She trotted up to it, moving quicker. There was a splash of sunlight on the wall just past a final bend up ahead, and when she rounded the corner she saw the doors. It was a set of double doors made of glass, just like the ER entrance. But the glass was still intact, meaning she would have to hope the door could be slid open.
When she got up to them, feeling the warm and welcomed sunlight on her skin, she pried her fingers into the same gap between the doors and pulled, but they didn't move. Just as she reached for her knife to try and wedge it between them, she heard sudden footsteps behind her from around the corner.
She spun around, but there was nowhere else to go.
One of the smart zombies stood there and stared at her, its blank eyes looking her up and down and judging the situation.
Sarah grabbed the walkie-talkie and held the call button. "I may be making a flashy exit, just to warn you."
She quickly put away the walkie and pulled out her Sig Sauer, aiming it at the zombie.
It continued to stand there for just one more second, regarding her, and then it charged at her.
Sarah opened fire, aiming for its head, but the zombie didn't just run at her in a straight line like every other one used to; this one started to bob and weave to the side, twisting its body too to minimize its target area as it ran for her. Basically doing everything in its power to piss her off, and on her fifth missed shot (only one of them grazing it in the shoulder), she said, "Fuck this," and turned the gun on the glass door.
The entire pane in one of the doors shattered to a million pieces and fell to the ground as a waterfall of sparkling glass on the pavement outside. Sarah leapt through the gap and ran around the side of the building. Stealth was no longer an option, so there was no point in trying to get over the fence in the back; she would just run around to the front and slip through the warped bit of fence that she knew she could get through and back to Trevor, zombies lying in ambush be damned. She pulled out the walkie-talkie again as she pumped her hips.
"We have company!" she shouted. She glanced over her shoulder and saw four zombies chasing her. "A lot of it!"
Trevor sent a reply from his end, but with the din of the chaos around her, she couldn't hear what he said. She just made it to the front of the hospital and rounded the corner, heading for the gap in the fence that was near the entrance to the ER. She wrapped her hand around the grip of the M16 hanging around her neck and sprayed it at the three zombies who rose out of the bushes next to the ER as she approached. They ducked down momentarily, and Sarah thought she had never seen something quite so strange as watching a zombie do anything at all to preserve its own life.
Trevor came out from behind the sedan across the street and gave her cover fire. He only had his pistol, but he was surprisingly accurate, nailing two of the zombies in the head waiting outside of the ER. His father must have taught him more than just hunting skills, Sarah thought.
When she got to the fence and more zombies started to come out of the ER entrance, she spun around and swept the rifle across all of them, spraying the rest of the bullets in her magazine at the approaching zombies. It didn't do anything to kill them, and she knew it wouldn't, but it did make them pause and try to protect themselves from some of the shots.
Then Sarah wedged her body through the tight gap in the fence and made it to the other side, joining Trevor behind the sedan.
"Tell me you got the camera," she said.
He smiled and held up a plastic bag with what she assumed to be the parts they needed.
"What, you couldn't fit all that in your pouch?" she asked sarcastically.
"Har har," he said. "Let's get out of here."
Trevor gave cover fire at the zombies, now about a dozen coming out of the hospital after them who were all bottlenecking up at the gap in the fence. Sarah crouched down and pulled out a fresh magazine, reloading her M16, then she used the opportunity to prop the gun on the roof of the sedan and laid some fire on the zombies trying to get through. Like Trevor said, these new zombies were smart, but they didn't seem to fully match the intelligence of humans, and even though they had some sense of self-preservation, it appeared to sometimes be to their detriment."
Sarah caught a couple of them in the head while they were bunching up, and their bodies slumped in the gap, making it more difficult for the ones behind to get through. But they were much more coordinated and agile than previous iterations of zombie, and they managed to get through the fence, slowly but surely.
But Trevor and Sarah had made a good headway down the road, shifting into the woods where Sarah had once followed the killer's blood trail toward his cabin. They got deep into the trees, using the cover they had at their disposal, and Trevor reminded her of some of the things he taught her. By the time the zombies got there, they were able to silently slip away deeper into the forest. They waited it out and the zombies never found them, finally giving up and leaving the area.
With the camera and the other smaller parts from the fMRI machine that they needed in hand, the two of them made the long journey back to the lab, not facing anything of the sort they just faced on the entire journey back.
Once they returned to the lab, everything seemed in order, and there didn't appear to be any more zombie incursions around their secretive place. When they got inside, the other scientists confirmed this, and Sarah was excited to see Ron and declare their triumph, but he wasn't anywhere to be found.
"Where's Ron?" she asked no scientist in particular.
Vanessa, the short, black-haired scientist ran up to Trevor and wrapped her arms around him. He leaned his head down and kissed her on the forehead, pulling her close.
"Ron's not here right now," her muffled voice said from his chest.
"Oh." Sarah's shoulders slumped. It was bad enough that Ron was as cryptic as he was, but now that she knew he would occasionally be away from the lab, it made her feel like she lacked the guidance she needed to complete the rest of their tasks. She supposed she was just being pouty about it, but it still put a bit of a damper on their moment.
But all the scientists, grateful for the progress they just made, said additionally that they had no further problems or sightings of Kenny or any other enemy in the area, calling it an isolated incident.
And with that, Sarah gave a glance toward the test zombie they had locked up in the cell, imagining what he would look like when they turned him human again, and then she bid the scientists goodbye as she left through the tunnel and headed back home to Wayne.
But after stepping through the front door of the cabin and calling Wayne's name, he didn't answer. And when she looked around, first in the kitchen, then the living room, then the bedroom and still not finding him, she began to get worried. She proceeded to search every room of the house and she glanced at the deck through the windows, but he was gone.
8
SUNSET
The cabin swelled and shrank around her, like she was in a grotesque set of lungs, feeling the walls crushing down on her. As out of sorts as Wayne had been in the last week, this wasn't like him to go missing. Sarah set about to double check every room in the cabin, calling out his name repeatedly, but still finding nothing. The next thing she expected to find, though it caused the most dreadful knot in the pit of her stomach, was a note to be sitting around somewhere. But after her second sweep of the house, she didn't find that, either.
She ran out the front door, searching the surrounding woods for any sign of him, but having no luck. Finally, she swept around the back, looking under the deck and around at the tree line leading up to the edge of the cliff overlooking the landscape below before finally spotting him.
He stood at the edge of the cliff, staring out at the expanse.
Sarah slowly walked up to him, noticing how his feet were standing right on the edge of the rock face, the toes of his boots slightly hanging over the edge.
She held out a cautionary arm for him. "Wayne..."
He didn't say anything. When she called hi
s name again, he made the slightest turn of his head toward her in acknowledgment, but he just kept staring off at the landscape below.
Sarah stopped just behind him.
"I imagine if I could see, this would look beautiful right now."
Sarah didn't say anything.
"It's sunset right now, isn't it?" he asked.
Sarah looked up at the sky, completely taking for granted what he so desperately wished to see.
The sky swirled around on itself, a milky sheet of oranges and whites as the setting sun peeking just over the horizon cast a magnificent sheen of yellow to complement it all. Wayne was right; it was really quite beautiful, and Sarah, having no time to stop and experience it, hadn't given it a single thought.
"It is," she said. "And it is beautiful."
Wayne pointed his head down at his feet and kicked a bit of dust off the edge of the cliff. "Pity."
"I know what you must be going through," she said. "Believe me, after I lost you to Glass in the first place, I woke up in a ditch bleeding to death. If Carly hadn't been there, I wouldn't even be here to look at this sunset. And the next time I woke up, I was in a bed in the church, and I couldn't do anything anymore. I couldn't tie my shoes, I couldn't even get dressed, much less the things I did after that because I told myself I wouldn't let my injury stop me. I know what the doubt feels like and the self-pity. It gets better, but only if you let it."
This time Wayne was silent. The two of them stared off in the distance for a long time without saying anything, Sarah actually enjoying the brilliant hues stretched across the sky for once, and Wayne enjoying the cool breeze rolling over the land now that the harsh heat from the sun was settling down for the day.
She knew there was something deep inside of him that wanted to admit that she was right, but he never let the words be spoken. He just stood there like a mute statue, waiting for her to break it.
But she didn't do it. She felt bad for him, really a deep, soul-crushing sadness for him and what he went through. She didn't envy him one bit, but she knew it was his burden to bear, just as she and everyone else had their own.
"Well, just another sunset like all the rest, I guess," he said at last.
"Come back inside," Sarah said. "Let me help you."
"I'll come back on my own," he said gently. "You go on ahead."
She gave a heartbroken sigh. "Wayne, I would die if anything happened to you."
He smiled. "You'd do that for me?"
"Come inside."
He was silent for a while, then he said with such sincerity, "I haven't had too many people say something like that to me in my life. In fact, you're the only one." Tears rolled down from his empty eye sockets, but he didn't let her see it. "You're already a big help, Sarah. I just... some things a man just has to do on his own."
Sarah nodded, frustrated at his stubborn pride. She knew it was a guy thing, but also it was deeper than that, especially for Wayne. She so desperately wanted to help him, but she didn't know how. So she let him be.
She backed away and left him at the cliff to come in on his own good time. And as the sun sank down over the horizon and darkness stretched back the sheet of colors and revealed the brilliant stars in the night sky, Sarah decided to go for a little walk in the woods instead of heading back inside. She didn't go very far, and she sat down against a tree and ruminated over things. All kinds of thoughts, large and small, ran through her mind, but she didn't give credence to any one of them; she just let her mind run until it was blank. And then she began to cry. It was the first time in a little while since she had, maybe since she got the bite on her arm or maybe since Carly. But she cried until her lungs escalated it into a full-bodied sob, letting every poisonous emotion out in a brilliant catharsis. And then she fell asleep because she was utterly exhausted.
Sarah's eyes fluttered open, feeling something squirm against the sensitive skin of her nose. She twitched it like she had to sneeze, then she trained her eyes to it and saw something black and fuzzy.
The caterpillar crawled across the bridge of her nose, at first unperturbed, but then it became a little hurried due to her sudden movement. Sarah jolted upright and batted it off her face in a blind panic. But when she realized what it was she immediately calmed down.
Until she heard the groans right behind her.
She twisted her upper body to see the source of the noise and found a lumbering undead corpse stumbling through the woods not ten feet away from her. Its back was turned, but that didn't save the air from seizing up in her lungs.
And then she heard the next groan, and the one after that, all from different directions around her. She twisted around on the spot, seeing five zombies loitering in the woods, the farthest one only twenty yards away.
Somehow they hadn't seen her, and while the closest ones' backs were still turned, she rolled over onto her stomach and pressed herself flat against the ground, her heart beating like mad. She was completely unarmed and had let her guard down, not even thinking about the dangers of taking a stroll out in the woods when she was exhausted.
She waited there for what seemed like eternity, silently praying for someone to come to her aid and at the same time for the zombies to continue overlooking her until there was a break in their ranks and she could slip away. But they would surely see her at any moment, and then she would have to brawl with them barehanded. They were all just normal zombies, the least dangerous in the food chain, but without even a knife, even they posed a great threat.
"Sarah?" Wayne called from afar.
Sarah's eyes rolled over to the direction of his voice. He called her name a second time, but it still seemed a long way away. How far into the woods had she gone?
"Sarah?" Wayne called again. "Where are you?"
Sarah lifted her chin slightly off the ground and looked in his direction, but she couldn't even see him through the trees. "I'm right here!" she screamed as loud as she could in her softest whisper.
But now all of the undead turned their attention to the source of the voice as well. They began to shamble toward Wayne as he stumbled through the woods toward them. They were on a collision course and Sarah wanted desperately to cry out and warn him, but the zombies were still too near to her for her to slip away.
The undead began to break off into a trot, heading for Wayne's voice as he continued to call her name. When they had broken into a full run, Sarah began to yell.
"Wayne! Get back to the cabin! They're coming for you! Five of them!"
Wayne froze in his tracks, knowing exactly what she meant. He'd been hobbling along with his walking branch, having enough trouble as he tripped and stumbled over tree roots and jutting rocks sticking out of the ground. And as he started to back away, his heel clipped the incline of the hill that he wasn't expecting in that moment and he fell onto his back. His hands felt around on his own person, frantically searching for something to defend himself with, remembering he had a knife on him. He pulled out a long hunting knife and held it up in the air, but he had no idea where to use it. And if they got even the slightest bite on him, it was game over.
Sarah pushed herself up to her feet and ran after the zombies, knowing Wayne was going to get himself killed. Wayne just made it back up to his feet by the time he came into view for her.
"There's one in front of you, ten o'clock!" she cried, trying to close the distance.
Wayne swiveled on the spot, holding the knife in front of him as he distinctly heard the charging footsteps and the hungry growls now. But he was running on instinct alone; trying to fight a zombie without being able to see it was a whole different game. When it was upon him, he panicked at the last second, collapsing down to the ground to try and stay as far away from it as possible, but he wedged his foot into its gut and flung it over his head. They began to brawl on the ground and Wayne swung the knife down repeatedly, trying to stab it, and missing completely, only catching soft ground as the other zombies closed in behind.
Sarah found herself to be
just fast enough to outrun the normal zombies and save Wayne from them in the nick of time. As the next zombie went to dive at him from behind—what would be certain death—Sarah intercepted it and knocked it out of the air. The two of them tumbled, and suddenly the remaining three zombies stopped and looked between them, confused for a moment as to whom to eat.
The zombie wrestling Wayne scratched his arms, and he winced in pain. Anger bubbled up inside of him and he threw a wild thrust of the knife, getting lucky and catching it up through the throat, the tip of the blade sinking into its brain stem and turning off its lights.
Sarah got up and reached for Wayne's thick walking branch, swinging it as hard as she could and clubbing the next zombie to come for them. The branch cracked in two as the zombie tipped over and hit the ground, leaving her with a jagged shard in her hand. She crouched to the ground and swept her leg out in a wide arc, catching the next zombie's ankles and taking its legs out from under it. As soon as it hit the ground, Sarah turned over to it and shoved the jagged end of the branch through its eye socket. Its eyeball popped and it squinted its other eye as it writhed around, the pointy branch missing its brain. The zombie struggled on the ground, disoriented, as the fifth zombie piled onto Wayne.
He bucked on the ground, furiously waving the knife around in the air and almost stabbing Sarah with it for her troubles. She shot her butt out and away from him just in time for the blade to miss her midsection, then she stumbled back. The third zombie that she cracked over the head got up and tackled her, pinning her to the ground. But she wedged her arm under its throat and managed to kick it off.
Sarah narrowly missed another inadvertent slash from Wayne, and she angrily caught his hand in the air. He tried to pull it away, thinking she was a zombie, but she barked at him to give her the knife. Reluctantly, he relinquished control, and she made short work of the remaining undead, slitting throats, impaling skulls, and severing brain strands until there was a rather tidy pile of them at her feet. She looked herself over and realized she didn't have any major wounds, then she inspected Wayne who sat on the ground, still a little skittish, but he was unharmed aside from a couple of minor scratches.
Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 6): The Eden Project Page 9