"Tainted," Chris says quietly.
"Yeah...it will draw every Tainted for miles."
"I know," he says, watching as a dozen Tainted enter the clearing to their left. They stumble and shuffle their way toward the smoke, flames, and screams. Gesturing toward the activity south of them, he says, "I hope that keeps their focus."
Footsteps to their right draws their attention and fortunately, the heavy brush keeps them hidden as another Tainted moves within just a few feet of them.
When the danger passes, their focus turns south.
Audrey gasps. "Is that them?" she asks, pointing toward three figures rising out of a low wash between two paved roads. It's the most emotion Chris has heard from her.
"I think so," he says. Then, recognizing the lead runner, he says more adamantly, "Yes...that's them." His heart flutters in his chest at the sight of her. Standing, he waves as they draw closer. Seeing the movement, a smile stretches across Karen’s face. Never breaking stride, she swipes her staff before her, knocking two Tainted aside and moving on without a backward glance. One of them turns as if to follow her, but then the roar and commotion of the smoke and fire draws its attention away and it turns its shuffling gate back south.
Karen falls into his arms and they hug, kiss, and rub their hands over one another’s face in disbelief. He honestly thought they'd never see each other again.
As Zak and Helen approach, the older woman takes Audrey in her arms, hugs her tight. "Are you okay?" she asks, pushing Audrey back at arm's length to examine her.
Audrey nods and they hug again.
"I hate to break up the reunion," states Zak. "But we've got company coming."
All five of them look to the south.
A group of at least thirty Highwaymen move away from the complex and toward them.
"Where do we go?" Helen asks, the first signs of panic growing in her voice.
"We have a plan," Chris says, gathering up his pack, the bow, and the arrows.
"Follow me," Zak says. "The place we talked about isn't too much farther up the road."
"What place?" Helen and Karen ask in unison.
"No time to explain, Mom. We've got to go." Audrey points and they all turn to look. Their pursuers have almost closed half the distance.
Zak leads them out of the trees. A Tainted burst into view ahead of him and he dispatches it quickly with the tip of his lance. Once they reach the road, Zak turns and leads them north at a run.
* * *
Zak directs them across the median to what used to be the southbound lanes of highway. On the other side of the road is a valley, scattered with hundreds of patches of low, long leafed vegetation growing out of mounds spaced sporadically along the ground. From this distance, they look like tufts of green hair scattered amongst a bed of dying grass.
She steps next to Zak. "This is it, isn't it...the place the Highwaymen believe is haunted?"
"Yes," he says, then turns toward the others. Pointing to the southern edge, he says, "I need you on the other side. Follow the tree line to the back of this field.” As he speaks, his finger points the way along the trees and toward the west side of the valley. “And whatever you do, don't touch any of that tall grass or step on any of the mounds."
"What are they?" Helen asks.
"The dead," says Chris, glancing nervously over his shoulder. They'd gained a little ground on the pack of men hunting them, but that gap was closing quickly. He only had a few minutes to get into position. Then something Zak says registers. He turns to him and says, "You want us on the other side? What about you? You're supposed to be there with us."
Zak shakes his head and lowers his eyes. Audrey feels a pang of emotion flood through her as she realizes what he intends to do. She steps forward and takes his hand. It's the first time she's touched him since escaping the dead back in Carson's Crossing. "You can't sacrifice yourself for us. There has to be another way." He slides out of his backpack and hands it over to Karen.
"Here, carry this for me, please. I'm going to need to make as quick of an exit as possible."
"What the hell is he talking about?" Karen asks, her voice filled with panic as her eyes flick back and forth from the backpack, to Zak, to Chris, and then to the advancing Highwaymen.
Zak takes Audrey's hands again, then lifts his eyes to meet hers. "If there were any other way."
"We've got to go," Chris says, attempting to pull Karen with him down the embankment and to the tree line south of the field.
"Go," Zak says, removing his hands from Audrey's.
"Come on, Audrey," orders Helen, following Karen and Chris down the side of the man-made hill.
"Go," Zak says again, this time turning away from her and heading straight for the field.
"No!" Audrey says. She moves toward Chris. "I'm going with him...give me one of your machetes." She removes her own backpack, tosses it at her mother's feet.
Chris hesitates.
Several steps down the hill, Zak turns back.
"Now!" she yells, holding out her hand in Chris’s direction. "You won't need it right now anyway...we'll need you to cover us with that bow."
Reluctantly, Chris reaches over his shoulder, pulls a machete from its scabbard, and hands it over.
"Now," Audrey says, turning toward Zak. "Are we doing this or what?"
"Audrey..." Helen starts argue, but her daughter looks at her with such staunch determination that Helen clamps her mouth shut. Instead, she turns to Zak. "You better know what the fuck you're doing."
"Language, Mother."
With that, Audrey takes Zak's hand and together, they turn away and head quickly down.
"Let's go," Chris says, leading Karen away. Reluctantly, Helen turns and follows.
* * *
"So, what's the plan," Audrey asks, unable to hide the nervousness in her voice. He hadn’t shared this part with either herself or Chris.
"For now, just watch where you step. Don't touch any of the grass growing out of the mounds and don't step on any of the ones that don't have that grass." Now that they were at ground level, they could see only a portion of the mounds because of the grass. From above, the others blended in almost perfectly.
"So, this is what that baby reminded you of?"
"Yes," he whispers, stepping closer to the edge of the field. "They've been here so long the grass grew through their bodies. It's the perfect camouflage."
"What about the green leaves...shouldn’t they be dead?"
"I don't know," Zak says. "Now, we can't talk any more. I don't want to risk waking them too soon."
He leads her though the maze of grass-covered bodies, taking care to step between each mound and hoping to whatever gods would protect him, he wouldn't accidentally find a hand or foot. He's afraid if he wakes one, then it'll set off a chain reaction, waking them all.
They reach the center of the field with no obvious slipups. On the other side, Chris, Karen, and Helen take cover behind a thin stand of trees. Chris gives Zak a thumbs up and Zak, nervously, returns the gesture then slowly turns back toward the road.
Less than a minute later, a line of Highwaymen appears on the crest of the hill above them.
* * *
"Simon," hisses a man to his right. "The curse."
Simon turns his head, eyes blazing into the man. "I'm your curse, you cunt. I want that fucker, and I want him alive." He turns back to the couple standing in the middle of the field. He's not sure who the girl is, but he can't help but add to his orders. "Get the bitch too."
Nervous energy runs up and down the line of men. He can't deny he's a little nervous too. The elders were adamant about this place. They said if they disturbed it, the ghosts of the dead would appear and kill everyone.
To Simon, this story was told around campfires to scare small children. However, in all his years with the Highwaymen, he's known no one to have come here.
"Forward," he orders, glad to hear the word repeated up and down the ranks until every man is moving.
>
* * *
Karen squeezes his shoulder. "Aren't you going to shoot?"
"Not yet. Zak told me to wait on his cue."
"But they are within range of their spears."
Helen chimes in with, "If they haven't started throwing them now, they won't. I think they want Zak alive."
"What about Audrey?" Karen asks.
To which the only answer she receives is silence.
* * *
"How much closer are you going to let them get," whispers Audrey.
"Almost there," he whispers back. He hefts his spear, holding it in a throwing position, causing the semicircle of advancing men to pause.
Before them, Simon takes another step forward, separating himself from the others. His singular focus is on Zak, so he doesn't realize that his foot just grazed a dead man's elbow.
* * *
Eyes now open, the thing realizes that after so long, there's food nearby. It can smell the fresh meat, the coppery aroma of blood flowing through living veins. It tries to move, but something holds it down, keeping it from moving. All around, he senses others waking too. They all smell it.
And now they all hear it.
* * *
"Did you think you could get away?" Simon asks, lips bleeding sarcasm.
"I never had a doubt," Zak says. Cocking his arm, he tosses the spear. The Highwaymen stiffen but don’t retreat. The spear arcs through the air and all eyes follow its path as if flies over the line of men and falls behind to the ground behind them—not even sticking in the ground. Instead, it flips, end over end across the ground, coming to rest about halfway between where they stand and the hill that rises to the road above.
The Highwaymen share looks between themselves then burst out laughing. The noise reverberates through the valley. Simon joins in with them, but something grabs his ankle, causing him to look down.
“What the…”
A skeletal hand jerks his leg—his laughter immediately replaced by a high-pitched yelp of shock.
Too late, he realizes his mistake. Fury floods through him as he looks up to see Zak and the girl fleeing through a field of grass that moves and boils as if alive.
All around him, his men's laughter turns to screams as grassy shapes, in the form of bodies, rises all around them.
Someone shouts, "Now."
Something strikes him in the chest, followed closely by the loudest, most agonizing scream of pain he's ever heard in his life.
It's him—he's the one screaming. There's a fucking arrow sticking out of his chest.
The hand around his ankle jerks again, tripping him to the ground. The grass seems to roll toward him, then a face appears. A face with yellowing eyes and teeth, skin as cracked and charred as burned wood, and a searching tongue as black as night. All over its body, the grass had grown into and through the skin.
Teeth press against his neck, splitting the skin under its force as the wet warmth of blood escapes from the tear in his throat, staining everything around him in shades of crimson. Two more dead crawl towards him, forcing questing fingers into his skin, ripping it, tearing it to expose the organs inside.
It takes several minutes for Simon to die.
* * *
"That's Simon," Karen says, pointing out the man that's moved two spaces in front of the others. "He's the one that hit you and brought me here."
From across the valley, Simon calls, "Did you think you could get away?"
Karen can't tell if he's asking this of Zak, or of her. Either way, she wants nothing to do with him.
In the distance, Zak cocks his arm, holding the spear as if he's about to throw it. This is it, Chris thinks, notching an arrow and pointing it toward the center of the group.
Zak throws the spear. It moves as if in slow motion, high into the air, then over the heads of the Highwaymen. It lands and rolls behind them.
Laughter erupts from the line of men, but Zak and Audrey have turned. They run toward Chris, Zak waving his arms and shouting, "Now!"
Chris doesn't hesitate. He draws the bowstring to his chin and lets loose, just as the ground around the Highwaymen begins to boil and rise. The first arrow strikes Simon in the chest. His next two miss their targets while the fourth catches another Highwayman in the head, piercing his face just below the right eye socket. After that, the Tainted, draped in clothing made of dead grass, obscures his field of view.
Zak, led by the machete wielding Audrey, are nearing the edge of the clearing. Her arm swings with practiced ease, slicing through grass, then skull, then black-stained brains with ease. Behind her, Zak pushes, kicks, and hits his way through the ones that attack from the sides, but to Chris's horror, the Tainted close the gap, blocking the way to safety.
"Nooo," screams Helen, who tries to burst forward from the tree line. "Audrey!"
It takes both Karen and him to hold her back, to drag her away.
"It's too late," Karen says, hands placed on either side of Helen's face. "There's too many of them...we have to go."
"No," Helen shouts. "Not without Audrey. I can't..."
"We've got to go," Chris says, cutting her off. A dozen grass covered bodies turn their direction, attracted by Helen's cries.
"No, no, no..." Helen cries, face twisted in anguish.
"Yes," Chris says, putting as much force behind the word as he can muster. "Now!"
Grabbing her hands in theirs, Chris and Karen drag her away.
Behind them, the screams of the Highwaymen diminish to silence. The only sound left is that of the Tainted, their cloaks of grass whispering, their jaws ripping and tearing flesh with moans of ecstasy.
Epilogue
It took almost two days of hard traveling to reach the old railroad town of Kirvin. Sitting well away from any major highways, the town's isolation made it the perfect place to stop, rest, and collect their thoughts. According to Zak's recollection, Kirvin was well north of the Highwaymen's territory. He'd pointed out the location when studying Chris's book of maps. They'd planned, in advance, that Kirvin would be the meeting spot if for any reason the group became separated.
Two days, Chris thinks, pressing his sore back against the wall. They'd agreed on two days—if they got separated, the group making it to Kirvin first would wait two days, minus any travel time, before moving on. If the second party didn’t arrive with two days of the first party, they wouldn't be arriving at all.
Karen lies next to him, still floating deep within her own dreams. The gray gloom of dawn gradually washes away the black of night. He can see the sky changing through the windows near the ceiling. In his mind, it will be a long two days. Based on what he witnessed with the grass-covered Tainted—well, he doesn't expect either of them to show up.
But a promise is a promise—they agreed they would give everyone the benefit of the doubt and he intended on doing just that—even if just for their memory.
* * *
As light brightens the interior of the old train depot, Chris sees Helen is awake.
"Morning," he says, consciously leaving off the word, good. Helen won't have a good morning for quite some time.
She sits up and they stare at each other for a few minutes. Taking a deep breath, she asks quietly, "What's on the agenda for today?"
Chris automatically understands what she's really asking. She wants to be busy and stay busy.
"I have three things I look for while traveling," he holds up his hand, lifts a finger with each word. "Shelter, water, and food." He gestures toward the room. "We have shelter and based on last night's inventory, we have very little food left."
"So, we really need water?"
Chris nods.
"I can do that."
"Thanks. Take a machete with you. I'll set some game traps and then we can both search houses."
Chris leans down to wake Karen, but Helen stops him.
"Chris...let her sleep. She can use it."
There's something in her tone of voice that tells him there's another reason for this
advice, but he doesn't press it—if it's important, it will come up when the time is right.
Muscles sore and joints aching, he forces himself to stand. He hasn't felt like this in a long time.
"Are you okay?" Helen asks.
Chris waves her off. "Yeah...just tired and sore."
"I guess it’s good we're stopping for a few days, huh?"
He retrieves both machetes from his pack and hands one to Helen. "Oh...wait," he says, turning back to his pack, flipping the top off, and retrieving a couple of canteens.
She slides them into her shoulder bag, then slips the bag over her head.
Turning toward the exit, she pauses and says without looking back, "Do you think they made it?"
Saying yes gets her hopes up. Saying no dashes them—he doesn't want to submit her to either so he stands there in silence.
She waits. As the silence stretches, she hangs her head and heads toward the door.
Chris follows close behind.
* * *
By the time he returns to the depot, Karen is up and Helen has returned with full canteens of water. At the other end of the building, a portion of the roof is missing and over time, the ceiling fell in after years of being exposed to the elements. Chris chose this area to set up a small fire to cook the squirrels he caught in the snares. Karen found a cook pot in a house and using this, they boiled the water before drinking it. Helen found a small creek with what appeared to be a spring-fed water source, but they couldn't be too careful. There's no telling what's upstream and dying from some stomach parasite is not a way any of them want to go.
Skewering strips of meat, the fire has them cooked in a few short minutes. When done, he carries them back to the other end of the depot and hands two of the skewers over to Karen, who passes one to Helen.
They eat in silence.
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