The young driver fell silent and smiled timidly at the two black people that he could see in the rear-view mirror.
They didn’t respond, visibly pissed off at him. Like all the others, they preferred to remain silent, while watching the impressive scene of the giant dome through the windscreen.
The group was especially satisfied to come back alive, with some exceptions...
The young black guy, worried, took a discreet peek at his father. The latter was sitting on the metallic floor and sweating, the handkerchief on his calf red, despite the special liquid bandage. The black colossus appeared blank, clearly depressed.
***
Community
The small van slowed down while approaching one of the high walls surrounding the dome of the Community.
The little girl watched the structure, fascinated, observing what looked like many high watchtowers on its frame. Something moved on top of one of the towers, and they were all suddenly dazzled by a powerful beam of light.
Wincing while trying to see through the dirty windshield, the child saw that the beam was coming from a huge mobile projector.
It was moving, following automatically their vehicle’s every movement.
She saw that other beams were coming from the other watchtowers, sweeping the dark surroundings at ground level.
Finally, the van stopped, the now immobile beam continuing to illuminate it.
Getting used to the intensity of the light, the little girl realized that they were at the foot of really gigantic, cyclopean walls. That’s when she perceived another movement and, in the rather dark zone just in front of them, she saw a vertical slit of light appear.
The slit progressively became larger and larger, resembling more, now, an enlarging rectangle, until she understood what she was watching. Double swing doors, huge and metallic, in front of them, were slowly opening outwards, revealing, through the gap between them, an interior space lit by artificial light.
All at once, human silhouettes ran through the gap and quickly surrounded the van.
The child saw that they were men in battle dress, armed with rifles, and that they were aiming them toward the vehicle.
"Don't be afraid, they're friends. Security check."
The little girl looked at the driver who had spoken and was now smiling at her, clearly wanting to reassure her.
She nodded affirmatively, staying impassive, and turned her attention again to the guards outside.
The armed men made a full inspection of the van, obviously vigilant and ready to shoot. One of them stood in front of the vehicle and looked through the windscreen. Suspicious, he stared one by one at each passenger visible through the windshield and its grid. The armed men were clearly ready to shoot at anything non-human which may have taken a ride aboard the vehicle.
The child looked at the driver named Bo and the young black guy.
They were sweating a bit, and she sensed it was because they may be frightened.
These realizations made her understand that errors could occur and be accepted here, even collateral losses, as her father had explained to her. He had explained to her that he had seen a friend shoot to death a living man one night. The involuntary murderer had thought that a zombie was leaping out of a shrub to attack him. And the poor guy had felt guilt during his remaining life… which hadn’t lasted very long, by the way…
Her parents, she knew, had told her many terribly stories of that kind, not to give her nightmares, but to prepare her to survive in a very, very hard world.
She suddenly focused her attention through the windshield, to see what was happening outside.
Finally, the man standing in front of the small van, who seemed to be giving orders, made a thumbs-up and, moving to the side, gestured to invite them to enter through the huge doors, which opened now completely.
A big smile on his badly shaved face, the blond man stepped enthusiastically on the gas pedal, and at last they entered inside.
That's when roars came from everywhere.
As soon as the vehicle had passed the gigantic doors, the armed men had run just behind it. Then, the double doors began to slowly close inwards behind them, while growls became louder and louder.
Someone yelled and a last guard leapt through the closing gap, losing his rifle on the dirty ground and falling on his belly.
In the left-hand mirror, the little red-haired girl saw, behind them, through the gap diminishing between the doors, hundreds of zombies coming out of the nearby bushes and from behind the many trees.
The security section which had let the van enter posted in front of the slowly diminishing gap and seemed to survey it.
Many projectors were now illuminating the scene, with so much intensity that it was as if it was during the day.
Just as the doors were going to completely close, she glimpsed hundreds more of the horrific creatures coming from everywhere. They were attracted by the Community like iron to magnets.
Mechanical sounds drew the girl’s attention. Looking at the double doors from where the sounds had come, she was impressed by giant hydraulic pistons. These were now completing closing the doors, hiding at last the hellish vision which was outside.
She gasped as she saw dozens of hands appear through the now narrow interstice between the doors. Some of them were bony, others were better preserved, but their owners clearly had the same objective: avoiding the closing of the doors and entering the inner courtyard where the humans were.
The doors began to slowly open outwards again, provoking a real panic among the guards, who began to aim at the gap and shoot through it. The noise made by the gigantic pistons increased, becoming deafening now.
The people inside the van watched them with the child, apprehension visible on their faces.
“No!” shouted the young colored guy, opening horrified eyes, as the pistons began to tremble under the immense pressure exerted by the things outside. The mechanical devices composed of many geared wheels vibrated while turning, and began emitting smoke.
The gap was visibly widening now, and the gunshots of the guards through the gap doubled in frequency, for nothing.
“They’re going to enter!” yelled Harry who, unstable on his legs and his rifle in his arms, was ready to go to help them.
Fear was apparent on the faces of everyone, apart from the red-haired girl and the Asian man, who watched the scene, impassive.
Suddenly a torrent of fire shot at the door, bumping off the metallic doors when it missed the ever-widening gap.
Looking upwards, the passengers saw that the fire was coming from a big automatic machinegun on one of the towers, which was spitting fire like hell. Many putrid-looking hands let loose of the door and disappeared through the gap, which was now closing again inwards.
The pistons and their mechanisms, now devoid of any smoke, emitted a less dramatic noise and worked without shaking, as the gap was finally closing.
The yelling guard who, earlier, had jumped through it, a Hispanic, and who was the closest to the door, stood up and smiled. He turned to his comrades who were behind him and picked his rifle up, clearly satisfied with the way things had gone.
Something squeezed itself through the now narrow interstice and leapt toward the guard, who because of the surprise fell on his back and lost his rifle. It was a zombie. This one looking more like a skeleton than all the others she had seen.
It stopped immobile over the guard, blocked at its waist-level by the giant closing doors. The living dead was dangling over him, the upper part of its body, with its ribs and spine, visible. It was in a horizontal position over the terrorized man, while its pelvis was caught between the double doors, which were almost closed.
The man's comrades watched the scene on both sides, pointing at the creature with their weapons. One of them generated a clicking sound when he loaded his weapon, targeting precisely the head of the thing.
Another man shouted at him, "Don't shoot, Antonio is too near, you may hurt him!"
>
The other man refrained from firing and sighed with frustration.
The thing opened a gaping mouth while looking with its empty orbits at the man named Antonio, while the pressure on its captive pelvis continued to increase, its bones beginning to crack. It tried to bend sufficiently down toward the prone man but was unable to reach him, despite its jaws and claw-like bony fingers at a few centimeters from his sweating face.
A cheek on the ground, he viewed the creature from the side. He pressed the side of his face as firmly as possible against the dirty ground. Slowly, he began to crawl on his back, in order to get out of the reach of the undead.
The passengers of the van, which was parked, had exited it and were watching the scene with intensity.
The young colored man and the blond driver aimed rifles toward the creature, but were also frightened of harming the man.
The latter was now almost completely out of the reach of the zombie, which screeched and roared, trying to grab him.
"Phew, he's safe!" the driver said, lowering his firearm.
That's when a big crack was heard and the pelvis of the creature was completely crushed. This freed its spine and the upper part of the thing with it, and it fell on the man's legs.
Frightened, he yelled as the creature clung to his agitated legs, crawling on him.
It growled excitedly while rising toward his male chest, despite his efforts to repel it. The thing finally came to a standstill over its prey. The empty orbits of its skull seemed to be watching, beneath it, the frightened face of Antonio, who closed his eyes, horrified. The creature opened a huge mouth, showing its teeth along with a mix of red-dark mucus and saliva.
All of a sudden its skull plunged toward the yelling man’s face.
The zombie's head exploded with a boom which startled the little girl as pieces of rotten brain and bones rained on the man's face.
He groaned loudly, disgusted, while dark and reddish fluids flew in his eyes, nose, and mouth. He spat and sneezed, wiping his eyes, visibly blinded by the dark fluids.
The girl turned around and saw the smoking canon of a rifle near her, aiming at the prone man. Following the shotgun barrel with her gaze, she saw the big black man standing behind her, the weapon in his hands. She looked down and saw that the big man had let the handkerchief fall on the ground, and that blood had begun again to pour out of his ugly wound, despite the special liquid patch.
His son followed her gaze and gasped, surprise on his face. He leaned over and attached more strongly the piece of tissue around his dad's calf.
The man called Antonio shouted again, making a pout of disgust.
Laughter erupted from around him and he gazed unhappily at his comrades near him, who found his situation so funny. The group accompanying the little red-haired girl laughed too, and even she smiled.
"Help me to get rid of this junk off me, instead of laughing like idiots!" he pointed an index finger at the headless body lying on him, now completely immobile.
The men stopped laughing but continued to smile while they lifted together the skeleton-like remains a few centimeters higher, freeing Antonio.
He then wiped his face with a handkerchief, wincing.
Suddenly the two bony arms of the beheaded creature extended and were agitated, moving randomly in front of the thing.
This surprised the man who gasped and dropped the handkerchief when he was touched by the pointed ends of the phalanges. The cold hands took the man’s wrists, and he struggled to free himself again, while what remained of the bottom part of the skull, with its jaws, opened and plunged toward his neck.
A violent boot kicked the side of the visible rib cage of the creature and it fell beside Antonio, who quickly crawled further away. He looked at the man who had saved him, who was one of his bearded comrades.
The torso without a pelvis rolled on its back and its bony arms had spasmodic movements in every direction, trying to grab any human prey in its surroundings. It seized the leg of the bearded man who now put his boot on its sternum and the jaws opened, ready to bite, despite its lack of upper skull and eyes.
"Come off it!!" shouted the smirking guard. He forced with the barrel of his rifle what remained of the jaws and head to turn on the side, pressed onto the dirty soil, and pulled the trigger.
The powerful gunshot made the creature free the leg and the remains of the jaw literally exploded in a myriad of pieces, leaving the now neatly beheaded zombie with only its cervical vertebrates. Nevertheless, the thing continued to move its arms randomly in all the directions, while the bearded man in uniform scowled at it and finally grinned.
The one who seemed to be the chief of the guards approached him and said, "You’ve wasted valuable ammunition. Stop. It’s over!"
The rough-looking man looked back at his superior with disgust, his hatred for the zombies clearly visible on his face, but said nothing.
While the living dead uselessly continued to wiggle on the ground, he approached Antonio who was wiping his face with his hands and gave him a clean handkerchief.
The dirty Hispanic guy murmured a little ‘thank you’, and cleaned his face with it.
The bearded man chuckled and said, "Well, you’ve had your baptism!"
The other men laughed again.
Anger appeared on Antonio's face and he threw the now dirty piece of paper toward the bearded man's face, who dodged it easily, provoking even more laughter. The group with the little girl laughed again.
"Well, he can be glad it finished almost as if he was the victim of a practical joke," the young driver said, "He may have been wounded and infected and... ouch!"
An elbow of the Asian man near him had hit some of his ribs, and the blond guy looked surprised at him.
That was before he had remarked that the young black guy was scowling at him. His impressive father was looking at the ground, his moral clearly as low as his rifle which was now also pointing toward the ground.
"So... sorry..." murmured the young man, finally falling silent, angry gazes at him telling him he should not say anything more.
The little girl saw the young colored man put a sympathetic hand on one of his dad's shoulders, who responded by giving him a little smile.
"Dad!"
This female voice surprised the child who, turning her head, looked toward where it had come from.
An elegant silhouette had come out of one of the nearest buildings, having a smooth and light gait. A few seconds later, she was able to better see the approaching person, who was now illuminated by the feeble glow of an urban lighting, using low energy LED lamps. She then saw a beautiful young Asian woman arriving.
Further away under the dim light, they saw a group of persons exit another building while pushing something, a group which ran toward them.
"You're OK, Dad?” the soft voice of the young woman, which didn’t have any foreign accent, grabbed the attention of the little girl.
The woman continued, “I heard someone at the CB saying that someone had been wounded, or something like that."
"Harry was bitten, he has a bad wound on one of his calves"
"Bitten?"
The cervical vertebrae of the woman almost cracked, because of her rapidly turning her head toward the big black man.
He was now sweating more than ever, his eyes looking down toward the ground, and he had to be supported by his son, who was unstable because of the weight.
A rolling noise was suddenly heard and a gurney for patients borne by castors arrived. It was pushed by the upcoming group which was composed of three male nurses, who stopped near the newly arrived group.
"Everything's OK, we'll take care of him now," said one of the three, a strong chestnut-haired man, to the young black guy. He took Harry’s free arm on his shoulders and, helping the son to support his father, they helped him to lie on the bed.
The impressive man sighed with relief when he was installed and fastened on the bed. The nurses then immediately ran away as fast as they could, sin
ce he was very heavy, pushing the bed toward the building further in front of them.
The little girl guessed it was probably the Community's hospital. Watching them disappear in the building through double automatic swing doors, the little red-haired girl felt extremely worried for Harry, as if he was a member of her late family. She was surprised by her feelings, but told herself that, despite the fact that he was a complete stranger to her, he had taken many risks, like the others, in order to save her.
She suddenly felt a kind hand on one of her shoulders.
Happy to see that, this time, it wasn't the bony hand of a zombie but one of a human, complete with its skin, flesh and blood, she raised her head.
She then saw the wonderful smiling face of the Asian man's daughter, and smiled back. This young woman, who had a dark and soft look and was crouched near her, had her sweet face at the same level as the girl’s. She was beautiful and friendly at the same time, and the child knew, all of a sudden, that she already loved her, the kind of love one feels for one’s mother.
"You've finally arrived at your new home, honey."
The little girl looked at her intensely without answering. Many seconds passed.
And all of a sudden, she burst into tears, falling into the woman's arms, crying. Not that she felt safe; all those horrors, all that terrible loss of her family, all those emotions pervaded her mind and her heart.
The young blond guy, touched, said, "Don't cry, everything's OK, and..."
He shut up when he saw the old Asian man put a finger in front of his own lips while glaring at him.
"Yes, cry, honey, it will do you some good, after everything you’ve endured," the young woman said, and she let the child continue to cry against her for many minutes.
The old man and the driver walked away while two mechanics drove the van inside a nearby garage.
Finally, the little red-haired girl stopped crying and, wiping her green eyes with the back of her hands, she and the woman glanced at each other.
The Asian woman smiled again at her and asked, "What's your name, your first name? Mine is Mei."
Hungry Series: Tomes 1 & 2 Page 5
