"Good idea,” answered the big guy in a deep voice, and looking at her, he said, "Sweetie, you must go with us, we've come for you."
She hesitated, remembering what she had often been told by her parents.
Don't follow strangers. Even living human beings, when unknown, can sometimes be worse than the living dead!
She had later heard them speaking between them about cannibalism used by some humans for survival, and this idea was a harsh discovery for her.
He added, seeing she didn't move, "We saw on a screen that you needed help!", and the man pointed an index finger toward something, in one of the branches of a nearby tree.
She saw a webcam which had been installed on a branch.
Whirring slightly, it moved, a red LED illuminated on it, its light showing that someone was controlling it from a distance, and observing them.
She peeked at the still burning car and, behind the mob tainted in red, approaching dangerously, at a big dark zone of humid, red grass, and she couldn’t avoid thinking, painfully.
Once again, the cavalry moved in once the battle was over.
“Move!” shouted the big black man, startling her. He was clearly becoming impatient, watching her with a hard gaze.
His big voice had made her shiver and stressed, she felt literally paralyzed.
“Harry, let me talk to her.”
The old man had spoken, for the first time, and he had a rather thick Asian accent.
That's when she realized that he was now standing near her, having approached her stealthily.
With a soft voice, he said to her, "You can't do anything for your parents anymore, but you can respect what would have been their wish, find shelter for yourself with us, at the Community. It’s an impregnable fortress."
Despite being smaller, compared to his companions wearing military-type clothes, she sensed inside the old man, not only a powerful mind, but also an indestructible self-confidence. Their gaze met and she felt that she could trust him.
She put her little hand in his, and let him pull her toward a nearby clearing.
They followed the footsteps of the other two men who had begun to run, as growls behind them became louder.
All four joined an odd looking vehicle. It was a van, with metallic grilles covering all its windows.
Arriving in front of a sliding door on the side of the vehicle the big man named Harry slid it open with a powerful push and yelled, "Jump inside, quick!"
The Asiatic swiftly leapt inside, leading the child who, in a kind of odd state, followed like a robot. The young black guy joined them, breathing heavily because of the run.
The big guy leapt inside and, turning around, began to slide back the door of the vehicle.
That’s when it jammed.
The black man winced while making a great effort to make the door slide again. It was old and rusty, and didn't move anymore. Just at that moment a band of zombies wearing rags arrived, roaring like panthers pursuing their prey.
Suddenly because of the pressure he put on it, the door finally slid and Harry chuckled while, at last, he realized that he was able to close it.
He yelled, "Adios, freaks!"
Using both of his powerful hands on an internal door handle, he pushed it harder to close it completely.
That's when a long-haired living dead blocked the door by inserting itself through the narrow passage, between the door and the metallic side of the vehicle.
The black colossus roared with anger while pushing with all his strength.
The door was completely closed and the creature was crushed in the middle. Its pelvis fell on the ground outside with its cut spine while the upper part fell on the metallic floor of the vehicle.
The creature began to move spasmodically in all the directions on the rusty floor of the vehicle, in the middle of the group. It was as if it was having an epileptic crisis.
The giant yelled to the others, "Get back!"
He then screamed out in pain.
"Dad!" yelled the younger black guy with horrified eyes.
The upper part of the zombie had reached one of the giant’s calves and was munching it, its mouth full of blood, while holding his leg with its white and bony hands. Blood flowed on the floor while Harry yelled again, wincing with his head up because of the excruciating pain.
Before the Asian could react the little girl seized the sword out of his hand with both of hers and sliced the neck of the thing.
The beheaded body which had been lying on the floor on its side, fell on its back, its hands having freed the calf of the big black guy, who moaned now.
He looked down with disgust at the head, which was still attached to his leg, its jaw literally ingrained in the powerful muscle of his calf, his blood continuing to flow onto his shoe.
The Asiatic man looked at the little girl who, watching this bloody scene without any apparent emotion on her face, now remained silent and immobile. She still had the heavy sword in her little hands, hanging downward, its sharp point supported on the tmetallic floor of the van.
He was astonished, and said to himself, What a huge amount of energy… generated by hatred?
But quickly he quit his thoughts.
He yelled at her, "Give me that back!" and swiftly snatched he weapon out of her hands. He then turned around and planted the point of the long blade in the skull of the living dead, producing a horrible cracking sound. He left the blade inserted in the head for a few seconds, and then suddenly extracted it, emitting another crack.
The mouth of the head opened instantly, as if a peculiar nerve had been deactivated and it fell, rolling on the ground, freeing the wounded calf. It went rolling farther on the other side of the vehicle, making the people inside tense, fearing being bitten too. Finally it stopped, its bony skull-like face toward them, its orbits full of blood which trickled down its bony cheeks. Its opened jaw closed slowly, emitting faint cracking sounds, and finally it shut completely.
The head then remained completely immobile.
The wounded colossus, and the young man, smaller and less muscular who seemed to be his son, looked at the impressive hole made by the jaws in his calf.
“Shit!” exclaimed Harry who was sweating, disgusted by the gory scene.
They were all suddenly shaken in all directions while they heard the roar of an engine.
The girl, quitting her strange state of mind, understood that there was a driver who was trying to get them all out of this anteroom of Hell. She saw the young black man kneel down near his father's leg, a can now in one hand. With a lot of caution, he projected a beige, liquid-like substance on the wound with the little spray can, covering it quickly. The contact of the substance with the painful wound made his father shout again, but she was even more impressed to see that the substance had completely stopped the bleeding. It seemed to diminish the pain too, since the big guy stopped yelling and, after sighing once, became completely silent.
His son finally attached a piece of white tissue around the calf.
His father grimaced a bit but didn't push him away. He just did what he could to maintain his balance, by leaning against one of the metallic walls of the back of the rocking van.
A sound of breaking glass startled them all.
Looking in the direction where it had come from, they looked back at the only window not protected by a grid, a small one. It had been broken, and they saw a rotten hand coming inside, trying to grab something…
Or someone.
The young black guy shouted, anger visible on his face, and he leapt toward the broken window. He aimed his rifle despite the movements of the van and shot the hand, making a hole in it.
The deafening sound of the shot reverberated inside the metallic vehicle, making the people inside wince because of the ear pain.
The hand with its smoking hole continued to move and the young man shot it again.
This new gunshot resonated with the precedent one, and made the noise environment in the van even more dea
fening, unbearable.
The still moving hand of the living dead surprised the young man by grabbing the shotgun barrel. This made the young man lose his balance, the jarring shakes of the vehicle not helping him.
He shot again, deafening all of them again and shouted, "I'll have the head of that motherfucker, I’ll have it!"
The Asian man whose head throbbed now with pain because of the intense sound leapt and seized the weapon out of his hands, shouting with vigor, "Enough!"
"It's my rifle!" the young black guy yelled, looking with anger at the impassive man's face who was looking him in the eyes.
"Enough, kid!" intervened his father who held the handkerchief on his wound while scowling at him. He added, "You know, like me, that ammunition is scarce, nowadays."
Suddenly he stopped speaking.
The young man felt uneasy, as he realized that his father was failing.
The big black man lost his balance and fell heavily on the metallic floor, adding to the remaining reverberation of the shotgun. His eyes closed and he passed out.
"Dad!" the young man yelled while joining his father who, his face abundantly sweating, was lying on the floor.
The engine roared even more and the van was shaken more brutally than ever.
Letting father and son alone behind with the mute little girl, the Asian walked with difficulty, because of the bumps, toward the front end of the vehicle. There he joined the driver, who had all his attention on the road.
He was a young, serious-looking blond guy with an athletic body, and he was trying to push the vehicle through a mob of living dead.
These were all extending their hands toward the vehicle, resisting its movement. It was almost as if the van had to navigate through a stream of desiccated living dead. They tried to smash the windshield with their fists but it was useless, thanks to the metallic grille in front of it.
The Asiatic man stood behind the driver, holding on to the backrest of the blond man’s seat, and the old Asian asked, with a slight Japanese accent, "How are you doing with the driving, Bo?"
"I'm trying to get us through all this zombie-sea."
The old man nodded without any emotion, despite the almost funny metaphor. He calmly took his sword in his hand and wiped its blade with a paper handkerchief, dark blood staining it. He resumed, "I understand, Boris... but can't you get us all out of here quickly? Harry’s wounded, he needs medical assistance."
“Really?” asked the young man, looking at him.
The old man simply nodded affirmatively.
Concentrating his attention again on what he saw through the windshield, the driver gritted his teeth and accelerated again.
The mass of zombies in front of them resisted the vehicle's pressure once again.
Angry, the young man shouted and crushed the gas pedal. This made the engine roar and the vehicle leap ahead.
The momentum of the van split the mob like Moses obtaining the divide of the Red Sea, and at last they were free. They heard cracking sounds coming from under the vehicle because of the broken bones of the creatures which had fallen under the tires.
Very soon, they saw no more living dead, only the rows of trees on the sides of the very poorly maintained road. Relieved at last of the stress, the young driver sighed and asked "So, Harry's wounded?", looking at the Asian.
The latter didn’t answer, preferring to watch the flow of trees passing by, almost hypnotically.
The young driver named Bo was intrigued and continued, "How bad is it? What happened to Harry?"
"He's been bitten." the old man finally answered, his expression serious.
"Bitten? What's happened is ugly, I loved that poor guy!”
The old man looked knowingly at him but said nothing.
"Don't speak about him as if he's already dead!", the voice of the young black guy erupted.
Startled by the shouting the driver lost control of the van while it was initiating a sharp turn. The brakes shrieked as the blond guy tried to slow down the vehicle in the turn but it was too late.
The van began to lean to one side and the driver, fighting with the steering wheel shouted, "My God, we're riding on only two wheels, we're going to roll over!"
“Swerve in the other direction,” the Asian man shouted even louder.
The driver obeyed and, miraculously, a few seconds later, he understood that the vehicle may not roll over.
The little girl had arrived behind them with the young black teen and his tottering father, who was wincing because of the pain. She instinctively grabbed with both hands one of the arms of the driver's chair to retain her balance, and watched the scene wide-eyed. What she felt, while fighting to keep her balance and while looking through the windshield, wasn't reassuring…
The world seemed oblique, as the young driver tried to control the trajectory of the vehicle, shaving closely the branches of big trees, similar to the one which she and her parents had hit, earlier, with their car.
Will everyone finally die today?
She couldn’t avoid this thought.
"Hold on!" the driver shouted, making her quit her dark thoughts.
Swerving brutally once again, he made the van reach an angle closer to a normal, horizontal position. All of them were now tense, awaiting the brutal shock which would shake them all when the two right-handed wheels landed heavily on the road.
The bump shook them even harder than she had imagined, making her lose her balance. She fell luckily on her back on the passenger's seat, surprising the driver.
Startled, he braked and abruptly stopped the vehicle, shaking everyone inside a last time. The engine shut down. Worried, the young blond driver looked at the little red-haired girl and asked, "Are you OK?"
"Yes," the girl answered, a strange impassivity on her face while she was looking back at him. She sensed, with her edge to edge far vision, that the old Asian man was watching her in the same impassive way. Analyzing her.
She slowly, cautiously, stood up.
Reassured to see that she was fine, the driver smiled and turned the ignition key to re-start the engine. They only heard the starter, which emitted a plaintive, nerve-wracking sound. The dashboard was briefly lighted, and briskly went off again. He turned the ignition key again, but with the same result.
The people in the van looked at each other. An insecure mood was accumulating inside the van. They suddenly heard bloodcurdling vocals.
The driver uselessly turned the key again while looking in the right-hand side mirror.
“They're coming!” he shouted, as he saw worrying silhouettes emerging out of the woods. They were approaching slowly, but surely. Sweat trickling down his forehead, the blond young man again turned the ignition key.
This time there was an awful mechanical sound and, suddenly, nothing. The dashboard flickered…
And then became completely dark.
“You’ve completely flooded the engine, Bo!” the young black guy yelled at him, scowling at the young blond as if he wanted to kill him.
The young black man turned around when he felt that his father had put his hand on his shoulder, and felt bad when he realized that he was looking coldly and disapproving at him. Turning his head to run away from his father’s hard stare he sensed the same in the glare of the old Asian, who was watching him too.
After all, they were right.
Bo did everything he could, and didn’t need to feel even more guilt. Roars and growls attracted the passengers’ attention and they saw hellish faces of the dead, scratching the side windows. The handles of the shut doors were shaken.
"Fucking electronics!” the guy named Bo shouted, punching the dash with both fists.
The dashboard ignited suddenly and the driver, aghast, nervously turned the ignition key while crushing the gas pedal. The engine awakened at last and the vehicle leapt, almost making the people behind the driver lose their balance.
The comforting view of the silhouettes disappearing on both sides, and the letting go of the
handles, improved the atmosphere inside the van.
A metallic noise grabbed the attention of the passengers. The young black guy looked closer at the right-side window from where the sound had come.
Two hideous eyes appeared and an animal roar made him shiver and get back.
"Hey, what the fuck?" the young man shouted, frowning.
Looking closer, they saw that it was a female zombie. The creature was suspended from the right-side mirror and, its bony hands grabbing onto it, the thing was being dragged by the vehicle.
The long-haired creature looked at them, its skull-like face showing protruding yellowish eyeballs, with their blood vessels reddish and dilated. The thing looked at them with avidity and opened a huge mouth without lips or flesh.
They all became tense as it growled like a panther, preparing to pounce on them.
The branch of a tree beat it in its ugly face and it fell, the right-side mirror remaining in its hand because of the shock.
Reassured, the humans saw now, through the windows, only a deserted wood, and trees passing by as the vehicle gained some speed. They looked at each other and, suddenly, laughed in unison.
The little girl lost her disturbing calm and, relieved after all this stress, giggled too.
While the blond guy named Bo continued to drive with enthusiasm, her attention was caught by something. Through the windscreen and its rusty protective grille she saw a dome appearing over the horizon.
The Asian man knelt near her, his head level with hers, and said calmly, "That's the Community. Your new home."
She turned around and their gaze met for a few seconds.
Then, as impassive as him, she returned her attention toward the dome, which was visibly becoming bigger every second, as they approached. It was illuminated from the inside by what seemed to be public lighting.
Squinting her eyes, she discerned inside the dome, through glass panels inserted on a grid on its surface, many rectangular buildings.
"Blue patrol to the Community," the driver shouted into the microphone of a CB radio, over the vehicle's dashboard. "We have an injured man in need of urgent medical help; please prepare an emergency team before we arrive!"
Hungry Series: Tomes 1 & 2 Page 4
