really want these things following behind?”

  Justin shook his head. “No way. I can’t walk and keep looking over my shoulder. I say we take them out.”

  Lara handed the binoculars back to me. The crazies were close enough now that the glasses were no longer needed. She said, “There’s no time.”

  Turning to the group, I said, “Spread out but stay in formation. Watch your strikes. We don’t want to hit friendlies.”

  People started moving about to get ready. Brian put a hand on my shoulder and I turned to him. He said, “We can’t let them hurtle into the group. We need to engage them before they get too close.”

  He was right. Letting those things plow into our numbers could prove disastrous. With little time to waste, I called out to Albert, Liam and Ian to join us. “We have to move fast, so listen up. We’re going to engage them out there. Try to isolate them, they’re easier to kill that way. Don’t let them get numbers on you. Understand?”

  “Let’s move!”

  Together the eight of us came forward to greet the undead. As we closed the distance, no more than fifty yards, I could see that I had undercounted their number. There were twelve or so, crowded together. We were spread out in a line as we ran to meet them. As we closed the distance, thirty yards, twenty yards, I noticed that the crazies remained in their huddled formation.

  “They’re not breaking off,” Justin observed.

  “What do we do, brother?” Liam asked. “They’re going to run through us!” He was at the center of our line with Justin and Ian, right where the undead were headed.

  “Hold your ground!” Brian shouted.

  Within seconds the crazies were upon us; Justin held out an arm and successfully clotheslined one of the front runners, taking him to the ground. The Tomahawk that he carried in that hand flew from his grip, but he still held the ‘hawk in his right, and he went to work.

  Liam and Ian were struck by the mass of undead bodies, knocking them sprawling to one side. In a messy tangle, they went down, taking with them two or three of the enemy. I did not look back to assess their situation. Instead, those of us who were still standing reversed direction and gave chase to crazies that broke through our line.

  They were moving quickly, but awkwardly, as if running was foreign to them. Just as I was within feet of the horde, I saw one of Justin’s Tomahawks fly past me, just missing me by six or eight inches. The hawk struck one of the crazies, but it bounced off and fell uselessly to the ground. The intended target stopped, and I took the opportunity to kick one of its legs as I passed at a run, knocking the thing down.

  Brian reached the horde, and also succeeded in knocking another of their rank to the ground, leaving it for the men behind us. We continued to pursue the seven that remained; we were now just twenty yards from the road. In an attempt to take down as many as possible, I shoved one of the crazies from behind, the force and momentum of my action throwing him forward uncontrollably. The thing’s falling body created the domino effect I had hoped for, knocking down the two runners in front of him. My plan fell apart when one of the fallen grabbed at my leg, tripping me in midstride.

  Even as I hit the ground, Liam, Ian and Justin passed me at full run, again engaging in the pursuit. Four of the horde remained and they had covered too much ground. There was no way they’d stop them before reaching the road. I had my own problems to deal with at the moment and I had to trust that the members of Randall Oaks would be able to fend for themselves. After all, I was not Superman, and I could not always be there to save them.

  The thing that gripped my boot held tightly. One of the three gripped my coat, pulling his way toward me. I tried to roll onto my side so that I could face my attackers, but the damn things seem to have superhuman grips. In panic-mode, I thrashed my body, flailing and kicking, striking out blindly. My free foot struck something soft, like a midsection, but still the crazies clung to me.

  When I heard boots pounding the ground, I knew that help had finally arrived. I stopped flailing when I heard Lara and Chandra giving Albert directions. They first attacked the thing trying to climb my back. I saw Chandra’s spike drive through my assailant’s ear, pinning his head to the ground. With his grip loosed, I was finally able to pull away into a roll.

  On my knees, I saw that Albert and Lara were engaged with the remaining two so I got to my feet and started to run again, heading for the road. I was winded; my throat was raw and my ribs hurt like a son-of-bitch, but I couldn’t stop.

  The horde had reached our members and had plowed into the center. As I approached, I saw the tangle of men and women and undead. It was as if they’d known the weak point and had attacked it. Cody’s ferocious bark assaulted my ears. Women were screaming and men shouting.

  A gunshot rang out just as I reached the embankment, halting me in my tracks. Two seconds passed and another gunshot.

  “Cease fire, damn it!” That was Brian’s voice.

  Getting my senses about me, I moved forward again. Whatever had happened, those shots ended the action. Pushing through to my friends, I assessed the situation. The four creatures all lay dead on the road,
their maroon-black blood spreading over the pavement. Beside them lay the bodies of two of our own.

  Bruce Halverson had been a software engineer before the apocalypse. He’d lost his wife in the early days of the outbreak. He’d made a substantial chunk of change from two popular video games he designed. I couldn’t for the life of me remember the titles. I don’t know if he was the first to be attacked, but the bites on his face and the nail gouges across his neck seemed to suggest he’d been one of the first. His sandy blonde hair was covered with blood, but I could see the bullet hole just the same.

  Anne Marie Lepore was a recent college graduate who hadn’t yet found her first career and she’d been living at home with her parents who were both vacationing in Florida when Mad Swine struck. She’d been a chubby girl with bad acne when I first met her. In the last three months she’d lost weight and joked that not even Weight Watchers could help her shed pounds faster than the zombie apocalypse. The bullet fired from Ray’s gun penetrated the top of her skull. She never saw it coming.

  “Is anyone else injured?” I asked. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Anne Marie.

  “Aye, brother, I think my arm is broken,” Liam responded. His brother, Ian, was down on one knee beside him. Ian had elevated the arm and was attempting to create a makeshift sling from a T-shirt he’d pulled out of his bag.

  “Anyone bitten or scratched?” My voice seemed extremely loud, even to my own ears. No one responded. They were probably afraid to speak up for fear Ray would shoot them.

  Kneeling down next to Anne Marie, I looked for Brian and waved him toward me. He took a knee next to me, his eyes never wandering to the body next to us.

  “Check them all. Everyone. If they were scratched or bitten I want to know.” When he said nothing, only stared at me I asked, “Is there a problem?”

  Finally, he shook his head and got to his feet. Not waiting to see if he followed orders, I picked up Anne Marie’s bag and unlatched the straps that secured her sleeping bag to her pack. I unrolled the bedroll; it was light pink on the back side and a darker pink on the front. A large image of Hello Kitty was imprinted on the front. With Kitty face down, I covered Anne Marie’s body from the waist up.

  I found Ray and Wesley. The boy was sitting on the ground with Cody lying in his lap. He was absently petting the golden retriever. His eyes turned to me when I knelt down in front of him. I scratched the scruff of Cody’s neck. To Wesley I asked, “How’s Cody doing?”

  “He was barking like crazy, like when he went crazy by Mr. Elmore’s house. He’s okay now, though.”

  “Did Cody get close to any of those things, Wesley? Did he bite any of them?”

  The boy shook his head. His hands gripped the dog more tightly. “No, Mr. Danzig. He tried to get at them, but I didn’t let him go. I don’t want him to get sick like them.”

  “That’s good, Wesley.” I patted his shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “Are you okay? Did you see all that stuff that happened there?”

  For a moment the boy just stared at me and then he craned his neck to look at Ray. When he turned back to me, he lowered his voice. “Mr. Ray shot that guy and Anne Marie.”

  “I know. They were going to be sick—“

  “Were they going to turn into zombies?”

  I nodded my head.

  “Then Mr. Ray did a good thing,” Wesley said and nodded for emphasis.

  I left Wesley and Cody and walked over to Ray. He had moved his chair away from the bodies and sat alone, about fifteen feet away. As I approached him, he said, “I did them a favor, so don’t you dare lecture me.”

  When I put a hand on his shoulder, he looked surprised. “Reload your gun, Ray. We still have a long way to go.”

  * * *

  It was near five in the evening when we reached the abandoned farmhouse. The sun had gone down near four and for the last hour we had walked in darkness. After the incident earlier, our group was on high alert. Actually, people were downright spooked and that led to false alarms. People started seeing things in the distance they were sure were more infected souls coming for us. Each time I used the binoculars I found a tree or structure that was not human.

  We approached the structure from the northeast, cutting across an eighth of a mile of open land. In the dark, it was difficult to make out the details. From a distance, I could see that it was a ranch style home, with only one floor of living space. When I thought of a farmhouse, this was not what came to mind.

  A vehicle without tires had been abandoned in the driveway in front of the attached garage. It looked like a pickup truck from mid-1980. It had once been white, but it was now mostly covered in rust, blending into the darkness. The windows facing our direction of approach were boarded over. The faux shutters that flanked either side of the windows had all fallen askew, some hanging half on the ground.

  Brian led us around to the east side of the home. There was a front porch that spanned the length of the house. All of the railings and posts had been destroyed or rotted and had fallen into disrepair over the years. We came to a halt at the southeast corner, where a large gouge had been torn into the structure. The siding and lumber was exposed in jagged jumbles where at some point the nearby tree had fallen, breaching the structure. The tree had been moved and a large dark item blocked the entrance.

  Motioning for us all to stay put, Brian walked to the torn section of the home and pushed the dark object aside, revealing a man-sized opening through which we could enter. He waved Justin forward, spoke to him in whispered tones, and together they entered the house.

  “It’ll just be a moment and we’ll get everyone inside,” I said. No one responded and I also fell silent again.

  Since the attack this afternoon, no one had spoken. I don’t know if folks were in shock, or mourning, or what they were all feeling, but we had left behind two of our own among the infected. I think we were all sobered by the fact that it could have been any of us.

  Several minutes later, Justin emerged and gave us the all clear to enter. I directed the flow of traffic, moving them in by teams, four or five at a time, giving those who entered a chance to find a spot and settle. Al and Araceli helped get Ray and his chair into the house with assistance from Stanley. Lara and I were the last and we stood together for a few minutes in the cold night air. Overhead, we had a clear view of hundreds of stars and planets. To the north, a cluster of low clouds blanketed that portion of the skyline in gray.

  Lara put her head against my chest and wrapped her arms around me. I reciprocated, closing my eyes and trying to block out my thoughts and feelings. When she pulled away, I saw she had tears in her eyes.

  “That was horrible what happened back there,” she said. She wiped away the mucus that escaped her nose. “They didn’t deserve to die that way.”

  “No one does. But what Ray did—“

  “I don’t mean that. What Ray did was…was…mercy. It was compassion. What I mean is the way those things attacked them…”

  Brian appeared in the darkness. He stopped beside Lara and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  Lara shook her head. Instead of answering, she left us and went into the house through jagged opening. As I watched, I saw the orange and yellow glow of a fire getting started.

  “What was that all about? Did I do something wrong?”

  “Forget about that,” I told my brother. “Everyone is just a bit out of sorts. What happened back there scared a lot of people. It scared me.”

  “That shouldn’t have happened. We fucked up back there. That whole situation just got out of control and it just happened too damn fast.”

  There may have been some truth to Brian’s words, but the fact was, there was no predictable way to deal with the infected. When you were fighting an enemy that no longer processed thoughts in the same way as the human mind, you could not anticipate their moves, their thoughts, or ideas.

  I changed the subject. “So this is what you call a farmhouse? This is a single family ranch home with an attache
d garage.”

  “Excuse me, but I never said I was fucking realtor. Besides, it’s really not that bad inside if you can ignore the giant hole in the wall.”

  * * *

  While I spent the evening making sure everyone was squared away and doing my best to boost morale, Brian worked with Chandra to put together a watch schedule. They came up with three watches, two men per shift, in three hour shifts. Justin and Lara agreed to take the first shift, Albert and Chandra would take the second, and Brian and I would take the third shift. I insisted in being included in the rotation because yesterday I had been allowed to sleep through the night.

  I estimated the ranch to be about 1200 square feet of living space, which was plenty to accommodate our group, although we would all be sleeping in much closer quarters than we were probably used to. There were three bedrooms, a living room and dining room that were all prime space for a person to lay down their sleeping bag to rest for the night.

  Most of the furniture had been removed long ago from all of the rooms. Aside from the tattered sofa that Brian had used to block the entrance before departing, a broken coffee table and wood leaves from a long gone dining room table were all that was left in the combination living room/dining room. The only other piece of remaining furniture in the entire house was an old Formica table in the kitchen. The metal legs were dented and the Formica tabletop was chipped to hell, but it was still functional. Maureen, Jenna and a few others took over the kitchen and began preparing chow for the group.

  Justin had broken down the remains of the coffee table and used the precious wood to start the fire that now blazed in the fireplace, keeping us nice and warm, despite the gouge in the wall. We had a bit of a scare when the smoke started backing up into the house, but that was quickly addressed by opening the flue. Using his Tomahawks, Justin also made quick work of the two leaves from the dining room table and split them into shorter, thinner pieces that we could feed to the fire.