by Hamrick, R M
“Not much you can do about him. Let’s first put away anything sensitive or fragile,” suggested Audra.
She looked around at the various glassware and equipment strewn about the laboratory. Perhaps there was a method to their madness, but it looked like a herd had already passed through. Ziv wandered away, muttering about having to stop his experiment. Something about incubation time and additional variables. Audra looked over to Ryder to see how serious this was. Ryder just shook her head. Ziv was just creating drama, unaware of the drama unfolding around him.
Audra’s body needed rest, but she did not want to abandon the scientists. She settled for water, food, and stretching out on the tile floor. The scientists were full of questions as they worked to clean up the lab. How far was the herd? How fast did a herd move? How many shepherds? Audra offered answers as she could and speculated on the rest.
Damn her calves were tight.
She tried to get everyone to bed early. The herd would be another two days, but sleep deprivation would hurt them sooner.
In the morning, Audra tested her body. Her legs felt shredded and her step tendered by blisters, but there was no joint pain, no dehydration headache. She counted her current recovery path as successful and grabbed a protein bar to repair her muscles.
She glanced in on Subject Four. Unlike Gordon who had paced, he stood motionless. The badge on his jumper had been torn and neither Ziv nor Gordon could recall a name. Audra asked if the process would be slower, given the delivery method. They all shrugged their shoulders. Doubt shadowed Ryder’s face. Gordon joked that he himself was exceptional, but everyone agreed it was possible that Subject Four had not gotten an effective dose.
Audra was shocked to find the sun was two hours old. Daylight was lost by sleeping indoors, but the sleep had done her good. Without her, the scientists had eaten breakfast and finished storing away crucial supplies for their experiments. Audra hoped the zombies would not breach this room at all, but the precautions were necessary. Their work needed to be kept safe.
Audra set up some desks as fortification inside the laboratory. If zombies or people came in, they would have a choke point and fortifications to defend their space.
“I understand keeping the equipment safe, but shouldn’t we clear out of here before they come?” asked Dwyn.
Audra shook her head.
“A few tents will not protect us from a passing herd. We need to protect our home and the research. We can’t find a new lab or steal more antidote. That won’t work again,” said Audra.
They were safer inside, even if that was where their enemies wanted them to be. Audra sent the scientists to gather what they wanted from their sleeping quarters. They would stay and protect the lab only. It could be a week or more after the initial attack before they could move freely. Gordon took inventory and stockpiled food in the cabinet. Ziv was tasked with gathering as much water as possible. He stopped up the defunct sinks and filled them with water for drinking. Any clean container was filled.
Audra and Dwyn found two cars and positioned them on either side of the gate to block it when ready. Audra wished they had lined up vehicles along the facility’s perimeter as soon as they had moved in, but it would have given away their presence. Now that they were found, they didn’t have time. Dwyn cut the barbed wire off the top of the back fence and laid it in front of the gate as the others created more snares. Audra and Satomi cut down small saplings with hatchets and sharpened each end, one to bury into the ground and the other to stick out and skewer the zombies. If they could snare a good portion, Dwyn and Audra could kill the rest. Ziv placed the sapling spears into the ground. He complained that they were not using his brain to its full potential, and instead were having him do hard labor. Audra asked him to think of other fortifications they could build with their limited time and resources as he worked. He seemed content with that responsibility, and came up with approximately zero ideas as he dug.
Satomi had a unique job. After the attack, the shepherds would come on their horses and assess the damage. Audra wanted the place to appear destroyed, defeated, and overrun. Satomi opened the windows of all the other buildings, marking the exterior walls near the door frames and windows with ash to resemble burned-out buildings. She scattered debris from the buildings into the yard to distract the assessors. Satomi pulled even more sick ones from storage to plant around the plaza. Their movement might rile the herd but would discourage the riders from coming too near.
Ryder was given most of the noisemakers Dwyn and Audra had brought. She strung them together electronically and set them to a radio frequency to remotely control them. Dwyn and Ryder ran a mile west to set them up. Gordon gave great praise of Ryder’s engineering, praise which she did not notice.
Two days of work and this evening’s dinner didn’t fill the time left to wait for the mass of deteriorating people. Nightfall might bring their arrival, but Audra imagined it would be closer to dawn before they caught sight of their attackers. Audra attempted to prepare the scientists for what they were about to face. These infected were real people but largely destroyed. Even if they had antidotes to give, the zoms would wake up in tremendous amounts of pain. They had lost skin, faces, and limbs. They would not survive as humans again. Their lives as scientists were more important. They said they understood and Audra hoped when the time came they would depersonalize the sick, and not get swept up by the horror they faced. Nervous composure filled the lab. Gordon offered to take first watch.
It was well past midnight when Satomi pushed on Audra’s shoulder. Audra’s eyes popped open, but Satomi was already heading to her bed. Her lack of a report said everything. Audra removed herself from all but one blanket. She pulled it along with her, also grabbing her jacket. Once she had navigated around the sleepers, she stretched from head-to-toe before slipping on her jacket and draping the blanket over her shoulders. In the front office, she settled into the chair pushed close to the window, which had been boarded up except for a small slit. She looked into the courtyard. Their tethered zombies rocked, but otherwise remained motionless, a sort of zombie sleep. The darkness and lack of visual stimuli allowed rest for them. Past them, the moonlight bounced off the chain-link fence. Audra cracked the front door open and was met with the sound of frogs and the breeze through the trees. The cicadas had quieted since the weather had cooled. The draft hit the back of her neck and Audra retreated further into the blanket. Nothing moved past the fences. Audra waited as part of the night.
An hour and a little more passed with nothing to be seen. Audra walked back into the laboratory and woke Ziv. He only had 45 minutes left in his shift. He could pay it forward or wake up the next person if he was tired.
“Thank you” came the whisper, surprising Audra.
Ziv had slept in his jacket, so it was already warm. He, too, dragged a blanket behind him. Audra returned to her confined space, sandwiched between a counter and Dwyn. She pulled blankets over her head to create a tent. She may have drifted off, but she was undecided on that point when Ziv came in with rushed whispers. He could see things moving out there.
Ryder threw off her blankets and jumped up. The others were fast behind her. Audra moved deliberately slowly and encouraged everyone to do the same. Rushing around would not help anything. They did not want to draw attention to their building or swell into a panic inside. She directed Satomi to roll up the bedding and place it in the corner. No one would sleep now, even if it was a false alarm. She asked Ryder to check that everyone had two knives, one to use and one to lose. With her requests in place, she followed Ziv to confirm his sighting.
The front room was dark except for the moonlight through the boards. Audra looked past the fence. Yes, there was movement. Ziv was correct. Someone, a lot of someones, moved through the forest toward them. Audra wished it was not so dark. She could not count how many bodies were heading their way, just that they were coming.
She called for Dwyn and Ryder to judge their location relative to the noisemakers. Sou
nding off the noisemakers at the optimal time would distract a good number of them away from the facility. Soon they were all in the front room, waiting. Once Ryder determined it was time, Dwyn sent the radio signal.
A tornado siren blared in the west accompanied by three successive flares into the sky. Ryder did a few silent fist pumps as the noise pierced the night. It was impossible to tell how many were leaving and how many were still heading for them. The motion of the trees highlighted by the moon was their only reference, but there was no way all the zoms were still heading their way with the lure in place. Everyone gave Ryder a pat on the back. With the siren blaring a mile away and the anticipation of the zoms hitting the first snares of barbed wire and tin cans, Audra knew requesting that the others sleep was a futile effort. They sat and rested, but no one dozed.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
In lieu of sleep, Audra ordered everyone to eat at sunrise. When the sirens stopped during breakfast, Ryder could not confirm if they had run their course or if someone had shut them off. The new quiet soon gave way as the first zombies tripped over the knee-high tin can and barbed wire contraption in front of the plaza. It would stop the ones on the front line, but not the rest. A large herd would fill up the barbed wire with bodies and others would climb over.
As the sun rose and more arrived, it became clear the herd was massive. Near a hundred zoms approached, crawling over those caught. Some tangled in the wire did not stay, leaving clothes and skin behind. They hit the stakes next, of which there were not enough. Audra watched as a burly zom levered the spear that bored into him. He now approached with a skewer lodged in his chest. Some worked as planned, the stick going straight through their chest cavity and out the other side. Struggling just pushed them farther onto the skewer, leaving room on the other side for another.
The mass of dead kept coming, past the spikes, up against the cars and fence. The crew watched the drove of torn bodies, jagged limbs, and hanging gray flesh. Their laboratory zoms pulled at their tethers toward the visitors, making wide arm motions. Visitors, two layers deep, leaned on the fences. The chain-links bent and bowed.
“Should we go protect the fence?” asked Gordon.
“I think we should leave,” muttered Ziv.
Ziv pointed to pockets of denser numbers creating weak points in the fence. The gate was pulling open from the pressure on either side. No one had managed through, but it was only a matter of time. The fence would fall. The gate would tear open.
Audra looked but feared more intelligent enemies, who might use the zoms as a distraction for a bigger plan. Would they have firearms or explosives? Audra imagined a grenade attack would make short work of the laboratory. Although there were so many infected and riled, it did not matter. No ammunition needed. This place would be torn down.
“If we leave, we’ll lose the antidotes,” explained Satomi for the third time.
Audra broke the news.
“We can’t go out and kill them. The fence will come down before we get them all.”
“What do we do?” asked Ryder.
Audra wasn’t sure. She examined the situation. Lysent had gathered a sick population and left them in the elements to rot. Then, instead of killing them, they used them to kill others. Their consideration for humanity was vitriolic. Maybe Belinda was right about this new world. Audra shook the thought from her head. Looking past the philosophy, their group could also use the zombies to intimidate and destroy. They just needed to redirect them.
“We will move them.”
Dwyn looked at her to assess her seriousness.
“We send them to the township,” she said.
“Audra…” Dwyn hesitated.
“We’ve caught a good many. Lysent will handle them well before they wreak havoc on the town’s walls. If not, maybe people will wake up to what is happening.”
“It’s a good idea in theory, but how are we,” he motioned to the group who already looked scared at the prospect of doing anything more than killing a handful through the fence, “how are we going to move them? And possibly under the nose of herders?”
“We jump over the back fence. We get behind the zoms, start up some noisemakers, and run toward the township.”
“I could run awhile,” said Satomi timidly. “I ran track in high school. I could get a mile.”
Gordon nodded, signaling he would help.
“I’m not leaving here. That is truly a stupid idea,” said Ziv.
He crossed his arms, not averting his eyes from the horror that Audra was asking him to engage.
Ryder looked at the others, trying to decide.
“Do we need all of us to do the run? Could we do it if Ziv refused to go?” she asked.
Ziv looked offended that they would continue without him. He meant to squash the whole plan, not be the only one in the safety of the lab.
“Sure. Dwyn and I would run the inside lanes. Gordon will be just out from us. You and Satomi would be the perimeter runners,” she replied, and knowing Ziv’s approval would sway the others, she added, “Ziv, you could deal with any zombies that clung to the fence after.”
Ziv seemed to like that idea and did not press his first opinion.
“I think Vesna would agree to this plan,” shared Dwyn.
Audra wasn’t sure if that was an encouragement or a deterrent. Ryder watched the fence sway, her mind doing engineering calculations.
“Well, let’s get to it then,” she confirmed.
They would be within chain-shouting distance of one another, but still, Audra hastily equipped everyone with a flare and a small pack along with their noisemakers. The pack would not hinder their running but would give them enough supplies to last a couple of days if they got separated.
“Only use the flare tomorrow morning if you get lost. Then head east where the sun rose. The flare will attract the zoms,” she warned.
“I might not be able to take care of all the infected on the fence. There will be plenty not drawn away,” discussed Ziv, not even giving others time to ask questions about their riskier roles.
Audra and Dwyn climbed over the empty back fence where Dwyn had removed the barbed wire. They helped the other three down.
“Good luck,” called Ziv on the other side.
He seemed scared on all fronts - too scared to go with them and too scared to be alone. Ryder gave one last look to Satomi, blinking but trying to stay focused before Audra escorted Satomi and Gordon around one side of the plaza and Ryder went with Dwyn to the other.
Audra led her two a good deal away from the compound. They would need to get around the crowd without being seen prematurely. Audra continued to listen for sounds of herders, and watched for signs of their presence. She saw none and hoped that Dwyn found the same lack of signs. Perhaps the herders had gone home to rest their horses and themselves before coming back to assess the damage. Everyone who worked under the corporation desired shelter and safety. Audra never saw a corporation worker out in the field for long unless they were indentured. The group could use their dependency on comfort to their advantage.
Near a thousand meters away from the laboratory, Audra saw Dwyn and Ryder again. She had left Satomi at a similar distance on the edge and Gordon between them. Satomi and Gordon would both be in the rough brush but would have less distance to sweep when it came time to break away. Audra could see that Dwyn had pulled out his noisemaker. It was time. The others would know soon enough. On the noisemakers went.
The sound emitted from Audra’s device settled on a pitch between a tornado siren and a rescue whistle, but screeched like an alarm clock. In between the pauses, she heard Dwyn’s more soothing chop-chop helicopter noise. The others joined in, but fainter. They were already running. Audra and Dwyn waved the devices over their heads, the sound swinging from ear to ear. They jumped up and down. More than just a novel noise, they wanted to be bait. The zoms turned from the fence and toward the runners. Audra and Dwyn smiled at each other and pulled away. The noisemakers had enough battery powe
r for about half an hour. When the last one turned off, they would know to run to their respective sides and out of sight.
Audra’s turned off shortly after Dwyn’s. She set it down and then returned to it, second guessing for the ringing in her ears. Eventually, all the noise was just a faint echo in her head. Audra looked back to the zoms careening toward her. The long run to the lab was two days ago and though she could still feel it in her quads, she was ready to run again. Quick stepping around roots gave her a rhythm that nothing else did. She ran farther and faster until she was out of sight. She then veered east to get around them. She caught up with Gordon. Despite his previous zombie state, he had an innate strength he had shown several times already. This run was no exception, although his recovery would be slow. Together, they found Satomi and ran back, having escaped the herd. Satomi was both pleased with her running performance and her sense of direction. Audra shared that she would make a good tagger with conditioning. Satomi smiled under her bangs and they walked and ran in intervals back to the facility. They hoped Dwyn and Ryder were doing the same on the other side.
Audra was pleased to see that the place was still standing. There was activity, but just of the sick on spikes, on the ground, trying to gain footing once more. The sick wandered this way and that, their attention being drawn in too many directions. Their clothing and skin hung in equal proportions off the bone. While it was chaos, it was slow chaos and easy to see that there were no shiny new corpses amongst the army.
She smiled when she saw the front gate was still crowded. They would find Ziv inside and comfortable with some excuse. They got to the back fence and threw their packs over. It looked like they had beaten Ryder and Dwyn.
Satomi was already talking about how hungry she was. Running had that effect on people. Audra smiled. They would go eat with Ziv and talk strategy on how to clear the fence. She also wanted to suggest a move. Lysent might continue to monitor this location. It was best to take their equipment and settle elsewhere. Her sister was another subject to discuss. Surely the scientists would understand the danger she was in now that they had experienced it for themselves.
