*****
VIKTOR
“Catch me if you can!” Melanie’s voice echoed through the trees. Every morning we took a run and she always insisted on cheating to get a head start. My girl was competitive. She was also everything you’d want in a woman: beautiful, smart, funny and more than capable of taking care of herself. Her easygoing nature balanced my own solemn temperament. With Kyle and Anya getting engaged, the pressure to settle down with Melanie increased tenfold. She’d already begun to drop not-so-subtle hints despite telling Anya she was secure in the status of our relationship. The days were getting warmer and longer, but it was hard to gain any semblance of complacency. Part of being a realist was not believing in the surety of happy endings. Life was what you made of it, what you fought for.
“See you soon, cheater!” I yelled back, picking up the pace and entering the hollow at a full sprint. On the other side of the glen Melanie was disappearing back into the Aspen trees. A startled rabbit burst across the path, almost making me trip. Any other time and I would’ve stopped to kill the furry bastard. Paulina made a good rabbit stew with dumplings.
Once in the Aspens again, the trail gained a steeper grade. This was the stretch where I could always catch her. I steadily gained ground until I heard her shallow breaths. Instead of falling into pace beside her, I smacked her on the ass and kept pushing ahead.
“You’re gonna pay for that, punk,” she wheezed in a flirtatious tone.
“Looking forward to it,” I replied over my shoulder.
I stopped at the top of the trail to wait for her and catch my breath. The stream to my right and her footfalls were the only sounds in the world at the moment. The fish in that stream had been left in peace for far too long. That would be remedied soon. Melanie finally caught me and attacked my ribs with her long fingers.
“One of these days I’m gonna beat you. You just wait,” she promised and gave me a kiss on the chin. We walked the rest of the way to the pond, stopping once or twice to admire the views of the valley below us. Tranquility in every sense of the word, but there was still restlessness inside me. I’d always preferred order and hated that there were no guarantees in life anymore. Maybe there never was.
Dead Man’s Lake, at least that’s what we called it, acquired its name from the old man we’d found sitting in his boat, stark dead, still clutching his fishing pole. Naturally, we removed the body and buried him beside the shore, along with his fly rod and the picture of what we assumed was his family we’d found clinging to the bottom of the boat. It appeared he died of natural causes. That wasn’t common these days. Some might say he was lucky. Many of the elderly weren’t strong enough to survive in the early days.
We passed the old man’s grave and I said a silent prayer, as had become routine each visit to the lake. The water was particularly tranquil this morning, a vivid blue-green hue that reflected the mountains, trees and cloudless sky like a painting on a canvas. Melanie grabbed the fishing rods and tackle box while I untied the rowboat. We sat on the lake for a couple hours, casting lures and the last bit of PowerBait. Melanie caught three rainbows and I caught a few snags. Ever-conscious of daily chores, we cut our fishing trip short before either of us wanted to. Stringer of fish in hand, she walked with extra swagger on the way home, my sexy master angler.
The sound of hammering met us as we neared the house. Alexi and Justin were building a new auxiliary fence along the interior perimeter. Incorrectly, but at least they were trying. Levi had a renewed sense of anxiety since the night of the party. It was about damn time. He’d grown far too comfortable in the past year, not striving to improve the defenses and letting Alexi and Riley run rampant. We had no room for their immaturity and he needed to get them in hand.
Alexi wiped his brow and looked up at us with a sour, frustrated look. Good, get angry. Hard times breed hard men, the kind suited to surviving in this shit world. Alexi showed no signs of the mental toughness needed to stay alive.
Now came the fun part. “Alexi, Justin, you’re supposed to get all your posts planted before attaching the barb wire! Before that, you’re supposed to dig all your holes!” I bellowed, trying to conceal my enjoyment. “Now start over!” I left them there, dumbfounded, and jogged to catch up with a giggling Melanie. Before long I could hear angry curses in my wake.
“I know how much you’re enjoying this,” Melanie chided when we were out of earshot.
“More than you know, baby,” I answered with a grin.
Upon entering the house we were met by the smell of something delicious cooking. We took off our shoes by the front door to avoid pissing off Paulina. Even with the precarious state of humanity, she was tenacious about keeping her house clean and our shoes were filthy after trekking through the wilderness. Never make the mistake of leaving mud tracks on the hardwood floors. That was viewed similarly to religious blasphemy and complaining about her cooking. Both of which would earn you the threat of a swipe of her wooden rolling pin.
I followed Melanie into the kitchen and was surprised to find Riley stirring a pot with the same sour look Alexi wore outside. “No, no, no, white pepper, not black pepper,” Paulina chirped in her ear. Why couldn’t every day be this way? “Stop rolling your eyes at me, girl!” Thank you, Jesus. “Don’t forget to flip the pork chops!” Paulina ordered a petulant Riley.
Melanie washed her hands, grabbed a cutting board and her favorite filleting knife, and got to work on today’s catch. Levi, Anya, Kyle and Zeke were nowhere to be seen. “Hey, Paulina, where is everyone?”
“Anya and your father went to Mac’s to check on the cub. I sent a plate of food with them. I doubt that old man eats properly.” She insisted on calling Levi my father, like that would make me adopt the habit myself. He was my dad, it was just weird calling him that. “Kyle and Ezekiel are at the watchtower. They took a couple bows and targets with them,” she continued. “Hopefully that boy’s better with a bow than he is with a bar soap.”
Snatching a canister of black pepper from Riley’s hand, I was sure Paulina just saved our dinner from being ruined. I surveyed the stove hungrily. Homemade tortillas, which accompanied almost every meal, refried beans, chicken mole and fried potatoes from the garden. Paulina made sure we never went a day without full bellies. When she announced it was done, I called Alexi and Justin in for lunch and we all sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy a family meal. Afterward, Melanie and I did the dishes and put the leftovers in the fridge while Paulina set Riley to cleaning the house. It seemed a new era had begun, one in which my two youngest siblings pulled their own weight.
“Viktor, will you take some lunch to the tower for the boys?” Paulina requested after we finished our tasks.
“Sure, but it’s our turn in the garden,” Melanie answered for me.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Riley can help me do it,” Paulina assured us happily. I was beginning to like this new regimen. Perhaps Riley would quit obsessing about her looks and the dates she’d never go on and instead learn skills that were actually useful.
Melanie and I packed two containers of food, some water and our full array of weapons for the trip down the mountain. Melanie mounted the four-wheeler first, leaving me to ride behind her like a pansy. A dark storm front was moving in from the west when we set off. We followed the main road down about a mile before turning left onto the winding deer trail. The harsh sounds of our vehicle were welcome to me in the too quiet forest.
We parked below the watchtower and waved up to its occupants. A target was nailed to the trunk of a tree about twenty yards from the tree stand. Two arrows stuck out from the target, a few were stuck in nearby trees and one was standing straight up in the ground about five feet short of the target tree. So the kid wasn’t a natural, but it was start.
“You guys hungry?” Melanie shouted up.
“You didn’t spit in it, didja?” Zeke yelled back. It was going to be a long uphill battle with that one.
Kyle and Zeke climbed down and greedily dug into
their lunch. Melanie climbed the tower and unleashed a few arrows at the target, twice hitting it and once sailing wide right. Her marksmanship had improved immensely since she joined us. I’d like to think I played a part in that. Zeke inhaled the food, barely taking time between bites and, to be honest, I wasn’t sure he even took a breath.
Finished eating, I tried to teach Zeke the little bit I knew about archery. “Hey, keep your elbow up, kid. Try to find a consistent anchor point just below the chin.”
That got a, “Shut your goddamn mouth, I’m trying to concentrate,” from the little brat. Always good to know you’re appreciated. His next four arrows hit the target before the fifth sailed just to the left. He was listening to my advice even if he didn’t want to admit it.
“Zeke, you know what you did there?”
“Do ya ever stop talkin’, you big oaf?” he fired back.
I ignored his insolence. “Loosen your grip a little on the bow. You’re holding it too stiffly and it’s causing a slight pull.”
Melanie and Kyle chatted amiably about the upcoming wedding and I thought I overheard something about how much he was looking forward to sharing a bed with Anya. Melanie’s low laughter made me think I heard correctly. I’d let that one go since he was a good kid when it came down to it. Plus, who was I to talk when I’d been doing the same with Melanie for years. Not that I wanted to hear about him and my little sister.
Over the next hour, Zeke’s form started to solidify and, with frequent practice, there was a chance he’d end up the best marksman in the group. Lightning flashed to the northwest and thunder came not long after. The storm would be on top of us soon if we didn’t get out of there. We started packing up all our stuff to head home. A loud cracking bang echoed through the mountains.
“Wait, that wasn’t thunder,” Kyle stated matter-of-factly.
“No, that sounded more like a gunshot to me,” I agreed warily. Another crack echoed from down in Breckenridge. Kyle, Melanie and I each jumped on the four-wheelers. “Zeke, climb up the tree stand and stay there!” I commanded before taking Zeke’s four-wheeler and following Melanie and Kyle.
We sped down the mountain, wind whipping in our faces, listening as more shots rang out. Parking our rides at the edge of the trees, only fifty yards away from the highway, we crouched behind some shrubbery for coverage.
There were three vehicles parked on the side of the road. One of them showed a flat tire on the rear passenger side, obviously the reason they stopped here. Dozens of the infected surrounded the cars, desperately pounding at the windows, insatiable hunger their only reason for being. The storm was now over us and the rain fell slowly at first before becoming a downpour.
“We don’t owe these people anything. Do you think they’d risk their lives for us?” I reasoned as Kyle and Melanie each made a move to leave the sanctuary of the woods.
That halted them. Melanie turned to me with fearful brown eyes. “I wish Anya was with us.”
“We can’t keep her on a leash to perform at our command!” Kyle retorted angrily, clearly frustrated with our dilemma.
“She didn’t mean that and you know it,” I argued. This situation sucked, but I wasn’t sure any of us could live with ourselves if these people died and we didn’t help.
As we watched, the two vehicles without flat tires fought through the zombies inch by inch, finally breaking through to leave their friends behind. Apparently, they wouldn’t even risk their lives for people they knew. No doubt they’d watch as my own family was massacred. Loyalty and honor were the hardest characteristics to come by in this cruel new world.
In the next instant, two little hands emerged from the top of the SUV. A child’s head appeared through the sunroof. Frightened and crying, the little girl was trying to climb onto the roof of the vehicle. Simultaneously, the three of us broke into a full-fledged sprint when we spotted her.
By now the entire horde had descended onto that one car without the other two cars to distract them. The SUV was rocking precariously back and forth, leaving the poor little girl struggling to hold onto the ski racks. Zombies on the driver side finally won the tug of war and tipped the SUV over, crushing the mass of undead on the other side.
The child spilled across the pavement just as we reached the action. A zombie lashed out at the girl, who was frantically kicking her legs to keep it at bay. Lightning struck, disorienting the infected temporarily. Melanie put a bullet through the zombie’s head as it broke through the girl’s defense. Kyle plugged the next one in the temple before it could attack. I dropped two trying to climb into the vehicle’s sunroof. The little girl ran toward us now, cowering behind Melanie and peering around her leg. Jesus, she couldn’t have been older than six.
We retreated a few steps, unloading everything we had while drawing the infected away from the SUV. Behind the zombies, two arms were reaching through the sunroof then a woman’s head popped out. She pulled herself through, eyes darting wildly, searching for her child. The woman pulled a handgun and started shooting at the nearest undead, which now numbered in the twenties. Her firing lured a handful of zombies from away us.
“I need to reload! Cover me!” Melanie screamed beside me, with the little girl still clutching her leg in fright. Twenty feet to my left Kyle was also reloading. The zombies were closing in around us, their numbers now whittled down to the teens. The child’s mother was still trying to put down the infected that followed her, but her marksmanship was shoddy at best. Two zombies were still pursuing her, but she’d run out of bullets. Impulsively, I ran for her, hitting one biter then taking down the other while exhausting the last of my ammunition.
I unsheathed my billhook machete, started slashing left and right, taking her with me as I worked my way back to the others. Only a dozen zombies remained but we were entirely out of rounds. Kyle, Melanie and I formed a protective wall to shield the mother and daughter. The odds were better now and I was both relieved and confident at the same time.
Everything seemed to be going fine until Kyle sprinted from our ranks to the toppled vehicle. Between strokes, I saw Kyle huddled against the SUV, holding little hands and struggling to pull the second child free. It was then I realized the mother must’ve alerted Kyle to the presence of a second child in the SUV.
A single biter trudged through the torrential rain, closing in on a distracted Kyle. He was too exposed and engrossed in his task. Melanie saw the biter, too. “Kyle, look out!” We broke into a run, hacking at the remaining zombies in our path. Kyle turned to look at us at the same time the zombie snapped at his exposed neck. Instinctively, he put his arm up to block the bite but the zombie sunk its teeth into his forearm instead. Kyle swung around with his knife, landing the blow in the nude female zombie’s eye.
My friend, Kyle Pearson, looked down at his injured arm with a grim quirk of his lips. He turned back to the sunroof and wrenched a little boy free. The scared boy immediately darted to his mother. Leaning against the car, Kyle stretched his feet out and closed his eyes. When we approached him, he opened them to reveal tears mixed in with rain. The rain continued to fall.
Melanie and I checked the fallen zombies to make sure they’d stay down while the mother embraced her two children, thanking us profusely. Kyle stared blankly to the mountains and I couldn’t even imagine the thoughts running through his head. If I had to guess, though, his mind was on Anya. Possibly on the wedding and future they’d never have.
Headlights approached from the south. The deserters had come back. A man got out of the driver’s seat of the first vehicle and walked toward us. For some reason he carried his gun raised, like we were the threat and hadn’t just risked our lives to save his people.
“Give us your weapons!” he shouted from twenty feet away. This coward deserved to be shot.
“Like hell! We just saved them!” I bellowed angrily while nodding at the little family huddled beside the SUV. “One of ours was bit! You can go fuck yourself!”
“That’s sad and all, but we need y
our weapons,” he insisted. “While you’re at it, take us to your base. We’re short on food and clothing.”
“There are forty of us,” I lied, wishing there were bullets left in my gun. “Is it really worth dying, for some Chef Boyardee and second-hand clothes?” I sneered at him. “You can get clothes anywhere. Why don’t you try that road you fled down earlier?”
Kyle finally managed to get up and walked over to Melanie and me. He held his arm up for the man to see. Blood was running down to his elbow, dripping and mixing with the little pools of water on the road. “Just go,” he told the man monotonously. “This isn’t worth it.”
Our adversary gestured the family over and conferred with the mother quietly. After a minute, shaking his head, he turned around and got back in his truck. The family followed and loaded into the second car. Both vehicles retreated back the way they came.
When they were out of sight, Melanie and I walked a dazed Kyle back into the woods, loading him onto his four-wheeler. It seemed like muscle memory took over from there and he wound his way back up to the watchtower to retrieve Zeke.
“Ya’ll left me here like an jackass! I was sure as shit I was gonna get hit by lightning!” Zeke squeaked when we arrived. It took him a few moments to ascertain the situation. Even then, he looked from Kyle’s blood soaked arm back to us a few times before hopping behind Melanie on her four-wheeler.
The ride back to the house was silent except for the rumble of the engines. We parked the four-wheelers beside the school bus and walked the rest of the way to the house. Once we were inside, Melanie led Kyle to our bathroom where she washed his wound and doused it with alcohol.
He was completely silent for the first couple minutes before asking, “Is Anya back yet?”
I shook my head no and he instantly retreated back within his own mind. Once his bite was properly tended, Melanie set him up in our room. He had to be isolated.
Outside the door, Justin and Alexi were whispering quietly. I dismissed them with a hard look and went to find some tools.
Paulina and Riley were sitting on the couch when I passed by, Riley crying loudly, with her head in Paulina’s lap.
Through the window I saw a distraught Zeke hacking at a tree with his machete.
I needed a drink, hell, a whole bottle, but first I had to install a deadbolt outside my bedroom door.
Anya would be coming home soon.