“Get the left one!” he yelled and ran past her to the farther of the two, his eyes on the parking lot, the smashed, smoking cars and the screaming monsters attacking them like savage animals. They had to hurry, had to get the gates closed, had to keep those things out. Derek grabbed it and started pulling but was slammed from the back. Jaws closed around his knee and he felt it snap, heard the bones break before he realized what hit him. His arms flailed and another toothy maw clamped down hard on one and pulled in the opposite direction. His arm snapped like a dry twig and his shoulder popped from its socket. Useless random facts flitted through his brain as he watched in disbelief, the pain and shock so extreme he didn’t even feel it yet. A hyena’s bite was three times as powerful as pit bulls. With eleven hundred pounds of pressure per square inch, nothing could withstand them. They could snap wildebeest femurs as easily as a human biting into a cracker. His head slammed against the ground and the pain hit him, forcing all thought except desperate survival out of his mind. They ragged him back and forth, pulling on him like a play toy and he saw his arm tear free from the elbow.
Derek screamed, a raw, throat shredding scream as the pain kicked in and Demonio dropped the arm. His maw spread wide as he clamped his teeth around Derek’ dislocated shoulder. His canines sank deep and more bones snapped and popped as Diablo finally tore his lower leg loose and blood pumped freely from the slashed arteries.
The hyena let go of the leg, barked his laughing bark then yelped as he was suddenly flying through the air. The impact broke the fiberglass nose of the golf cart and nearly sent Cody tumbling over the steering wheel. Demonio released his hold on Derek’s shoulder and crouched low at the new threat, his gurgling, phlegmy sounding growl drowned out by the keens of the undead in the parking lot, many of them turning towards the movement and noises. Kelly slammed her side of the gate closed and stood paralyzed as she watched Derek’s life pump out of him and the Hyenas crouched to spring at her son. The clanging of iron on iron pulled their attention away from the human on the silent machine. It was a sound they knew. It meant they would be trapped again.
Caged.
Beaten.
Starved.
They saw the freedom of the trees across the parking lot and as one, turned and ran for them as the undead started running for the humans gathered at the gates.
Cody wanted to run to his mother, run to Derek and run away all at the same time. Everything was happening too fast; it was too much. He needed a moment to think, to scream, to cry, and to hide but there wasn’t time for any of that. There were only seconds left in his life if those things rushed back inside. He jumped from the cart, grabbed the tall steel gate and pulled. Another boy, a dark-haired Asian kid, joined him and together they got the thousand-pound gate swinging closed on its well-oiled hinges. It slammed into place and Kelly locked the catch as the first of the torn and bloody people from the parking lot smashed into it. They backed away as the gate shuddered when the undead ran into it at full speed, hungry arms reaching through the bars.
It would hold. It was old and heavy and solid, almost like a prison cell door with the name of the park across the top of the two halves. Kelly only watched for a second before she tore herself away from the screaming mass and ran to Derek. He was a barely recognizable mess, the hyenas had savaged him, literally torn him limb from limb in seconds.
He was fading fast, his world growing cold and dark as the last of his lifeblood pumped out in a weak trickle. He smiled as Kelly knelt over him, tears streaming from her eyes and tried to tell her not to worry, he was okay. It didn’t hurt. His mind was muddled and he couldn’t remember what happened exactly. Had he fallen off a ladder? She brushed the hair away from his forehead and stroked his face. That was okay, her hands felt warm and he was so cold. He’d just close his eyes for a moment and wait for an ambulance. He was so tired. He should ask for a blanket, he was starting to shiver.
10
Kelly
Kelly had to pull herself together. Derek was gone and the whole world had taken a hard turn into mayhem and insanity. If she didn’t do something, if she didn’t start acting instead of reacting to everything, everyone else was going to die. She felt as if she were in a B horror movie. This is impossible, kept running through her head, this is all impossible. Yet it was happening and she was thrust in the center of it. The blood on her clothes and dripping from her hands, the screaming things reaching for her through the gate and the fire and smoke billowing up from the parking lot told her it was all real. It was all happening and happening fast.
She forced herself to stop staring into the madness on the other side of the gate and let her training take over. She’d seen ugly before. She’d seen torn up animals, she’d been covered in blood, and she’d been calm under pressure. Nothing like this her mind shrieked. You’ve never seen nothing like this! She told it to shut up. Her eyes darted past the undead gate crashers and found Cody. He was what was important now. He was the only thing that mattered. He stood with a handful of other kids, all of them wide eyed, tear streaked and staring at the remains of Derek or the ripped and ravaged people trying to squeeze through the bars.
They were shocked and confused, not sure what to do next. They had run towards the noises out of curiosity or maybe to try to help but now what? They couldn’t get out and didn’t know which way to flee. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to clear her head, trying to think. Grasping hands reached for her, only yards away. Biting, snapping faces tried to force their way between the bars to the kids standing there in unmoving fear. There were a few girls, and boys, a kid in a wheelchair, an odd-looking pair of twins and others. Where were their parents? Were they banging on the gate to be let in so they could finish off their own offspring? She shuddered at the thought. Not my child, she decided. He gets out alive.
There were others huddled near the snack shack staring at the only way out, the only exit to their cars, blocked by snarling, bloody people. Fear was written plainly on their faces. A couple with a pair of teenage boys and a young family with a little girl and a baby in a papoose slung across his father’s chest kept looking at each other, then at the parking lot. None of them knew what to do, they stood transfixed, unable to decide where to flee.
She had to step up. Take charge. Fix what she could and give these people a chance. The undead slammed and keened at the gate, fresh meat so close, just a couple inches of iron bars separating them from the blood that they craved.
“Cody, take everyone to the visitors center,” she barked. “We’ve got to get away from them.”
She looked at the families and kids as they all turned to stare at her, hope in their near panicked eyes. She had on a uniform. She knew what to do. She was an official.
“This is my son, he’ll get you somewhere safe. Lock all the doors behind you.”
No one moved.
“Cody!” she yelled and he started, his eyes seemed to come into focus. “Get going, take them to the center. Hurry!”
“But Mom...” Cody started and pointed towards Derek.
“No buts, just do it! She shouted, her ‘I’m-not-in-the-mood-to-take-any-crap’ voice cutting through their indecision. “Do it now.”
“I’ll be right behind you,” she added, as they started moving.
“Come on.” Cody said and took off in a jog. “They won’t be able to get in, the doors are solid.”
The kids stuck together she noticed. The pale white twins grabbed a handle on either side of the boy in the wheelchair and sped him along as the others circled around him forming a fragile wall of protection. It wasn’t much, it was a little thing but it spoke volumes about them.
As they disappeared around the snack shack, Kelly moved to Derek’s corpse. She checked the time on her watch. Sixteen minutes since Anna had been dead and then came back and lunged for her. Her entire world had been ripped apart in only a quarter of an hour. The man she loved was gone. The country she lived in was being destroyed. Everything she knew about science a
nd medicine had been rendered null and void in a matter of moments. The rules didn’t apply when blatantly dead people were trying to eat living people. It wasn’t just here in this isolated part of Iowa. The virus that cropped up out of nowhere a few days ago had spread at an insanely rapid pace. She couldn’t imagine being in a big city, there was no chance, no escape and no hope. Here… maybe. Just maybe. Her mind raced and she knew she didn’t have much time. This safari could work, could keep them alive. It was fenced and secure, there were plenty of animals for a food supply and there was water. She had to move fast, though. Time was ticking away and things had to be done.
Derek was a large man, but she managed to drag him into the golf cart. She nearly vomited when she picked up his dismembered limbs and put them in the back but she forced it down. She’d seen worse she kept telling herself. She ignored the twisted faces and hungry cries at the gates, they weren’t an immediate problem. Tick tock. She didn’t have time for niceties or to be dainty. She had a mission that had to be finished. It just had to. She hopped in and pressed the pedal to the floor, racing against the clock. Four minutes later she stood on the bank of the Mississippi in their favorite getaway spot. She had a lot of memories here lying on a blanket, talking about nothing and everything. No time for them now, though. She wrestled his body to the muddy water, waded out to her waist. She leaned over and pressed her forehead against his for a few seconds, allowing herself a moment to say goodbye before she pushed him out as far into the current as she could. The slow waters carried him away as she tossed the other parts of him as far out as she could. She did throw up then, heaving bile into the muddy water. She splashed her face, washed her hands and waded ashore. She felt like he would approve. As a younger man, he’d done a stint in the Coast Guard. She looked at her watch again. Twenty-eight minutes.
She took the long way back, racing along the trails looking for any more of the zombies but there were none to be seen. If they were here, she was sure they would come after her, killing people seemed to be their only motivation. She bailed out of the cart and approached the door to the first aid station where Anna stood swaying. She paid no attention to the woman staring in at her and Kelly nearly wailed. She’d been hoping she was wrong. Hoping the sunlight being blindingly bright and the throbbing in her head was just stress. Just a migraine coming on. She’d hoped the black streaks running up her arm from the tiny little nip Anna had given her when they fought at the door was just dirt. Or scratches. Or anything other than the virus racing through her system but it wasn’t. She’d supposed she’d known all along; it was what gave her the strength to do what she’d done. Anna ignoring her was the last confirmation she needed. She was already infected. Already one of them.
From the few minutes she’d had dealing with the undead, she’d learned a few things fast. If they killed you, you came back instantly. If they bit you, it took a little more time. The first man they’d been treating in the station had lasted for ten or fifteen minutes and his bite was large and terrible. Anna had turned almost instantly when her throat was ripped out. She only had a nick, it barely broke the skin, but she’d been feeling the cold spread of the disease almost since it happened. She could feel it in her head now, icy fingers curling around her brain. Derek hadn’t been killed by the undead and none of them had bitten him so she was pretty sure it wasn’t in the air; it was through direct contact. Bites or maybe even scratches. The newly turned were vicious and fast and inhumanly strong. A hundred people had fallen to it in a matter of minutes. She knew why the phones hadn’t been answered. She knew no one would be coming to rescue them. She knew they were on their own.
She couldn’t leave Cody to deal with Derek’s remains so she had to get rid of them. Her boy was close to breaking already. She couldn’t leave Anna locked up for him to deal with, she had to get rid of her. She couldn’t turn into one of them on this side of the gate, she had to get rid of herself.
Kelly opened the door and pushed Anna aside, latched it securely behind her and grabbed a pen and paper from the desk. Her arm spasmed with a shooting pain and she knew she had to hurry.
Cody,
I’m so sorry I can’t be here for you. I got bit when things went crazy. I’ll be one of them soon, I feel myself getting sicker by the minute. Don’t let them bite you no matter what. I love you son. You have been my whole world since the day you entered kicking and screaming. Never stop. Never stop kicking and screaming no matter what. Your father was a brave man. You have his strength. He would be so proud of you. I don’t know what’s coming. I think you are on your own. I don’t think help will ever arrive but I want you to promise me you’ll kick and scream the whole way. You can do this. Don’t leave the park, it’s fenced and safe. Try to protect the people and the animals for as long as you can. Do what you must. Do what’s right and what’s necessary, even if it’s hard.
I’m leaving now and I’ll try to lead the rest of them away but I’ll always be with you.
Love,
Mom.
She had so many more things to tell him, so much more advice to give, but there wasn’t time. She looked at her watch but couldn’t read the hands, she wasn’t sure what they meant anymore. Her writing had gone from neat and curly to barely legible, her mind was getting foggy. She left it on the counter where he would find it and stumbled to her feet, tears nearly blinding. She grabbed Anna by the hand and led her outside.
She tried to hurry as she led Anna towards the entrance gates. With nothing to hold their attention, some of the undead were still at the bars but most milled aimlessly around the parking lot. She pushed a few out of the way, stepped through then double checked that the door was secure behind her. She swayed for a moment, lost in darkness, her mind completely blank. Kelly felt the dryness of her throat and mouth and had difficulty swallowing, sweat poured in rivers down her body as the fever raged, the virus attacking her at the cellular level. It wouldn’t be long now. She winced through the pain in her skull as the sun stabbed into her eyes, the pupils nearly fully dilated. A small part of her came back, the dying bit of human that still remained and she shook the gate one last time. It held and she grabbed Anna by the hand and pulled her away from the zoo. She began singing the lullaby she sang when Cody was a restless infant, the notes raw in her throat. The undead lurched towards her, the ones at the fence running toward the sound. Their dead minds were confused, they heard a human but smelled one of their own kind. They sensed the infection coursing through her veins but they followed her singing and shambled along behind her. She wanted to get as far away as she could before it was too late. She led them away, past the burning wrecks at the entrance and turned south where the road meandered for miles before it came to the next town. She cried and sang as she led them away from her baby and after she died, when the virus completely took her, she climbed back to her feet and followed the shambling crowd.
11
The Children
“I can’t get a call out,” the father with the papoose said in exasperation.
His wife was frantically dialing her own cell and ignoring her traumatized daughter crying and clinging to her leg.
“How can all the circuits still be busy?” she asked, the panic making her voice shriller and shriller. “How come nobody is answering?”
Her husband ignored her and tried redialing his own phone. 9-1-1. All circuits busy. Hang up and try again as fast as he could. He needed someone to answer. Someone to reassure him help was on the way.
“We can’t stay here,” the other man said.
He was older, graying around the temples, had a deep tan and the build of a man who worked with his hands for a living. A plumber or carpenter. Maybe a heavy equipment operator.
They were in the visitor’s center, the original house that had been built near the turn of the century, with the doors locked and the curtains drawn.
Cody paced and tried to shut them all out. He wanted to run to his mom, help her deal with Derek and Anna, get some kind of answers to what w
as going on. What were those things? What made people go crazy like that?
Everyone was in the spacious lobby and on their cells, either trying to call emergency services or family
“Snap chat is working,” said one of the kids.
“Twitter, too.” Another answered and everyone gave up trying to dial phone numbers.
They went to the internet, it was still up and working. Chaos was everywhere as they heard panic and screams coming out of the tinny sounding speakers from a dozen different news feeds. People were attacking other people. There was murder, riots, looting and anarchy all across the nation, especially in the east coast towns. The big cities were tearing themselves apart from the inside out and it had been going on for hours. No one had heard from the president. The military were supposed to be on red alert but the reporters hadn’t heard anything from them, either.
“Someone should declare martial law,” one morning show host declared.
“Someone should declare a mandatory curfew,” opined another.
Anyone that started their mornings with television or listening to the radio hadn’t ventured out of their houses to enjoy a day at the zoo, they were riveted to the TV until the stations started going off the air. Some did the worst thing possible, they ran to the stores to stock up on supplies. Most never made it back. No one in the park had turned on the news until now, they had all been blissfully ignorant as the world fell apart until it happened to them. If they listened to anything at all that morning, it had been streaming music, cd’s or mp3 players filled with their favorite songs.
Cody peeked through the curtains trying to see his mom or any movement outside. He’d heard the golf cart come flying by a few minutes ago but couldn’t see it or her. He knew she was counting on him to keep these people safe but he wanted to go to her. There were adults here, they could take over now. It was too much. Too much to ask of him.
The Feral Children [A Zombie Road Tale] Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 6
