by Paul Hetzer
“There’s not as many of them that way.” Holly gestured with the barrel of her rifle west down the street to an intersection where maybe a score of infected were approaching us at a run. I didn’t see any other option. In every other direction the crowds of demented killers were just too thick. Maybe we would have a fighting chance to push through there.
Holly, Kera and I silently set off down the road at as fast of a pace as we could manage with my wife limping badly on her injured ankle. Holly let go of my shoulder and began firing off rounds into the approaching group using Kera, who stood much shorter than me, as a crutch. I fired my rifle to slow down the approach of the Loonies from the other directions.
The swarms of infected would move slowly until those in the lead spotted us, then they would break into a dash to get to us. A hundred feet separated us from the approaching group when my last mag ran dry. I pushed the rifle on its sling onto my back and drew the Para from my leg rig with my right hand and the Sig from my waist holster with my left. It would be all close-in combat now.
Only about a dozen of the original twenty or so Loonies remained on their feet down the street in front of us. Holly’s well-aimed shots were thinning out their numbers, although not by enough. We converged quickly.
Holly fired the last round from her AR and then let it fall on its sling to her side. She calmly drew the Para 9mm from her right leg holster and extended it before her. We fired in unison, dropping their numbers again by half before they were on top of us.
I emptied the Para into a large sweaty man as we tangled, finally dropping him after several shots. Another man hit me from my side, forcing me off balance. I jammed the empty pistol into his snapping jaws as we fell over, his fetid breath puffing in my face, and we rolled on the rough pavement. I freed my left arm and slammed the barrel of the Sig against his pulsing temple while I pulled the trigger. The shot obliterated the other side of his head and he fell dead beside me, bright red blood pumping out of what was left of his brain.
Something grabbed onto my leg when I tried to roll away from the infected corpse and looked down to see a towheaded girl not much younger than Jeremy wearing a filthy floral dress, trying to bite my leg. The loose material of my pants and the strap of my drop leg holster confounded her efforts.
I kicked at her with my free leg, connecting solidly with her nose, which flattened in an eruption of blood, and she tumbled backwards off of me. Both Holly and Kera were struggling nearby and were still firing their handguns.
The sound of Holly screaming filled my ears. I scrambled to my feet and kicked again at the girl as she reached for me. The snap of her arm breaking was loud even in the clamor of the fighting around me. The girl let out a horrid screech but kept coming, and was joined by a naked woman with homicidal blood red eyes who lunged at me past the little girl, her clawed hands raking my cheek and drawing blood.
I shot the woman in the chest, and she stumbled backwards and fell onto her skinny butt. I kicked at the kid again, sending her tumbling down the pavement.
The woman was back on her feet instantly, a small red puckered hole displayed prominently where her right nipple used to be. I shot her again, through the mouth, watching in satisfaction as red mist erupted into the waning light behind her head. She dropped silently to the warm pavement.
The little girl was up and at me again, her good arm reaching for me, teeth snapping, blood pouring from her ruptured nose. I rammed the heel of my boot into her knee. The femur snapped and tore through just above the kneecap and she tumbled to the ground beneath me. Reminding myself that they were no longer human beings, I lifted my foot and brought it down hard on her head, crushing her little skull into the asphalt.
Holly was on the ground a few yards away fighting with an older man, both her pistols were gone and she was using her hands to fend off his chomping, blood-tinged teeth. Blood roiled from a wound in her forearm, making it difficult for her to keep purchase with her slick red-coated hand. I spotted Kera further down the street backing up from two more female Loonies, one bleeding heavily from a gunshot to the leg, the other tenaciously holding onto Kera’s white blouse and trying to pull her in close.
I rushed to Holly and kicked the man in the head as hard as I could. The bones in his neck cracked when my boot connected, knocking him sideways off of her. I kneeled on his chest and put a bullet in his head to ensure he wouldn’t get up, then stood and turned toward Kera. She had shot the injured woman again, killing her instantly, and was back-peddling from the other who still had a firm grip on her blouse which was half torn off. She held the gun pressed into the savage growling face of the Loony, continuously pulling the trigger on the empty chamber.
The infected woman lunged forward and they both fell over backward across the curb and onto the sidewalk. Kera screamed ferociously as she tried to roll away from the biting woman who was still holding onto the remains of the blouse which she had ripped completely off.
Kera scooted backwards on her elbows wearing nothing except her red tennis shoes and summer shorts. The frothing creature with a mane of matted brown hair tossed aside the torn garment and clawed its way after her. I took a shot while Kera was clear and hit the Loony in the shoulder, nearly tearing its arm from its body.
The woman turned her deadly red eyes to me and snarled loudly. Forgetting Kera, she jumped to her feet and charged toward me. I pulled the trigger again and the firing pin clicked onto any empty chamber. I dropped the pistol, batting away the woman’s reaching arm with one hand while punching her in the face with the other. My fist connected with her chin and she fell backwards, knocked out cold. I went up to her and crushed her throat with my boot heel.
I bashed an infected man across the head with my rifle as he came running up, knocking him to the ground, then quickly bent to Holly, who was cradling her arm against her body and sobbing while she laid curled up on the ground.
I was aware that more Loonies were approaching fast. I picked up my Sig from beside her with one hand and pulled her up with my other, slinging her arm around my shoulder and set off as fast as I could guide her across the intersection. Kera had gathered the remains of her blouse and wrapped it around her bare shoulders, trying to cover her exposed breasts. She picked up her dropped shotgun and ran over to help me get Holly across the multi-lane road to the woods on the other side.
The fight had lasted less than a minute, long enough that the bulk of the Loonies had nearly caught up to us and were only yards away.
CHAPTER 13
We were near panic when we pushed through the heavy brush with the sound of the infected in close pursuit behind us. Holly was sobbing, muttering “No! no! no! no!” over and over as we dragged her between us into the thickening gloom. Blood was dripping from her elbow, running in rivulets from her wound.
Blood was drying on my face from the deep stinging gouges of the infected woman’s filthy nails. My heart was in my stomach. I could only pray that Holly hadn’t been bitten, that she had injured herself some other way, although whenever I looked at the wound and saw the jagged outlines of teeth in the flesh my insides knotted up even tighter.
“You’re going to be okay, baby,” I kept telling her as we moved deeper into the forest. Kera, Holly and I worked our way through the undergrowth and every once in a while I would hear a muffled sob escape from Kera’s lips. Night was falling and it was becoming difficult to pick our way through tangled weeds and saplings beneath the forest canopy. One of us would trip and stumble, causing everyone to tumble to the ground.
Finally, after Kera tripped again, causing all of us to fall hard, we stayed down, listening quietly for any sound of pursuit by the horde of diseased, enraged monsters. We could hear them far back in the distance, a faint growl or wail, but no more sounds of anything crashing through the forest underbrush hot on our trail.
“I think we lost them,” I whispered. We sat on the damp ground for a moment, breathing heavily from our long run. I put a fresh mag in the Sig and chambered a round. At l
east I was still armed.
“How’s your arm?” I asked Holly, trying to mask the worry that was flooding my mind. Holly stiffly slipped the rifle sling off of her shoulder and laid the Colt next to her side, then examined her arm.
“I’m bit, Steven,” she sobbed. “I’m bit and I’m going to turn into one of those monsters!”
“Oh shit,” Kera muttered under her breath, scooting away from Holly’s side.
I sat there on the ground next to my beloved wife, my mouth open in shock. I looked at her dark silhouette and prayed that this was all a dream.
“Steven,” she whispered to me, desperation in her voice, “you have to find Jeremy. You have to make sure he gets to the farm safely. You have to tell him that I will always love him.”
Tears were streaming down my face. I grabbed her hands and pulled her tight to me, kissing her lightly on the lips, feeling her warm breath mingle with mine.
“Don’t talk like that,” I said softly. “Maybe you weren’t infected. Maybe the virus has mutated and isn’t virulent anymore.” I said it hopefully, although I knew in my soul that I was wrong.
She sighed and looked away. “No, sweetheart,” she whispered sadly. “I can feel the disease inside me already.”
“What are we going to do with her?” Kera asked from the darkness a few yards away.
“Shut the fuck up!” I screamed at her. “If you hadn’t shot at those things at the restaurant we would probably all be on our way out of this shithole of a town now!”
“I had to shoot them!” she hissed back. “They saw me and would have come through those glass doors like the others did!”
“Bullshit!” I responded trying to stand up as Kera stomped off deeper into the darkness, but felt Holly grasp my hand tightly.
“Let it go, Steven, it won’t change what has happened.” She slid her arms around me and pulled me back close, our lips met and I kissed her gently again. She brushed her moist lips across my cheek softly.
“Sit with me here, sweetheart,” she whispered wearily, holding on to me tight. I looked down into her shadowed eyes, trying to blink away the tears that threatened to obscure my vision.
“I will love you for the rest of my life,” I said, gently kissing her again.
“I have loved you from the moment I first saw you, Steven,” she responded breathlessly. My arms tightened around her as my stomach knotted and I choked back a sob.
“Shhh,” she comforted, laying her cheek against mine. “You need to be strong for both of us, and for Jeremy.”
I nodded my head into her fragrant hair as we held each other. I could already feel the heat building in her body in contrast to the cool of the burgeoning night. I pulled back slightly and looked into her eyes, which reflected the light from the rising moon. A frown flitted nervously across her face when she looked back at me.
“You have to promise me something, sweetheart,” she said calmly, a thinly veiled look of fear in her eyes.
“Anything, honey.” I swiped away a small drop of blood that trickled down my cheek from the shallow scratches, smearing it into the sheen of cold sweat that covered my face.
“Promise me,” she started hesitantly, grasping my hands again in hers. “Promise me that you won’t let me become one of those things.”
I shifted uneasily and shook my head. “I don’t know what you mean, Holly.”
She squeezed my hands tighter. “Don’t!” she whispered vehemently, tears rolling down her cheek, “Don’t make me spell it out for you.”
A sob escaped my lips this time. “Holly, darling, please…”
“Steven, do not let me become one of those crazy fuckers!” she emphasized each word, never taking her eyes off of mine. “Promise me!”
“I promise you,” I said weakly, looking away from her beautiful face.
How will I be able to do that to you? My voice screamed in my head. I can’t continue this without you. I don’t know how to let you go!
She looked around the dark woods with the moonlight sending silver streamers down through the rustling leaves and pine boughs far overhead. The quiet was broken by a hoot owl calling in the distance.
“This is a good place to be,” she sighed as she looked around us, a faint smile on her lips. “It’s peaceful.”
I gently brushed her hair away from her face, feeling her fevered skin through my palm.
“You’re breaking my heart, Holly,” I whispered, trying to not to let the despair I felt overwhelm me.
She grabbed my hand and held it to her breast and smiled lovingly at me. “We’ve had a great life together sweetheart. I wouldn’t trade another fifty years of life for what I had with you and Jeremy.”
“I’ll always cherish each moment.” My heart broke and tears coursed down my cheeks.
Her eyelids were growing heavy and she laid her cheek against my chest, “Don’t blame the girl, Steven. She’s just a kid. You have to take care of her now.” Her voice was growing weaker.
“I know.”
She looked up at me again, her eyes milky with moonlight. “Find our son, help him to grow up to be a good man.”
I nodded, more tears rolling down my face.
“Don’t forget your promise to me,” she reminded me weakly. She was radiating heat like a furnace.
“My head hurts so bad,” she muttered almost incoherently after a few more minutes.
Her eyelids slid shut. I shook her gently. “Holly, stay with me, please!” I pleaded, the despair overwhelming me.
Her eyes fluttered open and she managed a wan smile. “I’ll be waiting for you...” she whispered, barely audible. Her eyes fell closed again. Her breathing was shallow and labored. I desperately tried to wake her up again, but she wouldn’t stir. I laid her back onto the cool bed of leaves, the coppery braid of her hair draped over her right shoulder. She looked ethereally beautiful in the silver moonlight, like a gossamer fairy. I knelt down beside her, feeling the cool, damp ground beneath me and bent down and kissed my wife for the last time. My tears sprinkled her face, I felt utter devastation.
I don’t know how long I sat there with my sick wife, trying to will things to be different, brushing her hair absently with my hand.
Her eyes opened. Even in the diffuse light, I could see the redness in what used to be the brilliant white of her eyes. They seemed to glow from an internal flame.
I stood up and put my boot on her chest, sobbing uncontrollably. I unholstered the .45 ACP and pointed it at her head. She grasped my boots and growled at me. I pulled the trigger twice. I heard and felt the sharp bark of the pistol respond each time.
I turned away quickly, not wanting to see the results. The gun slid from my fingers and I dropped to the ground, dissolving into tears.
Kera came running up beside me.
“What happened?” she asked breathlessly. She must have spotted Holly, because she dropped down next to me, put her arms around me, laid her head against mine and cried. We sat there together mourning the passing of my beautiful wife.
The gunshots must have drawn them in. The crack of a branch snapping back the way we had come spurred us on. I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand and picked up the Sig, slipping it into its holster. I tightened the empty Colt onto my back and picked up Holly’s Colt and put it over my other shoulder. Kera stood up beside me, neither of us turning to look at Holly.
“I can’t let those things find her,” I said flatly.
“We can cover her with leaves,” Kera stated with desperation in her eyes as the sound of something moving through the tangled underbrush behind us grew closer. She knelt down and started covering Holly’s face, shielding from my eyes the damage the bullets had done to her.
“Thank you,” I muttered gratefully. I bent down and pushed leaves over my wife’s corpse until we had masked her presence from our sight. The tears started flowing again as I covered the last of her with the cool blanket of leaves, staring down at the mound that hid Holly.
Kera tugge
d urgently on my arm. “Come on, Steve, we gotta go.”
“I will always love and miss you Holly,” I whispered solemnly and then turned to leave.
My mind was in a fog of depression. I couldn’t grasp that my best friend and lover, the mother of my little boy, was gone. It was surreal, worse than any nightmare for I was awake and it was a dark reality.
It was hard to quietly navigate through the brush by moonlight, although we did our best. We fought past thickets of brambles and trudged over swampy ground. I went on like an automaton, seemingly trying to escape the vivid memories of Holly that filled my every thought. I kept the tears at bay even though I knew they would be back in the quiet of the night when we were hunkered down and my mind was free to explore its grief. We circled around back east, back toward my boy, my last link with Holly.
The thick pine forest ended abruptly and we were staring out through the edge of the woods into a clearing of green lawns that surrounded a large housing development. It was quiet now, though I knew that there had to be Loonies nearby. Kera stood beside me holding the remains of her blouse together with her right hand, the shotgun hanging on her back.
“Where are we?” she asked. She put her hand on my shoulder and lifted her leg to remove her muddy tennis shoe and empty debris out of it.
“I’m not sure,” I answered flatly. “West of town I think.”
She slipped her shoe back on and did the same for the other.
“Ready?” I asked. She nodded silently, grasping her blouse closed again.
I started moving along the edge of the woods in a westerly direction following the rising moon. I stayed in the shadows of the trees, trying to remain unseen by any unwanted eyes.
I had to get back to the shopping area. I had to find my boy, that was the only thought that kept me going. The woods curved around the community to the south and we continued following the tree line. Occasionally I would see someone moving among the houses and we would hunker down deeper into the shadows until they had moved out of sight. We passed by a retention pond and then came to a road that led out of the development and to a larger East – West thoroughfare.
