They took off in a group and worked their way along the creek bank. Jack took point and kept the rifle ready while picking his way through the dark growth. In time, they reached the collapsed concrete bridge leading to the highway fifteen feet above.
“This is it. We climb up to the road from here,” he said. “I’ll go first and check it out. If it’s okay, I’ll motion for you all to follow.”
Jack slung the rifle and scaled the slabs of broken concrete and jutting rebar. Upon reaching the top, he scanned the road in the direction of Cobb’s Corner, a half-mile down the ruined highway. The quake had ripped open the road’s surface. Between his position and Cobb’s Corner rested a burning red SUV lying on its side. Oily black smoke coiled from the wrecked vehicle and into the sky.
“Okay,” Jack called down to his family, “Brett, you’re next. It’s just like the tree house back home. Take your time and use the rebar.”
Brett handled the climb with the exuberance of an eight-year-old boy and reached the top with no problem.
“Good job, buddy.” Jack patted him on the head.
“Dad, there’s a burning car.” Brett pointed down the road.
“I know.” He looked down again. “Kerri, you’re next.”
“Okay.” Kerri climbed to the road and dusted off her jeans. “If I knew I was going to do all this freaking climbing, I wouldn’t have put on these tight jeans this morning.”
“Yeah, and I would have eaten a bigger breakfast.” Jack turned his attention to Kate. “Okay, hon,” he called down.
“Very well.” She started to climb but stopped halfway when her long skirt snagged on a jagged piece of rebar. “I’m stuck.”
“Tear your dress free,” Jack said. “Hurry because we’re pretty exposed standing in the middle of this highway.”
Kate used one hand to rip away her dress. She climbed the rest of the way and looked down at the tear revealing her right leg. “I’m feeling exposed now, too,” she said. “I hope you’re happy.”
“I need you to be able to run and not get caught on anything.” Jack tore away the rest of the cloth until it became a ragged miniskirt. “We’ll find you some jeans when we get the chance. For now, it’s time to show off those great legs. They haven’t seen the light of day for years anyway.”
“I look like a hooker now.”
“It’s the end of the world, Kate. No time for modesty.”
“Hey, Dad, someone’s singing over here,” Brett said from farther down the road.
Jack saw that he was halfway to the wrecked SUV. “Brett! Get back,” he shouted. “I told you to stay close.”
Brett sprinted to join them. “I know, but there’s a girl singing over by that wrecked car.”
“Maybe somebody needs help,” Kerri said.
“I’ll check it out,” Jack said. “The rest of you follow behind me at a distance. I’ll signal if the coast is clear.”
Holding the rifle ready, he approached the burning SUV, the heat from its flames against the side of his face. The repulsive smell of burned human flesh hung thick in the air. Not far from the fiery wreck, he spotted a blood-soaked baby’s car seat in the dirt. The sight caused Jack’s stomach to tense up. Somewhere on the other side of the overturned vehicle, a woman sang softly above the crackling of the fire. He motioned for the others to stay back.
Bracing himself for anything, Jack rounded the front of the SUV and found a young woman sitting in the dirt on the shoulder of the road. She clutched a pink baby blanket stained with fresh blood close to her chest. Her dark hair was tied back and she wore ripped jeans and a bloody white blouse. Rocking back and forth, she sang to herself while holding the bloody bundle.
“Hello,” Jack said.
She looked up in surprise. One side of her face was caked in bloody dirt, and he estimated her to be in her mid-twenties. She would have been quite pretty under other circumstances. Her eyes widened at the sight of the rifle.
“Don’t hurt my baby.” She hugged the blanket tighter.
“I won’t.” Jack slung the rifle. “Are you injured?”
“Where’s Joey?” Her words were slurred and there was a dazed look in her eyes. Jack suspected she had a concussion.
“Joey?” he said.
“My husband.” She nodded toward the SUV. “He was driving.”
Jack turned his attention to the driver’s side of the overturned vehicle. A blackened body, burned to a crisp, was suspended upside down by the seat belt. At least Joey wasn’t coming back as a zombie, he told himself.
“How’s your baby?” he said, fearing the worst. The amount of blood on the baby’s blanket made him doubt the infant had survived the crash.
“Baby’s fine.” She showed a tender smile. “Her name’s Julie.”
The girl fingered the blanket, and in response an infant’s hand came out of a fold and reached toward the mother.
Jack stiffened in shock.
”Kate, come here quick,” he called out over his shoulder. “Kerri and Brett, you stay where you are.”
Kate rounded the side of the burning SUV.
“Oh, God,” she said and covered her mouth at the sight of the young woman clutching the baby. “Is she hurt?”
Jack nodded toward the girl. “I think she’s dazed from the wreck.”
“The baby?”
“It’s still alive. I saw it move.”
Kate stepped forward to the young woman. “Hi. We want to help you.”
“Where’s Joey?” she repeated.
“What’s your name?” Kate said.
“Melissa.”
“I’m Kate and this is my husband, Jack.”
Melissa gave them both a confused look. “I want Joey. He was driving us home. He should be here.”
“How old is your baby?” Kate said.
“Her name is Julie and she’s six months old.”
“Julie’s a pretty name. Can I hold her?”
“I guess so.” Melissa extended the pink blood-soaked blanket to Kate.
Jack looked over her shoulder as she unfolded the cloth. Even though he steeled his nerves for what was about to be revealed, it didn’t do any good. No amount of mental fortitude could protect him from such horror. The thing wrapped in the blanket was a baby girl covered in blood from head to toe. He watched numbly as the infant’s eyes opened to show the color white. Her tiny hands clutched at Kate as a strangled hissing noise came from her throat.
“Isn’t she lovely?” Melissa said while holding out her arms. “Can I have Julie back now? I think she’s hungry. It’s past her feeding time.”
The sight was too much for Jack. He fell to his knees and retched up what remained of his breakfast.
“This is nuts. This is fucking nuts,” he muttered as his stomach threatened to heave again. “The baby’s a fucking zombie!”
Kate returned the bundle to the mother and placed a soft hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right, hon?”
“No.” He pounded a fist into the dirt. “Nothing’s all right. It’s hopeless. We’re all dead anyway.”
“Now who’s giving up?”
“The world’s gone to hell, so what’s the use? It’s over, Kate. You were right. Again.”
“Please, don’t say that, Jack. Now it’s your turn to be sane. The kids need you, and so do I.”
Jack glanced at the young mother holding the abomination wrapped in a baby blanket. His stomach lurched again. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”
“Dad! Mom!” Kerri shouted from the other side of the overturned SUV. “A whole bunch of zombies just walked out of a field! They’re headed this way!”
The fear in her voice mobilized him to stand again. He grabbed the Marlin rifle and looked down the stretch of broken highway. A horde of undead emerged from a stand of trees along the roadside and staggered toward them up the highway. This new group consisted of a cross-section of the people in the area: farmers, Hispanic workers, truck drivers, etc. Many bore bloody faces and violent wounds
on their torsos and arms. The surreal scene looked like something out of a George Romero movie.
Kerri shouted again. “Do you see them?”
“I see them!” He called back. “We’re leaving,” he said to Kate.
“What about her?” She nodded toward Melissa, who was rocking the thing in the blanket. “We can’t leave her here.”
“See if she can walk.”
Kate bent down next to Melissa. “We’ve got to go now, sweetie. Do you think you can walk with us?”
“Oh, no. I can’t leave. I have to wait for Joey.”
“We’re going to Cobb’s Corner. You know where that is, don’t you?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Maybe Joey’s waiting for you there.” Kate took her arm. “Do you think you can stand?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, we have to go now,” Kate said with more urgency in her voice. She attempted to help the young woman off the ground.
“My hip hurts too much.” Melissa sat back down in the dirt. “I don’t think I can walk that far. If you see Joey at the station, tell him to come get me.”
Kate turned to Jack. “I think her hip is broken.”
“Damn!” He looked back over his shoulder at the advancing mob of undead and estimated their number to be at least fifty. “Damn! Damn!”
“What’re we going to do?”
“Leave her.”
“But the zombies will eat her.”
“What should I do, Kate? If I try to carry her, they’ll catch up to both of us for sure.”
With panic in their eyes, Brett and Kerri came around the wrecked SUV.
“Don’t you see the zombies heading this way?” Kerri said before she noticed Melissa sitting on the ground and clutching the baby blanket. “Is she all right?”
“No, she’s not,” Jack said. “Kerri, I told you and your brother to stay back.”
“And wait for the zombies to get us? I don’t think so. We need to run away now.”
He pointed to Melissa. “She can’t walk.”
“What about the baby?” Kerri bent closer to look at the thing in the blanket.
“Dead.”
“It’s not dead. I see it moving.”
“Trust me, Kerri, it’s dead.”
Kate put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “Your father’s right.”
“But it’s still alive.”
“The baby’s a fucking zombie!” Jack said.
“Her name’s Julie.” Melissa lovingly patted the blanket. “She’s six months old.”
Jack looked over his shoulder. The advancing dead were less than fifty yards away.
“Take Brett and Kerri and run for the station,” he said to Kate.
“What are you going to do?”
“Just leave.” He cocked the rifle.
Understanding flashed in Kerri’s eyes. She jumped forward and stood between him and the young mother.
“You can’t do that!”
“Get her out of the way,” Jack said to Kate.
She took Kerri’s arm and pulled her back toward the highway.
“Don’t do it! Don’t!” Kerri screamed at him. “You bastard!”
“Take the kids and run,” he said to Kate.
“We’re not leaving without you,” she said.
“Goddammit, Kate! Don’t make this harder than it already is! Take the kids and get the fuck out of here! Now! Before it’s too late and none of us can get away.”
“Okay.” She took Kerri and Brett by the arms and rushed them toward the station.
Jack turned his attention to the dazed young woman. She continued hugging the horrible thing in the baby blanket while humming a soft tune. He glanced once more down the highway. The zombies were almost upon them.
“Melissa,” he said.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry for what I must do. Please forgive me.”
“You’re Kate’s husband, aren’t you?” she said above the moans of the approaching zombies.
“Yes.” Tears formed in his eyes as he aimed the Marlin.
“Where’s Joey?”
“In heaven with your daughter Julie. You want to see them, don’t you?”
“Heaven?” She blinked up at him.
“Yes.”
Jack pulled the trigger. The bullet passed through the young woman’s head, and blood and brain matter sprayed out the back of her skull. She fell backward into the soaked dirt, and the baby blanket rolled out of her lifeless grip. He cocked the rifle a second time, watching the undead infant crawl out of the blanket and onto her dead mother’s stomach. The abomination’s mouth opened wide to let out a horrible hiss. Jack aimed the rifle and pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped the zombie baby into a mass of pulpy flesh and organs.
His knees went weak and he fell to the dirt and retched again. This time it proved to be only a dry heave. He turned his face to the sky and shouted at God, “Fuck you! Fuck you for what you’ve done to the world! Fuck you for making me do this!”
The zombies were near. He could smell them. A few more seconds and there would be no escape.
Jack cocked the rifle, staggered back to his feet, and sprinted for the station. He still had his family to protect.
But knew he would never be the same man again.
CHAPTER SIX
All those early-morning workouts on the treadmill at the gym saved Jack’s life.
He ran full speed over the broken highway, putting distance between him and the mass of walking undead. Cobb’s Corner waited a half-mile farther down the road. Its billboard leaned to the left, but the main building and the garage area appeared to be undamaged by the quake. Kate and the children had just reached the station. Jack glanced over his shoulder. A hundred yards now separated him and the horde of zombies, which still followed—as relentless as death itself. Their numbers had also increased as small groups of new undead staggered out of the fields to join the mob.
“Shit,” he breathed.
Jack poured on more speed and charged the last quarter-mile before stopping under the canopy shading the gas station’s pumps. He tried to catch his breath and looked over to see if the ghost of Puss Cobb still sat under the Coke mural. Fortunately for his sanity, Puss wasn’t waiting there showing his toothless smile.
“I’m so sorry,” Kate said, hugging him tight with tears in her eyes. “We heard the gunshots. You had no choice, Jack.”
“No time to discuss it now. Let’s get inside. A shitload of zombies will be here in no time.”
Jack led the way into the station with the rifle ready to fire. The sudden sound of the bell hanging over the door nearly caused him to jump and pull the trigger. He took a second to calm his nerves and let his family enter. Shutting the door behind them, he was relieved to discover it was constructed of wood, with a large glass window inset in the frame. Metal bars covered the glass on the outside, a needed security precaution for a rural gas station way out in the country. Those same bars would keep the zombies out. The other windows were as heavily barred and equipped with raised blinds for blocking the sun. He turned the bolt and locked the front door with a resounding click.
“What do we do?” Kate said in the stillness.
“Lower the blinds. Maybe if they can’t see us they’ll go away.”
Kate and Kerri went to work rolling down the blinds. Brett stared at the snack items through the glass of the vending machine.
“I know you’re hungry, son.” Jack squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll get something to eat in a little bit after we secure the place.”
“Okay, Dad.”
Jack laid the rifle on the counter, picked up the landline phone, and found no signal. “Damn!” He threw the receiver down. “No way to call 911.”
“Is there anyone out there?” a strained voice called from the adjoining garage bay
“Doug!” Kerri said, turning toward the sound. “He’s alive!” She headed for the access door to the garage. “Doug, where are you?”<
br />
“I’m trapped under the truck.”
Jack put himself between her and the door. “Kerri, stop!” he said.
“Let me go to him. He needs help.”
“I’ll check it out first. You stay with your mother, and everyone be quiet. The zombies might leave if they don’t hear us.”
Jack grabbed the rifle and entered the garage bay. With no electricity or any real sunlight, the interior was dark and smelled of oil and grease. The sliding corrugated-metal garage door was rolled down, but he had no way of knowing if it was locked. The kid’s legs were sticking out from under the truck just as they had been when he first saw him less than three hours before. Jack flicked on the flashlight and knelt to get a better look.
“Yo,” the kid said with a labored breath. His face and hair dripped sweat. “Can you jack this truck off my chest? It’s got me pinned.”
“Give me a second,” Jack said.
He found the hydraulic floor jack, shoved it back under the chassis, and pumped the handle until it rose a couple of inches. He grabbed the young man’s ankle and rolled him free of the truck. The kid sat up on the dolly and held his chest with crossed arms while taking long, deep breaths.
“Thanks,” he gasped. “I’m glad you came back, man. I don’t know how much longer I would’ve lasted. I’ve been stuck under there since the quake knocked the truck off the jack.”
“You’re lucky the truck wasn’t a couple of inches lower,” Jack said, picking up the rifle. “Are you hurt?”
“My ribs feel all bruised to hell.”
“You’re young. You’ll live.”
The kid’s eyes narrowed. “What’s with the rifle?”
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“There are zombies everywhere out there.”
“Huh?” He showed a strained grin. “You’re joking, right?”
Something slammed hard against the metal of the corrugated garage door. They both jumped and turned toward the sound. An undead man’s gaunt face peered at them through the window inset in the door. He let out a long inhuman moan.
“Does that look like a joke to you?” Jack said.
More zombies appeared at the window and pounded against the door, causing it to start sliding up on its tracks.
Undead Flesh Page 5
