by A. Rosaria
She had to do something before they let the zombie go. It would end in disaster if it managed to get out of the van and into an unsuspecting group. The men looked at her for help, probably with the same thought on their mind. She looked around and grabbed a rifle lying on the ground. She didn‘t check if it was loaded. She took a chance and pressed the barrel against the zombie‘s head.
“Don‘t shoot, the bullet might hit me,” Ethan cried out.
He was right. She reversed the grip on the rifle and started bashing the zombies head with the stock. She kept at it until she heard the crack of the skull, and kept going until the stock busted through bone.
As the van‘s door slid open, Sarah pulled out the stock from what used to be Steve‘s head, making an awful squishing sound from the bloody meat and brains sucking on the rifle‘s end as she did. Sarah, Ralph, and Ethan looked at Clem, who stood outside. Her face was grim as she looked at each one, resting her eyes on what was left of Steve. She lingered there and finally shot an angry look at Sarah.
“You done and killed him.”
Without warning, she grabbed Sarah‘s ankles and pulled her out. Sarah fell hard on the van‘s floor. Ralph tried to hold on to her, but Clem kept pulling her. Half her body outside, Sarah held on to the sides of the door. She felt a hand close in on her hair, grabbing a handful and pulling back hard. Her head arched back painfully. The pain was so intense that she cried out as she let go. Her butt hit the ground with a hard smack. Before she could stand up, Clem dragged her by the hair to the front of the makeshift gate.
Ralph struggled out of the van. Anger shot from his eyes. Don restrained him from coming to her aid. Don, taller and stronger than Ralph, held him at bay with ease. Ethan was withdrawing back to the van to get a rifle.
Clem‘s voice roared, “Someone stop him.”
Two men jumped out of the crowd gathering around Clem and Sarah, and rushed Ethan. They grabbed him and pinned him against the van. Sarah, seeing a small window of opportunity with everyone distracted, tried to pry loose from Clem‘s grasp. The woman, however, was not caught by surprise. She yanked Sarah by the hair, taking her off balance, pushed her back, and kicked her chest, sending Sarah sprawling to the ground. By the time she crawled back up, Clem had her gun out and pointed at Sarah‘s head.
Ralph went wild, trying to get loose from Don‘s hold on him. He would have gotten free if not for the obese man in his mid-thirties, who held a bowie knife against Ralph‘s throat. She could see in Ralph‘s eyes that would not be enough. It would only give him a short pause before he renewed his struggle.
“Ralph,” she screamed, “don‘t! I‘ll be all right.”
Clem slapped her hard. Sarah spat blood and looked up in anger. It had been a mistake trusting other people. She would kill Clem if she just had the chance. Whatever reason that bitch had, it wasn‘t justified. This was not the way to treat people, especially not those who were supposed to be your friends.
Clem pushed Sarah to her knees and pressed the gun against the back of her head.
“This bitch killed Steve in cold blood, after her boyfriend, the same guy we took in, beat the crap out of him. All the while Ethan did nothing to help Steve. He actually stood up for these murderers, telling me it was Steve‘s fault for running his mouth. Since when does that get you knocked senseless, to then be butchered by some slut?”
The crowd spat angry words at Sarah. More and more people surrounded them. The circle narrowed with every outcry. A man walked forward; he looked warily around.
“What is it, Cliff? Can‘t you see I‘m busy?” Clem said.
“I think you should know that we spotted a large group of zombies nearby; maybe we should get inside where it‘s safer.”
The crown murmured, getting louder with people agreeing to moving back. Clem cast Cliff an annoyed look for stealing her momentum. “We‘ll be all right.”
Clem slapped Sarah again. “First we decide what we should do with her, with filth like them? No way are they coming back inside with us or leaving after killing one of us.”
The crowd hushed at her statement, knowing exactly what she meant. The gun at Sarah‘s head gave it away plainly. Death, that was what Clem wanted, her dead. The crowd looked on in hunger, on the border of justifying killing a young woman. Not even wanting to know what she had to say. No. Sarah wouldn‘t allow that to happen. If they wanted her dead, at least they would have to battle their consciences.
“Steve turned. I had no choice! I had to do it!”
A murmur ran through the crowd. A few of them even backed down, looking worriedly around them.
“She is right,” Clem exclaimed.
This drew many surprised looks. Sarah had not expected this, and then it dawned on her and she felt dread. For Steve to turn meant he had to be dead, implicating not only her in the killing, but the others as well.
Pointing a finger at Ralph. “He killed him.” And slowly trailing her finger to Ethan, Clem smiled wickedly. “And he helped. So pray tell, what do we do to them?”
The crowd started talking busily among each other. Some were already yelling for her death.
“We didn‘t mean to kill him,” Sarah cried out.
It only fueled their anger instead of appease them as Sarah had intended to do. Nothing she said could save her, so she decided to keep her silence. There was nothing more she could do than bide her time. She turned her head to Ralph and gave a small nod. He stared back, gritting his teeth and straining against the knife at his throat. They had the both of them well restrained. No where to go. At least they would die together. It was a crappy solace really, but better than none.
“What‘s the meaning of this?” an old man roared above the noise of the crowd. He pushed his way to the forefront. He was closely followed by a teenager a few years younger than Sarah, with a bandaged shoulder. The girl looked worriedly at Ralph and from him to Clem with a look of astonishment.
“Stay out of this, Albert, and take Brenda back to her tent.”
So this was Brenda. Ralph never told her she was pretty. The old guy was the man Ethan mentioned. Her muscles tensed. Maybe this was the moment she had been waiting for. She kept watching Clem‘s every move, looking for an opening and saw none. The woman was otherworldly. Like a cat, she was aware of every move made, like she could watch everything, even if her eyes were elsewhere. As if she sensed Sarah‘s intention, Clem immediately backed away. The gun was now too far away for Sarah to make a grab for it.
“Give the girl and boy the time to tell their side of the story. And why are you holding Ethan? He‘s a good man—something I can‘t say about you.”
“Why give murderers a say? What‘s your game really, Albert? Weren‘t you so adamantly opposed to Ralph and this mission? Well, you were right. He was not to be trusted, and the mission went badly. They got Paul and Linda killed.”
Brenda looked stricken and shocked, shaking her head, fighting back the tears.
“Lies,” Ralph yelled. He was cut short by the guy holding the knife, who pressed the edge harder against his throat, drawing blood.
The shock on Brenda‘s face was replaced with doubt. She was so ready to believe Ralph; Sarah wondered why. It didn‘t really matter that it sat wrong with her; the more people opposed Clem the better.
“I say we hear them out,” Albert said.
A few men in the group nodded in agreement. Clem laughed at that, not even a little bothered by the inference, more like annoyed. “Old fool, you better back off.”
Albert didn‘t move an inch and kept facing Clem with a deviant, self-righteous look on his face. “I think we need to put it to a vote, and only after we hear them out and get to the bottom of what happened. We sure don‘t need to go only by your side of the story. Not everyone here is so naïve to believe every word that comes out of your mouth.”
Clem shoved Albert. “Someone take him.”
No one moved. Don was preoccupied with Ralph and couldn‘t help Clem in her little scheme. Sarah smiled,
looking up at Clem‘s angry face. Their eyes locked for a short moment. A cold resolve entered Clem‘s eyes, and she snarled. Her hand holding the gun steadied.
“As you like. I‘ll put an end to this charade.”
Clem‘s finger tensed on the trigger. Ralph started struggling again. Cliff, the guy who had warned them about the zombies earlier, yelled for her not to shoot, not while they were still outside the gates. He ran up to them in the hope of stopping Clem. Ralph kneed the man holding the knife in the balls. When the man buckled, he cut Ralph. He bled but it didn‘t stop him. In one motion, he kicked the guy, twisted around, and bent forward, sending his elbow under Don‘s chin and knocking the man back. A shot tore through the night.
Cliff flew of his feet, his chest imploded by the impact. Blood spat from his back as he fell to the ground dead. A second shot rang, caving a large hole in his right eye and spilling brain from the back of his head. Everyone fell silent. A machine gun roared, sending a continuous spree of bullets from the tree line, killing a woman and wounding three others. Clem turned back to Sarah, ready to shoot her in the head. Before she could, Ralph tackled Clem, pushed her down, and put each of his knees on one of her shoulders, pinning her down. Ralph slugged her twice on each cheek and pried the gun from her fingers.
Don rushed forward, roaring in anger. Before he could reach Clem, Ethan grabbed him and both of them went down fighting. Albert grabbed Sarah‘s wrist and yanked her toward the gates. More shots sounded; more people went down. Sarah, led by Albert, went inside the camp. She looked back just as Ralph kicked Don off Ethan and helped the older man up.
All color went from her face as she saw a horde of zombies coming in fast, drawn in by the gunfire from the tree line, which stopped as the zombies came into view. The camp followers were firing now behind their wooden palisade, blindly shooting at the trees from where the shots had come, frantically hoping to hit something, and in doing so drawing the zombies toward them instead of their attackers.
“Close the gate,” Albert told Brenda.
“You can‘t,” Sarah said. “Ralph and Ethan are still outside.”
Brenda looked from the one to the other. “She‘s right.”
“Just do it. They can climb over it if they need to.”
At that, Brenda ran to the gate. Sarah saw there was no need for her to worry. Ralph and Ethan came running through the gate. Brenda closed it behind them. This wasn‘t going to work. The gate would hold the zombies back for at most a minute. She had counted at least thirty. And they also had to deal with the attackers who fired on them.
Ralph hugged Sarah. “For a second I thought I would be too late.”
So did she. Despite this not being the right moment, she leaned forward and kissed him. He drew back, surprised. He smiled, which surprisingly made her blush. It was a silly thing to do when death was knocking, but now might be her last chance, so she took it.
“We need to move away from the gate,” Brenda said.
The camp survivors had forgotten all about them. They were too busy defending the wall against the zombies who were almost upon them. Sarah hoped the zombies got to Clem and Don, though she heard no screams yet, so maybe they got away.
The five of them left the defense of the camp to the other survivors and moved to the back, away from the attack. Albert led them to his tent.
“Ralph, listen, I‘m sorry about the way I treated you. You seem like a nice guy, but at the time I didn‘t know if I could trust you, and with things as they are, I behaved like an ass. Brenda told me everything that happened, so I know now how wrong I was.”
He told them to wait outside as he went inside his tent. He came back carrying a large sport bag filled with ammo boxes and three handguns. He gave one to Ethan and Ralph; he stood with the last one, looking at Brenda and Sarah. The choice should be simple. Sarah still had the use of both arms while Brenda had a wounded shoulder.
“Can you shoot?”
“Yes, I can,” Sarah said annoyed. He finally gave her the gun.
“Get the ammo you need.” He went back inside and came back with a machete and an AR slung over his shoulder. He gave the machete to Brenda. “Can‘t leave you defenseless, now can I?”
Albert turned to the others. “We need to get out before they breach the wall. Follow me.”
They went to the farthest wall away from the gate. The zombies had pushed the gate down, and they were crawling over each other to get to the survivors who were now battling for their lives. Beyond the gate, Sarah saw black shadows moving between the trees. This was a hopeless fight; Albert was right to want to escape.
Ralph helped Brenda over the wall. He offered Sarah his hand, but she refused. It was a minor hurdle, and she liked climbing as a child. She still had the knack for it. Within seconds, she stood next to Brenda, who avoided looking at her. The others joined them. Only Albert struggled, Ethan and Ralph helped him down. So far, they had gone unnoticed.
The black clad soldiers must have found the camp and were now retaliating for the RV massacre, all thanks to that mad bitch Clem. They ran, with trees on both sides and no end in sight in front of them, Sarah couldn‘t help but think about the futility of it all. Once again, they were running to survive. Only knowing a little more about what was going on than before. The only thing they needed right now was to survive. But why? To keep running? She glanced at the camp. A fire was raging, shots were being fired, people were screaming, and then all of a sudden it stopped and everything went silent.
“Stop!” Ethan held his fist up.
Ahead of them, about ten zombies shuffled into sight, merely shades in the darkness setting in. There was no way to go around them.
“We should go through them, dodging as we go. They are slow and we can manage just like at our high school,” Sarah said.
Ralph shook his head. “No, they are not the same. Take a good look at them.”
She did and saw what he meant; they were quicker than she remembered. This was not the slow walk she was used to. Instead, they were closing in fast. It was flee or fight, and with the camp behind them already overrun, there was no place to flee. They had to fight.
“Make your shots count,” Albert yelled.
Sarah took aim at the closest one. A short stocky zombie. She shot it, hitting the neck. The flash of the gun illuminated her surrounds, and she saw the zombie‘s face. Just a kid, with a patch of unruly black hair on his head. No, it was not human anymore. She shot again and blew the top of its head off. Ralph had dropped two and Ethan one. Albert didn‘t join the shooting; he stood motionless with his rifle pointed down. Brenda, at his side, gripped the machete and was ready to dash forward, barely containing her urge to rush ahead. Sarah didn‘t have a lot of time to think. The remaining five zombies were six feet away. She took aim at a woman with a baseball-sized hole in her cheek, exposing her teeth and a purple tongue. Sarah shot it between the eyes. Ralph took down another one, and Ethan missed his next shot. The second one hit the zombie in the mouth, dropping it. Its spine shattered by the bullet.
Sarah backed down. The bullets went wide. Brenda ran forward and cleaved the head of the zombie almost on Sarah. There was one left and heading for Albert. Albert raised his rifle, stepped forward, and shot it in the head with a single shot. From behind them in the camp, the shooting and screaming started again.
The roar of machine gun fire kept going continuously, followed by explosions.
“It‘s them,” Sarah whispered.
“Them‘ who?” asked Albert.
“The soldiers in black. We need to move now.”
Bullets started ripping the air over their heads. Not bothering to exchange shots, they ran. Brenda and Ethan were ahead, and Sarah was a short distance behind them. She heard the heavy, puffing breathing of Albert somewhere behind to her right. She didn‘t hear Ralph though. She turned around. Ralph was crouched behind a tree, aiming his gun at the camp.
She ran over to him. “We need to move out now.”
Bullets
went over and wide. The shots fired at them were not aimed. It was the perfect time for them to get away without being seen. It was their chance.
“Go! I‘ll stall them.”
“Asshole, have you already forgotten? We stick together from now on. You and me.”
He sighed and took a good look at her face as if it were the last time he would ever see her. He had his mind made up, she could see that, but she wasn‘t about to give up on him. At least they could try to enjoy the little time they had. There was no reason to give up so easily. She grabbed him by the elbow to drag him away. He pried his arm loose and flashed an angry look.
“Trying to get us killed?” he whispered. His focused returned on the camp. Shadows moved over the wall. They weren‘t the only shadows they saw. More came from the side; these ones weren‘t carrying weapons other than their teeth. More shots were fired, but they missed and several headed their way.
“This is our chance. We can flee; they will never find us in all this chaos.”
They heard the whop of rotors. From the sky came the roar of heavy machine gun fire. Tracers flew through the air to the ground, ripping to shreds the zombies encircling the camp. The soldiers renewed their focus to the chase.
“I‘m not going to leave you here. Please, Ralph, we both will die if we keep at this.”
They heard the moans of zombies. They couldn‘t place where it was coming from. This place was crawling with them.
Ralph drew back, a look of resignation on his face. Together they crept away, ducking every time a shot went over their heads. A yell reached them. An order to stop. They had been spotted. Sarah and Ralph ran with no regard for cover. They would be overrun if they faltered for a second. They could only hope the soldiers were preoccupied with the zombies.
A bullet hit Ralph, sending him tumbling down an incline. Sarah ran after him, screaming his name. The blood drew from her face when she saw his bloodied head. He lay motionless, facedown. She fell to her knees next to him, and dropped her gun to grab him and turn him around.
