by Tracy Sharp
Kyle looked over at her. “Wow. Gail. She looked good for her age, though.”
“Yeah?” Sherry said, booting Gail in the dead head. “Not anymore.”
“Aw, baby, nobody compares to you. I came to my senses, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, good thing for you, Mister.” She patted his cheek and looked back toward the compound. “Ah, Jesus. Look at that mess.”
“We’ll clean it up, baby.” Kyle looked back toward the trees. “Once we’re sure no more of the Zekes decide to be neighborly.”
The scene was surreal. It felt like homicide cops at a murder scene in a movie, using humor to temper the horror.
This is what the world had come to. It’s how we’d get through what we had to do to live.
“I’m going to go check on Logan,” Sherry said. “He got bit pretty badly on his arm and thigh. They tore right into his muscle. I tied the wounds off tightly, but I don’t know if the bleeding stopped. He needs painkillers and antibiotics.”
“I’ll come with you.” Mina followed Sherry back to the compound.
A shudder moved over me as I remembered the dead biting into Logan, like he was fried chicken. And I felt my stomach turn over.
Taking a deep breath, I turned back toward the woods and caught Ozzie looking at me.
“It’s happened before and it’ll happen again, Zoe. We get used to it but we don’t have to like it. We just have to keep going, any way we can.”
“I know.”
“It’s okay to be scared,” he said. “We’re all scared. Gotta keep moving through the fear. You’re doing fine.”
For a long moment, we all stood watching the tree line as our bodies trembled and our hearts slowed, and our breathing stopped coming out in little gasps for air.
Chapter 8
Ryder, Ozzie and I spread out along the perimeter and kept watch while Sherry and Mina kept an eye on Logan. Kyle and Wilson took a trip to town for fencing. We needed to keep the deadies out. As evidenced by the morning’s events, they were becoming a real issue.
Mina came out and headed toward me. She’d put on a light blue parka with fur around the hood. She could’ve been a model in a catalogue, selling that parka. Pretty in a girl-next-door way, with even features and creamy skin, she didn’t look like she fit in this nightmare. I wondered what her life had been like before the invasion.
Standing beside me, she let out a long breath as she looked around. “It’s weird. All those people were just normal citizens a few days ago.”
She was referring to the dead that had come out from the woods.
“I know.” I lifted my shoulders and shivered. Even with the warm ski jacket, I was cold.
She grinned. “You don’t talk much, do you?”
I looked down at the ground, and kicked at the snow absently. “I guess not.”
“So who were you before this all happened?”
“Not someone you’d hang out with.” I risked a glance at her.
“Now, how do you know that?”
I shrugged. “You look . . . nice. Like you come from a good home. People who cared about you. I’m a little rough around the edges. I might’ve done your hair, but that’s the only way I think we’d have ever had a conversation.”
“Ah, you’re pre-judging me. Judging the book by its cover.”
“You mean you’re not nice?”
“Oh, I’m nice. But I’ve got all kinds of friends, from every walk of life. Well, had all kinds of friends.”
“You look like a kindergarten teacher.”
She laughed. “I worked at the gas station down the road. You were a hairstylist?”
I nodded. “I was supposed to start an internship. I’m pretty good, too. I think it really was my calling.”
“Nah,” she said. “This was your calling. Kicking chomper ass and figuring out a way to get our planet back.”
The idea hadn’t dawned on me before she’d said it. But maybe she was right. Maybe that’s why we’d survived.
* * *
Ozzie, Kyle and Wilson had piled the dead onto a dump truck that had been parked behind a huge barn behind the compound. They were piled into the back, driven about a mile up the road, and dumped into a ravine. Hopefully they would be frozen for a couple of months if the weather cooperated. Then, they’d thaw and stink to high heaven. We thought of burning them, but no one could stomach the thought of what human flesh burning would smell like. We just couldn’t do it.
I heard the sound of hardened snow crunching beneath boots. I turned to see Mina approaching. She’d gone back in about an hour before.
She looked troubled.
I thought of Logan. “How’s the patient?”
“He’s hanging in there, but it’s bad. Really bad. Sherry is keeping him under morphine for the pain.”
“He knew this would happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“This morning, while we were doing dishes, he was scared. I gave him a pep talk. Now I feel like an asshole.”
“Zoe, maybe it was the fear allowed this to happen.”
I frowned. “We’re all scared, Mina.”
“Yeah, but maybe he hesitated. You hesitate, you die. It’s like Ozzie said, you have to work through the fear. Use it, even. To give you an edge. Maybe he was paralyzed by it.”
I said nothing, and looked toward the woods. I didn’t feel comfortable blaming the victim, but maybe she had something there.
She changed the subject. “Do you want to swap for a while? Sherry has chicken noodle soup and turkey sandwiches on the table.”
I hadn’t even realized I was hungry until she mentioned the food. “Sure. If you don’t mind.”
“I don’t. We all have to do our part around here. That means that we all need to do every job, and swap jobs when we have to. I can use the air. I mopped the floor where the deadies piled up.” She made a face. “It was so gross. Organs that had fallen out. Blood that had gone bad. I had to have a bucket near me. I puked twice. Gagged when I wasn’t puking.”
My stomach rolled just thinking of it. “That’s nasty.”
“You don’t even know.”
A rumbling sound made us both turn toward the road. Kyle’s big pick-up stopped in front of the compound. Wilson followed him in an H3 Hummer and parked beside him.
“They got the fencing. Good.” Mina’s breath came out in puffs of fog as she spoke.
“Nice ride. Wilson rode down with Kyle, didn’t he?”
“Yeah. He must’ve picked that up during the trip. Good taste. That sucker is tough.”
Ozzie came out of the compound and walked around the back of Kyle’s truck. He patted the H3 on the hood. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
“It was sitting in the parking lot of a GM dealer. We broke the glass and found the key. No one there to respond to the alarm. There are a few more in the lot. We should make a trip back there and get at least one more.”
Ozzie gave a nod. “H3s will come in handy.” He turned his attention to Mina and me. “Any sightings of anything that shouldn’t be near us?”
I shook my head.
“Nope. Not yet.” Ryder walked toward the truck. “Need some help?”
“Could always use it,” Kyle called out. He looked over at Mina and me. “You two keep watch until we get this unloaded. After we’ve all eaten lunch, we’ll start putting it up. I want this area fenced off before dark.”
So we would lose another day, working on the fencing instead of rescuing the women we loved from the crawlers. “We won’t search for entrance points in the ground?”
Kyle stopped and walked toward me. “I’m sorry, Zoe. I have a daughter out there. But we have to get the fencing up or we could get overrun again. I have to keep our group safe. It’s number one priority.”
I swallowed down anger, which burned in my throat like lava. “Kyle, one more day could mean the difference between life and death for the women underground.”
“If we die because of a zombie horde,
none of it matters.”
I knew he was right. But the urgency and desperation I felt brought tears of rage and helplessness to my eyes. I pressed my lips tightly together and tried not to cry in front of him.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to lose anyone. Do you understand that?” His face was kind, and his eyes held sympathy, which pissed me off because it made me want to cry all the more.
I nodded and turned back toward the woods.
He hesitated, and I could feel his eyes on me, then he turned and headed back to the trucks.
I gritted my teeth, staring out at ground around the trees.
“Zoe,” he called to me.
I turned.
His head was tipped slightly to the side and downward as he looked at me. “Go get some lunch. Take a short break.”
Saying nothing, I headed toward the compound.
* * *
I was heavy hearted as I sat at the table with a bowl of Sherry’s soup in front of me. It was hot and tasty and warmed me as I listened to Logan’s fevered cries from the back room. I heard Sherry’s soft voice as she spoke to him, but couldn’t hear what she was saying. Again I thought of the pep talk I’d given him about being survivors. Then this happens to him. I felt like a liar and a fraud, because my words, meant to give him strength and courage, had done him harm.
The soup in my bowl was cooling and almost gone when Sherry came out of the room. “I think he’s asleep, for the moment. I gave him a sedative.”
“Do you think he’ll make it?”
She shook her head, one hand rubbing the back of her neck. She looked exhausted. “I don’t know.”
“You speak like a doctor. Are you a doctor?”
“I was. Had a private practice down in Glendon. Before all this.”
“You still are.” I nibbled my turkey sandwich. The bread was soft and still warm from the oven. Sherry made incredible bread. “You could’ve been a cook. This is excellent.”
She offered a small smile. “Thanks, Zoe. I do what I can. You know?”
I nodded. “I do.”
She sat across from me at the table. “You’re still upset. Is it because of the Zekes? They were a surprise to us all. We hadn’t seen a horde like that since we got here.”
“Partly. But . . . ” I didn’t want to sound like I was complaining to her about Kyle. I definitely didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes.
“But?” She watched me, a question in her dark eyes.
“I just wish we could go get my sister from down there, where ever they have her. I don’t want her to spend one more minute under there.” I shook my head. “I feel like we’re running out of time to save these women. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to complain. I’m just really scared for them.”
Sherry nodded. “Me too, Zoe. My daughter is down there. Ryder’s sister. Ozzie’s girlfriend. Mina’s girlfriend.”
“Her girlfriend?”
Sherry tipped her head. “Yes. Her partner. You know. . .”
“No, I get that. I’m curious why the crawlers took her girlfriend and not her.”
“I think Mina was at work at the time. She stopped at the pharmacy to get a script filled.” A worried look crossed Sherry’s face. “She’s a diabetic. I hope we can keep her in insulin for a while.”
A light went on in my head. “That’s why she wasn’t taken. She is defective.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” Sherry said.
“That’s the way it was put to me, by my niece before she was completely transformed into a crawler. She said they couldn’t use me because I’m defective.”
“I had cancer,” Sherry said. “Of the uterus. I’m in remission.” She studied me for a moment, looking like she didn’t really want to ask me the next question on her mind. “What makes you defective?”
I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know, and since the invasion, I can’t just go to the doc and ask for some tests. It’s anyone’s guess what’s wrong with me. Other than fearing for my life I feel fine.” I gave a humorless snort. “I feel fine. That’s what a lot of people say just before they drop dead, isn’t it? I should be so lucky.”
Sherry pushed me lightly. “Stop. We need you here. We’ll figure something out for you. Find a facility with working equipment or something.”
I pushed out a breath. “Sherry, why aren’t we going down there? We may never have another horde. Or at least, not tonight. Isn’t it worth the risk to get them back?”
Sherry studied me with big liquid eyes. Her coffee colored skin was almost ashen today. She looked sick with worry and beyond exhausted. “Not if we lose everyone. Yes, my daughter is more important to me than the group. Than—” her chin trembled and her voice cracked. She took a breath. “Than anyone. And I can’t stand the thought of her down there.” She swiped at a tear and I felt terrible bringing it up. “But we need a safe place to bring her back to if we manage to get her out. If we manage to get all of our girls out. What good is it if we get them out and the compound is overrun with the dead? We’ll all die.”
What she said made sense. But my heart disagreed with the decision.
She saw the doubt on my face. “Zoe, we’ll go at first light. I promise. Okay?”
First light seemed like an eternity away, even as the sun sank ever lower in the sky.
* * *
All but Sherry helped to get the fencing up. It was in sections, which helped. Kyle had owned his own construction business, and he had all the right machinery to drill holes deeply enough into the frozen ground to keep the sections of fencing from coming out.
It took us until dusk, but we got all of the sections in surrounding the immediate perimeter of the compound. The fencing was a good choice. Iron, with pointed peaks separated by only a foot. The fence stood six feet high, and had iron bars which stood vertically. There were no bars set horizontally to get a foot hold, other than one set across each section which sat about six inches from the ground. The dead wouldn’t be able to climb over it, and if they did make it, they would impale themselves on the sharp points.
“Everyone in the compound,” Kyle said. “Dark is coming.”
Dark came and we ate leftover soup and sandwiches with only LED lanterns to light the room. We ate quietly, and listened for the tell tale sounds of the lizards as they climbed all over the compound, scratching and thudding on the windows and roof.
Within a half hour, we heard them.
We took turns keeping watch in two hour intervals, to make sure none of those things didn’t find a way in while we slept.
Every so often Logan would cry out when the morphine would wear off, and Sherry, who slept beside him on a cot would quiet him down. His fever hadn’t broken, and Sherry kept the pain and infection away as well as she could. His wounds weren’t healing. Nobody knew what to do, except to try to keep him comfortable.
I slept fitfully, and volunteered to keep watch at 2:00 a.m. I was awake anyway.
It was hard to sleep with all the clawing and scraping all around us.
A dark thought crept into my mind, making my skin break out in gooseflesh.
Right now they couldn’t get in. But what if these things figured out a way to drive us out?
* * *
Today was the day.
We were going underground. I was beyond scared, jittery, tired. My muscles ached from lack of sleep, but I wanted to get Kelly back. Today we were going to bring our loved ones out of the deep, dark tunnels they were in. They had to still be alive. We’d get them back. One way or the other. At least we would try.
We started with what we knew. We knew where one of the holes to their underground lair was. Ozzie spray painted a red “X’ on the tree directly behind it, so we’d know exactly where the hole was located.
“But they’ve likely dug more tracks down there and made more holes to creep out of. They’re probably scattered all over this place, now.” Ozzie pulled his black winter hat over his head. His face looked even more angular with the hat on, and it reminded me
of the wrestlers Derek used to watch on television every Sunday.
Kyle spoke, his hand on the door handle, ready to slide it open. “Walk softly and quietly. We know these things don’t come out during the day, but that doesn’t mean they can’t. Keep your eyes open for any part of the ground that looks like it might be sunken in. Use your sticks to test the ground in front and around you.”
We all had long sticks that Ozzie had found on the ground for us. Kyle and Ozzie were much more careful now about letting people wander outside of the relative safety of the gate. We were always waiting for the other shoe to drop. For one of us to vanish into the ground, or be torn apart by a silent deadie.
Moving as stealthily as we could, we followed Ozzie and Kyle out into the wooded area surrounding the compound.
When we approached the hole in front of the tree Ozzie had marked, we all slowed and lightened our steps.
We all stood, silent, around the hole as Ozzie set his laptop on top of the laptop bag. He plugged the USB end of a long, coiled length of black cord. “Good thing I used to be a plumber before the shit hit the fan.”
I lifted my eyebrows. I didn’t know how a laptop and a long length of black cord were related to plumbing.
He caught my look and chuckled, and held up an end of the cord that looked like a mini flashlight. “This is an inspection scope camera. It takes pictures and videos, and it also does live feed. It’s used for inspecting toilets, sewers, even vents and the inner workings of cars. It’s great for all kinds of work.”
“Including spying on alien life forms that have invaded the Earth,” Ryder offered.
“Exactly,” Ozzie said. “It’s waterproof, so the snow won’t bother it. It’s ten meters long, so we can drop it down and keep feeding it through for a while, see what they’ve been up to without going down there half cocked and getting ourselves killed.”
“That’s a good plan.” Mina crossed her arms over her chest. “Especially the not getting killed part.”
