Dystopian Girls 4

by Rodzil LaBraun

  CHAPTER TEN:

  The direct path between our home and the Springbrook High School where Alexa was being held captive was mostly wooded. Staying to the west allowed us to move along the river and out of view of the military scouts. Our old home, the one that was essentially destroyed by the attack from the schoolhouse gang, lay nearly a half mile east of our projected course. However, we would be going right by the place where we first came in contact with Riley.

  "Remember that day when I knocked the shit out of you?" Riley asked as we approached the long driveway for that residence.

  "How could I forget?"

  "Concussion," Riley replied with a smile.

  "When was this?" Bianka asked with an inquisitive grin. She had never heard the story apparently. Her obvious intrigue at me being bested by a female was to be expected. She was my best buddy, after all.

  I retold the account beginning with the moment that Riley knocked me out, then decided to backtrack quite a bit. I started over with the night that I defeated Earl and his two trashy women. That was the night that Alexa came into my life.

  I briefly touched on a few moments that were important parts of the development of my relationship with Alexa, then moved on to the day that we met Jada. Bianka was noticeably entertained by Jada's personality in those early days, but especially liked the part where she showed me her naked body in the basement of a neighboring house to the beer store. I wasn’t entirely sure if Alexa or Riley had heard about that yet. My stoic wife provided no indication that it was news to her.

  Eventually I returned to the point where we first encountered Riley, skipping over the altercation with the two women from the schoolhouse clan. She described me unconscious on the sofa of the home as we passed by it, emphasizing how fondly Alexa and Jada spoke of me while I was out cold.

  After Riley finished that section of the story like she was bragging, I told Bianka how Riley offered both me and Alexa oral sex as part of the deal to accept her into our clan. Bianka fell on the ground when she heard that, stumbling on some loose rocks. Her focus on her footing suffered as she imagined Riley going down on my first wife. We gave her a hard time about it for the next couple minutes, but we had to stay reasonably quiet. The area that we were passing through was previously schoolhouse gang territory.

  On occasion, we would have Bianka scout ahead for activity using her catlike skills. Whenever she spotted someone high up in a tree, we would simply adjust our course to stay out of view. That meant rougher terrain, thicker vegetation, and a significant decrease in our speed verses strolling along the Greenway path that was within view of the River.

  We knew that it was unlikely that we could keep from getting noticed by the militia during the entire mission, but the longer we were able to go without being seen the better off that we would be. That was true for our agenda as well as the safety of our compound. We were avoiding using our walkie talkies for communication. However, we would scan the channels for active conversations. New-HAM was not only using codes in their communication, they were also switching between the channels regularly. That made it difficult to piece together enough language to figure out what they were conveying to each other.

  If we were listening in, it was also quite possible that Tamika's group was, too. In fact, it was even more likely. Tamika had spent some time as one of them. It was plausible that she learned many of their codes. If we got spotted heading toward the general direction of the school, Tamika might learn of our approach and be prepared. A little extra time and effort on our part would make it worthwhile.

  "Anacostia," Bianka said as we were slowly making our way along a rocky slope. We weren't playing a game of uttering random words, so I glanced around for what might have inspired her to say it. A narrow path intersected our course. It connected the nice Greeway trail with the actual riverside. A metal green sign stood in the high weeds barely visible as a hiker might approach the water. Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River were the words printed on it.

  I chuckled to myself. Maybe I knew the name of the wide stream before that moment and just forgot. I couldn't recall. What I found slightly humorous was what a difference the end of the world made. We simply knew that waterway as the river, because it was the only one near us.

  In elementary school I had to memorize a lot of things. Countries, states and capitals. They no longer existed as far as I knew. The continents and the oceans still did, but it didn't matter anymore. No one was planning any long voyages these days. If we managed to not only survive, but to raise offspring, school in our colony would teach subjects and material very different than what I had learned.

  The world had become incredibly small, and so did the amount of knowledge required to live in it. New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago. We couldn't care less what it was like to live there. State birds and flowers seemed incredibly silly on a lesson plan now. Perhaps they always were. There were tons of useless information crammed into our brains as children.

  How to survive the zombie apocalypse. That was a course that should have been covered in every grade. Make it mandatory for all students. In high school, different specialties could be electives. Such as, clean water methods, hunting, and how to build a suitable barrier. Every school would have a shooting range, for guns and arrows.

  Track would be a required physical activity. I had a chubby friend in high school that used to tell me that if I ever saw him running, it was because he was being chased. Other than being run down by a mugger, there was not much need to developing a pair of good jogging legs back then. Except for overall health, of course.

  How to deal with an electromagnetic energy pulse. That would have been another good subject. Or, what to do when the whole world is ruled by martial law. Game coding and phone app design were not real valuable skills anymore.

  Bianka stopped abruptly in front of me, snapping me back out of my daydream. There was noise up ahead. Grunting and growling. Possibly a large animal. Shit, I did not want to come across another bear out there. Rabid beasts were becoming much less common, as were those with special powers. Most normal animals cleared out of the way when they sensed us coming.

  My deflection skill would not be of much value in a bear attack scenario. Gunfire would be required, which of course would give away our position. Our safety would be the biggest issue to consider.

  I had my trusty forty-five caliber revolver, as well as my assault rifle hanging from the strap down my back. My previously worn combat boots, taken from a dead solider, were good for the hiking required on this endeavor, but would significantly reduce my speed in a sprint.

  Riley was carrying a sub-machine gun that we acquired from a fallen soldier’s corpse a few days ago. Her nine-milli-glock, as Jada continued to call it, was tucked into the back of her khaki shorts. Her long pale legs ended with a dirty pair of suede hikers that were probably designed more for a fashion statement than actual hill climbing. Her light green t-shirt was the closest thing that she had to camo.

  Bianka had decided not to bring a rifle for stealth and mobility reasons. Her fine ass was also marred by the bulge of a hidden pistol. The top of her shorts rode low on her hips. I had to imagine that the gun barrel was positioning itself in the top of her ass crack. Well, I didn't have to imagine that, but I chose to do so. She didn't bother changing clothes since her wardrobe had been assembled with this type of activity in mind. Her signature wooden spikes were connected by a rope like nun-chucks and draped over one shoulder. A quiver of seven arrows was strapped to her back. In one hand she carried a bow. The other a machete.

  Riley and I stayed put as Bianka dropped low and moved forward cautiously. She went a good thirty or so feet before the cause of the noise became visible to her. She then turned toward us and mouthed the word skanks, followed by a gesture indicating that they were eating something off the ground. There was a time, and not that long ago, that the scene would be a serious cause of alarm. Nowadays, with our weapons and popularity in the skank community, it was one of
the better options for things that you could encounter in the woods.

  Riley and I approached Bianka's position, less stealthily than maybe we should have. We didn’t have the blonde’s ability to balance on our tiptoes. The sound of our feet in the brush startled the two women that were crouched down feasting on a body. It wasn't until they spun around in our direction that I could see the details of the corpse. It was another soldier.

  Riley and I raised our intimidating weapons as Bianka speedily notched an arrow. That should have been enough to scare off a couple skanks, regardless of how hungry they were. But not these two.

  Their faces weren't just pale. They had scars and open wounds where the blood had dried so dark that it was black. The same was true of their exposed limbs, at least the parts that weren't caked over with dirt. Their eyes were crazy with pupils that were nearly non-existent. It wasn't from a lack of dilation. No, a white substance was shrouding them. I was not able to even determine which way they were looking due to the feature. It was the same for both of them. Whatever they suffered to cause their condition it had an identical effect.

  Instead of scurrying away as we anticipated, they immediately launched themselves toward us. Our plan was not to fire the guns unnecessarily. Drawing attention to us could perchance ruin the mission. Unless our lives were in jeopardy, or Alexa's was, we would just raise our weapons to scare things off.

  Bianka released her arrow quickly after deducing that the approaching women were not our typical skanks. These two were well beyond the treatment option. The arrow struck one of the women in the chest with a thump, sending her falling backward with a shocked expression. The second took no note of her accomplice's demise and continued to rush toward us.

  I stepped forward to strike the woman in the forehead with the stock end of my rifle. She growled from the contact that sent her head abruptly backwards but did not register the pain as expected. Remaining in a standing position, she readjusted her stance and darted forward again, roaring like an animal from a blackened mouth. Bianka stepped forward and sliced the woman's throat with her machete.

  The blood seeping from the slit was thick and very dark, totally not what I had expected. The woman looked angry but not in agony. There was no recognition on her face that she realized her death was imminent. The crazy bitch was still growling as she dropped to the ground, air bubbles mixing with the black blood from her neck wound.

  The first nasty woman then got back to her feet and charged again. The arrow was still protruding from her chest, in the spot where I had that thought her heart would be. But the point must have missed that vital organ, because she was still very spirited. Bianka's second arrow was fired from just a few feet away, striking the woman in her right eye. Her head jerked back from the impact. Only half of the arrow was still visible to me, so the other end must be sticking out of the back of her head.

  A normal human being would be clutching at their face at that point. Even a typical skank would. I stood there in utter shock as the woman regained her balance. Pushing her hands forward in fictional zombie method, she tried to continue toward us. Her motor skills were lacking, though. She took two steps before stumbling to the ground.

  Down on her hands and knees I could see the arrowhead protruding a few inches out of the back of her skull. The woman tried desperately to crawl in our direction for a few seconds, a sound continuing to emit from her mouth resembling a drunken pirate. Lots of R sound. Then finally she collapsed face down in the dirt.

  "What the fuck was that?" Bianka asked.

  Riley looked as shocked as I was but recovered quicker. She spun around looking for more danger. Whether it be from more of these crazed white-eyed skanks or from someone overhearing the disturbance.

  Our world generally smelled like garbage, shit and rotten flesh. It had for quite a while. We had gotten used to it, rarely wearing the paper masks that had been a necessity when the diseased women first began associating with us. But these two wreaked of the rotten stench. It was more like someone had captured the stink of our world, placed it in an aerosol can, then sprayed it into my notrils. All three of us began to gag.

  Scurrying up the hill toward the path and flatter ground, Riley was the only one that hurled her lunch into the tall grass. But I was extremely close. Even the small amount of vomit on my tongue smelled better than the air close to the deceased women near us.

  "That was the nastiest thing that I had ever seen or smelled," Bianka announced. "How did they get so bad?"

  "I don't think those were typical skanks," I replied. "I wouldn't call them skanks at all."

  "Zombies?" Riley asked, wiping her mouth with her shirt sleeve.

  When I nodded, Bianka said, "No way, Mace. They are dead now, not undead."

  "Their blood was nearly black," I argued. “Didn’t you see how they reacted to normally death-dealing blows?”

  "Whatever they were," Riley said. "I hope we don't encounter any more of them."

  "We might have to use the guns if we do," Bianka told us. "I'm not going back for those arrows. Now I only have five left."

  We continued down the path another hundred feet to get away from the smell before finding a nice thick section of brush to hide in. If anyone had heard the zombie attack on us, they would likely come down this path to check it out. When no one arrived after five minutes, we decided to continue on our mission as planned. The next pair of undead looking people that we encounter, would receive a wide berth.

  Shortly thereafter we reached the dead end of Springbrook Road. Though the high school had the same name, the entrance to it was on the next street over, Valley Brook Road. The campus did reside between the two streets, so we were very close to our target location.

  Two houses were positioned on the hill side, one with two large garages and a nice stone wall. It was the kind of place that would have been a good home to raid before. But now, it meant an increased chance to encountering more people. We steered clear, staying toward the river. Unfortunately, that led us to the ball fields.

  An open football field lay before us, with typical bleachers for a high school sporting event. Between it and the school building was a baseball field. It was a lot of wide-open area. There was no way that we would approach the school from this side. We would have to go all the way around to the far side or go past the two houses that we were avoiding.

  "You have been here before," I said to Bianka. "Which way did you go?"

  "I went past the houses, climbed a tree, then jumped onto the roof of the building. I don't recommend that course for you two."

  I frowned at hearing that. I so wanted to get close enough right away to see what was going on. "Where was the activity?" I asked. "The conversations that you overheard, where were they?"

  Bianka pointed as she replied. "At the doors on the near side of the building by the baseball field, on the far side by the parking lot, and in the courtyard."

  "How do we get to the courtyard?" Riley asked.

  "The roof," Bianka replied. "It is completely surrounded by building."

  "Well," Riley responded. "I guess that area is out for today."

  "No," I said, gears turning faster in my mind. "That's where we'll find Alexa, when they let her outside. It is the easiest space to secure. We have to get to the roof."

  We spent the next hour scoping out the sparse activity around the building. They had guards passing the perimeter in pairs every fifteen to thirty minutes, but they never left the campus. Tamika's group was evidently not interested in protecting an expanded territory. That suggested a lack of manpower, or womanpower, to do so. That was good news for us.

  We waited until the guards were just out of view then made our way to the building. Bianka took the same path as last time to reach the roof. It was fascinating to watch her in action, that ultra-sexy body wiggling like a cougar. She climbed the tall tree using her stakes like rock climbing pickaxes. Once she gave us the all clear signal, Riley and I used a rusty ladder that was already in place. All
three of us made it up top without getting spotted as far as we could tell. At least not by the schoolhouse gang. There was a New-HAM scout positioned in the woods close by in view of our ninja style invasion. When Bianka pointed him out, I gave him a wave. Let him try to figure out what that meant.

  When we reached the edge of the roof by the courtyard, I was delightfully surprised to see two women sitting at a picnic table not far from our position. One of them was the voluptuous bronze-skinned Camilla. Though we didn't always get along, I was happy to see her alive and well.

  I glanced around quickly for guards, or at least someone with a weapon. But the rest of the courtyard was empty. I found that a bit confusing since the second person at the table was more than just a sight for sore eyes. Seeing her for myself after days of separation took my breath away. It was my wife, Alexa. Everything about the person was unmistakably her. The shape and movement of every part of her body. The way her blonde hair draped across her shoulders when she pulled it out of her face.

  We finally found her.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: