His Name Was Zach

by Peter Martuneac

  “Good,” said Al, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Now, let’s go find Abby.”

  Abby stood a little away from the rest of the group while she stood watch. It had been a really bad day, losing Matthew, Patrick, and that woman. Abby was worried about Vicky and hoped that she would feel at least a little bit better in the morning. She looked up at all the stars in the sky. The stars seemed so much brighter these days in the absence of light pollution. Abby loved the stars, they were so pr-

  Whack! Abby felt a fiery flash of pain on the side of her head. She fell to the ground hard and lay on her back, moaning quietly. Blood oozed from her head and she was fading fast, but she saw Vicky standing over her. A coil of rope was wrapped around her torso, and she was holding a shotgun with blood on the butt-stock. Abby tried to call for Zach but could barely manage a whisper. Her eyes slowly closed, and then she blacked out.

  She awoke sometime later, but wasn’t sure how long she had been out. Abby slowly opened her eyes and saw the soft light of dawn poking down through some trees. And speaking of trees, Abby realized that she had been tied to one! A long rope was wound around her stomach four times tightly, pinning her arms to her sides and biting painfully into her skin. She looked down and could see dried blood on her right shoulder, and could feel it crusted on her neck and scalp. Her head was throbbing and she winced from the pain.

  “Look who finally woke up,” said Vicky as she strode into view from behind Abby. She had the bloody shotgun on her shoulder and was wearing a sadistic smile.

  “Vicky, what are you doing?” Abby said. Vicky said nothing for several seconds, keeping her eyes fixed on Abby. But Abby just glared back defiantly, refusing to show the rising fear in her heart. “That’s what Zach would do,” she thought.

  “Do you know what the most powerful force in the world is, Abby?” Vicky asked. Her voice sounded different. Maybe it was just the blow to the head that Abby had taken, but she thought that Vicky sounded…insane. Dangerously insane. Abby said nothing, not wanting to encourage Vicky in her rambling, but she went on anyway. “Karma. Balance. The whole world is governed by balance. If you give, you will get; if you take, you will lose. Do you know what that means?”

  Still Abby did not respond, maintaining her defiant silence. This made Vicky angry, and she slapped Abby hard across the cheek. It stung badly, and Abby almost cried, but she still refused to show weakness. “I asked you a question, you little cunt!” Vicky said.

  “No, I don’t know what that means,” Abby muttered through clenched teeth.

  “It means, my dear Abby,” said Vicky as she stepped back, “that Zach has this coming to him! He got my brothers killed so now someone close to Zach has to die! Have you ever read the Bible?”

  Abby’s cheek was still smarting from that slap, and she wasn’t really paying attention to Vicky’s crazy monologue anyway, so she didn’t realize she’d been asked a question until too late. Vicky brought her shotgun down and slammed the butt-stock into Abby’s stomach, making her double over as much as the rope would allow. She gasped for air as Vicky said, “You’re a disrespectful little bitch, you know that? I asked you if you’ve ever read the Bible!”

  Abby nodded her head, still trying to get her breath back. Vicky continued, “Even the Bible has karma. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You reap what you sow. Don’t you get it, Abby? This has to happen! I’m in the right! My brothers are dead, and so you must die, too!”

  Abby looked up and found herself staring down the barrel of Vicky’s shotgun. Her eyes opened wide in fear and her mouth hung open. But Vicky suddenly lowered the weapon and said, “No. That would be merciful. My brothers didn’t die quick deaths, so neither shall you.”

  “What are you gonna do?” Abby asked, her armor of bravery showing its first little crack. Vicky wordlessly reached into Abby’s cargo pocket and pulled out the bandana Zach had given her. She used it to gag Abby and tied it in a knot behind her head, despite Abby’s thrashing about. She then went back behind the tree, but came back a moment later holding Abby’s combat knife! She pulled it out of the sheath, which she let fall to the ground, and then approached Abby.

  Abby started to breathe rapidly and her heart pounded as she imagined what horrible, painful torture Vicky was about to perform. Vicky set the sharpened point against Abby’s chest, and held it there for several seconds. She was staring into Abby’s eyes, trying to make her look away. But Abby still refused to yield, even as scared as she was. Her grey eyes, like walls of steel, could not be broken.

  “You know what I heard once?” Vicky asked in an almost bored voice, as she finally pulled the knife away from Abby’s chest. “I heard that zombies can smell human blood from miles away, just like a shark. Let’s see if that’s true!” Vicky set the edge of the knife against Abby’s right arm, just below her sleeve. She put pressure on the knife and then slowly drew it across her arm, leaving a painful but minor cut in Abby’s skin. Abby grit her teeth and clenched her eyes shut in an effort to not cry out in pain.

  Vicky pulled the knife away, and watched as blood slowly oozed out of the fresh cut in Abby’s arm and ran down towards her elbow. Vicky dropped the knife on the ground, and then picked up her shotgun, waved at Abby, and said, “Cio!” She then skipped away like a little school girl, laughing maniacally.

  Soon Vicky was out of sight, and Abby could no longer hear her insane laughing. Abby didn’t do anything for a while, fearing that Vicky was watching her from afar and that, if she saw her struggling with the ropes, she’d come back and really hurt her. So she just watched the blood from her cut slowly forge a dark red path down her arm and soak into the rope. Most of her bicep was stained red with her blood. It was not a bad cut, but it did hurt.

  But after several minutes, Abby decided to just assume Vicky was gone. She wriggled her arms, trying to loosen the rope, but it held tight. She stretched her foot out and tried to drag her Gerber knife back towards her, but she couldn’t reach it. She went back to wriggling her arms back and forth, frustrated at the situation she was in.

  Suddenly, her finger brushed against something metal in her pocket. Her pocket knife! Vicky must not have noticed it! But Abby could barely reach it with her fingertips and it was clipped to her pocket. She pulled the fabric of her pocket up as much as she could, pinching it between her thumb and forefinger, and then used her middle finger to try to lift the clip and push it up. At first it wasn’t budging, but then it suddenly popped up and almost fell to the ground. But Abby grabbed it, slid it into her palm, and flicked the blade out.

  Setting the serrated part of the blade against the lowest coil of rope, Abby began to saw up and down on it. But she had to hold the knife at an awkward angle and couldn’t put much pressure on it, so this was a long and slow process. The throbbing pain in her bicep made it worse. The cut had stopped bleeding, but it still hurt. But after a few minutes, she finally cut through the first coil. Abby giggled with glee as she felt the ropes slacken considerably. She quickly wormed her way out of the ropes, and then she was free!

  She undid the gag from her mouth and used it to wipe the blood off of her arm, and then she tied it over the wound as a type of dressing. She picked up her Gerber knife, sheathed it, and then looped her belt through the sheath so it hung on her right side. She stood with her hands on her hips as she appraised her situation.

  She was free, she wasn’t too badly hurt, and she had a weapon. That was the good news. She had no idea where she was, no idea where Zach was, and had no supplies. That was the bad news. Her situation was dire, but not hopeless. Abby put her throbbing head in her hands and leaned against the tree she’d been tied to, trying to figure out what to do.

  Suddenly, she heard a low moaning sound from behind her, and she instantly recognized it. “Oh no,” she muttered as she lifted her head up. She slowly turned around to find herself facing a zombie! It was a fat male, and it stood about thirty feet away, staring down its prey. Abby stood still as a statue, too afraid to move. The thing grow
led and then suddenly charged forward with deceptive speed.

  Abby shrieked as she turned and ran. She was small and fit for a girl her age, and she moved quickly through the trees and bushes. But the zombie, fat as it was, was gaining ground, snarling and snapping its jaws. Abby’s heart beat like the wings of a hummingbird as her mind raced for an idea. She couldn’t outrun this thing, so what to do? The trees! Just ahead was a tall tree with low-hanging branches that Abby was pretty sure she could reach.

  She reached the tree in a few more steps and made a leap at the lowest branch. She caught it, and a burst of pain shot through her right arm, but she ignored it as she began to haul herself up. But the zombie had gotten right up to her and now it had her ankle! Abby screamed and kicked at its face, being careful to avoid its mouth. The creature was trying to pull Abby down, and it gave a sudden tug that made Abby lose her grip on the branch, and both monster and girl spilled onto the ground.

  Abby jumped up before the zombie could grab her and again hopped up at the branch, this time being able to climb out of reach. But the zombie wasn’t done yet. It grabbed the low branch and tried to climb up to Abby. But Abby was a thin, young girl, and this bloated creature weighed at least two hundred pounds, and so the branch snapped under its full weight.

  Abby sat on a thick branch about twelve feet off the ground, hugging her knees against her chest, rocking back and forth, and crying. She was lost, hurt, scared, and worst of all, alone. She wanted Zach to come save her. She wanted him to come charging into view, hack the zombie’s head off, pull her down from the tree, and hold her in his arms, telling her that everything would be okay.

  The zombie jumped up and almost got Abby! She shrieked and climbed higher. It still stared at her, growling loudly, and Abby knew that soon she’d have every zombie within hearing distance bearing down on her. She needed to kill it, but she only had one weapon with which she could do that: her knife.

  “But next time, use your knife…one day you’re gonna have to,” was what Zach had said. His words hit Abby like a boomerang. He was right again, she thought. She closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath to compose herself. She would have to jump down and make an assassin-style strike, and she’d have to be perfect. The thing could bite her, or she could miss her jump and roll her ankle.

  She stood up on the branch and spread her legs to steady herself. She wiped her sweaty palms against her trousers and, taking a scrunchy from her pocket, put her hair into a ponytail, so that her hair wouldn’t fly into her face. Then she took her Gerber knife in hand and held it reverse-style. The zombie seemed to know what she was about to do, and it backed up a step, waiting to receive its prey. Abby decided to stab it through the eye, as she guessed that that would be the easiest way to penetrate through to the brain.

  “My name is Abigail,” she said out loud to assure herself. Her voice was trembling but she retained her composure. “I’m through being a burden, and I’m through being a scared little girl. I am a woman and it’s time I start acting like one!” She licked her lips, bent her knees, and watched as the zombie swayed left and right, timing her strike. She took a deep breath, and then she jumped.

  “GOD-FUCKING-DAMNIT!” Zach shouted as he heaved a rock as far as he could. They had once again spent the entire day searching for Abby, but without success.

  “Zach, ssshh,” Amber said to him, putting her hands against his chest. She had a soothing effect on Zach, and he calmed down a little. “We can search again tomorrow,” she said in a reasoning tone. Zach opened his mouth to reply, but no words could come out. He sank down to his knees in despair. Amber knelt down in front of him, put her arms around Zach and lay his head upon her shoulder.

  Suddenly, Zach started to cry quietly. It was the first time he had cried in…years. He was starting to lose hope after two whole days of fruitless searching, and he blamed himself. He blamed himself for Abby’s disappearance, for Matt and Pat, for the woman they tried to rescue, for everything. Amber gently stroked his hair and shushed him, consoling him as a mother would her young boy.

  “Do you think Vicky took her up north?” Ross asked.

  “I don’t know. They could have gone anywhere,” said Al, gesturing with outstretched arms.

  “It feels like we’ve searched all over this place. I mean, she only had a few hours to take Abby somewhere before we started looking,” Diane said.

  “Say,” Ross said, snapping his fingers, “What if Abby got away from Vicky, and she headed back to the river by herself, knowing that we’d show up there eventually?”

  “Zach, what do you think about that?” Amber asked. Zach didn’t answer for a few moments as he thought this over.

  “Maybe,” he said sullenly. Then he suddenly bolted upright as if shocked by lightning and said, “Exactly! Abby’s tough, she can handle herself. She must have escaped from Vicky! And since she wouldn’t know where we are, she’d go to where she knew we’d be: the river. We’ve still got some daylight left, let’s go!” He jumped up, grabbed his and Abby’s packs, and jogged off to the west. The others followed, eager to find Abby.

  Abby landed hard on the zombie, her feet hitting its shoulders squarely. It had indeed tried to grab her and bite her, but her knife struck first, penetrating its left eye all the way up to the crosspiece. It made an awful noise then fell over backwards. Abby held on tightly to her knife with both hands and rode the zombie to the ground, jumping clear at the last moment. She hit the ground, rolled forward, and stood back up while turning so she was facing the slain creature.

  Despite the fact that her legs felt like limp noodles, a smile slowly spread across Abby’s face. She pumped her fist dramatically and said, “Yesss!” She’d done it! She’d killed a zombie with her knife! Zach would be proud. The fearless zombie-slayer proudly strode over to her fallen foe, chest puffed up, to retrieve her mighty weapon. She pulled on the knife, but it was stuck. She gripped it with both hands and gave it a tug. It suddenly came free, but as it slid out, a large chunk of brain tissue and the entire left eyeball came out with it, stuck to the blade. Abby dropped her knife as if it was red-hot. She barely had time to mutter ‘oh God’ before falling to her hands and knees and puking violently.

  After taking a minute, she slowly crawled over to her knife and, taking care not to look at the blade itself, grabbed it and wiped it against the grass. Once she was satisfied that all the gore had come off the blade, she slid it back into its sheath and looked around at her surroundings, once again contemplating her situation. “I need to get out of here,” she said to herself, “But where to?”

  There was no way she could find her way back to the group; not only did she not know where she was, but she did not even know in which direction the group was, or if they were even still there. She decided that she would head west, back to the Mississippi River. “They have to go back that way eventually,” she said. She looked up at the rising sun, put her back to it, and started walking. “First things first, I need to find water,” she thought. She was hurt, had lost blood, had just threw up, and the area she was in was experiencing a heat wave, so death by dehydration was a very real threat.

  She walked at a decent pace, not wanting to exert herself too much. She kept her eyes open for water but could see none. She stuck to the shade as much as she could and rested periodically. As she walked, she would sing songs to herself, especially songs by the Dixie Chicks, one of her favorite bands. She glanced down at the bandage on her arm and began to untie it. Her wound was no longer bleeding, and was already showing signs of scabbing over. Hopefully it would be free of infection. She stuffed the bandana into her pocket and carried on with her singing.

  Abby continued her western course until the sun began to sink into the horizon in front of her. A little dismayed, she wondered just how far from the river she had been when she started. “I thought I would have found it by now,” she said out loud to herself. It would soon be too dark to walk safely, and Abby needed to find a secure place to sleep. The last thing she wa
nted was to wake up to a zombie’s jaws around her arm or a dagger being pressed to her throat.

  Some few trees dotted the landscape here and there, and she glanced up at each one as she passed it, wondering if their branches could hold her body weight for an entire night. She saw one tall cottonwood tree that had a thick, Y-shaped branch about fifteen feet off the ground. She nodded her head once, affirming to the tree that that would do. But there were no branches low enough for her to grab. She surveyed the tree with her hands on her hips, trying to find a way up, and she saw a knob in the bark of the tree at just below waist level.

  Abby backed up a few steps then sprinted straight at the tree. She jumped high enough for her left foot to alight upon the knob, and then pushed off of her left foot, twisting her body to the right to reach the lowest hanging branch. “Parkour!” she said loudly as she caught the branch and pulled herself up. She straddled the branch for a moment and laughed at herself.

  Abby climbed up until she reached the Y-shaped branch and then sat down, resting right where the branch split into two. She put her hair down and leaned back against the tree, trying to get as comfortable as possible. She closed her eyes and, surprisingly, fell asleep quickly.

  She awoke sometime later, but she was not in the tree. She was in the back of somebody’s van! She was naked, her mouth was gagged, and her arms and legs were tied down to the floor. She felt the van jerk to a stop and could hear someone walking around to the back. Abby wanted to scream but she could barely moan. It felt like she had been drugged. Her heart pounded heavily as the back doors were opened up, but she could see no one, just darkness and fog. Suddenly a hand shot forward out of the dark and seized Abby by the thigh, and she heard Henry’s voice say, “Did you miss me, Abby?”

  “NOOO!” Abby shrieked as she bolted upright, almost falling off of the tree branch. She was breathing heavily as she looked around, her skin slick with sweat. She was not in anybody’s van, she was not naked. It had just been a nightmare. Abby sighed and hung her head down. She wondered if she’d be having nightmares like that for the rest of her life.