Seeking Daylight

by Becky Poirier

  The infected began hurling themselves at the door, we’d bolted shut behind us. I couldn’t help but jump and I wasn’t the only one. Matthew let a couple of whimpers escape before he got control back and Seth shook next to me for just a second.

  The screeching intensified to the point that I was tempted to drop my gun and cover my ears, but I held strong against the pain. As I was staring at the door, waiting for the inevitable, I saw something white flash in the corner of my eye. I turned just in time to see my sister appear. It took me a moment to get over the shock of seeing her outside a dream. I knew Seth had seen her before, but she’d only ever visited me in my dreams.

  She was wearing the same white sundress she’d appeared in, in the very first time I saw her. She was smiling at me confidently. It was the way I used to look at her, to assure her she’d be safe, even on the nights I wasn’t sure we’d see the daylight. She mouthed some words and it took a moment for me to realize what she was saying.

  “Count down,” I whispered back. She nodded at me. I took in a deep breath. The countdown was on. Thirteen hours. It seemed like an eternity until daylight but if I just kept counting down eventually, we’d see the sun again.

  “What?” Seth asked bringing me back into the moment. When I looked back over to where Molly had been standing, she was gone. And I wondered for a moment if I’d only imagined her there. I didn’t have a chance to respond to Seth. Just then the wall beside the door began to buckle. I raised my gun up as the dry wall cracked more. On the other side of the door the same thing began to happen.

  “Everyone take your positions. Make sure you have your partner,” Cletus ordered. We’d all been given our assigned area of defence, with a partner to back us up in case our weapon jammed, or we needed to reload. I moved forward slightly taking aim on the right side of the fencing. Everyone else took their places too, making sure there were no gaps around our small circled in area. “No one shoots until we absolutely have to. Everyone make sure they have their extra clips. They won’t give us much time to reload.” A couple people quickly ran to the weapons table to grab some extra clips. I was already wearing my lovely ammo necklace. I’d be good for a while. Matthew checked his pocket to make sure he had his two extra clips.

  Seth moved in close to me again. Of course, we would be partners. Matthew was too young to be a partner. Jane was right that the best he could do was defend himself, still I felt safer having him by my side. I knew I was a good enough shot, that I could defend us both if I had to and Seth had been improving dramatically so I felt comfortable in him being my backup.

  The pounding on the walls continued for another minute and then like it was out of a movie, the drywall burst open almost in slow motion spraying across the floor. The infected in that section were busy fighting for the chance to be the first through the hole. I saw an opportunity though I wasn’t in the right position to take it. “Cletus,” I yelled, “take him out. That will block the hole.” A light clicked on in his head and he did as I directed, putting his bullet straight into the infected’s head. Just like I predicted none of the others could make it through the hole until they removed the body.

  “We need to do the same with the others,” Cletus shouted back at me. I nodded moving my way over to where Ginger and her aunt were standing.

  “You move back to our old position,” I ordered. They looked all too pleased to move. I rushed up taking their spot as Seth ran up beside me, Matthew wasn’t far behind.

  I pointed my scope towards the other damaged section of drywall. It was just about to break. “Matthew you don’t need to be this close. You can go with Ginger,” I said not taking my eye off the scope.

  “Please don’t make me,” he whispered weakly. By the sound of his voice I knew he was on the verge of crying. “I feel safer with you.”

  “Okay, but if you get scared, you hide under one of the tables. No one will think less of you for it,” Seth replied for me. I was grateful for his assistance. My focus couldn’t be on Matthew now. My heart was pounding so heavily in my chest and my hands were sweating. I needed to get a grip if I was going to be of any use.

  Another shot rang out and I knew that Cletus had taken another one out. The banging against the door increased again. I could hear the cracking of wood and bending of metal. We’d used both materials to try and secure the door. Really, we’d used anything we could get our hands on.

  The drywall on my section didn’t burst out like it had in the other area. This one just kind of grumbled and then I saw a head peek through. The red eyes looked directly at me as I pulled the trigger. The light faded from them, as the infected’s head slumped in the hole.

  Cletus shot again. “That’s three. I think I’m winning,” he gloated. I didn’t think it was the most tasteful joke, but I heard some others chuckle, which meant he succeeded in releasing some tension.

  “Yeah, well just wait ‘til they reach our fence,” Kyle bragged.

  “Men,” Helen sighed somewhere behind me. I let out a little chuckle and then focused my attention back on the hole.

  The infected I’d shot was being yanked out and, in the process, they’d managed to break away a little more of the drywall. Cletus shot at his side again as one more infected tried to squeeze through my side. This time it managed to get its head and one arm through before I shot it square between the eyes.

  “You’re good,” I heard Seth whisper beside me.

  “I try,” I replied.

  “Do you think we can get rid of them all this way?” Matthew asked. There was no way we’d be so lucky, and I was busy trying to formulate a response that wouldn’t terrify him, when the main door buckled and crashed to the floor.

  The infected, that had been lining up to get through the two tiny sections of broken drywall, rushed the doorway. “Kyle, Paige, we take out as many as we can before they burst through. We stop once it’s no longer working,” Cletus ordered.

  I moved out of my position again this time next to Kyle who was centred in the middle. Cletus rushed to his other side. I heard Seth holding Matthew back. They were better off staying where they were. Kyle and I began firing at the bunched up mangled mess of infected. “Everyone moves back to their original positions once this no longer works,” Cletus ordered just before he joined Kyle and I, in our shoot off.

  By the time Cletus was done shouting out orders, I’d already taken out three, Kyle two and we might have each had another one if we hadn’t wasted bullets on the same infected. “I take the ones on the right side of the door,” I informed Kyle to prevent a repeat.

  “I got the middle,” Kyle replied, “Cletus you the left.” As we shot the infected the bodies slowly began to pile into a heap, blocking the door. The heap would slowly lower, as bodies were being dragged out from the other side of the door. Fresh infected would pile up on top of the dead, for their chance to get to our fresh blood.

  I was actually feeling confident in what we were doing. We’d taken out a couple dozen at least. How many more could they possibly have? Then we heard the screeching and howling coming once more from the distance. What we’d been dealing with so far was just one hive. We didn’t know if the other hive now on its way, had already been in communication with this one. If this was a coordinated attack or if their attention had been called to this area by all the noise. It didn’t matter, they had back up on the way and we didn’t. Who knew how many more hives existed in the city and if they all converged on us before daylight we’d be screwed. I looked at the large supply of ammo on the tables and suddenly it looked so small, so pitiful. How the hell were we supposed to keep this up?

  Don’t focus on what’s out of your control, I heard my dad’s voice in my mind. Focus on what you can do. That’s the only way to stay calm and present in the moment. If you focus on what you can control, then you will be just fine.

  I took in a deep breath and let go of the terrifying sounds coming from somewhere beyond my control. Instead I focused on the mass of infected in front of me. They w
ere what I could control. I shot again, and again. I stopped counting how many I killed after twenty.

  I kept firing until I heard someone shouting at me to stop. Seth was standing beside me looking worried, but not about the infected, about me. I realized I was shaking and that I was completely out of ammo. I rushed over to the ammo table to pick up another set of bullets. Seth put his hand on mine. “You don’t need to rush. Take a break.” I stared at him like he was completely insane.

  Didn’t he see the danger right in front of us? I turned around to face the door in an attempt to get Seth to see the urgency of the situation, but when I turned around, I was shocked by what I saw. The pile of bodies reached nearly to the top of the door frame. There were no more infected trying to get in, at least for the moment.

  “You need to rest,” Seth tried to tell me again. And this time it sunk in a little more. Everyone was staring at me. Cletus and Kyle had their guns pointed to the ground. Their ammo still looked half full.

  “I think we’ve eliminated this hive,” Kyle said clearing his throat. He was looking at me with the same worried expression as Seth.

  “Why are you both looking at me like that?”

  “Do you have any idea what you just did?” Kyle asked.

  “I shot at the infected, the same as you did.”

  Kyle just shook his head. “I’ve got this Kyle. You make sure everyone takes in some water. By the sounds of the screeching, we won’t have much of a break before the next wave,” Seth said calmly. I was still staring at them both completely confused by what they were talking about.

  Seth lead me to farthest corner of our little safe zone. Everyone else was busy pretending not to notice us, which only made me worry more. “Did I do something wrong?” I finally asked Seth. I didn’t remember doing anything wrong. I just kept shooting like I needed to, with a laser like focus on the infected in front of me.

  “You took out half the hive on your own. Cletus and Kyle eventually stopped shooting because you weren’t just taking out your targets, you were taking out all the others as well.” I looked back at the pile of dead and shook my head in disbelief. From what I could see there were at least thirty bodies in the doorway alone and who knew how many more had been yanked out to the other side of it.

  “That’s not possible,” I whispered.

  “Not only did you kill most of them, you didn’t stop shooting after they were dead.”

  Panic set in. “How much ammo did I waste?” No wonder the others were looking at me like that. I could have screwed everything up with that one stupid action.

  Seth put his hands on my shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Don’t worry about that, it wasn’t much. Once they were dead you kept firing for only a minute more before we stopped you. It wasn’t enough to hurt our chances. I’m more worried about you. We kept trying to reach you, but you weren’t hearing us. Where did you go?”

  “I don’t know. I felt present for the entire thing.”

  “Do you know how long you were shooting for?” I shook my head. “Nearly two hours.” My mouth dropped open. It felt like maybe ten minutes. “Things started really slowing down, the more the bodies blocked the door. They didn’t make any more attempts to go through the other holes.”

  I, sunk down to the ground. As I leaned on my right arm a sharp pain ran up my shoulder. It was something I was familiar with, after a long day of hunting with my father. In fact, both of my arms were killing, and my fingers felt stiff from gripping the gun for so long. Seth sunk down beside me.

  Jane came over, for only a moment to pass us each a bottle of water. I took it without even thinking to thank her. The first swig felt almost painful as it ran down my parched throat. “The others must think I’m crazy,” I whispered hoping everyone else was too busy filling their bodies to hear me.

  “Not at all, they’re just worried for you. We still have a good nine hours ahead of us.” Nine more hours. I’d managed to pass through two whole hours without even noticing them. I’d be lucky to make it through the rest like that. I wondered if it were the same for the others or if time was passing much more slowly for them, being on the sidelines. “We need you to keep your strength up,” Seth said pulling me out of my own mind once again. “When the next hive arrives, if we end up in a similar situation, I think you should let Kyle and Cletus take over.”

  “You don’t think I can do this…do you?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m worried that if you keep up at this pace, that when we really need you, you won’t have the strength to help us. Please just take this time to re-coop. If they need you, they’ll call you back in. We’re not about to bench our star player, just giving you a break.”

  “Your what?”

  “Our star…you never watched any sports, did you?” I shook my head. “Okay after we’ve survived all of this, I’m going to introduce you to my favourite…football. And not the silly American version, but the real European thing.” I smiled back at him. He had this amazing ability to pull out of intense situation only for a moment, to bring levity to the situation, which was just what I needed.

  As much as I feared the outcome of not being involved in the next engagement, I knew he was right. My whole body was on fire and I needed a break. Clara came over to join me, in an attempt to help me stretch out. Her mother had once been a Yoga instructor, so she’d learned a lot from her on how to stretch out injured muscles. Doc had attempted to teach me some Yoga, but I’d hated it. I didn’t like it any better with Clara as my instructor, but I let her lead me through the stretches and I even attempted the meditative part of it. It wasn’t easy to meditate with the clamber of the others in the room and the growing screeching in the distance, but I did my best to block it out. When the next hive did arrive, I felt ready to assist should Kyle and Cletus need me. Of course, Seth wasn’t about to let me in the fight, until they asked.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  I wasn’t the only one that hoped our next encounter with this new hive, would go just as it had with the last. There were only a few somber faces in the crowd, that knew it wouldn’t be so easy. Cletus and Kyle weren’t excited like the rest and while others tried to drag them into taking a break from their defensive stance, they couldn’t be swayed. Jane and Nina looked just as alert. Nina looked like she was ready to get in on the action. And when she looked at me, she almost looked pissed, like I’d taken away her opportunity for revenge.

  I could hardly blame her for thinking like that. For the longest time all I thought about was revenge. That all changed, with just one night alone with Seth in the panic room. This fight wasn’t about revenge, it was about protecting the people I cared about, the people I loved. No body count could ever make up for what I’d lost, but saving the few I had in my life now would make a difference.

  It was strange how far their screeches could reach. We were already approaching the third hour when the new hive arrived at our doorstep. Even the most optimistic of our people knew that our outer defences would have little effect on this new group. All our booby-traps would have already been tripped. Our staircase full of poisonous nails would be covered in dead infected. Now we were either going to shoot the rest as they came in or be forced to see how well our fence worked.

  The screeching and howling stopped just as suddenly as it had begun. An eerie silence filled the room. None of us dared make a sound, though we all knew the infected knew just where we were. They could smell us even through the stench of death piled up in the doorway.

  With Clara’s help, I pulled myself back up off the floor. I held my gun tightly to my side. Seth may have said he wanted me to stay out of this next fight, but the growing knot in my stomach told me that wasn’t going to be a possibility.

  Silently, without a word being said, our entire group found ourselves back in our original positions, all except for Kyle and Cletus, who stayed where they’d found success with their guns aimed at the doorway.

  A quiet rustling sounded behind the heap
of bodies. Unlike before these infected were being much more cautious. Apparently, they’d learned where their fallen comrades had not. They were slowly removing the bodies without the slightest hint of eagerness. One by one they slid the bodies out, like pieces to a puzzle and they did so in a way that made it impossible to get a proper lock on any of the new infected. I watched Cletus and Kyle’s frustration grow as they realized that they couldn’t see a target. The pile of dead was now down to only half a dozen bodies.

  Suddenly a shot rang out. I looked over and saw Kyle grunt in irritation just as one of the infected screeched out in pain. “I only got its hand,” he whispered to Cletus.

  The little scream from the one infected was the only sound that came from the other side of the door, as the bodies continued to be removed until there was only one left. I wondered if they’d even bother to remove that one, seeing as it would be easier to leap over.

  We all waited with bated breath for them to start rushing the door, but again they didn’t. They were smarter than the last group. They should have been so blood thirsty that they couldn’t think straight, but something was very different about this group. It was almost like they had something or someone in charge with more sense to them.

  The knot in my stomach twisted tighter until the air was almost sucked out of me and that’s when the little light bulb went off in my head. I gasped quietly, so much so, that only Seth heard me. Even Matthew, who was right beside me too, didn’t hear. But then he was overwhelmed by fear as he should be. This was way worse than the last group.

  “What’s wrong?” Seth whispered trying not to get the attention of the rest of our group.