by Castle, W. A
“It was! The sick must’ve wandered in after we left,” another man speaks. Their words are followed by grunts and the sound of beating flesh. I stick my head out from behind a car and see five soldiers fighting off a small group of flesh eaters. Two men are lying on the ground with their arms and legs tied. Survivors?
“Quit pansying around! Let’s get rid of these infected and meet up with the Sergeant. The drone picked up a group just off Rex Lane.”
Rex Lane, that’s where the others are right now, they will get ambushed and they will get taken.
“Hey you, there! Stop!” someone yells when I turn to run back to the others. I look behind me to see a soldier pointing a gun at me, he shoots at me but I duck and zig zag trying to evade getting hit.
“There’s too many infected, kill the captives and let’s get out of here,” a man yells. My steps falter and I skid to a stop. I can’t let them kill those men they have tied down. How can I live with myself knowing I let that happen?
I turn back and run full speed at the man pointing his gun at the men on the ground. I jump, wrapping my legs and arms around him and I sink my teeth into his face and neck over and over. The man yelps in surprise and he reaches out to grab me, he pulls my hair out but I don’t stop biting him until he drops to his knees.
Two sharp objects impact my left shoulder blade, I howl in pain and jump off the dead man. I heave as I stare at the young man that has his weapon trained on me.
“Stop!” his voice cracks when he tries to issue the command. When I don’t stop stalking towards him he shoots my thigh. My leg nearly gives out at the pain but I don’t stop. I grab him by his neck and haul him up.
“Who are you?” I hiss.
“Let him go. Now!” Three soldiers surround me. They momentarily forget about the flesh eaters and three flesh eaters pounce on one of the soldiers. The remaining two look at each other and then back at the one in my grip and they take off.
“Guys, help me!” the one in my hand cries out lamely.
“Answer. Me.” I growl.
“M-My name is Neil. I’m a soldier working under VIO. They took over once the United States military broke down.”
“What are you doing with the people you capture?”
“I don’t know that. I really don’t. I just know we are tasked to gather as many survivors as we can and take them to the nearest VIO facility,” he says frantically.
I reach for the gun in his grip and take it away from him. I let him go and push him away a few steps. “Go. If I see you again you will meet your friend’s fate,” I point to the dead soldier I tore apart. When he goes to run away, flesh eaters surround him.
“Let him pass,” I say to the flesh eaters and to my surprise they snarl at him but let him run past. Neil looks over his shoulder and shoots me a terrified look, but he runs and doesn’t stop running until he’s out of sight.
One of the men on the ground screams and I turn to see a flesh eater biting into one of the man’s leg. I run and wrap an arm at the flesh eater and sink my teeth into its neck, tearing out flesh, tendons and veins. Its blood instantly floods my mouth and the relief I feel is so great I stagger backwards on my ass. The blood refreshes my throat and eases the feeling of the horrible thirst I’ve been nursing. I close my lips tightly around the wound on the flesh eater’s neck and suck and drink greedily. The flesh eater squeaks but it does nothing as I drink it dry.
Relief and horror floods me as I push the possibly dead flesh eater away. I breathe heavily as I try to understand what I just did. Did I… just drink flesh eater blood… and liked it? It’s like my body needed that blood…
I look at the men two feet away who are looking up at me with fear.
I reach over and quickly undo the binds that tie them.
“What are you?” one of them asks as I push the soldier’s gun into his hands.
“Go. Run and find safety somewhere.” I tell them as I take off to Rex Lane.
A few blocks away I stop and lean against an old flower stand. My stomach cramps and I end up throwing up some of the blood I had just drank from the flesh eater. The monster in me, the foe within, is urging me to seek another flesh eater and drink it dry. I need more.
Chapter Eleven: Our Flag Was Still There
I run full speed without stopping until I reach Rex Lane. I breathe a little easier when I near the house and only see our cars parked up front. No unmarked vans in sight.
Trevor is sitting out on the porch steps and the moment he sees me relief and then fear flashes across his eyes as he sees me covered in blood. He jumps to his feet in an instant. “What happened? You just left without telling anyone?” he demands to know.
His ferocity startles me for a moment. I’ve never seen him so agitated before. “I went back into town, and there were more military men there. They said the Sergeant and others were headed this way, they know that we’re here. We have to leave,” I say in a panicked rush.
Trevor frowns, “You went back into town after what happened? And you actually spoke to the soldiers? Are you harmed, why you are covered in so much blood? Maddie!” He places his hands firmly on my shoulders and his nostrils flare in agitation as he stares at me. The smell of his fear tickles my nose and I can’t help but scratch the side of my sniffer.
“We need to leave, now,” I say, stepping away from him. I grab his hand and he lets me pull him inside the house.
“Maddie, slow down,” he pulls me to a stop and brings me close to him.
“Honestly, now’s not the time-“
“Explain what is happening,” he says softly, and I pause. I go to pull away but he doesn’t let go. How can I possibly tell him what just happened? I rest my forehead on his chest and hold him close. If I tell him, I’ll lose him. I just know it.
“Oh my God, Maddie, are you shot?” Clara comes walking over to us and gasps as she lays a hand on my shoulder. I choke on my breath when she touches a tender spot on my shoulder.
“Oh wow… I’d totally forgotten I’d gotten shot…” I trail off when I see Jax exit the room Clara just walked out of. That room is a bedroom.
Before I can give him a knowing smirk, he turns me around to see for himself. “Maddie,” he says lowly.
“Ouch, yes I got shot when I approached those soldiers I was telling Trevor about… we need to leave now,” I say turning in Trevor’s embrace to face the others, “They’re coming here. Sergeant Kellan and his men are coming here.”
Clara’s eyes widen and she takes a step back, “Oh no,” she whispers. At the sound of her distress, Jax puts a hand on her shoulder.
“Before we go anywhere I need to see your wounds,” Ulises glares from his spot against the wall.
I slap my palm against my forehead. “We need to leave,” I say exasperated.
“Not before I check your wounds,” he growls, stepping away from the wall.
“My goodness, what’s with all the growling going on in here, you sound like a pack of bears, or I don’t know, lions, do lions growl or do they roar, huh?” momma walks in carrying Diego and jumps him up down in her arms as she speaks and he laughs . She throws us a play-nice-or-else look and picks up her bags.
“Nothing, mama,” I try smiling at her but it feels awkward on my face. Earlier, I cleaned up real quick and made the others promise not tell momma about me being shot.
Everyone has scurried to gather things and start packing them in the cars, Gary and Lexi even managed to find another working car during their patrols and now there’s more room for our ever-growing group.
I wait until momma leaves the house before turning back to Ulises. “You can check me once we hit the road… I think the bullets are still in there,” I wiggle my shoulder and I feel metal in there but it doesn’t hurt as much as I figured getting shot would hurt.
“Fine,” he barks and picks up his bags as well as my own and I follow after him flipping him off behind his back.
“Hey man, can you drive my rig while I-” Ulises starts to walks to
wards Jax.
“Not him,” I whisper to him. Ulises looks around and when I see he has his eyes on Trevor I quickly say, “Not him either.”
He looks down at me with narrowed eyes, “Something happened didn’t it?” Ulises asks, perceptive as ever. “Something like what happened with that soldier?” when I turn away from him and open the trunk he continues as he packs our stuff in, “You need to talk about it Maddie, you need to have people you can trust. Tell your mom, your friends, talk it out.”
I scoff at his words before he even finishes talking, “Yeah so they can look at me like a freak. So they can pull away from me and leave me behind. No thanks.”
“They’ll either leave or they’ll stay. Either way in the end you’ll know who you can count on,” he says bluntly.
Jax’s reaction to me is still too fresh in my memory and if Trevor reacts the same way, or if my mom does? I can’t risk it.
“I’m not the only one that knows what happened to that soldier. You might want to give the people around you a little more credit.” Ulises sounds a bit resentful and that has me looking at him.
“Did I ever thank you?” I reach out to touch his arm, when he doesn’t pull away I continue. “Thank you,” I say softly. And I nod. I agree that I need to tell someone.
He clears his throat and turns around and scans the crowd, “Clara, Sue-Anne I need you gals to ride with me this stretch,” Ulises calls out and then he walks off towards one of the cars.
As I’m getting into the hummer I see Sandra approaching Ulises and when he shakes his head at her, her gaze finds me before she turns away.
“What’s going on?” Momma asks as she gets in after me. Clara jumps into the passenger’s seat and she turns around to look at us.
“We need to talk about something that’s happened.” I look to momma; God there’s so much to catch her up on. She’s going to blow a gasket.
Ulises opens the driver’s door, slides in and turns the ignition on.
“I thought you were going-” I begin to blurt out when the back door on my side opens. Matt jumps in and I shimmy to the center seat. I look at him confused. I don’t really know the man but the little I do know I don’t like. “What are you doing here?” I ask before I can remember my manners. Momma nudges her elbow into my side, obviously remembering me of them.
Matt settles Vincent’s medical bag in-between us and gives me a calm and level look. “Ulises said you needed medical attention. What’s going on?”
“You’re hurt?” Momma asks me, concerned.
My cheek twitches as I brace to tell her I’m shot. I’d never thought I would be telling my mom this. “I’ve been shot.” I blurt out. I figure it would be easier to just be quick and rip it off like a Band-Aid.
Momma’s face pinches with worry, “What?!” she screeches after a moment of silence. The Hummer starts moving and the caravan moves out.
“Let me access your wounds before anything else. Shot wounds are very dangerous, where were you shot?” Matt asks in a professional manner.
“Are you a doctor? Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Clara says from her seat, turning to look at us.
“I’m a vet,” Matt says.
Clara’s mouth drops open, “You’re a veterinarian? Are you even capable of treating a gun wound?”
Matt’s lips quiver in a would-be smile, “I did my residence, I was training to be a general surgeon, but I couldn’t stomach losing anyone on my table, so I became a vet.”
“Huh,” Clara regards him speculatively.
“Yes, well,” I clear my throat, “I took two to the back of my shoulder… and one to my thigh,” I say after remembering being shot in the leg. I look down at my leg, these fresh pants only have a small dot of red soaking through, but… nothing hurts. I should be alarmed but I’m actually pretty calm about this.
“Um, I see. Take off your shirt please, so I can see your shoulder.”
I hear him put on gloves as I lift my shirt over my head. I awkwardly press my shirt to my front and turn towards momma, giving Matt my back. I hear his soft gasp when he sees the old and new bite marks. Momma gives me a soft look and caresses my cheek.
“This is going to sting,” Matt warns seconds before he pours something in my wounds. I cry out and moan in pain. “Sorry,” he murmurs, “It’s going to hurt some more.”
“It’s okay, just get the bullets out please,” I hold onto momma’s hand as he begins to pry open my flesh. I try not to grunt as he works.
“I can’t do this like this. You need anesthesia and I need a sterile environment,” Matt says shakily, “I don’t even see the bullets, it’s like your flesh is healing around them.”
“Listen dude, I need you to get the bullets out, I can’t do it myself. Just dig in and take them out,” I snap.
“Okay, okay.” Matt digs around Vince’s bag and seconds later a scalpel cuts my skin and Matt’s fingers push into me. I bite my lip and shut my eyes tight.
“Oh,” I whimper.
“I almost got them.” Matt puts more pressure and digs deeper. “Sorry, it’s just that they’re in the bone…”
“Oh my God,” Clara groans, “I can’t look.”
The bullet scrapes against my bone as Matt pulls it out. I grind my teeth and tears squeeze through my shut eyes but finally he takes out both bullets. “Oh Lord, that feels so much better,” I breathe out in relief. Momma runs her open hand down my cheeks to wipe the tears away.
Matt cleans the wound again and tapes gauze on top of it. “This will need to get changed every couple of hours, but I think it’ll be okay.”
“Thanks, Matt,” I say leaning back on the seat. I pull my shirt over my head carefully. It’s a bit awkward pulling my pants down in the confined space but who said modesty would survive the apocalypse.
The wound on my thigh is completely healed over with only a slight pucker where the bullet is, so Matt ends up having to cut deep into my muscle and then pry the flesh open with his fingers. “I need one of you to give me a hand here, I don’t have the tools necessary to keep her skin open, and I need both hands.” Clara’s face blanches and momma’s having a hard time not retching as it is.
“What do I do? Do I just hold it open?” I ask, moving a trembling hand closer to his. Matt’s eyes whips to mine in surprise but nods.
“I’ll- I’ll do it Maddie,” Momma moves forward to take over but I nudge her way. I’ll do this.
“Keep your fingers a few centimeters open and I’ll reach in,” Matt trails off, he sprays some disinfectant on my hand.
I hesitate a moment before sliding my fingers into my bloody flesh. I’m doing my best not to pass out as I watch the tips of my fingers disappear inside my thigh. I groan.
“That’s it.” Matt frowns in concentration as he works.
“Fuck,” Ulises says when he turns to look at the scene in the backseat of his hummer.
When Matt fishes out the bullet he patches me up nicely. “Done,” he says wiping the sweat from his face with the back of his arm. He bundles up the bloody gauzes in his gloves and he throws them out the window. He just shrugs when he finds momma staring.
Again, awkwardly I pull my pants over my hips. “Thanks,” I mutter to Matt.
“Any time,” he mutters back as he zips back the duffel bag. “So uh, where are we headed?” Matt asks.
Jax and his beat up truck take the lead soon after we leave town. I keep my eyes open for any dangers lurking around. But there’s nothing, not even flesh eaters lurking around.
My eyes shift to the rearview mirror for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. Maddie is curled up next to Sue-Anne, fast asleep. Instinctively I grip the steering wheel tighter. I need to protect her and her son, at all costs. What happened to Amy and my unborn daughter can’t happen again.
Then there’s Sandra. When I first saw her it stirred up all kinds of shit inside of me. Every time I’m around her I feel inadequate because every time I see her I see Amy… fuck. I need to keep her safe too.
I need to keep everyone safe. It’s a never ending source of anxiety. But I got this. I have to have this.
“Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?” Jax’s voice comes through the walkie-talkie. I lean forward and see that off in the distance there is a cluster of lights, a city perhaps or most likely a town.
“Yep, what do you think? Are we going to go close to it?” Tom’s voice replies.
“No, this road will give us a big berth, unless ya’ll want to check it out?”
“No,” I pick up the walkie-talkie and say immediately, “We’re close to your place, let’s not risk anything now that we’re so close.”
“Yeah, you’re right, man,” replies Tom.
“Agreed, no sense in looking for trouble now that we’re close,” with that Jax clicks off.
“Are we almost there?” Clara stirs in her seat. She reaches for her glasses and puts them on.
“Yeah, we’ll be there in just under twenty minutes,” I say, “Barring any complications.” My eyes flick back to the rear view mirror.
I look at the lights as we near them. Jax is right, we go nowhere near them on this road but I’m curious as to what those lights are.
We drive up the side of some mountain until the ground levels again. We stop at a gate and wait for Jax to open it with his handprint and something or other. I’m actually impressed at how high tech this gate is for all that it looks unimpressive.
The others perk up when we drive through the gate. Maddie sits up and leans over the console partition trying to look out the window. I smile at her impatience.
“Oh my Lord, we’re finally here,” she breathes out.
“I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous about this. I mean, a bunker!” Clara turns to Maddie and grins.
I don’t think twenty plus people are going to fit into Jax’s bunker but the gate around his property is electrified so the rest of us can set up camp here and be relatively safe.
Our caravan comes to a stop right in front of a random set of boulders and trees. I look around but I don’t see any entrance to any bunker.