by Castle, W. A
“Don’t look sweetie.” I heard Val kissing Pattie’s white blonde hair. I looked over at Trevor who was walking besides me and I smiled when Eli caught my gaze. Eli had his legs wrapped around Trevor’s torso and his arms around his brother’s neck.
There were a few stragglers hiding between houses but for the most part the street was mostly empty. We had talked about taking cars out of the city but it was decided that would attract too much attention to our group. Once we put some distance between us and the horde we would search for some vehicles and make our way to Nevada. I’m not sure how much Trevor had told these people about why we were going to Nevada but everyone seemed to be on the same page about our travels.
I looked behind me and saw my house getting farther and farther away, I shut my eyes tight until the wave of dizziness that overtook me went away. It will all be okay. I told myself over and over again. As we got closer to the horde, their animalistic growls and howls got louder, and the stench! Their combined stench made me gag a few times. I could see the others were having a hard time dealing with the smell as well.
We were able to make it to the intersection and round it without attracting attention to ourselves. It wasn’t until we had gotten a good five blocks from our neighborhood that we ran into trouble. Just as we had rounded the corner we spotted about twenty stragglers wandering through the cars that had been abandoned by their owners when they had succumbed to the army of flesh eaters.
I didn’t know how it happened throughout the city or to what extent. All I knew was what I had witnessed firsthand; the flesh eaters had come out of nowhere and started munching on unsuspecting folks. Was this how it happened everywhere? Where had the survivors gone? All this time I hadn’t seen anyone in the streets or in the windows of the houses we passed.
It was like a ghost town, the streets were littered with the cars people had abandoned in the middle of the street, some had crashed into lamp posts and even a car or two had crashed into a store front. We had left the suburbs and were heading into the main street. If it had been not for red smudges and gory lumps of leftover human chow splattered all around us it could have looked like the whole world population had just vanished into thin air.
It was like the instant our feet touched the ground around the corner, every one of those flesh eaters turned their heads towards us. These flesh eaters were different from the ones from last night in the way that they looked a lot less human and lot more like what you would see in zombie movies. The ones that had what should be fatal wounds seemed to be a lot slower and clumsier, their wounds were festering, the skin around the wounds was a deep red black and black veins creeped throughout their bodies, their eyes (the whites of the eyeballs and around the skin) were completely puffy with what looked like red blisters, the others still retained a human like look about them if it were not for their red eyes and rabid like snarls.
Patty whimpered and Aaron gently placed a hand over the girl’s mouth, “Shh, sweetie. Don’t be scared.” He whispered to his little girl.
“We have to go another way.” Momma whispered. But at that moment the flesh eaters, as if they had been snapped by a whip, started running full speed towards us (the ones with the fatal wounds only sprinted step or two behind the others). My eyes went so wide they hurt.
“Oh shit!” Clara gasped and fumbled for her switchblade and Gary picked up a metal tube of some sort that lied on the ground. Momma and I had grabbed our knives from my kitchen but even if I could reach my knife from the back of my jeans I couldn’t move my arms freely. Diego was fast asleep in my arms. Crap, crap, crap!
“Stay behind me Maddie!” Trevor yelled as he set Eli on his feet and pushed him to my side, “You don’t leave her side!” he waved a finger at Eli. Eli wrapped his arms around my waist and hid behind me. I was now being weighed down and I couldn’t even shift my weight. Fuck me. I didn’t mind having Eli with me but I couldn’t even reach my weapon, I wouldn’t be able to protect us. In a second it was instant chaos. I think between all of us the only ones who have ever killed a flesh eater was Trevor, momma and I. The men (I was more than a bit annoyed at the machismo here) formed a line between us (women) and the flesh eaters. Aaron drew out his gun and started shooting at the advancing flesh eaters, when he missed a head shot and hit a shoulder or a leg; the flesh eater would tumble down but get back up an instant later. An image of those old school shootout video games popped into my head.
Trevor and Gary ran out towards the flesh eaters and were covered by Aaron. Momma didn’t hesitate to break from us and run towards Trevor and Gary, butcher cleaver in hand and started taking out some flesh eaters. Go momma!
None of these things acted like Janet had when she turned. Maybe, maybe she was a special kind of flesh eater or it had something to do with the fact she had been freshly turned. (Insert question mark and head scratch here). I was beginning to think I was never going to get some straight up answers and all I would know about this virus induced cannibalism was what I deduced from what I saw.
Adrie was a sobbing mess and I could hear Lexi try to coax her into keeping her wits about her. Patty was crying into Val’s shirt. Eli wasn’t making a sound, and I was (pleasantly) surprised when he reached behind my back and gently tapped my arm and handed me my knife. I pried my hand away from Diego’s body long enough to reach for it.
“Thank you, sweetie.” I whispered.
A few stragglers came out from an alley between some stores and they plodded through the shade cast by the buildings. I caught them making their way past Gary and the others and make their way towards us. These flesh eaters eerily reminded me of animals in a pack in how they worked together to distract the prey, half of the pack in the front distracting the prey while the other half creeped up behind the prey and pounced, taking them by surprise.
So… these mother fuckers had some sort intelligence or at least some animalistic instincts? I bit back a groan. Apparently no one else had noticed them; they were all busy keeping track of the flesh eaters in front of us. Half panicked I shook myself away from Eli and half crouched in front of him.
“Take Diego, Eli. Support his head. There you go.” I whispered and patted Eli’s head.
“What’s wrong Maddie?” Eli took my cue and whispered back. Good boy, I applauded in my head.
I didn’t want to panic the others; I could take care of these stragglers myself.
“Stay with the girls Eli. Keep your eyes on me and Trevor. I will be right back.” I set the diaper bag down and took my heavy as fuck backpack off.
“But Trevor said…” Eli gently rocked Diego. I tapped Eli’s nose, “I’ll be right back.”
Without saying a word I sprinted towards the advancing stragglers, Adrie shrieked when she followed me with her eyes and saw the stragglers that had been making their way towards us. I bit back a curse and looked back to shoot her a glare.
I grabbed a flesh eater by its shoulders and pushed it back, knocking it to the ground. The other stepped around it and I drove the knife through its eye and made a slashing motion as I pulled it out. Lexi came breezing besides me and knocked me down into the flesh eater that was on the ground wriggling to get back up. I looked up long enough to see her struggling with the last of the stragglers. I straddled the flesh eater that was pawing my face with its meaty, stinky fingers and jammed my knife through its forehead all the way until it stopped trying to scratch my skin off.
I scrambled to my feet, stepping on the dead flesh eater by accident, when I saw Lexi struggling to lift her arm to stab her flesh eater. I grabbed it by the shoulders and pulled it away from her. I shoved it up against the wall and had my arm risen, ready to stab it, when something swooshed past me and in the next second half the growler’s face went flying into my face. What the hell was that?
The growler slid down the wall leaving a trail of gore on the red brick. I let go of it and sharply turned around. There was a man with a heavy looking rifle who was now shooting at the stragglers the others were fighting. Soo
n all the growlers were dead. I glared at the new man, he was Ulises. I recognized him from the neighborhood.
Before I was able to go off on him, Trevor beat me to it, “What the hell was that? You could have shot her!” he roared and went face to face with Ulises. The movement reminded me of alpha dogs trying to be the dominant of the pack. Ulises was a big man but not nearly as burly as Trevor. They were the same height but Ulises was muscular but trim, Trevor was all bulky muscles.
“I saved her life, back off kid.” Ulises said through clenched teeth.
“Never put her on your cross hairs again. You could have easily have harmed her.” Trevor stalked towards me and examined me. Uh… ookay?
“I never miss my mark.” A surly Ulises muttered, who then turned to walk towards the others.
“I’m fine.” I slapped Trevor’s probing hands away but to ease the sting of the curtness of my voice, I wrapped my arms around him in a quick hug. “Thank you.” I whispered against his chest. As I was pulling away Eli came running towards us, being gentle not to jostle Diego too much. I kneeled in front of him and wrapped my arms around both him and Diego.
“You were so brave, thank you for looking after Diego, Eli.” I kissed his cheek and he gave me a shy smile.
“I can look after the baby any time you want, Maddie.” He said with a big grin that almost closed his eyes completely. I laughed, “Thank you. I’ll take you up on that.”
“Yoku yatta. Come on kid.” Trevor ruffled his brother’s hair, took Diego from Eli and walked back to the group.
“Thanks.” Lexi muttered in my direction when I stopped in front of the others. Momma wrapped an arm around me and peeled off a strand or two of the growler’s flesh off my face (eek!). I gave Lexi a curt nod, I was still annoyed that she had knocked me down unto the flesh eater, accident or not.
“Dude, where did you get a gun like that?” Gary asked excitedly, pointing at the heavy artillery Ulises had hanging from his shoulder.
“I’ve always been an aficionado.” Ulises rubbed a hand through his short black hair and did a half shrug.
“Could we please find a car now?” Patty’s trembling voice quieted everyone down.
“Yeah, there are plenty here we can choose from.” Trevor said looking around.
I put my heavy as fuck backpack on my shoulders again and took Diego from Trevor, ready to get going again.
“Actually, I have a hummer. So we only need to find another car and we’re set, guys.” Ulises offered.
It took a good forty minutes for the guys to find two good vehicles that still ran a Honda Accord and a Toyota Camry.
“So who’s going on what car?” Aaron asked once we had all marked the route (and alternate routes) we were planning on taking our own maps once again.
“Maddie and Diego can come with me.” Ulises interjected.
Trevor whipped his head towards Ulises and glared daggers at him.
“Listen, my vehicle is a lot safer than those other cars dude. Maddie and her baby would be safer.” He explained.
I was totally over being talked about like I wasn’t here. I was about to open my mouth to whip some macho ass when I was cut off by Val, “The children should go with you Ulises. Like you said, your car is safer.” Val squeezed Patty to her. Ulises didn’t look so keen on traveling with a bunch of kids and I tried to smother my smirk, he’d really talked himself into that one.
“It’s settled then.” Ulises smacked the hood of the Honda Accord and walked over to his hummer, opening the passenger seat and the back door. “There’s room for four.”
Val and Pattie climbed into the back seat of the hummer. I looked at Eli, who in turn looked to Trevor. I wanted to hand Diego to momma so she could travel in the hummer with the others but she shook her head. “You go, honey.” She’d said. I was a bit apprehensive at first, I really didn’t want to travel without momma but I understood that Diego’s safety came first now.
“Behave and listen to Maddie, Eli.” Trevor got down on one knee in front of the little boy, “I will be just in that grey car right there. You can see me through the window. If you need anything, tell Maddie or Val, okay?” Eli hugged Trevor before nodding. “Okay.” With that, Trevor picked Eli up and helped him into the vehicle.
Ulises took my heavy (as fuck) backpack off my shoulders, surprising me, making me jump to the side and turn around sharply. Diego started to fuss in my arms. “Woah there, I’m just putting your bag in the back with the rest.” Ulises sneered. I did not like that man.
Trevor came up to me as soon as Ulises left, “Could you look after Eli for me, please?” he asked as he ran the pad of his index finger across Diego’s forehead.
“Of course I will, Trevor.” I whispered. He was so close to me I couldn’t get a proper breath in, “Could you keep an eye on momma for me?”
“Ofcourse.” Trevor’s lips brushed against my forehead for such a brief second that I almost thought I had imagined the act. But the lingering tingling sensation all over my body confirmed that he had indeed kissed me. Oh boy.
He helped me into the hummer and handed me one of Diego’s diaper bags before closing the door.
Ulises was about to start the mummer when he suddenly jumped out of the vehicle, “Oh crap, I’ll be right back.” He ran to the back of the Hummer and got something out. He ran towards the other two cars and handed something to Trevor and Aaron. Walkie-talkies? Huh.
“So we can all keep in contact if we need to.” Ulises quickly explained when he got back in. I twisted in my seat and looked behind me at Eli, “Buckle up, kid.” As I was turning back I caught Val’s gaze and gave her a small smile. She didn’t return it; she just stared back at me with glaring eyes. Ookay then, I thought as I struggled but finally managed to strap myself in.
We had been riding in (awkward) silence for almost an hour when at the same time Eli and Diego started to fuss. So far the trip had been uneventful. We had passed some groups of stragglers but after chasing us a few miles they eventually gave up. What really worried me was that we haven’t come across other survivors. The roads had been eerily deserted; even the cars didn’t pose much of an obstacle for our caravan. I would have expected the roads to be piled high with car accidents and abandoned cars. Had people made it out to wherever they were headed or… did they never make it out of their houses at all? It had been past midnight when hell broke loose, so I supposed most of the population who were working the morning after the 4th of July celebrations were in their homes. But still, wouldn’t that mean we should have seen more people? I was getting a headache trying to put together the puzzle pieces of this jigsaw. I didn’t have all the pieces to begin with so trying to piece the pieces I did have was a bitch, if not impossible.
The guys had avoided taking the freeway out of the city and were putting off going up the freeway ramp until it was unavoidable. None of us were certain but we suspected we would run into more trouble on the freeways. We were heading out of Rancho Cucamonga when Eli tapped my shoulder, “Maddie, are we almost there yet?”
I suppressed the annoyed eye roll that was bubbling inside of me. He had been asking that question every few minutes, I didn’t know how else to tell him we had a few hours of travel left. We should be able to get to Goodsprings in less than four hours if we don’t run into problems.
Diego, taking cue from a restless Eli, started to whimper in my arms and soon began to full on cry. He hadn’t cried this hard since last night at Janet’s. I made cooing noises and rocked him against me softly. I could feel my anxiety creeping up me. I was out of my depth with babies.
“Maybe he’s hungry.” Val said loudly over Diego’s ear piercing cries. I turned to look at her and saw that Pattie had her hands on her ears and Val had an unamused expression.
I ground my teeth and reached inside the diaper bag for one of the prepared bottles. Find your Zen, girl. You got this. I shook the bottle and propped Diego up in my arm just as I had seen momma and Trevor do.
“Open up lil’ guy.�
�� I made baby noises at Diego as I tried to get him to latch onto the tit of the bottle. I heard Eli and Pattie giggling behind me. I huffed, unamused they were laughing at my expense. This baby sure had a good pair of lungs, I’ll give him that!
“Come on little man.” I know you miss your mommy and daddy but please take it easy on me I’m doing my best, I inwardly pleaded with Diego. After a bit more of prodding the tit of the bottle against his lips he finally latched on and suckled lively. I couldn’t help but smile victoriously.
“Finally.” I heard Val mutter under her breath. I nestled Diego closer to me, I turned to Eli, “Would you like a snack sweetheart?”
“Yes please.” Eli leaned forward and gently ran his fingers through Diego’s silky black hair.
I smiled as I rummaged the diaper bag for a chocolate chip granola and a water bottle for Eli. I got three more granola out and handed two to Val and Pattie, whom both took the bars with a grateful smile. Maybe Val wasn’t a total bitch after all.
I handed the third bar to Ulises. He shook his head, “You should have it you need your energy.”
I didn’t know whether to scoff or smile at the bastard. His words were nice but his tone was condescending. “Take it, I’ll have one too.” I replied, trying not to spew attitude.
He hesitated a second before taking the granola bar. I bit back a good boy.
“How old is your baby?” Ulises’s gruff voice sounded too loud in the quiet interior of the hummer.
“I, uh, Diego is about four months old.” I replied, leaving out the small detail that Diego isn’t truly my baby. Ulises opened his mouth to say something else when Val’s curt voice cut him off.