The Turning

by Thomas Key

  The two children gathered up anything that they wanted to bring. We allowed them to bring all that they wanted and made room for their stuff happily. Within thirty minutes, we were on our way to UNM, also known as the University of New Mexico. A sprawling university with smaller buildings scattered all over the place, it had once been a pride and joy of Albuquerque. The go-to place for those seeking higher education. Now though, it was just as dead as the world around it. The Sub building was three-story-tall and situated almost directly between Central and Campus Blvd. We parked along the street to the south of the building. It was eventually decided that Kenneth, Rachel and I would move into the campus to find the missing children. Atencio, Isabel, Jaylin and Ashmore sat in the first Humvee with Raul and Joe and kept a vigilant lookout. We, on the other hand, made our way slowly and somewhat stealthily towards the target building. We still hadn’t seen a sign of anyone or anything which was still extremely odd. For a city that had held hundreds of thousands, it was way too quiet. The white doors to the building swung open silently as if the hinges were freshly oiled. We moved as one and breached it.

  Inside, we could hear obvious sounds of battle. Not the kind that we were used to at all though. As we moved farther into the dark interior, two children were holding off a dozen or so infected with nothing but homemade spears. I kid you not, pun intended. As I watched in stunned amazement, a zombie lurched for one, the larger and obviously older of the two. The older one stabbed upwards, sending the pointy end through the eye and into the disease-riddled brain of the aggressor. With a pivot, the girl, yes, it was definitely a girl, withdrew the weapon and let the body fall where it did, her hair pulled up in a tight ponytail. Behind her, the younger boy had managed to hit one in the knee hard enough to catch it off balance, and with a kick to said knee, sent it falling backwards onto the ground. The audible crack of bone as it hit the tile floor was just gross. Trained fighters pre-apoc would be hard pressed to have these kinds of results. However, more infected were coming to the party and it was a foregone conclusion that numbers would outweigh skill. Everyone tires and the same can definitely be said for children. Done with watching the spectacle, Rachel fired first, sending a well-placed round into the head of the closest infected to us. This was to clear us a path and to avoid sending bullets near the children. Kenneth and I followed suit, selecting our targets one by one. Our lights danced around like we were trying to play flashlight tag back in the good old days. I almost yelled, ‘Tag, you’re it!’ as I blasted another infected in the face. As we approached the children, they appeared ready to make a run for it, and in the opposite direction. Rachel spoke up quickly, seeing them eyeing an escape route. “We’re the good guys. We found your friends at Monte Vista,” she shouted as she ran forward. An obvious spark of recognition came across the girl and she grabbed the boy so he wouldn’t take off without her. The boy though was still trying to fight the undead around them, lashing out with his spear whenever he could. The girl though had put the pieces together and realized that their battle was just about over. Rachel made it to them, and put her arms around them, as if creating a mom-like shield around them. If force fields were real, moms everywhere had the ability to summon them from another dimension, of that I was sure of as no harm came to any of them as we pulled up short of the trio, putting two rounds into another infected off to the right. We set up a defense perimeter around the group and held our ground. It was eerily quiet as we stood there among the infected bodies littering the floor. “Are you two okay?” Rachel asked the two children. The girl shrugged off her arm. “Yeah, of course, we are,” she said defiantly. Rachel held out her hands in a placating manner. “Okay okay. We have your friends in our car. Can we get out of the dark and go see them?” she asked the two kids. The boy nodded readily, but the girl didn’t move. “Come on,” Rachel said, grasping the boy’s hand. He followed her with no hesitation. I heard what sounded like a shriek and turned to see the girl coming straight at me, weapon raised. She completely caught me off guard. I tried desperately to pull my rifle around to see if I could take a shot before she reached me, but she was far too close. What a way to die, I told myself as the sharp, pointy, infected blood covered tip flew right past my cheek and I heard a loud popping noise. I stood there, stunned, with her nearly directly in my face. Or at least as best she could at maybe four feet tall. I turned slowly, and saw that she had impaled another zombie through the left eye this time. It had apparently joined the dinner party late and had tried to sneak in a quick bite of yours truly. I gulped audibly as she pulled the weapon free. The undead fell forward and I moved quickly to avoid it falling upon me. It landed with a loud thump in the darkness. The little shit grinned and followed Rachel and the boy out the front doors. I was still standing, shocked. Kenneth walked up to me. “That little girl just saved your ass man,” he said with a chuckle. “Hey bro?” I said back to him in reply. “Yeah?” he asked. “We don’t speak of this ever again,” I said, looking at him straight in the eyes. Have you ever seen someone smile with their eyes? If you don’t know what I mean, it’s when someone smiles and their eyes squint. Even without looking at their shit eating grin, you can absolutely tell that they are smiling at you. That was him. “Sure. Sure,” he said as he walked away from me, heading for the door. “Fucker,” I said as I followed him out.

  Ashmore, Isabel and Atencio sat in the Humvee quietly with the two children and watched the group of three make their way through the UNM campus towards the target building. “There they go,” Isabel said, with a hint of worry in her voice. “They’ll be fine,” Atencio said as she scanned the area behind the vehicle. “How do you know that?” Isabel asked, turning to her. Atencio turned back to meet her gaze. “Well, if they all die then our job gets infinitely harder and I don’t want to deal with that,” she said. A grin crept over Isabel’s face. “So, basically, they will be okay because you don’t want to work harder?” Isabel asked. Atencio smiled and nodded. “Exactly.” “Wow,” Ashmore piped in, which of course earned daggers from Atencio. The two children were still sitting in the back seat, completely quiet and watching the adult spectacle in front of them. Jaylin had stayed in the other Humvee. It was probably so she could enjoy a little peace and quiet, though she never said why she had moved. The two women, Atencio and Ashmore began to bicker while Isabel and the children watched. A small crashing sound broke the brewing argument faster than someone holding up fresh bacon to a pack of dogs at a dog park. An awkward silence fell over the group as they sat, just waiting for something to happen. Then as if on cue, Jaylin waived her hands to get the other women's attention. It wasn’t until one of the children, Joe, spoke up, “I think that lady wants you,” he said, pointing as all of the women turned to look at him. They all looked over in unison and witnessed Jaylin making a gun gesture with her hand and pointing to their left. It must have been comical to see everyone in the Humvee turn at the same time to look out the left side of the vehicle. A group of infected were making the way in their direction. Oddly enough, they were not just out in the open and heading for them with arms outstretched. They appeared to be taking cover behind bushes and trees as they advanced towards the group. “That’s new,” Ashmore said, staring at the incoming threat. “They’ve been getting smarter,” Raul said quietly to the group. “Out of the mouths of babes,” Isabel said, flicking her rifle from safe to semi-automatic. “Are we ready to take care of these guys, ladies?” she asked the group of women. The sound of more rifles readying sounded quickly thereafter. “I’m down,” Atencio said as she opened the door and stepped out. “I guess we’re going now?” Ashmore said, annoyed as she followed her friend out. Out of the corner of Isabel’s eye, she could see Jaylin also disembarking. They all raised their rifles and tracked targets. As the first one came out into the open of the sidewalk, it was immediately downed with a headshot. The remaining thirteen or so broke cover and ran towards the soldiers, moving from side to side, trying to avoid the incoming hail of bullets. Unfortunately, these infected running
had not been an over dramatization. They rushed the group, as if they were a group of apparently half-starved Americans chasing after the last Whoppers at a Burger King that was closing for good, and the burgers were free. People will do anything for free crap. Rounds began to pop off at an increased rate, some having missed their targets completely. Just as the group had been whittled down to the last remaining infected, the two children in the Humvee screamed. Jaylin spun, having been the furthest away and spotted a second group coming in from their flanks. With a speed that would be hard to replicate, she turned her rifle in the direction of the new group and began to fire. The second group was larger than the first, with some fast ones making up the head of the pack. The first group was eliminated and the other three adults turned to focus their fire on the new group. The runners had pushed Jaylin back to the first Humvee as she retreated, stepping back with each round fired. Two of the infected plastered their faces up against the rear passenger window of the vehicle with the children, who screamed and looked on in terror. They had impacted the vehicle with such force, attempting to get to the canned food that they broke noses and teeth on the window, smearing blood and pieces of human anatomy all across the windows. Licking the glass frantically as if that would somehow allow them a taste of the warm flesh inside. The women, finding a new gear pushed forward, with Atencio jumping up onto the hood and quickly moving to the top of the roof of the Humvee and firing downwards into the waiting heads of the zombie. The other women quickly moved around the vehicle and put down the rest of the infected before them. The intense firefight was over in just minutes but had most likely caused not only emotional but mental damage to everyone involved, especially the kids inside. The fact that now the infected were planning or at least some were using tactics was downright frightening. A slow shuffling old school movie type of zombie was easy to take out in small groups. Even with larger numbers, they could be managed with discipline. Now though, it was evident that something had changed. Granted, the group of non-threatening infected from the few days before had raised red flags, but this was almost a military type of upgrade. With tactics. It would go without saying that they had a new problem on their hands. Imagine an undead army that could think, plan and attack in new and insane ways. Shit, someday it might just be possible that they begin using their own weapons and even start using a toaster. Then what? Humankind will be wild game hunted for the sport of it. Zombie families will rejoice at their undead kids getting their first kills with a hunting rifle at the human preservations or some crap like that. With the humans of the world maintaining only a toehold, it was only a matter of time before they would be wiped out should the infected evolve much farther.

  A pile of infected lay just feet from the front bumper of the closest Humvee. The soldiers stood, their rifles at the ready. Not a single sound assailed to their ears after the last one fell. It was eerie to say the least. As they looked on, they saw the group from the Sub heading their way. Behind them, another group of infected was in semi-hot pursuit. “It’s time to go!” I shouted out to the group at the Humvees and saw their female faces lose their color. “There’s probably a lot of them behind us,” I told Kenneth as we took up the rear guard behind the kids. “Probably,” he said back to me as we kept up the pace. “Keep moving!” I said, pushing the group onward. As if somehow, those words would make them run even faster. It’s one of those things where do you really need to be told to swim faster when there are sharks coming straight for you? Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to say so. The women in front of us moved several bodies out of the way and cleared a path for us. Bodies were dragged unceremoniously out of the way haphazardly and then the ladies all piled into the rear vehicle, leaving us the closest. We filed in, throwing the children, not so nicely into the rear seats as we did so. Rachel and I slammed our doors closed just as undead finger tips grasped for the opening. As the door locked shut, I was rewarded with at least three fingertips on my lap. To say that it was gross was an absolute understatement. For a moment, I just looked down and stared at them, as if they were a new insanely cool toy set from Toys R US, had they still been in business. Rachel slapped my arm hard, and that broke me out of my trance. I shook the disgusting things off of me and started the engine. Zombies were all around us, pounding with all the excitement you’d expect. Books and movies though do not do the feeling of watching all of those hands pound against your window, trying to get through it with the one goal of eating your flesh. As I moved the vehicle into reverse and began to run over the infected, the kids and adults alike were subject to one of the worst bouncy rides of our lives. We jostled around like popcorn in a movie theater cooker. It was both fun and absolutely terrifying at the same time. Fun because being bounced around is naturally fun as hell. Terrifying because we could hear the sounds of breaking bones as our tires crushed bodies under them. In more than one case, I saw blood and guts explode out onto the sidewalk as we rolled over an infected gusher. Eventually though, we broke through. The group of infected continued to chase us for about a block before they slowed and eventually stopped, watching us pull away. The rear hummer had become the lead and we followed them further down, trying to put some more distance between us and the attackers.