by White, A. L.
She looked around as best as she could from the cab windows. No signs of foul play—just the door hanging wide open and no one coming out when she pulled up. No sign Virginia or the dogs, and she knew they always ran up when a car arrived. Those two dogs never left the open door unguarded.
Lori turned the truck off and closed her eyes, resting her forehead on the top edge of the steering wheel. She thought about laying on the horn as she had on Main Street. The thought passed quickly. If something had happened, she did not want to attract unwanted attention if she hadn’t already. The seats were causing her to get cramps and the pain from her shoulder wound was beginning to grow. It was then the idea had come to her; more of a plan than an idea really. She could sit in the truck all night and deal with whatever was out there in the light of a new day. She could take the chance of freezing in the truck or using what gas she had left to keep warm. That was one option. The other was to leave the safety of the truck and run into the bunker. Once inside she could latch the door behind her and deal with anything she found.
Lori opened her eyes and stared into the dark hole of the door. She decided that she had to go into the bunker. If not for the warmth and food that could be found inside, then for the meds and answers she would find. Pulling the crossbow onto her lap and counting the number of arrows she had left; she knew that she had to go right then. Opening the door, Lori ran as hard as she could into the dark space, pivoted on her right foot and slammed the large steel door shut. Then in one fluid motion, Lori shoved one of the steel bolts home, locking the door. and flipped on the light switch. The lights glowed orange and then flickered to life. Across the room, on the floor, two zombies were eating the remains of what she had to guess had been Bob. The pain of the realization tried to grip at her heart, but she didn’t allow it. Her crossbow raised without hesitation. The first arrow flew true, finding its mark just inside the ear canal. Her second arrow missed its mark as a shooting pain from her shoulder caused her to jerk the crossbow upward as she fired. The zombie turned and started toward her. The third arrow brought it down easily.
So far so good, she thought to herself. One room clear, four more to go. From there she could see something hunched over on the floor of the kitchen but did not judge it to be a threat. The fire looked like it had burned down a while ago and the door to the sleeping quarters was slightly ajar.
Lori wanted more than anything to sit down for a few minutes and let the pain ease. It was working its way up to being unbearable. She forced that thought aside and worked one of her three remaining arrows into the crossbow, focusing all of her attention on the narrow opening between the door and door jam.
She took three fast steps and paused to listen, then three more and paused again. There was no sound at all. Satisfied, she moved to take three more quick steps but achieved only two. On the third step, her foot collided with, and kicked, an empty water bottle. It sailed across the room and banged noisily on the door. Lori froze, petrified to the spot, waiting for something to jump out at her. Instinctively, she began moving forward, hoping to meet whatever it was on her own terms.
Reaching the door, she used her good shoulder and bumped the door wide open, jumping back slightly to let the light shine into the room. There was no sign that anything had been in there.
All of the bunks were made up, just as they had been when she left that morning. To make herself feel better, she flipped the light on as well, and did a slow walk around the room. The bunks were laid out around the walls, leaving the middle of the room open. There was nowhere in the room for anything to hide and none of her friends were to be found. Lowering the crossbow, she turned toward the kitchen area. The only areas left to check were the storeroom and the firewood room. The door to the storeroom was closed—not much threat from there at the moment. The firewood room was wide open, and something was on the ground, blocking the doorway. For the first time since leaving the truck, Lori began to worry about Virginia. Could the lump blocking the door be her?
Without thinking, she ran to the room at full speed. The bloody mass on the ground was too large to be Virginia. Judging by the clothes, it had to be Julie. It looked like she had gone down fighting but came up short. Lori bent down to get a closer look. She didn’t know why, but she did, setting the crossbow down.
The creature had been on her from the moment her knee touched the ground. Massive, strong hands gripped her head like a vice, pulling her into the firewood room. Lori grabbed hold of the door jam and forced her legs out from under her. When her feet met the walls, her legs pushed as hard as they could. Her body lunged backward, freeing her from the creature’s grasp but barely lasting a second before it was on top of her, biting at any part of her it could reach. The teeth made a clicking sound with every missed bite. Lori pushed with all of her might against its chest trying to throw it off. She felt the room start to go black as its hand dug deep into her flesh, pulling a chunk of muscle out. Lori lay there with her arms spread out and life passing from her.
The creature dug back into the same spot, pulling more flesh from her shoulder and stuffing it into its dead face. Lori felt the crossbow and arrow under her fingertips. Grasping the arrow, she waited for the creature to move toward her shoulder again. Once she knew it was going to grab more flesh, Lori put every ounce of strength she had left into bringing the arrow up to the creature’s eye and shoving it deep. The arrow plunged easily for a moment, then met with resistance. Lori didn’t allow that to stop her, she struggled with her grip on the arrow’s shaft but managed to force it further into the dead monstrosity’s brain. It stopped immediately and its full weight pressed down hard on her. Lori had no strength left in her to push the creature off. She lay with the reeking beast on top of her as consciousness slipped away.
Sometime the next morning she was roused to consciousness by the pain surging through her body. It took more than a few minutes for her mind to convince itself that the pain meant that she was still alive. Slowly she worked her body out from under the zombie and crawled over into a corner. It looked like she had lost a lot of blood during the night and she felt weak. As far as she was concerned, death would be welcome visitor.
Then she thought about Virginia. Her baby sister wasn’t in the bunker. There was a possibility she could have left with the dogs and made it away safely. After all, the dogs were also nowhere to be found. She was probably hiding someplace nearby, waiting for signs that it was safe to come back. Lori forced herself to her feet, dragging her legs with every step as she went to the steel door. With her good arm she struggled at first, then freed the bolt, opened the door, and stepped out into the light. It was quiet, peaceful even, she thought to herself.
Looking around for any signs of Virginia or the dogs and finding none. she started to walk toward the trailer and stopped. She could see Jack’s remains—what was left of them anyway. Then she knew, if Virginia had lived through this, she would have headed up toward the farm. More than once she had brought game back from around the old barn near the cornfield.
Fighting the feeling that she was going unconscious again, Lori struggled over to the truck and climbed in. It took a lot to start the truck and work the clutch, but against all odds she did it. She headed back up the dirt road, toward the main road and the adjacent farm, keeping it in first gear the whole way. She slipped in and out of consciousness several times, only emerging from the last slip at the sound of horns and crunching steel. An unfamiliar face kept telling her to “hold on, you will be okay.” That was the last thing she heard before losing consciousness again.
Chapter 14
The younger dog whimpered like a small puppy when he saw the black truck going down the road. Virginia put an arm around him and petted his head. The older, larger dog laid his head in her lap and she petted him as well. They watched as the truck swerved all over the dirt road, crossing onto pavement and smashing into the little blue car. From the hayloft in the old barn they could see the two beat-up old school buses stop next to the accident and
pull Lori out of the truck. It looked like several people exited the buses and were trying to save Lori’s life.
“She will be ok boys. Its better this way, you know? Lori will always need people. She isn’t like us.”
The End
Surge of the Dead
To my Uncle John, who has always supported me and taught me to be the person that I am today
When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:7-8
Chapter 1
Virginia sat outside in the cold, chilling air watching Lori and Jonas drive away in the truck. If anyone should have been in that truck, it was her and she did not understand why he could not see that. In the past few months no one had become as good as she had at hunting and killing zombies. It was like second nature now; easier with each passing day. Even the two-point zeroes were nothing to Virginia. Rarely did she mention that; Bob had told her to try to steer clear of them because they were smarter than the normal ones.
The door opened behind her and Jack came through, he nodded his head, and went over by the trailer. That was where he spent the better part of his day; with the laptop plugged into the solar panels. Virginia wanted to tell him, at least a million times, that it was all a waste of his time. If he was so smart and could not figure out the simplest thing as that, then maybe he was not as bright as everyone had thought. They were all as good as dead. The sooner he learned that, the better off he would be; maybe he would even stop being dead weight in her mind. Still, she did like Jack, in his own way he was a loner like her. Even before the world moved on, Virginia did not have many friends. The ones she did have more or less tolerated her, she thought. Funny, she could not remember how many times they had called her a crybaby growing up. They would all be surprised now to see that she had no more tears left to cry. Why would she? Even if she felt like she wanted to, who would care? What would it change? All of her family, with the exception of Lori, were dead and it probably would not be too long before she was. Lori kept talking about things that did not matter anymore. Virginia did not see a point in remembering. It was too hard to face and served no purpose in the world that they lived in now. Mom was not coming home with dinner. Dad could not look over the arrows she made yesterday and say, “good job pumpkin.” They were gone and that is where she wanted to leave them. No pleasant thoughts of family time to clutter up her mind when she had to concentrate. If anyone here was useful to Virginia, it was Bob. She and he had hit it off right away.
Bob was a little bit like her dad but more real somehow. Dad had pretended to be prepping for the end of the world; Bob did prepare for the end of the world.
The door opened behind her, causing Virginia to lose her train of thought. She turned around to see Bob coming slowly towards her. He sat down off to her left where Zeus and Perseus joined him on either side. Virginia pretended not to see him, still upset over his objections to her going into town at breakfast.
“So that’s how it’s going to be?” he asked her.
Virginia rolled her eyes but did not answer.
“I guess you could have gone into town with your sister. Of course, then me and the lads would have had to do this other job,” he stated.
Virginia let out a sigh, she could tell when Bob was trying to play her, and this was one of those times if she had ever seen one.
“The lads and I are going to go out and reconnoiter the area,” he said to the back of her head. “You know what reconnoiter is?”
Virginia laughed a low shallow laugh, “To go scout an area?”
Bob put his hand on her shoulder to get Virginia’s full attention. “Yes, that is what it is, young lady. We need to know that our area is safe to stay in for the time being, if we are going to stay here for the winter, that is.”
“Safe? We haven’t seen a person, dead or alive, other than the people in this group!”
“The other night Zeus there was acting a little odd. I think something may be out there and we need someone to look. I could send the lads, but they can’t talk. I guess I can take them for a walk to have a look see, might do me and them some good to stretch our legs.”
Virginia was not stupid by any means and she knew that if she did not go, Bob would definitely go. He would go just because, now that he had asked her, she was refusing. He knew that his heart was not holding out as well as they had hoped. He was growing weaker every day and everyone knew it. No one said anything aloud for whatever reason.
“I will take the pups and have a look around if it will stop you from nagging all day long,” Virginia finally said, managing to smile at him.
One of the few things that made Virginia still feel human was when Bob smiled at her as he was doing now. It was the way her father used to smile at her when she did something right. “Where do you think I should start?”
Bob thought a minute and then said, “Start over that way, towards the farm we passed coming in here. The lads seem to sniff the air in that direction a lot lately.”
She knew exactly where Bob was talking about, and he knew that she had been there a few times while she was hunting. There was not much there besides the old farmhouse and the barn, but she would go look and make Bob happy. Besides, it would give her something to do other than her chores.
“Let me grab a few things, and the Lads and I will go scout it out,” she stated, climbing to her feet.
“Virginia,” Bob said halting her, “you run into anything out there, you get safe little lady. If you have to, climb as high as you can and wait it out. Never mind the lads, they will take care of themselves, you hear?”
Virginia paused for a moment and continued, returning with a backpack and more arrows.
“Come on boys, let’s go,” she said to the lads.
As she headed with the dogs toward the gate Bob called out her name, but she kept going. He called out again, “Virginia!”
“I will get high if I run into anything Bob, promise.” She said as they neared the gate.
Opening the gate, she let the dogs go through first and then followed. Perseus ran forward about twenty feet and then dove into the snowy undergrowth of the ditch. Virginia and Zeus ran as fast as they could to see what he had found. Only to find it was the puppy in Perseus coming out again. She laughed at him and called for him to come on. The whole way towards the farm Zeus walked to her right-side keeping pace while Perseus would bolt up a head then return trying to get on her right side. A playful snap from Zeus sent him off charging ahead again.
Virginia loved being out here by herself with the dogs. Here in their company she felt free of any worries. She took care of them and they took care of her.
Reaching the beginning of the long gravel driveway leading to the farmhouse, Virginia stopped, looking around and listening for any movement that seemed unnatural. A swing hanging from an old tree about ten feet in front of the front porch swung gently in the wind. A broken shutter, hanging by a single fastener, banged against the windowsill. Satisfied that there were no other movements or sounds that stuck out to her, Virginia moved forward. Zeus took the lead with Perseus staying a few feet to her left. He was not running off to play now. Virginia thought it was amazing how he knew it was time to be serious. Slowly they made their way past the swing and up the crumbling sidewalk to the porch stairs. Virginia started to step up but halted as Zeus turned sideways in front of her. She could see that the door was ajar and knew what he wanted.
“Well then, go ahead and check it out. What are you waiting for?”
Zeus went up the stairs with Perseus and nudged the door open. After standing there for a few minutes sniffing they disappeared into the building. Virginia looked around as she stood there impatiently, waiting for the all c
lear. The wait was not long as Perseus came running out of the house with a tennis ball in his mouth. At the top of the porch, Zeus’s big head popped into the door opening and she knew all was clear inside.
“It’s about time,” she said, laughing at him as she climbed the old stairway onto the porch. Zeus backed up a few steps to let her and Perseus into the house. The room had an old brown, full size sofa and a love seat arranged in an L shape towards the outside walls. Next to the door, going into the next room, was a rocking chair. Just like the ones Virginia had seen outside of a restaurant that her father loved going to for breakfast when she was small. The walls were covered with pictures of what she had assumed where the previous owners and their family. In the next room, she found the kitchen, like the previous room it was clean, but looked well-worn and old. Out of reflex, Virginia opened the refrigerator door, letting out a horrid smell that even backed up the dogs. Slamming the door closed, she froze and listened for any movement. She was mad because it was a careless move to make. Something she knew better than to do.
At the back of the kitchen she found a stairway leading to the second floor. It too looked old and narrow. Not enough room for her and one of the dogs to go up next to side by side and it seemed hard for Zeus to climb. Once up there it was more of the same, the furniture was old and falling apart. It looked like the family had left. Maybe the authorities had taken them. Either way, Virginia was satisfied that the house was empty and safe. She returned downstairs and started out the kitchen door to the head towards the barn. Zeus and Perseus nearly knocked her off her feet passing her by just as she began to step. Perseus had the tennis ball again as if to say, “Ok we are safe, let’s play.” Virginia called him over to her, took the ball from him, and threw it as far as she could. Perseus charged off to retrieve the ball while Zeus sat down and crooked his head, watching. When Perseus returned, Virginia held the ball in front of Zeus and said, “Come on old guy, let’s play a little.” She smiled as she threw the ball nearly to the barn. A laugh escaped her when Zeus knocked Perseus over trying to get an unfair advantage in the race for the ball.
