Sorrow

by Brian Wortley

  Sara climbed down and yelled. “This way!” Having no intelligence, Val waddled on in the other direction. Sara picked up a pebble and threw it at Val. It bounced off Val’s shoulder and landed in front of her. Val stopped and bent down to examine it. Finding it only a rock, Val continued on in her pointless progression.

  Sara moved up behind Val and hit her. But even then Val simply stumbled to her knee and rose to follow the same path. Finally Sara moved in front of Val and showed Val her bleeding arm. Val finally snapped out of her obsession with that direction and followed Sara. Sara took Val back to the concrete rising and climbed up. Dangling down her bloody arm, Sara made Val lunge at the concrete but Val only smacked into it when Sara withdrew it. Sara placed her arm on the top of the concrete to entice her but Val only reached for it without attempting to climb.

  “You were a cunning human-zombie hybrid!” Sara yelled at her zombie partner. “What happened to all that, Val? Now that I need you to show a little intelligence, you’re dumb as a brick?”

  With Sara’s arm out of reach, Val completely lost interest.

  Sara grunted in frustration and said, “Fine! I’m sure I can figure out how to fly without you.” Sara turned, scooped up her child, and took a few steps before she stopped. “Only I don’t want to,” she whispered.

  Sara picked up a pebble and hit Val to get her attention. She dangled her arm again. “I can’t leave you like this. You’re my Valerie. Come on. Eat it!”

  Val stumbled up to Sara’s arm. Val bit down on the closest part which happened to be Sara’s thumb. Sara felt intense pressure against the bone in her upper thumb and felt it would break. But as hard as Val struggled, she seemed unable to break it. Val stepped back and threatened to lose interest.

  “Here, try this. It’s easier!” Sara said offering Val the fleshy underside of her forearm. Val tried again. Her teeth easily slid into the boneless flesh. Sara felt every tooth slice through her as her hand curved inward in reaction to the constricting muscle. When Val’s upper and lower teeth met, Val jerked backwards to extract the meat. At this Sara started to whimper. Val struggled in her awkward way as she put both her hands on Sara’s arm and pulled back with her head. Sara looked on in pain at the muscle tearing apart.

  Having tasted flesh, Val gained strength and focus. As Sara slowly brought up her arm, Val now clumsily stumbled over the rising and onto the platform.

  “Come up here to get some more,” Sara said stringing her along in the direction of the airport. A wild expression seized Val’s face and the two women travelled on for several blocks.

  Immobile zombies still littered the ground even here. Many had fallen over when their movements were halted. They toppled into unusual positions on the ground.

  Ten blocks closer to their destination, Val lost interest in the chase. Her feet stopped and then shuffled off in some new direction as if it bore the hope of easier human food.

  Sara sighed as she watched Val waddle off. “Val!” Sara screamed. “This way – you dumb thing.”

  Val cared nothing for the ranting human and continued on down the alleyway. Sara was ready to cry out of sheer frustration. She set her child down and caught up with Val.

  “Hey. Hey!” Sara yelled but Val did not show any signs of turning. Sara ran out in front of her and extended her arm again. “Eat it. Come on, you like it!” Val stopped and looked at the bleeding flesh. Sara pressed it into Val’s mouth and she bit down. The wild craze returned to her eyes and her hands latched on to Sara’s arm.

  “Leave some for later,” Sara said as she struggled against her grip. Val continued eating all the muscle and strands around Sara’s wrist. “Hey let go!” Sara leaned down and grabbed the only object she could reach. With the wooden board, Sara beat Val in the head. Val’s lips tore with increasing strength. Sara finally managed to pull away from the zombie leaving her hand behind in Val’s mouth. Sara looked down at her truncated wrist and then back at the hand between Val’s teeth. It seemed surreal to her to see her own hand being eaten.

  With Sara leading the way, the two women moved back to where Sara could pick up her child. Her one arm dangled helplessly at her side as she continued on towards the airport.

  When she had a moment, Sara examined her bloody arm. Some of the bone in the middle of her forearm was already exposed. She tried to give the muscles a command but found they would only spasm and spewed blood. She looked behind her and saw the trail of blood. Even in her trancelike state, she knew she’d bleed to death unless she acted soon.

  Sara slipped into a nearby office building and rummaged through the front desk until she found a wad of rubber bands. She pulled several over her pathetic arm and up to her shoulder to act as a tourniquet. She moved back towards the front door and saw Val wandering off again.

  The world spun before her eyes. She looked out at the towering buildings and thought they seemed like an alien planet. Sara looked down at the horrific throbbing pain that was her arm. Disbelief set in and she became convinced it must be someone else’s appendage just magically floating alongside her.

  When she opened the doors to the outside world, she found a deathly cold awaiting her. The wind blew across her wounded arm and bone. In her delusion, she made some joke to herself about the wind cutting to the bone. But half way through laughing she started to cry. She found a nearby zombie wearing a coat and stripping it off her. She put it on over her blood-stained bathrobe. The sensation of clothes scraping against both her arms almost brought her to her knees.

  Sara found Val completely disinterested in pursuing their pointless chase.

  Sara started to lose the little sanity she retained. Sara jerked her body in a way that sent her lifeless arm towards Val. But Val snubbed it. Sara screamed into Val’s face. “Oh my god, Val, I swear if you don't eat I'll leave you!” Sara gritted her teeth and managed to lift one leg to kick her.

  “Eat me. Eat me, you stupid, stupid shit!” Sara screamed at the zombie. Sara flung her limp arm against Val’s face and some of the blood managed to get into Val’s mouth. As little as it was, it managed to rekindle Val’s hunger and she chased again.

  With Sara stumbling forward and Val following after, the two shuffled onto the airport grounds. As they did, something changed within Val. She seemed to struggle inside herself. She regained a bit of her old humanity and now seemed unsure of herself. Sara came up behind Val and pushed her farther away from the powerful minds of the corruptors. By the time the two women reached the hangar where Adus stored the Learjet, Val was almost her old self.

  Val looked on her friend and found something entirely new. This hardened rock of a woman before her held no resemblance to the Sara she knew. Sara looked up from resolute, blood-stained eyes with the determination of an entire race. An unshakable will pierced her through as a pike and impaled her to the wall of her purpose.

  “Sara,” Val exclaimed, “what happened to you? Look at your arm! Your whole body! Damn zombies!”

  Seeing her task to be complete, Sara collapsed into Val’s arms and managed not to drop her child. Val caught them and gently rested them against the ground.

  “Are you going to make it?” Val asked.

  “Get the Learjet going,” Sara whispered. “I don’t know how to start it. I need you.”

  “Where is it?”

  “In that hangar. You’ll have to break it open. Adus sealed it.”

  “I’ll go get it if you promise not to die.”

  Sara turned over to her side. “Ok, at least not until I feed my baby. After that, no promises.”

  “Your baby!” Val had hardly noticed.

  Sara resigned herself to nursing her child as Val broke into the hangar.

  ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ •

  When she opened the door, Val broke through a thick, bizarre mesh. All the walls she could see were lined with it. She pulled at the stuff until it finally came down onto the hangar floor. After clearing the way, she managed to step inside. The few traces of light that followed her reflec
ted off the white surface of the jet. Val smiled at the promise of flight travel.

  As soon as Val retracted one of the hangar doors and had enough light to see the jet, she quickly carried Sara and the baby inside the plane. When she bent down to grab Sara, Val became very aware of a stomach ache.

  Val found it impossible to help Sara before stumbling over to vomit. Val felt better until she happened to notice an intact finger among the bloody exiles from her stomach.

  Val groaned. “You’d think I’d remember eating that.” Val wiped her bloody mouth on her sleeve and went to help Sara. Val carried the baby first and put him on the floor. Next she carried Sara and buckled her into one of the seats. Sara moaned for her child and Val placed him securely in her arm.

  “We’re going to take off now,” Val said. “I’ve never really flown this type of airplane before so it’s probably going to get bumpy.”

  Val took a moment to look at Sara. It seemed miraculous that she survived such wounds. From her hairless scalp to her exposed feet, she bore scrapes and bite marks. She barely seemed human. Her pathetic looking arm hung lifelessly from her shoulder. Val wished to cut and cauterize it but knew she didn’t have the time. As Val looked at the shredded arm with its exposed bones, she couldn’t help remembering the finger she vomited.

  Val left the two and slipped back into the cockpit. Her heart raced when she powered on the engines and heard their roar. She smiled when she saw the fuel levels at full.

  Val pressed forward on the throttle and soon the plane rolled out of the hangar. As she taxied towards the runway, she saw movement towards the fence. Dozens of zombies climbed over and charged her position. Val revved up the engines and sped down the last taxiway. Several zombies reached the craft and tried to climb up on the wing and landing gear.

  The craft rounded the last turn and lined up with the runway. Val pressed the throttle all the way forward and glanced back to see a zombie running down the wing towards the cabin. She hoped he wouldn’t get sucked into the engines. With more zombies pouring over the fences on every side, the jet roared down the runway. Zombies now overtook the other end of the pavement. Val nervously watched the speedometer to see when she could lift off.

  The horde charged forward quickly closing the distance between them and the aircraft. Its front wheels rose slowly from the pavement and soon the back followed. The fastest second level zombies out front managed to reach the airplane just as it lifted off. Several collided with the landing gear and two managed to latch on. The wheels knocked several in the head as the airplane took off. The zombie on the cabin lacked the intelligence to latch on securely and soon plummeted backwards. His spine snapped as it impacted the tail wing and spun into the air. The two clinging to the landing gear hung on until Val retracted it and the doors pinched their bodies in half. Their motionless upper halves remained in the landing gear compartment for the entire rest of the flight.

  Soon the craft soared out into relative safety leaving Orlando behind forever.

  ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ •

  For the first time in many years, a lone silent contrail traced its way through the mid-western American sky. Sara and the baby slept for the whole first part of the flight. Val managed to figure out how to make the auto-pilot just keep the plane level and then went back to check on Sara. At the entrance to the main cabin, Val found a cabinet with a first-aid pack in it.

  “You awake?” Val whispered.

  Sara looked up from her weary eyes. “Val,” she said smiling.

  “I found a first-aid kit. How are you feeling?”

  Sara laughed softly at the question. Val patched Sara up as well as her skill and the med-pack allowed.

  “So I know this probably isn’t the time to ask,” Val started to say, “but do you know how we’re going to land or what we’re going to face?”

  “Whatever gift I had is gone, Val. I see nothing except the sun burning out my memories of the future.”

  "Right," Val replied slowly. "I remember when the sun burned out my memories of the future. It was a Tuesday." When Sara didn't even crack a smile, Val lost interest. "But we're going to Zalac's bunker, right? The two of us, and the baby, are going to attack it?"

  "I really don't remember, Val. Or maybe I never truly knew. We just need to go there."

  "And I'm going to know it when I see it?"

  Sara started to cry. "I don't know, Val. I don't know!"

  “Ok, not a biggie. I’ll just figure it out as we go along. May I see the baby?”

  Sara retracted her arm allowing Val to pick him up. “As far as I know,” Val said, “I’m not a big baby person, but this kiddo is pretty cute. Does he have a name?”

  “Peace,” Sara replied.

  Val took a moment to reply. “I like it,” she lied.

  “He’s perfect.”

  “He’s beautiful. I mean, for a guy.” Val awkwardly corrected herself, “Handsome.” Peace yawned and turned his head towards her chest without ever opening his eyes. “So when we get there, do you want me to beat Brady up or what’s the plan here?”

  “I think I’m ready,” Sara whispered, “to entertain the possibility of restoring our relationship.”

  “Really? Because you seemed pretty pissed off at him before.”

  “I’ve been wondering. I’m not saying I believe this just yet,” Sara hesitated, “but what if all of this was the only way to save me? That everything that was done was done for a reason. As horrifically terrible as it all was, none of it was meaningless. In fact, the suffering proves its meaning.”

  “Sara, have you forgotten everything Brady did?”

  “I could never. Nor the promises I was sure he broke. He said after I gave birth I would understand. And I do. His promise of presence is fulfilled in Peace.”

  “No, Sara, you’re not thinking clearly. I distinctly remember you saying that he promised to physically be with you in this. He hasn’t done that.”

  “It doesn’t have to make sense to you. It was my promise to reckon. And this answer is enough for me. Likewise his betrayal was a ruse. A play to get Zalac to incorporate him into their ranks.”

  “A ruse? You’re telling me Brady did all that out of a sound mind? That’s even worse! Maybe I could have justified it if he’d slipped back into being a zombie and left his sanity at the door. But this! He said hateful things to you. He murdered someone!”

  “Robert James Morrison. And I know, Val. Believe me! I see Brady’s hand reaching out, grabbing that gun, and killing Robert. But don’t forget, Val, I don’t see things linearly. I see that murder entangled by the thousands of preceding and concurrent events surrounding it. To me, it is far more of a web moving under the impact of that single event.

  “Val, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not trying to condone Brady’s actions. He has killed and is a murderer. There’s no way around that.

  “Before you judge too quickly the little you’ve seen, listen to the unseen. Public Brady and private Brady were two very different men. You couldn’t know Brady agonized for months over the decision. He single-handedly bore the consequences of the impact of taking a life to save a life. You haven’t seen how he felt humanity coursing around him like blood in his veins. Brady did not take lightly the outcome of what he did. You couldn’t know that Brady secretly spoke to Robert about it beforehand. And when it was done, Brady sat weeping in the ruins of the life he took. He could distinguish the entirety of humanity with the distinct absence of Robert.

  “Now I know my own gift was only a shadow of Brady’s. I saw everything that happened in time or would happen. But he moved in and out of the avenues of what could have happened. In Chicago and the Nex, he poured over every possible scenario in time. For thousands of our lifetimes he sought a way to save me. And I am convinced this was the only possible way. Everything he did was for that exact purpose.

  “You can fault him for it. You can cast him down in your mind as a murderer. And you would be right. I, however, do not because he murdered
for me. That I might survive. That I might join him.

  “I hope again! I hope these things are true. I hope to see him, Val.”

  “I don’t know about all that,” Val said. “Both you and Brady were way too head-in-the-clouds for my taste. But if nothing else, I’m glad you’ve come to terms with it.”

  Sara took Val’s hand.

  “I love you, Val. You know that don’t you?”

  “I do. I love you too.” Uncomfortable with the amount of emotions she displayed, Val stood up to leave. “Holler if you need anything.”

  ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ •

  As they journeyed on, the air grew thinner. Reoccurring unplanned drops became a frequent event. Sometimes the drop lasted significant amounts of time as if they passed through columns of huge downdrafts or lack of air altogether. Every time they descended, Val’s heart raced. But without fail, the plane always recovered. As they approached what Val assumed to be the remains of Colorado, the lack of air became visible. Fingers of the dark void of space clawed its way into the atmosphere. As Val had feared some time ago, the deafening silence of space choked the earth. Val searched around the cabin and discovered masks of bottled oxygen.

  As they approached what should have been the Rocky Mountains, Val found only burning mounds void of life. The earthquakes sifted the mountains as flour casting their majestic peaks into the fires below. As they approached where Val believed the bunker to be, she put the jet into a descent to get a better view. After one pass over the ruins of the bunker, she brought the plane back up and went to wake Sara.

  “Sara,” she said gently touching her, “we’re here.”

  Sara fumbled into consciousness barely comprehending her. “But I was sleeping so well.”

  “There’s no place to land. Do you have any idea of how we get down?”

  “I don’t remember. It all seems so foggy now.”

  “I can try to land it as gently as possible. Or we could use up the rest of the fuel and look for a smooth place.”