by Rosaria, A.
Ralph raised his rifle. Bang! The leftmost one went down. Three left. They launched up the stairs, toppling over each other. Bang! Two left. The remaining two crawled up and climbed the stairs, awkward step followed by awkward step. Bang! One flew down the stairs. Ralph backed down as the last one stepped onto the landing. Click!
“Shit!”
The zombie pounced on him, tackling him. Ralph held the rifle to his chest and pushed up, keeping the zombie’s teeth away from his throat. He heard breaking glass and more footfalls downstairs. The zombie on him thrashed, trying to get to him. Ralph wiggled his knees between him and the zombie and pushed up, dislodging it. Ralph rolled to the side, pulled his gun from his waistband, and shot it in its head.
Behind him, he heard a moan. Ralph whirled around. Two more zombies stepped onto the landing. He raised his gun. They sidestepped as he shot. The bullet missed them. Both came for him. Ralph ran, firing blindly behind him. He heard the bullets rip through flesh. However, the footfalls grew closer and closer. At the hallway’s end, the trap door opened and a stair came down.
“Drop down,” Derrick yelled.
Ralph hit the floor. The shotgun in Derrick’s hand roared. Fire spewed from the muzzle. The pellets whizzed past Ralph. Behind him, he heard meat splatter. Ralph rolled onto his back. One zombie was missing half its head. It fell to its knees and fell over. The other had one arm, and wobbled on its feet. When it recovered, it ran up to Ralph, its remaining hand clawing for him. Ralph emptied his gun. Twice he hit the chest and the last bullet hit the eye. The zombie fell on top of him, pinning him down.
“Ralph!” Lauryn said.
Ralph felt hands grabbing him under the shoulders and pulling him from under the zombie. “Are you all right?”
He looked up at her stricken face and nodded. “I’m fine. Only scratches and bruises.”
With her help, he stood.
“Oh God!” She ran to Ethan, who sat leaning against the wall with his guts hanging out, dead.
Ralph walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You need to go to the attic.”
“It’s my fault,” she said between sobs. “If I had hurried, he would still be alive.”
“Derrick, take her upstairs.”
Derrick looked up from loading his shotgun and nodded. After Derrick slid the last shell in, he grabbed Lauryn by the elbow. Dazed, she followed Derrick back up the trap stairs.
Ralph put a new cartridges in his pistol and chambered a bullet. “I’m sorry.” He shot Ethan in the head. This was what they had agreed on. No chances.
As he turned to go up the stairs, he heard the sat phone clipped on Ethan’s belt sputter. Ralph grabbed it. Out of it, a female voice cracked, “Anyone there? Please, anyone?”
He recognized Melissa’s voice. Desperation oozed through the words, like something bad had happened, like the something that had just happened to them. Utter terror. Was the mine Phil’s group sought out as bad as this town?
“Please, pleasssse, someone answer me.”
He couldn’t stay in the corridor and talk to her; he had no idea what else was coming at him from below. It was quiet now, but who knew how long that would last? These things were damn fast. Thank God they still were bad climbers.
Ralph climbed up to the attic. Lauryn was in Brenda’s arms. Both girls were wide-eyed. Derrick had his shotgun ready, standing watch near the trap door. The moment Ralph got up, Derrick pulled the ladder up and dropped the latch.
The sat phone cracked again. Melissa’s voice sputtered out in an incomprehensible sob. Ralph hushed them before they could say anything. The surprise in their eyes told him they had questions, but it was for the best only one did the talking.
He pushed the talk button, hoping Melissa was still alive, and not keeping the talk button pushed in in her panic.
“Ralph speaking. What’s going on?” It surprised him he could talk this calmly after what had happened not even a minute ago. He had gotten so used to this shit that it didn’t bother him anymore.
“Oh, thank God,” Melissa sobbed. Ralph heard her suck in another sob. Her trembling voice came back on. “They got most of us, took them away.”
“Zombies?”
“No! Soldiers! Dressed in black. They came out of nowhere. Bastards took Phil. They took them all—the wounded, the dead.” Melissa sobbed again.
“How many are left?”
“Oh, Ralph, just me and Emma.”
Phil’s group was about twenty strong, heavily armed, and well stocked up. It was difficult for him to believe they were taken down like that by the same soldiers who wiped out their encampment a year ago. He touched the scar running along his temple. They almost got him too. They got Sarah. He couldn’t believe they were doing the same shit. How many people were trying to survive these soldiers?
“Can you please help us?”
He wanted to, but he was trapped in here. They were now four where there had been ten. An utter failure. He did not have a full team to mount a rescue mission; they needed a rescue to get away from this town.
“Ralph?” Melissa’s voice wavered. “Please. Don’t leave us.”
“We can’t get to you now, maybe tomorrow.”
“But we—”
“Sorry, we can’t. We just lost Ethan and three others.”
“No, no, no, we are all screwed. We are all going to die.”
“Calm down! Stay put and call me tomorrow at noon. We’ll figure something out.”
“There is nothing else. Phil is gone. There is nothing left…”
“Listen. Tomorrow. Noon. Call me.”
She sobbed and hung up.
Dumbfounded, the others stood around Ralph. They all had heard what Melissa had said and they had no words for it. Lauryn and Brenda stood together, still hugging. Derrick gripped his shotgun tighter, barrel pointing down. Ralph clipped the sat phone on his belt. With Ethan gone, it was up to him to take up the role of leader. Not that they had a real leader, but as they were on the road, it always fell upon one of them and often that had been Ethan. Jeez, what was he to do? He looked at each one of them. They never thought they would take that many losses—a few maybe. It was the first time they’d been this far from base, and they had paid a heavy price for it.
The attic had one window. The outer wooden shutters were open, and a cold breeze blew in with the sound of zombies feasting on their dead companions.
“Derrick, shut the shutters,” Ralph said.
The young man did as he was told.
“Brenda, go look for something we can sleep on.”
Brenda let go of Lauryn and searched the attic. With the little light she had, she went through the boxes littering the floor. The attic had been used as storage, and had little room to walk. Most things were obscured from view.
“I found a mattress,” Brenda yelled from the back. “Someone help me get it.”
Derrick helped her drag it out. It was a two-person mattress, large enough for the four of them, though it would be cramped.
Derrick, Brenda, and Lauryn still had their backpacks; he had left his outside. They had enough food on them to make it back, but they lacked the supplies needed to return to base. He hoped the other groups did better than they did, or else it would be a harsh winter trying to survive on the little they had in storage.
They sat down on the mattress and made a cold meal, which they ate in silence. There was little to talk about. Lauryn sat next to him, staring at the trap door. They had put a heavy sofa over it in case a zombie was smart enough to pull the cord to release the staircase. He doubted they could climb a ladder; even these evolved monsters had trouble with a simple stair. Whatever had made them smarter and faster hadn’t improved their climbing abilities, and he suspected they couldn’t swim. It made him feel better that their base was up in the mountains. A natural resort. It was in a secluded place, a thick forest surrounding it, and had kept them relatively safe for a year.
Brenda finally broke the silence. “What a
re we going to do?”
“Sleep,” Ralph said.
“I mean tomorrow.”
“Get back on the road and help Melissa.”
“You sure we should?” Derrick asked.
No, he wasn’t sure. The way Melissa sounded, she was close to panic, and he had no idea what she planned to do, if she even survived the night. With how quickly things could turn bad these days, all bets were off. Phil seemed the capable sort. To hear that his large group had been taken didn’t bode well.
“Yes, I’m sure.” He wanted to know more, but he also was done with leaving people behind. He put an arm over Lauryn’s shoulders and pulled her closer.
“Tomorrow, we move out. Go to sleep now.”
They lay down on the mattresses. He kept the first watch. Outside, he heard them. The moans, guttural growls, and downstairs, their feet shuffled over the floor. Tomorrow, it would be do or die. They’d have to get out of this house or die.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sarah stood in Mr. Ward’s study in front of the heavy oak desk he sat behind. He had his elbows on his desk, his chin resting on his folded hands, and he sighed deeply.
“Listen good, little girl. I’m grateful for what you did. However, it doesn’t undo that you didn’t obey me. I told you to stay away from my daughter. You don’t know what you are getting yourself into.”
He sat back and looked at Sarah. His face had lost the bland stoicism, and she saw lines of worry. He looked old, tired, about to break.
Sarah didn’t know what to say, so she kept silent. Mr. Ward stared at her before he finally said, “Your probation is over. It’s the least I can do.”
She had not expected this and managed to smile. At least some good came out of all the misery she had endured lately.
“I’ll talk to the others about letting you go.”
Sarah’s smile faltered. “Go?”
“We can’t keep you here anymore.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
He looked at her tiredly. “Both.”
Wasn’t this what she wanted? To leave this place with its schools and rules? Leave the people who kept her captive for a year? Leave this fake society, which supposedly would be a haven to humans, but was built on a crumbling foundation? Find Ralph? Why was she then so hesitant? The idea of being outside and surviving the zombie apocalypse alone wasn’t attractive. Life here had made her soft. “When can I leave?”
“As soon as possible and with the least amount of people knowing.”
“Why are you suddenly letting me go?”
“You saved my daughter, but you also doomed her. However, that was my fault, and I can’t blame you for that. I can’t blame anyone for anything. There is more going on than you know. Things you are better off not knowing. It may be safer outside than here.”
He might be right. The little she had seen was telling. Guards acting out. The power play between them and the current establishment. Firearm restriction showed how much the leadership trusted them. The have nots were never trusted by the haves. She remembered the way the cafeteria lady slapped the pizza on her plate. There was rage there. And she was one of them, but her position here was precarious.
“Can I see Priss before I leave?”
“Her room is upstairs, the first one to your right.”
Sarah turned to leave.
“Sarah?”
“Yes?” she said as she turned back.
“You can stay here if you want.”
“No, I’ll go back to my place.” The building the leadership lived in gave her the creeps. She couldn’t escape the feeling this place invoked within her after the months she been held captive. The test they had done on her had made her feel as if she were slowly dying, burning up from the inside. It was a wonder she survived. Many didn’t.
“You can come visit any time. She needs a friend and she only has you,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I plan to.” And she would. She only trusted Priss and Terry. She didn’t trust Mr. Ward’s sudden goodwill, and she wanted to talk to Terry about this before she made any decisions.
Sarah knocked on the door. From the other side, Priss’s feeble voice told her to come in. She opened the door and stuck her head in. “It’s me.”
Priss sat upright in her bed; her eyes lit up. She sniffled. “Come sit next to me.”
Sarah sat close to her.
“Not that close, or you’ll catch whatever I have.”
Sarah couldn’t remember the last time she had a cold. She wanted to be close to Priss. It had been awhile since she had been close to someone like this. A good friend, someone’s company she liked and trusted. Someone to share secrets with. Someone like Lilly, her best friend, had been.
“Did my father scold you?”
Sarah laughed. “No, he didn’t.”
“No? That’s unlike him.”
“It surprised me too, kind of scared me really; he was nice, offputtingly so.”
Priss shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
“Would he have allowed me to see you if he wasn’t?”
Priss looked at her, not saying anything, and then said, “He would have kicked you out.”
“Well, he is sort of kicking me out.” Both of their smiles vanished.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m allowed to leave.”
Priss grabbed her hand. “You can’t go out there. You’ll die.”
“I don’t die that easily. I survived outside for a long time before I got caught.”
“No, you don’t understand.”
Priss sneezed. Sarah passed her a clean tissue from the nightstand. Priss wiped her nose. “Things are different now. I overheard my father talking with the captain. The infected have gotten worse, meaner, some sort of evolution. It sounded scary. I don’t want you to go outside.”
Neither did she. She didn’t like talk about evolved zombies. The zombies were slow and mindless. If you were careful, avoided large groups, and didn’t get surrounded, they were easy to avoid or handle.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“It’s not only that. Pleaseeee, Sarah, don’t leave me.”
“Can I be honest with you?”
Priss nodded.
This was difficult. She had not been upfront with someone in a long time. However, she was terrified and needed to share what she knew with someone. She kept so much in that it hurt.
“I don’t want to go. I should. I know I should. I should go out and search for Ralph. I… I love him.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. How many times had she sworn never to cry, and again and again, the tears appeared in wet streams she could not stop. Sarah grabbed and held onto Priss. “I’m terrified. I really don’t want to be out there again.”
“Then don’t go. Stay with me.”
Sarah shook her head. “Your father won’t go for that.”
“I’ll talk to him and convince him to let you stay.”
“No, don’t do that.”
“I will, I will.” Priss sniffled. “I won’t allow him to send you to your death.”
“Don’t talk to him, Priss. I don’t want you to.”
“What else are you going to do if I do nothing?”
“Terry will do something.”
“I don’t know,” Priss said. “I overheard him and Dad, and I’m not sure he will help.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“Do you like him, Sarah?”
“Yes, he’s all right. He’s helped me out a few times.”
“No. I mean really like him, you know?”
Sarah did feel attracted to him and she suspected it was mutual. She touched the watch around her wrist. You didn’t give someone this kind of present if you didn’t like him or her. Love him? She didn’t know. As long she didn’t know for sure about Ralph, she didn’t want to be in love with anyone.
“I don’t know. Really, I don’t. He is nice to me, and yes, I’m attracted to him. Why do you ask?”
&nbs
p; Priss looked away. “Nothing. Maybe he’ll help you out. Tell me if he does. Okay?”
Sarah nodded.
Priss looked pale, her nose ran, and she absentmindedly wiped the muck as she looked at Sarah with feverish eyes. “I don’t want something bad to happen to you.”
Neither did she. She’d take care of that.
“You better go to sleep. You look bad,” Sarah said.
“Ugly bad?”
“Never ugly,” Sarah said, smiling.
Priss smiled back at her. Sarah helped her to lie down and covered her up to the chin. Sarah put a hand on Priss’s forehead. Hot, burning hot. This wasn’t just a cold; she had a fever. It could be the flu, but what kind of flu? Mr. Ward’s words ran through her head. You saved my daughter, but you also doomed her. No, it couldn’t be. She knew they had some half-working antidote in case you got bit. Getting infected was not the end. Besides, this could be just the flu.
Sarah kissed Priss, they said their goodbyes, and she left the room. A feeling of dread stayed curled around her heart, tightening, not allowing her to believe the truth that Priss might be infected.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Someone shook Ralph’s shoulder. His eyes fluttered open to Lauryn’s face inches away from his. They were lying on the mattress.
“It’s time to wake up,” she whispered, and then kissed him on the lips. His body immediately reacted to it. He pressed her closer to him. She giggled in surprise when he throbbed against her. “You must be happy to see me,” she said.
That line was so old, yet so true. He was happy to see her. If alone, and elsewhere, in another world and time, he would take her, and in her eyes, he saw she would let him. But not today.
He pushed himself up and stole a quick kiss before standing up.
Brenda and Derrick were gearing up. They looked up when they heard him get up. Brenda blushed and looked away. Derrick smiled and winked at Ralph. Ralph looked down. His erection was pushing against his pants, trying to snake its way out. Smiling wryly, he turned away.
