This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet

by Lisa Biesiada

  I didn’t know dick about how many hours were required to become a pilot, but it sounded like a lot. I looked up at Jack from his lap to find him rubbing his beard in thought again. At least it was an improvement from rubbing the back of his neck; it meant he wasn’t currently irritated at me.

  My attention was pulled from Jack to watch Ty stand up and start pacing excitedly. “The airport is about 8 miles north of here; a straight shot up 37. We can stay on the overpass and get there by nightfall.”

  Chloe was nodding her head in agreement as she stared at Jack and me, wide-eyed excitement written all over her face. I wanted to share their enthusiasm, but the whole thing felt like a suicide mission. “Even if we make it to the airport, there’s gonna be a lot of dead there.” I said slowly.

  I felt Jack grunt in agreement. “True, but considering how big the airstrips are at an international airport, we’d have more open space to maneuver.”

  Ugh. Ok. Well, I guess I was going to die after all while on a kamikaze mission to save the human race. The good news was if there was a heaven after all, surely this would win me points.

  I stood up and brushed the dirt off my pants. Looking at the group, “Well, what are we waiting for? Daylight’s burning.”

  The others stood and straightened themselves up and we all shared a look before heading to the window. There was fear behind the excitement in the kids’ eyes, and I could feel their pulses racing which only solidified my decision. They deserved a chance and if I could give it to them, I would.

  No one spoke as we one by one climbed up and out the window into the hazy April sunshine. Looking around, it was eerily quiet, which never sat well with me. We were in the heart of the city and it seemed there should be more commotion. Although we would have to pass the Dome on our way to the airport, which was where the zombies had been heading after it blew up, so I guess we’d end up in a shit storm one way or the other.

  Our footsteps made a light, crunching sound on the gravel as we crept out from the safety of the shop we’d just left and started back towards the overpass. Looking at the abandoned buildings and cars around us, I became overwhelmed by the silence. You never realize how noisy the world is until it stops. There was no traffic, no people, no car horns, no music, not even birds chirping. Filled with a sense of foreboding, I pulled my machete from the holster on my thigh and a pistol from my waist.

  The others were in front of me with Jack leading up the pack. I stayed to the back of the group mostly because there was no way anything could sneak up on me now, not with my super hearing and all; seemed odd that I had super powers and had to save the world, but if every comic book ever was anything to go by, it made sense. What they didn’t know and what I would never tell them is that I knew with every fiber of my being that I would fail, but I needed them to have hope that we’d all make it out alive. There was no way I could keep going on my own steam alone; I needed their faith in me which was selfish, but turning into a monster hadn’t changed who I was in my core, it had only altered my perception a bit. I still wanted that beach and I still wanted peace and quiet, but I had to let them see there was no hope on their own without me crushing their dreams.

  I was feeling a bit of Déjà Vu as we continued to retrace our steps. The cars totaled and abandoned and smeared with blood were exactly the same as they’d been the day before, only now the whole scene felt more macabre. Looking over the sides of the road, no signs of life could be seen through the smoke of the dying fires, yet I could hear the moans of an alarming amount of dead not far ahead; exactly where the Dome was.

  Chloe’s giggle wafted back to me as we climbed over vehicles and my stomach started to growl again. We’d only been walking an hour but the sheer amount of obstacles prevented us from getting very far very fast. I looked down and noticed that ashes had coated the pavement and my footprints were extremely visible. Anyone following us would know exactly where we were heading and there wasn’t anything I could do to prevent it. Of course, they might confuse our prints with those of the dead, but anyone with half a brain would see that ours had purpose and weren’t just bodies shambling in any direction.

  It wasn’t long before we reached the Hummer. I looked over at the smoke still rising from the small fires in the Dome and felt green. Stopping, I just stood there and stared. Ty and Chloe had run ahead to the Hummer to scrounge for anything we may have forgotten, but I just stood and stared. It was just a giant pile of grey rubble staring back at me yet I couldn’t look away. Bile rose and I ran to the side rail and threw the contents of my belly over the side. Tears rolled down my face and with every heave my gaze could not be pulled from that place. It was the realization and culmination of every fear I’d ever had and I wanted it to blow up all over again. I wanted to watch the people who’d hurt me die all over again.

  Feeling my hair being pulled off my neck and a cold, wet hand on the back of my neck brought me back to reality. I turned around and wasn’t surprised to see Jack standing behind me. He didn’t say a word, just pulled me into his arms and held me as I cried so hard I thought something inside might break. Maybe it already had.

  Hearing footsteps, more arms found their way around me. I just stood there and cried until nothing more than dry, silent, heaving sobs came out as Jack, Ty and Chloe stood silently, arms wrapped tight enough around me that my legs could give out and I would be held upright.

  “If I could bring them back just to kill them all over again, I would.” I heard Ty finally say. His words were tight and the barely contained anger behind them was palpable. I knew without a doubt the kids understood now what had happened to me, which only made it hurt worse. Fuck, it could have been Chloe. In that moment, I was glad it had been me. No one ever deserved to go through what I had, but at least I was used to abuse.

  I took a deep breath and pulled out of the group hug. “I’m ok, really. Let’s keep going.” Walking over to the Hummer, I gazed longingly at my old friend as I swept the inside for anything of import we might have missed. “Oh shit!” I ran over to the passenger side and swung the door open, leaning in and opening the glove box. The giant bag of weed minus what Jack had smuggled into the Dome was just where I’d left it and I couldn’t keep the shit eating grin off my face as I shoved it into my bag.

  Jack started laughing as the kids rolled their eyes. I was glad they didn’t care, they didn’t need to stunt their mental growth but I had things I needed to smoke away, damnit.

  I walked around the back to where the hatch was still open and grabbed a Corona out of the case. It was warm, but I didn’t care. I popped the tab off on the side of the door and took a swig, rinsing the vomit from my mouth and spitting it on the ground. I then tipped the whole bottle back, draining it in one go. The kids and Roscoe had started back up the road but Jack paused long enough to grab a beer and open it in the same manner I had. “Here’s to forgetting,” He said as he clinked my bottle with his. I nodded in agreement and we drank. Tossing the empty bottles aside, he threw his arm over my shoulders and walked me past the Dome. I’d never been so grateful to have someone stand next to me in my life. Of course, no one ever really had, so I didn’t have anything to compare it to.

  Jack’s arm slid from my shoulders once he caught the moans of the dead to our right. Looking over the side of the overpass, there was a whole crowd milling about below us. My breath caught in my throat as our pace picked up and we caught up to the kids who had stopped to stare.

  “We can’t stop here,” I whispered and nodded my head north for them to keep going.

  “We can’t stop here, this is bat country.” I looked over at Jack hearing the whispered words and almost started to laugh out loud as he tried out his best Raoul Duke impression. He had a cigarette hanging loosely from the right side of his mouth and eyes big and wild behind his sunglasses. I was sure The Doctor would’ve been proud.

  Punching him lightly in the shoulder, “Now isn’t the time to fear or loathe.” I whispered in mock consternation. Jack just smiled and ex
haled a large plume of smoke before looking back to the crowd of dead.

  “Why are there so many?” Chloe asked quietly, still entranced by the devastation below as she started walking.

  “The noise from yesterday must’ve brought them.” Ty answered in low tones as we moved.

  A visible shiver wracked through Chloe as she stared. “My god, we were sleeping so close to all of them…”

  “Stay quiet, stay alert and keep going.” I whispered while putting a hand on her back and gently urging her to speed up. She looked over at me, panic making her eyes almost glow. I rubbed her back and tried to smile as reassuringly as I could, but all I wanted to do was run far and fast. “Let’s go.”

  She nodded at me and steel determination took over her wan features as she started almost running.

  You would think the hounds of hell were on our heels with the pace we kept, but we kept going. Climbing over cars, sliding down the back, squeezing in between… it was a formidable jungle of twisted metal and tires.

  Chapter 4

  Time moved as we did and I kept track of the orb moving past us in the sky. My lungs burned from the ashes and smoke we’d all inhaled and I could feel the exhaustion rolling off the others in waves. It was late afternoon and we would need to stop soon.

  I had no idea where we were, and could only guess at how far we’d gone, and it felt like a continent although it was probably only a few miles. We’d come across a couple of stray zombies we’d dispatched effectively enough with our knives, so as to not draw attention to ourselves with gunfire.

  Thinking back on the night before, it had been really fucking stupid of me to fire my gun in the warehouse and I was mildly surprised we hadn’t been overrun, but luck must’ve been on my side for once. I sure as hell wasn’t going to make that mistake again. No, I would save the bullets for when I absolutely had no other choice; we couldn’t risk that much noise while still in the city.

  The highway must’ve turned because the sun was now directly in front of me and it’s glare was beating through my sunglasses with a fierce intensity that made my head feel like gnomes were hard at work with pick axes in my skull. I may have great senses now, but sunlight was definitely not my friend.

  Jack must’ve noticed I was starting to slow down because he got Ty and Chloe’s attention and pulled us all into a huddle. “I think we should make camp for the night, there’s no way we’ll make it before dark.” He cast a glance at the offensive fireball behind him as if to solidify his point.

  “Sunlight sucks,” I muttered pulling a bottle of water out of my bag and downing it in one gulp.

  Chloe was busy looking around and Ty had pulled out the maps. I watched his fingers trace the page then stare out into the distance at something I couldn’t see a few times. There was a big, open space to our right and a housing development to our left. I didn’t want to risk the houses, but I sure as fuck didn’t want to stop in a big, open space either.

  “If we cut through the golf course, there’s a small neighborhood just past it. We might be able to find an empty house there.” Ty finally said looking at the big open space I had already mentally vetoed. His plan encompassed both ideas I hated, but looking around, we didn’t have much choice. We were still in the heart of the city with miles to go and not much daylight left to go it in.

  I sighed my frustration and started towards the side rail.

  “Angie, where are you going?” Chloe asked.

  Pausing with one leg still dangling over the guard rail, “I’m following Ty’s suggestion, unless you have something better in mind?” Please, please have something better.

  A round of resigned sighs followed a moment of silence as they all started over the side with me.

  Hauling ourselves over, we ran/skidded down the embankment, almost tripping over our feet as we reached the bottom. I stopped to catch my breath and we all stood stock still, staring out across the golf course ahead of us.

  It wasn’t anything special; just a big open space with the poles marking the holes and the weird patterns in the grass around them. Golf was also something I didn’t know anything about so I wasn’t sure what the patterns were for but assumed they’d once held some meaning. Well, before the world went to shit.

  We crept silently through the brown and crunchy grass, eyes peeled for anything even remotely smelling of a threat, but there was nothing. Not even a squirrel, which was also perplexing; what had happened to all the wildlife? Surely they couldn’t have all been eaten yet…

  Reaching a small out-cropping of trees, a rustling ahead and to my right caught my attention and I immediately put an arm out to stop the group. I heard Chloe clear her throat and turned around with a finger to my lips before she could get the words out.

  The rustling grew louder, which meant it was getting closer and I crept towards it, making sure the safety on my gun was off and my sword was at the ready. I couldn’t see much through the thick pines, but I did catch colors from what I had to assume were clothing and gave the signal to be ready to the others without turning around.

  Crunching softly over a bed of pine needles, I rounded the giant bush that was blocking my view to have it suddenly filled with several ambling dead. Unfortunately they caught sight of me as I saw them and immediately decided I was food, starting the mad dash towards us.

  Running forward, I slashed the first one to reach me left to right, nearly severing its head, but just enough for it to go down. I could hear the sounds of Jack, Ty and Chloe fighting around me and felt myself rip to pieces trying to be everywhere at once.

  I tried to make the most noise grunting and hacking away to draw as much attention to me as I could, but a quick glance around revealed my little group were still immersed in battles of their own. Shaking myself out of the distraction, I turned my attention to a particularly feisty overweight man in chinos aiming for my shoulder and jabbed my sword upwards through his neck and out the other side. He started to fall and with my blade still lodged in his neck, tried to take me down with him until I planted my sneaker firmly on his chest and pulled the blade back while pushing him to the ground. I didn’t stop to make sure he was actually down before 2 more came rushing at me, eyes all crazy with rage and blood oozing out of various orifices…all in all I’d have to say this whole apocalypse business was pretty fucking gross so far.

  Swinging my sword, I caught the first in the shoulder with enough force to spin it away from me while turning and landing a solid kick to the torso of the other. I turned back and rammed my blade home through the eye socket of the stunned zombie and spun just in time to catch the one I’d kicked with a left hook to the jaw, buying enough time to pull my sword from the first and swing it across this one’s neck with all my strength. I thought its throat would just slit, but almost shit my pants in delight as I watched its head sailing off for greener pastures. It didn’t sail far, but that wasn’t the point. Score one for being a mutant!

  Seeing that no other immediate threats were coming at me, I ran to Ty who was about to land a killing blow to some dude that I swear looked just like Bob Hope 30 years ago with a sneaky bastard coming up behind him he didn’t see. Rushing forward, I whipped my blade across the back of the bastard’s neck and was again pleased as punch to watch his head roll slowly off his shoulders, landing on the ground with a ‘thump’.

  I took a deep breath and started towards Jack and Chloe only to catch the tail end of what must have been an epic battle as they were both panting, covered in blood splatter and standing over a small pile of bodies and assorted limbs. Chloe looked up at me, chest heaving and adrenaline causing the veins in her neck to stand at full attention, a crazy look in her eye. I smiled, so proud of the kid I wanted to take a picture of her battle glory and tape it to the fridge. I was pretty sure she was just in shock though, because she just stood there staring wildly at the massacre on the ground.

  Walking over to her, I sheathed my sword and my gun and pulled her into my arms. She just stood there for a moment, stock stil
l before I felt her heartbeat slow and she hugged me back. “You did good, kid,” I said while squeezing her shoulders.

  Chloe shook her head slowly and looked up at me, eyes wide and full with unshed tears. “It’s never going to get easier, is it?”

  Looking down at the pile of bodies littered about the pine needles I just shook my head. “No. I don’t think it will.” I grabbed her chin with my hand and looked her straight in the eyes and smiled. “But it can’t last forever. I can’t promise anything will ever be the same, but it can’t last forever.”

  She stared at me, weighing my words carefully. I watched storms raging in her bright green eyes before acceptance finally set in. Nodding slowly, she pulled away and started back on the path we’d been walking.

  I watched her for a moment; the set of her tiny shoulders under the weight of her weapons and backpack, her hair as ratted as mine tied up in what was once a neat pony tail and prayed to any gods still listening that she wouldn’t have to live like this for long.

  Ty walked up and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they walked while Roscoe snuffed in circles at their feet. Casting a glance over at Jack, I caught the same determination on his face. We didn’t need to say it; we were both thinking the same thing. For all the shitty things we’d done in our lives, if we did one thing well, it was going to be making sure these kids got out of this alive.

  The silence of the woods wrapped around us with an ominous and oppressive air. It felt wrong that there weren’t more people; more zombies. Where did everyone go? Maybe I just wanted more people around to drown out my own monsters. I thought living alone in my apartment had given me all the time in the world to dwell on my mistakes, but being confronted by possible death every 5 minutes was much better at that.

  “Here,” Forty said as he passed the dirty glass pipe in my direction. “It’s your hit.”

  I took it from his hands and put it to my lips, flicking my lighter and melting the little rock at the bottom of the bubble while slowing rolling the pipe back and forth against my lips until a pure, white smoke filled the tube and I started to inhale it slowly, so as to not disturb the slightly boiling crystals at the other end. Lungs full, I sat back and let out the giant plume of smoke, watching it seep into every molecule around me until I was sure the smoke was actually crawling back into my blood through my skin as though it couldn’t stand to be without me for long. The feeling was mutual.