Open Roads

by Zach Bohannon

  As Will made it up onto his feet with Holly's assistance, Charlie cried out a four-letter word and raced toward debris. Will followed Charlie's path and saw a leg hanging out from a stack of tangled wood.

  "Oh, shit," Will mumbled.

  He began to hobble toward the pile, and Holly helped him until Will demanded she leave his side and rush over to help Charlie remove the debris from on top of Scott. Or, at least, what they thought to be Scott.

  The body lay under only a couple of layers of light debris, and by the time Will made it over, Charlie and Holly had both turned away, their faces covered. Will slipped between the two of them to look down and see Scott's eyes, wide open. Blood was everywhere, and an indistinguishable piece of metal jutted from his chest, having impaled him.

  Will looked away, glancing back to the cabin. The two cabins on either side now stood aflame.

  Will grabbed Holly by the hand. "Come on," he said.

  Crying, Holly asked, "Where are we going?"

  Before Will could answer, from out of the woods they heard a gunshot, followed by the scream of a young girl.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  He stood there, the gun still shaking in his hand. Even though this wasn't the first time he'd destroyed one of the creatures, it may as well have been. It lay on the ground, motionless, the top half of its body sunk under the water on the shore.

  Behind Dylan, Mary Beth cried. Her weeping snapped him out of his shock.

  Reece sat against a tree, clutching his neck. Blood seeped between his fingers. The creature had just missed the vein bulging from the boy's thin neck. Even with everything Dylan had seen over the past couple of weeks, he'd never seen so much fear in anyone's eyes.

  Leaves rustled not too far off through the trees as more of the Empties headed toward them.

  "What are we gonna do?" cried Mary Beth.

  "Help me get him up," Dylan said.

  Dylan had only gotten a few feet away from Reece when the teenager began shaking his head and stuck the palm of his free hand out, telling the two younger kids not to move any closer. Dylan could see under Reece's crimson stained hand just how bad the wound was. The Empty had taken a chunk out of Reece's neck, thus rendering him unable to speak. Even over the sound of the group approaching, Dylan could hear the hiss of the blood seeping from Reece's throat, like a puncture in a running hose.

  His lips moved, but no words came out.

  "What?" Dylan asked.

  Reece reached down and drew something small from his pocket. The black object firm in his hand, he pressed a small button, triggering a blade to appear from the handle. Again, he tried to speak, and again no words came out. But, this time Dylan was able to make out what he was saying.

  His lips mouthed one word: "Go."

  Mary Beth cried louder, covering her mouth in an attempt to mute herself. Dylan again saw the hurt in Reece's eyes. As young as Dylan was, even he knew that no one deserved to die like this. Especially someone not much older than he himself was. But with the horde fast approaching, Dylan had to honor Reece's wish in order to save himself and Mary Beth.

  Dylan slipped the handgun back into his pack, and put his hand on Mary Beth's back. He said, "Let's go. We gotta get out of here."

  Pulling her hands away from her face, Mary Beth said, "We can't leave him. I won’t let him just sit out here and die alone in the woods.”

  When Dylan looked back to Reece, he could now see the frustration in his friend's face. He'd told them to go, yet there they stood, wasting time. The group of creatures was getting louder and louder, closer and closer, with each wasted moment that passed.

  In one fluid movement, Reece pulled the hand away that was applying pressure to the bite wound. The flesh hung off the teen's neck like the skin of a potato being peeled. Reece mouthed something to himself, though all Dylan could hear were the sniffles of Reece’s cries. Reece closed his eyes, and brought the blade to his throat.

  Dylan yelled, then thought enough to shield Mary Beth from the gruesome scene, turning away himself at the last moment. Dylan heard the blade hit the ground, then the sound of Reece's body tumbling over onto its side.

  The yell that Dylan bellowed made the volume of the creatures’ snarls increase, and when Dylan turned back, it was almost as if the gang was moving faster toward them. He lifted under Mary Beth’s arms.

  “We gotta go.”

  She looked up, and he shielded her eyes again before her gaze fell upon Reece’s fallen corpse. He guided her past the tree before removing his hand from her face. She started to look back, but he stopped her.

  “Don’t look,” Dylan said. “You don’t wanna see it.”

  Dylan looked back to Reece’s folded body lying on its side. The creatures had moved within twenty-five yards of the body. Reece had slit his throat, just trying to end his life. But, as far as Dylan knew, just slicing the throat wouldn’t prevent the teenager from becoming one of them. He gripped the handle of his own knife, wondering whether he should release Reece by stabbing him in the head. His perspiring hand moistened the grip of his knife. It trembled, and he cried. He couldn’t bring himself to further harm his friends’ body. He needed to turn his attention to the only thing that mattered — getting himself and Mary Beth to safety.

  “Come on,” Dylan said, grabbing onto Mary Beth’s hand.

  And they ran.

  They ran as fast as their legs would take them. The overwhelming noise of the herd behind them became softer and softer. They ran until they didn’t hear the creatures any longer, glad that they hadn’t run into another group. Dylan gasped, trying to catch his breath. He glanced over to the water, but it was gone. He’d completely blanked out while running, and not even realized that they’d moved beyond the large pond. Dylan had planned to use the shoreline to get them back to the cabins.

  When he turned around, all he saw were trees. It looked as if someone building the world of a video game had pasted the same row of a hundred trees in, over and over again. Autumn had brought so many leaves down from the branches that there was no way for them to even recover their steps.

  They were lost.

  Dylan’s plan to stay along the shore so that they could use the water to guide them back had failed.

  “What are we gonna do?” Mary Beth repeated. Her eyes were barely open, tears streaming down her cheeks. She paced back and forth, shuffling the leaves below her feet. Dylan heard her, but he couldn’t tell if it was real or not. Inside, he felt so overwhelmed.

  I’m just a kid. I can’t take care of us.

  Mary Beth continued to plead with him, but he blanked it out.

  Dylan fell to his knees, lost in the middle of nowhere. His shoulders shrugged, and he looked down to the ground.

  Slowly, he raised his head to the sky. Not even a bird passed through the clouds above. He and Mary Beth were alone. Trapped.

  And all he could do was lower his head and cry.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  As they approached the fishing area, Will found himself nearly out of breath. Behind them, the flames continued breathe into the open sky as the cabins burned to the ground.

  The water came into view, and Will came to an abrupt stop as he saw a large group of Empties gathered around a tree. They were focused on something on the ground, each of them either on their knees or bent down. Holly and Charlie had both stopped on either side of Will.

  Holly mumbled, “Oh, my God.”

  The kids, Will thought.

  Before either Charlie or Holly could stop him, Will drew his handgun from his hip and ran at the horde.

  He screamed, garnering the creatures’ attention, and he fired.

  Round after round blew from the barrel, until it clicked. He hadn’t even bothered to count how many of the things had dropped to the ground. Behind him, Holly and Charlie fired their own weapons. Will grabbed onto the rifle hanging on his shoulder, and began to empty rounds into the creatures.

  Everything seemed to slow down around him. It became a
blur. He fired the rifle until, like his handgun, it was out of ammunition.

  With only one Empty in his sights, Will drew the knife and lunged at the creature. If it had been alive, it likely would have widened its eyes and screamed. Instead, Will bellowed a war cry, blood dripping down his face, and slammed the blade into the side of the thing’s head. It fell to the ground, he with it, and Will didn’t stop. Over and over, Will jabbed the knife down into the Empty’s face. Its features became unrecognizable.

  It took Holly screaming at him to finally bring him back to reality.

  Will looked back at Holly to see her with tears in her eyes. The look on her face told him she was scared. But she wasn’t looking at him.

  Will looked up, and saw Charlie next to a body. It lay next to the tree the horde of undead demons had been gathered around. Charlie wasn’t touching the mangled figure. He only kneeled next to it, his face buried into the palms of his hands. Holly turned around, away from the body. Will looked at the lower half of it, remembering those neon-colored sneakers. They were unmistakable.

  It was Reece.

  Beside the teen’s body lay a knife, its blade stained with blood. So much blood and pieces of the kid’s insides surrounded the distorted corpse that there was no way to tell if the knife had been used in self-defense, or if Reece had used it to end his own life before the creatures got to him. Will hoped it had been the latter.

  Will turned around and went to Holly, who still faced the direction they’d come from, her back turned from Reece’s body. He put his hand on her shoulder, which startled her.

  “We have to go,” Will whispered. “Dylan and Mary Beth are still out here somewhere.”

  Sniffing uncontrollably, Holly looked up to him, her eyes filled, and nodded.

  Will said, “Come on, let’s—”

  A scream and two gunshots jerked Will’s head around. They’d come in succession, from deep in the woods.

  Without a second thought or looking back, Will ran.

  ***

  Mary Beth screamed again.

  Dylan, in such terrified awe of his surroundings, practically didn’t hear her.

  They’d come across a tree stump and decided to stop and rest. They’d only been sitting down for a couple of minutes before, almost as if the things had drawn up the attack, a group of Empties had surrounded them.

  Snarls came from every direction. At first, they’d just seen the creatures in front of them. Then, when Dylan grabbed Mary Beth’s hand and turned around, more of the things had flanked them from behind. He wasn’t sure where they’d come from, or how he hadn’t heard them. All he knew was that he and his friend were trapped, sitting on a tree stump in the middle of nowhere.

  The gun trembled in the boy’s hand, as he found himself at a loss for what to do. Confusion and panic filled his young mind. He tried to bring his hand up and point it at one of the creatures, but he couldn’t. And even if he did, he’d just used his last two bullets.

  “It’s just like Susan,” Mary Beth mumbled through tears.

  Dylan just looked at her, and even though she didn’t look up, he could see that she sensed him looking upon her.

  “The woods. Home Base. I’m gonna die just like her.”

  Looking around him, it all made sense what she was trying to say. In fact, it was exactly as Dylan had imagined it when Mary Beth had told her own story about The Fall. The tree stump they sat on now was just like the one Mary Beth and her sister, Susan, had called Home Base. He looked to her again and saw the quit in her eyes. She’d given up.

  Dylan wasn’t going to let her go that easy.

  He remembered the knife he had with him, and reached down to grip the handle. The Empties had moved only moments away from being within arms’ lengths of the two children. Dylan stood up and drew the knife.

  “You’re not dying out here,” he said.

  The boy was about to lunge at one of the creatures when he heard his name.

  “Dylan!”

  He looked beyond one of the creatures, which had now turned around, and saw Will running toward them, waving his arms down toward the ground. Dylan cocked his head.

  “Get down!” Will yelled, readying his rifle from behind his back.

  Dylan’s eyes widened, and he pulled Mary Beth off of the tree stump and down to the ground with him. Bullets raced by overhead, and he felt the Empties’ blood splash down onto him. Mary Beth screamed, and Dylan himself moaned in fear, quaking. He heard the creatures hit the ground all around him as bullets mowed them down.

  After what seemed like much more time had passed, the gunfire ceased. With it, Mary Beth’s scream became a shudder.

  Dylan looked up to see the creatures all around him, their bodies lying tangled, limbs twisted like they’d just been tossed aside. He looked up further and his eyes met Will’s. Holly and Charlie stood on either side of him, and Holly was the first to run to him.

  Dylan stood all the way up and hugged Holly. He buried his face of tears into her chest as she ran her hand through his hair.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Holly said.

  When Dylan pulled away, Will was standing beside Holly. Will smiled, and embraced Dylan.

  “Thank you,” Dylan said.

  They pulled away from each other, and Will rummaged the boy’s hair and smiled.

  Turning around, Dylan checked on Mary Beth, who’d taken a seat on the tree stump again. Her face was pale, blank with shock. A combination of dirt, blood, and tears covered her face. Her hair swooped down over her right eye, tangled and matted.

  Dylan took a step toward her and said, “Mary Beth, are you—”

  The Empty appeared over her shoulder so fast. It rose up from behind the tree stump, growled, and then grabbed her by the shoulders. It tried to pull her back, but she fought it, slapping at the thing’s decrepit grip.

  “No!” Dylan yelled, and he lunged at the creature.

  Right as the thing was about to bite Mary Beth on her shoulder, Dylan blocked it with his own arm.

  He screamed as the creature bit into his flesh and grabbed onto him.

  “Move!” Will yelled at Mary Beth.

  When she didn’t, Charlie ran over and swept the young girl off of the stump.

  The Empty dug deeper into Dylan’s arm, tearing flesh from bone. Dylan’s shrill was so high-pitched, it cut through his own ears. He watched in agony as Will lunged at the beast and drove his knife into its skull. The grip of its teeth loosened, and it fell to the ground.

  Dylan’s vision doubled as he tried to look down at his forearm and see the damage the thing had done. Blood spilled from the wound, his flesh dangling off his limb. Dylan became lightheaded, and he had started to lose his balance when Will caught him.

  Will put Dylan on his knees and set his arm down on the tree stump. He removed his shirt, forming it into a cylindrical shape.

  “Hold his arm down,” Will said to someone. “And give me that.”

  Dylan looked up, and with blurred vision, saw Charlie handing a large blade over to Will. Dylan then looked over to see Holly at his side, holding down his arm.

  The taste of iron in Dylan’s mouth was replaced by sweaty cotton as Will placed the t-shirt in his mouth.

  “Bite down, hard,” Will said.

  Dylan tried to scream through the shirt as one of the others held his arm down against the tree stump. He felt every ounce of energy he had leaving him, and his vision started to go black.

  Will said, “I’m so sorry.”

  The last thing Dylan saw before he blacked out was Will above him, his machete raised over his head.

  EPILOGUE

  She came walking out of the Welcome Center, her hair up in a ponytail. He wondered what it would look like if she let it flow down her smooth shoulders. That dark hair. He hadn’t seen one like her yet.

  He had to have her.

  She walked down the sidewalk, looking off into the manufactured trees that had been planted to make the State Welcome Center seem mo
re inviting. He didn’t move from his hiding spot behind the railing aside the highway; he just continued to watch her. The way she walked, it excited him. The others, they’d want to use her for their stupid games. There’d be plenty of time for that, but he hoped he’d get to play his own games with her first. He bit his bottom lip, thinking of the possibilities.

  The dark-haired girl reached the end of the sidewalk, and then she turned around. In a way, he wanted her to look his way. He knew it would be nearly impossible for her to see him, well as he was hidden. But it would be almost like a tease. He loved to be teased.

  He felt the slow dance begin in his pants just as the door to the Welcome Center opened again, drawing his attention away from the pretty young girl.

  A man walked out. He reached to the sky, stretching, before turning toward the ground like he was going to puke. He then covered up his face, and ran toward Sexy Dark Hair.

  “You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me,” he mumbled.

  This asshole, walking out of the building and almost throwing up for no reason, he would die. And it would be fun. Slow and fun. And painful.

  The two-way radio hissed.

  “You see anything? Over,” a man said from the other end of the radio.

  Licking his lips, eyes locked on the girl, he waited to respond. Cock Blocker hadn’t ruined his fun so much to where he couldn’t take a moment to admire her a little more. But when the radio hissed again, asking if he was there, he finally shook himself from his dream and put the radio up to his mouth.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, we’ve got some live ones here. Let’s get ready to wrangle ‘em up.”

  TO BE CONTINUED…

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