Ophelia

by Briana Rain

  My incredibly important thought process was interrupted by someone else puking a couple of yards away. They weren't as fortunate to make it to the grass, like I was.

  “Sorry.” Addeline and I apologized to each other at the same time when she was done. She stopped leaning against the car and instead came over to sit by me.

  The smell of vomit(2) was gross.

  I sat there. Silently. Dizzily.

  “Did you hear what James said?” I asked, not wanting to know the answer immediately after I asked the question. It was an uncomfortable topic. One that was so uncomfortable that I threw up.

  “Yeah.” She answered tiredly, staring straight ahead at the grass and the trees and the glimpses of water beyond that. There was a lot of all of it. The water was shining through the leaves. The grass swayed with a breeze that blew the smell away from us. The strong, green leaves rustling against each other, courtesy of the same breeze.

  “Oh.” I almost just let that answer be the answer and the silence between us be silence. Almost.

  But, of course, because I was me, and I couldn’t let things be, and I just loved to ruin things, I went on talking.

  “Addeline…” Waiting for her to answer would have taken too long. She could have told me to shut up, should I had given her time too. “Why do you—“

  “Swisses! Swisses coming! And a lot of ‘em!”

  Swisses? Swisses? How in the world did you come to that conclusion when deciding to name them?

  Whatever name they had, they were still deadly, and their calls rapidly approached. I scrambled up, hitting my head on the side mirror.

  Fun times.

  I was up before Addeline and saw her struggling. After years of sitting on gym floors for assemblies, I was the master of getting my legs to not fall asleep. It was a subconscious thing, really. A stretch here, a shift there— it was in the little things.

  Her arm was up, trying to balance herself, so, of course, I grabbed it and yanked her to her feet.

  Wow. She was heavy. Either that, or I was just as much, if not more, of a weakling then I thought I was.

  Together, we ran to the Jeep. Harrison helped James sit back so that his legs didn't hang out, and also lifted Viola to her spot above the water bottles. Clyde was pouring gas into the tank and frequently looking over his shoulder as the monsters came around the bend.

  The bend was not very far away.

  I helped Addeline to the passenger seat and Mom ushered Lucky into the back row, then jumped into the driver's seat.

  I suddenly felt glad that I had already peed.

  The only ones left out here were myself and Clyde, who was muttering under his breath for the fuel to hurry up.

  They were fast. And they were loud. And with being fast, came the ability to cover distances very, very quickly. And being loud allowed them to attract others. Others who may be closer. The thing about a hoard, is that because of their loudness and their fastness and their sameness, they attracted others of the same kind. (Kinda like a Horn rally). And then they grew and grew and grew until they were such a force, that all you could do to stay alive was to run and hide.

  There were too many of them to fight.

  So, when I saw one charging out of the trees, significantly closer than the rest of the group, what did I try to do? If you guessed hide in the trunk and pray that Clyde finished in time, then you'd be completely wrong!

  Instead, I looked around frantically for my trusty purple bat, while insanely mumbling the word, “bat” repeatedly. I looked, but it was in vain, as it wasn't leaning against the car, where I had set it. Oh no, it was in the car. How did I know this? Because James called out my name and threw it to me. Not tossed, but threw.

  Like, did he think that I would catch it? Me?

  It would've been cool to catch it, beyond cool, but I didn't. Instead it just hit my hand, jamming, like, three of my fingers, and clattered to the asphalt. I quickly picked it up, ignoring the pain in my fingers and whatever horrifyingly girly cry of pain erupted from my throat, and faced the imminent death head on.

  Like I said, these things were fast. And with being fast, came the ability to cover distances very, very quickly. Like that Crazy that came bursting out of the trees? It was now crashing into the car I was just sick behind, setting off the alarm, and plunging the rest into even more of a frenzy. As if they weren't already terrifying enough.

  I raised my bat, standing alone, as everyone else was already packed up and ready to go, and I had stupidly decided to stay out here. It was coming from a weird angle, and going towards a weird angle. As in: not heading for me at all, and instead about to plow Clyde down.

  This was… unfortunate.

  I swung. But not away from Clyde. No, I swung towards him. It could've gone better… but it also could have been worse. Much, much worse.

  The Crazy was too fast, and I was too unskilled. I couldn't get between the two fast enough, so, instead, I aimed for the back of its head and prayed that it worked.

  I'd been doing a lot of praying lately.

  The bat and skull collided a bit too close to Clyde for his comfort. Then the body sailed right past him and into the side of the Jeep, which left a pretty sizable dent. I heard the snaps of its bones and the crash of Clyde dropping, and spilling, the little gas we had left.

  Oopsies.

  He looked at me, then the approaching horde. I looked at him, then the approaching horde.

  We left the fuel leaking onto the pavement and booked it inside. I slammed the back door with such a force that I stumbled backwards onto James. Mom was speeding away before Clyde had closed his door.

  I quickly got off and away from James, who groaned, while his eyes popped out of their sockets. I think I put my hand on his stitches.

  Oops.

  The vehicle made a sharp left turn, which threw me back and further away from James thing.

  “Are you okay?” Mom asked.

  It was nice that, in the midst of everything, my mother still wanted to know that everyone around her was still in one piece.

  Unfortunately, before anyone could answer, we hit… something. No one said it, but I was, like, seventy percent sure that we went airborne.

  Then we zoomed right past the wall of the infected and out into the open road.

  Mom went… let’s just say she was over the local speed limit, whatever that was. The only sound in the vehicle was breathing and her muttering under her breath about the Impending Doom that chased us, although her name for it involved a lot more swearing than mine.

  Even though, mathematically, we were definitely going faster than them, and therefore should be safe-ish, we still couldn't relax.

  None of us could.

  The Jeep almost flipped over when several Crazies wandered out into the middle of the road, in front of the Jeep. At least, I thought they were Crazies. I hope they were. I couldn’t really see past Harrison and Clyde’s heads and all I heard was monstrous shrieks and multiple swears throughout the cabin from people who could see what was happening.

  James then inappropriately laughed under his breath. A laugh that was as hysterical as I felt inside.

  I feared.

  I decided not to intervene as he laughed and cried and clutched his side. I think he just needed a moment, which was a bit awkward considering that we were sitting so close together, that I could headbutt him if I wanted to, but I let him do his thing.

  “Goddamnit this hurts.”

  He was the definition of hysteria. But, he was just shot. By another person. With a gun.

  The car ran over something else.

  I feared again.

  We weren't far enough away yet. We weren't out of hearing distance of that horde, and even if we were out of hearing distance, that'd still be too close for me.

  So when the Wrangler started making noise, protesting the conditions it was working under, I feared yet again.

  “Slow down.” Clyde leaned forward, and instructed my mom on what to do, which was
odd for me, because she’s Mom, and people didn’t normally tell your mother what to do. I forgot it, though, when the car made another weird noise that I was totally unfamiliar with.

  “We have to stop.” Harrison putt in his two cents.

  “Did you see what was back there?” Mom replied.

  She sounded scared as she stated the obvious, which, even though we were literally being chased by a hoard of zombies, it was still a bit weird to hear. Or two bits. Yeah, it was definitely the latter.

  “Juliet. Juliet, listen.” Clyde leaned forward even more and put his hand on her shoulder. “We have to stop. We have to wait it out. You can pull over and hide in the woods. They'll just keep going. But for the sake of this Jeep and the people in it, we have to stop.”

  The car was protesting even more than Clyde was, but it was Clyde's words that convinced my mother to stop.

  She made a sudden right turn, which pushed a slightly less hysteric James against me, and quickly reversed. The she took the Jeep through a lot of dead, low vegetation before being able to mostly hide in the trees.

  Then she shut the engine off, with a sigh.

  “So… I guess we wait now.”

  She stared out of the windshield as she held the keys. Waiting. Watching. Then waiting some more.

  Then it came.

  The first of the Crazies. From the front line of the wall that we so narrowly avoided. They sprinted past our limited view of the road, faster than any track star that I'd ever heard of. I wondered if Crazies were the fastest right after they were infected, or if it was the kind of thing where the more they aged the faster they got. A new body versus a rotting, starving old one. It was a thought. If it was the first one, then I was glad that the four of us hid in our basement. If it was the latter, and that they could only get stronger and faster from here, psychotically driven to supersonic speeds and superhuman strength…

  I feared.

  Well, that destructive train of thought didn't last too long, thankfully, because the rest started to trickle in. I had to sit up to know what was going on, and not be in the dark like when we ran over that… something. I knelt on one knee so I could see them trickle in, not slow, but chaotically spread out, and none of them going in the same direction. They bumped and hurled themselves into one another. They knocked the slowest and the clumsiest down only to trample over them, and after all of that only half were able to get up again.

  I'd honestly rather have zombies than this hell. Good ol’ fashioned, arms-sticking-out, moaning zombies. The slow kind.

  When I had seen enough, I slowly and quietly sat back down, slowly, so I didn’t move the car or make any amount of noise, even though there was no chance it could be heard over the Chorus of Crazies.

  They just kept coming. There were so many. A stadium’s worth of people who were no longer people. No longer living.

  I wondered how many people were actually in a stadium by the time that jelly stuff reached them. How many different games or concerts or festivals had chaos and mass outbreaks. And even from those mass outbreaks, how many more did these hordes collect? They were like snowballs, the kind you make when you're trying for a snowman with the perfect, wet snow that almost builds itself. The more it traveled, the more it grew.

  “That's a lot of Sticks.” Clyde whispered, his words shaking like a scared chihuahua. It was. There were so many. Just like that horde we saw in Chicago, it just kept—

  Bang!

  The car tilted as one of them hit it with full force. A force that no human was capable of. Lucky screamed. I made a weird sound as I choked on my own breath, my throat suddenly failing on me for a nanosecond. Similar noises from that to gasps sounded throughout the Jeep. I think we were all too scared to actually scream, except for Lucky.

  The Crazy was going to keep on running, but stopped when it heard the scream. I grabbed Viola and ducked. She cried out as quiet as one in pain could, as I happened to grab the arm that was patched up. I felt bad, but it had to be done, because her spot on top of the dwindling water bottle supply was directly in front of one of the back windows.

  It turned, I could see that much out of my window. What I also could see was its face.

  Of course, there was the signature drool string, mixed with blood dripping down his face and off his chin from his gushing what-was-left-of-a-nose. There was not only a nosebleed, but a crooked, sliced open thing underneath the blood. The rest of its face, underneath the blood, was open wounds and bone. Half its skin was gone; eaten away. The skin and flesh still on its face was purple and black, dead and rotting away. It was missing an ear. When it snarled, half its upper lip curled up, as the other half was absent, revealing several missing teeth as well.

  I stayed low, my arm over Vi as much as it could be in this small space. I was glad the windows were tinted, as it stepped closer to our vehicle. Its breath was hot— I could see the steam from it on the glass. The Crazy looked with clouded, bloodied eyes at what it couldn't see, then shrieked, splattering blood-filled salvia over the glass, and ran off to join the others and their dwindling horde.

  We waited. We were all still and silent. I couldn't see Clyde or Harrison's heads, so I assumed they had ducked, like I did with Vi. I think that behind me, even with his delirium and stitches, James was also as low as he could get.

  We waited some more. I watched the trees and their leaves sway and stop, sway and stop, sway and stop as the breeze picked up and died down again and again. We listened, to the shrieks right outside our Jeep and the echoes of them miles away. We were still, cramps and pains and limbs falling asleep all around. We were patient. We had to be, even when we weren't.

  I don't know how long we laid there, curled up in terrified silence, but it was long enough for fatigue to overtake my fear.

  I fell asleep.

  Unfortunately.

  Chapter 27: Faceless

  I was running. At first, I was doing nothing, just minding my own business, laying down, and then I was running. There was no time to grab my bag. Not even half a second for me to grab my bat. I felt bare.

  I bolted to the only form of sanctuary that the empty road offered: the trees. I ran and ran, ran across the field of tall grass, where their unknown dangers remained unknown, and into the trees. I knew that I hit the tree line because I literally hit the first tree in my path. I screamed. Hungry roars and their hot breaths answered. I kept going.

  Where was my mom? My sister? My brother? Where was my damn family?

  There was a scream. I believed it came from me.

  I was still running. Running so fast that the trees didn't even look like trees anymore. They more resembled different shaded brushstrokes on a canvas, than actual branches and bark. Everything was so fast, it was slow. I was slow. Slowing down, even though they were right behind me. So close. And closer than that.

  I felt long fingers with sharp nails grip me. My ankles, my arms, my shoulders, and the back of my neck. I was turned and pushed forward, and landed on my back in the mud and roots. One root in particular had my shoe trapped in it's supernatural clutches. This was it. I was stuck. I was done for.

  I stopped struggling and faced my faceless attacker, the thick trees darkening all in their path.

  The faceless jumped— no— pounced at me. It lunged in slow motion. I knew this was the end. I knew it. My only defense was to throw my hands up to protect my face and scream and—

  Chapter 28: G&G

  I woke up with my breath caught in my throat. I was curled up as compacted as my unconsciousness could get me. My breathing was all over the place. I felt dizzy. My heart pounded..

  We were all here. All okay. Vi was curled up next to me, peacefully sleeping, unlike I had been. James’s elbow was shoved in my face, nearly touching me, which we would've had a problem with, should that had happened. He didn't seem to have any nightmares.

  I sat up, mostly to get away from that elbow, which could blind me with one twitch, but also to uncurl my limbs and muscles that had been so tigh
tly abused.

  Luck and Addeline were silently asleep also, but Harrison, Clyde, and my mom were nowhere to be found.

  In the car, that is.

  Things were quiet. And they were warm. But, what did you expect when you crammed eight people into a small space, as well as supplies and backpacks. Speaking of supplies, I was hungry.

  I spotted the missing trio past the windshield, only a couple of yards away, looking over something balanced on a rock that was about half as tall as I was.

  It was near suffocating in this thing, and it looked like what they were discussing was important, so of course I was going to go help and/or bother them.

  Climbing over a seat was difficult. Climbing over a seat while trying to be silent and not touch anyone was very difficult. Though Vi stirred when I left, Lucky stayed still when my foot stepped near his head. He took up the far and middle seat, gripping Clyde’s blanket that was draped across him.

  I continued moving, afraid that if I stayed, I would disrupt the atmosphere even further and wake someone up. After getting over the seat, I reached back and grabbed my bat, remembering my dream.

  My dreams had been weird lately. They were so damn vivid and I remembered them directly after I woke up. Usually, I just remembered some weird part then forgot about it soon afterwards. Now, I guessed that they had a lot more inspiration than Mrs. Kirks essays and Calculus.

  I found it troubling, to say the least.

  Being the oldest of three siblings, I was a master at opening and closing doors without making a sound— so long as the door itself didn't creak.