A Long Walk

by Traverse Davies

  Once again Naomi was invaluable. Navigating through the woods like she was using a GPS. The going was slow, but by late that afternoon they came in sight of Elmsdale. It was a small town, not many people even when there wasn't a zombie apocalypse going on. Most of the population seemed to be out on the street, shambling around and looking for neighbours to eat.

  "We need to create a distraction," Jasper said, "draw them out of town, get their numbers down enough that we can grab what we need. Even so we will have to be quick about it."

  Naomi said, "You got a plan?"

  "Yeah, I read a book one time where the characters set off a car alarm, pulled all the zombies to the car, gave them time to get what they needed. Figured we'd do something like that. The highway goes right past town, should be some cars on it. There are a lot of commuters there normally, at least a few of them should be in range."

  "Risky. Whoever sets off the alarm gonna have a shitload of zombies chasing them. Also, I just had a real conversation where I said that. This is too fucking weird."

  "Yeah, I think I should do it, I used to run every day, should be able to get away from the car before any zombies get too close."

  It took about two minutes for the plan to start to go wrong. Jasper found a car that was a decent fit, but the alarm wouldn’t trigger. Some checking and he realized it was a dead battery, the keys were in the ignition and the lights were on. He found another one, but the path wasn’t clear to the woods. He hit it anyway and booked as fast as he could as soon as the alarm started. He ran to the rendezvous point, and joined the women. A few zombies seemed to be curious, but after a couple of minutes of the alarm going off they started to drift away, the noise didn't seem to entice them at all.

  Time for a new plan. They found sheltered spot to talk and started trying to come up with one. Jasper had one more idea, but it wasn’t one he liked. "So, I have a thought. Kind of wish I didn't."

  Naomi turned to him. "What is it?"

  "I start running, get them following me. Head out to the highway. There's a spot I can jump off, get to safety that they can't follow me. It's high, but manageable, and there's guard rails, high enough to keep the zombies from following. It's a bit of a risk, but not too bad."

  "Well, that's a shit sandwich."

  "Yeah, but it needs to be done. We need weapons, the store has weapons."

  Mona, as usual, sat back and watched them discuss options. It was rare that she put her two cents in, seemingly content to go with the flow.

  It was getting late, Jasper wanted as much daylight for his plan as possible, so they made camp for the night and went over last minute details. Getting to the store wasn't going to be a problem, there weren't a whole lot of roads in Enfield.

  Morning came early. Jasper popped out of bed as soon as the light hit his eyes. He hadn't slept much. "Well, nothing for it. Guess I'm playing bait now. Have fun ladies, do wait up..."

  "We have this. Don't die." Mona said.

  Jasper made his way into town. He left most of his gear with the women, even his sword. The process of jumping off the highway was going to take all of his skill, and any extra weight meant disaster. He felt vulnerable, almost naked. "Come on mother fuckers, dinners on!" He started yelling, while running through the street. The zombies reached for him, their numbers increasing by the moment.

  After a few blocks he had a large following. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, reaching out for him, trying to grab him. A bunch had started to come together ahead of him, apparently blocking his way. He kicked off one of the walls, and then kicked off another one, gaining about ten feet of air, enough to sail over the heads of the zombies. He landed in a shoulder roll, coming out of it at a full run. The zombies turned and started following him. He had about half the population of Enfield chasing him. He was also out of town. Ahead of him there were a few lone zombies, but the road was wide and he wasn’t really worried about them. He slowed to a casual run and started down the road.

  There were cars, a fair number of them. The road would be impassable to anything larger than a motor bike, but it was fine for a pedestrian. At one point however there was a car that had spun across the road, the hood touching the side wall, the rear in the main line of cars. Jasper was worried about that one, because he was still too close to town to lose the zombies, so he passed through the middle of the cars. A hand grabbed his ankle from under one of the cars, taking him off his feet. He reacted fast, going into a shoulder roll and right back to his feet, but slammed off the side of a minivan. Dazed for a moment he let the lead zombie almost reach him, got it back together and started running again, faster this time, zig zagging back through the cars until he was back on the clear area by the left shoulder of the road.

  Jasper was starting to get winded. He was almost at the spot he had picked out, so he kept going. His lungs burned, and he had a stitch in his right side, not much of one but it was unpleasant. He kept pushing, kept running. Finally, he made it to his spot. It was higher than he thought, and the landing was anything but level. Didn't matter, he was committed. It was either make the jump or get torn to shreds when he got too tired to stay ahead of the horde. He turned and launched himself up and over the wall. The ground below sloped up the further it was from the road, he tried to get as much horizontal distance as he could.

  He got his legs under him, and landed in an awkward uphill roll. He felt a hard smack against his head and a sharp pain in his left arm, then he was back on his feet. He started running back towards town, but his head started to swim, filling with dizziness and nausea, so he slowed to a walk.

  The haul

  Mona and Naomi waited until the zombies thinned out on the street.

  "Let's go. Grab us some guns."

  "Shut. Up."

  "What the fuck? What's your problem bitch? You don't tell me to shut up."

  "You talk too loud. Zombies. Don't wanna get eaten." Mona said, low and fast as always.

  "Alright. You and me gonna have words later though."

  "K. Quiet now."

  They walked the rest of the way in silence, glaring at each other as they went.

  Hnatiuk’s, the hunting store, was a small place right on the main road. The door had a note pinned to it. It read “If you can read this, the door is unlocked, come inside, take what you need. We’re all in this together”.

  They entered the store. There were racks and racks of guns, all still there. Not only that, whoever had unlocked the door had unlocked every display case, storage area, etc. The register was open and full of cash. The ammo had some empty spots, but there were many, many boxes. There were knives, bows, guns, arrowheads, etc. It was exactly what Jasper had promised, with the added bonus of being set up for anyone who wanted to come take what they needed. Naomi felt a burst of hope wash over her, maybe humanity wasn't completely screwed.

  They filled up bags with weapons and ammo, still in silence. Naomi felt almost guilty about stripping the place, but survival won out, so she kept going, grabbing as much as she thought she could carry. Mona had more, a lot more. A bag bulging and overflowing with weaponry, two bows strapped across her chest, two full quivers of arrows.

  "You forget we need to carry camping gear too?" Naomi said "No way we can use that much shit."

  "Better to have guns. Can get food with guns. Bows too. I can shoot."

  "K, whatever. I ain't carrying your shit though."

  "K. Don't care."

  They left the store, Mona staggering under the weight of all her weapons. The bag looked like it was larger than her. Naomi spotted Jasper heading towards them. Somehow Snow had caught up to him and was trailing a pace or two behind. The big dog freaked her out, so quiet, not mean, but not friendly either. He was a shadow. Jasper didn't look so good, there was blood on his shirt, dripping down his side. He was pale, almost green, and he was swaying back and forth as he walked.

  "Fuck. Jasper, you alright? What happened? You get bit?"

  "No, fucked up the jump. Landed bad. I th
ink I hit my head. I'm okay though."

  "Fuck you are. You bleeding like a motherfucker. Let's go. Back to the camp, we gotta check you out."

  Back at camp Jasper started pulling off his shirt, but it was caught on something. Slowly, gingerly, the women helped him pull it away from his side. They found a stick poking through his shirt into his stomach. It wasn't very thick, but it was rough and the wood was still green, dirt and moss caked the bark.

  Mona grabbed the stick and started to pull. Jasper grabbed her hand. “Look, it does need to come out… but if we just pull without thinking about it I might bleed out. We need to clean the wound and be ready to stop the bleeding. Normally it's best to get to a hospital, but they don't seem to be running these days. Have you ever sutured a wound before?”

  “Nope. Never. Will try… you can be my first.”

  "OK. I can talk you through most of it. Shouldn't be too bad. Man, I don't feel so good."

  They used the camp stove to boil some water, sterilized some gauze strips, and set some water aside so they could use it to clean the wound. They also got some extra bandages to wrap the wound. Everything laid out on a newly sterilized cloth. It was pretty rough, they did everything possible to prevent infection, but conditions were what they were.

  Naomi did all the prep, she was precise and methodical, but Mona was going to do the sewing. Naomi didn't feel confident in her ability to close the wound. Much as she hated to admit it, Mona was much, much stronger. None of them had a clue what they were doing. Jasper had some first aid training, but with his head swimming he wasn't much use.

  "Ready?" Mona said, grabbing the stick.

  "No, give me a minute. Okay, no, wait... okay, go."

  Mona pulled, the stick popped out with a spurt of blood. It was longer than they had thought, most of it buried in Jasper’s abdomen. Naomi pressed a cloth to the wound as soon as the stick was clear, putting her weight into it. The blood slowed, pooling in the cloth, while Mona got sterile strips to clean the wound with. She poured rubbing alcohol over the wound, then poured sugar from a bunch of sugar packets into the wound. Time to sew it shut, she grabbed a needle, held it over the flame from the camp stove for a moment, a final step, and started sewing Jasper's flesh shut. It took three stitches, and it was ugly. Naomi poured more alcohol over the wound and packed it with gauze. Finally, she wound gauze around Jasper's stomach, binding it as tight as she dared.

  Jasper managed to stay still for the whole process, then he turned over and puked his guts out.

  Wounded, nearly dead

  The next few days were a write off. Jasper was raving, incoherent. He insisted that they walk, that making it to Charlottetown was important, that they couldn't stop, not even for a day. He could barely stand, and threw up often.

  "You can't walk, idiot." Naomi said "Lie down, let us take care of you."

  "Can't. Gotta make it to Taylor, she needs me."

  "Yeah, we gonna get there. You keep trying to walk you ain't going nowhere. You gonna fall down and die, then Mona and me gotta put a knife through your brain, how that help Taylor?"

  There were a lot more zombies around, wandering the woods. Mostly solo. Naomi got fairly competent at wielding Jasper’s sword, and of course Mona was able to pick up any weapon and wreak mayhem. She seemed to have a talent for killing, possibly one that she picked up well before the end of the world. They didn’t train with the guns because the noise might attract zombies, they did practice with the bows however. Jasper's old arrows were only useful for targets, as the bullet points were no good for killing, too blunt. They were glued to the shafts, so they couldn't even swap those out. Instead they fired them into trees, hills, whatever they could find. Jasper kept urging them to move on whenever he woke up, then he didn't wake up for too long and they got scared. His head was burning up, a high fever. They had some meager medical supplies, nothing for this though. Mona got cold water from a stream, as much as she could carry, and started trying to cool him down. Finally, Naomi had enough and decided to try and find some antibiotics. There was a grocery store near the highway, far from the populated areas of town, or at least as far as one could get in a town this size. The moon was nearly full, night was bright, cloudless and hot, one of those summer nights full of humidity. She grabbed a bow, Jasper's sword, and the pry bar.

  Mona handed her a handgun "Gun. Take it."

  "Makes too much noise, I don't want all the zombies chasing me."

  "So don't shoot. Better have it, not need it."

  "Alright, thanks." Naomi was touched, she would have said until that moment that Mona would be glad if she was eaten. The small woman was hard to read.

  She left Mona with Jasper, keeping his temperature down as much as she could. Sick people made her uncomfortable, always had. Snow was lying next to Jasper, whimpering from time to time and licking his masters’ hand.

  Naomi kept low to the ground and moved quietly. Not all of the zombies had made it back to town, but a lot had, the streets were crawling with the undead. Naomi slipped between a pair of houses and into the grocery store parking lot. The doors on the store were closed and the lot only had three cars in it. This chain always had pharmacies in store. Naomi made it right to the door without attracting any attention, then she pried the doors open. It took all her strength, pushing her body against the bar again and again, and the bar made a horrible screeching sound as she leaned her full weight into it one final time. Shuffling steps echoed from the parking lot, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in fear. She slipped in between the doors and pulled them shut behind her. The lock was broken, but the door shut flush, no handles. She didn't think the zombies would be able to figure out how to pull the doors apart, so she turned her focus to the next set. They were sensor doors, and she managed to pull them open easily.

  The pharmacy was in the middle of the store. It had a gate down over the counter and a locked door. She pushed the bar in under the gate and jammed it up as hard as she could, then slammed it down with all of her weight. Nothing. Again. Again. Finally it broke and the gate popped open. Naomi hopped the counter and moved into the pharmacy area.

  There were rows and rows of bottles. Some had pills, others had powders, liquids, etc. Some had labels, others just had barcodes. Many of the drugs were stored in drawers, again labeled with barcodes. There was a scanner gun, no use without power, but hidden half under the register was a lookup book, giving the codes and the related drug and dose.

  There was also a book of drug interactions, which seemed like it might be useful. They were going to have to figure this out from scratch, Naomi knew next to nothing about prescription pharmaceuticals. She had a sneaking suspicion that Mona might know more about a few of them, mostly the pain killers. She started taking pills, writing down the type based on the book. She took a whole bunch of everything, and hoped. The drugs she did know about weren't there, in fact there was sign saying the pharmacy didn't stock Oxcydodone.

  Naomi also spotted a clothing department. She was being eaten alive by insects, her short shorts and crop top not providing a lot of protection. She picked out some pants, they didn't have anything cute, but ugly and not eaten beat the hell out of cute and covered in insect bites, so she picked out a couple of pairs of cargo pants, some underwear, a few decent shirts, even some socks and a pair of shoes that fit. Not the greatest shoes, but no worse than the ones she was wearing, and being her size made a world of difference. She hit seasonal as well, they had fall stuff in, some bug spray still kicking around on a back shelf though. There were a few other camping related items, nothing big ticket, or high end, she was able to stock up on alcohol canisters for the camp stove and a set of walkie talkies, long range ones, some sort of hunting season special. Mostly it was back to school stuff, lying out for a group of students who would never arrive.

  She made her way into the back area of the store, away from the shelves and into the boxes. The area was lined floor to ceiling with shelving, boxes on most of it. It felt claustrophobi
c, close, dangerous. Naomi drew her sword and started walking to the rear door, or at least where she thought the door was. She heard a noise from behind, a soft sound, so she turned. There was a zombie coming up from behind, a large woman wearing a smock. Naomi struck fast and hard, not wasting any time. The sword bit into the zombies’ skull, and stopped. She didn't have enough force behind the blade, and now it was wedged in the bone. She turned to run, better to lose the sword than her life, but there was another zombie closing in from behind her, leaving her trapped. The woman with the sword in her head was closing, pressing forward.

  Naomi grabbed the sword hilt and pushed, leaning all of her weight into the weapon. The zombie staggered back a tiny bit, then a bit more. It was too slow; the other zombie would be on her long in a moment. She ran to her left, dragging the zombies head around with her, and leaned back, using her weight to try and pull the sword free. It came out suddenly, knocking Naomi off balance. She landed on her back on the cement floor, wind knocked out of her instantly. The large female zombie kept coming, black ichor leaking from her skull. She reached down for Naomi, hand clawlike and outstretched, mouth impossibly wide. Naomi thrust the sword up in desperation, just as the zombie dropped down. The sword slammed into the zombies’ mouth, using the zombies own weight as it fell down. The blade passed through the zombies’ skull, and it kept dropping, no longer animated. Naomi scrambled under the dead bodies weight, trying to get herself free before the other zombie reached her. She couldn't see anything for a moment, her face covered by the dead woman's breasts.

  With a lot of pushing she managed to get her face free, just as the other zombie, this one a teenage boy with shaggy brown hair and dead grey eyes, reached her. It was reaching for her legs, mouth open. No other choice then, she pushed her right hand under the dead woman's bulk, reaching the handgun in her waist band, and pulled it out. The gun caught on the dead woman's smock, so she pulled harder, as hard as she could, every muscle straining. Finally, a tearing sound and the gun pulled free. She pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. Safety. Fuck. She flipped the safety off and fired, hitting the zombie in the shoulder, knocking it slightly off course. A second shot, this time she hit its head, and it dropped. Her ears were ringing from the gunshots; she couldn't hear anything else. "Fuck. I'm deaf. Motherfucker."