Slowly We Rot

by Bryan Smith

  Noah let it go after that. What Nick was saying was sensible enough. He just hoped the guy was right.

  The ground beneath them continued to level out as they kept pushing forward. Before long the denseness of the greenery lessened significantly. There were multiple exclamations of relief as they caught sight of a road beyond the thinning stand of trees.

  An incipient smile froze on Noah’s face as he glanced down and noticed a snake slithering across the ground directly in front of him. Long and black and tinged with flecks of yellow, it was disconcertingly thick. He sucked in a startled breath as he came to an abrupt stop. Linda glanced back at him with a concerned expression.

  “You okay?”

  The snake zipped by him and disappeared into some undergrowth. Noah could tell from the look on Linda’s face that she hadn’t seen it. He heaved a breath and forced a tight smile. “I’m fine. Let’s just get out of the goddamn woods.”

  Linda shrugged and kept going.

  Moments later they emerged from the woods into the open area Aubrey had spotted on the map. The road was so narrow it was more like a paved pathway than an actual road, which possibly accounted for why it wasn’t labeled in the atlas. On the other side of the road was a large patch of barren-looking field. Beyond it was another stretch of forest.

  Nick asked for the atlas again.

  Noah opened his pack and removed the atlas. He handed it to Nick and opened his canteen, taking a long drink as he glanced up and down the pathway, which was predictably studded with potholes after the long period of neglect. Aubrey leaned in close to Nick as the two of them studied the map. Linda was standing several feet away from everyone else, a vacant gaze trained on the stretch of pathway to Noah’s left. He turned in that direction to see if anything in particular had captured her attention, but saw only trees and a degraded stretch of winding asphalt.

  But then Nick cocked his head in the same direction and said, “Think we gotta go that way. It should allow us to circumvent the horde and eventually get back to the interstate.”

  He showed Noah the map, indicating a point where the unlabeled squiggly blue line petered out, possibly indicating a dead end. That was far from certain, however, because the line stopped just short of intersecting with a thicker line describing the path of a numbered state route. The numbered road continued in a looping westerly direction before curving back toward an interstate exit. The key thing was that the exit appeared to come out several miles behind the zombie horde.

  Noah shrugged. “That should work, I guess.”

  Nick handed the atlas back to Noah, who stashed it away again. In a few more moments, they set off in the agreed upon direction. They covered the first two miles at a good clip. Everyone was feeling slightly rejuvenated after the short break. Even Linda had a little more spring in her step. Noah was beginning to feel pretty good about her chances for a full recovery. On a physical level, at least. The psychological part of the equation might be trickier. But her recent tentative stabs at conversation had him hopeful they might be able to talk about that aspect of it at some point. Maybe they could help each other.

  The defining characteristic of the pathway was its many dips and rises and sharp bends, which reminded Noah of the treacherous mountain road he’d taken out of the Smokies. The frequent bends undoubtedly accounted for the squiggly nature of the line on the map. It was also why they didn’t catch even a glimpse of the dead things until they were almost right up on them.

  Aubrey was at the head of the procession. She was full of a nervous energy that made her impatient with the pace the rest of them were setting. For a brief instant, she disappeared from sight completely after going around another of those sharp bends. Noah thought nothing of it until she let out a high-pitched shriek. Nick called out her name and charged ahead at full speed, unslinging his rifle from his shoulder as he ran. Noah and Linda were right on his heels.

  The three of them came to a nearly simultaneous abrupt halt after rounding the bend, but not before almost crashing into Aubrey. She was standing stock-still in the middle of the pathway. It was immediately obvious they would be unable to continue in this direction. Barely more than a dozen feet from where they stood, the way ahead was blocked by dead things. The horde stretched back as far as the eye could see.

  Aubrey heaved a breath. “We’re dead.”

  A silent beat passed.

  Noah said, “The fuck do we do now?”

  But there was no time for further discussion, because by then the zombies were belatedly reacting to the presence of living humans. They had been eerily silent, but now a chorus of hungry moans rose up and they started shambling forward at a faster rate.

  Noah’s instinct was to turn and run as fast as he could in the opposite direction, but Nick apparently had other ideas. He gripped Aubrey by an elbow and tugged her toward the line of trees to the right. Noah wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of another flight through the woods, but there weren’t any other good options. He shot a glance at Linda as he raised his rifle. “Into the woods. Now.”

  After sighting down on the nearest zombie, he squeezed the trigger and experienced an instant of deep, primal satisfaction as the top half of its head blew apart. It toppled over, knocking down another dead thing directly behind it. Noah shifted his aim and worked the rifle’s bolt to put another round in the chamber. He squeezed the trigger again, putting a bullet between another zombie’s eyes.

  Linda flinched at each report of the rifle. Noah was briefly frustrated that she hadn't taken off into the woods as instructed, but a glimpse of her shell-shocked expression squashed the feeling. He put a hand at the small of her back and pushed her in the direction of the woods, yelling at her to move her ass.

  By then the dead things had halved the original distance between them. Noah was already regretting the impulse to fire at them. After years of practice, he was fast with the rifle, but the few seconds the action required had been too many. It was something he’d done out of anger and frustration, with no forethought. But now he was remorseful, because taking the time to do it might be the difference between life and death.

  They were plunging blindly through the woods moments later. This section of forest was less dense than the section bordering the interstate, but that made the undergrowth no less hazardous, especially at breakneck speed. Despite this, Linda was managing an impressive pace. Noah was thankful for that, but in a moment he would regret focusing so much of his concentration on her.

  After more than a minute of running full-out, he stepped in a hole and cried out as he pitched forward and landed in an awkward, painful sprawl. He lost his grip on the rifle and it flew away from him, sliding out of sight beneath a clump of greenery. The hard landing sent a shockwave of pain through his body. This was in addition to a knot of throbbing agony in his ankle, which felt as if it had taken a hard twist but was not broken. In nearly any other situation, he would have remained right where he was for several minutes while waiting for the pain to recede. Doing that now, however, would seal his fate.

  Despite this grim knowledge, several crucial seconds elapsed before he was able to plant his hands on the ground and push himself to his knees. Once he’d managed this feat, he scanned the area for his fallen rifle. His heart started pounding when he heard clumsy footsteps somewhere behind him. The dead would have some difficulty making their way through the rougher wooded terrain, but their sheer numbers guaranteed some of them would get to him if he stayed where he was much longer. The situation was compounded by a deep reluctance to give up the rifle as lost.

  He crawled forward on his hands and knees and started patting the undergrowth, hoping to feel either the rifle’s stock or the solid steel of its barrel. As the search continued, the footsteps behind him grew louder, his ears discerning the disquieting reality that there were multiple sets of them. When he heard the crunch of a twig behind him, he knew it was time—far past time, really—to surrender to the obvious. The rifle was gone. And he would be too if he didn’t
get up and start running right now.

  Unfortunately, he failed to account for the tenderness of his injured ankle when he tried to stand. He got the foot planted beneath him and tried using it to propel himself upright. This resulted in another bright flare of pain that made him drop to his hands and knees again. The footsteps behind him were closer. He heard moaning. Terror engulfed him as realized he was about to die. But just as this awareness dawned, he heard more movement, this time from somewhere in front of him. He glanced up in time to catch a glimpse of Linda rushing past him, a big hunting knife clutched in her right hand. It was the only piece of weaponry she had on her.

  He twisted his head around and watched in admiration—and not a little shock—as she went right at the nearest zombie, which had closed within six feet of him. She deftly dodged the dead thing’s grasping hands, moving with surprising agility as she punched the big blade into its temple. The zombie went rigid immediately and dropped right to the ground when she pulled it out. Two more dead things were visible through the trees another dozen feet or so away. More were undoubtedly right behind them.

  Noah’s head shifted and he finally spotted the rifle. Its muzzle was just visible, poking out beneath the clump of greenery. He snatched it out and groaned as he tried again to get to his feet. This time he managed to get all the way upright, but he wobbled precariously and feared he would take another tumble. But then he felt Linda at his side, firmly gripping him by an arm to hold him steady.

  “Can you walk?”

  Noah twisted his head around for another look back at the pursuing dead things, which were now less than ten feet away. “I think so, now that I’ve got my feet under me.”

  “Good. Let’s go.”

  They started moving, Linda maintaining her grip on his arm. Noah didn’t mind. He needed the help and was thankful the ankle hadn’t snapped. If that had happened, he would have died in these woods today.

  The pain became more bearable after the first several steps. That was the good news. The bad was that Noah had no clue where they should be going. He tried to remember details from the map, but the stress of the moment was making it all fuzzy in his head. Also, his decision to play zombie target practice back there on the pathway had caused them to lose sight of Nick and Aubrey. For all he knew, they could be headed in a different direction entirely.

  “Nick! Aubrey!”

  His voice rang out in the wilderness, loud and resonant. Linda took up the call in the next instant, sucking in a big breath and pushing her lungs to the limit. The pained look on her face made it clear how much the effort was costing her. An image of the old man whacking away at her ribcage with the hammer popped into Noah’s head. Over the last day or so her remarkably improved health had made it easy to forget there was still unhealed internal damage.

  They each raised their voices several more times anyway, straining them to the point of ragged hoarseness. Soon Linda’s face was covered in a sheen of sweat and before long her grip on Noah weakened. He grabbed onto her when he felt her stumble, becoming alarmed when he saw the glassy look in her eyes. She managed to stay upright, but she was done calling out for their lost companions, and so was Noah. Nick and Aubrey were obviously out of hearing range.

  At last, on the brink of utter exhaustion, Noah turned his head to cast a long backward glance. Seeing no zombies in the vicinity, he came to a staggering, gasping halt. Linda fell against him, wrapping her arms around him to keep from falling to the ground. Noah held her and felt the wild, jackhammer beat of her heart against his chest. It took several seconds of catching his breath for the oddness of the moment to penetrate. He hadn’t held another human being in his arms in years. At first it felt awkward, but he held her closer as the moments passed. When he eventually tried easing out of the embrace, she pulled at his arms, whispering the word “no” with her wet face pressed against his neck.

  So Noah held her a while longer, relishing the rare moment of physical closeness. He was in no hurry for it to end. But he kept his eyes open and stayed vigilant for any sign of approaching dead things.

  His hand dropped to the holster at his side when he heard a crunching of undergrowth behind him. The gun was in his hand and out of the holster in barely a second. Still partly clinging to Linda, he turned about and aimed the weapon in the direction of the sound.

  The gun’s barrel was pointed right at Aubrey’s wide-eyed face. Nick was right behind her, his expression one of alarm when he saw the gun. Noah let out a breath and took his finger off the trigger.

  He holstered the gun and said, “Jesus, I thought we’d lost you.”

  Aubrey directed a frown at Nick as he came closer. “Not my fault. Blame Mr. Spontaneous here.”

  Nick grimaced. “Sorry about that. Had it in my head that we should try to get around the horde without backtracking who knows how far. It was a dumb impulse. I’ll try not to be so stupid next time.”

  Noah was impressed by Nick’s refusal to deflect the blame. In his experience, this was a rare thing in big, macho guys. His respect for the man continued to grow.

  He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. The important thing is we’re all okay. So what’s our next move?”

  “Break out that atlas again, for starters.”

  Linda was again reluctant to let go of Noah, requiring him to be extra gentle but persistent as he eased out of the embrace. He couldn’t help noting a tiny hint of a smirk on Aubrey’s face as he pulled his pack off his shoulders. She winked when their eyes met, but he kept his face impassive as he gingerly dropped to a knee and unzipped the pack. Her thoughts weren’t difficult to read. She had several obvious reasons to hope for a kindling of romantic feelings between her brother and the woman she’d helped rescue.

  Noah took out the atlas and passed it to Aubrey, who handed it over to Nick. When Noah stood up with a wince, Linda leaned into him and put her head against his shoulder. Noah couldn’t help glancing at Aubrey when this happened.

  She was smiling.

  Thinking of Lisa and his undiminished desire to find her, Noah frowned and considered easing away from Linda, but he wasn’t quite ready to be that callous.

  Not yet.

  29.

  Getting around the zombie horde took the better part of the day. Using a compass to keep their bearings, they again started heading westward. This time they stuck to the woods rather than trying to find another open stretch of land. On occasion they strayed close enough to the clogged pathway to hear a low rumble of dead thing groans, prompting them to resort to a combination of hand signals and mouthed words for communication. They moved at a pace so slow it rivaled that of the creatures they were trying to elude.

  The time this required was frustrating for all of them. This was obvious in their tired, strained expressions. For Noah, the urge to take off running again was strong. He assumed the rest of them felt something similar. Everyone wanted to get beyond the danger zone sooner rather than later.

  After a seeming eternity, Nick halted them with a raised hand. They were in a significantly less dense patch of forest now and he wanted to consult the atlas yet again. After doing so, he told Noah to stay with the women while he ventured back in the direction of the pathway to get the lay of the land. He took off before anyone could voice opposition to this idea. In a way, this move was similar to the impulsiveness that had led to the earlier mess. But this time Noah had a strong sense Nick knew what he was doing.

  This faith was rewarded some twenty minutes later. Nick moved with such stealth that there was almost no advance warning of his return. At first he was just a dark shape threading his way silently through the trees, one Noah glimpsed mere seconds before he stepped fully into view.

  “This way,” Nick said, tilting his head in the direction they’d been going. “We’re almost past them.”

  A short while later, they were able to see the twisting pathway through the thinning trees. Noah tensed at his first glimpse of pothole-dotted pavement, but relaxed when he saw it was clear of zombi
es. Audible reactions from the women told him they’d seen the same thing.

  Noah thought of how depressing the world’s seeming emptiness had been after he’d come down from the mountain. On occasion he’d thought he wouldn’t mind happening across a zombie just to break up the monotony. He was sure he would never again entertain similar thoughts.

  They reached the end of the pathway less than ten minutes later, at which point Aubrey’s guess that it intersected with the numbered state road was proven correct. The sky was getting darker by the time they started down the road. From the angle of the sun, Noah guessed they had maybe an hour of daylight left.

  Three more miles of walking brought them to a point where a narrower road intersected with the state road from the right. Two paved lanes curved away into a deepening gloom. They stopped here and had a debate about what to do next. The way ahead would eventually take them back to the interstate and around the larger zombie horde out there, but between here and there it looked like miles of nothing. After only a bit of discussion, they decided to walk a bit down this new road and see what they could see. They would go about a mile in that direction and, if nothing looked promising, they would turn around and head back to the state road and reluctantly pitch camp there for the night.

  But luck was on their side for once. About a half mile down the road, they came around a slight bend and found themselves facing a residential area of moderate size. Houses arranged in neat rows occupied much of the space up ahead on the right. From a distance, the houses were just dark shapes huddled together beneath a gray sky. Finer details were difficult to make out, but there was a definite hint of the funereal about the scene. No one had lived here for a very long time. It bothered Noah not to see lights burning in any of these suburban windows, despite being all too aware of the reasons for that.

  Aubrey shuddered. “Spooky.”

  Nick grunted. “Just seems that way because it’s getting dark. In daylight, it’d look like any other empty place.”