“Oh!” he exclaims.
“Hey, careful!” the guy shouts indignantly, still holding his end. “That’s my wife you’re carrying! Pick her back up and watch it!”
The guy’s wife, however, seems to pay little notice to the accident; she just growls on indifferently, thrashing to get free.
“Sorry,” Henrik mutters, picking the carpet back up.
“Don’t let that happen again,” the guy sneers. “Come on, let’s go!”
Okay, now!
Dorte slips out from behind the tree, revealing herself fully for an instance, and heads straight for the guy. His back is halfway turned and he’s less than ten paces away—farther than she was hoping but still close enough that she’s confident she can close the distance before he has time to see her.
Her eyes are locked on the weapon hanging from the guy’s right hand—she’s decided to go for the rifle, hoping to rip it from his hand before he has time to react. She runs as fast as she can, yet it feels like she moves in slow motion. She doesn’t even notice Henrik seeing her, or how his eyes grow wide before he can help himself. Had the guy been looking at Henrik at that moment, the surprised expression on his face would have no doubt given her away.
But the guy is focused on the uneven ground and his feet, and there’s no way he’s going to see Dorte.
She feels a wild elation as she realizes she’s going to make it—only three more steps and she can grab the rifle.
Then, a voice cuts through the air: “Look out! Behind you!”
Suddenly, everything jumps from slow motion into high speed.
The guy snaps his head around, his eyes locking on Dorte, a brief look of shock flashing across his face.
Dorte reaches out both arms, going for the rifle.
The guy utters a cry of surprise.
The rifle swings upwards, the barrel points right at Dorte, and then there’s suddenly nothing but blackness.
She doesn’t hear the sound of the rifle going off.
She doesn’t see the flash from the muzzle, either.
By the time those sensory inputs reach the appropriate centers of her brain, her brain is no longer located within her skull.
THIRTY-NINE
Dan sees everything happen from where he’s standing.
It’s like being trapped in a nightmare with no way of waking up. In the seconds leading up to the rifle going off, Dan is keenly aware of his surroundings.
Sebastian and Lærke are farthest away, headed for the helicopter.
His dad and the guy with the rifle are following them, carrying the carpet with the writhing zombie woman inside it.
William has only just left the roadside, carrying the guy’s daughter in a clumsy, backwards embrace.
Ali and Nasira are standing on Dan’s right side.
Ozzy is barking from the trunk of William’s car behind him.
And Eli is standing off to the side, looking like he wants to make himself invisible.
Where’s Dorte?
The thought hits him just as he sees her step out from behind the tree.
The determination on her face is enough to tell Dan what she’s doing even before she gets moving towards the guy.
The next thing Dan hears is a gasp coming from Eli, and he turns his head to look at him.
Eli has seen Dorte too, and he’s lifting one hand to point. Then he cries out: “Look out! Behind you!”
Dan turns his head back to look over at Dorte. She’s very close to the guy, almost there, in fact, but not quite. And the guy has already spun his head around and seen her.
Dan wants to cry out.
Wants to shout to Dorte to get out of the way.
But there’s no time.
And then the shot rings out over the moor, hitting Dan’s eardrums like the flick of a finger.
He sees Dorte’s head snap back as her face turns to the sky. He sees the red crater appear under her chin. And he sees her tilt backwards. She lands in the soft heather without so much as a sound.
For several seconds, there’s only a shrill ringing in Dan’s ears.
Then, sounds slowly make their way back. First, it’s Ozzy barking madly from the car. Then it’s Ali crying and Nasira comforting him. Then, a little farther away, Lærke sobbing, too. Then, finally, William’s voice, shouting.
“… fucking asshole! What the fuck are you thinking? You piece of shit, you fucking killed her!”
The guy is just standing there, staring down at Dorte, still holding both the rifle and the end of the carpet.
“I … I didn’t mean to …” Dan hears him mutter. “She attacked me …”
“She was just going for the rifle!” William shouts, his voice breaking. “You didn’t have to fucking kill her, you fucking piece-of-shit psycho!”
The guy visibly fights to regain control of himself as he turns away from Dorte and looks at William. His face has gone pale, and he looks almost seasick.
“She shouldn’t have done that,” he says, swallowing with an obvious effort. “That was her own fault.”
“Fuck you!” William spits. “You carry your own fucking dead daughter!” And he drops the girl to the ground.
The rifle, which is hanging like a dead snake from the guy’s hand, smoking dully, suddenly snaps back to life as the guy swings it back up to point at William’s chest.
The guy screams loud enough for spittle to go flying from his mouth: “You pick her up right now, or I’ll fucking blow your head off, too!”
William just breathes hard through his nose. He looks briefly to Dorte, then back at the guy. “You didn’t have to fucking kill her,” he croaks. Even from this far away, Dan can see the tears forming in William’s eyes.
“Pick up my daughter,” the guy sneers.
The girl is twisting and turning at William’s feet, but William doesn’t move.
“William!” Dan suddenly hears himself call out, and William turns his head and meets his eye. Dan nods. “It’s okay. Live to fight another day, right? That’s what you told me in the bunker, remember?”
William’s face crumbles for a moment, then he gets it back under control. “He fucking killed her, man …”
“I know,” Dan says. “Don’t provoke him to kill you too. We need you.”
William still doesn’t move.
Dan gets the impression that everyone is watching him, including the guy with the rifle, waiting for William’s reaction.
Then William takes a deep breath. Bends down and picks the zombie girl back up.
“That’s right,” the guy mutters. “One more time you mess with me and it’ll be your last.”
William doesn’t answer, he just looks straight ahead.
FORTY
The inside of William’s face is burning. He’s so angry and so upset, it’s all he can do to keep it in. If he got the chance, he would jump the guy in a heartbeat, wrestle the gun from him and beat him to death with it.
But he won’t get the chance. He knows that. The guy is very alert and very careful now, constantly looking around as they move closer to the helicopter.
“What are you waiting for?” the guy asks as he sees Sebastian and Lærke stopping at a distance from the helicopter. “You get in there and start it up!”
“I need to check something out here, first,” Sebastian says, his voice still surprisingly calm. “It looks like this thing had a rough landing; if the rotors aren’t working properly, we’ll never get her off the ground.”
“All right, well, make it quick,” the guy obliges begrudgingly, waving the gun like it’s a conductor’s staff. “But no funny business, or you know what’ll happen!”
Sebastian just nods once, then goes to the back of the helicopter. Lærke stays put, as Sebastian obviously instructed her. As Sebastian passes by William, he darts him a quick, knowing look.
And that’s when William recalls the fat lady and the guy on the other side of the helicopter—he had completely forgotten about them.
Listening, he can actually hea
r them both groan softly. The sound is drowned out by the maneuvering of the guy’s wife and daughter, and the guy hasn’t heard it.
That’s our last chance, William thinks, feeling a jab of hope. If I can find some way to lure him to the other side …
Just as he thinks it, he realizes he won’t need to lure the guy anywhere, because the fat lady comes waddling into view, passing around the front end of the helicopter, as she’s obviously sensed a much larger meal on this side.
Lærke is the first one to notice her, and she gives off a whimper.
The guy doesn’t hear it. He’s fumbling with the sliding door, trying to get it open. “How the hell does this thing work?” he grunts, and tells Henrik: “Let’s put ’er down for a second.”
Henrik looks all too willing to oblige, and they lay the carpet down carefully on the ground.
Then the guy sets down the rifle, leans it against the helicopter, the barrel pointed at the sky, allowing him to attack the door with both hands.
William can’t believe it. For the second time, the guy is about to be ambushed from behind. And this time, Eli, that fucking piece of low-life shit, is too far away to warn the guy.
The fat lady is headed right for him, and the guy still hasn’t seen her. The lady has stopped groaning, almost as if she knows to be quiet.
Henrik sees the woman, suppresses a yell of surprise and steps sideways to get out of Dodge.
“Where the fuck are you going?” the guy snarls. “I need your help here!”
“I … uhm,” Henrik fumbles for an excuse. “I thought I’d help out the pilot.”
The guy doesn’t reply, just mutters something to himself and yanks the handle hard, causing the entire helicopter to sway. “Is this fucking door locked, or what?”
Just as the woman reaches out for the guy, he apparently senses her, because he suddenly stops, grabs the rifle and jumps away.
He looks back and sees the lady taking up pursuit. “What the fuck! Where did you come from? Stop! Stop, I said!”
The woman doesn’t obey, she just keeps coming at him. And now the other zombie appears behind her, also going for the guy.
The guy puts the rifle to his shoulder and shoots the lady right in the face. She doesn’t go down gracefully like Dorte; she collapses with a moan and a thud, landing like a sack of potatoes. Then the guy reloads, takes aim again and puts down the dead guy in the hazmat suit.
William’s stomach drops.
The guy rounds on William, panting. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
William scowls at him. “Didn’t see them coming.”
“The fuck you didn’t,” the guy sneers back. He turns to look at Sebastian, who’s standing by the rear end of the helicopter, hands at his sides. “You didn’t need to check anything, did you? You knew they were there! You all knew! You were hoping they would take me out. Well, lucky for me I was just too fast—again!”
William bites down hard to keep in what he wants to say.
The guy goes back to the helicopter door, pointing the rifle at Henrik. “You stay right fucking there and warn me if anyone else tries to sneak up on me! Got that?”
Henrik nods.
The guy grabs the handle once more, tearing at it with fury.
This time, the door gives way without resistance, sliding open all the way, revealing a woman crouched down, holding what appears to be a metal rod in a ready-to-strike baseball position.
The guy hasn’t even got time to raise his arms before she swings at him, clubbing him right on the jaw with a sickening crack, dropping him to the ground.
FORTY-ONE
“Holy shit,” William mutters. “I completely forgot someone was in there …”
The woman—mid-forties, heavyset, dark hair, a very worn expression on her face—puts down the rod and looks out at them. “I saw and heard everything,” she says in a tired voice.
“Well … thank you,” Henrik mutters.
William drops the zombie girl for the second time and steps over the guy to pick up the rifle. It’s the first time he’s ever held a gun, and it’s surprisingly heavy. It also gives him an immediate sense of power. He looks back towards the road and waves at Dan and the rest. “It’s okay! You can come over now!”
The woman climbs out of the helicopter, stretches her legs and her back and gives off a sigh. “You don’t by chance have anything to eat?”
“If you don’t mind McDonald’s, I didn’t finish my cheeseburger,” Henrik says.
She looks at him. “Honestly, I would eat anything right now.”
“Let me get it for you.”
“How long were you in there?” William asks as Henrik leaves.
“Most of the day,” the woman says, looking up at the sky while rubbing her eyes. “I tried to get out a couple of times, but”—she gestures towards the corpses of the zombies—“they wouldn’t let me.”
Sebastian takes a peek inside the helicopter. “Looks like quite the party you had.”
The woman just shakes her head.
Sebastian reaches in, pulls out a roll of extension cord and begins to tie the guy’s hands behind his back.
“How did you end up in the helicopter?” William asks.
“I was flying my dad out for medical tests. He’s … he’s still inside.”
“Oh, sorry about that,” William says, as he stretches his neck to see an older guy hanging off of a gurney, obviously dead. “What happened?”
The woman shakes her head again, and William takes it to mean she’s not in the mood for reiterating right now.
Dan, Nasira and Ali join them. A bit farther back is Eli, looking like he can’t decide on whether to run or stay.
“Thank you,” Dan says to the woman.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you,” she says. “I’m Josefine, by the way.”
Henrik comes back with his paper bag and his Coke. The woman grabs the Coke, rips off the lid and downs every last drop. Then she digs into the bag and begins chowing down the burger.
“It looks okay to fly,” Sebastian says—he’s been checking out the helicopter front and back. “As far as I can tell, nothing essential is damaged.”
“It wasn’t a real crash, I guess,” Josefine says with her mouth full. “It was hard enough for everything to go flying, thought I thought we would all die.”
“How many were onboard?” Henrik asks.
“Besides the four of us, just the pilot. He got out and fled.”
“Leaving you with your dead dad and a couple of zombies outside,” William remarks. “What a hero.”
“My dad wasn’t dead,” Josefine says, and she pauses chewing for a couple of seconds. “Not at that time.”
William looks inside the helicopter again, and this time he notices the dried-up blood staining the gurney and the floor. There’s a deep cut at the base of the neck of the old guy. Right below lies a bloody scalpel.
“Holy hell,” he whispers, looking at Josefine. “Did you … did you do that?”
“William,” Henrik says. “I don’t think she wants to talk about that right now.”
“I did,” Josefine says plainly. “My dad would have wanted it.”
And that seems to be all that’s needed to be said; no one else asks any further questions, and Josefine calmly resumes eating the burger.
“Okay, you just earned cart blanche to join our group,” William says. “We need people like you onboard.”
Josefine scoffs. “People like me?”
“Yes. People with balls. No offense to the rest of the group …” He looks around and shrugs. “But I don’t think any of us could have … yeah. Anyway, my point is, you’re more than welcome to come with us.”
She looks over at him, sucking ketchup from her fingertips. “You’re taking the helicopter? Are you a pilot?”
“I am,” Sebastian says.
She looks at him. “Where are you going?”
“We didn’t decide yet,” William says. “But we’re open to suggestio
ns. For now, just the hell out of here.”
Josefine seems to consider it. “What about him?” She nods towards the guy on the ground. He’s still unconscious, but has begun moaning and moving his head a little, like someone trying to wake up from a deep slumber. The lower left side of his face has turned a nasty purple color and swollen to the point where it looks like the guy is hiding a tennis ball inside his cheek.
William dearly hopes it’ll hurt like hell once the asshole wakes back up.
“I say we leave him,” Henrik says. “He can get free once he wakes up. By then, we’ll be gone.”
“What about his wife and daughter, then?”
They look over at the two zombies still wrapped up in the self-made straightjackets.
“We leave them too,” William says.
Josefine nods. “I don’t suppose I can bring my mother?”
“Sorry, but we’re completely full,” Sebastian says. “Even with these nine people, it’ll be a tight fit.”
“Whoa,” William says. “Nine?”
Sebastian shrugs and looks around. “I count nine of us.”
William laughs and points the rifle over at Eli, still standing a fair distance away, looking like he just peed himself. “You want to take this piece of shit along? After what he did to Dorte?” William looks at Eli, baring his teeth in a snarl. “What the fuck are you even still doing here, asshole? Get the hell away from here!”
“I … I want to come with you …” he croaks.
“Yeah? Well, that’s not going to happen. We don’t want fucking traitors around.”
“I’m sorry,” Eli says, moving in place. “I … I didn’t mean for that to happen … I didn’t think he’d kill her … I just … I just really wanted to get on the helicopter …”
“Sure, you wanted to save your own sorry ass,” William spits. “And your selfishness killed Dorte.”
“I didn’t kill her!” Eli protests, his voice shaking as though he’s about to cry. “I didn’t pull the trigger! He did!” He points to the guy still lying unconscious on the ground.
“Fuck you!” William shouts. “I’ll pull the trigger on you if you don’t fuck off!”
“William,” Henrik says again.
Dead Meat Box Set, Vol. 2 | Days 4-6 Page 39
