by Aaron Guerra
“Don’t tell me! Was it evil spiders from hell?” she had said. The soldier dropped to his knees when he saw the countless freaks that blocked their path up ahead.
“This…this just isn’t fair!” he let out. He combed his fingers through his hair as the sight of the dead covering the area ahead was getting to him. “Please tell me the park isn‘t over there?” he had asked them. Sarah looked back at the crowd to see the basketball hoops within the distance.
“It’s the center of town. That’s where the rescue team is going to arrive. We need to somehow lure them all away before the helicopters get here,” Sarah said as she began to think up a solution.
Chapter 9
The sun started to come up to push the darkness away. Cindy and the rest of the large group had came across a few large buildings near the center of town.
“Alright, let’s take a break. Everyone rest up before we move out again,” she had said to them. Marilyn sat down beside Matthew on the sidewalk while Kim hopped onto the hood of a dirty old pickup truck. It was pretty quite in the early morning. They haven’t ran into any of the monsters that would’ve usually caused them problems, or the thing that was wandering around the shopping center. “You look pretty good in that,” she said. Cindy stood beside the truck where the woman was sitting. She had climbed the truck to sit beside her. “Scoots!” Cindy said playfully. Kim slowly shifted to the side to allow the soldier with black hair to move in closer. “I’m sorry what happened earlier. Did you know her long?” she asked. The girl lowered her head with a small smile appearing on her face.
“No. I met her the same time you did. It’s Sarah that I’m worried about. I think they’ve been together for awhile now and I don’t know how to tell her when we meet up again. If we meet up,” Kim had said. Cindy gently took her hand into hers before giving her a warm comforting smile.
“I’ll be there with you when we tell her about Roxanne. You’re not alone in this anymore,” she said. They were cut off when they heard a man’s voice coming from the side of the truck. Cindy slowly climbed off the hood before going to where the voice was being emitted. She found a fellow dead OPC member leaning against the vehicle with his organs missing. The expression on his face showed that he was in great excruciating pain.
“There!” Kim said as she pointed down to the soldier’s hand to reveal a broken walkie-talkie. Cindy quickly recovered the device to hear her superior’s voice coming from it.
“Sir! This is Cindy!” she said through the damaged device. Static came out of it before the man’s old heavy voice escaped the speaker.
“I’m glad to hear that you’re still alive. I just heard from Velski and some civilian named Tristan. I’ve given them the location of the extraction point, which is what I’m about to tell you,” said Christian Blake. The students appeared behind the soldier as they heard most of what the man had said. Marilyn had to force Matthew to get up again to join the group.
“To anyone other than Cindy that is hearing this, know that this is the executive choice that the government had went with a couple of hours ago. There is no easy way to say this, but if you don’t make it to the extraction point, the missile that is going to be launched will destroy the entire town along with you in it. This is to stop any further outbreaks that might happen if any of those infected people escape. They did this to Crimson Falls, and now it will happen to Little Bow. You all have exactly one and a half hour to get to the public park located at the center of town. There, the rescue team will arrive with five helicopters to pick up any survivors to safety. I repeat, you must be at the public park in one hour and thirty minutes to escape. If you miss your chance, you will die along with the evil that took over Little Bow. Cindy!” he had explained before shouting her name near the end. “I better see you and Velski here. That is a direct order from me,” Blake said. Matthew looked down at the black vest he was wearing to see the letters OPC across them.
“I already forgot what this stood for again,” he said to himself. Marilyn shook her head before turning away to look at the frightened faces the students had.
“It stands for Outbreak & Prevention Center. Basically their job is to make sure shit like this doesn’t happen,” said Marilyn. Cindy stood up while placing the damaged walkie-talkie on her belt to keep.
“Alright! You heard what the man in charge said. We need to be there before our ride leaves. Is everyone here ready to go?” she had asked. Kim climbed off the hood with the machine gun in her hand.
“The public park? That’s not that far from here, so we should be good on time. My only concern is…where are all the monsters at?” Kim asked. Cindy wanted to know that as well, but knowing now that the park wasn’t far made the tension in her shoulders disappear.
One of the younger students tried to grab onto Kim’s gun with a terrified look on their face. She turned to look at the dead person that was leaning against the truck. Long black thin legs started to creep out of it’s mouth which caught everyone’s attention now.
“Everyone fall back!” Cindy ordered. The four in the OPC uniforms brought their guns up to take aim at the new thing that was climbing out of the dead man. It’s black slimy body landed on the corpse’s legs. It had ten legs with a vicious set of fangs at the front. There was no sign of any eyes for it to see, but that made no difference to the people with the weapons. “FIRE!” Cindy yelled. Three machine guns and a pump action shotgun were going off all at once. The thing let out a loud screech before it shriveled up with green blood leaking out of the wounds.
“What the hell was that?” Kim had asked.
Cindy knelt down beside the new creature to see if it was completely dead.
“These things are weaker than the infected, but what exactly is it?” she asked herself. Kim quickly grabbed her hunting knife and brought it down at the center of it’s body. The thing started to squirm around more before it’s skin color faded to a shade of gray.
“I had a feeling that thing didn’t die the first time,” Kim said. Cindy stood up while wiping some of the green blood off her vest.
“Thanks, I should’ve known better than to get that close,” she said with a smile of thanks. Kim used the side of her pants to wipe the blood off the blade while facing the woman.
“Yeah, you should have. Now let’s go. I don’t want to stick around if any more of those things decide to come out,” she told the soldier.
Kim decided to lead the way as Marilyn and Matthew covered the rear of the group. Cindy was walking beside the students to hear some of their high school stories that they decided to bring up.
“So your English teacher sent you to the principal’s office because you saw a strange man through the classroom window?” Cindy asked the student. The girl that was talking to the soldier was known as Sophie. She didn’t want to give out her last name for personal reasons. The student was fourteen with short black hair and a nose ring piercing.
“Yeah, the teacher didn’t listen to a word I had said about the strange person. We found our teacher later being torn apart in the hallway that lead to the gymnasium. I was with the principal at that time. I tried to sneak away from him to let the others know, but the tight grip on that old geezer was impressive,” said Sophie. The soldier looked at the girl’s wrist to see a mark still around it.
“That was a rather harsh thing for him to do. But I guess he had his reasons. If he hadn’t of dragged you away from the monsters, you could’ve ended up like your English teacher,” Cindy told her.
Sophie agreed with her, but her wrist was still hurting.
“So how did you get into this field of work?” the student asked. She pointed at the emblem on the woman’s sleeve. The insignia on it was something she had never seen before.
“I was recruited by the man you heard through the walkie-talkie earlier. I was in the US military for awhile but I ended up getting wounded during a training exercise. Surprisingly enough I recovered rather quicker than the doctors expected,” Cindy had explained. Sophie loo
ked at her from different angles to see if there were any scars to be seen.
“How did you get hurt?” Sophie asked. Cindy placed a hand on her chest with her eyes closing slightly from the memory.
“I was leading a small group of soldiers in the rain one early morning. One of them tripped and nearly fell off the edge of the hillside. Did the best I could to lift him up but the ground under me broke apart. Next thing I know, I’m laying in a hospital bed with that man from the OPC staring down at me,” said Cindy. A light blush appeared on her face when she remembered the handsome devil sitting in the chair beside her. “He wanted me to join this new batch of soldiers that came from around the world. The Outbreak & Prevention Center was my next journey in life. But during times like this, I kind of wish that I was still in the military instead,” she had revealed to the high school student.
Kim overheard the two talking when the sight up ahead made her stop in her tracks.
“Everyone!” Kim said loud enough for the others to hear. They watched as she immediately lowered herself with the weapon being ready in her hands. A horse sized black creature came running by with four arms sticking out of it’s back. Green looking blood started to ooze out of the unknown creature’s mouth.
“Another one?! Why does this one look like a horse?!” Matthew said before he unleashed the shotgun at it’s face.
The few shots he got in did some damage to it, but the thing slithered off towards a building. The students had their weapons ready incase more of them were going to show up.
“Does anyone know exactly what those things are?” Marilyn asked as she looked over to see Kim stare at Cindy.
“Why don’t you tell them what we’re up against now? They have the right to know the truth,” Kim said to Cindy. Sophie and the others looked at the soldier in black with confused looks on their faces.
“I suppose you‘re right. It’s classified information but everyone here has the right to know. Those things are really alien life forms. We thought there was only one, but seeing the two just now means that it’s somehow producing more. They are what caused the scientist from the CDC to transform into one of those hideous creatures. He escaped and caused the destruction of Crimson Falls. Now I think the alien is either producing more of them or transferring itself into each victim it comes in contact with through the dead people,” Cindy had explained to everyone.
Marilyn pointed back to the dead OPC soldier that they left awhile ago.
“It came out of it’s mouth earlier. We’ve never seen that over at Crimson Falls before. So why is this happening now?” she asked. Matthew looked over to the building where the horse sized creature had escaped to.
“I think it was too weak to do it then. Now that it’s had a week to get stronger, it has the ability to do this. I wouldn’t be surprised if all those dead people can produce those alien creatures too,” Mathew had said. Kim placed a hand to her face while trying to process everything that was going on.
“So first it was a virus type deal, now we have aliens running around with us. This is a bad sci-fi movie in the making,” Kim said to herself.
Everyone looked at the woman for a moment before heading down the road for the extraction zone. Sophie turned back to see some normal brain eating dead dudes come out of the buildings that they had just passed. They were all twitching a bit with the dark green slime oozing out of their eyes.
“Guys, I think we need to pick up the pace and start running,” said Sophie. They turned around to see the flesh eaters open each of their mouths with the black slime spilling out. The bodies collapsed onto the road as the slime mixed together.
“I’m starting to think that the aliens spread through the bites from the dead,” Kim said as she had looked around the streets to see if there was anything they could use. There was a large yellow school bus that could be seen from where she was standing. It looked as though the driver lost control and collided into the side of a small building. “Come on! Let’s head for that bus!” she told the others. Everyone frantically raced over to the bus that was nearly a block away. Cindy forced the door to open up as the students came rushing in it. Matthew and Marilyn stood guard around the bus, just incase anything came out to attack them. Kim smacked the side of the vehicle to let them know that they were safely on board. “Get in!” she told the two that were still outside. Matthew had turned around to come face to face with a fat rotting woman in front of him. It backed up somewhat before letting out a disgustingly horrid stench from it’s mouth. The man fell to his knees when his strength started to disappear.
“N-No way!” he said in a weakened state.
Marilyn shoved the rotting fatso down to the side before helping her love up from the sidewalk.
“I’m not going to let you out of my sight again!” she told him. Cindy had exited the large vehicle to help the two get back onto the bus. Kim sat in the driver’s seat to see that the keys were still in the ignition.
“Start it already!” A student from the back had shouted while pointing out to the direction that they had just came from. “It’s coming to get us!” the student said. Kim started to turn the key but the engine didn’t want to completely start up.
“You have got to be kidding me! Why isn’t this damn thing working?!” she said.
Matthew was sitting in a seat while trying to regain his strength from that disgusting smelly thing outside. The large overweight beast was banging on the side of the bus with it’s eyes turning red. Her attacks became more ferocious as blood started to leak out of her mouth.
“I think she became a Revival. We need to get this damn thing started on the double!” Cindy said. She then pulled Kim out of the driver’s seat to try to get the thing to work. But the engine just wouldn’t stay on long enough for them to get it moving. “We might need to find another way out of here,” she said. Kim hit the dashboard with her fist while glaring down at the woman in the driver’s seat.
“NO! WE NEED TO GET THIS HUNK OF JUNK STARTED!” she had demanded the woman in a loud outburst of anger.
The large revival on the side of the bus had pierced through with it’s rotting hand. The thing wiggled it’s arm around inside until it grab a student by the leg. The girl screamed at the top of her lungs as her friends used their weapons to sever the arm. Cindy stepped down on the gas pedal a few times while turning the key again. The engine decided to start up and stay on which made everyone cheer. But the creature outside wasn’t giving up anytime soon. It went directly for one of the tires with it’s flesh quickly peeling off. They watched as the skeleton version of the beast was piercing through one of the tires until it caused a loud bang. The bus went down slightly to the left but it was still able to move.
“Go!” Kim had shouted.
Cindy reversed the vehicle to escape from the wreckage and drove off to their next destination. The large revival let out a horribly loud scream when the oversized black alien tar had engulfed it completely from behind.
The sight was something else. Tristan was looking down from a rooftop near the center of the town. From up there he could see countless walking corpses blocking off the entrance to the park. Velski was chewing on a chocolate donut that she found at a gas station near by.
“Want a bite?” she asked him. He leaned in to take a small bite from the delicious treat.
“Haven’t had one of these since we first met. But enough about that. What do you think we should do now?” Tristan asked her. Velski scanned the area that she could see from the roof as she finished the last piece of the donut.
“I don’t know. There’s too many to fight,” she said. Tristan sat down with his body feeling exhausted from the lack of rest they’ve had.
“We need to figure out something before we collapse on the street. I know you’re like a super girl but even you will feel fatigue soon enough,” he said to her. She slowly sat down beside him with her hand taking his into her lap.
“Do you think, we will die?” she had asked him that question.
He turned to face the woman that caught him off guard. She had pushed him down as she rested on top of him. He could feel her body tremble as she held him tightly. Was she really this scared all along?
“Hey…” he lightly said. Tristan started to rub her back to comfort her while staring up at the bright blue sky. “We’re going to make it out of here. You, me, everyone else that we met,” he told her. She slowly climbed off of him to sit back down with tears coming down her face. He sat up beside her to wipe the tears away before placing a hand against her cold cheek. “We will survive. We just need to figure out how to get through that blockade to meet with the rescue team. Why don’t you take this time to rest while I try to think up something?” he asked her with a smile. Velski went back down to lay her head on his lap. It didn’t take long before the woman was asleep beside him. “Alright, what are our options?” he whispered to himself. Tristan thought to himself when his eyelids started to feel heavy. The man couldn’t fight off the exhausted feeling his entire body felt anymore. Tristan laid down beside the woman with his eyes finally closing.
A loud horn had suddenly woke up the two that were sleeping on the rooftop. Velski peeked over the edge to see a school bus parked nearby.
“Come look! Survivors!” she had said excitedly. Tristan crawled over to her side to see a familiar face exit the large yellow bus.
“Is that, Kim Kohn?” he asked with a surprised look on his face. Velski stood up fast to see a fellow OPC member exit the vehicle as well.
“No way! She is alive!” she said. Tristan placed two fingers in his mouth to help make a loud whistling sound. The people on the road quickly looked up to see two people on the roof of a computer store. Cindy waved over to her friend Velski before the two quickly ran down to the first floor of the building.