by Brown, TW
After taking down the last that had come in from her side, Vix took off after Gemma. It wasn’t hard to follow the girl with all the screaming and crying. In fact, as she turned a corner and mounted the stairs, she worried that they might become trapped in this place if there happened to be any more in the area. Despite how loud the storm howled outside, Gemma seemed determined to out-shriek it.
A door at the top of the stairs emptied into a narrow hallway that was almost pitch black with the exception of three doorways that were open and allowed what little gloomy light there was from the storm-darkened sky to cast its faint glow. A cluster of shadows at the far end gave away Gemma’s location.
Even without the light, Vix could tell that something was wrong. The screaming stopped suddenly and the mob went to the floor. She knew what she would find, and for a moment, she considered running. After all…what could she do for the poor girl now?
Standing in a rectangle of ambient light, Vix felt the adrenaline leaving her. With it…her desire to fight these things. She took a tentative step back. If she got out of this building, there were plenty others to hide in. And being by herself, she could crawl into any space she could find and wait out the storm in relative silence.
She took another step back. Her mind warred with the idea of running. Could she leave Gemma to become one of those things? In all her books and movies, anytime somebody had been bitten by one of the undead, they always made their companions promise to put them down…to not let them come back as one of those things. Still, that would mean rushing into take down the small group that remained and then taking down Gemma. Seemed pretty risky considering the girl would never actually know…
“Are you just going to stand there?” a voice called from the end of the hallway where the zombies were clustered.
“Gemma?” Vix blurted. This caused a few of the zombies to turn her way.
“Oi! Shut up…I have their attention, you silly git!”
“Hey!” Vix shot back.
“Down here you big, slimy bag of stench!” Gemma screamed. “Now get in and finish them off. I am covered in muck and I think something is crawling on my back!”
Vix moved in and dispatched the remaining zombies with relative ease. When she finished, she was able to look down. Crawling from a floor vent was her young companion. She looked like she had dumped a vacuum cleaner bag over her head. To make it worse, she was wet enough that it had turned to a murky slurry that would be impossible to simply wipe off.
“How did you…what were you…?” Vix didn’t know where to begin.
“I knew that if I could get them to chase me, you could finish them off. A lot of them were following me as I backed up, but some were starting to turn back towards you. When you fell, I knew you just needed a minute to get yourself together.”
“Wait…so you were screaming like an idiot for no other reason than to—”
“Get them to chase me. We are a team, yes? And you have been doing it all so far. I decided that I needed to start doing my bit. That’s what friends do, right?”
“Friends…” Vix let the word hang. She was at a loss.
“Besides, it all worked out. You came, you took them down. And we are fine…except for all this.” She waved her hands down the length of her body.
“But how did you know about the vent? You came up here into a place with no escape…except maybe to jump out one of the windows. You should never run someplace blindly—” She closed her mouth with a snap as she felt herself about to scold. Later she could give the girl some pointers about being more cautious, but right now, she needed to simply be thankful. That, and find a way to deal with the guilt creeping in over how close she’d come to abandoning the girl.
“Oh…that vent? It is right outside my uncle’s office,” Gemma said with a shrug.
“What?”
“Yeah, I have an uncle that worked here. He was a bit of a twit, but when Artem hired him, the whole family got invited on a tour.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Vix tried not to sound angry, but she was baffled.
“I didn’t really like my uncle,” Gemma said with a shrug like that answered the question perfectly.
***
“What is wrong with people?” Danny said with a sigh.
As they reached the overpass, the foursome came to a stop. Hanging from nooses were a dozen bodies. None of them were undead.
“Looks like they’ve been there a while,” Jody observed. That didn’t stop him from looking around in every direction as if he expected a horde of Road Warrior wannabes to come pouring out from every bush, tree, and shadow.
“Notice a theme?” Selina asked.
“All males, all stripped naked?” Danny paced the length of the group of dead men. “Hardly a fair way to judge…everybody who has ever watched an episode of Seinfeld knows that cold causes shrinkage.”
Selina’s hands stopped in mid-sign. Kat tugged at her sleeve, urging her to finish. Jody simply shook his head.
“In any case,” Jody started walking, keeping vigilant without trying to look like he was nervous, “we need to move. This could be anything, and no matter what it is, I don’t want to stick around and find out if this was an isolated instance or a regular occurrence.”
“Not much for having any hope for your fellow man, are ya?” Selina quipped.
“After all I’ve seen the past few months?”
“And what’s the deal with the hangings?” Danny tried to pull off a Seinfeld impersonation, but just came across sounding like a guy with a thick Boston accent making fun of a New Yorker.
When everybody looked at him, he raised his eyebrows at Jody like he expected some sort of support. “You remember Livius and Robb don’tcha? Klllkgh!” He mimed yanking on a hangman’s noose and cocked his head sideways with his tongue lolling out.
“Like I said,” Jody continued after directing a withering glance Danny’s direction, “we need to keep moving. Last night I saw a glow to the northeast. Since there is no pillar of black smoke today, I am thinking that there is some sort of community or outpost in that direction.”
“Do you want to go see, or are you suggesting that we veer away from it?” Selina’s hands flew, keeping Kat up to speed with the conversation as he spoke.
“I think it is up to the group to decide,” Jody answered with a shrug. “Show of hands…who wants to head northeast and check out the possibility of an outpost or community?”
After a brief pause, some uncertain faces, and no hands, Kat signed to Selina who spoke for the girl. “Jody, you are the leader. All of us trust you and your judgment. If you say we should stay away from people, fine. And if you think we should try to join another group, that is okay. We trust you.”
Jody felt his gut twist just slightly. This was exactly what he didn’t want…responsibility of everybody else. That would mean that the moment things went wrong, the fault would rest on one set of shoulders: his. Even worse, Danny was nodding along.
“She’s got a point,” Danny agreed. “After all, you were the one that they promoted to sergeant. You were the right man for the job…and you still are. We could do much worse than having you in charge.”
“I don’t want to be in charge of anybody!” Jody snapped. “The moment something goes wrong—”
“The dead are walking, dude!” Danny cut him off. “It can’t get much more wrong than that. Look…I hear what you are saying, and I may have been all loose with the rules and maybe not the best soldier, but here is the cold fact…I’m a screw up. You let me call the shots and we are stomping into the heart of one of the biggest cities in the world just so I can piss on home plate in Yankee Stadium. I can’t keep my own shit straight half the time. I sure as hell shouldn’t be the one calling the shots or making the plans.”
“And I don’t have the slightest idea what to do besides run,” Selina piped up. “All I know is that I don’t want to get eaten alive. As for where to go or what to do…if you remember, it was me being so n
oisy—”
“And me,” Danny chimed in.
“And him,” Selina smacked him for emphasis, “that were carrying on like it was no big deal after you kept warning us to be quiet. It almost got us killed because we weren’t listening to you. Like it or not, we need somebody to make the tough decisions.”
Jody stood there scowling. He didn’t want any of this, but he understood the need. One thing that kept the military strong was its sense of discipline and a chain of command. He’d seen enough work evolutions in his day where there were “too many chefs stirring the pot” and it always turned into a mess. The reality was that there did need to be somebody making the call when things got hairy.
Jody was about to speak when what sounded like an air raid siren shattered the relative quiet that the entire world now seemed to exist in. It took a few seconds to orient on the direction of the shrill noise, but once he did, Jody was prepared to make his first “command” decision.
“This way!” he barked, and took off at a run into a huge field that ran along the highway with no apparent end in sight.
Whatever had been growing here had long since succumbed to the combination of not being cared for and the onset of winter. They reached a barbed wire fence, and Jody ushered each of them through before ducking under the strands and joining them.
Across the giant field to the east looked like a thickly wooded area. That was where he headed at a steady jog. Sprinting was a good way to twist an ankle in such unsure ground and he also did not want to rush full-tilt into the unknown.
Glancing over his shoulder, he thought he saw something emerge from some heavy brush that had run along the far side of the highway, but whatever it was—if there was really anything there at all—vanished. If it was after them, it would have dropped down into the half-pipe-shaped median that ran between the north- and southbound lanes. He decided that was a good time to alter their course slightly.
“C’mon!” he encouraged as he veered south.
They had been on a straight line due east towards the trees, but a small cluster of long-since-abandoned farming equipment was close enough that they could probably make it before whatever he might have seen coming their way managed to get into a position to see them again.
Reaching the first giant machine, Jody had them duck behind one of the huge wheels that was almost taller than any of them. He wasn’t up to speed on his farm equipment and had no idea that he was hiding behind a grain harvester. The only thought that did flash in his mind was just how effective something like this might be if used to mow down zombies.
Seconds after they ducked behind the grain harvester, six individuals on horseback galloped into view. Only one had a firearm visible, a rifle of some sort; the others all carried spears and—
“Are those nets?” Selina whispered in Jody’s ear.
“Did we just fall into The Planet of the Apes?” Danny sniffed.
“Shut up,” Jody hissed. “Everybody do what I say, and do it now. Selina, you and Kat get under this big machine. There is a bunch of torn up vegetation on the ground, pull it over yourselves and don’t come out unless I tell you to…no matter what.”
Selina looked like she wanted to say something, but she flashed a few signs to Kat and the pair ducked under and began pulling all the wet, rotting stalks they could find to cover themselves.
“Danny, you get up on top of this thing and be ready to act as sniper. Don’t shoot unless I say.”
“What if you get wasted and can’t say anything?”
“Then I guess you’ll have to figure it out,” Jody said and stepped out from his hiding place with his hands in the air.
He began walking towards the riders who took a few seconds to notice him, but once they did, they fanned out and came his way at a quick but cautious trot. When the group was about fifty or so feet away, they pulled up at a signal from one of the riders who slowed his horse to a walk and continued to come towards Jody.
“Might want to keep your hands where I can see ‘em,” a gruff voice said from behind a neckerchief that reminded Jody of the old bandits in the classic Westerns.
“Then how about you stop where you are and we talk from a distance?” Jody called back.
“Think you got much room to be makin’ demands?” the mounted stranger laughed. “Way I see it, you and your three friends are in no condition to do anything but be grateful nobody has killed you up to this point.”
That made Jody’s heart flutter just a bit. He was hoping against all odds that whoever these people were, they hadn’t gotten that good of a look to know how many he was travelling with. Still, he had to try.
“So if you know I’m not alone, then I imagine you already know that my people are all watching, and I don’t think you have to work too hard to figure out who they are aiming their weapons at.” It wasn’t much of a play, but it was all Jody had for the moment.
“Yep, I reckon they all have me in their sights,” the man conceded. “Still, that means you folks been out and about long enough to lose your trust in strangers. Judging by the looks, I’d say that you was military.” It wasn’t a question. “Ain’t seen too many of you folks since about two weeks in, but I haven’t heard anything good when I does hear something.”
“Well, I can’t speak for anybody but myself.” Jody shrugged. “What I can say is that we aren’t looking for any trouble. We are simply passing through. If you have been watching, then you hopefully knew that.”
“Saw you all stop to admire our handiwork,” the man said.
Jody felt his body tense. This person was claiming outright to be responsible for the people they’d seen hanging from the overpass.
“Not something you see every day.”
“Maybe not before…a bit more common now.”
“Look, we are not looking to cause any trouble,” Jody said with a sigh. Truth be told, he would not have minded finding a spot close by and making camp, but if it got him and the others out of this situation, he could walk all night.
“Looked like one of the folks you was travelling with was a youngster,” the man said loudly for some reason. “You show us that young‘un, and we feel satisfied that ain’t nobody being hurt…and we’ll let you pass.”
Jody was at a loss. Could this simply be a trick to get him to reveal the location of the others? He was trying to make sense of things when one of the other riders—a female voice—called out.
“We got walkers coming from Sutton’s farm!”
“How many?” the stranger called over his shoulder.
“Ten or twelve,” another voice answered.
“Well then,” the man turned in the saddle, his voice sounding exasperated as if he were dealing with errant school children, “two or three of you go take care of it.”
Jody tried not to let the smile gain purchase on his lips. The man’s annoyance coupled with just how little regard he gave a dozen or so zombies made him suddenly feel just a bit more at ease.
“So, what are we gonna do here, soldier?’ the man asked.
“Well, if you were trying to draw the young’un, as you referred to Kat, by shouting…it won’t work.”
“Why is that?”
“Kat’s deaf.”
The man seemed to consider that for a moment. Slowly, and making a display of keeping his hands away from the weapon holstered on his saddle, he reached up and pulled down the scarf that had concealed his face.
“Name’s George Rosamilia…folks just call me Jersey,” the man said with what Jody first took for a sneer. Then he realized that it was the shadows playing tricks. The man was sporting some serious scar tissue where it looked as if a bite had been taken out of his face just at the bottom and to the right of his nose.
“My name is Jody.”
“Does this mean we’re staying for a while?” Danny called from the Harvester.
***
Major Beers stood over the crumpled, bloody body at her feet. Her gaze came up and she made sure to look into the eyes of
everybody close enough.
“Anybody else got something to say?”
Those close enough suddenly found something interesting in a zipper on their coat or a bit of snow on their boots. The ones further back who had heard more than saw what transpired made no attempt to edge closer.
Major Beers glared at the hundred and seven (according to the last muster report) men and women that were hers to wield unless somebody stepped up right now and did something to try and change that.
To be honest, she hadn’t been surprised in the least when Bryce Gillis, her second-in-command had answered her challenge. Still, when two of the dredges that they had picked up in their travels made the move, she was taken aback for just a moment. Neither of those idiots were military. They were simply survivors who apparently considered themselves fit to lead.
She imagined that had something to do with the whole Hollywood image of the apocalypse. It didn’t matter what the cause happened to be, there was always some meathead who ran the show. While she’d certainly met her share of women during her time in the Army who belonged behind a desk, she knew there were a fair share that could hold their own in any situation.
That included a fight.
That included a fight to the death.
Bryce had been predictable. He tried to use his size and obvious strength to his advantage. She was glad that he had never bothered with any of the lethal forms of martial arts such as Krav Maga or the Russian art of Sambo. She’d almost laughed when Bryce went for his knife. The fact that she had been able to disarm him and snap the weapon-wielding arm in two places before he hit the ground had drawn gasps. It had been the follow through when she had flattened his nose with a strike so hard that it had ruptured one eyeball when she heard the first retching and subsequent splash of vomit on the snow.
The two idiots who rushed out after Bryce’s death had actually been anti-climactic. One of them still had wisps of steam seeping from his nostrils indicating that he wasn’t dead yet. The other was lying on his stomach while his glassy eyes peered sightlessly at the sky above.
