by A. Giacomi
I can barely look as he blasts around the trees, some paths were such a tight squeeze between the trees that we managed to lose both mirrors and hear the sounds of metal being scraped away, but Marcus continued on, determined to create some distance from us and those things. As I’m tossed around the back seat, I try to make sense of all this, but none of it made sense. Powers? Dark King? What the hell was I dealing with now?
As the speed of the car grows, so does the pounding in my heart. Every near miss of a large tree leave me breathless, and eventually the inevitable happens, we run out of space, the trees are closing in on us and there is nowhere to go. Marcus tries to slam on the breaks, but we skid into a massive tree. My body goes flying into the front seat again, leaving me crumpled in a strange position. I wasn’t sure if anything was broken, but I definitely felt pain once the car became still. Moaning and groaning with every slight movement, I decide it’s best to be still a moment longer, but someone else has other plans for my mangled body. The door opens and someone grips my ankles tugging me out of the vehicle so that I feel every bruise and every open piece of skin feels the burn of the open air.
Marcus stands above me, not even an ounce of pity in his eyes. “Get up!” he says impatiently.
I’m not sure if I can, so I continue to lie there and assess the damage, but he wasn’t going to give me that. Marcus kicks me hard in the ribs and screams once again, “Get the fuck up!”
This angers me and I forget my injuries for a moment, instead, my sights are set on Marcus and making him pay for that. I swoosh my legs rapidly against his, tripping him and taking him down to the ground with me. The hard part was rising, I get up slowly, but determined. Thankfully my legs were still functioning, but it would be hard to run from Marcus, I felt a stabbing pain in my ribs every time I moved. I broke one, perhaps two of them. My head spins, I couldn’t see my face at the moment, but blood was dripping from somewhere on there and I knew I had some other injuries to attend to. The lack of speed doesn’t stop me from limping away from Marcus. I spit out the blood that drips into my mouth, trying not to let it bother me. My goal was to get away from him. I hear Eve’s warning ringing in my ears, “He can’t be trusted.”
I get perhaps a few feet from him before he catches up. It was going to be really hard to get away from someone nearly indestructible and already dead. I needed a weapon, something to smash his brains in, but there was nothing close by, not even a rock.
Marcus grabs the collar of my t-shirt and slams me into a nearby tree. I welcome the support of the tree, it holds me in place while my legs tremble. “Just do it, Marcus. Kill me now. Why are you waiting? I’m tired of running, just finish this…” I am shocked to hear the pleading in my voice. Did I really mean it?
“You don’t get it, do you…I need you alive. A beating heart you imbecile. If you’re dead, or worse, like them, then he wins,” he says as he points to the ground beneath our feet.
“Who exactly do you mean?” I say in disbelief.
“Who the hell do you think I mean, dumbass?” he says as he brings his two index fingers to either side of his head so that he appears to have horns.
I laugh, I simply can’t help it. “Right, right, and I’m the King of France.”
Marcus scowls at me as well as anyone in a surgical mask could. “Look you have to make a pure sacrifice, not a cowardly one. It doesn’t work that way! Don’t you think I want this nightmare to end too? Don’t you think I want the voices in my head to stop? I’d gladly put a bullet in my own head right now, except that the demon living inside of me wouldn’t exactly let me.”
“What do you mean voices? What do you mean demon?” I ask trying not to think about my injuries.
“I’ll explain more on the way, Cameron, but our five minutes are up, and those zombies are coming for us.”
Marcus slings me over his shoulder and begins running through the woods as though I were as light as a feather. Things were strange before, but this was a whole other level of insane. The devil was after us, whether I believed it or not didn’t exactly matter. I didn’t really believe in zombies, but here they were, feasting on the living and apparently hunting me. When I didn’t have the energy to think any further, I decide to close my eyes and just try to manage my pain.
Hopefully, this would all be over soon.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EVE
Laying on the ground looking up at the grey sky, I wait for my ankle to heal up, hopefully, I still had the power to put bones back together or we wouldn’t be getting very far anytime soon.
“Why didn’t you just drop me?” Vincent says ungratefully. “You’ll lose time now. Cam should be your priority, not me!”
I want to slap him right then and there, but I don’t have the energy. Vincey had become a grumpy grumbler these days and I couldn’t blame him. The voices in my head were constantly laughing at me lately, and that’s enough to make you a little more than agitated. I understood where Vincent was coming from, his frustration stemmed from the fact that our time could be up in a few days, hours, or even the next few moments. We didn’t have a clear idea as to when we’d expire as free thinkers, and when it came down to that, there wouldn’t be anyone coming to save Cam.
Sitting up, I look over at my ankle and try to move it, the foot dangles limply. Not a good sign. I was going to need some food in order to heal. I look over at Vincent who is crouched on the ledge of the cliff scanning the bodies below.
“You know what’s funny, Eve? Some of them made it,” he says chuckling to himself. “They’re limping around down there, you have to see this!”
I had survived a great fall into the Grand Canyon, but that was back when I healed better. I didn’t know if I would stay quite as intact if I fell from that height now. My ankle couldn’t even hold a few extra pounds hanging off of it.
“Vince, I’m much more interested in food right now,” I say as I dangle my limp foot in front of him. “I need a little healing miracle. There might be more of them coming for us soon.”
Vincent nods and takes off. With the promise of food and perhaps some silence, I lay back down and look up at the sky and its heavy clouds. A few speckles of rain hit my face and I pretend I’m back in Little Lake lying on the lawn of my parent’s home. I can almost hear my father running the hose and watering his plants in the garden and my mother chatting on the phone through the screen door that connected the kitchen to the outside deck. The moment of familiarity haunts me; I could never go back to that time. It didn’t exist to go back to. All I could do was stop this now, for Mom, for Dad, for Alex. They had all paid a high price to protect me, and I wouldn’t let them down.
I refused.
Sitting up once more, the voices in my head tell me of my impending failure, to which I reply, “You have no idea who you’re messing with.” They had not seen anything yet, if they thought a broken ankle would keep me from Cam, they were sorely mistaken. I rise to my one working foot, I couldn’t feel pain, so getting up was only awkward, it didn’t hurt. Dragging my one limp foot as I walked away from the edge of the cliff, I realize how much more I must resemble a zombie at the moment. It makes me smirk a little because if I didn’t laugh I’d cry. This whole situation was out of someone’s worst nightmare, but I still had my sense of humor somehow.
Propping myself up against a tree for support I sniff the air. I don’t smell Cam, he must still be too far away, but what I do smell is people! They smell so good, and my mouth immediately begins to water. I needed to eat and if they were dumb enough to come near me, I would ingest them in a matter of seconds. No apologies, not this time, not when I was this close to the finish line.
Footsteps creep closer to me; I feel my eyes burn with intensity as their scent grows nearer. They didn’t know I was behind this tree, but something told me they were looking for me. They knew I was out here, but how?
A twig snaps to my right and w
ith one swift motion I pounce on the man and begin to chew into his shoulders, clinging to him like some sort of savage spider with all my limbs. He has a weapon, but is too distraught by the spraying of his own blood to use it. His friend on the other hand aims and fires at my ear, taking it off completely. The man had great aim, he hadn’t meant to end me, he had meant to get my attention and that he had.
“Hey, monster! Back away from my buddy there will ya.”
I didn’t appreciate the monster part, but I suppose since I was feasting on his friend, I’d let it slide. Not exactly something a nice person would do. I move away from the screaming man. He lived, but not for long, soon enough he’d be one of us. As I glance at the man holding me at gun point I notice the army fatigues. Shit, they had found us already. They would never allow us to leave now, we had killed so many just to get out of Ottawa.
The man speaks again, “Listen, we have your other monster friend. We have orders to take you with us. I know you don’t want to, we were told you’d be resistant, but you’re going to want to hear what we have to say. Guess who else we have…Dr. Augustus.”
His name brings a smile to my face, which I hide immediately, how could it be true? This was their tactic to lure me in. They must have used it on Vincent, it surely would have worked. He had a few choice words to share with his former colleague and friend.
“Prove it!” I say as I spit out some fresh meat stuck in my teeth.
“First things first,” the man says aiming his gun at his friend on the ground. “Sorry Freddy, rules are rules.” And with that, he shoots him square in the forehead.
His screaming stops immediately, but the screams in my head continue. There was no such thing as silence for me. As I glance at the dead man, I sort of envy his empty skull.
My ankle begins to feel better, a little snack always helped. I approach the soldier steadying myself, trying to look intimidating. “Prove that you have him and I’ll come along quietly.”
The soldier nods and hands me a walkie talkie. “Hello?” I say into it and wait for a reply. There is a brief moment of silence and then a familiar voice says “Oh thank god! Eve! They’ve found you! We arrived in Ottawa only to hear you had left.”
Still skeptical I ask, “Who’s ‘we’ exactly?”
“Errr…ummm…well myself and Agent Mina Murray, and we met up with a friend? Rachel?”
Anger builds. “Rachel is not my friend. She was Cameron’s friend, but Cam left her lying ass behind. I wouldn’t trust her if I were you,” I say in a hiss.
Dr. August continues, “Oh…well, ok then. Well, that’s the least important thing. Right now what I need you to do is follow these men. They have Vincent, I’ve spoken to him. I’m working on a cure, Eve! Some of the information the Prime Minister has could save you. Isn’t that wonderful?”
My heart nearly beats at the sound of the word “cure” I wanted to believe it so badly, but I didn’t want to get excited. Dr. August had promised a cure before and then never delivered. Why would he succeed now? What information could he possibly have now that would save us?
“Fine, what happens now?” I say trying not to show any enthusiasm.
“Eve, you must go with them. They will take you to a nearby base. There you will await instruction. I will come when it is safer. Your job will be to make it safer so that can happen.”
I hand the walkie-talkie back to the soldier. “Well let’s go then, I don’t really have time to waste.”
***
Military vehicles take Vincent and me to a base about fifteen minutes away from our current location. I was surprised by how calmly they welcomed us; they hadn’t even handcuffed us or put us in a secured area on the truck. They couldn’t know that we’d spare them, I didn’t even know if I could resist. It was either stupidity or they had other ways of protecting themselves that were hidden from our view.
Out of boredom, I pick at some peeling flesh on my arm. It comes away more easily than I thought it would. I flick the piece of rotting flesh off my hand and it slaps to the floor creating more attention than I wanted. Vincent shakes his head disapprovingly, and another soldier gags at the sight of a little flesh. Clearly, that one hadn’t been in the field long. There were many more mangled bodies to see out there than a small piece of slightly decayed skin being shed. I ignore the looks I receive and focus in on my arms. The skin that remained looked purple and black, pale portions peeked out here and there, it looked like some toxic rash had spread. As I pull up my pant legs one at a time I realize the rot had reached there too, at least all my limbs matched now. Although I couldn’t see my face at the moment, I imagined it looked much like Vincent’s now, pale flesh, slightly sunken eyes, blue tinge to the lips and of course the tiny blue veins that encircled our features. Of course they saw us as monsters, that is pretty much how we looked.
The vehicle comes to a halt in an area that barely resembles an army base. It looks more like newly built suburban homes for sale; the sign still stands at the entrance of the community: “Detached homes starting at $499,999! Almost sold out!”
The barely lived in homes were now used to house many soldiers waiting for their crack at some real zombies. I could sense their excitement, which shocked me. They were excited to go on a shooting spree against the dead. I suppose an enemy with no humanity left was easier to shoot. It was still horrific, but somehow less traumatic knowing you were shooting monsters instead of people.
As we follow a few soldiers to our temporary quarters. I overhear a few men talking about how they can’t wait for tomorrow, and how it’ will be “great target practice”. I suppose he was right, when you have to aim for the head to stop them, your aim better be dead on. After a few head shots they may never miss again.
The soldiers drop us off at a house far enough from the other ones, but close enough to shoot us if they needed too. Guess it was hard to sleep knowing a couple of zombies lived next door. One of the soldiers mentions that they’ll be back to pick us up when the Prime Minister gets in contact with them. We were to have a little meeting via video later.
When the soldiers leave us, I decide to explore the home a bit further. Vincent shows no interest in having a look around, instead, he plops himself in a seat in the front room and examines the family photos of a family which probably didn’t make it. I know he was thinking of his own family, and it was best to leave him alone with his thoughts. I couldn’t comfort him, they may or may not be out there. Either way, there would be no way to contact them now. I didn’t want to lie to Vincent and say everything would be okay when I knew it wasn’t.
A few more large family photos hang in the hallway leading toward the kitchen, the photos show the family growing. First a wedding photo, then a little baby girl added to the mix, then twins, and the final photo is an older shot of the parents, the children now clearly teenagers. There had been a lot of love here. I could feel it surrounding me, but it didn’t make me feel any better about anything. I wanted my family to hold me again, but it just wasn’t in the stars was it? I decide to skip the kitchen tour and head upstairs. The bedrooms are quite large and decorated to each person’s specific taste. A dozen boy band posters hung in the young girl’s room, and the twins had bunk beds rocking a whole sports themed room. The master bedroom was cozy with a soft floral theme; the nightstands still had some of the owner’s nightly rituals laying on top of them. The husband had a copy of Stephen King’s most resent scare along with a pair of reading glasses, and his wife had a sleep mask left out with her jewelry placed off to the side. I wouldn’t have looked any further, but one piece of jewelry caught my eye. It was a locket, and it resembled the one my mother gave me. I nearly burst into bloody tears when I go to reach for it. I had lost faith in mine and left it behind. I regretted it now, but perhaps a new locket would make me feel better. Snatching it up I head to the ensuite to find a pair of scissors. The drawer closest to the sink had a tiny pair ready for my
use. Grabbing a small piece of my hair I begin to slice it off. The small lock of brown hair fits perfectly inside the locket and I place it around my neck praying that it would bring me a little luck. I needed it.
Crouching over the sink I take a good look at my face, it nearly frightens me because I no longer look like the young healthy nineteen year old I was when this whole nightmare started. I know looked about twenty years older, sickly, and very tired. There wasn’t any life left in my eyes, even with their red fire, they lacked the will to live. My body was giving up on me, this fact was clear. Placing the scissors away I rummage through the remaining drawers. Inside I find a hair tie and gladly tie up my long dark locks into a ponytail, it felt good to get the hair off my face, but it did expose my newly destroyed ear. “Damn trigger happy soldier,” I mutter to myself as I examine where most of my ear used to be. As I continue to look through the drawers I find some pink lip gloss. Glancing back at the mirror I notice my lips are dry and flaky, but not terribly damaged. Their purple twinge upset me and I decide to cover them with the pink lip-gloss. The look is odd, a splash of life on a corpse really didn’t work, but none the less I pocket the gloss. Smiles were hard to come by these days so I had to enjoy the little things. The hair tie, the lip-gloss, the locket around my neck, it was a good start.
After touring about every inch of the house, I find Vincent in the kitchen. He hadn’t bothered to turn on any of the lights and he was slumped over in a chair. He was so still, so silent. Fear grabs hold of me as I wonder if his full transformation had happened and I had been stupidly frolicking about the house. I approach him slowly, praying that I hadn’t missed his final human moments, praying that I wouldn’t have to put a bullet in him yet. Truth was, I still needed him desperately. The humans weren’t on my side, and neither were the zombies, he was my only ally in this messed up war.
As I reach to tap his shoulder he jerks upright. I jump backward to prepare myself for the worst. He turns his head slowly toward me, expressionless, but bearing no teeth. Good sign? I could only hope so.
