by Brown, TW
“I just needed to be close to someone,” Deanna whimpered. A memory was starting to form, and if it was true, she wanted desperately to push it down.
“Someone!” Sean spat, pushing her back in a mix of anger and disgust.
“Sean, please, not so loud,” Deanna begged.
“Why…you afraid the zombies will hear?”
As if in answer, a rattling moan sounded from somewhere within the building. It was answered by another…and another…and another…
7
Geek Girls Gone Wild
Aleah slipped over to the corner and watched the dozen or so walkers as they shuffled along. It was almost hypnotic and she could not help but be amused.
CLANG-clang-Clang!
The large can bounced down the road again as the lead zombie’s foot connected with the dented piece of tin. The zombies adjusted their course slightly to home in on the sound until they reached it and kicked it once more sending them on a slightly different trajectory.
She was actually disappointed when the can became lodged in a pile of wood and rocks from a building that looked like it had been in the direct path of the tornado. Sure enough, the zombies trudged along until the debris pile made them alter their course and then the “game” of kick the can was over.
Heading back to the warehouse where Rose was set up in a small office making some sort of soup using a bunch of unidentifiable greens that she had not the stomach to inquire the origins of, Aleah sighed and stretched as the warm glow of the morning sun crept over the roofs of some distant buildings and cast their glow on her skin. Today had the makings of what would normally be considered a beautiful day. Take out the part about the zombie apocalypse, no real food, only a pair of canteens left with any water in them, and the fact that the man she loved was probably in a medically induced coma where he was being used to procreate with other women who shared his immunity to whatever it was that turned a person into a zombie, and today was a beautiful day.
Giving the “secret code” of two knocks, a pause and then another knock, Aleah opened the door to discover Rose sitting in the corner, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was so caught off guard by the markedly “un-Rose-like” behavior that she almost tripped over her own two feet trying to hurry to the girl’s side.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Aleah knelt down before the sobbing Rose and took her hands. All she received in response was a stiff thrusting out of one hand.
Aleah followed to where the extended finger pointed and saw a large, wet splat on the far wall. Rivulets of water had created a pattern that dripped down from the central spot where a large clump of what looked like grass and weeds stuck in an ugly clump.
“I wouldn’t make my worst enemy eat that!” Rose managed through her tears.
“That bad, huh?” Aleah stood and retrieved the small cooking pot from where it lay on its side at the base of the wall.
“Vile,” Rose said as she scrubbed at her face with the cuffs of her shirt sleeves.
“You know…” Aleah turned with a thoughtful expression that made the scar tissue around what was left of her nose wrinkle, “…there is another big neighborhood to the west of us. We could check a few of the houses on the edge. I’m sure we can find a little something.”
“What about Catie?”
“We will only be gone for a couple of hours. It is pretty early and I doubt that she will be coming at this hour.” Aleah paused for a second and a smile crept across her face. “Besides, I have feeling that we will hear her departure from that place.”
Rose considered the idea and nodded just as her stomach gave a loud grumble. Within minutes, they had emptied their small knapsacks of everything to maximize the space available to return with as much as possible.
Setting out, Aleah actually pulled up and called off the run before it began when they emerged from some brush to discover a series of train tracks with a scattering of derelict cargo cars interspersed randomly in either direction. It was like a deep fear came from her stomach and twisted at the core of her soul.
“If we smell anything…we can go back,” Rose whispered, placing a comforting hand on Aleah’s shoulder.
They made it across with no problem and climbed a small hill to get up to the first houses. Staying low and using every patch of shrubbery or abandoned vehicle for cover, they crept to the first house on the corner.
After almost three hours, the frustration was starting to build. So far, it looked like this place was more like what they had expected when they had begun the search of the neighborhood by Eggers Grove. Every single house they entered showed the obvious signs of having been looted.
“With crumbs much too small for the other Whos’ mouses,” Aleah recited after almost two dozen houses had yielded absolutely nothing of value—food or otherwise.
“This is a waste of time,” Rose snapped as she stood in the entry of a kitchen that had most of the cabinets torn from their mounts. “If we are going to find anything, I think we have to head in a few blocks.”
Aleah nodded her agreement as she stepped over a body that had decomposed to the point where it had started to meld to the hardwood floor in a dark pool of dried putrefaction. A door at the end of the hallway had seen a barrage of bullets and now beams of sunlight shone through and created a prism as it caught on the motes of dust drifting in the air.
They exited the house just as a pair of walkers rounded the corner. The pair of undead turned in unison and let loose with the hair-raising sound of a baby cry. The sound had always bothered Aleah, but this time it stung her soul. Striding across the overgrown and litter strewn yard, she dropped them both just as they had started to cry out a second time.
Without a word, she turned back and headed into the lattice of streets that made up this particular neighborhood. Rose hurried and fell in stride, but she was certain she had seen something moving in the shadows beside the house across the street. Several times, she glanced over her shoulder, but each time she saw nothing. Eventually, she chalked it up to a combination of nerves, frustration, and good old paranoia.
***
At some point, Catie had dozed off. She had honestly expected some sort of visitation by Jordan or one of his goons, but nothing had come. The light of the morning sun woke her with a start as she realized that she had actually slept through the night.
Sitting up and stretching, she was amazed at how refreshed she felt. It was like this had been the first actual night of rest she had been able to completely allow herself in ages. Despite having fallen asleep with the idea that she should be vigilant just in case somebody from the compound came, she had slept soundly.
Rising, she was further dismayed when she discovered that a tray had been set inside her door with a bowl of still steaming oatmeal and another slice of bread. Once again she repeated yesterday’s ritual of enjoying the bread; however, she found it strangely difficult to toss out the hot oatmeal with a visible sprinkle of sugar glazing the surface.
Eating the chunk of bread, she was only modestly disappointed that it was not warm like yesterday’s. It was still delicious, and she went so far as to hold her hand underneath to catch every single crumb.
It was another few hours before the sounds of somebody unlocking her door intruded. Catie tried to look casual and disinterested from where she lay sprawled on the bed. She had forgotten what it was like to be bored and quickly remembered that she hated that feeling.
“Come with me,” a man said as he stepped inside with a pair of armed companions who had their hands on the butts of the pistols holstered at their hips.
“Where are we going?” Catie made an effort to sound more curious than concerned.
“Just come along, all your questions can be asked when you see the doc.” Catie noticed that the individual who was apparently in charge of this detail was having trouble keeping eye contact.
As Catie slung her small pack over one shoulder, she began to think that perhaps there was even more dissension amongst these people than she had init
ially realized. It was obvious that there was something wrong at the core of this group. The only thing she could not figure out at the moment was just exactly how she would be able to use that to her advantage.
She allowed her escort to lead her as they exited the building and then crossed the compound. Her heart started beating a little faster as soon as she realized that they were obviously heading for that big building where she had seen everybody herded into the other day when she Aleah and Rose had been watching.
This would either be very good…or very bad.
***
“We have a tail,” Rose whispered as she moved up beside Aleah and peered around the bumper of a UPS truck that had been dumped on its side.
“What?” Aleah started to spin around, but Rose grabbed her and kept her still.
“Not sure for how long, but at least since the last house we checked. It isn’t a zombie, but it is not trying to get any closer and every time I try to casually get a look, there is nothing to see. Whoever…or whatever it is, it is hanging back,” Rose said with her lips almost brushing Aleah’s ears. “I have an idea, but it will split us up for a few minutes.”
Aleah started to protest, but Rose shut her down.
“Just hear me out…I know splitting up is a dangerous idea, but I am talking about just a few minutes. See that brick house across the street with the truck crashed through the fence? I say we make for it and slip inside. Clear it quick and then I will slip out the back and move down to that little blue house with the body hanging from the tree. From there, I should be able to use that bunch of cars crashed into each other in the intersection to hide behind as I get across the street and circle back about a block or two and see if I can’t get behind our tail.”
Aleah wanted to argue. She did not want them to split up; that never went well…
She laughed at the rest of that unfinished thought about how it never went well “in the movies.” That made Kevin’s last words to her echo in her mind: “It’s worse.”
“Just be careful,” Aleah cautioned.
Rose suppressed a laugh. “Yeah…zombies, weird people starting a cult because they are immune to zombies, tornadoes, and we got one scared person following us. I’ll do my best to be really careful.”
The two made the dash to the house they had targeted. Once they reached it, a busted out living room window allowed easy access. The layers of dust and cobwebs gave the indication that the place was likely zombie free, but they still did a quick check.
“I mean it, Rose,” Aleah cautioned as the girl slipped out the gaping rectangle that used to be a sliding glass door. “Be careful. I really don’t like this splitting up thing.”
“I will,” Rose whispered over her shoulder as she waded through the overgrown back yard.
Aleah watched until the girl scaled the fence and vanished. With a sigh, she went about searching the house for anything. Unfortunately, this place yielded no more results than anyplace else they had checked so far. Of course, she had almost guessed that to be the case with all the busted windows.
She flipped open kitchen cabinets, not surprised to discover the contents either gone, rotted beyond recognition, or devoured by any variety of vermin. That last realization got her onto another train of thought. She had never given it much consideration, but she felt there should be a significantly larger rat population. She saw them from time to time and had learned to mostly ignore the nasty little creatures, but shouldn’t there be more? Shouldn’t they be scurrying about in huge swarms?
Filing that nugget away for when she could bring it up with Kevin, she moved back to the living room so she might get a peek outside and maybe spy their follower. She made sure to stay in the shadows.
She had just stepped into the arch that opened to the living room and could see out the tattered curtains to the street beyond when a figure scurried across the road about a block away. It was definitely a person and, unless they had learned to run crouched over, not a zombie.
A few seconds later, movement just past and to the left of where she had seen something caught her attention. She quickly recognized Rose’s frizzy puff of black hair as it bobbed along behind some bushes. A heartbeat later, the girl dashed across the street and would now be almost directly behind whoever was trailing them. Her best guess put Rose no more than fifty feet behind this person.
Deciding to improvise, Aleah went for the front door. Her mindset was that she would draw the focus and attention of this mystery person. Stepping out onto the porch, she even went so far as to pretend to whisper something over her shoulder, pause, and then shake her head.
There was a sudden flurry of activity. Aleah gasped as Rose actually climbed up onto the husk of a burnt out minivan and launched herself at an unseen target. There was a grunt and a cry of pain. Aleah took off at a run but pulled up short as Rose emerged from behind a hedge with a young man who had an arm wrenched up painfully behind his back.
“Told ya we were being followed!” the young girl hooted triumphantly.
A few nearby creepers pushed their way out of scattered piles of debris and began to pull themselves toward the living intruders that were trespassing in their realm. Aleah gave them a wide berth, seeing no reason to bother with something so pathetic.
“Let me go!” the boy whined.
Aleah took a good look at the young man. He was in his mid to early teens by her best guess. He wore a set of tinted swimmer’s goggles, leather gloves, coveralls, and a heavy denim jacket with a bunch of patches that took her a minute to place. It was the blue police box that finally gave away the Dr. Who theme.
Rose stopped in front of Aleah and shoved the young man to his knees. His dark brown hair was a matted, tangled mess, and a big clump of it fell into the boy’s eyes. He flipped it back and looked up with a mixture of fear and something else that she could not quite place. It was that something else that set her on edge.
“Why were you following us?” Rose asked, poking the kid’s back with her blade just enough to cause a wince.
“I-I-I…” he stammered.
Rose pressed a bit harder with her weapon and Aleah wanted desperately to stop her, but she knew that was just not going to happen. The days had long since passed where mercy could be given; it had to be earned.
“Start talking or start bleeding,” Rose said with a frightening lack of emotion.
“I saw those lunatics drop you guys off at their little dump site. I wanted to try and make contact, but the storm came and then that other lady showed up…she scared me. I saw her take down a dozen walkers like it was just part of her morning stroll.” The young man was babbling now and some of his words ran together due to him talking so fast.
“So you are trying to say that you are out here alone?” Aleah asked with a skeptical shake of the head.
The boy was silent for a moment, but finally looked up at Aleah. His dark brown eyes had filled with tears and they were spilling down his cheeks, leaving trails through the grime. He nodded.
“I am as of ten days ago. My dad cut himself breaking in to a truck that was loaded with canned goods from the Del Monte plant.” His eyes went distant as the memory played out in his mind and was relayed through a misery-tightened throat. “We couldn’t believe our luck. The truck had rolled down into a ravine down by the water. It sat high enough that the storage part was pretty much dry. That nobody had found it before was a miracle. My dad even said it had renewed his faith that there was a God, and that maybe things were going to get better. The cut didn’t even seem like that big of a deal, but by the third day, it was so red and puffy…and it smelled so bad. He got sick…and then…” The boy’s voice trailed off and was choked by a sob.
Aleah looked up at Rose who now had released her grip on the boy’s arm and taken a step back and to the side. Aleah knelt down to the boy and placed her hands on his shoulders.
“Now just put your hands in the air and get on your knees,” a voice said from off to the left. A man stepped out from behind t
he tree where the dead body swung in the early morning breeze.
“And then we met this couple…they had lots of medicine and even a handful of guns,” the boy said with a sneer as his head popped up. “Dad was fine and healthy in a matter of a few days. And those two nice people fed us for almost a week.”
Rose lunged forward and drove the tip of her machete into the back of the boy. It resisted just slightly before exploding out the front with a nasty crunch as bone gave way. The boy gurgled and flailed wildly with his arms, wrenching the handle of the weapon away from Rose. However, the blade had pierced his heart on its way through and the boy was dead before he hit the ground.
Aleah stood in stunned horror with no idea what to do. Rose sprung over the corpse of the boy as the man screamed in despair.
“Trent!” the man wailed. His arm dropped as he ran for the sprawled form of the boy who now lay in a spreading pool of blood that looked black on the pavement of the road.
Rose reached Aleah and yanked the older woman’s blade free, spinning on the man as he neared. His eye were so fixated on the downed form that he never even saw the blade as it came down hard. The blade bit into the flesh of his neck, driving almost halfway through before coming to a halt.
The man could only watch helplessly from his knees as the second blow finished the job. All the while, Aleah stood transfixed to where she had been while the entire scene unfolded.
Rose walked over and stood staring at the gun that had landed with a harsh clatter on the street before skidding to a stop beside a clump of weeds that were pushing the pavement back. With a stomp of her boot there was a tremendous crunch.
“Try to take me prisoner with a toy gun…what a bunch of idiots,” the girl snarled before stomping one more time to shatter the gun in a hundred tiny pieces of black plastic.
“How the hell did you know?” Aleah finally managed, unable to take her eyes off the two corpses sprawled in the street.
“Seen enough real guns,” Rose said with a shrug. “Plus…they left a small piece of the orange plastic on the tip.”
