by Wood, J N
‘I’m still alive, and I finally saw a bear,’ I jubilantly said, adrenaline still pounding through me. ‘I’m well happy with that.’
Jack handed me a can of Diet Pepsi, saying, ‘You need to be more careful. We all need to be more careful. Even if it’s to go for a shit, we need to stay in pairs.’
‘Pervert,’ I said.
‘Jack is right,’ Shannon said. ‘Until we’re safely in Canada, we need to be ultra-vigilant. We should always pair up, no matter what we’re doing.’
‘Even if I’m having a–,’ I started.
‘No,’ Jack interrupted. ‘You can do that on your own. Unless Gee would like to join you.’
‘What you talking about?’ Gee asked from the driver’s seat.
‘They’re not talking about anything Gee,’ Shannon answered. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
Gee shrugged his shoulders. ‘I not worry.’
‘Good,’ Shannon said.
Ali left her family members and walked down the bus towards us, sitting down on the row opposite me.
‘Hi,’ she said brightly. ‘Apart from getting chased by bears, what have you been up to since you left us?’ She looked to me, and then at Jack.
I hadn’t quite got my breath back, so I let Jack tell his story. Once he’d finished, I filled her in on what I’d done after losing Jack in Austin.
‘How about you?’ I asked. ‘Why are you all the way over here in Washington State?’
‘After you left, the swarms continued getting bigger,’ she replied. ‘One afternoon, we looked out and the entire fence on one side of the warehouse was lying flat on the floor. The concrete posts had been ripped out of the ground. It wasn’t hard to convince the rest of them we should leave.’ She glanced over to the back row of the bus, before lowering her voice slightly. ‘We drove towards Salt Lake City, to see if we could find Dale and Sophia.’
I leaned in towards Michael and Shannon, who were sat on the row in front of Ali. ‘Sandra’s husband and daughter,’ I whispered.
‘We couldn’t find them,’ Ali said, her eyes glistening, but her voice steady. ‘We left a letter for them in the warehouse, detailing our plans. We’re so far off that plan now, they’ll never find us. We just have to hope they went north a long time ago. Sandra is devastated. We all are, but she’s staying strong for the kids.’
She leaned back and let out a long sigh, only taking a few seconds to compose herself. ‘Salt Lake City was bad,’ she continued. ‘The east side of Great Salt Lake looked like an atomic bomb had been dropped on it. And the zombies seemed to be endless. So we decided to go west, with the intention of getting back on track later. We’d written in the letter that we were going to try and get into Canada via Sweet Grass, Montana. Every time we tried to go back east something would block us. The roads would be gone, or huge swarms would stop us.’ Ali’s head suddenly perked up. ‘Hey, you guys seen the swarms moving around at night?’
‘Yes,’ we all answered in unison.
Ali actually leaned away away from us, literally taken aback.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Well, we met up with Richard, Chris and Maya just after crossing into Oregon. It was Richard that suggested we shouldn’t worry about where we cross the border, just as long as we did actually cross it. Then we could drive through Canada to the other side of Sweet Grass.’
‘When did Maya get bitten?’ Michael asked her.
‘Just before going into the Costco. She woke up a sleeping zombie by accident, then killed it and ran into the shop.’
‘Probably best Gee killed that Chris guy,’ I said. ‘There isn’t room for two people called Chris in this story.’
‘Chris,’ Shannon exclaimed, her brow furrowed. ‘You should never wish anybody dead, even if they were planning on killing you.’
‘That doesn’t make any sense,’ I replied. ‘And I thought you said you didn’t want to be the mother figure in the group?’
Shannon shook her head, giving her husband a frustrated glance. Michael pretended not to see the look, making Shannon even more infuriated.
‘And then we met you lot,’ Ali said, probably trying to change the subject. ‘Obviously not the best introduction, but it is the end of the world, so these things seem to happen quite often now.’
‘Michael,’ Gee called out. ‘I think we leave 90 road now.’
‘Sorry Gee,’ Michael replied, spinning around in his seat to face forwards. ‘Yes next right. Once we’re around Seattle we’ll stop for the day just south of Snohomish. I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of swarms, as we now seem to be calling them, around Seattle. So we’re probably best not attempting our day time driving again.’
‘You drove in the day light?’ Ali asked, wide eyed.
‘Yes, a definite error on our part,’ Shannon replied. ‘We were cleaning all the blood off the front of the bus just before we met you and your family.’
Ali stood up, saying, ‘Talking of family. I better keep an eye on my cousins behind us.’
‘Ramrod isn’t driving is he?’ I asked her.
‘No, Pete will be doing the driving. And Steve seems to have given up on wanting to be called Ramrod.’
‘Good,’ I said.
‘Yes, very good,’ Shannon agreed. ‘Ramrod? It sounds too…sexual.’
‘Sexual?’ Jack asked. ‘Maybe to you Shannon.’
Smiling, Ali walked to the back of the bus. Shannon let out an exasperated sigh and swivelled on her seat to face forward. I grinned at Jack before turning to look out of the window next to me. The pitch black night meant all I could see was my own battered reflection, and the reflection of a very disgruntled looking Shannon on the other side of the bus.
There was a very deep and distracting ache in the right side of my head.
Chapter 5: River Of Blood
There was a good chance I may have nodded off. Screams from the back of the bus dragged me back to consciousness. My head quickly shot upright. I could hear metal crunching and tyres screeching from behind us. The Rodriguez’s were all shouting to stop. The bus started to slow down.
Jack looked as startled as me, so I guessed he may have also been asleep. We both climbed to our feet and headed towards the back of the bus.
‘What is it?’ Shannon asked from close behind me.
‘The headlights behind us,’ Gilberto said in a panic. ‘They disappeared. Then we heard a loud crashing noise.’
‘Gee,’ Michael called out. ‘Back us up. Let’s see where they’ve gone.’
Incredibly loud beeps sounded out as the bus started reversing. I tried to look out of the crowded back window. Our reverse lights illuminated a small patch of road behind us.
A few people gasped as shapes appeared from out of the darkness. For a split second I thought it would be the Rodriguez brothers with the young orphan boy.
I have no idea what that kid is called.
It wasn’t the brothers, or the boy with no name. The shapes were zombies. They started to sprint towards us, soon slamming into the back of the bus.
Sandra was repeating the word, ‘No.’
Gee must have heard the banging, because he shouted over his shoulder, ‘What happening?’
‘Keep going,’ Shannon instructed. ‘There are zombies here. We’ll tell you when to stop.’
Gee obediently carried on driving.
More and more of the sprinting dead were in the road. We were dragging them away from whatever they’d been interested in.
I hope they haven’t made it into their vehicle. These night time swarms are really pissing me off.
A few seconds later and the bottom of a Dodge Caravan came into view. It was lying on its side, looking battered and bruised, like it had rolled a few times. The road between us and the Dodge was filled with a huge mass of dead creatures, all trying to gain access to the humans inside.
‘Gee!’ Shannon shouted. ‘I need you to go straight back. I’ll tell you when to stop. Go faster.’
What is she thinking? If we drive str
aight back we’ll smash into the crashed vehicle.
Ali, Sandra and Gilberto all turned and gave Shannon very concerned looks. It was too late for Shannon to explain her plan, as the bus was already hurtling towards the Dodge.
Bodies were bouncing off the back of the bus, clearing a path through the dead.
‘Stop!’ Shannon shouted.
The bus screeched to a halt, stopping incredibly close to the Dodge. We must have crushed a lot of the zombies between the two vehicles.
‘Can you see their van?’ Shannon asked Gee. He shouted back that he could, so Shannon continued. ‘Move us so we’re side by side. I want our front doors as close to the van as possible.’
‘Okay,’ Gee said.
Shannon turned to look at us while Gee manoeuvred the bus into position. ‘We clear a path to the van,’ she said. ‘Michael, Gee, Chris, Ali and I create a perimeter, using the bus and the van to shield two sides of us. Then Jack, Sandra and Gilberto get everyone out of the van. Okay?’
The bus suddenly stopped. We were in place. If anyone had any questions, or didn’t agree with Shannon, they didn’t say anything.
Everyone quickly made their way down to the front. I could hear Sandra trying to console her two kids behind me.
‘Everyone, collect your weapons,’ Shannon ordered. ‘Slight change of plan. Gee, make sure nothing gets on the bus, protect the children.’
Gee’s considerable frame seemed to look bigger than ever. I couldn’t stop myself from smirking as I passed him. His shoulders were pulled back and his chest was puffed out.
I was stood at the doors, with nobody in front of me.
How the fuck am I right at the front?
I quickly checked my gun. I’d reloaded it in the security office of the car park, so it was ready to go. The lights from the bus barely reached outside, but I could see the zombies hadn’t filled the space yet. There were a lot of squashed ones squirming around on the ground, but none on their feet.
‘Chris and Ali go left,’ Shannon said, with authority in her voice. ‘Michael and I go right.’
I gripped my axe in my hand. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.
The doors opened, and fuck knows why, I rushed out into the night.
I’m blaming peer pressure.
My feet squelched into the mushy dead bodies beneath us.
I’m gonna need some new walking boots.
An arm stretched out for me, so I brought the blunt end of my axe down onto the head that the arm belonged to. The thing’s forehead caved in, and the arm fell limply down. I quickly stamped my heel onto another’s head, as it was trying to rise up.
Ali stood by my side, carrying some kind of assault rifle in her hands. It much more aggressive looking than the rifle she had when I first met her.
‘Where the fuck did that come from?’ I asked, nodding to the gun.
She slammed the butt of the rifle into the top of a zombie’s head, as it slowly crawled towards us. ‘Took it from a dead soldier in Sacramento.’
I glanced behind me and saw Gilberto on his hands and knees. Sandra was standing on his back, while Jack, who was already up on the side of the Dodge, was reaching towards Sandra to pull her up. Michael and Shannon stood with their backs to us, guarding a thin strip of darkness between the bus and the overturned van.
Why is their gap so much smaller than ours?
Gunfire suddenly erupted, right next my head. It was so loud I was sure it would deafen me. I swivelled my head around to see the dead coming for us. They were all I could see in the fucking huge gap we had been given to defend. Ali was firing her rifle into the masses of dead faces. I pulled out my Sig and very quickly emptied it, aiming for heads. I placed it back into its holster and positioned myself to start swinging my little axe.
Ali’s rifle was empty a few seconds later. She fumbled at her pocket, pulling out a new magazine. Whilst the space in front of us was much bigger than Shannon and Michael’s, you could still only fit six people, or zombies, side by side.
The lack of gunfire meant they were soon upon us. I aimed for the closest, bringing the axe down on the top of its head. I didn’t wait to see if the blow had been sufficient to stop it. Whilst pushing them away with my left hand, I swung, and swung, and swung with the axe in my right, crushing heads with the blunt end.
Ali shouted for me to back away, before starting to fire her rifle again. I just had to bash in the heads of the ones that Ali’s bullets missed. Only a few made it through.
The bodies were beginning to pile up. At first, the zombies struggled to clamber over the row of their fallen kind, but they soon started stumbling right over them, almost using them like a ramp. Ali was soon out of bullets again. We took two steps back as the creatures tripped over the collapsed bodies and fell to the ground. I stepped in and viciously swiped at the momentarily prone zombies. Ali grabbed my arm, pulling me backwards and out of the way when a new wave of them almost fell upon me.
Ali started to use the rifle like a bat, swinging it up and over her head, the butt of the gun connecting with the zombies.
‘In the bus!’ Shannon shouted. ‘Back in the bus!’
I turned to see Jack climbing the stairs, carrying the kid. Steve was close behind him. Gilberto was still by the overturned Dodge, struggling to get to his feet. His face was twisted with pain. I spun back around to Ali.
‘Ali, try and hold them back!’ I shouted, before kicking a crawling zombie squarely in the face.
I tried to lift Gilberto up but he was incredibly heavy, much heavier than I thought he should have been. I looked down to see a half destroyed face emerging from the decaying mess on the ground. Its mouth was clamped onto Gilberto’s wrist. Three arms were stretched out from the ground, clawing at his thigh. I couldn’t tell who those arms belonged to. Blood soaked the right leg of Gilberto’s trousers.
I slammed my heel down onto the head biting into his wrist, the skull disintegrating under my foot. I loosened my grip on the axe and spun it around. I swung the axe, aiming the sharp end at the clawing arms. My first swipe took out two of them, slicing half way down their forearms. My next strike chopped off the third at the wrist.
After ripping the still clawing hands away from Gilberto’s leg, and hauling him to his feet, I started dragging him to the bus. It was only four or five paces away but he was like a dead weight. Gee was now outside the bus, single-handedly fighting off the swarm with a baseball bat. It looked like my Brooklyn Smasher. Ali appeared at the other side of Gilberto, halving the amount of effort it was taking me to carry him back to the bus. She went up the stairs first, dragging her uncle, while I was behind, pushing him.
‘Gee!’ I shouted. ‘Time to go.’
I was only half way up the stairs when the bus suddenly lurched forward, knocking me off my feet. I glanced back towards Gee as the bus continued to move. The pile of dead bodies wedged between the front of the bus and the bottom of the Dodge started to topple.
I leaned out of the bus and grabbed a part of Gee’s jacket, dragging him backwards onto the steps. He was sprawled on top of me, scrambling to keep his feet from dragging across the ground. I desperately clung on to him as zombies reached out for him. The bus slowly started to gain more speed, pulling away from the chasing dead.
‘Somebody fucking pull us up!’ I pleaded.
Two blood splattered arms suddenly reached over me and grabbed a hold of Gee at his shoulders. He was dragged upwards and over me so his legs were within the bus. The doors closed so I relaxed my hold on him. We both sat on the steps trying to get our breath back.
The calm after the storm was soon disrupted.
‘Help me,’ Ali shouted. ‘I need some help. He’s bleeding a lot.’
Gee sat upright, allowing me to get to my feet. Ali was sat on the floor in the aisle, her back leaning against a seat. Gilberto was stretched out in front of her, the back of his head resting on her lap. His normally tanned skin looked a very pale grey colour. There was a lot of blood
under his right leg.
‘Shannon!’ I shouted. Within seconds Shannon was crouched down by Gilberto’s prone body.
‘Where is he injured?’ Shannon asked, while scanning his blood soaked clothes.
‘I…I don’t know,’ Ali stuttered. ‘There is blood everywhere.’
‘Left wrist and right thigh,’ I quickly said. ‘Bitten on the wrist, and kind of clawed on the thigh.’
Shannon pulled out a small knife from somewhere on her body. It came out so quickly I couldn’t see where it had come from. She lifted Gilberto’s right trouser leg up so it was away from his skin, finding the holes that had already been made by the zombie hands. She used the knife to make the holes bigger, before tearing it with her hands.
Clawed had been the right word. His thigh was a mess, like a tiger had viciously swiped at his leg. Blood literally pumped and oozed out of the foot long wounds. Ali’s eyes were huge as she gripped tightly onto her uncle’s shoulders.
Shannon looked at a complete loss. Her stupor only lasted a couple of seconds. She whipped off her belt. ‘Chris, elevate his legs,’ she shouted, giving me the briefest of glances.
I crouched down, grabbed both of his ankles and lifted them up to my thigh height. Shannon wrapped her belt around his leg, just above the wounds, and pulled it tight.
‘Should I stop,’ Michael called out, now sat behind the wheel.
‘No, carry on until we’re further away,’ Shannon replied. ‘Somebody get me some–.’
Gee stepped around me in the cramped space, dropped to his knees and jammed a handful of clothes onto the leg wounds. He continued to hold them in place.
‘Thanks Gee,’ Shannon said. ‘How is his wrist?’ she asked, looking at Ali.
Ali picked up her uncle’s arm at his forearm. ‘It’s not bleeding that much actually,’ she replied, a bit of hope creeping into her voice.
‘He is dead,’ Gee muttered.
‘What?’ a bloody Pete asked from behind Ali.
‘Yeah, what?’ Ali echoed.
‘He stop bleeding much because his heart stop,’ Gee explained.