A Long Walk

by Traverse Davies

  He made it to the gate without getting noticed. Then he set the explosives on either side of the gate, enough that it would fall, and would get some attention. Mona and Trevor were waiting back in the house, as they should be. They were weak. Would only hold him back for something like this.

  The fuses on his explosives were short, a minute or so at most. He lit them and moved back. A zombie grabbed him from behind, drawn to his movement. He flipped the creature, a classic judo throw, and slammed a knife into its brain. He lay prone as the spark hit the end of the fuse. The delay was only a second or so, and then the explosives blew. There was a brief bright flash, and a muted sound. The shockwave rolled over him, a feeling of pressure, there and then gone. He popped up and ran, straight through where the gate used to be.

  The rear door was mostly glass. It was closed, and locked, but it was still just glass. Robert fired two shots into it, then smashed it with the butt of his gun. The glass shattered and collapsed. The dirty anarchists were now open to the zombies. That weak point had proved to be one they couldn't afford.

  By now people were coming, running down the stair towards him. He ducked back into the night, slipping the crowd of zombies who were coming in. There were hundreds of them, more every minute. He slipped along the wall of the building and found himself a narrow alcove to hide in. It wasn’t much protection, but it was enough. By maintaining strict discipline and not moving or making a noise he would blend into the wall, the zombies would never see him.

  As the defenders streamed down and out, firing on the zombies as they went, Robert scanned their faces… looking for Jasper or Naomi. After a few minutes he saw the devil, swinging a machete he had acquired somewhere. No need to look for the whore, she could be dealt with after. It was clear the weapon didn’t have the versatility and capability of the sword he used to carry, but it was a sharp piece of steel and Jasper seemed to be content with it. Behind him was a woman Robert didn’t recognize. Pretty in an intense kind of way, she looked softer and better fed than he was used to these days. Clearly this woman hadn’t been through the same kind of things that he had.

  Then Robert spotted the girl. Small and slight, she looked like she was in her early teens. Yet more proof that Jasper was the devil. His child was still alive, while both of Robert’s had turned right away. Not that Robert really cared, but it would have been nice to have someone to carry on his legacy. Certainly his genes were much more valuable than Jasper's.

  He waited, looking for an opportunity. The defenders were being overrun, the sheer weight of zombies too much for their limited weapons and training. A bunch of them weren’t even fighting. Instead they were clustered around a dumpster, trying to push it or something. Fucking idiots, don’t they know you deal with the immediate threat then worry about other things?

  Finally, Jasper was in a clear spot. Robert ran out of his alcove, slamming Jasper with his shoulder, screaming, a wordless cry of rage, as he raised Jasper’s sword above his head to bring down on the demon.

  Jasper spun on the ground, rolling with the fall and turning as he came up, moving to one side. The heavy blade bit into the concrete. Jasper kicked out with his right leg, catching Robert just above the left wrist. Robert let the sword go, dropping into a low stance as it fell.

  What She Saw in the Night

  Naomi ran outside, close behind Jasper. She got separated from him in seconds, turned around and isolated. She was in the open, surrounded by zombies, no cover close at hand. She charged, head down. She thought she was running for the building, but wasn't sure. It was loud, gunfire going off on all sides, zombies moaning, impeding her vision. Hands grabbed her, trying to bear her to the ground. She lashed out with her machete, catching dead flesh, one of the arms that was grabbing her came away from its body, fell to the ground. It gave her enough momentum to hit the accelerator inside her, she slammed into a wall, hard. At least she could keep her back to it now.

  Naomi turned, pushing hands off of her. She had on light armour, skateboard pads and paintball gear, but it was enough to have kept her alive so far. She swung the machete over and over again, the weight of zombies never seeming to get smaller, until suddenly it did. She found herself in the middle of a calm moment, the eye of the storm so to speak. Where she was there was a slight rise in the ground. She could see most of the battle, clusters of violence swirling around her.

  Taylor swung into view, swinging a stick, one end sharpened into a vicious point. Taylor was using her small size and agility to weave back and forth between the zombies. Naomi saw her whirling the stick around, slamming into one zombie after another. They fell, lifeless and limp, but more kept coming. Naomi called out "Taylor, over here!" but the girl didn't hear her.

  More and more zombies were piling on to Taylor, cutting her off from the rest of the defenders. One of them grabbed her arm, trying to bite through the armour there. She pushed it off, darted through their legs on the ground and dove into one of the dumpsters lining the lot. She was closer to other defenders now; they were pushing the two dumpsters across the open gate. Her leap moved it the final inches into place, then the lid dropped on her, taking her from Naomi's view.

  Naomi could see Karen now too. Karen had a length of re-bar in her hands, and was fighting like a demon. More zombies closed on Naomi, she had to fight again herself, her arms starting to fail, to lose strength. If not for the slight armour she would have fallen some time ago.

  She drew her arm back and dropped the heavy blade on the skull of a young woman, probably her age when she turned. A pretty redhead, dressed like Ann of Green Gables. The woman fell, and Naomi had another brief gap. She saw a woman, almost a zombie herself, slipping into the compound. Fuck, it was Mona!

  Mona was lost to sight instantly, walking between zombies. They didn't seem to even notice her, like she was one of them, but she wasn't moving like them, striding tall and purposeful.

  Back to Karen. Karen had her back against another defender, one of the large men with the beards. They were laying out zombies all around them, dozens on the ground. The man slipped, Naomi couldn't see on what, and hit the ground. Zombies piled on him, tearing him to pieces. Naomi felt so helpless, stuck against the wall, no way to make it to Karen. More zombies were coming at her anyway, Karen would have to fend for herself.

  When Naomi got her next brief window she saw that the gap in the fence was closed, the flood of zombies stemmed. The two dumpsters weren't enough to close it completely, but they were close enough that the zombies had to try and make it in single file, squeezing through a too narrow gap. A couple of defenders were slamming knives into their skulls as they passed the gap. It was going to be tight, but they stood a chance now.

  Naomi scanned for Karen, trying to spot her in the confusion. Finally she saw her, still fighting, still swinging her piece of re-bar. She wasn't even raising it over her head anymore, slamming zombies in the chest, then pushing the re-bar through their skulls once they fell down, leaning her weight into the bar, it looked like she didn't have the strength left to lift the bar.

  Finally one of the zombies grabbed her from behind. Naomi watched her spin, trying to make it around to hit the zombie, but she didn't have the energy left, the strength. The zombie bit deep into her throat, arterial spray washing over the rest of the zombies. They tore her apart, a dozen of them biting into her. The defenders took advantage of the lull, closing on the zombies and dispatching them.

  In the far distance something was happening that looked different. Was that Robert? Yes, and that was Jasper at his feet. Naomi abandoned her relatively safe perch, running for them as fast as she could.

  Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting

  It was quickly obvious that Robert had a major advantage in terms of size and strength. His reach was much longer than Jasper's and his hits were incredibly powerful. Jasper was quicker, more agile. It wasn’t obvious to Robert, but Jasper also had a lot more training in unarmed combat. Robert had always relied on being bigger and stronger, and it made him l
azy in training. If he could win the combat every time, without having to work too hard, he was clearly doing it right. Jasper on the other hand, while still being a decent sized guy, was not always the biggest, the tallest, the fastest. He made up for it with training and dedication. His shots were precise, and he was more aware, paying more attention to the environment, constantly scanning for any opening, any slight mistake on Robert's part. That’s why he was the one who noticed the zombie closing on Robert. The creature grabbed Robert by the arm as he drew his fist back to punch. Robert spun, slamming his huge fist into the creature, sending it flying back. As he did that he felt rabbit punches slamming into his kidney. Robert turned back as Jasper swung a low roundhouse kick into his thigh. It hurt, it hurt a lot. Robert grabbed the smaller man and pulled him off his feet. Technique counts for a lot, but it has limits. He lifted Jasper and threw him to the ground. Jasper hit the pavement, hard.

  Robert casually walked two steps and slammed his foot into Jasper’s ribs. He heard a crunching sound and Jasper gasped in pain. Jasper was on the edge of blacking out, the pain in his side was so intense. He rolled and fetched up at the feet of a zombie. The creature bent down to grab him. Jasper reached up, shifted his weight, dropping the already unbalanced zombie, sending it crashing to the ground between him and Robert, just as the big man brought his foot down, hard. Robert ended up smashing the zombie, missing Jasper. The zombie tried to bite Robert's leg, forcing Robert to deal with it. Robert slammed his other foot down on the zombies head over and over again until its skull shattered. Jasper’s ribs were screaming bands of pain, breathing was fire. He managed to stay conscious, but every movement took him right back to the edge.

  Jasper was doing everything he could to stay out of Robert’s grasp. He couldn’t find the space to get back to his feet. If he wasn’t hurt, maybe… but with his ribs damaged as they were he didn’t have a chance. The zombies kept reaching for him, Robert kept pressing forward. Jasper kept moving, rolling, crawling. At one point he was certain Robert had him, but he managed to slide between two zombie, they turned to him and Robert smashed through them, sending them falling to the ground.

  There were no zombies around them anymore, just the two of them, a pocket of violence in the calming sea. No more distractions, no more places to hide. Just the two of them, like it was always going to be.

  Jasper couldn't lose the big man, couldn't get free, this was it. All this time, all this distance, and he was going to be beaten to death in a parking lot by a madman. At least he'd had a chance to find Taylor, to tell her he loved her. That was something, more than he had expected when he started the journey. His vision started to go black at the edges, his body finally giving up, finally losing the ability to stay conscious.

  Just as he blacked out he saw something, a shape from a nightmare closing behind Robert, then the world went away.

  Into the Fire

  For a long time Mona just lay there. Trevor was watching to make sure the zombies didn’t come in, and maybe to make sure she didn’t go out, she wasn’t sure. She was curled up on the floor again. Finally something in her head snapped. If Robert won, if he managed to do whatever mad thing he was trying to do this time, this was the rest of her life. Better to die than that.

  She got up and walked to the bathroom. She opened the door, half thinking she was going to get cleaned up, maybe try to look like a human again, when the smell of chemicals hit her. The bathroom wasn’t going to work. She closed the door and went downstairs. Trevor looked at her, his eyes dead and empty, then looked back outside. She didn’t know if he would let her go or not, or if he would even care at this point. He was already dead, but his body hadn’t figured it out yet.

  She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. A large chef’s knife. It was a high end blade, she didn’t know that, if she had she wouldn't have cared. She just knew that it felt heavy and solid in her hand, something she could use.

  Trevor barely looked at her as she approached him. As she walked out the door he said, “Planning to kill him?”

  “Yep”.

  “Good luck”.

  At that moment there was an explosion, a second later a couple of gunshots. Mona walked down the front stairs. Much to her surprise Trevor covered her, firing round after round into the zombies. Their attention was split, a bunch headed towards the explosion, but some started swarming the house. Mona saw Trevor take his handgun and place the barrel in his mouth. He pulled the trigger just as the first zombies made it through the door. His body had finally caught up to his spirit.

  Mona walked through the zombies. They seemed to ignore her. One or two turned their heads to her, but they turned away without touching her. As she walked the zombies became denser, but she was able to slip through them. Finally she slipped into the parking lot. Humans were fighting off the zombies, and thankfully they seemed to be winning. Mona had known that Robert had lost it, but to purposefully try to sacrifice humans to the zombies was far, far worse than she had believed even he was capable of. Sure, he was a sadistic brute, but this was monstrous evil, almost cartoonish evil.

  She scanned the crowd, looking for Robert. Finally she spotted him, beating someone who lay on the ground. Robert seemed to share whatever it was that was making the zombies ignore her. Maybe they were both dead inside. One or two seemed to notice him, briefly, but most were oblivious to his presence, almost as if he was one of them. Nobody else had that advantage. The guy on the ground was dodging the zombies, moving aside as they lunged at him. He was in trouble. It took her a minute to realize that it was Jasper. Robert’s obsession had driven him to this.

  She skirted through the combat, moving purposefully. One of the zombies did pay attention to her, finally, reaching for her. She responded the way she usually did to physical threats, Robert notwithstanding, and slammed her blade into the creatures’ temple. It fell, instantly.

  Mona had always been good in a fight. A combination of fast reflexes and having no limits. Robert was different of course, he was so much larger than her, and even more savage than she was, he took her strength away. Against most people and things though, she was a killer.

  Finally she got near, as Robert pulled a handgun. He was aiming it at Jasper. There were almost no zombies left, the last few were being mopped up. Jasper was unconscious on the pavement. Robert's first shot went wide, slamming into the pavement. His hand was trembling, body shaking with rage and adrenaline.

  Robert lined up the shot again. Mona struck. She slammed the kitchen knife into his side, below his rib cage. He grunted in surprise and turned. They locked eyes and Mona could see the madness, the rage, the fire. Robert dropped his gun and grabbed her throat. She stabbed him again, in the stomach, and again, and again. The world started to go dark around the edges… she could see that the zombies were noticing them, and then that Robert was one of the zombies, the colour draining from his eyes. Her last thought before he tore her apart was “I got you motherfucker. I win”.

  Barbarians at the Gate

  Jasper got up, trying to process what he had seen. He grabbed his sword from where Robert had dropped it, and turned, ready to keep fighting if he had to. He could barely breathe. The lot seemed nearly empty, with all the zombies down. Robert was already down, a nice neat bullet hole in his forehead. Mona was just getting up, her eyes white and full of hunger. Where the hell had she come from? Jasper swung the sword, taking her head off. He cried a little as he did it. The pain in his side was beyond anything he could imagine. He didn't know how he was able to stand.

  Jasper started looking for Taylor, scanning the faces around him. Naomi came running, grabbed him under the shoulder, apparently she could see that he was in too much pain to stand on his own.

  "Taylor, she jumped in the dumpster. She's alright. Let's go get your girl."

  Naomi supported him as they made their across the parking lot. Amazing how small it actually was, space for a couple dozen cars at most. So much had happened, a war, in a few thousand square feet. Jas
per thought his monstrous house in Bedford was larger.

  Jasper said, "I have to stand on my own, I have to make sure Taylor sees me standing strong."

  "Kay jackass. All good, but you sure you ain't gonna drop soon as I let you go though?"

  "Yep. Well, maybe sure is pushing it. How about let's try it and if I fall down we go another route?"

  Naomi let go, and Jasper didn't fall down. It was a close thing though. He let Naomi take care of opening the dumpster lid, he didn't think he could manage it on his own.

  Taylor looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. She reached out her arms, and he grabbed her, lifting her into an embrace. He almost faltered, almost dropped her, but he didn’t. No amount of pain was going to make him let Taylor down now.

  They mopped up the zombies pretty quickly from there. As soon as no more could come in it was a matter of time. Jasper sat that part out, his injuries were bad enough that in the old world he would have been in the hospital by now. The building had a doctor of sorts, really a paramedic, but he was the closest thing they had. He patched Jasper up, bound his chest, told him to stay off of his feet. Including Karen the building lost ten people. Robert and Mona made it an even dozen. Jasper was never sure who put down Robert after he turned, but he didn’t really care. He hated the man, of course, but he never developed the same kind of fixation that Robert had on him. Instead he moved his focus to cleaning up, to making things better for his daughter.

  The next few days were hard. They had to repair the damage to the fence, building a new gateway. Naomi spent most of her days pouring over maps, figuring out where supplies might be. There was an intense flurry of activity. Jasper spent a lot of time outside despite the protests of the medic, and of Naomi, but he made sure to spend as much time as possible with Taylor.