Chapter 13 – Ringing The Dinner Bell
The distant sounds of gunfire reinforced Janik’s decision that he’d made about leaving Cherno. Although he was dog-tired he couldn’t sleep for long. Instead spent the rest of the night circumnavigating the town by staying along the coast. Janik felt that if he was going to survive this he would need to stay away from major towns, but he was too cowardly to make it alone. He’d need help but not back in that town - that town Cherno was fucking dangerous.
He was following the coast eastwards when he came across a small group of farmhouses, which he was about to ignore when he saw it - a bicycle resting on the side of a house, it was light green, looked a little worse for wear, but usable. The problem was that there were four of those things walking around there. Under normal circumstances Janik was very much a ‘no reward is worth the risk’ type of guy, avoiding anything that had danger attached. But these were definitely not normal circumstances and he was actually contemplating going up there and taking that bicycle – even though it would put his life at risk.
It was the dull ache in his belly and the parched taste in his mouth that pushed him over the edge, to risk going for the bike. His patrol pack was empty and he had no idea how far it would be to the next town. Getting closer, he peeked around the farm shed he was learning against – between him and the bike was an ocean of concrete. “Dammit,” he cursed, as he looked for another way around, but there wasn’t one. He knew that if he ran across the concrete he’d draw all four infected straight to him.
Dejected, he went inside the shed to get out of sight and come up with a new plan when he saw it - just lying there on the ground – a tin of sardines and a can of Pepsi. Not even thinking about expiry dates or rationing, he cracked them both open, and greedily consumed them. He looked around for more food but apart from some wood and a jerry can, there was nothing else.
He crept out the back of the shed and decided to move towards the barn that was near it. Slowly, he dropped down and crawled across the concrete and through the barn’s entrance. He rose - looking over a hay bale he froze. One of the infected was there. Its legs must have been broken as it crawled along the floor using only its arms to move forward. At the sight of Janik it gave an unholy groan and moved towards him.
Janik ran up one of the stairs to the hay loft of the barn as the crawling infected moved towards him. Outside, he could hear the pounding of footsteps on the concrete as the other infected responded to the groan and ran towards him. Panicked, he searched for a way out, but Janik was trapped and there were more coming inside. He climbed up the stairs to the higher hayloft and looked out of the circular window. “Help! Help!” he called out but only the infected groaned in response.
Janik was not alone up here, on the ground next to him was a dead body. The dirt-covered denim overalls showed that he had been a farmer - this was most likely his barn. His head was a dried mess of blood and brains, with the top left side spread out against the wall behind him. In his hands was the instrument of his doom – the Lee Enfield rifle he’d apparently used to shoot himself. Janik looked at the gore and shrieked, to which the infected downstairs responded with inhuman groans as they made their way towards him.
Janik tried to pry the rifle out of the dead farmer’s hand but long term rigor mortis made that difficult. He pulled at the fingers of the left hand until he heard them all break and the top of the rifle was released. The infected were walking up the stairs as Janik began snapping fingers on the farmer's right hand. The index finger around the trigger proved especially difficult but Janik finally snapped it, and the rifle was his.
Janik’s hands shook as he held the rifle with his breathing coming in quick, desperate pants. He lined up the first infected in the iron sites and pulled the trigger. The bullet went wide, missing it and striking the wall behind. Janik wiped his sweaty hands on his shirt and took a deep breath, holding it in, as he lined up the next shot. He aimed for the center mass of the infected and when he was sure, he gently pulled the trigger, finding a surreal calm in the moment.
The infected dropped to the floor and Janik’s world went silent as his ears shutdown from the noise of the rifle. He smacked at his ear with his palm, creating a popping sound, but otherwise the world was still silent and more were coming up the stairs. He lined up the next one and pulled the trigger. It joined its buddy on the floor. Sounds slowly returned to Janik’s world as he shot the third and fourth infected, killing both instantly.
He slid down the wall to a sitting position - keeping the rifle ever trained at the door in case more entered. His breathing slowly returned to normal but his eyes and the rifle didn't move from pointing at the entrance. Janik was in shock, he’d never done anything like that before. His body had moved of its own accord and now his brain was catching up and trying to come to terms with it.
Eventually Janik looked away from the entrance as reason and logic returned to his world. He’d just killed four of those things - did that make him a murderer? He didn’t know what they were but he didn’t think they were human so he guessed he was okay. They were people, they could have been this poor bastard’s family, he mused as he looked over the dead farmer. It’s you or them, so make it them, his brain responded, and Janik felt the guilt dissipate. He rifled through the pockets of the dead farmer, finding a map with Russian notations he couldn’t understand, and a compass. Taking both of them, he studied the map, using the compass and the coastline to determine where he was.
He could see that there was another large town nearby, Elektrozavodsk, which he would avoid. Avoid people, avoid big towns and get inland - that was his new plan. With the Lee Enfield and the deaths of four infected, Janik felt a new found bravery, maybe he could make it on his own. The map showed there were plenty of other small towns inland that he could hole up in. Remembering the bicycle outside, Janik smiled as he bounded down the steps, forgetting all about the one infected with broken legs that was still crawling around down there.
The sudden groan reminded him, but all too late as it struck out and hit Janik, causing him to trip and fall off the last couple of steps. He landed hard and the wrong way on his ankle as debilitating pain shot up from his twisted ankle. He shuffled away from the infected trying to get a shot as it crawled towards him. Arriving at the end of the barn he had nowhere to go, and realized it was now or never. He fired and fortunately hit it right in the head. There was no blood splatter but a black fluid oozed out of the hole as the infected's head hit the ground, hard.
Janik tried to stand but the pain in his ankle was intense and he couldn’t get more than a step before needing to lie back down. Cursing himself for being so stupid he began to hop towards the bicycle. He might not be able to walk on that leg but he hoped he was still able to ride. Using the wall to steady himself, he swung the injured leg over the bicycle. Pushing down on the pedal made his ankle hurt but it was manageable which fortunately meant he could ride. He rode down the hill but it was slow going and painful. Janik found he was able to stay on the bicycle by using his good leg to pedal and support him when he stopped.
Janik rode towards Elektro, his plan of staying away from people and large coastal towns now forsaken. He needed to find another survivor to help him if he was going to last out here. He just hoped Elektro was safe because Cherno sure as hell wasn’t.