Hamsikker 2

by Russ Watts

  Javier shook his head. He lowered his eyes to the ground, and let a vacant gaze fall across his face. When he thought about how Terry had died, about how those two zombies had ripped him open while he drew his last breath, Javier had to stifle a chuckle. He had to play it straight for now and keep up the pretense.

  “I’m sorry. I tried to stop him, but he was so desperate to find Freya that he got ahead of me. When I caught up to him, it was too late.”

  So they had lost another. Hamsikker clenched his axe. It wasn’t right, and it definitely wasn’t fair, but Terry had known the risks. If He had deemed Terry’s sacrifice enough to send them Freya back, then so be it.

  “Truly, I wish I could’ve done more, but it was over quick for him.” Javier looked at Rose and winked. “He didn’t suffer.”

  Nobody else saw the wink he gave to Rose, and it was enough for Rose to know he had taken care of Terry. She was quite sure it wouldn’t have been quick either.

  “Runner!”

  Mrs. Danick’s urgent tone demanded attention, and they turned as one to the horde coming down the main road.

  The body of Pete Hopper reached them, and he stretched out a hand. Finally, finally he had found them: the living. He opened his mouth ready to taste them, so ready to let their warm blood fill his mouth. He didn’t care which one; all his body knew was that it had to get to them.

  Hamsikker swung his axe, took off the runner’s head, and watched as the body took a few more steps before collapsing. With a soft thud the head rolled away into the gutter. Its eyes looked back at him, and Pete Hopper couldn’t understand what had happened. Something wasn’t right. Something…

  Hamsikker swung his axe down on the decapitated head, and the zombie that had once been young Peter Hopper was no more. The head split open like a melon, and dead brains spewed out into the clogged gutter.

  “There’s more,” said Erik. He pointed at the dead army coming their way. “We have to move.”

  He began to walk down the road with Freya in his arms.

  “He’s right,” said Hamsikker. “Let’s go. Quinn will be here any second, I’m sure of it. We just have to give her a chance.”

  He took Mrs. Danick’s hand and raced after Erik.

  “Kill him,” said Rose as they followed.

  “What?” Javier looked at her, waiting for the punchline, but her face was set deadly serious.

  “Kill him. Kill Hamsikker next. I want him gone.”

  “Keep your voice down, Mara.” Javier glanced over his shoulder to make sure nothing was about to sneak up on them and take a bite out of them. “What’s got into you?”

  “Kill them all. That stupid fucking old woman, that pig, those two boring soccer moms, and that black cunt who thinks she’s a fucking ninja. Leave me the girl, but please can we just get this over with. Most of all, kill Hamsikker.”

  Javier wasn’t sure what to make of Rose’s outburst. They weren’t exactly in a position to do anything at that moment, and certainly not able to discuss anything with the others so close.

  “Mara…”

  Rose shoved Javier away. “Just kill him,” she hissed, and then she raced ahead to join the others.

  Javier stood in the road watching Rose walk away. Talk about split personality. One minute she was all over him, the next she was acting insane. What was it about Hamsikker that had gotten her so worked up? Had something happened in the hotel that he didn’t know about? He had no problem killing the others. In fact, he was quite looking forward to it, especially the cop, but Hamsikker could still be useful. He was the only one that Javier wondered if he could be saved. He could still be converted, recruited to the cause. He wanted to get to Canada as much as Javier did, and if they worked together they could really achieve something. Did Rose know something he didn’t?

  “Gabe, watch your back!” shouted Hamsikker. He could see a runner break ahead of the pack. The bony carcass was covered in tatters, and it looked like a ghost as it ran toward them.

  Javier spun around. He wished he could pull his gun out, but that would give away he still had some ammo. Using the axe, he hit the runner as it reached him. At first he just clipped the zombie’s shoulder, sending it off balance. The next blow took off its head, and the runner fell to the ground.

  “You okay?” asked Jonas.

  “Of course,” said Javier. He was beginning to tire of these games, and wanted to get well away from Utica. “So where’s our ride?”

  “She’ll be here. Quinn wouldn’t leave. She’ll have a good reason for not being here.” Jonas felt uncomfortable. Gabe was looking at him strangely, as if he had done something wrong. Gabe’s eyes were studying him, analyzing him, and Jonas wanted to say something to break the tension. “Look, she’ll be here. Quinn’s one of the most reliable…”

  “Whatever,” said Javier, and he left Jonas standing on the street alone.

  “Freak,” muttered Jonas. Every moment they spent together it felt like a tension was building. It was as if the group was on a knife-edge, and Gabe and Mara were not fitting in. Jonas wanted to get to Janey, needed to get to her, but perhaps Gabe wasn’t going to be able to help. He was seriously considering splitting away. It might be best for everyone if they broke up.

  Jonas found the others crouched behind a bus shelter. Mrs. Danick, Erik, Freya and Mara were hidden behind an advertisement for a crunchy new cereal. The poster featured a smiling mother looking on as her fair-haired son tucked into a bowl of the new breakfast food, his teeth pearly white, and the father was standing behind them laughing. The picture was so ridiculous that Jonas wanted to rip it down. Families like that didn’t exist except in the movies and advertisements. The only family that you had now was the people you survived with, the people you ate with, slept with, and killed with.

  “Hamsikker, we can’t wait any longer. We need to find a way out of here, or at least somewhere safer to hide than this damn bus shelter.” Mrs. Danick peered out from behind the hoarding, looking on worryingly. Hundreds of dead bodies were ambling down the main street of Utica, their groaning filling the air. They surged forward in waves, like football crowds leaving a stadium, drunk and giddy, euphoric with success. Success for the zombies, though, meant death for the living, and Mrs. Danick had seen enough death to last her a lifetime.

  “We can’t stay here,” said Javier. “Utica is a ghost town; we stay, we die. We need to move. Find our own vehicle. The others are gone. Fuck ‘em. They’ve fucked us over, so we deal with this my way now.”

  “Hold on a second, Gabe,” said Jonas as he sat down on the seat in the shelter. “We just need to give Quinn time. She’ll be here. Stop trying to take over. There’s no need for this macho bullshit. We’re all friends here, so let’s stick together. We have a far better chance of making it that way, don’t you think?”

  Javier glared at Hamsikker. Rose was right. He fingered his gun, and thought about doing it here. He could shoot Hamsikker in the gut, and leave him screaming in pain on the road. That should give the zombies something to think about and give him time to get away with Rose.

  “We can discuss this later,” said Erik. “They’re here. Let’s move it.”

  Erik took off with Freya still in his arms, and he broke into a jog. The others swiftly followed, and Jonas knew they didn’t have much time. He could smell the dead behind them, hear their groans, and feel their eyes burning into his back as he ran. There was no fighting them. If he stopped, they would overwhelm him instantly. There were hundreds of them, far too many to take on. As much as he hated to admit it, Gabe did have a point: where was Quinn?

  “This way.” Erik charged down a side road, trying to find a way off the main road, away from the dead. Sweat poured down his back. The day was heating up, and he already felt tired from running and carrying Freya. There was no way he was stopping though. He would die first before he gave up Freya again.

  Jonas looked behind him and realized they had a moment. The dead hadn’t yet caught up with them, and this was their
chance to hide. He looked at the buildings on either side of the road, but was reluctant to venture into any of them. Their closed doors and dark windows were forbidding, and he was reminded of the hotel. Though it was small, it had held many dangers, and so might these other buildings. He saw bookstores, a salon, a few offices, and a postal office. He didn’t see anything that looked particularly safe. Between them they had two axes, a hammer, and an empty gun. It wouldn’t be enough.

  “Hamsikker, over here.” Erik had pulled open the door to a caravan that was parked up beside a dress shop. It had been adapted to sell food, and the outside was plastered with adverts for hot dogs and burgers, cold cans, iced tea, and hot coffee.

  As Erik jumped inside, Jonas watched the others follow, and he joined them, hoping they hadn’t been seen.

  Rose slammed the door shut, and they all fell silent. As Jonas looked around the grubby van, he began to think they had a chance. There were drapes pulled across the windows, and if they kept silent, they might just make it. The place smelt of rotten meat, and he noticed Mrs. Danick pull open a fridge door, only to shut it again quickly with a look of disgust on her face.

  “Down! Everyone, get down,” whispered Jonas, as he heard the first footsteps outside.

  They all crouched down on the sticky unwashed floor of the van. It smelt of food, too, and as they lay waiting a cockroach crawled across from underneath the stove in front of Jonas. He watched it dart across the floor, and back again, before it stopped. It paused before scuttling back from where it had come, obviously deciding the strangers in its home weren’t worth worrying about.

  Outside the van, the moaning sound grew louder. They heard more and more bangs and knocks on the side of the van as the dead crashed into it, and it seemed like it would never end. The door began to rattle, and suddenly the handle turned. Jonas jumped up and grabbed it before it could be pulled open. The small latch that held it in place would soon break if a hundred zombies pulled on it, and he looked at Erik.

  “Check it out,” he whispered. He wasn’t sure if one of the dead had got lucky and was playing with the door handle, or if they had been discovered.

  Erik drew back one of the drapes carefully, just an inch, so he could see through it. His eyes were squinting, but when he looked outside he opened them wide. “Mother fuckers,” he exclaimed loudly. “Gabe, they know we’re here. Help Hamsikker secure that door, quickly!”

  Javier wrapped his hands around Jonas’s over the door handle just as the door lurched violently and was wrenched from Jonas’s grasp. Startled, Jonas watched as the door was pulled open, and he looked out at a hundred dead faces all staring back at him. They moaned in unison, and he reached out to pull the door back in.

  “Help me, God damn it!”

  Javier pulled on the door, but one zombie had already got himself wedged in the frame.

  “I can’t get it shut.” Jonas pulled desperately on the door, but the zombie at his feet was blocking it. If they got in, they were all dead.

  “Kill it!” shouted Jonas as he danced from side to side, trying to avoid the snapping jaws of the dead man lying between his legs.

  Rose grabbed the hammer from Erik, and bashed in the zombie’s head before dragging it into the van. She held the hammer over it as if afraid it might still move, and stepped back.

  “Amen,” said Mrs. Danick.

  As the body was cleared of the frame, Jonas and Javier got the door shut. They kept their hands wrapped tightly around the handle, but the effort to keep it closed was a drain on what little energy they had. With sweat pouring down his face, Javier looked at Jonas.

  “What now, Hamsikker?” he growled. He should’ve killed him back at the bus stop. He should’ve killed them all and taken off with Rose. “I’d love to know how we’re getting out of this one. Thanks to you and your friends, we are now totally fucked.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Jonas quickly cast his eyes around the van. He hoped he might see something for inspiration, but there was nothing. All he saw were dirty pots and pans, an old blue bucket full of greasy utensils, a table covered in menus, and five faces staring back at him looking for an answer.

  “I don’t…I don’t know, just let me think, okay? Just…”

  Jonas didn’t know what the answer was. The door threatened to explode open at any second, and as much as he and Gabe had it under control, it wouldn’t be long before it was opened. Next time they wouldn’t get it shut, and the prospect of being torn limb from limb was terrifying. He looked at Mrs. Danick, and saw for the first time how old and frail she was. She had the attitude and fight of a twenty year old, but her body was letting her down. He couldn’t keep putting her through this. He was supposed to be protecting her, protecting all of them, yet it was harder than he thought it might be. Mara was staring at the dead body that lay on the floor with its brains seeping out as if she had never seen a dead body before. Freya was curled up in her father’s arms, her eyes screwed shut, and her hand clutching the key chain Jonas had given her.

  “Well?” asked Javier. His eyes bored into Hamsikker’s. He wanted him to crumble. He wanted to see Hamsikker suffer. There was a time he thought they could make it work, but it clearly wasn’t going to work out. If they could get through this, it would be time to end this fragile relationship once and for all.

  “You wanted to be in charge, you think of something.” Jonas had had enough. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Ever heard that one before, Gabe?”

  “I once heard, Hamsikker, that all you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife. Right now, we don’t have any of those things. You know what I think?”

  Javier let go of the door, and Hamsikker felt the pressure on it increase tenfold. “Jesus, what are you doing?”

  Javier could let the door open, let them take Hamsikker, and get the door closed as they feasted on his body. It might just buy them enough time to think of a way out of this mess.

  “Get your hands back on that door, Gabe.” Erik passed Freya to Mrs. Danick. “Now.”

  Javier ignored Erik. “I think, Hamsikker, that what we need is a diversion. We need to give those folks outside something to play with while we come up with a way out of this dead end.”

  “Gabe, so help me, you’d better cut this shit out, right now.” Erik stepped toward the door, unable to get past the others, and reluctant to leave Freya.

  Javier put his hands back over Jonas’s on the handle. There was a glint in his eye as he began to squeeze.

  “Stop being an ass, Gabe. Look, we can get out through there.” Mrs. Danick pointed up to a skylight in the roof. It was narrow, and would take some effort getting the top off, but it was the only feasible way out.

  Javier relaxed his grip, and glanced at Rose. He couldn’t work out what she was thinking. Did she want him to do it now, to push Hamsikker out to a certain death, or did she want to carry on?

  “Nice one, Mrs. D.” Erik clambered up onto the stovetop and began to unscrew the latch holding it in place. In less than a minute he had it open, and he poked his head through.

  “The road is packed out there. No way through. I think we’re close enough to be able to get onto the roof of that store we’re parked up against though. We should get moving.”

  “Go. I’ll hold this door as long as I can,” said Hamsikker. “When you get up there, don’t hang around. Get straight on over to the roof. If we mess around too long they’ll see what we’re up to, and if they surge toward the van I’m not going to be able to hold them back.”

  He watched Erik give Mrs. Danick and Freya a lift up, followed by Mara.

  “Erik, give Gabe a boost up next. I want you up last. Get ready to lift me up. The second I let go of this door they’re going to be in, and I don’t want to be here for that. Take my axe with you.” He didn’t trust Gabe would help him up and wanted Erik to be the last one through. Something inside Gabe had switched, and Jonas no longer trusted him. When they were back w
ith Quinn, safely away from Utica, he would tell him it was time to split up.

  “Got it, buddy.”

  Javier said nothing and followed Rose up through the skylight. Erik disappeared next, and Jonas heard him call back to come up.

  Now or never, he thought, and he let go of the door handle. The door whipped back, and he was greeted with a cacophony of sounds, the utterances of the undead, and a wave of sickening smells that made him recoil. He jumped up onto the stove quickly, just as the first zombie crashed inside the van. It looked wild, and focused on Jonas.

  “Grab my hand!”

  Jonas looked up at Erik and took his hands. He jumped from the stove and felt Erik lifting him through the air to safety. As his head disappeared up outside of the van, he felt the zombie below grab his feet.

  “Erik, pull me up, quick!” Jonas felt frantic, and kicked out with both legs, trying to free himself of the zombie’s grasp, desperate to make sure he wasn’t bitten.

  “Quit moving around like that,” said Erik as he struggled to lift Jonas up.

  Jonas could imagine the teeth of the creature below sinking into his calves, ripping his legs open as he dangled there like a fish on a hook. He would probably die of blood loss before he became one of them. It would really fucking hurt, though, and he kicked again, sure he had connected with the thing’s head that time.

  “Nrgh,” shouted Erik, and he heaved Jonas up onto the roof of the van. Mrs. Danick helped pull him up, and they collapsed into a pile together.

  Jonas looked down at his legs. Nothing. He hadn’t been bitten. Erik had pulled him up just in time.

  “You okay?” asked Mrs. Danick.

  “Yeah,” said Jonas breathlessly. “Yeah, I am. Thanks, both of you.”

  He looked across at the roof of the nearby store at Gabe. He was staring at the crowd of dead around them. From the way he had been behaving lately, he hadn’t really expected Gabe to help. Mara either. They were both acting oddly.

  “We can chat later. Right now, we have to run.” Erik pulled Jonas to his feet, and they all jumped over to the roof. The gap between the store and the van was mere inches, and the transition was easy, even for Mrs. Danick.