“I know,” Ronni said through clenched teeth and pressed lips. “That’s the old way and this is a new world.”
“The next place we find could be occupied, or, thick with these things.”
A hand slapped the driver’s side window causing Ronni to let out a little scream and Todd to jump and almost stumble as he moved away from the truck. The drawn, gray face stared blankly out at him. Both hands were on the glass and its mouth worked slowly. The white-filmed, black-veined eyes were wide and unblinking. There was no anger in that face. No fear of the gun now pointed at it.
“Don’t shoot her, dad,” Ronni’s voice was pleading.
“That creature in there—”
“Was somebody’s daughter,” Ronni whispered. “Just like me.”
Todd spun around to face his daughter, lowering his pistol, “No. That thing in there stopped being anything like you the moment it turned.”
“I can’t stay here, dad,” Ronni insisted.
“You’ve been with me when we’ve had to put down a little one,” Todd took a step towards his daughter. “This has never been an issue before. Why now?”
“This one is different.” Ronni shrugged and her eyes drifted past her dad to the tiny figure inside the cab of the truck. “She’s been in here for so long. How scared was she curled up on the floor of that truck? Was it her mom? Brother?” She looked into her dad’s eyes, “Dad?”
Todd looked over his shoulder. The creature hadn’t moved; it just stared. Why hadn’t it started pounding again? As if it read his mind, a tiny hand slapped the glass. Once. Twice. A third time.
“Damn.” Todd stalked towards his daughter. He reached the step. “Well…?”
Ronni turned on her heel. A few minutes later they had their backpacks shouldered. Todd fastened the harness that was attached to the sled with the gear that wouldn’t fit in their packs.
The rest of that day they walked in silence. Along the way they encountered mostly singles. Groups were much less common, but usually were numbered in the hundreds…even thousands. Many of what were referred to commonly as “herds” or “cells” had grown and merged. The single-mindedness of the zombie had its advantages as well as disadvantages. If they surrounded your location and you didn’t have a way to draw them off, you’d starve before they left.
In the early days, there had been enough activity… enough survivors…that the zombies were always being drawn in different directions. Nowadays, if they found you, it was best to take them out before they drew a crowd. And if a herd got on your tail…well…
Ronni walked a few steps behind her dad. Occasionally she rubbed her hands together; partially out of nerves, but also because the temperature had dropped a few more degrees and it was getting really cold.
Her mind went back to that house they’d left behind. It really had been a nice choice. She couldn’t explain her feelings. Hell, she didn’t understand them herself. She’d long since gotten over seeing those things as people. It was just that there was something so sad about this one zombie. It could’ve so easily been her.
Ronni had managed to block out a lot of that first day…her birthday. So many other terrible things had happened since, that it wasn’t too difficult. Still, had it not been for her dad…so many possibilities. For the longest time she’d blamed him for her mom’s death. If they hadn’t been downtown…at that restaurant…then her mom wouldn’t have been bitten. Only, she’d seen everything fall apart. There was no such thing as safe anymore.
Her dad had kept her alive this long; four years next week actually. Ronni had kept track. She knew her dad hadn’t after the first year. The first year, he’d tried to celebrate her birthday. She’d been fine for about two minutes…then…the tears had come in a flood. It wasn’t her birthday anymore. It was the day her mom died and she would never forget.
“Looks like a cabin up on that hill,” her dad’s voice snapped her out of her daydream. “I haven’t seen anything in over an hour at least. I say we climb this hill and give it a look. Night’s getting close and I don’t want to be out in this tonight if we can avoid it.”
Ronni looked up towards where her dad was pointing. She squinted against the glare of all white. “Windows are busted,” she said.
“I didn’t say this was gonna be winter camp,” Todd snapped, “just a place to spend the night. We’ll keep lookin’ tomorrow.”
Ronni felt a retort tingling on the tip of her tongue but kept it to herself. He’d always done his best to give her whatever she wanted. Probably trying to make up for all the time he’d been gone. He’d never understood that she didn’t care about all that. Instead, she wanted him to live with the here-and-now. Her dad obviously wanted to stay at that house, but, as always, he’d given in to his own little girl’s wishes.
They trudged up the hill, making their way through the widely scattered pines. Todd stopped suddenly, raising a hand to signal for Ronni to freeze. The smell drifted on the cold, crisp air.
A fresh kill.
The coppery smell of blood mixed with either loosed or torn bowels immediately dimmed the beauty of the landscape. Suddenly every shadow and blind spot was danger.
“I didn’t hear any screams.” Ronni had moved up next to her dad. Even whispering, there was a definite tremor in her voice.
“Me either.” Todd placed a comforting hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
Todd worked his way out of the sled harness and secured it to a nearby tree. From over his shoulder he drew a four-foot sword he’d liberated from a museum years ago. Ronni pulled a field machete from its sheath on her hip and made sure that the flap of her holster was unfastened just in case she needed to draw her .22 pistol. Of course they seldom used their guns anymore. One: ammo was a luxury. Two: the attention drawn often outweighed the benefit. Usually they only had to deal with singles and small groups which they could outrun and pick off once they spread out.
They moved up to the cabin. Todd peered in one of the windows and saw a large open room. There was no sign of anyone or anything inside. That meant whatever it was…it was outside…with them.
They crept to a corner and Todd peered around it. There! Todd quickly surveyed the scene and put the likely scenario together. The victim…and soon to be zombie…was a young man in his early twenties. There was a visible knot on his head where he’d hit it on something. Probably got frightened or surprised and clocked his head on a branch. Being out cold would explain not hearing a scream. He was still strapped into his snowboard which would be interesting in a few minutes when it sat up. Zombies weren’t known for their dexterity. The attacker had been a rather obese man. It had probably been it its current state since the early days, because he’d watched a lot of people shed weight that first year. Food was often in short supply, and the sedentary lifestyle had gone by the wayside. This behemoth had chunks missing all over its grey flesh, all long since crusted and dried around the edges.
The large zombie was naked except for the remnants of a waistband from a pair of denim jeans. Its back was turned to them. Todd turned to his daughter and signaled for her to stay put and keep her eyes peeled for any others.
Creeping as quietly as possible through the powdery, almost knee-deep snow, Todd moved in behind his target. With a two-handed, overhead swing down onto the top of its skull, his blade cut deep. The creature fell, not straight down as Todd expected, but to the left. The sword tore free from his leather-gloved hands. There was no way to ever get used to the numbing buzz that came when bringing a blade down through the skull. The bodies maybe rotting, but the skull was still a tough nut to crack.
Todd lost his footing a little as he wrenched his blade free. He stumbled back a couple steps. The next few seconds seem to happen in slow motion.
“Dad, watch out!” Ronni screamed.
The snowboarder’s eyes were open and its head turned towards Todd. It moved its legs and the snowboard hooked behind Todd’s ankle, sending him toppling. The sword fell away, vanishing in the snow.
Todd looked back at Ronni. She’d moved in and had her pistol drawn. He could see her bottom lip trembling and the shimmer in her eyes filled with, as yet, unshed tears.
“It’s okay, sweetie.” Todd climbed to his feet. He could already feel the post-adrenaline fatigue settling in.
Glancing around, he saw the tee-shaped outline in the snow where his sword had fallen. He trudged the few feet and reached down to pick it up. He froze, his hand inches above the snow. There, the knuckles of the index and middle finger of his bare right hand. The protective mesh lining of his leather gloves had nicked out a nice divot in each finger’s knuckles.
By itself that wasn’t a problem. It was the fluid that didn’t belong to him that was reason for concern. His hand was splattered with the vileness that had oozed and spurted from that eye socket.
“Damn,” Todd whispered.
He plunged his hand into the snow and wiped at it furiously. After, he held it up, examining the pink chaffed skin. Two distinct nicks could be seen.
“Did it…?” Ronni’s voice trailed away as she knelt beside her dad. She could see the bright red jewels of blood welling in the pinprick-sized nicks on her dad’s fingers.
“Bite me? No. But the mesh inside my gloves got me,” Todd reached for and grabbed the glove from beside the carnage pile.
“Then you should be—”
“My hand got soaked when I drove the spike into its eye,” Todd cut her off.
“But…” tears trickled down both cheeks.
“Let’s get inside and get out of the cold.” Todd stood, holding his gloved hand out to his daughter.
They entered the cabin and did a quick search expecting to, and finding, nothing dangerous. There was a bed with mounds of old comforters, a cooking pit dug out in the center of the room boxed in by rocks…basically a campsite inside a log cabin is what the place was.
“The snowboarder lived here,” Ronni mumbled.
“Must not have seen much action lately.” Todd held up a shotgun and webbed-belt with shells in an open pouch. “He didn’t have any weapons that I saw, and he left his gun.”
Ronni opened the top box of a stack of four. “MRE’s,” she held one up for effect.
“Sweetie…”
Ronni heard the tone in her father’s voice and turned her back so they wouldn’t have to make eye contact.
“Ronni.” Todd glanced at his hand. He didn’t feel any different. Maybe…No, he knew better. This was real and permanent. One day…two at best…hours at worst. “We have to deal with this.”
“Why?” Ronni spun around to face her dad with tears streaming freely down her face. “You don’t know if—”
“Yes,” he cut her off, stepping forward and placing his hands on her shoulders, “we do. It’s like any other blood-borne sickness.”
“You can’t go,” Ronni pleaded. “I can’t do this without you. I’ve got to have you here to show me things.”
“You’ve been able to take care of things for a long time, princess.” He leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers.
“But…” Ronni closed her eyes, sniffled once and opened them again, “we’ve never been able to just be a father and daughter. To just…” she stomped a foot in frustration at not being able to find the words, “to just be.”
“But we’ve had a good few years,” he tried to make his voice sound more cheerful than he felt. “We spent time doing lots of things, seeing lots of things. Sure…not in the way we probably envisioned so long ago.”
“Four years in five days.”
“What?”
“My birthday is in five days.” Ronni wiped her nose with the back of her gloved hand. “We’ve been together four years from that day.”
Todd was dumbstruck. He had no idea that she’d kept track. And now, here he was about to die days from her birthday. He was angry. Angry at whatever had happened in this messed up world that put all this in motion. Angry at the system that had locked him away with no further evidence than an accusation that came out of nowhere during an ugly divorce the day after his soon-to-be ex-wife’s affair had been brought to the table. Angry that he hadn’t seen that man who staggered up behind Donna and ripped out the side of her throat. Angry that he couldn’t get a night’s sleep without that dream…
***
“Hurry, Todd!” Donna’s voice was full of fear.
Several scenes of grotesque horror were unfolding all around them. Across the street, an ambulance sat partially up on the curb. The driver was covered in blood and had… parts…hanging out of him. Yet, he was slowly, awkwardly climbing out of the front seat, and into the street.
About a three blocks away, the large glass front of Portland Healthways Hospital loomed. There was chaos that direction and it looked like people were literally tearing one another apart. Most of the worst screams came from there.
Todd unlocked the passenger’s door and pushed Ronni who had stood between the protective barrier of his arms. He turned and stepped back at the same time. He saw everything with absolute clarity. The look of surprise on Donna’s face as that thing grabbed her arm. The way that thing had most of its throat and the left side of its face ripped away. Those blood-smeared teeth as it opened its mouth. The instant look of pain on Donna’s face as a chunk of her throat was torn out. Then…the gurgling scream.
He’d grabbed the thing by the hair, yanking it away from Donna. It had reached for him with hands covered in drying, blackened blood. He’d slung it away and a car speeding past had caught it dead on. Tires squealed, a body had flown, limbs jutting at awkward angles…landing with a thud.
Then it raised its head and reached out at the person running by. It had been impossible. Only he’d seen it all; people with their insides torn out walking around and inflicting the same gruesome injuries on others.
Todd had the presence of mind to hit the unlock button that disengaged all the door locks. He put Donna in the backseat, slammed both passenger doors and ran around the front of the car to the driver’s side and got in. He started the engine, shifted into drive, yanked the wheel to the right, and stomped on the gas. A body had stumbled in front of them.
“Daddy!” Ronni screamed.
***
“Daddy, are you listening?”
Todd blinked and looked at his daughter’s red, bloodshot eyes. He suddenly felt nauseous. And there was a slight burning sensation in his ears.
“I’m sorry, princess.”
“No,” Ronni hugged her dad, burying her face in his chest, “I’m sorry. I should’ve just let you pop that zed in that truck. We’d be in a winter camp now and none of this would’ve happened.”
“This is not your fault.” Todd hugged his daughter. “Now, we need to get some things done.”
Ronni sniffled loudly, squeezed her dad once more, then stepped back and wiped her eyes. She didn’t like it, but he was right. There were a few things needed done.
Before darkness had fallen, they’d discovered that the cabin’s former occupant had rigged covers for the two windows. Also, there was a stainless steel container with a pot full of partially melted snow…obviously a quick source of drinking water. The roof also had a hole that was openable with a broomstick that would act as a chimney of sor
ts for the fire pit.
They ate dinner, each picking out an MRE. The food was still intact, but most of the extras and trinkets you found in an MRE had been taken. Still, it was a meal.
Silence reigned most of the evening. Neither felt much like small talk. Each engrossed in dissecting their new reality. Both were considering the plans for the immediate future. As it got late, Todd pulled a seat up beside the fire and slowly fed some of the readily available firewood.
“Get some sleep, Ronni,” he finally told his daughter. “This is likely the last night I’ll be able to keep watch.”
For once, Ronni didn’t argue. She went over to the bed and shoved the smelly comforters off, replacing them with her sleeping bag. Surprisingly, the regular breathing of sleep could be heard within minutes. Of course it had been an exhausting day mentally and physically.
All that night, Todd went through their things as well as what was in the cabin. He periodically added wood to the fire, although not so much for its warmth on this night. Tonight it was important for him to be able to see her. His princess. His baby girl.
***
Morning came and Ronni woke to breakfast. Her dad was busy bringing water to a boil in a two-quart pot. His back was to her, but she could hear him humming a song. Every once in a while he would hum that tune. She recognized it, but couldn’t recall the name. She’d never been curious enough to ask. Today, she would.
“Dad?”
“Morning, princess,” his voice sounded a bit raspy. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“What sorta surprise?”
“You’ll see,” he suddenly set the pot down and threw his arm across his mouth and coughed. It was a dry, racking cough.
Ronni climbed out of bed. She could see the light around the edges of the comforters hanging at the windows. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept an entire night through, especially when they weren’t in an established camp. She slid into her boots and belted on her weapons as she had every day for years. Only…she knew today would be different.
Chivalry Is Dead Page 2
