“God, help us,” he exhaled from between his lips as he let out a series of deep breaths.
Zack jogged over to the west side of the fence and waited for the others to arrive. He hopped over without missing a beat and landed on the cold, hard ground with a thud. A few dead heads turned on their ragged necks to face the source of the noise. Once their glazed eyes caught site of the fresh meat that was now on their side, they slowly shambled their way over.
“Rowan, you boost the others over. Hurry,” he said in an urgent whisper.
There were still quite a few of the dead, especially the ones on the opposite end of the park, that had yet to notice the group hopping the fence. The sound of the links rattling as they were boosted over mixed with the rattling of the zombie’s bodies against the fence as they stupidly tried to force their way in.
“Up and over, big girl,” Rowan grunted as he hoisted Gale over the fence. He tried to use his knees to gain the leverage he needed, but was too rushed. The zombies were closing in slowly and if he didn’t hurry they would have to fight them off outnumbered. Worst case, the group would leave him and Gale behind as they ran to save their own lives. Truth be told, he would run too. Gale was on her own.
As Rowan shot straight up to make sure Gale cleared the fence, he felt a sharp pull in the middle of his lower back.
“Gaaahh!” he screamed.
“Come on, man!” Zack yelled through a sharp whisper, tossing a hand over the side of the fence to help him.
Rowan tried to stand up straight but the pain was more than he could bear. He reached for Zack’s hand, though he knew he would never be able to stretch himself upright enough to get over.
“You have to come back and give me a boost!” Rowan yelled, panic overtaking his brown eyes.
More heads turned to look at the group. Their moans grew rampant as they moved inward to surround the now exposed survivors.
“We need to hurry, like now!” Imani cried.
Olivia had her bat ready to knock off any head that dared get close enough to her. She couldn’t conceal the excited grin that spread across her blushed lips. Why do I like this so much? Why is it so much fun for me to bash in the heads of these monsters who were once people? She didn’t allow herself to dwell on these questions long as the gap between her and the dead grew smaller.
Without arguing, Zack propelled himself back into the waterpark and squatted down to give Rowan a boost. The young man moved like he was in his nineties, hunched over and wobbly with frailty and pain. There was a moment when Zack hoped tossing Rowan over didn’t throw his own back out, but the thought quickly dispersed. He had to help Rowan escape, even if he wasn’t Zack’s favorite person in the group.
With much groaning, moaning, and yelps of pain, Rowan made it to the other side just as the first zombie reached the group. Olivia took a hard swing and crushed its left temple with a sickening crunch.
“Good one!” Imani cheered her on as she stepped up to the plate and took a swing at the next one to reach them.
The nails sticking out of her own bat made an even more horrible sound as they sunk into the top of the rotting corpse’s skull. It took a bit of strength and finagling to get the bat back out, but once she did the body crumpled to the ground and didn’t get back up.
Zack hopped over the fence and didn’t hesitate as he ran forward ahead of the group and into the thick pines. “This way, come on! Don’t fight. Just run!”
He didn’t look back to see if everyone was following him. He’d given them the orders, all they had to do was run after him as fast as they could and they would be fine. Even Gale at her slow pace would be able to out-stride the clumsy dead. Rowan should be all right, he thought as he embraced the cool wind on his sweat-drenched face. That was when he heard it… a sickening cry for help that made his stomach rise and drop like he was on a nightmarish rollercoaster.
V
Gale lay flat of the ground, her arm outstretched for someone to take her hand and pull her up from the clutches of the dead. One lay on its stomach, stiff hand clenched around the poor woman’s ankle.
“Help!” she cried out in sheer panic.
Everyone stared frozen in their disbelief. Zack had to physically shake his head to snap himself out of it to jump into action. The veins in his temples bulged as he pushed himself to his limit, running as fast as he could to get to Gale. Her cries for him only pushed him harder. His legs and arms pumped rapidly. His fingertips touched hers, but they were ripped away as the monster at her heels yanked her backwards.
No one could ignore the heart-wrenching cry as gnarled teeth sank into the older woman’s tender flesh. Again, Zack paused in his shock. This can’t be happening, he thought as everything moved in slow motion around him. We just left the apartment. I can’t have lost someone already. Not now. Not here.
“Zack!” a female voice shouted from behind him, pulling him from his stupor.
He locked his hand around Gale’s wrist as more dead enclosed around them. Just in time, the others came to the rescue as Zack pulled Gale up to her feet. She draped her arm over his shoulder and let him bear her weight as she favored her left bloody foot. The sweet thunking sound behind him eased his fear. The others were doing their job, they were cleaning up so he could get Gale to safety, if there was such a place for her anymore.
“Hold on, Gale. Don’t worry. I got ya,” he coaxed as she moaned.
The deep rattle of an undead growling nearby forced Zack’s eyes off the ground to look straight ahead. Fifty feet in front of them was an abominably large, rotting, drooling, bleeding corpse. Its head lolled to the side from having half its neck muscles ripped out. Its arms hung lax, but with the broadness of its shoulders, it still looked like it was training to be a body builder. The whites of Zack’s dark eyes became visible as he stared, dumbfounded.
The monstrous being took a lumbering step forward, its mouth masticating in anticipation of the food in front of it. But before it could take another step it fell forward, landing on its face with a loud thud. An arrow lay deep within its weeping wound.
“Oh, thank God, Chris,” Zack breathed out in relief. “Thank you.”
Without a word she picked up the arrow and stuck it in the backpack on her back. She gave a weak smile to Zack and Gale before turning to move on ahead of them to clear the way. “Thanks, Chris!” he said again, this time so she could hear.
“No problem,” she said without turning back.
He pressed onward with Gale. Her cries and moans grew more intense the longer he dragged her. Soon, the others cleared enough of the dead on their heels that they could turn and run to catch up, putting distance between the group and the dreaded waterpark.
“Ah, ow,” Gale whimpered as she tried to put weight on her mangled foot so they could pick up the pace. “This isn’t working, bud, we’re going to have to stop.”
“We can’t stop,” Zack urged her on, but it was useless.
Gale let her arm fall from his shoulder and sat herself down on a fallen tree trunk. “It’s no use, son. My foot is too far gone. Look at what that thing did to it.”
Zack had been avoiding looking at it altogether. A part of him didn’t want to believe it really happened and if he looked at it, studied it, examined it, treated it, that would make it real…too real to deny any longer. Gale wasn’t going to make it.
VI
The others finally caught up to where Gale and Zack had stopped. No one was quite sure what was going on. All they knew was that it wasn’t good. Gretchen didn’t stop till she was kneeling at Gale’s feet, clutching the woman’s hand in hers tightly. Tears silently streamed down her face as she took in the mangled mess of a foot in front of her.
Gale reached out her free hand to place it on Gretchen’s cheek gently. “It’ll be okay, pumpkin,” Gale assured her. “Don’t fret. You’ll be fine.”
This only made Gretchen cry harder. She leaned her face into the soft, wrinkled hand holding her
and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw that Gale was already giving into the bite. Her pallor had quickly drained, leaving her a sickly pale color. Sweat ran down her face and onto her neck, drenching her clothes. Her once thin, but lively eyes now drooped, no longer blue but a dull, pale grey.
Gale’s large body swayed unsteadily on the tree trunk till she slid forward to land on her butt on the dirt in front of Gretchen. Where was Lee? Why was the only medically trained person in their group just standing by and watching?
“No,” Gretchen whimpered as she watched her friend’s eyes roll around in their sockets lazily. “Please, Gale, don’t leave me. You’ve been there for me through all of this. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
The sound of Gretchen’s sobbing voice seemed to wake Gale up for a moment and bring her back to the world around her. She motioned for her friend to lean in closer so she could speak without strain.
“Make things right with your sister.”
Gretchen swallowed a rush of tears and took a deep breath. “I’ve tried. I don’t know what to do. She won’t listen to me,” she argued through sobs.
Gale’s head shook back and forth slowly as her eyes closed for the briefest of moments. “Make amends. Apologize. Tell her you’re sorry for leaving her.”
“But I didn’t leave her to be mean. I had to get out of there to—“
“Listen to me!” Gale forced her voice to stretch as loud as it possibly could go. Her entire body seemed to deflate afterwards from the strain. She heaved great big breaths as she forced her eyes to remain open just a few moments longer. “Do it. Do it for me. Please.”
Gretchen kept her mouth closed and her eyes trained on the woman in front of her. Though her eyes were dull and slack, they were pleading. She couldn’t say no to her one friend’s dying wish, she just couldn’t.
“I will,” she promised as she squeezed Gale’s cold, clammy hands in hers. “I will.”
Gale’s head bobbled on her thick neck in approval, though she was too weak to pull her lips upward into a smile of any kind. The fight to keep her eyes open was finally too great and she let them shut. Her chest heaved up and down, though with each passing second it was slower. The wheezing sound within grew louder as Gale let her body lean back all the way against the tree trunk behind her, until there was silence. Not even the living dared to take another breath as they looked on at Gale’s peaceful body.
“She’s gone,” Gretchen whispered. Tears poured out of her eyes, but her voice was steady. “I can’t believe she’s already gone. I thought we’d have more time. It was so quick. I just can’t…” She trailed off as the sadness overwhelmed her entirely.
She lowered her head onto her hands wrapped around Gale’s and sobbed. Several hands rested on her back and shoulders, but they were little comfort to her in that moment. All she wanted right then was for Gale to get up and continue on for them. They had hope on their side finally, hope in the form of a journal promising that the world would be restored, but Gale would never be able to enjoy that again. The thought made Gretchen’s chest wrack with grief.
Another hand gripped her shoulder, but instead of resting in comfort, it attempted to pull her backwards aggressively. Instantly, her heart raced as she fought against the pressure to fall.
VII
“Get away from her,” Zack said as he pulled Gretchen up by her arm. There was no comfort or softness to what he did, but one look in his eyes told her he was in distress and worried for her safety.
He held Gretchen close to him. She let him feel the weight of her on him as she turned to nuzzle into his chest. Her head remained turned, though, trained on Gale’s lifeless body, waiting for the moment it would return from the grips of death to rise again. Every second that went by was excruciating, but she couldn’t look away. “Someone do it, please, before—” Zack started but it was too late.
One pale finger twitched on the deceased woman’s thigh, so immeasurable it would have gone unseen if not for Zack’s alertness. His eyes scanned Gale carefully, watching…waiting. After a moment, he took a deep breath, realizing he had been holding it in since the moment he pulled Gretchen to him. He squeezed her tighter as more stiff fingers moved in an attempt to flex and grip.
Slowly, the others in the group backed away to stand behind Zack and Gretchen, their weapons poised in their hands, though no one really seemed eager to use them. Carolyn Bock faced ahead, but her eyes refused to look at the robust corpse of the woman she’d bunked next to for the last four months. She held her bowie knife so tight her knuckles faded to a sickening white, having traded it for from the 9mm on her hip.
The only ones who seemed ready and willing to do what was necessary were Olivia and Imani. Both stood with their legs shoulder-width apart, bats gripped in both hands and ready to swing the moment that thing stood up and headed towards them. Dan Anderson, Rowan Brady, and Lee Hickey all stood together somewhat next to the young girls. Lee was closest, his eyes darting back and forth between Gale’s awakening body and Olivia. His arms hung at his side, his muscles tightening with each movement the corpse attempted. Rowan stood shoulder-to-bicep with the Irish giant, but his stance gave away just how unsure of himself he was. He held his pistol in one hand, slightly outward but still somewhat pointed at the ground in front of Gale, as if he couldn’t make up his mind. Dan stood behind the two, his thin, wiry frame almost hidden by the taller, thicker men. He kept his eyes on the ground, but every once in a while he would allow them to drift up to check on Gale. Each time ended with him averting his gaze again and squeezing his big, brown eyes shut.
Luke stood a ways behind everyone, not even trying to hide that fact that his knees were shaking. It took everything he had in him not to release his bladder at the sight of the shifting monster in front of them. He wanted to shout for someone to bash its head in, but knew that would not win him favor with their leader, Zack. So he kept his mouth shut and watched the nightmare awaken in front of him.
The first groan finally came from Gale’s parted blue lips, causing everyone to take in a sharp breath and step back one pace. Zack looked around the group frantically. Gretchen lost her hold on him as he stepped away and gazed over the surrounding area. Gale pushed up from the ground clumsily.
“Where’s Christine?” he asked to no one in particular.
Lee and all the women of the group looked around to find the petite blonde with her bow, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Christine!” Zack shouted, his voice echoing and bouncing off the large pines around them. “Christine!”
Gale’s glossy eyes focused on the source of the shouting. With more eagerness than before, the corpse groaned and grunted as it righted itself and took its first step as an undead zombie toward the group. Its mouth hung open, blood collecting into a pool and dripping down its chin. Each step jarred the once lively woman and threw her off balance, making her motions sharp, jagged, and slow.
“Guys,” Carolyn said, pointing to the lumbering figure headed towards them. “Guys!”
Zack spun around on his heel, crouched at the knees like a warrior. As he whirled, he grabbed his sword from his hip and thrust it forward. The sharpened blade pierced the fresh corpse through the chin and came out the top of its head. Both he and the monster stood frozen, staring into each other’s eyes. Zack’s were filled with water as Gale’s eyes closed slowly for the last time. The weight of her limp body forced the sword out as she crumpled to the ground.
The cool air was filled with the sounds of tears falling from the group. Zack knelt on one knee over Gale’s now permanently lifeless body and bowed his head, closing his eyes. Silently, he prayed for her and hoped that she now had the chance to rest in peace, as she deserved. He wished someone else had been willing to step up and do what needed to be done to give her that peace, but it didn’t seem like anyone would. He had let it go on longer than it should have anyway. He never should have allowed her to stand up, to move, or even t
urn into one of those things in the first place. Tears rolled silently down his bearded face as he kept his eyes closed.
Through the crying, he heard the soft patter of feet flying over dead leaves. He didn’t have to open his eyes or turn around to know who it was. Something inside him didn’t want to look at her right then either. If he hadn’t been distracted looking for her, he could have been merciful to Gale sooner. But with a sigh, he let that thought go. It wasn’t fair to place blame. How could anyone place blame on each other in a world like the one they lived in? There was no room for fighting amongst the living while the dead still walked.
He felt Christine’s presence next to him, though she didn’t reach out and offer him any comfort. It was too much for Zack to take in just then; Gale’s rescue, her death, her rising as one of those flesh-devouring monsters, her second death, Christine showing up from God knows where, her cold distance. He rose to his feet, wiped the tears from his cheeks, and cleared his throat.
“We have to bury her,” he said in a way that gave no one room to question him, as if they would have.
Everyone nodded their heads in silent agreement. They turned to each other, turned to the woods, turned to Gale, unsure of how they were going to accomplish the task in front of them. They had no shovel or pick to soften the hard ground, let alone dig a six-foot deep hole. Without a word, Zack stalked off into the thickest part of the pine trees, his jaw clenched together and his eyes blazing fire.
The others stayed where they were, glancing around at each other with questioning looks. Some shuffled their feet while others wiped at their drenched faces. Gretchen had sunk back to the ground on her knees, bent over Gale as she cried into the woman’s flannel shirt. No one made a move to touch her or give her any words of condolences. No one knew what the proper thing to say was when your recently adopted mother-figure died, turned into a zombie, tried to eat you, and died again at the hands of the man they all followed, so instead they chose silence and work.
Dead Soil (Book 2): Dead Road Page 6