by David Rogers
It was slow going, slower than she liked, but progress was progress. Candice kicked some, which helped a little, but Jessica did most of the work. She fixed her eye on one particular tree pretty quickly and used it to track her position against the current’s efforts to float her downstream. She was willing to accept a certain amount of side slipping, but she didn’t have to fight against it nearly as hard as she’d feared.
Still, Jessica was starting to tire when she neared the far side. She stopped, treading water and stroking against the current, and carefully studied the bank. It was as tree lined as the one they’d just left, but the moon was still out, and she had pretty good vision at this point. Her eyes were well adapted to the conditions, and the river actually helped by giving a clear space with no shadows, and even reflected a small amount of light up against the trees.
“What’s wrong?” Candice asked.
“Nothing.” Jessica said, making her voice soothing. “I’m just checking before we get out of the water.”
“For zombies?”
“Yes, for zombies.” Jessica said. The river bank looked quiet, without even any squirrels or whatever running around. She swam the rest of the way in, until she felt ground beneath her feet again. Standing on her good leg, she got the bat loosened from her purse, then waded forward a few steps.
“Is this shallow enough for you to stand in?”
Candice’s fingers relaxed their death grip on the purse strap. Jessica turned, prepared to assist, but Candice found her footing quickly and stood without help.
“Good girl. Come on.” Jessica limped forward. Even after she left the water it was harder to walk now. Her clothes, especially her jeans, were holding a lot of water. She felt much heavier, and that scared her a little. Speed and separation were the only things that kept you safe from a zombie. She instinctively feared anything that altered that dynamic.
“I’m cold.” Candice said.
“Nothing we can do for it except keep walking.” Jessica said calmly. “Walking will help keep you warm, so let’s go.” She wasn’t concerned, the night was warm enough to prevent any problems. Candice was just afraid.
‘I’m afraid too.’ Jessica told herself.
“How far are we from Doctor Morris’ house?”
“I’m not sure honey.” Jessica was having to pay more attention to walking, limping, now. Her wet clothes had significantly altered her balance, and she didn’t want to fall. And her knee was absolutely killing her. Then something else occurred to her, and she swore. “Oh shit.”
“What?”
Jessica was silent a moment, thinking. The paper she’d given Candice . . . that was probably useless now. “I want you to memorize something for me, okay?”
“What?”
“Where we’re going.”
“I’ve got it written down.”
“Sweetie, the water probably ruined the writing. So just listen, okay?” Jessica recited Dennis’ home address, number and street name, in Johns Creek, and made Candice repeat it back to her seven times while they walked. “Don’t forget that, okay?”
“Just in case?”
“Yes, just in case.” Jessica nodded, then started as she heard sounds from up ahead. They were a little distant, and not loud enough to be truly alarming, but she was certain they were gunshots.
“What was that?”
“Someone’s shooting.” Jessica said absently. Normally she’d be unhappy to hear gunfire, but right now that might be a good sign. If, of course, it was people shooting at zombies, and not people shooting at people. And unless there were a lot of shots, which, either way, would indicate something really bad was happening in that direction.
But there were only a handful a shots, at least that she could hear. The echoes of the last one faded, and no more sounded. Jessica pondered that for a little while, using it to distract her from the pain in her knee. The uneven ground, even with the baseball bat, was making it hard to keep from jostling her bad leg. And if a dip or a rock or some other ground level obstacle caught her off balance, she had to press harder on her left leg to avoid falling.
That just made her knee hurt worse. Jessica realized she was starting to pant a lot, using rapid breaths to try and fight against the agony. With the exertion of walking she realized that might lead to hyperventilation, and if that happened at best she’d have to stop to catch her breath. At worst she could pass out. Either would be bad. She didn’t hear anything that sounded like zombies nearby, only hers and Candice’s footsteps, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any around. She could never assume there weren’t some nearby.
“There’s a road.” Candice said, and Jessica blinked. A jet of cold fear shot through her when she realized she’d allowed her attention to drift away into a sort of fugue state. Bad, bad, very bad. She shook her head and peered through the trees. They were thinning out a little, and she could see a black stretch of asphalt up ahead.
“Anything around us?” Jessica asked quietly, terrified at her lapse in concentration.
“No, I’m still checking.”
“Good girl.” Jessica said with relief. “I’m so proud of you. You’re doing really good.”
“I’m still scared.”
“Yes, but you’re still brave too.” Jessica smiled.
“I – being brave sucks.” Candice said after a moment.
Jessica almost laughed, but stopped herself just in time. She was afraid the distraction might make her fall over. She settled for another smile. “I agree. But it’s gotten us this far.”
“I know.”
When they reached the road, Jessica allowed herself to pause next to one of the trees at the edge of the tree line. She used the moment to try and even her breathing out, and looked around, trying to think past the pain in her knee. The road looked vaguely familiar. To the left she thought she recognized Highway-120, maybe a quarter mile away. On the right she saw a street branching off to the north, and past that this road starting to curve around north as well.
“Where are we?”
“I think we’re on the south side of Doctor Morris’ neighborhood.” Jessica said slowly. Two years ago she’d managed to take a wrong turn as she left his house, and spent a few minutes ‘lost’ in the neighborhood’s winding streets. She’d eventually found Highway-120 again and had only then realized she was south of the turn off from 120 she normally used to get to Dennis’ house.
“So which way?”
“This way.” Jessica said, regripping the bat and stepping out. If she was where she thought she was, it wasn’t far. And, fortunately, the road was clear of anything, zombie or otherwise. She led the way across, taking her time and remembering the bat was far less stable as a cane on the hard asphalt. Though off road was more painful to walk on with her bad leg, grass and dirt perversely gave much more solid support when she leaned on the bat.
They plunged back into the trees on the far side of the road. Less than fifty feet in Jessica saw houses off to the left. Jessica knew immediately they had to be where she expected, and didn’t bother veering over that way to check for a street sign. Dennis lived sort of in the middle of the neighborhood. She kept going, limping past a second set of houses shortly after the first, then a line of them on the right.
When she saw fenced tennis courts ahead on the right, barely visible through the trees, she wanted to jump and scream for joy. They were close. You could hear the balls being hit from Dennis’ back porch when people were playing, and if the courts were there, then . . . yup. On the left was the man-made lake that Dennis’ house backed up against. He had one of the best lots in the neighborhood.
“We’re almost there.” Jessica said, trying to keep her voice even. She didn’t want to celebrate until she knew they were safe.
“Are you sure?” Candice asked, sounding doubtful.
“I’m pretty sure.” Jessica said. Before she could say anything further, a gun went off up ahead, much closer than the previous shots had been. It was very loud. Jessica flinch
ed violently and had to reach for a tree with her right hand to avoid falling over. The gun fired several times. Whatever was being shot at didn’t object that she could tell; there was no screaming, and nothing seemed to shoot back.
“I’m fine.” Jessica said, only gritting her teeth a little, when Candice stepped up next to her, little face upturned anxiously.
“Come on, you said we’re almost there.” Candice urged. “Just be brave.”
Now Jessica did laugh, clutching at the tree for balance. “You’re right. But you’re also right that being brave sucks.”
“Let’s go.” Candice said, tugging lightly on Jessica’s damp sleeve.
Resisting the urge to go too fast, Jessica hobbled on. She changed course when she saw they had reached the northern edge of the little ‘lake’, which was really just an attractive puddle of water. A couple dozen feet after she altered to the left, she saw house roofs jutting up through the trees. Now she did go faster, wincing with every step, but unable to keep herself from walking quick enough to need to use her left leg more.
Jessica recognized Dennis’ house out of the three that were in front of her immediately as she drew level with the last of the trees. It was large, even compared to the rest of the neighborhood. Jessica didn’t handle Dennis’ personal finances, but she saw all the numbers at the practice. Unless his personal spending habits were insanely proliferate, he could easily afford to live just about however he wanted.
His house reflected that. It wasn’t fair to call it a mansion, but it was definitely a house worthy of a little envy. Jessica usually had some when she came here for one of Dennis’ holiday parties, but never more so than now. Right now it looked like Heaven. It was lit up, and not just from within. She frowned a little. That was odd.
There were big flood lights setup on the upper level of the sprawling three tiered deck of the back porch, right next to the gas grill that was bigger than the front of her Accord. Two more lights were out on the back lawn, pointed away from the house to illuminate the grounds. Every window in the house seemed to have light streaming out from it. The houses to either side of it were dark.
As Jessica pondered this oddity, several things happened in rapid succession. First, she noticed a dark shape moving on the second level of the porch. Second, a gun went off. And third, she heard a bullet zing past and hit a tree somewhere behind her.
Jessica startled badly and fell down when she tried to dive for cover. As she went to ground she managed to reach for Candice and drag her down as well. Her left knee hit something hard, something harder than mere dirt or grass, and she screamed again. Her knee hurt so much, it was bringing tears to her eyes. She could feel them squeezing out of her eyes in big fat drops, pain fueled and icy-hot with terror. It took enormous effort to clamp her lips down to stop the need to keep screaming.
“Who’s there?” a voice called out.
Jessica was gasping, trying to stop her panting breaths. She couldn’t seem to get a handle on what her knee’s specific complaints were, it just kept protesting insistently that it hurt, hurt, hurt! But she was able to still her thrashing a lot when she heard Candice shouting.
“Stop shooting at us!”
“Who are you?”
“Ask . . . Doctor Morris.” Jessica got out around gritted teeth, rolling onto her side. Maybe if she got off her front and got the knee up into the air it would hurt less. Yeah, that was the ticket. Perhaps touching it was what was making it hurt so much right now, the weight of her body, of even her leg, pushing it down against the ground.
“We’re looking for Doctor Morris’ house.” Candice yelled.
“Why?”
“Talbot.” Jessica gasped. “We’re . . . Talbot.”
“My mom is Jessica Talbot, and he told us to come here.”
Jessica’s hands were hovering over her knee. She wanted to clutch at it, to try and squeeze the pain out, but she was afraid to touch it. Even the feel of her damp jeans on it seemed to be too much. She settled for starting to fumble for the knots in the folded UGA banner.
“Mom, what can I do.” Candice was asking.
“Off.” Jessica gasped. “Bandage . . . too tight.”
Candice’s fingers pushed Jessica’s aside, and she started trying to loosen it. Jessica realized she couldn’t hear anyone else talking, nor was there more shooting. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know.” Candice said, her voice edged with panic again. “This is too tight. I can’t get it loose.”
Jessica’s vision was starting to get a little dim, as black spots swirled before her eyes. It wasn’t Candice’s fault, but as she tugged on the bandage, it was pulling on the knee, and that hurt. Then she saw a shape appear above Candice, above and behind her, looming over them both. Her hand fumbled for the holstered pistol as ice folded in around her heart from all sides.
“Hey now, none of that.” a male voice said, bending down and reaching to put a hand over hers before she could draw the gun.
Candice screamed and fell over sideways in shock as the man reached down past her. Candice scrabbled sideways across the ground and Jessica saw a knife appear in the man’s other hand. He was wearing all black, a shirt and pants that both had lots of pockets, with a thick, bulky vest over the shirt that had more pockets than the shirt and pants combined. The knife had been drawn from one of the vest pockets, up high near the shoulder.
“Please.” Jessica begged, struggling against his hand to try and get the gun out. They were so close. It wasn’t fair.
“Calm down. You’re going to get hurt if you don’t stop thrashing around so much.”
“Leave my mom alone!” Candice screamed, suddenly hurtling in from the side. Jessica had a single instant to be afraid for her daughter, with that big knife in the man’s hand, and a second instant to be amazed at Candice’s courage. She wasn’t even a fifth of the man’s size; she was so tiny and small and frail next to his height and bulk, but she launched herself into him with both hands balled up into fists and flailing about as she hit at him.
The knife was gone. Jessica couldn’t see it anymore. She was momentarily afraid that was because it had been used to stab Candice. But while Candice was shrieking and yelling, it was in anger and fear, not pain. The man was grappling with the ten-year-old like she was a wildcat. His hand left Jessica’s as he struggled to deal with Candice, and with both arms he was able to quickly wrap her up in his.
That left Jessica free to finally get the pistol out, and she clicked the safety off as she brought the gun up. “Let her go.”
“Calm down.” the man said, his voice even. “I’m not going to hurt either of you.”
“Let me go!” Candice yelled, wiggling as she tried to slip out of his grasp.
“You’re right.” Jessica said. “Let her go or I’m going to make sure of it.”
“Don’t shoot.” the man said, and he turned slowly. Jessica blinked at him, her thoughts dulled by the pain still radiating outward from her left knee, and before she could recognize what he was doing, he’d put Candice between himself and Jessica. She raised the gun automatically, trying to draw a bead on his head, but he ducked down a little so she couldn’t see enough of him to be sure of a good shot.
“Someone get Doctor Morris!” the man shouted.
“Why?” a different voice called back.
“Just do it!” the man shouted back, his tone annoyed. “Now!”
“Let her go.” Jessica said again, though she knew she wasn’t in a good position. She couldn’t see where she could shoot the man except maybe in one of his legs, and that wouldn’t really help her any. He’d still have his hands on Candice, and he looked strong enough to twist her daughter’s head right off without much effort. And, Jessica realized as her eyes continued roving over what she could see of him, he had a gun of his own.
His was black. It was in a holster on his left thigh, and she could tell from the hammer and back end that protruded out around the holster and the straps that it was an automa
tic like hers. Beyond that, and the fact that it was black instead of shiny steel, she was clueless. But it was definitely a gun. And just because he hadn’t pulled it out yet didn’t mean he wouldn’t.
“You need to calm down.” the man said, his voice even and calm once more. “I can tell from your face, from your expression, that you’re hurt. Probably in shock. I know from experience what a lot of pain can do to your ability to think clearly”
“Who are you?”
“Austin. My name’s Austin Carter.”
“Why are you here?”
“I work for Tyler Morris.”
Jessica blinked. Before she could try to parse that answer, she heard Dennis shouting from somewhere nearby.
“Jessica? Jessica, is that you?”
“Dennis?” Jessica called back, a surge of relief flooding through her.
She heard feet pounding on wooden steps, then the dull thudding of someone running across the grass. Candice stilled her struggles, but Austin didn’t release her. His face remained calm though, continued to look at her without malice or anger. Moments later, Dennis Morris ran up next to her.
“Jessica, why are you pointing a gun at Austin.”
“You know him?” Jessica asked carefully.
“Yes, he’s helping us.”
“He pulled a knife.” Jessica said, trying to find an explanation that wouldn’t sound ridiculous.
“I was going to cut off the wrapping on your knee.” Austin said, his voice still nice and level. “Which is swollen enough that the wrap has to be hurting like hell.”
“Jessica, just put the gun down.” Dennis said, and his tone was the one Jessica heard so often at the office. It was the one he used on patients, the one that said he was the doctor and knew what he was doing. The one that promised everything would be okay if you’d only trust him.
Jessica lowered the gun slowly, then clicked the safety on. She drew a breath that shuddered despite her best effort to keep it even. Austin opened his arms, and Candice scrambled away from him immediately. Austin stepped back, moving with a surprising amount of grace, and Dennis took his place at Jessica’s side.