The Plague Runner

by Burgy, P. J.

  “What?”

  Kara took the girl’s arm. “We need a distraction. Come on.”

  “Pony!” Lena said, looking up at the large, white mare.

  Kara opened the gate and let the horse out, leading the animal by its bridle. The creature seemed to remember Kara from earlier and approached her immediately, trying to snuffle at Kara’s shirt. Lena was forced to back up as Kara pet the horse’s face, holding the animal’s muzzle close to her shoulder for a moment.

  Turning to watch the girl as she patted the horse’s side, Kara cleared her throat and then nodded her head toward a pile of cloth in the corner of the pantry. There were blankets and rugs stacked near the small animal cages. “Lena, look for a tarp, or a big blanket. It’s day out, so Russell will get burned unless we cover him up. Hurry up.”

  “Okie doke,” Lena said.

  Kara stared into the horse’s sleepy eyes. “I hope you’re as fearless as Eli told me you were, because I’m scared shitless and one of us has to be brave.”

  The horse was silent, stomping a hoof before lowering its head. Kara let go of the beast and then saw Lena carrying a large, white blanket over to her. Kara went to the girl, reaching out to take the blanket. It wasn’t damaged and the threading was good. Kara held it up, spreading it open to check the condition and found it to be big enough and thick enough. There was a design around the trim, like a series of pink roses. Kara folded it up and threw it over the back of the horse, in front of the saddle.

  “What about all these guys?” Lena asked, pointing to the caged creatures.

  Kara glanced from pen to pen, seeing how agitated the animals were. In the smaller metal cages the raccoons were struggling to move, twisting around and circling, the chickens flapping their wings and slapping against the bars. The dogs were whining, the cats curled up into tight little balls. She looked to the pens of pigs and sheep, watching the ones who were standing begin to pace, growing more excited as Kara neared the fence.

  “We let them out.”

  “Let them out?” Lena echoed.

  “Yeah. Open the cages. Then, we gotta go,” Kara said.

  The white horse was a fast runner, Kara holding the reins with Lena sitting in front of her. Behind them, the birds and beasts had been freed and were running amuck, scrambling down the tracks or lingering on the platform. The deer had broken into a panicked dash down the track behind Kara, and were storming through the trash and debris, passed the cage of Infected.

  Someone must have heard the noise and Kara heard calls in the station, the cries reverberating and bouncing off of the walls, and she drove the horse on, through the tracks through the next tunnel. The beast knew no fear, keeping its pace and pushing through the sound of the wails as the caged Infected reacted to the birds and animals spilling out into the hive.

  Kara took the horse to a canter and then slowed down to a stop, turning back to look at the tunnel behind her, just for a second. The Infected had arrived at the pantry and were trying to gather the animals up by the sound of it, their voices echoing as they shouted at one another and the loose creatures, so Kara continued on her way. She could hear shrieking from up ahead and scowled, feeling Lena grip her arms.

  Up ahead, there were two ways to go. There was the stairwell leading to freedom up on the platform on the right, and to the left the track that would lead right to Russell’s cage. Kara tried to imagine what she’d find there, if the guards had gotten him all the way back only to discover that his cellmate was missing. Would they have removed her first before throwing him in? Would he be strong enough to escape if they’d already locked him back up?

  She pushed the horse on and they went down the tunnel, the clamor of clopping hooves suddenly drowned out by the shrieking from the tunnel before them. It didn’t matter. Kara saw the guards holding Russell, their expressions a mixture of shock and confusion as they saw her. There were two of them holding him, and Russell, who had been hanging in their grip and shrieking, took the opportunity to flail just enough to get loose from one of them. They hadn’t been ready for him to prove so lively after such a prolonged state of limp defeat. He bashed one of their heads against the platform wall, his fingers wrapped around the back of the other’s skull even before the second guard could react.

  Russell roared victoriously, the sound frightening, before he was tackled by the surviving guard. Kara rode up, trying to circle the two of them as they fought on the ground, and was horrified when the guard swung out his free arm to swipe at the horse. She had her flashlight out, switched it to UV to burn the guard, inadvertently also burning Russell, who yelled in pain.

  Kara pulled the horse around, trying to avoid the guard. Russell grappled with him and the horse, silent as ever, spun while Kara pulled the reigns. The horse kicked, landing a hoof square in the guard’s jaw, taking off a chunk of his face in the process. Blood spattered everywhere and Kara attempted to shield Lena, who was screaming.

  “Russell, get on! Get on!” Kara called out.

  “Get out! Get out of here! What are you doing?!” Russell roared at her, standing and shaking overtop the body of the dying guard. He stomped hard on the back of the Infected’s skull, killing him, and then glared up at Kara. “Get out, you idiot!”

  Kara stammered, “I came back to save-”

  “Go! Go now!”

  Kara frowned and then rode off with Lena, gripping the girl tightly. The horse was able to scale the platform easily, a feat that Kara could hardly believe.

  The Infected were coming, running over toward them, nearly falling over one another in their frantic attempt to beat the horse to the stairwell, calling out and shrieking as Kara turned the horse toward the steps. Up they went, the Wailers right behind them, riding blindly in the dark until they bashed into the weakened boards of wood at the top.

  The horse pushed through, the planks falling and cracking as the nails pulled out completely and the barrier came apart, the sunlight searing Kara’s eyes as they reached the street. Hooves clacking sharply on the concrete, the horse whinnied, the only noise it had made the entire time, and turned about in a hard circle, led by Kara’s hands.

  The Infected were stopped by the light, kept back in the darkness below in the station. Kara jumped off the horse, leaving Lena there in the saddle, and stood at the open portal to peer down into the pit of the hive. She could see down as far at the light would go, and beyond that she could hear them hissing and spitting at her, yelling out curse words and insults.

  “Russell! If you can hear me, get up here! Please!” Kara called down. “Russell!”

  More hissing and spitting.

  Kara swallowed, taking a step back and then slowly spinning on her heel to look at Lena, who merely stared back at her with big, brown eyes. Kara lowered her head, lips parted as she stood on the street, the sun shining down on her and the breeze blowing her hair. It was a beautiful, bright day, hardly a cloud in the sky. Kara clenched her jaw and then began to walk toward the horse.

  Kara was grabbing at the reins when she heard it.

  She heard scuffling, cries of pain, and a series of cracks and bangs.

  Someone was yelling, their voice frantic.

  Then, there he was.

  Russell scrambled up to the street, crying out like he was on fire. He was burning the instant he stepped into the sun. He tripped, fell onto the blacktop, and then fought to his feet. Kara hardly recognized him for a split second before she grabbed the blanket from Lena and ran over to him, throwing it over his upper body and watching him crash into the ground. He was wheezing, heaving, panting, his shoulders rising and falling as he hid under the blanket.

  “You made it,” Kara whispered.

  “Ffff..” He collapsed, and stopped moving.

  Kara grimaced. “Russ?”

  Getting him onto the horse had been a struggle, and keeping him there required Kara to shove him back into place every now and again. He came around a little bit and was able to sit up, uneasy in the saddle, the blanket still drape
d over Russell like he were some sort of ghost. He hunched forward, drooling black all over the inside of blanket. She could see it seeping through the fabric in patches. After Russell had become more upright, the horse whinnied and trotted with a stiff demeanor, ready to buck until Kara patted her side to comfort her as they traveled.

  The streets were quiet, the buildings empty, decaying, or collapsed. The cars on the road had been pushed to either side, some on their sides or crushed completely. Broken glass glittered in the sun as the horse stepped gingerly around the remains of a car bumper. Leaves rustled in the trees above them and birds called out high above in the skeletal high rises.

  “The plan is to get to Blue Lagoon before they do,” Kara said to him, leading the horse along, Lena behind her. When Russell didn’t reply, Kara cleared her throat. “We’ll have nine or so hours on them, but they’ll catch up quick. We’ll have to move a lot faster. I’m gonna get you something to eat, Russ, okay?”

  “Is he going to die?” Lena asked.

  “No, he just hasn’t eaten in a while, so, we have to find him something.” Kara turned back to Lena, eyeing the girl’s face. “We’ll have to find him a place to take shelter too.”

  “He smells really bad,” Lena stated, and then sniffed the air. She scowled, looking down at herself. “I smell really bad too!”

  “We’ll look for water. We’ll need to find some to drink, then to clean off in. Keep your eyes peeled, Lena. We’re out of the hive, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe. Red Brethren out in the city too. We have to be careful,” Kara said.

  Russell gagged under the blanket.

  “Hello, Russell,” Lena said.

  He gurgled at her, head tilting under the fabric. “Unh.”

  “He can’t really talk right now, sweetie.” Kara said.

  Lena frowned and then looked off to the right. Kara was about to say something when she heard the little girl gasp and saw her take a few steps away from the trotting horse to point toward something to the left of them. Kara turned too, eyebrows raising.

  “It’s a dog!” Lena called out.

  Kara couldn’t believe it. It was Trap, tail wagging, floppy ears half raised, and tongue hanging out. As soon as the dog saw her, he began to bound over only to stop short and growl. Lena jumped up and down excitedly, whistling to him.

  “Trap! Here boy. Here.” Kara stopped the procession to bend down and clap her hands on her thighs, urging the dog to come closer.

  “Is that your dog, Kara?” Lena asked.

  “Sort of. I lost him. I thought I did, at least. Lucky little bastard made it!” Kara shook her head, lips pulled back into a grin. “Come on, Trap! It’s okay!”

  Russell made a wet, slurping noise under the blanket and leaned just enough to nearly slip off of the horse. He caught himself, the horse stomping around to shake him off as he dug his nails into its white fur, drawing blood.

  “Dammit!” Kara was forced to help Russell, trying to force him back onto the horse’s back. The beast seemed hesitant to allow him to stay there but eventually relented as Kara patted the side of its face. She turned her attention back to Trap again.

  “Here boy.” Lena went up to Trap, hands out.

  He must have smelled the Infected bile on her because he growled and bristled briefly before shivering. Kara watched as Trap crawled up to Lena, sniffed at her, sneezed, and then let her pet his head. Kara felt fingers graze her own and snapped her head around, seeing Russell’s hand on hers.

  She’d had her palm against his outer thigh, keeping him stable, and he had reached down to touch her. He wasn’t wearing gloves and hers were fingerless, not that the virus passed through the skin; it passed through the blood, bites, mucous membranes, wounds. Did she have any wounds? Kara pulled her hand away, looking over her skin, making sure. He’d touched the glove, not her fingers, but she still turned her hand over, studying her flesh and checking for any small cuts or abrasions near her fingertips. In that moment, Kara realized that she’d been afraid of his touch and she frowned, almost relieved that he couldn’t see her face.

  “Kara,” he whispered. “Please.”

  “Okay, okay. We’re going.” Kara reassured him and then turned to see Lena petting Trap. “Come on, Lena. Let’s go. Trap will follow. Come on.”

  Trap plodded along behind them, keeping a safe distance from Russell up on the horse, even summoning a growl every now and then at him. Lena dropped back now and then to pet the dog and talk to him softly, which Kara could hear snippets of.

  “Angel!” Lena said then.

  “Hm?” Kara tilted her head.

  “The horse’s name. Her name is Angel.”

  “That’s a nice name for her,” Kara said.

  Lena nodded. “I thought so.”

  “Is that what you were telling Trap, huh?” Kara asked.

  “No. I was telling him to follow closer. But I think he’s scared of Russell,” Lena said. “Dogs don’t like them. Even if they’re our friends, they don’t know.”

  “Russ doesn’t like dogs much, so I think it’s mutual.”

  They walked along the street, Lena kicking a rock.

  “I really want to clean off, Kara.” Lena said.

  “Let’s find a place for Russ, then we can, I promise,” Kara replied.

  They’d been traveling for another hour or so before Kara saw something up ahead.

  “There.” Kara pointed toward a flattened house with an exposed basement door. The home was crumbled, brought down by a storm or unfriendly visitors, but the twin basement doors, nearly flat against the ground, were visible through the tall grass.

  There was still plenty of sunlight, hours to go before it got dark, and Kara was thinking about what she could possibly catch for Russell. She led the horse over to the yard and then took out her flashlight, setting it to red, the UV button her next option if something happened to be down there.

  She opened the basement doors, each creaking painfully, and exposed the darkness down below in the basement. There were steps, weathered concrete, cracked by intact, leading down, and Kara shined the light into the shadows.

  Nothing happened, so Kara slowly descended, minding each step, sending the swath of red light around as she searched. The smell was musty, like dry earth and moist mildew. The light shone on a work desk and a few small toolboxes on a table. She saw a huge toolbox in the corner, and some shelves covered in dusty old electronics. Her father would have loved to get a look at some of the junk in this basement, Kara thought, seeing the computer towers in the far corner and the microwave in the other. With the house above being destroyed, she was able to trust that the stairs leading up would be safe, but she checked that door anyway and found that the stairwell have caved in. Sections of the floor under her feet were missing, the earth exposed, the soil loose and dry.

  It would be too dark down there for anyone besides Russell, who would only need to rest for a little bit while she and Lena waited up top, after he’d been fed, of course. How long it would take to catch something and bring it back would depend on what sort of fauna was wandering around in or hiding in the immediate area, and Kara knew she’d have to figure it out with little time to spare. She went back up the steps, worrying over her next task.

  Lena was playing with Trap, trying to get him to play fetch, when Kara got to the surface. She smiled at the scene, but it was brief sentiment. Struggling to help Russell down, she heard his wheezing breath as he nearly fell off of the horse to the grass beside her, almost crushing Kara under his weight.

  He felt cold to the touch, his thick arm trying to wrap around her middle as she pulled him toward the open doors of the basement. He was dead weight now, barely able to use his legs. Step by step, she helped him down, until they were nearly to the floor. Kara could hold him no longer, her body giving up, her muscles screaming in agony as he slipped and fell away from her, rolling down the rest of the steps and landing hard on the concrete at the bottom.

  “Russ!” Kara fought to stay on her
feet and rushed down the rest of the steps to where he'd come to a rolling stop. He was crawling away, finding a place near the workbench, away from the sun, the stained blanket left behind. She followed after him, stopped only by the sound of light footsteps behind her.

  “Kara? Is everything okay?” Lena asked.

  She turned to see Lena standing at the bottom of the steps, near the edge of where the sunlight stopped and the shadow began, Trap behind her and growling. There was an aura about the girl, the sun creating a halo around her body.

  “He’ll be good. He’s fine. They heal.”

  “Oh. Good,” Lena said.

  Bending down to grab for the blanket, Kara walked back toward the steps, swerving around Lena, her back to her as the girl stepped further into the basement in an apparent attempt to get a closer look at Russell. “Come on, Lena, let him be.”

  She was halfway up the steps when she heard the scream.

  Lena's scream.

  And then she heard the yelp of the dog.

  Kara spun on her heel, nearly toppling down to the basement floor as she came running to find Lena. She found the girl, her back against the concrete wall nearest the steps.

  Lena screamed again, eyes locked onto Russell where he crouched over Trap’s twitching body. Lena screamed over and over as Russell tore into the dog, blood spilling across the floor, the sound of flesh ripping almost as loud as the girl’s cry.

  “Oh my god.” Kara ran for Lena and grabbed her, arms around the girl’s middle, and with what was left of her strength from helping Russell down the steps, she lifted her up and to the steps, pulling her out of the basement while Lena cried out in anguish.

  It took almost an hour to calm Lena down. Kara had found them a shallow stream of water flowing through the street about a hundred yards from the basement, and while the horse drank upstream Lena washed the blood and gore off of herself while Kara did the same. Following the source of the water, Kara found herself drinking it straight, and Lena joined her.