“Is everyone okay?” I asked as we continued to scan around us and catch our breath.
Everyone confirmed that they were fine, although Eric was now a little worse for wear and covered in filth. We all took turns reloading and began making our way towards the pharmacy. When we got there I was surprised to find a roll grate locked down onto the counter, keeping us from jumping over. I lit a flare to give us some light, as it was difficult to see if there was another way in. As I wedged the flare into a metal display as a makeshift wall torch, I jumped back as a pair of sunken glistening eyes peered back at me from behind the grate.
“Help me…” she tried to yell in a raspy voice, which came out as an almost inaudible whisper. She dropped to the ground out of sight behind the counter.
Tool and Jamie got to work on the grate with the pry bars, forcing the locking mechanism free. As they pushed the gate up I reached up onto the counter to leap over.
“Wait!” Tool yelled as he grabbed my arm, “you are just going to jump over and into the dark after that creepy ass bitch?”
What Tool said was cold, but he was right. Times weren’t what they used to be and things were much more complicated than they appeared on the surface. But that didn’t change the fact that we were four heavily armed men and this was one weak and malnourished fellow human being asking for our help, and I felt I had to act fast and help in any way possible.
Before I could pull my arm away, Eric was already hopping over the counter. He slid across and came down hard on the other side. We heard a small thud when he landed and the “whoops” we heard him mutter didn’t make us feel that things went well on the other side.
“You okay?” I asked as we all made our way over the counter.
“Yeah,” Eric replied, “I’m fine. I think that I landed on her. She didn’t make it.”
Eric had his small penlight illuminating the ground behind the counter. What it revealed was a tall and emaciated woman with long dark hair, lying on her back with her now empty eyes staring up into the void.
“You killed her?” Tool asked.
“Oh,” Eric snapped back, “now you care about the ‘creepy bitch’? If it wasn’t for you holding Griff back she would probably still be alive!”
Tool stepped towards Eric and I quickly got between them.
“That’s enough,” I said as I pushed them apart, “she was probably dead before she hit the ground. By the looks of her, she had probably been trying to hold out here a while. At least she’s finally free of this nightmare. Did you check her for bite marks Eric?”
BOOM!
We all jumped back and nearly lost our balance as Tool’s shotgun went off, sending shards of floor tile and brain matter back up at us. Through the haze of the blast, and the residual flare smoke, Eric shined his flashlight to reveal the headless corpse that remained at our feet. Strands of black hair had been flung everywhere with the skull fragments, attaching to us like cobwebs.
“There,” Tool said, “she’s been checked.”
Talk about your mix of emotions that scenario left me with. I was terrified of what we were becoming in this apocalypse, yet felt thankful for our evolution into a survival mode. We were becoming more callous with each outing.
Survival didn’t fit into the old social norms. There has always been a line between life and death, of right and wrong. That line had always been thick with religious ritual and spiritual meaning. Where life was, and where it ended, was usually filled with reflection and a rite of passage. Not anymore. You were either alive or dead. If you were dead, you were either a zombie or you weren’t. The ultimate goal in death was to make sure that you really were – and that was a job for the living.
“Tool, you take point,” I ordered, “I’ll stay here and guard the gate. The rest of you follow along and gather up whatever supplies you can. We need to clear this place and get back to the boat.”
I had an uneasy feeling that we were going to have company rather soon. The hair on my neck was bristling, even with the pills and their comfort now rushing through my veins. Over the clanging of the pry bars in the back of the pharmacy, and the hiss and pop of the flare, I could faintly make out a chorus of screeches and howls coming from outside. Given the construction of the building we were in, that wasn’t a good sign for us.
“Better get a move on!” I hollered back to the group.
I didn’t get a response, but wasn’t really concerned given the fact that I hadn’t heard any gunfire. I figured that they were simply working as fast as they could and weren’t about to break stride in order to respond to me. After all, I was stating the obvious. They knew the predicament we were in – backed into a corner with infestation all around us. The odds weren’t in our favor, but the risk had to be taken for the payout we would receive for the good of the community.
I hopped back over the counter to knock out the flare. I figured it had served its purpose and usefulness. I didn’t want to leave a beacon for anyone, or anything, entering the store. Not to mention the risk of starting a fire and having us caught between a rock and a dead place.
Just as I doused the flare, I heard a clamber coming from the front of the store. I quickly turned to get back over the counter when I saw that it wasn’t going to be that simple. In our infinite wisdom, we hadn’t cleared the entire store. I had several sets of eyes, all about waist high or lower, coming at me from both sides. I cursed myself for not taking care of business at the candy shop.
I lunged for the counter and pulled myself forward when I felt something clamping down on my left calf. The shooting pain hit me as I realized that a pair of little choppers had just broken through the skin just over the top of my boot and into my calf. I screamed out in agony as the teeth pierced into my muscle tissue and was torn away violently, breaking me free from its grasp.
As I slid over the counter and onto the floor on the other side, insult was added to injury as I fell face first into the pool of muck that used to be the head of the deceased woman. My hands slid out from underneath me several times as I tried to push myself up. The thud of little zombies hitting the counter on the other side hastened my rise from the floor. The sound of hissing and scratching nails on the countertop was terrifying.
I recovered quickly and got onto my feet, which buckled under my weakened leg and was made all the more difficult with the excruciating pain I was now feeling. I scrambled into my pocket for a few more painkillers, hoping that would somehow instantly negate the searing pain shooting through my body.
I turned to see several pairs of glowing eyes making their way up onto the counter, which were quickly extinguished by a large boomstick going off repeatedly from off to my right.
“What the hell!” Tool yelled, “There’s dozens of them!”
As Tool came to my aid out of the darkness and began dropping our assaulters like flies, they began to howl and screech mercilessly as if they knew their brethren were being dispatched to a final resting place. According to the tone of their battle cry, they weren’t having any of that.
“Oh shit,” Jamie said as he came from the back adjusting a large overfilled pack slung on his shoulder, “we gotta get outta here!”
I grabbed another flare and lit it as I hobbled over to the drive-thru window glass. I had used this technique back when we first met up with Eric and Justin. Luckily there was no security gate on the window blocking my way. I took the flare to the plexiglass, melting the opening and giving us our avenue to escape. As the opening was complete, I pushed the cut out to the other side and it came crashing to the ground.
I climbed over the counter and slid out of the opening, losing my balance in the process. I came down hard onto the pavement and began feeling lightheaded. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the extra pills I had just taken until I looked behind me as Eric was coming through the opening and saw the trail of blood that I had left behind on my exit.
“Holy shit!” Eric yelled as he came out after me and helped me up, “You’re bleeding all over the pl
ace!”
“No,” I replied trying to minimize the gravity of the situation I was now in, “I fell on that shit Tool had blown up in there, that’s all. I just need to get cleaned up.”
“Well,” he replied as he looked down at my leg, “we better get started with that, because it seems like you are in worse shape than you think you are.”
I looked down to see the tear in my pants exposing a large wound to my calf. It wasn’t as bad as it felt, but wasn’t a pretty sight to behold.
“I must have cut it jumping over the counter,” I said trying to dismiss what Eric was beginning to realize, “give me something to bandage it up.”
Tool and Jamie came through the hole and out into the back lot, scanning for any additional threats. Eric began bandaging my leg up as Tool and Jamie took notice on the amount of blood that was spread across the opening we came through.
“Holy shit!” Jamie yelled, repeated Eric’s reaction, “Did you get bit?!”
“NO! I didn’t get bit! I tore it getting back over the counter! We have to get back to the boat, so as soon as Eric finishes patch me up we’re out of here!”
I looked over at Tool who was staring at me intensely. You didn’t have to be a mind reader to pick up on what was going through his head at the moment. I knew what the bite meant, or at least I thought that I did, and so did he. Tool wasn’t buying my injury was caused by the narrow escape, but the shock of the inevitable coming from this turn of events was keeping him silent – for now.
Chapter 6 – Fundamental Transformation
We made it back to the boat, but by this time I was fading fast. My energy level was depleting something awful, my head was pounding and I was sweating profusely. As we began to board the boat, my condition became the focus of attention over all of the supplies that we had obtained. I was hoping for a better reception.
Tool took the helm without saying a word as he plotted a course back to our base at Harsens Island.
“What the fuck?” Tommy let out as Jamie helped me sit down, “What happened?”
“He hurt his leg,” Eric replied.
“Thank you captain fucking obvious,” Tommy quipped back, “but I was asking for a more specific answer.”
“I got bit.” I replied bluntly.
There was no bullshitting the situation any longer. I figured if I told the truth back at the pharmacy, I might not have made it back to the boat. At least now I had a chance of getting back to the base and trying to figure out a way around this.
“Shoot him,” Tommy said bluntly, “it’s the only way.”
“Fuck you!” Eric yelled, “Just like that? We can get him help! It’s Griff we’re talking about for fucks sake!”
“Shoot him,” Tommy repeated directly to Eric.
“No,” he replied sternly, gripping his sidearm and preparing for a showdown.
“Then I’ll do it!” Tommy yelled as he drew down on me.
As I stood up to put an end to the argument, everyone drew down on Tommy in return. The last thing I remember seeing was a muzzle flash and a sudden burning sensation to the right side of my face. I couldn’t get a word out and I felt instantly numb from the neck down. My right eye felt like it had been gouged out by a hot poker as my head whipped backwards. I was thrown overboard by the momentum and into the water behind me. As I came back up to the surface, I floated motionless and could make out the boat wake pulling away from me towards the horizon. Between the lapping waves hitting me in my good eye, I could make out that it was suddenly gone from sight as I felt myself being pulled into the darkness.
In the darkness I found a quiet place – so quiet it was deafening. Events in my life replayed before me in fast forward, so I was fairly confident I was dead. I was waiting for the proverbial bright light and couldn’t wait to run towards it, but all I had was deafening silence and darkness after the memories had ceased. The lack of light was my first clue that I apparently wasn’t being ‘saved’ and hoped that somehow I wasn’t really dead.
Yep, the never ending darkness and a severe craving for bacon is all that I had. That’s right – a craving for bacon. Not the thin shriveling bacon that made for an awkwardly crumbling and messy BLT, but the thick cut kind. It was the thick hearty bacon that I used to describe to Kate as miniature surfboards for the gods – the kind that almost crosses the line that would require it, by texture, as being jerky. Maybe since pork was considered the devils meat in some religious circles, it was a sign of where I was transcending to. Could it be that I would be banished for all eternity to an endless void where bacon would be desired, but never consumed? Oh, it really looked like I was going to hell. Fire and brimstone looked so much more inviting that the alternate version that I was now experiencing. What did I do in my lifetime that was so bad that I would be denied the gloriousness of bacon and tortured for all of eternity with this craving?
My thoughts drifted to Kate, to Logan, to Claire. Would the sense of loss I had for Kate be something that I had brought upon those poor kids to experience? I had every intention of being there for them, for protecting them, for raising them. There was no doubt that Karen would be there for them. Karen, I never had the chance to tell you that I loved that rainbow smell.
That’s when the voices started. Distant, yet close, seemingly inside my head at times that went from a whisper to a yell and then quiet again. All along, I was still surrounded by the darkness, but felt that I was part of something bigger. I felt a consciousness, recklessness, a hunger that would not be satisfied. At least my head stopped pounding, as there was a significant feeling of being comfortably numb. But I was cold…so very cold.
Then I felt a poke. The poke was followed by a sternum rub.
I felt my limbs come to life and felt an energy rush through my body as if I had awoken from a long slumber or hibernation. My aches and pains were all gone and my body felt 20 years younger. I felt vibrant and energetic, even in the darkness. There was no bright light, but my body was telling me that I reached my destination. So why was I still craving bacon so badly?
I felt my body being bounced up and down and I began hearing the sound of a boat crashing along the waves. Maybe this was all a dream and I was finally waking up. Kate must have let me nap while we were out on the boat. I was in a hurry to open up my eyes and leave the nightmare behind.
That’s when I felt something licking my face. That wasn’t Kate and I was hoping that it wasn’t Eric. It was then that I heard the barking. I was still hoping that it wasn’t Eric.
“Platz!” I heard someone yell, “Zeus, platz!”
I recognized that voice, it was Elly. I brought my hands to my eyes and my palms were cold against my face, which I was surprised to find intact given the fact that I could have sworn Tommy had removed a large portion of.
“He’s waking up!” a familiar voice shouted.
That sounded like Phil. What was I doing with this team? Weren’t they travelling into Canada? Maybe they found me in the water. Sure as shit, they are going to put me back in the water once they find out I’ve been bitten.
As I reached down to check my bandage, I didn’t feel any evidence of a bite. The skin was completely healed. I kept one hand over my eyes as I began to sit up.
“Phil? Elly?” I called out as I sat upright.
“He’s talking!” Phil yelled out.
“Of course I’m talking! Where am I?”
“You’re on our boat,” Phil replied, “we fished you out of the water and we’re heading back to Harsens Island. You look like shit - what happened to you?”
“Long story,” I replied as I opened my eyes.
“Fuck! He’s a zombie!” Phil yelled as I got a view of him stumbling backwards and drawing down on me with his rifle.
“Are you serious?! Would I be talking to you like this if I was a zombie?” I said as I held up my hands to announce my lack of being a threat.
“But your eyes,” said Phil, “they’re glowing like theirs!”
“He’s right Grif
f,” Elly said as she held a gun to my head, “come look in the mirror – but no funny stuff? Okay?” she said as she directed me at gunpoint towards a mirror, with Zeus in tow.
My limp was entirely gone as I walked over to take a look and I felt like a million bucks. A million bucks with some high powered weapons and a deadly canine facing me, but I wasn’t complaining given the situation. I had been shot and left for dead, and had somehow miraculously been healed. What’s the worst thing that could happen, right?
I walked up to the mirror and barely recognized myself. I was an ashen grey color, with the vein structure in my neck and face outlined in a bluish tint. My eyes were, in fact, glowing yellow. I was still adjusting to the daylight from the darkness to notice that I was now seeing more detail in objects and my surroundings than ever before. It was like the entire world had suddenly went HD.
Not just clearer, but enhanced. The best description that I can give is that the people around me were not only solid forms, but gave off a distinct reddish glow akin to a heat signature. It was then that I noticed the voices. They were still there. Or was it simply a voice? It was like a million voices, but one, all at the same time. What in the hell happened to me?
Then it hit me. I had turned.
I didn’t turn in the way that Kate had. No. I was what Andrew had referred to as one of the few who carried the survival mutation that allowed me to become something beyond living.
“I’m a controller.”
“What did you say?” Elly asked.
“Nothing,” I replied as I moved back to sit down under their watchful eye, “just rest assured I pose you no threat. There’s things you haven’t been told. As part of the team, we owe you that. I swear I’ll make things good once we get back home.”
“You better,” Phil replied, “or you’re just a dead man walking.”
“Phil,” I replied, “regardless of what you do that’s exactly what I am.”
Chapter 7 – That Just Happened
Zombie Reign (Book 4): Redemption Page 5
