Empty World

by Zach Bohannon

  An arrow blew through the Dead’s face.

  But it hadn’t been Shell’s arrow.

  The whistling of another arrow sounded, blasting the Dead trying to get at Dylan’s legs.

  Dylan let out a scream and clutched his leg. The second arrow had killed the Dead, but also pinned its head to Dylan’s leg in the process.

  Shell turned when she heard footsteps. Four people came over the barrier wielding various weapons. They struck down the Deads that Shell had left behind to help Dylan. Near Dylan, a couple of other people took down the remaining Deads surrounding him.

  Within seconds, all the creatures were down. A group of six people now surrounded Shell, Dylan, and the boy who had emerged from hiding and come to Shell’s side with the Deads now taken down. They all stared at each other.

  Shell realized she still held the bow in her hands, an arrow loaded. These men and women had saved them from the Deads, but what did that mean? She suddenly realized they had three bags with food and medical supplied in them. These people would surely want to take them.

  But Shell knew she couldn’t take them down herself, and Dylan was injured.

  She kneeled and put her bow on the ground, then raised her hands into the air. The boy remained behind her, hiding his face.

  “Just don’t hurt us,” she said. “You can take everything.”

  A black woman wearing black cargo pants and a gray shirt stepped forward.

  “We’re not those kind of people.” She stuck out her hand. “My name’s Katrina.”

  Shell hesitated before shaking her hand.

  “You don’t want to kill us and take our things?”

  She shook her head and smiled. “Not at all.”

  16

  Dylan grimaced, holding his hand over the base of the arrow in his leg. The arrow had gone all the way through the Dead’s head and then his leg, its blood-soaked head coming out the other side.

  “Jesus,” Shell said.

  “Where’s the bastard that shot me?” Dylan asked.

  “You mean the guy you owe thanks to for saving your life?” The black guy stepped forward.

  “Chill, Keon,” Katrina said.

  Keon gestured toward Dylan. “I just saved dude’s leg from getting eaten off by a Demon and he don’t even give a shit.”

  “Maybe you should practice shooting more,” Dylan said.

  “Man, fuck this,” Keon said. “Let’s just leave these fools here.”

  “Come on,” one of the others, a larger guy, said to Keon. “Let’s go cool off.” They walked away, climbing back onto the other side of the barrier.

  “He’s cocky, but you might want to think about being a little bit nicer to him since he saved you from getting bit,” Katrina said.

  “I wouldn’t be that cocky if I shot like that.”

  “Cut the crap, Dylan,” Shell said. “She’s right. Now we’ve got to get this thing out of you.”

  “You should hurry,” Katrina said. “There could be more Demons around here, and we’ll need to get him back to our camp so that we can help him further. We have a nurse there.”

  “I’m not going with these people anywhere.”

  “Can you give us a minute?” Shell asked Katrina.

  “Sure. But we’re not waiting around forever.” Katrina joined the others, just out of hearing distance.

  “What’s your problem?” Shell asked.

  “You haven’t lived out on the roads.”

  “What’s that even supposed to mean and why does it matter right now?”

  “It means that you don’t know how to survive out here. You might be able to grow a vegetable garden, and as it turns out, you’re pretty decent with that bow, as you claimed. But it’s different out on the highways. We can’t trust these people.”

  “That’s bullshit. There’s a group of them and only three of us. And last time I checked, one of us is an unarmed child, and another has a hole in their leg. I think they could have left with all our stuff by now, and even killed us if they’d wanted.”

  Dylan rolled his eyes. “You’ve got too much trust in people.”

  “And you don’t have much of a choice. Because you can’t walk, and I’ve got the stuff we need to fix you up. So if you don’t want to go with them, then I’ll leave you out here for more of those Deads to find you, or for some nasty people to stumble across you.”

  Dylan snarled. “Just get this damn thing out of my leg.”

  “And you’re going to go with them?”

  “I said, ‘whatever.’”

  “I’m not doing anything until you say ‘yes.’”

  “Yes, I’ll go. Now get this fucker off me and this arrow out of my leg.”

  Shell went into her bag and pulled out a towel and a bandage. She laid it out, then Katrina returned.

  “You guys decide what you’re gonna do?”

  “We’re going with you, but we’ve gotta get this arrow out of his leg first. Can you help me?”

  “Yeah. We need to hurry so we can get back before it gets too dark.”

  Shell drew her knife from her waist and cut off Dylan’s pants below the knee. Then Reaching down to Dylan’s waist, Shell grabbed his belt. Dylan raised his eyebrows at her.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  She ignored him, unclasping the belt and pulling it out through the loops. When she had it in her hand, she folded it up and then put it in Dylan’s face.

  “Open up and bite down on this.”

  He bit down on the leather belt and closed his eyes.

  Shell placed her knee on the bottom part of Dylan’s leg for leverage. She broke the back side of the arrow, removing the tail so that only the shaft of the arrow would pass through the wound when she pulled it out. But first she had to get the Dead off of it.

  “Here’s where I’m going to need your help,” Shell said to Katrina.

  Katrina shook her head then kneeled down. “Luckily, or maybe unfortunately, I’ve done worse.”

  Shell grabbed onto the Dead’s shoulder, and Katrina took the other. They looked at each other, and then Shell counted to three.

  Here goes nothing.

  “Now!”

  They pulled simultaneously, and the creature’s brains made a wet sound as the head was pulled off of the arrow. The momentum sent Shell onto her back, and when she sat up, she looked at the Dead. She shook off how disgusting it all was as Dylan scooted away from the corpse, groaning as he moved a couple of feet from it.

  Shell then moved over next to him.

  “Keep biting down.”

  Dylan lay down on his back now. He bit into the belt before looking up at Shell and nodding, signaling that he was ready.

  She grabbed the arrow near the head and pulled. It made the same wet sound as it slid past torn flesh, tissue, and muscle. Dylan clenched his eyes shut hard and banged his hand against the concrete. He kicked the leg Shell wasn’t holding down.

  Blood came seeping from the wound.

  Shell grabbed the towel and held it to his leg, pressing it against both the entrance and exit wounds. She looked over at Katrina.

  “Keep pressure so I can wrap it.”

  Katrina took over the towel for Shell and she grabbed a bottle of alcohol. She unscrewed the cap and leaned toward the leg again.

  “Bite down again,” she said to Dylan.

  Katrina removed the towel and Shell splashed alcohol over the open wounds as more blood came out. Dylan arched his back and screamed into the towel. When she’d finished cleaning the wounds, Katrina pressed the towel against them again.

  Snarls sounded nearby, pulling both Shell and Katrina away from Dylan. More Deads were coming.

  “Don’t worry,” Keon said. “We’ll hold ‘em off.”

  “We’ve got to hurry,” Katrina said to Shell.

  “We’re almost done. Apply more pressure. We need the bleeding to calm before I can wrap it. I’ve only got so many bandages and I can’t waste them.”

  Dylan spit out t
he belt. He groaned.

  “How are you doing?” Shell asked.

  “I’m fine.” Dylan gestured to where Keon and the others were fighting off the three new Deads twenty yards away. “Just make sure that asshole doesn’t shoot me again.”

  “I really hope you plan on getting past that shit if we’re gonna bring you into our camp,” Katrina said.

  “He will,” Shell said before Dylan could answer with another smartass comment. “Go ahead and pull the towel off so I can wrap it.”

  Katrina lifted the towel. Dylan was still bleeding, but it had slowed down enough to dress. She wrapped the bandage, pulling it taut on each pass. Dylan groaned, but didn’t yell out again. When she was finished, Shell stood.

  “The boys are going to have to help him walk,” she said.

  “I don’t need them to carry me,” Dylan said. “Just help me to my feet and I can walk.”

  With that, Katrina took Dylan’s hand, and Shell kneeled and lifted up behind his shoulders. Dylan grimaced, having to push himself up with only one leg, but he made it to his feet. Shell put his arm around her for leverage, and she could already tell there was no way he was going to be able to walk.

  Keon took out the last Dead with a machete, then he and Caleb rejoined the group.

  “You’re not going to be able to walk without some help,” Shell said to Dylan.

  “Bullshit. I’ll be fine.”

  Keon approached Dylan’s side with no arm, and he put his arm around him.

  “Come on, hoss. Don’t try to be a tough guy.”

  Caleb approached Shell’s other side, and he nodded at her. She moved out of the way, and Caleb put Dylan’s arm around him.

  Dylan snarled, obviously unhappy that the two men were having to carry him. But Shell was happy, knowing it was for the best and that he’d only end up collapsing.

  “Our camp is only a half-mile away,” Katrina said. “Follow us.”

  17

  “Did you feel it that time?”

  Paul laughed and shook his head. Brooke opened her mouth in surprise.

  “Are you serious?” she asked. “It’s kicking like crazy!”

  “Maybe he’s kicking the other direction,” Paul said. “Maybe I should have my hand on your back.”

  Brooke slapped him on the arm. “Idiot.”

  Paul laughed again. “Hey, you shouldn’t talk like that. What if he can hear you? You don’t want his first word to be ‘idiot’ or ‘asshole,’ do you?”

  The smile left Brooke’s face and she looked away. Confused, Paul took her by the chin and faced her toward him again.

  “Hey, what’s the matter?”

  “You keep saying ‘he.’ You’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks now. I haven’t said anything, but it’s starting to bring me down.”

  “I’m sorry,” Paul said with a slight laugh. “I honestly haven’t even thought about it. I guess it’s only natural for me to say ‘he’ and ‘him.’”

  “Are you going to be sad if it’s a girl?”

  “What?” Paul’s face crunched into a frown. “No, of course not. Why would you think that?”

  Brooke shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s just a lot on my mind with bringing a baby into this world. And it seems like you’re really expecting it to be a boy, and that you won’t be happy unless it is.”

  Paul leaned in and cupped his wife’s face. He ran a hand through her curly brown hair and looked straight into her blue eyes.

  “Baby, I don’t care what we have. I’m going to be overjoyed and happy no matter if it’s a girl or a boy.”

  He kissed Brooke on the lips. When he pulled away, she was smiling again. Paul raised an eyebrow.

  “Now, if he’s black, that might be a different story. I know Keon used to—”

  “Oh, stop it,” Brooke said, laughing and hitting him on the arm.

  Paul also laughed, and he took Brooke’s hands into his own, running his fingertips across her palms. He then let go of one of her hands and rubbed her belly, hoping to feel a kick.

  “Speaking of whether it’s a boy or girl, we haven’t talked much about names lately.”

  Brooke squeezed Paul’s hand. “I don’t have to think about them. I told you what names I like.”

  Paul sighed. “I thought we agreed we weren’t going to go with either of those.”

  “You said you didn’t like those.”

  “It’s not that I don’t like them. I just think we can do better.”

  Brooke shrugged. “Then come up with something better.”

  “I’m sorry I brought it up,” Paul said. “I don’t want to fight right now.”

  “I’m not fighting. I just don’t understand why you feel so strongly against ‘Jude’ for a boy and ‘Eloise’ for a girl.”

  Paul had brought up the names conversation to lighten the mood, not to cause more tension. He had to try to remember how difficult this all had to be for Brooke. Few people they knew had brought children into this world, and Brooke had to deal with that reality on top of going through the tribulations of pregnancy. The world might have changed, but a woman’s biology hadn’t. Paul took a deep breath. He was about to dive into another apology and change the subject when he heard people approaching from outside. He hurried to the window.

  The others were back, but they weren’t alone. A woman he didn’t recognize stood next to Katrina. She was holding the hand of a young boy who had to be under ten years old. And there was a man with long hair and a beard being propped up by Keon and Caleb. The man hobbled on one leg, and the other was wrapped with a crimson soaked bandage.

  “Everything okay?” Brooke asked, coming to Paul’s side.

  “I’m not sure. Look.”

  “Who are those people?”

  “Paul! Brooke!” Katrina shouted. “Get down here, now!”

  “Jesus,” Paul said. “Why the hell is she yelling?” He hurried to the door and down the stairs, wanting Katrina to stop so she didn’t lure any Demons to the building.

  He jogged through the lobby and out the front door. By the time he got there, the group was right outside. He put his arms out, wanting answers.

  “Why are you shouting?” Paul asked. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “We’ll explain everything later,” Keon said. “But we’ve got to have Brooke have a look at this guy.”

  The door opened, and Brooke came out holding her stomach. She narrowed her eyes at Paul.

  “Thanks for waiting on me,” she said, striking a cold glare at her husband. Then she looked at the others. “What’s going on?”

  The woman Paul didn’t recognize said, “He got shot with an arrow. I wrapped it up as best I could, but he’s still bleeding pretty bad. They said you’re a doctor.”

  “I am,” Brooke said. “Let’s get him inside.”

  Paul went over to help Caleb and Keon carry the man into the hotel. He glanced down at the stranger’s leg, seeing the blood seeping through the bandage.

  “Did you guys run into some bandits or something? How the hell did this happen?”

  “I said I’d tell you later,” Keon said.

  “You’re not going to tell him about how you shot me?” the man asked in a weak voice.

  “You serious?” Paul asked, looking at Keon.

  “I was saving his ass from a pack of Demons,” Keon said sharply, looking at the injured man. “Let’s just get this fool inside so Brooke can take care of him.”

  Inside, some of the others had already set a table up in the lobby. There was plenty of light coming through the large windows at the front of the building for Brooke to be able to see and work on the man. They helped him onto the table, then Brooke approached his side.

  “What’s your name?” Brooke asked the man on the table.

  “His name’s Dylan,” the woman said before the guy could answer. “And my name’s Shell. How can I help?”

  “Katrina and I can handle it,” Brooke said. “Why don’t you go explain to my husband what you’r
e doing here?”

  18

  Shell kept the boy’s hand and they followed the two men outside. They went out to the curb and stood next to the road, several dozen feet from the front of the building. No one else was out there.

  “You want to tell me what happened now?” Paul asked Keon.

  “Pretty simple. We were out on our scavenging run. We heard a pack of Demons, but we also heard humans. Went to scope it out and saw her, a little boy, and some dude with one arm. So, we decided to help them.”

  Paul narrowed his eyes at Keon.

  “Look, man, I know we’re not supposed to do that,” Keon said. “But they didn’t look like bad people.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t know that for sure.” Paul looked at Shell and shrugged. “No offense.”

  “None taken. You’re right. It was a risk to help us, just like it was a risk for us to come here.”

  Paul sighed. “Yeah, I guess that’s true, isn’t it?”

  “I’d say so,” Shell said.

  “So, what makes you trust us now?”

  She gestured towards Keon. “If he’d wanted to, he and the others could have left us for dead out on the road and fled with all our things. Any bandits or road raiders would have killed us and taken off with our weapons, food, and few medical supplies. Also, I don’t think you’d have your wife helping patch him up if you planned just to do away with us.”

  Paul smiled. “All right, so I guess you’ve got some good reasons. And I can tell you that you’re right. There’s a lot of bad people out there, as I’m sure you know. But we aren’t them.”

  “And neither are we.”

  “What were you guys doing out there anyways?” Keon asked. “Where did you come from?”

  “I’d like to know the same from you,” Shell said.

  Paul raised an eyebrow. “What happened to trust?”

  “It’s got nothing to do with trust. I’ve just been talking a lot, and I’d like to hear a little bit about you guys.”

  “Fair enough,” Paul said. “We come from Georgia. We had a settlement out there, but things happened, and now we don’t. So, we decided to head west and see what we could find. That’s brought us here.