by David Peters
Dylan tipped his hat to the group, “Sorry folks but it looks like there was more to this party than we bargained for. Safe travels to you but we are leaving sooner rather than later.”
Niccole met Erica’s eyes as they rapidly walked past the group. There was a pleading there, a begging in those eyes. Niccole stopped and as she stared at the young woman, she mouthed the words “take me”.
“Looks like Erica is leaving with us too.” Niccole stated firmly.
Gus stepped out of the RV and shook his head, “No, no, that won’t be happening. She is quite happy here. She has come to be like a daughter to me.” Gus started walking towards Erica.
The ground in front of Gus’s feet jumped as Niccole sent two rounds from her pistol into it, “I wasn’t asking you if she was coming with us, I was telling you she was coming with us,” said Niccole, her pistol now pointing at Gus’s chest.
“Hey, no need to get violent, take the scrub, doesn’t talk anyway,” Gus said as he moved over to his lawn chair, waving a dismissive hand as if to be done with the three, but clearly admitting defeat. “You people have some serious problems. You might want to seek out some counseling or something.”
Niccole backed away with Erica behind her until she reached Dylan, who had his rifle covering the group. As if to add his own contribution to the scene, the Hunter let out another long and loud cry, shaking the remaining three sane people to their very bones. Erica felt like she was going to bolt while the four sitting in the lawn chairs laughed as the Hunter scream droned on.
Dylan helped Erica get comfortable on the saddle behind Niccole then mounted his horse. Both horses took off at a gallop as they left the scene behind them.
Dylan and Niccole turned west then south up the hillside. He was pushing the horses hard but he wanted to get as far from the rest area as he could in as little time as was possible. When they reached the top of the ridgeline, the Hunter let out another cry. Dylan and Niccole turned to look back down the valley, and in the fading light they saw movement far down the road. From the looks of it, the Corrupted rescue their own. Several Hunters were galloping down the freeway. Each would stop occasionally, holding its head high as it smelled the air.
Erica leaned close to Niccole’s ear and whispered, “Thank you,” and didn’t speak again.
The light faded as Niccole and Dylan followed the ridgeline south. Neither of them looked back again. They were behind the schedule they had made and would ride all night to put as much distance as possible between them and the Corrupted in the valley. They didn’t know how well the Corrupted could track horses and weren’t going to give them any measure to find out.
--2--
They put enough ground between themselves and the rest area that they were unable to hear anything later in the evening. They rode on well past twilight. Neither wanted to stop out of fear that Hunters would be smart enough to track the horses in the darkness.
Erica was quiet during the nighttime ride. Niccole seldom noticed the passenger unless a particularly rough patch required her to hold on tighter or if she suddenly startled as she drifted off to sleep.
They continued south through the thick woods, expecting to come out onto a logging road that would allow them to travel the rest of the way to Paradise Falls on dirt and gravel instead of rough brush and forest undergrowth.
It was nearly four in the morning, and both Dylan and Niccole were falling asleep in the saddles.
“Dylan, we need to take a rest, this is too much for the horses and for us. If we fall asleep the horses may be inclined to double back.” Niccole said tiredly.
“I hadn’t thought about that. Let’s cut over to that field,” Dylan pointed to their right at a wide open moonlit field.
While Erica slept on a blanket they laid out, Niccole and Dylan tied the horses up and set up their camp, “Do we want a fire?” asked Niccole.
“Let’s hold off until morning, I still feel too close to what is behind us,” Dylan said through a yawn.
They woke Erica long enough to have her lay down in the tent with Niccole. As tired as Dylan was, there was no way he was going to fall asleep with so many of the Corrupted nearby. In reality, they were nearly ten miles from the rest stop and had crossed a few streams and several valleys. He thought a blood hound would have issues tracking them but the image of the monster in the RV was still haunting his thoughts.
Dylan had his jacket rolled up under his head and dozed lightly outside the tent. He never intended to fall asleep but it overtook him regardless. He was unable to get any meaningful sleep. Even the slightest noise would wake him. He finally realized the horses would react to the predators before he could ever see them and dozed off completely.
The three slept until well after dawn. Dylan had gotten just a few hours of sleep but felt surprisingly rested none the less. He walked the perimeter of the open field they had camped in and spent a little time gathering some wood for a small fire.
It took him nearly an hour to gather the wood and get the fire hot enough to cook with. The small camp coffee maker was making its happy percolating noises and filling the camp site with an overall homey feeling when Niccole stepped out of the tent and stretched. A few moments later Erica came out of the tent fairly bleary eyed and took a place on the ground next to the fire. Dylan and Niccole watched her, both hoping in their own ways that she was ok.
The petite young girl was absently flicking small bits of grass into the fire. She still seemed extremely distant to the adults. Niccole held the small coffee pot up to offer her some; Erica shook her head and looked back into the fire.
The three of them were quietly enjoying the still morning when Erica spoke, “They are a lot smarter than you think you know.”
Dylan was startled by the comment, Niccole reacted, “What do you mean by that Erica?”
“They are smart, they caught my family and I as we left Portland.”
“How so?” asked Dylan.
Erica continued without actually acknowledging that she was answering his question, “I was with my dad, mom, and the neighbor working our way through all of the stuff in the streets. The city was trashed. My mom said it looked like my room.” She smiled sadly at that then continued. “It isn’t so much that they wreck stuff and all. They just change things into how they want it, you know?”
“Anyway, we were slowly driving around all the junk in the road when my dad saw a man lying in the middle of all these wrecked cars. He looked like he was really hurt, reaching up for help or somethin’. My Dad got out to look and as he knelt down to talk to the man he exploded in fire. It looked like something out of a nightmare. The guy on the ground just exploded on him.”
“My mom jumped out to help and they came from all directions. They had actually waited for someone like us to come along. They tore my neighbor apart; I will never forget his screams. They were eating him while he was still alive” tears were starting to form in her eyes, but this had needed to come out. She had seen something, and like a sliver in your finger, it needs to come back out, or it will fester.
Erica paused for a moment as she attempted to continue. Niccole could see that this was difficult but necessary for her to say.
“They grabbed my mom and me, different kinds of things; they didn’t look like that black one in Gus’s RV. They looked different, more people like but not people. They were kind of hunched over and their faces were all messed up. They carried us down to a big warehouse by the river. When they took us inside the building it was like going to another planet. The smell was horrible. It was like something really big died. I kept getting sick. I think I passed out for some time.”
“When I woke back up I was stuck to the wall. There were so many people just like me, all the same, all stuck. The room was really dark but there was a window in the ceiling that wasn’t completely covered. There was a tall one,” Erica looked up at Dylan “what did you call them?”
Dylan was entranced and spoke quietly, “The Corrupted?”
“Ya, there was
a tall Corrupted, a lady type kind of thing I guess. I don’t know if it was really a she, but it felt like it, ya know? She would walk along and look at all of the people. Like watching someone shopping for stuff at a store. Sometimes she wouldn’t like what she saw and would say something to one of the smaller Corrupted following behind her. They would pull the person down and take them away screaming or a Hunter would just bite them and leave them there to turn into something else. She could talk, seeing her made me even more scared if that is possible.”
She was crying now, tears openly flowing as she continued, “When they got to my mom, they took her down and dragged her away like the others. I know they killed and ate her, I just know it!”
Niccole moved over to comfort her. As Erica buried her head into Niccole she went on. “Then the tall one was in front of me. She leaned so close I could smell her. She had the dead animal smell but it wasn’t as strong. There was something really sweet too. It’s hard to describe, kind of like sweet metal. Like a penny and sugar, you know? She talked to the smaller ones around her, I thought they were going to carry me off too, but they didn’t, she looked me in the eyes and said something in their gross language then smiled. She smiled at me! I can still see that freak thing when I close my eyes! I hear her voice when it gets too quiet!”
Erica cried for a few minutes, “People kept coming in and out of the room, some would stay, and some would get carried out screaming. I never saw anyone old stay and almost every guy I saw was bitten by the black Hunter things. I don’t know how long I was there, it felt like forever. The stuff I was in was like Paper Mache, you know, the stuff you played with in school? I started picking it off and eventually had enough of me uncovered that I could break free. Those Corrupted that I talked about, the ones that looked more people like? They like, fix stuff I guess. But when I was trying to get out, they acted like they couldn’t see me.”
Her crying had slowed, and the anger began to appear, “When there were no workers in the room, I broke the rest of the way out and tried to find a way out of the building. Somewhere along the way I had found a small piece of pipe. I didn’t even remember picking it up, but one of the worker things tried to grab me but he moved really slowly. I hit him until you couldn’t tell what he was anymore. I just kept hitting him,” she trailed off and remained silent for a few minutes.
“I don’t know how long it was, but I finally just dropped the pipe and ran. I had been running for what seemed like forever when I looked behind and saw that black thing chasing me. I ran across the freeway and that is when Gus hit it. I thought it was dead, but it was still breathing. I remember looking at it and passing out again. They were well on their way south to the rest stop when I finally woke up. I couldn’t believe they had that thing with them. I kept arguing with Gus to dump the thing but he wouldn’t listen. He finally told me he was going to tie me up with it if I didn’t ‘shut my pie hole’. I didn’t like the way he looked at me.”
She seemed composed enough that Dylan asked “So they had a leader? Did it seem organized, like did she tell the others what to do?”
Erica looked at Dylan, “The whole time I was in that warehouse, I felt like I was in a big, dead smelling bee hive. So yes, they seemed to be organized.”
She was still leaning on Niccole, who looked down, “How old are you sweetie?”
“I will be seventeen in December.”
Dylan and Niccole looked surprised, they had both thought she was older than that but they weren’t sure how old. Even after you scraped all the grime and gunk off of her they didn’t think she would look that young.
“Do you know why this happened? My parents were good people, my Dad would never pass a chance to help someone, always said that karma was on our side and stuff, what comes around goes around, stuff like that. Look where it got him. My mom was too strict but I loved her.”
“I don’t know sweetie. We have both lost friends and family to these monsters. We are heading to Dylan’s brothers place, hoping it hasn’t been touched by this.”
“Can I go with you? I don’t know what to do, I don’t have anyone left. I don’t eat much. I can help with chores and stuff” Erica was sobbing in desperation.
“You already are,” Dylan smiled, “At this point, I think we are in this together. We’re hoping to be at his place before the sun sets tonight.”
Erica calmed while Niccole held her. Dylan and Niccole exchanged knowing looks. This young girl was amazingly strong; she had seen her parents taken away and still had the courage to go on.
“We don’t exactly know what is going on right now Erica,” Dylan said quietly, “but we know we want to keep going, find a place where we can live happily and safely. Is that something you can live with?”
Erica sat up and looked at Dylan; she nodded agreement, but said nothing as she wiped her drying eyes.
As Niccole rocked her slowly she spoke quietly “The three of us are a team now. We will get to safety one way or another, ok?”
She simply nodded.
They talked quietly for another half an hour as they broke camp and got ready for the final push to Paradise Falls.
Dylan circled the campsite once to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind then they rode out of camp.
They had been riding for about half an hour, Dylan and Erica on his horse, Niccole on hers with the bulk of the lightweight gear, when Erica broke the silence.
“I don’t understand what planet those RV people are living on. They acted like the whole thing wasn’t real, even though they saw it for themselves. I can’t thank you guys enough for getting me away from them. They didn’t want to believe anything they saw. I still wish them well though.”
Dylan and Niccole looked at each other; she hadn’t seen what they had seen moving down the road that late afternoon. The Hunters darting in and out of the trees, a small mass of the grayish blue Corrupted walking quickly down the center of the road. It was an organized group with the obvious task of rescuing a fellow Corrupted.
Dylan thought to himself, what do you say to a child in her place? The world had become an extremely harsh place in the last week, and here was an innocent child desperate to hold on to something.
Dylan said as honest sounding as he could, “I’m sure they are fine, they will come to understand things and move on.” Sometimes we all have to change the reality around us to get through the day.
Chapter 8
Erica was a lot livelier after having the breakdown earlier that morning. They talked about where they came from, what they did in their former lives, but nothing too deep or too serious. Erica was working at a home improvement store in the garden department. Before everything went to hell she had planned a career that involved plants, trees, and generally not killing them.
Dylan slowed their pace, “When we crest the next ridge we should be able to see the main entrance to Paradise Falls about half a mile away across the valley.”
The three became extremely quiet as they climbed the steep hill to the top of the ridgeline. The fear continued to build the closer they got. Not one person knowing if they would see an active town or a smoldering ruin. Once there they had their first solid look at the small village.
At the top of the hill they had a spectacular view of the valley below as it stretched for miles to the north before it blended back into the mountains. Paradise Falls covered quite a large area that curved around the hillside and away from their view. The main entrance was at the end of a logging road that wound its way up the hill from around the other side of the mountain. There was a large gated wall where the road entered the town. They could just barely make out two figures moving on the wall. They could see the large building near the entrance that worked as the town hall, and several buildings surrounding what passed as the town square. All in all, it had a rustic, ‘Wild West Meets the Apocalypse’ look to it.
“Good sign that it isn’t on fire. That’s a first for most of the towns we have seen,” said Dylan, trying to lighten the
mood and failing.
Dylan swung down off the horse and took a long look through the binoculars, “I can see people milling around and they have a kind of barricade fence I don’t remember from last time. It’s pretty beefy too but it looks like it has been burned, or had something burning on it. There are a few tents set up inside near the town square and in the open field behind it. I say we head on down and introduce ourselves to the town folks,” said Dylan happily. He mounted back up and they started the trek around the ridgeline to the front entrance of Paradise Falls.
As they made the slow trip, Dylan described his last visit with his brother some years ago, “Paradise Falls is laid out in a large oval. At the center of town is a fairly sizeable open square with a large bronze bell. They used it to notify people of town events, emergency meetings, things like that. They have a multitude of shops around the square; they have a smith, a baker, who made some incredibly good cinnamon rolls I might add. They have just about everything you could want from a small town. The back third of the town’s useable hillside was reserved for housing and farming. I remember walking through the crops, it seemed like nearly every member of the community raised some sort of crop, from potatoes to various fruit trees. They have a well, solar, and even a small water wheel that ran a generator. When I was last there, they had a total local population that stood around three hundred and fifty people on the low side, with another fifty or sixty migrant workers that would pass through occasionally. It was really a nice town. I liked it.”