by Haga, A. H.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Shadia screamed as she kicked and bucked, trying to get loose.
André rushed forward, trying to pry the man’s arms off her, but the others were there in an instant. Grabbing him, they pushed him against the stone wall until he grunted with pain.
I pushed up and crawled toward Shadia. One hand gripping my ax, I pulled down my bandana and growled at the man holding her.
A boot fell on the hand holding the ax, pushing it into the asphalt and grinding until I had to splay my fingers or they would be crushed. Gritting my teeth in pain, I looked up at Nicholas. Shadia was screaming my name.
“Now, now,” Nicholas said, crouching so we were almost eye-to-eye. “What chance do you think someone like you stands against us?” He spread his arms to encompass the other men.
I spit, the glob hitting him just below the right eye.
His hand swung, hitting my cheek so hard I was flung to the side. I would have hit my head if not for my broad-brimmed hat taking most of the fall.
“Stupid girl,” he snarled. Standing, he wiped the spit with the sleeve of his shirt. “I was going to bring you as well. While damaged, there might be something we could do with you. But now, you’ve ruined your chances.”
He lifted his boot from my hand, and I hissed as a new kind of pain flared through me, making my fingers spasm with the sudden release.
“You sure, Nick?” one of the other men asked. “Don’t you think she’ll be a problem?”
Nicholas laughed. “Look at her. What kind of problem could she be?” He spat at me, but his aim was off.
“You’d be surprised,” I said, showing my teeth in a growl before I flung myself forward. Grabbing his leg with both hands, I sunk my teeth into his naked calf. Blood exploded in my mouth, and I had to fight to not let go and throw up.
Nicholas was screaming, Shadia was screaming, the other men were screaming. Someone grabbed me and tried to pull me away, but I just dug in deeper, not letting go, even as blood flooded my mouth and poured down my chin. Yuck, yuck, yuck! But no way was I letting this man take Shadia from me. No way. Someone grabbed my hair, and the sudden pain made me yelp, letting go. The owner of the hand yanked me back as Nicholas started crawling backwards away from me. I kicked at the one holding me, hitting something soft that made him grunt in pain.
“You let her go!” I snarled and wriggled out of the grip before crawling toward Nicholas again. “You let Shadia go right now, or I swear, I’ll bite off more than a piece of flesh.”
I gripped his leg, slick with blood, and crawled up him, my fingers digging into his skin. He was screaming nonsense, his eyes wide with pain and fear.
“OK,” the man holding Shadia said, letting her go. “OK, we’ll let you go.”
Shadia hurtled from his arms and toward me, grabbing me and pulling me away from Nicholas.
“And André,” I said, turning my eyes and snarl on the man that had spoken. “You let us all go.”
“Of course,” he answered, gesturing at the two holding André.
They let him go and moved toward Nicholas, but stopped far enough away that I couldn’t reach them. Shadia was murmuring in my ear, begging me to let go and come with her. I let her drag me toward the chair that André was turning the right way up and rolled toward us, my ax in his hands. I was in the seat before I even knew it, and André was pushing me forward as Shadia walked at my side, holding my hand and keeping her eyes on the men. They were glaring at us, all except Nicholas, who was still screaming and staring at his leg. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight, and the two youngest men looked away, turning pale.
“What were you thinking?” Shadia hissed as we neared the end of the street.
“Mostly yuck,” I answered, using my gloves to wipe the blood from around my mouth.
“Katerina,” the warning in Shadia’s tone wasn’t to be mistaken.
“I wasn’t thinking at all,” I said, looking up at her. “Just that I couldn’t let them take you.”
Her hand tightened around mine.
We reached the end of the street.
“No matter what you were thinking, you got us out of that, you know, and now I think we need to get out of here before they decide to follow,” André said, looking back at the men.
We followed his gaze. They’d managed to pull Nicholas to his feet. The wounded man seemed to have come to his senses. I could almost feel his eyes burning holes in me.
“Good idea,” Shadia said and turned toward the road.
15
After the street we were on, the next would be one of the main roads through town, and that would bring us to the freeway and the small road beside it. We didn’t dare take our time, though. Having left Nicholas behind, wounded, it felt like it would only be so long before he sent men after us. For one, as he’d said himself, he didn’t want to let a possible mother go. For two, he struck me as the kind of guy that didn’t like to be made a fool off. Especially by someone he saw as inferior to himself, AKA me.
Bygdøy Allé was, as we’d expected from the map, the next street down, but we were on the wrong side from where we needed to go, so again I had to crawl onto Shadia’s back and let her carry me past the cars.
We were halfway across the street when I saw it. “Wait,” I said. “You see that?” I pointed with the ax at the person coming toward us.
Shadia nodded. “Just one. We can deal with that.”
I opened my mouth to argue but closed it again.
Across the street, Shadia lowered me to sit on the hood of a car, then walked on, pulling the knife from her belt. I looked away, focusing on getting myself into the chair. By the time I looked up again, Shadia was pushing its body to the side so it wouldn’t be in the way of my wheels. As I was rolled past, I couldn’t help but look at the body. Once a man, it was now shriveled, barely a husk of what it must have been. Dressed in just it’s boxers, it looked pitiable.
“There!”
It wasn’t loud, just enough for me to hear over the sounds of my chair, my breathing, and André’s panting, but I did hear it. The yell made my head shoot up, and I turned in the chair. It came from one of the men that had been with Nicholas. He and one other stood at the end of the road, pointing at us.
“OK, we have to hurry up now,” I said, my voice a little too high.
Shadia heard me and turned. Her eyes jumped from me to the men, then to André. “When we get across that next street, I’m taking her,” she said matter of factly. André nodded, concentrating on breathing.
We reached the next road. Shadia stood almost before I was on her back, marching across without a glance back.
As soon as we were on the other side, she hurried back to André. He was almost across the road, managing my folded up chair as best he could, panting and sweating and really not looking good. Despite being thin as a reed, I guessed he hadn’t worked out much before the zompocalypse.
As I waited, I pushed a stick of gum into my mouth. It tasted of blood, but I forced myself to chew until cranberry filled my mouth. I couldn’t hear what Shadia was saying to André, but I saw him drink the rest of his water bottle before he pulled a bierwurst from his rucksack and started chewing on it as he followed Shadia, pushing the chair across the road.
Without a word, she helped me into the chair and we continued onward. The pace was a little faster now that André could focus just on himself. Despite him eating as he moved, he was walking faster than before. I couldn’t picture eating at such a time, but he did what he thought was best.
I turned to look behind us, seeing the two men moving toward us but at a slower pace than I would have expected. Why weren’t they chasing us with everything they had? They could overtake us if they tried.
We reached another intersection, this one bigger than the others. André’s breathing was better, and he’d finished eating his sausage. Shadia squatted before me again, and I climbed onto her back. This time, though, she stayed and made sure that André got t
he chair folded up right before she moved on.
There had been an accident here. Two cars had driven into each other, nose to nose, and others had crashed into both of them on their respective sides, pushing them around. It looked like three other cars had been involved in the accident as well, with crushed fronts or sides.
Shadia squeezed between one of the crushed cars and one that had just managed not to hit it. Her face was turned upward, looking forward, so she didn’t see the body inside the car. It was a pregnant woman. Dark, dried blood covered her face. The body of a toddler sat in the back seat, strapped in. As I looked, it turned its head and stared at me with black eyes. It opened its mouth and clacked its small, white teeth together as it reached for me.
I turned away, biting my lower lip to keep from crying and thanked the stars that Shadia hadn’t seen the baby. After the kids at the school, this would destroy her. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder how the baby had turned. Had it been sick already when the crash happened but not been killed by the accident? Left to die of the sickness? I would have to ask André if he thought the parasite could still take over if the body died before it had completed its growth. How sick must the baby, the mom, have been as they tried to escape the city for this to happen?
André seemed better as he unfolded the chair, but he kept glancing over his shoulder at the two men following us. The accident was the only thing between us now.
I almost fell into the chair as Shadia let me go and hurried to stand behind me. Before I was even properly in place, she was moving at a fast jog. One of the men raised his voice behind us. I looked back and saw that they had sped up.
“André,” Shadia said, and I saw him come up beside her. His mouth was gaping as he breathed, but he didn’t seem too tired, thankfully. “Run ahead and see if there are any cars we can use.”
“What?” he panted.
“There might be a car or two with the key still in them standing on the ramp. We need to move fast to get away from those guys, and we can’t move all that fast as things are.”
“Oh, right. OK, I’ll try.”
He pushed past. He wasn’t much faster than Shadia, but fast enough that by the time we reached the on-ramp to the freeway, he was nearly at the top. The cars weren’t as piled up here, so Shadia managed to maneuver me in the chair between the cars and onto the ramp. As we turned past another car, I turned and saw the two men weren’t far behind.
“Sha, we have to hurry,” I murmured, not wanting to stress her but not sure what else to do.
“I know, habibi,” she said, her voice a little strained, but she didn’t slow.
We were on the bridge, running along the outer edge to avoid cars. Ahead, André was gone from sight, but I could hear him cursing. Behind, the men were on the bridge as well, speeding up now that there was nothing in their way.
I heard their steps too close a second before one of them came from the side, grabbing for Shadia’s ponytail. Shadia ducked and spun, letting me go as she did. Her hand flew out, knit in a fist, and right into the man’s solar plexus, knocking the breath from him and pushing him back into his buddy.
I was just aware enough to stop myself from driving into a car, but even before I had time to right myself, Shadia was there again, grabbing me and pushing me through the throng of vehicles.
The men were cursing, or the man with breath enough was cursing, and trying to get to their feet, but they were tangled in each other. That delay was all we needed.
From ahead came the sound of a car starting up and a triumphant howl from André. I couldn’t help but howl back as we passed the last car between him and us.
It was an old Volkswagen Polo, dirty yellow and too small for us, but right now we couldn’t be picky. André had left the doors open and was opening the back to throw in his bags as we reached him.
Shadia called out just seconds before she let me go, and I gripped the wheels, feeling them bite into the gloves but not burning me. Shadia sprinted past, throwing her own bag to André and turning toward me again, reaching for the bags hanging on the back of my chair. In answer, I turned on one of my brakes, so I spun around, giving her my back. This made me look toward our stalkers, now on their feet and getting closer.
My hand was aching from where Nicholas had stepped on it, and I could still taste his blood, even though I’d been spitting and chewing. I wanted to puke but felt kind of numb. That reminder was what made me lift the ax and scream wordlessly at the two men.
They faltered at the sound, glancing at each other.
“What the hell do you want?” I growled at them. “Why can’t you just leave us alone?”
The oldest man, the one who had let Shadia go, shook his head. “We can’t. Or rather, we can let you go,” he pointed from me to Shadia, “but not her. We need every abled body woman left alive to fulfill our destiny.” As he spoke, his voice grew stronger and he took another step toward us. “It is our sacred duty.”
I whistled. “Wow, André was right. You’re a cult.” The man blinked. “But we don’t share your beliefs,” I hefted my ax as they both took a step forward. “And if you take one more step, I’ll use this on you.”
The men stared at me for a long time, not moving. Nothing happened for a heartbeat. I could feel sweat building on my neck, and tears flowed from my eyes as a result of the light.
“This is stupid,” the youngest of the men said and rushed forward.
His sudden movement made my tense muscles react on instinct, and I swung. The blade bit into his upper arm and blood splattered the side of the car as he was thrown off his feet with a yowl of pain.
I pulled the ax from his arm before I completely understood what I had done. He was screaming and screaming, clutching at his almost severed arm. The older man had run to his side and was trying to stop the bleeding, forgetting about us.
“Kit,” Shadia hissed and pulled the ax from my hands. “Come on. This is our chance.”
I didn’t argue, didn’t do anything, as she pulled me out of the chair and into the back of the car. André was there in a second, folding up the wheelchair and closing the car door behind us.
As soon as she was sure I was secure across the seats, Shadia pulled the front seat back into place and crawled into it, pulling on her seatbelt as she checked that the mirror was correctly placed. André jumped into the passenger seat, and Shadia revved the engine.
She backed up as André closed his door, made a sharp turn, and shot down the open road.
I lifted myself and looked through the backwindow to see the two men on the ground. The older guy now shirtless as he tried to tie up the other man’s arm. There was blood everywhere.
“Habibi, don’t watch,” Shadia said, her voice shrill in my ears.
I turned to the front and stared at her in the rear-view mirror. The taste of blood was still in my mouth, the now-dead gum growing too big to chew. I looked down at the bloody ax lying on the floor of the car. There were no windows to open in the back of the small Polo, so I threw up in an old McDonald’s bag.
Excerpt from Medical Notebook
The parasite, for it turned out to be a living organism causing this, went undetected for a long time. It isn’t the worm in itself that kills, but the eggs flooding the system, clogging the brain. But it is the worm that keeps the subject from dying. Or returning from the dead; however, you want to say it.
When it hatches, it eats its way through flesh and into your stomach. There, it integrates itself into the stomach wall and starts stealing food. It only eats meat.
The worm lay eggs through the same hole through which it eats, and so the stomach is soon filled with eggs that move through the body before being expelled, increasing the host’s hunger. Especially for meat, as the body no longer receives the expected nutrients. When expelled, they can spread, and they spread fast.
16
The slowing of the car woke me. I didn’t know when or how I’d fallen asleep between the reek of vomit, the taste of it in my mouth, and t
he tears that wouldn’t stop running from my eyes. I’d used a whole packet of gum to take the taste away, as well as way too many antibacterial napkins to clean my hands and face, removing every trace of blood I could find.
But I had fallen asleep, and now the car smelled a little less of vomit.
“Why’re you stopping?” I asked as I blinked my eyes open.
The sunlight hadn’t changed much while I slept, and my cheeks still felt raw from crying, so I couldn’t have slept for more than half an hour at the most.
“The road is blocked,” Shadia said, stopping the car completely.
I sat up and looked out the window. There were fields as far as I could see, with pockets of forest and homes here and there. The road in front of us, however, was completely blocked by cars. There weren’t as many as back in Oslo, but it was clear there had been an accident, and people had left their cars behind.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“I honestly don’t know, but not far past Ikea.”
Closing my eyes, I mentally called up the map we’d looked at yesterday. “That’s not far at all.”
“No, but it’s given us a head start in case Nicholas wants to follow. There don’t seem to be that many zombies out here either. We’ve passed three since Ikea.”
“That sounds like plenty to me.”
Shadia shook her head. “Not if you’d seen how many we passed before, habibi. They came in packs. I guess they all died at one of the centers and somehow got out.” She turned and looked out the back window.
I turned to look with her, but the road was empty. “I’m afraid they’re following us anyway,” I said.
“They will get distracted.”