An uneasy silence fell over the two men, as they both understood that sooner or later they would have to take care of Knight, much like they had taken care of so many friends before. It was something that didn’t have to be said, each person knew it in their mind; infected people were just another infected people, there was no saving them.
Muller broke the stillness, “Well, I guess I’ll leave you to your watch. Did we find any food worth heating up?”
Kenji took the rifle Muller was using, “No, nothing worth heating up, most of the food was rotten. So, it was mostly snack food we found.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me of that smell in the cafeteria,” Muller said scrunching his nose.
With that as the last thing said, Muller went back downstairs, finding a beautiful plush chair behind an officer’s desk, he decided to sleep in it. Kenji had also kept the night vision goggles but found he would much rather rely on his natural eye than with technology’s help. Kenji had found that he was able to use his natural night vision quite well on several occasions. Using his new-found skill, he could make out two infected wandering in the street heading towards the housing section of the base.
He knew that they would want to avoid that section of the base if they could. Kenji watched them wander about some more before refocusing on the central gate area. Nothing moved through that area which was a good sign. After a bit he turned his curiosity to the airfield; across the expansive airstrip, he could see a few refueling trucks and the hangars but nothing else. He watched that area before repeating his watch of the other two sections.
He had a feeling that this was going to be a long four hours but stretched to make sure his body was awake and active. Kenji settled in for his watch, leaning his body against the roof’s lip, the two infected wandering in the street his only company.
✽ ✽ ✽
Carter had ridden the bike he had found leaving the city to the edge of town, or what remained of the town. He knew he was close to the base, knowing it was on the other side of the town. It seemed that a fire had spread throughout the town, taking everything it could in its path. Only older stone buildings stood, all the insides charred away leaving the skeleton of the building.
Night had come, and he could see the fire still blazing in the western half of the town. Carter couldn’t see much at all with most of the smoke still hovering about the town, even with night vision he wouldn’t be able to see an infected until it was too late. Carter decided that he would wait until the next day to leave so he backtracked to the closest farmhouse he could find, which was a one-story house towards the western side of town.
The house still had all its doors and windows intact, which were a good sign. He knocked on the front door making sure it wouldn’t be mistaken for an infected trying to get in. After repeating the knock, several times and no one answered, he decided to find a way inside; the front door was locked, as well as the back door too. None of the windows were left unlatched, which meant he would have to break a window to get into the house.
He wrapped his hand and found a small window at the back of the house, punching it with his wrapped fist. He reached through the window, being mindful of the glass shards and unlatched the window and shoved the window open. He pushed his pack through first, knowing he wouldn’t fit through with it still on. After Carter climbed through, he found he was in the bathroom of the house, and the door was closed.
He put his ear against the door and heard nothing, so he stepped out of the bathroom. He turned on his flashlight and searched the house room by room. Nothing was out of place; it seemed that whoever lived in the house had been long gone, judging by the layer of dust on everything. Carter moved a chair against the bathroom door and settled down on a bed. He made himself an MRE, forcing down the food, and laid down for a bit; the softness of the bed was a delight on his back.
Carter lay there for several minutes before dozing off. Dreams of being at home with his family, his mom and dad welcoming him home to a full course dinner. The fireplace in the family room roaring with warmth, keeping the cold outside at bay. Their golden retriever curled up next to the fire. Everything was blissful, and the food tasted amazing, his parents talked about how good life was.
The talking started to sound more like shouting, but his parents were still smiling at him. Soon his parents began to shout at each other in Japanese, which neither one of them knew; he was beginning to feel very confused. Like he was lifted from a floating cloud he snapped back to reality, where the talking his parents had been doing became a reality as well. Raised voices outside, one male and one female voice, speaking Japanese.
Carter’s eyes were wide open now, alert, and ready to defend himself. The voices sounded distant, and not at the door as he had expected. He chanced to look through the window, pushing back the curtains that blocked his view. He couldn’t make much out, but he could hear the two people shouting at each other. They both sounded very distressed about something.
He moved his head to look down the street and saw what they were running from; a horde of over one hundred infected. The man was holding the woman back, urging her forward, but she was intent on heading back towards the horde. Amongst the horde Carter could see why the woman was wanted to go back; a few infected were kneeling around something, tearing into it. Carter could only assume it was a person.
The man grabbed the woman by the waist and yanked her towards the house. Carter froze with indecision; should he help them or duck out the back and get as far away from the horde as he could. Carter had decided that once he had drawn the infected to them back at the warehouse, and Smith got infected that he should try to help as many people as he could. Decided that he should help them, he ran to the door and unlocked it.
Carter opened the door, and the man stopped momentarily not expecting to see someone open the door. Carter waved them in, and the jogged up the drive to the house, the horde of infected still at the street. They both ran past Carter, where the woman collapsed on the floor crying, and the man shoved the door closed. The man started to talk to Carter, speaking Japanese still.
Carter cut him off, “I don’t speak Japanese.”
The man stopped but then shrugged, not understanding English. He looked around and shoved a table against the door and began looking around again. Carter now realized what the man was trying to say; that they needed to block up the doors and windows. He left the man in the living room with the woman as he went to the bedrooms, where he moved the mattress in front of the window. He could hear the man move more furniture in the other room and the woman was still crying.
He tried to get their attention, "Hey we need to get out of here, this place is a death trap."
The man stopped moving a chair he had and shrugged again. Carter sighed getting frustrated at their language barrier. He pointed at himself and then the man, and lastly the woman, then pointed towards the back door. The man looked at Carter then at the back door as if questioning Carter's decision. The man nodded at Carter and dropping the chair grabbed the woman instead.
As the man picked up the woman, the infected had reached the front door and began to beat against the door. They all stopped, even the woman had stopped crying; each one of them felt the flight mode of their brain take over. They moved to the back of the house waiting at the door; Carter rested his hand on the handle, his other hand gripping his knife. He yanked the door open and moved through quickly, not wanting to get caught by an infected.
Luckily none had made it around to the back of the house, and they followed a dirt path leading to a barn. They moved to the side of the barn the distance still not far enough for them to stop. Leaving the cover of the barn, they ran through the open field beyond the barn; Carter slowed down to make sure the man and the woman were still behind him. The man still was holding the woman who moved but forcefully as her body reacted to the fear, but her mind was catatonic. They kept running, Carter leading them through the dark.
✽ ✽ ✽
Kenji yawned as o
nly one hour had passed and he had run out of things to watch and things to interest him. He snacked on some of the food he had brought from the base back in the city. He had never had American food before and found what he had tried was very odd to him. Knowing that he could not try all of it he had settled on one labeled chili, attached, as sides were mashed potatoes and corn.
The chili was spicy but not hot while the mashed potatoes were soft and mushy; he only took one bit of the corn before deciding not to eat the rest of it. It was dehydrated, so it was still slightly crunchy. He tried to fill his mind with thoughts of his video games and TV, things from a now bygone day. He remembered how carefree sitting at home playing his favorite game seemed, pure delight as he defeated an enemy; now Kenji lived the life of his video game characters, wielding a katana, decapitating Yokai as he fought to live.
He continued to daydream, and the night crept on, it was disturbing how quiet the world was after everyone was gone. Sometimes it bothered him, and he strained his mind to remember his favorite songs, remember funny jokes he saw on the internet. Anything to keep his mind busy, and away from the dull reality; it was boring just waiting around to survive.
Eventually, he turned his interest to the night sky, which since the pollution of the cities had stopped, the night sky had begun to allow the night sky to show its real beauty. It was a gorgeous sight to see, and he wondered why society had let pollution ruin such a majestic scene. Kenji started to draw shapes in the stars, playing mental connect the dot. It held his attention for a while longer, but like so many times before he was interrupted by the plague at hand.
A noise had crept into his game, turning his view back for the stars to the terrestrial one in front of him. The sound was all too familiar to him, and he wondered if he was ever going to get it out. It started to slow like a single drum beating its awkward beat; then slowly, more and more drums added their rhythm until nothing but the sound of several drums beating out of unison drowned everything out. It was the beat of the walking locusts that inhabited the earth as its newest predators; Yokai.
Kenji poked his head above the lip of the roof, carefully putting the rifle into place and now using the night vision goggles provided by Muller, forsaking his natural night vision. He scanned the darkened base seeing no movement by the hangars and airstrip, and nothing at the gate and street beyond. He felt his stomach dropped as he finally located the source of the infected march; near the base residential area, a vast horde of long-dead soldiers wearing the protective gear that had not saved them wandered about the area.
The Yokai still guarded the base, although now they hunted for intruders and showed them why they shouldn’t trespass. The number grew and grew until Kenji finally realized that there were civilians that were trapped here as well feeding the giant horde before him. The horde seemed extremely interested in the area they were in and made no notions that they were going to head towards the building where Kenji sat. He could feel his palms start to sweat nonetheless at the massive horde nearby him.
Their footsteps drug on concrete, bouncing off the houses around them, the sound reverberating throughout the base. Death’s march is what Kenji had named the sound; it was a sound that could break anyone’s spirit. Kenji grabbed the rifle and sprinted across the roof tripping over his own feet, but quickly regaining his balance. He threw open the door, it slowly squeaked close, as he ran down the stairs.
He reached the second floor and quickly opened the door, heading straight for the officer’s office that he had seen the rest of them in before. The door the room was left open; Muller came walking out of the room, and Ramirez opened the door to the room across the hall.
Ramirez beat Muller to the question they both wanted to ask, “What is going on? We could hear you running on the roof from down here.”
Kenji stopped, and heaved over for a second catching his breath, “There is a large horde, I mean huge, it’s roaming around the residential area right now.”
“Is it heading this way?!” asked Muller concerned.
“No,” replied Kenji in between breaths, “It looks like they are still just roaming around over there. But it’s going to change our plan if we have to fly out of here.”
“Shit. Alright let me grab another pair of night vision, and I will head up there,” Muller said solemnly.
✽ ✽ ✽
The grass was long, almost as tall as he was, and each blade that poked his body gave him a weird tingling feeling, it made his overloaded senses to explode with soreness. Carter had stopped jogging and was leaning on his legs to catch his breath. The man and the woman were a bit behind him, struggling to keep up. He looked around at his surroundings but only saw grass swaying in the night breeze.
He couldn't tell where they were, or which way would take them out of the field. As the man and woman caught up to him, the loud crashing noise of the grass stopped. All three of them were heavily breathing, hearts pounding. The man started to talk to Carter in Japanese, motioning that they needed to keep moving.
"Hey, keep it-" Carter was cut off by the snapping of several blades of grass, "-down."
Carter froze, he held his breath, and his head swiveled; he could not make anything out in the dark even with his night vision goggles. The man and the woman did the same, all of them trying to figure out which direction the sound. Then at that moment, a single moan rang throughout the field, long and deep. It was followed by a chorus of moans ringing out from all directions and the snapping of the grass followed the three of them into their very souls, shaking what little hope and courage they had left.
"Shit. Come on!" Carter grabbed the man's arm leading them through the field. Carter didn't waste any time getting on the move again. Who knew how many infected were in the grass looking for them; he didn’t intend to find out.
The feeling of the long grass poking at them as they ran through it felt like the hands of infected reaching out to stop them. Every muscle in Carter’s body focused on moving forward, making sure not to stop. As he led the man, who was leading the woman, through the field, the woman tripped. She landed face first on the ground, crying out in pain and shock. The man stopped to go back to the woman to help her up, which almost caused Carter to trip as well.
The man ran back to where the woman lay, reaching down to pick her up. The snapping and crashing of the tall grass were even louder than before. Carter opened his mouth to urge them on, but before words could leave it, an infected materialized out of the grass, grabbing the man. The infected bit deep into the man’s bicep taking a chunk clean off his arm, splattering fresh blood on the woman and himself; the woman let out a blood-curdling scream. Before he had time to try and help the man he was cut off by infected.
It seemed that fate had decided that it the borrowed time the man and woman were living off of, was at an end. The man shoved off the infected that had bitten him, but another was already on him. The woman was still screaming in shock, in fear of seeing the man under attack, and was crawling backward away from the infected and the man. However, she did not notice the infected coming through the grass behind her.
“Hey! Behind you!” Carter pointed, but it was too late the infected had reached the woman. He could see the blood and gore torn from the woman’s insides. Finally, she stopped screaming, as had the man, and Carter knew that they were both doomed, so he left them and ran. He put as much distance between them and himself as he could, running through the grass.
✽ ✽ ✽
“Yep looks like we could have a possible shitstorm,” Muller said to Kenji and Ramirez, who joined them on the roof.
“How many do you think there are?” asked Ramirez.
“I would guess about two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty,” replied Muller.
“Looks like someone will have to be on watch at all times,” Ramirez sighed, “Even more so when we are looking for what we need tomorrow.”
“We can worry about that in the morning, for now, let’s just get some much-needed sleep,” said Ke
nji, yawning.
Muller patted Kenji on the shoulder, “I’ll take the next shift, and you go join the others.”
Kenji slumped off across the roof; Ramirez followed him back downstairs; Muller leaned up against the wall, his eyes did not move from the base housing and the enormous horde of infected.
✽ ✽ ✽
He pumped his arms, made sure to bend his legs properly; it was the last thing he wanted was to have a cramp or be short of breath. The infected were close behind him, and he tried to make sure that he was heading in the right direction. The ground was starting to get softer, which was making it harder to keep his footing. Carter focused on making sure that he didn’t make the same shortcomings as the man and woman that now hunted him in the field.
An infected moved out of the grass on his right, in his path, so he moved to the left. The infected lunged at him and managed to grasp his sleeve for a moment stopping his forward momentum just enough for him to lose his footing. He stumbled forward but regained his balance. The infected was on the ground clawing at the air trying to grab him, but that didn’t stop him from running on.
What did stop Carter was an infected, that he had failed to spot, that had also found him and was heading towards him. They both ran right into each other sending them both sprawling. Carter landed hard and felt a white-hot searing pain in his abdomen; he didn't even remember pulling his knife out, but at some point, he had, and now it was plunged into him. He stood up fighting the pain of having a blade deep inside him and the breath inside him forced out when the blade pierced him.
He stood up and ran, the pain screaming at him to pull the blade out, however, he knew that he could not with infected right behind him. He pushed the pain into the back of his mind and ran forward through the grass, a minute stretched into infinity as everything looked the same. Eventually, he burst through the grass and onto the solid pavement of a road, where an abandoned car seat driver door ajar. Carter climbed into the safety of the car and closed the door, sitting in the semi-silence.
What Remains (Book 1): The Outbreak Page 32
