This Shattered Land - 02

by James Cook

  Tom flipped the safety on his rifle. I set the selector on mine to full auto. The ammunition our weapons fired was great against people, undead, and the occasional coyote. Against a bear, however, it was woefully underpowered, and unless we shot it with every round in our magazines it would do little more than piss the thing off. Just as I was making a mental note to swap out my M-6 for a bigger rifle on the next leg of the journey, another cub emerged from the woods with its mother close behind. She noticed us immediately and lowered her head, her ears flattening and a deep, menacing rumble boiling from her chest. Foam dripped from her muzzle as she took a few steps toward us. The little ones behind her sniffed and pawed at the food we left behind. They could have it for all I cared. It was only a day’s worth anyway.

  “Okay, man,” Tom whispered, “Let’s just back-

  The bear let out a huff, then bounded toward us. My heart hammered in my ears, my vision narrowed down to a thin black tunnel, and somewhere far, far away, I heard Tom shout as the staccato crack of gunfire filled my ears. Everything around me slowed to a crawl. The creature’s gait was deceptively clumsy and awkward, masking its incredible speed. It covered nearly half the distance between us in the space of seconds. I vaguely wondered what that light in front of me was before it dawned on me that I was seeing the bear through the red-dot scope on my M-6. I squeezed the trigger, and instinctively leaned forward into the rifle to keep the barrel from rising. Something strange happened to the bear’s face beyond the bright orange muzzle flash. Its snout disintegrated, and red splotches stitched a ragged line up its forehead. The chamber locked open on my weapon as the last shell casing ejected from it. I leapt to my right, barely clearing the massive animal’s path as it roared by bellowing in rage. I rolled when I hit the ground and came up to one knee, trying to keep my hands from shaking as I dug in a pouch for another magazine. It pulled clear and I tried to load it into the rifle, but in my panic, I had forgotten to eject the empty one still loaded in the mag well. I press the release button and ripped it free, then slammed the loaded one home. At the same time that the rifle’s stock made contact with my shoulder, the bear faltered, stumbled, and fell to the ground. It had enough momentum to roll several yards down the hill before tumbling to a stop in the shallow ditch at the edge of the pavement. I stood still for a moment, watching it and listening to my own ragged breathing. The bear thrashed and roared in the tall grass, dark gouts of blood pouring from the ruins of its face.

  I pulled back the charging handle on the M-6 and released it, chambering a round. The bear seemed to be weakening, its bellowing no longer crazed and angered as it was a few moments before. It was the heartbreaking call of an animal dying, and dying in agony. I took a few steps closer and steadied my aim. The animal laid its head on the ground and went still for only a couple of seconds, but it was all I needed. Two quick shots struck behind its ear sending frangible lead into its brain, ending its suffering. It shuddered a few times in death throes before going still. I didn’t move for a long moment, all I could do was take deep breaths while I willed my pulse to slow down.

  “You okay, Eric?”

  I looked over my shoulder and saw Tom walking toward me.

  “Yeah, I think so. You?”

  “Other than shitting my pants and having a heart attack at the same time, I think I’m good.”

  I let out a nervous, shaky laugh. My hands began to tremble as I climbed to the top of the hill and looked around. Our lunch lay in the dirt near our open packs.

  “Where did the cubs go?” I said.

  “Don’t know.” Tom replied.

  We walked a quick circle around the roadside and found barely visible tracks leading into the woods.

  “Must have got spooked by all the noise.” Tom said.

  I sighed. “What do you think their chances are without their mother around?”

  Tom shook his head. “Not good, man. Not good at all.”

  We left our food in the dirt by the side of the road. It was no good now, and neither one of us had much of an appetite anymore. The bear cubs didn’t have enough time to wreak any havoc on our packs, thankfully. It was the only good thing that came out of the situation. The walk to the hostel where we met Gabe and the others was a somber one. We found a few more undead along the way, but those we killed quickly and efficiently. We were no longer in the mood for games.

  Chapter 9

  The Journal of Gabriel Garrett:

  Confidence Course

  I knew the kid was good, but I have to admit that he exceeded my expectations. I looked down for barely a second to make sure the MP5 had a round in the chamber, and heard a dull fleshy thump. When I looked up, one walker was already on the ground with its skull caved in. Brian yanked his axe loose and ran a quick lap around the ghouls’ perimeter. They staggered against one another trying to follow him, tripping over their own feet in the process. One of the walkers wandered out ahead of the rest, and Brian gripped the axe like a baseball bat as he lined up a shot at its knee. He grunted and turned his hip into the swing, nearly severing the lower part of the corpse’s leg. It went down onto the stump of its thigh and toppled over to the side. Rather than finish it off, Brian checked behind him to make sure there was nothing to trip over, and backed up a few steps. The walkers followed him without paying heed to the crippled corpse at their feet.

  One by one, they tripped over it and sprawled to the ground in groaning, struggling heaps. Brian kept backtracking in a wide circle, occasionally darting forward to chop into the back of a ghoul’s head. He struck fast and moved away before the others could reach him. A couple of the walkers gave up on Brian and started wandering in my direction. I let them get within a few yards before dropping them with two quick shots. By the time they hit the ground, Brian had reduced the number of undead down to three. I watched him execute a rolling somersault around behind one of them and bring it to the ground with a quick chop to the ankle. He left it to squirm and performed the same technique on the remaining two. Only when they were all down and unable to get back up did he finally go around and kill them permanently. As he pulled his axe from the skull of the last infected, I let the MP5 dangle from its strap and clapped. A proud grin stretched across my face.

  “That was good work kid. Damn good work.” I said.

  He was sweating and winded, but he beamed back nonetheless. “Thanks.”

  “Well now that you boys are done playing, you can get to work dragging these corpses out of here.”

  I turned around to see Sarah frowning at us. “Oh come on, don’t be like that.” I said. “He did great.”

  Sarah stared hard at me for a moment before shaking her head and heaving a resigned sigh. She walked over to her son and kissed him on the cheek, then tilted his face up with a single delicate finger under his chin.

  “Honey, you don’t need to prove yourself to me, understand? It’s not worth risking your life just to show that you can fight.”

  “I’m not trying to prove anything to you, mom,” Brian said, “I’m proving it to myself.”

  Sarah blinked, and took a half step back. “Brian, you know that we’ll protect you no matter what.”

  “You see, that’s the problem. I don’t want you to have to protect me. I want to know that I can protect myself in case…” He stopped abruptly, and looked down.

  “In case what, sweetie?”

  He turned his face back up toward his mother. “In case something happens to you.”

  Sarah’s expression grew taut, like a string under tension, and then went blank. She reached up a hand to brush a stray lock of hair from Brian’s face.

  “Okay, son. I understand.” She kissed him on the forehead, then leaned back and forced a smile. “Let’s get this mess cleaned up. Eric and your father should be back soon.”

  Brian nodded, and broke a faint smile. The tension between them faded. I was glad to see it, the last thing we needed was a family argument on the first day of the trip. The next hour saw us use a tarp to drag the d
ead bodies to a steep hill and send them tumbling down into a ravine at the bottom. At one point while we worked, I thought I heard the far away staccato rattle of automatic weapons firing. I stood up straight and stared through the forest in the direction of the sound. Brian did the same.

  “You hear that?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I did.” Brian replied. “You think that’s my dad?”

  I was silent for a moment before responding. “It could be. I hope not, but it could be.”

  “You think he’s alright?”

  I almost opened my mouth to say something comforting and false, but stopped myself. “I don’t know. Don’t worry, they’re both tough guys, they can handle themselves.”

  “I know that Gabe, but that gun was firing full auto. They wouldn’t use that many bullets unless something’s wrong. Maybe we should go find them.”

  The kid was right. A black coil of dread began to cinch around my chest, but I shook my head anyway. “We’re too far away to help, son. We have no idea how far away those shots came from, or which direction. We could spend all day wandering around on the road and not find anything.”

  Brian’s face told me that he didn’t like it, but he saw my logic.

  “Come on, let’s finish this up. If they aren’t here in two hours, we’ll go and search for them, okay?”

  Brian nodded, his jaw tight with worry. When we got back, Sarah asked if we heard the gunshots. I nodded, and told her the same thing I had told Brian. She agreed with me, and we spent a tense afternoon sitting around the fire casting anxious glances down the road in the direction Tom and Eric would be coming from. Two hours passed. Then two hours and fifteen minutes. I was actually getting my feet underneath me and taking a breath to suggest that we start searching when Sarah pointed to the crest of a hill in the distance.

  “I think that’s them.” She said, standing up.

  I picked up my binoculars and looked to where she pointed. Sure enough, I saw Eric’s unmistakable blond mop sticking out from underneath his headscarf, and Tom’s dark silhouette walking along beside him. I let out a relieved breath that I hadn’t realized I was holding.

  “Yeah that’s them.”

  “Can I see?” Brian said.

  “Sure, here you go.” He took the binoculars and looked toward the hill.

  “Thank God.” He said.

  “Told you so.” I reached down and ruffled the kid’s hair. “Come on, let’s get cooking. They’re probably going to be hungry when they get here.”

  Sarah broke out the cast iron skillet and started mixing up some flatbread while I put the pot over the fire to heat water for a stew. Brian found a large can of new potatoes in the hostel’s kitchen, as well as some crushed tomatoes. I poured them into the pot along with some dried venison, beans, and wild onion, then left them to simmer. It did not take long for the onions and venison to start pouring out aroma. My stomach growled in anticipation.

  About fifteen minutes later, Tom and Eric arrived and wearily dropped their packs in the hostel’s foyer before grabbing chairs and taking seats with us around the fire. I could tell something was wrong by their body language. Especially Eric, he seemed unusually subdued.

  “Something bothering you?” I asked, turning from the stew pot to look at him.

  “Been a hell of a day.” He replied.

  Eric has bright, attentive blue eyes that are constantly absorbing his surroundings, taking things in and cataloguing them. Normally, he exudes an aura of confidence and intelligence. He is the kind of man that doesn’t just stand on a piece of ground, he plants his feet and claims it. It’s one of the reasons we became friends; I respect his grit. Today, however, he seemed strangely distant and cold. Like the gears that normally turn in his head had slowed down to a crawl, grinding and sputtering against one another. Rather than exuding his usual verve and assurance, he seemed haunted and morose. I had seen him like this before, and I knew it took a lot to get him there.

  “Is my mind playing tricks on me in my advancing years, or did I see a Henry repeater tied up to your pack?” I said.

  Eric nodded silently. I waited a few beats for him to say something, but nothing was forthcoming. I let him be for a few minutes. If he wanted to talk about whatever was bothering him, he would get around to it in his own time. I let the stew boil and thicken until it was ready to eat. Brian fetched us some spoons and bowls, and began ladling it out.

  “You’ll never believe what happened to us today.” Tom said as he leaned forward to take his dinner from Brian.

  “What’s that?” Sarah asked. She had been watching the two of them with concern for the last little while.

  “We got attacked by a bear.”

  That one stopped me. Of all the things he could have said, a bear attack was the last one I would have expected.

  “Oh my God,” Sarah said, “are you okay?”

  Tom smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine thanks to this guy. Things didn’t turn out so good for the bear though, poor thing.”

  “Bears don’t usually attack people.” I said. “Did you guys surprise it or something?”

  “It was a mother with cubs.” Eric said, not looking up from the fire.

  We were all silent for a moment. Eric has always had a bit of a soft spot for animals, especially wildlife. Shooting a mother bear and orphaning her cubs is as good as killing the lot of them. No wonder he was acting so maudlin. I don’t personally advocate killing things unnecessarily, but if I have to put a bullet in some furry critter’s head to stay alive, I’m not going to cry in my soup over it.

  “Well, that explains it.” I said.

  Tom gave us the details of what happened. It was a good thing that Eric went full auto on the poor creature, otherwise things might not have turned out so well.

  “Eric, for what it’s worth, you did what you had to do.” I said, after Tom finished his story. “It’s not your fault that the bear came after you. Anyone else would have done the same thing in your place.”

  My friend looked up at me for a moment, and then heaved a sigh.

  “I know, I know. You’re right. It just sucks, you know? If only we had walked a little farther down the road before stopping.”

  “You can’t predict when things like this are going to happen.” I replied. “You remembered your training, you reacted the right way, and you’re alive because of it. Don’t forget that.”

  He nodded. A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed.

  “This stew is really good.” Eric said, finally. “Mind if I get seconds?”

  He held up his bowl. I ladled more food into it and handed it back to him.

  “So what about you guys.” He said. “Run into any trouble today?”

  Brian and I looked at each other and laughed. “Yeah, a little bit. Had to deal with a few walkers.”

  I told him about the horde that followed us, and the fight that ensued. Both Eric and Tom looked at Brian with newfound respect when they heard how he handled himself against the undead. While I talked, a troubled look stole across Eric’s face and he sat back in his chair, the half-eaten bowl of stew forgotten in his lap. It was a couple of minutes before he spoke again.

  “You know, if you guys attracted that many infected this far out into the sticks, what’s going to happen when we leave the high country?” He said. “I mean, the population density in western Tennessee before the Outbreak was higher than around here. There will be a hell of a lot more undead where we’re going.”

  “We’ll be out of gas and on foot by then.” I replied.

  “Right, but what about between now and then? Are we just going to have to fight a horde every single day?”

  “I don’t like it any more than you,” I said, “but we really don’t have much choice.”

  “We might not be able to avoid fighting the undead, but we can control how many people we have available to do it.”

  “Eric, we can only fit two adults and Brian in the MUV. We’ve been over this.”

  “That’s in the
vehicle, Gabe, not behind it.”

  “So what, you going to ride on the cart? Do you realize how incredibly uncomfortable that will be, not to mention how much more fuel it will cost us?”

  Eric gave me a level stare. “Yes. It will suck, but it will get us where we need to be a hell of a lot faster without sacrificing safety in numbers. If today taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t split up anymore. We’ll be a lot better off sticking together.”

  I mulled it over for a moment, and I had to admit that he was right. I’m getting too damn old to fight big swarms of infected by myself, and it bothered me how close Eric had come to being bear food. There were too damned many things that could go wrong at any given time. We stood a better chance of surviving if we stayed together and didn’t divide our resources.

  “Okay, fine. Tomorrow, you drive.” I pointed a finger at Eric. “It’s only fair for me to take the first turn on the trailer, given that I drove today. Brian, you’ll ride in the same spot. Tom, Sarah, you’re just gonna have to fight it out over which one of you is gonna be choking down exhaust fumes with me tomorrow.”

  “Me.” Tom said without hesitation. “I’m not making my wife ride back there. The three of us will take turns driving. Eric, then me, then you. Deal?”

  I nodded approval. “Fair enough.”

  “What if I want to drive?” Sarah said.

  I shrugged. “Fine by me. We’ll add you to the rotation.”

  “But you do not ride on the trailer. Even at the end of the world, a man has to treat his lady right.” Tom said, smiling.

  Sarah laughed and kissed him on the cheek. I looked away. I didn’t want to be jealous of Tom, I had no right to be, but damn if I wasn’t. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eric watching me. His eyes narrowed, and his mouth turned down a little at the corners.

  “Well folks, if everybody is done eating, I’m going to get this mess cleaned up.” I said.

  I carried a few buckets of water up from the creek and used them to wash the dishes. Tom and Eric took advantage of the opportunity to bathe and wash the clothes they had worn on the road. Sarah sat down at a table in the hostel dining room to clean our guns for us. By the time everyone was finished, the sun was low behind the trees atop the surrounding peaks. Night falls quickly in the high country, so after making sure that all our gear was stowed and ready to go on a moment’s notice, I asked Eric if he wanted the first watch. He accepted. Tom volunteered to take second watch. That put me on duty from four in the morning until sunrise. Brian asked if he could join me, but I turned him down. I told him that it was more important for him to rest, but truth be told, I just wanted to be alone. I needed time to think.