by Kypers, Ryan
Zach’s eyes narrowed, “What? How?”
Chelsea folded her arms in anticipation of what I was about to say, “Think about it. We don’t know what attracted them, but the fact remains that there was a huge mass of the contaminated in one area.” I could see Zach beginning to catch onto my idea.
“So you’re saying that we can use this sort of ritual as a distraction to get pretty much clean access to an area, right?” He asked.
“Precisely!” I exclaimed, jumping in the air a little.
“So when we head to Kansas, we’re at least guaranteed a free passage out of town!” He said. “And if we need to raid a store for food or get gas or something then we’re still fine. Just create a distraction with a bit of nose and a dead contaminated maybe a couple hundred feet down the road, wait for the swarm of contaminated to show up for the feeding, and have at it. I mean we would still have to be quiet about it-“
“We need to test it further,” I interrupted. I did not want Zach getting a thought and just running full on with it. That would not end well. “Next time this happens, I’ll create some noise somewhere else so that we can observe what the contaminated will do.”
“Daryl, that’s too dangerous!” Chelsea said. “Unnecessary risks.”
My chest sank inward a little bit. I wanted this plan to make sure that Chelsea would get to Kansas City safely, and this was our best shot at getting a clean getaway from town at the very least, but it absolutely had to be tested before we trusted such a method. “Chels, using this technique would be a greater risk if we didn’t understand at least a little bit about the actions that the contaminated would take in such a situation. I know it’s dangerous, but we need to do it. Besides, I have you guys as backup,” I patted each on the shoulder. “We’ve got this.”
******
We woke up the next day, plan at the ready. The idea was to go through our training as normal, running, swinging, and everything else. When a contaminated showed up, we would kill it and leave the body for the rest to assemble. Chelsea and I had figured that we had never seen the cult feeding before because we had always tried to bury our dead or move them somewhere away from the house in hopes that the body would not attract any unwanted visitors, not even counting the contaminated.
It was a darker day outside. The clouds were low and grey. A lone black cloud floated around the sky, minding its own business. The breeze was strong in the air with the approaching storm and blew a very cold chill into our bodies.
Zach was taking batting practice, and was showing great signs of improvement. I did not have to stand and do soft toss for Zach to simply hit the ball. Instead, he was able to toss the ball in the air and hit it on his own, which I quickly found out that the short computer dork could easily hit a ball over my head. He was not particularly muscular or overly strong, but he hit one with the aid of the wind that covered over three hundred feet, not bad for an amateur.
Chelsea was on her fifth lap around the field when the first of the contaminated showed up, hissing and spitting blood all over the earth. I nodded to Zach and let him make the first move, my bat serving as his backup. He positioned himself in a batters stance as the contaminated made its way towards him. The contaminated was once an older, balding man in his late fifties, as it looked. The parted button down shirt revealed his large gut and a partial goatee covered his face.
Zach swung the bat. A loud aluminum sound rang out across the field, echoing off of the nearby library building and trees surrounding it. The contaminated dropped but was still able to move. Zach moved in and struck it once, twice, three times across the chest.
“Zach,” I said. “The head!”
He shook his head, “Remember the other day, when you took off half of the contaminated’s head, and it still went after you. You thought it was dead, but it wasn’t. We need to learn more, not only about the feeding, but the way to take them down too.”
I nodded in approval, “You trying to stop its heart?”
He shook his head, “No. Just venting some anger,” he said, unleashing another swing on the contaminated’s chest. “You have a blade anywhere?” he asked.
I shook my head no, “Why?”
“Oh never mind, I’ve got one,” He said, pulling a hunting knife almost eight inches long out of his back, hidden under his coat. He swung at the head of the contaminated, stunning it for just a second, but long enough for Zach to slide the blade across its throat. Blood flew everywhere as Zach bolted backwards to avoid the fountain of red.
“Zach?” I said, not fully aware of his sanity. “I understand revenge is one thing, but isn’t this taking it too far?”
He shook his head, “That last bit wasn’t revenge. That was me experimenting. We saw these things feed, and if you noticed, they were going for the neck first, the easiest spot to get blood because of the large arteries and accessibility. Well,” he said as he made another cut in the contaminated’s leg and left arm, “I’m trying to see how badly they need blood. Are they something that can operate without blood? How much blood will they need to function properly?”
I nodded my head, “Do you think that the swarm of contaminated will come and form here if the food is drained of all the blood? Assuming that blood is their life source.”
“Possibly. There’s no real way to drain every bit of blood with what we’ve got, and it didn’t seem as if the contaminated really ate too much, considering their numbers and the amount of food,” Zach replied.
“Maybe they’re not as stupid as we think,” Chelsea said, running over. “I mean maybe they know that they’re eating their kind. Why wait until one goes for the food if you’re just going to eat any old contaminated? I think they’re trying to restrict the amount that they eat when it’s cannibalism to keep their numbers at the strongest.”
Zach waved a finger in the air with his thinking face on, “That is an excellent point, Chelsea. But it may cause us problems, though I figured on it anyway.”
“What sort of problems?” I asked.
“Well, we know that they are somewhat intelligent, right?” he began. “The first thing I worried about was that they would keep coming back here to feed since there’s ample food if we keep on killing it, kind of like how seagulls are at the Jersey Shore, or were okay with being close to humans because they became so accustomed to being fed by them. That’s bad for us because we don’t live too far from the field.” He cleared his throat, “The second worry would be that they would notice that more of their kind are missing and are being killed. If they are as Chelsea says, intelligent, and restrict the amount of contaminated that they consume, then they might have a general idea on how many contaminated are in the area. If a bunch keep disappearing in a specific area, they might catch on to our position, though I’m probably giving them too much credit.”
I nodded, my attention returning to the contaminated on the ground, “It’s not moving. Do you think that you killed it?” I asked Zach.
He shook his head, “I hit him hard, but not that hard. Not as hard as when you tore the one face off, and he got back up.”
“Then it’s the blood loss,” I said. “That’s one more way to kill them.”
“Not very effectively,” Chelsea said. “There’s no reason to get in close when we have the range of the bats on our side.”
“Truth,” Zach said. “But we do know that the blood is vital to their survivability. If we can keep them away from blood for a long enough time, then maybe their numbers will greatly thin from them dying out.”
“Alright, let’s get inside to see if the clan appears,” I said, grabbing the bucket of baseballs and heading inside.
“How long have we been here?” Chelsea asked.
“At least an hour,” Zach replied. “They’re not coming.”
“You’re probably right,” I said. “The last group formed up really quickly, maybe fifteen minutes tops.”
“So they have a way to signal when they go down?” Chelsea asked. “Or are they attracted by
the scent of blood?”
“Both, maybe,” Zach said. “It might be too hard for us to tell.”
“Oh shit, look,” I said, pointing into the field. A few of the smaller contaminated approached the body. They looked like corpses walking amongst the field, white with skin stuck to the bones.
“Holy decrepit,” Zach said. “I’ll be back.”
“Can’t hold your stomach?” I called after him. More of the contaminated flocked to the field, all of which were in a greatly weakened state. There were probably twenty of them by now. “You think that they took longer to get here because they’re weak?” I asked Chelsea.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Possibly, but why wouldn’t the larger ones be here earlier, or any of the other healthy ones?”
“Maybe drained corpses don’t spark their appetite,” I said. Suddenly I heard the front door open and close, almost slamming its way shut. “Tell me he didn’t.”
Chelsea ran to the other side of the house, looking through the front window, “He did. Zach’s headed through the yards across the street now. Freaking dumbass.”
“Well at least I’m not at risk here, I hope,” I said half-heartedly. I should have been the person doing the running. I was the fastest here and had the best shot at losing any contaminated in a chase. This was the perfect mission for my skillset. I was in better shape, I had better legs for running, I am lighter, and Zach was already gone.
I turned back to the contaminated forming in the field. No others seemed to be joining them. I counted about thirty in total, though I may have counted a few more than once. They circled the body as they did earlier, hissing and spitting quietly as they went.
I saw the first contaminated make the move before the rest of the group. It dashed towards the center, as fast as its tired and skeleton legs would allow it. It reached the body and pulled back the neck, revealing the white bone and pink muscle below with blue veins flowing through it.
Zach’s gunshot went off in the distance, echoing throughout the town. It was a loud round, probably of higher caliber, though I was no expert on guns. It came from the direction in which he ran. I only hoped that he was no longer in that area.
“Look!” Chelsea said, pointing to the outsides of the circle. Some of the contaminated had broken off from the group and started in the direction of the gunshot. They moved towards the house, most walking slowly, others in a sort of jog. They filed through between the neighbors’ house and my own side by side.
After a few minutes they were gone in the direction of the noise, nowhere to be seen. Suddenly another gunshot rang out, then another, then three more.
Chelsea and I bolted to the front window. Zach was running down the street with a mob of contaminated at his heels. He was in the process of reloading his gun as he moved. “Hey!” he yelled, looking in our general direction. “Any ideas?!”
Without thinking I bolted down the stairs and onto the porch, remaining low to avoid being detected. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys. “Hey!” I yelled. “Hear me, Zach?”
He was only two houses away from my own right now and getting closer. “Yeah! Where are you?”
“Hidden!” I replied. “I’m going to throw you the keys to the green car at the end of the driveway! Get in it and drive!” I threw the keys at the street. They bounced once and landed about ten feet behind the car parked on the street. “Drive until you lose them! We’ll be waiting! I’m out!” I yelled, indicating that I was going back inside.
Still low to the ground, I walked through the front door which Chelsea opened. She closed it behind me as we poked our eyes through the door’s small windows. Zach had the keys and was fiddling with the lock. He got inside the car and shortly after an engine began to hum. Two of the contaminated reached the car and started slamming on the trunk just as Zach took off, honking as he went.
“He’s pulling them away from the house,” Chelsea said.
“Yeah. Doesn’t want us to get caught, I guess. Pretty good guy. Let’s hope he makes it in one piece.”
Chapter 18
“We’ve got to help him!” Chelsea said, moving in circles. “We can’t just leave Zach out there alone. He’ll need our support.”
“Chels, we can’t,” I said, stopping her from her pacing. “Don’t worry. He’s in a car and will be fine. Think about it. We were in the car before and had no problems even after we hit one of the contaminated. He can easily outrun a few of those things with the speed of the car. We’ve just got to sit back and wait. No reason to go out and do something stupid.”
She began pacing again. I heard her go into the kitchen and start boiling water for tea. I turned back to the window and looked out into the murky day. The street was blank again. The road was desolate and unmoving as were the trees that sparsely grew on the sides of the street in the former front lawns of residents who lived there.
I heard a honking again coming off to the west side of the house, though that is where the windows are located so maybe it was from the east. In other words I have no idea where the sound came from. Testing my luck, I opened the front door but left the screen door closed. I heard the honk again. It was definitely coming from the west, the windows were not wrong.
I waited at the door for another few minutes. Eventually a whistling rang out throughout the house, signaling that the tea water was ready to go. It quickly stopped as I heard a kitchen chair sliding against the hardwood floor and Chelsea quickly turning off the heat to the stove.
As soon as I turned to go to the kitchen, I heard the horn of a car sounding off again. Three short beeps followed by three long beeps and finishing with three short ones again. “Chelsea!” I called to the kitchen. “Did you hear that?”
She quickly emerged into the living room with a steaming cup of tea in her hand, “Hear the horn? Yeah, that’s Zach. Remember?”
I gave her a blank face at the sarcasm, “I think that was Morse code for an S.O.S.”
“Well, yeah,” She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “He’s out there dodging contaminated charging at the car. I think that he would like some help.”
“I agree!” I said, completely catching Chelsea off guard. “Only not the kind of help that you’re probably thinking of. We’re going to help him from the house.”
She shook her head, “How? It’s not like we can give him suppressive cannon fire or anything like that.”
“No, not that,” I said, walking back to the screen door and looking out. “He’s telling us that he’s ready to come back, that he has probably lost the majority of the pack and is about to stop here. We have to be ready for him just in case there are other contaminated around.”
She nodded, understanding. “I’ll get the weapons,” she said and went off into the mudroom in the back of the house, reemerging with two baseball bats. “I would’ve brought the wrench, but that thing is a bitch to carry around.”
“It’s fine,” I said, taking the bat from her. “These will do. Wait here and when he pulls in we move, but only if there are stragglers around him. Do we have anything reflective?” I asked.
She looked around then her head bolted up, “Yes! I saw a random reflective vest in the basement. Hold on.” Chelsea disappeared back into the kitchen. I heard her footsteps going down the basement stairs, something falling with a light thud, a curse or seven, then her steps coming back up the stairs. “Here,” she said, handing me the vest. “What do you need it for?”
“I’m going to try and signal him to drive right to the back yard. If we can get the car off of the street it will be for the better,” I said.
“We’ll need to cover it with something,” Chelsea said. “Is there a tarp or drop cloth in the shed out back?” She asked.
“I think so, let’s go see,” I said. We both went to the back door and out to the back yard. Once we reached the red and grey shed, I opened it to the smell of gasoline, grass clippings suck in the lawnmower, and moth balls. Lovely.
“Over ther
e!” she said, pointing to the corner of the shed. “Get it and I’ll keep watch.”
So I did. Needless to say, the shed was not particularly organized, but instead a mass of things Tetris’ed to fit. I had to move the lawnmower to the side and a bike or two just to get enough room for my legs to move forward. I was finally able to shift and sift my way through the shed until I reached the corner where the tarp was. I grabbed it and managed to pull myself out.
I looked around on the outside grass, “Take some of these rocks so that we have something to weigh the tarp down with,” I said to Chelsea. “Four or so should be okay.”
She picked up four fist sized rocks and cradled them in her arms like a baby with her bat poking out from under her arm, “Okay we’re ready?” she asked and stated at once. I loved her efficiency with words.
“Ready,” I said as we made it to about half way to the house before I picked an open spot and lay the tarp on the ground with the rocks next to it. “Okay, you wait in the house at the front door to signal him to the back, and I’ll be waiting for him here.”
She nodded and went inside. I looked around the yard. There was nothing strange about it and hopefully Zach would be able to drive right up to me without any problem. As long as he lost his entourage of cannibal followers, he would be okay.
I heard the car coming moments later and poked my head around the side of the house. Chelsea was visible from the porch, crouching down to avoid being seen by any potential passing contaminated. She waved the reflective vest at me in a playful manner. I laughed and waived back.
Suddenly the green sedan pulled into the driveway. Chelsea’s hand holding the reflective vest flailed back and forth very rapidly, but instead of pulling all of the way into the driveway, Zach pulled back onto the street and pulled away. Three contaminated followed him down the street.
