by Thomas, Jack
“This way!” I told Jason. Now outside, we went around to the front to see what our chances of car recovery were. Back in the front, there was nothing left to recover. Too many of the infected were gathered around the car and we still needed to turn the thing on if we wanted to use it. If we even tried, because of how long it would take, it would be too late and we would be surrounded by infected. At the rate they attracted each other the highway would soon be overrun. Our best bet was to continue on foot.
We figured the woods would be a great shield against the infected while we came up with what to do next, but we weren’t going to put our trust in the woods because the lowered visibility affected us as much as it did the infected.
The thick darkness of the woods could be broken only by the lantern I carried, but its range was limited and illuminated only the area immediately around Jason and me. The terrain was unleveled and to grab onto my surroundings for support I put the knife back on my jeans. The last thing anyone wants is to trip like the blond girl in horror movies and die that way.
“The circle is complete; here you are.” I broke the silence.
“We tried waiting for you.” Jason said with weight in his voice. “The officer forced us to leave. We weren’t given an option, so I wrote you a note. Judging by the car back there, I think it’s safe to assume you got it.”
“I got it.” I assured him. “I’m more interested in what you were doing out here and where Daviel and mom are.”
Jason picked up his pace to walk next to me rather than behind me. “I was split from them early in the afternoon.” His voice echoed over the sound of crickets and other insects that came out to sing at night. “Our escort caravan was attacked around the same time the electricity stopped working. The cars shut off too. The group continued on foot but eventually we were attacked again and the group broke into a few smaller groups.”
“That doesn’t exactly explain why you’re here but they’re not.” I pointed out.
“Well, after we got split up, mom, Daviel and I continued on our own. We traveled a couple of hours, and we went into some backyards while we dodged infected. In one of the yards we found a bicycle hooked up with a lawnmower motor. In the same garage that we found that, we also found a motorcycle with a passenger pod thing and we combined the two so the bike could drag the pod. We decided that since it could fit a maximum of two people, that Daviel would drive mom to the quarantine zone and that I would find my own way there.
“You should have stayed with them in case they get attacked like the escort did!”
“That won’t happen. The whole purpose of splitting up was so they don’t come across any of the infected.
“What’s to stop the infected from an attack on them though? What if mom and Daviel need you right now?”
“They will be fine! I could move faster without them weighing me down and I could survive on the way there.”
“I wouldn’t have left them. We have strength in numbers. It sounds like leaving them was more because of your personal want to survive rather than theirs.”
“I disagree. Dead weight, regardless of who it might be, is still dead weight. If both their chances of surviving and mine were simultaneously increased by splitting up, then what is the big deal?”
“Do you hear yourself? Who abandons those closest to them for their own survival?” I knew Jason wasn’t a bad guy, I mean he is my brother. But I didn’t agree with his coward survival tactics. “You should have stuck together.”
“I rather know they are safe and not have them weight me down.” He continued to talk about them like they were a nuisance or luggage.
“But you don’t actually know they are safe because you are here with me.” I said, in an attempt to make a point.
“So are you.” He successfully made his.
“I didn’t have a choice. You did.”
“Yeah, I did. My choice was to stay alive. Why is that a problem? They’ll be fine.”
“Whatever, what happened next?” I said when I became annoyed with the whole conversation and Jason’s overall lack of sympathy for our family.
“Well, I saw you drive by. I was walking alongside the highway when you passed right by me, at first I didn’t know it was you but a ride is a ride and I kept on the road with hopes that I’d catch up when you stopped to camp out. I walked till I saw the car parked outside with a few of the infected out there and I went into the gas station to warn you. It’s once we came face to face that I noticed it was you.”
“So does this mean we’ve been heading the right way to The Hills?”
“Are you telling me you didn’t know where you were going but somehow managed to be on the right track?”
“I guess so?” I said surprised that I wasn’t as lost as I thought.
“That’s the luckiest thing I’ve heard since daylight.”
“So where do we go now?” I asked.
“If we follow the highway it should drop us off at the exit that leads to The Hills. The problem is that I don’t know how long from now that is. The drive alone is a whole day’s worth. You gave the car to a mob of infected so we are walking whatever is left. ”
“So we have some extensive walking to do.”
“Yeah, tell me about it!”
To hope for some miracle similar to the motor bike that Daviel and mom took wouldn’t be the wisest way to proceed. We had to tough it out and camp out a few nights too. There was no way to know how long the trip was going to be.
“How far do you think the infection has spread?” I asked Jason.
“I’m not sure how far it spread, but I do know that within a few hours of the outbreak almost the whole state was overrun. Based on that, it’s safe to say the country has gone under,” he replied. His head tilted down while he gave it further thought.
While we walked through the woods howls tore the silence apart. Its echo rippled through the woods and into the open air where it might have reached the infected. Jason immediately stopped in his tracks and extended his arm to stop me too, his palm against my chest applied enough pressure to stop me whether I tried to walk or not. The seconds that followed took place in a realm of their own; no sound or movement existed here. All we did was wait for something to come next. Another howl, I was ready to jump into evasive action, but Jason still did nothing. He continued to listen to the call of the wolves. On the third howl the wolf was joined by another and together they sang their song in harmony. Jason turned to me and took the lantern from my hand.
“We want to find shelter soon and quietly. The wolves know where we are and they are getting a pack ready to hunt us down. That’s why they are howling. We need to leave now!” he said with a loud and clear whisper.
“How do you know?” I asked curious to know how or when he became such a wolf expert.
“The discovery channel!” he replied before he took off into the woods, in search of somewhere to stay till the pack of wolves forgot us or gave up.
I followed him with trust that he thought of some sort of a plan in case of an attack but I doubt that was ever true. As far as I knew, we expected to survive on hopes and dreams and the unlikely possibility that we’d find a safe place somewhere in the woods.
The howls stopped for a bit and the return of the silence assured us temporary safety. We kept our own silence to avoid being tracked by the wolves again as we made our way through the woods. Constantly we checked behind us in case the wolves stalked us quietly while they waited for their opportunity to attack.
I realized how cold it was when I managed to relax a bit. Winter nights weren’t the best times to decide to travel isolated forest-like woods that lined up with abandoned highways. I failed to notice the cold for most of the daylight and through most of the night. The outbreak messed with my basic functions. To forget being cold might not seem like a big thing but the cold was one of the many dangers we fought against. If hypothermia set in at any moment, without a place to warm up, death would become certain. Luckily I was dressed
to survive the cold and so was Jason. It wasn’t something to worry over yet, although that sort of forgetfulness was a sign of severe stress.
Before I knew it, Jason and I made it a couple of extra miles without a pack of wolves on us, there was still no place to stop and wait for daylight.
Growls rose from the darkness and shook Jason and me into a state of panic and fear. The wolves still stalked us after all. We failed to notice them because they used the woods to camouflage themselves. The lack of grass, because of the season, assured their silent movements wouldn’t be muffled and untrained human ears could still catch smaller sounds like dry leaves breaking. They were all around us.
By this point, growls of multiple wolves surfaced. They were ready to attack.
“RUN!” Jason yelled at me, which effectively sent me into a sprint behind Jason who ran ahead of me.
Wolves came out of their hidden locations; some jumped out from behind trees and dried up bushes while others that blended into the dirt and boulders in plain sight, left their camouflage to join the chase. I could barely see Jason ahead of me, but I tracked the flame in the lantern and followed that.
To not get caught by the wolves while I tried to keep up with Jason, I jumped over fallen trees, dashed around the ones that still stood, and turned as often as possible just to keep them at a far enough distance so they couldn’t lunge at me. I cut through the air like a newly sharpened knife.
The wolves around me kept to the shadows, but I still tried to be aware of where the wolves were which was when things went the wrong way. Some barked, some growled, I ran, others howled. Approximately six wolves behind me, when I managed to get closer to Jason, he had as many wolves chasing him, but because I was also behind him, the wolves that followed him were technically in front of me. This took a few moments for me to realize. It left me with wolves both in front and behind, they would not attack one at a time. Regardless of what was ahead, because of what was behind I wouldn’t be able to stop without being turned into some nutritionally challenged wolf meal.
Up ahead, Jason was caught on some vines and fell to the ground. He dropped the lantern and on its way down it hit a large rock and broke into a million pieces (give or take a few), and once again a sheet of darkness fell over me. The light, the guide, abandoned me and left me to the wolves…literally.
I yelled as loud as I could and for as long as my lungs allowed me to in my attempt to get a response from Jason and use that to locate him in the darkness.
“JASON! WHERE ARE YOU?!” I never ceased my race away from the wolves but the darkness was too thick to identify anything. The little bit of moonlight over the woods covered the unlit areas with blankets of shadows. Nothing was a solid figure till you came face to face with it.
“JASON!” My search served no response or reward. I managed to find the exact spot he fell before I lost him, but he was no longer there. I got caught on the same vines he did and just like Jason, I fell to the ground which allowed the wolves to catch me, unable to escape. I tried to remove the vines from around my ankle and the wolves used the opportunity to surround me. They circled me repeatedly and phased in and out of the dark as they walked around.
I frantically struggled to get the vines off of me, when the wolves realized this one of them lunged to bite me and successfully broke through my jeans;its teeth went straight into my calf. The pain shot up my leg and took over my whole body, I could no longer think straight. Another one of the wolves attempted to bite me too and missed my shoulder by mere centimeters, although it still managed to catch and tear through my jacket and shirt.
I repeatedly kicked the face of the wolf that locked onto my leg till it faced no other option than to let go. When the wolf finally let go, two others from the pack attacked from the same direction. I kicked aimlessly to scare them away and the wolves went back into defense. It gave me enough time to get up and run from them. Because of the pain that came from my leg I moved much slower than I did before, but I still fought through and blocked off as much of it as I could. Thankfully, they didn’t break any bones or ruin any nerve that I could tell while I ran. The adrenaline that coursed through my body allowed me to ignore the pain with more ease and focus mostly on the escape.
My persistence allowed me to build yet another gap between the wolves and me. Anything more than a few feet in front of me went virtually invisible but that was enough range to be sure I wouldn’t trip again.
The wolves were more cautious now than they were before. Because I fought back, they knew I would hurt them if I could, so they kept their distance from me but also kept me in their sights to wait for the best time to make their next move.
Being chased relentlessly by wolves, in the darkest black night, in the middle of nowhere, dilemma? During a zombie apocalypse, I am the one person in the world that can’t deal with just zombies. No, I deal with bored and hungry wolves. Little to do was left other than run without a destination and I did not plan to quit until my body gave out and it was time to meet my maker, which looked as though it would happen soon enough.
Something came from ahead. It was a few hundred feet in the distance but my eyes adjusted to the dark. It was an open area in the woods. A small field with no trees in it which allowed the moon to paint its light over the dirt that made up the area. If I was to have any chance of survival against the wolves’ attack, I would need to see them. A little hope came over me and I slightly adjusted the direction in which I ran to head towards the open area. The closer I became the more my heart pounded in excitement.
The wolves seemed to slow down the closer I was to the light but I didn’t notice this immediately. The field was small. It was just big enough for the moonlight to illuminate, no more than two hundred or three hundred feet of open ground before the woods continued on the other side. All I did was make myself a more visible target for the wolves. I didn’t know what I expected on my way to the field.
In the middle of the field I prepared to fight the wolves with my only weapon, the knife. I looked around ready to fight but no wolves stood around. They spread out in the shadows outside the field to surround me. I kept my mind clear and my focus on sight and sound as I scanned the area.
The wolves stopped their growls and their barks again and I took this as a bad sign. Either something bigger and more dangerous scared them away or they were ready to make a move. I hoped they became bored and left me alone, but something made me doubt it would be that easy. As I prepared for my last stand I noticed on the side opposite to which I found the field there was a wooden cabin right where the woods continued. I wasted no time or thought before I reacted and sprang into action. I made a run for the cabin.
The wolves dashed out of the woods and made their final run at me. A few of them came at me from the front. I was ready for anything and as they came close enough to attack and did so I dodged accordingly. The first wolf jumped at my right arm and I dodged left. The next two came from directly in front of me and my left; I dodged right then left to avoid them both. The wolves I dodged from the front slowed down the ones behind me when they slammed into each other and scrambled to get up and back into the chase. I was nearly at the cabin but since it stood under several trees and inside their shadows, the front door wasn’t in view. This was not going to discourage me though; I made my way there regardless and hoped I would find it when I reached the cabin.
Once I was close enough the true small size of the cabin was revealed, approximately the size of a bedroom, and the door was at the far left. At the door, I touched around in search of the doorknob. The wolves closed in as I found the knob. I ran inside and closed the door behind me. The wolves slammed into the other side of the door like large bullets shooting at me and scratched it as they tried to get inside.
There were no windows for the wolves to break in through but that also meant no way for me to check when it would be clear and safe for me to leave the tiny cabin. The wolves continued to bark and scratch the door. I thought their failed scratches were muc
h less resourceful than huffing and puffing till the wooden cabin came down, but I wasn’t going to rule that out yet; not with everything else I thought impossible being fact.
I wished for some bricks; not to build a brick house and be safer, but to knock wolves out and escape. All I had was a kitchen knife to fight off a whole pack of wolves with, fantastic. And the little light bulb in my head lit up. The light wasn’t bright enough to allow me to see inside the cabin, but it would help me see outside. It made sense to use the knife to cut a hole through the wood in the cabin so that I could look outside and know when it was clear. This way I wouldn’t have to open the door and risk another encounter with the wolves.
I grabbed the knife and stabbed at the same spot in the wall repeatedly. While I cut a hole through the wall, piece by piece, I couldn’t help but to chuckle at the thought of a light bulb implanted inside my head so I could at all times see in the dark. A bright idea would always light the room up.
The new mission was to find a way to lose the wolves and track Jason down in the woods. The wolves became quiet as I tore through the wall with progressively more ease. They were probably focused on the sound the knife made against the wood. Blindly but surely I made it through the wood. After some time I managed to get to the point I wanted to and made a hole big enough for some of the moonlight to fill in the darkness of the cabin and see outside. By the time I made the hole, the barks completely stopped and the wolves no longer scratched at the door. I looked outside through the hole to know if the reason it became so quiet was because they gave up and left, but the wolves were still outside. They no longer tried to get inside for a reason far worse than boredom. Out in the woods, from every side, there were dozens of shadows in the shape of people on their way out of the woods and onto the field. But those weren’t people anymore. I knew what they were; they were the infected that followed the howls and barks of the wolves.