“You got what? Shot with an arrow? How in all of Sam’s hell did that happen? And when did it happen?” Jim blurts out once he realizes Clay isn’t having another hallucination or something. “Whoa slow down Jim. Clay go ahead and lay back down” Ray says to them both. “Jim grab some water from the corner over there.” Ray points to the corner just to the left of the entryway where they had been storing all the bottles of water the kids had been finding on their searches of the houses surrounding the chiropractor’s office. “Let’s just take it easy for a minute. We need to get some water in you.” “Here you go” Jim says handing the bottle of water he had collected from their stash to Ray, who immediately untwists the cap and offers it to Clay. Clay sips the water slowly spilling only a little out of the corner of his mouth where it runs down his chin and neck to his chest. Ray knows it his imagination but he swears he can hear it sizzling from the heat of Clays fever. “Feeling any better Chief?” Ray asks Clay when he finally brings the bottle from his lips and rests it in his lap. “A little, thank you” Clay answers looking at his friend and meeting his gaze for the first time in over a day, the worry apparent on Ray’s furrowed brow. “Ok so let’s have it. How on earth did you get shot with an arrow?” Jim asks as Clay seems to regain enough of his old self to help them in diagnosing his ailment. “It happened when Colt fell through the table three days ago. Evidently when he found the lovely woman in the corner it startled him so bad he immediately stepped backwards stumbling over the glass topped table. He must’ve had an arrow notched and drawn in case of any dangers in the room. We hadn’t cleared the whole place yet at that point. When he instinctually threw his hands down to break his fall he released the arrow right in my direction slamming me in the side with it.” Clay’s breath comes in short quick inhales and exhales as he recounts the series of events that lead him to contract the infection that now rages through his body. “No shit, talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time” Jim sighs as Clay takes a break to try and catch his breath, “I mean what are the odds.” Ray sits stone still in silence except for the “Shut the hell up” look he shoots at Jim that was unmistakable even behind the mask and in the low light of the room. “In all the chaos that followed I didn’t think to tell anyone about it” Clay begins. “And with all the blood from Colt’s wounds it would have been impossible to tell your blood from his” Ray says finally able to speak as the severity of Clay’s situation begins to dawn on him. “Yeah I guess so. Anyway as soon as I got a minute I did my best to clean it up but that was……” Clay looks up at the ceiling as he tries to recall how many hours past before he could get away and wash out the arrow wound, “Damn it must’ve been late that night right before I went to bed before I had a chance to clean it. All I could find was some peroxide and I didn’t want to waste any of our water stores” Clay closes his eyes to rest as he tries to catch his breath. “Take it easy Clay try not to tire yourself out” Ray tells his friend as he truly sees the diminished state of Clay’s health for the first time. As Clay seems to slip back into a restless slumber tormented by the pain of the infection and his fever, Ray turns to Jim, “I wonder if there are any diagnosing medical books in that dr.’s office we can look through. If we can at least figure out what type of infection Clay might have, well, maybe then we can have some type of game plan to try and fight it.” “Sounds good, anything’s better than just standing here feeling helpless and watching Clay die. I’ll go and grab a couple of flashlights.” Jim stands up as he finishes and turns to walk out of Clay’s room to retrieve the flashlights from the break room, stopping dead in his tracks as he turns and looks back at Ray, both of their eyes wide with surprise and fear as the distinct, muffled, but unmistakable sound of gunfire fills the air.
Levi reacts in an instant, moving more out of instinct than strength of mind as Grant stumbles backwards landing on top of Paige and pinning her to the ground under him. The newly found hatchet is put to solid, quick work as Levi stands drawing the weapon up over his head and bringing it crashing down, flat side first, directly on the forehead of the would be attacker. There is an audible ‘crack!’ as the hatchet hits home, like the sound of someone dropping a watermelon it sounds both solid and wet. The woman, Levi can see that it is (or at least it used to be a woman now as she collapses at his feet landing on her back in the dirt and ash on the houses kitchen floor. Blood beginning to ooze out of the wound on her forehead and from out of her ears from where the hammer style blow Levi had delivered with the hatchet had cracked her skull. “Zombie! Oh My God it’s a fuckin’ zombie!” Grant is crying from his position on top of the pinned down Paige, who is quickly getting aggravated and frustrated from her current resting position. “Get off of me!” Paige growls from under the panicked Grant. “Be quiet you idiot, it’s NOT a zombie. And don’t curse like that if dad were here he’d pop you in the mouth” Laura, standing next to Levi at his left shoulder looking down at the poor woman, shoots back at her brother who has fallen again, tripping over something else as Grant is finally able to let Paige up from the trapped position he had her in under him. Levi and Laura who are now joined by Paige are all standing over the fallen form of what was once a woman, look down in disbelief and pity on what was left of her. Her eyes are open and glazing over as a single escaping tear makes its way down her right cheek. The last piece of proof that the woman was ever alive trying to escape it’s now dead hostess falls from her cheek to land and die on the ash covered floor in a symbolic twist of irony that is the cruelty of the world they all now live in. “Oh my God Levi look at her lips” Paige whispers barely loud enough to be heard through her mask. “And her hands” Laura adds, as none of them are able to take their eyes off of the fallen woman.
The skin on the woman’s’ face is drawn up tight due to severe starvation and dehydration. Which is a direct contradiction from the skin on her body that hangs loose from dehydration and extreme muscle lose. Evidently in the world before she had actually been a larger woman, the excessive amount of loose skin however was the only thing left that would give someone any indication of it. Whatever excess fat she had once carried had been used up by her starving body a long time ago. The rims of her eyes were red, bloodied, and swollen from the constant attempt to rub out the tiny shards of glass that made up volcanic ash. Her teeth appear unusually long and sharp from where her gums had receded and her teeth had broken from malnutrition. She had eaten her lips off in starving desperation giving her a grotesque looking smile showing the twisted humor of irony once again. Only her thumbs, pointer fingers, and ring fingers remained attached to her hands. The other fingers, considered non-essential, had been cut off and eaten along with most of her toes. Naked except for a tattered skirt that was poorly tied about her at the waist, her ribs could be counted with ease and her breasts were nothing more than saggy flaps of skin only discernible from the dried up nipples that stood out from the ends of them. Emaciated, dehydrated, and starving her death was more of a release from a world she was no longer strong enough to survive in than a punishment.
“See I told you it was a zombie!” Grant says as he comes up behind them. Growing hysterical as he sees the woman and the condition of her body in the full glow of the flashlight for the first time. Paige and Laura look at each other and roll their eyes. “It is not a zombie Grant. It’s just a poor soul that didn’t have a place like the compound to escape to and couldn’t make it out here in the harshness of the Ashland on….her….own” Levi says trailing off at the end as he notices a dull glow coming from beneath a door at the far end of the hallway. “What is that?” Paige asks as everyone begins to follow Levi’s gaze down the hallway to see the glow themselves. “I don’t know” Levi whispers turning off his flashlight as he motions for everyone else to do the same. Taking a more aggressive stance he gives the signal that everyone is to go silent and to form up behind him in the formation they use as they sweep houses. As Grant, still visibly shaken by the incident, walks by to fall in line Levi grabs him by the elbow and holds it u
ntil Grant looks at him. Levi gives Grant a reassuring nod and lightly strikes him on the shoulder. Grant inhales deeply and exhales slowly as he tries to clear his head and refocus before returning Levi’s gesture of goodwill. As they fall in formation Levi motions for them to cautiously begin making their way forward down the hall towards the glow coming from underneath the door. Grant can’t help but to cast one more glance over his shoulder in the direction of the dead form sprawled out on the kitchen floor. Shuddering Grant turns and quickly catches up to the rest of the group to fall in formation behind Laura.
Ally watches in disbelief, cursing to herself as the small group actually heads deeper into the house even after they have already had to kill one of the gashers! Didn’t they know that gashers never roamed alone?! And that they were now voluntarily heading deeper into one of their dens?! She had to try to warn them before they alerted every den in the area that they were out here and got the gashers on the move again. Ally swallows her own fears of the gashers and of the strangers and begins making her way to the house that the group was now searching when the first round of gunfire bursts forth from the house and echoes through the streets of the entire neighborhood. “Oh no! Stop shooting!” Ally exclaims aloud as she breaks into a full run towards the house. “You’ll alert all of them!”
The hallway shows signs of frequent use as the team make its way towards the door. They could tell by the way the light flickered and danced that someone had actually started a fire inside the room. Any smell of anything burning was blocked by their masks but the amount of light coming from underneath the door never wavered, an indication to Levi that at least the house itself wasn’t on fire. Weapons at the ready as they crossed the homes living room continuing to make their way towards their destination, scanning the area with the lights Levi and Grant both had mounted underneath the barrels of their weapons (The clear lenses having been replaced with the much more dark friendly and less ambient red lenses). Pile after pile of blankets bunched together like make shift bedding just like the one Levi and Grant had found in the garage of the last house could be seen littered all over the entire area of the room. Levi again begins to work his way through the room towards the door with even more watchfulness than before. The sheer number of beds making Levi momentarily rethink the wisdom behind continuing to search this particular house. As they reach the door with the fire glow Levi notices something just at the edge of the light from his flashlight. As he swings the red light around to rest on the object Levi takes a staggering step backwards at the shock of the condition of the body that now rests in the glow of his flashlight. The body shows signs of having both of its legs hacked off at the pelvis as well as having both of its arms cut off at the shoulder. The form that rests in the center of the beam of light catches Levi and the rest of the group off guard as the torso looks up directly into the light and gives off a long low mournful wail that is both frightening and pitiful. Its eyes and lips bloodied and eaten away, looking identical to the woman Levi had slain in the kitchen. Sitting in a pool of its own blood and slowly bleeding to death (the abuse the torso’s vocal chords had taken from the extended breathing of the non filtered ashes had long ago lost any ability to make any type of coherent sounds) it continues its pitiful wail until Levi in an act of morbid mercy puts the flat side of the hatchet to work once again. Turning around to face the group, Levi again focuses on the now menacing fire glow that still emanates from beneath the door.
The door slowly swings to stand fully open revealing the room within lit by the fire that burned at its center inside a crude fire pit. A crudely made tripod holding the calf and foot of one of the severed legs hung over the flames. Every head in the room turns to look at the group as the door comes to a stop, some mouths ringed with the blood of whatever limb they were already eating, to hungry or to unwilling to wait for the meat over the fire to cook they are eating what they have raw. Before Levi can stop him Grant walks into the room and is horrifyingly greeted by the gruesome sadism being played out by the desperate and the starving. Drawn together by the most basic primitive instinct to gather in groups even in their desperate emaciated state all of them as withered and as sunken as the pathetic forms of the woman in the kitchen and the torso in the hallway. It is a scene plucked directly out of any apocalyptic nightmare that fills the restless nights of every survivor in the world. They all stand there in consternation and silence of what they are witnessing. Lost in their own dismay from finding something so ghastly and unexpected, the gunshot that fills the room dances on the dead stale air causing all of their ears to ring and their hearts to skip a beat.
Grant is unable to bear the sight of the monstrosities which are busy dining on the flesh of another human being. They are seated in a rudimentary circle around the fire in the room that the group has just discovered. Grant shoots the form closest to them directly in the face with the twelve gauge shotgun he is holding subsequently decapitating it in a gruesome spray of gore, brains, and blood covering the wall behind the victim in a grisly display of art that only Josef Mengele’ could have appreciated. The rest of the group jumps backwards from the shock of the unexpected shotgun blast, instinctively drawing up their own weapons to a fire ready position. As the withered forms in the room begin to stand and move towards them with their arms extended out in front of them, a pitiful attempt to try to reach what they hoped was more food, their mouths still bloody from the victim in the hallway open releasing the desperate cry of the starving and the mute. Grant shoots the next one in the chest sending the body flying backwards to slam against the opposite wall. Taking Grants cue the rest of the group begin systematically eliminating the rising occupants of the room one by one. Fourteen starving and withered but still monstrous forms lay dead or dying about the room when at last the gunshots quit ringing out. Paige walks from form to dying form mercifully ending the lives of any that are still struggling for life, Laura is right behind her ready to assist if necessary. As Paige reaches the closet she notices the door move, ever so slightly. Paige motions to Laura and points at the closet door, that is flimsy at best, one of those cheap apartment French style three panel doors. As Paige eases the door open her hands drop to her sides releasing her weapon which falls to land on the blood soaked carpet at her feet. Laura gasps audibly behind her as they stand watching the form of a child eating the fingers it had stolen from the rest of the group and had hid itself in the closet to avoid detection. Its hair had fallen out almost to the point of baldness as it turns its red rimmed, bloody eyes up to look at them almost apologetically. It appears to try to smile (but it’s hard to tell if someone is smiling when they don’t have lips) as it notices them and offers them what is left of the finger it had been ravenously eating just moments before. Holding out the finger towards Laura and Paige with the hand and arm it still possesses it begins to try and crawl out of the closet as it is unable to walk due to one of its legs having already been hacked off and eaten. The shot makes them utter a startled scream as the child’s head snaps back and it collapses on the floor, expiring with a single dying twitch. Paige and Laura turn clumsily in their surprise as Paige trips over one of the many dead forms lying at her feet causing her to land on her butt in a pool of violence, to see Levi holding the .357 Clay had found in the chiropractor’s office the first day they had arrived here pointed directly at the fallen form of the child. A thin line of smoke still coming from out of the end of the barrel.
“Don’t shoot! I’m not a gasher!” Ally screams from just outside the door, afraid to show herself to the group in fear of being shot in their panic and fear. “My name is Ally and I’m a survivor like you. I’m coming out now please DO NOT shoot me.” Ally steps into the room from where she had been hiding in the hallway with her hands held over her head and slightly out in front of her. “We have to get out of here and back to someplace safe and we need to do it quickly. That video game style shootout just alerted every gasher for ten blocks that we are here” Ally says to the group, still standing just inside the
doorway to the room with her hands held over her head. Levi, Laura, Grant, and Paige, who has now picked herself up from where she had fallen, all turn to look at the newcomer standing in front of them in utter surprise. “Well don’t just stand there looking at me let’s go!” Ally exclaims to them as she turns and walks back out of the room and begins making her way down the hallway and through the kitchen to exit the house.
Beneath the Ashen Veil of Darkness Page 10