by J. Thorn
“Did they get eaten by Zombies?” Page interrupted.
That gave us all pause and everyone in the Hummer looked back and forth, avoiding the innocently curious eyes of our baby girl- I said our, because in the week we’d spent making excruciatingly slow progress through Missouri, Haley and I had fallen irrevocably in love with this little girl and claimed equal siblinghood with her.
Hendrix cut in, adding to the story and surprising us all, or at least me. “No, Pagey, this was before all the Zombies. Her mommy and daddy didn’t even know what a Feeder was.”
“Oh, they were so lucky!” she grinned at Haley, taking Hendrix at his word.
“They sure were, Sweetness,” Haley said through a watery smile. “Okay, now no more interrupting my story, alright? Save all your questions till the end.”
Page nodded and off Haley went with tales of Miss Hannigan and Daddy Warbucks. I yawned, feeling lulled by the melodic tone of Haley’s voice. I glanced over at King who sat in between Nelson and me in the back row; he had started to doze too. The good thing about driving during the day was that it was okay to fall asleep. We’d been making progress heading south, but it was very slow travel.
We all agreed that traveling during the day was safest. Nobody wanted to face the darkness with only headlights to illuminate the way. And even though Feeders weren’t bothered by the daylight, they seemed to prefer the night. Or, at least it seemed that way, but it might have been the brightness of the light that attracted them. We lived in this world without electricity, the streetlights were shut off, no houses or buildings created anything to break up the blackness, so when a car was barreling through the night with its headlights on bright, it was basically a “We Make a Delicious Snack” infomercial.
So we spent our days driving as far as we could before the early afternoon, at which we would stop, preferably in a town, where we could at least pretend to look for supplies, even though most stores and resources had already been picked through. Once we’d find a good, easily protectable place, we would spend the remaining daylight hours turning it into a safe haven, aka a Zombie-free zone.
Vaughan, Hendrix and their brothers were very good at securing a location somewhere easily defendable and protected from Feeders. It was almost scary how mobilized and precise they were. Like they had been prepared for this- groomed for it. The GI Joes of the end of the world.
Nelson slid forward and jammed his knees into the back of Haley’s seat again. She was jostled forward and let loose a curse under her breath. When she shot Nelson a dirty look without pausing her story, his grin grew bigger, more devilish.
I watched the entire exchange in a kind of horrified surprise. There were a million reasons this was a bad idea, but I was shocked Nelson hadn’t come up with them by himself.
I glared at him until he gave me his attention and then I mouthed, “Stop flirting!”
The planes of Nelson’s face heated red, but he tried to shrug it off. “What?” he mouthed back.
“Stop flirting!” I demanded again, narrowing my eyes on him. We were like really angry mimes.
“You first,” he accused silently and then jabbed a finger toward the front seat.
My eyes flickered forward and met Hendrix’s immediately. He was turned around, talking quietly with Harrison, but his eyes were on me. My heart jump-started and slammed into my chest as his dark blue eyes held mine. He didn’t smile, didn’t move, and didn’t turn away. He just captured my gaze and paralyzed me.
“I don’t think we’re flirting,” I mumbled, tearing my eyes away from Hendrix and forcing them to my hands on my lap.
“Oh, I didn’t mean with him,” Nelson mumbled sounding smug. “He wouldn’t know how to flirt with a hooker.”
I shot Nelson a nasty look and felt my face flush with embarrassment. He was talking about Vaughan, which made my assumption that it was Hendrix really bad.
After five days on the road with these guys, I didn’t really know what to think about them, or how to think about them. But I did know there couldn’t have been more of a difference between Vaughan and Hendrix. Even though they were only a year apart, they were night and day when it came to personalities. Vaughan was fun and hilarious; he always found a way to lighten the mood while still keeping control of every situation.
Hendrix... Hendrix was the exact opposite. He kind of sucked the fun right out of the room and had a way of making every one of my emotions feel serious and dramatic.
Vaughan definitely flirted with me, but I wondered if that was only because I was the lone girl around to play with. He was equally attentive to Haley, but somehow Nelson, third brother down the line and only fifteen months younger than Hendrix, already claimed her- which made me really nervous.
Didn’t Haley get a say in which brother she wanted, if she even wanted a brother? We weren’t here to hook up with these guys. We were trying to survive.
This was not an episode of Bachelor Zombie Island. This was our lives, and I wasn’t even convinced the Parker brothers were going to stick with us all the way to our destination. They had Page to think about, and Harrison and King were barely out of middle school. It wasn’t like they could gamble with their safety- which was made obvious by how slow our journey was taking.
According to my road map of the US and Mexico I’d salvaged from the Escalade before Haley and I abandoned it back in Iowa, we were still in Missouri for goodness sakes. This was like the never ending-road trip, literally from hell. And even though gunfire had been minimal while we’d been able to keep everyone safe so far, nerves were high and tension was tight.
There were just too many people for us to statistically make it all the way to Peru. I’d seen plenty of horror/end-of-the-world movies to know that we were in deep shit. Luckily Hales and I still had our v-cards. That would boost our staying-alive credibility by at least three extra lives.
Yep, I’d just combined video games with movies and somehow converted it into my survival guide. Somehow this made logical sense to me. I was just going to go with it.
Vaughan slamming on the brakes yanked me out of my thoughts and my arm swung protectively in front of King. He shot me a WTF look and I shrugged my shoulder, dropping my arm into my lap.
“Sorry, uh, I don’t know where that came from.”
The fifteen year old in the prime of puberty rolled his eyes at me and then snorted, “Thanks, Mom. I feel so super safe now.”
“Smartass,” I mumbled. “God, the end of the world has made you so cynical.”
We shared a smirk, all my misplaced maternal instincts hopefully forgotten, and turned our attention to the road block in front of us. Then the smirks quickly disappeared when Jaba the Zombie stood before us, grunting and drooling like a giant-sized slobbery dog. He was a massive individual; at least eight feet tall, giant club-like hands and razor sharp teeth that dripped with previously consumed brains. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a tiny bit, but not by much. There weren’t actually brains stuck in his teeth- that I could see from here.
The scariest part of all was his bright red eyes that seemed to pulse with his manic hunger. I hated the red eyes. They seemed like overkill in the We’re Here to Give You Nightmares Department.
Page started trembling in the seat in front of us and Haley pulled her into her arms.
“Why’d you stop, Vaughan?” Nelson called from our row. “Just drive around him and let’s leave fat ass in our dusty wake.”
Dusty wake? Sometimes Nelson seemed like a genius with how he talked. Not that dusty wake was anything profound, but there were times he spoke like a college professor. And then there were times when he thought tormenting Haley with his knees in her back was enough to woo her.
Dear grown men everywhere, your elementary school bully tactics pissed us off back then, why are you still convinced they will ever work? Piece of advice, while you were pulling our hair and tripping us, we were giving our first kisses away to the boys that brought us flowers and candy.
Take lessons from
the smart, non-violent men, those strategies still work.
“Because,” Vaughan sighed sounding extremely tired. “He has backup.”
Nelson and I saw the other gathered Feeders at the same time and let out twin gasps of shock and fear.
We were on a stretch of highway that was mostly clear. A few times in the last couple days, the boys would have to get out and physically remove cars from the road while Haley and I provided backup from the roof of the Hummer. Page stayed tucked away inside with either Harrison or King keeping her company. This particular patch of pavement had already been cleared, abandoned cars shoved and hauled to the side of the road by some other travelers at some other time.
The end result however, had created a line of cars, trucks, one city bus and a few sporadic motorcycles along the highway in what made a kind of wall on both sides of us. While the Oprah-special-of-a-Zombie created a roadblock down the center, his Death and Decay Gang stood on the roofs of the vehicles, eyeing us just as hungrily but also seeming to wait for a command.
“What the fu-” Nelson murmured but caught himself with a cough.
“Cuss jar,” Page whispered in a quaking voice.
The rest of us just kept staring at the problem beyond the hood of the Hummer.
“Do you think they want us to pay a toll?” Harrison asked dryly.
I let out a bubble of nervous laughter. “Obviously, that’s why they’re blocking the road. Let me see if I have some spare change.”
“Reagan, get the duffle,” Vaughan instructed.
Reluctantly, I tore my eyes away from the threat in front of me and bent over my seat so I could dig around in the trunk. I moved as quickly as I could, hating that my back was facing an entire line of Feeders. Keeping them in sight at all times was a hard learned lesson that I was not about to forget anytime soon. But weapons were important at the moment and so I gave them priority.
I heaved the heavy bag over the seat with some help from King and Nelson and we immediately started passing guns and ammo forward. The soothing sound of magazines clicking into place filled the silence of the interior as the scent of decomposing, rancid flesh began to fill the cab.
King shuddered next to me, “They smell extra hungry.”
“That they do,” Hendrix agreed. Then he turned to face us, his eyes read Lecture Time and his serious mouth said, “I am not one with which you f.” “Vaughan and I will take lead. Nelson, Harrison you’re behind us. King stay in the van with Page.” His eyes flicked to mine and I lost the ability to breathe. They’d somehow softened at the same time they deepened in color. He was so protective of me for some reason, so possessive and it didn’t make sense to me at all. “Reagan and Haley, I want you to climb through the sunroof and use the vantage like a sniper. We’re going to move as fast as we can forward, but we’re not going to be able to hit everyone. You pick up the stragglers. How’s your range?”
“Fine,” I said quickly, even though I didn’t really know. It hadn’t mattered before if I could hit at long distances. If I missed, I always got a second chance because the Feeders never stopped coming after me or Haley, who was always right beside me. But if I missed this time, they wouldn’t need to come after me. They could swarm any of the guys instead. I shivered with the queasy feeling of how much responsibility now rested on my shoulders.
“We’re great at long distance,” Haley assured Hendrix, but she wasn’t very convincing.
Hendrix’s eyes crinkled in the corners and he shot Haley a look. “I need you to do this,” he ordered, his eyes finding me again.
“I just don’t…” I cleared my throat, “I just don’t accidentally want to shoot one of you.”
“You won’t,” Hendrix promised. “You’ll be able to tell us apart. It will be easy.”
“Yeah, we’ll be the ones not trying to eat each other. And they will be the ones trying to make sandwiches out of us,” Vaughan bit out.
Harrison groaned. “Sandwiches. I haven’t had a sandwich in forever.”
I shook my head at his casual attitude and then went back to digging in the giant black duffle bag for the right kind of long distance weapon. I pulled out two automatic rifles and passed them both to Haley, before pulling out two more.
We hadn’t taken much from the original safe house, but the Hummer was already packed and loaded, ready to go. I needed to find the opportunity to ask them where all the guns and ammo came from. It was on the top of my list. Right after, how did you get so good at this stuff? Are you part of a secret government program that knew the Zombies were coming and started raising children in order to fight them off- kind of like 21 Jump Street? Only instead of drug dealers in high schools, they prepared you for the Zombie Apocalypse? Also, how do I get Hendrix to stop looking at me like that…?
So, just looking for the right time…
“Reagan,” Hendrix said my name in his deep voice and instantly had my attention- it was obnoxious how he could do that. “Do not start shooting till we take the big one down, alright?”
“And if they attack you all at once?” I whispered, hating that Page had to hear all these details.
“Then pick them off, outside to inside,” he instructed. “And if you don’t trust yourself, aim to wound, aim to slow them down, instead of going for a headshot that could miss and hit one of us instead.”
I nodded and saw Haley agree out of the corner of my eye. Vaughan clicked his last magazine into place and let out a slow breath that we all echoed. He punched the sunroof button and its whirring sound filled the silence for a few seconds. Once the fresh, rotting, gag-worthy smell filled the car we all put our game faces on and flicked off our respective safeties.
“I should take out the big guy before you guys get out of the car,” I offered, realizing how ridiculous it would be for us to wait for their apparent leader to fall.
These Feeders seemed so organized, so patient. So far this was unheard of: A structured attack… Zombies waiting for us to make the first move. This could not be right. We were watching an active evolution happen in front of us. I’d much prefer them to de-evolve into puddles of slime or Jell-O or something.
Instead, here we were, watching Feeders unite themselves into military-esque units. They were playing defense, forcing us to make the first move. Also, apparently all that cheerleading finally paid off- basketball taught me something useful. Go team.
My game plan seemed simple and effective: pick off the leader, let the rest fall into the chaos they belonged in, take out the rest with precise, practiced shots- that sounded logical to me.
“Not a chance. Sorry, Reagan, we’ll deal with him. You get the stragglers,” Vaughan commanded from the front seat.
Well, that just didn’t sit right with me. Once upon a time, in suburbia Middle America, I might have let the boys take care of the dirty work and kept my hands clean and perfectly manicured. But this feminist enlightenment had been forged in the Zombie fires and fine-tuned in good old bitterness and depression.
You couldn’t teach someone this level of angry, they learned it the hard way- experience and two-full years of disappointment.
Starting with freaking Quarterback Chris.
“What’s our deal, Reagan?” Hendrix echoed his brother’s order.
I glared at him, unable to stop myself. He wanted me to stay behind him, as in after him, as in let him do my job while I cowered in the corner. Not going to happen.
“Then you better hurry,” I warned and then pulled myself up through the sunroof in a fast, fluid move I was pretty proud of. I didn’t even get tangled in my guns- because that had definitely happened before.
I heard the curses from the boys below, but I was too focused to be bothered by their outrage. Haley scrambled up to join me, and Vaughan and Hendrix were already through their doors.
I let out a steady breath at the same time the Feeders seemed to move as one aggressive component to attack. As soon as my warm, living flesh appeared on top of the huge car, their slavering reached an uncont
rollable point of no return.
Sorry big guy, it looks like some of them do all that non-thinking all by themselves.
I raised my rifle, cradling it against my shoulder and aimed at the beast-man barreling down on us. A few times in the past week, Hendrix and Vaughan had worked with Haley and me on how to shoot this particular weapon. We were plenty adept with the smaller ones, but something as large and powerful as an automatic rifle was an entirely different instrument. And while I had yet to shoot one, the entire process had been explained enough to me that I hoped I got the concept- because this former Prom Queen Runner Up was going to kick some serious Zombie ass.
I closed one eye and narrowed the other so I could see clearly through the sight. I exhaled a quivering breath and then forced my shaking hands to steady. Vaughan and Hendrix had been immediately engaged as soon as they set foot on the pavement and Harrison and Nelson were still trying to scramble out of the car.
Once I had the big guy’s forehead in focus, I squeezed the trigger and prepared for the kickback. I met the impact just like I was supposed to, lifted my gaze, and saw that I’d only taken a chunk out of his head- that filthy SOB. He was still on the way, and moving faster than anyone his size should be capable of moving. So I repeated my actions- bullet to the face.
It took two more gory, well-placed hits before I got my kill shot. He fell to the knees first and then swayed forward onto what was left of his face, just like in the movies, but without the slow motion. I wanted to celebrate, but there were plenty more where he came from and a hurkie off the top of the Hummer seemed a little excessive.
By now, Haley stood next to me on the roof and together we were picking off the outside circle of stragglers. There were about twenty five all together, each in a different state of decay, but all with red eyes and rotten teeth. Their grunts and growls filled the air, along with the disgusting smell.
Bam. Bam. Bam. I fired shot after shot- sometimes missing, sometimes hitting. When my first rifle emptied, I swung the second one I’d strapped around my shoulder and began firing that. Haley did the same thing.
