"We can do it, but first, we got company," I told her.
I pointed to a large herd of slow moving flesh-eaters heading in this direction. There had to be at least twenty-five of them. This was the perfect distraction. We only had to let the scene play out, and when the zombies were almost all in the house, make our getaway. We could hear the three people downstairs as they laughed, broke things, and then the screams as the zombies came in through the door carelessly left ajar.
"Come on, Skye, hurry!" I said, helping her out through the window. The back yard was clear, as the only exit door for the strangers in the house was in the kitchen, which led to the side yard. We carefully navigated the walkway, then shimmied down a sturdy drain pipe to the ground. Staying low, we headed for a line of trees and disappeared out of sight. Skye and I jogged for about a mile until she tugged on my hoodie for mercy.
"Elli, let's stop a minute, okay?" she asked, bending over to catch her breath. "I need a rest."
I agreed, and together we sat with our backs against a tall granddaddy oak, its bark delightfully rough against our itchy, sweaty backs. Looking over at Skye, I noticed she wasn't looking so hot. Pale, her eyes looked raccoonish as dark smudges appeared beneath them.
"Skye? Are you okay?" I said. "Do you want to find shelter and chill for the night?"
"Elli, I'm hungry," she said weakly. "I need to eat."
I felt a surge of revulsion for a moment, for I had forgotten what she was. A hybrid. A half breed. Without thinking, I inched away from her.
"Don't be stupid, Elli, " she said, noticing my slight movement. "I'm not gonna eat you, for God's sake."
"Sorry," I said, "habit. So, what can we do? What do you want?"
"What I really want is a McDonald's double cheeseburger, hold the pickle, no onions, large fries and giant vanilla milkshake," she sighed.
"Oh, my God, yes," I moaned, picturing it. I started salivating at the mental image of the burger. "Or how about a giant Thanksgiving dinner with a giant golden bird fresh out of the oven. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Green beans and those little round onions, and candied sweet potatoes."
"Shut up! Oh my God, you're making me so hungry!" Sky moaned, making me laugh. She had a way of doing that in a tense situation. It was kind of cool.
"Okay, seriously, Skye, how do we keep you fed?" I asked her, “I don’t think there’s a pet store around here to get cans of dog or cat food.”
"I don't know, Elli, I need fresh meat, it's the only thing my stomach will accept. If I eat anything else, like real food, I get sick instantly," she said. "If we build a little trap, like a snare, maybe we can catch a rabbit or something."
I looked around the pretty little glen we were resting in, but I didn't see anything to make a snare with. I told her to stay put and went hunting for vines. I didn't have to walk far before I found what I was looking for to make a trigger snare. Wild grape vines. Taking my knife, I cut four cords, each about two feet long. Hunting around for the right kind of wood, I found eight good pieces, and cut a trigger style notch in four of them, and on the other four carved one end into a sharp point, sticking them in my belt. I found nice saplings for each trigger snare, and set them up carefully, about ten yards apart. Now all we had to do was wait. I prayed that Skye could have patience and not do anything rash.
We rested, listening to the birds, the rustle of the breeze through the leaves, and at some point, between our thoughts, Skye laid her head in my lap. She was burning up. I felt my insides cramp thinking about if something happened to her. I just found her! I looked up at God, please don't take her away now...and just as I sent that little prayer to the Man upstairs, I heard the quick, sharp squeal of a small animal.
"Thank you for being so quick, God," I said, looking to the sky in awe.
Easing Skye off my lap, I ran over to the snares to see what we caught. The first one was empty, as was the second. But the third one caught a rabbit by its neck and around one leg. I didn't know if I could kill it as it stared at me with big, liquid eyes bright with fear and pain. My own eyes filled as I held it's squirming, quivering body to remove the vine strands from around the its neck. The crackle of underbrush alerted me to Skye's approach and I turned to share the good news, but one looks on her face told me I didn't have to. She was literally drooling. her lips brought up in a feral snarl. I dropped the rabbit, a little shocked at her animalistic appearance. She pounced on the bunny, and I had to turn and walk away so I didn't grow to hate her. I kept watch, listening to the sounds of tearing flesh and the wet, slurping of blood.
ANT
Anthony "Ant" Sargalis couldn't run anymore. When he witnessed his two traveling companions, Tye and Robin, get eaten today, nothing on earth could have prepared him for it. With screams so shrill it was hard to believe it came from the vocal chords of humans, they died the most gruesome death possible; being eaten alive. It took then a long time to die, too, and the screams seemed to just go on and on as he sat hidden in the closet. He wondered who was going to tell Stephanie her brother was dead. Her and Robin were inseparable. Just before he ducked into the closet he was looking out of the window and got a glimpse some girl and a kid running for the treeline. They could have warned us, he thought. They could have at least warned us. He knew it was their fault this happened. He had to get back to the group and let them decide what to do. Simon would know. Ant remembered when Simon found him outside of the paper mill surrounded by a herd of flesh-eaters. Simon methodically picked them with his sniper's rifle until they all lay on the ground, a single bullet to the brain. Ant remembered crying like a little baby when he realized he wasn't going to be eaten alive.
"You wanna live?" Simon asked him, kneeling at eye level. "If you wanna live, come with me and be part of my group. If your gonna sit here and squawk like a little baby, well, good luck with all that."
Ant looked up into the small, dark eyes of Simon Nevels. 'Simon Says' for short. They were cold and calculating, a jagged, horrible scar running from the middle of his left cheek to the outer edge of his eyebrow. His face marked with acne scars. His black hair hung in unkept tangles, and his teeth looked liked they'd never seen a dentist in his life. His grin, shark like and cruel, never quite reach his eyes. But at that moment, Ant thought he looked a saint from heaven. Ant stood, kicked one of the rotters in the head viciously, following Simon without glancing back. He didn't hesitate, knowing that without a group, even one with a questionable leader, he was as good as dead. Drying his tears, he stood and followed Simon for about a mile to an old abandoned factory just outside of town. Simon introduced him to a group of ten people between the ages of fifteen and twenty. They stared at him suspiciously and he felt the familiar 'flight or fight' response rising in him.
"Hey, this is, uh, what's yer name again?" Simon asked, looking back at him, "I forgot already."
"My name's Anthony, but everyone calls me Ant. When there was an everyone." he told Simon.
"Yeah, okay. Everyone meet Ant. I found him surrounded by a herd about a mile from here by the old factory," Simon told the group. "Kevin? Show him the ropes, give him a weapon, and tell him the rules."
"Gotcha, boss."
A thin girl of about eighteen was sitting at a makeshift table made from crates where she was cleaning her weapon
"Hey, Ruby, help the Kevin with the new guy," he asked a tall, lanky girl. Feral looking with her wild, mouse brown hair and sharp features, her eyes darted around nervously as if waiting to be struck by someone or something. The way she handled the revolver made Anthony think she'd done this many times before.
"Hey, punk, pay attention!" Kevin said, smacking Ant none too gently in the back of the head.
Rubbing his head, he glared at Kevin. "Don't ever hit me again or I'm gonna kill you," he said in a soft, deadly voice
"What'd you say to me, punk?" Kevin asked, "You got something you want to say to me?"
Kevin got right up in Ant's face, his nose almost touching the smaller bo
y's.
Ant shoved him back, surprising everyone when he followed through with a roundhouse that knocked Kevin out cold on the concrete floor.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa there, little buddy," Simon said, running over. "Back up, tough guy."
Simon appeared to be a little shocked at Ant's vehement response to Kevin's smart-ass attitude.
"He hit me first. Nobody hits me, not anymore," Ant said, fists up, scowling angrily."
"Well, looks like I underestimated you, Ant. But after the way I found you, I thought you were gonna be a problem. Guess I was wrong." Simon said.
"I was cornered, I watched my parents and baby brother get eaten alive, and I didn't want to die that way. That's why I was crying." he said.
"We've all been there, Ant," Simon said, "I had to kill both my parents. my little sister and my baby brother! Kevin had it coming, but now it's done and over, so snap out of it and get with the program."
Ant nodded, head down. He needed these guys if he wanted to survive. No matter how shady they seemed. He'd go along with them for now. Nodding, Simon clapped him approvingly on the shoulder.
"That's more like it, now come on, I’ll show you around and find you a job. Sound cool?" Simon said, leading Ant away from Kevin.
Turning to Ruby "Ruby, never mind about the ropes. I'm taking him myself."
"Yeah, whatever," Ruby answered without even looking up.
They took a set of metal stairs up to the third floor of the building, opened a sliding metal door, and stepped into the living quarters of the group.
The place was huge with tall, multipaned windows around the whole perimeter. Ant noticed there were four people, one in each direction on watch. It was a virtual fortress, with a three-foot steel door to keep out the dead. The concrete floor was decorated with rugs that they'd obviously stolen from abandoned houses. It gave a place a surreal look, almost otherworldly, like you were walking on a sea of colors and geometrical shapes. The place where they all slept was sort of like a college dorm, with an eating corner complete with tables and chairs. At one end, they had an impressive array of weapons. Everything from sniper rifles, grenades, hand guns, machetes, night vision glasses and a knife collection that would make Jack the Ripper swoon. There was even S.W.A.T helmets. Ant was notably impressed and whistled under his breath.
"This is all you guy's?" he asked Simon.
"Yeah, that's right, all of it," Simon said, gloating. "We take what we want, when we want. Now we have eleven people and we're even stronger."
"Before my friends were eaten," Ant told Simon, "we were in this house about a block from where you found me. We were in the house scavenging, and one them idiots left the front door open, so those rotters could get in. When I ran to the back door, I saw two girls running for the woods, a younger one and an older one. I think they set us up."
"Two, you said?" Simon perked up at Ant's story, "Ya know how old?"
"One was a girl, about sixteen, and the other one looked like just a kid. A real ugly kid." Ant said.
"A girl? They didn't warn you or anything?"
"Nope, they just took off and left." Ant said.
"Well, then, looks we have some hunting to do," Simon said, his face a mask of determination. "You think you could find that house again?"
"Hell yeah, I know exactly where it is," Ant answered, "but what are you gonna do?"
"We're gonna make those little idiots pay, then we're gonna eat them." Simon said matter-of-factly.
Ant got chills at that. Did he just hear what he thought he heard? Eat them? Oh, hell no. He didn't sign up to be no cannibal! He heard from his two former friends that there were groups like this, but he didn't believe them. After all, there was still plenty of canned goods and game out there where they didn't have to resort to cannibalism. Why? He had the feeling that he should just keep his mouth shut and go along with whatever Simon said. He chuckled to himself. How fitting; Simon says. He followed the older boy over to the weapons corner of the living space and Simon turned to him.
"If your gonna be with us now, you need a weapon," he said. "Ever shoot a gun before?"
"I was raised on a farm, so yeah, I'd say so. I had my own .22, but I had to leave my house before I thought to grab it.”
"Okay, good. Now choose." Simon nodded his head towards the wall of guns. "The hell with a .22, that's kid's stuff. Get yourself a real weapon."
Cannibalism forgotten, Ant looked with awe at the gun collection. Now this was the shit! He eyed a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum with reverence.
"Maybe you better try something a little lighter, Ant, here," he said, putting a smaller revolver in his hand.
"This a Browning 9 mm with a 15-round capacity. Perfect for when we're in a tight spot," he said, grinning.
Ant handled the gun with awe, feeling how nicely it sat in his hand. The weight was perfect.
"Do you have any sidearm holsters?" he asked Simon, "that would really be sweet."
"Yep, right over there," he pointed to a pile of different holsters on a small table by the guns. "There's not much in the way of firepower that we don't have."
Ant tried one on that fit and shoved the gun in place. He felt badass. Smiling at Simon, he forgot about the cannibalism for a moment. He had a gun.
ELLI and SKYE
I couldn't help but think about how Skye looked as she ate that rabbit like some feral child. The ecstasy on her face, the blood, the gore, just too gross. But it made her color come back and she had more energy. I guess whatever worked, right? I had a bad feeling about those other kids in that house and I knew I had to put some distance between us. But which way to go? I knew we were heading south where it was warmer, or we would die of exposure in the cold northern winters. It was almost Autumn, now. There would probably be less food, as most went bad in the heat after the first week of no refrigeration, but I hated being cold. I was glad I at least got to change my clothes. For safety's sake, I liked to keep within the treeline, just out of sight of the road. I learned to do that after seeing how many bad people traveled the road looking for hapless victims. Taking what they had, then killing them. At least in the forest, we had some cover.
A noise to the right made us stop in our tracks. The dead. I knew that aimless rambling sound anywhere. Before I knew what was happening, the sounds were all around us. Dammit! I broke one of my own rules! No daydreaming! I could see the rotters through the trees closing in all sides and wanted to cry. I was tired, hungry and in no mood to deal with this crap right now. I wish I could just lie down for a while and rest my head.
"Elli! Quick!" Skye whispered, "get behind me, real close, and don't move a muscle."
"Are you kidding? We have to run!" I told her, panicking. "Come on, Skye!"
"Trust me, okay? Remember I told you I could keep them away from you? Trust me!" she said.
I trusted for the first time since it all began. Against my better judgement, fighting my fear, I pulled myself up to her as close as possible as they stumbled by, mindless and stinking of rot. Seeing them this close without running or fighting was totally against my instincts, but now I had no choice. They immediately zoned in and surrounded us, but miraculously, the minute they neared Skye, they lost interest. I was flabbergasted. It was like they instinctively knew that she was one of them, almost. Well, well. Very interesting. I almost gagged at how some of them looked, now that I could stay still and study them. Some were quite literally just walking bone and tendon. How was this possible? It blew my mind! Other, fresher ones were even more disturbing. Their opaque, mindless eyes, so terrible to look at, seemed to know without knowing. It was freaky. When the last creature finally ambled unsteadily away, melting back into the forest. I grabbed Skye, my new protector and ran in the opposite direction of the stinking herd.
Skye and I jogged for about two miles until we came to the edge of a small cliff. There were abandoned cars on the highway below for miles in both directions, and after that, a large city. We had to stay
away from there for sure. Every kind of scum and low life dwelled in the bigger cities. I called them rat eaters. With so many of them there, all that was left were the rats. We'd make a fine meal for them. I checked the position of the sun and saw that it was slowly, but surely, time to find shelter. We only had about an hour.
"Elli! Look!"
I turned to see Skye pointing at a huge building through the trees. Eyes as big as saucers, we stared at how massive it was, obviously abandoned by the looks of it. We ran for it and as we neared, stopped to listen in the cover of the trees. We listened for about fifteen minutes. Pretty sure it was unoccupied, we cautiously crept up and searched for an opening. The brick structure was about five stories high, with different wings like in a hospital and a barbed wire fence surrounding it. I wondered if it were to keep people in or out.
"Skye, go around that way, I'll meet you in a minute," I instructed.
She nodded, jogging to the front of the building.
I crept up searching for signs of people. I could hear nothing, but that didn't mean there weren't people within it's walls. Inside the enclosure, an unmanned watchtower stood tall and eerie in the moonlight, and I was dying to know what kind of place this was. It couldn't have been a prison, and a hospital wouldn't have a barbed wire fence. I remember my friend Rae told me about an old Sanitarium in the area and wondered if this might be the one she was referring to. I hoped not. I distinctly remembered her saying it was haunted. I believe in ghosts. Why not? Zombies are real, right? Who knows, maybe fairies, goblins and unicorns are real, too. A low whistle told me that Skye found something. I jogged around to the front of the building and found that I was right. A sign surrounded by an overgrown rose garden said, 'Moon Ridge Sanitarium'. I shivered at the thought of going in, but it was our only means of shelter right now. Skye showed me a way in by means of an old, rickety fire escape on the side of the building. A small portion of the fence had been torn away, just big enough to let us through.
Zombie Food Page 2
