WorldLost- Week 1: An Infected Novel

by Unknown

  We found a rural road heading east that would get us close to the neighborhood which ran past numerous fields of corn and squash. They were overgrown, but still had lots of produce that could be picked through. We would have to keep this in mind after we were done with this nasty business. These fields could help to feed a large group of people through the winter months that were coming.

  Once we thought we were directly behind the neighborhood, but still a few miles away, we found a farm that backed up to a forest we would have to move through. The farm was deserted, with the house partially burnt down and the barn leaning due to the numerous cars that had been rammed into it. Hanging in the yard, on the side of the burnt house, were three bodies.

  We could tell that this was a family, probably the family that had lived on this farm. There were a man, a woman, and a young female child hanging by their necks from an old tree. The females were naked with visible cuts all over them. I had already placed blame on Ripper’s gang in my mind and it helped to fuel my desire to go after them. Left to their own vices, they would do nothing but cause pain and agony to everyone around these parts.

  “We need to make these guys pay,” Butch said to me as we passed the farmhouse and headed to the barn. I just nodded; I had already begun to form a plan for our friends in the back of the truck.

  We came to a stop and everyone got out, pulling the bikers out of the truck bed. “I’m going to kill them,” Amy said. She pulled her knife out and before anyone could stop her, she pulled it across Kyle’s throat.

  Blood poured all over the young biker and pooled around him on the ground. He was dead before he hit the ground, landing next to Jerry, who tried to run away, falling as his bound feet stopped his forward momentum. “Fuck these guys; they have no reason to be left alive.” She said, moving to Jerry.

  “Hold up,” I said blocking her from Jerry. “We need him to do something for us.” She looked at me with that get out of my way look but backed off once I didn’t move. “Butch, can you and Brian find some wood?”

  Butch pulled Brian along with him as he moved over to the barn. I grabbed Jerry, getting him to his feet and pushing him towards the hanging bodies. “You better finish Kyle off before he turns,” I said to Amy behind me. She moved to Kyle and pushed her knife into his eye till it punctured the brain, ending any chance for Kyle to turn and come back to life. “Die, fucker.” I heard her say as we continued to walk away.

  Butch and Brian met me next to the hanging family. They laid a bunch of wood down on the ground. I used my knife to cut the ropes of the family, letting them fall to the ground ending up next to each other. “Pick up the wood Jerry and place it around the bodies. Fuck around and we kill you. Do it and maybe you get to live?”

  Jerry moved to the pile of wood, scampering across the ground as the bindings on his legs made him walk like a prisoner on a chain gang line. He picked up a piece of wood and placed it next to the little girl. We watched him as he continued to pile wood up around and on top of the dead family. Amy finally joined us and watched Jerry bury the family with the wood. Everyone was silent, just watching.

  After a while, the guys stopped bringing wood and we all stood there. I’m not sure what everyone else was doing, but I was saying a silent prayer for the family and wishing that my new family was watched over. I wasn’t a GOD fearing person, but if it helped, then I was in. Now wasn’t the time to argue the point of a greater being.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled a lighter out and started the wood burning. Before I stood back up, Jerry dropped to the floor with his head landing in the funeral pile, his eyes looking up at me and his blood pouring from his throat beginning to sizzle in the fire. Jerry squirmed for a second in the fire before he stopped and laid there dead.

  Looking up, I saw Amy standing there with her knife dripping blood. She gave Jerry a kick in the side and walked away, heading back to the truck.

  “Damn, dude. She issues pissed.” Butch said to us. “Let’s just give her a few knives, a gun and point her to the compound. Let’s see what she does. Bet she could take all eight of the bikers out by herself.”

  I took my spear and rammed it through Jerry’s eye; the last thing we needed was an infected on fire trying to attack us. I walked away and headed to the truck with Brian following, but Butch stayed for a few more minutes watching the fire.

  Once I got back to the truck, I found Amy leaning against the front bumper crying. She had her head in her hands against her knees. Her shoulders were moving up and down, like someone who was out of control sobbing, someone extremely upset. I sat down next to her on the bumper and put my arm around her. She finally leaned in against me but continuing to cry.

  We stayed there for some time before Butch walked up and interrupted the silence. “We should head out. The fire is dying down and we should get through the forest. This whole trip has already taken to much time. I took my arm off of Amy, stood up and headed to the back of the truck where I had put my stuff. Brian was sitting in the back of the truck bed and nodded at me as I came around. “Eat something if you need to, let’s move in five,” I said to him.

  “You know she did the right thing.” He said to me, getting up and stretching. “She did what all of us were thinking should be done. She’s strong.”

  “She is one of the strongest people I know,” I replied. Who knew if Jerry and Kyle were part of this mess at the farm, did they really deserve to die the way Amy killed them? With the living quickly becoming the endangered species on earth, or at least, in our little part of the world, should we be killing them? Every man and women would become a very important part of keeping our species alive, could we really sacrifice the living?

  “Dumb ass, stop it,” I said under my breath. Both Amy and Butch looked at me, having heard what I said I’m sure.

  “At least you got the name right. Dumbass…” A laughing Butch locked the doors of the truck and started walking south. Amy punched me in the shoulder and followed Butch wiping away the tears. Brian stopped and looked at me.

  “I know we don’t really know each other and we may not really trust each other yet. Regardless, we have to stick together. The good guys have to stick together. There are too many bad guys.” He walked away following Butch and Amy, leaving me by the truck.

  I looked around, started after what was becoming my new family and said out loud, “Really, locking the truck doors. Is that really necessary? Seriously?” Everyone laughed as we headed to the back of the property and into the woods.

  We walked in silence for almost an hour, trying as best as four people could make very little noise. As we came out into a small opening, we began to hear movement up ahead. Everyone pulled out their weapons, their spears, knives, bats, and put away their guns. There wasn’t any reason to use the guns unless we really needed to. Announcing that we were here to everyone around wasn’t the best thing to do.

  We all found something to hide behind as we waited to see what would come through the woods on the other side of the opening. The smell hit us before the first infected made its way out of the forest. There was no way it could be anything but a group of infected. The next question would be how many were in the group.

  After a few seconds, another four infected stumbled into the clearing. Butch was closed to the first one and moved from behind the tree he was hiding behind and used his hatchet to crack the head of the infected in half. The other four infected immediately reacted to the site of a potential meal and moved towards Butch.

  The rest of us moved out from behind the trees we were hiding behind and approached the infected that were close to us. Amy used her bat hitting her target in the head, sending it to the ground. She followed up with a second swing that crushed its skull making sure it was down and out for good.

  Brian used his knife to sever the head of another infected and then kicked the severed head into the woods. Who knew how long that head would still be looking for food, we might want to find it and take care of it. It would just be my luck to
wonder back this way and get bit as I passed it. The body of the infected sprayed dark, almost black, sticky blood all over the area and then fell to the ground.

  This left two infected, which were close to me so I kicked the closest one in the knee bringing the ghoulish guy to the ground and using my spear, I jammed the spear end through the second one's eye socket through to the brain causing him to fall backward pulling my spear from my hands. The first infected was trying to turn his body to get to me from the ground, so I kicked out again hitting it in the head. He fell against his dead partner, allowing me some time to pull another spear from my backpack, using it to kill the infected a second time.

  Standing in the clearing, we all looked at each other and listened for any other sounds from the forest, just in case there were other infected that had not made it to the clearing. After a couple of minutes, we called the all clear and regrouped to move out. On the way out of the clearing, I grabbed the spear that got stuck in the infected head and put it in my backpack and then headed into the woods to find the severed head. The rest of the group stood and waited for me to return.

  “I couldn’t find it,” I said as I returned to the clearing and the group. They all just shrugged their shoulders and started to head south towards the biker gang’s compound. ‘That’s kind of weird.” I said from behind them, but no one responded.

  We finally came up to the back area of the compound. The Common’s neighborhood was a private neighborhood for a select few very wealthy families with a clubhouse area in the middle of the compound. The eight houses were spread out over a large area, each with a great view over the clubhouse area and the front gates.

  A privacy fence hid a direct view of the neighborhood, but every 25 yards of the fence had a rock column to anchor the fence and each column had a small space that we could use to peek into the compound. A road wound its way through the neighborhood and ended at the back of the compound to an exit gate allowing access to the forest area.

  The gate was locked and there were no guards. Whispering, I told Butch to find a way to unlock the gate, so we had a quick exit if needed. I then headed over to Amy and we discussed what she was seeing.

  She pointed out the clubhouse area and the three tennis courts. In the court furthest from the clubhouse, a small amount of infected were trying everything they could to get into the second court. The second court was empty except for multiple decomposing bodies that lay all over the court. In the third court, the one closest to the clubhouse, we could see a group of people huddled as far away from the infected as possible.

  From our vantage point, the group was made up of men and older teenage boys. There were no small children, no women or teenage girls. The gang must have them somewhere else in the compound. Brian came over and whispered “Looks like all but two houses have been burned down. There is a lot of activity at the front of the clubhouse, lots of motorcycles and four by four trucks.”

  “Can you tell if there are any people or bikers in the two houses that are still standing?” I asked as we continued to peek through the space between the fences.

  “I couldn’t tell for sure, it really looks like everyone is in the clubhouse.” He replied.

  The group came together and we discussed the various concerns we each had, the possible ways to get in and take care of business. After a heated discussion between each of us, we finally came up with our final plan that each of us could live with.

  The ride down to the compound and the situation at the farm house had taken longer than we had planned. Our original plan was to surprise the bikers in the morning when they might not be fully awake. Since it was now late afternoon, all of the bikers seemed to be up and about, so we all agreed that we would wait till later that night to make our move.

  We spent the rest of the day resting up, cleaning weapons and watching the bikers.

  Chapter 29- Day 7

  Butch worked on the lock for the gate, finally getting it open and then he headed to the west side of the compound. He was going to try to sneak in from that side and make his way to the tennis courts to let the survivors go. He had a load of spears we had brought that the tennis court group could use to help us fight.

  Brian headed to the east side of the compound which had a better view of the clubhouse. Since he was such a good shot from a long distance, he had volunteered to find a place he could set up and snipe the bikers as they came out of the clubhouse. The west side of the clubhouse also had the main windows and would make it easier for Brian to see into the building. I just hoped that he didn’t miss and end up hitting one of us.

  Amy and I walked through the rear exit gate and moved silently to the first house that was still standing. It was a multi-million dollar place, with tons of windows and three levels. Of all the places, it had the best view of the whole community which would explain why the bikers had left it standing. The back yard had a pool, which had seen better days, a pool house sat to the east of the pool with a gazebo in between. We made our way to the pool house and checked the inside for any signs of life.

  From the rear windows, we could tell this place had been used by the bikers for some whacked out party. The furniture was turned over and broken, pieces lying all over the floor. The wall art was torn off the wall and laying busted on the floor. There were holes in the walls from bullets, from someone punching a fist into them and there were blood stains all over the walls, the counters, and the floor. In the middle of the room was a single mattress with blood stains all over it and a video camera pointed at the mattress. The pool house was deserted, so we decided to move to the main house and check it out.

  We approached the east side of the house which had a lower level sliding glass door that was wide open. The inside was destroyed just like the pool house and gain, there were no bodies. We moved through the lower level room and further into the house. The doorway opened to a hallway that headed west and into what was a rec room that had a bar, pool table, some video games that didn’t look like they worked anymore and a huge flat screen TV with cinema style seating facing it. There was a sliding glass door leading to the pool area from this room also.

  We headed to the stairs leading up to the next level, which we slowly made our way up. They opened into a very large living room with what was at one time some very expensive furniture. It was all now lying on the floor all broken up. The living room led into a dining room with a large twenty person table which had bottles of booze, old food, and cups strewn around it. That led to a large kitchen area where Amy made a little whistle as we walked through. The appliances were professional grade and whoever lived here, had known what the best was and made sure they bought it. Apparently, Amy found this all very nice.

  The back of the kitchen lead to a deck that overlooked the pool and the rear of the compound. We looked out and tried to find Butch or Brian, but couldn’t see either of them or anyone else. We moved to the front of the house and looked out over the neighborhood, watching the clubhouse for any signs of movement.

  The survivors were still huddled together at the tennis court, but now there was a guy dressed in leathers walking towards the group. He stopped at the survivor’s court and said something to the group. A man got up from the group and moved towards the biker. They talked for a few seconds and then the biker pulled out his shotgun and pointed it at the guy, screaming at him. The guy held up his hands and then pointed at himself. The biker walked away and headed into the clubhouse, seeming to be satisfied with the way the conversation had finished with the prisoner.

  As we stood there, we noticed a few infected moving towards the front gate. The bikers had placed a couple of trucks across the road to block the simple gate, but the beds of the truck allowed the infected to see into the compound, which excited them and made them bunch up against the trucks. “Looks like we have a few visitors at the front gates,” I said to Amy as she moved away to look through the kitchen.

  “Just a few might be the beginnings of the horde we saw back at the farm. Maybe we shoul
d just wait to see what happens.” She said.

  “No, we continue with the plan and try to save as many of the people down there as possible. Then we get back to the truck stop as quickly as possible and then head to Butch’s parents and the lake.” I moved away from the window and we headed up the stairs to check the last floor out.

  On the third floor, we found all of the bedrooms, with what looked to be the master bedroom at the end of the hallway. We assumed it was the master since it had a set of double doors where all the other rooms were single doors. Each of the smaller rooms had a bed that had obviously been used a lot recently but were empty at this time. We searched each room to make sure there were no surprises and made our way to the master bedroom.

  In the master bedroom, we found a woman tied to the king bed, naked and turned. She began to struggle to get loose once she noticed us. Amy moved in and ended her struggle with a quick knife through the eye. With nothing more in the house to deal with, we moved to the garage.

  The garage was empty except for a few bodies and typical garage related items. One of the doors was open and we could see down the driveway towards the clubhouse. “We’re running out of time, Brian will start shooting soon and start the plan. We’ve got to move in order to be in place.” Amy said to me as we moved towards the garage door, heading to the second house to see if anyone was there.

  We came up to the second house and found the garage open, just like the last one. A truck was in the driveway, blocking our view of the inside of the garage so we moved to the side of the house and used a side window to check out the inside. With it still being dark both outside and inside, it was difficult to fully see the room, but we were sure we didn’t see anyone. We did hear some talking from somewhere inside the house so we moved to the back side of the house, where we found another pool and gazebo in the back yard. This house had a larger garage in the back of the lot instead of a pool house, but it was halfway burnt down.