by Dulaney, C.
The force of the impact knocked me off my feet and into Zack, which knocked him backwards and we both crashed to the floor. I didn’t know what hit me, but I knew my nose was broken. At least I’d kept hold of my gun, which I automatically pointed straight ahead of us and began firing blindly. Zack was trying to squirm out from underneath me. He finally gave up and just wrapped one arm around my waist and started pulling us both backwards, kicking and scooting with his feet and legs. I kept firing even though I couldn’t see a damn thing; my nose hurt so bad my eyes were completely filled with tears. Whatever Zack was pulling us away from must have been bad, or scary, or both, judging from his incoherent cussing and yelling, and the frantic way he jerked and pulled on me.
“Kasey! Kick! Now!”
I certainly wasn’t in a position to argue so I did as I was told. I stopped firing long enough to kick straight out with my leg, putting all the force I could muster behind it. Whatever I hit made an awful, guttural noise and fell back. I heard it land with a thump just as Zack kicked himself out from underneath me and jerked me to my feet. I still couldn’t see so I let him lead me by the hand through the store. I didn’t know which direction we were headed, and we kept stopping every so often so Zack could fire off a couple rounds behind us. I remember asking him once what was after us, but he didn’t answer, just told me to keep running. It couldn’t be a deadhead, because there was no stink and the damned thing was moving too fast. By now we’d all learned their smell, and knew immediately when there were any around simply from that.
Finally we came to a stop and Zack shoved me down to the floor against something spongy, like bags of bread. I took off my coat while he kept firing his gun, then used my shirt to wipe my face. The walkie was making a racket in my jacket pocket, but shit was happening too fast for me to answer. I didn’t even know what was going on really. After I dried my eyes and got most of the blood wiped away, I squinted and looked around. Things were still fuzzy. Zack was in front of me, crouched down on one knee, firing over and over until his clip was empty. While he ejected it and loaded another, I glanced down the aisle in the direction he’d been firing.
“What the fuck is that?!”
I jerked my gun from its holster and opened fire on what I thought were three crazy, half-naked assholes. Assholes who were also missing chunks of flesh. Their guts weren’t hanging out (like that was a comfort), and they were wicked fast for being dead. Just as fast as normal, living people. I couldn’t let my mind go there, couldn’t think that these were indeed zombies, but new ones.
Fast ones.
One was swinging a baseball bat around like he was Shoeless Joe or something. At least now I knew what had broken my nose.
It just wasn’t possible.
What was possible, however, was getting our asses torn apart and killed right there in the IGA if I didn’t get my head back into the game.
Zack began firing again, and since I had opened up, he settled himself down and picked his shots carefully. He hit two of the things between the eyes, dropping them flat. The third kept coming and was almost on top of us when I finally lucked out and nailed him in the forehead. It fell forward with its arm outstretched, and landed with its fingers touching my boot. We held our fire and listened for more of those things. That was it. There were no more. I was breathing so harshly I was starting to get dizzy. With my gun gripped in both hands I stared at Zack, who in turn stared back at me, and was unable to speak for quite a while. The radio snapped me out of it finally, so I kicked the thing’s hand away and climbed to my feet. My nose hurt like a bitch and my vision was still blurry, but I could see that Zack wasn’t injured, just in shock.
“Kasey, answer me! We’re comin’ in!” Jake’s voice screamed out of the walkie.
I swallowed hard, my throat making that clicking sound, and answered him as steadily as I could. Zack was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying not to puke.
“Jake, this is Kasey. We’re alright. Just get back to the stockroom door, we’re almost there.”
I finally got a good look at our surroundings and saw Zack had led us in a big loop around the store. The swinging door leading to the stock room was right in front of us. For a moment, I was too afraid to go through.
What if there were more of those things back there?
“C’mon, we need to get the hell out of here.” Zack kicked the door open. We wasted no time in getting to the back. He kicked that one open too, afraid to holster his gun.
I couldn’t blame him.
* * *
We were all but running as we carried load after load out to the packhorses. Nancy and Mia stayed outside to keep watch, both armed with rifles, and Zack, Jake, and I scavenged as much as we could and as much as the horses could hold. We’d quickly filled them in on what we had encountered, but of course Jake said we couldn’t leave until they’d had a good look at these “men.” After we finished loading the horses, Zack and I stayed outside while the others went in for a look. It didn’t take them long to come to the same conclusion we had: new zombies. The when and how, we’d have to discuss later. The day was getting away from us and we needed to get moving, especially in light of this new development. I didn’t want to be caught out in the open after dark. It was also safe to say we wouldn’t be sleeping under the stars anymore.
“First the church, now this,” Zack muttered while we waited and he fussed over my nose.
I couldn’t be certain, of course, but after what we had just experienced, I was positive that church was bursting at the seams with deadheads-that-should-not-exist. I’d definitely had enough crazy for one day.
Gus whined at my feet again, spotting the other three coming out of the stockroom. Their faces were pale and Nancy looked like she’d been crying. Zack and I mounted up and waited for the others to get over their initial shock before getting the horses moving. Everyone was quiet, riding up Main Street at a slow trot. I’m sure I could guess what was going on in all their heads. If it’s not one thing, it’s basically another. I didn’t dare think, what else can possibly go wrong? Lots of things could still go wrong.
That’s how we were all feeling at that moment: Like regular deadheads weren’t bad enough!
The Z-Plan had contingencies for fast zombies, I would have been an idiot not planning for those. The one detail that was shared between those few contingencies was settling down in a good, defendable location. We’d have to rethink our plan for rescuing Shannon and Kyra.
“It’s thirty-three miles to Blueville,” Nancy said after we hit the main road and started west. This seemed to open the situation up for debate, because everyone began offering their opinions, talking over one another, and generally annoying the hell out of me.
“Guys!”
Daisy jumped underneath me, which I found odd. She wasn’t a bit skittish around deadheads, but me talking loud scared her. Everyone quieted down for the moment and waited for me to continue.
“We’ll ride straight through ‘til Blueville, even if we have to ride the horses hard to get there before dark. That doesn’t happen ‘til around seven, and it’s noon now. We should make it by then. Once we find a place to spend the night, we’ll figure this out.”
This seemed to satisfy them, and we rode in silence for several miles before falling into friendly banter. The only thing that gave it away as not being a normal ride on a sunny afternoon was the way everyone kept darting their eyes around while they talked, constantly keeping watch on the surrounding area, guns drawn and ready to fire.
* * *
“You really need to let me take a look at your nose,” Nancy complained.
We’d passed a few farmhouses along the way, none of them seeming like a good place to settle down for the night. If we didn’t find something soon, we’d just have to deal with a less than favorable position and hole up. I didn’t know what we would find in Blueville, so I was hesitant to spend the night there.
“It’s fine, Nancy. Just hurts is all.”
I’
d managed to clean most of the blood off my face with Zack’s help. He’d said it wasn’t very crooked and looked fine as far as he was concerned. But it was swelling and still throbbed like a mother. Nancy sighed and turned her attention back to the road. Jake and Zack were riding scout about fifty yards ahead of us. They’d wanted to go farther, I didn’t feel comfortable splitting up like that again, so a compromise was reached. Gus had apparently gotten over his fear of the horses and was trotting alongside me. I didn’t take that as a very good sign.
“About three miles to go,” Nancy said.
She stuffed the map back into her saddlebag and double-checked her rifle. I heard Mia doing the same next to me. I was about to grab the walkie and instruct the guys to head over to a house I’d just spotted off to our right when the air filled with shouting. I jerked my head around and saw several men jumping out of the brush and trees along the road and pointing weapons at Jake and Zack. The three of us automatically raised our rifles at the men, but the guys were already surrendering and holding their hands and weapons up. Made sense, we were outnumbered. I still kept my sights on the head loudmouth, the one who had approached my people and was shouting orders.
It wasn’t long before the men started pointing and gesturing to us. Nancy and Mia looked at me, Gus growled, and I cussed under my breath. The head loudmouth began striding towards us, his weapon aimed at me, mine still aimed at him. His men had lowered theirs and were standing close to Jake and Zack. Not so close they could be downed with a swift kick to the face, close enough they could put a bullet between the newcomers’ eyes if they had to.
“Kasey…” Mia began.
“Gus, stay,” I told him.
The approaching man came to a stop a few feet in front of me. He was clean, looked well fed, and was dressed in camouflage and boots. He didn’t really look like a criminal, or a psycho. I’d been wrong before.
“Lower your weapon, ma’am,” he said.
“How about you lower yours first?” I countered.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see both Mia and Nancy looking back and forth between me and this man. They’d already lowered their rifles. Way to back me up, guys.
“I won’t ask again, ma’am. Lower your weapon before someone gets hurt.”
Since I was the only one still pointing a barrel at these guys, I figured I might as well do as the man said. It was also getting dark, and the things we’d seen earlier were worse than these guys could ever be. I sighed, took another hard look at the men surrounding Zack and Jake, and lowered my rifle. I set my jaw and stared at the man in front of me, who had lowered his weapon immediately. He seemed relieved I had done as he’d requested; he held his rifle casually in one hand hanging at his side and put his other on his hip.
“Thank you. Now, who are you people and where are you headed?”
I thought about lying to him, but my thoughts came back to the issue at hand. It was dusk and we needed to get the hell out of the open. These guys looked as though they’d been taken care of, so I assumed they were from Blueville. If that was the case, we could kill two birds with one stone: get to our destination before dark, and stay relatively safe with a group of decent-looking folk.
“We’re travelers, and we’re headed that way.” I pointed down the road behind him.
He glanced at his men, then raised an eyebrow at me. “If you’re going that way, then you’re coming with us. But listen, we don’t want any trouble. You look like honest people, but you’ll understand if I don’t take your word for it. You’re welcome to stay the night with us. We’ll feed you, give you a place to sleep. Then you can be on your way tomorrow. If that’s satisfactory to you, then hand over your rifles. You can keep the sidearms I’m sure you’re all wearing. But you should know this: if you start something, or even look like you’re going to try, we shoot first and ask questions later. Understood?” He wrapped up his speech by sliding the sling of his rifle over his shoulder and crossing his arms. I had to admit, I was impressed.
“Yessir. Now let me tell you something.” I leaned forward in the saddle and rested both my arms on the horn. “We’ve been on the road a helluva long time, mister. We’re tired, we’re hungry, and we’re not in the mood to be threatened. So if you or your buddies try something, or even look like you’re going to, we shoot first and say the hell with the questions. Now, am I making myself clear?”
It was a ballsy move, and thankfully Mia and Nancy didn’t try to argue. The man looked shocked at first, then tilted his head in a nod.
“Crystal, ma’am.”
He led us to the others, who then proceeded to retrieve their horses from the woods, take our rifles, and fall into position around us. From what I’d seen so far, these men seemed experienced at this sort of thing. They almost reminded me of military.
“Are you sure about this?” Zack asked under his breath, falling in beside me.
I chanced a quick look around; the men didn’t seem threatening. They were simply riding along with us, their guns raised, and keeping an eye not on us, but on the surrounding area. The Mouth was in front talking into a walkie. I assumed he was informing someone back in town they were bringing home some stragglers.
“Yeah, I think we’ll be alright. And you can’t blame them. We’d react the same way if the situation was reversed, and you know it. Let’s just focus on staying safe tonight. We’ll figure out the rest later,” I replied. Jake, Mia, and Nancy kept glancing at us as I spoke. I gave them a firm nod, ending the conversation and turning my focus on the encroaching darkness.
* * *
“What’s going on?” Jake asked. I just continued riding along, except now all my senses were on high-alert.
Instead of riding into town, the men had led us off the main road and onto what seemed to be a well-maintained secondary road. I had no idea where it led; we hadn’t studied the map that well, only enough to know where Blueville was. The Mouth was still riding casually, his men didn’t seem to be getting excited or anything of the like, so to someone who didn’t know better the situation would appear to be innocent. Except we did know better. There were more dangers in the world now than just deadheads, some more sinister and twisted. For a moment I almost fell into thinking of the old stereotype that had been used over and over in movies: The backwoods cannibal who kidnaps a group of naïve tourists, then takes them back to his cabin deep in the woods. I chuckled to myself after I realized that was the sort of horseshit that always pissed me off in the pre-Z days, and I’d be damned if I was going to believe it now.
“Hey, where are you taking us?” I finally spoke up to the guard next to me. He shifted in his saddle and propped the butt of his rifle against his hip before answering.
“Someplace safe, ma’am, outside town. Don’t you be worrying about a thing, we’ll be there soon enough.”
For some reason his answer wasn’t reassuring.
I glanced to my left and shrugged lightly at Jake, who proceeded to look to his left at Zack, then twisted in his saddle to glance back at his grandmother and Mia. Gus was trotting along between me and the guard, seemingly satisfied with our situation. That did give me comfort. If he wasn’t afraid of these men, maybe we would be okay.
We started up a banking curve in the road and noticed the skyline ahead of us was lit up. There was some sort of large complex just on the other side of a grove of trees. From our location we couldn’t yet see what it was, though the closer we came, the more details we could pick out. There looked to be a high, chainlink fence just on the other side of the trees, and something curly stretched along the very top of it. I knew what it looked like, but I didn’t let myself believe it. Not yet. Once we reached the top of the embankment, the road stretched out before us for another seventy or so yards, ending at a very large and very intimidating series of gates.
“Holy crap…” Jake uttered. I seconded his surprise with a grunt.
There were two guards posted at the outer gate, and two more at the inside gate. One of them threw up the
ir hand in greeting as we rode through the stand of trees, then smiled and slung his rifle as The Mouth rode up to him. The men surrounding us had come to a stop, forcing us to rein in as well. That was fine with me; I was too engulfed with what I was seeing to pay much attention to them anyway.
“Holy crap,” Jake said, this time loud enough for the others to hear him.
Each one seemed to have their own exclamation over what was in front of us, but I simply sat and stared. Gus ran ahead and jumped up against the other guard, the one not talking to the Bossman. He patted him, said a few words, then brushed him away and went about opening the gate. I found my voice and called him back to me, watching as the big gate was slid back by some sort of pulley system. A wide open meadow spread out on the other side of the inside gate (I estimated roughly a hundred, a hundred and fifty yards), and in the middle of this was a huge complex of stone and metal—a series of buildings, all attached, and all heavily fortified. Along the edges of the roof at different points I could see more armed guards, and a series of spotlights positioned around the building, all facing out to light up the surrounding open grassland.
It was a prison, and a highly functioning one at that.
“Did you see this on the map?” I asked Nancy.
She simply shook her head as pure relief crossed over her face. Mia was smiling her crooked smile, the guys were both watching me intently. I held their hard gaze for a long moment when The Mouth called for us to follow him. The men who had escorted us this far hung back and waited for us to clear the gate before following. It was just coming dark, and I noticed the gate guards packing up their gear and locking up the gate for the night. Once we made it through the inside gate and began the long ride towards the prison, I twisted around in my saddle and saw that all four guards were indeed following us on foot. I nodded to myself and figured they only stood watch during the day, but at night they locked up and went inside with the others. Smart idea.