by White, A. L.
Looking to her left to check on Jermaine and Al’s progress, Lori pushed down on the gas pedal as she turned the wheel to the right. She would try to take as many out as possible on the way to the street. Up ahead she could see the steady stream entering through the narrow roadway. The crunch of the dead underneath the RV was nearly deafening as she again swung the vehicle to the right, out of the parking lot, and onto the street. The viaduct was narrow, but still left plenty of room on either side of the RV depending on how she drove into it. At the last moment, veering off to the left a little, and swinging hard back to the right, Lori caused the front of the RV to slam into the right-side wall of the viaduct, throwing her out of her seat into the dashboard. A trickle of blood ran down into her left eye. She quickly wiped the blood away as she took a good look around. For now, there would be no more zombies coming in by this route.
Outside the sound of gunfire had tripled in the last few moments. It was almost deafening when there was a knock on the door. Lori walked over and saw a smiling Boo standing there waving at her. Initially the door was jammed from the collision, but with Boo helping from the outside, it popped open.
“I wanted to make sure you were okay in there?”
Lori nodded her head that she was okay and grabbed her crossbow, handing Boo the extra quiver of arrows. “Do you think it will hold them?” she asked as she climbed down out of the RV.
“I think it will for now. Might give us enough time to concentrate on cleaning up the rest of the creatures before we have to worry about it.”
Once outside, Lori saw an amazing sight. It was one she would have never even hazarded to guess could happen after the events only moments ago. Most of the survivors that had run for cover had returned armed and angry. They were weighing into the zombies with a vengeance now. Soon the ground was littered with the motionless dead corpses of the creatures and fallen survivors.
***
When the shooting had started Virginia and the lads instinctively took defensive positions. Searching the street outside of the window, Virginia could see that there was no immediate danger to them where they were. Scanning the bridge brought a bigger and more pressing danger that would need to be acted on soon. Try as she might, there was no sign of Roy anywhere in Virginia’s field of view.
“Come on lads, let’s go take a look and see if we can find old Roy.”
They left the house as cautiously as they had entered it. There was still no sign of the creatures other than the ones just across the bridge. There was still no sign of Roy either, for that matter.
“Zeus, Perseus, go find Roy.” Virginia ordered the lads as they both took off to the other side of the street. Virginia decided to take a look in the cab of the tow truck just in case Roy had fallen asleep. It would be a small wonder that he hadn’t with the amount of whiskey it looked like he was drinking. She could hear that the motor was still running as she made her way to the center of Main Street.
“What are you doing out here?” Roy demanded to know from the side of a mailbox on the corner.
“Roy, you’re alright?” Virginia asked, wondering why he was so far from the truck and bridge.
“Of course, I am. Why would you ask that? Perhaps you were hoping that I died in all that shooting going on up the street?”
“No Roy, I was doing a patrol and just happened to come by here,” Virginia said, lying to Roy. “Whatever happened in the past, happened in the past. For now, we must get that truck up against the bug, or we will have a big problem on our hands.”
“I don’t think that the truck will stop them. We have to get away from here as fast as we can,” Roy stated with a tinge of fear cracking in his voice.
Not wanting to be confrontational, Virginia pleaded with Roy, “Then at the very least, fire the flare off Roy, so that they will know something’s coming.”
Roy raised the old Ruger revolver up and pointed it at Virginia, “Not so tough, now are you? No dogs. No crossbow. You’re just a mouthy little bitch!” Roy said as he motioned to where Virginia had laid her crossbow down in an attempt to make Roy feel safe. “What was it you said to me on the way here? That’s right, I remember what it was now. You crawled up on top of me, like you were some kind of seductress, and whispered in my ear that when the time came you would kill me.”
“Roy, I said that in a moment of anger and fear over losing a friend to the zombies,” Virginia tried to explain.
Roy cocked the hammer on the Ruger and let out a deep breath, “It really doesn’t matter now. They are probably all being eaten back there, and we are about to be overrun here. I just want to make this right in my own head before I die today.” Taking aim at Virginia’s head, Roy took another deep breath and started to squeeze the trigger when something plowed into him from the side with so much force that his breath was knocked out and he was brought to the ground. Zeus had come at a full run and leapt into the air and onto Roy. As they hit the ground Roy could feel Zeus’s fangs clasping around his throat and he heard the Ruger discharge.
Zeus bit down with all the force he could muster and then shook his head from side to side. Once he had ripped a large section free from Roy’s now lifeless body, Zeus turned toward Virginia who lay on the ground surrounded by bloodied snow.
Virginia felt the burning sensation emanating from her upper thigh on her left leg as she lay in the snow, trying to catch her breath. The night was now eerily silent all around them with the exception of the groans of the chain link fence on the bridge as it gave way.
Virginia reached into her coat’s inside pocket and pulled out a knife that had belonged to Bob. He had given it to her in the early days, after Lori and she had joined him on the journey to a safer place. Cutting large strips of her undershirt to wrap around her leg, Virginia first cut a few smaller ones from the strips and forced one down into the bullet hole. She then repeated the process where the bullet had exited her leg in the back. Not knowing if it would help or hurt, Virginia thought it might possibly help stop the bleeding. Then she used the rest of the strips to tie around the leg, keeping the smaller strips in.
Laying back into the cold wet snow to rest for a few minutes, Virginia started to doze off. It was only Perseus’s cold, wet tongue, licking her face that stopped the slide into slumber. The sounds of the chain link fence giving way on the bridge convinced her that they needed to get moving toward the school or a safer place to hold up. Calling Zeus over to Perseus, she tried to use them to climb off the ground. The pain coming from her leg was excruciating, and she slumped back down, hard. Zeus walked over her and stood facing the bridge. He growled at the growing numbers of the herd now moving toward the middle.
Virginia crawled through the bloody snow over to her crossbow and quiver. Through the pain, she sat up and looked at the lads, then beyond them. For now, the herd was not paying any attention to them. They poured across the bridge and were beginning to fan out. Virginia didn’t know how long they could hope to go unnoticed, but she figured it was time to try and move. Seeing the street sign and mailbox on the corner, she decided to crawl over to it and try to use one of them to stand. If she could stand, she would then figure out how she could move without attracting any attention. The one thing she had noticed was that these zombies were not moving slowly, without purpose. The creatures seemed to be checking out the area just this side of the bridge. If they were two-point-zeros, Virginia didn’t hold out much hope on making it away from there. Pushing the snow from in front of her, she inched her way painfully toward the mailbox. All the while Perseus walked besides her, and Zeus stayed about ten feet away watching the bridge. As she advanced, the old dog would move to a new position that he felt was a good place to cover his human friend.
Once she reached the street sign and mailbox, Virginia tried as hard as she could to stand up. Even Perseus had grabbed a hold of the back of her coat, to help her stand, but it was of no use. While there was a slim chance of standing in the now deep snow, there was no way that Virginia could see herself walki
ng out of there.
“Ok Lads, I think it is time for you to go now,” Virginia said as she stuck several arrows into the snow where she could easily reach them. Perseus lay his head across her ankles and let out a whimper. “I mean it; you two have to go! There is no reason that I can see that would say we all need to die here today!”
Zeus walked over and lay down next to Virginia, putting his ears flat back. He was still keeping an eye on the advancing herd but pushed his body up against Virginia’s. It was his way of telling her that he would not leave this place without her, and neither would Perseus.
Once Virginia was happy with the number of arrows placed around her, she took the quiver and tied it to the street pole. It was her hope that it would not move too much as she reached for the remaining arrows. Uncertain how long she could hold out, or how many would be taken with her, Virginia decided that it was as good a place as any to make her stand. With each hand she petted her only friends in the world and thought about being back home with Mom, Dad, and Lori. After a good snow like this, she would just now be coming in for dinner and would be fielding questions if she had seen her brother outside anywhere. Her dad would go to the door again and yell her brother’s name two or three times followed by, “I don’t know where the hell that boy gets off to!” Virginia had not been able to remember them since all of this had begun; it brought a smile to her face.
Bending over and wrapping her arms around Zeus’ neck, she hugged him long and hard, only stopping when Perseus began licking her cheek again. “Of course, I haven’t forgotten you, boy,” Virginia reassured him as she hugged him next. Zeus’s growl brought her attention back to the impending surge of zombies that was close to overtaking their position. Virginia pulled an arrow from the now bloody snow and fixed it into the crossbow. “Remember boys, if it gets too bad, you get out of here and go find Lori.” Taking aim, Virginia sighted one about two hundred yards from where she was. With a slight squeeze of the trigger the arrow was let loose and on its way to the mark she had picked. With a quiet thump, cushioned by the snow, it found its home dead center of the creature’s left eye. Falling to the ground, it was barely noticed by the herd around it.
Chapter 23
Tressa had come outside just as the first screams were heard at the viaduct. Immediately, she found Todd, who was working himself into a complete breakdown at the thought of the zombies getting him. Having grown accustomed to calming her uncle down over the past few months, she started to bring him back to reality.
“Settle down, Todd. Please. We have to stay calm if we want everything to be okay and get to a safe spot, right?”
Todd had tears sliding down his cheeks as he tried to breathe deep like Tressa had taught him to do when he was scared.
“I want you to run over to the door, and then go straight to the kitchen and wait for me,” Tressa said, trying to get Todd to focus on her words. Experience had proven that Todd followed orders better when he was petrified with fear than with reasoning.
“Todd, did you hear what I just said?!”
Todd nodded his head up and down ‘yes’. “You said I should go inside and wait for you in the kitchen, behind the locker door,” Todd replied between sobs as the tears started to fall more steadily. Tressa didn’t say anything about the metal food locker but thought better of correcting Todd. If that would make him move, and he felt safer, then she was ok with it. “Now get moving Todd, before they get over here!”
Todd didn’t even stop to think about Tressa’s safety as he took off at full speed toward the front door. Tressa wasn’t for sure, but it looked like Todd may have knocked a few other men off their feet as he ran. Unfortunately, when he got to the door there was no way for him to get in. The survivors had the door blocked as everyone tried to get inside at the same time. One lady even turned to Todd and screamed at him, “Women and children first, you oversized jackass!” Todd was shocked at the mean lady’s use of such a word. He turned around and started marching off to find Tressa. He had to tell her what the mean lady had said to him, knowing full well that Tressa would put her in her place as soon as she found out. He didn’t find Tressa because the zombies had crossed into the school yard now, slaughtering all that they could catch. The only thing that he could remember once he saw them was Tressa telling him to run and get into the school where it was safe. Only there was no way for him to get into the school, so Todd took the next best route that he could see. Todd began sprinting toward Main Street and the steps that led down from the schoolyard onto the street. There were no zombies this way which made him, at least for a little while, feel safer. Once he made it to the street, Todd didn’t pause for a breath, he just kept running as hard as he possibly could. He ran until there was nothing around him but an empty street and houses along it. The sounds of gunfire behind him forced him to start running again. When he noticed a stairwell behind one of the Victorian houses, Todd ran there to hide. Trying to catch his breath, Todd tried in vain to remember what Tressa had told him. Now he wasn’t even sure if Tressa got away from the zombies like he had. This worry made him start crying at the possibility of having lost Tressa, and the prospect of being alone for the first time in his life.
Todd heard a single gunshot come from up the street in the other direction. Slowly lifting his head above the top of the stairwell and looking in all directions, he listened. There was nothing but silence now, and that scared him even more. Climbing up to ground level on shaky legs, he came out of the stairwell and started in the direction the shot had come from. If it was only one shot, Todd thought, maybe it was a sign from Tressa that he should follow it back to her.
At the curb by the street, he listened for any other sounds. There was no gun fire, no screams or cries for help that he could hear. He thought maybe it was safe now; the zombies had all gone back where they had come from. As he looked around, he thought he saw the puppies way up the street by the corner. The puppies meant safety to Todd, so he broke into a mad dash to get to them before they left him all alone again.
Getting closer, Todd saw a third figure was laying in the snow kind of behind the mailbox. Tressa had always told Todd never to play close to the street; Todd never did after that. In his mind he could not understand why someone would want to lay by the street. It was much too close and a car could hit you or something, he thought to himself.
Perseus had seen Todd first, and stood, leaving to greet him about twenty yards away from Virginia. Todd fell on the ground and was rolling around in the snow trying to play with him. Perseus kept grabbing a hold of his sleeve, trying to pull him toward Virginia when Zeus let out a little bark. Todd stopped laughing and looked up at Zeus, and that was when he noticed that the girl was hurt. That was why she was laying so close to the road, he thought.
“OH NO! You’re hurt; how did this happen?” Todd screamed as he ran toward Virginia and then slid thru the snow until he stopped right next to her. Zeus let out a low mean growl as Todd had drawn the attention of the herd, which was now heading toward them in earnest.
“Todd, can you help me get out of here?” Virginia asked without looking at him. She had sighted another zombie and fired an arrow at it.
“Todd can help you! I am strong for my little size,” Todd said as he roughly picked her up and started to throw her over his left shoulder. Virginia cried out in pain as she clinched her teeth together, “Easy, Todd, that hurts a lot.” Then Virginia pointed at the quiver, “We need the arrows too, Todd.” Todd reached down and tugged on the quiver. At first it didn’t budge, so he pulled with a little more force until the strap ripped apart. “Got the arrows. Now can we go?”
“Yes, Todd. Please run as fast as you can to the school.”
Todd froze in place as Virginia could hear the zombies growing closer to them, “Todd, we have to go now!”
“Tressa told me to run from the school, because the creatures were there,” Todd whispered to her as he started crying again.
“Todd, run to the school and we will see if we
need to run someplace else, okay? The lads will not let us go there if there are any zombies around.”
Todd nodded his head and wiped his eyes before he started running again with everything he had, back to where he had started from. Todd wasn’t as afraid as before because he had Virginia with him, and she was tougher than even Tressa was. Plus, the puppy in front of him was clearing all the bad things out of the way while the big puppy behind him was stopping those same bad things from catching him.
Virginia tried as best as she could to keep her head lifted up. Todd had thrown her over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes, and with him running, she was being bounced all over the place. A few times she had almost dropped the crossbow and arrow on the ground. Only luck had allowed her to keep a decent grip on it through all the jostling. Virginia resigned herself to the fact that her only easy view would be of Todd’s backside and the passing street below her, until a horrifying squeal came from behind them. Raising her head, she saw Zeus being surrounded by zombies, and for an instant, she thought she had seen him go down.
“TODD! STOP RIGHT NOW!” Virginia screamed as she raised the crossbow up and fired at one of the zombies. Todd slid to a stop, nearly falling as the arrow found its mark, felling the creature. The opening allowed her to see Zeus in the middle of them, fighting with everything he had to break free. “Perseus, help Zeus!” Virginia ordered as she saw the black flash of the other dog charge into the fight. “Todd, I need the arrows!”
Todd handed her three arrows from the quiver, and Virginia started picking off more zombies. For now they were in luck, as Zeus had taken on the vanguard of the herd. If she could pick enough off, he could get out of there and head to safety alongside her and Todd.
