by Ivan Turner
The ride seemed to go on forever. Glancing into the sideview mirror, Martin could see that the soldiers were regrouping. He had barely a second to view it before the snow behind blocked his line of sight, but the trucks had done good work. The time they were buying Olden and Henry was going to be crucial.
They really were heroes.
When they finally broke free of the throng and there was nothing ahead of them but snow and pavement, the drivers began to slow down.
Martin's elation began to die down. "What are you doing?"
"We have to wait," said the driver.
Martin opened his door and leaned out. Looking back, he couldn't see much more than snow, but there was a dark shape at the border of his vision. It was a pile of writhing, struggling bodies. With all the damage they had done, he wondered if they'd killed even ten percent of them. It didn't matter. Let the men with guns deal with that.
"We can't wait," he said. "We need to clear the rest of the bridge."
"Clear it of what? We just left the last of those things behind us."
"Maybe," Martin said. "But we should be sure. And then… How about the snow? We should clear the snow."
The driver turned his full face in Martin's direction. "Why are you so hot to get over to the city?"
Martin paused. He looked out the front windshield where the snow had accumulated to six inches or more. "My wife and son are just over this bridge. I was trying to reach them when I ran into the police. If you won't go on ahead, I'll go on foot, but I don't know if I'll make it. I'm begging you."
The driver looked over Martin's shoulder to where the other truck sat. The cold billowed in through Martin's door. He didn't answer.
"Look," Martin continued. "I'll pay you. I'll give you ever last cent in my accounts. Just get me to the end of the bridge and then I'll be out of your hair. I swear it."
The driver grinned again. "What's your name, man?"
Tentatively, Martin told him.
"Deion Montessa," the driver said, extending a hand. "Over there is Luke Hough. We both got kids safe at home. Luke's even got a wife." Then he put the truck in gear, waved over to Luke, and started forward.
Martin smiled. He smiled as wide as he had ever smiled.
Deion glanced over at him once and said, "When this is all over, you're gonna buy us both dinner."
Martin laughed. "I will buy you the best dinner you've ever had. I'll even feed it to you if you want. You are bloody brilliant!"
***
Nigel intercepted Shawn on his way to English class. Shawn had only been back in school a short time. It was the beginning of the term and they'd just had a week off for testing. During that week, Shawn had been working hard to make up for all that he had missed. His side still ached from the gunshot wound. His ego was still bruised from his affair with Marcus. The story he'd told his friends had included zombies and zombie hunting. He'd spun it so that he looked extremely innocent and understated as a character in the drama, but of course it hadn't worked. Rumors and fantasies floated about the school. They were calling him Shawn of the Dead. It had been funny at first, a nice homage to a movie he'd absolutely loved. But then he started getting nasty messages on the social networks when people found out he wasn't associated with the film. That seemed kind of stupid. He didn't even spell his name the same way.
Glancing into a classroom and through the window, he could see the snow falling. It wasn't so bad yet, but it was going to get a lot worse. He'd be breaking his back shoveling it out tomorrow. Nigel grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside. "Let's go, man."
Shawn looked past and saw a small group of people lingering. He knew them all by name at least. Leon was Nigel's best friend. They'd been friends since childhood. In fact, Shawn was pretty sure that Leon either lived with Nigel or had lived with him prior. Then there was Orlando. Big, beefy, crazy Orlando. He was bouncing up and down on his heels as if he had some great afternoon plan in store for them. Behind Orlando were the girls. There were three of them as well. Dawn, Janise, and Juliet. Shawn knew that Juliet and Orlando had had a thing once. Dawn and Janise were unknowns.
"I got to get to English," Shawn said.
"Are you kidding?" Nigel said. "It's Friday and it's snowing. Look around you."
The hallway was practically empty. On a day like that, school was really just a place where everyone could meet up before cutting out. Shawn was actually surprised that Nigel had stuck around so long. Of course, that didn't mean he'd gone to class.
"I missed so much, though," Shawn said.
"Yeah, yeah," said Nigel. "Look, you see that girl over there?"
Shawn saw three girls and he wasn't sure which one Nigel meant. But when Nigel pointed, Dawn kind of turned her head away and grinned shyly. "Orlando's got a place for us to hole up and have a good time during the storm. If you come along, you are definitely gonna get with that girl."
"Nigel…"
"And if you don't I am definitely gonna get with that girl. Trust me, bro, she wants you more."
In his head, Shawn weighed the pros and cons of cutting out of school. Of course, his mom would flip out. But he could use the snow as an excuse. He didn't really want to go to English. The school had replaced Mr. Arrick with a Mrs. Hummingbird. That's right. Hummingbird. It was a classic freakin' teacher name. And she was every bit the annoying, buzzing creature that her name suggested. Learning the classics from her was nothing like learning them from Arrick. But he was long gone, probably dead. Shawn was one of the last people to have seen him and, though he didn't know Arrick's fate for sure, he could only guess that there was a John Arrick zombie stumbling around somewhere in New York City. He hoped that someone would someday give it a respectful end.
The second bell rang indicating that Shawn was late for class. That was a problem since Mrs. Hummingbird did not very well tolerate tardiness. She would make a spectacle of him in front of the remnants of the class, bring to the fore his excessive absence, and wonder aloud what kind of a man he would be if he couldn't make it down the stairs one flight in four minutes' time.
"All right. I'm in."
Nigel smiled.
The two of them joined the group, Shawn exchanging the standard greetings with Leon and Orlando. Leon was satisfied with a simple handshake, pulled apart at the fingertips. But Orlando liked the chest bump. Shawn was okay with a chest bump, but not a chest bump with Orlando. After that and some embarrassed smiles for and from the girls, the group set off down the stairs. They waved to the security guard, busy on her phone, as they went out the door, and set off down the street.
At the top of the block, they grabbed some pizza. They sat for a few minutes as the snow thickened up in the air, just munching on pizza and guzzling iced tea. Orlando's apartment was about twelve blocks away. They wanted to go hang out in the park for a while and play in the falling snow. The park was halfway between the school and Orlando's. It meant walking instead of taking the train, but the cold sort of fell away as they made a brisk pace. Dawn complained and moved up against Shawn. She acted shy but she wasn't. Nigel was right about her. Shawn didn't know her that well and wasn't sure how long she'd had her eye on him, but her intentions were pretty clear. The whole thing left him confused. Before meeting Marcus, he hadn't really questioned his sexuality. He'd approached the subject of girls with lukewarm enthusiasm. He'd messed around a bit but got bored very easily. But he'd never even considered the possibility that he might be gay. When Marcus had come along, it had been the first time that he'd found a relationship with another person truly exciting. Now that Marcus was gone, he was utterly confused. He didn't seem to find other men attractive. When he looked at Nigel or Leon, all he saw were a couple of guys. Dawn was a pretty girl with a nice figure. If he had an opportunity to get with her, he would take it. He needed to put his time with Marcus behind him. It wasn't as if that relationship had defined him. He could do what he wanted. And if he decided that a girl like Dawn wasn't right for him, then he could change his mind again.
Shawn slipped his arm over her shoulders. He glanced at Leon and Leon grinned back at him. This, at least, would do Shawn's reputation some good.
The park was empty. It was what they had expected. Moving up the path, they tossed snow off of the benches, shook the trees, and threw snowballs at each other. When Shawn focused his attacks on Dawn, she rushed him, grabbed him about the waist, and tackled him. Before he knew it they were rolling in the snow and using the confrontation as an excuse to get to know each other better physically. Shawn laughed when they came to a stop and pushed a handful of snow into her hair. She laughed back and kissed him on the mouth.
"You know," he said. "We're gonna be soaked to the bone and it's your fault."
"Then I guess it'll be my fault when we have to get out of our wet clothes."
"Yeah," he replied. "That'll be your fault, too."
He was about to roll out from under her when he caught just a faint whiff of something on the air. He hesitated, looking around, but he couldn't see anything from his position on the ground. The smell was very faint, but it was there. He knew it for what it was.
"Zombie!" he cried, before he could help himself. He knew that his friends would instantly condemn him as a paranoid freak. He'd probably just blown his chance with Dawn.
Shawn got quickly to his feet, helping Dawn up behind him. The others were standing on the path staring further ahead. When Shawn looked, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a scene from the worst zombie movie he had ever had the misfortune to watch. It wasn't one zombie, but an army of them. They were pretty far away. The only reason he could smell them was because there were so many and the wind was blowing in his direction. He couldn't see them very clearly through the falling snow. But he knew what they were. They stumbled along, bumping into trees and benches and each other. They moved slowly and without purpose. But they filled up the path and filled up the park. Shawn looked at his friends, none of which had ever seen a zombie before. They were dumbstruck. He could tell that they didn't believe what they were seeing. Orlando was smiling.
When Shawn had first seen Larry Koplowitz on the street all of those months before, he hadn't even thought twice about what he was seeing and what he needed to do. He had thought that his instincts had had something to do with his age, the mind of a teenager. But now he could see that he'd been wrong. Whatever had driven him to take action was in him alone.
Leon broke and ran. At least he had the wherewithal to run away from the zombies. The three girls looked uncertain. Poor Juliet was on the verge of cracking. Shawn looked to Nigel, who looked back at Orlando.
"Come on," Shawn said, his voice far more level than he would have thought possible. He started after Leon, waving the girls in that direction. Nigel came after them and then stopped when he noticed Orlando wasn't following. Shawn stopped also. Orlando was just standing there with that stupid grin on his face. He was rubbing his hands together vigorously.
Shawn went up to him and grabbed him by the sleeve. "Come on," he said.
Orlando shook his head. "Look at them, man."
Shawn looked at them. They were getting closer but not too close. Though their numbers were terrifying, they were still the slow, shambling things that he had seen at Angus Construction and in the Bronx at Marcus' fighting arena.
"I could fight a hundred of them," Orlando said.
"What?" Shawn cried. "Are you nuts? As soon as one of them draws blood on you, you're dead."
He grabbed Orlando by the sleeve and pulled. Orlando wouldn't budge. He paused in his hand wringing just long enough to push Shawn away. Shawn stumbled in the snow and went down. He found his feet quickly and moved to grab Orlando again, but Nigel got in between them. He warned Shawn off and then went to stand beside his friend.
"Look at them," Orlando repeated. "This is gonna be off the hook."
"No doubt, Lando," Nigel whispered. "But I think we're gonna need you with us."
Orlando finally turned his head away from the oncoming mob and looked down at Nigel. "Right, man. Sorry."
Then they began to run.
Leon was long gone by that time. Nigel cursed at him for being a coward but Shawn didn't blame him. A single zombie was a horrifying sight. A hundred of them or more could strip someone of every last emotional defense. He had to give credit to Nigel and the girls, though. While Leon had run in fear and Orlando had lost himself in God knows what, Nigel and the girls had kept their heads. As they ran back the way they came, easily putting distance between themselves and the zombies, level heads began to prevail.
"Where to?" Nigel asked, when they had reached the edge of the park.
No one had an answer to that question. Running away from something was easy. When it came time to run toward something, life became a bit more complicated.
"The phone's not working," said Juliet as she played with her cell.
"Do you think they're all over Brooklyn?" Janise asked.
"Do you think they're all over the country?" Dawn asked.
I wonder if they're all over the world, Shawn thought to himself. How were they supposed to behave now that the zombies were on the loose? They didn't exactly have a contingency plan for the apocalypse.
"I need to get to my little sister," said Nigel. "She's all alone in the house until my Ma gets home. Now I don't know if Ma's even gonna get home."
They looked at each other. Each of them had someone out in the city either in school or working or just at home. There was a different place that each of them wanted to go.
"We stick together," said Orlando.
Dawn nodded. "Nigel's house is closest so let's go and get his sister. Then we'll head over to Juliet's and see if her Gran is there."
"Do we have to run?" Janise complained.
"I don't think so." Shawn looked back over his shoulder but couldn't see the zombies. He doubted they were chasing them. Even if they were, the snow would slow them down. The group would probably break apart as it went further and further but that made them more dangerous. If the telephone network was down, that meant this was a lot more serious than a single group in a park in Brooklyn.
Together, they started back down the street. Each of them kept glancing over his or her shoulder but the zombies were long out of view. They had gone two blocks when Shawn stopped in his tracks. Nigel stopped, followed by the others. They waited.
“I hear something,” Shawn said. Then he corrected himself. “I hear something and I smell something.”
Juliet looked stricken. He wasn’t sure how much more she could take and they hadn’t really yet been in any true danger. Carefully, Shawn began leading them. As they walked, they could all start to hear it. It was the sound of moaning. When they reached the corner, they caught sight of them. There were only four of them but they had managed to snatch a victim. Maybe he’d been rounding the corner and hadn’t seen them. Whatever the circumstances, the poor bastard was on the ground, already dead by the looks of it. They were tearing at him with their hands and their teeth, staining their clothes and the snow all around them.
“That’s Leon,” Janise whispered.
“No it’s not,” Nigel snapped.
“It is,” she said. “I swear it.”
Nigel collected his fingers into a fist but left it at his side. "You take it back."
"Nigel, look at him," she said. "Look at his shoes."
The shoes were bright orange. Leon had been wearing bright orange sneakers.
Nigel turned on her and brought his arm up. "Take it back, bitch!"
Shawn got in between them and protected Janise, but the zombies were aware of them, now. They got to their feet and started moving away from their meal. They could see now that their victim had definitely been Leon. Aside from the sneakers, they could also see the remains of his orange jacket.
Orlando smiled and started wringing his hands again. Leon looked over at him and smiled also.
"Yeah, bro. This time we all in."
The odds were in their favo
r against just four zombies. Orlando could have probably handled them alone. But that didn't mean they would walk away without a bite or a scratch.
"Nigel, no…" Shawn started but Orlando shoved him away. The two crossed into the street.
"Lando!" Juliet shouted. "Get back here, Lando."
The four zombies were a badly mismatched group. The only thing that they seemed to have in common was that they had all been dead for some time. One was a man in what looked like a karate uniform. He had a long pony tail that was tied behind his head but most of the rest of his head was bald. The bite was on his forearm. Maybe he'd used his skills to escape being eaten alive, but the one bite had done him in. Another zombie was a man in a lab coat. Shawn wondered if he was a doctor who had been working to cure the infection. It showed the battle for a cure as almost a direct competition. Scientists couldn't just hide behind their laboratory benches waiting for either the disaster or the peaceful resolution. The third was a woman. She was a big beefy woman who could have been thirty years old or sixty years old. She had flaming red hair, what was left of it. Around her eyes Shawn could still see the remnants of dark makeup. She wore a once beige pant suit that had been darkened by her own blood and the blood of others. The fourth person was a skinny young man with long hair and tattoos all over his body.
