by Travis Tufo
“Oh this is just sick.” He yanked on their chains, wiped the extra gunk off his face and pressed on, leaving behind him quite the mess.
Chapter Seventeen
“WOULD YOU LOOK at that?” Aurora yelled back to her two companions who were trailing a fair distance behind her.
“Does she ever slow down?” Shaun looked to Eli hoping for a yes, but what he got instead was just a saddened blank stare.“Damn it. I had a feeling you’d say that. She’s like a robot— just go go go.” Shaun wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“What do you see?” Eli asked, finally catching up. Aurora just pointed into the distance, deep into the city. High above the rest of the surrounding buildings was a large blue billboard. Eli read it.
“Walmart!” It was like his first time going to Disney World. He looked to Aurora and they exchanged smiles.
“To think I assumed I was going to be leading this trip.” Shaun met up with the other two, and stood in line, staring at the sign in the distance. Most of their trip they’d managed to avoid running into many infected, and when they did, they quickly dispatched those that were a threat, like the ones that ran at them or that they couldn’t get past without a fight.
“Well, you pointed us in the right direction, so you helped, I guess,” she joked, starting off towards the billboard. The only reason Shaun and Eli could keep up with her now was because seeing their destination gave them an adrenaline rush. The three of them didn’t make it too far however, before something caught their attention. To their left was a row of cars parked in front of the strip of buildings. Something quickly darted from one car to the next, about fifty yards ahead of them.
“Did you see that?” Shaun asked, his voice slightly trembling. Aurora already had her rifle raised.
“It wasn’t an infected; the only thing they do is charge right for you. Someone is hiding over there.” His voice quieted so only his party could hear him.
“Who’s there?” Shaun yelled out. In exchange for his yelling he received an elbow from Aurora and a hand signal to be quiet.
“Lure them out and I’ll take the shot,” she commanded to Eli. He nodded his head. He had only taken a few steps towards the car before a young girl in a red dress stood up. The girl was too far away and still mostly behind the cars to get a good look at her, but they all saw her raise something in her arms and then send it smashing down onto the car in front of her, bashing in the windshield, and more importantly, setting off a car alarm.
“Oh shit!” Aurora lowered her gun; Shaun took a step back and Eli ran towards the girl with his gun drawn. The alarm seemed louder than any other sound they’d heard in recent days, possibly because the city was dead silent.
“Eli, it’s not worth it!” she yelled to him, but it was too late. He was too far away to hear her, or maybe he had chosen to ignore her. Before she could do anything else she saw the infected coming towards them from all over. They crawled out from alleys, they broke through windows of businesses; they poured in from every angle. It wasn’t long before Shaun and Aurora were surrounded. Eli, on the other hand, was safe; he’d managed to run past the horde while chasing after the girl. He never even looked back to see what was happening to his friends as he jumped over bodies, ran through open stores, and over debris to keep after the girl.
“Oh man! What do we do?” Shaun was already past panicking.
“First thing, calm the hell down, second get your damn knife out!” She was like an army commander, yelling through the constant car alarm, never taking her hateful gaze off her enemy. She charged towards the closest infected with both of her machetes, slicing him up with ease. Swing after swing she disassembled the next few infected, splattering their blood all over the street. Shaun stayed close behind, but out of the reach of her vicious blades. She whirled like a blender, rapidly chopping from one to the next leaving behind a trail of infected chunks of flesh. Shaun never even swung his weapon. Aurora had managed to fight through the circling horde until there was an opening. She and Shaun ran as fast as they could towards the Walmart, leaving most of the infected behind, but there were still a few sprinters keeping chase
“What…about…Eli?” Shaun yelled between deep breaths. He had never moved this fast in his entire life.
“There’s nothing we can do about him,” she yelled back. Block after block they full out sprinted, adrenaline the only thing keeping them moving. The gap between Aurora and Shaun was starting to widen as her pace stayed consistent and he started to slow down. She never looked back, but she could tell something was wrong when his footsteps started to became faint. She quickly came up with a plan.
“Don’t stop, Shaun!” she yelled back as she sprinted even faster ahead. Shaun had no idea what she was doing; to him it looked as if she was leaving him behind.
“No! Wait!” Seeing her so far ahead made him start to slow down even more. Aurora was covering so much ground so fast, she was like a track star. When she could no longer hear Shaun’s steps or even the bloodthirsty moans and screams of the infected, she came to an abrupt stop, spinning around on a dime and raising her rifle. She had just put so much strain on her body that the rifle swayed unsteadily back and forth. She looked through the sights at Shaun, taking a deep breath. Deep down she wanted to take him out; she had wanted to do it from the beginning, that would assure her survival as their attackers would stop to feast on him and lose interest in her. She saw the tears in Shaun’s eyes as he pushed as hard as he could, only staying a few feet ahead of his assailants. She redirected her aim to the thigh of the infected closest to Shaun. Her gun was shaking so much; it never was a perfectly lined up shot, bouncing between Shaun and the infected and the ground, but she squeezed the trigger anyway. The high caliber round fired off, blowing out the left leg of the closest infected, sending it to a bloody mess to the ground. She readied herself and did this twice more, taking out the legs of the next two infected. By the time she was taking aim for her fourth and final shot, Shaun came tumbling to the ground in front of her; he hit the ground hard and just lay there, sucking down air. She lowered her rifle, grabbed her machete, and with one massive overhead swing, she met the sprinting infected with her blade to his face. Her machete had so much force behind it that she nearly split him in half. The metal cut easily past his decaying brain and throat and sliced deep into his gut before the momentum came to a halt. Gore spilled out from every open crevice it could find.
“That was, uhh…quite the close one, huh kid?” Aurora pulled her blade from the now two-time deceased man. Shaun barely had enough air to breathe, so speaking wasn’t going to happen. In the distance she could see that the slower infected were starting to make up ground and the ones shot in the legs were getting up. Still there was no sign of Eli.
“We have to keep moving. We’re almost there.” She pulled Shaun to his feet and helped him towards Walmart. A few minutes of fast walking and jogging whenever Shaun could afford it, and the coast was clear. There were no infected in sight.
“They must have gone back to the car alarm,” she said, thinking of reasons why they were no longer being followed.
“Good. What the hell was that girl’s problem?”
“I don’t know, but I hope Eli made her pay.”
“I just hope he’s alright.”
“Eli is a pretty tough guy. I think he’ll be alright.” She wasn’t sure if she meant that, but it’s what she needed to hear, even if from her own mouth. Just a little bit more traveling and they made it to the edge of the parking lot. Immediately they were met with a less than desirable sight. Past the hundreds of cars parked in the lot, right in front of the main entrance, were piles and piles of bodies. The two front doors were completely blocked by mountains of dead infected.
“Oh, God. What is this?” Shaun said, holding his stomach.
“Looks like someone beat us here after all.” Aurora was already looking for another entrance.
“What about that?” Shaun pointed to the highest pile.
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��What?”
“Look how close that stack gets to the top of the building. We could get in from the roof that way.” He was right; the highest body in the pile was just a few feet from the lip of the building. Aurora looked to the dozen or so infected stumbling around the entrance and the five times more infected meandering around in the parking lot.
“What about all these blood suckers?” She couldn’t see a way around confronting them.
“Hey, I’m the brains and you’re the…well the monster slayer.” He pointed to her bloody machetes.
“No way can I kill that many.”
“Shit. We need a distraction...like that car alarm.” Without hesitation or really any thought, Aurora shot her rifle into the sky, scaring the crap out of Shaun.
“Oh god why?! Why the hell did you do that?” His ears were ringing. They both dropped to the ground; none of the infected saw them. However they were attracted to that noise and headed in its direction.
“Now we just jump from car to car, like...right now!” She darted to the closest car and hid. Shaun followed in suit. Like a game of leap frog, they moved from car to car effectively avoiding any confrontation. Eventually they made it to the front of the store where only three infected were left, the ones who didn’t follow after the noise of the gun. Shaun couldn’t have given a damn about them. He darted towards the tower of bodies. He quickly climbed the mountain of death, covering himself in blood and guts as he slipped and fell down as the decaying bodies gave way under his footsteps. Multiple times he sank into a ribcage or a skull. Aurora followed shortly after him; Shaun was already at the top and climbing onto the building by the time she started. When she was no more than half way up, she reached out and latched onto a dead man’s fungus filled forearm. She pulled hard against the arm to help herself up, but instead, the upper half of the pile of bodies began to lean towards her.
“Oh no no no!” Shaun saw what was happening and could already predict the outcome. Aurora’s eyes widened as she watched more than twenty bloody corpses come tumbling from above her. Within seconds, her entire lower body and much of her upper body were covered by hundreds of pounds of infected flesh. She let out a grunt, freed her right arm and shoulder, and struggled to continue breathing.
“Aurora! Are you alright?” Shaun wanted to help, but the top of the pile was now too far from the roof he was standing on. He would have had to jump down quite a bit to come to her aid.
“I...can’t…” She cut her own sentence short when she saw the three infected coming towards her.
“What do I do?” Shaun said to himself in panic as he watched helplessly while the three infected inched towards her. He looked over the side of the building and was immediately hit by vertigo, making him want to stay on the safety of the roof.
“Even if I did jump, I wouldn’t be able to stop all three of them.” He stepped back from the side of the building. Then the thought of Aurora saving him no more than ten minutes ago popped into his head, how she could have safely gone on without him. He took a deep breath and leaped right off the side of the building. He landed hard, left ankle first, on some woman’s face, smashing her skull and sending the insides out. His joint made a loud pop and he rolled down the pile of bodies about half way, reaching for his injured ankle. This caught the attention of two of the infected, just a few feet from him at the bottom of the pile. They began climbing towards him, the last infected, however, was on the ground with Aurora’s exposed shoulder in his hands, ready to take a bite. Three loud cracks boomed from across the parking lot and blood spattered across Aurora’s face. Eli had laid the infected attacking her to rest with well-placed shots. He ran up to the stack of corpses with his .357 still smoking and aimed at the last two, who were now more interested in him than Shaun, who was writhing in pain.
“…E…li,” Aurora managed to force out, her breathing taking more and more effort. Eli stood still, lining up his next two shots with spots where the fungal growths appeared to be coming from. One shot through a ribcage and another shot in a throat and they both dropped to the ground dead. Eli holstered his gun in his pocket and ran to help Aurora. He threw body after body off of her as fast as he could. Eventually enough bodies were removed that he could grab her by the shoulders and pull her out. She laid on the ground for a bit trying to regain her senses and breathing as Eli went to help Shaun. Eli’s gunfire had attracted the attention of the rest of the infected; they were now making their way back across the parking lot. That’s when a female voice, not Aurora’s, called out.
“Eli, they’re coming!” Eli was halfway up the pile towards Shaun.
“I can see that!” he snapped back. Aurora looked to see where the voice was coming from. Just a few yards into the parking lot was the girl in the red dress, her long blonde hair soaked in blood.
“What the hell is that bitch doing here?” Aurora suddenly seemed as good as new as she jumped to her feet and marched towards the blonde.
“Aurora, no! She’s friendly!” Eli stopped to yell back. That didn’t stop Aurora from pulling her machete out.
“She can help us!” Still Aurora marched towards the girl with her blade drawn. The blonde, who now saw what was going on, and looking towards Aurora with intense fear, she raised her arms as if to show she meant no harm.
“Damn it, Aurora, she knows where people were evacuated to!” She finally stopped, just a foot in front of the girl in the crimson dress. Aurora put her blade away, but cocked back her fist and flung it into the stranger’s face. It crashed against her nose, sending her tumbling to the ground as a bloody mess.
“That’s about as passive as she gets, huh?” Shaun had managed to stop rolling around in pain long enough to crack a joke.
“Honestly, I’m surprised that girl is still alive,” Eli said as he helped Shaun down the pile.
“Come on—there’s another door on the other side of the building!” Eli yelled out as he helped Shaun hobble down from the pile. Aurora ran after them.
“Come on princess!” she yelled back to the bloodied girl laying in the parking lot, lending her no aid. Soon enough the four of them rounded the side of the building and reached a metal door. It was a fire exit; there was no handle or knob.
“Leave it to Eli to bring us to a door that doesn’t open,” Aurora mocked him sarcastically.
“Watch and learn.” He reached for and grabbed her machete. With enough bending and prying, he unlocked the door. As the door opened, a church orchestra might as well have been playing, they were met with so much light. This particular Walmart had backup generators going full blast.
“This is so great.” Shaun limped inside and straight into the electronics section. Not only did the entire store seem virtually untouched, but there were no infected wandering around inside the brightly lit store, either.
“This is a joke, I swear,” Eli said as he locked the door behind him after everyone else had entered.
“Something seems off about this,” the mystery girl spoke up; her nose had finally stopped bleeding.
“Wait, that reminds me. What the hell is this girl doing here Eli?” Aurora and her attitude asked loudly.
“This is Niva,” Eli pointed towards her.
“Okay, now what exactly is she doing here?” Aurora kept after her.
“Yeah, I am actually going to side with Aurora on this one.” Shaun took his attention from the seventy inch plasma flat screen to add his comment.
“She claims she knows where it’s safe and where they took everyone.”
“You know, Eli, after I got caught by the people I tried to kill, oh, I don’t know, twenty minutes ago, I’d probably say something like that too.” Aurora had zero patience for this girl. Before Eli could respond, Niva butted in.
“He didn’t catch me. I allowed myself to be caught. And I am sorry for what I did, but I thought you were different people. I was only trying to defend myself. The only thing more dangerous than those zombie things are other people.”
“Why would you allo
w yourself to get caught?” Shaun was skeptical of her story’s authenticity.
“Once I realized that he was not who I thought he was, I quit running. I didn’t want to turn that car alarm on, but you had a rifle aimed at me.” She pointed to Aurora.
“Like you said, the only thing more dangerous are other people,” Aurora replied.
“Look, let’s just call it even and see what’s going on in this store alright? After we get what we need and maybe rest up for as long as we can, Niva says she can help us. And I’m sorry, Niva, but if you can’t, we’re going to have to dump you.” Eli was stern and very serious.
“So until anything else comes up, can we agree to get along?” Shaun and Niva nodded their heads.
“One condition,” Aurora spoke up.
“What is it?”
“She doesn’t get to hold a weapon.”
