by S. Ganley
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The second hand on his watch reached the point of his self-imposed deadline for making his move. With a final deep breath to steady his nerves, Doug hefted the hoe above his head and stepped around the corner keeping low and close to the wall. The zombie was just starting to take the first few steps forward in his next attempt to break free of the ropes and hoses binding his legs. Doug would have to continue moving forward to a point just past midway along the side of the shed where he would be poised to strike once the zombie returned to a resting position. He positioned himself where he thought he would be in just the right position to catch the zombie as it retreated back several steps before moving forward again. Keeping his eyes focused intently at the point on the back of the zombie's head where he envisioned the rounded end of the hoe breaking through bone and slicing deep into its diseased brain, he started to raise the hoe over the back of his own head without thinking to look up first and ensure that he had enough overhead clearance.
The unexpected resistance the hoe met as he swung it high over his head instinctively caused him to apply more force as the zombie began moving backwards towards him and he started to step into the swing. His attention had not left the back of the zombie’s skull where he anticipated his blow to land in the next few seconds. He failed to notice the support ropes that had been attached from the top of the fence to small eyelets embedded into the side of the shed. The weight of the vines creeping up the side of the wooden fence had caused it to start sagging away from the shed. Cameron's mother had used heavy weight fishing line to keep the fence in place until the vines completed growing onto the opposite side and allowed it to stabilize on their own. The fishing line was sturdy enough to maintain the weight and had been cleverly distributed every three feet down the length of the fence where it ran along the side of the shed. She had preferred the clear line so that it would be almost impossible to see if you didn't know it was there and had picked a point just under the outside gutters of the shed to sink in the tiny metal anchors so that they would be out of sight. The rising hoe snagged one of the lines just at the base of its handle, the extra force he applied upon feeling resistance resulted in the line pulling a section of the fence several inches closer to the shed while also loudly shaking the branches of the flowers and vines. To make matters even worse, as he stepped forward to start his downward swing, the fishing line stretched taut just under the head of the hoe and slipped up underneath a small crack in the wooden handle. Realizing he had snagged against something and seeing the zombie start to turn backwards in response to the noise, Doug pulled down hard on the wooden handle only to feel his grip slipping as the fishing line refused to give anymore and pulled the top of the hoe up and almost free of his hands altogether. Doug realized in that instant that he had screwed up, the zombies head had turned enough that their eyes suddenly locked and Doug watched in slow motion as its mouth started to open to announce his presence to the rest of the world.
The sudden blur of motion next to the creatures head completely caught Doug off guard and he whipped his head to the right expecting to find a crowd of additional flesh eaters suddenly pouring through a break in the fence and rushing towards him. Instead of impending doom a surprising sight met his eyes. Just as the first guttural cry started to escape Cameron's dead father's mouth, an arm with a balled fist burst through one of the squares in the wooden fence and landed an explosive punch directly into the side of the zombie's mouth stifling the coming cry and sending the creature crashing hard against the side of the shed. The punching arm was followed an instant later by an explosion of breaking wood and shredded flowers as a figure burst through the brittle side of the fence and fell on top of the staggering body of the zombie sending them both into a tangled heap on the ground. Doug saw the damaged fence start to sag in the middle from the man sized hole that had suddenly appeared in it and then watched as it toppled over towards the zombie and this surprise guest. Just before that portion of the fence rained down on top of the two figures, Doug spotted a glint of light as the sun reflected off a metal object and he spied a flash of movement between the two struggling forms. Before he could decipher what was happening, the rest of the fence completed its fall and covered both figures under a twisted pile of broken wood, blooming flowers and long tendrils of snake like vines.
Doug glanced over his head where the edge of the hoe was still caught on the length of fishing line and realized what had happened. He saw where the line was caught under the head of the tool and pulled in the opposite direction to free his makeshift weapon. Keeping his eye on the next length of line, he raised the hoe high into the air again ensuring that he was clear of any further obstructions and started moving forward intent on following through with his attack. He could see the legs of Cameron's father still jutting out towards the ruined section of fence and noticed that the impact of the collision had knocked the restraining lengths of hose and rope free of his legs. Once the zombie regained his feet he would no longer have anything restricting him from pressing an attack against Doug. With the element of surprise gone and a second zombie thrown into the mix, his only chance was to follow through while they were both down and hope to score quick kill shots with the hoe. If he turned and ran, not only would they both have a chance to sound the alarm to others but he also was certain they would be able to free themselves in relatively short order and there would be nothing to keep them from running him down before he could reach any place of safety. He spotted a tuft of hair poking out from underneath the broken fence and registered movement as the pile of debris shifted as it appeared someone was starting to rise. He centered his focus on that tuft of hair and concentrated on connecting the edge of the hoe with that spot.
"DON'T!" The excited shout came from just beyond the ruined portion of the fence. Doug turned his head towards the unexpected sound and stumbled under the momentum of the already falling hoe when he found himself staring down the business end of a very serious looking rifle pointed right at his head.
Doug let the hoe fall just off to the side of the broken section of fence and then quickly hefted it back over his shoulder into a defensive posture as he turned his body to face the newcomer while he also jumped backward several feet in stunned surprise.
"That’s a friendly under there." The man continued as he pointed towards the pile of broken fence, the rifle continuing to track Doug's movements, "and he just saved your ass."
Doug studied the man, clearly he was not a zombie, first of all he was not already on top of him and tearing away chunks of his flesh. Not only was he not trying to eat him alive, he was also speaking, something that a zombie did not appear capable of beyond uttering the most basic animal like noises. He looked back down towards the pile of broken fence covering the two bodies where the stranger was pointing and saw the top layer of smashed wood start to slide off to one side as a figure began to rise from underneath. Doug took another hesitant step backwards not ready to trust the word of this stranger. He figured that if it turned out to be some kind of ruse he would swing the hoe for all he was worth and take the chance of being shot down. Dying in a hail of gunfire would be much preferable to the alternative of being ripped to shreds and eaten alive.
"Who the hell are you?" Doug stammered, his eyes not leaving the figure starting to emerge from underneath broken fence in front of him.
"I guess we could ask you the same damn question." The reply was from a man but not the one holding rifle. The voice had come from underneath the broken fence and sounded strained mixed with a little bit of anger.
"GARRETT!" cried a female voice as Doug heard accompanying foot falls just out of sight behind the flower covered fence. Suddenly a dirt and grime covered young woman appeared in the opening. Taking only the most cursory of looks at Doug, she clambered through the broken fence and immediately knelt down and began clearing away chunks of broken wood and large clumps of vines and flowers covering the two figures on the ground in front of him. She quickly cleared away enough for Doug to
make out two people on the ground against the side of the fence, one was partially on top of the other with his back turned towards him. The second one, on the bottom of the pile, Doug recognized to be Cameron's father. The last time he had seen the man had been without the long handle of a knife buried to its hilt through the side of his head. The young woman grabbed the man on top of Cameron's father under his arm and helped him to stand partially up and lean against the side of the shed while he took a minute to recover from the collision and brief struggle with the fence and zombie. Doug saw that the man's hand was still wrapped tightly around the handle of the knife buried in the creatures head. As he watched, the newcomer twisted and pulled on the handle of the knife and with a sickening moist sucking sound pulled the gore covered blade free of the ruined head. The woman briefly wrapped her arms around the man and then stepped back and suddenly lashed out with a slap across the back of his shoulders.
"You stupid asshole! What exactly where you trying to prove with a stunt like that?" She exclaimed as her face turned from a mask of genuine concern to one of disappointment and frustration. Two more slaps against the man’s shoulders were followed once again by a quick hug and a quick examination for any visible wounds or injuries.
"Thanks, but believe me I'm fine." The man replied as he gently pushed her back a step so he could climb the rest of way free of the tangled mess of broken fence and the dead zombie at his feet. "I didn't have any other choice, our friend here made his move before I was ready," he continued while nodding towards Doug. "Another quarter second and the dinner bell would have started ringing."
Turning towards Doug, the man with the knife sized him up for a second and then said, "I guess you can thank me later. Right now it might be a good idea if all of us get inside and out of the open."
"Yes, I guess I do owe you a bit of gratitude. I kind of screwed that up a little." Doug replied meekly.
"Guys, this is not the time or place for this." The man with the rifle joined in as he lowered the rifle now that Doug no longer appeared to be a threat to his companion. He gestured towards Cameron's house, "is this your place?"
"Wait a minute." Doug replied, starting to recover from the initial shock of all that had just happened. "Who the hell are you people and what are you doing here?"
"Look mister, if we wanted to hurt you we would have done that already. We are just like you, trying to survive and make the best of a shitty situation. My name is Garrett, this is Miranda and that oaf with the rifle is Calvin. We are looking for food, medicine and clothing."
Doug considered this for a minute, it made sense that other survivors would be in the area. He had just not expected to actually come upon someone like this all of a sudden. Whoever these newcomers were they were clearly much more capable of taking care of themselves that he was. They were well armed and the way that guy had taken down that zombie in hand to hand combat demonstrated some type of military training. He had to agree that if they were up to no good and had wanted to hurt him they could have already easily done so or for that matter they didn't have to intervene in his failed attack on Cameron's dad at all and that would have taken care of things for them. Living in such a posh neighborhood it had become a matter of course to immediately look upon strangers with a certain degree of suspicion. He immediately chided himself for having such petty thoughts under the circumstances. These people had more than likely just saved his life and had just told him that they were only doing the exact same thing that he had been in the process of doing, scavenging for necessities to stay alive.
"Sorry, you just surprised me is all. I wasn't expecting to see anyone else, well...you know, alive I guess."
He felt like a babbling idiot where just a few minutes ago he had been feeling full of himself for finally standing up against his wife and finding the internal courage to make his way outside and on his little foraging trip in the first place.
"No, this isn't my home. I live next door." He pointed to his own house across the adjoining yard and beyond the row of shrubbery he had sought cover behind a few minutes earlier. "We have been hiding out in a storm room in the basement ever since it all started. We ran out of food ourselves and I was coming over here to see what I could find when I ran across him." He pointed to the body of Cameron’s father lying in a lifeless heap at the feet of the man who had rammed a blade through his head. "That was my neighbor. His son has been hiding with my wife and me."
The man who had introduced himself as Garrett seemed to possess a natural air of leadership about him and Doug noticed that the other two appeared to look to him to gauge his reaction as he spoke.
"That’s all well and good, but as my friend here has pointed out, we really should take this show inside and out of sight for now. Since we have all pretty come for the same reason, let’s get inside and scrounge what we can, then we can take a few minutes to get acquainted and see how we might be able to help each other out."
Without waiting for an answer, Garrett stepped back through the hole he had knocked in the fence and retrieved a rifle that had been left leaning against the base of a nearby tree. Carrying it in a manner that indicated to Doug he knew very well how to handle himself with it, he led the way across the backyard to the porch at the back of the house. Doug leaned the hoe against the side of the shed and picked up a slow jog to catch up with them. Even with the unknowns represented by these newcomers he figured that being close to people like them who could fend for themselves might end up being just the break they needed for their continued survival.
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"I think she is getting worse." Shellie proclaimed from the door of the ranger station.
After Garrett and the others had left that morning on their scavenging trip, Kyle had taken station a short distance from the front door of their small hideaway. While Shellie had volunteered to continue tending to Kimberly he had not felt right just sitting off by himself in another part of the building and was just getting in the way by remaining in the small bunk room with the two woman. He had decided it would be a good idea for him to just take up a post out in front of the building and conduct an occasional walk around along a short perimeter on a path that they had already worn into the forest floor in the few short days since they had arrived. It had been just over two hours since the others had left and Kimberly had been out cold during most of that time. Following Shellie back into the bunk room Kyle was shocked to see the woman bathed in sweat and tossing back and forth on the cot as if caught in the middle of a disturbing dream, although in this case her eyes were wide open and it appeared that she was fully awake.
"Stop, no, Stop, leave me alone!" Kimberly shouted as she flailed with both of her hands out in front of her and waved them back and forth as if trying to swat something away from coming towards her face.
Coming back into the room and seeing her lashing out as she was, Shellie quickly knelt down beside her, grabbed her flailing hands and held them down to prevent her from hurting herself. Kimberly's entire body began thrashing and bucking against Shellie's grasp and she ripped her hands free and began striking out wildly in front of her, some of the blows raining down on Shellie's face and upper body while others sailed off into empty space.
"Help me, before she hurts herself." Shellie cried out to Kyle.
Kyle reached over the bed and wrapped his big arms around Kimberly's midsection while pressing down firmly but also trying hard to avoid hurting the sick and clearly delusional woman. Even though he outweighed her by well over a hundred pounds he found himself struggling in order to keep her firmly planted against the bed, she was fighting against him as if her very life depended on it.
"STOP! LET ME GO, LEAVE ME ALONE!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.
"Jesus, she is going to have every flesh eater within ten miles knocking down our door if she doesn't quiet the hell down!" Kyle exclaimed.
"Don't hurt her." Shellie called out just as Kimberly smashed a fist across her left eye and almost sent her flying across the room.
&nb
sp; "Hurt her? How about us. She's a lot stronger than she looks." Kyle exclaimed as he reached one of his arms out and to position his forearm between Kimberly's flying hands and Shellie's face.
It took both of them working together to finally get Kimberly restrained to the point that she was no longer able to strike either one of them and was not a danger to herself. After another ten minutes of thrashing around and yelling out in hysterical fear for her life, she finally settled down into a restless slumber and both Kyle and Shellie slumped to the floor exhausted and bruised from their fight with the sick woman.
"What the hell happened?" Kyle asked.
"I don't know. It looked like she was having a bad dream, mumbling in her sleep and lashing out a little. Then I noticed that she was really starting to sweat a lot, her shirt was getting soaked and the sheets all around her were drenched. I felt her face and she was just burning up with fever, that's when I went to call you. I guess she woke up in a delirious state and saw us coming into the room but didn't realize who we were and thought it was part of whatever nightmare she had been having." Shellie's face took on a look of a mother concerned for a sick child, "I think she is starting to slip away, she hasn't eaten since we arrived and with this fever coming and going so much, it’s going to burn her out."
Kyle sympathized with her, he had never met Kimberly before being thrust into this life of isolation following the outbreak, but he felt for her. For anyone to have to suffer day after day in that condition without any relief in sight, it had to be a miserable experience. But even with those feelings of pity for the woman, he also recognized that she was reaching the point where she was going to put the rest of them in danger. If she hadn't already given away their location with that last bout of frantic shouting, it was likely that the next incident or even the one after that would do the trick.
