There was a sickening crack in the air as Wayne's head rocked back and his body went down. He tried to get back up but the Shadow Man hit him again with such force that it was amazing he didn't take his head off. He lifted his thick leg and stomped it down on Wayne's midsection, breaking his ribs.
"Stop it!" Sarah shouted.
Wayne rolled on the ground, holding himself and wheezing. His chest shot up and down, choking to get oxygen into his lungs.
The Shadow Man reached down and pulled him up to his feet with one hand, shoving him into a few soldiers standing by.
"Take him back to base."
Sarah stood there and watched as he turned his back on her and started to leave with all the soldiers and Wayne in their custody. She knew she was outgunned in a hopeless situation, but she couldn't just let them take him away. She bent down and picked up her pistol off the ground, aiming at the back of the colossal figure in front of her. "Stop!" she shouted.
The Shadow Man did stop and he glanced back at her, seeing the gun pointed at his head. But he simply looked over at the base and waved a couple of fingers at something before continuing on with Wayne.
Sarah looked over at what he was gesturing toward, her arms still extended in the air and pointing the gun at him. Her eyes fell on a shape on top of the main building in the base. It was just a small, black blob to her at first before her eyes adjusted and realized what she was looking at.
A soldier lay on the edge of the roof of the main building, aiming a .50-caliber sniper rifle at her.
There was a loud bang in the air. Then the next moment seemed to play in slow motion as she looked over and saw her left arm being removed from her body and flying through the air, leaving small droplets of blood in suspended animation.
At first she didn't feel anything as the shock hit her. She stumbled back, dropping the pistol with her only remaining hand. Her heel tripped over something and then she was tumbling down the ridge. Her body rolled like a wheel as dirt and grass matted into her torn stump and blood gushed out of it. She bounced down along the natural direction of the ridge, eventually settling with a crash into the thick copse of woods away from the base.
"Oh my God! Sarah!" a voice chimed in the distance.
Then the pain set in and it was absolute agony. Sarah looked over in her last weak moment of consciousness at the empty spot where her arm used to be. Then her head hit the ground and she blacked out as Carly stared in horror at her injury and her blood poured over the dirt, seeping deep down and feeding the worms and the bugs.
21
The New Mission
Strange images flitted in front of her eyes. They were on the border of reality and abstract imagination, and she couldn't be sure what she was seeing. Sometimes they looked like faces familiar to her, and sometimes vague forms in front of her became so dark and scary that her heart almost seized up. There were moments of incredible pain and feelings of deep sadness and loss. All of it was unexplainable, like being trapped in a bad dream that she couldn't wake up from. Occasionally there had been long moments that seemed to be formed entirely out of concrete, tangible experiences, with all the sights, sounds, touches, tastes and smells to go along with it. But then the same memories later seemed far away and it became almost impossible to discern whether they had happened at all in the first place.
Sarah's first memory that didn't fade away was opening her eyes and finding herself in the same small room in the church as before. That antique lacquered wood that made everything feel so warm and cozy... but now it was paired with the distinct feeling that she was alone. The room was empty, filled only with a few candles sitting around.
The most horrible memory of all came back to her suddenly, and her head inadvertently turned to look, even though her brain screamed out and told her not to; it was such a horrible, devastating thing, but she knew she had to do it. She looked over at her left side and saw nothing but empty bed where her arm should have been. She tried to move it, and she could feel it move slightly, but that was impossible because it wasn't there at all.
She found herself in a plaid button-up shirt with nothing coming out of the left sleeve, and it seemed to her as some absurd magic trick at first, like someone would pull up a curtain or wave a wand and it would reappear in the next moment. She reached over to feel it with her own hand, to bring the seen-but-not-believed into reality. As her hand patted a clump of shirt, she felt nothing but sharp, burning pain that stretched and pulled. She winced and took her hand away.
Then she became angry. Uncontrollable rage boiled over in her and she lashed out. She knocked things off the table next to her and kicked around her sheets on the bed. She sat up, getting a head rush from being prone for so long, and she tried to stand, but she was far too weak. She fell back down, her back hitting the edge of the bed and sliding down onto the floor with a thump.
The door of the tiny room burst open and Carly came in, a look of horror on her face.
"You can't be doing that!" she said, pulling Sarah up and laying her back in bed.
Sarah began to curse and argue and cry, but Carly knew that she wasn't taking it out on her and that she would be in a bad way for quite a while. Carly left the room and returned a moment later with a cool washcloth, laying it on her forehead and soothing her back to sleep. When Sarah was out like a light, Carly cleaned up the blood on the floor and the bed sheets as best she could from Sarah tearing her stitches. And as she left the room to let Sarah get some more much-needed rest, she looked back and teared up from the sight of her best friend being in so much pain.
Sarah continued this pattern of waking up in utter confusion and lashing out for a while, always ending in fatigue and then falling back asleep. It took a week for her to get her strength up enough to stay awake and hold a conversation. Her blood loss had been extreme in the beginning, and it was a miracle that Carly had been able to save her at all.
Carly walked in the room on a particularly warm and sunny Tuesday afternoon, not that Sarah would have known. She brought a tray of food, setting it down on the bedside table, and she sat down in the chair next to it, picking up the spoon and helping Sarah eat her soup.
It was extremely difficult at first, with Sarah's anger and misery still coming out in full force even as Carly tried her best to help her. It took many days for Sarah to calm down and start to cope with the reality that she wasn't how she used to be and she never would be again.
Her first steps out of bed were momentous to her, because they signified her entire course of direction. She had struggled with an enormous number of challenges in the last year and she had come up against points in time when she wasn't sure she could go on, when the struggle seemed too insurmountable. And time and again she stood on the precipice between struggling against the destruction in the world all around her or committing self-destruction. Every single time she had chosen to go on, and even though this may have been one of her hardest challenges yet, she knew early what her decision would be.
Because plans had begun to formulate in her head, plans that she kept private at first. But as she ran through everything, it was all becoming increasingly clear to her. Her arm was gone, but even despite how monstrous of a challenge it would be to cope with that, Wayne was also gone. Taken captive by the Shadow Man, the man whose identity she was still in the dark about, but apparently someone whom Wayne had known. He had stood by her almost every step of the way on her journey in Raleigh, and she couldn't abandon him. And now he was locked away in that military base, being subjected to untold experiments or torture. Whether she would be able to do anything about it or not, that was unknown. Whether she would be able to do anything in time or not, that was also unknown. What was known to her was that she had to try. She didn't let her failure in protecting Amanda get to her. Not this time.
She felt a great groundswell rise up inside her, and it was allegorical to what was happening around her. She had unwittingly stumbled upon something much bigger than her or Wayne or anyone. From the li
ttle Ron had told her, this mysterious Shadow Man wanted utter destruction. Sarah knew that she was only one person, and her allies were few, but Ron's words echoed in her head: "You're the key to everything." And the words of the killer who had stalked her through the winter were still just as vivid as the day he'd uttered them: "I want what's in you... They wanted me to find you." She didn't know how she was going to do it, but she had to get to the bottom of this.
Sarah sat up on the bed one day and tried to put on a new shirt. She got her arm through it and pulled the other side over her shoulder, then she tried to hook each button through its hole. Her fingers struggled to hold both ends together, and right when she almost got a button through, it would slip out of her grasp and remain undone. She tried again and again, but she just couldn't get it. She hammered her hand down on the table next to her in frustration and cursed loudly, that miserable pain in her heart creeping up again.
Carly came in the room, bringing her some water. "You're up," she said, surprised. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay," Sarah said glumly.
Carly set the water down on the table next to her. "Here, let me help you with that." She reached down for Sarah's shirt, but Sarah swatted her away.
"Don't," she hissed. "I can do it." She attempted to button up her shirt again, but it ended just as futilely as the first time. She started to work herself up, but Carly came in again, this time swatting Sarah's hand away.
"Don't be a bitch," Carly said sternly. "Just let me do it."
Sarah relented and leaned back, propping herself up on her arm.
Carly leaned in and buttoned up her shirt. "There, all better," she said with a smile.
"Thanks..." Sarah replied.
"Look, I know it's hard," Carly said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "But it's just going to have to be something that we adjust to."
"I know," Sarah said, looking over at her missing arm. "It's just that..." She broke down crying, suddenly overwhelmed by the harsh reality of her gruesome and debilitating injury.
"Hey, come here." Carly leaned over and wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her and gently rocking her back and forth. "It's going to be okay."
Sarah calmed down and wiped the tears out of her eyes as Carly let her go from her embrace.
"We'll work through this, okay?" Carly said, scratching an itch under her ear.
Sarah nodded. "Yeah, okay."
"And it'll be fun! I get to wait on you hand and foot every day. I can bring you food, do your nails, read you a story just before bedtime... we'll be like a couple of old hens before you know it. Just don't ask me to give you a sponge bath! I don't want to see you naked!"
"You're a weirdo, you know that?" Sarah said.
"At least I'm not a dildo," Carly retorted.
They both looked at each other with an expression somewhere between jubilance and deep fondness.
"So what do we do going forward?" Carly asked her.
"I think you know," Sarah replied.
Carly nodded. She knew by now that Sarah had a one-track mind, and she also knew that there was no changing it. She had done a lot of soul searching while Sarah was out of it and recovering, and she made the decision that she would stick by her side no matter what.
"We have to get Wayne back," Sarah said.
"Yeah, I know. But you know that means fighting our way in to that base, right? Past all those army guys and that... that guy with the mask."
"I know," Sarah replied. "But we have to get Wayne, no matter what it takes. And we have to stop that man. I don't know how, but we'll find a way."
"Who is he?" Carly asked.
"I have no idea, but him and Wayne seemed to know each other."
Carly looked sheepish all of a sudden.
"What is it?" Sarah asked.
"I never told you this, but you remember when I disappeared from the shop for a little while and you asked me where I was?"
"Yeah..."
"I went out to the woods to bury Wes, but before I finished, I saw him."
"Who?"
Carly gestured in front of her face with her hand like she was putting on a mask. "Him. I didn't even see them, but they came up right behind me. He grabbed me while the others just stood there and watched."
Sarah's eyes narrowed. "What did he do to you?"
"I... I don't know. I don't remember. One moment he was grabbing me by the throat and I thought I was going to die, then I think I blacked out. When I woke up, they were all still standing around and I thought he was going to kill me. But he just told me to run home. That's why I always wanted to leave and get out of the city, why I never wanted to keep getting a bigger and bigger group and get more involved in this."
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Sarah asked.
"I was afraid of him," Carly said. "I don't know why, but I felt like if I just kept it to myself, it would be safer. I know that doesn't make any sense."
Sarah grabbed Carly's wrist. "We're not going to be afraid anymore. We're going to take the fight to them."
"I knew you were gonna say that."
"Are you with me?" Sarah asked.
Carly sighed and then rolled her eyes. "Okay, twist my arm."
"No, Carly. This is serious. Are you with me?"
Carly gazed into her eyes and saw something so strong and comforting that it seemed to melt away all her fears. It was a self-assurance that she didn't have, could never have. "I'm with you."
"Okay," Sarah said, giving her arm a squeeze. "Well I think step one is to leave this damn room." She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. She got a head rush and wobbled on her feet for a few moments until it passed. "What happened with the others after they found out about Curt?"
"Everyone's still here," Carly said. "They were upset, but they didn't really have a leader anymore and they didn't know what to do."
"Well why don't we go sort this out?" Sarah said.
"There's something I should warn you about first."
"What?"
"You know that big angry guy?"
"Doug?"
"Yeah. Well he sort of took over the group. Things haven't been easy around here in the last week. All he does is yell at everyone."
Sarah could already feel herself getting worked up. She strode for the door and headed for the chapel. Carly followed behind her nervously, worried that she was still too weak.
Everyone milled around in the chapel, quietly talking or eating. Sarah looked around at everyone and slowly, one by one, their gazes met hers. They were all stunned to see her not only alive, but up on her feet. She felt their eyes fall on her missing arm, but she didn't let it bother her.
"Listen up," she announced. "I'm going to lead us from now on."
"What?" Doug cried as he came around the corner from the entrance of the church. "What did you say?" He walked up and got right in her face as he usually did, using his immense size to tower over her and intimidate her. "I'm in charge here! And I—"
Sarah hit him in the face. He stumbled back, his eyes enlarging in shock, and she moved forward to close the gap. Before he even knew what was happening, she hit him again and he tripped and fell to the floor. Sarah straddled over his rotund belly and wailed on his face with her fist. She gritted her teeth, taking out all of her aggression on him. His cheekbone cracked and his front teeth were knocked out as his face turned into a bloody mess. His head bounced off the floor with every strike and his eyes began to swim around in his head.
Everyone watched in stunned silence as she wound up and delivered one final blow to his nose, breaking it. He groaned and then passed out, his chest rising and falling in short spurts. Sarah stood up, her fist aching in pain as blood dripped down from her knuckles.
"I'm in charge here," she said to the crowd. "You have the choice to leave right now or to follow me. There's something evil going on out there and we're not going to cower inside and hide from it anymore. We're taking the fight to them from now on. I'm sure you've all heard of who
I'm talking about by now. He's unleashing these zombies on us and he has to be stopped. But he's got an army and they're well-equipped. And that means we have to become an army too—and train hard. If anyone wants out, get out now. If you stay, then you're with me till the end. Whoever stays is going to fight with me and maybe die. But that's the chance we all take. The chance to turn this whole thing around, not to live in fear anymore, but to stop this madness and finally rebuild the world to the way it once was. If that's something that you've only dreamed about until now, then follow me, and together we'll make it a reality."
Something stirred in the crowd. Some of them were afraid and shied away from her message, but most of them were galvanized and threw their full support behind her.
Carly stood at the side of the chapel, watching Sarah with a smile on her face. She decided that she liked this new side of Sarah; it made her feel safe and comfortable, as if Sarah was wrapping her arms around her. She knew the task ahead of them was almost insurmountable, but it was a challenge she felt ready to take.
Her ear itched again and she scratched it. She never paid much attention to it and never noticed that the small cut had turned into scar tissue. A cut that she didn't realize had appeared right after she woke up in the woods with the Shadow Man standing over her.
1
Trapped
The undead horde surrounded her. She peeked her head out from the display she was hiding behind and counted at least three dozen scratchers. They roamed the back of the grocery store, jerking and twisting in fits. Their lips were peeled back into tortured grimaces as their hands were locked into claws, ready to rip her apart. They had spotted Sarah and chased her into the grocery store, trapping her in the back corner near the loading dock. Some of the undead lingered just a few yards away, and she knew that if they got any closer they would smell her.
If she made a break for the door she would probably be able to escape, providing one of the loading doors were open. But Carly was trapped behind the butcher's counter with no way out other than through the front where the dead prowled. Sarah could see her frightened eyes through the glass, barely highlighted in the off-glow of the flashlight she had dropped in the aisle. The scratchers started to get close to the counter, and Sarah knew they were going to cross behind it and see her at any moment.
Zombie Apocalypse Box Set 2 Page 21
