It hurt like hell. The metal sides pinched his body and his weight rasped hard on the bottom of the opening. His jeans caught on something and came down, taking his underwear with it. There was no way to haul them up; he was at the mercy of Austin’s strength. Zaley put her hands under Corbin, which took a little of his weight off the metal. Her left hand pushed up into his flank much harder than her right.
“One big pull,” Austin whispered, and jerked Corbin through. His flesh felt like it was peeling off, but he was in. And half naked. He hauled up his underwear and jeans, which had gone all the way down to his knees.
Elania gasped, “He’s coming!”
The zombie was crawling slowly over the bridge. Micah was down in the water, on the far side to make it difficult for the guard to see should she rouse herself to look over. But it was also slow going for Micah, who was crossing the river in the darkness and staggering. Corbin was far too aware of what was making her stagger.
“Uhhhh.” It ended in a rattle. The bridge creaked and moaned in sympathy.
“Come on!” Corbin whispered. Water splashed as she forced herself along, passing the zombie who saw her and grunted. He didn’t like the sound of the disturbed water, and lashed out at her though he was too far away to land a strike. Once more she staggered, this time almost sending her under the surface.
“Go! Get out!” Micah whispered.
“Get the fuck over here!” Corbin demanded.
She passed the crawling zombie and climbed up onto the strip of grass. Ducking under the railing, she jabbed her stick out in warning at the feral man. Corbin reached out for a fistful of Micah’s shirt and pulled her back. She forced in her head and arms, all of them yanking at some part of her. Like Elania, she got caught at the hips.
“Uhhhh.”
“Oh shit, he’s got her leg!” Elania whispered. Micah thrashed, sliding the wrong direction as the zombie tugged at her. Bracing themselves on the panel, Corbin and Austin yanked. Zaley dove down to work at Micah’s hips as Elania pulled at her jeans.
Micah let out a choked cry. The zombie had sunk his teeth into her leg. Everyone yanked as one and she slid into the tiny room. The head of the feral struck the panel and forced him to let go. He swiped at her shoes too late.
They backed up in panic as he stuck his head and arm through the gap. Blood was dripping from his chin to the ground. “Go! Let’s go!” Austin said.
“Uhhhhh.” The hand extended for them. Reclaiming his bow, Corbin drew an arrow and shot the creature in the head. The arrow buried itself above his ear. It didn’t go deeply enough to kill, and he came in further with it sticking out of his head.
Zaley led them down the corridor in a silent rush. Micah was limping, her jeans torn and blood running down her leg. The feral had taken a bite out of her like she was a tasty steak.
At the end of the corridor was a big kitchen, and a dining room packed with tables. The only light was coming from nightlights along the walls, Zaley’s flashlight, and moonlight streaming in through the windows. Another building was out there, many of the windows alight and posters visible on the walls.
They had gotten out. But now they were in a Shepherd camp.
From the other end of the corridor came an echoing uuuhhhhh and sounds of scrabbling. He was still trying to come in. Zaley bypassed a bank of microwaves and refrigerators for a door. Opening it, she peeked around and motioned them through to a driveway. There were dumpsters in a line along one wall, and three parked golf carts in the drive. The smell was worse than anything else over the last weeks, a combination of the rot from the hill, the warring scents of air fresheners, and decaying food. Despite it all, Corbin was still hungry.
“No, not Bonko’s! I’m fucking sick of that place!”
Zaley clicked off the flashlight and pushed them to the dumpsters. They crowded into the darkness as two guys came around the corner. Plopping into one of the golf carts, they backed out. The scent of booze was heavy around them. The cart turned in a pool of light from an overhead and aimed for the path. As it traveled away, Zaley whispered, “Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” Corbin asked.
“There’s usually a quiet period around midnight. Everyone who is going out has gone out; they don’t stagger back until two or three. Those guys decided that they were too tired to go out and were just going to go to bed. They were discussing it in the rec room. That’s in the barracks over there. Guess they changed their minds.” The golf cart rumbled around a crook in a path and disappeared. “Okay, I need to get the car from the Shepherds’ parking lot. You guys are going to run straight out of here.” She pointed north and passed Corbin the flashlight. “You’ll cross two paths. Be very careful going over them. The guards use those to get back to the barracks. Past that will be the street. I’ll pull up and you guys load in. Watch for a car with flicking lights.”
“Why didn’t you just leave the car there?” Micah asked.
“Are you kidding?” Zaley asked incredulously. “Do you know what it’s like trying to park in San Francisco? I could either spend six hours wasting gas and looking for a space or spend six hours trying to bust you out of a confinement point.”
“And I’m going to give you a big old not-gay kiss for that,” Micah said, and kissed Zaley’s cheek.
“Uhhhh.” It was closer. The feral had gotten into the kitchen.
“I hope he bites every motherfucking one of them. Stay here until I’m gone,” Zaley said, and headed for the path.
A male voice shouted, “Spitfire!”
Stopping abruptly, Zaley turned around and called out in cheer, “Hey, why the fuck is everyone hating on Bonko’s tonight?”
A dark-haired guy appeared and settled his arm over her shoulders. “Aw, I’ll go with you!”
She laughed and pressed her hand to the guy’s chest. “No, I just want to know why they’re hating. I got my heart set on going there tomorrow.”
“Then where are you off to now?”
She linked her arm through his and smiled flirtatiously. “You’re walking me to my car, and I’m heading off to see my folks.” They walked down the driveway together, Zaley answering an unheard question. “Naw, they’re up all hours, my parents. Total night owls. They’d be madder if I showed up in the afternoon when they’re sleeping. Figured I’d drop in since I can’t call them, let them know I’m doing fine and still not going to college. I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon since I got a shift.”
The guy took her hands and stopped walking to swing her back and forth. He thrust his pelvis lewdly, saying, “Let’s ba-donk-a-donk at Bonko’s first!” Zaley laughed wildly and let herself be turned in a circle. They continued on to the path, arguing about hitting Bonko’s for just one dance or having a good long time there tomorrow night with some nice cold margaritas.
The four of them slunk out from behind the dumpsters. Corbin whispered, “Do you think she needs help?”
“Corbin, we need help,” Micah said.
They walked to the edge of the dumpsters and peered around the wall. No one was coming along the path that ran out to the west, and there wasn’t anybody in the part of the barracks they could make out to the east. They sprinted through the pool of light to the darkness and Corbin turned on the flashlight.
“Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh!”
It was coming from the hill. Now they had a view of the other side of the watchtower, the ladder leading up to the platform and no one standing there. At any second, a passing Shepherd could notice that Bitch was slacking off on her duties. Or someone would come across the feral in the kitchen and sound an alarm. They had to get out of here now.
Going fast through the trees, they came to the first path and Corbin clicked off the flashlight. All four of them hid until they were certain that no one was coming. Then they crossed the path and climbed a short slope into trees. No sooner had they done so than the whine of a golf cart interrupted the quiet. It was the two guys from earlier, the driver saying, “-can’t believe it’s closed. Everywhere
fun is closing!”
“Twolee will be open,” the passenger said. “Let’s just grab some shots at the bar and head back, I’m wiped out. You got duty early?”
“Wasp is such a dick. He always puts me on-”
When the whining both vocal and mechanical petered out, Corbin snapped the flashlight on. They walked past picnic tables and benches. A shopping cart was tipped over on its side, spilling garbage over the ground. The breeze rustled the plastic bags, which were trapped under the cart and caught in bushes. The sound stopped them temporarily until they realized it was benign. Of the two signs posted in the area, Corbin whispered, “Anything important?”
“The park is closed beyond this point for repairs and trespassers will be prosecuted,” Austin said. “That has to be for the hill. The other one says the path is guarded.”
“I didn’t see a guard,” Corbin said. Perhaps that was only for day when the park had visitors. No one was around now.
At the second path, they waited to listen and watch. Something was nosing around in a bush, a dog or cat, and they didn’t budge until it was silent. On the other side, they climbed a flight of stairs up a modest hillside. The crest was just a few feet long. Then it was a downward sweep to a road. Cars were parked all along the curbs.
Corbin had returned to civilization. It was surreal to see the painted lines on the road, the cars and the stores across the street. No one was driving with flicking lights. There was enough light without the flashlight on, so Corbin turned it off. They went down the slope and slipped over the wall to the sidewalk below.
“We should have stayed up there to hide,” Micah whispered. The wall was too high to climb back up. Slipping away from the overhead light to an area in greater shadow, they stared at every passing car. Very few were on the road.
Come on, Zaley. Corbin’s blood was racing in his veins. People were walking on the opposite sidewalk, laughing and chatting. Some of them entered a dance club. Colorful lights flashed inside. That was Bonko’s. All around it, the businesses were dark. One was a Mexican restaurant and his stomach growled audibly. A supreme burrito packed with beans and cheese, rice and beef . . . chicken soft tacos beside a big pool of refried beans . . . enchiladas and chili con carne . . . He had never been so famished.
Another store had a smashed window. So did a lot of the cars along the curb, and the one in the brightest light had flat tires. The door to Bonko’s flew open to release a drunken guy and a spill of house music. Stumbling down the sidewalk, he laughed at nothing and pumped his fist in the air.
A car came down the slow lane and flicked its lights. Austin leaped off the sidewalk to wave at it. They loaded inside in record time, Corbin in the front and everyone else in the back. Zaley ordered them to stay out of sight, and for Corbin to lean over like he was sleeping. He tucked his arm under his head to hide his neck. The car was pretty clean on the inside, but it smelled of old food and was dusty.
This was all a dream, and he was about to wake up in the lodge. If that happened, he would run to the fence and die.
The car moved smoothly along the street. It was weird to be in a car. Zaley pulled over into the turn lane and went west. Bonko’s boomed with music and the Mexican restaurant was really closed, not just closed for the night. Corbin whispered, “Where are we going?”
“We can’t cross the bridge tonight,” Zaley said. “There are tons of braces in our way. So I rented a motel room for us to hide out in.”
“You’re not old enough to rent a motel room.”
“I paid in cash. It’s not a nice motel.”
The car rolled up to a light and they waited for cross traffic to go by. It was impossible to slouch with his eyes shut; he had to see the world after so long. “That gas station is closed, too.”
“A lot of shit is closed. Things are getting bad fast,” Zaley said. “It’s twelve bucks plus a gallon, and only half the stations are open. The Middle East has gone to hell and so have we.”
To hear her voice was an unspeakable relief. “Who was that guy on the path?”
“Meerkat? He’s an asshole who’s got the hots for me and pops so many pills that I don’t know how he gets it up,” Zaley said off-handedly. The uncustomary crudeness just rolled off her tongue. That was weird, too. The light turned green and she pressed on the accelerator. They wound through the streets and she pulled into a Best Cost parking lot.
The motel was humble, a rectangular yellow building with two floors’ worth of closed doors under arches. She steered around to the back and parked. A man was getting ice upstairs. They waited for him to finish. As soon as the door closed behind him, Zaley said, “Get out.”
People were chatting on the other side of the wall that ran around the parking lot. Elania left her pole in the car, but Corbin brought his bow and arrows along. He refused to be parted from the only weapons he had.
Zaley jammed a key into the lock of room 27 and ushered everyone into the darkness. She lifted the DO NOT DISTURB sign from the inner doorknob and transferred it to the outer once the last of them was in. After doing the three locks, she hit the lights. “Sorry about the one bed. It was all I could get.”
There was one king-sized bed with a natty mauve comforter in the center of the room. The headboard had cigarette holes. The floor lamp was ancient, illuminating the institutional orange armchair and footstool beneath it. A television was mounted on the wall. Upon a little table was a blue envelope. The room sucked and it was perfect.
Zaley looked embarrassed as they took it in and that was whom Corbin knew, not the wild, swearing girl but his shy Zaley who had just done the incredible and was now ashamed that she hadn’t done better. “Your backpacks are in the closet,” she said. “There’s a bag of food in there if you’re hungry.”
“Can I hug you now?” Austin said tremulously. Looking down at his filthy clothes, he shook his head. “Maybe later.”
“Oh, Austin,” Zaley said, and hugged him anyway. She led him over to the table and gave him the envelope. A birthday card was inside. Austin began to sniffle, and then he sat down hard on the armchair and cried. Corbin hadn’t known that it was April. In the confinement point, time wasn’t measured in months or weeks but seconds.
Micah and Elania shared the bathroom, the former to mop up the bite on her leg and the latter to shower. The reek of their bodies permeated the room. Feeling too dirty to lay on the bed, Corbin sat on the carpet. Austin slid down to join him there and Zaley flopped into the armchair. Corbin wanted to touch her, but he had to shower first. Watching Austin and Micah touch her had made him flinch. They were crawling in Sombra C from the hillside.
Wiping his eyes, Austin said, “Is this real?”
“I’m wondering that, too,” Corbin replied.
“It’s real,” Zaley said, and laughed. “Oh my God. I didn’t think that had a prayer of working, not really.” She stripped off the Shepherd vest and flung it across the room.
Corbin’s stomach twisted. “Did you say food?”
“I did. It’s not-”
“Zaley, it’s food!” He hustled to the closet.
The bathroom door opened. Micah stood there in her filthy underwear. Blood was smeared all over her leg. “Do we still have that first aid kit?”
Corbin found it for her and the door closed. There was a second sink and mirror outside the bathroom. He hadn’t noticed that earlier. A stranger stared back at him. He washed off his hands thoroughly, turning the white sink brown as the filth peeled away. Once his arms were clean to his elbows, he washed off his face. He looked stupid with facial hair. If the motel amenities included a razor, it was coming off.
Just a mile or so away, the ferals were pounding on the lodge. He was going to open his eyes and be there, under the sofa or up in a tree. Desperate, he stared at his reflection to hold himself to the motel. Don’t wake up.
Something thumped in the bathroom and Elania called, “Micah? Micah! Someone help me! She fainted!”
Zaley and Corbin brought her to th
e armchair. The risk of Zaley catching Sombra C from the blood was too great, so Corbin opened the first aid kit and applied antiseptic to the deep half moons of teeth marks. If she hadn’t been wearing jeans, she would have lost a sizeable chunk of flesh. Micah had to keep an eye on this injury. She couldn’t catch Sombra C again, but it could get infected.
“Sorry,” Micah mumbled. “I’m just hungry.”
“I’ll get the food,” Zaley said. She brought over a loaded grocery bag. “It’s random stuff, the stores don’t have much.”
“I expect caviar,” Micah whispered as Corbin fixed a bandage over the bite.
It was random: two boxes of cereal and three boxes of granola bars, a bag of chips, dinner rolls and string cheese, and pre-made salads. At the bottom was a fat deli chicken that had warmed everything in the bag. It was so fat that it filled the tray and the drumsticks pressed on the plastic lid. Corbin and Austin attacked it, ripping free the drumsticks and taking big bites. Not unless Corbin was starving would he ever eat a microwave meal again. Those belonged to the confinement point.
Tearing away meat from the breast, Zaley offered it to Micah. She swallowed it almost whole and said, “Dammit, I can’t call you baby any more.”
“You can,” Zaley said as Austin glared. “I’ve always found it very motivating.”
Corbin ate every last bit of meat from the drumstick and pulled off a hunk of the breast for himself. The bathroom door opened and he called, “Elania, come fast, there’s chicken.” She was there in a snap, dressed only in a towel. When the breasts were gone, Corbin flipped it over and the four of them ripped into the thighs. They stripped it to a bare carcass and moved on to the string cheese.
As they ate, Zaley remade the bed so they could sleep on it crossways and all fit. It was stuffy in the room and she put on the air conditioner, which started up with a rattle. Footsteps thumped in a room upstairs. Corbin waited for a scream to follow the thumping, his brain suspended between the motel and the confinement point. The scream never came. He ate three sticks of string cheese and polished off a dinner roll. No one touched the salads.
The Zombies: Volumes One to Six Box Set Page 106