Dying to Live

by Roxy De Winter

  “I guess the stealth approach is out of the question now,” Fiona cursed from the back of the gang.

  Lucy steeled herself. This was her chance to prove that she could be strong. She whipped out the machete, still hesitant to use a gun again, and held it at the ready in her shaky hands. She was barely aware of the two burnt girls, who dropped to the ground beside her in a spray of blood after two precise head shots from Xin. Martin, or the corpse that had been Martin, was staggering towards her now. His arms were snatching greedily at the air between them. She held her breath and took an anxious step forward to meet him. Lucy swung her blade in a great hopeful arc. Martin’s eyes momentarily widened as the sharp edge sliced cleanly and easily through the soft skin of his neck. The blade snagged momentarily as it hit bone but quickly followed through, carving the head clean off. The body slumped downwards first and the head followed closely after it, bouncing off down the track leaving bloody blotches as it went. Lucy didn’t have time to celebrate her kill; one of the soldiers was rapidly coming up on her. However, she was bolstered with confidence from her first success and raised the blade again. She brought it straight down in front of her without even a trace of fear. It hit home right in the centre of the things head. Its skull gave way and the head parted willingly, cleaving in two right down to the upper lip. There was a moment in which Lucy could even see the twists and curls of the grey matter inside its head. Then it dropped to the floor alongside its companions. It was followed by its buddy and when Lucy looked back she saw Fiona lowering her shotgun.

  Lucy was still shaking when she slid the machete back into its case and crouched to liberate the machine guns from the fallen troops.

  “Will... Will these guns go in your bag, Pete?” Lucy asked, trying to keep her voice from faltering.

  “Yeah, sure,” Pete told her, swinging the bag round to his front and pulling it open. Lucy headed over and tucked the two guns into it before heading back over to Frank’s side.

  Frank put an arm around the girl’s waist. She was obviously a little shaken up.

  “You did really great, babe,” he said giving her a quick squeeze.

  “Thanks, I...” Lucy began, and then forgot what she was saying. “Did you just call me babe?”

  Frank looked a little sheepish. “Sorry, slip of the tongue.”

  “It’s okay.” Lucy managed a small laugh, feeling a little happier. Pete rolled his eyes at their exchange and Xin rolled her eyes at Pete’s complete inability to see how sweet they were. Before they left the scene and set off on their way back, Zack and Pete picked over the soldiers bodies for anything else of use. They didn’t have a lot of ammunition and only a couple of small knives, but anything beneficial got put into Pete’s bag.

  It was a straight trek from there, down the road to building 4A. Once outside the building, they radioed in with Harry to check that he could see them. He assured them that he had them on the screen in front of him and warned them of a few lurking zombies.

  “Thanks, Harry. Can you tell me how the area looks? We’re hoping to take five before we press on and head back,” Fiona replied.

  “If you guys get rid of the couple I’ve just told you about, you can afford to take a quick breather before you head back to the cars,” Harry responded.

  “Great, thanks. We’ll see you when we get back. Over and out.”

  The two walkers Harry had mentioned were just around the corner from where they were and it was a quick process to put them down. Frank’s ankle was starting to balloon and causing him some serious pain, it was making him sweat and although he was trying to keep it from showing, Lucy had told the others they needed to stop so that he could sit down. He slumped against a wall and sank down to the dusty floor.

  “I can’t wait to get back to that air-con and get a cold drink,” he said.

  “Please, don’t talk about that,” Fiona begged. “My mouth is so dry.”

  “Yeah, my mouth is too, but my pits sure ain’t,” Zack laughed.

  “Zackary Ford, that is disgusting,” His wife scorned him. The other laughed.

  “Can you help me up?” Frank asked Pete. “If I sit here any longer I’m not going to get up again.”

  Pete held a hand out and Frank clasped it. With a grunt of pain from Frank, Pete hauled him back onto his feet.

  “Ready?” Pete asked him.

  “No, but I don’t have any other choice do I?” Frank grimaced.

  “There’s always stay and get eaten?” Lucy offered, sticking her tongue out at him.

  “Very funny. You won’t be laughing if it’s you that gets to strap up my nice smelly foot, will you?” Frank retorted with a smug smile.

  “Yuk. I guarantee it won’t be,” she joked, screwing her face up but knowing that she would do it.

  “Right then, guys. Come on, home stretch now,” Pete encouraged.

  After another twenty minutes of walking, and in Frank’s case hobbling, they all made it back to the cars and were on their way to the cold drinks they were picturing. The occupants of both cars were beginning to relax and reflect happily on what they had accomplished. They drove back along the roadways, littered now with the carnage they had created on their way up, and presumed that for now they were out of the woods and the worst was over.

  Pete and Xin discussed the relationship that was developing between Frank and Lucy, and the existing one between Zack and Fiona.

  “I think that Frank and Lucy are just right for each other,” Xin told Pete.

  “I’d be inclined to agree. Frank does like her,” he replied.

  “She likes him too. I had to drag her along to stop her risking her life to help when he fell,” Xin said.

  “You didn’t try to stop me,” Pete said innocently.

  “Someone needed to help him. Besides, you’re strong and capable and decent. And I doubt you would have stopped even if I had asked,” Xin added.

  “You do flatter me,” Pete laughed. “It was good of Zack and Fiona to have our backs when we were falling behind.”

  “Yes, it’s nice to know that we can trust them, and they work so well together. Their relationship is obviously very strong,” Xin commented. They had just driven past the first car park and were heading back down the track now.

  “What about our relationship?” Pete asked.

  “What is that?” Xin asked distractedly.

  “Our relationship?” Pete wondered, his brow creased with confusion as he searched her face.

  “No. What is that?” Xin said, pointing off down the track. There was a big white van parked in the middle of the road.

  “Oh... Isn’t that the van that Bao and Frank came here in?” Pete wondered once he noticed the looming vehicle.

  “What is it doing out here?” Xin thought out loud. “I can’t even ask Bao or Harry because Fiona still has the walky-talky.”

  The minute they were close enough to see bodies, Xin and Pete knew it wasn’t going to be good news. The closer they got, the clearer the scene became and Xin began to howl and cry.

  Bao was laid on the floor in the biggest pool of blood Xin could ever imagine seeing, and the top of his head was missing and empty. The last time she had spoken to him she had been angry, now she felt bitterly ashamed of herself. There was a corpse on the ground at the other side of the van and a dog that looked like Kenco lay dead nearby. There was somebody sat behind the wheel of the van but they had their head down. Evidently they were alive, as two walkers were scratching frantically at the window.

  When Pete pulled the car over, Xin couldn’t bring herself to get out with him. The Police car stopped beside theirs and despite his ankle, Frank was already climbing out. Lucy turned off the engine and sat staring out of the windscreen at the scene before her. Zack and Fiona got out last and were woefully unprepared for what awaited them.

  “Kenco?” Fiona said puzzled. “It can’t be?” She started forwards to investigate further, whilst her husband made his way over to the monsters clawing at the van.

&n
bsp; “Oh God! Dr Yuan,” Frank gasped, stumbling closer to the body. When the full scene unravelled before him, shock set in; his eyes popped open, his jaw dropped and his hand reached up to his head in disbelief.

  Xin chanced another look out of the windscreen through tearful eyes, seeing Bao like that made her open the car door in a rush and throw up a torrent of hot bile beside the car.

  Zack put the muzzle of his handgun to the male zombie’s head and pulled the trigger. When the body dropped, Zack got a clear view of the female zombie that had been stood beside it. She turned and snapped at him.

  “LANIE!” He yelped, as his monstrous daughter lurched towards him. He caught her arms just in time and held her in place. “No... No! Not my girl!”

  “It can’t be! You’re wrong!” Fiona countered when she heard his exclamation. She staggered away from Kenco to see for herself. “Nooo!” She howled.

  “Oh my...” Pete was baffled. He couldn’t work out what might have happened whilst they were gone, but he knew that neither parent would shoot their own daughter. It didn’t seem like the right time for him to step in and do it himself. “Zack, Fiona... Get her in the back of the van.” This in turn drew their attention to the van, and puffy eyed girl behind the wheel.

  “Joanne!” Fiona sobbed, noticing her other daughter. “Are you hurt?”

  Zack led his monstrous daughter away from the van’s door. She was still snapping at him as he cried. When he had dragged her to the back of the van, his wife could get their other daughter out of the cab. Fiona threw the door open and hurled herself at Joanne.

  “Honey, are you okay? What happened?” She wept into the girl’s hair. Joanne clutched at her but remained silent, staring red eyed at her sister.

  Pete walked up to Zack, who was now struggling to restrain Lanie as the instinct to comfort his family kicked in.

  “She’s one of them now. We can’t help her,” he said, placing a hand on the fathers shoulder.

  “But this was all about a cure!” Zack said desperately.

  Pete gave him a sad look. “I’m so sorry, Zack. You know that we can’t offer guarantees. We don’t know if it can be cured and even if it is possible it will be a long, long time before we are ready for that,” He explained patiently. Pete struggled to keep his personal feelings about the likelihood of curing any of these things out of the discussion. “Where would we keep her long term? We wouldn’t be safe, the rest of your family would be at risk.”

  “There must be something...” Zack said hopelessly.

  Pete sighed and pulled at his hair. “I can’t make you any promises, Zack. Xin is the only doctor here now, so you really need to talk to her about it. We can’t ask her just yet, but we don’t need to do this right now. Put Lanie in the back of the van, we’ll drive her back with us and leave her in there until we decide what to do.”

  “Thank you,” Zack said, grateful just for a tiny scrap of hope. While his wife comforted Joanne, who was still not speaking, Pete assisted Zack in bundling the savage girl into the van.

  “If it comes to shooting her, I’ll do it myself, you know,” Zack told Pete. “If anyone’s going to do it, I want to know that I did it with love for my daughter rather than someone else who did it with hatred for a monster.”

  “And that’s fair enough,” Pete told him, as they shut the vans back doors before Lanie could attempt to amble her way back out. “You take your wife and Joanne back in the car with Xin. I’ll drive Lanie back and then your family don’t have to...”

  “Hear her as one of them... God, I can’t believe this,” Zack finished, tears prickling in his eyes. “Thank you,” He said again, offering Pete his hand.

  “Don’t mention it. Let’s just get everyone back to the cabin,” He replied, grasping Zack’s hand and looking worriedly back at Xin. Pete wanted to ask Zack to check she was alright, but how could he ask anything of a man who had already lost his father, and now his daughter and even his dog?

  Zack managed to lead Joanne and his wife over to the car that Xin was still sat in. Thankfully she was no longer being sick. He saw his wife and daughter into the back seat and got into the driver’s seat beside Xin.

  “Pete’s going to drive the van back,” he explained shakily. He continued talking in the hope that he could distract himself, for even just a moment, from the horror of reality. “We’ll be back in no time, but I know he’d want me to make sure you’re okay. I know it’s a dumb question, and I’m barely okay myself, but...” He began to cry and didn’t finish his sentence.

  Xin didn’t say anything either, she just stared at her friend’s motionless body.

  Pete was the first to get moving. He got the van turned around and made his way off down the track. Frank and Lucy were next in the squad car, Lucy in the driver’s seat still looking shell shocked. Zack didn’t force their car to follow straight away. His wife and daughter sobbed together in the back. Xin leaned her head on the glass, looking out of her window and crying silently, and Zack had to take five minutes to himself before he could put the car into drive. Eventually he wiped his eyes and resigned himself to the fact that he couldn’t sit there all day. The car purred into life and, lost in their own thoughts, the journey passed in a daze that none of them could remember afterwards.

  13.

  ‘I suppose it’s my turn now. I’m Sam, and what a shitty part of the story I have to tell. I’m not a big talker and this was the worst day of my life, so I’m going to keep it short if you don’t mind. I guess I should pick up with the moment when we heard the engines and realised the others were back.’

  Sam scooped Evan up from the rug he was playing on when they heard the vehicles outside. He took Shania’s hand and followed Harry out of the cabin. When they got outside, the white van was the first to pull up beside them. Pete jumped out just as the police car rumbled up beside it.

  “Take the kids back inside,” Pete urged Sam, as Lucy and Frank exited their vehicle with serious looks on their faces.

  “What’s happened? Where are the others?” Sam questioned. There were two loud bangs from the back of the van. “What’s that--”

  “Take the kids inside!” Pete shouted. It was out of character for him to shout. He wasn’t angry, but he needed Sam to listen. He strongly believed that those kids had already seen enough, and would see plenty more. This didn’t have to be something that they witnessed. They didn’t need to hear what was coming.

  “This involves my family! I want to know where they are!” Sam argued.

  “Here, I’ll take them,” Harry said, holding his arms out to take the small, bewildered looking boy. Sam frowned and reluctantly surrendered the child over to him.

  “Go on, Shania. Go with Harry,” He told the little girl.

  “Sammy, what’s happening?” She asked, her brown eyes wide and worried.

  “It’s okay, darling. Everything’s okay. We’ll be in soon,” Sam crouched and reassured her. She nodded at him and reached out to cuddle him. Sam pulled her to him and kissed her head. “Go on now.”

  The door had only just shut behind them when the last car pulled up. Xin got out first, unable to bare the atmosphere in the car any longer. She was still crying and rushed over to Pete. When she reached him, she broke down and he wrapped his arms around her. Her sobs were quieter with her face buried in Pete’s shoulder.

  “What-- Wait, where’s Kenco? And where’s that other guy?” Sam questioned. He couldn’t see into the last car well enough to tell that Lanie wasn’t in it. “Are they in the back of the van?” Confusion puckered his face.

  Xin pulled away from Pete. “That other guy?” She asked angrily. “He has a name, you know!”

  “Hey, go easy on the kid,” Pete soothed her with his hands on her shoulders.

  Before anyone else could speak, Fiona leapt from the car. She was yelling.

  “NO!... You cannot be serious, Zack!” She slammed the door before he could respond and fled towards the RV.

  “Mom, don’t go in there!” Sam
said, rushing to stand between her and the door. At that, everyone looked puzzled. “Jo!” He called, relief spreading over his features as she got out of the car too. “Thank God you’re--” She began to cry and his face fell. “Where’s Kenco?... Oh my God, where’s Lanie? Will someone tell me what happened?” he began to shout.

  Nobody spoke, but his mother looked up at him and shook her head. Her face said it all. Joanne dropped to her knees in the dirt and put her face in her hands. Zack finally got out of the car and walked around it to pull his daughter back up.

  “Don’t touch her!” Fiona said angrily, crossing the dry earth to pull their daughter from his grasp.

  “Fi, come on, please,” Zack pleaded, his voice breaking.

  “You’re a monster,” she said, kneeling beside Jo without even looking at him.

  “What does she mean, dad?” Sam asked, stunned. He hadn’t even begun to process what was happening.

  “Your mom’s just angry.” Zack hung his head.

  “Angry!” Fiona said, jumping to her feet. She spun around to address Sam. “You’re sister is bundled in the back of that van” She pointed at it to reinforce her speech. “And your father thinks that we can just keep her there until someone figures out a cure. No daughter of mine is going to walk this earth as one of them! Who knows if she can ever be cured? And in the mean time she will get worse and worse, and she’ll try to kill us all. She’ll want to feed on her own flesh and blood!”