by T. L. Walker
"We have a holding cell for sick animals. He'll be safe in there, though the best I can do is some blankets on the floor. We don't exactly have a plethora of beds around here."
"Fine. Whatever. I'll need some blankets as well. I'll be staying with him."
Richard glanced at Luke. "That's probably not a good idea."
"Do I look like I give a shit? I'm not leaving him." I refused to complete the thought – that I couldn't leave him to die alone. Not Luke. He deserved better than that.
Especially from me.
The vet shrugged. "I'm well aware that I can't stop you."
"But I can."
We both turned to Luke; I rushed to his side, ready to protest, but he gave me a weak smile and shook his head. "Charlie, you can't be left alone with me, and no one else should be put in that kind of danger. We don't know what will happen."
"I'm staying," I insisted. "You couldn't stop me if you tried."
"Maybe not now–"
"Good, so we can discuss this again when you're better and decide to punish me for not listening to you."
Luke chuckled, but it was half-hearted at best. "When have I ever punished you?"
"Every damn day," I murmured, thinking of how on edge I was regarding him...because in the end, the realization that the thought of losing Luke was more worrisome than anything else about this world in which we’d found ourselves was almost frightening.
Tell the truth...whenever you can justify it.
Chapter 8
Zoo Life
In the end Luke didn’t have enough energy to stop me from bedding down on the floor outside the holding cell. It was a barred-in alcove nestled into the back wall of the room next to the one where Richard had treated him. Though it must not have been scrubbed down in months, it still boasted the faint smell of strong cleaning products, and under that, the unmistakable odor of animals.
"Are you sure you want to stay in here?" Mike asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust.
"Could be worse."
"What about your brother, and Daniel, Lauren, Mabel? What about Holden?"
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Mike...I'm exhausted. And the truth is, I don't want to leave Luke. Plain and simple. If you could make my excuses to the others and look after Holden for the night, I'd really appreciate it. I know you're still not feeling one hundred percent, but...I need tonight. Just in case. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier."
After a long pause, Mike finally nodded. "Okay." He looked over my shoulder at Luke, who was sitting against the far wall of the cage, trying to rest. Or just pretending. "See you in the morning, man," Mike said.
Luke opened his eyes and grimaced. "Yeah, Mike. Of course." But there was no conviction in his words, and with one last worried glance at me, Mike finally turned and left us.
I’m not sure how much time passed; it could have been an hour, or several of them. All I know is that I’d drifted into a restless sleep, but was woken by the sound of slamming doors, followed by Lauren stumbling into the room with Mabel on her hip, practically dragging Holden behind her with the help of a makeshift leash that had been tied to his collar. I hadn’t seen the little girl cry in months, but somehow her wide, frightened gaze was even more disturbing than her tears. Thankfully my dog distracted me by bounding to my side to lick my face like he hadn’t seen me in days.
"What’s wrong?" I pushed Holden away and tried to rub the sleep from my eyes, but I was too groggy and couldn’t focus. It took me a moment to realize that Lauren wasn’t looking at me, but at Luke.
"They sent us to keep an eye on Luke. You’re needed outside. The zeds, Charlie…they’re at the gate, a whole lot of them, and a couple even got into one of the empty cages at the back, too. Virginia said we must have made too much noise today…probably drew them from miles away…"
I was already on my feet."Don’t worry about Luke. He’ll be fine. If he wakes up, tell him I’ll be back soon." I had to hope that would be the case, anyway.
"And if he’s not fine?"
"He is,"I snapped, then paused when I saw the hurt in Lauren’s eyes."But if something happens to him while I’m gone, he’s locked up tight. He can’t hurt you or Mabel, okay? And I’ll leave Holden here with you as well."
She nodded warily, and I took that as my cue to leave. Weapons, weapons, where would they have put our weapons? I had to assume they’d let me use one of theirs if they expected me to help out, but something felt wrong about not having my knife, my gun...even my bat.
I didn’t know the layout of the back half of the zoo, but I knew how to find the front gate. I went there first, sprinting down the path, hoping that I wouldn’t trip over anything considering how dark it was and that I could barely see a foot in front of me.
Virginia was there, ordering Ethan and Mike around in a low hiss. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but as they all seemed to be armed with some sort of prods that had been tipped with knives, it was the work of a moment to figure out that they were jabbing at the zeds through the gate. Thankfully it had been built to keep people out as much as to keep animals in, and even some of the more emaciated zeds were only able to press themselves against the bars in fruitless attempts to get at the fresh meat they sensed just beyond.
"Hey!" I called out, as quietly as I could. Both Mike and Virginia spun around.
"No! Keep at them!" the older woman told him.
I rushed forward."Lauren sent me to help."
"No, no, not here, we can handle this." Virginia turned to stab at another zed.
"I didn’t know where else to go – I don’t know my way around this place!"
"Right." Jab. "Right." Stab. "Ethan, show her to the old giraffe pen."
"Enclosure, mom," Ethan replied, exasperated.
"Go, son,"Virginia insisted."Take your spear."
Spear? "I need something too. You guys took our weapons, remember? "
"Richard and the others have plenty of things for you to use. Now follow him!" Virginia jerked her chin in the direction Ethan was moving. He was walking fast, but unevenly, and I quickly caught up with him.
"How could the zeds have gotten into an enclosure?" I asked as I reached Ethan’s side.
His eyes flicked toward me momentarily, but then he looked straight ahead again, and remained silent.
Shit. Of course he doesn’t know what a zed is."Sorry, the zombies. Undead. Whatever you guys call them. I mean, if they can’t get through the front gate..."
I trailed off. As far as I could see, he wasn’t even really listening. Hearing my words, maybe, but focusing on them? Probably not.
I’d just have to see it for myself.
It was several minutes before we finally caught sight of Daniel. He appeared to be holding a gate shut, and there were several zeds scattered on the ground around him, though thankfully none of them were moving.
"What the hell? Daniel, where’s Joey? And Richard?"
He turned to me, his face pinched and white."In there."
And he gestured at the pen.
"But why?"
"This door’s broken. They needed someone to keep an eye on it, stop more zeds from getting into the zoo this way."
"Wait. Wait. Morezeds? How many got through?" I’d already broken into a cold sweat, and I could feel the adrenaline pumping even harder than just a few moments before.
"Don’t worry, we got the ones who came through already."Daniel nodded at the bodies on the ground."But they’re going to need help. The zeds just keep falling in."
"How?" God, it was like pulling teeth, getting answers from him. And all the while, Ethan was standing off to the side, staring at his ‘spear’ and chewing his lip.
"Jesus, Charlie, I don’t know how this zoo was built. Just get in there and help them!"
"It’s the hillside. The fence up there was just chain link. It probably fell down. They never paid enough attention to it...there were only a couple giraffes in there."
I turned toward Ethan, but bit my tongue and colle
cted myself before simply saying,"I see. Thank you. And this door?"
Ethan peered at it."Broken after," he stated, his voice flat and emotionless.
I knew better than to ask any more questions just now."I need a weapon."
"There." Daniel pointed at what appeared to be a pile of junk just off to the side of the gate. I strode over to it and bent down, my lip curling in distaste.
"You’ve got to be kidding. Where are ourthings?"
"I don’t know, they put them away somewhere, didn’t have time to get them. Shit, Charlie, just pick something and get in there!"
I groaned and snatched up a pair of gardening shears and some sort of post-apocalyptic mace – an aged strip of wood with some nails jutting from one end. Daniel cracked the door open and I slipped through. It clanged shut behind me and when I turned to glare at him I suddenly realized how dark it was.
I froze.
There was a moon tonight, I know there was. It may have only been a half-moon, but it hadn’t been this dark a moment ago.
I could hear the zeds in the pen, their moans punctuated by Joey and Richard’s grunts as they fought. I chanced a look at the sky, which had clouded over in that sudden way of early spring nights in the south. Fuck.
I stepped forward, willing my eyes to adjust. They did, and none too soon – a zed that had gotten past the guys was just a few feet away and coming right at me, its mouth a bloody maw as its grasping hands reached out.
I brought the gardening shears up and drove their tip into the underside of the zed’s chin. Suddenly I stumbled, slamming into the zed and driving it to the ground beneath me. I dropped the strip of wood as I fell, and when I landed on top of the zombie, gardening shears sandwiched between us, I could think only of getting away from its bite. I released my weapon and rolled to the side, but whatever those shears had done was good enough. The zombie lay twitching on the ground, somehow incapacitated but definitely not completely dead. I decided to abandon the shears and scooped the wannabe mace up as I rushed farther into the enclosure, following what I hoped were the sounds of both Joey and Richard still fighting off zeds.
Joey caught sight of me first. He had his back to the hillside, which loomed like a black wall not fifty yards away."Charlie! Finally!" he called out as he slammed what appeared to be a brush axe into a zed’s temple. The weapon lodged there for a moment; Joey leaned back, lifted his right foot, and gave the zed a good hard kick. It fell to the ground, but he almost did, too – I had to jump forward and catch his arm. When he was steady again I let go.
"Dammit, Joey, be careful."
"Are you shitting me?"
I spun him around to face the hillside."That’s where they’re coming from?"
He nodded.
"Then don’t turn your back on it. Otherwise, nice work right there." He hadn’t actually been very smart in his handling of that zed, but at the moment I figured it was better to praise him rather than nitpick.
Joey pointed off to the left with his weird little axe."Come on. They’re getting in over here. Thank God Ethan reminded Richard that this area wasn’t well contained. We got the few that had stumbled through the broken gate, but they’ve been pouring in pretty regularly thanks to all the noise. It only just started slowing down a bit. That’s why I was over there, chasing a few of the wanderers."
By now we were moving slowly; the closer we got to the breach in the hilltop fence, there were more zeds littering the ground – and I could see movement here and there that proved they weren’t all rendered harmless.
As the first drops of rain pattered down on my head, Richard staggered into my path, lurching away from one zed as he bludgeoned a second one on the head with a hammer. Wonder if it’s the same hammer they used to make this piece of shit, I thought to myself as my half-assed mace connected with the first zombie’s neck. I’d been startled, though, and my swing wasn’t hard enough – this zed was moving slower than the others, and its neck was still meaty. A new one. I almost lost myself for a moment there, wondering who it had been not so long ago...but my blow had only knocked it from its path, and I quickly collected myself, stepping forward to drive the nail-tipped end of my weapon into its face.
Richard was bent over double, clutching his chest."Someone needs to get up there,"he wheezed, pointing at the hillside,"and fix that fence."
"Not gonna happen until the morning, Doc,"I replied as the rain began to fall in earnest."Take a break. Joey and I’ve got this for now. He said it’s slowing down?"
The veterinarian nodded. I could see in his eyes that he didn’t want to give up, but at the very least he was having some sort of asthma or panic attack. At the worst...
He’s fine. Anyway, you’ve got bigger problems right now. And I did – I could see the glints of metal a few dozen feet above where the fence was mangled and collapsed. Just now, though, it was quiet. “I’ll watch the fence,” I told Joey. “Take care of the ones that are still...moving. But do it fast.”
I was surprised when my brother obeyed without question. Richard had backed even further away, but I could still hear him gasping for air."Try to make less noise," I hissed. If the zeds heard the sounds that they associated with food, they would come. If they heard other zeds moaning, they would come. Thank God no one’s been stupid enough to use a gun.
"Richard,"I murmured. Then again, when he didn’t respond:"Richard!"
"Yes, yes, what?" he finally grunted between breaths.
"I know we need to fix the fence, but first can we find a way to bar that gate? At least then we can keep them contained and not need so many of us dealing with this. You’ll have to do it; none of us will know where to find anything. Joey and I can handle this ourselves for a bit, but you need to figure that out quickly. Please," I added as an afterthought.
"I – right, yes, of course. There’s a storage building..."
"That’s all well and good, but we don’t need to know the details. Just take care of it, okay?" I was almost surprised at how nice I was being when every part of my body was tensed for attack. I heard Richard murmur his assent and move off.
Suddenly I realized how weary I was. The adrenaline that had been pumping through me just moments before must have run its course, and I found myself reaching up to rub the back of my hand across my eyes, cringing at the stench of the zombie goo that had caked my sleeve and splattered all over my skin.
When was the last time I slept through an entire night? I couldn’t remember, and tonight was proving to be as bad as – or worse than – those in recent memory.
Joey stepped up beside me, wiping the flat of his blade on his pants."I think they’re all deaddead now,"he informed me. But I didn’t respond, which prompted him to ask,"You okay?"
“Yeah. Just tired.”
"Well it’s about time. I’ve been exhausted for months."
I snorted. I knew he was just trying to lighten the mood, but at the moment I couldn’t handle it."I’m only human, Joey."
"Could have fooled me. Especially these last few months. I really didn’t want to have to call you out here to help us, but when it got to the point where I didn’t think Richard and I could handle it on our own, I had to send Lauren for you. Plus it was the only way to get her to take Mabel away from this. She didn’t want to leave Daniel."
"You guys seemed to be doing okay." It was only half a lie; they’d certainly taken care of the majority of the zeds without my help.
"Only because they finally stopped pouring through that hole like an undead waterfall."
"Undead waterfall?"I repeated, choking back a laugh."That’s horrible. Though it would maybe make a great parody song...you know, don’t go chasin’ undead waterfalls...stick to the – "
“Aren’t you just hilarious," Joey interrupted, shaking his head, but I could see that he was having trouble holding back a chuckle. "That’s what it looked like, and that’s all I’m gonna say about it. Honestly, we’re just lucky that Ethan reminded us the gate to this pen was broken. We barely made it back here
in time to contain them at all. I don’t know, Charlie. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea. Clearly the noise from earlier today is what drew the zeds to the zoo in the first place, and who knows when that damn elephant will get loose again. And it’s not as if we can even count on their fences." He jerked his head toward the hillside.
"I never said we needed to stay here forever,"I assured him."But Richard may be able to help Luke. I can’t discount that and just run away again at the first sign of danger."
Joey’s eyes sought mine; they were shining in the dark, his eyelashes clumped together from the rain."Charlie...that’s the problem. You don’t run away from danger anymore. You seek it out." I stared at him for a long moment, my jaw clenched as I tried to think of a response, anyresponse – but suddenly he whipped his head around to look at the hillside."Did you hear that?"
I followed his gaze and concentrated on listening; for a moment all I heard was the sound of raindrops hitting leaves and ground and the bodies around us. But then there it was – the low, keening moans of a group of zeds. But how many? A few? A dozen? More? "Maybe the rain will confuse them now that it’s quiet down here," I whispered. My brother nodded, but I could tell his hopes weren’t high.
A minute passed, then two, and I was about to breathe a bit more easily when I heard the cracks and snaps of brush and branches. And then there they were – one, two, three, four, five zeds, stumbling through the break in the fence, tumbling and sliding down the hillside. The fall held them up, and I began to step forward in hopes of taking them out while they were partially incapacitated, but Joey stuck out an arm to stop me.
"There could be more."
As much as I hated the idea of waiting, of allowing the zeds to haul themselves to their feet and move toward us, I knew that he was right. I nodded and tightened my grip on the end of my makeshift mace.
"Don’t swing until you see the whites of their eyes," Joey mumbled.
That time, I couldn’t help but laugh.
