by Travis Tufo
“Shit. I think this is a dead-end!” Aurora said as she hit the wall. There were buildings on either side of them. The only way out was the way they had entered. Luckily, Eli discovered a window. Without hesitation, he smashed it in with his elbow and pulled Aurora to him then helped lift her inside before he climbed in. They both watched as infected after infected turned into the alley looking for their next victims. They crowded around chest to chest and shoulder to shoulder until there were at least fifty.
“Holy hell! That was about as close as it gets,” he whispered as he rubbed the sweat off his forehead. He looked at Aurora, and she had an unfamiliar expression on her face. It was fear.
“We really almost died back there, didn’t we?” Her face lit up, and she wasn’t even whispering.
“Shhh! Yes. We almost died,” Eli hissed. She seemed amused.
“What a thrill!” She stuck her head out the window, back into the smog, to flip a specific finger at the thoughtless spore people.
“You are mad—I swear!” Eli pulled her back through the window, then stood up and felt around in the dark searching for a light switch. However, when he found it, he felt dumb; of course the power was out. Aurora, on the other hand, was already looking in drawers in the room; she quickly came across a flashlight.
“Ah ha!” She held it up like a prize.
“Good job!” Eli ran over to her. When she flipped it on, they could see that the room was practically a museum. World War II related items were scattered everywhere, from propaganda posters on the walls to replica uniforms and weapons in boxes.
“Whoa. I wonder if this guy fought in World War II, or was just a crazy collector.” Aurora was only half interested. Eli, on the other hand, was having a great time looking at all the cool stuff. He considered himself a WWII buff.
“Oooh man! Look at that! And this! Whoa...is that a Ruger? Oh man. This is great! Let’s stay here, okay?” Eli was like a kid in a candy store.
“Eli.”
“What?”
“Shut up and let’s go! This isn’t exactly the safest place we’ve been.”
“This coming from the girl who jumps off overpasses and sticks her head out…” Something shiny caught his eye, stealing away all of his attention.
“Shine your light right there!”
“What? Where?”
“Right there!” He was already impatient. She dragged the light to a large blade mounted on the wall. It was on a plaque and had something written underneath it.
“Give me that light!” He snatched the flashlight from her hand.
“Umm, okay?” she said. He quickly paced over to the blade and read the description of it.
“This is a Russian blade that was actually used in the war!” He then noticed the engraved letters on the blade, but he couldn’t read it. He searched the description until he stumbled across something that said, “Sasha.”
“Whoever’s knife this was named it Sasha?” Eli pondered.
“You mean they named that sword?” Aurora wasn’t impressed, though if it had been a large caliber rifle, she would have been all over it.
“It’s not a sword; it’s a really…really big knife. And yes, he did. Man, I bet this thing saw some real action.” Eli was nearly worshipful.
“Eli, take your new toy with us and let’s get moving,” she offered. His eyes lit up, but then a saddened look came over his face.
“I can’t take this,” he said. Aurora looked confused.
“A second ago I thought you were going to make out with that piece of metal. Now you can’t take it? Eli, look around, no one is going to stop you. You aren’t going to hurt this probably ancient man’s feelings. He’s probably dead. If you haven’t noticed the world is kind of busy, you know, like, dying and stuff. Plus, maybe he’d want his sword, err, knife used again.”
“No, this knife belongs here.” He took a step back, never taking his eyes off it, truly admiring it.
“And they say girls are confusing.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the next room. They didn’t spend much time looking around the house. They reached the front door, slowly and silently opened it, and made sure the coast was clear. Once it was safe, they bolted towards the smoke.
“Wow, I forgot how awful this smells.” Eli had to lift his shirt over his nose, though it was of little help.
“More running, less crying,” Aurora said, breathlessly. Just a few minutes of running, dodging cars and the infected, and they reached the bottom of the hill. On the other side was the cause of the smoke. They quickly climbed back upwards; each step they took made it harder to breathe.
“Holy…I...can’t breathe.” Eli was struggling about half way up.
“This is going to be an ongoing thing with you isn’t it?” she snapped back at him. Eli gave her a confused look.
“You know, the whole not being able to run thing.” She smiled wryly and continued on, reaching the peak a few seconds before him. Aurora getting to the top first gave Eli a chance to look at her face as she saw what was causing the smoke. He saw shock and disgust. His heart sank, making the already hard trip up even more difficult. When he finally conquered the hill, he looked down to see an enormous pile of bodies burning, a hideous circle of carnage. Many of the bodies were once infected; he could tell by the protrusions, but beyond those, many normal bodies could be seen burnt and aflame. They stood there silently, both lost in what to think of the situation. There had to be at least two hundred bodies in the inferno below them. It was like they were staring right into Hell.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a booming voice from clear across the fiery pit yelled at them. Both Eli and Aurora looked up quickly and spotted a rather tall man wearing a long black trench coat on the other side. He was wielding a sledge in both of his hands. They were too shocked to respond.
“I said, what the hell do you meat sacks think you are doing here?” he roared even louder. Hatred and anger permeated his voice. It was clear already that he was far from friendly.
“Meat sacks?” Aurora whispered under her breath, wondering what the hell that meant. The man then, in one smooth motion, threw the sledgehammer up and sent it crashing down onto the head of a body below him. The sound of the skull shattering was so loud and so close that it shook Eli and Aurora to the core. It was like the splitting of a tree, when the last bit of wood finally caves and lets out that intense snap. They couldn’t tell if the person he had just crushed was infected or not.
“Whoa man! We mean no harm!” Eli threw up a hand showing peace.
“Speak for yourself.” Aurora readied her rifle.
“Well, it’s a good thing you don’t mean any harm, because I do.” The man kicked the body in front of him into the fiery hell-pit and walked over to another body lying on the ground, readying himself once again to splatter some thoughts. This body, however, was definitely not dead, just knocked out or just awakening. They could see the person wiggling around.
“Wait!” Eli yelled out in despair. He managed to get the attention of the crazed hammer wielder.
“Is that man infected?” he yelled over.
“Infected?” The almighty beater looked confused.
“You know, like all these people, this weird sickness going around.”
“Eli—let me level this guy.” Aurora raised her gun.
“Not yet, let me try to get through to him first.” She was skeptical, but held her shot.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘sickness,’ boy, but I do know that this thing is infecting this world just by being here. I’ll do mother earth a favor.” He raised his hammer, and to counter, Aurora squeezed the trigger of her rifle. Eli caught her just in time, pushing the barrel of the gun to the side as the shot went off. The loud boom followed by the dropping of the hammer ensured that whoever was lying in front of the big man was going to live. The round hit the dirt just feet away.
“Eli!” Aurora roared in anger, loud enough for the man across the fire to hear; she wanted him to
know she meant business.
“I’ll make you bleed for this you twisted fools! I wanted blood, and I’ll be damned if I don’t have yours for this.” He ran off, leaving behind his executioner tool.
“Eli, what the hell are you doing?” Aurora was past livid. Her face was as red as the flames before them.
“I…I just didn’t want to kill another ‘normal’ person. For all I know he’s the last one out there.”
“Eli, we kill to stay alive now! Don’t you see that? We can’t go around playing the good guys and giving chances to crazy people who swing sledges around opening skulls like watermelons!” Aurora stared at Eli, who looked down at his feet.
“Eli…,” she softened her voice. He felt ashamed and foolish, but at the same time, deep down he felt like he had made the right decision.
“Hmm?” he answered her.
“You know that saying about the devils?”
“What saying?” He couldn’t look her in the eyes.
“It goes something like, the devil you do know is better than the devil you don’t.” He looked to her, questions in his eyes.
“How does that apply here?” he asked.
“The devil we don’t know was that crazy guy splitting skulls. The devil we do know, unfortunately or whatever, are these infected creatures. That means even if it feels wrong, we have to kill to stay alive.” He took in her point.
“I mean, I agree and all,” Eli said, “but we don’t know who these people are or why they’re doing the things they are.”
“Yes,” Aurora began, “but the way this world is going right now, we also don’t have the luxury of asking why.” Eli shook his head, but his attention was quickly grasped by the surrounding sounds of infected heading towards them.
“They must have heard the gunshot!” Eli started to take off, Aurora right behind him.
“Wait!” Eli called. He hadn’t made it ten steps before he stopped and looked over to the still moving body across the fire.
“What is it?” She wasn’t happy that they weren’t moving. “Eli, please don’t tell me you are tired. Wait Eli...that guy? No! What did we just talk about?”
“I know; I get it, but we can’t leave him. He obviously wasn’t the bad guy in that situation.” Aurora, against everything she believed in, followed Eli around the flaming pit to the other side. Once there, Eli knelt down and shook the unconscious man. The entire time, Eli and Aurora were getting drenched in sweat due to the intense heat billowing from the inferno next to them. The survivor was really beat up, gashes on his face, bruises all over every part of skin that was showing. He had a buzz-cut and wore a torn black shirt with the Batman logo on it over singed blue jeans.
Eli put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Are you alright? Look man, I’m going to have to leave you if you don’t get up here pretty soon.”
“Great idea!” Aurora said, impatiently pacing back and forth. Eli shook a little harder.
“Please man, I don’t want to leave you for dead.”
“Eli!” Aurora sounded distressed; she pointed towards a horde of infected that climbed the hill across the fire.
“Shit!” Eli then started to violently shake the man. Some of the faster infected walked straight into the pit, lighting themselves ablaze, giving no care to the fact that their flesh was sizzling off. They just marched like machines across the fire towards the three humans. Aurora started firing off rounds, killing whichever infected got too close. Casing after casing fell from her gun, each shot piercing through the faces of the infected she aimed at, never once missing a shot. Some died immediately, but others, ones with developed spore networks somewhere else in their bodies took the brain splattering shot with ease and pressed on unhindered. A few more shots and Eli could hear clicking without the satisfaction of a gunshot following.
“Eli...I’m out and there’s no time to reload here!” She was panicked. The closest infected was no more than fifteen feet away.
“Damn it! I’m so sorry, dude.” Eli pounded on the man’s chest and stood up.
“We gotta go! I know…I have to leave him.” Aurora nodded and grabbed his arm. They turned to leave the man behind.
“Ple…please don’t…” A faint voice could be heard behind them. It was a truly bittersweet thing to hear.
“Are you kidding me?” Aurora was pissed when Eli ran back and, as if he’d been trained in some elite firefighting school, threw the man over his shoulders and ran behind her, sprinting off into the thick smog, leaving behind the intense holocaust and horde of infected. Heavy panting, flowing sweat, and exhaustion could be seen from the duo, even more so with Eli as the adrenaline that had helped him lift and carry the unknown young man had faded. Eli laid his body down on a patch of grass just outside the downtown Portland area. They had come to a wide open park, but there were no infected around, and even better, no crazed sledgehammer psychos. They had to rest a few minutes before either of them had the oxygen necessary to speak.
“Eli, what is wrong with you? I mean seriously. You have to think about us before others! You ran right back towards those freaks. Do you know what they would have done to you? I do. I’ve seen them disassemble a person in minutes, strip the flesh right off and slowly suck out their life.” She didn’t seem angry like Eli had expected; it was more like disappointment. Eli just shrugged and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He could have easily filled a glass with the salty liquid he brushed away.
“Eli, I mean it. Get your priorities straight.” Now she seemed a little angrier.
“Well, if it makes anything any better…I’m grateful for what you did,” the young man spoke up. His voice was low, smooth, and tired, but very much alive. This got the attention of the other two.
“I’m just glad you’re alright,” Eli responded. A tiny smile was trying to force its way to his face, but he didn’t have the energy to make it happen fully.
“Yeah, thanks to you. If you hadn’t come back, I guess I’d be getting my flesh stripped,” he said as he sat up and made eye contact with Aurora.
“Better you than us,” she mumbled as she took her eyes off him.
“Wow,” the badly beaten man said.
“Wow what? You got a problem?” Aurora was upset by his one word response.
“No...I have no problem at all. I can just really tell you care about him,” he said, nodding towards Eli. Aurora immediately blushed and tried to mouth something, but nothing came out. Eli, seeing this, found the energy to smile.
“Let me guess. You two are some kind of badass survival couple, right? You know, the people who have been ready for this shit for, like, ten years? Your house had a catapult and your dog has body armor?”
“Ummm,” Eli thought back to his parents’ bunker. “Well it’s…it’s not really like that.” Eli was mumbling and messing up his words.
“Ohhh...you two aren’t…whoops. My bad. Brother and sister then?” They both gave a disgusted look. The young man laughed.
“Oh, that hurts my ribs.” He was so badly beaten, most movements hurt him.
“So what the hell was going on back there?” Aurora blurted out, hoping for an answer but also to divert the discussion of what she and Eli were.
“Which hell? You mean the mass burning grave, the stalk monsters, or the goddamned psychopath with the hammer?”
“All of it!” She was antsy.
“Okay, well, I was hiding out alone in one of the shops downtown. I had been there for about a week, and I knew all the ins and outs, all the places where I could get a good view of the streets, and so on, you know, yadda yadda. So one day I was watching the streets, hoping for the military to come in, all guns a-blazing, like, gat gat! Boom! Kill ‘em all! Shit like that, you know? But instead I see this giant guy in a black trench coat stalking the streets with a sledge hammer. Of course, I was intrigued, so I left the safety of my store...I know...not my smartest move. I was following him around, watching him just completely trash and mess up whatever he came across. Not like normal p
eople were doing, like, killing to stay alive, no, this guy was on a mission. Like each and every single person he came across had done him wrong in some past life. He left bodies, infected or not, in a pile of slop. But that’s not even the scariest part about this creep. This guy would talk out loud like some damn philosopher or something, you know? Like some real smart ass guy talking about how the world was getting back at us for what mankind had done to it, and all that jazz. Then bam! He would flip a switch and yell out crazy nonsense like, ‘Show me some blood!’ or ‘It’s killing time!’ and hoot and holler about all the slaying he was doing. I swear, that guy is a real nut case.” The young man spoke passionately; he drew energy out of nowhere. He also spoke quickly and gestured wildly.
“Alright, Dr. Seuss, skip to that fire! What the hell was that all about?” Aurora was getting fed up with the guy’s outrageous storytelling.
“Right! Well, I followed him up that huge hill you guys must have climbed before you saved my ass. Much appreciated, by the way.” He looked to Eli, who in return gave a nod. Aurora did a hand motion to tell him to keep the story going.
“Ahh, yeah, so I get to the top of the hill, never letting that freak catch a look at me. And there I am at the top, and I look down, and just wow, I mean, I was just so shocked. It was like a sea of bodies or something, you know?”
“I know!” She wasn’t having it.
“Hey, you better quiet down. You might attract those mushroom guys.” The young man’s comment confused both Eli and Aurora.
“Did you just say ‘mushroom guys’?”
“Yeah, what the hell?” Eli was equally interested.
