“Come on, when would I ever get a chance to say that again?” I laughed.
Taylor grinned, “Fair enough. But not one word.”
“Fine,” I muttered. “Bad karma’s a bitch, huh?”
“Whatever, let’s just see if we can track that deer down,” he said, dusting off his pants which were covered in loose soil.
A few hours later, the sun had gotten relentless and even bore down through the thick roof of foliage. I could feel the start of a sun burn on my nose and shoulders.
“Hurry up.”
“You better be a bit nicer country boy or else I’ll tell the whole camp,” I grinned. Wasn’t leverage great?
He turned his attention back to the fresh deer tracks and studiously ignored me. To be fair, he had taught me a great deal about tracking. The older the tracks, the more leaves and twigs that covered them, but usually the leaves and twigs were crushed and broken. The fresher tracks usually weren’t covered but stood out in the dirt floor. The tracks we followed fell under category number two, so we were close to something. I could hear the faint sound of rushing water, and Taylor had mentioned that brooks and ponds were the best place to find game.
I mirrored what Taylor was doing and followed closely behind him as we approached the brook. Luck was finally on our side. The deer had stopped to take a drink and I could have jumped for joy, except that would have put us back to square one. Taylor didn’t dare get any closer as he lifted the scope to his right eye and took aim. I plugged my ears, now fully aware of how loud a rifle really was thanks to the copious amounts of target practice. The shot rang out, but before the deer could react, the bullet hit it sending it to the forest floor. We ran up to the fallen mass and saw that the animal was still alive. Taylor pulled out his hunting knife and stabbed it in the head to end its misery.
I couldn’t understand why, but I felt bad. I was by no means a vegetarian or a member of PETA, but having witnessed this first hand, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it again. Well at least this was a legal way to get out your serial killer tendencies. Taylor turned to me with a grin plastered on his face.
“Finally! That took forever,” he exclaimed.
“So what now?” I asked, not sure I could stomach him gutting it.
“We should gut it here so it’s lighter to take back,” Taylor said. “But it will rot faster if we cut into it.”
“Plus, it will leave a nasty trail leading back to the cabin,” I pointed out.
Taylor seemed to think about it as he pulled out a compass and map to give us a rough idea of where we were.
“Looks like the deer took us back around. We’re actually only ‘bout an hour’s walk with draggin’ the deer back, from the cabin,” Taylor noted as he scanned the map.
So we got to work and found a strong, lengthy tree branch to truss up the deer on. I felt like a caveman dragging a kill back to it’s cave. We both had an end of the branch with the deer between us, hanging from its tied legs. Taylor had brought the extra strength rope with him in his small backpack, which I never would have thought of. He said we were lucky because the deer was a small one, but to me it seemed like it weighed a ton. I got the end with the head which made me cringe every time I looked at it; supposedly it was the lighter end.
I was about to demand we stop for a break so I could give my shoulder a rest, when the trees started to thin out and more light started to shine through. I sighed in relief knowing this meant we were finally getting out of the forest and back to the cabin. John and Darren met us at the property fence, where I gladly handed the thing over to them.
“Look at that,” John smiled as he inspected the deer. “We better get this thing cut up, right fast.”
“I’ll take a pass on that,” I said as I massaged my shoulder.
“You should learn how, just in case,” Taylor grinned, flexing his own sore shoulder.
“Unless you want to see someone throw up, it’s better that I don’t,” I insisted.
“Why are you covered in dirt?” Darren eyed Taylor and I burst out laughing again. See, this is what happens when I don’t get my sleep; I get delirious.
I don’t know how they gutted and disposed of the parts, but I didn’t ask. That night we had fresh cooked deer, and it was delicious. I still felt bad about having to kill it, but my hunger washed away my hesitation. They decided it wasn’t worth the risk to keep it for fresh meat any longer than a few days, so they smoked the rest of it, and I guessed we would be dining on deer jerky for quite a while.
John’s voice cut into my reminiscing.
“All right, so we’re down to the nitty-gritty of our food supplies and essentials,” John said as we all situated ourselves around the camp fire.
“I thought we had a bit more left,” Darren said as he rubbed his chin in thought.
“Nope, so this means we really have to make that trip into town,” John said. “But we have to plan this right.”
I toyed with the ring hanging from my gold necklace. I completely forgot that I had packed the ring and matching necklace, but it was a nice surprise to find it at the bottom of my backpack. My parents had gotten me the jewelry as a graduation present, and at the time I thought I would have to end up pawning off the pieces just to help pay off my student loans, but I’m glad I didn’t. It was a nice reminder of my family, and I felt a little less despondent when I wore them. The necklace reminded me of home, even though home was so far away. The crackle of the walkie-talkie grabbed my attention.
“Guys, we got a situation over here,” Taylor’s voice sounded out. “I just found our first infected.”
John picked up the walkie-talkie before anyone was even able to get up.
“What marker are you by?” he asked.
“The fourth one,” Taylor’s voice answered.
“We’ll be right there,” John said as he made sure his guns were on his belt and bolted off toward the direction of the marker. A month into our stay, John had the brilliant idea to lay out markers around the perimeter with whatever we could spare. It made it easier to organize watches and get to certain locations faster.
I jumped up and followed John, briefly registering that Darren was right behind me. The good thing about all this exercise was that I lost those ten pounds that had been haunting me since my first year of university.
The sun was setting but it was still light enough that we could see without flashlights. In the distance I could see Taylor’s silhouette against the rays from the setting sun. I could also see a second figure, which seemed to be stuck on the barbed fence. Taylor was standing far enough from the thing that its grabbing hands were uselessly flinging up and down in an attempt to reach him.
The odd thing, aside from the being presumably dead part, was that the infected was wearing torn and dirtied hunting gear from being out in the forest. This guy must have been camping out in the woods and gotten infected, but the question was, How? I thought it took actual contact with a sick individual to turn someone. Maybe the infected had started to fan out from the cities and towns, which was an unsettling thought. His face had become so decayed that it was barely there. His lips were chewed off, and a chunk of his cheek was missing. The other side was so sunken in that his cheek bone stood out painfully against his emaciated and discolored face.
“What should we do with him?” Taylor asked.
“Shoot it,” John said with finality.
“Then what?” I asked.
“Burn it,” John said back, and I made a face at that.
There was no way that would smell good.
“How about we bury him?” Darren suggested and I nodded in agreement.
“Fine.”
Taylor raised his gun to shoot the now snarling infected, but John grabbed his arm.
“We’re on the cabin property and that shot will be loud,” John reprimanded Taylor.
“Well, then what do you suggest?” Taylor huffed.
John turned to me, “Bailey has a suppressor on her Beretta.”
&nb
sp; I didn’t like were this was going. And I really didn’t like the smirk that had encroached on Taylor’s face either.
“By all means,” Taylor smiled, far too nicely.
“If you hand me your gun, I can shoot him,” John offered, but I knew I would never live this down if I chickened out.
“No, I’ll have to do it one day, why not start now?” I said, proud that my voice hadn’t given way to my unease.
They backed up a few feet, and I removed the silenced Beretta from my hip holster. The brushed metal coating reflected the dimming light, as I lifted the pistol to eye level and flicked the safety off. I took a deep and slightly shaky breath as I aimed, and slowly squeezed the trigger.
Chapter 14
I stared up toward the ceiling, as the scene from earlier kept plaguing my mind. The problem wasn’t that I missed, it was that I didn’t. In fact, my shot was dead on, which wiped the smirk off of Taylor’s face. I remembered how the infected’s head whipped back as a mass of discolored brain matter and blood sprayed out behind him. It was like someone had spit out a mouthful of Campbell’s Chunky Soup. I was mixed up in what I should be feeling; I mean that guy was alive once, maybe he had a family who was still waiting for him to come home.
Was I technically a murderer? Were the infected even alive? I mean no living creature could survive with the amount of damage and decay that guy had.
“Stop rolling around so much,” Zoe hissed from the other cot.
“Oh, I’m keeping you up? That’s rich.”
She mumbled something as she flipped away from me, and I assumed it wasn’t her telling me how awesome I was. Finally, I gave up trying to sleep and decided to get some fresh air. I closed the front door quietly behind me and was surprised to find Ethan sitting on the open truck gate. He glanced up at the sound of my approach and visibly relaxed when he saw it was me, not an infected.
“Can’t sleep either?” he asked as I hopped up onto the gate.
“No, I keep thinking about that infected guy,” I admitted.
“Me too.”
“You weren’t there,” I pointed out.
“No, I mean if one got here then how long before more show up?”
“Oh joy, now there’s that to worry about,” I sighed and I could see the corners of his mouth lift up.
“You upset ‘bout shootin’ the thing?”
“Wouldn’t you be?”
He seemed to think about it, “Probably.”
“Very helpful,” I muttered.
He shrugged. “It was bound to happen sooner or later. And it will happen to the rest of us, too.”
“It’s depressing.”
“Yeah it is, but it’s ‘bout survival now so we gotta do what we gotta do,” he said with conviction.
“But we live in a society that punishes those who kill; even those who kill in self defense are persecuted in a way.”
“Society changes. It never used to be that way, look at Western times compared to now,”
Ethan brought up a good point. “Touché, country boy. Touché,” I smirked.
“I did learn a few things down here in the South,” he said exaggerating his Southern accent with a grin. “’Sides learnin’ to suck the heads off crawfish.”
“That sounds…dirty,” I scrunched up my face and Ethan laughed.
“So you gonna be okay on our supply run tomorrow?” Ethan eyed me as I yawned.
“I’ll be fine thanks.”
“You can stay here with Zoe if you want.”
Zoe had opted to stay here with Chloe and even though he put up a fuss about it, Darren reluctantly agreed to stay behind in case something happened. So our scavenging group consisted of Ethan, Taylor, John and I.
“You trying to get rid of me?” I eyed him back.
“Naw, just with what happened earlier I thought maybe you would want to.”
“The last thing I want to do it sit here and think about it,” I sighed. “Plus, the more hands the better.”
Ethan nodded, disbelief marring his features. Hell, I don’t think I believed myself, but I knew that sitting around here wasn’t going to help. And we really did need supplies since it looked like a rescue wasn’t about to come for us after all. We hadn’t seen or heard so much as a helicopter since the beginning of all this two months ago. It was hard to believe we were that screwed; there had to be some sort of military operation somewhere. Maybe we just had to go to them instead of waiting to be rescued. Lazy government.
We made small talk for another hour, staring at the blackened sky. The only illumination came from the moon and the stars which I could see clearly, as if I were looking through a telescope. I said my goodnight as the yawning began and trudged back to my uncomfortable cot to try for sleep. That night I didn’t dream of zombies, but for the first time of my family back home.
We took our turns showering that next morning. The lukewarm water was still better than no water. Chloe was quietly bristling in her loft. She was mad that Ethan was going without her and refused to talk to anyone. Zoe was trying to get her to say something, but all it earned her was a glare, so she gave up. I dumped out my backpack contents and filled it with water, some measly amounts of food and extra ammo. My second pistol was thrown in there, with the safety on, and the other one was secured to my belt. John had the map spread out on the picnic table to try to plan the route out.
“Okay, so our best bet isn’t to go back into New Orleans, but to hit up a town or city around it,” John said, his fingers swiping across the arteries on the map. “I was thinkin’ Duson since it’s not too far off from our location.”
“What’s the population like?” Darren questioned.
Even though he wasn’t coming on the trip, he still wanted to be part of the planning.
“Decent size. We’ll find lots of stores and houses to gather supplies from. There’s even a police station we could check out,” John answered. “But it’s not so big that we would have a sea of infected to go through.”
“Zombies,” Chloe finally spoke.
“What?” Ethan asked, his face scrunched.
“You keep callin’ them infected, but they’re zombies,” Chloe said exasperated.
Well she wasn’t wrong; I guess we still felt stupid actually saying it out loud.
“All right, we won’t have as many zombies to worry about like we would in New Orleans,” John reiterated.
“How far is it from here?” I asked.
“Two hours give or take, dependin’ on what we come across,” John said.
“How do you always know these things?” I asked, genuinely curious.
John chuckled, “I grew up here darlin’. I know the area pretty well and have been readin’ maps since before I was five.”
I couldn’t even tell you what direction I was facing at the moment.
“I think we should take my truck,” Ethan said. “Even though it’s not as quiet as your car, it will carry more.”
“Probably a good idea, just in case we run into a group of infected somewhere. Your truck will have a better chance of not gettin’ caught in it,” Taylor added and John nodded.
“You three packed?” John looked around at all of us with our backpacks and gear on.
“Looks like it.”
We tossed our bags into the back of the truck along with some cable ties, which we would need for when we brought all the supplies back. Chloe grabbed onto Ethan and refused to let go, he had to basically pry her off. Zoe came up to me and gave me a giant hug.
“Can’t breathe,” I wheezed out through her squeezing.
“Don’t die, okay?”
“Well since you asked so nicely,” I grinned. “And same goes to you. Use your secret hillbilly skills if need be.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have told you about the gopher hunting,” she shook her head.
Next Darren gave me an awkward, one armed hug.
“Please don’t accidently shoot anyone.”
“Hey, I’ve improved!” I said ind
ignantly.
“Just saying,” he shrugged, and I resisted the urge to kick him in the shin.
Ethan got into the driver’s side and John went into the passenger seat since he was the navigator. Which left Taylor and I to share the back. I walked past Chloe and ruffled her hair.
“Don’t be too big of a pain, kid.”
She grabbed my arm to stop me.
“Please take care of my brother.”
Her eyes were glassy as she pleaded with me.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” I said. “I know how brothers get.”
She smiled a little at that and nodded.
“And make sure you bring me back somethin’ good,” she added for good measure.
“Barbies it is,” I grinned at the horrified face she made and jumped into the back before she could yell at me.
Ethan gave me a questioning look, as I jumped in, but I just shrugged in response. With one last wave goodbye, we were off. The sight of the three standing at the top of the dirt driveway slowly faded as we sped away. The bright morning sun shone through the windshield, reflecting off the rock chips as we headed toward the main drag. We had decided to try out the interstate first because it would be the fastest route, but if it was too clogged, we would opt for a detour. John already had a few back up plans up his sleeve.
The overpass we used to get onto the interstate was unobstructed. The road was also clear up until we hit the more populated areas; that’s when the exit ramps became clogged with abandoned vehicles. Some cars had been left on the side of the road, some even in the middle. Since the interstate was multi-lane, we were able to get around the parked cars with no problem. As we slowly passed by the abandoned vehicles we got a better look.
Some were just left with their doors hanging wide open, while others had long dried blood smeared up the windows. An infected- sorry, a zombie- launched itself from the inside of a Kia against the driver’s rear passenger window. This surprised us all and I jumped back from the window instinctively, right into Taylor.
“You know he’s stuck in there right?” Taylor said as he rubbed his side where I accidently elbowed him when I made my hasty retreat.
This Would Be Paradise (Book 1) Page 10