Z Strain

by SJ Morris

  Additionally, truth be told, I would eat canned sardines over any MRE, most days.

  After breakfast, we gathered up all the batteries, flashlights, lighters, and anything else we thought might be useful on our trip back to the cabin.

  I found a pen and some paper to write a note that the house had been cleared of infected, there were two dead upstairs, there was food in the pantry, and plenty of hot water to shower.

  I didn’t know what date it was, but I figured we were probably still in the month of May, so I dated it June 2016.

  I grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer and I posted the note to the front door with it. I saw no need for others to not take advantage of what was still in the house. If there were any others around, that was.

  We checked the back windows to see if there were any infected outside and when we were satisfied it was clear, we headed to the barn.

  I pulled away the wood plank that secured the doors and was greeted by the foul smell of the infected.

  I turned to Kamil and Dana and made the motion for them to back up, so they slowly eased away from the barn doors.

  Dana ran back into the house but Kamil stayed by my side, pitchfork in hand.

  We continued to back up together, slowly, as a low moan came from the inside of the barn.

  I felt so defeated. All I wanted to do was scream and open fire on whatever was in the barn becauseit sure as hell wasn’t alive anymore.

  Kamil tapped my shoulder and pointed to the open door.

  Aggravated, I decided to speed this up a little.

  “Come on out, assholes! You already ate our horses, so now you can come out, and I can end you!”I yelled.

  “What the fuck are you doing? Are you crazy?”Kamil asked, hitting me in the shoulder.

  Just as he finished his question one of the infected walked through the barn door. He was bloated and covered in fresh blood, with pieces of flesh hanging from his mouth and hands.

  “Give me the pitchfork, please and go inside with Dana. Make sure she doesn’t start screaming, attracting every infected in the area. I’ll take care of whatever’s in the barn.”

  “Are you sure? I can help, you know.”

  “I know, but if they don’t like me, then I’m going to use that to make sure you guys are safe. Now, get in the house, please.”

  With that, Kamil handed me the pitchfork and turned to walk back to the house.

  The movement Kamil made and the sound of our talking had excited the overfed zombie and he started to shuffle faster, in my direction.

  As he cleared the doorway, into the bright morning sun, another four followed behind him.

  They were just as bloated as the first and this filled me with absolute rage. We had saved these horses yesterday, only to lock them in a barn, to be eaten hours later.

  Flashes of the field of mutilated sheep popped in my head, then, the bodies of Liam and Ben picked clean to the bone, the little dead infected girl with the unicorn stuffed animal, and finally, little Cooper.

  Cooper, who I had known for a short time as a scared little boy, was turned into a vicious monster that killed his own mother because of this man-made virus. All I wanted to do was destroy these things that were taking everything from everyone.

  I clutched the pitchfork in both my hands and snapped the handle over my knee. I slammed the sharp, end of the broken wood into the first infected.

  I yanked the wooden stake I had created out of its head before he even hit the ground and jammed the pitchfork end up, into the throat of the next closest infected.

  I walked closer to the barn door and the encroaching infected. I slammed the stake into the ear of one and leaned down to grab the pitchfork out of the other.

  I came up and used the forks like a blade, slicing it across the throat of the next two I could find, almost decapitating them.

  I walked further inside the barn and with the morning sun coming through the broken back door, I saw that there were more infected inside, but they were still gorging themselves on the horses, so they couldn't be bothered to notice little old me; not like they cared for me anymore anyway. I took my time and found another scythe, hanging on the barn wall.

  After a moment of indecision, I discarded my pitchfork and stake for the newly acquired weapon and I sliced my way through each and every infected that was left in the barn.

  I don’t even recall how many there were, but even when they were gone, I found that I was still furious.

  I wished there were more of them to kill.

  However, it didn’t take long for my adrenaline to start to wane and when it did, my ribs began to throb with pain, bringing me back to reality.

  I slowly walked out of the barn, now realizing I was covered in black infected blood. I did a quick scan of the outside and I didn’t see any more, so I started walking up to the door. Kamil opened it and immediately brought his arm to his face trying to shield himself from the smell. He just looked at me. Dana came to the door with a towel, handing it to me so I could wipe off as much gore as possible before going inside.

  “The horses…Are any of them okay?”She asked quietly.

  “No, I’m sorry Dana. They were all killed, but there are no more infected in the barn now. I think I’m going to get washed up. We should leave on foot as soon as possible.”

  Kamil and Dana stood aside, as I threw the now disgusting towel outside, before walking in, past them.

  I walked right into the bathroom and took my third shower in the last twelve hours.

  This time, though, I barely felt the hot water as I cleaned myself. I just felt numb. The only thing I felt was anger and a burning rage.

  My first priority was to get home, to make sure my children and the others were safe, but then I was going to do everything possible to find out why Liam had a map with those locations circled and question-marked.

  I wanted to do this, because somehow, I felt finding the answers to the map would lead me closer to the vile pieces of shit that created the Z-Strain.

  Liam knew my husband, so they could have worked with the same people that knew about the virus at some point.

  Once I found them, or whoever was left of those who were responsible, they were going to pay dearly for what they had done. I knew, even then that my vote to vengeance seemed like a far-fetched idea, with the world the way it was, currently.

  With no communication capabilities and traveling being extremely difficult, it seemed impossible. Yet, I refused to be deterred.

  I was going to do everything in my power to make those responsible, pay for what they had done, even if it killed me.

  I didn’t care.

  With my newfound ability, I felt, now, more than ever that I had a duty and responsibility that was far higher than myself.

  With this in mind, I unpacked my leathers and found a t-shirt in the laundry room that smelled as fresh as it could be, after sitting for weeks and got dressed.

  I found Dana and Kamil sitting in the kitchen quietly.

  They had all their bags ready to go by the door and as soon as I walked in the room Kamil stood up and grabbed their belongings, eager to leave.

  “Ready to go, I guess?”I asked him.

  “Yep. You said as soon as possible, so we're good to go.”

  “Look, guys, I’m sorry about before, if I came off a little cold, but I just want to be sure all three of us get to the cabin safe and sound. I’m tired of seeing so much useless death and it kind of got to me.”

  “No need to apologize.”Said Dana.“We’ve all been through a lotand we worked so hard to get the horses safe…To find them gone is a blow to each of us. Like you said, it’s just another loss on a growing list of useless deaths. We’ll get through this, though. We’ll make it to your cabin. I just know it.”

  I had nothing to say to that.

  I thought if I did say something, it would just ruin the positive moment, so I just grabbed my pack and we headed out the door.

  We walked down the driveway and
looked up and down the street, to make sure there were no infected we were going to have to deal with, and thankfully, there were none.

  We walked for hours until the sun was high in the sky.

  In that time, we only came across a few infected, here and there, but they were only in groups of two or three.

  Fortunately, it seemed the ones we came into contact with were fairly deteriorated and easy enough for me to take out with the pitchfork.

  The scythe, like my old ax, made too much of a mess, I found.

  We had at least one thing going for us today, no newly infected... So far.

  We stopped on a small bridge, next to a sign that said we were only a mile away from Route 206.

  This put us in good spirits, so we could kind of enjoy lunch.

  We sat down on the small bridge, overlooking a creek, and actually found it genuinely peaceful.

  The birds were chirping, the wind was blowing softly, and the sun was warm on my skin.

  In a way, it was like nothing had happened.

  The serenity that I felt at that moment made it seem as though, somehow, we had all simply awoke from a terrible nightmare; like the dead didn’t start eating the living and all was still well in the world.

  I guess, if you take most of the human population out of the mix, nature can thrive again.

  Yet, still being centered in our terrible reality, it was hard to see that a world with so much chaos and loss, could still be such a beautiful place. It felt like with everything that happened, we should be living in some dirty, Mad Max movie remake and we weren’t.

  It didn’t seem fair, that with all of the death and destruction, blood and gore, that the world still remained such a beautiful place.

  We sat down to lunch and decided to make it a quick one since we had so much luck not running into a large number of infected yet.

  We didn’t want to tempt fate, after all.

  Plus, it was a nice warm day, but not too hot, so it was comfortable conditions for all the walking we were doing.

  So, I grabbed a few granola bars from my bag, as well as my water and sat at the edge of the bridge to eat.

  Kamil and Dana seemed to be giving me my space earlier but eventually decided to join me at the edge of the bridge.

  We were eating and chatting quietly when I heard a noise. It sounded like a soft shuffling, coming from under the bridge.

  Disillusioned by the peace we had found, at first, I attributed the noise to birds and said nothing.

  However, then I heard it again and started to listen more closely.

  “I think it may be a good idea to hurry up and finish what you’re eating. It sounds like we’re about to have company.”I said in a quiet whisper.

  “What is it? Do you hear something?”Dana asked as she pulled her feet back from over the edge of the bridge like I would have pulled my feet in from over the edge of a bed.

  She looked around with wide eyes and Kamil just sat there, frozen. It was like my words were the pause button on his own personal body remote, even though he was in mid-chew, which almost made me laugh, since he had his eyes closed, giving an awkward look to his face.

  “I hear it too.”Kamil finally whispered.“It’s coming from under the bridge.”

  I stood up slowly and leaned over the bridge as far as I could until I saw the very back of what looked to be a station wagon.

  It was covered in mud and debris, but then, I saw our saving grace and I almost yelled hooray! There were four bicycles on the roof rack of the vehicle, that appeared to be stuck in the muddy stream the bridge was covering.

  They glistened in the sun like they were calling out to us to rescue them. I looked back to the car and saw the origin of the noises we heard.

  It was a small child that appeared to still be belted into his booster seat. He was infected and was now trying to reach out the slightly open window, to get out. I guess it heard us talking and probably smelled us too. It didn’t see us yet, so it didn’t let out any moans, alerting other infected that might be in the area, but who knew how long that was going to last.

  What was it with me finding infected kids in this mess? I thought angrily.

  Did I already say if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all?

  This time, though, it was going to have to be me. I was going to have to do this. I was going to have to destroy a child that couldn’t have been more than six or seven, by the size of him. I felt responsible for Cooper but I had not actually done the deed, so this was going to be difficult, to say the least.

  I told Kamil and Dana to stay up on the bridge, that I would go down and take care of the infected in the car. I figured if the infected didn’t care about me, it would be easier for me to dispatch it quietly, without giving it the chance to moan and warn others in the area.

  Kamil begrudgingly agreed. He didn’t seem to like letting me do most of the dirty work, but he understood my reasons.

  We needed to keep each other safe and I was our best bet right now.

  I climbed down the side of the bridge where the grass was so overgrown, it reached my shoulders. I had my trusty stake in-hand, ready to take care of the little threat in the car.

  I washed it off but the black blood of the infected from the barn had seeped into the wood and it smelled God-awful.

  Yet, with being around it so much, I actually started to get used to the smell. That was almost just as scary as the undead themselves.

  The mud got thicker the further down I got, and I finally fell on my ass, sliding the rest of the way down the small hill in the mud. The noise from my fall was heard by the infected in the car and I heard a loud moan for my welcoming.

  I jumped up as quickly as possible and ran for the car. I tried the door handle, but it was locked. There was not enough room for me to stake the little guy through the window so I was going to have to find a way to get in.

  I got lucky. The front door was unlocked.

  I opened the door and the infected started thrashing wildly. It was reaching out to the sound, as its eyes were completely clouded over with decay. The more it thrashed the more skin and muscle tissue was pulled away from its little body by the seatbelt that was restraining it, for the time being, making it look even more grotesque with each jarring movement.

  I held my breath and climbed in the front seat, with my stake raised to strike.

  What used to be a little boy, was now moaning loudly and reaching in my general direction, spurting black blood everywhere.

  I had to make it quick, so I just closed my eyes and stabbed. I felt the stake hit something and heard the crushing sounds of what I now knew to be the skull crumpling.

  The moaning stopped instantly, so without opening my eyes, I yanked the stake back, and climbed out of the car, closing the door as quietly as I could.

  The boys moaning probably had every infected in a two-mile radius heading in our direction, so I yelled for Kamil and Dana to come down and help get the bikes off the roof of the car.

  They came down in the same careful fashion as I did, on their asses in the mud.

  Once they got up, they were rushing to help me get the bikes down. They both heard the moan from the one I had just dispatched and knew that to be the call for others to head this way.

  Also, the look on my face sealed the deal that we needed to get what we came for and get the hell out of here as quickly as possible.

  There were two adult bikes and two kids’bikes.

  I gave Kamil and Dana the adult bikes, while I took the purple Huffy since I was only 5’5.

  Kamil insisted that we check the trunk for anything we might need and I agreed but said he could do the honors. I had enough of being in that car for one lifetime.

  “Hey, guys, I found one of those child carrier things that you hook to the back of the bike. Help me get it out and we can put all of our gear inside. It’ll be much easier to ride without all these packs.”Kamil said happily.

  I think that was the first time I s
aw him actually smile.

  “You two get it out and hooked up. I’ll take a walk around, to be sure no infected come up on us.”I replied.

  I still wanted nothing to do with that car, but with all of the moaningthe little one did, I was sure we were going to have visitors. I just didn’t know how soon we’d have them and I wanted to be sure I saw them before they saw us.

  I walked around the front of the car and stood quietly. I tried to listen as hard as I could to the trees, as I looked for anything moving in the dense vegetation surrounding the creek-bed.

  I didn’t see or hear anything, except Kamil cursing that it was so difficult to hook the damn buggy up.

  It was comforting to listen to Kamil and Dana bicker about putting something together. I remembered doing that with Jack every time we bought a new piece of furniture or toys for the kids that needed to be put together.

  He always laid out every piece that was in the kit, each screw or nail had its special pile so he could make sure we had all the pieces required as per the instructions.

  I was always more of a give me the instructions and grab the pieces as I went, or I’ll just do what I think is right to make the pieces look like the picture on the box kind of girl, which drove Jack nuts. I was remembering when we got the crib for Lance when I heard a noise coming from the woods.

  I looked up and scanned the area, but saw nothing. I continued to hear movement, though.

  “We really need to hurry up and get out of here, guys. It sounds like we’re going to have company any minute.”I said quietly as I grabbed my pack and mounted my pretty, new, purple, bicycle.

  “I’ve almost got it on. One last screw should do it. Dana, why don’t you put yours and my bag in the carrier and get the other bike, so as soon as I am done, we can leave.”

  Dana nodded in agreement as she grabbed the bags and tossed them in the carrier. She looked around and then at me, with worried eyes.

  “Do you see any of them yet?”She asked.

  “No, not yet, but I hear them in the woods ahead of us. We still have to get the bikes back up the hill to get on the road so we need to get moving. If I can hear them, that means they’re pretty close.”

  “I have a really bad feeling about this. We haven’t seen that many zeds all day, but that scares me more than it makes me happy.”Dana whispered.