by Justin Clay
“By the movement of the sun, dear,” he says, almost condescendingly.
I roll my eyes, perturbed. Bear raises his head, staring up at the blue sky. “Shouldn’t be much longer now,” he says, and not but a few minutes after, we hear a shuffling noise. Eli jumps at the noise, aiming his gun, and I draw an arrow for my bow. Just in case.
“Whoa guys, it’s just me,” Aidan says emerging around the corner, lifting his hands, and we relaxed our grips, lowering the weapons.
“So? What did you see? Are they still there?” I drill him with questions.
“Yes,” he says, “most of them are.”
“Where are they weakest?” Bear asks.
“The south side of their camp,” Aidan reveals. “They don’t have anyone patrolling that area of the camp.”
“Did you see where they keep the vehicles?”
“They have two Jeeps parked just outside their camps near a few pitched tents and supplies,” he says. “Easy enough to get to…But there’s one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know who has the keys; well, I mean I can guess their ‘Boss guy’ does…But I have no idea who that is.”
“So how are we going to figure that out?”
“The only way I think for this to work…I let them capture me — But wait before you get any ideas…You all will be watching from above, just in case something should go wrong and you can snipe them…And we’ll need the Infected’s help on this…They can cause another distraction like last night; so maybe I’ll be able to get the keys.”
“That’s the most stupid idea you ever had,” Bear says groaning, “but it just might work.”
“Great,” he says, nodding.
“What about Bear’s plan?” I ask, not liking the sound of this at all.
Bear sighs. “I think Aidan’s, while ridiculously risky, is what we’ll have to do.”
“This is crazy…You can’t let him do this.”
“You want to get out of here, don’t you? Well, you got to take this chance,” Aidan says, trying to rationalize with me, and I don’t want to hear it. “Life’s a game of chance, Rian…Sometimes you lose; but I don’t plan on losing today.”
“Fine,” I mutter. “It’s not like my decision will change anything.”
“That’s the spirit,” Aidan says, grinning.
“Now, I think I got a way that this could work…I’ll need your help Rian…And you too June; are you guys in?”
I stare at my sister, and then at Aidan, frowning. “What do you want us to do?”
Aidan smiles, knowingly.
I can’t believe I agreed to this. Why did I let myself agree? I can be such an idiot at times. I tell June to keep up as we march our way toward the outskirts, searching. Searching for Infected. That’s what we’re doing. Rallying the Infected, and then running for our lives. Well, in a sense. We just need to get them riled up and headed toward the Middle school; then, they’re the Scavengers’ problem.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this, Rian,” June says to me, holding the small handgun I gave her from Bear’s cache. He doesn’t seem that attached to it, so I figure it would be fine. Just a 9 millimeter; but it’s enough for her.
“Neither do I, squirt,” I say, flatly. “But it looks like we don’t have much of a choice…Now, think…If you were an Infected where would you be?”
“Somewhere dark,” June says flatly. “Somewhere creepy.”
“Yes, you’re exactly right,” I say and smile, inclining my head, as we pass a rundown nail salon. “That’s what they certainly look for: dark and creepy…Now, where would that be?”
“How about that old building, up there?” she says, pointing.
I squint my eyes, and see the blocky gray building she’s talking about. The windows are shattered, and the walls overspread with violent graffiti. “June, I think you hit the nail on the head…Let’s go.”
When we reach the building’s doors, I resurface my flashlight from my backpack and ask June if she’s ready. She shakes her little head. Good. I push open the glass door and shine my light into the inky interior. My mouth falls open when I realize at least twenty pairs of Infected eyes are staring curiously back at me.
Sucking in air, I tell June to go ahead and run. When she leaves, I shoot at the floor and scream as loud as I can. This seems to stir the Infected, and then all at once they flood straight for me. I flee, not looking back.
Once I’m out in the open, a distance away from sprinting, I slow down. Give myself time to breathe. I don’t have to see if the Infected are following; I can hear them clearly enough. Their perpetual moaning. Mindless shrieking. I can feel my cheeks are already red with heat, and sweat has stained itself beneath my arms. Ew.
Grabbing June’s hand, pulling her along, we make a sharp turn down the street and I continue to scream, so the Infected can hear, and randomly shoot behind us. I need to keep their attention. My heart pounding into my eardrums, I know what I must do. I have to lead them to the Middle school. Now where is it? Which way? Which way? We’ve paused for a second; I’m heaving.
“Rian, I think it’s this way,” June says directing me down the closest road.
“Good enough for me,” I tell her, and we fly down the sidewalk, both June and I yelling at the top of our lungs.
Somehow, we manage to reach the school grounds; but we don’t cross onto them, not yet. We have to wait for the Infected to show up. They’re on their way. I was thankful June and I had been able to outrun them. But that came at cost. I could barely breathe as I hunkered down against the brick building before us, bordered by a cluster of trees.
“Rian, I think they’re here,” June tells me, looking into my eyes. She’s terrified. Her face is flustered, and she’s terrified. No good…No good.
“Okay…Okay…” I say.
“We got to go.”
“You’re right…Come on.”
“I’ll help you up,” she says, extending a hand, and I take it.
Just as I’m on my feet, like on cue, the mass of Infected appear hollering wildly. We disappear into the building, swinging below its closest window, crouching, to not be seen. They’re screaming hits the wall of the building behind us and dissipates; they’re streaming past us toward the school, and in the distance we hear the shooting begin. Blasting. People shouting. We don’t have long…But I can barely move by this point.
“We have…Have to find Aidan,” I say, winded.
June only nods; and we pick ourselves up, leaving the small, brick building.
Tearing through the school grounds, we’re slapped in the face by random wiry branches from bushes galore. We try to circuit the campus, rather than cut straight through —we can finally see the middle school. It’s sprawled out brick shape towering over the trees about thirty feet away. When we’re finally met with the bordering fence, we’re forced to think. How the hell are we going to get over this thing? It’s too tall for either of us to climb over.
“Hey, Rian…”
“June, can’t you see I’m thinking?”
“Rian…”
“What?”
“They’re a hole beneath the fence this way,” she tells me, and without a moment’s hesitation. I follow her.
When we reach the man-sized hole burrowing underneath the fence, I tell June I’m going first, and to wait for me. I launch myself through the grimy soil, clawing through the gritty dirt and feel the bottom of the wire fence dig into my back, splitting skin. I grunt and keep pushing, and gasp when I finally reemerge; I’m lying on my back looking up and I hear June scream. This isn’t the scream that we did ‘for fun’ to get the Infected to follow us. No. This is much worse. I’m in danger.
I see the Infected about to rip into my face; I have no chance to defend myself. In that second, there’s a resounding BANG! White spots appear in my vision; my chest hurts. I can’t breathe, and I watch as the Infected woman’s head is knocked backward by June’s bullet. The bullet rips through
her and spews entrails over my body. I could already feel the bile creeping up my throat. This is sickening. I quickly wipe off the guts, and tell June to come on through…Thank God I let her keep that gun.
I keep my bow and arrow steady, searching both ways as she makes her way into the hole. I don’t see anyone. That Infected must have been the only one.
“Thank you June,” I say, when she stands up and I embrace. “You saved my life.”
“We need to find Aidan,” she reminds me.
“Right.”
“Rian!” I hear someone call out my name, as June and I are traversing toward the playground area. A distance beyond us, the grounds are consumed in chaos. The Scavengers from what I could tell by running to see them, are too occupied to notice us. I notice Eli next; he’s heading toward us. There’s blood all over him and his shotgun he’s carrying.
“Are you okay?” I ask him, when he reaches us.
“I’m fine,” he breathes. “But we don’t have much time, the Infected you…you two brought, they’re attracting more…”
“Do you know where Aidan is?”
“I know where the vehicles are…I think that’s where he’ll be.”
“Okay, we’ll follow you.”
I don’t know how to describe everything that happens in the last few moments of being on the middle school grounds. But I will try. Everything happens so quickly but as if it’s not happening at all. I know that sounds absurd, but nothing really registers. I feel like I’m back at Cheyenne when we were overrun by Infected, and lost so many. Especially Mikael.
Eli leads us through the grounds thrown in an upheaval by the Infected that have grown from the twenty something we found to at least forty of them, clambering everywhere. There’s so much shooting happening. I can barely hear anything Eli says. He tells us to look ahead, and we see the Jeeps Aidan had talked about parked beneath a few hardwoods about twenty feet away…But still no Aidan.
Suddenly, there’s a maniac yelling, and I witness a hairy man bolt his way through an onslaught of Infected, blasting his shotgun. It’s Bear, and he too is splattered with bloody grime. And just behind him…Is Aidan! He’s alive, but he looks awful; his face is badly bruised. He must have been hit pretty hard by something or someone. And he’s bleeding from his lip, but that doesn’t stop him from smiling when he sees me. He waves a set of keys in the air, their glimmering bright in the sunlight.
Just as they reach us, I look to Eli and I cannot read his expression. He’s staring at me as if I’m someone else.
A blade emerges through the base of his throat, and Eli’s eyes widen, horrified. He had been caught off guard. And I do not know how to react. Everything has stopped in time, and I’m broken. Blood escapes from his mouth as he collapses revealing the assailant, a rugged bearded man with long shaggy grayish brown hair and eyes of steel. He carries the bloody dagger proudly.
I’m screaming, tears running down my eyes. Before I know it, I’ve notched an arrow and I’ve fired straight at this man’s head. I don’t care who he is — he could be their boss, I don’t give a shit anymore. He’s dead. My arrow tears straight through the middle of his forehead burrowing past bone into his bread, and in a matter of seconds the man’s eyes, once filled with a savoring vengeance are hollow; he’s lifeless, and he falls over, his mouth agape.
I rush to Eli’s side, sobbing, clutching onto one of his arms. I’m trembling. “ELI! NO! YOU’RE NOT DEAD! YOU’RE NOT DEAD!”
But he is. His eyes are looking past me, they’re staring up to the sky and it almost looks like he is smiling. I rarely ever saw that man smile. Did he find Lena? Is he happy now?
“NO!” I bellow, and I feel a soft touch on my shoulder, and look to see that it is my sister, June. She too is crying, and we hug each other, weeping uncontrollably. Bear and Aidan without words go ahead and lift Eli’s body and dash him to the nearest vehicle, placing him carefully in the back. I lift June into the back row and follow as Aidan jumps into the driver seat, keys in hand. Bear takes the passenger seat. He bellows for Aidan to go!
Aidan slams the accelerator; and as we take off, leaving the school grounds, still lost in chaos — the Infected are winning…They’re overtaking everything. They’re so many of them now, I can barely see anything else, but I’m too exhausted to even want to see anymore. I want to die. I’m tired of this life.
So, I close my eyes and wish this were all over.
34
THE LAST STOP
WE DROPPED BEAR OFF in the outskirts of Wenatchee, before Aidan drove us out of the city. Bear said he had some unfinished business to do, considering they may still be some of those Scavengers still lurking about in his city. We said our goodbyes, and Bear said he was sorry for our loss; I knew he meant it, but I didn’t want to think about Eli…Even though his body was in the back of the Jeep. We would have to bury him soon, and I didn’t want to face that just yet. Aidan’s goodbye to Bear was bittersweet. Aidan had tears in his eyes, and when we finally did leave, I saw him cry. I saw the tears leave his face, but we said nothing. We remained silent.
“This is good,” I tell Aidan when I see a hill that looks right, the earlier memories drifting away.
Aidan stops the vehicle off the dirt road and we get out. The Scavengers luckily had left a can of gasoline in the back, and Aidan said he carries some matches on him always. Seemed to work well enough. Getting Eli out the vehicle and up the hill is no easy task. The man, although dead now, still weighs a ton. We lay his body to rest on the crest of the grassy hillock, where there are yellow flowers crowning the hillside. His eyes have been shut and Eli looks peaceful lying here. I bite my lip and stand there in the silence not knowing what to do. There are no voices. No singing of birds. No screaming of Infected. No gunshots being fired. There’s nothing. Absolutely nothing. And everything hits me, and the tears come again. I don’t try and stop of them. This time I have to cry.
Aidan reappears carrying the gasoline; he pores it gently over Eli’s body and lights a match. I feel a tiny hand ease into mine, and look down to see June has nestled herself there, her head resting against my waist, and I hold her close. We watch as the flames ignite themselves into existence and travel languidly along his skin, until everything is afire. A smoke pillar stretches itself into the sky, black and billowing. We stand there, a distance away, and I don’t know how long, but we stand there. Aidan is silent. He’s not crying. He didn’t know the man. We did. I wish I hadn’t. But he saved my life so many times…And I couldn’t save him.
I couldn’t save him either.
I’m sorry, Eli. I’m so sorry.
I turn away and leave the burning body, heading for the vehicle.
We travel for what feels like hours. I don’t know how much time has passed anyhow, but that’s my guess. The sun has drifted much further down in the sky, sinking, and sinking into the dark clouds. The sudden halt of the vehicle jerks me out of the daze I find myself hovering through quietly.
“What’s going on?” I ask Aidan. I’m sitting in the passenger seat now.
He’s staring ahead, frowning again. Wrinkles are showing in his forehead. “We’re out of gas.”
“What? You got to be kidding me!” I cry out, my face becoming hot. “No…That can’t be…Where are we?”
“Somewhere on 410,” he says sullenly.
“Great,” I say, not knowing where that is at really. “How close are we to Seattle?”
“I’m not sure…From here? Maybe thirty minutes by driving…Walking…I don’t know; why?”
“That’s where we are going: my sister and I.”
“Why Seattle?”
“I’ll explain when we get there,” I tell him.
“Okay.”
“So what do we do now?”
“I guess there’s only…wait…Oh no,” Aidan says, and I can see the color leave his face.
“What is it?” I turn to look ahead, and I no longer need to ask. There’s a herd of Infected, the most I’ve ever seen, all togethe
r at once…at least a hundred of them all headed straight toward us.
“Oh shit, shitty shit shit!” I shout, banging my fists against the dashboard. “What the hell are we supposed to do now? Dammit! We come all this way…All this way just to have our gas run out and now this!? WHAT THE HELL!”
“There’s no way we can go through them walking or running,” Aidan says. “Why…Why are they running? It’s as if they’re trying to get away from something.”
“Never mind that,” I tell him jumping out of the car. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“We won’t make it in time,” Aidan tells me.
