My Dead World 2

by Jacqueline Druga

  Truth was, I didn’t want to know. It hurt to know what she did and how I wasn’t a part of her life. When she checked out of our friendship, it broke my heart.

  Through conversations with my father it was reiterated, that as an adult she didn’t take risks. The death of her mother strengthened her passive conviction.

  However, Nila was strong. She was strong enough to pull a mother bear and watch the cabin while I went out to make up for a mistake.

  Why didn’t I just stop?

  Why didn’t I look at that man standing by the Station Wagon and wave for him to come over? It was not only a matter of trust but honestly, it was a matter of keeping a tight nest. For a brief moment, I figured the less of us there was the better chance we had at survival. The less chance of me getting close to someone and having them die.

  I started life with death. I was sick of it already. Not a good attitude to have in a world filled with the dead.

  My plan was simple. It was to check the area around our camp, then head out to the Green Area in Ohio. The truck would use up most of our gas supply. I could get more using the generator and pump. I planned on that, even told Nila, I would refill what I used. She didn’t seem concerned about how much fuel was used.

  I hated leaving, but I hated more the fact that I didn’t know what became of that Station Wagon and man.

  I left early in the day and headed up to Big Bear after checking the area around the cabin. It was clear and I expected Big Bear to be as well. It was. More than checking, I went for my bike. It would use far less gas and get me around a lot easier.

  Nila hated motorcycles. Not sure she ever got over that hatred, she never saw the point in them.

  With the world the way it was, riding solo on a bike made a heck of a lot more sense than taking the truck. If I did find someone or more people than I could help on my bike, I’d get them safe and return. I wasn’t really going that far from our circle.

  I knew I had told Nila I would be gone a half a day, but I wanted to go into the city, as well. I wanted to see it. With the barricades, taking a truck was impossible. That was south of our mountain.

  After checking the immediate surroundings and Big Bear, I would go west to the Ohio Green Area.

  The return trip there went smoothly, just like the day before. No one on the road, no infected. Once I got to Lancaster, those few infected I’d seen, had turned into hundreds. They wandered aimlessly beyond that fence, until they spotted me.

  The Station Wagon was gone and they left the gate open. That told me they escaped and made their way out safely, at least I hoped that.

  It didn’t take long for the infected to run my way and while they were still alive, unfazed by pain or illness, they moved rapidly.

  I sped off.

  They followed. I didn’t shut the gate, where otherwise they probably would have stayed and died and then, well, died again, they were free to roam.

  At least I saw that the station wagon had gotten away. I felt somewhat better. I started to head back to the cabin, but it was getting dark. After finding some gas, I stayed in room twelve of a roadside motel, listening to corkers as they roamed the street, trying to catch my scent.

  In the morning I’d head out. I figured north, try to see what was up there, and if it was still light, maybe down to Pittsburgh. I wanted to see what happened and what was left of a major city. A part of me though, kind of wanted to wait. As demented as it sounded, it was something I really wanted to share with Nila.

  FOUR – ALL GREEK

  July 30

  “Do you think Pap is watching us?” Katie asked me. We sat on the porch, her with a coloring book, me sharpening another spike. After all there was no such thing as having too many.

  “I think so,” I said. “Probably complaining. You know how Pap gets.”

  “What about Daddy?’

  I looked over to her and ran my hand down her face. “I think your father and Addy are too busy being together to look down here. Leaving that for Pap and Lisa.”

  “We’re easy to spot,” she said brightly. “No one is around.”

  “That’s the truth.” I peered back to the spike I was making when a breeze swept in. I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but it carried a stench. A foul stench of death that caused me to stand up.

  “Mommy?”

  “Honey, go inside with Edi.”

  “What is it?”

  Shaking my head I stared out toward the fence. I didn’t see anything, but I could smell it. I took her arm and led her in the cabin; then I went to the back room and retrieved a rifle.

  Edi saw this.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing that I saw,” I said. “I could smell it. It was in the air.”

  “The Nekros?” she asked.

  We all had given them names. Infected, crazy, corker, but I always liked what Edi called them. The ones infected and enraged, she called The Lyssa, those who turned and were dead she called Nekros.

  Lev actually explained they were Greek names. Nekros, well that was easy, but Lyssa was the god of rage.

  Edi’s mother was Greek and she spoke the language fluently.

  I took the rifle and went outside. I walked slowly around the perimeter of the fence, looking out, smelling for it.

  I knew it was out there. It may have been a while since one approached our fence, but their scent was undeniable.

  Nothing was out there that I could see and I walked around twice. The second time around, I paused by the graves, our own cemetery. I hoped we’d never have to dig another hole in the ground while we were at the cabin.

  Just as I came back to the front of the cabin, I spotted movement in the distance from the eastern corner of the fence. I poked my head in the cabin, told Edi to stay put with Katie and I closed the door and engaged the rifle.

  Thoughts raced through my mind. What if it wasn’t an infected? What if it was some sort of looter or marauder coming toward us. If they had a weapon, I was a walking target.

  It was that thought that made me immediately paranoid and I stepped back and went into the cabin.

  “Was it nothing?” Edi asked.

  “I don’t know.” Quickly, I closed all the first floor indoor storm shutters and latched them.

  The cabin went dark.

  “Nila?” Edi questioned, turning on a lantern. “Should I turn this off?”

  “No. It’s fine. I want to look from upstairs,” I said.

  What was the matter with me? I was so brave, yet instantly I lost my proverbial balls? I climbed up the ladder steps to the second floor loft and positioned myself by that window.

  I stared out for a few minutes and then I spotted it.

  It moved quickly and jaggedly through the brush as if looking for something. I could tell by the way it held its arms, it was infected.

  Infected, not dead.

  We believed that phase of the infection was done. That all that remained were the dead and it was only a matter of time before they rotted and were no longer a threat.

  Hal, one of my radio contacts always said, all it would take was one bite, and everything reset. Really, all it would take was a group of healthy survivors moving north. One infection.

  That was it.

  Damn it.

  Back down the ladder from the loft, I walked straight to the door and opened it.

  My eyes were focused on that corner of the fence and lifted my rifle as I walked that way. I thought of calling out, drawing its attention, but I opted against that in case there were more out there lurking. I’d rather deal with one at a time. Certainly the blast of the rifle would be enough to call them in.

  Just as I neared the fence, the infected male raged out from the brush running full force at the fence. Enraged infected lacked intelligence, at least that’s what I thought. He was so focused on me that he failed to realize not only was the fence in his way but also those spikes my father placed there.

  One impaled him straight through the gut.

 
It didn’t kill him, it didn’t stop him, it merely held him in one place. His legs still moved and kicked as if he were running. His fingers locked into the links of the fence and he made this crackling snarl while his jaw snapped at the air.

  His neck was black and the necrosis created a black looking spider web on his face. His mouth was smothered in fresh blood and it mixed with clumps of hair or fur on his chin. If I didn’t know better, I would swear he had something in his mouth. His eyes still had color.

  I was just about to shoot him when I got a good look and moved even closer.

  I knew him. Yes, his face was pale, his hair matted with blood, but I knew who he was.

  Not long ago he and his son camped on our property, took sanctuary there and then left to find family.

  His name was Bill. He obviously never found what he was looking for.

  I wondered what happened to his young son, a boy probably nine or ten years old. Was he out there somewhere, or did he meet the same fate as his father?

  In his infected state, Bill may not have thought about those spikes, but I wondered if he thought about our camp. Did he return on purpose? Seek us out? Did he meet his demise not far from our property? How was that possible? Bill and his son had left weeks earlier. Was it instinct or pure coincidence that he returned?

  I knew one thing for sure. Bill wasn’t dead, I could tell. He moved too fast. His legs were still in one piece, the limbs were the part of them that went first from when they tried to walk while decomposing.

  He wasn’t dead, therefore that smell wasn’t coming from him. The odor was still out there, in with each blow of the wind.

  It came from the east, from Big Bear.

  Our properties connected and I looked up to the hill.

  The last time we were up there were no infected around, when did they return? It was also likely that the smell came from a dead animal, possibly the one Bill had been enjoying.

  By the time I stopped skimming the landscape and realized Bill was still snarling away, he had lost a lot of his blood. A huge pool formed at his feet. He was already pale, but his face had drained of all color now.

  Bill still moved and fought to get to me.

  It was time to end his suffering. It wasn’t fair, or humane to let him be like that any longer.

  I lifted the rifle and fired a single shot. If there was something in those woods, it wouldn’t take long for it to emerge.

  FIVE – FANTASY

  Nothing came.

  I waited an hour, standing in that spot, ten feet from Bill. His body, still impaled by that spike slumped inward toward the fence. I waited for more to emerge. None did. The smell remained.

  Maybe it was an animal after all.

  I went back into the cabin, told Edi that it was okay to open the shutters then I sought out a shovel. I wasn’t going to bury Bill, I just wanted to push him from the fence. After doing that, I retrieved a cup of lime from the outhouse and covering my mouth, I tossed it his way.

  Surely, a cup wasn’t going to do much, but it was all I was willing to spare.

  My mind drifted a lot into dark fantasies during the hour I waited, and the several hours that followed.

  Bill made his way back, just like my brother Bobby made his way to the cabin even in an infected state.

  Suddenly, I started to worry and panic. What if Lev was dead? What if he was infected and history repeated with his arrival? Would I be able to shoot him? Would that tiny bit of remaining memory in his head give him the edge to break in?

  An infected Lev was a scary thought.

  I tried to push those thoughts out of my head, but it was tough. Lev was gone a day and a half, my confidence was dwindling fast.

  I cleaned up and went inside for lunch and shared my fears with Edi. That was a mistake because Katie was full of questions about a Nekros Lev.

  “Will he try to eat us? Will he attack us? Lev is strong? Can we fight him?”

  I tried to calm her while changing the subject. “I will shoot Lev if I have to. Now what are we working on?”

  “In the head?” she asked. “Pap said when they’re dead that’s the only way to do it.”

  “Yes, in the head,” I told her. “Now what are you coloring?”

  Katie snickered.

  “What is funny?”

  “Lev in the head. It rhymes.”

  My eyes widened.

  Edi shook her head. “There is a dark side to this child. Who does she get it from?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Really.” She tilted her head.

  The moment she did that, I heard the double beep of a car horn. Rushing to the window, I looked out, exhaled excitedly and smiled. “Lev’s back.”

  “Oh, good,” Edi said. “Now you don’t have to shoot him in the head.”

  I flung open the door and ran to the gate. He was back, he wasn’t dead, or infected. Infected didn’t drive.

  Or did they?

  My brother Bobby drove all the way to the property.

  I stopped before opening the gate.

  Lev opened the truck door. “Nila, what are you doing?’

  I snapped out of it. “Oh, sorry, nothing, I was lost in thought.”

  “As you open the gate you get lost in thought?” He got back in the truck, I unlocked the gate and he drove through, stopping just a few feet from me.

  I was securing the locks when he walked up to me. I stopped to embrace him tightly. “I am so glad you’re back and you’re alright.”

  “Me, too.” He stepped back. “What’s that smell?”

  “I don’t know what it was before, but now I think it’s Bill.”

  “Bill?”

  I pointed.

  Lev walked toward the corner of the fence and I finished locking the gate.

  <><><><>

  “Really, Lev? Really?” I trailed him like a puppy dog. He was back all of ten seconds and he didn’t stop. No sooner had he seen Bill, Lev had gone out beyond the fence and into the woods for about fifteen minutes. He said he was looking for more infected, specifically for Bill’s son, but found none. He reported the smell came from a rotting deer, then dragged Bill’s body into our camp.

  After bringing him by the shed he sought out the shovel, I had left by the fence.

  “Nila, I don’t understand what the problem is.”

  “I want to talk to you,” I said. “I want to know what happened. What you saw, didn’t see. You were gone two days.”

  “I had to find fuel and the roads were too dark to move at night.”

  “Okay …”

  “Nila.” Lev put the shovel into the ground. “Can we talk after? I’ll clean up and we’ll sit. This won’t take long, I promise.”

  “Why are you burying him in here?”

  Lev paused. “What solution do you have?”

  “You could have dragged him farther into the woods.”

  “And put him next to the deer?”

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  “If you think it’s bad with the smell of that deer, it would be worse with Bill. I got news for you, Nila,” he started digging. “Sprinkling him with the lime didn’t work.”

  “It was the thought that counts.”

  Lev grunted at me. “It’s wrong to leave him out there. Wrong. We bury him in here. He’s a human being and he was one of us.”

  “For like ten seconds.”

  “Nila,” Lev snapped my name. “What is wrong with you?”

  I stopped for a second and took a breath. “You’re right, I’m wrong. Don’t know, I’m just … Lev, did you think about this for a second?”

  “What? Burying him? Yes. I’m doing it right here.”

  “No, I mean … Bill left here weeks ago. Weeks.”

  “He still deserves to be buried.”

  “That’s not what I mean.” I shook my head. “He left here weeks ago … yet he came back? Doesn’t that concern you?”

  “He probably ran into trouble and was on his way when he got infected.�
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  “Exactly. That makes it scarier.”

  “How so?” He asked.

  “Because, he left a long time ago. Long enough to make it a fair distance. He got infected and like Bobby, still managed to return. Not only do I wonder how …” I said. “But why?”

  SIX – BIG STARE

  I knew Lev. I knew him well enough to know there was something he wasn’t telling me. Before we had left the cabin for a short run, search for life, we spent the days doing upkeep on the cabin, farming, and canning. Lev would fish or hunt, I’d sit with Katie teaching her, playing, doing something. Our evenings were mostly clean up, some sort of activity with Katie, then he and I would talk, or get into a game of chess if neither of us were in the mood to have a conversation.

  Lev seemed as if he was avoiding me. He was staying oddly busy; he peeled potatoes so he could soak them for breakfast. Who willingly peels potatoes? He was avoiding one on one time with me. That alone told me there was something he didn’t want to share, because simply, Lev couldn’t lie.

  He tried. Anytime in our youth he avoided the truth, danced around it, or tried to lie, he’d start breaking into a foreign language. It was odd.

  After he dug a grave for Bill, we buried him and had our normal service. Lev told me he wanted to clean up and then we’d talk. That never happened.

  Finally after one excuse or another, I grabbed my project. After kissing Katie, who was oddly being read a story by Lev, I went to the porch.

  About a half an hour later, Lev came out to join me. Exhaling heavily he plopped down next to me, causing the board to bounce slightly.

  “So,” he said. “I hear you wanted to shoot me in the head.”

  I finished writing the sentence then looked at him. “I take it Katie filled you in.”

  “She did.”

  “Well, did she tell you I planned on shooting you only if you returned as one of those things?”

  “Yes. Did you really think I would?”

  I stared out before answering. “No. I knew you would come back, but it was in the back of my mind. I mean, Bobby was on his way here, he turned and walked right up to the gate.”