by Jack Hunt
“Stragglers?”
“Those things.”
They looked at other for a few seconds without saying anything.
“You’ve seen them too?”
“The whole of Mount Pleasant is crawling with them. So are the surrounding towns. Whatever the hell hit America, it’s turning people into lunatics. At least out here we can protect ourselves. We stay away from towns.”
“But this is no life,” he replied.
“We’re heading north trying to get to Canada. Where have you been staying?”
“North of here in the town of Hayden.”
“There are others?”
“Lots and a steel fence that was erected to protect the community. Well, they are making a few changes but yeah, it’s safer than being out here.”
“And those things?”
“None.”
He nodded and stared at the others. “Why are you heading back to Mount Pleasant?”
Sam stepped forward. “We have friends there.”
Erik chuckled. “Must be good friends if you left them there.”
“No, Erik. It’s not like that. After what happened, we retreated to a bunker north of here, but when that was overrun, we, well… It’s a long story. We were just going into Mount Pleasant to check in on them.”
“Don’t bother. It’s a ghost town. We were there two weeks ago.”
“And?”
“We didn’t come across anyone except those freaks. All the stores and homes are empty.”
“That’s impossible,” Sam said. “We spoke with them. Every week. It was only this past week they didn’t check in but even then I spoke to someone.”
Erik looked up at Sam with an expression of skepticism.
“Well if they are there, they are hiding.” He paused to poke the fire. “Anyway, you hungry?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s eat. Tomorrow we’ll head north. You are welcome to come.”
“Thanks but we’re going to Mount Pleasant,” Sam said.
“Like I said. The place is empty. You are wasting your time.”
Another guy came over and whispered something in Erik’s ear. He got up and motioned to two of them to make sure that Sam and the others were given food. He excused himself and disappeared into the forest. Luke sat down with a smile on his face. It was the first smidgen of hope he had experienced since losing his family. As much as Sam didn’t want to piss on his parade he wanted to make sure his head was still in the game.
“You’re still coming with us, right?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure now.”
5
That night no one appeared to sleep much. When morning came so did the decision that hung over Luke as to whether he would go with his brother or continue on to Mount Pleasant.
Sam groaned as he rolled over on a makeshift bed of branches. He gazed up into the sky only to find it blocked out by Billy’s face. He did this thing where he let spit drip down from his lips then sucked it back up before it hit Sam’s head.
“Dude!”
Billy started laughing. “Here I thought you would be hungry.”
Sam rolled over and he handed him a plate of well-cooked meat.
“What is it?”
“Deer meat.”
Sam tucked into his before anyone could take it away. It was the small things that mattered now. They had been living off fish, and the occasional rabbits. Finding larger animals was tough. If they hadn’t been killed by radiation they had headed further north. Sam devoured his breakfast and then took in the sight of the camp. As light flooded the forest floor and the sound of birds brought the place to life, everything looked different. The people who had scared them half to death on the road looked no different than them. Whatever face paint they had been using, they had washed it clean. The group later learned that it was all part of how they operated. It struck fear into people so the chances of them attempting to fight back were minimal.
Once breakfast was over, the truck was loaded up and ready to go. Had it not been for one of them being Luke’s brother, they were pretty certain they wouldn’t have left those woods alive.
“Can’t I convince you to stay?” Erik asked Luke.
Luke looked over at the others and smiled. “No, I’ve been through a lot of shit with these guys. Listen, if you are going north, think about visiting Hayden. It’s not a bad place and there is more than enough room for everyone. They certainly could use people like yourselves and well, it would be good to have my brother around.”
Erik grabbed Luke by the back of the neck and pulled him close. He patted him on the back and then released him.
“I may do that. Word of advice… Don’t stay long in Mount Pleasant. If your friend is right and there are people still alive, you are taking a big risk going in.”
“Tell that to Sam. Guy wants to save the whole country.”
After a short conversation, Luke joined the others in the truck and they pulled out of the forest with their bellies full but their minds preoccupied by the danger that lay ahead.
“You know you could have stayed with them,” Sam said.
“I didn’t want to,” Luke replied.
“I’m just saying.”
Sam drove the rest of the way. A fine mist hung across the road like a ghostly apparition. It was agreed that they wouldn’t drive directly into the town but get as close as possible and then hike the rest of the way using the surrounding forest to conceal them.
It was strange to be returning to the town where it had all begun.
Sam had always imagined within a year the government would have reined in the threat and re-established some sense of normality. But there was no going back. Life had changed for good. The world of ease was behind them and every day presented new challenges. He often wondered how they would have adjusted to it had the four of them not spent that first month in the wilderness with Dan and Murphy.
In many ways they experienced a new sense of community after the disaster. It drew people together and made them focus on what had been lost through technology and fast-paced living. Sam glanced over to Luke. He knew that he felt it too. That even though he had come to discover that his brother was alive, the sole member of his family that had made it, he felt a greater sense of family among those he had spent the last year with. There was something to be said for that.
As the six trudged through the forest an eerie feeling crept over them. Sam looked at Kiera, wondering how she would react. It was one thing to be able to readjust to life after what she had been through, it was another to return to the town where it had happened.
Sam shouldered an AR-15 as they got closer to River Street. Their initial goal was to reach Murphy’s place, which was near Mount Pleasant Inn, and then decide how they were going to work their way through the town. No matter what happened, they would stay close to the forest and out of sight. They had no idea what they were walking into. Even though Erik said the place was a ghost town, Sam wasn’t convinced. Sure, the town didn’t have a large population and people had left prior to the white supremacist rally that had drawn in skinheads from all over Idaho but there had been many that survived simply by barricading themselves inside homes. Not everyone had doomsday bunkers or somewhere else to go. This was home and most chose to stay. Tom Barrington and his father were two of those people.
It seemed almost ironic to think that the very people that had once turned their nose up at their group were the ones relying on them. As Billy said, “Never shit on the little guy as you might need his toilet paper one day.”
“Brings back memories, eh?” Billy said as they broke out of the tree line and dashed for Murphy’s house. Murphy hadn’t locked the door. It was wide open. Inside someone had sprayed graffiti all over the walls. On the floor were broken bottles of alcohol. Ally went into the living room and picked up a shattered photo frame which contained a photo of Murphy, Sara and her when she was younger. She sighed, removed the photo and pocketed it. They all knew what it
was like to lose a loved one.
Silence permeated the house as they went room to room to check what damage had been done. It was as if someone had gone through the place room by room and taken a baseball bat to everything. The windows were smashed, the floors desecrated and some of the walls had swastika tattoos.
Sam remembered what Tom had said about Bryan Catz. Where had he gone the day he escaped? Had he hidden in the town? Did he hide out in the forest until they had left? Why had he returned? His mind chewed over the questions as they searched for anything that might be of use to them.
“There’s nothing here. We should go. It will be dark soon.”
They moved with purpose in the direction of where Tom lived which was on King Street. The last time they had been there was when Sam had entered his house and Tom’s father put a gun to his head. It still sent a shiver down his spine. They stayed close to the tree line and River Street as they made their way south. What was really odd was the silence that hung in the air. All that could be heard was the sound of birds. It was daytime and there should have been people out but the streets were empty.
As they got closer to First Street, Sam spotted movement out the corner of his eye. A window opened at the top of a house, a kid began climbing out fast. He couldn’t have been more than eight years of age. Sam put up a fist to alert the others not to move. They watched as this kid balanced on the edge of a two-story home and moved over to an aluminum gutter pipe that went down the side of the house.
Seconds after, someone appeared in the window. Their eyes were bulging and they let out a scream. Sam’s eyes flared. It was the same sound that he’d heard over the radio. It was the same kind heard in Faulkton. The kid was crying and doing his best to climb down this pipe while this lunatic tried his best to grab him. Suddenly the lunatic disappeared from the window and before the kid could make it to the bottom, he and several others came rushing out. At first it was two, then three of them. One of them began climbing up the pipe.
Before Sam could process what to do, Ally burst out of the tree line.
“Ally!”
Sam scrambled out after her followed by the others. Sprinting towards them, Ally raised a Glock and fired twice at the one climbing the pipe. One of the rounds missed, the second hit and he fell. The other two who were holding steel bars in their hands turned and ran towards Ally. She dropped to a knee and with both hands on the gun fired three times. Both of them went down.
“Quick, this way!”
The boy had made it down to the ground and he was now beckoning them to follow him. Sam grabbed Ally by the arm and all of them rushed in the direction of the kid just as more of those freaks appeared from a street one block down. They were like rats coming out of the sewers. All of them had something in their hands. Knives, bats, pipes, and swinging them while screaming.
Sam unleashed a flurry of rounds in their direction.
The boy rushed down the side of his house. Sam looked back to make sure Luke and the others were close. All of them were hightailing it as fast as they could. The boy took them through a back gate and into a yard. They all clambered over two more fences before seeking shelter inside a home. Corey was the last one in. The boy slammed the door and placed a plank of wood into a slot that had been created behind the door.
“Quick, up here.”
They followed him upstairs. He headed for a door that led up to an attic. Once inside he kept pressing forward at a fair clip towards a hole in the drywall. All of them plowed through it and found themselves ducking down as they navigated along a wooden plank through two more holes and then down a series of steps.
“We should be safe now.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Ricky Campbell.”
“Stevie’s kid?” Ally asked.
He nodded.
“Where’s your father?”
“Dead.”
Ricky went into one of the bedrooms and looked out between several planks of wood.
“There will be more tonight.”
“Hold on a minute, kid. Where is everyone?”
He sniffed. “Some are dead. Others got out. The rest are changed. Only a few are like you and me.”
Sam went over to the window and looked outside. There was a group milling around, barely moving, just clustered together. “What are they doing?”
“They do that in the day. I don’t know why but if they hear or see you they go nuts. At night it’s even worse. They just go on a rampage.”
“And yet they die like anyone else.”
“Zombies, man, I’m telling yah,” Billy said before holstering his handgun.
“Shut up, you fool,” Corey shot back. “Zombies don’t exist. Second, if they were zombies, do you think they would have died from a shot to the abdomen?”
“Makes you wonder,” Kiera said. “How are they being infected? I mean, something is changing them into these crazies.”
“Crazies. Yeah, now that’s a good way of describing them.”
Ricky sat on the bed saying nothing.
“Ricky? Do you know?”
He shook his head.
“How long have they been like this?” Sam asked.
He stared at the ground looking as though he had lost his mind. “A week, maybe two?” He went to say something again but just began to cry. Ally went over to him and tried to comfort him. When he had regained his composure he tried to explain what had happened. He said his family had holed up in a house and barricaded themselves in but after running out of food his father had ventured out, that’s when everything went wrong.
“I watched them beat him to death with metal pipes and then feast on his body.”
“Feast?”
“Eat. Well, not exactly eat. They tore him apart. A few of them looking as though they were eating his flesh.”
“I told you. Zombies,” Billy said. It couldn’t have been said at a more inappropriate time.
“I swear, Billy, I’m going to jam this knife up your ass if I hear another word out of you,” Luke said.
Ricky continued, “They don’t eat everyone but they kill anything that moves. They killed my dog, my dad and my mother. My sister is still at the house. I couldn’t get to her in time. I think she’s in one of the closets. Locked inside.”
Ally looked up at the others. “Well?”
“You saw how many there were out there. It’s too dangerous.”
“Oh that wasn’t a lot. There are far more. You’ll see tonight,” Ricky muttered.
He said it as if it was nothing. The group that had chased Sam and the others had to have been at least fifteen strong. If there were more, how many? Sam looked out the window and the group that had been milling around together were gone.
“Have you seen Tom Barrington?”
“Yeah. I saw him.”
“When?”
“Two nights ago. He was being chased. My father was going to help him but there were too many of them. They—” he was about to say something but he paused. “He’s probably dead by now.”
“Which direction did he head in?”
“His home.”
6
Tom Barrington’s home on King Street was a good ten-minute walk on any ordinary day but with bloodthirsty lunatics on the loose, getting there wouldn’t be an easy task. And with half the group packing weapons and the rest wielding nothing more than a baseball bat and a machete, it wasn’t looking good. The group had been inside the home for close to an hour before they started to get antsy.
“I say we get over to Tom’s, see if he’s there and then get the hell out of here.”
“About time,” Billy said wandering out into the corridor shaking his head in amazement. Corey balled his fists. Everyone’s nerves were on edge.
“You won’t make it,” Ricky said. “Others tried to run and were killed before they made it to the forest, others were changed.”
“Change? You keep using that word but what do you mean? How are they changing?”
; Ricky looked up. His skin was pale and he looked as if he could use a good meal.
“My friend, Gary Reed. They were chasing us and we managed to crawl into those sewers down by Placer Creek. They followed us in and Gary got stuck. One of those things got close to him but couldn’t reach him. It spewed blood on his skin. Within minutes he changed. He became one of them.”
“So a virus that is carried in the blood.”
Ricky shrugged.
“Look, I don’t want to stay here any longer than we need to.”
“I should have listened to my brother,” Luke said. “This was a dumb idea.”
“Go then. No one is holding you here,” Sam said moving out of the room. “Ricky, what’s the best way out of here?”
“Same way we came in.”
“Let’s move out.”
“Hold on a minute, didn’t you all hear what he said?” Kiera asked.
“Of course. All the more reason to do this now.”
“I’m not leaving without my sister,” Ricky said.
Luke palmed his forehead. “Great. Another idiot. Okay, you stay, we’re leaving.”
“Luke.”
“What? It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have come here, none of us should have. We barely survived Faulkton, why I do allow you to talk me into this crap?”
Sam walked over to him and got up in his face. “Talk you into this? I never told you to come.”
“Well, if you were going to take my vehicle I didn’t have much choice. I wasn’t going to let you fuck that up.”
“Oh yeah, right. Good excuse.”
Luke glared at him. “Frost, I’ll kick your ass right now.”
“Guys,” Kiera said. “We’re wasting time. Why don’t we split up? A few of you go down to Tom’s place. The rest of us will go see if Ricky’s sister is alive.”
“And how do you suggest we do that, princess?”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Stop acting like one.”
Kiera scowled at him.
“Don’t even waste your breath,” Ally remarked. “Corey, Kiera and myself will go with Ricky, you guys can find Tom.”
