Had I done the right thing in leaving my brother and the safety of the truck? I questioned that decision. Was it a choice of whom I liked better? That I can’t believe. These people are my friends, my new family, but my brother, he is my world.
Stop it, girl.
I needed to psych myself up to face what was in front of me. We were in zombie-infected territory. At the moment, we were in the woods, alone. How long that would last, who knows?
“All right, guys,” said Jones. “Listen up. We are alone out here. It’s us against them and they don’t stop, not for anything. Dushell is out of ammo and I got a couple rounds left. How about you Thompson, what you got?”
The stranger spoke, “I’m out. I killed the last zombie by stabbing him in the heart with the butt of my gun.” He held up his rifle and slime oozed off it. Its yellow-green tint was sickening to see. The man grinned.
“Baker, how about you?”
I pulled my clip and counted. “I got half a clip left.” I slapped it back in. Each bullet had to count.
“Well,” said Jones, “I guess that’s it. From now on, only head shots. We blow their brains out to be sure. If you don’t have bullets then swing for the fences, head shots only people. I have seen too many people go down because they fought these creatures as if they were men. They are not. Flesh wounds mean nothing, people. Aim for the head.”
“What happens when we are all out?” I asked.
“We go for the heads, twist them and snap their necks.”
“What about them touching us?” Dushell asked.
“Touching is not the problem,” said Thompson, “it’s biting without killing we have to worry about.”
“What?” Dushell looked confused.
“If they kill you, no problem,” Thompson said. “If they bite you and leave you alive, you have from a few hours to two days tops, then you turn.”
“Is it true what they say about the scratches?” I asked.
“If you heard they are harmless, you are probably right, unless the scratch is deep and they get their goup in you. I have met two men scratched lightly who didn’t turn. Another, with a deep scratch, wasn’t so lucky. My guess is that he would have been all right if the guy next to him hadn’t splattered zombie brains all over him. He saved his life, of course, but only for two more days. Unlucky bastard.”
“Who got him?” asked Dushell.
Thompson looked somber. He looked up and his eyes were sad. He said softly, “nobody.”
“He got them all?” Dushell gasped.
“Yeah, in their sleep,” said Thompson. “Three of them were camping outside the gate. He finished his two buddies and was mowed down running for the gate.”
“Shit!” I said.
“All right, folks,” said Jones. “The first thing we have to do is find shelter and with it, hopefully food. If we go across the woods we should run into some houses. You guys ready? Let’s move out.”
And so we began.
Our small group of four went through the woods next to the road in the direction our truck took. Our goal was to follow its route and rendezvous at the campsite with the rest. The plan was simple enough, and we were used to marching, if we could avoid being eaten, we could no doubt make it.
The sun was high, so my guess is it was around noon at the start of our trek. We heard nothing and took it as a good sign. I’m not really a time person, so it was late April or early May. Lord knows I don’t know the date. We never gave much thought to it, we had a 24-hour job and friends died daily. Calendars went out long ago for most of us. Winter had long past and it was hot but not too hot, that is for a Missouri day anyway.
I was dreading the dog days that were coming in July and August, it would be too hot for walks like this. For our part, at least we were no longer in military gear. Dushell and I had left our uniforms along the stream and looked like two normal girls, except for the M16A2’s we clutched. Then again, who is to say what normal is these days.
Before the end, people had started carrying guns strapped to their thighs. Bullshit about man’s natural rights and freedom nonsense. Maybe we would be normal for this area. Well, anyway, we were in central Missouri, around the Ozarks, making our way to our new campsite. The woods provided shade and safety for hours. Up ahead, a small pond with three houses.
We stopped at the perimeter. “What do you think?” asked Dushell to Jones.
“We take them one at a time,” said Jones. “Safety in numbers. If there is a zombie in there, we can jump it without firing. We need to save our ammo for large packs and desperate times.”
He looked at me; I was the only other person who had ammo. “Got it,” I said. We continued to the houses, then stopped again.
“All right, people,” said Jones. “Dushell, you got point, Thompson, left flank, Baker, you’re six.”
“What?” I said in confusion.
“Our backside, Jesus. Nothing sticks with you does it?” he whispered as best he could.
Though it wasn’t quite a whisper, it was effective. Like thousands of times before, he put me in my place. It wasn’t my fought I wasn’t a hard-core soldier like them and up on all the latest jargon. I was new, roughly a little over a year. If I had seen it in a movie or read it in a book, I could relate. But a lot of their jargon went clear over my head. It’s my fault. I signed up for different reasons and didn’t associate with hard cores. “Use English, okay. For god’s sake, look around. It’s just us, four people, no army. Talk normal, will ya?”
He glared at me. He probably would have yelled and really reamed me out if we had been on base and not trying to sneak up on a possibly zombie-infested house. Dushell touched his shoulder and he looked down. Thank god for her. I hated crossing the line like that.
“Which one first?” Dushell asked Jones.
“The blue house on the far right,” Jones said it to her while keeping his glare on me. Good thing we were friends, we were the only two armed and couldn’t waste bullets on each other. “Let’s go,” he sneered.
I waited and went last. I was guarding our six, whoopee. Without knocking, Jones turned the knob and crept in. I followed the others into the darkened house and left the door open for extra light.
They had cleared it already so I opened the blinds on a large bay window for more light. This was more of a cottage, a getaway for vacationers. The furniture was covered by white sheets filled with dust. While they searched for food, I sat down my gun and carefully took the sheet off a couch, being careful to keep all the dust within its folds. I didn’t want to attract attention so I didn’t take it outside. I sat it next to the door, then shut and locked the door. This would be home for the night. I hoped at least. I was exhausted and soon it would be dark.
Thompson came out of the kitchen and sat on the couch first, which urked me. I did all the hard work and he sits first. With a large family like mine, we always wanted to be the first to do something. Whenever we got anything, especially new furniture, we would race to see who would be the first to sit on it. To the victor went the spoils. Anytime someone, and with us it meant relatives, would come over, we would proudly say “I was the first one to sit on it.”
Thompson couldn’t have known what he had done. I’m nineteen and not a kid, stop it! “Hey, Thompson, did they find anything?”
“Hey. It’s Sam, Samuel Thompson.” He held out his hand and I shook it tentatively. “They found a few cans of green beans and some spinach.”
“Great.” I put on a happy face and sat across from him. Spinach gave me bad gas and tied my stomach in knots. The zombie invasion had succeeded in slimming us all down, not too many fat people were alive today. That’s not a dig at them. It’s just that fat people can’t run fast, so they were an instant buffet. “Did they find anything else?”
“Not in the kitchen, Jones already has two can openers. When I left they were looking for matches and then they are going to look for blankets. Dushell wanted to check for clothes, too.”
Just like a woman, a war is o
n, the world is ending, but a woman has to shop and look good. Inwardly, I laughed. Dushell was my friend and I didn’t think it was nice to say mean things in front of a stranger. If nothing else, life has taught me to hang on to those close, it might not be for too much longer.
“So, Sam, where are you from?”
“Originally, the Windy City, I grew up there. I went to college out in California to get away from home. I hated Chicago and was looking for independence. I studied to become a doctor and then went into microbiology.”
I cringed. He said the magic words that got many scientists killed. By rights, we shot them without trial.
“You are into germ warfare,” the words rolled out of my mouth before I could stop them. Immediately, I regretted them and it showed on both our faces.
“Yes.” He studied my face to see how I would react to his honesty.
“People say that it is your fault. Most people would leave you to the zombies.”
“I know.” His grin irritated me.
Thompson sat on the couch with his gun at his side. The gun held no ammo, but still, I saw it as a threat. If he went for it, that would give me a reason to shoot him. I didn’t believe scientists created the zombies, but I had lost a lot. Someone had to pay.
“I know? That’s all you have to say! I know?”
“There is nothing more to say.”
He was somber, but I didn’t care. My first impulse was to kill him where he sat. I might have, if not for the return of my comrades. Dushell came bouncing into the room carrying a handful of blankets. She sat one in my lap and moved to Thompson. He gladly accepted his. Our eyes stayed fixed on each other. He wasn’t sure what I would do and neither was I.
“What’s up with you two?” Dushell saw us.
“Nothing,” said Thompson. “We were chatting about where we came from and how we got here.”
Dushell pushed a chair back; I had managed to uncover most of the living-room furniture. All of which consisted of a couch, a chair, and two large reclining chairs. She sat back in her chair; she liked space between her and others. She once told me that because of her looks people often invaded her space making her feel trapped. It wasn’t an admission of beauty or being too good for others, it was that people’s leers made her uncomfortable, and with distance, she could see where their eyes were and by extension, their thoughts. “Oh really.”
“Yeah,” said Thompson. “How about you, what’s your story?” He grinned at her.
“Well, let’s see here, my story. Well, I’m from St. Louis and rarely go outside my state. I grew up here and now I’m United States property.” She smiled.
“There is more to it than that. Fill in the blanks.” Thompson pressed. “Was this your goal?”
“To be a soldier?” Dushell asked.
“Yeah.”
Dushell’s face saddened and she looked at me, then Jones. “Actually, yeah. I’m a runaway beauty queen.”
My stomach churned. I knew the look she was giving him and it wasn’t good. “Dushell!”
She ignored me. “I was always pretty. I was born that way so I had no control over it. My mother was a beautician and she entered me in pageants. It was good for a while, but then these creeps started pawing me and I resisted. I told my mother and at first she was on my side, but after she lost her job, things changed.”
I tried again, “Dushell.”
She continued. She was on a roll. “We needed money the first time. This pageant paid the winner $5,000. It was supposed to be savings bonds for college, that’s how they advertise it to the unsuspecting masses. That made it sound good and all. It’s a lie. I won and my mother had it converted. She got $2,500 out of it and spent it as fast as she could.”
Dushell stopped and pulled her blanket up tight around her. “Dushell.” I shook my head trying to let her know that now wasn’t the time. If I could save her from reliving bad memories, I would. And this man had no right to hear her personal business. She only smiled back, I was afraid of that.
“I was on the block for several years. My mother lived for these events and I no longer had a choice. I started at age five, quit for a while, and then was full-time by seven. Any contest within two hundred miles, we went. And then shit started.” She took a deep breath then continued. “At first, she let guys take pictures of me twirling in my dress and tiara. I always won— what a surprise.
“Did I mention she was an alcoholic and drug user?”
“Dushell, Bri—”
“She would pass out, well not really pass out, it was more incapacitated. She would be in the room, but the guys got bolder the drunker she got. One guy had me in my underwear taking pictures before she came to. I still wore my tiara and sash though, I guess that was something at least.”
“Dushell?” I pleaded.
“Well, it wasn’t all bad, Zee. Mostly harmless touching and picture snapping. My whore of a mother would get up and we would leave. If I didn’t know better, I would say she passed out on purpose. It didn’t hit me till later, but her purse was always filled with money afterward and the men were either judges or connected with the pageants.”
Jones had reclined in the other chair. He got up and handed me a beer. He had a six pack. He tore off one and handed it to Thompson and then gave one to Dushell. He popped open his and sat back down. “Well, me myself, I am from Florida, born and raised. Hurricanes forever!”
He took a gulp of beer. I was grateful for him cutting her off. I knew most of the story, but never pushed for it all. I don’t know if Jones knew any of it. They talked around camp and were friendly enough, but is it the kind of thing you tell to guys?
Jones continued. “I’m twenty years old and wanted to fight in the wars. I wasn’t old enough when they ended, I hated that shit. I grew up a sportsman and hunter. I go deer hunting every year since I was fifteen. I got my driver’s license and hunting license the same year. This one teacher in high school was a real bitch and the guy wasn’t going to pass me no matter what. I hope to god the zombies are still munching on that motherfucker right now. Well, anyway, I pissed off high school and enlisted when I turned eighteen.
“Halfway through boot camp we heard about the zombies. We were sent to Fort Leonard Wood after they got infected. From what we were told, the outbreak started here in Missouri at some secret installation.”
I flashed a look to Thompson. He met my eyes squarely, but never said a word. He didn’t even have the balls to look away. He looked through me as if I wasn’t there. I got that urge again.
Jones began again, “it was bad. We were fighting underground in caves and zombies jumped out everywhere. The zombies were wearing our uniforms, can you believe that shit? Fucking army zombies. They were from all over, too. The cave system was huge and I saw army zombies from Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, and as far away as California. Like us, they had been flown in for containment.
“Empty bullet casings and discarded M16’s were everywhere. They had resorted to hand-to-hand combat and they lost. That was our first indication that they weren’t mindless like we had been led to believe.”
I flashed another look at Thompson.
“They told us it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, well, we were the fish. They tore through us, only knocking us out and biting us. They then moved on to the next poor souls. Sergeant Welch got the order for us to kill every unconscious bitten soldier we came across and we did. One bullet to the head for each. We must have gone through a hundred or more of our own people before we made it to an opening and saw daylight.
“It was hopeless; the zombies had escaped and were out infecting and killing everyone they came across. All through the tunnels people lay bitten and unconscious. Outside, we came across gruesomeness you wouldn’t believe. I saw bodies ripped open with no insides at all. I saw cracked skulls with no brains left in them. It was madness.”
“Yeah,” added Dushell. “The same thing was going on all over the country.”
It had never occurred to m
e to ask before. “If this is the center, how could that be?”
Thompson finally chimed in. “Planes, trains, and automobiles.” It was almost a smirk.
“What?”
“Some of those with scratches got out of town trying to flee,” said Thompson. “They carried the virus with them and it spread like wildfire. It is now in every corner of the world.”
“What about islands?” I offered.
“They got hit the hardest,” said Thompson.
“How is that?” I asked.
“They had no defenses,” Thompson said. “A lot of folks got that idea, including the government. They took over cruise ships and other vessels and put people on them trying to save as many as they could. It would have worked, except some had been scratched or bitten and said nothing. Denial is the first response of the infected.
“Every place they went to was easily overrun. After all, if you’re on an island, there is nowhere to run. You are trapped.”
“Oh my god!” Dushell was coming back from her trip down Memory Lane.
“Yeah.” Thompson went on. “Not even the best swimmer had a chance.” He laughed. This time I was right, it was something more than a smirk. The others saw what I saw. He was proud.
“What are you grinning for?” Jones asked.
“I’m not grinning,” said the liar.
Jones looked at me for verification. He picked up his gun next to him and pointed at Thompson. “You fucker! They were right, it was you!”
Thompson put his hands up and slowly rose. “Hey, hey, kid, watch where you are pointing that thing. I’m human just like you and you have got your facts wrong. I had nothing to do with this.”
“I doubt it,” I chimed in. I was with Jones and wanted to blast him, but couldn’t. “You can’t shoot him. It’s dark outside and the noise would attract zombies to us.”
Jones agreed and lowered his gun. Everyone sat back down. In an effort to ease tension, I tried to get Jones to talk. I didn’t want to talk myself and I figured Dushell had only one topic. Thompson was not even in my thoughts.
“What happened next, Jones?” I said.
Jones finished his beer. “We lost the battle and were sent here as reinforcements. Unlike ours, the camp we are headed to is supposed to be impenetrable. All major scientists are coordinating with each other from similar outposts. The one we are going to is for the Midwest survivors. It’s in Northern Arkansas. There is flat land and we can see them coming from miles away. They have artillery to pick them off so none of them will be able to get close to us there-”
Jones stopped talking and before I knew it, he was on his feet with a drawn knife, looking at Thompson. I looked over and Thompson was staring up at him, unafraid.
“What?” I asked.
“He did it again, he smirked. It was almost a laugh, like pride in his children. This time, I got you and there won’t be a sound for them to hear.”
Jones started toward him and both Dushell and I interceded. “Stop, Jones.”
“You didn’t see what I saw,” he yelled.
“It doesn’t matter,” I countered. “We are it, we need him.”
I don’t know if I would have won the argument, I didn’t get the chance to talk further.
Chapter Four