by Josh Hilden
It was when he was passing a two story apartment house and he was feeling pretty good that he heard the noise. Clearly coming from an open second floor window was the sounds of a baby crying. There was a child up there, and Kyle was leading the Risen Dead population of Belleville Michigan right to it. He had a decision to make, keep with the plan and ignore the child or detour into the apartment and check it out. He thought of Jennifer and his little niece who was waiting to emerge into this horrible world.
He knew it was no choice at all.
Kyle turned around and screamed obscenities at the shambling host of the Dead in order to draw them away from the apartment and the baby secreted within. He knew he only had one shot at this, so he let the leading edge of the Dead close to within 30 feet of him before he broke into a fresh beat of acceleration. The sounds of their moaning were enough fuel to kick his adrenal glands back into fear induced action. He pumped his legs in a slow steady pace, and he gently increased his lead on his pursuers.
When the Dead were barely within sight, he kicked into high gear and began to loop back toward the apartment house and its tiny occupant. Kyle knew he was using energy he might need to make it back to the city. If he had to hoof it while carrying a baby, it was going to be twice as bad but he did not have a choice.
He rounded the final corner and landed squarely on the front porch of the Apartment house without even breaking step. He was breathing hard but he did not feel the least bit winded. A quick glance around revealed no sign of any company and pausing to listen he could hear them far in the distance. Still he knew that he had to make this quick.
Kyle reached down and freed his mother’s .40 Sig Sauer. He took one final deep breath and kicked open the locked front door. The smell slammed into him and made him take a few steps back. It’d not been a warm or wet fall in southern Michigan, but whatever was rotting inside of the house had reached the point of putrescence. He cautiously stepped inside and decided he shouldn’t delay any potential confrontation.
“Hello,” he called out as he closed the door behind him and jammed a chair under the handle. Then he approached the stairs in the middle of the entryway. “Hello, is there anyone here?” The only response was the pathetic crying from above. Slowly he walked up the stairs, every squeak made his heart skip a beat as he moved the pistol back and forth in the shadowy darkness.
When he reached the top of the stairs, he was greeted by the source of the stench. Lying on the tattered shag carpet of the landing was the rapidly decaying corpse of a woman. She had a pistol shoved inside of her mouth and dried “matter” was spread across the wall behind her. She lay next to the door of the apartment where the baby was imprisoned.
Kyle stepped forward and pried the gun from her stiff yet slimy hand. When he had the semi-automatic free he slid it into his rear waistband. After finishing that distasteful chore, he looked at the apartment door and saw that a note was taped to it. Kyle took it down and started to read.
Dear James,
You’ve been gone for three days and I don’t think you are coming back. The pumps shut off last night, and the last of the clean water was gone by morning. Little Andi needed water, so I went downstairs to Mrs. Harper’s to see if there was any bottled water there. There was water but Mrs. Harper was still there. I thought she had gone to Chicago last week, maybe she came home early? She was Dead Jason, and she bit me before I could shoot her in the head. I tried to stop the infection, but I am getting sicker and sicker. I don’t think that I have very long left.
I am going to make sure that I don’t rise up and try to eat Andi.
James, I think that she can make it three maybe four days before she dies of thirst, but I don’t know what to do! I hope that you will make it back before then or that somebody else will find her. I’m sorry Jason, I tried to protect our daughter the best that I could. I love you so much honey and I am so scared.
Love,
Melissa
PS
If someone other than James is reading this PLEASE take care of my little girl. Please love her like she was your own. I have packed a bag for her right next to the crib. If you have come too late to save her, then please do the right thing by her.
Kyle folded up the letter and placed it in his pocket. He looked down at the mother whose final thoughts had been for her child. “I’m sorry that you had to die not knowing if she would be safe. I will take care of her, I promise.” He then reached over and turned the knob.
8
6:55pm EST
The sound of crying increased dramatically when he entered the small apartment. He closed the door behind him and hurried toward the source of the noise. This was going to have to be quick.
The room he entered was painted in bright pastels with decals and pictures of animals covering the walls. There was a terrible smell of human shit in the room, but blaming the baby for it was just unfair.
He approached the crib and an absurd terror almost paralyzed him. He knew that if he laid eyes on the baby he would love her. If he loved her, he would be responsible for her for the rest of his life, and if he was responsible for her, he would never be able to leave her behind. But he walked to the crib rail and looked down.
His heart almost stopped.
The little girl was screaming at the top of her lungs until she caught sight of him. Then she suddenly stopped. She looked right at him, and Kyle had the feeling she was seeing right into his soul. Her blues eyes, porcelain skin, and strawberry blond hair were the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his entire life.
“Hello, Andi.” He said and smiled down at her. She was covered a layer of dried snot and saliva but that didn’t matter to him. She reached for him, and before he knew what he was doing he scooped her up and embraced her. The tears that he had been fighting back since those horrible moments in his house, when his mother had tried to kill him, burst through the dam and he sobbed as he held the little girl.
“Da ... da?” a small voice asked. He looked at her face and she was grinning at him.
“No sweet pea, I am not your daddy.” He smiled back.
In the distance, he could hear the call of the Dead getting closer and closer. He didn’t have time to change her diaper or feed her, despite that she probably had not eaten for days. They had to run and they had to do it fast. He scooped up the back pack next to her crib and slid it onto his shoulders. Then he tucked Andi in the crook of his arm and headed for the front door.
When he exited out onto the porch, he could see the leading element of the dead mass coming into view. He shifted the squirming girl and stepped off and onto the sidewalk. This was going to be a sprint to the gates of the city. Once he was inside he would be safe, but he was looking at a mile of hard running carrying a baby and a heavy backpack. He considered dropping the pack, but what if the town didn’t have the things that a baby needed? He decided to keep it where it was and he took off down the street.
At first things went better than expected. With the baby in the front and the pack on his back his weight was more or less balanced. This allowed him to move at nearly top speed without getting any more tired than he would have without them. The sound of his shoes pounding on the asphalt was drowned out by the moans of the Dead and by Andi crying. She’d started up again as soon as he started running. He shunted all of that to one side of his mind. He concentrated on putting one foot in from of the other.
That was why he didn’t see the police man in the road.
To be fair it had not been a police man in a very long time, probably about the time that its legs had been crushed confining it to a crawling existence. The thing reached out just as Kyle was passing by and grabbed his foot. It was a one in a million grab, because there was no way it was fast enough to have grabbed him on purpose.
Kyle stumbled and fell to the ground. He managed to roll as he fell in order to protect Andi but as he did there was a shooting pain in his left knee.
“Fuck Me!” He screamed as he fell. He felt the radio
that clipped to his vest smash on impact and he was sure that something in the back pack had burst. He thought he smelled peaches.
He regained a sitting position in enough time to see the Dead police officer was right on top of him. The thing grabbed for the squalling baby and Kyle shifted to deny it access to its intended supper. Kyle went for the gun still secured to his belt when the Dead man grabbed him by his hair, which had fallen out of its pony tail, and pulled hard. Kyle jerked his head back from the gruesome figure and a large section of hair and some of the supporting scalp was left hanging from the corpses paw. Kyle screamed out and struggled to his feet, blood pouring down his face from the wound.
The mass of the Dead were less than 50 yards away. Kyle started to run with the baby secured in his arms. She’d stopped crying for some reason and was playing with the buttons and zippers of his vest. Every step was agony, pain lanced up and down his leg when his feet hit the black top. He wasn’t moving much faster than the Dead.
9
8:05pm EST
The moon rose fat and swollen in the night sky and the temperature dropped below the freezing point. The 79 survivors in the core of downtown Belleville were ecstatic when the Ranger Convoy rolled into town. What little in the way of food and drink they’d managed to squirrel away was added to what the Rangers contributed, and the two groups set to putting on a mini feast. But for many of the Rangers only half of their heart was in the celebration that looked to go on long into the night.
Kyle Carson had not returned.
“We have to go look for him!” Scarlet demanded.
Jennifer and Liam looked at one another, and it was Jennifer who finally shook her head. She saw the look of hatred on her best friend’s face and wanted to take it back, but she stood her ground.
“We can’t Little. It’s dark and we have no way of knowing where he is.” She reached out to put a comforting hand on the smaller girl’s shoulder but Scarlet recoiled in horror.
“If it was Ben out there you would be tearing down those walls to get to him!” Scarlet spat at her.
“It’s not Ben.” Jennifer replied.
“No it’s not, it’s your brother and you’re going to leave him out there to die!” She was advancing on Jennifer, jabbing her finger at her oldest and dearest friend. “Even if he doesn’t come back you will have Ben, and the baby! If he’s dead I have nothing!” And now she was screaming and sobbing. This time when Jennifer reached for her, Scarlet allowed herself to be touched and Jen pulled her into a gentle embrace.
He’ll be back,” Jennifer said planting a gentle kiss on Scarlet’s cheek. “Kyle is smart and tough, and he has you to come back to.” She brushed Scarlet’s hair out of her face and hugged her tight. Scarlet cried for a few minutes and then she spoke to Jennifer with her head hung low.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I didn’t mean what I said.”
Jenifer lifted Scarlet’s face by her narrow chin and smiled at her. “I could never be mad at you Little. We may have grown up but you will always be my first love.” And she kissed her gently full on the mouth and not completely as a friend.
“There’s someone out there!” One of the sentries on the wall yelled out.
Everyone standing near the gates waiting for news converged on the observation platforms. There’d already been a dozen false alarms as straggling Dead folk wandered back toward the town. But everyone was hopeful Kyle had managed to get them far enough away so they would have a hard time finding their way back.
As they ascended the ladders it became apparent the lookout wasn’t talking about the land approach. He had his night vision goggles trained on the lake itself.
“There’s a boat out there,” he said and then handed his goggles to Liam. The older man had not left the barrier since Kyle disappeared. By him was Kelly Hodges, she’d not left his side as he mounted his vigil.
“Is it him?” Kelly asked.
“Can’t tell, it looks like a damn paddle boat,” He looked over at Jenny with a quizzical expression on his face.
“If it’s a paddle boat then it probably came from the park near the west end of the lake. But that’s a good 10 miles from here.” The Mayor puffed as he climbed up the ladder behind them.
“Well whoever it is, they are coming right here.” Jennifer said snatching the goggles from Liam.
They held their breath as the small craft steadily splashed and churned its way toward the downtown docks. When it got closer a strange sound came from the boat.
“Is that a baby?” Scarlet asked
Scarlet slid down the ladder, and was the first one to reach the docks and see that it indeed was Kyle at the tiller of the plastic boat. He looked exhausted and half frozen. Almost all of his clothes were wrapped around a small wriggling form in the passenger seat. There was a soft cry from the bundle that only could have come from one source. Scarlet jumped onto the boat as soon as it touched the dock and threw her arms around the sweaty yet freezing young man.
“Hey you, told you I’d be back,” Kyle whispered and then collapsed into her arms.
10
Belleville, Michigan
November 10, 2012 AD (Day Twenty four)
7:30am EST
Kyle groaned and opened his eyes. He quickly shut them as the bright fluorescents overhead stabbed pain into his brain. How long had it been since he had seen working lights not in a vehicle? The business part of his mind wondered. He felt something warm and furry brush against his hand and then insistently butt into it.
“Meow!”
Kyle opened his eyes and looked down at his hand. Oscar was rubbing against him and head butting him to get his attention. Kyle scratched the cat behind its ear. He rolled onto his back and exposed his belly to his human. Kyle stroked him and then sat up.
“He hasn’t left your side in two days.” A gruff male voice said, Kyle thought he should know that voice.
Dr. Jason Aten walked around a corner at the far side of the room and motioned for Kyle to be still as he pressed a cold stethoscope to his bare chest and back. Then he looked in his ears and down his throat before speaking.
“When you got back to town, you were running a temperature of 103 degrees. You’re lucky to be alive.” Reproach was in the doctor’s voice.
“Had to keep Andi warm,” Kyle said and then looked around wildly. He was about to speak when Dr. Aten anticipated his question.
“The baby is fine. Really she was in remarkable shape considering how long she was left alone.” Kyle assumed that meant they’d read the note he had stuffed in the baby backpack. “Scarlet has her and they were here until midnight last night, when I ordered her to go get some rest.” Then he dropped the clinical tone and spoke to Kyle in a more human sounding voice.
“That was a hell of a risk you took, rescuing that baby. But you did the right thing, son. I hope that if someone found my daughter they did the same thing.” Jason turned away and Kyle felt uncomfortable, the man was always so detached and analytical, now he was sure he was crying.
“Your things are all in that closet over there and the General wants to see you as soon as you are ready. If you’ll excuse me, there are other patients. It seems their doctor died on the first day and the clinic is packed.” He left the room without looking back at Kyle.
Kyle got up and the cat followed him to the closet. His leg was really stiff. Pain was all-consuming but he could walk. The fire wracking his leg as he powered the peddle boat across the lake was something that he wished he could forget.
When he’d gotten within half a mile of the town on foot he realized a large number of the Dead were now blocking his way, and more were beginning to close in on his flanks. So he veered onto a path ringing the edge of the lake and jogged it for miles till he reached a park. By then he figured every Dead person in the area was following him. At the park he saw a few peddle boats tied to the dock and he decided to peddle back. As he moved away from the shore, each crank of the peddles was white hot agony. The Dead streamed int
o the lake and disappeared under the water. The weather had been freezing, and he’d used all his heavier clothing to keep Andi warm as he worked his way back to town, getting sicker and sicker the entire time.
