by Rosaria, A.
They had set camp high on a hill, a day’s walk from their main base. The slopes gave them a clear view of their surroundings. The only protection against roamers was the four assigned to watch duty. Twenty-four-seven, two of them were assigned watch duty. If they detected any walking dead, the watchers would sound the alarm and everyone would pack up and flee.
He should be the one standing watch to the south with Lauryn. Guess Ethan stayed up to chat with her. Ralph didn’t like that. He knew Ethan liked Lauryn, and Ralph still had feelings for her despite them not being together. From the day he had kissed Sarah, he couldn’t get her out of his head, and as long he had feelings for her, he didn’t think it was fair to be with Lauryn. Ralph clenched his hands. One of these days, he would find Sarah, and hurt those who took her from him.
Ralph approached Ethan and Lauryn, who were sitting on a rock. Ethan said something and her laughter carried sweet and clear to Ralph. Lauryn flicked a strand of red hair back. Ralph pinched his eyebrows together in a pained expression. Ethan was older and a nice guy. It shouldn’t bother him, but it did. Ralph had hurt Lauryn a year ago after she had risked her life to save him. She told him how she felt, and he couldn’t respond in kind. It was not that he disliked her, or that nothing stirred inside him when he saw her. He melted a little every time he saw her radiant smile and heard her laugh.
“Ethan! You forgot to wake me up,” Ralph grumbled.
Ethan answered, laughing, “Yeah, it slipped my mind. Besides, I thought you could use the sleep.”
“Hi to you too,” Lauryn said, smiling.
The smile was colder compared to when they met. It was much more reserved now. Since the day he had rejected her, she had been like that. He hated himself for it.
“Hi, Lauryn, hope you slept well.”
“I did.” She touched Ethan’s hand. “And he kept me company while you slept.”
Ralph had guessed that Ethan had kept her company.
“Well, I’m here now. You can go sleep now, Ethan. We both know we all need rest. We’ll be near a town tomorrow.”
Ethan slung his rifle over his shoulder, and winked at Lauryn. She snorted in laughter. Ethan tapped Ralph’s shoulder. “You’re right, man. I’m going for some shuteye. Keep a tight watch.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.”
Ralph took Ethan’s place beside Lauryn; she scooted sideways. The way she leaned a little away from him, he had a feeling she didn’t like him that much anymore.
“Spotted any deaders shambling around?” he asked, unable to bear the silence that came over them once Ethan left.
“Seen nothing, heard nothing.”
He glanced at her. She was staring straight ahead, her face bland. He could hardly believe this was the same girl he had kissed a year ago on that bus taking them to their doom. The same one who hid from him, thinking she was dying and not wanting to burden him. He felt his face flush. He felt stupid. Sarah had been gone a year now and Lauryn was still here.
“Lauryn?”
She turned to look at him, her eyes cool, her lips a thin strip. “Yes?”
“I…” How to bring it up? He wasn’t even sure about his feelings. Her eyes trailed away from him. She frowned and pointed. He followed her index finger. A single body shambled about three hundred yards away. “Do I sound the alarm?” she asked.
Ralph would rather rest. He knew upon sighting one they should just gather their stuff and leave, but this was a lone one and, by the look of it, a slow one. “Let’s wait.”
“What about the protocol?”
“We have a full day ahead of us. I’d rather everyone get sleep. It would be a waste to lose that for a single walker.”
A smile flashed across her face. “Haven’t you had enough rest?” The smile waned when she noticed him watching her. It had been a long time since he had seen a genuine smile from her, or her attempting a lame joke.
“I’ll take care of it,” Ralph said as he stood up.
“Nah, not going to let you go at this alone.”
She gripped her axe as she followed him down. He wanted to tell her to go back, but he knew better. Once she made up her mind, she wouldn’t stop for anything. He admired that about her.
Ralph swallowed his words and set out for the zombie. Odd. The zombie stopped walking a hundred yards from the tree line it had come from, and stood mindlessly wobbling on its feet. Ralph scanned the trees, but didn’t see any others.
“It’s on its own,” Ralph said.
“I think you are right. I don’t see or hear anyone else; even this one is silent. I don’t like this.”
Ralph also felt at odds with what he saw. Slow stragglers walked aimlessly on and on, and only stopped at night. This one didn’t seem in that bad of condition, and it was cold enough to freeze it.
“Keep your guard up,” Ralph said as he shot a look at her. There was no need to remind her. She held the axe, ready for whatever might pop up. He now felt that this was a mistake; he should have raised the alarm and fled this place. They were twenty feet from the zombie and it didn’t attack them, only slowly turned to face them, and uttered a slow and deep moan.
“I’ll take care of him,” Lauryn called out.
Ralph wanted to protest, but he had to admit that she was better at hand-to-hand combat and had the better tool for it. His knife was only good in emergencies, or for the slow ones, and he wasn’t sure this one was a slow one.
“Just watch out.”
“Afraid to lose me again?” she said.
No venom there. Still, he worried about her. No matter how much she thought he didn’t care. He was glad she had survived, and it surprised him how well she did it.
Lauryn stalked the zombie while Ralph kept close to her, ready to jump in if she needed him. About three feet from it, Lauryn readied a strike. The zombie growled and pounced at her. She reflexively jumped back, swinging the axe. The zombie dodged, moving its head in time, and the axe bore in its shoulder. Lauryn yanked but the axe was stuck in bone. The zombie whirled wildly. The axe sprung from her hand, pivoted in the air, and dropped a few feet away. Lauryn cursed. The zombie moaned, readying itself to pounce again.
Ralph tackled the zombie. It thrashed to get free, teeth snapping to get a bite out of him. He pushed it down, amazed by the strength in the dead thing. Ralph barely held on. He quickly raised his knife and held his breath as he sought an opening. With all his strength, he pushed his knife down, piercing the zombie’s skull. It thrashed once more and fell limp.
Ralph stood, patting off the dust. Lauryn walked over to him. She had recovered her axe and was gripping it tightly as she looked down at the zombie. “Slow one, my ass. It almost got me.”
Ralph saw her eyes were wide and moistening up.
“You saved me,” she said.
The way she had said that was off putting, as if she resented him for it.
He was about to respond, to reassure her everything was okay when a shrill scream carried from back at the camp. Both of them whirled around, their faces grim, and they ran back up the hill.
At the camp, everyone was packing like crazy.
Ethan ran up to Ralph. “We got twenty walkers coming in. Get your things.”
A rifle shot went off repeatedly. More screaming.
“What’s going on?” Ralph asked.
“They got Jayne.”
Lauryn ran to the north where Jayne and Randy kept guard. He wanted to follow her, but Ethan grabbed him by the elbow, stopping him. “Don’t. There is nothing you can do for them. Get your stuff. We need to leave now.”
Ralph wrenched himself free. “Put my pack together for me. I have to go after her.”
He didn’t wait for an answer and chased after Lauryn. While he ran, he checked his rifle. They tried to avoid shooting whenever they could, but with shots already fired, it didn’t matter if they kept a low profile.
Lauryn stood with feet nailed to the ground, hands covering her mouth, as she stared at whatever was happening. Ralph sl
owed down as he got nearer. A hundred yards from where they stood, a group of zombies was ripping the flesh from Jayne, biting and pulling her guts out. She was already dead. A bullet hole in her body. Randy stood not far from her, fighting with three zombies, using his rifle as a club. He swung it like a drunk. The zombies took the hits, but it didn’t damage them. They closed in despite the blows.
Ralph raised his rifle to shoot, but then he saw, from Randy’s neck, the blood spurting with the pulse of his heart. The man was gone already, fighting until his last breath. The zombies were waiting. This was all too weird for Ralph. The whole group was fast.
“We need to leave,” he told Lauryn.
She didn’t say anything. Tears rolled down her cheeks. He grabbed her hand and pulled her away. She came along, dazed.
Brenda met them halfway back to the tents, carrying Lauryn’s backpack with her.
“Take it.” She pushed it in Lauryn’s arms. Lauryn took it absentmindedly. Brenda turned to Ralph. “There is no time to clear up camp. We just have our weapons and packs. Everything else we have to leave behind.”
Lauryn snapped out of it. “What happened?” she sobbed.
“Not now,” Brenda said. “We need to move.”
Brenda was right. The things he saw were not normal. He knew the zombies had somehow evolved, learned to open doors, walk faster, and that there were some differences among them depending how much flesh they had eaten, but he had not seen this pack-like behavior before. He always thought of them as a herd of cannibalistic cattle. Too dumb to stalk, only able to follow the herd, and mindlessly attacking anything breathing. This was bad.
He helped Lauryn with her backpack. They ran toward Ethan, who handed Ralph his pack. Ethan had his already strapped to his back and his AR15 held tight in his hands.
“Hurry up,” Ethan said.
Ralph slung his backpack over one shoulder and looked behind him. A shrill cry rose up, joined by a chorus of moans and growls. They got Randy and there was no one there to put a hole in his head, but Ralph really didn’t want to attract the zombies to them. Whatever smarts the zombies had going for them, he hoped it was not on the level that they could deduce that there were more humans. He hoped they only had some basic instinct.
They ran down the slope, heading west toward the road, away from the forest, wanting the open ground. They had left their base ten strong, and now, in a single day, they were down to eight. If this kept going, they would not return with many, if any at all. He looked once more over his shoulder at their camp, and cursed. Their trip just got that much harder.
CHAPTER FOUR
The two guards pushed Sarah inside an empty, padded room with a single, mirrored wall on the right. A one-way window so they could watch her without her watching back.
“Stay put,” a guard growled.
Like she had anywhere to go. Sarah kept her mouth shut. She was already in enough trouble as it was without antagonizing the guards. They shut the door and the lock fell in place. There was no way out. Next time, if there was a next time, she would fight them and damn the consequences.
Sarah paced the room. Twenty square feet at most. Did they put her in here to rot, or was someone coming to interrogate her? She paced some more. It didn’t seem like they were in a hurry. At least they could have put a table and chairs in here like in any other interrogation room. Sarah sat down on the floor, resting her back against the wall.
Finally, after a long while, the door slid open. Terry walked in. His face showed no emotion, only his eyes trembled a little, and his walk was a little stiff. He was angry.
“Do you know what you’ve done?”
“Beat up a teacher? I told you I didn’t want to be put in school. That wasn’t why I cooperated with you guys; you were to set me free.”
“Don’t be naïve; you know we can’t do that. And yes, it’s unacceptable that you beat up your teacher, but that isn’t it. That we could have let slide and enrolled you in another class, but you took Mr. Ward’s daughter to your room. I told you no one else could go inside your compound. You promised me you wouldn’t do that.”
“Did I? I don’t remember doing that. Any agreement we had was about letting me go.”
Terry’s right eye twitched. “Sarah, I thought we understood each other. You and me. I guess I was wrong.”
Sarah stood. She wanted to get closer, hug him, tell him she was sorry, that she didn’t mean to upset him. She knew he was right. She sort of told him she would behave. In the months she had been held in that room, Terry had given her leeway, understanding, and had done his best to make it easier for her. She was grateful for all of it, and it made her regret killing Terry’s brother.
“I… I guess, in the heat of the moment, it slipped my mind. Everything happened so fast. Before I knew it, she was following me, and I invited her in. I didn’t see the harm in it.”
“There is none. The place has been cleared, but the administration still doesn’t feel easy about it. It took great effort to convince them to allow you out. God, Sarah, Mr. Ward recommended putting you in the same class as his daughter. His support is gone now. You don’t want to know the scolding I got for it.”
“I’m sorry, Terry. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”
“You never think things through, do you?”
He was right. Lately, she didn’t. How could she after being jailed for a year? Why did she then feel so guilty all the time? It was on the tip of her tongue to confess to it all.
She had told them a lot, except how she murdered Anton. Captain Morgan, Terry, had grilled her for weeks about the whereabouts of his brother. Only after weeks of denying and sticking to her story did he start to believe that she knew nothing. At first, she was fine with that. She hated them. They were the enemy. However, as she got to know Terry, she started to like him, and guilt began to gnaw at her.
“He goaded me, insulted me, harassed me. What should I’ve done?”
“For starters, not hit him. However he’s not why you’re trouble. Mr. Ward is. If his daughter becomes infected, you can kiss what little freedom you have goodbye, and I will be glad if I don’t get demoted.”
She had hoped to get suspended from school, not caged, but that was not the worst. “Priss’s infected?”
“Jeez, Sarah, like you didn’t know. The compound is full with expe— Former flu cases. Everyone who got sick and recovered was put in quarantine there. There hasn’t been a new case in months. They were considering lifting the quarantine. You are immune and have been clean for months. That’s why they allowed you out.”
“So there is no risk? What’s the big deal, then?”
“Do you really not see?” His lips trembled in a wry downward smile; his face paled.
Sarah stepped forward, her hand going for his. He turned his head toward the mirror and stepped away from her. She faltered and slunk away.
“They are going to question me later. From there, they’ll decide what to do with you.”
“They are going to put me in lockup again, aren’t they?”
“You would like that, wouldn’t you? Away from class, alone again.”
In some ways, she would, but locked up? Any chance she had to slip away and leave this place would become nil, and with that, her chances of finding Ralph would be zero. She shook her head.
“There are two options to consider,” Terry said. “Go back to class—however unlikely that is—or resume the tests.”
Sarah recoiled. They could kill her right now.
“Terry, you can’t allow them to do that, not again.”
“You brought this on yourself.”
“No, no, no, I won’t go back to that place.” She couldn’t help it; she shivered uncontrollably. Her legs turned into jelly and she slid down to the floor. “Don’t make me go there again.”
“It’s not in my hands.”
Sarah pleaded with her eyes, but he didn’t look at her. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I really am.”
“Please don’t.�
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He sighed. “I’ll try to convince them to keep you in class.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. All fight had left her.
“Don’t thank me yet. Your chances are slim.” He turned away from her. The door slid open. Before he stepped out, he glanced at her. “Don’t get your hopes up.”
The door slid shut, and with it, her chance of ever seeing daylight again.
CHAPTER FIVE
Images flashed in front of Lauryn’s eyes as she walked. The zombie ripping Jayne’s throat open. The young woman’s scream. Randy’s desperate attempt to save her, only to finally be overwhelmed by a wave of zombies eating him alive. His screams echoed in her head. She had seen a lot, done a lot, all horrible stuff, but no way could she stomach seeing someone she knew going down like that.
Lauryn swallowed a sob as she followed the others on the road. She was lagging behind and wouldn’t have minded, if not for Ralph shooting her a worried glance every so often. She played tough in front of him, in front of them all, even for herself, but the fear was always there. It was survival driving her, knowing what needed to be done. A shiver went through her. Damn Ralph, damn him for everything he did to her. She had given him her heart, and he just… She didn’t want to think about it. Her feelings hadn’t change. His feelings had. She couldn’t blame him and that was what maddened her. They only knew each other for a fraction of time before everything turned to hell. He had thought she was dead, and then it was done.
Whatever she felt, or he didn’t feel, was a small thing compared to what had happened. The zombies might have been mindless, and maybe they still were, but they had gained a cunning that scared her senseless. She had seen how they deliberately stalked Randy, while using Jayne to lure him in. She wanted to wipe the image from her mind. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to return to their base.