The Long Walk Home

by Keen, A. M.

  Bucky held his breath as Johnny shuffled from behind.

  “They’re way back. They’re just… no hold on, the doors are opening.” Bucky’s heart skipped a beat. “Looks like three of them. I can’t see properly, but, oh shit, they’re searching the cars.”

  “Oh no,” Lacey whispered. Bucky found his grasp on the sword had become tighter.

  “What do we do?” Aaron asked.

  “Nothing. We do nothing,” Bucky replied, his voice no more than a rasp. “Just keep cool.”

  Over the engine came the sound of breaking glass.

  “They’re scavenging by the looks of it. They’re all looking in cars,” Johnny’s voice warbled. He was scared.

  “We have to get out,” Lacey replied.

  Bucky sighed. “We can’t. If we bail now they’ll see us. We run, we’ll get split and then we’re even less likely to make it to the stadium.” Bucky recalled Aaron climbing in to the passenger side behind him. “Aaron, what are you packing?”

  “Just the screwdriver I took from the barn.”

  “Johnny, can you see if they’re armed out there?”

  “Hold on.” The sound of more windows smashing emerged from the underpass. “I can’t tell. They have something, though. Looks like torches that they’re breaking the car windows with.”

  “They’ll be armed,” Aaron stated. “There’s no way they’d venture out here at this time of night with all the crazies running around.”

  Bucky waited a moment before unlocking the doors.

  “What the hell are you doing, man?” Johnny shrilled.

  “Keep it down and listen. They’re only smashing the windows because the doors are locked. When they get here, one of them will try either my door or Aaron’s door. Whoever’s door opens, we’ll take them by surprise. That’s one down. Then it’s us against them. Four against two.”

  “What if they have guns?” Lacey asked.

  “Then I guess we’ll deal with that when it happens. If they do, then everyone will have one. If we take the first one out, then we get a gun. You ready for this, Aaron?”

  “No. You’re gonna get us killed.”

  “Damn it, Aaron, there’s nothing else we can do. Just swing the screwdriver and take him out. Got it?”

  “Alright. Alright. I got it, okay? I’m set.”

  “Well you better be, they’re about three cars back now,” Johnny stated.

  “Okay. Keep it down. Aaron, be ready.”

  They lay in silence as the scavengers moved closer. Their voices became clearer as they approached the hiding place.

  “I got a coat in this one, nothing else.”

  “It is the damn clowns!” Johnny gasped.

  “Get down!” Bucky ordered. “Do not move unless our car doors open!”

  “The car is coming closer, too, “Johnny informed them.”That’s four of them. I forgot the driver.”

  “We’re done,” Aaron replied.

  “No, we’re not. If your door opens do what Bucky told you. Otherwise, just stay down and don’t move,” Lacey ordered. It seemed she like was as tired of Aaron’s bitching as much as Bucky was.

  “Wait. You hear something?” Bucky asked. Over the engine he picked out the sound of wind gusting through the underpass. “I swear there’s a breeze or a wind or something?”

  A window smashed on the car behind them. “They’re here!” Johnny gasped.

  “That’s no breeze!” Lacey whispered.

  “Guys!” came a voice from the outside. Johnny peered out from his blanket and looked through the rear windscreen. The driver of the car leant out of the window and directed their attentions further along the road. “Look!” The driver pointed along the road.

  The clown followed his finger. “Shit! Let’s wrap it up, double time. Now!”The three gang members ran to the car and dived into its open doors. Within a few seconds they vanished inside the vehicle. The overbearing sound of agony swept beneath the bridge, thunderous and horrifying, as if a million souls all wailed in unison. The headlights from the clowns’ vehicle swerved back and forth as it reversed between the parked cars and performed a turn in the road. Bucky peered out from beneath the blanket. Ahead of them, parting around the vehicles, came a mass of infected as far back as his eyes could see. He leant over and re-engaged the locks.

  “What is it?” Lacey asked.

  “Infected. Thousands of them. They’re heading this way.”

  “Oh shit…”

  “Everyone, just keep down and don’t move or we are history this time.”

  The overbearing breeze that engulfed the underpass emitted from the infected as they moaned in mass was deafening, thunderous, too loud to even comprehend.

  Lacey sighed.

  “Lacey, keep it cool. If we stay quiet and stay still, they’ll walk right past us.”

  “I hope so,” Aaron whispered from behind them.

  The first snarl passed by the car followed by hisses and growls almost animalistic in their primitive form. Bucky listened, eyes closed as bodies brushed up against his door. Hisses, snaps and unstable vocals engulfed the vehicle as more and more infected wandered by. The car swayed as bodies pushed against its frame. Bucky prayed the vehicle’s alarm was disengaged. More bodies hit the car. The metallic thud of an object striking his door made Aaron yelp. Still, Bucky squeezed his eyes tight, unwilling to peer at the carnage moving past them. Horrendous wails and moaning thundered throughout the underpass. Bucky wanted to open his eyes and peer at the world outside, but knew he’d see nothing. As curiosity took its hold, he gave in and peered through the thin material, but beneath the blanket nothing could be seen. More hisses and snorts passed by, replaced by different noises and unstable vocabularies. A window thudded. Bucky’s heart leapt into his throat. This was it… but it wasn’t. They hadn’t been found. Whoever thudded the window moved on. More infected wandered past, some sighing, some coughing but all vocalising their terrifying sounds of death. This was nothing like Bucky expected. Everything he’d seen in the movies or played in video games did no justice to the real thing.

  He lay there silent as the grave as the mass of bodies continued to amble past. He noted the aching within his groin as the need to pee grew stronger and stronger. Rasping howls drifted onward. Aggressive snarls breezed past. Bucky lay there, unflinching.

  First light began to break the darkness outside, that much he could see from beneath the blanket. The mass of infected moaned past in their large herd.

  The day outside began to dawn. Time passed onward and still the infected trudged around the vehicle. Silhouettes could now be seen from beneath the blanket as the daylight grew brighter. They moved stiff and erratic, as if all thought processes on walking had been forgotten and only the basic skill for movement remained.

  As the masses continued by, the burning in Bucky’s groin became worse. He’d have to pee soon, whether it was outside the car or in his pants.

  Gaps began to appear within the silhouettes. The monstrous growls became thinner. The masses turned into stragglers, who soon became individuals. The moans became distant and Bucky felt safe enough to poke his head from the blanket. Blood smeared across his window. He peered around. The underpass outside now stood empty.

  “Is that it?” Johnny asked as his head popped from beneath a tartan pattern. Bucky ignored him a moment as he scoured the area around them.

  “Yes, I think it is.”

  Bucky found a sports car with its roof down and decided to piss inside the interior. For some reason, he found great joy soiling something that was worth tens of thousands of pounds back in the old world. The road had been littered with flesh and blood. Whether it was here before the infected came or something they brought with them he didn’t know.

  After his urine finished pattering the leather he tucked hi
mself inside what once were cricket trousers and turned back to his friends. They’d all taken a piss break too and were sorting their clothing out ready to go.

  “How many do you think there were?” Johnny asked as they exited the underpass and ascended to the flat ground.

  “God knows,” Aaron replied. “Thousands.”

  “More than that,” Bucky began, “there had to be at least ten thousand. We were holed up in that car for hours as they came past, and they didn’t let up. It could have been a hundred thousand. Who knows?”

  “I know that I have no desire to go through that kind of shit again,” Lacey added.

  “Well, that makes two of us,” Johnny quipped.

  “Hey look,” Bucky began as they came to a slip road. “On the sign.” He pointed out the symbol of a football. “This is our turning. I have a feeling our day is about to get better.”

  Five

  The B road from the duel carriageway appeared much like the main road. Empty cars scattered here and there, some black with smoke where they had once stood as fire engulfed them.

  The road flanked by open countryside revealed the odd infected person here and there standing out from the greenery like a sore thumb. Bucky knew the likelihood of stumbling into more crazies increased as they headed toward the town. The fields on either side of the road offered protection, in his mind. If they needed to run out here, they could run. If a full-fledged escape was required in town, places to go and areas to hide became difficult to find.

  They came to a tree heavy junction. A small, white roundabout offered two ways to travel, left or right. A brown road sign indicated the football stadium could be found by following the right turn.

  Infected wandered as individuals, stumbling and snarling their way towards the kids. The danger they possessed seemed minimal compared to the monstrous herd they had been trapped inside within the underpass. Bucky took everything in his stride for the time being. Many infected they passed now followed a long way behind, leading with their arms to reach the kids. In fact, it was the kids themselves who amassed the herd of crazies now stumbling in their direction.

  “This way,” Bucky said, following the road sign. He wandered past the roundabout and scoured the road ahead. More empty cars and a few more infected. Some clustered together.

  “Okay, guys, we have a few more than what we’re used to. We may have to fight through.”

  “That’s not too many,” Aaron replied, studying their path.

  “What are we going to do if the numbers keep increasing?” Lacey asked as the continued onward.

  “Hope that the football stadium appears very soon,” Bucky replied.

  “I’m being serious,” Lacey snapped.

  “So am I. What do you want me to tell you, huh? You knew the risk of walking here. I don’t have an amazing escape plan if this goes tits up. If things get bad we’ll just have to run.”

  “Guys,” a voice came from behind. Bucky turned to see that Johnny had stopped. “I don’t want to fight,” he added. Bucky frowned and looked back to Lacey.

  “We’re not fighting.”

  “We are. Not just this, but with everything. With the zombies. With ourselves. We murdered Lawro.”

  “Lawro was a psycho,” Aaron informed him.

  “And he messed up Miss Greene pretty bad,” Lacey added.

  “I know, but the fact is we killed people.”

  Bucky sighed. “We had this conversation back in the hardware shop. We do what we do in order to survive.”

  Johnny nodded. “Yeah, I know. It’s just that back there, in the barn, it was the first time I’d done it, and I think it hit me now. I know this is going to be the normal thing to do from now on.”

  Bucky walked back and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright, mate?” he asked.

  Johnny nodded. “Peachey.”

  A woman dressed in a sports bra and gym kit stumbled toward them. Her face vanished beneath fresh, vibrant coloured blood. Johnny took the Stanley knife from his pocket, wandered across and pushed the blade into her chest before she could take hold. The woman shrilled before tumbling to the ground in a dramatic fashion.

  “They’re not zombies,” Aaron said, watching as the horde they amassed moved ever closer.

  “No, they’re not,” Bucky said, wondering what was running through Johnny’s mind. “It’s just an easy word to call them.”

  “It won’t be long before everyone knows them as the living dead, which is a horrible thing to remember them by. They’re human. They’re alive, they’re just sick.”

  “Sick with no cure,” Lacey added.

  Johnny turned to the rest of them. “I just don’t want to be remembered as a murderer. I don’t want to be remembered in the way that we will remember Lawro. I’m killing the infected to keep myself alive, nothing more.”

  Bucky smiled. “Trust me, you’re in good company.”

  “Alright, we better get moving again or we won’t be remembered at all,” Aaron said, pointing toward the oncoming horde.

  “Let’s go, guys,” Bucky ordered, “when we get to the stadium we won’t have to worry about it anymore.”

  The football ground stood within a giant sports complex, itself surrounded by various playing fields and centres. Tennis courts housed a handful of crazies. As they wandered past, Bucky wondered if they had stumbled in them and were too dumb to find their way out.

  “It’s empty around here,” Johnny replied.

  Infected bodies littered the area, lying within each other’s blood and body fluids. Black liquid mixed with the claret mass and smothered the fallen crazies upon the tarmac.

  “I guess they learned to stay away or risk getting killed,” Bucky replied, noting the bullet wounds in some of the bodies. He peered across to the tennis courts once more. “But then again, if they can walk into a tennis court and be unable to find the way out, maybe they’re not as intelligent as we think.”

  One of the crazies noted their presence as they walked by. He grasped at the wire fencing with both hands and pushed his features through the gaps. Dark saliva fell from his jaws as he snarled and gasped toward them.

  “Just watch your back,” Bucky said, noting their would-be attacker, “we’re not out of the woods yet.”

  Army vehicles dotted about the car park here and there. The word ‘Sanctuary’ had been painted on a huge metal gate that separated the outside world from the refuge within its boundaries.

  Bucky laid eyes upon a lookout post established within the grounds of the football stadium.

  “Hold on,” he said, bringing the group to a standstill.

  “What is it?” Lacey asked.

  Bucky didn’t reply. He removed the soiled jumper from his body, revealing a partially discoloured tee shirt. “We don’t want them to think we’re infected,” he replied after a moment or so. “As we approach I’m going to wave this, you know, like a white flag or distress signal.”

  Bucky led the kids across the mass of bodies and toward the metal gate. “Hey? Hey!” he shouted, waving his jumper from side to side.

  The soldier on the lookout took notice and raised a rifle. “Stop right there,” he ordered, pointing its barrel in their direction.

  “It’s okay, we’re not infected.”

  “How many of you are there?”

  Bucky looked to his friends. “Just us. Four of us, that’s all.”

  “Place all your weapons on the ground.”

  “We don’t have any guns.”

  “I said place all your weapons on the ground!” the soldier snapped.

  Bucky unclipped the sword and dropped it to the floor. About him the various tools they had taken from the barn and used as weapons clattered down onto the concrete as his friends followed the order and unarmed themselves.r />
  “Is that it? Is that everything you have?” the soldier asked.

  “Yes,” Bucky nodded, “that’s it. That’s everything.”

  “Do you see the turnstiles to your right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Move over there, slowly,” the soldier ordered. The rifle still took aim in their direction.

  They moved across the car park to the body high turnstiles where another soldier stood, waiting for them.

  “Move through. One at a time,” he ordered. Bucky pushed through the bars first. “Over there.” Bucky followed the soldier’s order and stood beside the metal gate. A whole platoon of soldiers had descended toward the front gate. Nice welcoming committee, he thought. A flutter of anxiety passed throughout his body. Soon the others joined him and formed into a line, as though they were about to undergo some type of military inspection.

  “Lock it,” the soldier ordered, referring to the turnstile, “and get the doctor.”

  A soldier rushed across into a white tent to their left, and after a few moments a doctor emerged, clad in hospital blue sand wearing a fine pair of circular spectacles.”Did you bring the pen?” the soldier enquired.

  The doctor produced a silver object from the chest pocket in his uniform. “Newcomers?” he asked.

  The soldier pointed his rifle to the kids. “These four.”

  “Okay, let’s get it over with. May I have your finger please?” the doctor asked Bucky.

  “What for?” Bucky enquired.

  The doctor removed the tip of the object to reveal a blade. From the same pocket, he presented a sealed packet of blades similar to the one inside the pen. “It’s something every newcomer goes through when they first arrive.” Another doctor emerged from the tent, carrying a yellow sharps bin and a packet of medical strips.

  The doctor produced two purple gloves from a hidden stash. “We are going to test your blood and confirm you are not infected, that is all. It’s just a little prick to your finger, nothing more,” he explained whilst placing them on. The latex squeaked and snapped as they moulded to his hands.

  “He should be used to a little prick,” Aaron whispered. Johnny snorted, caught off guard by the insult. Bucky frowned at them before turning back to the doctor. He extended the index finger on his right hand. “Here, do it quick before they both become too excited.”