Z Poc: The Lodge

by catt dahman

Ann fell again. Dallas and Nick grabbed her and pulled her along.

  They paused behind a line of bushes and rested again. The front door of the lodge opened as several people ran out, groaning as they hit the creatures reaching for them and knocking them away with shoves and kicks. A man took time to close the door, and zombies piled up again as they followed the survivors.

  A girl hit at a creature, but it ripped into her arms as another bit her shoulder, leaving blood all over the porch of the lodge. She fought back, but in seconds, her face was pulled away, and she was left screaming without lips and eyes.

  A man reached for her but went to his knees with a bite from a woman who chewed his arm muscle. She wore a maid’s uniform that was torn, bloodied, and stiff with dried fluids. Her hair, pulled from a neat bun, stuck out all over her head with strands trailing in the air.

  “Get up, or get out of the way,” a man shouted as he fired his gun. He had used a bat he found and preferred it as a way to be up and close to the enemy. He burst their skulls over and over, but now that they were outside, he turned to his sidearm, a little panic beginning to settle into his gut. He wasn’t a man to be worried or to feel fear, but the scent of blood was making his teeth itch, and he craved the iron badly.

  His cravings weakened him.

  It wasn’t supposed to be this way. They should have bugged out hours ago, he and the rest of his team, but it didn’t go that way. Instead, the doctor, Erika Dickson forgot her mission, as civilians might, and began trying to help patients in the triage, patients who were going to die, no matter what she did. She foolishly became emotional when she saw the misery. Dr. Lindsay not only helped the infected, but also shared information about the virus; she knew better than to attempt to help the bitten people, but she set up a triage center and acted as if she could actually help.

  Major Max Reid grimaced. Dumb women. Nick Hoyt and David Dallas were missing, not among the walking infected or the partially eaten corpses, so were possibly hiding in fear instead of doing their duty and following the mission as outlined.

  Reid was with a small group who hid a while, made make-shift weapons or found some, and now fought their way out of the lodge. Reid tried to bug out several times, but his way was blocked, and he couldn’t get to the vehicles or find his team. With these few people, he might make it if they acted as fodder, allowing him to avoid the biters.

  The faceless woman was still trying to scream, and the man was still on the ground being eaten alive as he shrieked. It kept a few of the biters busy.

  Chapter 9

  The group enlarges…Vans….Anna Belles

  “Major!” Dave Dallas called out, taking a chance.

  Reid frowned and kicked a creature away, turning his head to see Dave Dallas waving at him. Many zombies were between them and the shed, and Reid needed more fodder…help to fight the way clear, so he barked orders and waved Dallas to come over and join him.

  One of the other men raced to the end of the porch, knocked out a window, and brushed away broken glass for him to climb inside the room. A woman joined him, and the two found the library inside, small, cozy, in line with the lodge theme, and thankfully free of creatures. They silently closed the door glad it was a heavy, wooden one, locked it, and quietly moved furnishings in front of the door, leaving enough for the window.

  Reid was shocked to see Dallas, followed by Nick Hoyt, and a whole group of men and women. They were unharmed; it seemed, strong, tired, but alert. Reid’s hopes went up again although he wondered what to do with them. The women crawled through the window as the men slammed the creatures’ heads into shards and took out many of the threats.

  “Hey, Hey there.”

  Dallas stopped his abuse on the monsters and looked at Norman, puzzled.

  “It’s not me.” Normal looked around. Nothing but zombies.

  To his shock, a hand appeared close to his feet, pulling at the ground, and he almost slammed his weapon down, but when he paused, he saw a woman peek up at him from under the lodge, pushing out from the underpinning of false stones in sheets of vinyl skirting. She scrambled out and reached back to yank a second woman up to her feet. Both were dirty, but grinned uneasily, their teeth white against the brown of soil ground into their skin.

  “Get inside,” Norman ordered, “If you aren’t bitten.”

  “No bites. We hid,” the woman said as they ran for the window and dove through.

  The men, beating back the threat, managed to climb into the library, and they covered the window with a table turned on the side and blocked it. Few monsters were close enough to see where they vanished, and the ones that did see wouldn’t remember, maybe.

  “Where were you?” Dallas asked.

  “Trying to get out. We lost some just now…a shame….” Reid introduced the rest of his people; seven survived as well as Reid. Nick proudly showed off his twelve plus himself, and they looked at the two women who had crawled from under the lodge.

  “I’m Sue. This is Shannon. We were with a group that ran to the lake and then found a boat, but it leaked, so we walked and found a shack. A woman was infected and bit Cody, and we had a fight; then, we decided to run here and see if we could get away. That was the plan. But….”

  Shannon took over, “We spent hours just trying to stay away from the biters, but they were all over the woods; also, there were cliffs, so we couldn’t get away. Wicket who was an ass said to come here, but he was a good fighter, and no one else knew what to do anyway.”

  “Wicket?” Rudy looked up.

  “Yes. You knew him?”

  “Yep. He didn’t make it.”

  “No, he didn’t,” Shannon admitted, “and he was a jerk most of the time, but he was trying, and no one knew what to do. We let him be leader, really. He fought with Mira, but they did agree, finally.”

  “Mira?” Bristol sat up now, “you were with her? She was our close friend.”

  Shannon smiled sadly, “Mira was amazing. I guess you know she didn’t make it? Yeah. Well, the whole time, she was busy coming up with plans. She got us away from the things at the shore, even if the boat leaked. She was brave and smart, so we listened to her. We lost a few. We lost a whole family with a baby on the lawn; that was painful.”

  “We saw them,” Cindy whispered.

  “Good people, but it was an accident and nothing we could do. We made it to the corner, but as we came around, we got between two hordes. Your friend, Mira, was a real hero. She yelled at us to run and hide while she fought. She knew she couldn’t make it, but that girl was amazingly strong and brave and she yelled at us and gave us a chance. We owe her our lives,” Shannon said with tears in her eyes.

  Peri sighed, “That is good to know. That gives me a little peace. Thanks for sharing. We wouldn’t have known that. Shan fought, too. My friends have been amazing. Rhonda….”

  Norman reached for her and held her as she cried again.

  “Thanks, Shannon. I’m glad you got to know our Mira. She was an amazing person. What did you do?”

  Shannon shrugged, “We ran, but there were so many of those things that we were stuck. Sue thought about hiding under the lodge, but it was a long shot since the skirting could have been real rock, but we pulled back a section of the skirting and climbed under and hid. We only called out when we heard you.”

  Sue shivered, ‘There were bugs under there. It was horrible, but we hid. You can’t imagine the screaming we heard. I guess we are the only ones that made it from our little group. All that work and it’s just us.”

  Shannon hugged her.

  “We were supposed to bug out,” Reid glared at Dallas and Hoyt.

  “Yep. Things went to shit. Dr. Dickson is dead. Dr. Lindsay is dead. Dave and I ran to the bar with these people, and our aim was to get out.”

  Reid frowned, “Who beat on you, Hoyt?”

  “I fell down some stairs,” he lied.

  “Well. Anyway. You plan to get out? How much room do you think we have?”

  “Norman rubbed
the keys in his pocket, “We don’t leave people unless they are infected.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “I’ll remember that. This is my operation, by the way,” Reid said.

  “I guess we’ll have to see if we want that. I don’t think the military automatically gets control over me. It seems to me that since you set this up and murdered a bunch of people, you are not too reliable,” Hank said.

  “Been running off at the mouth, eh?” Reid asked Dallas and Hoyt.

  “I like your weapons,” Shannon told Cindy. Cindy let Shannon and Su look at her weapon closer and beamed with pride.

  “Dr. Parce will be wondering where we are,” Dallas said.

  “I am sure he is. You wanna run out there and climb down and tell him what’s up? No? Well, then we need a plan. Did you see all those bastards out there run between the shack and us? Did you see how far it is?”

  “No, Major, but we need to get moving,” Nick Hoyt said.

  Reid glared more.

  Twenty-two people sat in the library, resting and using some wet wipes to clean up. Reid figured that out of all them, only he, Hoyt, and Dallas needed to get out, and the last two were up for grabs. Fodder. He needed them to keep biters busy so he could get to the vehicles. Some of the women, if they survived, could come along, since they were good looking. Peri was pretty hot and feisty. Bristol was a pixie cutie, and Dana was an amazon beauty. He wouldn’t mind getting time with them.

  “You break your foot?” Reid asked Ann.

  “It’s badly sprained,” Dana wrapped Ann’s ankle carefully, “I don’t see how you can walk on it, much less run.”

  “If someone can’t move, we can’t carry him,” Reid noted.

  “Did we ask you? We don’t leave people behind.”

  “Really? You haven’t had to leave anyone yet? That’s hard to believe,” Reid watched Dana’s eyes. Her eyes shifted, and he knew he had her. “No one was left, huh? What was she crying over? A gal named Rhonda? What happened to Rhonda?”

  “Stop it,” Dana snapped.

  “Just asking.”

  “She was infected, you asshole.”

  “Yeah? What did you do with her?”

  Hank narrowed his eyes, “I put her down because she was infected and her head was about to burst. I did it. It was merciful. We don’t just leave people. Ann is perfectly fine except for her ankle. We’ll get her to the vans.”

  “My vans?”

  “Come on, Major….” Dallas began.

  Reid waved him off, “We have to go from here to there. Any ideas? Plans?”

  “We have to go out there and fight them back and somehow get past the horde, and get around the corner, but we don’t know what’s there. Then we have to get across the rest of the lawn, through the woods, and finally into the sheds. I think that sums it up,” Norman said.

  Reid nodded, “Okay.” He stood and got ready, motioning the rest up, “I am heading to that shed at a full on run. Whatever comes at me, it dies. Again. I’m going, so lead, follow, or get the hell outta my way, but I am going to be moving. I will not wait one second. Not one. Not a half of a second. When I hit the van, I am gone, so either you are in, or you are left here. Is that clear?”

  “Major….” Nick tried.

  “I will be moving very fast because I’m a fast kind of man. If you are slow, if you’re grabbed, or if you stumble and fall, make no mistake about it; I will run past you and never look back when you scream for help. If you get left behind, you are done for. This area will be sanitized as soon as I get the word to the rest. I hope I am fully clear here.”

  “I think we have it. Sanitized as in burned away? Everything?”

  “You got it.”

  “What am I going to do?” Ann asked.

  “We’ll help you,” Hank said, but he looked at Reid and wondered if he could do this. He had to make sure Dana made it. Unfortunately, he, like everyone else, was mentally making a list of who was first to get out.

  Reid’s team of untrained civilians removed the table and jumped out the window, swinging weapons. Cindy shoved her spear through an eye socket. Everyone climbed out the window and fought, cracking skulls or jabbing knives into heads. A large horde had formed, knowing fresh meat was close but unsure where it was; they focused on the moving humans as a food source.

  Jack moved in front of Bristol and pushed a creature’s head back so she wasn’t bitten. His hand slipped into the thing’s mouth. Furious, he battered its head until it was pulp, pulling Bristol along faster. They raced behind Reid, trying to keep up.

  Reid stopped to fight a group of zombies that blocked his path. Sue and Norman helped.

  Ann went down on her ankle, a blast of pain shooting through her foot, ankle, and leg. The agony was like white-hot knives. She would have suffered and kept running, but the ligaments were so torn that she literally couldn’t put weight on that leg; it collapsed underneath her. “Help me,” she begged. Hank stopped. He wanted to carry her, but he still carried Molotov cocktails. He lit the rag in one bottle of rum and tossed it back at the creatures that tried to follow; several went up in flames, lighting up the night. They bumped and fell into one another as they shambled.

  Carrying Ann would slow down Hank, and Dana was already ahead of him and calling to him. He debated with himself.

  He had to go with Dana because who else would protect her and make sure she made it to safety? She was his first concern. Gulping, he turned away and ran after Dana, catching up quickly. Guilt picked at his mind, but he pushed the tendrils away and focused.

  Reid’s friends, Rita, Ron, and Ned went down fast since they were surrounded. Rita was grabbed from behind as she fought and watched the action in front of her; the heavily gnawed woman behind Rita clutched her and bit into her shoulder and neck, unable to get a full mouthful, but able to get a large bite. She tore the skin away as blood burst, filling the air in a spray and drenching Rita. When Rita dropped her weapon and clutched her wound, a pair of ghouls lunged, knocking her over with their combined weight. They fed.

  Ron slid off the grass just as a huge pain gripped his chest. He had never felt such a tight compression on his chest and was dimly aware that he was having a heart attack. The stress and fear, plus extreme exertion, caused his heart to go bad. As he lay on the cool grass waiting to be bitten, he wondered why it had to end this way. A second gripping pain was far worse, and Ron died before the first set of teeth bit into his flesh.

  Ned backpedaled into the burning zombies and lit himself on fire. He would have screamed a long time, but a zombie took advantage and began to chew on Ned’s neck, killing him quickly and lighting up its self.

  Their combined screams broke the night, calling more zombies to the area and chilling all who heard. The shrieks went on and on. Ann began screaming as well when she was overtaken. No one stopped or looked back. Every one kept running; Reid was the rabbit they chased.

  “Tool shed,” Reid yelled. He yanked open the door and ran inside, letting the rest follow and then bolt the door. The shack was large with gardening tools lining the walls and a few riding lawnmowers at the ready. As soon as they caught their breath, several dropped their weapons and grabbed what they had found: a shovel, a hoe, a pitchfork, and a spike. Reid raised his hoe, “Now this works. We can give ‘em hell.”

  “We lost four.”

  “Ann….”

  Reid huffed, “Be glad it wasn’t you and that we only lost the four. We could have been bitten and eaten alive if we hadn’t been fast. We need to be faster.”

  Dana examined Jack’s hand, “It’s a bite. You’re infected.”

  “Yeah. I know. Shitty luck for me.”

  Bristol shook with anger, “It isn’t right. He was defending me, or I’d be dead. That thing was about to bite me, and Jack stepped up.”

  Peri smiled a little, “Amazing, Jack. Thank you for being a real hero.”

  “Well, heroes always die, right? When you go, I’ll stay here in this
nice shed and just wait. Reid said we’re going to be sanitized, so I won’t be one of those things for long, anyway.”

  Hank and Norman shook his hand solemnly, and Bristol hugged her savior, Thank you, Jack. You are a good man.”

  The shed contained a back door that slid open and they ran out, carrying new weapons. Reid yelled, “There’s too many. We’ll circle around and go to the woods.”

  “We’d do better to fight,” Dana argued.

  “Do you wanna lead? ‘Cause if you do, feel free, but it’s not a good position. Dallas, what the hell are you doing?”

  Dave Dallas was bent over. His stomach was on fire, and his hunger was monstrous, taking over his mind. He could hardly think beyond the nausea and pangs, and he gripped his own knees and dug his fingers into his pants, grimacing. Cindy, watching him, worried since he was sweating and grinding his teeth, “Are you okay?”

  “No. I hurt.”

  Cindy reached up to wipe sweat from his brow and wiped his face in a motherly way, thinking of her own, grown son who lived in Alaska, “What’s wrong?”

  “My stomach….” His head spun dizzily. He imagined himself as a biter, walking aimlessly, following the rest, responding to the moans, and always feeding and spreading the infection. He thought of how mindless they were and let him mind empty as he fought the acute pain that caused his stomach muscles to cramp into hard knots.

  Cindy began screaming at him, and her battering of his face made him pay attention to where he was, again, and see the blood, crimson splashes that flew everywhere. Confused, Dallas looked at Cindy and ducked her blows. He barely missed being hit by Norman; the hoe would have slit his head, “What are you doing?”

  “You bastard!” Cindy smacked him shoulder. Oddly, when she did, she held up her other hand, and the last two fingers were missing, snapped off and pouring blood. She was bitten.

  Dallas swallowed, the metallic taste in his mouth pleasing. The cramps subsided a little, and he caught his breath. Very slowly, he realized that in his severe hunger and iron craving, he had accidentally bitten Cindy and chewed and swallowed her fingers. His entire body went rigid with the realization.