A Long Walk

by Traverse Davies

  Darkness fell, but the barricade still burned. Lower now, but hot. So very hot. At some point in the night they heard a cracking sound, and part of the deck under the barricade failed. Chunks of concrete fell, surrounded by glowing steel. This bridge, another marvel of the modern age, spanning twelve kilometres of open ocean, was failing just months after humanity did.

  Cars fell as the pile shifted, sliding off the ends into the ocean. The barricade was thinner, more tenuous now.

  When the fire finally went out it got cold. The rain was still falling, unrelenting. Jasper had been ignoring the wound in his shoulder so far, but it was hurting, burning, on fire with pain. "Naomi. I need you to check my shoulder. I don't know how bad it is."

  The bullet had passed through muscle, but it was bleeding. Naomi bandaged it as best she could with what they had.

  They approached the former barricade. The surface asphalt was burned off in many places, and the concrete was so badly warped from the heat that you could see through to the ocean in many places. As they approached the vehicles they felt the heat still radiating from them. The ground was hot. They used that, found a point where it was warming them up, and waited for the heat to dissipate. That way they slowly made it to the barricade. At one point a piece of decking fell as they stepped near it, so they slowed down even more. They could see the rebar in many of the gaps, set close together. They followed the path of the rebar, using it to help ensure they wouldn’t fall through if some of the deck failed. Finally they climbed over the burnt out shells of the vehicles.

  On the other side the bus had burnt as well. It was no more than a shell of a vehicle. Probably too close to the barricade, which wasn’t much of a barricade anymore, although still a good zombie deterrent with the missing pieces of deck and what amounted to pit traps leading straight into the ocean. The burnt out shell of a bus didn’t offer much in the way of warmth, and they were rapidly freezing to death. It was a few degrees above zero, and the rain was mixed with sleet. The cold was once again their biggest enemy.

  Aftermath

  Robert fled the fire, Mona and his last remaining soldier in tow. There was no way this was going to pass. He was going to find a way to kill Jasper, no matter what. It wouldn’t be now though, there would be a better opportunity. For now, he needed to stay alive, to stay mobile. If your ambush point fails, move to another one, never let your opponent choose the battleground. Jasper had changed the tenor of the conflict with that fire. The far end of the bridge might work… at least he thought so until he got there.

  It was full of zombies. They were laid out three deep. All told he thought there were a couple hundred of them. No way to go back, no supplies left to speak of, nothing to do but try to thin the mass of zombies. He drew his sword, it used to be Jasper's, way better than a machete for the purpose, and climbed on top of the barricade. He started to swing down at the zombies’ heads.

  After an hour his arms failed. He couldn’t swing anymore, so he went to the other side of the barricade and took a break. He repeated this process until there were no zombies on the other side. They were unable to reach him where he was, and he had the reach to hit them. The thing about zombies is they don’t change tactics when the old ones aren’t working.

  After that they made their way over the barricade and found a place to collapse. The small town was empty, no people, no wandering zombies. Robert picked a building with an open door, since that meant the zombies were probably lying dead next to the barricade.

  They rested for the night. Robert half wanted to wait, but there were no supplies here. The place had been ransacked, and his group had almost no water. They needed to find fresh water quickly. All three of them had been throwing up as a result of the toxic smoke the day before. No way of knowing how long Jasper would wait. Robert gave the little anarchistic fuck credit for brains. He was a good tactician, even if he had no sense of discipline.

  There was only one more point where he had a good chance of ambushing Jasper, right outside of Charlottetown. It wasn’t the only way into town, but it was the most likely one.

  They started out into the countryside, looking for farmhouses with obvious wells.

  Into the Tame

  Jasper, Naomi, and Candice hit the barrier on the island side as the first snow began to fall. It was just a few light flurries, but it was cold. The sheer number of bodies dead by the barrier was staggering. It was hundreds, too many to make sense of. All with their heads destroyed.

  They walked into the town, looking for anywhere they could use for warmth. They looked through windows. Many of the houses still housed undead occupants, but they were looking for someplace with an obvious fireplace or wood stove. The couple of zombies inside wouldn’t be a major concern.

  The entire province had a quarter the population of Halifax, and most of the space was taken up by farms. There weren’t very many people.

  They found a place with a large wood pile stacked in the driveway. "Here," Jasper said, trying the knob. It was unlocked. They opened the door cautiously. Nothing came at them. There was an old wood stove in the living room. The place was cold of course, it had been empty for many months, and the condition showed it. The kitchen window was smashed in. The back door was open, although the screen door was closed. The screen door pushed out. Jasper figured the inhabitants probably walked out it and then when it closed behind them couldn’t get back in. Good for him and his group. They could see a fenced yard a few houses away with a pair of zombies trying to get out.

  Nobody felt like talking. They were too shaken, the grief too present, too recent.

  They closed the main door and stoked a fire. After the place started to warm up they did a search, room by room. It was empty. Just a small home, portraits of a number of children, probably enough that they were grandkids. Also photos of an older couple. There were commemorative plates, commemorative spoons, commemorative mugs, hundreds and hundreds of salt and pepper shakers. The furniture was mostly overstuffed and old, and the whole place still, despite being open to the elements, had a lingering smell of stale cigarettes. There were stand ashtrays next to every piece of furniture. Still, the place was warming up quickly.

  They found some plywood in the basement and placed it over the window, cutting out the wind and the snow. There were some tins of food down there, and a case of bottled water. It was the cheap kind, lots and lots of small bottles, but better than nothing.

  They set up a meal around the stove, cooking tinned soup with bottled water. There were saltines to break up in the soup. It tasted like heaven, like the greatest meal ever made. Jasper wanted to plan, to figure out what they were going to do, but he didn’t have the energy or the knowledge. There was also a tin of hot chocolate mix. Something that they had found in most of the homes they had raided. They made hot chocolate with more of the bottled water, then fell asleep on the living room floor in the warmth of the wood stove.

  The next morning they got serious about raiding the community. It was pretty badly stripped. The house they were in was one of the few with any food in it, and then it was just the little bit in the basement, a single medium sized box.

  They did manage to get some water though. Mostly just collected rainfall. There were empty containers, nobody bothered to take those. "A car would speed the hell out of this bitch," Naomi said, "We could make Charlottetown before that motherfucker." Nobody had to ask who she meant.

  They tried every car they could find. Most didn’t have keys, and of the few that did none would start. It had been months that the vehicles had sat idle. Batteries only last so long, and gasoline goes bad.

  They did manage to find a few small things. One SUV had a cache of protein bars in the trunk, one house had a couple of shotguns - small twenty gauge ones, not exactly high on stopping power. Some more bottled water tucked in the back of a convenience store. Everything else edible was gone.

  It was clear this area wasn’t going to be much use to them, so they started on the road to Charlottetown. Naom
i was navigating again. They also used the highway as a signpost, giving them a general route. Traveling in PEI was a tradeoff. The weather was awful, and the wind was extreme, nothing to break the wind as it sped off the ocean. It was costing them time, because the cold was so severe… but it was also easier terrain. Everything was flat, and there was no forest to speak of. They were able to see a great distance most of the time, and were able to spot zombies long before they came close - except when the wind, rain, and occasional snow, got so bad they could barely see at all.

  They traveled for days, and then weeks. In all that time they saw nobody living, until one day they were searching for shelter, it was just hitting twilight, leaving it really close to their limit, and they spotted lights. Real, actual, electric lights. They hurried forward, wind whipping them, punishing them for every step. All of them had managed to find clothing, but it was mostly just layers upon layers. They had passed the point of noticing their stink. Electric light meant humans, meant civilization.

  There was a small building, and behind it a fenced in area. The fenced in area was several hundred metres. It contained ramshackle huts, hastily constructed. The fence also had zombies around it. Lots of them. The zombies were tied to heavy stakes sticking out of the ground, straining against their ropes but too stupid to slip them. The ropes were tied around their waist and neck. The main building appeared to be a restaurant/convenience store. There were zombies on the approach to it as well, but there was a clear channel running through them. Obviously meant to channel people into a small area.

  It was late enough that Jasper decided to chance it. Despite the experience with Robert he still believed that most people would be trying to stick together, to make the species survive. Plus, he was willing to trade protein bars for shelter if need be.

  As they approached the door a young woman stuck her head out of a second story window. She had a rifle in her hands, just a bolt action twenty-two, but not something Jasper wanted pointed his way. “Stop. Lay down any weapons you have. We don’t want to hurt you, but we have to make sure you can’t hurt us.”

  They did as the woman commanded, laying down gear and guns. Jasper even took out the spare knife he had in his boot. A couple of men came out and frisked them. The men looked rough. Lean and dangerous, long beards over dirty faces. They searched the group and then beckoned them to follow.

  Inside the place was lit. They could hear a humming sound that was clearly a generator. It was a restaurant, and there were people at the tables. They were eating, drinking coffee, talking. There were even a few waitresses, dressed in blue dresses with aprons, running around taking orders and topping up cups. The entire scene was surreal, like running into a live Dali painting. The men beckoned Jasper and his crew to the convenience store side. Inside it was very different. The place had been emptied of shelving, and there was a large table with chairs around it. An older man and woman were there. Both were large and looked extremely strong. Hard working farm types. “I’m Beth. This is my place. This is Conrad”.

  "I'm Jasper, these two are Naomi and Candice. Pleased to meet you.”

  "You folks look pretty rough," Beth asked "You had a hard time of it I take it?"

  Jasper told her about his journey, from start to finish. He didn't want to leave out any details, there were potential consequences for Beth and her people from things he had done, and he wanted to make sure they were prepared. There were too few people left to let his pride endanger any of them.

  "Well shit, we had some issues, but I guess we had it pretty easy compared to you folks. I used to live right near here, Conrad was in the area too. I mean we lost people, of course, but I think I had to travel all of ten klicks. I came here to raid the place, couple days after the zombies showed up. Found out it had a working genny, lots of spare gas. Hell, the freezer was still working, full of food. Set up shop right away. Conrad came by couple days later. He built most of the compound out back. We were friends before, so I trusted him right off."

  "Wow, sounds like you guys hit a bit of luck."

  "Damn right. Once I found the owner I knew the place was mine. He was up in the apartment above the restaurant, trying his darndest to eat my brains. Never did like the old lech. Used to hit on the waitresses something fierce. Anyway, as we were setting up a couple boys came up and tried to take over. Conrad took a bullet, but he bashed both their brains in with a hammer. After I got him patched up we started collecting the zombies, made a good deterrent to folks who wanted to sneak up on us. We're still open to newcomers though. We got plenty of food, this area's all farms, enough food that we got ourselves set for the winter and had to leave most of it on the ground. Tried our best to save the livestock too, but had to butcher more of it than we wanted. We let the ones we couldn't use or care for go. Careful, lots of wild cows roaming around this winter..."

  "You seem to have picked up a few extras."

  "Yeah, lots of em' I figure everyone with a pulse in a hundred klicks stopped in here at some point. Not your Robert fellow though, I'm glad of that. We like newcomers, folks who can do different things. Anyone who stays more n' a day or two we expect to pitch in, build themselves a place, help keep up the community. New faces though, it's enough that you bring news with you, or even just stories we ain't heard bout a hundred times already."

  "Do you have any idea what Charlottetown is like?"

  "Yeah, had a few come through from there a few days ago. Couple little spots with people still in them. At least three I know of, could be more. The University has some folks, another bunch set up in Victoria Park, took advantage of the terrain. Another group in an apartment building. I think it was Spring St., someplace around there."

  "My daughter and her mom were around there."

  "Well, that's some good news at least. Seems like people turning in the night might be a bit less likely if your family didn't turn. Maybe you not turning means your daughter didn't too. Course we don't know for sure, just stories. Anyway, stay for dinner, the food is simple, and we ain't got a lot of spices, but it’s good stuff. All local grown, we ate all the stuff from the grocery stores months ago."

  There was a small menu, a choice of chicken, pork, beef, or fish. Jasper had the roast beef, something he had never expected to eat again. The food was amazing. Jasper wasn’t sure if it would have been the best meal ever had he not been so hungry for so long, but it stood a chance at it. The beef was slow cooked and smothered in gravy. There were mashed potatoes with it, drenched in butter. The vegetables were also simple fare, peas, carrots, a bit of corn. It didn’t matter, it was all delicious.

  They started to get a rundown on the situation on the island. There were a number of settlements. Like Jasper had guessed, the island had come through the zombies better than Nova Scotia by a huge margin. In Nova Scotia they had run into exactly two other groups, only one of which had a base of operations. PEI had a number of advantages. The low population density and large farming population meant that people lived far apart and tended to have guns. Also, with that much of the land used for farming food security was pretty much guaranteed for the winter. Next year might be more of a challenge, but it was close to harvest when things fell apart, so most of the active work involved with growing was done. The people left just needed to grab and store as much as they could. Generators were common.

  Apparently the bridge defence had gone badly though. The defenders set up the barricades, and then got overwhelmed at the Borden-Carleton barricade when a large horde hit them in mid-September. The sentries on the bridge rushed to the rescue, and mostly got killed. It was bad planning and bad luck.

  Jasper had hope. Despite the delay in getting there, there was chance that Taylor was still okay. The fact that Charlottetown had surviving communities, one close to her home, cemented that in his head. He was frantic to get going.

  They were shown a small guest shack they could stay in. It was crudely built and drafty, but it had a makeshift wood stove, and a couple of cots. They also had a bit of candl
e their hosts had provided them. The electricity was reserved for the main building, although they had strung lights around the fence, to use if they were attacked. They were kept dark the rest of the time.

  "Okay," Jasper said, "This is good news. There's a chance, a real chance, that Taylor isn't dead. More than I could have hoped for when I started out."

  Naomi sat down on the cot. "Damn. I happy for you, surprised though. Didn't think it was really possible. Man. I think we stay here couple days though. Get our strength up, take no chances."

  "Yeah, absolutely. We have managed to get lucky way too many times so far. It's hard though, we're so close now."

  "I know, but that don't mean we shouldn't wait. If homegirl is aight she gon' still be aight if we wait a minute."

  "I know; I know you're right. It's just hard, how do I make myself wait?"

  Candice cleared her throat, "Look, um, I love you guys. Really. People say I'd die for you all the time, but I would... you know I would. Here's the thing: I don't know if I can keep going."

  "You mean stay here, join the community?"

  "Yeah, it might turn out Beth is another snake like Robert, but I don't think so. I think she's a good person. I'm tired. I don't want to abandon you, leave you in the lurch, but I'm so fucking tired."

  "Look, you don't owe me anything. In fact at this point I owe you, my life at least, and probably the next few lives as well. After what happened with Sasha, Matt, Jordan, even Snow, I don't know how many more people dying on my quest I can deal with. Stay, make a life here. We will find a place in Charlottetown, somewhere with decent people. We'll be in touch, a few months down the line at least we'll know there's other communities out there to trade with."

  Naomi gave Candice a hug. "Me, I got Jasper's back girl. Don't even worry bout it. We good aight?"