ZOM-813 (Book 2): Fractured: The Other Side

by Marie Lanza

  Melody stared back out her window at what was left of the destruction. This was one of the unlucky neighborhoods. One that the government deemed couldn’t be saved. One to burn. Melody thought about all those left, still in their homes, possibly still alive when the fires started.

  “You’re gonna take the next left. This road will take us a few miles farther until we hit the other side of town,” Jason interrupted as he continued to direct the driving from the back seat.

  Melody was grateful for it. She wanted so badly to shut it all out.

  “Makes you wonder who the lucky ones are in all this.” Mike was in a somber mood. “Those who died first or those who have to go on to remember?”

  “We are,” Jason shot out. “We have to go on living. That’s our job now. To survive.” Jason looked at Beck with guilt in his eyes, but knew if Beck had more strength to speak, he would agree.

  “And we will.” Melody’s eyes laid on Aubrey. She would go on living, no matter what, even if it was only for her daughter.

  Nothing was clear from the military’s flames. Everything had been burned in this area. There were no infected still wandering here. Just bodies scattered the road, or piles stacked high. Everyone was gone, and their memories wiped away.

  Their drive circled them back around to the 40 highway on the other side of town. This area was more industrial, from businesses to warehouses, boarded up long before the outbreak. These structures were just waiting to be torn down, wasting away from years of exposure.

  “My God, does anyone else smell that?” Mike’s nose wrinkled in disgust.

  “I do now.” Jason rolled down his window to relieve them of the rotten stale air that had settled in the vehicle.

  As they rolled over the hills, to their right, a large cattle farm came into view. It was a massive spread of land, backing into the hillside, with fence after fence of what were once corrals for cattle making it easy to move them in any direction. Now, all the cattle lay dead over what looked like dozens of acres, with hundreds, if not thousands of infected.

  Mike stopped before getting too close. “We should turn around.”

  “Has anyone seen this many at once?” Melody whispered as if the infected could hear her if she spoke at a regular level.

  “They were probably attracted to the cattle and more just kept coming because of the noise.” Jason did a double take at his open window, and swiftly rolled it up. “We can’t go back. There’s nothing. We have to move forward.”

  Some infected were gorging on the animal carcasses and what seemed to be an unlucky group of people that crashed their vehicle into a ditch. There wasn’t much left to feed on, but it seemed they still attempted to feast on anything they could. Most of the infected just seemed to roam in circles around the corrals and up and down the aisles of fencing. It was only a few moments until some caught sight of the Humvee. One by one, they lifted their blood-stained faces wanting more, wanting fresher.

  It seemed the infected had gotten in, but hadn’t figured a way out. They fought the fencing in their attempt to pursue the vehicle.

  “We have to move and we have to move now!” Jason strongly urged. “If those things find an opening, we won’t be able to drive through that many.”

  “We could turn around,” Melody suggested.

  “We could. But how much time would we lose? This is the main road leading us back to the 40 and away from town.” Jason realized there was always the option of turning around, but it was a risk. A risk of driving through town and running into another horde of infected, a risk of running into the living behaving like bandits, and the greatest risk of Beck not making it.

  Mike slightly hesitated, but didn’t question the decision, stepping on the gas and picking up speed quickly as he blazed down the highway.

  It was like a tidal wave of infected coming at them. They were still fighting to get past the fencing while the ones farther way in the field, now captured by the movement, moved in like a stampede. It sounded like a swarm of bees over the roaring engine.

  “Mike, look out!” Melody’s shouted out.

  Mike had been so focused on the horde that he wasn’t fully paying attention to the road, missing another large group crossing from the other side, until it was too late.

  The first body they hit was head-on, flipping it over the hood and hitting the windshield, causing an instant fracture like a spider web over the glass.

  Melody pulled Aubrey into her chest and ducked down, shielding Aubrey with her body.

  In an attempt to avoid the infected, Mike swerved the vehicle, only losing control and spinning into the field. Everyone bounced like dolls, holding on tight to anything they could as Mike attempted to regain control.

  The infected were unavoidable, with body after body thumping against the Humvee. Their bodies were thrown around the field as they plowed through.

  “Hold on!” Mike screamed out.

  Melody was no longer looking out. She was no longer looking at what was ahead and what they should be holding on for. Her eyes concentrated on Aubrey.

  Then, an explosion, and a jolt to their bodies as the Humvee was forced to a halt. Melody’s head smashed against the dashboard bringing a sharp ring to her ears. She blinked her eyes a few times, feeling as though she got hit in the head with a baseball bat.

  It took several seconds for everyone to regain their composure and figure out they had gone through a wall. An abandoned structure, with walls as rotten as the infected.

  The tires spun, gripping nothing as Mike pressed on the gas in an attempt to get over whatever they were stuck on.

  “We gotta move, we gotta move!” Jason ordered as he began scrambling to get out of the truck.

  Mike frantically tried the gas again, but the Humvee wouldn’t budge. He quickly bailed out, running around to the back seat, and pulling Beck who was barely conscious.

  Aubrey was hysterical, with a blaring shriek for a cry. Melody knew she didn’t have time to console her. They needed to get out of the vehicle. They needed to run. She did a quick look over Aubrey to make sure she wasn’t hurt. It broke her heart not to sit and rock her, letting her know everything was going to be fine. Melody moved fast with Aubrey, jumping out, and looking for anywhere to hide.

  They had crashed into what looked like it was once a barn or workshop for farming equipment. Dust and dirt they had picked up from the crash choked the air. The walls were partially caved in on one side from years of abandonment. Rusted tools hung on the walls, and the outer shell of an old car was all that was left inside the structure.

  Melody found a wooden ladder that led up to a loft, immediately climbing without a second thought whether or not the flooring above would hold their weight. Looking back, she could see the horde through the openings of the walls, closing in on them. “Jason, hurry!” Melody begged as she continued to climb.

  Mike draped Beck’s arm over his shoulder, and mostly dragged him to the ladder.

  Jason was behind, gathering the bags out of the Humvee, throwing them over his shoulder one at a time.

  Beck was barely able to get a grip on the ladder, but Mike pushed him up, wrapping his body around Beck’s and one step at a time, they powered through. “Jason, forget the fucking bags!” Mike called back.

  Jason took another look at the incoming infected. After deciding he had what he needed, he fled for the ladder.

  The infected burst through the torn down wall within seconds of Jason landing his first steps up to the loft.

  “Dada!” Aubrey screamed in terror down to her father.

  “Jason!” Melody panicked.

  The infected grabbed at Jason’s ankles, getting their filthy claws into the fabric of his pants, but not enough to take hold. Jason kicked down at their faces, pushing them back and fled up to the loft.

  Before Jason knew it, Melody was gripping his neck in a tight embrace. “What were you thinking?”

  Jason was out of breath as he dropped his bags to the floor. “I was thinking Aubre
y can’t go hungry…. And I need to keep Beck out of pain.”

  Melody didn’t know how to respond to such a selfless act. It didn’t surprise her, but it caught her off guard. Jason took Aubrey to help console her. Aubrey was hysterical, shaking with each deep breath as she tried to calm down. Jason and Melody both looked below at the infected

  Mike laid Beck down gently, then leaned over the edge so he could get a better look at what they were facing.

  A large part of the horde had filled the barn within seconds of reaching it. The infected pushed at each other, as they clawed at the air to reach up to the loft. Luckily, the loft was well out of their reach and they couldn’t climb.

  “We might be fucked up here. There’s nowhere to go and those things will never give up.” Mike looked around the loft for a possible way out.

  Jason sat next to Beck with Aubrey in his arms. “We don’t have days. We need to think about this. There’s gotta be a way out of here.” But thinking over the buzz of the infected’s growls and Aubrey’s screaming made it difficult talk for anyone to concentrate and think clearly.

  Melody’s laid her eyes on long boards stacked on the floor. It appeared as if it had fallen from the roof. She walked over to check it out before picking it up. “We kill them one by one if we have to. From up here we have the vantage.”

  “Honey, there’s hundreds out there. We can’t kill them all.” It wasn’t like Jason to sound so defeated.

  “We only have to kill as many as we need to.” Melody felt as though they had traded places and now it was she giving the pep talks.

  “We need to get out of sight. Maybe they’ll get bored and move on. We kill the ones that linger around.” Mike agreed with Melody and took a piece of wood from her. “I’m not sure there’s any chance we’re getting back the Hummer.”

  “I’m afraid you’re right,” Jason plainly pointed out. He paced around the loft, peeking out the openings that used to be windows.

  “We need to get Aubrey to calm down. As long as she’s crying, the infected will be attracted to this place.” Melody was feeling helpless watching Jason in his attempt to console Aubrey.

  “Mel, see if you can get her to take a nap.” Jason handed Aubrey over to Melody.

  Melody took Aubrey against the back wall and lay down.

  “I think we got something,” Mike called out. There was no use whispering while the infected were still aware they were directly above them.

  Jason joined Mike to look at what he was seeing.

  Directly outside the gaping hole in the wall, they could step out onto the lower roof, which would let them get to an even lower platform that would be safer to jump from.

  “They’ve surrounded this place.” Jason looked out into the field around the structure.

  The infected were swirling around because of the commotion caused by the infected inside, not because they knew the group was trapped. Most of the infected were still stuck in the corrals fighting to get past the fencing.

  Mike walked over to the edge of the loft and dropped the long board he had taken from Melody, down like a spear into the heads of the infected below. It was like he needed to release some unspoken aggression, plunging the board down, lifting it up, and plunging it back down again like a spear. Every time the board descended, skulls crunched and bodies fell.

  Melody watched with worry. She thought maybe all his anger held up was finally boiling over.

  “Mike…” Jason noticed as well and was getting concerned over his anger.

  Mike didn’t respond.

  “Mike.”

  Mike paused and looked up at Jason without saying a word.

  “We’re not gonna kill them all at once,” Jason calmly pointed out. “We need to get out of sight.”

  Letting out a long sigh, the anger built up in Mike’s eyes was suddenly gone. “Yeah…” He took in a deep breath, and stood up, but not before sending the board down one last time, killing another infected.

  Mike walked across the loft to get out of sight.

  Jason took a look over the edge to see the bodies Mike left, but were quickly covered by new faces piling on top of one another to get closer to the group. He too got out of sight from the infected, in hopes they would lose interest.

  They lay in silence.

  Staring at the ceiling and listening to the harmonious buzzing of the infected below them, no one knew how long it would last, or if it would even stop.

  Aubrey’s cries had turned into whimpers, and eventually she calmed down enough to fall asleep in Melody’s arms.

  Beck’s breath was heavier and raspy, like he was struggling for air in his last moments.

  Melody wondered if he had just started breathing that way, or they were only hearing it now because the infected began to quiet.

  “We need a distraction,” Jason whispered.

  “The way I figure it, we have a few options from up here. We wait. We somehow cause a commotion to get out of the window while those things are distracted, or we sit up here and continue to kill every last one of those things one by one.

  “One of us jumps out this window and makes a run for it through the fields. We meet at a rendezvous point…”

  “Let’s stop that idea now. No one is acting like bait. We go together or we don’t go at all,” Melody snapped back.

  They waited. The infected didn’t grow tired. When night fell, it seemed their determination disappeared with the day. But when the sun rose again, so did the growls of the lingering infected.

  There was a slight sense of despair sneaking its way in as they woke up knowing the situation didn’t change overnight.

  Trained to sleep in every situation, Mike and Jason dozed and woke throughout the night, acting as a look out when the other would rest. They were quiet as they spoke to one another. Melody wasn’t able to make out what they were saying. She watched as they would move around the loft. Jason would check on Beck who didn’t seem to move much through the night, while Mike would look outside, for what Melody assumed a check on the situation surrounding them. Melody slept as best she could. Besides the circumstances of the infected just below them, the discomfort of laying on the wood boards was alone enough to keep anyone awake.

  Melody didn’t remember falling asleep again, only waking to find the sun was shining through the open beams of the structure. Her bones hurt from sleeping on the boards and with Aubrey still asleep in her arms, she struggled to adjust, not wanting to wake her.

  Mike and Jason were both awake and kneeling over Beck. Melody raised her head catching Jason’s attention. His eyes were sad, and he slowly shook his head letting her know things didn’t look good.

  Aubrey squirmed in Melody’s arms as she woke, prompting Melody the OK to get up. She wanted to be close to Beck and say goodbye. Melody snuggled Aubrey for a few moments before getting up and making their way over to the men.

  Melody kneeled down next to Beck with Aubrey in her arms. The towel Beck had wrapped around his hand had partially fallen off, leaving the flesh wound exposed. His hand looked like gangrene, swollen with dark discoloration, and oozing thick fluid leaking out the bite area. Beck’s arm was on its way to looking the same with his veins appearing bloated and black.

  “What’s the situation outside?” Melody asked. It didn’t feel right to ask about Beck’s wellbeing right in front of him. Even with his eyes closed and possibly not even conscious.

  “The infected who couldn’t get here got bored, wandered off. But we still have those guys and some outside lingering to find a way in.” Mike nodded in the direction below them.

  “We can definitely make a good run for it,” Jason said.

  “I could stay here, keep ‘em distracted while you guys sneak out. I could catch up before you even get out of sight, but it’ll be a good head start,” Mike offered.

  “But we’ll stay here until…” Melody couldn’t finish, not wanting to say the words of Beck’s imminent death.

  “We’re not going anywhere until the
n.” Jason understood perfectly. They weren’t going to move Beck and they certainly wouldn’t leave him.

  The infected were still fighting to reach them. Melody couldn’t even begin to count how many corpse-like faces were looking up at the loft. They still pushed and clawed at one another to get closer, others still jammed through the hole the Humvee blasted out, climbing on top of one another to fit inside the structure.

  Beck’s hand began to rise, reaching for Mike. Mike leaned in and took his hand. “You were always the stronger one,” Beck struggled to speak.

  “Because of you, my friend,” Mike’s voice cracked.

  “No…” Beck’s breathing began to get shallow, “I never would have gone after that man in the canyon…” He paused to take in air. “But you… You did.” Beck looked up at Jason, “Am I dead yet, doc? Don’t let me turn into one of those things.”

  “I’m going to let you go in peace. With us here and you still knowing who we are. When you die, I’ll kill you. You won’t know us. You won’t have memories and you won’t feel pain. For all intents and purposes, you’ll technically be dead. I’m just going to make sure you stay that way.”

  Beck was near death. It was now only a waiting game until he took his last breath. They sat around their friend, their comrade, and a man who had become like family as he struggled to hang on.

  “Use me…” Beck whispered. “Use my body.” He could barely make out the words.

  Jason knew what he meant, whether or not it would work was another question.

  Mike’s eyes slowly closed as the thought passed over him. He wanted to bury his friend; he hadn’t admitted to himself that wasn’t an option. He certainly didn’t want to feed him to a horde of infected so his body could be torn to shreds.

  Beck was gone.

  Chapter 13

  They had overcome so much on their journey to Summer Springs; surely they would overcome this. Beck would want them to. He would urge it.

  Jason checked Beck’s vitals one last time, before slipping his knife through the back of Beck’s neck, and up into his brain.