Merv was out front, already gassing up two quads as I ran down the front stairs.
“You ready to go?”
Merv replied sheepishly, “Just finishing up here, and we’ll be ready to head out.”
“You better not be screwing with me, Merv. That’s my family in there. They are counting on us to find these doctors, and they better damn well be able to help.”
“Oh, I know. My wife and kids are still here, Chris. I would never do anything to endanger either of our families.”
“Well, a week ago, I wouldn’t have expected to find out that you’ve been lying to all of us since you got here, so forgive me if I’m a little skeptical of your trustworthiness at the moment.”
“I understand, Chris, but you have to know that in these times, no one can be too careful about who they trust. When my family and I arrived here, we had no idea who you all were just as much as you had no idea who we were. You know probably better than all of us that everyone you meet who is still alive in this mess could be a threat. The dead are the only things out there that seem to tell the whole truth these days.” Merv replied as he put the now empty gas can on the porch.
“I get it, but you have to understand that if you’re taking me somewhere other than where I can find a doctor to help my family, you won’t be coming back.”
With that horrible statement hanging in the air like a cloud of thick smog, we both sped off for the front gates. The first gate opened and closed behind us before the second began to open. I looked back towards the cabin and said a silent goodbye to Abby, hoping that I would be back with help soon. I glanced over at Merv, “I’ll follow you since I have no idea where we’re going.”
“Before we get into the thick of it, let me tell you the basic directions, so if anything happens, you can still get there.”
“Let’s hope nothing does happen to either of us, but I agree, let’s plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
“Well, the quickest route is to make our way to Route 23 South. We take that until we hit 284 North, then once we get to route 565, we take Hales Hill Road all the way to the gates. The last I saw, they were expanding the gates to include a larger portion of Glenwood Lake, so if you make it to the lake, you’re sure to meet up with someone from my last group. The person we’re going to ask for will be Dr. Emily Nasser. She used to be the head of Obstetrics at some hospital up in New York state before the dead took over.”
“Well, let’s not keep Dr. Nasser waiting.”
The front gate was finally open, and there were no dead in sight, so we both took off down the long dirt drive that led us to something that resembled main roads that were paved. There were a few of the infected stumbling around the trees, but most were slow and severely decayed.
I followed behind Merv as closely as I could, dodging old wrecked cars and other debris the recent spring storms had brought in. There were trees down everywhere. It’s impressive to see what happens to the outside world with no humans to clean it up. Nature was slowly taking back what humans had stolen from her.
I checked my watch, and we had only been riding for ten minutes before we saw our first larger pack of the undead. There were about thirty at the base of a large tree at the side of the road. They hoarsely moaned as they clawed their dead hands in the air reaching towards what appeared to be a family of raccoons. Some were distracted by the noise of our vehicles as we sped past them, but most of them ignored us for the promise of a furry trash bear dinner. The stragglers that broke off to follow us were nothing we had to worry about since they were virtually skin and bones. The undead were definitely not as big of a threat as they used to be. Most seemed they had been turned during the first few weeks of the outbreak. Those infected had been exposed to a brutal Northeastern summer as well as a harsh winter. It was a true testament to the virus’ power that the infected were still upright at all after all this time.
It had been a few weeks since we saw the last quick zombie that seemed to be a recent victim of the plague. I guess this long into the outbreak, there just weren’t that many humans left alive. That made our mission to get doctors to help Abby bring two babies into this world that much more critical.
The sun showed brightly through the trees as we sped along the broken highways until we were nearing the end of the directions I remembered from Merv. As we exited Route 565, the sky became darker. It looked like we were going to be stuck in the middle of an unexpected spring thunderstorm. Who the hell am I kidding? We don’t have weather apps on our phones anymore, so every storm is sudden and unexpected.
The wind picked up blowing debris across the already battered pavement. I was dodging a cluster of tree branches when a mass of the undead came into view. I was thankfully able to stop in time so I didn’t plow into the back of Merv on his quad when he saw the same cluster of infected and came to a full stop. They were surrounding an ambulance of all things. We parked the quads and Merv pointed to a three-car wreck that had long been burned out, so the cars were only metal shells of what they once were. I followed him in jogging over to the destroyed cars and taking cover, so we weren’t seen by the aggressive moaning pack of monsters.
Merv pointed to the ambulance. “That’s the same ambulance the community was using when I was there. They used them to transport supplies from the main building to the smaller outposts they had been constructing to expand the settlement. I bet people from the Wawayanda group are stranded in there. We have to help them.”
Smiling, I replied, “Well, that’s why I brought my rifle now, isn’t it? Can you try and create a diversion away from the ambulance? There are too many of them for me to pick off and I’ve seen you with a gun, the bullets would be wasted. The more of them you can get drawn away, the better.”
“Sure. I’ll try to lead them back up the way we came and double back. I’ll have you know; I’ve been practicing and getting better. I’m not that bad with a gun.”
“Yeah, well, let’s not give you any more practice for the moment. We need all the ammo we’ve got so we can get back to the cabin as soon as possible with the doctors in tow. Now get out of here, would ya?”
“I’m going,” Merv muttered as he turned and ran for his quad.
I watched as Merv grabbed a flare from his pack, lit it, and began waving it and screaming for the undead to follow him. I have never seen the heads of the infected turn so quickly and in virtual unison. The newer infected were fast, and Merv realized just how many of these new ones were in the group surrounding the ambulance as they sprinted in his direction. Merv’s face turned white as he realized this was not going to be as easy as he had hoped. He took off on his quad at full speed back the way we came.
I hid as most of the infected gave chase rushing past me. It seemed as if only the more emaciated of the infected stayed behind at the ambulance. It was as if they knew they were never going to catch Merv on the ATV, so they decided to stay with the possible meal that wasn’t going anywhere. If these things were now making intelligent decisions, we were all going to be in a whole new world of trouble.
I had my silencer on my rifle, but I still waited until I could no longer hear Merv’s engine before I began to pick off the undead with headshots. If they were making decisions, I didn’t want to chance it that the newer undead had better hearing and could spoil my efforts of having a distraction in the first place. I’ve learned that you never can be too careful in this new shitty world.
There were only ten infected that stayed behind, so ten shots, and we now had ten dead zombies littering the pavement around the ambulance. I gently knocked on the back door to the vehicle and whispered to the occupants, “Hey. You inside. It’s safe to come out. I’ve killed the undead, and I need your help.”
There were some muffled noises from inside that sounded like talking, and a few moments of silence before I got a response, “How do we know you won’t hurt us as soon as we open the doors? What guarantee do we have that you aren’t going to just steal from us?”
“
I told you I need your help, why would I want to hurt you? Listen, does the name Merv Thompson mean anything to you?”
“Merv? Is he okay? We haven’t heard from him in a while, and we were getting worried about him and his family.”
“Well, I think I hear him coming back now, so you can ask him yourself,” I replied as I backed up to allow the doors to swing open.
The smell from the back of the ambulance as the door opened was enough to make me want to throw up, and I’ve smelled some nasty stuff in my day. Blinking away the bright sun, three people slowly emerged from the back of the dingy rescue vehicle.
Using my t-shirt to cover my nose, I asked my new companions, “How long have you been in there? It smells like it’s been a while.”
The smallest person in the group spoke up first. She was a short brunette, maybe 5’2, with a mousy voice, but something about the way she carried herself told me she was no mouse. She stuck her grime-covered hand out to shake mine as she spoke, “I’m Dr. Emily Nasser. This is Captain Dr. Lynn Madison, and this is Mr. Owen Miles. We’ve been inside the back of the ambulance for the better half of today, and unfortunately, our situation did not allow for sanitary means of restroom facilities. Plus, one of the ghouls found its way inside the cab, and we were swarmed before we could shove it out of the truck.”
I looked at her muck-stained outstretched hand and decided to give her a quick fist bump instead. My reaction made her smile. The big, bad guy with the gun didn’t want to shake the dirty hand of a tiny woman.
“Ghouls, huh? So that’s what you guys call the infected? Well, my name is Christopher Bryant. Are you all from the Wawayanda group that Merv belonged to?”
Again, Emily spoke for the three. “I don’t know if we would call ourselves the Wawayanda group, but we have made the Wawayanda State Park our home, and yes, we know Merv and his family.”
Just as Emily was about to continue our conversation, Merv pulled up hastily with a worried expression, “Sorry to break up the welcome party, but we gotta go. I couldn’t manage to shake the infected that I drew away, and they’re right behind me. We’ve got to go now!”
Emily looked behind Merv and saw the quickly approaching mob of infected. Then swiftly looked back at the ambulance they just came from, “We have supplies inside that we can’t leave behind, and the bus has a flat tire so we can’t drive it. We’ve already had people try to steal these provisions, so we aren’t leaving them. Do you think you can take out the ghouls so we can change the tire?”
I looked around for somewhere to perch myself that would be out of reach from the infected and made a split-second decision. “You guys all get back inside the ambulance and close the doors. Merv, give me some of your ammo and get inside with them. I’ll take care of the infected.”
Merv knew better than to question me, mostly due to the lack of time to discuss anything. He jumped off his quad, tossing me his ammo bag and herded the others back into the smelly ambulance. After they closed and locked the doors, I hopped up onto the bumper and pulled myself onto the roof of the defunct ambulance. I lit another flare from Merv’s pack and threw it in the center of the intersection. I wanted the infected focused away from the vehicle as much as possible so that I could pick them off one by one.
The mob of infected was fast. The dead ran like they were competing in the Olympics, which was still surprising since we hadn’t seen any of the undead move that quick in quite some time. The lead zombie halted his sprint right before my flare that was spewing red flames all over the battered pavement. He seemed to have been a biker when he was actually alive. He was a rather large man wearing a leather vest, sun-bleached jeans, heavy black leather boots, with tattoos covering his now greying arms, and he had a long, thick beard covered in dense, black blood. He was most certainly newly turned as his eyes were not the solid white color that came with the decay of time. He had a flap of skin torn from his right forearm in the shape of a bite wound that swung like a demented pendulum off a broken clock as he stood staring at the flare and then looking up at me.
The other infected arrived shortly after the large biker, and they all wore matching outfits for the most part. They appeared to be part of a biker gang that got attacked by the undead and now joined their zombie forces. The infected group that now stood before me was the scariest I’ve seen yet. They were all freshly turned, and their eyes all stared at me, almost through me. The wind started picking up again, and I heard thunder in the distance. I was not going to have a lot of time to get this done before the storm rolled in, but the revenant biker gang didn’t seem to have a problem with getting this show on the road.
The large biker was the first to make a move, and the others seemed to be following his lead, which is something I have never seen from the infected, and it scared the shit out of me. It seemed like these particular infected retained some of their human intelligence. Not good. He looked down at the flare, and then back at me before letting out a God-awful moan that was more like a roar as he began taking slow steps towards the ambulance. The others followed, and none of them broke eye contact with me as if to collectively say, ‘We’re coming for you.’
I had seen enough. I lay down on the roof of the ambulance with my rifle and took aim as the first of many fat raindrops started to fall. I stared back at the lead infected through my rifle scope and fired. The large biker took a bullet to the jugular and barely flinched as thick black gore poured out of the wound, and he sped up his pursuit of me. I quickly adjusted my aim and fired again. This time the shot found its home just above the undead biker’s right eye, and he crumpled into a heap of viscera and carnage: one down, thirteen more to go.
It took longer than expected not just because of the rain, but because without their leader, the others seemed to disperse more, but I was able to kill the remaining undead bikers without wasting too much ammo. I banged on the roof of the ambulance and gave the all-clear to the others trapped inside.
The only guy in our group of new friends, Owen, spoke up as he exited the truck, “I guess we know what happened to that biker gang who was chasing us.”
Emily chimed in with a smirk on her face, “Serves them right. Who the hell steals from people who are trying to help you? Idiots.”
I was beginning to become rather fond of Emily. Not only because she introduced herself as a doctor, so I knew she could help Abby, but because she spoke her mind. Most people didn’t nowadays. A lot of the people we came into contact with would rather stay quiet than say what was on their mind because they worried their words could offend someone, and that would lead to some sort of altercation. The end of the world really put a damper on people’s opinions, but I was glad to see the doctor was not afraid to say her piece.
“So, Emily...”
“It’s Doctor Nasser to you, sir. Until I know you well enough, you will address me with respect, please.” Emily commanded as Merv helped her out of the ambulance.
“My apologies, ma’am, ugh Dr. Nasser. Merv told me where to find you because we need your help desperately. My wife is currently giving birth to twins and is having some complications. There is a retired field medic, a virologist, and a former police officer helping her now, but we desperately need a trained gynecologist to give my wife, Abby, the best chance at making it through this. When we left, she was unconscious, and they were getting ready to do a caesarean section. I told them to wait as long as possible so we could find you. Can you help us?”
Dr. Nasser looked over at Merv and then back at me. “You’re in luck, Chris. I happen to be a board-certified OBGYN who has helped deliver many multiples. Can we leave Owen and Merv here to fix the flat on the ambulance and get it back to our camp while you, me, and Dr. Madison here attend to your wife?”
I smiled, wiping away the cold rain from my forehead. “Absolutely. Time is of the essence, so get what you need, and let’s head out before this storm gets too bad, and my wife gives birth without us. Dr. Madison, can you drive a quad?”
Dr. Madison seemed
to jump to attention at my question and quickly replied, “Yes, sir.”
“Merv, are you two going to be okay if we leave you? I know your aim is getting better, but...”
Merv interrupted me, shaking his head, “Yes, we’ll be fine. One of us will be the lookout while the other changes the tire, and we’ll head out to their compound right away. Once we deliver the supplies they were supposed to drop off, I’ll head back in another vehicle to the cabin. Please tell my wife I’m okay. She’s worried enough about me coming out here. I can only imagine she’s going to think the worst as soon as you show up without me.”
“You got it. Stay safe and hurry back. I’ll need all the help I can get with two daughters to look after,” I said, giving him a wink and tossing him back his ammo bag.
With a plan in place, Dr. Nasser jumped on the back of my quad with me, and Dr. Madison hopped on Merv’s quad, ready to follow us back to the cabin.
Chapter 6
Christopher Bryant
The rain fell harder and harder until it was blowing sideways along with most of the trees we passed. This storm was turning out to be massive. The thunder and lightning boomed and flashed as we dodged infected and tree branches alike. We drove as fast as we possibly could, but it was much slower than I would have liked. The rain made it difficult to see, and with every rumble of thunder or strike of lightning, Dr. Emily Nasser made it difficult to breathe. This tiny woman clenched onto me so tightly, I thought I was going pass out at one point.
I yelled over the heavy rain and wind, “Hey, Dr. Nasser, do you think you could let up on me a little? You’re squeezing a bit hard.”
“Sorry. I’m a bit jumpy after being trapped in that ambulance all day,” she yelled back.
“Speaking of, what the hell happened? Why were you guys trapped in there?”
“Those bikers you took out, we met them earlier on the road when we were trying to get supplies to a new outpost we were attempting to establish. Long and short of the story is that we were driving a big bulky ambulance, and they were driving much faster motorcycles. One of them blew out our front tire, and the noise attracted a group of the ghouls. All it took was one biker to go down and...” Dr. Nasser’s voice trailed off, disappearing into the whipping wind and rain.
Z-Strain (Book 3): Fallout Page 3