The Outbreak Series Boxed Set

by Thomas Baker

  In what seemed like minutes the light had faded. JT turned, muscles stiff. Gus sat stoking the fire as darkness imprisoned the outside world. Linda was already nodding off on one of the couches. JT walked over, wanting to warm up.

  "Well Hannah, should we play rock, paper, scissors for first watch tonight?" Gus asked as he continued poking the logs.

  "Nope, no need. I'll stay up first. I want to read some." Hannah answered as she held up her Bible.

  "How about you read a little of that book out loud tonight for us beautiful?" JT asked. With no alcohol around he thought the sound of her voice might help distract his thoughts and send him off to sleep.

  "Atta boy!" Gus clapped JT on the shoulder as he made his way to the other end of the couch where Linda snoozed. "Alrighty darlin', the floor is yours." Gus kicked his feet up on the coffee table in the middle of their little couch fort.

  Hannah's teeth chattered as she made her miserable way across the open, snow-covered field. It was up past her ankles, making her legs burn as she powered and plowed through it.

  Light flakes drifted lazily across her vision. Ahead the mountain face rose dramatically on either side of an opening. Hannah thought of the possibility there may be a road there under all that snow. The opening was her destination.

  It was times like this; she wished they hadn't left the nice, warm house. After two days though, any food not spoiled was gone, so there wasn't much choice but to go on. Not long after they had left that day, the sky opened up with what had to be at least eight inches of snow.

  Hannah paused for a moment, looking back over her shoulder for a glance at the others. JT looked like a furry bear, covered in brown winter gear. It fit snugly on him. Only his mouth and eyes were visible. She couldn't see his eyes just now, his head was down as he trudged along. He had gotten it from the house, his other one he said got snagged and torn on a tree.

  Not far out of the tree line they had just emerged from came Gus and Linda, straggling behind JT. Gus still leaned on Linda for support as the two of them struggled through the of uneven terrain and waves of snow drifts.

  Even though it hurt her chapped lips, Hannah smiled at the sight of the two of them. Now if they could only go faster. She waved her hand over her head at them.

  "We're comin' little missy!" Gus shouted back, mocking her with a wave of his own variety.

  He stopped, bent over a little, hands on his knees. Hannah felt her impatience melt away. It was hard for her to make it through all this snow and she was in her twenties.

  The crunch of disturbed snow snapped Hannah's focus away from Gus and to the right of where she was standing. A hand, grey and covered with open wounds that didn't bleed, burst out of the snow like it was rising out of the grave. The rest of its body followed, creating a miniature snow shower. It was maybe twenty feet away from her position. Hannah's heart sped up.

  Another, a man wearing cargo shorts, hiking boots, and nothing else pushed up from the ground even closer to Hannah. Snow clung to its dead but preserved body in clumps here and there. Fresh enough to look almost alive. They moved towards the sound of Gus's voice.

  Across the snowy plain more and more zombies ascended from the snow, like they were waking up from hibernation. Hannah hadn't accounted for this. She thought none of them did. It made sense now she saw it. Being already dead, the cold didn't affect them. They moved closer to Gus and Linda, oblivious to the weather, cutting the two off from Hannah.

  Ten, twenty, thirty. The number kept climbing. Frozen in shock, Hannah watched them shamble to their feet. Their presence disturbed the once pristine snow field.

  Like a bull JT charged through the snow, stopping when he reached Hannah. Almost slipping and falling down, he recovered by grabbing her arm. That roused her from her waking nightmare. JT pulled out a pistol. He took shots at the nearest ones, missing more often than not in the treacherous footing. If he wasn't slipping and falling, the zombies were as they plowed brutishly through the deep snow.

  The grey hazy sky, which had looked threatening all morning, opened up. Snow fell down, in small floating flakes at first, but then became faster and more intense.

  "No, no, no," Hannah mumbled to herself, swinging her rifle from her back into firing position.

  The wind picked upas well. The snow whirled and twirled and Hannah felt like she was inside a snow globe. She barreled through the snow as fast as she could, leaving JT behind, trusting he would catch up. She was trying not to lose sight of Gus and Linda as the storm threaten to obscure her vision.

  "JT, don't worry about me," Hannah yelled over the gunfire. "We have to get back to Gus!"

  It was a white out as the storm kept building. She lost sight of everyone, even the zombies. Panic nibbled at the corners of Hannah's mind. She could still hear JT firing, it sounded as though he wasn't far behind her. She wasn't worried about him, he could take care of herself.

  From the white gloom, two hands grabbed at her without a sound. She twisted away; the snow helping to root her in place. She swung with the butt of her rifle, knocking the zombie over back into the snow. A shot to the head stopped its struggling.

  In addition to the sound of JT's pistol, Hannah heard the pop of gunfire ahead and to the left of her. She honed in on it, knocking a few more zombies out of the way as they suddenly loomed into sight. The wind howled, making it harder to pinpoint Gus. Her hands throbbed and stiffen inside her gloves. Her face ached. She took a gamble and called out to Gus.

  "Here darlin'!" was his breathless reply.

  His voice more to the right now,she adjusted her course. A tug on her shoulder and suddenly she was yanked backwards off her feet. She went down into the snow in a thud. Above her towered two zombies, a man and a woman, in summer clothes.

  She shoved the rifle barrel up and into the male zombie's mouth and pulled the trigger. The weight of his falling body ripped the rifle right out of her hands. The female zombie fell on her, clawing at the parka Hannah wore. Shreds of fabric drifted up into the air, joining the snowflakes before being violently blown away.

  Hannah tried to roll, but it was impossible in the deepening snow. Next she tried to scramble backwards. Her hands and feet kept slipping out from under her. Meanwhile, the zombie kept tearing away. Real panic hit her then. Her flailing hands hit something hard under the snow. She pulled with all her strength and instinctively swung it with all her might.

  It was a large, thick stick, which cracked in two as it knocked the zombie slightly off to her left side. She used the moment to try toget some leverage, get up on her feet. Then the zombie was on her again. She slipped back down, flat on her back. She held the stick's remains in both hands and jammed it sideways into the chomping mouth. Splinters rained down on her face. Her eyes squeezed shut to near slits.

  This might be it. Dear God don't let it be.

  A blurry shape whooshed over her body. The zombie stopped, its head dropped from its body onto Hannah's stomach. The rest of the body fell to the side in the snow.

  "Don't lose your head now, honey," Gus said, materializing out of the storm and offering Hannah a gloved hand.

  Hannah took it, along with Linda's who appeared alongside Gus. In Gus's other hand he held a gore covered axe.

  "Another groaner from Gus," Linda said. "Keep coming up with stuff like that and I might die and turn into a zombie."

  The wind shifted and for a moment the field of vision around them cleared. Hannah could see three zombies approaching from her left. Linda raised her gun and fired, taking them out. JT reached them, steam continuously rising from his mouth. His face was almost as white as the snow.

  "We need to get out of this field. We are like sitting ducks," he puffed.

  "Follow our footprints back the way we came," Hannah said. "Then keep straight and we will reach a narrow outcrop of rock. I think a road is there, under the snow. Maybe it will lead us to shelter. At the veryleast we will have a wall at our backs."

  "Sounds like a plan," JT said, taking another sh
ot at a zombie that rose a few feet away. "I'll take the rear guard."

  The four followed their back trail through the snow. There footprints in the snow were rapidly filling in from the falling snow. A few minutes later the blowing winds calmed. The snow fell more softly, more slowly. Visibility increased. Hannah didn't like what she saw.

  Tens of zombies still stood on either side. The snow was slowing them down but wasn't stopping the baseless determination they had to bite living flesh. Some that fell just crawled through the snow, leaving lines that looked like sled tracks behind them. Hannah counted her blessings at least no zombies were in their path. Even a runner wouldn't have been able to close in rapidly. The snow was both a curse and a blessing.

  On they plowed, yet the outcropped rock didn't seem to get much closer. Hannah worried about Gus. If his body would be able to take the strenuous effort of plowing through the snow. She could feel her heart pounding, her lungs working hard to keep up the pace. She could hear the occasional fire from JT's pistol behind her.

  Another pair rose out of a drift not twenty feet to the right. Hannah got one before it could even move. The other was a runner. It was almost comical how it pumped its arms and legs so hard but was getting almost nowhere. Hannah took it out before it could reach them. She prayed no more popped out in front of them now. She needed to reload, and she didn't want to stop here in the field to do it.

  Hannah reached their destination. She slammed her back against the rock wall so hard she almost knocked the wind out of herself. She could see Linda pulling Gus through Hannah's tracks, like a cowboy guiding a horse. JT was covering them. For now, any zombies pursuing them were back at the far end of the field, almost out of her sight. When all four were together, they stretched out standing side by side. Hannah could see JT was almost within reach of the other side of the rocky outcrop.

  "JT, Linda, cover me," Hannah said, dropping to her knees with a crunch, sliding off her backpack. "Gus you going to be okay."

  Gus nodded his head up and down furiously. There was a continuous steam cloud puffing from his mouth. His complexion matched the surrounding snow.

  She fumbled with the straps, trying to get her pack open with her gloved hands. Realizing if she couldn't do that simple task there was no way she could reload with gloves on, she gritted her teeth and took them off. Out into the snow plopped the empty magazine. Click went the new one. On went the backpack, on went the gloves.

  "How's it looking out there?" Hannah brought her rifle back up.

  "It looks clear." Gus retorted.

  "I'm going to take alook at where we're going next. Keep me covered."

  They were in no position to stay and fight. Hannah turned and squeezed between Gus and the wall. The snowfall over on the other side of the rocky walls didn't look nearly as intense. She could see a sharp descent, which ended at what looked like some kind of log cabin. Next to it a half-frozen lake stood. Beyond thatshe couldn't see anything but whiteness. Between them and the cabin stood an army of evergreens, marching off on either side of a line cut through them. It had to be a road.

  On the other side of the cut was something that looked like a transformer station. It was between her and the cabin. Lines rose from it and ran from poles into the whiteness, that looked like metal giants on a winter train set. She turned back around, cursing why it had to be a cabin.

  "They're getting a little too close for my comfort," JT said, trying to keep the edge out of his voice and only half succeeding. "Where to next?"

  "There's a cabin, by a lake and a transformer station, down on the other side. By down I mean a prettysteep ascent. If we're not careful, we could end up on our asses."

  "Better than ending up as zombie chow," Gus said, all but panting still.

  The scattered pockets of zombies had joined to form a wall of walking dead. They trundled and scrambled closer.

  "I wish I had a sled. Or a snowmobile. Or an airplane," Gus said. "No, an airplane. With an airplane I would fly away from all this shit. Ah, like my mom said if wishes were cows I'd be knee deep in manure."

  JT laughed. Hannah gave them all a serious look.

  "We have got to be standing on a road. We follow it down, watching our step, get to the cabin. If it's empty, we ride out the storm there. I see no zombie now. Let's hope there are no more surprises."

  "You heard the Major, boots on the ground now," Gus joked, trying to lighten Hannah up.

  Hannah let out a guffaw and gingerly started down the sharp incline. They continued on in formation. The footing was treacherous and there were some close calls but they arrived at the station without incident. Hannah turned around when she reached the station's outskirts. It was hard to make out through all the trees but she didn't think the zombies were following them any longer.

  Hannah led the group across the winter wonderland to the cabin. She took the cabin steps fast, looking forward to getting out of the snow and the wind.There didn't seem to be any trace of activity in the cabin from the outside. She hoped no people or zombies were inside. She had lost all of her fight. Rest is what she craved.

  Linda had to half drag Gus inside out of the cold. He was trying to move his legs, but the stubborn things weren't responding. He had a feeling when they warmed up they would complain up a storm. Gus was sick of the damn cold and snow.

  Not that it was much warmer than a freezer in the cabin. His first thought was to call it a cabin but now thathe was inside it was more like a two-story log home. At least there was no wind inside. Gus was thankful. It had been cutting through him like he had no coat on at all.

  The best thing about being inside, no zombies had attacked them. Not yet. Hannah had knocked on the door and called out but had gotten no response

  Linda got him propped up against the wall just inside the door. She took out one of those packs you break and shake and it gets warm. She followed the steps and placed the pack inside Gus's coat. She smiled warmly at him as she did this.

  Gus still couldn't believe how lucky he was as he smiled back. He hadn't been looking for it. If he had been, he didn't think he would find it in this world. A zombie filled world of death. Fucking crazy, even after all these months, to call it that. You had to call a spade a spade if that's what it was.

  He didn't know how long this Linda thing would last. All kidding aside about his ex wives, which he had only had one, he liked herquite a bit. That also made him scared, as they had lost so many people along the way. He missed them all, even ole Dusty, pain in the ass he was. Linda slid down beside him and the two huddled close together. He stopped reminiscing and enjoyed her warmth. Outside the wind howled like it was protesting in fury it couldn't reach them anymore.

  "Hannah I don't want to criticize, but maybe we should have made our way to a Caribbean beach instead," Gus said through chattering teeth.

  Hannah finished scanning the living room they had taken shelter in and sat down across from Gus, rifle across her knees.

  "How would we get there, Gus? Are you a seaman?" Hannah winked.

  Gus laughed. "Touche' my dear. Touche'."

  "Been hanging around you too long."

  JT was pacing the floor. His eyes kept darting towards the staircase on the other side of the room.

  "You trying to carve a racetrack slick?" Gus asked up at him.

  JT stopped. He shot Gus a look. Gus was sorry he said anything.

  "We have something to block this door with?" JT asked, resuming his frantic walking.

  "JT, buddy. Sit down here next to me. Cool your jets. We have been in worse scrapes than this. Come cuddle with Gussypoo."

  That got a smile out of JT. It was a glimpse of the old JT, from when they first met. Gus was happy to see something besides anger or hurt inside of him, if only for a moment. He thought the talk back in the hotel and on the road here would have helped. It did for a bitbut Gus had seen JT fall back into using the bottle when he could find one. Even though JT thought he was being a sneaky SOB.

  JT sat down next to h
im. He rummaged through his backpack but then stopped. He looked at Gus sheepishly. He reminded him so much of a kid caught in the cookie jar.

  Gus tried to reassure JT. "If the zombies are still coming, it could be hours before they find us. If at all. It's like stirring up a beehive. Now we're out of range, they should just calm the fuck back down."

  "If you say so Gus," JT said. He closed his backpack and pushed it aside. "Now hold me." JT made a big gesture of putting his head on Gus's shoulder. He tried to wrap his arm around Gus' shoulder.

  "Get off me you big lug," Gus said, pushing JT's head away and laughing.

  "Do you think this is already someone's hiding place?" Linda whispered.

  Hannah scanned around again.

  "If it is, they keep it spotless. Doesn't look like a soul has been here." The words had no more left her mouth when someone called out.

  "What are you all doing in my house?"

  Hannah spun around and Gus caught a glimpse of an old man. A real old man, not joking around like with everyone did with him. He looked to be about eighty. He was holding a shotgun in his hands, which shook up and down, pointing between the floor and them. He wore a white t-shirt, red and black checkered pj pants, and brown slippers. His voice attempted to be commanding, but it sounded more like a rasp of a longtime smoker.

  "We don't mean you any harm," Gus said, slowly rising to his feet, using the wall to push himself up. "We just needed a place to duck away from the zombies."

  "Zombies? What kind ofdrugs are you people on? No such thing as zombies."

  The shotgun wobbled around somemore. The old man looked like he was running out of strength to hold it. A voice came from upstairs, a woman's voice.

  "Grandpa, are you talking to yourself again or do you need my help?"

  Gus noticed the confused look on the man's face and took a guess on what was going on here.

  "Hello up there. We are just traveling along. We don't mean you any harm. Your grandpa has a gun on us. I'll be upfront with you, we have zombies chasing us. We thought this was a deserted place to hide."