by catt dahman
“I saw it myself, Ronnie,” Peri said, “Shan is dead. She and Ricky both are. He was a good fellow but couldn’t protect her. Connie was attacked in the dining room, and she’s…well…one of those hunting for flesh. She’s a zombie. Lisa changed, too after the infection took over, and she’s gone.”
Rhonda made a pained sound in her throat, swallowed, took a deep breath, and asked, “Mira? She’s so smart and clever.”
“No one has seen Mira,” Dana said, “and she may be fine.”
Their group crowded into Rhonda’s room to rest and regroup. Peri and Dana tried to explain everything in a short version to Rhonda as far as what they had learned and who Dave Dallas and Nick Hoyt were, and why the bartender, Rudy, and four women with make shift weapons were sitting in chairs.
They raided the refrigerator of high-priced wines, sodas, and juices since they didn’t expect they would ever have to pay for them. Rhonda handed out bags of snacks, opened a container of expensive crackers that were bland and nearly tasteless except for the cracked black pepper, and began to apply goose liver paté and caviar to the wafers. There was a tiny jar of pickles, no bigger than the last part of a pinkie joint and delicately flavored; chocolate almond paste in a tube; a small box of chocolate truffles; and a basket of plump fruits.
“I like your weapons,” Norma told Cindy.
“Duct tape is quite useful. Look at my arm. One of those things tried to nip me, and the tape held the teeth back, and they didn’t break the skin,” Cindy said.
Rhonda heard the short version of the details of the infection and the plan for getting away and caught up on her friends. She didn’t understand how Shan, Connie, and Lisa could be gone. There were a thousand questions she had, but most were questions no one could answer; how this was allowed was impossible to fathom. Without a lot of thought, she smacked Dave Dallas across his jaw and turned and swatted Nick Hoyt, leaving a bright red handprint across his cheek.
“Can’t avoid the beating today, I guess,” Nick complained.
“You deserve worse.”
“Wow,” Nick said.
Rhonda seethed.
“I didn’t pick this plan or pick you to be here. I didn’t accelerate the infection or take the inoculation by choice particularly. I haven’t bitten anyone, slept with anyone, shared my germs, or harmed anyone at all. I was honest with you, and I told you where there is a vehicle.”
Rhonda stared at Nick and Dallas, “If that is what you consider to be morally right, then you have a lot to learn. That is all after the fact.”
Norman patted her and held Peri tightly, making her smile as he talked about how they would be fine and have a real date when they got away. He described candle-lit dinners, movies, and walks together, and it was a nice plan, but even if all of that happened and if Nick and Dallas were right, then the whole world was in trouble with the infection. They talked about getting away and being safe, but what if the whole world was, in fact, being infected right then?
Hank turned from the balcony, returning into the room, “I can see out to the lake almost…all across the back…and there are a lot of them around, walking, and once in a while I heard a scream from out there and from one of the rooms, I think.”
“I bet most people are hiding now, and waiting for rescue or something,” Dana said, “But we know that won’t happen.” She helped the others make more weapons, testing the weight of each table leg and watching the others make a rope of fine bed linens, torn and braided into a length that could hold them as they climbed down from the balcony.
“Two ropes. We can lower two at a time because we want as many down there as we can get for protection as fast as we can; otherwise, we won’t make it,” Norman said, “Nick and Dallas, be ready.”
“Of course. Who else but us first?” Dallas sighed. He waved away help and used the makeshift rope as he climbed down the railing of the balcony and repelled down to the ground. He called telling the rest they could do it as well as he had and they should take their time as they climbed. The second rope came down with Hank’s load of Molotov cocktails and extra weapons; it was done very quietly so the creatures around weren’t alerted to the escape plan. Dallas motioned Nick to follow him.
Nick crawled over the rail and climbed less gracefully, but as quietly. He didn’t think it was very easy, but he smiled anyway. Dana and Hank went next to fight in case they were caught there on the lawn. It was best to remain hidden, but if a horde came at them, they would be ready.
Not far away was a partially eaten body lying next to a young woman and a young man who moaned and crawled. The woman wasn’t badly chewed but the man was eaten to the bone along his arms and neck. His head wobbled and looked ready to fall off. He had a very sad expression. While many moaned and looked down right evil with intent, this man had a face of pure depression. Anyone seeing him would notice his sadness, despite the fact that he was dangerous and would attack all the same as the rest.
Cindy and Ann dispatched the man with fierce blows to his head, trying to stay to the side and back so they didn’t see his face. Dana finished off the woman, slamming a table leg into her head to force some of her own anger out; as a nurse, her seeing this waste of life was hard to see, and if she didn’t beat on a zombie, Dana would turn her anger on Nick and Dallas.
Cindy turned away with a moan, vomiting, as she pointed to her side and leaned over to hold her knees. She tried to cry quietly and had to cover her mouth with her own hand as she shivered and wiped away tears and spit, “I can’t,” was all she whispered. She shook her head.
Peri frowned and shifted to look into the shadows and wished she had been helping people climb down and watching for biters instead of going to help Cindy. She knew why Cindy was crying. In her mind, she wasn’t nearly strong enough for this type of duty, survival or not. For a second, she stared at the wriggling bundle on the grass as it reached tiny starfish hands at her, its eyes cold and hungry.
This was the big fear: the worry and the danger. This is why people died. It might be easy to outrun a few biters but grew more difficult when trapped or facing a bunch at once. Their sheer weight and inability to feel pain made them deadly, but the sight of them caused such disgust and distress that people froze in place; that was why so many were infected. Peri had almost frozen when she saw Shan, and this situation was like that one: total horror. Peri’s legs and hands went to ice as blood rushed out of those areas as it prepared for flight or fight.
Norman swung her around so she was facing the other way, and she heard a distinct thud. The thud made Peri jump and feel sick to her stomach. She refused to look but wondered if it were better or worse than what she imagined. Norman took time to hug Peri close and kiss her hairline at her cheek and wished he could stop her from trembling. He gulped audibly and led Peri back to the rest as Rhonda slid to the grass.
Dallas leaned over Rhonda and helped her to her feet after a few seconds. She sat on the grass amazed she didn’t break a bone. She jerked away from his helping hands and glared at him, “No, thanks.”
“As you wish.”
As they crept along, the uninfected humans had to stop a few times to try to bash in the heads of ghouls without being noisy. Unfortunately, they did make noise, and the creatures moaned, calling more of their number to the fresh food source.
Ann stumbled.
Hank took Ann’s arm, “Come on. Let’s go. You’re doing fine.”
“I don’t know if I can. That little baby….” She limped a little, so she was worried she had turned her ankle, but terrified to say anything in case they decided to leave her.
Cindy sniffled, “I’ve never seen anything so horrible. What if those were its parents?” She didn’t know how she knew, but she felt the young man and woman had been the baby’s parents and wondered who had turned first and how the person was infected. She wondered why the other person didn’t run away, but then was sad, thinking that they stayed together as a little family, even in death. She wasn’t sure if that was amazingl
y sweet and loyal or crazy as hell.
“Stop assigning personalities to them. They are the enemy. They will bite you and eat you without a thought if they can. Someone will always step up and do the bad jobs, but you have to keep walking and fighting because we can’t drag you,” Hank said.
“I’m walking,” Ann said. She didn’t add that she wished she had stayed back in the bar or could sit down and give up. She didn’t want to be bitten, so she walked.
Hank hated to have to do what he did, but he lit a bottle and threw it at a large group of zombies headed their way, followed by a second and third bottle. It took some weight off him and lit them up. The humans could see in the darkness when their eyes adjusted and when the light of the fire burned brightly.
While the danger was for the horde to become twice as deadly as the fire burned, the effect was pleasing. The creatures caught fire and began to stumble and run into one another as they became disoriented. When their eyes burned away, they were blinded and couldn’t find their prey. With luck, they wouldn’t spread the fire.
With the largest group now blind, confused, and on fire, the survivors picked up the pace and hurried across the lawn, feeling as if every creature saw them and that they were vulnerable to attacks. They didn’t know they were following the exact route Wicket and Mira and that group had taken.
“One turn and then we will run all the way across the front lawn and to the shed way over there. It’s a long haul, and if you have to rest, hide, be quiet, and then go again when it’s clear. Stay with several, and don’t go or stop alone. Be careful and be smart,” Hank told everyone.
“My ass is gonna be moving,” Rudy snarled.
“Help someone if he needs it, but if anyone is bitten, we can’t do anything for him,” Hank said.
“Oh. Oh….” Bristol grabbed her mouth and stepped back.
Around the corner was a mess of a zombie feast. Bodies lay everywhere where they had been attacked and brought down. Bare bones, a hand, a random leg, and pieces of flesh littered the ground. Creatures sat on the grass eating the bodies, pulling off strips, and ripping at chunks of flesh. They looked up and showed interest in the new, warm flesh, but were busy as well. They preferred a live kill to dead bodies.
“He’s just been turned. That’s Wicket Bartell. I came up here with him and his wife. I don’t see her though.” Rudy didn’t mention that a few of the bodies were unrecognizable. He doubted Wicket worried much about his wife anyway, knowing Wicket.
Peri grabbed Norman, hiding her face against his chest and sobbing.
“Honey?”
“That’s Mira.”
Mira was chewed up badly, her face not much more than a skull, her arms mere bones, and her neck a mess. Her legs were torn away, and she tried to crawl, having come back with a hungry vengeance. Seeing Mira as a meat puppet was an abomination.
“Don’t watch,” Hank ordered, “but I refuse to leave her like this. She deserves better.”
Hank showed mercy and hit Mira several times, putting her out of her misery; she wouldn’t want to be that way. It took several blows before she stopped moving; Hank felt bad with each swing of his weapon. Dana, Bristol, and Peri cried. When he was done, Hank lit a bottle and burned Mira so she wouldn’t’ be seen that way.
Gordie, the bartender, got his feet tangled up in the limbs of the dead and fell, but scrambled quickly to his feet. Rhonda rubbed her eyes; she was so tired, and the tears wouldn’t stop.
A biter fell off the porch as he moaned and reached for the humans. Both arms broke in messy way, the bones jutting out, and he walked in a silly way with his head canted to the left. Behind the windows and against the big lodge doors, fists banged. There was no time to watch that because they had to put down all the biters on the lawn. Cindy and her friends stabbed into eyeballs, Hank, Rudy, Norman, Dana, and Peri bashed in heads, Jason, Gordie, and Rhonda finished off the crawlers, but Nick and Dallas quietly and surreptitiously hid and ripped away flesh they consumed quickly, not even chewing it, but swallowing hunks to stop their insane craving.
Hank’s boot caught Nick in the ribs and flipped him over, “What the hell are you doing?”
“Dude, they’re dead, and Dallas and I need the iron, or we’ll get aggressive. They can’t feel it.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Don’t watch. We can’t help it.”
Hank walked away. A group of trees sat around a mound of rocks, and Hank motioned everyone to head over to hide and rest. Everyone finished his job and ran that way; Ann hobbled a little. Tiredly, Rhonda, Gordie, and Tina were the last to go over to the safe area.
“There’s so many of them,” Peri said.
“We avoided most, so we have a chance to rest.” They were unseen and able to sit or lie on the grass for a long time, gathering strength again.
“What’s wrong?”
Gordie made a face, “Nothing, I scratched my leg up in the mess of biters.”
“Let me see,” Dana said. She looked at his calf where a few teeth had not bitten through the flesh but had scratched with broken teeth. A trio of one-inch- long, shallow scratches were swollen and hot and beginning to pour a nasty yellow-green pus. It was way too soon for a normal infection but not for the biter infection. Dana wiped away the pus and tightened a bandage that made Gordie wince.
“I think it looks like….”
“He’s infected?” Hank asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Dana. Is he?” Hank probed.
She winced, “Yes. Gordie, you are infected, and it’s in your system. You’re going to…you know.”
Gordie looked shocked, “I feel fine: just a headache and a bit of dizziness and a bit a pukey; what you’d expect from doing all this.” His face was pale. He knew he was infected, “What? I get killed? You hit me and leave me here?”
“You can’t go if she’s sure. Are you sure, Dana?”
“No…I…yes, I am positive. I’m so sorry,” Dana said.
All of them else began to unconsciously feel their legs, checking for scratches and infection. Ann showed them her ankle, swollen and discolored, saying it was sprained but not infected; she was sure.
“Dana? Something is wrong,” Rhonda said, “I didn’t get scratched or bitten though.”
“What is it?”
“My head feels like it’s about to burst; it aches. My vision is wobbly….”
Rhonda’s voice sounded pitiful. Dana used a tiny flashlight to look at Rhonda and struggled to maintain a professional disposition. Using a tee shirt that Hank handed her, she ripped it with an apologetic look and wound strips around Rhonda’s face gently, “Let’s get you some relief here.”
“I can’t see at all if you do that.”
“Well, we’ll lead you, but we don’t want your eyes hurting any more than they already are,” Dana said. She wrapped Rhonda’s face fully, but even with the thick padding, her eyes would weep, and the infection would leak through the fabric. Rhonda’s face was blood covered in sweeping smudges where she had rubbed her eyes from exhaustion. Once the infection was in the eye, it passed into the lacrimal drainage system and into the nose and throat, “Does your throat hurt?”
“Yeah. And my stomach. I wasn’t bitten, Dana.”
“Anyone else with symptoms? Anything else?” Hank demanded.
Rhonda sank to her side and wept thick yellow tears. Dana watched her and shook her head at the rest. Norman motioned that the time to rest was over and they needed to run for the shed.
Gordie stood, and Hank sighed, “You can’t go.”
“They’ll get me and hurt me. You can’t leave me sitting here. That’s murder.”
Ann pushed him back as he took a few steps her way, and Gordie tossed her to the side, “You are not leaving me behind.”
Ann cringed as Cindy helped her stand. Ann gasped as she tried to stand on her injured ankle.
“You don’t want this, Gordie. Let’s just calm down and see what we can come up with together,”
Hank dodged a swing of a table leg and motioned the rest back, “You don’t wanna hurt anyone. You hurt, Ann?”
Gordie swung again and missed Hank by inches. He took a step forward with his weapon raised, ready to fight. Rudy, behind Gordie, rolled his eyes once and popped Gordie hard enough to knock the man unconscious, “There. Done.”
“Is he dead?”
Dana squatted, felt for a pulse and stood again, “He’s knocked out.”
“Then I didn’t hit him hard enough,” Rudy grumbled. “Do you wanna fight with him? Get infected? Have him hurt us? Let’s go while he’s out. He’s gonna turn.” Rudy followed the direction Dana looked. He tilted his head a little, wondering what she was going to say about her friend.
“Do it,” Dana whispered to Hank, “please.”
Peri nodded, and Bristol reached for her hand.
Hank, without a sound, stepped behind Rhonda and motioned the rest to go on. As soon as they turned, he saw how Dana’s shoulders were dropped and that Norman was pulling Peri and Bristol along so they wouldn’t look back. Dave Dallas helped Ann, but she could barely walk. The others fell into a tight group. He said a quick prayer for strength, hating he had to do this, but knowing there was no choice. Damned if he would leave Rhonda to be eaten alive or to become a monster.
His throat tightened as a lump formed painfully; his stomach flipped with anxiety, but he reared back and focused all of his power into the table leg he held. It was a heavy club and sharp edged along the four sides. Breathing out in a strong exhalation, Hank swung the weapon and cracked it into Rhonda’s skull full force, breaking the bones and hitting her brain. He took a second swing, but the first one was enough; she died.
He walked away to join the rest, heartsick, but what he didn’t know was that her head was about to burst with infection anyway even as it drained out her eyes and down her throat. The pain was intense, and she was minutes from dying and coming back. What Hank did was pure mercy.