by Jaime Horio
Blood is gushing from David’s leg, but he turns and drags himself back into the room. He puts his muscle behind his good foot and shoves his heal into the zombie child’s head. The creature is pushed back, and its head explodes when David fires a bullet into its forehead. Then he opens fire on the rest of the zombies in the room. Most of them are on the ground, either with damaged legs that won’t hold their weight, or just knocked over by the other bodies flying around the room. We go in past David and open fire. It only takes a few minutes to take out the remaining zombies, and we slowly canvas the room, taking out the creatures that are physically down but still trying to bite.
In all, it took probably ten minutes. Once the zombies are clear we turn our attention back to David. He is gasping for air now. The pool of blood under him is huge and growing. The zombie must have hit a major blood line.
I rush over and kneel down next to him. He is wheezing, but manages to spit out a few words.
“The other side...infected everywhere. Not safe here. Go...south.” His words are barely above a whisper by this point. He takes one more breath, then let’s it out. And goes limp.
“Damn it.” I’m furious with myself. It was my suggestion to clear this room out.
Greg sees my face. “Don’t look like that. He said he wanted to do this, but just didn’t have the man power before. The plan was solid, but that kid was so small there in the corner.”
His face is like stone. He has clearly found a way to hold in his emotion.
I sigh. He’s right. But I still can’t help but feel a little responsible.
We stay with Sergeant Gray’s body for a while. After about a half hour, we decide that he’s probably not going to come back. We debate over whether he just didn’t get infected, or if the infection is just spreading slowly.
We decide that to be safe, we have to put something through his brain. It is our only option. Greg volunteers.
I hand him the large hunting knife from my belt, and in one quick motion he puts it through the Sergeant’s temple.
It’s still early in the day, so we quickly pack up our things and refill our water containers before taking off. The Sergeant warned us to get out of this area, and if it was important enough for him to use his last breaths, we decide we need to follow his advice as quickly as possible.
Lani is in the back seat of Terry’s truck, so Carrie and Greg join Ben and me in the minivan.
We’re driving in silence for a few minutes when Greg just starts talking.
“I know how he felt. With the other soldiers I mean. He said he wanted to help them, but he didn’t. When the zombies broke into the shop where we were hiding out, I ran. I don’t know what happened to my parents. There is no way they survived, but I just ran. I should have stayed behind and at least tried to help them. So, Jay, believe me when I say it wasn’t your fault that he died. If I was back at that shop right now, and I saw my parents trapped inside, only they were walking around dead, I wouldn’t waste a moment rushing in there to put them down.
“I don’t think the zombies feel anything or remember anything. They don’t act like it. I think the only function left inside them is the base need to feed. They don’t even really seek out shelter. But it would still be my parents. Or for him, it would still be his friends. So I know he wanted to do it, but I think all the other things that had gone on with this camp were already weighing on him, and he probably couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“Who knows, maybe he even saw that kid in there, but rushed in before the kid got up. Maybe he just wanted to go out with his fellow soldiers. I’m not saying that’s the case, but I can see the mentality. I would want to be with my parents if I could. If I didn’t have any other reason to be here now.”
No one responds. I don’t think we need to. We can all understand how Greg is feeling.
We drive on in silence for a little while longer and then slow when we see the overturned military truck to the side of the road. We stop about a hundred yards away and slowly get out to investigate.
As we get closer, we can see the bodies of several of the soldiers. We can’t tell what caused the accident, but what we see is not promising. I can count only six bodies, maybe seven. They’re largely torn up, eaten, so it’s hard to get an exact count. But there are clearly footsteps leading away from the truck. So at least five of the original dozen soldiers from this truck are walking around, undead, somewhere. Maybe David had come out this way, trying to escape, and seen this. This must be how he knew that this side of the checkpoint was infected too.
But there don’t seem to be any zombies nearby at all. We discuss it, and Terry points out that we’re getting close to a town. Not a huge town, but definitely more of a town than the tiny little places we’ve seen so far. This area is really rural, but he estimates we’ve got another hour before we get into the town.
We check to make sure all the weapons are fully loaded before we take off. We see a couple of small neighborhoods of houses off the highway as we go, but we don’t see any movement. People are clearly not here, and if they are, they aren’t coming out, or they aren’t alive.
We pull to a stop in the middle of the highway. The road is raised up here, we are above the buildings at the edge of the city. The town isn’t huge, but the highway does go through the town for at least two or three miles. Since we’re raised up, we’ve got a good vantage point, and from here, we don’t see any living people.
It appears that the infection has spread south, and this town was hit hard. Or maybe they managed to evacuate. The roads aren’t choked with cars, but it definitely looks like no one has driven around this area in a while.
It’s starting to get late, so we decide to backtrack a little to a small moving truck rental place we saw at the edge of town. There’s just one small building with a couple of offices. The building is clear and we set up sleeping area inside. We use the back office since the front part of the building is nothing but glass. Definitely not the best choice for avoiding being seen.
In the morning we drive back down the highway to the spot we had found before. We reach an off ramp and park the vehicles.
We’re split, but we decide that we need to at least check out the area. It’s pretty clear that the infection has hit, since there are no people driving around. By this point, someone would have been coming out if everything was normal. It’s going to be risky to check the area, but the food rations we have won’t last forever. Although there are plenty of the military rations, we have already learned the importance of always finding more food.
From the top of the off ramp, we can see that there are a couple of gas stations at the bottom. Greg and Ben stay behind to be our eye from above. Julie stays behind with Lani. Terry, Carrie and I load up on weapons and start to make our way down. The door to the first gas station is still unlocked so we just walk in. It looks like someone has already looted the place, but they mainly went after the alcohol and not the stuff that is actually helpful.
The power is out, so all of the refrigerated sections are out, but the drinks are largely safe since they’re sealed. We start to load up a bag with sports drinks and bottled water when Carrie stops us.
“Check this out,” she says. She jogs out the front of the store and grabs an empty shopping car that has been left behind.
Terry and I are both relieved, not only for the extra large carrying space this provides, but for the fact that we can easily roll this back up to the truck instead of having to carry them in packs.
We load up as many of the drinks as we can, and then stuff our bags with as much of the sealed bags of food as we can. It’s mostly junk food, but it’s still calories, which we need to keep going.
We’re probably inside for ten minutes before we head back to the off ramp and head up to the truck. Once we hit the pavement, I start to question if this cart is a good idea. It was ok inside the store and on the smooth pavement of parking lot, but once we’re on the street the going is a lot rougher. And that means we’re
making a lot of noise.
But we make it to the top without incident.
Ben has been looking around with the binoculars and has determined that the other gas station is empty. It looks like it had been in the process of closing down when this all happened, so there wasn’t much merchandise to loot when everything happened.
We decide to head back down and get the rest of the water from the store. There wasn’t a ton, but we didn’t take it all yet. Julie suggests we try to get some more pillows and blankets and points out a small motel that is about a block down. There’s nothing in between the gas station and the motel, so we decide it should be safe. Just a clear field.
It doesn’t take long for us to clear out the gas station and get to the motel. It’s small, maybe 10 rooms.
But we decide to skip the rooms for now and just try to find a house cleaning room. All of the extra linens and pillows should be stored there.
We find the room near the office and try the door. It’s unlocked.
Terry opens the door and the smell overwhelms us. It’s a small room, just a storage room for linens and cleaning supplies, but the sterile white look of the room is ruined by splashes of blood.
We quickly scan the room, and there are no zombies waiting for us. There are two bodies, both are dressed as housekeepers for the motel, and both are badly mutilated. It looks like both of them were attacked by the undead at some point and managed to lock themselves in this room. Maybe they were even attacked in this room. The sprays of blood would indicate that some part of the attack happened here. They must have managed to fend off whatever was attacking them.
Shaking his head, Terry shuts the door. There’s no way the blankets in this room are going to be usable. The stench of death will be too deeply engrained.
We decide to check out some of the rooms to see if they’re clear. The first room we come to looks clear. We look through the window and see nothing. I’m about to reach for the door when Carrie tells me to stop.
She holds a finger to her lips, then points through the window and toward the bathroom. The light isn’t great, but when I squint, I can just make out the form of someone standing in the bathroom. The person isn’t moving, and the only thing I’ve ever seen hold that still before is a zombie.
As we continue checking the rooms, it becomes clear that this hotel was the scene of a massacre of some sort. We don’t see any more zombies, but we do see signs that they were there. Shattered windows and blood stained sheets. Bullet holes in walls. Even a couple of bodies, their heads showing signs of extreme damage.
I decide it’s a good time to check in with Ben and let him know what we’ve found. But when I push the button, nothing happens.
“Crap, the battery must be dead.” I realize that we’ve been pretty preoccupied for the last few days, so Ben must not have remembered to charge these things. While I’m telling the others about the dead battery, I hear footsteps slamming on the pavement, and sudden Greg is running around the corner.
“Whoa man, what are you doing here?” I am staring at him down the barrel of my shotgun. “You freaked me out there. I almost took your head off!”
“No time! They’re coming!”
“What? Who’s coming?”
“There’s like 100 of those things coming this way. We tried to get you on the walkie!”
“It’s dead. Damn it!”
We’ve already wasted too much time talking, so we take off down the side of the building toward the street.
“Oh shit.”
Where the streets were empty before, they are now crawling with the undead. They’ve spilled out from the surrounding buildings, and there have to be at least a hundred of them shambling toward us. There is no clear path back to the highway. They’ve spread out enough that even if we try to go wide around them, we’re still going to run into the horde when we get closer to the street.
“Oh crap, what do we do?” Greg looks panicked. He came unarmed, trying to make it to us as fast as possible.
“Well, first take this,” I hand him a pistol. “Second, we do simple math. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. We need to just go straight for the highway. Terry and I will form a wedge in front, you two follow behind us.”
Greg and Carrie nod and then I hear a shot.
Ben is up on the overpass with one of the hunting rifles shooting at the undead. He must have been thinking the same thing because he appears to be trying to clear a path.
And his actions are having a secondary effect. Some of the zombies are stopping and looking toward the noise behind them.
“Perfect, let’s go! They’re distracted!”
Terry and I leave just a small space between us and go charging forward. The shotguns have enough of a force at this distance to knock the zombies off their feet. Fortunately we don’t’ have to worry about headshots, we just need to get them knocked back so we can keep going.
I steal a glance up and see that Julie and Lani have joined Ben. Lani is leaning against the guardrail yelling and waving her arms, while Julie is firing a pistol into the crowd. She is not as familiar with a gun so she is shooting away from where we are, but just trying to make a lot of noise.
We’re about halfway to the highway when I hear Greg swear just behind me.
“I’m out!”
Terry reaches into his waistband and pulls out a pistol for Greg. Greg chucks the empty gun toward a zombie’s head.
The zombies who were distracted by Ben and the others are now proving to be a problem. While it was nice to have their attention away from us before, the crowd seems to be thicker as we get closer to the highway.
I’m out of shots in my shotgun, so I start using the butt of the gun as a weapon. We’re slowing down, and we need to get moving. The only thing saving us at this point is that half of the zombies are facing away from us, so we can safely hit them from behind to get them out of the way.
We’re getting closer, probably another fifty yards to the onramp. The horde is starting to thin out, then I hear a scream behind me. I pause and look back. Carrie has tripped and Greg is helping her up.
“Look out!” I scream, as a zombie lunges from the side to bite at Greg.
Suddenly, Terry’s body is in between them. He has thrown his weight into the zombie, just trying to block it from attacking Greg, but in the meantime he has lost his balance. He falls to the ground on top of the undead creature and cries out in pain.
“Run!” he shouts. “Get out of here!”
I hesitate, but then I grab Carrie’s arm and pull her forward. Greg follows behind and we run forward. The horde seems distracted and I look back. They are all descending on the spot where we left Terry.
Greg and Carrie start to slow but I give them a push to keep them moving. I start searching for a weapon and realize that I have no shots in the shotgun and Greg has my pistol. I have nothing but a knife. I pull it out and I’m about to run forward toward the crowd when something pulls me back.
I’m startled, and turn to see Ben. He has run down the off ramp to stop me.
“Come on, Jay. We can’t help him now, and you know it.”
I start to disagree, but I can’t find the words.
We jog up the off ramp toward the vehicles.
When we get up there, Julie is sobbing and being restrained by Greg and Carrie. She wants to go running down to Terry, but there is nothing she can do at this point.
I walk over to the guardrail and look down. The crowd around Terry is starting to clear. I look around and find the hunting rifle that Ben was using. There is still a shot loaded. I look through the scope and try to look through the bodies to where Terry should be lying.
All I can see is a red mess. I can’t get a clear shot, but it’s pretty obvious that there isn’t anything left of Terry. These undead bastards have torn his body to pieces and eaten it all.
“Umm, guys? We better get going!” Ben is hustling toward the van, pointing back to the off ramp. The first of the undead
are reaching the top and coming onto the highway. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them go uphill, but I figure that the off ramp is a sloping road, rather than a stairway. And this time they know there is food at the top.
Lani is trying to limp toward one of the vehicles. I’m closest to her so I just go pick her up and carry her to the truck. Julie is heading toward the van, half walking and half being carried by Carrie and Greg. Ben is already hopping into the front seat of the van and starting up the motor.
I get into the driver’s seat of the truck and start it up. We’re gone before the first of the zombies is within twenty feet of us.
We drive in silence for a few minutes, and finally I break the silence.
“So Lani, what the hell happened back there?”
“Well, we were just waiting up there for you to come back, Ben was trying to follow you with the binoculars until you went to the other side of the building. Then Julie saw them. It was just two or three at first, maybe they were drawn by the noise of that cart, maybe it was something else, I don’t know. But anyway, it was just a few at first, and then we realized that there were a lot more of them coming out from down the street. They were coming out of a couple of side streets, but the buildings blocked our view, so we couldn’t tell how many there were.
“Ben was trying to reach you on the walkie talkie, but you weren’t answering.”
“The battery was dead,” I explain.
“Oh, well yeah, I guess that’s why. I don’t know how long he tried it reach you. It felt like forever, but it could have been just a few seconds. So Greg said he was going to get you. Ben tried to stop him, but he couldn’t argue that Greg was faster. So Greg disarmed and went running down the ramp. He took off and was able to avoid all of those zombies pretty easily, but they just kept coming.
“He wasn’t around that corner trying to find you for more than a couple of seconds before they had swarmed the street. It’s like they were just appearing. There were so many of them filling that street so fast.”
