by Morris, SJ
Now, he was a monster that only wanted to destroy every human or living thing in his path. This was how the world was going to be from now on, and it made me very angry.
As Chris gave Tom and me the rundown of what our plan was, I stewed in my anger. All I could think of was wanting to know who the bastard was that thought of this virus and actually created it for the sole purpose of destroying people.
Tom touched me lightly on the shoulder to bring me out of my fury, “Are you listening, Abby?”
“Yeah, sorry. Same thing as last time. No talking and stay close to Chris,” I replied.
Tom and Chris both looked at me like they knew what was going on in my head but said nothing. I guess they’d seen that look on other people’s faces before and knew there was nothing they could do to remedy it, other than put me to work.
We left out the far gate that was all the way out past the lake. I finally got to see the area where the animals were kept. Apparently, we had a few horses, cows, some pigs, and sheep, as well as chickens. I was living on a mini farm, it seemed.
As we passed the area with all of the animals, Tom looked back at me and proudly declared that he took care of them all. Somehow, I knew he’d have this job, too. Apparently, he was good with animals as well as kids.
The jog through the woods was long but not too bad. We stopped for water breaks about forty-five minutes after we left the cabin’s gates, but it was only for roughly five minutes. Chris saw I was winded, but we were back to our jog through the woods after a quick silent check of his compass.
It seemed like it was only minutes after we started back out after our water break when Chris, who was in front, stopped dead in his tracks. I almost bumped into him but managed to stop just in time. I started to ask why we stopped, but Chris turned to Tom and me, motioning with his hands in a downward push.
Tom crouched immediately next to the closest tree, drew his rifle, and looked through the scope. Mimicking Tom, I crouched down and got my handgun out.
Chris looked at me funny. It was a, ‘Really? What do you think you’re going to do with that?’ kind of look.
I just stuck my tongue out at him like a child. He probably couldn’t see it through my tinted visor, though.
He put his fingers to his face in a shushing motion and closed his eyes. He looked to be reaching out with all of his senses except for sight, into the forest. Soon, he opened his eyes and pointed to our right. Tom instantly pointed his weapon in that direction, and after a few seconds, he held up four fingers.
Chris leaned in close to me, whispering, “Stay right by this tree. Do not move and do not make a sound.”
I was definitely not going to argue with him, even though I was scared shitless to be left alone.
Chris and Tom moved silently from their positions, Chris to the left and Tom to the right. They frightened me again, with their ability to disappear into the woods right in front of me.
I heard nothing for at least five minutes, and I was starting to get antsy staying in my designated spot, but then I heard it.
There was a distinct shuffling in the underbrush to the right of where I was standing perfectly still. I held my gun out in front of me but pointed it at the ground since I didn’t have an actual target. I could definitely tell the shuffling was getting closer, but I still couldn’t see anything. I was about to lift my visor so I could hear better when I saw a black blur run across my line of sight.
As I tried to focus on what it was, an infected man came into view. The trees were blocking most of it, but it was definitely a man, and he was definitely infected. He walked with the shuffle the others I had seen before had, and as he got closer, I could tell that his eyes were hazed over in a bluish-white tint.
I confirmed to myself that the longer you were infected with the virus, the worse your eyesight became. This gave me hope that these things would, at some point, eventually deteriorate into bones and die a final death due to decay. If the eyes decayed like normal, deceased human body tissue, hopefully, so did everything else. This might just give us a chance at beating these things by outliving them, if possible.
It still hadn’t seen me, but I unknowingly adjusted the weight from my left foot to my right and a twig I’d been standing on cracked. The sound was very soft to me, but apparently to the undead man, now fifty feet away, it might as well have been a gong.
The infected stopped, cocked his head, and began jogging in my direction faster than I could imagine something in its state could go.
I started to panic but remembered the gun in my hands and brought it up to aim. There was a thunk sound in the trees near me to my left, and the zombie went down, sliding through the dry leaves on the forest floor, unmoving. I looked up and saw there were three more, jogging as fast as they could in my direction. I aimed for the forehead of the one leading the pack and pulled the trigger. The sound of the silencer on my gun was the same quiet thunk I’d heard earlier. Two more shots and all three of the remaining infected went down for good, just behind their buddy, who bit the dust first.
I immediately scanned the surrounding area. In my brain, I was expecting to turn and see I was surrounded by hundreds of these things, but I saw nothing. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, and I could feel it thumping throughout my body.
I felt like I wasn’t getting enough oxygen, so as soon as I did a full scan of the area around me and saw nothing but the four who were now truly dead, I ripped my helmet off and took in huge gulps of air.
Chris was by my side in seconds, asking if I was okay.
I couldn’t get out the words to answer him, so I just made the okay sign with my hand and put my head between my knees. My breathing slowed after a few minutes, and I was able to stand up straight. I grabbed the bottle of water from the small backpack I had on and drank greedily.
“Are you sure you are okay? You don’t look so good,” Chris said with an anxious expression.
“Yeah… I’m fine. Just a... rush of... too much... adrenalin... at... once,” I answered with a few words through each heavy breath I took.
“She’s a damn fine shot, though!” said Tom as he slapped my shoulder, almost toppling me over, “Sorry.”
“Thanks, Tom, but can you refrain from gorilla punching me next time? If you do that again, I might just be on my ass next time,” I smiled at the big teddy bear as he grinned back.
“I don’t know my own strength sometimes, but I’ll be more careful. Don’t want to harm one of our top shooters now, do I?”
I looked at the two men smiling as I continued to catch my breath, “Where were you guys?”
Chris smiled back at me, “We flanked the group, and when they heard you moving around, we started firing. I’m glad we didn’t get behind them, or you might have taken one of us out.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice since they were sprinting right for me. I think we should stick together from now on, though, please. No more disappearing from my sight, you two.”
Tom laughed, “Good idea, I’d like to keep my head on top of my shoulders instead of next to it. You almost blew that second one’s head clean off with a 9 mil, pretty impressive.”
“Thanks for the compliments, but let’s take a look at the bodies to see if maybe we can tell where they were coming from. Then, we need to get going. Where there’s some, there’s probably more. I’m pretty sure they’re attracted to sound. So, if there’s any around, even with the silencers, the commotion might draw them to us,” I said.
We walked slowly over to the four, now really dead bodies. There were three males and one female. The one that was shot down first, Chris had taken down, and there was not much of his head left because of the caliber of his rifle. He was wearing what looked like a pair of gym shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. I guess he could have been working out or getting ready to go to the gym when he was bitten. His arm and shoulder were severely chewed, and I assumed that was how he got infected. He was probably grabbed by an infected and bitten but managed to get away.
I remembered from my experience in the gas station convenience store that the zombies would eat as much of their victim as they could before their victim died and reanimated. Or, even worse, the virus could be changing its victims so fast that the infected that attacked this man didn’t get a chance to eat more than a piece of his arm and part of his shoulder before he turned.
No, that couldn’t be. I knew they went for the soft fleshy parts that could be easily torn out and devoured. They wouldn’t just go straight for the arm. This had to have been an attack of opportunity.
I’m looking too much into this, I thought to myself, realizing how much I truly couldn’t wait for Troy to get to the cabin so that he could answer some of my questions. I wonder how many times I’ve said that in the last day or so? At the thought of Troy, I was starting to worry again that we’d not heard from him yet.
However, with one look back at the dead infected on the ground in front of me, I quickly concluded that I had bigger things to worry about at the moment. Things that I could control. Or at least try my best to anyway.
Chris and Tom were already going over the other three bodies, rummaging through their pockets to get wallets and find identification, to see if they were from this area or not. My guy didn’t have any ID on him, and neither did the woman. I figured when you got infected, you stopped caring about keeping your purse with you.
The other two men did have their wallets and they lived across the street from one another. At least they each died with someone they knew.
Chris took out his map and said the addresses were in the closest housing development to the strip mall we were headed to. I told Chris to take the IDs with us so that when we got back to the house, we could ask Amelia, Gia, and Christian what their last names were.
At least we might be able to find out if the kids really had nowhere else to go. Maybe some of the last names would match the kids back at the house. I hoped not, but at least then, we’d know.
Chris grabbed the IDs, and we headed off again. There was no question if we should bury these people or not. We didn’t have the time to do it, and we were positive it would be best if we burned the bodies.
I saw Chris looking at his watch on his wrist and marking down what looked like coordinates before we left the bodies, so I assumed we were going to get rid of them at some point in time. I wasn’t in the mood to ask questions after coming down from my adrenaline high, though.
Chris looked up from his notebook and made an awful face, “I thought you smelled horrible the other night, but that was nothing compared to how they smell in person. Let’s get the hell out of here before my breakfast comes back up.”
It took us another forty-five minutes of steady jogging before we came to a clearing and a chain-link fence with a playground inside. The building behind the fence had a rainbow painted on the back wall facing the playground. This had to be the daycare.
We stopped at the tree line and remained hidden from anyone or anything that could be in the area. Chris took out his binoculars, and Tom used the scope on his rifle to look around the area. Apparently, they were not happy with what they were seeing. The look that Chris and Tom each gave me was not good. Not good at all.
“What do you see, guys? All I can see is the swing set and the slide. It looks like people are standing around, but I can’t really tell.”
“Well, there are several bodies on the ground, some are adults, and some are definitely children,” Chris said with a serious face. I knew he was hurting inside at what he saw, but he’d never show it. Not while we were out here, about to face more horrible monsters.
“There are still a few of the infected in the playground too. It looks like they’re just standing there next to the bodies like they’re waiting for something.” Tom looked very worried about the situation we were about to be in.
“Well, boys, we knew what could be here, and we came anyway. We came to help, and now we need to see what we can do about clearing the building, helping any survivors we can find, and identify the deceased here for the kids that we have back home. Let’s just make a plan and get in there.”
The two soldiers looked like they were surprised to hear this from me but then began formulating a plan for us to get the playground cleared, and then do the same with the inside of the building. We needed to secure the doors to the preschool first, to make sure we didn’t attract, or let in any additional unwanted visitors while we’re clearing the area. I was only allowed to help clear the playground and had to stay outside while the two soldiers cleared the inside. I was too much of a liability inside a confined space.
I didn’t have any paramilitary training or some other, ‘Me Tarzan you Jane,’ horse shit. Whatever, I guess they were right.
We followed the tree line as far as it would take us around the side of the building by the fence, giving me a better view of the horror that was the playground. The body of a woman who was torn to shreds with barely any flesh left on it was near the back gate.
I assumed that was Miss. Sammy, the woman who the children said told them to run and closed the gate to protect them. She died bravely and selflessly. I may not have known her, but I knew she was an amazing woman for the sacrifice she had made for those kids.
There was a total of three infected standing inside the fence. They were just standing there. With them just hanging around, I guessed I could confirm a theory of mine. When there was no prey around, the infected go into a dormant state, waiting for his or her next meal to present itself. To further my speculation and prove my theory correct, I picked up a rock and threw it to the other side of the fenced-in area. The three zombies’ heads snapped in the direction of the sound the stone made, and they began shuffling towards the sound.
Miss Sammy’s head bobbed on the ground, but the rest of her body was destroyed so severely it was useless. Chris looked at me with a furrowed brow, like he would have yelled at me if he could.
I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled, since I didn’t want to make any sounds. I had my visor up so I could see better, and Chris just shook his head at my grin.
Tom waved his hands in front of both of our faces as if to say, ‘Hello, kind of busy trying to make a plan to kill infected here - pay attention!’
I made a shooing motion with my hands, hoping that they’d get the hint to go ahead and take the three infected out. Chris and Tom both put their rifles up and took aim.
The air filled with two thumps from the silenced rifles, followed by a second round of two more smacks. Within a matter of seconds, the infected in the yard were down on the ground and no longer moving. The playground was covered in mulch, so the black oozing blood of the infected seemed to be absorbed rather quickly, but the smell was still terrible.
The door to the inside of the preschool was made of glass, and I could tell that at least one more infected was pawing at the door, trying to get out. I guess she heard me throw the rock too, or she was attracted to the other three when they started moving towards the promise of food before they were put down.
Either way, we were going to have to get rid of her to get into the building. Without the threat of zombies outside hearing us, I decided it was okay to talk now.
“Sorry about the rock guys, I was testing a theory about noise and how the infected react to it. I think their eyesight deteriorates more the longer they’ve been infected, so they use sound for finding us.”
“Yeah, well, next time you want to test a theory, let me know first, so I’m ready for it.” Chris gave me a smug look, and then his face turned sour, “Aw hell, that smell is something I’m never going to get used to.”
“I don’t think any of us are going to get used to that,” responded Tom as he put his handkerchief over his nose.
“There’s another one by the glass doors, guys. The door you’re going to need to use to get into the building. How about I go up to the door and push it a little with one of the two-by-fours lying on the ground behind us, so the infected that’s at the door
can start making its way out. I’ll stand along the wall, away from the door, and as soon as it’s almost through the door, you can shoot it?”
“No way,” said Chris immediately. “What happens when the infected is stronger and faster than you anticipate, and it grabs the wood and pulls you inside? Did you think about that?”
“Of course, I did. If it grabs the wood, I drop it and run back towards you guys, staying out of the line of fire.”
“How about I go up to the door, push it open with my boot a little, and when the infected starts coming through the door, I just put two in her head?” asked Tom with a straight face.
Tom didn’t wait for either of us to answer. He hopped the fence and crept against the wall towards the door, and did just what he said.
He used his boot to push the door open a little, and that’s all the infected needed. It grabbed at the crack in the door ferociously and pushed its head out right as Tom pulled the trigger. A soft thump sounded for the shot and another for her body dropping to the floor, half in and half out of the doorway.
Two more infected began clawing at the partially open door, but they couldn’t seem to navigate over their dead friend that was blocking them from getting one foot in front of the other. Tom took them out quickly also. He stood there for a few long seconds and motioned for Chris to join him at the door.
Chris looked at me seriously, “I want you to hop over this fence and stay right over there, in the back corner, away from the front of the building. I want to make sure that your back isn’t open to the woods, and I don’t want you near the front of the building. You may attract more zombies. I’m going inside with Tom to clear the building. Do not come inside under any circumstances, unless Tom or I come to get you, understood?”
I understood his concern because if I had the training he did, I’d be telling him the same thing. I just nodded in acceptance, not wanting to make the smart remark that was sitting on my tongue of, ‘sir yes sir,’ or ‘yes daddy.’