by T. W. Brown
“Rose?” she called out softly into the void of black.
“Aleah…are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I feel a bit woozy.”
“Keep talking so that I can find you,” the girl called out from somewhere in the room.
Aleah was at first puzzled by the request but, as the fog was slowly lifting, realized that the girl could not find her despite the fact that they were in the same room. No windows, and somebody had turned out the lights.
Once the girl reached her side, they both just hugged each other for several minutes without speaking. It was comforting to feel the arms of a friend encircle her. Eventually, she moved her head a little and asked Rose the question. “What the hell is going on?”
The story that Rose spun was hard to follow at times. She had miscarried and Heather had run after the people that they had met on the overpass. They’d actually argued about whether or not to help until Heather revealed the fact that Aleah was pregnant. Suddenly, everybody was very helpful.
They had carried her and Kevin back to the compound, and somewhere along the way, the four of them had been split up. At some point, Rose had been asked to watch the door where Kevin had been locked up and told that she could let him out once he came to.
After Kevin emerged from the closet and gotten caught up on the situation, a group of the compound’s security team had arrived and escorted him away. She had basically been ignored. Obviously they had not considered her a threat. Once again she had been thankful for being so small and young looking.
She’d hung back, but followed along to hear most of what had been said. When she realized the situation for what it was, she had slipped out of the auditorium with the mindset of finding Heather and trying to figure out the best and quickest way to escape.
She had been made when the man who she’d heard identify himself as Ken Tucker stepped out from around a corner and told her to “come along peacefully”. Of course she ran, did he really think it would be that easy? And it had gone fine until she rounded a corner and found herself in a dead end hallway with a locked door on either side.
She told Aleah about how she had pretended to cry and dropped to her knees when one of Tucker’s men approached. Just as he reached down for her, she came up with her head and drove it into his face, smashing his nose in a nasty sounding crunch. Aleah did not miss the hint of smug satisfaction in the young girl’s voice as she recounted it all. Nor did she miss the anger when Rose recounted being cuffed and brought to the room where they’d spent the remainder of that night.
Of course she had known all the rest…how the men, led by Mister Cranston, had come and roused them. How they’d been marched out the gate with people walking past as if nothing were happening.
The sleep she managed to get was rife with images and nightmares of Kevin being tortured, beaten…or worse. When she awoke, she did not feel all that refreshed. Thankfully, it was still dark and she was able to roll over and get a little more rest. She did not sleep, but instead just lay there listening to Rose’s deep and regular breathing…and the occasional moans of the undead.
***
The sound of the regular pattern of rain turned to a thrumming as a storm swept in; complete with thunder and lightning. At one point, the sounds of rain began to intensify in such a way that both women rushed to the window to discover that peanut-sized hail was coming down.
A trio of undead staggered to the nearby intersection and came to an unstable stop. They were simply standing there, heads cocked to the side in a dog-like parody. A noise—that both Aleah and Rose felt before they actually heard it—began to grow in intensity.
Rose looked at Aleah with a questioning expression that the older woman could only shrug at in response. Debris began to whip up in the wind that was starting to grow stronger by the second. Aleah’s face paled as the dawning of what might be the cause suddenly came to her.
Running to the door, she turned the knob and had it almost ripped from her hands as the door flung open, almost sending her sprawling. Gathering herself, she spun and looked in the same direction that the zombies had their attention focused at the moment.
It took a few seconds to see it through the buildings and trees, but there it was…a funnel cloud. She realized that the reason it took her so long to actually locate it was the sheer size. The black funnel filled a good part of the horizon.
She tried desperately to recall exactly which direction it was back to the compound, but the best she could do was generalize. The problem was that this funnel cloud was in that “general” direction.
“Back inside!” Aleah yelled as the sound of the howling wind continued to grow.
The two ducked into the building, and Aleah’s eyes scanned for a sign. She was more than a little elated when she saw an arrow pointing down a set of stairs. Grabbing Rose by the hand, she made a run for them.
Yanking the door open, Aleah had just a split second of regret. If there was anything on the other side, they were done for. Thankfully, the door opened to simple darkness. A sniff test gave a smidge of reassurance that there would be no nasty surprises.
Since they did not have any form of light, the best they could do was see the area immediately lit by the open door—which was not much. However, when several seconds passed with nothing coming for them out of the pitch darkness, Aleah assumed that it was safe. Her mind sing-songed that old phrase about assuming, but she was out of options. The sound of the tornado was deafening, and things were slamming into the building. Something wet splashed her face, causing her to recoil, but she quickly realized it was rain; a section of the roof had already peeled back.
Venturing further into the darkness, the pair moved until they found a corner and then hunkered down with arms clutching each other tightly. Aleah felt her ears pop with the pressure change, and the noise was such that she could not hear her own screaming.
A pair of zombies tumbled down the stairs. Aleah and Rose could see them in the light of the door. Both watched in morbid fascination as they landed awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs and then, seconds later, began to lift off the ground like a cheap magic trick. The two undead swirled in the air for a few seconds and disappeared skyward, vanishing from the open rectangular viewing area of the doorway.
It seemed to last forever, but slowly, the roar died down and was reduced to nothing more than the sound of a steady rain. The two girls looked at each other and finally made their way to their feet. Creeping forward, they both could hear the unholy chorus of moans and groans that seemed to be close and constant.
Reaching the door, they crept up the stairs, peeking over the lip to scan the open area of the main floor. The destruction was complete. All that remained of the building were the stark, skeletal ruins of one corner of the building across from them. Doing a slow visual scan in a complete circle, they caught glimpses of movement in every direction.
“We need to get out of here,” Rose whispered unnecessarily.
“Ya think?” Aleah said through clenched teeth and lips that did not move.
The two scrambled up and were making their way through the rubble and debris when a moan froze them in their tracks. Aleah looked over her shoulder to see just as a zombie pushed its way out from a jumble of splintered branches and a section of fallen roof.
The zombie had a three foot long beam through its chest and kept getting tangled in all the debris. It did not move towards them, but stood with what could easily be perceived as caution while its head twitched first one way then the other to examine the two living persons that stood a dozen or so feet away. There was something familiar about this relatively fresh zombie. It took Rose to jar the memory loose.
“Sheila.” Rose stepped forward and swung her machete down with a scream of anger.
Sheila was one of the younger girls, probably eight or nine, and quick to get into a scrap if she thought somebody was even looking at her wrong. Deanna was always pulling her away from one of the other children; boy or girl did not ma
tter.
The zombified version of Sheila hissed and opened her mouth to display bloodstained teeth just before the machete cleaved her skull in two.
“Being a zombie hasn’t done her any favors,” Rose huffed as she elbowed past Aleah and out to the twisted ruins of what remained of the wrought iron fence that had surrounded this place.
“So…I’m thinking…” Aleah started, but her voice faded as three more familiar faces emerged from a nearby building that had lost the entire front façade while managing to keep the other three sides relatively intact.
“They shouldn’t be this far south,” Rose said as she started to move in to dispatch more of the children that had been part of the group that had headed north with Catie.
“You think everybody was trying to make it back to us?” Aleah asked.
Rose seemed to think about it for a second before shaking her head. “Everybody just ran. I don’t think any of them knew where they were going. And with whoever those people were in that hospital…I just don’t know.”
Rose stopped a few feet from her former companions. She knew each of them…knew their stories…their dreams. And while she might not have gotten along with every single person in her pod back in juvenile detention, she did not wish an ending like this on any of them.
Steeling herself, she moved in and made to put them down. She was expecting them to come at her just like any other zombie, but once again they looked to be observing her just as Sheila had just a moment ago.
“Kevin is certain that there is something different about the children,” Aleah called.
“Different how? Are they not zombies?”
“I can’t remember how he explained it, but yes, basically they are still zombies…just different somehow.”
“Well I ain’t waitin’ to see if they just want to say hello and be on their way.” Rose moved in and put the trio down. The last one she put down had actually turned and looked to be trying to escape by the time she got to it.
“If some of the kids are this far south…maybe—”
“Maybe you guys should try to make a little more noise and see if you can bring in a few thousand more!” a voice called from the third floor of the building that was missing all of its street-facing side.
Aleah looked up to see Catie shouldering her crossbow and pushing her way through some desks and office furniture. It looked like somebody had picked up the building and shook it like a snow globe. Catie vanished into an opening and eventually emerged from a door that sat crooked on its hinges on the ground floor.
“Where are the others?” Catie asked as she pulled out her canteen and took a drink.
“Long story,” Aleah and Rose said in unison.
And it was. Aleah and Rose took turns sharing everything. When one would drop off, the other would pick up, but it was Aleah’s recounting of what had happened to Kevin that changed Catie’s face from impassive to a dark cloud.
“So where is this place?” Catie asked after the pair had finished.
“Back that way…sort of…” Aleah’s fought off tears of frustration as she realized how little she had been paying attention while they were being marched away.
“I can show you,” Rose said as she stepped over and took Aleah’s hand.
“If we are lucky, that freakin’ huge tornado ripped a path right through those lame fucks’ territory,” Catie growled.
“But if that happened…Kevin and Heather—” Aleah started, but Catie shut her down.
“One thing at a time. We need to go get a look at that place and decide what to do.” Catie took Aleah by the arms and looked into her eyes. “But you need to be prepared for the possibility that we may have to go on without them.”
The trio started the trek back. As they walked, Rose moved up close to Catie and gave her a nudge with her elbow. “What are you doing back this way? You were adamant about moving on.”
“Deanna,” was Catie’s cryptic one word reply. But she was caught up in memories…bad ones.
***
Catie spun and shoved the blade of her knife up and under the snapping jaws of the female zombie that came within a fraction of an inch from her face as it lunged forward past the last undead attacker now sporting an axe-shaped cleave in its forehead. Kicking it away with her booted foot, she was just able to bring her spike-gloved fist into the next one; her blow landing solid and plunging the inch long spikes into both eyes and the space between them.
She heard another of the children let loose with that terrible scream of pain, but she simply had too much on her own plate to let it register. All around her was carnage. Zombies, children, and apparently a few of the people from that hospital.
Momentarily freed from the worst of the fighting, Catie searched for any of the children that might have a shot at making it out alive. Her eyes froze on a scene about fifty yards away.
Deanna was leaning away from Sean who had her by the wrist; she was trying to rush into a swarm of zombies that were tearing a few of the children apart. To his credit, Sean was obviously more level-headed and was preventing the girl from being just another casualty. However, when he yanked her back hard and punched her in the face, Catie reappraised the situation.
Unfortunately, she was in no position to help as the young man hoisted the limp figure over his shoulder and took off at a jog away from the carnage. A yank on her sleeve took her eyes away from being able to continue to track their progress. She looked down just as a young boy of about twelve dropped to his knees beside her.
His throat had been torn, but unfortunately, the carotid had only been nicked. She wished it had been severed; at least that way his suffering would have been less. As it was, he looked up at her with absolute terror in his eyes. There was nothing she could do for him. Actually…
Catie grimaced as she drove her knife into his temple. She pulled it free and looked for a way out of the chaos. If anything, more zombies had arrived, and it did not seem like there was any end of their numbers. They poured out of every street…except one!
Catie was about to make an attempt for what promised to be at least a possible escape when she spotted Rose about ten feet away. The girl was on the hood of a car fighting off a handful of zombies; a couple were sprawled at her feet already. She had seen spunk from that girl from day one.
Making her way through the carnage and shoving away a strange man who had emerged from a cluster of bodies clutching what must be his right arm in his left hand, his face showing that he was obviously in shock, Catie barley broke stride as she freed the long blade she had over left shoulder. She took the top third of the man’s head off in a fierce backhand. Her own adrenaline rush was such that she hardly felt the sting in her hands from the strike.
At last she reached Rose. The girl had just chopped down through the crown of the head of what looked like one of the kids that had come with them on this ill-fated trip. The girl, to her credit, had tears streaming down her face.
“Rose!” Catie barked.
The girl spun, arm cocked back and ready to swing. The look of relief was visible when recognition came.
“Deanna,” Rose gasped as she and Catie put down the remaining zombies that had gathered.
“I’ll do what I can, but you need to get back to Kevin and the others…warn them that this herd is bigger than anything we have ever seen. They can’t stay put…if they have to carry Kevin or…” She let the rest of the sentence go unsaid.
Rose tried to protest, but she had continued to work herself towards the one avenue of escape that she had spied a few moments earlier. By the time they got there, Catie had promised to do what she could in the matter of Deanna while Rose had agreed to go warn the others.
Catie only had the luxury to watch as the girl turned a corner a block away before having to devote all of her attention to the task at hand. She could see none of the children any longer, and it was obvious that any help from the hospital had either retreated or gone down in the onslaught.
With a sigh,
Catie started down the street she had seen Sean carry Deanna. She was not surprised when she reached a spot where she could get a good look to discover that they were long gone. Whether having fallen to the hundreds of zombies mulling about, or if they’d somehow managed to pull off a miracle and escape; it would be next to impossible to find them or anybody else for that matter.
In that moment, Catie had a choice; she could strike out for South Dakota on her own; she could try to catch up with Rose and hook up with the others; or…she could simply give up. That last one vanished from her thoughts almost as soon as it came. As long as she was still alive, she would fight to the end.
While almost all of what they had managed to scavenge had obviously been lost in the attack, she had a .45 on her hip and a half dozen magazines in a belt pouch with another thousand rounds in her small travel pack.
She pushed, stabbed and chopped her way in the direction Sean and Deanna had gone. If they had not made it, she figured to come upon a cluster of zombies that would be doing a slow motion version of a shark’s feeding frenzy. However, after almost ten blocks, she had discovered nothing but the fact that the zombies were actually getting thicker.
“That couldn’t be just the leading edge,” she said out loud as she shoved aside a woman in a pair of ragged jeans and no top with a gaping hole in her midsection and shards of rib bone jutting through the gray skin of her chest.
Making her way to a five-story office complex, Catie climbed the exterior fire escape that sounded and felt as if it were going to rip free from its mounts at any moment. Reaching the roof, she was not surprised to find the remains of a camp. The survivors long gone, a pair of well-rotted bodies remaining still bound hand and foot hinting at a million possible stories; none of them ending well.
From the roof, she was able to see past many, but not all, of the surrounding buildings. What she saw made her blood run cold. The undead were coming in numbers she could not begin to fathom. She looked back in the direction that she knew Kevin and the others to be.