by Poe, S. B.
“Get in here NOW!” Tilly yelled, snapping Amanda out of her trance. She looked at Tilly and dove into the back. Tilly jumped in behind her and pulled the door down. Dottie looked out the window, never taking her eyes off of her husband, her face wet with tears.
5
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
Bridger watched as the fiery infected gathered around the other bus. The flames reflected off the windows and he knew that it was only a matter of time before the bus would become an oven, or worse. He saw the back door swing open and someone jumped out. He couldn’t tell who it was but they were quickly followed by two smaller figures, Jeremy and Clyde, he thought. He saw Ray jump out and fall to the ground. The next one out knelt down by him. They were in trouble. He had to help.
“I am going. Stay here.” Bridger said facing the group in his bus.
“Like hell.” Kate said. Bridger looked at her, trying to convince her with his eyes. It didn’t work.
“I’ll stay here with Jennifer and Lori and I’ll keep an eye on this guy” Evelyn said, tapping her sidearm and nodding towards Ed.
“Thank you.” Charlie said.
Jennifer and Lori were still looking out the window. Ed rose up in his seat to look too. They saw Janice and the boys run off into the woods towards the creek, away from the crowd that had just passed. The bright flash and boom from a shotgun blast got everyone’s attention again.
Scott, Josh and Charlie all went out the back. Another shot rang out from across the corral. Bridger and Kate went out the side. They all started across the corral to the other bus. As they did the infected began to stream around the parked cars. They all turned to meet the threat. The night rang with the sound of gunfire.
Tilly, Dottie and Amanda were all startled when the shots started. Tilly crawled over the rear seat and climbed into the driver’s side. She turned back to the others.
“Stay here. Don’t get out.” Tilly said. “I have to find Raj.”
She opened the door and stepped out. Just as she did Raj came from the other direction.
“Are you okay?” He said as he came up to her.
“Fine. Where are the others?” She said. “Where are Chris and Janice?”
“Chris and I got separated. Janice and the boys ran into the woods and I haven’t seen them.” As they spoke another one of the dead wandered out of the woods. Tilly fired and the buckshot ripped its chest open. It kept coming. She fired again and half it’s face came apart. It fell. They scrambled into the SUV and shut the door again.
“Chris, what about Chris?” Amanda demanded.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know. They came at us and we got split up. I don’t know where he is.” Raj said.
The infected surrounded the vehicle. Every window was full of disfigured dead. They huddled as far away from the windows as they could. The raspy exhalations of the infected gathered around the SUV quickly drowned the subtle sobs and nervous breaths of Dottie and Amanda. Dottie looked out the window at the ground. Ray was gone.
JW heard the sound of gunfire ahead. He began to run. He could see a glow through the trees. He stepped out of the woods onto the dirt road. He could see the outline of the SUV backlit by fire. The dead surrounded it. The gunfire that had erupted a few minutes ago was moving away from the camp, into the woods. He didn’t know who was firing but he knew someone was trapped in the SUV. He raised his rifle to fire but he quickly lowered it. He wasn’t going to risk accidently shooting into the vehicle. He reached into his back pocket and retrieved what he had taken when he paused at the fireworks stand. He pulled the lighter out of his pocket and lit the fuse. He tossed the strand of firecrackers into the woods to his left as far as he could throw it. As the first ones began to go off he tossed the next strand in the same direction. The repeated banging of the firecrackers had the intended effect. The dead began to turn towards the sound and move away from the vehicle. As they cleared it JW raised his rifle again and began firing. He dropped six or seven when he realized someone had exited the SUV and was firing at them from that direction too. The crowd that had gathered around the vehicle was mostly down and JW approached the SUV. Tilly was standing on the hood, shotgun raised, looking into the woods waiting for more infected to arrive. Raj was standing on the corral side of the vehicle.
“Where are Kate and Bridger? Where are Scott and Josh?” JW yelled up.
“I don’t know. They were in the other bus. I guess they are the ones shooting.” Tilly said.
“Stay put. I’ll be back.” JW said as he disappeared back into the darkness on the other side of the bus.
Dottie managed to slide out of the back and went to the side of the SUV. She looked on the ground.
“Ray, Raaay. Where are you?” She yelled.
“Be quiet.” Tilly snapped.
“But he’s not here. He’s gone. He was bitten.” As she said the last part out loud the truth finally snapped into her mind. Ray was walking with the dead. She quit yelling and climbed back into the vehicle, she didn’t want to see him like that.
Tilly stood on the hood and continued to look alternatively into the darkness and back across the corral. Everything inside the corral was on fire. The bus they had been on was smoking and she could see flames coming from underneath. Some of the infected had somehow gotten under it and were now just lumps of smoldering flesh. She was surprised that the gas tank hadn’t erupted. As the thought crossed her mind the bus exploded in a huge fireball, knocking her off the hood and to the ground. Raj was thrown against the side of the SUV and it knocked the breath out of him. The bus had become an inferno. Raj crawled around to the front and saw Tilly picking her self up. They both climbed back into the SUV. She turned the key and quickly pulled down the dirt road until they were clear of the fire. She stopped. They got out and looked back down the road.
“Should we go back?” Raj asked. They heard more gunfire.
“We should but I don’t want someone to randomly shoot me.” Tilly said. Raj hadn’t seen what happened with Ray. Amanda heard Tilly’s words. She didn’t respond.
Chris was crouched behind a tree looking back towards the glow through the woods. He could see shapes moving between the trees. He had lost sight of Raj. He had lost sight of everyone. He sat there for another minute trying to figure out what to do next. He had dropped the shotgun he was carrying when he and Raj picked Ray up. He decided to work his way back towards the other bus. He moved past a clump of bushes and felt something rip at his leg. One of the infected had fell into it and Chris hadn’t seen it. All he could see was the top of the things head as it reached out and grabbed him again. He tried to pull away but the thing was stronger than he was prepared for. He couldn’t break free. He felt the searing pain as the thing bit down into his calf. He twisted and cried out but it was useless. The thing grabbed his other leg while still biting and took Chris to the ground. He beat against its head. He beat against its shoulders and arms. He continued to beat against the thing as it tore through the muscle on his stomach and ripped his guts out. Chris watched as the thing began eating the intestines being pulled from his stomach. He could feel it as it used its hands to tear the rest of his belly open. As the blood left his body he lay back. He had no fight left. His eyes fixed on the sky and he drew his last breath to the slurps and gurgles of his own devouring.
Janice had taken the boys several yards into the woods when she realized she had no idea where she was going. They had no flashlights and they had run far enough away from the fire that the woods had grown dark again. They stopped.
“Momma, where are we?” Jeremy asked.
“I don’t know, I think we are close to the creek now but I can’t see anything” Janice said. She knelt down. “But we are ok. Just stay close.”
She reached out and took their hands again. They slowly started walking into the dark woods. They could hear gunshots. Lots of gunshots. Then the bus detonated. The woods lit up as the fireball from the exploding gas tank expanded skyward. Janice could see. It wasn’t g
ood. The woods ahead of her were full of moving shadows. She tightened her grip on their hands and turned to run in the other direction.
“Yaaaaaaaaaaa” Jeremy screamed. One of the dead had been slowly following them and when they turned it reached out and grabbed Jeremy in a bear hug. It lifted him off the ground, ripping him from his mother’s hands. It bit hard into his shoulder.
“Stop, stop, no, no.” Janice yelled, trying to hit the thing as hard as she could. It didn’t help. The thing bit down one more time and dropped to the ground, still holding Jeremy in its arms. As it lifted its head to take another bite of the boy, Janice kicked it in the side. The thing in front of her was at least a foot taller than her and probably doubled her weight. When it turned she saw its face. The thing had long hair and a full beard. Except it didn’t. Half of its scalp was peeled from the top center to just over its left ear. The skin was bunched up in a semicircle around the side its head with much of the left side of its skull clearly exposed. The skin was also split along its jawline on the same side and it was pushed down into the same semicircle pattern around the left side of its neck, exposing the bottom of its jaw and all the muscle and tissue. She screamed and kicked again.
The thing let Jeremy go and began to stand up. Janice reached down to pull Jeremy away. As she did she heard a pop and saw the infected fall to the ground. As it fell she could see Clyde standing behind it hold a big rock in his hand. He had struck the thing as it had struggled to stand and he had struck it in the right place. Clyde had a look of disbelief on his face. That was not what he had expected. He dropped the rock. He and Janice tried to get Jeremy to stand. He wasn’t moving. Janice couldn’t get him respond to her. There was so much blood. She knew. She looked up and saw another shape limping towards them. In the light she recognized Ray. He came closer.
“Ray, over here. Please help me. Please, please help me. They got Jeremy, he’s hurt bad.” She looked back down at Jeremy. Clyde had turned to look at Ray when she first called to him. He turned back to Janice as Ray was coming up behind him.
She was looking down when the thing that had once been Ray Harrison fell on top of Clyde, pushing him down onto her and her onto Jeremy. As they all went to the ground the thing took a deep bite into Clyde’s leg. Clyde screamed. Janice was trapped between Clyde, Jeremy and this thing. She couldn’t move. Her face as pressed against the side of Jeremy’s and she pulled her head back a little to see him. His eyes were closed. He looked like he was sleeping. She whispered to him.
“Oh baby boy, please come back to me. Please.”
As if hearing her plea, his eyes opened and he turned his face towards the sound of her voice. She looked at the opaque lenses fogging his vision. She started to scream again but stopped. Her husband was dead. Her neighbor was dead. And now her child was dead too.
“It’s ok baby boy. I love you.” Janice said as she place her mouth on the side of his face to kiss him.
As she did he turned his mouth towards hers, closed down on her lower lip and bit it off. She didn’t make a sound. The tears streaming down her face reached her mouth. She tasted the mixture of blood and tears. The thing on top of them finally rolled to one side and she was able to move. She didn’t. Instead she reached out, knocking the hands of the child she had brought into the world away as it tried to grab her. She grabbed the things head and brought it in close to her chest. It was biting and thrashing. It bit into her breast, the same breast she had used to feed it just a few years ago. It bit several more times. The whole time Janice was just pulling it tighter and tighter her, singing a lullaby.
“Hush little baby, don’t say a word. Momma’s gonna buy you a…” the thing bit into her neck. They both fell over. She lay back on the ground and looked to the side as her child began feeding on her. She could see the thing that had once been Ray bent over Clyde. Clyde wasn’t moving any more either.
As JW moved around the SUV and towards the other bus he could see the back door standing open. He jumped in the back and looked around.
“Kate, Josh, Scott. Where are you?” He said.
“They left. They went to help the others.” Evelyn said, rising from the seat.
He could see Evelyn’s face in the glow of the fire. Jennifer and Lori stood. Just behind them a man JW didn’t know stood too.
“Who the hell are you?” he said.
“It’s a long story JW. We can tell it later.” Evelyn said.
JW started to say something but the world exploded outside the windows and bus filled with light. The shockwave from the explosion of the other bus’ gas tank lifted their bus off the ground and it hovered briefly tilted to one side, completely off the ground. It threw everyone on the bus against the wall on the opposite side. It violently came back down to the ground and slammed them all to the floor. JW tried to raise his head but the ringing in his ears made his vision blur. Evelyn was draped over the back of one of the seats trying to rise up. Ed crawled out from under the seat next to her and saw her gun lying on the floor. He reached over and helped her sit up and looked at the gash over her eyebrow. It was bleeding pretty good. The bus had been a makeshift home for the last few weeks. All the clothing and personal items they had kept in it were now scattered and tossed all over the interior. Ed grabbed the first thing he found, one of Scott’s shirts, and put it up against Evelyn’s forehead.
“Thank you.” Evelyn said. She looked up at her benefactor and for the first time realized it was Ed. Her eyes widened.
He reached down and picked up her pistol. He held it in his hand and turned it this way and that, looking over it into her eyes. JW slowly managed to raise his rifle. Ed shrugged his shoulders and handed the gun back to Evelyn. She smiled. She glanced over Ed’s shoulder and made eye contact with JW. He lowered the rifle.
Kate turned to see the infected coming around the other cars. Bridger stopped when she did. Josh and Scott took another step but when Bridger opened fire to their right they wheeled around. They could see the dead coming into the corral and they began firing into them. Bridger glanced down to reload and caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He saw Janice and the boys run into the woods towards the creek. He started walking towards the few infected still in front of him and tried to clear a path to the back of the bus. It wouldn’t work. There was too much fire growing around it. He turned back towards the cars parked across the road.
“Come on, we can get to them this way.” He said looking back at Kate.
They worked their way around the back of the car and went down the road just a few yards. Bridger and Kate turned into the woods. Josh took a few more steps and turned into the trees. Scott stepped into the woods with Josh just in front of him. Josh turned to look back at him when one of the infected came around a tree and reached out for him. Josh felt the pressure on his back as Scott’s eyes widened. As he ducked the thing fell over him and landed on the ground. Josh didn’t even think. He pointed the muzzle of his shotgun and pulled the trigger. The splatter of rotted brains and blood covered Scott. Josh looked up at him.
“Shit.” He said.
“Shit? Man I would welcome shit compared to how this smells.” Scott said wiping his face.
“Hey, you okay?” Kate said as she reached out and grabbed Josh’s shoulder from behind.
He wheeled, startled. Bridger reached out and lowered the barrel of Josh’s gun, which Josh had brought up almost to his head.
“Whoa.” Bridger said, as he ducked his head to the side.
“Sorry. Yes, we’re ok.” Josh said.
“Ok. Let’s go.” Bridger said.
They slipped further into the woods, trying to flank around to the other side of the bus. Bridger didn’t know how many of the others had gone into the woods but he knew for sure he had seen Janice and the boys. He figured the rest of them went that way too. As they moved a little further away from the glow of the fire they slowed. Bridger reached up and turned the flashlight rail attachment on. It cast a narrow beam of white light into the trees. They coul
d see several of the dead moving away from them. They followed them. When his light would land on one of the infected, he would pull the trigger. They were leaving a trail of dead as they went.
“Where are we going?” Charlie asked.
“I saw some of our people run into the woods this way. I am not sure where they went after that.” Bridger said, pointing the light into the woods.
They had covered another few yards when Bridger stopped.
“I don’t know. I don’t see anybody. Maybe we should…” The explosion interrupted him. They all ducked their heads and snapped back around to face the buses. The woods lit up.
“My god.” Kate said.
They looked around in the glow of the fireball in the sky. All of the infected they could see turned towards the fireball and started walking.
“They are all going towards the fire. All of them.” Charlie said.
JW stood and looked out the window. A dozen or so dead were coming out of the shadows into the light of the fire. For an instant it looked like a crowd gathered around cheering a Friday night bon fire, but the dead didn’t cheer. Or stop. They walked into the fire. He watched as they began to burn. Some started to cross the corral towards the bus he was on. He wasn’t going to let them get to it. He stuck the barrel of his rifle out of the window. When he finished, all that was left were piles of burning corpses. He looked over at Evelyn and Ed. Jennifer and Lori had crawled out from under the other seats. None of them looked like they were injured too badly. He stepped out of the back. He winced when he hit the ground. He looked into the woods and could see the outline of the trees to the east, backlit by the rising sun.
