by T. W. Brown
“Maybe several months ago,” Aleah said with a shake of her head. “I doubt that anything like that is still lying around waiting to be found.”
“We found that school fully stocked,” the girl reminded.
Aleah was too tired and hungry to respond. Looking out across the street at a pair of zombies trapped on the other side of the fence surrounding the front yard, she was ready to just head back. They had already been gone much longer than they intended; if Catie had returned, she would no doubt start to worry if darkness fell before they got back.
Climbing to her feet, she began the trudge back to the warehouse complex. Along the way, they headed up streets that they had not come down. The houses looked no different and they resorted to simple spot checks of every third or fourth residence, but the results continued to be the same.
At last, they reached the maze of warehouses. The absolute silence made everything just that much creepier as darkness began to extend the shadows until the entire place was shrouded in black.
Morning came and they scanned the compound at first light. There was still no sign of Catie, and the continued lack of activity throughout the campus was as ominous as ever.
“What about over there?” Rose pointed. It was actually in the general direction of the compound and looked to be a neighborhood consisting of townhouses.
“Doubtful,” Aleah sighed. “That is even closer than the neighborhood we searched yesterday. “That was probably the first place they hit.”
“Well…” Rose scanned with her binoculars, “…there is that neighborhood on the other side of those train tracks.”
Aleah adjusted her scan to where the younger girl indicated. It looked no different from where they had just searched, but doing nothing was a guarantee that they would continue to go hungry. Also, she was not sure about Rose, but she had less than a half of a canteen of water.
It hit her out of the blue. For the first time since all of this had begun, they were in danger of suffering from hunger and thirst. While there had been times when things were slim, nothing compared to their current situation. How had she survived over a year without this happening?
“I guess we don’t have a choice.”
“Sure we do,” Rose said with forced good nature. “We can just lay here and starve to death.”
Once again, the two set off in search of food. The scattered clouds were beginning to crowd together to provide a gloomy overcast that matched Aleah’s mood. She was really glad that she did not believe in omens as a roll of distant thunder announced their departure from the warehouse complex.
***
Catie looked around the place that she was told she could call home. She had to admit that she was just a little impressed. They had obviously put in a lot of hard work to get this place in the condition it was in currently. What had once been a large classroom had been turned into four apartments; each separated by a dividing wall that went from floor to ceiling.
The “apartment” had a small living room and bedroom. The bathroom facilities (outhouses like the kind she remembered from the county fair) for the entire compound were centralized and one was just inside the main foyer of her building. Showers were inside as well, and each resident was allotted one every other day.
She had a window that was barred on the outside (she was told that there was no sense not taking precautions when it came to simple security). Her bed was just a cot, but it had a small foam mattress. The compound supposedly ate in shifts at the cafeteria. She was anxious for the first meal in order to actually get a look at some people and hopefully catch a glimpse of Heather until she was told that there had been an accident in the kitchen and meals were being delivered for the next few days.
The door shut and Catie waited a few minutes before trying the knob. She was surprised to discover that it was not locked. Venturing out to the corridor, she was also not surprised to discover that the other apartments were empty. She reached the doors that opened outside and stopped in her tracks.
Standing just about twenty feet away were a pair of armed guards. They might be trying to look like they were just engaged in casual conversation, but Catie knew sentries when she saw them. With a sigh, she returned to her room.
Once there, she watched out her window. It only took her an hour or so to get the timing down on the roving patrols. Still, she did not understand what could have happened here that was so drastic. This place was on lockdown, of that she was certain.
As night came and her meal was delivered by a man and woman she had never seen before, but both made it a point to go above and beyond the concept of friendly, Catie decided that it was likely that she would have no choice other than to escape. She would have to leave Kevin and Heather behind. She did not like the idea, but she also knew that she could not remain here much longer. Rose and Aleah would definitely be worried by now.
She did not relish the idea of returning with this news; but once again, Kevin’s mantra proved prophetic. If this were in fact the movies, she would have walked by Heather in a corridor and been able to exchange a secret glance of recognition, or perhaps she would have passed a partially open door where she would catch just the briefest glimpse of Kevin on a gurney or something. All she had to show for her trip was the news that she was immune to the zombie bite and a few hot meals.
“This sucks,” Catie grumped as she flopped down on her bed and began to plot her escape.
When night fell, she crept to the door. The corridor was pitch black. Stepping out into it, she made her way to the double-doored exit. What she saw was a blessing and a curse. A light rain was falling. That meant there would be little to no ambient light to guide herself by. This place had limited electrical power, but they were very frugal with the use. They did not seem to see the need to light up the compound by night. She imagined that was probably a wise choice; lights at night would make them a target for miles around.
Scanning the area, she was amused to discover that there was a pair of sentries standing in almost the exact same location that she had seen earlier. Just as before, they looked to simply be passing the time in conversation. She watched for a few minutes and eventually felt confident that they were far enough away that, if she was quiet, she could at least get out of her building unnoticed.
Pressing on the metal bar that would open the door, Catie felt her heart sink. She had not even considered trying to open the door to the outside in broad daylight; that would have drawn attention. However, she had also failed to ensure that the door was not locked.
The frustration welled up. Suddenly, the feeling of claustrophobia began to invade her senses. She was a prisoner. They could guild the cage in any way they chose, but facts were facts. Catie was trapped.
She would need to come up with a new plan.
***
Rose slid down the hill on her butt. When she reached bottom, her ankles jarred a little. She had not realized the drop off was quite that steep. She was about to warn Aleah when the older woman burst through the brush on her butt and dropped that last eight or so feet to the bottom of this cut where the train tracks sliced through the area.
In either direction only a few lone figures could be seen shambling in the distance; none close enough to warrant concern. The pair crossed the eight sets of tracks and reached the other side. Getting up would prove a shade more difficult, and Aleah boosted Rose up first. The girl turned and sprawled on her belly as soon as she made it up over the lip. She was not thrilled that she was forced to lay sprawled on a hill that had her body at a perilous slant; so much so that she could feel the blood starting to rush to her head. Reaching down, she gave Aleah a hand up.
Once the two crossed the tracks, they had another steep slide down. But neither moved an inch as they looked out over the ruins of a neighborhood that had obviously seen some hellishness in the past year.
This is what I imagined every neighborhood to look like, Aleah thought as she took in the scene that unspooled before them. Houses were a mix of bu
rnt shells, graffiti-tagged, or sites of massive death. Corpses were everywhere in varied states of decomposition. Some showed obvious signs of having been turned and eventually put down with a variety of head wounds that went from a single clean shot to a close range shotgun blast that left little remaining above the neck. To compound to the scene, there were zombies wandering everywhere. Some would stumble into one house or another and vanish from sight, while others seemed content to peek inside and then drift away; it brought to mind a macabre version of a block party as Aleah took it all in.
“I don’t know if we are gonna find anything here,” Rose breathed as she watched a legless zombie dragging itself along with hands that looked to be missing most of their flesh.
Yards as far as they could see were a mix of litter and bodies. In front of one house a child zombie sat with legs spread and a suitcase between them. It seemed intent on trying to get at the contents, but lacked the dexterity to operate the zipper and so it would alternate between pawing at the large leather rectangle and a tentative gnaw on one corner or another. For some reason, Aleah was transfixed by the scene. There was something in the act that was more curious and sad than frightening.
“I think this is the best chance we have,” Aleah finally whispered as she sought a way down to the first house that would offer cover. “So much zombie activity…I doubt many people would venture too far into this neighborhood.”
“Yeah,” Rose snorted, “and that is probably for good reason.”
“We can do this.” Aleah turned to the girl. “But it is going to call for something that might be more dangerous than normal.”
“You are not doing a very good job of convincing me,” Rose quipped. “And if you say split up—”
“We have to split up,” Aleah said in a rush, cutting the girl off. “But hear me out.”
Aleah laid out her plan. Rose didn’t like it, but she saw the sense in what was suggested.
“So who gets to do what?” Rose asked, returning her gaze to the endless nightmare that stretched out for as far as the eye could see. This neighborhood had not fared well.
She wondered if maybe this was one of the first locations to fall. It did not look like anybody here made it out alive…or tried to escape.
“I want you to stay up here in this ridge and start making noise once I get down by that little white house with all the boards in the yard like somebody was going to try and secure the place but never finished. I am going on a hunch, but if somebody was going through the trouble of trying to secure that house…maybe they had some supplies inside.”
Rose made no effort to hide her skepticism. Still, what did they have to lose at this point? She was so hungry that dizziness was almost a normal state. It was like a continuous hangover with none of the fun stuff from the night before.
“Move south about a hundred yards and start as soon as you see me wave my hand,” Aleah instructed. “I am going to get down to the house next door and try to get over the fence without drawing any attention.”
Aleah took off her pack and dumped its meager contents on the ground. A few scraps of paper and her piece of flint along with a well-used sharpening stone were all that tumbled out. Removing her canteen, she gave it a shake to show that it still had at least a few swallows left.
“What are you doing?” Rose hissed; her voice a mixture of anger and suspicion.
“If I don’t make it…this is not much, but we really can’t afford to waste anything.”
“But—” the girl started to protest; Aleah put her gloved hand up to silence any arguments.
“This is just being practical. I’m not planning on getting eaten…but I doubt many people do. It’s not like there is much to begin with.”
“What is on those scraps of paper?” Rose picked one up and unfolded the wad, flattening it out on her knee so that she could read it.
“Just some notes to Kevin. These are all the things I want to say to him the next time we see each other.”
“So why aren’t you taking them?” Rose picked up another and read it. “If you aren’t planning on being eaten, then you should keep these. They don’t take up any room and they weigh nothing. Shove ‘em in your pocket or something.”
“I said I wasn’t planning on being eaten…but if something happens, I want these safe. If you do ever see him again—”
“No!” This time it was Rose who did the cutting off with a raised hand. “You keep these. If something goes wrong and we get split up…you may need them. In case you forgot…I am the bait in this little plan.”
Aleah looked at the crumpled pieces of paper. At last, she reached out and took them, stuffing them into the pockets of her jeans that were barely staying on even with the piece of rope she had used to create a makeshift belt. Of course that only served to remind her of how hungry she was and how long it had been since she’d eaten.
“No sense waiting around or putting this off any longer,” Aleah said with a forced laugh. If she was being honest with herself, she did not really relish the idea of going down there. She knew very well how tired and weak she was; also, she worried about how her lack of food might affect her reaction time in a pinch.
Rose moved away to where she had been directed and Aleah slid down the berm as slowly, quietly, and carefully as she could. By the time she reached the bottom, a handful of nearby zombies had already turned and were moving in her direction.
Getting to her feet, Aleah rushed to take them out before their moans could start up and alert the others. By the time she finished, her hand was buzzing from the series of blows she’d dealt. There had been no time to aim or go for the easy shots. She had to work fast and efficient; that meant downward strikes to the tops of the head where the skull was the hardest.
At last she was clear and made her run. Coming to a sliding stop beside the house next to her target, Aleah turned to find Rose and give her the signal. She was a little shaken by how far away and small the girl seemed. Shaking off the sense of dread that was trying to build, she waved her hand.
Rose wasted no time. Aleah was actually surprised at first by how loud the girl was as she started yelling taunts from her place up on the ridge. From where she hid crouched down low, she watched as dozens of zombies stumbled past on the street out front.
The sound of gravel being scuffled underfoot caused Aleah to jump. She almost fell on her face as she caught her feet on each other in her attempt to stand and turn at the same time. Less than five feet away, a single zombie was coming for her…hands outstretched. She was just raising her machete to strike when a deep and thundering explosion caused the ground to shudder just a bit.
She had to swing twice to end the zombie as the explosion caused her aim to be off the first time. Her swing came down and bit into the shoulder, shattering bone and biting deep into the flesh, but otherwise having no effect on the zombified teenage boy missing a large chunk of his left bicep. The second shot hit solid on the crown of the head and dropped the creature. Aleah jerked her weapon free and spun in the direction the blast had come from.
To the east of the neighborhood—in the direction of the compound where Kevin and Heather were being held—a black plume of smoke rose skyward. She noticed that Rose had stopped her efforts to draw the attention of the zombies and was turned and looking off in the direction of the ominous black cloud. She also noticed that the zombies had altered their course as well and were moving a bit more easterly. However, she also had at least a partial understanding of why it seemed that so many of the zombies had stayed in this neighborhood; they could not climb the berm. Some would make it almost halfway up before tumbling back down the steep incline, taking out any other zombies that had been behind them.
Just then, another blast shook the ground. This one was even larger than the first. Aleah had no doubts as to the origin.
“What are you up to, Catie?”
***
Catie moved down the side of the building. She had some serious doubts as to how these people ha
d survived this long. Morning had come and Latricia arrived with breakfast. Catie had asked about why she had been locked in at night.
“We lock down the entire facility at night,” the woman answered a little too quickly. “Just a precaution…still got a lot of bad things out there.”
After wolfing down the meal—she no longer feared that her food might be drugged and those eggs were simply too tasty looking to resist—Catie was told that she could come outside and take a tour. The pair ambled about the compound and Catie decided it was time to press for information.
“So where is everybody? All I see are the sentries. That seems sort of strange.”
“We had an incident recently and the entire population is going through a quarantine process,” Latricia said smoothly.
“But if everybody is immune…” Catie let that last word hang like a question. It would be better if she could remain as open ended as possible. That usually was the best way to garner tidbits of information. If you gave specifics, then you got specifics in return; if not absolute denials and deceptions.
“Actually, it was not zombie related.” Latricia looked around and then lowered her voice conspiratorially. “We had a bit of a rebellion. A few people tried to take control and started a bit of a riot.”
“Wow,” Catie breathed. She did not have to fake her reaction; she was actually semi-impressed with the cover story. Now to see if she could get in a bit deeper. “Was anybody hurt?”
“Actually, the people responsible killed a few of our women.”
“Harsh.” Catie sensed an opening and tried to pry it loose. “But why would they kill women? Were the women part of your council or government or whatever it is you have here?”
“Worse,” Latricia said with what was almost a sob. “They killed a pregnant woman. Poor thing had an infant daughter.”
“So now everybody is locked up?”
“It is only temporary until we are certain that we have dealt with those responsible. We are keeping everybody updated as best we can and hope to have it all wrapped up in a few days at the most.”