Hamsikker 3

by Russ Watts

  “This had better work.”

  Seeing the runner close in on Lukas, Jonas wasted no time in testing it out. A ripple of gunfire told him it did, and he watched as the runner fell. Lukas jumped off the bodies and ran for the truck.

  “Time to kill the dead.” Jonas opened up his body and let the machine gun do the work. The gun was lighter than he thought it might be, and it bristled with life as he held it. He wasn’t a very good shot, but right now he didn’t need to be. A tornado of bullets ripped through the advancing zombies. They twisted and turned, chest cavities bursting open and heads exploding into a red mist as they were torn apart. Jonas laughed as the dead fell one by one. He knew he wasn’t getting headshots in every case, but they were at least being incapacitated. The machine gun was easy to handle, the bullets fast, and he was almost enjoying it. This was how it should be. He was in complete control now. There was nothing they could do to hurt him, nothing. The front of the pack had been decimated, and he had done enough to hold them off for a little while, to give himself some time to get to the truck safely and over the bridge. That was all had to do. Still, it was good to get some payback for Julie, and he decided he may as well shoot until the ammo ran out.

  As he poured more and more bullets into the crowd of zombies, he failed to notice the lone zombie scrambling through the mud behind the tank. A fallen soldier, half his face missing, slowly began to claw at the ground. It scratched at the hull, snapping off its fingernails, until it hauled itself up onto its feet. Swirling blood and rainwater pooled in its one empty eye socket, and it groaned as it neared Jonas. It could hear him, see him, sense him, and with his back turned, Jonas was easy meat.

  The machine gun finally clicked empty, and Jonas heard the clink of metal on metal close by. He turned, expecting to see Lukas, but instead found a zombie right in his face. The clinking sound had been the soldier’s belt hitting the side of the tank, and Jonas raised the gun to bat the dead man away. The dead soldier’s arm fumbled around the gun, and Jonas pushed it back. The soldier simply fell against the tank, dropped the gun, and resumed its attack. It rushed Jonas, and opened its mouth to bite him. Jonas saw only a few teeth in the man’s head, and a huge hole where the left side of his face should be. As he prepared to dodge those deadly teeth and fight it, a single gunshot ran out, and the zombie’s head exploded, cloaking the tank with the man’s brains.

  “Hamsikker, move it,” shouted Lukas, lowering his gun.

  Jonas ran to the truck, thanking Lukas for being such a good shot. “You should be in the truck with Dakota,” said Jonas as he joined him.

  “And so should you,” replied Lukas.

  They jumped into the cab, and Dakota took off. She checked the mirror. A few zombies were still standing and would undoubtedly follow, but they were far enough away now not to cause any problems. The bridge was short and relatively clear of traffic, so Dakota pressed on, speeding up as the road cleared. They passed a series of buildings to their right, some kind of border patrol station, and then the road turned northwest, away from the Lake, taking them inland.

  Once they were over the border a sense of relief filled Jonas. It wasn’t just a physical barrier they had overcome, but a mental one too. It was as if being in Canada was the last hurdle they had to get over, and now he felt closer to Janey, closer than he had in a long time. Nothing was going to prevent him from finding her now, not an army of zombies, and certainly not Javier. The zombies that had come from the woods were unfortunate. That station wagon blocking the way was either incredibly bad luck or conveniently positioned. Had Javier made sure it was there to foil anyone trying to follow him?

  As they left Lake Superior behind, the trees flanked them on both sides, and the highway became clearer. The wind whipped the truck wickedly, battering it, and surface water flooded the road in parts, making driving difficult. The truck sent huge plumes of water onto the grass verge, and yet the rain did not stop. If anything, the storm seemed to intensify, and thick rain pelted the windshield. No more zombies appeared from the tree line, and the ones at the border were a distant memory. Dakota wished she could say the same about Julie.

  Lukas offered to take over the driving again, but Dakota was happy behind the wheel. It gave her something to think about. Watching Julie suffer such a terrible death reminded her of Terry. He had been killed by the zombies, too, forsaken to be eaten alive. His death, just like Julie’s, was on Javier’s hands. Would he really be waiting for them? She wasn’t sure of anything anymore. She knew that Jonas was desperate to get to Janey’s. She could feel the tension in him; the urgency with which he did everything. She had no brothers or sisters, so couldn’t put herself in his position, but if it were Jonas she was trying to reach, she would move Heaven and Hell to get to him. Right now, it felt like they were doing exactly that. She wasn’t sure what to expect when they got to Thunder Bay. There were so many permutations, so many different outcomes to what they might find, that she had given up trying to second-guess it. It felt like things were coming to an end though. The journey they had been on after leaving Kentucky, after all they had been through to get to this point, was coming to a head. She had a baby to think about now, and in a few months she would be showing. Whatever happened after today, she needed to find somewhere safe; somewhere to raise her child with Jonas. She needed to be settled, not scurrying around trying to dodge bullets and zombies. The road ahead was grey and wet, and as she tried to focus on the driving, she wished she could turn the radio on. It would be so good to hear another voice, to know that they weren’t alone. It was a thoroughly miserable day, and she needed a boost. They all did.

  “There,” said Jonas.

  The truck shot past a dirty white sign that indicated Thunder Bay was coming up. Jonas thought he would be arriving under different circumstances. He was supposed to be with Erik, Pippa, Peter, and Freya, but Javier had torn that family apart. Instead of Lukas, Jonas should be sitting beside Terry, Mrs. Danick, and all the others who had put their faith in him. Quinn should be driving, not Dakota. It was hard to fathom how things had gone so wrong. Events just seemed to spiral out of control, and even when Jonas thought he was doing the right thing, the whole time Javier had been undermining him. Jonas was caught in two minds. Part of him wanted to find Javier. He wanted to find him and make him pay for what he’d done. He also wanted to find Quinn, Erik and Freya, and the two things went hand in hand. It was a daunting prospect, and he wasn’t sure how things would work out if they did reunite. The other part of Jonas hoped to never see Javier again. What Jonas really wanted was peace. He wanted to find Janey, Mikey, Ritchie, and Chester. He wanted to build a new home with Dakota and his child. He wanted to keep anyone who fell under his custody, like Lukas, safe. It was so close now he could feel it.

  The deluge continued, and Jonas peered up into the sky. The storm front was moving over them, dark wind swirling and blooming into thick clouds that looked like an erupting volcano, spewing out freezing cold, prickly rain and cavernous thunder. Was this what it had been like when Javier had crossed over the border? Had he been forced to take shelter? Were Quinn and Erik still helping him?

  “There it is,” said Lukas.

  They crested a small hill, and then the city of Thunder Bay came into view. Jonas hadn’t expected a welcoming party, but neither had he expected the grim sight that he was confronted with. The town looked like it hadn’t escaped the plague of the zombies. He could see from the nearest buildings that they had been ransacked, destroyed, and there was no sign of life. No cars moved in the streets, no lights blinked on or off in the houses, and no people walked the streets. The quiet atmosphere of the city seemed apt somehow. It felt as if they had gone back in time to a place where there were no people or cars. The deep greens of the trees were the only evidence of life, and many of the buildings they approached had been burnt out. Between the fringes of the city and the lake, he saw Fort William rising through the parkland and the rain like a beacon. It instantly reminded him of Freya and the ke
y chain he had given her. Did she still have it? Was she still clinging to it, waiting for him to save her from the monsters and the bad men? Jonas doubted that she had emerged from her self-induced bubble that she had wrapped around herself to protect her from the horrors that surrounded her daily. Javier had made sure she would grow up without a mother, and there was a fair chance that she would find herself without a father, too, before long. Freya hadn’t spoken a word for months, and seeing Fort William only reinforced Jonas’s feeling that they needed to hurry. It wasn’t just Janey he had to reach.

  Jonas took some comfort in that he couldn’t see any zombies ahead in the city. That didn’t mean they weren’t there, though, and he knew they would have to proceed with caution. Going into any place where people had lived was a risky prospect these days.

  “Dakota, slow it down a notch.” Jonas felt his heart beat faster. Knowing Janey was here was hard to accept. It had been such a hard journey that it didn’t feel real. “Let’s cruise in, and try not to draw any attention to ourselves.”

  “Sure.” Dakota drove carefully, methodically picking a way through the growing cars that had been abandoned on the highway.

  Thunder Bay spread out before them beneath a covering of dark sky and heavy rain. Lake Superior appeared faintly in the distance, but the murky rain kept it hidden behind a blanket of water. Jonas had often wondered what this place was like where his sister lived. It had sounded much nicer when she had described it to him. Thunder Bay had been just a place he imagined in his head, a distant dream, but now that he was here the reality was very different. It was like everywhere else. Death hung over the place like a pollutant, gripping the city with its talons, like an evil toxin destined to ruin it forever. He couldn’t accept it was too far gone. He couldn’t accept Janey wouldn’t be here either. She would be. She had promised him. Jonas looked at the buildings as they crept past them silently. He saw no lights on anywhere. Windows dark, doors closed, and cars immobile, lawns overgrown, and piles of rubbish unattended; it was like riding through a ghost town.

  “Shoot,” said Dakota, frowning.

  Jonas brought his attention back to the road ahead, and saw the problem. Another blockage on the road, and this time there was no getting around it. He saw a black helicopter, a large military type, in the middle of the road, a charred husk of blackened, twisted metal. Its rotor blades had gouged out the road, and whoever had flown in it was long gone.

  “Can’t you squeeze us around the side?” asked Lukas.

  Dakota pushed the truck onto the sidewalk, but she found it blocked by another pile of charred metal. The melted frames of cars surrounded the helicopter on both sides and stretched from one side of the road to the other. One and two storey buildings surrounded them making it impossible to get the truck any further.

  “Leave it,” said Jonas. “We’re as close as we need to be. We’ll go on foot from here.”

  Lukas looked at him with a furrowed brow, concern in his eyes. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Hamsikker. We don’t know what’s out there. We should stay in the truck. Let’s find another route. There must be something.”

  “No.” Jonas unclipped his seatbelt and opened the door. “We’re close enough. I’m not waiting any longer. The place is deserted, you can see that. Janey’s home isn’t far from here. We need to proceed on foot down the hill, cross over that inlet, and we’re as good as there. She lives this side of the city. We can do this. We’ll get the guns from the back and go on foot. We’ll come back for the truck if we need to.”

  Jonas disappeared around to the back of the truck, and Lukas looked at Dakota. “You think this is a good idea?”

  “There aren’t many other options open to us, Lukas. We could go back and find a way around, but I really don’t think Jonas is going to wait while we do that. He’s going down there whether we like it or not. We’ll be better off if we stick together.”

  “I guess.” Lukas wished Bishop was around. He would know what to do.

  “Look, if you want to stay with the truck you can. I have to go with him. I want to go. You understand, don’t you?”

  Lukas nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I’m with you guys. I’m not going to pussy out now. Like you said, we’re better off together.”

  Jonas handed out what weapons they had left. One gun each and some ammo. They decided not to take any food with them. It was a short trip and would only slow them down. Jonas knew there was food where they were going anyway. Janey would have enough supplies for them. The main point was to get to her. They didn’t need to be thinking beyond that. The priority now was to reach her home.

  Jonas knew progress would be slower on foot than if they had stayed in the truck, but there was no guarantee they would easily be able to find another route. The falling rain hit his face, and its icy coldness was like a slap. He pulled up his jacket, noticing Dakota and Lukas did the same. Each of them kept their guns at the ready. As quiet as it seemed to be, there were no guarantees anymore. After what had happened to Julie, Jonas warned them all to be careful. He took the lead, picking a way through the mangled pile of metal where helicopter and car had meshed and found a way through so they could continue on into the city. He vowed they would stop only when they had to. There was too much at stake to pause now for anything other than an emergency.

  Once they were past the blockage, Jonas felt better. Although he hadn’t been to Thunder Bay before, Janey had told him about it so many times that he felt as if he knew the area. With Lake Superior and the forest surrounding it, there was no reason why they couldn’t make a go of it. Just as soon as he reconnected with Janey, they could start planning the future. There would be a lot to organize. They would need to erect fences for defense, and perhaps some sort of early warning system that could alert them to any zombies approaching the house. They would need to organize the food, too, and find a way of sustaining themselves off the land. North of the city it was just bedrock too barren to sustain any form of farming, but they only needed a small patch of land. Somewhere close to the house where they could grow vegetables. They could fish and chop firewood in summer to get them through the cold winters. Along with his nephews, they could all live here. He wasn’t going to need to get ready for the baby, of course, and read up on childcare. He knew next to nothing about it which was why it was so important to get to Janey. She would be able to help Dakota with the pregnancy, the birth, everything. There was so much to do. Jonas picked up the pace, eager to find his sister again. He owed her so much, not least a huge apology. There was a lot to talk about.

  “Hey, Jonas, look at this.” Dakota picked up a baseball bat. “Could be useful, eh?”

  Jonas looked at Dakota. Her wet hair stuck to her face, she was probably completely miserable and cold, and yet she was smiling. She held up the bat for him like a child seeking praise from a parent. “Maybe someone dropped it?”

  She was stood by the back of a courier van, its rear doors closed. The van was a sleek black, with silver lettering down its side. Jonas approached the van, and took the bat from her. “Sweet. Let’s hope we don’t need to use it.”

  “Guys, give me a minute, can you?” asked Lukas. “I have a huge blister on my foot, and this rain isn’t helping.” Lukas hobbled over to the courier van, wincing as he walked, and flung back the doors. “I just want to sit down a second, and…”

  The zombie inside the van thrust its face into Lukas’s, and he screamed as it jumped on top of him. The dead man’s face was smeared in gore, his hands bright red with blood. The zombie shook its face ferociously, like a hungry pig at a trough, guzzling down swill and gorging itself as if it hadn’t eaten for weeks. Lukas pushed his hands into the man’s chest, avoiding the dead hands that swiped at him, and shouted for help.

  “Lukas, heads up!” Jonas smashed the bat into the side of the zombie’s head. It lost its grip on Lukas and fell to its knees.

  “What the fuck, man?” Lukas jumped up and backed away from the dead man. “That nasty fucker’s been
waiting in there for how long? Why isn’t it, like, mummified or something?”

  Jonas swung again, smashing the bat into the man’s head. It rolled away, but was straight back up onto its feet. It was full of energy and showed no sign of stopping.

  “Fuck it,” said Lukas, and he shot the man three times in the head. It was finally still, blood seeping out of the bullet holes into the gutter where it mixed with the rainwater and drained away. Lukas looked the man over. From the uniform it wore, it appeared to be the courier driver. “Fucking animal.”

  “You okay?” Jonas looked at Lukas.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Just got a surprise. I should’ve checked first. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Forget it. You good to keep going?” asked Jonas.

  Lukas wiped the rain and sweat from his face. “Yeah. Promise I won’t go opening any more random doors.”

  Through the thunderous rain, Jonas went to Dakota. She was staring into the open courier van. Her eyes carried such pity that he almost dared not to speak for fear of her breaking down. When he spoke the rain flicked into his mouth. “Dakota? What is it?”

  Dakota pointed through the open van doors. “That’s why he was so animated.”

  Jonas stared at the inside of the van. What had once been filled with parcels and boxes was now filled with a half-eaten corpse. Blood was splashed up the walls, on the roof, and had soaked into what few cardboard boxes were inside. Scraps of clothing hung off the bones, and the skull had been licked clean. It was so white and striking against the van’s bloody background that it almost looked fake. The ribcage had been dismantled, and if it wasn’t for the skull, Jonas wasn’t sure he would even be able to recognize what was left as a human being.