I walked cautiously, making sure to keep quiet though the area had long been overrun and abandoned. I could see a few tendrils of smoke from cooking fires here and there, which told me at least a few people were trying to make a go of it away from towns.
I was just past a road called Ridgeland when I began to hear things that were out of place. I expected some noise, and was fully prepared to dismiss what could be considered working routine noises. However, a chorus of groans and a scream, followed by some more groans was something else entirely.
I listened for a second to get my bearings, and then headed to the remnants of a subdivision across the way. I slipped over a fence and went through a backyard, stepping over a small plastic pool, which I swore was in nearly every yard I ever visited. A sandbox in the corner had a small tree growing out of it, and the ground near the house crunched as I went past. A look down revealed a glittering trove of broken glass. The house had nearly every window broken out. I looked over the edge of the fence I went through and listened again, focusing on the sounds and zeroing in on the location. It seemed to be coming from a little further south.
I flicked the safety off on my rifle and jogged across the street, moving around the burned out remains of several houses. Once I reached the back, I could see where the problem was. On the edge of a cul-de-sac, a house was surrounded by about twenty zombies. They were dark enough in color to make me think they were originals, and I wondered briefly, where the heck they came from this far south from the city and highway.
However, another scream pushed me into action and I ran into the middle of the cul-de-sac bringing my rifle up as I did so. I didn’t have much of a plan except just kill the dead guys. I fired three times, killing two of them and causing everyone to look my way. I didn’t wave; I just fired again, killing another one. After that, it was going to become a free for all, except a voice cut through the groans.
“Please save our daughter! We’ve been bitten and we can’t hold off the ones in the house much longer. The virus is making us weak! My wife is down already!” A man waved from a second story window, and I could see, even at that distance, his arms were bloody and torn. Another scream came from the house and he ducked back inside.
Damn. There were about ten zombies between the house and me. Who knows how many more were inside. To make matters worse, I couldn’t shoot towards the house anymore, since I didn’t know where the girl was. .308 bullets didn’t give much thought to houses as they generally passed right through them. I had to get past this bunch and get to the house, or things were going to get ugly. I put my rifle back over my shoulder and pulled out my sword. If it had been two or three ghouls, I would have used my ’hawk, but anything over five go to the attention of the big cutter.
I didn’t wait for the zombies to come at me. I ran at the first one and cut him down, hacking his head in half. I used the momentum of the swing to cleave the skull of another in two, and after I pulled the blade out of his face, used the position to thrust the point into the eye of another. I had a little bit of wiggle room after that, and ran to the edge of the group that was trying to encircle me. I swung one-handed to bring down another, and the backhand swipe off that took out a fat little bastard with no nose.
I ducked under the grasp of a female that was a little quicker than the rest, slamming the edge into her temple and slicing the top half of her head off. It was ugly, but effective. The last four came at me as a group, and I decided to run around the cul-de-sac and spread them out. They couldn’t all be the same speed.
As it turned out, they weren’t. Two of them were faster than the others were and I ducked around a mailbox to put something in between us. One of the zombies walked right into it, knocking itself down. The other fell to my sword and the first died as he was trying to get up. The last two were easy pickings as they were slow and ungainly when trying to run me down.
I wiped off my blade and sheathed it, running over to the house. The man saw me coming and went back in, reappearing at the window holding a small girl, about seven years old. She looked terrified, and clung to her father. I couldn’t hear what he was saying to her as he spoke his final words, but they were quick because he suddenly dropped her into my arms. I caught her easily and she covered her eyes with her hands. I looked up just as the man caught my eye and he was dragged back into the bedroom. There was a throaty roar and suddenly the window burst out as a zombie was thrown from the second floor. The man was certainly paying his way into the afterlife. I took a second to spray a little kerosene into the first floor window and light it. I hoped the house would catch and the rest of the zombies inside would get caught.
Chapter 36
The girl took her hands away from her face for a second and looked up at me with big brown eyes. She looked terrified, and I realized I hadn’t cleaned the mud off of my face. I must have looked like hell. I tried to be reassuring
“Don’t you worry, sweetheart. My name is Aaron, and I’m going to take you somewhere safe. Is that okay?” I said, hurrying away from the house.
The little girl nodded and curled herself into a small bundle, no doubt trying to wipe from her mind the last couple of hours of hell. I was still curious as to where that many zombies had come from. I would have heard of an outbreak like that, especially with some original zombies. As we walked, a lone zombie stumbled out the back door of the school, tripped over the threshold and smacked its head on the concrete. It lay still so I called that one a win and kept moving.
Suddenly, it made sense. The father had probably moved into the home because of the open land behind it, and one day he went to see if anything was in the school that he could use, never knowing there was a small horde of zombies that had been dormant for years. That happened from time to time as new areas were opened up and old zombies came out to play.
I walked along, making my way back to the canal as best I could. I knew I couldn’t carry this girl all the way back to the capital, so I really was going to have to find some kind of transportation now. The girl didn’t say anything, and when I looked down, she had closed her eyes. I figured she’d have to be exhausted, given what she had been through.
The sun was getting to its zenith and I was getting tired. Carrying what was essentially fifty pounds of dead weight in front of me was starting to take a toll, and after a good hour of walking, I was getting tired. So it was with some relief I saw what looked like a small settlement built up along the canal. Several boats were docked along small makeshift piers, and I had renewed hope that I could secure at least passage to the capital, if not the purchase of a boat outright.
The road split the settlement in half, with several occupied homes in the old subdivision on the land side. On the water side, there was a small gathering of cottages, and two large buildings in the center. One looked like a tavern, with a wide porch and several tables inside that I could see from the road. Six or seven men were relaxing on the porch, while a serving girl came in and out of the front door. The other building looked to be some kind of trading post, with several recovered items for sale on its front area, and a quick peek inside the door showed quite a few items on tables and on shelves.
As I approached the tavern, one of the men on the porch got off to look me over, and I couldn’t hear what he called over his shoulder, but it gathered a few people from the interior.
I was about twenty yards from the porch when I happened to look down at the girl I was carrying. I expected to find her still asleep. What I didn’t expect was to find her staring up at me, with bloodshot and black-rimmed eyes.
When my gaze met hers, she bared her teeth at me and twisted suddenly, looking to sink her teeth into the flesh of my upper arm! I was literally hugging a child that had died in my arms and come back as a zombie.
“Shit!” I reacted by pure reflex. I dropped the girl, stepping back as she fell to the ground, her teeth snapping shut on empty air as she barely missed biting my bicep. I didn’t give her a chance to recover, as the only way to deal with the l
ittle ones was to kill them as quickly as possible.
I stepped forward, kicking her off her hands as knees as she struggled to get her balance and stand up. I didn’t stop there. When she was on her back, I stepped on her chest and held her to the ground as she grabbed and pulled at my leg. Her face was a mask of rage and pain as she futilely tried to bite my boot.
I pulled out my tomahawk and smacked her in the head with it. I must have been holding back for some reason, because it took me three strikes to kill the little monster.
I stepped off the girl and shook my head. All that fighting her father did for her was for nothing. I wondered how she caught the disease, and figured that maybe she had put it in her own eyes when she rubbed her father’s blood into her face. It was sad, really. This one wouldn’t ever get a chance to grow up, ever get a chance to play anymore, or ever get the chance to see the big cities and the capital.
I snapped out of my little daydream when a word penetrated my thoughts.
“Jesus.”
Chapter 37
I looked up and saw about thirty people staring at me. Some had their hands over their mouths, some had a sad look on their faces, and some looked at me with open hostility. One man ducked inside and came out with a rifle, which he pointed right at me.
“Hands up, mister! I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but you better drop that axe and get your hands up now!” The man yelled at me and I could see several other men starting to edge out over the road in an effort to try and surround me.
I looked down at the girl, then my ‘hawk, which was dripping zombie brains and blood into the road. I couldn’t help myself; the stress of the morning just came pouring out. I tilted my head back and just laughed. When I came back to earth, the men were closer, but stopped when I glared at them. I pointed to the girl with my axe.
“Relax, she turned into a zombie in my arms. I was trying to rescue her from an attack on her folks’ place. She got infected somehow.” I wiped my ‘hawk off on the girl’s clothing, and another person gasped.
At the word attack, several faces turned to each other and looked worried. I helped them along.
“About two miles back, there should be a house on fire. Guy living there opened up a school which had some sleepers in there. They took him out and his wife. He tossed this girl to me, not knowing she was sick. Believe me, if she was well, I’d be handing off a scared, tired little girl to one of you right now,” I said, trying to keep the rising dread of another fight out of my voice.
“Can you prove she was infected?” The man with the rifle spoke, and I was glad to see he wasn’t pointing the gun at me any more.
I thought about that for a moment. How would I prove she was a zombie? As she looked now, she just appeared to be sleeping, albeit with three large cuts in her skull. I looked at my hawk and then I got an idea.
“You all know the virus burns red, right?” I asked, getting several nods in reply from a few of the older patrons. “Okay, then let me torch my tomahawk, and you’ll see the red flame.” I sprayed some kerosene on the axe, noting as I did that my supply was getting dangerously low. I pulled out a match and lit the blade, seeing with some satisfaction that the flames burned bright red, even in the noon sun.
After that, everyone relaxed. I just shook my head at the whole situation, watched as the tavern patrons went back to their tables, and oversaw the loading of the zombie corpse onto a small cart to be buried out of town. Seven men with serious looks on their faces went off to the east to see if there were any more zombies to be killed from that morning massacre. I ignored the looks I got from the assembled settlement folks and wandered into the trading post.
Inside was like nothing I had seen before. A collection of junk, the likes of which I hadn’t figured could be piled into one place were there. There was everything from sewing kits to guns, jewelry to books. Tools were piled in one end, while a selection of clothing covered another. Pots, pans, lamps, and artificial limbs hung from the ceiling. I had to duck under a canoe paddle to look over the assortment of knives and hatchets that covered the top of a glass display. Inside the display was a small assortment of toys and child games.
“Help you?”
One of the displays seemed to be speaking to me, although on closer inspection it turned out to be a small woman seated behind the counter. She looked to be anywhere from thirty to three hundred, and her eyes blinked twice at a time, when she bothered to blink. Her blue hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her black eyes looked as if they belonged on something that used to be living.
I straightened to my full height and her eyes expertly looked me over. They took in my clothes, my weapons, and I could see the calculations going on in her head as to how much I might have to spend. If I had to guess, she probably already knew how much money I had in my pouch.
I smiled slightly. “I need a refill of kerosene, if you have it, and the use of a boat to the capital.”
Blue took my container and walked over to a plastic jug that held a clear liquid. Placing my bottle under the spigot, she expertly filled it without spilling a single drop.
She brought it back to me and placed it on the counter. “Two coppers. Don’t have any boats to rent, but my son can take you for a small fee.”
I paid the inflated price out of my vest pocket where I kept only my coppers. I did that so people wouldn’t see if I had any more money. However, with this woman, I figured it was useless.
“How much?” I asked, bracing myself for the price.
“Two silvers. Beats walking,” she added.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to buy the boat; I just want to get to the capital.”
“Two silvers and you’re there. No silver and you can fight some more little girls.” That line was delivered with a smirk and I almost fell for it.
“Better that than getting scalped in here. No thanks.”
The woman got off her stool and put her hands on her hips. Her lean body was tense, and I knew she had gotten through the original Upheaval with her wits and her will to live. She could probably fight pretty well, too, something I really didn’t want to get into.
“You calling me a thief?” She asked quietly.
I shook my head. “You haven’t stolen from me, so I’m reserving judgment on that charge. But I’m not paying your rates because I think they’re too high. You want to get into trouble because someone tells you the truth, then you’ve got a lot a fighting ahead of you. The stuff you have in here tells me you used to be a collector, and still go out from time to time. But somewhere along the line, you realized people would be willing to pay for just about anything from the old places, and you set up shop. But since you have a son, the raids are much closer to home. Am I right?”
The woman’s mouth opened when I spoke, and all she could do was nod. I smiled and left the shop, figuring I had a decent walk ahead of me. I knew I would regret not spending the money on a simple ride, but I had my pride, and that was more important than how my feet were going to feel in a little while. At least I told myself that as I left the settlement.
Chapter 38
About an hour later, I stepped into another world. A huge forest stretched to the south of me, and across the river, I could see another large forest. The trees were large and well developed, telling me this area was forest even before the Upheaval.
As I walked along the road, I could hear little noises coming from the woods. The big trees stretched their canopies over the road, so it was shaded and dim where I walked. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see movement as something large tracked my progress. I immediately thought of the cougars we had at Starved Rock, and knew nothing here would be as friendly. Just for luck, I whipped up my rifle and fired three quick shots at the trees, the booming reports echoing across the river and down the road. Animals scattered in all directions, and whatever had been stalking me had gone to ground. I was happy.
Dusk began to make its presence known in various ways, and I really didn’t want to
get caught out after dark, especially in this area. I knew I was decently close to the capital, but I also knew I wasn’t going to make it before dark. I walked until I reached another road, and decided to find a place to stay for the night. I didn’t have much in the way of choices, there were dozens of torn up buildings and homes. I needed to find somewhere that still had intact windows, someplace that was free of intruders, and somewhere I could light a small fire. Lately, the nights had been getting downright cold.
Just as the sun slipped the horizon, I happened upon a place situated on the edge of a forest. I would have missed it if I hadn’t nearly walked into the sign by the side of the road. It readCook County Forest Preserve Watchman’s House. It was a small ranch style house made of brick. It was tucked back nearly into the woods, and the preserve had made a good effort in reclaiming it. Trees grew right up to the house, and the weeds were tall enough to need walking around. I made my way up the old driveway and fought my way through the weeds to look in the windows of the house.
Nothing seemed out of place. Actually, it seemed very well kept and tidy. I went to the back door and tried it first, smiling as the door clicked open. Like a lot of places, the front door was typically locked, but the back door stayed open. I went inside and checked things out.
The place was dusty, but not nearly as much as I thought it should be. All the furniture was where it should be, and I couldn’t see any signs of a hasty exit. The kitchen cupboards were all bare, as was the fridge, but I wouldn’t have eaten anything from them anyway. I took a couple of pieces of small kindling from the box by the fireplace and started a small fire. There wasn’t much wind outside, so I figured the smoke wouldn’t alert too many people.
Generation Dead Book 2: What You Fear Page 12
